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" We now offer FREE email accounts. Visit http://www.GreatSpeaking.com AOL members click here ########################################## GREAT SPEAKING Circulation 135,217 The largest speaking ezine in the world Vol. 4 Number 5 - April 9, 2002 Publisher: Tom Antion tom@Antion.com http://www.Antion.com (C) Anchor Publishing 2002 ########################################## 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.) 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 *** YOU ARE LOSING MONEY WITHOUT THIS INFO *** . Learn the real world techniques of making your business wildly profitable on the web (all sessions personally led by Tom Antion) Washington, D.C. Saturday, April 20 Orlando, FL Friday, July 12,(day before NSA convention) "I'm doing $15,000.00 - $25,000.00 per month in Ebook sales because of the ideas you gave me." Jeffrey Mayer, SucceedingInBusiness.com Full Details: http://www.antion.com/buttcamp.htm Can't make it? Send your assistant/webmaster. OR We now have the entire session on Audio CD http://www.GreatInternetMarketing.com/buttcampaudiocd.htm *********************************************** ===================================================== 1. Quick Presentation Skills Tip ===================================================== SCHMOOZE by Tom Antion One of the easiest things to do to get a good reaction from the audience is to schmooze with them before the presentation. I actually start this by pre-program phone interviews before I even get to the state where I'm speaking. This tip has to do with schmoozing right before you go on stage. Whenever possible make it a firm point to have your presentation equipment and materials set up and tested long before anyone is expected to arrive at the meeting. When the attendees do begin to arrive, start introducing yourself as the speaker and shaking hands with them. If they are coming in a few at a time, you should be able to spend a few minutes talking to each group. Either make small talk or ask them what they want to get out of being there. Pay particular attention to people that are by themselves and facilitate introducing them around if it's appropriate . . . at any rate, make them feel at home. These small gestures will create tons of rapport and cause most of the people that you've touched to be rooting for you. *** 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. (Note: Tom's big spokesperson contract came from a few line mention in just one newspaper in Florida) This is powerful stuff! For the table of contents and a free chapter visit http://www.antion.com/publicityhoundTOC.htm ********************************************* ********* PROFESSIONAL SPEAKERS HANDBOOK ********* by Mike Rounds This prolific reference E-book (over 1000 pages) will teach you things about professional level speaking you can't find anywhere else. Mike tells you all about it for free at: http://www.public-speaking.org/handbook.htm **************************** ===================================================== 2. Advanced Presentation Skills Article ===================================================== SOFT SPEAKER RX by Susan Berkley Public speaking can be especially challenging for those who are naturally soft spoken. Your content might be wonderful and your desire to share with the audience strong, but if the audience has to strain to hear you, or if they can't hear you at all, you've got a problem. The most obvious solution is to use a microphone to amplify your voice (I'll have some quick tips on that in a future issue of "Great Speaking"). But there are many speaking situations (such as a class room or a conference room) where a microphone is neither available nor appropriate. When speaking without a mic if you are not being heard, you may think it's because you are not projecting your voice or speaking loudly enough. But actually, projection and volume may be only part of the problem. I suggest doing a systems check on these four areas: ARTICULATION/PRONUNCIATION VOCAL VOLUME LEVEL VOICE PROJECTION THE WAY YOU FEEL ABOUT YOURSELF 1.ARTICULATION/PRONUNCIATION There is a difference between not being heard (being inaudible) and not being understood (being unintelligible). Sometimes people confuse the two. Unintelligibility may be caused by problems with articulation and pronunciation. People with poor articulation can sound throaty because their tongue is pulled too far back, or they may sound muffled because they don't move their tongue enough when they speak. Both problems affect our ability to be understood. Make sure your tongue is positioned toward the front of your mouth and that you use your tongue to clearly enunciate your words. For severe articulation problems, consult a licensed speech pathologist. If you mispronounce your words you will also have a difficult time being understood. Brush up on pronunciation skills by consulting a good pronouncing dictionary. At the Merriam Webster website you can actually hear how many words are supposed to be pronounced in standard American English. Try this cool feature at http://www.m-w.com/ 2. CONTROLLING VOCAL VOLUME Imagine that your voice has a volume knob with five settings: 1-WHISPER 2-SOFT 3-CONVERSATIONAL 4-LOUD 5-YELL For normal and healthy conversational speech, do not use volume levels 1 or 5. Both can strain the voice. Yell only in an emergency and save your whispers for the library, theatre or bedroom. Strive to speak most of the time at volume level 3. Use levels 2 and 3 for color, emphasis and variety. A conversational level will differ with each situation. To be heard it must be adjusted so that we are speaking at a level that is slightly louder than the background noise around us. There is much more background noise, for example, in a crowded restaurant than in a quiet conference room. 3. PROJECTING THE VOICE Volume level should not be confused with projection. To project the voice, don't try to yell or force it out of your body. This causes strain. To have a voice that carries well, you must use your body's natural resonators. Your body has three resonating cavities: the voice box, the mouth and the nose. The voice is produced at the vocal chords and then amplified in the facial mask around the lips and nose. To have a beautiful voice and project it without strain, focus your voice in the facial mask, blending the oral and nasal resonators. Speech therapist Dr. Morton Cooper says the simplest way to find your facial mask is to hum. Try it now. HMMMMMMMM. Good. Now practice alternating humming and speaking. HMMMMMMy name is Susan. HMMMMMy favorite color is blue. HMMMMany people say I'm a great dancer... etc. Have fun with it. Practice humming and speaking throughout the day. Once you get the hang of what a resonant voice feels like you can drop the hum and feel the vibration of your words in your facial mask. 4. THE WAY YOU FEEL ABOUT YOURSELF I have found that there is often a strong psychological component to communication difficulties. Soft speakers may unconsciously be trying to hold themselves back, inhibit their self-expression, or stifle themselves, and these factors should be explored. For more insight on overcoming self-limiting behaviors I recommend an excellent book called The Origin Of illness by Dr Norberto R. Keppe available only at http://www.analyticaltrilogy.org Reprinted with permission from the "VoiceCoach ezine" by Susan Berkley. For a free subscription visit http://www.greatvoice.com Susan Berkley is president of The Great Voice Company and author of "Speak To Influence: How To Unlock The Hidden Power of Your Voice" available from 800-333-8108 or your favorite bookseller. *********** SPONSOR *********** FREE 7 Day Electronic Marketing Mini Course mailto:minicourse.GS039@aweber.com ******************************** *** TURN YOUR SPEECHES INTO CA$H *** Free Report gives you 26 pages of tactics you can use to turn your existing speeches into products you can sell! Get it here now: http://www.tech4speakers.com/report2.htm ************************************ ===================================================== 3. HUMOR TECHNIQUE ===================================================== HATS by Tom Antion Hats can be lots of fun during a presentation and they can also help you keep on track without using notes. I use hats as an outline of my presentation. Let's say I was talking to a company about the past, present and future of their marketing. I might use one of those funny ball caps that has a long pony tail attached to it and talk about how when this company first started it was wild and carefree in it's marketing efforts. I would put this funny cap on or have an audience member volunteer wear it. The humor really starts here and in many cases you don't have to say a word. The audience members may start picking on one of their male buddies who is bald or one of their short haired female colleagues who always wanted long hair. Next I might use a top hat to signify a more conservative old time banker when I talk about the growth years of the company up until the present. Again, I wear the hat or pass it out to an audience member. When I talk about the future, I would use some kind of spaceman, futuristic looking hat that maybe had antennae attached. Some of the magic shops carry a funny lie detector hat with wires all over it that you can operate by remote control. You could make up a funny lie detector test customized to the company and have a participant on stage who lies about every answer. I've seen that an it is hilarious. If you can get the CEO up there with the hat on (make sure you clear it with him/her in advance) you will most likely hit a big home run. You might be good at folding newspaper into hats which would be fun. You could pick one of the characters in the crowd and fold up a hat using the "Wall Street Journal" and say, "this is as close as the information in the WSJ ever gets to Joe's head." You can also get a chapeaugraphy hat http://www.chap-o.com which is a brimless piece of felt that can be twisted into many funny hats. ********* 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. $$$$$$$ SPEAKER MARKETING TIP $$$$$$$$ ===================================================== ADD MAGIC TO YOUR BACK OF ROOM SALES by Tom Antion I've learned a lot about back of the room sales in the past couple years. My high day so far was $52,000.00 and some change on one speech. This article isn't about the technique of Back of the Room Sales. I'll cover that in a future issue. This article is about an overall philosophy to increase sales and a specific technique that I've been using. The overall philosophy is that too much information will not help the audience members's retention of the material or help your back of the room sales. Over the past five years or so I started doing my Wake 'em Up Presentation Skills seminars and more recently my ButtCamp Internet marketing seminars. Ask anyone who has ever attended one of them and I guarantee they will tell you that they got buried in good material. In fact, I used to brag about the fact that I was going to bury you in good material. I still say, "your brain will be smoking when I get done with you." For the most part, what I've found is that I've overwhelmed many attendees into total inaction and they didn't buy anything either. GIVE EM LESS Now I do it differently. I cut down on the overall amount of material. We have a lot more fun. People retain more. They don't feel as overwhelmed. They do more and get more results. AND they buy more of my stuff. I always use humor in my presentations, but lately I have been revising a segment of my presentations that I got away from for a couple years......MAGIC No I'm not talking about becoming a professional magician. I'm talking about using magic tricks to have some fun and to illustrate points I'm trying to make. I can assure you that the people in my last seminar that saw me put my bare hand into a steel spring muskrat trap will remember what I said about email marketing traps. I'm sure that when someone 12 inches from my fingertips saw me turn a one dollar bill into a hundred dollar bill will remember that you can turn a small investment into a really big investment if you know what you're doing on the Internet. Visit your local magic shop to find tricks that are easy or require minimal practice and get suggestions on what points you can make. Or better yet, figure out the point you want to illustrate and ask what the magic shop has that would help you make your point. I'm working on a set of magic videos specifically for speakers that I'll announce in a few months. In addition to increase Back of the Room sales, you will find that people will do more word of mouth marketing for you and send their friends and colleagues to your sessions if they got both valuable content AND had fun. 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 Tom's Top Ten Marketing Resources page http://www.antion.com/marketingtools.htm ********* DO YOUR WEBSITE SALES STINK? ********* You are reading this ezine right? So are 135,000 people around the world. I know how to market on the Internet with the absolutely smallest investment possible. If you want the same success that I've had, I'll be glad to tell you how to get it for yourself at http://www.GreatInternetMarketing.com If you're dead serious about changing your financial independence you can have me personally on your team. Visit: http://www.GreatInternetMarketing.com/mentorprogram.htm ************************************************ *** HELP YOUR CLIENTS GIVE AWAY FREE COMPUTERS *** Serious speakers that have clients will love this. . . AND your clients will love you. I have located a marketing company that has a deal with Gateway computers and Earthlink. This is credible deal and can mean serious money for you for introducing the deal to your clients. email me personally for more details mailto:tom@antion.com Put "Gateway" in the subject line. ************************************************** ===================================================== 5. SPEAKER HUMOR ===================================================== => Why do drugstores make the sick walk all the way to the back of the store to get their prescriptions while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front? => Why do banks leave both doors to the vault open and then chain the pens to the counters? => Why do we leave cars worth thousands of dollars in the driveway and put our useless junk in the garage? => You spend the first 2 years of your child's life teaching them to walk and talk. Then you spend the next 16 telling them to sit down and be quiet. => If you have a lot of tension and you get a headache, do what it says on the aspirin bottle: "Take two Aspirin", and "Keep away from children." => Always remember you're unique. Just like everyone else => Money is better than poverty if only for financial reasons => Junk is something you've kept for years and throw away three weeks before you need it. => You don't appreciate a lot of stuff in school until you get older. Little things like being spanked every day by a middle aged woman: . . . Stuff you pay good money for in later life. => A lawyer sent an overdue bill to a client. A note was attached that stated: "This bill is one year old." By return mail the lawyer had his bill back. To it was attached a card which read: "Happy Birthday." => "The Senate has proposed and passed the tax cut for marriage. Married people apparently had been paying more in taxes, and Republicans feel that marriage is penalty enough." -Bill Maher => "I used to be a heavy gambler. But now I just make mental bets. That's how I lost my mind." - Steve Allen => I married my wife for her looks...but not the ones she's been giving me lately! => "The brain is a wonderful organ. It starts working the moment you get up in the morning and does not stop until you get into the office." --Robert Frost => I love being married. It's so great to find that one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life. => Getting on a plane, I told the ticket lady, "Send one of my bags to New York, send one to Los Angeles, and send one to Miami." She said, "We can't do that!" I told her, "You did it last week!" => Anything is possible if you don't know what you're talking about. Much more FREE speaker humor at http://www.antion.com/humor/speakerhumor/speakerhumor.htm ===================================================== 6. USEFUL WEBSITES ===================================================== http://www.si.umich.edu/~pne/acadtalk.htm They are trying to change poor academic speaking. http://stevefournier01.tripod.com/ for those of you interested in some history of rhetoric. Also has speaking tips. http://www.whitman.edu/offices_departments/rhetoric/39inform.htm Info on preparing informative and persuasive speeches. http://douglass.speech.nwu.edu/ Archives of American Public Address. Large collection of American Speeches. (we invite other countries to send similar links to us for publication here) http://www.chicagocomedyco.com/ Improv classes for speakers http://www.educationunlimited.com/ Has summer camps in public speaking for young adults ****** 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 135,000 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