Dare to Believe... and be Different !

Jack Welch, famed CEO of General Electric, in a recent book talked about how he got "out of the pile" early in his career. He set himself apart from the rest of the "normal" employees and that made all the difference.

(And for those that have not heard... he also blew up a manufacturing facility ... and his career survived.)

On the other hand, it might feel sometimes like you are the "Mole" in the "Whack-a-Mole" game (see photo, copied from this website)... every time you pop your head up with something new or different, there is someone there to WHACK you back down.

Sometimes you just have to play a different game ... and not settle for mediocrity!

A recent article titled "Avoiding Mediocrity: Do You Dare to Be Different?" from lifehack.org is deceptively easy to read... but, for some of us, incredibly difficult to put into action in your life. The author, Donald Latumahina, poses the following questions...

Do you dare to be different?
1. Do you have a dream?
2. Are you doing what you want or what you should?
3. Do you worry more about being loved than being what you love?
4. Do you choose what is safe rather than what is right?
5. If you had only six months left to live, would you do what
you are doing now?

Click here to read the whole article.

Then, ask yourself... "Are you the person you want to be?"

Can you Dare to Believe... in yourself?

Throw Away the Crutch Words ....

Lifehack.org has provided another great article for Toastmasters....

"How to Cut Crutch Words When Giving a Speech"

Tips in the article include...

• Don't fear the silence


• Practice, practice, practice!


• Breathe In, Not Out


• Avoid them in Conversation


• Get a Counter


• Comma = 1 pause


• Period = 2 pauses


• Double Underline key words and phrases


• If Your Lost, Don`t Panic!


• Enthusiasm Cuts Crunch


• Plan Tricky Parts


• Quality over Quantity

I especially liked their BONUS TIP...

Bonus Tip - Join Toastmasters
I strongly suggest joining Toastmasters to anyone wanting to improve their speaking and get rid of nasty crutch words. I was able to go from a fountain of um`s and ah`s to near elimination with just a few months of weekly meetings. Toastmasters can also do more than just cut crutch words. They can also work with you on the finer points of presenting, such as gestures, tone of voice, body language and content. By working on these points you can master your craft and have the confidence to speak in front of any audience.

The author of this LifeHack.org article, Scott Young is a university student who writes about productivity, habits and self-improvement.

What can be accomplished in 5-7 minutes?

I found this on the blog, Presentation Zen, and thought it would be of interest to fellow Toastmasters.

Severn Cullis-Suzuki now in her late 20s, started the Environmental Children's Organization (ECO) when she was only 9-years-old. ECO was a small group of children committed to learning and teaching other kids about environmental issues. In 1992 they raised their own money and attended the UN's Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. A then 12-year-old Severn closed a Plenary Session with this amazing speech that received a standing ovation. She received a lot of praise for her talk then—even Al Gore called it "the best speech at Rio."

The video below shows Severin giving a speech that is under 7 minutes to an international environmental conference back in 1992. Take a look and you will see that age is not a restriction on public speaking.

Conquering Fear of Public Speaking...

In Steve Tobak's blog, Train Wreck: Steve Tobak's Views on Disfunctional Corporate Behaviour, he posts a short but very insightful article on Conquering Fear of Public Speaking.

Steve's article includes some good suggestions that could be used by Toastmasters ...

.... Well, there really is no wholesale cure [to fear of public speaking], so to speak. But in a way, that's good news. As big and bad as this fear is, it really only takes a small amount of time, understanding and practice to conquer it.

You see, fear is a natural response to a wide variety of stimuli. As I said before, it's an ancient survival mechanism. It's how you interpret it, however, that counts. Courage is recognizing your fear and doing the right thing anyway. You have to face your fear, and that's where the answer begins.

Steve's specific suggestions for conquering (or at least taming) feare are listed below (he has more explanation of each in his article)...

* Face your fear.
* Know your material cold.
* Take the pressure off yourself.
* Interact with your audience.
* Ask what's the worst that can happen?

He sums it up nicely...

... The point is you're not going to die or lose your loved ones. You'll always have another chance; there will always be other opportunities to shine. Don't think of your speech or presentation as an event; think of it as part of the process of life. Fear is part of it. Have courage and faith, you'll get
through it.

click here to read Steve's complete article !

Sorry seems to be ....

Seth Godin, author of "Purple Cow" and "The Big Moo" (both of which were raffled off as prizes at the D53 Fall conference last weekend), has a good blog article with some tips for Toastmasters.

I was at a gala a few weeks ago (featuring no less than ten speakers). At least 80% of them began their talk by saying,
"I know you're hungry, but..."
or "I know it's late, but..."
or "I know you want to go home, but..." and then apologized for giving a speech.

If your speech needs to be prefaced by an apology...
don't give it.

That's why they call it giving a speech. It's a
gift. If you have to apologize, it's no longer a gift, is it?

Special TM Opportunity... Helping with Global Messenger training

Greetings Fellow Toastmasters!

We have a special opportunity to use your Toastmasters skills outside of a regular Toastmasters meeting ...

The email below describes what Jim Parsons, Div.F Governor, did to help out the Special Olympics organization in the Albany, NY area and, through his contacts, they are now hoping to do something similar in our area!

Please read through Jim's brief email and let me know if you would be interested in participating in something similar in nearby parts of NY state (in a range of counties south of Albany to NYC). If you know of other Toastmasters who you think might be excited by this opportunity, please forward a link to this post to them too.

I am looking for a number of volunteers (4-8 to start) plus at least one person who would like to step up and take on the coordinator role for this event ... perhaps as a High Performance Leadership (HPL) project towards their TM advanced leadership award.

I hope to hear from you soon ! Please send me an email if there are any questions.

Dave Wheeler

Div.A Governor, 2006-8
email: divA53@district53toastmasters.org

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Jim Parsons
Date: Jul 24, 2007 12:21 PM

Subject: [d53toastmasters] Division F and Global Messengers
[NOTE: This is an OLD email that was sent back in July 2007. It is provided here for info only.]

Division F Toastmasters is joining with Special Olympics to train the Global Messengers who give speeches at various fundraisers for Special Olympics. The training will take place on Saturday, August 8 at the University of Albany from 10 to 4 and will involve 4-8 messengers and their mentors.

The messengers will already have been instructed to prepare a 2-minute speech. At the start of the workshop each messenger will be assigned a toastmaster to work with. This person will talk about what the messenger wants to say and will then evaluate the speech once it is given. After all the messengers give their first speech, I plan to give a short speech on giving speeches and I would like to get a volunteer from Toastmasters to give a short speech on writing a speech.

Once our educational speeches are done, the evaluators will meet with the messengers and discuss their speech and how they can improve. If we have time, I thought we could do some table topics as a group to help the messengers get some practice. I have asked the folks at Special Olympics to help us by submitting questions that the messengers may be asked when they are at an event.

We will conclude by having the messengers give their speech once again and incorporate the changes that we recommended.

Please let me know if you would like to participate. I am looking for 4-8 volunteers to help with this program. Your role would be to help evaluate the messenger's speeches for both content and presentation and help them improve. The goal is to have the messengers finish the day with a good speech that they can give in public. As I mentioned I am also looking for someone to give a speech on writing a speech or some other topic that you think will be helpful.

For those of you outside Division F who are interested in this project, I will write a summary of our day after we are done. There may be a Special Olympics Chapter in your area and you may wish to contact them.

Thanks you!

Jim Parsons

_._,___

The Fall 2007 Leadership Summit & Conference ....

WOW !!!

What a fun time!

I hope everyone had as good a time (and learned as much) as I did at the District 53 conference last Saturday!


Highlights included...


Loads and Loads of Energy & Lots of prizes...

Special thanks to our MC for the day... Croix Sather.


The educational sessions were very good... some even said "OUTSTANDING"! (I'm not making that up!) Click here to download the Attendee Reference book and learn more about all the great sessions we had. It also includes "Where's Waldo at the Fall Conference?" and "One Last Thought..." from the host Div.A Governor.

The contests were INCREDIBLE !

It was an evening of many excellent speeches and Brian Cavanaugh won the Humorous contest (on the left in the picture to the right) while Nana Danso was the first runner-up. The person between them is the "Dare To Believe" guy from the District 2007-8 logo. (He was known as simply "Dare Guy" by the end of the night.)

In the Tabletopics contest, Marv Cross won (center in picture below) with Liz Trendowski (left) and Kate Zap (right) as 2nd and 1st runner up, respectively. (If my memory is correct.) The TableTopics question (to the best of my recollection) was something like..."Your autobiography is # 1 on the best seller list. What 3 themes were features in the book?"

Special Thanks to our ContestMasters...
TableTopicsMaster ...Glenn Harrison and Humor Contestmaster ... the well-dressed Bill Corbett.


Attendence at the Fall conference perfectly fit the facility. In terms of numbers, there were 50 more people at this event than there were the last time it was held in Division A. Granted, they were hindered by the weather in 2004 but the number of people was still good for a Fall conference!



Everyone enjoyed the two speeches by International Director, Kristin Nicholson ... especially her energy and contagious (positive) attitude! We also learned about DISC (ask an attendee who heard her speech what each letter stands for).


Here is what our District Governor had to say ....

I’m delighted with the conference and ecstatic about the superb job done by the conference team. A great time was had by all and I’m certain our financial results will be impressive. BTW, I’ve got the logo guy in my office and I thank the team for creating a giant version of our logo for this year. I was and am
thrilled by it.

I extend my thanks to all who attended and to those
who were not able to be there, you missed a truly memorable gathering of our members.

Will Ryan DTM

Overall.... A GREAT time was had by all and hopefully next time we will have even more people !

Please leave your comments below ! We would love to hear what you think about the conference !

Dave "The Wheel" Wheeler
Division A Governor, 2006-8

Good editing tips!

The folks over at lifehack.org have another great article for Toastmasters...

"Improve your writing with these editing tips!"

The more speeches I write, the more important an effective editing and refining / improvement process is to the quality of my speech. This is especially critical (or at least most noticable) in Toastmasters speech contests where, assuming you win, you get a chance to give the same speech multiple times and edit/improve it between each speaking opportunity. (That also highlights a drawback of just doing a different speech every time as you move through a Toastmasters manual... you don't get to develop your editing skills as much.)

Here is what they say over at Lifehack.org...

... if writing isn’t taught well enough or often enough these days, editing is hardly taught at all. This is too bad, since editing is where the real work of writing is at. More than just proofreading, good editing improves the clarity and forcefulness of a piece.

Here’s some tips and tricks to help you make your writing more effective:

• Read out loud
• Read in reverse
• Sleep on it
• Cut, don’t add
• Justify yourself
• Eliminate pretentious language
• Throw out and get rid of unnecessary redundancies
  [blog editor's note: See the unnecessary redundancy in this tip?]
• Kill unsightly adverbs
• Avoid Passive sentences

Lifehack.org sums it up this way...

Good editing, like good writing (or, better, as part of good
writing), is an art. It takes time and practice to develop a real talent for editing, but the end result is worth it — your writing will be more alive, more effective, and ultimately more likely to be read. And that is, after all, what’s important: that your audience reads and, just as crucially, understands your
work.

Click here for the complete article!

Good suggestions for anyone writing their next speech ... or an article for the Yankee Activator !!

... or even a blog !

More about the District Council Meeting...

District Council Meeting Info

In November and May, our monthly district business meeting is a bit different from our other 10 monthly meetings. Instead of an Executive Committee meeting, which includes the 44 district officers, the November and May district meetings are District Council meetings.

The DC meetings include all 44 district officers, but also include the Presidents and VPEs from each of our clubs. We still do the Division and Sr Team reports, but we also conduct other district business that meeting representatives are entitled to vote on, as described below.

District officers are expected/encouraged to attend both annual DC meetings. However, you do not need to RSVP to the District Secretary, like we request for the other 10 monthly meetings. That is because your registration for the conference is also your RSVP for the business meeting. I do hope that you are planning to attend and have already registered.

A message was sent to all D53 Club Presidents and VPEs that we have e-mail addresses for. This is essentially an electronic copy of the call to meeting invitation that was sent in hard copy a few weeks ago. Please be advised of the following:

1. The District Council, which always holds its meetings in conjunction with the District Conference, is the voting body of the district. Any business activity that impacts the entire district, such as district officer elections and club alignment (conducted during the Spring DC meeting), and budget approval (conducted during the Fall DC meeting), must be voted on and approved by the DC. For this reason, it is critically important that we achieve a quorum at this meeting. We need YOUR help in encouraging each club to be represented at this meeting.

2. Each club gets 2 votes, one for the President and one for the VPE. Any club member in good standing can be identified to represent one or both of the club's eligible votes. If the club member attending is NOT the President or VPE, a PROXY form signed by the President or VPE is required to identify the attending club member as the official representative for the club. A single signed proxy can entitle any one member to represent one or both votes for the club. If the attending member is either the President or VPE of the club, then that person can represent one or both votes for the club, AND NO PROXY FORM IS NEEDED.

3. If no member of the club is able to attend, then that club will not be represented at the DC meeting. ONLY a member of the club can represent that club at the DC meetings. This is very different from the Regional and International meetings where the clubs can assign their proxies to the District Governor to vote on their behalf. Because of this significant difference, meeting proxy forms are always a source of confusion for club officers and even for district officers, such as yourselves.

4. NOTE that a district officer automatically has one vote at the DC meetings, and it is therefore important for you to attend as well. You can also represent one or both votes for a club or clubs that you belong to. If you happen to be the President or VPE of the club, then the above rule holds and you do not need a proxy form. If you are NOT the President or VPE of your club, you can still represent them but you, just like any other club member, require a proxy form signed by either the President or VPE.

5. As a district officer, you can represent a maximum of three votes, one for your district office and up to two from a club or clubs that you belong to. No matter how many clubs you belong to, you are still limited to a maximum of three votes. This can be your district office vote plus two votes from one of your clubs, or one vote each from two clubs that you belong to.

6. So the maximum number of votes that any representative can hold is three if the person is a district officer and two otherwise.

7. It is also very important to note that your proxy or your position is not your ballot to vote, it only makes you eligible. Every voting representative must pick up a Credentials Package at the Credentials Desk, near the registration table, prior to the DC meeting. The Credentials Table staff validates each person seeking to be a representative at the DC meeting, in accordance with the rules described above. Once validated, the member will be given a Credentials Package, which includes one voting ballot, and one or two additional ballots, if they request and qualify for them. The DC meeting begins at 4:00pm and the Credentials Table closes at 3:00pm so that the quorum report can be assembled in time for presentation at the start of the meeting.

8. Note that the district proxy form can be copied as needed by your club officers. The form presented does NOT have to be the original form sent to them a few weeks ago (another difference from the Regional and International proxy forms). They can use the original, a copy, a printed copy from the an electronic CTM kit, etc. A copy of the proxy form was also included in your CTM kit, which was sent to you as well as the club Presidents and VPEs a few weeks ago. The copy sent out is intended for you to provide to your clubs if they lose theirs. It is not needed by you for any other purpose. So district officers can feel free to distribute copies to any club that needs them. In addition to the copy included in the attached CTM kit, I there is also a PDF copy of just the proxy form, in case it is needed by one of your clubs.",

I know this all seems a bit complex, but it's the way we need to conduct business for our DC meetings. I do hope that this explanation helps to clarify this process for you a little, and that you will be able to share this clarification with your clubs. If you have any questions about any of this, let me know.

Dare to Believe!!

District 53 motto 2007-2008

-----------------------------------------------------

Norm Thibodeau (DTM)

Toastmasters International District 53

Secretary

secretary53@district53toastmasters.org

Editor's Note: This was originally written and addressed to District officers and edited slightly for use by anyone attending the Council meeting (club officers as well as district officers). We tried to be 100% accurate in our edits, but you may want to contact your Area Gov. or Div.Gov. or Norm for clarification of any questions.

Proxies for District Council meeting at FALL CONFERENCE, 11/3/2007

Club Presidents and VPEs:

As club Presidents and VPEs, you are members of the Toastmasters District 53 District Council.

There are two meetings of the District Council each year and they are held during the Fall and Spring District Conference.

You are the representatives from your club at these important business meetings.

This message is an electronic copy of your meeting invitation to the Fall 2007 District Council meeting, to be held in Fishkill New York on November 3.

District Secretary, Norm Thibodeau, sent out a "Call To Meeting package" and as club officers, you should make plans for your club to be represented at this meeting. The hard copy (paper) version of this is in the mail and you should receive it soon.

In order to vote on behalf of your club, you need to visit the Credentials table at the conference to pick up your Credentials Package, which is your ticket to vote during the business meeting.

Note that, if you can not attend yourselves, any other club member can be authorized by you to represent either or both of you at the business meeting so that your votes will be counted. In order to do this, your designated representative (or representatives) must present a Proxy form signed by either of you to the Credentials table at the conference to pick up your credentials package(s) and therefore be allowed to vote at the meeting.

A proxy form is only required if a club member OTHER THAN the President or VPE will be representing one or both votes from your club.

Also note that the Credentials table closes one hour before the start of the business meeting. This is all explained in more detail in the Call To Meeting package.

Again - please review the package at your earliest convenience and make plans now for your club to be represented. If you have any questions about these materials or this process, feel free to contact me.

Hope to see you all at the conference and at the business meeting.

Dare to Believe!!
District 53 motto 2007-2008
-----------------------------------------------------
Norm Thibodeau (DTM)
Toastmasters International
District 53 Secretary

What are your talking points?

Once again, Lifehack.org provides an article of interest to Toastmasters titled, "What are your talking points?"

I was advised by a mentor to have three descriptions of my work ready to recite at a moment’s notice: a three-minute overview, a 12-minute presentation, and a half-hour discussion. ...

... Having a set of clear, easily-remembered, and well-supported talking points means you always have an outline to work from, so you don’t leave anything out — and so you can hang as much, or as little, as necessary from that outline to fill out whatever time is allotted.

Of course it does not hurt to reinforce the "Power of 3"...

... speechwriting coach Joan Detz suggests that you have three (no more, no less) talking points for any given project. Two is too thin and unsubstantial, and four and higher is more than anyone can easily grasp.

They also provide another key aspect of talking points....

The idea is not to add more talking points but to explain and expand the same talking points more depending on how much time you have.

In conclusion...

Staying focused on talking points gives your audience, whether one person or a hundred, an instant take-away, and prevents you from getting off-track. Each becomes a kind of mission statement, preventing you from dwelling on the trivial at the expense of the truly important.

click here to read the complete article !

Fall Conference Leadership Team ... In Action!

In a clear demonstration of their commitment to making the upcoming Fall conference one of the BEST EVER! ...



... some of the Fall conference leaders have put this video together to show the level of excitement and energy you can expect at the District 53 Fall Leadership Summit at the Holiday Inn in Fishkill, NY on Nov.3rd, 2007.

click the link below...

http://www.jibjab.com/starring_you/receipt/1700750




enjoy !

Hope to see you at the conference!
Sign up now at www.district53toastmasters.org/conferences !

Conference Co-chairs... Kickin' the show into action!

The conference co-chairs, Colleen Yarter and Bruce Cornwell, have been working tirelessly to make the Fall conference one of the BEST in recent history.

In an effort to give you a taste of the energy level at the upcoming conference, we have put together this video (click on link below) featuring the conference co-chairs.

Click this link to see the video ...

http://www.jibjab.com/starring_you/receipt/1699709

Be sure to email it to others who might enjoy it (and may need to sign up for the conference)!

Division C Results....

Niantic, CT - On October 15th the Division C Speech Contest was held at the Niantic Community Church. About 50 people attended to see who would represent our division at the District Speech Contest in Fishkill, NY on November 3rd.

The event was host by the Niantic Toastmaster Club. Club President and C3 Area Governor, Lynnea Mahlke and Treasurer and C6 Area Governor, Cate Steel, organized this event. Great job Lynnea and Cate!

We were extremely honored to have Past District Governors, Frank Kane and Joe Zafian and Lt. Governor of Marketing, Marsha Kiley, attend our contest.

The Table Topics Speech Contest was the first event of the evening. All six contestants were escorted out of the room, and then one by one each contestant was brought back in and asked to speak about their 15 minutes of fame. Answers ranged from running with goats and cows, to scooping dog poop from rescued dachshund dogs.

Next up was the Humorous Speech contest. Speakers spoke about The Lion King Movie, motivational myths about money, an infomercial describing public speaking gadgets that every speaker cannot be without, not having to wear a girdle, high school fun and childhood memories.

Let me tell you, the judges had their work count out for them this night. Everyone was FANTASTIC!

At last the results were in and the Contest Master and Chief Judge announced our winners.

Humorous Speech Winners: (left to right)
James Keeny (2nd place), Sreeni Voleti (3rd place), David Thackston (1st Place)




Table Topics winners: (left to right)
Joe Zafian (2nd place), Liz Trendowski (1st place), & Richard Dalkowski (3rd place)

The event ended with a few comments from the Division Governor, Sharon Mercado, and Lt. Governor of Marketing, Marsha Kiley.

It was an absolutely amazing evening! The speeches were phenomenal, the food was delicious and everyone in attendance had fun! What a night!!!!

Hope to see you all at the Fall District Conference in Fishkill, NY to support and cheer on our Division C winners, David Thackston (Humorous) and Liz Trendowski (Table Topics). For more information about the conference, click here.

Watch out NY, because Division C members are the Champions of the World!!!!!

Toastmasters "in action" !

Toastmasters is about developing skills... but what good are they if you don't get a chance to use them in "the real world"?

Put another way... If a bear speaks in the woods.... does anyone hear him?


For example, here are a few pictures of Dave Wheeler (member of WestConn Toastmasters, Socially Speaking Toastmasters and DiversityUSA/Advanced Toastmasters clubs) giving a presentation for his company, Trident Industrial Inkjet, at the recent Pack Expo tradeshow. Pack Expo was held from Oct.15th to 17th at the Las Vegas Convention Center and Dave gave 4 presentations at 3 different booths.




(He also built the stainless steel rolling demonstration station seen in the background. The Trident "demo" tool chest may be featured in an upcoming YouTube.com video spoof of the TV show, "Pimp My Ride" called "Pimp My Toolbox".)





Do you or someone from your club have any pictures showing how you used your Toastmasters skills in "the real world"?

Please send them along with the background story to us at DivA53@district53toastmasters.org and we will post them as an inspiration to others !





Speak UP !

Division A Contest Winners !!!!

On Wed. Oct. 10th, the Division A 2007 TableTopics and Humorous speech contests were held at the Wooster School Library in Danbury, CT.

Representatives from 4 areas were on hand for a lively evening of incredible displays of impromptu speaking as well as some truly entertaining humorous speeches.

The winners included...

Tabletopics Contest

1st Place Kate Zap,

2nd Place, Liz Smith

3rd Place, Pat Hendrickson

Humorous Speech Contest

1st Place, Nana Danso with his speech titled, "The Secret"

2nd Place, Pearl Golay with her speech titled, "A Permanent Crisis"

3rd Place, Adam Izzo with his speech titled, "Barbecue"

Shown in the pictures here are....

Top picture (from left to right).... Kate Zap, Nana Danso, Pat Hendrickson, Pearl Golay and Liz Smith.

Bottom picture (left to right)... Kate Zap and Nana Danso.

It was a great evening and a lot of fun for everyone who was able to attend. Special thanks go out to WestConn Toastmasters who hosted the event and provided refreshments!

See you at the Fall Conference on Nov.3rd! Let's Cheer on Kate & Nana !

Humorous Speech development....

Here is an article by John Kinde, "Humor specialist", that analyzes a real Toastmasters Humorous Contest speech (not in our District) and provides some very valuable insights into the tools that are available for Humorous speaking!

Check it out! (Especially if you are competing in any of the upcoming Division contests!!)

Plus John Kinde's article and Steve Pavlina (the speaker John interviews for the article) get "bonus points" for mentioning one of our favorite World Champions of Public Speaking, Darren LaCroix!

Another Toastmasters Testimonial....

Those of us who have been part of Toastmasters for a while understand what it can do for you ... but sometimes it may be hard to explain it to someone who has not experienced it ... or someone who is intensely afraid of public speaking...

I came across a Toastmasters-related post by a blogger from Las Vegas, Erin Pavlina, and thought I would share it (click here to read the whole article). Below are some excerpts ....

Are you terrified of public speaking? Do you go out of your way to avoid having to make a speech or presentation? Fear of death and fear of public speaking are reported to be the two things people fear the most. I can attest to the fear of public speaking part as I grew up being absolutely terrified of having to speak in front of a group of people. But that is changing for me.

Erin tells her story of fear-filled school presentations and how her career path led her to Toastmasters. Here is her description of her icebreaker speech...

In joining Toastmasters I was pushing my boundaries, cutting a swath through fear, and turning a blind eye to retreat. I went kicking and screaming but I went. I did my ice breaker speech (4-6 minutes, tell us all about yourself, go) and was surprised to find that half way through my speech I actually started to enjoy myself. I thought maybe I’d been replaced by a clone in the middle of my speech. But no, it was all me.

She sums it up this way...

I’m no expert yet, believe me. My butterflies aren’t flying in formation, but I can see that someday they will. I can see that someday I will be on stage speaking about something I’m passionate about and still be able to breath. I know that someday I’ll leave the stage while thunderous applause follows me and be glad I had joined Toastmasters before I had to give that speech.

Sometimes all it takes to conquer a fear is to be willing to take the first step. Even when you don’t feel capable or qualified. Even when you don’t want to but you know it’s the best thing for you. Even when you’d rather die than push through it. What is it they say? “Feel the fear and do it anyway.” That sums up my entire experience with speaking in public.

Everytime you face down a fear it holds less power over you. And it’s not just fear of public speaking I’m talking about. Are you avoiding something you know you should or want to do because of fear? Are you afraid to ask someone out on a date? Afraid to ask for a raise at work? Afraid to admit you’re addicted to something? Face the fear. There is nothing more empowering than facing down a fear. Go a few rounds with it and you’ll find it only holds as much power as you’re willing to give to it.

If you’re fearful of public speaking I highly recommend Toastmasters. It doesn’t matter if you have to give presentations for your job or if you’re a teacher or if you’re someone who just wants to be more comfortable speaking, Toastmasters is the place to conquer your fear of public speaking.

... Don’t go to your grave avoiding anything you really want to do because you’re too afraid. Barrel right through the fear and fling it behind you. Step on it, bury it, shot-put it to the moon. Just don’t let it stop you. The power is all yours!

Erin is definitely "Setting a New Standard" for herself through Toastmasters. Are you?

The theme for the Fall Conference on Nov.3rd, 2007 in Fishkill, NY is "Set a New Standard" and it could be a perfect opportunity for you to, as Erin might say, "Barrel through some fear and fling it behind you" !

We hope to see you there !

10 Tips for asking questions from the audience

There are good ways and bad ways to ask questions from the audience ...

There is a YouTube.com video making the rounds on the internet showing a guy who asked some questions at a John Kerry appearance and was dragged from the microphone by security. This video is usually referred to by the line the guy says..."Don't tazer me, bro!"

Clearly this is not the reaction you want when you ask a question as part of the audience.

On the other hand, there are also some GOOD things you can do to present yourself well when you ask a question as part of an audience.

Gretchen Rubin gives us "10 Tips for asking questions from the audience" from her blog, "The Happiness Project". ...

1. Wait for the microphone, if there is one.

2. Pause for silence – don’t talk over a chattering crowd.

3. Don’t make excuses for yourself. This is tiresome and unnecessary.

4. Don’t address speakers by their first names. Some people will disagree with me, I’m sure, but this always strikes me as affected and inappropriately familiar, unless the mood of the presentation is extremely casual.

5. Don’t be long-winded.

6. Plan it out. This will help you avoid being long-winded.

7. Don’t ask double question. Give other people a chance.

8. If appropriate, say a little about yourself. Just a little.

9. Speak up. Nothing’s more frustrating to the audience than not being able to hear a question.

10. Remember: you’ll be happy that you asked a question. I’m one of those people who rarely asks a question at such an
occasion. I never spoke in class in law school. But whenever I do participate, I feel more engaged and enjoy myself more. I’m working on speaking up.

Gretchen gives us some good ideas that we can try the next time we have the opportunity to ask a question as part of the audience!

Let us know in the comments if you have other ideas or suggestions !

Beware the Garbage Trucks !!!!

I just came across an article by David J. Pollay that I really enjoyed reading and I hope you do too.

His story reminded me of a saying that my Dad used to tell me when I was playing basketball and would get upset by a bad call by a referee. He would say, "If someone offers you a big, smelly bag of hot, steaming, disgusting (you get the picture) ... it is up to you whether you accept it or not."

David Pollay's article takes that same line of thinking and adds his own New York story. I think you will find that his story will help you get through your day with less stress and allow you to focus more on the important things in life without being distracted by the "Garbage Trucks".

Check it out... http://pos-psych.com/news/david-j-pollay/20071002426