Overcoming stage fright part 2

In Part 1 last December http://www.ideasgrp.com/blog/blog-entry/overcoming-stage-fright we wrote about 5 tips extracted from our stage fright section of our “Public Speaking and Presentation Skills” workshop:
1. Realize how your audience really feels
2. Visualize success
3. Change your physical state so that you affect your mental state
4. PPP- Practice Practice and Practice
5. Arrive early

Here are 5 more tips to help you overcome stage fright

6. Mingle with your Audience
Prior your speech try to talk to your audience in any subject. The effect of mingling is tremendous

to read the full blog go to www.ideasgroupblog.com

More effort needed to make presentations in the Middle East inspiring

I was attending an inspiring conference in Dubai yesterday, where speakers were supposed to share stories and best practices to enlighten the participants.

The event’s organization was great; the whole conference was free of charge for its participants, everything was so generous (giveaways, food networking gadgets), the idea of the displays and signage was very creative, in brief it had an amazing feel.

The only thing that stroke me was the level of most presentations. Some speakers started with about 30 participants in their sessions to find that only a dozen has left at the middle of it, others confused their audiences with mixed messages that lacked clear objectives. On the other hand only a few elite speakers presented in an innovative way that pushed their audience of their seats.

As a professional speaker, I might be a bit biased in believing that every presentation should leave a WOW effect, otherwise people could just watch a live streaming of an industry expert or a DVD of Anthony Robbins.

You don’t have to be in the position of Steve Jobs to be able to leave your audience with a lasting impression, you can apply the little changes as per the points below:

to read the full blog go to www.ideasgroupblog.com

Do you want to be the next Carlos Slim, Oprah Winfrey or Steve Jobs?

Some people just seem to be naturally successful. They reach one peak after another. And the more they achieve the more success seems natural and easy. Those people are not aliens, and if you study them closely, their environment wasn’t all success.

If you want to follow the track of great people like Winston Churchill, Albert Einstein, Pope Jean Paul II, Oprah Winfrey, and Steve Jobs you have to understand what they have done in their lives, and how they have challenged people around them. Those legends have pushed the boundaries of what is common; they have created new industries and found solutions to very complex issues.

After compiling their bios and studying their paths we have discovered that most of them share the following attributes:

1. They have a vision

Not one single high achiever has reached success without a clear vision, a set of goals and ways to achieve them. When Warren Buffet was asked about his path he said “I always knew I was going to be here”

2. They leverage their circle of influence

You might think that high achievers do not need anyone, however none of them got to success without leveraging their contacts. Its not only about what you know, but also about who you know. Steve Jobs of Apple, used Bill Gates of Microsoft several times before launching his products…who would have thought?

3. They are flexible

High achievers adapt to the environment around them exactly like chameleons, and this is how they identify opportunities. While others are complaining about the financial crisis or high oil prices, successful people tend to create opportunities to benefit from the situation.

4. They play at work

None of the top achievers wasn’t extremely excited about what they did, they have all showed passion and excitement in what they do. So if you don’t Love What You Do, its time for a change.

5. They are compassionate

People who hurt others no matter where they reach do not make it far in life, , or at least they don’t grow comfortably. Donald Trump keeps bouncing up and down, went bankrupt, and has thousands lawsuits against him. Do you want to be there?

6. They help others

It has been observed this year that the top 3 of the fortune billionaires list donate large amounts of their worth to others, and more than half of the world’s richest people are big Charity Donors. Those people believe that “What goes around, comes around”. The interesting part is that most of the successful people do not wait till they get rich to start giving, Carlos Slim was always a person to go to when in need, and a free advice giver at all times.

So are you ready to step in the bandwagon of success? All you need to do is to adapt the above 6 attributes to your life.

For more information on how to enhance your life, career and relationships or to attend The Psychology of Success Workshop, visit our website on www.ideasgrp.com

Social Mania

At first companies have rebuffed all social media, claiming that it was a waste of time for their employees and that it weights on corporate productivity. Then, as soon as some success stories rose about the use of social networks to make money – the likes of dell making $ 3 million in less than 2 years just out of twitter, and Perez Hilton becoming the friend of celebrities just by blogging about them, all corporates wanted to have facebook profiles, a presence on linked-in and a need to tweet. However it was done the wrong way.

Before jumping on the Social Networks extravaganza, companies or even people who are looking for a personal branding e-campaign, should ask themselves the below five questions:

1- How is our SEO (Search Engine Optimization) benefiting from our social network sites? Social networks play an amazing role getting our website discovered by the search engines (google yahoo, bing etc). Using key words on our social network will increase the rankings, if you don’t have a corporate social website it is time to do so.

2- Are all of our social profiles and websites interlinked? What makes any website/webpage powerful is the amount of links directed to that site. Connecting websites with links to each other will create your own web of sites and thus would empower your reach.

3- Are all of our profiles homogenous? Having different info on different social websites will confuse the visitors and weaken your reach. All the introduction texts in the “About us” section should state the exact same thing. If a social site is updated, then the same update should be applied in the remaining sites.

4- Are we heard by the right audience? A lot of companies think of adding followers or members randomly however your “follow-ship” companies should be speaking at the right audience. A good way of building a great database of potential customers is to have a blog that can only be read by inserting contact details. Those blogs can be easily made of subjects that only interest your type of clients.

5- Are we offering to our public something of value? Some social profiles only portray publicity and ways of eliciting customers. The web 2.0 audience is always looking for something of value and for free. Wikipedia, Youtube, mashable etc. are perfect examples.

The social networks should be handled the same way we handle the traditional media, you should have a social media strategy, social media officers and an alignment between your overall strategy and online strategy.

Camil El Khoury

For more info about optimizing your corporate performance visit www.ideasgrp.com