Toastmasters Ice Breaker

[isufreak24]

Hmmm, couldn't quite decide which subforum to post this one in; hopefully it is somewhat relevant here.

Anyways, I'm giving my Icebreaker speech on 6/15, and I'm nervous and excited at the same time. I really want to do well, but I realize that I'm still a newb and have a lot to learn.

My question is this; what's the best way to prepare and give a speech without sounding rigid- no matter how well you word it, reading something word for word doesn't sound very natural. On the other hand, I'm not yet confident in my abilities to speak with just a rough outline.

Any Toastmasters here who can potentially share some words of wisdom?

Thanks in advance!

-Blake

[Erin Pavlina]

I'm not sure this is the best way, but I wrote out my speech and read it. I was too nervous to do anything else at the time. But midway through my speech as I started getting laughs from some of the funny things I put in there, I started to relax and even enjoy myself. It was way cool!

I say, write it out, practice it so you know it, and have your notes standing by in case you need them, or just decide in advance that you'll read it and do the best job you can in looking up and connecting with the audience occasionally.

[isufreak24]

Thanks for the reply Erin!

Glad to hear your Icebreaker went so well; I think I'm capable of giving a good first speech. It's just a matter of careful preparation and my courage to stand up there and not let fear hold me back.

Here's what I'm thinking about doing (my good friend who has tons of speaking experience gave me some pointers).

1. I think I'll have my introduction completely memorized and written out, ensuring I don't butcher the beginning and hopefully giving me some confidence.

2. I just about have my speech fully written out, but I want to reduce it to an outline and work off that. This will take many taped run-throughs to build my confidence and train my mind, but it should be effective. Hopefully this preserves a 'natural' element and helps me better engage with the audience instead of having my head buried on the podium.

3. I'll have my transitions completely, thoroughly memorized, as well as the conclusion.

Maybe though, I'll have a fully recorded version in print behind the outline as you suggest, just in case...

Thanks again for taking the time to help!

-Blake

[Erin Pavlina]

Yes, good.

The way I prep a speech now is to write out the whole thing and read it out loud while timing so I can see if I need to cut anything to stay in my time limit. Once I have the speech the way I want it, I just start practicing and memorizing it, never using the same words, just getting the gist of what I want to say. AT the end, I'll retype the speech using the words I ended up using in practice. Then I bring it with me just in case I totally blank.

I've seen some people totally blank on their memorized speech and they can't pick it up again, it's just gone. With notes you can at least finish.

[MartinP]

Hi isufreak,

The irony in public speaking, is that if you want to sound relaxed and if you are speaking "off the cuff", you need to practice your speech TO DEATH!!!

Thats what I suggest doing. Practice it MANY MANY MANY times. Too many is not enough.

Then I would suggest, a full print out just in case.

By the way, the ice-breaker is meant to be about YOU, so I would stick to stories that you know well about yourself, so there is less element of memorising facts, since you should already be pretty familiar with yourself!

And lastly, remember, Toastmasters is about supporting people to get better at public speaking, so remember you are in a supportive environment!

Please let us know how it went!

Good Luck!

[martinogg]

Hi Blake,

It just so happens that I gave my ice breaker speech last night!

My advice would be to practise the speech once or twice each day until the day. I initially used wordpad to jot down a main areas that I wanted to talk about and then recorded my voice on pc as i looked at the notes. I practised it to point that i found i wasnt reading the notes at all, so then i moved on to recording myself using my video mobile phone. This was great because i could see myself at the same time and I could see the hands in pockets, the shifting weight from one foot to the other. It also gave me a chance to get used to my own voice, which helped with my confidence.

I then sent over one of my videos to my mentor by email, and we talked about that speech. She gave me some helpful pointers.
I tried to experiment with different techniques/jokes/etc. I tried various jokes / details, some of which worked, some would be too technical for the audience so I cut it out. I only found these things out by looking at my own videos.

I too was getting nervous of it, all day at work thinking about it and wishing that there was an accident on the train or road.. anything so i didnt have to go to that meeting! Truth is, once you get it done, you literally feel on top of the world! Its a great feeling.

The title was "Getting out of Games" I focussed on how my whole life revolved around games; from playing them, making them (as a games programmer for a PS3 company) to socialising with fellow gamers. And then I went on to why I joined toastmasters; that i want to find life outside of games and find things in life i can say _love_ doing, not just things that I usually do and neither like nor dislike.

Feedback I got was excelent even if it wasn't all good things.. I had 16 ahhs, 3 umms and 2 "I mean"'s and shifted my weight too much. time: 4:57 (4~6 mins limit). I also got plus points for hand gestures, using no notes, and incorporating the word of the day, gamut. I said.. "The gamut of my life can be explained by one thing... Computer Games!" I also dressed in my work clothes (black trousers and shirt) instead of usual jeans tshirt. No one picked up on that one but i personally found it empowering, or at least looking smart was one less thing to worry about.

If I could only recommend one thing, it is practise in front of a camera every day.

If you want I could speak to you over Skype for a few minutes to talk about it. I found just talking about the nerves i had before it helped me to get rid of them a little.. Just PM me or reply if you think that would help.

Good luck with the speech!

Martin

[Remiel]

One thing I found that helped me was memorize the speech, then forget about it. Don't quote it verbatim. A very wise local toastmaster gave me this peice of advice. "You already know your speech. Don't even bring your notes up with you. They are a crutch." He also told me about the political world and how those who read speeches were ignored while those who gave speeches without any notes got paid attention to.

I had to hit a wall first where I gave myself permission to fail. By not bringing up my notes I forced myself to improve in this area by 1. Preparing better before hand, and 2. not sticking ridgedly to a script. It also gave me a freedom to take and use other peices of knowledge from my own mind as it came to me.

If you have the courage in you, don't bring up your notes and just learn from every experience. Good or bad.

[Brutha]

1) Get an outline.
2) Stand in front of the mirror and give your speech at home.
3) Revise your outline
4) Give your speech again in front of the mirror.
5) Repeat 3-4 till you are comfortable with your speech

The first times you can look at your outline.
At the end you should stop the time that your speech takes to make sure that it takes between 4 and 6 minutes.

[isufreak24]

Whew, finally had a chance to sit down and catch up on this thread, and I couldn't believe the slew of advice I found. I knew this forum would be full of people eager to help each other out, but this is awesome- thanks everybody!

I'm going to use this as a reference as I continue to prepare, and I'll give an update on how it went.

Thanks again.

[MartinP]

By the way, this article might be useful, its called 5 Ways to Speak Like Obama:

Five Ways to Speak Like Obama | BNET

[Remiel]

Originally Posted by MartinP

By the way, this article might be useful, its called 5 Ways to Speak Like Obama:

Five Ways to Speak Like Obama | BNET

#1 Use a teleprompter
#2 Use 2 teleprompters
#3 Always have a backup teleprompter
#4 Have a backup generator ready
#5 Panic

[Bruce Achterberg]

Originally Posted by isufreak24

no matter how well you word it, reading something word for word doesn't sound very natural.

... until you hear Ken Bernard (a former Toastmasters International Speech contest world champ). (I've listened to Ken and met him in person... he read quite a bit of his speech from notes and yet it was damn good.)


Speak from a place of strength
I've been a Toastmaster for about a year and the reason I mentioned Ken is to point out that strengths shine much more brightly than the specific way you deliver something.

I haven't given a speech in a while, but these days I very rarely practice my speeches. I figure out what I'm going to speak about, make sure I remember that (I want to at least remember the ideas), and then I get up and speak. The more I try to memorise things, the more rigid I become and the less connection with the audience I have. I begin to focus more on "remembering how to do my speech just the way I wanted to" and less on doing what will help me establish a really deep connection with the audience that I (and hopefully they) can feel.

But I'm not saying you should follow my example. Instead, I invite you to figure out what you're naturally good at doing and then put that strength to use. For me, "using notes stifles me" was the best lesson I learned from doing my first speech (I spoke in a club humourous speech contest before I did my ice breaker, reading the speech from notes). I put what I learned to use in my Ice Breaker (which was the second speech I gave) and did really well, winning the best speech award for the night (I'm not sure if it was the "best" speech, but in the opinion of the audience, considering it was my second speech, I think they thought that I did well, hence them voting my speech "best" speech).

I think people seem to think that you're a better speaker when you speak without notes, but I think the important thing to do is to focus on your strengths. People might look at Ken and think "a world champion speaker is going to read from notes?" until minutes later they find themselves lost in his strengths, which you could probably sum up as "ability to deliver humour", "ability to connect to the audience", and "ability to inject his personality into whatever he's speaking about" (one speaker joked that Ken could make a restaurant menu sound interesting. I'd say they're probably right ).


Your speaking goals dictate how you should speak, practice, or even if you should practice at all
I know a lot of people who put a lot of work into their speeches, but I personally like to experiment and do the complete opposite. I do things things that are challenging--things I probably won't pull off at my level of skill--so I can learn and get more experience. I got the idea to do that from a speaker Steve knew--a speaker who said (to paraphrase) "I go to Toastmasters to fail." What he meant was that you can't really fail up on a stage at a speaking event--it's best if you (and you probably want to) do really well and wow the audience--but Toastmasters gives you a great opportunity to try out new things and do what you usually wouldn't do at a speaking event since. What I value most about Toastmasters is that it's a supportive environment filled with people who prioritise improvement over perfection.

What I've learned from a year of Toastmasters is that how you speak and what you do at Toastmasters really depends on your speaking goals. For a while I tried to meet the goals that the speech manuals provided me, but I found that was largely disinteresting to me. I was much more interested in learning to speak impromptu, so this year I focused on training up my "give speeches with no prior preparation" muscle, and I'm very pleased with the results.

I'll openly admit that I'm not that great at giving speeches compared to other speakers I know, but when it comes to speaking without preparation, I'm confident I can do well. Some might look at my ability to give a speech and think that I could have made more progress in my first year, but I wasn't working on my general speaking skills--I choose to develop a very specific skill.

My point is that I think it's very important to be aware of your goals--why you're at Toastmasters--because they will dictate how you should go about your speeches. In my case, my goal led me to give speeches that probably would have been more well received if I practiced a bit more, but I didn't care about being able to give a practiced speech well--I cared about being able to speak without practice (mainly because it's something I wanted to become better at doing--an ability I wanted to be able to draw upon, and also because I feel energised when I speak without preparation. Practicing is inherently boring to me... I prefer to "practice" on stage. Luckily for Toastmasters, I can).

I find "What do I care about?" and "What made me join Toastmasters?" to be good questions to help bring focus and clarity.

[MartinP]

@Remiel

Very funny! :-)

[isufreak24]

Originally Posted by MartinP

By the way, this article might be useful, its called 5 Ways to Speak Like Obama:

Five Ways to Speak Like Obama | BNET

Thanks Martin. Definitely some good pieces of advice in there, although I like Remiel's as well!

I'm also indirectly learning about the ways of a successful speaker by reading 'The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt', a overall fine book by Edmund Morriss.

[isufreak24]

Originally Posted by Bruce Achterberg

But I'm not saying you should follow my example. Instead, I invite you to figure out what you're naturally good at doing and then put that strength to use.

Your speaking goals dictate how you should speak, practice, or even if you should practice at all

I'll openly admit that I'm not that great at giving speeches compared to other speakers I know, but when it comes to speaking without preparation, I'm confident I can do well. Some might look at my ability to give a speech and think that I could have made more progress in my first year, but I wasn't working on my general speaking skills--I choose to develop a very specific skill.

My point is that I think it's very important to be aware of your goals--why you're at Toastmasters--because they will dictate how you should go about your speeches.

I find "What do I care about?" and "What made me join Toastmasters?" to be good questions to help bring focus and clarity.

Hey Bruce,

Thanks for the mighty fine advice. I have to admit that in the excitement and anxiousness of joining Toastmasters, I didn't really outline any specific goals. Naturally I want to complete my CC and other certifications, but other than that I haven't sat down and asked myself what exactly I want to accomplish above all else.

[isufreak24]

I gave my Icebreaker this morning, and it went well overall. I used notecards, but only referred to them once or twice in the whole speech (one member commented that she didn't even realize I had used them). I was a bit nervous, but I controlled it well and didn't let it hinder me at all. I even surprised myself by inserting a couple slightly humorous lines that I had never thought to say before!

Things to work on...
1.) Step away from the lectern and connect with audience a bit more.
2.) Hand gestures (they were kind of repetitive).

Overall, I'm definitely excited about how it went. Looking forward to the next one!

Thank you to everyone who commented to this thread. It was an almost overwhelming response!

One last note- he probably won't see this, but I wanted to thank Steve for all he's done, including his article 'The Courage to Live Courageously'. That one article, above everything else he has written, has helped me step outside my comfort zone and grow as a person even when I'm feeling apprehensive (including my decision to join TM).

-Blake