Professionally Speaking

People try to put us d-down (talkin' 'bout my generation)Just because we get around (talkin' 'bout my generation)Things they do look awful c-c-cold (talkin' 'bout my generation)I hope I die before I get old (talkin' 'bout my generation)

-- The Who, 1965

Over 50 members and guests of the Northern California Chapter of the National Speakers Association gathered in Lafayette on Saturday to hear NSA National President Anna Liotta, CSP, deliver a program titled What's Stopping Millennials/GenXers/Boomers from Hiring You, And What to Do About It.

She previewed her talk with a custom video addressed to the chapter:

Talkin' 'bout my generation

For those Baby Boomers who didn't die before they got old--and learned the value of trusting anyone over 30 a few decades back--Anna's talk had particular poignancy. She explained how the recent OK Boomer meme is the equivalent of the advice not to trust anyone over 30. What goes around comes around. Here's why...

Generational Codes

Anna Liotta has studied generational dynamics for over 25 years. Indeed, she wrote the book on generational CODES™.

What's more, she’s lived the research. As one of 19 (!) children, her entire life has been a Ph.D. in generational dynamics. Her presentation addressed the question: What makes this age-old conflict of generational collisions and biases so important to us in business today?

Her concept of generational codes helps explain:

What defines each generation, including pivotal events and experiences that shaped it. The truths and lies behind generational stereotypes. How various generations define their work ethic. How technology can bridge or break down generational communication. The secrets of selling products and services to different generations. What you need to know as a manager to find and retain new talent.

Anna demonstrated how, as speakers, we should develop savvy messages that appeal to the different generations.

This task is often confusing, as each generation has unique needs and motivators. Each brings its own set of attitudes, values, and beliefs to the workplace, and the way they do business. They make choices of who to buy from and who to work for, based on these values and beliefs. Understanding what shapes and forms each generation is vital.

Interestingly, each generation is sure that their values, attitudes, and beliefs are the right ones.

Her insight is that each generation is significantly influenced by what was happening in the world around them during their formative years. The ages of eight to 18 are when each generation is making decisions about how the world works and what’s possible. The events, icons, and leaders they see, experience, adore, and dislike are shaping their world. These influences set the paradigm for decision making, purchasing choices, and job selection for years to come.

Anyone doubting this can see the trajectory of individual lives play out in director Michael Apted’s films about a cohort of British Boomer children, the most recent of which--63 Up--opened in the US last month.

OK, Boomer!

My own rather self-satisfied response to the generational divide was to tweak the noses of the younger members of the audience who were strangely absent from the social media channel the chapter had promoted.

In her own words

I caught up with Anna after the event, and she shared her message with me, as well as an update on the changes that are occurring at the NSA. To hear what she said, click on the podcast below.

Gail is an executive level expert and thought leader driving the vision and tactical decisions for large-scale transformation programs, from the C-Suite to the team level. Gail excels at leading complex, multidimensional transformations, managing client and vendor relationships. Additionally, Gail manages complex client challenges that require deep and specialized IT operational knowledge to achieve maximum impact for projects and transformation programs.

Her specialties include Enterprise Lean-Agile Coaching, Lean-Agile Transformation, Scaled Agile consulting, business strategy & development, Innovation Accounting, Kanban, Scaled Agile Framework Enterprise Consultant (SAFe-SPC), LeSS, and lean methods.

She is currently an Expert Principal for the Boston Consulting Group, leading knowledge management and IP practices for their Agile At Scale organization. She tweets as @LeanAgilist and is on LinkedIn. Her Enterprise Agile Leader website has resources on Agile Coaching, Leadership and Training

Among her many publications is one noting that even the most sophisticated companies still use an old-fashioned suggestion box to generate new innovations and ideas. She notes the importance of communications:
Ensure you make it clear that you welcome any and all suggestions. Corporate communications can sometimes be boring, so instead start ‘organizational conversations’ that you think of as dialogues rather than monologues. The idea is to make the conversation more effective by developing relationships with your team, and then following up with the communique.
Pro-Track Profile
Gail is part of the National Speakers Association Northern California 2019 Speakers Academy program. This is the program previously known as Pro-Track. I participated back in 2006 and although the program now has another name I am sticking with the alliterative "Pro-Track Profile" moniker as I interview participants and add them to the roster of past interviews. I'm volunteering as an adjunct faculty member in support of the program this year, and took the opportunity to catch up with Gail. To hear what she told me about how she found out about the program and what she hopes to get out of it, click on the podcast icon below.

Jonathan Berent, L.C.S.W. has pioneered treatment for performance and social anxiety since 1978. A certified psychotherapist, he has worked with thousands of individuals of all ages in individual, group, and family psychotherapy. He has appeared on "The Oprah Winfrey Show", "Sally Jessy Raphael", "Joan Rivers", "CNN Medical News" and many other TV and radio shows.

His Social Anxiety website is a premier resource for resolving social anxiety disorder. A primary area he addresses is public speaking anxiety. His proven methodology channels anxiety into high performance. He resolves the emotions of embarrassment, shame, and humiliation that many who are anxious about public speaking suffer.

We interviewed Mr. Berent to learn more about the issue and his solution.
Terror in the C-Suite
There are successful C-Suite executives who admit they'd rather get into a car accident on the way to a conference than show up and face the crowd for their presentation. One real estate executive who easily closed $3 billion deals fell into a state of terror when faced with talking about this to a group of students on career day. Panic at the podium—and embarrassment over the obvious symptoms—is debilitating for many executives and entrepreneurs and can include symptoms such as erythrophobia (Fear of Blushing), hyperhidrosis (Excessive Sweating) and voice paralysis.

Fear of public speaking is not simply an inconvenience; it’s an income inhibitor, career killer, and an insidious anxiety disorder that most mental health and medical professionals do not understand.

More than a quarter of the population reports a fear of public speaking, according to a recent Chapman University survey of American's top fears. While countless programs attack the problem on the surface through coaching, skill building and practice, almost none focus on the underlying causes.
Practical Steps
The good news is that you don’t have to suffer this unwelcome anxiety anymore. His book, Work Makes Me Nervous, empowers people to transform stress into positive energy using an evidence-based, step-by-step method. This down-to-earth resource combines practical psychological techniques and exercises with real-life stories. He explains how everyone from entry-level workers to seasoned executives and famous sports and media figures have encountered and successfully dealt with workplace anxiety—and how you can too.

If you, or anyone you know, suffer from anxiety about public speaking, I highly recommend this book. As he says "Don't wait! The time to change is now!"

To hear more about the issues he's encountered in over 40 years of clinical practice, treating over 10,000 patients, and the steps you can take, click on the podcast icon below.

On Thursday, December 13 the Silicon Valley Speeechwriters Roundtable hosted Ian Griffin in a free conference call.

I'm usually the one doing the interviewing. However, Barbara Seymour Giordano suggested she turn the tables and interview me. Barbara had been my guest back in May.

Barbara and I discussed my career as a freelance speechwriter, corporate employee, and blogger. We reviewed how I got into speechwriting, my experience in Silicon Valley companies, my Professionally Speaking blog as well as my new Booch News venture, and more.

To hear the full discussion, click on the podcast icon below.

On Thursday, August 30th the Silicon Valley Speechwriters Roundtable hosted Jeff Davenport in a free conference call.

Jeff serves as an executive speaker coach and senior content developer at Duarte, the well-known communication design and consulting firm based in Santa Clara, founded by Nancy Duarte.

Using his background as a screenwriter and professional public speaker, Jeff helps clients communicate powerfully and persuasively by infusing story, dynamism, and empathy into their presentations. Whether he’s coaching high-level executives or thought leaders taking the stage for conference keynotes or commencement addresses, Jeff brings a thoughtful, personal touch to his roles, tapping into speakers’ personal passions and helping them create lasting connections with their audiences.

Jeff is a 2017 Cicero Award winner in the Public Policy category for his speech ‘Someday is Today’ delivered by Carlos Rodriguez-Pastor at CADE in Lima, Peru.

The call covered a wide range of topics including:

How he went from a wallflower in high school to a premier public speaking coach.
The secrets of the "Duarte Method" that any and all speechwriters can employ (Hint: read Resonate and Illuminate).
The value of the DataStory training workshop available from Duarte that helps speechwriters structure a compelling argument based on analytical data.
The three books on screenwriting he recommends speechwriters read:

Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting, by Syd Field
Save the Cat!, by Blake Snyder
Into the Woods, by John Yorke

What you'll learn by watching the directors cut of Toy Story 3 on Blu-Ray.

Jeff's parting words:
I would encourage anybody to do more public speaking, especially if you are writing for other people. We all had PE teachers who we realized never once played a sport. They were terrible PE teachers. So get out there and know what it's like to play. Take a public speaking class. It doesn't matter what it's about. Do some sort of public speaking, writing for yourself and delivering yourself so you can get more in the heads of your clients and what know their true struggles are.
Otherwise, I would add, you're forever the virgin trying to write a sex manual, aren't you?

To hear the full discussion click on the podcast icon below.

On June 19, 2018 the Silicon Valley Speechwriters Roundtable held a conference call with Bob Sands.

Bob is a speaker and speechwriter who has helped people and businesses tailor and tell their stories for the last 25 years. He has also been a Pastor, Entrepreneur, Coach and Radio Broadcaster.

Currently, he is focusing his time on helping individuals, businesses and organizations clarify and communicate their message. As the President of Sands Communications, Inc., he has given over 5000 presentations himself to every kind of group from Funeral directors to firefighters to CEO's. He has coached and written keynote speeches for executives, helped salespeople hone their speaking skills and developed communication strategies for both political candidates and elected officials.

The call covered a wide range of topics including:

Bob's techniques for crafting a sermon, most often delivered to a familiar audience.
The challenge of preaching to congregations where the common themes of the Bible known to earlier generations have been lost.
His segue intro speechwriting, and where he finds most of his freelance clients.
The relevance of the study of homiletics to speechwriting, especially the books of Alyce McKenzie.
Bob's use of social media to magnify the impact of his message.
What impressed him about David Murray's recent PSA White Paper titled A Provocation from the Pulpit: Dead Preachers Challenge Living Speechwriters.

Breaking News: David Murray announcing the creation of a companion to the well-known Vital Speeches of the Day -- Vital Sermons of the Day which David and Bob are launching. Find out more on their Facebook page.

To hear these and other topics discussed click on the podcast icon below.

On May 24, 2018 the Silicon Valley Speechwriters Roundtable Held a conference call with Barbara Seymour Giordano. Barbara is a Story Doctor, Speechwriter and Presentation Coach who specializes in helping speakers tell memorable stories that audiences yearn to hear and share. Her specialty is guiding speakers — from the page to the stage — through the often murky and intricate process of bringing a story idea to life. She turns complex subjects into moving stories that spark imagination across cultures.

Over her career Barbara has advised Fortune 500 executives, entrepreneurs, scientists and TED presenters on creating and sharing stories that unite, influence and inspire audiences worldwide. Her fascination with story began when she worked as an assignment editor with CNN and E! Entertainment Television. She then parlayed her news experience into producing and directing corporate videos, global sales meetings and events for Amgen, Cisco Systems, and Nike among others. In front of the lens she's appeared as an on-camera national TV fashion and beauty spokesperson for Lands’ End, Neiman Marcus, and TJX Corp. she delivers keynote speeches on topics that include The Art of Business of Storytelling, The Startup Pitch: Telling Stories Investors Want to Hear, and Storytelling TED Style. Her 360-degree communication experience allows her to offer a unique approach to crafting the stories that make speeches come alive..

The call covered a wide range of topics including:

How she "backed into" speechwriting after helping coach executives in need of basic advice on presentation skills at large corporate events.
The lessons she learned crafting 90-second investor pitches and 8-12 minute TED talks.
Her appreciation of Toastmasters as the "learning gym" for presentation skills.
The value of a simple one-page approach to the "hero's journey" as a speech outline.
How she helped PhD candidates in sociology, pharmacy other disciplines deliver content as a compelling story stripping out the techno-babble they were prone to use.
The value of shows like Billions and Silicon Valley as an alternate view into the world of speechwriting and presentations that stands in contrast to the oft-quoted scenes from The West Wing.

How to structure a speech around a story by starting from the desired outcome.

How freelance speechwriters can find more clients.

To hear these and other topics discussed click on the podcast icon below.

On April 26, 2018 the Silicon Valley Speechwriters Roundtable Held a conference call with Felicity Barber. Felicity is the Executive Speechwriter at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. She is a communications expert specializing in thought leadership, storytelling and speechwriting. Prior to joining the Fed she ran her own business, Thoughtful Speech for three years. She moved to San Francisco from London in 2014 where she was a speechwriter at the global insurer, Lloyd’s of London. She has also worked as a Policy Advisor to the Home Office in London and as a Parliamentary Assistant to the Labour Party member for Islington South and Finsbury, Emily Thornberry MP.

The call covered a wide range of topics including:

The focus of the book Felicity wrote that was presented to the Queen (and Her Majesty read).

The origin of the term 'underwriter' (as in the Insurance industry, not someone who is a junior speechwriter...)

How Felicity broke into the speechwriting business in London.
A comparison between the work of a speechwriter in the UK and USA.
Her observation that the publishers of anthologies of famous speeches rarely include those given by woman.
The impact of the young women such as Emma Gonzales who survived the shooting at their school and spoke out against American gun culture.

The advantage enjoyed by the younger generation of speakers who are social media natives.
Notable speeches by women such as those by Oprah Winfrey, actress Anne Hathaway and the secret speech of MzBhaver Raver.
The UN Women Instagram account as source of inspirational women speakers.
An appreciation of the work of Denise Graveline promoting women speakers.
The challenges faced by women who work in the "Brotopia" culture of Silicon Valley tech companies and the urgent need for that industry to recruit diverse talent.
The value of women mentoring women, for example by Women who Code and Anitab.org
The challenges faced by women in politics and lessons speechwriters can learn from the Hillary Clinton campaign and the views of communications director Jennifer Palmieri.
The value of building a long-term relationship between a speechwr1ter and speaker.
The rise and fall of women in tech (as a percentage of programmers).
The pervasive influence of Silicon Valley on our economy, culture and politics as revealed by Norm Cohen in The Know-It-Alls.
How to address the imbalance in the ratio between male and female speakers? What influence can speechwr1ters have?

The prominence of women in the National Speakers Association including Past-President Patricia Fripp.

To hear these and other topics discussed click on the podcast icon below.

More than 2,000 years ago, Cicero called rhetoric a “great art.” Since then, staggering advances in mass communication haven't diminished the transformative power of a great speech.

And the Cicero Speechwriting Awards recognize the speechwriters and the speakers who make it great.

Presented by Vital Speeches of the Day, the prestigious monthly collection of speeches, the Cicero Speechwriting Awards recognize the work that makes the speeches that help leaders lead—in every sector of business, politics and society.

In this podcast I talk with VSOTD editor David Murray about what makes a speech Cicero Award material, and the changes he's seen over the last dozen years that the Awards have been given. To hear what David said, simply click on the podcast icon below.

Click here to enter the 2018 Cicero Speechwriting Awards today.

On Wednesday October 4th the Silicon Valley Speechwriters Roundtable hosted a conference call with Shel Holtz. We discussed the ways in which social and digital media — which have given rise to content marketing — offer a host of options to speechwriters to draw attention to the speech before, during, and after its delivery. Shel reviewed the rapid development of the many forms of social media available for speechwriters to use, from humble beginnings as blogs and chat rooms to the rich variety of streaming media solutions available today.

Among the tips Shel shared was the use of Poll Everywhere to engage audiences and the Mevo live event camera for streaming.

Click on the podcast icon below to listen to Shel discuss these topics and more, as well as answer questions from speechwriters who were on the call. (Apologies for the audio which suffered from occasional background noise, but nothing that should prevent you listening to whole 55 minute call.)

On Thursday May 18 members of the Silicon Valley Speechwriters Roundtable were in conversation with Tim Pollard, author of The Compelling Communicator: Mastering the Art and Science of Exceptional Presentation Design.

In his new book, Tim Pollard has developed a systematic approach to the design and delivery of presentations and speeches that is applicable to everything from sales pitches to keynotes to TED Talks. The framework outlined in The Compelling Communicator is supported by research in how the brain processes information and how human beings learn; and it's buttressed by Tim's years of in-person experience communicating with, and coaching, leaders in business and non-profits worldwide.

Click on the podcast icon below to listen to Tim discuss some of the key concepts in his book, as well as answer questions from executive communications professionals at Cisco and Hewlett Packard.

My son recently graduated with a degree in International Business and Marketing and is looking for an entry-level position in this area. I met today with a group of marketing professionals who shared the many reasons young people should consider a career in this field.

To hear what they told me, click on the podcast icon below.

Oh, and if you know of any entry-level marketing jobs in the San Francisco Bay Area let me know! Neil's Dad will thank you...

On Thursday September 1, members of the Silicon Valley Speechwriters Roundtable hosted a conference call with with renowned author, speechwriter and professor Bob Lehrman.

Robert A. Lehrman served as Chief Speechwriter to Vice President Al Gore and, in 2004, as Chief Speechwriter for the Democratic National Committee during his more than three decades of experience writing speeches. His 2009 book, 'The Political Speechwriters Companion' is one of the best books I've ever read on speechwriting, period. He's an editor of the new book 'Democratic Orators from JFK to Barack Obama' (Palgrave/Macmillan 2016) and authored the chapters on the oratory of J.F.K. and Barack Obama.

Bob has written for political figures, celebrities, heads of nonprofits, and corporate CEOs. He created and co-teaches the political speechwriting course at American University, speaks often at other campuses, conferences, and associations, on the topic of political speechwriting, and has conducted four workshops in Hanoi for Vietnamese diplomats. Author of a number of award-winning novels, and many articles for publications like The New York Times, Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor, and Politico, Bob has a B.A. from Tufts University and an M.F.A. from the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop, where he studied with Kurt Vonnegut and Richard Yates.

I was going to summarize the topics we discussed on the call, but Rob Cottingham did a great job capturing this in an awesome Sketchnote:

(Click to enlarge)

To listen to the first half hour of the call, click on the podcast icon below.

On Thursday May 5, members of the Silicon Valley Speechwriters Roundtable hosted a conference call with freelance speechwriter, author and publisher Sanjay Nambiar.

Sanjay is a veteran speechwriter and award-winning children’s book author. He has written speeches for CEOs and executives in a wide range of industries, from finance and technology to education and non-profits. Past clients include executives at Toyota, Comcast, and CBS among others.

He also has written several award-winning children's books. In addition to being a speechwriter and author, Sanjay also is the CEO of SDPH Media, the company behind the multimedia global brand platform for the Super Duper Princess Heroes.

The focus of our conversation was Sanjay's recommendations for building a freelance speechwriting business as well as his role as an author and publisher (something he has in common with other speechwriters such as Mike Long -- playwright -- and Justina Chen -- young adult fiction author).

Sanjay reviewed the ways he built his client list that started with Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and pay-per-click ads. He also talked about the advantages and disadvantages of options such as Upwork (formally eLance), cold calling and mailing. He shared effective networking and referral techniques. We also discussed his publishing business.

To find out more, click on the podcast icon below to hear edited highlights from the call where Sanjay shares tips on building a freelance speechwriting business.

On Wednesday February 24, members of the Silicon Valley Speechwriters Roundtable hosted a conference call with Google speechwriter Matt Teper.

Matt is the Head of Editorial at Google, where he is the leader and founder of the Google Ink team. The team is responsible for defining the voice of Google in major speeches, executive presentations, op-ed's, blog posts, social media, press statements, internal news, and all manner of creative and editorial work.

Matt is also Eric Schmidt's speechwriter.

Matt came to Google in 2012, from the White House, where he served as Vice President Joe Biden's chief speechwriter for the first three-plus years of the Obama administration.

During the call, Matt described what it was like to work for the Vice President, the contrast between the life of a speechwriter in DC and in Silicon Valley and shared his insights about the craft of speechwriting. He also confirms that Google is not, currently, working on a time machine!

To hear a recording of the call click on the link below. Since the call lasts over an hour you might prefer to choose the Download option and listen later.

On Thursday September 17, 2015 the Silicon Valley Speechwriters welcomed Hal Gordon as our guest on a conference call.

Hal was a speechwriter for the Reagan White House and later wrote for Gen. Colin Powell. Since 2005, Hal has provided executive speech writing for top executives of Shell Oil, Royal Dutch Shell, CenterPoint Energy, GE Aero Energy, UPS, Sim-Tex LP, cPanel and the Greater Houston Partnership. He's also lectured on speechwriting for NASA, Texas A&M University, the National Association of Government Communicators, more than half a dozen national speechwriter conferences and the U.K. Speechwriter's Guild.

Hal was a speechwriter in the Reagan White House, where he wrote for Counselor to the President Edwin Meese, OMB director James C. Miller, and other top domestic advisors to the President.

Hal has a web site—www.ringingwords.com—and blogs for www.punditwire.com. Follow him on Twitter @paidpen.

In a wide-ranging conversation Hal discusses working at the White House and his views on the current crop of Republican Presidential candidates (including Donald Trump who he satirizes in this version of a Trump speech to Evangelicals). He comments on the debt Winston Churchill owes to Irish-American statesman William Bourke Cockran and the importance of Churchill's essay on Scaffolding of Rhetoric.
Hal reminds speechwriters to always be on the look out for material, which he illustrates by telling how he used the Shield of Parade which he admired on a visit to the British Museum in a later speech.

To hear edited highlights of the call, click on the podcast icon below.

With wedding season approaching, happy couples from around the world are preparing to walk down the aisle and begin their lives together. Wedding season also marks the time when friends and family will be asked to give a toast to celebrate the occasion. For many, it may be the first time they are being asked to speak publicly, and, although it may be in front of friends and family, it can be an intimidating experience.

Toastmasters International, the global organization devoted to communication and leadership skills development, offers these five tips for delivering a memorable wedding toast:

Be prepared. Know your material and try to avoid reading. Include an opening, a body and a conclusion.

Identify yourself. Open with a brief explanation of your relationship to the couple before beginning the toast.

Use humor and creativity. Entertaining stories and anecdotes are appreciated by the audience, but avoid telling potentially embarrassing stories or using offensive language.

Get personal. A toast should be original, heartfelt and customized for the occasion.

Stand; lift your glass and say, “I'd like to propose a toast.” Pause to allow guests to shift their attention toward you and give them time to lift their glasses. Be sure to lower your glass to about waist height.

“It’s important that the person delivering the wedding toast is confident, poised and moderately brief,” says Mohammed Murad, Toastmasters 2014-15 International President. “The most memorable messages come from the heart, are light-hearted and focus on wishing the couple well on their joyful journey together.”

Click here to watch a Maid of Honor using the five tips above as she delivers her wedding toast. In addition to toasting advice, Toastmasters offers many public speaking tips. To practice your toasts or speeches, find a Toastmasters club near you by visiting www.toastmasters.org/findaclub.

The afternoon speaker at Saturday's Northern California NSA Chapter meeting was our own chapter member from Eureka in the far north of California (and National NSA Board member) Jessica Pettitt, CSP.

Jessica's program challenged us to consider what differentiates us from other speakers or trainers in our niche. After speaking for fifteen years and stirring up tough conversations for audiences on college campuses, Jessica has learned a lot about who she isn't willing to be and who she accidentally is.

She delivered a highly interactive, high energy, humorous afternoon session where no question was off limits.

This culminated in an exercise to help us know what makes us unique as speakers by embracing our points of distinction.
Embrace Your Points of Distinction
Jessica distributed index cards and asked us to write down points that differentiate us as professional speakers. She then read out these statements (anonymously) asking if the audience could guess, based on the text, who it described. There were precious few of us who could be easily identified. Many in the room claimed their uniqueness lay in such commonplace features as:

"I'm entertaining" (isn't everyone?)
"I don't tell a story, I make it come alive" (not a marked point of distinction if you are presenting at a storytellers conference, maybe in the corporate world)
"High energy speaker!" (table stakes)
"Background in journalism" (all too common, given the job market in that profession)
"Combines speaking with hands on professional services" (much laughter)
"Free and easy smile" (you don't say)
"Integrate humor with my speeches" (even those who are not trying to be funny can be hysterical to some)
"Compassionate" (too low a bar)

It was only a few who were instantly recognizable to fellow chapter members. The lesson is obvious. As Karen Jacobsen directed in her morning session, we need to be able to describe the outcomes to our clients in one sentence. Jessica highlighted the importance of making sure that sentence contained something unique that would cause a meeting planner to want to book us.

To hear a brief extract from Jessica's presentation, where she talks about the importance of working on what makes us truly unique, click on the podcast icon below.

No member of the National Speakers Association speaks to as many people on a daily basis as does Karen Jacobsen. Her voice is one of the options on over 100 million GPS systems and 300 million smartphones. She's the one we hear when lose our way and the GPS tells us it is 'recalculating'.

On Saturday she spoke to members of the NSA Northern California Chapter.
Oh Say Can You See?
Karen, a professional singer-songwriter raised in Australia and now a native of New York, began her presentation with a stunning rendition of the American national anthem -- she's sung The Star Spangled Banner in baseball stadiums across the country. She then gave the motivational speech she delivers to corporate clients, listing five 'GPS Girl' life-lessons, interspersed with her own songs:

Is your inner GPS telling you that you are off your route?
Are you willing to change direction?
Have you clarified your destination?
Are you ready to embrace the steering wheel?
Accelerate!

Her speaker demo reel shows some of what we enjoyed:

Directions for Speaker Success
Following this showcase presentation, Karen shifted gears (so to speak) and shared her insights into success in the speaking business. She helped us navigate a list of 44 directions for speaker success in business, well-being, speech delivery and quality of life. They included recommendations on everything from being sure to stay hydrated (crucial for all speakers, not just singers), eating a diet of living foods, avoiding toxins, daily meditation practice and exercise to keeping an uncluttered office, participating in a mastermind group and working with a business coach. She emphasized these are a destination to aim for, not something we achieve immediately.
Taking Care of Business
Here's the GPS Girl's list of business goals:

I can describe the outcomes for my clients in one sentence.
I have a three minute Speaker Video I am proud of.
My website is updated regularly and clearly represents my brand.
I am using professional photographs taken in the past 12 months.
My business cards are on excellent high quality stock.
My social media strategy works for me and my online and offline presence are consistent.
I use Quickbooks (or an equivalent), my accounting is up-to-date and taxes are paid.
I know I look well-groomed and feel confident walking into any room.
I make daily phone calls as part of my marketing strategy.
I save at least 10% of my income.
I am earning my target revenue.

These are valuable goals for any freelancer, entrepreneur or small business owner, not just those in the speaking profession.

To hear a short extract from Karen's presentation, discussing the first two of these business goals, click on the podcast icon below.

Members of the Silicon Valley Speechwriters Roundtable joined David Murray on a conference call earlier this week. This is the third and final edited highlight of the call. In part one David talked about the way the profession has changed. In part two he reviewed highlights from the 2015 Ragan Speechwriters Conference.

In this third edited highlight, he discusses the importance of the Professional Speechwriters Association and shares some of his experiences as editor of Vital Speeches of the Day.

To hear what he said, click on the podcast icon below.

Members of the Silicon Valley Speechwriters Roundtable joined Vital Speeches of the Day Editor David Murray on a conference call earlier this week. This is the first of three edited highlights of the call.

David is executive director of the Professional Speechwriters Association and was the MC of the recent Ragan Speechwriters Conference. He's been a fixture on the speechwriting scene since the early 1990's.

In this part of the conference call, David reflects on the changes in the profession of speechwriting since the days of the "pipe smoking, erudite and slightly eccentric" gentlemen speechwriters of the old school.

To hear what he said, click on the podcast icon below.

There are over 11 million corporate meetings every day in the United States, yet how often do we walk into a corporate meeting wondering why we are there? Or walk out angry that we've wasted another precious hour and accomplished nothing?

What makes for a good conversation, or a meaningful meeting? Why are good conversations so elusive? How can we use our communications and leadership skills to ensure that more conversations at work excite participants, enable them to connect deeply with each other, and enhance organizational productivity?

These were some of the questions raised in an NSA/NC Salon held last Sunday, hosted by Wendy Hanson, featuring Chapter President-Elect Jim Ware.

Jim is the author of Changing the Corporate Conversation (forthcoming) and a former Harvard Business School professor who has spent his entire career teaching clients how to invent their own futures. He is the founder and Executive Director of The Future of Work…unlimited, Global Research Director for Occupiers Journal Limited, and a Partner with the FutureWork Forum. He is also a co-founder of the new Great Work Cultures movement.

Jim believes that as leaders in organizations and communications specialists we all have an opportunity -- and responsibility -- to focus our energy of drawing out the unique insights and experiences that each of us brings to the workplace. Teams that understand the power of collaboration, rooted in authentic conversation, make the whole greater than the sum of the parts.
The Social Construction of Reality
My own interest in conversation pre-dates my life in the corporate world. Reading C Wright Mills in my Leicester University Sociology class left an indelible impression. His 1940 paper on Situated Actions and Vocabularies of Motive explains the social, rather than the psychological, reasons people say what they do in conversation with others. Certain statements will be acceptable in some contexts, not in others. Indeed, as I've written here before, the 'technology of interaction' in meetings points to a whole raft of unstated assumptions, social norms, cultural influences and power relations underpinning conversations.

Want to see these social forces in action? They're not difficult to spot. It's as simple as watching when an idea voiced by a woman in a meeting is ignored, while the same from a man is applauded. Or listening to how much more loudly people laugh at the boss's jokes than yours.
Talk Talk
Following Mills, sociologists such as Garfinkle and Goffman developed the sociology of conversation analysis. In formal meetings, as well as informal interactions, responses which agree with the position advocated tend to be offered sooner than statements that disagree with those positions. One consequence of this is that agreement and acceptance are easier alternatives and a natural outcome of many meetings.
Fair Warning
So, next time you're in a meeting where they call for 'honest feedback' just remember the warning of the French philosopher:

But I digress.

To hear some of what Jim shared at the meeting, click on the podcast icon below.

Members of the Silicon Valley Speechwriters Roundtable joined speechwriter, screenwriter and author Mike Long on a conference call earlier this week. This is the second of two edited highlights of the call. In part one Mike talked about becoming a freelance speechwriter.

In this second edited highlight, Mike talks about how his experience as a screenwriter helps him write better speeches and the core elements essential to any story. To hear what he said, click on the podcast icon below.

Members of the Silicon Valley Speechwriters Roundtable joined speechwriter, screenwriter and author Mike Long on a conference call earlier this week. This is the first of two edited highlights of the call.

Mike is the former director of the White House Writers Group, and an accomplished speechwriter, author, essayist, and award-winning screenwriter and playwright. He has written remarks for members of Congress, U.S. Cabinet secretaries, governors, diplomats, CEOs, and four presidential candidates.

As director of writing for the Master of Professional Studies program in Public Relations and Corporate Communications at Georgetown University, he created the writing curriculum and teaches graduate courses in PR writing, speechwriting, and business and persuasive writing.

A popular and provocative speaker, he has been is a frequent presenter the Ragan Speechwriters Conference and appeared on CNBC in the U.S. and is a frequent commentator on CBC News: Morning with Heather Hiscox in Canada.

In this first of two edited highlights from the call, Mike talks about how he got into freelance writing and offers sage advice for anyone who is considering launching their own freelance career. To hear what he said, click on the podcast icon below.

"The job is not doing the speech. It is getting the speech" - Shep Hyken

The National President of the NSA, Shep Hyken, CSP, CPAE spoke to members of the NSA Northern California Chapter on Saturday. Shep is a customer service expert, professional speaker and author who works with companies who want to build loyal relationships with their customers and employees.

His talk to the 80+ Chapter members and guests was a compendium of best practices he's gathered over the 32 years he's been a professional speaker. He shared the tips and techniques that he has used to build his own successful speaking business. His ideas ranged from the value of writing articles that will establish you as an expert in your field to how blogging, books, a website and social media are all part of a coordinated program to build momentum in the market.

Among the points I noted:

Consider using college interns for marketing tasks. Post openings at the business school. Ask candidates to review your website, suggest what they can do to help, how many hours they can work and what they need to be paid. Shep has been amazed by the creativity students bring to his office and the value they've added.

Re-purpose the content of your articles, blog postings and newsletters into a book. Start by listing titles onto index cards, shuffling them and seeing if there's a structure for a book in there.
Transform articles into videos. Drop the text into telepromt+ so it scrolls by on the screen as you record the video on your webcam. Works best if you write as you speak.
Take this formula for green screen paint to Home Depot and have a gallon mixed up. Paint the wall of a spare room and put in a Sony videocam with external mic jack, some studio lights and you are set to record. Use an older version of the Sony Vegas software to edit, or the built-in software on a Mac.
Shep's talk covered many more topics including the secrets of low-cost book publishing in hard cover; scripting your calls to prospective clients when using the phone to build your business; generating passive income from products, and more.

To hear Shep in action, click on the podcast icon below. These two brief extracts of the his talk cover the ways he cultivates the ideal client and as his incredible 5-day social media publishing schedule that is a key part of his active marketing.

Hall of Fame keynote speaker and executive speech coach Patricia Fripp spoke to the members of the NSA Northern California Chapter Speakers Academy on Saturday. Fripp is the founder of our Chapter and a leading authority in the world of professional speaking.

Her entertaining and informative morning session touched on many aspects of her own 30-plus year career as a top speaker. She shared valuable information for aspiring professional speakers who want to prepare and present powerful presentations, including:

Ask: Are you practicing to improve or to reinforce bad habits? As a novice, start with best practices from the beginning.
Take advantage of the opportunity the Academy and NSA chapter gives us to network with others who have a passion for speaking.
Expect to bomb -- if you've not failed somewhere on stage, you're probably not challenging yourself enough.
Asking questions is the best education. The quality of the information you receive depends on the quality of your questions.
Be willing to promote yourself in an ongoing, consistent and relentless way. Refocus and redirect what you are doing.
To build a long-term sustainable business you need to exceed expectations, or you won't be invited back.
Desire trumps talent. You must have a relentless commitment as well an interest in speaking on your topic.
The most powerful way to learn any topic is to teach it to others.
Find a topic for your speeches by looking within your experience and talent, such as the expertise you've accumulated in your day job. No matter how technical your field, build your speech by thinking how you would explain what you do to your grandmother.
Despite the fact that there's only so much truth in the world, you have a unique point of view. Deliver that in your speeches. Don't invalidate your life experience.
A great way to develop material for a speech is to become a customer of the client who books you for a speech. Be a secret shopper and report your learnings. Talk to lower-level employees.
Structure your speech on a strong premise or central theme that is a basis of argument, leading to a conclusion. Be sure your talking points back-up and prove your big idea.
Remember the first 30 seconds and last 30 seconds of any talk have the most impact. Don't waste them with empty pleasantries.
Engage the audience in your subject by asking "Would it interest (horrify, amaze) you to know..."
Populate your presentations with flesh and blood characters other people can relate to. Stories do this.
Your audience will remember what they "see" in your stories.

These were among the many lessons shared by Fripp in her session. For anyone who would like to dive deeper into what she has to offer, I highly recommend her Virtual Training program. This online resource gives you access to one of the most in-demand executive speech coaches and sales presentation experts available. Fripp's Virtual Training is engaging and fun. It is designed for ambitious professionals, executives, sales teams, and professional speakers. Heck, she'll even give you a 7 day free trial. What's not to like?

To hear a brief extract from Saturday's event, where Fripp shares the secret of her own career success, click on the podcast icon below.

In this third and final edited highlight of the Silicon Valley Speechwriters Roundtable conference call from the PSA World Conference, I give a summary of Bob Lehrman’s break out featuring a conversation with David Kusnet who was Clinton's speechwriter. Katie Gray shares admiration for General David Petraeus’s intellect.

Brian Jenner shares Eric Schnure’s tips on writing for roasts and why it’s important to “singe not burn” and ways jokes can be reused. Schnure recommended writers do a “joke dump” and write 10 jokes for every one used. A good way to structure a joke is by associating a person or place in the news with a different issue. CEOs can get away with humor if they introduce it by saying “As Jon Stewart said…”.

To hear the audio, click on the podcast icon below.

In this second edited highlight from the call, social media director Jerry Weinstein reviews postings to the tweet-stream under the #PSAworld hashtag. He discusses the unusual nature of the opening keynote that took people out of their intellect into a bodily appreciation of what is involved in the act of speaking. He comments on the “Know your Worth” breakout session with Fletcher Dean, Julie Conway and Harry Kruglik and the relevance of salary surveys in journalism which might be valuable for speechwriters to initiate. Likewise, in a parallel breakout, Gotham Ghostwriters founder Dan Gerstein addressed the value of freelancers sharing rate information.

Duarte Design content developer Katie Gray was attending her first ever speechwriters conference and was impressed by the variety and cross-section of presentations. She liked the mixed media content of Mette Højen’s presentation on the ways speechwriters can command audiences exactly like an orchestra conductor.

David Murray explains why he chose an experiential opening keynote from Edmée Tuyl. He explains that it’s easy to find tips on the basics of speechwriting which he assumed most attendees at this event knew. He wanted to encourage people to share experiences, with someone who talked about speechwriting on a holistic basis. He discusses the closing keynote by General David Petraeus was himself a speechwriter for General John Galvin, Supreme Commander of European Forces. Petraeus demanded the right to be present every time the General spoke and to be in the car on the way to the event to get the boss fired up before stepping onto the podium.

To hear the audio, click on the podcast icon below.

The Silicon Valley Speechwriters Roundtable conference call took place May 21 at the end of the first day of the Professional Speechwriters Association (PSA) World Conference held May 22-23 at New York University.

There were 9 callers online from around the country. The Roundtable is open to anyone who is interested in speechwriting in Silicon Valley, not just those of us who live and work there. The call lasted 45 minutes, and I’ve divided the audio recording into three segments.

In this first of three edited highlights David Murray, the organizer of the Conference, discusses the mood of the event. In contrast to the 200-person Ragan Speechwriters Conference in Washington DC which attracts generalists, this event was targeted specifically at practicing professional speechwriters—over 50 attendees came from Europe, USA and Canada. David gives a preview of the review sessions that will occur on the final day of the event. He concludes by describing advantages of becoming a member of the newly formed Professional Speechwriters Association.

Brian Jenner of the UK Speechwriters Guild attended the 2008 Ragan Conference and saw first-hand the differences between British and American approaches to speechwriting and was inspired to found the UK Speechwriters Guild. The interest of other Europeans led to the European Speechwriters Network holding their first conference in 2013. He claims that this event has made him realize the differences in style between speechwriters and the “hippie tendencies” of some people who make their living as speechwriters!

To hear the audio, click on the podcast icon below.

There’s only 24 hours in a day, which is why President Obama, despite being an accomplished writer and orator, needs help with his speeches. During his first term in office, much of this help came from a young man who is arguably the most famous living speechwriter—Jon Favreau—who began working for then Senator Barack Obama as only his second writing job out of college.

Favreau gave the opening keynote—Words matter: Storytelling with President Obama in an age of sound bites—at the 2014 Ragan Speechwriters Conference. His talk in many ways book-ended the 2009 address by Ted Sorensen, who also wrote speeches for a young Senator who was elected as the first Catholic President of the United States: JFK. Sorensen spoke near the end of a very full life, yet the all-to-few years he wrote for Kennedy defined him. It is quite likely that 33-year-old Favreau will likewise be talking about his time as Obama’s speechwriter for the rest of his days.

His talk was perfect for the Ragan audience—a mix of solid speechwriting advice and unique insight into the creation of some of the major speeches of Obama’s Presidency. It was inside baseball talk from a major league player for the guys and gals in the minor league dug-outs.

Surprisingly, despite attempts to analyze the rhetoric, Favreau claimed neither he nor Obama consciously deployed overt tricks of the trade. Rather, these are the speechwriting secrets he shared:
Develop a strong relationship
Obama reassured Favreau (or “Favs” as he called him) on the eve of sending him home to write his first speech: “I know you’re nervous, but I’m a writer too. And I know that sometimes the muse strikes and sometimes it doesn’t. If you get stuck, just come in tomorrow, and the two of us will work though it together.” Obama exhibited the same level of support and involvement in the writing process throughout the eight years Favreau worked with him.

As Favreau described, the speechwriting process usually began with research and fact checking, then sending Obama a draft which would be returned with extensive mark-ups. If it just had the note “Let’s talk”, Favreau knew he had missed the mark.

Favreau shared three lessons from his time working with Obama.
1. The story is more important than the words
Obama always started with the question: “What story am I trying to tell?” He demanded an outline with a beginning, middle and end and required this sum the speech up in a few sentences before the detailed writing started. He did not, needless to say, design his speeches by juggling PowerPoint slide templates. Absent the simple summary, there is nothing to hang the development of the speech on.

The payoff of this story-centered approach was illustrated in the November 2007 Iowa Jefferson-Jackson Dinner primary debate when the opposing Clinton campaign delivered the forgettable tagline Turn up the heat, turn America around. Obama resisted the advice from some on his team that he coin a tagline, instead speaking from the heart about why he was the right person at that moment in history to be elected President:
I am not in this race to fulfill some long-held ambitions or because I believe it's somehow owed to me. I never expected to be here. I always knew this journey was improbable. I've never been on a journey that wasn't. I am running in this race because of what Dr. King called "the fierce urgency of now." Because I believe that there's such a thing as being too late. And that hour is almost upon us.
2. The importance of honesty and authenticity
Decisions on speech topics are too often based on fear (the fear of losing power, of public embarrassment) Obama ignored advice to “play it safe”. For example, when deciding on a response to the Rev. Wright controversy he took the early outline Faverau drafted and made it his own with heartfelt, authentic, honest statements such as:
I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother - a woman w...

In this fourth and final edited highlight from the Silicon Valley Speechwriters Roundtable call, we hear from the callers who had comments and questions. Helping me respond to callers questions is MasterCard VP Douglass Hatcher.
By listening to the Q&A you'll hear comments and opinions about many aspects of the first day of the Ragan Speechwriters conference.

Questions came in from:

Freelance speechwriter Pete Weissman asked what was the most unexpected thing about the conference.
Communications Director Sharon Rubinstein asked how complex topics can fit into a speech that only covers three points.
Executive Speech Coach, Trainer, Proposal Consultant Chris Witt asked about the distinction between different uses of stories in speeches.
Freelancer Colin Moorhouse commented on the value of the Ragan Conference and the power of storytelling in speeches.
Wendy Hanson shared her interest in podcasting.
Paula Tesch from Duarte asked about the challenge of getting speakers to include storytelling in their speeches.
Doug Neff from Duarte asked about the two kinds of speakers who use stories and the importance of using stories to move audiences to action.

To hear what they said, click on the podcast icon below.

In this third edited highlight from the Silicon Valley Speechwriters Roundtable call, freelance speechwriter Michael Long shares his impressions of the conference. Mike taught a pre-conference workshop on Storytelling for speechwriters and has strong opinions about the keys to constructing a speech around a story. He also presented on Time management for speechwriters and relays a few of the many tips and tricks on ways speechwriters can work more efficiently. He also references his excellent newsletter which is available as a free subscription from his SoMikeSaid website.

By listening to Mike you'll hear a Ragan Conference institution in full flight.

To hear what he said, click on the podcast icon below.

In this second edited highlight from the call, freelance speechwriter Rosemary King and Douglass Hatcher, VP of Thought Leadership at MasterCard, share their impressions of the conference and specifically the panel they were both on: Chart your career path: Job advice from successful professionals. The other panelists were freelancer Eric Schnure who has worked for Vice President Al Gore and as Director of Executive Communications at GE and Caryn Alagno, Executive Vice President of Corporate Affairs Group Head at Edelman.

By listening to Rosemary and Douglass you'll hear tips and tricks about ways to chart a successful career as a speechwriter.

To hear what they said, click on the podcast icon below.

The Silicon Valley Speechwriters Roundtable conference call took place Feb 20 at the end of the first day of the 2014 Ragan Speechwriters Conference.

There were 16 callers online from around the country. The Roundtable is open to anyone who is interested in speechwriting in Silicon Valley, not just those of us who live and work there. The call lasted an hour, and I've divided the audio recording into four segments.

In this first edited highlight from the call, conference MC and Vital Speeches of the Day editor David Murray, and Fletcher Dean of Dow Chemicals share their impressions of the opening keynote by Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau.

By listening to David and Fletcher you'll hear first-hand impressions of one of the most compelling keynotes about the craft of speechwriting that it's been my privilege to hear.

To hear what they said, click on the podcast icon below.

Back on June 27 I spent a delightful and instructive day helping judge emerging speakers at Sahar Kordahi's Bright Side of Life Voices of Leadership day.

Over 30 speakers competed in a showcase where they gave three-minute speeches that were evaluated in terms of presentation skills, message content, personal appearance and stage presence. The five winning presenters were Dawn Christensen, Carolyn CJ Jones, Jim Niswonger, Sandra Patino, and Ryann Pryor-Foster. They will give a 15-minute presentation at the follow-up event being held in Pleasanton, California on August 16.

The speakers were trained by Pam Whitman and Sahar Kordahi. In addition to individual coaching the winning speakers will receive

"Look the Talk" image consulting with fashion expert Olga Kamova
A speech writing coaching session with me
“Stand in your Leadership Role” coaching session with Sahar Kordahi
“Lead and Speak with Balance” with speech performance and movement specialist Pam Whitman
Support from the collaborative “Voices of Leadership” team
Referrals to other speaking opportunities

This was a well-produced, motivational and educational event perfect for emerging speakers to develop skills that will take them from "free to fee" in the exciting world of professional speaking.

I highly recommend registering for the August 16th Be the Voice of Leadership event and join in the program that Sahar and Pam have produced.

Interview
I caught up with Sahar & Pam after the event and asked them to share the background to the Voices of Leadership. To hear what they told me, click on the podcast icon below.

How many professional speakers do you know that go to work in their bathing suits? Well, that is exactly what Alicia Berberich does! Besides speaking to parents groups around the Bay Area, she teaches water aerobics at the San Francisco Presidio YMCA. She has over 10 years of experience teaching a diverse group of students the thrill of water aerobics. She has now taken that high energy and is focusing it on teaching parents success strategies for their kids.

Alicia noticed that many children were not learning basic skills that are needed in life such as conversation skills, perseverance, integrity, tenacity, and gratitude to name a few. She began speaking to small groups of mothers about the importance of these skills in adults and the idea of starting with the end in mind that she learned from the Steven Covey program.

Now Alicia, mother of three, talks to school groups, church groups, motherʼs clubs, womenʼs clubs and other groups about what parents can do to teach their children these important character building skills. Parents are excited to learn easy ways to develop these skills in their kids. Alicia has also found that parents are hungry for a place to talk about the various issues and challenges they are having in raising their kids. How to deal with difficult situations like bullying in schools, and how to deal with technology in the home, and how to instill values in kids and how to motivate them. Alicia offers workshops and on-going Success Circles, called Eagle Clubs, which provide just that place for parents to come on a regular basis to talk about their frustrations and find mutual support and ideas.

For more information about the Eagle Clubs, or to hire Alicia Berberich to speak, call 415-596-9806. Additional information is available on her LinkedIn page.
Speaker’s Academy Archive
I caught up with Alicia at a National Speakers Association Northern California Chapter meeting in advance of the Speaker’s Academy program. To hear what she told me about the ways she uses her business and executive skills when coaching families, and a simple tip on how parents can help their children, click on the podcast icon below.

Julie Mergen is fascinated with business systems. She admires those who create products from concepts. Along with her innate entrepreneurial spirit, she simply finds money interesting -- even more intriguing is the multiple, seemingly endless perceptions we as humans have about money. Julie says: “Money stops us, blocks us, money molds us, holds us, money is freedom, money is greed, money is a tool and a crutch, money is anger and happiness, money is love, companionship, affection, money is scarce, money is security, money is prosperity and abundant, money is influence and power. Money can be build an empire and destroy a marriage -- if that is how money is perceived, that is what money becomes.”

Julie started a women’s investment club in 2004. During its existence the club has touched the lives of 16 diverse women. Together, these women learned and implemented strategies for investing one dollar to earn two in return. They studied the stock market; learned about real estate investing; explored several business models; held a club portfolio which fostered courage for many members to move outside their comfort zone; and expanded their individual portfolios. They made some money, they lost some money — but most importantly, Julie led these women through a learning process to change their perceptions about money. Perceptions about money had restrained each of them from achieving financial freedom, which meant something different to each of them in turn.

Spending six years in a club with these magnificent women was an immense gift that Julie is eternally grateful for. Along with her interests, this experience shaped the concepts for workshops, one-on-one mentoring and a monthly publication, Her Money Magazine. Julie’s passion now is to reach out and share in creating a new community which includes all women, anyone who wants to discover their relationship with money and create financial freedom — freedom in all aspects of life.

Through workshops, mentoring, and public speaking Julie’s sets a standard for women to rise up authentically with confidence and achieve what each individual woman believes is her standard of financial well being.

Her Money Magazine is a pillar in the financial realm of women's lives; sparking an interest and cultivating confidence; demystifying fears and broadening views about money in ways that educate, encourage, empower and even entertain while women of all ages all over the world take action to achieve financial well-being; living dreams that come true.

Through a newly founded non-profit, Her Freedom Foundation, Julie will reach out specifically to the single mothers who find themselves struggling financially, feeling trapped and possibility seeing themselves as victims of circumstance. The Foundation offers support and education to show these women the way to financial empowerment.

Julie is a leader making a difference in the lives of women, so that they in turn may make a difference in the lives of those who surround them.
Speaker’s Academy Archive
I caught up with Julie at a National Speakers Association Northern California Chapter meeting immediately prior to the start of the Speaker’s Academy program. To hear what she told me about her plans to publish the magazine and her best single piece of advice for women who want to learn to manage money, click on the podcast icon below.

“Speech is my Music. Music is my Speech” – Emiko Hori

A native of Japan, Emiko Hori grew up in California. An accomplished musician, she has been actively speaking and giving presentations to corporate clients and young adults about the connection between musical performance and public speaking and presentation skills.

A graduate of the renowned Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, Emiko has give piano recitals throughout the US, Europe, and Canada including masterclasses in Bergamo, Italy, the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada, and at the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival in Germany.

Her new book Let's Play Speech!: How to Give a Better Speech Using the Principles of Musical Performance is now available. The book is an entertaining and instructive exploration of the ways public speakers can improve their "performances", learning from the ways musicians use pause, rhythm and tonality and the way they have to learn to listen to the audience:
Did you know there are many similarities between piano performance and public speaking? They both have a clear message to deliver in front of the audience. They both impact the audience’s life and way of thinking. Interestingly, the musician’s mindset seems to coincide with many aspects of public speaking.
It is packed with practical tips that will improve anyone's speech preparation and delivery.
Speaker's Academy Archive
I caught up with Emiko at a National Speakers Association Northern California Chapter meeting immediately prior to the start of the Speaker's Academy program. She surprise me by sharing why what she calls the "Strippers Walk" is a crucial skill both professional musicians AND speakers (not to mention strippers!) need to learn. By this, she means the first five seconds when the person steps onto the stage and the audience judges exactly what you look like, your expressions, how tall or short you are, and most importantly, what kind of personality you have, just by watching how you walk. To hear Emiko explain more about the connection between stripping, speaking and musical performance, click on the podcast icon below.

NSA/NC Meeting Report: Saturday March 2, 2013

The Saturday meeting of the Northern California Chapter of the National Speakers Association featured two savvy businesswomen who shared ways professional speakers and information entrepreneurs can book more business and own their niche markets. Stephanie Chandler is a Silicon Valley refugee who left a stressful job on the Peninsula for the life of a successful information entrepreneur. Lois Creamer knows the speaking business. She has worked with the superstars of speaking as both a cheerleader and strategist. She is endorsed by none other than Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE.
Stephanie Chandler: Living the good life after corporate America
Stephanie was inspired by the film Sleepless in Seattle to move to Sacramento, open a bookstore and write novels. Neither worked out for her. She quickly moved on to Plan B, launching herself as a speaker and non-fiction author on the urging of superstar literary agent Mike Larsen.

She launched BusinessInfoGuide.com, her first website, in 2004. Now, six books and a series of websites later, she is in demand as an author, speaker, Forbes blogger, and expert on content marketing, internet marketing, small business growth strategies, and publishing.
8 keys to owning your niche
The importance of speakers owning a niche has been a core lesson taught in NSA/NC Speakers Academy classes for many years. Stephanie walks the walk when it comes to knowing how to do this in the digital age. Heck, she's even written a book on the topic.

She shared eight simple strategies to increase website traffic and own a niche:

Define your target audience. Decide who you want to reach and what challenges you can solve for them.
Tap into the power of community. Figure out where your audience spends their time and engaged them there.
Optimize your website. Incorporate keywords and phrases that your audience would use to find you. Update your site frequently, generate incoming links, and continually add new content.
Implement a blog. This will help build your audience, increase website traffic, generate new clients, create consulting opportunities, and attract media interviews and speaking engagements. It's also the heart of your social media strategy. Stephanie recommends updating it at least twice a week.
Develop a content marketing strategy. Create ebooks, white papers, and special reports that you give away. Distribute articles to websites to reach your target audience or write articles for print publications.
Expand with video and podcasts. Even speakers who hate writing can record their presentations to communicate their message.
Embrace social media. There are great reasons why executives are signing on with social media. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, and Pinterest each have their own unique advantages. You can automate much of the distribution of the content between these different sites.
Commit a little time each day. just as you need to spend time weeding and planting seeds to enjoy a luxuriant garden, so you need to set aside time each day to develop content, engage in social media, and cultivate community. Stephanie advises that a little effort goes a long way in expanding your brand.

More details are available in her slides:

Lois Creamer: Business Strategies for Professional Speakers
Lois's advice starts with the way we say hello. As professional communicators, the worst way to introduce ourselves is by NAME and TOPIC. We need to learn to introduce ourselves in a compelling and interesting way. Much better is an introduction by CONCEPT and OUTCOME. This captures your unique differentiation. She calls this a positioning statement and uses these words whenever she meets someone:
"I work with professional speakers who want to book more business, make more money and avoid costly mistakes."
This is far more effective than using an elevator speech, which is typically too long and boring. An effective positioning statement should go on you...

Melanie Watkins always dreamt of becoming a doctor but when she found herself sixteen and pregnant, that dream seemed out of reach.

Having been raised by a single mother, Melanie knew the challenges single motherhood presented. Despite the uphill climb, Melanie made the decision to raise her child on her own.

Her memoir, Taking My Medicine: My Journey from Teenage Mother to Physician, is the story of a young woman's triumphs--overcoming the stigma of a teenage pregnancy and embarking on the journey to medical school.

Drawing from pieces previously published in Chicken Soup for the African American Soul, Chicken Soup for the Single's Soul, Woman's World Magazine, What I Learned in Medical School: Personal Stories of Young Doctors, her memoir encourages young people to dream and to push beyond their most difficult circumstances. Her book is an inspiring story of faith and perseverance about a teenage mother beating insurmountable odds to create a brighter future for herself, her son and her community.

Melanie Watkins, M.D. is Board Certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and is licensed by the California State Medical Board to practice Medicine and Psychiatry.

She received her medical training at the Stanford University School of Medicine and completed an internship in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of California, San Francisco. Her specialty training in Psychiatry was at the University of Nevada, Department of Psychiatry.

She currently is in private practice in Walnut Creek, CA.

Dr. Watkins has experience in treating anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, psychosis, substance dependence, and personality disorders. She has particular interest in women’s mental health, cognitive behavioral therapy and psychodynamic psychotherapy. Dr. Watkins can also provide support for family members and friends of mentally ill patients who require hospitalization and/or ongoing support. She enjoys treating adolescents and adults.

She enjoys long distance running, motivational speaking and reading non-fiction books. She can be reached through her website www.drmelaniewatkins.com. She lives in Walnut Creek. Her son, Jonathan, is 18 years old and is a freshman in college in Reno, Nevada.
Speaker's Academy Archive
I caught up with Melanie at a National Speakers Association Northern California Chapter meeting immediately prior to the start of the Speaker's Academy program. To hear what she told me about her speaking program which has taken her from Alaska to New York, delivering talks to students from disadvantaged backgrounds; the story behind her book and the importance of mentorship, click on the podcast icon below.

Kathy Stershic is Principal Consultant of Dialog Research & Communications. She provides senior-level business and communications consulting expertise to executives at leading-edge organizations, and is especially known for bringing focus and alignment to complex environments. She has worked with many IT companies in various stages of growth, which affords her broad understanding and insights into the high tech marketplace as well as internal organizational dynamics.

Before starting Dialog, Kathy served as Vice President for Cognitiative, Inc., a San Francisco-based consultancy specializing in marketing research and communication strategy for high tech and dot.com clients; she also worked as a Senior Analyst for Jupiter Media Metrix Custom Research Group; and earlier in her career, she worked on staff for several fast growth software and hardware companies.

Kathy recently completed a Master of International Policy and Practice degree at the George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs in Washington DC, focusing on Information Technology policy. She has held leadership positions in various professional and civic organizations, including the International Association of Business Communicators, Public Relations Society of America, the American Marketing Association, and the World Affairs Council of Northern California.
Kathy’s musings on IT policy can be found on her blog.
Freelance Focus
I asked Kathy about her interest in Tech Policy and what she sees developing in the ways technology companies will advertise and communicate about their products and services. She also shared her thoughts on cyber security, SOPA and PIPA. She's in business for herself for the last 12 years and if you'd like to hear her advice on how to succeed as a freelancer, click on the podcast icon below.

Kathy Hart is President of ClearVision Consulting, Inc., a global company that specializes in accelerating organizational excellence and improving human performance. Kathy is a highly sought after consultant, speaker and coach.

Kathy has worked in corporate environments for more than 28 years. She brings to ClearVision broad leadership experience in the non-profit, banking, manufacturing, insurance, and utility industries. In these leadership roles she successfully promoted and advanced business and industry emergency preparedness, employee safety and health, and implemented enterprise-wide change efforts. In 2012, she was honored by American Society of Safety Engineers’ (ASSE) Women in Safety Engineering (WISE) Common Interest Group for her twenty years of making a difference in the safety, health, and environmental (SH&E) field as part of the WISE ‘100 Women, Making a Difference in Safety’ project.

While Kathy continues to support the field of safety and health by educating and mentoring those in the profession, she now uses her extensive knowledge of individual and organizational change in the field of organization development and effectiveness. In 2005, Kathy founded ClearVision Consulting with the express purpose of promoting the potential of people within business environments. Her work focuses on the alignment of people, processes, and structures to accelerate organizational excellence and improve human performance.

Kathy’s clients know her as a collaborative partner and coach who brings positive energy and innovative ideas to each relationship. When tackling challenges, clients rely on her grace and courage to co-create with them innovative and sustainable solutions. She began honing these skills of “grace under fire” when she became the first woman to integrate an all-male water polo team in high school.

Kathy has been recognized by numerous organizations for her leadership and dedication, and is currently a member of the Organization Development Network (ODN), National Speakers Association (NSA), and the Institute of Management Consultants (IMC). She is a former Board Member of the Bay Area Organization Development Network (BAodn), Admissions Chair for American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE), and Chair for the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce Crime Prevention and Safety Committee. The later she remembers fondly, as it led to her first formal invitation to a Mayoral Inaugural Ball.

Kathy’s highly interactive speaking engagements include topics on organizational change, leadership and team development. She is an adjunct professor, and has taught and presented at Lao American College, Laos, and the National Hispanic University, San Jose. Kathy holds an Ed.D. in Organization and Leadership from the University of San Francisco, a M.S. in Occupational Safety & Health from the University of Southern California, and a B.S. in Business Administration from California State University-Sacramento.

She can reached via her website.
Pro-Track Profile
Kathy was the first member of the 2012 Pro-Track class of the Northern California Chapter of the National Speakers Association (now re-branded as the Speakers Academy) to achieve full professional membership in NSA. To more hear about her consulting business click on the podcast icon below.

A decade ago, the tools of communications belonged to a chosen few. Editorial control over newspapers, television and radio was in the hands of those professionals tasked with selecting content deemed worthy of the front page, the headline, the news bulletin. National newspapers and mass media channels were scarce resources. The stories they carried were linear and sequential. The 10 o'clock news was broadcast for an hour each evening at the same time. Important news was on the front page, above the fold.

That was then, this is now.
Immersive storytelling
Today's world is nonlinear, filled with always-on devices giving anywhere, any time access to media generated by those of us with a Wordpress blog and a point of view. Storytelling has come full circle from the logical inevitability of the printed page to the random, emotionally binding, infinitely looping immersive stories of this fragmented age where anyone can create and re-purpose content, as did the bards of pre-literate eras.

The implications of the transition from top-down to user-generated content is explored in detail by Frank Rose in his book The Art of Immersion.

Rose identifies the roots of non-linear storytelling in the popular serials Charles Dickens published in the 1830's. But it was the creation of the hyper-links of the World Wide Web that blew the lid off linear narrative:

Links change our relationship to information. They empower individuals and destroy hierarchies.
Cinema directors such as Quentin Tarantino, Jean-Luc Goddard and David Lynch create immersive, non-linear forms of film.
The unexpected juxtapositions, the startling elisions, the scenes out of sequence--asleep or awake, this is how we think, in a fast-dissipating vapor.
The implication is that we live in a multiverse, where events occur simultaneously. As the Western-born Spiritual Adept Adi Da Samraj has written about photography:
The human individual in the midst of Reality is like a camera in a room—perceiving everything from a fixed "point of view". But what does the room Really look like? The room can be viewed from every possible "point of view" in space-time—not merely from any particular "point of view", or even a finite collection of "points of view". Therefore, no "point of view" can reveal the room, or Reality Itself, because every "point of view" is limited and essentially self-referring.
Frank Rose explores the art of immersive storytelling and the emerging transmedia methods that the best practitioners are developing in video games, advertising, movies, social media, television and more.
Frank Rose Interview
In August 2012 I met Frank at a Churchill Club event in Silicon Valley and took the opportunity to ask him about the implications of immersive storytelling for professional speakers and corporate communications professionals. To hear what he told me, click on the podcast icon below.

Liz Bowen is passionate about helping kids with one of the biggest problems of their young lives, bullying. Born with a severe birth defect, Liz experienced bullying at an early age. As a Christian practitioner and self-esteem coach, Liz brings answers from a Christian perspective. Speaking exclusively to Christian schools, she has developed knowledge-based tactics to decrease this problem. She inspires students to follow the Golden Rule:

"Do everything to others as you would have them do to you. This is the law and the prophets." Matthew 7:12
Advocate for the Bullied
Liz is aware that bullying has reached epidemic proportions in our nation's schools.The frightening statistics is that one in four kids are bulled. Bullying behavior begins in preschool. Every day, 160,000 students miss school for fear of being bullied.
Topics
Liz speaks on Bully Busting Behavior, Promoting a Healthy Self-image and Character issues. She speaks in schools because she loves helping kids. It does not matter whether they are the bully or the bullied. As a Christian practitioner she holds no judgement. Both groups are suffering. Her heartfelt desire is to help everyone.

Liz can be contacted via email at bowenspeaks@gmail.com.
Pro-Track Profile
I recently talked with Liz about her background. To hear what she told me, and her passion for speaking out against bullying in schools, as well as her impressions of the National Speakers Association Pro-Track class that she is part of, click on the podcast icon below.

This article marks the start of a new series in Professionally Speaking. For the past three years I've published a monthly Pro-Track Profile interview featuring members of the Pro-Track class of the Northern California Chapter of the National Speakers Association. I've decided to start a similar series featuring freelance creatives who make their living as communications consultants, writers, editors, and more. This Freelance Focus series kicks off with an interview with the founder of the Agency which has provided me with the majority of my own freelance work for the past three years.

René Shimada Siegel is a reluctant entrepreneur who founded High Tech Connect in 1997 at the persistent request of her Silicon Valley colleagues. They were frustrated by the challenge of finding qualified marketing consultants with no time to train them on a specific product or technology. So René leveraged her PR and marcom management experience—as well as a jam-packed Rolodex, caffeine-fueled lifestyle and talented friends—to create a specialized marketing services agency called High Tech Connect.

Over the past 15 years, more than 500 clients have called on the High Tech Connect team for critical projects or to fill in for maternity and medical leaves. With a carefully selected nationwide network of more than 1000 freelance consultant specialists, they provide on-demand, project-based expertise in areas such as Copywriting and Editing, Corporate Communications, Event & Trade Show Management, Executive Speechwriting, Public Relations and Social Media Marketing.

René has grown High Tech Connect to a leading provider of expert marketing and communications, and one of the largest women-owned businesses in the San Francisco Bay Area. She’s extremely proud of the team she’s built: like-minded professionals who are equally passionate about helping clients and inspiring consultants.

René is a regular contributor to Inc.com, dispensing advice and perspective for small business owners and entrepreneurs. Her innovative business model and inspiration for home-based consultants has also been documented in several books and publications like Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek Japan and Daniel Pink’s Free Agent Nation.
Freelance consultants
High Tech Connect employ carefully selected experts to work on complex projects for more than 500 clients, including Cisco Systems, IBM, NetApp, Intel, Kaiser Permanente, Brocade, Intuit, CA Technologies, McAfee, Xilinx, VeriSign, Seagate, Silicon Valley Leadership Group and more.

The freelance consultants placed through High Tech Connect average 10-20 years of professional marketing or communications experience. Consultants are paid either on a 1099 or W-2 basis, depending on the client company’s requirements.
Freelance Focus
I've worked as a consultant through High Tech Connect for the past three years. I visited René in her Pleasanton, California office and asked her share her insights into the world of freelance consulting, what companies are looking for today, and what issues do employees who are considering switching to freelance work need to consider. To hear what she told me, click on the podcast icon below.

Transmedia storytelling is a hot topic. It's a form of storytelling where multiple platforms tie together to tell a common story. It has been heralded as "a new storytelling form that is native to networked digital content and communication channels."

UCS professor Henry Jenkins coined the term transmedia storytelling, and defines it as representing:
"...a process where integral elements of a fiction get dispersed systematically across multiple delivery channels for the purpose of creating a unified and coordinated entertainment experience..."
There's many examples of transmedia, with projects around novels, TV shows, videogames, music and movies as well as a few examples in the corporate and executive communications space.

The more elaborate of these can involve the expense of year-long "teaser" campaigns for movies, or mass-participation alternate reality games.

However, transmedia storytelling can be a low-cost re-purposing existing video and audio digital content for multiple distribution channels. This might put your video used at trade show presentation on a massive screen into a format suitable for a laptop or smart phone. But it's not just changing the aspect ratio and being done. It's thinking of savvy ways to fracture a coherent story into pieces while keeping a core theme alive in different media. It's weaving the storytellers magic in the digital age.

I'm just starting to learn about transmedia storytelling, but the impression I've got is that it is evolving rapidly and, if it delivers on even a part of the promise, will be a VERY BIG DEAL.
Paul M. Wood: Transmedia Storyteller
I recently met with one of the more savvy transmedia storytellers in Silicon Valley. Paul M. Wood is a principal in the boutique communications firm AE35 Media.

Paul is a commercial and independent film director who grew up in a creative family. His father was an artist and his mother a musician. He studied at NYU Film School and has knocked around the tech industry.

After a decade making niche-busting films for Fortune 500 companies such as Cisco Systems, Paul is now calling upon his diverse background as both visual artist and technologist to bring storytelling into the twenty-first century by producing tales which cross not only genres but platforms and delivery systems as well.

AE35 Media believe that the days of executive communications managers creating a message and pushing out to the world as a scripted speech for a corporate big-wig to deliver once with the hope that it was clever or engaging enough to be noticed are over.

Things have changed.

We’ve gone from being a world where information is pushed out to the masses, to become one where the information is now pulled in by individuals. The tech industry knows this applies to their products, not too many yet realize it might equally apply to their corporate spokespeople. While information itself is shared, the act of acquiring it is now solitary and intimate.

Appealing to ONE large mass of people is one thing. It’s an auditorium filled will people listening to your CEO deliver a keynote. It’s an event, managed by the event production team. However, appealing to MILLIONS of individuals and having them own your brand or message as much as you do? Well that’s no longer a mere event. That’s a universe and within it the possibilities are limitless -- this is the promise of transmedia storytelling.

To hear Paul discuss the potential of transmedia storytelling and how he sees it as a natural extension of his video production skills, click on the podcast icon below.

Monique Martineau’s mission is to share profound insights learned during her own pursuit of health and happiness. She’s had several painful “wake up calls” ranging from childhood crisis to having a baby at 19, giving him up for adoption, and meeting him as an adult. At 26, she lived the dark-year-of-the-soul, when doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong with her. One time, sitting in ER again, she was so overcome with anxiety, she thought “I don’t care if I die, but I must find peace-of-mind!”

After coaching hundreds of corporate techies and their managers on wellness, Monique found most obstacles point back to stress. People essentially know how to improve nutrition and exercise. The problem is prioritizing and motivation. People are overloaded and exhausted at the end of a day. They want fast food and TV or a fancy dinner and a drink…too frequently, in which case, it’s neither a healthy nor a truly fulfilling life.

Whether speaking or consulting, one of Monique’s favorite questions is, “What’s the most important thing?” Many people have to stop and think for a while. Our culture is so caught up in achievement, progress and power; we forget why we’re doing it. We must keep what’s important to us in the forefront of our minds to guide decisions, such as, “It’s time to shut down the computer, go home, take a walk, and enjoy a healthy meal with loved ones.”

Easier said than done? Not when you learn what’s at the root of it all. Monique’s most profound insights have come from ancient wisdom traditions. When we shine the light on ego and its antics, it can’t run our lives anymore. The ego innocently tries to help, but mucks things up. Cultivating wisdom, on the other hand, allows us to embody our true nature. With wisdom, we enjoy mental clarity, physical vitality and emotional equanimity. The impact is as close to home as our relationships and as far reaching as world peace.

To find out more about Monique and her work as a speaker, consultant and coach, visit her website.
Pro-Track Profile
I recently talked with Monique about her background. To hear what she told me, and the ways she adds "juice" to the topic of stress plus her focus on meditation, as well as her impressions of the National Speakers Association Pro-Track class that she is part of, click on the podcast icon below.

“Creativity is thinking up new things. Innovation is doing new things” – Theodore Levitt

Jag Randhawa shares a deep passion for making a difference in the world, and enjoys sharing his life lessons through speaking. Creating a Culture of Innovation is one of Jag’s most requested talks, based on the Open Innovation program he developed in his company. His presentations are interactive, engaging, and appeal to the heart, creating a lasting impact.

Jag serves as the Vice President of Information Technology and eCommerce at CAMICO Mutual Insurance, where he manages the Technology portfolio and eCommerce channel. Jag has integrated his passion for neuroscience and behavior psychology to develop a very scientific approach to inspire employees to perform at their best. This approach also contributed to the development of an Open Innovation program where all employees contribute ideas to grow the business.

Jag is a frequent speaker at many CIO and executive networking events where he shares his experiences on Leadership, creating a Culture of Innovation, and Employee Engagement. Jag has more than 20 years of technology industry experience. He is an active contributor to the local CIO community and chairs the Silicon Valley CIO chapter of TechExecs. Prior to CAMICO, Jag worked as an IT consultant and engineer serving a broad range of industries where he developed many innovative and award-winning software systems. Jag has degrees in Electronics Engineering and Information Technology.

His website and blog is available at: http://jagrandhawa.com/
Culture of Innovation
Innovation is ranked as the top priority year after year by CEOs in annual surveys, but most struggle with how to get started. How do you take the resources you have and spark interest in creativity and innovation? Jag has created a simple program to help companies get started in creating a Culture of Innovation. The program engages employees to generate ideas that will increase the top line and create operational efficiencies. When companies involve employees, they are more engaged, and go above and beyond the call of duty to make the company more profitable.
Pro-Track Profile
I recently talked with Jag about his background. To hear what he told me, and the results he's seen proven in his own organization as a result of embracing a culture of open innovation, as well as his impressions of the National Speakers Association Pro-Track class that he is part of, click on the podcast icon below.

For as long as he can remember, San Francisco Bay Area-based Austin Hill Shaw has been enraptured by creativity and the creative process. In 2004, stemming from a life-changing insight gained during a three-month meditation retreat, he began exploring the subject of creativity in earnest, wanting to understand the opportunities and challenges behind creativity’s seemingly universal appeal. Since then, he has amassed a wealth of knowledge regarding creative expression in art, science, and religion, in childhood development and adult maturation, in business and the economy, in product innovation, in both intimate and organizational relationships, and in non-ordinary states of consciousness, delving into the very core of what is means to be human. More importantly, he has striven to embody all that he’s learned, using his own life as an ongoing experiment, testing and refining his methods in his own pursuits as a writer and architectural designer.

Today, in a time of rampant job automation and outsourcing, Austin’s message regarding the importance of creativity and how to activate it is swiftly making its way out into the world. Drawing upon an innovative mix of cutting-edge science, artistic expression, and age-old spiritual wisdom, Austin presents a timely and enlivening understanding of creativity, one that ignites the full-person creative potential of individuals and organizations alike. He just released his provocative first book in his Awakening Creativity Series, a book entitled, Between The Bridge and The Water: Death, Rebirth, and Creative Awakening, and will be releasing his next book, The Shoreline of Wonder: The Path of Creativity later this summer.

Whether he is addressing a large audience or working with an individual one-on-one, Austin combines visionary insight with heartfelt empathy, profound ideas with unexpected humor, sobering seriousness with joyful irreverence, all with a remarkable sense of presence. He is a gifted story teller, one with the ability to unpack the complex subtleties of the creative process and present them in a way that can be put to use immediately. Through his keynote presentations, writing, and one-on-one coaching, and through his work with his architecture clients, Austin Hill Shaw is dedicated to helping others awaken their natural creative capacities and to share their creative gifts with others.

Find out more about Austin, his speaking and coaching offerings, and his other creative pursuits at www.austinhillshaw.com.
Pro-Track Profile
I recently talked with Austin about his background. To hear what he told me, and the plans he has to instigate creativity in the world, as well as his impressions of the National Speakers Association Pro-Track class that he is part of, click on the podcast icon below.

Aaron McDaniel is a corporate manager, entrepreneur, public speaker and community leader. Aaron has held diverse management roles at AT&T, being one of the youngest to serve as Regional Vice President. Still in his 20’s, Aaron is a serial entrepreneur and founder of multiple ventures including Young Professional’s Edge (YP Edge), a company focused on empowering young professionals to succeed in their careers. A graduate of UC Berkeley’s Undergraduate Haas School of Business, he taught a highly rated student-led course on leadership.

Outside of his professional life, Aaron is an avid international traveler, having visited 33 countries to date. Passionate about giving back, Aaron founded the Jill Wakeman Foundation for Equality and is an active community volunteer in San Francisco where he lives.

Aaron is also the author of The Young Professional's Guide to the Working World: Savvy Strategies to Get In, Get Ahead, and Rise to the Top, due out in late September of this year. In the book, Aaron provides key insights relevant to young professionals who are looking to build successful careers, including providing the 25 attributes that all successful young professionals need to develop.
Pro-Track Profile
I talked with Aaron recently about his background. To hear what he told me, and the specific advice he has for young professionals who want to be successful in their careers, as well as his impressions of the National Speakers Association Pro-Track class that he is part of, click on the podcast icon below.

San Francisco-based artist Ann Rea creates an Experience of Art™ for select patrons that is an innovative blend of new and old world mediums. Patrons choose their favorite landscape and join this nationally acclaimed artist for a tour of that special place, one that holds their heart’s most meaningful memories.

The artist returns to paint several studies in oils on canvas, shaping colors inspired by sunlight. Week by week, patrons witness the evolution of their painting by way of a dedicated online creative diary. They then choose one or more studies for Ann Rea to reinterpret on larger custom canvases.

A beautiful signed storybook chronicles this personal experience.

Ann Rea draws on the tradition of the French Impressionists and the influences of her mentor, contemporary painter Wayne Thiebaud, an American art icon. Rea continues to garner national media attention, including in magazines such as Fortune and Wine Enthusiast. Ann Rea hosts a limited number of in-studio visits as well as Art & Wine Pairings.

She is also a spellbinding guest speaker at conferences and business events where she shares her inspiring personal story and innovative business approach to the art market. Visit her website to see samples of her amazing art.
Pro-Track Profile
I talked with Ann recently and asked her about her background as a San Francisco-based artist and the inspiration for the unique experience of art she shares with clients. To hear what she told me, and her impressions of the National Speakers Association Pro-Track class that she is part of, click on the podcast icon below.

Rachna Srivastava is a passionate speaker. Her goal is to inspire and empower girls, women and other underrepresented groups in science, technology, engineering and math. Her vision is of a global program that nurtures and encourages technical and mathematical skills in women and other minority groups. Rachna is a software developer with 15 years experience in software analysis, design, development and implementation. Her educational background includes a Masters in Business Administration in Finance (MBA), Masters in Science in Statistics (MS) and Project Management Professional (PMP) certification. She is currently a Software Engineer at HP working with development teams in a complex, globally-dispersed environment. Before joining HP in 2010 she worked as a Software Engineer at IBM for nearly nine years.
Women in Information Technology
Rachna asks, "Did you know that in the next decade, the national demand for scientists and engineers is expected to increase four times that of all other occupations? But where are women? The population of women in information technology has dropped from 40% of the workforce in 1986 to only 20% now and the number is still dropping."
The importance of inclusion and diversity
Rachna lists three reasons why we should care about having women leaders in technology:

A recent study done at MIT shows that a well-managed diverse group produces more innovative solution to problems than homogeneous groups. Why is so? We know that to create innovation we have to have diversity of thoughts and in order to have diverse thoughts we need to have diverse set of people bringing these ideas.
Women tend to be emphatic and empathy creates a more complete picture of issues, which contributes to changing consumer behavior. This understanding is critical to both product development and product marketing.
Women are good collaborators, they are more likely to ask for advice and consider other peoples opinion. They encourage employees participation, and when employees participate they feel powerful and important and get them excited about their work. This is good not only for employees but also for the organization.

You can read more on this and other topics on her Geek Woman Speaker blog.
Pro-Track Profile
I met with Rachna and asked her about her background and the initial steps she is taking on her journey to get the word out about her important message. To hear what she told me, and her impressions of the National Speakers Association Pro-Track class that she is part of, click on the podcast icon below.

Since 1994, Cynthia Klein has been guiding parents to creating happy and healthy families. As a speaker to over three hundred groups, Cynthia has given parents the tools and confidence to improve their family dynamics. Her presentations are interactive, highly visual and easy for parents to apply to their own family situations. Parents leave encouraged that they are able to make positive changes. Cynthia’s clients have included the parents at Stanford University, Kaiser Permanente, The Boys and Girls Clubs of the Peninsula, The Children’s Health Council and Hewlett-Packard.

Cynthia works privately with parents who want to make permanent improvements in their families. The wisdom she has gained from successfully raising her strong-willed young adult daughter is invaluable in understanding each parent’s struggle and prescribing the correct solutions. Her success lies in her amazing ability to first accurately assess family dynamics. Then Cynthia creates unique and individualized strategies during her interviews with the parents. This fine-tuned approach fixes the foundation of family problems. Parents gain wisdom of how to apply their newly learned beliefs and actions to other family situations.

Cynthia authors the Middle School Mom column for the Parenting on the Peninsula magazine. Her education background includes a B.A. in Psychology from Berkeley and a Training and Human Resources Certificate from U.C. Santa Cruz along with certificates from four parent education institutions. She has also been credentialed in California and New Mexico where she taught elementary school. Her greatest pride, though, is that her 23 year-old-college graduated daughter is self-sufficient, calls her for guidance and considers Cynthia her mentor.

Cynthia's website is Bridges 2 Understanding.
Pro-Track Profile
I met Cynthia at a recent National Speakers Association Northern California Chapter Pro-Track class and asked her about her professional focus and what attracted her to Pro-Track. To hear what she had to tell me, click on the podcast icon below.

10 Steps to Writing a Vital Speech: The Definitive Guide to Professional Speechwriting, by Fletcher Dean

Fletcher Dean is a working speechwriter at the Dow Chemical Company where he is Director of Leadership Communications. He's also a regular presenter at the Ragan Speechwriters Conference and delivered a half-day workshop at the 2012 event on How to make an audience listen: rewriting with the audience in mind. Dean mentions fellow Ragan presenters Mike Long and Pete Weissman in his book and the forward is by Vital Speeches of the Day editor David Murray, who is also the books' publisher.

In this book, Dean shares his insight on how to be a successful speechwriter, quoting Ron Kirpatrick, a veteran executive communications pro at Toyota: "Most writers and PR people would rather do anything than write a speech. It frightens them." If you are new to speechwriting, this book will go a long way to removing any fears you might have about the challenges involved.

It's a quick read at just over 100 pages and is filled with nuggets of condensed wisdom, told in an unassuming, practical manner by a speechwriter who has been there and done that.

The 10 steps to writing a speech, according the Dean:

Know the audience
Target the words
Find the right material
Tell a story
How to say it: show or tell?
Structure the speech
Write the material
Rewrite for clarity
Using PowerPoint
Coaching the speaker

Some of the most enjoyable, and insightful, parts of the book are the analysis of icons of American rhetoric including General Douglas McArthur's 1962 speech to West Point cadets and Robert Kennedy's 1968 speech in Indianapolis on the night Martin Luther King was assassinated.

Each chapter lists "Insider Tips". These are nuggets of wisdom such as:
Always write a second close to your talk, one that comes after any Question/Answer period if there is one. When the questions are over, hit the audience again with a second close of about one minute. It should include three items: a thank you for the opportunity to speak, a thank you for their interest, a quick summary of the key message.
An added bonus are the Last Word and the Appendix which list practical tips that are worth the price of the book.

Dean claims that
Speechwriters have to be so much more than just good tacticians and excellent writers. In fact, you might do best to avoid being called a speechwriter altogether.
He advises taking a more holistic view of the executive communications function, using your skills as a communicator to achieve the organizations' goals.

This book is a good overall introduction to the craft of speechwriting. Recommended.

I caught up with Fletcher at the Speechwriters Conference and asked him about the background to the book and what future plans he has to author more books. As you can see from the picture, Fletcher makes sure he color-coordinates his tie with the cover of his book!

To hear what he said, click on the podcast icon below.

Rod Dunican is an accomplished senior manager and trainer, whose entire career has been centered on delivering exceptional results with a positive, “can do” attitude. With more than 25 years of experience, Rod shares his thirst for learning, managing and personal growth to help individuals and organizations thrive.

Professionally, he has served in the roles of Director of Project Management, Director of Operations and Chief Operating Officer. In 2003, he began Rod Ventures, an organizational learning and development company specializing in management consulting, training and project management. He recently led a team to complete a successful, two-year $1.25 million project for Wikimedia—the non-profit that guides and runs Wikipedia.

Having provided training for start-ups, non-profits and Fortune 500 companies such as Chevron, Gap, Cisco and Wikimedia, Rod continues to be fascinated by existing and emerging organizational cultures and their affects on the people within those cultures. Since experience has taught Rod that business is always personal, he often uses the workplace as a starting point to coach individuals.

As a speaker and trainer in the U.S. as well as internationally, he has engaged audiences in conferences, universities, and corporate settings. His low-key, fun approach to the insanity of work, life and parenting has led to seminars that include: “We Need to Talk: The Perils and Challenges of Speaking in Public”, “Presentations Skills for Introverts” , “Relationships, One Man’s Perspective” and more.
Pro-Track Profile
I caught up with Rod at a National Speakers Association (NSA) Northern California Pro-Track class and asked him about his work training academics and others on behalf of Wikimedia. We wondered if there was a Wikiepdia entry for the NSA. There is, although members could probably contribute more content to make it a richer resource. Finally, Rod shared what attracted him to enroll in Pro-Track.

To hear what Rod told me, click on the podcast icon below.

Timothy Tosta is a cancer survivor, a seasoned hospice volunteer and a widely acclaimed speaker and lecturer. He is the author of two books and a featured columnist of the Daily Journal, California's leading daily legal newspaper. Tim is an executive coach to legal and business communities. He also is recognized as one of California's leading land-use and environmental attorneys.

Tim has spoken at annual meetings, conferences and conventions of, among others, the American Bar Association, American Institute of Architects, American Planning Association, California State Bar Real Estate Section, California State Bar Trusts and Estates Section, National Association of Real Estate Editors, Practicing Law Institute, California Association of Appellate Lawyers, Urban Land Institute, California City Managers Foundation, Association of Corporate Counsel, and California Coalition for Compassionate Care. In addition to the topics of planning, development, sustainability and the environment, related to his legal career, Tim is a frequent speaker to legal and business gatherings on topics of human potential, fulfilled living, and conscious dying.
Transformative Listening
Tim's currently most requested talk is Transformative Listening, in which he describes how one of the most fundamental human competencies in establishing and maintaining relationships - listening - has become a lost art. Tim shares what he has learned about listening from his experiences as a 37 year veteran of law practice, a 20 year cancer survivor, a parent and husband and an eight year hospice volunteer. Tim demonstrates how to build listening skills that allow you to break through communication barriers that separate you from authentic relationships and fulfilled living.
Author and Blogger
Tim is the author of #DEATH tweet, Book 01 - A Well Lived Life through 140 Perspectives on Death and Its Teachings and #DEATH tweet, Book 02 - 140 Perspectives on Being a Supportive Witness to the End of Life. He currently is writing his third book, with his wife Nancy, #DOG tweet - 140 Perspectives on What Our Dogs Teach Us About Being Human. In addition to his monthly columns for the Daily Journal, Tim also blogs on life and death issues at Coaching Counsel.
Pro-Track Profile
I had a chance to talk with Tim at a recent Pro-Track 2012 class. I asked him about his background as a native of the Bay Area, his legal career and life since he was diagnosed with cancer 20 years ago. He told me about his work with the dying in hospices and what career professionals can learn from this. To hear what he told me, click on the podcast icon below.

Larry Dodd is a proven financial leader, consultant and trainer who applies an innovative, people-centered approach that helps the teams that he serves turn problems into business opportunities.

His professional career includes CFO roles with Robert Half’s CFO Services (consulting); Signature Properties and Meritage Homes. His client experience ranges from startups to established companies with revenues in excess of $1 billion. Larry’s industry knowledge spans health care, agriculture, auto racing, high technology, Major League Baseball, manufacturing, professional services and real estate development. His diverse array of clients are linked by a critical need to make a change in their business.

In 2011 Larry returned to his entrepreneurial roots by founding OpenPlaybook™, a consulting company specializing in change management consulting, management training and leadership coaching. OpenPlaybook helps companies and the people that lead them turn adversity into success, one team at a time. OpenPlaybook provides the leaders of change with the tools they need to unite the right team with the right vision; to discover and share individual team member strengths; and to provide a clear playbook outlining individual responsibilities and their impact on the team's mission as a whole. The result is an effective team committed to the transformation process and to each other in a spirit of mutual accountability.
Pro-Track Profile
Larry honed his speaking and training skills by serving as an Instructor for Dale Carnegie Training where he taught hundreds of business people how to become more effective leaders and communicators by strengthening their human relations and public speaking skills. He is also a polished public speaker and management trainer. His topics include transforming organizations with strong, people-centered values; building stronger interpersonal relationships; developing and maximizing leadership skills; the business of running a Major League Baseball team and changing careers. In addition, he has served as a guest Instructor on Leadership for the University of San Francisco’s MBA in Sports Management Program.

To hear more about Larry's background and what attracted him to the 2012 NSA Northern California Pro-Track program, click on the podcast icon below.

Manuela Pauer, CPCC is a Certified Professional Coach and workshop leader. She is an authority in personal leadership and self empowerment. She works with clients who are stuck doing what they think they “should” be doing, rather than what they want to be doing. Her specialty is helping people fall in love with themselves so they can fall in love with their life.

Her work experience spans Strategy Consulting at Bain & Company, Product Management and Strategic Development at a successful start-up, and Executive Director of Product Management and Strategic Planning at AOL.

Manuela left the corporate world behind 4 years ago, when it became clear that she was feeling deeply unhappy despite her career success. She decided to give up the career she had worked so hard for to get back in touch with who she was and to find a vocation she loves. She realized that looking successful on the outside means nothing without feeling successful on the inside. And in order to feel successful on the inside, she had to fully accept and fall in love with herself first. Today, she is sharing the process she went through with other professionals who feel unfulfilled or stuck in their lives or careers and helps them rediscover their passion and purpose.

Manuela completed her coach and leadership training at the Coaches Training Institute and her relationship systems training at the Center for Right Relationships. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of California at Berkeley.
Public Speaking
Manuela's audiences walk away with new insights and practices that they can implement right away to increase their confidence, improve their relationships, and re-power their lives and careers.

Her most popular presentations include:

Transform Your Inner Critic into Your Inner Champion
The Five Fallacies of Success that Keep Us Overworked, Overwhelmed, and Unhappy
Authentic Leadership: Making an Impact While Being True to Who You Are

You can register here for her upcoming workshops.
Pro-Track Profile
Manuela is a member of the Northern California Chapter of the National Speakers Association Pro-Track class of 2011.

I interviewed Manuela during a recent Pro-Track class and reviewed her reasons for enrolling in the program and why she recommends it to others. She also shares her insights into her role as a life coach and a simple but powerful tip to help people improve their self-esteem. To hear what she told me, click on the podcast icon below.

Paul Larsen is an engaging and inspiring business consultant with over 20 years of experience within the business world. He has a proven track record of success in advancing strategic thought, streamlining operations, driving profits, and maximizing organizational growth and development within Fortune 100, start-up, high-tech, and non-profit environments.

Paul realizes that many organizations today are overrun with the “tourist” mentality: “Let someone else figure it out and then tell me what to do.”

Paul asks:
On life's journey…are you a Tourist or a Traveler? Do you drive your tour bus or let someone else do the driving? Do you set your own itinerary or let someone else schedule your life?
Paul relishes all opportunities to transform leaders and teams from being “tourists” in their own companies into being “true travelers” and thus, take initiative and ownership for their results. The outcome is the creation of a well-connected, agile and motivating workplace of amazing results.

Paul is a frequent conference and workshop speaker on leadership and development at such organizations as the Southern Oncology Association of Practices (SOAP), American Society of Training & Development (ASTD), and the Northern California Human Resource Association (NCHRA). His organizational development work has been featured in the latest book, Consulting on the Inside by Bev Scott and B. Kim Barnes. And his latest article, “Your Front Office: Create Fantastic First Impressions that Last!” was recently featured in the journal of the Professional Association of Health Care Office Management (PAHCOM).

Paul has a B.A. in History from the University of the Pacific and a M.A. in Human Resources Organizational Development from the University of San Francisco. He is a current member of the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM), NCHRA, ASTD and the Bay Area Organization Development Network (BAODN). In his spare time, he can be found somewhere in the world helping communities as a member of a project team with Global Volunteers.org.
Pro-Track Profile
Paul is a member of the Northern California Chapter of the National Speakers Association Pro-Track class of 2011.

I interviewed Paul during a recent Pro-Track class and reviewed his reasons for enrolling in the program and the value he gets from the "learning community" of fellow speakers. He also shares his insights into his role as a coach and consultant. To hear what he told me, click on the podcast icon below.

Madelyn Mackie is a Professional Development and Career Advancement expert. Having successfully navigated careers in biochemistry research, Tony Award winning theaters and major nonprofit agencies, she brings experience, motivation and step-by-step action plans that will Activate Your Career Dreams!

Ask any 5-year-old what they want to be when they grow up and they might answer, “a firefighter,” “an astronaut” or even “President of the United States.” Madelyn Mackie dreamed of being a Superhero and using her talents, strengths and unique gifts to change the world. Madelyn believes that the road to career success and happiness starts with having and living BIG dreams. In college while researching articles for tenured chemistry professors, she dreamed of finding the cure for cancer and other lifesaving scientific discoveries. While working in small community theaters, she dreamed of being a part of with Tony Award winning productions. And up until a few years ago, she dreamed of a job that would allow her to leap tall buildings in a single bound and save the world!

All those big dreams have come true.
Career coaching
Madelyn believes that life is too short to be unhappy, work at a job you hate and not make a difference. She brings experience, motivation and step-by-step action plans that will motivate everyone to activate their career dreams.

Madelyn’s newest workshop, Activate Your Resume! helps individuals refresh outdated resumes, highlight their strengths and showcase their experience for their next dream job. Participants will walk out with a professional, current, stylish resume that will get results!

In today’s competitive job market, Human Resource Managers want more than just a professional, confident, smart candidate with a charming personality. Madelyn’s Activate Your Interview! workshop promises give you the confidence you need to land the job. Find out the best way to research a company before you walk in the door. Learn how to answer the top 10 interview questions and the dreaded “uh oh” question. Discover the one thing you should bring to every job interview that will help you stand out from the pack.

For more information on Madelyn’s speaking presentation and workshops visit ActivateYourCareerDreams.com
Pro-track Profile
Madelyn is a member of the Northern California Chapter of the National Speakers Association Pro-Track class of 2011. As part of the class, she has created an intriguing demo video.

I interviewed Madelyn during a recent Pro-Track class and reviewed her reasons for enrolling in the program and the value she gets from the classes. She shared her insights into job searching, the value of LinkedIn and a key tip to customize a resume. To hear what she told me, click on the podcast icon below.

Janet Chahrour (Sha-roor) is a life-change artist with a passion for matters of relationship. Her most popular presentations are The 7 Questions to Ask Yourself about Your Romantic Relationship and The Yoga of Relationship. Her website thrivingtogether.net offers a menu of her best articles and favorite books as well as a free report called The Essentials of Great Relationships…Especially for Nice People.

Janet believes that quality of life depends on two relationships: the one with yourself, and, if you have a mate, the one with your mate. They are home. When home is a refuge, life is good, and creative energy flows. When home is stressed, in pain, or suffering from judgment, everything else becomes difficult and tremendous amounts of energy are wasted. Janet says:
I see relationship as a living being. When one looks at it that way it’s much easier to step back, see what its needs are, and deliver. There’s no need to judge who’s to blame. When each person in a relationship takes 100% responsibility for its health, the resulting vibrancy and resilience is amazing.
Janet’s speaking career began as a science teacher and MsWiz personality doing science presentations at conferences of the National Science Teachers Association. In that life she wrote two popular science books including Flash! Bang! Pop! Fizz! Exciting Science for Curious Minds. She left her teaching job for an assignment in Singapore and, upon return, noticed that she was drawn more to people interactions than to science content. The appeal and power of experiential learning, however, runs to her core.

Janet holds coaching certifications from the Coaches Training Institute, the Center for Right Relationship, and the Hendricks Institute. She is also a Registered Yoga Teacher. Involvement of the body in coaching is one of her hallmarks. “Sitting and talking closes off creativity while moving and full breathing opens it up.” Janet’s workshops are filled with discovery exercises, no matter if the participants are couples in her Relationship Fitness for Couples workshop or individuals looking at all their relationships in Great Relationships for Life.

For information on Janet’s speaking, coaching, and workshops visit thrivingtogether.net
Pro-Track Profile
Janet is a member of the Northern California Chapter of the National Speakers Association Pro-Track class of 2011. To hear what she told me about her relationship coaching, public speaking and her impressions about Pro-Track click on the podcast icon below.

Carrie Vawter-Yousfi, founder of Mommy’s Coach has unlocked the secret to successfully running a busy household, while ensuring plenty of quality time.

She created her own business 5 years ago out of her struggle with motherhood and a Silicon Valley career. As a working mom, she developed a system to help new mothers better manage their time within the dynamics of family life. Then, sharing her system with family and friends on how to get organized and stay motivated after the birth of their first child.

Carrie draws on her formal education in Business Administration/Communications and over 12 years of Account Management experience in corporate America. She now adds her work experience, and proudest achievement as mother of two daughters, ages 6 and 8 and marriage of 11 years to her growing parent workshops and 1:1 coaching services in the Bay Area.

She has been a member of NAPO (National Association of Professional Organizers), BABI and an inspiring NSA (National Speaker's Association) member and current Pro-Track member. Also, Carries is a member of the eWomen Network and Blossom Birth.

Carrie has shared her time and talents with Babies R Us, Harmony, Blossom Birth, DayOne, Good Samaritan Hospital, Las Madres and several preschools in Santa Clara County. She frequently appears as a guest on the local TV station KMTV15. Currently, she is instructor at The Loft Family Enrichment Center in Morgan Hill.

Her motto: A Happy Home = Happy Mom!
Pro-Track Profile
I met up with Carrie and we discussed her work helping women how are transitioning into the new life of motherhood. We also reviewed her reasons for enrolling in Pro-Track and the value she gets from the classes. To hear what she told me, click on the podcast icon below.

At twelve, Clare was diagnosed with Epilepsy. Years later after an accident at a gym, the diagnosis became traumatic brain injury which affected her ability to speak. She had to learn to speak again as well as learn the many new ways to live a successful life. She taught herself how to speak through a structured program she calls ColorWheeling™ - a program she now shares with others as a way to plan for success.

Clare learned how to turn her disabilities into abilities and a new career as a motivational speaker, TV Producer and host. Her show is called Colorful Journey of Success. Guests include authors, actors, designers, coaches, and key people in a variety of industries including science, medicine, and psychology. Her motivational speeches and writings share her own intriguing stories about her Colorful Journey of Success including her six step system of success using color codes.

Even with hidden disabilities, Clare has achieved successes. She raised a daughter alone, graduated from San Francisco School of Fashion, has an M.A. in psychology, earned the status of Distinguished Toastmaster, and manages her own home and rentals.

Clare states:
We never know what is around the next corner in life. Re-inventing my life was learning to speak and even think again. It was a huge challenge but I discovered we can re-train our brain and take control of our lives.
Pro-Track Profile
Clare enrolled in the 2011 NSA/NC Pro-Track speaker training program. To hear about her speaking work, her comments on the value of Toastmasters for professional speakers, and what attracted her to Pro-Track, click on the podcast icon below.

Using the “single most powerful question anyone could ever ask”, Terry Barton helps individuals and businesses connect to what is preventing them from moving in the direction they want to go. Whether it is an operational issue, a performance issue or a problem with a team, Terry helps people and organizations get to the root of the problem, identify their role in it and connect to solutions that get them moving again.

An accomplished leader, facilitator and executive coach with more than 20 years of management and leadership development experience in the retail, container shipping and biotech industries; Terry founded The Barton Group to provide leadership development and performance coaching services to individuals and businesses. After seeing firsthand how organizations and individuals get in their own way, Terry now enjoys helping her clients come to the “Ah-ha” moment that inevitably gets them moving in the direction they want to go.

Terry is a contributing author of Savvy Leadership Strategies for Women and a sought after speaker. Her topics include; Get Unstuck and Get Moving, Get On with It - Managing through Change and Transition and So, that’s why you bug me - Understanding personality differences and preferences.

Terry holds a Master of Science in Management and Organizational Development from the University of San Francisco and a Bachelor of Arts in Speech Communications from the University of Maine. She is an adjunct faculty member at Chabot College and serves on the ASTD Golden Gate Board of Directors.
Pro-Track Profile
Terry enrolled in the NSA/NC Pro-Track program for 2011 after reading about NSA membership requirements on the national website and realizing it would be the perfect vehicle to help launch her career as a professional speaker. To hear what she told me click on the podcast icon below.

At the end of the second day of the Ragan Social Media Conference I met Susan Gluss who is the Media Relations Director and spokeswoman for the UC Berkeley School of Law.

She is investigating the use of social media, specifically blogging, as as way of promoting both the activities of the Law School and her own OpEd's in the San Francisco Chronicle.

If you have any suggestions for the ways Susan can specifically tailor social media to meet her needs, email her or send a tweet to @BerkeleyLawNews.

To hear her questions on the topic of social media, click on the podcast icon below.

Wendy Hanson helps startups and legacy companies act more aggressively, create more accountability and be more innovative. By shifting the culture, she helps teams communicate more clearly and work with focus.

As an entrepreneur, Wendy loves helping other women entrepreneurs. She co-authored The Sassy Ladies’ Toolkit for Start-up Businesses, which received the Writer’s Digest Award for Non-Fiction Self-Published Books. She also hosts a Blog Talk Radio show interviewing entrepreneurs and sharing their wisdom.

Wendy has over 12 years experience in corporate coaching and consulting. During Google’s formative years of 2002 to 2009, Wendy coached their teams and executives. Other client companies include AOL, MapQuest and Verizon.

She is a partner in Point Forward Ventures helping startups develop strategy, successful execution and leadership. She works as a partner with her clients for their success.

As a member of the National Speakers Association, Wendy is a sought after speaker for corporate and business events. She speaks and coaches on the entrepreneurial mindset. Her speaking engagements include topics such as “Intergenerational Differences in the Workforce,” “Five Keys to Successful Start-Ups,” and “Entrepreneurial Skills for Women.”

Wendy has a Masters in Organization and Management from Antioch New England Graduate School and is a certified Personal and Business Coach from the Coaches Training Institute in San Rafael, California.
Pro-Track Profile
Wendy recently moved from Rhode Island to Northern California and took the opportunity to enroll in the NSA/NC Pro-Track program. To hear what she told me about her coaching and professional speaking career, click on the podcast icon below.

I was fortunate to volunteer as a speech contest judge for an impromptu speech contest for High School students held Friday and Saturday as part of the State Leadership Conference of the California Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA).

FBLA is the largest and oldest business student organization in the world. It promotes competent, aggressive business leadership and helps students establish career goals and develop character and self-confidence. The goal is to facilitate the transition from school to work. To accomplish these aims, FBLA holds conferences and seminars; sponsors a competitive awards program; produces national publications; and provides scholarships, programs, and other services for its members.
Impromptu speech contest
The 2011 State Leadership Conference took place on April 14-17 at the Hyatt Regency in Santa Clara, CA. I had responded a call for judges for a speech contest which came through at Cisco, where I am currently an executive communications manager.

The speech contest, similar to a Toastmaster Table Topics contest, requires students to speak for three to four minutes on a specific topic, such as No amount of travel on the wrong road will take you to right destination. I helped judge an elimination round on Friday afternoon where 15 students competed for a place in Saturday's final round, with the top two winners from the State going on to the national conference this summer.
Suit Up for Success

FBLA conference regulations dictated a dress code requiring professional attire to a quite persnickety level of detail (Males: Banded collared shirt may be worn only if sport coat or business suit is worn. Females: Capris or gauchos with coordinating jacket/suit, worn below the knee). It was a unique experience to walk the hallways of the hotel surrounded by so many perky adolescents putting their best foot forward.

I wondered if the irony of choosing this conference theme for an event held in the heart of Silicon Valley - where leaders such as Scott McNealy, Steve Jobs and, more recently, Mark Zuckerberg, dress in anything but suits - occurred to the FBLA? Of course, there is something to be said for knowing how to suit up, and I'm sure there are still industries where dressing in suits is key to success (perhaps if you want to rise to the top in the Funeral Home Industry?). But, seriously, these students were anything but an "empty suit".
Scary smart scholars
These 16-18 year scholars showed a scarily smart level ability and confidence. They were, as public speakers, almost without exception, at or above the level of many adult Toastmaster members, and equal, in some cases to the most accomplished Vice-Presidents I've worked with in corporate America over the past decade. In fact, most adults would be challenged to match their ease and ability to stand in front of a room and communicate clearly and confidently.
Be afraid, be very afraid...
If you are a student who intends to pursue a career in business or a parent of a student and you are not aware of FBLA then I urge you to check them out. If you ever find yourself competing for scholarships or college places with FBLA members then you should not underestimate the abilities of these students. They would easily bury most other candidates.

If you are an employer looking for top-notch talent, look no further.
FBLA Areas of focus
In addition to the speech contest, there were a vast number of tests and presentations taking place on everything from Accounting to Cyber Security; Desktop Application Programming to Digital Video Production; Marketing to Network Design. I sat in on a ten minute presentation by three young men from a Bay Area high school on network design which would qualify any of them for a summer internship at Cisco.
Podcast Interview
To hear first-hand what being a student member of FBLA involves, and the background of the organization, I sat down with Ms. Shelina Noorali, Vice President, Central Section,

Born and raised in Australia, Linda Benn brings a breath of fresh air to the USA. She shares her cultural experiences and unique approach to overcoming the issues related to stress in the workplace and improving worker productivity.

The native Australian relocated to the US where she observed people experiencing fear, overwhelm and uncertainty about the economy and their future. She noticed people focusing more on problems rather than solutions.

She shares her cultural experiences and unique approach to overcoming the issues related to stress in the workplace by sharing a mindset of possibility, collaboration and productivity. Australians have a unique perspective of their "No Worries Mate" philosophy which can be applied and learned by American workers.

Linda's training includes: postural evaluation; alignment correction; yoga training; meditation; nutritional counseling; breathing exercises; communication and reflective listening exercises; coaching; mentoring and offering training seminars. She skillfully customizes programs to the needs both of the workers and the company. Linda works with key individuals within an organization collaborating to generate positive, long-lasting results.

She trains and coaches people how to change their perspective on any stressful situation and reprogram to create a positive outcome.

Using a holistic approach that rewires the mental and physical system of organizations, she retrains individuals using her 5R method that teaches people how to release, realign, restore, rebalance and reenergize. Linda motivates people to the benefits of a healthy mind and an energized body to be more productive in their work. Her expertise as a coach and consultant advises companies how to build a Stress Firewall that results in attracting and retaining employees while increasing productivity & profits.
Pro-Track Profile
I caught up with Linda in January at the start of the Pro-Track year and asked her to share more details about her background. In addition to her new corporate website, which helps employees thrive, she also mentioned her original Heart Light Energy site. To hear what she had to tell me, click on the podcast icon below.

Mark Stiving, MBA, Ph.D. helps companies implement value based pricing strategies to increase profit.

As a pricing strategist, he 'spreads the gospel' of value based pricing. His message inspires manufacturers, marketers and others concerned with pricing to capture greater value through pricing improvements and to focus on creating real, quantifiable value for the benefit of their customers and their bottom line.

Mark has addressed pricing professionals and executives at major conferences for the Professional Pricing Society, International Quality and Productivity Center (IQPC), American Marketing Association, Consumer Electronics Design and Installation Association (CEDIA), Marketing Science and in additional professional settings.

As a coach, Mark helps companies create and implement new pricing strategies to capture more of the value they create. He has consulted with Cisco, Procter and Gamble, Grimes Aerospace, Rogers Corporation, and many small businesses and entrepreneurial ventures. He currently works full time developing and implementing new pricing strategies at National Semiconductor.

Mark has published pricing articles in the Journal of Consumer Research, Management Science, and the Journal of Commerce. He freely shares his knowledge and latest thoughts on pricing on his Pragmatic Pricing website and has a forthcoming book titled "Big Picture Pricing."

As an award winning speaker, Mark's favorite hobby is public speaking, generously giving back to the Toastmasters community that helped him excel as a professional communicator.

Mark earned a BSEE at The Ohio State University, an MBA at Santa Clara University, and a Ph.D. in Marketing at U.C. Berkeley.
Pro-Track Profile
Mark is an active Toastmaster who wants to take his game to the next level. He was introduced to the NSA Northern California Chapter's Pro-Track program by a fellow Toastmaster.

To hear him describe his expertise and what he hopes to get out of Pro-Track 2011, click on the podcast icon below.

Kurt Shaver delivers high-impact sales training and consulting to companies seeking increased production from their sales force. Kurt’s live training classes are followed by reinforcement sessions and exercises that insure the lessons become lasting habits. Consulting includes areas such as sales systems (CRM) implementation and effective compensation plans.

Kurt brings 25 years of real selling experience to each client. His “street credibility” is critical to being accepted by a room full of seasoned salespeople. As a sales rep, Kurt learned how to build rapport, uncover needs, and differentiate his solution to win the business. Kurt won numerous Top Salesperson awards in his role as an individual contributor. Major accomplishments include closing a $5M deal for AT&T’s first private satellite earth station for a corporate customer and selling some of the first electronic catalogs to companies like IBM, Sprint, and Texas Instruments.

As his management responsibilities grew, Kurt built sales teams at a number of fast growth companies. One of them made it to No. 11 on Fortune Magazine’s “100 Fastest Growing Companies” list for 2004. In the process, he developed the systems and skills to motivate and train salespeople to be successful.

After 25 years of corporate sales success, Kurt started The Sales Foundry in 2008 to share his knowledge with businesses seeking to accelerate their revenue growth. The name “Sales Foundry” was chosen to represent the blue-collar, roll-up-your-sleeves nature of Kurt’s work. It is not board room strategy. Kurt focuses on teaching salespeople the tactical skills they need to succeed. Kurt has completed just about every well-known sales training methodology there is and he feels that it is less important to pick the right one than it is to pick one and embrace it completely throughout the organization. Kurt was named a “Top 25 Channel Sales Executive To Know” by VAR Business magazine and received the “Partner Excellence Award” from Salesforce.com. He holds a Master in Electrical Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology but he has never let his knowledge of complex integrated circuitry get in the way of closing a big deal.
Pro-Track Profile
I interviewed Kurt at the January 22, 2011 NSA Northern California 30th Anniversary meeting, the week before the 2011 Pro-Track class kicks off.

Kurt shared with me the reasons he is investing in Pro-Track. To hear what he told me, click on the podcast icon below.

Joel F. Wade, Ph.D. is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Life and Executive Coach, writer, and speaker. He is the author of Mastering Happiness: Ten Principles for Living a More Fulfilling Life; a book that makes the burgeoning research from the field of Positive Psychology accessible and useful for anybody with a desire to live a happier, more resilient life.

He has played competitive water polo for many years, playing at UC Santa Barbara on their 1979 NCAA championship team, captaining their league champion team of 1981, and as a member of the US National team. Now in his fifties, he continues competing at the Master’s level.

From these experiences and through his work, he knows what it means to be passionate and devoted to a course of action, what it takes to see it through to success, and what resilience and gratification – and great fun - can be borne of such dedication.

Having personally traveled to over 60 countries covering six continents, he has seen and experienced the tremendous variety of lifestyles and cultures; but also the great common ground of human existence. The specifics are as varied as the barrenness of the Kalahari Desert to the richness of the Amazon jungle; but a good life centers on common themes that are intrinsic to human nature: love, friendship, resilience, faith, absorption in one’s activities, mastering one’s impulses, and finding and building a sense of meaning and purpose in life.

In his work with businesses, what Joel offers is not some idealistic system for creating a perfect business culture; but practical, real life coaching, teaching, and problem solving for bringing out the best that you and your people have to offer your hard earned creation: your business.

In his presentations, he teaches a vast array of effective and tested tools and skills that you can use right now to improve your happiness and effectiveness in your life. If you want to learn how you can live a happier, more satisfying life, not as some sort of idealistic or theoretical fantasy, but taking your actual life, as it is, with all of the hardships and problems as well as the strengths and blessings, then you’ll want to have Dr. Wade come and speak to your group.
Pro-Track Profile
This month, Dr. Wade completed the 2010 Pro-Track class offered by the Northern California Chapter of the National Speakers Association. I asked him about his practice and his plans to put the lessons he has learned in Pro-Track into practice. To hear what he told me, click on the podcast icon below.

Melinda is an enthusiastic, effervescent motivational speaker, coach and management counselor with over three decades of experience in the dental industry. She is a past board member of the Academy of Dental Management Consultants and a DiSC certified trainer.

Since 1986, she has been assisting Dental Professionals and coaching winning teams. As a specialist in communications and operations, she has trained, coached, and counseled numerous winning teams and worked with over 500 professionals in a variety of disciplines.

Her expertise employs practical experience as well as innovative strategies to help dental practices deal successfully with today's industry challenges, specializing in professional development with an emphasis on productivity, efficiency, and personal growth.

Her unique strength is the ability to enhance communications within dental teams and create a more productive, satisfying work environment. She accomplishes this through a personal, collaborative, upbeat approach when teaching dental teams how to implement essential systems. Doctors and staff report that they like having an approach that is tailored to their specific personalities and needs.

Melinda is a member of the Pro-Track class of 2010 sponsored by the Northern California Chapter of the National Speakers Association.

I asked her how she got into the business of consulting to dentists and what advantages Pro-Track has brought to her business. To hear what she told me, click on the podcast icon below.

At the resent PRSA Conference in Washington DC I attended a presentation by James Walker on Diversity and Social Media. He's a Gen-Y Communications professional interested in Public Relations, Diversity, Marketing and Social Media. In 2010, James combined two major interests to launch Socially Diverse , a six month online journey seeking out diverse conversations, discussion leaders and ways to connect through social media channels.
Socially Diverse: Engaging With Diverse Communities Online
Embark on a journey through social media — both the blogosphere and social networks. Explore the findings of the presenter’s six-month journey through social media, during which he engaged with active members from several online communities. Gain understanding of how to identify, analyze and engage with active participants of diverse communities and social interactions, and also learn how to create a social media home base from which all online activities can operate. Find out how to create a sustained online presence, and continue to develop relationships. The knowledge and insight gained from this session will prove invaluable as you move through the process of brainstorming, pitching and execution.
Socially Diverse #SocDiv #prsa_ic
View more presentations from jaywalk1.

Following the talk I asked James to share some insights on diversity in social media. To hear what he told me, click on the podcast icon below.

Thursday evening at the Silicon Valley Computer History Museum saw the launch of Nancy Duarte's new book Resonate: Present Visual Stories that Transform Audiences.

A couple of hundred guests celebrated a book that author Garr Reynolds says "takes you on a beautiful journey illustrating how to construct and deliver the kind of presentations that are truly remarkable, memorable ... and may even change the world."

Hear what some of the guests had to say by clicking on the podcast icon below.

Harold Lustig is the Founder and CEO of the California Estate and Elder Planning Center and Managing Member of Lustig Financial Services LLC.

After the distressing experience of hearing his father saying he had outlived his assets, Lustig began a life-long journey to assist seniors increase income and protect their assets, enjoy a higher quality of life and reduce their tax obligations, thus leaving more wealth for their spouses, children and grandchildren. With over 30 years of financial planning experience, his focus and passion is to help seniors and their families with retirement and estate planning as well as long term care planning.

Lustig obtained a business degree in accounting and a Master's degree in Business Administration from Drexel University in Philadelphia.

Currently, he holds the Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU), Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC), the California Life and Health Insurance license as well as the Series 65 Investment Advisor's License.

Lustig is the author of the first financial and estate planning book for lesbian and gay couples. The book, 4 Steps to Financial Security for Lesbian and Gay Couples was published by Random House. In the Spring of 2011, Lustig will launch his second book Naked in the Nursing Home: The Women’s Guide to Paying for Long Term HealthCare Without Going Broke.

The mission of the California Estate and Elder Planning Center is to help seniors and their families protect their lifestyle through estate planning, long-term care planning and wealth transfer. Harold works closely with an Elder Law Attorney and his wife who is an Elder Care Advocate and RN.
Pro-Track Profile
Harold is another long-time member of the Northern California Chapter of the National Speakers Association who has signed up for the Pro-Track training. To hear an update on his business and what he thinks of Pro-Track, click on the podcast icon below.

Diane gives talks about living with bipolar disorder. Her husband, David (profiled in this series back in March) had to overcome his own struggles with bipolar. It's estimated that 1 in 50 people in the USA have this disorder.

It is also estimated that 20% of people with bipolar disorder will commit suicide either on purpose or by reckless behavior during depressive or manic episodes. Biploar causes more deaths than aids and most forms of cancer. Bipolar disorder is believed to be caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain and is treatable with many different medications.

However, medication alone is not enough to effectively control this illness. She and David share what else is necessary to live a healthy happy life in spite of having this devastating illness in their book Surviving Bipolar's Fatal Grip - The Journey to Hell and Back.

Diane's presentations describe her own story about living with this illness in her family and offers practical advice to others. She shares a success model and encourages the audience to use strategies such as mood tracking; getting adequate sleep; discovering their own triggers and learning how to lessen those triggers; taking their medicines at the same time every day; and other important strategies that will help them avoid depression, mania, and mixed bipolar states.
Pro-Track Profile
David and Diane are the only husband and wife team in the 2010 National Speakers Association of Northern California Pro-Track class.

I asked Diane what motivated her to get into the speaking business. To hear what she told me, click on the podcast icon below.

Guy Kawasaki is a Silicon Valley legend. The erstwhile Apple software evangelist, now a successful VC, has written a string of best sellers from the 1990 The MacIntosh Way to the 2009 The Art of the Start.

He's currently working on a new book Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions. On Thursday he gave an entertaining presentation to an internal sales group at Cisco - where I'm employed in executive communications - based on his new book. From tips on how to smile with sincerity, to ways to enchant the influencers in a group, Kawasaki shared insights on ways to understand and influence change.

I caught up with him after his presentation and asked him to share something about his approach to public speaking and life as a professional speaker.

Click on the podcast icon below to hear Guy reveal:

what he looks for in an audience to see if his message is connecting with them;

the reason he likes speeches built around Top 10 lists;

what he thinks of people tweeting while he's speaking;
what speakers can learn from The Grateful Dead.

Museum artist Allison Massari found peace, purpose and happiness after overcoming two extraordinary personal tragedies. In 1998, Massari survived a near fatal 60 mph car crash where she was trapped and burned severely. Just three years later, she was hit again at 60 mph and sustained a brain injury. The level of betrayal she felt from life seemed insurmountable. She became determined to create an amazing life.

Taking a long, steep climb from ashes into recovery, she learned very clearly how to navigate her way to true healing and to a life beyond anything she could have dreamed possible. The award-winning painter and sculptor added a new medium to her inventive work—the written and spoken word. Her rededicated mission is to share her story of transformation and revitalization to activate visionary change in people and the organizations that nurture and inspire them.

Allison Massari is passionate about igniting the human spirit—the core of her message is courage, heart, happiness and redefining the impossible. “I've come to a place where my heart pounds with excitement instead of fear. If I could do this with my own life and under such extreme circumstances—imagine what you can do with yours.”

As a member of the National Speakers Association, Massari's message is expertly relayed through inspirational keynotes, workshops, audio programs and coaching. Massari effectively weaves awe-inspiring stories and her compelling art images as metaphors for her most powerful insights.

Her professional career is rich with diverse achievements. In 1998 Massari founded programs for teens with severe burn injuries which continue at the Adaptive Sports Center in Crested Butte, Colorado. For over 15 years she has been creating, selling and placing fine art with international collectors and Fortune 500 clients such as General Mills, US Airways and Lockheed Martin. She holds a Masters of Arts degree from School of Visual Arts in New York City and a Bachelor of Arts from the Rhode Island School of Design. The Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg, Florida displays her collage work in its permanent collection.

Look for her in the forthcoming international documentary film ReSolve—teaching solutions for those coming through post-traumatic stress.
Pro-Track Profile
Allison carefully researched the National Speakers Association of Northern California before deciding to join. It was the reputation of Pro-Track which convinced her that her already thriving speaking business would benefit from the tips and techniques she learns in the monthly meetings.

To hear Allison's discuss her speaking business and the way in which she's finding ways of expressing the essential messages she expressed as an artist in words, click on the podcast icon below.

Celebrated keynoter, facilitator, author and ICF-certified business leader coach, Marsha Egan is on a quest to help others save thousands of hours and reclaim their lives due to email mismanagement. She has been a featured guest on ABC Nightly News, FOX and Friends, and NBC talking about the 12 steps to curing email addiction now outlined in her best selling book Inbox Detox - a guide to shifting your e-mail habits that shows you how to take charge of your inbox, your workday, and your life.

Marsha rocketed to national prominence after publishing a simple e-book on curing email addiction. Requests for media appearances flooded in from around the world, as she shared her insights on changing our email culture, one inbox at a time.

I sat down with Marsha at the recent National Speakers Association Convention in Orlando and asked her the details about what she tells audiences about the steps to free up and time and attention from email. In the podcast (click on the icon below) you'll hear Marsha:

Share shocking stats on how much time an average employee wastes on email - and what this translates to in terms of the bottom line.
How much is wasted annually by needless email interruptions (hint: it's greater than the GDP of 38 nations in the world).
Suggest one effective tip on reclaiming your life from email addiction.
Let us in on the secret as to how many emails she reads a day!

Now, if only there was a similar book for Twitter and Blogging addiction!

Rory Vaden is a Self-Discipline Strategist who relates profound truths coupled with humorous anecdotes empowering professionals to conquer their fears and take immediate action in their businesses and their lives. Consulting with organizations, companies and individuals on leveraging self-discipline to create extraordinary performance, he has shared the stage with John Maxwell and conducted special programs for both Dave Ramsey and Zig Ziglar’s companies.

His insights on overcoming procrastination, creative avoidance and personal setbacks have been shared on shows such as Oprah radio with Dr. Oz and featured in print media such as SUCCESS™ Magazine. As the Co-Founder of the multi-million dollar public training company, Southwestern Consulting®, his pragmatic advice has been field tested by thousands of professionals from all different industries and he has personally coached clients such as Chad Goldwasser, the former #1 Keller Williams Real Estate Agent Worldwide.

In 2007, Rory became the World Champion of Public Speaking first runner-up for Toastmasters International out of 25,000 entries worldwide. He is the author of the book No Laughs Know Laughs How to Be Funny to Make More Money, and the audio series entitled, "The Audience is NOT in their Underwear: How to Craft Truly Compelling Presentations and Deliver them Like a Champ". His groundbreaking book "Take The Stairs – Success Means Doing Things You Don’t Want to Do" is set for tentative release in within a year.

Today in addition to being an author, speaker, and entrepreneur, Rory is leading a rapidly growing international social movement called the Take The Stairs World Tour in which he is raising money for charity by climbing the 10 tallest buildings in the world. Combining a hilarious and compelling delivery with unprecedented expertise, Rory energizes audiences into action with his signature program: Take the Stairs – Success Means Doing Things You Don’t Want To Do.
Selling with Social Media
Rory's presentation at the 2010 NSA Convention was titled Selling with Social Media – Nine Techniques for Using Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to Get Coaching Clients, Book Deals and Keynotes.

Now that the social media craze and rush to popularity is here, the question remains, how do you actually make any cash from all this hoopla? Rory shares practical advice, pragmatic techniques and straightforward methods for maximizing your time online. He shows clients how to get referral business on LinkedIn and how to use Facebook to turn fans into coaching clients.

In this podcast interview I asked Rory where he sees social media going over the next year or two, what it means to generation X/Y and, finally, why anyone in their right mind would want to climb the 10 tallest buildings in the world. To find out why, click on the podcast icon below.

Michelle Cullison is a social media speaker and an expert in web technology. Together with her colleagues Myra Corrello, PhD and Jennifer Ledet she presented at the 2010 National Speakers Association Convention on How Social Media Can Help You Successfully Co-Produce a Major Public Event.

Michelle successfully uses social media and technology tools to organize and plan events, secure strategic partners and sponsors, generate product, gain long-term publicity and attract attendees. Michelle knows what it takes to recognize and understand how these virtually free communication tools can help you coordinate, collaborate, promote, connect, publicize, recognize and, ultimately, monetize your time and investment.

As she tells it, it all comes down to the numbers. Social media allows, as never before, event planners to demonstrate in clear quantitative terms the reach a sponsor will have for each level of sponsorship.

In this podcast interview I asked Michelle to outline the precise advantages of social media to gain event sponsorship, how she employed the tools, and what she would do differently if she had to do it all over again.

She tells me about the one indispensable tool she now recommends as the key to success in social media. To find out what this is, click on the podcast icon below.

How does someone prepare for a Toastmasters International Speech Contest?
In the second part of my podcast interview with Toastmasters District 57 winner Christine Robinson, we discuss the upcoming 2010 Toastmasters International Convention.

Very few women have ever won the World Championship, and Christine is only two speeches away from that possibility.

Every one of us at Christine's home club, the Speakers Forum in Concord, CA, is doing all we can to help her prepare and practice a new speech for the final round of the contest.

To hear how she plans to prepare for the event, click on the podcast icon below.

How are winning Toastmasters speeches created?

I asked Christine Robinson, whose speech The Empty Chair won the District 57 Spring Conference May 8, 2010, held at the California Maritime Academy in Vallejo California.

In this podcast interview, Christine discusses the original motivation for the theme of the speech and then shares the mechanics of writing and practicing the speech.

Her speech is rooted in the passion and conviction for the topic: "It had it's own vitality...it is time, now more than ever, to fill our chairs, to be present for others."

Tomorrow, I'll share Part 2 of the interview, where Christine talks about the upcoming contest in Palm Desert.

To hear Part 1 of the interview, click on the podcast icon below.

Matt Upton's employment career has taken him from selling cards and lawn care to flipping burgers, folding tacos, selling knives, air conditioners, home insulation, to overseeing housing developments, to leading a sales force in five western states for a food manufacturer, leading various for profit businesses as well as non-profit businesses. The common thread has always involved public speaking.

As a professional speaker, writer, wisdom coach, and trainer Matt has conducted over 3000 presentations both throughout the United States as well internationally. His background in small groups and large group setting presentations has positioned him as an authority the area of business, personal and relationship growth.

He brings to the audience participants his successes and failures with humor and professionalism allowing them to learn while enjoying their invested time.

Matt works through the theme On the Move … FORWARD. This has enabled individuals as well as businesses both small and large advance forward to the next level of success. His work takes him across the United States and internationally.
Pro-Track Profile
Matt is enrolled in the 2010 Pro-Track class sponsored by the Northern California Chapter of the National Speakers Association.

He has experience speaking internationally in Bulgaria, to hear about his adventures there and his impressions of the Pro-Track program, click on the icon podcast below.

Having spent 30-plus years in organizational communications in Fortune 500 companies, consulting firms, and as an independent consultant since 1996, Shel Holtz, ABC, brings a depth of experience to his engagements. Shel has worked with online communications since the mid-1980s; he currently focuses on the application of social media to strategic business communication. Shel also provides counsel and guidance on traditional online communication and conventional media.

Shel is the author of five books, including Public Relations on the Net, Corporate Conversations, Blogging for Business and the recently released How to Do Everything with Podcasting. (Along with co-author John C. Havens, Shel is currently writing "Web 2.Open," addressing the role communications play in organization efforts to attain transparency.) He has also written countless articles for magazines and journals. He is in demand as a speaker at conferences and workshops around the world.

Shel keynoted at the Ragan Corporate Communicators Conference in Detroit. I asked him what was new in his world. To hear what he told me, click on the podcast icon below.

Roberta Guise, MBA, advises small business owners, consultants and non-profits on how to make best use of their marketing dollars and resources.

She shows them how to build a profitable stable of customers, and through precision planning, promotions, branding, and placements in the media, be visible and get known.

Roberta also advises and develops deeply knowledgeable, ambitious experts, especially women, who want be known as a go-to thought leader or authority in their field of expertise.

She swims in the frigid waters of San Francisco Bay, which she says is an apt metaphor for how she helps clients navigate extreme business issues and cross currents that can swirl around them at any time.

An award-winning marketer and PR consultant, Roberta writes and speaks on how to get a distinctive marketing edge and be extraordinarily visible. Her consulting practice, Guise Marketing & PR, is headquartered in San Francisco.

Get a piece of Roberta's mind at her website and blog. Check out her podcast profiles of influential women.

Connect with her on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn.

To hear what she shared with me about her services, and to hear what she's enjoying about the National Speakers Association Pro-Track class, click on the podcast icon below.

David Mariant is an author, speaker, life coach, and founder of The Bipolar Coach and Surviving Bipolar. David reaches thousands by radio in over 30 countries worldwide. He is a sought after speaker who is recognized by mental health professionals and bipolar sufferers alike as a top expert on overcoming Bipolar Disorder. Having overcome his own struggle with bipolar, he fully understands, with great compassion, the struggles of others.

David is available for motivational and informative speaking engagements, keynotes, workshops and bipolar life coaching for individuals with bipolar and their families. He is a member of the Santa Clara County Mental Health Board of California, working to insure quality mental health care for people who suffer with mental illnesses of all types.
David's Story

"Since first being diagnosed with bipolar disorder and after my own brush with death, I have become a passionate student of bipolar disorder. If you are interested in the truth about bipolar disorder and how to live with its hidden dangers, then I am your guy. I am a certified life coach for anyone, but specializing in coaching individuals with bipolar disorder.

I equip bipolar sufferers and their families with awareness by teaching them mental and physical strategies that they will need in order to help them survive, overcome the illness, and thrive. Medicine alone is rarely enough. My Surviving Bipolar Disorder Made S.I.M.P.L.E. Seminar and Workshop, has changed many people’s lives, giving them a new and successful way to live with this challenging illness."
Pro-Track Profile
David is a member of the Northern California Chapter of the National Speakers Association Pro-Track class of 2010. He shared with me the story of his life and work and how he came to find out about the Pro-Track opportunity - with the help of NSA/NC founding member Patricia Fripp. To hear what he told me, click on the podcast icon below.

Vickie Sullivan is internationally recognized as a top market strategist for experts. Specializing in branding for high-fee professional speaker markets, she has launched thousands of thought leaders since 1987. Vickie’s groundbreaking work has earned her an appointment on the Women’s Leadership Board for the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. In that capacity, she presented three times to the Harvard student body on personal branding and prominence.

On Saturday she presented to a somewhat less august institution than Harvard. She rocked the house at the meeting of the Northern California Chapter of the National Speakers Association. Her presentation, Brand It And They Will Come: Build a High-Fee Brand When You Are Not Famous, was short on fluff and long on street-wise detail to help the average $1,000 - $5,000 speaker in the audience stand out from the crowd.
An era of practicality
With meeting expenditure down, even as the number of meetings are trending higher, clients are doing more with less. Unlike the go-go days of the boom period, we are now living in an era of practicality. Executives are micromanaging meetings down to the level of choosing the theme and seating arrangements. They are sending interns to do first-round interviews with prospective speakers. Many speakers are not only competing with each other for gigs, they are competing with the authors, bloggers and social media mavens who will speak for free in order to pimp their books and consulting programs.
So what's a novice speaker to do?
First, lose the obsession with presentation skills. Being able to present well is table stakes. Next, realize meeting organizers divide the world into speakers who are nice to have and those they gotta have. In order to fall into the latter camp the information you offer has to overlap with the buyers perceived needs and beat out the other options being considered for the meeting agenda. You have to stand out from the crowd by uniquely branding yourself. Getting hired requires you create a vivid picture in the client's mind of what they will get when you speak at their event. Craft your brand in a way that appeals to the buyers emotions and creates an image of you in a category of one. Vicki goes into more detail on the importance of differentiation in this Special Report on her website:
If branding is the promise you make to the market, then differentiation is the stage you use to deliver on your promise.
The Three Keys to a High-Fee Brand
One: A Successful Story
Your compelling story is only useful to the extent it teaches others. Sports hero's have a problem on the speaking circuit if their motivational stories don't connect with the couch potatoes in the audience. We can connect with the audience by telling stories that break with the expected and bring opposites into play, compare unexpected things or roles or reveal a Eureka moment. Vickie's website has an article on writing Stories That Create The Emotional Drive To Buy.
Two: A Point of View
Build a point of view around hot issues. Focus on a Big Idea. Make the invisible visible. Tell people things they've not heard before. Three options that help build a unique point of view:

Predict the Future - what can we expect that will impact the audience's world in unexpected ways? In my world, I'm seeing a growing backchannel of communication using PDA's and social media to converse about the speaker while they are still onstage.
Sound the Alarm - what does the audience need to know that will save their skins? Again, in my own world, too much information is being crammed into presentations by subject matter experts. Someone else in the audience today shared how middle managers in Silicon Valley technology companies are addicted to the corporate crack of repeatedly launching projects to boost their career without realizing they are burning everyone out with their 7x24 demands. She realized she could develop a compelling point of view by sounding the alarm abo...

Jack Sramek is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy and a former Marine Corps Fighter Pilot. He flew 125 combat missions in Vietnam as a member of the famous "Blacksheep Squadron" and served as the personal aide to Lt. General Lewis W. Walt, commander of all Marines in Vietnam. Upon leaving the Marine Corps, he continued flying as a pilot with Trans World Airlines, completing a 30 year career.

In parallel with his position at TWA, he obtained a California Real Estate Broker’s license in 1974. Remembering his parents’ experience as owners of a 50 acre farm near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which they sold at retirement for 100 times more than they had initially paid for it, he began a career in Land Banking. He watched Orange County and the San Jose area go from agricultural land to what they are today, as urban growth multiplied land values. Bob Hope, Gene Autrey, Roy Rogers and others built huge fortunes by buying and holding land in the path of growth.

Strategic land banking has been the best kept secret in the investment community. Few people are aware of how, why and where to take advantage of this simple supply and demand option or the fact that they can use their IRA, 401(k) or other investment funds to acquire pre-development land.

With one out of every eight people in the United States living in California, Jack is on a mission to teach people how to use this vehicle for diversification, college educations, retirement or general wealth accumulation. He frequently speaks professionally on the subject, is honing his skills at Pro-Track and is presently completing a book on how to use land banking to "hatch a million dollar nest egg."

Jack can be reached at Jack@StirlingSP.com
His website is www.StrategicLandBanking.com.

To hear what he told me about his background and his reasons for enrolling in Pro-Track, click on the podcast icon below.

In order to gain a competitive edge it is essential for professionals to strive for both professional and personal excellence. Frauke Schorr's work focuses on professionals who struggle and need outside expertise to bring their careers, businesses, and teams to the next level.

As part of her PhD in Organizational Psychology Frauke interviewed highly accomplished entrepreneurs and leaders on their experience of becoming successful. She found that the most successful leaders hold the mindset of a Centered Leader™ - They had a continuous curiosity to learn something new, challenge themselves, and stretch their boundaries while being grounded in a frame that was uniquely build on their personal values, beliefs, and passions. They also had the distinct ability to translate this frame into a company culture. They were, as Frauke describes it, leading from the inside-out.

"We must always remember that the act of speaking professionally is only a part of our individual journeys. It is not a destination."
- Phillip Van Hooser
The Evolution of a Professional Speaking Career
Since 1988, NSA President Phillip Van Hooser, CSP, CPAE, has spoken, written, coached and consulted on leadership and service professionalism issues with groups and organizations around the globe.

On Saturday January 9, 2009, he presented at the NSA Northern California Chapter meeting. His talk, Uncommon Business Practices That Will Help You Re-Think, Re-Position and Re-Tool Your Way to Speaking Success, reviewed the evolution of his own speaking career and the lessons this holds for other professional speakers.

Van Hooser stated that there are five distinct stages in a typical speaking career:
1. The dream is born
Some fall into a speaking career by chance. But Phil has dreamed of being a professional speaker since he was very young. His grandmother was an early influence who told the eight-year-old he would become a Baptist preacher. That didn't happen, but he did became enamored with natural orators: the preachers, teachers and politicians of his Kentucky childhood.
2. The journey begins
By age 15 he had started keeping a notebook on public speaking. He recorded what the speakers he heard said, then progressed to noticing how they said what they said — the ways in which they delivered their material.
3. A business materializes
Every speaker must choose a moment to declare themselves a professional. For Van Hooser, that moment was the afternoon of April 7, 1988 when he quit his corporate job. With the "confidence born of ignorance" he started his business with no prospects or speaking material. He did, however, enjoy the support of his wife Susan who has been his business partner for the past 20 years. Now — 2,800 paid presentations later — Phil's advice to others considering a career as a speaker is not to quit the day job until you have material developed and clients lined up.
4. The work expands
Speakers need to stay current. Changes in technology and the economy mean that what worked at the start of our careers will not continue to work. We need to evolve personally and professionally. The secret, Phil says, is to listen to the audience. As speakers we might think we know what people like, but the audience will let us know what they actually benefit from.
5. Reflection is inevitable
Many older people, looking back at their lives, wish they had taken more risks. They also wish they had taken time out to reflect, slowing down the weeks and months that otherwise pass by in a blur. Many wish they had contributed something to the world that would outlast their own lifespan.

As speakers, we must take the risk of stepping outside our safety zone and learn from our mistakes. We must invest ourselves in the people in our audience, and reflect on the unique opportunity we have to make a difference to thousands of people. Finally, when we speak with passion and conviction, we'll see the light bulb go off in people's eyes and know that we have connected with them. We never know when something we say in a presentation will change someone's life. It's this possibility, Van Hooser says, that makes the hard work of being a professional speaker worthwhile.

Grandmother Van Hooser clearly saw something in young Phillip that has now benefited tens of thousands of people.
Podcast Interview
To hear what Phil told me about his role as President of the National Speakers Association, how American speakers are perceived internationally and why professional speaking is the hardest job he's ever had, click on the podcast icon below.

Phil can be contacted at phil@vanhooser.com.

Janet Hebert has been a ranch hand (her parents raised prunes on over 100 acres in the Coyote Valley), an elementary school teacher, a full time single mom for her two children Katie and Jeff, and a caregiver for her own mother.

Janet has been speaking for the past 15 years. She has been a frequent competitor in Toastmasters District 4 – progressing to the Division and District contests several times, and all the way to the Regional level in the International Speech Contest in 2000. It was in the process of attending the Toastmasters contests that she met her husband Paul, also a winner at the District level.

Janet is a 16-year breast cancer survivor. For the past 15 years she has been speaking to audiences large and small on behalf of the American Cancer Society, helping raise awareness and inspire action for individuals and groups. While listening to Janet, audiences learn about cancer in general, how to detect it early, and what help is available when cancer is discovered. Listeners learn not only the facts - they learn about the compassion and human warmth behind the work of the American Cancer Society. Her engaging style, candor and deep commitment to helping others - as she herself was helped - make her a preferred presenter for ACS. She enjoys the opportunity to share information and her story, believing with each talk that she may be helping to save someone’s life.
Pro-Track Profile
The 2010 Pro-Track program kicks off on Saturday January 23 at the Burlingame, CA, Hilton Hotel.

Janet is excited to be a part of Pro-Track. She is pursuing her dream of becoming a professional speaker and impacting many more lives with both her unique perspectives and heartfelt good will.

I talked with Janet on the phone about the origins of her interest professional speaking and what she is looking for in the Pro-Track program. To hear what she told me, click on the podcast icon below.

Janet can be reached at (408) 226-8283 or by email at janet@costaclan.com.

I met with Krim Stephenson who presented at the December lunch of the Silicon Valley Chapter of the IABC on the topic of social media - beyond the hype.

Krim is a principal in the Arlington Mill Group. A former journalist with Bloomberg News and communications leader at Microsoft, he focuses on helping clients find the best expression of their brand and message for success online. He has led strategy, outreach and brand initiatives at companies including Visa, Oracle and Chase.

I asked Krim about how social media has affected branding by large companies. He shared his thoughts on how branding has changed since the era of the MadMen when ad agencies and marketing departments exercised control over all branding elements. Krim explains why social media is opening up new forms of communication to enliven brands.

To hear his thoughts, click on the podcast icon below.

Speaker, Author, Positive Psychologist and Life Coach
Dr. Delizonna is an expert in sustainable happiness. She coaches individual clients, conducts workshops at companies and nonprofits, and presents keynote speeches. She also teaches popular happiness and emotional intelligence courses at Stanford University. Recognized as an authority in happiness, Dr. Delizonna trains mental health professionals and serves as a board member of nonprofit organizations including The American Happiness Association and Project Happiness.

For as long as she can remember, Laura has wanted to do something that has a big impact on society. She has found her niche helping people build happier, more fulfilling lives. She sees it as part of the world peace movement. When people become happier, they not only infect others with their positivity, but they treat others more kindly, have stronger relationships, and are more altruistic generous, and compassionate toward others.

Two decades ago, she began her quest to find the keys to happiness. She started with herself and vowed that one day she would teach what she learned to others. She harvested teachings from everyone she could find who had something to say about happiness. From taxi drivers, to Maasai warriors, to researchers at top universities, she listened. She reflected on her own life lessons, earned her doctorate in clinical psychology, and learned from her experiences as a therapist treating people with depression and anxiety.

Now Laura feels she understands what it takes to be truly happy. She views happiness as emerging from having an ability to respond to each moment with skills. For the last five years, she has been teaching this skill set to others. She wrote a manual for increasing sustainable happiness which is calls "The 5 Habits of Happiness." She teaches workshops for individuals, businesses, and organizations on how to increase happiness and well-being. She adds that businesses are becoming more interested in employee happiness because they realize that it affects the bottom line.
Pro-Track Profile
Laura has spoken internationally in South Africa and soon Vietnam as well as presents keynotes and workshops locally on how to increase sustainable happiness and enhance emotional intelligence. She is writing a self-help book and teaches positive psychology and emotional intelligence courses at Stanford University. She was a member of the NSA Northern California Pro-Track class of 2009. Her website is ChoosingHappiness.com.

I talked with Laura on the phone about the origins of her interest in happiness, how public speaking fits into her professional life, and what she thought of the Pro-Track program. To hear what she told me, click on the podcast icon below.

During my University of Hertfordshire presentation on Social Networking I interviewed local guitar teacher Bob Houlston. He offers relaxed, informal, supportive but professional one-to-one guitar tuition at his home in St. Albans.

Bob's mission is to promote Community Development via free internet distribution of guitar playing musicianship and craft skills information.

He caters for every level, from beginners to gigging guitarists. His website offers free guitar tips + tabs with no strings attached!

To hear what Bob told me about his plans to use Social Media to advertise his business, click the podcast icon below.

The afternoon session of Saturday's Northern California Chapter of the National Speakers Association (NSA/NC) meeting featured a conversation between Craig Harrison and journalist and author Jason Kersten. An author and journalist since 1998, Jason has written features for numerous national magazines, including Rolling Stone, Men’s Journal, and Maxim. His first book, Journal of the Dead: A Story of Friendship and Murder in the New Mexico Desert, was selected as a New York Times Notable Book of 2003. He has appeared as a guest and commentator on CNN, Fox News, TruTv, NPR, and numerous regional TV and radio shows. His works have been optioned for both film and television.

A native Californian, Kersten was raised in Marin County and the Santa Ynez Valley. In 1996, he earned a masters of science from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. He lives in New York City.

In his conversation with Craig, Jason shared a number of his interviewing tips and read from his latest book, The Art of Making Money: The Story of a Master Counterfeiter.
The Smell of a Bank
After the event ended I asked Jason to share his insider's perspective on the ways professional journalists approach an interview and why he would even think of asking a subject to describe "the smell of a bank." To hear what he told me, click on the podcast icon below.

Susan Thaxton has learned the meaning of resiliency and the power of transformation.

Susan has had two full careers and is moving into a third. After completing an internship at UCSF, she worked as a Registered Dietitian in long term care and as a Clinical Nutrition Manager in acute care hospitals. In the mid-nineties she took advantage of a massive layoff, changing careers to become a successful sales representative in commercial printing.

Combining her sales background and her experience as a consulting dietitian, Susan is embarking on a new career as a consultant in the world of senior housing. As a speaker, Susan plans to spread the message to Baby Boomers and beyond that where you live tomorrow depends on what you plan for today.

Her new book on "Living where I want to live: A guide to helping aging parents" is in the works.
Pro-Track Profile
Susan has been a cyclist for almost 30 years. She joined the National Speakers Association Northern California Chapter's Pro-Track program with the intention of speaking about fitness and nutrition for women over 40. After a series of personal challenges this year, including supporting her husband through cancer and learning that her mother is in the early stages of dementia, Susan changed her focus to address the question, "What will happen to me?"

Susan credits Pro-Track for keeping her "sane" during an otherwise tumultuous year and for giving her the courage to transform her personal experience into a meaningful message.

She can be reached at sdthaxton@comcast.net

To hear what Susan told me about her future plans, click on the podcast icon below.

Here’s an edited audio track from the final one of the five webinars on Practical Social Networking that Jim Carrillo and I hosted in September. This webinar was first broadcast on Wednesday, September 30, 2009.

Audio will not give the full webinar experience - we often refer to information shown onscreen, such as website pages from LinkedIn, Facebook and so on. However, the recorded audio contains useful information.

A full set of webinar recordings which include all the information shown onscreen is available from the Practical Social Networking website.

You can hear the audio by clicking on the podcast icon below, or, since the recording takes over 50 minutes, choose the download option and store it on your PC or sync to your iPod.

Here’s an edited audio track from the fourth of the five webinars on Practical Social Networking that Jim Carrillo and I hosted in September. This webinar was first broadcast on Wednesday, September 23, 2009.

Audio will not give the full webinar experience - we often refer to information shown onscreen, such as website pages from LinkedIn, Facebook and so on. However, the recorded audio contains useful information.

A full set of webinar recordings which include all the information shown onscreen is available from the Practical Social Networking website.

You can hear the audio by clicking on the podcast icon below, or, since the recording takes over 50 minutes, choose the download option and store it on your PC or sync to your iPod.

Here’s an edited audio track from the third of the five webinars on Practical Social Networking that Jim Carrillo and I hosted in September. This webinar was first broadcast on Wednesday, September 16, 2009.

Audio will not give the full webinar experience - we often refer to information shown onscreen, such as website pages from LinkedIn, Facebook and so on. However, the recorded audio contains useful information.

A full set of webinar recordings which include all the information shown onscreen is available from the Practical Social Networking website.

You can hear the audio by clicking on the podcast icon below, or, since the recording takes over 50 minutes, choose the download option and store it on your PC or sync to your iPod.

Here’s an edited audio track from the second of the five webinars on Practical Social Networking that Jim Carrillo and I hosted in September. This webinar was first broadcast on Wednesday, September 9, 2009.

Audio will not give the full webinar experience - we often refer to information shown onscreen, such as website pages from LinkedIn, Facebook and so on. However, the recorded audio contains useful information.

A full set of webinar recordings which include all the information shown onscreen is available from the Practical Social Networking website.

You can hear the audio by clicking on the podcast icon below, or, since the recording takes over 50 minutes, choose the download option and store it on your PC or sync to your iPod.

Here's an edited audio track from the first of the five webinars on Practical Social Networking that Jim Carrillo and I hosted in September. This webinar was first broadcast on Wednesday, September 2, 2009.

Audio will not give the full webinar experience - we often refer to information shown onscreen, such as website pages from LinkedIn, Facebook and so on. However, the recorded audio contains useful information.

A full set of webinar recordings which include all the information shown onscreen is available from the Practical Social Networking website.

You can hear the audio by clicking on the podcast icon below, or, since the recording takes over 50 minutes, choose the download option and store it on your PC or sync to your iPod.

NSA/NC September Meeting
September marks the start a new year of meetings for the Northern California Chapter of the National Speakers Association (NSA/NC). It kicked off with a "Wealthy Speaker Seminar" conducted by Jane Atkinson, who promised to share a "Proven Formula for Catapulting You To The Top 3%" of the speaking business. Jane reported that top speakers earn over $1 million annually.

Jane has been helping speakers grow their businesses for more than 18 years. As an agent for speakers, she has represented speaking super stars Vince Poscente, Joe Calloway and Peter Legge as well as best-selling authors and celebrities. A former vice president of International Speakers Bureau, Jane has seen the industry from many angles.
The Wealthy Speaker
Jane’s new book, The Wealthy Speaker: The Proven Formula for Building Your Successful Speaking Business details many of the tools she shared in the morning seminar.

These include:

Ready, Aim, Fire: first, get crystal-clear about what your expertise is; then roll out marketing materials that enable customers to find you; finally deliver your expertise to audiences from the podium.

Focus on your speech: "No fancy brochure or website can overcome a mediocre speech." Tips for creating a powerful speech include:

Use humor - once the endorphins kick in, the audience is more receptive to your message.

Be real, open and authentic.
Be congruent with your message, both on and off the platform.

Deliver a focused message with one main idea and three points.

Tell great stories - especially ones that are about the audience, not you.

Outline your speech: Pick one theme and a through-line. Would the message of the speech look good printed on a T-shirt? Does it have three main points and a hook to hang it on?

Ask, "Who do I need to become to take my speech to new heights?" It's all about positioning: become an expert first, a speaker second.
"Clients no longer want to hire speakers. They want to hire smart people who happen to speak."
Expertise - Topics - Revenue
Jane recommends that we each become an expert in one area we are are passionate about. This is the "lane" we travel in. Don't get stuck doing things we are merely good at. Find an area of expertise people will pay for. Choose this one area and develop a number of topics around it.

Ask "What do I need to become, to be the expert?" It might be focusing on a topic. It might be standing tall and stepping fully into the knowledge you already have.

In my case, my expertise is helping executives communicate effectively. The topics I've developed center on my services as a speechwriter. These services include writing one-time speeches for CEOs as well as company overview or Vision Pitch presentations delivered multiple times in the Executive Briefing Centers of major Silicon Valley companies. More recently, I've added topics involving Social Media and re-purposing a speech with podcasting. This allows asychronous communication of the speech outside the room in which it is delivered.

Jane suggests that we build revenue streams which flow from each of our topics. In my case, I have my consulting fees and more recently the recorded webinars, workbooks and clinics ranging in price from $39 - $499 available on Practical Social Networking.
Websites
Jane reminds us that a good website is a key requirement for a successful speaker. One-sheets are so last century. A good website clearly positions you and shares a promise (or brand) that will make the prospect curious about what it is that you offer. She recommended Rene Godefroy's and Keith Harrell's as great examples.
Podcast Interview
After the program ended I sat down with Jane and asked her what was the one piece of advice she would share with someone who wanted to become a wealthy speaker and make it into the top 3% of those in the business who make over $1 million a year. To hear what she told me, click on the podcast icon below.

Keynote Speaker, Author, and Singer
Diedra has made the incredible journey from orphan and "lost cause" to an honor-roll student and college graduate. Her journey of survival --through the adversity of growing up in an addiction-driven household, to the loss of her parents during high school -- has enabled her to be a living example that no young person has to be a victim of their circumstances.

Diedra has been speaking professionally since the age of 15. She has been recognized as a Global Young Leader by the Congressional Youth Leadership Council, and served as Miss Yuba-Sutter as well as Miss California-State.

Diedra is well known for her presentations to youth regarding "The Power of Choice" but also speaks for educators on a broad range of topics including a powerful collaborative keynote with award winning educator Dr. Arlene Kaiser. Kaiser and Wallis’ keynote gives an informative and meaningful look at the classroom from both a student and teacher’s perspective. Diedra also shares her personal journey of tragedy and triumph in an inspirational and unforgettable Christian program entitled "Faith Through Adversity."

Diedra is currently a full time student at California State University East Bay where she is a psychology major pursuing her life’s calling to be a drug counselor.
Pro-Track Profile
Diedra is also a participant in Northern California National Speakers Association 2009 Pro-Track class, where she says she has enjoyed taking her speaking career to the next level and has learned to think-outside-the box as a presenter. Diedra’ presentations have been described as vibrant and gritty. Her goal as a speaker is to combine real life experiences with practical tools that will leave you informed, affirmed, and strengthened. Diedra’s teachings are effective when applied in schools, work environments, service, and faith-based organizations.

For more information, please visit www.diedrawallis.com

To hear what Diedra had to tell me about her background, including her memories of the very first time she spoke to groups at an early age, click on the podcast icon below.

Donald R. Hunter has been totally blind since seven due to a medication reaction to sulfa drugs. He has been a CEO, consultant, product marketing manager, software developer, public speaker, and financial planner during the past two decades of his corporate and entrepreneurial career.

Donald has a burning passion for helping business owners get control over financial matters in their firms so that he can help them grow their business through financing and raising capital from investors.

People who hear him speak from the platform often say that Donald is the "professor of finance" because his speaking style is more from the college lecture genre. Donald is currently a certified financial planner and the CEO of his commercial finance company - Donald Hunter Financial. He has a masters of business administration from the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Donald speaks to chamber groups and financial planning and real estate associations, and helps real estate and other financial professionals understand how commercial finance guidelines and programs work for their clients.

You can contact Donald via email at info@donaldhunterfinancial.com or by calling 877-905-0258.

To hear a podcast interview with Donald, click on the icon below.

Continuing my investigation of the NSA Vendor fair I talked with Tracy Penwell who sells handbags under the name Dressed Up Cat.

Her one-of-a-kind bags are created from "found" bags & objects. The bags are all made from recycled components, Penwell says, and in 2008, she was a finalist for "Best Green Handbag" in the Independent Handbag Designers Awards. She was also a 2008 nominee for the People’s Choice Design Award from the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum.

To hear what she had to tell me about her bags, and why professional speakers are a good market for her, click on the podcast icon below.

NSA Exhibit Area
As with many large conventions, the National Speakers Association gathering has an exhibit area where vendors sell everything from self-publishing solutions to, well, handbags and jewelry.

Speakers have to look good on stage and off.

I took the opportunity to ask a couple of the vendors about the goods they sell and why they come to exhibit at NSA.
Illusion Jewlry
Patricia Carbeery has been working with glass for over 25 years.

She finds working with hot glass is very direct and immediate—the ever changing rainbow of color and light while working with dichroic, metals, powders, as well as the glass, continues to fascinate.

She creates her own beads using the ancient technique of lampworking. To make each bead, she melts glass in an oxygen propane flame at temperatures in exces of 2000° F. She then anneal the beads in a kiln for five hours or more. All her designs are unique—incorporting her handmade lampworked beads, Swarovski crystals, silver from Bali, and freshwater pearls.

Her work can be found at The Phoenix Art Museum and The Bead Museum in Glendale, as well as several fine stores.

To hear what Patricia told me about her jewelry, click on the podcast icon below.

Ellen Taliaferro, MD (aka Dr T) is a recovering emergency physician now serving as the Medical Director of the San Mateo Medical Center Keller Center for Family Violence Intervention in San Mateo, CA.

Using her background in emergency medicine, stress management, and writing, she has created a program called Healing the Wound Within with a personal Writing Practice Prescription.

In addition, she continues to speak on Domestic Violence As A Health Issue and The Medical Aspects Of Manual Strangulation As A Form Domestic Violence Assault.

Dr T grew up in Will Rogers country and loves country humor. She sees herself as a true Okie: "Sooner born, Sooner bred, and when I die I’m California dead." Of note, she finished her clinical career at UTSW medical school and Parkland Hospital. While there, the Dallas Morning News named her as one of the 100 most influential Texas women — an amazing feat for an Okie.
Pro-Track Profile
Dr. T. is a professional member of the National Speakers Association. She's also a Board Member of the Northern California Chapter. Ellen is one of a growing number of established members who have enrolled in the 2009 Pro-Track class in order to take their career to the next level.

To hear what Dr. T has to say about professional speaking, well writing and Pro-Track, click on the podcast icon below.