My Toastmasters Blog

Is it Hard for a Toastmaster to go Pro?

I will be shamelessly; unabashedly honest here when I say that I want to be a professional speaker. That is one of the reasons that I got into doing contests, why I go to champ camps, and why I started a blog and revised website. All of these were steps I was taking to get myself prepared to become a professional speaker.

However, I am learning a very valuable lesson and you might be learning it as well. Do you think it is hard to become a professional speaker? Does it take any specific aptitude or Mensa level factual power? No. Then why are there so many Toastmasters sitting in clubs that say they want to be professionals but aren’t?

Sitting in the Champ Camp at this time last week I started to understand, and then it was really driven home last night while watching Last Comic Standing. The difference between Toastmasters and Professional Speakers is that Toastmasters talk way too much.

Now, that was a trick slam. What I mean is that when you are a Toastmaster, there is an expectation that you produce large volumes of speeches from a large number of manuals. While this gives you the experience of a large variety of speaking styles, you start to miss one key thing needed to be a pro, a message.

The message is the one thing that separates professionals from amateurs. The professionals have spent days, months, and years working on one message. This can be one speech, one workshop, or one seminar. What ever the message is, for successful professionals they have spoken, written, studied, and rewritten the same material over and over.

This was demonstrated to me last night while watching Last Comic Standing. In the show, one of the judges asked a contestant, “How much material do you have?”

The response from the contestant, “45 minutes.”

After working on his routine for years, he has only 45 minutes of material. This compares to another professional that told me that he had four speeches that he gave. Another comedian, after 15 years, has just over an hour of material. Now these examples are not from unsuccessful people, but from people that have taken one message, refined it, reworked it, and made it sellable.

That my friends, is why I think it is hard to go from Toastmaster to Professional. What is your opinion?

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Thanks Nancy! The Missing Type of Toastmaster

Thank you to my reader and commenter Nancy for pointing out the type of Toastmaster I left off the list:

The Leader

The Leader is a Toastmaster that has dedicated themselves to the leadership of a club, district leadership, or the brave few that have taken on Leadership at the International. I have had the honor of spending the day with a Region V International Director (I am in D VI), and I must say that I am impressed with the dedication of our International Directors. Striving for the DCP points, the leaders are the backbone of this organization. As a President of two clubs, I am totally ashamed that I left our such an important type of person in the organization.

Whether you are a competitor, social member, pro, survivor or leader. There is a place for you in Toastmasters!

Thank you Nancy for reminding me of that.

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What Type of Toastmasters Member are you?

When I attend Toastmasters meetings and conventions, I am always surprised by the many different types of people that have found Toastmasters. As someone that is working on their public speaking career, I sometimes get so focused on becoming a speaker that I often fail to notice the many other ways that Toastmasters can help people around the world.

The Wannabe Professional Speaker

This is the person that enters into the program hoping to go on to speaking fame and fortune. Maybe their family or friends told them that they were good at presenting and should do it professionally. They can often be found reading Dale Carnegie books when not trying to make their way through the Professional Speakers Manual.

The Champion

This person is obsessed with the contests. They have spent years developing their International and Humorous Contest speeches and believe that every loss was due to the politics and biases of the judges. The Champion will often turn down officer and leadership roles because they do not want to, “get distracted from making it to the main stage.” They can often be found studying the speeches and materials of the past world champions.

The Social Toastmaster

This person is not in it for leadership or speaking, they just want to hang out and listen to other people talk. Depending of the age of the person, this could be someone that thought Toastmasters would be a good way to network or they are retired and looking for a reason to get out of the house.

The Survivor

This is the person that inspires me the most. The Survivor is the person that has overcome some great obstacle in their life and are at toastmasters to learn to talk about it, or in some cases, Toastmasters is what has help them survive some great physical or mental challenge in their life. It is the survivors that keep me coming back, give me a reason to get better, and challenge me to be a better leader.

What other types of Toastmasters do you see?

What type of Toastmaster are you?

No matter the Toastmaster that you are, all Toastmasters have a mandate to support their fellow members, grow the organization, and life a life of respect. Though many of our new members find us through the Internet, without creating a genuine club environment, then this organization will cease to exist. No matter why you are in Toastmasters, you are in it for a reason. Be proud of that and think of how you can help your fellow Toastmasters reach their goals.

Posted in Toastmasters, thoughts | 4 Comments »

Join me in not Posting Much this Week

Good Morning!

This is going to be a busy week. I have a lot of work to get done, a midday dental appointment, a Toastmasters meeting, and I am getting ready to get coached by two of the greatest speakers in the world, Darren LaCroix and Patricia Fripp.

If you want to join me, there are two spots left for their Get Coached to Speak Champ Camp. I am so excited for the experience of the camp. Because of that you might not hear much from me in the second half of the week…unless you take the plunge and join me. If you do that, then you will get to hear from me all day Thursday and Friday.

Why am I doing this? What am I going to get out of this. I suggest that you take a look at this sneak peak of a documentary that gives a hint of what I am working on.

Keep on speaking.

Posted in Toastmasters, background | 1 Comment »

Finding your Connection

Why do most Toastmasters and Professional Speakers fall flat when giving their speech?

Connection, connection, connection.

For people that are competing in Toastmasters or other competitions, if you don’t connect then you don’t win. This was made clear to me when competing in an Area speech contest many months ago. I lost because I did not connect with the audience.

So Chris, how does one connect with an audience?

I’m glad you asked.

First, what you don’t do is….Don’t start your speech, “Mr. Toastmaster, fellow Toastmasters, and guests. Thank you for having me come up here to speak tonight….zzzzz”

BORING!

Instead, jump into a story or ask a question. Anyway you do it, you need to somehow make the audience want to listen to you.

One of the formulas I use to connect with the audience is: 1. Lead them to forming a question in their minds 2. Answer the question in a humorous way and 3. Tell a personal story that really answers the question.

In a speech I am working on for the “Get Coached to Speak” workshop next week, it works like this:

1. I recite an extremely brief e-mail that gives me negatively life changing news. Then I jump forward in time and briefly recite the text of a document that contradicts the e-mail. The audience is left wondering, “WAIT A SECOND, but from what the e-mail said a moment ago, there is no way that this other thing could have happened? What is going on?”

2. Then I take a line from the second document and answer the audience’s question in a humorous manner.

NOTE: To give the audience time to digest what I just said, I now say, “Mr. Toastmaster”

3. Now I set the stage for the story that answers the questions that the audience has.

The steps I gave above is just one of many ways that you can connect with your audience. To learn how to better use this connection technique, and many more, I suggest picking up one of the speaker packs from the World Champions Resources. I have learned more about connection from applying the techniques in those CDs then I have learned in all three of my years as a Toastmaster.

How do you connect with your audience?

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