Celebrating 50+5 Blog Posts For Speakers And Leaders

by Promod Sharma, President 2011-2012, CC

This is the 55th blog post!

Why not celebrate the 50th post? That was the intent but that milestone passed silently.

Highs

Blogging is easy to start ... and even easier to quit.

Psychologically, 50 posts feels like the minimum for a real blog during a year. Each of my two personal blogs (Marketing Actuary and Riscario Insider) has a post per week with a break in late December.

A regular schedule is also important. The goal is what Seth Godin calls consistent persistent generosity. I promised that this blog would have two posts per week from Jan 1, 2012 to June 30, 2012, when my term as club President ends. That schedule has been maintained.

Lows

This blog was intended to inspire club members to show courage by blogging here. That hasn't happened. I've written most of the posts, especially in recent months.

Leaders make statements that go on the record. Blogging is a low-key way to build leadership skills, another way that Toastmasters helps members.

I was especially hoping that the club executive would volunteer to participate. They haven't and I haven't pressed them.

Unexpected

I already publish about 1,000 words a week (two personal blogs, each with a post of about 500 words). Here, I focused on two weekly posts of about 350 words each (minimum 300 words). As an exercise, I looked for ways to write faster and used techniques from Table Topics.

I start with an idea that happens to come to mind. I then write and publish about 350 words. The process takes an hour. Here's where the time goes

1. 15 min: initial draft (see how to write better faster using an iPad and iA Writer)
2. 30 min: editing and adding links (mainly on the iPad)
3. 15 min: finalizing and posting (using Windows Live Writer)

Some posts have images. Finding and editing an image takes about 15 minutes.
Since I've been writing four posts a week (two here and two of my own), I've gotten faster. Practice does help. I'm also getting more ideas, especially for short posts.

Because the ideas keep flowing out, I know I can write a book. I can also sketch out new presentations much faster (using mind mapping).

Next

I'm hoping the new executive will continue to support the blog. I'm intending to write one post per week. In a year, we'll have at least 100 posts. That will be worth celebrating ... if other members contribute regularly.

Links

• How to apply consistent persistent generosity
• The best places for free images
• Prepare your speech with a mind map
• How to write better faster
• image courtesy of Tom Oliveira

Promod Sharma has written over 500 blog posts since 2007 about marketing for entrepreneurs and risk.

Tips For Telling Stories

by Promod Sharma, President 2011-2012, CC

We love stories, especially when they’re told to us.

Including stories makes your talk more engaging and memorable. There's a temptation to tell true stories but there aren't any.
We always speak from our perspective, which causes distortions. The audience interprets, which creates further distortions.

Here are tips for telling stories

1. Ditch fake stories
2. Tell unique stories
3. Edit for impact

Ditch Fake Stories

Some speakers use stories from others without attribution. Maybe you've heard a variation of this one:

I was on the subway platform and three children were running around annoying everyone. I nearly spilled my coffee. The father wasn't doing anything. I was annoyed. I told him to supervise his children. It's as if he hadn't noticed them. He said they were returning from the hospital where their mom just died. They didn't know how to react. Neither did he.

It's a good story ... the first time. I've heard at least three variations. Each speaker claimed the experience happened to them. That's unlikely. How can you trust a speaker who's deceived you? How original can their content really be?

Tell Unique Stories

You can tell stories from others and give them credit. That’s fine for beginners. As your skills improve, you face the risk of your audience having heard the same tale from another speaker. How does that position you as the expert?

The most unique stories are the ones that happened to you and told from your perspective. How can anyone else copy that?

Edit For Impact

Real life is often boring. Find the essence of your story and express it in an impactful way. Isn't that cheating? No. You have goals and time limits. You have to edit anyway. Write out your full story and edit out what isn't needed.

Ask yourself if the story is even relevant. Just because you want to tell it does not mean the audience benefits. If you're compelled to tell stories, you can put recordings on YouTube, blog or record podcasts.

The End.

Links

• A true story (Seth Godin, May 20, 2011) [the inspiration for this post]
• Tell To Win: Peter Guber and the art of storytelling
• Toy Story 3 shows the power of teams
• Thoughts on the theme: Write a book
• image courtesy of Renata Osinska

Promod Sharma is an actuary who has been learning to add impact with stories (promodsharma.com).

Mommy, Learn To Speak Better

by Promod Sharma, President 2011-2012, CC

If you're a mother with a young child, your speaking skills may deteriorate. When you spend time with other mothers with young children don’t you talk about similar issues? You need a break.

Would you like to sharpen your communication skills? Consider joining a Toastmasters community club. You meet adults with diverse backgrounds and get a chance to stop speaking like a mommy.

Preparation Time

You’re busy. You may not have much time to prepare. Some roles like Greeter, Timer and Crutchword Counter require no preparation. Roles like Quote Master, Trivia Master or Humour Master require limited preparation.

Random

Table Topics gives you an opportunity to practice your impromptu speaking. You talk about a randomly-selected topic for a minute. Since children come up with the weirdest things, you may already be good at this. You may get ideas to discuss at home.

This week, we pulled pennies from a bag and spoke about what we did that year. The assignment was both easy and difficult. Depending on how old your children are, you could do something similar. For instance, use a magnifying glass find the date on the coin (that'll be fun). Take the last digit of the year and treat that as an age. What were you doing at that age? [Not recommended for children who swallow coins.]

Speeches

Children have such energy and curiosity. Your experiences with them could be ideal for speeches. You won't know unless you try. Notice how children make many mistakes but learn from them. If you fear speaking in public, Toastmasters gives you a safe environment to improve.

As a side benefit, you can practice your speeches with your children and get them creating stories. Learning the basic structure of having a beginning, middle and end gives them a solid foundation for future speaking. You're also showing the importance of communication skills.

Other

It's Mother's Day today. Maybe you get breakfast in bed, a nice card or a meal out. Enjoy that.

For a gift with lasting value, consider Toastmasters. You'll find an inexpensive and worthwhile way to spend solo time away from home. We're well-behaved.

Links

• Finding the right Toastmasters club for you
• Three steps to get the most out of Toastmasters
• Three steps to get understood better
• Table Topics ideas
• image courtesy of Stanislav Komogorov

Promod Sharma wishes all mothers a wonderful Mother's Day (promodsharma.com).

Should You Join An Advanced Toastmasters Club?

by Promod Sharma, President 2011-2012, CC

After you complete your Competent Communicator (CC) manual, you can join an Advanced Toastmasters club. You still maintain a connection with your home club but now you can also benefit from being with more experienced speakers.

In theory.

But

You have limited choices since there aren't many advanced clubs. If there are fewer members, you won't get as many suggestions on how to improve. If you don't like a member or two, you may not like the chemistry of that club.

The big problem is the meaning of "advanced". It's difficult to get a failing grade on a Toastmasters speech. Encouragement is motivating but speakers might think they're better than they really are because of the certificates they've received.

Rut

Speakers can get stuck in ruts. That's why many PowerPoint presentations still have too much text and too few visuals. Change is difficult.

Do you see the dilemma? You might be getting feedback from speakers who think they're great but are stuck in worn-out routines. You risk getting tips that don’t work well with today’s shorter attention spans. For instance, there’s an old speaking formula: tell them what you’re going to tell them, tell them and tell them you told them. Sensible but boring. Do you see that approach routinely used in movies, plays, keynotes or TED Talks?

Wisdom

Members of a niche (say speakers, entrepreneurs, economists) tend to think in similar ways. They become predictable and hence redundant. You might find greater wisdom in a diverse crowd.

For years, I've been speaking to the financial sector. The audiences tend to be technical (or think they are). Advice from self-proclaimed expert speakers tends to be similar. Listen to them and you'll become a speaker much like them. Deviate and you'll stand out.

See For Yourself

If you're already in a club you like, you may benefit most by staying there. You'll also be helping less experienced members.

Visiting an advanced club is definitely worthwhile. Joining might not be.

Links

• You’re a Competent Communicator. Now what?
• Preplan all your speeches
• image courtesy of  bjwebbiz (Texas)

Promod Sharma (promodsharma.com) is currently working on his Advanced Communicator Bronze in his original club.

Finding The Right Toastmasters Club For You

by Promod Sharma, President 2011-2012, CC

Please don't judge Toastmasters by a visit to a single club or what someone else tells you.

Each club is different. Before joining, do try more than one (unless you love the first one). Clubs meet at different times of day (morning, noon or evening) and different days of the week. Some are open to the community and others are restricted to employees of a single company. Some clubs don't run all year (e.g., university clubs).

Most important, each club has a different feeling. You may be surprised at the variations. Some feel stuffy, formal and nitpicky. Others feel warm, forgiving and welcoming.

Your choices depend on where you live or work. A big city like Toronto offers many options, especially if you're willing to commute.

Finding

To find a club, go to Meetup (http://toastmasters.meetup.com) or the official Toastmasters website (http://reports.toastmasters.org/findaclub). A normal web search may help too.

Example

Goodyear Toastmasters meets weekly all year long (except around Christmas and New Years). You don't take the summer off. In some ways, the summer is the best time to attend. The atmosphere is more relaxed and there's even more flexibility in the scheduling.

Meetings take place on Thursday evenings at 6:45 PM for two hours. Thursday is the ideal day of week because you're closer to the weekend. Meetings take place after dinner, which reduces time pressure. Meetings run for two hours, which eliminates the rush to zip through. There's also considerable flexibility. If a member wants practice a real-life presentation or answer mock interview questions, there's often time because 20 minutes is set aside for a Lesson, Viewpoint or Debate.

The club is also open to the community, which fosters diversity. Even if you normally speak to a niche audience, practicing among "regular" people is an excellent way to build skills.

Your Choices

You may think the ideal club meets at lunchtime where you work. By visiting other clubs you may find a better fit.

Links

• Three steps to get the most out of Toastmasters
• Get feedback from the right group 
• Turbocharge your club with social media
• Lessons from one year in Toastmasters
• A Toastmasters Journey --- Yours!
• image courtesy of S

Promod Sharma joined Goodyear Toastmasters without visiting any other clubs (promodsharma.com).