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

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I often get asked why I care so much about speaking. I will have people tell me, “Chris, why does being a ‘great’ speaker matter so much to you? Our speaker John is a ‘good’ speaker, why does he have to be a ‘great’ speaker?”

As a speaker devoted to learning the art of public speaking, I have hung around a lot of awesome speakers. Through the Champion’s Edge, I have had the opportunity to spend time with and learn from the speaking awesomeness of Patricia Fripp, Craig Valentine, Darren LaCroix, and Ed Tate. In my interactions with them, I have realized something…they have their lives together. I cannot directly credit speaking, but when you meet them, you realize that they have got it together and are moving forward in their careers.

I know what you are thinking, “Chris, you don’t have to have your life together to be a great speaker.”

Oh really? I disagree.

In my opinion, to be truly great on the platform, you have to be great off the platform. That means that you have to have a level of self confidence that comes from being someone who has their life together.

“But Chris,” you are saying, “what if they are just acting? They don’t need to have their lives together if they are just acting.”

That is true. You don’t need to have your life together to be a good actor; however, I think that you can tell when someone is acting on or off of the platform. Now, don’t get me wrong, a good speaker that is a good actor can get away with a lot of your time and money; however, many of those ‘actors’ are found out or after awhile or the spell wears off and you see the speaker of being nothing but the hollow platitudes they repeat.

This is why I push so many people to attempt speaking greatness, because I know that improving your speaking improves the quality of your life. As a Toastmaster, you see it in prison clubs, in retirement homes, and in corporate environments. Becoming a great speaker pushes your self confidence up, and in doing so allows you to know that you can do more than you ever thought.

So for those of you that ask, “Why does being excellent matter?”

I say it is because the pursuit of speaking greatness changes lives…for the better.

Think about it.

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With vast amounts of information just a few finger strokes away, the audience you are speaking to can sometimes feel that they are trapped in Borges’, “The Library of Babel”, where all of the information that has ever existed or will ever exist could reside somewhere in the library. It is your job as a speaker to provide your audience with the “Crimson Hexagon”, which provides them a catalog to which it all makes sense.

I was reminded of this while listening to a recording of a speech by Patricia Fripp. What she does that is so amazing, is to take information about what the audience is learning that day and make it relevant to their career and their lives. Where many speakers in the industry share platitudes that don’t leave the room, a master like Fripp shares stories that make a point and are reinforced with techniques that the audience can implement in their daily lives.

Though a speech consisting of motivational platitudes might get you a “good job” and a pat on the back, in Toastmasters. If you are looking to move beyond Toastmasters and into the professional speaking world, then you need to be able to provide value from the stories in your speeches that are reinforced with techniques that the audience can implement.

Providing techniques in your speech was the lesson shared this week from Craig Valentine on the World Champion’s Edge. Craig shared his thoughts on how to implement this in your speech, but after listening to Fripp, I had an additional thought on the mindset required by a speaker to make this happen.

In order to be a successful speaker like Craig and Fripp, you need to be able to be a filter for your audience and provide relevant stories that are reinforced with techniques that can enhance their lives. Today’s audiences have vast amounts of information available to them from libraries, research databases, and search engines such as Google. You would think that with all of this information available, that everyone would weigh their ideal weight, be rich beyond their wildest dreams, and be in a relationship with quite a catch. This is where a good speaker comes in and saves the day.

A good speaker, that has practiced and has been well coach, can be the “Crimson Hexagon” for an audience that has been inundated with too much information. What this means, is that as information becomes more widely available in more formats than ever before, the role of the public speaker becomes more important. It will be your job, if you so choose, to help audiences take the vast amount of information available on the topic, and make it interesting and relevant to their lives.

So as you are preparing your next speech, study the topic with intensity, find the relevant stories that illustrate the topic, and deliver those stories accompanied with techniques that enhance the lives of the audience. Be a relevant and interesting information filter, and you can become a high paid and much sought after speaker, like Valentine and Fripp.

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Last night I had a conversation with one of my mentors Darren LaCroix. During our conversation, we talked about what separates a good speaker from a great speaker. Guess what, it isn’t platform skills but your intention when you are speaking.

This is a tough lesson for me to wrap my brain around. When I am on the platform, I want to blow the audience away with my speaking skills, but guess what…that skill is second to connecting with your audience. It is what is killing me this contest season. I am spending so much time working on my speech, that I forgot the most important part…the audience.

When you are speaking, you have to remember that you are not there for you. As a speaker you have a commitment to the audience and making sure they leave with some tangible value added to their lives. Whether you made them laugh, cry, or ponder their current life, you have to add some value that makes you remarkable and memorable.

So as you are working on your next speech, think about what is in it for the audience. If there is only you, then look to your life, find a message in a story, and give them something to take home with them. It is the best way to connect and be remembered and repeated.

So what are your thoughts? What is your intention?

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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.

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