photo credit: bored-now

“In first place representing the Central Division at the District Conference….”

Not me.

“I Am Jack’s Broken Heart” – Fight Club (1999)

 Sitting there after the announcement of the winner, I was surprised. I had just spent the last three hours being told by people that they thought I had won…then the results. I didn’t even place. For the next few hours I ruminated on what had happened. What lines could I have fumbled, what message did I not deliver…then I realized something.

I put too much pressure on myself.

Going up there, I was filled with terror and I found it hard to keep from shaking uncontrollably. I kept asking myself, “Why are you so afraid?” Then when I sat down after the speech, it dawned on me…I had put far too much into this. I had spent so much time thinking about the desire of winning that I forgot about the most important thing – having fun.

Later that night while looking over the video of the event, I learned something. This was a good speech well delivered and other years it might have won. However, what defeated me was me. No other competitor beat me. I beat my self.

I realized that when you are competing in speech contests, you decide the message, you decide the delivery, and you decide how to prepare. No one else decides those things, so in the end, the only person that can beat you is you.

If you don’t deliver a needed message, if you don’t prepare, and if you don’t connect with the audience – these are all things you can control. So why don’t you?

Because the only person that can defeat us…is ourselves.

What do you think?

If you get a chance, check out my new site: http://youngprofitpros.com/

It is a learning resource for young professionals looking to forge their own path in life.

To see my division losing speech, check out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtMN-xXpQdM

Read on to learn how you can get a copy of The Finalists: 2008, FOR FREE!

The Finalists: 2008

As we progress through the Toastmasters International Speech Competition season, you might be wondering if you have what it takes to be the next World Champion of Public Speaking. After winning my Area this past Saturday, I started to wonder the same thing. I was nervous, didn’t think that my speech would stand up to the Division competition, and really thought that I didn’t have the energy to modify, practice, and give my speech one more time…then I got an e-mail containing a copy of, The Finalists: 2008 from Rich Hopkins.

The Finalists:2008 is a compilation of the stories of the 2008 Toastmasters World Champion of Public Speaking Finalists and their path to the big stage. The Finalists include:

Rich Hopkins
Robert MacKenzie
LaShunda Rundles
Martin Presse
Colin William
Charlie Wilson
Katherine Morrison
Henry Flowers IV
K. Loghandran
Jock Elliot

Sitting at home fretting about the competition last night, I was enthralled by the stories of each of the Finalists from the 2008 competition. Included among them are professional speakers, performers, and pure amateurs that had the right mix of passion and skill. For some of the Finalists, this was their first trip to the big stage, while for others this was a return to try again. It was truly inspiring to read.

What impressed me the most was the level of self analysis that all of the finalists display. Their story is inspirational to those, like me, who seek the black name badge. I laughed, I cried, and I really connected my fellow speakers. If you are at all interested in the people and the process of getting to the final round of the World Championship of Public Speaking, then you have to read The Finalists: 2008.

Where others would charge $29 or more for a resource like this, Rich and the other Finalists have provided “The Finalists: 2008” e-book in pdf format FOR FREE, so head on over to Rich’s Website: http://www.richhopkins.net/ and sign up for his Champions of Choice Newsletter to receive your free copy of The Finalists: 2008 FOR FREE.

This post ended up being so long, that I am breaking it into two parts. Part 1 will be posted today and part 2 will come tomorrow.

WOW! Last night I returned from the Lady and the Champs Seminar with Patricia Fripp, Craig Valentine, Darren LaCroix, and Ed Tate. The seminar was an amazingly valuable for a speaker, and I enjoyed both the Friday Edge Summit and the Saturday and Sunday workshop. From keynote to breakout session, I learned an amazing amount from the presenters and the other participants. A big thank you goes out to Cynthia for answering all of my questions about the seminar and Guy Burns for giving me a ride on Sunday.

If you didn’t catch my post from Saturday, the Lady and the Champs workshops give you the opportunity to hang out with four Toastmasters World Champions of Public Speaking and NSA Hall of Fame Speaker Patricia Fripp to learn more about the art of speaking and gain specific knowledge to make you a better speaker. The workshops also teach you about the business of speaking and how you can develop more opportunities to speak.

Rather than give a rundown for each of the two days, I thought I would write about each person’s presentation and the value that it provided in that order that their general sessions were presented.

Patricia Fripp

“It’s Not a Conversation… It is Conversational! Learn the Little-Known Secret to Dynamic Speaking”

In this keynote, I walked away with a framework for presenting I had never considered, how creative people can help their clients, and a methodology for collecting new stories where I am not the hero. One of the biggest problems that speakers have is finding new stories and Patricia shared one of the many different methods that she uses to find and develop stories.

“Good to Great! A Live Coaching Program”

WOW! Patricia’s coaching sessions are a rare chance to have elements of your speaking improved by the world’s top speaking coach. After only a few sentences, Patricia is able to give you detailed feedback on how to open, develop punch phrases, and structure your speech for maximum impact. I was enthralled by her ability to provide so much feedback in such a short time.

Some of the most “valuable” techniques I learned from Patricia this weekend were around negotiation. In a few short minutes during one of the session, I learned two valuable tips. One tip that allow speakers to turn the end of a google search into a gig and another that helps you exchange your speeches for other tangible goods that are not always checks.

Ed Tate

“The Story Finder™ – How to Create Stories that Lead, Motivate, and Inspire in 10 Minutes or Less!”

This presentation was adapted from a small part of Ed’s program Energize, Educate, and Entertain. The “ah-ha” moment I had during Ed’s program was that I should be performing this exercise at the end of every day. Then when I need stories for my keynotes, I have a well developed story file from the many days I have been doing this activity.

Ed is by far the greatest facilitator I have ever met and throughout the weekend, he shared not only how to be a better speaker but how to facilitate, grow your business, and market your business.

“From Free to Fee: How to Use Public Speaking to Promote Your Business”

This breakout helped people that want to speak professionally develop their plan for speaking more to local audiences. In this session, I learned about how to follow up with speaking leads, organization to speak to, and the basics of marketing a speaking business.

Ed Tate and Craig Valentine

“Guerrilla Marketing for Turbulent Times: 10 Ways to Market Your Business & Make Money in this Economy!”

I enjoyed this session, because I have been studying Guerrilla Marketing and applying the principles to my business. Having an hour with two certified Guerrilla Marketing Coaches gave me the time to learn more about the system and motivate me to continue to refine my approaches to marketing. For me it was a great reminder of all the tools that I have already taken advantage of to grow my business, and a motivator to improve the tools that I am using.

Stay tuned until tomorrow, when I post part two of my review of Lady and the Champs.

Thursday night during the closing session of our Winter Toastmasters Leadership Institute, I was singled out by the 2001 Toastmasters World Champion of Public Speaking Darren LaCroix as someone who wanted to improve. In an instant, everyone in the room knew that I had been working with Darren, Patricia Fripp, and other World Champions to improve my speaking abilities. For better or worse, I was put into the spotlight that night and I felt that while some of the people in the room supported what I was doing, others focused a poisonous vitriol at my appearance.

I am going to make some of you very angry right now.

If you want to be a better speaker, if you want to win the World Championship, or you want to go “pro”…just going to Toastmasters for one week or twenty years is not going to get you there. Standing in front of the same people for twenty years making the same mistakes is not going to get you any closer to your goal. If you really want to get good, then you are going to have to do what I have done and get help.

One of the problems is the common belief that just showing up is half the battle, but just showing up is not going to make you a better speaker. Just showing up is what many of us do at work and at play everyday, but out of the millions of people that do what you do, how many are so good that you would call them an expert?

The answer is very few people are experts at speaking or any other pursuits. So what separates the expert speakers from the rest of us?

The experts do what you won’t do to get good. They practice, they get a coach (or multiple coaches), and most importantly…they follow their coach’s advice. So if your coach tells you to practice giving your speech, videotape your speech, and then watch it…do you do that?

Current research into high performance would say no, most people don’t follow their coach’s advice; they don’t practice correctly or take the steps that improve their abilities in their endeavors.

If you can now admit to yourself that need help to improve you’re speaking, then contact Lisa . If you want to be more competitive or know what it takes to go “pro”, then work with the World Champions.

Because just showing up is not getting you where you want to be.

This week, I am re-reading “The Art of Learning: An Inner Journey to Optimal Performance“, by Josh Waitzkin. I am glad I picked it up during Toastmaster’s International Speech Competition season, because it provides a wealth of information for anyone that is involved in competitions that require mental and performance skills.

This book will appeal to competitive speakers, because is that it gives an easily understandable overview of what it takes to perform at a high level under amazing stresses. What I have tuned into during my second read is how Josh describes the path to high performance through his life story in a similar manner that great speakers present. It is fascinating to see the parallels between chess, tai chi, and then compare that to the competitive speaking world that I am currently involved.

You might remember that Josh Waitzkin was the subject of the book, “Searching for Bobby Fischer” and movie of the same name. In The Art of Learning, Josh discusses his development as a Chess master and then as an International Champion in Tai Chi Chuan Push Hands. It is amazing to read about the journey from child chess prodigy, to champion teenager, and then becoming an international champion in martial arts. Through this story, Josh weaves the fundamentals of the concept flow, how to trigger the flow state, and how to develop as a high performer. They are useful concepts for speakers to understand when perusing competitive speaking as a pastime.

Whether you are looking to develop a passion for learning the activity in which you want to compete, develop your ability to enter into the flow state, or develop the tactics needed to compete at a high level, I think you will find the “The Art of Learning: An Inner Journey to Optimal Performance“an excellent addition to your reading list.

Do you want to know the real secret to success in public speaking?

If you thought it was talent, writing, or good marketing…you are wrong. The real secret to public speaking success is something that the majority of struggling speakers are unable to admit to themselves, because if they did, guess what…they wouldn’t be struggling anymore.

An amazing thing about this secret is that it is applicable to all areas of your life. Whether you are trying to succeed in speaking, comedy, or weightlifting this secret has an effect. So if you haven’t gotten paid to speak, haven’t won the contests you are competing in, or can’t lift a 2 pound dumbbell, it is probably due to not applying this secret that is missing from so many of our lives.

So what is this secret?

Self-discipline:
I define self-discipline as the ability to do the things that you have to do that you don’t really want to do.

For someone on a diet, this means exercising rather than watching TV and eating ice cream. For writers, this means writing the next chapter of the book instead of reading something written by someone else. Then comes speakers…what does self-discipline have to do with us?

For speakers, self-discipline means you have to spend the time working on the activities that make you a better speaker.

These activities can include:

1. Videotaping practice sessions and then actually reviewing them.
2. Speaking as many times a week as possible and getting feedback from your audience
3. Collecting and refining new material for your speeches
4. Practice, practice, practice

Being a good speaker is akin to being an athlete. You might start off slow and uncoordinated, but with the right practice, coaching, and self-discipline, you begin to become stronger, faster, and a better competitor. There is no difference in speaking. It takes constant practice to grow your speaker muscles and develop you strengths on the platform.

So to apply this secret, get off your butt and start practicing, refining, and practicing some more…right now!

Last night I attended an open speaking event, that wasn’t Toastmasters, where speakers were tasked to give an interesting 5 minute presentation. One of the presentations was a fabulous demonstration of drawing the audience in with an interesting story, making good use of PowerPoint to reinforce spoken points, and dressing to fit the speaker’s speaking style. However, the presentation was ruined when I got home, Googled the speech topic, and found out that the presenter lifted the major points of his speech from a British business writer without citing the source.

As speakers, you will often be faced with the dilemma of using other people’s content or developing your own. Ethical speakers will always side on developing there own content. If there is a point you need to make that is illustrated by other people’s content, then you must cite your sources in the presentation. In all cases, when you speak the audience members will either know what you are talking about, or they will be able to Google your topic and know if what you are saying is another person’s work. Being called out for using unoriginal content in your speech is a sure fire way to destroy your credibility in an instant.

The point of this public speaking secret is that you should never assume that you know more than the audience. No matter how many degrees you have, how much you have read, or how many times you have spoken on your topic, the audience knows more than you. Whether their knowledge is in their head or easily accessible through Google, if you are not delivering unique or cited material, your audience will find out and your credibility will be eliminated.

As you develop your next presentation, be wary of where you get your material. Strive for original brilliance at every opportunity, but if you can’t, then make sure to give credit where credit is due. If you don’t give credit, you will learn that your audience (and Google) know more than you.

This article was inspired by an audio lesson presented by Ed Tate in his home study course: Energize, Educate, and Entertain. For more information on that program, check out Ed’s products page on edtate.com.

New speakers often find themselves hitting a wall in their speaking. They start attending Toastmasters club meetings or attend a speaking workshop and see improvements, but at some point they will hit a wall and stop improving as quickly as they did early on in the learning process. Though a slowing of improvement is to be expected as you gain speaking experience, I want to share with you one thing you can do to break through the improvement doldrums and kick your speaking into high gear.

In Toastmasters during the first few months of the year, many clubs are getting their speakers ready for the International Speech contest. The International Speech contest is the only contest that Toastmasters requires all of their districts to perform and it gives speakers the opportunity to compete for the title World Champion of Public Speaking. Through six grueling levels of competition, speakers are challenged to deliver their best five to seven minute speeches. Only the best speakers make it to the final competition where speakers from all over the world compete at the International Toastmasters Convention. One key to breaking through the wall of improvement is to compete against your peers and enroll in the contest.

For the first year that I was in Toastmasters, I didn’t compete. I was happy to give my speeches, perform a role, and slowly move up the improvement ladder. However, at some point I got stuck and I didn’t know what to do in order to get unstuck until I attended a District 40 Spring Convention. There I saw Darren LaCroix, the 2001 World Champion of Public Speaking and got to watch my first district level speech competition. After seeing Darren’s keynote and watching the competitors, I knew that competing was something that I had to do if I wanted to get better as a speaker.

So the next year, I prepared my speech, practiced, and then won my club contest. I then went to the area contest and got eliminated. So what did I do next? I didn’t give up at that point and vowed to continue to improve my speaking and my speech writing skills so that this year I would be able to compete at a higher level. Competition forced me to be devoted to writing, practicing, getting feedback, and finding resources that helped me improve my speaking.

That is the magic of the International Speech contest for improving speakers. The level of the competition continues to get better every year, so it encourages speakers to get better as well if they want to succeed. You can’t float though the competition. A speaker has to write, practice, get feedback, write, and practice more at every level in the competition in order to be successful. This makes you improve as a speaker and forces your to break through the wall of improvement and become a much better speaker.

Ed Tate, the 2000 World Champion of Public Speaking was featured in what is being called the follow up to the Secret, the Opus. The movie the Opus, features many authors, speakers, and self help thought leaders. It describes the processes they use to implement the teachings of the law of attraction as described in The Secret

It is worth the few dollars to check out.

Here is some promotional copy they gave me permission to use. If you want to see Ed Tate and some other highly regarded professional speakers in the Opus, then click the link at the bottom of this post.

What is The Opus then?

“To Become the best, biggest, most incredible, abundant, and spectacular YOU possible.”

Every person born on the planet arrives with the potential to create an incredible Opus. But only some people do. Why is that?

In this spectacular follow up to the Law of Attraction you will find amazing insights from Top Achievers and Teachers on how to turn your intentions into accomplishments.

In The Opus you will be shown the formula and patterns Top Achievers use to create greater abundance in Wealth, Health, Relationships and self achievement.

OPUS Movie Information

On Saturday, August 16th, 2008, 10 men and women competed for the Toastmasters World Championship of Public Speaking. One woman, LaShunda Rundles of District 50 won the trophy, leaving thousands of others to wonder what they did wrong. Of the thousands that competed in competitions around the world to qualify for this event, all but one didn’t win; losing is quite possibly the best thing that could have happened to them.

It is fortunate that the Olympics are occurring the same week, because it allows us to draw many parallels with the championship. Similar to competitors in the Toastmasters World Championship of Public Speaking, Olympic athletes will spend years trying to qualify at home, scoring in the top positions in semifinals, and attempting to win Olympic glory. However, like in all areas of life, they will at some point fail. It is inevitable, but it is not the failure that we dwell upon, but what that failure teaches us about winning that is important.

I remember losing my area competition this year. Though I had elements of a great speech, I did not connect with the audience. I believed that I was so good, that I didn’t need to worry about the connection. It would just work because I had prepared more than anyone else. WOW, was I wrong.

I learned a lesson that I would not have learned if I had not lost. If I had not failed, I wouldn’t have realized that intellectualism doesn’t connect, that most people like Chicken Soup for The Soul themed stories, and that it’s about the audience…its all about the audience. Your message is not as important as you think.

Sometimes I think that we diehard competitors get so wrapped up in the technical details of speech writing and delivery that we forget what really matters; our energy, our delivery, and our wardrobe are perfect but we left out something…the message. It is only then through failure, that we feel the pain of losing, allow it to temper our resolve, and don’t give up until we have won it all.

Keep losing, keep failing, and above all else…keep trying.

Final Results of the 2008 World Champion of Public Speaking:

LaShunda Rundles
Region 3 · District 50 · Texas, USA

Second Place
K. Loghandran
DNAR District 51 · Malaysia

Third Place
Katherine Morrison
Region 7 · District 31 · Massachusetts, USA