Professional Speakers Association: London Chapter: News
London Chapter: News | President | Events | Committee ADDED VALUE, ENERGY AND VIBRANCY ALWAYS FROM THE LONDON CHAPTER OF THE PROFESSIONAL SPEAKERS ASSOCIATION.
Read synopses of our high profile events here....
2008
February
Best speakers are never satisfied! Visualise your goal (results in 7 days!) Delay Selling Your Price & Earn More!
Sounds trite doesn't it. But no, proven stuff to a crowded house managed with panache by Carole's temporary stand in Chris Royston, and the return of many favourite faces.
Robin Sieger mixed emotion with techniques in a notably and understated English way to illustrate his steps to world stagecraft. Know success as the realisation of goals and aspirations. Pre gig butterflies are good, but think love, joy, and positive attitude just as you step on the boards. Practice, the best speakers are never self satisfied. Become good at dealing with travel damaged audiences. Take risks, be willing to fail, and don't let your ego go on show.
Bruce King presented his showcase, on visualisation. Where do you want to get to? Visualise yourself actually being there! Bruce shared the story of how his daughter got her 1st Choice college using this principle. How? Simply set 15 minutes aside. Relax for 2 minutes and clear your mind. Spend the next 13 thinking in pictures where you want to be. Come out of this, use the visualisation to act differently, and results could come in a little as 7 days. Try it!
A Greek seller of honey sells jars at 4 euros each. "I'll take 5" you cry. "What's the discount?" The seller replies there is no discount. You pay her 20 euros quite happily. How did she persuade you? Chris Merrington shares the techniques.
Chris counsels delay - don't be too quick to reveal your price. And Chris talks about situations - imagine 2 seats. Put yourself in their seat. What do they really want. Don't discount - give options (but no more than 3) By understanding them, you sell more effectively!
The honey seller avoided the discount because she listened to Chris Merrington speaking about earning more. She simply said "my jars of honey are the best in Greece!"
That's the magic of PSA London. Practical detailed and proven means to reach aspirational goals. Every month.
2007
PSA London Day - 13th October
Step inside the speaker ring!
Acquire your success dream team!
Journey to world champion in your chosen profession!Three themes capturing todays contributions of ex-world boxer Billy Schwer, Time Management for Mums speaker Alison Mitchell, and PSA President Reg Athwell.
Reg's speech - 'What is Your Purpose as a Speaker?' covered innovative ways to remake, remodel repackage knowledge, and actions to take when revenues trail off. Reg got into Human Potential, and Sales and Team Themes, using a Narrow Deep strategy to win the fees. Reg's 8-Profiles analysis became his new speaking topic, and his one-to-one microprograms created retainer revenues.
Our energetic and poetic 10 mins Showcase by Alison Mitchell was aimed at Time Management for Mums. Taking things out from the basket of life, and decluttering mum's daily diary. Make your 24 hours count as it did for J K Rowling.
World championship boxer Billy Schwer gave a riveting speech as a kid from Luton determined to come out on top. The speech, covering his journey so real you could feel it. Billy spoke about his rise to the top, his career end, a spiral into post champ depression, and a fight back to his new speaking career where 'instead of being rewarded for bashing people up, Billy is now rewarded for helping them improve. A gritty speech from a warm hearted individual.
Every PSA session is unmissable in it's own way, and there was much learning here today.
September
Build Your Image, Communicate with Customers, and Phoning Sells Your WaresTwo very informative sessions aimed at helping members' speaking businesses highlighted today's London PSA Session. Rikki Arundel covered her informative inner secrets session full of up-to-the-minute technical 'How To...' advice aimed squarely at energising your customer communications, and help get your speaking profile found on the PSA website. How and when to use email & Blogging, getting yourself on UTube, building a community who will visit and buy from your site with social bookmarking sites – Rikki make a complicated subject easy and showed us how to capitalise on it all. Simply presented, with great resources, Rikki's session was PSA sharing at it's best!
A hushed room then listened to Barry Graham of Speakers Corner, & PSA London Founder. Barry presented a honed and crafted speech on 10 Steps to Build a Brand, based on 10 years of building his Speakers Corner business, covering plus points and mistakes made. As we listened, spellbound, to a vintage speech Barry's audience takeaways kept growing. Why image is crucial, get a great address (even if you can only afford the cellar), smart logo design pays, make the phone calls, list your clients on your marketing communications, and more.
Champagne celebrations followed, and the afternoon closed with a collection of roundly excellent material to boost our businesses.
PSA National Day - Bonnington Hotel - 29th June
Did you know that the reason why there is so little written material from early Greek history is because they trained themselves to remember, and not write anything down? This is how Nick Oulton opened his Killer Powerpoint Presentation session, showing how mixing memory tricks from ancient Greek days combined with the latest in ‘chunk it down’ mnemonic and visual learning techniques create Powerpoint presentations that are truly unforgettable. Just what you (and the ancient Greeks) would have wanted!
Love the Sound Guy else risk on stage death by a thousand vocal mis-haps. Fergus McClelland took us behind the sound scenes and demonstrated precision technology that lets your audience share your great speech from the opening syllable to the closing applause. Equalised microphones, mixing desks, acoustic damping, music beds, record yourself, Podcasting, sound level checks, and what NOT to leave switched on. There but for the grace of the Sound Guy goeth us all. Love them before you speak or risk the sound of a (hot) flush!
Terry Brock put on a barnstormer of a session, decrypting the mystique of speaker technology to build relations that sell. Tearing through the AV gear, Terry took us from interview to edited, bulleted video in seconds, describing the tools, tips, and techniques to place you on the silver screen in seconds. Best cameras to use, video mixing software, latest scanning tools. Be connected whilst on the move – Terry discussed latest communications developments that let you move global and act local, with tips such as Skype and local numbering. Top RoI investment this year? Get good at Video!
PSA Day Bonnington Hotel - 9th June
Personality is Brand! It what people say about you, but you want it to be right. Lesley Everett took us through aspects of branding that are still quite new. Write down and order your personal style, colours, motivations quirks, and then vary the order – but keep a consistent theme running through. Lesley described herself as small in stature as a child, and made up for it with a long bright tie. From there it was a simple step to her brand ‘Walking Tall’ with the Giraffe logo. Thought provoking, and the learning comes from reflecting on Lesley’s words.
The first Q & A discovered there are Two Graham Jones. Both speak on similar subjects, have the same publisher, and big audiences. Good to have a stand-in Graham. The session revealed you should talk to TV interviewers in 12-15 second soundbytes, that www.lulu.com is a great place to go for book self-publishing, and did you know, bigger book deals are now going to the self-published authors.
Jeremy Jacobs tried out his new showcase aimed at how to make positive prospecting phone calls – simple practical phrases that cut through rejections, ring before 9 and after 5, and the alternative close.
The top session of the day was given over to Cathy O’Dowd’s climb of Mount Everest. In absolute silence we listened as Cathy spoke about team difficulties, delayed gear, pay a Sherpa to take you to the top, summit fever, (One way ticket to the mountain top for you and I), and Nelson Mandela’s just in time motivational phone call. With staggering photographs to view we all really felt we were there. A top presentation from a fine speaker.
Negotiate your place in the sun with PSA London - 5th May
Strictly practical was today’s theme. Derek Arden took us through negotiation tactics to help you ensure the best deal for your speaking services. We were treated to the inside story on corridor conversations, why buying the other party coffee in Starbucks might make them reciprocate more generously, and if anyone has a time problem, make sure it isn’t you. Don’t say £3,000. They might say £2,500. Say £2,997. They might say £2,900. Have tradeables, avoid painting yourself in a corner, and always have cards to play. Fascinating.
Printing and self-publishing was next. Need business Cards in a hurry? Go to Vista Print, you can have them for free. Want to publish a book. Never been easier with Demand.com – they have publishers that’ll even sort you out a cover, with prices to die for!
Tim Kidson covered transforming performance in a knowledge based economy. The old rules are gone – today it’s bullseye targeting your objectives, be close to your colleagues, bring your team and stakeholders with you, and clarity of purpose rules the day. Check out Tim’s new Petbite formula for success.
Graham Jones had an interesting problem – how to deliver 5 days straight presentation without a let up without mental fatigue setting in? A storm of solutions were offered, sleep well, diet for duration, water gives energy, lots of sex, use workshops to give yourself a break. And this touched on one of the endearing facets of PSA – so much right on the money advice from skilled members, and always available to help you overcome challenges grow your business, and get your place in the sun – but only at PSA London!
January
From the heat of the Moroccan Desert PSA Fellow Clive Gott invited us to life as a triathlete and motivator – you felt the North African Sun burning on your forehead. And that is how Clive operates. Walk the course, infuse it into his motivational speaking, simple and effective!
Clive’s three messages:
- What is the One Thing I am Best At? Why Concentrate on something I am not good at?
- The Law of Abundance works with Networking
- Whatever you believe in – absolutely – will present itself as your truth
The Q & A is now established as THE forum to get questions answered by experts. Video camera selection loomed large in this one. Mindy Gibbons-Klien’s new Showcase was pure stress relief for Niche driven speakers. Don’t Seek Unique! she argued in succinct tones. ‘Be the best you can be.’ Don’t search for a niche that none may follow.
Michael Tipper organised us to process information and halve the time it takes to read. Absorbing stuff. Overfull in-tray? Place in a large envelope and post it to yourself - focus on the task at hand. Mind Mapping – yes, the audience remembered 40 items about Marco Polo’s trip to China from 1 single mind map. Read That Book In Half The Time. How? Clump words together. And watch understanding ratchet up to meet the accelerated pace. A real treat for all attendees!
Can’t wait for February 17th to hear Sean Brickell, Roger Evans and Heather Bradley..!
2006
In June we were treated to a rare double helping of Masterclasses - more... In the morning the ubiquitous Frank Furness not only told us how to develop product, he demonstrated it AND showed us how to sell. He was a 'sell-out' in all ways as he actually ran out of the products he brought to show us!
In the afternoon the wonders of Mo Shapiro again demonstrated how we can change ourselves and choose to extend ourselves and our businesses beyond our comfort zones. We were treated to both Mo doing 'Mama Mia' and also the delightful Victoria Wood that she does so well.
We had lots of guests at this meeting and many of them stood up to share the value they got from being with us. As always we had trouble getting people to go home at the end!
July was a meeting with a difference – the Masterclass meant we had to get up and do things. John Cremer, master improvisation coach, didn’t tell us how to do it – he MADE us do it. Every single one of us had to get up and take part in various improvisation scenarios. Our guests were amazing as they jumped in the deep end with the rest of us and got involved; although I’m not sure the Irene was quite ready for Rod Sloane to take his clothes off!
The second half of the day gave our showcase presenter, Jack Butler, tons of valuable feedback on honing his presentation so it really hit the spot. Jack educated us about Generation Y, and how to direct the talents and energies of these school and university leavers.
Then we had Levi Attias, all the way from Gibraltar, who spoke with passion and shared his experiences. Levi was an engaging speaker, full of anecdotes and stories that demonstrated just how to connect with your audience.
Despite the World Cup final AND the Wimbledon Ladies final – we had a healthy band of members and guests and had a HUGE amount of fun and learning – as always.
We even managed to stop our resident poet, David Adams, leaving for his next appointment long enough to share his musings before the meeting closed.
August provided a different flavour.
If you haven't got a blog that you update every few days, you're not really a professional speaker. That was the controversial view of Graham Jones, the Internet Psychologist, when he spoke at the London Chapter recently. He said that blogging was just the same as professional speaking - telling people "stuff" they'd find useful and interesting. Graham explained that the best way of blogging for speakers was to use a service called Blogger.com; he said that the other possibilities were either too complex or they were costly. He was a real enthusiast for blogging and showed that with a blog you can get more bookings for your speeches and workshops.
Paul Bridle rarely speaks to speakers; indeed he has never spoken at a London Chapter meeting before, in spite of being the former President of the PSA and the first President of the International Federation. However, Paul agreed to speak to our Chapter because he had some things he wanted to share with speakers. One of the most important of these was a significant piece of learning he had made within his own business. When he stopped doing research on his subject, leadership, his speaking bookings went down. The fact that he was an expert as a result of his research was why he was booked. Once he re-started his research programme, his business soared again. He also made it clear that you need to charge appropriate fees and that you need to be serious about being 'professional'.
September gave us Graham Davies who gets paid for being right, not polite. Today he spoke in no uncertain terms – about the dangers of uncertain terms! Anyone in business needs a properly drafted contract. And the speaking business in no different. He gave us the specific wording that will carry weight in law to ensure prompt payment as well as how to adapt a general contract for specialised events and bookings.
Rob Brown told us to make ourselves into the 'go to' speaker in our field. He demonstrated how need to stand out from the competition as well as avoiding common pitfalls – and how to can start to earn a bigger share of that £10 billion speaking market. All of that with songs as well....what more could we ask for!
In his 10 minute showcase, Ayd Instone told us how to apply heavyweight creative insights into the product and the problem so that we would arrive at a solution that will position us decisively ahead of the field.
October was an excellent session thanks to luminaries such as Nigel Risner and Rod Sloan generously sharing their insider secrets –pacy, informative, great learning, and crackled at times.
Nigel Risner gave us a storming PSA insider slant on his IMPACT Keynote, entreating us to be persistent in adversity, 120% passionate, getting us to ASK - calling us to action, creating our 3 Musts and 20 other ideas. The ideas are still settling.
As we get to Winter, Carole's open session turned up some unexpected ideas on beating colds, (blog this anyone?) moving PSA members books to the top shelf at WH Smiths, speech outro tactics to finish on a high, and writing Amazon reviews.
Rod Sloane took us on his speaker journey, invited us to compare our earning power with Tube Drivers, (surely tunnel vision can't pay better..?) and invited us to consider how well we implement our actions. Getting the right audience constituents wins business, why the Who-What-How triangle spells the difference between winning engagements or going hungry, magic emails mean enquiries, post cards work, calling retainers continuity programs and a devastating blast through his engagement winning Presentation Folder.
Back to more hints, tips and ways to help - but just how do you help David Adams sort out his own 67 offers of help after he advertised for admin help on Ecademy? Maybe he could use some help...!
November brought with it 46 Hours investment in sharper sales techniques, from Craig Goldbatt who opened the day in lively style. Craig effortlessly raced through simple 'book a lunch' techniques to get 5 top customers to introduce 25 fired up prospects, selling Showcases, and finding 'Freds..'. Hints and tips really did pour from this session!
Check the Contract... a cautionary aside. Speaking for a fee is clearly our goal, but, check engagement terms. Make sure you collect for your work, not the organiser...
Ron Rosenhead's Showcase on Gaining Project Management Buy-in lightened up a topic not noted for riveting appeal. A measured session left the audience quite perfectly convinced that if Ron had managed the New Wembley, we'd have it by now.
Then a thought-provoking session by Ravi Arora on 'Leadiology'. Not at all what one might imagine. Ravi's position? By getting your biochemical, physical, and emotional states aligned, you optimise your capacity to lead and build your inner strength.
Another great takeaway value day. I now have 7 pages of notes to turn into action this month. And if I should find all those lunches with my 25 new prospects are sapping my leadership capacity, Ravi, I know who I will turn to!
In December London's Theatreland would have been envious of the high comedy marking the PSA's London Chapter's Year End memorable session on December 8th.
The morning session was given over to Jim Ewan, long known by audiences for his stage presents. Jim also spoke about Reverso - his method for success. For example, from 'I'm not getting paid therefore I must be a rubbish speaker', to 'I'm not getting paid.... Why not.' Change your model. Make up a new one, with a £5,000 invoice attached to it.
John Cremer - King of Improv followed, and John is high entertainment. He told us about Stagecraft, which was Face the audience, Speak the words, then shared 'The Three Techniques of Improve'
John's Home Shopping Sketch was a hoot and the sunk Nuclear Submarine sketch brought the house down, before entrepreneur and magician Simon Zutshi demonstrated Improv at its best when on being introduced by Jim Ewan - vanished!
Starring as Lady Lush (confidence is my middle name), Mo Shapiro read out a series of inner secrets from her named clients (by name actually!), and with Tracey Plaice did their eternally popular Victoria Wood impersonation. Tracey talked about thinking outside the musical box, and by bringing something different you’re you’re your childhood days can make your presentation more 'you'.
Mike Southon, show cased his old Fab Gear rainbow jacket (which unlike Audrey Hepburn's dress, would not sell for £410,000 at any auction) and introduced the afternoon's star turn from Mike and Penny Gordon - Snow White and the Seven Small Professional Speakers - a visual feast of delight that saw our Lady President lampooned as a Christmas Tree, and fine upstanding speaker Jim Ewan looking wonderfully ridiculous as Superman on steroids! Back to Mike and he gave us his inner secrets to getting email actually opened and read!
So with an occasion that eclipsed London Theatreland's finest, PSA London ushered out the old year!
TESTIMONIALS
The showcase is a fantastic opportunity to get the critical feedback and support of an audience which knows its stuff. The sheer number of suggestions I got from my July set was really useful from ideas about dress and platform mechanics, to the notion that there maybe wasn’t enough in my piece for reflectors or pragmatists. Things which just never would have occurred to me. How often do you think you really get to hear what an audience thinks? With a PSA showcase, that’s exactly what you get and, if you’re willing to listen and open up, the scope for learning is huge. Thank you PSA London for your time and thoughts, I very much appreciate it. Jack Butler
The PSA meeting in London was amazing. Carole, well done to you and your team for filling the room with so many new faces and providing an action packed, information filled day. The atmosphere was electric and everyone was buzzing. Keep up the great work... Frank Furness CSP http://www.frankfurness.com/
.....Just email me to find out the date of the next meeting....
Do join us...and learn how to multiply your income through professional speaking.
Regards
Carole Spiers President PSA (London Chapter) www.carolespiers.com
Professional Speakers Association
8 Wyaston Gardens, Willow Meadow Road, Ashbourne, Derbyshire. DE6 1HH
Telephone: +44 (0) 845 3700 504 Fax: +44 (0) 845 3700 503E-mail: