Are You a Professional Speaker? You are to Me!

Are you like Cavett?

One of my favorite National Speaker Association “Voices of Experience” (VOE) tracks from the last year was on Cavett Robert and the impact he had on NSA’s organization and membership. You’ve probably heard the same track where everyone has such wonderful things to say about him. There are two thoughts that cross my mind as I recall it…

First, Cavett always sat in the front-row at every presentation he attended and took notes. He would always learn something from whoever was presenting and perhaps most importantly, he’d make a point of meeting the speaker afterward to tell them how he thought that they were the best speaker he’d heard! He didn’t stop paying compliments to those that gave presentations, he’d also tell people that he was having regular conversations with how they should become professional speakers (Legend has it that he’d even say the same to garbage men!) So do you act like Cavett? Who have you told that they speak great and that they should become a professional speaker? I know that my life changed dramatically the day Tim Durkin said something similar to me!

Second, I mentioned that everyone on the VOE had such wonderful things to say about Cavett. Who doesn’t like to hear good things about themselves? I only hope that they shared the same thoughts with him when he was still with us. November 14th is a reminder day for all members of NSA to remember Cavett. I say we celebrate the entire month by telling those we enjoy why they are special people in our lives. Who knows, maybe they’ll want to become members of NSA as well!

Visit our "Affiliates" page to learn how you can become certified with Pathos (www.PathosLeadershipGroup.com). The benefit to speakers, coaches or trainers is that you can compliment your A+ material with the breadth of ours (See all we have to offer on the Training page of the website).

Sam Palazzolo, CPLP
President & Chief Influence Officer
Pathos Leadership Group

Where Have All The Cowboys Gone - Influential Sales and the Economy

Paula Cole asked a few years ago, and it bears repeating during this tough economic period..."Where have all the cowboys gone?" This past weekend, I met one that is worth telling you about.

On Sunday afternoon, my wife and family decided to have a little "family day" that consisted of us going to a few open houses and then visiting a couple of car dealerships. My kids initially resisted, but later loved tearing through the open homes (Sorry realtors!) We like to do this because it is a great learning experience to share with our kids what's really important. We always do a debrief after each home and discuss what they liked, what they didn't like, what we have at our current house, etc.

The highlight of the day was when we went to a few car dealerships. Here in Texas, because of the labor "blue" laws, dealerships can only be open one of the two weekend days. If they're open on Saturday, they must be closed on Sunday and vice-versa. Most chose this pattern, but a few like to "swim upstream" and close on Saturday to be open on Sunday. We chose to visit the ones that were open on Saturday and close on Sunday. Even though I worked in the car business for nearly 16 years, my wife summed it up when she explained to our oldest daughter when she asked "Why are we going there, they look closed?" My wife answered in her usually honest way by saying "This way we won't be bothered by any pushy salesperson!"

That's when we met him...The Cowboy! We visited the Park Place Lexus dealership in Grapevine, Texas expecting to be all alone, browsing the hundreds of new/used vehicles un-bothered. To our surprise, there was one lonely salesperson there to greet us. Now he was not pushy or obstructive to our mission, and many dealers post "inventory takers" at their lots on Sundays. That is to say, many Ford, Chrysler, GM, Hundai, Kia dealers. Here was a Lexus dealership doing the same! I was shocked, amazed and simultaneously horrified by our encounter.

How bad is the economy that a salesperson at the cream of the crop Lexus dealer in the country has to have "inventory takers" on the lot on a Sunday? This dealership won the Malcolm Baldridge Quality Award and the State of Texas Quality Award "equivalent" for goodness sake! Our salesperson, David greeted us with a great smile and was dressed casually for the Sunday (Except for the $7,500 watch he was sporting!) He was doing the same thing that other "less than" dealerships have to do to get sales leads.

Here's the bottom line...He was there so that he could sell a car or two in the coming week. He was missing the football games so that he could build his sales leads for the coming week. Was he successful? From the look of his portfolio notepad with all the names he had written down, he was getting the leads. Will they all buy from him? Who knows! But don't miss the point, he was working just as hard, if not harder, to do his job.


What do you do that others won't or aren't willing to do so that you can be the best in your position? Do you want to sell more, even in this economy? Here's an offer for you...The week of November 17th we'll be hosting an "Influential Sales" webinar series. You can read about it at http://www.pathosleadershipgroup.com/. We'll be discussing how you can get the "Influential Edge" to compete and win in today's tough economy. I want you to be a part of this webinar! Send me an email at sp@pathosleadershipgroup.com and I'll invite you to a complimentary overview, or "test drive" on how we perform our webinars for maximum impact!


Sam Palazzolo
President & Chief Influence Officer @ Pathos Leadership Group - Home of the Influential Edge!
Visit us at www.PathosLeadershipGroup.com

Rumors of my Death...

Mark Twain said it, and now it's my opportunity too as well...

"The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated"

Imagine my surprise last Friday when I received a Google Alert on my name. Now the surprise shouldn't come from my name being out there in cyberspace (Last month I was published in 40+ periodicals from an article on "Influential Communication"). No, the surprise came because of who had me in their website, the Michigan Obituaries!

I was shocked...I was horrified...I was outraged...But most of all, I was reflective. As I looked at the words that summarized my life, there was so much more that I wanted to accomplish. There was so much more that I wanted to do. There were so many more people that I wanted to help!

OK, OK...It wasn't really my obituary, the name "Palazzolo" while not being that common a name outside the Italian community within the community can be strong in numbers. This weekend I played in a softball tournament (See...I couldn't really be dead, right?) and there was a gentleman that I met whose grandmother was a "Palazzolo"!

I read the obituary half a dozen times and then it sank in for me. I asked myself "What if this was the time to write your obituary? After all, I am getting older and I did pull a hamstring during game 1 of the softball tournament (It left for a really bad hobble/wobble and everyone calling me "Gimpy"...Apparently that was the 8th dwarf that never made it off of the cutting-room floor!)

In our "Influential Storyteller" sessions we look at this deep issue. What would your obituary say? Who would it mention as being left behind? What would be your greatest accomplishments? Where do you live? What were you best known for?

Perhaps the most important area discussed during this "Science of Influence" looks at leadership discussion is the most difficult for participants to grasp. It brings about tears during each and every session. The emotional impact is P-O-W-E-R-F-U-L (POWERFUL). Here's the "tear-jerker" question...

What legacy are you leaving behind?

Take a moment today...Look at the obituaries in your local paper and say a prayer for the families and friends who have lost a loved one. Then think of what if that was your name staring back at you from the black+white print? If it was written today, would you be happy with what it said? If it was written ten years from now, would you be even more pleased? What legacy did you leave behind? The issue of "legacy" is it that heart and sole of being an Influential Leader!

If you'd like more information on our "Influential Storyteller" or any of our other programs, please drop me a line at info@pathosleadershipgroup.com. We have sessions scheduled regularly through webinars, or we'd love to come to you/your organization!

SP

So What's Your Title? - How the Science of Influence Effects You!

I received an email today...Not that big of a deal right? You probably did too! I read the message, but noticed something unusual that I wanted to bring to your attention. It was the "title" underneath the person's name that stood out...Here it is:

Peer Assistance and Leadership and Link Crew Sponsor Communication Applications, Psychology, Sociology Gallup Strengths: Self-Assurance, Focus, Learner, Relator, Ideation

You are probably asking the same question I asked myself..."What?" I'd ask each of us to look at our signature that gets sent out on each and every email that we send and reflect "What does this say about me?" or more importantly "Do I have a call to action that I want the person receiving my email to perform?"

A few years ago I had the experience of attending a workshop where all we did was develop our signature lines. I never realized the importance of that workshop until today! This one email signature strikes me as both odd and overly-informative simultaneously.

Now I know what some of you are going to say "Why do you care?" The reason I care is that in our Influential Communication workshop we discuss the accuracy of how every-little aspect of our public/private persona is multiplied by 10x when put into a non-verbal format. The reason being that we as human beings tend to "Dr. Phil" each and every email/text message/website that we encounter and analyze them six different ways 'til Sunday! What comes across as perhaps an "insiders Rosetta stone" turns into an outsiders puzzle. We often times are left guessing, and when it comes to "guessing" we generally do not guess correctly!

So what does your email signature line say to everyone, both insiders and outsiders? I'll bet you'll look at making a modification after reading this!

If you'd like more information on our upcoming Influential Communication session, please send me an email at info@pathosleadershipgroup.com... I'll be looking for your signature line!

Sam Palazzolo
President & Chief Influence Officer
Pathos Leadership Group
http://www.pathosleadershipgroup.com/