Too wordy?

A business owner asked if the pages of his web site were "too wordy". He thought they were, but his ad agency told him that he needed to explain his services in great detail to his potential clients. He felt trapped between what his "experts" were telling him and what his gut was telling him.

It's always tough to know how much info is too little and how much is too much. You can have as little as three seconds today to make an impact on people. Due to the "clutter" of everyday life, people just don't have the time to really digest your message. The best solution is to tell just the basics of what you offer. Grab their attention. And then, as they get interested in you and your message, tell them your story and fill in the details.

In order to actually reach people today, you need to utilize what we call, in your "Break Through the Clutter" Communication Seminar, "Economy of Words". Edit, edit, edit. Attention spans and the volume of all of the other messages in today's world demand it. And as people get more and more used to services like Twitter, with a 140 character limit, they will be less and less likely to sit through a lot of information from you.

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.

Double Trouble

A safety hazard also teaches you about the difficulties of communicating in today's world -

Yesterday, a young man driving a fancy convertible, top down, was swerving all over his lane. Why? His right hand was up to his ear, holding his phone, away from the wind noise on his left side, forcing him to reach his left hand past the steering wheel to shift gears on the right side of the steering column. Every time he shifted, he practically changed lanes.

Dangerous and foolish, yes. But it's mentioned here because that might have been you on the other end of that phone. Or, it might have been your incredibly important, to you at least, message he was listening to from his voicemail.

The environment in which your receiver gets your message is completely out of your control. Distractions, clutter, and your receiver's personal filters all affect your message. That's why it's so critical for you to do everything that IS under your control to make your message efficient and effective. And that's what you learn to do in your "Break Through the Clutter" Communication Seminar.

Look around you. Everyday you see how difficult your receivers make it for you to be heard. It's time for you to equip yourself to fight back.

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

And, watch out for the guy in the red convertible.

"Look at me!"

Now, more than ever, it is critical for you to to "Break Through the Clutter" and reach the person you're trying to communicate with by making your message mean something to him or her. With 80-90%, or more, of America's high school students, college students, and post-college adults now regularly documenting and sharing their lives on social media web sites, we are really becoming a society of "senders" rather than "receivers" when it comes to messages. People are talking about themselves, posting their pictures and videos, and tweeting about what they happen to be doing at that particular moment. It's all "me, me, me", and not necessarily in a bad way.

A professor at La Salle says that the rise of these social media sites feeds into two strong currents in the American nature, the need to be a part of a group, and the need to be noticed and be seen as special. So, there's nothing wrong or narcissistic about people always talking about themselves. And, it can make it easier for you when you need to communicate today.

When you practice what you learn in your "Break Through the Clutter" Communication Seminar and make your message be about your receiver instead of being about you, your message will stand out from the clutter of everyday life. Yours may be one of the few messages they see or hear all day that isn't about someone else. Yours will fill their need to be seen as special, because yours answers their questions, informs them, or helps them accomplish something. When everyone else bombards them with messages of "me, me, me", your message of "you, you, you" is one that they will want to listen to. And that allows your message to break through all of that other clutter.

Now, more than ever, is the time for you to call or E-mail to schedule a "Break Through the Clutter" Communication Seminar for your group or business, 913-631-2985, bkthrucomm@aol.com. Learn what you need to know in order to effectively communicate in today's world.

Generation Gap

In the late 1960's, there was a lot of talk about the "Generation Gap". The only thing that's changed in forty years is that we don't hear about it anymore. The gap hasn't gone away but has become more like a box canyon as there are now four sides involved - "matures", "boomers", "Gen X", and "Gen Y". And they're not getting along, especially at work.

The differences between the four generations in terms of work ethic, what they expect and need from the company, and how they treat their work environment, have each "not getting" the others and it's leading to a breakdown in communication.

In your "Break Through the Clutter" Communication Seminar, you learn the importance of putting the focus of your message on the other person, understanding what he or she is doing, thinking, and feeling. And then framing your message in a way that will actually break through the clutter of everyday life and reach that person.

Whichever generation you belong to, it's critical to your success that you're able to get through to any and every one else. So, while they may not speak your language, or may be so last week that you can't talk to them about anything, stop and think for a bit. Utilize the keys to effective communication that you learn in a "Break Through the Clutter" Seminar, and bridge the gaps that you encounter.

To learn more, 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. Thousands of people of all ages in all walks of life have already benefited from this material. You should, too.

Everyone's all a-Twitter...

With the 140 character limit on "tweeting", and the IM shorthand and text message abbreviations that have been around for a while now, it was inevitable that it would begin impacting schoolwork. It has, big time. A study showed that nearly 2/3 of young people aged 12-17 have used emoticons, text shortcuts, and informal language in their school assignments. But, the majority of teens surveyed said they don't consider electronic communications to be "writing" and that they think good writing skills will be important for success later in life.

This means a couple of things for you. First, as these young people grow up and become a major part of the workforce and of society in general, the shortcuts will become more and more accepted. If you're not used to them now, you may need to get used to them soon. Look how quickly "Casual Fridays" became "Casual Everyday" in many places of business.

Second, as you learn in your "Break Through the Clutter" Communication Seminar, in order to communicate effectively, you need to use words, terms and phrases that will mean something to the other person. If they are text-shortcutters, you may need to use that style to reach them, whether that's natural for you or not. Conversely, if you use shortcuts often, and they don't, you may need to keep your writing more formal in style. It's just another part of putting the focus of your message on the other person. And, as you'll learn in your "Break Through" seminar, that's one of the keys to effective communication.

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. OK? CU L8R.

Couldn't have said it better

Here's what some clients had to say following their "Break Through the Clutter" Communication Seminars...

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.

Either way works for me...but, spell check doesn't

Major league baseball teams allow you to make a contribution to their charitable funds and then have a message or greeting displayed on the scoreboard during a game. It's a great way to wish someone a Happy Birthday or Anniversary, propose marriage, or even welcome someone home. Perhaps this person being welcomed really is a "Brain". Perhaps this person's name is actually "Brian".

Regardless, the point here is that spell check won't catch your error when you type an actual word, just not the word you intended to type. For written communication, it is always critical to proofread your message. Read it out loud to yourself and listen to what you have actually written. Mistakes DO become distractions. The focus of the people who planned and paid for this message on the scoreboard went off of the message and onto the typo. Their special moment for Brian instead become a joke. It doesn't take long to proofread your message and it's pretty easy to do.

It's not like it's Brian surgery.

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.