May Speaker: Corey Perlman
Social Selling for Speakers:
If They Can't Find You, They Won't Book You | Corey is a very engaging speaker and gave us outstanding ideas. One of the main takeaways was his “Must Answer Questions” your digital footprint should address:
- What do you speak about and why should I care?
- What can you say that others can’t?
- Who is your message for?
- Can I trust you with my stage?
- What are others saying about you?
- What makes you different?
- Are you relevant today?
- How can I book you?
He made a wide variety of other great suggestions:
- Go to ChatGPT to find out what ideas would engage meeting planners and executives to hire you.
- Ask ChatGPT to scan your LinkedIn page and your website to get to know you.
- Ask ChatGPT to give you provocative questions to post.
- Ask ChatGPT for the top 5 ranked keywords in your niche and use them in your material, especially your LinkedIn banner. Research others speakers like you and see what keywords they’re using.
- Never post directly from ChatGPT; make sure the post is authentically you.
- Know what the market is looking for. That’s more important than what you call yourself.
- Summarize your “About” section on LinkedIn into bullet points.
- Make sure your professional summary focuses on how you can help others overcome pain.
- Early on, “Follow” people on LinkedIn rather than trying to connect with them. Once you follow them, comment on their posts so they can get to know you. Let them find value in connecting with you.
- When commenting on someone’s posts, use 5 words at least, ask questions back to get a conversation going, and if they comment on that, comment back.
- Above all: seek to add value.
|  | Message From Our Past President |
Happy June NSA Pittsburgh.
First of all I wanted to thank our board members: Charlie Krebs, Rob Oliver, Mark Houser, Leslie Middleton, Rich Ermlick, Brad Killmeyer and Dionne Malush for all of your support over the last two years. You were the glue that helped to reform this chapter and transition us to where we are now which is strong, supportive, focused, and working to enhance our membership experience. This past year we enrolled 19 new members! We had a phenomenal speaker roster with our “Let’s Talk It Up Pittsburgh” September event featuring our Hall of Fame speaker series and Mark LeBlanc, mini-coaching with Patricia Fripp, our international speaker Ross Bernstein, and in the hot seat with Lois Creamer.
Thank you Joe Mull for your help booking our speakers over the last two years!
I also want to thank our members for your enthusiasm in showing up for our meetings and supporting our programs and auction opportunities. It has been heartwarming for me to have our members share with me their journeys and successes in their speaking careers.
Thank you for the gift certificate, flowers, wine, and especially the testimonials the board shared with me. I will keep that on my desk forever. Your words meant so much to me.
We have a succession plan and that is so encouraging for me to see. Thank you Charlie for being the BEST VP anyone could ask for and all of your support.
Enjoy your summer everyone and I look forward to celebrating our new season at our great “Let’s Talk It Up Pittsburgh” September new membership event at the Indigo Hotel. As I have often said, “We all have messages that people need to hear.” Thank you. I will be forever grateful for this experience and all of the new people I have had the pleasure to meet.
Karin Lund
Proud Past President
NSA Pittsburgh | Message From Our New President |
It’s been an inspiring and successful year for NSA Pittsburgh, and the person most responsible for that is outgoing President Karin Lund. In the last year I have had the privilege of working closely with Karin, and saw up close just how much time, effort, and care she put into making the chapter the best it can be. Through it all, she has been supported by our dedicated board, and I plan to depend on them also now that it’s my turn to make a contribution.
I can’t wait to work with all of you to make the next year the best that it can be. We have a terrific slate of speakers to give us new insights and guide us on our professional journey. We will also be taking our Last Story Standing competition up a notch, live and on stage, so start thinking about the story you will share. More surprises are planned too, so stay tuned. And here’s my first request as president – tell at least one colleague or professional connection about NSA.
See you all soon and, as I like to say... Keep looking up!
Mark Houser
2025-26 NSAP President
|
Here are all the dates and speakers for the 2025-2026 programming year:
- September 13, 2025 - Steve Gilliland "Let's Talk It Up Pittsburgh"
- October 18, 2025 - Michelle Villalobos
- November 15, 2025 - Kim Becking
- December 4, 2025 - Holiday Gathering
- January 17, 2026 - Beth Ziesenis
- February 7, 2026 - John Register
- March 7, 2026 - Chris West
- April 2026 - Theresa Rose
- May 9, 2026 - Justin Jones-Fosu
| Member Spotlight: Karin Lund | | My background is in steel and manufacturing, about which we have heard a great deal recently. I was one of the first women hired for outside sales by a major integrated steel company: J & L Steel. The first day I showed up for our training program, the plant manager of Aliquippa works (15,000 employees), told me I would fail. The second day I showed up, the assistant plant manager told me I would fail. When someone recently asked me how I handled that, I told them “I just kept showing up for several decades!” A good life lesson: “Keep showing up!”
I was with J & L for less than three years and was recruited by a Canadian steel company who was expanding into the US and building the highest powered electric furnace in the world at the time and wire rod mill. I started with the company when the siding of the building wasn’t even finished. Pathways just dropped so you had to be careful walking around the mill but I loved it and spent the majority of my career with the company.
| | | I joined the energy industry right before deregulation in Pennsylvania which was a challenging experience for many businesses in the state. It was at this time that I began to write, which eventually connected me back into the steel industry through AIST, the largest steel technology group in the world. They helped support both of my books and continue to do so. I interviewed over 70 women in the steel industry from around the world and published Women IN Steel, Women OF Steel, Vol I & II. The career advice that these interviewees shared with me is invaluable and having the chance to know these women has been a privilege.
I have also written The Language of Loss—Breaking the Silence-Starting Conversations at Work & Home, and Compassion IS the Competitive Edge—Leading with Compassion while Delivering Results. My new book-YES-YOU MATTER, YOU ARE ENOUGH will be published shortly. This is a book that I wrote to inspire our younger group to take responsibility for their actions, not to transfer their decision making power to someone else and finally to be resilient and what that looks like. I am using this book as an anchor to a program I created for personal and professional development for 8-12th grade girls to encourage them to consider careers in manufacturing and steel. The program focuses on a health segment, discussing the importance of networking, mentoring, allies, internships and personal branding; a segment on famous women in the areas of science, math, the environment and inventions; a panel discussion with an engineer and someone from the trades in steel and manufacturing; and finally talking about the book YES-YOU MATTER. I can’t wait to see where this program will go!
| Congratulations to James Protin who is the 2025 recipient of the Aaron Smith Leadership Award. He received this as a Senior Advisor of Rosewood Tower Consulting. He posted the following quote when announcing this honor: "Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity." - Horace Mann | Welcome to our new member Derek Clark. We are so pleased to welcome you to our chapter and we'll do everything we can to support your speaking journey!
| What if you became NSAP’s new Newsletter Editor?
After doing this for two years, it’s time for a new voice. What about you? I will give you copies of all the newsletters so far but we’d love it if you brought your new and refreshing ideas and even a new look if you like. You can format it the way you want and include what you want—there are no rules. Please email me if you’re interested and I’ll answer any questions you have. Thanks. | Focus on the LISTENER’S LEARNING not the presenter’s presenting.
The worst thing you can do, as a presenter, is to focus all your thinking on your own presenting. “What if I mess up?” "What if they don’t understand?” “What should I emphasize?” It’s like looking at yourself in the mirror while you’re speaking. It makes you self-conscious and interrupts your ability to connect with the listener. Instead, focus on the listener’s learning. What do you want them to think, learn, or take away from your speech? To be honest, the audience doesn’t care about you; they’re more interested in how what you say can make their lives better. You should be living in THEIR head, not yours. Prepare your purpose statement and central idea carefully. This is the residual message you want to leave with your audience and every word you say, while presenting, should connect with it. Every word.
| “If you say something is 'easier said than done,'
you're choosing to expect it to be hard.”
— Charlie Krebs | © 2025 NSA Pittsburgh. All rights reserved.
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