From Bob Ferguson, DTM, Excalibur Speakers/Hertforshire Speakers (and winner of many Toastmasters contests)
- Record your speech ideas in a book as they come along so you have plenty of good ideas when it comes to writing a speech.
- Use a personal story in your speech to hook the audience in emotionally so they feel involved in what you say.
- Remember to think about “What’s in it for me” from the audience’s viewpoint. Speeches are always more compelling when they address our needs.
- Listen to other speakers. See what they do that builds rapport with the audience. Can you customise that technique to your style?
- The key to a good humorous speech is to think how many people will recognise the humorous situations you describe. Good observational humour, where everyone recognises the humour, will make it easy for them to laugh - personal jokes that only you appreciate can be hard to deliver.
- Practice doing your manual speeches outside your club to build your confidence in front of different audiences.
- Prepare for your club speech like it’s the District final. Every District champion starts by winning a club contest and it could be your club – imagine if you beat them!
- Record yourself practicing and put it on a CD and play it in your car while you drive around. That way you learn the speech by a natural learning method and you can think while you learn.
- Don’t rehearse in front of a mirror it can be distracting. Instead, video yourself and then watch it back.
- Get as much stage time as possible. Look for every opportunity – family groups, business meetings, any group to practice your competition speech in front of.
Looking ahead
**For International Speech competitors only Start writing three speeches now. Most winners of the International speech are not focussed on competing in America and forget their winning District speech took a lot of effort to polish. Enter the contest with three speeches so that you’re ready if you win.**
To hear Bob putting his top tips into action come to the Excalibur Contest Night at 7pm on Wednesday 23rd September.
