September 2010 News Flash

President’s Message

I’d like to take this opportunity to welcome each of you to NSA-Arizona. In this association of education and connection, our theme for the year is “Beyond the Platform, the Magic is in the Details.” Magic is what happens when you’re fully prepared and have worked out all the details before you ever see your audience. Our programs are geared toward teaching you how to maintain a profitable business and connecting with each other for support. You can even get a preview from clicking on the video below!

Along with our fabulous monthly meetings, we are proud to offer several opportunities for you to connect and grow, such as:

Living Room Forum meets once a month in an intimate living room to share and learn from the expertise of a facilitator;
Speaker’s Lab is a safe place for you to hone your speaking skills with feedback from peers and professional members who have attained special status in the speaking world;
The Candidate Program provides a format that will help move participants to a professional status.

My goal this year is to have a leadership team with transparency and action. Our Board is here to listen to your wants, needs, and ideas so that together we can make this the best association for professional speakers ever.

We are glad you’re joining us to expand the business of speaking. As our founder Cavett Roberts said, “We’ll just build a bigger pie.”

Sincerely,

Kitty Wiemelt kitty@kittywiemelt.com
NSA-Arizona President
2010-2011

NSA-ARIZONA MONTHLY MEETING

September 11, 2010

Networking/Breakfast: 8am – 9am
Meeting: 9am – 1:30pm
NSA Conference Center, 1500 S. Priest Dr., Tempe, AZ

KEYNOTE SPEAKER

VIDEOize Yourself! Five Ways to Use Video to MARKET, Build Your BRAND, and Make a GAZILLION Dollars! with Neil Dempster, MBA, CSP

How are you separating yourself from those competing for your same clients? Are your websites, emails, and other one-dimensional marketing materials creating a lasting impression that generates business for you? Do your presentations keep people engaged?

Let’s face a harsh reality: Shifts in technology now give you about three seconds (or fewer) to get (and keep) their attention . . . or you’re gone!

Thankfully, ways to stand out and get noticed no longer cost more than a Hollywood movie. You can now reach customers with eye-catching information on a shoestring budget. It’s time to VIDEOize yourself!

This session offers practical tips, traps, and resources for emerging speakers and seasoned pros (and everyone in between). He’ll cover the myriad places video can make a HUGE difference including websites, emails, slide presentations, products . . . plus a few surprises!

Neil Dempster, MBA, CSP, and a past president of NSA-Arizona, will profile the video strategies of the best in the business, then pull back the curtain to reveal time-and-money-saving techniques. Neil promises this presentation will be like no other, and here’s a fun, one-minute preview

If you want to market more effectively, build an incredible brand, and make a GAZILLION dollars, don’t miss this opportunity. BONUS: We’ll have drawings for consulting/products/services packages worth hundreds (potentially thousands!) of dollars.

VOICE OF EXPERIENCE

Speaking Across the Generations with Marnie Green

Audiences are changing. Are you?

“Short attention span” – “Self-interested” – “Fidgety”

These words are used to describe today’s younger workers and youthful audiences. We’ll explore how to bridge the divide between our traditional Baby Boomer approaches and the new expectations of Generation Y—through the eyes of a typical Gen Xer.

Bring your iPhones and Blackberries and be prepared to explore how things are changing. As audiences get younger (and speakers get older), Marnie Green helps us reexamine our own methods and adapt.

In her Management Education Group, Inc., Marnie guides organizational leaders through their workplace challenges. To accomplish this, her firm provides step-by-step programs and services that create more confident leaders and team members.

Marnie has written Painless Performance Evaluations: A Practical Approach to Managing Day to Day Employee Performance. Her clients include dozens of corporations, start-ups, and government agencies. She frequently speaks at conferences on workforce-related issues including Leadership Development, Recruiting and Retaining Top Talent, The Future Workforce, and Performance Management.

The Candidate Connection (Formerly BUSINESS BUILDING SESSION ) “In light of the revamping of the Candidate program, the Candidate Connection will be returning to the time slot of the Business Building Session from 12:15 to 1:15 on the second Saturday of the month. There will be a special time for Candidates, and Professional members are welcome to attend along with all the Candidates. The important “Push Up Your Sleeves and Get to Work” sessions will help us all grow our businesses

How to Be More Strategic in Today’s Social Media Landscape

Entrepreneur extraordinaire Lon Safko covers the entire landscape of social media and discusses it from a strategic perspective: Why is LinkedIn important? How does Twitter work? Why are Fortune 5000 companies in virtual worlds? Why is having a Facebook, YouTube, and blog integral to your marketing and your bottom line?

Lon has been awarded Westinghouse’s Entrepreneur of the Year, Ernst & Young / Inc. Magazine Entrepreneur of the Year, and Public Relations Society of America’s Mark of Excellence. He’s been in Entrepreneur Magazine and Popular Science. In his career, he has founded 11 companies, invented 18 products, placed 30,000 personal papers in the Smithsonian Institution, invented Tool-Tips, created The First Computer To Save A Human Life and wrote six books, including Social Media Bible. He releases his newest edition in September, which will be available at this session.

Be sure to bring your laptop! After Lon’s presentation, you can “boot up” and we’ll have Q and A addressing your social media challenges.

Members of the program committee are Janita Cooper janita@masterdup.com (co-chair), Paula Shoup pshoup@myinteralgps.com (co-chair), Kimberly Amadeo kimberly@worldmoneywatch.com(VOE), Gloria Petersen gpetersen@globalprotocol.com> (Business Building Session)

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., September 8 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

Please Support Our Meeting Sponsor – SuperPhotoVideo.com

Our sponsor, photographer Flash Gordon Murray, extends his NSA Convention Special for shooting professional headshots at this meeting. He will be able to accept 10 people for 2 poses, 2 digital backdrops, amazing digital retouching, files optimized for print, web and Facebook (12 files) on a full buy-out CD for $99 (regular price $325). Contact Flash Gordon at 480-205-9691 or flash@superphotovideo.com to schedule your sitting.

Can you suggest good sponsors? Send your recommendations to June Clinejune@junecline.com who chairs the 2010-2011 Sponsorship Committee.

Congratulations to Kathy Marcil

June meeting attendee Kathy Marcil won a FREE future meeting attendance by submitting her program evaluation. Hand yours in at the next meeting to participate in this drawing for free attendance.

2010-2011 Living Room Forum – Kick-Off Night with Vickie Sullivan

“Who hires today’s speakers, and what do they want?”

In today’s fickle market, the landscape of speaking opportunities continues to change. Who is most likely to hire speakers these days, and how can speakers get on the radar of these key decision-makers?

Join us on Wednesday evening, September 22, from 7 to 9 p.m. for a lively kick-off session of our Living Room Forum series. Get up close and personal with speaker marketing expert Vickie Sullivan. You’ll have an opportunity to hear valuable tips and ask your burning questions!

Since 1987, Vickie has generated millions of dollars for her clients who use speaking to increase income and market share. Most clients produce significant increases in revenue within 90 days after implementation. Author of Your Position of Power and Springboard Marketing systems, Vickie speaks on marketing trends and strategies in the speaking industry.

Location details will be sent to those who register for this event. Register today at nsa-arizona.org. We hope to see you there!

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 on the fourth Wednesday evening September to November and January to May at various NSA-Arizona members’ homes. These informal sessions allow NSA members, candidates, and guests to connect in a small setting over a light dinner.

Contact co-chairs Gilat BenDor gilat.ben-dor@renaissancewineacademy.com or Barbara Atkins b.atkins@pennagroup.com for information.

Congratulations to NSA-Arizona’s Newest

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERS

Laura Peters
Lorri Allen
Linda-Ann Stewart (Candidate graduate)
Paula Shoup (Candidate graduate)
Chris Kyselka (Candidate graduate)

CANDIDATE MEMBERS

Cathy Severson
Martin Hernandez
Joanne Deck

Speaker Development Lab

The Lab welcomes Naomi Rhode, CSP, CPAE, as our guest enricher/evaluator for Sept. 14 Speaker Lab. Naomi is a Cavett Award-winning speaker and member of Speakers Roundtable. She is past president of NSA and International Federation for Professional Speakers (IFFPS). This Lab is at NSA HQ from 9:30 a.m. to noon. (No reservations required.)

To participate in our bi-monthly Labs, contact Don Thoren, CPAE, dthoren@cox.net for open speaking slots/scheduling.

Maggie Hunts is the Speaker Lab board representative, assisted by Don Thoren, CPAE, Debra Exner, Bill Johnson, CSP, Ed Scannell, CSP, and June Cline, CSP.

Upcoming NSA-Arizona Events

October 9 – Matt Holt, Publisher of John Wiley & Sons
November 18 – Thursday evening – Laura Stack, Sleeping in Your Own Bed: How to Get Local Business
December 11 – Holiday Party
January 8 – Randy Pennington, CSP, CPAE, Success Is Not an Accident: How to Plan for the Results you Want.
February 12 – John B. Molidor, PhD, Brain Science: How to Use it for Greater Impact
March 12 – Kristin Arnold, CSP, Facilitation: The New Secret Weapon for Professional Speakers
April 9 – Mark LeBlanc, Growing Your Business When You Are the Business
May 14 – Joe Sherren, CSP, HoF, Customers for Life? ABSOLUTELY! A proven business strategy to get you there.
June 11 – David Newman, DoItMarketing! What audiences are Your Clients In?

Upcoming International Events

CAPS Convention – Dec. 4-7, 2010 – Montreal, PQ
2011 NSA Winter Conference Feb. 18-20, 2011 – Atlanta, GA
2011 NSA Convention – July 30-August 2, 2011 – Anaheim, CA

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

BRAVO Corner

Karen Gridley will appear on Lifetime Television’s “The Balancing Act” on September 29, 2010, to talk about her bestselling book Embrace Your Rights.

Stephanie Angelo is part of the O’Connor House and Avon Program for Women and Justice “Speak Out Against Domestic Violence” campaign to raise awareness through SPEAK OUT AGAINST DOMESTIC VIOLENCE posters. She invites NSA-Arizona members to help by being a sponsor of the campaign or referring organizations. Contact Stephanie at Stephanie@hressential.com.

Susan Ratliff was the keynote speaker at What Women Want, a conference and expo presented by the Gilbert Chamber of Commerce.

Marcia Reynolds, CSP, and her book Wander Woman: How High-Achieving Women Find Contentment and Direction was recently featured in a ForbesWoman.com article How To Make The Workplace More Appealing To Top-Performing Women from her book Wander Woman: How High-Achieving Women Find Contentment and Direction. She was also quoted in a Psychology Today article “I Coulda Been a Contender.”

PR Alert

Susan Ratliff appeared on the Pat McMahon show, AZTV, to talk about NSA-Arizona’s purpose and invited viewers to attend the September meeting.

Let fellow NSA-Arizona members know about your achievements. Email Barbara McNichol editor@barbaramcnichol.com to be included in Bravo Corner.

Connect with NSA-Arizona

NSA-Arizona is now connected on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. Follow us at Twitter or Facebook or YouTube

HUMOR TIP OF THE MONTH – Think Wink

By Robert Mac Robert@robertmac.com
One of the elements of a good joke is surprise, but if audience members are caught off-guard, they may not see the humor you’re delivering. Preface a joke or funny story with a brief introduction (the obvious route), something more subtle (like a wink), or anything in between.

WORD TRIPPER FROM THE PLATFORM

By Barbara McNichol editor@barbaramcnichol.com NEW! Barbara will give away her Word Trippers ebook, a $16.95 value, to the first person who emails her with “NewsFlash Free Ebook” in subject line.

Do certain confusing words ever trip you up? This Word Tripper can set you straight!

Doubtful, in doubt – “Doubtful” is uncertainty about an outcome; “in doubt” is uncertainty of opinion. If the engagement is doubtful, that means the event is unlikely to happen. If the entertainer’s engagement is in doubt, then no decision to hire him has been made.

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 Linda-Ann Stewart, Suzanne Holman, 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