Kalmia Records Blog

1.Preparation

The most important step in public speaking is preparation. It is the No. 1 key to success in every endeavour and this applies especially to speaking in public. To make a successful speech requires in depth research of your topic. For every minute that your speech lasts you will probably have to spend one hour in research and preparation!

If you think that 10 hours is a lot of time to devote to a 10 munute speech then consider Muhammad Ali. Some of his fights only lasted 10 minutes but he spent several months in preparing himself. He knew that preparation creates confidence:

- Confidence in your abilities - Confidence in your knowledge - Confidence in a successful outcome - Confidence to overcome fear - Confidence to take action

2.Practice

Training and exercise is the next simple step in developing confident public speaking. If you want to become physically fit then you need to engage in training and exercise. It is the same with public speaking. Be prepared to feel foolish, awkward and nervous while you are learning and trying out new skills. Just do it anyway. The more you practice in public the more and quicker you will learn. So take every opportunity to speak in public. Remember, while you are learning you don’t have to be perfect, just use those occasions as learning opportunities. One way to get practice is to join a speaking club, as I did. That way you are working together with others who are also learning. You will receive lots of constructive feedback, which is what you need while you are learning.

3. Perseverance This is simply a matter of being determined to master the art and skills of public speaking and deciding never to give up. No matter how badly you think your last speech went or how badly you feel about it, give it one more try, then another and another. Improvement is incremental, if you keep on trying.

TRI, TRI again. Take action. Review it. Improve it. Then TRI again.

Alan Moreton

4. Plan a Simple Structure

Introduction: Tell them what you are going to tell them.

Body: Tell them two or three clear ideas.

Conclusion: Tell them what you have told them.

Nothing could be simpler.

5. Pleasure

Speaking in public is a pleasurable, exhilarating experience. It provides an opportunity to share your experience and your knowledge. You may not feel that speaking in public is a pleasure at first. You may feel absolutely petrified. Many people do. This is only natural. But once you have had the opportunity to learn a few skills and have learnt how to control your nerves then you will experience the satisfaction of confidence in your abilities to speak in front of an audience.

6. Personality

You are invisible! Until you express your ideas and make them clear to others you are invisible. To make an impact on other people you must express your personality. Speaking in public is a wonderful way to do this. You have to make the invisible part of you visible. By sharing your real self, the hidden part of you, your feelings, your attitudes, your dreams and aspirations with your audience you connect with them in a very real and dynamic way. They see the real person and they are then able to enter into your world and empathise with you. By expressing yourself, your opinions, your ideas and your beliefs and expressing them in your own unique style you make your personality visible to others.

7. Projection

When tackling the art of public speaking one of the strategies you can use is to see yourself as successful. Use positive self-talk to enthuse yourself with confidence. Walk up to the podium with your head held high and with a confident air. No one can see what you are feeling inside. Act confident even if you don’t feel it. You will soon feel confident as your feelings catch up with your actions.

8. Passion

To be at all convincing you must have a passion for your subject. It must be something you are vitally interested in. You must exude enthusiasm and you must communicate this excitement to your audience. So concentrate on this one thing until it becomes an all-consuming obsession. Then you will speak about it with conviction and your audience will be convinced of its importance to you and they will sit up and take notice.

9. Progress

After you have made a few speeches take time to reflect on how far you have come. See the progress you have made. Begin to appreciate that you are feeling more confidence and that you are communicating more effectively. This will provide even greater motivation and it will renew your determination to keep on trying.

10. Perfecting

By putting these simple steps into effect you will learn how to become a confident speaker and by continually thinking about them and practising them you will desire to perfect your skills. There are many resources available to enable you to improve your abilities. There are speaking clubs, professional speaking organisations, books, courses and articles available. You may wish to avail yourself of some or all of these resources.

Cross cultural communication is made to sound so complex you’d swear it meant dealing with aliens. The entire process is incredibly simple. When you get some of the ‘right’ attitude about dealing with differences, you’ll reduce conflict levels, the number of your enemies and find yourself in greater demand on the social front.

Communication is all about perceptions and filters. What you and I see and experience is not reality. It’s a subjective reality. Meaning we see what we’re conditioned to see and experience what we’re conditioned to experience and hear what we’re conditioned to hear. It’s a reality for us OK, but when subjected to wide group opinion it might well be that what we’re experiencing is not what’s being experienced by many other people ‘out there.’

Subjective reality comes about because we view and relate to the world through a series of filters. Example: You use durum wheat dough to make pasta. You use a filter to produce specific pasta shapes - say spaghetti. When you turn the handle of the machine, the dough’s squeezed through the spag filter and hey presto, we got spag. If you put in a penne filter, you’ll get different, penne shapes.

The problem with us is that we not only see and project things in a certain way because of our filters, but we bring in information and impressions through those same filters. Meaning that we get distorted messages coming into our heads because of these filters or ‘attitudes’ if you want to call them that. It’s the computer adage of GIGO - garbage in, garbage out.

Attitudes are a form of thinking short-hand. You don’t invent a new response to every situation every day. If I mention Hitler, Mother Teresa, religion, morality, sex or ethics to a group of people and ask for an opinion, I get an incredible range of responses. Each perfectly valid for the people experiencing them. But all in the category of subjective reality. Goddit?

Our cross-cultural and racial interactions operate in exactly the same way. Most humans - black, white and in between - have two faces for cross-cultural or inter-racial communication. The one they talk about in public and the other that they think about and possibly discuss only with close friends. We’re all caught in the trap of being politically correct, which is a pain because it means distortion and dishonesty - even if the motive or intention is good.

It’s not OK to ‘tolerate’ difference. Tolerate is a horrible word. It means ‘put up with’. Sort of grit your teeth and shut up. That doesn’t lead to good communication. The magic word is simply this - respect. If we have respect for diversity and other cultures we’ll stop almost immediately cease being judgemental.

Accept that you may not ever want to do what other cultures do - and vice versa. But if we respect their right to be and act and respond differently, we’re already a good way down the road to understanding and acceptance.

You realise that if you’re in a squash-playing group you’re possibly culturally different from rugby fanatics? Mountain bikers are possibly not in the same clique as Sunday morning motor bike rallyists. So cross-cultural doesn’t only mean cross-race. It’s literally referring to anything that distinguishes or separates groups in thinking or behaviour.

If you think you’re distinctive, unique or non-conformist - be careful. Even non-conformists have to conform to the rules of non-conformity to be classed as non-conformist. We all conform to some sort of criteria, guidelines, rules, norms or boundaries in order to gain and maintain acceptance by ‘our’ preferred groups. Try changing your behaviour too dramatically and you’ll be pushed out of that group in much the same way that your immune system fights off a bacterial or viral invader in your body. The moment something’s perceived to be ‘foreign, it’s under threat.

To deal with difference in the future, allow people to be who they are. Give them respect and the entitlement to work according to their set of rules and choices. And work creatively within the framework of their system to get on.

Carl Rogers was the father of person-centred psychology. He suggested we try giving people ‘unconditional, positive regard.’ Not easy. Not an event but a process. It’s going to take you time. It needs effort and takes genuine commitment.

The planet would be seriously boring if we were all the same. So don’t expect the communicating process across cultures to be automatic. It won’t be. It’s something we all have to learn. What’s needed as the base ingredients are sincerity and integrity. You can’t communicate with a smiling face and cynical heart. If you want acceptance of who you are, start by giving it to others also.

Nokia 2652 Review The Nokia 2652 introduced earlier this
week is a cosmetic improvement of the one year old Nokia 2650, a
low-end clamshell phone targeted for consumers in emerging
markets. The phone will be available in Europe, Middle East,
Africa and China, and estimated retail price is 100 EUR (£60 /
$115) before subsidies or taxes. No phone details were mentioned
in the official press release and as far as I can tell, there
are no new features, except that it comes in different colors,
dark grey and pearl with white key mats. The review below is
therefore based on what we know about the Nokia 2650. The phone
has a somewhat odd clamshell construction. The phone may be
opened for an angle of almost 180 degrees and unfolded the phone
looks like a beach chair. Not my kind of design, but maybe this
makes the phone stand out from the crowd. The phones internal
surface is made of rubber or soft plastic. According to Nokia
the 2652 “builds on the success of the award-winning Nokia
2650″. Battery According to Nokia the battery works for 2500
hours in standby mode and up to 3,5 hours the talk mode. Phone
users report less than 150 hours of standby time and 40 - 50
minutes of talk time. The thruth should be something in between.
Full charging takes 2 hours. Keypad The keypad is standrard and
has a white backlighting. Flashing LED light alerts on the
outside of the phone to announce incoming calls and messages.
Useful - maybe, cool - for teenagers, yes! The only flaw is that
the keypad gets really dirty over a period of time. Screen The
128 x 128-pixel, 4096 color TFT display is acceptable for a
low-end model. An external display would be nice and can be
found on many other low-end phones. Applications Being an
low-end phone, the 2652 comes with only basic Series 40 phone
features such as calendar, calculator, alarm clock, countdown
timer and stopwatch. The 2650 had 3 games. Phone book You can
store up to 250 names in the phone book. You can enter to 5
numbers for a name, which are primary, mobile, home, office,
fax. E-mail address, web site url, post address and text note
can be set as extra information to a number. Organizer You can
store upto 100 entries such as meeting, call, birthday, reminder
and memo. A notification may be assigned to an entry. The to-do
list allows you to create events with priorities high, normal
and low. User Opinions for the 2650 Pros - The relaibility
factor is good - Cheap - Very cool design - Excellent battery
Cons - Keypad keys were very hard to press - Hard to text in a
hurry - Keypad starts to bulge! - No Bluetooth or infrared to
download stuff from PC - LCD screen easily gets scratched - No
camera - Dualband Conclusion If you need a budget phone, the
design appeals to you and the lack of features is not an issue,
then consider.

There are many options when you want to find cell phone numbers on the Internet. Although none of them are guaranteed, with a little bit of work, and a lot of luck, you might find the cell number that you’re looking for.

These Internet-based services for finding cell phone numbers are broken into three major categories. The first category is Reverse Cell Phone Number Lookup. This service attempts to give you the name of the cell phone subscriber when you provide the cell phone number.

The second catagory is the Cell Phone Directory service which works a lot like the white page telephone number lookup services. These sites will look for a cell phone number when you provide them with a name.

Although many of these services look like they are free, you often have to pay a fee once the site determines that they might have a match. “Might” is the key word here because, due to the fact that many people have the same name, the service might find a cell phone number but it could be for a different person that you were looking for.

The third category use investigators to attempt to find the cell phone number. These investigators will usually call the person’s regular phone number, or the phone numbers of the person’s friends, neighbors, or employees, and make up a pretense for trying to find the cell phone number. While this method does have some successes, make sure that you know what the fee is if they fail to find the cell phone number. You might end up paying the same price either way.

Some companies will tell you that they have access to a special “cell phone number” database that they use to find cell phone numbers but, as far as anyone in the cell phone industry knows, there is no such database that’s available to the public.

Prices for paid services that find cell phone numbers range from $25 to $100 and up. $75 seems to be the average. Some of the “Instant Investigator Software” web sites look like they are a bargain because they offer do-it-yourself software for around $30, but there’s a catch. This software acts like a search portal into paid information sites. So, although you pay $29 for the software, all it lets you do is access web sites that charge even more money to find a cell phone number. So you’re not getting much for your money in this case.

Start your search to find cell phone numbers on Google. Use the search term” “find cell phone numbers” and you’ll be off to a good start.

Video Conferencing Connects People From Around The World

Those familiar with video conferencing might describe it as a virtual field trip around the world. Video conferencing has the ability to connect consumers, employees and employers and students from around the word. Corporate representatives can use video conferencing to meet with world class experts or business executives in multiple fields, locations and within many different industries to expand their knowledge base, network and improve their strategy and procedures.

Students can use video conferencing to meet with experts and instructors in various fields to enhance their understanding of a particular subject or area of interest. Consumers can use video conferencing to explore exotic locations, vacation spots or perhaps investigate a new area to live in.

Benefits Video Conferencing

More and more individuals and organizations alike are starting to realize the benefits video conferencing has to offer. Video conferencing can increase a non profit organizations ability to extend knowledge of their programs and engage in outreach efforts. Healthcare providers can use video conferencing to communicate with experts in their field from around the world, to solve a new case or come up with new treatment ideas or research areas.

Perhaps the biggest advantage video conferencing has to offer the world today is its ability to connect people from around the world so face to face communication results. This will dramatically increase man’s networking ability and our ability to explore, conquer, understand, learn and succeed for years to come. Video conferencing truly is the wave of the future, a method for engaging in virtual field trips to any location in the world.

Unless you’ve been residing in a cave for the last couple of years, you’ve probably at least heard the word “VoIP” even if you didn’t realize what all the excitement is about.

VoIP stands for “Voice over Internet Protocol” and it’s going to change the way you think about making long distance phone calls. Basically, VoIP technology turns analog audio signals (like the sounds you hear when talking on your regular telephone) into a digital signal (which is then transmitted over the Internet.) So why is VoIP revolutionizing the industry? Because it means that by acquiring your hands on some of the free software that’s available right now, you can totally bypass your telephone company, and start making long distance phone calls for free!

Here’s what’s got the phone companys buzzing: This revolutionary technology has the ability to completely change the phone system of the entire world! Maybe you’ve seen television commercials for one of the pioneers of VoIP - Vonage. Vonage brands itself as the “broadband telephone company”, and offers enticing perks to customers who switch to its service, like low-cost 800 numbers, very cheap international rates (fees are waived from the American to Canada, and how about .03 cents a minute to call Paris?) But Vonage isn’t the sole company who is interested. AT&T is setting up VoIP calling in many areas of the U.S. and there are more major players on the scene as well, such as Skype, who is relying on viral advertising to get the word out.

One of the really interesting thing about VoIP is that there’s not just one way to make a call. There are actually three:

ATA - is the most commonly used VoIP method right now. Using the ATA (analog telephone adaptor), you connect your regular telephone to your computer or Internet connection. The ATA is an analog-to-digital converter and it takes the analog signal from your phone and converts it into digital data and transmits it over the Internet.

This is how Vonage does it, and AT&T ’s CallVantage will be doing it. The ATA is free with their services. And utilizing an ATA is so simple that anyone can do it. Open the box, plug the cable from your phone into the ATA instead of the wall socket, and you’re set. Based on your computer, and where you live, and what type of Internet connection you have, you might have to also install the software onto your computer, but even my grandmother knows how to do that these days.

IP Phones - They look just like the phones we’re used to. They have a handset, cradles and buttons. But an IP phones use an RJ-45 Ethernet connector instead of the standard RJ-11 phone connectors. It connect directly to your router and all the hardware and software is already built inside to handle your IP calls. Look for Wi-Fi IP phones to be available in the near future, which will allow you to make VoIP calls from any Wi-Fi spot. (Can you see the power of that? Just take your IP phone with you when you travel, and stop in at any Internet café, hotel or other location where you can use your Wi-Fi laptop, and you can “phone home” wherever home happens to be!

Computer-to-Computer. This is arguably the easiest way to use VoIP. Not only do you not have to pay for long distance calls, there are several corporations that are offering free or low-cost software right now for you to make use of the VoIP technology. All you need is the software, a microphone, speakers a sound card and a broadband or cable DSL Internet connection, and your loved ones sound as if they’re in the next room. And, except for your normal monthly ISP fee, there is no charge for any computer-to-computer call…no matter how far.

And guess what? Chances are, you’ve already been using the VoIP technology without even being aware of it, any time you’ve made a long distance telephone call recently. Many of the major phone companies are already applying VoIP technology to reduce their own bandwidth . It’s a simple matter of routing thousands of phone calls through a circuit switch and into an IP gateway. Once received on the other side of the gateway, the calls are decompressed, reassembled and routed back to a local circuit switch.

IP telephony is the wave of the future. It makes sense in terms of ROI, from both an economic and infrastructure point of view. It may take some time, but sooner or later all of the current circuit-switched networks that are in use now will be replaced by packet-switching technology. More and more businesses are already installing VoIP systems. And as the technology makes our way into our everyday language our lives, and our homes, it will continue to grow in popularity.

According to Forrester Research, they predict that nearly 5 million U.S. households will have VoIP phone service by the end of 2006. The 2 biggest benefits for home users so far are price and flexibility.

There are some advanced features that make VoIP something worth looking into. With some carriers, you can set up call-filtering options, and actually have some control over how calls from certain numbers want to be handled. For example, you can: Forward the call to a particular number Send the call directly to voicemail Give the caller a busy signal Play a “not in service” message Send the caller to a funny rejection hotline

With most VoIP services, you can also check your voice mail on the Internet, or attach messages to an email that is sent directly to your computer or handheld. (By the way, if you’re interested in any of these features, not all VoIP companies are created equal, so do a little looking around first, because prices and services do vary).

The second benefit that makes VoIP so attractive for home and small business users is the flexibility. Using VoIP you can make a call anywhere you can get broadband connectivity. Since the IP phones or ATAs broadcast information over the Internet, they can be administered by any provider. For business travelers, this means they can take their phone or ATA with them on the road, and never miss a home phone call!

In a way, VoIP is just a “better mousetrap.” But it looks like it’s one mousetrap that’s here to stay.

In December of 2007, the Spanish government made legislation changes that were developed specifically for the purpose of reducing the costs associated with subrogating or transferring, or the costs associated with re-mortgaging an existing loan in Spain to a different lender. Some reasons for this transferring will also allow you to avoid paying for the second time that tax is applicable on borrowings in Spain. There are numerous reasons to re-mortgage to a new lender, releasing finance from your Spanish Home so that you do not have to physically redeem one mortgage in order to set up a new one. Three of the primary reasons behind this action are to:

• Achieve a lower interest rate on the property,
• Increase the length of term on the mortgage loan,
• Move for a lower penalty rate that is applicable in the situation of default.

Some banks are actively offering products that allow all other costs associated with them like existing redemption penalties and costs associated with Registry and Notary are covered by them. This makes the transfer of the loan from one lender to another lender either completely free of cost or offers it at massively reduced costs associated with taking out a re mortgage with another bank where this subrogation is made possible. The subrogation is made possible by allow changes to the terms to be included on the one deed rather than in the previous deeds.

If you feel like you are currently stuck in a mortgage product that is costly and inflexible, or if for some other reason you are interested in changing the terms of your Spanish mortgage, then you need to know how to release finance from your Spanish home. This will allow you to benefit from some of the value associated with your property in Spain during the process and after without having to deal with any unnecessary costs or other complications.

Another way to look at it is this. Spanish properties have been increasing in value, but this has left many retirees and other property owners rich in assets and poor in income because of pressures from the Sterling to Euro exchange rate. Lifetime Spanish mortgages are tying up the release of equity from these investments, denying the property owners any protections in the event that their financial situation should change. Luckily, products are not being offered that allow a percentage of the value of a Spanish home to be freed up and invested or used as cash to supplement income or to improve quality of life in general. This product offers a fixed rate rather than a variable interest rate meaning you can be clear from day one exactly how much is going to be owed if your circumstances happen to change over time.

The sexual toy business has registered a hefty increase in business since the 1960s. This is part of the sexy aid revolution and a big benefit to mankind. Sexy toys are a lovely way to add passion into your sex life, sexual toys might help you come to orgasm and sex aids constantly put a cheeky smile on your face. If you like lube you should try it with your favourite Anal Toys.

Whichever magnificent marital aid you decide to acquire this Fall let your desires be your guide. If you are into rough play then go and buy yourself a fetish mask. if you are into romantic play then go and get yourself some chocolate body paint. Keep your eyes open and see where it takes you.

The most fashionable marital toys on the sex market have got to be the vibrating marital toys. These mind-blowing marital toys have been all around for years and you have doubtless seen a vibrator in your local chemist. Vibrating marital toys come in a multitude of girths and colours, you can get vibrators in mini size for your bedside table right up to twelve inches. The wonder of a vibrating sex toy is the outstanding vibration that it gives off, this vibration is the primary source of pleasure for gals and may usually be changed in intensity to suit the girl. Sexy toys are wonderful.

Positioning is the best plan that any business can implement.

Positioning is putting yourself in the right place in the eyes of your market. You get your market to know you as an expert that can be trusted. You get looked on as a reliable resource for information.

Positioning is easy to do. Just give free information of interest to your market. Your market is the people who would be likely to buy the services or products you offer.

Let’s say your market is people who like to fish. What they buy are reels, poles, lure…things they need to fish with. You could tell them the Best Ways To Fish For Salmon, Bass, Trout…The Fine Art Of Fly-Tying…How To Cast For The Best Catch…How To Find The Best Fishing Spots…Cleaning And Cooking Fish In A Snap.

If you sell reels, poles, lure, etc. - then such reports will attract readership from your target market - the people most likely to buy from you.

Chances are if those readers found something useful in your report, then they would be interested in reading more. Give it to them - have them sign up on your list.

That is how positioning works, and the reward is great. Having a list built up of targeted, loyal, and responsive prospects is the very best thing a business can have.

Not only can you tell them how to catch more fish with the least possible effort, but also how your products can help them to do it even more so. Since you are an expert, it’s only natural that you would have the greatest tools and tackle.

There is a special thing about having a list, so treat it special. Consider it for what it will be - the marketing life-blood of your business.

Most businesses, if they keep lists, just have lists of customers who bought from them, and yet do not even send them as much as a Thank You Note or Christmas Card.

The people on your list will have a more connected relationship with you. You are not just a seller to them, and they are not just a customer to you. They will look forward to contact from an expert giving out the latest fishing tips and you will be ready for any questions they might bring you. Your answer will most likely be of interest with your whole list, so share it with all of them.

The more you can make the people feel privileged to be on your list the better. You can give your list exclusive deals, free offers, deep discounts, holiday specials, even the chance to sign-up for a paid subscription service where they get the meanest down and dirty underground secrets of fishing success where the fish don’t stand a chance in Neptune.

This works for any marketing niche you happen to be in, not just fish. Positioning is the very best way to ‘fish’ for prospects in your market. Lure them with the knowledge and service you provide, and soon you have your own stocked pond full of hungry fish that you can catch over and over again.

It pays to know as much about your market as you can. Communicate with your market about the ups and downs, advantages and disadvantages, progress and problems associated with it. Do what they do, read what they read, know their likes and dislikes, search and study resources.

Above all, look for answers and innovations. Then find a way to use them in your marketing and advertising. People will always be interested in new and better things and are drawn to those who have them.

This will not only help in positioning yourself as an expert, but also in finding ways to position your products or service as having unique benefits. You do this by finding unsolved needs and thinking up solutions. Being the first at something also affirms you as an expert par excellence.

If you do these things, you and your business will be positioned. You will have the MARKETING EDGE.

VoIP internet telephony is a highly efficient technology that is used to transmit voice conversations over a data network, through the use of Internet Protocol.

Most consumer VoIP services make use of the internet to transmit the data from one user to another, but any IP network can be used to the same purpose. For example, many cable providers offer their own digital phone services, which transmit data over private IP networks.

Digital phone networks are thought to provide somewhat better service and security that internet based VoIP services. With standard VoIP providers constantly improving their broa dband phone services, however, this gap is quickly closing, and the more expensive private digital phone services are finding it harder and harder to compete effectively.

Of course, with technological standards constantly evolving, new types of VoIP networks are emerging that don’t use wires at all. Wireless VoIP phones operate on special digital networks, and can be a lot cheaper to use than normal cell phones.