This is a guest post from Dan Janal.
If you’re a coach or consultant, you probably have an endless supply of free teleseminars hogging space on your computer, just waiting to be played one day. But that day never comes because you feel overwhelmed by all the files you’ve attracted.
Here’s how to make the most of listening to teleseminars and still getting your work done.
Here’s the story. You sign up for a free teleseminar but you can’t attend because of another meeting. Lord knows there are so many free teleseminars being offered today that you can’t attend every one of them, even though there is good information to be gleaned from them. So you download the MP3 file with every intention of listening to it.
Most coaches and consultants who offer teleseminars will let you download the MP3 so you can listen at your conv enience. After all, they want to build their brand and it doesn’t matter to them if you listen live or on a recording. So it is a win-win situation for everyone – if you listen to the call.
But many people don’t listen to teleseminar recordings because they get busy, they forget they have the recording or they don’t have time to devote a full hour to listening to a teleseminar.
And let’s face it. Some teleseminars contain more content then others. That’s a nice way of saying that some teleseminars have little content and lots of sales pitches so you feel you are wasting your time.
So before you open any teleseminar recording, you always wonder: “Will this be a good use of my time?”
Six Ways to Get the Most Productivity and Information from Teleseminars.
I listen to teleseminars nearly every day and I’m more knowledgeable as a resu lt. I’ve also listened to a few turkeys as well. But I’ve gotten the most from teleseminars by using a few techniques to make the best use of my time. Here are six ways you can be more productive.
1. Multitask. This is the first rule of getting the most from teleseminars. All the other rules pale in comparison to this. You cannot devote one hour to listening to one teleseminar and doing nothing else. I know some people might disagree with this, but there is so much filler and fluff and sales in teleseminars, that if you listen and do nothing else, you will have wasted 25 percent of the hour.
2. Acknowledge that there will be sales and bio and material you already know. Don’t get upset or disappointed. There’s a reason the teleseminar is free. The speaker and host want to make sales. They also want to help people and they know they won’t make sales unless they offer good content. So get over any irritation you might have when you hear the sales pitch. You can tune out if you like. But don’t throw out a perfectly good batch of information just because you don’t want to invest in the speaker’s services.
3. Listen with one ear on the teleseminar for good information, new perspectives and even reminders of info that you know. It reinforces good habits. But with the rest of your body, do the mindless work you know you need to do but doesn’t require any brainpower. For example, it’s a great time to clean up your office, sort files, enter bookkeeping records, do your nails or lift weights. It isn’t a good time to do complicated tasks like balancing your checkbook or writing a proposal or reading a book.
4. Keep a notepad handy. You will want to take notes on new info or reminders that pop into your head.
5. You might also want to write the time code of an interesting discussion in case you want to listen to that segment again. Sometimes speakers offer a meditation sequence that is helpful and you might want to listen to it again. Having the time code will save you time in finding that segment.
6. Accept invitations to any teleseminar that comes your way, even ones that might be a bit “woo woo.” You never know what you will learn. If it’s too far off the cliff, you can always delete the file.
If you follow these tips, you might find that you are smarter than you were before you listened to the teleseminar – and you’ll have more space on your computer!
Dan Janal is a very successful entrepreneur, professional speaker and marketing coach who helps clients build their businesses by improving their strategy for using publicity, marketing, Internet marketing, e-commerce and sales. For more information, go to http://www.prleadsplus.com
I did this last night as I painted illustrations. It was a teleseminar I’d heard before and so it was something I was familiar with. I’ve been studying John Kremer’s Blog Tour Palooza course and understood the audio better than I had when I first listened. I could listen and track with the content as I painted. Good advice, at least with these 2 combinations of activities it worked well.