The article covers how author J.D. Roth is overcoming his fear of public speaking and also shares some time-tested tips on gaining confidence like:

• Don’t compare yourself with others
• Visualize success
• Do the right thing
• Don’t dwell on failures
• Act confidently

Action sometimes involves risk, but if you never risk, you never really live.

Read more of this post, How to Build Confidence and Destroy Fear at GetRichSlowly.org. Check out my comment while you’re there.

Last night I had to call one of our banks, Bank of America, to follow up on a rebate check for my new Fujitsu ScanSnap that bounced (it’s that “crisis” thing again, I guess). It’s a great scanner, but I am a bit annoyed at having to do double to paperwork due to their third-party rebate service having insufficient funds.

After I got that piece of business settled, the bank customer service person asked me if she could tell me about a great new credit card they were offering. I sighed and waited for the spiel.

The customer service woman (whom I will refer to as Bank Lady going forward) started with, “You’re already pre-approved for $15,000. And for the next 12 months, this card has 0% financing and only 7.5% after that, which is the lowest in the industry.”

I interjected, “Does the card have any cashback bonuses?”

Bank Lady replied, “We offer cash advances.”

“No,” I said. “Cashback bonuses, you know like 1%, 2%, or 3% back on purchases.”

Bank Lady paused, confused. “It’s 0% for 12 months.”

“I know,” I said. “What about you giving me 1% or 2% back?”

Confused pause by Bank Lady.

I clarified, “I don’t keep a balance on any of my credit cards so the APR percentages don’t matter to me. What I’m looking to find out is if your card will pay me to use it. I have one that gives me 3% back on my purchases.”

Bank Lady replied, “What’s the finance rate on that card?”

I said, “I don’t know. I don’t keep balances on my cards, so the finance rate doesn’t matter! I am asking if the card gives bonuses or cashback.”

“Oh, you mean points or something like that?” Bank Lady said in a moment of breakthrough.

“YES!” I said

“No, we don’t offer any points,” Bank Lady said. “But we do have 0% for 12 months…”

I interrupted: “I’m not interested. My credit cards pay me money; I don’t pay them!”

After a few courteous thank you’s between me and Bank Lady, the call ended.

I was in shock… I don’t think this poor child of the modern era even knew that credit cards could pay you, much less that you didn’t have to keep a balance on them and search aimlessly for the lowest percentage rate.

Wow is all I can say. But the good news is that I found a new passion that I could tackle the speaking circuit with: credit common sense. I have a few things to say about mortgages too!

One other thought: shouldn’t banks be educating their customers on how to better manage their finances instead of taking advantage of their lack of financial sense?

I think this will be an excellent feature for many groups. I already want to start adding the monthly luncheons for my local PRSA and NFPW chapter. Plus, it will give me a reason to log on to Linkedin more often.

The thing that I see that’s missing is the ability to invite others to your events, like Facebook does. Also, the events that show up are auto-selected, rather than something you choose. But no matter what the bugs, this is a great new feature.

I imported all of my contacts into Linkedin (which I’ve been intending to do for about 6 months). Now, after the holiday, I plan to let it rip and so how many of my business associates I can connect with through the site.

Check out the new Linkedin events feature (there’s even a video). And while you are there, connect with me.

Uh-oh, I thought: PR disaster. Some auto-billing mechanism is creating a havoc.

Sure enough… The city of Attleboro, Mass. sent a nastygram to a 74-year-old blind resident threatening a lien on her house if she didn’t pay her water bill balance of 1 cent.

To make matters worse, the city was unapologetic and blame-focused when questioned by the newspaper. My mouth actually dropped open when I read the city’s spokesperson’s statement on the whole mess.

Read and be in shock: City Collector Debora Marcoccio said, “My question is, how come it wasn’t paid when the (original) bills went out?”

Yeah, how dare an elderly blind woman mess up her payment by a cent!

I was appalled as a communicator. How hard is it to apologize? The spokesperson only needed to say that the city’s water billing system has faults and that they would immediately settle the account, forgiving the 1 cent mistake. An apology supplemented by swift action would have saved the day.

The homeowner pointed out that paying the bill would cost her 42 cents just for the stamp. Not only does the city of Attleboro look like its made up of a bunch of jerks, but it’s also being made a laughingstock by the national AP newswire.

What a kind word–and action–would have done to save this city’s reputation in this situation.

Read the full article.

I especially enjoyed this short checklist:

• Did I stick to my allotted time?
• Did I develop and present purposefully?
• Was I thoroughly prepared?
• Did I capture attention at the very beginning?
• Did I positively influence listeners?
• Was I appropriately entertaining, or at least not boring?
• Did I end only once?

To read more, go to http://www.maximumimpact.com/articles/read/article_7_reasons_why_speakers_flop/.

It was put together by the SCC Speech and Communications Department, which includes Darren Osburn, associate professor, who I knew from our days together at Culver-Stockton College. The other panel organizers were: Curt Van Geison, professor and program coordinator of speech and communications, and Lee Ann Nelson, associate professor of speech and communications and internship coordinator.

On the panel, I was joined by Lisa Bedian, community relations director for the City of St. Peters, Mo; Mike Elam, account manager at KMOX radio; Heather McDorman, associate vice president for marketing & communications at St. Charles Community College; Tom Wheatley, sports journalist who most recently worked for St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

We spoke to two different groups of students, and we really appreciated their ability to listen, participate, and ask questions. I thought the students were much better behaved than the groups of CEOs that I’ve observed.

I wanted to share some of the career tips that were discussed (some specific to communications, some more broad):

1. Learn to be a good writer – no matter what you do, you’ll need able to communicate well with others.
2. Learn to be a good talker – a great letter can get you in the door, but you are also judged on the way you speak. If you sound stupid, people think you are stupid.
3. Learn how to network – it’s who knows you that will make a difference in your career.
4. Get involved in your community – this is a subpoint of networking, but how else are you going to get to know people? If you are doing good stuff for the world you live in, you’ll meet other successful people. And although you shouldn’t develop relationships for the wrong reasons, someday some of these people might be a position to help you.
5. Find something you like to do and do it with excellence – (and I’d like to add: even if you don’t like what you’re doing, still do your best). Others respect people who work hard and always do quality work.
6. Make sure your Myspace and Facebook pages have appropriate content - only put stuff out in the public that you wouldn’t mind anyone seeing, even your grandma or your worst enemy. Employers will see what the Internet says about you.
7. Say thank you - everyone appreciates a grateful person.

I learned a lot from the other panelists, and I am glad to have made their acquaintances. I hope we provided value to the students, and that they will be very successful in whatever work they do. Thanks again to Darren for the opportunity.

A side note: Since this was public speaking, I took my own advice and practiced my intro about 9 times this morning. Although I didn’t use a word of it for the real thing, it did build my confidence and remove my nervousness.

Don’t skip these tips if you don’t give speeches in your job – you never know when you’ll need to give a toast at a wedding, announce exciting news at a family event, or speak at a funeral. I know these tips work; I’ve used them myself many times.

1. Write it down. Putting your remarks on paper is the best way to get started. Add personal stories to make your points come to life. Remember the audience wants to know, “What’s in it for me?”
2. Read out loud. Speaking your remarks will give you a new perspective. Videotape yourself and time it. You will probably need to cut your remarks and do some editing.
3. Practice! Read your remarks out loud (on stage if possible) at least 3-5 more times.
4. Fix. Replace words that you consistently have trouble saying.
5. Know key messages. If you are working without a script or partipating in a panel, know your key messages so you can always make your point.
6. Fine-tune. Once you are familiar with your remarks, work on the your pace of speaking (slow down), hand gestures, and pausing at the end of sentences. Pauses are very effective to let the audience know that you are changing topics.
7. If you mess up, move on. Once you are in front of your audience, realize that they don’t know what you were planning on saying. So if you skip something during the speech or mess up, move on.
8. Relax. Breathe. Drink. Be sure to pause and take a drink when your mouth gets dry. I suggest water or tea, not alcohol, for obvious reasons. (You are speaking, not slurring )
9. Stay on time. Avoid ad-libbing too much; you’ll run over your time. A great presentation is one that ends on time; it affords less opportunity for criticism.