Category Archives: Writing A Book

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I Speak…

sleepSo, we’ve spoken at length about public speaking and ways to excel as a public speaker—but we haven’t spoken about actually getting work as a public speaker. This blog is all about ways to find work. It’s not easy to convince someone to pay you to speak—sometimes it will seem impossible—but if you truly want to be a paid public speaker, you should be exploring these avenues.

Universities, Colleges and Schools

Look around you. Chances are, you live close to a university, college, state school, technical school, or some other educational institution. Team up with a professor or department head to hold a forum a subject relevant to you and the educator’s interest group. Invite people from the community to attend, as well.

Network in Your Business Groups

These lead exchange or facilitated networking groups are designed to be a tightly knit group of individuals from diverse businesses who meet regularly for the purpose of bringing business opportunities to the other members. Popular groups are Le Tip, Business Networking International (BNI), and Local Business Network (LBN). Join your preferred group and let the members know that you’re interested in speaking opportunities.

Clubs and Special Interest Groups

Music fanatic? Mother of a child? Coder with mad skills? No matter what your interest or circumstance, there’s a group for it. And if you can share information on a topic that’s relevant to its members, they’ll welcome you as a speaker.

Local Publications

Most areas have a magazine or newspaper devoted to area business news. Check out the periodical’s Events page (in print or online), then contact the organizations who have listed presentations and pitch them for speaking.

Your Clients

No need to get all fancy and overlook one of your most highly qualified sources! Ask your clients which groups they belong to and whether they accept outside speakers.

Other Professionals Who Speak Professionally

Look around at your colleagues, competitors, and other professionals who target the same audience you do. Check their websites and LinkedIn profiles to see where they’ve spoken. You can follow in their footsteps.

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I Write…

once uponThis week, I’d like to look at four signs that you need a content writer. If you are thinking about hiring a content writer, you are really hiring an expert who can write content to appeal to your audience. You are also hiring someone to correct problems that your blog may be having—poor visibility, poor audience participation—or just poor internet salesmanship all around. If you are encountering these problems, then you may want to find yourself an expert to help you correct them.

Why Content Matters…. And Why You Need Traffic

There is one rule to online business. You must blog! If you have a business with an Internet presence, you need a blog with lots of content. Blogging can certainly get boring, but it really does affect your bottom line. On average, blogs increase business. Businesses that blog get more traffic from Google and more visitors surfing in from other sites, which benefits revenue and brand loyalty. It’s a win-win!

Low Engagement…. No Effect

If people aren’t coming to your blog, you’re more than likely doing something wrong. The problem is, it could be any number of things. You might have a basic problem like lack of promotion, incredibly boring articles, poor targeting, or ten other reasons. You might be facing a competitor’s aggressive marketing campaign. Alternatively, your blog might just be too new. Pretty much everything you do on your blog affects engagement, so the problem could be almost anywhere. Don’t give up if you don’t get a million hits on your first day.

Irregular Habits

If you have a personality-driven blog, a lot of ideas, and the time to put it together, it’s fine to sit down and write what’s on your mind when you feel like it. As long as the ideas keep flowing, your audience will be receiving new content and hopefully coming back for more.

Missing Those Crucial Opportunities

When something happens that affects your business or your community, getting your voice out there can enhance your authority, expand your reach and deepen your connection to your customers. The right commentary at the right time is what viral posts are made of, but you need to have someone ready to react. Building an audience over time will ensure your voice is heard when you really need it to be.

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I Teach…

coachFor those of you who are wondering about the possibility of working with a coach, I’d like to talk a little about the ways a life coach can actually add to your life and encourage change for the better. I think we’ve talked a lot about reasons for getting a coach, and finding the right coach—but today this is all about coaches and their abilities. For me, a coach has to be someone who has experience, expertise, wisdom and the ability to listen. For you, the coach may be someone who gives you confidence or helps you discover new things about yourself. Let’s take a good look at coaches…

Finding Your True Purpose

Life coaches know that finding one’s purpose isn’t something that requires meditating for a few years on a mountaintop. That’s just unrealistic. A good life coach knows that an individual’s true purpose comes from a special combination of their hidden talents and passions. A good life coach will help you uncover those talents and passions that will then reveal to you your true purpose in life.

Motivating YOU

Sometimes, when we least expect it, life punches us in the face. We lose our jobs, we lose a loved one, we fall into old bad habits, we sink into depression, and so on. And if left alone, it could take years – if ever – to get back to our old awesome selves again. A quality coach will help us move past these obstacles and learn from them.

Building Your Confidence

Whatever it is you do in life, you’ll do it better and with more enjoyment when you’re confident. The opposite is also true – even the simplest tasks can be outright terrifying when you don’t have the confidence you need. Life coaches understand this better than anyone else.

Developing Your Spirituality

As happiness and success starts flowing into your life, you may find yourself at a very interesting crossroads. While you are happy with how amazing your life has become so far, there’s still something, or several things, missing. These ‘missing’ pieces are why even the seemingly most successful people in the world still turn to life coaches for guidance. Everyone needs to heal, grow and develop.

Guidance, Guidance, Guidance

Have you ever read or heard news of superstar athletes, famous politicians, and influential politicians who make careless decisions that ruin their careers? That’s the danger of success – it can take you places where your character can keep up with you.

Your life coach may keep you from going too fast. They will keep you accountable both to your life plan and to your deepest values. That way, as your success grows, your character will grow in stride with it.

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I Speak…

coachMost people feel fear at some point in their life. When speaking in public, people can find themselves panicking. I hear from these people quite often, and I wanted to put together some tips that would allow people to really get to grips with their fear of public speaking. We all know that it can be terrifying to stand in front of ten, ten thousand, or ten million people and speak—but all it really takes is organization, practice and focus… Let’s take a look at the tips.

 

Organization Is Success

When you organize all of your thoughts and materials, it helps you to become much more relaxed and calm. When you have clear, organized thoughts, it can greatly reduce your speaking anxiety because you can better focus on the one thing at hand—giving a great speech.

The Two P’s—Practice and Prepare

Nothing takes the place of practicing and preparing for your speech. Write out a script of your key points, but don’t speak from it word for word. Prepare for your speech so well that you could answer any possible question thrown at you.

Afraid of Rejection? Don’t Be So Hasty…

“What if my audience hates my speech? What if they boo me off stage?” Try to eliminate all of your fears of rejection. The audience is there to listen to you for a reason.

Focus

When you speak, try to get into a rhythm or a flow. Keep you sentences short and to the point and repeat key points. A short pause in between points can add anticipation for what you are going to say next.

Watch and Learn from Yourself

Pay special attention to:

  • Your facial expressions
  • Your gestures and habits
  • Your body movements
  • How friendly you appear

When you have gentle expressions and a calm demeanor when you speak, you will be more welcoming to your audience.

Record your speech on your phone or video camera. Record yourself giving the talk from beginning to end. Then listen to it or watch it, and make notes on how you could make it better. Some people do not like listening to the sound of their voice on tape, so it is important that you get used to your own voice and speaking style.

Give Your Speech to Another Person

There are plenty of people you can practice on. Be sure to tell the person to be completely honest with you in their critique.

Examples of people you can practice on:

  • Your partner
  • Your close friends
  • Your parents

Speaking directly to another person with whom you feel comfortable will help relax you and give you experience with getting feedback from someone. If they have questions about your speech, it is likely that members of an audience will have the same questions.

There’s Always a Teacher

Find a talented coach or mentor. There are many groups that you can join to learn the art of public speaking. Toastmasters may be the choice for you. It is non-profit and helps people get over their fears by having them practice speaking on subjects over and over.

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I Write…

writingThis blog is all about decisions—a decision that could take you to the next level—a decision that could allow your business to grow. I have put together four reasons why you should consider a ghost writer. These four reasons are a checklist. I want you to look over them and place a check against the reasons that would simplify your business life and give you time to grow, expand and become bigger. If you come away from this blog with three checks or more, I think you should investigate hiring a content writer—seriously. The time to act is the moment you realize action is needed!

Save Time

Would you rather just focus on growing your business? Hiring a ghost writer for your blog will free up some time so you can use your talents more effectively elsewhere. If you are spending more time creating content than you are spending bringing in new business, you may want to adjust your priorities.

Share Excellence

You may not be a great writer, but the business demands excellence. Perhaps you don’t need a ghost writer to take over your blog from start to finish; maybe you just need someone to proofread and edit your content before publishing. A good editor can help you fix your grammar and spelling, be more concise, and better organize your thoughts.

Cultivate Talent

You should try to update your blog with brand new content once a week. In order to keep coming up with relevant topics, you need to be clued into your industry, monitoring the mindsets of your readers, watching trends. It’s certainly an ongoing process. Some people are better at this than others. Sometimes you just don’t have the time. Sometimes you need to delegate. Again, you may not need a ghost writer to handle all your blog responsibilities… maybe you just need someone to research and brainstorm ideas with you.

Social Media Manager

Once your blog is written and published, you’re going to want to generate interest and attract new followers. This means posting on various social media, publishing an e-newsletter, monitoring and responding to comments, talking about your blog at networking events, maintaining a subscriber list, and anything else that will help get the word out. Remember, when it comes to blogging, you can’t rely on an “if you build it, they will come” mentality; someone has to constantly be plugging your blog and getting more eyeballs on it. It’s a full time job.

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I Speak…

coachLast week, we touched upon a problem many public speakers have. That problem is not knowing how to breathe correctly. Now, we all know that we are born with the ability to breathe—but to breathe correctly when speaking in public is another thing altogether. I thought it might be a good idea to share a few tips with you about correct breathing—tips you can take with you and help turn your speaking engagements into huge successes. This week, we will discuss relaxing before your speaking engagement, so these are tips to help you breathe to relax. Let’s try them out!

Deep Breathing Means Relaxing

For those who do not regularly practice deep breathing, they may not know all the health benefits. Learning how to properly deep breathe, and letting that breath fill your lungs and travel through your whole body, can help you to relax and take on anything that may be going on in your life. This is at the heart of your well-being and healthy living, so it is crucial to learn how to deep breathe properly and practice it regularly.

Breathing for Better Health

Deep breathing and learning to embrace this practice is part of healthy living and well-being. Learning to embrace it, and develop and practice breathing patterns that work for you, is a huge part of living the best life possible.

Exhale Longer Than Your Inhale

You should be letting the exhale take twice as long as the inhale to get the most out of it. This will take some practice. Take the time to take each breath in but then take twice as long to let it out so that you can really feel it throughout your whole body.

What Stress?

Stress can be easily melted away if you learn how to make deep breathing a part of your life. As you feel the stress coming on and starting to settle within your body, take the time to step away and take a few good deep breaths to allow the stress to simply melt away in no time.

What Pain? Is Pain Distracting You?

There is a reason why women in labor practice breathing exercises — it really does help with the worst pain!   By practicing deep breathing exercises, you can block out the pain and focus instead on this therapeutic exercise for your well-being.

Stretch for Well-Being

Yoga is a great part of a healthy lifestyle, not just for the exercise that it brings, but for the stretching and breathing that it incorporates. When you are stretching and focusing on your breathing, you are working on your overall well-being, and this can work wonders for your physical and mental well-being.

Breath Yourself to Energy

As you take in deep breaths, you will feel rejuvenated, and this brings natural energy to your body. Learning to take breath in the appropriate way and holding it will pour energy onto every bone and muscle in your body, which will bring you the natural energy you are seeking.

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I Speak…

People make mistakes in presentations every single day of the week. It’s nothing new. But why do these mistakes happen? What constitutes poor public speaking? I’ve put together a list of reasons that may tell the story of why a speech may have gone wrong, or a presentation may have fallen on deaf ears… Let’s take a look at the list, shall we?

Poor Breathing Habits Mean Poor Speaking

Have you been trained as a singer or stage actor? If you haven’t, the chances are good that you’re unaware of the best method of breathing for speech. Public speaking requires a larger reservoir of air, for instance, than breathing for life. Equally important, your exhalation needs to be more controlled so you can sustain vocalized sound to the ends of phrases, where the most important words usually reside. Diaphragmatic breathing is the key. It’s also an important method of calming your galloping heart during fear of public speaking, and of course for keeping you from audibly gasping for air when you run out of breath due to nervousness—a huge no-no when making a public presentation.

Are You Self-Conscious?

This is probably the most frequently named reason people feel performance anxiety while speaking. It’s very common for a speech coach to hear: “I’m fine talking to small groups. But when it’s a large audience, I get really anxious.” Remember that the people in a sizable audience are exactly the same ones you talk to individually, and try to concentrate on having a conversation with your listeners. You’ll be at your best in every way.

Fear of Appearing Nervous

You may fear that you’ll look fearful on stage. With that in mind, you may make a leap of poor faith and tell yourself that once the audience notices your nervousness, everyone will realize you don’t really know your topic. Of course, the two aren’t linked at all. For instance, if you see that a speaker is nervous, what do you think? It’s probably sympathy—and with that sympathy, the audience will work with you.

Are They Judging Me?

The tough love message concerning this fear of public speaking is that people really don’t care about you. They’re in the audience to get something out of your appearance. They truly would like their time to have been well spent in coming to see you. You can also console yourself with the knowledge that watching a speaker fail is embarrassing for all who see it. With that in mind, you can be assured that the audience is actually rooting for you.

Failure in the Past Means Failure in the Present

Public speaking anxiety is often a side effect of learned behavior. You failed at some point in an important or high-profile speaking situation, and the seed of failure was planted. Of course, if you know your stuff and have done your research, there’s absolutely no reason something that happened once in the past will occur ever again. Not, that is, unless you tell yourself it will and subconsciously get ready for it. Plan to succeed instead. Always look for success, rather than failure.

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I Teach…

once uponThis blog article is about how you can get the most out your life coach. Seeing a Life Coach is like anything in life—the more you put it, the more you will get out. You can’t expect the Life Coach to do all of the work—so how do you turn your sessions into success? Let’s find out…

Keep Your Mind Open

There is no set way to get “there.” Allow your coach to take you to places that you have not considered before. Open yourself up to the possibility that your perspective can be shifted.  A good coach will prod you into places where you may not like to go, but with an open mind, work on trusting the process. The key to Life Coaching is keeping your mind open!

Preparation

Is there something specific going on that you really want to talk about? Is there an experience from the week that you want to share? Do you have questions about the process, or have questions come up for you during the week? Do you need a reminder about a tool that was discussed? The best thing you can do is put pen to paper at some point before the session and make some notes about things that are important to you. This is an excellent way to practice getting your needs met. If you can practice and get good at this with your coach, then you will be able to transfer that skill to other areas of your life.

Be Ready 

Before the session, take a minute to assess your needs. Did you eat this morning? Do you need to go to the bathroom? Does the dog need to go out? The more you can do to create a space for you to work uninterrupted, the more in the flow and in the moment you can be during your session. This is deep work that cannot fully happen when you have distractions around you.

Be Comfortable

Make a warm drink and sit in a comfy spot. You have booked this time to work on the most important thing in your life… YOU. Allow it to be your time by working towards making the most of this time by setting yourself to feel supported and comfortable in your own space.

Be Noteworthy

Get yourself a notebook with a place where you can put the date and make notes throughout the session.  Coaching sessions go by very quickly, and a lot of information comes up. Bring a notebook and pen and allow yourself to jot random words, phrases, and points. You will also be encouraged from time to time to write down specific things that are essential to your journey. Have a book where you can capture this all. This then becomes your resource for the time in between sessions.

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I Speak…

fear1Writing your speech is one thing—but performing it in front of others is another thing altogether. When you’ve written your speech, you may want to rehearse every inch of your performance. Just like acting, you need to think about a variety of things—the audience, your content, your emotions and the structure of your speech. This blog is all about preparation—let’s get to it!

Rehearse the Content

The first rehearsal is for the content. The first time, just try to get the words out. Don’t worry about what actors call ‘blocking’ — how you might move around. Just get the words out. Find out if anything needs to be changed or fixed. See how long it takes and how well the transitions work. Test it.

The Structure

Audiences today expect speakers to do more than simply read from a script or PowerPoint slide deck. They expect a more intimate conversation. As a result, it pays for the speaker to know the basic logical flow of the speech — not the exact words, but the main points, in order. Ideally, that’s what a speaker has in his or her head when he/she bounds up on stage and begins to chat with the audience. Get the logic of the speech down in a bulleted outline, and practice that. Rehearse just running through that outline, as if it were a very brief explanation. Then, embellish it by adding your supporting facts, your stories, and so on. Work your way up to the whole speech.

Rehearse Your Conversation

Work on finding out how you’re going to stand, to move, and where during the speech you need to do what. Don’t worry so much about getting the words perfect, but do feel the speech as a dynamic production of your body. Ideally, you’ll have someone tape you, so you can see how you’re doing.

Many people don’t think they need to walk through a speech physically — I’ll just run through the points in my head — but you do need to rehearse. I can always tell someone who hasn’t rehearsed, because sooner or later you’ll catch that deer-in-the-headlights look as the speaker thinks to himself, “I didn’t see that coming.”

Rehearse the Emotions

Emotion is captivating. We like to watch it on TV, which is why so many people watch reality TV shows even though they know they shouldn’t. We praise great actors and singers because they are practiced emoters. We even elect former actors to be president because they’re able to look authentic doing what they do best: playing a part. Don’t overlook the emotions of a presentation or speech.

Watch Yourself

Videotape yourself or use a tape recorder if you’ll be speaking on radio, in a webinar, or on a conference call. You literally need to experience yourself as others will. Watch, listen, and work on the rough spots. A painful activity? It can be. Is it helpful? Always!

Today’s digital recording equipment makes this aspect of rehearsing easier and more mobile than ever before. Make use of it!

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I Teach…

fear1As a life coach it is important to understand the motivating factors at your disposal. We all need a boost sometimes, and as a coach it’s a good idea for you to have a few tips in your pocket that you can use to give that boost to your clients. Try these out yourself and see what works for you—then pass the good feeling along…

Email and Social Media Can Wait…. Don’t Check It Straight Away

If you do, you are allowing other people’s lives and agendas to control your motivation. Most of the time, you’ll read about bad news, arguments, tragedies – you’ll start comparing yourself to others, and all of these things will not help you start your day focused and motivated.

Water – The Key to Life Itself

There are numerous studies that prove the benefits of this simple drink. It helps you increase your level of alertness, refuel your brain, fight sickness and jump-start your metabolism. Plenty of benefit for something so simple. Drink a glass of water as soon as you wake up.

Exercise, Exercise, Exercise

I know you probably don’t feel like it, but studies prove that even a little exercise in the morning transforms the way you feel. You will boost endorphins, your energy levels will go up, and you’ll be healthier and less stressed throughout the entire day.

Priorities, Goals and Your Life

Designing your life is extremely important in determining where you are going. As you start your day, your focus should be on accomplishing the most important things that get you closer to your overall life vision – every single morning.

Music Is the Food of Success

Music has incredible power to release motivating neurotransmitters in our brains. Seriously! The key is to find music that motivates you the most. So, what music gets you going?

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