Tag Archives: Wall Street

Nov17

The Joy of Speaking

Posted on November 17, 2011 by Lois Geller

The Wall Street Journal ran a great article called, “Your, Um, You Know, Public Speaking” . It talked about different ways to overcome your fear of public speaking that did not involve the “take-a-gulp-of-wine” method.

According to most studies, people’s number one fear is Public Speaking. Number 2 is death. In other words, people would rather die, before having to speak in front of people.

Some of the suggestions made were:
1. Join Toastmaster’s, a non-profit that helps its members improve their public speaking and leadership skills. 2. Hire a Coach or Consultant.

I was a painfully shy person growing up. When I started working for the Meredith Corporation, I was sent to Des Moines, Iowa to do a presentation in front of a lot of people. It was one of the worst experiences of my life!

After that debacle, my boss sent me to a Dale Carnegie Course for some help– desperate help. It was exactly what I needed. I enjoyed it so much, that I went on to be a certified Dale Carnegie Instructor. From then on, speaking came to me like second nature.

Over the years, I have done countless Keynote Presentations and speaking engagements. I’ve travelled all around the world to speak.

After years of practice, I’ve come up with 5 main things that I do when I speak:

1. Right before any speech, I always make it a point to greet and shake everyone’s hand. I try to get to know my audience and remember people’s names so that I can mention them during my speech.

2. I draw my audience in by starting with an incident that happened to me that morning or a story. The typical “Today, I’m going to talk about–“ routine is boring.

3. My presentations are structured around 4 main points. My goal is for the audience to walk away with at least one of my points. At the end of my presentations I always summarize what I talked about and mention my 4 points again.

4. After my speeches, I like to continue the communication with the audience. People usually give me their business cards afterward to receive my Tip of the Week.

5. If I meet someone who I would love to work with or that I really resonated with, I like to write them a personal note via snail mail.

The most important thing is to keep speaking, as it’s the sign of a great leader.

Before panicking, call a copywriter!

Posted on July 22, 2011 by Lois Geller

Before panicking, call a copywriter!

In New York City, on Madison Avenue (where we used to have our offices) there are hundreds of advertising executives. They live under a lot of stress and many of them try to develop outside incomes so they can walk away from the fray someday.

It’s still a lot like Mad Men.

Some of them invest with Wall Street brokers. Some buy art. Some buy gold.

Two friends decided to do something different. They bought into a Washington State orchard that had a mail order apple business.

Everything went great in the first season. But in the second season, disaster! A hailstorm pockmarked all the apples before they were picked. Shaking, the farmer partner called New York. “We’re ruined. We have to cancel all the orders and send those checks back.”

One of the Madison Avenue guys was a top copywriter. He said, calmly, “Give me a couple of minutes. I’ll call you back.”

He thought about it for a minute and then wrote:

“You will notice that your apples have marks from hail damage. This is due to the high altitude at which they grow. The hail marks are your assurance that these are the sweetest, most delicious apples you’ve ever had.”

He faxed the note to the farm in Washington with instructions: Have the note printed and inserted into every order.

There were no complaints from customers and in Year Three many of them wrote on their Order Forms: Hail-damaged if possible, please.

Just goes to show you what you can do with a little creative copywriting.

Wow, now someone will listen to my great story!

Posted on February 14, 2011 by Lois Geller

Wow, now someone will listen to my great story!

I was invited to hear our new Governor, Rick Scott, speak at a luncheon last week at the Ritz Carlton in Naples, Florida.

I spend a lot of time at hotels and conference centers, because I speak often on marketing subjects, so I’m hard to impress. The Ritz on Vanderbilt Beach Road impressed me, though.

We pulled up behind a line of about 43 cars, and I figured we’d miss the first part of the program. I was wrong! The smiling valet attendants raced through the parking lot moving cars and waving to people at breakneck speed.

We got seated on time and the wait staff was charming, and efficient. The bathrooms were large, clean and stocked with fluffy towels, potpourri and lovely soaps.

The whole experience was “exemplary”. I wish I’d written down the names of the Ritzy people I met that day because when I got back home to the less civilized (but more entertaining) side of south Florida I read The Wall Street Journal and came across an article about a new website and mobile app called Tello (“Easy Ways to Gripe About (or praise) Service”).

On Tello (click here), you can find businesses near you, or you can do a search (let’s say for Italian restaurants), and it will name them and give you reviews.

You can write your own reviews too, and mention the people by name and give them a thumbs up (or down). It also enables the company to contact you if they want to have a second chance at your business or thank you for something nice you’ve said.

It’s kind of like Consumer Reports in real time.

If you get a chance to check Tello out, please let me know what you think. Is it a winner? loisgeller@loisgellermarketinggroup.com

Nothing we do is Off the Shelf

Posted on August 30, 2010 by Lois Geller

Nothing we do is Off the Shelf

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I want a lot of products/services customized for me, especially services. Who doesn’t?

The Lillian Vernon Catalog would personalize things from business card cases to leather desk sets to, well, just about everything. And you could always return them, no questions asked. Personalized means more than just your name on something, though.

For instance, I need a new couch, the just-right-for-me personalized couch, not too modern, not too plush, not too austere. The smart salesman at a Decorator Showroom listened and then showed me diagrams in a catalog where I picked the arms, legs, backing and pillows I wanted. Done! When I got home, I had a moment to relax, picked up the Wall Street Journal and, ta da, there was an article: “ ‘Custom’ is Customary. Entrepreneurs see rise in demand for Made-to-Order goods”.

This reminded me of the work we do in advertising/marketing agencies.

Years ago when I was President of Vickers & Benson Direct up in Toronto, the head and creative director of Vickers & Benson Advertising, our parent company, was a wonderful man named Terry O’Malley. Everyone who ever worked for or with him would follow Terry into the jaws of hell.

His mantra for the agency’s work was simple: Everything tailor-made, nothing off the shelf.

I shortened that to “Nothing off the shelf” and made it my mantra when I opened my own agency in New York and now here in Miami. It’s the only thing we’ve ever espoused that we took from someone else. Here’s the (very) shorthand version of how Nothing off the Shelf works:

1. Prospective clients tell us what they want to accomplish. (“Incremental sales from 1,000 new bank openings”)

2. They brief us on past programs and results.

3. We familiarize ourselves with the products(s) and market(s).

4. We develop a new plan to test against the previous one.

5. Then we execute and measure results.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of our business is that when we do lift response, it is almost never due just to the creative. Yes, it looks good and reads very well, but the real lifts usually come from all kinds of ideas: great new offers, new lists (and new segments and selects), perhaps a compelling Subject line on an email that begs to be opened. The most dramatic wins are in the dozens of details we test.

Yet a new client will be in this week who will ask to see other bank “creatives” we’ve done. Sigh.

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