How can that be? I was wondering that too, at first. It’s simple if you think about it. Lets say you have a group of tasks that you need help with. It doesn’t even matter what they are, or when you need them. Now, add in an e-mail from me that says, “How can I help?”

Do you send me the first task on the list? Do you send me something simple that I can’t screw up? How do you decide? How do you even start to figure it out?

This question comes up in my mind because of my work in Toastmasters. There is a lot of work to be done, and a lot of potential volunteers out there. The trick is trying to match the needs with the skillsets, which I’m sure is a common problem in any volunteer organization, and even in the corporate settings.

So what is the solution? I think that it comes in two parts. First, you have to be able to define your need. I say that, knowing that even well polished job descriptions coupled with accurate and truthful resumés don’t often lead to good matches in the corporate settings. However, you can’t let the difficulty of doing the job right paralyze you from doing the job, right?

Second, you want to get your volunteer pool to shift gears and start providing you with ideas on how they can help, not just offers of help. As an example, I recently had one volunteer step back due to some scheduling issues. Before I had a chance to look for a replacement, I received a request from another member to step in and help with an important task that was needed in the short term (next two weeks). That was far better that 6 “How can I help?” messages.

What’s my strategy? I’ve been working with our team to put together specific needs, much like job descriptions. This can work in your small business or Toastmasters club too. Define the job and see who fits the bill. If you can’t find anyone, change the description and see if you get the right experience to at least cover a portion of the job.

How do you get them used to volunteering for specific tasks? You have to be specific.

What is the job?
What is the importance? To whom?
What is time requirements?
What are the travel and communication requirements?
Who do they report to?
What defines success?

There are probably other questions, but answer those above and you’ll likely have a description someone can understand and decide on.

I recently tried this in our TM District, sending a brief description to 101 Club VPs of Membership. I receive about 7 positive responses, and ended up with 4 volunteers for jobs we had never filled before. So far so good – and more will be coming.

If you’re like me and you have tasks that need to be done, whether in a volunteer organization or a small business, take the time to outline your need first. Then you can answer the folks who ask the tough question, ”How can I help?”

The important question is how does this advice affect you?  Is this where your next speech comes from, where your next project comes from, where your next success comes from?

The notes from the Edge Summit are presented in chronological order. If you have some thoughts I missed, feel free to e-mail me at contact@robchristeson.com and I’ll include them here with attribution and a link (if you want). Please note that links to the Edge site are affiliate links.

Also, I’ve done my best to properly attribute information as I typed it in the session. Most of what you read here comes from World Champions Darren LaCroix, Ed Tate, Craig Valentine or Lance Miller from the Edge event. Mark Brown also participated remotely, and some material comes from the awesome Alan Weiss and the amazing Patricia Fripp. If you do spot any errors or omissions, they are unintentional and I’ll correct them immediately.

Here we go…
“Ya ain’t gonna learn any younger” – Lance Miller quoting advice he received from a story about learning to back up a semi trailer truck.

lightbulb moment – think chandelier moment – Maureen Zapalla

Three questions you should ask about your business
why you?
who will pay?
how will I reach them?

Topics members wanted to discuss (questions in bold)
coaching – developing a multi-session plan (this one didn’t get touched on) 

marketing a seminar - 3 months out – marketing blasts – touch multiple times – research says you can reach out to customers 220 times per year without annoying them – multiple items (e-mail, Facebook, twitter, etc.)

what 3 tips for the 73 people who didn’t make the finals - there were some thoughts later on the finals, read my notes here: http://robchristeson.com/toastmasters-why-you-wont-win-your-contest

Selling from the back of the room - selling without annoying people (SWAP) – sell another’s program before selling your own – Seeding (plant seeds) – weaving () – you aren’t selling products,you’re selling results
Lance – going from zero to moving – change from manipulating your client to helping them – 1. believe in the product, 2. care about the customer, 3. 
Craig – everybody has a story to tell, but rarely do they get to tell it, because (wait for it) everybody has a story to tell. Be the one to listen to other peoples stories.
#1 reason they buy – confidence in you – confidence comes from familiarity – familiarity comes from repeated exposure – sell the results (Craig’s car story) – put the result before the resource – not just for products, but in your speech too
Lance- present and ask for feedback – take the materials that work and use them to make your product

Ed – retention after 48 hours – 10 percent; take notes – 50 percent; notes and discuss – 75 percent; notes, discuss, and teach – 82 percent after one year

Should you have a book first, DVD, or other product?
Craig – never create a product without teaching it several times first – your first product should be an audio CD

Details about being a small business
Ed – this is a business first, you speak second. If you don’t treat it as a business, you won’t get to do either. More will come in the 2-day Get Paid to Speak seminar.

Using YouTube, how much is too much - embrace the concept of abundance – answer the question – 2-3 minutes – give a next step (more below)

Craig – recommended a book – Launch by Michael Stelzner

Maleki (District 71) – Take the Talent to Training and the Treasure will come out – not about the price, it’s about the process

“Be careful not to keep your ego to close to your position, if you lose your position, your ego will go with it” – Colin Powell quoted by Ed

Ed – the word is receiving – 3rd place Scott Pritchard stayed on stage after speaking and saying “mister contest master” (at the finish) and smiled at the audience for about 10 seconds – what’s the word? receiving

Ed – number one job of a speaker is to make an impact – not to be liked

Ed – Talk in Tweets (talk in sound bytes) <–blog topic

Craig – speaking in sound bytes creates a memorable message – what is his focus? two words – touch lives – before you speak, say “please help me forget myself, remember my speech and touch my audience”

Lance – conviction – convict – what happened to become a convict – trial with evidence beyond a reasonable doubt – conviction is having a position you believe beyond a reasonable doubt 
- passion – in dictionary, passion came from ancient word for suffer. 
Practice to execution ratio (pro football)
Passion are those things that we do that we would suffer through without feeling like we are suffering
Sincere – means we have a clean, clear message
Do a raffle for your product- collect business cards and draw one to get a free copy of your product. Be clear “I’m going to email you with an option to opt in” so they know why you’re collecting the cards

Ed – Presentation variety- in order to maintain peoples attention, change your delivery method every 5- 10 minutes (I.e. You talking, asking questions, audience interactions, etc.)

Ed asked a few of us to run the 10 minute review after lunch
Take one minute and review your notes and write down your three favorite tweets or sound bytes of the morning. – you will learn…
Instruct online folks to tweet to hashtag Championsedge 
Take two minutes to turn to your neighbor and choose your best tweet
Next we go one group per row to give their top tweet
Maureen will write them down

general or specialist? – start with what you know – package/title it in what they want Book “how to earn more than a million dollars …”  

“the Psychology of Money” – became  ”the millionaire mindset”
“anatomy of an audience” – “connect with any audience”

Esteem
Do
Gain
Enjoy

Craig – touch all 4 categories to reach your audience
Darren – start with 3 topics, 2 specific and 1 general (or 1 and 2)
Craig – your audience is going to come up and tell you what you are speaking about – “never strike oil by digging an inch deep”
Ed – you can also specialize by delivery methods – be known as “the person who is known as…”

Make three colums – Experience     Delivery     Results

Experience
Specifics about your experience

Delivery
Speech          
Seminar
Book
Process CD

Results
increase profits
decrease costs
decrease turnover

Homework – flesh this list out for yourself

Mine – Experience
Teaching
PM Increase knowledge (anecdotal)
Military
Logistics
Supervision
Evaluations
Speaking
Blogging
Writing

My Delivery
Blog
Speaking
Seminars
Lunch ‘n learn

My Results
Increase productivity
Decrease turnover
hmmmmm….(homework)

 
Focus on results, not experience and delivery – discuss results, leave out experience and delivery – Craig, focus on the pain – ask questions and turn their pain into your promise

Social Media is a hot topic right now – Be careful about speaking about making money with social media when your aren’t making money yourself (credibility)

Marketing a seminar - sign up on edtate.com - special report 
Ed – make sure that you have enough time i.e. three months to market it
Delivery mechanism – e-mail, linkedin, postcards, newspaper, business journal,
Darren – web page – convert them – title – split test to find best conversion method
Shopping cart – all three of them use the same one speaker resources.com

6- minutes to a keynote
Craig – structure – you have 7 seconds before they decide if they like you, 30 seconds before they decide to check out. Open with a question or a story – then make a big promise. i.e “By the time you leave here today, you will have the tools… you will have ideas…etc.” Then the roadmap. “…and these come to you in the form of 4 R’s to remarkable results”
10-1 rule of thumb, 1 story/point to every 10 minutes
Phrase
Anchor – what’s loose is lost – Acronym, anecdote, analogy, activity
Reflection – Take your story and have them reflect on how it affects them
Technique – how do they practice it i.e. “write down your perfect day”
Sale – Push them into the Pull – Push away from what they want to avoid and pull them toward what they want
Use the PAR for newer speakers

Demo video - less than 10 minutes on site (have report, need to have a point, need solid audio) – less than 10 seconds on who you are
YouTube 2-3 minutes (1 minute if you can) – 1 video, 1 purpose, 1 next step. no more than 3 scenes (locations)

you must package your process in order to profit

Ed- what do you want people to Know Feel or Do

Darren – watch the first 5 minutes of a movie – notice how they are introducing characters through dialog
Time management from NSA
Focus day – product, speaking
Administrative day – mundane activities
Free day  - free of everything – phone, e-mail, etc. 
Same model for athletes and entertainers

Darren -every time you speak, build your list – then, touch your list – at least once a month
Do interviews
an a-ha moment is a letting-go of a previous belief 

Charles speech (coached on-site)

longer pause after first “so was I”
pauses

“do the thing you fear, and the death of fear is certain” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Concluded twice 

too many I’s, My’s and Me’s

My homework:

Work on 52bloggingtips.com – finish creating the tips and start filming videos

Talk to the Human
New tagline – an IT guys perspective on communicating with real people

Affiliate link alert: World Champions EDGE. This link will take you to the Edge website, where you can see some free materials or sign up for just $1 for the first month.

If I asked you wether you not you had already read the information on TI’s website about the rebranding, including how the tagline, Where Leaders Are Made, comes from I imagine I would see very few hands come up.

I’ve heard and read comments just this  week about how TI “messed up” by removing communication from the tagline. 

Oops. Maybe you aren’t reading it right. Why do I say that? Because communication IS in our tagline, Where Leaders Are Made. 

Don’t see it? Read it again – Where Leaders Are Made. Now let’s try an exercise. Close your eyes and take a deep breath. Now open your eyes. Picture a leader you respect, admire, or simply choose to follow. Are you thinking of one now? Did that leader struggle to make their point? Did they fail to inspire with their words regularly? Did they usually seem scattered and disoriented when dealing with others? 

Probably not.

In being great leaders they were, by definition, great communicators. 

Prove me wrong. Pick someone you respect as a leader, someone you follow willingly, someone you emulate, and if they can’t communicate, comment with their name, and why it is that you do follow them. 

Remember some leaders use a different formula than 5-7 minutes. Some don’t even blog. If your favorite leader is a man of few words, like your Grandfather, and you followed him because he communicated with his actions, well…leading by example is communication.

Take a few minutes, and check www.toastmasters.org/vbp for more information, including a downloadable Brand Manual with more specifics. Look at slides 11-17 for details. 

By better understanding the connection you can answer those questions that may come when you say, “I’m a Toastmaster, Where Leaders Are Made.”   

I’ve never had a boss respond positively to that kind of statement. Do you know why?

1. Waiting implies inaction. No…actually waiting says “I’m not taking any action at this time.”
2. When your next action is to wait on someone else, it sounds like you’re passing the buck. Oops…you are passing the buck.
3. Waiting means you have no plan for your own next action, until you get the thing from what’s-his-name.

Once, a long time ago, when I used the “I’m waiting” answer on my boss, I learned fast and quick what a mistake that was. My boss told me, “Rob, when you say ‘waiting‘, I hear ‘failing‘.”

“But, I am waiting!!!”

“Not anymore, Rob. Go do something.”

What do you do?

#1 – Don’t wait, follow up. – “Hey boss, I followed up with Mike this morning and…”

#2 – Don’t assign work without a due date, or expected response time. – “…he said he would have the documents to us by 0800 tomorrow…”

#3 – Have a next step for yourself. – “…once I have them, I’ll have the summary to you by noon.”

#4 – Be ready for “what if…?” – “If I don’t have them by 0800, I’ll be parked at his desk until he’s done!”

Lots of people fall into the “I’m waiting” trap everyday. If you adjust how you handle the wait and how you communicate it, you’ll receive fewer stern looks from the boss, and you’ll avoid that perception…you know, the one where the boss wonders are you waiting, or are you failing?

Because he was one of the later presenters in the day, people were primed to volunteer. When Bill said that he wanted to bring two people on stage, some voices called out “me” and similar requests. Bill’s response? (paraphrased) “I already have them picked out.”

He brought up two people, a young woman and her mother. He told us a brief story of how he met the young woman (who worked) at the hotel, and how she had made an impression on him. He asked her to tell the audience what her plan was. She responded “I’m going to be a Physician’s Assistant” (also known as a PA).

Then, Bill asked the mom what he had said to her. After some cajoling, it came out that BIll though she should pursue her dream, which was to be an Orthopedic Surgeon.

He mentioned that in their conversation yesterday, her concern was the time that it would take to reach that goal. At 22, the prospect of being 26, 28 and 34 before she reached that goal. (Bill mentioned all of those ages, but focused on the final #, 34).

Pay attention to this: His response? “You’re going to be 34 either way.” He then asked her if she wanted to be 34 and regret what could have been?

He not only was able to get her to commit to pursuing her dream, he also had her mother commit to keeping the pressure on. Plus, he had the audience cheering and supporting her as well.

The main point he supported throughout the presentation was to be a “Do It.” person.

Bill was funny (duh), relevant, and motivational. Easily worth the price of admission…

Photo by Ambro

I was chatting with a coworker recently who didn’t want to have a web-enabled phone. I asked, “what’s the big deal?” and she said, “Get your head out of your iPhone and make iContact.” (this was in chat)

I replied, “I don’t have an iPhone.” because, well, I don’t. She said, “same thing”

“iKnow”

So, of course the first chance I get I open my MacBook and started typing this post about getting your head out of the electronics and into real life. I am, if nothing else, a credible source on my own topics.

Have you thought about how much time per day you spend tethered to electronic devices? How about the number of hours per day you spend tethered (!) to real people? Is there a clear difference? How and when are you substituting iCrap for iContact?

Maybe you can take some small steps (literally) and add more iContact to your life:

Get out from behind your desk.
There’s a guy about 4 cube-aisles over from me. I need to talk to him about 5 times per day on various projects. It’s easy to open the chat program and ping him to get a quick response. However, I find that if I get up and walk over, I’m usually able to get more info and I can avoid any poor interpretations that can happen with a “quick chat” or e-mail. Are you substituting e-talk for real conversations too often? If so, get up!

Get out from behind the e-mail.
While e-mail and chat conversations can be good for quick distribution of information, nothing beats talking to a human when you need to get things done. When distance won’t allow you to make iContact, then at least put down the keyboard and use your iVoice. Of course, it’s okay to just call that your voice, I just needed to fit an iWord in there. If you find yourself hitting reply to a reply to a reply, then perhaps it time to dial.

Get out from behind the stuffy home computer.
Right now I’m posting this as I sit outside on my patio, diligently  BBQing tonight’s dinner. You may think I’m missing my own point, but consider this: the iWeather is nice, the iView is green and enjoying the iFood with my family is going to be awesome. You may not be able (willing?) to break the tether to iCrap all the time, but maybe you can find a way to get the best of both worlds.

So maybe I do spend to much time with my iStuff. If you do too, take a look at those opportunities and ask yourself, “can I talk to a real human, and maybe make some iContact?”

If so, get up and detach your tether. It can be tough, but you can do it. Trust me, iKnow.

This third motivation is important, because in numerous studies (and probably in your own life) it’s been shown that this third motivation can be derailed by external factors.

To get on the same page, the first motivation is intrinsic motivation. This is where you are motivated by survival instincts. Eating, sleeping, and other obvious self-sustaining actions fall into this category. The second is extrinsic motivation, which is succinctly described as the stick and carrot motivation. You know, you work for money, and you don’t kill idiots to avoid prison. You knew this.

This “new” third motivation is similar to what was described in The Upside of Irrationality. It’s where we are motivated to do the right thing, or to do what we enjoy just to do it. What is important about this is how the stick and carrot stuff can jack up our own self improvement efforts. Not to mention just plain sucking the joy out of life.

In one example, they looked at paintings from artists, and split them up into two categories. One for items they were commissioned (paid) to do, and the other for items they did because they wanted to. Having experts rate these works, without any info on the origin or the motivation, the paid work consistently came in behind the creative work.

Another group of experiments discussed in both books showed how overpaying someone can actually have an adverse effect. The important take-away here was that this was in what the author called heuristic work. Which, much like reading the word “heuristic”, means that it takes your brain to come up with a solution. This is in contrast with what was termed algorithmic work, which means repetitive work that you can do without needing to solve problems or be creative. In those cases better pay usually resulted in better results.

Get to the point? Okay. The author (and his sources) suggest that our conventional methods of rewarding people for creative work is actually self defeating in the long run. They like to point to those high bonuses for executives as an example. When they put it that way, it’s almost too obvious.

However, some of the information says what you would expect – that these motivators can work in the short term. But the research shows that after the short term gain, the results don’t simply drop back to the baseline, but actually decrease further than if there had been no increased incentive at all.

The trick: Find out how to tap into that existing third motivation to get things done. If that sounds easy, good for you! For the rest of us, in a future post I’ll discuss ideas on how to do just that. If you want to do more research yourself, you should definitely pick up Drive. It’s quickly turning into one of the better books I’ve read this year…

Side Note: For those of you with the existing manual (I’m working on one myself), I do recommend downloading the New Project Completion Record. It works for the old or new manual and makes it far easier to track the progress than the one in the old manual.

If you are wondering what the hubbub is, read on for a short synopsis of the changes:

1. The Project Completion Record moved to the front of the manual (maybe because it’s important!)

2. Pre-project evaluations are at on a 3-point scale and included in each project

3. The evaluation questions have changed. Now each role has a few questions (typically 3-5) that are rated on a 3-point scale. 3=outstanding, 2=Average, 1=Needs Work. After the scored questions, there are one or two open-ended “how did they do?” types of questions. 

4. The appendix includes additional on-line resources, including links to Manuals, Flyers and Toastmasters Magazine articles. There were some links even new to me (and you know I do my research!)

5. Ummm…they took out the mission of the club. That was odd…

One thing that didn’t change – There had been some feedback that TI should include some “beyond the club” projects to help encourage involvement outside the club (i.e. Area Contests, Conference Presenter, etc.)

I was a bit surprised that one or two of these weren’t added as optional tasks on existing projects. However, not having these doesn’t hurt the manual. There are still plenty of options for improving your skills and supporting your club. In fact, I believe that if every member of every club would open one of these books and work on it, three things would happen:

- Members would learn more about running meetings and activities in their real lives.
- Quality of club meetings would improve, as would member performance (speeches, contests, etc.).
- The number of clubs under 20 members would drop to almost zero.   

Verdict: If you are not currently working on a CL manual, you should be. Either the Current or New manual. If you’ve been holding off waiting for them to “fix” the manual, then you are in luck. It’s teed up to work better than before. Now’s the time…

But more than that, I need to hear great ideas backed up with an action plan, a person to lead the charge and a team ready to support it. Bring me that, and I’ll say “Let’s Go!”

Toastmaster of the week – When you are filling those roles the week before your meeting, you will normally find yourself talking to someone who may have missed a meeting or two. Taking that opportunity to say “We miss you…I hope you can attend and serve as General Evaluator” (for example) can help to remind them that they are valued members of the club, and that you noticed their absence.

Vice President of Membership – Any member that misses three or four meetings in a row should get a call (not e-mail) from their VP of Membership. By saying “We miss you” combined with a reminder that we look forward to helping them achieve their goals can help remind them of why they joined in the first place and hopefully get them coming again.

Club President – Members have a plethora of reasons for why they leave the club. But remember, those reasons can (and do) change after they leave the club. That kid’s soccer practice that conflicted with the meeting could have changed days, people with college class conflicts graduate, and other life events change.

Every club president should look at the non-renewals from the last dues period (i.e October non-renewals in May) and send a note to each member that didn’t renew. Find out if their reason for leaving still outweighs the reasons to come back. Saying ” We miss you” could be the catalyst to get a friend back on track. And if the conflict is still there, don’t be afraid to offer alternatives. There could be an open club that meets a block away the next night.

If you ask, you’ll hear that many people join Toastmasters strictly for self-improvement reasons. Don’t underestimate the personal connection you have made to your fellow members, and the connection they have made to you and your club. Remind them that you are glad to see them, and when you don’t see them remember to say “We miss you”

P.S. This post is also on my District 22 Marketing Blog, along with other tips for Toastmasters Leaders.