Two Simple Speechmaking Techniques That Will Make All Your Business Discussions More Successful
By Michael Masterson
I used to be a terrible speech giver. I hemmed. I hawed. I spoke too slowly. I rushed too fast. I mumbled. I shouted. I was terrible. But the worst thing I did was wander off topic and get lost in my thoughts. "Where was I?" I used to ask my audiences. I could have improved my performance by writing out and memorizing my speeches. But I never felt I had the time. And I always wanted to speak extemporaneously. Instead, I developed two simple techniques that work well for me now: 1. In planning my speech, I stick to The Rule of One. Rather than telling the audience everything I know about a particular topic (let's say, direct-response marketing or copywriting), I select one specific idea I have about that topic (such as "The Rule of One") and stick to that. I dig up facts that support my point, anecdotes and stories that illustrate it, and testimonials to show its benefits. 2. I write and memorize the first and last sentences of the speech. The Rule of One keeps me on topic and allows me to leave the audience with one powerful idea they can benefit from. Memorizing the first and last sentences helps me start and end the speech strongly. Together, they help me make presentations that command more attention, are more easily remembered, and have more persuasive power. In the past several years, I've realized I can apply these two simple techniques to almost all of my important conversations. If, for example, I have a meeting with a joint-venture partner, I ask myself, "What is the single most important thing I can accomplish at this meeting?" And I think about how I can achieve that objective. It usually includes learning facts to support my argument, and finding stories and examples to illustrate it. Then I come up with a phrase I can use to broach the subject, and another phrase to end the conversation in a way that will stick in my interlocutor's mind. Planning conversations may seem calculating at first (because it is), but once you get used to doing it you won't give it another thought. And you'll be a much more effective negotiator. -----------------------------------------------------Highly Recommended ----------------------------------------------------- Make a big second income by writing your own moneymaking website on a topic that interests you. Nick Usborne makes almost $50,000 a year from just one of his part-time websites, and that's what inspired him to share his secrets in his new book (priced under $20), New Path to Riches...
"The instruction we find in books is like fire. We fetch it from our neighbours, kindle it at home, communicate it to others, and it becomes the property of all." Voltaire Are We Prejudiced Against Books Just When We Need Them Most?
By Steven Leveen There is book learning and then there is real-world learning, and we tend to think that learning in the real world is more valuable and genuine. As Ishmael boasted in Moby-Dick, "A whale ship was my Yale college and my Harvard." But I believe this is prejudice of the worst kind. Even those of us who love books frequently underestimate their power to teach us nearly anything we might want, or need, to know.
I'm one of my own converts. Books taught me the most unlikely of lessons: the counterintuitive physical movements required to safely enjoy three water sports. This is just the kind of learning we might think would come only through doing.
Here's what I learned not through doing but by reading first -- and then doing.
Lesson No. 1: If you run out of air, exhale.
Like many other humans, I'm certified to breathe pressurized air under water. In fact, being a slow learner, I got SCUBA certified twice -- first with the NAUI method and then with the alternative PADI method. Whenever I learn a new sport, I make it a point to ask myself, "What's the absolutely worst thing I could do?" (This is a pertinent question in my case since I do not possess what Tom Wolfe would call the Right Stuff, and must do everything wrong first.)
As it turns out, the worst thing you can do while scuba diving is precisely what would be quite natural if you found yourself under water with no more air. Your instinct would be to hold your breath and try to get to the surface as quickly as possible. If you're scuba diving and you do this, you might well get yourself killed.
When you breathe under water, you're breathing compressed air. It feels like a normal breath, but it's not. And if you rise to the surface while holding your breath, this air will expand and your lungs can burst. Funny thing is, you won't feel it because your lungs don't have nerves.
I'm happy to report that I didn't learn this by doing. I learned it by reading my scuba books.
(In case you're curious about what you should do in such an emergency, after your last breath of pressurized air, gently hum as you make your way up to the surface, to make sure bubbles escape from your mouth. I hasten to add that I haven't actually tested this, nor do I recommend you do. But if you're interested in knowing how even the most experienced divers can meet or escape disaster, I recommend the riveting and true book Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson.)
Lesson No. 2: If you want to come up, stay down.
After enjoying kayaking for many years, I decided I should learn how to do an Eskimo roll. That's the neat maneuver of capsizing and then righting yourself. It's a necessary maneuver for whitewater kayakers, which I am not (see lack of Right Stuff, above), and a nice trick to know for ocean kayakers, which I am.
Now I ask you, if you found yourself upside down in a kayak, what is the first thing you'd want to do? If you said, "Get my head out of the water," you would be quite normal. And also quite wrong.
Turns out there are three necessary actions to perform: - Position your paddle at 90 degrees to your boat, with the blade near the surface. (You're under water, remember.)
- Pull down strongly while flicking your hips.
- Keep your head as close to the submerged deck of your boat as possible, to keep your center of gravity low.
The surprise is that you'll only be able to roll back up if your head is the last thing that comes out of the water and into the blessed air.
I learned this not from a book exactly, although plenty of kayaking books describe it, but in a catalog produced by San Diego kayak maker Seda.
Only by knowing what I was supposed to do and why -- and then practicing in my pool with my sons taking turns rolling their flailing father back up if he didn't manage it himself -- did I succeed in learning how to do an Eskimo roll. Then I helped them learn to roll, and we've since been able to impress our friends and exasperate their ever-suffering mother.
Lesson No. 3: If you need a life raft, read a book.
It seemed like a good idea at the time. My deranged adventure buddy Rob had already gotten me into cycling, and I've jogged all my life. So why not try a triathlon? "All it adds is swimming," he said. And I'm from San Diego, and a pretty good swimmer.
Well, I learned why not the hard way. In my first triathlon, with the swim in the ocean near my home in Delray Beach, Florida, I nearly died.
Before I made it to the first buoy, I was gasping like a wild-eyed wildebeest. All these guys were kicking and clobbering me. I flopped over on my back and just tried to keep afloat.
I would have signaled to one of the lifeguards leisurely paddling their boards nearby, but the effort of waving my arm was too much. I was just concentrating on gulping air and moving in the general direction of finishing. I prayed the other swimmers wouldn't splash too much water into my panting mouth as they went by.
It was scary as well as mortifying, since I thought I could swim well enough. I made a promise to myself that, should I live, I would never, ever do this again.
After my near-death experience, someone told me about a swimming course called Total Immersion. I Googled it and found they sold a book with the laughable title Triathlon Swimming Made Easy, by Terry Laughlin. It reminded me of something Wile E. Coyote would order from Acme. But order it I did, and then I read it with amazement. It was a revelation, and is now one of my favorite how-to books of all time, right up there with Strunk & White. One of the counterintuitive things I learned in the little book reminded me of Eskimo rolls: Don't try to lift your head out of the water. That will just force your body down. Instead, allow the water to push up your head so you can breathe. Voila! I've since done more than a dozen triathlons, and I thank Terry Laughlin for his talented on-the-page coaching of misfit swimmers like me. Bonus Lesson No. 4 -- the most important one of all It should be obvious from the three tales above that I am no athlete. What I am is inquisitive, stubborn, and a lover of books. But even I have to remind myself when I'm curious about something that there must be a book for that. Are you like that too?
The smartest thing our species has done is to become literate, and the best of literacy is contained in books. Books, it turns out, have all the Right Stuff.
Isn't it time to slough off our age-old prejudice about book learning and revel in it? Shouldn't we expect to learn surprising truths from past authors, and critical new truths from the writers of today?
In The World Without Us by Alan Weisman, the author gives a startling and disturbing account of our oceans. Understanding our oceans and their role in our survival is just one of many critically important things our species must learn quickly -- things we cannot learn from real experience ourselves, but only from the virtual experiences made possible by our literacy.
[Ed. Note: Steven Leveen is the co-founder and CEO of Levenger, as well as the author of The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life. You can read more about his take on books, literature, and learning at the Well-Read Life blog: http://blog.wellreadlife.com/] -----------------------------------------------------Highly Recommended ----------------------------------------------------- Your Website Is the Crossroads of the World - Imagine if you could open up a store in the "Times Square of the Internet." But instead of the 26 million people a year who pass through Times Square every year, you got 91 million "passersby" -- every day! It's very easy (and cheap) to do. And with Bob Bly's help, you could see income in just a few weeks. Read more...
You invested your money and time to start your own business. After several years of very hard work, it is starting to produce significant profits. It's time to start paying yourself. How much should that be? One point of view is that you should pay yourself 100 percent of the profits. "If we don' take the money off the table, someone else will," a former partner of mine used to say. "We earned it. We should keep it." That was his point of view. My main client has a very different point of view. He draws a modest salary from his business and puts 90 percent of the profits back into it for future growth. When I say that his salary is modest, I mean modest. It represents less than one-tenth of 1 percent of the company's profits. There are a dozen employees who make at least three times more than he does. Why does he do it? Because he is interested in building long-term family wealth, not in having a high income. And he believes that reinvesting in his company is the best way he can do that. Two very different points of view. That's the dilemma you face as the owner of a newly profitable business. If you take more money now, there may be less value in the business later. Yet, if you take too little, you will feel as if you're working for peanuts. And what if something goes wrong and all those retained earnings disappear? I've done it both ways. And, having seen the pluses and minuses of each, I have come to the following conclusion. You should pay yourself "fairly" but no more than fairly. And reinvest the rest of your profits into the business to pay for expansion. What is "fair" pay for an entrepreneurial CEO? First, figure out how much you'd have to pay a CEO to run your company. Give yourself that salary -- the same base and the same performance-based incentives -- but nothing more. Then, recognize that there are things you do for your company that go beyond what any hired hand would do. The way you care about your products, for example, and the ideas you have for the continued growth of your business. You should be compensated for that, too Pay yourself a fair salary -- equal to what you'd have to pay someone else to do the same job. Distribute profits as often as you can but never more than is reasonable. (I think a business should pay out a total of around 20 percent to 30 percent of its profits in bonuses. And the person on top should get about half of that.) And reward yourself for the extras you give the business. The Family That Eats Together Enjoys More Than a Tasty Meal
By Michael Masterson
Having dinner with your family is enjoyable. It also has benefits for your kids. University of Minnesota Medical School researchers found that teens who often ate dinner with their parents were better off in several ways. They had better grades and less depression. And they were less likely to smoke, drink alcohol, and use marijuana. One example of the study results: About 50 percent of the girls who hadn't eaten with their families during the past week were smokers. By comparison, only 17 percent of those who had eaten with their families every day smoked. It's an old soapbox, but I'm going to get on it again. Multitasking is not a good thing. It is not something to admire in other people. It is not a "skill" that you should try to acquire yourself. I am ranting now because I just read an article in a business magazine that was titled "How to be a Better Multitasker." Here's something you can quote me on: Anything worth doing is worth your full attention. You can't do anything really well -- speaking, writing, or even thinking -- if you are trying to do more than one thing at a time. Trying to do even two important tasks at one time is foolish. You'll end up doing neither one well. Instead of producing one excellent outcome, you'll create two mediocre ones. You'll end up with a reputation for being less than you could be. And, to make it worse, you'll develop a hard-to-break habit of working in a half-assed way. None of this is good for your career. Save multitasking for ironing while you watch television. Even then, don't get too wrapped up in the television show. You may pay for it with a singed collar.
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-----------------------------------------------------Highly Recommended----------------------------------------------------- Why Religion as You Know It Doesn't Have the Answers Most religions promise the keys to happiness, fulfillment, and purpose. The solutions are there. But over the years, these useful and life-changing tenets have become weak... distorted... and diluted. They have lost their original power. This leads to frustration for people who simply want answers. But there's good news. Scholar and philosopher Srikumar Rao has translated dozens of the most powerful secrets from ancient traditions. He's made them useful... practical... easy to understand. And easy to apply to YOUR life.
The Language Perfectionist: To "Er..." Is Human
By Don Hauptman
I have long been fascinated by funny mistakes committed by people who should know better. Whenever I find an amusing goof, I seize upon it. "How did the copy editors and proofreaders and fact-checkers miss that one?" I think. Many people share my passion, judging by the popularity of Jay Leno's "Headlines" segments, bloopers and outtakes on TV, and lists of errors, real or alleged, that circulate online. ("Dog for sale, eats anything, fond of children.") Even more appealing is when the boner is followed by a witty or snarky retort, in the style of The New Yorker. I'm working on a book -- a compilation of these gems. Here are a few samples: - Correction: "Some jesters in a British competition described in a page-one article last Monday ride on unicycles. The article incorrectly said they ride on unicorns."
The unicorns' union is filing a protest about those lost jobs. - Photo caption: "Karen Duplessis and her son, Patrick, are Patrick Henry's ancestors."
And they look so young, too. - Headline: "Though Frail, Castro Denies He's Dead"
But why should we believe him? - Newscaster: "We'll be talking to one of the producers of Law and Order SUV -- excuse me, SVU."
The cops are really cracking down on those gas guzzlers.
- Newspaper article: "An island surrounded by water, Manhattan has long been without a beach, prompting locals to flee by bridges and tunnels during the dog days."
Thanks for differentiating it from all those islands surrounded by cottage cheese. In an era of declining literacy, perhaps the laughter and ridicule that bloopers provoke are a hopeful sign that we still care about language. Keep your eyes and ears open, and you'll start spotting them, too. [Ed Note: For more than three decades, Don Hauptman was an award-winning independent direct-response copywriter and creative consultant. He is author of The Versatile Freelancer, an e-book that shows writers and other creative professionals how to diversify their careers into speaking, consulting, training, and critiquing.]
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