Last Thursday I gave the my 5th Toastmasters speech. This takes me half way towards achieving the award of a 'Competent Communicator.' The speech was very well received and I was particularly pleased to receive some solid feedback from two visiting DTM (Distinguished Toastmasters).
It's amazing how much head space these speeches take up. Preparing a 6 minute speech doesn't sound like too much of an ordeal, but believe me, it does take some planning. This time round I chose a subject which was slightly heavier than had gone before. Previously my speech topics included Crows and Mountains. This time I spoke about car culture.
I was inspired by the epic poem by Heathcote Williams called Autogeddon, written back in the 1980's. A dark attack on the automobile. My theory was that in real life many of the things I would be called to speak about could be serious, heavier subjects. Kind of less fluffy bunny, more heavy hare ;-)
The corporate Toastmasters Club I am in is very friendly and supportive. The theme this week was Valentines. So when I trotted up to the lectern I suspect it was a bit of shock! This particular speech was much much harder to prepare. Numerous re-writes to tone it down / lighten it a bit. It's easy to let the passion sweep you away and become a preaching bore!
I now move on to speech #6, which has a focus around using tonal variety. I think I have a general subject, but I'm yet to nail the specific purpose or flesh out the details. I have about three weeks to prepare ... I'm looking forward to it!
Tags: toastmasters, publicspeaking, autogeddon, speeches
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