This weekend my Toastmasters group had a special “marathon” Table Topics meeting. I volunteered for the last question, “Where do you find inspiration?” Apparently, I did a good job because I took home the ribbon for Best Table Topics that day!
Anyway, I liked what I had to say, as well, and thought that I’d share with you the video of the speech for two reasons:
- So you can learn and be inspired by what I said, and
- So you can get some ideas of how to handle an off-the-cuff presentation.
For those of you who are not familiar with Toastmasters and Table Topics, this is the portion of the meeting where people are given the opportunity to give an impromptu 1- to 2-minute speech, responding to a question they only just heard.
This provides excellent practice for those every-day situations that require this type of speaking:
- job interviews
- meeting new people
- interacting with customers and clients
and so many more scenarios.
Observe how I organized my thoughts, where I paused, my body language. This is not a perfect presentation, but it is pretty darn good (even if I say so myself). How can you learn from this short video to improve your public speaking?