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I personally don’t think most real estate investors should bother trying to negotiate Short Sales themselves. Frankly, it’s just too time-consuming for most people and the stress of being put on hold and arguing with the banks’ loss-mitigation people is just too distracting to your overall business. You’re probably much better off finding a service provider who can negotiate on your behalf for a fee.

But if you ARE convinced you want to negotiate your own Short Sales, you definitely want to pay attention to the story I’m about to tell you: “ARE YOU NUTS?!”

That’s what I heard a professional Short Sale negotiators scream into the phone recently. Yep, that’s a direct quote. I don’t advise doing this often and certainly only if you are a skilled negotiator with experience – but sometimes it does actually pay to “flip out and lose it” on the phone. But hold on before you go throw a gasket. When you do this, it should be a conscious and purposeful negotiating decision – NOT because you are just upset and need to blow off steam.

Skilled negotiators manipulate their own STYLE and STRATEGY. You can be strategically adversarial and stylistically cooperatives OR sometimes your style needs to shift to something… shall we say, more combative. However, those shifts into yelling and screaming are the stylistic and purposeful CHOICES of a skilled negotiator. When I heard this negotiator yelling “are you nuts!!” at a lender, I knew he was allowing himself to “get upset,” but I also knew that he wasn’t really upset.

He was making the choice in his negotiation plan that “getting upset” was necessary in order to accomplish a certain outcome. It’s all part of what it is to be a skilled and experience negotiator – they keep their cool, even when it appears that they’ve lost it!

Pet peeves. Those mundane (yet infuriating) habits that get under your skin and drive you crazy! We all have them. Perhaps your pet peeve is drivers who don’t use turn signals. No? How about someone cracking their knuckles… or noisy eaters? Admit it, you’ve got at least one.

As 2012 comes to a close, I’d like to share three of my pet peeves — presentation peeves, of course! Each is remarkably easy to fix and each an ideal resolution for sharpening your skills in the coming year – transforming a presentation peeve into presentation presence.

#1. Avoid the weak “thank you” opener.

Picture a speaker being introduced. She walks on stage, shakes hands with the emcee, turns and faces the audience, and the first words she utters are, “Thank you, John, for that gracious introduction.”

There’s no need to express thanks to the audience before you begin. They want – and deserve – a much stronger opening, one that grabs their attention and sets the expectation that you are a speaker worth listening to.

Offer sincere thanks to the emcee when you shake hands, and you’re ready to start off on a powerful note.

#2. Button up.

Men, want to know the secret to looking trim, confident and well dressed? Simple: button your jacket! Whether you’re wearing a suit and tie or a sport coat with a collared shirt, button up before you hit the stage. Though no one may criticize your open jacket, buttoning up enhances your credibility and presence. Just look at Jay Leno, David Letterman or Tom Bergeron – they are all buttoned up.

Because women’s fashions vary so widely, buttoning up is optional for female speakers. It really depends on the cut of your jacket and the image it will project. Some fashion-forward blazers or suit jackets were not designed to be worn buttoned up, but if you’re wearing a traditionally cut pantsuit or skirted suit, you will look more polished if you do.

Hint for both genders: Make sure your jacket fits properly when buttoned. If you can’t button it, don’t buy it or eliminate it from your on-stage wardrobe. The Susan Bixler and Nancy Nix-Rice, book The New Professional Image is a good resource for questions about appearance in the workplace. Although published in 1997, it is still relevant today.

#3. Wait till you see the white of their eyes.

Here’s a real pet peeve of mine. Have you ever noticed a presenter approach the front of the room and begin speaking before they even turn to face the audience? This seems to have become the norm rather than the exception.

Want to set yourself apart from the crowd? Whether a conference room, board room or main stage, turn and face your audience, greet them with a smile, and take a moment to breathe before saying a word. In Speak Like Churchill, Stand Like Lincoln, author James Humes refers to this as a power pause. Your power pause will establish your presence and give you the confidence of a leader.

There you have them… three ridiculously easy ways to increase your confidence and enhance your presentation presence. High-stakes speaking success in 2013 and beyond doesn’t get any easier than that.