Professional development – Page 14 – Tom Fuszard's Business Builder

Leave a lasting impression when you give a presentation

January 8, 2016August 29, 2012 by Tom Fuszard

Enjoy a successful presentation by leaving a lasting impression

What can a veterinarian, one-time bungee jumper, and a public speaker offer a roomful of entrepreneurs? A lot, when the message is packaged properly. And there is a lesson in that.

One evening I had the pleasure of attending a presentation by Morgan McArthur, DVM, of New Berlin, Wis. Though funny and entertaining, McArthur understood his mission: keep the message meaningful to his audience. As a business owner and budding professional speaker, I gleaned several good morsels from his talk.

McArthur, the 2000 Toastmasters World Champion of Public Speaking, challenged the 150-plus entrepreneurs in attendance to expand their horizons. He recalled how standing on the platform high above a river in New Zealand made him think twice about bungee jumping. He found meaning in the leap he eventually took.

“The edge of the bridge is the edge of your comfort zone,” he said, adding that we should “move from the comfort zone to the learning zone.”

Overcome adversity with resilience and determination

January 7, 2016August 9, 2012 by Tom Fuszard

Attitude and action will help you overcome challenges

Started reading another book last night from my collection on motivation, sales and customer service. This one, If You Can’t Climb The Wall, Build A Door! by Dr. Charles Lever (Inti Publishing, 1997), is turning out to be a good choice. You may have guessed that this is about how to overcome adversity. If not, the subtitle explains it all: “Principles to live by when quitting is not an option.”

I grabbed the book because it appeared to offer a good message. Plus, at 155 pages, it should be a fast read. That part is coming true, but the book also offers a lot of good advice for anyone struggling to overcome life’s challenges.

Like another book from my collection that provided material for a blog post, this book caused me to put some thoughts down in a column.

Early on, Dr. Lever lists nine reasons why he wrote the book. He tries to reach out to people struggling with loneliness, grieving over the loss of a friend, fighting to hold a marriage together and other challenges. Two reasons that caught my eye were:

How to create content for your blog

January 9, 2017August 2, 2012 by Tom Fuszard

How to create blog content

Most people have a pretty good understanding of how to write a blog; that is, fundamentally put one together and then post columns. Odds are that not too many bloggers have developed a blog content strategy. With that, the blog may end up all over the place in terms of content, and not achieve the desired results.

How do I know? I was that way for several months. I started this blog in the spring of 2011. Initially I would post columns based upon material I had used in the past for my company’s newsletter. The material was good, but I wasn’t really focused on the big picture as I needed to be.

Presentation tip: Don’t let gaffes trip you up

January 7, 2016July 31, 2012 by Tom Fuszard

In an earlier post, I discussed how to handle problems that sometimes occur during presentations. This presentation tip column goes a bit deeper. I use examples from my own speaking experiences to show you how I overcame minor mistakes

Remember this: If something occurs while giving a presentation, compensate and move on. This is an important point. Presenters – especially nervous ones – sometimes overreact when they make a mistake. Errors are a part of every presenter’s life. Learn to live with and deal with them.

Presentation errors fall under two broad categories: physical and mental. Let’s start with physical ones.

Public speaking tip: Grab attention with your opening

January 7, 2016July 25, 2012 by Tom Fuszard

Public speaking tip: Powerful opening grabs attention

One of the keys to a successful presentation is a strong opening. You grab the audience’s attention and get them into your “world” from the start. A strong opening piques interest in your presentation, and the audience wants to hear more.

Too often speakers begin with “Thank you, Mr. Jones. It’s great to be here. I’m honored to …” and so on. That portion is OK but should come after your attention-grabbing introduction.

You have four techniques to choose from: question, statement, anecdote/story and quotation. Use one of these public speaking techniques the next time you craft a presentation.

Question: Develop a question based upon your theme or main point. I have used these as openers:

“How many of you enjoy public speaking and take advantage of every opportunity?”

“When you hear the term ham radio operator, what images come to mind?”

Then give your “thanks” comments and proceed into your presentation.

Statement/Declaration: For best effect, select a powerful bit of information from your copy. Let’s say your presentation is on world hunger. You could start like this: