2007-Aug-29 - Preparation For A Father Of The Bride Speech
What is the most important part of the father of the bride speech?
If you read the wedding planning and wedding speech guides, the focus is almost always on the bride's father proposing a toast to the newly married couple. There are many choices to guide the appropriate wording for the father of the bride to say a few wise and witty words as he draws attention to the happy couple as the focus of the wedding breakfast.
In fact the proposal of the toast is really rather a ritual, and almost any of the traditional and often used toasts will do. At that point most of the guests have already turned their attention to raising their glasses to the newly weds, and expect just a few brief but inspiring words from the speaker.
Some fathers may think the most important thing they have to say is the fatherly advice they offer in public to their daughter and her new husband. Often their daughter might think they would better spend their time telling a wedding joke to amuse the guests, for all the polite attention she is giving their "wise words".
No, I think the important part of the speech given by the father of the bride comes at his opening remarks. As the first speaker at the reception, the father of the bride, traditionally the host of the reception, has a vital opportunity to set the mood of the event. With two sets of families and friends coming together usually for the first time, there is a need to break the ice, and build some rapport and encourage the start of new friendships. Putting the guests at their ease, creating a sense of anticipation for the later speeches and stages of the reception, and building a happy mood of celebration can be the key to making the reception a successful and memorable event. It is really a leadership role, with the father of the bride playing the part of a good host who takes responsibility for how much his guests enjoy their visit.
If the father of the bride instead indulges in some side shots at his ex-wife, the groom, or the groom's family, the scene will be set for a tense and possibly unpleasant hour or two, and divert attention from the newly weds. The father of the bride has to remember the reception is not about him or his views - even if he has paid for it and expects a captive audience in return - it is about celebrating the marriage of the new couple among their families and friends.
No matter how well the father of the bride delivers the toast to the wedding couple, the reception will be off to a slow start if he has not successfully played the role of a good host in setting a celebratory mood and building some rapport between the guests.
Go to this link for a useful outline of the main steps to be covered in the father of the bride speech where there is also a link to more detailed sample speeches, wedding jokes and quotes and the wording of popular toasts. However, much of the success of the speech will be determined by how well the bride's father reads and creates the mood of the guests, without relying just on the written speech prepared in advance.
Here is another good outline for the wedding speeches father of the bride.
Often the role of host leads on to the father of the bride becoming the wedding master of ceremonies, and this link leads to an interesting discussion on whether the wedding MC for the reception.
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2007-Aug-21 - How To Get A Six Pack
Here is good news for all those people who want to get a six pack - or just a flat stomach - but just hate doing sit ups. Don't you find it's nearly impossible to keep your feet from coming up too when you try to sit up? And lets be practical - where, in most homes, can you really hook your feet properly under something without sending the furniture flying? Well, apparently sit ups are not a good exercise, after all. You can strain muscles and even do some damage to your back, especially if you are not very fit.
And those infomercial abs machines are not great either. They apparently don't exercise some of your stomach muscles because you get too comfortable lying on them.
So what's the answer?
David Grisaffi reckons the answer is to use an exercise ball - one of those Swiss balls. The point he makes rings true, I guess - you have to keep your balance, so you need to use more muscles than you do on most abs machines where you lie down. He has some routines that are a lot less stressful than traditional sit ups, but you still get great results. In fact, David really knows what he is talking about, and shows you just how to flatten your abs in his latest ebook, Flatten Your Abs.
There is more.
The other surprise for me also made sense.
For years it has troubled me that I can get quite fit, but there is no sign of a six pack.
Tom Venuto, a competitive bodybuilder, has an answer that also makes sense. He says it's all about nutrition. You have to cut back your body fat layer to define your muscles, and that's how bodybuilders get ripped abs. Before you get stuck into your exercises you need to eat in the right way if you want your six pack to emerge. Body builders have perfected this art, and may know more about how to do it than your doctor, as they cut back their body fat percentages when they are competing. Tom Venuto knows how they do it. It doesn't take a big step of imagination to realise how important this nutrition knowledge can be of great value to the rest of us as well. We may not want to go to the extremes of the body builders, but if we can use their methods to cut back on our body fat, that has to be helpful. Tom knows this, and has written an ebook for the rest of us - Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle. It has become a best seller.
What impresses me about what Tom has to say is that his approach is a change of lifestyle - new habits - not just a fad diet. There are certain foods you eat, some you drop and a pattern of eating that makes the difference, and makes for a permanent change for the better. He deals with the motivation issues as well, knowing that this is of critical importance to most of us who find it tough to change old habits.
David and Tom seem to me to offer the "real deal" answers, not some fly by night quick fix. Their recommendations could change your life ... for the better.
Here is an interesting interview between Tom and David.
And you should check out the free ebook by Tom, Skyrocket Your Fat Loss.Success.
There are more reviews on how to get a six pack here and more on burn the fat feed the muscle here.
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2007-Aug-17 - How To Be A Wedding Emcee
Being a wedding master of ceremonies (also known as a wedding MC or wedding emcee) is a critical role for the success of a wedding reception. The wedding emcee acts as the "chairman" for the reception, overseeing the sequence of events and making sure everything takes place smoothly as planned, and in the appropriate atmosphere of happy celebration.
While the wedding MC is in control of proceedings, it is very important that this control does not turn into dominance. The wedding MC is not usually expected to provide the entertainment for the reception, but to link one event to the next. A thanks to one contributor behalf of the guests is followed by an introduction to the following stage in the reception. A few light hearted words is all that is required to keep the reception on track.
Click on this link to read more about the role of being a wedding mc.
A wedding MC with a wealth of experience, Tom Haibeck, has written a popular book called Wedding Toasts Made Easy. It is now one of the top guides to the role of being a wedding MC, both as a book in bookshops, and available as a downloadable ebook.
Pete Miller is another very experienced wedding MC who has written a downloadable guide for emcees. It also covers the role comprehensively, and has even more help with the wedding emcee's speech obligations, with speech templates and a large choice of popular wedding toasts and jokes. You Can Be A Wedding MC is a very helpful guide for wedding MCs, especially those who need extra help with their speech, and want a good stock of wedding jokes.
Both guides are also of great value to wedding couples, who need to understand, at an early stage of their wedding planning, the role of the wedding MC - well before they choose who they would like to perform this role.
Learn more about wedding speeches and being a wedding MC.
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2007-Aug-16 - How To Do A Fun Family Magic Trick
Family gatherings, with people there of all ages, can be so much more fun if there is someone who knows how to so some entertaining magic tricks. This is especially helpful to keep the children as part of the conversation, instead of rushing off after dinner to the television or video game stations.
Knowing how to do a few magic tricks is a social skill that's perhaps less popular now in this electronic age than among earlier generations. They are often not hard to master, and usually well worth the effort. Having a clever and entertaining litle performance up your sleeve when things get quiet at a social function will impress your friends and family, and be remembered for a long time.
Instructions for a simple little entertaining family magic tricks can be found at this site: How To Do Magic Tricks. Anybody could easily carry this trick off, and impress people of all generations - and all you need is a paper bag!
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2007-Aug-1 - Ed Dale 30 Day Challenge Started
Ed Dale's 30 Day Challenge for internet marketers, to make $10 in 30 days starting from scratch, has started. It met the gold standard for a successful launch: the server blew up.
There is huge interest.
The theme is how to use web 2.0 to build your internet marketing business, all at no cost.
Communication comes in many levels, and I find you have to tune in carefully to spot the subtle messages flowing in the 30DC world - like the astonishingly powerful thing they have done to get others to promote the 30DC through Youtube. If you were tuned in early to what they were doing it was an absolutely amazing display of the internet product launch equivalent of military "shock and awe" tactics. Simple but stunning. Low cost, but "win, win" in its approach.
August is going to be a very educational month. If you are serious about growing your internet business you need to join a team and get involved. It should only take you one or two hours a day, though if you are anything like me you could find yourself spending quite a lot of additional time rethinking what you are doing, and how - and applying the insights you gain by watching very successful marketers at work for the betterment of your business.
Don't delay any longer - the Challenge has begun.
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2007-Jul-28 - Free Web Publishing Content Giveaway
Right now there is a massive giveaway of private label right (PLR) content going on, and available for anyone to download for no charge. You need to register, but that's all.
At my last count there were over 120 products to choose from, or you could just download them all!
Click on this link, and check them out ...
Free Private Label Rights Web Page Content Giveaway
You can edit PLR products to make them your own unique offering, to use as web site content, newsletters, ebooks, or whatever creative ideas you may have. This is a fast and relatively easy way to build up your presence on the internet.
For example, to pick out one item, the identity theft "business in a box" is a turnkey internet business, including a website, 50 articles, an autoresponder series, keyword research, PPC ad drafts, graphics, ebook, sales page, etc. All you need to get started in a popular niche right away, with just a little investment of time, a hosted domain and a little promotion.
Don't miss out on this awesome opportunity to boost your internet business along with some valuable content, for free.
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2007-Jul-27 - The 7 Dollar eBook Cash Generator Opportunity
Jonathon Leger's 7 Dollar eBook script offers a powerful way to grow your internet marketing business, either as a writer or a publisher - and why not as both?
The idea is simple - a publisher writes an ebook and allows others to sell it, and keep the full selling price! Typically, the price is $7, which offers great value and makes for a relatively easy buying decision for the purchasers.
Whatever the topic of your web site, there are sure to be some 7 Dollar eBooks already written that you could sell. All you need to do is have a Paypal account and send prospects to the sales page set up by the publisher. It's a great instant cash generator!
Where do you uncover these eBooks to sell?
A good place to start is this 7Dollar eBook Shop. There are a lot of titles on offer for you to review, covering a wide range of topics.
Choose a book that looks relevant for your site, click through to the sales page, buy a copy and check it out. Most offer excellent value for the price. If it matches your target audience, recommend it, send some traffic to the sales site through the affiliate link you get... and start regularly checking out your Paypal account balance.
So if you get the full $7, what's in it for the writer/publisher?
The script requires the buyer to download from the publisher's site, where there are usually optional upsell and newsletter subscription offers.
Just one more thing. If you plan on being a publisher, do take a little care. Some over-enthusiastic publishers have, perhaps through ignorance, run into trouble with Paypal. That's because they set up their 7 Dollar eBook promotions to look like they might be MLM offers, or download pages that were not buyer-friendly. Fortunately, there is some free advice on how to step around these problems available from Seller Beware, an independently written ebook you can download for no charge.
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2007-Jul-27 - Ed Dale 30 Day Challenge For 2007
Are you up for it?
Ed Dale has pulled together a new team with Dan Raine and Nicolas Messe to present his 30 Day Challenge again this year - third year in a row I believe. It starts on August 1st.
It's my first time, and I'm all excited.
And so are a lot of people already posting on the 30 Day Challenge forum.
The idea is to start up an internet business from scratch, and earn $10 within the 30 days - a token amount to prove it works and you are on your way to bigger things.
This year there is no cost involved - no fees, advertising, software to buy or whatever - assuming, that is, that you are already well set up to use the internet. The focus is to be on using free web 2.0 promotion methods.
You learn how to do it, step by step, from some very successful internet marketers, and from your peers in the big crowd of participants. There are people there from all over the world, all ages and all walks of life.
You never know - you could discover a way to make big changes to improve your lifestyle. And perhaps make some new friends.
Why not give it a shot?
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