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Be a Master of Ceremonies
Speakers can enhance their value to clients by serving as a master of ceremonies, or emcee. I rememb...
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The 5 Most Inspiring Speeches in Sports History
Whether to rally teammates, announce a retirement decision, celebrate a victory or mourn a loss, her...
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The 4-Step Formula for Seeing Humor in the World
One of the most common questions funny people get is, “How do you ever come up with that stuff?” As ...
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Innovating the Webinar Model
How many times have you heard webinars are a way to make passive income in this business? A few year...
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3 Things Great Speakers of Tomorrow are Doing TODAY
Standing out in the world of professional speaking is similar to a pool table run meaning it’s...
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Are You Asking the Right Questions? 14 Key Questions to Ask Before Accepting a Speaking Engagement
The phone rings. It’s a CEO you’ve never met, but he says a colleague told him about your high-quali...
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10 Tech Travel Tools Every Speaker Should Know
Unless you’re a webinar wizard, you probably travel now and again (or all the time) for live present...
Latest Posts
Speak
The Keynote We Can’t Let Go
Do you remember where you were when you first heard the phrases “let it go” or “pick a lane”? Perhaps you were in the hallway of an NSA Convention and someone retold the tale of a speech that would be talked about for 14 years after it was delivered....
The Worst I Ever Bombed
For Laughter Week 2018, Andrew Tarvin pulled back the curtain on a time he bombed onstage. “Surprisingly, it w...
Prepare to be Funny
For Laughter Week 2018, Lou Heckler, CSP, CPAE, advised members to start gathering humor before they need it. ...
Market
Building a Back-End Business
I’m a fellow member of NSA and I have experienced firsthand the power of building a better back-end business model. Imagine you’re me, five years ago. You’re a 30-something “up-and-coming” speaker and trainer. You’ve been semi-successful at landing p...
Don’t Miss Influence 2018
Are You Ready for Influence 2018? Corey Perlman and Jill Schiefelbein (aka Neo and Trinity), Influence 2018 co...
Speaker’s Toolkit: Speak to Build Influence, Credibility and Awareness
Our traditional business model is to speak and get paid. But how else can you use your skills to grow your bus...
Sell
How Four Scored: Four NSA Legends Share Golden Nuggets for Generating a 7-figure income
Remember being that new professional speaker with big dreams to change the world with your message? Then you wondered how you would promote yourself, get booked, run your business and hire support? Well, Four NSA CPAEs experienced those thoughts and feelings 25-plus years ago and created impressive speaking empires. Check out the words of wisdom fr...
Why Fee Integrity is Hurting You
I first heard the term ‘fee integrity’ when I started hanging around the National Speakers Associa...
3 Mantras for Sales Success
The speaking world has changed. Our clients are well-informed with information at their fingertips 24/7. Let’s...
Does Cold-Calling Still Work?
There are big questions we all ask at one point in our lives. “What is the meaning of life?” “Where will I go ...
Publish
Clearing the Decks
How do busy professionals find the time to write their books? I recently spoke with Steve Bustin, a speaker colleague from Brighton in the United Kingdom. I learned from Facebook that he had written his book in one week, so I had to talk with him to ...
Publish or Perish!
As someone who has spent a good amount of years in and around academia, the age-old phrase “publish or perish”...
4 Steps to Publishing Your Breakthrough ...
Many speakers spend a lot time dreaming about the day they will walk into a Barnes & Noble, or saunter pas...
Lifestyle
16 Revenue-Generating Ideas
At Influence 2018, 16 speakers each had two-minutes to quickly and clearly share a tip that brought their business additional revenue. Check out the transcripts of each of their presentations that can help you bring in more revenue for your speaking ...
Getting Ready for the Biggest Change
Life events cause you to think of things—even the inevitable—in different ways. Intellectually, we all know th...
What to Do in an Active Shooter Situation
With more active shooter incidents happening, here are tips on how to respond if a shooting breaks out: Remain...
Office
Create Your Own Custom Pre-Event List
From location logistics and AV specifications to who will handle handouts, there are dozens of details that need to be squared away before you speak. If you’re newer to speaking, you may not yet have thought about all the things that need to be figur...
Track your Tasks
If you’re preparing to put on a self-sponsored program, make sure you don’t miss any to-dos with a detailed ch...
How the Tax Advice for Your Business May...
In the April issue of Speaker magazine, we gave you four steps to take to prepare for the changes you will fac...
Technology
The Picture of Success
I interviewed five fabulous speakers on how they use Instagram for their business. Not too surprising, they had five completely different strategies for how they use the app and how they determine results. There were two consistent messages in the in...
What’s Driving Your Choice of Webinar Platform?
The best software solution for you will be the one that meets your specific needs. Once you’ve decided if you ...
How Being Good-Looking Will Grow Your Speaking Business – Get an Unfair Advantage
A few weeks ago, an editor at a prestigious publishing house called me. She said, “I want to publish a book on...
