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Today was a long day: St. Louis to Newark, Newark to Geneva, and Geneva to Leysin. Total travel time: 14 hours. Ouch. This morning I dragged myself onto the plane, already tired from a restless night. (I always get that way before giving a speech.) All I wanted to do was find my seat, turn on my Ipod and pass out for the next 8 hours. Unfortunately my master…

Whooooooo! What a week! I just got back from this year’s fantastic conference of the National Speakers Association. The sessions were informative; the speeches were inspirational; the activities were fun and the late night parties were…well…unforgettable! Because there was such an explosion of knowledge, experience and insight, I thought I’d share some of the most memorable one-liners from this year’s speakers. After all, we can only quote Ben Franklin,…

I’m about halfway through my favorite week of the year: the annual convention of the National Speakers Association. And as I sit here in the lobby of the Atlanta Hyatt, MAN are these business cards piling up! But this is a good thing – a surefire sign that networking is in the air. HOWEVER, how many times have you returned home from a 4 day convention, whipped out your…

Yesterday I was having lunch with a colleague when the topic of business attire came up. As a 25 year veteran of the corporate world, she was curious about my thoughts on power suits. So, when she asked what I chose to wear during meetings, speeches, conferences, etc., I told her that I wasn’t a “suit and tie” kind of guy. But I also thought it was important to…

According to last week’s Big Question, 50% of the respondents have, at some point, missed out on a business opportunity because they DIDN’T have a business card with them. Several participants of the survey also contributed the following feedback: “Actually, [not having a card] gave me the opportunity to converse more and get more info from them.” “I have frequently forgotten cards, as I usually run out. So I…

It was 8:00 PM and I’d hit a creative wall – hard. But there was so much work to be done! And I just had to get out of the office or else my article would never get finished. So I knew the only way to stimulate my mind was to practice a technique called “displacement.” You’ve no doubt heard of (and probably practiced) this creativity booster before: take…

We do it every day. Sometimes 20 times a day. But how many of us actually know where the handshake originated? According to author/speaker Melvin Murphy… “The handshake has origins more anthropological than historical. Because they carried knives, spears, and rocks, when land was scarce and sacred males would extend their hand to show that they were not attempting to kill their neighbor. To add to that, the classical…

This story was contributed by Ciprianna Shockley from www.TheResourceRoom.net After a seminar that I was hosting was cancelled, I didn’t want to waste my entire Saturday, so I went to Times Square in NYC and put my business card inside a nametag holder (left over from a networking event) and started handing out business cards. It started to rain, so I stepped back against the wall of the subway…

After a recent speech to Cornerstorne Financial Group’s agency meeting, a woman in the audience talked about one of her self-admitted barriers to communication. “I’m guilty of crossing my arms. I do it all the time! And I know it’s a communication no-no; but I can’t help it because it’s comfortable and warm for me.” My response was, “Perhaps…but that probably means it’s NOT comfortable and warm for other…

I first met my good friend Ed at one of my networking workshops on August 19th, 2004. He came up to me afterwards and said he’d heard of my nametag idea years before, but wanted to introduce himself in person. Ever since then, we’ve shared countless lunches, book idea brainstorms, networking opportunities and a valuable friendship for which I am extremely grateful. Now, check this out: almost one year…