Today’s success tip comes from Peter Sheahan.

Peter is regarded as a global expert on Generation Y. He has delivered more than 2,000 presentations to a combined audience of over 300,000 people in six different countries.

Are great public speakers made or born?

Both! I believe this is one of the biggest mistakes novice speakers make. They think that great speakers are simply made. They have been to some motivational seminar by Anthony Robbins or some other genius of the platform, where they learnt that if they modelled the right people they could do anything. In my opinion, nothing could be further from the truth.

No one ever became truly great by just modelling other people. The great ones focused on being themselves and they had enormous talent and a natural disposition for the area of speech and performance. You can’t teach that. You can’t model that. Sure you might get good, maybe even very good, by practising the skills and modelling other speakers but you will never become great, or as I like to say, ‘insanely great’.

While I believe passionately in the concept of modelling and self-empowerment through audio material and seminars, the simple truth is this - people have strengths and weaknesses. The key is to focus on your strengths. If they are in speaking then with practise and skill acquisition you will be great. If this is not where your strengths lie then you may one day become good or even very good, but never great.

I wanted to create ideas that changed people’s lives and all of a sudden my work became my life. Work becomes play because when you are ‘in the zone’ you do not know the difference.

Find your zone and immerse yourself in it. Maybe yours is to be a parent, maybe it is to be a missionary, maybe it’s to be the best damn accountant the world has ever seen. Or maybe it is to be a speaker. Whatever it is, find your talent and exploit it.

This website contains even more great tips from Peter Sheahan.

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Today’s success tip comes from William Scott.

With over 500 employees across Australia, William”s hands-on and accountable nature has seen him win contracts with some of Australia”s largest multinational companies including News Limited, Integral Energy, Optus and many more.

What are your top tips for writing a successful media release?

1. What do you want to say? Develop your key messages and ensure they are newsworthy. The newsworthiness of a story is judged by:

* proximity

* timeliness

* impact

* conflict

* prominence

* currency

* human interest

* the unusual.

2. Make sure you wait until you have something of substance before you issue a release.

3. Keep the release short and succinct - ideally it should be no longer than one page.

4. Ask yourself how people will relate to and connect with your story.

5. Remember when you pitch a story, journalists are seeking the answers to who, what, when, where, why and how.

6. Use the ‘pyramid’ approach for writing releases - the main news summarised succinctly in the first paragraph and other information, in descending order of importance, in the following paragraphs. This makes it easier for editors to cut out information.

7. Refrain from using superlatives or descriptors such as ‘pleased’, ‘excited’, ‘exceptional’ and ‘unique’.

8. Include a quote from a person, identifying them by name and title and putting their comments in quotation marks.

9. Provide as much contact information as possible - contact person, address, phone and fax numbers, email and website addresses.

10. Make sure spelling and grammar is correct - get someone else to proofread your release.

This website contains even more great tips from William Scott.

Today’s success tip comes from Lyn Summers.

Having overcome a battle with cancer, Lyn travelled to the US to learn how to trade the stock market. She then co-founded Stock Course and has enjoyed consistent returns of 2-6 per cent month.

What do you think are the essential qualities of a successful share market trader?

Discipline - successful share market traders develop trading plans and have the discipline to stick to them. If they don’t, they lose!

Patience - new traders often make the mistake of over-trading. They think they need to be in the market at all times. That’s not right. Successful share market traders understand that when the market is choppy and they’re not sure what it will do next, the smart thing to do is to sit on the sidelines and wait. Successful traders also let trades come to them. They watch for the right set, and wait until all of their criteria are lined up. They don’t anticipate!

Perseverance - every trader has losses and anyone who tells you otherwise is kidding you. Successful traders learn from their losses, dust themselves down and get back into it. This is why it is a good idea to paper trade in the beginning until you get it right.

This website contains even more great tips from Lyn Summers.