Yeah!

I Beat John in Table Topics - Hahaaaaaa!

And this wasn't easy, John is the European champion of TT!

Best Evaluator

Cool! I won best evaluator.

Now if you think that's easy because I'm "cherry picking" in Hamburg -- well it's not. Our club has many native English speakers like John Holway - European Table Topics Champion, and Cayle Young; a brilliant young lady from New Zealand who won the district championship and got to represent our club in Krakow Poland last month!

So for this best evaluator I was pitched against Fabienne, a new member of our club who speaks excellent English. It was close indeed!

The Humorous Speech

My Critique:

Wtf?! This is NOT a funeral dammit - why do I keep looking at the ground! You're losing your audience!!!

I also missed the part about "Rolf", my body language and cadence didn't ace it at all.  I was supposed to really make a dumb blank face and stare for a +3 second pause - for effect. Then I also didn't ace the end, "this too shall pass" should have been said with much more emphasis, louder and slower.

OK, it was my first competition and I'm glad I did it, I learned a lot and I'm definitely going to do more!
Übrigens, John, our winner said he practiced for more than 6 months for his speech. He is not the European Table topics champion for nothing!
Benchmark him!

• Voice
• Hmmm, didn't really work on it. Same as last time. But I still gotta work on the projection - I'm too quiet at times (or was it just my camera?)
• 5 P's
• Pitch
• This is my personal "wundepunkt".
• Do the "speaking voice" manual again!
• Projection
• I think this was OK - my camera is not the best, and it was also in the back of the room.
• Passion
• I think there was enough passion in this speech.
• Pause
• Definitely needs works (see below)
• Pace(see cadence below)
• Cadence
• No matter how slow I think I am going - I'm still going way too fast. I did practice this speech at home, for a week and with video. I need to slow down, speek each sentence more clearly, and PAUSE more. I must force myself to go even slower.
• Gravitas
• Well, I'm not jerking my head around like a disneyland puppet anymore, but now I am pacing and bouncing from foot to foot like a nervous idgit - stop it! Watch your feet!
• Also I think I'm waving/wiggling my hands too much.

The Humorous Speech - 2nd place!

The Humorous Speech Contest - 1st Place!

Table Topics Contest 16 September 2014

My First Table Topics Contest!
It was very interesting and CHALLENGING.
I want to thank John for motivating me to take part in so many competitions.
The more you do -- the easier it gets.



My notes/critique:
Voice
Cadence
Gravitas

It's kind of a bummer, at competitions you don't get the feedback from your audience.

The Six Ghosts of Fear - Think and Grow Rich - Napoleon Hill

Mandatory reading for everyone on the planet:

This is definitely my favorite version - it has a free audio book in the back , for 99 cents!
Doesn't get better than this:
Download:
https://archive.org/details/Think_and_Grow_Rich

WoD - GRAVITAS

1. Voice
• Too high - as usual
2. Cadence
• Too quick - but getting better
3. Gravitas
• Exactly! What I gotta work on. Overall impression - still too nervous, quick, and jittery.

Great article plus vid here

I especially like the five P's of voice:

1. PITCH
2. PACE
3. PAUSE
4. PROJECTION
5. PASSION

First Time as Toastmaster of the Evening!

Wow - yesterday was my first time as Toastmaster!
What an experience, it was really great, I learned a lot, got an adrenaline rush of the finest degree, and enjoyed it very very much.
I think I even liked it better than giving a prepared speech.

Some things I learned:

1. Check your wardrobe out weeks before the date.
1. On the day of my appearance, I discovered the pants to my suit did not fit anymore(!) -- nice discovery. I had to keep my jacket buttoned the whole time. Unfortunately I didn't take any video.
2. Only button the top button of the jacket/Sakko/blazer -- thanks Norbert!
3. Make sure that the voting boxes/cups get passed to the vote counter!

Take risks:
I'm glad I took a chance and did the James Bond theme, it came across rather well. Then I was going to skimp and not integrate the music, but I'm glad I risked that too. Some people said the music bugged them while they were filling out the feedback, so now I learned from that too. Also, I need to appoint a music-master or have some kind of remote control or blue-tooth arrangement so that I can play the songs easier and on cue.

Not only did the James Bond theme come across well, but I think it's totally appropriate for Toastmasters. Toastmasters is about self-improvement and breaking barriers right? What better person to emulate than a secret agent, driven, motivated and ready to kill... the predator instinct -- unlock it in yourself!

Second Project - "Organize Your Speech"

Thanks to all my friends at TM for the great feedback, especially the negative feedback -- that's what you really learn from:

I'm especially happy about Andie's feedback, as another English speaker to say "masterful" -- cool!

First critiques from Faris:
1. Started too early, give it time(!) from when the TM announces you.
2. Used "so" a lot.
3. Not long enough, would have liked to see it go over 6 minutes(!).

My own critique/lessons learned:
1.)Try to associate each block of your speech with a move or gesture; the "Tai Chi Technique" -- this works for me!
2.)Tell a story, like a good joke which has a beginning, body, and conclusion. I have no problems remembering jokes and telling them, if they are a good joke. If you cannot tell a story then try 1.) above.

I left a lot out! When I practiced the speech at home it was over 7 minutes... Then at TM I rushed through it in 5:50 - not even 6 damn minutes!
Write out your cheat sheet again and really hammer the words in, associate each keyword with a movement etc. -- memorize them.
Parts I left out:

Voice still way too high -- do "your speaking voice" manual ... again!
Still saying a lot of words "cute" like a child -- gotta cut that out:
list words...



More lessons learned:

1. Bring the manual next time and give it to your evaluator -- duh!
2. Call/coordinate with your evaluator beforehand.
3. Get a mentor, if not the same as your evaluator. 
4. I had over 4 weeks to do this speech and still didn't take the necessary time and preparation. Despite changing topics midstream, 4 weeks is definitely enough time to put together a really good 7 minute speech. It could have been much better -- someone even mentioned that in the feedback(!).
• As usual I did this all as a last minute preparation -- I changed the topic of my speech because the first one was so boring. Satisfied how it came out though, despite the botched parts.
5. Also don't speak out of turn, I don't know if anyone else noticed, but I don't want to be rude either.

Word of the Day

I am still jerking my head around like a pneumatically driven Disneyland puppet.
I dunno about the hand on hip posture.

http://lifehacker.com/use-the-three-whats-technique-to-structure-your-prese-1562512661

http://lifehacker.com/grab-your-audiences-attention-with-three-simple-steps-1513140873

http://www.copyblogger.com/seductive-openings/

http://www.inc.com/ss/wrong-body-language#0

ICEBREAKER

Thanks to all my Toastmaster friends for the great feedback.

And now a little of my own:

1. What's up with the pinky finger (4:24)? Looks totally stupid - stop that!
2. Boy talk about run-on sentences, no pause whatsoever!
3. I jerk my head around like a broken Disneyland puppet! You know those old ones that were pneumatically driven?
4. The piece of paper in hand, the cheat sheet, sucks. Gotta be able to memorize my speech well enough to work without the cheat-sheet -- it's only 7 minutes! (6 for icebreaker) Although I'm glad I had it, I changed this speech so many times I wouldn't have made it without it.
5. And what about my son! Totally rolled over that...jeez...
6. Hands behind back - check.
7. I am still saying some things 'cute' like a little kid. How can anyone take me seriously if I talk like a child???
8. Specific words/phrases to improve on:
1. Air Force
1. "R", is not clear.
2. combined with high voice everything sounds 'kiddish'.
2. 4:05 - "...radio controlled planes, build them and fly them..."
1. wtf? Too high and intonation all wrong.
3. 4:40 "America" -- The R's have it! Again intonation, inflection, pitch, "R" all wrong.
4. Before
5. 6:53 - peapuul instead of people.
6. sport and pleasure - too high, as a matter of fact I can stop here:
1. ALL R's and pitch and inflection are too high and going up towards end of word/sentence.

For next time:

1. Better Conclusion - Ending was weak - next time peg this.
2. Address first of all "Madame Toastmaster, fellow toastmasters, distinguished guests". Don't really like this - I would rather simply say "my friends..."
3. No arms behind back - let your arms speak.
4. No pointing with pinky finger.
5. PAUSE between sentences.
6. Any questions - "What questions do you have?"

"Opening and ending didn't really exist..."

right! check that one!

One feedback I find very interesting:

"I wasn't sure if I could trust everything you said or if it was story telling"

It is a method of speech writing/giving to incorporate stories, should be a good thing, however if my audience doesn't believe it?

Don't really know what to make of this feedback yet, I will keep an eye on this for sure.

v2

v1

Yeeaah!