NSA-Wisconsin upcoming events

Building Your Speaking Business: The Four Pillars Every Speaker Needs (September 16, 2026)

Wed, 16 Sep 2026 22:30:00 GMT

Midwest Speaker Academy

Building Your Speaking Business: The Four Pillars Every Speaker Needs
presented by Kelly Bubolz

Speaking is more than delivering a great presentation. Building a profitable speaking business requires trust, expertise, communication, and strategy.

In this interactive kickoff session, we'll explore the four pillars of Speaker Academy: Ethics, Enterprise, Eloquence, and Expertise. How they help attract clients, create memorable presentations, and grow a sustainable speaking business.

We'll also go behind the scenes of virtual speaking, from prospect calls to paid presentations, covering the simple technology, setup, and delivery practices that elevate your professionalism and confidence.

Whether you're just starting or adding speaking to an existing business, you'll leave with practical ideas and a stronger foundation for the year ahead.

Kelly Bubolz is a business strategist, professional speaker, and founder of Workforce Energy Management™. She helps organizations reduce burnout, strengthen leadership, and improve team performance by shifting the patterns that drive behavior, creating energized, resilient workplaces.

Like many speakers, Kelly started by chasing every opportunity and working harder than necessary. By leaning into the speaker academy pillars, she transformed speaking into a profitable business that aligned with the lifestyle she wanted.

Today, Kelly delivers keynote presentations, leadership programs, and virtual experiences nationwide. As Director of NSA Wisconsin's Speaker Academy, she's passionate about helping speakers build not just better presentations, but sustainable speaking businesses.

How to Utilize Multiple Talents to Generate Multiple Bookings, Products & Profits (October 14, 2026)

Wed, 14 Oct 2026 22:30:00 GMT

Midwest Speaker Academy

How to Utilize Multiple Talents to Generate Multiple Bookings, Products & Profits
presented by Sandy Geroux, MS, CSP

As speakers, we possess many talents often ignored in our speaking careers because we’re too busy to consider how to incorporate them or think they have no place in our programs. But your unique talents are personal resources that can help your speaking career soar.

In this interactive session, Sandy Geroux will share creative processes and success strategies she’s used to turn her talents into “hooks” that help her book full-fee engagements and obtain product pre-sales and book signings, even when they say they don’t pay speakers!

She’ll also show you how to turn props and presentation elements into products, promotional items and group mementos you can use to:

Engage and entertain your audiences
Stand out from the crowd
Create more bookings
Reinforce your message
Build passive income
Have greater income and reach
… and much more

Attendees will also receive a workbook containing resources, guidelines, royalty and trademark information and much more!

Sandy Geroux, MS, CSP is an international speaker, trainer, and author who helps organizations Turn Their Workplace Into a WOWplace™. She works with administrative, customer service, and leadership teams to strengthen partnerships, increase engagement, and create cultures that deliver exceptional experiences for both customers and coworkers.

Since 2000, Sandy has inspired audiences in more than 175 organizations across 41 countries through conferences, webinars, virtual training, and corporate programs. An award-winning speaker, she is known for her energetic, interactive style and practical strategies that help teams build stronger relationships, elevate service, and create workplaces where people thrive.

From Association Stages to Corporate Contracts: The Proven Blueprint for Building Authority Instead of Chasing the Next Gig (November 11, 2026)

Wed, 11 Nov 2026 23:30:00 GMT

Midwest Speaker Academy

From Association Stages to Corporate Contracts: The Proven Blueprint for Building Authority Instead of Chasing the Next Gig
presented by Ed Rigsbee, CSP, CAE

Most professional speakers spend their careers searching for the next engagement. The most successful speakers build something much more valuable: authority.

In this fast-paced, content-rich session, Hall of Fame speaker, consultant, and author Ed Rigsbee, CSP, CAE combines the proven association-market strategies from his classic book BOOKED! The Insider's Guide for Speakers Selling to Associations with the authority-building philosophy behind his newest work, Stop Chasing Gigs. Build Authority.

Participants will discover why trade associations and professional societies remain the most direct pathway to corporate business, consulting opportunities, strategic partnerships, and long-term career growth. More importantly, they will learn how to stop competing on activity and begin competing on expertise, positioning, and industry relevance.

This isn't another marketing presentation filled with social media hacks or prospecting tactics. It is a business strategy session for speakers who want to become the obvious choice within the industries they serve.

Participants will learn how to:

Position themselves as authorities instead of commodities.
Select and dominate a profitable industry niche.
Use association speaking to create recurring corporate opportunities.
Build relationship bank deposits that generate referrals for years.
Develop professional equity that increases fees while reducing competition.
Become the speaker clients seek out rather than the speaker chasing opportunities.

Whether you're building your speaking business or reinventing it, you'll leave with a practical roadmap for creating a career that becomes more valuable every year.

Ed Rigsbee, CSP, CAE has spent more than four decades helping organizations and professional speakers build relationships that create measurable business results.

A Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) and Certified Association Executive (CAE), Ed has been a professional member of the National Speakers Association since 1988 and has presented for NSA conferences and chapters since 1995. Known throughout NSA as "the association guy," he has helped countless speakers understand how trade associations and professional societies can become the gateway to corporate keynotes, workshops, consulting engagements, and long-term authority.

Ed is the author of BOOKED! The Insider's Guide for Speakers Selling to Associations, the influential The ROI of Membership, and his newest book, Stop Chasing Gigs. Build Authority, which challenges speakers to stop building speaking businesses and start building professional legacies.

When he isn't speaking or consulting, or running the nonprofit charity (Cigar PEG) that he created, Ed leads the Association & Society Speakers Community (ASSC), mentors professional speakers, and continues his mission of helping experts become indispensable to the industries they serve.