The Art of Audacious Conversation

Keith Ferrazzi, author of Never Eat Alone, writes this great guide to striking up conversations with people you don't know, and the benefits of having the guts to do it. You know what is at the core of his presentation? The need for public speaking skills.

WordPress Themes

DeKalb Toastmasters has just begun the process of redesigning our website. We're not searching for the holy grail of perfection, but we would like to have a more functional and beautiful design than we currently have. So, we're planning to do what everyone else is doing, and get WordPress with a hosting company and build our new site there.

This morning I read the following article in my work:

http://wpmu.org/why-you-should-never-search-for-free-wordpress-themes-in-google-or-anywhere-else/

It gives very clear guidance NOT to grab free WordPress themes from around the internet, because they can often contain malicious code. But at the end, the article does give links to a few *trusted* sources for WordPress themes.

If you or your club get into doing a new website project, just keep in mind that you can't trust any old WordPress theme - it's a program, and like any program you should know and verify the source before trusting it.

Table Topics

The articulate ad-libber

Most of the talking we do every day – simple conversation – is impromptu speaking. Yet for some members, TABLE TOPICS™ is the most challenging part of a Toastmasters meeting.

Table Topics continues a long-standing Toastmasters tradition – every member speaks at a meeting. But it’s about more than just carrying on an anxiety-ridden tradition. Table Topics is about developing your ability to organize your thoughts quickly and respond to an impromptu question or topic.

Table Topics usually begins after the prepared speech presentations. The Toastmaster of the meeting will introduce the Topicsmaster who will walk to the lectern and assume control of the meeting. The Topicsmaster will give a brief description of the purpose of Table Topics and mention if the topics will carry a theme.

The Topicsmaster will state the question or topic briefly and then call on a respondent. Each speaker receives a different topic or question and participants are called on at random.

When you’re asked to respond to a topic, stand next to your chair and give your response. Your response should last one to two minutes.

Now, take a deep breath and get ready to be remarkable!

Profile: Carol Abrahamson

One of our newest members who was profiled in the last post, Carol Abrahamson, is benefiting from Toastmasters as she launches her new business, Executive Authors. Here is what Carol has to say:

A serial entrepreneur since 1983, my newest venture is Executive Authors, a business that helps entrepreneurial, corporate and nonprofit execs to organize, write, create and promote business- and career-boosting books. As an author whose first book led to over $2 million in consulting revenues within a few years, I love helping other executives achieve the same glorious results!

Executive Authors leverages my years advising and coaching CEOs/CFOs of startups to multi-billion-dollar corporations, writing and editing mission-critical corporate messages designed to attract and excite multiple audiences, teaching high school English, as a McGraw-Hill executive and writing 14 nonfiction books of my own.

Toastmasters is making a big difference as I create a speech to take national that will be the cornerstone of my marketing program, How Having A Book of Your Own Can Forever Change Your Professional Life. The group has saved me the thousands of dollars I would otherwise have paid a speech coach, plus is a means to learn to use PowerPoint slides and a laptop projector from the stage. It is also a wonderful place for supportive camaraderie and meeting fascinating people I would otherwise never know. Our meetings are my most-favorite things on my calendar!

Thanks, fellow Toastmasters!

New Members!

DeKalb Toastmasters welcomes three new members to the club.

The three newest members were inducted into the club at our regular meeting last night (Tuesday, Aug. 24).  They have already given three speeches between the three of them, and they are all excited about finishing the Competent Communicator educational program before the end of next June. It's great to have you three on board!

52 Speakers To Learn From–#1 Brian Regan

My cousin Jeff Swinford showed us a video of stand up comedian Brian Regan in the mid 90s.  15 years later and Brian Regan is still doing stand up comedy. There are a few reasons to check out Brian’s videos (he has three stand up performance DVDs and one stand up CD available here):

1) He is an incredibly accomplished stand up comedian.  he uses facial expressions and body language in a lot of his comedy.  

2) His delivery is superb.  When Brian Regan appeared at comedy clubs in the Chicagoland area, my wife and I would typically see him two times.  Although some of his material is the same, he always had enough material to make each performance unique.

3) He doesn’t swear.  Unlike many comedians that make appearances on late night talk shows, Brian’s in person performances are very similar to his late night sets (just more material and hilarious encores).  My kids have been listening to Brian Regan for years and our 12 year old has gone to see him in person once already.

I could (and many times do) go on, but it’s really best to watch this professional in his element.  His website is www.brianregan.com and his youtube channel is www.youtube.com/brianregancomic.  If you would like to see him in person, there are a number of local appearances coming up in October (you will probably see me at a couple of them!)  http://www.brianregan.com/tour.html

Dan Rey
VP of Education

PowerPoint Not Required

Two years ago this month I joined Dekalb Area Toastmasters. For the past year I have served as our club's president. Today I was able to recreate my "icebreaker" speech the way I would have two years ago if a projector were available. The title of the speech was "PowerPoint Not Required". I started out by introducing myself, pointing out that besides being in Toastmasters I also work for Microsoft and that one way to quickly differentiate yourself at Microsoft is to either not use powerpoint (demo a solution or have a discussion, whiteboard or use a tablet with OneNote, display an agenda or outline) or use it sparingly. A lot of us (I'm including myself in this) have a tendency to come in with too many slides with too much information and sometimes provide too much for someone to comprehend or digest in a short period of time. Toastmasters has been an excellent opportunity to practice short and effective speeches on both work and personal topics. It's also been a great way to network with many in the community I live and grew up in (DeKalb, IL).

I continued my speech with one of my favorite PowerPoint examples - Peter Norvig's Gettysburg PowerPoint presentation. I had discovered this back in 2001 as a technical trainer (always looking for ways to inject humor or some additional element into technical courses - I came across it while looking for PowerPoint pranks http://norvig.com/Gettysburg/making.html) and it's still one of my favorite examples today that PowerPoint isn't always the best or only way to communicate. I gave some examples of what makes a great speech or presentation (it's not all about the slides, but they can play into the content and delivery steps) and provided a background on Toastmasters. I ended with an example of where a physical prop might be better than a slide (or slides to explain how to peel a banana correctly - like a monkey) and some humorous slides.

I posted the slides I used (with only slight modifications) using office online and docs.com (with Facebook integration) - if we're "friends" on Facebook, check it out. You can also access it here with or without a Facebook account - http://docs.com/1LKA

Tonight marks my third year in Toastmasters and my first meeting as Vice President of Education. One of my themes for this year will undoubtably be "Office online from anywhere" since it's one of the things I'm most excited about and has again changed when, where and how I use PowerPoint, Word, Excel and OneNote at work, at home and with Toastmasters.