Increase your productivity up to 40%

Did you read Stephen Covey's "7 Habits of Highly Effective People"?

Our colleague Richard Morreale reminded us of it at last week's NSA/Carolinas meeting.

Richard has a matrix planning guide to help you get more done.

Do you often feel there's too much to do? Where do you start?

Here's a simple idea. List urgent and important tasks. Do them first.

Now list other tasks that aren't necessarily urgent but important.

Do them next. Then list the urgent but not important ones.

These are the ones someone else wants you to do. Say "no" to them.

Finally list the ones that are neither urgent nor important.

Ignore them. They are time wasters. Your time's too valuable.

Now list urgent and important tasks as your daily priorities.

The urgent and important ones get top priority.

The important but not urgent ones come next.

With a plan for the day, you'll get more done than you expect.

To contact Richard, go to Richard@RichardMorreale.com

Ask him to email you a matrix to help you set priorities.

Great meeting...

The meeting on Saturday was great. The improv workshop led by Tim Dumas on Friday night was fun and educational. Tim knows his stuff and he was able to have us participate in an exercise and then explained how to use it and make the most of it.

Darren LaCroix conducted a product development workshop on Saturday that gave me, and everyone else in attendance, a long list of things to do on Monday. Of course, we should not be surprised since he is a past world champion of public speaking and enjoys to his credit one of the best selling tapes for an NSA convention event. The program he did for us derived from that NSA presentation.

If you were unable to join us I hope you got high value out of whatever it was you are doing. I am disappointed you couldnt be with us and hope you will join us for coming events.

Your Board had a lively board meeting on Friday afternoon discussing programming and I look forward to sharing details with you in the coming days.

Come See Us In September

Our quarterly meeting is on September 12 and 13.

I hope you attended the national convention because it was a good one. Of course, there is simply too much for me to relate to you in this post but I can tell you this. Come to our next meeting and it will be equally worth your time and money. Okay, Charlotte isn’t Times Square but we know you don’t come for the sights anyway. You come for two things; knowledge and networking. I assure you that there will be plenty of both.
The improv workshop on Friday night is going to be a blast. You will laugh, you will learn, and you will become a better speaker because of what you learn. On Saturday we will focus on product development. Let’s face it, we all appreciate a little passive income and this session will give you the tools you need to begin building alternative streams of revenue for your business.
Finally, congratulations to our own Denise Ryan for earning her CSP designation. Our Chapter continues as one of the strongest in the association and certification is testimony to that fact. Your attendance helps keep it strong.
I know you are busy but I hope you will make the choice to be with us in Charlotte where you will get knowledge and relationships you can Use On Monday.

Contact any Bart Queen, Laura Hamilton or me if you want to learn more.

The Carolinas Chapter has a new CSP

Denise Ryan has earned her CSP! She received this honor at the convention in NYC. Please join me in congratulating her for this important recognition.

The Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) designation, conferred by the National Speakers Association and the International Federation for Professional Speakers, is the speaking profession's international measure of professional platform skill. It is held by only 10% of the members of the national association.

The CSP designation is earned through demonstrating competence in a combination of standards:

-Professional platform skills;
-Professional business management;
-Professional education; and
-Professional association.

Speakers must be members of NSA or another IFFPS organization for at least three years and complete a rigorous application process to earn the CSP designation.

Eureka!

Dont you just love it when an experiment works! Our attempt at a lunch gathering at National worked. We had 19 people associated with the chapter gather to reconnect and share convention notes. It was neat to see and I hope we can replicate this success next year.

NSA NYC

Well, here we are. I have already seen Becky McCrary and Bart Queen at chapter leadership this morning. It is worth coming early for this session to learn from other chapters about all they do. You dont have to be on the Board or anything like that. So, maybe next year you can attend and learn a bit more about how NSA works. This knowledge will help you get more value out of your membership. More later on the meeting place for Sunday lunch

Happy New Year

Today Becky McCrary became the past President of NSA/C and I am now the President of our chapter. She leaves us in great shape and the meeting today was one of the best I have attended in my years attending.

As the new president I had some comments in our last newsletter and I repeat them here.

There is a sense of urgency in business today. Our clients talk of recession and the election and, more than ever, they want material they can put to use immediately. Meeting planners talk more about ROI and impact today than ever before and their demands have made me a better speaker. It is only fitting then that we make the same demands of our chapter and our programming. In the coming year we will put all programming through one simple test: Can we use it on Monday? Can a speaking professional attend on Friday and Saturday and put elements of what they learned to work in their business right away? If the answer is yes, then you will see it here. If the answer is no, then you will not see it.
Of course, beyond programming we must continue to be an association that looks out for each other and shares with each other. We know this to be one of the sacred values of NSA yet I know we all sometimes focus inward and in doing so we diminish the Spirit of Cavett. The Carolinas Chapter is one of the leading chapters in NSA and we inherit a wonderful legacy. I will do what I can to keep it there. How about you? I invite you to join us in the coming year as we deliver programming you will use on Monday and you build relationships you will use for a lifetime. In the meantime, let's make this blog something worthwhile. Join in!

Spirit of NSA Day

Spirit of NSA Day was created to honor NSA founder Cavett Robert. Nov 14 marks the 100th anniversary of his birth and NSA members across North America are encouraged to reconnect to all the good things in our association. If nothing else, contact your NSA buddies across the country and tell them you are looking forward to seeing them at Convention in the Big Apple this summer.

Speakers School Success!!

The 2007 Speakers School is complete and a good time was had by all. Inspired presentations and interested students make for a great event. Solid content, round tables, and entertainment - We had it all. My sincere thanks to all the presenters (Carl Henry, Tim Dumas, Michael Beitler, Tom Stevens, Myelita Melton, Charles Petty, Lib Fowler, Jack Wiles, and Jane Jenkins-Herlong) for volunteering to be with us and sharing their unique insights. The event would not have been possible without the efforts of several other folks also (Becky McCrary for guidance, John Cooper for the Icebreaker, Glenn Strange for the audio and music, and Laura Hamilton for everything else.) Thanks also to all the attendees who invested time and money to learn from our faculty. Next meeting is in January and we hope to see you in Charlotte.

As noted in the previous post, the Carolinas Chapter Speakers School will be Nov 9 and 10. We are sad that Bill Brooks will not be with us to kick off this annual classic. However, Carl Henry, CSP, a long time friend of Bill's will get us off to a great start. Carl brings a unique combination of skills to the platform so bring extra paper so you can take all the notes you need to.

See you soon.