January 2021
Your Monthly News & Updates
In News Flash, we provide the highlights of the month with links to the stories you most want to read. You'll find the full edition of News Flash online here. Please forward this newsletter to others whose careers benefit by improved skills in speaking and presenting. Some examples are members of Toastmasters, ATD, MPI, ICF, and AZODN among others.
A Message from Our President
HELLO 2021 – GOODBYE 2020!

Happy New Year.

It is with great pleasure that I bid adios to 2020. I realize that many in our community of speakers have felt the real emotional and economic pain of the COVID-19 crisis. Upended face-to-face meetings and speaking opportunities, combined with limited human connections, have left many to wonder when we'll see a return to some semblance of normalcy.

I understand. I have felt the same. We have seen firsthand all the disruption.

But it is a dangerous thing to rely on what is happening today, because change is happening so fast. This is where I see reasons for optimism. Optimistic that with the vaccine, we are heading in the right direction to end the pandemic. Optimistic because I see organizations are planning hybrid meetings instead of just virtual meetings. Optimistic because I see an uptick in calls for speakers. Optimistic because executives are reporting that people within their organizations need face-to-face engagement and recognize an increased value in quality content. This all bodes well for the prepared speaker.

This is where your commitment to professional education, your commitment to provide quality content, and your commitment to NSA-Arizona will pay dividends. NSA-Arizona has stayed on task by providing quality education. As members, we have stayed together, assisted each other, and learned from each other. This is what family and communities do. They stick together. I am proud to call you colleagues and friends.

For me, the lack of travel has given me time to rethink, retool, and reinvent my business. I did not change my business, but rather renewed the type of business I want and set up systems for achieving my redefined goals. I have written more content. I have read more. I have engaged with past clients and have grown my list of prospects. I am prepared for the change that is coming.

Yes, I am optimistic. 2021 is going to be a much better year. Are you prepared?

NSA-Arizona President 
2020-2021
NSA-AZ Monthly Meeting
Saturday, January 9, 2021
THIS MEETING WILL BE VIRTUAL
Networking: 8:30 a.m.
Presentation: 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER—Speaker Sales Systems - Shawn Rhodes
Whether you're starting your speaking career and wondering what to say on the phone with a decision-maker or you're a veteran speaker and concerned about what happens when the phone stops ringing, you'll leave Shawn's session with the tools to regain control of your business.

Professional Opportunity
Leverage the power and knowledge of the NSA-Arizona Professional Member community. Facilitated by Elaine Simpson.

Join your peers as we develop tangible action items cultivated from the material presented during the monthly meeting. Accountability, brainstorming, and creative thinking lead to the tactical implementation of business-generation ideas!

Join us on Zoom from 12:15 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. immediately after the regular chapter meeting.

Attendance at the Professional Opportunity is included for Professional Members and Candidates in the meeting registration. All members are welcome!

Register in advance for this meeting by clicking here. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
Candidate Program
The NSA-Arizona Candidate Program is designed to meet the needs of beginning speakers, from marketing to connecting with your audience and everything in between. Sometimes the greatest challenge for all speakers is finding a topic that makes them unique in the marketplace. Speakers who "Find Their Niche" increase their chance for success.

For that reason, the theme for our January-May candidate program will be "Finding Your Niche." Each month a different, successful "niche" guest speaker will share their story about how they narrowed their focus. They'll describe how they abandoned old material to create a niche topic or offering they could build on. A short Q&A session with the speaker and an interactive sharing/feedback for attendees will follow.

Each guest speaker's story will be different, which means the takeaways will also be different. Even long-time speakers can benefit if they have added topics through the years. Now, they may want to narrow their focus but don't know how to start.
Kay Sever will facilitate each session. Kay says, "After 20 years as a speaker, consultant and business coach, I am in the midst of this struggle. I have much content and am deciding what to keep and what to toss. I am also considering a whole new expert topic. It is a struggle to let go of some things and find the one or two that will add the most value."

Please join us for our first NSA-Arizona Candidate session on January 9 (after our normal virtual monthly meeting). Our first guest speaker will be Dr. Lynette Charity. Dr. Charity is a Board-Certified Anesthesiologist with over 40 years of expertise in her specialty.

Register in advance for this meeting by clicking here. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Candidate Facilitator Kay Sever.

As always, we’d love your feedback on your experience so far and what additional topics you might want to include in future sessions. Email Kay Sever.
As a physician keynote speaker, she addresses the topics of physician burnout, depression, and suicide, using her personal experiences and humor. Having "put people to sleep" for years, she now "wakes them up" regarding the stigma of mental illness and proves that "laughter is the best medicine."
Projects Lab
Twice a week, you’ll have an opportunity to work on a specific project in a virtual community space via Zoom. There are three concentrated periods of time of 30-35 minutes each. You can use this to work on an article, proposal pitch, book chapter, blog post, client report, etc.
 
As you're working, you can be muted to the group and with your video on or off, as you choose. Between these highly productive times, there are three mini-breaks. You can use them to check in on any questions or to get feedback, if needed, on your project.

The meeting dates and times are as follows:
  • Mondays from 12:00-2:00 p.m.
  • Thursdays from 12:00-2:00 p.m.

The Hosts are Marla Harr and Michele Redmond.
 
If you'd like to work on a project, with the support of your peers, email Suzanne or Marla Harr for the LINK 24 hours prior to the session.
Speakers Lab
Cultivate Your Speaking Skills

Is there an area of your speaking or your speaking business that would benefit from solid feedback? Come join us at Speakers’ Lab and experience the valuable feedback and encouragement to help you improve in any area of the speaking business.
 
NSA-Arizona provides an opportunity for you to have amazing support and feedback from skilled evaluators to enhance your consistency and credibility. We include feedback guidelines not just for the evaluators but also for the speakers. This helps to provide supportive, constructive, and useful advice.
 
We meet on the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays from 9:30-11:45 a.m. We’re also offering an evening lab on the 3rd Wednesday of each month from 6:30-8:00 p.m. Both morning and evening labs will include 15-30 minutes for networking at the beginning of the session.

Normally, we would be meeting at NSA headquarters. However, in the current environment we have changed to an online format. An announcement regarding the Zoom session for the Lab will be posted prior to the Speakers Lab. When you respond to that email to register for that session you will be provided with a link. 

You may attend these sessions as a Guest. However, if you wish to present at the Lab, you must be a chapter member in good standing. We also ask that you attend as a participant twice, before you sign up for time to present.
 
In a normal meeting, we have three 30-minute slots. Speakers can use the time to receive feedback and tips for a specific purpose, like trying out new material or trying a new form of speaking.
 
To claim your spot, contact Natalie Sayer. Please put “Speakers Lab” in the subject line.
 
Upcoming Guest Enrichers
Tuesday, January 12, 2021 - TBA
Wednesday, January 20, 2021 - TBA
Tuesday, January 26, 2021 - TBA 

Speakers Lab is one of the greatest features provided by NSA-Arizona. It is designed to be a safe place to not only practice and hone speaking skills, the feedback given by NSA members is extremely valuable and well worth the price of membership. I highly recommend Speakers Lab to anyone serious about advancing their speaking career.” — Rita Hudgens
 
To present and get feedback on your content, email Natalie Sayer and put “Speakers Lab” in the subject line.
*Must have attended at least twice before presenting.

NSA-Arizona Speaker Lab Leadership Team: Michael Haley, Debra Exner, Natalie Sayer, Antonio Valles.
Volunteer Spotlight: Dan Shinder
Where do you live now? Where are you originally from? Do you share your home with pets or family? I currently live in Globe, Arizona. We moved here four years ago, this month. I was born in in Los Angeles and lived in the West San Fernando Valley until the 1994 Northridge earthquake. I then moved to Ventura, California, where I lived for 14 years. Then, I moved to Las Vegas and lived there, until moving to Arizona. We share our home with Sage, our Maine Coon cat, the largest domestic breed, and plan to get a German Shepard puppy next month.

Do you have any hobbies, travels, volunteer work, or other interesting things to share? Here are some personal notes: My wife Nja and I have a blended family of eleven grown kids (26 to 45) and nineteen grandkids, 2 ½ to 20 ½! Under normal circumstances, my wife travels extensively each year for all three of our businesses to Singapore, Japan, Canada, and throughout the U.S. We plan to add to the list as soon as we can. I volunteer on the board of directors for a local non-profit, “Cobre Valley Youth Club.” It's an afterschool facility, as well as for kids of working essential workers when schools are closed. Other interests currently include horticulture, being a hopeless cat lover, many areas of science, and cars. I love to cook and used to have a cooking show on TV. I love art, and am beginning to re-embark on writing fiction novels. I grew up as a musician my entire life and toured the U.S. for the first time at fifteen years old.

What is your speaking specialty? My area of speaking is social media content marketing. I am one of the few in this space who speak, teach, consult and provide the service based on actual hands-on experience. I've achieved extraordinary results with strategies I developed, having over one million avid fans and reaching millions more people each month online. All without ever paying for an ad or boosting a post.

What kind of work did you do before you started speaking? Are you still doing that or other work in addition to speaking? As mentioned above, my social media company, Advanced Social Marketing. This was born out of the success I had with my lifestyle media company, Drum Talk TV. We cover the world of drumming in the form of news, artist/educator interviews, documentaries. We also cover events and curate content from our fans from over 130 countries.

When did you start speaking? When did you join NSA-Arizona? I began speaking professionally in 2013, and joined NSA-Arizona in November of 2016.

How have you volunteered for our chapter? I was on the marketing committee as soon as I joined. Three months later, I was the Marketing Chair and then served three years on the board of directors.

For you, what is the best advantage of NSA-Arizona membership? Being a member has had so many benefits. At the top include the incredible recourses available from the experience of fellow members. In addition to that, the amazing guests we have each month. And then, meeting wonderful like-minded professionals with something in common, even though we all come from different industries. It has been invaluable.
Librarian's Notes
Editor’s Note: This feature reminds you to take advantage of our fabulous lending library of NSA Convention recordings.
 
The Keys to Growing a Training Company, by David Horsager

I've been a contract trainer for a couple of different companies, but what if I could do even better? What if I had my own training company? So I decided to listen to David Horsager's breakout session from Influence 2019. He says, "This will show how anybody can become a global expert and build a training company."

"Number one," David says, "You have to decide, do you really want to go beyond yourself?" It's better to do what you ought to do, and you have to decide that. David says that some people in this business would rather work from home and don't want to manage others. However, David has an office and manages a team. 

I understand that David means that scaling a training company is likely to require being more than a sole practitioner. "Decide which you would prefer. It's a decision that's not for everybody." David started his company with a team, and started with less than most do. His first office was in a basement with black mold on the walls. "Hire first on culture fit, character fit, and then train competency."

The second key, according to David, is to create a proprietary framework. "If you don't have your proprietary framework, then work for another training company." This means you must provide a unique system for your clients, something they can't get elsewhere. David's proprietary framework is "The Eight Pillars of Trust" which came from his organization's own research, and is incorporated into the Enterprise Trust Index ™.

At the same time, according to David, "You have to be interesting and relevant, and also funny, engaging, and keynote-esque. So, work on the craft. We are not rated against other speakers, or TEDx talks; we are rated against movie trailers." This means we must be entertaining as well as informative. 
 
The next key, we need a model for a training company. David says, "These are the three questions we are constantly asking:
  1. How can we make this scalable? There are several ways. 
  2. How do we make it sustainable? How do we keep it going, because some trainings are just one event; the training gets done and stops. 
  3. How are we going to make it sticky? How will it transform people, and be effective? We want them to like us more in three years than they like us today. 

David's company becomes scalable because he certifies coaches on his proprietary format. He also certifies trainers inside an organization to facilitate his training to that organization's employees. David's company distinguishes itself by waiving annual renewal fees. If a certified coach does at least two trainings a year, with at least twenty attendees each, they do not pay a renewal fee. David is happy to do this, because he sells $200 training tool kits with a high profit margin to an organization of fifty thousand. 

His approach with clients begins with inspiring a shift in thinking. A keynote will inspire but is unlikely to cause transformation. The next step is when they go to clarify and benchmark, and they have an assessment. Then, they equip by providing all necessary tools to certified trainers.

Ultimately, a training company must have impact on the bottom line, and you must demonstrate how it impacts the bottom line. "Companies don't mind spending $250,000 with you if they will make or save millions as a result." And this impact can be proven by research. David says that research may not be as difficult or expensive if you can get someone to help you. "Packard and Edison Research are NSA sponsored groups that can do the research without you having to do it."

What does this mean for me? I have an education program for 401(k) plan participants. I guess you could say it is proprietary, in that I have applied financial planning principals. And I've found free Internet-based resources to help with each step of the process. 

While I haven't conducted my own research, I have found other academic research that indicates the ROI of financial education at the workplace. Eventually I won't be able to do it all myself, so I should ultimately train facilitators. Sound pretty good, doesn't it?

Richard is NSA-Arizona’s librarian who accepts donations of books, tapes, magazines, CDs, and videos of interest to speakers. Contact Richard for instructions to download recent NSA Convention sessions.
Upcoming NSA Events
Winter Workshop 2021: February 26–February 28, 2021–Atlanta, GA

Influence 2021: July 10–July 12, 2021–Caesar’s Palace, Las Vegas, NV

For details, visit the NSA website.
Word Tripper from the Platform

Do you ever confuse this word pair? Now you know the difference so you won't get tripped up!
 
Elder, older – As a noun, “elder” is someone from an earlier period, or an officer or influential member of a tribe or community. As an adjective, it refers to the older of two people or one with a higher rank. “Older,” an adjective, describes something or someone having been around for many years. Note that “elder” is used when referring to people while “older” can apply to both people and objects.   
 
“The elder of the two sisters had orange shag carpet in her house that was older than the two of them combined.” 


The creator of Word Trippers Tips, Barbara edits nonfiction books and articles for NSA members. You can contact her by clicking here.
Living Room Forum
Due to COVID, Living Room Forum has been cancelled until further notice.
Email your News Flash announcements to editor Linda-Ann Stewart at or call 928-600-0452 by 15th of each month. Thanks to proofreaders Michelle Cubas and Richard Victor.