Keeping it simple

Today's Toastmasters was Charlie.  In his opening speech about Being Optimistic, he did something that caught my ears. There was the section where he talked about how we are healthy, at least we're not earthquake victims; we have some wealth, at least we're not on the street.  Well, something along those lines.  Charlie used very simple words, and in a simple but repeating structure that is captivating to the audience.  'We are A, at least we're not B', while A and B are contrasting ideas.  Like a catchy tune, this type of verbal pattern is key to helping the audience remember.  I felt that Charlie could spend even more time fleshing out this section. 

At Toastmasters, some people make more progress than others.  Improvement is a function of three variables:  I = E + R + P.  E = Evaluation, R = Reflection, and P = Practice.   I can get good Evaluation, and read all about 'Owning the Stage' and watch the DVDs from Darren, but if I don't practice what I learned, I would be stuck at the same level.   I've seen some speakers stuck at the same gear for a while, not able to breakthrough.  I think one of the major obstacles for beginner speakers, is that there are so many things they are told (by evaluators or by themselves) to improve, and they try to do everthing at once.  Or don't know where to start at all.

Meeting: Jan 8th.

Snow did a really good job in delivering her first speech about her educational experience.  She spoke with poise and controlled her nerves really well.  While Snow described multiple facets of her UK experience, what really caught my ears was the part about working on a team project wiith classmates who came from other countries.  As part of the audience, I felt the eagerness to hear about the details.  In fact, I was expecting detailed story-line of "protagonist facing conflict, resolving it, and learning something from it".   Unfortunately this part of story was not richly developed. 

 As a speech, the Ice Breaker just like any other.  And I believe that the reason this is set up as the first speech of the manual, is to allow the speaker to focus on one but very important aspect of speech-delivery:  Engaging the audience with a focused message.  In this case, the message is 'how to let the audience know something special about the speaker'.   In my opinion, in 4-6 minutes, it is impossible to tell a compelling life story.   Imagine, if you were at a party, and you're introducing yourself, what would you usually say to make an impression?  Saying too little of many things, and the words do not stick in the audience's mind.  It is almost always better to focus on one story, one theme, and fully develop it.  Consider emphasizing the message by saying it differently, casting it  in another light.  You know all of your own life experiences and story to make yourself look colorful. 

But this is not limited to just the Ice Breaker speech.  Experienced speakers still can fall into this trap with other topics.  In seven minutes (or 10 minutes for theinspirational speech) the speech could have a simple form:  Intro of the theme, a body which has three points, and a conclusion.   However, often, the theme is too broad, and the audience may only remember one of the points, especially with the ever-shortening attention span.   Perhaps you can look at each of the three points as sub-themes, and can constitute a distinct speech.  For example, one of the speech I heard at the meeting was in regards to How to Plan a Perfect Vacation (the theme). The three points of the body, as far as I can recall, are 1. planning the transportation, 2. planning the hotel stay, and 3. I forgot...See what I mean by short attention span?   A more focused theme could be:  "How to plan your transportation for vacation".  There is enough information to develop this theme for the duration of 7 minutes. An even tighter focus would be a speech "How to save money on your vacation transportation" .