An Outrageous Inspirational Story from an Outrageous Inspirational Speaker
When Mikki received the phone call that she was going to receive her CPAE Council of Peers Award for Excellence aka, induction into the Speaker Hall of Fame at the National Speakers Association annual convention, there was only one person she thought of…Nancy Hirsch. When they met 30 plus years ago at Mikki’s first NSA convention, Nancy was the assistant to famed NFL referee/speaker, Jim Tunney and the only one who befriended and encouraged Mikki to pursue this career. As an outlier in dress and personality or as Mikki describes it as “flamboyance discrimination”, not many speakers reached out to her, believing that this “out of the box’ person could make it in this industry. Nancy believed in and inspired Mikki to become a professional speaker.
Over the years, they lost touch. Mikki always knew when she got this distinction (and she knew she would!) she wanted to thank Nancy. Immediately after the call to tell her she would be receiving this award, Mikki began the search to find this special woman. She did! Nancy was 81 years old and retired in Santa Barbara, CA, In an unforgettable phone call, Mikki spoke to Nancy, told her of the award, thanked her and asked her to come as her special guest to the awards ceremony where she could tell their story in her acceptance speech and honor her in front of 3000 speakers and dignitaries. Mikki flew her from CA to Philadelphia where the convention was held. During Mikki’s speech when she told the story and asked Nancy to stand up, there was not a dry eye in the house and two life goals were achieved! The honor…and THE honor!!
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