A Blog By Speakers, For Speakers.
Confessions of a Recovering People Pleaser (and Why It Could Save Your Speaking Business)
By Tami Evans, CSP Hi. I’m Tami. And I’m a recovering People Pleaser. I wish I could say I’m fully healed, discharged, and living symptom-free. But recovery, like speaking and business, is not a straight line. It’s more of a spiral. Some days I’m enlightened, boundried, and grounded. Other days, I’m one impulsive “Sure, I’d…
So You Bombed. Move On.
By Bob Phibbs, CSP, MDSG, the Retail Doctor My client’s voice was blunt. “Just got the surveys back. They hated you.” Not some of them. Not a mixed response. They hated me. Everything from my content to the way I asked someone to turn off the lights. This was three weeks after what I thought…
ABCs of Public Speaking
By Harvey Mackay, CPAE It’s been said there are two times in life when you are truly alone: just before you die and just before you deliver a five-minute speech. Stage fright can be terrifying, but it needn’t be paralyzing. Delivering over a thousand speeches teaches a person a thing or two about getting through…
Should I Get Involved?
By Kymberli Speight Should you get involved in service to your local NSA chapter? The short answer is Yes. However, the truth is you will have to identify your personal reasons that motivate you to make this commitment. When I am asked what the reasons are to get involved with your local NSA chapter, my…
NSA: “It’s the People”
By Maura Thomas, CSP Ask a bunch of NSA members why they join and attend events, and I bet the most common response you will receive is some version of, “It’s the people.” But this short phrase really doesn’t convey the powerful meaning behind it. Admittedly, my first few NSA events were intimidating, and it…
Welcome to the Marketing Business
By Alan Weiss, CSP, CPAE Once you identify yourself by a category—speaker, trainer, facilitator, coach, consultant, and so forth—you become a commodity, and subject to price comparisons. I tell everyone who approaches me for advice that they need to: Understand this is the marketing business. Build their brand so that they are unique. Focus NOT…
Running a Successful Speaking Business Abroad
By Tony Chatman, CSP In late October of 2021, I received a text from a friend from college. She simply asked if my wife and I would like to join them in Mexico in five weeks. They owned a place in Playa Del Carmen, so all we’d need to do is get there. We jumped…
Aviate, Navigate, Communicate: How I Built a Six-Figure Speaking Brand While Keeping My Full-Time Career
By Jason O. Harris If you’ve ever spent any time around aviation, you know there’s one rule pilots repeat so often it becomes muscle memory: Aviate. Navigate. Communicate. It’s the principle we fall back on when things get bumpy or when the fit hits the shan at 3 a.m. over the Atlantic Ocean. It’s what…
From Certified Speaking Professional™ to Certified Silent Professional (What Happens When a Speaker Loses Her Voice Among 150 of the World’s Best Speakers)
By Carolyn Strauss, CSP I just spent the weekend at the CSP® Summit in Scottsdale, Arizona, surrounded by 150 Certified Speaking Professionals™, some of the best speakers in the world…. And I couldn’t speak. Not a whisper. Not a croak. Nothing. I arrived with a perfectly normal voice the night before the Summit. Woke up…