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Article Writing – Are You a Shopping Channel Presenter Or a Teacher?

What is the difference between a shopping channel and a schoolteacher? If you don’t know, then perhaps you don’t watch enough shopping channels, which is entirely understandable. Personally I find any more than five minutes of viewing and my brain starts trying to crawl out of my ears.

However, the difference between the way that presenters work on the shopping channels and your teachers attempted to impart essential knowledge about oxbow lakes and differential equations is of great relevance when thinking about article marketing. The reason is that an astonishing number of articles seem to have been written by teachers, rather than by people who could work on the shopping channel and who are attempting to sell something.

Teachers teach, shopping channel presenters sell. What are your articles for if not for selling? But the tough aspect of article writing is that of course the more successful articles teach something at the same time, otherwise they’re not articles, they’re adverts.

When it comes to article writing it’s worth stopping for a moment and thinking about how to learn from each of these fairly contrasting types of people, applying aspects of each to your writing in order to improve both the standard and the effectiveness of your marketing articles.

If you think back to your school-days, and in particular to your teachers you might remember one, or if you’re lucky two, who really made a difference. But why was this? What was it that they did that made such a difference to both your enjoyment of learning and of their lessons?

One of the factors was probably humour. We all get a bit fed up of the dull and rather beige quality of writing on the web. Articles seem often to be devoid of much humour, and yet we all seem to pay more attention to things if there’s a little humour involved. Teachers who cracked the odd joke (even if they made you groan) probably had more of your attention that those who wouldn’t know a joke if it blew up in a chemistry lab.

But successful teachers would also often include a way of learning that maximised the chance of a ‘learning moment’. The ‘Eureka’ moment when a light bulb seems to switch on in your head and you realise that you’ve just understood something, or learned something new, can be tremendously powerful. Providing both humour and the occasional learning moment in your articles can be very powerful, but on their own they may well still restrict you to being categorised as a teacher.

One of the striking features about many of the best shopping channel presenters is not that they’re trying to lecture you or teach you, but are learning with you, discovering things at the same time, being surprised, and of course highly enthusiastic about it all. Appearing highly knowledgeable is certainly valuable and beneficial, but sometimes as article writers we need to be a little less didactic and rather more human. After all, it’s humans we’re trying to reach, not teach.

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Better Presentation Skills Through Improv Comedy

Do you want to improve your presentation skills and be a great speaker? Then you should consider learning improvisational comedy!

I know what you’re thinking: “I don’t improvise my speeches. I write them out and memorize them.”

That may be the case, but there are three reasons you should still learn improv comedy:

1) You will definitely find yourself in situations where you have to give an unscripted speech. Maybe you get asked to speak on short notice, or for a presentation so small it is not wort scripting.
2) Things will go wrong, and you may have to go “off-script” and improvise.
3) Learning to improvise will absolutely 100% improve your scripted presentation skills!

If you’re unfamiliar, improv comedy is a form of theater where performers take the stage with nothing prepared in advance and make it up as you go along. Learning improv comedy can help your presentation skills in the following powerful ways:

1) You will be more authentic – The best bit of advice you can receive as a speaker is to “be more authentic.” Unfortunately, many people who suggest this never go on to explain *how* to be more authentic. Any competent improv instructor will not only stress the importance of being authentic when improvising, but will also take you through exercises designed to help you learn how.

2) You will develop natural movements – Many presentation skills coaches and instructors teach you to not move your arms at all, and to keep them at your side. They say that hand gestures are distracting. Not true! While excessive hand gestures may distract the audience, it is even more distracting to watch someone struggle to stay still who likes to move. The exercises in improv comedy can help you develop movements that are natural and don’t distract.

3) You will be funnier – Even if you are not a humorist, if you can make an audience laugh, or at least smile, you will be a success. It’s called improv *comedy* for a reason. By learning improv, you will develop you own natural sense of humor and learn to use it off the cuff, as needed.

4) You will be better able to connect with the audience – Improv is an interactive performance form. The audience is part of the show. As you become a better improviser, you will learn to work with the audience and automatically sense when they are with you and not.

Consider taking a class or joining an improv group. All major cities and many smaller ones have improv groups that put on shows and offer classes. If not, try checking in with local theaters – many of them offer classes in improvisation.

Not only will you improve your presentation skills, but you will also have a tremendous amount of fun!

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Effectively Reduce the Use of Authority When Negotiating

When you negotiate, to what ‘authority’ do you succumb? When we negotiate, information is presented to enhance or demur the perception of authority. At times, we are told information being conveyed came from some form of authority. Thus, the projection of that information is supposed to possess validity and impress us. When such information is presented to you, dressed in the trappings of authority, if the information doesn’t appear to be valid, or you have a ‘gut’ feeling that it doesn’t reside well with you, question its validity.

It appears that Michael Jackson, bless his soul, relied upon an authority to address his concerns of well being. In the end, it appears that authority misguided him.

Another problem that occurs with information, coming from the quarters of authority, is the fact that some people will view it as being suspect, when in reality, it’s valid. As an example, had Michael Jackson not passed away, but instead was rushed to the hospital and the public was told he was hospitalized due to some undisclosed illness, or whatever the reason his ‘handlers’ felt would serve Michael’s interest, some people would have sought something more sinister behind the message. They would have questioned the motives of those presenting the information and possibly thought it was a publicity stunt to highlight his pending tour. They might have even thought it was some form of disguise to solicit empathy for Michael. Those possessing such thoughts might have justified their beliefs based on what they may have considered to be, ‘the strange behavior’ that Michael displayed in the past.

The point is, when you’re negotiating, don’t always rely on information to be factual, in the form in which it’s presented, and don’t be too quick to discount its validity. You should always mentally question, the motives of the other negotiator, what it is that he’s attempting to do, and what he seeks as an outcome. By doing so, you’ll get insight into how he wishes you to perceive the information being presented and you’ll be able to reconcile how you’re perceiving the data against that backdrop.

When negotiating, use all of your senses. Observe the manner by which the other negotiator is presenting. Look for signs through his body language that indicates dissimilarities between his words and body gestures. Pay attention to his pitch and tone when he’s speaking. Once you note variations in his speech from that of earlier parts of the conversation, mentally note those differences and follow the lead of his body. The body never lies. It will project the truth much clearer and assuredly than the spoken word. Once you’re able to discern fact from fiction at the negotiation table, you’ll start winning more negotiation sessions. You’ll become a savvy negotiator that will walk away from the negotiation with more of what was on the table… and everything will be right with the world.

The Negotiation Tips Are…

• As we negotiate, there are times when we intuitively don’t trust what we hear or see. When that occurs, question why you’re experiencing such feelings. There will be reasons behind such emotions.
• In order to become a more experienced negotiator, commit to gaining insight into the subtle nuances of body language. There’s a hidden world of secret information in the gestures of someone’s body maneuvers.
• If you are astute and don’t allow your position to be swayed by the misrepresentation of information coming from ‘authority’, you’ll be very well positioned to point the negotiation in an advantageous direction.

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