The North West Chapter of the PSA had a very successful and enjoyable meeting this month (June), covering many topics of huge relevance to professional speakers.

Our first speaker was Anthony Day (http://www.anthony-day.co.uk/), who as a published author, led us through the process of ‘self-publishing’, an avenue adopted by many professional speakers as a means of getting their word into print. Making reference to the oft quoted comment that this was, “a good way to make money while you’re sleeping”, Anthony added, “only if you work damn hard while you’re awake!”

Steven Brewer (http://www.train-2.com/) took us on an entertaining and thought provoking journey on “How to Market Me”, in preparation for his forthcoming presentation at the Irish Convention on Saturday 24 June (see earlier posts). Steven had us try out the following:

• Swap business cards with others around the room until everybody has somebody else’s card.
• Ask people for three words evoked by the card in their hand, e.g. confidence, reliable, zany, wacky
• When your card comes up for review ask yourself, “Is this the image I want to project?”

I had the pleasure of interviewing our second author of the evening, Paul McGee, aka “Mr Sumo”. You can find Paul at http://www.sumoguy.com and as I’m sure many of us know now SUMO = Shut Up, Move On and comes from the title of Paul’s best selling book, “Shut Up, Move On: The Straight-Talking Guide to Creating and Enjoying a Brilliant Life”. Paul shared the journey from the original idea to publication, various rejections along the way and the eventual success and more importantly the benefits from becoming a best selling author.

Our keynote speaker of the evening was Nigel Percy (http://www.nigelpercy.co.uk/) who trilled us with a world premier of new material titled, “We Three Kings”, in which Nigel takes on the persona of three past Kings of one sort or another and illustrates how they went about communicating their own message. I don’t want to steal Nigel’s thunder by revealing the Kings’ identities – but watch out for Nigel and his Kings.

If you’re based in the UK and interested in speaking – be that in a corporate context, or as a professional, then I recommend you get in touch with the PSA if you haven’t already done so. (http://professionalspeakers.org). There are branches (chapters) throughout the UK and Ireland we’re a friendly and helpful bunch. The NW Chapter’s next meeting is in Salford on Tuesday 04 July – contact me for more details.