Types of Estate Planning Documents
You may have heard some of the terms, Last Will and Testament, Living Will, Power of Attorney, but are not exactly sure what they are or whether you need them. From an Estate Planning perspective, these documents are essential to ensure that your assets are distributed properly and your legal interests are protected.A Last Will and Testament is a document that sets forth the distribution of your assets at the time of your passing. A common misnomer that people have about Wills is that you have to divulge all of your bank accounts and financial information to the Attorney who is drafting the Will. This is simply not true. Usually, the Testator (the person with the Will) just sets forth the names of the heirs and how much of his/her estate each heir will receive, i.e. 50% to my son, Joe, and 50% to my daughter, Ji

Franchising Pros and Cons
Last week's question from Anthony R. on how to choose the franchise that would best fulfill his life-long dream of owning his own business sparked a number of emails from other readers wanting to offer their two cents on the subject.Some folks offered helpful insights and suggestions on how to pick a franchise and a few things to watch out for, while other emails came from current franchise owners asking me to help them sell their operations to Anthony R.Hmm, sounds like it's time to update the old business card once again. Tim Knox: Franchise Broker At Large… Who knows, maybe I can franchise the concept.Last week I promised we'd take a closer look at a few of the things you should look for when considering a franchise opportunity. Keep in mind that there are thousands of franchise opportunities that r

MLM Network Marketing Training - Are You Fooling Yourself Out of MLM and Network Marketing?
Are you fooling yourself into believing that you actually are working this business?Many distributors practice what I call "Pretend Power". That is where you are actually "empowered" by pretending you are doing this business.You pretend you are working.You pretend you are making phone calls.You pretend you are going to appointments.You pretend you are doing presentations.You pretend you are recruiting.You pretend... pretend... and then pretend some more...HEY! Been there and done that! I nearly pretended myself right out of MLM! I know what that is like and the frustration that comes with it!You believe you are working it. You believe you are going to be successful.You believe also in fairy tales...It's called MLM delusion.WAKE UP!!!!!!! you’re playing tennis or squash. You never let your eye off the ball otherwise you’ll miss a shot. Like wise, keep your eye contact on the audience at all times.

Careful with the lighthouse technique as well – this is where speakers sweep the audience in a repetitive swishing motion that does more to put people to sleep than engage.

Instead have a conversation with your audience with your eyes. Randomly contact with each audience member and give them 2 to 3 seconds of eye contact and move onto the next person. Maintain this random movement. Find those in the audience who like just a little more eye contact and be aware of those who want slightly less. When faced with a large audience – I mean more than 25 or so people, adopt a similar habit but don’t give each person eye contact. That’ll take ages. Instead clump people into small groups and give these clumps the same eye contact as if they were one person. I tell you, that because of the distance between you and a large audience, this gives people the impression that you are looking at them.

Feet

Now let’s go to the other extreme of your body. Your feet and legs. Now what do you do with these limbs. Not a lot really unless you are moving around your stage, that’s movement with a purpose, not aimless wandering that only distracts the audience.

Try to stand with both feet firmly on the ground pretty much the same distance apart as your shoulders. Keep them balanced so your body is not leaning to one side. Don’t look like a cat walk model or if you’re supping a pint at the bar of your local. Stand straight and look professional not a slouch.

Nerves…that’s a word than conjures up fear and dread every time people stand up and speak in public. And sure enough you’ll have nerves. Professionals call it adrenaline and you need that to do a really good job. If you don’t have nerves or adrenaline, you might as well not bother because you can’t be bothered. Sop welcome nerves, call them adrenaline and make them work for you. Nerves will show in the periphery of your body. The ends such as feet, hands, head. Keeping your feet still transfers this energy to the top part of your body where it should go.

Now I didn’t say you should stay rigid to the spot; that would be terrible for 20 minutes. Instead focus your attention on preventing aimless movement, pacing up and down, shifting from side to side. Keep well balanced and professional.

The Body

Next we have the trunk. Not much you can do with the trunk apart from keeping it straight. Not like the sergeant Major on the parade ground but not slouched either. Relaxed and comfortable. The worse sin is to block the invisible mid line that runs from between your 2 feet and your head. Block it and you place a barrier with your audience. Just don’t block it – that’s the rule.

Hands and Arms

How many people I’ve spoken with who don’t know what to do with these very useful limbs. Shame really so they copy people on the TV especially weather girls. They grasp them together. I’ve never understood this although I was guilty myself. It made me feel better and comfortable so much that as soon as I stood up to talk, my two hands came together. And when I got really nervous I used to rub them together too. Someone told me I looked like a market trader making lots of money. That sure went down well with my audiences.

So what do you do with them? Behind your backs but that just reminds me of Prince Charles. In your pockets I hear you say. No, you’re hiding something, keeping back from the audience and besides, you’re missing out on a great weapon. No the answer is to use them to back up your message by gesturing.

We should gesture with audiences. Large dramatic gestures to help the audience understand what you’re saying. Broad gestures that welcome every person into your speech, building rapport. Think of your speech content and let your hands do the talk

e audience, this gives people the impression that you are looking at them.

Feet

Now let’s go to the other extreme of your body. Your feet and legs. Now what do you do with these limbs. Not a lot really unless you are moving around your stage, that’s movement with a purpose, not aimless wandering that only distracts the audience.

Try to stand with both feet firmly on the ground pretty much the same distance apart as your shoulders. Keep them balanced so your body is not leaning to one side. Don’t look like a cat walk model or if you’re supping a pint at the bar of your local. Stand straight and look professional not a slouch.

Nerves…that’s a word than conjures up fear and dread every time people stand up and speak in public. And sure enough you’ll have nerves. Professionals call it adrenaline and you need that to do a really good job. If you don’t have nerves or adrenaline, you might as well not bother because you can’t be bothered. Sop welcome nerves, call them adrenaline and make them work for you. Nerves will show in the periphery of your body. The ends such as feet, hands, head. Keeping your feet still transfers this energy to the top part of your body where it should go.

Now I didn’t say you should stay rigid to the spot; that would be terrible for 20 minutes. Instead focus your attention on preventing aimless movement, pacing up and down, shifting from side to side. Keep well balanced and professional.

The Body

Next we have the trunk. Not much you can do with the trunk apart from keeping it straight. Not like the sergeant Major on the parade ground but not slouched either. Relaxed and comfortable. The worse sin is to block the invisible mid line that runs from between your 2 feet and your head. Block it and you place a barrier with your audience. Just don’t block it – that’s the rule.

Hands and Arms

How many people I’ve spoken with who don’t know what to do with these very useful limbs. Shame really so they copy people on the TV especially weather girls. They grasp them together. I’ve never understood this although I was guilty myself. It made me feel better and comfortable so much that as soon as I stood up to talk, my two hands came together. And when I got really nervous I used to rub them together too. Someone told me I looked like a market trader making lots of money. That sure went down well with my audiences.

So what do you do with them? Behind your backs but that just reminds me of Prince Charles. In your pockets I hear you say. No, you’re hiding something, keeping back from the audience and besides, you’re missing out on a great weapon. No the answer is to use them to back up your message by gesturing.

We should gesture with audiences. Large dramatic gestures to help the audience understand what you’re saying. Broad gestures that welcome every person into your speech, building rapport. Think of your speech content and let your hands do the talk

hem adrenaline and make them work for you. Nerves will show in the periphery of your body. The ends such as feet, hands, head. Keeping your feet still transfers this energy to the top part of your body where it should go.

Now I didn’t say you should stay rigid to the spot; that would be terrible for 20 minutes. Instead focus your attention on preventing aimless movement, pacing up and down, shifting from side to side. Keep well balanced and professional.

The Body

Next we have the trunk. Not much you can do with the trunk apart from keeping it straight. Not like the sergeant Major on the parade ground but not slouched either. Relaxed and comfortable. The worse sin is to block the invisible mid line that runs from between your 2 feet and your head. Block it and you place a barrier with your audience. Just don’t block it – that’s the rule.

Hands and Arms

How many people I’ve spoken with who don’t know what to do with these very useful limbs. Shame really so they copy people on the TV especially weather girls. They grasp them together. I’ve never understood this although I was guilty myself. It made me feel better and comfortable so much that as soon as I stood up to talk, my two hands came together. And when I got really nervous I used to rub them together too. Someone told me I looked like a market trader making lots of money. That sure went down well with my audiences.

So what do you do with them? Behind your backs but that just reminds me of Prince Charles. In your pockets I hear you say. No, you’re hiding something, keeping back from the audience and besides, you’re missing out on a great weapon. No the answer is to use them to back up your message by gesturing.

We should gesture with audiences. Large dramatic gestures to help the audience understand what you’re saying. Broad gestures that welcome every person into your speech, building rapport. Think of your speech content and let your hands do the talk

ally so they copy people on the TV especially weather girls. They grasp them together. I’ve never understood this although I was guilty myself. It made me feel better and comfortable so much that as soon as I stood up to talk, my two hands came together. And when I got really nervous I used to rub them together too. Someone told me I looked like a market trader making lots of money. That sure went down well with my audiences.

So what do you do with them? Behind your backs but that just reminds me of Prince Charles. In your pockets I hear you say. No, you’re hiding something, keeping back from the audience and besides, you’re missing out on a great weapon. No the answer is to use them to back up your message by gesturing.

We should gesture with audiences. Large dramatic gestures to help the audience understand what you’re saying. Broad gestures that welcome every person into your speech, building rapport. Think of your speech content and let your hands do the talking. Watch deaf people doing their sign language – it really is a very clever way of losing your gesture buttons.

And when not gesturing, or talking, maybe standing still to take questions from your audience, assume the assertive stance. Standing straight with your arms and hands down your sides in a relaxed assertive and confident manner.

Body Movement

Finally, body movement. Movement can be an enormously effective way of engaging the audience into your message. Clean your stage – remove obstacles, tape wires to the floor, so you don’t trip over them, place the screen to the side.

Once you have a clear space do move around with a purpose. I’ve used past, present and future by gradually moving along an imaginary line. The audience can see the time moving along as well as hear. I’ve used one side of the stage being advantages of an idea I’m promoting and the other side, the disadvantages. I’ve placed flipcharts at both sides of the room to mirror these place anchors.

Move forward towards your audience when you want to make a really big point. Move backwards when you want them to reflect on something. Move to your left or right to change the subject or pace of your delivery. Do move around your stage but with a distinct purpose.

The next time you’re observing and listening to a speaker, try and cut out the sound and focus entirely on the visual aspects. Try and interpret what he or she is saying just by the body language alone. You may not be right in your assumption of the meaning, but its the impression that everyone else is probably getting too. And first impressions last for ages.