You never know who you’ll meet at a National Speakers Association conference. I was lucky to run into an amazing entrepreneur, blogger, podcaster and social media superstar: Jeanette Fisher, the social media queen.

Jeanette has a multitude of websites – over 100 in all. These, plus her active participation in social networks such as Twitter and Facebook have raised her visibility such that she is the number one listing when you simply search ‘Jeanette’ on MSN.

She has multiple areas of expertize, including that of being the foremost authority on Interior Design Psychology & Home Staging as America’s “Dream Home” Maker. She’s the author of 21 books.

I took the opportunity to ask Jeanette how she started in the area of social media and what advice she would have for someone who wants to take the first steps.

To hear what she shared with me, click on the podcast icon below.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 3:24 — 795.5KB)

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Shel Holtz is a social media guru – a recognized authority on how people can thrive in the midst of the current information explosion by using a dynamic ‘cloud’ of services to promote themselves and built a reputation online.

He’s the author of How to Do Everything with Podcasting, Blogging for Business, Corporate Conversations and many other books. He gave a workshop on the opening day of the National Speakers Association Winter Workshop in San Francisco today.

Shel’s blog is a model of Web 2.0 convergence in a world of seamless mobility where vehicles for communicating to a social network are converging rapidly. He cross-references his blog postings to Flickr, Digg, Twitter, de.licio.us, LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, Skype, Technorati and Utterz. OK? Got that? Well, if you aren’t familiar with all these vehicles take a look at the bottom of the left column on his blog where you’ll see them in a ‘widget’ window – meaning if you like what you see you can even host all of Shel’s feeds on your own blog or web page. The one social media tool I had never heard of before is Utterz. Shel likes it’s flexibility. It allows posts from your mobile phone or online in voice, video, pictures and text, to your blog page.

I took the opportunity to indulge in the recursive thrill of doing a podcast interview with a leading podcaster about podcasting. To hear what Shel has to say, click on the icon below.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 3:24 — 795.5KB)

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Elfrena Foord owns Foord, Van Bruggen, Ebersole & Pajak, a Sacramento wealth-management firm.

She and her 3 partners are in the process of distilling their 20+ years of experience together in a book titled “Wealth & Beyond”.

Elfrena plans to do speaking engagements after her book comes out. She currently does seminars for non-profits to help donors use their wealth to create their family working together and staying connected and to benefit causes that are important to them.

Last summer she attended just one day of the National Speakers Association Convention in San Diego. This convinced that NSA is the organization to help take speakers to the next level. She has now enrolled in the 2008 Pro-Track program offered by the Northern California Chapter of NSA. The program kicks-off on Saturday 26th in San Francisco. It is sold out.

Her enthusiasm for the program is contagious. Not only did she persuade her husband Bruce to join her, but her sister Matson also! They’ll be carpooling in once a month for a full day of training on the business of professional speaking.

I talked with Elfrena on the phone about her business and how she sees speaking fitting in. We also discussed her plans for Pro-Track 2008.

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 5:53 — 1.3MB)

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A recent San Francisco Immigrant Entrepreneur’s Meet-up hosted by the entrepreneur queen herself – Edith Yeung – featured a talk by pioneering podcast Sci-Fi author Scott Sigler. He’s the first author, ever, to podcast a novel in it’s entirety.

Scott’s first novel Earthcore was podcast back in March of 2006 and is available today, by subscribing to the free download from the iTunes Store. Simply fire up iTunes on your computer, choose ‘iTunes Store’ and enter ‘Scott Sigler’ in the search area. You’ll see that Scott also has other books, Ancestor and Nocturnal, available online as well. There’s hours of listening pleasure available at no charge (a warning for our under-18 readers: Scott’s novels are marked EXPLICIT by iTunes and have more than their fair share of blood and guts.)

As compelling a read (or a listen) as these books are, Scott is an accomplished marketeer in the Web 2.0 world as he is a Sci-Fi author. You’ll see if you check out the links to his works that I’ve used already in my blog that his work is available through multiple channels:

• via iTunes or any of the other podcasting sources as audio
• on Google books as a downloadable .pdf file
• on Amazon
• and last, but not least, on his own portal: www.scottsigler.com

I missed the opportunity to interview Scott at the event in San Francisco. But not to worry. I followed his suggestion as a ace podcaster and thought outside the envelope. I installed the PrettyMay plug-in to SKYPE and arranged to interview him remotely. The sound quality on my first recorded SKYPE call is a bit spotty in places (having a webcam operate at the same time as you are recording is NOT recommended!)

In my interview I asked him how he could make any money giving the best stuff away for free. He’s very blunt “What people forget is the marketing and sales angle…”. To hear Scott discuss how podcasting and Web 2.0 technologies such as Instant Messaging, Wiki’s and free content downloads provide for user involvement and the growth of his fan-base click on the podcast icon below.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 5:53 — 1.3MB)

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Scott Hammond, the founder of Momentum Creation, is a professional speaker, and a businessman with 30 years of marketing experience.

Scott was born in Emmitsburg, Iowa and grew up in San Diego before moving to Humboldt County, California.

As a father of nine children with a 30-year, award-winning background in radio, newsprint and television medias, Scott is uniquely qualified to offer a balanced perspective on family and career achievement.

Scott uses a comfortable, personal speaking style to motivate, inspire, and train people toward positive personal change.

Scott resides in McKinleyville, California with his wonderful wife Joni and seven of their children.

Scott’s blog Father Speak focuses on Fathering and the Family. I missed the opportunity to interview Scott at one of the Pro-Track meetings. So I employed my new handy-dandy telephone microphone and talked to Scott on the phone at his home in Eureka. To hear our conversation, click on the podcast icon below.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 6:00 — 1.4MB)

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I spent the weekend at the annual ‘Camp NSA’ training program held at the headquarters of the National Speakers Association in Tempe, Arizona. This workshop takes future Presidents of the regional Chapters in the USA, Canada, South Africa and Australia through an intensive consideration of what’s involved in serving as President of the Board of Directors of a Chapter. I’ll be the 2008-09 President of the Northern California Chapter. It’s been fascinating to hear discussions on subjects such as financial planning; fundraising; program development; membership building and retention; conflict resolution and the mechanics of holding successful Board meetings.

One of the skills a good Chapter President cultivates is communicating the value of joining this organization to potential members interested in the business of speaking.

I realized I had a unique opportunity to ask my fellow Chapter Presidents-in-waiting at the event what attracted them to NSA, what’s the value in being a member and why, in fact, someone who is involved in the speaking, training, workshop facilitation or speechwriting business should consider joining the National Speakers Association.

The voices on the podcast are, in order, those of Naomi Rhode, CSP, CPAE who is the Chair of the Camp NSA program and a past National President of NSA; Manny Diotte, NSA Heart of Texas; Jennifer Powers, NSA Oregon; Glenn Ray, NSA Ohio; Ria Botzler, NSA New Mexico; Steve Mertz, NSA Colorado; Jeanette Nyden, NSA Northwest; Alex Ramsey, NSA North Texas; Myra Corrello, NSA New Orleans; Debra Burrell, NSA New York City; Ted Rogers, NSA Phoenix and – last but not least – the irrepressible Vinny Verelli, NSA Georgia.

To hear their comments, click on the podcast icon below.

If you’re inspired to join the National Speakers Association, or just want to find out more, contact your local Chapter or click here.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 5:49 — 1.3MB)

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I spent the day at a Forrester Analyst workshop on Web 2.0 Fundamentals for the B2B Marketer. The workshop covered a wide range of topics: Online Video, Podcasting, Blogging, Wikis, RSS and Social Networks.

It was apparent that the Fortune 500 companies who Forrester surveys have their own unique set of problems when it comes to fully embracing these new marketing tools. Something about teaching the elephant to dance comes to mind.

After the day was over I asked Forrester’s Brian Haven to comment on the contrast between the way solo entrepreneurs are using blogging and podcasts and how the large corporations are implementing solutions. I asked him if there were opportunities for independent consultants to help larger corporations learn the best uses for the Web 2.0 tools which are available for minimal cost.

To hear a top analyst’s opinion of the Web 2.0 phenomena, click on the podcast icon below.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 4:47 — 1.1MB)

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John Kremer spoke at the afternoon session of the NSA Northern California meeting. He exposed the manipulations behind “best seller” lists such as the New York Times and Amazon.com rankings.

John has a proven system for taking your book from nowhere all the way to the top of the New York Times bestseller list.

John says The New York Times doesn’t want him teaching this system. “They like to think that no one can influence their bestsellers list, but the truth is that the big publishers do it all the time. The system I teach doesn’t require that you be a big publisher, but it does require an integrated marketing plan, some additional cash, and time to do it right.”

Appropriately enough, John’s book 1001 Ways to Market Your Books, ranks in the top 50 in Amazon’s list for the topic of Book Marketing.

After the meeting ended, I asked John to explain how podcasting can work as a marketing tool for authors. He also explains how to actually sit down and write a book. To hear what he says, click on the icon below…

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 4:21 — 1,021.3KB)

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Robert Middleton drove down to the airport hotel from his home in the Santa Cruz mountains on Saturday to ask the National Speakers Association of Northern California if there was anyone in the room whose friends and acquaintances could answer three simple questions about our businesses:

1. Who is our ideal client?
2. What is the main problem we solve for our clients?
3. What outcome do we deliver to our clients?

No one in the room had confidence that our own friends knew what we did well enough to answer these questions. No one in the room therefore had solved the fundamental marketing problem: that people just plain don’t know what we do or see in the value in what we offer.

Middleton took us through the solutions to the four biggest marketing problems: how to get people’s attention; deliver the information they need; provide an experience of the solutions we offer and, finally, submit a proposal asking for business.

It’s critical that we can articulate these messages according the correct marketing syntax. Syntax honors the order in which information is presented. Most small businesses (and many large ones) mix up the syntax and unknowingly communicate a different meaning. The letters that spell A-R-T are mixed up to spell R-A-T.

A rat first tells people all about their solutions without communicating basic information about who they work with, the challenges customers face, what outcomes delivered and what action steps people can take to engage with us. The artful know what to say first.

The beauty of Middleton’s methodology is that these principles can be learned and applied to the way we discuss our business when we first meet people (engaging them conversationally rather than delivering a stilted ‘elevator pitch’) as well as to our website design, written proposals, sales letters or even – Lordy sakes! – to the way a local Chapter of a Speakers Association might recruit new members. Now there’s an idea.

I caught up with Robert after lunch and asked him to explain how his methods are used by communications professionals. To hear what he told me, click on the podcast icon below.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 4:37 — 1.1MB)

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My third and final interview at the ANZAtechnet Conference was with Raphe Patmore of Perth-based Buzka.

His product blew me away!

If you are a subject matter expert, information marketeer, frustrated blogger looking for a quick way to snarf content or otherwise interested in building a vibrant online community of clients by offering structured access to information, then you really must check out Buzka.

But wait! There’s more! As well as being a handy-dandy way of collating content from the far reaches of the internet the Buzka “Spot” you create (for free!) will drive your Google rankings sky-high. Check it out. Search on ‘Chinese Stuff’ and in the top 10 listings you’ll see Wei’s Chinese Stuff Spot – a Buzka site.

Other examples of Buzka sites can be found by using the ‘Search’ button or browsing this listing of Interests. A couple I liked were this Guide to London and this guide to Learning French.

Don’t make the mistake of dismissing Buzka as a simple ‘bookmark publishing’ app or another Digg.

I was recently impressed by the flexible social networking aspects of Ning – which allow information brokers to build a client base. But it seems small scale and somewhat walled off. Not so Buzka.

The true power of the product (listen up, NSA members) is by investing a couple of grand for a private label version, like this very cool surfing site. Nice, huh? Look at all the user generated content on ‘Your stories’, and the extensive catalogs on ‘Clothing and Accessories’. I can imagine many niche markets responding well to filtered, organized information on a Buzka Spot – who knows, they might well value the expertize of the person delivering this information enough to stick around and see what else you have to offer.

Enough of my rambling. To hear Raphe discuss his product, well, you know what to do…

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 3:25 — 799.3KB)

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