The Extreme Sport of Speechmaking

A couple of weeks ago, iGrOOps LLC hosted an "Extreme Speech-a-Thon" for Toastmasters of District 31 (MA/RI). As those of you who are Toastmasters probably know, the end of the Toastmasters year is June 30th. The purpose of the speech-a-thon was to provide an opportunity for those who were only a few speeches away from their Competent Communicator (CC) award to sneak in the last few speeches before the June 30th deadline. In our office space, for one week, 8AM - 8PM each day, we offered an opportunity for Toastmasters to get help with speech development, writing, rehearsal, and actual delivery (including written and verbal evaluations). We had a number of folks come to the office throughout the week. One dedicated participant got up at 4:30 each morning to craft his speeches, and arrived at our office ready to speak at 8AM! He nailed 5 speeches in 4 days-- and they were among the most well prepared!

When we decided to hold the speech-a-thon, I committed to achieve a second CC award by June 30th. During the speech-a-thon week, I dropped 4 speeches in 4 days. Since we started with a round of speeches at 8AM each day, my speeches were "written" and "prepared" (I use those terms very loosely!) on the fly...literally! As in, during my 80 minute commute in the morning.

Anyone else suffer from perfectionism? Due to the fast-moving nature of the speech-a-thon, I was forced to let "good enough" be "good enough" (or in some cases, I'll admit, "poor enough"!). I was able to convince myself it was okay--and in fact, that it would be a good experience--to play fast and loose in the extreme sport of speechmaking. And I was right.

For most of the speeches, I used an outline on the back of an index card for notes. For one of the speeches, I didn't even use it at all.  However, on the days when I was still generating content as I was pulling into the parking lot, I wanted to have the crutch in case I needed it! 

So, what did I learn from all of this? Here's a list:

• My speeches are generally better when I give my ideas time to incubate. Think of it this way: would you respond more competently to a table topic if you were given a) 30 seconds, b) 10 minutes, or c) a week to prepare your response?
• My delivery is better when I've rehearsed the speech several times (duh). When you know what you're going to say, you can relax more, and give more focus to voice quality, vocal variety and non-verbal communication (expressions, body language, etc.)
• If there's little time to prepare, it's better for me to keep the focus on ideas and away from words. For one of my speeches, I took the time to write most of it out beforehand. (I often do this in the preparation phase, even though I typically will not memorize word for word. I find it helps me come up with key phrases, transitions, and better examples.) I liked the way it was written so much, that during the delivery, I got hung up on trying to preserve the flowery language. I stumbled a few times, trying to recall the specific words, sentence construction, etc., and then trying to find it in my notes. Better to have the ideas, and speak from the heart.
• Don't block the screen! I should have known better. Actually, I did know better, but in my haste, I got sloppy for a couple of minutes, and stood in such a way as to block the view of my Power Point slides projected on the wall.
• Don't psych yourself out or sell yourself short! For one of the speeches, I was not thrilled with the content. As a result, I allowed my negative self-talk to steal away some of my power and confidence. As it turned out, the audience liked the speech...so it wasn't as bad as I thought, after all! If you're going to speak, take command of the audience (and those chattering monkeys in your head!), and speak boldly. A poorly crafted message delivered with confidence will come across more powerfully than a finely-honed message, delivered sheepishly.

I'm very glad I challenged myself to finish a second CC in a compressed time frame. I came up with a few "gems" in terms of content, and forced myself to step out and do something I was not accustomed to. The name of the game is practice and improvement-- and participating in the speech-a-thon gave me the chance to do both.