Here is what people said about Present with Confidence May 2010

Next workshop is on July 17th – if your interested email info@oxygencoaching.com.au

Testimonials

“I have learnt how to plan and organise a speech and interact with others effectively from stage. I have learnt how to better manage myself while speaking and affect the audience in a positive way. It was a very valuable day and I now know how to take my speaking to the next level, thanks Colin for a great day!”

Mario Novosel – ACN – Business Owner

“I have had the pleasure of being trained by Colin several times and on these occasions I have found him to be inspirational and motivating.  I would recommend him without hesitation”

Robert Jackson – Director – Storcheck Security

“Colin’s ‘Present with Confidence’ was a powerful and engaging workshop.  The different modalities in voice, body language and presentation tools will stay with me forever. I particularly liked the “Formatting Content” of the day. It really will allow me to have unlimited potential in the way I present”

Violet Jammal

“The whole day has was full of learning. I have learnt some great tips in my communication strategies and presentation skills which will help me with speaking and even everyday life. I found Colin to be an excellent presenter, easy to understand and motivating.”

Paula Jackson – Director – Storchek Security

Last week I visited the physiotherapist because I had been feeling some pain in my right leg.  Five minutes into the appointment the physiotherapist said “sit down on the edge of the bed and I will be back in a couple of minutes”.  So I jumped up on the edge of the bed and waited for his return.  Initially I sat up straight feeling proud of my choice to actively seek solutions to my leg problem, yet after a few minutes of waiting I slowly slumped over to a more comfortable position.  Knock, Knock, Knock, the physiotherapist came in said “Don’t Move!”  I sat there frozen.  He walked around the bed and looked at my posture from all angles and then announced “You have failed the test drastically!”.

My initial thoughts were, what test? Was I doing a test? I didn’t even realise it. If I new I was doing a test I would have done it differently.  All these thoughts flooded through my head, but it was too late, I had failed the test and he had see the evidence needed to diagnose why I had leg current leg pain – “Bad Posture” he announced.  My foundational posture was so bad that it was starting to affect many other areas of my body.

I believe that there are three things that create our foundation posture in our careers.  If these three things are out, then we will experience pain in our careers and life.  Here are the three elements I believe that create the career posture, for better or worse:

Goal Setting – You must be clear on your goals.  Specifically you must have 90 day goals or projects that are a ‘must’ for achieving in that time frame.  So often I speak to successful professionals and business owners who reflect that all they do is get clear on what goal or project must get completed in the next 90 days.  Instead of focusing on 100 projects and achieving nothing they focus on 1 – 3 projects in a 90 day period and ensure they are completed.  Over a 12 months period they will then have achieved between 12 – 36 key projects in the year.

Time Management – You must have a system that works for you.  There are two key areas to time management – Priority and Process.  You must prioritize the most important task first.  Stephen Covey calls it ‘first things first’ or ‘separating the non important from the truly important’. Jim Rohn says “Don’t major on the minors and minor on the majors’.  Choose everyday whats most important. Process is the way you manage the flow of the tasks.  Some people use Microsoft Outlook or even plain old paper. For iphone users I recently have started using an app called “Omnifocus” it is the best app I have found to manage my process flow of tasks.

Action – Nothing replaces it.  Choose today to act continually.  Remember it is “perfection through implementation, not perfection then implementation”. I find one of the biggest action killers is procrastination caused by people trying to perfect, before they implement anything.  If Bill Gates did that we would not have Microsoft, if Richard Branson did that we would not have Virgin.  Of course you must have a quality product but don’t wait till something is perfect before acting on it.

Three Posture questions:

What are my 90 days goals for this quarter?

What is the most important project to focus on today?

What actions must I take today that I have been putting off until now?

Love to hear your thoughts….

What if life wasn’t about achieving balance, but actually achieving imbalance.

Life balance and the equation of having ‘balance’ in your life may just be an illusive idea that is distracting you from truly living your full potential.

So often we try to spend the right amount of time with our family, work, sports, friends and interests.  I’ve heard it said, “It’s not how fast you live, but how deep you live that determines the quality of your life”.  I believe the living deep and extracting the best of what life has to offer starts with getting to know what energises you.

Start to notice the experiences, people and challenges that get you positively charged. Marcus Buckingham talks about having ‘strong moments’ in your day.  Strong moments are experiences and activities that energise you prior, during and after the activity.  The process of ‘unbalancing’ your life is to start identifying, planning and experiencing those moments that excite, energise and exhilarate you. Start to focus on having more ‘strong moments’ rather than getting the ‘life balance’ equation right. In other words, be who you are and experience more of what you enjoy.

For me it is coaching high performance individuals, training groups who are committed to change and reaching their full potential and talking with entrepreneurs that expand and stretch my current views of what is possible.  To truly have a great day, week or year you must start to slowly and consistently imbalance your life to the experiences that energise you. For some of you it may be awakening that fun side of you that you have chosen to forget about due to the stress of trying to achieve ‘life balance’.  Or maybe it is the intense, obsessed personality in you that you love but was misunderstood earlier in your life.

The best time to start this is now.  If you are currently an employee start to identify the experiences that you love in your role.  Then slowly and consistently begin to increase the amount of time you spend doing those things. Start doing it consciously and purposefully.  For example if interviewing is a part of your job and you enjoy it, plan when you can do that more and then maybe talk with your manager about doing it more.  Eventually, if you dedicate yourself, what you love doing can become what you do on a fulltime basis.  Which means you will be experiencing the moments that you love on a fulltime basis. Stop focusing on what you don’t want or don’t like and start choosing to focus on what you do like and want to do.  Then do that…..more often.

So, first ‘Identify’ what moments excite you, then ‘Plan’ them into your diary more and ‘Experience’ the fullness of an imbalanced life.

Present with Confidence was another great success with another group of participants learning the mindset and skill set needed to present with confidence.  The fun, engaging and informative workshop saw the participants develop quickly as speakers and communicators. Well done to all involved!

Here is what they said about the day:

“I haven’t done any presenting before and this was my first exposure to public speaking.  The workshop helped me build the confidence I needed to believe in myself and create a belief and thinking patterns that will enable me to speak confidently.  I truly will recommend this workshop to my colleagues” - Vai Mugu, Internet Administrator, ICTP

“I really enjoyed the day with Colin.  He is extremely knowledgeable and skillful in what he teaches and his way of teaching is very engaging and like able.  The title of the workshop is very fitting – Present with Confidence.” – Hamish McGregor, Sales Executive, Crown

“Colin is a charismatic trainer.  His communication style is highly engagaing and you walk away feeling like you made a friend and learnt a lot at the same time.  I believe he truly will become an international speaker in the future” – Lisa Lawrence, Training Manager, ACTE

“I started the workshop not feeling very confident, but after the workshop I can’t wait to get out there and present!“ Karina Dealtry, Marketing Manager, Twin Creeks Golf Club

NEXT SESSION  - 25th MArch – limited spots left – email info@oxygenct.com for enquires

Mozart was known for his ability to create depth, emotion and excitement through innovative music.  He was a master of elegance and style.  He played before kings and queens because he could penetrate the heart of his listener.  The fact is that so many people could be playing Mozart when it comes to their public speaking and presentations, yet they haven’t graduate from “chopsticks”.  Imagine going to the Opera House for a classical performance and hearing chopsticks played on the piano all night.  It wouldn’t be long before you felt bored, frustrated and soon very disappointed.  How can we expect our audience to listen to us, take us seriously or engage in our presentation if we are giving them a ‘chopsticks’ presentation?

There is a reason why your fall asleep in one presentation and are intensely immersed in another.  If you don’t know how to create penetration, depth and excitement in a presentation you will lose, bore and disassociate your listeners.  If you learn how to create it you can inspire, entice and engage any audience.

Here are my top 7 tips for taking your presentations from chopsticks to Mozart.  Use the following mediums to build depth and excitement into your points throughout your next speaking opportunity:

1. Stories – create emotion and connection with your point (personal is powerful)
2. Quotes – they make the simple profound
3. Movie clips – engage visual people (40% of the population) and they are fun (youtube works wonders)
4. Formal definitions – create formality around your point.  They should sound intellectual
5. Slang definitions – give shade to the rigid ‘formal definition’.  Say it as it is. Say it the way it would be said on the streets
6. Case studies – provide research based evidence which means your point has more validity
7. Diagrams & Models – give structure to your point

So next time you give a presentation, on each point you make ask yourself: How can I use other avenues to say the same point in various ways?  The more avenues you use the more depth you create and the more penetration your will have.  In other words, get up there and play Mozart!

Most great leaders possess it, learn it and master it.  Unsuccessful individuals are immobilised, intimidated and paralysed by it.

It has been said that the highest paid skill in the world is public speaking.  It is ones ability to communicate to a group of people, to motivate them to action, bring them to tears or entertain them in laughter which distinguish many great leaders from good leaders.

You have probably also heard it been said that there is one thing more feared that death, that is public speaking.  There is something about public speaking that can make people shutter in their bones.  Freak out. Become petrified.

After doing more than 9,500 hours of one to group delivery I have learnt one valuable lesson.  This lesson can mean the difference between feelings of fear or excitement, shell shock or exhilaration, power or helplessness.  This lesson alone if applied will enable a speaker to share his or her message with enthusiasm, persuasion and passion.

It is this: ‘your presentation is not about you!’

If you think that your presentation is about you, then why would you be up there in front of other people?  If it were about you then you would be alone in a room talking to yourself.  But your not!  You’re in front of a group of people, which means you are there for them, not you. A sales presentation is about the customer, a manager’s presentation is about the team and a political address is about the nation.

One of my core beliefs when I facilitate training session is this: ‘My training is never about showing my participants how good I am, it is always about showing them how good they already are.’

The following are some powerful questions I ask myself before every presentation or training session.  Use them to prepare your mind and your materials.

1. In what significant way could this message impact my listeners?
2. What positive changes could occur in my listeners, organisation or community as a whole because of my message?
3. How could my message change lives?

If you identify the significance your message has for your listeners then you are well on your way to speaking mastery.

I would love to hear your thoughts and experiences…….

I was looking down the gauntlet of the Vertical Bungy Jump. You know the one,where two opponents see how far they can run forwards before the giant elastic band pulls them back. After heading out from the blocks I reached the point where human muscle meets giant artificial rubber band. Guess who won?  The giant rubber band.  People live their whole lives like a vertical bungy.  Never quite figuring out why they can’t move out of their current season and into their next.  Confused about how to move up instead of down, forward instead of back.

The vertical bungy jump represents relationships.  The quality of your relationships will determine the quality of your results.  They are the vehicles that accelerate us or stop us, excite us or drain us, create vision or disappointment.

To increase your performance in 2010 you must evaluate your relationships.  There are only three types.  Positive, Neutral and Negative.

Positive ones leave you feeling stretched to grow, inspired to win, passionate for more.  They usually are created through purpose.  To increase your performance you must increase your association with these people.

Neutral ones are there for convenience and comfort.  They are the people you feel normal and comfortable with.  They have the same challenges as you.  You leave their presence feeling the same as you did before spending time together.   They are not good or bad, which is the problem – their association produces average.  Average associations produce average results.  You’ll need to limit your association with these people to increase your performance.

Negative ones leave you feeling guilty, discouraged and exploited.  You leave their presence in a worse state than you entered, slightly smaller than before.  They are the silent dream killers, the vision thief’s and the energy deflators.  You must disassociate with these people to increase your performance.

Lets make this practical now:

1. Write Positive, Neutral and Negative on a page.
2. Ask -  In relation to where I want my career/business/life to move, how do the people in my world impact my life? (placing someone in the Negative section doesn’t mean they are a bad person, they simply aren’t a good influence towards where your going)
3. Write their names down under the Positive, Neutral, Negative headings.
4. You now know whether you need to increase, limit or disassociate your relationships.
5. Try it and notice how good you feel, the increase you see and sense it makes.

Present with Confidence December 09 was a great success.

Check out the video testimonials below.

The workshop will provide proffessionals the mindset and skill set to present confidently and competently in public.  The day is JAM PACKED with value, a must for someone looking to improve in their presentation skills.

Look out for Event dates in 2010.