A new venture by NSA Northern California past-president Scott Q. Marcus looks interesting. Scott lives up in the redwoods in Eureka and is turning his geographical isolation to an advantage with a blog on Long Distance Marketing.

Scott writes of the challenge of finding and developing a customer base that is not located near your base of operations:

The question is “How?” That is one foundation on which this site is built. How do you reach potential clients and customers who live far away from you? What works? What doesn’t? In this “new” age of marketing, what are the most effective tools to find your clients? Of even more import is how do they find you?

His blog will document creative approaches to that challenge. One approach is to publish a quarterly magazine called ‘Two Words’.

For a ringside seat at the birth of a new business venture, bookmark Scott’s blog and join in the conversation as he launches himself into cyberspace – WOOOOSH!

Just discovered iTunesU – a vast collection of FREE, down-loadable lectures from great academic institutions around the world. I’ve got 18 episodes on creative writing from Britain’s Open University lined up, with lectures on politics from the LSE to follow.

Spruce up your blog, website, podcast, PowerPoint or next speech with images and music licensed under the Creative Commons.

Here’s where to find stuff.

Peggy at the SCORE Women’s Success Blog has very useful step-by-step guide on transitioning to the WordPress.org self-hosted blogging platform. I use this and attribute ‘Executive Communications’ being #2 in the Google rankings to having my WordPress blog sitting on my own webserver. Not be confused with WordPress.com

National Speakers Association member and writing maven, Linda Vanderwold, CSP impressed the audience at a recent chapter meeting with her high-impact presentation set-up. She made extensive use of PowerPoint to illustrate both her mind-mapping templates and the complexities of Sentence Aerobics and Target Editing.

Many presenters spend time with their back to the audience. They either write on a flip-chart or, more commonly, gesture at the screen, often resorting to those ghastly, geeky, red-dot laser pointers beloved of the pocket-protector crowd.

Not our Linda.

Advantages of stand-mounted Tablet PC’s

She used the combination of a Tablet PC mounted on a stand with pen-based digital ink technology to illustrate her training material – all while facing the audience.

Tablet PC’s fold the screen onto the keypad, display-side out. This allowed Linda to look down at the display on mounted at shoulder-height. She avoided having to look at the screen behind her. The robust tripod stand is similar to those court reporters use. But that’s not all. In addition, she had a wireless connection to a custom-configured projector able to handle what would otherwise be upside-down images.

But wait, there’s more!

The really cool part was the way she added handwritten notes onto slides to illustrate her talk. Think of the the old style foils instructors used to write on back in the 1990’s. This gave way to PowerPoint with endless ‘builds’ no-one could really manage or follow. Mindless automation – glitz for no reason. That’s so last century. Linda showcased the 21st Century alternative.

Overlaying the touch-screen with the PowerPoint slide is an electronic transparency and a pen that uses different colors and weights of ‘digital ink’.

Linda used the digital pen to highlight anything on the slide that she wanted to emphasize. She also used the pen and ink to take notes, record questions, or add comments. This is ideal for many instruction and training situations. PowerPoint is the foundation of the content but not the star of the show. The presenter is the active agent, in control, adding value. It’s hip, it’s seamless and it really wow’d the audience.

Kudos to Linda for being at the cutting-edge of technology.

Resources for Tablet PCs

References I’ve found include a report of a Lawrence University of Wisconsin professor using an HP Tablet to enhance learning. I also found this list of useful software that takes advantage of ink-based features.

Finally, these four slides from Microsoft on digital ink best practices are worth downloading.

NSA/NC Meeting Report: Saturday November 1, 2008

Over 75 members and guests of the Northern California Chapter of the National Speakers Association attended Saturday’s meeting at the Burlingame Hyatt. The meeting theme was ‘Telling it like it is – selling it like it is’.

Selling it like it is

National President Sam Silverstein, CSP brought his No More Excuses approach to an interactive session.

Sam’s marketing and sales expertise focused a wide-ranging discussion on:

• How to get the most value out of NSA?
• How to pick a niche market?
• How to best invest time and resources in our speaking business?
• What’s the effect of changes in the economy and technology?

Sam used a powerful conceptual framework illustrated with a Venn diagram of three equilateral triangles to show how we can position ourselves for success:

• What are you GOOD at? Avoid the common mistake of not valuing this.
• What do you LOVE?
• How do you make MONEY?

The point where these three overlap is your ‘Power Core’. It’s bounded by knowing WHAT you deliver of value to customers; WHO you deliver to and HOW you deliver products and services.

For NSA members, the #1 thing you deliver is a speech. Simply record this to make an audio file and deliver a CD, then transcribe it and deliver an article or booklet. Multiple streams of income follow.

Sam recommended we read The E-myth Revisted

Telling it like it is

NSA/NC member Linda Vanderwold, CSP delivered two presentations which showed how to develop content that tells it like it is.

As a professional speechwriter, I found her material incredibly useful.

Her first session detailed the value of mind map diagrams. Many people use free-form mind-mapping on a blank sheet of paper. Others invest in high-tech mind-mapping software.

Linda has structured a mid-tech solution. She’s developed a series of templates to use either in hard-copy or an a PowerPoint file. These VanWrite Maps allow us to write less and say more.

This example enables us to set priorities – choose a menu for each day of the week; plan a vacation or list items to pack

There’s a series of maps available for free download.

I’ll make use of Linda’s mind-maps to plan my next writing assignment and FAX the outline in map form to the client for instant verification that the project is on the right track.

As good as Linda’s morning session was, the afternoon session blew me away altogether. It also made it a challenge to write this blog entry! (Checked with the trial version of the Sentence Aerobics software.)

Linda took us through her unique Sentence Aerobics system which is the core of her VanWrite method. This is based on actual business documents, not academic theory. Linda conducted primary research to define “strong” and “weak” business writing. Then she “bottled” her observations in objective, measurable fashion, and formulated a very easy-to-take cure for the business communicator’s headache.

Her presentation, full of humor and sparkling wit, kept those who stayed wanting more.

Oops, I meant to write:

Her humorous and witty presentation kept those who stayed wanting more.

Thanks Linda!

I gave a 20-minute presentation on podcasting at the BiztechDay event held Saturday October 25th in San Francisco. I recorded the class on podcasting as a podcast (duh!) using my trusty Olympus DS330 digital recorder and a lapel mic.

The presentation covers the basics of recording, editing and publishing podcasts.

Here’s the step-by-step guide to podcasting handout.

Here’s the slides on podcasting 101.

To hear what I said, click on the podcast icon below. (Since this is a 20 minute podcast, you might prefer to choose the Download option and save it for later.)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 19:38 — 4.5MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

A vast majority of employees in high-tech companies are Subject Matter Experts. In the training world they are known as ‘SMEs” (rhymes with please). They are engineering and technical staff with a deep, hard-won, specialist knowledge of one aspect of technology. Without SMEs there would be no high-tech. They are, for many companies, “the noble sinews of our power” (as Shakespeare’s Henry V termed the soldiers he marshaled at Agincourt). They are Archilochus’s quintessential Hedgehog’s who know one big thing better than anyone else.

The challenge for the communications professional is to:

a) Get them to summarize their vast body of knowledge into a sound-bite or elevator pitch which can be included with the data from a dozen other Hedgehog’s into a few remarks by the CEO.

b) Encourage them to talk to each other and share their specialist views of the world with colleagues in different disciplines. Only connect. Develop synergies between them.

One approach to these tasks is discussed in a useful article by Liz Ryan in the September 16 Business Week. She counsels that the communications professional with the ear of the CEO can synthesize the input of multiple SMEs and, by encouraging communication between them, “create an informal in-house council of thought leaders”.

In career terms the person who functions as the nexus must be sure to give full credit to everyone who contributes.

Wednesday evening I attended Edith Yeung’s SFentrepreneur networking session in San Francisco. I ran into Christina Poremski from the Technology Dojo.

A traditional dojo is a school for training in various arts of self-defense (such as Aikido or Karate). Christina and her partner created a Technology Dojo to train successful entrepreneurs and professionals in various arts of defense against wasted time and energy. Their philosophy is based on the ancient principles of simplicity, flexibility and maximization of strength.

The Dojo is a learning community where successful entrepreneurs and small business owners come to learn new skills and to master their tools. We host beginning and advanced classes, labs for hands-on practice, and a Mastermind group. Entrepreneurs and small business owners of all ability or skill levels can learn new ways to improve their businesses in an interactive and supportive environment.

To hear what Christina told me about this unique resource click on the podcast icon below.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:13 — 519.3KB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

My blog has featured dozens of podcasts, from informal 3-5 minute interviews to recordings of full-length presentations. I’ve podcast from the convention floor, the corner store and the podium.

I’m amazed that more professional speakers, trainers, workshop leaders and people with a message don’t podcast. It’s fun. It’s easy. It’s happening now.

And it’s time I shared with people just what is involved in creating a podcast.

So I’ve scheduled three podcasting workshops between September and February.

Podcasting 101 for Small Business Owners

Thursday September 18 from 6:00 PM – 8:30 PM
SBA Entrepreneur Center, 455 Market St., San Francisco.

As part of the Gizmology series being offered by the Northern California Chapter of the National Speakers Association and the San Francisco Small Business Association I’ll be teaching a FREE evening workshop in podcasting.

We’ll start the evening with a discussion about the advantages of podcasting. Do you want your voice heard around the world? To have people tune in and hear you without any extra travel? Podcasting does this. Simply by putting an audio recording on a Web site and then letting people subscribe to a “feed,” you’ll have a powerful way to build a worldwide listening audience. The highlight of the class with be a hands-on demonstration. I’ll record some of the discussion and show everyone, step-by-step, how to make this into a podcast which we’ll access from iTunes. It should be a lot of fun.

Although the event is offered for free, you do need to register.

BizTechDay – Technology Day for Small Business Owners and Entrepreneurs

Saturday, October 25, 2008 from 08:00 AM – 06:00 PM
Hilton Hotel, 333 O’Farrell Street, San Francisco.

This all-day workshop includes the same class I will teach on September 18, and more. BiztechDay is a packed with educational seminars, workshops and panel discussions by top technology and business experts (like me!) all focused on how to grow your business using the power of the Internet & Web 2.0 technologies. Check out more details.

Registration before Sept 15 is $149 / After Sept 15 is $249 – so what are you waiting for?

Click here to register.

The 2009 Ragan Speechwriters Conference

Thursday, February 11, 2009 from 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM
The Mayflower Hotel, Washington DC

Yes, in the very hotel that ex-NY Governor Elliott Spitzer chose for the tryst which ended his career and just a few blocks from the White House where President Richard Nixon recorded every conversation in the Oval Office (although I’m not sure he planned to use them as podcasts!) I’ll be giving a workshop titled Get more mileage for your work: Repurposing a speech for new media as part of the annual Speechwriters Conference.

This stellar event features keynotes by legendary JFK speechwriter Ted Sorensen and Robert Schlesinger, author of the excellent history of Presidental speechwriters White House Ghosts.

The conference runs Feb 11-13 and my talk is part of the Advanced Speechwriting track.