| Greetings!
The end of February is rapidly approaching. This means the year is already almost 16% completed. Are you nearly 16% done with your goals for the year? Or, more importantly, are you 66% done with your goals for the quarter?
If you answered no to either question, then one or more of these truths is holding you back from maximum achievement:
1. You have no goals
2. You have goals but they're not measurable
3. Your goals are too aggressive
4. You're not tracking your progress
5. You're not doing what you should be doing
Think about your goals in relation to the list above. What's holding you back from being on track to maximum achievement this year? Now's the time for a correction or adjustment while we're just 1/6 of the way to December 31.
I know you can do it! You are a winner. Don't ever forget it or be anything less.
Thank you for your loyal readership, and a big welcome to my latest subscribers!
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My 8-Step Formula For Creating A Great Presentation
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 As a public speaking coach I'm often asked to help people with their presentations. It's certainly a labor of love to create a presentation that's going to impress an audience.
Or is it not a labor of love for you because you don't like giving presentations? Whichever it is I'm going to help you to make your next presentation that much better with my formula for putting one together.
Step 1. Start with an agenda or outline for the presentation. To do this you need to know exactly where you're going to go each step of the way with the talk. Problem is you might not know yet. Well, you need to figure it out because without a clear outline you're likely to take much longer to create the presentation, and worse, you might lack cohesiveness from beginning to end. I find that once I'm done with this it's much easier to create the presentation since I'm essentially connecting the dots with content.
Once you're done with your agenda, print it and keep it in front of you as you create your presentation.
Step 2. Have one of your older presentations to borrow from. There are usually certain slides like the title page, Ground Rules, Agenda, and About the Presenter that can be updated and used in a new presentation. This saves some time. There may also be certain slides in an older presentation that have a unique layout or embedded graphics I'd like to use. That also saves time.
Step 3. Know about how many slides you'll have to work with. My typical presentation is 75 minutes long. I've found that I can comfortably do about a slide every 3-4 minutes. That means somewhere in the area of 20 - 24 slides. I know that if I go much over that number I'll have to rush my content or will go way over. I don't like to see that when I'm in the audience so I seek to avoid it with my talks. Be ruthless about staying within your slide count. It will force you to eject fluffy slides and keep the best you have to offer.
Step 4. Start building your presentation at least 3 days in advance. It may be all right to pack the night before a trip, but you absolutely want to avoid building a presentation the day before you have to deliver it. Odds are you won't come up with your best content this way, AND, you won't have time to rehearse.
This step is so very important. It allows your mind to essentially work on the content in between times sitting down at the PC. I find that my mind goes in to serious contemplation, idea generation, and data gathering mode in the last 3 days before delivery.
Step 5. Just about clear your calendar the day before. Although you started 3 days in advance, it's very unlikely you're done. So, give yourself plenty of time the day before and you will have time to refine it a few times making it really good. Plus you'll have that valuable rehearsal time, which will polish your delivery.
Of course, this isn't always possible, but do the best you can to have most of the prior day free. You'll thank yourself each time you do it.
Step 6. Have a good tool for help in building slides. I like to use images of web pages fairly often and my tool of choice for grabbing such imagery and converting it to a simple to insert jpeg is Snagit. It's very easy to use and works like a charm. I wouldn't want to build a presentation without it.
Step 7. Once you're done go through each slide with a very keen eye looking for typos, bad alignment, fonts too large or small, URLS that aren't hotlinks, and so forth. I almost always find little things to fix when I go back through a presentation. You probably will, too.
Step 8. Rehearse and make final edits. Of course, rehearsing gives you confidence when you actually present the content. However, it also alerts you to awkwardness in the content. You thought it was good, but when you actually tried to elaborate on what's written on the slide you stumbled. Or, you thought this slide flowed well in to the next one, but it doesn't once you speak to it. You will make changes during the rehearsal and that's a good thing.
Now you should be done and sitting on a very good presentation. Go give it!
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Finding Balance Through Faith
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When I sit down with new clients I ask them to complete what's called a Wheel of Life. This a graphical chart with seven points on it in a radius: Family/Friends, Health, Career/Business, Play, Financial, Mind, and Spiritual.
The exercise constitutes one going around from point to point deciding whether you're fully actualized in that area or not. If so, then you pick the outermost point on the wheel. Once you've selected a point on all seven lines, then you'll connect the dots to form a wheel.
You can quickly look at the wheel and see where your life is out of balance. My experience is that the people who fill this wheel out who are strong in the spiritual dimension are more balanced in their lives. Why is this?
I believe it's because our faith tends to influence other dimensions as well as how we feel about them. For example, most faiths emphasize strong family values, therefore, you're likely to be strong in that dimension if you're strong in your faith.
Also, people with strong faith tend to be content with what they have, which could influence where they'll score themselves on the Financial area.
And lastly, having a strong faith means you understand that life is about more than Career/Business, which could influence how much you value Play.
As I write this on a Sunday, it's apparent to me that the Spirituality spoke on my wheel has much to do with how balanced I feel in my life. If you feel that your life is out of balance, might an examination of this spoke be in order?
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The Growth Coach Goes Social
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Social Networking probably couldn't get more press right now. To say it's all the rage is almost an understatement.
A few months back The Wall Street Journal online published an article that said that social media had exceeded email as the #1 means of communicating over the internet. Wow, that's a major milestone. And we thought email was it. Do you know that there are teenagers among us who have never sent an email? Hard to believe, I know, but it's true.
If you're not fully aware of what a juggernaut social media is in our society, have a look at this short YouTube video on Socialnomics and you'll know.
So, I think it's now time for anyone that's in business to stay in business to get familiar with what social media is and seriously consider adding it to their marketing mix going forward. There's just too much happening in this area to ignore it.
About 8 months ago I decided to dive in and am steadily building a foundation of awareness. Here's where you can find me online in social media:
Facebook - I now have a Fan Page and I hope you will become a fan. You may need to be logged in to access the link.
Twitter - My profile is @Michael_N Fairly active with this and I must say I like it quite a bit. There's a whole lot more to it than meets the eye. If you are using Twitter, let me know your profile name and I'll follow you.
LinkedIn - Has its own unique properties. You'll find my public profile here. If we're not connected on LinkedIn already, please send me a connection request as a friend.
YouTube - I'm only dabbling with video so far, but have set up a channel, which you can find here. I intend to go further with video this year. If you're using YouTube and have a channel, tell me about it so I can subscribe. If you'd like to encourage me to create more videos, subscribe to my channel and put some pressure on me.
Biznik - I have a profile here, which helps me with local networking. Are you using Biznik? Let's join each other's networks.
Peninsula Shops - I also have a profile here for local networking.
Yelp - I occasionally review businesses and give them a tip for business improvement at the end. Here's my page.
TypePad Blog - My blog is titled Build and Balance. I'm keeping this up as I know from comments I receive that it's an important means of reaching my audience and educating my network. If you've not read my blog I invite you to see if there's an article there for you. You can see a list of my posts on the Learning Hub page on my website.
At this point I don't think I need to add much more to my social media plate. Instead what I need are tools to make keeping up with it all much easier. I will share the tools I use in a future newsletter and/or blog post.
Let me know what you're doing with social media. I'd love to hear about it as well as your experience.
If you are not using social media, but would like to start, perhaps you'd like to attend my free seminar on February 23rd in Foster City. I'll provide an introduction to the most popular platforms and will also discuss what your strategy might be with using social media for your business.
If you want to really get going with social media, then you should attend my 3.5 hour workshop on March 13th in Burlingame. I'll go in-depth on social media platforms with tips on how to best use them, will share tools to make it easier, will discuss strategy even more, then will ask you to get started using a laptop on the wireless network in the ballroom.
Find out about both events on my website.
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Time Saving Tip of the Month -
The Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500
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 I usually reserve this space for strategies or software applications, but this month I need to suggest a piece of fairly pricey hardware. This is because this machine WILL save you time. I just about guarantee it.
If you have a flatbed scanner you know how painfully long it takes to scan a single sheet of paper. If you own an AIO (all in one) printer that has a scanner and an ADF (auto document feeder) you still know how long it can take to scan a few sheets of paper. For me, the wait just wasn't worth it, which kept me from scanning much at all as helpful as it is to do so.
That was my old office arrangement. Since picking up the ScanSnap about 8 months ago, I've been scanning double-sided documents at 20 pages a minute and attaching them as PDFs to emails or inserting them in appropriate folders on my PC.
What are the advantages of scanning with the ScanSnap?
1. Saves space
2. You can have multiple copies (you should have automatic back up of your documents)
3. More secure (if you encrypt the folder holding your scanned document)
4. Easier to find what you're looking for (your PC can probably search for a doc faster than you can find it in an overstuffed physical file folder)
5. Saves time (putting important docs in appropriate folders as soon as they come across your desk for instant retrieval when needed is a time-saver)
6. You actually will scan documents whereas before you only did it when absolutely necessary because your scanner is so painfully slow
The ScanSnap comes with a full version of Adobe Acrobat, which costs more than $200 if purchased separately. This helps to justify the purchase price if you don't already own this program. I didn't.
Now as I said earlier, this scanner isn't cheap. The one I bought from Amazon is over $400, which is about as much as a new laptop costs these days. That means you should have a lot of paper coming across your desk to take full advantage of it. I have endless streams of paper coming across my desk, which made it easy for me to see the value.
Note that the link above, which leads to the product page on Amazon includes an affiliate link embedded in it. This means if you buy the scanner I will get a commission. I signed up for their program in the past because I love the company and figured I could create a small stream of income through thoughtful recommendations that people acted upon. If you are not in agreement with that, then feel free to find the ScanSnap through Amazon's home page here.
If you do make the investment in this machine, let me know how you like it. I'm guessing you'll more than like it as I do.
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Thanks for reading this month's issue. Please forward it to someone else who could benefit by receiving it.
I want to express my deep appreciation to everyone who supports this business in one way or another. I could not be here without you. Thank you very much.
Remember that true fulfillment comes when you build and balance.
Sincerely,
Michael Neuendorff
The Growth Coach
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| Upcoming Events & other resources |
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| Your Growth Coach |
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Michael is ready to work with you to grow your business. Don't put off until tomorrow what you can do today. Let's start right now!
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| My Network Spotlight |
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I believe in a strong network and maintain it by giving referrals to professionals I know, like and trust. In each issue I spotlight people in my network. I encourage you to do business with the people listed below.
Accounting
James Wassermann CPA
650.364.4800
Banking
Bank of the West
J.P. Verzosa
650.994.1492
Beds and Furnishings
Bedroom Express
Ira Fruitman
415.583.2221
Business Insurance
CAL Insurance
Brent Harrill
415.661.6500
Business Health Insurance
Julie Foster Insurance Services
Julie Foster
650.875.1713
Catering
Dynora Catering Service
Lidia Marchetti
650.347.8359
Chiropractic Services
Dade Donovan DC
650.348.4233
Comm'l & Residential Architecture
Gumbinger Avram Architecture
Noemi Avram, AIA
650.579.0995
General Contractor
Hargens, Inc.
Tom Hargens
650.876.1801
Health and Wellness
Nikken
Lelana Crayne
650.342.3089
Insurance and Financial Services
Mass Mutual
Quan Nguyen
415.743.1008
Promotional Products
Proforma Brand Solutions
Mark Borson
650.787.7897
Property Management
Wilbur Property Mgmt
Yuko Lee
650.847.4342
Real Estate Loans
Real Estate Financial Services
Sally Adam
415.292.1999
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