Voxy Lady Magazine

‘Inspiration from the Female Voice’

VOXY LADY MAGAZINE VOL 1 ISSUE 1

November 23, 2011

In this issue Persistence - Attitude - The Power of Female Voices in the Workplace Looking For a Job in Tough Economic Times Professional Voice Skills for Women

Voxy Lady Women’s Speaker Bureau – Online Magazine full of inspiration and How to Do’s

Photo by Zahrina Photography

www.voxylady.com.au

VOXY LADY MAGAZINE VOL 1 ISSUE 1

November 23, 2011

Welcome to the first issue of Voxy Lady Magazine.

The magazine has been produced to share with you some great advice by the speakers, mentors, coaches and entrepreneurs who are represented by Voxy Lady. We will aim to deliver to you quality articles and advice each month.

This month I have invited contributions Kerri Pottharst, Karen Schmidt, Kim Seeling-Smith, Shannon Dolan and myself, who are all available to speak at your event or train your team.

Recently I represented Voxy Lady at the Stevie Awards in New York as a finalist in the Women Helping Women Category. Although Voxy didn’t win the award it was a great honour to have been nominated as a finalist.

Deb Carr, Managing Director Voxy Lady Women’s Speaker Bureau

Are you start up?

Speaker? Consultant?

Small Business? Then Voxprint can help you with your branding and quality printing QUICKLY!

www.voxylady.com.au To contribute: dcarr@voxylady.com.au

The power of female voices in the workplace – Karen Schmidt The Times published an article a while back that proves the Prince of Wales was right all along. Plants really do like it if you talk to them. What he did not know is that they prefer to hear a woman’s voice. These are the conclusions of a month long study by the Royal Horticultural Society into the effect of the human voice on tomato plants. More than two decades after the Prince exposed himself to ridicule for saying it was “very important” to talk to plants and that “they respond”, horticulturalists believe his hunch was correct. The guys at Mythbusters also agree. When they looked into this urban myth in 2004 the verdict was “plausible”.

So how does this research help us in the workplace? Well, you can draw some parallels with female leadership styles. We have been talking for a while now about the feminisation of leadership and not just from the point of view of having more women as leaders but also of male leaders adopting a more humanistic approach. We are starting to see more of that but we still have a long way to go. I know in my business I am often called upon to facilitate potentially volatile meetings because my clients realise that putting a woman in charge can neutralise some of the animosity in a group, especially when large numbers of men are involved.

However, here is an interesting point to note. Whilst we may be hearing more female voices in senior leadership roles, there is a concern that their style and content is often very masculine. It seems that many women who have made it to the top feel they need to adopt male characteristics to be accepted. So are we really hearing women’s “real” voices or are we missing out on their unique characteristics due to the heavy male influence in the boardroom?

With a potential election looming, it is interesting to ponder how Julia Gillard has handled this dilemma. Her highly stage managed debate with Tony Abbott to many people demonstrated she was losing her real voice in favour of a carefully crafted replacement. Then the turnaround came when she declared that she would come out from behind the shackles of her media advisors and reveal her real self. Only time will tell if this strategy (which some people claim was a deliberate move) will work for or against her.

If Julia Gillard and other women in positions of influence find it difficult to harness the power of their voice then how is it for women at other levels of the organisation? Would you say that women have a true voice in your organisation, occupation or industry? What can you personally do to make sure that women’s voices are heard in the Australian workplace?

Karen Schmidt from Let’s Grow! describes herself as a workplace gardener who is on a mission to grow managers into engaging leaders.

Find out more about Karen by visiting her page on our website Karen Schmidt

VOXY LADY MAGAZINE VOL 1 ISSUE 1

Am I Persistent or am I a Pest? By Deb Carr Ask my daughters or significant people in my life and they will tell you the latter, however, ask my client’s and they will tell you persistent.

How many stories have you already heard of people never giving up? Take J.K. Rowling for example, rejected by 12 publishers before a small publishing house picked it up. What if J.K. had given up? I bet those other publishers have never been able to let go of the fact they missed out on millions of dollars. Maybe your prospects who have rejected you will end up kicking themselves when their competitor uses your service and increases business.

Persistence is the ability to keep going after rejection after rejection and after rejection, and the majority of people give up all too early.

One of the things I say to myself when I am prospecting is “If I don’t make this call, I bet my competition is”. Or what if you are thinking, the economy is bad no one wants what I am selling? Well the good news is that a lot of your competitors have thought that and given up…..what a great opportunity for you to home in on their clients!

As a recruiter with a focus on sales and marketing I have never been able to understand why companies retrench the sales and marketing departments in tough times. However, that seems to be the norm and my advice to you if you are in sales and have found yourself out of work, use your skills to find out what pain companies (or people) are feeling in hard times and find a solution. Who knows you could find yourself in your own profitable business.

In my case, I left a full time secure role in Executive Recruiting to start up a recruitment business in a recession. You are probably thinking “That was dumb” and my reply is “No, we saw an opportunity because we had so much more value added services to provide and we knew if we persisted we would make it happen”. So in selling, the decision is yours. You can be like the person who said that, “They were not going to try because no one is buying” or you can increase your activity and keep persisting because it’s all in the numbers.

November 23, 2011

So are you going to sit around and wait until the market improves or are you going to hit the floor running and never give up until you have earned that bonus that you really want?

So how do I persist in sales? I am talking about qualified prospects that could become a client or in other words “Hot Lead”   

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Research and establish if the prospect is actually a potential buyer Initial phone call and rejection (note in CRM) 4 weeks later I send an email with a relevant article or something newsworthy and set a date for next contact in 4 weeks 4 weeks later I send something in the mail, most likely a hand written card, article I have found out of a newspaper relevant to prospect 4 weeks later I phone again Now I try and invite prospect to an event I follow up after event or invitation Now I have a familiar relationship with the prospect and the rest is history

Then, and let me stress this, your job becomes a customer service representative and you always keep in touch with your client on a regular basis.

Whenever I place a candidate, I send cards to both client and candidate and make notes in my CRM to remind me to keep in touch on a regular basis. I always respect my candidates and treat them like my clients, because one day they probably will be a client.

Ways to keep your client’s feeling important are:          

Emails Letters in mail Hand written cards Vouchers for music, coffee, movies etc Christmas cards and gifts (maybe a donation to a charity on behalf of client) Invites to breakfasts etc (take them along to a networking lunch or breakfast as your guest) Christmas parties Client thank you parties (all your clients come to an event at the office) Whisky tasting nights Movie nights

VOXY LADY MAGAZINE VOL 1 ISSUE 1

November 23, 2011

Attitude is Everything – By Kerri Pottharst “The more I talk to athletes, the more convinced I become that the method of training is relatively unimportant. There are many ways to the top, and the training method you choose is just the one that suits you best. No, the important thing is the attitude of the athlete, the desire to get to the top.”

Herb Elliott, Three-time Gold Medal Middle Distance Runner Every negative event, whether a sporting loss, a heartbreak or a job frustration, brings with it an opportunity. Rather than wallow in the pain, pick yourself up and look for ways to make it better. You get back what you project. You’re a mirror of what life brings you.

You may not be able to choose the challenges that life throws at you, but you can always choose your response. And in the long run, success in life is not dependant on luck; it’s dependent upon the quality of your response.

In 2002, two years after having won Gold in Sydney, I decided to retire at the age of 37. My boyfriend and I had been together, off and on, for the past seven years and he’d finally decided that he was ready to settle down and start a family.

I announced my retirement to Natalie and we sadly parted ways. She took on a new partner for the next Olympics and I settled into what I thought would be a ‘normal’ life.

Little did I know that my boyfriend’s change of heart was to be short-lived. Within three months of supposedly starting our new life together, he left!

As you can imagine, I was devastated. I’d finally got what I thought I wanted. The idea of starting a family was special to me and I really thought he was the one.

Over the next few months I was at the lowest point I’d ever been in my life. Lower than when I’d wrecked my knee and assumed I’d never play again. It was like a death in the family. I was 37, alone and had just given up my chance of continuing on to another Olympics with Natalie Cook.

I definitely wasn’t much fun to be around, I can tell you that.

All I could do was talk about him, and cry a lot. Then came the moment that changed everything for me. I was in Melbourne, trying to have some fun with friends out on a ski boat off St Kilda beach. I was once again moaning about how bad I felt when my friend just looked at me and said “Kerri, it’s a long time in a pine box!”

At first I didn’t get it. And then it sunk in. The longer I had this attitude, the longer my life would remain exactly as it was. I would be lonely, miserable and blubbering all the time! No one wants to be with someone like that. And, it is a long time that we’ll all be lying in our coffins. Our time on earth is pretty short, so we’ve got to make the absolute most of it.

Thanks to my friend, I started to pull myself out of this black hole and decided I would be happy once more. At first I had to fake it, but eventually I made it. Not long after, I started seeing my wonderful husband, Max. I then decided I would make a brief comeback to compete in the 2004 Olympics with another partner. After that I finally retired and we had our beautiful son, Tyson.

There’s always a happy ending if you have the right attitude!

Read more about creating and maintaining a positive attitude, dealing with challenges and building an unshakeable self belief in my new book – The Business of Being an Athlete “Kerri’s book provides fantastic practical and useful advice on many levels. I believe everybody who reads this book will find information to enhance their chances of achieving success” – Catherine Freeman, Olympic Gold Medallist ABOUT THE AUTHOR Australia stood still as Kerri Pottharst served the ball at match point. Against all odds, Kerri and her teammate Natalie Cook had made it to the final for Gold. Now, face to face with the Brazilian Beach Volleyball team, everyone held their breath as Kerri served. The Brazilians couldn’t control the incredible speed of the ball and sent it flying back over the net and out!

Kerri had won the Gold medal at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. Despite career changing injuries, she had achieved the seemingly impossible… But for Kerri, she never had a doubt she could.

VOXY LADY MAGAZINE VOL 1 ISSUE 1

Looking for a job in Tough Economic Times?

by Kim Seeling Smith I’ve coached a lot of job seekers over the last 20 years.

Literally thousands! First as a Recruiter and now as a Career Coach. Looking for a job in a down market can be harder, certainly, than when times are good. But good market or bad, you can exponentially increase your success by getting specific.

Get specific about what you’re actually looking for When I work with job search clients I have them do three exercises before they even start to look for a job. First, I have them work out their personal goals. Why? Because your career should fit into your life. How do you know which career path to choose unless you know where you’re going in life? I then have them figure out what’s important in their career themselves (I have a tool I use for this) and the last exercise I have them do is to write down a list of specifics. This is arguably the most important exercise of the three.

Get specific about your resume I’ve reviewed over 150,000 resumes. I’ve debriefed thousands of hiring managers on what they like to see on resumes.

Resumes are extremely easy to get right, but very few people do. That’s because they concentrate more on what they did (duties and responsibilities) versus what they accomplished (achievements). Create an achievement based resume which lists specific, quantifiable and verifiable outcomes and you will amazed at the increase in your interviewing activity.

Get specific about your interview (part 1) Poor interviewing skills let so many candidates down simply because they are not prepared. Do your research. Know the company, understand the role you are interviewing for and figure out what kinds of questions they are likely to ask you.

Then come up with specific examples from your past to answer them. And I mean specific. Quote names, dates, and specific events. Talk numbers or other quantifiable results.

You’ll get much further along if you do this than speak in generalities.

Get specific about your interview (part 2) Remember that list of specifics you came up with in the first step above? Now it’s time to turn those specifics into interview questions that you ask them. Craft well thought out questions to elicit the information you need to determine if this role and company fit your needs. Whether or not your employed currently life is too short to make mistakes with your career. Once your really determine what you want and figure out how to determine if the jobs you’re interviewing for meet your needs our life becomes much happier and your level of stress is significantly reduced.

November 23, 2011

Specifically: 

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What do you want to do on a day to day basis? What kind of tasks or activities do you want to fill up your day? What would really excite you when you got up in the morning if you knew your day would be filled with that type of activity?

Who do you want to do it with? What are your coworkers like? How many of them are there? Do you work in a team or alone?

Who do you want to do it for? What’s your boss like? Is it you or someone else?

Where do you want to do it? What kind of company is it? Where is it located?

When do you want to do it? Do you want flexible work hours? Do you want to work part time or from home?

How much do you want to be paid for doing it?

And finally, why do these things excite you?

Not only does this help you to focus on what you’re looking for when you find it you will find that recruiters will be much more willing and able to help you and you will be much more attractive to employers. Searching for a job is a bit like dating.

No one wants you if you’re too flexible, to willing to comply, too wishy washy.

Get specific about your value This is probably the most important point I want to make.

Many people are afraid to approach employers or even their network of contacts directly, despite consistent statistics that show that over 80% of jobs are filled this way. The reason why so many people are afraid of this approach is that they don’t like to ask people for favours, which is what it feels like. This is where your value statement comes in. Write your 30 second elevator pitch. Take your achievements from your newly revamped resume and find the common theme. What value have you added to your previous employers? This tells your prospective employers how you can add value to them. This alone will dramatically change your mindset from one of, “Please Mr. / Ms. Employer help me find a job.” to “I’d like to speak with you about how I could potentially help you or someone you know with the intention of seeing if we could enter into a mutually beneficial arrangement.”

The devil might be in the detail. But your next job is in the specifics.

Get specific online There are so many great online tools you can use to search for jobs. You can register your resume with the job boards of course, you can (and should) create a great profile on Linkedin but there are also new business models coming along all the time that help candidates interview while they sleep. Figure out which ones are suitable for your level and your industry and then put yourself on each and every one.

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November 23, 2011

Kim Seeling Smith Kim Seeling Smith is a Sydney based, international consultant on Employee Recruitment, Engagement and Retention as well as Career Management after originally training as a CPA and Management Consultant with KPMG and spending 15 years as a recruiter in the United States, Australia and New Zealand. Kim is a co-author (along with Brian Tracy and others) of the book 101 Great Ways to Enhance Your Career available on Amazon.com. You can book Kim through Voxy Lady Women's Speaker Bureau.

Vox Recruitment is the parent company of Voxy Lady – visit us for your permanent recruitment and training needs. www.voxrecruitment.com.au

Debbie Carr, speaking at the Stevie Awards, New York Nov 2011

VOXY LADY MAGAZINE VOL 1 ISSUE 1

Is your voice falling on deaf ears? Professional

We are drawn to a voice that is warm, strong, passionate, interesting, and melodic. We move away from a voice that is strident, nasal, and flat. 38% of the impact we make face to face is the sound of our voice, and on the telephone it is just about everything. If that voice is one that people do not want to listen to, then they are definitely not hearing that great initiative you want to put forward or any message for that matter. It is certainly not about having a voice like a man or acting like a man in any way as far as I am concerned. There is great power in being a woman in business. But awareness of your “business voice� can support you in moving forward in your professional goals. Your voice is one of the most important business tools you have.

Bite into your consonants and open your mouth on your vowels. Create a clear sound. It does not matter what accent we have or what language we speak, these are unique aspects of ourselves; but we need to be understood.

5.

Remind yourself often to relax any areas of your body that are tense. Relaxation in the body creates a great sound that really travels with very little effort.

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Project your voice in meetings taking a breath and then sending your voice to the person you are addressing. Really see it travel outside your body and reach the others at the end of the table.

7.

Read the newspaper out loud. Concentrate on bringing the words to life. Be aware of the commas and full stops to give your speech a considerate and engaging pace.

8.

Read out loud to children to build melody and interest into your voice. No one stays engaged very long to a monotone voice.

9.

Yawn. Just not in front of your audience! Yawning is one of the quickest, easiest, and best ways of

Here are ten tips for enhancing and developing your professional voice: 1.

Breathe deeply into your diaphragm. Feel your ribs, waist, and back expand. Most people breathe rather shallowly into the upper chest. This gives a weak sound.

2.

As you exhale allow your sound to ride on the breath.

This will give it a sound that is connected and impactful.

3.

Hum in the shower, with the radio in the car, around the house, and feel the vibration in the face and body as you do. This is the resonant part of the voice.

Develop it and connect to it to have a warmer tone.

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4.

Voice Skills for Women by Shannon Dolan In business, I do not believe there are necessarily a lot of gender differences. There is one area however where there is, our voice. Men, due to their physical structure often produce a voice with greater depth, volume, and resonance. Women due to their physical structure often produce a voice that is lighter, softer, and finer. This causes some problems for women and I have been called in many times to work with women where their voice is actually getting in the way of them moving forward in their career. Their voice may sound too young, too unconvincing, too whiny, and to be honest their voice is being tuned out.

November

warming up your voice and giving it a great sound. It relaxes you as well.

10. Consider your words and what you are saying. Words have meaning. Words are beautiful. Words can move mountains.

Shannon Dolan works as an executive coach, trainer, and keynote speaker. She specialises in corporate performance skills, elite presentation skills, and personal branding. She has had great success coaching women of all levels ranging from Managing Director to Graduate level at such firms as Citibank, Commonwealth Bank, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Cochlear, and Oracle Corporation.

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November 23, 2011

About Voxy Lady Women’s Speaker Bureau Our expert women speakers come from all areas of business, politics, finance, women leaders, marketing, sales, communication, customer service, inspiration, motivation, networking, team building, health, fitness, family, networkers, time management, business owners, entrepreneurs, authors, indigenous and corporate speakers. In 2011 Voxy Lady was chosen as a finalist in the 2011 Stevie Awards in the category "Women Helping Women".

www.voxylady.com.au