|
Milo's periodic
journal
of
learning, life-tips, and laughter
"You Don't Ask, You Don't
Get!"
This is the title of my friend Janet Williams
book
on getting more out of what we want in life.
This week, a certain major store chain drove me
nuts with accidentally cancelling my order of a dishwasher, messing up
delivery dates, calling me instead of my tenant (despite notes saying
not to do that), and several more things. Ten years ago, I'd have
just left frustrated, but Janet's phrase rang in my ear and I said, just
as we were getting off the phone: "You know, I've put hours into
something that should have been simple and every step of the way, the
error has been on your end. I think some form of compensation is
in order."
After a pause, the agent said, "How about I remove
the delivery charge on this deal?"
She hadn't planned to bring that up, but my asking
made the difference. The trick is to remember that you have
nothing to lose by asking in most cases so long as you can handle a "No"
without falling apart. In this case, my willingness to risk that
put $59 back on my credit card. Whether it's a store, a favor, a
raise...find the gumption and ask.
Public Speaking Tip of the
Day
In a
previous newsletter, the tip talked about how important it is to keep
our throat hydrated and why it’s important that the liquid be thin (tea,
water, decaf coffee) and somewhere between room temperature and
mildly-hot. But how does one stop a presentation to drink without
looking awkward about it. 300 people are watching and it seems like
forever to as they watch you do it, right?
There
are a couple of tricks to handling how to drink on stage and, for the
record, I don’t think I've ever done more than 20 minutes without giving
myself that. Most professional speakers hydrate from the stage. So the
first thing to do is allow yourself that humanity. Nothing to apologize
for or feel guilty about. Their speaker is human; s/he needs to wet the
whistle now and then for their sake.
Next,
to cut the time down, be walking toward the drink while working on one
of your thoughts. I watched one woman apologize to the audience,
silently hurry back to the lectern, guzzle a short sip, and silently
walk back to the center. That did feel long! Had she walked there
while talking, sipped, and walked back speaking, it would have been
nothing to me. And because she felt rushed, she took such a small sip
that she had to do it again in only a few minutes!
Lastly, be bold enough to really own the stage and use that sip to your
advantage. Imagine me saying, “The most valuable way to make a message
stay in an audience’s mind [pause 5 seconds] is to covey it in a
story.” For those five seconds, the audience is thinking, “What?
What’s the most valuable way?!?” And how do I make a pause that long
without looking odd about it? By drinking my water in that time with no
warning or apology about it. Now I feel better and I created a little
fun anticipation as I sipped.
One of the many tips in
"Public
Speaking:
Get A's, Not Zzzzzz's!"
Coming really soon
for the next generation:
Upcoming ezine will offer a great discount!
Exciting News for Milo
The new book above, before I ever got a chance to promote
it to my mailing list,
made it to the top of the Kindle list
in its category of youth non-fiction! Hopefully,
parents and teens are already enjoying and learning based on
that.
Still, I'd love to be able to say that it made it to the top
of the
Amazon list,
not
just the Kindle
one. To help with that, keep watching for a promotion
where I'll be lowering the cost of the paperback for a day
to as low as Amazon will let me (probably around $3 instead
of $19.95)
I love my Kindle, but I believe
these books
on public speaking are way better read on paper. Don't
treat these copies preciously. I
want them written in, highlighted, notated in the margins,
and so on. These should be an ongoing personalized
resource for you -- which can't be done on a Kindle.
Hope you'll consider getting a copy
on the big day -- either for yourself or that special teen
in your life.
By the way, it's extremely
similar to the adult version; I mostly just changed the
examples and the tone to make it more accessible to a
younger audience. Adults can still learn a lot from
it.
Make more of autocorrect on your
computer
I'm
always surprised to learn that people aren't make the most
of the autocorrect features of programs like Outlook and
MS-Word. You needn't limit yourself to the corrections
that come with the product. And the use goes way
beyond spelling. Most autocorrects can hold sentences,
formatting, and even images.
For example, I have three
salutations, each with a photo and two columns of
information, saved under three different autocorrections.
One is my default in Outlook but if I want one of the other
two, I just erase the default and type "coachsal" or "tbsal"
(for teambuilder salutation) and the entire thing pops up
like magic.
Got a paragraph that you
frequently type, like directions to your place from the
closest freeway? Save it all as "gettome" in
Autocorrect and you'll never type it again. I never
type my email address or phone number in emails...all
autocorrect. And then there's no typos because a bunch
of numbers just pop up. And if they don't pop up, it's
much more noticeable that I mistyped the autocorrection key
phrase.
Today's Humor
"There are two types of speakers:
those who are nervous and those who are liars."
~Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)
(Note: So true! After hundreds of speeches, I still get those
butterflies-in-the-belly as my intro is read. I just know
enough now to remember: It's normal and the feeling always
passes.)
Today's Featured Podcast from FSA
From the
vault of my podcast interviews, this great one:
And finally, a welcome...
...to
the new members
of the eZine list from last month's combined meetings of several north
county Toastmasters groups. I appreciate you all coming together
in one big room where I could address you all.
Lots of tech issues, but I appreciated how many of you put on your
evaluations that I didn't look like it was bothering me. Boy, was
it ever! But letting your audience see that feeling only makes
them unnecessarily uncomfortable. ;)
See? Told you the
newsletters would be light and helpful. Hope you're
enjoying them!
If I can be of service to
you, just use the button here to reach my site and drop me a
line! --
Milo
Contact Info
Milo's Books
   
Copyright
2017, Milo Shapiro.
Hope you'll continue to
receive my mailings, but if you want off the
list, please scroll to the bottom and
unsubscribe with the option there. Just
please don't call me a spammer. ;-)
And if you're seeing this on my website and would
LIKE to get the emails so you don't miss future issues, click here to
sign up:
| |