SpeakerNet News 9/11/2026

9/11/2026

Editors: Rebecca Morgan & Ken Braly

See “About SpeakerNet News” at the end for information on how to submit tips and use this newsletter. Remember, your “dues” for this free ezine are submitting two tips a quarter. Send your best tips to editor@SpeakerNetNews.com.

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From the Editors

You’ve been meaning to send in your SNN “dues,” right? You know, 2 tips per quarter. We know you’ve been learning things that would make fellow SNN readers’ lives easier and more productive, so please share!

We want this to be easy for you. As you go about your business, notice what good ideas you implement. Share the idea in your own words, and provide a link to more info, if relevant.

Have you worked with a fabulous resource you’d recommend? Post their name, company name, URL, phone number and/or email. Say why you think they are great.
Did you visit a very useful website, article or video that would be of interest to other speakers, trainers, authors or consultants? Share why you found it useful, perhaps summarizing a key point or two, and a link.
What have you tried and it worked? Or maybe it didn’t and you want to warn others not to bother?
What do you think others might not know or use in the area of travel, technology, marketing, business management, finances, or speech performance? Don’t let “everyone knows this” stop you from submitting the tip — it’s the editors’ job to determine this, and we have readers from all phases of their business.
We typically look for tips up to 300 words long that don’t promote the tipster. We post your name and email so people can thank you — which some do! (We can’t post your URL or self-promotional tips.)
Rephrase anything you copy from others, or it’s copyright infringement. Get permission from the originator if you’re going to copy and paste, give them credit and add “with permission” to the quote.

SNN Webcast Info

Thursday, September 24
Easy Canva Shortcuts to Create
Branded Visuals That Get Noticed (webcast)
with Carolyn Cummins

Carolyn Cummins Do you use Canva?

Canva is one of the most widely-used graphic design tools. It’s used worldwide to create visual content of all kinds.

Your business needs consistent visual content to establish and promote your brand. Our next program will offer guidance for using the power of Canva to do that more easily and effectively.

Read more about this session at the bottom of this newsletter, then register for the live program or pre-order the recording.

Note: Everyone who registers for the live webcast session or orders the recording will get a link to the recorded video of the online webcast, as well as the audio MP3 for convenient re-listening.

Feedback from our recent SNN webcast, “Create Your AI Workforce to Run Your Marketing and Office for Pennies” with Heather Lutze, CSP:

“I listened to the recording twice and still need to listen again to catch everything. Heather talks fast and has so much to offer.” —Donna Earl

Miscellaneous Tips

As road warriors, our input to hotels can make a difference — Jerry Teplitz

I recently attended an event at a Marriott and found several things wrong with the sleeping room.

After the conference, I emailed the president of Marriott about what happened. Within a day, I got a phone call from a Marriott exec about the situation, saying they would follow up with the hotel. A day later, I received an email from the hotel manager thanking me for pointing out the room’s deficiencies and saying they would take action to correct several of them.

A day later, I received another email from another Marriott exec saying the hotel manager was going to take action, again apologizing and thanking me, with a bonus of 10,000 points!

An amazingly impressive response!

Outbound B2B marketing isn’t dead, but buyer behavior has changed — Vickie Sullivan

Think outbound B2B marketing is dead? Not so fast. According to Sopro’s State of Prospecting Report 2026, it’s anything but.

In fact, the report includes several surprising stats on outbound B2B marketing. For example, I was startled to see top investment priorities are tied between outbound marketing and AI. Another eye-opener: Email beats referrals (78% to 56%) as the best lead generation channel.

This impacts smaller B2B firms as much as it does large ones. Here are two key shifts we need to pay attention to:

Education arrives too late. Remember those popular explainer videos? They hit differently now. Buyers don’t want to be lectured with information they already know. Instead, you must show that you understand their world.
Visibility reduces risk. Buyers no longer reach out when a person refers you to them. They check you out first — your website, your social media pages, etc. — and decide from there. Those mass LinkedIn messages and cold emails? If buyers don’t know you, they will ignore them.

Between AI search and independent research, brand building must go beyond awareness. Familiarity builds the foundation for trust.

Make sure you understand that difference and adjust your outbound B2B marketing efforts accordingly.

Technology Tips

Fathom meeting assistant leveled up — Julie Holmes

Fathom is one of my can’t-live-without tools. It joins my calls, transcribes in real-time, and produces detailed summaries so I can focus on the conversation instead of the notes. If you have been reading this newsletter for a while, you already know I rave about it.

Version 3.0 feels like a proper upgrade. The highlights:

Account-wide AI search. Ask questions across every meeting you have ever recorded. “What did that prospect say about their renewal back in February?” Answered, with the clip.
Claude and ChatGPT integrations, plus an MCP server. Your meeting data now flows directly into the AI tools you already use (I’ve got mine weaving into Tasklet for call prep messages). If you are building workflows that would benefit from meeting content, this is big.
Live summaries and scratchpads. Notes forming in real time during the call, plus a place to jot your own thoughts without breaking flow.

If Fathom is not in your stack yet, this is a great week to look.

Travel Tips

Luggage clean up/repair — Rebecca Morgan

Certain luggage brands (e.g., Briggs and Riley) have lifetime guarantees. If yours is one of these and is looking road-weary from a bazillion miles of getting you to engagements, consider taking it to your nearest brand store or sending it in for repairs. I recently took my primary suitcase into the brand store for a zipper pull replacement. They sent it to their repair center, and it came back not only with a new pull, but with other items (e.g., a missing snap) repaired, and the whole suitcase cleaned up. I didn’t pay a dime.

SpeakerNet News Webcast Info

Thursday, September 24
Easy Canva Shortcuts to Create
Branded Visuals That Get Noticed (webcast)
with Carolyn Cummins

Carolyn Cummins

Most speakers aren’t struggling with Canva®. They’re struggling with how to use visuals to support their message, their credibility, and their business.

That changes here.

In this practical, strategy-first session, you’ll learn how to create purposeful, branded visuals using Canva® without overcomplicating the process. This isn’t about design tricks. It’s about building a simple, repeatable system that helps your content look consistent, professional, and aligned with your message.

You’ll learn how to establish your brand kit, build reusable templates, batch content using Canva’s Bulk Create, and create simple short-form video or reels. Whether you’re creating quote graphics, social posts, or video content, you’ll walk away with a clear approach to making your content more intentional and more effective.

You will learn a:

clear approach to creating visuals that support your visibility, credibility, and speaking goals
simple system for building and using branded templates in Canva
process for batching content using Bulk Create to save time
simple workflow for turning your content into short-form video or reels
repeatable method for creating consistent, professional visuals across platforms

Register for the live program or order the recording.
Note: Everyone who registers for the live webcast session or orders the recording will get a link to the recorded video of the online webcast, as well as the audio MP3 for convenient re-listening.

Date: Thursday, September 24
Time: 7:00 pm Eastern, 6 pm Central, 5 pm Mountain, 4 pm Pacific
(Enter your location here to get your local time)
Length: 60 minutes
Cost: $49 (webcast)

Special Limited-Time Offer:

If you would like more creative ideas for using imagery in your business, we’re suggesting the recordings of several earlier programs to complement this program:

“Make Your Visual Brand Uniquely Memorable” with Brian Croft
“Let Me Illustrate My Point: Illuminating Your Presentations with Simple Drawings” with Mike Artell

With your order of this live or recorded session, at checkout you will be offered these recordings.

About SpeakerNet News and the Editors/Publishers

Publishers — Rebecca L. Morgan, CSP, CMC, CVP, VMP, and Ken Braly
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