This update of Elaine Cogan's classic how-to for effective public presentations ? whether at a council meeting, a Kiwanis club lunch or a professional event ? will show you how to overcome that worst of fears:The conviction that your knees will buckle, your throat will lock up, or? that you'll make your audience miserable. YCT group coverWhether you're facing your first presentation or you've been giving talks for years, Elaine's practical advice will help you excel in every public speaking situation ? even when you have no time to prepare. Learn to do excellent public speaking in any situation!

Forget the 10,000 hour rule— what if it’s possible to learn the basics of any new skill in 20 hours or less? Take a moment to consider how many things you want to learn to do. What’s on your list? What’s holding you back from getting started? Are you worried about the time and effort it takes to acquire new skills—time you don’t have and effort you can’t spare? Research suggests it takes 10,000 hours to develop a new skill. In this nonstop world when will you ever find that much time and energy? To make matters worse, the early hours of prac­ticing something new are always the most frustrating. That’s why it’s difficult to learn how to speak a new language, play an instrument, hit a golf ball, or shoot great photos. It’s so much easier to watch TV or surf the web . . . In The First 20 Hours, Josh Kaufman offers a systematic approach to rapid skill acquisition— how to learn any new skill as quickly as possible. His method shows you how to deconstruct com­plex skills, maximize productive practice, and remove common learning barriers. By complet­ing just 20 hours of focused, deliberate practice you’ll go from knowing absolutely nothing to performing noticeably well. Kaufman personally field-tested the meth­ods in this book. You’ll have a front row seat as he develops a personal yoga practice, writes his own web-based computer programs, teaches himself to touch type on a nonstandard key­board, explores the oldest and most complex board game in history, picks up the ukulele, and learns how to windsurf. Here are a few of the sim­ple techniques he teaches: Define your target performance level: Fig­ure out what your desired level of skill looks like, what you’re trying to achieve, and what you’ll be able to do when you’re done. The more specific, the better. Deconstruct the skill: Most of the things we think of as skills are actually bundles of smaller subskills. If you break down the subcompo­nents, it’s easier to figure out which ones are most important and practice those first. Eliminate barriers to practice: Removing common distractions and unnecessary effort makes it much easier to sit down and focus on deliberate practice. Create fast feedback loops: Getting accu­rate, real-time information about how well you’re performing during practice makes it much easier to improve. Whether you want to paint a portrait, launch a start-up, fly an airplane, or juggle flaming chain­saws, The First 20 Hours will help you pick up the basics of any skill in record time . . . and have more fun along the way.

In this delightfully witty, provocative book, literature professor and psychoanalyst Pierre Bayard argues that not having read a book need not be an impediment to having an interesting conversation about it. (In fact, he says, in certain situations reading the book is the worst thing you could do.) Using examples from such writers as Graham Greene, Oscar Wilde, Montaigne, and Umberto Eco, he describes the varieties of "non-reading"-from books that you've never heard of to books that you've read and forgotten-and offers advice on how to turn a sticky social situation into an occasion for creative brilliance. Practical, funny, and thought-provoking, How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read-which became a favorite of readers everywhere in the hardcover edition-is in the end a love letter to books, offering a whole new perspective on how we read and absorb them.

"You'll not only break the ice, you'll melt it away with your new skills." -- Larry King "The lost art of verbal communication may be revitalized by Leil Lowndes." -- Harvey McKay, author of “How to Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive” What is that magic quality makes some people instantly loved and respected? Everyone wants to be their friend (or, if single, their lover!) In business, they rise swiftly to the top of the corporate ladder. What is their "Midas touch?" What it boils down to is a more skillful way of dealing with people. The author has spent her career teaching people how to communicate for success. In her book How to Talk to Anyone (Contemporary Books, October 2003) Lowndes offers 92 easy and effective sure-fire success techniques-- she takes the reader from first meeting all the way up to sophisticated techniques used by the big winners in life. In this information-packed book you’ll find: 9 ways to make a dynamite first impression 14 ways to master small talk, "big talk," and body language 14 ways to walk and talk like a VIP or celebrity 6 ways to sound like an insider in any crowd 7 ways to establish deep subliminal rapport with anyone 9 ways to feed someone's ego (and know when NOT to!) 11 ways to make your phone a powerful communications tool 15 ways to work a party like a politician works a room 7 ways to talk with tigers and not get eaten alive In her trademark entertaining and straight-shooting style, Leil gives the techniques catchy names so you'll remember them when you really need them, including: "Rubberneck the Room," "Be a Copyclass," "Come Hither Hands," “Bare Their Hot Button,” “The Great Scorecard in the Sky," and "Play the Tombstone Game,” for big success in your social life, romance, and business. How to Talk to Anyone, which is an update of her popular book, Talking the Winner's Way (see the 5-star reviews of the latter) is based on solid research about techniques that work! By the way, don't confuse How to Talk to Anyone with one of Leil's previous books, How to Talk to Anybody About Anything. This one is completely different!

From the bestselling author of How to Talk to Anyone comes a book dedicated to helping business professionals at any level communicate for success on the jobYou face tough communication challenges every day at work, both in person and online—a toxic boss, backstabbing coworkers, office politics, and much more. Here are immediate, effective, eye-opening actions you can take to resolve those infuriating problems. You will find stories and examples drawn from corporate communications consultant Leil Lowndes’s more than 20 years of training business professionals, from entry-level new hires to CEOs. To succeed today, you must exhibit these crucial qualities, the 5 Cs:CONFIDENCE 10 ways to show your boss and colleagues you are 100 percent self-assured and can achieve whatever you want—and reinforce this image throughout your entire working relationshipCARING 14 strategies to demonstrate you care about your colleagues and the company because “people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care” CLARITY 12 techniques to get your ideas across clearly—and ensure you understand everybody you work withCREDIBILITY14 methods to win the trust and respect of everyone at your company—and impress people who find you on the web COEXISTENCE (WITH CRUEL BOSSES & CRAZY COLLEAGUES)21 tactics to confront the number one workplace nightmare and come out shiningPlus one final astonishing technique to guarantee success and happiness in your professional life. After you’ve mastered the unique “bag of little tricks” in this book, you will know How to Talk to Anyone at Work!

Different Minds are at work at the Abiding Light Sanitarium for the Mentally Ill. Ike The Preacher Ham is admitted there, to learn what the world needs to know to change minds and hearts, to help heal Planet Earth. Then, it is back to Mobile, to see how the Gospels help people make peace and harmony and get ready for Union. Join Earth Neighbors On Line www.earthneighborhood.com On-going adventures of your Mobile Neighbors, as they tackle the real problems and perils of our world. Join us in the hood, online, any time!

James Hesketh, motojournalist and motorcyclist in recovery, offers readers a rare inside look at the social and cultural history of motorcycling and the relationship between drug/alcohol use and recovery. An insightful, engrossing read that will resonate with those who can appreciate the fellowship of recovery and the road, whether or not they have ever ridden a motorcycle.

Following the threads of Nick Hutchinson’s extraordinary life and adventures, A Mingled Yarn weaves together theatre, farming, family, horses, social unrest, Shakespeare, drugs, manic depression, love and more. ​ Son of renowned actress Dame Peggy Ashcroft and master advocate Lord Jeremy Hutchinson Q.C. Hutchinson grew up around the greats of British Theatre. ​As a young adult in the sixties, deeply uncomfortable with the class structure into which he was born, his idealism and passion involved him in direct action in Europe he encountered revolutionary theatre practices and in Paris the student protests. His move to Canada-first to Montreal, a city in the throes of its own revolution-brought him finally to the Wild West, where he began to live his childhood cowboy dream. As artistic director of the horse-drawn travelling show, The Caravan Stage Company he mounted thought- provoking, audience - immersive productions under the open skies, later founding the Caravan Farm Theatre for farm centred shows- from a masked Animal Farm among real pig pens to a winter production of the Snow Queen on horse drawn sleighs and the first Caravan Shakespeare productions. A Mingled Yarn is a journey through modern theatre history. It is a testament to the power of theatre and the creative process-even when it borders on mania. But it is also a celebration of community and a simpler life, lived on the land. Hutchinson’s sweeping autobiography has broad appeal, particularly for creative people and theatre lovers, as well as those who find their peace in wide open spaces on the back of a horse.

Mission Driven: Moving from Profit to Purpose aims to help the jobseeker -- whether a student, a mid-career professional or a retiring Baby Boomer -- take advantage of the many career opportunities burgeoning in the non-profit sector by answering these questions and more: • Is now the right time for me to transition into the nonprofit sector? • Will my skills transfer to the nonprofit sector? • How do I even begin to move from the corporate to nonprofit sector? The nonprofit sector is changing to accommodate the enormous richness of experience all of these individuals can bring with them. This book endeavors to help each of them find their place in the new nonprofit sector.

In his latest book, John Russell Brown offers a new and revealing way of reading and studying Shakespeare's plays, focusing on what a play does for an audience, as well as what its text says. By considering the entire theatrical experience and not only what happens on stage, Brown takes his readers back to the major texts with a fuller understanding of their language, and an enhanced view of a play's theatrical potential. Chapters on theatre-going, playscripts, acting, parts to perform, interplay, stage space, off-stage space, and the use of time all bring recent developments in Theatre studies together with Shakespeare Studies. Every aspect of theatre-making comes into view as a dozen major plays are presented in the context for which they were written, making this an adventurous and eminently practical book for all students of Shakespeare.