Updates From Our President | Hello NSA Pittsburgh! This month we are so excited to present our top two contenders for the "Last Story Standing" competition. Mark Houser, our president-elect, has done a wonderful job pulling it all together and we have four new members as a result of offering this opportunity to our members. The competition sparked a lot of interest with eight members submitting their videos for consideration. One of our members will discuss some speaking opportunities to offer the membership. Wow, isn’t that a great opportunity for the chapter!
But Lois Creamer will be a meeting you don’t want to miss. As I discovered at Influence last year, Lois is originally from Pittsburgh and for 25 years she has coached NSA members on how to create a position statement. We have at least nine members who are anxious to sit in her hot seat and with her guidance create their own position statements. Even if you don’t want to be in that seat you will see her in action! Come join us on March 15!
In a recent conversation, Mark LeBlanc offered one more invitation to join him for a virtual or in-person Achievers Circle weekend to up your speaking business or practice. Mark will share nine best practices around money, focus, and marketing including materials he will supply for making this happen. The price is only $1000, which Mark offered to us at our meeting with him in September. At the Chapter Leadership meeting I attended last fall, almost two dozen people paid $2500 for the same opportunity. More information is available at https://www.markleblanc.com/
Karin J. Lund
Proud President
NSA Pittsburgh
| February Speaker
Frank Kitchen, CSP
S.P.I.C.E. U.P. Your Speaking Business! | Frank had incredible ideas for how we can market ourselves, interact with clients, and build our speaking business to be a huge success. His presentation was very informative but it was also fantastically entertaining. He even came with a giant spatula to drive home the idea to “Flip Your Mindset.”
He asked us to think about what makes us amazing. He told us to focus more on the result than the work because the emotion of the result should be stronger than the emotion of the work. He told us that to be mentally strong we need to consume content daily. He encouraged us to ask how we are helping other. He told us to live F.R.E.S.H. – Focused, Resourceful, Enthusiastic, Strong, and Honest. He used a lot of terminology about the “Kitchen” which helps him brand himself. He said we should “Inspire the hunger in our audience” He also said we should:
- Specialize as a subject matter expert
- See ourselves as scarce so we stand out
- Prospect for opportunities regularly
- Follow other speakers in our niche
- Be willing to adapt, grow, and evolve
|  | March Speaker: Lois Creamer
Book More Business: Growing Your Business in a Competitive Market
March 15, 2025 | 9:00 am - 12:00 noon
CoHatch Waterfront |  | Would you like to be able to use one sentence to describe what you do? Do you wish you could wave a magic wand and make your marketing and selling easier? Do you want to always approach prospects in a powerful and compelling way? At this session you will learn how to:
- Develop a memorable positioning statement that is key to your business
- Identify target markets - the quickest way to grow your business
- Learn how to negotiate effectively
- Increase your bottom line by developing other revenue streams
- Utilize AI tools for content creation
- Use "Aftercare" to leverage your relationships and profits
Lois is an industry expert working with speakers who want to book more business, make more money, and fully monetize their message. She is the author of Book More Business: Make Money Speaking and The Speaker Author: Sell More Books and Book More Speeches.
Clients include Chicken Soup’s Jack Canfield; author of The Sales Bible Jeffrey Gitomer; Patricia Fripp and more. Her clients also include many whose names may not be familiar but who do very well in the speaking industry. Her expertise and no-nonsense style have led her to present at NSA national meetings and chapters, CAPS, and to members of the Global Federation. In 2021, she was named “Honorary Fellow” by the Professional Speakers Association United Kingdom and Ireland.
Hot Seat Training with Lois
All hot-seats were claimed at our February meeting, but everyone is welcome to stay to watch. There is a small fee of $10 to cover the cost of your lunch.You'll be asked if you want to stay for lunch during registration and can bring payment the day of the event. If you already registered and didn't answer the question about lunch, please email kjlund@g-powerglobal.com to let her know if you'll be staying.
For those who will be in the hot seat, think about how you would fill in the blanks in the following statement so you’ll be ready to work with Lois: “I work with leaders who want to _______________ (positioning statement) in order to be able to ________________ (3 outcomes).”
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Rob Ferre: CSP
Next Level Audience Engagement
Saturday, April 12, 9:00am – Noon / COhatch
Tami Evans: CSP
ShowBUSINESS: Ideas to Punch Up your Presentation
Saturday, May 17, 9:00am – Noon / COhatch
| Last Story StandingWinner |
Congratulations to Pittsburgh Chapter Champion Anna Njarlangattil Thomas, whose powerful talk about the foundation of leadership wowed the judges and won our first Last Story Standing contest. Anna will present the winning story at the chapter meeting March 15 and will now compete against the other East Coast NSA chapter champions for a coveted spot as one of three finalists on the main stage at Influence this summer. Also performing at the March 15 meeting will be Chapter Runner-Up James Ice, so don't miss your chance to see both talented talkers perform. A big round of applause for our judges and all eight contestants for making Pittsburgh's first Last Story Standing a success!
| NSAP is offering 3 training sessions on Improving your speaking skills. The sessions will be taught by NSAP Vice-President Charlie Krebs, who taught collegiate Public Speaking, Communication, and Theatre for 22 years before moving to Pittsburgh. The sessions will be:
- Tuesday, March 11 from 7:00-8:00pm
- Tuesday, March 18 from 7:00-8:00pm
- Tuesday, March 25 from 7:00-8:00pm
These sessions are free for NSAP members. The sessions will be via Zoom. Click here to register. Once registered, you will receive the link to attend.
Non-NSAP members can attend for $49 (for all 3 sessions combined; there is not an option to attend just one session). Here is the link to register for non-members: Click here to register. Once registered, you’ll receive a link to attend.
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Steel City Speakers is NSA Pittsburgh’s dynamic new Facebook group. This vibrant community is for anyone in the greater Pittsburgh area with a passion for speaking. Join us to share your experiences, gain knowledge, and elevate your speaking game alongside fellow enthusiasts.
| Member Spotlight: Dr. Elizabeth Carter (Dr. E.) | Born and raised on Long Island NY, Dr. E. moved to Pittsburgh in 2017 to work for Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield. She also has her own company, Aappeal, which empowers minorities and underrepresented populations.
She had heard about NSAP for many years but joined after getting onstage with Patricia Fripp at the October presentation. “I enjoy speaking because it allows me to educate, inspire, and empower others, particularly women of color, to elevate voices that are often unheard, and drive personal and professional transformation. I was blind-sided with a layoff in 2016, which brought to light gaps in the corporate world and I wanted to fill them by sharing my insights with a wider audience. My career in finance, insurance, and leadership has shown me firsthand how important it is to develop confidence, clarity, and influence. My keynotes, workshops, and coaching sessions often center around helping people elevate their value, break barriers, and position themselves for success.”
When asked what makes her unique, she said “I have lived experiences. I make complex topics relatable. I balance storytelling, strategy, and actionable takeaways. I’ve navigated leadership in finance and corporate spaces as a minority for 25+ years. I bridge logic and emotion. I take structured, data-driven topics and make them resonate on a personal level. I also love teaching non-technical (aka soft skills) skills to technical people. I show up as my true self—transparent, relatable, and driven to elevating others. I am not just about personal success; I create pathways for others to rise.”
| Some favorite moments in her life include: “earning my PhD; standing on stage for the hooding ceremony was epic. Becoming a best-selling author with my first book: Gaining A.C.C.E.S.S. to Lead Yourself. Publishing my father’s autobiography. Helping clients transform their careers and lives through my coaching programs. Being recognized for my work in diversity, leadership, and professional development. Being asked to speak on DEI topics, becoming a Certified Virtual Trainer with Skillpath, receiving 2 Presidential Lifetime achievement awards, a Pittsburgh Courier Women of Excellence Award in 2021, and a City of Pittsburgh Proclamation from the Mayor’s office.”
Dr. E. also has a podcast: ‘Elevate Your Corporate Value with Dr. E,’ a virtual summit called ‘Corporate Sisters Summit,’ a keynote about her father that she is turning into a children’s book, and an anthology called ‘Letters to My Corporate Sisters, Volume 3’. She also recently started ballroom dancing and finds much correlation between that and leadership, which she is putting into her next book Finding Your Leadership Footing. She also recently passed the test to be an Espeaker certified virtual speaker.
She especially likes surprising herself by stepping out of her comfort zone to learn something.
| We are so pleased to welcome these two members to our chapter. We will do everything we can to support your journey! |  | | Anna Thomas |  | Todd Boczkowski | | |
Good acting isn’t about acting; it’s about the character. And good writing isn’t about writing; it’s about the story. In the same way, good speaking isn’t about speaking or the speaker; it’s about the lesson you are planting in the audience’s mind. It’s about what you want the audience member to believe, to think, to learn, and to walk away from the speech with. Know that above all. The effectiveness of a speech is measured by how well it facilitates learning. A good speaker aims to make the lesson memorable and actionable, rather than drawing attention to their own prowess. The audience doesn’t care about you—no offense—they care about what your message has to do with them. Your verb isn’t to speak; it’s to teach. | “If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough"
— Albert Einstein | © 2025 NSA Pittsburgh. All rights reserved.
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