Hire an Author to Speak

According to an Association Press-Ipsos poll (AP) "one in four adults say they read no books at all in the past year. " !!

"Of those who did read, women and seniors were most avid, and religious works and popular fiction were the top choices. The survey reveals a nation whose book readers, on the whole, can hardly be called ravenous. The typical person claimed to have read four books in the last year -- half read more and half read fewer. Excluding those who hadn't read any, the usual number read was seven."

The upshot for meeting planners: Hire an author to speak to your group because the odds are that few people in the audience are reading book length works, they'll probably appreciate the words of someone who has the rigour to write a book, and some may be inspired to actually read the book.

Meeting Industry Resources

Relocation sale: After 16 years in Chapel Hill, we recently packed up and relocated to the state capitol, Raleigh NC. To make space in the new location, we're offering an unprecedented learning resources package. Only $83 gets you $261 of our best resources:

$63 worth of Books
[ ] Getting New Clients (Wiley, hardcover, 268 pages, $37.95)
[ ] Breathing Space (BookSurge, 202 pages, $14.95)
[ ] The 60 Second Self-Starter (Adams Media, 142 pages, $9.95)

$198 worth of CDs and Audio Books
[ ] The 60-Second Procrastinator (Oasis Audio, 140 minutes) $19.95
[ ] Surviving Information Overload (NIBM, 72 minutes) $14.95
[ ] Relaxing at High Speed (ACHE, 32 minutes) $9.95
[ ] Blow Your Own Horn (Simon & Schuster, 60 minutes) $10.95
[ ] Time, Stress, Simplicity (Skillpath PersonalQuest, 300 minutes) $59.95
[ ] Getting Articles Published (PR Leads, 57 minutes) $19.95
[ ] Selling Your Book's 'Sub Rights' (PR Leads, 59 minutes) $19.95
[ ] Foreign Rights Sales (PR Leads, 60 minutes) $19.95
[ ] Creating a Brilliant Book Outline (BSI, 53 minutes, $15.95)
[ ] Giving Better Presentations (Dreamcoach, 55 minutes, $16.95)

Plus CD and Article Bonuses

order here
Description: career advancement
Amount: $83

Win Over the Middle

The most effective presentations are offered to the audience participants in “middle,” not at the extremes. Let me elaborate. When I worked with Domino Pizza's distribution corporation in 1992 on a book titled The Domino Effect, I learned from their division president that among any target or audience group, roughly 6% to 8% will dislike you no matter what you do because they associate you with something or someone negative! Hence, their evaluations are essentially invalid.

A similar percentage, roughly 6% to 8%, will approve of you almost regardless of what you do
because they like the way you look or your personality! Their feedback is invalid too.

Your real task becomes reaching the middle 84% to 88% of the audience who arrive relatively-free of inclinations towards the presenter one way or the other.

The Meeting Wizard

The Meeting Wizard offers tips on how to conduct effective meetings, schedule meetings, and prepare meeting agendas. It also recommended several books on conducting effective meetings.

Excellent Meeting Resource Books

Event Planning by Judy Allen

Planning Successful Meetings and Events by Ann Boehme

Complete Idiot's Guide to Meeting and Event Planning

How to Start a Home-Based Event Planning Business by Jill Moran

Complete Guide to Public Speaking by Jeff Davidson

Career Resources for CMPs

After 16 years in Chapel Hill, we're packing up to head to the state capitol, Raleigh NC. What this means to you is that for the remainder of July, we're offering an unprecedented learning resources package. Only $99 (which includes shipping, and tax plus shipping for NC residents) gets you $274 of our best resources:


$78 worth of Books
[ ] The Complete Guide to Public Speaking (Wiley, 324 pages) $16.95
[ ] Marketing Yourself and Your Career (Adams Media, 238 pages) $12.95
[ ] Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Things Done (Alpha/Penguin, 324 pages) $18.95
[ ] Complete Idiot's Guide to Managing Stress (Alpha/Pearson, 372 pages, $18.95)
[ ] The 60-Second Procrastinator (Adams Media, 142 pages) $9.95


$198 worth of CDs and Audio Books
[ ] The 60-Second Procrastinator (Oasis Audio, 140 minutes) $19.95
[ ] Surviving Information Overload (NIBM, 72 minutes) $14.95
[ ] Relaxing at High Speed (ACHE, 32 minutes) $9.95
[ ] Blow Your Own Horn (Simon & Schuster, 60 minutes) $10.95
[ ] Time, Stress, Simplicity (Skillpath PersonalQuest, 300 minutes) $59.95
[ ] Getting Articles Published (PR Leads, 57 minutes) $19.95
[ ] Selling Your Book's 'Sub Rights' (PR Leads, 59 minutes) $19.95
[ ] Foreign Rights Sales (PR Leads, 60 minutes) $19.95
[ ] Creating a Brilliant Book Outline (BSI, 53 minutes, $15.95)
[ ] Giving Better Presentations (Dreamcoach, 55 minutes, $16.95)

Plus CD and Article Bonuses

Order Now
Description: career advancement
Amount: $99

Schedule Meetings Accordingly

Martin Moore-Ede, M.D., Ph.D. in his insightful book, The 24 Hour Society observes that the lowest alertness in a day for most people is between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m. Highest alertness is between 9 a.m. and noon, and 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. So, schedule your most important conferences accordingly.

A person's alertness will vary due to hours of consecutive duty, hours of duty in the proceeding week, irregular hours, monotony on the job, timing and duration of naps, environmental lighting, sound, aroma, temperature, cumulative sleep deprivation over the past week, and much more.

Books for Planners, Speakers

Here are two excellent resources for meeting planners and speakers:

* The 60 Second Self-Starter (Adams Media, ($9.95), is an action guide to help career professionals become more accomplished and satisfied with work and life. Its earlier version, the "60 Second Procrastinator," has been published in Arabic, Chinese Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, and Turkish, and in English India, Singapore, and Malaysia.

* The 60 Second Organizer (Adams Media, 2nd edition, $9.95) is a fun book offering 60 solid techniques that help you to maintain organization at your desk, office, home, car, and elsewhere. It has been published in Arabic, Italian, Spanish, Turkish, and Japanese, and in English for India, Singapore, and Malaysia.

During this month only, receive both books, autographed, for $16 total, shipping included. Order at www.breathingspace.com/content/view/752/192/
1) at "description" type in: 2 Book deal
2) at "amount" type in $16.00, and hit enter

While supplies last!

Learning at Any Age

Matthew Blakeslee writing for Discover says, "If old dogs haven’t been able to learn new tricks, maybe that’s because no one has known how to teach them properly. Until quite recently orthodox neuroscience held that only the brains of young children are resilient, malleable, and morphable—in a word, plastic."

"This neuroplasticity, as it is called, seems to fade steadily as the brain congeals into its fixed adult configuration. Infants can sustain massive brain damage, up to the loss of an entire cerebral hemisphere, and still develop into nearly normal adults; any adult who loses half the brain, by contrast, is a goner. Adults can’t learn to speak new languages without an accent, can’t take up piano in their fifties then go on to play Carnegie Hall, and often suffer strokes that lead to permanent paralysis or cognitive deficiencies. The mature brain, scientists concluded, can only decline."

"It turns out this theory is not just wrong, it is spectacularly wrong. Two new books, Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain (Ballantine Books, $24.95) by science journalist Sharon Begley and The Brain That Changes Itself (Viking, $24.95) by psychiatrist Norman Doidge, offer masterfully guided tours through the burgeoning field of neuroplasticity research. Each has its own style and emphasis; both are excellent."

Breathing Space as a Title

The Origins of a Title: People sometimes ask how me I derived the title of this book, "Breathing
Space." One afternoon, while I was speaking on the phone to a mentor, the mentor mentioned that he needed to "get some breathing space." I wrote down those words.

The phrase became one of the powerful guiding forces in my life. From that conversation, I devised the Breathing Space Institute, wrote the book "Breathing Space," and have since given hundreds of lectures for audiences across the nation and around the world on managing the daily pace with grace, mastering information from any communication overload, and, of course, having more breathing space.

The Laws of Lifetime Growth

Here are observations by author Dan Sullivan, from his book The Laws of Lifetime Growth: Always make your future bigger than your past, that would resonate with any audience:

Always make your:
Law 1: future bigger than your past
Law 2: learning greater than your experience.
Law 3: contribution bigger than your reward.
Law 4: performance greater than your applause.
Law 5: gratitude greater than your success.
Law 6: enjoyment greater than your effort.
Law 7: cooperation greater than your status.
Law 8: confidence greater than your comfort.
Law 9: purpose greater than your money.
Law 10: questions bigger than your answers.

Results Rule!

Results Rule! Build a Culture that Blows the Competition Away, has been published by John Wiley & Sons. It share lessons the author, Randy Pennington, has learned from over 20 years of helping leaders and organizations build cultures focused on results. This book shows anyone – from the frontline to the boardroom – how to build and contribute to an organization that delivers results year after year after year. Results Rule! explains how to:

1. promote honesty and candor as you tell yourself the truth about how your organization is viewed and what is standing in the way of its success

2. pursue the best over the easiest in every decision and action

3. leverage the power of partnerships both internally and externally

4. focus the energy to make the main things the main thing and execute flawlessly

5. continuously learn, grow, and improve because past success proves you were right once

6. show the courage of accountability personally and promote a culture of accountability with others

If you purchase at least one copy of Results Rule! this week, the author will give you more than $75 worth of special gifts including:

a. A complimentary MP3 download of three of Randy's audio programs: Integrity-Driven® Leadership, Make Change Work, and the Results Rule! audio that led to the book ($29.95 value!)

b. A complimentary download of his first book, On My Honor, I Will: Leading with Integrity in Changing Times, in ebook format. ($14.95 value!)

c. A minimum 20% discount off the price of the book. Regularly $24.95, you pay only $19.96 or less!

Go to http://www.resultsrule.com/purchase.asp to get all the details.

6 Keys to the Future, circa 1990

In his 1990 book, Powershift, author Alvin Toffler proclaimed that the top six keys to the future are:
* interactivity,
* mobility,
* convertibility,
* connectivity,
* ubiquity, and
* globalization.

When combined, said Toffler these six principles point to a total transformation, not nearly in the way we send messages to one another, but in the way we think, how we see ourselves in the world, where we stand in our relationships. Put together, they will make it impossible for any institution to manage ideas, imagery data information or knowledge as they once did.

Still true? Could be.

Speakers We Like

Randy Pennington is the author of On My Honor, a book which boldly proclaims that integrity is the key to effective business relations. Pennington is an intelligent, articulate presenter who mixes intensity with levity, and discipline with compassion. He urges and
cajoles his audiences in a way that invites high responsiveness.

Pennington has lots of stories to draw from, from the corporate world and from international organizations. His book On My Honor draws in part from his participation in Scouts International (known in the United States as the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of America) and the deep and penetrating lessons he learned as a scout leader and scoutmaster.

Pennington has wowed audiences from coast to coast including... and in several foreign countries. Hearing him, participants routinely report that they felt as if they had the opportunity to watch a top speaking professional in action.

Scott Gross: Speaker Supreme

Way down in Kerrville Texas, T. Scott Gross runs several successful fast food franchises. His broad-based experience in managing companies, managing people, and serving customers form the basis of his highly popular book series, Positively Outrageous Service.

When he is in front of an audience, it is clear that Gross is cut from a different cloth. With a cool comfortable style, Gross engages his audiences through stories, skits, role plays, and a variety of other techniques to keep them focused on what he is saying. The result is riveting performances, whether for groups of thirty or three thousand. Minutes into his presentation, he has the audience in the palm of his hand. They would be willing to listen to him all day and they would follow him anywhere.

Gross does his homework, vigorously reading literature and background information about the groups he is scheduled to speak to. Then, he majestically weaves each group's lore into his presentation so that they feel as if what he says to them that day is unique.