Archive for the ‘training’ Category

As part of my Charter Membership with Nova Scotia’s Come to life program, I recently attended a one day Media Training Session.  It was meant to help the members learn how to “tell your story” whether to print media, or radio or tv.

Jim Meek, Jennifer MacIsaac and Hugh Fraser of Bristol Group were on hand to lead us through a day of learning many new things; most notably writing press releases and being interviewed on camera.

I think the biggest message I received from the day of training  was that “I have to stop selling my skills short”.

It’s easy to do, most of us find it very difficult to talk bout ourselves and our accomplishments and abilities. Sure, we can rave about others, but when it comes to “me”, most people tend to take a step back and save the “raving” for others.

As a business owner, trying to sell your services to others, it is not the way to do it.  You have to train yourself to speak up more about you and your services or products.  If you don’t tell people they are quality products and services and of value to others, who will?

Technorati Tags: elevator speech, motivation, Nova Scotia, promote business, Small business

Recently, at a workshop I attended there were a few audience members who just were not paying attention and you could tell because of the questions they were asking. For the rest of us it was most annoying and for the speaker is was extremely distracting.

Being in an audience of any kind, requires your skills as listener.  And listening is a difficult skill to master, especially in this day of smartphones, IM chats, text messaging and all the other distractions. Some people can do it well and others… well, it’s hard.

When you run into this type of situation it makes it difficult to concentrate on the topic and pay attention.  Here’s a few main things to remember the next time you are in an audience – whether a meeting, workshop, presentation… take your pick.

1. Turn off your phone and unless being used for notes, shutdown your laptop.

2. Ask your share of questions but, if you have a lot – write them down and talk to the speaker later.

3. Keep things on topic – when you take a question and head out to left field it is very distracting for the speaker, and can annoy other audience members as well. We all came to learn about the topic at hand.

Working together as “speaker and audience” will ensure that everyone benefits from the presentation, which is why you took the time to join in the first place.

Technorati Tags: listening, presentation, speakers, workshops

I’ve decided to have a bit of fun with this post.  It was inspired by the CEED workshop I attended last night – Entrepreneurial Trinity by the Phone Lady.

Mary Jane Copps is the Phone Lady and she trains people on how to communicate on the phone whether you are the receptionist, customer service, sales people or business owner.   It was a great workshop, Mary Jane had some fantastic tips, as well as helping many of us figure out an effective way to make a sales call.

Sales Call, not something I really think of myself as doing as a virtual assistant – and most in the class were thinking – Not the Cold Call! But really, these skills can be used for times when you have to “sell” your services to others; returning inquiries about your services, meeting new people who ask “what do you do” or any time where you need to talk about you and your business to others.

One big tip Mary Jane had was a word that she wants everyone to stop using.  She told us to take it out of our conversations where we are selling our service or business.  And this is where the “fun” part of this post begins.

The first person to guess the word (leave it in a comment her on the blog) will win a prize.  I’ve teamed up with a colleague, Maria Erman, of Maria Erman Photography, she is donating the prize -a print of Fisherman’s Cove here in Nova Scotia. Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: CEED, contest, Nova Scotia, phone techniques, sales calls, telephone sales, virtual assistant

I never really started any serious volunteering until my first child started school. And when I started, boy did I go at it! Why not, I wasn’t working and it kept me busy, not that my three kids plus the other three I was babysitting didn’t… but it was different. It involved connecting with other adults and meetings at night where I could say “See you” to my husband and kids and get away for a while.

It wasn’t until about 5 years later when I went to re-enter the workforce, that I realized I was not worried about having a gap in the employment section of my résumé – I didn’t consider there to be a gap. Why? Well… let’s see what did my years of volunteering get me…? Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: resumes, VAnetworking, volunteer, work experience

I always learn something at the CEED workshops I attend, and this week was no exception.  It’s funny… many times as the speakers start out on something that seems familiar, I think, ‘Oh we did this a few weeks ago with someone else’.  And then, they continue on and I find it’s got a different twist on it.  There is always something new to learn in life.

This week the workshop was put on by Tom Jackson of Sandler Training. Tom uses his years of experience in Sales to train people and teams how to better their Sales processes. There were many parts of this session that were helpful, but the one that stood out to me was the area where we worked on our “30 Second Commercial”. With my networking this is something I am always trying to improve and Sandler’s method is great for making the point. Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: elevator speech, Marketing, sales, sales training, virtual assistant