My Weblog

Discover how to generate the life you yearn to live

You’re about to harvest actions that allow you to live the life
you hunger to live . . . through speaking.

It’s the real story only I can tell you . . .                                    
because it’s gleaned from my own life experience.

And here’s the back story:  31 years in the speaking business
allows me a perspective available in no other way.

These are strategies that, engaged, lift you out of the mire as          
a speaker, nearer to the orbit of today’s speaking stars.

You’re about to get hold of . . . have at your fingertips . . .
and own forever . . . little recognized actions that make
all the difference . . .

I’m parting the veil for the first time . . . the veil that may be
shrouding the realities of the speaking business from your eyes . . .

It’s really brain-dead simple when you understand it . . .
as you will within this message . . .

(While many speakers are retrenching, this is an especially
good time for you to play offence.)

Unless you believe this recession . . . unlike all that preceded it
 . . . will be interminable, then now is the time to latch on to
opportunities that a recession uniquely presents.

Actions to take:

1.     Sharpen your unique offer.  Why should your target
select you over all other speakers?   Stand out from all others.  
Here’s an example: I, alone, among all who mentor speakers
and aspirants, give a money back guarantee of success in the
speaking business.  (Success in the eyes of the speaker or aspirant.)

2.     Offer irresistible value.  The combination of your fee and
your deliverables is to be above and beyond that of all others
known to you.   For instance, few speakers offer a complimentary
teleclass a few days after the live event for all present at their
program.   And few offer complimentary telephone access for
questions for up to a year after the event.  Even better, 800 line
access!  Develop something extra, (“the cherry on the top”)
nobody else offers.

3.     Add something irresistible to your offer:  Bonuses, premiums,
incentive for decision by a certain date, extra elements nobody
known to you offers the decision-maker.

4.     Reverse the risk:     Pilot program at half-price, testimonials by
 decision-makers and attendees, social proof.

5.     Deliver an experience.  Everyone loves happenings so
instead of a program, create a happening that makes the points
and induces the outcomes most desired by the decision-maker. 

6.     Write articles for publications of your targets.  Especially
when they don’t hire you.  This is a gift to your target they may
remember gratefully next year when you again show up at
 their door.  At least one top speaker, Tony Alessandra, does t
his resolutely . . . and he is remembered.

7.    Post new information and articles on your website and your
blog every few days or weeks.

IMPLEMENTATION:

This is the most important part.   Emerson wrote about
“the person who plows and plows and never sows . . .”

When you don’t implement you get nowhere.
My inner Circle Members may freely call me for implementation actions.  

And YOU may call me at  +928-793-3310 for up to 20 minutes of
responses to one question about actions to take on one of the
above ideas . . . all complimentary to you.

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Finally, bring a joyful heart to your work. 

Be the source of light and hope everyone welcomes.

With kindest regards,

Burt Dubin

If you received this message from someone else and would like
to receive your own complimentary subscription, go to:
http://www.burtdubin.com/bonus.html

Burt Dubin, president, Personal Achievement Institute,
http://www.SpeakingBizSuccess.com

24/7:  800-321-1225     +928-793-3303

e-mail:   burtdubin@citlink.net                                                               
Mail:  1 Speaking Success Road, Box 6543, Kingman AZ 86402 USA

Burt works with people who want to be speakers                                 
and with speakers who want to be masters.

Frequently asked questions:           
http://www.speakingsuccess.com/system/faqs.html
____________________________________________________________

Platform Strategies that get you more engagements now . . .

     Strategies and actions that yield you more speaking engagements
and more cash flow are the focus of each of the past 7 issues.

     The October, November, December, January, February, March and
April issues are all available to you now in the archives.

     In this Month’s edition, you get the last of this series of recession-busting
actions.   You get 11 strategic moves to take from the platform as you speak.

     Reading about them does not do you any good.  Ya’ gotta make the moves
 to get the outcomes you desire.

Action #1:

     “Be who you is . . .because if you ain’t who you is, you is
who you ain’t.”   These lines, attributed to Nido Quebein,
are pure wisdom.

     Authenticity, transparency when you address a group is
your first principle.   Audiences want to hear from a mensch.  
(A mensch is a real person.)

     Do not speak from your mouth.  Speak from your heart,
from your soul, from the marrow of your bones. 

     Share your perceived truths, share them boldly . . . especially
when your truths are controversial.

Action #2:

     Be accountable for your state of being:

     Your state of being, your essence, your core:  These aspects
of you are what your audiences perceive intuitively before you
say your first word.

     “It’s not what you’re saying.  It’s who you’re being.”  
These words were the theme of my first Boot Camp.   It was
on the Carnival Cruise Ship, Ectasy.   

      Recently I wrote a short Report revealing how to enhance
your state before you go on, the exact steps to take before
you speak.  Do you want a copy?   It’s available in hard copy only.  
Send me an SASE and I’ll send you a copy with my compliments.  
(If you live outside the USA send me e self-addressed envelope and
a USA $1 bill to cover postage.)

Action #3:

     Be sure your extremities are impeccable. 

     Audience eyes are drawn to your hair, your shoes, and your
fingernails.   Groom your hair beautifully.  Shine your shoes
 until they gleam.  Be sure your fingernails are impeccable. 

     Don’t do this to get brownie points.  Do this to avoid losing
points because your extremities lacks the aura of
professional excellence. 

Action #4:

     Your clothing . . . “Costly thy habit as thy purse can bear . . .” 
(Shakespeare )   Invest in the most expensive clothing you can possibly
afford.   You feel so good, so confident, when you know you are
packaged like a pro.   (I went from $150 suits to $2000 suits.  Wearing
the best affected my posture, my sense-of-self, and, yes, the look
in my eyes.   I became drop-dead confident.)

     And . . . your costuming is to be “out-of-the-bandbox” fresh. 
I’m not kidding about that bandbox.  One of the world’s great speakers,
Patricia Fripp, known for her unique hats, ships them in sturdy boxes
via UPS from engagement to engagement. 

Action #5:

     Create evangelists.   I did a bit of this, developed a few groupies
who could hardly wait for me to return next year.  (Especially with
my work for the International Exhibitors Association.)

     Jeffrey Gitomer and Dale Irvin,  you must have heard of them,
are better examples.   They are among the rock stars of the
speaking business.  

     How do you create evangelists?  I thought you’d never ask.  
You combine entertainment with valuable content.   
Google these guys. Read about the impact they have on
audiences.   Go thou and do likewise.

Action #6:

     Create a platform persona.     Reveal your authentic self
as you present yourself.   Here are two examples . . .

     Larry Winget and Ralph Archbold.   Each owns a unique,
one-of-a-kind platform persona.   Google these names. 
Go to their websites.   They are models of how to be one-of-a-kind.

     Ask yourself, “What is my gift for the world, for the universe
of lives I touch?”   “What is so special about me?”

     Identify the quality of your spirit, of your essence, of your beingness
.
     Then ask yourself how to best authentically package and display
that which makes you so special.

     Proceed to test different models and approaches.   Persist in
doing this until audiences respond with wild-eyed enthusiasm,
until they cannot contain themselves.

     Several years ago, when Seinfeld closed his multi-year 
television run of the Sienfeld Show, he took a full year playing smaller
venues polishing and perfecting what was to be his new Vegas act.

     Relentlessly test, test, test.  Sooner or later you release an aspect,
a specialness, a theme, a glow you never knew you had.

     Then refine and polish, hone and adjust . . . based on audience 
reactions.    “See how it plays in New Haven.”   This is exactly how
Broadway shows are made better and better through out-of-town tryouts. 
“How did it play in Peoria?”    

     Never give up.

     And if you never become a speaking star, so what!   You are giving
the world your best and this is all anyone can do.

     FYI, I’ve never been a speaking star.  That’s OK.  I discovered my
talent as a mentor for speakers.  I found my niche.   From this niche
my abundance flows.   This all anyone can do.   Test until you find your
speaking business niche.  And from it, your abundance then flows.

7.   Record your every word:

     You do not know which of your live programs are to prove to be
rare and memorable vintage.

     Nor can you anticipate the moment when words of timeless wisdom
are to issue forth from your mouth.    The moments when you articulate
precious understandings you did not know you knew.   The instances of
inspiration you did not dream were to be.

    And if you do not record your utterances they are lost forever . . .

     So get yourself a low cost Olympia or Sony digital recorder and a
clip-on microphone.   Practice, especially practice hitting the “Record”
button just right as you are about to go on.

     You not only save these pearls for reuse in speeches and articles. 
You also can record entire programs and turn them into educational
products.   And you create copy for articles and maybe for your next book.

     Here’s a personal example:   When I recorded my Boot Camp 6,
there were serious glitches in the tapes.  These glitches could not ever
be corrected because the audience had long gone by then.     So I
never released the recording of Boot Camp 6.

     And I was able to carve out 2 educational albums from the live
recording of Boot Camp 6.  These I did release.

     “How to Create a Great Program Manual” and “Presentation Magic”
were recorded live the first morning of this event.  These recordings
became albums that continue to deliver value to speakers and profits
to my company.

     Go thou and do likewise!

8.   “What’s it all about, Alfie . . ."

     People hunger for meaning in their lives.  Share your ideas on
finding meaning in the living of a life.   Include your thoughts and
feelings in your every presentation.  Find a way to work it in, if only
as parts of stories you share.

     Why?

     Because for some in your audience, this is what they hunger for,
yearn to hear, long to hear.   And this is how you can ease
their pain, assuage their hunger, satisfy their yearning to understand.

     Do so . . . every time.

9.   Appoint a “So What” chair in every audience:

     Here’s how I do it . . . I ask the audience, ”Who here is from Missouri?”  
(Missouri, as you know, is the “show me” State.) Or, “Who is the ‘doubting
Thomas’ in this group?”

     Someone gets the idea and raises their hand.   I tell this person to
interrupt me whenever I say anything that does not give them value. 
Or any sentence that they do not fully understand.

     I give them permission to stand up and interrupt me with these
loud words, “SO WHAT!”   

     Then I further explain whatever I said to their satisfaction. 
What’s more this adds spontaneity . . . and entertaining surprises too.

     Here’s what this does for your program:  You are compelled to
make sense, to deliver solid value every minute, to stay sharp and
be present every millisecond . . . and overall to be on your toes, on
topic and tuned in to your audience throughout your program.

     Your outcome is you deliver sparkling, on the mark experiences
packed with value every time.   Naturally, this yields you better
Evaluations and more referrals and requests to do an encore event.

10.  Tell your story, all your stories, in the present tense:

     The outcome is that people pay closer attention, are more in the
moment with you.  Plus they absorb present tense stories more readily. 
And your stories become more real to your listeners.

     Even better, put your listeners in each story by going to second
 person, present tense.   “You do this and you do that and here is
what happens to you . . . “

11.   Walk like a matador:

     You’ve seen films of bullfights.  Think of the proud, imperious
stance of the Matador.   Perfect posture to say the least.

     Well the Matador is about to place his life on the line when
he enters the ring with this thousand pound powerful animal.

     In the Bullring, of the two of you, only one is to walk out. 
The other is dragged out dead.

     When you speak, you do not take such a mortal risk every time out.   
However, your career is on the line every time you speak.   So deliver
as if your life depends on it.  Your speaking life does!

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     Well, now you know.  Now you own 11 ways to deliver more
engrossing, more impactful, more exciting audiences experiences
every time out.  

     What are you going to do with this wisdom?   Most readers, yes,
most speakers, simply say, “That’s nice.”   Then they move on to
some other dog and pony show article.   They tell themselves they
will incorporate some of these speaking strategies “one of these days.”   
A week later these 11 platform strategies are in the dust bin of
their forgettery, never to see the light of day again.

     And most speakers are the K-marts of the speaking business.  
Only a few are the Tiffany’s  . . . as I heard the great Thom Winninger say
from NSA’s main stage 20 years ago.

     I made my choice in that moment.   What’s your choice . . .

                                             ###

     Do you want the consciousness that can produce an article like
this one engaged in your behalf?    Read the next paragraph . . .

      I mentor my fellow speakers.  This is what I do.  For 20 years.  
Worldwide.    Because of the economy, there are 3 vacancies in my
Inner Circle.     And now you may make a reduced investment . . .   
 a 6 month commitment.  

     Phone me at  +928-793-3303 or 800-321-1225.  You have nothing to lose
. . . and a whole new life to win . . .

     Your new life experience, 4 and 5 star hotels, dinner in the
white tablecloth dining room, all expenses paid, and more, a
whole yummy lot more, awaits you.  Yes, you.   Call me now,
right now, while it’s on your mind.

With kindest regards,

Burt Dubin

 

Magnetize more bookings to you these 23 ways:

Magnetize bookings to you these 23 ways:

This edition places 23 promotion strategies in your hands.      Some principles
are from the book, “Step Into the Spotlight”.  The author is Tsufit.  You can
find the book on Google or Amazon.

Remember Tsufit’s words: 

An expert is not someone who knows what he knows. 
An expert is someone who is known for knowing what he knows.

The strategies:

1.   Make yourself one-of-a-kind.  Unduplicable.   March to the beat of your
own drum . . .

2.   Invent your own category.  Create a new label previously unheard-of.  
Hang out your unique shingle.

3.   Instead of marketing your programs, market outcomes.  Examples: 
      3.1  Patricia Fripp  “I make meetings more exciting!”       
      3.2  Burt Dubin:  “Speaking success, according your definition of success,
            or your money back.”

4.  Create a system. Example: 4.1  my Speaking Success System.
Other examples created under my direction by my Inner Circle Members: 
Tracy Bild’s Sales Success System,
Sharon Quarmby’s Salesmasters International.

5.   Cause your business name to imply a benefit and a promise. 
Examples: 
      Burt Dubin Speaking Success System,                   
      my Personal Achievement Institute,                                         
      Jim Cathcart’s Cathcart Institute,                                          
      Willie Jolley’s Willie Jolley Worldwide,                               
     Thom Winninger’s Winninger Resource Group,                   
     Larry Wilde’s Carmel Institute of Humor,                        
     Aldonna Ambler’s Ambler Growth Strategies.

6.  Target one primary market.  Conceive specialized programs
exclusively for that market.

7.   Be (and stay) visible.  Get published everywhere your market
is likely to read.  Show up at meetings, conferences, conventions.
Be wherever your market leaders and prospects convene.

8.  Create and publish an e-zine or Report consistently. 
     Example:  This publication, a new edition every month
     without fail since 1999.

9.   Conceive a unique blog and post to it regularly.

10.  Write articles and get them published.

11.  Write Reports, Special Reports, White Papers, fill them with
valuable content . . . and then get them published.    
Example:    I have way over 100 articles on the internet, some published
again and again on other websites in addition to mine.

12.  Create a Club, a Circle, a Membership Group or Site          
People love to belong to something exclusive.

13.  Showcase pros and cons . . . Be wary of staged showcases.
These are to be avoided.  Why:  The staged aspects are transparent
to decision makers.  Those in staged showcases are too well dressed. 
This is because each audience member is waiting for their 15 minutes
on the stage.   The best showcases are real appearances before real
audiences hungry for your wisdom.

14.  Break all the rules, including these.  Be outrageous . . .
Barbra Streisand showed up late for her first audition, chewing gum
that wasn’t there, wearing mismatched shoes.  Intentionally.

15.  Create a business card that is unique and different.  Mine is of
plastic you cannot write on . . . and with no phone number.  This drives
those interested to my website where my phone number is easy to find.

16.  Your products:   Make them timeless with no reference to calendar
dates.  Include principles that do not go out of date.   (The Laws of
Human Nature do not change.)

17.  Include all the humor available to you.  80% humor and 20% content
is definitely OK.   Audiences love this.

18.  When you attend business receptions, parties, here is where to
place yourself:   In the center of the longest wall.   This is because such a
position has the best visibility.

19.  Subscribe to Google Alerts.  (For your business name, your product
name, your name, your specialty.)

20.  Not everyone can do this:  Create your own “Day” to celebrate. 
See http://www.yourpublicitydepartment.com.     
Think Mother’s Day and take it from there.

21.  The only way to position yourself:  The #1 expert in the world
in your niche.

22.  Think back to the 49’ers:                                                 
Stake your claim.                                                                    
Work your claim.                                                                    
Prove your claim.

23.  Share your perceived truths.  (Think Werner Erhart.  He came
out of nowhere, a no-name nobody and shared his (then) 
outrageous truth.  Out of this blossomed EST and The Forum.

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                               FREE Marketing Assistance 

Are you sick and tired of struggling and sweating and trying to figure out
what will really work for you?  Are you ready for a change for the better?
Call me at this number only:     +928-793-3310.     Make your appointment
for a FREE 20 minute market analysis. We'll find 3 to 5 actions you can
take at once to get more of the right gigs for you.  
To reserve your FREE 20 minutes, call between 8:30 AM and 4:30 PM,
MST, Monday-Friday.

Turn tough times into great times these 17 ways:

                  

Speaking Biz Strategies Letter . . . the #1 international electronic publication
dedicated to the interests of paid experts who speak:

Relentlessly written and published by Burt Dubin since 1999.

Welcome to the 113th issue of your Speaking Biz Strategies Letter.

     It’s déjà vu all over again.   How well I remember 1987.  The speaking
business was in the doldrums, much like now.  Some conferences and
conventions were being cancelled.  Other major meetings limped along
with slashed budgets.

     Speakers were losing their homes, yanking their kids out of
private schools they could no longer afford.  Some left the business
and went looking for a j-o-b.

     I was doing better than ever, taking home 5 figures every month. 
(Remember, this was in 1987.)  In this issue you are getting more of the
strategies I used to coin cash while others were griping and groaning.

     These strategies worked then.  And they will serve you well today . . .
if you only engage them.

1.   Get in touch with past clients:

       Offer them “sweetheart” considerations.  (Last year’s fees, etc.)

2.    Be sure you are affordable today.  Some top speakers have slashed
their fees in half and more, re-entered markets they served when their
fees were lower.  The idea is for you to stay afloat and ride out these
tough times.

3.    Go the extra mile:

3.1   Give superior service.  Go beyond excellence.

3.2    Lavish extra care, extra time, on each gig. 

3.3   Customize your Program Manual Covers. 

3.3.1    Include special typography.  Show date and venue for
this performance.  Include their logo.  
Re-name the program for this group.) 

3.4    Interview more of the client’s people/members while
customizing this event just for them. 

3.5    Create custom visuals for this one use.  All at no charge.

3.6    After your program gift the decision maker with the special
visuals you conceived just for them.  They like this. 

4.    Respond fast:

       Handle requests and complaints the same day.  Mail stuff
the same day ordered.  Even when this means a special trip to
the post office.  Impress people with your personal promptness.

5.    Care even more:

       Show how much you care in every client contact. 
Treat everyone better in difficult times.

6.    Target new markets:

       Identify new markets now.  Venues, companies, organizations
you have not pursued before.   Brainstorm this with your spouse,
staff, non-competitive associates.

7.    Use the sailor’s remedy when the wind dies down:

       Market more, not less.  Smart seamen put up more sail,
not less.  Do more outreaching using every available medium.

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  One of my Inner Circle Members,  John Gregory Vincent, with
me only a few months, told me yesterday he is booked so solid for
the rest of this month, working every possible day for $1500 to $2500
per day, he doesn’t even have the time for our scheduled mentoring sessions.

     When I asked him how, in these tough times for speakers, he is getting
all those gigs (and, do the math,  coining around $30,000 or more, this
month,) he said,   “I just do exactly what you showed me how to do.”

     Let that sink in, dear reader, because it matters:  
“I just do exactly what you showed me how to do!”

    

This could be you.   Do you want this to be you?   Then contact me
at 800-321-1225 or +928-753-7546.   Ask me about my special tough
times telephone mentoring package.   And yes, if you can fog a mirror,
you can afford this now.   So call me now, right now, 24-7, even if it is
in the middle of the night.  Leave word for me, including the country
code and area code, and the best time to call . . .
and I will get back to you anywhere on earth.

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8.    Conceive new products:

       Create new programs.  New educational products.  Audios, videos,
MP3’s, Special Reports, E-books.     Include order forms for all your
products within the pages of the Learning Guides you produce for each event.

9.    Raise your fees:

       This bold action, this counter-intuitive ploy, sometimes works. Bundle. 
Add in extras you’d otherwise charge for.  (I just did this with my Sapphire
Level Inner Circle Membership.  It is now 20% higher.)

10.    Create your own market:

         Break new ground.  Lead the field with your personal imagination.

11.   Find an underserved niche:

        Go to Amazon, or a library or major bookstore.  Get the latest
books on the future.  Be astonished at the new markets new technologies
are creating.   Make yourself the guru of a new field.  Think Amazon. 
Think Google.  Think Twitter.

12.   Add extra value to your programs:

        Research each audience in greater depth.  Translate your findings
into what all this means to this audience, its interests and concerns.  
Each program is then fun, special, fresh and different. For a vivid
example of this, see my “Presentation Magic” album.  Find it in the
Products Section on my website.

13.   Take your National programs Regional:

        Higher airfares make this a smart action to take.  Develop
win-win ways to present in the Regions, even the Chapters of National
organization.   I developed an 8 page piece called “Partnering In Promotion”
showing you how.  Send me an SASE and I’ll send you a copy free.  Outside of
USA, send a US dollar to cover postage.

14.    Get a sponsor who serves your market:

       Have decision maker who wants you and cannot afford your fee
provide you with a list of vendors who sell to those who are to attend.  
Contact these vendors and find one who recognizes the marketing
opportunity available by sponsoring your appearance and paying your
full fee.  My Special Report #331 shows you the steps to take.  Send me
an SASE and I’ll send you a copy free.   Outside of USA send a
US dollar to cover postage.

15.   Deliver even more value:

       Add quality to the experience of listening to you.  Get better,
 then better yet.  Be more excited about your topic, more passionately
 committed to your message and its value.   Deliver more core wisdom
with nothing held back.

16.   Do even more research:

       Customize more profoundly. 

16.1   Get inside the skin and bones of your clients and their audiences. 

16.2   Penetrate their hearts.

16.3    Look out at the world through their eyes. 

16.4   Feel their feelings. 

16.5   Be one with them as you stand before them.

I do this all the time in serving my Inner Circle Members worldwide.

17.  Offer to write  an article:

       When you’re not selected to speak, offer to share your
expertise in an article you then write just for them and at no fee. 
Believe me, they will not forget you when you go the extra mile this way.
 (There’s always next year.)

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Please feel free to forward this issue to your associates, to aspiring
speakers, to fellow speakers or anyone else interested.

If you received this message from someone else and would like to
receive your own complimentary subscription, go to:

http://www.burtdubin.com/bonus.html

***  FREE Marketing Assistance  ***

Are you sick and tired of struggling and sweating and trying to figure
out what will really work for you?  Are you ready for a change for the better?
Call me at this number only:     +928-753-7531.     Make your appointment for
 a FREE 20 minute market analysis. We'll find 3 to 5 actions you can take at
once to get more of the right gigs for you.

To reserve your complimentary 20 minute call between 8:30 AM and 4:30 PM,
MST,  Monday-Friday.

I’m in your corner.

With kindest regards,

file:///Users/burtdubin/Desktop/NewSigBlue.pdf

Burt Dubin

       

Ride out the storm using these 10 survival actions:

The 10 Actions follow.  First, this delicious flight of imagination:

      Is this possible?   Is it  really you . . . flying across the Atlantic
to speak at the Northern Europe Consortium of Hog Farmers Annual
Convention.   And it’s in Stockholm, Sweden!

      They want you to share your expertise with the 2749 expected
attendees.   Even better, your slot is the closing Keynote capping
this 3 day Convention.  

     Your Scandinavian Airlines flight during the night is pure pleasure. 
You arrive relaxed and refreshed early AM local time at Stockholm’s
Arlanda airport .   The Convention sponsors have a uniformed
chauffeur and limousine waiting for you.   Once seated you discover
a fresh pot of hot coffee and pastries comforting you on the drive.

     This convention is at the Grand Hotel, grand as only a 5 star hotel
can be.   You are escorted to your lovely suite, Room 3307, courtesy of
the convention sponsors.    Life is good.

     After a nap you decide to stroll around town.  After you visit the
Seglora Church, relocated from Western Sweden, you decide it’s time
for a snack. You chose Pelikan because it is so well recommended. 
There you enjoy husmanskost, a traditional favorite.  (3 cheeses, pate
with berries, dilled egg and ham and boiled potatoes.  Yummy! ) 
You wash it down with a glass of hard cider.

     You visit  Kungliga Operan, (the Royal Opera House .)  The Royal
Swedish Opera and the Royal Swedish Ballet perform here.  
You book seats for this evening.  

     You walk around Gamla Stan (Old Town,) in the historic heart of
the old city.   It is quaint, like an old fairy tale come to life.  Kodak
Moments and memories are around you at every turn.   

     Imagine, you’re being paid to drink this beauty in.  You dine later
at Lisa Elmqvist inside Ostermalm.   Seafood is the specialty here. 
You sample lobster, cod, oysters, smoked eel, and pate, pate, pate.

Time to go to work:

   After 2 days of this idyll, you go to work.  You have prepared your
closing Keynote with care.   Suffice it to say you wow them. 
Later they write you a glowing testimonial.

The importance of Research, Marketing, and Delivery:

     I have presented such programs a few times in my travels. 
And you can too.   All you gotta do is be a solid professional in your
research, your marketing, and your delivery.

     And yes, these days,  even in this economic turmoil,
such programs are presented worldwide.

     What are you to do to attract such bookings and the fat fees
you take home, even in today’s business climate?   

These are your 10 survival actions:

1.   It is no accident this is my first recommendation.
Lower your fees.   For the next year or two, based on those who
say they see the future, many decision makers who can hire you
are stuck with having to deal with way reduced budgets for their
meetings.   So make it easy for these folks to choose you.

2.   When marketing, emphasize the outcomes you deliver. 
Instead of pitching your program, roll out the array of desired
outcomes they get.   Make yourself the best choice in town.

3.    Create an iresistible marketing message.   If you do not know
how to do this, call me for half price consulting.  I can guide you
for an outrageously modest investment!

4.    Make the packaging and marketing of your services your
#1 activity these days.  Want help at a discount?  Call me.

5.    Do more research before each program.  Read all you can find
on the sponsors website.  Read about them on Google. 
 Know them better than they know themselves.

6.    Consider revising your marketing model and your fee options.

7.    Publish more.  More articles, more blog entries.   More print
articles.   Possibly op-ed pieces in the in-house publications of your targets.

8.    Consider upgrades to your website.   (In the past 5 weeks I’ve
created major upgrades on my website.)

9.    As Alan Weiss taught me years ago, give your clients a choice of
yesses.  Offer optional ways to access your genius at different price points.

10.   Like a brand new razor just unwrapped, be your top shelf,
very best every time out.

With kindest regards,

Burt Dubin

P.S.  Be one of the first 10 callers.   I will show you what to do
to magnetize gigs . . . and for half-price.  Call +928-753-7531 now.
______________________________________________

Burt Dubin, president, Personal Achievement Institute,
<http://www.SpeakingBizSuccess.com>
24/7:   800-321-1225     +928-753-7546
e-mail:   burtdubin@citlink.net
Mail:  1 Speaking Success Road, Kingman AZ 86402 USA

Burt works with people who want to be speakers
and with speakers who want to be masters.

Frequently asked questions:
http://www.speakingsuccess.com/system/faqs.html

Speaking Biz Strategies Letter, access to past issues:
http://www.burtdubin.typepad.com  

As Jack London wrote ~ I am consciously aware that
all my actions are in service to a higher calling ~
a calling of the soul versus the ego ~
an inner calling which I continue to listen and
respond to with joy, enthusiasm and delight.

_______________________________________________________

The International Life You Now May Lead . . .

Readers who have yet to experience the living, breathing, and thrilling
reality of international speaking will love this edition because it delivers hope
. . . hope, the keys to new adventures . . . ways and means to create these
new adventures for yourself . . . and a whole lot more.

     In this Issue you get strategies, proven strategies, strategies that work
in trying times like the times we are all enduring now.   Best of all, methods
that serve to earn you gigs otherwise unavailable to you.   And often at your
full fee plus expenses.

     Even if you use the hard times strategies awaiting you in my archived
messages of recent months, and accept  lower fees, you still get the change
of scene, the paid travel, meals and lodgings, often in 5 star hotels. 
Hey, that’s not so bad, is it!

     Yes, today, living through today’s economic maelstrom, there are
international bookings waiting for you.  Engagements including overseas
travel to new and exciting destinations.   New faces, new adventures,
new stories to share with your audiences,  unique foods for you to sample,
all courtesy of the program sponsor. 

     Always (if you arrange your travel dates, which you can always do),
 a day or two, or longer if you wish, for sightseeing, exploring, perhaps
museums and unique places, natural wonders you’d otherwise never
get to experience.

How do you create this reality for yourself now:

1.    Obviously wishing won’t make it so.   To start, you design a program,
one hour to a full day, addressing issues important to a market that exists
internationally.   And for the types of organizations with branches in
countries you want to visit.  

2.  You infuse your program with values and models universally applicable.   
Here’s how to do this:  Base your content on the Laws of Human Nature. 
These Laws do not change.   This is why Homer’s “The Odyssey” remains
a classic today.

3.  Then you do what you must to present your program in the country
in which you live.   To break in to a new market, do extensive advance
research.   My Report, “SELLING TO THE CORPORATE  MARKET” includes
several pages revealing how to do this.    It works for Corporations as well
as Associations.  Find it here:  

http://www.burtdubin.com/corporate_market.html

4.   You do extensive research using the methods you find in this Report.  
(Sure, this is work, and it is worth it a thousand times over.  Not only
for the information, connections, and aha’s you discover.   Even more,
for what you unearth about making yourself and your programs
one-of-a-kind.   (This is how I made myself an international speaker.)

5.   Produce a wildly acclaimed outing or two in your home country.
Make this your intention from day one.   Collect blurbs from your
new raving fans.   Publish them the same way I publish my blurbs.  
Everywhere.

     You are now a Somebody.  A Personality.   A Name. 
     Think Patricia Fripp.  Think Alan Weiss.   Think Nido Quebein.

6.   Now get the highest ranking officer of the organization to refer
you to the Division or Branch or Location in the country you want
to visit.   Follow up like a demon.  Sooner or later they will hire you,
if only for the novelty of getting an expert from overseas to speak.

7.   Rinse and repeat.   A few speakers do nothing except international travel. 
Think Frank Furness.   Personally, loving my own hearth and home, I would
not go for this any more.  And you might.   Now proceed to revel in
your new life experience.

                                               ###

Would you like to know how you can succeed in the business of speaking
sooner?    What about how you can avoid a lot of sweat, struggle, and
suffering?    Simply get in touch with me, Burt Dubin.

“You are a master——an absolute master——I recommend your System
without reservation,”  Jos J Charbonneau, CSP, CPAE.    
____________________________________________________

                             ***  FREE Marketing Assistance  ***

Are you sick and tired of struggling and sweating and trying to figure out
what will really work for you?  Are you ready for a change for the better?

Call me at this number only:     +928-753-7531.     Make your appointment
for a FREE 20 minute market analysis. We'll find 3 to 5 actions you can take
at once to get more of the right gigs for you.  
To reserve your FREE 20 minutes, call between 8:30 AM and 4:00 PM,
MST, Monday-Friday.
____________________________________________________

Contact information:    Burt Dubin, Personal Achievement Institute,
1 Speaking Success Road, Kingman AZ  86402 USA.   
Voice +928-753-7546     Fax +928-753-7554   
 e-mail:  <burt@burtdubin.com>
____________________________________________________

© Copyright Burt Dubin/Personal Achievement Institute.  This Letter
and it’s content are proprietary products.   All rights reserved.
You are welcome to forward the entire Letter to anyone interested.
____________________________________________________

How To Bootstrap Your Way Out of the Doldrums

Welcome, dear reader . . .

In this edition:    How to bootstrap your way out of the doldrums

“It was the best of times . . . it was the worst of times . . .”  
So starts a classic Charles Dickens novel.

“Whichever way the wind doth blow, some heart is glad to have it so”

You may be surprised, even shocked, to hear me say this is a fantastic
time, a wonderful time, to be in the speaking business.

Well, it is!

Here is why:

Marginal wanna-be speakers are getting out of the game. 
There is less competition.

The Association market is, as you know, the surest market
for experts who speak.  According to the Meetings publications
I read, this prime market, responding to the economic
slowdown, is reducing by about 3% the number of meetings
and conferences they host.

Due to belt-tightening, they have fewer dollars to invest in
speakers.  So they are bargaining harder, seeking more for
their money.

In this 110th issue you capture strategies and actions I used
21 years ago to increase my bookings.   They worked then. 
They work now.  The Meeting Market was in a recession then. 
The Meeting Market is in a recession now.

You are about to capture the strategies and actions that
kept my speaking business income at par.  You can engage these
models to keep your speaking business income at par.

Why do these strategies and actions work:

Because they are based on the Immutable Laws of Human Nature. 
 Like the Law of Gravity these Laws do not change.

In addition, in the paragraphs of this Issue you about to receive
many other useful methods my peers, successful speakers all,
are using now to get inbound cash flowing while lesser mortals
are bitching and moaning.

Let’s begin with these:

1.   Generate better outcome-generating audience experiences.

How do you do this?  Use the power of your subconscious mind.
I show you how to do this in the most popular, most requested
Report I ever wrote.  It is called How To Be a Genius On the Platform. 
I will be happy to send you the PDF.   Complimentary.  Free. No cost.
 My gift to you.  Send me your e-mail address, requesting this Report.

2.   Be aware that momentous change is coming. 

My Inner Circle Graduate, Lee Glickstein, says it well: 
“I sense a liberation of possibilities like a silent lightning bolt
zapping through the collective soul.  The shift is now within each
of us in our own way and it is up to each of us to listen to and
flow with that change.   We are living in a time where enlightened
leadership skills are being modeled on the world stage . . .”  

This means a new wave of consciousness and prosperity is soon
to appear.  Be patient.  Breathe.  This too shall pass.  Breathe in.
 Hold 5 seconds.  Breathe out s-l-o-w-l-y.   Repeat daily.

3.    Now is the time to negotiate, to bargain, to make yourself
the irresistible expert.

 In negotiating, start by offering to present 2 programs on the
same day for the price of 1.  For example, they pay you to present
the Keynote or General Session.  (Or to present any  session.) 
You then do a second session at no further fee.  The second session
may be you chairing a panel, MC’ing the whole event, presenting a
special limited access program for a unique group within the
organization, a breakout session . . . or whatever.  Use your imagination.

4.   Next step, as needed: 

Offer an all-inclusive, delivered fee including your travel,
 incidentals, meals and sleeping room.

5.   Again, whatever it takes may include all the above plus
lowering your fee as far as you dare.

6.   If there is a Trade Show in connection with this conference...

Offer to accept, as part of your fee, a trade show booth in which
you can sell your products to attendees.   Sweeten this, if needed,
by offering to return to the organization a percentage of your profits.

7.   As a last resort, and only when you are certain this is in your
 best interest because of the exposure and P.R. . . .

Offer to speak for expenses only if you can offer product at your
program.  This means, if you are excellent on the platform and
deliver solid value, you can harvest cash from product sales. 
One of the “products” you offer can be mentoring or consulting
at an hourly fee you set.    This may be in person during the
conference or later by a series of teleclasses or   individual
telephone appointments. (in which you offer product!)

All above strategies are tested and proven in tough times
in the crucible of the real world.  All serve to get you gigs
you would otherwise not get.  And only the gigs you get bring
home the cash.   All are yours with my compliments.

If you are struggling, and if you choose to not engage any of
the above or similar strategies to cause you to thrive in these
troubled times, then it is time for you to get out of
the speaking business.

On the other hand, If you choose to stay in the speaking business,
all is not lost.

As long as you recognize that you are your most important asset
and you are willing to invest in you, read on . . .

Robert Schiller said it:  “Tough times don’t last.  Tough people do.”  
Here are 3 ways you can prove you are a tough person:

1.  HARVEST DOLLARS BY PARTNERING IN PROMOTION

In 1987, depressed times for the meeting market, I devised a
strategy that yielded me tens of thousands of US dollars. 
This money came thundering and hurtling, crashing over my
threshold as decision makers found themselves unable to resist
this risk-free way to get me to speak.   Here’s how you can
hook into and profit from my survival-in-tough-times speaking
business success strategy:

I produced an 8 page Report sharing the exact model I created.
It is a paint-by-numbers, step-by-step Action Plan. 

Picture this:  You discover how you can show decision-makers
how to deliver concepts and methods (available only from you,)
to their Members without risking anything except promotional
actions.  If too few people commit to attend, decision maker
is off the hook and does not invest a penny.

On the other hand, if the break-even point is reached
(as it usually is,) then you are paid in addition to your travel,
 lodging and meals, your agreed percentage of proceeds. 
The organization keeps the rest.  

The real kicker is this:  Nobody can lose.  You may receive
more than your regular fee, plus all your expenses.  
And whatever you receive, above your expenses, at least
you’re staying in the game, making some money while
delivering memorable value to the organization. 
(As well as enhancing your reputation and fame.)

There are 3 ways for you to get your hands on this special strategy.
 Details are at the end of this message.

2.   HOW TO TURN LEMONS INTO LEMONADE.

This is a 3 page Report.  That’s 3 full letter size pages of strategies,
actions, and concepts.   (In 12 point type.)  Way more than I could
include in this message.  You get 17 easy-to-implement, street-smart
actions you can take to turn slow times into great times. 
Details are at the end of this message.

3.   MAGNETIZE DECISION-MAKERS 23 POWERFUL WAYS

Another 3 page Report.  You get 23 additional ways to cause
decision makers to lust for your services, yearn for your services,
hunger to get you to speak.  Details are at the end of this message.

These 3 Reports, packaged, regularly sell for $99.   For the next 7 days,
you may have all 3 for $49, delivered to your door. 
US$49 delivered worldwide.  That’s 50% off an already bargain
investment.   Fax me your CC# including the security numbers
on the back of your card.  Include your complete postal address
because I will mail these to you.  These are not on my shopping
cart and there is no money back guarantee. 
And this offer may never be made again.  

Include your phone number in case of a question.

Look, I have a heart.  Here’s proof:  If you are struggling and
if $49 is a stretch, slip a US$20 bill in an envelope and mail it
to me with your complete mailing address.

When your envelope arrives here I will send you the whole
works, all 3 Reports delivered worldwide, $99 worth of
Speaking Business Success Strategies to get your speaking
business into orbit, for hardly more than the cost of a nice lunch.

(And you know exactly where that lunch goes within a day . . .)
Is all this strategic wisdom worth more than a nice lunch? 
Will it stay with you longer than that lunch?
If  you think not, check your values. 

And if $20 strains your resources and you still gotta have these
3 Reports, send me a US$10 check or Money Order drawn to my
favorite charity, the USA Salvation Army.  After your tax-deductible 
Salvation Army donation arrives here, I mail you, postpaid worldwide,
these 3 Reports, $99 of powerful Speaking Business Success Strategies,
absolutely free.

With kindest regards,
file:///Users/burtdubin/Desktop/NewSigBlue.pdf

Burt Dubin

P.S.  On top of all this, you are credited, (whether $49 or $20,)
in full toward your next investment in any of my
speaking business success products.

P.P.S.  Order now while this is on your mind.  You snooze, you lose.
_______________________________________________________

Burt Dubin, president, Personal Achievement Institute,
<http://www.SpeakingBizSuccess.com>
24/7:   800-321-1225     +928-753-7546
e-mail:   burtdubin@citlink.net
Mail:  1 Speaking Success Road, Kingman AZ 86402 USA

Burt works with people who want to be speakers
and with speakers who want to be masters.

Frequently asked questions:
http://www.speakingsuccess.com/system/faqs.html

Speaking Biz Strategies Letter, access to past issues:
http://www.burtdubin.typepad.com 

As Jack London wrote ~ I am consciously aware that
all my actions are in service to a higher calling ~
a calling of the soul versus the ego ~
an inner calling which I continue to listen and
respond to with joy, enthusiasm and delight.

____________________________________________________________

Engage Today's Economic Turbulence to Build Your Speaking Business

Date:         9 November 2008

To:            Subscribers, Speaking Biz Strategies Letter, Issue #109

From:        Burt Dubin  <burt@burtdubin.com>

Speaking Biz Strategies Letter . . . the #1 international electronic publication
dedicated to the interests of paid experts who speak:
Relentlessly written and published by Burt Dubin since 1999.

Welcome to the 109th issue of your Speaking Biz Strategies Letter.

Please feel free to forward this issue to your associates, to aspiring speakers,
to fellow speakers or anyone else interested.

If you received this message from someone else and would like to receive
your own complimentary subscription, go to:

http://www.burtdubin.com/bonus.html

In this edition:   Engage today’s economic turbulence
to build your speaking business

How to do it:

1.  Stay self-employed independent.   When you must hire, go for independent
contractors only.  Pay for work performed as approved & delivered.  

2.   Remember:   Lesser mortals are either retreating out of speaking/consulting
or crawling into their shells, doing nothing, waiting for the storm to pass.  
Most competition evaporates leaving the field to the bold and tough . . .
(meaning you).

3.   Do not market speeches/seminars/workshops.   Not now.
Instead market . . . and guarantee . . . outcomes.   Outcomes are what
decision-makers are eager to buy and pay top dollar for.

4.   Go deeper.   Ask your subconscious mind to come up with fresh concepts
and strategies your market will welcome and pay for.   And know you can do this. 
 I have many times.  I’m doing it now.   So can you when you simply believe
 in yourself and say, “Yes I can!”

5.   Decide you are now to prevail.    Engage these tough times to move
your speaking business up a notch or two.  Quitters are giving up and
getting out.   This is your moment.

6.   Target new markets in which you are a new face offering new hope.  
That’s what decision makers yearn for now . . . hope. 

7.   Be resolutely persistent.   I remember 30+ years ago when I was
in real estate sales.  Every member of the 150 person sales force I was
a part of was crying the blues.  Not me, Charlie!   I was doing better
than ever, to the dismay of some of my peers.  I told myself this: 
I carry my business climate around with me.   (Think of your business
climate as an invisible eggshell or aura . . . . a safe haven out of which
you function in your universe.)    This timeless principle works because
 it is based on universal laws.

8.   As the great Joseph J. Charbonneau,  (May his soul rest in peace,) said,
“People are either the wind in your sails or an anchor on your tail.” 
Dump employees, vendors, partners who
are not aligned with your spirit and your goals.

9.  Watch the kale.    (Translation:   Squeeze every nickel until the buffalo yelps.) 
Conserve your funds.   Honor obligations when due.  Ask yourself before buying
anything:  Will this investment advance me toward my goals?  If not, defer it.

10.   Focus energy on closing bookings now.    I don’t mean discount you fees. 
 Instead, add value.  An extra program the same day at no extra cost. 
( I Learned this from the great Thom Winninger.)   Host a private round table
for senior executives.   Chair a panel.  MC the event.  Go beyond what anyone
else would do for them.  Pile on the extras.   Make your offer irresistible.

11.   Offer proof of the outcomes you deliver.  Over-deliver.   Offer follow up
phone coaching, after-program teleclasses they can record and use throughout
their organization . . . or sell and they keep the proceeds.

12.  Hone your wisdom.  Relentlessly pursue mastery of your craft.  
Enjoy every twist of the road before you.   Let your inner knowing
guide you to weave the shreds and tatters of the economy into a
tapestry of triumph for you.

(I acknowledge my treasured friend, Perry Marshall, for some of
the above words and recommendations.)
_______________________________________________________

Burt Dubin, president, Personal Achievement Institute,
<http://www.SpeakingBizSuccess.com>
24/7:   800-321-1225     +928-753-7546
e-mail:   burtdubin@citlink.net
Mail:  1 Speaking Success Road, Kingman AZ 86402 USA

Burt works with people who want to be speakers
and with speakers who want to be masters.

Frequently asked questions:
http://www.speakingsuccess.com/system/faqs.html

Speaking Biz Strategies Letter, access to past issues:
http://www.burtdubin.typepad.com 

As Jack London wrote ~ I am consciously aware that
all my actions are in service to a higher calling ~
a calling of the soul versus the ego ~
an inner calling which I continue to listen and
respond to with joy, enthusiasm and delight.

Solution for a Troubled Speaker's Market

Date:         8 October 2008
To:            Subscribers, Speaking Biz Strategies Letter, Issue #108
From:        Burt Dubin  <burt@burtdubin.com>
Subject:    Solution for a troubled speakers market

Speaking Biz Strategies Letter . . . the #1 international electronic publication
dedicated to the interests of paid experts who speak:
Relentlessly written and published by Burt Dubin since 1999.

Welcome to the 108th issue of your Speaking Biz Strategies Letter.

Please feel free to forward this issue to your associates, to aspiring speakers,
to fellow speakers or anyone else interested.

If you received this message from someone else and would like to receive
 your own complimentary subscription, go to:

http://www.burtdubin.com/bonus.html

In this edition:    Solution for a troubled speakers market

     What would you say if I told you there is a largely unrecognized market
for speaking, consulting and training . . .

      A market unrecognized by almost all paid experts who speak . . .

      A market hungry for virtually all bread and butter topics . . . these
Include communication with vendors, with staff, with superiors, stress
management, customer service, persuasion, managing people, working
with difficult people, executive decision-making, negotiation, etc.

      A market that budgets mega-dollars, make that mega-mega dollars,
 every fiscal year for education, training, a market that invests huge
sums in consultants . . .

     A market with a gargantuan budget, and . . . get this . . . a huge 
budget that must be spent each year on penalty of being taken out of
the budget the following year if it is not spent . . .

Are you salivating yet?

     Well I won’t keep you in suspense a millisecond longer:  

     This market Is the Federal government of the country in which
you live.

      Most speakers do not know how to crack the code.  
What the rules of the game are.   I do.   And now, you are
to know, too.

      I have presented programs for the USA Internal Revenue
 Service from coast-to-coast.   At least one of these was
recorded for continuing internal use.

     I have presented programs for the U.S. Navy.

     These are a minor part of my quarter-century international
speaking and consulting experience.   Admittedly, I did not pursue
 this market because more lucrative markets were at hand for me.  

     And I discovered the rules of the game.   Before I tell you how to
penetrate this cash-cow of a recurring market, let me share how the
game is played.

     This is empirical wisdom.   Rooted in my experience. 
Your experience may be different:

1.    US Government agencies and departments like to do business
with organizations, not with individuals.   So create a DBA.  (Doing Business As) 
 Your DBA is an alter ego.  There are no tax or reporting changes involved. 
 You are wise to allow your DBA to imply a benefit and a promise relative
to your specialty.

      I.E.  My “Speaking Success System.”  This name implies the presence
of a benefit and a promise relative to the service I deliver.

      Do the same as you conceive a name for your organization.
(If I recall right, Thomas Watson, one man working out of his home garage,
coined the name, “International Business Machines.”  His
company is now colloquially known as IBM.)

2.     These government entities do not pay one cent in front.  And they do
not pay any of your expenses.  You name a “delivered” fee for what you do. 
Then you show up and do it.   You invoice them for the agreed fee.   In the USA,
they pay your organization in full within 30 days.  This prompt payment is
mandated by the USA Congress and overseen by GSA.  (USA General Services
Administration.)

3.    They will write you letters of commendation on their letterhead (if you ask,)
when you do a fine job.   And they will refer you.   (I was referred to IRS offices
in other parts of the country.)

How to access the USA Federal Government market:

1.    This information is a start.  It is all I know.   It is enough to get you started . . .

2.    Contact the General Services Administration.   Tell them your company name
and what you do.   Say you want to be approved as a GSA vendor.  Say you offer
solutions to real challenges.   Say you want to have your name placed on the RFP List.
 (RFP – Request For Proposal.)   This gets you in the gate with GSA.   In due course,
 when there is a need for something like what you offer, you receive an RFP. 
You then respond in the fashion they prescribe.

     However GSA is responsible for hardly 10% of Government purchases of
training, consulting, and education.    Therefore . . .

3.    Contact the Department of Commerce.   Do as it says in Paragraph 1,
immediately above.   Rinse and repeat.

4.    Contact every Cabinet Department.  (The President’s Cabinet. )
Each is its own bureaucracy with its own huge budget and its own unique
requirements.   Rinse and repeat.

5.   Contact each branch of the armed services  (Army, Navy, Marines,
 Coast Guards.)  Rinse and repeat.

      Overseas subscribers, translate my findings to your country
and to the equivalent Departments and Agencies in your country.

6.    Remember Governments are all bureaucracies . . .with the
backbiting, the jealousies, the turf defense, the infighting indigenous
to virtually all large organizations.   This is the real world and we might as
well accept it as it is.  (I worked for 4 Fortune 500  corporations for 20 years
 . . . lived with and experienced these harsh realities  . . . quit every one of
these organizations to better myself,
ultimately started to work for myself.)

7.   Then I found myself in the finest possible business . . . being a self-employed
expert who speaks.    I promise you that when you build a following in this
business you have the finest of all lifetime annuities.  

       Today I serve clients worldwide.   If you, %$firstname%,  would like to be
in a recession-proof activity, feel free to give me a holler.   The new life you
 live, the peace of mind you enjoy . . . will be your own.

On the personal side:

    Early tomorrow morning I fly to the city in which I grew up . . .
to the scene of my crimes . . . (well, to my coming of age,) to where
I went to . . . and ultimately graduated from . . . Atlantic City
High School.

    It is to be a nostalgic trip down memory lane . . . to the best submarine
sandwiches in the galaxy . . . the White House Sub Shop, still there since
 I was a child . . .

    To Dock’s Oyster House owned all these 60+ years by the Dougherty family,
continuing to deliver the ultimate seafood experience anywhere,

     I will show Elayne where I found my little sabot moored to a
water pipe outside the bulkheads in the Back Bay behind Ventnor. 
And discovered how to engage prevailing conditions to get wherever I
wanted to get in life by sailing that small craft around the bay and to
the Dorset Avenue Bridge where I stopped traffic as I sailed my boat
under the drawbridge.

     We will visit the old ice cream parlor where I learned about always
giving buyers more than they expect . . . in this case, jimmies on
the ice cream cone . . .
_______________________________________________________

Burt Dubin, president, Personal Achievement Institute,
<http://www.SpeakingBizSuccess.com>
24/7:   800-321-1225     +928-753-7546
e-mail:   burtdubin@citlink.net
Mail:  1 Speaking Success Road, Kingman AZ 86402 USA

Burt works with people who want to be speakers
and with speakers who want to be masters.

Frequently asked questions:
http://www.speakingsuccess.com/system/faqs.html

Speaking Biz Strategies Letter, access to past issues:
http://www.burtdubin.typepad.com 

As Jack London wrote ~ I am consciously aware that
all my actions are in service to a higher calling ~
a calling of the soul versus the ego ~
an inner calling which I continue to listen and
respond to with joy, enthusiasm and delight.

_______________________________________________________________

The 7th anniversary of the day thay changed history

Date:         September 11, 2008
To:            Subscribers, Speaking Biz Strategies Letter, Issue #106
From:        Burt Dubin  <burt@burtdubin.com>
Subject:    The 7th anniversary of the day that changed history

Speaking Biz Strategies Letter . . . the #1 international electronic
publication dedicated to the interests of paid experts who speak:
Relentlessly written and published by Burt Dubin since 1999.

Welcome to the 106th issue of your Speaking Biz Strategies Letter.

Please feel free to forward this issue to your associates, to aspiring
speakers, to fellow speakers or anyone else interested.

If you received this message from someone else and would like to
receive your own complimentary subscription, go to:

http://www.burtdubin.com/bonus.html

In this edition:   The7 th Anniversary of the day that changed history . . .

    I find myself caught up in the horror of  this day, 7 years ago.
My mind is flooding with dreadful memories I don’t desire.

    Yet they have not, do not, will not disappear from my consciousness.

    I am sure many readers of this Letter were not subscribers on that
awful day.   So allow me to refresh you with this snippet:

Life is never to be the same again.  We have received our chilling 911 call.
Vile forces are unleashed and gathering energy. Every form of rapacious
act is around the corner from where you live. Here in the United States
of America all we hold dear is on the line. The enemy feels that to die for
his evil intentions is the highest form of glory.

Even better, awaiting him in paradise are 72 virgins.  That promise is what
the villainous terrorist leaders feed each one of these living instruments 
of death and destruction.

And we are the torch bearers for the free world. They look to us for leadership
in this conflict between good and evil.  I pray that our leaders have the
wisdom to fight this new form of merciless warfare. The enemy is viral.
All but invisible. Willing to use the most insidious, the most horrible means
to overturn our way of life, to take away our freedoms.

We cherish our freedoms, our right to self-determination, our opportunity
to pursue our dreams unfettered by domination and control by a government
that is not of the people, by the people, and for the people.

"The price of liberty is eternal vigilance." So said one of the founding fathers
of the United States of America.   This has never been more true.

We who enjoy the privilege of the platform now have special accountabilities:

We are at all time to speak truth, at least our perceived truth. And this
truth is to include two elements.  Hope and comfort. Today, as we, the
citizens of the free world, face each day, we hunger for hope. We long for
a feeling of comfort, even in these unsettled and treacherous times.

So, we speakers, trainers, and educators are to be voices of reason, of
reassurance.   We are to be oil on troubled waters.  Audience members
want to feel there will be a tomorrow, indeed endless tomorrows for them
and for their children.

Of course, from where we are, we do not affect the course of this war.
Really, there's no way we can promise those tomorrows.  Yet we can affect
how people feel about their tomorrows.

What are we to do?   We are now to be purveyors of hope and comfort.
That is what this series is about. Every edition of the  series is here for you. 
It is all free of any charge. Copy it.  Use it as you will. Engage it to ease the
way of all whose lives and careers you touch.

Burt Dubin
-  -  -  - - -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  - -  -  -  -  -

World-Wide Angst

I am suffused with this world-wide anguish.  There's been a lump in my throat
since Tuesday Noon when I learned of the terrible events of 9-11.  Truly there
is significance in that date.

Think 911. Hundreds of e-mails have reached me since yesterday.
I can hardly deal with them and I must.

Burt Dubin
_________________________________________________________

The Only Thing We Have to Fear

     The world just changed forever. War was declared on the whole world.

     A friend from the National Security Agency told me recently how difficult
it was to convince audiences lately of the real threat from asymmetrical warfare.

     The enemy is doing what it can to understand our collective mind, he said,
and then will use the weakest link in our armor to strike terror into our
collective hearts.

     And so they have. With a simple coordinated attack the assumptions of the
American people were changed forever. We live in America, I have been saying,
as if it were America and not Israel.  In Israel people know they are in Israel.
They live accordingly.

     Now we know too.

     War is hell. It calls forth from us the best and the worse in our all-too-human
natures. And now everyone knows what many have known for years, that we
are at war.

     Which means understanding who the enemy is and what it means to fight
 this war.

     The first war is against fear and terror, as Franklin Roosevelt said.
Nameless, unreasoning fear that distorts our thinking and feeling and
changes the way we live our lives. Fear in the face of real threats is
appropriate. Our collective task will be to distinguish real from illusory
threats, real from imagined enemies, and stay as clear-thinking and
focused as we can as we identify what is important in our lives and make
efforts to secure and defend what matters most.

     So what, in moments like these, do we know?

     We know that the first people we thought of are the most important
people in our lives. The people we wanted to be with or who we feared
were dead or injured or vulnerable to attack, those are the people that
matter most.

     Then that bond must expand and include all on whom we rely, all on
whom we depend, all on whom we will call in the days and weeks and
months ahead as comrades, friends, and allies. This is a moment that will
ask everything of us as we struggle to attack and defend ourselves from
real enemies and define our circles of loyalty and kinship with precision
and care.

     The enemy is fear, terror, and falsehood. Our allies are courage, strength
in the face of adversity, resilience and flexibility and our capacity to respond
to whatever life brings with genuine heroism. These are the marks of the
freedom that lives in our souls.

     Freedom is our capacity to live life as it is fired at us point blank from
the barrel of a gun and never surrender that which makes us human and that
which makes us free.

     The world has changed, now, forever, and the boundaries that we draw
around ourselves, who is in and who is out, will change forever too. We will
discover who we really are in the weeks ahead.

     But I know from fifty-seven years on this fragile planet who we are in
our best moments and I pray that we have the courage to be who we are.

     I think of how I responded to someone who was worried that when I left
the ministry, it meant that I had lost my faith in the existence of God.

     Do you believe, she asked, in God?

     Yes, I said, in my heart I know that God exists. But, I added.

     Thinking of the horror. Thinking of the oppression in people's lives.
Thinking of the bloodshed.

     That doesn't mean things aren't as bad as they look.

     Our challenge now is to know both are true. Things are every bit as
bad as they look and people do evil things and rejoice in the bloodshed.
And in my heart I know that God exists and is manifest in freedom, freedom
from fear and terror, the freedom to respond to
whatever life brings with dignity, elasticity, and heroism.

     The only thing we have to fear now is fear, the primary weapon of our
enemies. Because I know who we are, I know that we have what it takes
to do what is necessary now, how we must structure our world and our lives,
and how we must rededicate ourselves to the creation of a global society
in which freedom and not fear and terror are the hallmarks of our humanity.

Richard Thieme

(Richard Thieme is a profound thinker as you can tell.   Since 2001, I have
lost contact with him.   His message is one of  hundreds I received in the
days following 9/11.
-  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  - -  -  -  -  -  - 

     There are dozens of these messages, mostly from speakers worldwide.
I posted them all at this url:     http://www.911letters.com

     Feel free to read them, share them with your loved ones.   Why?
Because we must never, ever, ever, ever, ever forget . . .

Here is a fresh one.  It reached me today from Allen L  Roland PhD:

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

THE FALLING MAN OF 9/11 CRIES OUT FOR JUSTICE

 

Image:The Falling Man.jpg
Photo Credit: Richard Drew, AP

There came a moment as they clung to those windows high above the streets
of New York, with the unbearable heat and smoke drawing near ~ that they chose
 to jump, versus burn to death, and in that moment of complete surrender they
became graceful sacred angels returning to source  ~ but they are now crying
 out for justice : Allen L Roland

I watched again last night the brilliant and moving  (70 minute) video
THE FALLING MAN which has not been released in the U.S. and which
can be seen by clicking on

<http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17405.htm>.

Very little has been written about the over 200 people who jumped to their
deaths from the World Trade Towers on 9/11 and instead the press has
stressed the heroism and patriotism of the time ~ but I maintain that the
 jumpers were also heroes. For there came a moment as they clung to those
windows high above the streets of New York, with the unbearable heat and
smoke drawing near ~ that they chose to jump, versus burn to death, and in
 that moment of complete surrender they became graceful sacred angels
returning to source.

The mainstream press purposely covered up and air brushed from our view
many photos of those jumpers of 9/11 in order to concentrate on the heroism
and patriotism of that day.

But now the falling angels are crying out for justice but it's no longer an
externalized justice against Bin Laden but an internalized justice against t
he Cheney/Bush administration who have and continue to use 9/11 as a
justification for their immediate and continual abuses of power ~ while they
may very well have condoned, facilitated if not expedited the attack itself.

Tom Junod, who is featured in this video, wrote an extraordinary piece for
Eqsuire in September 2003 on "The Falling Man," offering several possibilities
of who was the falling man. His piece ended with this very moving story about
Jonathan Briley ~ who is very likely the falling man of 9/11.  

As such, the human face of 9/11 is Jonathan Briley ~ the falling man of 9/11 ~
who is a constant reminder of man's inhumanity to man and who now cries
out for the real truth behind this evil atrocity.

Allen L Roland           http://blogs.salon.com/0002255/2008/09/10.html

    

    THE FALLING MAN

    Tom Junod / ESQUIRE / SEPT 2003

     "  Jonathan Briley worked at Windows on the World. Some of his co - workers,
when they saw Richard Drew's photographs, thought he might be the Falling Man.
He was a light-skinned black man. He was over six five. He was forty-three.
He had a mustache and a goatee and close-cropped hair. He had a wife
named Hillary.

    Jonathan Briley's father is a preacher, a man who has devoted his whole life
to serving the Lord. After September 11, he gathered his family together to
ask God to tell him where his son was. No: He demanded it. He used these words:
"Lord, I demand to know where my son is." For three hours straight, he prayed in
his deep voice, until he spent the grace he had accumulated over a lifetime in
the insistence of his appeal.

    The next day, the FBI called. They'd found his son's body. It was, miraculously,
intact.

    The preacher's youngest son, Timothy, went to identify his brother.
He recognized him by his shoes: He was wearing black high-tops. Timothy
removed one of them and took it home and put it in his garage, as a kind
 of memorial.

    Timothy knew all about the Falling Man. He is a cop in Mount Vernon,
New York, and in the week after his brother died, someone had left a September
12 newspaper open in the locker room. He saw the photograph of the Falling Man
 and, in anger, he refused to look at it again. But he couldn't throw it away.
 Instead, he stuffed it in the bottom of his locker, where ~ like the black shoe
 in his garage  ~ it became permanent.

    Jonathan's sister Gwendolyn knew about the Falling Man, too. She saw the
 picture the day it was published. She knew that Jonathan had asthma, and in
the smoke and the heat would have done anything just to breathe. . . .

    The both of them, Timothy and Gwendolyn, knew what Jonathan wore to
work on most days. He wore a white shirt and black pants, along with the
high-top black shoes. Timothy also knew what Jonathan sometimes wore under
his shirt: an orange T-shirt. Jonathan wore that orange T-shirt everywhere.
He wore that shirt all the time. He wore it so often that Timothy used to make
fun of him: When are you gonna get rid of that orange T-shirt, Slim?

    But when Timothy identified his brother's body, none of his clothes were
recognizable except the black shoes. And when Jonathan went to work on
the morning of September 11, 2001, he'd left early and kissed his wife
goodbye while she was still sleeping. She never saw the clothes he was
wearing. After she learned that he was dead, she packed his clothes away
and never inventoried what specific articles of clothing might be missing.

    Is Jonathan Briley the Falling Man? He might be. But maybe he didn't jump
from the window as a betrayal of love or because he lost hope. Maybe he
jumped to fulfill the terms of a miracle. Maybe he jumped to come home
to his family. Maybe he didn't jump at all, because no one can jump into
the arms of God.

    Oh, no. You have to fall.

    Yes, Jonathan Briley might be the Falling Man. But the only certainty we have
is the certainty we had at the start: At fifteen seconds after 9:41 a.m., on
September 11, 2001, a photographer named Richard Drew took a picture of a man
falling through the sky ~ falling through time as well as through space. The picture
went all around the world, and then disappeared, as if we willed it away. One of
 the most famous photographs in human history became an unmarked grave,
and the man buried inside its frame ~ the Falling Man ~ became the Unknown
Soldier in a war whose end we have not yet seen. Richard Drew's photograph
is all we know of him, and yet all we know of him becomes a measure of
what we know of ourselves. The picture is his cenotaph, and like the monuments
dedicated to the memory of unknown soldiers everywhere, it asks that we look
at it, and make one simple acknowledgment.

    That we have known who the Falling Man is all along. "

    --------------------

    The fall of the World Trade towers on 9/11, could well represent the fall
of America from its once proud pinnacle of moral integrity to its present
position of failed moral leadership in a rapidly interconnected world.

    But the human face of that infamous day is now Jonathan Briley ~
the falling man of 9/11 who cries out for justice.

    Allen L Roland          http://blogs.salon.com/0002255/2008/09/10.html
-  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  - 
Well, there you have it . . . my lament for a world that was . . .
and for the world that now is.

     In a couple of days I’ll get back to today’s reality.
Please allow me this surrender to heartfelt emotions
I wish I had never felt.

     May you and your loved ones be blessed . . .

With kindest regards,

Burt Dubin
_______________________________________________________

Burt Dubin, president, Personal Achievement Institute,
<http://www.SpeakingBizSuccess.com>
24/7:   800-321-1225     +928-753-7546
e-mail:   burtdubin@citlink.net
Mail:  1 Speaking Success Road, Kingman AZ 86402 USA

Burt works with people who want to be speakers
and with speakers who want to be masters.

Frequently asked questions:
http://www.speakingsuccess.com/system/faqs.html

Speaking Biz Strategies Letter, access to past issues:
http://www.burtdubin.typepad.com 

As Jack London wrote ~ I am consciously aware that
all my actions are in service to a higher calling ~
a calling of the soul versus the ego ~
an inner calling which I continue to listen and
respond to with joy, enthusiasm and delight.

_______________________________________________________________