Hints on How to Lose the Fear of Public Speaking

Public speaking is a gift when it’s done correctly but you may need a few tips to achieve it.

Why are people so afraid to get up in front of an audience and give a speech?

Basically, people are afraid of being humiliated in front of others. Some may have negative experiences in the past, such as having been laughed at by the other kids in school when in front of the class. But, for most people, it’s the generalized fear that they are going to get up on stage and tank; that people won’t like them.

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What Years as a Manager Has Taught Me About Career Advice

As this is the time of year that many people start making their New Year’s resolutions - personal and professional - I thought I’d share some of the best career management tips I know. Some of these I learned from others and some I learned the hard way. In any case, here goes:

#1 Do whatever Irene tells you to do and don’t embarrass me.
This one comes courtesy of my father. My first job was doing the payroll, manually, at his codfish processing plant in Witless Bay, Newfoundland. (Photo is my family in the harbor in front of that plant last summer). Irene was the long time office manager who knew how to make things happen. Getting to know the Irenes everywhere I’ve worked since has saved me time and embarrassment.

#2 Speak up. This one applies when you have a good idea and/or when you know that something just isn’t right. Organizations rise and fall on the quality and openess of communications between people.

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Get Your Small Business Ranked In the Search Engines With SEO

Let’s start with a commonly misunderstood concept: Search engines don’t rank websites; they rank web pages.

Many people assume if they optimize their website for a number of keywords then all search traffic will go to their homepage. Actually the opposite is true; search engines look for relevant pages, not relevant websites. Search engines don’t just “think” in terms of your site as a whole; they mostly care about the page or pages relevant to the keyword searched for.

Let’s use Wikipedia to illustrate the point. Wikipedia is a great example, because if you perform a search for just about any keyword, a Wikipedia page is likely to show up in the top five results. If you search for “Napoleon,” for example, the Wikipedia result will take you to Wikipedia’s Napoleon page, not to the Wikipedia homepage.

That’s how search engines work: They look for relevant pages. To optimize your site, you’ll need to keep that fact in mind. Instead of thinking globally, mentally break your site up into different parts and pieces. If you want to rank high for a particular keyword, you probably will need a separate page focused on that term if it is not relevant to your homepage.

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Employees Calling In Sick With Seasonal Absence Syndrome SAS

Since when did wanting a nice, sunny afternoon to work in the garden become a Seasonal Absence Syndrome?

With the arrival of summer, 30% of employees may call in sick this summer to enjoy a day off. Sunny skies and warmer temperatures also brings Seasonal Absence Syndrome (SAS), which will plague organizations in epic portions this summer season. If you have ever felt like calling in sick on a warm summer day, you are not alone.

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Dunkin Donuts to Sell Togo’s

Dunkin’ Donuts plans to sell Togo’s Eateries Inc., the Canton, Mass. coffee giant announced Friday.

Trinity Capital, a Los Angeles-based investment banking firm with extensive experience in the multi-unit retail and food and beverage industries, has been retained to evaluate and market the business to potential buyers.

The restaurant chain specializing in fresh sandwiches, salads and soups. There is no price tag for it; Togo’s system-wide sales were $157 million.

Togo’s was established in 1968 and became part of Dunkin’ Brands in 1997.

Lee Jeans Ad Featuring Lolita is “Porn-like”

Lee Jeans‘ controversial “Lolita” ad poster for spring-summer 2006 has been found acceptable by the Advertising Standards Board.

Shot by renowned US photographer Terry Richardson, the advertisement - shown in locations including Toorak Road, South Yarra - featured the standard cliches of the soft-porn aesthetic: lollipop being sucked, breast half-exposed, legs spread.

Groups including Australian Childhood Foundation had expressed outrage about the advertisement.

“The clothes can hardly be seen,” wrote one complainant to the advertising industry’s self-regulator. “This type of ad demeans women.”

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Dell Laptops Are Exploding and Catching on Fire

More than four million Dell laptops are at the center of a global alert over batteries that can overheat and catch fire. Dell issued the biggest product recall in computer history after video footage showed a laptop bursting into flames during a conference in Osaka, Japan.

Similar incidents have been reported across the world. Dell said it had been told of six instances of batteries overheating, causing damage to furniture and belongings but no personal injuries.

Consumers are being urged to stop using the batteries immediately and to get in touch to obtain replacements. The company said today it was recalling 4.1m batteries for use in Latitude, Inspiron and Precision laptops. The batteries are also used by other companies including Apple, which said it was looking into the risk posed.

Dell blames the problem on the lithium-ion batteries made by Sony Energy Devices. This type of battery has been in use since the mid-Nineties and is often found in devices such as mobile phones and digital music players. Read more

Kronos Buys Workforce Specialist Unicru

Kronos is buying Beaverton, Oregon-based Unicru for $150 million in cash. The deal is a sign of the growing interest in pre-employment assessment, and further expands Kronos past its roots as a maker of time-and-attendance technology systems. Read more

Kronos Excels in Talent Management

When the news is full of layoffs every day, how can there be a skills shortage?

As Deloitte & Touche pointedly asks in the title of its future-looking research report on all industries, It’s 2008: Do You Know Where Your Talent Management Is? “The talent shortage is not a theoretical or distant problem,” assures Richard Kleinert, a principal in Deloitte. Speaking of a separate survey Deloitte did with the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), Kleinert reports, “eighty-three percent of respondents indicated these shortages currently affect their ability to meet customer demands. More than half reported difficulty achieving necessary production levels, with 43 percent reporting difficulties increasing their productivity.” Read more

Choosing a Boston Personal Injury Lawyer

If you have had the misfortune to suffer a personal injury, you will understand just how deeply such an event can change your life. You will probably encounter huge medical bills, and may need ongoing medical care for a long period of time. You may be unable to work, perhaps even permanently, and you may have a spouse or family who are shaken by both the financial implications and changes in their life situation and routine. While obtaining the right settlement will not erase the impact of your accident, either in physical or emotional terms, right attorney will be able to arrange a deal for you that will at least help ease your monetary worries. For those of you living within the confines of this city, here are some tips to help you find a Boston personal injury lawyer who will help you make the most of this difficult time in your life.

Firstly, ensure that your lawyer has direct experience in personal injury law. The law is an enormous area, and specialisations within it have developed for a reason. By choosing a professional who deals primarily with this type of case, you will be ensuring that you are dealing with a lawyer who understands this particular area of the law in detail, which in turn means they will be equipped with the knowledge and experience to get you the best deal possible. Read more

Opie and Anthony to Replace David Lee Roth

David Lee Roth’s run as morning radio host is about done. Big surprise: It appears raunchy satellite radio stars Opie and Anthony will replace him on seven CBS Radio stations.

A deal was in the works to dump the ex-Van Halen singer’s ratings-deprived program with shock jocks Greg “Opie” Hughes and Anthony Cumia, according to two people with knowledge of the deal. They spoke Thursday on condition of anonymity pending an official announcement of the agreement next week.

Opie and Anthony were banished from terrestrial radio in 2002 oddly enough by their new boss, CBS Radio after airing a live account of listeners having sex in New York’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral. CBS Radio was then known as Infinity Broadcasting. Read more

Can Your Small Business Afford Not to Have a Web Site?

I’ve been accused of being opinionated by more than one person in my life, but try as I might to work on that part of my personality, it remains pretty much the same. So, in this article, I’m going to discuss my “opinion” on one reason why, even if your target market is strictly local, your small business can’t afford not to have a web site. Read more

An Introduction to VoIP

If you have an ear for the latest computer craze, technology fad, or nifty gadget, then you’ve probably heard about VoIP. What is VoiP? Let’s start by defining what exactly “VoIP” means. VoIP stand for Voice over Internet Protocol. It comprises an emerging set of applications and protocols that allow you to make telephone calls over the internet. The popularity of VoIP has really been catching on and is already starting to replace existing telephone networks. Some people have cancelled their traditional phone service and now exclusively use VoIP.

You may have thought that VoIP only worked from computer to computer, and that was the original intent. Of course, you can use it this way, but VoIP has been further developed into a telephone network in its own right. Using VoIP, you can call any phone anywhere in the world, and can receive calls with phones connected to the internet or a LAN (local area network) Read more

Getting Your Online Degree

Online education has given an entirely new dimension to education. Few decades from now acquiring a degree was restricted to pen and paper, classrooms, university desks and chairs etc. But with the advent of online education a desired degree can be conveniently obtained by sitting at home and not attending classes or taking down notes. Unlike regular studies, online education is a spontaneous and easier way to pursue higher studies.

Online degrees, as the name suggests refers to acquiring education via the medium of Internet. Several universities offer online education. This enables the aspirants in any corner of the world to get enrolled for their desired courses and acquire education. In order to commence they just have to file their details online and pay the requisite fees for the course. Online education is ideal for those people who are either located in some remote places and so do not have an access to good universities or those who cannot attend regular lectures due to lack of time or any other personal problem. Thus the best part about online education is that it offers education at your doorstep. Read more

Payment Processing Systems for your Website

Researching a topic can be frustrating sometimes. You search the web for information only to find much of it not exactly related to the topic you are searching for. This has prompted our experts to help provide better information for people like you. This article will try to help you by providing information that you can actually use.

Let’s be honest. Profit is what Business is all about. And profit can be derived from the payments we secure from our customers. How then do we boost the receipt of payments? An efficient payment processing system should provide the answer. Payment processing is what converts sales into realized profits. Without payment processing, your business could not collect payments, and thus will most likely fail. Without efficient payment processing, your business would needlessly suffer. Read more

How to Stay Healthy in a Hi-Tech World

Computers have changed our world but not without a price. Some of us are getting out of balance. Problems associated with computers are CDT (Cumulative Trauma Disorder), RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury), or the worst SOZS (Spaced Out Zombie Syndrome). As with television, you can become addicted to a computer. You sit down at your computer, and seven hours later you finally notice your rear end is numb, your neck and shoulders are in a vice, you are hungry, thirsty, tired, and your spouse has left with all the kids. How did that happen? Where did your mind go? And why did you accomplish so little in that time?

Much has been said about how to support yourself physically on the computer. Invest in a good chair, maintain erect posture, use a wrist rest, and use an anti-glare screen. But what about proper mental and emotional support? For example, if you look at a two-dimensional screen at close range for many hours, it can limit your binocular vision, depth perception and peripheral vision. The constant hum of electronic equipment can switch off auditory skills. These imbalances can cause you to over focus, and become so engrossed in the details of what you are doing on screen. Consequently, you lose track of the big picture, your priorities and goals. Also, the electromagnitic field of a computer can negatively affect body meridians, which in turn affect energy, mind and emotions.

Below are some tricks you can use to stay alert, creative, positive, productive, clear and healthy on computer. Take a 3 minute break every half hour. Set up a timer that will go off reminding you to break. Here are some ideas that will re-balance your system. Try a different one each time: Read more

How To Make Real Money On Ebay

How many times have you heard this line? Unfortunately there are hundreds of people selling the “best” ways to make a ton of money on eBay. The truth is you can make a lot of money on eBay. There is not some secret formula or one way to do it.

In this article I will offer tips that could help your eBay selling. I believe the single most important thing you can do is to sell something you know. If you have a hobby or job that is related to your items, you would be very knowledgeable about your product and reduce research time.

If you do not have a hobby or job that is related to anything you can sell, do a search with the completed auction listings in the categories that are of interest to you and see how these things are doing. You can also check the Hot List on eBay that will give you a break down of the hot selling items.

Research articles on auction forums or auction information websites. There is a wealth of information out there that is free. Check out the forums that are on eBay. These can give you information just by reading what other sellers are talking about. Read more

Howard Stern’s Final Day Before Sirius Satellite Radio

Howard Stern’s last show on free radio airs Friday; after a brief hiatus he will return in early January on Sirius satellite radio, which has offered him a contract said to be worth $500 million over five years. I won’t be following him to satellite. I love Howard Stern; he was one of our few national radio stars, a groundbreaking talent. His show has given me many a guilty laugh, brightening the gray freeway in the morning. Another $12.95 a month for radio? WHAT A DEAL!!

That’s not a rap on Howard Stern. On any average morning Stern exposed to open air the way we think at our basest, most unkind moments, when our thoughts aren’t adulterated or moderated by the need to maintain a sociable veneer: the racism, sexism, stereotype-ism, pettiness and meanness that lurk somewhere beneath the surface of even the most sanctimonious Mr. and Mrs. Grundys—especially the most sanctimonious.

This is the essence of comedy, as has been well understood since ancient times. Stern would send a man out to quiz homeless drunks on current events, then they’d bet on whether each answer would be wrong or right. (Porn stars got treated the same way.) The quintessential Stern bit was sending his henchman Stuttering John to a fancy media do like a premier to ambush stars at their phoniest moments with queries about their menstrual cycles or sexual habits. Is there anyone out there who doesn’t enjoy watching the air escape from a preening, self-regarding celebrity?
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