Many of our readers vacation during the summer. So, we decided to publish two issues during these months. You'll receive a June/ July issue and an August/September issue. We hope you have a great summer filled with excitement and fun. ----------------------------- No Sweat Speaking(tm) Ezine ----------------------------- Speaking Tips for Greater Confidence, Skill, Influence, & Profit "Your next presentation doesn't have to make you sweat!" ----------------------------------------------------------------- Volume 5, Number 5 June/July, 2006 ----------------------------------------------------------------- Allan Kaufman & Allan Misch, Editors, Allan and Allan, Inc. mailto:cust-serv@nosweatspeaking.com http://www.nosweatspeaking.com ----------------------------------------------------------------- This monthly newsletter is distributed by request only. If you want to stop it, you can find instructions at the end of the newsletter. (c) 2006 Allan And Allan, Inc. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Please send this Ezine to those you know who (1) need to give technical, sales, marketing, or management presentations; (2) are interested in developing or improving their presentation skills; (3) want to make money speaking and training; (4) need to improve their performance; or (5) have a fear of speaking or are nervous when they speak. This newsletter also is good for building relationships with your clients, customers, associates, and friends. Send this to them with a note that you're thinking about them. ----------------------------------------------------------------- *** Attention *** If you're receiving this issue from someone and would like to get your own complimentary newsletter plus TWO valuable BONUS reports, please visit... http://www.nosweatspeaking.com or... mailto:nssezine@nosweatspeaking.com?subject=Subscribe ----------------------------------------------------------------- PRIVACY STATEMENT: We absolutely will not share your address with anyone. Period! ----------------------------------------------------------------- "Learning to communicate is like taking out an insurance policy. You never know when you'll need it, but it's too late to take it out after you need it." Allan Kaufman as quoted in Baltimore Magazine ----------------------------------------------------------------- *** Need a Speaker for a Seminar or Workshop? *** "I was very impressed by Allan's (Kaufman) extensive preparation -- he knew exactly how to customize his public speaking seminar for the unique needs of our professional association. Allan led the informative seminar with great enthusiasm and encouraged a high degree of interaction among participants. While we are not sweating our next public speaking opportunity, we enjoyed the seminar so much that we'd like to ask him back to next year's meeting." Christopher Symanoskie Director of Corporate Communications Laureate Education, Inc. Baltimore, MD 21202 www.laureate-inc.com President, NIRI Baltimore Chapter www.niribaltimore.com If you need a speaker to conduct a customized seminar or workshop for your organization or company, go to: http://www.nosweatspeaking.com/speaking.html and http://www.nosweatspeaking.com/contact.html ----------------------------------------------------------------- *********************** Check This Out! *********************** "Last year, I made a career change from engineering management to marketing at a new company. Public speaking and even presentations to small groups were my greatest fears and I had gone to great lengths to avoid them throughout my career. In my new company, public speaking was not something I could avoid and my speaking ability would be quickly tested. After a lot of research, I turned to Allan & Allan. Most other companies only offer skill training. What I needed was to overcome my life long fear of speaking in front of groups. The No Sweat Speaking system seemed illogical to me at first and I was skeptical. The great part about the system is that you don't have to understand it or believe that it will work. It just happens. Today I speak in front of groups, give media interviews and conduct training sessions on a routine basis. Not only is my speaking anxiety gone, but my skills continue to improve and I look forward to my next opportunity to speak. I give my highest recommendation for Allan and Allan's system. If it works for me, it can work for anyone." Thanks, Jim M. Connecticut --------------------------------- Is Speaking Fear Holding You Back, Costing You a Lot of Money? --------------------------------- Are you not getting the job you want or the promotion you deserve because you suffer from speaking anxiety? How much money, loss of opportunities, or damage to your reputation is this fear costing you? A whole lot. You could be promoting your businesses and increasing your income by speaking to groups who need your products and services, but your speaking anxiety and other performance blocks are holding you back. Probably, you're reading our ezine because you have some speaking anxieties. If they're bad enough, don't you think it's time to do something about it and improve your self-confidence? How much is having a sense of confidence worth to you? Not just in your work and business life but also in your social life? Have you ever thought about being the life of the party? About being less shy? --------------- We Can Help You --------------- Using our unique No Sweat Speaking(tm) techniques, we provide personal coaching to help you get rid of your speaking anxieties in a relatively short period of time. Go to our website and complete the Coaching Inquiry Questionnaire at http://nosweatspeaking.com/coaching_inquiry.html. Completing the questionnaire doesn't obligate you or us to work together. We will assess your situation and send you a proposal about how we can assist you. It doesn't matter where you live. Our coaching can be done via email and phone consultations. ----------------------------------------------------------------- In This Issue ----------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Featured Article 2. Presentation Skills Tip 3. Humor Tip 4. Dear Allan and Allan (Answers to Your Questions) ----------------------------------------------------------------- *** Attention Small Business Owners *** Here's one of the best websites on the Internet for small business marketing. We use this site and its great information as a resource. Get a free 24-page Marketing Plan Workbook. Visit... http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/aftrack.asp?AFID=50478 ----------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Featured Article ----------------------------------------------------------------- **The Ten Biggest Public Speaking Myths and How to Bust Them! -- Part 2** by Allan Misch (c)Allan Misch - All rights reserved. http://www.nosweatspeaking.com According to George Orwell, "Myths which are believed in tend to become true." That's like the "Big Lie." The Big Lie occurs when a lie is repeated so often people consider it the truth. Often, belief in the Big Lie prevents people from achieving greater outcomes in their lives. That's what public speaking myths are -- big lies. And they hold you back from achieving peak presentation performance. In Part 1, I introduced you to the ten biggest public speaking myths and concentrated on the first three. To review, the myths are... 1. You need to be nervous or anxious when presenting. 2. The speaker needs no introduction. 3. If you know your topic, you can just wing it. 4. Tell your audience you're nervous and they'll support you. 5. If you can't tell a joke properly, you can't be funny. 6. Technical presentations should inform, not entertain. 7. Content is the most important aspect of a presentation. 8. If you have a loud voice, you don't need a microphone. 9. Telling a joke is the best way to start a presentation. 10. Experienced speakers are the most effective. In this article, I'll discuss how you can bust Myths 4, 5, and 6. *Myth #4 -- Tell Your Audience You're Nervous and They'll Support You.* This seems logical. If you tell a friend, or even a stranger, that you're feeling ill, the person will empathize with you. Unfortunately, that doesn't always hold true in front of an audience. Your audience reflects, or mirrors, your energy, attitude, and demeanor. If you're nervous but don't show it, your audience cannot mirror your discomfort. If you fess up and telegraph how you feel, your audience will feel "nervous" about the experience they might be in for. When you're a speaker, you're the leader of that audience. People feel more comfortable with leaders who aren't nervous or anxious. So keep negative feelings to yourself, and don't share your nervousness with your audience. *Myth #5 -- If You Can't Tell a Joke Properly, You Can't Be Funny.* Don't believe this blatantly untrue idea. Jokes are just one form of humor. You can still be funny and not be skilled in the art of telling a joke. In baseball, if you can't hit a home run, does that mean you can't be a good hitter? No. You just can't hit a home run! If you can't tell a joke, you can be funny, or entertaining in other ways. You can tell an anecdote, such as an embarrassing moment, that your audience can relate to and laugh about. You can display a humorous cartoon or picture. You can share a funny quote. In some presentations, jokes are inappropriate. Yet, you can spice up those presentations with other forms of humor. *Myth #6 -- Technical Presentations Should Inform, Not Entertain.* Most presentations, including technical ones, should have elements of entertainment. Research shows that the most effective communications are those that engage the logical and emotional sides of your brain. By constructing technical presentations to be mostly informative and somewhat entertaining, you enable greater learning. For example, I helped a manager prepare a presentation for a technical conference. He was the last speaker on the program. He had a well-deserved reputation for giving dull presentations and didn't want his audience to leave before he finished. I gave him five bits of humor that he included in his program. Everyone stayed for his presentation, and people told him that it was the best they heard. So avoid being caught up in the big lies. Your audience won't support you if you reveal that you're nervous. You can still be funny even if you're not good at telling jokes. You can make technical presentations entertaining and still be effective and credible. Artist, Brad Holland, said, "Postmodernists believe that truth is myth, and myth, truth. This equation has its roots in pop psychology. The same people also believe that emotions are a form of reality. There used to be another name for this state of mind. It used to be called psychosis." Don't be deluded by these public speaking myths. Open your eyes and see beyond them. The truth will set you free. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "Keynote was a huge success! You were right about everything -- from bringing my introduction to adding humor. I ended up adding about 9 humorous things to my presentation -- I actually brought the house down with the expandable ball visual. Thanks for everything. You made all the difference." Best, Trish "In minutes you were able to do for the audience what some people have been trying to do for themselves for a lifetime. You two helped audience members get rid of the fear of public speaking right before my very eyes.... Any organization can benefit greatly by witnessing your seminar.... You two are a great team!" Craig Valentine Toastmasters International 1999 World Champion of Public Speaking ----------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Presentation Skills Tip ----------------------------------------------------------------- **A Simple Technique to Make Your Point Register with Your Audience** by Allan Misch ©Allan Misch - All rights reserved There's an easy, yet powerful, way to impact your audience when you make a point. Use vocal variety through pausing, slowing down, and emphasizing key words. Here's how you do it. When you're about to make your point, pause. Then, decrease your vocal rate, lower your tone of voice, and emphasize key words as you make your point. For example, if you're making a point about getting on a horse, this is how you might do it. "So learn from my mistake, when you get on a horse from its left side, [pause, and lower your voice] put your LEFT FOOT in the LEFT STIRRUP." The pause signals something important is coming. Slowing down lets your audience process the words and message. Lowering your voice forces your audience to concentrate on listening. And Emphasizing key words gives them importance. ----------------------------------------------------------------- *** Great Speaking Resource *** Turn your speaking, training, or sales skills into cash. Check out a great professional speaking resource. We recommend it highly. Lots of great tips and tricks. Just click on or paste the URL into your browser. http://www.kickstartcart.com/app/aftrack.asp?AFID=50475&u=www.antion.com/public-speaking.htm ----------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Humor Tip ----------------------------------------------------------------- **How to Set Up a Humor Library File** by Allan Misch (c)Allan Misch - All rights reserved http://www.nosweatspeaking.com I'm the president of my CRS chapter. CRS -- that's Can't Remember Stuff. I don't know about you, but when I hear or read a funny story or joke, if I don't write it down, I don't remember it. And it gets worse as I get older! So I keep a humor file. After I copy or write down the funny story, anecdote, or joke, I number it, and file it in a folder labeled "Humor." In the front of the folder, I have sheets of paper. At the top of each sheet, I write a category related to topics, ideas, and points on which I speak. I keep these category sheets in alphabetical order. For example, I have one sheet titled "Fear," another "Rapport," and another "Attention-getters." If the joke, numbered page 1, can be categorized under "Attention-getters" and "Fear," I put a number "1" on each of the respective category sheets. If the funny story on page 2 can be categorized under "Rapport" and "Attention-getters," I put a "2" on each respective category sheet. I do this for each story and joke in the file. When you need a funny story on a particular idea, you look at the corresponding numbered pages referenced on the category sheet. It's a simple system, and before you know it, you have a substantial humor file. You also can maintain the category sheets electronically in a spreadsheet, word processor, or database. ----------------------------------------------------------------- **If You're Looking for a Home for Your Website, iPowerWeb Makes Website Hosting Simple!** We did a lot of research on Web hosting companies and compared many of them. We decided on iPowerWeb to host our website, and we made a good decision. iPowerWeb is rated #1 for affordable, high quality web hosting. You get an incredible 10,000 megs of space, 2500 POP email accounts, 250 gigs of transfer, website builder, 24/7 customer support, free setup, marketing package, and much more... all for an incredible $7.95 per month! So if you're interested in establishing a presence on the Web for the first time, or if you want to change your Website hosting company because you're tired of getting ripped off, check out iPowerWeb. http://partners.ipowerweb.com/z/52/CD1893/&dp=1622 ----------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Dear Allan and Allan (Answers to Your Questions) ----------------------------------------------------------------- Dear Allan and Allan, One morning, last month, I gave a presentation to three groups of managers. I used a laptop to run my PowerPoint slides. After about two hours, my laptop starting acting funky and my slide transitions and animations didn't work properly. Any ideas on what caused this and how can I avoid this in the future? Messed Up In Michigan Dear Messed Up, This is not an uncommon problem; it may have one or more causes. If you're using a lot of graphics, videos, and/or sound files you may not have enough memory so your slide show degrades. I would have at least 1 gigabyte of memory. You may also have to compress your graphics to decrease the presentation file size. Your laptop could have been running hot and overheating. I would invest about $50 in a chill hub that sits under the laptop. Fans in the hub circulate air and keep the laptop cool. This inexpensive device should extend the life of your laptop and improve its performance. Allan and Allan Submit questions to mailto:questions@nosweatspeaking.com. ----------------------------------------------------------------- *** Hot Internet Business Secrets *** Over 1,000+ PAGES of the Hottest, Proven Profitable Internet Business Secrets Broken down Into An EASY-TO-DUPLICATE System! We highly recommend checking out this site. It's jam-packed with THE EXACT INFORMATION YOU NEED to start, build, and grow your very own, profitable Internet business. This is what we used to get started. So visit... http://www.marketingtips.com/t.cgi/769587 ----------------------------------------------------------------- *** A Fantastic Resource *** Need MORE TRAFFIC to your website or affiliate links? "Turn Words Into Traffic" reveals the secrets for using *free* articles to drive Thousands of NEW visitors to your website or affiliate links... without spending a dime on advertising! We use this resource and it's incredible! The idea is simple and ingenious. 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