We’ve all seen speakers that were really good at what they did.  If you’ve ever seen Zig Ziglar, Tony Robbins, or some other famous speaker give a presentation, you know what excellence in speaking looks like.

It’s great to watch and listen, and it’s great to have role models.  The one thing that isn’t great, however, is trying to duplicate that professional speaker’s style and mannerisms. 

That speaker didn’t become successful because their style and mannerisms are the only correct way to do things; they became successful because the style and mannerisms they’ve selected work well for them.  If you try to copy them exactly, what you’ll wind up being is a poor imitation of somebody else’s success.

So why not be yourself?  Rather than being a poor copy of Tony Robbins, why not be the best you?  Focus your attention on your material and your audience, rather than trying to copy others’ mannerisms.  Your speeches will be 100% better - without any extra work!

Last night, Chippewa Valley Toastmasters held the club-level International Speech Contest.  The goal of this contest is to present a speech that’s inspirational or motivational in nature.  Contestants are evaluated by a panel of judges, and assigned points based upon the judges’ impressions of their presentations. 

We had three competitors in our club competition, and three fantastic speeches.  When the points were all tallied, Barb Weisenberger took 1st place, and Christopher Kamrath took second place.  This means that both Barb and Chris will be advancing to the area contest later this month - which will also be held at our normal meeting place (the LDS church in Eau Claire).  Way to go Barb and Chris, and good luck at the area contest!

Here’s a brief article at lifehack.org on cutting out the crutch words when you speak.