Collaboration is when two or more small, mobile, intelligent units get together on a project, but still maintain their own identities. More and more corporate American businesses are working this way. Speakers, too, can reap big benefits from temporary or on-going collaborations.
WHY COLLABORATE?
In both the business and speaking worlds, there are three good reasons to collaborate:
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.
Read More...If we want to have strong, self-confident teams in our businesses, let’s ask, listen, and learn about each other’s accomplishments. You’ll be amazed at the talent all around you, some that even your colleagues may not acknowledge in themselves.
One of the best ways to feel connected with others in a company is to have good meetings, the kind where information is shared and people leave energized and ready for challenges. When I owned my hairstyling salon, I opened our regular staff meetings by asking everyone to share what they were most proud of in their personal and professional lives since the previous meeting. Too often, such e=vents go unacknowledged by us. The discipline of needing to report made everyone more aware.
Read More...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.
Read More...In every association executive’s life the day will come when you must deliver bad news. Sometimes you have to tell the bad news to your Board; every so often you have to tell your membership; periodically you must tell your superior. But whoever is on the receiving end of the message, the way you deliver the news can determine how the messenger (you) is treated.
An example of “bad news” having to do with money was handled in an exemplary way a few years ago by the National Speakers Association. According to Barbara Nivala, the then Executive Vice President of the organization, ” we wanted to take a long term approach, upgrading the membership and projecting a higher visibility in the meetings industry. To do this, we felt we had to double the membership dues.” No one was happy about that, but the president of the NSA, Tom Winniger, approached the problem by calling the dues increase a “restructuring of dues.”
Read More...with Diane Parente
PART I — Meetings
While your elected leaders may be quite at home leading the annual board meeting, public speaking may not be their favorite arena.
As even the most seasoned of speakers may experience jitters before opening meetings, introducing speakers, making announcements or speaking on panels, it’s no surprise that association leaders may feel uncomfortable in these situations. Here are some ideas that can make them, and therefore you, the Association Executive, look good.
Read More...I never dreamed of writing a book. Of course, I was born in England during a time when no one expected much of girls. The focus was on the boys. My brother was brilliant and good grades came easily to him. I, on the other hand, worked quite diligently just to bring home average marks. I don’t regret the average status because the good news is that I developed excellent working habits which have turned out to be the keys to my success.
By the time I was 15, I was apprenticing to become a ladies’ hair stylist in a salon in Bournemouth. On the 45 minute bus trip to the salon, I listened to my young friends’ dreams of marrying millionaires. Even at that tender age, I knew instinctively that it was more practical to be a millionaire than marry one. Not that I didn’t have contact with the wealthy…
Read More...Corporate meeting planners are continuously mired in details, trying to keep it all together for the next meeting, and already worrying about the ones after that. We need to learn how to work “smarter,” not harder, in mastering details.
Tip #1. After every meeting and event, do an “after action analysis.” Write down what went right, what went wrong, what you would do differently if you were planning the meeting today, and who the vendors were who made your life easier.
Read More...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.
Read More...Written by Fripp friend and guest funny man Brad Montgomery, CSP
When I teach my programs on humor skills to other presenters I ask about their greatest obstacles to using (or even experimenting) with humor.
The answer is always the same: The fear of failure.
Nobody wants to feel like an idiot, and standing there after you’ve told a failed joke is the easiest path to idiocy, right? Wrong. Let me explain.
Read More...
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