Jennifer Aniston, NSA-IL and You

“No one could ever know me
No one could ever see me
Seems you're the only one who knows
What it's like to be me
Someone to face the day with
Make it through all the rest with
Someone I'll always laugh with
Even at my worst, I'm best with you, yeah

It's like you're always stuck in second gear
When it hasn't been your day, your week, your month
Or even your year

I'll be there for you
(When the rain starts to pour)
I'll be there for you
(Like I've been there before)
I'll be there for you
('Cause you're there for me too).”

• -       “I’ll Be There For You”, The Rembrandts

I enjoy the TV show “Friends”, but I’m a much bigger fan of The Rembrandts and the show’s opening song.  If you’ve only heard the first 30 seconds, take a moment to hear it all the way through YouTube.    

As I sit down to write the most difficult letter I’ve ever written to all of you, this is the first song that came to mind. 

Even at my worst, I’m at my best when I’m with all of you. 

God, how I love this group.  You make me feel like everything is possible.  You strengthen me, give me advice, lift me up, encourage me to press forward.  You are the reason I’m a speaker today. 

We galvanize each other.  We all know what it’s like to be us.  We make each other better by simply being there, by our willingness to offer our support and guidance.  We grieve for our losses, as we’ve done with Col. Jill Morgenthaler, Rita Emmett, or just this past week with our longtime member Rick Davis on the tragic loss of his mother in Michigan from the virus.  We celebrate our successes and encourage others who haven’t broken through yet to press on.

Very shortly, others will need us to galvanize THEM.  The people we touch in our work – our paying clients – will need strong leadership and a voice of encouragement to move them forward.  We must be ready for them.  And to get ready, we will need each other.   

OUR NSA-IL EVENT SCHEDULE:

We’ve enjoyed the Virtual Happy Hours each week, and we will continue to host those for as long as people enjoy getting together and talking about life on Zoom.  Thanks to Conor Cunneen for the idea, to Carl Seidman for allowing us the use of his Zoom account, and to all of you for your participation.  Continue to look for those individual invitations, as they seem to be received well by everyone. 

Our Speaker Academy has been moving along despite the shelter-in-place ordinance, and I’m pleased to announce that we will have our first-ever Speaker Academy Virtual Graduation on Saturday, April 18^th.  Each of you is invited to this online event.  Let’s make it our most well-attended Academy graduation ever!  Look for details to follow soon, with an “in-person” graduation celebration to take place at a later time.

We have our first NSA Auction coming in May!  If you’ve ever been privy to the way our National organization or other Chapters have done it, we’ll be following a similar track.  Valuable services provided by NSA members to help boost their speaking careers will be made available to you as members for BARGAIN prices!  Allie Pleiter, our incoming President, grabbed a series of one-on-one coaching sessions with a nationally-known speaking coach that she paid 30% of her going rate in the National auction.  Please be thinking of what service YOU could donate to this cause; not only will it benefit your Chapter, it could be the doorway to your next MAJOR client!   

We had originally planned to have Cyndi Maxey and Kevin O’Connor as our speaker duo on March 13^th.   Cyndi and Kevin have both agreed to be back again in the fall, at a time and place to be announced in the near future.  Until then, we have three events and 200 recordings for you to energize and inspire you:

APRIL 16^th WEBINAR – FREE and Exclusively to NSA-IL Members:

How Google, SEO and YouTube Saved My Skin and will Help You Grow your Speaking Business

With Conor Cunneen, IrishmanSpeaks

Thurs., April 16^th – 7:00 pm

Would you like to be #1 or #2 in Google searches of your speaking category and target audience?   Go to Google right now and search “Humorous Motivational Speaker Oncology”.  You’ll see that Conor comes up everywhere!  

Our own Conor Cunneen, humorist and founder of IrishmanSpeaks, has had recent speaking engagements in Bermuda, Canada and throughout the US.  How do you suppose he got them? Clients found him because of the way Conor “seeded” their searching through Google search.  In this fascinating, informative, business building webinar, Conor will show you what he does to get found online. You will walk away with FIVE simple, specific things you can do to grow your business.  Don’t miss it!

-----

Our events in May and June are still scheduled, and we will continue to put it on the calendar; it may be in Oak Brook or in your living room via Zoom, but as of right now, block these two dates out on your calendar:

MAY 15^th

Maximizing Your Speaking Success with Video

with Jared Silver and Nate Woodbury

Friday, May 15th, 2020 – 9:00 am to 11:45 am

(with a special NSA-IL Members-Only EXTRA session from noon to 12:45 pm)

Lewis University, 1111 22^nd Street, Oak Brook, IL  (or virtually via Zoom)

Many of you have met Jared in the back of the room videotaping several of our previous NSA-IL live events.  In this dual-expert program, Jared will begin by stepping out from behind the camera to give you the secrets to creating better video content.

He’ll be sharing the stage with Nate Woodbury, NSA member from Salt Lake City who gave an outstanding presentation at INFLUENCE ’19 in Denver on producing a daily YouTube program working one day a month.  Nate’s program will be all about getting YouTube to promote you and your videos. 

JUNE 12th

NSA-IL Awards Luncheon and Program

with Gary Rifkin, CSP  

Friday, June 12th, 2020 – 10:00 am to 1:45 pm (times subject to change)

Ditka’s Restaurant, Oak Brook, IL  

We’ve reserved Ditka’s for one of our most esteemed NSA colleagues as our special guest speaker.  Gary Rifkin is founder of Gary Rifkin Presents, and he helps individuals shine in front of any audience.  He is Chief Learning Officer of CoreClarity, and is the 2015 winner of the Cavett Award, the most prestigious honor given by NSA for outstanding credit, respect, honor and admiration in the profession.  His program on platform skills will be the perfect cap to an outstanding year at NSA-IL!  Please make plans NOW to join us for this very special event. 

-----

And in case you missed it last week, we’ve assembled some amazing recordings from the NSA’s national conferences (INFLUENCE ’19, ’18 and ’17) that you as an NSA-IL member have unlimited access to in the Members Only section of the Website.  Over 200 incredible recordings are now there for you to access.  Just log in on the homepage and select Members-only tab to access the recordings..

Your Board is always available for one-on-one discussions, so call us if you need us at any time:  

Bill Guertin, President                                                bill@the800poundgorilla.com

Allie Pleiter, President-Elect                                      alliepleiter@comcast.net

Lynne Franklin, Immediate Past President                lynne@yourwordsmith.com

Carl Seidman, Treasurer                                             carl@seidmanglobal.com

Haydn Shaw, Vice President                                      haydn.shaw@peopledrivenresults.com

Cindy Tschosik,

Board Member and Co-Dean, Speakers Academy            cindy@soconnectedllc.com

Jeannie Walters, Board Member                                jeannie@360connext.com

Sing with us…

We’ll be there for youuuuuu…..

‘Cause you’re there for us toooooooo-oooooooo.

Sincerely,

Bill

Bill Guertin, NSA-IL President