Presentations

Yesterday afternoon, I returned from Making the Stage with T. Harv Ecker, Blair Singer, Larry Gilman, and Zoltan.  If you are a professional speaker and haven't yet attended Train the Trainer and Making the Stage, you should check out these (and the other course offerings, as well) by Peak Potentials.  Most people start with the Millionaire Mind Intensive first (since it's free) and you can find out more by clicking the link.

I've taken quite a few of the Peak's courses at this point and I highly recommend their accelerated learning techniques as a way to keep your audience engaged and to help them retain more of what they learn.  Using these techniques kept the people who were listening to my final presentation on the last day of class on the edge of their seats.  The people listening gave me great feedback about how well I brought them along during my 30 minute presentation on getting past creative blocks.  I had also given them a minute to write down some notes about the process I led them on so that they could use it again at home and they shared what a great idea that was.  They told me that they planned to use the exercise going forward when they got stuck on a problem and how effective they thought the exercise was for anyone, not just creative folks.

Since I'm just getting started with the public speaking part of my creativity coaching business, I wanted to make sure that I would be putting my best possible foot forward as I began.  I've done teaching as a part of every phase of my 30+ year business career, ranging from introductory computer classes for department heads and their secretaries to creative projects for artists.  I've also done some public speaking, as well as appearing in print and on TV.

So obviously, I don't have many problems with the actual public speaking part of doing workshops going forward.  What I wanted to make sure of was that I would be delivering the information in a way that people who find it engaging and entertaining, while retaining more of the information I would be giving them.  The input from our instructors really helped to cement that in me in a way that I can now relax about it, since I know that I can construct the script for my workshops in a way that they'll be engaged in every part of the time we spend together.

I used to be a little nervous about doing a presentation to audiences in which I might not have too many of my target audience in attendance.  But now, I'm really excited because the people in my group weren't my target audience, but still felt that they got value out of my presentation.  Several people who heard even my early presentations were asking me where they could come to learn more about what I do.

Whoo Hoo!  What a win!  Next stop - Workshop Heaven!

Speaking of new spaces...

I've moved into my new office at Dr. Adams' chiropractic clinic and am ready to start working from  there.  Since I don't have many bookings yet, I'm still spending most of my time outside the clinic drumming up business at other places around town.  In the process, I'm putting together a book for my office of other offerings from around Sedona that compliment my own practice so that I can make recommendations.  As I'm passing out my marketing materials, I collect biz cards or flyers to hand out to my clients so that I can make it easy for them to contact the other businesses.  I love win/win situations!

Admittedly, it was a little challenging at first to go out to local businesses and start selling myself and my practice.  The nice thing was that everyone was really welcoming - willing to trade information and make recommendations of other places I could stop into where appropriate.  After a few great interactions, it got easier to plan out the next batch.  I'm sure that it would have been harder for me if the first few businesses I went into were not so welcoming...  But you never know until you try, so it was definitely worth taking the deep breath and going for it!

You know, the fact that the first 20 to 30 minute demo session on the Trinfinity8 machine is free was a great ice breaker.  I could offer both the people at the business and their clients something for free to allow them to interact with me and my practice with no risk to themselves.  The only cost to me is 20 to 30 minutes of my time, but the potential  benefit of introducing someone to my practice is enormous!  So far it seems well worth the time to conduct the session, as well as the time and effort of going around to these businesses introducing myself and handing out my marketing materials.

So, if you are starting a new business - or perhaps even an established one that isn't getting many new customers - and you don't have a low- or no-cost initial offering of your own, you might want to consider creating one.  Like my offer, it doesn't necessarily have to cost you anything more than a little time.  That does depend on your business, of course, but generally there is some aspect of your business that you could give away as an ice breaker, whether it be a free e-book, a shorter free session (if you are in a service business), a free video tutorial, or some type of low cost product that will introduce potential customers to your business and allow them to "try you out."  Think outside the box and consider giving it a try!

It's a good start...

Well, here I am in my new space.  Here you'll be able to find not just my blog, but also my new coaching practice information, information on the Trinfinity8 sessions that will be part of my practice, and (when I've got stuff to sell and the store is fully set up) a link to my Etsy store, called AMusinGlass, where I'll be selling my fused glass art.

For now, I'm still constructing the website - getting it to look the way I want it to, adding more content, and customizing everything a little more.  Thank goodness, the blog part of it works mostly the same way that the Wordpress site worked.  I may find some things that didn't import properly that I'll have to fix, and it looks like the media part of it is a little weaker (my slideshow of the Illuminating Candle doesn't work now), but aside from that, it looks pretty good.  More news as all of this progresses...