Welcome to our many new subscribers who signed up through, Opinion Surveys, Profit Info, BizNewsletters, Antion.com, Zmedia, RankYou and our many other signup partners. (see bottom if you no longer wish to receive "Great Speaking" Learn to stay off the road and still earn money speaking (see "TeleSeminar Kit" below) ########################################## GREAT SPEAKING Circulation 94,868 Vol. 3 Number 17 - September 14, 2001 Publisher: Tom Antion tom@Antion.com http://www.Antion.com (C) Anchor Publishing 2001 ########################################## No one ever lost credibility by being interesting. ========================================== *** SPEAKER BUSINESS LEADS *** Your subscription gets you free speaking leads when available. WE PAY YOU TO SEND US SUBSCRIBERS http://www.listpartners.com/cgi-local/cashpartner?406 Please recommend this E-Zine to anyone you know that is interested in being a better presenter, or who may want to make money speaking and training. (It's a good way to stay in touch with client's too.) You don't even have to mail them an article. http://www.antion.com/recommend.html If you are receiving this issue as a forward, and would like to get your own free subscription, visit http://www.antion.com/ezinesubscribe.htm To remove yourself from this list see bottom of this email. PRIVACY STATEMENT: We will not distribute your address to anyone. Period. ============================================= IN THIS ISSUE ============================================= 1. Quick Presentation Skills Tip 2. Advanced Presentation Skills Article (Beginners should read this too) 3. Humor Technique Series 4. Speaker Marketing Tip 5. Speaker Humor 6. Websites for Speakers ********** OUR SPONSOR *********** Brand New E-book by Joan Stewart and Tom Antion "HOW TO BE KICK BUTT PUBLICITY HOUND" Get more free publicity than you can handle! For details, Table of Contents and Free Chapter visit: http://www.public-speaking.org/publicityhound.htm (public-speaking.org/publicityhound.htm) ************************************ ===================================================== 1. Quick Presentation Skills Tip ===================================================== OPEN QUESTIONS by Larry Barr As the Assistant Planetarium Director at Tarleton State University in Stephenville, TX, one of my duties is to introduce our shows and give a star talk and answer questions after the show. I've also done a fair amount of speaking before I got this gig, and I think the most important thing I've discovered is to get (and keep) the audience involved. Open questions work great. For example, before the show. "How many of you have ever been in a planetarium before?" "Ever been in this one before?" "Do you notice any differences?" (We have a digital starfield projector, not a starball). After the show, during the star talk with tonight's sky projected on the dome. Anybody see anything you recognize?" (Usually gets at least the Big Dipper) "Here's a sideways "T" (pointing with laser pointer), here's the body, and here's the tail curling around -- any ideas?" (Scorpius). Open questions really get the audience thinking and immediately involved in your presentation. Larry D. Barr is Asst. Planetarium Director, Tarleton State University, Stephenville, TX mailto:ldbarr@rebelwolf.com Send your genius speaking techniques to Tom mailto:tom@antion.com ************ SPONSOR ************ Learn how to speak to groups without travelling. "The TeleSeminar Kit" will show you how to do it. http://www.antion.com/teleseminarkit.htm (antion.com/teleseminarkit.htm) ********************************** ************ SPONSOR ************ HOW TO WRITE A BOOK ON ANYTHING IN TWO WEEKS....GUARANTEED Plus One Year Membership ($197.00 Value) in The PIP Tips Writers' Club. For details send a blank email to: mailto:thepip@getresponse.com?subject=GWSpecialOffer ********************************************* ===================================================== 2. Advanced Presentation Skills Article ===================================================== SOURCES OF MATERIAL Part I by Tom Antion Humor and usable material literally surround you. It is your job as the "Pilot in Command" of your presentation to pick and choose the anecdotes, one-liners, stories, visuals, etc., needed to support the points you are trying to make. On a daily basis, you are bombarded with tons of information both serious and humorous in nature. You are also involved in life incidents that, with a little thought, can be turned into stories or one-liners that can be used in your presentations. The information onslaught comes from many directions. Television, radio, newspapers, magazines, books, audio & video tapes, trade journals, the Information Superhighway, billboards, and the U.S. Mail all contain more good material than you could ever use. This doesn't even include personal incidents like your electricity going out in the middle of the night, which caused your alarm clock to malfunction, which caused you to be late for work, which caused you to run in late to your presentation that morning. KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN Sometimes really great and on-target pieces of information will hit you right in the face. I was reading Newsweek last week and I ran across an article about a church that encouraged hysterical laughing. One of my topics has to do with the value of laughter in your life. I'm not sure yet how I'm going to use that article, but I tore it out of the magazine and filed it along with other information on that presentation. Some information you will run across will be more subtle, but when you start watching for usable material you will get better at recognizing it. I read in another Newsweek article that the cost to business of stress-related health care was skyrocketing. The writer made the observation that now there are so many stress reduction programs that people are getting stressed out trying to pick one. I didn't know what I would do with that observation, but I did know that I liked it so I cut it out and filed it under stress. I started collecting more information on stress which led eventually to the creation of a new program "Technostress: Don't Let Computer Chips Drive Away Your Blue Chip Staff" RECORD IT IMMEDIATELY The key to getting a shot at using material you stumble upon is to write it down or secure it immediately. I mean IMMEDIATELY! If you don't like making notes, get a microcasette recorder and dictate the idea. I can't emphasize this point enough. Great ideas can come and go in an instant. If you don't do something with them when they hit you in the face, you are likely to lose them forever. Next issue we'll learn to use little life incidents to create material. From the "Wake 'em Up Professional Speaking System" http://www.antion.com/speakervideo.htm (antion.com/speakervideo.htm) *********** SPONSOR *********** FREE 7 Day Electronic Marketing Mini Course mailto:minicourse.GS028@aweber.com ******************************** ===================================================== 3. HUMOR TECHNIQUE ===================================================== CREATE A COMMERCIAL by Gary Michael The "Original Commercial" for an imaginary product is always fun. People have fun with the Commercial because they get to think of a product or service that would ease their lives. They then build a short sales presentation around it, usually making it funny. I remember the lively commercial a single woman gave for what she called a "Creep Detector." The imaginary gadget was no bigger than a computer mouse. When run down the side of a prospective date, it revealed such character traits as "habitual lying," "fear of commitment" "dislike of his mother" and "impatience with children." Another memorable product was the "Clapper Crapper" . . . a toilet whose seat went up and down with hand commands to accommodate gender differences. One clap up, two claps down. No more marital arguments over who failed to leave the toilet seat properly positioned. Excerpted from "Get in Bed with Your Audience: And satisfy them every time." by Gary Michael . . .The Talk Doc mailto:talkdoc@ecentral.com Tom Adds: You can use this technique as an involvement technique as Gary does above or simply make up a funny commercial customized to the group to which you are speaking and deliver it yourself. ********* GREAT SPEAKER REFERENCE ******* BE THE HIT OF YOUR NEXT PRESENTATION! "Wake em Up! How to Use Humor and Other Professional Techniques to Create Alarmingly Good Business Presentations" "Toms program and materials will cut five years off a speakers learning curve." -- Cavett Robert, Founder National Speakers Assn. Now available for immediate download in pdf format http://www.antion.com/speakershop.htm click on "E Books" For a FREE Chapter visit http://www.antion.com/products/produc~3.htm ********************************************** ===================================================== 4. $$$$$$$ SPEAKER MARKETING TIP $$$$$$$$ ===================================================== HOW TO PROFIT FROM WRITING FOR THE INTERNET Part II BY NED STEELE In Part I of this article, we went from polished public speaker to prolific web author in eight easy steps. Now the fun part: extracting serious bucks from those articles you've placed on the right web sites. The key to making money with your articles lies in doing stuff with them after they have been published like circulating reprints of them to people who are in a position to send money your way: => Clients => Prospects => Best sources of referrals => Reporters and other media => Associations in your clients' industries => Anyone on your mailing list who could provide a referral or a job Send them all your published articles by mail, e-mail, or even an email link with the simple accompanying message, "Thought you'd like to see this." This should not be complicated or costly. Remember -you're the one who wants to frame that article and hang it on the wall. Everyone else just has to think about you for ten seconds. And when they do, it keeps you - and your work - in their mind for several days or more. In that time, odds are, someone is either going to have a need for your services, or know someone who does. You'll get a referral or a job just by putting your name in front of them. That's how I recently landed a $ 30,000 contract. I wrote an article for a trade newspaper and its web site. I sent my article to 100 people one of whom has been a leading referral source for me- but from whom I'd not received a nibble in a year. Until he opened my letter, I wasn't "top of mind." Within days he called, and sent a referral and the $ 30,000 project - my way. Getting your name before the right people, coupled with the respect you earn for being published, gets the phone ringing. Do this 6-12 times a year, and watch business grow. And don't forget to post to your own web site. My friend Bev Smallwood did - and before long, a major national newspaper reporter was interviewing Bev for a feature. There are even more powerful ways of turning your articles into dollars. They involve repackaging, revising, and building on your articles -- turning them into books, audiotapes, and other vehicles that you can sell - on the web, back of the room, even through retail. Be extra careful to maintain your copyright to the original article. Fortunately, most publications and web sites will not mind you circulating a copy of your article, or sending a link. Many even welcome the added exposure. ____________________________________________________________ Ned Steele mailto:neds@steelonline.com is President of Ned Steele Communications, which helps public speakers and other content experts build their businesses; turn their expertise into marketable written words; and tell their story to the marketplace. http://www.nedsteele.com NOTE: The site below is where I began learning about E Marketing http://www.marketingtips.com/t.cgi/12273/ Good and easy to use shopping cart system http://www.kickstartcart.com The email list management company I use http://www.postmastergeneral.com/?affiliate=antion Get your own associate program and have other websites selling tons of your products and services. http://www.marketingtips.com/assoctrac/t.x/12273 Tom's Top Ten Marketing Resources page http://www.antion.com/marketingtools.htm ********* SPONSOR ********* If you need to get organized or are having some financial challenges please see http://www.overhall.com/enoughisenough.htm (overhall.com/enoughisenough.htm) Professional Organizer, Janet L. Hall and Prosperity Advisor, Paula Ryan will be in NJ and NY, Sept. 25-26 presenting their nationally acclaimed seminar, "OverHall" Your Life For More Space, Time, and Money & Break the Debt Cycle-For GOOD! **************************** ===================================================== 5. SPEAKER HUMOR ===================================================== More Signs => Sign in an expensive shop, "If you don't see what you want, . . .be grateful." => In a bakery, "Cake's 66 cents, Upside down cakes 99 cents." => In traffic court, "Don't complain! Just think of the tickets you should have gotten but didn't." => Really smart sign in hardware store, "Fishing Tickle" The people who came in to correct the spelling bought things. => At a filling station / restaurant, "Eat here. Get gas." => Texas restaurant: Steak $10.00. $5.00 steak is tougher. => Sign on field being seeded for grass: "Your feet are killing me." => Clothing store: "Shirts 9.95. They won't last long at this price." => "When this sign in under water road is impassible." => Reader Judy Cullins tells of a sign on Hilo, Hawaii in front of a cemetery that says, "NO EXIT" => Sgt. David Smith sends us a picture of a sign that needs no explanation http://www.public-speaking.org/signs.htm Much more FREE speaker humor at http://www.antion.com/humor/speakerhumor/speakerhumor.htm ===================================================== 6. USEFUL WEBSITES ===================================================== ****** EARN BIG REFERRAL COMMISSIONS ****** You can earn a 10 - 25 percent commission for referring Tom for speaking engagements and bulk product sales. Commissions normally start between $850.00 and $1700 depending on your level of involvement. For complete details visit http://www.antion.com/referrals.htm *********************************************** ===================================================== FREE ARTICLES FOR YOUR PUBLICATIONS ===================================================== I have many articles available for reprint in your publication, company newsletter, etc. You may use articles written by me that you see in great speaking. Back issues can be viewed at http://www.antion.com/ezinebackissues.htm OR mailto:freearticles@antion.com for an automated list of additional articles. All you have to do is print the article in its entirety along with the by line at top and the credits, and complete contact information at the end of each article. I would appreciate a tear sheet or electronic copy too. Thanks ******* Do YOU WANT TO BE A SPONSOR? ******* REACH OVER 94,500 SPEAKERS / TRAINERS / EXECS For automated sponsorship details send mailto:sponsor@antion.com or visit http://www.antion.com/sponsor.htm *********************************************** ===================================================== To subscribe to GREAT SPEAKING visit http://www.antion.com/ezinesubscribe.htm For Back Issues visit: http://www.antion.com/ezinebackissues.htm ===================================================== Antion & Associates / Anchor Publishing Box 2630 Landover Hills, Maryland USA 20784 (301) 459-0738, Fax (301) 552-0225 In Continental US (800) 448-6280 orders or paid consulting only mailto:Tom@antion.com http://www.antion.com Trade permanent links with us mailto:linktrade@antion.com To Join our associate program and make money from your website visit: http://www.antion.com/associates/assoc_program.htm