Why each Toastmaster club should have a blog?

Today I have been to Amplion Toastmasters club. Quite a new club located in Prague near Uhelný dvůr and it was a great meeting. As a speaker I had project n.3 from advanced communicator manual, the Winning proposal. Objective of the project is to propose an idea (for me it was that Amplion club should have a blog) and persuade the audience to accept it. I have uploaded my slides that i used for today, I would like to thank the audience once again, the atmosphere was very good.

A toastmaster club is a great place not to only improve your communication skills, but also to make friends. And for both making friends and public speaking you need two things - a speaker and the audience. While the main pages of your club could give the person the basic information, blog is the place where you can connect with the people showing that you are friendly, lively club with lot of interesting activities.

I hope my slides can inspire you when making a presentation next time or when you think about starting a blog. Don‘t think. Start it.

Don't be too safe.

When you try to be too safe,it's usually boring. When no risk is involved,we don't get interested.Why people like watching football?Because there's risk,someone can get hurt.Why people like Steve Jobs?Because he was willing to take the risk.

If you are a presenter or a speaker,you can try new things in a safe place like Toastmasters club,but sooner or later you got to take the risk and speak outside the club.Reality will sometimes hit you hard,but that's the only way you can get better.

Why not taking the risk..starting today?

Louis Vuitton on the tram.

If somebody has an LV bag,you don't really expect that she is taking the public transport.A BMW or Mercedes seems more reasonable,appropriate, when you see a woman having it.But there are three good reasons why to expect she has it:

1.Feel-good reason:It makes you feel good just having it no matter how much money you have.

2.Social norm:If I have it others might perceive me as being rich.

3.Showing off:Feels good others can't afford it.

But what's really inspiring is not so much what is it,but how did he or she make money to buy it.We often start thinking too soon and then act based on bias.Why not asking,finding out more about the other person?

Luis Vuitton on the tram won't inspire you,but the person having it could very well.Be teachable,ask and learn more to earn more.

Going the extra mile.

We like getting something extra,especially at no cost.Therefore when you regularly ask yourself how can you serve your customer better,you might find new ways of making your loyal customers happier.

So called going the extra mile is also effective when it contains doing a favor first.Because by the rule of reciprocity we feel obliged to repay such a fovor.

Waiting for others to do something for you first doesn't work,think about making the first step,offer something extra and as for the benefits for you?They will come in bulk.

Do you smile?

Smile at a stranger. See what happens.

-Patti LuPone

When autumn is here, you study or work, meet lot of people you start thinking what makes meeting someone so powerful, so calming while meeting others is as dating with an iceberg. Sometimes even a smile is enough. That's what appeared in my mind. Why? There might be many qualities of a person we could think of, like being organized, hardworking, making a lot of money, but it all seems as quite useless if it doesn't make you happy at the end and if it doesn't bring you smile. Why do you do what you do? Does it bring you smile?

I believe that if you smile more it can make everyone happier than before, making you also more attractive and more influential. When and at whom can you smile more?

Photo:Happy, uploaded by godoflite at www.sxc.hu

Why to offer more expensive first.

Two days ago I went to a restaurant to enjoy peaceful evening with a friend of mine. While ordering a bottle of wine, I have noticed something that stuck my mind, but it obviously didn't catch the owner's mind. The cheapest wines were in the beginning of the list, while the most expensive were at the end, havi ng a completely separate list.

How the owner has come to the conclusion that it's probably a good idea to put the most expensive wines at the end? I think that his reasoning was something like: "Well, if most of people will buy the average priced wines or the cheapest, I should put it right at the top of the list. Few people will buy the most expensive, so I will put it at the end." This reasoning is wrong for two reasons that come from persuasion techniques.

Firstly, lots of people think about how they would react as the customer using common sense. Common sense is good, no problem with that. But when it comes to persuasion common sense is not common influence. According to recent studies 90% of people think they understand what influences them therefore they don't study persuasion and psychology. What an opportunity, if you study persuasion you compete only with 10% of people. But we neither do know what influences us nor others. 

Secondly, we don't think in vacuum, but in context. Our brain is excellent at making connections and that's how our memory works too. So when we are evaluation option, e.g. price of wine in a restaurant, we take into consideration lot of other factors. This is something psychologist call the contrast principle. It's easy to try by yourself, when you put hands into icy water and then into mildly hot water, it will feel as warmer than if you would put it only into warm water only. Or if you pick up something very heavy and then something pretty light the light thing feels having even less weight.

So which wine would you present as the first one, cheap or expensive? If you present the expensive items first then the average prices items are perceived as even cheaper, more attractive choice. Start with the more expensive choices first even though you know the will be probably rejected.

When it comes to influence, seeing a more expensive item first makes the second, less expensive item even cheaper. When the customer starts to evade, you have to persuade.

Photo:Businessman in front of the office, www.sxc.hu, uploaded by CELALTEBER

Which word can make you more persuasive?

Lot of people see persuasion as art.Art is something you can't do without talent. You can learn and practice all the techniques that make an artist,however without talent you won't be successful as an artist.

Persuasion is a different story.You can become more persuasive if you recognize the persuasive methods and practice them.No one is born highly persuasive.

The easiest way to be more persuasive especially in simple offers is adding one extra word to your offer.We are driven by reasoning.A good reason to get up,a good reason to go to school,a good reason to work harder.

You do something because of a reason.Because is the one word to get more yes,to get more clients.

When asking someone to do something add "because" with a reason and you will get another "yes".

Recycled creativity

When it comes to creativity,lot of people think it means doing something brand new,changing the status quo by a brand new idea to break the bland ideas.

There is also some magic in "having a great idea".Countless starting businesspeople are making a list of great ideas waiting for even more ideas.They think that only if they had a really exceptional idea,they could do and start something.

The world is full of great ideas already.There is no problem in finding a good idea in the information age.What's hard,effective and rewarded is recycled creativity.It means executing something that has been already used effectively in a little different way such as this ad by Mall.No,this kind of ad isn't the first one,it has been already used by Tesco in Korea.

But when in comes to ideas,it's better to execute perfectly an average idea than to sit and wait.The world is already full of ideas.

Love thy salesperson.

Imagine the world without salespeople. No junk mail,telephone getting cold calling at the dinner table,noone would be persuading you to buy something you don't want.You wouldn't waste money on stuff you don't need.Actually,you wouldn't have anything,because there wouldn't be anyone to buy from.

People are angry at bad salespeople-those often highly motivated by self-help books and salestraining trying to push their product.This is the old way of selling.People are angry because that old way of hard sell is dying.

In the new world of selling the best salespeople focus on the buyer and mostly importantly position themselves as a resource of information.You can hardly push something in the variety of products on the market today.When you buy from a good salesperson,you are not being sold,you choose to buy and your needs are satisfied.

No more hard sell,because the customer should be the target,anything else.

The Ordinary and the Remarkable.

What do The Eiffel Tower, the Colloseum and Steve Job's keynotes have in common?

When our time and money is limited, the world is overcluttered with ads and PowerPoint presentations,it's really hard to get someone's focus and attention.

It's easy to find two or three reasons why you like your favourite restaurant,but why most of them didn't stick in your mind?

It's when we choose to do something remarkable,to try something new and unexpected,we create a new tomorrow. You can't be blander than bland.Be remarkable,try something new and people will listen and your idea will stick.