How to Succeed at Public Speaking

If you are afraid to speak in public, don't feel bad. You are not alone. Over 40% of the adult population is. In fact, fear of speaking in public is the highest ranked fear that all people have. Mostly this is due to a feeling that you won't succeed but rather fail and be ridiculed or laughed at and no one wants that. Some people avoid it at all cost, including the potential to succeed or excel in their field. It doesn't have to be this way for you. We've got some tips for you here which, if implemented should help you tremendously.

For most people, the most common place where they need to speak in public is in the workplace. Usually, you either need to inform your coworkers of the project you are working on or you need to sell an idea across to people higher up in the company. Don't panic yet. If you take some time to plan it out you'll do ok. Preparation is key.

One of the most important things before speaking in front of others is to know your material thoroughly. Make sure you've covered all areas of what you will be discussing. If you know what you are talking about, you won't feel as nervous or flustered. Try to anticipate what questions others may have and be ready with an answer. If it's at all complicated, try to think of different ways to say it, so everyone will understand. Diagrams may help you here to illustrate your point. Once you've done this, practice out loud somewhere by yourself if possible at first then in front of a friend or coworker later if it's important.

If it's appropriate you may want to hand out either an outline or a few illustrations. It may help to have some eyes looking at these occasionally and not all of them looking at you all the time.

As much as it's humanly possible, try to relax. Breathe deeply. Since most people fear public speaking, others know it's not easy and will be rooting for you not against you. If you are the type that can make small jokes, you can try one if appropriate. It helps your audience to relax as well.

If someone asks you a questions you don't know or aren't sure about, you can say something like "that's a good question" and think for a few seconds, then if you know the answer great, answer it, and if you don't you can say something like "I'm not sure about that, I think Bill might be able to answer that for you". Make sure you name someone who you think would definitely know the answer. Other wise, you can tell them you will check into it and get back to them.

Arrive early to your meeting or presentation to make sure everything is there that you need and working properly.

Don't say anything about being nervous to your audience, some people may not notice and you don't want to bring it to their attention if they don't. You may do better than you expect.

Try not to speak too fast, semi slow and clear is the way to go. Try not to speak in a monotone voice either. Add some inflection to your speech.

Keep things simple and to the point. Try not to drag on if at all possible. You don't want to bore your audience.

A lot of people in sports use visualization to imagine themselves accomplishing their goal. This can work for you too. Visualize yourself succeeding with your public speaking.

Public speaking is a valuable tool you can learn and use throughout your life. The more you practice it and gain confidence the better you will get.

Mastering Sales Psychology

To be a successful entrepreneur, it is imperative that you understand and use sales psychology. Internet Marketing gurus have this ability honed to an art form. Sales psychology is an advantage whether you are in a conventional brick and mortar business or an online one. The great thing is that sales psychology is not difficult to learn. Essentially all you need to do is put yourself in the place of the prospective buyer.

One aspect of sales psychology is that people respond to specifics more than generalities. If you sell photocopy machines, saying a particular unit is a high-speed duplicating machine is not impactful. But if you say that your machine produces 10 sheets of A4-sized copies in 12 seconds with the ability to automatically collate documents into correct order, then it seems more impressive. In sales, rounding off figures dilutes its impact so state numbers without rounding off. Of course, the facts and figures must be believable.

This aspect of stating things in specific terms also applies to targeting your prospects. People must know whether your product or service is for them or not. Hence, the term 'Home Owners' is not as good as 'Gardening Enthusiasts'. And 'Gardening Enthusiasts' is not as specific as 'Tropical Plant Lovers'.

Another aspect of sales psychology is that people are interested in how they can benefit from your product or service more than what the product can do. In other words, benefits always win over features. For example, if you sell pianos, tell the prospect that giving his child a piano today will enable the child to have a career in music in future. This is far better than to use the old cliche, 'Give your child the gift of music' or to stress the features of the piano. It is important to mention features because people must know what they are buying but the trigger that makes them buy is always the benefit not the feature.

Sales psychology also takes advantage of human individuality. Everyone likes to feel special. So the smart entrepreneur would make his prospect feel exclusive. That is why Internet Marketers present a product in 'beta' version that is in pre-launch and tell their prospects they are the exclusive few who get to purchase it. But after sales for the beta version is successful, the product will be released to the general public, often at a higher price. So three elements, the timing (it is pre-launch), the version (beta) and the price (cheaper) combine powerfully to create the sense of exclusiveness.

In an increasingly competitive business environment, smart entrepreneurs utilize sales psychology triggers to get their prospects to buy from them. Therefore in whatever you sell, always use as many of these elements of sales psychology as possible.

How to Handle a Difficult Discussion

Whether it involves talking with your teen about sex or drugs, your spouse about finances or housework, or your employee about attendance or performance issues, the prospect of initiating a difficult discussion is daunting to many, if not most, people. Mix in the tendency to procrastinate tackling unpleasant tasks, then feeling guilty about putting something so important off, and you can wind up feeling even more miserable and anxious about the impending conversation. You might even lose sleep over it.

Initiating such a discussion doesn't have to be nearly so painful. With the proper mindset and some preparation, you can learn to handle even the most difficult topic with ease and confidence. The following tips will enable you to do just that.

1. Realize that by having the discussion, your goal is to benefit others as well as yourself. Whether or not he shows it, your teen will most likely appreciate that you care enough to talk to him about things that concern or matter to you. In the case of the employee with the performance issue, she will have an opportunity to correct or improve on it, or face consequences. In either event, the other members on your team will certainly appreciate that you took steps to address the situation, because they will see the poor performer either stepping up to the plate or terminated.

2. Focus on the possible positive outcomes of having the discussion sooner rather than later. The employee's performance could most certainly improve. Or you may have the opportunity to replace a poor performer with someone more willing and able to do the work and follow company or departmental policies. Either way, the performance of your team as a whole will benefit, which will be a positive reflection on your own performance.

3. Prepare for any possible reaction to the discussion. Have contingency plans for handling any behavior or response to what you have to say, whether it be anger, denial, silence or disbelief. Knowing in advance exactly how you will deal with any of these will give you the confidence you need to proceed. Understand that you cannot control a person's reaction, and in many cases you cannot predict it either. But you can always prepare for any possibility.

4. If the topic for discussion is an especially difficult one for you, have a reward planned for yourself when you complete it. Take a half day off to do something you enjoy, or treat yourself to something you ordinarily would not. After all, you just accomplished something that doesn't come easily for you. You deserve something special.

Following these tips will not make handling difficult discussions any more fun, by any means, but doing so when the necessity arises will make you a better and more competent communicator, manager, parent and/or spouse. And who wouldn't benefit from that?

Positivity in Business and Life

When life hands you something that you don't naturally agree with, or when you seem to be having all sorts of problems, it can seem all too easy to get down about it and to get upset and negative. However, there are many reasons that you should always attempt to be as positive as you can – whether you are dealing with the stresses of family, of your job, or of your life in general. Being positive is going to help you make sure that you never need to worry about anything else.

There are always times where it seems like it is tough to look on the bright side of things. It can be that you have too little time on your hands and too much to get done, or that you have stresses that you simply cannot combat no matter where you go. However, usually, with some practice, you can learn to see the positives in these things as well, and you can learn to train yourself to always look on the positive side.

The first step to staying positive is to be able to step back from the issues at hand and to learn how to look at everything as a big picture. This is very important because it means that you are going to be able to look at everything put together as a whole, and you won't need to worry about all of the small details. As you begin to pull away and look at the big picture, you are going to see the positives that are there – you might have very well behaved children generally, who are very smart and strong – and suddenly the spilled soda on the floor doesn't seem so bad. You might have a great career with a boss that you respect, and suddenly the issue with one project doesn't seem as important or as huge as before. If you can learn to pull yourself away and look at the big picture, chances are good that you will learn how to start to look more positively at your entire life.

Studies have shown that when you are able to focus on the positive, you are going to be able to attract even more positive energy to yourself. People who are more positive are more attractive, more comfortable with themselves, and are in better spirits – and these things attract only good things and opportunities as well. Therefore, the more positive that you can be about the world in general, and about your life, the more positive aspects you will be able to attract to yourself.

Whether you are dealing with a business, your home life, or with anything else that might be going on with you, you are going to find that there are lots of great things for you to consider about each of the parts of your life. And, the more that you focus on these positive and great aspects, the better you are going to feel about your life in general.