Students
Wanted
for NSA
Scholarships
If you are interested in the
professional speaking profession and
are currently working toward this
goal, you may be eligible for an
NSA Foundation scholarship.
Four $5,000 scholarships are available
to junior, senior and graduate
students. For the latest criteria and
application, visit MyNSA.org and click
on the Foundation Scholarship link.
Deadline for application: June 1, 2009
Please direct prospective applicants
to our Web site listed above, or call
Diane Paradise at (480) 968-2552
for more information.
agreement or list of acceptable practices can anticipate every
situation, so the best speaker and bureau relationships must
rest on mutual reliance and respect. Then reason prevails.
Are there any downsides to working with bureaus?
Of course. The first is getting them to work with you at
all. Once you do, another risk is becoming overly reliant
on bureaus as your sole source of business. When times get
tough, it’s nice to be able to pick up the phone to drum up
some direct work. Don’t get so comfortable with bureau
bookings that you lose your touch.
Don’t bureaus take a large percentage of your fee?
Many experienced speakers feel that the cost of bureau bookings is competitive with the time and expense it takes to go
“retail” their services. More to the point: If you want to
develop successful bureau relationships, don’t look at it as
them taking a piece of your fee. Look at it as them almost
always giving you an even greater piece of their fee. It is their
client after all.
So how can I get bureaus to book me?
Become famous. Have bureau clients request you or say,
“Last year, we had XYZ and she was great. Do you have anyone like her?” Even better, have bureaus lose business to you.
Give it time and effort. Don’t stop or even slow your retail
marketing until you have established relationships—and maybe
not even then. Bureaus already have speakers they trust in
almost ever category. On top of that, they receive piles of unsolicited press kits and videos weekly.
Sound insurmountable? It isn’t, but it usually takes time,
effort and sensitive persistence.
Alan Parisse, MBA, CSP, CPAE, is the first and only
speaker to come out of the investment business to be
inducted into NSA’s Speakers Hall of Fame. Successful
Meetings magazine named Parisse, an accomplished
author, “One of the Top 21 Speakers for the 21st
Century.” For more information, visit www.parisse.com.
Shep Hyken, CSP, CPAE, works with companies and
organizations who want to build loyal relationships
with their customers and employees. He is the author
of Moments of Magic™ and The Loyal Customer.
Hyken also created The Customer Focus™ program,
which helps clients develop a customer service culture and loyalty
mindset. For more information, visit http://hyken.com.
Scott Friedman, CSP, is a motivational humorist who
gets audience members laughing while opening their
minds to new ideas. With over 2,000 speeches in his
23-year speaking career, Friedman knows how to
connect with audiences worldwide. For more informa-
