Overheard a person at Temple Coffee in Sacramento, CA talk about practicing their presentation. We chatted, and eventually got to the topic of making eye contact. They said they’d recently been on stage and stared at one person the entire time they were speaking, remarking, “I’m sure the person I was staring at felt uncomfortable….
Zoom is no substitute for standing in front of an audience and getting sweaty palms, butterflies, and feeling nervous. Meeting for Toastmasters over Zoom was always a last-ditch effort to keep the club going during the pandemic. I’m sure this was true to various degrees for all 15,000 clubs and 300,000 members worldwide. Our club…
Reid Walley – Public Speaking Demo – April 11, 2022 at Capital City Toastmasters in Sacramento, CA The difference between your left & right and your audience’s left & right. When you’re standing in front of an audience, heighten their experience by extending your left hand when you say something like, “On the right”. Match…
During this evening’s Toastmasters Zoom meeting I posed the following question: What is your biggest turn-off when watching / hearing someone speak via Zoom? Fantastic answers from Capital City Toastmasters #142 in Sacramento, CA Ring-light reflecting in speaker’s glasses/eyes Speaker shuffling papers Speaker’s head/face out of frame Speaker slurping beverage Speaker eating food Speaker smacking…
The public part or the speaking part? The following Facebook comments from fellow Toastmasters provide a deeper insight than I imagined: Author W. Faye Portman: “Speaking [part]. Saying the wrong thing.” Linda Thompson: “Pubic part. I like talking.” Clark Pierce: “For me it’s the public part depending on the audience and topic. I gave a speech about failure…
“Forgot to breathe” is a common observation from Toastmasters who are doing a post-mortem about going blank and/or panicking during their speech. The answer is an on-going cycle of rehearsals and drills and “again, from the top” that put you in the moment when you go blank/panic. Then you can start to add “breathing, on…
Toastmasters observation: sometimes peeps overspend on “planning” and underspend on “doing.” There’s no substitute for falling down and getting back up. Tonight’s (Sept 9th) public speaking demo takeaway when addressing what to do when you “go blank” during a presentation – and you’re very scientifically minded: Develop a methodology, a framework, and test different techniques…
So cool that client had a videotape of their speech. Gives me a chance to rewind and rewatch. Very cool. My feedback: Font size: Consider doubling your font size (which means more pieces of paper). Voice projection: Consider sounding a bit louder. Eye contact: Good. Consider increasing the duration of eye contact with each Board member. Having…
