This post ended up being so long, that I am breaking it into two parts. Part 1 will be posted today and part 2 will come tomorrow.

WOW! Last night I returned from the Lady and the Champs Seminar with Patricia Fripp, Craig Valentine, Darren LaCroix, and Ed Tate. The seminar was an amazingly valuable for a speaker, and I enjoyed both the Friday Edge Summit and the Saturday and Sunday workshop. From keynote to breakout session, I learned an amazing amount from the presenters and the other participants. A big thank you goes out to Cynthia for answering all of my questions about the seminar and Guy Burns for giving me a ride on Sunday.

If you didn’t catch my post from Saturday, the Lady and the Champs workshops give you the opportunity to hang out with four Toastmasters World Champions of Public Speaking and NSA Hall of Fame Speaker Patricia Fripp to learn more about the art of speaking and gain specific knowledge to make you a better speaker. The workshops also teach you about the business of speaking and how you can develop more opportunities to speak.

Rather than give a rundown for each of the two days, I thought I would write about each person’s presentation and the value that it provided in that order that their general sessions were presented.

Patricia Fripp

“It’s Not a Conversation… It is Conversational! Learn the Little-Known Secret to Dynamic Speaking”

In this keynote, I walked away with a framework for presenting I had never considered, how creative people can help their clients, and a methodology for collecting new stories where I am not the hero. One of the biggest problems that speakers have is finding new stories and Patricia shared one of the many different methods that she uses to find and develop stories.

“Good to Great! A Live Coaching Program”

WOW! Patricia’s coaching sessions are a rare chance to have elements of your speaking improved by the world’s top speaking coach. After only a few sentences, Patricia is able to give you detailed feedback on how to open, develop punch phrases, and structure your speech for maximum impact. I was enthralled by her ability to provide so much feedback in such a short time.

Some of the most “valuable” techniques I learned from Patricia this weekend were around negotiation. In a few short minutes during one of the session, I learned two valuable tips. One tip that allow speakers to turn the end of a google search into a gig and another that helps you exchange your speeches for other tangible goods that are not always checks.

Ed Tate

“The Story Finder™ – How to Create Stories that Lead, Motivate, and Inspire in 10 Minutes or Less!”

This presentation was adapted from a small part of Ed’s program Energize, Educate, and Entertain. The “ah-ha” moment I had during Ed’s program was that I should be performing this exercise at the end of every day. Then when I need stories for my keynotes, I have a well developed story file from the many days I have been doing this activity.

Ed is by far the greatest facilitator I have ever met and throughout the weekend, he shared not only how to be a better speaker but how to facilitate, grow your business, and market your business.

“From Free to Fee: How to Use Public Speaking to Promote Your Business”

This breakout helped people that want to speak professionally develop their plan for speaking more to local audiences. In this session, I learned about how to follow up with speaking leads, organization to speak to, and the basics of marketing a speaking business.

Ed Tate and Craig Valentine

“Guerrilla Marketing for Turbulent Times: 10 Ways to Market Your Business & Make Money in this Economy!”

I enjoyed this session, because I have been studying Guerrilla Marketing and applying the principles to my business. Having an hour with two certified Guerrilla Marketing Coaches gave me the time to learn more about the system and motivate me to continue to refine my approaches to marketing. For me it was a great reminder of all the tools that I have already taken advantage of to grow my business, and a motivator to improve the tools that I am using.

Stay tuned until tomorrow, when I post part two of my review of Lady and the Champs.


About the Author: My Toastmasters Blog is written and edited by Chris Elliott, the founder of the young professional coaching site Young Profit Pros. Chris enjoys using his knowledge and experiences during his speaking engagements, workshops, consulting projects, and one-on-one coaching sessions. The result—connecting people and empowering change. If you would like information on how you can bring Chris to speak to your next meeting, please download Chris' one sheet or contact him by clicking here.

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