This month’s Pro-Track profile podcast features an experienced Myers-Briggs expert.

Dan Moirao is an educator of students — from kindergarten through working professionals. He has served as a classroom teacher, site and district administrator in a variety of school settings ranging from rural, to urban and suburban, representing every level of the socio-economic spectrum. His devotion to the importance of the learning and teaching process has been evident throughout his career.

Today, Dan is very much a traveling consultant. While he lives in Danville, with his wife Anita of 29 years, he finds himself traveling to Kentucky, Georgia, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Philadelphia and Minnesota and beyond.

Dan’s passion and work is a style model — the Myers-Briggs. While he started and continues to work with teachers on instructional strategies to increase student achievement, Dan has found his work shift organizational development. He has learned is that professional development for the “workers” isn’t the end — the organization and the systems that propel it are also important.

To hear what he told me about his work with Myers-Briggs and the value he finds in the National Speakers Association Pro-Track program, click on the podcast icon below.

You can contact Dan at TrDan@aol.com

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 5:32 — 1.3MB)

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The New York Times reports that the typical U.S. executive still wastes six weeks a year searching through paper piles and e-mail! Got better things to do with your time?

Since 1988, Eve Abbott has pioneered brain-based productivity systems for executives, managers and business owners. A Brain New Way to Work gets teams working at least 25% more productively through lively programs and practical consultations.

Eve is the author of How to Do Space Age Work with a Stone Age Brain ™. She earned her degree in Sociology and Psychology from the University of California and holds a Lifetime Adult Teaching Credential.

Eve is a popular guest on TV and Radio. Her expertise appears in The New York Times articles and she writes the ‘Business Wise’ column for the nationwide Business Journals.

When speaking, Eve combines her sense of humor with the latest in brain research to guarantee a fun and practical program for conferences ranging from Builder/Architect to Women Leaders 2008.

Eve says “My personal mission is saving every working person in America an hour a day so they have more time for life. My professional objective is converting the 12% of productivity wasted from information overload to your enterprise’s profits, where it belongs.”

S. C. Johnson & Son, Inc., Lotus Construction, Nixon Peabody, LLP and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency choose A Brain New Way to Work’s seminars for solutions to their employee’s challenges.

Watch Eve

As she introduces her topic in this video:

Listen to Eve

As she tells me about her work and how the NSA/NC Pro-Track class is helping her.

To hear my interview with Eve, click on the icon below.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 4:28 — 1.0MB)

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I’m delighted to have helped publish a new magazine from the Northern California Chapter of the National Speakers Association (NSA/NC). This full-color magazine is a first for an NSA chapter.

The inaugural edition features articles by prominent members of NSA/NC. Our Chapter members are experts in many areas, from performance skills coaching to negotiation tactics, speechwriting, life balance, teambuilding and more.

Why Professionally Speaking?

First, let me say I did *not* name the magazine after my own blog! The name was taken from the last printed newsletter the chapter produced in 2003.

The intended purpose of the magazine is to showcase our chapter as an association of experts. It gives members a professionally produced vehicle in which to publish. The magazine helps us to build connections to key decision makers in the meetings industry and our affiliate associations.

Buy your copy today

We plan to make Professionally Speaking a quarterly publication. It will be distributed free of charge to chapter members. Costs will be covered by sales to non-members and by advertising. Copies are available for purchase at $4.50 + postage. Go to www.nsanc.org and buy a copy right now!

Publishing your own magazine

The opportunity to produce and print this magazine arose unexpectedly in mid-May when we were approached by Hewlett-Packard (HP). They were interested in finding a small association to help test their new “MagCloud” technology for print-on-demand. HP offered us support to help produce the magazine, but we had to go to press by early June when they announced MagCloud to the world (www.magcloud.com.)

Print on demand will revolutionize the magazine industry

MagCloud opens up the ‘long tail’ of magazine publishing for small associations like NSA/NC (we have 120 members) or even individuals. It represents an interesting new business opportunity. The MagCloud system from HP allows anyone to create and publish a high-quality color magazine with very little in the way of up-front costs.

HP’s innovative MagCloud system makes magazine publishing available to anyone with a message to share. This describes most of the members of the National Speakers Association. Until now many color magazines have been printed on traditional offset litho presses which, like books, require costly set-up and a large minimum print run. HP’s commercial digital printing technology makes it economical to print a single copy of a magazine whenever a subscriber orders one.

This means people who currently produce ezines or online newsletters can now consider offering content to their audience in the form of a printed magazine. Many of us are finding it increasingly difficult to grab people’s attention online. There’s value in a color magazine delivered to the door.

Make money with your own magazine

MagCloud allows you to focus on creating the content for your own magazine. All you have to do is upload a PDF and MagCloud takes care of the rest: printing, mailing, subscription management, and more. There’s none of the hassles with distribution, bulk mailing and minimum print runs. Charge subscribers a mark-up above the production cost to earn a profit on each copy sold. Carry advertising for yet another source of income.

(Full disclosure: I work as a speechwriter in the executive communications department at HP and support the director of HP’s research labs, where MagCloud was developed.)

MagCloud is currently open to publishers by invitation only.

Thanks to the international blogosphere, I’ve been interviewed by a Portugal-based public speaker and Toastmaster. Francisco Saraiva is a young executive in Marketing and PR, working for the Port of Leixões in Northern Portugal. He heads the Oporto Toastmasters Club.

The interview was conducted by email. Check out Francisco’s wonderful English-language blog – it’s all about public speaking.

I first met Hank at a Northern California National Speakers Association meeting in September 2007. I posted a podcast interview with him at that time, partly to demonstrate how easily podcasts can be created and posted. Since then Hank has signed up for the NSA/NC Pro-Track class and this podcast is part of the ongoing series of Pro-Track Profiles. So, for the first time ever, here’s a second Professionally Speaking podcast with the same person!

Hank’s passion for outstanding customer interactions – or Touchpoints – was born in the food and beverage industry. As a waiter and restaurant manager during collage, Hank experienced first-hand the financial benefit of consistently delivering outstanding customer experiences.

In 2002 Hank co-founded the pioneering research consultancy, Touchpoint Metrics. Hank served as its President/CEO, co-invented their Touchpoint Mapping methodology, and led Customer Experience Management (CEM) engagements with organizations large and small, including with GE, Microsoft, and AT&T.

Now known as the “Touchpoint Guru,” Hank is currently working on his first book, The Touchpoint Principle, How to Dominate Your Market Touchpoint by Customer Touchpoint.

Visit www.TouchpointGuru.com to sign up for Hank’s “Touchpointer” newsletter and for more information regarding CEM, Touchpoints, and how he can help as a speaker or consultant.

I caught up with Hank at a break in a recent Pro-Track class. To hear my interview, click on the podcast icon below.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 3:54 — 912.7KB)

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Robert Swan: Boy’s Own Hero

Robert Swan is a modern hero cut in the cloth of Shakleton, Scott and the larger-than-life characters of the Victorian Era. His story is impressive. He’s the first person to walk to both the South and North poles. Given the effects of climate change on polar ice he’s quite likely also the last person as well – the melting of the ice means it’s now not possible to undertake the journey’s he completed twenty years ago – today you’d have to swim part of the way. The land of ice he traveled in his youth is now, literally, melting under his feet as global warming takes hold.

Since traveling to the Poles, and observing the effects of climate change and man-made pollution first-hand, Swan has dedicated his life to the preservation of Antarctica by the promotion of recycling, renewable energy and sustainability to combat the effects of climate change.

This is detailed on his website www.2041.com.

Why 2041?

2041 is the year of the review of the Environmental Protocol of the Antarctic Treaty. Swan’s aim is to work towards the protection of this treaty, so there is never a need to exploit the last great continent on Earth for minerals and fossil fuel.

Following his success in removing 1,500 tons of rubbish from Antarctica and with the foresight and support of the Russian Antarctic Division, Robert Swan stood at the Bellingshausen Russian base on King George Island looking down on the beach that had been cleaned. From that moment he believed that an education station in Antarctica, where the world could see the beauty of this incredible continent, would inspire and educate people around the world about climate change and play a crucial role in promoting renewable energy, preservation and conservation for future generations.

He’s established an educational facility in Antarctica. The E-Base is a sustainable green building operated in an environmental and resource efficient manner.

Public speaking for the greater good

Swann is now traveling the world meeting with students in colleges and universities presenting the opportunity to join his campaign to help rescue these pristine wildernesses from the effects of climate change. He’s a compelling and fiery public speaker.

I caught up with him after a presentation to a small group of leadership coaches from Hewlett-Packard in Palo Alto. He told me about the importance “telling it like it is”; about the urgency of his work; and how college kids are receiving his message.

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 5:37 — 1.3MB)

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One of the rules National Speakers Association (NSA) members must abide by is an agreement not to discuss fees or fee ranges – as with many professional associations this prevents members forming a price fixing cartel. So it is sometimes difficult for people to realize how lucrative the professional speaking business actually is.

Not so with speakers who have not joined NSA.

This Sunday’s San Francisco Chronicle features an article describing the career, and fees charged, by Alison Levine. She is a San Francisco-based motivational speaker who overcame a childhood heart condition that prevented her climbing flight of stairs to a become a world-class mountaineer. She uses business principles she picked up in a career at Goldman Sachs and put them into the context of mountain climbing. Combined this with personal stories (such as how a woman takes a pee on Everest) makes her a compelling keynote speaker. Audiences love her.

Levine reveals that she charges $15,000 for a keynote speech and the speaker bureau that handles her bookings takes around 20%. But with a grueling schedule that has her delivering 100 speeches in a year, she is on track to make $1 million in fees.

One can only speculate what Alison’s earnings could be were she to come in from the cold and join our local NSA Chapter. Here, she’d learn how to parlay her keynotes into a range of products that, for many speakers, represent 50% or more of their income. We’d also be able to connect her with top speakers in the industry who could share their combined experience of decades on the road delivering speeches. A diet of cashews and gummy bears will get you in the end, Alison!

Carlos Cruz is a life and business coach, corporate, community and personal motivational speaker, and trainer. Carlos, a former member of the US Navy, founded A Path to Success, and he is an experienced small business owner and consultant.

Carlos believes there are three essential leadership qualities to look for when choosing a speaker, coach, and trainer: life experience, professional training, and an ongoing commitment to rigorous self-examination and self-development. With his continued, sincere committment to developing and integrating these leadership qualities for himself, Carlos has built a firm foundation, and he is seriously dedicated to earning and maintaining your trust.

He is a member of the National Speakers Association 2008 Pro-Track class for emerging speakers. I caught up with Carlos at a recent meeting and asked him about his business and what he is getting out of Pro-Track. To hear what he told me, click on the podcast icon below.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 5:50 — 1.3MB)

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Kudos to John Kinde for a couple of full reports on the National Speakers Association (NSA) Presentation and Performance Lab which took place over the weekend in Las Vegas.

His report on day one of the conference shares a tip from keynote speaker Giovanni Livera useful for both speakers and speech writers:

…a storyboarding technique using colored Post-It Notes to visually see the flow of audience-impact-moments in your speech (color-coding each type of speech segment; stories from the heart, audience participation, music, etc. Pick categories most relevant to the texture of your speech.)

His second report covers the last two days of the event. Among the dozens of ‘keepers’ John records are many of equal value to speakers and writers:

• Make your spoken word imaginative and more precise.
• When you write a speech: Write it. Speak it. Write it. Speak it.
• Your job as a storyteller is to be an observer.
• Stories are not complicated. They are simple…but difficult to create.
• Transcribe your talk and then edit to eliminate the unnecessary words.

Thanks to John, this was one time when what happened in Las Vegas did not stay in Las Vegas.

Back in September 2006 I had the pleasure of attending a seminar on presentation skills given by Granville Toogood. As I wrote at the time:

What made the event worthwhile for me was seeing (Toogood) in action — coaching volunteers from the audience. He showed how difficult it is for any speaker to actually implement systematic change, to step out of their comfort zone.

The one problem is that these seminars were mostly taught on the East Coast. However, this issue is now resolved. Today’s Financial Times has a full page ad for a free April 24th web seminar where Toogood will offer tips and tricks on learning to speak like a seasoned pro in every important business opportunity.

During this unrehearsed one hour session, Mr. Toogood will coach an executive through an actual presentation and demonstrate many of the same advanced communications techniques he has taught to over two thirds of the Fortune 500 CEOs.

Sounds like a deal.