It’s spring and 35,000 Toastmasters from around the world are competing for the coveted title of World Champion of Public Speaking. Through a series of contests, 9 finalists will emerge and compete in Las Vegas later this year for the title.

I am not competing this year due to being an Area Governor. I highly recommend taking part in these contests for your personal growth.

For those of you who are, Here are two steps that have helped in my Toastmasters Speech Preparation

Step #1: Choose a truth, statement, or idea that has positively impacted your life.

In past contests I have used:

• Obligation or opportunity
• Keep on driving
• Adapt and advance

They can be longer, but you’ll notice that most of the winning speeches have a key point.

Step #2: Use personal story(s) to illustrate how these truths have impacted your life.

Here is one example.

You may be wondering, “How has this worked for you?”

Good question.

Year 1: Won three contests and placed third at district.  Did not put enough humor in my speech and it was my first time competing.

Year 2: Reached the top 244 in the world. Was told my vocal variety was lacking. Plus, I made a major change the day before and did not practice it enough.

Year 3: I brought my “B” game to the contest and the winner brought his “A” game. Lost at Division. Should have read my article on preparation.

So yes there is more than just following these two steps, but they will make a great foundation for your speech.

What truth has impacted you? What are some personal stories that illustrated the truth? Put the answers together and you have a jump start on your journey to world champion.

Arlen Busenitz

Arlen Busenitz is an experienced speaker with over 650 presentations. He is Author of several books, CD's,and creator of Become a Better Speaker in One Evening™

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Have you heard of Toastmasters? If not, the term may inspired images of gray haired men giving toasts with brass mugs. Far from it. If you want to improve your leadership skills and speaking skills, Toastmasters is an effective and inexpensive way to do it.

What is Toastmasters?

According to the official site

Toastmasters International is a non-profit educational organization that teaches public speaking and leadership skills through a worldwide network of meeting locations.

In the city of Wichita, KS, there are 15 local clubs. Most meet weekly for an hour, though mine (Semi-Pro) meets twice a month. A typical meeting consists of:

• Three 5-7 minute speeches
• An evaluation of each of those speeches.
• Several 1-2 minute “Off the Cuff” speeches.
• Plus several other activities geared towards improving speaking skills.

Find a club and check it out for free.

Back to the original question.

Why Should I join Toastmasters?

1. Crush your fear of public speaking and become more confident in front of an audience.
2. Become a better speaker through the training and practice.
3. Eradicate the distracting “Um’s” and “Uh’s” from your speech. Toastmasters has a simple, but powerful way of doing this.
4. Become a better leader.
5. Expand your network.
6. Take your speaking skills to another level by entering in the spring and fall contests.
7. Share your knowledge and mentor other speakers.
8. Get $3,000 training for just a few dollars at the District Conferences.

Find out more about the 2010 Fall District Conference

You may be thinking, “I am an advanced speaker and speak quite a bit already. How will Toastmasters help me?”

Great question. Including the above benefits you’ll be able to:

• Refine parts of your current speeches and practice sections in Toastmasters. (The Pro’s practice each section of their speech many times in front of different audiences.”
• Refine your skills. There have been times I thought I was a really good speaker. Then I was blown away by the skills of other Toastmasters. This friendly competition pushes me to new levels.
• Increase your circle of influence. 80-90% of speakers get booked because of someone who heard them. Do a great job and someone may approach you after the meeting and ask for your business card.

What if you are completely new to speaking? Toastmasters is a great environment for not just the advanced, but also the beginner. Every person in your club will be able to relate with any mistakes you make. It is the perfect environment for growing.

What does Toastmasters cost?

About twenty cents a day. Depending on the club, your yearly due will be about $60. That’s an inexpensive investment with a large return.

How to find out more about Toastmasters?

Find a local club and go visit (It’s free). Check out Rob’s site for additional articles on Toastmasters.

(C) Arlen Busenitz – Speakinginfo.com

Arlen Busenitz

Arlen Busenitz is an experienced speaker with over 650 presentations. He is Author of several books, CD's,and creator of Become a Better Speaker in One Evening™

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“How does a person become a better speaker?”

“Simple. Use the RWP formula.”

During my interview with professional speaker  John Madden, I posed the above question to him. His answer was simple, but yet profound.

RWP stands for:

Read

Watch

Practice

Read about Public Speaking

Public speaking is an art and a science. There are rules and principles that great speakers use to communicate with their audience.

I used to be continually moving around the stage without a purpose. Then I learned to always move with a purpose. Opening with a joke or two seemed to be a great speaking strategy. Now, I realize that usually it is not a good idea. Why? Most people are nervous when they start speaking. Funny and nervous go together like chocolate milk and lemonade.

Head down to your local library or bookstore and start soaking up public speaking content. Read public speaking blogs. Fill your mind with speaking tips and you will understand the principles of public speaking.

Watch

Who should you watch? Start with yourself. Record every single speech with a video camera. You can buy a Flip Phone for relatively cheap. Watching yourself is one of the best ways to quickly improve your public speaking skills.

Is it painful? Sure. You will automatically improve if you watch yourself and make adjustments.

Besides yourself, there is no substitute for watching a good motivational speaker or trainer deliver a keynote. With the age of YouTube you now have literally thousands of good speakers at your finger tips. Just a caution. Watch those who are really good so you pick up good habits.

Also, be aware that no speaker is complete in every area. In other words one speaker may have compelling content, but a voice that borderlines on monotone.

Here is one video by Rory Vaden

Practice your Public Speaking Skills

When I started playing backyard football, I couldn’t catch a pass or throw a ball accurately. After many afternoons of practice, I was relatively decent. Constant practice trained my muscles and mind to throw an accurate ball and to catch a football.

In the same way we should train ourselves to have good delivery skills:

• Look at each person for about 5 seconds as you talk
• Have vocal variety
• Pause for Power

This will only come through practice

Take free speeches. Call up local clubs, and ask if you can give a 10 minute talk. Check with your local church about doing a short speech. Practice, Practice, Practice.

You can even stand in your living room and practice with a fake audience.

Practice John Madden’s advice with RWP and you will see a rapid improvement in your public speaking skills.

(C) Arlen Busenitz – Speakinginfo.com

Arlen Busenitz

Arlen Busenitz is an experienced speaker with over 650 presentations. He is Author of several books, CD's,and creator of Become a Better Speaker in One Evening™

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Ug! That's what I thought after hearing myself on tape. I had just recorded a presentation and was listening to it. Every "um", awkward pause, and misspoken word flew out off the mp3 and smacked me.

Listening or watching yourself on tape can be painful. That's why many speakers never record themselves. But wait! If the audience had to sit through it, so should we!

Speaking Tip #23: Improve your Speaking Skills fast by recording and listening to every presentation–twice.

What are the benefits of recording and listening/watching yourself?

• What get's evaluated get's improved. Just by listening to ourself we will improve automatically.
• Our errors will jump out at us and we can fix them.
• Minor adjustments  will become clear.

When I started videotaping, I noticed I would often lick my lips and even wrinkled my forehead in an almost glaring way. The video camera gave me the brutal truth.

You can grab a digital recorder for anywhere from $30 to $100. Amazon is a great place to check. Flip phone cameras are between $100-$200. If you are serious about improving your public speaking skills, pick one up.

Why listen twice?

The first time you listen, evaluate yourself. What could your improve? What should you have left out? During the second time, just let it play as you do something else. I have been told that even if you are distracted, your subconscious mind is still picking it up.

Still not convinced about the power of recording your presentation? Try it on your next three presentations. Then compare your first presentation to the third. You'll notice a difference.

Grab your recorder and start taking your public speaking skills to a new level.

Arlen Busenitz

Arlen Busenitz is an experienced speaker with over 650 presentations. He is Author of several books, CD's,and creator of Become a Better Speaker in One Evening™

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Do you want to improve your public speaking skills fast with minimal effort? You can with this powerful public speaking tip.

Unfortunately, very few individuals use it, but those who do, improve very rapidly and become star presenters.

Here is the key:

Evaluate yourself after every talk.

Studies and experience have shown that if you just observe and evaluate an area of your life, you will automatically improve.

Just a week ago, I gave a 30 minute public speaking presentation. After the presentation, I applied these three steps:

Step #1: I asked three questions

What went well about the presentation?
What could I have done better?
How will I do better next time?

Notice how all three are stated in the positive. We get what we focus on. If we always dwell on the negative, it’s like running a race looking backwards. We want to acknowledge the weak points, but focus on the strengths and how to improve for our next speech.

Here were my answers (To start with I encourage you to just focus on a few suggestions in each category):
 

• I was prepared and had my speech written out.
• The introduction grabbed the audience’s attention.
• I had great vocal variety

• Pause more
• Have a stronger conclusion
• Improve my links between points

• I will pause more through the presentation
• I will practice my conclusion several times and make it strong.
• In my notes I will write a good link out word for word

Step #2: Record your presentation and listen to it.

This step works well with the first one. Just listening to or watching yourself on tape is powerful for personal growth. Darren Lacroix, 2001 world champion of public speaking said, “Listening to yourself is one of the most powerful methods for improvement.”

Is it painful? Yes! They had to listen to it, so should we.

Often we may think we did better than we actually did. Seeing or hearing ourselves corrects our thinking. Sometimes we may think we did worse than we actually did. Recording is very helpful.

There have been times I thought I failed miserably on stage. However, after watching I saw it went pretty well. However, the opposite has also been true!

I recommend listening to your talk twice. Does it take time? Yes! Is it worth it? Definitely!

Step #3: Ask for honest feedback

Do you watch American Idol? Have you noticed how some singers truly think they are great and have been told they are great all their life by friends and family? However, on the show they meet the sharp edge of reality hears the truth from the judges.

If only someone had been honest or they had sought honest feedback, they could have been prevented public embarrassment.

We need honest feedback. Ask your spouse or a respected individual in the audience for their thoughts. You want someone who can be blunt, but encouraging. I’ll often use two questions:

1.    What are a few things I did well?
2.    What can I improve on for next time?

This way they can be both positive and helpful. Sincerely thank them. What they tell you may prevent future public speaking embarrassment.

You can rapidly improve your public speaking skills. Evaluate yourself after every performance and you will steadily improve.

Arlen Busenitz

Arlen Busenitz is an experienced speaker with over 650 presentations. He is Author of several books, CD's,and creator of Become a Better Speaker in One Evening™

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I was suffering from public speaking embarrassment. For 20 minutes I had walked around the room greeting people. I smiled, made small talk, and burned off some nervous energy.

Seven minutes before Showtime, I was slammed with an embarrassing realization.

My zipper was wide open. Have you been there? My mind raced back to the ten plus people I had talked to. How many had noticed? Why had no one said anything? Friends don’t let friends walk around with unknown wardrobe malfunctions!

If I had gone on stage with the blinds open, that could have been embarrassing. Thankfully, I caught it before I went up on stage. However, as speakers it’s very important to check our zippers, our buttons, and anything else that could be a distraction.

Not only will a wardrobe malfunction distract the audience but it can throw us off once we realize it. Every speaker has to recover from this, so don’t feel too bad.

What’s the solution? Do a full body mirror check before you walk into the room. Is your hair fine? Food on the face?

Next, as you are waiting your turn to speak make sure your zipper and buttons are OK. Tuck the shirt in. Consciously do this, so you don’t have to do this on stage. It is hard to speak and be checking your wardrobe at the same time.  

What if you are speaking and notice something is wrong? If you can discreetly fix it, do so. If the audience is well aware of it, make a joke out and keep on going. You could say, “My worst nightmare has come true. (pause for laughter)” Fix the problem and try and work it into your content.

Don’t be caught with your zipper down. Check your wardrobe before you go on stage and you’ll prevent public speaking embarrassment.

(C) Arlen Busenitz – Speakinginfo.com

Arlen Busenitz

Arlen Busenitz is an experienced speaker with over 650 presentations. He is Author of several books, CD's,and creator of Become a Better Speaker in One Evening™

More Posts - Website