More On Introductions by Max Garcia

*Introduction*
Ok, now you have gotten the attention of your audience and they are ready to follow you and the next inspirational speakers off the face of the earth. You have to keep them engaged now. I personally like to play a killer video or tell them a power story with out first even saying my name greeting everyone or anything. Then after I get their hearts and minds with my gain attention I say something along the lines of "Good afternoon, My name is Max Garcia and your next period of instruction will be on... or if I am giving a motivational speech I might say hello, my name is Max Garcia today we are going to talk about..... then comes the purpose



*Purpose*
The purpose of this period of instruction is to help you become a more effective business speaker (or what ever it is for you)....
Now the business speaker is ready to talk about the learning objectives, how you are going to teach your class, a basic overview, testing information, safety requirements along with anything else needed to get them engaged. It might sound like this for inspirational speakers:
(After gaining attention) Good afternoon ladies and gentleman, my name is Max Garcia today we are going to talk about improving every aspect of your lives. The purpose of this class is to give you the tools to get what ever you want. During this you will learn powerful ways to overcome fear, tactics for speaking ect. Now, let's talk about our learning objectives...(This is obviously where the business speaker should discuss specific learning objectives, the more specific the better).

Next you could mention how your students or audience will be tested. For inspirational speakers they might not be tested on paper however you might mention to them that they are evaluated every day by their families, co workers ect. Depending on the training business speakers may also want to mention any safety guidelines they have.

Again we are getting them used to paying attention to you during all this. Just as the teacher gives the students a chance to warm up their brain with a review before the lesson, business speakers can start getting every ones mind on to the subject with the intro we just talked about. Remember, you don't want to just jump right in to it, you want them to stop thinking about home and start listening to you before you get to the meat and potatoes of your speech or class. Last but not least business speakers should transition to the main topics from the intro (now that you know what you will learn and how much it will affect your life lets talk about...). They should also have a definite conclusion to their presentation. This format is similar to how professional classroom instructors in the Marine Corps give classes. For more information on how to be confident speaking in front of people visit my web site www.themaxgarcia.com, or inquire about our coaching programs. Until next time, have a blessed day.

Loyalty and Enthusiasm by Max Garcia

Throughout this lesson on leadership characteristics you have learned many things about improving your motivational leadership style. If you are a leadership speaker now you have plenty more things to talk about during your upcoming speaking engagements. For our last two Marine leadership characteristics or "traits" we will discuss.......

Loyalty and Enthusiasm.

Loyalty can also have many meanings. As a leader you want to be loyal to those who work for you. Take care of them every chance you get while at the same time being firm but fair and they will take care of you. Make it a point to know who they are, where they are from, what direction they are headed in life, how their family is doind ect. That is motivational leadership. Doing so will also develop a sense of loyalty in them for you and maybe even the institution depending on the circumstances. A good leadership speaker can definitely help with building loyalty to the institution, company or business. If you believe in the company and display that to them that will also greatly help.

Enthusiasm is pretty obvious leadership characteristic and it is kind of like endurance. If you drag your but and are not happy to be there your people will feed off of you and act the same way. If you are up beat they will be more up beat. If you are a complainer then expect them to complain and work slow. Sick days will also increase. Everyone has days where they don't feel like being at work. If you normally come from an enthusiastic motivational leadership style then they will know you are having an off beat day and may even have concern for you. When I need a boost I listen to my favorite leadership speaker Marshall Sylver on you tube. Make it a point to enrich the lives of everyone you come in contact with. Give them a genuine smile even if it is only to pay for your dry cleaning. Do this and good energy and good things will flow your way.

For more ways to improve your motivational leadership be sure to visit my web site at www.themaxgarcia.com

Until next time enjoy applying some of the Marine Corps leadership characteristics to your daily routine.

Preparation Tips for Speaking

It doesn't matter if you are an inspirational speaker or a business speaker, preparation is key. Many business speakers think they are good enough to just "wing it". Now for everyday leadership or just passing word for the next day second nature will carry you through. However, if you are an inspirational speaker trying to move people emotionally or a business speaker giving professional education to your company it is a must that you have an effective plan for preparation. It is very obvious when business speakers don't plan ahead and they lose instant credibility in their audience.

Here is one huge tip for any speaking engagement that I do often. First and most important, every business speaker must rehearse. When I say rehearse I mean you must execute the whole thing like it is game day. If you are using a slide show then you must go through every slide and discuss the different topics out loud to yourself. This will help you to avoid talking to the screen during your presentation and allow you more eye contact with your audience. Not only that, you will be able to make sure every slide looks how you want it to in the slide show mode but also the editing mode. This is very important if you are an inspirational speaker as you need to be enthusiastic, not confused about your own media. You may have a slide or two hidden and not even realize it. You also must run through every slide an hour or so before you actually go on using the actual gear and personnel that will be utilized. You will be surprised at how many surprises you will catch ahead of time. It is a fact that many CEOs and upper management are not good business speakers or people type people. If this is you get help, check out my trailer on confidence. http://www.themaxgarcia.com/Products.html

Speaking, the Number One Fear

Most inspirational speakers will tell you that speaking is the number one fear among people. People would rather face snakes, or earth quakes than become a business speaker. If you think all the way back to your childhood you will realize the reason most people avoid business speaking is due their past experiences. We were embarrassed, made fun of or teased by teachers, students, family, friends and the list goes on. Even if it only happened a couple times it can have a lasting effect if you don’t learn how to deal with it. Some inspirational speakers call this previous programming. What they mean is that the experience programs the mind to have negative association for future experiences. This is why we usually hear people say that they hate being in front of people. These same people avoid any business speaking at all. Do you avoid saying what is on your mind during a meeting because you fear you might sound foolish? Do you dread having to give a presentation as a business speaker yourself? If so think back to what happened in the past that may have caused this feeling.

The same happens when someone has a bad relationship experience, the person involved fears the possibility of repeating the process so they avoid a potentially great relationship. This also happens in business relationships where the boss is lied to and taken advantage of by an employee they trusted. The next time the boss gets a new employee he or she will have their mental guard up right from the start, making it harder to establish trust. The same goes for the business speaker who messes up one presentation and so he or she avoids doing future presentations. If you have fears about business speaking I have a new program on confidence you want to look at http://themaxgarcia.com/Products.html or enroll in one of my personal coaching programs. The good news is that you can be the best business speaker your company has ever seen regardless of how you feel now. You just need a coach that can teach you how to change the way you speak to yourself. I have learned some great tactics from inspirational speakers over the years that everyone should know. I am dying to share.

The Power of Technology and the Inspirational Speaker by Max Garcia

Is the ever growing speed of technology good or bad? For the last ten years of my life as a leadership speaker technology has completely changed everything. In some ways it has made life better, but in other ways it has made every day life nothing but stressful. From the Verizon Internet, to cell phones, to pocket personal computers, and on line colleges, I hope life does not get any faster for me. A well-known psychic and inspirational speaker named John Edwards once said that we live in a “Mcdonalds, want it now society”. Everybody wants everything “right now”. I have been no exception to that theory. Just today I stopped at an auto body shop to get estimates from an accident. After nicely asking if I could get the estimate done now, I mentioned the quote from the inspirational speaker and everyone in the office started laughing. The manager stated that he talked about changing the company motto to something similar due to the impatience of customers. I must say that technology did help me today, as I was able to fax the paper work to the insurance company of the driver at fault.

Sure it is nice to have a cell phone, but it’s not so nice when the boss can conveniently call you back to work on the drop of a hat. As a leadership speaker, now that I have a cell phone, I can’t live without it. I used to get several phone calls during the workday from the boss. Whatever the task, of course needs to be done “as soon as possible”. In the early 90s’, once the meeting was over and everybody went to work outside, if the company staff needed something else they had to drive out to the work spaces and look for that individual or wait until the next day. Those were also the days of handwritten paper work and verbal reports.

As a leadership speaker I prefer to use a pocket personal computer to take notes in the meetings and pass word to subordinates. It keeps everything very organized, holds all my recall rosters, blood type rosters, to do list, and phone numbers without messy papers. I know a wide variety of people in different professions use them for the same. A Christian speaker can easily keep track of what he has talked about to each group. This same Christian speaker can write his next lecture while waiting in line at the DMV. At the same time the Christian speaker may have to speak about the rise of internet predators, a very serious subject. Is technology growing too fast? We know that if the internet were to go away any inspirational speaker or Christian speaker would surely struggle. You decide!

Motivation vs Brains in Sales by Max Garcia

Well, what would you rather have on your team, someone with knowledge or someone with lots of sales motivation but knows little about the sales business? In sales, we have several types of people, and each one of these people require different types of business speakers to unfold their potential through sales motivation seminars. I believe the ability or skill level lies within the sales motivation of that person. As always there are certain exceptions when it comes to level of education and learning ability. This is why a business speaker or trainer must know his or her audience ahead of time (we will talk more about that another time).
When it comes to selection for a billet in the sales department, some leaders select based on previous performance with total disregard for the sales motivation of that person. I used to work as a Drill Instructor at Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island, South Carolina. For a short period of time my job was to identify recruits that were not physically strong enough to start recruit training and identify the challenged ones that still had potential. We would send the rest packing to physical conditioning platoon. Physical conditioning platoon kept them for several extra months until they either passed the physical requirements or quit. I would talk to each kid separately, and the first thing I would do is ask them if they would rather go home at this point or go to physical conditioning platoon knowing they would be in boot camp longer. Some recruits would instantly state they want to go back home to Mommy, while others will violently yell “No Sir” stating that they will stay longer if needed. My psychological trick was that the ones who genuinely seemed like they wanted to be a Marine got to come to my platoon to train, while the ones that wanted to just quit got dropped to physical conditioning platoon because I did not want their lack of motivation. Many times once properly instructed the recruits who came to my platoon uncovered their talent and ended up becoming good Marines. At the same time some that came in physically fit were unsuccessful because they had no motivation.
The same goes when sales speakers try to improve a company through sales motivation. Professional athletes don’t become the top five percent of the sport they play naturally. They have to work extremely hard for years and they have to have the right people help them get recognized. Many of them took lessons or received coaching there whole lives. That sounds like learning to me. I could care less how much “brain power” someone has if they don’t have a strong work ethic and drive. Whatever and whoever it is, good sales speakers can teach them if they really want to learn. You may want to think twice before hiring someone just because the have a certain qualification.

The Power of an Inspirational Speaker by Max Garcia

Through dedication, hard work, good luck and bad luck, any company can improve in any situation if they have a good inspirational speaker. Someone who gives good motivational speeches will not only create an up beat work environment, he or she will help the workers change their thinking pattern. When people shift their thinking from can’t, don’t know and try to we can, we will, we are the best it doesn’t matter what the odds are improvement must take place. We will take for example Andrew Grove.
Although he is not one of Intel's founders, Grove was a powerful force in the company almost from the start. Grove developed as a leadership speaker based on integrity. He is known by his employees as an honest person and a motivating boss to work for. Once during the 1980s hard times came when the company produced some products with flaws. Quickly Grove was able to discover untapped markets to help the company recover. Again in the 1990s the company was struck by major disaster when flaws were found in Pentium microprocessors. Once again Grove was able to react saving the company from possible failure when he launched the famous “Inside Intel” campaign. Of course he didn’t do all these things by him self. He had to deliver motivational speeches that would inspire the company to push forward. These are just a few testaments to Mr. Grove as a bold leadership speaker. The right inspirational speaker can get anyone to do anything. Regardless if we believe it or not motivational speeches are used on us all the time by politicians, commercials, and sales demonstrations.
Where most people would have folded, Grove inspired the company to be stronger. It was due to this time period that Wharton and Nightly Business Report named Andy Grove the "most influential" among the other Top 25 leaders profiled (Business week 1997). In 1997 Time Magazine named Grove “Man of the year”, the same year in which he became chairman and CEO of the company (Neff & Citrin 1999).
The lesson that we can learn from an inspirational speaker like Andrew Grove is that no matter how bad a situation is a company can recover if they have the right leadership speaker in place. A Marine Leader named Staff Sergeant Young once said: “It’s not how bad you “screw up”, “it’s how good you recover”. I respect that Mr. Grove was such a hard charger that he recovered remarkably from cancer at the same time as financial loss. Many people are hesitant to start their own business because they say things like: “it’s risky” “nine out of ten businesses fail”. Well to me that means if I start ten businesses one of them well make a million. You must be willing to make horrible mistakes, wealthy recoveries and learn from both. We all must keep in mind that no one makes it to the top and stays with out going through the hard times first.