CHAMPION STRATEGIES – PUBLIC SPEAKING WORKSHOP – DECEMBER 7, 2020 What is the Illusion of Transparency? The Illusion of Transparency is a cognitive bias which describes the tendency to overestimate the degree to which other people know our mental state. The term “illusion of transparency” was coined in a 1998 research paper by Gilovich, Savitsky, and Medvec who first studied this bias. Their research showed that we tend to overestimate the degree to which our thoughts or emotions “leak out” and become known to those observing us. It’s not as if we believe that others can read our mind; rather, we tend to believe that others can pick up on external cues that we give off, even when we attempt to hide or suppress the emotion. Does the Illusion…

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Christmas Party Speech for Employees Even if the company has had the worst year on record, a Christmas party is still a time to celebrate. It’s the perfect time to toast the possibility of a better year next year and give your employees a bit of a boost. Furthermore, if you’ve had a great year, your Christmas party speech is a terrific opportunity to praise your team for their hard work and success. Either way, your speech at the office Christmas party is a time to be positive, not to whinge about a difficult year or the targets that were not achieved. Of course, you will need to talk about these issues and you may even decide that you at least want to mention them…

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CHAMPION STRATEGIES – PUBLIC SPEAKING WORKSHOP – DECEMBER 4, 2020 Public Speaking for the Holidays: Beware Like weddings and funerals, the holidays gather people together. Often people who don’t really want to be together. The holidays might collect family, friends, neighbors, colleagues and business associates. These holiday gatherings often lead to unplanned speeches. The formula of unplanned speeches, unpolished public speakers, holiday cheer and mixed emotions can be embarrassing, explosive or just plain painful. You are public speaking any time that you are speaking to more than one person. Read these tips for your holiday speeches. If you suspect that you will be expected to speak then prepare your speech. If you are the host, the group leader, organizer or most colorful character – you…

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  CHAMPION STRATEGIES – PUBLIC SPEAKING WORKSHOP – DECEMBER 3, 2020 #1-By the Book: This is the speaker that has all the fundamentals down to a tee: no filler words, strong eye contact, effective body language, purposeful pauses for effect. This is the type of speaker you watch where logically, you can’t help but judge their speech well — they check all of the boxes and the image that most people have on their minds for what good public speaking is squares up very nicely with this individual. #2-The Singular Speaker: This is the speaker who has identified and perfected their own unique style of speaking. While fundamentals are still mostly followed, these speakers break norms in a way that is unique and empowering. One…

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HARDISON’S TIPS – DECEMBER 2, 2020 – Ways to Increase Christmas Sales for Retail Stores Children may dream of sugarplums, but for retailers, there’s only one vision that matters during the Christmas season: the sales graph. And as the Christmas holiday season is make-or-break time for many retail stores, the overwhelming question is how to get more Christmas sales and make that graph climb as steeply as possible. The obvious way to get more sales is to get more people into your retail store. Assuming you have a quality product or service, the more people who see or experience what you offer, the more sales you’ll make. With a little effort and some ingenuity, that’s not as hard as you think. Use one or more of these ideas…

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CHAMPION STRATEGIES – PUBLIC SPEAKING WORKSHOP – DECEMBER 2, 2020 #3-Kill the Filler Like. Um. You Know. Uh. Okay. We all have words that we use as crutches to help us navigate from one thought to the next or to deal with uncomfortable silences. My initial understanding prior to doing Toastmasters was that most people mix and match the most common filler words frequently into their conversations. However, after having watched a number of my own speech recordings and observed others in our club speak consistently, I now know the truth: we each have our own pet filler words that show up with remarkable consistency. Nearly every time I speak, I get feedback that I used something like, “2 ums and 6 you know’s”. It’s…

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HARDISON’S TIPS – DECEMBER 1, 2020 – Best Practices for Working With the Affluent Customers Given that the affluent have high expectations of your service, how do you ensure that you’ll meet (or exceed) their expectations? Here are three techniques that might be helpful in making sure you are giving affluent people the type of service they want: Don’t make assumptions about your customer before you have proof There are many versions of the story of the man who walked into a Cadillac dealership wearing torn overalls and no shoes, who asked to see a car. The salesperson made a snap decision that this person could not afford a Cadillac and promptly told him so, at which point the customer pulled out a roll of…

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