Archive for September, 2008
Pace, Poise and Polish -The 3 Ps in Speechmaking
Sep 24th
If someone were to ask you how many Ps there are in speechmaking, you’d be forgiven for thinking that there is only one. Strictly speaking, of course, you’d be right. But if you intend to make a speech, you had better remember that there are, in fact, three Ps in speechmaking – Pace, Poise and Polish.
And if you can manage to put all three into your speechmaking, then you’ll be certain of impressing just about any audience that is sitting in front of you.
Pace. This is a ‘make or break’ P. Get this wrong and your audience will either be bored to tears and will be struggling to hide their yawns from you OR they will be nudging their close neighbour to ask whether he heard what you said because they missed it.
If you have ever had the misfortune to be listening to a presentation being made by a slow speaker, you will already appreciate just how tedious too slow a pace can be. The audience will be itching to shout “speed it up, won’t you? I have to be in work tomorrow morning!”
Delivering your speech too slowly is guaranteed to make even the most generous audience fidgity and irritated.
Too fast a delivery, on the other hand, will simply mean that a large portion of your audience will miss what you have to say and others will find making sense of your ideas extremely hard work. Your job, when speaking to an audience, is to take the hard work out of listening to you speak and allow the audience the luxury of simply relaxing and letting your words seep effortlessly into their consciousness.
Speak fast enough to avoid your delivery becoming tedious yet slow enough to allow each member of your audience to easily take in your words and ideas. Be sure to vary your pace throughout your speech so that your presentation remains interesting and upbeat.
Poise. Most speakers only focus on the subject matter of their speeches and work long and hard on the actual construction of their speech. Hours are spent collecting information, arranging it into the correct sequence, choosing the most appropriate opening and closing words and making sure that the rhythm and flow of their delivery is just right.
And of course, all that work is essential if you are to give an excellent speech. But the effort doesn’t stop there. How you present yourself is just as important as how you present your words.
Take a moment to run through this checklist before you step out in front of your audience:
1. Is your clothing presentable, clean, appropriate and arranged correctly? 2. Is your hair neatly combed? 3. Does your body language convey the right impression?
Always bear in mind that your audience will start forming their opinion of you from the first moment that they see you and long before you have a chance to woo them with your words. Your poise – that is, the visual impression given to the audience – will influence their first impression of you and that is something that you must pay great attention to .
Make sure that your impression is a positive one.
Polish. This is what will make a good speech great! It is also the thing that will enable you to rid yourself of any pre-speech nerves. Thorough preparation is the key to most things in life and speaking in public is no exception.
Practice rehearsing your speech in front of a mirror, or if you can persuade them, in front of your friends and family. Familiarise yourself with the content of your speech and work out which is the most effective style of delivery. Decide on the incorporation of suitable hand gestures, in fact, anything that you feel needs to be practised until it becomes second nature.
Set aside time to scrutinise your stage clothes and pay close attention to how you stand and move. Don’t lean, don’t hunch, don’t slouch and don’t allow yourself to display any outward signs of tension. You must polish your performance until it sparkles! Whilst in front of your audience you must always appear relaxed, confident and in control at all times – even if you don’t feel it.
By remembering the three Ps in ‘speechmaking’ – Pace, Poise and Polish, any audience will be enthralled, entertained and enraptured by your performance – guaranteed!
Get A Guaranteed Loan To Lower Interest Payments
Sep 21st
Once you have to start paying for yourself, life start to get very expensive. For many of us, this starts when we either get married or graduate from college. Others among us have to pay for everything once we leave our parents home. Paying for a car, insurance, a home, and a family can get very expensive. Many of us will never be able to get ourselves out of debt.
While the dream for many people is to get out of debt, for some it’s a near impossibility. Those who have lots of high interest debt will end up making huge payments while paying off very little of the interest. Since the average consumer has at least some credit card debt, this has become a huge issue, especially for young people.
A short 13 years ago, guaranteed personal loans didn’t exist. Really, this type of loan was created after people started using the internet more. Now that many homes have access to the internet, there are a lot more opportunities out there for people that can use this type of help.
If you start to look for guaranteed loans or for other types of loans that can help with debt, you will find literally thousands of articles. Before you go too far, you will want to make a list of companies that you can trust. You definitely don’t want to choose a company that no one has heard of. Using a bigger company is usually a good idea. You will also want to shop around for a good interest rate.
In order to show the importance of finding a good interest rate, let’s use an example. Let’s assume that you have $40,000 of credit card debt that you restructure with a guaranteed loan. If your interest rate is 8%, over the first year you will end up paying about $3,200 in interest. At 10%, you would end up paying $4,000 – an increase of almost $80 per month.
Make sure that when you start looking for a loan, you are mentally prepared to stand up to the loan officer. He will probably try to push you towards getting the loan while you’re talking to him.
Explain to the officers you meet with that you will be choosing the loan that is the best deal. If they want your business, they will present you with the best option they have, which will be weighed against the best option of their competitors. Once you get your loan, you can enjoy the freedom from high interest debt.
Student Loans
Sep 20th
There are numerous options available for financing your education. The problem is that with so many different types of student loans, containing different terms and conditions it can be difficult to choose the right financing.
The Stafford loan is a popular choice. There are many benefits to this loan which draws many students to consider it as a good option.
The Stafford loan is an attractive choice because payments are not required until after the student has finished his education, as long as the student maintains a minimum half-time class schedule. After a student has finished his education he has six months before he is required to begin making payments. Another benefit is that you may prepay without penalty. It is easy to qualify for a Stafford loan because there is no credit check.
There are a few drawbacks to this type of loan. The interest rates appear to be low when compared to other loans, however at times the loan fees can be costly. For example, a Federal default fee of 1% or an origination fee of 2% may be added. Also, there is a cap on the amount they will lend you during the course of a year.
Further, there are plans in which the repayment is made over a 10-year period. That may sound attractive given the relatively low monthly payment it typically entails ($116 per month in the following example). But the amount of interest accumulated on a 7% loan of $10,000 (and most students borrow more) over 10 years is: $3,933. That’s over 39% of the original amount paid in interest. Definitely, not cheap money.
Because of this students may find that other options may be worth considering. Conventional loans may require the student to work part-time to begin payments right away. But in the long run it could save a lot of money. Taking advantage of scholarships or grants could help offset the cost. Many parents have found that when helping their children pay for their education it is wise to explore their options as well.
Savings plans, of course, are one of the best options to investigate and the sooner they’re started in the child’s life the better. The risk with all such plans is that inflation, financial crises, and other unpredictable elements can cause that investment to be worth very little by the time it is needed.
With a little research you may be able to counteract that risk. It is wise to check into inflation-adjusted hedge funds or tax-free municipal bounds.
The cost of education is ever increasing and sadly it is difficult to meet the demands. However, researching the different financing options available will result in better peace of mind and successful decisions.