Too much E-mail

In your "Break Through the Clutter" communication seminar, you learn that the two keys to effective use of E-mail are brevity and necessity, sending only what is needed when it is needed. There is simply too much E-mail going on.

A study now shows that your receiver spends an average of four minutes to open, read, respond to, and either delete or store each E-mail. That's a very important statistic for you to consider.

When communicating, you need to picture an actual person in your mind as you compose your message, what they're doing, thinking, and feeling. Part of that, when it comes to E-mail, is to realize that if your message ends up being one of forty or fifty that piled up while they were on vacation. At four minutes per E-mail, they might not have time to read something called, "Another Blond Joke".

Plus, if they are used to getting only important E-mails from you, when they get one, they will tend to think that it is important. If, however, they usually get 15-20 E-mails a day from you, and most of those contain the same jokes, cartoons, and video links that others are sending to them, they won't consider your E-mail to be as important.

Brevity and necessity, the keys to effective use of E-mail, when done in conjunction with all of the other things you'll learn in your own "Break Through the Clutter" communication seminar. Call or E-mail today to schedule a seminar for your group or business, 913-631-2985, bkthrucomm@aol.com.

Spoken Communication tip

In your "Break Through the Clutter" communication seminar, you learn some of the benefits and responsibilities associated with spoken communication, as opposed to written communication. Among the tips you get regarding spoken communication, you learn to practice out loud when preparing for an oral presentation.

While practicing out loud, listen to yourself. And, while listening, check your pronunciation of words. The Dictionary of Pronunciation warns "...you will...be judged by the words you mispronounce. And you may not be judged kindly."

Read the following sentence out loud while listening to yourself. "The realtor, wearing jewelry, was comfortable selling the nuclear plant, regardless of the economy." You should have pronounced the italicized as they are spelled. Too often, pronunciations sound more like, "The ree-la-ter, wearing joo-ler-ee, was comf-ter-bull selling the noo-cue-ler plant, ir-regardless of the economy." If any of the second sentence sounds familiar to you as you read it, "you may not be judged kindly."

Call or E-mail today to schedule your own "Break Through the Clutter" communication seminar for your group or business, 913-631-2985, bkthrucomm@aol.com.

Word choice

In your "Break Through the Clutter" communication seminar, you learn to use only words that will mean something to the receivers of your messages. An exchange at the pharmacy today underscored the importance of that.

When a prescription coupon card was presented along with payment, the clerk worked on the computer for a bit and sarcastically said, "Oh, I love this!", sighed, and stomped over to a fellow employee. After the second employee worked on another computer for a while, he came over to explain that the pharmacy had another drug's coupon listed as the "primary" card and this was listed in the computer as the "secondary" card and that's why it wouldn't go through. But, now it went through and everything was okay. But that's why it didn't at first, because the other one was the primary card and not this one.

Those who don't work at that pharmacy, including their customers, really have no idea what any of that means. Nor, frankly, do they care. Pharmacy employees deal with those computers, that software and drug companies every day, so it made sense to them. But they used these specialized terms when talking to a customer off the street. "Here are your pills and it'll be ten bucks" is all the customer wanted or needed to hear.

To communicate effectively, avoid lingo or jargon, specialized language unique to a certain area of interest or expertise. Within your own circle of co-workers, friends, or others that share your experiences, it's fine. But keep in mind that outside of your inner circle, it's really just gibberish. And whenever you use words, terms or phrases that your receiver, for whatever reason, doesn't understand, instead of being impressed with how much you know, they tend to feel alienated and sometimes even insulted.

Call or E-mail today to schedule your own "Break Through the Clutter" communication seminar for your group or business, 913-631-2985, bkthrucomm@aol.com.

Clutter, again

To continue the discussions about "What is 'clutter'?" and how the clutter of today's world gets worse everyday - Mignon McLaughlin summed up the problem like this, "No one really listens to anyone else. Try it for a while, and you'll see why."

Humorous, yes. But it's sad, too, because it's true. So many messages are being sent today, often in a rapid-fire manner, that are centered on the person sending them. And the messages tell about important things like, "I just got a massage", or "I just had my nails done and now I'm going shopping", or "I'm having a latte and a bagel". While they might be harmless and even a bit of a diversion for people during their busy days, the messages are each another bit of "noise" or "clutter" that distract your receiver from more important messages. Like your messages, for example.

That's why it is so important for you to stop, as you compose your message, and to think about the person(s) you need to reach. What are they doing? What will they do just before getting your message? What will they do just after? In what environment will they receive your message? Take all of those things, and more, into consideration as you compose your message. For your message to truly be effective, it isn't about writing or saying what you want to write or say. It's about writing or saying what will mean something to your receiver for communication to happen.

And that's what you'll learn how to do in your "Break Through the Clutter" communication seminar. Call or E-mail today to schedule your own "Break Through the Clutter" communication seminar for your group or business, 913-631-2985, bkthrucomm@aol.com.

Clutter, again

Obviously, when your seminar is called "Break Through the Clutter", you're going to spend some time learning about what clutter is and how to break through it with your message. So, "clutter" will be discussed here again.

In addition to all of the advertising messages, voice-mails and E-mails, meetings and more that clutter up today's world, people are talking about themselves now more than ever before. With texts, tweets, blogs, and social network pages, people are sending so many messages about their likes, dislikes, hobbies and interests that you have to wonder if anyone is actually receiving those messages. Or, whether it even matters to the "senders" that their messages are heard. The act of sending them seems to be the goal rather than making certain that someone hears them.

An Internet expert described it as people wanting to be the stars of their own reality shows. They get attention. They think people are interested in when they are brushing their teeth, or just had a cup of coffee.

With so many being so interested in talking about themselves, they don't have a lot of time for you and your message, regardless of how important it may be. And that is the environment in which your messages are being heard and read today. That is the "clutter" your message must break through to make an impact.

The key is to make your message different from all of those other messages that are centered on the sender, to focus your message on your receiver. And that's what you learn how to do in your own "Break Through the Clutter" communication seminar. It is simple, but it isn't always easy.

Call or E-mail today to schedule your own "Break Through the Clutter" communication seminar for your group or business, 913-631-2985, bkthrucomm@aol.com.

Clutter

Part of your "Break Through the Clutter" communication seminar includes a definition and description of the "clutter" of everyday life - the interference your message has to deal with, compete with, and break through in order for you to actually be heard. Thanks to text messages, tweets, Facebook postings and more, the level of clutter is higher than ever before. And, it seems to grow every day.

Your message has to be special in order to break through all of this clutter and that's what you learn to do in your "Break Through the Clutter" communication seminar - how to make your message special, how to frame it in a new way to make it more effective.

Donnie Deutsch, the advertising and business guru, summed it up like this - "...give people new information or entertain them - or else you're in trouble." It's that simple. You and your message have to fight to be heard today above all of the noise that is a part of everyday life.

Call or E-mail today to schedule your own "Break Through the Clutter" communication seminar for your group or business, 913-631-2985, bkthrucomm@aol.com.

Patience is a virtue

After three years of contact back and forth, it's wonderful to get the chance to speak to the Athletic Equipment Managers this summer. This will be a lot of fun for all of us, and we'll be able to address the unique communication challenges they face everyday. Can't wait.

Call or E-mail today to schedule a "Break Through the Clutter" Communication Seminar for your group or business, 913-631-2985, bkthrucomm@aol.com.