Speech Title: Crush Stage Fright L1 P2
Date: Jan 05th, 2025
Bangalore
From the desk of CM Manjunath…
Opening a Toastmasters meeting for the very first time in my life was exciting.
It happened yesterday, Jan 04th, 2025 at 3.30 pm India Time.
I was the Sergeant At Arms.
It was interesting but a little confusing…
Of course, I had written everything I wanted to say and stuck to those points alright,
I wasn’t nervous to speak on stage, unlike in the past, then why was I confused?
In the past meetings, as the SAA came up to speak, people would be chilled and even a few laughed, but this time…
They were so serious, approximately 40 pairs of eyes peering at me…
I wasn’t sure if it was reflection of me being too serious or did I perceive it incorrectly, I don’t know…
But when the General Evaluator DTM Geetha shared her views on the opening I was relieved.
A couple of comments on the voting/feedback form also revealed that the opening and the entire meeting brimmed with positive energy; I was thrilled to know.
Thanks to TM Suresh Madhavan for creating and sharing this beautiful video.
He captured the beautiful people, the indelible moments and the essence of an awesome Toastmasters meet. Thank you, sir!
A word about the Role Takers
Gokila (she is become more of my friend now, so I can address her by her first name :)) did great with this speech evaluation.
She appreciated the good work, and then pointed out two important things to enhance my speech:
- Eye contact. While I did look people into the eyes, it was fleeting. I could connect deeper with the audience if it were slightly longer.
- To inform the speech title (the TMoD had missed it by mistake. I made the same mistake on my first run at TMoD role, so I understand it can happen.)
DTM Geetha, who was the GE for the meeting, did a great job, in my opinion.
I admired her calm and collected demeanor. All her inputs were on-point. She’s very experienced and getting her appreciation for my Sergeant At Arms role was nice. Just being in her presence felt positive to me.
TMoD Sapna did a wonderful job as well. She was generous and kind with both her introduction and post-speech appreciation.
Thank you, ladies!
My fellow speakers did great:
TM Krishna and I joined this club at the same time.
Interestingly, both of us delivered our first and second speeches together.
He is a confident speaker.
TM Chandra is our senior and his speech was nostalgic. It took me down the memory lane.
He made the audience laugh.
Speaking of laughing we had our club’s humor queen TM Rekha evaluate Chandra’s speech.
She’s a natural at sharing valuable feedback mixed with humor. I admire that characteristic in her.
TM Kailash evaluated TM Krishna. I was seated right behind TM Kailash. I liked the fact that he took so much notes as people spoke.
I like people who take notes; it shows commitment.
All the role takers rocked: TM Aaron (PO), DTM Sunil Raghavan (TTM), TM Muthulakshmi (Listener), TM Sagar (Grammarian), TM Rajat (Ah counter), TM Nirmal (Timer) all did a great job.
TM Aaron’s first speech as a President was engaging. He gave every guest an opportunity to the stage and speak.
He made them feel comfortable.
He’s supportive makes people comfortable in his company that’s what I like the most about him.
I liked TM Sagar’s keen observation and useful inputs.
TM Rajat comes across as a very good impromptu speaker, in my opinion.
TM Nirmal did a good job as a timer; it was his first time doing it.
Of course, DTM Sunil was witty and humorous with his Table Topics.
Thank you!
The Script:
Opening
I remember when I was in middle school I got my first opportunity to speak on stage.
I was terrified.
My palms were sweaty and my heart was racing.
I was so afraid of what people would think about me.
I failed my first attempt.
Recently, I learnt that effective public speaking is all about techniques.
When I focused on these techniques instead of worrying about what people thought the fear diminished.
In the next 7 minutes I’m going to share those techniques so that you can crush that fear of public speaking and throw it in the dustbin. Are you ready for it?
Body
You already know that there are 3 parts to a speech.
Opening, body and conclusion.
But what should you say in the opening, what should you include in the body and how to close your speech?
Let’s dive into each one individually, first the opening…
I remember a couple of years ago I started a YouTube channel.
As I looked at the data of how many people watched my videos and for how long I was devastated.
Most people left my videos within the first 15 seconds. I was like why?
I had so much value in my video but people just left without even giving me a chance.
So I started watching interviews of top YouTube creators trying to figure out what they did differently.
Almost all of them spoke about the importance of powerful opening.
And guess what with public speaking, it’s no different.
Your opening will dictate whether people will listen to you or not.
The objective of opening is to get people’s attention.
You can do it in one of three ways:
- Open by asking a relevant question
- Share an amazing fact that would change people’s perspective about something
- My favorite: Open by telling a personal story
By doing one of these three things, you can make your opening powerful.
Now that you have their attention it’s time for you to move to the next stage… The body.
This is where the meat and potatoes are.
To make your speeches effective, first understand your audience.
Audiences can be grouped into two.
- Right-brained
- Left-brained
Right-brained audience likes stories and emotions.
What do you do to appeal to the right-brainers?
That’s right, you tell stories.
A good story has a 3-act structure:
- Context
- Conflict
- Conclusion
Context is all about giving just the right amount of background information.
It can be as concise as a single sentence or as elaborate as you want.
For example:
I remember shopping for a cake on New year’s eve. I love blueberry cheesecakes.
That’s the setup.
Next is conflict.
Without conflict, you do not have a story.
Let me say that again, without conflict or problems there’s no story.
Continuing with my example of the cake story…
Since it was late in the evening, all the cheesecakes were sold out.
They couldn’t bake a new one because they were busy, obviously.
My son wanted to try a different cake.
Problems, problems, problems.
That brings us to the conclusion.
How did you overcome the conflict or challenge?
What was the end result?
So, we checked other flavors of cake available.
There was fruit cake, strawberry cake and something called Tiramisu.
It had a combination of coffee, chocolate, cream and biscuits.
We bought it. It was delicious. And our New Years celebration was awesome!
Context, conflict, conclusion.
Stories for a right-brained audience. How do we deal with the left-brained audience then?
After my ice breaker speech…
There were at least two people who asked me about my business.
They wanted to know if I had a website.
They were either curious about me or they wanted to verify if what I said was true.
There’s nothing wrong with it.
This is where data, numbers, statistics come into picture.
Too many numbers can overwhelm, but the right sprinkle of statistics can lend credibility and appeal to analytical thinkers.
Example: Pubmed Central has researched and reported that 77% of the general population fears public speaking.
Public speaking phobia ranks higher than spiders, heights and even death.
Stories and data…
That’s what you include in the body of your speech.
Now, onto our final stage…
How to conclude your speech?
Do two things:
- Tie your closing to the content
- Give a powerful call to action
That’s it. That’s how simple it can be.
Conclusion
Open your speech with a personal story, a factoid or a question.
Include relevant stories and data in the body.
Close your speech with a powerful call to action.
Next time you’re on stage, imagine tossing your fear into that dustbin. Forget about what people think and focus on these techniques and you will come out with flying colors.