Speak to Express.



The purpose of speech has always been to “communicate”. We speak not to “Impress" but to "EXPRESS” ourselves. That still remains the main purpose of speech. Language has been a very powerful medium to connect one person to another, since the dawn of civilization.

On a Public Speaking platform like Toastmasters, we learn how to express our ideas and emotions more “EFFECTIVELY”.

Toastmasters’ manual sums up the essence of how to weave the magic. If you read it carefully, every little thing you need to take care off, are offered in simple, interesting and memorable mini lessons. Tips and checklists are given in boxes that remind how to be "effective".

How to be more outstanding in a crowd? 

In my opinion, speaking in public is much different than speaking alone. When we see strange faces, keen eyes and large audience everything gathered in the mind, starts to crumble down. This happens with everybody. The message loses its sharp points, the ideas tend to evaporate and the butterflies in the stomach tend to bough down the message. How to overcome this feeling? Much like driving or swimming it needs practice to learn how to communicate. No matter how much you read about swimming, you need to get into the currents of the chill water and battle around with the nervousness, breaking breaths and beating heart and keep floating in the current. Keep your focus, try, fail, get up again and try. Keep trying, till you learn how to swim...It is the same regarding the speech. You got to rehearse and practice it till fear starts melting and you start enjoying speaking.

Once you overcome your fear and consciousness to speak, you raise your eyes up with confidence, look into the eye of the audience and speak to express and impress together. Take time, find a topic of your choice and prepare at your pace. That’s the reason we have Prepared Speeches Contest. It gives you the opportunity to Think, Plan, Write and rehearse your speech. 

So where do you start with? Read...Read...Read....
A good speaker reads a lot, that gives maturity to his/her thought.

It is very important to be original. Remember, nothing impresses more than the originality of the Content and Delivery. Authenticity of thoughts bring wonder and awe in the mind of others and it is this element that unfailingly impresses the audience. A speech on stage is the outcome of refined thoughts, chiseled up to match the purpose, polished to the level of fineness and presented with confidence, grace and style. It is an outcome of what you read, think and plan. Here is a quick guide for you to organize your speech. Here are my 7 easy to follow sutras, to remember and I guarantee you that you will be there in these 7 steps.

1) Find out the message you want to convey to your audience.

2) Pick a story to convey that message

3) Write it.

4) Rehearse it

5) Time it

6) Edit it

7) Rewrite it. This is what most of us do not bother to do . 

Rewrite it to the level of fineness...

We all have one complete year to write and rewrite a 7 min speech for the  "International Speech Contest" to be delivered. Do we really Use it? Are we well prepared for the next prepared speech contest at our Best? Most of us do not take the preparation time seriously. On the D day, we are “little prepared” with “little planned”, “half prepared”, “ half impromptu Prepared speeches...not because we are happy in doing it but because we all go through that grilling question.... what do I write about?  Where do I start? 

It is simple. Take a message and start writing it. keep writing, sprinkle some interesting stories, sort it with some fun and toss it in your style. 

One very important thing is to remember, when we rise to speak, forget the pressure, "to impress" the audience. Be in the moment. Grab the stage not with an intention to "impress" but to pour your heart out. 

When you move your audience by an endearing story, impressing the audience is just the 
by-product of your bigger purpose.

Enjoy your stage time.
Want to break you stage fright?
 Write to me on toastmasterpreeti@gmail.com

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