Expert Advice about Presentation Skills
from Patricia Fripp

Cavett always wanted his money’s worth out of life! His incredible energy never ceased to amaze me. In 1977, I attended my first National Speakers Association convention and was tremendously excited at the prospect of attending Cavett’s weekend seminar with Merlyn Cundiff. Cavett had flown in just a few hours earlier and had been up all night. But even with no sleep, he was magnificent and vibrant.

The last time I saw him was at the Speakers Roundtable meeting in the summer of 1997 after the NSA convention. We were a group of about thirty-two including spouses. Cavett and Trudy had stayed up late the night before for the dinners and events, yet there they were, looking fresh and rested at the 7:00 a.m. prayer meeting. They were almost twice my age, but I knew I could never have done it.

Patricia Fripp is a true American success story–except that she is British, born in a small English town. “Probably the best thing that happened to me,” says Fripp, “was growing up with an absolutely brilliant younger brother. I assumed I wasn’t as smart as others, which made me work twice as hard. That’s where my good work habits started.”

At age fifteen, Fripp became a hairstylist in Bournemouth, England. To “keep up,” she worked early, late, and through lunch hours, soon earning 30% more income for the salon than the experienced male employees (who were paid three times as much).

Where could she best exploit her talent, tenacity and capacity for hard work? “The Colonies!” she decided. At twenty, Fripp arrived in San Francisco with no job, no place to live, and no contacts. She quickly became known as an innovator, the first prominent woman in the new industry of men’s hairstyling. One day, she looked around and realized she no longer had to rush to keep up with everyone else. She had left them miles behind. She cut the hair of Cavett Robert and many past NSA Presidents and Hall of Fame recipients.

by Joanna Slan, Reprinted From Professional Speaker Magazine

When you think of NSA legends, you think of Patricia Fripp. For Fripp’s story is the sort of stuff legends are made of, the story of an twenty-year-old who took a boat to New York and a Trailways bus to California seeking fame and fortune. It is the story of a young woman with a strong work ethic and $500 in cash who worked cutting heads of hair while everyone in the salon took breaks. And, it is the story of a woman still wonders how her life might have turned out differently had her boss Jay Sebring not been murdered by Charles Manson and his gang of crazies.

Fripp is a legend for all that, and because she is a mysterious and powerful woman who enjoys her own company and goes her own way. Her extraordinary success can be explained easily once you know her: she works hard, harder than most of us ever will. She has a laser beam sort of intelligence that cuts directly to the heart of matters in a practical, no-nonsense way. Charmingly, she also has a wry wit, as illustrated when she moans halfheartedly that if she had had $450 less dollars and couldn’t speak English, she would be as successful today as Nido Qubein.