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.

Now, many of the above are quite normal reactions. In fact, some experts say a mild level of anxiety is good before you give a speech as it gives you a burst of energy, resulting in a more dynamic presentation. But, if the fear of public speaking is such that it is keeping you from advancing in your career, or keeping you away from certain social situations, then it’s time for you to act.

The fear of public speaking can manifest itself in many ways:

1. You get “butterflies” in your stomach.
2. Your palms sweat.
3. Your hands shake.
4. Your knees also shake and you feel as if your legs are about to collapse.
5. Your heart beats much faster than normal.
6. You experience a “fainting” feeling.
7. You have panicky thoughts.

Practice, Practice, Practice

Most people don’t want to hear this, but the best way to conquer a fear of public speaking is practice, practice, practice. Facing any fear head on allows us to control it, rather than let it control us. Our over-reactions to our fears is really our brains trying to protect us from what it perceives as a threatening situation. Feeling faint is a good way to keep us off a stage, saving us from
the threat of humiliation. But, the more we experience the “threatening” situation without the harm (humiliation), the more we’re able to extinguish that fear.

A good way to begin feeling comfortable presenting publicly is to start small. Start sharing stories with friends and co-workers. This could be something you read about in the news, or something you did over the weekend. The point is to practice speaking in front of others, and feeling successful at it.

If you have no problem speaking socially in front of friends, but shake at the thought of getting behind a podium and speaking in front of strangers, then practicing behind a podium is what you must do. Lucky for you there exists speaking clubs such as Toastmaster’s International, which meet weekly in cities all over the world. For a nominal fee, you can join a club in your area and practice speaking in public, as well as hearing speeches on a weekly basis. You will also receive feedback on your weaknesses as well as your strengths. You’ll probably be surprised to find out that you’re better than you thought you were.

But I’m too Afraid to Practice Public Speaking

For those whose anxiety level or social phobia is so great that they’re having extreme trouble getting into the practice phase, there is some hope for you as well. Psychotherapy as well as hypnosis has been used by people who need to learn ways of coping with fear of public speaking. With hypnosis, you can help desensitize yourself to your fear, as well as visualize success speaking before an audience. Hypnosis is also helpful with managing anxiety.

For extreme anxiety, there are also medications such as beta blockers which can provide some temporary relief; enough to possibly help you gain a positive speaking experience. If that don’t help imagien yourself play the scary maze game or what the Brady Bunch taught us about imagining your audience.

The point is, you don’t have to allow your fear to rule your life. For some, the ability to give a speech in public can mean closing a sale, getting a promotion, or charting a new career path. It would be a shame, with all the resources now available to help you conquer your fear, to allow that fear to win.

Hints on How to Lose the Fear of Public Speaking

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Don’t be an ATM. Let’s get this out of the way first: If you care about your friendship you should never, ever loan a friend money. You should also never give them money hoping (and maybe even secretly expecting) that you’ll be paid back. This may never happen. Assume that anything you help them with, from buying them a Harpoon Winter Warmer beer to a small sack of groceries, is a gift. But don’t worry—the karma gods will reward you someday.

Be a good listener. What your friend will need most right now is an ear but don’t give her the silent treatment. Financial problems can cause a lot of stress, and your friend may be moody, negative, or emotional. Recognize her need to vent and be prepared to listen for as long as necessary. Don’t try to sugarcoat the situation and blindly assure her everything will be okay—this can seem patronizing. Just keep your mouth shut and your ears wide open.

Get creative. Think of easy ways you can help your friend in need without stressing yourself out or making it seem like you feel sorry for them. Start a carpool, or suggest a girl’s night in with cheap beer and movies instead of an expensive evening out. Next time you bake, wrap a few extras up for her she’ll appreciate a delicious treat, especially if chocolate or breakfasts out have been cut from the budget.

Offer advice… maybe. This rule comes with a big fat “Be Careful” sign attached. It isn’t your job to fix your friend’s troubles. That said, if you have an area of expertise that could be helpful, you can offer advice if it seems appropriate. If you’re a financial wizard, offer to help set up a budget spreadsheet. If she eats out a ton, share your favorite easy recipes. If she’s incapable of buying anything but designer labels, clue her in to your favorite low-end fashion haunts. If you choose to offer advice (and she accepts it!), keep the tone positive. Reassure her that she’s wildly talented and capable of dealing with whatever life throws at her.

Spread the word. If your friend defaulted on a loan she probably wouldn’t want you sharing that info with everyone you know. But if she lost a job, she might appreciate any free PR she can get. Offer to keep your eyes and ears open for new opportunities. Help her make connections, prep for an interview, and rework her résumé. Remind her that rough spots are often a great opportunity to make big changes. If she’s been thinking about making a career shift or trying something new, now could be just the time to do it.

Helping a Friend When They Lose Their Job

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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.

Basic Page Optimization

We’ll use Google to illustrate the following points; in general the other major search engines function in the same way.

Google looks for these things to identify the theme of a web page:

• Page Title: The page title is the text that appears in the blue bar at the top of your browser. Google uses the page title (also called the title tag) to identify pages and show users the relevance of the page. The page title also shows up as the link when a search result is returned. Keep title tags short and precise, between 8-9 words. Every page should have a different unique and relevant page title.
• Metadata: While meta tags aren’t as important as they used to be, including your main keywords in your page metadata can help Google differentiate between different pages. Make sure your metadata is specific to each individual page and that it doesn’t include any words that are not related to the text of that page.
• URL: The URL is the web address of a web page. Including relevant keywords in the page URL can help your rankings, so work with your webmaster to create static URLs with keywords included. Strike a balance, though – don’t try to have 10 different keywords in a URL.
• Text: The content of the page should be relevant to the topic mentioned in your title tag, metadata and URL. Make sure you mention your keywords as well as other words that relate to the basic theme of the page.

Please note: Lots of people focus on things like keyword density (the number of times the keyword is mentioned) and keyword patterns (where the keyword is found, like in the first paragraph, first sentence, last sentence, etc.). Google algorithms continue to become more intelligent, and in my opinion, your best bet is to instead write your content with the user in mind. Write for your visitors and you will almost always create content that Google “likes” too.

Think of it this way: Being number one in the search rankings is important, but if you’re number two and you’ve optimized your content for the user, you’ll probably get more repeat visitors and sales than if you create pages focusing exclusively on getting better search rankings.

If you currently operate a website, your webmaster can help you with each of the items above.

If you’re developing a new site, be sure your site is set up properly from the ground up. Make sure you can create title tags for each page, name each page with a separate URL, and include page specific metadata. The last thing you’ll want to do is to go back later and correct any basic site structure problems that you could have done right the first time.

Take Advantage of Internal Links
Internal links are links from pages on your site to other pages on your site. (In this case I’m referring to links within your text, not to navigation bar links.) You can improve your page rankings by linking directly to pages on your website by using one of your keywords as the link text. Google will follow those links and know your page is relevant for that topic. You’ve probably noticed Wikipedia uses internal links extensively; whenever a word is used that has a relevant article somewhere else on Wikipedia, that word gets an internal link.

Let’s go back to our Napoleon example. If a page on your site is devoted to Napoleon, and you also have a page devoted to the Duke of Wellington, link occurrences of “Duke of Wellington” on the Napoleon page to the Duke’s page – and when you mention Napoleon on the Duke’s page, link back to the Napoleon page. Your site will be more convenient for visitors and you will improve your search rankings too.

Get Relevant Inbound Links

Inbound links are links to your site from other sites. Relevant inbound links are links from sites that contain content related to your site. If you sell computer hardware, an inbound link from a software site is relevant; an inbound link from a pet supply store is not.

Google follows inbound links and uses them as a popularity contest of sorts; the more inbound links you have from relevant sites, the higher your page rankings. When you have links from “authority” sites – sites Google ranks highly – your pages will rank even higher. Again, getting inbound links is not just a way to optimize your site for SEO purposes; each inbound link also creates a natural way for a visitor to find you by following that link.

Your goal is to get as many relevant inbound links as possible. Find sites that provide related products or related services that don’t specifically compete with you. Ask for an inbound link to the relevant page. (You may also decide to link back to their site, but only do this with relevant content that makes sense for your readers. Don’t trade links with the sole purpose of better rankings.)

Then find industry hubs for your niches. Search for “cooking articles” or cooking directories and some of the results will be directories that exist to help people find cooking related articles. Also try using words like “organization” or “non-profit” with your keywords when you search. In some cases you may have to pay a small fee for an inbound link, but if the site in question is a relevant and trusted source, the cost of that link could make sense.

You can also find bloggers related to your niches; send them a great article or resource and they may create a new post and link back to you. Here’s a simple approach: Go to Technorati, type in a keyword, find blogs related to your keywords, send them an article, and see if you can get a link back to your page. Some visitors will find you simply by clicking on that link, and at the same time Google will rank your page higher.

Note: Some services automate the process of link exchanges. Exchanging links with non-relevant sites may provide a short-term boost but will catch up to you in the long run, and Google can eventually penalize you because almost all of your inbound links are irrelevant. For example, pet-related sites shouldn’t link to cooking-related sites, plus you won’t get many visitors from those irrelevant sites.

Pay particular attention to getting links from directories. Trusted directories include sites like Yahoo Directory, botw.org and Business.com. If you have quality content you can often collect links from major directories.

Check Out Your Competitors

Search for your keywords and check out the pages that rank highly. How many times is the keyword used in the text? How is the title tag written? Which keywords are in the URL?

You can also see how many inbound links your competitors have. On Yahoo, enter the text link:www.(nameofsite).com and you’ll see all inbound links to that page. Those same sites may also be willing to link to you. If multiple pages ranked in the top 10 have links from similar sites, go after getting those links first – those sites are probably trusted sources.

Get Your New Site Noticed

Google will eventually find your new website, but you can speed up the process. The best way is to get inbound links from trusted sites; when Google crawls those sites it will follow that link to your site – and you’ll get noticed.

You can also submit your site directly to Google for crawling. Using the basic Site Submit can take months; a better approach is to submit your site at Google’s Webmaster Central. You’ll have to add a small piece of code to your site’s HTML code so Google can verify you are the owner of your site, so your programmer may need to help you. (The process only takes a few minutes, though.) Your pages will then be crawled and hopefully indexed in days instead of weeks or months.

Yahoo also has a site submit process. Search “submit site” on Yahoo and you can get details on free site submissions as well as paid submissions and submissions to the Yahoo Directory.

Above All, Consider Your Visitors
Google looks at a variety of factors for ranking your pages. Content is important, but don’t add new content just to get Google to visit.

Why? Your site needs to provide good resources for your visitors. Build your site for your audience and you’ll naturally do the things search engines want and you’ll rank better. For example, many of the hugely popular blog sites don’t focus on SEO; they concentrate on their audience and on getting exposure. As a result, they have a lot of links and the search engines rank them highly. Search engines want people to find what they are looking for; build your site with your audience in mind and over time the search engines will reward your efforts.

Getting Crawled

To find out how often your site is crawled, enter “site:www.(nameofyoursite.com)” on Google and you’ll see all your pages Google has indexed. The “cached” link next to each pages indicates the last time that page was cached. (On average it takes about two weeks for Google to check out non-dormant sites and re-rank pages. Some sites are indexed every few days; some major sites get updated multiple times per day.) Check this every day and you’ll quickly determine how frequently your site is crawled.

At the same time you’ll get a sense of how well your entire site is performing. If you have 400 pages and only five are indexed, you likely need more inbound links and optimization on the non-indexed pages.

Then make intelligent changes to improve your page rankings. Change your title tags. Change the content so your keywords are featured. Add internal links where appropriate. Get more – always get more – relevant inbound links.

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I always thought that I was NOT responsible until I received a subpoena last week about a court case I wrote about 10 months earlier. I have to testify and give personal information about the commenters on my blog. I guess the defense attorney wants to try and get the case moved outside of Maynard Massachusetts where people don’t know about this blog.

Ahhhh this blog is read nationwide and so are the commenters, Attorney Donald F. DeMayo.

Joseph Magno, a teacher at Maynard High School, was arrested on charges of rape of a child, indecent assault and battery of a child under age of 14, and indecent assault and battery of a child over the age of 14. The charges stem from an alleged high school victim. It pissed me off and I blogged about it.

I guess it was my way of expressing my opinion about this after reading it in a Boston newspaper.

So people have been commenting about this page since it happened and a lot of speculation and accusations have come out on the blog. Some slander and backing up of bother sides but again it was their comments not mine.

I’ve received a few interview requests from newspaper and television reporters and TONS of emails from people thanking me for keeping up the “Magno blog,” after my server going down a few times as it wasn’t able to handle the demand from so many readers.

I’m happy to provide a medium for people to discuss this and get some closure and help from what this guy has done to some of these people. I’ll be in Cambridge Massachusetts court this Monday September 25th to honor the court order (Action No 2006-145) but in no way will I give up any personal information or communication I’ve had with anyone on the blog or about this case unless I am ordered by a judge. And even then I will seek counsel beforehand.

I’ve already received a lot of help from Public Citizen who are a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization

To contact me about this subpoena:

Are You Responsible for Comments Left on Your Blog?

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HR technology provider Kronos has decided it’s time to get into the talent acquisition game.

Chelmsford, Massachusetts-based Kronos on Thursday announced plans to buy Beaverton, Oregon-based Unicru for $150 million in cash.

Time and Attendance Industry Grows

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. Unicru specializes in software used to assess and hire hourly workers. Its customers tend to be large employers, such as Best Buy, Toys “R” Us and Marriott.

Kronos, which sells a variety of workforce management software products including payroll and scheduling applications, says the combination of companies will let customers integrate employee selection strategy with actual labor performance and connect labor planning to hiring. Also something to boost their Kronos Replacement Policy

Jim Holincheck, research vice president at market analysis firm Gartner, says that the deal should allow Kronos to pitch additional services to its many customers with large hourly workforces. It also marks Kronos’ first step into the talent management arena with a firm known for sophisticated analysis of candidate and worker data.

“The scientists that Unicru has on board are very smart,” he says. “That’s part of the value for Kronos.”

Unicru is slated to operate as Kronos’ talent management division, headquartered in Beaverton. Unicru chief executive Chris Marsh will join Kronos as president of the division. The acquisition is expected to close this year.

“Kronos views this strategic acquisition as fundamentally changing the landscape of workforce management,” Aron Ain, Kronos’ CEO, said in a statement. “Importantly, this acquisition moves us significantly closer to our goal of becoming the first $1 billion software company focused exclusively on meeting the human capital management needs of both large enterprises and small- and medium-size organizations on a worldwide basis.”

Founded in 1977, Kronos posted revenue of $519 million in its last fiscal year. Unicru, which was founded in 1987, is on pace to post revenue of $46 million in 2006, says Brad McMahon, Unicru vice president of corporate development. Unicru’s revenue has been growing at a rate of 25 percent to 35 percent annually the past several years, McMahon says.

The move is part of a broader consolidation trend in the area of recruiting technology.

Holincheck says Unicru made a more palatable target for Kronos than other recruiting software firms such as Vurv, given Unicru’s focus on hourly hiring in particular industries such as retail. He also says Unicru customers should have little fear that their products will be neglected once the company is gobbled up—a common concern when tech firms merge.

Kronos “is not necessarily a bad destination,” Holincheck says. “For example, they’re not going to abandon the retail sector.”

Kronos Buys Workforce Specialist Unicru

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A few statistics from Statistics Canada to start us on our way-. In 2003, there were about 12 million households in Canada, and of those 8 million had regular access to the internet from work, home and/or school. Around 60% of the total households had a computer and internet access at home.

Ok, so now we know how many households had access to the internet, but what were they using it for? Almost 90% used the internet for browsing, but more importantly for our discussion- 34% used the internet for purchasing goods and services, and by the way, that’s almost double 1999 figures for purchasing goods and services on the internet.

Industry Canada reports that in 2000, Canadian ecommerce sales were $7.2 billion, a whopping 73% increase over 1999 numbers. And no, it’s not a typo, it really is $7.2 BILLION! I’d say there’s a pattern brewing—internet usage and sales are increasing rapidly.

And, according to Industry Canada, Canada captured only about 4% of global e-commerce in 2000. Now, numbers may not be my strong suit, so feel free to correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t that mean there was 180 billion dollars spent globally in ecommerce?

Let’s look for a moment to the United States. www.tamingthebeast.net reports statistics and forecasts collected during December 2001—157million online users forecast to spend $47.8 billion in online retail revenue in 2002. By 2006, the forecast is 210 million users spending $130 billion in retail revenue.

The numbers alone will probably convince many people to invest in a small business web site, particularly if they’re in an industry where their target market isn’t restricted to a purely local one.

But, you say, my business is just a little local shop. Why should I get a web site for my small business? What good will the internet do me? I’ve heard that one before. In fact, the guy I’ve heard it from most is David.

He’s the guy with the auto shop in my article “I Don’t Need a Business Plan—Do I?” Long story short, his mother in law finally convinced him to write a business plan and his business is making some money, but in my opinion, it could do better with some marketing. I’d really like to convince him to spend some marketing dollars (he’s a little cheap sometimes), but so far, no dice. Anyway I digress.

Let’s use David’s business as an example. So, his business is in Saskatoon, a city with a population of just over 200,000 over five years of age and almost 90,000 households in 2001, according to Statistics Canada. Nearly every household has at least one vehicle in Saskatoon, so that means there are around 90,000 potential vehicle problems for David’s shop.

Of course, not every vehicle is going to break down in a year, and David isn’t going to get all of them to use his shop, but you get the idea. And mind you, some of them will break down more than once. A certain 1988 Jeep YJ comes to mind…

In Saskatoon, 72.5% of households had access to the internet in 2003, so around 65,000 households had internet access. And that’s not including the rural population surrounding Saskatoon who also have vehicles that need a mechanic from time to time. Now, let’s say David goes marketing-crazy and spends $2500 for his web site (which in my opinion is way too much money for a static small business web site).

But it does no good to have a web site if it isn’t found. Statistically, when people enter a word or phrase into a search engine, they’ll stop looking after the third page. That means, that in order for your web site to be positioned so people will actually click on it, it needs to be in the top 30 web sites for your particular key words or phrases.

So, lets assume that the $2500 David spent includes some good search engine optimization. His web site copywriter makes sure to research and find relevant keywords, and uses them well in his site.

She adds his site to small business directories, and does more of her seo magic, and low and behold, three months in, David’s site comes up #2 in a Google search for “auto repair Saskatoon”. Now there are a potential 65,000 clients for David’s business because they’ll find it in a search engine.

If he only reaches .1% of those 65,000 (not 1%, but point 1%), he could have 65 new clients, and you know your bill is going to be more than 100 bucks every time you take your car to the shop, but assuming just $100 for an average bill, he’ll gross $6500, making that $2500 web site money well spent. I’d be willing to bet he’d make that much on maintenance alone, never mind repairs.

Now that I think about it, I’ve never approached David about a web site from this angle. I think I might show him this article. He’s a logical sort of guy, and it just might convince him to get one.

Eve Jackson owns Details Small Business Solutions, a company dedicated to helping small companies do big business with communication and image consulting. We write small business business plans and direct mail sales letters, and we design and write copy for press kits and web sites. http://www.detailssbs.com info@detailssbs.com

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