Tom Antion

As a speaker, you want to do more than just speak to your audience, you want to engage them so they experience your message rather than just receive it. In order to do this most effectively, put your audience first, know their needs, and meet those needs.

One major need of any audience: a presentation that caters to their style of information transfer whether it be auditory, visual, or kinesthetic. While the audience will alternate their emphasis frequently, each individual will default to one of the three styles.

Some of your audience members will be predominantly auditory, they will react best when they hear the information, others will be predominantly visual, they will react best when they see the information, and then some will be predominantly kinesthetic, and they will react best when they feel the information. When you incorporate delivery methods throughout your presentation that cater to all three styles of information transfer, you significantly increase the interest level of your speech. When you spark interest among your audience, you engage them.

Those in your audience who are primarily auditory will best receive your message just by hearing you speak, but don’t stop there. Engage them further by looking for opportunities in your presentation that could be enhanced with the use of a sound bite, music, or a recording.

Throughout the portions of your speech when you are only using words to convey information, the audience members who are mainly visual may be daydreaming. They will quickly tune in when you use a visual aid such as an overhead or prop. This will catch their attention and have them engaged.

The members of your audience who are mostly kinesthetic become engaged by powerful words that evoke emotion; the words that people tend to feel, not just hear. They respond to a handshake or the invitation to come on stage with you.

When you disburse techniques throughout your program that appeal to all three styles of information transfer, you set in place the foundation that allows for connectivity and engagement between yourself and your audience.

About the author 

Tom Antion, president of Antion & Associates,  is a highly respected professional speaker who is a veteran of more than 2700 paid speaking presentations. He has helped thousands of other speakers, authors, business presenters, executive and trainers learn how to be top platform performers.

Your company logo is everywhere, from the sign outside your office to the business cards you hand out and the corner of every page on your website. This one small piece of graphic design is the heart of your brand identity. Having a strong logo that captures what your business is about gives you credibility and can help you win customers or clients, whereas a weak logo can turn people away. When you are creating your company logo, ensure that it has several key features common to effective logos.

1. Communicates Company Essence: Your logo isn’t a piece of artwork that’s supposed to make people ponder their place in the world. Rather, it should quickly and effectively communicate the essential characteristics of your company. It needs to be bold and easy to see and understand, while still expressing something about your company beyond just the name. You don’t have to have a detailed picture, but just simple graphic elements that capture what you’re about.

2. Gives You Credibility: Anyone these days can print a business card, but not just anyone can design a professional logo. The feel of your logo will go a long way in giving you credibility with people who are being introduced to your company for the first time. Your logo should project confidence so people feel like you’re an expert in your field. At the same time, it should also present you as approachable and trustworthy.

3. Simple to See at a Glance: Your logo is often viewed at a very small size, so it needs to be easy to read and understand at just a glance. If you’re using it in advertising, you may not even capture the reader’s eyes for a full second, so you want them to come away with your company name and purpose right away. Don’t get lost in detailed graphic elements or seemingly clever fonts or ways of presenting your business name. Instead, keep it simple and clear.

4. Adaptable to Many Situations: This feature is also sometimes described as usability, or ease of reproduction. Your logo isn’t just designed for a full color business card or for the header of a website, but rather, it needs to be a consistent mark on all of your communication. Therefore, it should be just as effective at small and large sizes so you can use it on billboards or signage. In addition, even if it contains color, it should still be able to work in black and white advertisements or when superimposed on a background that is not white.

5. Bold and Memorable: Even if your logo has all of the above features, it’s not going to make you stand out if it’s not bold and memorable. You want it to be different from other logos so people will see it and immediately think of your company. If someone’s searching for a business like yours in a crowded industry, you want your logo to be the one that makes people take notice. Therefore, think big with graphic elements, shapes and color combinations that capture attention in a good way. Leave the WordArt in the 90s where it belongs, but don’t be afraid of creativity.

Creating a business logo isn’t something you’ll be able to do in just one sitting. It’s a whole process of brainstorming concepts, sketching out how they might look on paper, tweaking the design and finalizing the presentation. You may be able to carry this out on your own if you have the design skills, or you may want to bring on someone to help give your company the professional image you deserve.

Tips In Getting Dates In Trade Shows And Marketing Events

What can you do to get a date in the next marketing event you go to? Marketing events are highly social activities so there’s really a good chance that you will meet a lot of people there. You just need to be open to the possibility. Here are some pointers on how you can ensure that it does happen:

1. Attend marketing events that spark your interest.

In order for you to get a date that has the same interests as yours, you need to attend marketing events that feature subjects which you find interesting and exciting. For example, go to car shows if you are a car enthusiast yourself or head over to a book exhibit if you’re a bookworm. This way, you have a great chance of meeting people that share your hobbies or passions in life.

2. Adopt a pleasant and friendly disposition.

If you want to attract or get the attention of friendly and interesting people, you need to be friendly and interesting yourself. Don’t think too much about trying to get a date first. Focus your efforts in making friends genuinely first and then everything else will follow after.

3. Participate in the different activities lined up by the event sponsors or organizers.

One good way to ensure that you meet new people is to get yourself involved in the usual activities held during these events. Pay attention to the program and find ways on how you can actively participate in their games or exercises.

4. Ask a potential date out politely and sincerely.

Once you get friendly and acquainted with a potential date, ask that person out politely and sincerely. Don’t be too forward or aggressive. Respect others so they will respect you too.

5. Treat your date properly and respectfully.

Of course, it goes without saying that you need to treat your date with utmost respect when you finally take that person out. Try to talk a bit about your common interests, starting with a brief review about the marketing event that you just attended. From there, work your way gradually until you are able to talk about other things already and be on your way to have the best date you ever had.

Who would have thought that marketing events would be an ideal venue for getting a date? Anything is possible as long as you put your mind to it. Do you think you can do that in the next trade show you attend?

Niña Angeli Pilapil, a bookworm by heart, is an expert in promotional products used for both marketing and personal reasons. She is employed by www.branders.com as their official blogger to write about topics like shopping bags with logo. This dark chocolate fanatic enjoys her spare time reading books, watching movies, and honing her blogging craft. If you want to connect with her, follow her at http://twitter.com/ninsbonita.

Martinez, and University Professor Dan Burroughs, teamed up and founded VendorLink, a technology-based company that would soon impact businesses across Florida. Their venture started as a project for Osceola County and School Board through the Law Enforcement Technology, Training, and Research Center at UCF. “We created a software application for them with the intent of managing their vendors, bid solicitations and contracts. When we realized this software had huge potential in the public market, we designed it with the intent of distributing it to other government agencies” states Martinez.

The start-up’s software went through numerous revisions. “The process wasn’t always easy, or fun, but I learned a lot of valuable lessons” notes Martinez. “Our biggest hurdle was getting the word out.” Like many other start-ups, VendorLink spent their initial investment on product development, and had few marketing dollars. “We relied on word of mouth since the government procurement industry is a close knit community.”  Through word of mouth and leveraging his relationships, Martinez has watched his company grow to include over 80 government agencies, such as Osceola County, the City of Orlando, and Seminole County.

Martinez found that he was faced with another challenge: customers. He knew the agencies would not use his product if it didn’t deliver results. To bring in customers, VendorLink offered a low registration fee that made the program accessible to nearly every business, a YouTube tutorial on how to use the software, and unparalleled customer service. Martinez states, “customer service has been our key to our success. It’s helped us win several contracts over larger competitors.”  More than 11,000 vendors use VendorLink’s software.

For other entrepreneurs and techpreneurs, Martinez has 3 suggestions. First, remember the customer is the reason you are in business, so treat him or her like royalty. Second, reputation matters, and your performance and clients often determine your reputation. Third, customer references are a big deal and can help you close a contract. Unsatisfied customers can damage reputations and provide poor references, therefore keep your customers happy and your business will thrive.

“Every business has set backs and challenges. The important thing is to focus on the customer while staying goal oriented and looking at the big picture” states Martinez.
VendorLink provides procurement software solutions for public and private organizations, including a range of government institutions, such as city, county, utility and education agencies. The company offers consulting, training, and technical support services to ensure successful implementation and system operation of its VendorLink software products. The off-the-shelf procurement and on-demand capabilities deliver a customized, integrated enterprise-class application. For additional information, visit www.evendorlink.com.

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/VendorLink

Twitter: http://twitter.com/evendorlink

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/eVendorLink

This is where Visualead steps in. We are making QR Codes relevant for brands and attractive to users in order to increase customer engagement by making the QR Code disappear. Visualead’s patent pending Visual QR Code is a technological breakthrough when it comes to merging designs that people recognize, trust and love with a QR Code that people know. Instead of designing QR Codes we offer the ability to turn any design itself into a QR Code in under sixty seconds.

How It All Started

Visualead began like many successful ventures. Uriel Peled, Itamar Friedman and myself have known each other since we were young. Entrepreneurship and technology have always run deep through our veins. We have been involved in development of several technological ventures in the past and decided to focus on the huge potential of mobile commerce and the need to bridge the real world with the mobile online world.

QR Codes can be found everywhere. Companies are using them to engage customers. However, people are having a hard time interacting with a meaningless computer code. Our goal is to make the QR Code more effective by making it disappear and turning a company logo or a design ad itself into a QR Code.

Our seven  patent-pending technologies  allow for any design or image to be instantly transformed into a QR Code. While many companies are making designer QR Codes with graphics programs, the changes in the code itself often make the code unreadable by scanners. We wanted to build a platform that would allow anyone to upload a design and turn it into a Visual QR Code, without affecting the QR Code’s readability, while maximizing the incentive to scan and interact.

The Visualead Vision

The company vision is simple – we are going to turn every QR Code into a Visual QR Code – and we are off to a great start.

We have already released two generations of Visual QR Code technologies and, over the last three months alone, over 45,719 Visual QR Codes have been generated and scanned over 367,583 times with a 100% month to month increase in the number of QR Codes generated. We have doubled our workforce and are moving at a pace that points to success.

How Do We  Do It?

60 Second Demo Of Visualead’s Visual QR Code Generator

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2YEXGqhGRM

We have developed a business model that is both quick and easy. The most exciting part for companies looking for a real stand-alone Visual QR Code is that our  Visual QR Code Generator offers a free generation option with no limitations on time or amount of codes created. For those who are looking for a White Label or an API option, we have also designed a great platform for both small users as well as big corporations with several different payment options.

Please share your thoughts in the comments below or connect on
Twitter, Google+, or Facebook where we are always listening.
In addition, to design your own visual QR Code and give any design the power of a QR, click here.

Have an interest in the martial arts? Want to have your own instructor you can carry around with you wherever you go? Want training on demand for a fraction of what local schools / dojos are charging. That is where www.KarateTrainingAtHome.com comes in.

I have actively trained in the martial arts since the early 80’s. During that time, I have had the pleasure to teach and train in many countries and with many organizations. One common thread I see is that true devotees of the martial arts are always hungry for more knowledge. My students have asked me for years to video things so they can play it back at their convenience to work on techniques, drills, or concepts. This, combined with some of the limitations of the standard martial arts training experience such as location, schedule, cost, etc. led me to create www.KarateTrainingAtHome.com.

On our website, users can sign up for monthly access to a variety of training videos which will guide them through learning a complete martial art – Goju Ryu Karate. A user can train at any hour of the day, for as long as they want, as hard as they want, wherever they are. In addition, repeating things that aren’t understood or where more muscle memory is needed is the push of a button away. This also allows for families to train together if they desire – again, something not available most anywhere else. Using our custom training log, a student can track progress over time and have access to an instructor via email or even Google Hangouts to help where needed. In addition, students periodically have the option to train in person with the senior instructor at the home dojo (www.MartialArtsInstitute.us) or regional training classes as circumstances allow.

Kevin Webb, Renshi
Rokudan (6th Degree Black Belt), Okinawan Goju Ryu Karate

Caroline A. Shearer, Creator of Absolute Love Publishing and Spirited Press

A few years ago I was sitting at my desk surrounded by positive affirmations, crystals, and my career vision board, focusing on the greatest good. I asked the universe to help me discover the “highest and best use” of my natural talents. After a few moments, I had an idea for a book. I wanted to explore the concept of love without conditions. Absolute Love. Love in its highest incarnation.
I wanted to hear other people’s stories about unconditional love, and to share them with the world through my book. As soon as I cemented this idea in my mind, individuals of stature (speakers, singers, musicians, baseball players, and other celebrities) started appearing. It started with one person who wanted to share her journey on learning to love herself. Then another would contact me out of the blue, and so on and so forth until I had more essays than I knew what to do with! My intention became a compilation of essays, Love Like God: Embracing Unconditional Love.
My latest book, Women Will Save the World, came together in a similar fashion. I came across a quote from the Dalai Lama, “The world will be saved by the Western woman.” I kept churning the words over in my mind, and one day I announced to the editor of my publishing company that I wanted to create a book that would explore this profound statement. I stated my intention and soon after I had stories pouring in from these remarkable women, highly-esteemed women—celebrities and experts in their fields, who were open to sharing words of inspiration on a variety of categories: collaboration, creativity, intuition, nurturing, strength, trailblazing, and wisdom. The finished product is exactly what I had hoped it would be.
As my business expanded, I hired an assistant. After a few months, she quit unexpectedly. Within two hours an email came through my website’s Contact Form from a young lady who was relocating to the area and was searching for a job in the publishing industry. I knew I would hire her before we even met for an interview. Just like that, the universe gave me what I needed at just the right moment!
I use the Law of Attraction constantly in my business and I encourage those who work with me to do the same. I always make sure to ask for my highest and greatest good, in whatever I am trying to attract. A few examples are:
- Always word in the way of the positive, whether speaking or writing. Even when writing a blog post or Facebook comment, we avoid using “don’t” or “can’t,” and instead lead with a positive intention.
- Envision exactly what outcome is desired and meditate on it. We open ourselves to receiving positive things, and then they happen. While receiving, we release our thoughts about how things will happen and give them up to the Universe. Thoughts about “how” pull energy in the wrong direction.
- Make our intentions clear to the universe.
- Have faith. We have to trust that wherever or however we are at any time is how we are meant to be in that moment.

A bestselling author, Caroline A. Shearer’s popular books include, “Dead End Date,” the first book in the Adventures of a Lightworker metaphysical mystery series; “Love Like God: Embracing Unconditional Love;” “Love Like God Companion Book;” “Raise Your Vibration: Tips and Tools for a High-Frequency Life,” a min-e-book™; “Women Will Save the World;” and “Raise Your Financial Vibration: Tips and Tools to Embrace Your Infinite Spiritual Abundance,” a min-e-book™. In addition to her own projects, she founded Spirited Press, an assisted self-publishing imprint that operates under the umbrella of Absolute Love Publishing. Spirited Press supports authors in sharing their own messages with the world. 

Social media has made dating a very different world. The ease of social interaction and communication naturally engenders a broader range of dating possibilities. The scary world of dating no longer exists. There are several effective tips on how to be successful in the dating world:

1. Project self-confidence
2. Develop important friendships
3. Create a social network of new friends and acquaintances
4. Be certain of your personal preferences

Shy, retiring personalities may create a curious mystique initially. In the dating world, such qualities may be inhibiting. Check your self-confidence level to insure your interaction and communication with potential dates is adequate. Self-confidence isn’t difficult to acquire. It begins with knowing who you really are and your levels of self-respect and self-esteem. Dating stress occurs because of lack of self-confidence. Bolster self-confidence by focusing on positive elements of your personality.

• Develop Important Friendships

Too often, those seeking the ideal dates focus solely on the romantic aspects of dating. Take the edge of dating tensions by dating for fun and friendship. A significant factor in dating is the ability to allow free growth of a friendship that may eventually develop into a love relationship. If you don’t know much about a new friend you are dating, take the time to explore who they really are. Decide if there is a measure of compatibility. This is easier to do when dating on a friendship basis, than for romantic reasons. Develop important, lasting friendships built on mutual admiration and respect. Sometimes best friends make the leap from friendship to future partners.

• Create a Social Network of New Friends and Acquaintances

One of the difficulties in dating is finding a date. It’s next to impossible to do that when a daily routine limits meeting a number of new friends and acquaintances. Look for activities that are group-oriented. Usually, dates originate from individuals who meet at activities where their mutual interests are strongest. Create a social network of new friends and acquaintances to help develop dating possibilities.

• Be Certain of Your Personal Preferences

It’s important to be certain of your personal preferences regarding the type of date you find most appealing. Certainty of personal preferences is a big factor in many dating services online and off. Certainty should also be a criteria for success in the dating world. If you don’t know the type of person you would feel most comfortable with, try to create a list that outlines characteristics of a date you would find most attractive. Avoid judging a dating possibility based solely on looks. A handsome or beautiful face alone may not fill an emotional need for dating compatibility.

More Effective Tips On How To Be Successful in the Dating World 

Assess your personal appearance and habits before setting off to find a date. When you look your best, you’ll exude self-confidence and you’ll feel more capable of reaching out to someone you find attractive.

About the Author

Jo Harris is a writer and the Director of Content for the Morgan Law Firm, an Austin, Texas divorce firm. Please visit the Morgan Law Firm Blog for additional content.

Ben Jackson

“It’s like taking the blindfold off of our entire sales department; instead of searching for a needle in a haystack, we let Act-On identify the needles.”
—Ben Jackson Manager, Domestic Sales & Marketing,
Voices.com

COMPANY PROFILE
Voices.com
#1 marketplace for voice-over talent, connecting businesses such as radio and television stations, advertising agencies and Fortune 500 companies with professional voice talent.

Voices.com Gets 84% Email Open Rate and 40% Click-Through
“…we have a much higher close rate…”

Manage WebEx from the Act-On dashboard

In an average week, Voices.com holds three webinars. The company runs an email campaign before each webinar to target potential registrants. It follows up after the webinar with one campaign for people who registered but didn’t attend, and another for attendees.

“This keeps our clients and prospects happy and engaged with more relevant information, said Ben. “It’s easier to create and manage our webinars through the Act-On platform, as well as our invite and registrant list. There’s no need to even log into WebEx.”

The ability to identify website visitors

“We have over 10,000 unique visitors per day, and prior to Act-On we had no idea who those people were. Now each day I can log in and see not only who comes to our website, but which pages they visit. I can set up alerts that notify us when certain people visit our site. The alerts are automatically routed to the correct sales reps, so I know that new prospects and existing customers are being followed up with. This is particularly important to us because we see our customers as people, not as faceless statistics or numbers,” stressed Ben.

Leveraging landing pages and forms

“We use landing pages and forms for lead generation, customer service, webinars, social media, and events,” said Ben. “Now, after mailing our e-newsletters, I can convert them to landing pages in one click. We share that link throughout our social media channels, giving our e-newsletter further reach. Landing pages also allow us to generate multiple URLs so we can track which marketing efforts convert the most.”

“The forms are extremely versatile; I can customize the information we gather in each form, and I use templates to ensure the branding is consistent with email and everything else. The forms look great as well as being functional,” said Ben. “One thing I love about Act-On forms is that when someone clicks through an email, the fields are auto-populated with the user’s information. Act-On understands that the less information you require people to fill out, the more conversions you’ll have.”

Lead scoring revolutionizes the sales process

One of Voices.com’s challenges was figuring out who to contact and when to contact them. The company now uses Act-On to score leads coming through the pipeline, so that the higher the lead score, the more interested the lead.

“Lead scoring revolutionized our sales process,” said Ben. “We push lead scores into Salesforce daily and now our sales team sorts their prospect lists based on how people interact with the website. It’s like taking the blindfold off of our entire sales department; instead of searching for a needle in a haystack we let Act-On identify the needles. This means we waste less time talking to disinterested prospects. In turn, we have a much higher close rate.”

Drip campaigns: Let the client drive the relationship

“I love drip campaigns,” said Ben. “It’s like creating a ‘choose-your-own-adventure’ novel, letting your clients determine what information they want to receive. We’ve set up drip campaigns for both our business clients and voice talent members. We start and stop the campaigns automatically based on customer response or activity. Each drip campaign has a single goal, and when it’s reached the client is exited out of that campaign and put into a new drip campaign appropriate to their status. We can keep all of our information and messaging relevant to the needs of each client at that time.”

The big picture

“With Act-On, we keep our current customers engaged with relevant, timely messages, resulting in a higher retention rate. Our sales reps spend more time talking to genuinely interested prospects and less time trying to find the right people. Branding and messaging are more consistent,” said Ben.

The Perks of Internet Dating

When you choose to date online, you can do so much less expensively and right from the comfort of your own home. Although you may be wary of meeting others online, you can join dating websites which offer complete background checks on their members which will help you feel secure with who you start communicating with and may even choose to meet.

Unlike dating in the ‘real’ world, online dating allows you to easily find matches based on personality, lifestyle choices and specific interests you would like your partner to also enjoy. Finding people most compatible to you can help you to save time from dating someone whose interests are not aligned with yours. Using online dating, it is possible to chat, send messages and even exchange photos and videos with potential partner to help you get to know one another.

Many online dating sites and networks ask you to take ‘compatibility tests’ which allow them to pair you with other people already registered with the site who have similar interests, vales and. After you have been notified of your matches, you can choose to contact them using the site’s chat and messaging system, depending on the type of dating site you have joined. Some dating sites require a premium membership or regular fees.

Internet dating is ideal whether you want to find a casual date for a fun night out or if you are interested in finding a committed partner to build a future together with. When you choose to create an online dating profile, you are choosing to take control of your dating experiences. We’re all busy people who lead busy lives and online dating gives us the opportunity to meet people we wouldn’t otherwise have the opportunity to.

____________________

Wayne Barkr writes for Portfolio of Fine Diamonds about all things love and romance. Portfolio are renowned worldwide for their superior quality diamond wedding rings and engagement rings, perfect for that special someone, wherever you meet them.