I traveled to sunny Palm Springs for the weekend and enjoyed over a dozen speakers at the Summer Symposium from the National Speakers Association. This was a truly amazing event with highly polished presenters sharing to a crowd of business professionals who make a living in the speaking business. There wasn’t a sour note in the bunch and I came away with the inspiration to climb up to the next rung on the ladder of personal development.
The weekend started of on Friday afternoon with management consultant Alan Weiss. Alan’s no-nonsense approach was refreshing and he pointed out that you must differentiate yourself from the crowd. His contrarian views on many subjects have catapulted him to the national spotlight. He has published over 500 articles and 25 books. His latest title, Million Dollar Consulting and the accompanying Toolkit have received rave reviews on Amazon.
Friday night finished off with former Canadian Volleyball player, Vilis Ozols and his motivational story of success and heartbreak as the turmoil of world politics caused him to miss the Olympics. His powerful story of his grandmother and her faith was one that left a lasting memory in everyone in the audience.
Saturday included speaking coach, Alan Sanow, who has written a great book entitled Get Along, about developing interpersonal relationships with clients, co-workers, and family. Alan brought years of speaking experience to the table and shared his insights of the speaking business with subjects ranging from booking more clients to developing a customer newsletter. His enthusiastic approach and “in the trenches” experience were just what many of the new speakers in the audience needed to hear.
Branding expert, Dick Bruso, took us through the process of creating a personal brand. He had two volunteers come up from the audience and worked through events in their lives to create a unique story. From this story he would extract words and sound bites. It was very insightful to see how quickly and expert in the field could position someone and create amazing marketing materials.
Saturday morning finished up with Don Crowther an internet marketing expert. Don gave the audience many tips and tricks for improving their internet presence and talked about the process of creating an online newsletter and carving out the time to write a book and get self published.
Saturday evening included a powerful one-woman theatrical keynote by Susie Vanderlip. Susie has spoken to one million teens and adults in 47 states and Canada over the past 14 years. Her standing ovation performance was mesmerizing. Her new book, 52 Ways To Protect Your Teen, should be on every parents booklist. The evening ended with the magic and comedy of Bruce Gold. Bruce had us laughing and then wondering… How did he do that?
Sunday included entrepreneurial expert Bill Wagner who offered an online personality test before the event. Bill has written a fascinating book entitled “The Entrepreneur Next Door,” which tied into the results of the personality test. In years of research Bill has identified an ideal entrepreneurial personality type. His thesis is the closer you can adapt your current personality to the ideal the more successful you will be.
I took the test and picked up the book. My personality type came out as a “Motivator,” which means I need to work on certain areas to increase my entrepreneurial skills. Specifically I need to focus on details and get the little things done. This is a very interesting book with practical steps to help you start and run a small business.
Sunday also included Internet consultant Phillipa Gamse, who critiqued many different speaker websites for content and flow. Her presentation was eye opening and it was interesting to see how many of the showcased websites were out of date or had links that didn’t work.
The conference ended up with keynote speaker Naomi Rhode and one of the most incredible speaking performances I have ever seen. Her performance had you laughing one minute and drawn to tears the next. Naomi & her husband travel all over the world speaking to influential audiences of business professionals. Her ending story about a monopoly game of life definitely left a lasting impression and she received a rousing standing ovation.
This is one weekend I will never forget. The talent was incredible and I left with a huge cache of ideas along with the inspiration to carry them out. If you live in the Southern California area bookmark the NSA website and plan to attend this annual event in September of 2007. You will not regret it!
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I appreciated your review of the symposium, it sounded so enriching. Dick Bruso will be at my local speaker’s meeting this Saturday and you have made me even more keen to see him.
Carry on with your successful work, today and tomorrow!
[...] (hat tip: Success Begins Today, who is also a Motivator) [...]
[...] Is there magic in the number 48? Does this number hold any significance in your future success? Speaker Don Crowther suggests that there is. In his presentation at the NSA Summer Symposium, Don told the audience that 48 minutes is the magic number. Here’s how it works… Set a timer for 48 minutes. Close out all distractions and work continuously for 48 minutes. When the timer goes off, get up and stretch, get coffee, use the restroom etc, in the following 12 minutes. Repeat as necessary. Don reports that this technique repeated four times a day allowed him to write a 200 page book in just two weeks. The ability to focus on one task for 48 minutes straight was the key. I have been testing Don’s idea and I have to say it works well for me. This eliminates the distractions that have a way of derailing even the best laid plans. Taking a short 12 minute break once an hour is refreshing but not enough to get you off track. [...]
September of 2007…I just might be able to make that John. Sounds like this year was electric! Thanks for sharing it with us.
Hope to see you there in 07 Phil. Well worth the money even if you have to fly in.
John
[...] Melanjutkan tulisan kemarin tentang Bekerja dalam Waktu yang Terbatas, dari successbeginstoday.org: The Power of 48 Minutes, Don Crowther dalam presentasinya di NSA Summer Symposium, mengatakan bahwa dengan mengeset 48 menit pada sebuah pewaktu, kemudian mengabaikan segala gangguan dan bekerja fokus pada rentang waktu tersebut, akan meningkatkan produktivitas kita. Dengan cara ini, yang dilakukannya secara kontinyu, Dia dapat menulis buku 200 halaman dalam waktu hanya 2 minggu. [...]
[...] Is there magic in the number 48? Does this number hold any significance in your future success? Speaker Don Crowther suggests that there is. In his presentation at the NSA Summer Symposium, Don told the audience that 48 minutes is the magic number. Here’s how it works… Set a timer for 48 minutes. Close out all distractions and work continuously for 48 minutes. When the timer goes off, get up and stretch, get coffee, use the restroom etc, in the following 12 minutes. Repeat as necessary. [...]
[...] Are you 48 minutes away from actually doing something? Is there magic in the number 48? Does this number hold any significance in your future success? Speaker Don Crowther suggests that there is. In his presentation at the NSA Summer Symposium, Don told the audience that 48 minutes is the magic number. Here’s how it works… Set a timer for 48 minutes. Close out all distractions and work continuously for 48 minutes. When the timer goes off, get up and stretch, get coffee, use the restroom etc, in the following 12 minutes. Repeat as necessary. [...]
[...] Is there magic in the number 48? Does this number hold any significance in your future success? Speaker Don Crowther suggests that there is. In his presentation at the NSA Summer Symposium, Don told the audience that 48 minutes is the magic number. Here’s how it works… Set a timer for 48 minutes. Close out all distractions and work continuously for 48 minutes. When the timer goes off, get up and stretch, get coffee, use the restroom etc, in the following 12 minutes. Repeat as necessary. Don reports that this technique repeated four times a day allowed him to write a 200 page book in just two weeks. The ability to focus on one task for 48 minutes straight was the key. I have been testing Don’s idea and I have to say it works well for me. This eliminates the distractions that have a way of derailing even the best laid plans. Taking a short 12 minute break once an hour is refreshing but not enough to get you off track. [...]
[...] Success Is Just A Click Away! « NSA Summer Symposium The Focused 50 [...]