Why Everyone Should Attend Charisma Bootcamp 2012

Some people would argue that business is tougher than ever before; that sales people are facing more challenges in meeting targets; that some sales people are having to relearn how to make sales having had an easy time of reaching high sales during the Celtic Tiger; others are having to reskill; to prepare for interviews and presentations for the first time in years; prepare for making pitches to customers, editors, bosses, investors; dress well with less take home pay ………the list goes on

Update:  Charisma Bootcamp is now offering tickets for the Saturday and Sunday only so this is perfect if you are working on the Thursday and Friday. The cost for the 2 days is €497 which is reduced to €348 with Skillnets funding if you are eligible. Contact Anna@charisma.ie for more details.

Owen Fitzpatrick of Owen Fitzpatrick International is organizing his second Charisma Bootcamp and it is taking place 26th-29th April 2012 in Dublin.  A 4 day conference which incorporates 20 modules from 12 speakers. It is going to have something for everyone from many different walks of life but essentially it  is going to have so much to offer anyone in business.

Owen says: “Charisma is the impression you make in the mind of another person – they then think you are interesting, engaging and worth knowing.” And, as he also says: “you ALWAYS create an impression in people’s mind”, it is a good idea to give them the impression that you are charismatic and encourage them to do business with you. Learn to become more charismatic and you’ll make people want to buy from you more.

As I mentioned previously in a blog post, people buy from people, hence the importance of communicating your personality through your social media tools if you have an online business.  People will buy more from charismatic people.

Personally speaking, I know I have spent more when I have dealt with a salesperson who is charismatic, even down to a guy who sells us trees every now and then. We received a phone call from him 2 weeks ago and 3 hours later he was here with a trailer load of trees. He is aware of our long term plan for our garden and the farm yet although we hadn’t planned on buying a considerable number of trees this year, we took almost everything off his trailer. Why? Because he knew our long term plan, he knew where the trees would look well but essentially because he was charismatic. He made us laugh and made us feel good about the products we were buying as we could visualise how they will look and how we are getting one step closer to our long term plan.

There are twenty modules over the four days but for the purposes of this post, I’m going to concentrate on 5 of them and describe what I think I will get from them:

Owen Fitzpatrick – The Charismatic Edge

Competition is becoming fiercer in all aspects of business so this module will show me how to stand out amongst the competition and highlight my uniqueness. It will also show me how to come across more personally so I am easier to relate to and therefore, the levels of empathy and trustworthiness will be higher.  I’d  also like to be more confident so I can grab and hold people’s attention and this is exactly what this module will teach.

Sonya Lennon – Look Your Best

Sonya is well known from the RTE programme ‘Off the Rails’ and her module will  look at aspects of appearance and dress such as how to create the right first impression, shopping more effectively for your shape and your purse and how you can increase your confidence by dressing appropriately for all business meetings.  As many of you may know, I am also an ‘irish farmerette‘ and often schedule meetings for 10:30 in the morning which gives me time to feed the calves and goats before I go. But I’m often out of the shower and looking through my wardrobe struggling to find something to wear for the meeting.  I know from experience that feeling that I look good helps immensely with my confidence levels when delivering presentations so I am really looking forward to Sonya’s module.

Owen Fitzpatrick – Compelling Storytelling

We have all listened to speakers who keep us spellbound, hanging onto every word. We’ve also all listened to speakers who have bored us to tears – not necessarily because the content was boring but because their delivery was so poor.  I like to think that my delivery style is something in the middle – interesting, appropriate, invigorating but I know it is not spellbinding.  There are a number of modules that deal with public speaking of which this is the first one and I’m looking forward to leaving the Charisma bootcamp with the confidence and know-how to being a much better speaker and presenter.

Sales Charisma – Terry Harmer

I’ve heard Terry Harmer speak before at various Enterprise board events and have always come away feeling inspired and enlightened.  I know one of my weaknesses in sales is in closing the sale and this is only one of the aspects of Terry’s module in learning how to charismatically persuade others in a sales context.

How To Become Funnier – Karl Spain

I think good humour demands not just a good sense of humour but also confidence and great timing.  This module really looks like it will be a good laugh as well as learning how to engage, manage and entertain an audience having hooked them in.

There’s another 15 modules too which all look superb in terms of what they are going to deliver.

The Cost of Charisma:

What is the cost of a bootcamp like this?  If you are an Irish business, you can get 30% off by booking through Skillnets and full details are on the booking page. That means the 4 days will cost €560. Yes, it is a considerable amount of money but if you were to attend any of these workshops on an individual basis or at a day-long workshop, the cost would be considerably more. There are many people flying in from Spain, Japan, Mexico and other countries which is testament to how highly people view this conference. If you have any questions about the conference, check out their FAQ  (which also gives a good indication of the positive tone and atmosphere of the event) or contact Anna. Perhaps the real cost should be what you lose by not doing it?

How do I know it will be so good? I worked with Owen three years ago (or perhaps I should say he worked on me by improving my time management skills amongst other things) and I’ve always been impressed by his levels of professionalism, analysis, integrity, knowledge and compassion.  If he says he has brought together some of the best in the business for his bootcamp, then it is going to be incredible.

4 days, 12 speakers, 20 modules – all adding up to making you a more successful business person.  I’m really looking forward to it.