Are you wondering how to give your toastmasters icebreaker speech?

If you’re a new toastmaster, we always wonder, “How to give this toastmasters IceBreaker speech.”

Talking about YOU is one of the easiest things to do.

But, when you want to put your speech on paper, are you asking the below questions?

• I don’t know what to say.
• My life is not interesting at all.
• What would others think about me?
• I don’t have anything interesting to impress people?
• What if I forget my speech?
• I have so much to say. How can I do it in 4-6 minutes?

If you have asked any of the above questions, or a variation of the above…

Congratulations!

You are not alone. I had more questions.

I took an insane amount of time to write my Ice Breaker speech.

Guess how much time I took?

I took 4 months.

A club officer (the one who manages the education program for a toastmaster’s club) called me for a lunch meeting to motivate me.

He did motivate me to take up my icebreaker speech but I felt bad.

Why?

He did not pay for the lunch.

Ok, let’s leave that for another day.

Let’s see the Objectives of the Project:

1. To begin speaking before an audience
2. To discover speaking skills you already have and skills that need some attention.

Aren’t the objectives simple and clear?

What you have to understand is that there is no obligation on type of information you need to provide.

Remember this: You are not obligated to share any information that you don’t want to share.

Toastmasters competent communicator journey is a LIVE training ground to train in public speaking skills.

It does not matter what car (BMW, Civic or Mini Cooper) you use to learn ‘car driving’. All it matters is whether you learn driving at the end of the day!

Even though the toastmaster icebreaker speech project recommends that YOU be the topic – I suggest you to add variety to it.

Let me explain.

Icebreaker speech is the perfect opportunity to explore more about yourself.

If you see any underlying theme that characterizes you, then use that as your topic.

I loved the idea when one of my club members at Aetna, (# 3610, Hartford, USA) used DETERMINATION as the topic and beautifully weaved her story around it.

Let me get into the meat and potatoes on how to have your Ice Breaker ready in less than an hour.

Before answering these questions, please promise me that you will answer them with stories and not just one-liners.

• How did you come into this world? (Get creative if you can)
• How was your childhood? Were you pampered? Where did you grow?
• How were your mom and dad? Were they strict? Were they kind?
• Did you have siblings? How were they? (Always fighting right ??)
• Any person who influenced you in your life? How and when?
• What would your friends tell about you if a third person asks them about you? Get that information (You will be amazed by the feedback)
• What are your aspirations? Future goals (if any – its ok if you hate goals ?
• What are your interests? What do you like? What do you don’t like? Why?
• What is your message to the world? Yes, you can become a world leader now. It’s your stage!

Ok, you read them. Now what? I know it is a lazy feeling to write the stories.

Just try to cite the stories. I mean just give a name to the story. Example – the story about Mom shouting at you when you ate 10 cup-cakes and dad came and consoling you..:) or your fight with Tim at school because he ate your lunch :), etc.

The first step to create your toastmasters icebreaker speech is to select the stories (from your life) and answer the above questions.

For this, you don’t need to be in front of a computer. Just a notebook, cellphone or a notecard is fine. Keep jotting down the stories as you are living your life.

Your brain is an amazing entity.

It will remind you about that cool story when you are boarding a bus or driving a car (please stop the card and note it down) or walking on the pavement.

Check out my sample icebreaker speech and check out the flow.

Listen, I’ve come a long way but I did not refine my speech because I wanted to keep it original. This is the same speech I delivered around 6 years ago.

Please use this as a model speech and start with your icebreaker speech soon!

Speech Script and analysis of my toastmasters Icebreaker speech:

Note: Analysis is in bold

Title: My Story

Starting off with an amusing story with a little bit of curiosity helps to engage the audience. Based on the statement, they know that I am stubborn, naughty, etc.

In a busy market, a boy asked his sisters for an ice cream. When the boy did not get the ice cream, he threw tantrums and rolled on the ground inside the ice cream shop.

This boy was not willing to get up from the floor.

Introducing my three sisters as characters in the story answered the curiosity question – why did he tell that story?

Finally, he had to be dragged to home all along the road by his sisters.

This boy was not doing this because his sisters had refused to buy him the ice cream or the shopkeeper didn’t have an ice cream. The reason was because the boy did not get his favorite grape-flavored ice cream.

The characters in the story were my three lovely sisters and I.

Introducing parents here. You can expand here if needed.

Speaking of family; my dad is an electrical contractor and our breadwinner and mom is a perfect homemaker.

Here I am answering the questions about my school education.

I studied in St. Mary’s School at Chennai. At least twice a week I attended the morning school assembly outside the entry gate. I used to be late! In those times, Chennai’s scorching sun – just 45 C [113 F] – also could not stop us playing on the streets. I used to get into any kind of game.

Tell the audience something unexpected. They would not have expected me to fly kites!

Flying kites was also another great sport of mine.

If you ice break with any educated Indian – your Ice breaker is incomplete without their educational achievements!

I was not the #1 rank holder in my class, but I maintained my rank within 10 in a class of 50. I was this jolly go-to kid until an incident happened.

I had a specific story so that I can transition into another point or a trait that I had realized. You also can tell a story – maybe not about academics. It could be anything. Say what you learned from it.

In my 9th grade, during a chat with my classmates regarding student rankings in the class, this guy Vivek told me, “Rama, how can you beat my rank?” And I casually replied,

“Come on, if I study hard, I can beat your rank.” Vivek replied, “You can never ever beat my rank.” I felt like someone slapped me right on my right cheek. Those words kept inspiring me whenever I picked up a book. On a normal day, I would doze off whenever I opened a book. Then I proved him wrong. Not only did I beat him but I also secured the 2nd rank in the class. That was when I realized that I could raise my potential to achieve my target.

There is a transition to rankings and into college education. See – I am basically using a chronological model till here. You can follow this and use your incidents.

I didn’t stop there. I consistently maintained my ranks till my 12th standard and got competitive cut-offs for engineering admissions. I got into a chemical engineering department only because I could get into Anna University, Chennai – that is one of the best engineering campuses in India. I had to compete with the best students and achieve good grades.

Transitioning into my career. I am answering questions such as “how I felt when I got the job,” “how I feel now.” You get the idea?

During my final year placements, I got an offer from one of the best SOFTWARE FIRMS. There was a tingling in my stomach when I joined the company. I used to question, if I would survive in the IT software field? I not only survived but also thrived in this industry.

I am mentioning some traits of mine that I wanted to share.

There are two significant traits that I would like to share about me. I wake up at 5 a.m. in the morning. I jog, practice meditation, and then take a steam bath. I would love to tell that as my routine activity.

But unfortunately, I have to tell that I don’t do things until the 11th hour. It all started from school, going late and getting spanked by my principal, going late to college and not entering the class. Even now I wake up at 7:30 a.m. and catch a bus at 7:50 a.m. Well, I would definitely not get into the details of how I manage to get ready.

I still believe in this and I think this is the most satisfying feeling one can get. What is it that you believe in? Be honest – your audience will love you.

I believe that helping people in their difficulty is the most satisfying feeling.

I also wish I could be a correct judge of myself while doing so. This is one trait which helps me win real friends.

Telling a story that was close to my heart to support that point.

During final semester, around 10 people mostly who had current arrears, a history of arrears, or who were from a non-English background were not placed. I was the placement representative of my department and felt badly responsible for them not getting a job offer. After a lot of failed attempts, finally through our alumni, I came to know about a job opening in a design company. Five students who didn’t have current arrears were shortlisted and called for interview. Contrary to my expectation, the company selected all the five students. You feel good about yourself when someone smiles because of you and you keep smiling all the day.

This is a thank-you conclusion to all the people in my life. You can come up with something similar or something else. Maybe you can tell your ambition or future goals.

I take this as an opportunity to thank each and every one who came into my life till now who knowingly or unknowingly influenced me in shaping my attitude.

Techniques for Delivering your toastmasters Icebreaker speech:

So, you have your script ready? Good job. Let’s get going into the delivery part.

The following steps are mentioned because I am assuming that toastmasters icebreaker speech is your venture into this world of public speaking. If you are already comfortable on the stage, you can ignore steps which do not make sense to you.

Steps to practice an Ice Breaker:

1. Go to a mirror with your script. Read out as loud as you can. The reason I am telling you to do this is because I want you to get comfortable hearing and projecting your own voice. If you have zero or less stage experience, the above exercise might be really helpful. If you want to use a wall-size mirror, fitness center mirrors in your community would be really cool for this activity. In the corporate world, washroom mirrors also can do the job but you might need to practice during off hours or else you might freak out people coming to the restroom/washroom!
2. Even though you can use notes, I recommend against using them. A simple technique to help you avoid using notes is as follows. Connect the images of the speech in your mind and speak out (we will use a better technique in the next project). In the speech example given in the next section, if you look closely, you can dice the speech into frames.

First picture – A street with a shop on one side and my house on the other side. My 3 sisters and I are buying from the store and then they drag me. Can you map this in a single frame?

Second picture – I am standing outside the entry gate at school. Getting spanked and going late to school on a regular basis.

Third picture – Playing in the streets, flying kites, and hanging around with no aim in life!

3. Once you are comfortable with the script – deliver this speech to your family, close friends or anyone who will listen to your speech!

Steps to take on the day of your speech:

4. Get excited to deliver your story. I think if you can do this one thing – you will be awesome on stage!
5. Ask your club member or fellow Toastmaster to record your Ice Breaker speech.
6. A minute before you are called on stage, your heart might race, hands might shiver, legs might wobble, you might feel the urge to go to the restroom, and all weird things will happen. If these things do not happen, either you have some experience in public speaking or you are a born speaker! When they do happen, rub your left palm with your right hand for 10-15 seconds and vice versa. Bring your heart rate to normal. Slowly, breathe in and breathe out. Now go ahead and enjoy the delivery.

Steps to take after you deliver your speech:

7. After your speech, listen to your evaluations. Get feedback of your speech. Let me be frank – all evaluations are not perfect. As my favorite mentor, Jerry Aiyathurai (World Championship of Public Speaking finalist) says, “Take it if you like it; else cheerfully ignore it.” Keep in mind; you might get certain feedback for which you are not even ready. Example – if your current problem is wobbling legs, you might get feedback on voice modulation as well. In such a case, you have to work on overcoming wobbling legs before working on voice modulation.
8. Collect your video recording. You might be happy or not so happy with your speech delivery. Do not get discouraged or form opinions by watching your video. Every speaker started from somewhere. Your recording is the precious information to help you grow. In the delivery techniques part of the next chapter, I will tell you what to do with your recording.

That’s it!

I’ve given everything you need to kick start your competent communicator journey through your toastmasters icebreaker speech.

If you focus and do the things which I mentioned, you will have a minimal viable icebreaker speech out of your mind in just an hour or two.

You can always tweak your ice breaker speech as you get more ideas.

Enjoy this process and all the best for your Icebreaker speech!

-Rama

P.S: From time to time, I open up slots for Confidence Club. It’s a premium personal coaching program. If you’d be interested, please register below.