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The Seminar Source Newsletter

                                 Speak Well and Get Clients Now!

June
8, 2008
Issue #2


In this issue:

� A note from Gail
� Upcoming Teleseminar
� Feature Article: "Why Should YOU Hold Seminars?"
� Gail Recommends: A Ready-Made, Fun Seminar
� About Gail
� PS: Gail's Passion: MENTORING: Make a Difference!

Greetings!
 

What a delightful surprise to hear from so many of you I've not been in touch with for such a long time! Thank you for your well wishes, and I encourage you to share this newsletter with anyone you know who might be interested in giving talks, holding workshops or seminars.

In last week's issue I talked about the wonderful customer service at Apple. Well, the workers at Apple were put to the test when my computer crashed on Memorial Day. From 9:00 am Tuesday morning until 8:30 pm some brilliant minds puzzled over the problem and recommended the next step--The Genius Bar.

Wednesday I went to the Genius Bar at the Apple store in Menlo Shopping Center at l:00 pm, and by 6:30 the problem was fixed. The point again is their customer service is superb!! Losing the time was frustration, taking up hours of the technicians' time was uncomfortable, but everyone was patient, helpful, and a pleasure to work with, from Duane meeting me at the door, to Arielle who fixed the problem and Kay, who helps me every step of the way.

Ironically, more readers of last week's newsletter wrote to me asking about Apple than any other information.

Have a great week, and if you are in New Jersey, stay cool.

Happy, happy,
Gail

Upcoming Teleseminar:


Are your speaking skills at the level you would like them to be? If you would like to become a master speaker or teach your employees how to improve their speaking skills, JOIN US!

Remember, Speak Well and Earn More Money is more than a motto!

THERE IS STILL ROOM!! 

Join us on June 16, 2008 for our first session on speaking and imaging. Classes are held via the telephone every Tuesday for six weeks until July7, 2008, 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. Eastern
.
This is a one-time  F*R*E*E
6-week beta teleseminar for those who would like to teach speaking and imaging skills to employees or who would like to improve their own skills.  

THE SEMINAR SOURCE monthly meetings will be starting this summer. I'll let you know exactly when once the speaking seminar is underway. The first topic will be about the multiBILLION dollar a year training business and where you could fit into this picture, no matter what industry you are in.


Feature Article: Why Should YOU Hold Seminars?

by Gail Cassidy

VALUE OF HOLDING SEMINARS
    
Local groups are always looking for speakers, and this is where you can practice your presentation. Those who regularly hold seminars in their fields make large amounts of money. The seminar market is huge!  Corporations, companies, non-profits and other various associations sponsor keynote speakers at their annual meetings and conventions.  What better way to get known and, as a result, get more clients!

BIGGEST SPENDERS
Corporations are the largest spenders.  The United States meetings industry is a $75 billion per year income generator.  According to Entrepreneur Magazine, there is continual need for management development, speaking skills, human relations skills-seminars that provide the "how-to's" of excelling in a challenging, competitive environment.

NEEDED SKILL AREAS
If you interact with your clients face-to-face, on the phone, via e-mail, or in old-fashioned writing, you already are aware of areas where you can help them improve their skills, whether it be their lack of proficiency in communication skills, leadership skills, or lack of proficiency in the use of your products.

A recent article said "Companies should do more to improve workers' literacy, says a survey of human-resource executives.  The Center for Workplace Issues and Trends, a private research firm in Horsham, Pa., conducted the survey for the Olsten Corp., a temporary personnel firm in Westbury, N.Y.  Of 455 respondents,nearly 80% said the need for employees with solid literacy skills had increased in the last five years.  

OTHER RESULTS:
o    65% said writing skills needed improving, yet fewer than 25% said their firms allocate training money to boost writing skills.
o    62% listed interpersonal communications skills as needing improvement.
o    59% said workers need more training in customer service.

NEEDS VS OFFERINGS
"This disparity between what is needed and what is being offered suggests an imbalance between the $30 billion spent by corporations each year on workplace training and workshops and that needs to be addressed," says William Olsten, chairman of the personnel firm.

"On the positive side: 40% said their training budgets rose this year from last, 43% had no change and only 16% reported declines."

EMPLOYEE IMPROVEMENT EQUALS EMPOWERMENT    
Companies want to provide empowerment, fulfillment, enrichment, and enhanced skills for their employees.  Everyone wants to improve, and you can help people through seminars with your area of expertise or the area you purchase from us, whether it be Discover Your Passion, Profit From Your Passion, You Cannot NOT Communicate, One, Talk Fits All, Attitude, Nonverbal Communication Skills, Strategies for Success, the Secret Shopper, and other programs empowering employees and employers.

LENGTH
A seminar could be thirty minutes to one hour or more in length or as long as a few days.  If the seminar, better called a workshop over a period of days, is an entire day or longer, breakout sessions are expected, where participants work together on a segment of their learning.  What greater way to reinforce learning points!

ONE TALK FITS ALL
In my book, One Talk Fits All, you learn how to develop one talk relative to your area(s ) of your expertise and adapt it to fit any of your clients. This one talk can be an hour's presentation or it could be a three-day workshop. What makes the difference are the stories and exercises used to make each point.

MAKE THE LEAP! JUMP INTO THE SEMINAR BUSINESS!
IT IS FUN and LUCRATIVE!!



Gail Recommends: A Ready-Made, Fun Seminar



Discover Your Passion
One ready-made, fun, and popular seminar/workshop you could deliver is Discover Your Passion. Everybody wants to make a difference, and if you are doing what you were meant to do, you will make a difference.

The Lazy Man's Way to Riches
My recommendation for today is to take a look at what you could offer your clients/customers. One book which influenced me greatly and was an impetus to study all I could find about discovering my passion was Joe Karbo's book The Lazy Man's Way to Riches, written in the early 1970's.

I found the book advertised in Parade Magazine. The full-page article stated that although the book cost $10.00 to purchase, he was going to make $9.50 on each copy, and if buyer's were not 100% satisfied, we could return the book and get our money back. Needless to say, I never returned the book.

Make Two Lists
One recommendation from Joe Karbo is to make a list of everything you like and a second list of everything you like to do.  For example, I like pizza, but I don't like making it.  I like ironed clothes but I don't like ironing. I like dogs, cats, kids, good movies, good books--self-help, psychology, nutrition, historial novels . . ., candles, special soaps, etc.

I like to do . . .
I like doing activities such as organizing information, writing, teaching, reading, shopping, going to the theater, having lunch with friends, being with family, helping others, working with "at risk" kids, daydreaming, etc.

This exercise takes a bit of time until you come up with a good-sized list of things that you like--actually the "what you like" column is the easier of the two to complete.

Combine
Then take something from the "like" column and combine it with something in the "like to do" column, and you may be able to come up with a good career idea.
From doing my list, I see one volunteer activity I'd like to do. I love dogs, helping people, working with "at risk" kids, reading psychology. How about training a therapy dog and visit hospitals in the children's areas or going into schools and having kids read to the dogs.

Take a few minutes and develop your own two lists and see what items from each list that would combine and perhaps from which you could make money. Think of how this could help your clients or how you could develop a workshop to help them.

BELIEFS
One of Buddha's primary recommendations for achieving enlightenment is discovering your right livelihood. And at the other end of the spectrum, John D. Rockeferr believed that the power to make money was a gift from God, which is simly another way of saying, "Do what you love and the money will follow." (Breathnach 9/24).



 
About Gail:


Gail Cassidy, The Seminar Source, has written five books, three workbooks, numerous Tips booklets, and seminar programs. Her passion is teaching and writing, specifically regarding finding ways to make life better through the research and the development of training programs.

You can learn more about Gail and her books, booklets, seminars, and programs at her website, Coachability.com.


PS: Gail's Passion: MENTORING - Make a Difference!


BULLIES ARE FOREVER
Bullying in school yards has been a problem since kids started going to school together. Almost losing my brother to bullies who stoned us in our backyard as very young children served as a catalyst to create my passion to help and protect others, especially young people who are not as strong as their peers, who perhaps have not had the good fortune to be born into a "comfortable" home, who have not been schooled adequately for whatever reason, who do not speak English as their first language, who have not experienced acceptance by her peers and/or adults, who may or may not have graduated from high school and/or college.

WHO NEEDS MENTORING?
These are some of the mentorees who need your help, plus the bullies. Many are high school dropouts or potential dropouts, young people who must learn to take 100% responsibility for all of their actions and who need your guidance to do so. These are the young adults who desire your help. Nobody gets through life without help. Everyone needs support and validation. Young people need help in every stage of their development.

TAKING RESPONSIBILITY
Many of these "at risk" young adults may honestly wonder if they can change. "Assume a virtue, if you have it not" is the admonition Shakespeare would have given them. Students need to be encouraged to start acting as they desire to be, and they need to know they can be whatever they desire, one step at a time. The capacity for creating the life they want resides within each of them.

REWARDS OF MENTORING
Being a mentor means showing acceptance and guidance to someone who needs your support. Your reward is the tremendous satisfaction awaiting you as you watch your mentorees grow and develop into the people they desire to be.

DEFINITION
A "Validating Mentor" is a coach, counselor, guide who seeks, finds, and points out the strengths of his mentoree. Validation implies recognition of someone's strengths.

MAKE A DIFFERENCE
If you are a parent, a teacher, a relative, or anyone who deals with children and young adults, you will find information in The Validating Mentor that you can put to good use right now.  "Mentoring" means "making a difference."

Gail Cassidy
Coachability.com
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