SNL Has Nothing on SNN

Each Friday morning it comes into your in-box on little cat feet. It’s your SpeakerNet News – but it’s even more of a treasure trove than you may realize.

You know the drill. It’s early Friday morning and you’re in a rush. You mark the one email you know you need to read later with an exclamation point, brush your teeth and run out the door. But later, you make sure to read it. When you do you get gems like this one:

And, over a jillion more. From the best and most experienced minds in the speaking business.

We’ve been trying to get people to change their search habits and search less. Yes, search less than the whole web. Why? Because it turns sites like SpeakerNet News into into a searchable treasure trove of expert speaker tips and resources.

It’s the same skill that we wrote about in “When You Really Need a 4-Letter Word in Politics” and it helped us find the Saturday Night Live Katie Couric/Sarah Palin skit. Applied to SpeakerNet News it unearths great stuff and it looks like this:

“eye contact” site:speakernetnews.com

The result comes out looking like this:

This means you would like to burrow into all the times that the exact phrase “eye contact” has been used in one of the compilations, questions or discussions on the SpeakerNetNews site. Two of the results highlighted above are from 1999 and 2000.

Think about it, though – dealing with hecklers, warding off stage fright and speaking in China aren’t really date specific. And, the good thing about SNN is that their entries always clearly display the date.

You might not want information about online social networking from 2003, but you certainly can benefit from wisdom about handling a chatty audience from as long ago as the past decade. What worked then, likely still works today.

OK Smarty Pants

Do I hear you saying, “Heck, can’t I just search SNN from their own search box?” And, indeed, you can. But, try this. Go to SellingPower.com’s web site and try their search box. Here’s what you’ll get – “Your selection is a REQUIRED registration area. Please login or register to enter this area“:

This roadblock is telling you that SellingPower is a pay site. But, guess what? If you do the same search on Google by using the 4-letter word site – you’ll get right in – no admission fee!

“eye contact” site:sellingpower.com

Don’t tell them we told you.

Back to SpeakerNet News

Go ahead, type in a few speaking topics you’d like to know more about – and see what treasures SpeakerNet News will reveal to you.

But, you better do it soon – because some day Rebecca Morgan and Ken Braly will discover what a fabulous resource they’re providing – and they just might decide to start charging for it!