Achieving the Objective
My main objective in joining Toastmasters was to be able to give a speech easily, even off the cuff. For me, the Toastmasters programme is a means to that end.
Toastmasters encourages you to follow project steps in turn, learning a new skill from each. A couple of weeks ago, I gave my sixth project speech, objective “using voice variation”.
But I was lazy.
I came up with the idea of telling a few stories about my sister because, well, she’s very interesting. There’s a lot to say about my sister Marta, and that was my speech title decided: “My Sister Marta”.
This time, I really did prepare the speech in well under an hour. I didn’t even bother to time the speech beforehand.
And yet, it all went fairly well. I didn’t use notes (partly because I hadn’t really made any), and I didn’t say a single “Um” or “Ah” throughout.
If you are feeling lazy, here’s a quick formula you can use.
- Choose a subject for which you have several anecdotes(I could tell stories about Marta all night)
- Think about those anecdotes for a couple of minutes before the speech – pick out the ones with the funniest punchlines.
- Think up a strong opening.
- Finally, most importantly, think up a strong close.
And that’s it. With that, I found I was able to give a speech which flowed well, amused the audience somewhat, and kept within time.
The key to it all is choosing a close you can apply at any time – ideally, one which relates to your opening.
I started the speech by telling everyone that people think I’m weird. They think I’m eccentric, I said, but if you think I’m weird, then you should meet my sister Marta!
I told a couple of amusing stories about when Marta had come to visit, and then how we had gone on holiday to Austria together. This was easy, as these were stories I had already told friends.
It was also much helped by the fact that Marta did some pretty wacky things – like finding a large branch (yes, with leaves) to take back to boyfriend Dougie. That would’ve been fine, only she discovered it was full of “beasties” while we were tearing down the Autobahn at eighty miles an hour. She wound down the window and shook all the beasties out. We were quite a sight, our car charging down the motorway with a branch coming out of the window, shedding leaves and beasties all over the car behind.
At the end of the speech, when I saw the red light coming on, I wound it all up by saying that eccentric my sister Marta may be. She may even be a little weird – but I tell you, audience, there is nobody better to go on holiday with than Marta.
It was simple, but it brought the speech together nicely, and it tied in with my opening.
It felt really quite easy, giving this speech, and it was great I’d been able to finally do it with so little practise beforehand. My evaluator, Norman, even commended me on giving the speech without notes – saying this must’ve required a lot of preparation.
It didn’t.
There was a drawback to my approach, however. I didn’t meet the project objective – using vocal variation. And, yes, this was exactly the same mistake I’d made the last time I’d spoken.
On the same evening, Ellen was giving a speech for the same project. She chose a story about a car crash as her subject. This gave her great opportunity to speak quietly, describing the “time going slow scene” as a car careered towards her, and then loudly, as she described the impact itself.
It met the objectives dead on, and she learnt specifically how to use volume to great effect. I could’ve done the same, with the stories about going on holiday – there was plenty of opportunity for quiet and exclamation.
So, there are two further points to add to my formula above:
- Read the speech objectives carefully
- Think about how these can apply to the anecdotes you’ve chosen (or choose new ones, if they can’t)
