Success is No Surprise! By Gary Greenfield

If you're going to be a success at living your life, it won't come as the result of a surprise. Rather, it will be because you focused on what success would look like for you. Using the resulting vision of success you planned for it. With that vision and plan as your driving force you then, achieved it.

The fact is your skill at and your commitment to planning will determine your destiny. Think about it this way...around and around you go and where you are you better know. Otherwise, you get confused and lost. The answer to not getting lost on your road to success in life is planning.

Your planning has to be driven by emotionally meaningful goals. What do I mean by "emotionally meaningful goals?" Well, what else do you want? If you have a big enough emotional reason why you want it, then you will get it. In other words, when it comes to a truly, emotionally meaningful goal; you have to be able to figuratively see it, feel it , taste it, smell it, and hear it before you have it, if you're going to ultimately get it.

A detailed plan that includes well defined, emotionally driven goals and the action steps to provide the road map to those goals, can give you the certainty many of us want in our lives. A bright future of personal success is best defined and assured through a written plan and effective execution of the steps in that plan.

Yes...true success in life doesn't come as a surprise!

Enjoy more or my blog posts and follow me on Twitter: My Blog: http://blog.garygreenfield.com/ Twitter: @LifeRider

We Learn From Everyone We Meet: By Barry Roberts

As a speaker, my topics all have to do with how we can use our sense of humor to improve our lives I had just finished an engagement in San Francisco, a city I really enjoy, so I stayed for an extra day. I spent most of that day on my own walking tour of the city. Sad to say, there are many homeless in San Francisco and while I have great empathy for all of them, I cannot offer money to each one that approaches me on the street.

It had been a long day and I was headed back to my hotel with an arm full of gifts and my camera, when I saw her heading straight towards me. She was fairly young, with few teeth, looking very much like the rest fo the street people I had encountered that day. As she came to me, I must admit I was not listening to what she said and I had my reply all ready. “Sorry, I can’t help you today”, I said and kept walking.

After I passed I realized what she had said to me; “I’m not asking for any money, just your credit card and pin number for about an hour.” This with a big smile on her face.

Hey! She had a sense of humor and was attempting to use it to help herself.

I spend my days trying to teach this to business people who, for the most part, have everything they need and many of them just don’t get it. This woman lives on the street, in rags and a cardboard box and SHE GETS IT!! How could I not help her out?

I turned quickly and spotted her making a bee line for her next mark. I picked up the pace, caught up to her and said, “Look, you’re not getting my credit card or pin number, but I hope this helps and wish you good luck.”

She tucked the $5 in her blouse and replied, again with a huge smile, “Thanks…when you live on the street and have nothing else, you gotta have a sense of humor. God bless you, sir.”

Wow! For me that was so powerful. You can learn a valuable lesson from everyone you meet.

Enjoy more of my blog posts at http://tinyurl.com/246w4d5. http://www.barryroberts.com/

How NOT to be rebooked by Connie Gordon

> Mispronounce your introducer's name


> Apologize for being late


> Keep looking around instead of AT your audience


> Don't summarize your speech's value points


> Don't mingle


Note: These "ConniTips" are NOT in her book: Oops and Ahas! http://connigordon.org/ /

conni@connigordon.org

You be the Star!

Another great year has come to an end for the Florida Speakers Association, and as your executive director I would like to thank Ken Okel and the rest of our board of directors for a job well done. Although our membership numbers were slightly lower than years past, I believe that the association provided a greater value with added benefits to its members and has weathered the economy quite well.
As association executives for other professional and trade associations our staff at the Association Source are reporting memberships back on the rise after some trying economic times. With that said, we hope you will join us again this year and renew your dues for the 2011-2012 membership year. Please contact our office at info@florida-speakers.org to renew.

As Gaby Cora takes the reigns this July as president of FSA, the board of directors and committee chairs will be creating an aggressive plan to incorporate more benefits & services to our members. As ideas for these new benefits are being explored and added to the list, if you have any thoughts of what else we could add to your membership packages, please let us know!

Ricky Atkins
Executive Director
Florida Speakers Association

Sad News...

The following is from former FSA member, Rick Fernandez.  Please join us in wishing his family the best during a sad time.

Our son Ricky, 28, left us on his new voyage with some Angels yesterday.  He passed at Jackson Memorial Hospital at 4:30PM after a very violent event.

We love Ricky so much.  We really do not know how we will be able to adjust to a life without him.  He was all we had in this life after we lost Daniel 4 ½ years ago.

A viewing will be held starting at 4PM until midnight on Wednesday, June 22nd, at Caballero Rivero Woodlawn Funeral Home (8 Street and 33rd Ave.) in Miami, and a Mass and Burial will occur on Thursday, June 23rd at 10AM at St Raymond’s Church in Miami (3475 SW 17th Street, must enter via SW 37th Ave and . You may send flowers to the funeral home if you wish.
 
Viewing:

Caballero Rivero Woodlawn Funeral Home
3344 SW Eighth Street, Miami FL 33155

Time To Saddle Up!

During a recent NSA teleseminar, a speaker was asked about the success of his book.  The author talked about how he had trouble making his material stand out from the crowd.  Publisher after publisher rejected his work.

Unsolicited, he then talked about how he got help to better define his brand and his book.  Suddenly, he had publishers in a bidding war for his book.  Who helped him make this transformation?  Vickie Sullivan, our June 11th presenter.

We all have great material but is it what the marketplace is buying?  Find out what you need to do to beef up your bookings and command your full fee and beyond. 

To wet your appetite, back by popular demand, is a preview call we did with Vickie.  To download this preview call, click here.  Vickie does not hold back on "telling it like it is" on several common speaker mistakes.

To join us for this special meeting, go to http://www.florida-speakers.org

Clients pay Vickie a lot of money for her advice.  Did I mention she'll be holding some "hot seats" for the audience.  Don't miss your chance to get some priceless one-on-one advice for your speaking business.

Special reminder:  This meeting will be held at the Westin Hotel, which is on the NE corner of I-95 and Cypress Creek.

Natalia's Notes: Joachim de Posada Presentation

Many thanks to Natalia Locatelli for providing us with these excellent notes from Joachim's presentation.

Don’t Eat the Marshmallow Yet!

During this presentation, there will be moments where I will stop presenting and give advice by using examples of how to improve your own presentations. Here are three tips, before I begin, that you should consider when giving your own presentations:

• Create a sense of urgency: why is your topic important right now?
• Include the audience: the only way they’re going to stay with you is if they’re invested in what you’re saying.
• Give interesting information to inspire change in the audience: this makes the talk more relevant and adds a personal interest to the audience.

The Gazelle and the Lion
Every morning in Africa, a Gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed.

Every morning in Africa, a Lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death.

It doesn’t matter whether you are a Lion or a Gazelle, WHEN THE SUN COMES UP, YOU BETTER BE RUNNING.

What Does This Mean Today

• There are huge opportunities out there, both for the Gazelles and the Lions of the world
• Now we can all compete on the same level, on an even playing field
• This is a new way of life – it wasn’t always this way
• Economies are cycles
• Find what to do in the right moment during the correct moment of the cycle
• Whether you are the Gazelle or the Lion, there is always a way to find your ideal cycle
• Always make the audience laugh
• The predator now has to think “What do I do differently?” because the prey is thinking differently
• How is your target audience thinking differently?
• “I need to be more effective and learn something new”

“Hire slow, fire fast”

• I believe if someone is not doing great from the beginning in a position they love, I need to find someone else
• How can you spend 33% of your life (the amount of time you spend working) not doing something you love?
• When you think about that person, you must think: “Here you have failed, so you must go and find your passion”
• Don’t waste your life
• You may know someone who doesn’t love their job but is doing well. To that I say: sometimes in life, you may not be that good – but you may be lucky
• Sometimes, luck will carry you but you cannot depend on luck because if you depend on it, it goes away
• Even a broken clock will give you the right time twice a day

Sir Francis Bacon

“Knowledge is power.”

“Applied knowledge is power.”

“If you know and don’t do… you don’t know.”

People don’t care what you know. They care about what you do

1. What results can you bring?
2. You used to be able to get away with a lot of activity but few results
3. Now, activity is not as important – results are what really matters

Example: Netherlands Microsoft Office

1. We only care about results, not if our workers are at the work in our building
2. No one has an office
3. There is just an update of wherever people are
4. Sign: “If you leave anything here, it will be thrown away.”

The Three Frogs
Three frogs are floating down a river on top of a leaf.

One decides to jump in the river, how many frogs are still on the leaf?

Answer: Three. Because deciding and doing are two different things.

One simple idea, applied, can change your career.

Results
When I come into a company to consult, there is a usually a problem with bad communication/communication breakdown

• Understand what the other person is saying
• Communicate what you really mean
• Example: German coastguard video
• “We are SINKING.”
• “What are you THINKING about?”

My Favorite Principle
“Don’t Eat the Marshmallow Yet”

• Self discipline
• Motivation
• Success
• Trust
• Influence

• Find different ways to communicate your point in your presentation
• Cute things that help your message – look at your audience
• Do things that please the audience and will leave a memory for the audience
• “Guess what happened?” (PAUSE) – the Pause is one of the most important tool a speaker has

What is one of the big lessons I learned from the Marshmallow Experiment?

• Kids often lack willpower. So, in order to beat that flaw, that lack of willpower, they will focus their attention on other things in order to remove the temptation of eating the marshmallow right away

15 years after the initial experiment, there was a follow up study

• 100% of the kids who had not eaten the marshmallow right away were successful
• They got 230 points higher on entrance exams, great grades, doing well socially, good relationships with teachers, good future ahead of them
• The ones who ate the marshmallow early were: broke, didn’t go to college, crime and addiction was higher, dropped out of college, or had bad grades, etc.

Success in some instances can be attributed to genes; some people are born with the success gene

• Whatever you’re born with, it can be changed – you can be taught emotional intelligence and taught techniques to have patience, to look long-term, to help be successful
• Anyone can be successful but the ideal is to find what YOU’RE good at and where YOUR strength is
• Some people are not motivated by money BUT you should always save 10% in order to live well
• My book was translated into 20 languages and my TED talk was translated into 29 language

The question you need to ask yourself:
How will you be a benefit to someone? Society? A company?

• Don’t go into a situation thinking how much money you’re going to make
• Make a decision with your heart

The impact of a speaker, trainer, coach, or professional who has a book is considerably higher than that of a peer who doesn’t have a book

• Better if you have it translated into different languages
• Think international

Some ideas for you to write a book

• Devise a strategy and THEN write
• Think it through before you start
• Look at your world, market, and identify a hole/need that you can fill
• What angle is not being covered?
• What new perspective will you add? Why should this book be written?
• What is your differentiator, why will they buy your book?
• Provide a service
• The book is not about YOU – no one cares about YOU
• Who is my audience? (Most important)

Why be less, when you can be much more?

Principle One: Applications of the Marshmallow principle
Verizon example: Sales

• If you give your clients exactly what they asked for and then leave, you are eating the marshmallow right away
• Learn about the headache before you throw in the aspirin
• What is it that your client really needs? Not just what they say they need
• Create the headache first before giving the aspirin, because then the aspirin has worth
• Help make others successful and it will come back to help you later
• Companies: Investing in employee development
• Customer service: look at the relationship, not the transaction
• How much can I make here?
• No – look at the whole relationship, years on the road, how much can BOTH of you make?
• Everyone in this room is one applied idea away from a smashing success, a quantum leap

The Marshmallow Decision
“Go through the pain of discipline or later on in life, suffer the pain of regret.”

• You cannot rely on technology
• The speech must go on

• Principle Two: Letting go of the elephant

• Sports analogy
• Swimmer of Panama
• 14 year old with the genes to be the best swimmer
• She needed the genes first
• THEN the motivation

Note: don’t say a brand name during your presentation; say “soda” or “food” instead because you never know who is in your audience

The Trapped Elephant
When elephants are very young, they are tied to a wooden pole. They are so small at the time, that even if they try to escape they cannot. They try and they try, but it’s no use.

Finally, one day, they say: “I will never ever escape, so I will never ever try to escape again.”

This is why, when you go to the circus, you will see a full grown elephant, massive and powerful, kept immobile by a tiny piece of wood in the ground. Because of the fear that was ingrained in them when they were small. It is this idea that holds you down, even in a place you do not want to be when you are strong enough to escape.

I add a humorous slide at this point in the presentation to help people get out of that strong moment of reflection that the Aileen/trapped elephant story inspires
Group exercise: What is the big elephant’s anchor in your life? What is a big obstacle that deep down you know you must get rid of? Divide into groups of three to discuss and get some ideas on how to pull free.

Principle Three: Successful people are willing to do things that unsuccessful people are unwilling to do
NBA superstar example

• A player (Larry Bird) comes early to the games in order to study the court
• He knows that in order to be successful, he must prepare himself for all situations, including something as simple as which direction the ball will bounce on an uneven floor
• You must love what you do
• Your mind will not allow you to put in all that effort if you don’t love what you do
• The only exception to this rule is when you have a long-range goal to reach that which you really want, and the only way to get there is to suffer a little along the way

Example: if someone goes through a year of waiting tables in order to pay for school so that they can graduate with a degree in something they love
Group exercise: What could be one thing that you would be willing to do for your clients that others are not willing to do?

“I am honored that you have invited me to speak in your country. However, in your country there are groups and people in need who need someone to motivate them. As my thank you to you for hiring me, I will do a session for any charitable group in your country at no charge – you will pay for a session for those people but I will not charge you myself.”

I get to help those who need me, the company I work with looks great because I am making them look good, and the charitable group gets help that I can give them. Everyone wins. I get booked year after year because of this.

Principle Four: In uncertain times, everyone must assume responsibility

• Arun Gandhi
• Never lie
• Assume responsibility
• If you are not responsible for anything, you can’t fix it
• If you are responsible, you can do something about the problems around you

Principle Five: Teamwork

• No one can do it alone
• None of us is worth more than the sum of all of us
• When I was training in Puerto Rico, I went to a psychiatric facility and saw people with severe mental disorders. One of the orderlies seemed calm among the chaos so when I approached him, I asked him why the people around him didn’t frighten him. He said: “The crazies are the least of my worries. They are all involved in their own problems, in their own heads. They will never work together. There are a hundred separate crazy people, not one group of one hundred.”
• One person can make a bank fail, a memo can’t work, may lose you a client
• That one person DOES matter
• You must get people to work as a team
• Find the strength of each member of your team and encourage them to do better

To consider
DECIDE TO BE FAMOUS
It must be a conscious decision. If people know my name, they will hire me. It will take steps, work, and persistence to reach that stage.

BUSINESS CARD
Marketing weapon. Find a way to make yours memorable.

BE MEMORABLE