What motivates you to become a better speaker

Good Evening Fellow Toastmasters and most welcomed guests!

The Theme tonight is Laughter and the word of the day is Jovial.


Roy Smith, the Toastmaster for the evening kicked off the meeting by cueing us to laugh for 30 seconds. The room just exploded with various types of canned laughter. All of the speakers, evaluators, and the functionaries performed their roles with the utmost proficiency.


What motivates you to want to become a better speaker? Are you pushed by an employer to better your communications skills? Do you have a need to explain your profession, or provide a value proposition for your brand? Perhaps you want to feel more at ease in social settings? Could it be that you want to improve your personal relationships by communicating better. Are you an aspiring Speech Writer and want to hone your skills?


Either way, you have come to the right place. Westside Toastmasters Club #638 welcomes you!


After reflecting inward for a few minutes, I came up with a few answers to some of the questions which I have asked you. Years ago, as a sales professional, I recognized the importance of improving my sales presentations. You see, not only was I charged with communicating technical information such as network topology, WAN and LAN provisioning, or API specifications to integrate with my client’s proprietary software, for example. In a nutshell, I could have made the presentations simpler by discussing in simple language the Internet and software compatibility.

You see? I probably lost half of my audience of CFO, CEOs, and other chief executives in the room whom were probably more interested in how my presentation would affect their bottom line [will it cut cost or help save them money?], not how it would impact their networks or whether bandwidth would burst and at what rate. Jargon.

Technical Jargon. Any Jargon in your industry needs to be communicated or translated so that EVERYONE in your audience understands the value of what you propose to deliver to their company.

My grandmother use to say that “nothing beats a good understanding.” I understand this at the most basic level now. Toastmasters International has helped me with skills to communicate any topic to various audiences: to persuade, to motivate, to get your point across.


The Guests and their reason for attending tonight:

George S: "I have been planning to attend Toastmasters...I came here to check this out."

Jean Baptist: Jean is from France, works in the U.S. and wants to improve his speaking.


Jennifer Lee: "I was a member a few years ago for five years. I talked to Gary about the meeting."

Sue Hart: Recently relocated to California from Florida. "I founded a TM club in Clearwater, Florida."

Three speakers demonstrated various levels of speaking techniques, from speech two to advanced manual bonus speeches.

And the winners are:

Best Speaker: Ed Coffey, DTM
Best Table Topic: Josh
Best Evaluator: Mike Casey

Overall, the meeting delivered just what it does always; fun, challenge, and talent. Join us for the next meeting on Wednesday June 10, 2009 at the IHOP in Santa Monica, all the way in the back of the restaurants, in a meeting room. Hope to see you there! And by the way, remember to stand and tell us know what motivates you!

Sincerely,


Dazelle Steele




Public Speaking is a Breath of Fresh Air!
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Dazelle Steele
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