Why don’t you practice your speeches more? photo credit: S.Su I have observed hundreds of speakers in the past four years of my Toastmasters membership. It hasn’t mattered if those speakers are brand new or old-timers, you can always tell when they have not practiced. I see it in the reliance on their notes, the [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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