Amayzing Race

Hello  NSA  family!  The 2010 Amayzing Race will feature the daughter of Major Ben Brooks and Dr. Barbara Collins, Monique Pryor and her friend and team mate, Shawne Morgan.  Their profiles can be seen on CBS.com/amayzing race.  The program is scheduled to begin airing on February 14, 2010, 8:00 PM, CBS.

Business leaders thrive with the National Speakers Association

NSA President-Elect, Kristin Arnold, MBA, CPF, CMC, CSP,  interviewed by Scottsdale Women’s Business Examiner.

View the article here http://www.examiner.com/x-33504-Scottsdale-Womens-Business-Examiner~y2010m1d19-Business-leaders-thrive-with-the-National-Speakers-Association.

Branding or Marketing? Article in Speaker Mag Has It All Wrong

Have you read the article entitled, “Branding or Marketing?” in the January/February 2010 issue of Speaker magazine? With all due respect to the writer, Michael A. Podolinsky, perhaps he should stick to his specialty in leadership development, not branding.

Of course, people and service businesses can have brands! What’s a brand anyway? I don’t think it’s what Podolinsky thinks it is. Here’s Seth Godin’s definition:

A brand is the set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another. If the consumer (whether it’s a business, a buyer, a voter or a donor) doesn’t pay a premium, make a selection or spread the word, then no brand value exists for that consumer.

Any product, service, or individual can have a brand. From Tide detergent, Starbucks coffee, Roto Rooter, Merrill Lynch, Oprah, Tiger Woods… OK, so maybe that last one isn’t as strong a brand as it was. But, they are all brands.

In the speaker world, there are many people who have very positive and strong brands – Tony Robbins and Zig Zigler come to mind.

Every touchpoint is part of a speaker’s brand. Examples include:

• How responsive the speaker is to prospect/client calls and emails
• How professional in appearance the speaker’s Web site and marketing materials are
• How professional the speaker is during the booking process
• How the speaker greets the meeting planner and audience members
• How effective, professional, prepared, and well received the speaker is during the presentation
• How the speaker follows up after the engagement

Every single aspect of a speaker’s business is part of his/her brand, even if s/he isn’t a celebrity. When speakers build a strong brand over time, bookings are more inbound. Planners come to them! That’s the ultimate branding result for any product, service or person.

So, no offense to Mr. Podolinsky, but when he says, “Branding works for products like soup or tampons, but not for people – and definitely not for service businesses,” I wholeheartedly DISAGREE!

Do you?

The best speaker I ever saw

By Dave Lieber

www.YankeeCowboy.com

Photo courtesy of South Dakota magazine

The best public speaker I’ve seen is Garrison Keillor. He has a great voice, a great mind, a great memory and, of course, those eyebrows!

He appeared at the University of Texas at Arlington in late November. The host of the legendary public radio show Prairie Home Companion, author and newspaper columnist had canceled a previous appearance after a mild stroke. He said doctors told him to slow down and retire. The heck with that. He travels the country telling stories and selling books.

Here are 10 things Keillor did that night in Arlington that help make him one of the finest speakers in the world today:

1. His clothes sparkled. Even though I was in the upper tier and he looked like a Ken doll on stage, he stood out because he wore a bright red tie and red sneakers, along with his dark suit and white shirt.

2. He sang his own introduction.

3. He quickly flattered his audience: “I never felt more welcome than when I get to meet Texans in Texas.”

4. Throw in a reference to a local luminary to let the audience know you share reverence for one of their local heroes. He cited the late Molly Ivins.

5. Speak in sparse yet sharp language: “It was the most wonderful wake I ever attended, and the deceased was sitting right there.”

6. Self-deprecation whenever possible: “It’s my role to play a taciturn Norwegian – although I’m not really one.”

7. Use visual images punctuated with quippy lines: “Snow was a lot deeper when I was a kid.”

8. Introduce characters with strong imagery: “My father  was a low-thermostat man.”

9. Follow up introductory descriptions with more visual imagery to enhance your portrait: “If you couldn’t see steam coming out of your mouth, he thought you were wasting fuel.”

10. Use life experiences, especially recent ones, to show your hero’s journey: “In my case, I got lucky. This blood clot hit the part of the brain where not much is going on…. It was the North Dakota of the brain.”

Final notes: His closing was superb. During the question and answer period, someone asked, “Do you rehearse your material?”

He answered, “I don’t have to rehearse. I lived it. Life is the rehearsal. All you have to do is remember as much as you can.”

Then he said, “I will now sign autographs. I have a nice signature, very legible. I’m happy to have pictures taken, if that’s what you want, although I can see why you wouldn’t.”

The American literary superstar concluded by promising that he would “hang out and talk” until no one from the audience remained.

I imagined him helping to turn off the lights and lock the door.  It was a powerful commitment to his audience that I’ve never heard a star of his magnitude make before.

Dave Lieber is a columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and a member of NSA/North Texas.

Two Must-Have Gifts to Yourself for 2010

By Dave Lieber

Fort Worth Star-Telegram Columnist

|| New works by Jana Stanfield and David Avrin ||

Two National Speakers Association favorites have released gifts that speakers should treat themselves to before crafting your 2010 New Year’s speaker resolutions. Both will make you smarter and more agile as you confront whatever changes and opportunities come your way in 2010.

Supreme musical motivator Jana Stanfield, returning from time away in Asia working with orphanages, has released a two-CD set called “What Would You Do This Year If You Had No Fear?” Her work ought to be considered her own personal Sgt. Pepper’s album because of the variety of musical styles she displays and for her vision of what’s next in life.

David Avrin's new book

Jana Stanfield's new album

Hers is a fully-formed album that lives up to its title’s promise. It’s also lots of fun.

Visibility Coach David Avrin of Colorado, known throughout NSA as someone who happily shares his ideas with others, has released a book, It’s Not Who You Know/It’s Who Knows You! (Publisher, John Wiley & Sons.) His is a “small business guide to raising your profits and raising your profile.” Using stories rather than bullet points, Avrin breaks down image-building barriers with simple ideas and solutions. Avrin’s passion becomes your motivator, something he and Stanfield both have mastered.

# # #

Give Stanfield credit for making a leap in her two-CD set:

Disc No. 1 — called “Stay Brave, Do Good, Feel Better” — reflects her agility in all facets of pop — folk, rock, country — that enables her to inspire so many with her upbeat life outlook. Here, she takes her classic “If I Were Brave” song and ramps up the theme across the entire CD about who you are and what you want to do. The music, like her tremendous keynotes, opens up possibilities for you in the most personal of ways.

Disc No. 2 — “The Wilder Side Dance Mix” — is quite something else, even by Stanfield’s innovative standards. Most of the songs are modern techno-pop tunes with pulsating beats designed for either dancing or aerobics class. It’s Stanfield on steroids, and the music and the vocals (although they often don’t sound like her) definitely work to the listeners’ advantage because of the album’s high quality.

So while one CD is more traditional, the other, as Stanfield writes in the liner notes, consists of songs that were “created as ‘affirmatunes’ for a self-empowerment system called I AM Power. With Matt Wilder as producer, these ‘trance-formational’ songs are designed for repeated listenings, to help you stay brave, do good, and feel better.”

The combined package could serve as the soundtrack to the Elizabeth Gilbert book Eat, Pray, Love that Stanfield admires so much. Stanfield asks listeners to “take action.” Women will adore her latest, but men shouldn’t back off. Stanfield touches hearts, both male and female, with titles such as Learning to Fly Mid-Air, If I Had No Fear, and her newest stunner, George Bailey.

The character from It’s A Wonderful Life, she sings so perfectly, is a “guy standing on a bridge, seeing all he ever wanted, all the things he never did, missing every minute of the life he never lived.”

Sample chorus:

“I don’t want to be George Bailey waiting, waiting, waiting for the right time, for a clear sign.”

“Even if I make mistakes, it’s time I do whatever it takes.”

Good thing Stanfield didn’t wait to give us What Would You Do This Year If You Had No Fear? She returned home from overseas and offers her most fearless work yet.

# # #

As Stanfield is like no other “singing speaker,” David Avrin is like few other branding experts. What sets him apart from most image evangelists is that your excitement becomes his excitement and vice versa. He brings a little heart and soul to the creative process because he cares. He can instantly target the strengths he needs to promote, the weaknesses he needs to overcome and the values he wants to share. He understands, to use his branding term, visibility.

Branding powers, the ability to help others see what you are doing in such a quick and clear way that no further explanation is needed, are a gift. You either got ‘em or you don’t. Not everybody is a Don Draper or David Avrin.

For those of us who need help to come up with our phrases and descriptors, it’s a wonder to watch people like Arvin who get it so effortlessly and see things in you that you never noticed before.

The Avrins of the world can fix our problems, showcase our talents, and enable our dreams. Personally, other than customers, I don’t need much more.

His book (forward by Joe Calloway) is aimed at small businesses — speakers, lawyers, doctors, plumbers — but it’s not a business how-to book. Instead, the book is Avrin’s version of a Stanfield album.

“My goal,” he writes, “is to kick you in the pants to dig deeper for better marketing messages and strategies to grow your business.”

And following his own advice, here’s how he brands his own book:

He calls it an “open-to-any-page, stick-it-in-your-bathroom, pearls of wisdom, nuggets of marketing brilliance, best-practice, story-laden book filled with short essays and observations to help you recognize clever personal and professional marketing strategies and creative promotional tactics to help you be seen, be remembered and become the go-to resource for people looking for what you’re selling.”

Phew.

So I played his little game. I took the book into the bathroom and opened the book to any page seeking my pearl, my nugget, his brilliance.

On that page, he wrote about something I had done and wondered, in my case, if it was worth it. Why? Nobody ever noticed that I did it.

His subject was appearances on a city’s cable TV program. I’ve done a dozen and not once has anyone ever said, “I saw you on that.”

Well, Avrin explains that he is hooked on the guy who paints trees on his community access channel. He can’t skip past the tree painter when he’s going to a real channel. The guy is mesmerizing.

Avrin writes that these appearances on little-watched TV channels are good for you because: 1) you get practice time, 2) you gain new video footage, and 3) “you never know who’s watching.”

My suggestion, though, is that, his branding aside, this is more than a bathroom book. Like Avrin, it’s an idea generator. And as both Avrin and Stanfield show in their latest works, there’s little better than that.

# # #

Avrin’s book and Stanfield’s album.

Read one and listen to the other; you’re set for 2010

Full disclosure: Author Dave Lieber uses portions of Jana Stanfield’s music, with her permission, on his Web site at http://www.WatchdogNation.com.

Speaker scams spread like the flu

By DAVE LIEBER

Fort Worth Star-Telegram Columnist/NSA North Texas

www.YankeeCowboy.com

Speakers always want their name in the newspaper.  And as a longtime newspaper columnist, I am here to pass on a surefire way to get attention.  Nobody has ever thought of this before, but it works.

Get scammed.

It worked quite well for two co-chapter members, Eloise Owens and Karen Cortell Reisman, of NSA/North Texas.

Both appeared recently in my Star-Telegram column.  They got their names in the paper.  Big time.

Actually, it was quite awful.

Eloise Owens’ column was headlined: “Beware the grandparents scam.”

The column was about how her 85-year-old mother in California got a call from Eloise’s son.  Or so she thought.

Actually, it was a scammer pretending to be him.  When the scammer was done, Eloise’s mom had wired $6,000 to Canada.  She never saw the money again.

Eloise believes the scammer may have learned about her family on the Internet, from her wedding program or from her wedding Web site.  Now, she’s a lot more careful about what she puts out on the ‘net.

A few weeks later, chapter member Gary Rifkin alerted me to another problem.  He had received an alarming Facebook email from chapter member Karen Cortell Reisman stating that she was in London and had been mugged at gunpoint.  She needed him to send money so she could get home.  Gary didn’t fall for it.  He copied the transcript and sent it to me.

For the next two days, Karen had to deal with the hijacking of her Facebook account, her friends’ concerned calls and emails and unknown fears caused by this web identity theft.

The column about Karen was headlined: “Take steps to protect yourself on Facebook.”

(Thanks to Gary for alerting me to this story.  Here is the story about Eloise Owens, and here’s the one about Karen Cortell Reisman.)

All of this comes on the heels of other speakers scams.  Linda Swindling alerted me to a former NSA member who takes URL names and adds an ’S’ to them and tries to scam speakers out of money.  When you call him, he tries to extort money from you.

A speaker friend from California was offered a chance to appear in a New York City comedy club, but he had to help the promoter set up the event by putting some of his own money up.  Turns out the promoter took the money, there was no event, and the speaker never heard from him again.

And then we heard from NSA Executive Vice President Stacy Tetschner, who warned us to watch out for a London “company” that contacts you to fill in for a speaker who has cancelled and asks for money to help for processing the paperwork to get you there.

Recently, I was a victim, too.  One meeting planner gave me a check that bounced.  Turns out he was scamming everyone.  I organized the others and we went to the district attorney to file charges.

So this can happen to anyone.

Even you, the speaker.

So remember the words of Police Sergeant Phil Esterhaus on the TV show, Hill Street Blues:

Hey, let’s be careful out there.

Dave Lieber is a columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.  Last month, his book, Dave Lieber’s Watchdog Nation: Bite Back When Businesses and Scammers Do You Wrong, won its second national book award — The 2009 National Best Books Award for Social Change

Former North Texas chapter member wins reality TV show

By Dave Lieber
YankeeCowboy.com

This is the start of my 5th year as a NSA/North Texas member. My only regret is I didn’t join 20 years sooner.
I can’t say we’re the best chapter because I’ve never been to another chapter’s meetings. But I can say I’ve never had more fun with a group of folks than you.
You never know who you are going to meet.

A couple of years ago — as a member of the Joe Charbonneau Academy (I liked it so much I did it twice!) — I met Melissa, who was also enrolled. We lived near each other and had a bit in common.

Melissa D'Arabian

She and her husband had moved to Keller, Texas because of her his job. Their small kids were adjusting. She was wading into the speaking profession at NSA.
She was active in her new community, too. She had decided to use her business background to volunteer for Keller’s economic development board.

When I gave her background on Keller’s failures in this regard (the biggest retail name in town is some guy named “For Lease”), she smiled and said, “Well, it’s a new day. Let’s see how I can help them.”
She was genuine and direct. Her bright eyes and smile were welcoming. She was a natural.
Maybe you know who I’m talking about. Her full name is Melissa d’Arabian. She became a national celebrity in August when she won the reality TV show, The Next Food Network Star, in which contestants show off their culinary skills.
Just as important, they have to show off their abilities to talk on camera. She must have been good. Of the 10 contestants, she was the only one without professional cooking experience.
Now she gets her own 6-week show on the network — Ten Dollar Dinners With Melissa d’Arabian — shown Sunday mornings.
And NSA/North Texas gets another brag. She’s one of ours! This adorable, good-natured former North Texas mom (the family recently moved to the West Coast for hubby’s job again) won because she was so authentic the judges fell in love.
You had to see her on camera. She looks through the lens right into your heart. Her words about her background and her family caused goose bumps in viewers across America.
Ed Peters, her former dean at our Charboneau Academy, said her people skills were obvious from the start.
“We’ve always known as speakers that the key to success with an audience is ‘connecting’ with them,” Peters says. “I’ve always referred to that connection as ‘It’s not about you; It’s about them.’
“No one personifies that idea as much as my former student in the academy. Melissa d’Arabian. Melissa figured out very quickly that making her ‘performance’ about her audience, and not about her, would be her competitive advantage. It worked. It always does.”

Dave Lieber, one of America’s last remaining crusading newspaper columnists, runs WatchdogNation.com which helps Americans protect themselves against evildoers of all stripes.

Email Scam Targeting Professional Speakers

Recently an NSA member was contacted about a speaking engagement in London by a man by the name of Pastor Mark Graham Smith, claiming to be from the London Youth Conference. The scam revolves around the insistence of Pastor Mark Graham Smith, who required her to get a work permit before he would send her a deposit and airline tickets.

After discussing the proposal with a speaker from London and other NSA members she learned it was a scam. To help other NSA members avoid such scams the email messages to the NSA member from Pastor Mark Graham Smith are below in their original form. No grammar or spelling has been changed other than the name of the NSA member to protect her privacy.

If you have experienced a scam you’d like to inform other NSA members about please write a message about it in the comments section.

————————————————————————————-

From: london conference [mailto:londonyouthconf@gmail.com]

Sent: Wednesday, July 15, 2009 9:50 AM

To: email Subject: YOUTH BUSINESS FORUM

Dear Last Name First Name,

My Name is Pastor Mark Graham from the London Youth Community Here in London UK. We want you to be our guest speaker at this Year LONDON YOUTH CONFERENCE which will take place here in UK. We are writing to invite and confirm your booking to be our Speaker at these year LONDON YOUTH CONFERENCE. The Venue as follows: Friends House Hall(London) Hospitality Friends House 173 Euston Road London NW1 2BJ Expected audience: 2500 people Duration of speech per speaker: 1 Hour Name of Church/Organization: LONDON YOUTH COMMUNITY Tel Phone: + 44 7077-087-949 Topic: BUSINESS MANAGEMENT Date:19th of August 2009-23rd of August 2009 We came across your profile we say it’s up to standard and we will be very glad to have such an outstanding personality in our mist for these overwhelming gathering. With your multi talented speech more lives will come close to GOD, Sorry about our late invitation it is due to the fact that our Speaker had back out because of her sudden illness. Arrangements to welcome you here will be discussed as soon as you honor our invitation. If you have any more publicity material, please do not hesitate to contact me. A formal Letter of invitation would be sent to you as soon as you honor our invitation. We are taking care of your traveling and Hotel Accommodation expenses including your Speaker fees. Stay Blessed Mark Graham LONDON YOUTH CONFERENCE

————————————————————————————-

From: london conference [mailto:londonyouthconf@gmail.com]

Sent: Thursday, July 16, 2009 7:15 AM To: email

Subject: CONTRACT AGREEMENT AND LETTER OF INVITATION

Dear First Name,

 Thanks for indicating your interest to be our Guest Speaker at this year LONDON YOUTH CONFERENCE. We are very excited and happy to have such a wonderful personality in our mist. Sorry for contacting you late . We the event organizing committee had a meeting earlier today to deliberate on getting you available here within a short period of time. We believe we serve the lord of possibilities. Arrangements are stated below. We have agreed to buy you flight ticket and to pay your Hotel accommodation expenses . Also your Speaking fee is to deposit is to be paid as soon as you procure all relevant travel documents so as to avoid any dissapointment.You are informed to get accross your Work Permit to us so your deposit can be approved according to our mandated rules and regulation. You are advised by the Event Organizing committee to immediately contact the BRITISH HIGH COMMISSION to procure your UK Work Permit as soon as possible This will enable us to proceed with all arrangements to welcome you here in London. Contact the British High Commission officer information below. BRITISH HIGH COMMISSION Name…Dr Darren David Email…Britshhighc@britpost.com or darrendavid@britpost.com Please confirm to us the closest Airport to your location so we can start making arrangements to buy your flight tickets .Understand that you need to expedite action because of the short notice. Feel free to ask any question We have attached a formal Letter of Invitation and contract agreement.Please reconfirm to us your office Address for our perusal and further action.Note you are meant to arrive a day before the commencement of the event. Please return a signed copy of the contract agreeement for proper documentation.You can also reach me on my mobile number for more update Tel:+4470-240-698-26 We await your earliest response Pastor Mark Graham Smith LONDON YOUTH CONFERENCE

————————————————————————————-

Dear First Name,

Thanks for your mail, you can contact me immediately on these number +447024069826. You can speak on EMPOWERMENT AND CHANGE i think that will suit you. Your husband can accompany you, we wil be paying for all his flight expenses and hotle accomodations, you stated in your previous mail that he is inevitable and must come with you so all that will be taken care of. Hope you have contacted the BRITISH HIGH COMMISSION for your work permit because it is very mandatory.

Stay Blessed

Pastor Mark

Some speakers need to “chillax”

You know the kind I mean… the ones who are soooo concerned with looking the part, wearing the “right” clothes, telling the most engaging stories, and being, well, impressive. Now, don’t get me wrong. Looking  professional and speaking with authority is what it’s all about in this business. The question is – how authentic are some of these speakers?

As NSA members, we attend chapter meetings to learn, to embrace our profession, and to improve our platform skills. But to what purpose? Certainly not to become clones of other, more successful speakers, but to become who we truly are, in our own unique skins.

Gaining confidence and a sense of comfort in front of an audience is the ideal place to be. But maybe some of us need to “chillax” a bit in the process. When we develop our own style and look, as well as our own way of telling stories and engaging audiences, we can really allow our personal brands to flourish and become our authentic selves as speakers.

What do you think? Do you believe that you have developed your personal brand and style as a speaker?

Best Blogging Contest Raises Awareness of Coaching Coaches and For One Blog – Introverts

Best Blogging Contest Raises Awareness of Coaching Coaches and for One Blog – Introverts

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