Tips to Develop Your Public Speaking Abilities

There are few abilities that can assist you more in life than being a skilled public speaker. This may be more true in our current era than any before it. Speaking well enables a person to get their message across, build relationships, attract clients and encourage others to get involved in movements seeking meaningful change.

And yet, a great deal of people are terrified of talking in front of crowds. It is one of the more widespread fears within our culture.

We can't all turn into a one in a million speaking talent. But just about all of us can get better at this extremely beneficial activity.

After all, moving an audience with your words involves at its root - despite however else it may seem to be - just a skillset. And just as we can practice and enhance our abilities with regards to other skillsets, such as those involved in sports or dance or playing music, we can also practice and enhance our abilities with the skillsets involved in public speaking. And realizing these things constitutes my first tip for you in developing your public speaking abilities.

The next tip would be that, even though you can work on some aspects of public speaking by yourself, ultimately it is something that really benefits from being practiced amongst others. There are some very helpful groups, such as Toastmasters, that you can join in order to find other smart and cooperative folks willing to help you - and be helped by you - as you travel on your journeys toward speaking excellence.

A group like Toastmasters can also help you in several others ways, as well:

They offer a proven step-by-step method, based on a series of milestones, that has helped many people gradually become better speakers.

They offer the chance to watch and interact with everyone from people who have never given a public speech in their life to award winning speakers and story tellers. Experience like that can do nothing but jumpstart your own learning process.

They provide a forum in which you can give real speeches to a real audience, as well as receive comments in response to each talk you give to help you improve your next one.
Of course, partaking in a group like Toastmasters, you will learn further tips to make you a better speaker and a few of the ones you are likely to encounter are below:

Get a Little Personal - Don't pour out every secret detail of your life, of course. But, in each talk, try to find a way to let your audience know a little more about you. It can help humanize you and encourage the listeners to care more about you and what you have to say.

A Bit of Humor Goes a Long Way - There is nothing that more consistently helps warm up an audience than some well-placed humor. A funny story or a clever joke, properly timed and delivered, is a great way to break the ice. There are some talks where humor may simply not be a good fit. But, if you use some creativity, you will find those are few and far between.

Tell a Story - People of all ages love a story. When you start to tell one, it is just natural for people to hang on with curiosity to hear what happens. And this gets them paying attention - attention that you can then work to hold on to throughout the rest of your speech.

This is simply a taste of the many tips available to help you develop your public speaking abilities. You can build upon them with a variety of other tips that are available to attain a high skill level and reap all the benefits that being a great communicator brings.

It probably won't happen overnight. Like anything worthwhile, it can take time and effort to improve. But it is time and effort that is often enjoyable and sure to be well spent.

Toastmasters Friday: Speak the Movie - A Review

Imagine having open heart surgery, without any draping, on the 50 yard line of the Dallas Cowboys Stadium, in front of a packed house, with you on the big, BIG screen. That's what it was like for me watching the movie "Speak" last night. My innermost thoughts, my most personal life events, naked and open to the public. That's what happens when you let a camera crew follow you everywhere.

"Speak" is a documentary about public speaking from Paul Galicia and Brian Weidling and their company Tumbleweed Entertainment. As they researched their movie, they investigated Toastmasters, and then the World Championship of Public Speaking - and it was this event that they found to be the perfect setting to center their movie around. In 2008, they spent the summer interviewing the eight regional winners from around the country, and followed their journey to the Toastmasters International Convention, where they added the two inter-district winners to the mix.

I, of course, was one of those Finalists, representing District 15 and Region I (at that time, Utah, Idaho, British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and Northern California) in the contest. The others were LaShunda Rundles, Colin William, Robert MacKenzie, Henry Flowers IV, Katherine Morrison, Loghandran Krishnasamy, Martin Presse, Charles Wilson, and Jock Elliott, who (spoiler alert) won the World Championship in 2011. For those of you looking for additional behind the scenes information, check out the free ebook we wrote together, "The Finalists", by signing up for my newsletter at RichHopkins.com.

After three and a half years of waiting, of hearing rumors and reviews of 'rough cut screenings', it was a tremendous weight off of me to have the actual movie (at least a 'screening copy', as the watermark said every so often on the video) on my TV for me to watch.

How do you 'review' a movie after you discover that you are one of the two primary storylines? What objectivity can exist as you watch a past version of yourself go through the experiences I did that summer? I honestly don't think I can. Below are some of my thoughts after a night to sleep on it:

1. The movie starts out focusing on the fear of public speaking, but quickly moves into the championship plot, and adds the 'find your voice' component. The two weave together well, and by the end of the film, their point is made.

2. It is clear that some hard cuts were made. How do you have a movie with 10 characters and give them all equal time? Everyone in the competition got screen time, but it was a 2-6-2 ratio - 2 had a bunch, 6 had enough to be satisfied, 2 were more cameos, but their time was still meaningful. I'll let you watch it for yourself to figure most of those out, but I bet you can figure out the two with the most screen time.

3. Great contributions from various Toastmasters, World Champions, and outside speaking professionals. Their spots worked well to transition from point to point.

Robert MacKenzie, photo by Joshua Pickering

4. The backstories on so many of the other contestants, from Robert MacKenzie to Charlie Wilson (and his wife!) to Martin Presse really showed the diversity of Toastmasters, and the different paths we can all take chasing after a similar, though hardly identical, destination.

5. Watching LaShunda Rundles journey both before and after the competition was fascinating and emotional. She lives the role of a heroine, and it comes through in this film.

LaShunda Rundles, photo by Joshua Pickering

As for me? My public open heart surgery? Well, to be honest, there were times I could hardly recognize myself. The movie truly shows where my mindset was at that time - a man desperate to turn things around financially, hoping to use the championship as a means to market a message that mattered. It shows my wife, and her unwavering support of my journey to chase my dream. It shows my honest emotions in the midst of my failure. It shows, in the end, the beginning of a mindset shift, from 'have to' to 'want to', from 'competition' to 'fun'.

It shows some strong qualities - passion, persistence, a dose of rebelliousness - that still reside within me, but are channeled in very different ways today. "Speak" happened before the medical issues with my family came up. While four members of family had Neurofibromatosis, the consequences of this genetic disorder had not been visible until the Spring of 2009. The potential blindness with Rachel. Later on, Braden's Scoliosis. Bailey's brain tumor. Now Kristi's leg tumor.

In 2008, I 'needed' to win. Today, my needs are quite different, my focus much clearer, and the paths to 'winning' quite different. Not that winning the World Championship wouldn't be fun, of course. The man in "Speak", I hope, has grown up - without losing his Passion and Persistence, but having built and expanded on those qualities with another than only sharpens with age - Perspective.

Braden, Rachel, Bailey, Riley, Brooklyn, & Riker. My perspective builders.
photo by David Hassler.

Hopefully, "Speak" will find its way to a theatre near you soon. Contact Tumbleweed if you want to arrange a screening. Most of you reading will know many of the cast. All of you, I believe, you'll find the movie eye-opening, entertaining, and uplifting. I did, and I didn't even bring home a trophy. But I did Win...Anyway.

Starting Your Speech in the Middle

Jaakko Iisalo - the enemy of your presentation....

You've only got a few seconds. If you don't grab their attention with something that matters, the audience will turn you off before you can say "Angry Birds".

There are several ways to get their attention - from asking an opening question to starting with a startling statistic to saying something controversial or shocking. I covered these in 2010, in "Grabbing the Audience's Attention: Myth or Method". 

I still stand by those methods. Today's strategy can work with those, or on it's own: Starting Your Speech in the Middle. The middle of a story, the middle of your speech as previously written, the middle of your climactic point.

Example 1: Speech Topic: Relationships

Normally, you'd open by saying how important relationships are. You might even ask a question: Have you ever had a horrific relationship? Then you set up the rest of your speech and start telling stories.

What if you moved us to the middle, using dialogue? Shout: "Get out of this house this instant, or I'm calling the police!" What is the audience thinking now? Whatever they are thinking, at least they are thinking. They are instantly drawn in, to find out the context of the statement. Now you are free to go backward and forward through time to build context, make a point, and bring your audience to your conclusion.

Example 2: Speech Topic: Taking Risks

A typical start to this speech might be a statistic - "40,000 people a year die in car accidents". Then you bring this into a comparison with your personal story of climbing El Capitan, and continue into your point about the process of taking risks. Not bad, but not terrific.

Instead, consider this: As if talking to yourself, say "What am I doing, volunteering to climb up a 3000 foot rock formation, with only a rock and my idiot brother-in-law between me and certain death?" Pause, look at the audience. "That's what I was thinking. What I said was AAAAUUUUUGGGGGGHHHHHHH!" Then explain the situation - you had a sudden drop, you hurt yourself, you fell to your death, whatever. You get us wondering, then you surprise us. Now you can take us wherever you want to, even up El Capitan!

Starting Your Speech in the Middle provides an added bonus to your speech, as well. It cuts out all temptation to meander around at the beginning with thank you's and stories about the traffic on the way there and how you knew the company president in college. It cuts to the chase, which is what you audience wants, and what will make your speech more memorable, more effective, at its completion.

Is it uncomfortable? Sure. Especially the first few times you do it. But so was speaking, once upon a time. Experiment. Practice. Just don't wimp out. The more powerful your opening, the more power you'll have over your audience.

Toastmasters Friday the 13th: PR Ideas That Never Die

If Jason can survive, so can your club.

Last Saturday morning, from 8 am til 1 pm, District 26 held its "Denver" TLI (Toastmasters Leadership Institute) training for officers and members of the organization. This is my third TLI here in Denver, and I'm always impressed with what they put together - essentially a mini-conference. Over 300 Toastmasters showed up, and they still have training coming up in at least two other population centers in our District.

They brought back local golden boy and 2000 World Champion of Public Speaking Ed Tate to keynote the event, as well as offer a general session workshop. He did his traditional great job, not that I can tell you about any of it because he threatened us that we couldn't share any information or he'd have to kill us. Or something like that...just have him come out to your own TLI if you really want to know.

The morning offered the officer training, including separate training for each position (two for VP of Education, because of space constraints), and even a 'combined training' if you held more than one office in your club. After the workshop, they held another round of educational sessions, on everything from Leadership opportunities with TM to livening up your Competent Communicator manual to connecting with your audience.

I attended the Public Relations training, lead by our District PR Officer Carol Harris and Luc Moens. I should have gone to the combined training, technically, since I'm also VP of Ed, but having done all the trainings over the years, both as a student and a trainer, I thought I'd attend the one that held the potential for the most new information. With the recent rebranding, the PR session was an obvious choice.

Carol and Luc handled the session well, only mentioning the new tagline briefly, acknowledging the controversy (even mentioning that there were some blogs out there that fanned the flames of said controversy - imagine that!), but not opening it up for discussion. It was essentially described as an umbrella idea, with speaking falling under the umbrella of leadership, a concept I'd heard before. Luc explained the branding shift as a way to make TM appear more exclusive and desirable, and essentially upgrade the world's perception of our organization.

Even with this explanation, the rebranding theory was only a small part of the training, and the controversy deftly dismissed with a 'it doesn't matter anyway' attitude, coupled with a tacit, tow the line agreement with the change (my perception), and focus quickly shifted back to how we can use the new colors, logo, fonts, and promo material as PR Officers to create a unified image to potential Toastmasters.

I think they approached it exactly as they should have. They acknowledged the elephant in the room, but didn't dwell on it. The training was how to work with what we have, not whether we should have what we have.

Since it's Friday the 13th, I thought I'd honor the spirit of Jason, the iconic 'can't be killed' anti-hero of the film series of the same name. Below are 13 ideas from this and other PR training I've had throughout the 13 years I've been a TM. Some are old stand-by's others are more up to date. Some are great, some are not so great. Some work better in certain areas than others - you'll have to decide for yourself.

All, at least, have the intent to either keep your club from dying, or, at worst, bring it back from what appears to be a watery grave.

1. Announce your meetings in your local paper, particularly you small, community paper. Most papers offer this service for free, and you often end up in their online edition as well. Try getting into the newsletter of your company and/or professional association, as well.

2. Take your Toastmaster Magazine everywhere. Read it in public and strike up conversations. Put labels with your club info on it and hand it to interested parties or leave it at your doctor's office or on the rack at your hairdresser.

3. Put flyers up at local grocery stores, your work bulletin board, the local Workforce Services - anywhere people gather.

4. Put your ribbons, certificates of achievement, and trophies in your office space. Wear your Toastmasters Pin - if you can find it. I lose mine faster than socks in the dryer... Still, great conversation starters.

5. Get Toastmaster business cards to give to anyone who might be interested. Templates are here: http://www.toastmasters.org/stationery

6. Use/Update FreeToastHost - the official website service of Toastmasters International. I consistently hear that new members come from the web, though my feeling isn't that they come from FreeToastHost as much as the clubfinder tool on the main site. Still, linking your club's updated and well-manicured FTH site to that listing will help as people make decisions as to which club to visit.

7. Create Guest Information Kits, filled with promo material, a TM Magazine, an application, and whatever other material might be helpful to someone looking into the organization and your club. Put something in it, an article, a club history, or even a sample agenda, to help your club stand out.

8. Send handwritten follow-ups to guests, and invitations to those you get into discussions with. In a world of email, a hand-written card stands out. Make sure you have a guest book out, so you can harvest those addresses and make this happen. Phone calls and email follow-ups also help you keep in touch with prospective members.

9. Use Meetup.com to create an online community. There is cost involved, but it offers some great tools and a non-threatening, "I don't have to join TM to join the Meetup", atmosphere. Meetup also cross-markets, so someone in a different meetup will have a chance to see your club without directly looking.

10. Put up your Toastmasters banner outside your meeting space as a sign announcing where the meeting is - simple as it sounds, it's amazing how many clubs just put it in their meeting space instead of the hallways of the building they meet in. You can also purchase plaques that restaurants will often hang in their entryway letting folks know you meet there. TI recommends buying a newly branded edition of your banner, but it's not required.

11. Send out a Mini-Newsletter. It's easy to get bogged down in thinking we must come up with some extensive, graphic-filled newsletter for the club, and if there's someone who wants to do that, more power to them - they have their place. But a mini-newsletter is easy and quick. Just take some notes about your meeting, and send it out to the entire club and anyone on your list of potential members. Tell them how great the meeting was, and invite them to next weeks edition, when so-and-so will be speaking.

12. Send a press release when you have a significant event. What's significant? A guest speaker, a speech-a-thon, a contest, a demo meeting, a New Year's Resolution Meeting - whatever you decide is special. Not sure how to write a good press release? Head here: http://www.publicityinsider.com/release.asp - it works!

13. Make your club Social Media Savvy. Get that club Facebook Page up. Start a Twitter account. Start a club blog. Get involved in Linked In discussions related to business in your area. Let people know you're going to a meeting, and how much you enjoyed it. Even if you don't direct traffic directly to your club, you'll help TM in general, and other clubs will inevitably be sending folks your way through their efforts.

Speak & Deliver Bonus #14

Many Toastmasters want to speak outside the club, but don't know what to talk about, or haven't developed their message yet. Why not take the Toastmasters message out to the world? Put together a presentation using your own experiences, and head out to your local service club. Offer them some Public Speaking training and then promote TM as the place you learned what you are teaching, and promise them there's more to learn. A win-win for you and your club.

Toastmasters has their own guide to PR available online, as well. Click here for the free downloadable PDF.

There is plenty of opportunity for all the officers, and all members of Toastmasters, to be involved with PR. One person cannot do it all. But if you have a passion for sharing TM with others, you can do something. Because if we all decide it's somebody else's job, our clubs will surely die, with no hope for a Jason-like resurrection.

Enjoy your Friday the 13th!