An Ingredient to Spice Up Your Presentation

An Ingredient to Spice Up Your PresentationIf you want to put your audience to sleep then go through the typical motions of putting together a speech without thinking much about why you’re there and who you’re speaking to. If you want breathe life into your audience and capture their attention, then you need to add one critical ingredient to your talk – passion.

No, not that kind of passion – the passion I’m talking about is an excited interest in what you’re talking about. Passion and excitement are contagious – just try it out in everyday conversations. When you add it to your speeches, it has a similar effect on your audience. If you’re excited, some of the people will become excited and start paying closer attention to you. Then, almost like a virus, that excitement and interest spreads to the other people in the audience. As people starting paying close attention to you, the people sitting around them subconsciously think to themselves “hmm. if that person is listening, maybe I should as well.” So as more and more people in the audience notice the people around them paying close attention, the effect spreads until it reaches most (if not all) members of the audience.  Read more... (635 words, 2 images, estimated 2:32 mins reading time)

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25 Illegal Interview Questions

25 Illegal Interview QuestionsMany interviewers and interviewees alike are not aware that in the United States, there are some questions that cannot be asked during an interview because they can be discriminatory and are considered “Illegal Interview Questions“. You are not allowed to discriminate by age, race, religion, gender, marital status, family size, military history, US Citizenship and a number of other things. Some states also have additional laws regarding these illegal questions.

From an interviewer standpoint, the rule of thumb is to not ask the interviewer any questions that don’t pertain to the qualifications of the job. Now it’s okay to make small talk and ask what books or magazines the interviewee reads or what movies or TV shows he or she may watch. But stay away from anything too personal such as race, religion and family life. The potential danger of asking an illegal interview question could result in federal action if a number of candidates complain (or one complains loudly enough).  Read more... (447 words, 2 images, estimated 1:47 mins reading time)

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5 Social Media Mistakes That Can Prevent You from Getting a Job

5 Social Media Mistakes That Can Prevent You from Getting a JobWith more and more people flocking to services like Facebook and Twitter, many of these same people are unknowingly preventing themselves from getting hired for jobs. Given the record unemployment, companies are really doing their due diligence to ensure they’re choosing only the best hires. Five years ago, a simple web search was the extent of their online research for prospective employees. Today, that search deepens as many organizations now search blogs and social media.

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Why You’re Not Worthless

Why You're Not WorthlessThere’s nothing more saddening to me than to meet someone who truly feels worthless. Sometimes, they’ve made a mistake and have allowed it to eat away at their self-worth. Other times, they missed out on something they were vying for – perhaps they lost on out a client, job opportunity, promotion or something else they were competing for or were bullied or abused to the point where they feel worthless. In most cases, there’s a way to reclaim your worth.

The bottom line is that no matter what happens to us, we still have the same self-worth and potential that we had the day we were born. A great way to visualize this is to imagine you’re a $100 bill (or whatever the greatest value of your country’s circulated money is). When a $100 bill gets soiled, crumpled or ripped it has the same value. Even if it is shredded and then taped back together, you can bring it to a store and purchase $100 worth of goods.  Read more... (485 words, 2 images, estimated 1:56 mins reading time)

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10 Ways For Toastmasters to Take Their Speaking to the Next Level – Part 2

In part one of this article, we talked mainly about the opportunities that exist within your own Toastmasters club to push yourself as a speaker. Most people that join Toastmasters don’t venture beyond their clubs, so they’re missing a whole new world of opportunity in Toastmasters for improving their speaking skills.

So here are some ways to flex those speaking muscles outside of your home club:

6. Visit other clubs  Read more... (671 words, estimated 2:41 mins reading time)

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10 Questions to Ask During a Job Interview

10 Questions to Ask During a Job Interview Job interviews are full of opportunities for you to shine as a candidate. One opportunity that is frequently missed is when the interviewer asks the candidate if he or she has any questions. I always ask this when I’m done with my questioning because this is what tells me how interested the person is in the position. Yet more than half of the people I’ve interviewed through the years had either no questions or struggled to come up with one.  Read more... (1026 words, 2 images, estimated 4:06 mins reading time)

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10 Ways For Toastmasters to Take Their Speaking to the Next Level – Part 1

Last year, I did a presentation at a Toastmasters District Conference about how one can take their speaking to the next level. I’ve since been invited to give this talk to various Toastmasters Clubs (if you’d like me to speak at your club, please contact me) and I’ve learned that a lot of folks within Toastmasters are surprised at how many opportunities they have within the organization to push their limits as speakers.  Read more... (684 words, estimated 2:44 mins reading time)

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