Do You Treat Others, Even Strangers, with Courtesy?

Jane Jenkins Herlong
Author, Speaker, and Humorist, Jane Jenkins Herlong

I like to say, “A stranger is a friend, or a customer, you have not met yet.” My friend Jane Jenkins Herlong is a humorist, speaker, and author.  You may have enjoyed her comedy and songs on Sirius XM Radio and Pandora. I share this story from her book, Bare Feet to High Heels – You Don’t Have to be a Beauty Queen to be a Beautiful Person. Jane reminds us to treat others, even those we have not met yet, with courtesy.

Hey, Sweet Thang!
by Jane Jenkins Herlong

Every time I hear the words, “sweet thing,” I think of my pal, Red. One hot July day in the little town of Gaffney at the South Carolina Peach Festival, I met Big Red.

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Great Ways to Connect with Your Audience – Expert Advice

The Secret of Connecting to Your Audience

When your message is memorable, your communication clear, and your presentation powerful, you will position yourself for greater success.

If you want to excel as a public speaker you must make an emotional connection with your audience, regardless of your subject, setting, or message.

The most powerful communication combines both intellectual and emotional connections.  For effective public speaking, whether you have an audience of one or 1,000, you must connect with your audience emotionally. Consider how you might put the following three fundamental techniques for emotional connection into practice:

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Public Speaking – Delivery Strategy

Microphone
Your audience will feel comfortable, when you look confident.

After you have crafted and rehearsed your presentation, review your delivery strategy.

Public speaking can create an adrenaline rush – so, when you are about to take the stage you may feel charged with energy or a bit nervous. Your audience will feel comfortable, when you look confident. Remember, nobody knows how you feel; they just know how you act.

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Do You Alienate Your Audience? Make A “You” Turn

If we focus too much on ourselves in our presentations, we run the risk of losing our audience and failing to get our message across – even if our content and delivery is strong. I share some insights on this from my friend and fellow presentation expert, Darren LaCroix.

Speaker at Podium
How many times have you been stuck listening to a speaker on an ego trip?

How many times have you been stuck listening to a presenter on an ego trip? A speaker who sounds like their primary message to the audience is, “It’s all about me!” has forgotten one of the foundations of effective speaking… It’s all about the audience!

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There Are No Shortcuts to Effective Sales Conversations

Sales Expert Scott Plum
Scott Plum, Founder of the Minnesota Sales Institute

If a potential client is willing to engage initial conversation, they have an underlying reason to consider your product or service. Sales conversations are most effective when they are focused on your client’s concerns – not the product or service you provide. There are no shortcuts to effective sales conversations.  Always take the time to understand your potential client’s concerns – usually this means asking good questions! Listen to, and really hear, their responses. Consider how your product or service can meet their needs on an intellectual and emotional level. Respond with ‘you’-focused language. If your client’s needs are not seen, or of no real interest to you, you will most likely lose the sale. My friend, sales expert and sales coach, Scott Plum shares this helpful article on the subject. Enjoy!

You’re Not Being Tested
by Scott Plum

He walked into my office and sat down. I asked him, “How you doing since our last session?” He replied with, “I’m still struggling with confidence. I wish I saw me how others see me. I want to earn their (prospects) respect and when they come into the store, I want them to value working with me. I want to offer them value, so they’ll buy from me.

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Public Speaking – How to Best Present Yourself And Your Ideas in Any Situation

Executive Speech Coach Patricia Fripp on Fripp Virtual Training.
Patricia Fripp helps executives deliver powerful and persuasive presentations through Fripp Virtual Training.

Good presentation skills are no longer a nice skill to have; they can mean the difference between career life or death.

  • Do you have great ideas, but don’t have the confidence to share them?
  • Are you someone with true expertise, who is unsure how to let others know?
  • Is there a natural leader trapped inside you?

Fortunately, even if you are not a born speaker, the ability to present yourself and your ideas effectively can be learned – just ask my executive speech coaching clients.

Here are some tips to help you sound intelligent, powerful, polished, articulate and confident the next time you deliver a presentation, have a conversation with senior management, or network in your professional community.  After all, outside of the privacy of your own home all speaking is public speaking.

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Public Speaking – The One Secret to Delivering A Successful Speech

Executive Speech Coach & Hall of Fame Speaker, Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE
Executive Speech Coach & Hall of Fame Speaker, Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE

A few months ago, I received an email: “I am a great fan of yours. Could I interview you for my blog?”

I was busy, and my first instinct was to reply, “Please contact me again in three months.” However, before I hit “send” I thought twice and decided to click on the link to his website. To my surprise, I was looking at someone quite famous (and handsome, I should add). I picked up the phone and said, “What is an Emmy Award-winning TV interviewer and game show host doing being one of my fans?”

Well, we had a great conversation. Obviously, I was willing to grant him the interview. Before we wrapped up, he asked, “Patricia, what is the one secret of delivering a great presentation?”

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Sri Lankan Wins Toastmasters’ 2014 World Championship of Public Speaking

Dananjaya Hettiarachchi
Congratulations to Dananjaya Hettiarachchi!  He is the 2014 Toastmasters World Champion of Public Speaking.

Congratulations to Dananjaya Hettiarachchi, the 2014 Toastmasters World Champion of Public Speaking!  On August 23rd, Hettiarachchi, a human resource development (HRD) specialist from Colombo, Sri Lanka, won the world’s largest speech contest, the Toastmasters World Championship of Public Speaking, with a humorous speech titled, “I See Something.” Below is a clip from his speech. Along with eight other final contestants, he reached the championship level after several eliminating rounds, which began six months ago with 30,000 participants from 126 countries; Toastmasters International is truly international! Past World Champion winners of this prestigious contest include my co presenters at Lady and the Champs events: Ed Tate, Craig Valentine, and Darren LaCroix. I share this from Toastmasters’ International:

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Fripp Virtual Training Members to Compete at Toastmasters International Speech Contest

Toastmasters International LogoAs you read this, the Toastmasters International Convention is being held outside North America for the first time – in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.  Before I became a professional keynote speaker and long before I became an in-demand speech coach… I joined Cable Car Toastmasters in San Francisco. Toastmasters International is a non-profit educational organization that teaches public speaking and leadership skills through a worldwide network. Who would have guessed how that action transformed my life and opened a career I never would have imagined?

On behalf of my partners in World Champions’ Edge, Ed Tate, Darren LaCroix, Craig Valentine, and the convention’s opening keynote speaker Mark Brown and out over 500 worldwide members, we are full of pride that many World Champions’ Edge members and Fripp Virtual Training members are in Kuala Lumpur competing in Speech Contests at this year’s International Convention. Speech contests are a Toastmasters tradition. Toastmasters who make it to the international speech competition have already won competitions, beginning with club contests and continuing through area, division, and district level contests, in order to reach this elite level of competition. Congratulations and best wishes to our World Champions’ Edge members and Fripp Virtual Training members competing in this year’s International Contests – we know you can keep those judges Frippnotized! As Darren LaCroix, who in 2001 won the World Championship of Public Speaking – and is there to cheer you on – says, “It is not about the trophy, although that is nice, it about the skills and discipline you develop along the way.”

Good luck Edge members. It is an honor to know you.

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How to Treat Your Sales People Like Real Business Operators

Strategy
Anyone who has ever operated a business knows that running a business does not include the right to follow the path of the wind.

Leadership traditionally comes from the top down, and paradoxically leadership is also necessary from the bottom up. My friend and fellow speaker, Lee B. Salz is a sales management strategist who very wisely recommends giving sales people the responsibility of creating their company’s sales business plan.  In taking on this responsibility, sales people become leaders and deepen their commitment to their company’s sales objectives and strategies.  As I often say,  “A team is a group of people who may not be equal in experience, talent, or education… but in commitment.” I share these excellent insights from Lee:

How Sales People WANT To Be Managed…And How They SHOULD Be Managed
by Lee B. Salz

Sales people often say they want to be managed as if they were operating their own business. And, that’s exactly how they should be managed. Yet, there is a disconnect between how sales people perceive running a business works…and real-life. A sales business plan can help bridge this gap.

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