Any content you read, whether it is prose, poetry, article, newsletter, or story; it always has one thing in common.
When you are casually sharing something with your friends, talking about an experience, you will observe that there is again one thing in common.
And that is called STRUCTURE.
And the most important thing that structure will do is to hold your speech together.
The objectives of speech 2 from competent communicator manual are:
- Select an appropriate outline, which allows listeners to easily follow and understand your speech.
- Make your message clear, with supporting material directly contributing to that message.
- Use appropriate transitions when moving from one idea to another.
- Create a strong opening and conclusion.
My speech topic for toastmasters speech 2 was “Sleep.”
I selected this topic after days and days of deliberation. I generally used to spend a lot of days looking for a perfect topic for my speech.
I would eventually come up with one and then I would spend days and days to finally come up with a reason why my audience would not be impressed with that topic.
I later realized that project speeches are meant for experience, and not to impress someone.
Learn from me – don’t waste time on selecting a topic. Your main aim is to speak on stage. To quote Darren LaCroix, 2001 World Champion of Public Speaking: “Stage time, stage time, and stage time.”
SPEECH SCRIPT and ANALYSIS
You see – the overall speech is following the model below.
Opening
Transition
What are we talking about?
Part 1
Section 1
Section 2
Section 3
Part 2
Benefit of the subject
Drawbacks of not following the theme
Conclusion
Note: Analysis is in bold
Title: Something to ponder
Story is my favorite technique for opening a speech. You can use any other technique: question or interesting statistic also works well. One of my mentees whistled a tune as the opening for his speech and the audience loved it. Please use your imagination to grab your audience’s attention.
It was my database management training class. Mr. Venky, our highly enthusiastic tutor, advanced to the first row of the class and repeated the same concept again and again in a louder tone. This unusual act caught everyone’s attention in the class. Vamsi, my friend who sat next to me, was nudging me so that I would open my eyes to see our tutor stand right in front of me –shouting a concept just to wake me up.
Please observe the transition. I told a story in my introduction about an incident in which I was sleeping. Then I am introducing the topic “Sleep” in a prominent manner.
Mr. Toastmaster, fellow Toastmasters, and dear guests, the reason why I told my classroom incident was not to justify why I am dumb in database management concepts till date but to illustrate the point that I did not have enough sleep the previous night. All living things are subject to this phenomenon called “Sleep.”
I am transitioning into the details of “Sleep” with a question.
Have you ever wondered what causes sleep?
Transitioning into the core subject. Giving them an idea about the subject.
Let me explain. Sleep occurs based on the biological clock. We have dedicated sensors on the retina that deliver the daytime/nighttime message directly to a gland tucked deep inside the brain. In response to darkness, this tiny brain tissue produces the sleep-inducing hormone melatonin, broadcasting the message to brain areas that govern everything from body temperature to protein synthesis to hormone production to alertness.
I am engaging the audience so that they don’t sleep! Dividing the subject into two parts. The first part is divided into three sections. Now we have to talk about those parts and sections.
Have you ever wondered what exactly happens when we hit the sack?
Explaining the first point.
Once we close our eyes, we are subjected to two types of sleep.
The first one is NREM sleep (Non Rapid Eye Movement). This is the dreamless sleep. The NREM sleep has three major stages:
Drowsiness is Stage 1. It lasts just for 5 or 10 minutes. And in this stage our eyes move slowly under the eyelids, muscle activity slows down and we are easily awakened.
Explaining the second point.
Stage 2 is Light Sleep. In this stage, our eye movements stop, heart rate reduces, and body temperature decreases.
Explaining the third point.
At Stage 3, we reach Deep Sleep. It becomes difficult to awaken us at this stage. If somebody tries to do that and succeeds, we do not adjust immediately and often feel groggy and disoriented for several minutes. I was told that I refused to move out of my room when my friend Albin tried to wake me up when there were earthquake tremors. Deep sleep allows the brain to go on a little vacation needed to restore the energy we expend during our waking hours.
Explaining the second section of the speech.
The next type of sleep is the REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep where our brain is active as it was when we were awake. Our body temperature rises; the forebrain starts working – trying to analyze random information thrown before it. In other words, we are in dreamland. My parents used to tell me that while sleeping I used to shout something like “Howzaaaat… Catch it quick… hit it.” I always thought that something was wrong with me, but recently only I realized it was all due to the mechanism of REM sleep. REM is the period when we fly without wings, we spend without earning, and our most fancied wishes and desires come true.
Talking about benefits of the topic.
Each sleep stage is important for overall quality of sleep, but deep sleep and REM sleep are especially vital. During deep sleep blood flow decreases to the brain and redirects towards the muscles, restoring physical energy. It is this time when our immune system gets some time to be healed. Have you ever observed that whenever you are done with a big project or series of exams, you get cold or experience body pain? Well, at least now you should know this is not an accident and is mostly due to lack of deep sleep. REM sleep helps in cell division and protein synthesis, which aid in repairing the muscles; human growth hormone is also released during sleep. This is the reason why children should sleep more hours.
Drawbacks of not sleeping well.
The biggest sleep robber of all, however, is work. The puritan ethic has gone haywire in an era of global markets. To accommodate the relentless pressure for productivity, we’re sleeping less and spending less time in social and leisure pursuits, which result in more stress and that can steal away even more sleep.
Conclusion: Conveying the idea that I am going to perform these actions and indirectly telling the audience to do these in order to enjoy getting benefits of sleep.
I am not sure if it’s feasible for you all to heed my request to go to sleep on time and maintain consistent sleeping habits. But I will go home, have a hot bath, eat simple food, and have a good night’s sleep so that I feel energetic and fully alert to take on tomorrow’s challenge.
TECHNIQUES FOR DELIVERY:
Do you have a recording of your earlier speech? Do you see any of the below?
- Hand shivers
- Wobbling of legs
- Repetitive gesturing of hands
- Walking left and right like a pendulum
- Shifting weight of body on right or left leg at regular intervals
- Slouchy shoulders
- Looking down during the speech
- Not making eye contact with audience or looking at the ceiling
- Monotone voice
- Showing tension in face while narrating a pleasant experience
- Laughing even before the audience laughs after telling a joke
- Not showing emotions that correspond to intent of the message
Maybe you don’t exhibit any of the above or you exhibit some of them. I am going to tell you something important. You might hear the advice, “Practice again and again.” We need to know what, how, and how long to practice.
First and foremost, identify the areas of distraction in your delivery. Then, practice to avoid those distractions. I am not saying to work on body language or voice modulation (there are different projects later).
For this project, all I want you to do is practice to avoid any distracting mechanisms that you identified from your speech recording.
How do you do that?
When you rehearse your speech for this project, ask your friend or fellow Toastmaster to look for any distractions which are unconscious to you. If your friends are busy, as an alternative, please self-record your speech while rehearsing. Use a laptop with inbuilt microphone and camera for this. It works like a charm. Look for any distractions. Make a conscious effort to remove those distractions while rehearsing your speech.
The whole idea of a polished and classy speech is to give that by-heart speech in a natural and casual manner.
Have you watched Steve Jobs speak in a conversational tone during his product launches? Steve Jobs used to practice for hours before the product launch speeches. Don’t you think Steve Jobs knew enough about his products?
Don’t you think there is some logic in practicing your speech beforehand? If you don’t practice at this stage, you may need to practice harder later.
I will give two practical techniques to step up your delivery.
Technique #1:
First, if you know the room where you are going to speak, then go to that room the previous day. Take a good look at the empty chairs or seats. If you have time and if the situation permits, please practice your speech in that room.
After returning home or when you are back to your usual practice location, do the below:
- Close your eyes.
- Imagine the presentation room to be occupied with people.
- With your eyes still closed, start practicing your speech by talking with them. Practicing with closed eyes is something I learned from Craig Valentine (1999 World Champion of Public Speaking) through one of his audio programs. This technique has personally helped me a lot. I have used this when I am practicing for my contests.
Technique #2:
Second, I want to introduce you to another favorite practice technique of mine.
If you do this, you will be far, far ahead of other speakers.
Ready for this?
You practice till your speech is in your muscle memory.
What do I mean by this? You can feel that your speech is in your muscle memory if you don’t have to focus on your next thought or word during speech delivery. When you keep drilling your speech again and again, after some time the speech gets into your blood and you no longer need to recall your speech.
When you are in this sweet spot, your conviction and sincerity will show for itself.
I bet you will enjoy giving speeches.
Now, I have given all you need to get going with toastmasters speech 2.
Enjoy the whole process and all the best for your speech!
