Hiring College Students Has Changed My Life and My Business

Over the past five years I’ve hired college students to help me in a range of capacities–home care and organization, babysitting, teaching my children music lessons, and to assist me with business development, graphic design, and more. Students have worked with me as interns (for college credit) and in part-time capacities Read more

How to Give Your Opinion with Love

It’s amazing the life lessons that are connected to our projects.  I’m not so great at giving my opinion with love, or so I’m told. Often when I share my opinion it comes off as “truth” rather than my opinion so you can imagine it’s a trait that doesn’t work well in close relationships.  I’m aware of this weakness and have been seeking for ways to improve, but it wasn’t until my friend gave me her opinion with love last week that I truly got the picture. I’ll explain… Read more

Announcing the AGENDA for The Startup Princess Academy- DISNEYLAND

We’re delighted to announce the Startup Princess Academy DISNEYLAND Agenda! We’re thrilled that we have Startup Princesses attending from California as well as Vancouver, Canada, Utah, Chicago, and Colorado! If you haven’t already signed up it’s not too late! We’re taking registrations until APRIL 10 and EXTENDED the low price of $225 until that time (or 2 for $400). Note: Infants are welcome at the event, but we will be recording.

AGENDA:

Friday April 17

Hotel Check-in 3:00 PM or later (For those Staying at the Disneyland Hotel)

4:30 PM – Meet in lobby of Disneyland Hotel

5:00 PM – Welcome Dinner in Downtown Disney (TBD) (* this event is optional, intended to honor the speakers and get to know each other, cost is the price of meal, RSVP to us)

6:30 PM until Midnight! Disneyland! (purchase your ticket through our event link before April 17th for just $38 4-midnight) Read more

Sales: Building Rapport with Potential Customers and Clients

Building rapport is one of the most critical aspects of sales. You will surely repel those whom you desire to have as your customers if you are unable to build rapport. There are many different approaches to rapport building. You can do it by having an advertisement that resonates with your target market. You can build rapport with your tone of voice, the language that you use, with your appearance or with you body language. One of the most important rapport building concepts is Read more

10 Secrets to Being a Great Speaker

Today’s Magic Wand: The Presenters at the Startup Princess conference were awesome! One of the reasons was that they were very prepared and another is because they fit their messages to the audience. I was impressed by their captivating, content driven messages. Here’s 10 Secrets to Being a Great Speaker (from things I’ve noticed that worked well).

1. Object Lessons in Presentations can be Effective–Becca Levie demonstrated how to cut a piece of paper big enough for 3 people to fit in, you’d think it would be impossible, but she showed us how and reminded us to take a new perspective/think different.

2. Handouts of your Powerpoint Presentation can be a Great Backup (particularly if the projector doesn’t work)–We had a few issues with our projector and it made me consider that bringing a handout of the slides could be a good back up for the audience and also provides them the content so they don’t have to worry about writing down all of the notes (great thinking Nancy Cadjan!)

3. Bring Product Samples (if you can), these don’t have to be your own products, you can even get a sponsor to donate little gifts to hand out–if they are somewhat related to your topic or you can work it into the presentation somehow, everyone loves a gift (Startup Princesses at our conference walked away with Becca Levie’s LipNotes chapstick, gourmet popcorn by Colorado Kernels, and more fun items!) Or, you can give away product for prizes…thanks to Raw Melissa, Lori Harris, Rachael Herrscher, Corey Olauson, Nancy Cadjan, Becca Levie, Wendy Bird, Deborah Gardner and Sarah Jane Wright.

4. Get to Know Your Audience, if you are new to an organization, spend some time on their website, get to know your audience and gear your presentation with their culture lingo, etc.

5. Incorporate the Conference Theme Our Keynote Speakers did such an amazing job of speaking about and emphasizing our conference theme, Make a Wish, Make it Happen…Barbara Vineyard added Make a Wish, Make it Happen through Connections, I loved that twist for her presentation in a final send-off for the conference.

6. Be Flexible! Tech issues happen, speaking times get shorter (or longer!), and if you can be flexible, it will make things much easier. During my presentation my cell phone rang! It ended up being a good time to remind people to turn their phone on vibrate!

7. Be Passionate about your Topic! We all love to hear someone speak who is passionate. It doesn’t matter if you’re talking about internet marketing or are sharing an inspirational message, share what you’re passionate about, share personal stories and experiences!

8. Arrive Early and Get a Sense of the Conference Atmosphere, when possible– it helps to attend a session prior to yours so you can get to know your audience better and if you can, stay afterwards too, it will help the audience feel that they can approach/relate to you easier if you are a participant as well as a speaker. You might also see if you can run a “tech check” with the projector, etc. if you have a media presentation–you don’t want any surprises!

9. Be Transparent, be REAL–share with them your challenges, successes, and be honest about how things are going if/when asked. I was so impressed that Barbara Vineyard (at left here) talked about her magazine’s challenge to reach a broader audience and make it profitable…she gained respect for sharing and compassion as well. It’s a good thing to see that speakers don’t have all the answers and are trying just like the rest of us.

10. Leave Time for Q&A Although it’s not always under the Speaker’s control, if possible leave a few minutes to answer questions, unless it’s a motivational speech, then no Q&A typically; some of my favorite parts were the Q&A!!

If speaking isn’t your forte, start practicing, you never know when you might be asked to be on a panel or speak for a group! Eye contact, Confidence, Familiarity with the Topic, and Audience Participation/Interaction are always important.