Signature File Importance
June 14, 2009 by Chris
Filed under Blogging, Leadership Skills
The area that identifies you at the end of your forum posts and emails is your ‘Signature File.’ To use this to its fullest potential, you have to put some thought into it. The same consideration should be used on your signature lines as would be on your paid advertisements. This way it can really work at a high potential for you without wasting space. It is important to not attach your signature file to anything that will reflect negatively on your business. Thus make sure you post it on forums that are your actual message or advertisement. Email jokes that are not very appropriate should not carry your signature.
- Capture A Click – You need to make sure your signature file can interest your viewer. It needs to be clear and direct, and it needs to state the benefits of your program. Thus receiving a click.
- Little is Much – Short and Sweet is what is needed. If it is too long and drawn-out it will probably be ignored. If your signature file is too boring to read, attention will go elsewhere. No matter how many websites you have, only apply 1 or 2 URLs to a signature, otherwise it will take away from effectiveness.
- Keep It a Simple Signature – Never assume that your readers know as much as you do about your business. Do not talk jargon it may confuse them. Confused people will say “no” to your program. Stay clear and concise so anyone can read and understand how your product or service can help them. This is not the place for terms or conditions. Don’t go crazy with too many links and such. People outside your industry need to understand who and what you are and what you are selling. For instance, all people have skin, but not everyone knows what an epidermis is. Therefore, explain yourself briefly, clearly, completely, and interestingly.
- The Customer Snag – There are ways to catch the information of someone who visits your site after reading your signature file. Offering free things to collect information is a good idea. Things like a free newsletter or calendar of events or sales. They sign up and you have an avenue to keep contact with that potential customer.
It’s all in how you word it! When you do not see as big of a click-rate as you want, try rewording your signature file. For instance, just off I29, instead of 45 minutes up I29. This way of thinking and wording may save you from missing prime opportunities to get visitors to your site. The amount of effort you put in your paid add needs to be the same for your ‘perfect’ signature page.
Being the Best Public Speaker You Can Be
June 12, 2009 by Chris
Filed under Blogging, Leadership Skills
Most all of us regard public speakers as being an expert when it comes to the topic of focus they are speaking on. Although it is not every day that an individual has the ability to enjoy an impressive high status as being a public speaker comparable to Oprah or Dr. Phil, there are, however, some beneficial steps that you can take to raise the authoritative claim that you hold on a specific topic of specialty.
The job of a motivational speaker requires that you are very serious about your job, as well as each of the duties that it withholds. There are numerous individuals who will be paying hard earned money for your services in teaching them valuable information on key issues of interest.
An aspiring keynote speaker should take the extra effort to educate themselves on important points that should be
delivered during each speech that they give. It is vital that a speaker is able to gain the undivided attention of prospective clients, as well as the attention of those who have booked seminars.
Key Points To Remember
- Provide reliable and current information. This is a very important aspect of giving any type of speech. Use the gift that you have been given as a public speaker with eloquent and informative words. Present your ideas, information, and examples, in a manner that is of the highest standard of quality.
- Do away with the basics. By following a step-by-step instruction format as if you are reading word for word from the pages of a book, is a good way to lose the interest of your entire audience, and quickly earn the title of a boring speaker. Since the whole idea is for you to present yourself and the knowledge that you hold in an well organized manner, while being able to hold the interest of an endless amount of prospective clients, being considered as a bore is not the best thing in the world that you can be considered. Marketing strategies that include the finesse sending a direct and interesting message about the exciting advantages that are in store for your audience is a point of focus to keep in mind during each speech or seminar you have booked. No matter how well your appearance may be, or how high the level of glamorized packaging, if you cannot back it up with valuable information individuals can effectively use, it ends up being useless material.
- Useful resources must be used. Your presentation should supply your audience with relevant resources that can be put to the test and used when they need or want to apply them. These resources must be extremely interesting, putting your audience on the edge of their seat, and wanting to hear more. Testimonials are often a useful tool that individuals enjoy hearing about. They give them a way to relate to others who have already applied the knowledge and information you have given them, ultimately benefiting them with the success they were looking to achieve. Providing your audience with relevant credentials that you have earned is also an important aspect of effective speaking that you will want to always include. Although this gives you a great chance to elaborate on your specific field of study, it is important not to get carried away.
- A confident appearance is essential. Prior to the seminar or speech that you plan to give, carefully choosing attire that matches the level of confidence that you hold is a benefit that will present the look of credibility. Always maintaining a professional and dressed for success appearance, is one of the most important aspects of a goal oriented and successful public speaker.
Is creativity always needed to excel ahead?
Innovation is the main key to survive in the market today, there is no point in keeping the same business strategies, and you have to innovate and evolve to survive through the competition. Creative artists are spread across everywhere; they have this innate power to create ads that will attract your buyers. you might have studied the case of jack, Lou and Marla in my previous articles, do you see a difference or take a different outlook towards life’s responsibilities and the power and qualities you are born with? You might have seen how they made fortunes of millions of dollars by sheer devotion and dedication towards the things they liked to do like painting, drawing, arts, etc.
There was a time when Lou, an MBA by profession was the hot favorite in industrial circles mainly because of his fine tuned productive system. During that time creative artists like Jack and Marla were not taken seriously of having those qualities, it was just one step back from Lou’s end and people are turning their heads to Marla and Jack to do business with. There might be something that is attracting people towards Jack and Marla, even Lou might be or is not aware of. The word creativity and individuality were very far from business world and why suddenly there is great demand in corporate world today, may be that those serious individuals holding high posts in office might have realized that there is something else in the world of business other than capitalist business and that there is even more than chasing dollars and there can be minds which can be curved artistically and there exists talent with innate creative minds. There is more to the mind than what our eyes see; somewhere inner in our heart we lounge for peace and being an artist has its own pleasures in life.
There are lots of opportunities if we search for one, the exciting and thrilling opportunities that we see are actually the tip of economic iceberg, you have to prove yourself to exists in this highly competitive business world. We have to mould ourselves in the present shape of the economy then can we reach our goals and fulfill them. As Daniel pink states in his new book that we are moving from information age to conceptual age where everything is based on the concepts. The economy as its advantage and professional success doesn’t just come through logic, skills but also from concepts, designs, creativity, relationship skills, etc. so all the people who had great demand near about in 20th century are making way for storytellers, artists, inventors, consolers, designers, caregivers and the people who are thinking big in terms of productivity and profits for the company.
The writing is basically for US denizens, in his book Pink identifies 3 fundamental reasons for the change that has occurred in the last century.
- United States of America is a rich nation and all of its economy is flooded with surplus products, it has adequate resources to fulfill its nations needs and the demand from the people. the goods here are reasonable priced making it affordable even for a common laymen to afford it. The country has never faced any crisis like in developing or under developed nations, this very reason have made its consumers more discerning and more demanding. There are different demands from consumers like attractive packaging, products to be attractive or something which will excite them in buyin.
- We have seen many a “made in china” products not only it has wider demand all over the globe but they are cheap rated so the people good attractive things at throw away prices. As we have seen the main hub for computer programming are asian nations like china and India, they have made their mark in industries like copy editing, accounting and engineering too. What drives all this? Its money, says Pink, the author of the book, a designer in India get $1000 for chip designing job where as the same person will get $7000 for the work this is leading to brain drain and economies all over are getting unstable.
- The age of automation has marred everybody and everything, it was in the year 1987 that chess grand master Garry said that no computer can ever beat me and in 1997 the IBM computer deep blue beaten him to everybody’s amazement. And more recently it was heard that Kasparov stated that after some years they be capable of beating everybody in any match. What Pink tries to signify here is Kasparov is a knowledge worker like any other in the field of programming, accountancy, etc and we have seen even doctors are making use of automated computers to help them. Automation has lead to many a changes and there are issues which can be solved with just a click of a mouse rather than moving here and there.
The concept age relates to survival, Pink asks us 3 questions before we set out on our decisions:
- before handing over the work to some party, ask if there is possibility to get the work done cheaper overseas?
- Can you make use of computer to do your task?
- Whether whatever you are offering in abundance is in demand?
Ask yourself these questions before heading out in taking any major decisions. Creativity is not about fun thing or stuff you can relate to spending nice times. It’s a talent, in-grown talent which takes efforts to come up with creative ideas after all if you want to survive in the economy. In my experience I have seen that its difficult to automate the task which are creative in nature or rather complex in nature. Creativity helps you transfer utilitarian products in to artifacts that everybody would love looking at, its all about the design, the shape, the utility, the features that people would love using probably that may be the reason people stand out in queues to get the first hand on an I-phone or an attractive gadget.
The people who have the capabilities to show their creativity in their work or products will surely gain financial rewards and you would say that people with such unique talents are treated like rock stars, in the case of Marla, after all creative talents are must in this economy. Recently I attended the Innovation edge conference held in London which was organized by National Endowment for science, technology and arts which is commonly known by the name (NESTA). The theme was that of creativity and innovation and whether they are really critical to the future of the economy of United Kingdom. The subject was put up in academic terms.
We know the increasing competition in the economies all over the globe and innovation is the key idea to survive in this economy, you can exploit and implement as many ideas you wish when it comes to making use of your creativity. We have seen mature economies like the US and the UK putting all of their strengths in manufacturing, yielding them good creative results because of the creative use of their ideas, we have always dreamt of being an innovative nation like that of US. The new labor government which bought us cool image of Britannia ads, thanks to the wonders done by creative industries, today London is recognized as the key destination for creative ideas a total of 20% of UK’s workforce is engaged in creative world which has great rivalry with financial services also. There was on of these conferences named with the title “where the UK leads and for how long”, the seminar specially focused on different challenges faced to maintain the tradition of surviving in the innovative world, we cannot take things for granted like that of US. The bottom line of the matter is that you will suffer if you too take up a path like that of Lou.
The idea of focusing on the creative work appeals to westerners especially when you are shipping them with new ideas and generating the new innovative ads and stuff, the ideas might sound as appealing but they are equally dangerous too. China provides unlimited resources because everything here is automated, it is still not content with what it is producing at larger scales across the globe, whether it may be an economic foresight or a cultural pride, china knows it for sure that the cheap labor cant stand the booming period for longer time. The driving national mission of the country no more remains in traditional labor intensive units its more of a media, fashion, design, latest technology and stuff.
This was the first ever impression I got about the china designs which are not exhibited at V&A museum in London which showcases the glittering fashion, graphic design, and architecture which is so similar to the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Still there is plenty of evidence of Japanese and western influence and there are yet many memorable and startling works which has a distinct Chinese identity, lots been said and done about Chinese economic power as the labor here is cheap and human resource is huge the most attractive thing that stuck me here at the Chinese exhibition was its cultural wealth which rediscovers the pre revolutionary heritage that is actually a rich source to get inspiration for the modern day Chinese creativity.
Going through the recent book written by Michael Keane which has the Chinese government and business leaders as its main topic of discussion are focusing on replacing “made in china” to “created in china”. This needs to take up a great leap forward which is so very much imminent, the world factory is after all not always the priority through developmental aspect. China is no doubt a number 1 contender for cultural and service economies around the world.
In the Book Keane makes a point that there are lots of important barriers to innovation in political system and Chinese economy. It’s the western industry that enjoys the creative head start which is again reflected in the fact that they have showcased Olympic buildings at china design show out of which only one was designed by Chinese architects. But through this mega exhibition, Chinese have made their point clear by letting their creative ambitions know to all different nations of the world.
Whatever part of the world you are or whichever city you may be in things are perceived differently and every view will give you different opinion too. But globalization brings all different banners of the world under one roof doesn’t matter whether its Shogi, chess, or xiangqui or even if its new board games finally what matters is the view. A single entity or a single nation cannot decide upon the rules of the games and thus collaboration is a must in different cases of the life as we have seen that Jack is coming forward as a players and Marla a grand master in her world of arts.
Whether you like or not, money will travel to the destination where there is abundance of currency and loads of labor markets too. The labor and current markets makes it the ideal destination for making profits. You have to just charge the premium amount for giving the services so cheaply. Develop your own skills and tuck yourself in a race, a price war and mark your own prices in the market with your inner talents. Change brings a lots of difference in the economy, the 3 As here are automation, Asia, and abundance with increase in technology there is abundance through automation especially in Asiatic regions of the world.
Innovate and excel in life!!!
May 19, 2009 by Chris
Filed under Leadership Skills
We have all been born with an innate ability to do something on in our lives; we have been gifted at least with one quality that we ourselves might not know that will yield us good recognition in life may be earlier or later stages of life. We are here to do something, make a living difference to ourselves and those around us. We are here to make a mark and do remarkable things in life and lead accordingly, no one likes to stay idle all day long everybody wants to involve themselves in some or the other activities, sitting idle and waiting for things to happen is obviously not you, I know that for sure otherwise you would not have been reading my article.
Everybody is seeking a change in life, why are we striving so hard in our lives that we want to break free and overcome all the challenges of life, when you want to change the world we need to change ourselves first doing innovative, productive things that will bring a change that everybody of want. For changing just one habit in life there are so many things to look after, we have to change our perspective towards it that will bring about slow and steady change in our lives. You cannot change everything just at one go, you have to become another person if you want to get things done.
If you ever had this chance of watching the movie fight club, well, well, I am not going speak out the twist in the tale, but watch it once and you would know well who Tyler Durden is, the story is not meant for everyone its not the fight story if you are thinking that then you have got it wrong for sure. Watching fight club will give you a good lesson in life, its all about living your life the way you want to and how to achieve the things in life you had always dreamt of. The story of flight club gets you to the path of glory and enlightenment and teaches you the hard path of life which seems like next to impossible; you can achieve everything in life provided you want to and work hard upon it. There are so many lessons you need to learn from Tyler’s story, its all about innovative action that you can directly apply to your life, given below are some of the creative rules stated by Tyler to live life to the fullest.
- Tyler’s first rule relates to Innovation – innovate is the key if you want to achieve something in life, there should be no fear and no distractions, once if you distract from your goals then you loose the game completely. This is a struggle some lesson for the people but most of the time we see people moving away from it. The 80/20 productivity rule of Tim Ferriss helps to focus yourself on the task you are already putting your efforts in, the rule focuses 20% on the actions and 80% on the returns that you get, most of the times people have felt the theory to be good enough but not practical.Running a business can be a hell lot of trouble especially when it involves taking huge risks, when you take risks, you evolve and become more confident of taking decisions. Running my business for all these years have clearly made me understood of the fact that entrepreneurial skills don’t come easy you have to gradually catch up on things and learn the tactics of the game. When you are applying 80/20 productivity rule to your business, it requires radical elimination that is let go off the time which are not into creative thinking. Letting go off unnecessary things from proper creative thinking will lead to innovative actions and you will get successful results.
- Tyler’s 2nd innovation rule again some where or the other states the same functions of not having fear while performing the task you really want to perform and get results and there should be no distractions while doing the tasks, concentration is the main key. Don’t break the first 2 rules stated by Tyler
- Tyler’s 3rd rule pertaining to innovation states to evolve your self and complete the task beforehand. You have to face the facts of life, today or tomorrow you have to come up with solutions, don’t ever get distracted from the things you want to achieve in life. Sometimes while getting in the task to solve our mundane problems it so happens that we often face the fear of getting the failure, or the fear of ridicule, the risk factor or mediocrity and sometimes even facing the success.If you are evolving out of your mistakes it is but natural that you are going to face mistakes then comes a stage in life where you stop mistakes and meet success once. You should be making as much mistakes as possible at the very start so you can gradually correct your mistakes while reaching the end. Once you make a mistake you become aware where you might fail and so lets the chips fall away where they should and let success embrace you
- The 4th Tyler’s rule of innovation is quite interesting and states that once you have lost everything in a business game, somewhere in your heart you set free because now you don’t have that anxiety and fear of being successful you have already faced failure and now you are totally free to do whatever you wish to. But that doesn’t mean that you should be waiting for failure to happen and taking up big mistakes, while in a process of making adjustments to meet success you need not worry that everything will work as per the plans, if everything is going as per the plan that you have set for your success it is obvious that somewhere or the other you are missing something and that you are not doing that remarkable a job.Life’s problems are never ending; life keeps on going till the time you are making other plans of life and innovation happens to you when you are at your ultimate best in the creativity. As the time passes on you will come to know where to make changes and if whether you need to change your entire plan. No one is successful at just first go sometimes you might get success in just first go but not all are as lucky as you it could be possible that your initial plan fails but other plans are a great success.
- The 5th rule applies that you are not what your job is or the car which you drive or you are neither the amount of money you have in your bank. When we are talking about anxiety that grips us, the fear, the pain of failure what all things does really matter to you, do people judge you by the things you own or the task that we accomplish in life? Its not that you need to give away all that you have but don’t own the stuff to that much extent that one point comes where you cannot even live life the way you want.
- The 6th rule of Tyler states that people see or perceive themselves as they want to see, or they are comfortable thinking of themselves to be. You talk to your inner self on daily basis whether directly or indirectly, you have to accept your true self without any compromises. Live naturally and behave naturally as you want to be and do the things you like to do, run with the flow and don’t get diverted from it when you are doing what you like there are more chances of increase in productivity.
- The 7th rule applies that when you delve upon some task that doesn’t necessarily make you a professional in it meaning that you don’t become a chicken just sticking feathers up your butt. You just can’t become creative by being just that kind. You reach upon a stage of innovating new things with sheer hard work, no one can reach success without facing failures, as you get into the grove of achieving your task you come up with different ideas and your thinking process leads you to solving your problems, you need to take action if you are looking for results.
- Tyler’s last rule applies that nothing is forever, life is not endless you should know that one day you are surely going to die each passing minute you are reducing from your life. Life is priceless you should know that unless you understand that if you wont take up things in a real urgent way, life will just pass by so get going and live every minute of your life. You might think you have lots of time in life to live by and go on slow pace but then you might not even know when the time has all gone.
Get to a new beginning and get started with your work what urgently needs to be done and stop worrying about its consequences.


