Do you dream of a sustainable and just world, but also desire more happiness, direction, balance or fulfillment? Perhaps you work or volunteer in an idealist field and feel like an overwhelmed martyr, or perhaps you earn a decent paycheck but want a more meaningful career. Maybe you're a current or aspiring progressive leader, a concerned citizen, or a student seeking more focus and impact. Maybe you long to bring forgotten ideals, dreams, or creative talents back into your work and play, or know someone who does.

David Wheitner, a Strategic Life Coach and Idealist, is the author of recently published Naked Idealism, a book that will entertain and refresh you with an approach to authentic living that supports both personal fulfillment and a sustainable, just world. You will learn how to expose your authentic core, clarify what's really important to you, integrate your personal and community-level visions, and relate to the world more genuinely and effectively. You will examine your intentions for doing good, perhaps even chuckling at yourself during some of the exercises. Wheitner shares valuable tools from positive psychology, career theory, persuasion, organizational dynamics, and more.

While candidly addressing challenging and often avoided topics (like how our own prejudices can impact our personal happiness and success), Naked Idealism will also remind you not to take life too seriously. Wheitner weaves in humor from his own circuitous journey toward authenticity: cross-country adventures, a peculiar rainwater irrigation system, vegetarianism and veganism, real-life lesbian grandmothers from Mars, and a backyard abandoned coal mine cameo.

David also earned a B.A. in Psychology from Yale University, an M.S. in Public Policy and Management from the Carnegie Mellon Heinz School, and a M.A. in Counseling from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. David's training as a coach includes the Institute for Life Coach Training and he happily will provide a free coaching consultation. Simply schedule it on his website, www.nakedidealism.com

With Naked Idealism you are encouraged to remain fully clothed, but open to the life and world you envision! Naked Idealism is a book once started you will not want to put down, as it takes you step by step into the exciting life that you envision, and is filled with the benefits of living authentically, setting up a creative framework and pursuing larger visions.

You can experience David's wisdom and experience first hand through his book, his coaching and consulting services, or by inviting him to speak to your group. Click here to purchase the book, or preview a chapter.

David can be reached at (412) 222-5999 or through www.idealistcoach.com.

In addition to coaching and speaking, members of the Pittsburgh Coaches Association conduct workshops and seminars and for several years have also conducted teleclasses on a regular basis. These teleclasses are now held monthly, and are an opportunity for Pittsburgh coaches to share some of their coaching knowledge and experience with participants, as well as their passion for helping others to move forward and reach new levels.

Teleclass topics range from exceptionality to creating space, leadership, career tips and finding your dreams, and can help people to make important changes and take steps to reach their potential.

This month's teleclasses are on August 20. Join us for a great learning experience with Pittsburgh coaches. Teleclasses take place throughout the day and are free to anyone who registers. Click here to register for one or all of the teleclasses. Registration takes just a few seconds and is FREE. A conference call number will be immediately sent to you via e-mail.

It is no surprise that Suzanne Ferguson is a coach. At the age of eight she remembers being alone and outside. As she gazed at the open blue sky a question entered her mind about the meaning of life and she had the thought: "There has to be more to this than mom and dad have let on." At that moment, she began wondering what her life would be and how she might get there.

These early questions had her choose an undergraduate degree in Interdisciplinary Studies with a focus on Psychology, Sociology and Social Work. Melding her love of people with her degree, she entered the field of social work as a medical social worker. Then, with a growing awareness that the best "social work" begins with empowerment, she began to position herself so that she could focus on helping people in their personal growth. Before finding her way to the coaching industry, she was a personal growth seminar facilitator, operated two home-based businesses, and raised two children.

Since 2001 Suzanne has provided support to small to medium-sized business owners and their staff as they find and build their leadership skills to increase productivity and profitability. Suzanne's coaching practice began in Bedford, Pennsylvania, where she was the first person to introduce coaching to the business community. In 2005 she graduated from the ICF accredited Institute for Professional Empowerment Coaching. In 2005, she also moved to Pittsburgh and began building her practice in her new home.

Suzanne has come to be known for her ability to draw on her many interdisciplinary skills to empower and support her clients as they pursue and reach their goals. Her clients choose from a variety of coaching programs and tools to best fit their needs and the needs of their companies. This includes individual, customized coaching and custom-made training programs for organizations and staffs, as well as two systematic approaches: Living From Vision, which helps people live and work according to their own authentic calling and Mastering Business Success, which focuses on assessments and solutions across the eight areas critical for business success.

Suzanne has recently partnered with another Pittsburgh coach, Barbara Schwarck, to offer small business owners and entrepreneurs a 12-month coaching program. NET-Plus for Small Business Success combines solid business tools with a cutting edge technology called NET (Neuro Emotional Technique). NET identifies and eliminates the conscious and unconscious obstacles that keep us from our success. The program begins September 11, 2008 and gives participants monthly group and individual coaching that focuses on the elements of business success and overcoming barriers to that success. By the completion of the program, participants will have a healthy and sustainable business.

For more information about Suzanne, Suzanne Ferguson & Associates, and NET-Plus for Small Business Success visit www.SuzanneFerguson.com, or call Suzanne at (412) 727-7299 .

On television, images change approximately every 7 seconds. Yet, in organizational settings and conference presentations, we expect audience members to watch the stationery body of a presenter, speaking from behind a podium, for an hour or more. No wonder people dread these presentations! To be effective as a speaker, you have to recognize that our culture is increasing fast-paced and increasingly visual. Here are some tips to build changes into your next presentation:

1. Give up the podium. Few things are more static than a person talking from behind a podium! It's okay to use the podium as a home base. Just don't plant yourself there!

When you move with purpose, you add interest and variety for your audience. For example, try moving away from the podium when you make a key point, or when you ask for audience participation. Caution: random pacing, due to nervousness, doesn't count as purposeful movement. Think: walk, plant your feet; walk again, plant your feet again.

2. Make your PowerPoint visual. Words on a PowerPoint are sometimes useful. For example, an agenda for the presentation is helpful for the audience as well as the speaker. Overall, however, words on a slide don't work as visual stimulation-no matter how often you change them. If you choose to use PowerPoint, add changes with photographs and dramatic graphs. Show brief video clips that support your points. Just make sure that everything you use is relevant and easy for the audience to grasp.

3. Add vocal or auditory changes. Raise the volume of your voice to emphasize a point. Try a stage whisper to draw the audience into a little-known fact. Practice a powerful pause. If possible, add brief musical transitions between points.

4. Give your stories the stage. Concrete examples, brief case studies, and stories are powerful ways to add variety, interest, and practicality to presentations. Make these gems stand out in the midst of a PowerPoint presentation by hitting the "b" key on your laptop. "B" will give you a blank slide, so that you, the presenter, can move forward and connect with your audience in a powerful way. The change will be refreshing to audience members. When you wish to return to the slides. Simply hit the "b" key again.

5. Use natural gestures. Use the gestures that come naturally in conversations. These include suggestive gestures like shaking your head and demonstrative gestures like showing the height of an object. Even a shrug will create a brief change for the audience. For a bigger change, consider using a prop or two as natural extensions of your gestures.

It's hard to compete with a change every 7 seconds. Unfortunately, this is what your audience members have come to expect, even if they don't realize it. Build changes into the content and the delivery of your next presentation. You'll be rewarded with a more engaged and attentive audience.

Copyright 2008 by inCredible Messages, LP. The author invites you to download a free "before and after" of a persuasive business message at www.inCredibleMessages.com. You'll find lots of free articles on powerful presentations as well.

Speaker, trainer and coach, Bonnie Budzowski works with people who want to master the keys to driving their points home--so they can increase sales, gain commitment from others and boost their career success. She is the author of Secrets to Get Busy People to Respond to Your Messages and Clickety Clack: 86 Ways to Keep Your Speech on Track. Contact her at www.inCredibleMessages.com

We invite experienced coaches, as well as those new to the profession, to join the Pittsburgh Coaches Association (PCA). This is an exciting time to be a member! We are a 501(c)6 professional organization, and an International Coach Federation (ICF) chapter.

Additional benefits for member coaches include networking opportunities with other professional coaches, a profile on PCA's 'Find a Coach' website directory, discounts for monthly luncheon meetings featuring interesting and relevant speakers, a forum to offer teleclasses on coaching-related topics of your choice, and special events to raise the profile of coaching within the community. There are many more benefits; please don't hesitate to become a part of one of Pittsburgh's best professional associations.

Effective July 1st, join for 2008 at the prorated fee of only $65 as a PCA Member, or only $55 as a PCA Associate Member. You can now register to become a member online at www.pittsburghcoaches.org. Join today.

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