Barbara Receiving her Award

More pictures after the link.

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LONDON Trip
August 9 – 16, 2011
I met Leila Witkin from London when I spoke at the Global Speakers Forum in Amsterdam in March. During one of our conversations, I mentioned that I had not been to London for years except to fly through the airport. Leila responded immediately, “I have two very precious tickets to the ballet of ‘Anna Karenina’ on August 10. If you can come, you will be my guest.” What a generous invitation!

As I thought about it, I realized I would be returning from California August 6 and the National Speakers Association convention where I would be (to be kept secret until then) inducted into the Speaker Hall of Fame on August 2 and I was not booked to speak for the next week, so it would be possible for me to go to London. The more I considered it, the more I convinced myself that it was one of those serendipitous experiences that might never come along again, so several weeks later, I emailed Leila and told her I WAS going to come.

Leila and me at the ballet

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CPAE Hall of Fame Acceptance Speech ~ August 2, 2011

On August 2, 2011, I was honored. thrilled, and humbled to be inducted into the CPAE Speaker Hall of Fame in Anaheim, California, at the National Speakers Association convention. There are only 120 members in the world, including Art Linkletter, Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, Zig Ziglar, Og Mandino and Ken Blanchard. The current members select and vote for the new members, thus the name “Council of Peers Award of Excellence”. Just five people are chosen each year. This year’s amazing recipients were Chad Hymas, Victoria Labalme, Mike Rayburn, Dan Thurmon, (and me)! All my children and two of my grandchildren were there and many, many precious friends, so it was truly a “night to remember!” This is the speech I gave when I accepted my award:

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