April 1, 2016 in Newsletters

April 2016 Newsletter

A Note from Your President

My Strengths ARE my Watchouts

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I’m analytical. Not overly judgmental, but observant, and I easily see (or imagine) the various implications of actions, words, and ideas. I am able to see and even argue multiple facets of topics, situations, and problems.

This is a valuable Strength. When used properly, it has been a critical key in my past successes. Yet, it can also be a grave Watchout. When misused, it has caused me to over-analyze at the expense of action, at times slowing me from achieving my highest and best accomplishments.

Any strength we possess is like this. When honed and used in appropriate situations, a strength (and we all have many of them) offers you the opportunity to serve and bring value to others. However, when you over-rely on that strength, it can become the proverbial hammer seeking a nail to be pounded, even if the problem at-hand is a fragile sheet of glass.

  • Let’s say you are good at speaking in front of others, and you enjoy it. Well, that is a strength. However, what if over-reliance on that strength begins to interfere with your ability to listen, observe, and engage others? Well that strength becomes a watchout. It can “get in the way” of your effectiveness.
  • On the flipside, let’s say you are good at listening, observing, and engaging others. That is a strength. However, what if over-reliance on that strength begins to interfere with your ability to have an influential “leadership voice”? Well that strength becomes a watchout.

In my business and life experience, leadership missteps are often less about “weaknesses”, and often more about over-reliance on strengths that simply are not a great fit for the job at hand. Like making subtle glass manipulations – with a heavy hammer!

And so, my analytical strength is useful for generating creative ideas, forming elegant analogies, and predicting event outcomes from multiple data inputs. And this strength can also become a watchout for me when it comes time to “shut off” analysis and take bold action based on decision-based direction. It sometimes seems like I can always find one more “if, and, or but” to be pondered. This is valuable for the consideration and planning process, but less valuable for the action and execution process. Getting it right is a different thought “mode” than getting it done. Both are definitely important, but different.

Analytical minds like being right. But real success is often about taking thoughtful chances with limited information. There are no guarantees in life, and courage means moving forward in the face of uncertainty – with a consistent mindset of service, fun, grace, and humility.

I’m working on moving more of my decision-making from the logical (head) thinking to the intuitive (heart) thinking – especially in those situations where there is no perfect answer, only the answer that is best for me and those I care for and proudly serve.

How about you? What are you working on to accelerate your momentum? What are you doing to help make this Your Best Year Yet?

March Meeting Shout-Outs

Thanks to the entire group of amazing people who pitched in to help make the March NSA-NT Chapter meeting another great success! Our final count was 107, with a great mix of speaking talent – from first-time NSA visitors all the way to NSA legends. And everybody has something valuable they can learn from somebody else – regardless of wherever you may be in your speaking business journey.

In particular, I appreciate:

Vince Poscente, CSP, CPAE (@VincePoscente) – for his courageous and innovative ED (Foreman) Talk on using real-time video in your presentations. Make yourself stand out and connect with your audience. A terrific start to our ED Talk series.

Rory Vaden, CSP (@Rory_Vaden) – for his amazing Automated Revenue Machine main presentation, addressing the various elements of monetizing your unique content leadership – and building an online marketing and sales machine to generate revenue every hour of the day.

Dave Hill (@DaveHillSpeaks) – for kicking off the meeting with a bit of wonderfully green Irish funny time – in appreciation of the month of March, and to help remind us of the power of humor for making real-time connections with our audiences.

Eugene (Gene) Mosley (@Gene_Mosley) and Nikki Nanos (@NikkiNanos) – for graciously stepping in to assist in the meeting flow, by making announcements in place of colleagues who were not able to be with us on Saturday. Great speakers are always ready to go, and Gene and Nikki are real stars in this regard.

Keep It Going

Here are the upcoming Chapter meetings in our 2015/16 home stretch. I personally invite you to loudly and proudly participate in every single session, as we continue to build momentum towards our annual July break. Be together with us as we each individually aim for having our Best Year Yet!

Sat, 09-April — Sylvie di Giusto (@Sylvie_diGiusto) — Profitable E-Learning Programs
plus ED (Foreman) TALK with Ed Foreman, CSP, CPAE (Linkedin)
Sat, 14-May — Ed Rigsbee, CSP (@EdRigsbee) — Successful Speaking with Associations
plus ED (Foreman) TALK with Christine Cashen, CSP, CPAE (@ChristineCashen)
Sat, 11-Jun — Walter Bond, CSP, CPAE (@WalterBond)– Captivate Your Audience
plus ED (Foreman) TALK with Gary Rifkin, CSP, 2015 Cavett Winner (@GaryRifkin)

Watch our Facebook group and Speaker.org for more information on these — plus upcoming NSA-NT Labs Sessions – plus our final After Hours session for this year.

I say it a lot, because you deserve it, and because I mean it. Thanks for being with us.

To your continued Success and Happiness,

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Chris Price (@ChrisPriceCDP)
President 2015-16
NSA North Texas (@NSANorthTexas)

Our Next Seminar April 9, 2016

Sylvie d Giusto: Profitable E-Learning Programs

Would you like to create a fun and valuable e-Learning program for your clients? Are you interested in a passive income model? Are you ready to learn the essential elements to make it happen? If you answered yes to these questions, make sure you don’t miss our upcoming chapter event with New York City based image consultant, trainer, author and e-Learning aficionado Sylvie di Giusto.

In this session Sylvie will showcase several ways how she incorporates e-Learning in her coaching and speaking business. From small and easy solutions for her individual clients to online training that she produces for her corporate clients. Sylvie also co-owns the Studio for Image Professionals, an innovative online academy for aspiring image consultants who are looking for the complete educational package online. Sylvie will take you behind the scenes and share all the tools, techniques and methods that have helped her to develop high quality content in an affordable way.

Because successful e-Learning requires so much more than just copying and pasting your existing materials online. Successful e-Learning programs are based on instructional design, interactive course development techniques, and a highly effective marketing strategy. You’ll walk away with plenty of ideas, tips, tools and techniques that will help you offer your own expertise online. You’ll be inspired how to make learning content more interactive and memorable with the many examples of learning units Sylvie will demonstrate live including text, pictures, videos, audios, quizzes, assignments, forum discussions or group work interactions. You will learn about different pricing models and you’ll understand how the quality of your e-Learning content defines its success or failure.

Sylvie di Giusto
Sylvie di Giusto

 About the Speaker:

Sylvie is a professional speaker, corporate trainer and image consultant for professionals, politicians and companies who place great importance in themselves and their powerful appearance.

Sylvie helps individuals and companies to explore how people make up their minds very quickly about them, their leadership potential or their company, and either open the door for them or slam it shut. Because, people whom we meet make quick decisions about us. Should they hire us? Vote for us? Buy something from us? Her company Executive Image Consulting is based in New York City from where she works with clients in person or virtually around the world. She is also the author of “The Image of Leadership”, available on Amazon as print, e-Book or Audio Book.

Furthermore, Sylvie is the co-owner of the Studio for Image Professionals, a virtual academy that quickly became the market leader in online education within the image consulting industry. She has a multi-cultural background: Austrian by birth, French in her heart, Italian in her kitchen, German in her work ethic, and American by choice. Her life is rich with unique experiences, not to mention the added joy of raising her two wonderful children with her husband in New York City – this amazing place she is lucky to call home.

roryvaden.com

Mark your calendar and make your reservation now!

Saturday, April 9 ,  8:00 am – 12:30 pm
Hilton Garden Inn Dallas / Richardson

you, the speaker – What’s your thang?

by Dave Lieber, CSP

Do you have something that you’re known for? What kind of speaker or trainer are you? How do you explain what you do at parties?

As a newspaper columnist and speaker, for me, this comes up because decades after her death, columnist Hedda Hopper came back to life as actress Helen Mirren in the movie Trumbo.

“A Columnist’s Flamboyance Was Her Brand,” headlined a New York Times feature by Ruth La Ferla. “Hedda Hopper used wardrobe and artifice in an innovative self-marketing campaign,” was the subhead.

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She used her hats “garnished with toy horns, Eiffel Towers and Easter eggs” to turn herself into “a viable American brand.”

Here was a columnist who played herself in several movies, someone who appeared on I Love Lucy.

Hedda Hopper had a thang.

What’s yours?

My publisher has a most interesting thang. Jim Moroney, publisher of The Dallas Morning News, says when he meets someone at a party, the conversation goes like this:

“What do you do for a living, Jim?”

“I fight to save democracy.”

“How do you do that, Jim?”

“I work at a newspaper.”

“Which one, Jim?”

“The Dallas Morning News.”

“What do you do there, Jim?”

“I’m the publisher.”

I find that remarkable and inspiring. This fourth-generation newspaper owner leads with his battle for democracy through journalism and ends his introduction with his title.

What’s your thang? Do you fight to save democracy? Do you want to make your audience laugh and see a little of themselves in your presentations? Do you want to motivate your audiences to perform at a higher level?

Are you a problem solver? A revealer of important truths? A thinker who can get others to do the same?

What’s your brand? What’s your claim to fame? What’s your contribution to society?

You have this remarkable job, plus this remarkable dream to get better. How do you take advantage of it?

**

@DaveLieber, CSP, is The Watchdog investigative columnist for The Dallas Morning News. He shares digital identities at  DaveLieber.org and WatchdogNation.com

March Meeting Recap

Automated Revenue Machine: How we built a $10 million a year business in 10 years and how you can too : Rory Vaden, CSP

by Bill Lynch

Rory Vaden, CSP
Rory Vaden, CSP

Success is not owned, it is rented and the rent comes due every day.

One of the keys to success in our business is staying focused on being of service to your audience. It is hard to be nervous when you know that you are providing great value and are not focused on yourself, but on the needs of your audience.

Success comes from doing the things you know you should be, even when you don’t feel like it. The hard thing is not knowing what to do, but doing it.

Procrastination: Consciously delaying what you know you should do. Problems get worse with time.

Creative Avoidance: Filling the day with menial stuff that allows you to be distracted

Priority Dilution: shifting to the urgent, not the important

Recognizing Significant Tasks: what can I do today that gives me more time in the future. Give yourself permission to take a week to do something that will change the game for you.

Become Amazing on Stage: the quality of your presentation is key to your success. (Side Note: Rory was very professional and competent on stage. His content was excellent and presented coherently. We have seen many speakers who applied more practiced stage craft on the platform. “Amazing” does not mean the same thing with every speaker.)

Brand: Find your uniqueness and exploit it in the service of others. Ask: what can I offer that will solve a problem for my customer? Market the problem as much as the solution.

Rory’s Model:

1. Stage Time Consists of three elements

a. Marketing

i. Content which is the result of research and experience

ii. Traffic: how you get people to follow you and see your offers

iii. Conversion: getting people to actually purchase

b. Mechanics of Speaking

i. Message

ii. Delivery

iii. Audience Connection

c. Model: How you make money

i. Speaking

ii. Consulting

iii. Products

2. Blog: Rory considers this the centerpiece of his model

a. Consistency: Rory posts twice a week religiously

b. Audience: People who subscribe to the blog become an audience you own

c. Length: 600 words or less on one topic

d. Target: Rory has a person in mind in writing the blog, someone he knows

e. Lead Magnet: input your name and email address to get something free and sign up for the blog

3. Generate Traffic

a. Free: Social media, pod cast, website

b. Paid: Ad words, Facebook ads, etc.

c. Track what works and continually tweak

4. Providing Value: Rory wants to give 10 times the value of his ask before you see it

a. Landing Page with free offers

b. Training Page with free offers

c. Sales Page where he asks you to purchase something small

i. Buy Now button

ii. Check out.

5. Automation is key

a. Rory sends a video then reminds prospect to watch it

b. Applies a tag when they have watched 5 minutes starting a sequence of reminders to finish the video

c. When they have watched the full video, they have seen the Buy Now Button.This stops the reminder sequence and starts a “buy now” sequence that stops when they buy or opt out.

6. InfusionSoft automates his model and his company is an InfusionSoft trainer.They do use Constant Contact to have an RSS feed for subscriptions to the blog

7. Structure your offer by first making the offer at regular price.

a. Add a first bonus and value it

b. Add a second bonus and value it

c. Create scarcity (offer good for the next 2 hours only)

d. Add a third bonus and price the entire package.Goal is to give 10x the value of the asking price

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Good News from Our March Meeting

Jim Gardner was interviewed on TV by Paul Crouch Jr. at AT&T Stadium in front of over 100,000 fans.

Kate Delaney and Kelli Vrla, CSP got booked for a comedy show at the Drunken Donkey in Denton on Saturday, March 26th at 8 PM.

Betti Coffey will be speaking to and working with the Creighton University Women’s Rowing team. She will also be speaking to the Creighton’s leadership council.

Christine Cashen, CSP, CPAE is the opening keynote speaker for FedEx. She is hoping to deliver.

Mary German presented the “Pathways to Excellence” session at TCC Southeast campus’ Women’s History Month Series.

Kate Delaney, Cindy Arledge and Sherrie Wilson will hold a joint book signing and talk at Teas Star Bank in McKinney from 5-8 pm on March 24th.

Rome Madison was featured in Rolling Out Magazine and will be writing a monthly column on Entrepreneurship and Professional Reinvention.

Melinda Marcus will be speaking at TEDxPlano on March 25th.

Sandi Leyva just published her 30th book: Start with a Profit.

Nancy Bartlett, CSP made three presentations at the 4th International Best Practices Conference in Manila, Philippines.

Dave Shiring won Toastmasters Area 61 International Speech Contest.

Nate Hearne, Callie Hearne, Mary German and Kasey Roberts Smith are newly certified CoreClarity independent facilitators.

Tarsha Polk is presenting “Be Seen Everywhere” seminar at the Richardson Civic Center on March 17th from 9am-4 pm.

Chapter Meeting Location

hilton-garden-inn-richardsonFor the 2015-16 meeting schedule, we’ll be meeting a the Hilton Garden Inn located at:

1001 W. President George Bush Hwy,
Richardson, TX 75080
Phone: (972) 792-9393.

Click here for a map.

Member of the Year Nominations Open

Each year the North Texas Chapter of the National Speakers Association (NSA) awards the Zig Ziglar Member of the Year to the individual who has gone “beyond the call of duty” to support and promote the Chapter. Nominations are collected in April. Votes on the Top Five Nominees are collected in May. This year’s Award Recipient will be announced in June at the final meeting of the NSA-NT year.

All Professional Members and Member Candidates may nominate a Professional Member for the Zig Ziglar Member of the Year award. The current Chapter President, and the previous five (5) Award Winners are not eligible. All nominations must include the Professional Member’s name and reason for award nomination.

Nominations will be closed April 11th at 5:00pm CDT.

Click here to submit your nomination.

Photo Gallery

March Speaker Rory Vaden, CSP speaks to a full house
March Speaker Rory Vaden, CSP speaks to a full house
March Speaker Rory Vaden, CSP and NSA-NT President Chris Price
March Speaker Rory Vaden, CSP and NSA-NT President Chris Price
Ed Foreman Talk Speaker Vince Poscente, CSP, CPAE
Ed Foreman Talk Speaker Vince Poscente, CSP, CPAE
NSA-NT Director of Programming Andrew Szabo and President Chris Price
NSA-NT Director of Programming Andrew Szabo and President Chris Price
Niki McCuistion, CSP and Vince Poscente, CSP, CPAE
Niki McCuistion, CSP and Vince Poscente, CSP, CPAE

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