Public speaking ranks as one of the biggest fears when the general public is polled on the matter. There are those out there who actually fear public speaking more thanRead More
The post 4 Effective Public Speaking Tips For Entrepreneurs appeared first on The Entrepreneurs Library.
]]>Public speaking ranks as one of the biggest fears when the general public is polled on the matter. There are those out there who actually fear public speaking more than death, which is quite silly when you stop to think about it. When it comes to public speaking, there is no reason to be afraid.
Entrepreneurs often experience fear before public speaking engagements. Their opportunity to convince clientele and investors of their products’ worthiness hangs in the balance and this can cause a speaker to become tongue tied and sweaty. But when you follow these effective public speaking tips for entrepreneurs, you can overcome the crippling fear that keeps so many from reaching their goals and dreams.
Of course, this is a cliché, but the reason why clichés endure is because there is a great deal of truth to them. There is no skill in life that cannot be improved by practicing it over and over again and public speaking is no different. Write your speech down and read it to yourself several times. This will help you make sure that you did not use any language that does not make sense and ensure that the speech flows naturally.
Enlist friends and family who are not afraid to tell it like it is. Getting friends and family that are known for sugarcoating the truth will not help your speech either. You need as much honest feedback as you can possibly get. Those who know you are bound to be much more forgiving than those who are considering investing their resources in your product.
The more you practice, the better your delivery will become, which allows you to develop a greater connection with your audience. It also decreases the chance of your audience becoming bored and restless during your speech. As you practice, larger portions of the speech become committed to memory and you are able to increase the level of eye contact you have with audience members.
Developing more comfort with your speech is crucial. You can begin to add jokes or humorous anecdotes to spice things up and take the time to include every one of your most important points, while also trimming the fat to ensure that you do not run over the time you’ve been allotted.
Before giving your speech, it helps to take a trip to the space that you will be using, so that you can learn more about the acoustics of the area. It will also help you to walk around a bit on the stage or to stand at the podium. The entrepreneur can mentally picture a room full of people and make sure that their voice will be easy to hear.
Taking these sorts of steps ensures that you will not be caught off guard by any minor issues related to the room being used. Checking out the room you’re going to be speaking in is a great use of your time and should be done by any entrepreneur who is looking for ways to calm their nerves prior to the day of the speech.
A greater understanding of your surroundings is pivotal to giving a great speech. Removing the element of surprise from your speech is a boon to both you and your audience.
When you are preparing your speech, it is best to know what kind of audience you will be speaking to. Is your audience younger, with a shorter attention span? If so, you may want to add some visual ads and incorporate slang terms that can help to get your point across when necessary. Use any method that can help the speech resonate in the mind of your audience.
Or you could be speaking to an older, more seasoned audience. They may not be as apt to respond to visual ads and will want cold, hard facts to help them in their decision making process. No matter who you are speaking to, knowing the audience and being able to decipher their needs and wants is important.
Another component to be aware of is your virtual audience. More and more speeches are being live tweeted and streamed for interested parties all around the world. If this is true for your speech, make sure you include content that has a much greater chance of being able to go viral.
This sounds deceptively simple enough, but there is a difference between speaking about yourself and speaking about the goods and services you provide. It is good to tie in some personal facts about yourself during your speech, but not at the expense of any knowledge that could be dispensed about the product you’re speaking about.
The best speeches are those that do not come across as sales pitches, while still giving the audience all of the pertinent information that they came to hear. Walking the line between being informative and entertaining is an incredibly difficult balancing act. The person who is able to do so will have a captive audience for the duration of their spiel.
When you are formatting your speech, know which points you want to take and what knowledge you would like to impart. This will help you to tie in important information, while still being able to remain entertaining. No one wants a speech filled with personal anecdotes or one that is larded with dry facts that do not hold their interest.
What More Can I Say by Dianna Booher
Charisma On Command by Charlie Houpert
EDGY Conversations by Dan Waldschmidt
Powerhouse by Mike Clayton
Credibility by James Kouzes
The post 4 Effective Public Speaking Tips For Entrepreneurs appeared first on The Entrepreneurs Library.
]]>A summary of things you should know about What More Can I Say according to Dianna Booher: Introduction In this episode Dianna Booher takes a deep dive into her book,Read More
The post A Preview of What More Can I Say with Dianna Booher appeared first on The Entrepreneurs Library.
]]>In this episode Dianna Booher takes a deep dive into her book, What More Can I Say, where she discusses why communication fails and what you can do about it.
In her book Booher gives you examples of messages that succeed along with a practical nine-point checklist that addresses the common reasons that your communication is causing you to fail your goals. The goal of her book is to help you build solid relationships, increase your credibility, get your point across clearly, and become a more influential communicator.
This book is perfect for entrepreneurs who are trying to become credible public figures and need practical advice that helps them overcome the typical failures of communication.
I tried to base this book on sound research and not just on survey data.
You can read it all the way through or jump in and out where needed.
I would give you two; the first one is that words matter. Words control how you think. The second one I would say to never depend on logic alone to build a persuasive argument, you have to address the emotional side of an issue as well.
What More Can I Say has nine counter-intuitive principles for success in getting your point across, expanding your influence, and persuading others to change their mind and behavior.
If I had to say what the most important law was it would be the trust law. If you don’t trust someone you are never going to believe them. Most people don’t realize how they can communicate distrust and there are many ways that you can communicate distrust that you are unaware of.
The second law that I talk about is the difference between monolog and collaboration. Often when leaders make a decision they think of the pros, the cons and go through all the reasoning and then they announce a decision and expect people to go along. The way other people often look at this approach is that they were given no chance for input. People believe their own data and like to have a part in that decision making.
Another law I talk about in the book is why communication fails to persuade sometimes and it’s because complex. Complex language obscures ideas and priorities; people don’t know which fire to fight. If things look hard or feel hard than people are slow to do them. But communication that is really successful in persuading is clear and simple. Clear language sharpens the focus and drives action.
These are just a few of the principles that are in the book about persuasion that I think were fascinating. If you can actually base what you are doing to be persuasive on concrete research then you know where you are going.
NOTE: That was just a summary. To get the full deep dive, play the audio clip at 06:52
“You can change your world by changing your words; remember death and life are in the power of the tongue.” – Joel Osteen
I have been working with executives and people that want to improve their communication for about three decades. I have been coaching people, teaching business writing, technical writing, presentation skills, and just working with organizations who want to improve their productivity by increasing their effectiveness.
For months we have been in to the situation where both sides politically are engaged in what I call an uncivil discourse. In business everything that happens, happens as a result of communication so when I sat down to unravel miscommunication in a business or organization I wanted to know why it was that people can’t change others minds. I started researching why some people can’t persuade effectively and that’s the reason why I wrote the book.
Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott
Buy What More Can I Say by Dianna Booher on Amazon today
Visit WhatMoreCanISayTheBook.com to learn more about Dianna’s book and additional resources
Follow Dianna Booher on Facebook and Twitter
Download the full transcript here (coming soon)
Listen on iTunes, Stitcher , and SoundCloud
Related books:
Charisma on Command by Charlie Houpert
Powerhouse by Mike Clayton
EDGY Conversations by Dan Waldschmidt
Relevant advice and tips:
How To Become an Effective Communicator in the Business World
7 Steps To Improve Networking Skills For Entrepreneurs
What did you like and not like about this episode? Fill out this one minute survey here.
The post A Preview of What More Can I Say with Dianna Booher appeared first on The Entrepreneurs Library.
]]>How to Become an Effective Communicator in the Business World Why is communication so important in the business world? Be it a face-to-face meeting with a supplier or an onlineRead More
The post How to Become an Effective Communicator in the Business World appeared first on The Entrepreneurs Library.
]]>How to Become an Effective Communicator in the Business World
Why is communication so important in the business world? Be it a face-to-face meeting with a supplier or an online conversation on a social media platform, if you aren’t adept at the art of communication, you are at a risk of failure.
But if you think that effective communication just implies smooth talk, you are in big trouble. Effective communication involves talking, listening and understanding. And it is no different in the business world.
How do you become an effective communicator? Here are the steps to achieve success.
Be prepared. Whether you are trying to have a talk with your boss about a raise or with a client about a possible contract, it is important to prepare for it. If you don’t, you may not be able to put your points through when you get the opportunity.
It’s important to make sure that the time they invest in listening to you is not wasted on your ramblings. No need to memorize a pitch, just make a note of the points you want to focus on during the conversation. And things become easier.
Begin on the right note. When you broach a conversation, the things that interest your audience are – what do you have to say, how much of their time would you take, and what outcome you expect from the interview.
Therefore, it’s just easier to state the objective of your conversation and the time it will take for you to discuss it when you open a conversation. It puts the individual at the other end at ease as they become immediately aware of the significant points.
Pay attention to body language and tone. Communication doesn’t involve the words alone; body language and tone of voice matter too. Try conversing about a serious matter in a frivolous tone, and nobody will take it the way you want them to.
When someone asks a question, crossing arms signifies defense while putting them in the pocket implies concealment. Learn the basics of how the mind interprets body language and facial expressions. Also, practice smiling while talking to instill a nicety to your tone.
Choose your words carefully. Next is the question of word selection. You need to learn how to put your point across in a clear and precise manner. Brevity is an admired quality in a businessman. But it isn’t helpful if it stands in the way of clarity.
Also, keep in mind to tailor your speech to suit the individual you converse with. Suppose you sell software. While you may have to tell the basics of it to a non-technical individual, you don’t need to do so when you talk to the IT department.
Learn to listen (this is the most important). It is important to focus on what you say, how you say it, and how much time you take. But even more important is to ascertain that you pause and listen to the other person.
Consider whether they understand what you say. Ask the right questions. And listen to their answers, analyze and understand them. This is important, whether you are trying to convince your boss to give you that raise or encourage your client to sign that contract.
Effective communication, like many prominent skills, takes practice. And it is best to apply your knowledge of how to do it right in your personal and professional space. Once you have mastered this art, it will pave your way to success in both.
If so here are some books that I recommend you take a look at:
Edgy Conversations by Dan Waldschmidt | Listen to my interview with Dan here
The Seven Levels of Communication by Michael J Maher | Listen to my interview with Michael here
Charisma On Command by Charlie Houpert | Listen to my interview with Charlie here
The post How to Become an Effective Communicator in the Business World appeared first on The Entrepreneurs Library.
]]>A summary of things you should know about EDGY Conversations according to Dan Waldschmidt Introduction In this episode Dan Waldschmidt discusses his book, EDGY Conversations which is a book thatRead More
The post A Preview of EDGY Conversations with Dan Waldschmidt appeared first on The Entrepreneurs Library.
]]>In this episode Dan Waldschmidt discusses his book, EDGY Conversations which is a book that shows you how ordinary people achieve outrageous success. This book is perfect for entrepreneurs who find success to be skeptic and need a strong sense of will power to boost their abilities to succeed. Waldschmidt truly sets the tone for why people try to be successful but don’t.
One of the differences is you’ll probably find this to be one of tough love. We kind of slap you in the face and tell you that even if you follow the best process in the world, nine times out of ten, you’re still going to struggle and we teach you what to do in that process. The second difference is we tell some truly inspirational stories of normal people and write the book from the ordinary man’s approach. You might love me, you might hate me because it is a in your face book but at the end of it you will not be the same person.
You can pick it up in the middle if you want but I suspect, after you read the first few pages, you’ll want to start from beginning to the end. This book has so many intriguing true stories that will inspire you and hopefully make you want to read from beginning to end. All the stories are highlighted in red so that they are easy to find and share with others.
One thing is to try more. It’s a simple concept but edgy comes down to one thing, trying. People forget that trying is what you do until it’s done.
Our mission is for there to be full-on, hardcore transformation. We want you to see the world in a new way that you’ve never seen before. I have been on the stage many of times where I look out into the audience and I see the skeptics and I structured this book so that there would be a story that would pull you back in.
I start with my own personal story and I end with the conclusion to that story. And then the next few chapters are to convince you that being edgy is something that you want to do. We set the tone for why people try to be successful but don’t. They are trying to bolt on skills when they don’t need skill, they need will. We talk about the playing field for being successful.
The next four sections of the book we uncover the fact that there are four unique philosophies or attitudes of ordinary people who achieve outrageous success.
Firstly, they have extreme behavior. Secondly, they show disciplined activity. Third, they are givers and fourth they have a human strategy that I call emotional intelligence. We make the argument that you should strongly consider being extreme and show you how to do that. You should strongly consider being disciplined and not just doing more but denying yourself more.
We then come to a conclusion where this is your time to figure out if you’re ready to change your life or not. One of the final two chapters we talk about how there is always a reason to make an excuse. You might think that worked for everyone else but it wouldn’t work for you. We tell hundred stories back to back of somebody who did something outrageous for their age and had no excuses.
The last chapter tells a story that inspired me, the story of the Spartans. And this is where we try to inspire the reader to realize that it’s not just a job, it’s a war and you need to gear up to go to war. In the end we teach you, that you as an ordinary person can achieve what you desperately want to achieve but you have got to change the rules and transform your life.
“If you stop doing the right thing before it starts working you’ve just done the wrong thing.” – Dan Waldschmidt
I have been an entrepreneur from the time I was 12 when I started my first lawn mowing business. Some of the first lessons I learned mowing lawns, a couple hundred a week sometimes, not only paid my way through college but really formed the opinions that helped me make millions and millions of dollars by the time I was 25.
The reason I wrote the book was because I couldn’t find something like it out there already. I read so many books growing up and I never felt like I was getting the real deal. I always felt like it was too generic. I wanted to know how ordinary people achieve outrageous success. So that is what drove us to sit down, spend years’ worth of work and carve out this book that now is a bestseller.
You Can’t Teach a Kid to Ride a Bike at a Seminar by David Sandler
Buy EDGY Conversations by Dan Waldschmidt on Amazon today
Visit EdgyConversations.com to learn more about Dan, his book, and hundreds of quotes
Follow Dan on Twitter and Facebook
Download the full transcript here
Listen on iTunes, Stitcher , and SoundCloud
Related books: A More Beautiful Question by Warren Berger | The Seven Levels of Communication by Michael Maher | Advisor Selling by Mark Hunter
Relevant advice and tips: 7 Reasons Why Your Sales Skills Suck | How To Become an Effective Communicator in the Business World
What did you like and not like about this episode? Fill out this one minute survey here.
The post A Preview of EDGY Conversations with Dan Waldschmidt appeared first on The Entrepreneurs Library.
]]>