Thursday 18 April 2013

Project 3 - Get to the Point (Part 1: Coaching)

Get your message across, and get it across clearly. That's the essence of this project. ComYOUnicate!

Your manual explains exactly how you can structure your speech in order to get the message across. To make it simple, basically:

Choose Your Intent:
Either give a speech to inform, persuade, entertain or inspire. Do not mix two intents together (e.g. don't try giving a mixed informative-entertaining speech. It won't work unless you're a super-skilled speaker).

Choose Your Purpose:
Your purpose should be different depending upon your intent. For instance, if you want to give an entertaining speech, your purpose should be lighthearted, for instance you could give a speech talking about your love of chocolate, funny things your kids to say to you, or a string of events that happened to you with an amusing consequence. If you want to give an informative speech, your speech could teach your audience the steps involved in setting up a website, how to build a go-kart, or even information about how to be a better cook.

Choose Your Specific Purpose:
Now it's time to narrow-down your purpose, and tailor it to what the audience wants. If, for instance, you talk about your love of chocolate for a whole 7 minutes, your audience will be bored because this doesn't tell them anything really specific about you, and it's not tailored to their needs. You could try any of the following (although the second one is best because it's simple and tailored to your audience):

     -Three reasons why I love chocolate fondue
     (after hearing your speech, the audience should be able to quickly identify the three   
     reasons why you love chocolate fondue)

   -Three reasons why you will love chocolate fondue!
    (after hearing your speech, the audience should be able to quickly identify the three    
    reasons, and may be tempted to try it).

    -Three amusing reasons why you should buy a chocolate fondue set today!
    (after hearing your speech, the audience should be able to identify the three reasons. Since 
    this is probably an entertaining speech, you wouldn't worry about actually persuading them 
    too heavily to buy a fondue set).

Once you've got a clear intent and specific purpose, you can go about structuring your speech (remember: clear opening, body and conclusion). Also, think about your title. To be effective, it should be clearly linked to your specific purpose. If you've defined your specific purpose well, you can even use it as your title. For instance, "Three Reasons Why You Will Love Chocolate Fondue!" would be an awesome speech title!

Good luck! And please give your comments below on whether this post has helped you. Just like you, I need feedback to improve!

Oh, and here's your motivational video for this project - John Farnham's "The Voice".

 
 

Wednesday 10 April 2013

Feedback - What's it All About?

The Toastmasters program revolves around feedback. By now (after completing your second speech), you will be getting used to the idea of receiving feedback (an evaluation) after each speech.

But what is feedback essentially, and how does it actually help?

Well, in Toastmasters, there is  a method of feedback known as the "sandwich" method. This method, or structure, is similar to the layers of a sandwich:

Positive Comments
1 or 2 (Max.) Points for Improvement
Positive Comments

As you can see, the point for improvement is "sandwiched" in between positive comments, so it's metaphorically easier for you to stomach.

In a good evaluation, you'll receive comments that directly reflect the things your evaluator thought you did well in a speech, as well as a bit of information for how you can improve for next time.

You can then pat yourself on the back for the things that went well, and think about what you can improve in your next speech.

Keep in mind though, that an evaluation is always someone's personal opinion. You may not agree with it, and that's fine. However, it's always a good idea to at least consider what your evaluator is trying to tell you. Their feedback helps give good insight into your audience and their likes and dislikes.

Remember: Feedback is your friend. Strive to get as much feedback as you can so you can understand your audience better.

Sunday 7 April 2013

Project 2 - Organise Your Speech (Part 2: Speech Analysis)

Here's the speech I gave for Project #2:


Firstly, this speech happened to also be a contest speech, so I memorised it. I do not recommend you memorise your whole speech, unless you are giving a contest speech. Want to know why? Well, if you memorise it, you're more likely to forget it. Look at what happened at 0.50 - I forgot my lines! Not only that, but I left out a whole chunk of my speech (not that you can notice). Follow what it says in your manual for this - Project 1 in your manual has some good information about which parts to memorise and how to remember the rest without memorising. Now, this is where it gets interesting. You are now onto Project 2, however, you are using the skills you learnt in Project 1. This is what I meant earlier about building your skills as you go along. You will always incorporate skills you learnt in an earlier project into later speeches.

Now, for the structure of my speech:

I arranged this speech both spatially and chronologically (see my previous post for further discussion about this). Look at how writing a speech with a spatial structure makes it easy for me to dedicate a certain area of the stage to a certain "area" of the gym that I'm talking about. It also makes it easier for me to remember. For instance, the left (my left) side of the stage is where the weights room is in my mind, and the right side of the stage is where the cardio room is in my mind.

Notice, I had a clear opening that drew the audience in. The line I used to get the audience's attention (otherwise referred to as the "hook")  was: "I have a confession to make" (0.03). I also lead into the topic by mentioning my attitude towards going to the gym, and hinted at the connection between the gym and religious practises. All up, my opening was about 50 seconds (though I forgot a couple of points). Roughly 1 minute is a good guide to how long your opening should be.

Then, I went onto the body of the speech. Notice, I didn't just launch straight into talking about the weights room. I used some transitioning sentences to make it easier for the audience to understand (somewhat literally) where I was going with the speech. The transitioning sentences were: "The temple of the gym has sex segregation. The men are all in the weights room, and the women are all in the cardio room".

My first main point in the body of the speech was: " I thought I would go into the weights room" (this was a humorous speech, so the main point wasn't really that meaningful).

The sub point was: "This is not Hell, this is Heaven - here I have a selection of guys who look like Greek Gods and no competition!" (1.06). I then launched into my support material. Because this was a humorous (entertaining) speech, there was quite a tenuous link between my subpoint and my support material, but, nevertheless, there was a link. The sub point hinted at the'religious'aspect of going to the gym, as well as the many men (Greek Gods) who were available to me. I then supported this with the embarrassing story of how I sinned (religion) by dropping the weights and ruining my chances with the Greek Gods. Notice how my support material is related to my main point, but there's also a bit of a twist, because I ended up getting negative attention rather than the positive attention I wanted.

The rest of the body of my speech follows a similar format - with a main point, sub point and then support material. See if you can spot where these things come into play in this speech.

Lastly, I concluded with a few funny sentences about not going to the gym religiously. Notice how this ties in with my opening, where I mentioned the link between the gym and religion and also my reluctance to go there. I also provide a call to action: "I'll see you all at the gym tomorrow" (6:08).

So there you have it! As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, this speech was a competition speech and I actually came second! So, don't be discouraged if your speech is not at the same level. Just make sure you've got a solid structure and you'll be fine.

Break a leg and let me know how you went with it by posting in the comments section below :)

Saturday 6 April 2013

Project 2 - Organise Your Speech (Part 1: Coaching)

Congratulations on completing your Ice Breaker! It's a hurdle that you just have to jump over and get done. But now, the real art of speechmaking begins. 

Project 2 is probably one of the most important projects in the CC manual. Having a well structured speech is the basis for all of your speeches to come (if that makes sense). 

I often describe the CC manual to visitors as a set of projects which are like "building blocks" because each skill you develop while working on a particular project will help you with your next speech, so you can literally build your skills as you go along. You can look at project 2 as the foundational skill, or the base of the building blocks. It's absolutely essential for a good speech, and if you don't get it right, all of your (later acquired) "building blocks" or skills will topple over.

This project is all about having a well-structured and organised speech. An organised speech has so many benefits:
  • It's easier for you to remember
  • It's easier for your audience to understand and remember
  • It makes you look like a more professional and organised person, and
  • It helps you with staging (later on, when you're a more advanced speaker).
There are many different ways you can  arrange the sequencing of a speech (an important part of speech structure), but the two easiest ways (I find) are either:
  • Chronological (time-based), or
  • Spatial (place/location-based)
You can also do a mixture of the two, which is quite easy as well. For instance, your speech may revolve around a trip to the beach. You can mention the car journey there (first place/time), your arrival at the beach (second place/time), and then your swimming adventure at the beach (third place/time).

Spatial speeches have the added advantage that you can stand on one part of the stage to represent one location, and move to another part of the stage to represent the next location. Not only does this make your speech easier for your audience to follow, it also helps you to remember it better. This is an advanced technique, known as anchoring, so I'm not going to go into much detail about it yet.

The other thing you need to work on is having a good structure for your opening, body and conclusion of your speech.

An opening/beginning sets the scene for what's to come in the rest of your speech. It's like a trailer to a movie. It hints at what is going to happen in the speech, gets the audience excited/intrigued, but never gives away too much information. And never give away your ending in your opening! It should be a surprise. 

It's hard to discuss the body of a speech without using an example, so you'll have to wait for my next post where I analyse my speech to see how it's done. (I'll also be showing examples of how to do transitions in that analysis).

The conclusion is a summary of the main points or ideas you put across in your speech. It's basically a gentle reminder to your audience of what your speech was about. Conclusions can sometimes feel boring because you feel as though you're repeating what you just said, but you need to phrase it in a way that's not boring so that your audience won't fall asleep. Try to end your speech with a call-to-action. Basically, just tell them to do something as a result of hearing your speech. For example: "Having heard all of the reasons why it's important to stretch before exercising, I encourage you all to do it before you next gym session."

Here's a music video clip that you can groove to while preparing your speech for Project #2. See if you can guess what the (tenuous) link is between this song and what I've been explaining in this post. You can add your guesses via the "Comments" link down below.

Labrinth - Earthquake 

Friday 5 April 2013

Project 1 - The Ice Breaker (Part 2 - Speech Analysis)

Ok. So now is the moment of truth. I will put my ice breaker speech up for all to see (unfortunately I don't have a video for this one).

Ready? Here it is:
 How I Learnt Spanish in Less Than a Year

Good evening fellow Toastmasters, tonight I’m going to tell you about the time I learnt Spanish in less than a year. Picture this: it was near the end of year 9. I had just moved to a new high school in NSW, coming all the way from QLD. I was excited about the new school, because it was a creative arts high school and that was what I was into.

I spoke to the principal about what subjects I wanted to do. I told her I’d love to study Spanish, but she said I could not do it because the others in year 9 had been studying it for 2 years and there would be no way I could catch up with them. Okay, I thought. Fair enough. So I chose to study dance instead of Spanish.

Unfortunately, my dance class wasn’t much fun and the girls in the class were in all in a clique together – the popular girls- so they weren’t very friendly.  One girl in particular liked to point out the fact that I sucked at dancing.

One day, I just happened to be in the Spanish room working on something for another subject when I casually started counting in Spanish, reading off a chart on the wall.  The Spanish teacher, who was in the room at the time said: “oh, you still remember Spanish” . “No, I said, I’ve never studied it”. Hmmm… perhaps this was a sign I thought, that I should change subjects and do Spanish.

So, the next year, during year 10  I decided to change subjects: from dance to Spanish. I knew it was a difficult task, since the others in the class had been studying it for many years and I was just a beginner. Also, the school principal was against the idea.

However, I had two good things going for me. Firstly, the vice principal knew me and liked me (for some reason), and secondly, my step mum just happened to have a master’s degree in Spanish linguistics. So, I managed to write a letter to the vice principal begging him that I change subjects, and added that if I needed help with anything, my step mum had a degree in Spanish so she could help me.

Well, it worked.  I was able to change subjects to Spanish.  It was good, because I had friends in that class so I knew I wouldn’t be excluded from things.

Our Spanish class had a familiar phrase which we always used when we greeted each other, even outside of class. It was: hola, que tal? Which means: hi, how are you? So none of us in that class will ever forget that phrase.

I  learnt Spanish mainly by listening to Enrique Iglesias’s Spanish songs,  and then either listening to the English translation of the song, or by translating it myself using the dictionary.

My studying of Spanish went well beyond just learning the language.

In that class, I also became interested in the Spanish speaking countries such as Spain and South America – the physical landscape, and in their cultural values and customs.

My friend Jeff and I picked up a love of Latin American music from that class – we both started liking Enrique Iglesias and Shakira and other Latin American artists which I still like today.

We also found a love for Latin American dances such as salsa, thankfully there was no one around to tell us we sucked at it.

During that year I learnt also about traditional dishes from both Spain and South America.  I discovered Paella, which is a chicken and rice and seafood dish, which I still love, and is one of my favourite foods.

I graduated from year 10 with a mark of 86 percent in Spanish, the second highest mark in the class. Oh, and by the way, I didn’t ever need my stepmum’s help with any of it.  
So, in short, I had a fun time in my year 10 Spanish class. I studied hard, although it wasn’t that hard really because it was mostly fun. And  the principal’s probably still kicking herself – she couldn’t believe someone could learn 3 year’s worth of Spanish – in less than a year. 

It was a pretty terrible speech. As you can see, there's not much structure to it (refer to my previous post for an example of a simple and effective structure). I didn't bother with structure for this speech because technically you don't have to (apart from having a clear opening, body and conclusion) for your first speech. Structure does, however, help.

Notice I had a clear opening sentence: "Good evening fellow Toastmasters, tonight I’m going to tell you about the time I learnt Spanish in less than a year". The opening sentence gives everyone a good understanding of what's to follow.

If I had written the opening paragraph properly, I would've probably continued with an overview of what I would be talking about (without completely giving the speech away) like this: 
"You know the feeling when someone tells you that you can't do something but you do it anyway and feel proud to prove them wrong? Well that's what happened to me. Soon you'll hear about my adventures at highschool and how I ended up studying Spanish despite the advice of the school principal".
 
Then, I would launch into my story (this is the body of the speech).

In my speech, I gave a powerful concluding sentence that linked back to my opening sentence:
"And  the principal’s probably still kicking herself – she couldn’t believe someone could learn 3 year’s worth of Spanish – in less than a year".

And there you have it! Provided you can differentiate your opening paragraph from the body of the speech and give a clear concluding paragraph (or just a sentence if you're slack like me), then you'll have an Ice Breaker-worthy speech. Bonus points if you can link your conclusion to the intro. 

Thursday 4 April 2013

Project 1: The Ice Breaker (Part 1 - Coaching)

Wow, congratulations for getting this far!

"What? But I haven't done anything yet?!"  I hear you ask.

Yes you have. You are here, ready to give your first speech. It is a big step - perhaps even the biggest one you will take on your Toastmasters journey. If you've really committed yourself then you've probably also advised your VPE of the date you will give your speech. Again, well done.

All you have to do for this speech is get up and speak. That's it. Give a speech. Talk about yourself. Then sit down and congratulate yourself while basking in the admiration of your new found club members.

"What?" I hear you say again. "But..but..I'm not a good speaker. But..I don't know what to talk about..but it's going to take too long to prepare this speech and..."

Okay, enough already. Just do it. No procrastination. Just do it and get it done. Obviously read the project in your CC manual and follow what it says. Although, in a nutshell, it's just this:

Stand up and give a speech.
Talk about yourself.
You can use notes if you need to.

As far as topics go, don't try and cram your entire life's history into a (roughly) 5 minute speech. It just won't fit and it will probably be boring.

Simply take ONE key aspect of your life/life experience/favourite thing and tell a story about it, following this structure:

Intro (Tell them what you're going to talk about) - about 1 minute
First part of story - about 1 minute
Second part of story - about 1 minute
Third part of story - about 1 minute
Conclusion (summarise what you just said) - about 1 minute

For example, if you like fishing, your speech structure may be like this:

Intro (this speech will be about my fishing adventure)
First part of story (I went fishing with some mates and boasted that I could catch a big fish)
Second part of story (I actually did catch a huge fish but the fishing line broke)
Third part of story (my mates now go around telling the joke of the supposedly big fish I caught that 'got away')
Conclusion (I had a fun fishing adventure but didn't manage to catch dinner!)

This is of course not the only way you can give a speech but the advantage of doing it this way is that the audience gets a good insight into your personality and a favourite interest/incident in your life.

Here's a video that you can groove to that should get you in the right mindset for preparing your Ice Breaker:



All the best! And don't forget to check out part 2 of the Ice Breaker blog, where I deconstruct my own Ice Breaker speech.


Before We Begin (The "Disclaimer")

I know, I know - I talked myself up in my last post. But now I'm here to talk myself down. You need to be aware before we start that I don't know everything there is to know about public speaking. It's an ongoing journey and I'm still learning, just like you.

The only difference between myself and you is that I have worked my way through the CC manual and come out the other end. You're either a beginner, or you're in the middle of getting through it. I know the territory so I will point things out before you get there so you know what you're in for. That is all. It's kind of like having a signpost, guidebook, and map with you at all times...Well, kind of.


Also, my advice (however wonderful it may be) is no substitute for a mentor in your own club. My blog should be an additional resource that you can use when you need it, and for no longer. If you don't have a mentor yet, talk to your VPE (Vice President of Education), and they can arrange one for you.

Lastly, the official Toastmasters International website is a fantastic resource that I suggest you check out if you haven't already done so.

Wednesday 3 April 2013

Hello and Welcome!

Hi, and welcome to my shiny new blog!

As a Toastmaster of many years with - here come the acronyms! -  CC (Competent Communicator) and ALB (Advanced Leader Bronze) achievements up my sleeve, I figured it was time to give something back by mentoring new Toastmasters via a blog.

By the way, I've also been a (face to face) mentor, Vice President of PR and Vice President of Membership, plus Newsletter publisher in my local club - so I know all the ins and outs of a Toastmasters club in addition to the speaking bit. 

Here's what I aim to teach you over the next few blog posts:
  • I'll provide you with simple, easy-to-follow tips for each project in the CC manual
  • I'll show you videos of each of my CC speeches - analysing certain parts as we go along and providing you with real-life examples of "what works" and "what not to do"
  • I'll point you to other helpful websites for further information, and lastly,
  • I'll show you some of my favourite speeches and explain why they are great!
Excited yet? You should be. The Toastmasters CC manual journey is an exciting one and you're sure to pick up lots of new skills along the way. Get ready for Project #1, The Icebreaker...