Dear Gemma,
HELP! I’m due to give my stage 6 speech at the club meeting next week and I can’t think of a single thing to write it on!! I’ve tried watching the news for inspiration but that just makes me depressed. I’ve been to the library but the amount of old books there just puts me off. I’m really stumped!! And I was so hoping to impress that cute girl at the meeting next week with my delivery. …I’ve been trying to catch her eye since I joined the club and she STILL hasn’t noticed me.
Have you any suggestions?
Hopeless
Dear Hopeless,
Firstly let’s get your priorities right – are you here to learn how to be a competent toastmaster or are you here to impress ‘a girl’? Surely you should be thinking of your career progression, your professional development and how to get up the next rung of the ladder with your presentation skills and not crying into your soup over romance at this stage? Do you think you’re here to have fun? Get a grip man and get a life!
In response to the more serious nature of your enquiry however, I am prepared to offer you some advice. If you can’t find a topic for your speech, there is one simple solution. Start with a blank page and then start writing down the first words that come into your head – a form of stream of consciousness. Take inspiration from your surroundings – for example a typical list could go something like this. TV, window, DVD player, oil burner, laptop, Acer, Silicon Valley, Internet Hacking, Anti virus software……………………..could a potential topic for your stage 6 be to research the story of Julian Assange and Wikileaks and the implications of Wikileaks for global security systems? Now I’m giving you all my best ideas away for free, but you get the picture, you see how it’s done, now go and have a shot at it yourself…………………….and you never know if you do a good enough job, maybe I’ll put in a word for you with that ‘cute girl’ next week.
In the immortal words of Morticia Addams ‘Don’t torture yourself Gomez, that’s my job.’
Gemma
Gemma Shannon
Vice President Public Relations