Business Speaking Essential: Dust Off Your Enthusiasm!

Do you cringe when you hear an infomercial guy yelling with rollercoaster inflections in his voice? I know I do. He’s trying so hard to sound enthusiastic, but he just sounds annoying. All that hype-y up and down in his voice comes across as totally phony, doesn’t it? Enthusiasm Isn't Cool That 3 AM salesman is contributing to the bad rap given to showing enthusiasm. Plus, it’s not really cool to sound excited about anything. In fact, there’s a current trend in everyday talking (especially for younger women) to speak in a fast kind of monotone – no excitement whatsoever. Regardless of age or gender, if you’re speaking to clients without enthusiasm, you’re working against yourself in your business. I know you don’t want to do that. If you don’t sound excited about what you’re doing, how do you expect them to get excited? You Don’t Need To Fake It Expressing excitement about what you’re teaching or offering needs to be genuine. People want to listen to a real person speaking in an authentic way. That honesty helps create the relationship essential to doing business with someone. So don’t fake it. That doesn’t help you either. You want to activate your own energy and passion when you’re speaking. The word “enthusiasm” comes from the Greek “en theos” meaning “the god within.” So it’s your highest self, your own spirit that generates your deep enthusiasm about what you do. It’s always there in you – not something you need to manufacture or bring in from an outside source. It just hides from you sometimes. So Fire It Up I know – some days it’s easier than others to ignite your zeal (don’t you love that word?) for what you do. Here are some tips to help you out:

• Take the time to write down why you’re passionate about what you do and what your vision is for your business. Pull this out and read it to refresh your memory.
• Keep track of your wins in a notebook or online so you can use them as fuel. Include testimonials, sales you’ve made, new subscribers, new clients – you get the picture. Again, keep this wins journal handy to look at when you want a boost.
• If nobody’s around, read these things out loud to your imaginary friend, saying, “listen to this!”
• Jump up and down. Punch the air. Get your body into the act!
• Think of something completely different that gets you really excited and raise your overall level of spirits.
• Give yourself an old-school pep talk as if you’re your own athletic coach.
• When you’re on the phone, stand up and move around.

People really love enthusiasm, whether it’s trendy or not. It just plain feels good to be around somebody who’s excited and happy, doesn’t it? And people listen much more deeply to an enthusiastic speaker. They retain more of what they’ve heard because they felt good while they were hearing it. This is a great rapport builder, and raises the know-like-and-trust factor in your listener. So speaking with energy and excitement is a free marketing tool. Dust off your own enthusiasm when you’re speaking in any business situation.