Draft a speech on Monday to be delivered 4 days later, on Friday. Turns out I spent only 4 hours crafting the 10 minute speech. And it went really well!

Inspired by an article in Toastmaster Magazine’s April 2011 edition entitled “How to Write Your Speech in One Hour” (pg. 8), I set out with a similar goal.

My goal was to spend as little time as possible crafting this speech. And with no rehearsal at all – none. It’s my newest speaking experiment to become more comfortable with the fear of public speaking. For this speech I focused on topics that I knew well or experiences in my life that really sank in. My plan was to just flat-out make bubble-notes, block the order/flow, then write an opening line and a conclusion. And no rehearsal. None. Simply know the order/flow of the story. And stick the opening and closing!

The goal is to feel like myself on stage; like “it ain’t no big deal.”

Mon, Apr 23: Initial list of possible speech topics.
Time spent: 1 hour.

Tues, Apr 24: Narrow down to 2 topics (it was between “WordPress how-to” and “Juicing”). Draft final topic: “Juicing.” Public speaking tip: This was a topic I knew well, as I’d been juicing for the past 2.5 months and could easily discuss the topic. I first blocked out the “flow” of the speech by drawing 2-3 boxes next to each other. Then repeated this box-drawing process for at least another 3-4 rows. Next, I titled each box and added some basic text. Each row gets labelled with a letter (A, B, C, D), and each box within a row gets numbered (1, 2, 3).
Time spent: 2 hours.

Wed, Apr 25: Write 2nd draft of final speech. Change title of speech to: “What Does Kale Look Like?” Public speaking tip: This question of ‘what does Kale look like’ was a real turning point for me in my actual juicing experience and served as a strong memory/flow anchor. I wrote this final draft in a letter-paragraph, number-sub-paragraph format. The paragraphs switch back-and-forth between a “storyline” focus and a “product/how-to” focus. This helps to keep the speech easy to follow, relatable and sharable.
Time spent: 1 hour.

Fri, Apr 27: Presented model speech for the District 39, Div D Toastmasters Evaluation Contest. Location: Sacramento County Board of Supervisors Chambers, 700 H St, Sacramento, CA.

Note: the title of this post is definitely a nod to Tim Ferriss and The 4-Hour Workweek

War Veteran, Amber Forest, served in the Army in Iraq. She returned a very different, difficult and depressed person. She lost her job and then her house – and ended up homeless for 10 months during the winter in Colorado.

Then somebody mentioned that she might have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and recommended that she visit the VA Hospital. She went. And now she’s way up on the upside of all the hell that is PTSD.

PTSD was the topic of Amber’s speech Monday evening (Nov 7, 2011) at our Capital City Toastmasters meeting in Sacramento. It was her Ice Breaker, which is the very first speech that anybody gives. It was amazing! The best I’ve ever heard in the 2 years that I’ve been a Toastmaster.

Her story about working through PTSD is the sole reason that Amber joined Toastmasters – to get her story of hope out to the world.

Amber stood in front of us and presented her speech with such conviction, honesty, humility and proof-of-hope. I was her speech evaluator, and I got to mention that she presented the best Ice Breaker I’d ever heard! And nothing in her speech was over-dramatic, hyped up or depressing. It was simply the truth about war, combat Veterans, PTSD and hope.

Amber shared all the facts and symptoms of PTSD. And she shared some of the triggers that set off debilitating flashbacks – hers is the sound of helicopters. She also mentioned that as she was spiraling out of control, she had no idea what was actually going wrong with her. It took an outside observer to suggest that she might be suffering from PTSD and that she should visit the VA Hospital.

Toastmasters is part of her recovery. Not for PTSD itself, but for spreading the message of hope to other soldiers. Amber has fought in Iraq, suffered the symptoms and the triggers, been homeless – and is now high up on the making-it-back side of life! She’s living proof that actually getting help and getting a proper diagnosis really works.

Amber’s Toastmasters speech was solid, factual and an easy-to-follow recipe for all Veterans who find themselves losing their job, their family, their home and their life.

After Amber’s speech, everybody replied how motivational it was. And it was. But it wasn’t rah-rah, you-can-do-it, go-get’em kinda stuff. It was straight from the battlefield, straight from the heart, and the steps that actually worked for her. It was an autobiography with a purpose, a plan and a path out of misery.

“I just watched your YouTube video “If you don’t follow your passion, you suck” and was thoroughly impressed.

“I’m doing my 10th [Toastmasters] speech this week and wanted to say thank you for the inspiration. You truly are an amazing speaker. I found the link to your website on YouTube and it seems as though you also have a successful business. The company I work for, BluEra, builds evolved and awakened teams from executive search and team transformation practices. Much of what you said in your speech was very relevant to what I see and do in a given day.

“Best of luck with your business and thank you again for posting your video, it was a pleasure to watch.”

Hilary May Smith
Toastmasters member
Calgary, Canada
Oct. 2011

Body language is my secret to overcoming* the fear of public speaking.

In my experience, I’m either standing or sitting while I wait for my turn to speak. I don’t really like the waiting part: my knees and hands used to shake uncontrollably and my teeth would chatter. But nowadays, I’m just plain antsy and excited to get in front of a crowd.

Here’s what worked for me to overcome* my butterflies:

1. Sit up straight: physically move forward in your seat. When you’re sitting back in your seat, the butterflies are in the pit of your stomach. It’s like they’re in front of your stomach. By sitting up straight, your back moves away from the back of your seat, where the butterflies are. You’re physically moving forward, so you’re now in front of the butterflies. That’s how I always envision it: By sitting up straight, I’m pushing myself through the butterflies and they’re now behind me. I’m typically sitting down before my name is called to speak, so the difference between sitting back in my chair, and then purposefully sitting up straight is a huge help in calming – by directly facing – my nerves.
2. Breathe: purposefully and deliberately. Take deep breathes and make them count. And don’t just breathe in and out deeply, but instead: breathe in, hold it, and then breathe out. Equally important to the holding-it-in part is the breathing out part. Breathe out with purpose.
3. Smile: yes, smile! It’s another purposefully physical reaction to butterflies that really helps. Smiling breaks up your facial tension and takes physical attention away from your stomach. I use smiling in conjunction with breathing.
4. Prepare: I never thought being prepared would be such an important part of feeling confident. But it is. Being prepared makes sitting up straight, breathing and smiling a whole lot more effective.

The first three tips above are physical reactions to butterflies. However, feeling confident starts long before my name is called to get up and speak. Comparing my first speeches to speeches I give now, feeling confident (by being prepared) goes a long, long way toward sitting up straight, breathing and smiling actually being helpful in overcoming* my butterflies!

It really comes down to screaming confidence. And for me it’s these four things: being prepared, sitting up straight, breathing and smiling.

How I initially approached public speaking:

First, I decided right up front that I wanted the experience of having butterflies and getting up to speak. In the beginning, that’s what I was after: butterflies and speaking, all happening at the same time. So I joined Toastmasters (in particular, I joined Capital City Toastmasters in Sacramento, CA). I didn’t care if my speeches were perfect, I only cared about getting the experience in my bones. I’ve forgotten my next line, I’ve mixed up paragraphs, I’ve completely forgotten stuff – and I’m still alive! And I always looked at my current speech as the experience to get me to the next speech.

Second, I realized early on that everybody just wanted to get their speeches over with and out of the way. I heard a lot of “I’m glad that’s over with!” This approach was not going to work for me and it wasn’t going to help at all with actually overcoming my butterflies. Instead, I decided I wanted to be right in the middle of a speech. Looking forward to being-in-the-middle meant I wasn’t focused on getting it over with – my celebration wasn’t at the end of the speech but, rather, it was in the middle! This made a big difference in my overall approach to pubic speaking and overcoming* my butterflies. This new being-in-the-middle approach ended up reducing each individual speeches’ overall nervousness. I started focusing on experiencing multiple speeches, instead of the fear of getting just one speech out of the way.

What I discovered about butterflies:

I’m not actually trying to get rid of my butterflies, I’m working with them. They’re a part of me and my experience, so I decided we should get friendly. You know, invite the butterflies over for a weekend BBQ and get to know each other. With each new speech, I learned to more openly wrap one arm around my butterflies, stand together at the podium and give the speech as a team.

*Overcoming butterflies is a myth. I never overcame my butterflies, I still get them. But now I have enough experience to know that they’re a completely normal part of my speaking routine. So I’m not scared of them anymore, and I’ve learned to quickly transform the feeling of nervousness into a feeling of antsy excitedness. Butterflies are now expected, I know they’re coming, so I wrap my arms around’em and off we go to give another speech.

I used to think I needed to win the war against the fear of speaking in public – to stomp fear into the ground, kick its ass! Actual experience reveals that being friendly with fear is so much more empowering, long-lasting and super-duper kick-ass!

Toastmasters has been a huge help in providing a place to practice public speaking, receive feedback and feel safe in making all kinds of crazy mistakes. The fear of making a mistake, looking stupid, forgetting a line is all softened and overcome with experience.

Getting up and actually speaking is the BEST way to become friendly with the fear of public speaking. Yeah, you gotta get wet to get in the pool, and you gotta get in the pool to get wet. You can only swim by swimming. You can only speak by speaking.

Little Blue Book of Staying Afloat
New York Times bestselling author Jeffrey Gitomer tells you how to sell anything in any economy

“Jeffrey, I want to know, what do YOU do to maintain success?”

The answer is pretty simple. There are no secrets. There’s nothing I do that I consider out of the ordinary. It’s what I do on a consistent basis that counts.

I READ. I wake up every morning, and read two pages from some kind of personal success book that’s more than 50 years old. What to read? Anything by Napoleon Hill, especially “The Law of Success”, or “The Magic Ladder to Success”. Anything by Dale Carnegie, “How to Win Friends & Influence People”, or “How to Stop Worrying & Start Living” in particular. Now, I’ve only been doing that for 39 years, so I don’t know if it works yet. I’m going to do it for another 39 years, and that’s it — I’m going to quit.

I CAPTURE AND COLLECT THOUGHTS AND IDEAS. When things occur to me or I read something that inspires me, the first thing I do is go to my computer. I write a column every week on selling skills, but I don’t just write the column, I collect ideas so I can always be ahead. I’ve written more than 950 columns to date, but I’ve got 500 more ideas waiting to be evolved.

I WRITE. When I write everything down, it clarifies my own ideas, it generates new ideas, and it creates content for my speeches, and for my books. My challenge to you is this: If you want to be a success, you can’t just read, you have to write.

I SPEAK. The next thing you need to do is present — in public — and the best way to do that is to join Toastmasters. Deliver 10 speeches, and you can get your Competent Toastmaster Award. Can you sell the entire group? When you learn to present to a group, selling one-on-one becomes a piece of cake.

I POSITION TO WIN WITH “VALUE FIRST.” The same goes for marketing (attracting people who are interested to buy). I position myself to be seen and read as a person of value. I put myself in front of people who can say yes to me, and I deliver value first.

I STRIVE TO MASTER. Again, no secret here. Master the fundamentals. Study them and practice them daily. You have to have deep focus, and take that internal daily dose, so that you can, day by day, become great.

I LOVE IT. I wake up in the morning, and I can’t wait to look at my schedule. Sometimes it’s giving a speech, sometimes it’s writing more for my books, sometimes it’s interviewing people, and sometimes it’s making sales to CEOs of large corporations. I go on sales calls every week, so I can stay at the top of my game. I don’t just teach sales, I make sales.

I WORK HARD. People ask me, “How’d you get great at sales?” And I tell them, “Well, I just worked my rear end off for 20 years, and then, all of the sudden, it happened.”

The same thing can happen to you, but you have to love it. I’m challenging you to go back, and re-read to this formula — there’s no magic to it, but add passion, and the results will be magical.

http://www.newwordcity.com/books/all/little-blue-book-of-staying-afloat/

It’s Monday. And I’m participating in a Toastmasters Humorous Speech contest on Thursday.

I’ll be rehearsing my speech out-loud 5-6 times today, maybe more. Then – and here’s the magic – I’ll get to “sleep” on it tonight. “Sleeping on it” is vital. My speech must have time to marinade into my being, into my muscles, into my gut. Tomorrow I’ll rise and repeat: out-loud rehearsal and sleep-on-it. Wednesday, rise and repeat! Thursday: contest!

That’s 3 days of out-loud rehearsal and 3 nights of sleeping-on-it.

UPDATE: I took 2nd Place in Thursday evening’s Toastmasters Humorous Speech “Area” Contest 2010 (District 39, Area 51, Sacramento, CA). Woot!

“Taking your life to another level includes Toastmasters as part of expanding beyond your fears and building a new life!”

~Othello Curry (Guest at Capital City Toastmasters, Sacramento, CA, Aug 23, 2010)

I completed my 10th Toastmasters Competent Communicator speech on June 28, 2010. The certificate arrived last week. Yay!

Reid Walley, Toastmasters Competent Communicator Certificate, June 28 2010

Public speaking is a HUGE passion of mine! Going to Toastmasters meetings & getting the experience of speaking – while having butterflies – was the BIG GIANT step that is paying off big-time! And attending Toastmasters speech contests has turned out to be the best way for audience members to recommend/request me for future speaking events.

If you have a passion, dive in – go all the way – and go as fast as you can!