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 hit movie Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan takes tastelessness to new extremes in a relentless skewering of contemporary American (and Kazakhstanian) culture. Swept up in the “mocu-mentary” is National Speakers Association member Patrick Haggerty who appears early in the movie coaching Borat in American humor. Associated Press reports that Haggerty

agreed to be filmed for what he thought was a benign documentary on his client’s journey across America. He hurriedly signed a release form, was paid $400, and the lesson began.

As cameras rolled, his client told raunchy stories in garbled English and laughed heartily at the expense of handicapped people. “And then, I’m starting to smell a rat,” Haggerty told The Associated Press. “Each passing minute I’m going, `You know, this can’t be real.'”

Confused, he ended up playing along. He later figured out _ thanks to his son, an HBO-watching college student _ that he’d been duped.

Duped by Borat.

“They were exercising a First Amendment right,” said Haggerty, adding that he enjoyed the movie. “And this Sacha Cohen guy’s going to make 87 gazillion dollars. You know, good for him. I’m just sorry that he had to do it in such a way that he allowed people to make jerks out of themselves exposing their character flaws.”

Haggerty comes off far better in the movie than some of British comedian’s Sacha Baron Cohen’s other victims: the etiquette coach in the genteel South who has to deal with a dinner guest who does not know how to use a flush toilet; the attendees at a National Mortgage Brokers Convention who are faced with the spectacle of two naked men invading their stage; the members of a Pentecostal Congregation who take Borat at face value as a sinner who must be saved.

Cohen, who has a history degree from Cambridge University, plays the cultural idiot savant to the hilt. It took more courage than book learnin’ to stand in a Rodeo ring in Texas and whip the crowd into a frenzy praising “Premier George Walter Bush’s” war against Muslims in Iraq, stating to loud cheers “We support your war of terror – may George Bush drink the blood of every man, woman and child in Iraq.” And then usurp the US National Anthem with lyrics praising Kazakhstan as the crowd as loudly boos him out of the arena and stallions tumble around him.

It’s an unusual movie that makes you wonder how the actor/director survived filming of some of the scenes. Releasing a live chicken in a New York City subway car while trying to kiss stockbrokers on the mouth is not everyone’s cuppa tea.

As Pat Haggerty would no doubt say “This is a movie your maiden aunt would enjoy … not!”

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.

Thanks to Hal for pointing me to an awesome website that is a wonderful repository of visualization tools for data. Gapminder is a non-profit venture for development and provision of free software that visualize human development.

Check out their animated charts on Human Development Trends for 2005 (just press start on the main webpage) and see how the visual display of quantitative information can be done well. I hesitate to show the simple static image below, the beauty is in how they animate these charts to make the data come alive, so please click on the link to Gapminder above and explore for yourself:

They also have some well-done static charts, like this one on CO2 emissions by country:

A picture sometimes really is worth a thousand words.

My NSA Blogroll has recently expanded to include bloggers who are members of various Speakers Associations around the world. My first international review is Timothy Hyde’s blog. Timothy is a member of the National Speakers Association of Australia (NSAA). He’s new to blogging and off to a great start.

I’d like to ask anyone who is a formal member an international speakers association and has a blog to please send me the URL so that I can add it to the Blogroll in the right column.

Blogging since: September 16, 2006
Posting Frequency: 3-4 times a week
Post Length: 50-600 words
Aesthetic Appeal: Clean and simple Typepad template. However, does not integrate with the look n’ feel of his main website.
Graphics: Witty and fun
Categories: Assumptions, Books, Brainstorming, Creative Challenge, Creativity, Film, Gen Y, Humor, Innovation, Marketing, Speaking, Travel, Weblogs, Web/Tech.
Blogroll: My blog (This is not the reason I chose his to review!)
Target Audience: Corporate employees who need to create more, with less, in a shorter time.
Comments allowed: Yes
Trackbacks: Yes
Alexa.com traffic ranking: N/A
Sites that link to this blog: N/A
Yahoo Links: 70
Google Page Rank: 0/10

Review:

Timothy bills himself as a Corporate Education & Entertainment specialist who brings creative thinking to the world of business. His blog supports this claim.

The photograph he posts of himself is a great image that immediately sets the tone.
Here’s a guy in a business suit acting goofy, a mad professor scrutinizing your organization.

He blogs on conferences in Australia where he has been hired to facilitate the general sessions, introduce guest speakers, run panel discussions and keep the delegates focused and awake using a range of creative techniques including Magic, Comedy & Interactive Ice Breakers.

It’s refreshing to read his blog for the ‘Only in Australia’ moments: the photograph of a 4′ long croc at Port Douglas in FNQ (Far North Queensland); the meeting with top Australian public speaker and cricket legend Max Walker (Max Who most Americans would no doubt ask); saying a great book is “just a cracker”.

Timothy points to a range of valuable resources, from books to creativity aids to optical illusions. He’s based in the Blue Mountain area, west of Sydney. One of his roles has been MC’ing the Australian NSA national conferences for the past four years.

I wish Timothy well as he continues to grow his blog. More reports from his Australian road trips would be appreciated. Concrete examples from his audience interactions could throw light on the cultural differences between Life Down Under and the rest of the world. After all, he’s living in a country where politician’s lambaste each other with insults like these. And you can’t get much more creative than that, can you, mate?

Sandra Schrift’s Exective Speech Coaching blog supports my recent contention that speech coaches make better lovers. Sandra is obviously skilled in the arts of the podium, shares her special talents liberally and transforms speaking weaknesses to strengths. She’s a highly regarded international speech coach, featured in Business Week, Fast Company, Newsweek and Inc., who offers a wide range of teleclass, small group and 1:1 speech and professional coaching. She owned a speaker bureau for 13 years. Her blog bears witness to her vast experience.

Blogging since: June 19, 2005
Posting Frequency: 3-4 times a month
Post Length: 100-300 words
Aesthetic Appeal: Purple haze…does not integrate with the look n’ feel of her main website.
Graphics: None
Categories: None
Blogroll: None
Target Audience: Speakers wishing to improve their game
Comments allowed: Yes
Trackbacks: No
Alexa.com traffic ranking: 2,324,563
Sites that link to this blog: 173
Yahoo Links: 725
Google Page Rank: 4/10

Review:

Her main web page lists the results she delivers as a coach:

Even if you don’t hire her, you’ll benefit from a careful reading of the content in her blog.

Sandra cleverly repurposes her blog postings as articles on her main website. So this posting becomes this article. It’s an effective way to get more bang for the buck that other NSA bloggers should consider.

In fact the articles listed here are easier to peruse than the blog, which lacks a search function and has a quirky way of archiving by date ranges rather than months.

Her blog has invaluable tips on everything from the importance of using stories in speeches:

Stories are everywhere. Speakers learn to retrieve them and retell them to audiences as a way to show their humanness to show they care; to open people to possibility thinking and how making mistakes will lead to the courage to finally help them succeed. Because most of us delineate our thoughts visually, great stories help to enhance and even transform our lives.

to ways to overcome a fear of public speaking, gain confidence and generate extra income from speaking. The main web site has some great tips not found on her blog, such as this FAQ for speakers.

I loved reading her 3-part series on How to Speak with E’s: Educate, Energize, Entertain, and provide an experience for your audience. There’s a total of 39 tips on professional speaking in that series alone. Example:

5. When appropriate smile a lot. Be enthusiastic about what you are saying. Make it fun. Learning is directly proportional to the amount of fun your audience is having. Laughter is like internal jogging. Aren’t adults just grown up kids?

Sandra’s blog and the articles on her main website are a great resource for all speakers and those, like speechwriters and communications professionals, who support speakers.

My hope is that Sandra invests in some basic functionality for her blog such as a Search function and a list of Categories to help readers find information more easily. Graphics and pictures would help brighten things up. There are formatting errors here and there that should be corrected.

It’s really the blog plus the website that is so compelling. While there’s a link to her Home Page on the blog, people might miss it. I’d recommend a clear statement Please read my Home Page for more valuable information to really high-light it. Sandra has a lot to share that both novice and experienced speaker can benefit from taking the time to read carefully. Heck, some of you reading this review should probably hire her. Go on, you’re worth it!

Only connect! That was the whole of her sermon.
Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted,
And human love will be seen at its height.
Live in fragments no longer.
Only connect…

–E.M. Forster, Howards End

My recent visit to the Liminal Group seminar in New York alerted me to the phenomena of mash-ups. The VC pitch given by Oren Michels of the nascent company Mashery highlighted the promise of this Web 2.0 phenomena. So what is a mash-up? And what’s the relevance for the future of executive communications?

A mash up is a website or Web 2.0 application that uses content from more than one source to create a completely new service. Much the way blogs revolutionized online publishing, mash-ups are revolutionizing web development by allowing anyone to combine existing data from sources in innovative ways.

One great source of mash-ups is those that combine Google maps with other services. This service combines a combination of apartment listings from Craigslist with a Google map and rental details:

This shows crimes in a Berkeley neighborhood:

I predict that mash-ups will become a new feature in executive presentations. Savvy speakers are already moving beyond static PowerPoint charts to using live web links as an integral part of presentations. Mash-ups allow the speaker to instantly show the connections between disparate sources of information and make the audience sit up and take note.

In addition to my weekly NSA Blog reviews I thought it would be interesting to do a monthly round-up and see what the bloggers in the National Speakers Associaton have posted in September. Here’s some of the noteworthy items that caught my eye.

Bert Decker highlights the master communicator Nido Qubein, who is familiar to all of us who’ve been to the NSA Convention. Bert also has an excellent post on handling Q&A sessions which should be in every corporate communicators playbook.

Bill Conerly started the month in an optimistic mood. This economist viewed September 1st job growth numbers as ‘Just About Right’. However, as the month progressed, the news he reported from the economics front went from bad to worse. In short order we had speculation that stagflation could return; that the housing market is in trouble, if not overdue for a collapse; that CFO’s think the odds of a recession are one in three and that steel prices will tank. Bill concludes the month by noting: I’m still not forecasting recession, but I’m a little more worried each day.

Hey, Bill, who called economics the dismal science?

It’s a relief to turn to motivational humorist Brad Montgomery. Motivational humorists definitely have a waaay cooler life than economists (sorry ’bout that Bill). Get this. He starts the month addressing 1,200 women at a Pure Romance seminar in Ohio. Then there are three (count ’em) pictures of him surrounded by adoring hot babes at other events he spoke at. But Brad is not just an air-headed eight-ball playboy. He quotes, wait for it, Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast which contains some of the trippiest, mind-bending prose ever written in the English language (Deep in a fist of stone a doll’s hand wriggles, warm rebellious on the frozen palm. A shadow shifts its length. A spider stirs…)

As he wrote on September 6: I’ve gotta be the luckiest guy with the best job in the world. No question. Brad also gets top marks for blogging about his gigs as a professional speaker.

Chris Clarke-Epstein finds organizational lessons in her grandchild’s crawling and a box of crayon’s. Cute.

The Dating Goddess had a typically breathless month. She posts daily on the adventures of the aggressively single men and women on the dating scene she inhabits. There was more information than I (a happily married man) need to know on women’s shoes, dogs and sex. Not necessarily in that order.

I was on more familiar territory with Dave Pardi’s PowerPoint Blog. Dave considered the minutia on Fn+F8; photo loops and table titles. I’d love to lock Dave Pardi, Garr Reynolds and Edward Tufte in a room for an afternoon and record the conversation.

Over in Half Moon Bay, California, the writers collective shared gentle comments on the lifespan of refrigerators and Scottish sheepdog trails. These are not often topics one finds juxtaposed.

The second blog I came across which is easily identified as being written by a pro speaker is Glen Shepard’s Personal Journal. He details his September road trips to Florida, Ohio and Tennessee. I felt I was there in his audience, sharing the chance encounters and crazy coincidences which are part of the texture of an active speaking career. Wonderful. If you don’t read any other blog this month, read Glen’s.

Over in the UK, Internet Psychologist Graham Jones posted on everything from ‘web rage’ to teenage bloggers. For those of you who want to find out what is top of mind for those in Blighty, he briefs you on The Guardian, The London Paper and Tesco’s.

As impressed as I was by Glen’s travels to Orlando and Marietta, there are those of us in the NSA who travel and then there’s Jake Norton. In September Jake posted from the roof of the world – high atop a 22,500′ peak in Nepal. Next time you are tempted to complain about the hassles of a road trip when your flight is delayed and the airport coffee bar is out of mocha lattes, remember Jake:

The snow had deepened significantly, its windblown mass now waist-deep in places. Panuru, who had been in front breaking trail for most of the day, relinquished the deep-snow lead for the young bucks – Karma Rita and Mingma. But, trail breaking did not make it simple for everyone behind. The wind, carrying all the snow it could up, down, and across the glacier, would maliciously fill in each step once a foot was removed.

Adolescent psychologist Dr. James Sutton quotes Moshe Dayan, Albert Einstein, Lao-Tse, Pablo Picasso, God and his son. Not necessarily in that order.

Cartoonist Jason Kotecki mourned the Crocodile Hunter, gave detailed instructions on how to have a nervous breakdown, and celebrated the importance of tiny grapes, hotel hand soap and porcelain candy dishes.

Triathlete and corporate trainer Jason Womack published this exquisite photograph of the summer night sky in his home town of Ojai:

He also published his travel schedule for the month:

6-8 : Phoenix, AZ
9-12 : New York City, NY
13-17 : London, UK
18-21 : Colorado Springs, CO
22-23 : Berkeley, CA
24-25 : Ojai, CA
26-28 : Miami, FL
29-30 : Marin County, CA

Jim Canterucci’s Personal Brilliance saw fit to mention edible golf tees.

Katherine Albrecht’s campaign against RFID ‘spychips’ highlighted the risks to dogs, babies and company secrets of pervasive RFID chip technology.

Uber-blogger Kim Snider commented on personal financial matters such as option calls; the housing market; retirement savings and other issues of interest to ‘the family CFO’.

Marilynn Mobley’s blog moved from Blogger to a new home on Typepad. She comments on YouTube, Facebook and teens aversion to hard copy mail.

Financial advisor Max Jaffee discusses financial literacy for children.

Michael Benidt mentions the value of Sarah Michael’s NSA Convention advice on social networking: connect people with the intention of helping them first. He extends this in a discussion of how to network using the internet. There’s a complete report on the American Business Women’s Association September 16 convention in Denver.

Rebecca Morgan reviews Sam Horn’s new book POP!: Stand Out in Any Crowd.

And moving right along, Sam Horn blogs on a favorable review of the very same book that appeared in the Boston Globe.

Executive speech coach Sandra Schrift gives some great speaking tips (make eye contact, tell stories, interact). She quotes the well-known statistic, which executives who deliver PowerPoint and nothing else always forget:

People remember:
11% of what they hear
30% of what they see
50% of what they see and hear
70% of what they do
90% of what they say and do

Classic eight-ball Shep Hyken shares tips on how to escape voice-mail-jail in customer support land.

Stephen Hopson’s Adversity University blog is the second of the blogs I saw this month that should be required reading. Stephen shares wonderful, conversational insights about life changing moments where mysterious forces conspired to save him from certain death:

Everything happens for a reason. We have no way of knowing God’s plans for us but regardless of what happens to us, we are being prepared for the future in some capacity.

He details his adventures as a deaf pilot in the enthralling five-part story of his first maiden flight.

Finally, this posting is a treasure of suggestions for anyone (especially bloggers) who want to overcome writers block:

The practice of creative writing is like unclogging a blocked artery, making way for a torrent of blood (ideas) to flow.

Stephen Shapiro’s Goal-Free Living blog also suggested ways to become more creative. He offers ten ‘lateral thinking brain teasers’ to surface and challenge assumptions. Example:

10. A dog is tied to a 15 foot leash. How can the dog reach a bone 20 feet away?

Yes, there is an answer. How many can you solve?

Stephen also reports on the NSA/New England Chapter meeting where guest speaker Erik Hansen who is Tom Peters’ “Brand Manager” shared some great ideas on personal branding. Here’s a challenge we can all rise to:

10. You Can’t Write Too Much – Tom Peters is known for writing volumes of content on his blog. To date, he has roughly 400,000 words. Given that the average book is 50,000 words, his blog contains as much content as 8 books.

Steve Mertz’s Sales Presentation Training blog has a great series of articles on presenting to international audiences, using PowerPoint, the techniques that Patricia Fripp uses and a report on the NSA/Colorado Chapter meeting. There’s more. So if you are a speaker from the podium or in 1:1 conversations, check out Steve’s September posts.

Sue Dyer’s Strategic Trends blog reviewed the business strategy of co-opetition. Cute.

Terry Paulson spent part of September in the South of France and found an alternative to overpriced $200 French swimming trunks.

Last, but not least, Tim Kidson’s UK blog on organizational (sorry organisational) transformation commented on his family’s experience at the NSA Orlando Convention — his first ever trip to the USA. Tim has unique insights on the British CEO’s he consults with – many share the stress of time management and challenges familiar to CEO’s and Board’s on either side of the Atlantic.

Finally, I must note that Tim references my August post on CEO’s egos, which is nice. But there’s no link to my blog. Hint to Tim: Add this link:

The ego of a CEO: Noble Narcissist?

It’s free Google-juice!

Sales Tips stays with the same general topic as my last review of Steve Mertz’s Sales Presentation Training.

Laurie offers Sales, Skills and Presentation Skills training information from her main website which contains a wide range of two and three page Automotive and Real Estate sales and service articles and encourages people to “visit my blog for more great info”. So here’s a nice example of blogging as a natural way for an information broker to engage in multiple ways of communicating. OK, let’s take her up on the invitation and see what we find….

Blogging since: February 27, 2005
Posting Frequency: once a month, with gaps
Post Length: 500 words average
Aesthetic Appeal: Bare bones Blogger template: none of the branding found on her main website
Graphics: Hardly any
Categories: None
Tagline: Sales tips to help people no matter who they sell to or what they sell
Blogroll: 6 assorted links, including one to fellow NSA financial wizard, Kim Snider
Target Audience: Anyone – we are all in sales
Comments allowed: Yes
Trackbacks: No
Alexa.com traffic ranking: N/A
Sites that link to this blog: N/A
Yahoo Links: 17
Google Page Rank: 3/10

Review:

It’s a pity Laurie does not post more frequently. She’s been silent since June 26 and there are often month-long gaps between posts. There have been times she posted weekly. So all this leads me to think she leads a busy life and her blogging must happen when there’s time. This is quite understandable. And what a delight to read the quality of the posts when she does find time.

She blogs on the sales lessons found in a wide variety of situations: from bed bugs to book returns; from Personality inventories to Prada; Restaurants to Banks. Laurie shows us how sales can be won and sales can be lost by simple customer service interactions. She has taught sales skills for over 20 years and her advice rings true.

Her main web site highlights Laurie’s skills in face-to-face sales training:

Clients and participants agree: Laurie Brown is a dynamic, warm, funny speaker who energizes and motivates her audiences to discover the best in themselves and show it to the world. With more than twenty years experience in working with international and culturally-diverse groups, she connects easily with everyone. She offers highly customized, practical and relevant content that make the difference. She provides a fun, engaging presentation and she is dedicated to YOUR success!

She certainly communicates this warmth in her blog. It’s chock-full of stories about her own experiences with friends and family as she comes across everyday situations that illustrate sales lessons:

These conversational phrases make her blog come alive.

Then she lists the sales lessons: the dangers of upselling; the secrets of exceptional customer service; the importance of multiple thank-you’s. Here’s an example of the sales advice she offers:

Many salespeople think it is best to leave the objection buried. Perhaps if they ignore it it will go away. But, when you do that, it eventually will come back to haunt you. Like any infection left untreated, it will only grow and grow. Your job is to surface it, clean it and move on in the sales process. Unanswered objections lead to lost sales or the need to lower the price to keep the sale.

Putting resources into a re-design of the blog to match the branding of her web site would be a worthwhile investment.

My hope is that Laurie finds the time to post more frequently. One suggestion would be to capture discussion from her frequent training classes (a digital tape recorder and transcription service would do the trick) and post some of the classroom Q&A.

She’s been published in a dozen magazines and has a great list of articles and is rumored to be working on a book. Her writing skills are not in question. Writing Down the Bones would be a good book to read to find the inspiration for frequent posts.

After all, don’t they say success in sales is a numbers game?