Contest time

For those of you unfamiliar with Toastmasters, there are typically two contests held every year, with a variety of 'themes' [1]. Every year, TM has the "International" Speech contest, which has you deliver a five to seven minute speech on a topic of your choice. It's labeled "international" because it leads to the World Championship of Public Speaking, a title that only one person out of thousands takes away. Many of these speakers have leveraged their wins as a way to start their public speaking and coaching careers, for example: Darren LaCroix.

On the 27th of February, I won at the club level [2], though the other contestant didn't have much prepared. The important thing is that I recorded the speech so I could see what worked and what didn't so I can be ready for area. And oh boy, did a lot of things not work.

Physically, I wasn't up to spec -- my hair needed a trim (done) and my coat folded over itself. Otherwise, engh. If one of the stronger speakers stepped up, I would've been destroyed. It felt like I didn't have it all together as I should have, and I'm not sure my message came across correctly. I had been concerned about time, but ended up on the low end of qualifying at about five and a half minutes.

I think most of all, I need to get my staging (movement) and feel more confident about my material than anything else -- if I work on this and trust that my speech has good content already, I think I can win at the next level. At district though, I may need all new material. Hm.

I recently finished Jeffrey Gitomer's Little Green Book of Getting Your Way and thought it was alright. He rather enjoys lists (lists that always end with a .5), but that tends to make it tough to remember much. One thing I did take away is that he's of the opinion that roadmapping, the technique of telling your audience what you plan to tell them, is useless. I tend to disagree with that statement, myself, though there are occasions that I agree it shouldn't be done. I also found it strange he eschews standard grammar and layout, but advocates bullet proof spelling.

Some technique improvements I took away from his work is an editing technique of writing your draft, then coming back to it a day later and editing again (or at least a few hours). He's also very big on writing like you speak (i.e. saying your text as you write it). He also advocates not memorizing your presentation, but rather, "owning" it.

On the 7th of March, I went out to a couple bookstores (as I love to do) and found a little gem of a book called "Win the Crowd" (for $3.97, no less). Written from a magician's viewpoint, it has a lot of material that's applicable to public speaking, some of it a bit esoteric (for example: pinching the bottom of the 'web' between your index finger and thumb on both hands supposedly gives you a energy boost). I'm about half way through it, but there are some interesting suggestions I'm going to start using, like the 45 degree stance, and how to 'fan' an audience. There's also some pre-performance hints too, which I'm going to have to try -- my video suggested my voice was not in order.

The 45 degree stance is relatively simple. Your feet are placed fairly close together, with your left foot a little to the back and pointed out at 45 degrees. Supposedly this reduces rocking. Fanning an audience involves coming on stage, looking at the person furthest to the opposite side, then sweeping your gaze over the crowd.

To shut this entry down, I'm pretty confident I can win area -- if I get myself to buckle down and do the preparation I need to. This hasn't been my strong suit, but I can pull it off when I have to. Maybe a nice, long bookstore visit afterwards would be proper motivation...ahhh.

Other than that, I'm also trying to get cards made to pass out at the event to plug the site (hello folks); unfortunately, trying to buy the punch out cards and print on them hasn't been working. Sigh. I guess this is something you really do have to get done professionally, eh?

[1] For the curious, the other themes are "evaluations", "table topics", "humorous speeches", and "tall tales".

[2] The contest starts at the club level, then proceeds to area, then division, then district, then regional, then international.