Nearly 100 NSA members and Guests gathered at the Airport Clarion on a cold January day for this Chapter meeting. Around 40 stayed for the ‘Members Only’ afternoon session. If you were unable to attend, or were not qualified to participate in the afternoon, this blog is a source for some of the substance you missed. The warmness of the soul of the meeting has, alas, flown.

Dan Burrus, CSP, CPAE: Shaping Your Future Today

Dan Burrus’ speaking career has been nothing short of amazing. Starting as a high-school science teacher he spent two years giving 200+ presentations a year to school assemblies. He underpriced himself to get exposure and experience. He’s now at the top of his game. He has appeared on programs such as Larry King Live, PBS, and CNN Special Reports, and is often quoted in publications like Fortune and Industry Week. The New York Times has referred to him as one of America’s top three business gurus in the highest demand as a speaker. He has delivered over 2,300 keynote speeches worldwide, has authored ten audio cassette albums, several video tape programs, seven books, including his best seller Technotrends which has been translated into over a dozen languages and he publishes a variety of technology publications, including the Technotrends Newsletter.

A few years ago, he launched several innovative electronic newsletters, and as a side note, the least expensive is $120,000 per year! In addition, Dan is a strategic adviser to CEO’s from some of the largest companies in the world. How did he do it? Dan shared his insights and strategies for growing a speaking business.

Dan advised us not to pick a hot topic, but pick something we are passionate on and turn it into a hot topic. It’s not the subject that’ll make you a success as a speaker, it’s you and your expertise.

On his road to the top, Dan self-assigned himself difficult venues: speaking to blind people, deaf people. This prepared him for, among other things, business presentations delivered through interpreters. Assigning stretch goals will cause you to grow.

When Dan saw NSA’er Nido Quibein speak in the early 80′s and heard him state he made $1M+ from speaking he realized it was not Nido’s skills as a speaker that generated this wealth, but but the way he treated speaking as a business.

Dan pitches himself one or two notches below his capabilities and then overdelivers. Often speakers pitch topics that are just not salable (“I open people up to their sense of childlike wonder”). This might be the essence of what you deliver, but you should promise something more prosaic, something that solves a need the audience can identify.

Using lateral thinking can give audiences a unique solution, as when an Insurance Company told Dan they wanted to be in top 10 by revenue in five years time. He suggested ways they can be in top 10 on scales that others may not measure, and achieve these goals far sooner. On another occassion he changed the mission statement for a company from “We’ll be the best media and entertainment company on the planet” to “We’ll be the best media and entertainment company for the planet.” The outside speaker can make simple and effective suggestions like this that over-deliver on expectations. Did they hire you to change the mission statement? No. Was this a suggestion that added value? Yes.

Speak on eternal truths, that way you don’t have to update your content all the time!

Writing a regular newsletter (or blog!) can introduce the discipline of putting your thoughts on paper.

Dan’s made two predictions for the future for the speaking biz:

[1] As the triple curves of Moore’s Law, Gilder’s Law and the explosion of storage capacity converge into vastly improved technological capabilities look for a growing market of speech nuggets to be delivered over mobile devices. Content will be king. Partner with the providers to charge for your content. Look at pay-per-view for small segments of a speech. Start by loading your content on YouTube. Dan’s not the first to notice this convergence, but he’s the first to challenge speakers to take advantage of the opportunity.

[2] Check out this new company which provides a solution for streaming live events over the internet. This offers technology that can expand any audience nationally and internationally. Ask who might want to pay $10 for your keynote in real time. Perhaps the next NSA National Conference can use this technology for members not able to make it to San Diego!

Lenora Billings-Harris, CSP: What’s Your Inclusivity Quotient™? Removing the Barriers that Block Your Messages

National NSA President, Lenora Billings-Harris, CSP gave a fun, interactive and non-judgmental session to help enhance our inclusivity quotient so our soul and substance can be fully received by everyone in the audience.

NSA’ers used to ask, “Do I have to use humor?â€? The answer was, “Only if you want to get paid.â€? Now the same answer applies to the question, “Do I have to understand my group’s differences?â€? The answer is the same. Corporations and professional associations are investing millions of dollars each year to make their organizations more inclusive. They assume consultants and speakers already have the same sensitivities they do. Lenora’s session was jam-packed with immediately applicable information and suggestions, including a multi-page handout/reference guide. Her aim was to help us:

1. Enhance our own multicultural competencies as a speaker.
2. Identify the training and presentation techniques that help learners feel respected and included.
3. Explore the most common multicultural barriers in the learning environment.
4. Explore ways to evaluate our current programs to identify possible oversights, and then utilize techniques and resources to address them.

Lenora opened with the Zulu invocation Umuntu Ngumuntu Ngabantu which can be translated as I am what I am because of you. Audiences want to know us, not just the information we are there to share. They want soul as well as substance. So Leanora shared: her age, child-free status, husband’s foibles, birthplace and potted history of per life. In doing so she reinforced the professional bio of the formal introduction, by the irrepressible Karen Walker-Tunoa, with personal details that allowed us to connect with her.

She modeled other best practices such as:

- Allowing the audiences other ways to respond than raising their hands (people with restrictions on the use of their limbs are not excluded)
- Engaging the audience by using (with permission) photos of key members in slides.

As professional speakers we spend time, money and energy learning our craft. We also honor a code of ethics that sets us apart from the merely public speaker.

Lenora’s statement for valuing diversity and inclusion as a speaker:

Demonstrating the willingness and ability to recognize, understand, and respect the unique talents and contributions of all individuals, regardless of their packaging.

Audience participants variously identified key words as respect, contributions, recognize and packaging as key to this statement. Lenora pointed out that the statement built on the word that preceded it.

Share the Wisdom

The afternoon session kicked off with Dan Burrus asking the 40 members what issues they are dealing with. The questions raised were:

[1] What about blogging?

A great way to put yourself out there. Dan has two blogs. One on his website. The other on Blogger owned by Google which increases your page rank. No rule as to how many times you need to update it. Find what you can do, what’s comfortable for you. Take timeless chunks from past material and post periodically. Ric Giardina uses WordPress so that his blog has become the center of his website. Any changes are reflected via the blog to the rest of his web. If blogging is the center of your activity it makes sense for this to be the center of your website, for others it might not. Blogging can reference the website and visa-versa. It’ll be driven by content – timely materials will elevate your visibility.

Jerry Gitchel did a teleseminar on blogging and referenced keywords.

I pitched the nsa_bloggers Yahoo Groups for anyone who needs to know more. Subscribe here if you are a speaker interested in blogging.

[2] Coaching kids for tests – how to use technology for cell phones with cameras. Should I partner with Apple or the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation?

There’s a goldmine in the No Child Left Behind Act – see what funding your solution qualifies for. An Association might be a suitable partner. Example: The Association for Curriculum Directors will publish your book and give it as a member benefit to 110,000 members which the author makes nothing on, but has the rights for money from re-orders.

[3] How did you build your speaking career? What were lessons in hindsight?

Focus on relationships. Realize you have no relationship with a Speaker Bureau, you have a relationship with the PEOPLE in a Speaker Bureau. Relationships with people are based on trust. It’s about values.

[4] What about the handout we were given on strategies and technologies?

See if these impact your speaking business.

[5] How do you balance speaking and other sources of income?

Be true to your long-term goals. It’s not all about the money. Take vacations, even if they cost you big-time in fees. Example: skip the problems. Dan consults with companies but does not do paperwork. He asks companies to have their best guy in the room when he speaks with the CEO to write up a report he’ll approve.
Since he started as a teacher he loves long vacations and kept the basic teacher principle of summers off.

[6] What suggestions for getting a career in keynoting launched from a lifetime consulting?

We can all do keynotes, training and workshops. But they take different skills. A keynote is only a keynote and you’ll only go so far. Get good fast with low fee / no fee start-up plan. Develop your skill by doing it.

Look for your unique entree. Most executive suites are dysfunctional families so a family counsellor can sell their skills in the business world by finding the link that fits their pain.

[7] What does the future hold for professional speakers?

A bright future. There’s nothing to substitute for the presence of people, even the highest end video conferencing. Speakers reach inside a person and touch them to change their behaviors. Dan wants to change the way people think about their future, to use technology for a brighter future. Eyeball to eyeball is the most powerful change technique. Example: Dan is working with Hyatt to enable dinner tables with high-definition screens. This would allow you to have dinner with Mom who might be seated thousand of miles away. But the rapport and trust must be established first. Speaking remotely does not allow you to do this.

[8] Free teleseminars – how to follow up effectively with anyone who was preregistered?

(Jill Lublin uses them to sell a course).

You get the behaviors you reward. What reward are they getting / not getting that affects behavior.

Closing advice: Make an appointment to sit down for 1 hr a week and think about your future. What do you know? Strategies based on knowledge are less risky than those based on the unknown. Shift out of crisis management into opportunity management.

After Dan left there was a wide ranging discussion on techniques which better connect the speaker with the audience:

[1] To connect with an audience of kids – change things quickly, use music, don’t speak down to them. 15-year-olds use 5 technologies every day. Be yourself. No age sees though B.S. more than student age.

[2] To connect with any audience – stand by door, walk among them as they enter. Get invited to social events before the event. Even stay for the whole conference, hang around. People appreciate it.

[3] Key people in the audience are willing to give you information and background on audience.

[4] Newsletters and content emailed to audiences are valuable. Blogs are two-way conversations that extend written communication.

[5] Try and remember names of small training groups. Memory techniques can assist. This impresses them. Using someones name is a great way to connect. Use cultural sensitivity when dealing with people’s names.

[6] Be wary of pre-programmed questionnaires. Better: Use telephone interview to ask people relevant questions.

[7] Look for characteristics of group – things you might have in common with them will help create community. Learning even one or two words of a foreign language will help with overseas audiences.

[8] Share your process, mistakes, vulnerabilities. Talk about your history. Tales of rejection, failure. Have courage to talk about these things to connect with you.

[9] Survey the room: Ask people the experience they have on this topic. Their combined experience will exceed yours.

[10] Be clear on expectations. Make sure the audience knows what you’ve been hired to speak on.

[11] Connect with people at a human level. Practice Relational Presence.