Here are four questions for you:

1.Do you find it challenging to answer the question, “What’s your Unique Selling Position (USP)?”
2. Do you talk about the features of your product or service verses addressing the benefits by answering (before they ask) “So what’s so good about that?”
3.Do you discount your actions or accomplishments with statements like, “Oh that, it was nothing”?
4.Do you believe it is vanity to think you are something special – that you have a talent or gift unique to you and no one else can do exactly what you do?

If you answered yes to any one of those questions – keep reading.

In business it’s important to highlight those things that set you apart from others in your industry. In the past 30+ years I’ve worked with hundreds of individuals, in many different arenas, getting them to see how they are “unique”.

I had a revealing dream wherein I was hanging out in an old shanty looking at photos of several of our female relatives and they were in full dress green Marine Corps uniforms. I remember thinking, I know this person and she hadn’t been in the Marines, so I asked when she had enlisted. The person I was talking with answered me “she went in just a few years ago”. Hmmm. The problem was she was a grandmother.

I woke up reviewing. In reality, none of my female relatives served in the military. Yet, there I was, going through these dream pictures looking at them as Corporals’ and Sergeants’ doing things that I, a Former Marine had done myself.

The dream was about the desire to discount what I do. The “oh that was nothing” statement when someone delivers a compliment. There have been times that I was extremely uncomfortable with the question “what makes you unique”. Over the years I have realized that I was NOT unique in that “discomfort”.

Often times in the discomfor of expressing our uniqueness we fall back to these template driven statements – the elevator speech, or Audio Business Card, that sounds like one of these:

“Hi I’m Jane/John Doe and I am a therapist / coach / chiropractor..” OR
” Hi I’m Jane/John Doe and I paint houses / design websites / teach computer skills…” OR
” Hi I’m Jane/John Doe and I sell health / skin care / home care products (by brand name if they feel the brand is a strong hook)…”

We then proceed to tell every feature our product provides. And even the slowest elevator isn’t enough time to get…e v e r y t h i n g…in.

I know. I’ve done this too. In truth, our reaction is , “So what?” You provide “quality service”, “excellent products” . . . and so do a thousand other people.

We still have avoided the key element – what makes YOU unique for promoting that product.

In Deepak Chopra’s book, The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, he writes that the 7th Spiritual Law is the “Law of Dharma”. In short, that law says when you combine your unique talent with service to humanity you make full use of the Law of Dharma. Your actions, coming from a place of your unique talent(s) bring about wealth. This wealth is manifest in various ways including health, spirit, relationship, and financial.

My friend, Chellie Campbell, a well-known author on creating weath, could be classified as a Financial Coach. If you saw her as just that you’d miss the mark. Looking deeper into her USP, Chellie helps thousands with her unique, insightful and heartwarming approach to money, different than any other financial coach. She is abundantly successful today by being honest and totally “Chellie” down to her gold and jeweled tennis shoes, in addition to serving others with her “USP”.

It is not vanity to know that you are special. It is not ego (Edging God Out) to move through life as if you are unique. Even Christ said “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” Somehow, along the way, I like many others, massaged that statement into the idea that I am to abase myself. I must be sure that others see every good thing I do as a “work of God” and every bad thing I do as a result of my humanity or “humanness”. I am not advocating the “glorification of man” just that we were told to let OUR light/work shine. In that simple act – God is glorified. It is in this “uniqueness” that we are all the same.

Spend some time today, tomorrow or as long as it takes, getting to know what makes you unique. What is it that you have to offer, from the inside out, that makes you different from everyone else?

When you do that first – all of the beauty and success you desire will be yours.

Born to blind parents, Kira Wagner knows the only handicaps are those we place on ourselves. As the Co-Founder and President of Global Connections Networking Inc., you’ll find her speaking to audiences on personal and professional freedom. She is the author of Handbook For Freedom. Find out more at Global Connections Networking
and Freedom’s Formula

There’s a good chance that you’ve attended corporate events in the past, the good one’s look easy, everything just seems to flow and many people think “I could do that”. The truth is that you probably can do it but to make it a success you need precision planning, an eye for detail and the ability to problem solve before they arise!

So when you have a blank piece of paper and are thinking about your specific corporate event, you need to start very simply and ask what it is that you want to organise. It may be a conference, a team building event, evening entertainment or a whole host of different corporate functions but it’s vital that you are clear as to what your objectives are.

You then have to think about attendance levels, how many people are you going to invite and how many people do you think will actually accept and turn up on the day? This is crucial for selecting the right sized venue and event room within it, over estimate the numbers and your corporate event will look unpopular as your room will seem empty but under estimate and you could be left looking inefficient as seating and refreshments could be a problem.

Plan the date of your corporate events very carefully. Ensure that your critical guests can actually make the date before you extend the invitation to everyone. Avoid times that you know you will be competing against peak work or holiday commitments. Think about the actual day of the week that you host the event on.

The most popular day is a Thursday, you’ll most likely get a good turn out on a Thursday but you’ll also have more competition for your guests time on a Thursday. Mondays and Tuesdays are not so popular and you can often get a good deal from the venue on these days – weigh up what’s most important to your company.

Understanding your budget and what you can achieve with it is a crucial factor. Most often when you are considering corporate events, the old cliche of less is more is certainly the case. Better to offer less but of a higher standard than to offer lots of low quality elements because your guests will remember if something was of low quality.

Think about what you want your guests to take away with them from your event. Is it hard facts and information, is it a sense of team spirit and unity or is it the feeling that your company cares and offers good hospitality? Whichever lasting impression you want your guests to have, keep this in mind while planning your event and keep asking yourself, would this give a good impression to you as a guest?

These are really just the tip of the iceberg in organising a successful corporate event but hopefully it will set you on the right track when starting to organise your important function.

If you are looking to organise and run successful Corporate Events then look no further. Shaun Parker can provide you with all the required expertise.

Do you have the experience of feeling accepted, cared about, and important when you are with others, or are you worried about being rejected, forgotten, or abandoned?

Probably, like most of us, you feel comfortable and secure in some situations, and insecure and a little scared in others. A lot probably depends upon how connected you feel to the people you are with, and your past experiences with them.

Believe it or not, how you feel also is related to how you were treated when you were a small child.

If there was always a loving grownup to return to after you met the challenges of your world, you felt like you had what psychologists call a secure base. If you had this sense of security then, you expect to be able to recreate it whenever you need it, and you do so. If you didn’t, you have a harder job feeling comfortable in new situations.

We each need to feel like we have a secure base to return to in every situation. This base is created by our meaningful relationships with others. The more relationships you can rely upon, the more secure you feel. The more secure you feel, the easier it is to reach out and create new relationships.

If you are one of the lucky ones who feels an internal sense of security from childhood experiences, it’s easier for you than it is for some others to build new relationships.

If you are not one of the lucky ones, and especially if your early experiences taught you that others are untrustworthy or unreliable, you may feel less secure now. Creating a relationship, with a therapist or a professional coach can definitely help you learn how to connect more easily with others.

An important reason for belonging to any organization is to create a web of relationships where you feel accepted and appreciated – to create a secure base for yourself within the organization and within a community. When you know others and are known by them, you automatically turn to them when you need someone to help you solve a problem or provide a product or service.

Another reason for belonging is to make contacts that will aid you in your career or business. When you focus on creating relationships, this support seems to happen by itself.

Networking, deliberately meeting new people, is another way to connect with others. If you are not an experienced networker, or if you feel insecure about being accepted, you may be uncertain about the best way to make this happen.

When you are at a gathering you may feel tempted to only talk to the people you already know. Or you may think that because you are there to network, you should talk to as many new people as possible. You really need to do some of each in order to keep expanding your own secure base.

Remember, the thing you need is meaningful relationships, and meaningful relationships need to be nourished with repeated contacts in order to grow. Go ahead and get connected!

Communicate skillfully about sensitive subjects in business situations. Have the challenging conversations that lead to cooperation and success. http://www.DareToSayIt.com/blog
Laurie Weiss, Ph.D. is a Master Certified Coach and communication expert. Dr. Weiss has spent 35 years helping clients resolve conflict in business and personal relationships. Email feedback@laurieweiss.com