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How do you appraise the Value of an Oil Painting?
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If you are worrying about the value of your old oil painting, you should know that paintings become more valuable overtime. Paintings can be considered as one of the best investment that you may keep for the longest time. If you would like to know the existing value of your oil painting, why don't you have it appraised especially if you want to insure your paintings? It is important for you to look for the right appraiser so you will not be mistaken along the way. There are proper ways to know oil painting value and here is some helpful information that you should know:
1. Regardless if you just want to know the value of your old oil painting because you want to sell it or you just want to have an idea about how much it cost these days, you need to look for the right person to contact to because there are fake appraisers that are roaming around these days. The American society of appraisers can be helpful to you if you will contact them.
2. You need to know that a general knowledge is not a form of expertise. An expert appraiser should have the best and the most competent appraising method. Another way to find the best value for your oil painting is to go to an auction house since they know the value of paintings and they can give you a rough estimate of how much it cost these days.
3. You may call your local dealer or an art museum as well and they will send an appraiser to help you with your needs. they will also let you know how much your painting is worth these days but you cannot get any certificate when you want to get one regarding the appraise provided by the appraiser. You can have a certificate if you will set a separate appointment especially if it is regarding insurance of the oil painting that you have.
4. You can use the power of internet to look for the place where you can find the best appraiser available for you these days.
5. Oftentimes, there is an appraisal fee of about $100 so you should be ready for it too if you really want to know the oil painting value that you have.
Do you know that a proper appraiser will not do a 5 minute inspection on your painting and it will be done by the person personally not through email or through a live chat? He will go to your house to see and inspect on the painting and to see the condition of the painting as well. A visual inspection is very vital especially when it comes to oil painting. An appraiser will also do written appraisals regarding the oil painting that you have. There will be a written document that includes oil painting value. It is not so hard to find an appraiser but you need to make sure that the one you will choose is dependable and not a fake individual.
Tags: oil painting value, oil painting value appraisement
About the author :
Rose Iadsai is the founder of Samui Art Gallery which offer genuine hand-painted oil paintings & oil painting reproductions for sale. Connect with Samui Art on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.


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Quick Respond Locksmith of Hayward
Our Locksmith company provides 24/7 emergency locksmith service in San Francisco CA.
We are always on call, 24hrs a day,7 days a week, 365 days a year, covering a large area.Rest assured we will have a reliable lockmith on site within a maximum response time of 20minutes.All of our fully trained engineers are extremely polite and punctual and will carry out various works hassle free.
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subset: commoncrawl


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Returns & Exchanges
Zeloutis Wearable Art is committed to providing quality art pieces and polite customer service. If an item has been described, explained or depicted wrong or if the item contains a construction error, refund or store credit may be given. Returned items must be postmarked within 15 days from purchase for domestic orders and 45 days from purchase date for international orders. Because I do not charge for shipping, customers are responsible for return shipping costs.
Returns or exchanges for custom orders will not be accepted.
Gift purchases may be returned for store credit only.
Gift Certificates are non-refundable.
Please contact Zeloutis Wearable Art within the specified time, to arrange the exchange or return. Item must be returned in its original packaging, intact and unused, and include any original sales receipts.
All refunds will be processed upon receipt and inspection of the returned items and may take 3 to 10 business days to process.
NOTE: If items being returned are missing any materials or components, please be sure to include all the items in the return envelope with the original packaging.


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A new short stay public car park for Broadford could be on the cards after local councillors discussed a range of methods to ease parking pressures on the island at yesterday's Skye and Raasay Committee.
The Green and Somerled Square public car parks in Portree are to have their short stay car park tariffs amended offering a maximum of two hours car parking at a revised cost of £1 for up to an hour and £2 for up to 2 hours. Alternative free long stay parking will still be available in Portree at the Bayfield car park.
Following the discussions held by members today a consultation will take place with the residents and businesses in Broadford where it is proposed that a new off-street car park (Broadford North) be created for short term parking of up to two hours, the charge for which would be the same as the Portree short stay car parks. This is being proposed as a way to relieve difficulties for the public to access local services in the village and will include a 30 minute free period. Free long stay parking in Broadford would still continue to be available at the Broadford South car park.
Chair of the Committee, Councillor John Gordon said: "My fellow councillors and I are very aware of the parking pressures in Portree and Broadford and following feedback from our constituents we wanted to address the problem as a priority.
"After our discussions today we can now start the statutory process to alter conditions so we can change the two Portree car park tariffs with a set charge that is the same across all council run car parks on the Island. Consultation can also now begin with people in Broadford to get their feedback on proposals on making the new car park a short stay one to ease the current problems people are having on parking to accessing services.
"We now have a full time Parking Enforcement Officer who has been working on n the Island since the 15th August so this and the new parking measures will I feel go a long way to provide a better balance for drivers who want to park up for a quick visit to shops and to access local services and those who want to park up for a longer time.
"As a Committee we will be closely monitoring how these changes bed in and what difference they make to drivers."


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AG and DAD Visit
Posted by Erika Sedana on Jun 12, 2017
What a special lunch meeting we had on Jun 07. A visit by the committee of District Conference Indonesia 2017, the club members warmly welcomed AG Nyoman Swastika & DAD Julia Rivai from Rotary Club of Bali Seminyak and PP Wanda from Rotary Club of Bali Benoa. On the roadshow visit, the committee presented a Certificate of Apprecation to Pres Marie Francoise as well as SAA Eric Guth. Rtn Eric Guth who is also board member for the term 2016-2017 has contributed a lot as sponsor in the District Conference 2017 with his famous business brand IOCO.
From the committee, thank you very much indeed Rtn. Eric Guth !


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Just days after the White House gave the Federal Aviation Administration three months to launch an UAS Integration Pilot Program to speed up the integration of drones into the national airspace, the agency said the program is ready to go.
The Nov. 2 plan called for the FAA to match state, local and tribal governments with commercial UAS operators or manufacturers. Those teams can then apply to the FAA to set up local test zones and feed their airspace integration data to the agency.
The program is designed to "to solve technical, regulatory, and policy challenges, while enabling advanced UAS operations in select areas subject to ongoing safety oversight and cooperation between the Federal government and applicable State, local, or tribal jurisdictions," according to a Federal Register notice scheduled for publication on Nov. 8. Operators will have latitude to experiment with operational and communications concepts to advance the integration of drones into the existing aviation environment.
The program has four goals:
The FAA has taken considerable flak from drone makers and potential commercial drone operators for its sluggish response to enabling a rapidly growing, and potentially revolutionary, technology. The FAA has been so inundated with applications to operate drones in controlled airspace, it recently filed an emergency request to automate the process to winnow down thousands of backlogged requests.
The oversight will be managed locally, but the FAA will have a role. Data gathered under pilot projects will be used to help develop regulations to govern use cases, such as package delivery, news gathering over populated areas and beyond the line-of-sight operations in remote areas for tasks such as inspecting pipelines or conducting search and rescue operations.
A version of this article was first posted to FCW, a sibling site to GCN.
About the Author
Mark Rockwell is a senior staff writer at FCW, whose beat focuses on acquisition, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Energy.
Before joining FCW, Rockwell was Washington correspondent for Government Security News, where he covered all aspects of homeland security from IT to detection dogs and border security. Over the last 25 years in Washington as a reporter, editor and correspondent, he has covered an increasingly wide array of high-tech issues for publications like Communications Week, Internet Week, Fiber Optics News, tele.com magazine and Wireless Week.
Rockwell received a Jesse H. Neal Award for his work covering telecommunications issues, and is a graduate of James Madison University.
Click here for previous articles by Rockwell.
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Persuasion: The Art & Science
. Persuasion has been defined in the Encyclopedia Britannica as: "The process by which a person's attitudes or behavior are, without duress, influenced by communications from other people." This definition could be reworded to the personalized or active context, "the Process by which You, communicating with another Person, can influence, without duress, his attitudes or behavior." As is evident, there are two entities in persuasion, 'You' and 'the Other Person', and in the gulf between the two, there is the process, which encompasses communication, influence, attitude, behavior and absence of duress. In effect, you, using your skills of communication, influence someone else to do what you want him to do. As Jeffrey Gitomer, in his Foreword in Dave Lakhani's book: Persuasion, The Art of Getting What You Want, says, "Persuasion is an outcome."
The key words here are 'persuasion and influence.' Brock and Green (2005) say, "Persuasion's powerful forces are constantly remaking us into persons who are irrevocably changed-sometimes imperceptibly, often dramatically, through messages disseminated by various forces. These forces are the foundation for influence and persuasion. Persuasion processes are at the heart of social movements and upheavals. The ability of these forces to reconfigure millions of minds and hearts has enabled Masters of Persuasion to become the opinion leaders of the world-for good or for bad.
The single event that guided the course of the 20th century was the rise of the Nazis and World War II. Mastery of rhetoric and its effective delivery enabled a fast-talking failed house painter, Adolf Hitler and his propagandists to convert the relatively cultured, well educated German people into agents and cooperators in an unprecedented genocide. The Holocaust is sufficient justification for understanding of the virtually limitless strength of persuasion."
In his days at the helm of power in the USSR, Stalin forbade exposure to Western media and social culture on pain of severe penalty, while manipulating local media. Mass media manipulation of data and social influence are powerful engines of historical change for a simple reason: "They persuade the masses."
My aim in this here is to show that persuasion is the ability to get what is desired by influencing, in the positive sense, all factors involved in the process.
I shall first isolate the constituents of persuasion and analyze each one in detail. Since persuasion involves the abstract, in terms of psychology, I will use live examples to clarify my statements, as and where required. Starting at surface level, I will gradually move into the more complex zones in a stepped manner.
Constituents of Persuasion
As stated earlier, the constituents are 'You', 'the Other Person', and 'the Process'. Prima facie, two of the three constituents are obvious, 'You' and 'the Other Person'. That leaves 'the Process'. Let me put it in the form of simple diagrams:..
Having understood the basics, we will need to progress further and examine the process. The process is comprised of the factors mentioned below:
· The Data
· Communication
· Influence
· Psychology
· End Result or Persuasion
An amplification of the various factors in play can be varied out at this stage.
Who are you?
You are a composite of:
· Physical and inner self that makes up your personality.
· Appearance, bearing and demeanor
· Communication skills
· Knowledge
· Managerial and Instructive Skills
The Other Person
· Physical self
· Personality
· Authority, Attitude and Aptitude
The Process
The process is a combination of quite a few contributory factors, starting with Data.
The Data
· The knowledge you wish to impart.
· A collated handbook, not just random pieces of information.
· Its relevance to the task at hand.
· The channel of interaction.
· Conditioning your audience to receive and accept what you say.
· The ability to converse in the desired language.
Influencing your audience to follow your charted map is an important but not the ultimate aspect of persuasion. Influence is the precursor to Psychology, which directs the effect of Influence towards the achievement of the stated aim. Together, there are nineteen constituting factors, of which ten fall under Influence, the remaining nine under Psychology.
· The rapport you build with your audience.
· The way your audience perceives you.
· Your expertise in the subject matter.
· Starting at the lowest level, dependent on the weakest member in your audience.
· Your freedom of expression, limited by the comprehension of your audience.
· Your power of conviction.
· Your winning popularity and likeability, contributing to your acceptance.
· Reiterating relevance to the task at hand, enhancing its importance.
· The raconteur in you, with the ability to narrate relevant anecdotes or messages.
· The milestones that you set.
· Your ability to stay on course and schedule.
The Psychological aspect of your interaction, which stems from your influence and then goes hand in hand with it, is an important factor. You need to pander to the psyche of your listeners.
The end result of this process, or 'outcome' as Gitomer calls it, is Persuasion. Persuasion is:
Altering the person's perception of any object of his attitudes, including emotional considerations and intellectual aspects, with important attributes as listed hereunder.
1. Emphasize what is of key importance.
2. De-emphasize what is of secondary importance.
3. Eliminate what is of no importance.
1. Take as long as necessary.
2. Be as short as possible.
Dave Lakhani has listed six tenets of persuasion in his book ibid. These six tenets are: Clearly define expected outcomes; the persuasive process must include the best interests of the person; persuasion-based professionals must always tell the truth; set realistic time limits; form long-term relationships with those you attempt to persuade; at all times, act ethically.
Having sketched the concept of persuasion, we can now discuss each element at length.
I had asked earlier: Who are you? My answer was: You are a composite of:
· Physical and inner self
· Personality
· Appearance, bearing and demeanor
· Communication skills
· Knowledge
· Managerial and Instructive Skills
The first three attributes, Physical and Inner Self, Personality and Appearance, bearing and demeanor are not easy to separate from one another. They are intertwined, with the skein both top down and bottom top.
Physical and Inner Self
Marianne Williamson says, "We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same." Hillel asks, "If I am not for myself, who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now -- when?" All these questions are answered in an old native saying, "Inside of me there are two dogs. One of the dogs is mean and evil. The other dog is good. The mean dog fights the good dog all the time. When asked which dog wins, I reply, 'The one I feed the most'." Your inner self is the kernel of your subsistence, around which your physical self grows. It is your inner self that is molded during your formative years to give you your personality.
This is one place where you must recall the old adage that 'Your first impression is your last impression'. As John Boe writes, "Whether you are conducting a one-on-one interview, motivating your sales team delivering a keynote address or persuading your listeners, your success as a leader or an instructor is defined by your ability to impress with personality and persuade with clarity and passion. In whatever you do, you have to appeal to people in a positive, authoritative and exemplary manner. Throughout history, our most admired leaders are remembered primarily for their ability to instill courage and inspire confidence. Just think how different this world might be without the calming reassurance of FDR's fireside chats or JFK's overpowering charisma." Gandhi may not have been well clad in the Western way of dress habits, but he was a man on a mission and his mission was based on simple living. He went to meet British royalty in a 'dhoti', a loincloth, was derided, nay, pilloried by the British media, but he made his point in the most telling way possible. He projected his full self, his personality as though on autopilot.
You have to be accepted as an authority on the subject, the one with the solution to the problem at hand, if any. Your intentions must poke through. One of the tenets of persuasion, you will remember, is, "persuasion-based professionals must always tell the truth." You are not to twist an extant situation to your benefit, as one day or another, you will be caught and your reputation sullied. You will not manipulate the situation either. As Dave Lakhani writes in his book ibid, "Manipulators are inwardly focused. They want outcomes which are good for themselves alone. They have no qualms about side effects to apply pressure to hasten a decision. Manipulators have a negative personality because of the fact they're only interested in forcing through their ideas. Persuaders are outwardly focused. They attempt to create an environment that lets everyone win, in pursuit of which solutions, common grounds and beliefs are explored thoroughly. Persuaders have a positive personality because they are perceived as problem solvers."
Appearance, bearing and demeanor
Gandhi may have been an extreme example. But the fact remains that a well groomed person has greater chances of putting his points across as compared to an ill-kempt individual. As this person, You would need the ability, innate or acquired, to be easily accepted by your audience. According to Weixhe Yu, from Middlebury College, the Chinese say that with respect to proper human appearance and bearing, the requirements first and foremost emphasize reverence, and this reverence and gravity, especially during public appearances, project the person as a leader, whose words would then command attention. You also have to be correct in the given situation. It would be ludicrous if a grossly obese person came on stage to deliver a lecture on dieting. Or a father of six children on birth control! This is the outward manifestation of the composite 'You'.
Communication skills
You have to be a storehouse of fingertip knowledge. After all, you are planning to communicate in order to persuade. You have to know how to communicate-this simple word is one of the most complex subjects in man and material management. Man management requires training and a large portion of that training dwells on understanding the people you intend communicating with, their education, knowledge and skill levels, their work ethos and acceptance of you as their instructor. They look up to you and you cannot falter. You have studied and learned how best to communicate and what the barriers to communication are. So we have a better picture of you, with your persona and knowledge integrated as an instructor or teacher.
What remains now is your interaction with the intended recipients of your vast knowledge in language that a ten-year old would understand. This interaction requires communication in simple words, as we have just seen. But it is not as simple as it seems. It is not as if a math teacher came into the classroom, rattled out Pythagoras Theorem and then went on to prove it by drawing diagrams on a blackboard. That QED will not work here. Yes, you have built up the desired image about yourself, an aura of power, wisdom and erudition. You are now setting about convincing a person or persons to follow a path that you have mapped out, based on your interpretation of the aptitude and attitude of your audience. You are communicating with them in their language. You are constantly revising your pace of progress depending upon assimilation level and overall satisfaction level. You are actually influencing them, calling upon your every skill to persuade them that 'this is the way we go ahead'. To quote Jeffrey Gitomer again, "The secret of persuasion's happy outcome is two words, 'manipulation free'. Manipulated persuasion is short lived. True persuasion exists when it lasts beyond the moment."
There is no single accepted definition of knowledge presently, but there are numerous competing theories. Plato called it "justified true belief". "Scientia potentia est; Knowledge is power," Francis Bacon wrote in 1597 CE. The full quote is more apt. "Knowledge comes by eyes always open and working hands; and there is no knowledge that is not power." For our purposes, the simple statement that knowledge is 'awareness or familiarity gained by experience of a fact or situation' is sufficient.
Aristotle, in his treatise on Posterior Analytics says, "All instruction given by way of arguments proceeds from pre-existent knowledge. The mathematical sciences and other speculative disciplines are acquired this way, so are the two forms of dialectical reasoning, syllogistic and inductive; for each of these latter make use of old knowledge to impart new, the syllogism assuming an audience that accepts its premisses (sic), induction exhibiting the universal as implicit in the clearly known particular. Again, persuasion exerted by rhetorical arguments is, in principle, the same, since they use either example, a kind of induction, or enthymeme, a form of syllogism." At this stage, a question arises. How do we manage our knowledge? The presupposition is that you have the knowledge, but lack the ultimate finesse in imparting that knowledge. A look at managing your output optimally would enhance your standing greatly.
1. Before attempting to address the question of how to manage knowledge, it would be appropriate to develop some perspective regarding 'knowledge'.
2. As Neil Fleming writes in his book, 'Coping with a Revolution: Will the Internet Change Learning':
a. A collection of data is not information.
b. A collection of information is not knowledge.
c. A collection of knowledge is not wisdom.
d. A collection of wisdom is not truth.
3. We are mainly concerned with the first two statements. Gene Bellinger explains that "The idea is that information, knowledge, and wisdom are more than simply collections. Rather, the whole represents more than the sum of its parts and has a synergy of its own."
4. Data, when out of context, is meaningless. This implies that implies that a collection of data for which there is no relation between the pieces of data is not information. The pieces of data may represent information, yet whether or not it is information depends on the understanding of the one perceiving the data, the listener. Information is a created when a relationship is established between data and context.
5. Gregory Bateson, in 'Mind and Nature: A Necessary Unity' suggests that beyond relation there is pattern. "Pattern embodies both a consistency and completeness of
relations which, to an extent, creates its own context. When a pattern relation exists amidst the data and information, the pattern has the potential to represent knowledge. It only becomes knowledge, however, when one is able to realize and understand the patterns and their implications. Patterns which represent knowledge have in them that completeness that information simply does not contain."
6. Therefore, one can summarise that:
-- Information relates to description, definition, or perspective (what, who, when, where).
-- Knowledge comprises strategy, practice, method, or approach (how).
--Data→Information→Knowledge is a continuum.
· Managerial and Instructive Skills
A mark of a good manager is to be able to provide consistent motivation to his team encouraging them to attain excellence in their performance. The management skills listed infra are of great help in developing your ability to lead and create an effective team:
1. Observation. Your credibility with your listeners will improve if they know you are watching them. Drop a hint or two to people in your group of listeners, showing that you care.
2. Monitor Your Listener's Performance. Performance needs to be monitored in mutually accepted ways, with fair assessments. Individual and group conferencing should be undertaken on a regular basis.
3. Implement professional development programs.
4. Decision Making. A good leader makes prompt, clear and firm decisions and knows how best to implement them.
5. Know your people, their baseline of knowledge, skills and abilities, strengths and desires.
6. Never strangulate unique styles and be open to inputs.
Daniel Goleman's research and model of emotional intelligence show that the four main components of intelligent leadership are:
1. Self awareness
2. Self Regulation
3 Self motivation
4. Social awareness
Self Awareness:
· Emotional awareness: Recognizing your emotions and their effects.
· Accurate self-assessment: Knowing one's strengths and limits.
· Self-confidence: Sureness about one's self-worth and capabilities.
· Self-control: Managing disruptive emotions and impulses.
· Trustworthiness: Maintaining standards of honesty and integrity.
· Conscientiousness: Taking responsibility for personal performance.
· Adaptability: Flexibility in handling change.
· Achievement drive: Striving to improve or meet a standard of excellence.
· Initiative: Readiness to act on opportunities.
· Optimism: Persistence in pursuing goals despite obstacles and setbacks.
Social Awareness
· Leveraging diversity: Cultivating opportunities through diverse people.
· Empathy: Sensing others' feelings and perspectives and respecting them.
Remember that excellent leadership is always proactive rather than reactive.
The Other Person:
· Physical self
· Personality
· Authority, Attitude and Aptitude
At the other end of the process of persuasion is the Other Person. Irrespective of what has been said so far about 'your listener', your ultimate aim is to persuade somebody who deserves your full attention. You need the gift or acquired element of perspicacity. You have to know where this other person stands in his own hierarchy, and how much he controls.
· Physical self
Locate the right person. Study him, his strengths and weaknesses. Focus on his weaker side, with a plan to edify him while making it obvious that you know about him.
· Personality
Appraise his antecedents, research how his inputs affect his compatriots/contemporaries. Meet him and, in a tete-a-tete, give him those elements of your persona that you want him to have. He will reveal his personality, both consciously and sub- consciously. Nobody hides himself, unless there is an ulterior motive.
· Authority, Attitude and Aptitude
1. Establish inter-se relation at the outset. Be open and expect reciprocal candidness. His manner of interaction will delineate his authority, something you want to establish. Avoid being guarded in your approach, as that will affect his attitude towards you. By the end of this meeting, you would have gauged his aptitude and general attitude.
2. Ensure your timing is right.
3. Meet him in a place that is mutually acceptable. The ambience has to be appropriate. You must command his full attention, so it has to be a place where he will be free of external distractions and likely to be receptive to your message.
From the personal side, we can now move into the procedural side. As stated earlier, the process is comprised of the factors mentioned below:
· The Data
· Communication
· Influence
· Psychology
· End Result or Persuasion
The Data
· The knowledge you wish to impart.
· A collated handbook, not just random pieces of information.
· Its relevance to the task at hand.
1. The knowledge you wish to impart.
We have seen that data, when out of context, is meaningless. We have also said that Data→Information→Knowledge is a continuum. To quote Bellinger again, since data is out of context, "it is without a meaningful relation to anything else. When we encounter a piece of data, if it gets our attention at all, our first action is usually to attempt to find a way to attribute meaning to it. We do this by associating it with other things." If we see a single word, such as "jump" there is a tendency to immediately form associations with previous contexts within which "jump" has been found to be meaningful. This might be, 'long jump', 'high jump', 'jump for joy', 'jump at it', and other associations. Effectively, contexts are being created, just to provide meaning.
2. A collated handbook, not just random pieces of information.
Bellinger explains, "The extent of the understanding of the collection of data is dependent on the associations discernible within the collection. The discernible associations are dependent on all the associations realized in the past. Information is quite simply an understanding of the relationships between pieces of data, or between pieces of data and other information." A computer sends bits & bytes of data as a series of 1s and 0s . These are meaningless, till combined at the receiving end into information, which is what you are trying to communicate.
3. Its relevance to the task at hand.
This is a self-explanatory statement and is easiest understood using an example. If three terms, 100, 5% and 'per annum' were transmitted in isolation, or even together, they are meaningless. But then, the average human would put it into context by bringing in a fourth term, Bank. If the original message had said bank account, principal and rate of interest, the information transmitted would have been assimilated as a bank account of $100, at an interest rate of 5% per annum.
· The channel of interaction.
· Conditioning your audience to receive and accept what you say.
· The ability to converse in the desired language.
1. The channel of interaction
The first thing to remember is that you are to communicate with your audience in their language. You have to create a composite picture of your audience and then decide how you intend to approach them. You might need to subjugate your priorities in the interest of group progress. Face-to-face or person-to-person interpersonal communication is the most frequent communication method most people use. People also communicate via email, newsletters, phone messages, presentations and meetings. Poor communication is the most frequently cited problem in organizations.
2. Conditioning your audience to receive and accept what you say.
It has been seen that the best way to kick off is to start with some grandiloquent aim. Break it down into milestones, say that they are achievable and you will find that your audience agrees with you. Thereafter, water it down over time, if necessary. The average human being tends to accept what you recommend, often without reservations, if you can make him relate to it. You have now set the background for persuasive presentation.
3. The ability to converse in the desired language. Susan M. Heathfield believes that "nonverbal communication is the single most powerful form of communication. More than voice or words, nonverbal communication cues you in to what is on another person's mind. The best communicators are sensitive to the power of the emotions and thoughts communicated nonverbally. Nonverbal communication ranges from facial expression to body language. Gestures, signs, and use of space are also important in nonverbal communication. Multicultural differences in body language, facial expression, use of space, and especially, gestures, are enormous and enormously open to misinterpretation."
She adds that "One study at UCLA indicated that up to 93 percent of communication effectiveness is determined by nonverbal cues. Another study indicated that the impact of a performance was determined 7 percent by the words used, 38 percent by voice quality, and 55 percent by the nonverbal communication." I am not proposing we give up verbal communication. Far from it. We are born into one of four primary temperaments; aggressive, expressive, passive or analytical. Each of these four styles requires a different approach and communication strategy. For example, words that would appeal to a person with the aggressive style may alienate and actually destroy rapport with the passive style and vice versa. If you are to influence your listeners, you must be able to quickly and accurately recognize each of these distinct behavioral styles and adapt accordingly. And let me tell you, this is not easy.
Dave Lakhani suggests that "the story should be broken up into chunks, with an element of humor added. Establish relevancy and build rapport. When meeting individuals, develop familiarity by asking a few questions – which ideally will bring up some shared experiences you have in common. Failing that, if you get the other person to open up and tell you a little bit about themselves, they will start to feel more comfortable. Even if you discuss a common problem you've both experienced or a desire you both share, they will warm to you and automatically become more receptive to your persuasive attempts."
Influencing your audience to follow your charted map is an important but not the ultimate aspect of persuasion. Influence is the precursor to Psychology, which directs the effect of Influence towards the achievement of the stated aim. Together, there are nineteen constituting factors, or attributes, of which ten fall under Influence, the remaining nine under Psychology.
· The rapport you build with your audience.
· The way your audience perceives you.
· Your expertise in the subject matter.
· Your freedom of expression, limited by the comprehension of your audience.
· Your power of conviction.
· Your winning popularity and likeability, contributing to your acceptance.
· Reiterating relevance to the task at hand, enhancing its importance.
· The raconteur in you, with the ability to narrate relevant anecdotes or messages.
· The Milestones that you set.
· Your ability to stay on course and schedule.
Attribute 1: The rapport you build with your audience.
Rapport is the key to influencing people, says Vadim Kotelnikov, Founder, Ten3 Business e-Coach. It is a process of "building a sustaining relationship of mutual trust, harmony and understanding. It is essentially meeting individuals in their model of the world. Rapport is the ability to be on the same wavelength and to connect mentally and emotionally. It is the ability to join people where they are in order to build a climate of trust and respect. Having rapport does not mean that you have to agree, but that you understand where the other person or people are coming from."
Kotelnikov believes that "Rapport is the key to influence. To influence you have to be able to appreciate and understand the other person's standpoint. Rapport is achieved when two people can see each other's viewpoint, appreciate each other's feelings, and be on the same wavelength. Taking the other person's perceptual position will help you achieve rapport and build trust. In order to do so, it is important for you to open your sensory channels. Opening these channels allows you to see, hear, and sense external changes presented by individuals with whom you are communicating."
Attribute 2: The way your audience perceives you
Sandrine Kuate, a technorati blogger has posted "A key component of influence is the perception your potential and existing customers have of you. Who does your audience perceive you to be? In order to be successful, you must have a clear answer to this question and it must be the one you want. Why would customers decide to do business with you? Because of whom they perceive you to be. Do they perceive you as the kind of person who will add value to their life? If they did, they would be doing business with you. So what can you do to be perceived by your audience as a value provider?
As Chris Wideners put it in 'The Art of Influence', "You have to become the type of person
that others want to buy from." The value you provide is not just in the quality of your product, but also in your character as it comes across to your audience. People make the decision to interact with those who they perceive to have such character as honesty, passion, compassion, authenticity, integrity, fairness, loyalty, and much more. Whether you realize it or not, you are constantly giving away your true character in exchanges you have with your listeners.
Attribute 3: Your expertise in the subject matter.
Sandra Schrift advises you to provide your audience with extensive information on your topic. This will empower attendees to feel competent and knowledgeable. Support your points with stories. Stories help us see through the eyes of other people. Adults delineate their thoughts visually. Give them the facts laced with a good dose of humor. Adults learn better when they are lightening up! Get the audience involved. When they interact, they get it better and retain it longer. Vary your tone of voice, smile often, and show passion for your subject matter. Make your body language reflect your comments. Be the speaker/person who motivates the audience to admire and respect. Hold yourself accountable for excellence. Speakers need to give audiences what they need, not what they want. Demonstrate repeatedly that you know your stuff. Speak about what you know from your business background, personal experiences and research. Deliver with high energy, sincerity, inspiration. The audience must feel, at the end of it all, "That guy knew what he was talking about!"
Attribute 4. Your freedom of expression, limited by the comprehension of your audience.
There is little point is an impressive power of expression if you go above the head of your audience. It is more than necessary that you should be precise and clear. You should speak as much as necessary, neither more nor less, with precision and clarity of thought. You should be able to convey your thoughts satisfactorily and convincingly. Confidence and level headedness in doing so is necessary. Do not be superfluous and do not exaggerate. Initially, confine yourself to expressing your viewpoints without digressing. You need to display tact, skill, understanding and knowledge, with deliberate shifts in track so that you can engage your audience in a gentle verbal duel to assess how much has actually gone across. As and when you feel that the audience is coping, move ahead at a faster pace.
Attribute 5. Your power of conviction.
It is human nature to resist change, and the amount of resistance depends on how much one is ensconced in his comfort zone. Yet, it might just be necessary for you to get him out of his comfort zone, for a valid reason which you have to explain. It is not like a shoehorn; you cannot just chisel him out of where he is content. It is more like turning the QE2 mid-ocean. The huge liner turned only a few degrees per minute. This requires that you understand what their own beliefs are and how you can blend the new concept being promoted so that the feeling of change is not abrupt. Look for a pattern that may be guiding him in everything. From those forming ideologies based on assuming connections by cause and effect, to those that theorize that there are missing links in a chain that should be filled to make sense. Try and make him understand that we make our discoveries, realizations and often mistakes by following our compulsion to stick to a pattern. Create an environment where the person accepts the new ideas, and let him feel that it was he who made up his own mind and reached his own conclusions.
Attribute 6. Your winning popularity and likeability, contributing to your acceptance.
Michael Lovas and Pam Holloway, in their book, Axis of Influence say that there are five principles of likeability:
· We like people who are similar to us in some way (Similarity).
· We like people who are familiar to us (Familiarity).
· We like people who like us (Reciprocity).
· We like people who are genuinely interested in us (Interest).
· We like people who are easy to like (i.e. demonstrate the qualities of likeability: empathetic, trustworthy, positive, non-judgemental, real).
Dave Lakhani has amplified the concept and added that there is a greater chance of your being liked by the other person if:
"You have some shared experiences, hail from the same geographical area, have similar interests and tastes, are well spoken, knowledgeable and happy to share information, humorous in defusing tensions and a good conversationalist."
Attribute 7: Reiterating relevance to the task at hand, enhancing its importance.
Sim Wong-Kooi, a research scholar in the field of education says, "there is a general preference for a more holistic and integrative approach to knowledge, rather than a compartmentalised and analytical approach. The main factor which is likely to affect the adoption or adaptation of these theories is "Pragmatism" in accepting whatever works, together with the associated emphasis on "acclecticism." Brock and Green noticed that "when the audience was not warned, increasing personal relevance increased persuasion. The most common reason that your persuasion might fail is very simple. What you are presenting is not relevant to your audience and it doesn't meet their needs or desires. Have you taken the time to know who you are persuading? Because relevancy also means that you have invested the time to study and understand your audience, either individually or as a target group and must know the right time to offer your idea. If someone doesn't have an interest, there is no advantage for you trying to persuade them. What's the best question to ask yourself for success in your persuasion?
'What makes this person a good match for my message?'
Answering this question will help you improve the likelihood of finding the right person or group to have interest in your message."
Attribute 8: The raconteur in you, with the ability to narrate relevant anecdotes or messages.
It is now believed that telling stories and showing pictures will be foundational to any sales strategy. Storytelling could become the modus operandi for business success; they can be told in emails and web sites. It's not enough to just give information- you want to entice and persuade, and that comes through stories. It is tiresome, seeing so much content on some web site. People don't want more information. They are up to their eyeballs in information. They want faith—faith in you, your goals, your success, in the story you tell.. Faith needs a story to sustain it—a meaningful story that inspires belief in you. Telling a meaningful story means inspiring your listeners—co-workers, leaders, subordinates, family, or a bunch of strangers—to reach the same conclusions you have reached and decide for themselves what's next.
"Nearly everyone responds to a good yarn, and that's precisely the point," says Annette Simmons, author of The Story Factor. A "collaborative behaviour" consultant to public and private organizations, Simmons argues that storytelling may just be the best management tool available to modern leaders because it exerts influence in ways that other techniques cannot. Simmons shows how they can be used effectively in small group settings and even one-on-one situations. According to her, there are six basic types that can be adapted to any circumstance: Who I Am, Why I Am Here, The Vision, Teaching, Values-In-Action, and I Know What You Are Thinking.
Attribute 9: The Milestones that you set.
We all know that nothing runs without a plan, and a plan cannot run without having its objectives set. Otilia Otlacan says there are 5 Rules of Setting Milestones: Be SMART! Be
Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely.
· 'Specific' illustrates a situation that is easily identified and understood. It is usually linked to some mathematical determinant that imprints a specific character to a given action: most common determinants are numbers, ratios and fractions, percentages, frequencies.
· 'Measurable': We must set up a distinct system or establish clear procedures of how actions will be monitored, measured and recorded. If an objective and the actions pertaining to it cannot be quantified, it is most likely that the objective is wrongly formulated and we should reconsider it.
· 'Attainable': Do you have the means and capabilities to achieve them? Think it through and be honest and realistic to yourself: are you really capable of attaining the goals you've set or are you most likely headed to disappointment? Always set objectives that have a fair chance to be met: of course, they don't need to be "easily" attained, you're entitled to set difficult ones as long as they're realistic and not futile.
· 'Relevant': The quality of an objective to be "relevant" refers to setting appropriate objectives for a given individual or team: you need to think if they can truly do something about it or is it irrelevant for the job they perform.
· 'Timely': Any usable and performable objective must have a clear timeframe of when it should start and/or when it should end. Without having a timeframe specified, it is practically impossible to say if the objective is met or not.
Attribute 10: Your ability to stay on course and schedule.
Dean Brenner's GAP Method of setting your Goal, understanding your Audience, and creating your Plan is applicable in this framework, as most of it has already been incorporated. Understand the likely concerns of the audience, articulate clear recommendations and key points. Once you have taken the critical initial step of understanding the audience, the key points and recommendations are more clearly aligned with the issues important to the audience. Once you provide clear action steps, you make it clear what you all would be doing over the coming weeks and months. This allows the audience to know what to expect.
The Psychological aspect of your interaction, which stems from your influence and then goes hand in hand with it, is an important factor. You need to pander to the psyche of your listeners.
· Credibility, initially yours at the outset and later, as the data flow stabilizes, your listener's, as he 'develops' into your product.
· Conversion, an adjunct to conviction, as you start to make people think in your style.
· Inquisitiveness, as you start to tickle your audience's curiosity.
· Positive strokes, as you keep patting your audience's back on achieving milestones.
· The Beaten Path, or familiarity with the path followed for progress. Reaching milestones on known highways are a tremendous mood and morale booster.
· Uniqueness, by creating an impression in your listener's mind that he is being given that extra bit of attention in recognition of his progress.
· Permission grants power.
· Empathy, the ability to feel and understand what others feel.
· Giving gifts that influence.
Attribute 1: Credibility
Kevin Eikenberry, writing on Influence and Credibility, says "enhancing your credibility with others is one of the best ways to become more influential. People want to follow the advice and counsel of those with expertise, and you want to be one of those people! It is not enough to be an expert on a subject matter or a situation though. You must also be perceived as an expert. credibility is more than just expertise. Credibility is a combination of expertise and trustworthiness." Kevin Hogan, in The Science of Influence states it as a formula:
Credibility = Expertise + Trustworthiness.
To greatly increase your influence through your credibility, you must develop your knowledge and expertise consistently and continuously far beyond those basics. There are many ways to do this:
Ø Continuing education
Ø On-going reading
Ø Using your skills in volunteer or community organizations
The other part of our credibility combination is being trustworthy. Building trust consists of many factors and, like expertise is about more than ourselves. Here are three things that you can do to build your trustworthiness:
Ø Build rapport.
Ø Focus on your audience. Everybody wants to be heard! By keeping your focus on the
other person you are serving yourself as well.
Ø Be consistent. Build rapport in every situation. Be kind and thoughtful everyday.
I'm sure you have noticed that influence and its factors are applicable to virtually every aspect of the subject, creating a kind of interdependency.
Attribute 2: Conversion, an adjunct to conviction, as you start to make people think in your style.
Two approaches that have widespread effectiveness for positively influencing the other person are: Inspiring other persons through appealing to their emotions and values and, providing clear recommendations that show potential benefits for other person. You are indirectly changing the other persons' thought processes to your style. Subsequent to a poll, six influence strategies seemed promising:
1. Information exchange: informing other persons with statistics, presenting materials, and using other information without making specific recommendations.
2. Recommendations: making clear suggestions or summary statements that advise other persons to take a specific course of action that may prove beneficial for them.
3. Warnings: tactfully cautioning a client about potential negative outcomes, such as letting them know they may fail to get the best results if they delay making a decision, go elsewhere, or discount the suggestions given.
4. Promises: offering the other persons a benefit of any type (special attention, discounting, small incentives, additional resources) to induce them to go along with suggestions.
5. Inspirational appeals: appeals to the other persons emotions, values, and/or ideals, by attempting to communicate (in content and style) with enthusiasm and conviction.
6. Rapport building: any non-selling personal talk to build rapport, such as discussing shared interests, complimenting the other persons, or just generally trying to make them feel good about themselves.
Attribute 3: Inquisitiveness, as you start to tickle your audience's curiosity.
"Curiosity killed the cat… but satisfaction brought him back." What is meant is that while exploration is fraught with danger, the rewards are well worth the risk. People are just naturally curious. Gerry Bavaro is convinced that successful campaigns create influence by leveraging curiosity. He says that "in every search for something, we are driven by curiosity. When we look further, we see new information that changes our thoughts in a way that either gets us closer to our objective. The trick is to position your pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Search volume is driven by awareness and curiosity created in the real world. If there's no buzz happening, get some going! Give people a reason to "spread the word" about what you're doing. You have a target audience, so don't dilute your messages by trying to appeal to everyone. You need to understand your audience not just in terms of demographics, but also in terms of psychographics (what are their lifestyles like, what websites do they visit most, how do they communicate, are they socially conscious and active, do price or quality drive them?). Get creative about how you manage your business. If you promote a topic or concept, consider "out-of-the-box" ideas and events that can add user touch-points that will increase curiosity.
Attribute 4: Positive strokes, as you keep patting your audience's back on achieving milestones.
We have seen that there are 5 Rules of Setting Milestones: Be SMART! Be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely. Complimenting people on their success or accomplishments is a sure way of generating positive feelings. Positive strokes lead to enhanced team spirit which automatically affects performance, says Dr EJ Sarma, an HR expert. He suggests that energy levels flow only when there is atmosphere to kindle positive feelings through positive thoughts. Complimenting people on their success or accomplishments is one
sure way to get the positive feeling out. Happiness and enjoyment motivate. People value happiness not really in material terms, which corroborate the old adage "the best things in life are free". Feeling important motivates. The oft-heard comment in corporate cabins is, "I was not consulted". Success motivates: there is no better tonic than success. Personal benefits and clarity also motivate.
Attribute 5: The Beaten Path, or familiarity with the path followed for progress.
Keeping close to a successful path has an advantage that it lets you experiment, secure in the knowledge that you can always recover. More often than not, experiments can be fun. Clifford Kuhn, M.D., America's Laugh Doctor emphasizes that "motivating yourself with fun pays big dividends in myriad ways. Making this choice accelerates your ability to communicate, rests your brain, lowers your stress, increases your tolerance for pain, among other things. Moreover, using fun to motivate yourself increases your creativity.
Creativity is an ability highly sought by businesses and employees alike. Creativity is trumpeted in every mission statement and praised by every CEO for good reason - we know that creativity brings breakthroughs! Since the ability to create breakthroughs is both a highly sought after and also a highly marketable skill, creativity gets a lot of deserved attention." And there's more, he adds. Myths have crept in with time and need to be dispelled.
"Yet there are still many myths to dispel about creativity. One of the biggest myths is that creativity is fueled by time pressure. Time pressure is an example of fear-based motivation. Deadlines are a reality, but using fear to fuel our creative juices has the opposite effect.
Competition is fear-based; collaboration is fun-based. Catching people doing things right, rather than punishing them for doing things wrong, is fun-based. Sparking intrinsic motivation is what fun accomplishes when you use it as a motivator. Intrinsic motivation is critical to creativity. Anyone, it turns out, can be highly creative - when they become intrinsically motivated! Motivating yourself with fun clears away barriers and allows your experience, knowledge, and skills to foster new, creative ways of thinking."
Attribute 6: Uniqueness, by creating an impression in your listener's mind that he is being given that extra bit of attention in recognition of his progress.
In their attempt to get the best out of people employed, management spends a lot of money and HR professionals try all the tricks up their sleeve to get motivation levels up. They try climate, culture, rewards, compensation, choice assignments, and all seem to work sometimes but not all the time. If one is in a leadership or a managerial role, chances are that we are preoccupied with ourselves and have little time to think of motivating others. All those in HR talk and read about motivation. The question is: Can you really create conditions for people to motivate themselves?
Most of us know what it feels to be down and under. The most common cause of work depression is negative feeling and consequent depression when one is faced with complete inability to bring information together to find solutions to problems. Psychologists refer to this phenomenon as convergent thinking. We can listen more often, respect the views of others, consider their thoughts or proposals carefully and give due credit when somebody's idea bears fruit. Give them the freedom to experiment along the way, and share their experiences with the rest, through you. The moment you make someone feel important, you have done the trick.
Attribute 7. Permission Grants Power
In Kevin Hogan's Resource Center, Dave Lakhani writes that permission granting is another way of saying close the sale or bring the persuasion to a logical conclusion in your favor. Here the other person holds the cards. To turn it around, it must be you who retains the power. "When you grant permission, you are giving them a limited time opportunity to begin a relationship with you. Permission granting also turns the relationship in your favor because only people with authority who we've exalted to some level can give us permission. So once you've placed yourself in the position that you can grant permission, you've also placed yourself in a trusted advisor's position. Permission also grants absolution. There are many psychological reasons that permission granting is one of those ideas that we simply accept and follow without thought, but think of it this way. Remember when you were young and you had to have permission to get up from the table or to go to the restroom at school. You had to ask if it was OK and once you got permission, there were no more consequences, because you had permission from a higher authority. As a persuader, once you give permission, the person you are persuading is absolved from wrong because you, the higher authority, gave your permission. Once you've given your permission, and they've accepted it, pull back the curtain and invite them in. Show them the value again of belonging. Remember, permission is control — use it wisely."
Empathy: The ability to feel and understand what others feel.
Emotions play a crucial role in communication and engagement between people. Somebody once complained in a sales seminar, "I hate this touchy, feely stuff." Sam Allman rebuts that complaint. "This 'touchy, feely stuff' puts the best salespeople at the top of their game. Study after study has shown that KEY to solid relationships, selling, leading and parenting is empathy. Indeed, empathy is the prime characteristic of great salespeople. Empathy is the ability to feel and understand what others feel. Exercising empathy, you can appreciate things you don't agree with … from another's viewpoint. Empathy increases your selling productivity, because it increases your INFLUENCE over others. Empathy increases influence, because it's a pre-condition to influence. Research has found that without empathy, our ability to influence and interact with others is severely limited. Some believe that either we have empathy, or we don't. However, studies have found that empathy has elements of skill and habit that we can acquire and extend. By working to deepen our empathy and compassion, we help ourselves to learn and grow. Growing your empathy works when it comes from inside you. It must be genuine, or it crashes. Empathic feelings spring from the roots of our compassion."
Giving gifts that influence.
"The good teacher discovers the natural gifts of his pupils and liberates them by the stimulating influence of the inspiration that he can impart. The true leader makes his followers twice the men they were before." Stephen Neill.
How true. But today, we are being materialistic. Always try and give gifts. The more unique the gift is, the more memorable it becomes and the greater the chances are it will be appreciated. And it goes without saying that you will also be remembered. The Japanese believe that they are duty bound to return a gift that is of greater intrinsic value. Recent findings illustrate the common misconceptions that small gifts are less influential than larger gifts and that unrestricted gifts are less influential than restricted gifts. However, research in human behavior has shown that even small gifts and ones without restrictions can influence actions without being tied to explicit demands. The finding that more than half of department chairs with relationships between their department as an administrative entity and industry felt that these relationships had no effect on their departmental finances, their ability to recruit or retain faculty, or to secure resources from their institution is puzzling. Unique gifts are often those in kind, like a free sample of your product or service. A classic example was HP's '31 Days of the Dragon' contest. Their flagship high-end notebook, The Dragon, launched in January 2008 at a retail price of $4500-5000 just did not take off. In September, they announced a contest, wherein 31 reputed bloggers were requested to allow bloggers to post blogs on subjects selected by HP. The best blog posted would get a free HP HDX Dragon Notebook free. The contest turned viral, and HP reported 380,000 Notebooks sold by the end of the year. All for the cost of 31 pieces!
The end result of the processes detailed, or 'outcome' as Gitomer calls it, is Persuasion. Due to the usefulness of influence, persuasion techniques have been studied and observed since ancient times, but social psychologists began formally studying these techniques early in the 20th-century. The goal of persuasion is to convince the target to internalize the persuasive argument and adopt this new attitude as a part of their core belief system. Persuasion is:
· Altering the person's perception of any object of his attitudes, including emotional considerations and intellectual aspects, with important attributes as listed hereunder.
· Clarity and Brevity
Dave Lakhani has listed six tenets of persuasion in his book ibid. These six tenets are:
1 Clearly define expected outcomes;
2 The persuasive process must include the best interests of the person;
3 Persuasion-based professionals must always tell the truth;
4 Set realistic time limits;
5 Form long-term relationships with those you attempt to persuade;
6 At all times, act ethically.
Clarity and Brevity
Clarity is what your readers think is clear. Never assume that what's clear to you is clear to your readers. Test everything. If you can't test content on the target audience, at least test it on somebody outside the area of expertise for which you're writing. Have clear-cut objectives. Write those objectives down before starting to write, and then stick to them. Cut out anything that doesn't apply. Extraneous text doesn't add meaning - it's just waffle. Casual readers have a short attention span and no interest in your vocabularies. Make content clear, and make it brief.
· Get to the point. Then stop. Emphasize what is of key importance. De-emphasize what is of secondary importance. Eliminate what is of no importance.
· Use plain English.
· Express one thought at a time.
· Let the facts speak for themselves.
· Use short words and phrases.
· Never use a long word when a short one will do.
"Take as long as necessary, but be as short as possible."
Kendra Cherry, an About.com guide says," Everyday we are confronted by persuasion. Food makers want us to buy their newest products, while movie studios want us to go see the latest blockbusters. Because persuasion is such a pervasive component of our lives, it is easy to overlook how we are influenced by outside sources." As we have seen so far, the goal of persuasion is to convince the target to internalize the persuasive argument and adopt this new attitude as a part of their core belief system.
These are just a few of highly effective techniques of persuasion. Another method stems from Maslow's hierarchy of needs: Create a Need. This type of persuasion appeals to a person's fundamental needs for shelter, love, self-esteem, and self-actualization. "Another very effective persuasive method appeals to the need to be popular, prestigious, or similar to others. Television commercials provide many example of this type of audio-visual persuasion, where viewers are encouraged to purchase items so they can be like everyone else or be like a well-known or well-respected person. Television advertisements are a huge source of exposure to persuasion considering that some estimates claim that the average American watches between 1,500 to 2,000 hours of television every year. Persuasion also often makes use of loaded words and images. Advertisers are well aware of the power of positive words, which is why so many advertisers utilize phrases such as 'New and Improved' or 'All Natural'."
Then there are the purely visual pieces of influence, advertisements. Newspapers and leaflets bombard you with appealing terms, inviting you to try and buy their products.
Lee Ann Obringer states that the foundations of most modern sales techniques lie in five
stages of action:
The tips infra are basic guidelines that most any sales person can benefit from:
Keep the lines of communication open!
A closely related aspect is advertising. The United States Small Business Administration gives sound advice. According to them, first learn what advertising can and cannot do for you:
What Advertising Can Do For You:
timing, consistency, message, identity, etc. But then, advertising takes planning, time, budgetary limits, persistence and faith in yourself and your product. Armed with information, you have to design the framework, fill in the details, evaluate media choices and integrate all these with other promotional techniques in use, or planned. You could attend or display at consumer or business trade shows, create tie-in promotions with allied businesses, distribute newsletters, conduct seminars, contests or sweepstakes, use specific toll-free numbers keyed to different ads, use landing pages on your Web site which are specific, etc.
You could try and persuade electronically, with Websites – have a Web site which matches your persona and the image of your company. Your Website must look professional, have a fast loading capture page and easy navigation, provide all information necessary, be linked to company profile, products and endorsements, have embedded video and audio promotions, and so on. The same holds good for blogs. Teleseminars and podcasts could also be held as boosters.
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Justus Daniel Eapen is a policy level Organizational Transformation Consultant with over 25 years experience in Banking & Government.
December 2018


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"Garcia? Who's he? We'd be better off with Zorro," declared a Roma fan at the start of the season, his summer blighted by memories of Lazio lifting the Coppa Italia. While the comparisons with the fictional Sergeant Garcia may have been harsh, it would be fair to say that Rudi Garcia was not a popular appointment as coach, but a few weeks into the season and the Frenchman is the toast of Testaccio, the working-class hive of dyed-in-the-wool Romanistas.
His team have posted eight wins from eight games, including a 2-0 derby triumph, and possess both the best attack (20 goals) and most miserly defence (one conceded). In the Italian capital, men have been crowned emperor for much less.
When he signed up for duty in the summer, Garcia knew he was far from being the club's first choice, but he quickly began living up to the role. He made a strong impression from his very first press conference, in fact, expressing himself in recently learned but remarkably elaborate Italian.
"I did that out of respect for the fans – every detail is important," says Garcia, who was surprised to find such a negative atmosphere surrounding the club when he arrived. "I didn't like that. On the contrary, we needed confidence. I don't like people criticising a player or my team. If I have something to say, I say it, but I don't wash dirty linen in public."
He then set about communicating his message, winning the trust of the dressing room and explaining his vision of attacking football based on a 4-3-3 formation. "They quickly went along with it," he says. "They're intelligent players who have a fairly extraordinary work ethic. They were quick to understand what I expected from them."
Transfer coups
At the same time, Garcia forged a bond with his captain, Francesco Totti, the soul of the team and a player who cannot raise an eyebrow without it being interpreted up and down the land. "Francesco is a legend, and a legend that's still being written," explains the 49-year-old.
He's the greatest player I've ever had at my disposal.
"He's a player who hasn't missed a single training session since I've been here. He doesn't ask for any special favours, and he's a player of great humility, like the true greats often are. He's the greatest player I've ever had at my disposal."
The third prong of Garcia's approach after taking the reins was to recruit the right players during the summer transfer window. With Maarten Stekelenburg, Pablo Osvaldo, Erik Lamela and Marquinhos all heading out of the club, their departures helped fund swoops for proven performers such as Mehdi Benatia, Maicon, Morgan De Sanctis, Gervinho – who has rediscovered the form he showed under Garcia at Lille – and, above all, new Dutch phenomenon, Kevin Strootman.
"Lots of big clubs were interested in me, but when Garcia called me I liked what he had to say," recalls the box-to-box player, one member of a high-calibre midfield alongside Miralem Pjanic and Daniele de Rossi.
De Rossi's presence has proved crucial too, Garcia pulling off a coup by convincing the Rome native to resist the lure of the English Premier League. "This year, the team knows where it's going because the coach prepares games right down to the smallest details," De Rossi has said, the Italy international once again earning plaudits for his tireless work in midfield.
The team knows where it's going because the coach prepares games right down to the smallest details.
Aiming for Europe
Nevertheless, perhaps Garcia's most telling impact has been in reminding his team of certain basic football truths, such as how to "defend together in every corner of the pitch to avoid conceding goals". And with a pair of central defenders like Benatia and Leandro Castan, Roma have no reason to envy any of the bigger name duos at rival clubs.
After two seasons toiling away in mid-table, Roma's recent exploits have struck some as close to a miracle, but Garcia simply smiles and says he has "put the church back in the middle of the village". I Giallorossi may have equalled the record start made by Juventus during the Michel Platini era, yet their goal remains to secure a place in Europe for next season.
"The favourites for the Scudetto are still Juventus and Napoli," explains Garcia, who won a league and cup double with Lille in 2011. Even he has been a little swept up by the reigning euphoria, however, adding: "We can perhaps hope to be involved in the final sprint with those teams."
Roma will look to win their ninth straight game away against Udinese on Sunday, but they will have to do it without their veteran gladiator Totti, who misses out through injury. Despite his absence, the capital side will travel in rude health, and led by a Sergeant Garcia now starting to look comfortable in an emperor's robes.


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Catherine Young
Catherine is Totum's office manager. As the first port of call for clients, candidates and team members, she deftly manages, co-ordinates and resolves the daily needs of a busy firm with poise and grace. Catherine's role is dynamic and multi-faceted, involving a broad variety of responsibilities, from the administrative to the financial and everything in between.
Catherine brings clarity and calm to the team, taking everything in her stride. She is recognised by clients and candidates as a core member of Totum, always on hand to tackle any issue with a positive and focused approach.


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Travis Kelce's Fashion Role Models Included Deion Sanders, Ric Flair
Kansas City Chiefs tight end can see himself pursuing fashion as a second career. See him on the runway
Shaq Is Big Ric Flair Fan But Can't Get Voice High Enough To Do A Real 'Wooo!'
O'Neal has trouble picking a Mount Rushmore of pro wrestling because of his eclectic taste. Old school
Ric Flair On The Four Horsemen, How Charlotte Got Into Wrestling Business
Wrestling icon tag-teams with his daughter to write unique memoir that details personal struggles, controversy and family tragedy. Read excerpt
The Falcons are really impressed with Ric Flair's strength
The Falcons are really impressed with Ric Flair's strength Watch Now
Woooo! Would You Buy A Used Car From 'Papa' Flair?
Wrestling icon portrays the kind of salesman you'd want to avoid on the lot. 'Having a real hard time keeping prices off the ground!'
Flyers Wish Their Fans Would Stop Doing The Ric Flair 'Woooo!'
One of the players started it, but the team isn't happy with the way the yell has spread in the stands. Coach weighs in
Ric Flair Was Struck By Lightning And The Story Is Wild
The professional wrestler survived a plane crash and this scare in the 1970s. How an umbrella saved him
#MakeAmericaWoooooAgain: Ric Flair Writes Himself In For President
Wrestling icon tag-teams with rapper Waka Flocka Flame on campaign. Check out the shirts
Ric Flair apparently lied about making love to Halle Berry - 'TMZ Sports'
We caught up with Ric Flair at an airport Watch Now
WWE's New Era has officially arrived
The WWE's brand extension is in full forc Watch Now


text: J. Edgar is not perfect. The movie and the man that the movie is about are both not perfect in fact. However, J. Edgar the movie is as complex and intense as the man himself. Clint Eastwood directs in a documentary-style that proves a little long and at time drags. The narrative is a little confusing at times as like a history lesson we are taken through J. Edgar Hoover's journey (or his own vision of his journey) through flashbacks from WWII to the Civil Rights Movement. He arguably made the FBI what it is today, creating the fingerprint system, organizing/cataloguing the Congressional Library, and inventing the creation of a damning confidential file. In fact, J. Edgar used this file as leverage on many presidents, including Kennedy (and J. Edgar also thought he could stop Martin Luther King Jr. as well). His work consumes him and is everything to him but at the end we can wonder what does he have to show? Much of J. Edgar's self-consciousness stems from his mother (proving that we can indeed blame our parents for everything) played by Judi Dench. Leonardo DiCaprio is brilliant as J. Edgar, to the point that we forget he is acting. It also made me realize that DiCaprio chooses difficult roles and is an underrated actor who has actually only played one likable character, Jack in Titanic. Armie Hammer is simply wonderful, working as the most grounded and sympathetic character. Hammer plays Clyde, J. Edgar's right-hand man in the FBI and also J. Edgar's secret love. In a time when J. Edgar cannot admit to the world or even his own mother (she tells him she would rather have a dead son) that he is gay, he cannot come to terms himself with his true feelings for Clyde. Much of their relationship is a guessing game to viewers as the only time the men confront each other is when tension and frustration have reached a climax (lots of glass thrown). There is love there and a simple gesture like holding hands or when a much older J. Edgar kisses Clyde on the forehead and tells him he needs him shows this. Speaking of looking older, the makeup is not done well unfortunately. If everyone looks like that when they are in their sixties or seventies then we do not have a lot to look forward to. I am sure that DiCaprio and Hammer (who I underestimated even though he was good in The Social Network and made us want there to be two of him) will get Oscar nominations. I do not think the movie is strong enough to get nominated as a whole. There are a lot of strong performances but not very many strong movies. One last note of frustration: it is a shame that the artsy, indie films are never released wide. It is hard to track them down to see and inevitably they are always the ones nominated. Give us a chance; I think that more people are interested in films that actually give us something to think about. Although I could be wrong as it is not the imperfect J. Edgar that was number one this past weekend but Immortals.


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This website has been moved to jasonlpetersen.com.
A Equifax Security Breach has Affected Millions of Americans: What you Should do
On July 29th, 2017, Equifax allegedly discovered there was a security breach where hackers obtained sensitive information for about 143 million Americans. Some executives in the company sold their stock in Equifax shortly thereafter (they claim that they didn't know it occurred, but I doubt their claims). As compensation for this security breach, Equifax is offering free credit monitoring for a year.
What you should do
First, you need to see if you may have been affected. You can go to this site to check and see if your information may have been obtained by the hackers.
If you were not affected
You can opt to sign up for their free credit monitoring regardless of whether or not you were affected (whether you do that or not is up to you). Monitor your bank accounts and your credit just in case (either manually or by enrolling in a credit monitoring/ID protection program).
If you were affected
If you were affected, Equifax will offer you free credit monitoring for a year. I recommend that you do not accept their offer (especially if you plan to sue them). Instead, I recommend you enroll in a separate credit monitoring program. I recommend programs that will help you restore your identity if it gets stolen. My preferred company is Zander Insurance. Their ID protection program is only $6.75/month for an individual and they will do all the work for you if your ID is stolen. You can also place a security freeze on your credit.
Next, calculate how much it might cost you to be on your identity theft protection program. I assumed that I would probably live another 50 years or so. I multiplied $6.75 (this is the amount that I now pay per month for ID protection now that I have been affected by the breach) by 12 (12 months in a year). This means that I would be spending $81 a year to protect my identity due to this breach. 1 I am assuming I'll live for about another 50 years so I multiplied 50 by $81. This means that over that amount of time it would cost me about $4,050 for ID protection. If you get an attorney find out what percentage of your winnings they will take and add that cost to the amount that you will be asking for. My attorney is taking 33% so I multiplied $4,050 by .33. This means my attorney's fee will be about $1,336.50. 2 I added this fee to $4,050 and got $5385.50. I then account for 2% inflation (because the price of the ID theft plan will probably go up as inflation goes up). I got the amount of inflation by multiplying 5,385.50 by .02 percent and I got $107.77. I added 107.77 to 5,385.50 and got $5,493.27. Therefore, I will be asking for $5,500.00 in compensation from Equifax. If they offer me any less, I will not settle and I will take them to court.
Finding an Attorney
There are a quite a few attorneys doing class-action suits. I opted to join a class-action suit; however, I joined one where they would need my approval to settle. DO NOT JOIN A CLASS ACTION SUIT THAT DOES NOT REQUIRE YOUR ATTORNEY TO CHECK WITH YOU PRIOR TO SETTLING. You can also hire your own attorney to go after them without joining a class-action suit. I am using Corboy & Demetrio.
How to Handle Equifax
If you have an attorney, do not contact Equifax. Let your attorney handle the case for you. If you are not using an attorney (not recommended), make sure all correspondence with Equifax is in writing. Do not accept any settlement that is less than the amount of your lifetime cost for identity theft protection (plus attorney fees if applicable).
1. If you already had credit monitoring prior to the Equifax Breach, this step is not important.
2. If you don't plan to use an attorney, you can skip this step, but I recommend you use one.
Tax Efficient Investing
Have you ever looked at your paycheck and noticed how much the government is taking out of it? If you have looked at it, you are probably aware of how much of a wealth killer income tax is. Taxes can really put a drag on the growth of your investments. This is why it is important to practice tax efficient investing.
How Taxes Work for Investments
If you have a roth IRA or a traditional 401k, you don't have to worry about taxes at all unless you withdraw prior to the eligible age for withdrawal of funds (currently you are eligible to withdraw without taxes at 59 1/2 years old). If you have any other account such as a traditional IRA, but if you have an account where you will have to pay taxes on earnings and withdrawals, you will save a lot of money in the long run by being selective in the type of investments you make for these accounts.
If you have a taxable account, you will either be taxed at 0%-20% for your investments or you will be taxed at your normal tax bracket (most people's normal tax bracket is 20% or higher). Capital gains earnings (these are earned when you or a fund sell shares and make a profit are taxed) are taxed at your normal tax bracket. If you or your fund sell a lot of stocks and bonds, you could pay a heavy price because a larger amount of your gain would be taxed. Because of this, you want to avoid having actively managed funds in your taxable accounts. You also want to avoid having funds that would be taxed at a normal tax bracket such as REITs. You want to have REITS in tax advantaged accounts instead.
If you have any questions about these issues, you can talk to a certified tax adviser or you can search for more information online. To make your life easier, however, I will show you how to invest tax efficiently by telling which which types of funds to have in your investment accounts (keep in mind that in order to qualify for lower tax rates, you need to hold an asset for at least a year).
Tax Efficient Investing
Below I will list the account types and tell you which type of assets will save you money on taxes.
Roth IRA/Traditional 401k/Roth 401k/Traditional 401k
All of these accounts are tax advantaged so you can invest in any asset you want to in these accounts. If you have good low-cost mutual funds and Real Estate Investment Trusts, these accounts are a great place to invest in them.
Taxable Brokerage Accounts
In these taxable accounts, you want to stick with passively managed funds such as Index Funds and Exchange Traded Funds. You can also invest in individual stocks. For bonds, you want to hold municpal bonds because they are exempt from federal income tax (they can be subject to state income tax, however, but it is better than being hit by taxes twice when you invest in a taxable bond).
With taxable accounts, you also run the risk of having to fill out tedious forms such as a Schedule K-1 form (a common culprit for having to fill one of these out are Municipal Limited Partnerships); however, most index funds and exchange traded funds will not require a K-1 Form. If you have any questions about taxes, contact a tax adviser or you can call your brokerage to make sure you won't have to fill out any additional forms aside from the typical 1099 form that investors with taxable investments fill out.
Tax efficient investing is very important. If you do not do your due diligence, it could cost you a significant portion of your savings for retirement.
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Attention! Every audition before this post has been reviewed. You will have been contacted on the webpage via the PM box or via email if you were chosen. We are still accepting auditions! Good luck!
Lucan Ostorius and Craetia Jullalian samples
I have no experience in voice acting and my english isn't very good, but still I wanted to try it out. I've used the sample lines to show what I can do. I apreciate how far this project has been developed and wanted to help someway.
Hello, I've been working on improving my voice. I'm currently experimenting with this sound, any feedback would be greatly appreciated. I'm eager to get a part in this amazing project. I chose to use lines from Sellus Gravius .Thank you very much.
Hello, I have been working on my voice acting for awhile, I always had an interest in voice acting, and I would appreciate if you would take a look at mine.Thank you for your time.
Hello everyone,
Here's my attempt at the sample line for male imperial. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated ! Thanks in advance and looking forward to your reply.
Edit: added a second file with a slightly different voice and different intonations that may be more suited to the character/quote
I'm horrid at introductions when the come to the medium of writing text, anyway, here's my Audition for the Imperials!
I'm not so good at proper introductions, but I hope that you'll consider me for Imperials.
Attention! Every audition before this post has been reviewed. You will have been contacted on the webpage via the PM box or via email if you were chosen. We are still accepting auditions! Good luck!
Attention! Every audition before this post has been reviewed. You will have been contacted on the webpage via the PM box or via email if you were chosen. We are still accepting auditions! Good luck!
Hey! CaptainShack here from the YuoTube Channel TheXpGamers. I love the Elderscrolls and would be out of my mind excited to be a part of this project in some small way. Here is my attempt at an Imperial voice!
I have a more younger sounding voice, but I gave it a shot. I've got my own sound-proof VA box set-up and have been tinkering with the settings, please let me know if you need any changes. firstname.lastname@example.com
My Imperial audition.
Let Me know if there's any problems with the overall quality, any changes you'd like or things you'd reccomend. I can almost immediately be contacted VIA e-mail at firstname.lastname@example.com
PS: I saw the YouTube video and figured I would send an audition to help support the project.
Imperial Male, think im a little too light voiced for it lol
I took a couple of shots at both of the provided lines (and I am aware that the second would normally call for a female voice, but I wanted to give myself a bit of variety.) Hopefully you'll view an amateur like me favorably! :D
Male Imperial here we go! Thanks for listening!
Here are my auditions for any male Imperial, not sure if there's a huge difference in the two, the second take was recorded after I remembered the description "superhero voice"
Here's my Imperial voice
Never really considered doing this before as my voice acting isn't anything special but if there is one thing I am... It's British. I tried.
https://soundcloud.com/domlette/imperial craetia! might redo cuz i just realised how loud i am at the beginning haha
Here's my audition with Lucan's sample line.
I cant seem to find any sample lines?
where do you find the sample lines? i think a link might be broken for me?
My audition for Lucan I was sent by the guys from Four horsmen Studios as they feel id like this as I'm voicing a character on their machinima
A bit echoey, but I have a room with no echo. I can send samples from that room as well, if you'd like.
Hello! My audition is attached
- ~20,000 downloads - Voiced Julian
Old distinguished legate(british):
Also, another voice:
This is a stretch, but I could see this being a hardcore Imperial Drill Srgt:
(I can vary the accent on this)
(WARNING LOUD) https://soundcloud.com/xybrisva/colonel-dornan
Here's my Imperial audition.
Hello there! I'd love to contribute to your great work, so I've decided to try a little bit of VA. :)
Here are some Imperial attempts:
[EDIT: Please delete both this post and my account]
Greetings folks, here's my first audition for Imperial Male voices (American variation). Any feedback appreciated.
This was recorded with my recording setup set in a strange way for another audition elsewhere; I can get higher quality, easily.
And an audition for a random Imperial character:
Lucan Ostorius
Hello - my audition for Imperial male attached. These vocals are completely dry with no EQ/FX/altering.
Currently this is my final entry for race auditions, male Imperial. Thanks for listening and I hope to hear back in consideration for any role!
I'm giving it a shot, although I'm not sure if my voice is deep enough.
Recorded using a Blue Yeti microphone with pop filter. Gain is set to 1/4 to meet the marker bar requirement listed in the "How to Record Guide." Sample lines used are from the first post. Thanks for the opportunity.
So I haven't made an attempt since I first heard about you guys, I had a different mic, and I've had a lot more practice, so I hope you guys like my auditions! They're all the sample lines given from the first post, I hope that's ok. :)
My name is Jorge and here is my audition for Male Imperial.
Hello everyone!
Here is my imperial voice acting audition. Hope you like it and would be glad to hear your feedback, so I can improve!


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Nyoro Nyoro Ootaki Caves of Date - Hunting for Mother Nature's miracle: ICE!
About 2 hours by car from Sapporo, in the southwest corner of Hokkaido, is the city of Date. There you can find the mysterious Nyoro Nyoro Ootaki caves, surrounded by mountains in an especially snow-heavy area…you never know what you'll find inside.
In -9 degree whether, so cold the snow sparkled, we first decided to head to the Ootaki regional outdoor administration, Ootaki Outdoor Adventures (OOA). As I was going for research purposes, I did not want to trespass on my way to the caves, nor did I want to bother any of the local residents by parking my car in the wrong place. So on this visit, I arranged to have a tour guide to show me the way. My guide, Fumiaki Sakai, runs the program with the cooperation of the Ootaki residents.
The trek to the cave takes about 40 minutes, so we strapped on our snow shoes and headed out. Along the way we could enjoy the beautifully clear water running down the valley, and the volcanic rock formations. But with a vigorous walk through the snow, even cold temperatures didn't keep us from being sweaty by the time we arrived at the caves.
Finally we arrived at the caves. They certainly were mysterious looking!
In minus 3 to 5 degree temperatures, these seemingly inverted icicles form, looking a bit like bamboo shoots. For that reason, they're called "kori takenoko" (ice bamboo shoots). With about 5,000 ice stalagmites (and, in Japanese terms, an area equivalent to 100 tatami mats), this cave is the largest of its type in Japan. I was so mesmerized by the ice that I momentarily forgot that I had come for research. Sakai san informed me that the cave was used by Ainu people and revealed a lot about their history. (For more information about the Ainu and the Nyoro Nyoro cave, we recommend trying the tour!)
Taking it's inspiration from the Kori Takenoko, the tour is called the Nyoro Nyoro tour. 'Nyoro nyoro' is a Japanese mimetic word that describes something with a feeling of slipping and sliding, much like the stalagmites in the cave.) If you get the chance, I recommend giving this adventure tour a try!
Hunting for Kori Takenoko in the Mysterious Caves of Ootaki
(AKA Nyoro Nyoro Tour)
Available from early January to late March
Tour Times : ① 9:00~12:00 ②13:30~16:30
Tour Fees: Adults 4,800 Yen Children (Elementary age or younger) 2,000 Yen
(Fee includes consumption tax, insurance, sweets and tea)
Snow equipment, boots, hats, and gloves are necessary (Rentals available)
Ootaki Outdoor Adventures
Address: 北海道伊達市大滝区本町17-3 〒052-0301
Telephone : 0142-68-5180(同FAX)
( Hokkaido Likers – Miyashita )


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*This is a post sponsored by the National Fire Protection Association and Sparky.org.
Fire Prevention Week is upon us and luckily our local fire department had an Open House this past weekend in addition to a school assembly during the week. Of course, my little man couldn't wait to go check it all out!
Are you looking for some new fire safety resources for October? What if your students can't get to a local fire department? Of course the activities need to be fun and interactive or your students won't really be interested. How about if they are FREE? Even better, right? I ADORE NFPA's Sparky resources for teachers! I also shared their website last year, but they have updated and added since then – to make it even better (which I didn't know was possible)! Little man gives it two thumbs up!
You can check out the super interactive site and all the games, videos, and printables HERE. While I know that teachers will love the Digital Backpack filled with videos, ebooks, printable parent letters, lessons, and activities, I know students will love the games and apps the best!
I may or may not have actually gotten sucked into playing the brand-new Sparky's Firehouse app for longer than I planned. Little man wanted his turn and was not having it. lol!
All the games vary from easy to challenging, so even your most mature fifth graders will like playing the games as much as the younger students.
I have to say that my personal favorite game was Sparky's Matching Game. It is set up like a traditional matching game, BUT Sparky also educates the children on leaving the staged house immediately upon hearing the fire alarm during the game – even if in the middle of a play. This message was super important in my opinion because some kids (including my own) can get caught up in game play and figure they have more time than thy really do. Time is super important in the case of a fire – so being aware of that fire alarm and moving immediately was a great skill to incorporate into a pretty basic game.
Here is a quick 90 second video to demo part of the game. In higher levels, he actually tries to "trick" the students by sounding different types of alarms, such as an alarm clock. I love how students can print achievement badges too!
Little man loved the Sparky's Firehouse Game Fix Up, Pick Up the best.
It starts with a sorting activity – and then it moves into a "frogger"-like game which little man really loved. The fire truck needed to pick up dalmatians and dog bones along a road. I found that it moved slow enough that even the younger students would have no problem manipulating the controls.
There is so much information to keep students engaged on this website! It even includes some amazing nonfiction videos to reinforce real-world learning! Make sure you check out Sparky's Resources!
What was your favorite part of the Sparky website? How about your students' favorite? I would love to hear in a comment below!