Deb Sofield - Speak Without Fear

Speak Without Fear

September 2011

Edition 14

What Deb is up to these days?

I have an amazing job and I meet the most amazing people at my job. Since my time is divided between my national speaking to international destinations occasionally I get to stay home and have fun/work. It’s not everyday a mother calls me to help her daughter with her “Sales Talk” for their Hereford Cow. I recently attended the SC Junior Beef Round Up in Clemson, SC to watch Caitlyn Poole win the Sales Talk Contest and be named SC Jr. Beef Ambassador based on her performance in Sales Talk*, Showmanship, and Cattleman's Contest. She will represent SC in the National Beef Ambassador contest in California next year. Congratulations Caitlyn!

* I helped her with her Sales Talk since I don’t know the first thing about cows... well, except you need to wear boots** when you’re in the arena...around cows.
** See photo at the end of my newsletter

For more information: SC Cattleman's Association and Clemson Cooperative Extension sponsored the Junior beef cattle activities for active 4-H and FFA members. There are many opportunities for Junior Cattlemen to win scholarships, savings bonds, show equipment and supplies. Activities are Sales Talk Contest; Jr. Cattleman's Contest, Showmanship Contest, Breeding Heifer Shows and Feeder and Market Steer Show. http://www.clemson.edu/public/garrison/

Deb Sofield trains women and men for success in public speaking, presentation skills and message development in the U.S. and abroad. Email Deb at deb@sofield.com

Deb Sofield is a member of the National Speakers Association.

Where's Deb Sofield?

All I Need to Know About Life I Learned from a Cow

Don't cry over spilled milk.
Turn the udder cheek and mooo-ve on.
Seize every opportunity and milk it for all its worth!
Never take any bull from anybody.
Black and white is always an appropriate fashion statement.

If you have to deliver a long presentation, you can beat the time issue if you prepared your audience in advance so they can adjust to the situation. To set the stage when I stand before an audience I say, "I know you're wondering how you ended up in a 5-hour public speaking class – but I guarantee it will be the best 5 hours of your life – it will go quickly, we'll have fun and I promise when we're we finished – you'll be a better speaker...guaranteed!" Set the stage and your audience will come along.

Charleston, SC – Keynote - Speaking to Women in Cable Telecommunications

Myrtle Beach, SC – Media Session - Council of State Governments Conference

Hire Deb for your next conference! Need a great, informative and lively speaker for your conference consider Deb Sofield – a Nationally Recognized Leader in Public Speaking, Presentation & Media Skills. A listing of Deb’s amazing topics can be found on her amazing website: www.debsofield.com. You can also follow deb at her blog: www.sofield.com/blog

forward this to a friend

Deb Sofield - 15 Rules for the Road™

15th Rule in my 15 part series - From my presentation called Deb's 15 Rules for the Road

Finally the 15th Rule in my 15 part series - If you would like the 15 Rules for the Road cheat sheet, you can download it by clicking here - for a limited time only.

Rule Number Fifteen – Be Brief and Keep Your Presentations Short

15. Be brief and keep your presentations short. Studies show that the attention span of today’s audience is about 1,000 seconds, or 16 and one-half minutes. And last time I checked it had dropped to 15 minutes and it continues its downward spiral. We are a sitcom generation born to a one-minute manager that tweets our life in 140 characters at a time.

Kirk Johnson, a behavioral psychologist at the University of Minnesota said, “The plummet in American attention spans may be, in part, an increasingly intrusive overabundance of often irrelevant and distracting information, from reality television to advertising on mobile phones to giant screaming headline broadsheets on every street corner.”

Friends, your audience can’t hear you because their world speaks so loudly and in color. So speaker, if you plan to reach them must keep your presentations short, interesting, crisp and chock full of useful information that could change their lives.

People will excuse all kinds of lousy speechmaking but nobody forgives the pain of a long speech. Twenty to 30 minutes is a long speech, 10-20 is a medium long speech and 7-12 is a nice short speech. I prefer shorter presentations in hopes of being invited back.

Corporate conversations and presidential debates and are not about issues but the pithy one-liners that capture the nation and we remember and repeat and repeat and repeat…. So are you ready for the BIG secret to success – because of today’s environment it is Short Speeches, with Big Ideas.

I always want my audience to say, “I could have heard her all day....” instead of “she went on all day...” the same words with different emphasis. For your audience to remember your message follow my advice to be brief and keep your presentations short.

FINAL NOTE: Surf on over to my blog www.debsofield.com/blog to read THE FINAL NOTE for this September edition....it’s about the Seasons of Life.

“To my mind, the only possible pet is a cow. Cows love you. . . . They will listen to your problems and never ask a thing in return. They will be your friends forever. And when you get tired of them, you can kill and eat them. Perfect.”

Bill Bryson quotes (American Writer, b.1946)

Maverick

(mav-rik) noun

a. Lone dissenter, as an intellectual, an artist, or a politician, who takes an independent stand apart from his or her associates: a modern-dance maverick.

b. A person pursuing rebellious, even potentially disruptive, policies or ideas

(with thanks to Dictonary.com)

Cowgirl Boots

My cowboy boots.... With much appreciation to my board at The Women's Campaign School at Yale who gave me these boots since I was, in their opinion, a kick#&%@ President – Thank you Rosie Gonzales for making it happen.

The winning cow – what a face

The belt buckle – now that's a belt buckle – got to love western wear

Country Cooking Makes You Good Looking

Check out my new monthly one-sheet pdf file of Deb's Famous recipe's

I'll be sharing some of my all time favorite dishes. www.debsofield.com/blog

(864) 239-0116	©2010-2011, Deb Sofield. All Rights Reserved. Speak Without Fear is a registered trademark of Deb Sofield. The content of this newsletter is the intellectual property of Deb Sofield. Speak Without Fear® is my registered trademark. I encourage you to share the contents with others with appropriate attribution. Please use the ® whenever the phrase "Speak Without Fear" is used in connection with this newsletter or my seminars.

	sponsored by: