National Speakers Association Pro-Track: November Meeting – Graduation
Congratulations were in order on Saturday November 18 when the 32 members of the Pro-Track class finished a journey that began back in January. It’s been an entertaining and instructive 11 months. One member described it like drinking from a firehose. A wealth of information.
Our final session featured two guest speakers.
Pat Mayfield – The Art of Networking
Pat has built a number of successful businesses and authored nine books. She shared the secrets of networking that allowed her to quickly establish herself in the San Francisco Bay Area when she moved here a number of years ago. These were home truths on the importance of a dry handshake; knowing the best way to exchange business cards and tips on remembering people’s names at mixers.
Mitchell Friedman – How to Share your expertise with the media
Mitch is a lecturer in communication studies for MBA students at the University of San Francisco. he demonstrated why expertise is not enough to build a successful speaking business – you need to be able to communicate that expertise.
Mitch encouraged us all to consume the media we would like to be featured in and then identify the people writing about your niche and build a media list to contact them with announcements.
Understanding what makes news is key. There is a cycle of news (November in America – then look for stories about travel at Thanksgiving). Think of ways you could comment on the topics that are hot in the cycle du jour (example: if you are a stress coach, contact the newspapers in early November with tips on reducing stressful travel over the Holidays). Other issues that the news outlets look for: conflict and disagreement; novelty; celebrity and achievement.
The low hanging watermelon for those who want to see their name in print: trade publications, often willing to publish anything.
Team 5 Showcase
The day, and Pro-Track 2006, closed with Team 5 doing our showcase presentations. Thanks to my colleagues for their feedback on my discussion about the important book Not-Two Is Peace recently published by Adi Da. I’d encourage everyone to read this important statement.
3 Comments so far
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Ian,
Do you know where I could find a syllabus for a college-level course on speechwriting or, even better, advanced speechwriting? I’ve been asked to put a short course together and would like to see what others may have done.
Thanks,
Fletcher Dean
By Fletcher Dean on 12.10.06 4:49 am
[…] Finally figured out the technical issues around posting the 3 minute video of last month’s National Speakers Association Pro-Track ‘Showcase’ presentation to YouTube. […]
By Ian Griffin’s Blog » MeTube on 12.10.06 3:49 pm
Hi Ian,
Yes, I’d also recommend that book, Adi Da is a very important writer, in today’s world situation, and has a lot of good things to say that we should all take on board.
By Chandira on 12.11.06 8:48 am
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