10 Ways a Contestant Can Add Value to their District

Recently in the Toastmasters Official Facebook group, the topic of a International contestant's value to Toastmasters, or rather 'lack thereof' came up. It was suggested that winners of speech contests are often in it just for themselves, as they chase the trophy, and do little else for Toastmasters.

That was a grand sweeping statement, and I know many, many contestants who do a great deal within Toastmasters, both outside of their competing, as well as as a byproduct of their victories.

But the comment wouldn't have come up if it weren't true in some cases. Maybe it's a new contestant that is getting overwhelmed and is overly focused on themselves. Maybe it's a truly selfish contestant - people are people, after all. At the same time, maybe it's the District - not reaching out to the contestant, not taking advantage of the opportunity to support and promote their winners.

For now, I'm going to focus on you (or your friends) as a contestant - we can only control our own actions, and we can contribute. This goes for ALL contestants - winners and losers at ANY level - but especially for those of you that are fortunate enough to go to the International Semi Finals, Finals, or even win it ALL.

Ten Ways to Add Value Beyond the Trophy on your Desk...

1. Visit other clubs - you've got to practice anyway, right? Schedule yourself at clubs - summer is often a tough time for them to have full speaker slates. I've found most clubs more than happy to bring contestants in, and they'll often promote that they have a 'World Championship Contestant' in order to fill their room. Don't want to practice your speech that much? Offer to come and give a different speech that interests you and them. Afraid they'll say no? Some will - but at least they know you tried.

2. Volunteer at your TLI - the next big project for your district after the Conferences is the Toastmaster Leadership Institute. Volunteer to train officers, give an educational session, or to keynote the event. No speaking slots available? Work the registration table, bring food, be a Sgt. at Arms, or a room host!

3. Write for the Newsletter - your article could be contest related, speech-writing related, or anything else you know that might be of value to the District readership. Newsletter editors are often desperate for content - become their ally, and fill some of that space for them.

4. Use Social Media - promote Toastmasters on your Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, whatever. Your club, your district, the organization itself. Write a blogpost, or twenty, about your journey to the championships. Post pictures. Tell the world about all your great experiences both as a competitor and as a 'plain old Toastmaster', and share the stories of others as well.

5. Contact Your Local Media - don't just rely on your District to contact the local paper - you can write a press release easily - go here for a template. I've been featured in my local paper in all three Districts I've competed out of, and I've seen other contestants score radio and TV spots as well. Don't just talk about the contest - get the Toastmaster message out there!

6. Speak Outside TM - schedule yourself at local service clubs - Rotary, Kiwanis, Lions, Optimists and the like. Practice your contest speech in combination with a speech promoting the TM program. You'll get good practice in a non-TM environment, and meet a lot of amazing people.

7. Take a Club Officer Role - just a month after your victory, all the officers are shifting. Why not be the next President, VPEd, or Secretary. Show your club you're in it for more than the shiny trophies. It won't effect your eligibility a bit.

8. Support Demo Meetings - your District is always trying to grow, and spread the goodness of Toastmasters to the world. Volunteer for a role - ANY ROLE - at a demo meeting. Your leaders will love you for it.

9. Coach, Sponsor or Mentor a Club - After that demo meeting, those newly chartering clubs will need a sponsor or a mentor. Why not you? Their are other clubs that may be flagging that could use your experience and enthusiasm as a coach, as well.

10. Don't Compete Every Year - Yes, I've competed 11 out of 14 years, so I know this can be a tough suggestion. But I've also served as an Area and Division Governor (now Director, for you newbies), and even taken a year off to just...take a year off. I'm even a DTM, finally. There's no rule that says you can't compete every year, but some districts are less likely to suffer serial contestants (like me) than others. Consider that their tolerance of you might be proportionate to how much value you provide along the way - just sayin'.

Do you HAVE to do any of these things? No. But not adding value is likely at the heart of the comments I've heard. Don't become so focused on your own goals that you forget the people that helped put you in position to reach them.

I would suggest that as contestants we have a responsibility to serve our Districts, to serve Toastmasters in general. They have provided us the stage. Use it to Speak & Deliver the right messages - messages of communication, service and leadership that define our organization.

Don't chase the wrong trophy.

7 and a Half Ways to Make Your Information Matter

If you're a regular person with a regular job living a regular life, chances are the only times you get asked to speak is to share straight information. Sales data, new product information, company reports - if you're lucky maybe training for new employees, or teaching new technology to the current staff. Even client sales presentations, if you aren't careful, can become massive information dumps.

Information isn't inherently bad. In fact, it is the core of any presentation, the essence of why a presentation must be made. Too much information, superfluous information, and information presented in a boring fashion, however - that's bad.

7 1/2 Ways to Make Your Information Matter

1. Simplify - you probably know what you're talking about, because you deal with it all the time. Your audience may not be as versed as you, however, and treating them like they are will leave them in a daze. Use accessible vocabulary - watch your industry jargon and define your acronyms. If they can't comprehend what you're saying as you say it, they'll get hung up, and you'll find them nowhere near where you're trying to take them by your conclusion.

2. Chunk It Down - once you've simplified your word choices, simplify your conceptual organization. Instead of bulldozing ahead with everything you have, or indiscriminately weaving from topic to topic like an out of control bundle of computer code, organize your information. Create a structure for your talk that will serve your audience, not your knowledge base or your ego. example: if you're talking about Theodore Roosevelt, keep your talk focused on a purpose (time period in his life, his political philosophy, or his family life), and make sure all you're including leads to that purpose.

3. Organize by Relevance - much like the top-down style of a classic newspaper article, start with what they need to know most, first, and fill in the details after. If they see the end result, the big idea, up front, they will be more attentive to the process it takes to get there.

4. Compare - either to a straight up competing product or service, to a similar device or concept, or to the item or process you're replacing/upgrading. By providing a reference point they understand, that is, accessing their old information, it will make your new information easier for them to handle.

5. Pictures, not Numbers - numbers, statistics, and hard data in general don't work well when displayed or spoken, in terms of memorability. If they are linked to pictures or simple charts, they become easier to assimilate. example: Instead of 'we sold 5,254,326 more hamburgers this year over last year, a 52.6 percent increase' as a verbal only statement, or as stark numbers on a screen, consider a graphic of a small stack and a bigger stack of burgers side by side in combination with the verbal statistic.

6. Use Humor - this goes for pretty much any presentation of any type. Humor done right builds connection and opens minds. Anchoring information in a humorous story is going to make it a lot more memorable than a straight-up information dump. example: telling someone about how you got your tongue stuck on the flagpole in kindergarten is a sure way to help them remember the concept of thermal conductivity.

7. Leave Behind - your information is important, which is why you're sharing it. It's also likely very specific, and may be so specific that you don't want to leave any room for error. Create a leave-behind that has your statistics, your research, your sources, even your slides, to give to folks AFTER your presentation. Giving it before opens the door for them to open the door, and walk out on you - either mentally or physically.

7.5. Notes Handout - unlike the leave behind, this is basically a combination of blank scratch paper and a partially filled out map of your presentation. Put blank lines, or partial sentences with key words to fill in, on a page or two and hand out at the beginning. You don't give too much away to begin with, while still giving an implied promise that you'll be giving enough information that notes should be taken.

If you want their full attention, tell them at the beginning not to take notes, that you have a leave behind - but be aware you might lose the attention of a few at that point, if they think they have permission to not pay attention.

Most of us do live a regular life. A lot of speaking advice, articles, and trainings, heck, even this blog, can overly-geared toward motivational/inspirational/storytelling type presentations. This isn't all bad - because much of the concepts in that type of speaking can be brought over to the 'regular life' of information sharing, sales-oriented, training type speaking that may be more prominent in your circles.

And vice-versa.

Take ALL the information...and then go out and Speak...& Deliver!

What Happens When the Win Anyway Guy Loses? Part I

Yesterday was a unique day for me, in terms of competing in Toastmasters at the District Conference Level.

I had qualified to represent my Division in both Table Topics (Impromptu Speaking) and the International Speech Contest. It was the 21st and 22nd time I had qualified for various contests at that level in the 3 different Districts I've competed in. Currently, I'm in D26, which is Colorado, Wyoming, and parts of Nebraska. I've also competed in D9 (Eastern WA, NE Oregon, Northern Idaho), and D15 (Utah, Southern, Idaho, Eastern Nevada).

Of the 20 previous contests, I had acquired fifteen first place trophies (8 in International), 4 second place trophies, and only once failed to place in a contest (Evaluation, 2003), but placed first in a second contest (Humorous) at that conference.

This time - for the first time - I came home without a plastic, plexiglass, or gold colored aluminum trophy in either contest.

This time, however, I failed to place in Table Topics at all in the morning - which, frankly, didn't bother me. I was the first out of six speakers, and didn't do well at all at answering the question. I felt out of rhythm, and at a bit of a loss for an answer to the question 'If you won $1000 and had to spend it on yourself, what would you buy?'. Walking off the stage I was pretty certain 3 of the next 5 speakers would beat that pretty easily.

No worries though - the real trophy was waiting for me in the evening. I'd never lost an International Contest at the District Level. A perfect 8-0. I had edited my speech down 100 words from the last level, changed a line or two (or twenty) during the day, which isn't unusual for me at all. I added a humor bit that called back to Keynote Speaker Tim Gard's presentation in the morning - and it got a big laugh. The speech was powerful, and well-received.

It was also 4 seconds....OVERTIME.

Which means I've still never LOST at District in the Int'l, but I have disqualified myself. Took the decision out of the hands of the judges altogether. And I knew it when I sat down, just like I knew it 10 years ago when I last went overtime, at the Semi-Finals in Oregon.

Let me say this - I have no idea if I would have won if I stayed in time. I may have. I may have placed. I may have been shut out as I was in Topics in the morning. DOESN'T MATTER. Even if I WON on the judging ballot, I didn't have the best speech because it didn't meet the criteria.

I made a rookie mistake, a mistake I've made before, and essentially BEAT MYSELF.



Congratulations to Greg Picone, 3rd, Place, David Meed, 2nd, and Kelsey Robb (pictured with Contest Master Andre Simoneau and District Governor Linda Rhea), returning to the District Stage after taking 2nd to me last year, who will represent District 26 in Las Vegas at the Semi-Finals.

The questions coming at me are now centered around 'what will you do next?' and 'will you compete again next year?' The results I encountered both at the conference and in my 27 Day Challenge, which ended yesterday as well, have put my 'Win Anyway' philosophy to the test, and put it up for a bit of scrutiny.

Overall, it was a great conference, and a unique experience for me. I do believe, at least for the International Contest, I managed to Speak & Deliver - even if I went a little long. At the end of the end of the day, that really is what matters. Or is it?

I'll be addressing these and other questions in Part II and Part III - which will show up in my Win Anyway Blog and 27 Day Challenge blog, respectively, later tonight.

Anatomy of a Speaker's Introduction Part III: Toastmaster Tips

In Part I of this series I covered 6 Key Components for you to use in your Introduction, and in Part II, I discussed What Could Go Wrong with your intro, and how to mitigate the damages.

For Toastmasters - all those tips and suggestions apply, but we also face our own unique challenges - so this post is specifically for you!

In my fifteen years with the organization, I have witnessed a severe deficit in our education program when it comes to introductions. In fact, googling 'Toastmaster & Introductions' brought only one article from the TI site itself, and it focuses on the Toastmaster of the meeting being in control of the intro more than you, the speaker.

In general, I rarely see speakers in TM clubs actually write their own introduction, and at best, it typically includes their manual/project number, their name, and the title of their speech. Occasionally it's brought in a typed format, but it's most often scribbled at the last minute, often handed to the TM right before the speaker is to present, setting the TM, and the speaker, up for a completely mishandled beginning to their speech.

Most of the time, however, there is NO introduction, and the Toastmaster for the day has to make something up on the spot, or simply intro the speaker and their title.

We spend so much time (hopefully) preparing for our speech - why do we do so little, or even nothing at all, with our introduction? If we're really preparing ourselves for the 'real world', we should add this particular skill to our repertoire, and put ourselves, and our introducers, in a strong position to succeed.

Of course, our organization, at the club level, has different aspects to what we may want to do in our intros, though, in general, the tips in Part I & II are still good for this purpose, and certainly any presentations we give at District, Toastmasters Leadership Institutes, or other special events.

3 Club Introduction Considerations.

1. Speech Requirements - every time we give a manual speech, we have requirements that need to be met. Some clubs have the evaluator mention the manual, speech number, and requirements before the introduction of the speaker. Some clubs have the TM mention them. Some intros mention them. And sometimes, no mention is made at all.

No matter how your club handles it (and if you have a different variation, let me know), I suggest you keep it these 'details' separate from your actual introduction, unless they are vital to the content of your speech. If someone else is not handling the introduction of this information, and you feel you must include them in your written intro, use it as a preface to the actual intro:

'Rich is giving speech 7, Research your Topic, out of the Competent Communicator Manual. Requirements include collecting information about his topic from numerous sources and carefully supporting his points and opinions with specific facts, examples, and illustrations gathered through research. His time is 5-7 minutes. (PAUSE)'

Then go into your actual introduction.

2. Audience Set-Up - In TM we often give speeches that are meant for other audiences. Your introduction can be a good place to let your audience know they need to be children in the second grade, conspiracy theorists, or rocket scientists. This way, they know how to receive the speech, and your feedback will be more directed and pertinent to your goals.

3. Credibility - This is a tricky one, as it can feel tiresome to continually put '2x World Championship of Public Speaking Finalist, a DTM, and father of six' in your introductions. Keep in mind, however, that that bit of credibility may not matter when you're giving a presentation about kids, or fictional characters, or really anything not speaking/Toastmasters related.

You have to decide which part of you lends credibility to your subject matter. Since we're constantly writing new speeches, we need new introductions, and different bits of credibility to match.

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Writing an introduction takes extra time, yes. You'll want to email it to your Toastmaster, as well as print in and bring it to your meeting. It will put your TM at ease when they see they don't have to make anything up. Remember to ask them to read it out loud before the meeting so you can make sure they know all the words, and have practiced it at least that once before introducing you.

It will also put your audience in the right state of mind to listen, and set you up to come on stage with power, and launch right in to your presentation.

If you make writing introductions important in your club, you'll be amazed how much more smoothly the speaking portion of the meeting will go. If you make writing introductions important to YOU, you'll be amazed how quickly you're able to create them. When you go out in the 'real world', you'll be happy you took the extra time to be prepared, and to prepare your introducer, before you go out to Speak....and Deliver.