Stage Fisher

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I am going to show you three specific ways to overcome your public speaking fears, but first you need to believe that the fear and nervousness you are experiencing CAN be overcome.

1. It is normal to be nervous and even fearful before getting up to speak in public. Most great actors feel nervous before going on stage; world class athletes are nervous before a big event so don't feel that you have to be fearless!

If you can accept that your nerves are a normal response and not unusual in any way, then you start to release the tension and allow yourself to function effectively. Because fear is a normal physiological response that releases adrenaline into your bloodstream - preparing you for the fight or flight response - you can harness the help you are being given.

Adrenaline heightens your responses and gives you the extra 'lift' to give of your best.

2. Work out where your fear of public speaking comes from. With most people it is a fear of appearing foolish - nobody wants to look daft - so preparation is the key. Your self-esteem is a powerful mantle and you don't want to lower it by exposing yourself to laughter or ridicule.

You may feel that the audience won't like you - in fact they are probably more supportive than you may think. You may be worried that the audience will not like your speech or value the content of what you have to say.

Aim for approval from your audience and you will find yourself well pleased too; but never at the expense of compromising the truth of the message you deliver.

3. The audience knows nothing of your fears; audiences like this have seen many speakers before and are looking forward to hearing your speech. Because they are 'neutral' all you need to do is hide your nervousness and act the part of an accomplished speaker.

Think about speakers YOU have seen before; how did they look and act. COPY THEM! Now bear in mind why you have been asked to speak; keep your material simple but to the point and focus on what you believe the audience needs to understand.

Put their needs before yours and you will be assured of giving a great speech.

These three ways to overcome your public speaking fears will soon have you saying "I enjoy giving a speech, and I'm actually good at it."

Peter Fisher is an expert Author and Publisher of Public Speaking Courses When you follow these Three Ways to Overcome Your Public Speaking Fears you can move on and build your skills anytime you like.

Power of Husk and Global Funding in Bihar Villages

There are two unique propositions in Husk Power Systems: The manner in which the entrepreneurs are creating a rural electricity grid in Bihar villages using rice husk and two, the manner in which they have raised funding, the most recent being a $250,000 seed round after competing against over a 1,000 competitors to win the Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Cisco-sponsored Global Business Plan Competition.

   First came the entrepreneurs in Gyanesh Pandey, a BS, Electrical Engineering, IIT Varanasi, teamed up with Ratnesh Yadav, a serial entrepreneur from Patna, who did his BA from Delhi University in 1997 who came up with a plan to electrify villages in rural Bihar with generators powered by rice husk. Rice husk, the outside of rice kernels, have traditionally been removed and discarded before rice is transported. However, when rice husk is heated it releases energy and HPS has developed technology that filters the released gas and runs this through a diesel-like engine to generate electricity.

     The silica, which is a waste product when rice husk is burned, is also sold to concrete manufacturers. HPS owns and operates 35-100 kW “mini power-plants” that deliver electricity as a pay-for-use service to villages of 2,000 to 4,000 inhabitants in the Indian Rice Belt. HPS' five pilot projects - which electrify five villages using three power plants - have become operationally profitable within six months. The community-based systems are a relatively small, off-grid system. However, this project would have stayed small but for the entry of two people into the HPS fold: Manoj Joshi and Chris Ransler. Manoj was a typical software success story, having worked with Intel as a microprocessor designer, leading teams of 15 designers and holding 10 U.S. patents after completing his BS from IIT Varanasi . Chris, on the other hand, was the co-founder and CEO of Topik Solutions, Inc. a software firm.

 The stage was set for the second unique proposition: raising funds in a market that was not only going slow on green technology but had probably never heard of Bihar, and if they had, would possibly be bemused about the prospects of recovering electricity dues from villages in the state. In a move that paid off, Husk Power System entered competitions that fell in the domain. In 2008, they picked up the first place in the Dell Social Innovation Competition and a cheque of $50,000. While the award had a bit of hyperbole in claiming that Husk Power Systems provided power to "millions of rural Indians", it put HPS squarely in the running for bigger things and help realize the dream of having more and more villages. Their funding has had a rich picking of awards. COllege business plan competitions have resulted in over $100,000 in prize money, including $50,000 for Social Innovation Competition at the University of Texas, $35,000 for second place at MIT’s Ignite Clean Energy competition, and a $10,000 from the University of Virginia.

    Shell Foundation soon followed with a grant and it was just a matter of time before Venture Funds followed. A few weeks back, leading global venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) and Cisco today announced Husk Power Systems as the winner of their first co-sponsored Global Business Plan Competition for university and business school students. Husk Power Systems will receive a $250,000 investment from DFJ and Cisco to help take the company to the next stage. Reports <a href="http://www.justinvested.com">Just Invested</a>

About the Author

Connecting the world of finance, private equity, venture funds and angel investors to Indian enterprise, deals and acquisitions.

Toys for a Three to Four Year Old Boy?

My son is three, coming up for four. I'm a single Mum, Dad is around but he babies our son, and my previous experience of kids is all girls! Now my son's coming out of the baby stage, what toys are good for him? I've got cars, trains, Lego and craft stuff but want a few other bits for him. I have no idea what kind of action figures I should be replacing the recently depart Fisher Price Little People with or how to introduce a bit of variety into his obsession with toy diecast cars.

I found these two websites that have really cool toys! The first one has more educational toys and is arranged by intrest (i.e. firefighters, fairies, pirates), activities (arts and crafts, books) and classic toys (dolls, blocks). http://www.playfairtoys.com/

The second site has a lot more toys but they are less unique than the first site. It is organized by age, category and brand.

http://www.mastermindtoys.com/store/default.asp?rd=370021999

Good luck!

Local group takes Lincoln Center stage this weekend
RACINE - A local choral group departed Thursday for New YorkCity to perform at the Lincoln Center, a renowned hub of classicalmusic. The group's conductor said they will likely be the firstgroup from Racine to ever appear on stage there.

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