How The Most Successful Presenters Pitch Their Ideas

It's not enough to simply deliver a message. I'm flattered when I get glowing feedback from the audience after a talk. When I deliver a keynote address, I know I need to inspire, entertain, educate and engage the audience. My keynote address is only successful if the audience gets new ideas, can internalize those ideas, and then apply them to their world while having fun in the process.

My fellow speaker and brilliant master of ceremonies, Mark Jeffries has a great formula he shared with me during a recent discussion

After more than a decade of speaking and hosting conferences and events that include top celebrities like Serena Williams, Richard Branson and Will Smith, he’s developed a simple four-part framework that is guaranteed to wow an audience. Make no mistake, as a guy who spent years as a television personality, Mark Jeffries is a world-class master of ceremonies.

But first, he starts by asking clients an intriguing question:

“When you’re at home in the evening, and you slump onto your couch with a nice, big martini — that’s my MO, at least — and you turn the TV on and you’re flipping through the channels and suddenly you find a channel featuring a man in a grey suit standing very still talking in a monotonous fashion with a slidedeck full of words behind him, do you stay on that channel?”

Of course not, Mark gasps. “That’s the last thing we want to watch, and yet this is what we give people at conferences and events all over the world.”

Instead, he asks, why not give people what they want? Why not give them an experience they can walk away from feeling inspired and educated and entertained?

When he works with executives on how best to present their ideas on stage, he reminds them of the word TIME.

What Is TIME?

I have the good fortune to speak on many stages. I also get to experience the good, the bad, and the ugly of other speakers. Some might be brilliant, just not the style content that appeals to me. Some, however, really stand out as fan favorites for almost every audience. After years of speaking at and hosting events, Mark noticed that all the best presenters shared similar qualities. Aside from being well-versed on their topics, he saw that they had what seemed like a natural charisma and command of the audience. Was that something these speakers were born with, he wondered. Or did they develop their skills?

Turns out, anyone can develop the skills needed to be a better presenter. The pros, it appeared, had TIME on their side. TIME is the acronym Mark developed to describe the key ingredients of a good presentation.

What Does It Mean?

T stands for Teach.

“We all love to be informed of something we’ve not heard before or something that perhaps changes the way we think,” Mark says. “If you can get somebody’s mind activated with a new idea, they are much more likely to listen to you. Tell them something interesting.”

I means to Inspire.

“When you inspire people, you’re not boring them with the whole process. You’re actually saying: Hold on. At the end of this, this is how different your life, your world, your customers, and your business processes are going to be. That is an inspiring picture and people respond well to that when you’re presenting,” Mark says.

M stands for Motivate.

“What you really want to do in any presentation is motivate (the audience) to some form of action,” Mark advises. “So in any presentation, whether you’re across the table (from someone) at a Starbucks or you’re standing on a stage in front of 5,000 people, you have to at least know that you’re giving them one thing they’re going to go away with.”

E means to Entertain.

As speaking coach extraordinaire, Michael Port, notes, "You want the audience to agree with your points — not with you. It's the difference between 'That's right' and 'You're right." 

Mark suggests, “Be real, be a real person. People buy people right? And if you don’t have that personality that is charismatic and warm and very likeable, no one is going to buy your ideas. No is going to buy what it is you’re selling."  He adds, “You have to be the likeable person.  And I so often see somebody who is in front of me who is just not likeable and they must as well just give everyone a handout and sit down.

“If you develop that connection (with an audience) in your short pitch, you’ve got them. You can basically have them come around to your way of thinking in a far easier fashion than if you were brusque and arrogant.”

It’s Not About You

It’s tempting to think a presentation is all about the speaker when all eyes are on him. But the truth is, the greatest presenters know that it’s not about them. It about the audience — and their needs, desires, challenges and problems.

A pitch should never revolve around you.

“When I’m hosting events, I get to introduce business leaders and business thinkers and they get up there and they pitch, and half the time it is just not appropriate for that audience,” Mark says. “They haven’t even bothered to think about their audience or to understand the world in which their audience lives. And it fails. It falls down.”

“When you’re pitching your idea you have to be smart enough to stop and say wait a minute: what is this person actually looking to buy before I even try and sell them anything?”

It's Your Turn

When have you been inspired or inspired others to take action?  What made the difference?

Bestselling co-author of Same Side Selling, Ian Altman is a popular keynote speaker, and host of the Grow My Revenue Business Cast. He has 2 children, a dog, and a wife he doesn't deserve

Source :- www.forbes.com

10 Things Highly Successful People Do Before Going to Sleep

Before they close out the chapter on the day, successful people typically have a routine they follow. They have a set of actions that inspires, refreshes, and renews their passion for their business plans and personal life goals. Before you go to bed, try these 10 things so you can wake up ready to tackle the day ahead. 

1. Reflect on the day's successes and failures

Successful people don't get down about any failures. Instead, they reflect on what worked and what did not work. They focus on the positive and use any missed targets as information for success in the future.

2. Express an attitude of thanks

Before you retire for the evening, think about people who helped you succeed in the day. Did you express gratitude? If not, consider ways to thank others.

3. Write down your plans

Although you don't need to reflect on all your goals before bed, do a quick review of your short-term goals. Write down urgent and important plans for the following day.

4. Set your alarm 

Set your alarm so you stay on a regular schedule. People who stick to the same sleep schedule often have more energy to get through their day.

5. Call a good friend

People who stay in touch with family and friends feel more motivated every day. Consider talking to someone you love before retiring for the day.

6. Read a good book

When the last thing you do before bed is exercise your mind, you have the entire night to process the information. Your subconscious mind will help the ideas turn into inspiration in the days and weeks ahead.

7. Tell someone you love them

By expressing love before you go to bed, you have a more positive attitude. People tend to wake up refreshed when they feel loved and secure. Having balance with family and loved ones helps with success in the workplace.

8. Say a prayer or meditate 

Whether you say a prayer to God or meditate, time spent in silence before bed helps you relax so you sleep deep. You can often let go of problems only to wake up with the solutions when you pray or meditate.

9. Eat a light snack

Talk to your personal trainer or nutritionist about the best snack to have before bed. If you go to bed hungry, it could interfere with your sleep schedule. Carefully plan for exercise and a healthy snack before falling asleep.

10. Dream of your best life 

The final thing successful people do before they go to bed is fantasize about their dream life. They also think of people alive or deceased who helped them, loved them, or inspired them.

Good sleep is essential to success. If you get into a good bedtime routine, you'll wake up more refreshed and more focused. 

Source: www.inc.com

Colonel Harland Sanders Biography: Inspiring History of KFC

In this success story we are going to share Colonel Harland Sanders biography and history of KFC, an American restaurant chain that he founded. Enjoy reading a life story about entrepreneurship, delicious food, trials and failures and brilliant success.

Colonel Harland Sanders (September 09, 1890 – December 16, 1980) is an American entrepreneur who founded the Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) restaurant chain. KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) is one of the oldest fast food restaurant chains in the United States. It is famous for its fried chicken to the whole world.

Contents

• Early Childhood
• Life is Getting Better
• KFC Secret Recipe Sold to Restaurants
• KFC Nowadays

Early Childhood

Harland David Sanders was born on September 09, 1890 on a country road three miles (4.8 km) east of Henryville, Indiana. It must be said that Sanders’ childhood was tough. First, he was not the only child in the family, who was not very rich. He was the oldest of three children born to Wilbur David and Margaret Ann Sanders.

His father worked part time, doing some errands of farmers in Henryville. Mother did not work, as she had to take care of the children.

The problems began when the father of Harland Sanders suddenly died. In 1895 one summer afternoon, Sanders’ father came back home with a fever and died later that day. This occurred when the future founder of KFC was only 6 years old. His life changed dramatically. First, his mother went to work to a tomato-canning factory to feed the family somehow. And Harland Sanders was required to be a babysitter and take care of younger brother and sister at home.

This fact was the key to his life. Since these factors have contributed to the development of Sanders as the chef. All the relatives began to notice that the little boy was a real talent in this case.

When his mother remarried, he escaped from home because his stepfather beat him. Sanders falsified his birth date and volunteered for the U.S. Army at the age of 15 years. He served a full term and ended his service in Cuba. During his early years Sanders had to work as a steamboat pilot, insurance agent, farmer and etc. Finally, he found a good regular job as a fireman in the U.S. railway company.

Life is Getting Better

Josephine King Sanders, the 1st wife of Colonel Sanders

In 1908, having stable income Harland Sanders married Josephine King. He had three children, a son, Harland, Jr., who died at an early age, and two daughters, Mildred Sanders Ruggles and Margaret Sanders. After a while he was fired for insubordination. His wife Josephine left him taken the children back to her parents’ home. Her brother later wrote Harland a letter where he said: “She had no business marrying a no-good fellow like you who can’t hold a job”. Over the years he tried a lot of other jobs, but did not find any, which he could work at for a long time.

At 40 years Harland had to change dozens of occupations. One time Harland Sanders was trying to obtain an education enrolling in law courses, but for an unknown reason he did not finish them.

However, when Harland was already in his 40s, he had little capital accumulated over the years. For a long time Sanders was in despair. Most of his life already passed, but he still was a man, who made no difference, did not have enough money to live in pleasure and wealth. He was disappointed in life. And, of course, he wanted to change it.

Harland Sanders bought a service station, motel and cafe at Corbin, a town in Kentucky about 25 miles from the Tennessee border. It must be noted that Harland seriously thought about the location of his service station, selecting the best place for it. Along this road people traveled to Florida and other locations from northern states and the flow of customers was endless.

The restaurant in Corbin, Kentucky where Colonel Sanders developed Kentucky Fried Chicken

Soon, Colonel Sanders began serving meals to his clients in the living quarters, because he did not have a restaurant. He was cooking chicken dishes and other meals such as country ham and steaks in the kitchen. Soon his service station became famous throughout Kentucky. It was called “Kentucky Fried Chicken of Harland Sanders.” All customers noted the quality of its seasoning, which he prepared from 11 different spices. Life began to improve.

Colonel Sanders demonstrates a new-fangled gizmo – the pressure cooker.

In order to increase his income, Harland bought a pressure cooker. It was a time when this type of pans just appeared on the market. He was one of the first chefs assessed the advantages of pressure cookers. Usually it took about 30 minutes to prepare chicken, but now it’s time has been reduced to 9 minutes. That meant that customers did not have to wait so long for a meal and it increased number of orders.

A significant event in the life of Sanders happened in 1935, when the governor of Kentucky, Ruby Laffoon, awarded Harland the title of Kentucky Colonel for services to the state. And indeed, they were great: in fact people all over the county were talking about the “national dish” of the state from Colonel Harland Sanders.

At that time, Sanders realized that he needed to refocus his business from the service station to something bigger. In 1937, he opened the motel Sanders Court &  Café, which was also an independent fast food restaurant. However, fast food restaurant McDonald’s and Sanders Court & Cafe were not comparable. Because Colonel Sanders spent about 10-15 minutes to prepare an order. So it could not be called a fully functional fast food restaurant.

Sanders Court and Café

In 1947, Harland and Josephine divorced. And in 1949, Sanders finally married his secretary Claudia Ledington. In 1949, Sanders was honored once again with the title of Kentucky colonel, this time by Lieutenant Governor Lawrence Weatherby.

Being a Colonel, Harland Sanders developed his appearance starting to wear a white suit and black bow tie. And nowadays Harland Sanders is portrayed on the logos of KFC. This image quickly entered the hearts of ordinary Americans, who loved a small restaurant of Sanders. He had so many clients and net worth as he had never had before. He felt success.

Colonel Harlan Sanders and his wife Claudia

Of course, from time to time there were minor technical difficulties and problems with suppliers. Once even the building of motel burned down. It was built up again quickly and resumed its job within a few months after the accident. In addition, the state government tried to help Harland because his fried chicken was a showplace in Kentucky.

But life dealt a blow to Sanders. In 1956, there was completed the construction of Interstate 75, bypassing Corbin. Sanders’ restaurant was out of sight from passing by travelers. The number of customers decreased dramatically. The once-successful business rolled down. He was forced to sell the property for $75,000 to pay his debts. He was almost broke when he was 66 years old, living off a monthly Social Security check of $105 and some savings. After a while Sanders decided to move to Shelbyville, Kentucky.

KFC Secret Recipe Sold to Restaurants

Upon reflection, he came to the conclusion that can sell his recipe to other restaurants. With nothing to lose, Sanders took his spices and pressure cooker and traveled throughout the U.S. in his 1946 Ford.

He started visiting other restaurants of America. When meeting a potential franchisee he talked about the recipe of cooking chicken and its seasoning. It took a long time before he could find the first customer. Under the contract, Sanders received just 5 cents for each of his sold chicken. Not bad, considering that the volume of orders grew steadily. Needless to say that in the early 60’s Colonel Sanders had a few hundred franchisees across the U.S. restaurants.

And after 4 years Kentucky Fried Chicken was at the peak of glory and the old Colonel decided to sell the corporation to a private investor John Y. Brown, Jr. Under the deal, he received $ 2 million in cash and remains the official face of the company for which he was paid about 250,000 dollars a year. Colonel Sanders net worth estimated at $3.5 million. He just had to meet with the media, customers, employees, in general to lead marketing.

In 1980, at the age of 90 years, Harland Sanders died. In recent years he was traveling, playing golf and ran their own restaurant Claudia Sanders’ Dinner House with his wife. He got disappointed at KFC, because he thought that in the pursuit of the lowest price and speed – the owners went to a compromise on the quality of chickens. However, after the death of Colonel the story was not over.

KFC Nowadays

KFC Logo

In 1986, it was acquired, by the famous Pepsi Co. In 2002 the KFC was acquired by Yum! Brands. In addition to KFC, the company owns Pizza Hut and Taco Bell restaurants. David C. Novak is the current Chairman and CEO of Yum! Brands.

The chain of more than 39 000 restaurants operates in more than 50 countries around the world. Yum! Brands prefer to use the strategy of co-branding. There are many varieties of foods such as fried chicken, chicken burgers (chicken sandwiches, US), wraps, French fries, soft drinks, salads, desserts, breakfast and etc.

David C. Novak, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Yum! since January 2001

Currently, Yum! Brands employs more than 1,500,000 employees and the net income as of 2013 amounted to $1.091 billion.

We hope you’ve enjoyed reading Colonel Harland Sanders biography and amazing history of KFC Company and it’s inspired you to new discoveries.

source: www.astrumpeople.com

5 Key Steps Toward Financial Literacy

Financial literacy, financial capability, financial understanding.

Whatever the name, the core idea is the same: being equipped with the knowledge, skills and tools to manage your money and secure your future.

That’s no easy task, but here are five key money topics you’ll need to understand andput into action to make financial literacy a reality:

• Budgeting. Financial security starts with prudently managing your money on a day-to-day basis. That means spending less than you earn and saving consistently. Try to save at least 15% of your gross pay for short-term goals, long-term goals and unexpected expenses. Do it first and not with what’s left of your paycheck. Track all your expenses and set reasonable spending guidelines. Finally, don’t get caught up in how others are spending and undermine your own budget.

• Insurance. With so many different types of insurance — auto, renters, homeowners, life, disability, health and long-term care — and so many variations of each, insurance can appear daunting. But financial pitfalls abound if you’re not adequately covered. Insurance is at the foundation of any good financial plan. Learn the basics and get the coverage you need to protect your financial well-being.

• Emergency reserves. Stuff happens. And one of the best ways to keep that stuff from throwing you off course or burying you in debt is to set aside money in a separate savings account for emergencies.

• Debt and credit. Debt can be a useful tool, but it can also be a dangerous trap that undermines your financial health. Minimize your use of debt and understand the world of credit and credit scoring.

• Investments. Stocks, bonds, mutual funds, CDs, annuities — the universe of potential investments is massive. Not to mention the dizzying array of account types: taxable, IRAs, Roth IRAs and company retirement plans like 401(k)s. But, confusing as this may appear, investing is not rocket science. Read and learn. And remember, it’s never too early to start investing.

This isn’t a comprehensive list, but if your goal is financial literacy, it pays to gain a basic grasp of these five elements. If you’re not there yet, keep working toward the goal. If you have gaps, find a person or organization you trust to help close them.

Most importantly, turn your knowledge into action.

The USAAVoice Team is committed to providing information that helps to facilitate the financial security of the military community. The advice in our content is grounded in the principles of sound money management and covers a range of topics, including personal finance, retirement, investments, auto, home, life, health and other areas relevant to our business and the audience we serve.

Investing in securities products involves risk, including possible loss of principal.

Views and opinions expressed by members are for informational purposes only and should not be deemed as an endorsement by USAA.

This document is not legal, tax, or investment advice.  It is only a general overview under the federal tax laws.  The law concerning retirement plans is complex, the penalties are severe, and the laws of your state may differ.  Consult your tax and legal advisers regarding your specific situation.

USAA means United Services Automobile Association and its affiliates.

Financial planning services and financial advice provided by USAA Financial Planning Services Insurance Agency, Inc. (known as USAA Financial Insurance Agency in California, License # 0E36312), a registered investment adviser and insurance agency and its wholly owned subsidiary, USAA Financial Advisors, Inc., a registered broker dealer.

Source : www.forbes.com