As a competitive person, second place is pain. If I'm second, I might as well be last. That's why taking second place at the Division level of the International Speech Contest in Toastmasters knocked something out of me.My goal had been Semifinals: and I was stopped two steps short of it. Worse, it was a public failure. I have five videos on this site titled Road to … [Read more...]
Road to Semifinals — Episode 6 (Improving a stale speech)
In this sixth video of the series, I talk about how you can overcome a stale speech—one that you've been working on for a while and is difficult to improve.Give it a watch—a summary wouldn't do it justice. … [Read more...]
Road to Semifinals — Episode 5 (Getting back into an old speech)
Fifth video of the series where I document my attempt to make it to the Semifinals of the World Championship of Public Speaking.SummaryI'm back after a long break after getting married!In this video, I talk about the 5-step plan for how to recover your passion for an old speech:To summarize the plan, you need to break it down into small pieces, then get … [Read more...]
Road to Semifinals — Episode 4 (Topic selection and outlining)
Fourth video of the series where I document my attempt to make it to the Semifinals of the World Championship of Public Speaking.SummaryI finished selecting two topics:Being unique Be more adventurousBoth are cliche topics, but high level speeches in Toastmasters commonly are. It's not really about whether the audience has never heard your point before. … [Read more...]
Road to Semifinals — Episode 3 (Research results)
Third video of the series where I document my attempt to make it to the Semifinals of the World Championship of Public Speaking. SummaryI finished the research that I've been doing for a few weeks.In this video, I give 4 major insights from my research. However, I wrote an article with 16 tips! I advise you read that. … [Read more...]