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" ========================================= Want to see your article in Great Speaking? See "Dear Reader" section below. ========================================= Tom's new Internet Marketing website is finally open for business (see below) ########################################## GREAT SPEAKING Circulation 115,987 Vol. 3 Number 23 - December 11, 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 **** TOM'S BRAND NEW INTERNET MARKETING SITE **** Learn the insider's tips on how real and legitimate small businesses expand to the Internet with very little investment and even less risk. Visit http://www.GreatInternetMarketing.com ************************************************* ===================================================== 1. Quick Presentation Skills Tip ===================================================== HYDRATION by Tom Antion I spent the bulk of my career (over 2000 paid presentations) speaking 30 minutes or less. When I started doing half days and full days for my Internet marketing seminars my voice really started to take a beating. I tried all the breathing-from-the- diaphragm stuff and never really got the hang of it. Then someone told me to drink lots of water the day BEFORE my presentation. IT WORKED! I can't say that I'm free of voice problems when I speak all day or for multiple days. But I'm WAY better than I was just from drinking lots of water the day before. I start the morning before presentation and drink water all that day and as much as I can during the day of the presentation. One way to tell that you are well hydrated is that your urine is very light colored. I also stay away from carbonated beverages the day before and the day of a speech. DEAR READERS: I'm always looking for quick tips for this section. I also want articles that fit into each of the other sections of this ezine. Articles MUST be slanted toward speakers/public or professional speaking and must fall into one of the subject categories. NO GENERIC ARTICLES! Articles MUST be 500 words or less. Two part articles are welcome. Submit in the body of an email to mailto:tom@antion.com **** HOW TO BE A KICK-BUTT PUBLICITY HOUND **** a 300-page e-book by Joan Stewart and Tom Antion. You'll find dozens of checklists, sage advice on how to pitch journalists, and tons of handy websites you can use to track down contacts at newspapers, magazines, radio and TV stations. Only $97. Click here for a chapter-by-chapter review, the table of contents and a free chapter http://www.antion.com/publicityhoundTOC.htm ********************************** ********* TOM'S SECRET *********** If I had to pick the one secret of how I pulled in $47,000.00 dollars last month this is it: http://www.twipress.com/antionclassics.htm ********************************** ===================================================== 2. Advanced Presentation Skills Article ===================================================== THE POWER IS NOT THE POINT! by Scott Stratten You should be concerned only with one thing when presenting to an audience, be it internal or external. That is "Has the audience come away from this with information that was in-line with the original point of the presentation?" If people leave your presentation armed with confusion and wonder, your presentation has failed. Presentations do not have a problem with lack of information. Most of the time there is too much. The biggest issue is the way it's presented. GENERIC, GENERIC, GENERIC What happens when you cloud your presentation with visuals that aren't up to par? (Pictures that are taken right out of the generic clip art folder and put in to fill space. The background is the "blue/grey" with the squiggle down the side, because of it being the default background) You send the message that your presentation will be of the generic kind, so sit back and relax, you've seen it before. You lose your audience before you can present your information. I've witnessed companies that outsource their external presentations to graphic design firms, but for internal audiences it's given to whoever is around that knows how to open the program. The message to employees is very simple: You aren't as important to us. Purchasing a CD set of backgrounds and pictures is a smart investment. I use Digital Juice (www.DigitalJuice.com) and I have hundreds of themed backgrounds and thousands of photo's to choose from, most of which I've never seen in any other presentation. Then there is the flip side: overdoing it. The overuse of technological bells and whistles in presentations is an under- rated problem. Many presenters think, "If it's new and dynamic; it will make my presentation much better." There is nothing better than a presentation that is done professionally with only limited effects. ONE OF THE BIGGEST MISTAKES A common mistake is the overuse of PowerPoint animations and transitions during a slide show. I'm sure you've seen what I'm talking about; the presenter that animates each sentence so it flies in, drops down, and explodes on the screen with an accompanying sound effect. What happens after that? Do you lose track of what the presenter is saying? Forget within 3 seconds what the point was because you were so focused on the effects that you missed the content? While the thought process behind these special effects is, "This highlights my point and emphasizes the importance," the outcome is often the opposite. People tend to get distracted by the effects. Especially with sounds, where the presenter can hear the whooshing noise, along with the few in the front of the room. The people in the middle think they heard something, but couldn't make it out and the people at the back are wondering why there is a fly somewhere in the meeting room. Laptops were not meant to project sound to fill a room, so don't use them to do that. EMPHASIS Want to emphasize a main point? Put it on the screen by itself and let people read it. A good rule when using PowerPoint, or any other presentation software, is to put up only your main points and use the screen as a reference. If you run through your presentation (which you must do many times) and you see a slide with more than five points, start a new slide. Your slide show is not the presentation, it is an aid. If what you say when you expand the bullet points is useful for the audience to take away, put it in the handout. Then let them know at the beginning of your presentation that you will give out copies of the slides. Unless you want a mutiny on your hands, I don't suggest letting people take notes all through the session, then give them a handout at the end with all the points on it. Make sure you give the handouts at the end as well, unless it's crucial they follow along with them, or again you will distract your audience. QUOTES If you have a quote or a long statement that cannot be chopped up into bullet points, put it up either on the screen and allow people to read it, or read it out loud from your notes, but not both. As much as people like to think the opposite, we can only do one thing at a time. If someone is reading the screen, they are not listening to you, and vice-versa. If only the main points are on the screen, the audience will realize the importance of them. Don't overwhelm your audience with techno-fluff. The power of technology is neither the point of your presentation, nor the strength of it. The technology should be used only sparingly or to reinforce the information you have to share. After all, your goal is to make sure they leave the room with the right information. Scott Stratten http://www.WorkYourLife.com mailto:Scott@workyourlife.com *********** SPONSOR *********** FREE 7 Day Electronic Marketing Mini Course mailto:minicourse.GS033@aweber.com ******************************** ===================================================== 3. HUMOR TECHNIQUE ===================================================== DON'T BE FUNNY . . . AT THE BEGINNING by Tom Antion For ages and ages and ages speakers have tried to make some kind of joke at the beginning of a presentation. Then they typically bored you to tears for the balance of the talk. How about trying something different? In many cases, what I do is to jump into the material hard and fast. This makes the crowd think that I'm a no nonsense kind of guy (which couldn't be further from the truth). What I'm trying to do is lead them down one path and then surprise the heck out of them when I start being funny. After I start being funny, I intersperse humor with the regular material and time intervals determined by the nature of the material and the reason I'm there. If I'm there to be funny, then there might be funny lines several times per minute. If I'm there for my Internet marketing seminar, then we might go 10 or 15 minutes between funny lines. NOTE: That doesn't mean that I'll go that long without doing something different to keep attention . . . that is the heart of the Wake 'em Up Speaking System (see below) So, try taking the pressure to be funny off at the beginning and sneak up on them with your humor. ONLY SERIOUS SPEAKERS SHOULD CONSIDER THE COURSE BELOW If you are serious about being a professional level speaker, we have the best selling course on the Internet "Wake 'em Up Video Professional Speaking System" http://www.antion.com/speakervideo.htm P.S. Don't buy it if you think you know it all ********* 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. $$$$$$$ SPEAKER MARKETING TIP $$$$$$$$ ===================================================== MEMBERSHIP SITES by Tom Antion If you have material on a hot topic, you can start a membership site that will bring you recurring income. With the right Internet services you can automate the entire process. Memberships sites typically have password protection to "supposedly" restrict access to actual members. They also use recurring billing companies that relieve the site owner of the duty of processing each member's credit card each month. The reason I say "supposedly" in the above paragraph is because a member could give his/her password and user ID to someone else. Unless the site owners have taken the extra precaution of using the services of a password security site like http://www.pennywize.com , they will suffer some losses because of this kind of thievery. To fully automate the credit card processing when members are charged monthly or weekly, a recurring billing company like http://www.netbilling.com is needed. A company like this will take the initial membership, charge the new member's credit card, keep track of the member's chosen user ID and pass code, and charge the member's charge card at regular intervals. In addition, the company will help the members retrieve their pass codes automatically when they forget them . . . and they will. Promoting a membership site is more of a challenge than it would be for a typical free website or free electronic publication. There is so much free stuff on the Internet it is important to do a good job of promoting the value of the material. That can be done with good advertising copywriting, good online and offline promotion along with reputation building by means of speaking, media appearances and authorship. A nice addition to a membership site is a discussion board or chat room. These website additions can be used by members only or you could provide them free outside the members only portion of the site to attract prospective members. I bought a very nice discussion board from http://www.vbulletin.com . You can participate for free and post your Internet marketing questions and comments at http://www.greatinternetmarketing.com/forums/ . (The site is up now, but the full roll out is not until January) Before you jump in to create a membership site check out all the individual entities BEFORE you begin. The recurring billing company may only work on certain types of servers and it might only be compatible with certain merchant companies. Since hosting companies are a dime a dozen you may want to make your decision on where to host after you pick your recurring billing company and merchant account. The best part about membership sites is the fact that you can create recurring income. Each member you retain adds up to a lot of money during the life of their membership. I invite you to take a look at my new membership site at http://www.greatinternetmarketing.com for the best in real world Internet marketing techniques. ============ 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 *** 4 New Live Internet Marketing ButtCamps *** . Learn the real world techniques of making your business wildly profitable on the web. Vancouver, BC Canada January 19 Honolulu February 7 (before NSA Western workshop) Atlanta February 28 (before NSA Eastern workshop) Allentown, PA March 17 Full Details: http://www.antion.com/buttcamp.htm *********************************************** ===================================================== 5. SPEAKER HUMOR ===================================================== => Some people are no good at counting calories and they have the figures to prove it. => The trouble with women in the business world, if you treat them like men, they get mad. And if you treat them like women, your wife gets mad. => I'll tell you what I don't like about Christmas office parties. Having to look for a new job the next day. => They say organized crime grosses 40 billion dollars a year and it's going higher. Never mind that. Is it going public? => Desperation is a fella shaving before weighing himself on the bathroom scale. => Parking lot attendees are the sixteen-year-old kids you pay to drive the car you won't let your sixteen-year-old touch. => Somebody suggested they might allow silent prayers in school. What do you think happens every time they pass out report cards? => I've been watching so many videos at home that last night I had a dream with credits. -- Lynda Montgomery => I have as much authority as the Pope. I just don't have as many people that believe it. -- George Carlin => You might be a redneck if: >You go outside to get something out of the fridge >You ever wore a tube top to a wedding >You ever got your hair caught in a ceiling fan >You ever financed a tattoo >You have more than 3 kitchen appliances in your front yard. >You go to family reunions to pick up women -- Jeff Foxworthy => I was so poor I couldn't afford a steel plate for my head so I used a paper plate instead. => It's amazing how important your job is when you want the day off, and how unimportant it is when you want a raise. => Frankly, I don't mind being called a procrastinator. I mean- if you're going to crastinate, be good at it! Much more FREE speaker humor at http://www.antion.com/humor/speakerhumor/speakerhumor.htm ===================================================== 6. USEFUL WEBSITES ===================================================== http://www.public-speaking.org 150 free articles on speaking. http://edservices.aea7.k12.ia.us/edtech/teacherpages/rkoltookian/ voicecareandhealth.html Lots of voice care resources http://www.bootlegs.com/info/choosingmic.html How to choose a microphone http://www.netyak.com/microphone.htm More good microphone info http://pec.jun.alaska.edu/edtech/ED634/production/Audio/externalm ike.html Microphones when you are on video tape ****** 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 115,000 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