Oh What a Week!

Last week was a fantastic week. Not only did we represent in the Area 59 Humourous speech contest, (see previous blog for results), Darren La Croix, was in town and some of us went to see him at Citi Criers.
What a guy! He was funny, engaging and professional. All things you would expect from a World Class, Toastmasters International speech contest winner. What was less expected was the amount of value he gave. Most people in his shoes would give a teeny weeny bit of value and then go in for the kill selling their products and the whole event would end up being one big advertisement. This was different. As I listened,  I sat there thinking about the speech I had given the week before and could immediately apply his tips to that speech. If I were to perform it again I know it would be 100x better. So what did he tell us? I can't share it all as that would be a book not a blog post but if I were to pick and paraphrase one of the most helpful things he said, it would be this;

Don't just tell your audience your story, take them there.

If you can just get your audience to see, hear, feel and smell your story then your story is going to be much more powerful.

Try it!  Next time you write your speech - take your audience along for the ride. Let their senses run wild for those 5-7 minutes!

For more tips from the the legendary La Croix, go to http://darrenlacroix.com/

For more practice, obviously get yourself down to our club.

The people that made the event possible. 

The Citi Criers posse with our very own Julie Kertesz DTM (third from right) and Darren La Croix (centre)