KEYNOTE
SPEAKERS BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE NALS FOUNDATION
The
Foundation funds keynote speakers at both the Education
Conference
& National Forum in the fall and the Professional Development
& Education Conference in the spring and sponsoring
events and workshops.
NALS
Foundation Presents:
Jeannie Skiffington has done over 1000 programs in 45 states “motivating
people to action with winning outcomes.” Ms. Skiffington
began her speaking career in 1990 after an award-winning
career in sales, marketing, and executive management with
the direct selling industry. Packed with humor, enthusiasm,
and inspiration, her high impact programs create awareness,
motivation, and action for participants. With more than
30 years of experience, she brings a high level of understanding,
insight, new ideas, and a dynamic delivery to her presentations.
Ms. Skiffington is highly effective in bringing out the
best in people by providing innovative ideas with step-by-step
tips and techniques for immediate and simple application.
Her home-grown wisdom and winning philosophy bring out
the winner in everyone.
Training,
speaking, and motivation are all wonderful parts of our
professional development and are the reasons Ms. Skiffington
became a professional speaker. Learning from every speaker
she ever heard, she received “gifts” from
each of those speakers, and she will share those gifts
with you in Buffalo. Just when you think all is going
well and you could not possibly need more training that
is the exact time you need training the most. Another
common myth she debunks is the thought that you only
need to attend one training class on any one subject.
She has found repetition is the key to successfully applying
what you learn.
After
realizing her potential could easily have remained dormant
and untapped had it not been for some specific and defining
lessons learned in her life and professional experience,
she now helps others build their own unique success stories
by helping them develop pro-active high achiever mentality.
Known to build people skills, her way with words will
leave an indelible mark on you, helping you make positive
changes and develop winning habits in both your personal
and professional life.
Jeannie
believes winning is contagious and will encourage each
of us to embrace the opportunity to pass it on. In her
first book,
“Winning is Contagious…Pass It On,” Jeannie
shares 101 practical lessons to help you win at the game
of life. Lessons in her book include “Stop The Blame
Game,”
“Excellence is Like a Dump Truck in Your Driveway,”
“Life is Not Like a Slot Machine,” “This
Place is Like a Zoo,” and “How to Get Out of
Your Own Way.”
Join your fellow NALS members as we receive gifts from
Ms. Skiffington when she shares her wisdom in a fun, down-to-earth
manner.
In
the words of Jeannie Skiffington, “Winning is not
what the world gives you, it’s what you give yourself!”
Join your fellow NALS members in Buffalo as we develop
our winning attitudes.
Challenging
the Status Quo
by Jeannie Skiffington
Have
you ever looked around and wondered why some people seem
to reach heights others only dream of? Have you ever
questioned why some people seem to have more luck getting
what they want more of the time? Maybe the rationale
that follows goes something like, “I’m just
not that pushy.” One of the things I’ve observed
over the years dealing with thousands of sales people,
some very successful and some not so successful, is that
the people less successful clearly seemed to give up
too soon. It’s what I describe as being 8 1/2 months
pregnant. If you could end the pregnancy two weeks early
with no problems, there would be many takers. In other
words, 8 1/2 months is about as close as you get to victory
and having the childbearing over and done with, but oh,
those last two weeks seem absolutely endless. You’re
the closest to being done that anyone can imagine, but
the vulnerability is at its highest. Of course, in pregnancy
we have no choice but to stick it out.
Life,
however, is very different. Many factors can create vulnerability
that leads to giving up too soon. These factors certainly
include fear of failure or embarrassment, being in a
hurry, giving up on the goal by telling ourselves it
wasn’t that important to begin with, faulty information,
taking things too literally, etc. Times like this should
be a real red flag to persevere and successfully deal
with vulnerability to allow ourselves the opportunity
to press on. It’s real easy to tag someone as stubborn.
It’s real easy for the person who really doesn’t
care about your issue. So persecution, internally or
externally, can play a big role in having you cave in
to outside pressure while convincing yourself that it’s
really not that important. This kind of persecution can
come from spouses, children, other family members, or
best friends. Then we start second-guessing ourselves.
I
remember my kids would laugh any time I’d try on
a hat in a department store. They thought it looked funny.
To this day I can hear them laughing in my head even
if they’re not with me when I try a hat on. Frankly
speaking, this certainly is not a major issue by any
standard. Hats on women really are not that popular.
But let’s say the issue is really something important
to you, the people closest to us can be the same people
who dismantle our dreams.
I
can remember in my late 20s back in Lowell, Massachusetts,
a very blue-collar town, I had become pretty successful
as a nationally recognized sales manager and had a solid
business up and running for myself. I still had two preschool
children and a house to run, so I entertained the idea
of getting a housekeeper for myself. Now, mind you, no
one I knew had a housekeeper. So when I put the word
out to people I knew that I was looking for a housekeeper
once a week for about four hours, the reaction was interesting.
It ranged from “Why don’t you just stay home
and take care of your kids like you’re supposed
to?” to “Why don’t you stop killing
yourself?” or “Exactly who does she think
she is, the queen?” The truth was that I didn’t
feel like I was killing myself. As a matter of fact,
I was having the time of my life. But as I thought about
what was important to me at that time of my career, I
realized that I wanted quality family time on weekends,
rather than a long list of chores. I guess I knew deep
down that it was the best way for me to “cope” with
the challenges I faced with a young family and a career.
I did find a housekeeper (no thanks to or help from acquaintances)
and as time went on, I came to realize that it was the
right decision for me despite the raised eyebrows of
Lowell, Massachusetts, in the late 1970s. I really had
to push the envelope on that one. Admittedly, I did feel
a little funny getting a housekeeper, but it took very
little time to get over it. I’ve had a housekeeper
ever since, and so do a lot of people I know.
We
all go through times where we have difficulty separating
what we truly want or need from popular opinion of family,
friends, area, workplace, or general pecking order. I
think we need to take all opinions, weigh them, and dig
down for the courage to challenge the status quo by being
true to ourselves and our goals. Don’t ever let
anyone rain on your parade…even if you’re
the only one in the parade.
I
remember one time not too long ago, I received a flyer
in the mail about an area rug I wanted very much. The
store was to have them for only ten days on a special
event promotion. I saved the flyer, made sure I arrived
early on day one, and began my search for this rug. Having
walked around the store with no success finding it, I
went to Customer Service and asked where the area rugs
on special were. The person kind of gave me the brush
off and I got the feeling she was taking a guess at where
to brush me off too. Still not locating the item, I returned
to Customer Service a second time, and she suggested
I come back every couple of days to see if they were
out. Needless to say, that definitely was a useless option
to me. As a matter of fact, her brush off worked just
the opposite. I was on an absolute mission to track this
rug down, but about that time my very patient husband,
who is a clinical psychologist, said to me, “You
know, you might have to start reciting the Serenity Prayer” (you
know the one about God grant me the courage and wisdom).
Again, the reverse effect occurred. I spotted a manager
station with a manager present. So, I ran the scenario
by him (fourth try) and he agreed to walk with me in
my search. Again, we came up dry, but he kindly offered
to give me his business card and told me to call him
after his forklift people came in because, he assured
me, they knew where everything was. I guess at this point
I felt I had exhausted both the credible and incredible
employees in the store. So, I decided on one more walk
through before I started reciting my Serenity Prayer.
And, wouldn’t you know it, this time I discovered
this large box on an end cap that was only partially
open. Lo and behold, there was my rug. The fly in the
ointment was that you had to come upon this box in a
certain direction to get a glimpse of the rug color.
I can’t tell you how thrilled I was to snag my
purchase. They could have tripled the price and I think
I still would have bought it. It’s crazy little
times like that when I remind myself that there’s
probably no one who cares more about what you want/need
than you do.
My
best advice is to question, question, and re-question,
because many people won’t be honest enough to tell
you they’re winging it and really don’t know.
The truth is YOU ARE on your own. Be willing to discover,
search, question, and double check so that if you do
need to start reciting your Serenity Prayer, you will
know that you were willing to challenge the status quo
and that your goal really was not realistic at that time.
Accept the fact that discovery and popular opinion will
probably always be part of the challenge.
Many
years ago, when I was growing up, parents of Down Syndrome
babies, were frequently advised to institutionalize their
child. It was only with the courage of those parents
(not doctors) who were willing to challenge the status
quo and give their children as normal an upbringing as
they could, that it was discovered just how capable these
Down Syndrome children could be. Not so many years ago,
on a weekly sitcom, one of the child actors was a down-syndrome
actor. It took a lot of courage to push that envelope.
So
feel good to have the courage to say, “What if”.
Why not try different things? Discovery is what teaches
us to be innovative and creative. Progress couldn’t
exist without it. And, remember there IS a difference
between being stubborn and persistent. Stubborn is about
emotion, persistence is about logic. So go ahead and
be persistent and keep your eyes on the
“goal…yours!!”
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Jeannie
Skiffington founded Amherst Motivational Services in
1990 and began her career as a motivational speaker,
author, and trainer after an award-winning 20-year
career in sales and management. She has written a self-help
book about building winning thinking titled: “Winning
Is Contagious…Pass It On,”
a book that includes 101 practical lessons to help you
win at the game of life
