Mark Hunter was recently crowned the 2009 World Champion of Public Speaking in Connecticut. There’s a great writeup of the contests by Angie. You can also listen to Mark Hunter on ABC Radio. Finally you can watch him as part of Darren LaCroix’s interview with the finalists this year.
Posted under Toastmasters
This post was written by john on August 25, 2009
My favorite line is “Trust your gut.”
Posted under Toastmasters
This post was written by john on August 19, 2009
At a recent public speaking seminar, I evaluated a number of short speeches. There were a number of storytelling techniques I was looking for. Here is the list I created from my evaluation:
When you are creating your next speech, whether it is an elevator speech, a sales pitch, or a Toastmasters speech, incorporate one or more of the above techniques to make your speech come alive.
Of those techniques, I would say that the most neglected is dialogue. Most speakers I have seen could do a better job of using dialogue to tell their story. Give it a go!
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This post was written by john on August 18, 2009
In a post directed at unemployed college students, Seth Godin talks about a fantastic post-graduate year doing the following:
“If you wake up every morning at 6, give up TV and treat this list like a job, you’ll have no trouble accomplishing everything on it. Everything! When you do, what happens to your job prospects?”
Seth makes a compelling point. I suggest you join Toastmasters and you will learn even more about communication AND increase your network, both of which will prove invaluable.
BTW, other than the possibility of running a marathon, there’s no reason why everyone that is unemployed could be doing this.
Posted under Public Speaking, Toastmasters
This post was written by john on June 11, 2009
In You should write your speeches and presentations, Frank Adamo tells us that we should write out our speeches so that we can refine, massage, and condense them. He quotes David Brooks, the 1990 World Champion of Public Speaking:
It is absolutely necessary to write a speech and refine the speech as many times as necessary.
It is important to have a speech written down so that you CAN edit it. This does not mean that you have to write it first. To keep your speech conversational, many experts suggest that you use a voice recorder to capture the speech and then transcribe it.
I agree with this advice when it relates to a 7:30 Toastmasters contest speech. Every second counts. When it comes to an hour long speech, I think being genuine and conversational is much more important than culling a few words here and there.
Packing more into a speech may not be what the audience really needs. They may need to feel a connection with a real human being who isn’t concentrating on giving a highly optimzed speech.
My recommendation is to record your speech. Transcribe your speech. Then, take key areas of that speech and edit those. Internalize, but don’t memorize. Don’t edit the whole thing – unless it is for the World Championship of Public Speaking contest. Even if it is for the contest, determine if highly edited speech is your style.
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This post was written by john on April 11, 2009
I just read the latest article from Darren LaCroix, the 2001 World Champion of Public Speaking. The article hit home for me so much that I am immediately blogging about it.
The article talks about intent and is relevant to the Toastmasters contest season that is underway. Don’t pass this by if you are not competing though. The advice is useful in many more areas.
The essence of the article is that no matter how well prepared your speech is, it is the intent you have while delivering your speech that determines the connection you make with your audience. If this is a contest, then it can affect the outcome. If it is a paid speech, it can affect your business. If it is a company meeting where you are suggesting an idea or an interview question, it can affect your career.
I recently came second in the speech contest with a speech that was one of the best I ever gave at club. At the club level my intent was to give the best speech I could and also convey the strong emotion I feel about the situation with my Dad. When I gave it at Area, I was trying to repeat that performance. In trying to repeat a performance, I stumbled. Instead, I would have been best served having the same intent. This is easier said than done of course. In the speech contest, you give the same speech multiple times. The Curse of Knowledge from your previous performances affect your next performance.
I thought I addressed this issue somewhat. The previous year at the District level I over prepared my speech. I didn’t place and that gave me a real kick in the teeth. I decided that I needed to practice less, and let the speech be real. Unfortunately, purely practicing less was not the problem. You guessed it, it was my intent.
I also came second in the evaluation contest. This surprised me. I pride myself on giving great evaluations. I went into this Area contest with the intent to do enough to win. My focus was on the next level, not on delivering the best possible evaluation I could.
Your intent also comes across loud and clear to other audiences. When you interview for a job, is your intent to impress? Could it be that intending to be genuine and sincere would serve you best?
Having the best intent is not easy. In contests, the goal for many is to win. How can you put that aside? Darren has a suggestion for this. He chose his winning speech topic based on a question from Mark Brown. The question was:
Pick a child from your life. If you were going to die tomorrow, what’s the one lesson you have learned from your life that you would pass on to that child to help them through their life?
This is not something you can do in a few minutes. It may take you days or weeks. Once you have it though, it is gold. Now, when you give the speech, imagine the child is in the third row and give the speech to them with all of the conviction you can muster.
Now THAT is great advice. Good luck!
Posted under Toastmasters
This post was written by john on April 9, 2009
Last week I evaluated an Ice Breaker speech. It used to be that I hated to evaluate Ice Breakers. I would always worry that there would be too many areas of improvement and not enough strengths.
I actually like evaluating Ice Breakers now. I relish the fact that I get to see a speaker for the first time and give them their first Toastmasters evaluation. I also challenge myself to really nail down the skills the speaker already has. It can be hard to find at times, but no harder than finding areas of improvement for a fantastic speaker.
The Ice Breaker this Tuesday was very good. Marv made excellent use of storytelling in his speech. His major area of improvement being to remove the reliance on notes so that the storytelling can come alive with gestures and movement.
It used to be that I would be very cautious evaluating an Ice Breaker. I didn’t want to scare them away. I would deliver something close to a whitewash. Possibly pointing out one superficial improvement.
Not any more. My goal is to give the speaker constructive criticism just as I would an experienced speaker.
Posted under Toastmasters
This post was written by john on April 8, 2009
The following diagram shows the effects of a Toastmasters speech on those present at the meeting. Click the image to see a bigger version.
Please feel free to share this image. All I ask is that you keep the website address in the image. A higher resolution version.
See Also:
Posted under Toastmasters
This post was written by john on April 4, 2009
Last night I competed in my Area Evaluation Contest. I placed second, so will not go on to the next level. Losing though always seems to be when I learn the most. Last night I learned:
Posted under Toastmasters
This post was written by admin on April 3, 2009
After competing in my club evaluation contest last week, a veteran Toastmaster made a very interesting comment to me. I look up to this Toastmaster a lot. I have learned a lot about evaluations from him.
He told me that he really liked the organization of my evaluation, especially because I wasn’t obvious about it. I didn’t say something like “There are three areas I would like to discuss today, area 1, area 2, area 3.” Many evaluators will say practically the same thing because it is typical to use groups of three. It can be repetitive and boring.
I didn’t use this technique last week. It wasn’t a conscious decision although I have noticed that I do it less in contests.
Why is being less obvious about the organization better?
I believe being less obvious about the organization is better because you reduce the mechanics of an evaluation. The mechanics get in the way of being genuine and sincere with your gift to the speaker. I have mentioned before that I dislike acronyms in evaluations. Often the acronym gets in the way of the evaluation.
There are various techniques that can make your evaluations easier to deliver. Remember though that the goal of an evaluation is not to make it easier for you, but to deliver the best possible feedback to the speaker.
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This post was written by john on March 31, 2009
