Tom Antion: What Is A Super Affiliate?

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Tom Antion: The Front Row

In the research I did on my recent public speaking trip to Thailand, I discovered that a meeting or seminar custom is to seat VIP attendees in the front row. No one of a lesser status either socially or in business would think of sitting closer to the front than their boss, or someone of a higher social ranking. This is a very loose and largely ignored custom in Western meetings, and carries a significantly higher decorum in Thailand and Asia. Since many meetings are rather westernized anyway, don’t fret if your speaking engagement is not run this way, but your knowledge and adherence to this custom can earn you some real points with the people that count.

Room Setup

I normally use a semi circular theatre style room setup whenever I can. In my Thailand talk, I found out approximately how many VIPs there would be and set the front row with plush chairs that were obviously nicer and different than the rest of the typical hotel chairs. I befriended one of the attendees who knew what the VIP attendees looked like. When a VIP was identified, either me or my assistant escorted them to a front row seat. I had some time to blow while awaiting the arrival of the Governor so, I went around the room allowing the attendees to name themselves and their affiliations. I started at the back of the room and ended with the most senior official in the front row. These gestures were very well received and paved the way for a very productive speaking engagement.

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Public Speaking: Alliteration

When you are speaking in public, humor need not be knee slapping funny to be effective. Here is a mild form of humor to add to your public speaking engagements. Alliteration is the repetition of the same first sound or the same first letter in a group of words or line of poetry.

You find alliteration used in advertisements and titles all the time because it tends to catch your eye and ear. One of my humorous public speaking topics is titled ‘Pranks for Profit: Confessions of a Paid Practical Joker’. It has four ‘p’ sounds.

Here is an example of a positive message delivered with alliteration:

‘We (B)agged the (B)aldridge award (B)ecause our (B)rainy, (B)eautiful (B)usinesspeople are the (B)est.’

In a negative message you can soften the blow of the message without appearing frivolous or uncaring. Example:

‘The strike by one of our suppliers has put a (C)runch on our division. Even though we are (C)runched, we are still (C)reative. We are still (C)redible. And we will (C)onquer this problem.’

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Tom Antion: Sorting Emails

I primarily use this technique when sifting through the volumes of emails I receive. It makes it much easier to find and deal with my most important messages.

I use Microsoft Outlook as my main email program, but the same technique works for many other programs whether they are email programs or not.

The simple technique is to click at the top of the column that you want to sort on.

For instance, if I wanted my newest emails to show up at the top of my email inbox, I would click on the top of the date column. Oops what happened? Well if the emails were already sorted with the newest at the top and the oldest at the bottom, and I clicked the top of the column, then the order would reverse. The oldest email would now be at the top and the newest at the bottom. Click on the top of the column again and you reverse the order again. Now the newest are at the top where they belong and the oldest are at the bottom. I find this the most convenient because I don’t have to scroll down to see new emails arrive.

FLAGGED EMAILS
This is the most common way that I use the sort function. I get such a high volume of emails I usually go over them very quickly eliminating the obvious spam. Then I go over the ones that are left and try to notice if any need immediate attention. If they do and it’s a quick answer, I go ahead and answer them immediately. If it’s going to take a more in depth answer, I right click on the email and click on “flag for follow-up.” The rest of the emails I usually drag individually to respective folders that I have already set up. Anytime I want to address the topic of those emails I can simply go to one of those folders and find emails related to that topic.

Now back to the flagged emails. This is where the sort function comes in. By the time I get through 50 or 100 emails I usually have a bunch of flagged emails separated by miscellaneous stuff that I didn’t know what to do with, but wanted to save in case I need to refer to them. I simply click on the sort at the top of the “flag” column. This brings all the flags to the top and I can quickly go through and answer all of them. If I can’t get them all done, I can easily find them again the next time I sort on the flagged column.

You can sort on any of the column, but I hardly ever do. Sorting on the “Subject” column sorts the subject line of the email in alphabetical order. I guess that could be useful, but I can’t think of how or why. You can sort on the “From” column and again, I virtually never bother. Occasionally I sort on the “Attachment” column if I know I’m looking for an email that has one.

I think you’ll find that the method I use above by using flags and sorting will really speed you up when it comes to handling your emails.

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Business Blogging: Tom Antion Student, Denise Wakeman

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Tom Antion: Odd Body Angles

Do you remember Steve Martin with his Walk like an Egyptian routine? The main reason it was funny was because of the strange body angles. These angles may have been fine for Egyptian dancers, but hilarious for stand up comics. I do a routine where I do several sick looking Tai Chi moves. The audience can’t help but laugh.

Charlie Chaplain used the duck footed stance with his arms at his sides, but hands turned up. He also waddled along. Although, I am not an advocate of using a mirror in public speaking training, this is one time you can experiment in creating funny looking poses by thinking odd body angles. You’ll guarantee more laughs with this technique.

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Tom Antion: Transitions

Most public speaking books will tell you to be a polished speaker you have to tie all your information together so it flows smoothly. You must lead your audience and alert them that slightly different, but related information is coming. This is called transition or segue (pronounced seg-way).

LET ME STATE RIGHT NOW THAT I FULLY BELIEVE SMOOTH TRANSITIONS ARE A NECESSITY IF YOU WANT TO HAVE YOUR AUDIENCE MEMBERS SO BORED THEY FALL RIGHT OUT OF THEIR SEATS AND SMASH THEIR HEADS ON THE FLOOR.

Come with me to the amusement park. Look around a little bit and tell me where the excitement is. Of course, it’s over on the roller coaster where transitions are sharp. They are sharp and exciting even though you can see them coming. The excitement isn’t over at the kiddie choo choo train (notwithstanding, the excitement you might feel watching your little munchkin on there for the very first time) where turns and motion are mild so the little ones don’t get too upset. The excitement is also at the bumper cars where you can get blind-sided because cars are coming at you from all directions. The excitement isn’t at the baby boat ride where a 2cm wave would flip your little bundle of joy out of the boat.

OK. when speaking in public I’ll admit, some thought should be given to transition, especially with older, more traditional audiences, and when you have a very high content presentation. But you don’t have to be a trite, snoozer by saying things like, . . . speaking of bananas. I’m now going to talk about bananas. You could, however, do a segue like that and then make fun of yourself for doing it by saying something like, Don’t you think that transition was really smooth? Transitions are one of the places where you could plan to use some humor. This works well with technical audiences because they won’t feel you are wasting their time. Since, in their minds, you are REQUIRED to do a transition anyway, it’s OK if it’s funny.

Segues aren’t important at all for 85 percent or higher humor content presenters or stand-up comics. You can just speak away and as long as they are laughing, no one much cares about transitions. If you are not in this category, then you can begin paying a little attention to bridging the gaps between your points and topics. Just don’t be trite and don’t think you have to say something to make the transition.

You can make transitions by changing stage position, pausing, using visual aids, giving out a handout, picking up a prop or sharply varying the sound you make come out of the public address system. Do anything that breaks the pattern of what you were doing in the previous segment and introduces what you plan to do.

For verbal transitions, one-liners, anecdotes, and questions work well. Also, people seem to like and need recaps, so I am in favor of saying things like, To recap this section . . .

When speaking in public, whatever you do, think in terms of roller coasters and bumper cars so you keep your audience excited and alert all the time.

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Tom Antion: Callbacks

If you refer to a word or phrase you mentioned earlier in your presentation, that’s a ‘callback.’ It works well if the previous piece of material got a good laugh, or if it was a groaner. If the previous material was good, mentioning it again will get more laughter and will make you look polished for being able to tie the previous material to the present material. If the previous material was poor, the callback will show your willingness to tease yourself, which is an admirable quality the audience appreciates.

Here’s how it works: Let’s say you used a successful two-liner in your presentation ‘Don’t rely on health books too much. You could die of a misprint’. Later in your presentation someone might notice a misspelling in one of your handouts or visuals. You could then ‘call back’ and say, ‘See, that’s one of those misprints I was telling you about earlier.’

Another thing that might happen, that is just as good, is that one or more of the audience members might make the connection and do the callback for you. One of them may blurt out something about your health book line. That’s great if they do. You are getting them involved and allowing them to feel superior to you, which makes them the stars. You could then comeback with, ‘See, I put that there to test you.’ When you really get confident, you might actually make the misprint on purpose to set up this whole scenario.

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Tom Antion: Television and Video Tips

 

TELEVISION & VIDEOTAPE TIPS

· Gestures should be smaller.

· Make sure clothing is “broken in” and comfortable when you are sitting and standing.

· Prior to your performance, have instant photos or video taken of you while sitting and standing. Make sure your clothes look good in both positions.

· Find out the background color of the set if possible. You don’t want your clothing to blend in and make you invisible.

· Ask the producer for wardrobe color suggestions.

· Do not wear any clothing with tight patterns or pin stripes. This causes an optical illusion called a moir‚ pattern which makes you look bad.

· Avoid clothing with large patterns or geometric shapes. The audience will watch your clothes instead of you.

· Avoid wearing black, white, or red on television or video. Even the best of cameras have trouble with these colors.

· Avoid flashy jewelry. It reflects light.

· Avoid jangly jewelry. It reflects light and makes noise that will be picked up by your microphone (this applies whether you are on TV or not).

· Wear your eyeglasses if you want, but avoid shiny frames.

· Tip the bows of your eyeglasses up slightly off your ears. This angles the lenses down to reduce glare from lights.

· Wear makeup. It has the practical purpose of reducing the glare of TV lights. Apply it to all exposed body parts, like backs of hands, arms, neck, etc.

· Apply cover-up below eyes to mask bags and/or wrinkles.

· Good studios are kept cool to negate the effect of the hot TV lights. You may freeze for a while until the lights are turned on, then you may burn up. Dress for the heat, but bring a jacket or extra cover-up to be used while you are waiting to go on.

· Bring a handkerchief or tissues to dab perspiration during breaks

· Don’t second guess the camera. Act as if you are always on screen.

· Make sure your makeup, wardrobe, and hair are consistent with your message.

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Tom Antion: Speaking In Dallas, TX Oct. 23 – 25, 2009

Tom will be speaking this weekend at Milana Leshinsky’s “Coaching Millions Super Summit” in Dallas, TX Oct 23 – 25, 2009. Come join Tom and many other great speakers to discover how to make big money using the Internet to promote your coaching practice. Tom will discussing these important topics:

The hidden benefits of being in the Internet business you can create massive residual cash flow and security for you and your family.

9 Different revenue streams Tom taps in his business there is truly something for everyone.

How to create an online situation where you couldn’t stop the money coming in to your checking account if you tried – yes, this sounds crazy, but Tom will prove it to you during his session.

Tom’s simplified three prong attack on Internet marketing you’ll never be wandering around what you are supposed to be doing when it comes to promoting your business.

The single most important aspect necessary to promote your websites and it doesn’t cost you a nickel.

Why the links you have coming in and out of your site could be hurting you and you don’t even know it. You’ll discover little known techniques to get tons of quality links.

Want to learn more? Check out the Coaching Super Summit website.