The single best way to improve your speaking skills is to practice speaking at every opportunity. Look for opportunities to speak in front of groups whenever you can. You might want to start with small groups and work up to larger ones, but practice, practice, practice!

Here are some ideas about how you can get more practice speaking and become a better public speaker.

Take an active role in your professional or community organization. When you accept a leadership position with a group you will be called upon to make short presentations regularly. You may be asked to give an update about your committee’s activities, introduce a speaker or chair a meeting. Each of these gives you the chance to practice speaking in front of a group of people.

Take an improv class. One of the reasons many people fear speaking is that they are afraid they will forget what they were going to say or that something will happen to distract them during their talk and take them off course. Learning improvisation skills will make you confident that you can handle anything that happens with skill and grace.

Join Toastmasters. There are Toastmasters groups everywhere, and joining a chapter near you will give you frequent opportunities to speak. The best part is that you will be in a supportive environment where the other members of the group will encourage you as you improve.

Record every presentation you give. Get a pocket-sized digital recorder and record every talk. We tend to be hypercritical when we hear ourselves, so listen to the recording not only to see how you can improve but to acknowledge what you do well.

Video tape yourself practicing your speech. Set up your video recorder at home or in your office and practice speaking. Watch yourself carefully to pick up good and bad mannerisms. Are your hands jingling keys in your pocket? Do you keep touching your tie? Are you blinking or otherwise looking nervous? Also watch for what you do right. Are your hand gestures natural? Do you have a great smile, and use it often?

Get honest feedback from others. Many years ago I was in a training program for speakers where we evaluated each other. After a presentation, each person in the class would tell the speaker one thing they had done well and one thing they could do better next time. Ask someone you trust and respect to do that for you. Constructive criticism (“Here is something you could do better next time…”) makes you better if you accept it and use it to improve.

After you have been speaking for a while, go back and listen to a recording (or watch a video) of one of your early presentations. You will be amazed at how much your speaking skills have improved!

I am feeling so discouraged right now. I spent a lot of time over the past month trying to sign a new client. There was a proposal followed by questions, meetings, emails, conference calls and more questions. Just when I thought I had the job, I found out it went to someone else.

I was counting on this work and really put everything I had into it. I really need the money I would have made. What do I do now? I don’t have any other prospects. I feel frustrated and sad and I just want to quit.

Wow. Been there, done that. We have all had times where things didn’t go our way. Sometimes big things, like this. Rejection at any time can feel like you were punched in the stomach, and it is especially hard to take when you really need the work (and the money–mostly the money!).

Back in the early days of my business I encountered a situation very much like this. I had what seemed like a sure thing. I interviewed with the client and they liked what I proposed. I went back and met with others at the company and everyone was enthusiastic. We were discussing terms and a timeline. Then, nothing. I called a few times and finally got in touch with my contact who told me that they had hired someone else. I was devastated. Not only did I think I had the contract, business was slow right then and I really needed it.

What got me through was the promise of another opportunity. Even though I was sure the first contract was going to happen (and it would have kept me quite busy) I had other possibilities in the works. Sure enough, one of them came through within the next week, with others falling in line after that.

The lesson I learned from this was to always have more than one client in the pipeline. It can be tempting to stop marketing once you think you have enough work lined up to keep you busy for a while. But some of those clients may not come through and, even if they do, the work will run out sometime. Always have more waiting in the pipeline.

That is good advice for the future, but what about now? Let’s figure out how to take care of your immediate problem then plan for the future.

The immediate problem may be that without this client you won’t have the money to pay your bills. If that is the case, you need to deal with that NOW. Find a way to earn money. You might:

• Call past clients and see if they could use your help now.
• Put together a package of products and/or services and offer it at a special price.
• Sell your stuff on eBay or CraigsList. Or hold a garage sale.
• Offer your services through CraigsList, WarriorForum or other places where you can advertise inexpensively.
• Contact colleagues to ask if you can support them by assisting on their projects.
• Get a part-time job.

You can not effectively focus on your business if you are worried about the electricity being shut off, so do what you have to do to earn the money you need to live.

The other side of the current situation is your emotional state. You feel depressed and scared and unsure of yourself—not the strongest position to be in when you want to attract business. People do not respond positively to desperation, so do not talk about how much you need to earn money or that you don’t know what you are going to do if someone doesn’t hire you. You have just found yourself with an unexpected opening in your schedule and you are looking to fill it.

Give yourself a pep talk, put a smile on your face and get out there and look for clients. Keep smiling and you will start to believe you are happy and confident. Believe you are happy and confident and you will be.

The stuff in the previous section is the short-term strategy. The mid- to long-term strategy is not to find yourself in this situation again. Here is what you need to do so that you never find yourself at the mercy of a single client again.

Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket. Do not rely on one client to provide a large percentage of your income (What happens if you lose that client?) and do not focus on getting one client at a time. Always have many possibilities in the works. What is the worst that can happen if you are juggling several proposals and possible clients? The worst might be that you get offered more work than you can handle. At that point you can turn some of it down, hire people to help you serve your clients, or outsource some of your work. You already know the worst that can happen when you are working only one possible client.

Keep marketing even when you have plenty of business. There is always some amount of churn in any business. Clients come and go, circumstances change and your income can be affected. Make sure that when one part of your income disappears there is another opportunity waiting to take its place.

Diversify your income sources. That means not only that you should not depend on just one client to provide a large share of your income, you should look for sources of income that are not directly related to your primary business. For example, if most of your customers are in one industry actively seek customers from other sectors.

Create a base income that comes in whether you are working or not. Passive income. You want to know that you will have $300 or $700 or $1500 coming in every week no matter what. There are lots of ways to do that, more than I can address here. The short answer is to create some kind of intellectual property: write a book, create a training program, set up a website and run advertising, whatever. Start creating sources of passive income that will be there for you.

If business is slow, you need to take action right now to turn things around. Even if things are going well, you should be taking steps to keep them going well.

Here are ten quick tips to improve your writing:

Write conversationally. Imagine that you are talking to one person in your audience, and write to that person.

Avoid jargon. If you must use technical terms and jargon, explain it. Don’t make your readers feel stupid if they don’t understand something.

Vary sentence length. Short sentences are easy to read and comprehend, but using only short sentences can make your writing choppy.

Include just one main idea in a paragraph. Readers will be able to follow and understand better.

Use subheads and bullet points. Subheads and bullets make copy easier to read and help to reinforce main points.

Use an introduction, body and conclusion. Start by introducing your topic, deliver the meat, then summarize and wrap it up.

Give examples. Examples help your reader understand the point(s) you’re trying to make in your content. They can also help personalize the content and make it more accessible.

Keep it simple. I used to work with someone who loved to use long words in his business letters. There were at least two problems with that: He was often writing to people with very little education, and they didn’t understand what he was saying. And sometimes, he didn’t know what he was saying—he did not always use the words correctly. ;o) Use simple, easy to understand words.

Avoid inappropriate emphasis. Bold, italics and exclamation points are often used to emphasize certain words or phrases. Use them sparingly for the greatest effect. After all, when everything is emphasized, nothing is emphasized.

Smile when you write. Your mood affects your writing. Sit up straight and smile while you write. It will show in your work.

These ten tips are easy to implement and will make your writing flow more easily and be better received by your audience.

WHAT IT MEANS: In business, you’ve always got to know whom you’re talking to, and then use the right level of industry jargon. Not too much…not too little. When speaking to industry outsiders, make sure you’re not talking over their heads. If you edit your written and spoken communications, you will have a better chance of establishing and maintaining a strong relationship.

ACTION PLAN: Use analogies or plain English translations. People often understand complex messages if they are wrapped in analogies; the more universal the analogy, the better. Relating a concept to a trip to the grocery store, the car dealership, or a lemonade stand may seem simplistic, but these are activities that everyone has experienced.

EVEN BETTER: Pay careful attention to nonverbal cues as they will give you clues on what’s difficult to grasp and requires more explanation. If your speech patterns are sprinkled with technical words without any corresponding explanation, chances are your listener’s eyes will eventually glaze over. Adjust the level of industry language that you are using, both to make it easier to understand and to prompt questions when necessary.

Reprinted from “Rick Frishman’s Wednesday Tips”
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I like to use two monitors when I am writing. Having one screen open to my word processor and the other to my research materials makes it easy to read my notes or consult websites and other documents while writing. Dual monitors can also make it easier to check for changes and corrections when proofreading a document.

Those extra seconds spent repeatedly clicking or switching between programs as you work can really add up, and you will work more slowly than when you have the space to have everything you need displayed neatly in front of you on dual monitors.

A second screen may also come in handy for monitoring social media, email or instant messaging without having to leave what you are working on. If I want to watch a video of a webinar or an online course, I can play it on one screen while I work on something else on the other screen.

Dual monitors are not without their disadvantages, though. The very things that can make you more productive can have a negative impact on your productivity if you let them. It can turn your desktop into the computer version of Bloomberg News, where there is so much happening on the screen you can not process all of it. If you are easily distracted, having your Twitter feed or other social media constantly changing in front of you can keep you from doing any real work. It is up to you to make sure that your second monitor makes you more productive, not less.

How does it work? I have a second monitor that I sometimes connect to my laptop PC. After plugging the monitor in to my laptop, I right click on the desktop background and choose Graphics Properties. From that menu, I choose Multiple Displays or Extended Desktop. (The exact choices will depend on your operating system and hardware.) Once the settings are applied I can move my mouse between screens as if I had one large monitor. To move a window from one screen to another, I just grab it with my mouse and drag it to the other screen. Cool!

Although many computers can now accommodate dual monitors, if yours doesn’t you may need to upgrade your video card. Added to the expense of the second monitor, you can be out several hundred dollars. The investment can be worth it if you get more done in less time, often with better quality. However, if your major advantage is being able to play Angry Birds during an online client meeting, it is probably not worth the money.

If you are satisfied with the amount of space on your screen than you may decide that dual monitors are not necessary. Let me warn you, though: Once you have worked with two monitors you will not want to go back to just one!

Image Credit: MrChrome at en.wikipedia [GFDL or CC-BY-3.0], from Wikimedia Commons

Here are some tips for writing an effective About page.

Start with a picture.

Because people like to do business with people they know like and trust, showing what you look like and that you are a real person can go a long way toward helping establish that trust and likability.

Tell people about you and your business.

It’s called an “About” page for a reason. This is where you tell people about you, your business, your products and services, your mission, the history of your business, and why they should consider doing business with you. Don’t make this just a dry statement of facts, though. It should be written in your voice with your personality shining through.

Incorporate social proof.

Your readers will want to know what other people think of you. Include testimonials from your customers and fans that show off the benefits of doing business with you. Other forms of social proof may include a client list with impressive names or large numbers, such as the number of books you have sold, number of clients you have helped, etc.

Brag a little.

Have you won awards? Have you been profiled are featured in major media such as the Wall Street Journal or the New York Times? Mentioning those things on your About page can give you instant credibility.

Where are you?

I am surprised at how many people give no indication of where they are physically located anywhere on their website. Although you don’t have to give details that would violate your privacy, it’s smart to at least give people a general idea of where you are located. If for no other reason, I like to know where someone is so that if I telephone them I call during appropriate business hours in their time zone.

Include contact information.

Include a link to your contact form or include the contact form and other info such as address and telephone number on your About page.

Don’t forget the call to action.

What do you want people to do after they’ve read your About page? You might want them to sign up for your newsletter, contact you for an appointment, connect with you on social media such as Twitter or Facebook, sign up for an introductory teleseminar or webinar, or view your product pages. Don’t make them guess. Whatever you want people to do, make the next action clear and simple for them to do.

Optimize your About page.

Your About page, like any other page on your website, should be properly optimized for the search engines. Be sure to weave your most important keywords through the text.

Your About page is, in many ways, a sales page. It deserves at least as much time and attention as you would give to a product sales page. Once you’ve written a draft of your About page, set it aside and come back to it several hours or a day or two later. Proofread carefully to avoid typos and grammatical errors.

Want to see some examples of good About pages? Here are a few I like from a variety of sites:

Andrew Reifman is a web designer who, judging by his About page, has a good sense of humor and doesn’t take himself too seriously (although it is possible that he overestimates his pool playing abilities). His About page shows off his expertise and makes it easy to learn more about him while letting his personality shine through.

Dogs Trust is an animal welfare charity in the UK. Readers learn about what they do and how they can support the organization, as well as having many opportunities to connect with them on social media.

Chris Garrett is a blogger and social media expert. Chris describes his experience and expertise on this page, with links to where readers can hire him or buy his products.

Although this is not technically an About page, my Connect with Cathy site shows people where they can find me online: my websites, social media profiles and more. This one page site (aka a “business card site”) describes my online presence concisely.

Any fool can step on the gas, but it takes a real driver to steer his car and apply the brakes without accidents.

Each month advance your spark and speed.

The excitement of a new idea can cause us to jump in and get started before we really know where we want to end up or how we will get there.

Enthusiasm is great and will help you to reach your goal, but take the time to plan and make sure you are headed in the right direction and using your efforts wisely.

When we were in Spain we heard much of the persistence of Christopher Columbus in winning good Queen Isabella’s promise to finance his voyage of discovery. But could there be a greater example of persistency than those subsequent days described in his diary written in 1492?

Let’s label the next seven days ” Persistence Week.” Again may we concentrate on just one particular task and have the satisfaction as the week ends of saying, “PERSISTENCE WON.”

Often, we accept failure when success is right around the corner. We will never know how often we gave up when just a little more effort—a bit more persistence—would have brought success.

This week, instead of quickly saying, “This doesn’t work,” “I can’t do this,” or “I never succeed at anything,” commit to giving your best and persisting until you reach your goal.

The great mass of humanity is satisfied with an ordinary level. Such people are not the worst, neither are they the best. Some of them even question any advance beyond the ordinary level. Their fight is simply to hold their own.

This week let’s definitely set our hearts on a Higher Level; and through our daily habits force ourselves to live on this level.

Comparing ourselves to others can lead to being satisfied with an ordinary level of accomplishment. After all, as long as we are doing better than some other people, isn’t that good enough?

It might be good enough for those who aspire to be ordinary, but not for those who want to be their best. And that is the key—being YOUR best, not as good as someone else or better than someone else, but the best you can be.

Until the day you achieve perfection (and don’t hold your breath waiting for that!) there will always be room to improve. Look for ways you can reach new levels in all areas of your life.

Ike

Update – July 27, 2011: Ike and JJ Have a Good Home! Last Friday, Ike and JJ went to their new home. A lovely lady who had recently lost her elderly cat adopted both Ike and JJ. So they are in a wonderful new home with their loving caregiver and they are still together. This is amazing news. Huge thanks go to the people at Friends for Life who have cared for Ike and JJ over the last couple of months and who found them their new forever home.

——-

This is not a typical post for me, but we have a situation here.

My neighbor is a wonderful lady who recently received a devastating diagnosis of Alzheimer’s. She has moved to a facility where she can receive the care she needs, but could not take her two cats with her. I stepped in to help find a place for them. Unfortunately, we can not take them in permanently because we already have two pets (Nigel, a poodle, and Tasha, a Russian Blue cat) both of whom were also rescues.

Both Ike and JJ are sweet and affectionate, but right now they are a bit confused and stressed. They were used to being in a quiet home with the only human caregiver either had ever known. Suddenly, not only was their human missing, new people were coming and going all the time and things started to disappear from their home as it was prepared for sale.

JJ

After making lots of phone calls and moving a few mountains, I have come up with some interim solutions. Ike and JJ will be in the library of my home until spots open up at a wonderful no-kill shelter in Houston that is working with me to help them. However, the shelter is not the end. They will need a forever home.

If you can help find Ike and JJ a forever home, please let me know. It would be wonderful if they could be placed together, although I know that may not be possible.

The sooner they find a home, the better it will be for them and the easier their adjustment will be.

JJ is four years old and cute as can be. He is shy around strangers, but it doesn’t take long to become his friend. A couple of treats and some head scratches (He LOVES having his head scratched!), and he was my buddy.

Ike is 13 or 14. He is the beautiful Siamese (?) cat you see here. Ike is not as shy as JJ and loves to be petted.

Both have been declawed, so can not be outdoors at all.

What You Can Do

If you are in the Houston area and would like to inquire about adopting Ike and JJ, get in touch with me. My email is cathy (at) idealady (dot) com.

If you can not take on the kitties due to geography or a full house, you can help by:

Spreading the word. Let people know about Ike and JJ and let’s see if we can find them a home.

Support Friends for Life. I have been so impressed with the people there and what they do, and I want to see them continue to thrive and save more animals. If you are in Houston, you can volunteer, adopt a pet or make a donation. Wherever you are, you can make a donation by check or PayPal, or by shopping at Kroger or Amazon. Details are at http://nokill1.org/donate.php.