Better late than never, I’ve found time to post my summary of the October 21 meeting of the NSA Pro-Track class. I usually post these summaries the weekend of the class, but did not have the time then, and here we are nearly a month later and nothing posted! Tempus fugit.

The class was treated to clear instructions on how to organize an office for professional speakers (or any home office workers) by Eve Abbott. Eve is not just a ‘clean up and be productive’ organizational mentor, her approach uses sophisticated analysis of personal styles, down to the level of brain chemistry, as detailed in her web site A Brain New Way To Work.

I took the test she distributed on CD and was told that you are strongly-left-hemisphere dominant, with a balanced preference for auditory and visual inputs, a productive combination of traits. .. You can organize details into a pattern or you can arrange them sequentially so that you have at hand at least two alternatives which dimensionalize your organization and thoroughness. What this meant in practical terms is that I could clear the decks and implement systems to control the flow of information, so that the items I need are within my ‘Starship Enterprise’ action zone reachable from my office chair. Beyond this lie the working zone and history zone where less time-critical information is stored.

Eve stated that each hour an office worker invests in organizing their workspace pays off in 3 hours of productive work. She encouraged us to adopt a triage approach and ask the right questions at the right time to get rid of clutter. Each pile of clutter is an unmade decision. All paperwork needs to be given the RAFT treatment: Read, Action, File or Toss.

Following class, I spent a hour and forty bucks at Office Depot and now have a useful vertical file by my monitor with clear multi-colored plastic document holders. Simple as it sounds, it works. I spent half of Sunday cleaning up piles of clutter and filled my green recycling bin with a few years worth of worthless paper. I fully intended to publish ‘before’ and ‘after’ pictures of my office in the blog — but between cleaning everything up and now the clutter (mainly Halloween decorations that need to go back to the basement) has returned.

The afternoon was spent in a workshop with Pro-Track manager Michael Holland, who did a show and tell session on things that can go wrong with professional speaking engagements. Issues the class dealt with included:

• The lights failing
• Cell phones ringing
• Hecklers
• High heels breaking
• Food or drink spilling on you just before you speak

The one issue we missed was what to do if two naked Kazakhstan men run onstage. But then. That never happens, unless you are attending the National Mortgage Brokers Association Awards dinner when Borat hits town.

OK, so I have to ask, what’s the most unlikely or embarrassing thing that ever happened to you when you were presenting? And what did you do?

I’ll go first – I used to take 500mg doses of Niacin for my cholesterol and my colleagues at Sun Microsystems were used to seeing a very red-faced Ian around the office for the hour or so afterwards as the “niacin flush” worked its way through my system. No problem, really. Until the day I was asked to do a last-minute presentation to a visiting Japanese business delegation in the Executive Briefing Center only moments after I’d swallowed the tablets. I was perfectly OK for the first half of my talk, but then gradually flushed from pale pink to vivid, sweating, embarrassed, red. I just kept talking. A sensation not unlike having my trousers fall slowly to my knees while not being able to acknowledge or prevent it. If they’d have been American or British customers I probably would have tried to explain matters, but the cultural and language barriers left me thinking the best strategy was to ignore my plight and soldier on. In retrospect, perhaps I should have ‘fessed up.

Has anyone an interesting or cautionary tale to share in the comments area below?

The NSA International PEG (Professional Experts Group) is a group of around 100 NSA members with an interest in speaking in different countries. Many members travel internationally as part of their speaking career.

I was asked by the PEG Chairman, Garth Roberts, to develop a multi-author blog so that his members could both read and post items of interest to the group. This is a wonderful use of blogging as a community resource rather than just for the writing of a single individual.

After some discussion of the merits of Blogger and Typepad we decided to use Typepad Pro, which allows multiple authors to post to one blog. In a surprisingly short time I was able to create the blog and Garth is currently recruiting a stable of authors from among the membership.

Take a look at Internationally Speaking and let me know what you think.

If you are interested in what professional speakers who travel the globe get up to, subscribe to the blog and find out.

The ANZA Technology Network conference is taking place in Silicon Valley Monday to Wednesday this week.

Today’s presentation coaching by Dan Sapp took the visitors through some powerful executive presentation coaching prior to their 5 minute pitches to VC’s and potential partners tomorrow. It was fascinating to see how Australian executives, as much as their counterparts in the US, need to amplify their communications with body language to connect with their audience.

Dan does a great job teaching people how to talk with an audience not present at them. He encourages people to experiment and take risks with their presentation style. When they amplify beyond what is comfortable it’s just about right for the audience. He shows people choices they can make with stance, tone and pitch of voice and pauses that deliver powerful presentations.

Dan stressed that Powerpoint and visuals should only be used to explain something if the audience would understand more if you use it. Especially when pitching to VC’s, people tend to over-inform. Investors don’t need to understand everything, just enough to be intrigued to ask for a follow-up meeting. Knowing this, the impression you make in the first 30 seconds is crucial. This judgement is formed by how the presenter looks and sounds, not by the slides.

There’s more than a dozen cool Australian companies with great technology to share. Check ’em out.

Steve Mertz is one busy blogger! Sales Presentation Training is just one of his three blogs. The others are In Cash Flow We Trust which was his first blog, started in March 2005, and, since August of this year, Search Engine Optimization for Start Ups. The total blog postings for all three blogs in August approached 30.

What’s a poor reviewer to do? I don’t have the time or expertise to comment on Cash Flow or Start-ups per se. A quick glance tells me they are actually more attractively designed than the Sales Presentation Training blog. I’d say the cash flow blog is clearly where Steve’s main area of professional expertise lies. He makes great comments in all of his blogs. He’s doing the right thing in cloning his activity this way – building his reputation with different audiences.

So like a movie reviewer, I’ll focus this review on his main NSA-related blog, Sales Presentations Training. Other works by the same director have their own flavor.

Blogging since: March 11, 2006
Posting Frequency: 4 – 5 times a week
Post Length: 50 – 500, average 200
Aesthetic Appeal: Bare bones standard template
Graphics: Scattering of photos and other images
Categories: Career Training, Executive Speech Coaching, Humor, Mystery Shopping, PowerPoint, Presentation Coaching, Presentation Skills, Presentation Tip, Presentation Tips, Presentations, Presentations Strategies, Presentations Training, Public Seminars, Public Speaking, Public Speaking Fears, Sales Presentations, Sales Presentations Training, Sales Resources, Speech Coaching, Telephone Coaching Program
Blogroll: 22, including 17 NSA “buddies” – thanks Steve!
Target Audience: Salespeople & financial advisors in the financial services community
Comments allowed: Yes
Trackbacks: No
Alexa.com traffic ranking: 3,984,515
Sites that link to this blog: N/A
Yahoo Links: 730

Review:

This blog gives an occasional nod to Steve’s Financial community roots:

I was recently speaking with a mutual fund wholesaler who asked for advice. First, a definition, a mutual fund wholesaler is responsible for convincing brokers, financial planners, etc…to sell their mutual funds to clients. Typically, the wholesalers offer to buy lunch to advisors and make the case for their funds-wholesalers have a ton of competition, just like in your businesses!

However, the focus of this blog is on Presentation skills. He comments on a broad range of typical NSA topics including:

Steve knows how to talk to salespeople. He offers a series of tips for the sales professional:

and much more.

Steve offers personalized coaching via the phone for $300/hr and group coaching calls for salespeople for $97/month.

Steve is an active member of the NSA/Colorado chapter and has written up useful reports of their meetings. The September 9th meeting featured Ford Saeks, Tim Gard, CSP, CPAE and Debra Fine.

Suggestion: If other NSA members blogged their meetings, with links to the speakers websites, we’d grow a national data-bank of reports that anyone could check out to see what NSA is up to. How cool is that!

I’d love to see Steve’s Sales Presentation Training blog brought up to the standard of the Cash-Flow blog, which has quirky posts on Jimmy Hendrix and Nick Nolte to make financial points, as well as extra functionality such as Blogger talkbacks, and posting to Digg and de.licio.us.

There’s also room for expanding the ‘salesperson advice’ category beyond presentations to an audience into the 1:1 communication skills that that financial advisors need to cultivate along with their stock picking and risk management skills. The challenge, however, is to focus on a niche, as NSA member Michael Lee does for the real estate salesperson selling to ethnic minority customers.

At the end of the day, Steve has to sell the financial advisors who are his market on his value. He needs to answer the unspoken question Why should they listen to him? This blog is a tremendous boost to his credibility.

Now you’re smiling out the window
Of that crummy hotel
Over Washington Square
.
.
Speaking strictly for me
We both could have died then and there

Joan Baez Diamonds and Rust

Wednesday morning I really did smile out the window of a building over Washington Square. But it wasn’t a hotel, and Joan Baez wasn’t gazing at me from the bed (in my dreams). No. I was on the 10th floor of the NYU Student Center in a mirrored room with 250 of Manhattan’s movers and shakers. Gotham sparkled under clear Autumnal skies.

I was attending the Liminal Group’s half-day Articulate Executive seminar. Coming hard on the heels of Saturday’s NSA Northern California meeting, this was a study in contrasts for me, illustrating cultural differences between the West and East Coasts:

The crowd – was different in very predictable ways. I saw more neckties on power-suited men (both bsd’s and bsd-wanna-be’s) than I’ve seen in a year in Silicon Valley and more attitude on power-suited women than I’ve heard since Carly left HP.

The event – Big Apple prices ($482 for a half-day) contrasted with sub-$100 cost for a full-day at the NSA. For the money we got a catered breakfast and lunch and complimentary copies of the FT, Business Week and a free book. On the other hand, Fripp gave us two free CD’s and discount on her DVD. There was more structure to the program in NY. Toogood & Rose — the names alone sound like a Wall St investment firm — complimented each other. An outline of general rules was followed by the specifics of pitching VC’s. NSA’s coaching session was all Fripp all the time. Not a problem if you like one-woman riffs.

That said, the event organizers in NY were bedeviled by a/v gremlins. They spent big bucks on an a/v crew in vain. Dual pro-video cameras at the back of the room, a roaming steady-cam, a hyperactive still photographer, and still the sound guys could not get a working lav on Granville no matter how they tried (at one point he had triple redundant systems strapped to his belt and the sound was still a problem!).

These contrasts aside, there were more similarities than differences. Both events drove home the point that it’s counterproductive for senior executives to hide behind their PowerPoint slides and effective communications relies more on how you emotionally connect with an audience than just speaking quickly and delivering a boatload of facts.

So it was six of one, half a dozen of the other. Both events showcased professionals at the top of their game. Both audiences came away delighted with unique insights into the mystique of Executive Speech Coaching.

Speech coaches make better lovers

Staff in Corporate Communications departments in the Fortune 500 are like faithful spouses. We’re kept on hand to service the needs of one executive in one company, monogamously supporting a single C-level exec quarter-in, quarter-out, in, ‘till death (or the next re-org) do us part. Meanwhile, we do the housework: clean up your PowerPoint; take out the garbage from the business groups; put daily fare on the table; fact check and nit-pick. We enjoy close access to those in power (the corporate breadwinners) and that’s got its own rewards. But frankly, my dears, things sometimes get a tad….stale. It’s hard to keep the spark alive when you see so darn much of each other.

Gentlemen, he said,
I don’t need your organization, I’ve shined your shoes,
I’ve moved your mountains and marked your cards.

Dylan, Changing of the Guards

Then there’s the professional speech coach. Skilled in the arts of the podium, sharing special talents you can’t get at home. Charging more by the hour than we make in a week. A four-hour session makes you feel like a new man. Not afraid to spank you if you need it (oh, how you’ll need it); transforming your weaknesses to strengths; putting lead in your pencil; some zing in your thing. Here today, gone tomorrow. Don’t ask where. You are lucky to see them once a quarter. Whatever the coach does behind closed doors, stays there. Utmost discretion assured (not like those gossiping fishwives in the cubicles). There’s no question. Speech coaches make better lovers.

Granville Toogood Creating the Blockbuster Presentation

He’s not Italian-American but he’d like to be. He trades Greek quips so I’m guessing there’s more Onassis than Vito Corleone in his family tree. Silver hair swept back, worn long on the collar. A consigliere to the CEO, able to go mano-a-mano with Jack Welch (“It took me five years to change his mind…�). Granville is a piece of work. His advice comes straight from the trenches. Hard won and hard bitten:

His wisdom on what executives need to do to make an impression on stage is priceless. Buy his book The Articulate Executive in Action: How the best leaders get things done and read it, twice.

The principles of what he terms Communications Value Add (CVA) are a series of systematic changes that executives can implement to become instantly more effective in front of an audience. There are five keys in his POWER formula:

P – Punch up your opening with one of eight options:

1. An anecdote or illustration
2. A personal story
3. Begin with the ending, make a strong statement. Tell them the bottom line or sum total of your talk up front.
4. Ask a rhetorical question “What’s the worst that can happen to your business?�
5. A quotation “As it said in today’s FT…�
6. A future projection “My hope is that the new system will reduce costs�
7. A look into the past “Five years back it took 6 hours to provision…â€?
8. Humor – used carefully, best based on a true story.

Fripp added a 9th – an interesting statistic to captivate the audience.

O – Make sure you have One clear theme which you can discuss in many different ways.

W– Windows, or examples, anecdote that provides proof.

E – speaking for the Ear – conversationally, don’t ‘speechify’.

R – aid Retention in any of the following six ways:

1. Summarize key point or points
2. Loop back to the beginning
3. Ask the audience to do something specific
4. Project into the future
5. Deliver good news/bad news
6. Tell a symbolic story that embraces your message

Granville claims that learning and using the POWER formula “could be the single most important decision you will ever make in your working life.� (I wonder if Jack Welch agrees?).

Other tips:

Using PowerPoint (Assuming it’s a necessary evil that your corporate culture forces on you):

Be aware of the 18 minute wall. Adults turn off after listening to one speaker for more than 18 minutes. To counter this, either deliver your message in fifteen or intersperse videos, cameos from other people onstage, panel discussions, audience interaction or just tell ‘em a story.

As valuable as these tips are, frankly, anyone can read them in his books. What made the event worthwhile for me was seeing him 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. This, assuming the strong cultural barriers in your organization to considering radical change in presentation style have been breached to the extent that a coach is permitted to work with executives.

There was an absolutely astounding session with a lady in the Investment Banking business (who dripped New York attitude) where he first observed her current pitch to investors. And then, “like squeezing toothpaste from a tube until you see what comes out of the nozzle at the end� he ran her through his drill. He asked first for a 3 minute version, then a 2 minutes version, then a 1 minute version, then a 30 second and finally an 8 second version of the same speech. This is his ‘8 second drill’. He rarely put words in her mouth, apart from occasional reminder to keep a strong opening and a single theme. We saw how utterly effective this discipline is in distilling the essence of a speech. The beauty is, anyone can run this exercise with a buddy at work. How many will? In under an hour the results will surpass countless meetings to outline the essence of a speech.

I did disagree with one recommendation. Granville stated that he does not spend much time coaching executives on body language or drilling them in gestures or stage mannerisms:

“I’m not into charm school, how you walk on stage. That’s cosmetics.�

This ignores the distraction of a speaker who paces (as Mr. Toogood himself does from time to time) and the way mannerisms, mirrored gestures, fidgets and other outlets for nervous energy dull the power and impact of a speaker. Knowing acting techniques and being aware of the effect of body language is a must.

One nit — his book on page 5 attributes to a quote to my ex-boss, Sun CEO Scott McNeely (sic). I doubt his ex-boss Jack, umm, Welsh appreciates his golfing partners’ name being mangled.

At the end of the day, Granville is too good to ignore. Forgive me. I resisted using that obvious pun for 1,500 words.

David S. Rose, Successful Business Fundraising

Successful entrepreneur, angel investor, David Rose puts his money where his mouth is. He specializes in taking the dozens of start-ups who pitch his New York Angels group each month through a presentation boot camp. He makes this a requirement. They all suck at presenting. If this isn’t a niche for presentation coaching I don’t know what is – the future of a start-up rides on a 15 minute pitch. They might not be able to afford high-fee coaches, but can they not afford to invest in communicating a clear message before they ask others to invest?

David addressed the familiar problem of Subject Matter Experts (SME’s) using too many jargon-laden slides that give too much information and fail to communication the basic message a VC needs to hear. A good VC pitch has 10 requirements:

1. Integrity – show us we can trust you.
2. Passion – show us you care about your company.
3. Experience – Experience is a hard school and some will learn through no other (Ben Franklin)
4. Knowledge – show us you know your onions.
5. Skill – show what skills you already have and where you’ll recruit those you lack.
6. Leadership – exude it or fail.
7. Commitment – will you follow through?
8. Vision – show what your aims are.
9. Realism – show you know what is realistic.
10. Coachability – will you listen, especially to a presentation coach!

It’s interesting to compare this with the famous 10/20/30 Rule for pitching VC’s proposed by Guy Kawasaki – 10 slides in 20 minutes in no less than 30 point font that cover:

1. Problem
2. Your solution
3. Business model
4. Underlying magic/technology
5. Marketing and sales
6. Competition
7. Team
8. Projections and milestones
9. Status and timeline
10. Summary and call to action

His coaching of Oren Michels, ex-Feedster VP, now CEO of start-up Web 2.0 Mashery, was awesome. He took him apart piece by piece and put him back together again. Wordy slides (Michaels: “You probably can’t read this�) were transformed into bold, simple text that conveyed the essence of the company. Less is more.

Here is your throat back, thanks for the loan.

Dylan, Ballad of a Thin Man

I was blown away by Mashery’s business plan. But that’s a topic for another blog.

Our September Pro-Track class linked up with the Northern California Chapter in a banger of a meeting with over 100 attendees. As Chapter President Scott Q. Marcus noted, “Organizing one of these events is a little like making sausages, enjoyable to experience, but you really don’t want to know what went into putting it together”. As for the meeting, so for a speech.

Indeed. Now I’m a Board Member, I was privy to some of the logostics involved in bringing together the outsized ego’s who presented today. But, unlike other Boards in Northern California, the NSA Board is 100% leak-proof, so any discussion remains firmly off the record.

The day began with ten concurrent ‘Meet the Pros’ sessions, where experts in the field of public speaking shared words of wisdom for 20 minutes. We could attend any two of the sessions.

Victoria Squier Professional Speaker Coaching

Victoria is on the staff of Speakeasy Inc. I’ve taken their outstanding delivery classes from Throckmorton Theatre owner Danny Slomoff. Speakeasy Inc are in my mind the best of the companies serving corporate executives in need of developing a more powerful presence on the platform or in one-on-one communications. Speaking with authority is achieved with small changes to posture and by practicing the simple technique of pausing. Connecting with the audience increases the impact of your communication.

Ed Brodow Acting Techniques for Speakers

Ed’s public speaking skills spring from his creative side — as a professional actor. A veteran member of Screen Actors Guild, he is often recognized from his many starring roles in feature films, made-for-TV movies, a soap opera, and commercials. He won the lead in the European film Jackpot, and appeared opposite Jessica Lange (Frances), Ron Howard (Fire on the Mountain), Christopher Reeve (Love of Life), and other Hollywood luminaries.

His niche as a professional speaker is training audiences on negotiation skills.

His books include Negotiation Boot Camp and Beating the Success Trap: Negotiating for the Life You Really Want and the Rewards You Deserve .

The secret of great speakers is their ability to connect with the audience by telling great stories. The acting techniques which speakers can use include:

Personalization – bringing aspects of yourself into a speech. Instead of memorizing a script or relying on PowerPoint bullet points as prompts, simply share experiences with the audience. As you re-live experiences you’ll easily be able to visualize them in your head. Personalization is the actor’s secret for being real. You’ll have no lines to forget. You’ll get the audience involved. And people remember stories.

Improvisation – allows you to relate great stories to your speech points. Improvise to develop aspects of your story for a specific audience and play with the content. Practicing a scripted speech with improvisation words allows a speaker to discover the language and mode of delivery that feels most comfortable.

Drive – is the objective and point of view of your speech. It’s the call to action or belief you’ll want to share with the audience.

If you are nervous and uptight before speaking then channel this energy by concentrating on the details which will make the speech work. Remember, you can punch-up the opening of a speech by starting your story in the middle “I was stuck in the elevator with the bellman and the guy in the chimpanzee suit when I suddenly remembered the reason I don’t like visiting Cleveland in December…”. However, before ending the speech the stories you tell must have been brought to closure and the reason you told them made clear to the audience.

Ric Giardina Polishing Your Performance

Ric had tutored Pro-Trackers back in March when he spoke on how to sell yourself to the Corporate market. This afternoon he spoke on “performance” – meaning the sytems that professional speakers need to have in place to support their business.

He strongly recommends watching the DVD of the movie The Secret to understand the Law of Attraction: whatever you are thinking about you’ll get more of. So focus on what you do well, not what is dysfunctional. In being aware of your thoughts you can create a new reality for youself and transmit this to others. Avatar Adi Da Samraj has clearly stated that you become what you meditate on:

Everyone transmits. All of you are transmitters. You reinforce these limitations in one another and you transmit them to one another. Each one of you emits invisible forces that are locked up in limited messages that reinforce the same limitations in others.

Professional speakers with a modicium of realization about their topic can transmit new information to an audience to break down their limitations. To do this effectively requires you start doing something differently:

If we don’t change direction soon, we’ll end up where we’re going.

Ric’s Top 10 things to do as you take your speaking career to the next level are:

1. Be Yourself – be consistent on and off the platform.

Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is You’re than You.

2. Be Flexible – Don’t just imitate other speakers.

3. Keep Your Agreements – remember the Golden Rule.

4. Under-promise and Over-deliver – surprise conference organizers.

5. Customize, Customize, and then Customize some more – use just-in-time techniques to deliver customized communications every step of the way. Arrive early before a speech, mingle with audience, find what’s on their minds and work their issues into your speech via improvisation.

6. Keep track of everything – notes in Outlook and your other online systems help you to keep these logistical agreements.

7. Manage you client – people have a lot on their plate. Double-check so there will be no misunderstandings.

8. Don’t be a Prima Donna – you role is to make the client look good.

9. Send thank you cards, notes, letters, email and gifts – Ric has a small folder of note cards for penning thank you’s on his flight home. Source interesting and unique gifts that fit with your brand. Ric’s a rock-solid guy who has this Sonoma County outfit carve custom messages.

10. Make ‘Long Term Relationships’ your mantra – Use electronic newsletters, blogs and other techniques to keep your name fresh with booking agents and clients.

Patricia Fripp Good to Great Performance Techniques

Sister of King Crimson founding guitarist Robert Fripp, Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE is one of the NSA’s most successful speakers. She spent three hours sharing the secrets of her success. Many more of her suggestions are online here. I highly recommend reading her many articles and checking out her DVD’s and CD’s for professional speakers.

Fripp used a one-page speech planning template to walk us though the steps of effective speech writing and content creation. It was wonderful, appropriate, unforgettable, sanguine.

Start with a strong opening: a story, quote or interesting statistic captivates, mystifies, and create an emotional bond that keeps an audience in the palm of the speaker’s hand. Script, rehearse, transcribe and edit the opening so that each and every word adds impact. Use picture words that the audience can “see”. Make sure your opening answers unspoken questions about the “How” and the “Why” of your topic. Then answer these questions with your main points of wisdom in the body of your speech with examples and stories.

In planning a speech be absolutely sure you can state the premise in one sentence. A strong premise leads to clear thinking and a strong outline.

Make sure the “I-You” ratio of words is heavily weighted to “You” – to the audience, to what’s in it for them? Focus on the receiver of the message, on the audience needs (that you would’ve found out if, as Ric and Fripp both suggest, you arrive early, schmooze often).

Hollywood screenwriter Robert McKee says Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today.
Stories are key to emotionally connecting with an audience. Fripp has taken screenwriting classes to learn Hollywood’s secrets to writing compelling story scripts. A speech relies far more on the screenplay (written for the ear) than the novel (written for the eye). Speechwriters: always read your words aloud before sending to your client! The more specific the story details the clearer the audience will grasp the situation, solution to the dilemma and successful outcome. And the more they will remember.

The secret of an effective close? First, summarize the key elements of the speech. If you’re planning to take questions from the audience, say, “Before my closing remarks, are there any questions.” Answer them then.

The last thirty seconds of your speech must send people out energized and fulfilled. Finish your talk with something inspirational that supports your theme.

Fripp closed the afternoon with some revealing one-on-one speech coaching where her expertise was apparent in the way she took presenters apart and put them back together again. Her executive coaching skills are second to none.

At the end of the day I felt like I knew more about the sausage, from the inside out.

Thanks to Kare for a pointer to Josh Hallett’s extensive list of tips on how to blog a conference. I wish I had known this before I attempted to blog the recent NSA National Convention. Josh highlights how effective conference coverage needs a coordinated team of bloggers. His tips include planning a pre-conference strategy to effective use of video and audio for podcasts and more. I look forward to a day when more blogs offer first-hand impressions of conference speeches as well as a rich source of resources:

What additional information can you get from the speaker? Is the speaker willing to provide copy of the handouts or some other elements of their presentation? Upload them and link them. Did the speaker show a video? Can you link to it on YouTube or get a copy of it from the speaker?

It would be fantastic if the members of the NSA Bloggers Group covered the 2007 Convention in San Diego as a team.

There’s a secret to the speaking business. It’s not just speaking fees that count. It’s how you create multiple streams of income that allow you to earn while you’re “off the airplaneâ€?. These nice little earners come from selling product from the back of the room after your speech or, better yet, from your website which will top up your bank account 7×24 – making money while you sleep! Guess what? You’ll also inoculate your business against the coming Avian Flu pandemic.

Pro-Track members heard from two very successful speakers who have supplemented their speaking fees with substantial earnings from product sales over the years.

Rebecca Morgan: Product Development for Speakers Part I

Rebecca, a member of the NSA National Board of Directors, took the whole morning to cover all the aspects of developing products. We’re all information peddlers. The same information that is spoken into the podium microphone can be repackaged into audio and printed product.

What products, and how to develop them, you ask?

First consider:

Next consider which of these vast array of product types works for your market:

A great example is classic Eight Ball Larry Winget who sells everything from books to bobble head dolls.

Another is Dr. Tony Allessandra who lists books, audio downloads and more. Check out the 4-page Platinum Self-Assessment product he sells for $8. This will give you a flavor of the type of product beginning speakers can easily create and charge for.

But wait, there’s more. Say you don’t have content of your own yet. What to do? Consider:

Some other tricks of the trade:

Consider that most people at your event have a $20 bill or three in their back pocket. Bundle 3 reports or whatever and sell them in $20 increments.

Take payments from customers using Paypal Mobile.

Bundle air with your products: Shrink wrap tapes and books at Kinko’s and include a certificate in the Cadillac version of your products. This is good for an hour of your consulting time (Value $200?) if people call before the expiry date. Experienced speakers know less than 5% will call, yet people flock to the deal.

Consider for each product you sell, what is the next product your customer will be led to when they purchase this one? Always include product lists at the back of each document.

Look for continuity programs. How can you get clients to subscribe to a series on a monthly basis?

When quoting a speech fee include 100 books in your price and offer the conference organizer a discount on buying enough for the rest of the audience. Often this will generate sales of hundreds before you even arrive at the event

Great example of best practices:

Check out the offerings of top speaker Robert Middleton. His Action Plan Marketing website has a teleclass, partner product sales, audio CDs with transcripts, books and manuals and more. It’s great stuff that’s designed to help the self-employed and independent owners small firms become better at marketing their services – something we all need!

Enough theory! How to put this into practice?

Rebecca had us start with a list of three things we know in our subject area that people would pay good money to learn. We later expanded this to a list of 10. Since blogging is an area that I’m investing an increasing amount of time into I thought the following list might form the basis of a laminate quick-start guide. What do you think? Would you pay $5.95 for a copy of this to have at hand by your computer? Let me know in the Comments section below.

Ian’s Handy-Dandy Ten Rules for Successful Blogging:

1. Write your blog regularly – at least once a week.
2. Find a sincere voice to write in.
3. Exercise your grammar and diction and spell check and proofread before publishing each post.
4. Welcome comments in your blog – open the conversation.
5. Be sure to include a photograph and your name in the blog – people like to know who is talking to them.
6. Include an ‘About Me’ link.
7. Use Google News ‘bots’ to capture topic ideas.
8. Link often to other blogs, websites and trackbacks to boost your “Google Juice�
9. Use iStockphoto for beautiful graphic images.
10. Remember to get a life and unhook yourself from the keyboard to experience life!
11. Bonus: Get started!

If you need more help

Consider working with one of the experts in the field. Paulette Ensign is The Booklet Queen and her services range from consulting to help you create a Tips Booklet to promoting your finished product on her popular web site. She’s written booklets that have sold over a million copies.

Michael Lee: Product Development for Speakers Part II

If you thought my “top 10� list above is too trivial, consider. Michael is one of the few professional speakers in the nation who makes more than $100,000 a year from product sales. And he started with a top 10 list for Realtors detailing ways they can justify their commission.

He’s expanded this list over the years to 122 tips that took him six months to collate, with variations for justifying commission to home sellers, home buyers, FISBOs and others. These sold for $9.95 each. He added real estate forms and upped the price to $19.95. A bundle of four sold at a discount $70. When he added a CD and workbook he had a manual for $99.95.

I won’t cover the details he shared on his costs to produce this material, but it’s pennies on the dollar.

It all started with a simple list.

And of course, clients are not gladly shelling out their money for the paper, but the countless hours of expertise Michael has invested to produce the material. Indeed, he offers an unconditional guarantee with all products and rarely has to offer a refund.

Michael delivered an expanded version of the NSA/NC presentation I attended back in May at his Danville home.

He stressed the need to raise the perceived value of the products you sell.

Some tips:

In conclusion: Don’ think of all the reasons you CAN NOT create products you can sell, think of all the reasons you CAN and JUST DO IT!

Resources:

Here’s the very first of my planned series of blog reviews. I thought I’d start with the first blog on the Blogroll.

Bert Decker: Create Your Communications Experience

Blogging since: July 10, 2005
Posting Frequency: 4-6 times monthly
Post Length: Varies, 200 – 3,500 words
Aesthetic Appeal: Corporate consultant feel, hip picture of Bert looking tanned and healthy.
Graphics: Wide selection that really add to the blog. Thumbnail images of speakers. Other graphics.
Categories: Avoid PowerPoint Abuse, Be Creative, Books, Branding, Effective Presentation Skills, Insights in Behavior, Musings, Newsworthy, Powerful Content, Speakers
Blogroll: 12 speaking/communications blogs
Target Audience: Communications professionals and savvy executives
Comments allowed: Yes
Trackbacks: Yes
Alexa.com traffic ranking: 3,145,168
Sites that link to this blog: 46
Yahoo Links: 383

Review:

Bert is a player. He heads Decker Communications which offers executives programs on The Decker Method Communicate to Influence Program and one-on-one coaching for senior executives. He lunches with Guy Kawasaki. He’s a published author with a half-dozen books to his name. Titles such as Speaking With Bold Assurance and You’ve Got to Be Believed to Be Heard. Bert is clearly an established leader in his field.

I found dipping into this blog very rewarding. It’s firmly focused in his area of expertise. He writes thoughtfully about everything from the use of humor in speeches to non-verbal communication and current affairs. Bert wears his expertise lightly and we benefit tremendously from his insights. He’ll cover American Idol in one post and Handel’s “Messiahâ€? in the next.

I found one of his most valuable posts (I forwarded it to everyone in the Communications Department of the Fortune 500 company I work for) is his insightful listing of The Five Biggest Mistakes CEO’s Make in Speaking. This offers up not just a list of problems but also a series of innovative solutions:

Let your hands work for you. In personally coaching tens of thousands, I’ve seen maybe one out of 500 who over use their hands and gestures. The problem is we all tend to have a nervous gesture that we are comfortable with, like the fig leaf, but shows our nervousness. Don’t let your comfort be your guide, help the audience be comfortable with you be showing confidence and certainty in your gestures.

I was fascinated to read his various comments on President Bush. He’s both praised and criticised the commander in chief. He avoided the usual cheapshots about the “dumb Texan” and malapropisms made by the President. Instead we are given gimlet-eyed assessments like:

In tonight’s speech he looked like an actor on a stage. The problem is, he’s not a very good actor. And even if he was, that’s not a very good approach to leadership.

My technical wish list for this blog is a Search function so I could quickly mine more of this content.

As a final note I’d love it if Bert shared more personal stories of everyday life as an executive coach. His clients are the top CEO’s in the land. Without breaching confidentiality, it would be great to hear real-life stories from his travels in the C-Suite. Something along the lines of “I was coaching a top executive in the North-East last week when I who told me his biggest fear is…”. A good story makes for an engaging blog post.

We could all learn from Bert.

The foiled plot to blow up trans-Atlantic flights between the US and UK has led to some understandable restrictions on cabin luggage. Seems we’ll need to adjust long-term to traveling without carry-on items – including books and magazines, let alone laptops or iPods. We’re still removing our shoes five years after the Shoe Bomber’s escapades.

While not wishing to trivialize the seriousness of the threat to International travel, there is a potential bright side to flying this offers.

Not since the 15th Century and Caxton’s invention of the printing press have the educated public had to undertake long journeys without so much as a book to distract, educate and entertain.

This is an incredible opportunity to enjoy the storytellers art.

In olden days people would gather together and pass the long winter nights around the fire, safe from the icy wind and rain, and listen to epics such as The Odyssey and Beowulf being told and re-told by bards and storytellers. Fairy tales, legends, parables — pre-literate tribes enjoyed a well-told tale.

Of course, in the modern world, no tribe or group of people has the time to sit for four, five or more hours free to distraction, able to give their undivided attention to a masterful storyteller weave the magic of the spoken word. Until now.

What better amenity for the more creative of the long-haul carriers departing Heathrow or JFK to offer than an on-board bard?

The bard would occupy a business-class seat (natch) and offer the tribe of frequent fliers in the immediate vicinity the first-hand experience of seeing and hearing an epic recited. Other passengers could listen via headset. With microphone in hand the bard would wander the aisles in the rear of the plane involving the hoi-polloi in the unfolding tale.

This is an incredible untapped market opportunity for those of us who make our living with the spoken word to expand our captive audiences.

Modern epics created to entertain at 36,000 feet would be recited. Memorized tales of adventures in travel; corporate life; loves won and lost; victories and defeats. It’s all in Homer and those fellows. We just need updated versions to entertain and educate passengers traveling high above the wine-dark seas.