Author Archive
Since this is called “Useful Stuff” I thought I’d share this service. At work I regularly use Constant Contact to produce the company newsletter and seminar announcements. It’s not hugely expensive but it still costs.
Well here comes TinyLetter; a completely free email newsletter service. All you do is register and they give you a link. Then you get people to sign up via FB or Twitter or by handing out flyers or however you get people’s attention.
The look is simple but it’s easy to use. Now you just need to find something worth saying in a newsletter!
I’m hoping to write a book. Having said that, I wanted to have the right tools first before I began the project. ”Right Tools” in this case means a way to write, store notes and ideas, capture information from anywhere and any time, and be able to work from any computer or even my iPhone! I wanted to be able to write, shoot pictures, brainstorm, archive, document the entire project (you know, for when I’m famous!), and keep everything easily available.
Two approaches made the cut and I’m going to describe each and tell you which one I chose and why. The first solution included using my regular Microsoft Word for writing. Since I want to develop a “virtual world” for my book, I may see people or things that I want to remember so I take a picture with my phone and email it to myself. I sometimes use a large pad of newsprint for brainstorming or “mindmapping” and I need to save those notes.
Again, the first solution included doing the actual writing in MS Word and saving the document to my Dropbox account. Dropbox is a free service that stores documents in the “Cloud” and makes them accessible from any computer or Smartphone. But what if I wanted to capture a thought or some dialog on my phone? An iPhone app called “Nebulous Notes” is a note-taking app that automatically saves the note to Dropbox. I could also use “Send to DropBox” which allows me to send photos to Dropbox with a quick email from my phone.
So I write in MS Word, keep the document in Dropbox, store notes and photos using email and Nebulous Notes. What’s not to like? But I went a different way.
I’m fairly highly invested in using Google tools for a lot of my life. I have Gmail and Google Docs. They are both easy to access from multiple computers and my iPhone. Google Docs has implemented a feature called Collections which is sort of like folders to keep things organized. And Google Docs allows you to easily upload other kinds of files such as photos or notes.
Additionally, the default Notepad app on the iPhone will automatically make a backup copy to my Gmail account and store it under “notes”.
So I’m going to use the Word Processor in Google Docs to write the book. Any ideas I have while on the road I’ll document using the iPhone Notes app which will then make a copy to my Gmail. I’ll send photos as attachments via Gmail and then store them in Google Docs and use the Collections feature to categorize them.
So we’ll see how it goes. Both solutions are free and easy to use. But my investment in Google tools and their ease of use with my iPhone gives the Google solution the advantage
My children’s book of short stories – Tales from the Shadow Clan – is available as a Kindle download. You don’t have to have a Kindle to read Kindle books; there is free software for the iPhone, Android phone and even your PC and Mac.
The book is 8 short stories; I’ve provided a sample story you can download here for free. And I’ve provided the same sample story as an MP3 file you can download and listen to here.
The book is available here for $.99 — the stories are for children from 7 to 12 years of age.
You can never have too much storage space and that includes digital storage. There are any number of online places that are secure and offer you numerous gigabytes of storage for photos, music, and anything else you’d like to back up. And you DO want to keep things backed up don’t you?
As a side note, when was the last time you backed up precious pictures or other memories? On a somewhat unrelated note, did you know you can download your Facebook information? Do you have posts and pictures and comments that you hope not to lose? Then you’d better head over to Facebook>Account>Account Settings>Download Your Information and save a copy of all your information.
But what if your computer dies? Where are all these important stuff? Two suggestions. Gmail from Google offers 7 gigabytes of storage you can use to upload files. Log into Gmail>Documents>Upload (it’s a button next to the “Create New” button). Clicking Upload will give you a screen to drag files from your local drive.
The other option is Dropbox. Dropbox gives you 2 gigabytes of free storage and you can earn more from time to time by telling others about the service. There is also a neat Smartphone app for both iPhone and Android phones so you can access files on the go.
There is NO EXCUSE for not backing up important files – go now, RIGHT NOW, and start backing stuff up!
For many years I’ve worked with people who are afraid of public speaking. I firmly believe this fear arises from an overabundance of self-consciousness.
I got an email which read: I am willing to give anything a shot right now to make my ability to speak in public better. This is my last semester in college and I have to take oral communications. My first speech was horrible. My voice cracked, I skipped half of my information (not because I didn’t know it but because I just wanted to be done), I literally felt like I was going to pass out. I am a very shy and quiet person beyond public speaking. I have tried practicing on other people and in the mirror and I still have the same symptoms when I do that. I have so much stress and anxiety built up because I HAVE to do this to graduate and I just don’t feel like I can. I mean how many people actually stess out and get nervous talking to themselves in the mirror. Please Help!!!
My response: This really, really brings back memories because years ago I taught speech in college and often got people like you who waited till their senior year to take this course. One of my worst memories is having to flunk a senior who never showed up for class.
First, this type of anxiety is very common but arises from being too self-conscious. This level of self-consciousness comes from an inner self-critical voice that says, why would anyone listen to me; I am not worth listening to. The solution to this is some serious self-examination that may be beyond the scope of passing your class. So I will make some practical suggestions for speeches but I STRONGLY recommend that you get some help in re-examining and re-assessing your self image for the long term or people will take advantage of you all your life.
This may sound over-simplified but one thing you must do is learn your material so well through extreme repetition that you could do it even if you DID pass out. This level of familiarity will help you keep going even when anxious. The stress you are experiencing comes from an overabundance of stress hormones (fight or flight) that can most easily be dealt with through activity.
Schedule your speech first if possible and spend the time before class walking up and down stairs till you are winded. This may seem strange but you are dealing with the physical effects of the stress hormones; combined with over-preparation of your material SHOULD allow you to get through your presentation. Also remember that the people listening to you are in the exact same boat as you and, while it may seem a clich, misery loves company.
Nearly as dreaded as snakes and spiders, public speaking ranks high in causing fear in many of us.
Whether your motivation is a desire to learn or simple necessity, here is a really simple guide to writing and giving a speech.
Your Topic: is this speech about something already know? Then take a blank piece of paper and write down as many facts as you can think about this subject. Put them randomly around the page with circles or boxes drawn around each thought. Then draw lines to link the thoughts together in a meaningful way. An overview of this type of brainstorming can be found here.
Once you’ve exhausted your inner knowledge or, if this is a topic you don’t know much about, do a google search (www.google.com) on the topic. Visit the sites that seem to speak to the topic and again write down individual thoughts or ideas on a blank sheet of paper.
Your Introduction: Now take your sheet of ideas and write a 3-sentence introduction. If you were going to describe this to me over a cup of coffee what would you say? A key to giving a speech is a conversational tone. In the introduction tell your audience what you’re about to say.
Body: In three subsections (A, B, C or I, II, III or i, ii, iii) expand on your introduction. What is the first most important thing you want your audience to know? The second most important? The third? Make each section about 2 or 3 paragraphs long. Keep referring back to your brainstorm page.
Conclusion: In the introduction you told them what you were going to say. In the body, you told them again in detail. In the conclusion now tell them again. Tell them what you’re going to say, tell them, and then tell them what you said. Make the conclusion about 2 times as long as your introduction.
Do you want action with that? A speech is made to inform, to persuade, or to move to action. Finish off your speech with a statement that meets one of those purposes.
As a rule of thumb, a single-spaced, typed page should take 3 to 4 minutes to read through at the correct pace. If it takes less, you’re going too fast.
Practice, practice, practice – do NOT read your speech to your audience; either from 5X8 cards or from a typed sheet. To give a good speech you must sound familiar with the material; to become familiar with the material requires repetition. Repetition means reading the material aloud up to 50 times if necessary until you are totally familiar with it.
A good speech also involves feedback. During practice sessions you must recruit family or friends or coworkers to listen to you. Don’t ask them if it’s “good” or not; rather ask if it sounds conversational. Rewrite as needed to make your sentences sound like a normal conversation.
Fear: Since speech making often causes fear it must be dealt with beforehand. First, familiarity with your content will reduce fear. Repetition causes familiarity so practice, practice, practice. Ultimately, if you need notes for fear you’ll forget, you are not familiar enough with the material. If you MUST use notes, keep them to a minimum – perhaps your outline points (introduction, ABC, conclusion).
While giving the speech do not READ, do not look down, do not go too fast. Some tricks – if you wear glasses, take them off. You’ll be less nervous if you can’t see the audience so clearly. If you have notes you’ll be looking down and just make it more obvious how uncomfortable you are – especially if you lose your place and have to stop. Again a sign you are not familiar enough with your material. Instead of making eye contact, look at each individual’s forehead. To your audience it looks as if you are making eye contact without actually having to.
Make your speech about half as fast as you feel the urge to. When giving a speech we often speed up making ourselves sound silly and making it difficult for the audience to get your points.
Speech making comes to most of us sooner or later. If you’ll think out and organize what you want to say, if you’ll practice until you sound conversational, and if you’ll deal with fear up front, then you’re speech will be well received.
As a final incentive, remember that your audience is not out there to ridicule or belittle you. They are actually rooting for you to give an interesting talk. Do you actually think they’re there just waiting to pounce on your mistakes?
Good presenters are worth their weight in gold. How do I know? Just think for a moment about all the poor speeches you’ve endured. You would have given anything to be elsewhere. Now think about someone who made a memorable speech. Which would you rather listen to? Which would you rather be?
If you have questions about making a presentation, write me at hal@halwarfield.com.
As some of you know, I’m the highly introverted (INFP) who is also a Sales and Marketing director for a company that sells both nationally and internationally. So, this tells us that I really, really, really dislike sales prospecting — at least in the stereotypical ‘pick up the phone and cold call’ ‘sales hunter’ way. I’m always looking for ways to find prospects in unorthodox ways.
I found another one yesterday — it’s called Google Alerts and, as with most Google tools, it’s simple to understand and use. In a nutshell (“look, I’m in a nutshell!”), you add some relevant search terms, tell it how often you’d want to be alerted and enter your email address. Poof! A Google-formatted email appears in your inbox full of relevant goodness!
Now, you may be saying, “Thank God Almighty! I see the light!” and others may be saying “So?” Let’s give some examples. Let’s say you work in state and local government sales in water purification. You depend on RFPs (Requests for Proposals) so in the Google Alert box enter government, RFP, water, purification — from that moment you will receive everything Google finds that references those terms. Or if you sell large equipment to transportation companies, create an alert with the words heavy, equipment, fortune 500 or whatever makes sense to you.
Be careful not to fill the alert with too many words or you may miss opportunities because you’ve been overly specific. Keep it general — it may be better to create more than one alert that covers different aspects of your field and customers. Now you may get immediate gratification and you may not — but it’s a lot quicker and easier than hunting for these manually. Let me know how this works for you by commenting or email warfieldh@gmail.com.
Being in sales poses many problems for introverts but probably the biggest is the idea of making cold calls. Now before we look at cold calling for introverts let’s look at the concept of cold calling itself a bit closer. Sales guru, Jeffry Gitomer, says that cold calling is the least effective method of generating new sales. It interrupts the prospect, probably irritating them, and has a fairly low rate of return.
Having said all that, cold calling is still needed and sometimes required of those of us in sales. As an introvert I have always looked with envy at the ease with which an extrovert approaches cold calling. Because they dwell in the outside world (while many introverts find their reality in the inner world) they find it easier to pick up the phone and call. They are usually more outgoing naturally so conversation with strangers is easier. And, darn it, they also don’t seem as affected by the inevitable rejection; seemingly able to shrug it off and move on to the next call.
Introverts will sometimes go to great lengths to avoid cold calling. First we have to plan who to call – who is most likely to be positive or at least neutral about our call? Then we have to make sure we have all our information together to handle any contingency that might come up – files, literature, scripts and anything else that might take 5 or 10 more minutes to find. Then we have to think about our prospect’s schedule – we don’t want to call too early or too late and, you know, everyone is too busy on Mondays and Fridays aren’t a good day to call either.
Once we’ve exhausted every excuse we’re left sitting looking at the phone. It’s time to pick it up and call. Short of drugs, there’s probably no way to completely eliminate the stress cold calling causes introverts. But let me lay out a technique that works for me; both reducing my stress and, surprisingly, producing good contacts and prospects. As a caveat there is one aspect to this technique that may bother some people but give me until the end of the article to provide some explanation.
The underlying assumption here is that someone in the business or company you are about to cold call could have requested information about your product or service. This assumption could include Internet inquiries, “bingo” cards in magazines, inbound 800 number calls, or any other way to request information. It doesn’t mean that they actually did ask for information, only that they could have.
We begin by at least knowing what department or area of a business or company would usually be interested in our product. If you sell forms, which department uses those forms? If you sell advertising, would the marketing department be the logical place to start? If you’re in industrial sales, which department mainly uses your goods or services?
Take a deep breath, pick up the phone and dial. If you get an automated attendant you can usually raise a “real” person by hitting “0″ on your phone. When you get that real person say something like this, “Hello, my name is Joan Smith with ABC Company. I need to speak with someone in your ___________ department (that department name being the one you previously identified).
In 90% of calls they will connect you without comment. We’ll deal with the other 10% in just a minute. The phone will ring and your stress level will peak. Will someone answer or will you end up in voice mail – what you say next remains the same either way. When someone (or the message machine) answers say something like this. “Hello, my name is Bill Jones with ABC Company. I’m new in this position and as I was going through my predecessor’s files I found a request for information from your company but it doesn’t have a name on it. I didn’t want to throw it away without at least trying to see if the information had been sent. Do you know of anyone who would have requested information on (your product or service)?”
And wait. They may ask for your company name again. They may ask for more information on the product or service you just mentioned in passing. But most of the time their reply takes one of the following forms. “Well, that would have been (a name). Let me connect you to him” – make sure you have a pen ready during this call since the name they just mentioned will leave your brain in a hurry.
When you’re connected to Bob (or his voice mail) repeat the thread above, that is, you’ve found a request for information with no name and you want to make sure that whoever requested the information got what they needed. Sometimes, the person will say, “Well, that would have been me but I don’t remember asking for information.” No hostility, just puzzlement. Your response at that time is “As I said, this request doesn’t have a name on it so it may not have come from you.” Then you can give an abbreviated sales pitch by asking, “Are you already using (your product or service)?” A positive answer gives you the opportunity to ask if they are satisfied. A negative answer lets you ask if they would like to see information.
A third response you might get would be this, “Well, that would have probably come from Anne Adams and she’s not here. Would you like her voice mail?” Your reply something like this, “Yes, please, but do you mind giving me Anne’s email address as well? That way I can send her a link to our website just to be sure she gets the information requested.” Again in most cases the person on the phone will give you their name, their email address, and maybe even this most coveted of responses, “You know, this is a timely call. We just brought a project off the back burner that uses (your product or service). Can you come by to meet with us?”
For an introvert, this is the Holy Grail. Let’s back up a minute to the 10% of operators or receptionists that don’t put you right through. They may ask, “Can I ask what this is concerning?” At this point I give a short version of my original thread, that I have a request for information from my company but no contact name and that I don’t want to simply throw the request away. This will usually disarm the screener and get you a name or at least a ringing phone. Those few that you get through to who say, “nope, wasn’t me and we have no need for that” are the ones you let go with a brief apology and thanks. Don’t let it rattle you.
Now back to the ethical question that this may raise for some of you. “I’m really telling a lie – no one asked for this information” and that is true. For some of you that point may eliminate you using this technique but first ask yourself this question. If you believe in your product or service, then you feel that the companies you call on can benefit from what you sell. If they knew they could benefit would they ask you for information? If they could and should have asked for this information that could benefit them AND if they were aware of your company, they would have asked, wouldn’t they? So using this line of reasoning you can make the jump to the idea that they would have asked if they’d known to ask. So you are simply making them aware by your call.
I realize this is rationalizing – but 90% of the people with whom I have used this technique are polite, interested, and give me excellent information. And many of them have benefited from the information I give them. And the alternative is to grit your teeth, call a receptionist, stumble through an explanation of who you are and what you’re selling, hope they don’t tell you to call purchasing, or put you through to someone who doesn’t want to talk to a sales person AND who is in an irritable mood today. What makes this approach less stressful to the introvert? For whatever reason it is easier for me to call someone who first called me. If they called me first then they must be open to talking with me and I find this an easier call to make. This technique simply assumes that the person you’re talking to would have called you if they had known of the benefits of your product or service. So give it a try – call a couple of people who might have asked for your information. Offer them the chance to really see your information. Then go lie down for about 10 minutes to let the stress go away. After all, we still are introverts!
Hal Warfield is a speaker, teacher and coach. Write him at hal@halwarfield.com. Or read additional self-development and business articles at
www.halwarfield.com and
www.introvert.cc
A couple of years ago Lifehacker asked their readers to show what they carried when out of the office. They called it “Show Us Your Go Bag” and this is what I contributed:
You can see how I travel and work here.
But today my “Go Bag” has shrunk even further. I no longer carry a notebook (though I am waiting to see the next gen iPad). My entire portable office consists of:
*An iPhone 3gs (waiting to upgrade to the 4) updated to OS4 so I can use a bluetooth keyboard.
*A “Freedom Pro” Bluetooth keyboard that works with the iPhone
*My Etymotic Isolater earphones
*A 16 gigabyte Walletex USB card I carry in my wallet
The iPhone Apps I can’t live without include Jott for notes and reminders, Dropbox for file sharing, Dragon Dictation for voice entry, and the Kindle app from Amazon for reading. I’ve got others but those are the key productivity apps.
The Bluetooth keyboard lets me type directly into Jott or my Google Documents. I read books on the Kindle app, I use the IPod software with my Etymotic earbuds, and share files between home and work computers and the iPhone with Dropbox. And 99% of the productivity software is FREE!
Any questions on how to make this work for you – let me know! email warfieldh(at)gmail(dot)com
I have a friend whose job includes document management, tracking and storing important documents, revising and keeping track of them. The system his (large) corporation uses probably costs over $100,000. In simplest terms, a document management system consists of a scanning solution, a database for storing documents, and a means of searching through the stored images.
But, you’ll say, I only have a few folders of paper that I’d like to store electronically – and I’d like to do it without spending a lot of money. My criteria for an electronic document repository include low cost, ease of use, and the ability to search for documents easily.
The key to searching for documents electronically involves “tagging“. Tagging means adding descriptive words to your document that will allow you to find it using a simple Google search. More about tagging later. The underlying “engine” for this system is a Google Mail account (gmail). Each free Gmail account offers over 7 gigabytes of online storage at no additional cost. 7 gigabytes will store A LOT of paper documents. The biggest downside is that, while password protected, gmail is still online and therefore possibly open to hacking.
In my case, nothing I wanted to store online was critical; if someone wanted to read poetry I wrote in college – more power to them.
From a hardware standpoint, you’ll need a scanner. Many people already have them, if you have a multi-function printer it probably includes a scanner. If you don’t have one you’ll have to quit reading and go out and get one. We’ll wait . . .
Possible alternatives to a scanner might include your digital camera or the camera on your phone. I say possible because you’ll be taking pictures instead of nice flat scans. If you want to try this approach simply take the picture and then upload it to your computer or, if with a smartphone, email it to yourself.
But let’s work with the scanner option for now. Your scanner came with software that allows you to scan and save in PDF format. PDF is free and almost universal so save your scans in that format. If, as my first HP software did, your scan software sucks, you can purchase VUESCAN from www.hamrick.com. VueScan works with almost any scanner and is easy to use.
So we have a scanner and a Gmail account ready – here’s the procedure.
1) Scan your document and save as PDF. Here is your first tagging opportunity. Name the PDF file carefully in the “Save As” dialog box with terms that relate to the document. If it’s college poetry then name it poetry-college-title or something like that. Save it to your desktop or a folder you title “scanned documents”.
2) Go to your Gmail account and compose a new email. Address it to yourself – its from you and to you. This is your second tagging opportunity. Use search terms in the subject line to further identify the document and then attach the PDF file to the email and click send.
There you have it – your scanned document is attached to the email which is in your Gmail inbox. When you want to find it you can simply use the search box in Gmail to search for tags you used. If you need to print it out, just click and open it and print.
Now you can either delete the scanned image or back it up to a CD or external drive as an added security feature. The paper documents can be destroyed or stored somewhere in the attic.
Questions? Email me at warfieldh@gmail.com
An amalgam of articles and posts on a variety of topics; all with the theme of being “useful”. Hopefully you’ll find something useful for you! Questions? Comments? email me at warfieldh(at)gmail(dot)com.