Practice Makes Perfect - 7 Tips for Making the Most of Your Presentation PracticeWritten by Debbie Bailey
Believe it or not, preparation is a better determinant of presentation success than knowledge, experience, or even talent. The best presenter is almost always presenter who is most prepared. Even so, there are a lot of conflicting ideas about what constitutes thorough presentation preparation. So what exactly is thorough preparation? Here are seven straight forward tips to increase effectiveness of time you invest in your practice. 1. Practice Delivery Out Loud. Practice is NOT mentally rehearsing your presentation on drive over to presentation or even thinking about your presentation while tossing and turning at night. Both of these are something, but not practice. A lot can happen between thinking about what you want to say and actually getting words to come out of your mouth coherently. If you don't actually practice speaking out loud, when time comes, you may struggle to articulate your mentally well rehearsed thoughts. To audience, this struggle will appear to be lack of preparation. 2. Try to Conduct Your Practice in a Situation Similar to Real Speaking Venue. Whenever possible, conduct your practice in a situation that closely mirrors real presentation. For example, if you will be speaking in front of a large group in an auditorium or large conference room, try to practice in a large room filled with as many audience recruits as possible. Why? Research indicates that if your practice closely mirrors your real presentation, once you are in actual presentation your brain will think you have done this before. Besides practice, next most important ingredient in your success is experience. 3. Practice in Front of Real People. If you can't find any audience recruits at work, ask your spouse, best friend, or if all else fails, your pet to listen to your presentation. Interacting with a live audience is an important part of your practice. It helps you not only rehearse your delivery, but gain experience reading and reacting to silent messages your audience is sending you about their understanding, their likes, and their dislikes.
| | Don't Get Caught With Your Profits Down!Written by Denise Hall
It's busy season - time of year when your customers shop 'til they drop. As a business owner you're probably happily enjoying extra sales holiday season brings. Cha-ching! Cha-ching!Gnihc-ahc! Uh-oh. "Any-payment-processor.com" just did a reverse cha-ching... in your account! They charged you back because a customer requested a refund. It hurts having to give a refund, but it happens to all of us occasionally. And as honest business owners, we want to make our customers happy by offering a money-back guarantee if they're not satisfied. But did you know that customers who *claim* they never made a purchase will, almost without a doubt, get a refund, no questions asked? And are you aware that many purchases, especially at this time of year, are made with stolen credit cards? It's sad but true. As holiday rush comes upon us, and even into January, possibility for scams and fraud is much greater than at any other time of year. Internet business owners are especially at risk for fraudulent refund requests.
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