I thought
you might want to share in some of the great takeaways and ideas I noted during
the morning sessions from four of my favourite sessions. I’m still buzzing from all the energy, ideas and inspirational women.
This Women’s Inspire Network Annual event
was hosted by the amazing Samantha Kelly, @tweetinggoddess and founder of www.womensinspirenetwork.com and sponsored by some heavy weights
like Aer Lingus and Tour America and MC was the always polished Alison Comyn
@alisoncomyn.
The quality at the Women’s Inspire Network Annual Event of all the speakers and their content and tips for business and life were
outstanding. I was very proud to be in a
room full of inspirational women in business – mostly entrepreneurs like myself. The theme was ‘Self Care’ in business and
each presenter had a unique story to tell along with their latest tips and
tricks for business.
Linda Coyle
@spk_w_impact presented on’Public Speaking: Feel The Fear
And Say It Anyway’
She shared some techniques that everyone can do to help cope with
‘wanting to run away’ when faced with public speaking or other fears.
1. Be in touch with your body
Linda did a live scanning technique
with the audience where you can learn to scan through every element of your
body to be tuned into any pain or tension.
This exercise helps you to feel more centered, balanced and
empowered. When you feel more in control,
you are less likely to have a quivering voice or lose your train of thought.
2. Re-frame ‘nervous’ as ‘excited’
Nervous is synonymous with fear whereas ‘excited’ is associated with
‘looking forward to’.
3. ‘Hey fear – bring it on!’
Try to face your fears by allowing some of the symptoms to accelerate
(sweaty palms, heart racing, feelings of nausea). There is a point where they will stop. You recognise they are unpleasant feelings
and you get to a point to be able to resist and stop them. You achieve then a state of flow and
confidence to deliver your talk or whatever.
Linda Coyle
has more to say here in her LinkedIn Article:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-feeling-nervous-can-help-you-speak-better-linda-coyle/
Susan
Carroll @ScalaAdvance presented on ‘Stop being busy, start being
focused’.
MD of
Scala-Advance – works with international teams & leaders on vision,
culture, complex change, creativity, innovation & resilience. ‘Lead yourself, to lead others’.
‘Time
management is not about time!’ It is
all about setting priorities and boundaries.
Her
three essentials to ‘stop being a busy fool’ :
1.
Create a VISION
for your job (and dreams).
This gives legitimacy to your efforts.
2.
Give yourself
DAILY SANCTUARY.
This is essential for self care. Whether you take a few minutes out to enjoy
nature or exercise at the gym, it will help you to contemplate your vision for
your business. Question yourself – ‘is
everything you are doing focussed on your vision for your business?’
3.
PROTECT your
BOUNDARIES
Say ‘strategic NO’s’ to be able to say YES to the worthwhile
stuff.
4.
DISCIPLINE –
underpinning the other 3 essentials
Protect your boundaries and make sure you have your quiet
time.
Observing these elements will enable you to experience
CHANGE and FOCUS.
Grainne O’Donovan @DouglasLawSols spoke about data protection issues getting more
serious for small business owners (an indeed all businesses) with the GDPR on
the way by May 2018. We will all have to
be very careful about EXACTLY what kind of communications we send to our
customers and contacts. We must have the
correct opt-in’s from them first.
Grainne
advised to put a checklist in place – know the rules and be aware of what to do
with the data in your database!
She also advised that your
solicitor can become part of your team and can be just as important as your
accountant. If you plan ahead, you save a lot in the long run,
especially if things go wrong. It is always wise to plan for the worst case scenario
and have plans in place for :
· sudden illness or
injury
· being incapable to
make decisions yourself
· ensuring power of
attorney
· who has the spare key
and alarm code! it happens!
Fiona
Catchpowle @fionacatchpowle (Twitter) @askcybergran (Facebook) gave a memorable
and energetic presentation on Facebook Tips for the Female Entrepreneur
Fiona
did a number of live demonstrations involving the audience too. Her 5 top tips to improve your Facebook page
and get more business were:
1.
‘ABOUT’ PITCH
Write the most amazing content for your ‘About’. This is the introduction to your page. What you do, where and why. Then in the detailed description section –
tell more about your story. Pretend you
are being interviewed and give your best pitch ever.
2.
FIND YOUR TRIBE’S
LANGUAGE
Facebook is about people who go to Facebook to connect. Adapt your business dialect to their
language. All businesses are different
shapes and sizes – so see what suits your business best. Share pages and
content from other pages on your page – connect and network with your local
businesses too.
3.
MOBILE MATTERS
Everyone is using mobile now to browse, research and more –
much more than on desktop. So see what your page looks like on mobile and each
of your posts. Make sure you are using the right size images and text and bits
do not get chopped off in the mobile view!
4.
LIGHTS, CAMERA,
ACTION
Make the most of the power of video – Facebook Live is so
effective. You do not always need to be on camera yourself. Film around you,
your services, products and more.
5.
BE YOURSELF
The content has to come from and ‘be’ you to personalise
your voice and brand.
Some
Ninja Facebook Strategies and Tips
1.
The value is more in the ‘POST LIKE’ not the ‘PAGE
LIKE. Avoid asking people to ‘like’ your
age – ask them to ‘look’. If they are interested in your content they will then
like and follow you so you don’t have a bunch of ‘vanity metrics’ – where loads
of mates have liked your page but at the end of the day will never see your
content in their feed as they are not interested in the actual content of your
posts!
2.
Utilise the SHOP or SERVICES feature. When you create a post about that service or
product you can then tag the service or product! You will see a little carosel of images under
your post.
3.
Use the built-in call to action buttons on each post e.g.
‘call now’, ‘Shop now’ etc.
4.
Add the MESSAGE feature to your posts to encourage
engagement and questions from your customers.
I’m
sure all the other presentations were amazing too and apologies in advance to
the other presenters for not mentioning them here. I only attended for a few hours.
As a new
member of www.womensinspirenetwork.com I was able to get 20% off the
ticket admission for the Women’s Inspire Network Annual Event– but even at full cost, it is amazing value. It is one of the best perks of this
membership.
Highly
recommend joining www.womensinspirenetwork.com for the inspirational women and attending
their events.
http://www.myapp.ie
https://www.facebook.com/MyLoyaltyApp.ie/
http://www.twitter.com/lisa_myapp_ie
@lisa_myapp_ie