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When people hear that you're representing the Wellington Region for an International Speech Contest, they take a second look at you - trying to spot the quality that escaped them in the first glance.
 The truth is that I'm not naturally a strong, vibrant, passionate speaker.
I don't have a magnetic personality and charisma that makes people think - this is a winner, this is someone special.
This years challenge for myself was to compete in the International Speech contest at the club level, and to commit the time and effort that I would ideally put into each of my speeches.
There were a number of barriers to overcome.
The first was that I hated practising, I felt so stupid talking to myself, and embarrassed talking in front of my wife. I couldn't even practise before a mirror.
The second was my reliance on notes - I knew that a contestant could not afford to hang off notes if they wanted to be successful (and I wanted to try my best).
And the final hurdle was my speech development - the previous three speeches had gone overtime, and some had been based on the topics of the projects (vocal variety and gestures).
I chose a topic that I could relate to: procrastination.
I knew that I was a procrastinator and had some ideas for the speech.
Two months later I was representing Area E9 at the Division E conference in Whitby.
My wife and many from my area supported me, and so dressed for success - with a tie that matched my prop duster (good for a gag), I felt proud and confident.
It also helped that I had attended a number of conferences previously and knew many people there.
Crikey, being on a stage sure is different from standing down level with your audience. It makes you feel that your voice has to be larger and the actions wider, and to some degree this is true.
At the end of my speech I felt relieved that I had done a reasonable job (bar a few minor mistakes) and that I could hold my head high when I next saw my club and others from my area.
Phew, it was all over - or so I thought.
The contestants all stood on the stage and glowed in the warmth of our Divisions applause. The contest chair read out 3rd place, then 2nd place, boy this was exciting - I wonder who will get first place ? I thought.
To my shock horror, it was ME !
Representing a division of about nine hundred people is slightly more pressure, and I felt obliged to try harder to refine my speech - give it a punchier opening and clarity.
Thanks to the other clubs in my division I had some speaking opportunities outside my own club and area - which helped my confidence.
After a particularly bad experience at Peninsular Presenters I turned to Judy Love ATM-Silver for advice and she provided some desperately needed focus.
With the support of about twenty members of my division, I attended the District 72 Convention in May this year - and was proud to represent my division.
It was a great honour.
What I learnt:
- Practise out loud, practise before different audiences in different settings, I cannot stress enough the importance of practise.
- Know your key message - this is your diamond. Cut and polish it until it shines. Then David Brooks advises - take a bit of polish off to make it fresh.
- Get some feedback - but not too much. Overwhelming yourself with a dozen clubs different feedback for a variety of contexts and versions of your speech is not as useful as seeking just a few quality feedbacks.
What I would do differently next time:
- Do it for yourself - don't pressure yourself that you're doing it for your club (25 members), for your area (100 members) or your division (900 members). You may feel pressured enough without this added burden.
- Don't make tooo many changes - while I like the changes that I did make, I felt that the uncertainty of how it was progressing added stress and possibly disadvantaged me by reducing my practise time.
- Relax - at the end of the day it's just a contest, not a life and death situation. In a year's time people will have probably forgotten all about this contest and will be focusing on the next.
David Brooks pointed out three areas where many of us can improve:
- Internalise (know) your speech rather than memorise (recite).
- Don't practise your gestures or otherwise gesture in a manner unlike normal conversation - this looks unnatural to the audience also, David says.
- Stop moving around the stage too much, it's actually distracting the audience from your message.
Entering a contest is a great way to improve your speaking skills if you put the effort in that it deserves - the best gains come through hard work.
If you feel that your Toastmasters experience has plateaued and you haven't entered a contest before, then carpe diem and enter the upcoming Humorous or Table-topics contests coming in July!
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