Archive for the ‘Network Marketing’ Category

Comfort vs. Competence

November 23rd, 2009 |2 comments

Many people say that they are comfortable when speaking to groups. Unfortunately comfort rarely equals competence.

What they mean by saying they are comfortable is that they do not feel nervous when standing in front of a group. This is not usually a good thing. Elton John once told Andrew Denton that he is always nervous before his concerts. He is not alone in performers who feel this way.

Being comfortable has nothing to do with how effective your presentation will be. Effective presentations are about connecting with your audience and having them adopt your message. They are not about you feeling comfortable.

Feel the energy that the opportunity to present gives you. Don’t call it nervousness; call it excitement!

As always, your thoughts on this are appreciated.


The Solution

October 28th, 2009 |no comments

Often we have to present information that we don’t think our audience will understand or accept. This new information may be moving them away from what they have always believed or it may be stretching them to consider doing something completely different. It may simply be beyond their level of comprehension. The question is, ‘How do we get around it?’

The solution is always based on the problem. Here are the steps:

1. Tell the audience that you will be sharing something new (prepares for learning)
2. Tell them the benefits of what you are presenting (WIIFM)
3. Tell them who will be doing this in the future (third party endorsement)
4. Tell them that it may take a few explanations to get it – and that you want them to question it (shows strength of argument)
5. Tell them why industry leaders will be adopting your new ideas (gets the audience to self-select as industry leaders)
6. Tell them what your idea is.

Please share your thoughts below.

Cheers, Darren


How to Give World Class Business Presentations

June 4th, 2009 |1 comment

When you are speaking, you are selling.

You could be selling your latest widget to your next customer, your ideas to your staff, or selling yourself in your annual performance review. What ever it is, you are selling.

But the reality is the results that you achieve will be a direct result of how well you present your ideas, as opposed to how good your ideas are. The world is full of bad ideas that were sold correctly, while the good ideas die with their creator.

If you want to sell more products, if you want your staff to listen to you, or if you want to be able to get that pay rise, you need to be able to sell your ideas, and sell them well.

Recorded in front of a live audience, in this audio will give you the reasons why you need to:

  • Include stories in your next presentation
  • Control the room from the moment you enter it
  • Why you need to make your very first word interesting
  • Why PowerPoint fails more often than it succeeds…and

The one thing you must remember at the start of every presentation so your audience will listen to you

At just $15, this could just be the best investment you make in your next Business Presentation.

Get it now


Free Marketing in Todays Economy

April 19th, 2009 |2 comments

With today’s economy in a constant state of flux, it is important to get the biggest bang for your buck – marketing bucks included. You have to spend your money wisely.

The good news is, that you can get a lot of high quality, well targeted and free marketing if you want it … and this is how you do it.

Each night, literally hundreds of professional associations have meetings. These events are generally networking events for the industry and they are well attended. At these meetings, there is some ‘general business’ that the members need to hear. After this, there is the guest speaker who is there to share their knowledge on a particular topic. These guest speakers have a captive audience for 30 minutes and can set themself up as THE exert. Would you like to be that expert?

Here is an example of how it works:

You are a lawyer wanting to generate business in the Energy sector (gas, electricity etc). First, you need to find the hottest topic that the sector should know about – in this case it would be the governments Carbon Trading system. Then find the industry association that the decision makers belong too. You then simply call the associations’ President and ask if their members would be interested in an information session explaining the implications of the new legislation. It really is that simple. As most professional associations need to have a focus on member education and development, you are ideal for their needs.

Now, on the night, you are not selling anything. Obviously the name of your firm would be mentioned, and you may have some information sheets for people to take away, but that is it. You do not stand up and say how good you and your firm are. If you do this, it will kill any potential for business that you could generate.

Instead, what you do is generate lots and lots of questions in your audiences’ mind so they will want to talk to you after your presentation. Once you are talking, you can ask for their number and follow them up over the next few days. It really is that easy.

What are the benefits of this approach?

The content should not be too hard for you to come up with; after all you are speaking about what you do for a living. You are speaking to a self-selected audience who want to hear you. And because you are standing in front of the room, you are automatically seen as the expert. This is what you want.

I guarantee that this approach will work for any professional who knows their target market. The only cost to you will be your time … and you may just get a free drink out of it!

Give it a go, and let me know how you get on.

Cheers

Darren

 


Speak Motivate and Lead

July 4th, 2008 |no comments

Do you want to know how to influence others at work? The you need this book.

How to influence in today’s work place. The

complete guide to speaking as the Real Leader

you are.

 

Learn how to speak to your boss, your staff and your clients so they listen,

understand and then take action on what you say.

 

If you are a Section Manager, Sales Manager, or Chief Executive Officer, connecting with your audience and getting your message across is often a challenge. This power-packed e-book is the answer you have been looking for.

 

Here is what the Head of Psychology Services for the Australian Olympic Team (1992, 1996, 2000) and Business Psychologist Graham Winter had to say:

 

“Darren Fleming has created a simple reference guide to the tricky task of getting your message across in a way that doesn’t just inform but actually engages the audience.  The many useful tips will make it a valuable tool for the busy manager and team leader.”

 

Graham Winter, Consultant Psychologist and Director, Graham Winter Consulting.

Head of Psychology Services, Australian Olympic Team (1992, 1996, 2000)

Author of Think One Team, High Performance Leadership and The Business Athlete

Adelaide, Australia

 

In this e-book you will learn:

  • The 5 rules of PowerPoint that must be followed so you don’t send your audience to sleep
  • The 7 rules for Presenting in Boardrooms
  • How to control your nervousness when speaking
  • How to make every person in your audience feel as though you are speaking directly with them
  • How you can make any topic interesting – even statistics training can be interesting!
  • How to use your stories to connect with every person in the room
  • And much, much, much more.

 

Click here to get instant access to Speak Motivate and Lead: How Real Leaders inspire others to follow.

  

“Don’t be deceived by this seemingly thin book (of 34 pages)! It compresses many nuggets of solid speaking advice that will take you years to find in other public speaking literature. No fluff and straight to the point! Oh, and you will feel really good about yourself because you finally get to read a book in one sitting!”

 

Eric Feng,

Public Speaking Coach and Author of The FAQ Book of Public Speaking

Singapore

After reading this e-book you will know how to:

  • Press your audiences’ ‘hot-buttons’
  • Construct your message so people will want to listen
  • How to get the right mental focus for your next sales presentation
  • Connect with your audience in the most powerful way possible
  • Put forward a different opinion and have others buy into it
  • How to use stories to connect with others

And all this for just $17!!!

Here is what other speaker and business leaders have said about Speak Motivate and Lead:

  

“Effective and persuasive communication made easy. An insightful guide to motivating by speaking – a must for people who deal with people”

 

John Tindall

MLC Australia

Sydney, Australia

Click here to get instant access to Speak Motivate and Lead: How Real Leaders inspire others to follow.

In Speak, Motivate, & Lead, Darren Fleming offers a quick but effective look at many areas of public speaking. He includes examples from his personal coaching and speaking, which are effectively mixed with mini-case studies.

He also offers concrete solutions and methods to many speaking situations, including impromptu speaking, handling boardroom meetings, and appropriately tackling humour.

 

A quick read, Speak, Motivate, & Lead is an excellent resource to keep nearby to refer to again and again.

 

Rich Hopkins

Speaker – Author – Coach

Judged in the Top 100 Speakers in the World by Toastmasters International 5 times since 2002. Author of Win Place and Show

www.richhopkinsspeaks.com

 

At just $17 it is a great investment in your career.

Click here to get instant access to Speak Motivate and Lead: How Real Leaders inspire others to follow.

  

If you have to stand before any group and motivate them to follow your directions, you need to speak as a real Leader. This e-book will show you how to do that.

 

“The information is concise yet detailed with great examples that illustrate the fundamentals in presentation skills.”

 

Palmo Carpino

Applied Communications Inc

Alberta Canada

OK! Get the e-book now!


Marketing Your Speaking Skills

January 31st, 2008 |3 comments

I get a lot of enquiries through my website on how to market your speaking skills.  Below are some ideas that I have used recently.

The first thing you need to do is to get out and start speaking.  It does not matter if you are speaking at a Toastmasters Club, Rostrum Club or cards club, just get out and practice!  This will give you the experience that you need to market yourself.

Once you have from this circuit, you can hit the Rotary circut.  Rotary clubs are great to speak to for the following reason:

  1. They are great people – this means a welcoming audience!
  2. The members are generally ‘better connected’ than other members of society.  This means that you are speaking to people who can either look directly at your services and hire you, or will generally have some influence where they work and can recommend you.
  3. It’s a great way to refine your material. Recently I was scheduled to speak to two Rotary clubs on the 1 day.  My first presentation was at 7:30 am and the other 12 hours later.  I thought the speech that I prepared would work well for both clubs.  However, the morning presentation did not go as well as I wanted it too.  To improve my presentation for the evening, I re-wrote my 20 minute presentation during my lunch break that day and gave it again in the evening.  It was a much better effort.  If I had not been at the two meeting in the one day, it would have been much longer between the pain of the morning presentation and the success of the evening presentation.  The longer the time between the two, the less chance of refining!

So how do you go about approaching Rotary clubs?  It is simple.  Just follow the steps below and you will be fine.

  1. Google Rotary Clubs for your local area.  Search the website for individual club websites.
  2. Find the contact of the club.  It does not matter who it is, what position they hold, or what the site looks like.
  3. Send the contact the following e-mail

Hello,

My name is <insert name here>and I am a local speaker.

Could you please advise who I would need to speak to about being a guest speaker at one of your club meetings.

Cheers

<insert name>

That’s all you need to do.  Send this e-mail to every club within 90 minutes drive of your house.  (If you think that is too far, I suppose you don’t want to be a speaker!  If you think that having 2 kinds under 3, both you and your partner working full-time and having to get up at 5 to get there is a problem, deal with it!)

4.  Keep track of the contact names, e-mail addresses and club names.  Not everyone will get back to you straight away.  After a month, follow up those that have not got back to you.

5.  The final reason you would want to get out and do the Rotary circuit is that you get a free meal and a pen as well!

What do you say?  Check some of the other posts such as Understanding your Audience and marketing your speaking skills

But if you really want to a step-by-step guide, you need to get the MP3 How to Start Your Public Speaking Career Today. In this audio you will get everything you need to get started – including an example of a live Rotary Speech. I will literally be your coach on how to get your first gig. Get How to Start Your Public Speaking Career Today.

Getting out and marketing yourself as a speaker really is that easy.  The speaking circuit is full of people who do not have a message as good as yours, but are marketing themselves better than you are.  In 12 months time, do you want to be sitting down annoyed that you let another 12 months go by before you got out and did something?

‘Til next time.

Cheers

Darren Fleming


Room Layout Can Kill You

September 10th, 2007 |no comments

I have recently been engaged to develop a training program for the Network Marketing industry.  This program will focus on overcoming objections, and how to avoid them in the first place.  You can get more details on it here – Communication in Network Marketing

As part of my research I attended a meeting of the local Tupperware bussiness.  The night was “The Boys Night In”.  All the male distrubitors had the opportunity let us know what it was like to be a male distributor in a female dominated industry.

In the first part of the evening, Steve cooked up some hamburger steaks and a potato salad.  This showed how easy the products were to use and to sell.  What a great way to sell product!

Unfortunately, neither Steve nor the managers of the venue had looked at the room to see how the props that he was going to use would be seen by the audience.  Unfortunately they couldn’t be seen!

Steve was cooking at a stove and working from a bench.  The platform that he was working on was slightly raised, but not high enough for people down the back of the room to be able to see what he was doing.  As a consequence, more than half the room could not see what was happening.  Initially people lifted their heads to see, but as the presentation wore on, more and more people just resorted to listening and not looking.  This made his props redundant.

So how could have this been avoided? 

The most obvious improvement would have been a mirror placed above the stove and bench that the audience could look at.  This would have shown us what he was doing.  However, this is a costly (but permenant!) solution.  An easier and more simple solution was to simply hold the props up for people to see.  By holding the slicers and dicers up we would have been able to see what was being used and have been able to receive the training that he was delivering.

So how was he to know this?  By simply sitting in our seats before the meeting and looking around to see what we were going to see.  This would have alerted him to the problem and he could have then taken steps to fix it.

The physical layout of the room can have a massive impact on the result of your presenation.  Sit in your audiences seat to see what they will see. If you don’t like it, chances are the audience wont either!

‘Til next time,

Cheers

Darren Fleming


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