Public Speaking Fears – Speaking With Confidence Will Improve Presentation Skills

Have you ever been somewhere for the first time and felt awkward about everything you were doing? Was it accompanied by the fear that you would make a complete fool out of yourself, and it felt like all eyes were upon you? If you are like most of the population you have.

The first time you are doing anything it is awkward. Some of the things that you take for granted are the results of countless failures and you don’t give them a second thought as you go about your day. Even the “simple” act of walking only came about after thousands of falls.

Parents often celebrate baby’s first steps, and don’t think about all the times baby started to stand and quickly fell right over. The most common expressions come from things like this. “You have to walk before you can run.” Or “Practice makes perfect” as you hit a sour note on the piano time and time again.

So why is it that we feel bad about not being able to get right in front of a group of people and just say the things we have planned in a speech or a presentation? It really is the same thing. You can practice a presentation a number of times, but until you see all those eyes staring at you, the practice isn’t the same thing as being there.

Don’t sweat it. The greatest public speakers in the world all had one thing in common; early speeches that didn’t go as well as planned. Even some of the great speakers have told stories of botched jobs, but they persevered and eventually found success and so can you.

One of my favorite quotes came from Zig Zigler “If you learn from defeat then you really haven’t lost” and what does that really say? Failure is simply a step on the way to success.

USB – Past, Present & Future

USB – or Universal Serial Bus technology has become a widespread, simple, cheap way of connecting all kinds of devices. Its popularity has come about extremely quickly as the history of USB only stretches back to the mid-1990s. This article gives an overview of USB technology, its history and its future.

History:

USB technology was developed in order to present a standard means by which devices, particularly computer-related devices, could interconnect and communicate. It was created by a collaboration of Intel, Compaq, Microsoft, Digital, IBM, and Northern Telecom. In the early days of the IBM PC, there were a myriad of connections for different types of devices including, AT, serial, parallel, joystick, SCSI & PS/2. None of these ports were compatible with each other & each served essentially the same function. Enter USB. Not only did USB give one interface, it provided power for some devices and it enabled users to plug a large number of devices into one machine.

Pre-releases of the USB standard came in 1994 with the final USB 1.0 specification being released to market in November 1995. The standard was improved upon in September 1998 with USB 1.1 which many of the problems identified in the original standard were fixed.

USB could work at 1.5 or 12 mbps but with competition from Firewire & with technology placing greater demands on bandwidth, USB 2.0 released in August 2000, could handle speeds of 480mbps.

Adoption:

All connectors face an adoption problem and USB was no different. There is only a market for a device that is interconnectable if there are other devices in the market that it can connect to. These network effect can hamper the adoption of every device (if you are the only person with a telephone, it’s not much use but if you’re one of millions with the same, standardised system, the increased market for the standard makes it more affordable and more appealing to others).

USB was given a real boost by the iMac which offered USB ports only & no legacy option. This meant that there was a market where USB could gain a foothold.

The Present:

USB devices perform many functions extremely well. Devices can be hot-swapped – that is they could be connected & disconnected without it being necessary to reboot a PC. Devices from many thousands of manufacturers can intercommunicate, many devices can be installed without a specific device driver, some devices can be connected to computers without the need for an external power supply and others can recharge by being connected via a USB device.

USB connectors are robust in that they do not rely on pins that are easy to bend or break. USB cables are designed so that static electricity is discharged before a connection is made making the standard more durable.

The connections are extremely usable & it is easy to connect USB devices or to realise that you have the wrong end of the cable. By design, the cables are easy to attach & remove – there is no need for screws – meaning that they are easily accessible by all.

Future:

The future for USB is the USB 3.0 standard that will work at 4.8 gbps, ten times the current rate. This new standard will only be backwards-compatible with USB 2.0 but will include some power conservation features. Increased speed & better power consumption will help USB compete with the other standards on the market including Firewire 800 & eSATA.

To put the performance of the new USB standard into perspective, currently, it would take 15 minutes to copy a 27gb high definition film; the new standard will mean that this can be accomplished in 70 seconds.

The USB standard is extremely usable and durable & it has massive popularity. Many mobile ‘phones have a USB connection & USB Flash drives make the transfer of large amounts of data an extremely simple process. A subculture of USB gadgets has sprung up in recent years with weird & wacky devices like USB fridges, vacuums, toasters, slippers & back massagers all hitting the market to massive amounts of interest and varying degrees of success. It is interesting that whilst it was the brainchild of a number of companies including Microsoft & Intel it was Apple that gave USB its popularity. Windows machines did not deal well with USB even as late as Windows 98 but the iMac showed how USB devices could be used to give a great deal of variety through extreme simplicity.

Product Creation Process – Step by Step

Creating products and in particular digital products is a very straight forward process. In this article I am going to go through the product creation process step-by-step so that you know exactly what you need to do.

Finding your niche

The first thing you need to decide upon is the kind of topic you are going to create a product about. This should be something that you are knowledgeable about and have skills in. This makes it far easier for you to create a product when you already have some form of expertise.

Customer demand

Make sure that there is going to be demand for your particular product. This means that you need to check that people are wanting this information and that there are customers who have already paid money to obtain that information. This means that your product idea is likely to be profitable. This is really important because you might create a brilliant product but if no one actually wants it and no one will actually pay for it then it becomes useless.

Creating your product

Outline your product so that you know what you will include in it and the areas that you will cover in detail. Have an idea in your mind who your target customer is. Are they advanced for a beginner? Make sure that your product is created for a specific type of person in mind so that you can then target your marketing efforts towards that specific person.

Once you have produced an outline then you just have to create that product. This could be a written e-book, an audio recording, or a video depending on the depth of information you need to convey.

Packaging your product

Once your product is ready you need to upload it to your web server so that people can click on a link to be able to download it.

Sales page

In order for people to purchase your product you will need a sales page that describes exactly what your product does, the benefits and the kind of results that people might expect to see if they purchase your product. You will need to make sure that you have a payment system in place and that it is working correctly. It is always a good idea to test this and to make sure that the download page is also working.

Marketing your product

Now you can begin to market your product to your target customer. Make sure that you always emphasize the benefits and why your product makes the ideal solution to your customers need.