I gave my third Toastmasters speech at Farnham Speakers yesterday. The goal on this was ‘Get To The Point!’ which is pretty self-explanatory.
I did have some other goals to try and crack though:
- ‘Pointless’ body language had crept into my previous speech. In particular, pacing the stage when it had no link to what I was saying. I was determined to make sure that any body language used had a point! This seemed to work well.
- A key topic in this speech is football refereeing, either part of which may make people turn off immediately! So I had to keep it engaging. I got a positive response on the content.
What do I need to work on?
- Notes. I’ve never needed them before but I referred to them on occasion this time. BAD. Must prepare more to ENSURE this NEVER happens again.
- Hands. A suggestion that sometimes to drop my hands by my side. I think this is a good one as it will add a bit more power to when my hands are actually used.
- Calm down. My nerves are still coming through and this links into just relaxing and practising more. This will of course also solve the notes issue! Spending extra days has reaped benefits before, as demonstrated when I repeated a speech.
Now I need to start thinking about what to talk about for my fourth speech! Toastmasters is a fantastic, supportive organisation for improving on public speaking… and I can see the confidence helping with my refereeing as well!