NSA Blogs: September Round-Up

In addition to my weekly NSA Blog reviews I thought it would be interesting to do a monthly round-up and see what the bloggers in the National Speakers Associaton have posted in September. Here’s some of the noteworthy items that caught my eye.

Bert Decker highlights the master communicator Nido Qubein, who is familiar to all of us who’ve been to the NSA Convention. Bert also has an excellent post on handling Q&A sessions which should be in every corporate communicators playbook.

Bill Conerly started the month in an optimistic mood. This economist viewed September 1st job growth numbers as ‘Just About Right’. However, as the month progressed, the news he reported from the economics front went from bad to worse. In short order we had speculation that stagflation could return; that the housing market is in trouble, if not overdue for a collapse; that CFO’s think the odds of a recession are one in three and that steel prices will tank. Bill concludes the month by noting: I’m still not forecasting recession, but I’m a little more worried each day.

Hey, Bill, who called economics the dismal science?

It’s a relief to turn to motivational humorist Brad Montgomery. Motivational humorists definitely have a waaay cooler life than economists (sorry ’bout that Bill). Get this. He starts the month addressing 1,200 women at a Pure Romance seminar in Ohio. Then there are three (count ’em) pictures of him surrounded by adoring hot babes at other events he spoke at. But Brad is not just an air-headed eight-ball playboy. He quotes, wait for it, Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast which contains some of the trippiest, mind-bending prose ever written in the English language (Deep in a fist of stone a doll’s hand wriggles, warm rebellious on the frozen palm. A shadow shifts its length. A spider stirs…)

As he wrote on September 6: I’ve gotta be the luckiest guy with the best job in the world. No question. Brad also gets top marks for blogging about his gigs as a professional speaker.

Chris Clarke-Epstein finds organizational lessons in her grandchild’s crawling and a box of crayon’s. Cute.

The Dating Goddess had a typically breathless month. She posts daily on the adventures of the aggressively single men and women on the dating scene she inhabits. There was more information than I (a happily married man) need to know on women’s shoes, dogs and sex. Not necessarily in that order.

I was on more familiar territory with Dave Pardi’s PowerPoint Blog. Dave considered the minutia on Fn+F8; photo loops and table titles. I’d love to lock Dave Pardi, Garr Reynolds and Edward Tufte in a room for an afternoon and record the conversation.

Over in Half Moon Bay, California, the writers collective shared gentle comments on the lifespan of refrigerators and Scottish sheepdog trails. These are not often topics one finds juxtaposed.

The second blog I came across which is easily identified as being written by a pro speaker is Glen Shepard’s Personal Journal. He details his September road trips to Florida, Ohio and Tennessee. I felt I was there in his audience, sharing the chance encounters and crazy coincidences which are part of the texture of an active speaking career. Wonderful. If you don’t read any other blog this month, read Glen’s.

Over in the UK, Internet Psychologist Graham Jones posted on everything from ‘web rage’ to teenage bloggers. For those of you who want to find out what is top of mind for those in Blighty, he briefs you on The Guardian, The London Paper and Tesco’s.

As impressed as I was by Glen’s travels to Orlando and Marietta, there are those of us in the NSA who travel and then there’s Jake Norton. In September Jake posted from the roof of the world – high atop a 22,500′ peak in Nepal. Next time you are tempted to complain about the hassles of a road trip when your flight is delayed and the airport coffee bar is out of mocha lattes, remember Jake:

The snow had deepened significantly, its windblown mass now waist-deep in places. Panuru, who had been in front breaking trail for most of the day, relinquished the deep-snow lead for the young bucks – Karma Rita and Mingma. But, trail breaking did not make it simple for everyone behind. The wind, carrying all the snow it could up, down, and across the glacier, would maliciously fill in each step once a foot was removed.

Adolescent psychologist Dr. James Sutton quotes Moshe Dayan, Albert Einstein, Lao-Tse, Pablo Picasso, God and his son. Not necessarily in that order.

Cartoonist Jason Kotecki mourned the Crocodile Hunter, gave detailed instructions on how to have a nervous breakdown, and celebrated the importance of tiny grapes, hotel hand soap and porcelain candy dishes.

Triathlete and corporate trainer Jason Womack published this exquisite photograph of the summer night sky in his home town of Ojai:

Jason Womack: Moonshot

He also published his travel schedule for the month:

6-8 : Phoenix, AZ
9-12 : New York City, NY
13-17 : London, UK
18-21 : Colorado Springs, CO
22-23 : Berkeley, CA
24-25 : Ojai, CA
26-28 : Miami, FL
29-30 : Marin County, CA

Jim Canterucci’s Personal Brilliance saw fit to mention edible golf tees.

Katherine Albrecht’s campaign against RFID ‘spychips’ highlighted the risks to dogs, babies and company secrets of pervasive RFID chip technology.

Uber-blogger Kim Snider commented on personal financial matters such as option calls; the housing market; retirement savings and other issues of interest to ‘the family CFO’.

Marilynn Mobley’s blog moved from Blogger to a new home on Typepad. She comments on YouTube, Facebook and teens aversion to hard copy mail.

Financial advisor Max Jaffee discusses financial literacy for children.

Michael Benidt mentions the value of Sarah Michael’s NSA Convention advice on social networking: connect people with the intention of helping them first. He extends this in a discussion of how to network using the internet. There’s a complete report on the American Business Women’s Association September 16 convention in Denver.

Rebecca Morgan reviews Sam Horn’s new book POP!: Stand Out in Any Crowd.

And moving right along, Sam Horn blogs on a favorable review of the very same book that appeared in the Boston Globe.

Executive speech coach Sandra Schrift gives some great speaking tips (make eye contact, tell stories, interact). She quotes the well-known statistic, which executives who deliver PowerPoint and nothing else always forget:

People remember:
11% of what they hear
30% of what they see
50% of what they see and hear
70% of what they do
90% of what they say and do

Classic eight-ball Shep Hyken shares tips on how to escape voice-mail-jail in customer support land.

Stephen Hopson’s Adversity University blog is the second of the blogs I saw this month that should be required reading. Stephen shares wonderful, conversational insights about life changing moments where mysterious forces conspired to save him from certain death:

Everything happens for a reason. We have no way of knowing God’s plans for us but regardless of what happens to us, we are being prepared for the future in some capacity.

He details his adventures as a deaf pilot in the enthralling five-part story of his first maiden flight.

Finally, this posting is a treasure of suggestions for anyone (especially bloggers) who want to overcome writers block:

The practice of creative writing is like unclogging a blocked artery, making way for a torrent of blood (ideas) to flow.

Stephen Shapiro’s Goal-Free Living blog also suggested ways to become more creative. He offers ten ‘lateral thinking brain teasers’ to surface and challenge assumptions. Example:

10. A dog is tied to a 15 foot leash. How can the dog reach a bone 20 feet away?

Yes, there is an answer. How many can you solve?

Stephen also reports on the NSA/New England Chapter meeting where guest speaker Erik Hansen who is Tom Peters’ “Brand Manager” shared some great ideas on personal branding. Here’s a challenge we can all rise to:

10. You Can’t Write Too Much – Tom Peters is known for writing volumes of content on his blog. To date, he has roughly 400,000 words. Given that the average book is 50,000 words, his blog contains as much content as 8 books.

Steve Mertz’s Sales Presentation Training blog has a great series of articles on presenting to international audiences, using PowerPoint, the techniques that Patricia Fripp uses and a report on the NSA/Colorado Chapter meeting. There’s more. So if you are a speaker from the podium or in 1:1 conversations, check out Steve’s September posts.

Sue Dyer’s Strategic Trends blog reviewed the business strategy of co-opetition. Cute.

Terry Paulson spent part of September in the South of France and found an alternative to overpriced $200 French swimming trunks.

Last, but not least, Tim Kidson’s UK blog on organizational (sorry organisational) transformation commented on his family’s experience at the NSA Orlando Convention — his first ever trip to the USA. Tim has unique insights on the British CEO’s he consults with – many share the stress of time management and challenges familiar to CEO’s and Board’s on either side of the Atlantic.

Finally, I must note that Tim references my August post on CEO’s egos, which is nice. But there’s no link to my blog. Hint to Tim: Add this link:

https://www.exec-comms.com/blog/?p=106

It’s free Google-juice!

4 Comments so far
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Ian: Thanks for including the fun review of my blog! “More than you wanted to know…”! You have to keep up with what’s current.

DG

Ian-Thanks for a gret recap and all your kind comments! For all your efforts I hope the Google gods reward you with a page rank of 8 and that you are booked every day for the rest of the year for speaking engagements-at full fee, of course 😉

Hey Ian,

I got a picture up on your blog! Hey, I hope that (at least I!) get the value of adding visual with the words…it seems that in the “quick, let me blog that” way of life, we forget how important those pictures can be.

You’ve reinspired me to put some more pictures in there, where appropriate of course!

Thanks a lot for this Ian. I will add the link today. It’s been a crazy month with client work and speaking getting in the way of my blogging career. You said at the beginning that bloggers are either foxes or hedgehogs. I now know that I am a hedgehog, but I think I managed twenty posts or so last month.



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