Speaking Elevated

Category: Staff Picks

  • Your Fast Track to Public Speaking: Toastmasters

    Your Fast Track to Public Speaking: Toastmasters

    Practicing public speaking skills alone is inefficient. Fighters, Athletes, and Professionals turn to others for coaching, mentoring, and feedback. If you want to do the same with public speaking then join Toastmasters.

    Toastmasters is an international organization dedicated to helping people become better public speakers and leaders. People come together at Toastmasters clubs to practice public speaking. A club meeting gives members the opportunity to perform various roles in a meeting environment. Learn to present speeches, present speeches, run meetings and more.

    By regularly attending Toastmasters meetings you will not only get to practice but learn how to evaluate yourself. By evaluating others, you also learn to evaluate yourself. The feedback you give others will be ingrained into your knowledge. You will know if your body language, vocal variety, or eye contact is lacking. You will go from being an apprentice learning to a partnership where all sides of the party work together to overcome their weaknesses.

    If you’re ready to improve, head over to the Toastmasters’ Find a Club online tool. Try out a few clubs (preferably in person) and pick the best club suited to you!

    Should you join Toastmasters?

    Join Toastmasters if you want to:

    • Build Confidence by practicing with a supportive crowd
    • Challenge your speech writing skills
    • Learn to recover from speaking slip ups
    • Become a leader
      • Motivate others
      • Evaluate others
      • Teach others
      • Onboard new members

    Do not join Toastmasters if:

    • You don’t want to get better at public speaking
    • You don’t want to face a fear of public speaking
    • You don’t want to support fellow members
    • You don’t like constructive criticism

    If you’re ready, find a Toastmasters club to join

  • The Best Way to Start Writing a Speech

    The Best Way to Start Writing a Speech

    Feeling stuck when you write papers. I know how it feels. When I was in school I disliked writing speeches. It felt like I stared at my paper for an eternity to write something down on my paper. As deadlines drew closer, I had no choice but to write sentences down. As years passed I found the best way to start wasn’t to write paragraphs down. It was to make a bulleted list of ideas and to make an outline.

    Why Outline?

    Outlining lays out all your points on your topic. By writing your points out for a speech that is 10 minutes or under, you’ll find you often have more than enough points for your timespan. Instead of struggling to find content to fill in the time, remove points so you don’t go over time.

    Brainstorming points

    For your outline, the first thing you need to do is list all your points for your topic. Don’t worry about the introduction and conclusion. It’ll be easy to write as the final step. In my speech for cooking Burgers, I created the following list:

    • Meat Selection
    • Meat Preparation
    • Cooking Times
    • Best Cheese
    • Bun Selection
    • Smashburgers vs traditional
    • Burger Toppings
    • Gas vs Charcoal
    • Burger Sides

    That’s a lot of points! 9 to be exact. Each point can take 1-3 minutes easily depending on how much depth I write to each point.

    Find your story

    Now that we have so many points its time to weave a story from them. Some stories I can write are:

    • Focusing on Smashburgers vs Traditional Burgers
    • How to cook a burger
    • Why Smashburgers are better
    • How to cook an amazing Smashburger
    • How to cook the perfect burger
    • Better Ingredients, Better Burgers
    • Different topping combinations create new burger experiences
    • The best cheeses for burgers

    See all the directions I can take my speech. Some are slight alterations of each other. Some stories only focus on one point. By choosing your story you will need to remove and add more points.

    For this speech a PowerPoint presentation will be needed, I will aim for a 6-8 minute presentation, and I will choose the story: How to cook an Amazing Smashburger.

    Write an outline for the story

    Now that we know what direction we want our story to be we can modify the outline for our new direction.

    • Why Smashburgers are better
    • Ingredient choices
    • Cheese Selection
    • Meat Selection
    • Cooking the burger

    That looks good but seeing how we have 6-8 minutes for this presentation, let’s move “cheese” to under ingredient selection. We can also start adding subpoints to each point.

    • Why Smashburgers are better
      • Easier
      • Better taste with Maillard Effect
    • Meat Selection
      • 80/20 Meat
      • .25 – .3 oz optimal patty size
    • Additional Ingredients
      • Brioche Bun
      • American Cheese
      • Your choice of additional toppings
    • Cooking the burger
      • Smash and Season
      • flip after 90 seconds, add cheese
      • wait 30 seconds and remove

    And just like that, we have a body outline for our speech. At this point, the superpower of an outline is shown. You can easily rearrange, add or remove points. It may possibly need some subpoints shortened or removed, but I think the outline looks doable for a 6-8 minute speech.

    Your next steps

    Now that we have our outline for the body, the paragraphs will be practically writing themselves. You’ll know what to talk about and what direction you’re heading. When the body is done it’ll be easy to write an introductory and conclusion as well.

    Outline you’re content first and stalling will be a thing of the past. Watch as your ideas pour onto your paper.

  • A beginner’s framework for evaluation

    A beginner’s framework for evaluation

    If you’re not used to giving feedback, it can be difficult to give it. You want others to get better. How can we give constructive negative feedback without making them feel bad? The answer is easier than it seems. Give both positive and negative feedback with the CRC framework.

    Commend, Recommend, and Commend. By opening and closing on positive comments you are able to leave people in a positive mindset. You acknowledge their efforts and skills. To make it more effective, you need to give it with the right energy, like a motivational coach or teacher.

    In the recommendation phase, you pick out a weakness you want to see the person improve upon. Whenever I make recommendations, I like to share if I or others have struggled with that weakness. If the recommendation is something I struggle with, I’ll share that detail. I want the person I’m evaluating to know their struggle is common. I want the person to feel the faith I have in them. I can sell this because I’m convinced they can get better. By working on their weaknesses and strengths they’ll become an amazing speaker.

  • How I gained my confidence and you can too

    How I gained my confidence and you can too

    Before I first joined Toastmasters I never thought I’d be a public speaker. I had a knack for making presentations and assembling content in college, but I’d always be nervous when I presented. I needed to gain confidence.

    So I tried watching communication videos and reading tips online. It was ineffective. I needed a safe place to practice. I could try at home, but it wasn’t the same. That’s when I stumbled across Toastmasters. “Learn how to become a confident speaker,” the advertisement said.

    I made it a visit to the club and knew it was exactly what I needed. I knew I wasn’t ready for a speech or to lead the meeting as Toastmaster. I knew I had to start small. Of course, I can give a joke and a motivational quote. So I did it. Of course, I can be an Ah-Counter and a grammarian. I did those roles too. Each time I experienced a role, I believed I could do the next role. This continued until I completed all roles in a Toastmasters meeting.

    No matter which role I did there were always mishaps. Missing the count of the word of the day. Using the wrong title to call someone. Forgetting parts of my speech as a speaker. Making those mistakes was embarrassing and painful, That pain emphasized the problems I had to work through. And I kept coming back to practice.

    With practice, I make less mistakes. My speeches and presentations are better than its ever been. I’ve been in Toastmasters for two years now, and I thought by now I wouldn’t be nervous when I speak. I still am nervous but the difference is I have confidence in myself.

    I’ve been in rough spots and learned to push through it. Forget a part of my speech? Keep on talking as if you aren’t missing anything. Forget the word of the day. I’ll admit it’s my fault. Someone reminds me I skipped a role responsibility. I thank them and perform it. From experience, I know that when I make a mistake, I can depend on myself to pull myself through.

    If you want to transform your speaking skills, get that experience. Push yourself. Keep on speaking.

  • How Toastmasters improves your business life

    How Toastmasters improves your business life

    Communication is one the most important skills you. Advantages are given to the person who can communicate better. Hard work is important too, but it won’t matter if you convince others how valuable you or your work is.

    Appearance over performance

    Alan is an outstanding programmer who’s been with the company for 8 years, He not only finishes his tasks but finishes it with easy-to-use menu interfaces. Alan presents his works through an email with a list of features.

    Marcus is an average programmer who can make incredible presentations with or without a slide show. He is able to elevate the appearance of his work’s impact by how he presents it. Marcus not only sends emails but has a way with words to show how impactful his features are. Marcus will take it a step further and arrange meetings to present his software so more people in the company will be convinced by his impact on the company.

    Between Marcus and Alan, the one who will more likely get the higher position in the company is Marcus. Even if Alan is better than Marcus, managers will see the opposite due to his communication skills.
    The one with both work and communication experience will be better suited for managerial and executive positions.

    Toastmasters is your playground

    At Toastmasters you have an opportunity to practice and improve. You direct and lead when you’re in charge of leading the pledge. You can report gracefully when you’re a timer or grammarian. Learn to give others feedback that will motivate them as evaluator. Bring everyone together as Toastmaster.


    Know that whichever role you have whether in Toastmasters or business, you can be more impactful by how you communicate.

  • Facing your fear of public speaking

    Facing your fear of public speaking

    The heart pounds fast. The body become stiff. You are in the front of the room, giving your first speech. Its a struggle standing there, saying your lines. Its overwhelming because you may look like a fool. At this moment you are faced with your fear of public speaking.

    Many new Toastmasters go through this experience. Its such a challenge that they join to overcome their fear of public speaking. Its common, but why do so many people have this fear?

    Why do we fear public speaking?

    People don’t want to be judged negatively. When a person comes up and speak for the first time, he’s worried he’ll be seen as inadequate. He’s worried he may not have the skills to to look confident through the speech.

    People know they shouldn’t care what others think, yet they still get nervous. They are afraid of being judged by themselves. They don’t want to speak. They don’t want to be in front of everyone, only to underperform. Its hard to accept being an incompetent speaker. To be such a beginner. But in order to get better we need to accept our current level to get better.

    Overcoming this fear

    There is no easy way to overcome fear. If you try to understand it alone, it doesn’t cure your fear. You need to condition yourself with the the mindset that you’ll be okay no matter what the outcome is. That you can improve. The best way to overcome the fear of public speaking is by doing it.

    Knowing this will not make it easier. But as you give more speeches you will slowly accept any judgement you receive. You will learn to become a better speaker. You will see your improvement. When you realize your learning potential, your public speaking level will matter less.

    Conclusion

    You forget a part of your speech? You skip and maybe bring it back later. You start to forget a line? You bring a notecard next time. As obstacles arrive, you learn to solve them. This is what experience provides you. An opportunity to look back and see your improvement. An opportunity to look back and see that you were always ok.