When your Message is Concise and Convincing,
You Attract Your Ideal Customer to You

Design – Structure, focus, key points
Your - Unique, original, passion for your subject
Message – Benefit to the audience
Concise – Specific with clear examples
Convincing – Audience: Do, think, feel

How?

Coaching – One to one – Assisting you in discovering your
passion, expertise and most effective delivery

Workshops – Group – Specific interactive topics:
30 second intro, follow up, structure, content,
Delivery, keys to enhance your attraction to
Your ideal market

Keynotes – Customized presentations for each individual
audience, within my niche subject expertise, to provide
maximum value to your audience

Who?

Professional speakers (or those desiring to be professional speakers), management, sales. Trainers, and new speakers. Enhance your presentation skills and you will increase your value and thus your income.

You are either attracting others to you or chasing them away with your presentation skills.

Discover the keys to connecting not just communicating.

Are you ready to develop the keys to success?

Enter your information for the free self-assessment quiz on your presentation skills.

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Elaine, Female CEO

Step in to your power as a business woman. In the words of Tony Robbins, “Everything you need is already in you.”

How many of you have ever had anyone try to intimidate you? Why do you think they did that? Yes, maybe they were insecure or demonstrating power. How much of our reaction was really about them and how much was within us?

Ever hear of the reaction of a mama bear when someone came near her cubs? If you ever have any hesitation about the power of a female, just remember that image. You are all powerful. The days of the timid, stand in the shadows and not be heard, female are gone.

In order to thrive in this world as a business and professional woman, we must regard ourselves as equals in the workplace. We are neither inferior nor dominant, we are equal. We have unique talents and abilities just as men have unique talents and abilities. No, I’m not a “bra burning,” raging hormone, out of control female. I am a confident, capable and accomplished female business professional. You have the ability to be whatever you choose to be as well.

Will there be obstacles? Of course. There are obstacles in every worthwhile venture. Some of those obstacles are financial, time constraints and emotional issues. The emotional issues may be the more challenging; however, they are also the ones over which we have total control.

Ever face a woman with her mind made up about something? Neither a hurricane, earthquake nor a mother-in-law could deter her from her chosen path. Make up your mind that you are a success and on the way to becoming a bigger success. One of the biggest obstacles we hurdle over comes in the form emotional ice water.

We encounter emotional ice water from a variety of sources. Who throws emotional ice water? It could be friends, co-workers or we may even be related to the source. Why do they do it? They may actually believe they are doing it for our own good or they may want to keep us down so they don’t have to reach for their own goals.

Sometimes the devil you know is preferable to the future you do not know. Have you ever stayed in a job you do not like just because it is easier than going through the process of searching for a new job? People have even been known to stay in bad relationships because it is easier than enduring the hassle of changing the situation.

Focus squarely on your goal. Remember that mother bear. Remember the set of your jaw and the look in your eye when you are absolutely determined to do something. Feel that power. Determine your goal and formulate the specific details. The more detailed the better. Light a fire in your spirit. Build that fire to such roaring proportions that it can withstand any emotional ice water from inside or outside sources.

For assistance in determining your goal, formulating the specific details or overcoming obstacles, join me at www.Elaine4Success.com. Maybe that is why I have the nickname “Tiger in High Heels.”

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Debrief - Check Your List

How many hours did you spend preparing for that presentation?  Entrepreneurial success requires preparation, presentation and review.  If it was a major client, it was probably several hours.  You wrote, rehearsed, tweaked and worried.  You probably picked out just the right outfit to make a favorable impression.  The time arrived and you gave your presentation.  How did it go?

Preparation is absolutely important.  Delivery is also very important.  What happens next?  “It has been 2 days since we met, Mr. Buyer.  What do you think?”  Regardless of the words chosen, you probably made at least one follow up call.

What did you do about your presentation?  Did you review your own performance?  Reality indicates that less then 1% of the salesmen ever review their own presentation.  Entrepreneurial success is epitomized by the Toastmasters speaking and leadership tracks.  Toastmasters encourages every member to record a video and an audio of every speech.  Just recording the speech is not enough.  It is important to actually watch and listen to the recording.

How many salesmen, male and female, ever record their presentations?  Out of thousands of sales professionals, you could count the number on one foot with toes left over.  No wonder so many salesmen put their foot in their mouth during presentations.

A wise friend of mine, Ed Tate, recommends using debriefing questions after every presentation.  (Ed Tate was the 2000 world champion of public speaking for Toastmasters.)

What happened?  List the good points and the “lets do that differently next time” points.

Why did that part work or why didn’t that part work?  Break the entire presentation down into small parts and review each one.  Don’t beat yourself up, but do be honest.  The growth is in the struggle to improve.  I recently had a speech which did not go nearly as well as I would have liked.  I don’t know if you ever talk to yourself, but I had a serious heart to heart with myself over that performance.  “Elaine, you stayed up all night working on the last minute changes.  You were not rested and refreshed.”  “Elaine, you spent the time running off new handouts instead of eating breakfast.  Your energy was low.”  “Elaine, you drank black coffee in an attempt to boost energy all night and early in the morning rather than drinking water to stay hydrated.”  “Elaine, you self sabotaged your own performance.”  Even though staying up all night working, running off copies and coffee seemed like good ideas at the time, in retrospect, they were self defeating.

How many college students have crammed all night for a test and almost fell asleep during the test?  Common practice but not a good idea.

What worked?  What parts did not work?  In any speech or presentation some parts work better than others.  Unless you take the time to dissect the entire presentation, you do not know what parts to keep in for the next presentation and which parts to tweak.  In order to maximize entrepreneurial success, a debrief of the presentation is essential.

What did you learn?  Debrief all parts of the presentation and make concentrated efforts to strengthen the most effective parts and revise the weaker segments.  Examine carefully what you learned.  The growth is in the struggle.

For more tips, techniques and solid business practices, join me at www.Elaine4Success.com.

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You will always be more productive, more profitable and more emotionally satisfied when you are working in your passion.  When you are passionate about what you do for a living, it is easier to get out of bed in the morning.  You are actually eager to get to the office.  Does that feel like traveling in a foreign land without a map to you?  If being happy about your career is totally foreign to you, then it is time to seriously examine your career choice.

Remember as a child how you had wild and wonderful dreams about how life could be when you grew up?  What happened to that childish wonder and excitement?  As a child did you imagine yourself as wealthy?

Examine your wealth builders blueprint.  Did you forget to even make one or is it covered with years of dust?  Unfortunately, it is probably not gold dust.  Time to dust it off and reinvigorate your dreams.  Your dreams are the first step in your wealth builders blueprint.

What is a dream anyway?

D – Decide what you truly want

R – Refine it down to a specific goal

E – Examine all of the factors involved in making it come true

A – Action plan to achieve

M – Maintain consistent, persistent, focused action

Deciding what you truly want can be accomplished by paying close attention to your energy.  When do you feel the most invigorated and inspired?  What are you doing when time just flies by without glancing at the clock every five minutes or having the overwhelming urge to jump up and get another cup of coffee?  When do you feel the greatest sense of satisfaction?  Where does your mind wander to in your daydreams?  All of these are clues as to your passion – your area of highest productivity, profitability and satisfaction.

Refining all of these thoughts, activities and “what if” ideas into the one most important goal is a process.  Be careful not to talk yourself out of your dream by saying it can’t happen.  Approach the process as if EVERYTHING is possible.  When you want something badly enough and really focus on it, there is usually a way to achieve it.  Napoleon Hill said, “What the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”

Examine all of the factors involved.  Do you need more training?  Do you need to tap into a positive mastermind group who share your quest for achieving a dream?  Careful, no bar room benefactors, they tend to be negative; they are dream stealers.  Look at finances, education, and skills.  You will have to move.  Move your mind in a new direction; move your time priorities; move your seat off the couch and into action.

Form an action plan with step by step activities to move you constantly toward your goal.  It may not be fast but keep checking to be certain you are on course.  Revisit the plan frequently and be certain you have not veered off course.

Maintain consistent, persistent and focused action all headed toward the achievement of the goal.  This means daily.  Your dream becomes a 24-7-365 focus.  You dream about its accomplishment at night, take action on it during the day and daydream about how your life will feel when you are successful.

A wealth builders blueprint starts with a dream.  Live the life you desire and deserve.

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What you are thinking on the inside reflects in your attitude, words and results on the outside.

Guys, have you ever asked a female, “What’s wrong?”  You received the dreaded “nothing.”  You know better, she knows better.  Even worse, you are no closer to a solution.  Your thoughts, or at least the general tone of those thoughts, reflect to everyone around you.  I am just as guilty as other females of doing this “nothing” comment.

Have you ever asked your teenager “How was school today?”  Sometimes we receive a grunt and sometimes it is “fine” Have you ever asked your spouse “How was work today?”  That answer can either be a full dissertation on a word by word basis or that same “fine” which actually sounds like “I don’t want to talk about it.  Don’t ask.”

Locking emotions up inside prolongs the agony and stifles solutions.  Even more than avoiding any possible solutions to the issue, it makes everyone around you uncomfortable.  How do you feel when a boss, co-worker, family member or friend does that to you?

Entrepreneurial success depends on a positive attitude and open communication.  If you can not communicate with your employees, co-workers and clients, your business is doomed.  Equally critical is a positive attitude.  The more you lock off your communication, the more you chase away your entrepreneurial success.

A positive attitude and open communication are Siamese twins; it requires both to achieve entrepreneurial success.  Without a positive internal attitude, you will never project a positive external attitude.  The best actor or actress in the world can only sustain a role for a limited period of time.  Hiding your feelings or “fake it until you make it” has a limited shelf life.  Just as you see through the mood of others around you, they see through your mood as well.  Consider for a moment how you feel when you believe someone is either not telling you the entire truth or is intentionally misleading you.  You lose trust in them.  Without trust, you will never achieve entrepreneurial success.
Hiding or faking your thoughts and feelings equals deception.  Pretending to think, feel or speak something different than the truth, will come back to haunt you.  How do you snap out of a funk?  Think of something which makes you happy.  Take a walk to clear your head.  Yes, you could go eat chocolate but that would not be a wise long term solution. Movement and reflecting on positives always increases the positives.

Get your head back into a positive thought pattern.  Bring your feelings back to positive memories.  Focus on all of the good things in your life.

Once your thoughts and feelings are positive, you can openly communicate.  When you open up, the others around you will communicate more freely as well.  The major turning point in your entrepreneurial success is your internal thoughts and feelings.  As Jim Rohn, noted business philosopher said “Work harder on yourself than on your business.”

Positive thoughts and feelings coupled with open communication and you are on your way to entrepreneurial success.

For more helpful tips, techniques and mindset shifts join me at www.Elaine4Success.com.

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