Maria's Musings

A Cat's Diary - Day ???

Today my attempt to kill my captors by weaving around their feet while they were walking almost succeeded. Must try this at the top of  the stairs.

In an attempt to disgust and repulse these vile oppressors, I  once again induced myself to vomit on their favorite chair. Tomorrow I will try this on their bed.

A Fun Presentation with a Purpose

Yesterday I had great fun presenting for the day in a hotel near Heathrow airport for my clients, Passive Investments.

There were about 50 people in the room listening to the presentation about how they can breathe a sigh of relief and secure their financial future in a single day, through ownership of a property portfolio in South East England without having to lift a finger.  Sounds too good to be true - of course - which is why people spend the best part of a day hearing how it all works.  At the end of the day, if it's right for them, they can go ahead.  If not, they don't.  People really enjoyed the day, they learnt something, were entertained, had great networking opportunities and got a nice free lunch (who says there's no such thing!)  I was delighted by some of the appreciative comments I got from attendees after we finished.

Coaching Keeps Me Focused

Had another telephone coaching session this afternoon with my wonderful coach, Judith Morgan. 

People sometimes express surprise when I tell them I have a coach (actually, I have more than one!).  They say things like "But you're such a high achiever, why do you need a coach?"  I always reply "Isn't it obvious?"  Think about it, which comes first?  Would I be such a high achiever if I wasn't being coached?  I don't think so.

When I have a coaching session I get refocused on where I'm going, what I have to do, why I'm doing it and how I'm going to do it.  Two heads are better than one, they say, and it's true.  Judith asks me the questions that I don't sit down and ask myself and gently nudges me in the right direction as she hears my responses much more clearly than I do. 

Time Management!!!

Time's such a funny thing, isn't it?

I don't mean funny as in ha! ha!, I mean as in funny=strange.

Why does everything seem to take longer than one thinks it's going to take?
And why does every job with a deadline have to have an extension to the deadline OR we pat ourselves on the back that we've finished JUST IN TIME?

And if those two things hold true (which seems to be the case) how can it be true that as humans we tend to overestimate what we can achieve in one day and yet UNDERESTIMATE what we can achieve in one year?  That's a saying I heard that certainly seems to hold true for me - how about you?

I've just finished building a website for a partnership in which I'm involved (Gregory Green's Ceramics Painting Studio). I breathed a sigh of relief when it was done because I'd estimated it to take half a day and it's taken three times as long!  I guess I just didn't think through all that had to be done when I made my guess at the timeline.

What's more important? The Presenter or the PowerPoint?

As a presenter, I like to see others present whenever I can. 

That's what I did this morning.

I went to watch a friend presenting.  He gave an excellent, informative presentation, even using PowerPoint (which can be pretty mind-numbing when not used well), but he was completely in the dark.

The reason I mention it is because I see this happening SO often.  People think that when they're using visuals, the room needs to be really dark so they show up.  It's true that you want people to be able to see the screen, but not at the expense of them seeing the whites of your eyes.

Let's face it, if people can't see the presenter and only get this voice emanating from the black space around the screen, they may as well be watching a video and then the presenter is surplus to requirements.

Internet Marketing Event

I spent last weekend in the company of some really terrific and dynamic people in a hotel near Heathrow at Peter Woodhead & Fred Gleek's Info Products Seminar.

There was some good information and I came away with quite a few ideas for website tweaking and product creation, and the networking was fun, as always. 

But I think the best part of such events for those of us who work from our home offices is that they take us out of our regular environments and force us to spend time focusing ON our businesses rather than always grinding away IN our businesses.  This means that even if a particular presentation isn't quite hitting the mark for you, you have the time and space to let your mind wander and be creative.

So I've realised that apart from the ideas you can pick up (and sometimes it only takes one single gem to make a huge difference) and apart from being able to get out and mix with other go-ahead people, there's that other reason for making sure you get out more!

My New Website is Live!

Phew! After thinking about it for ages and then talking about it for another ages and then working on it for what felt like ages, my revamped website is FINALLY LIVE as of this afternoon.

I realised that my old one had got a bit muddled, having grown piecemeal and I was getting some unkind comments from certain people who shall remain nameless (right?).

So this one's divided into three separate parts, each of which it like a mini-site for the three main things I do within the field of presenting. When people visit the home page, they get to choose their area of interest so they don't end up having to wade through what's not applicable to them.  My three areas are: 

1. Sales Presenting for Client Products;
2. Giving Talks on How to Present Well;
3. Training and Coaching Others to Present.

My computer equipment was so overwhelmed that the moment I'd uploaded all the files, everything disconnected itself and stopped working for a few hours.  I guess it was all as relieved as I was...