A month or so later, my first speech consisted mainly of standing to attention and blurting out everything I could think of in my life. In my second, I tried to explain the mechanics of photography. That was it for a while and I just attended a few meetings, listened and clapped.

Eventually I realised I had to get going again and launched into a third speech which I approached with a little more thought. People at Brighton Speakers Club are very supportive and tips and tricks are shared freely. One evening I was saying that I found it difficult to do without notes and could never memorise a speech and someone suggested that I practice in the car on the way to work.

My daily commute is a drive of over an hour each way and so for a week I found myself muttering away to myself while I streaked up the M23 every morning. I’d get into the inside lane, watch the clock, wait for the next minute and then start the speech. This worked very well notwithstanding the occasional unplanned pause while I overtook a lorry or slowed to allow for a car in front. Tip for anyone thinking of copying this idea: Don’t start until you’re past the wiggly bit in the A23.

At my next Toastmasters speech I was flabbergasted to find I could recite the speech almost word for word. I was amazed that I was capable of this but then, why should I be different from anyone else? I continued for a few more speeches and then late last year I reached my sixth speech.

When we join Toastmasters we are given a course book which we follow or ignore as we wish. The book has ten types of speeches and each has a specific theme. The theme of the sixth speech is tonal variety. I ran through the speech fine and my reviewer praised my writing. However, it was obvious, that I had, more or less, spoken in a monotone throughout. When I get up to speak in front of an audience I find that it is all I can do not to freeze and like many of us any natural relaxed qualities such as tonal range go out the window.

I decided that reading the speech verbatim was holding me back. While initially it had been a support it was now holding me back. I needed to start to improvise and express myself a bit. I scheduled a repeat of my sixth speech but this time without rehearsing and without notes. I knew the general form of the speech and meandered my way through it making attempts at tonal variety by impersonating characters in a cartoon which I discussed.

It was better. Not perfect but better. I realise that this is an issue for me. I have difficulty relaxing and expressing myself. However I was surprised again that I was able to stand and speak for around six minutes without notes and without falling down.

Over Christmas I lapsed a bit but kept involved by doing a couple of evaluations and attending our Christmas dinner. At the last meeting we were told that Worthing Speakers Club could use some support and so, last Thursday, I drove over after work to see what’s what. The club meets downstairs in the Charles Dickens pub and there are fewer members than Brighton. I think the change did me good as, with so few people, I was forced to take on the role of Table Topics Master and Evaluator of one of four speeches. This pushed me into speaking in front of people I had mostly never met. I have to report that I survived.

Toastmasters seems a strange organisation. Why on earth would anyone go? Surely the people must be boring debating nerds? In fact nothing could be further from the truth. In our televised world obsessed with presentation it is easy to become convinced that everyone is infinitely confident and it is only oneself who becomes nervous when speaking in formal situations. Here’s the truth: Everyone gets nervous.

At Toastmasters I have met all sorts of people who attend for all sorts of reasons. Some are taking their first tentative steps and others and experiences and accomplished winners of speaking awards. The speeches can be informative, funny or absurd but they are always better than what’s on the telly. Toastmasters has shown me that it is natural to be nervous, that nerves can be  channelled and that doing this can be fun.

I enjoy the bi-weekly meetings and usually end up in the bar afterwards for a chat and a couple of beers. In fact, though this may be merely the ambiance of the Imperial Hotel at the bottom of First Avenue where we meet, Toastmasters now brings to my mind a comfortable Ealing Comedy and I would not be at all surprised to see Alec Guinness stand up one day to give his thoughts on Theosophy. I still can become nervous when speaking to groups but I am forced to admit: I can do it AND I improve all the time.

A few months back we were visited by an official within the Toastmasters organisation. He gave a speech and pointed out that, when speaking at Toastmasters, we are speaking to a bunch of people who want us to succeed. We are amongst friends. Everything we do at Toastmasters is practice and therefore there is no such thing as failure.

He then asked the question: What would you do if it was impossible to fail?

Various members at the club talk about improving listening skills along side the speaking skills. I’ve never really paid that much attention to the listening skills and thought is was just a thing “experienced toastmasters rattled on about”.

How wrong I was.

Just this morning I attended a breakfast networking meeting and listened to a presentation from a local charity. There were three presenters aver the 15 minutes and although the information they gave us was very good to hear, the delivery left much to be desired.

This is where my own “now improved” listening skills have come into their own. The amount of advice I wanted to give these presenters was huge. But what to do without offending them.

I resolved to congratulate them on a great presentation and tell them about my nervousness from a year ago when I started to give public presentations and told them about how I’d overcome my “umms and Ahs” and am now almost free from using those “filler words and sounds” and all due to the excellent guidance I get through Toastmasters and Brighton and Hove Speakers Club members.

So, if you have a fear of public speaking or want to take the step up to the next level of professionalism in your presentation skills, I urge you to come along to our next meeting and see how Toastmasters and Brighton and Hove Speakers Club can help to get you there.

When you join Toastmasters through Brighton and Hove Speakers Club you’ll receive two manuals that lead you through 10 speaking and 10 leadership projects in a caring and supportive environment where you can improve and get advice all at your own pace.

If you’ve been wondering what to do to overcome your fear of public speaking then why not make a new year resolution to make progress in 2012. Of course you’ll need all te help and support you can get and that’s where Brighton and Hove Speakers Club comes in.

As part of Toastmasters International we offer a very supportinve environment for people at all levels of public speaking weather it’s your first time ever in front of a group of people or you’re preparing for an important or critical speech at work or in your social life then we can help you to make your speech better than you ever imagined.

Visiting the club meetings is free no mater how often you come along. We’re always very welcoming to new people visiting the club. Becoming a member works out to around £2 a week.

What are you waiting for? Come along to our next meeting at the Imperial Hotel First Venue Hove.

We meet on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of each month. Check out our home page for the next meeting date.

Your presentation needs a clear introduction which case the audience interested, the middle where you explain your ideas, and the conclusion that summarises the main points you want the audience to remember.

2. Magic threes

When possible tricyclic RDAs analysts in threes. This is because audiences can more easily remember groups of three ideas.

3. Humour

If appropriate, are there any funny stories objects you can include?

4. Personalise

Audiences like to hear about personal experiences and opinions.

5. Speak up

Speak clearly and loudly enough to make sure the people at the back can here.

6. Vocal variety

try to vary your voice so that it’s interesting for audience to listen to. If you’re speaking to speak annual volume, sometimes speaking loudly or softly. Try to pause sometimes to add emphasis to a point.

7. Eye contact

Make eye contact with the audience. People trust speakers more if they make eye contact with them. If you have notes, look up from them so you make eye contact.

8. Body language

Stand firm and don’t fidget. Use gestures and body language to help you get your message across, take care not to overdo it though!

9. Practice! Practice! Practice!

This will help you feel more confident and to give a better presentation.

10. Be yourself! Smile!

A big thank you to Linda Hooper for providing these top ten tips!

Of course the obvious answer is to start at the beginning or even the title. This is what I used to do before I joined Toastmasters (Brighton and Hove Speakers Club). Since then I’ve come a long way with speech writing and now, would you believe, start with the end in mind.

Some people may call it “The big finish” after all most people will remember your closing lines and pretty much judge the whole speech on that so you’ll see the end is really important. I’ve come to learn that writing a speech almost backwards is an excellent way to leave your audience wanting more.

Learning how to perform well in Public Speaking is not just about the writing though, it’s about your delivery and the connection with your audience. A well written speech delivered poorly or that does not connect in some way with your audience will always be seen as a bad speech.

A good way to help connect with the audience is to make things very clear and one way is to:

Tell them what you’re going to tell them, then Tell them, Then tell them what you just told them.

It sounds crazy I know but it really does work. In fact I’m using a bit of that technique in this blog post. I started with what I was talking about (Where to start writing a speech) then i’ve gone on to talk about some of the techniques I use and now I’ve just recapped on what I was talking about.

in my last speech about censorship I started writing the speech with the closing question. “Do you need a governing body to tell you what you can or can’t watch or are you sensible enough to decide for yourself?”

This drove the rest of the speech where I cited examples of changing opinions and the social taboos that change over time.

I encourage you to think about the ending of your speech throughout the process of writing.

Not just someone who’s a little better than you, but someone who really knows their stuff. The reason for this is, if you’re learning from someone who’s just ahead of you, you’ll pick up all their bad habbits and have to try really hard later on to un-learn them.

Of course Darren is promoting himself and his high fee colleagues but I think the advice is good. When you learn to drive you’ll take lessons from an advanced driver and not someone that just passed their driving test. The reason is that the advanced drivers have a bunch of great experience behind them and can steer you away from the bad habbits before you’ve learned them.

The same goes for public speaking, someone who can command an audience and the stage is far more likely to know how to get you to that point in your speaking journey.

When I’m giving a speech at our club I always like it best when I’m being assessed by a really advanced speaker. They’re usually more practiced at giving the feedback and always a little more critical in their observations. Although I do get uncomfortable about the critisism, I sort of enjoy it too as it helps me to become a better speaker and to hone my overall perfromance in front of an audience.

This is what Toastmasters and Brighton and Hove Speakers Club is all about, creating better speakers and leaders. Each of our meetings is like a group coaching session where every speaker gets positive and supportive feedback on their prepared speeches with everyone getting a chance to speak at the meeting. Even if it just to introduce themselves. After all, we have to start somewhere and just getting up and saying your name for some is a real challenge.

Getting Coaching to improve your public speaking skills is an excellent way to improve your speaking and presentation performance, which in turn will add to and improve your leadership qualities.

Dave chose to speak about the “Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam”; a book which his mother had given him some 15 years ago. Dave quoted from the writing without notes and enchanted us all with the feeling and expression he put into the words. Describing each bit of the poetry as he recited.

The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.

There’s more about Omar Kayyam on Wikipedia if you’re interested.

I’ve been away on holiday for the last few meetings so I had not seen the new program format. i must say that this is the best speakers club program I has seen to date. A nicely laid out A5 size 4 page pamphlet. inside the front cover are descriptions of all the speech projects included in the toastmasters international Competent Communicator manual, this is a great reminder of what each speaker is trying to get accross and the skills they are trying to master. On the inside back (page 3) is the running order of the meeting with all items listed with exact times against each item. This is really useful when you’re running the meeting as it helps you to know if it’s all going to plan.

One of the main things in any Toastmasters speakers club meetings is getting the timing right. The Competent leader track, in part, is all about time management and this helps enormously. I was Topic Master for the evening so the start times against each item ensured that I knew when to start to wrap up my table topics section. I hit the time bang on, leaving enough time to get off stage and allow the toastmaster to intro the next section for them to start right on time.

We had two other speeches, an “Icebreaker” entitled “Life isn’t all funny Haha” and a “CC4″ entitled “Keep on Learning” both of which were very good indeed. All in all my first meeting for about a month was a really great and maybe the best meeting I’ve been to yet.

There is help in Brighton and Hove. It’s free and available twice a month on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday evenings.

Brighton and Hove Speakers Club (Toastmasters) is holds a fortnightly meeting where you can practice your interview techniques and get great feedback. Job seekers can drop by as a guest and get involved right away in our table topics round gaining valuable experience in answering impromptu questions.

The feedback could give you (the job seeker) that edge you’ll need when you get those real job interviews.

Brighton and Hove Speakers Club hold the public speaking meeting at the Imperial Hotel, First Avenue, Hove.

The just released  movie “Horrible Bosses” is doing well in the box office, but for a lot of working people, the subject of a “horrible boss” is a lot more personal than two hours entertainment at the Cinema.

A recent studyshowed that almost half of people said they had worked for an unreasonable manager. But employees came up with a better solution than the one depicted in the movie.

In the business world you’ll be asked to do presentations more often as the UK becomes more service oriented as an economy. Being able to present with confidence will become a key factor in gaining and retaining your position within the workplace. It’s not unusual to be asked to “present” at an interview these days so having the skills to plan, prepare and deliver a presentation that will engage  your audience will be invaluable.

Toastmasters provides a safe environment and coaching that we all need to become a Competent Communicator and a Competent Leader.