The April 2010 edition of SUCCESS magazine is now on the news stands and it features an article by Jim Cathcart, author of Relationship Selling, on page 20. The topic is UpServing; defined as increasing the satisfaction a customer feels from dealing with you. This is opposed to the concept of UpSelling which is about increasing the transaction a customer has with you. The difference can be profound.

Follow this link to the magazine so that you can read this and many other inspiring articles.

You will also find an assortment of videos streaming free from their site. One of them is my presentation on TSTN network addressing The Purpose of Selling. Take a few minutes and view it, then if you think it will have value in your next meeting play this short message for your team and discuss what it means for all of you to connect more strongly with your customers and prospects.

I look forward to staying connected with you and providing much future value through all of these media.

Jim Cathcart

by Jim Cathcart

The 101 Leaders Institute “Prosperity Seminar Series” featured Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE on January 23, 2010 at the beautiful Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, California. Her topic was Presentation Skills and she Wowed the audience, as expected!

The amazing Miss Fripp not only taught, but also practiced the techniques and strategies that have allowed her to reach the absolute top of the field of professional speaking. She is:

• Past President of the National Speakers Association and its first female president,
• a Certified Speaking Professional, CSP
• an inductee into the Professional Speakers Hall of Fame, CPAE
• a Cavett Award winner
• a regular presenter on many of the most prestigious programs in the country
• and a speech & sales presentation trainer to celebrities, politicians, and corporate executives around the world.
• She has delivered thousands of speeches in every conceivable setting over a speaking career that spans more than thirty years.

Some of her key points, as remembered by the attendees, include:

Focus on what the audience will get, not on what you will tell them.

Reduce your “I” count, talk about them not about you.

Structure Frees you, it doesn’t “freeze” you. Organize your information into a logical flow.

Use your technology, don’t let it use you. Learn how to use PowerPoint and your other tools well.

The packed audience was engaged from beginning to end of this 3 hour program. Host Jim Cathcart, president of the 101 Leaders Institute and also a past president of the National Speakers Association, said, “I’ve known Patricia Fripp for over 30 years and, of the thousands of speakers I know NOBODY is a more dedicated student of their craft than Patricia. She is amazingly dedicated to learning: story telling, script writing, speech craft, stage techniques, choreography, voice control, writing techniques, comedy, acting and performance. There is no better presentation skills coach on Earth! And I defy you to prove me wrong.”

Fripp & Cathcart with Bob Hope's chief comedy writer, author Gene Perrett

Attendees at the Prosperity Seminar (the 4th in the 7 event annual series) included; screenwriters, business owners, executives, attorneys, CPAs, entrepreneurs, comedy writers, radio personalities, authors, professional speakers, consultants, civic leaders, students, hoteliers, and club managers.

The next seminar is scheduled for February 25th at Westlake Village Inn. The featured speaker is Don Hutson, coauthor of The One Minute Entrepreneur, one of the nation’s leading sales trainers. His topic is “Selling Value over Price”.

To enroll in the next seminar or the series of seven seminars click here.
Enroll Now!

by Jim Cathcart

You’ve seen excellent presenters over the years who were able to move people to action even when their “argument” for doing so was weak. You’ve also seen people who had the right message at the right time but didn’t deliver it in the right way to produce results. The difference in the two is “presentation skills.” The ability to convincingly deliver a compelling message is a skill that can be learned…by you.

Come & spend the morning with the nation’s leading speech coach, Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE and me on Saturday, January 23, 2010 at Sherwood Country Club in Westlake Village, California. (Click here for directions)

“Miss Fripp” is the private coach to politicians, celebrities, business executives and world leaders. She travels the world helping people tell their stories and move their audiences to action. I’m bringing her to Ventura County in January for a 2 hour seminar on Presentation Skills that will blow you away! Come and join us.
The enrollment in this single event is just $199 and if you want to enroll in the entire year long series of Masters Level Seminars, it is only $795.

Click here to enroll. You’ll be VERY impressed with the value of this seminar.

Here is one of Patricia’s articles I know you’ll enjoy.

The 10 Biggest Traps to Avoid When You Speak:
How to Turn Dull into Dynamic! (1085 words)

By Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE

Whenever you open your mouth, whether your audience is one person or a thousand, you want to get a specific message across. Maybe you want your opinions heard at meetings, or perhaps you are giving a formal presentation, internally or externally. Possibly your sales team needs to improve its customer communication, or you’re in a position to help your CEO design an important speech.

Anyone who sets out to present, persuade, and propel with the spoken word faces 10 major pitfalls.

1. UNCLEAR THINKING. If you can’t describe what you are talking about in one sentence, you may be guilty of fuzzy focus or trying to cover too many topics. Your listeners will probably be confused too, and their attention will soon wander. Whether you are improving your own skills or helping someone else to create a presentation, the biggest (and most difficult) challenge is to start with a one-sentence premise or objective.

2. NO CLEAR STRUCTURE. Make it easy for people to follow what you are saying. They’ll remember it better–and you will too as you deliver your information and ideas. If you waffle, ramble, or never get to the point, your listeners will tune out. Start with a strong opening related to your premise; state your premise; list the rationales or “Points of Wisdom” that support your premise, supporting each with examples: stories, statistics, metaphors, and case histories. Review what you’ve covered, take questions if appropriate, and then use a strong close.

3. NO MEMORABLE STORIES. People rarely remember your exact words. Instead, they remember the mental images that your words inspire. Support your key points with vivid, relevant stories. Help your listeners “make the movie” in their heads by using memorable characters, engaging situations, dialogue, suspense, drama, and humor. In fact, if you can open with a highly visual image, dramatic or amusing (but not a joke!), that supports your premise, you’ve got them hooked. Then tie your closing back to your opening scene. They’ll never forget it.

4. NO EMOTIONAL CONNECTION. The most powerful communication combines both intellectual and emotional connections. Intellectual means appealing to educated self-interest with data and reasoned arguments. Emotional comes from engaging the listeners’ imaginations, involving them in your illustrative stories by frequently using the word “you” and by answering their unspoken question, “What’s in this for me?” Use what I call a “high I/You ratio.” For example: Not “I’m going to talk to you about telecommunications,” but “You’re going to learn the latest trends in telecommunications.” Not, “I want to tell you about Bobby Lewis,” but “Come with me to Oklahoma City. Let me introduce you to my friend, proud father Bobby Lewis.” You’ve pulled the listener into the story.

5. WRONG LEVEL OF ABSTRACTION. Are you providing the big picture and generalities, a sort of pep talk, when your listeners are hungry for details, facts, and specific how-to’s? Or are you drowning them in data when they need to position themselves with an overview and find out why they should care? Get on the same wave length with your listeners. My friend Dr. David Palmer, a Silicon Valley negotiations expert, refers to “fat” and “skinny” words and phrases. Fat words describe the big picture, goals, ideals, outcomes. Skinny words are minute details and specific who, what, when, and how. In general, senior management needs fat words. Middle management requires medium words. Technical staff and consumer hot line users are hungry for skinny words. Feed them all according to their appetites.

6. NO PAUSES. Good music and good communication both contain changes of pace, pauses, and full rests. This is when listeners think about what has just been said. If you rush on at full speed to crowd in as much information as possible, chances are you’ve left your listeners back at the station. It’s okay to talk quickly, but pause whenever you say something profound or proactive or you ask a rhetorical question. This gives the audience a chance to think about what you’ve said and to internalize it.

7. IRRITATING NON-WORDS. Hmm–ah–er–you know what I mean–. One speaker I heard began each new thought with “Now!” as he scanned his notes to figure out what came next. This might be okay occasionally, but not every 30 seconds. Record yourself to check for similar bad verbal habits. Then keep taping yourself redelivering the same material until such audience-aggravators have vanished.

8. STEPPING ON YOUR PUNCH WORDS. The most important word in a sentence is the punch-word. Usually, it’s the final word: “Take my wife–PLEASE.” But if you drop your voice and then add, “Right?” or “See?!” you’ve killed the impact of your message. (To discover if you do this, use the tape-recording test described above.) Don’t sabotage your best shots.

9. MISUSING TECHNOLOGY. Without a doubt, audio/visual has added showbiz impact to business and professional speakers’ presentations. However, just because it is available, doesn’t mean we have to use it! Timid speakers who simply narrate flip chart images, slides, videos, overheads, or view-graphs can rarely be passionate and effective. Any visual aid takes the attention away from you. Even the best PowerPoint(r) images will not connect you emotionally. Use strong stories instead if at all possible. Never repeat what is on the visuals. If you do, one of you is redundant. Make technology a support to your message, not a crutch. The trap is that information presented through technology tends to be about the speaker and the speaker’s organization, while communication should be about the AUDIENCE. One executive I was asked to coach had 60 PowerPoint slides–58 about his company and 2 about the prospective client. We halved the number and reversed the ratio!

10. NOT HAVING A STRONG OPENING AND CLOSING. Engage your audience immediately with a powerful, relevant opening that has a high I/You factor. It can be dramatic, thought-provoking, or even amusing, but never, never open with a joke (unless you are a humorist with original materials! Get your listeners hooked immediately with a taste of what is to follow. And never close by asking for questions. Yes, take questions if appropriate, but then go on to deliver your dynamic closing, preferably one that ties back into your opening theme. Last words linger. As with a great musical, you want your audience walking out afterwards humming the tunes.

When you can avoid these 10 common pitfalls, you’re free to focus on your message and your audience, making you a more dynamic, powerful, and persuasive communicator.

Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE
Sales Presentation Trainer,
Keynote Speaker, Executive Speech Coach

527 Hugo Street, San Francisco, CA 94122
(800)634-3035, (415)753-6556, Fax (415)753-0914
PFripp@fripp.com, www.fripp.com

A final note from Jim Cathcart:

Learn the techniques of the Top Professionals:I’ve been a professional speaker since 1974 and have delivered over 2,700 paid speeches and seminars around the world. It has also been my privilege to personally know and work with folks like: Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, Earl Nightingale, W. Clement Stone, Zig Ziglar, Jim Rohn, Og Mandino, Cavett Robert, Bill Gove, and Dr. Kenneth McFarland. I’ve been hired by: Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Brian Tracy, Denis Waitley and Tom Hopkins to deliver speeches to their audiences. And I’ve sat in the audience of literally thousands of presentations by the best speakers on earth.

You can do what they do. I’m not saying you can be the kind of speaker that these giants are but you can definitely learn their techniques and strategies to become the most powerful speaker you can be. These Hall of Fame professional speakers have shared their methods with me and my colleagues and now you can learn them too. Come see and learn from Patricia Fripp and then stay connected with me.
Let me be your speaking mentor. Have me in your corner to coach you on the presentations that will make a big difference in your world. None of us is as good as we could be.
Let’s discover just how much better you could be. Click here for more on how this works.

by Jim Cathcart

Here is a free 4 minute video that I created for TSTN for my series “The Purpose of Selling“. It is about the idea of creating Profitable Business Friendships. I thought you’d enjoy seeing it and perhaps sharing it with your own team. Feel free to pass this link along to anyone you wish.

My own focus in building profitable new business friendships is now focused on growing the enrollments in the 101 Leaders Institute Seminar Series. I’m bringing hall of fame professional speakers and best selling authors here to the “101 Corridor” where I live, so they can hear national experts without travel requirements. http://www.101leaders.com

If I can help you develop your sales team, motivate your associates or coach you toward a breakthrough, please drop me a line. I’m eager to be of service. Enjoy the video! jim@cathcart.com

by Jim Cathcart

If you want to get the “original” messages in the field of human development, you really have to go back a long way.

I’ve been in the “Motivation” business for over 32 years now. But, lest you think I was a pioneer, take a look at Peter Legge’s article below. The field of Self-Improvement has been around a very long time and it has some impressive credentials. After you read Peter’s article read my epilogue about the folks I’ve been privileged to know and work with in this business.

Insight by Peter Legge Volume 21, Issue 35

September 7, 2009

The Birth of Self Help – Is 150 Years Old!

Have you ever thought about who started the “self help” “inspiration” “motivation” “leadership” phenomena?

Where did the literary greats and positive success authors come from and who influenced the Dale Carnegie’s, the Orison Swett Marden’s, the Writings of Og Mandino and W. Clement Stone, Norman Vincent Peale, Earl Nightingale, Napoleon Hill and others?*

At the Speakers Roundtable 2009 Conference in Westlake Village California, member Danny Cox put on a “Links to the Past – strength for the future” presentation seminar.

*The answer to this question was Samuel Smiles (1812-1904). He wrote the first book “Self Help” which was published in 1859, some 150 years ago.

Samuel Smiles, the eldest of eleven children, was born on 23^rd December, 1812. Samuel’s parents ran a small general store in Haddington in Scotland. After attending the local school he left at fourteen and joined Dr. Robert Lewins as an apprentice.

After making good progress with Dr. Lewins, Smiles went to Edinburgh University in 1829 to study medicine. While in Edinburgh, Smiles became involved in the campaign for parliamentary reform. During this period he had several articles on the subject published by the progressive Edinburgh Weekly Chronicle.

Smiles graduated in 1832 and found work as a doctor in Haddington.

In 1837 Samuel Smiles began contributing articles on parliamentary reform for the Leeds Times. The following year he was invited to become the newspaper’s editor. Smiles decided to abandon his career as a doctor and to become a full-time worker for the cause of political change.

In the 1850s Samuel Smiles completely abandoned his interest in parliamentary reform. Smiles now argued that self-help provided the best route to success. His book Self-Help, which preached industry, thrift and self-improvement, was published in 1859. Samuel Smiles died on 16^th April, 1904.

Here are 20 Samuel Smiles quotes. I am sure you can see his influence in modern day “self help” books.

1. A place for everything, and everything in its place.
2. An intense anticipation itself transforms possibility into reality; our desires being often but precursors of the things which we are capable of performing.
3. Enthusiasm… the sustaining power of all great action.
4. He who never made a mistake, never made a discovery.
5. Hope is like the sun, which, as we journey toward it, casts the shadow of our burden behind us.
6. Hope… is the companion of power, and the mother of success; for who so hopes has within him the gift of miracles.
7. I’m as happy a man as any in the world, for the whole world seems to smile upon me!
8. It is a mistake to suppose that men succeed through success; they much oftener succeed through failures. Precept, study, advice, and example could never have taught them so well as failure had done.
9. It is energy – the central element of which is will – that produces the miracle that is enthusiasm in all ages. Everywhere it is what is called force of character and the sustaining power of all great action.
10. Knowledge conquered by labor becomes a possession – a property entirely our own.
11. Labor is still, and ever will be, the inevitable price set upon everything which is valuable.
12. Life will always be to a large extent what we ourselves make it.
13. Lost wealth may be replaced by industry, lost knowledge by study, lost health by temperance or medicine, but lost time is gone forever.
14. Man cannot aspire if he looked down; if he rise, he must look up.
15. Men must necessarily be the active agents of their own well-being and well-doing they themselves must in the very nature of things be their own best helpers.
16. Men who are resolved to find a way for themselves will always find opportunities enough; and if they do not find them, they will make them.
17. Practical wisdom is only to be learned in the school of experience. Precepts and instruction are useful so far as they go, but, without the discipline of real life, they remain of the nature of theory only.
18. Progress however, of the best kind, is comparatively slow. Great results cannot be achieved at once; and we must be satisfied to advance in life as we walk, step by step.
19. The apprenticeship of difficulty is one which the greatest of men have had to serve.
20. The reason why so little is done, is generally because so little is attempted.

Quote of the Week:

The spirit of self-help is the root of all genuine growth in the individual.

-        Samuel Smiles

Book of the Month:

“Self-Help” by Samuel Smiles

Available from Amazon Books – soft cover

Hi, it’s Jim Cathcart again, there is much wisdom in those quotes and though many sound archaic, they are still in popular use today, but perhaps with more current wording. Here are some of the giants whom I’ve had the privilege of working with directly: Og Mandino, Earl Nightingale, W. Clement Stone, Kenneth McFarland, Cavett Robert, Bill Gove, Mort Utley, Dr. Charles Jarvis, Zig Ziglar, Art Linkletter, Jim Rohn, Charlie “Tremendous” Jones, and many more.

It has been thrilling to know and collaborate with these inspiring people, truly a privilege and an honor. What I’ve learned from them is that each was a good person in addition to being a successful one. These are people who, despite their own struggles, chose to make the world a better place, and then did it. Now the task is yours and mine. Will we keep the chain unbroken? Join me.

By Jim Cathcart

“Keepers” is the term I’ve applied to Productive Employees. These are the folks that you love to have in any company, whether you are a coworker, a customer or its owner.
Keepers are people who you want more of. You want to work with them more often, and you want keepers in every role in the organization. If you could find enough people like them you could change the world.

By Jim Cathcart

By Jim Cathcart

Right now I’m at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City with about two thousand other members of the National Speakers Association. This is our annual convention for this four thousand member association and as you can see about half the members spend the time and money to attend the five day annual meeting. You really ought to see this.