This is especially true after having spent so much time in virtual lockdown due to the pandemic.

We’re out of the practice of actually meeting people face to face in person.

This discomfort can occur at official networking events, in casual conversations that happen during breaks at conferences and meetings, and even in social conversations.

Presentations and speeches are prepared in advance. Sales calls are often scripted; but networking requires a specific strategy, plus seat-of-the-pants flexibility and a go-with-the-flow mentality to be successful.

How can you share what you do in a way that engages people rather than turns them off?

When is the right time to tell people what you do, and when is the right time to button your lip?

Here are 3 key mindsets that can serve as guidelines for more successful networking results:

1. Set the right intentions before you arrive. This is absolutely crucial to both your comfort and your success!

Unfortunately many people have the notion that the purpose of networking is to sell people your product, service, or opportunity. Focusing mainly on this is a guaranteed recipe for failure.

Not only will you feel uncomfortably pushy, but you will turn potential customers and referral partners off right out of the box by coming across as only interested in your own sales success.

The truth is that networking is a long game and requires patience (something that seems to be in short supply these days–must be a supply chain issue. LOL).

Instead, set the intention to build relationships with the people whom you meet.

And to counter our usual human tendency to seek out and speak with people we already know, set a goal of chatting with at least 2 or 3 new people you haven’t connected with before..

2. Ask and listen, then ask and listen again, before sharing what you do.

Always begin a conversation by asking the other people what they do. It will help to put them at ease (especially if they’re feeling nervous too).

Unless the person is a motor mouth who won’t shut up, letting the other person speak first is also likely to create a willingness to listen to you when it’s your turn to speak.

This is one of Stephen R. Covey’s 7 rules for highly effective people: “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.”

When someone asks you what you do, instead of jumping right into your standard elevator pitch (which often ends up sounding suspiciously like a robo call), ask a question that specifically targets the pain points and problems that you help people to solve in your work.

For example, because one of the major things I do is to help people overcome their fear of public speaking, I might ask this question:

Have you ever been in a situation where you really wanted to say something effectively, but either you weren’t sure what to say, or how to say it, or were afraid to say it?

If someone answers with a yes, then, depending on the situation, I might follow up with one of the following questions:

• Is this something that’s been a challenge for you for a long time?
• It this affecting your ability to achieve your goals in your business and personal life?

If the person with whom you are speaking has the problem that you help to solve, you can then mention that, if they are open to it, you might be able to help with that problem.

If you’re a coach, you might offer a free strategy session where you can share some tips and techniques to help them with their challenges.

Ideally, if the person is open to a conversation with you, you can suggest taking out your phones and setting an appointment right then and there.

3. The fortune is in getting the appointment and then following through.

It is so much easier and more efficient to follow up with someone with whom you have already made an appointment.

However if that isn’t the case, be sure to follow up with a phone call and chat.

Added touches include sending a note indicating that you enjoyed meeting this person and look forward to connecting with him or her soon.

A hand-written note sent through the mail is particularly powerful, if you have that person’s address. (Not always the case on business cards these days.)

Inviting that person to connect on LinkedIn is another way to build a stronger relationship with someone whom you have just met.

Commenting on posts and endorsing skills on LinkedIn is another way to stay top of mind with the people you meet.

Remember to publish any articles you write on LinkedIn, as all the people with whom you are connected on the first level will receive a notice that you have posted an article on LinkedIn.

Repurposing your content this way is an excellent way to establish yourself as an expert in your field, and to continually remind your first degree connections of who you are and how you serve people.

And another thing to remember: Most of the folks you meet at networking events are just as out of practice as you are in this skill; so cut yourself some slack.

Decide that you’re just going to go out and enjoy meeting some new friends.

The post 3 Key Networking Mindsets for Business Success appeared first on Vibrant Vocal Power.

One thing you may be surprised to discover the first time that you are interviewed on either a podcast, for a summit, or on a radio or television show; is that your best strategy is to provide your own set of questions.

Rather than viewing this responsibility as a drag, view it as a marvelous chance to show off your gifts and what you can offer to your potential perfect clients.

The other truly delicious bonus of providing your own questions is that it is highly unlikely that you will get caught flat-footed having to answer some off the wall question that catches you unprepared to answer.

Instead, since you know the questions in advance, you can answer them with fluency and ease, convincing all of your listeners that you are indeed an expert, a knowledgeable authority in your field. Knowing this will do wonders for your confidence level.

Here are some guidelines regarding the type of questions whose answers will be the most likely to attract potential clients and customers.

1. What is the number one problem people have with whatever problem or pain you help people with in your business?  Be very specific in mentioning the pain, so that your answer will immediately resonate with someone who needs your help.
2. What inspired you to focus on this topic/problem in your business?
3. Why is this problem/pain such an obstacle to people in obtaining whatever goals you help people achieve?
4. What specific strategies can you share with our listeners to help them deal with this problem/pain?
5. What is the biggest benefit that people can expect to get when they work with you?
6. What is the best way for people to connect with you and learn more about how you can help them?

In answer to that last question, be sure to have some type of free report that people can easily access by going online to opt in for it. This has the vital benefit of adding those people to your database, making it easy for you to connect and further develop your relationship with them via your e-newsletters, etc.

It is a big plus if your gift has a URL that relates to the problem you solve and that is easy for people to remember. For example, the free report that I offer is at 5speakinglandmines.com.

You never know who might be listening and who might be excited to take you up on your offer.

This aligns with one of my two primary rules of business success: Always make it easy for people to get in touch with you.

(My other primary rule is to always make it easy for people to give you money. LOL)

To hear an example of how this interview process works, I am delighted to share with you my second interview on CUTV News, this one with Jim Masters. You can find it on my media page here.

Enjoy!

The post Crucial Keys to Giving a Great Interview appeared first on Vibrant Vocal Power.

Are you sometimes stumped when it comes to writing emails that will actually get opened and hopefully read?

Would it be helpful to know what types of email to avoid like the plague?

In an informative article in Hubspot, Leslie Ye writes scathingly about just checking in emails. They actually accomplish very little, since they generally do not provide any value to the recipient.

Ye goes on to provide 30 email subjects that are better than just checking in. Among the suggestions are:

1. Send a short piece of actionable advice.
2. Reference a relevant blog post they just published. (Major points for this one.)
3. Recommend an event.

You can find the rest of Ye’s suggestions at 30 Better Alternatives to the “Just Checking In” Email.

You are sure to find at least a couple of ideas that you can put to use in your own business.

Good luck!

The post How About Some Alternatives to “Just Checking In” Emails? appeared first on Vibrant Vocal Power.

1. When you’re invited to be a guest on a podcast, it’s important to prepare not only yourself, but also your host, ahead of time.
2. And it’s always a pleasure to be interviewed by a pro who knows what she’s doing and how to promote the result across a wide variety of venues.

So how do you prepare both yourself and your host ahead of time? First and foremost, don’t expect the host to research what you do and what you have to offer people.

Take the responsibility for providing the information necessary so that the host can enable you to show your best self to the audience.

• A copy of your introduction that showcases your expertise so that the audience is excited to hear you speak (and so that you don’t have to sound like a narcissist bragging about yourself and your credentials)
• A list of questions that elicit the information it’s essential for you to share, including the challenges you help people overcome

So what does the host need to do?

• Promote the event ahead of time and provide swipe copy and graphics that allow you to do the same
• Read your introduction and questions ahead of time in order to do a credible job of conducting a good interview/conversation with you
• Promote the resulting program across as many platforms as possible

I invite you to take a gander at the podcast in this blog post, hosted by my friend and colleague, Kathi Burns, for an example to see how this works when it works as it should.

Kathi Burns went far behind releasing the podcast we did together to the usual sites and to her own community.

Click this link to see the excellent page Kathi shared as part of promoting our podcast. It includes not only the video and audio of our conversation, but also the main takeaways, a tweetable quote, and the transcript. (Beware: As usual, artificial non-intelligence made its usual quotient of odd transcriptions of some of the things we said.)

While you’re visiting that page, be sure to grab a copy of Kathi’s excellent report, Organized & Energized — 6 Steps to Organize & Create Your Amazing Office Space.

Kathi is one of only 275 board certified organizers in the world. Her best-selling book, How to Master Your Muck has been featured by Oprah, Better Home and Gardens, Martha Stewart, Entrepreneur, and in many other places.

If you’ve had some interesting interview experiences, please share them in the comment section below.

The post Do You Know the Two Crucial Parts of a Successful Podcast? appeared first on Vibrant Vocal Power.

If you want to know about how to create a high-impact and stellar slide presentation, Ellen Finkelstein is your go-to gal.

She is one of only 18 people in the country designated by Microsoft as a Power Point MVP, a PowerPoint Most Valued Professional.

Ellen presented her stellar training on High-Persuasion Presentation Secrets in the VVP Academy as part of our monthly high-level training series on various communication skills.

In it, she shares the following incredibly valuable information:

• How to avoid boring slides and keep the attention of your audience (and it’s not by using animation!)
• How to know how many slides to use, especially online
• A scientific secret of persuasion that makes your slides look more striking and professional

She also shared a gift with all attendees, a report on The BARE System for Finding the Perfect Image.

Unfortunately, the digital gremlins were having a field day when Ellen’s training took place.

• First the link between Zoom and the list of people who registered got corrupted; so no one got a link to join us.
• Second, I wrote an email to everyone in my community with a link to access the video; and I just got a message from Rita O’Brien that the link doesn’t work.

So, in the hopes of hitting third time lucky, and fortunately for you, I am sharing this marvelous training with you in this blog post.

Please share your thoughts about Ellen’s suggestions in the Comment section below.

The post High-Persuasion Presentation Secrets Unveiled! appeared first on Vibrant Vocal Power.

1. You attend a networking, corporate, fund raising, or some other type of event where it is important that you connect with a variety of people;
2. You see someone whom you have met before, but whose name you have forgotten;
3. You try to sneak a surreptitious look at the person’s name tag without that person catching you doing it;
4. Much to your dismay, the font size on the name tag is the default size 12, which you find impossible to read since you don’t have the vision of Superman.
5. Result: You are yet another victim of what I call Visually Inaccessible copy.

It is amazing how seldom people who plan these events consider creating what I describe as names tags for near-sighted people.

According to the guidelines of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the minimum font size for name tags is 18, not 12.

Even that size is too small to pass my ultimate name tag test, which is to be able to easily read the first names of the people who sit across from you at a table for ten.

My default font size for name tags is 36 (30 if the name is too long to fit otherwise), meaning that the first and last names are on two different lines, not on a single line, also making them easier to read.

But name tags are by no means a rare example of Visually Inaccessible copy.

Have you ever gotten an email consisting of one extremely long paragraph in a small font size? (I call this stream of consciousness writing.)

How long did it take you to decide to do what a friend of mine calls the dance of the delete key?

Make sure that all of your copy, whether on a name tag, sign, flyer, letter, web page, blog post, etc. is Visually Accessible. This is a vital component of successfully getting your point across.

If people can’t physically read your copy, they won’t read it; and all of your efforts to write effective messages will be a waste of both time and effort.

Keep an eye out for how Visually Accessible the copy is that comes across your desk, into your Inbox, or on your screen.

Seeing how inadequately some other copy is presented will surely inspire you to commit to creating Visually Accessible copy in everything you do. Your marketing efforts will certainly benefit as a result.

Please share in the comments below your favorite strategies for creating Visually Accessibly copy.

The post Is All of Your Copy Visually Accessible? appeared first on Vibrant Vocal Power.

Such is the case for me in the article You Are Your Own Best Marketer, by Gabriel Bristol, in an issue of Entrepreneur magazine.

His first sentence sums it up: No one will ever care about your career as much as you do.

For the words your career, you can substitute other words, such as your family, your business, your reputation, etc.; but the point remains the same.

You are the one person who is in charge of your values, your goals, your choices, and how you present yourself in the world.

The totality of all of these choices tells people who you really are. Or, as I like to say, You are a brand ambassador; and you, yourself, are the brand that you are representing.

The questions you may want to ask yourself are:

1. Am I representing myself the way that I want to be perceived by others?
2. Are there some areas where I can do a better job of it?
3. What steps do I need to take to be a better brand ambassador for myself?
4. What benefits will I enjoy if I actually take those steps?

To read Bristol’s entire article, click here.

Do you agree that you are your own brand? Please share your thoughts in the Comment section below.

The post You Are Your Own Brand Ambassador appeared first on Vibrant Vocal Power.

When you try to explain what you do, do you ever feel that your answer lands on deaf ears?

If you go to a marketing event with the idea of sharing information about your business, do you feel like you are either turning people off or boring them to death?

Or do you avoid networking events for any of the above reasons?

Becoming the effective messenger of your own message is one of the most important marketing skills you can learn; and yet this type of communication skill is hardly ever mentioned in the context of a marketing strategy.

Sure, we are told to go to networking events; but unless we have a successful strategy once we are there, a deadly combination of lack of skill, compounded by social anxiety, can scuttle our best attempts to connect effectively with people.

So here is one practical business networking tip that you can apply whenever anyone asks you what you do.

Don’t start the first sentence of your reply with the words, “I am …..” and proceed to list your titles and credentials.

It’s too easy to come across as arrogant or a braggart (and to feel uncomfortable with what you are saying) when you start talking about yourself.

Instead, change the entire focus of your reply from yourself to the people whom you help or serve.

Start your sentences with the words, “I work with …..” or “I help …..”

The rest of your sentences can then include the following 4 elements:

1.  Whom you help
2.  The problem you solve for them
3.  The solution your offer
4.  How the solution benefits them

For example, when people ask me what I do, I say something along these lines:

“I work with people who lack confidence speaking up at networking events, giving presentations, or talking on the phone in order to promote themselves and their business. The result is that both their income and their self-esteem suffer. I help them to develop their own powerful messages, and to gain confidence and ease in sharing it; so that they can attract their ideal clients, and exponentially increase their income.”

Please notice that I say something along these lines. I don’t want to sound like a robo call, so I do not memorize a specific sentence.

Unless you are a great actor, a memorized sentence (or elevator pitch, as it is often called) sounds stilted, inauthentic; and, unfortunately, boring. I’m a trained voice actor, and I bore myself if I use a canned response.

Instead, remember this important business networking tip. If you focus on remembering your 4 key points, you are much more likely to be able to use some or all of them to give an appropriate and effective answer when someone asks you what you do.

Please share your favorite method of answering the What do you do? question, and if my suggestions are helpful to you.

The post Answering a Most Dangerous Question appeared first on Vibrant Vocal Power.

If there is one area where people in business are most likely to come to communication grief, that area is sales.

Perhaps it’s because they’ve been on the receiving end of too many high pressure sales pitches (not to mention the glut of robo calls that pollute our telecommunications), and they don’t want to come across the same way: pushy and sleazy.

Yet selling one’s products and/or services is essential to success in any business. The unavoidable truth is that when you’re out of cash, you’re out of business.

But think about it. People really do like to buy things; they just don’t like to be sold.

In this video, I suggest a work-around to get past the negative mindset that often comes with the idea of having to sell something to someone.

My rather radical suggestion is to eliminate the word sales altogether; and to replace it with the word offer.

Think about it! Offering something to someone really feels a lot more comfortable than trying to sell something to someone.

I invite you to check out the video as I expand on this subject. The goal is to raise your comfort level in sharing your gifts with people who may desperately need what you have to offer.

If you don’t offer it, you are depriving those people of what they need, while sabotaging your own business success at the very same time.

The post The Power of One Word in Sales appeared first on Vibrant Vocal Power.

Online sales guru, Eben Pagan, has a video on the same subject, but in greater depth.

His starting point is the Pareto principle, which states that 80% of the results in any given area are produced by 20% of the people involved.

That being the case, narrowing your niche again and yet again, at least three levels deep, will provide maximum bang for every one of your marketing bucks (or efforts).

According to Eben, “We humans like to buy stuff that sounds like it was made just for our issue.”

Narrowing our niche so deeply provides just that effect in people’s minds.

Click here to see the video with all he has to say.

You will find a lot more of his goodies on this same page. Enjoy!

And do please let me know what you think of Eben’s ideas, and if they are helpful to you.

The post When Is Narrow Narrow Enough? appeared first on Vibrant Vocal Power.