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In Toastmasters program, the 1st level of award as a better speaker is called Competent Communicator (CC). To receive this award, a member must complete 10 speeches in the CC manual. I gave my 10th speech at Dell (Penang) Toastmasters Club last Tuesday,   8-Jun 2010.

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In my previous Vista Penang Toastmasters Club meeting, my Vice President of Education asked me if I’m interested to complete my 10th speech in another club rather then wait for our next meeting next week. I politely declined him since I’m just too lazy to complete my speech earlier. Well, today, I’m in Dell Toastmasters Club delivering my 10th speech a week earlier than plan.

So, what has made me changed?

Last weekend, I received a SMS from our Area Governor (AG), Jessica urgently need me to complete my 10th speech in this week. Well, at first I was a bit reluctant, but after thinking about it, I’m sure our AG really needs my contribution for the Distinguish Club Point so that’s why I’m standing here.

My fellow Toastmasters,

What I’m going to share in the next 8-9 minutes is my personal perspective in my CC journey on what I have learnt from my past 9 speeches. I hope my speech today will inspire all of us to continuously sharpen our communication skill to become a much better speaker.

Throughout my 9 speeches which I believed I have put some effort to prepare, deliver, learn and improve on how to become a better speaker. I know, my Toastmasters journey is still at the beginning but I felt I have done something right in my life. I’ve decided to be a Toastmaster because of 2 reasons. The first, I knew I need to improve my speaking skills and the second I need some accreditation to venture into my passion of becoming a public speaker. I wanted to start my consulting business helping anyone to effectively market their career to secure a job or for career progression. I know Toastmasters can help me and that makes me more determined to venture myself more into the world of Toastmasters.

Started in Apr 2009, I delivered my first speech about “Myself” in the Ice Breaker. Talking about myself to new friends at that time carried me away and I exceeded the allocated time given of 4-6 minutes. I’ve finished my speech at about 9 minutes and that was my first attempt without any practice. So the lesson I’ve learnt is to practice my speech within the time limit.

2 months later, I organized my speech on “How to Win in the Job Market?” The practice worked where I ended my speech at 6 minutes 30 seconds, within the allocated time of 5-7 minutes. Glad I’ve fixed that problem but I was too nervous. So another lesson learnt is practice to relax while delivering my speech.

Came Aug, it was my 3^rd speech of Get to the Point, where I talked about “Just Focus on Your Strength”. Well, I focused too much on my time, until I slightly finished my speech earlier of 5 mins and 25 secs and also forgotten my conclusion. I still need to keep practicing my speech especially on the time and end my speech with a conclusion.

In my fourth speech, How to say it, I’ve decided to talk about “Make Our Life Simple”. Overall it works with the time, 7 mins 45 secs. But the examples I’ve used according to my evaluator is irrelevant where I used the analogy of the evolution of PC to win a promotion. Anyway, lesson learnt is everyone has their own opinion, so respect it and move on.

Next, it was time to use my body language. I’ve decided to talk about “The Hidden Power of Body Language. It started fine but at the middle of my speech, my handphone rang. So, anther impotant lesson learnt is remember to put my handphone at silent or vibrate mode during a Toastmasters meeting.

I started the year 2010 with my 6^th speech about “Oh My God”. At that time, the issue of using the word Allah to reflect other religions’s God is a hot issue. As a Muslim, it is my obligation to explain the meaning of the word Allah and it is okay to use that name as long it will not mislead anyone. However, during that speech, I’ve not used much vocal variety hence another lesson learnt is continue practicing with vocal variety.

Research your topic was my next speech where I talked about a book written by a well known author, John C Maxwell; “Talent is Never Enough”. Shared some key highlights from the book but I’ve forgotten to call for action. Another lesson learnt is continue practicing to end with a call for action.

Then came the fun part, using Visual Aids. I used some visual aids to illustrate the acronym “SMART vs. VISTA” on how to set an effective goal. I was so excited during the speech until I’ve forgotten to use some pauses between the points. So, another lesson learnt is to practice with pauses between my points.

Last week, I’ve presented my 9^th speech to persuade with power. I talked about “Don’t Trust Your Amygdala” which attracted some attention with this title. Amygdala is an almond shape part of the brain which stores information from past experience. Trusting your amygdala will leads to making assumptions which may produce positive or negative results. Again, according to my evaluator, I’m not engaging my audience enough by asking questions. Another lesson learnt is practice to engage my audience.

So now I’m at the end of my 10^th speech. Overall I can summarized what I have learnt into 3 important points. The 1^st point is to deliver a good speech requires lots of practice, the 2^nd point is never ever have anything that can interfere my speech especially handphone and finally the 3^rd point is use body language, vocal variety and visual aids to engage your audience.

My fellow Toastmasters,

Ask yourself this question. What have you learn throughout your Toastamasters journey? For myself, I will never learnt those 3 important points if I have never pushed and urged myself to continue my CC journey. What really inspired me to continue this journey is the potential knowledge, experience and exposure I will gain from this program as what I have share just now. Believe me, you will learn something new every time you delivered a speech or attended a Toastmasters meeting.

I would like to end by saying this: Everyone has the ability to be successful but not everyone has the courage to be successful. Build that courage to conquer and success is just waiting for you.

With that, thank you.