Jeff Klein and better 30-second commercials than you've ever imagined

Jeff Klein has spoken to a couple of networking groups that I belong to, and every single time I learn so much! His talk at the Southlake Chamber Friday morning Leads group was about 30-second commercials, and his suggestions are amazingly simple yet amazingly astute.

His advice: First, make it about the listener. Duh. Since that's what I do all day in everything I write (and what I gently suggest to everyone I work for or work with), you might think that would have occurred to me already. Not so much, actually. Simply construct your commercial to focus on the people who are hearing it, not on yourself.

Secondly, ask for something specific. My favorite quote from his talk:

If you tell me who you're looking for, specifically, I probably know someone I can introduce you to. If you say, "I want to meet everyone you know," I can't help you.

And, finally, ask for one thing. Let people know you want to meet school principals or small business owners who want to start blogs or plumbers who work in Watauga. Whatever. A bonus — a really great bonus if you attend a number of networking functions or attend the same ones regularly — is that your 30-second commercial isn't the same every time. Think about all the commercials you've heard over and over, to the point where you really don't have to listen any more to know what they're about. Having something different to say each time will keep people listening longer!

At our meeting, Jeff helped a couple of people with their commercials.






Jeff also had a couple of great offers for us. His tele-seminar, "Networking Your Way to Success," a six week course for up to ten people, begins again on 9/30. He guarantees exponential results within 90 days of implementing the system he teaches in the course. Sign up here.

He's also conducting a 90-minute "30 Seconds to Success" workshop, which will continue the work he started in this talk. Everyone in the workshop will get detailed one-on-one help with their commercial. He's been kind enough to offer a special price for those of us at the meeting (or any other Southlake Chamber members). The workshop is normally $97, but we can sign up for $75. The 30-Seconds to Success workshop is scheduled for 10/23, and we need two more people to register for it. I myself actually won this workshop, so I'm really anxious to get two more people signed up!

Get in touch with Jeff, or contact me if you have any questions about any of this. I highly recommend his workshops, and he's a great speaker!

Thanks again, Jeff!

Jeff was great!

Jeff Klein was great this morning! I've heard him speak before, on this same subject, and I still learned a lot. He's a very organized speaker, presenting a lot of information in a short period, in a way that's easy to understand. If you can get him to talk to your organization, do it!

I'll be posting some video clips and sound bites from both Jeff and Erin Steed. Stay tuned!

Comparative complaint

Okay, I try not to get on my soapbox too often. I'm not actually the grammar police. But I have to say something about this. Lately, for no apparent reason, English-speaking people seem to have forgotten that our language actually has two ways of creating comparative (and superlative) forms. You create a comparative by adding "-er" or put "more" before the word. Here's the problem: you don't get to just pick whichever way you feel like doing it. There is a correct form, and there is an incorrect form! There's a veritable epidemic of otherwise intelligent people — particularly on broadcast news shows — using the "more" form for everything.

It is not EVER

• more happy
• more easy
• more cool
• more old
• more tall.

And by the same token, it's never

• moderner
• effectiver
• beautifuler
• expensiver
• intelligenter.
  

The rule of thumb is that one-syllable words, and two-syllable words that end with 'y,' use "-er." Other two-syllable words, and words of three syllables or longer, get "more." Got that?

And while we're at it, keep your quotation marks on the outside of your punctuation. For heaven's sake, it makes you look Canadian!