Takeaways from NSA National Convention Influence 2011

Presenters: Shirley Taylor and Pamela Wigglesworth

Reviewed by David Goldwich

Our leading ladies, President Shirley Taylor and Vice President Pamela Wigglesworth, shared some of the many things they took away from the NSA Convention “Influence’11” in California.

Shirley kicked off the session by highlighting some of former NSA President Glenna Salsbury’s opening keynote, “The Essence of Presence.” Glenna’s message was about delivering your truth and being authentic to connect with your audience. Animportant part of that is telling your story using the PSA formula: make your Point, elaborate it with a Story, and help the audience Apply it.

Les Brown also spoke on storytelling. It was obvious that Pamela was a big fan of his as she enthusiastically recounted some of his nuggets of wisdom:

“Whatever you focus on longest will be the strongest,”
“Chase down your passion like it’s the last bus of the night,” and the crowd favourite

“If you’re the smartest person in the room, you need to find a new group of friends.”

Lou Heckler donned baseball attire to demonstrate how being a successful speaker is like playing catcher. There are three skills involved: Awareness, Adaptability, and Acuity. Perhaps the most interesting point was Shirley’s revelation that Lou had some notes placed inconspicuously on his baseball bench prop. This is a good reminder that you connect with your audience through authenticity, and you need not memorise and rehearse your speech like you’re playing Shakespeare.

Pamela continued with her take on Terri Sjodin’s persuasive presentation entitled, oddly enough, “Persuasive Presentations.” Terri says your presentation needs to appeal to Boomers, the current batch of kids, and everyone in between. In the sales context, this is best done one on one. And as we live in the internet age where information is everywhere, you need to focus on the persuasive elements.

Larry Winget, aka the “Pitbull of Personal Development,” says content and talent are both overrated, and even speaking skills get in the way. As speakers, we need to hit our audience with our message right away, and give them an experience. We each need to own something – a look, a topic – be unique!

We closed with some of Stephen Gaffney’s ideas for sales success. For example, don’t assume a prospect is not interested because you haven’t heard from them – get on the phone (not e-mail!) and talk to them. And don’t be afraid to ask them about their budgetso you won’t burn it all. Just two good ideas out of many.

We concluded with an appreciation for the need to develop all kinds of products, especially digital products, mini-books, and bundles. This was the essence of Rebecca Morgan’s presentation on “Making Money in Your Jammies.”