Before the division contest, I practiced my heart out.  I loved this speech, because there was so much of me in it.  In fact, the speech was “Me”.  That’s the reason I made it through the area contest and into the Division A contest.

Despite knowing it so well, I practiced the speech ten times a day, getting to know every nuance.  Getting to understand how it made me feel, but most importantly, how it made others feel.  Once you get to this level, the flash is not as relevant as how well you deliver the message.  I needed to make the audience feel the way I did.  That is what is important at the division contest … That and one other thing.

Contest day finally arrived, and I was excited and nervous.  I knew I would do well, but once you get up to that level, strange things happen in your mind.  You begin to think strange things like, “Do I still know my speech? I think I forgot my speech!”.  I’ve learned, since then, that you never forget your speech.  You may draw a blank the very first moment your in front of the crowd, but as soon as you utter you’re first sentence, it all comes back to you in a wave.

I went into the contest still feeling high from beating an accomplished professional speaker and speaking coach.and I just knew things would go well for me today.  I drew the number one slot again, and I was beginning to like number one.

My name was announced and I confidently walked up and shook the Toastmasters hands and began my speech.  As I was giving the speech, I felt good.  I was sharing “Me” for the benefit of everyone in the room.  As I looked into the eyes of the audience, I knew I was in the process of hitting another home run.  I finished the speech and went back to my seat and sat through the other speeches which where all very worthy of a division contest.

We had a break between the speech contest and the evaluation contest.  During that break everyone talked to me about my speech.  Everyone asked questions and gave me great complements.  I was the star of the show.  One gentleman who owned a rather sizable company even asked me to come to his company to give the same speech.  With all of this attention and the accolades, I should have been excited and thrilled, but I wasn’t, because I knew there was something very wrong.

It seemed like an eternity, but the end of the contest came and it was now time to find out how I did.  I loved this speech and I felt really good about how I performed, so even though my very experienced fellow contestant had turned in an almost effortless performance, I felt really good about my chance.

The contest chair stood in front of the room to give the results of the judging.  She announced second place first.  The second place winner was the experienced speaker.  My confidence went through the roof.  The first place winner was finally announced and it was who I had expected.  Me.

instantly I knew what lesson I needed to draw from this experience.  It doesn’t matter who your competing against. What matters is what is in side of you.  When I gave my speech, I gave the audience a little piece of my self.  That little peace of me would go home with them that day.  Some of them would keep that little peace for a long time to come.  As I found out a couple of years later, if that little piece is delivered right, they will carry it with them for years.

What matters is the audience.  Speaking is truly about charity.  You need to ask yourself, what can I give to my audience.  That is, more or less, what I did.  When I wrote my speech, I knew I wanted to let everyone know that that underachiever they knew in school couldn’t be counted out.  I wanted them to know that that underachiever they know today, can’t be counted out either.  This was my gift to them and I throughly enjoyed giving it to them.

This was a lesson I had just begun to learn and one that I would continue to learn for quite some time.  In fact, I can honestly tell you that it is a lesson I’m still learning to this day.

I had won my first contest ever and it just happened to be an area contes. This was huge for me, but I had to put it behind me.  It was time to move on to the next contest … and to the next lesson.

The woman I was competing against for the 2007 Area 13 International Speech Championship was a professional speaker who had been in Toastmasters for over 25 years.  You just can’t get any more polished then that.

 I became a little intimidated.  Then I thought to myself, “Well, let’s just have fun.  I love this speech, so I’m just going to do what I came to do and I’ll have fun with it.”

 I met the other contestant at a 4H meeting, where experienced Toastmasters where asked to give a speech and give an evaluation for kids at a Toastmasters Youth Leadership Program

 I gave a pretty good speech and she gave me a very blunt, but very helpful evaluation.  Her experience as a Toastmaster came through when she evaluated me and I was sure to see that experience again at this contest.

 There where two other speakers.  Both of them where relatively new to Toastmasters, even by my standards, (I was a Toastmaster for 3 years).  That made me feel a little better, knowing I wouldn’t be the only one to be taken to school that day.

 I drew for first speaker and my experienced rival drew for last.  I stepped up to the stage and began to talk….

The speech I had taken a year and a half to prepare came from deep within my heart and soul.  In it, I recounted the hard school days of a young boy and pointed out that everyone had given up on him, except for his father.  I drew a parallel to my own life which was much the same as this boy.  Then I pointed out how some of the greatest people in history started exactly the same way.

 I felt the speech, and all of the emotions attached to it, flow easily through me and into the audience.  I could feel the audience feeling what I was saying.  Even before I finished my speech, I knew I was hitting a home run and suddenly my experienced rival didn’t seem so intimidating any more.

 At the end of the speech I revealed the boy I was talking about was Woodrow Wilson.  I intended to get the message across that anyone can do anything, despite where they come from and I thought I did just that.

 The second and third speeches where also heart felt.  I don’t remember much of the third, but the second was about the speakers good friend who had died in Viet Nom.

 Then came the voice of experience … litteraly.  She began speaking and her speech flowed so naturally and easily that I could picture her climbing out of bed that morning and saying to herself, “I think I’ll compete today.”  She spoke about her childhood and how her family had given her the strength to conquer poverty and racism.  It was a great speech. I loved it.  But some how, I was also confident.

The 2007 Contest season was about to start and I had been waiting for it for eleven months.  I had the speech I wanted to do ready and was feeling really good about it.

 Soon after my first competitions, I realized an important thing about a contest speech.  A good story can get you far, but it wont take you all the way.  The story had to be a very important story, to me, with an element of emotion.  An easier way to put it may be, the story had to ‘be ME’.  The emotion is what makes your audience want more and the fact that you are telling it from a point of view of personal experience adds credibility and authenticity.

I started with a ten minute speech I gave for my tenth speech in the Competent communicator manual, “Inspire Your Audience.”  It was another speech that went over well and I was excited to be working with it, again.   I took that speech added some new information and then squeezed it down to a seven minutes speech.  I had taken the year to do this and I had the speech ready to go in November.  I spent the next three and a half months studying the speech and “making it mine.”

Contest day came with disappointing news.  I would be the only person competing …  Ok ok, there was no contest.  It was cool to go on to the next level, but I was hoping to be able to compete for that position, so I could gauge how good or bad my speech really was.

I gave my speech as a practice for the area contest and received a group evaluation from the entire club.  Everyone in the club gave me very high marks.  I felt confident after the meeting and was looking forward to the Area 13 contest, which was in about a months.  I took the suggestions from the group evaluation and  went back to practicing.

I felt confident about my speech all the way up to the moment I found out who I was competing against.  Then I began to plan for the next year even before the competition started.  This was the beginning of one of my most important lessons in competitive speaking.

It was a March morning when I arrived at Wyomissing Library.  After I had arrived, I found there would only be two competitors.  Brian and me.  Apparently, no one else wanted to or could compete in the area contest that year.

This was my first Toastmasters meeting at this level, so I had the chance to meet Toastmasters from many other clubs, including the District 38 Governor.  It was a good eye opening experience because I have never been a part of a networking event like this.  It took me a while to figure out how powerful a meeting like that can be.

Then it was time for the speech contest.  I drew the number 2 slot and was glad to see Brian go first.  I figured, “He can set ‘em up and I’ll knock ‘em down.”  He gave his speech and I thought it was better then the first time he gave it. But, I still felt comfortable with my speech.

By that time I had changed the name of my speech to “The Curse of the Tolporahn.”  I added details which I believed made the story clearer to understand and more believable.  I had gotten to know the characters as if they really existed and I got to know the story as if I saw it happen.

When it was my turn, the butterflies began buzzing so hard, I thought I was going to throw up.  At the beginning of my speech, I felt I was letting my nerves show.  I set up my story and about two minutes into it, a calm came over me.  I told the story as if I where there watching it happen.

The speech contest was over and the ballet counters left the room to find who had won.  I was confident I knew who won, so I didn’t think much about the results.  As we had our break, the District Governor came to me and told me how impressed she was that I delivered such a stirring story during my first International Competition ever and she strongly encouraging me to keep competing.

After the counters came back in, it was announced that Brian had won the competition and was going on to the Division A contest.  It was after the meeting was over when I got the most encouraging news.  My club president was one of the ballet counters.  Before I left, she stopped me and said.  I’m really not supposed to tell you this, but under the circumstances, I thing I really should.

Each judge in a speech competition judges the contestants on a scale that goes up to 100 for a perfect speaker.  There where 7 judges that day which means Brian could have gotten as many as 700 points and I could have gotten as many as 700 points.  When Paula pulled me aside, she told me that I had lost the area speech contest by 2 points.

I couldn’t believe it!  Here I am, in my first area contest and I came very close to beating someone who had been in Toastmasters for years and had been in many other competitions as well.

I was ready for the next competition.  It was a shame it was eleven months away.

I was nervous the night of my first speech competition.  I had prepared, but I still had many questions, being new to this who competitive speaking thing.  The other two speakers where well seasoned Toastmasters, so I probably didn’t have a chance from the start.

I pulled speaker number three out of three speakers that night.  Being new to the competition, I was glad about that.  Since then I actually realized there is a better position to speak when it comes to competing.

I really can’t remember what the first speech, John’s speech, was about, but the second speech was about how the speaker, Brian, had gone through depression and then figured out how to get out of it.  Both speeches where inspirational in nature; they where completely different then mine; but, when it was my turn, up I went.  Even while I was giving my speech, I felt rushed.  I needed to get through the speech in less then seven minutes and thirty seconds, and there was a lot to tell.

When I sat down, I was sure I had not won.  The other two speeches where so well polished that I didn’t think I had a chance.

The second half of the competition was the evaluation contest.  No one had volunteered for the evaluation contest, so the three speakers where all drafted.  The year before I had actually entered the evaluation contest and froze like a Popsicle.  I had promised myself that I would never compete in another evaluation contest, but there I was, competing in the evaluation competition.

I did much better that time.  I really didn’t care where I placed.  I was proud that I had given the best evaluation I had ever given.

At the end of the contest meeting, the winners where announced.  I came in third for the evaluation contest; although I wasn’t surprised.  I was not surprised by the results of the speaking contest either.  I came in third again.

The surprise came later on when I was told that the first place winner, John, would not be able to make it to the area contest.  At that time, Area 13 was small enough, that each club needed to send two contestants.  Because, John wasn’t going, I was able to go with Brian.

First thing I did was make sure I learned from my mistakes.  I felt rushed, so I needed to make some tough decisions and cut some lines that I felt where important.  But I needed to rewrite some of the speech so it still made sense.  I was told by several people that I needed to add more inflections in my voice as well.  I concentrated on those two aspects of speaking and then I was ready to compete on the area level.

Before I Get on with my competition story I wanted to pause for a moment and recognize Katherine Morrison for placing third in the International Speech Contest.

I made it to the Region 7 contest where I didn’t even place.  It was clear that I was way out of my league on the Regional stage … this year.  But watching Katherine up on stage caused a light bulb to go on.

First of all, most of the people who get to that level are professional speakers and in Katherine’s case she had a good deal of acting experience as well.

Because of Katherine, I realized I need to get with some actors and learn their tricks. I have some friends that have spent some time on stage; one in particular won the District 38 championship three times.

Any way Thank you Katherine and congratulations on finishing third.  After seeing you perform at the Region 7 contest, I can’t say I am surprised you did so well.

On May 2^nd, 2008, I won the Toastmasters District 38 Speech Contest.  I have to admit that I was a little shocked.  I honestly thought my speech “Wings and Chains,” would not win the area contest, let alone a district contest.  What surprised me even more, I was told a few weeks after the contest that the scoring wasn’t even close.  Apparently, I won in a run away victory.

Since that day I have spoken to many people about that speech and about the speeches that I had written for the Region 7 contest.  In that time I have come to realize what made that speech work.  I also came to realize the mistakes I was making when I was writing a lot of my speeches.

For the next few weeks, I plan to tell you the story of what I learned in my four years of membership in Toastmasters and competing in the international contest.  I will especially tell you about everything I’ve learned in the two months between the District 38 contest and the Region 7 contest. I hope you will walk away with some of the knowledge I have gained and make yourself a better speaker.

I joined Toastmasters in March of 2003.  I joined because I was asked to attend some Township Planning Commission meetings and I wanted to feel more comfortable in front of people.  I had no idea about the whole competition thing.  I really didn’t even think about competing until I gave a speech for my Competent Communicators manual.  The speech was called “The Cursed Tribe,” and it was a completely made up story of how the Berks County area in Pennsylvania was cursed by an ancient Indian tribe who was wiped out by another tribe years before the white man arrived in the area.

I had lots of true historical references in it to add credibility and I studied it well.  It was an exciting story and I really enjoyed writing and practicing it.  The story was apparently so well written and delivered that most people in the room though it was real.  I ended up answering questions about the speech, and about the history of Berks County, for the rest of the night.  As I was leaving, the president of our club stopped me and point blank told me that I should tell that story in the next contest.

I gave the speech in April of that year so I had a long time to think about it.  As you can guess, I did tell that story in the 2006 International Speech Contest.  I started revising and smoothing out the story about two months ahead of time.  I was excited about the contest, but I also knew it would be a challenge.  I was competing against two grizzled veterans of Toastmasters.

The preparation was long, but finally the day of the competition had arrived and the butterflies where going nut!

Come back to find out what happened during that competition.

Welcome to my blog!

I hope you will join me as I explore the speaking world as well as the networking world.  I put these two items together because, although the ability to speak in public is important to advancing in your career or business, networking makes the opportunities to speak possible.  Networking also gives you the ability to find those you need to help advance your public speaking abilities.

I know this, because it is networking that gave me the ability to find the people necessary to help me win the Toastmasters District 38 Public Speaking Championship.  It is also networking that got me ready to compete in the Toastmasters Region 7 Speech contest.

On this blog, I plan to share with you all of the secrets I have learned in my trip to the Regional Contest in this past year as well as the secrets I still have to learn as I work my way toward the International Speech Contest Championship.

I will be sharing with you all of the networking skills necessary for anyone to become successful at what they want to do.  I used my network to get to where I ended up in the speech contests and I am continuing to build a network to help me to get farther.

I must confess, I am still learning all of these skills, myself, but, then again, I guess I will always be learning.  This blog will be useful to me, because through teaching others how to be successful in these realms I will learn more which will help me to collect the information and contacts I need to reach my ultimate goal of being a professional speaker.

Between mid-February and June 28th of this year, I had the honor to be on a public speaking journey in which I have learned more about public speaking then I had in the previous four years.  In my first few blogs I will write about my adventures over that time and on the way, I hope to be able to impart some knowledge of public speaking to you.

Some of the people I’ve learned from were; Pat Rocchi, three time winner of the Toastmaster District 38 Speaking Championship; Jean Shippos, 2003 International Speech Championship Contender and Lance Miller, 2005 Toastmasters International Speech Championship winner.

I learned from them as well as many experienced speakers and speech coaches.  The knowledge they gave me was priceless and I believe you will agree.

So, please join me over the next few weeks as I tell the story of my trip to the Toastmasters Region 7 Speech Contest.