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There seems to be a lot of information out there at the moment about the benefits of using humor in the workplace. In fact on Google there are about 363,000 results (at the time of writing), so clearly it’s quite a popular subject area. But it’s a topic that concerns me. Gravely concerns me. Read the rest of this entry

Over the past few months not only have I been honing my skills as a public speaker and coach, but I’ve also been learning about the basic of setting up and running a business. Now, whilst I realise that this can be quite an overwhelming subject as there’s a tonne of information out there in the subject, I’m going to try and cover some basic, basic elements that can be applied to a speaking or coaching business.
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I recently became an approved Network Expert on the website Get Entrepreneurial. I was very pleased when this happened because it helps to clarify my expert credibility to the world at large and adds another piece to the puzzle as I move my business forward.

It’s a very useful website as there are experts in various areas that have articles published which give advice on different areas that are useful to the entreprenuer such as business ideas, starting up and communication skills (which is my area of expertise).

I myself will be popping over there from time-to-time looking for inspiration and guidance on areas that I need assistance with, as well as providing any help that I can with speaking and the use of humour.

So if you’re looking to start up your own business this is the place to start your research. Do go forth and check it out as you’ll find it extremely useful I’m sure.  Here’s the full web address: www.getentrepreneurial.com

I came across a public speaking tip by Heidi Miller over at Talk It Up! blog. It works well as a sort of follow on from my last blog post. Heidi talks about seminar presentations. Here’s a quick extract from that article:

Public Speaking Tip #6

“Here’s the thing. For most seminar presentations at conference, you have an hour. You are not going to be able to change our lives in an hour. You are not going to be able to give us 10 things we are going to be able to absorb and implement in an hour. You are not going to be able to change our entire way of thinking about something in an hour…”

She’s absoutely right of course.  Of the speakers I’ve seen who don’t have any specific training other than being in a managerial position, most do exactly this.

They try to cram in a lot of infomation, without sparing a thought for us listeners who might not even know where to begin to implement any suggestions. Or even to understand the exact take away value from what they are telling us.

I certainly learnt something from Heidi’s article.

To read the full article click here.

I’ve recently read an article on the Erik Stafford’s blog about a technique called the Entrepreneurial Time System.

In case you don’t know who he’s known as “The Faster Webmaster” and he’s the creator of a product of the same name as well as the one that I recently purchased: 7 minute websites.

I don’t want to get into talking about Internet marketing right now and detract from what I want to talk about.

But the aritcle that he’s written on his blog definitely applies to becoming a professional speaker and entreprenuer.

A lot of the comments he makes not only resonate with me and what I’m in the process of doing right now, but it really applies to anyone following a similar entrepreneurial path.

I was originally going to just re-post it here, but I’ve decided to re-post bits of it instead and add my own thoughts on how I can implement the techniques.

At the moment I work too many hours. My working day usually finishes around 10pm. This includes working a day job and working on my business in the evenings. The worst it’s been was working on Christmas Day 2006! Not good.

My problem is i just try to do everything at once.

As Erik says on his blog “the Entrepreneurial Time System breaks the work week down into the following types of days”:

“Free Days: Free Days are 24 hours, from midnight to midnight… completely unplugged. No email, no work, no phone”.

This is always a challenge for me as I often sneek in a bit of work on Sundays. “I just need to check one email”, I say to my girlfriend. Then four hours later I’m up to my armpitts in something else. So I’ll give it a shot seeing as it’s required and when better than on a Sunday.

“Buffer Days: includes blogging, myspace and social bookmarking stuff, emails, etc”.

Okay, so I need to take specific days to deal with this sort of thing, I generally start my evenings this way, so then it takes me forever to get to do any actualy work.

Focus Days: involve things directly affect my bottom line and the growth of my business. For instance, setting up partnerships and joint venture opportunities.

For me this would currently include contacting web design companies to find someone to update my main website, following up with the people I met at the Business Startup Exhibition, developing speeches and so on.

For me I think I’m going to break my week down into four focus days, two buffer days and one free day. I’ll try to get that implmented as soon as I can and then re-evaluate in about a month’s time.

Cheers for that Erik.

PS, if you want to know motre about Erik Stafford’s work check out: 7 minute websites it’s an absolute steal at $7.