Pam Rambo, Ed.D

NSA VA President 2012-13

Happy new year! NSA Va will ring in the new year with our January speaker, Monica Wofford. Monica was such a hit at the national NSA conference in July, Jim Gordon invited her to be with us this year. Our January workshop topic will be about books and blogs and how they relate to growing our businesses. Join your NSA Va. colleagues at the Richmond Airport DoubleTree Hotel on January 18 at 8am. Register by January 12 to take advantage of early bird workshop fee savings.

Our December holiday party, auction and photo shoot event was a huge success. The party provided a great opportunity for networking, updating professional pictures and shopping for all things speaker. Our national NSA CLC, Greg Williams, added to our auction items donated by NSA Va. members by soliciting items from NSA chapter liaisons and members. At last count, we raised $971 and there are a few items remaining that will be available by silent auction at the January meeting.

Your NSA Va. Board has been working on a comprehensive strategic plan under the direction of Dr. John Lewis. NSA Va. Past President Gloria Thomas will serve as the moderator for developing the strategic plan in January at the mid-year board retreat in Williamsburg. Your thoughts on vision or strategic planning for our association are welcome. Please contact any member of the board with your input.

Jim Gordon has been hard at work working with NSA'a eSpeakers staff to enhance our find-a-speaker function on our website. Jim has been working on this project most of this year. This project will require that we each take a few steps to update our information. Please read his article in this newsletter for details.

Don't forget to tell Dave Miles about your successes. We love to brag about you in our newsletter!

Want more Speaking business in 2013?

By Jim Gordon, NSA VA President Elect

Read no further if you have more 2013 business than you have time.

Most of us are looking for more bookings. If you are a member of NSA Virginia, here is a great opportunity. You can have a new profile on the new Find A Speaker page.

In this past spring, a Mid Atlantic Conference was looking for Virginia Speakers. Why? To help keep their costs low, they wanted Virginia Speakers who traveled within the state. That meant no airfare and no hotel costs for them. They searched the same Profiles that you can have and selected 2 Virginia Speakers - Jerry Teplitz and Jim Gordon.

Let's take a look at what our neighboring Chapter does to the south.

Go to www.nsacarolinas.org and click on Find A Speaker.

Now you have options. You can search Expert On (topic).

You can search Experienced In (industry). Or you can View All Speakers.

Look at any of the Carolinas Speakers. Their fee is posted. Their profile summary. What types of Social Media. Their headshot.

This is what your profile on our Find A Speaker can look like.

And this is how you can be found in your Topic or field of Experience.

How is this possible and what does it cost?

First the good news, there is no cost to you as NSA Chapter Members. Due to donations from your NSA Va Board Officers, the funding is complete.  You will need a Credit Card to activate your profile; however it will not be charged. How do I know that? My profile has been active since 2010 and my credit card has never been charged.

This program is available due to eSpeakers - the same company that does all the profiles for National Speakers Association. During the month of January 2013, you will be able to build your profile. You have the month of January to accomplish this next step to make you more visible. CLICK HERE to activate your eSpeakers profile today!

For more information, contact Jim Gordon (804)399-4444.

Tools of the Trade

By Dave Miles, NSA VA Publicity Chair

For the January issue, I wanted to look back on some of the technology we have looked at over the past few newsletters of 2012. We have looked at different online presentation software as an alternative to PowerPoint, such as Prezi (www.Prezi.com) to enhance your visuals during a speech. Most of us have utilized YouTube, SlideShare, Vimeo and other Web 2.0 tools to get our content out to the world. Also, for those interested in taking more of their business online through webinars, things such as BigMarker.com, WebEx.com, and GoToMeeting.com all have niche markets that they cater to for delivering quality online content. But this month, we are going to look at a speakers' tool that might help to re-tool your workshop and eLearning programs to fit a newer, more tech-savvy market.

We all know that Generation Y, or Millennials, are becoming a greater and greater force in the workplace. For a generation that grew up with technology and are as comfortable with it as we are with breathing air, a traditional workshop environment may not be the best way to engage this audience - especially since they are starting to become managers and can approve our proposals. One tool that I came across this past month that may help you develop your online training resources is Mindflash (www.Mindflash.com).

Mindflash allows you to take the content that you already have - PowerPoints, Video, Word documents, PDF's, etc. - and convert them into an online course that is available to anyone with internet access. They state that you can take your content (the way you designed it) and use it to create an engaging, online multimedia course. Along with being able to arrange your previous content as you see fit, Mindflash also allows you to add things like quizzes and surveys to your course. If you wish, you can narrate your training course by recording audio directly into the program that you set up.

Students can get automatic emails to remind them of the course and also use either their computer or iPad to work through course material at their convenience. Mindflash delivers a report to you on the activity of your trainees in real-time or you can get a snap-shot of the progress everyone is making. Similar to Prezi and some other tools, Mindflash works online in the cloud and there is no software to install on your computer.

Whether for standard, individual courses that you can set-up and sell from your own website or customized employee training for an organization, this is a tool that may help you multiply your time and efforts, decrease your travel time, and (hopefully) increase your revenue. This also may be a good tool to help you to engage new audiences by providing your specific workshop content in a format that they would prefer to have that content delivered to them.

Overall, the system looks good and there is a free trial to test out their features, but the ongoing charges seem a bit pricey. Saying that, if it can significantly reduce your travel and multiply your time by being able to offer your courses to multiple organizations and groups at the same time online, Mindflash may turn out to be a good investment to help grow your business.

Please pass along any interesting new 'tools of the trade' that you happen to come across that you would like to share with the NSA-Virginia family in upcoming newsletters to daveamiles@gmail.com.

Thanks,

Dave

• 15-Feb-13, Williamsburg, Putting Polish and Pizzazz in Your Next Presentation, Patrick Donadio, CSP

       Please note: As we strive to have the highest caliber of speakers, with that comes last-minute changes at times. Therefore, speakers and topics are subject to change. Watch your email for details on these meetings. Registrations for these workshops will be open soon! 

View Photos From Past NSA Virginia Workshops 

Welcome to Kg's Korner!!!

By Kittygale McMoon, NSA VA Librarian

As your Librarian, not only is it my job to track down and recapture wayward CDs, I believe I owe it to all of you wonderful NSA-Richmond Members to listen as much as I can to the different CDs in our Library; so, if you haven't had a chance to "explore" any of this endless treasure we have in the library, at least there will some exposure and a little "enlightenment" as to what is really here!!

Wow! What a perfect time to be listening to Jim Rhode's 2009 NSA Winter Conference CD entitled "Building the Ultimate Speaking Business--Planning Makes the Difference" !!

At the end of each year, don't all (or most of us) at least THINK about what we'd like to change to make life better in the New Year - this chance to "Start Over"?

How many would like a "Ready-Made" plan to ensure a successful Speaking Business in 2013, both monetarily and physically?

Jim and his wife are both extremely successful speakers, each in their own right. Jim was president of NSA in 2001 and has ALWAYS proposed that speakers manage their businesses so that there will be money left at the end of the year. They give us a lot to which to aspire.

In this CD, Jim points out that there are many "successful" speakers who get full fee and speak much throughout the year, who live well, do not save and have no money left at the end of the year.

Are you that speaker?

Well, perhaps this is the CD for you.

In less than a couple of hours, Jim lays out a very simple yet effective marketing and business plan. He goes on the assumption that, if one has "only" $99,000.00 left after all the bills are paid that he/she needs to change something and manage their business in a different way. The Reason? Because a Successful Speaker who manages his/her business correctly could earn upwards of $400,000.00 to $500,000.00 a year AND, even after taxes, have a lot more in the bank!! (I liked that part a lot!)

He talks about marketing, time planning, speaking, writing, budgeting, bookkeeping, saving; he, in effect, puts your business in a "picture frame" and, according to some who have followed his plan, gives us very simple, succinct guidelines.

As with anything, I imagine following his plan would mean following it as he says without changing anything to "cut a corner" for my convenience. Nobody says it will be easy; however, according to Jim   , it IS do-able.

I highly recommend the listening.

'til next time.....stay in the sunshine! DO have a wonderful, successful, healthy 2013!!!

And, remember......There's lots of "Good Stuff" in your Library Corner!

Debbie Bowie, Rock Paper Scissors Institute 

Clearing Clutter for Good is About Making a Difference

Clearing clutter for good is not about getting rid of clutter once and for all. After all, clutter clearing is an on-going process, not an event. However, with information and support it is possible to make clutter clearing a positive action 12 months of the year. How would your life and community be different if you made a conscious effort to clear clutter every single month of the year?

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© 2012 Clutter Clearing Community | Debbie Bowie

Author, Organizing Expert and Feng Shui Practitioner Debbie Bowie, is a leading authority on clutter clearing to attract more of what you want in your life. If you're ready to finally clear the clutter from your life and move your life forward, get your FREE TIP SHEET, "Feng Shui Organizing Tips to Attract Greater Health, Wealth and Abundance" when you join http://www.clutterclearingcommunity.com.

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By Joan Bowling, NSA VA Membership Chair