NSA Wisconsin: Your Source for Professional Speakers

Blah Blah Blah: Terri Langhans Teaches Us How To Make Our Marketing Stand Out

by Sally Anders
Professional Member

If one of your reasons for joining NSA-WI is to learn to better market yourself as a speaker, and you did not attend our January program featuring Terri Langhans, I hope you were out making money, because missing this program is going to cost you.

Her program, Blah, Blah, Blah: How to Make Your Marketing Stand Out and Get Better Results, was jam packed with solid gold nuggets on how to market ourselves. Many of her ideas cost little or nothing to implement. I can’t share them all here, but I’ll try to hit some of the high points.

Terri defines marketing as anything that helps or hinders your sales. Ramp up what’s working—stop what’s not. Marketing boils down to “remember me when you need me.”

She advises to connect with your prospective clients before you try to convince them to hire you. Find out who they are, what they want. Focus your marketing on your client, not on you.

Terri suggests we use testimonials to overcome objections. What are the reasons you hear why people didn’t want to come to your programs? Use the testimonials that addresses those issues.

Surprisingly, Terri tells us that the fact that we (speakers) all look alike is a good thing, if you know how to use that likeness to your advantage. When we all look alike, little differences become more important because our clients are now looking for how we are different from the pack. That means, we don’t have to be wildly creative and come up with dazzling differences! We just have to be a little bit different—and that difference has to matter to our clients.

On that same note, ask yourself what your competition is unwilling to do to market themselves. Is it something you would be willing to do to get more bookings? For example, are you using your personality to market yourself? You should be. That is one important way we can be different from our competition. And personality is hard for others to copy. So, again, it sets you apart.

Get a little intrigue and emotion into your marketing. Invite people to focus on your ad for a while to try to figure out what it is about. The longer you can hold their attention, the better chance you have of them connecting with your message. If you can make them feel an emotion with your intrigue, or when you do the “reveal,” all the better. Both will make your message more memorable.

Terri taught us how to evaluate the effectiveness of the ads that we see. What’s working and what is not. In doing that, we learn from some of the best marketing people in the business how to create better ads for our own messages.

Two of the areas where most (including speakers) fall down on their marketing is in tracking and follow up. You want to track prospective clients until they are ready to buy. Some of us try to do that with ezines, blogs and mailings. But, many of us are not consistent. Terri calls this RAM—Random Acts of Marketing. Not a good long-term plan for success.

The bottom line—you missed a good one. Most of us are strong speakers, but if we don’t make a good, consistent, thoughtful, client-focused marketing effort, whose going to know?

Visit http://www.blahblahblah.us to learn more about Terri.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to you all! I feel the power of opportunities that await all who seek growth and change. 2010 is going to be a great year of opportunity for the Speaking & Training Industry. I believe for those professional speakers, trainers and consultants that are ready and willing to make the necessary changes in their business and offer services that will exceed their client’s expectations are going to have a fantastic year.

It is the season for change, improvement, growth and opportunity to make a difference. Organizations today are seeking the best of the best and it’s our year to give them what they want. All of us at NSA Wisconsin are here to help you have a great year in 2010, and we are going to put together an excellent agenda for professional growth, networking, and business tools for your business development. Some say that the past year has been a little rocky. I say it’s just a time to reflect and get better at the things we do best. Spring has always followed winter as long as I can remember; meaning things only get better for those that look for the good!

Your NSA Wisconsin Leadership Team is working day and night looking for the best speakers to give you their best in 2010 with our professional development and networking events. My mission as your president is to help lead the way in finding ways to add value to your business growth. Eliz Greene is leading the development of our Speaker U program that is designed to help Candidate Members build their speaking business and work towards NSA’s “Professional Speakers” designation.

For those of you that are visiting our website seeking professional speakers, trainers and consultants you have arrived at the only place to find the right professional to help you with your next conference. Don’t hesitate booking our professionals for your next event. Please take the time to check our Professional’s out, visit our members and link right to their websites.

I look forward to meeting you and listening to what you want from your NSA Wisconsin Chapter in 2010 and beyond. Contact any of your chapter leadership with your ideas, and suggestions at anytime, the door is open. Thank you for your membership, commitment to excellence, and the desire to make a difference.

To all Meeting Professionals, and all decision makers that hire our members, we thank you for your business and loyalty in 2009 and look forward to exceeding your expectations in 2010 with what our members have to offer and share. I wish the best of success to all in 2010!

Larry Cockerel, The Sales Development Pro

President- 2009-2010

NSA- Wisconsin

Are you ready for a fantastic year in 2010?

by Larry Cockerel
The Sales Development Pro
2009-10 NSA-WI President

If you answered yes to that question then my best recommendation to you is that you read on!

In this article I’ll share with you (4 Key Strategies) to help you have a “FANTASTIC” year ahead of you. Whether you are a professional speaker, up-coming superstar, meeting planning professional, business person, parent, dishwasher, author, kid-at-heart, snow blower type person, CEO, CLO, CFO this is for you. 

Here you go enough of the “stuff” let’s get to the meat and potatoes, or fish & chicken, or the BIG salad, whatever you may call it, I call it 4 Key Strategies for a Fantastic New Year. 

Resolve to Reflect: this is of high importance to your success in the up coming year; it can make or break your goals, objectives, profits and sanity. Find a place of your own, a quite place, no cats, dogs, HDTV, cell phone, blackberries, for a minimum of 4 hours (1/2 day) investment. Lock this time & place in, get a note pad, couple of ink pens, just in case one runs out of ink, your best game, sit, think, reflect and write. 

Note all the people that made an impact in your life, these are key relationships, note key clients, family successes; note all the good things that you can think of. Reflect on the good things that have occurred these can be key strategies for growth and opportunities to grow in the New Year.

 Reflect a little on the not-so-good things so that you can be aware and prepared in the future, what you learned, what you can do differently, list it all. We know what happens when we write; it reinforces your thoughts and can move them into the action stage of living. From your “Reflection List” create your action list of things you want to improve on, do more of, get rid of, change, enlarge, and improve on, where you need others for support and growth. Now it’s time to do something with what you have, the tough part, the details the accountability, go for it, don’t be afraid pick 1-3 items per quarter, don’t over load the machine, you have all year! 

Relationships Building 2010: who’s who, who were the ones that where in your life when good things occurred? Jot the people’s names down; write a short message of what value they brought into your life. What does your “Inner-Circle” look like who are the players, who’s circle are you in? Identify the people that are key and get out there and add value to their lives.

The key is to write the person’s name down then beside they name write what they value, if you don’t know find out, if you do write out a short plan on how you’ll add value to them in 2010. It’s all about building solid foundations with others that can add value to you and you to them. No one can get anywhere without others helping them, build your network, connect, you never know how far a relationship can take you or where it will take you. Become a “Connector” someone who helps others connect with people that can add value, everyone wins. 

2010 Business Plan: it’s a new year which calls for a new business plan, we can’t keep working off a plan that was developed when we started the business, what got you there won’t keep you there, and you need a new plan. Don’t procrastinate with this one it’s a big one, it doesn’t have to be 25 pages deep, maybe 3-5 pages, just focus on the stuff you need to improve; marketing, website, your key story, new presentations, product, employee development, budgeting, what ever it is you need, but get a plan, take the time to develop your business plan it will only help you have top-mind awareness of pieces of your business. Nothing stay’s the same, change is key to growth and profitability.

It’s your business, you are in the drivers seat, make it what you want and need to have a fantastic year in 2010. Remember a business without a sign is a sign of no business, what’s your “Marketing DNA” look like? How will clients find you in 2010, what new value can you add to the world to stand out in the crowd? If you need help maybe I can add some of my business consulting to your business plan. 

What’s New with You? This is the major strategy for today, what’s new with you is a high importance question that only you can answer. If there is nothing new moving into the New Year you may not have a solid foundation. If you’re a speaker, change is key in today’s world, you need to be on top of new technologies, marketing ideas, refresh your website, what’s the new you going to look like? We can’t stay the same year after year and expect growth, growth in your business only comes when you grow and improve. And you only grow and change when you change things that you do daily. 

What’s new with you in the New Year may stand you a part from the thousands of speakers and trainers in the market today. Then how do you share the “What’s new with you” question? Write it in your blog, send out cards sharing with your clients, update your business cards, rewrite your book you wrote three or five years ago, you have changed but the book stays the same. There are many strategies just waiting for you, take it from your reflection notes, your business plan, listen to others, create an “Inner Circle”, I would like the invite for that, key to my, what’s new with you in 2010 is to get involved with a few “Inner Circles” Boards, new Networks, there isn’t enough time for all the opportunities. 

Well friends there you go, I hope that this will be helpful to you and add value to your “FANTASTIC” year in 2010, I look forward to your feedback, visit me at my website/blog at: www.larrycockerel.com and I hope that our paths will cross in 2010 and we can add value to each other. Good selling to you in 2010 and best of success4u.

©2009 Larry Cockerel, All Rights Reserved

NSA-WI Member Featured on Wisconsin Public Radio

NSA-WI Member Ralph Heath was featured on Wisconsin Public Radio by Joy Cardin for his new book Celebrating Failure: The Power of Taking Risks, Making Mistakes, and Thinking Big. Ralph's depth of business knowledge and witty conversation made for a truly enjoyable hour. 

A highlight of the show was when some former employees called-in to the program to praise Ralph's innovative approach to managing and leading employees. You can listen to the whole thing here.

His book will be a featured in the October 8th issue of Time Magazine. Excellent job by Ralph!

September Meeting Recap

Larry Cockerel
NSA-Wisconsin President 09-2010

Friends and colleagues, September is passing quickly but it didn’t get by us to fast for the very exciting, educational, informational, and very much needed program shared by Mr. Mark V.B. Partridge on protecting your “Intellectual Property”. Marks’ program titled “Guiding Rights” Intellectual Property is Your Greatest Asset, was a hit the first time back in 2006 and again at this months NSA-Wisconsin professional development session. We had visitors come from far and near for this one, nice full house including we have four new members as of our September meeting.

My theme this year as your President is “Learn and Earn” and this program that Mark shared was all about learning and earning. From “Copyright” to “Trademark” to “Patents” and the benefits of protecting ones property can lead to more earnings and the more we learn, the more places you can take your speaking business.

Whether your’e writing a book, creating a new program, bringing back to life a good old program, product, websites, and your customer lists, this program had something for you to take back to the office and reflect on. Mark covered so much we needed more time for the Q & A, you know its good when the people don’t stop asking questions and the presenter doesn’t stop answering no matter what time the program ends!

Mark took us through the key principles of the Guiding Rights and how the key principles apply to you as a speaker. He also shared three key steps in building and protecting your IP. All I can say is “WOW” and I would have to bet that those who attended would say the same thing “WOW” what a night!

Friends your NSA Wisconsin Chapter is all about helping you get better as a professional speaker and helping you build a profitable speaking business. I can tell you this you can never get to much of a good thing, just like when your client calls you back year after year because you added value. The same goes here, we want you to come back meeting after meeting because you see the value. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been in the business or how many times you’ve heard the message before, it’s always new if we open our minds to learning new things.

We hope to have Mark back again because this was a valuable learning time, one of those things that you can never get enough of, knowledge! I hope to see everyone in November, bring a friend, and invite someone from another association that you network with. Come network, learn something and keep developing your business, clients are looking for those that are learners as well as presenters. And for those that were at the September session and want to share your testimonials or what you learned, we await your content, we will post on the blog and link to you, what a great way to get a little exposure and your thoughts in print.

Mr. Mark V.B. Partridge if you are reading this piece we thank you again and can’t wait until the next great opportunity to have you back.

Special Dues Renewal Offer - Limited Time Only!

Hello NSA Wisconsin Members, I’m Larry Cockerel, 2009-2010 President of NSA Wisconsin - your source for professional speakers, trainers and consultants. It’s with great pleasure I tell you, we have an awesome and exciting year planned for you, with excellent presenters to help you build your speaking business. Our vision is to be the “Place of Choice” for meeting professionals, organizations and associations looking for the best of the best when it comes to professional speakers, trainers and consultants.  

It’s time for annual dues renewal. We hope we’ve done our job over the past year and you’ll stay on board for another year by renewing your membership. Knowing this has been a tough economic year, we have kept the dues renewal costs the same. But, we want to offer you a special, limited time offer. Pay your dues in full by December 1, 2009 and we will post your video for an additional $50. That’s a $49 savings over last year’s cost. The live videos can be key to your success, no shipping demos, no wasted postage; you will be seen as a more professional speaker in line with the times. It’s so much easier to say, “Please go to my site and visit me live!” Yes, just another benefit of being a member of NSA Wisconsin

Your membership is an investment in your speaking career, and our mission is to give you a ROI through the programs and relationships developed along your journey. With that in mind, we will be sending you a survey and ask you to complete it as soon as possible. We want to add value with our development programs, excellent content and professionalism and need to know what it will take to help you build or build upon your speaking business. The board is committed to listening and learning from you what you’d like to see this year. 

If you have any suggestions or ideas pass them along! We need to hear from you so we can continue developing the chapter for the members. It’s truly all about the members. As a member, we hope you volunteer for a committee, activity or project. The more the merrier!

Join me this year and help me help us all make NSA Wisconsin the place of choice when it comes to professional speakers for hire. It’s as simple as going online to the NSA Wisconsin website (Annual Dues Renewal), and renewing your membership now. Don’t wait! Now is the time to enhance your speaking business.

Any questions please don’t hesitate to contact me, any of your Board Members or Terry Estness our Executive Director. Thank you in advanced for your membership renewal. 

Sincerely, 

Larry S. Cockerel 

Professional Speaker 

NSA Wisconsin Chapter President

larry@larrycockerel.com 

For membership renewal or first time membership, please go to the annual dues renewal page

Finding Fulfillment—Physician Style

By Stephen J. Busalacchi
Candidate Member 

If one thing stood out after having spent 56 hours interviewing dozens of accomplished physicians, it was the fact that these doctors love what they do. As I worked on the White Coat Wisdom manuscript, I started to become a bit envious. What gives them such great job satisfaction? First of all, many of them don’t tend to consider what they do work, per se. More than one doc described medicine as more of a calling than an occupation.
 

But this level of satisfaction isn’t limited to medicine. I’m convinced each of us can learn something from those who take great joy in how they spend their professional or occupational time. These physicians exemplify that fulfillment comes after commitment to something bigger than yourself, sacrifice and knowing you’ve done something important for others. 

Take Doctor Sandra Osborn. She is a 2006 graduate of the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. Late bloomer? Quite the opposite. She’s more like a re-bloomer. She first graduated from UW med school in 1973. Yes, she’s a double-dipper. Doctor Osborn retired after three decades as a pediatrician and then immediately re-enrolled in medical school to mentor the next generation of doctors. Yes, she took those classes all over again, year after year. Sandy Osborn did it because she wanted to do it. 

Osborn, like most of her colleagues, is a lifelong learner. “Med School 2” was just an extension of that penchant for learning and contributing. Doctor Osborn also volunteers for what has to be one of the most demanding and important positions around: service on Wisconsin’s Medical Examining Board. People who don’t have time to formally retire tend to be long-lived. Remember that. 

Part of commitment is to care about those you interact with. The lesson from doctors is to get to know those you’re helping. It’s not just about making a contribution or volunteering at an event. Real satisfaction results when we get to know those we’re assisting. Doctor Mark Timmerman, a family medicine physician, told me the most rewarding part of medicine for him, was the broad exposure he had to the population. It makes him a deeper human being to get to know so many different kinds of patients. 

Doctor Adam Dachman is another physician who finds great satisfaction in establishing rapport with patients. That may be unusual for a surgeon because their interactions with patients are often episodic. But as a musician and composer, Dachman finds inspiration in the individual stories that play out in his office. He writes songs about patients who inspire him and then gives them CDs.
 

But medicine can be depressing at times, too. Early in his family medicine career, Dr. Alan Schwartzstein internalized the fact that doctors can’t save everybody. In fact, they have to try hard not to view that reality as a personal failure, though many still do.
 

Perhaps fulfillment comes when we’re able to both appreciate the good and accept the realities of life, even when they’re particularly unpleasant or even painful. So if we want a fulfilled life: 

• Find your passion
 

• Volunteer 


• Get to know the people you’re helping and empathize with their plight 


• Appreciate the good aspects of your work 


• Share a bit of yourself and your interests in the process 


• Recognize that we’re not all in control of what happens in life 

I couldn’t help but be affected by these physician stories. They inspired me to keep working on White Coat Wisdom. You don’t rise at 5 a.m. every day for three years while working full-time unless you’re really into something. For me, writing this book was without question, the most rewarding professional venture of my life. And it’s affected me in other ways, too. Shortly after completing the manuscript, I quit a stable job and started my own business. These physician stories inspired me to push myself. In two and half years on my own, I’ve had the opportunity to edit a dying UW-Oshkosh professor’s book manuscript, deliver the keynote address for young physicians from the California Medical Association, and co-present a day-long media training workshop for physician leaders at the University of Wisconsin Medical Foundation, among many other activities.
 

But it took me a long time to begin the process of writing White Coat Wisdom, which led to this new chapter in my life. For 15 years, I only talked about writing this oral history. And then somebody showed enthusiastic interest in the idea. He was the first to really endorse the concept and instructed me to go for it. 

“I’d read that! You have to do it.” 

So I did it. I needed a nudge and Ed Fink gave me a kick. Helping others succeed is rewarding, too. 

Stephen J. Busalacchi is author of White Coat Wisdom: Extraordinary doctors talk about what they do, how they got there and why medicine is so much more than a job. To download an mp3 of the 30-minute Downtown Madison Rotary speech, see http://tinyurl.com/me8l93

InBusiness Magazine Interviews Robert Ian About Gold and the Economy

Madison's InBusiness Magazine interviewed Robert Ian about gold and the economy for their annual Executive Register issue. Here's an excerpt:

Ian said gold cannot accurately be measured or predicted by the Consumer Price Index. In his view, the CPI is "bogus" because its measurements have been revised over the last several decades. In 1995, the gold price was about $400 per ounce and the money supply was about $4 trillion. Today, the money supply is about $17 trillion and climbing. This should put the price of gold at around $1,700 per ounce, he said.

However, the government's unfunded liabilities and debts, which is money that will have to be created to pay the obligations, are almost $100 trillion. Said Ian: "I think it puts the future price of gold at over $10,000 an ounce, assuming that they stop printing money today, which I don't think they will do. I think we are on the road to hyperinflation. I think it will appear this year, and there are a lot of supporting reasons for that."

Read the entire interview here.

Read Kinza's Article in Wisconsin Meetings Magazine

Highlighting ideas to maximize the effective of your next event, Midwest Meetings Magazine has published Kinza's article title "Well-rounded Meetings" in their Spring-Summer issue. The article includes six key points to remember in providing "the experience" and maximum value on a tight budget.

So, Who Wants To Be a Leader Anyway?

by Victor Gray, Professional Member

USA Today claims, “The love is gone.” Middle-management jobs are...being seen as handcuffs that require long hours with [little] reward. A onetime career goal now being shunned in large part by the newer generation of workers now entering the workplace. Who could blame a young person? Leaders in business, non-profit organizations, ministry and government almost daily appear in the media as being stupid, shortsighted, unethical and maybe even crooks!

However, there are ten reasons why you should seek a leadership role:

1. Influence actions that you care about. Leadership is the process of influencing the activities of an individual or a group leading toward goal achievement.

2. Now is a great time to put into practice the skills of personal integrity.

• To visualize the role of the leader, picture a three-legged stool. The first leg of the stool is people skills, which includes a variety of good communication skills, including listening.
• The second leg of the stool is competence. In other words, a good leader must know and employ the skills to get the job done.
• The final leg of the stool is may be the hardest – integrity. Although many leaders may perform well over the short term by way of their charisma (people skills) and competence; however, a lack of integrity will bring down skillful leaders and perhaps their organization as well. Integrity means being consistent or being the same all the time. Leaders with integrity act in the same manner when people are observing and when they are not observing. Unfortunately, it’s easy to find examples in the media of leaders who were exposed for acting different in private than in public. A good leader must sacrifice some of the rights followers have to rise to a leadership role. The Society of Human Resource Management conducted a survey of 415 international corporate chief executive officers (CEO’s) concerning the characteristics employees want from their leaders. Eighty-five percent of the CEO’s said performance and accomplishment of work (skills) were most important. However, eighty-two percent of the CEO’s said character and integrity were the second most important traits for effective leadership. Skills and personality may get you the job, but a lack of integrity will eventually cause a leader to lose respect, or perhaps their job. A wise leader realizes that “What goes around comes around.”

3. Expand your own skills and talents. As a follower transitions to the leadership role, the ability to delegate remains an underdeveloped skill. Resisting the temptation to do it yourself, rather than “letting go” and allowing team members perform, while using good follow-up skills, is a frequent pitfall for new leaders. Former President Dwight Eisenhower defined this aspect of leadership as, "The ability to get people to do things that you want done because they want to do them." Proverbs says, “The mark of a good leader is loyal followers; leadership is nothing without a following.”

4. You can begin to develop leadership vision. Vision is how the leader thinks and perceives reality, which ultimately affects the leader’s actions. The leader must begin to think differently than her or his followers, see things followers do not, see beyond where followers see, and see things bigger than followers see.

5. Teach new skills to others. There are few things in life more satisfying than watching someone use a skill that you have helped them to master.

6. Make new friends. Not only will you form friendships others, but you will also form new friendships with other leaders. Building friendships can easily occur when you participate in the excellent training available in a course on leadership at an area educational institution or a leadership training conference.

7. You help your organization and community. You provide service by asking your boss or community leader how you can help them get on her or his job done.

8. You will gain personal insights. Leadership is a continuous test. You get a report card on your weakness and your strengths.

9. You get more back than you put in. Serving as a leader may be one of the toughest jobs you may have, but the personal satisfaction and occasionally the gratitude from others is immeasurably. “It is better to give than to receive.”

10. Your contribution is greatly needed.

Being the leader can be intimidating. It is understandable why many would shy away from such a responsibility. But, it can also be tremendously rewarding. The fear of leadership can be negated with the satisfaction of success! As a leader, your success is directly reflected in the hard work of many, rather than the job of one.