How to Start As an Entertaining Speaker: Tips and Tricks to Dinner Speaking and Event Speaking
Entertaining speakers are always in demand. That’s partially because there are so many events and meetings that use entertainment speakers and partially because it’s a difficult job. People often assume that entertaining people for 20 minutes or so is easy. In fact, it takes a great deal of preparation and practice.In an entertaining speech the content isn’t as important as the way you make your audience feel. They must enjoy your speech whether it’s funny, poignant or dramatic, (but not too heavy). The cardinal sin in a speech for entertainment purposes is to bore your audience. That’s where the difficulty comes in.Entertaining speeches are a diversion. They fill time or give people a break between complex learning sessions. They aren’t intended to be a learning experience, just a good time. If the audience leaves with a message that’s fine but it’s not necessary.Where can you find topics for an entertaining speech? The possibilities are unlimited! When you watch comedians they tell stories that are often based on a tiny, mundane incident. It’s all in how you craft the story. It’s essential that you create a story file. If you jot down ideas as they come to you, you can develop them later. If you don’t write it down, it’s lost.Try to match your topic to the makeup of your audience. Don’t talk about current songs to people in their 60s. Use older songs for your example.All speeches need an introduction, body and conclusion. When speaking to entertain you have to catch the audience’s attention in your first few sentences. Start off with something surprising, funny, odd or mysterious. If you don’t capture their attention right away you’ll lose them.Entertaining speeches usually consist of one story or several similar stories tied together. You should speak as if you are having a conversation with a member of the audience. Keep your content simple. You don’t want to do anything that puzzles or confuses your audience. Use vivid language. Make the audience feel as if they are able to actually see, hear, smell, taste what’s happening. Don’t be too straightforward in your story telling. Just like in a good mystery story you need to throw in a few twists and turns before revealing the final outcome.Your conclusion should only be a few sentences tying your speech up. End on a high note so people feel good when you finish. It’s very important in an entertaining speech that you be personable and likeable. You are the focus, rather than your content. The success of your speech depends on the personality you inject into it.Where to find gigs? Let your friends know what you do, hand out business cards to everyone, put a signature line on your emails and above all: speak. Volunteer to speak to service clubs like Rotary, church groups, women’s groups, anyone who will listen. This gives you practice and allows you to polish your presentation. It also puts you in front of many individuals, some of whom are in a position to hire you for a paid presentation.Many of the speeches you will be offered are for dinner and after-dinner speaking. It’s important that you know what you are getting into here. Many professional speakers refuse to give dinner and especially after-dinner speeches. Dinner speeches are difficult because people are eating. It makes it difficult to create a mood and there is a lot of extraneous noise. After-dinner speeches can be a real problem. People are tired and often have had several drinks. The first time I spoke before a group where alcohol was served I was amazed at the difference it made. Some people made inappropriate comments, chatted to one another and were easily distracted. They enjoyed my presentation but I certainly didn’t! Give it a try if have a tough skin but get lots of practice with other audiences first.The best advertising you can do as a speaker is to speak! People who pay for speakers are much more likely to hire someone they have personally heard speak. So pull out the phone book and start offering your services to service groups and other organizations today!
A Drug Rehab Program Makes Recovery Easier
Recovery from drug addiction can be very challenging and because of this, a drug rehab program provides someone the best chance at recovery. Admission to a drug rehab can and will provide a person the opportunity to break their denial and begin to figure out why they have continued to use drugs and alcohol despite negative consequences. It is almost impossible for someone to overcome their drug addiction or alcohol addiction is they remain in denial of their problem.A drug rehab program employs a clinical staff whose responsibility it is to teach the person various tools they can use to learn to better manage their emotions. Two of these emotions anger and depression are two of the contributing factors to drug abuse, alcohol abuse and drug addiction. It only stands to reason that when an individual can better mange those feelings, their chances of recovery and avoiding relapse are that much better.In addition to learning how to better manage ones feelings, a stay in drug rehab or alcohol rehab will assist the person to grow spiritually and physically. Any quality drug rehab will provide the person with healthy, nutritional meals to offset the poor nutritional values they adopted during their drug addiction and alcohol addiction. Generally a healthy eating plan is developed for each patient in the drug rehab that will assist them in their recovery.From a spiritual perspective, during everyone’s drug addiction or alcohol addiction principals were compromised, values were thrown to the wind and you have come to the point where if you had spiritual beliefs prior to your drug addiction, they were gone now. Most addiction treatment or drug rehab programs help each person address their spiritual void. This is accomplished in a variety of ways and each drug rehab is different. The point is, healing one’s spiritual life, also takes place in drug rehab.As we mentioned the physical aspect of recovery, I would be remis if I didn’t take a moment to talk about drug detox or alcohol detox. This is a crucial time in any stay in drug rehab. Detox is when you discontinue your drug abuse or alcohol abuse in a medically monitored setting. The drug rehab generally has medications dispensed to mange any withdrawal symptoms you may experience. Detox in any drug rehab is not easy, but a person can be made to feel comfortable.It is important that any detox unit have 24 hour nursing and is licensed in the state in which it operates and carries with it an accreditation from the Joint Accreditation of Healthcare Orginizations. This means that the drug rehab and detox is operating by the highest standards this industry has to offer.The terms drug rehab and alcohol rehab are essentially the same thing. The addiction treatment services are the same, detox services are the same, the only difference is the words drug rehab and alcohol rehab.
Obama’s Stimulus Plan Will Help Small Businesses – How Reviving the SBA Will Increase Business Loans
More good news for small businesses that might, while they are still young, see loans available again. I know you’ve heard this before, but I think it is rolling toward the real thing this time. The U.S. Treasury Department, as part of the Obama stimulus plan, will start loaning money to investors by March 31, 2009, as part of a bank rescue fund. Remember that as of October of 2008, according to the National Small Business Association (NSBA), the secondary market for selling small business loans froze. Now as much as 15 billion of the 700 billion in TARP money will be made available for this secondary market. The NSBA is calling for at least 3 billion of this to purchase SBA 7(a) pooled securities.As a small business owner you may ask: “What is secondary market and why should I care about it?” Well, you should. After a bank makes a loan, it packages them in pools and sells to investors on the secondary market who purchase at a premium. So if you have $100,000 loan and it is sold at a premium of 115%, the bank gets back $115,000.. With new money into its coffers, it loans to other businesses and the cycle continues over and over again. What happened lately is the secondary market has dried up and so banks aren’t loaning. With the reviving of that market, they will hopefully get down to business again.And not a moment too soon. The SBA guaranteed loans fell 57% in the fourth quarter of 2008, from a year ago. They usually give guarantees of 20 billion a year and looks like they are heading for only 10 billion this year. Also, 48% of major SBA lenders say they have stopped making loans according to a March survey by Terry and Associates, Inc, an executive and SBA and recruiting firm. But the good news is that in the last few days, premium bids on SBA loans exceeded 105% for the first time since September 11, 2008, per govgex.com.Of course, most of this data relates to big banks. The smaller banks which specialize in SBA loans have been less affected by this economy and are still making loans–now. That’s right, there are financial institutions actually making SBA loans as we speak. He just have to find them.So why are some people so optimistic that small business loan money will be flowing again for start-up businesses as well as existing ones that want to expand? Here are some reasons:Why Banks Will Start Lending Within the Next Six Monthso Obama’s reputation at stake. President Obama has staked his political future on being able to revive the economy, specifically rejuvenating the secondary market. He will not allow maligning of that reputation to occur. This means he and his team will be doing everything they can to breathe life once again into that market.o The Fed is a money printing machine. We all learned this in civics class. State and local governments actually have bank accounts that have to be balanced with the influx of tax and bond monies. When they run out of money, they can’t print U.S. currency. As a vast overstatement, the Federal government can print more money (subject to excessive printing which would cause massive inflation). If it runs out of money through the influx of taxes, it can simply produce more revenue by the selling of treasury bills, notes, bonds, and savings bonds. Since the U.S. public can only buy so much, they can dump these on the international market–which they have been doing for decades. So, the point is, more and more money can be dumped into the secondary market.o The Federal deficit is an illusion. The Federal government does not balance their affairs like we do our bank accounts. Sure, the U.S. Treasury is limited to the “Debt Subject to Limit” authorized by Congress, but Congress can increase it if they wish. It simply means further generations will have longer to pay it off. That doesn’t necessarily mean we all have to dig into our pockets to pay it off now. It simply means that every morning the Federal Bureau of Public Debt accounts for more deficit and “lets it roll for the future”. If taxes stay relatively the same, the deficit will simply be with us longer. As of March 19, 2009, the national debt is just over 11 trillion, which equates to $36,121.40 for each American, or $3.8 billion a day (U.S. National Debt Clock; brillig.com). The point? There is nothing stopping the Administration from pumping more money into the economy which will give incentives for banks to make loans.o The country would rather have more debt than go down the tubes. After talking or meeting with approximately 100 small businesses each day, twelve months out of the year, for seven years, I have rarely seen them as angry as with the bailout money. More accurately phrased, they are imbued with an almost seething anger approaching a “calling to arms” revolutionary mentality. I agree with them. But nothing to date has stopped Congress from continuing with the bailout which I suspect will be with us for the indefinite future.The banker’s mentality: “Wait and See-Come to Me”. Bankers are obsessively conservative. They don’t drive markets, the market’s drive them. When the housing market exploded with new construction, refinance, and home improvement, they reacted by jumping on the bandwagon. They didn’t create it. When the secondary market heats up, they will join the same parade. Especially if a competitor bank across the street is doing so. Further, banks can only make so much money with their deposits, ATM charges, and overdraft service fees. They eventually have to get back in the market of making loans which is their real bread and butter.o Capital always find its market. There is still trillions of capital waiting to find a home in America. The Federal Reserve of New York is now making available low interest loans to investors purchasing pools of secondary market business loans. The money will be rushing in along with good old an fashioned American desire for profit. You can only hold back capital infusion for so long.So keep your chin up kid. Capital will be coming your way. If you can just stay in a survival mode for the next few months, you’ll be able to launch that new advertising campaign and hire a new sales rep. Really.