“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind
of thinking we used when we created them.”
-Albert Einstein
Everyone is thinking about creativity and innovation these days. We would like our employees to come up with new ideas. We want to be a company that is recognized for new ideas. We wish Hollywood would get some new ideas. Read the rest of this entry ?
Tuesday, July 25
When young Al Walker received his Master of Influence award yesterday at lunch, Naomi Rhode talked about the hurting world – the world that needs us to go out and contribute what we have to offer to the best of our ability.
I was going to write this morning about networking and how Sarah Michel gave some very sage advice to our question, “what would be your number networking suggestion for NSA convention First Timers?” She didn’t hestitate a micro-second – “Just figure out what you can give and then tell people you’ll give it to them.”
With an attitude like that, I don’t think Sarah would mind that she gets upstaged by a story from the news today about that hurting world. It comes from the Poynter Institute (just 100 miles away from here over in St. Petersburg). My Poynter newsletter this morning led with a story written by Doug McGill, a freelance writer based in Rochester, Minnesota. Here is a link to his story – http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=105080. I’m not going to say any more about it–you just have to read this article. Mr. McGill must have been with us at lunch yesterday and listening to Naomi.
(We’ve written about how the Poynter Institute’s web site and online newsletters can be a resource for speakers in the Hidden Sales Treasures section of this blog – it’s at the bottom of the page, titled “Mine the Other Guys’ Web Sites.”)
Toastmasters Membership – $80
NSA Fast Track – $300
AICC – Priceless
Some things money just can’t buy – for everything else, there’s MasterCard
Wait a minute – what the heck is AICC? Well, since this is a blog, puppy dog, you’ll just have to keep reading. Read the rest of this entry ?
Sunday, July 23
Jim Furyk is just two shots out of the lead in the British Open going in to the final round today (and I’m going to miss it because of this damn convention).
What does that have to do with speakers? Well, Jim Furyk is one of the speakers that Dan Sims works with at The Agency Speakers (www.theagencyspeakers.com). Who is Dan Sims, you ask? Well, I guess you missed the hotel bar last night – that table over in the corner… yes, that one – with George Walther, Ed Robinson, John Alston, Dan Sims and a bunch of other fascinating people.
Sheryl and I are always on the lookout for what Cheryl Richardson calls “moments of grace” and many other people call serendipity. Once you know what your purpose is in life, you need to be on the lookout for the moments, messages and people who will help you achieve that purpose. We saw Cheryl Richardson speak recently and she told us, “Once you are open to letting grace into your life, grace will start happening all over the place.” She is right.
Saturday at the NSA Convention was a day of grace, all over the place. It started at the Foundation Benefit event where we got to see God. LaDonna Gatlin leaned over and whispered to us just before Nido Qubein came on stage that to the members of NSA, Nido is God. And, indeed, if anyone could give a more inspirational speech, he would have to be divine.
Downhill from there? Hardly. We had already bumped into Susan Friedmann, the Trade Show Coach, on the Internet. Now, she lives in Lake Placid and we live in Denver, so… how did we bump into her? Here’s how. Don Cooper, the new president of the Colorado Speakers Association, had given our Fast Track class a pre-work assignment to “identity the 25 people, businesses or organizations that could catapult our speaking career” (Don actually talks like that). Sheryl and I, being a quick study, put Destination Spas at the very top of our list.
Oh, and did we mention that we teach people how to do more effective Internet research?! During that research, we read one of Susan’s articles on www.meetingsnet.com, sent her an e-mail, and begged her for some ideas for Don’s assignment. She responded immediately, even spending a long time on the phone with us, and became a generous and wise long-distance network relationship. Another moment of grace – Susan Friedman turned out to be the host of our table host at the First Timers reception yesterday afternoon. What are the odds? I think there were at least thirty tables in that room.
After the First Timers reception, we were starving, but had only 30 minutes before the Opening General Session. We ran down to the hotel fast food area and landed at a table with Robert Graham, Jean Becker and Jerry & Valerie Rouleau. It just so happens that we all were hungry, all speak about sales, all had been incredibly inspired by Nido that morning and all… well, can’t tell you the last one. A moment of grace, and we all knew it. We will stay in touch.
Then after the Opening Session (do you remember the dove?), we met Gail Cohen and her delightful husband, Steve, at the rubber chicken dinner. She is proof positive that NSA big wigs are generous to new speakers. She mentors fourteen of them – free of charge. (But, please, don’t call her, newbie speakers!)
Which brings us to the hotel bar later that night – and Jim Furyk and Dan Sims and the others. Can you go looking for moments of grace, even in a bar? We’ll just have to see.
Friday, July 21
Zagat (www.zagat.com) is THE name in restaurant reviews, online or off. But you have to pay $20 for an online membership to access their reviews, which is why we offer our own “hidden speaker treasure” review of Orlando fine dining for free.
If you are looking for a restaurant for the Monday Free Night (or any other night) while you are at the NSA Convention, drive north on I-4 to the Sand Lake Exit and nose your way around to Chatham’s Place (www.chathamsplace.com) – (7575 Dr. Phillips Blvd. St # 150, one block North of Sand Lake Rd. – 407-345-2992 – do a mapquest, OK – or ask your concierge).
Unbelievable food and just superb service. Trust us on this one. If you visit Zagat online and type in Orlando, it will be one of the 8 “Most Viewed” restaurants – but you’ll be asked to join Zagat if you click on the link to Chatham’s Place. Sheryl and I both say, “go.” So, go.
Thursday, July 20
Yesterday in my e-mail I received two prestigious, even pre-eminent, studies about the popularity of blogging in America.
The first study was from the PEW Internet and American Life Project (www.pewinternet.org). These folks have been reporting on how the Internet is changing the way we live – with groundbreaking studies on the digital divide, computer use by older adults and the latest Paris Hilton fashions (well, maybe not that last one).
The PEW Internet Project also conducted that disturbing study about America’s Internet search overconfidence – “92% of those who use search engines say they are confident about their searching abilities.” We wrote about this in the Hidden Google Treasures part of this blog (scroll down to July 16 – Just Google it?!).
The brand spanking new report from the PEW is called “Bloggers: A Portrait of the Internet’s New Storytellers” – and you can get the report on the www.pewinternet.org site. My very, very condensed version of the report is that a lot more people are writing and reading blogs these days (most of them under the drinking age), and most of the blogging is not being done for business purposes. Actually, while blogging may not have reached critical mass yet, 39% of Internet users (around 57 million folks) read blogs – which is why we keep hoping someone will read this one. And, 8% of us write blogs (it’ll be 8.0001% now that Sheryl and I have started writing).
What are they writing about? The main thing bloggers write about is, of course, themselves (why would that be any different than what most people talk about?). Entertainment and sports are big topics, too – right after “he loves me, he loves me not.” Important stuff.
The second study was from our good friend and illustrious speaker, Dr. Robert Cox. His own personal, but no less prestigious, study said that blogging is just not yet ready for prime time. It seems that Bob agrees with the article on our home page called “Do You Really Want to Blog?” However, the good doctor was curious to know if we could realize some “measurable outcomes” from our blog. He ended by promising, “In the mean time, I will remain blog-free and unblogged!” Don’t let him fool you, though, he’s a lot more open minded about technology than he wants you to think – he’s even attended one of our Internet search seminars.
You can catch Dr. Cox’s act at the convention on Monday, July 24 from 2:30 – 3:30 PM, and since we’ve heard him speak before, we’re giving you the whole advertisement. Go see him:
Don’t Be An Ostrich: Vaccinate Your Business Against Avian Flu
Robert Cox, MD, Englewood, CO
Take a look into the future and see how “Bird Flu” could impact all aspects of the speaking world, including meetings, transportation, hospitality and organizations. As a nationally recognized and board certified infectious disease specialist, Bob will take you on an extraordinary journey into several scenarios on the horizon. See how business and biology interact, and then decide whether you have too many (business) eggs in one basket!
By the way, while The Pew project surveyed over 7,000 homes by phone for their blogging study, they didn’t call us. Did they call you? Maybe next time.
This article will self-destruct thirty seven seconds after you read it. Read the rest of this entry ?
Tuesday, July 18
Yesterday we got an e-mail from Lois Creamer. It said that she would not be coming to the convention because of a unexpected collision with a hospital. She is doing well, but not yet up to travel. Many of you know Lois and I know everyone will miss her at the convention and wish her well on her recovery.
Lois was going to teach a workshop on “Book More Business” during the 10AM Monday time slot at the convention. I was going to go to that workshop – primarily because I had listened to her recent SpeakerNet News teleseminar – and we had exchanged a few e-mails (Sheryl is going to Dawn Josephson’s extended learning session, “Speaking of Articles”). Besides, “booking more business” would be right up there with breathing as one of my supreme priorities.
In the “Advertise Yourself – the Flat World Way” article on the home page of this blog, I wrote about the “Elbow Grease” test to decide if a site or product is a huckster’s come-on or a legitimate product. Here’s another test you can apply – it’s called the “Write Back” test (and it works on the hucksters, too, by the way. You see, hucksters almost never write back to you – they just send you stuff).
Sheryl and I used “Write Back” as we tried to decide which workshops to attend at the NSA Convention. There are, as someone wrote to us recently (maybe even Lois), wonderful and talented speakers running every possible workshop. So how to decide? Certainly Sheryl and I do a search of those speakers we are interested in, and we visit their web sites. Then, if the topic and speaker look interesting, we’ll write to them. It’s amazing how many write back. Try it for your next convention.
So, we may be newbie speakers attending our first NSA convention, but we already have had at least a correspondence relationship with speakers like Susan Friedmann, Lois Creamer and Terry Brock – and can’t wait to meet them. Darn, Lois won’t be there – I’ve got to get back to deciding what workshop to go to now.
Monday, July 17
I got our friend Curtis Cloutier from Webolutions (www.webolutions.com) to read our article on the main blog page called “Advertise Yourself – the Flat World Way.” I then called him up and interviewed him about SEO (that’s “Search Engine Optimization” which translates to “I want my web site to come up first when people do a Google search”) and Google Adwords (which are those little text ads on the right side of the screen). Everyone we meet these days wants their web site to be #1 on Google searches. Uh-huh. Curtis is a lot more politic than I am, but he and his company know a Google’s worth of stuff about both SEO and Adwords.
Curtis has a way of cutting right to the chase – and using better analogies than I could ever come up with. I asked him about all those offers I’ve been getting offering to teach me SEO and Adwords in a weekend workshop, one-day workshop or even, I kid you not, one that just came in my mail which said they would teach me everything in just a 3-hour, half-day workshop!
Curtis offered, “These skills are complicated, Michael. Many companies employ full-time employees and spend thousands of dollars just to keep themselves up-to-date on both. It’s a little like being a carpenter. Could you go to a one-day workshop and then build a house?” I love his carpenter analogy because a really good analogy means I don’t have to write anymore – I can shut up – because we get it.
He also offers a great test that anyone can use anywhere (not just Denver – Webolutions is in Denver) to help pick a web design company that also offers top search engine placement. “Just do a Google search in your city for “web design Dallas,” or “web design Baltimore,” for instance.” We took him up on it for Denver – and Googled “web design denver” – and the first result was, yeah, you guessed it, Webolutions. “If a company is offering to get your web site optimized to come up high in search engine results, they had better be able to do it for themselves,” he said. Try that test on your web company! And definitely, try it next time you hire someone new.
By way of full disclosure, Curtis and Webolutions do not design any of the Golden Compass or Hidden Treasures web sites or blogs (kinda wish he did!). He is, however, a friend who works for an honest company in a category that is full of thieves, scoundrels and pretenders – and he knows a whole lot about getting your web site to #1.
Recently I went to one of those gala events where there are several speakers on one stage. Call me a speaker junkie, but I like to see as many speakers as I can – to study their style and delivery, to see how they organize and deliver their information, and, of course, to mock what they’re wearing. Read the rest of this entry ?
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Michael Benidt and Sheryl Kay
