Hello everyone! This month we will do something a little different and look to the future instead of a recap of the last event. But first, a hearty thank you to Christine Cashen, who delighted us with her upbeat, humorous, and beneficial talk at our April chapter meeting. Many of us walked away with concrete ways to up our game. Thank you, Christine!
June marks the end of the year for our chapter. And it has been an outstanding year. With Kathi Kulesza at the helm as president, we have had the opportunity to come together each month to network with each other, hear some of the best speakers from around the country, and share their knowledge in various aspects of our business. From making demo reels, and adaptive selling to being part of a live Speakernomics podcast, we have had a wealth of information most only dream of getting. I don’t know about you, but I walk away from our events every month, thinking it was the best.
If you haven’t taken the time to participate in the online Biz Lab, please take the time to do so. These events provide that shot in the arm we sometimes need to move forward. In addition, we got to spend time with leaders in their field, giving us golden nuggets in areas like Selling Strategies and Tactics and How To Leverage LinkedIn.
It has been a year of learning, building relationships, and community. Behind the scenes, a group of people have dedicated themselves to growing their skills in professional speaking. The Speaker’s Academy has been meeting twice a week since October. They will each present an eight-minute keynote speech at our end-of-year chapter event in June. Let’s take a look behind the scenes at what the group has been doing.
George Gilbert, the leader of the Speaker’s Academy, has given great insight into the speaker world. He has shared his wisdom and provided the team with a fantastic array of highly successful speakers to work with the group as well. We kicked the year off with an intensive two days with Dr. Jeff Magee, who wowed us with his knowledge of Sales Mastery. That weekend alone was worth the price of admission for this fundamental skills training. We were visited by Judy Moreo, taught the power of the story by Patricia Fripp, and we got to sit in the front row as Marilyn Sherman gave us her tips for success. Mark Stiving taught us the power of pricing, and we got to spend time with Darren LaCroix in another weekend intensive that motivated everyone.
But it wasn’t all fun and games. We had to work on learning how to sell our expertise. We had to make calls, many, many calls. And we were giving free talks to organizations to get the experience needed to grow into our own personal power as a speaker.
Maria Marinakas is a Speaker Academy member this year, and she has this to say:
“I joined the Academy as an opportunity to start from scratch and reinvent myself and my speaking career with a new focus. I discovered that reinvention takes many twists and turns before the big ‘a-ha’ happens that brings us right back to the beginning – much like the famous quote from T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets: A Poem:
‘We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.’”
So, our time in the Academy is almost over. We hope you will come out on June 10 to cheer us on as we share our message with you. It will be an amazing event. Each academy graduate gets stage time, we have two amazing keynote speakers, and the chapter will welcome in the new Board of Directors and honor two members with an annual award. I hope to see you there.
Have a happy, healthy, and fruitful month,
Trish Kruse
Evolve With Purpose
