The important question is how does this advice affect you?  Is this where your next speech comes from, where your next project comes from, where your next success comes from?

The notes from the Edge Summit are presented in chronological order. If you have some thoughts I missed, feel free to e-mail me at contact@robchristeson.com and I’ll include them here with attribution and a link (if you want). Please note that links to the Edge site are affiliate links.

Also, I’ve done my best to properly attribute information as I typed it in the session. Most of what you read here comes from World Champions Darren LaCroix, Ed Tate, Craig Valentine or Lance Miller from the Edge event. Mark Brown also participated remotely, and some material comes from the awesome Alan Weiss and the amazing Patricia Fripp. If you do spot any errors or omissions, they are unintentional and I’ll correct them immediately.

Here we go…
“Ya ain’t gonna learn any younger” – Lance Miller quoting advice he received from a story about learning to back up a semi trailer truck.

lightbulb moment – think chandelier moment – Maureen Zapalla

Three questions you should ask about your business
why you?
who will pay?
how will I reach them?

Topics members wanted to discuss (questions in bold)
coaching – developing a multi-session plan (this one didn’t get touched on) 

marketing a seminar - 3 months out – marketing blasts – touch multiple times – research says you can reach out to customers 220 times per year without annoying them – multiple items (e-mail, Facebook, twitter, etc.)

what 3 tips for the 73 people who didn’t make the finals - there were some thoughts later on the finals, read my notes here: http://robchristeson.com/toastmasters-why-you-wont-win-your-contest

Selling from the back of the room - selling without annoying people (SWAP) – sell another’s program before selling your own – Seeding (plant seeds) – weaving () – you aren’t selling products,you’re selling results
Lance – going from zero to moving – change from manipulating your client to helping them – 1. believe in the product, 2. care about the customer, 3. 
Craig – everybody has a story to tell, but rarely do they get to tell it, because (wait for it) everybody has a story to tell. Be the one to listen to other peoples stories.
#1 reason they buy – confidence in you – confidence comes from familiarity – familiarity comes from repeated exposure – sell the results (Craig’s car story) – put the result before the resource – not just for products, but in your speech too
Lance- present and ask for feedback – take the materials that work and use them to make your product

Ed – retention after 48 hours – 10 percent; take notes – 50 percent; notes and discuss – 75 percent; notes, discuss, and teach – 82 percent after one year

Should you have a book first, DVD, or other product?
Craig – never create a product without teaching it several times first – your first product should be an audio CD

Details about being a small business
Ed – this is a business first, you speak second. If you don’t treat it as a business, you won’t get to do either. More will come in the 2-day Get Paid to Speak seminar.

Using YouTube, how much is too much - embrace the concept of abundance – answer the question – 2-3 minutes – give a next step (more below)

Craig – recommended a book – Launch by Michael Stelzner

Maleki (District 71) – Take the Talent to Training and the Treasure will come out – not about the price, it’s about the process

“Be careful not to keep your ego to close to your position, if you lose your position, your ego will go with it” – Colin Powell quoted by Ed

Ed – the word is receiving – 3rd place Scott Pritchard stayed on stage after speaking and saying “mister contest master” (at the finish) and smiled at the audience for about 10 seconds – what’s the word? receiving

Ed – number one job of a speaker is to make an impact – not to be liked

Ed – Talk in Tweets (talk in sound bytes) <–blog topic

Craig – speaking in sound bytes creates a memorable message – what is his focus? two words – touch lives – before you speak, say “please help me forget myself, remember my speech and touch my audience”

Lance – conviction – convict – what happened to become a convict – trial with evidence beyond a reasonable doubt – conviction is having a position you believe beyond a reasonable doubt 
- passion – in dictionary, passion came from ancient word for suffer. 
Practice to execution ratio (pro football)
Passion are those things that we do that we would suffer through without feeling like we are suffering
Sincere – means we have a clean, clear message
Do a raffle for your product- collect business cards and draw one to get a free copy of your product. Be clear “I’m going to email you with an option to opt in” so they know why you’re collecting the cards

Ed – Presentation variety- in order to maintain peoples attention, change your delivery method every 5- 10 minutes (I.e. You talking, asking questions, audience interactions, etc.)

Ed asked a few of us to run the 10 minute review after lunch
Take one minute and review your notes and write down your three favorite tweets or sound bytes of the morning. – you will learn…
Instruct online folks to tweet to hashtag Championsedge 
Take two minutes to turn to your neighbor and choose your best tweet
Next we go one group per row to give their top tweet
Maureen will write them down

general or specialist? – start with what you know – package/title it in what they want Book “how to earn more than a million dollars …”  

“the Psychology of Money” – became  ”the millionaire mindset”
“anatomy of an audience” – “connect with any audience”

Esteem
Do
Gain
Enjoy

Craig – touch all 4 categories to reach your audience
Darren – start with 3 topics, 2 specific and 1 general (or 1 and 2)
Craig – your audience is going to come up and tell you what you are speaking about – “never strike oil by digging an inch deep”
Ed – you can also specialize by delivery methods – be known as “the person who is known as…”

Make three colums – Experience     Delivery     Results

Experience
Specifics about your experience

Delivery
Speech          
Seminar
Book
Process CD

Results
increase profits
decrease costs
decrease turnover

Homework – flesh this list out for yourself

Mine – Experience
Teaching
PM Increase knowledge (anecdotal)
Military
Logistics
Supervision
Evaluations
Speaking
Blogging
Writing

My Delivery
Blog
Speaking
Seminars
Lunch ‘n learn

My Results
Increase productivity
Decrease turnover
hmmmmm….(homework)

 
Focus on results, not experience and delivery – discuss results, leave out experience and delivery – Craig, focus on the pain – ask questions and turn their pain into your promise

Social Media is a hot topic right now – Be careful about speaking about making money with social media when your aren’t making money yourself (credibility)

Marketing a seminar - sign up on edtate.com - special report 
Ed – make sure that you have enough time i.e. three months to market it
Delivery mechanism – e-mail, linkedin, postcards, newspaper, business journal,
Darren – web page – convert them – title – split test to find best conversion method
Shopping cart – all three of them use the same one speaker resources.com

6- minutes to a keynote
Craig – structure – you have 7 seconds before they decide if they like you, 30 seconds before they decide to check out. Open with a question or a story – then make a big promise. i.e “By the time you leave here today, you will have the tools… you will have ideas…etc.” Then the roadmap. “…and these come to you in the form of 4 R’s to remarkable results”
10-1 rule of thumb, 1 story/point to every 10 minutes
Phrase
Anchor – what’s loose is lost – Acronym, anecdote, analogy, activity
Reflection – Take your story and have them reflect on how it affects them
Technique – how do they practice it i.e. “write down your perfect day”
Sale – Push them into the Pull – Push away from what they want to avoid and pull them toward what they want
Use the PAR for newer speakers

Demo video - less than 10 minutes on site (have report, need to have a point, need solid audio) – less than 10 seconds on who you are
YouTube 2-3 minutes (1 minute if you can) – 1 video, 1 purpose, 1 next step. no more than 3 scenes (locations)

you must package your process in order to profit

Ed- what do you want people to Know Feel or Do

Darren – watch the first 5 minutes of a movie – notice how they are introducing characters through dialog
Time management from NSA
Focus day – product, speaking
Administrative day – mundane activities
Free day  - free of everything – phone, e-mail, etc. 
Same model for athletes and entertainers

Darren -every time you speak, build your list – then, touch your list – at least once a month
Do interviews
an a-ha moment is a letting-go of a previous belief 

Charles speech (coached on-site)

longer pause after first “so was I”
pauses

“do the thing you fear, and the death of fear is certain” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Concluded twice 

too many I’s, My’s and Me’s

My homework:

Work on 52bloggingtips.com – finish creating the tips and start filming videos

Talk to the Human
New tagline – an IT guys perspective on communicating with real people

Affiliate link alert: World Champions EDGE. This link will take you to the Edge website, where you can see some free materials or sign up for just $1 for the first month.

Tonight, for the first time, I was a guest speaker at a college graduation. The ITT graduation ceremony at the Century II Center in Wichita, Kansas.

It was a unique experience.

1. I’ve never spoke with the blinding stage lights before.
2. The whole event went much quicker than I expected.
3. The students seemed to stay awake when I spoke, and people laughed (mostly) when I expected it.
4. Be careful what you write for an introduction. They’ll gladly read it verbatim.

Unexpected lesson: I asked the audience (all told about 300) who was on Twitter, only a dozen raised their hands (maybe 5 of which were graduates). Facebook? Almost everyone. LinkedIn? Less that 10, and only one student. The LinkedIn response was expected (you’ll see below). But I was shocked that none of them were on Twitter. Weird.

Below is what was the planned text of my presentation. Of course the real thing had a few modifications. I’ve lined out the parts I didn’t say. 

“I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think.”

This quote came from a great teacher, Socrates. I received it recently in an e-mail from Lois, here at ITT. It made me think, which is what I suppose Socrates was shooting for.

I’ve been a teacher, both in school and on-the-job. I always thought that I was teaching. Your instructors here may have felt that way as well. In fact, we have a whole system designed to make sure that we’re teaching. You’ve done homework, written papers, even taken tests, right?

And presumably, sitting here as graduates –<look to dean> – can I call them graduates? Ok. Sitting here as graduates you passed all, or at least most, of those tests. Right?

Was Socrates wrong? Maybe I’m thinking about it wrong. Maybe those tests weren’t proof that someone taught you something. Maybe they were simply proof that you had learned something.

Socrates was probably right. No one can make you learn.  You have to decide that you’re going to learn. Sitting here as the graduating class for June 2011, – <look to dean> – still okay, right? As graduates … you like hearing that? I’ll say it again… as graduates you’ve proven that you made that decision, that you wanted to learn, that you wanted to achieve what you’ve achieved, that you wanted to be in the graduating class this evening.

 <pause>

Afternote: someone decided to clap for them when I paused here, so I suggested that we go ahead and clap. I went on to say that we should plan to clap about every 4 minutes throughout the evening, which was surprisingly accepted as funny. After I said that someone tried to clap again. I said that it had not been 4 minutes, only about 18 seconds. Be patient. I heard some mild “good try” laughs for that one.

What is your next decision?

<pause>

Of course, you’re going to make loads of decisions, “Where will I apply for a job?”, “Should I get a different apartment”, <hold cell phone> “Should I accept Stacie’s friend request?” You get the idea.

Afternote: I decided to simulate holding a cell phone – it was mildly funny

No, what I’m asking is, “what is your next decision for learning?”

I read a study recently from the National Endowment for the Arts. They found that in the last year nearly 60% of adults haven’t read a book that wasn’t’ required for work of school.

A good friend of mine, named Craig Valentine, likes to quote another statistic saying that the average adult reads just one book in their lifetime.

Now this friend of mine is a professional trainer. He showed me his reading list from the last 10 years. In that time, he’s read over 520 books. I use that number, to illustrate this: 520 divided by 10 years = 52 books a year, or…one book per week.

Books like The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Guerilla Marketing, and Talent is Overrated. Those are the three I’ve read.

Think how many adults are out there reading zero books per year to keep that average where it is?

Those zero book club members, as I like to call them, are your competition for employment.

But what I learned from Craig was more valuable than simply a reading list. What he taught me was this: You can’t wait to get ready, whether it’s to speak to a group, take final exams, or… answer the call for an interview.

You have to Stay Ready.

<pause>

How do you do it? <count on fingers>

Continue to learn

Stay current

Network

Because you didn’t come here to hear me speak for 90 minutes, let me just give you one quick story for each one.

I mentioned Craig’s almost alien pace of one book per week. But you don’t have to maintain that kind of pace. Pick a number, say, 30 or maybe 50 pages a week.

When I interviewed at Cessna in 2007, my second interview was with my future boss’ boss. During the course of the interview, he was talking about something “global…whatever”and he asked, “have you read The World is Flat?”

<move to the side> Pop quiz. You’re in an interview, and you’re asked a question you want to say “yes” to, but the answer is really “no”. What do you say?

Afternote: I did get a “Yes” from the crowd.

I said, “Not Yet.”

Of course, reading books will not only help you to Continue to Learn, they can also help you to Stay Current. There is a more timely way to keep up in your field as well – join up

There are groups, both virtual and local to help you stay current in your field. I won’t try to name them all, but I will tell you about two I’ve been a part of.

First, as a Project Manager, I belong to the Project Management Institute, or PMI. This is both a global organization and a local one with a chapter right here in Wichita. We meet once a month, and provide PMs here in Wichita a chance to get to know one another and hear topics in our field. We’ve heard from the Project Manager for the Arena project, PMs from Spirit, Cessna, Cargill, and other companies throughout town. All experiences to help us Stay Ready to be successful in our own projects.

Second, is a group called Toastmasters. Another global organization with 15 clubs here in Wichita. If public speaking is your weakness, then this group is for you. You learn a lot, get more comfortable speaking in front of others and learn some leadership skills as well.

The beauty of these organizations is they fit right in with the last point; network. But how do you network? Of course I already mentioned local and on-line organizations. Find the ones that fit your needs. But what about other ways to stay connected? Well, there’s Twitter. Show of hands, who has a Twitter account? Audience too…mom, uncle joe, Twitter accounts? How about Facebook? Look at that…LinkedIn? …Wow

What is LinkedIn? Imagine a business version of Facebook. Just one photo, and your business experience, education, and possibly some references. There are discussion boards for a variety of disciplines, and you make connections with other professionals.

I’m not advocating on-line networking as a replacement for face-to-face networking, but using those on-line tools can make it easier to get in touch and stay in touch.

Networking can be powerful, and it can help you to stay current and continue to learn. All three can work together.

It is time for you to make that decision. Are you going to wait and see, get ready when the time comes, and hope to keep up with your competition? Your competition hopes you do.

Or are you going to decide to Continue to Learn, Stay Current and Network so you can Stay Ready for what is to come?

Graduates, we cannot teach you anything, we can only make you think. The decision is yours.

Only one person will win at the next contest you are in. The rest will certainly not win, and that could be you. These are the strongest reasons why you won’t win:

You want to win a contest. This means your focus is in the wrong place. Just like in any presentation that you want to give successfully, contest speeches have to reach your audience. Focus on them. Even in longer presentations you have to capture their attention and interest quickly. But, in contest speeches you also have to reach them with your message and wrap it up quickly. Time is the only real difference in contest speaking.

Your message sucks. When you reach your audience, you need to leave them with something they’ll remember. Be explicit. If you think that you are so good that they’ll get it from the story, you lose. And yes, it’s that simple. Be explicit. That means have a phrase they can walk out of the room with – 7 words or less. Explicit. As 1999 champ Craig Valentine says – No Phrase, No Stage. Note: I’ve seen this done at every level of Toastmasters contests. At district and above, it’s a one-in-a-million shot to win (or even place) with a crappy/unclear message.

You have no story. Or worse, you have 3 main points. In 5-7 minutes. No. One point (see message above) and best is one story to support that one message. It works to have a sub story or two - nothing too complicated – to support the main story.

You aren’t checking in. Keep your audience involved. Ask a few questions, even rhetorical ones. Get it? Another example: you just finished a piece about that time where your girlfriend said “it’s over”. You might ask the audience, “have you ever had your heart broken?”

You are making assumptions. “We all…” haven’t done anything you can count on, except breathe. Don’t tell your audience why you are like (similar to) them. Ask them if they are like you.

You aren’t funny, or you are too funny. Balance. If they are laughing throughout the speech, save it for the humorous speech contest. If they don’t laugh at all, you lose.

You are standing still. Use the stage (or whatever space you are given) to build a scene. Be deliberate. Practice your staging. Pacing is only slightly better than standing still (i.e. you still lose).

It’s all about you. Don’t preach to your audience about why you know they shouldn’t smoke, drink or whatever. Show them (see story, above) how you learned that lesson and how they can apply it if they want to.

You aren’t taking advantage of feedback. Don’t assume that someone will be or won’t be able to help you just because they are another contestant, a District Officer or not in Toastmasters. None of those factors prove anything.
1. Give your speech wherever/whenever you can. Don’t use all of the feedback you get, but some of it will be helpful.
2. At the contest, seek feedback in advance. Hand your CC manual to a non-judge and ask them to evaluate you (projects 2-6 are best). Don’t concentrate on just one area (i.e. vocal variety) but look at the feedback after the contest. If you come to me after the contest and ask, “any feedback?” without telling me up front to pay attention, then you are just one of the many speakers I watched. Sure, I noticed something. But it isn’t the same. If you want me to give you real feedback, tell me before you speak.
3. Record yourself…and watch…and listen.

You aren’t getting good coaching. Get the best coaching you can afford. Can I help you? Yes. Can others help you? Yes. Are there previous World Champs that can help even more? Yes.  Affiliate link alert: World Champions EDGE. This link will take you to the Edge website, where you can see some free materials or sign up for just $1 for the first month. This is the best low-cost option to getting help. Personal coaching will cost more. Caveat: Other Toastmasters may be willing to mentor (help) you just because you ask. Don’t expect 24/7 access, but there is a lot of experience, expertise and talent out there.

You are still reading this post. Stop reading and get to work!

The day started with Ed Tate leading his customary “Follow the Leader” opening that involved some dancing, along with whatever it is that I do that is like dancing. Yes, yes, there is video evidence…

Leading today’s session were Patricia Fripp, Mark Brown, Craig Valentine, Ed Tate, and Darren LaCroix. There are about 75 EDGE members in attendance at the session. 

Darren’s opening including the story of how his idea for the World Champions Edge started, and gave us two words to consider: Campaign and Momentum
For all of your endeavors (i.e. products or services), you must campaign for yourself. You have to be your own best advocate. Darren and Craig’s first WC Edge event had just 3 people, but they built momentum.

Craig told us to ABC – Always Be Creative. You can’t keep getting called back if your material is always the same. He also talked about how he gained a client (spokenadvantage.com) through his actions, not his words.

What you are speaks so loudly I cannot hear what you say. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Patricia Fripp reminded us to set long term goals, but use short term decisions to get there.

Advanced Questions:
When giving an inspiration speech, what are the most powerful conclusions that motivate life change
Mark said that motivation comes from within, and that is why he is an inspirational speaker (not a motivational speaker). He also mentioned that you have to know your audience. You have to connect with their heart. Remember, it’s not about you and your expertise, it’s about them and their needs.

When telling a story, a speaker might add a little acting or a lot of acting. How much is the right amount?
Craig says – Take the word “add” out of the speakers vocabulary. It’s just like humor, don’t add anything – uncover it
Don’t be over the top, be under the influence…of your own emotions

What are the key elements to include in your 30-second elevator speech. Darren says your whole goal is to get them to ask “how do you do that?”
He reminded us that everyone knows 100 people. When you are in front of 20 people, you are in front of 2,000. Will those 20 pass your information on to some of their 100 contacts?
Ed added – prior to the 30 second commercial is the verbal business card. “I help you breathe life into business presentations”. Get them to ask you for more. If they don’t care, then you don’t have to waste your time.

What is the value of being a member of a professional speakers association?
Patricia said the value of belonging to an organization like NSA is a lot like the advantage of WC Edge – access to people.

What is the number one thing we can do today to grow our business?
Ed talked about how everyone wants to speak, but no one wants to market. His answer is to Market Relentlessly. He also said you have to market first and speak second. If you get that order mixed up you won’t be doing either for long.

An Entrepenuer is just a person that solves problems for people at a profit. – T. Harv Ecker

Speaking about the power of YouTube, Darren mentioned that he heard from a member that looked up “Public Speaking” on the Internet and came across Darren’s videos, and, as he told it, “had breakfast with Darren every day” watching his YouTube videos on speaking.

The next mini-seminar sessions were from the list of topics created by the audience:
Moving from Free to Fee – and negotiating your rate
Darren and Ed spoke about some ideas, and Ed told us about the 100 Marketing Weapons from their session tomorrow. I can’t repost those here, since it’s copy written material. Suffice it to say that these are awesome ideas for marketing your business.

Creating product – Darren talked about the power of having product. He asked members who had created their first CD about what the gained, and he was looking for answers in terms of $$s. What he found is that creating that first product gave those speakers belief in their own credibility.

Ed played a game where he quoted prices for the SuperBowl, and we were supposed to tell him where we would be sitting. The point was that fee = perception of value.

Raise your fee every 18 months.

Change the negotiaion technique to switch from showing your qualifications to pre-qualifying the customer.
How did you find out about me?
Why do you think i would be a good fit?
Who is making the decision? – Let’s talk to them.
I charge $x.xx – do you have that amount of money?
Then send the contract they have already agreed to.

If you don’t go through the process, you won’t grow through the process

Particia Fripp answered a question about how to customize your presentations for different audiences.
She talked about how she became an expert in certain markets, like the cemetery and funeral home market. She was speaking on some specific customer service/sales topics, but because of her attention to their market, she is seen (and PAID) as an expert in that market.
How? By reading industry magazines – looking for connections with her own experiences. She sits in on industry seminars and
Sell by doing…don’t sell by telling.

On coaching executives, she said working with a speech coach is not like worrying with a psychatrist, although you do have to be just as comfortable.
See the speech from last year
Make friends with the Admin – “What would you tell him if you were the speech coach?”

When negotiating fee with the customer, don’t do the math yourself. For her sales clients, she tells them with the amount of money you’re losing, her fee is inconsequential. She uses this to switch the conversation from “should we use her” to “how do we use her”.

I assume you are talking to other companies or coaches. “Can you tell me which of my friends are you talking to?” I’m willing to do a 10-minute coaching call, with one of the decision makers listening.

2 key aspects to getting business:
Be willing to walk away
Give a sample of what they will be getting

Technology Discussion
What are Lumens? Lumens is a definition of brightness in projectors. The average today is 2,500 – 3,000 for corporate speaking.

Microphones: There was discussion about different microphone types.

The morning wrapped up with a mini-coaching session for two Edge members. Patricia, Mark and Craig all gave feedback for the first speaker.

One interesting note on the second speaker, Craig said to be sure not to tell the audience about their experience, but to ask them. Instead of saying “We all have such-and-such happen in our lives”, you should ask “have you ever had such-and-such happen to you?” When you get the audience to respond with the head nods, then you can later refer back to this and the audience bought in to it.
Mark made some wonderful points about adding specificity to the story. Including the name of characters, specifics about the environment and showing appropriate reactions.

Off to lunch…in Vegas!

Affiliate link alert: World Champions EDGE. This link will take you to the Edge website, where you can see some free materials or sign up for just $1 for the first month.

Last weekend I attended our District’s Toastmasters Leadership Institute (TLI) training in Kansas City, and I spoke during our “Lunch and Learn” session.  The topic was Team Building. Including the lunch itself, the session was in a 50-minute block. Although I did receive a lot of positive feedback, there were a few things I could (should!) have done better.

First Lesson: Start Strong
Mistake I made: Starting too soon after the lunch was provided. When it comes to a lunch and learn event, you want to give your audience enough time to get through most of their food. Especially if you are like me and you build a lot of audience interaction into your presentations.
Why I did it: No good reason; I just started a bit too quickly. My excuse was trying to make sure we had the most time possible for the presentation. Looking back, I think that 3-5 fewer minutes with a more effective beginning would have led to a better session.
Effect the mistake had:  People were not very responsive to early questions. This caused the energy in the room to stay lower than I would have liked.
Possible fixes, on-the-fly:
Ask rhetorical questions – I could have said “I know you’re eating so this is rhetorical…does anyone like working for an autocratic leader?” This would allow them to participate in their own heads without feeling bad about not responding with their mouth full.
Switch from an audience-interaction opening to a storytelling opening. Since storytelling has not been my strongest method, this is the one I continue to work on myself.  Note for fellow Toastmasters, I’m starting the Storytelling manual as my next Advanced Manual. Craig Valentine has some great material on the subject.
Fix for next time: Allow a few more minutes to finish the main course.

Second Lesson: Get them back after an exercise (or break)
Mistake I made: I tried to get their attention after an exercise by simply talking (i.e. ” can I have your attention”). You’ve seen it before, just plowing ahead with my material as they slowly quieted down. It was not very effective…
Why I did it: I’ve seen quite a bit of the “Clap once if you hear my voice” technique, and I thought (poorly) that I wanted to avoid doing it again.
Effect the mistake had: It took folks time to get on board, also those ready to listen couldn’t hear me clearly over the murmuring.
Possible fixes on-the-fly:
Use the “clap once if you hear my voice…clap twice if you hear my voice” method. The nice thing about this method is you can switch to it anytime without materials.
Fix for next time: Lesson I learned from Ed Tate - Use other items to capture attention, like a toy clapper, chimes or other “polite/cute” noisemaker.

Third Lesson: Set expectations for group exercises
Mistake I made: I ran an exercise for the group. The idea was to get into pairs and ask each other a couple of “get to know each other” questions. I didn’t tell them that I would call on a few of them to share the results.
Why I did it: I initially planned to run the exercise and not include audience response due to time. As we went through, I looked at the clock and saw that I indeed had time to allow a couple of examples from the audience, so I made the change.
Effect the mistake had: Many of the folks simply did the exercise without taking notes.
Possible fixes on-the-fly:
Don’t change the exercise on-the-fly. This would have avoided the issue completely.
Walk up to one or two people during the exercise and ask them to be my “volunteer” when called upon. If I had tried this, I could have had two people with notes ready and my change would have worked more smoothly. 
Fix for next time: Provide a handout with the exercise defined and stick with it. I could always trim down the exercise, but adding to it on-the-fly was a mistake.

Learning lessons from your speaking doesn’t do much good if you don’t make the changes based on those lessons. Worse still if you (like I did) choose to fall back into an old habit (or three) when you’re in front of an audience. Lucky for me, the Toastmasters audience didn’t beat me up too bad. Had I misused those techniques in a paid environment, I may not get asked back.

The trick here is to develop habits that work in your chosen speaking enviornment. Since that includes lunch sessions and group interaction, my speaking checklist needs to include the three “fixes for next time” from above. If you don’t have a checklist, now is the time to get one started.

One of those questions is on Leadership. Many times when I’m asked to define what Toastmasters is, it’s easy to get people to understand what the communication portion is; everyone knows what public speaking is, at least to some extent. But if I had a nickle for every strange look  I receive when mentioning the leadership skills, well, I could pay someone to write this post for me.

Let’s be honest, leadership can be a pretty ambiguous topic all by itself. A search on Amazon.com (as I sit here in Borders coffee bar…) gives me 62,523 results, just in books. 188 of which are within the last 90 days and 18,205 in the subcategory of business & investing. In contrast, crochet has only 9 new books in the last 90 days.

Anyway, all of these confused looks have caused me to put way too much thought into this problem, which of course led to a “hip-pocket” speech at my Toastmasters club. The nice thing about doing these types of speeches are 1. you can try out material you might have to wait a few weeks to try otherwise, and 2. you can use the feedback to give a better version next time.

And there is the point of this post: taking speeches that are less that they coulda/shoulda/woulda been and taking them to the next level so you can really reach your audience.

Speechtweaking: verb – Taking a speech you’ve given, listening to the feedback you received, and tweaking it to be better next time.

My speech was titled What is Competent Leadership? I gave it as CC Speech #9, Persuade with Power. The goal was to help my audience define leadership in the context of what we can learn in Toastmasters, and specifically with the Competent Leadership manual.

Speech Opening: I told about how I gave the test speech for our district evaluation contest two years ago. In front of that audience of 100, I asked how many folks originally joined Toastmasters for communications skills. If you were there, you saw about 90 hands go up. When I asked how many originally joined for leadership or social reasons, each of those only inspired 3-4 hands to go up. I transitioned to my first point – defining leadership in Toastmasters – by contrasting how well defined communication is for our members, but that leadership is more ambiguous. 

Evaluation: Story was good, transition good. But…No roadmap.

Tweak: I need to provide a direction of where I’m taking the audience. After the story and before the transition I need to mention that I’ll 1. define leadership as it applies to Toastmasters and compare/contrast with leadership in our real lives. 2. Discuss how the Competent Leadership manual helps to build the skills I defined in the first point. 3. Suggest real ways you can use the CL manual to improve the skills you need, and help your fellow members be more successful at the same time.

Main points: Overall these went well. I was able to identify with my (mostly) military audience with the definitions of implied vs. earned authority. Specific examples worked well since I knew the audience members well.

Evaluation: Worked well for the audience I was speaking to. Some of the examples could be problematic for a non-military (i.e. normal) audience.

Tweak: In front of a less familiar audience, I need to be sure I have stories that can relate to specific members of the audience, which may mean some pre-speech work on-site (i.e. meeting folks and swapping stories). Also, for a non-military audience I’ll need to more clearly define implied authority (where the boss is the boss) and earned authority (where you follow someone because you see them as a leader).

Conclusion: I compared the newly defined leadership aspect of Toastmasters with the well defined Communication aspect, and declared victory in helping my audience understand the CL manual and how they could better improve their skills and our club as a whole. Note: I didn’t say victory, that’s just how I felt.

Evaluation: Good wrap up, but no review of the main points. That seems to be a theme for me with this hip-pocket style of speaking. It does seem that I only wrapped up the first main point, with a little homage to the 3rd one.

Tweak: No change needed to the comparison of the communication and leadership aspects. After that, I’ll need to re-tie that definition to the CL manual, and transition to a more definitive call to action for my members to take that CL and start on a specific project.

I expect that I’ll do this speech for at least one more club before I incorporate it into a future event, such as a District Executive Council meeting, or a TLI (Officer Training) event.

If you choose to use speechtweaking yourself, remember these tips:

1. Use a manual speech, this way you’ll get some useful written feedback on top of your verbal evaluation.
Note: This applies to contest speeches as well!

2. Don’t try to fix everything with each iteration. Do what you can and deliver it again. The more you do, the better it will get.
Note: This is what the pros do. Why? Because it works. Oh, remember that tip #1 applies each time!

3. Don’t be afraid to ask your evaluator (or even your whole club) for some specific feedback before you speak. It will put them in the frame of mind to help.

4. Ignore some of the feedback. Not every suggestion needs to be used. 

5. This is fun, so let it be fun! If you make a mistake, just be sure not to make that mistake next time. Don’t beat yourself up, because improving is the whole point.

If you are struggling with that next topic, take a tip from the pros and grab a previous speech. Something that matters to you. Take it, tweak it, and give it better than before. If you use it, speechtweaking can make you a better speaker too.

Crowned the 2010 World Champion of Public Speaking was David Henderson, with his speech titled The Aviators. Why did David win? I think that beyond the obvious speaking ability and outstanding delivery, he had one of the most touching stories and a powerful message.

David told of how he met and made friends with a girl when he was 7 years old. As friends they used to play aviator together (hence the title). But his freind was soon diagnosed with a potentially terminal illness. Without taking too much from his story, he found himself questioning why he should love someone that was just going to die, and that’s when he learned that losing people is part of loving people and the pain of regret would hurt more and longer than the pain of loss. The story of the next 7 years was so moving that there were actual sobs coming from throughout the audience. He was that good. 

Second place Robert Mackenzie also had an outstanding speech titled My Alter Ego. He told of his alter-ego, Bobby Backwards (Bob for short). He told of how big that alter ego was, because it was fuelled by all of the “no’s” in his life. His message was strong, about the need to say yes to life, rather than retreat into the protection of Bob. My favorite line was, “By 30 I had said ‘no’ more times that Toyota said ‘recall’.” Other top line, told after telling us about having a heart attack and how they say the fear of public speaking is greater than the fear of death: “Not. Even. Close.”

Third place went to Linus Chang and his speech, Being Jane. Rather humorously he told about his experience with the wonderful voice of his GPS, Jane. By pointing out haw Jane never gets angry or terse when you get lost, and is always flexible about your future plans, he drew a correlation to our lives and how we can have more freedom in our lives if we look at things like Jane does.

The remaining contestants were all wonderful too, so I’m glad I wasn’t judging this one. Here’s a bit on their speeches, given in their speaking order (only 1st – 3rd place are announced):

Lisa Panarello‘s speech Mission I’m Possible was the first in the contest. There are mixed reviews as to whether going first is good or bad, and after Lisa’s strong presentation I’d bet that debate will continue for at least one more year. My favorite line: “Break the rules – if the job posting says ‘Don’t Call’, then call. You’ll probably be the only one.” Her three points were:
Plan Ahead
Take Risks
Keep Moving

Kevin McCue – started his speech with remote control in hand. Whatcha Got? was a good reminder that we don’t all have to aspire to be Brad Pitt or whatever. Use the tallents you have and don’t worry about being like someone else. I loved the reference to Pepper Martin of the 1930′s St. Louis Cardinals. Anyone that genuinely loves the Cardinals should win. Just sayin’

Robin Grieve told us that Wings are for Flying. He compared his son’s departure from home at 18 to a baby eagle leaving the nest.  Very nice message that whenever we set something free, we set ourselves free.

Joseph Grondin told us that we should all be Merchants of Hope. Nice story about making the difference in a teen’s life.

Ian Humphrey – I saw Ian’s speech in Semi-Final contest #1 on Thursday, and I have to tell you that I was (a) pulling for him, and (b) a bit surprised he didn’t place. This is why I say the judging would be super difficult at that level. This speech, It’s Not About the Knockdown drew parellels to being knocked down in boxing and knocked down in life.

Jamie MacDonald – His speech Unchained Memory talked about his earliest memory and to be honest I’m not sure I understood his message, so I don’t want to post a poor guess here. He did tell a nice story.

Nothing beats watching the competition at this level. The preparation, the skill, and the execution give all of us something to aspire to. If you missed it, buy the video. If you saw it, buy the video.

TI’s announcement: http://www.toastmasters.org/Members/News/Announcements/2010-2011-World-Champ-Chosen.aspx

Next…on to the Region III reception and then the President’s Dinner Dance.

Imagine yourself at a running track, and all of your Toastmasters club members are there too. You are there to improve your communication, leadership and running skills. You join at the starting line, and you receive your CC and CL manuals. Around the corner of the track is a finish line, with your Lt Gov Education & Training (me) holding the tape out for you. Off to the side, our District Governor stands holding a cartooninshly large megaphone and periodically yells “Keeping the Promise!”

A little confused? Think about running the track as completing your next CC, AC, CL, AL or DTM award. Think about your fellow members running at different paces, some looping back once in a while to encourage (mentor) newer members to move forward. Imagine Paul McDonald lapping us all every few minutes.

Now, let’s use that visual to imagine a couple of typical types of clubs:

First, the President’s Distinguished club – all of the members are making progress toward the finish line. Every now and then, someone crosses the line and you hear “Keeping the Promise” come from the megaphone. When a new runner steps up to the starting line, another member loops back to encourage and support them as the begin their run. There are signposts along the path – 3 speeches to go! - to let members know where they are in their progress. No two members are running at the same pace, but everyone is cheering each other on. From time-to-time, club leaders pull off to the side to stretch (officer meetings) and learn some new running techniques (TLI). Twice per year, a few members go back to the starting line and the club president holds up a flashy and colorful finish line for the fall or spring contests. Throughout the year, members work their away around the track and cross that finish line. Ding! The DCP status is updated.

What about the club that doesn’t believe in turning in awards? This club has a group of member all near the starting line. Some of them are jogging in place. Some of them are even sweating pretty hard under the workload. There is lots of talk, and they are having a good time (like the other club). But no one is moving toward the finish line. When a guest comes, they see nice people who seem to be doing good work, and they join. Then, as they finish a few speeches, they wonder why no one seems to be crossing the finish line. While some of the members seem to be in good shape, it’s confusing because they seem to be running in place.

Does running in place help you stay in shape, or get in better shape? Maybe. But running forward (toward your goal) does a better job. Translation: Just speaking in front of a group can help, but using manual objectives and practicing new skills really helps you to become a better speaker and leader.

Is your club running in place? Worst yet, are guests and new members seeing you running in place and getting confused by the message?

Here is the part people get wrong: The DCP isn’t a goal itself, it is a scorecard. There are two ways to improve your score:

1. Run up the score.  This works if getting a high score is your goal. But it doesn’t do much for the club (or members) overall.
2. Achieve your goals and support your fellow members in achieving theirs. Setting the right example personally and directly helping others will make you and your club successful. Plus, the score will take care of itself.

What is the downside of #2? You can’t wait to start that in March and make your goals in June. However, if you start now (in July) and work with all of your members  to find their goals (including the ones who need 12, 18 or 24 months for their next goal) then it will work for you and your club.

Toastmasters can be a fun place when you are running in place, but it can be more fun and beneficial to you when you lace up those shoes (open that manual) and start moving toward the goal. Be realistic, support your fellow members and see yourself improving. Remember, focus on your gaols and those numbers take care of themselves when you are Keeping the Promise!

Speaking about advanced Toastmasters, these suggestions all assume you have at least a CC or equivalent award:

Idea #1. You may not know this, but there is no Toastmasters International (TI) rule on content. That means you can take a speech you have given before, polish it up and give it again as another CC topic. Some members think (erroneously) that this is some sort of foul, but how can it be a foul to improve your speaking with a manual speech? I have yet to hear a really good answer to why you shouldn’t do this. Note: I’m not suggesting giving the same speech the same way 10 weeks straight and taking credit. I’m talking about earning credit by taking feedback and improving a presentation to make it better.

At a recent TM meeting where I spoke about this, there was some discussion during the Q & A about reusing speech titles and TI’s reaction to “giving the same speech twice” when the award is submitted. To that, I’d say if you use the feedback to change the speech, it is no longer the same speech, and just add “Rev A” to the title in the back of your manual (but not during the introduction).

I did receive a reply from TI on their opinion (emphasis is mine):

We highly suggest that a member do a new speech for each manual speech so that they can truly learn and grow as a public speaker. There isn’t any official rule against a member giving the same speech for each project in the CC manual while following and fulfilling the objectives for each project.

Every manual project teaches a new speaking skill, and each project in a manual builds upon the skills learned in previous projects. If a member truly wants to improve their speaking skills, every speech that member gives should be prepared according to a project’s instructions and objectives.   

I only disagree with the “truly learn and grow” implication. I think they are worried about a member simply reciting a speech over and over to claim credit. That is a valid concern. But, in my suggestion I believe that taking feedback from a speech and improving it for the next time is easily as valuable as creating one from scratch. Be your own judge.

Idea #2. Don’t try to work on the specific project objective in a CC speech. This one flies in the face of the TI HQ note above, but we’re talking about advanced techniques for advanced speakers. Since you’ve finished your CC already, you should be integrating all of those CC skills into every speech (within reason). Now, you can use projects 2-8 especially to get feedback on how well you do when you’re giving a presentation that isn’t “designed” for a specific project.

I tried this myself recently with a marketing report I gave to my District Executive Committee (DEC) by using Project 7 (research your topic). I received some very useful feedback that will make my next report much better. If I hadn’t, I’d probably repeat some of the mistakes I made the next time (ever seen that happen?)

You can also do that for contest speeches. Don’t try to do extra vocal variety (or whatever the project calls for) in a contest speech. Just give the speech as you would (you know…to win) and get the written feedback. You’ll get more useful (and focused) information than just asking an audience member “What did you think?” after the whole contest is over.

Idea #3. Conversely, do try to work on the objective. We could all be better at vocal variety or gestures. Give it a second (or fifth) go through the CC manual to stay sharp.

Idea #4. There is also no rule on preparation time. Use that next CC manual to practice impromptu speeches. Consider a question you could have to answer in real life and limit yourself to 5-7 minutes. Or, if you are in a district leadership position, practice those types of presentations you may need to give on a club visit. You are giving manual speeches (or modules) on your visits, right???

Competing an award in Toastmasters isn’t the end of a trip, it’s a milestone on your journey. Use some of these tips to keep your skills fresh, and keep setting a great example for your club. Post a comment to let me know how it works, or if you have some other ideas.

Error #1: Every speech has to be different.
- In professional or business settings, you wouldn’t want to give the same speech to the same audience over and over, but when the audience changes, you can use material that was developed for another audience. All you need to do is know your audience and make the small tweaks where you need to.
- In Toastmasters, this misconception comes from an erroneous assumption that you can’t take credit for the same speech more than once. Change that thinking! Don’t “take credit” for your speech…earn credit for it. Are you wondering what the difference is? Say you are wanting to practice a speech for a big presentation you have to do at work on the Johnson Account (or whatever). You can work on the Competent Communication (CC) manual speech project on Vocal Variety, give your speech and receive some useful tips to improve. Next, take those improvements and tighten it up. Go to the project on Using Visual Aides and practice it again. Now you are better prepared for that work assignment! Note: you don’t have to stop at two times, practice again if you need to.

Error #2: All of your material must be original.
- Clearly it’s a bad idea to plagiarize the work of others. However, if you credit them and include what you’ve learned from experts in your presentation you can add to your credibility and improve the audience’s condition at the same time. Telling the audience how using that other expert’s advice made a difference for you can help them follow a similar path to success.
- In Toastmasters, there are some scripted programs designed to help members succeed with common speaking and leadership topics such as Goal Setting and Planning, Evaluate to Motivate, and Creating an Opening. I once asked a fellow member about giving a speech on Goal Setting. His reply, “I don’t need to do one of those modules right now Rob, I need to give a speech.” I replied “Joe, just give a speech on Goal Setting, you can reference your own experience as well as the module and other sources in your own speech.” This took a bit of back and forth to get through, because of the misunderstanding that he though to talk about one of those topics, you had to use the module. It’s not true, and like any source you just need to cite what you use when you speak. If, however, you want to read the script as designed, then of course that is not a manual speech, but how you present it as a module.

Error #3: Saying you have a plan means you have a plan.
- In Seth Godin’s book Small is the New Big, he talks about working for an Internet company during a period when they were very successful marketing to advertisers. He looked forward to working there because he thought their techniques must be out of this world, with the obscene revenues they were pulling in. He then recounted the first sales call he went on with them. To paraphrase, the presentation was among the worst he’d ever encountered, yet the customer wrote a really big check. The point? You may have a product or idea that is so wonderful that your lack of preparation couldn’t possibly screw it up.  Guess what? Even if you’re right, you soon won’t be.
- In Toastmasters I see some individuals who give manual speeches, but never seem to have the manuals, or turn in the awards. I’ve heard a variety of “not chasing awards” excuses. I’ve also watched their slower growth as a result.

To be honest, I could probably write a “Top Ten” or “Top Twenty for 2010″ post on many other speaking myths out there. These are just three that I’ve seen and heard most recently. The short of it is, stop looking for ”no”. It’s easy to come up with excuses to stagnate and watch crap on teevee. 

If it’s in your head that you need to become a more accomplished communicator, leader, and networker (is that a word?) then move past the excuses and do what you need to do. If you are not in Toastmasters, obviously I’m going to suggest that you join. This is the place to practice and improve, and to move beyond all of the myths to become the best speaker you can be.