Nearly every resolutionist will have to lead a presentation before a group of colleagues or clients at some point. Delivering a good speech, however, is no easy task, even for those who do it frequently.

Careful groundwork can help reduce the risk of mishaps. Here are some tips for delivering an inspiring presentation, no matter how nervous or uncomfortable you may be:

Consider your goal and audience.
The first consideration when speaking before a group is identifying the goal you want to achieve. Are you trying to inform colleagues about new procedures, engage them in a dialogue about past experience, or persuade a potential client to try your service? Once you’ve determined your aim, craft your presentation to offer audience members a tangible set of benefits, such as how a new process can save them time or money.

Bring cue cards.
It’s wise to have index cards containing key points on hand whenever you’re asked to present. Even if you know what you want to say, your notes will serve as a backup and boost your confidence.  Be careful not to read your notes to your audience however.

Rehearse.
Even the most knowledgeable and practiced speakers need to rehearse their delivery. Unless you’re an improvisational whiz, you don’t want to wing it. Practice before a mirror or in front of someone who will give you constructive feedback. Pay attention to any distracting habits you may have, such as clearing your throat or running your fingers through your hair. You can avoid these behaviors once you’re aware of them.

Slow down and relax.
When presenting, try to maintain a moderate pace — not too quick or too slow. Start in a calm, measured way and articulate your words clearly so they are easily understood. Take natural pauses when appropriate and don’t forget to breathe. You’ll also appear more personable and relaxed if you avoid reading verbatim from a script and smile from time to time. Along the same lines, don’t use jargon or acronyms with which your audience may not be familiar — it can be both confusing and frustrating for them.

Recover when necessary.
Slip-ups happen. If you suffer a presentation snafu, don’t panic. Take a deep breath and focus on keeping your composure. Do your best to get back on track as soon as possible. If it’s a matter that could take a few minutes to resolve, such as a technical glitch or a spill, suggest a quick “intermission.”

Ask for feedback.
After you’ve presented, ask for feedback from colleagues and others whose opinion you value. Encourage them to provide constructive criticism and try to learn from their comments.

Overcoming hesitations you may have about public speaking can boost your confidence, enhance your contribution to your firm and, ultimately, help you advance your career. Keep in mind that public speaking is a skill that improves with practice — the more experience you acquire, the better you will be at it.

By Natalie J. Armstrong,
www.MarketingMediation.com

Procrastinate?!? Not me, not ever !
We all procrastinate. I do. I procrastinated about buying a pair of dress shoes that fit me better. I’ve continued to procrastinate for about 3 months now while continuing to wear the ill-fitting shoes. Right now I’m procrastinating about calling the podiatrist. My feet have been hurting lately. But I start to imagine all the machinations I’ll have to go through to get there, get examined, get treated, get billed and then go back. I’m hoping my feet will get better. They won’t. I’m hoping the shoes will stretch out. They won’t. But still I procrastinate.

I also procrastinate about picking up the cleaning, starting my tax returns, and cleaning my desk.

Do you procrastinate about anything? Of course. Do you procrastinate about marketing? If you are anything like the hundreds of clients I’ve worked with you put off some or all of the following:

• Getting focused - creating a strategy
• Writing marketing materials
• Writing articles
• Joining networking groups
• Asking for referrals
• Setting up speaking engagements
• Preparing a presentation
• Calling past clients
• Developing a sales approach
• Creating a database
• Sending thank-you notes

Sound familiar? Have you ever asked yourself why you put things off you know you should do? Of course you have. But if you ask yourself why, your subconscious will leap up in defense and create all kinds of rationalizations to answer that why. The validation usually goes like this. “I must be putting off my marketing because I’m just not a marketing type” or “These things won’t work anyway so why bother.” You just reinforce your old beliefs.

Instead, ask yourself empowering questions: “How can I find a way to do this” or “what could I gain by moving forward with this?” or “who knows how to do this better than I do who could give me some ideas where to start?”

All of these questions work to move you into action, which is a whole lot better than moping around feeling bad about not doing your marketing.

So let’s try to answer some of your new and empowering questions.

“How can I find a way to write some marketing materials?”

Start collecting the promotional pieces others send you. Read what the content says, pay attention to the layout of pieces. Keep everything whether it’s a piece that you like or not. Now make a list of the attributes that appeal to you and that you think will appeal to your target audience and a list of those attributes that don’t.

“I know that I should keep in touch with previous clients. What could I gain by moving forward with this?”

Calling past clients and sending thank-you notes is a powerful way to maintain your relationships. I know, I know, you’re thinking that it would take you too many weeks to phone everyone with whom you’ve previously worked. And you’re right but who says you have to do it all at once? Try phoning just 5 folks a day. We all have time to phone 5 people. The same with cards and letters. Send thank you notes to people with whom you’ve just worked and a personal letter to those with whom you’d like to work again. Just 5 a day. Just 5 a day means that 1250 people will hear from you this year that didn’t last year.

“How can I find the time to write an article?”

Writing articles can be a terrific marketing tool. When I suggest this to my non-writing clients they always tell me the same thing. I just stare at my computer and it just stares back. If you fit this category try talking your way through it. Find a topic that interests you. Then, while speaking into a recorder, talk to your associate, your spouse, or dog on the subject. Use the tape to create your article outline and viola! No more blank stare!

Natalie J. Armstrong is the Founder and Managing Director of Golden Media, a marketing and consulting firm dedicated to promoting resolution industry. She is the author of The Essential Guide to Marketing Your ADR Practice and speaks internationally on business developement and the successful marketing strategies of the conflict resolution industry. More ADR Practice Development articles and information about Ms. Armstrong and Golden Media can be found at www.MarketingMediation.com.

By Natalie J. Armstrong,
www.MarketingMediation.com

While shopping at my corner drug store over the weekend, I had an opportunity to witness a common marketing mistake. During the course of my browsing I could hear the store’s phone ringing persistently, rarely being answered. Shopping finished, I proceeded to the check out counter where once again the phone rang. The clerk let the phone ring six times before she cursed Dammit I’m busy! then grudgingly answered the phone. I can just imagine how she sounded to the caller.

This attitudinal error probably occurs a million times a day in every imaginable type of business, as the incoming call interrupts the important work. Don’t let this attitude overrun your business and marketing efforts.

Remember that if the phone rings at all, the marketing investments you’ve made are paying off. Be thankful that the phone rings and let THAT attitude pervade your tone and the content you provide to the potential client.

Natalie J. Armstrong is the Founder and Managing Director of Golden Media, a marketing and consulting firm dedicated to promoting resolution industry. She is the author of The Essential Guide to Marketing Your ADR Practice and speaks internationally on business developement and the successful marketing strategies of the conflict resolution industry. More ADR Practice Development articles and information about Ms. Armstrong and Golden Media can be found at www.MarketingMediation.com.

This glossary is a great addition to your marketing portfolios and will certainly help you tackle some interesting concepts. Available in PDF for you now. Don’t miss the outstanding Glossary of Words that Sell; also posted in a PDF for you.

 : MarketingMediation.com Glossary of Marketing Terms

Whatever you do, DO NOT miss out on the Visual Thesaurus. Whenever you sit down to write, be it an article, website copy, or something of the like, this is one of the single, most powerful tools you can possibly utilize. Take a look: Visual Thesaurus.

Here’s a powerful tool for you to add to your marketing playbook.

Created in PDF format for you to download and incorporate into your marketing materials. Special thanks to Natalie for bringing this one to the table.  You’ll need Adobe Acrobat to view the PDF. 

: MarketingMediation.com Glossary of Marketing Words that Sell

Whatever you do, DO NOT miss out on the Visual Thesaurus. Whenever you sit down to write, be it an article, website copy, or something of the like, this is one of the single, most powerful tools you can possibly utilize. Take a look: Visual Thesaurus.

 Good Luck!

I love this. Classic story of what you can do with an opportunity and a positive attitude. It reminds me of the folks at MoFo. Looking forward to seeing what some creative marketing people can do when handed the ball.

(Continued Reading)

The longer we analyze the current ways of operating, the further we fend off that awesome day when we will have to change something. Analysis becomes a defensive maneuver to avoid making fundamental change.”
–Michael Hammer and Steven Stanton

Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it. No idleness, no laziness, no procrastination; never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.
–Lord Chesterfield

Failure is only the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.”
–Henry Ford

The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.”
–Walter Bagehot

You have a zero percent scoring average on shots you don’t take.”
–Wayne Gretzky

How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it.”
–Marcus Aurelius

When it comes to your marketing materials, your choice of words can make or break you. Sales copy is some of the hardest content to write, add the fact that you’re often writing about yourself and it’s twice as difficult.

The next time you sit down to rework your website content or draft a sales letter weigh in on our Sales Copy Videos or download a copy of our:

Glossary of Words That Sell.

Glossary of Marketing Terms

I have learned through bitter experience the one supreme lesson to conserve my anger, and as heat conserved is transmitted into energy, even so our anger controlled can be transmitted into a power that can move the world.”
– Mahatma Gandhi

Don’t fight the battle if you don’t gain anything by winning.”
– George S. Patton

Discovery consists of looking at the same thing as everyone else and thinking something different.”
– Albert Szent-Gyorgi

There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success than to take the lead in introducing a new order of things.”
– Niccolo Machiavelli

You must have long-range goals to keep you from being frustrated by short-range failures.”
– Charles C. Noble

Strategy is perpetually changing. The plan of attack that leads to success today, may prove a dismal failure tomorrow. Throughout our MarketingMediation.com website and blog, we talk about strategy and tactics. What they mean, why they’re important, why you need to consider them for your practice development. But it’s easier said than done to first develop a strategic plan and then put it into action.

Every year a new crop of fresh mediators is turned out to the field. A once open range of market potential is now crowded with new players bringing new ideas to mediation practice development and a ton of energy to bode. Let’s be honest, our industry is rapidly changing and new faces are showing up at the same industry conferences more frequently. There’s an old quote that says “differentiate or die”…ok that may be a bit on the extreme, when a simple self-evaluation of strategic planning will do. If you need help, contact us. We’ll walk you through the paces and develop a prescription for you to implement. But in the meantime, regardless of your political party, whether you’re red, blue, pink, or green, consider this wonderful and appropriate story about former President Lyndon B. Johnson from Robert Green’s The 33 Strategies of War.
ENDING AS BEGINNING

As a young man, Lyndon B. Johnson had just one dream: to climb the ladder of politics and become president. When Johnson was in his mid-twenties, the goal was starting to seem unreachable. A job as the secretary of a Texas Congressman had allowed him to meet and make an impression on President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had named him the Texas Director of the National Youth Administration a post promising excellent political connections. But Texas voters were extremely loyal, often returning congressman to their seats for decades, or until they died. Johnson urgently wanted a seat in Congress. If he did not get one soon enough, he would be too old to climb the ladder and he burned with ambition.

On February 22, 1937, out of the blue, the chance of a lifetime opened up: the Texas congressman James Buchanan suddenly died. The seat he left empty, that Texas’ Tenth District, was a rare opportunity, and the state’s eligible political heavyweights immediately threw their hat in the ring. The many contenders included Sam Stone, a popular county judge; Shelton Polk, an ambitious young Austin attorney; any C.N. Aver, Buchanan’s former campaign manager, the favorite to win. Avery had the support of Tom Miller, mayor of Austin, the Tenth District’s only large city. With Miller’s backing he could count on almost enough votes to win the election.

Johnson was faced with a terrible predicament. If he entered the race, the odds would be absurdly against him: he was young- only twenty-eight- and in the district he was unknown and poorly connected. A bad loss would damage his reputation and set him far back on the road to his long-term goal. If he chose not to run, on the other hand, he might wait ten years for another chance. With all this in mind, he threw caution to the winds and entered the race.

Johnson’s first step was to call to his side the dozens of young men and women whom he had helped or hired over the years. His campaign strategy was simple: he would separate himself from the other contenders by presenting himself as Roosevelt’s staunchest supporter. A vote for Johnson was a vote for the president, the popular architect of the New Deal. And since Johnson could not compete in Austin, he decided to aim his army of volunteers at the countryside, the sparsely populated Hill County. This was the district’s poorest area, a place where the candidates rarely ventured. Johnson wanted to meet every last farmer and sharecropper, shake every possible hand, win the votes of the people who had never voted before. It was the strategy of a desperate man who recognized that this was hi best and only chance for victory.

One of Johnson’s mist loyal followers was Carroll Keach, who would server as his chauffeur. Together the two men drove every square mile of Hill County, tracing every dirt path and cow trail. Spotting some out-of-the-way farmhouse, Johnson would get out of the car, walk to the door, introduce himself to the startled inhabitants, listen patiently to their problems, then leave with a hearty handshake and a gentle plea for their vote. Convening meetings in dusty towns consisting mainly of a church and a gas station, he would deliver his speech, then mingle with the audience and spend the last few minutes with everyone present. He had an incredible memory for faces and names: if he happened to meet the same person twice, he could recall everything he or she had said the first time around, and often impressed strangers by knowing someone who knew them. He listened intensely and was always careful to leave people with the feeling that they would see him again, and if he won they would finally have someone looking out for their interests in Washing. In bars, grocery stores, and gas stations all through Hill County he would talk with the locals as if he had nothing else to do. On leaving he make sure to buy something- candy, groceries, gasoline- a gesture they appreciated. He had the gift of creating a connection.

As the race ran on, Johnson went days without sleep, his voice turning hoarse, his eyes drooping. As Keach drove the length of the district, he would listen in amazement as the exhausted candidate in the car muttered to himself about the people he had just met, the impression he had made, what he could have done better. Johnson never wanted to seem desperate or patronizing. It was that last handshake and look in the eye that mattered.

The polls were deceptive: the continued to show Johnson behind, but he knew he hand won votes that no poll would register. And in any case he was slowly catching up- by the last week he had crept into third place. Now, suddenly, the other candidate took notice. The election turned nasty: Johnson was attacked for his youth, for his blind support of Roosevelt, anything that could be dug up. Trying to win a few votes in Austin, Johnson came up against the political machine of Mayor Miller, who disliked him and did everything possible to sabotage his campaign. Undeterred, Johnson personally visited the mayor several times in the last week to broker some kind of truce. But Miller saw right through his charm. His personal appeal might have won over the district’s poorest voters, but the other candidates saw a differed side of him: he was ruthless and capable of slinging mud. As he rose in the polls, he made more and more enemies.

On Election Day, Johnson pulled off one of the greatest upsets in American Political history, outdistancing his nearest rival by three thousand votes. Exhausted by the grueling pace that he had set, he was hospitalized, but the day after his victory he was back at work- he had something extremely important to do. From his hospital bed, Johnson dictated letters to his rivals in the race. He congratulated them for running a great campaign; he also described his own victory as a fluke, a vote for Roosevelt more than himself. Learning that Miller was visiting Washington, Johnson telegraphed his connections in the city to chaperone the mayor and treat him like royalty. As soon as Johnson left the hospital, he paid visits to his rivals and acted with almost embarrassing humility. He even befriended Polk’s brother, driving him around town on errands.

A mere eighteen months later, Johnson had to stand for reelection, and these onetime opponents and bitter enemies suddenly turned into the most ferverent Johnson believers, donating money, even campaigning on his behalf. And Mayor Miller, the one man who had hated Johnson the most, now became his strongest supported and remained so for years.
Andrew Golden is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of Golden Media, a marketing and consulting firm dedicated to promoting the resolution industry. He speaks internationally on business development and the successful marketing strategies of the conflict resolution industry. More ADR Practice Development articles and information about Golden Media can be found at www.MarketingMediation.com.