My first year of Public Speaking

31 December, 2009, last day of my year of Public Speaking,
First note in this blog.

I got in 2009, as was my goal in January, my diploma of Competent Communicator of Toastmasters International, by completing 10th Manual Speech projects, the last, the 20 November in my Lewisham Speakers Club.

I did give some more this last year. One of it was a speech called:

Dare to Fail

for the Humorous Fall Toastmaster Contest, it won me the first price in the Club: I was stunned.I failed and failed and then, suddenly, I did succeed to enchant my club members with a Humorous speech!

Me and humour?

I was convinced I did not have it, but the Meridiam Speakers Club president, to whom I also belong, in Greenwich, told me: "poking fun of oneself is the best humour the British understand" and I did use that. But also what I learned in my previous speeches and tasks.

While preparing Dare to fail, I went through all my manual speeches, showing how and in which way I failed with them. I could not tell all, there were to many and the speech had to last only 7 minutes with laugh and all.

In the Area club speech, my son was there and took a video of my speech. Alas, with 6 seconds publicity before it all begins, but after all is only six seconds and the Dailymotion.com place on the web storing them, does it without me having ever paid any fee for any of my videos there.

Here it is, 7 minutes: Dare to Speak will make you if you wish to know me better..

Dare to fail - Humour for Toastmasters
Uploaded by julie70. - Click for more funny videos.

Today, 31 December, 2009, I decided to open this blog.  

It has a few different goals. Other goals probably arrive on the way.

1. To tell the stories of my different speeches, what I learned preparing each of them, in what way I failed and what I gained from them too. Take you on my journey through last year, as I see it now. (With my Competent Communcator eyes 0;)

2. Give information about the books around the Public Speaking, Storytelling and so on.

3. Show videos and make hear voice recordings, either directly in the blog, or links to them, that helped me understand better what is a good speech and why and how. (Not that I am there yet now, I still have a long way to go!)

I hope, through this blog, I may help most of you reading it, then of course going through them by yourself, as speech has to be practiced, not only looked or read about, to become Competent Communcators, at least as me more competent then when I did begun.

Of course, I will not stop there so the points 4 and 5 and so on, will be what I learn in 2010 and on.

Enjoy!