Past Programs

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• Watch the Video: Rock the Virtual Stage

  • Start
    Saturday, February 12, 2022
  • End
    Sunday, February 12, 2023
  • Location
    Zoom

  Register

  To watch the video, click the "register" button at left.

  Chapter Meeting -- Rock the Virtual Stage: Creating A Bookable and Memorable Online Experience
  Guest Speaker: Tony Chatman

  For decades, professional speakers have been known for the art of standing in front of a live audience and communicating their message. Many of us have spent years perfecting our craft knowing that what will often separate us from our competitors is the ability to improve the overall experience of a live event. And then, in an instant, everything changed.
  
  Meeting planners and event organizers are now looking for speakers who can present virtually.  Speakers who can connect with their audiences and deliver their message remotely, with impact. Those speakers whose message resonate in a virtual environment will be a sought-out commodity for years to come. Yet to think that it’s as simple as taking your in-person skills and stepping in front of a camera is a misunderstanding that can lead poverty.
  
  Tony says… "Trust me on this one, I had to transform quickly, just like you. In March, I watched as the world finally responded to Covid-19 and all of my speaking engagements vanished into thin air. After having a few conversations with clients, I started getting booked, but now these were virtual presentations. The very thing I’ve hated and tried to avoid for years. On top of that we were in quarantine and much of the technology I wanted to order was sold out everywhere. I had to figure it out and figure it out fast. From client trainings to the Influence 2020 Mainstage, I had to get it right or suffer a defeat I wasn’t willing to endure. Since COVID-19, almost every client who’s hired me has requested additional presentations leading to over 100 paid virtual presentations since the beginning of the pandemic."
  
  In this workshop, Tony guides you through some strategies and techniques that helped convert my in-person speeches and trainings into effective online presentations. Together, we covered:
  

  • The differences between in-person and virtual presentations along with strategies to convert your in-person talk to a virtual presentation and make you look like a superstar speaker
  • Ways to enhance your message through slides and visuals without devolving into death by PowerPoint
  • Simple and inexpensive technology that will make your virtual presentation stand out
  • Strategies for keeping the audience engaged regardless of the platform being used
  • What Tony has learned to request from each client to ensure that the presentations were a win for both of them
    

  As is a subject matter expert and recognized thought leader in the area of workplace relationships Tony Chatman has devoted his adult life to understanding what makes people tick, how to bring out the best in people (including ourselves), and how to pass this information on in simple, yet practical terms. Whether addressing our hidden biases, helping navigate disruption and change or providing leaders with skills that make them indispensable, Tony provides practical solutions that aligns with people’s real world experiences.
  
  Tony Chatman delivers presentations that are an entertaining and impassioned balance of both science and practical insight. His ability to help leaders, team members, and people from every background and diversity adopt empowering mindsets and strategies that allow them to adapt, reinvent, and transform the results they produce both personally and professionally. His profound ability to connect with every audience member ensures they come away feeling that he spoke directly to them and impacted by his message.
  
  Tony has worked with hundreds of corporations and government agencies including the U.S. Secret Service, The Department of Homeland Security, Chase Bank, Estée Lauder, and N.A.S.A., to help people reach new heights of effectiveness by understanding themselves and others better.
  
  Tony recently completed his first book: The Force Multiplier: How to Lead Teams Where Everyone Wins and in 2018 he delivered his first TEDx talk – How to Stop Settling for Less.
  

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• Watch the Video: Turning Uncertainty To YOUR Competitive Advantage

  • Start
    Friday, April 29, 2022
  • End
    Saturday, April 29, 2023
  • Location
    YouTube

  Register

  To watch the video, click the "register" button at left.

  THRIVE: Turning Uncertainty To YOUR Competitive Advantage
  Guest Speaker: Meridith Powell

  Competitive, challenging and constantly changing – that is today’s marketplace! To grow and compete you need a new perspective and a new approach to sales, marketing and business growth. In this high-energy, power-packed session, Motivational Speaker Meridith Elliott Powell shares the innovative strategies you need to redefine disruption, put you in the driver’s seat, and turn uncertainty to your competitive advantage.

  Based on research from her newest book, Thrive: Turning Uncertainty to Competitive Advantage, where Meridith studied nine companies (who started in the late 1700s to early 1800s) that are still thriving in business today. Businesses that have survived World Wars, Economic Depression, and yes, even a Pandemic. Her research revealed a powerful methodology for what it takes to navigate change at this level, to find opportunity in crisis, and how to inspire your members to move from reacting to change to driving it.

  In this program, Meridith walks you through the steps you need to strategically move forward, proactively prepare for disruptions, standout from the competition, and dominate your marketplace. You’ll leave this session with a personal strategy that ensures you have what you need to stay razor-like focused, highly flexible and ready to turn uncertainty to your competitive advantage.

  This keynote has it all – energy, engagement and an innovative, empowering message. Key Takeaways:
  

  • Meridith’s research based 9-STEP formula for Thriving in Uncertainty ™
  • Proven techniques for predicting the changes coming in the marketplace
  • Powerful strategies that ensure longevity and success inn highly volatile times.
  • Secrets to making the RIGHT and critical decisions that move your organization forward.
  • Personal plan of action to turn uncertainty to competitive advantage.

  About the Speaker
  Voted one of the Top 15 Business Growth Experts to watch by Currency Fair, Meridith Elliott Powell is an award-winning author, keynote speaker and business strategist. With a background in corporate sales and leadership, her career expands over several industries including banking, healthcare and finance. Meridith worked her way up from an entry-level position to earn her seat at the C-Suite table. She is Certified Speaking Professional, a designation held by less than twelve percent of professional speakers, and a member of the prestigious Forbes Coaching Council.
   
  She has a cutting-edge message, rooted in real-life examples and real-world knowledge. She is the author of four books, including Winning In The Trust & Value Economy (a finalist in the USA Best Book Awards) and her latest Own It: Redefining Responsibility – Stories of Power, Freedom & Purpose about how to build cultures the inspire ownership at every level to create profits at every turn. Meridith writes, speaks and is passionate about helping her clients understand everything they need to know about how to make this economy start working for them.
   
  High energy and highly interactive, Meridith’s keynote will help leaders and business owners learn the new rules of success today. Including how today’s economy has changed, how that has changed today’s customers and employees, and specifically how that impacts your business.
   
  In her highly engaging keynote-speaking sessions, Meridith shows her audiences how to attract more business, retain top talent, and leap into position to win in this new economy. No walking on coals, no breaking boards, just real-life strategies you can put into place first thing Monday morning.
  

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• Watch the Video: Embrace the Change: 15+ Sticky Strategies that Engage Today's Diverse Audience with Lenora Billings Harris, CSP, CPAE

  • Start
    Tuesday, September 20, 2022
  • End
    Wednesday, September 20, 2023
  • Location
    Zoom

  Register

  To watch the video, click the "register" button at left.

  Embrace the Change: 15+ Sticky Strategies that Engage Today's Diverse Audience
  Guest Speaker: Lenora Billings Harris, CSP, CPAE

  Do your presentations, blogs, articles, books, and videos reflect your understanding that your audience is diverse? Do you conduct a diversity and inclusion check much like you would use spell-check? If you want your message to relate to the broad diversity of people in your audience, watch Lenora’s fun yet straight forward session to discover tips and techniques to help you connect in a way that builds on the concept of belonging and inclusion. Her illustrations and suggestions can be applied to any learning environment in-person or virtual no matter what the topic. It is surprisingly easy!
  

  During this engaging, content-rich session you will experience creative ways to apply the principles and techniques of inclusion that grab your audience’s attention and keeps it. Join past NSA president and past Global Speakers Federation president Lenora Billings-Harris, CSP, CPAE to enhance your ability to deliver powerful messages that stick long after the session has ended.
  

  Takeaways: You will leave this session with...
  

  • At least 15+ easy methods to make sure your message is relevant to diverse groups 
  • Illustrations that relate to you and your audience
  • Great ideas from colleagues  
  • A handout filled with tips and suggestions

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• Watch the Video: Leveraging Laughter in Stories for Connection and Impact with Tim Gard, CSP®, CPAE

  • Start
    Tuesday, November 15, 2022
  • End
    Wednesday, November 15, 2023
  • Location
    your computer

  Register

  To watch the video, click the "register" button at left.

  Leveraging Laughter in Stories for Connection and Impact
  Guest Speaker: Tim Gard, CSP®, CPAE

  Hall of Fame speaker Tim Gard is someone who can find the funny almost anywhere and you can too! You will be excited to know that you don't need more stories. You just need to discover how to make your existing stories funnier. You can do that with Tim's three-step process. Discover how to build humor into stories for training events or the main stage and how to take the humor you currently use and make it funnier and have more impact. Why stop when you get a giggle? With a little bit of work a funny story becomes a hilarious signature story that can get you booked again and again. Several participants will have the opportunity to tell a story during the session and have Tim demonstrate his process and help you find the funny in it.

  1.    How to be able to consistently build humor into stories
  2.    Building humor stories using Tim’s bell curve premise.
  3.    How to identify good humor and avoid bad humor

  Tim Gard, CSP®, CPAE is a tears-in-your-eyes-laugh-out-loud speaker who teaches people to be more resilient and resourceful and coaches’ businesses on how to enhance productivity and employee enthusiasm. Talented, innovative and memorable, Tim provides amazing take-home value delivered with his one-of-a-kind presentation style. Tim "walks his talk" as a successful business owner himself for more than 20 years. Before starting his business, he worked in the sales industry, as well as State and Federal Government in Human Services, as a fraud investigator and is a navy veteran. Recognized as a pioneer in humor-based training. Tim is a certified speaking professional (CSP) & a member of the Speaker Hall Of Fame, an elite honor held by fewer than 150 speakers worldwide. The author or co-author of Just Plane Funny, My Policy Manual, Motivational Leaders, and Humor Me, Tim humorously delivers messages as universal as his audiences are diverse.

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• Watch the Video: Power Tools for A Profitable Speaking Business with Crystal Washington, CSP

  • Start
    Tuesday, November 29, 2022
  • End
    Wednesday, November 29, 2023
  • Location
    your computer

  Register

  To watch the video, click the "register" button at left.

  Power Tools for A Profitable Speaking Business
  Guest Speaker: Crystal Washington, CSP®
  

  Having a successful and sustainable speaking business requires more than simply rocking the stage. Developing systems and policies are key! Let Crystal Washington, CSP share some of the most powerful and underutilized tools for extraordinary business growth. Whether you are a new speaker or a seasoned veteran, you'll learn new ways to leverage old tools and the coolest new tech for business growth. During this event, you will:
  

  1. Discover how to create a system for prospecting
  2. Learn the best tools for event management
  3. Uncover how to market yourself to grow your business

  Crystal Washington, CSP works with organizations that want to leverage technology to increase profits and productivity!
  

  As a technology strategist and certified futurist, Crystal takes complex social media, app, and web topics and makes them easy to understand and accessible for everyday people. Crystal’s clients comprise Fortune 500 companies including Google, Microsoft, and GE, and as a sought-after keynote speaker, she has entertained and educated audiences around the globe.
  

  As one of Forbes’ 50 Leading Female Futurists, She appears weekly on season two of the Emmy nominated show, Life 2.0 and she’s appeared in numerous publications including Entrepreneur and Bloomberg Businessweek. She is regularly called on by major television networks as a tech expert.
  

  Crystal is the author of the books One Tech Action and The Social Media Why.

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• Watch the Video: Use the Power of Facilitation to Grow Your Speaking Business! with Eddie Turner, CSP®

  • Start
    Thursday, December 15, 2022
  • End
    Friday, December 15, 2023
  • Location
    your computer

  Register

  To watch the video, click the "register" button at left.

  Use the Power of Facilitation to Grow Your Speaking Business!
  Guest Speaker: Eddie Turner, CSP®
  

  Increasingly, meeting planners are asking for it.  Audiences are demanding it.  What is it? More interaction from speakers! 

  It is no longer enough to be the “sage on the stage.” The highly-paid speakers have discovered that the key to engaging audiences is to become a facilitative speaker—both in delivering keynotes and training and in customized workshops that follow these events.  The COVID-19 pandemic forced everyone to pivot to virtual work and virtual programming.  This increases the need for speakers to master the power of facilitation. This program explains and demonstrates how professional speakers can use the power of facilitation to grow their speaking business.
  

  1. Define facilitation and why it matters for speakers.
  2. Identify opportunities for facilitation.
  3. Explain methods and techniques appropriate for speakers.

  Eddie Turner is an in-demand leadership development expert who works with leaders as an executive coach, facilitator, and speaker to “Accelerate Performance and Drive Impact!”®   For the last two years, he has been ranked in the Top 10 on the Top 30 List of Motivational Speakers by Global Gurus.

  He is a Certified Speaking Professional™ (CSP®), who has spoken at 10 NSA Chapters, the NSA Winter Conference, been featured on NSA’s Voices of Experience, and written for Speaker Magazine. He has held several leadership roles in his local NSA chapter and is in his second year of service on the National CSP® Committee.

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• Watch the Video: What I Learned from Winning 29 Emmys that Speakers Need to Know!

  • Start
    Wednesday, January 25, 2023
  • End
    Thursday, January 25, 2024
  • Location
    Online

  Register

  To watch the video, click the "register" button at left.

  What I Learned from Winning 29 Emmys that Speakers Need to Know!
  Guest Speaker: Bill Stainton, CSP, CPAE

  There are three elements to any presentation: the Structure, the Content, and the Delivery. Bill Stainton has won Emmy Awards as a producer (the structure), a writer (the content), and a performer (the delivery). Find out how a 29-time Emmy Award winner applies the lessons he learned from the world of television (and from pals like Jay Leno, Ellen DeGeneres, and Jerry Seinfeld) to his presentations, and how you can do the same. 

  By attending NSA-MN’s January program, You will learn:
  

  • How to think like a producer when crafting your presentations
  • How to structure your presentations for maximum effect
  • How to utilize predictable unpredictability to keep your audiences awake and interested
  • A simple rule to help you plan your openings and closings
  • How to use the secrets of comedy writers to make your speeches and stories come alive
  • How to use acting tips to turn your presentation into a performance

  Bill Stainton, CSP, CPAE is a 29-time Emmy Award winner and Hall of Fame keynote speaker who produced the longest-running, highest-rated, and most award-winning regional comedy TV show in the United States. Today he speaks, writes, and consults about innovation, creativity, and breakthrough thinking.

  Agenda
  8:00 – Check-in and Registration
  8:30 – Complimentary Buffet Breakfast
  8:45 – Welcome
  9:00 – NSA-MN Chapter Announcements/Mentor Minutes Interview
  9:30 – Featured Speaker Presentation
  12:00 – Closing

  Remember, NSA-MN’s theme for this year is AMPLIFY:
  AMPLIFY:
  • Your message
  • Your business
  • Your impact 

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