Do you find yourself running into the same speaking problems again and again? Do you try quick fixes or on-the-fly solutions, without success? Then it’s time to take the fix-3 approach to rehashing and improving your speaking.
In her valuable post Denise Graveline suggests that “most speakers don’t take the time for this type of self-analysis,” and from experience I can say a big amen to that. Here’s a valuable way to add your own analysis to the advice you get from evaluators.
Posted via web from Clippings
This program features more favorite stories from the Moth, a not-for-profit storytelling organization founded in New York in 1997 by poet and novelist George Dawes Green.
In the first hour, hear stories about a batboy for the New York Yankees who goes on a wild goose chase for a left-handed bat-stretcher; an Irish-Catholic family obsessed with the Kennedys who dedicate a summer to spying on their idols; a comedian who experiences the ultimate heartbreak; and a drill sergeant who faints at the sight of blood.
The second hour kicks off with a severely stuttering child who years later becomes the world’s premier jaguar expert. Plus, a Texas tale of moon pies and bedazzlers; the surprising story of a Harlem man who ends up at a rodeo in Oregon; and one father’s way of coping with a son who loves the color pink.
Fri., Nov. 27 from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. on WAMU 88.5. Worth catching if you can; some really good storytelling.
And don’t forget other good sources: The Moth, Ignite, Ignite-DC, and Speakeasy-DC. All have podcasts to which you can subscribe with iTunes.
Posted via web from Clippings
JR has sent greetings frum Jeju Island, South Korea. More stops on his trip (and more postcards, we hope) before he returns to the club in December.
Just received are the revised contest rules for 2010 and the new speech contest manual. If you’re thinking about competing in the International Speech Contest next time around (or if you’ll be organizing the contest), it’s well worth your time to get familiar with the rules and procedures early. Also received is the new Supply Catalog.
From Andrew Dlugan, a thorough study of gesturing:
By now, you know that you should be complementing your speech with gestures.
But do you know how big these gestures should be?
In this article, you’ll learn to match the size of your gestures to your audience and venue.
At the end of his post, you’ll find links to other useful articles on gesturing.
Denise Graveline has posted an interview with Michael Erard, author of Um…Slips, Stumbles, and Verbal Blunders, And What They Mean. Dyed in the wool Toastmasters will probably feel uncomfortable with Erard’s comments about Ralph Smedley’s dogmatism, but I think it’s kind of refreshing to hear someone speak out for naturalness and genuineness in speech. Follow the link to read the whole interview.
Evaluation is the core of the amazing fruit that the Toastmasters tree can produce. When the fruit is soft, you will often find a history of rotten evaluations at the core.
Rich Hopkins lists a handful of the things that can go wrong with evaluations and offers nine tips for doing them well. You owe to yourself and to your club to follow the link and read the whole post.
via Speak & Deliver.
It makes sense. Start from your key point. But sometimes you can spend more time than you want to working out what that key point is. Olivia Mitchell offers a three-step process for “crafting your key message.”
A key message is the number one thing you want your audience to remember or do as a result of your presentation. Some experts call it “the big idea”, the core of your presentation or the proposition.
Start planning your presentation by deciding on your key message. It will make the rest of your planning easy and straightforward. Steve Bent, one of my readers, said in a comment on a previous post:
“…[T]hat’s when I had the Eureka moment of the key message for that particular presentation. Then all previous thoughts, notes and parts of the presentation were easy to classify in terms of how relevant they were, and which step they fell into (if any).”
If you’re preparing a presentation on a topic you know well, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be able to decide on your key message quickly. I’ve trained hundreds of people and there’s not one that’s been unable to come up with a key message within 5-10 minutes!
But in Steve’s words you may have “message commitment issues”. You may be thinking that once you’ve got a key message, you can’t change it as you carry on with your planning. Rubbish! Think of it as an engagement, not a marriage. You can always change your message if you find that it’s not quite working for you.
Or maybe you’re expecting the perfect, clever and catchy key message to come to you fully-formed. If that does happen to you – you’re lucky. But more often a memorable key message is a result of crafting.
Here’s a post that captures the feeling and the trials of preparation, the difficulty of speaking, and the joy of getting it right.
Here’s a taste:
I was checking the Twitterstream one day and saw an interesting tweet directing me to Ignite! I really liked the concept of having five minutes to discuss anything, so I thought about what I would say in five minutes. I thought long and hard…five minutes to make a difference, what could I possibly say that could bring something to someone?
I decided I had a great topic and would share my trials and tribulations of being fired four times (plus I was looking for speaking opportunities for practice and to put myself out there). So I submitted my proposal for my five minute inspirational presentation about being fired four times and how I was still standing on my own two feet.It was accepted!
Then I realized the true challenge of having five minutes…there would also be a 20 slide presentation to accompany the slide. The 20 slides would automatically rotate every 15 seconds
Well worth checking out the whole post:
via The Eloquent Woman: A blog on women and public speaking: Jennifer Cohens very public first talk.
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