Inspirational Speakers

Inspirational speakers are often confused with motivational speakers. Why? Because the difference between motivational and inspirational speakers is subtle. Motivational speakers, like Tony Robbins, encourage you to become more excited about what you do, they focus on the psychology of motivation and purpose. This leads to a change in behaviour as the motivational speaker helps people to think better, do better and be better. They are often business focused and concentrate on mindset and the how.

Inspirational speakers use their life experience and evaluate themselves frequently, passing on any useful information to their audiences. They possess strong speaking skills and help individuals make definite changes by providing them with an ideal reference, such as overcoming adversity. Inspirational speakers deliver their message with enthusiasm, creating a connection with the audience by using emotional language and have achieved a level of success by overcoming extreme setbacks. Inspirational speakers focus on our spirit and the why…. 

The inspirational speaker reminds us to look at our lives through a different lens to see where the opportunities lie. How can you take responsibility to change direction in your life? What challenges do you need to overcome? What’s the end result you need to focus on? Inspirational speakers promote self confidence, the power of determination and never giving up. They share a message of hope, how to perform at your best and provide lessons in reinventing yourself.

How can we become inspirational speakers? Through compassion, having a vision and achieving our goals.  Develop self-discipline, share solutions, become selfless. Invest in self-development, find inner peace, help others to see their strengths and opportunities. Show that you care, encourage others through your words and actions and earn people’s trust.

Interested in becoming an inspirational speaker?  Visit Picnic Point Toastmasters at 7pm every 1^st and 3rd Tuesday at Club Picnic Point – 124 Lambeth Street, Panania.   

“When you share your experiences with other people, you help take away their fears”

– Rick Warren

Stagecraft

When contemplating speaking in front of an audience we tend to focus on speech content and often forget to practice our stagecraft. Starting with the moment you step on that stage, your every movement will convey your confidence or your fear. Are you walking on stage filled with energy? Will there be an image on the screen or music playing in line with the theme of your speech? The audience is watching….You should be grabbing their attention as soon as you are introduced. Your opportunity to engage the audience starts the moment you step on that stage.

Resist the temptation to start speaking, instead, pause. Then look at the audience for a few moments before you start. Hold eye contact with a few people until you have the attention of the whole room. This gives everyone time to settle down and focus their attention on you.

 Your opening should be powerful, consider starting with a quote, a story, or an unusual fact. Draw in the audience by using words like ‘you’ and ‘yours’. A question is often a good way to start.  For example, “How many of you have experienced…?”,  “If I told you _____, would you believe me?”.  You only have a few seconds to engage your audience, they will decide very quickly whether they are going to listen to you or switch off from you. Using a strong opening will create interest and ensures the audience is focusing on you.

Keep your audience engaged through movement. Use 2 or 3 ‘anchor points’ on the stage as your progress through your speech. Anchoring your points allows you to refer back to them with a simple indication of your hand. This is particularly useful when using a timeline of past, present and future or referring to an earlier point. When you move on stage you connect more closely with different parts of the audience. However, you need to make movements with purpose. Walking around aimlessly will disengage and confuse your audience. When delivering your key message use the centre of the stage, close to the audience. This point of the stage is known as the power position. Moving on the stage is just one aspect of using body language.   

Body language helps you to express points throughout your speech. The most common expressions of body language are gesturing and eye contact. When gesturing with your hands, make sure you are not holding anything – unless it’s to briefly demonstrate a point. Once you have finished making the point put down the item you were holding. Having empty hands helps you to gesture more naturally. Consider practising gestures in front of a mirror to minimise repetition but don’t orchestrate your gestures. They will look unnatural and only serve to distract your audience. When not gesturing, keep your hands by your side.  

Eye contact helps you to connect with your audience. Use eye contact to look at their facial expressions and their reactions to what you’re saying. Use this feedback to confirm if your audience is engaged or if you need to adjust your delivery. Focus on one person at a time, it helps to create a one on one conversational style. It can reduce your nerves as we all have experienced one on one conversations, thus it will feel more natural to you. How long should you maintain eye contact? Just a few seconds; enough time to get through a short sentence. Often, the person will nod in response once they have processed your words.     

If you are using presentation software, a flip-chart or a whiteboard, consider placing it on the left or right hand side of centre stage, rather than in the centre – the power position. Once you have made your point using these tools, be sure to move closer to the audience towards centre stage.  

Stagecraft helps your audience visualise your message and interact with you. It maintains audience attention and interest, particularly when your speech is delivered with passion.

Keen to practice your stagecraft? Visit Picnic Point Toastmasters on the 1^st and 3^rd Tuesday of the month. We meet at 7pm at Club Picnic Point, 124 Lambeth St, Panania.  Your audience awaits you…..

Toastmasters New Year’s Resolution

According to Wikipedia, a New Year’s resolution is a tradition, most common in the Western Hemisphere but also found in the Eastern Hemisphere, in which a person resolves to change an undesired trait or behaviour, to accomplish a personal goal or otherwise improve their life. Who started this custom and why?

The ancient Babylonians are said to have been the first people to make New Year’s resolutions, some 4,000 years ago. They were also the first to hold recorded celebrations in honour of the new year, which was held in mid-March, when crops were planted. The Babylonians crowned a new king or reaffirmed their loyalty to the reigning king during 12-day religious festival known as Akitu, where they made promises to the gods to pay their debts and return any objects they had borrowed. These promises could be considered the forerunners of our New Year’s resolutions.

A similar practice occurred in ancient Rome, when Julius Caesar tinkered with the calendar and established January 1 as the beginning of the new year in circa 46 B.C. The month was named after Janus, the two-faced god whose spirit inhabited doorways and arches. Believing that Janus symbolically looked backwards into the previous year and ahead into the future, the Romans offered sacrifices to the deity and made promises of good conduct for the coming year. For early Christians, the first day of the new year became the traditional occasion for thinking about one’s past mistakes and promising to do better in the future.

Today, we no longer make promises to the gods, but to ourselves – usually to kick our goals pertaining to self improvement. Yet, only 8% of us follow through. One of the most popular New Year’s resolutions is to learn a new skill or hobby. If you have been thinking about improving your communication skills and meeting like-minded people then there is no time like the present to join Toastmasters. Besides making new friends and working on a new skill, you will become more confident. Face your fears and insecurities surrounding public speaking. Give yourself the opportunity to use your free time in a constructive manner and pick up new skills while having fun at the same time.

Ready to keep that New Year’s Resolution? Why not join us this Tuesday at Picnic Point Toastmasters to start off your new year resolution?

We meet on the 1st and 3rd Tuesday of the month at 7pm at Club Picnic Point – 124 Lambeth Street, Panania.

Public Relations Influencing Choice

Public relations has been around as long as civilisations have existed. It has informed and influenced consumers – changing attitudes, making personal lives public and informing us of the latest trends. Today, we have a range of tools to disseminate information, including blogs, social media, news releases, and hosting events. The methods may have changed over the centuries but the core purpose has remained the same. To influence choice.

How do we influence choice? Through engaging our audience, by enlightening the public and by sharing your thoughts and fostering discussions. The idea is to influence the reader’s choice and take some action. Yet, as Toastmasters, we often forget that we are publicly relating to a vast number of potential members. Each with their own needs and interests. How do we influence their choice to join our club and not another? Can we “relate” to them efficiently via certain social media outlets? Does it further our brand conversation?

By focusing on our end goal, we look at why we are engaging in public relations and what are we trying to achieve. However, we cannot improve our strategies if we don’t measure the results. One of the best ways to measure results is by using data. Consider researching consumer sentiment to understand how the public feels about the company. What we measure will drive success. In Toastmasters, we have a 10 goal system to drive club success based on our individual members success. These goals define the characteristics of a quality club. How does this affect our brand? By gaining an understanding of members and their experiences we can use these insights to create better choices, better marketing campaigns and better strategies.  

How do we support the Toastmasters brand? Firstly, use the art of storytelling to engage your   target audience, and the influencers that reach them. Who is your ideal audience? Who influences them? How can you influence them? Use this information and the strategic combination of technology, data, processes and analysis to drive your club’s marketing campaigns.

The best way to accomplish this is to build a relationship first, so that the potential for influence is based on understanding a guest’s needs. Next, demonstrate how you (the Toastmaster) can make the guest the hero or heroine in his or her story. Build trust, be transparent, learn about your guests needs and goals, maintain rapport and demonstrate how your club supports its members. The way to influence your guests choice to join your club is to greet the guest warmly, introduce them to the members, acknowledge them formally, find out what their needs are and explain how your Toastmasters club can help them achieve their goals.

Contact Picnic Point Toastmasters to learn more. Drop in at Club Picnic Point – 124 Lambeth Street, Picnic Point, NSW 2213 on the 1^st and 3^rd  Tuesday of the month at 7pm. You’ll be glad you made the choice!