Have you heard that crap about national unfriend day? Well, now it’s time to fix the damage. Make this holiday week your own National Friend Week [NFW]. Some random celebrities think that it’s okay to tell you how to define your own friends and acquaintances. They want you to think that having friends on your [...]
READ MORE »Search Engine Results
How much do you know about how search engines operate? Do you know what SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is? I like to look at what topics people are searching for that lead them to my blog. For one, it let’s me know what is working on my site. Secondly, it gives me some ideas for [...]
READ MORE »Going Pro? Try the third alternative
There are a lot of ways to do things as a professional consultant/speaker, and they can usually be summarized into two main categories – do it yourself or get a pro to do it for you. For instance, if you want a website you can do it yourself, or get a pro. If you want [...]
READ MORE »Why you Engliz so poorly?
Have you received any of those Nigerian scam e-mails, where they offer you 20% of the cut if you support their totally legal transfer of $3 Million (or whatever amount) through your US-based account? Sometimes I want to try it out just to see who the dud is at the other end. Maybe he’s from [...]
READ MORE »Book Review: Drive
You’ve no doubt read different theories about motivation. and you’ve probably heard different methods about how to motivate others and the opposing thought that we only motivate ourselves. If you’ve ever been interested in what motivates us, or how we can effect the motivation of others, then Daniel Pink’s book Drive is for you. Whether you are a speaker [...]
READ MORE »Toastmasters: Go to your conclusion
Have you ever heard a timer briefing that included this line: “…and when you see the green light, that means you are good to go…when you see the red light, that means it is time to wrap it up”? I’ve noticed this too, and it seems to lead to one of these primary outcomes: 1. [...]
READ MORE »Getting un-stuck
Do you ever feel like you are in a rut? Or maybe you’re just stuck in one thing, like writing for your blog. Here are a few do’s and don’ts for getting yourself un-stuck: Don’t: …resort to watching more TV – no good seems to come from this <– mistake I made this last week [...]
READ MORE »What is your worst experience?
Time for feedback! Do you have an example of someone doing a poor job as a speaker? What mistake did they make or what expectation did they fail to meet? I’m working on some posts about common errors in speaking, and I’d appreciate some real-world examples to use. No names, but locations and setting would [...]
READ MORE »Are you motivated?
Yesterday I mentioned Daniel Pink’s freakin’ awesome book, Drive. In there he discusses the two types of motivation that we are all familiar with, as well as one more that you probably knew you had, but didn’t know it had a name. This third motivation is important, because in numerous studies (and probably in your [...]
READ MORE »Human nature and business
Are you giving your customers the $2 treatment? I’m reading a very interesting book on motivation, called Drive, by Daniel Pink. There is a point made early in the book about the effects of human nature vs. rational behavior. It’s similar to some of the points in The Upside of Irrationality, but this one specific experiment [...]
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