The elite Fitness Presenters used to be so easy to spot. Take a look at any IDEA Journal and the fitness industry leaders were always there promoting. Maybe they were more obvious because most everything came by postal mail forcing me to at least pay attention between the mail box and my front door.

Today our attention, and likely even more so mine, are spread very thing. Finding the target audience at the economical price can be tough. Finding them with tools to most effectively spread the message and allow you to personalize the event message is also not easy.

Today I am sending a notice to all members designating themselves as Fitness Education Presenters at FitnessProTravel.com Most I believe do it old school providing workshops at local fitness facilities. Others provide their fitness presentations online or at large conferences.

Either way I simply wanted to let them know of the tremendous resources available to them with their membership to the Fit Pro Travel Network.

What I’d like to make available here is the case for why I suggest all fitness presenters do not pass up the opportunity to utilize the fitness events calendar as well as other resources for the promotion of their programs…. So here it goes.

The Biggest Issues We Ran Into as Fitness Presenters:

• Economically reaching the correct target audience was never easy.
• Having the ability to list the event with the freedom for full descriptions, logo, and delivered to outside web links; we could rarely do all that.
• Rarely was there an opportunity to send with a click of a button my posted event to all connections

How Fitness Pro Travel Network Solves These Issues:

• With more than 8000 North American fitness professionals registered in the network a targeted audience is available.
• Additionally, connecting directly with fitness pros via networking, operating your own education based group, contributing articles providing you even more of an authority position… each of these continues to extend your reach.
• More than 300 registered Fit Pros are accessing the network daily. When they do visit more than 45% stay for more than 5 minutes exploring various areas (that puts us in the top 2% of the internet). In the past year the number of new accounts each week has doubled.
• The audience is there and available to view and benefit from information on educational opportunities happening, online, offline, and throughout North America. What we need is for our Continuing Education Providers (YOU) to begin championing your own cause and at a minimum list your own fitness education events.

What do you think? A Fitness Industry Only Professional Network a good location for a fitness education presenter to promote their fitness educational offerings?

I first heard about push presents in an advertising campaign. Of course, like most women I liked the idea of my husband showing me he appreciated what I’d gone through with pregnancy and labor. I started to research more about the idea. What I found surprised me. There is almost as much resistance to the custom as there are supporters. Many opponents felt that the baby should be gift enough and that women who desired push presents were being ridiculous, entitlistic, and greedy. This caused me to reexamine my own motives. Did I want a push present for the sake of the gift?

No. I like the idea of a push present far more than the actual gift itself. I’m willing to bet many women feel the same way. I want my husband to appreciate what I did the same way he wants me to appreciate when he accomplishes something difficult. The gift is secondary to that. Sure jewelry or flowers are nice and sure the gift makes a great heirloom to pass down to your new child, but most of all I want my husband’s appreciation and support.

Although in some families it is a tradition to give a push present, there is no universal etiquette for the custom. The new father purchases a gift of some sort, typically jewelry, for the new mother after the baby is born as a thank you for “pushing” his baby out. The custom is common in India where gold is the usual gift and in England where eternity bands are popular.

American celebrities seem to have caught on to the trend as well. For example, Tori Spelling’s husband Dean McDurmott gave her a fifteen hundred dollar diaper bag when their son Liam was born. Gwyneth Paltrow received a “mama” pendent necklace, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kate Hudson got gold charm bracelets, while Jennifer Gardner was the recipient of a gold necklace with a diamond initial charm.

What do you think of the idea of a push present? Is it too greedy for woman to want her husband to get her a gift? What about the idea that it is an heirloom you can pass down to your child? Is occasionally helping with the baby enough of a gift? Wouldn’t it be nice for a new dad to show his appreciation to the new mom in a tangible way?

Imagine walking on into a room to give an important public speaking presentation with your hands totally free. No notes, no loose papers – just a pleasant smile and a confident stride. Your audience would be impressed as soon as you stepped onto the platform and took the microphone. You would instantly have credibility among the members of the audience.

With a little public speaking know-how and intensive practice, you can deliver your presentation without using notes. The trick is to learn your material applying a technique called bits. A bit is a slice of material so closely related that it naturally flows from one point to the next. It lets you easily remember the points and deliver the material without notes. You may be surprised to learn that public speakers don’t memorize long speeches. They use bits to learn their speech and then memorize a few key words to trigger their thoughts.

Another advantage of using bits is you don’t have to carve out long blocks of time to practice your entire speech. You can use little short chunks of time to practice one bit, learn it well and then move on to another bit. Practice each bit repeatedly until you know it backwards and forwards. By the time the day of the event rolls around, you will have learned your entire speech.

In addition to making it easier for you to learn the parts of your speech, bits work especially well when giving a humorous presentation. They allow you to fire off funny stories back-to-back, with each one funnier than the one before. Test your humorous stories before you use them and rate them according to how much laughter you expect them to bring. Tell the least funny story first and then end with the funniest joke to build the intensity of laughter to its highest level.

One of the best things about using bits is that since you aren’t encumbered by notes, you can get much closer to your audience. Anytime you can walk out into your audience, you build rapport and increase your connection with them. That makes it more fun for them and for you.

Leave the notes at home. Your audience will be convinced you are an expert and head to the back of the room to buy your books and DVDs.