The beginning of the presentation is your prime real estate. It’s when your audience decides if you are worth paying attention to or not. In my workshops, I call this the HOOK. You can do this by either asking a question, making a bold statement or telling a story that relates to your topic.
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| I spent the month of January in South Africa, where 11 official languages are spoken.
Something I have tried to do each time I get into an Uber or pay for an item is ask how you say thank you in the language of the person I am interacting with. The look of sheer delight on the person’s face is always worth the effort, even if I butcher the pronunciation. |
When most people think of Networking, they think of awkward cocktail party banter, reaching out to power players to ask a favor, and contending with shameless self-promoters.
The good news is that it doesn’t have to be any of those things!
Let’s reframe and take the negative association from a natural human inclination to build genuine, mutually beneficial long-term relationships.
This is by no means an exhaustive list,
I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Henry Winkler, aka The Fonz, at the MJCCA book festival in Atlanta.
He is probably the warmest, most entertaining, and authentic veteran actor out there! Winkler told stories about meeting Robin Williams as a young unknown comedian and how he immediately knew Williams was a genius. He also shared details about his lifelong friendship with Happy Days co-star Ron Howard and how much he enjoyed directing Dolly Parton.
I grew up in South Africa, where the Zulu greeting, Sawubona, is much more than a polite way of saying hello. Sawubona means “I see you.” They are words that embody the importance of recognizing the worth and dignity of each person, something I strive to do in both my personal and professional lives.
I love the concept of seeing people deeply. People want to connect.
What stops you from speaking up in a meeting?
What stops you from reaching out to someone when you need their advice?
What stops you from going up to someone you have never met and starting a conversation?
What stops you from exercising more?
What stops you from eating more protein and complex carbohydrates?
What stops you from waking up earlier?
The topic of a recent keynote I gave this week was Own Your Confidence: Maximize Your Sales.
The focus was developing deep, authentic confidence that results in customers liking you, trusting you, and wanting to do business with you.
Please also listen to my conversation with master sales trainer and global sales speaker Chuck Reaves (below).
Confidence is crucial in sales and can significantly impact a salesperson’s success.
The ultra-modern convenience of Artificial Intelligence systems like ChatGPT and Waze has taken a lot of complex tasks off our hands, like collating information and writing generic blogs or navigating our way out of a traffic jam. But, however sophisticated and brilliant Artificial Intelligence becomes, there are certain things these systems will never be able to do for you. They are the very human features of interpersonal skills and emotional intelligence as embodied in the following:
