February 2010 Southwest Signature

President’s Message

By Michelle May, M.D.

It’s Valentine’s Day! Do you know where your relationships are?

As speakers, we face challenges—and opportunities—in developing and maintaining healthy relationships with the fans who love us. And what about the relationships with our most important fans—those at home?

Days away can put a strain on everyone’s home life. To minimize that when my children were young, I made a “Countdown Calendar”—a simple idea using numbered envelopes glued on colorful poster board with small gifts for each day I’d be gone. A piece of candy, a video store gift card, a silly love note had the power to sweeten, hasten, and soften the passage of my time away.

This calendar became obsolete when our kids grew old enough to look forward to my trips away, thanks to their father’s less vigilant parenting style. Today, as I write this on a plane to New York City, my college-aged son sits next to me, thanks to my frequent flyer miles.

Overall, leaving my medical practice to work for myself has been good for my relationships, though initially my “boss” didn’t understand the concept of keeping office hours. Wisely, I demanded a better schedule. I should have asked her for a raise while I was at it!

Working for myself ended the sick day scramble and allowed me to flex my schedule around family activities. Still, I missed a high school performance due to my own performance being scheduled months before the band calendar was published. Tough to explain that absence to my teenager.

And while my home office sits smack dab in the middle of Distraction Central, my favorite part of each day is when my kids (usually only one these days) come through the door and plop down on the floor to watch Oprah with me.

As an invaluable part of my team, my chef-husband is also my part-time clerk, go-fer, and sounding board. Our work together includes creating recipes for my latest book and doing a unique doctor+chef cooking demo for some of my audiences.

Yes, I aspire to make a meaningful difference by inspiring others to live healthy, balanced lives. But I know my most important work is building healthy, balanced relationships with my own Valentines. Is that true for you, too?

Wishing you health, prosperity, and love in your life!

Sincerely,
Michelle May, M.D. mmay@amihungry.com
NSA-Arizona President
2009-2010

NSA-ARIZONA MONTHLY MEETING

February 20, 2010
Networking/Breakfast: 8am – 9am
Meeting: 9am – 1:30pm
NSA Conference Center, 1500 S. Priest Dr., Tempe, AZ
Click here for complete meeting details

Prepaid registration (by 5 pm Wed., February 17): $30/members, $45/guests
At-the-door registration: $40/members, $55/guests.
Did you know you can bring your spouse/partner/staff member at the member rate?
No refunds after the early registration deadline.
Please notify us if you require any special needs for the meeting.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Innovative Marketing Mastery for Professional Speakers with Ford Saeks

This high-energy “how-to” session offers a multitude of creative direct and Internet marketing techniques for professional speakers. You’ll walk away with a wealth of up-to-the-minute strategies, innovative techniques, and bold new ideas proven to get more bookings and sell more products and services.

Ford reveals the best strategies for marketing through channels such as direct mail, affiliate programs, catalogs, selling via email and ezines, and directly from websites. In addition you’ll learn:

14 techniques to turbo-charge your marketing results, even on a limited budget
How to design or redesign your website to sell more
How to price and package your products for maximum sales
How to creating an Internet Massive Action Plan (I-MAP)
How to use the PSP Method™ for increasing sales as much as 500%.

Bring your marketing and promotional materials for a chance to be selected for one of Ford’s famous “Marketing Makeover Hot Seats.” Expect an interactive action training that creates a lasting positive impact – guaranteed!

Ford is publisher and mastermind behind Randy Gage’s Internet marketing efforts, websites and events, as well as hosting well-known speakers, CSPs, CPAEs, authors, and consultants. Ford not only talks about Information & Internet Marketing solutions, he lives them daily. Since starting his first corporate site in 1993, today he has more than 300 sites bringing in millions of sales each year. Yes, Ford has the expertise to make you rich, too!

VOICE OF EXPERIENCE

Licensing Ins and Outs: Building Income through Licensing with Jim Hennig, PhD, CSP, CPAE

Should you consider becoming a licensee or licensor of products and services? What are the advantages and disadvantages of both?

Dr. Jim Hennig has used both kinds to build his business in good and bad economic times. In this session, he shares his strategies to expand both your business and your income.

As a potential licensee, you will learn how to:

Double your topic and content offerings
Create more leads and bookings through the right licensor
Find potential licensors to meet your specific needs
Build instant credibility
Attract experienced trainers to do what you are doing
Ask specific questions to determine if this is the licensor for you

As a potential licensor, you will learn how to:

Create instant cash flow
Make being a licensor your retirement nest egg
Ask the right questions before deciding to become a licensor
Spot elements that are essential in a good agreement
Increase your name recognition, visibility, and speaking income.

As a past president of NSA and in business for 28 years, Jim knows the speaking industry. He has been a national sales leader as well as president of four corporations in four divergent fields. He has spoken to more than 25 of the Fortune 500 Companies. His training materials are available in 52 countries and have been translated into 23 languages. His book, How To Say It: NEGOTIATING TO WIN, was recently released by Prentice Hall/Penguin.

EXTREME SPEAKER MAKEOVER:

Branding and Strategy with Vickie Sullivan and Stephanie Angelo

This behind-the-scenes look reveals what happens as a result of outside help on branding and strategy. Stephanie kick starts the program with top three things she’s changed after working with Vickie. Vickie explores three things folks can do to increase their return on investment in branding projects. Then you get to be a fly on the wall as Stephanie gets Vickie to address her biggest business challenge: getting access to qualified buyers.

Vickie Sullivan is internationally recognized as a top market strategist for speakers in branding for high-fee markets. A member of NSA since 1990, she has spoken at the national convention and 20 chapters on positioning for high-fee venues. She’s been quoted in Fortune.com, The New York Times, and Investor’s Business Daily. Vickie has also been appointed to the Women’s Leadership Board for the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.

Stephanie Angelo, SPHR is an award winning consultant in articulating the significant impact to employers when their employees are victims, or perpetrators, of abuse. She is the only expert in the country that provides this targeted focus on how abuse hurts a company’s revenue. Clients include Colorado Association for Victims Assistance, Society for Human Resource Management, American Society for Industrial Security, and several state Domestic Violence Coalitions.

Special thanks to Marilyn Snyder, The PowerPoint Lady, for creating our ESM opening!

BUSINESS BUILDING SESSION

Stand Smile and Dial! with Vickie Bouffard

The Business Building Session starts promptly at 12:15 and ends at 1:30 p.m. All morning attendees are welcome.

It’s time to stand, smile, dial . . . and put speaking engagements on the calendar for 2010! Come learn how to make outbound telesales calls using a strategy, a script, a little practice, and lots of support from your fellow NSA buddies.

In this practical how-to session, you’ll focus on:

How to make outbound sales calls to meeting planners
What to say and want NOT to say
How to start and close the conversation
“Make and Take” develop a script just for you
Practice your script and make it yours
Get coaching from a seasoned sales pro
Get your sales call questions answered

Vickie Bouffard has more than 20 years of sales, sales training, and management experience. She has consistently emerged as the #1 producer within every company she’s ever worked for. As a veteran Dale Carnegie Trainer, Vicki has helped hundreds of sales people realize their sales goals by developing their confidence, mindset, and skills.

Members of the program committee are Janita Cooper janita@masterdup.com, Kimberly Amadeo kimberly@worldmoneywatch.com, Paula Shoup pshoup@myinteralgps.com, Karen Turner, Kelly Tinberg, and Bill Burton.

Please Pre-pay for Meeting Attendance

To streamline check-in at our monthly meetings, please prepay for your meeting attendance. Members and guests SAVE $10 when they prepay by 5pm on the Wednesday before the Saturday meeting.

Register Now
Prepaid Registration (by Wed., February 17 at 5 pm): $30/members $45/guests
Did you know you can bring your spouse/partner/staff member at the member rate?
At-the-door registration (available as space allows)
$40/members $55/guests

CANDIDATE TELECLASS

Make Money Delivering Webinars and Teleseminars with Alan Rigg

February 27 at 11:00 a.m.

Let’s face it, airline travel isn’t exactly glamorous these days. Time is money and it gets wasted with security, delayed and canceled flights, etc. Wouldn’t it be great to get paid to speak from the comfort of your own office?

The good news is…you can!

For several years, Alan Rigg has leveraged webinars/teleseminars to create a profitable revenue stream for his speaking and consulting business. He shares his “best practices” via…you guessed it…a webinar!

By attending this webinar, you’ll learn:

Why add webinars/teleseminars to your speaking portfolio
What technologies are needed and where to get them
How to market webinars/teleseminar to maximize attendance
How to get paid for your webinars/teleseminars
Why deliver webinars/teleseminars for free

During his 28-year professional career, sales performance expert Alan Rigg has been involved in facets of both small and large company operations from individual contributor to executive management. During the past seven years, he’s helped business owners, executives, and managers at hundreds of companies build and manage top-performing sales teams.

A 23-year student of selling and sales management, Alan is the author of How to Beat the 80/20 Rule in Sales Team Performance, How to Beat the 80/20 Rule in Selling and the 80/20 Selling System™ Home Study Course. Past president of NSA-AZ, he specializes in delivering his expertise via seminars, workshops, webinars, and teleconferences.

Vickie Bouffard chairs the Candidate Program for 2009-2010.

Congratulations to Layne Gneiting. Layne Gneiting won a FREE meeting attendance by submitting his program evaluation form at a previous meeting. Hand in your form at the next meeting to participate in this monthly drawing for free attendance.

LIVING ROOM FORUM—February 24

Four Strategies for Getting (and Staying) Booked (and Not by Sheriff Joe!)

Time: 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.
Facilitator: Neil Dempster
Host: Vickie Mullins

Before you can WOW an audience, you need to get BOOKED. But what does it take? Is it your website, social media, a book, or a blog that will find you that next gig? Maybe, but if you want a self-sustaining approach to get booked, you need to be proactive, not passive.

Speaker, trainer, and RESULTant™ (a consultant who gets results), Neil Dempster spent years struggling with this issue until he stumbled upon (don’t believe he was actually smart enough to figure this out!) sure-win strategies that have kept him booked during good and not-so-good economic times. His methods for turning a no-fee speech into $1.92 million in additional speaking and training in 1998 was featured at a recent NSA conference.

At this LR Forum, you’ll learn how to immediately generate hot leads that will get you booked. As a group we’ll explore:

strategies attendees used that get bookings
what doesn’t work to get and stay booked
how to customize programs to get spin-off business (speaking/training/consulting/coaching/products)

If 2010 will be YOUR year for being in front of as many audiences as you want, don’t miss February’s Living Room Forum!

Neil Dempster, CSP, is immediate past president of NSA-Arizona.

Cost: $15 members, $25 Guests
Registration and payment required in advance; no refunds. For additional information, call Gwen Henson (480) 968-7443.

Living Room Forums are held the 4th Wednesday of every month from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. September to May (except November, which will be third Wednesday).

Contact co-chairs Bonnie Mattick bonnie@bonniemattick.com or Dan Ferguson dferguson15@cox.net for additional information.

Congratulations to NSA-Arizona’s Newest

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERS
Candidates Vickie Mullins and
Gilat Ben-Dor recently earned Professional status.

CANDIDATE MEMBERS
Cindi Brown
Amy Shapiro
Daniel Santiago
Sherry Drolet
Suzanne Holman
Jodi Weisberg
Layne Gneiting
Kirk Wilkinson
Jane Hendricks
Jennifer Furrier
Victoria Trafton

Speaker Development Lab

To participate, please contact Maggie Hunts for open speaking slots/scheduling at 602-315-7788.

Larry Colbert chairs the Speaker Lab, assisted by Don Thoren, Maggie Hunts and Bill Johnson.

From NSA Headquarters

Exhibitors at NSA Events

Reserve your space in the Exhibit Hall for the 2010 NSA Convention NOW to guarantee placement. Contact Mandy Schulze at (480) 264-4297 or Mandy@nsaspeaker.org.

Upcoming NSA-AZ Events

Mar. 13 – Sarah Singer-Nourie: Using Innovation to Help People Experience Learning
Apr. 10 – Glenna Salsbury, CPAE & Naomi Rhode, CPAE: The Heart and Soul of Speaking
May 8 – Corbin Ball: Emerging Technology for Speakers and Events
June 12 – Vic Osteen: Be the Exception, Not the Rule!

Upcoming International Events

Mark your calendar for these fabulous events:
Winter Conference – February 11-14, 2010 in Nashville, Tennessee
NSA Foundation Auction – Feb. 13-27, 2010 – Online
PSA Holland – Mar. 19-20, 2010 – Amsterdam
NSAA Convention – Apr. 16-19, 2010 – Queensland, Australia
PSA South Africa – Apr. 30 to May 2, 2010 – Johannesburg
APSS Convention – May 8, 2010 – Singapore
NSA Convention – July 17-20, 2010 – Orlando, Fla.
CAPS Convention – Dec. 4-7, 2010 – Montreal, PQ
2011 NSA Winter Conference Feb. 18-20, 2011 – Atlanta, Georgia
2011 NSA Convention – July 30-August 2, 2011 in Anaheim, California

For more details, go to the NSA website at www.nsaspeaker.org

BRAVO Corner

Michelle May’s new book, Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat, was listed #3 in TIME.com’s Top Ten Notable New Diet Books for 2010. It was also named “Best Health Book” and finalist in three other categories of the National Book Awards.

NSA-Arizona is now connected on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. Follow us at
www.twitter.com/nsaaz or
www.facebook.com/nsaaz or
YouTube at www.youtube.com/NSAAZ

HUMOR TIP OF THE MONTH – End with a Bang!

By Robert Mac Robert@robertmac.com

For best effect, put the punch line of your joke or story at the end of the sentence, with a slight pause before and after. The first pause will increase the tension; the latter will give the audience time to laugh.

WORD TRIPPER FROM THE PLATFORM

By Barbara McNichol editor@barbaramcnichol.com

Be precise! Don’t let this pesky pairing trip you up on the platform or the page.

Weary, wary – “Weary” means to be physically or mentally tired due to hard work, exertion, strain; it also means to be impatient or dissatisfied with something (e.g., weary of excuses). “Wary” is being watchful or cautiously on guard against danger. “Even if you become weary while driving, being wary of the traffic around you is your first priority.”

About This Newsletter

Email your News Flash announcements to editor Barbara McNichol at editor@barbaramcnichol.com or call 520-615-7910 by 15th of each month. Thanks to Terry Sprouse and Dennis Skinner for proofreading this issue.

To view back issues of the newsletter, visit the menu at the right. Click on Newsletters and select the edition you wish to view.

National Speakers Association – Arizona!

The Voice of Professional Speakers in Arizona