7 Tips for Starting a New Business

The Hour Has Come

Table Topics Blog

It has been hit and miss, but I have a blog for Table Topics to which I
contribute from time to time:

http://toastmastertabletopics.blogspot.com/

Check it out.

Digg Story: CAN

I wanted to share this story with you: http://digg.com/d3yUYE?e
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"CAN"
Footage from the Dick and Rick Hoyt Story cut to "I Can Only Imagine" by Mercy Me.
+373 people dugg this story.

It's Time to Start Posting Again

It is time that we reactivate this blog with pictures, articles, and audio.

Toastmasters at Kaiser

We just completed a summer project at Kaiser with their youth internship program. Each Friday, the youth who were assigned to mentors in various departments of the health care system, experienced education day as a way of exposing them to the broad range of services and careers in health care. As part of that day, Federal Toastmasters was invited to facilitate a Toastmaster's meeting for the young people.

It was a wonderful experience.

Watching these outstanding youths grow in confidence and ability to formulate ideas, lead meetings, and speak in public was a real inspiration.

At the helm of this program was an outstanding and enthusiastic woman named Gretchen Fritz. She invested time, energy, and love into each of her students with a flair for innovation and a commitment to their development. I would recomend her for any local coaching hall of fame.

Unfortunately for Fresno, she is being transferred to a new location with greater responsibilities. She will do well.

Some lessons I learned this summer were:

1. There are pockets of innovation and creativity in places where you may not expect to find them.

2. Everyone brings something to the table of human experience. Even and especially the young among us have much wealth of experience and insight to contribute.

3. Everyone can learn to communicate better. Not everyone will be a professional public speaker, but each person can learn to be a competent communicator

4. That a new generation of leadership is training itself at an accelerated pace and that they bring competencies and skills that are much greater than those of my generation at the same stage of life.

Winston's Churchill's Greatest Speech

This is a fine example of a man using profound abilities as a communicator to rally an entire nation for a great cause:

Tom Filer Hits a Home Run

Tom Filer gave us some unorthodox advice for success at Friday's meeting. I can't wait to get his notes so that we can post it here.

Great job, Tom!

It was good to have you back.

Another Guest

10 Principles for Better Oral Communication

Written by Wayne McDill

This article is excerpted by permission from the book, 12 Essential Skills for Great Preaching, by Wayne McDill (Nashville: B&H Publishing Group, 2006).

Free Download 10 Principles for Better Oral Communication (2-page PDF with explanations)

Let me suggest some of the principles you can follow as guidelines for planning the design of your sermons. If you will keep these suggestions in mind, your design will come closer to the goal of making real communication contact.

1. Design a dynamic (forceful, alive, moving) format rather than a static (set, complete, still) one.
   
   
2. Keep your outline clear and simple.
   
   
3. Oral design should be oriented to time rather than space.
   
   
4. Emphasize main ideas by placement and reiteration.
   
   
5. Use carefully worded transitions as you move through the presentation.
   
   
6. Plan carefully for a combination of inductive and deductive movement.
   
   
7. Use language best suited to the ear, not the eye.
   
   
8. Plan the introductory segments carefully.
   
   
9. Plan the closing segments of the design carefully.
   
   
10. Plan the whole design from the audience’s point of view.

This article is excerpted by permission from the book, 12 Essential Skills for Great Preaching, by Wayne McDill (Nashville: B&H Publishing Group, 2006).

Related Articles:

1. Preaching Skills: Five Phases of a Story

© 2001-2007
LifeWay Christian Resources

Guest Author: Public Speaking Anxiety: 4 Ways To Control It

Public Speaking Anxiety: 4 Ways To Control It

By Michael A. Jones

Calls for "Speech, Speech" can send many men and women into panic and fear. Others may be given an assignment to present information before a group and feel overwhelmed by public speaking anxiety in the run up to the presentation.

The 4 key suggestions here will do much alleviate the problem and assist anyone to control and overcome public speaking anxiety:

1. Thorough Preparation

The biggest antidote to audience fear? Thorough preparation! There is no short-cut.

If you have carefully researched your material so you are convinced it is worth delivering,
and you firmly believe your audience needs to hear it, and you have practiced and practiced the delivery, you can stand up in front of an audience with confidence!

2. Breathing

Control nervousness by taking deep breaths to relax the body. Concentrate on your message and the things you have prepared to present to your audience rather than on your nervousness.

Use positive speech, even in your own thoughts. Instead of saying to yourself, "Boy, do I feel nervous", which only reinforces the feeling, say, "My adrenaline is pumping and I'm going to use it to deliver an unforgettable presentation!"

3. Confidence Visualized

To increase confidence and combat uncertainty use visualization techniques. These can be VERY effective.

Running through the whole presentation including the approach to the speaker's stand, the initial pause, the first few sentences, over and over again in your mind, will create great confidence.

4. End Result Visualization

Include the end result in your visualization exercise.

See yourself having successfully concluded an excellent presentation with the applause of the audience in your ears. See the smiles, hear the compliments afterwards and make them real in your mind.

In a TV interview, Mohammed Ali once explained how he prepared for a fight. He would concentrate his mind on imagining actually being there in the ring, in the stadium, at the venue. He would see himself there at the end of the fight, victorious.

He created a very real scene in his mind with the smells, feelings, sounds, sights, he expected to experience at that moment. He used the phrase 'Future History' to describe what he created in his mind.

Why not create a 'Future History' for yourself before your next presentation and see how it triggers the necessary energy to overcome any feelings of self-doubt.

It may be unrealistic for some individuals to think they will conquer public speaking anxiety completely. Perhaps some public speakers with many years experience can walk in front of an audience without any nervousness at all.

For the majority however, who may only be called on occasionally to speak before a group or an audience, there will always be some anxiety. A realistic expectation regarding public speaking anxiety and following the suggestions above can however do much to control it so it does not overwhelm the speaker.

Michael has compiled an inexpensive coaching manual complete with Analysis Questionnaire: http://www.about-goal-setting.com/public-speaking-coaching-manual.htm

Michael has also personally benefited from this Public Speaking Course ranked No. 1: http://www.about-goal-setting.com/public-speaking-course.htm

For personal development listen to "The Program Of Presidents": http://www.about-goal-setting.com/personal-development.html

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Michael_A._Jones
http://EzineArticles.com/?Public-Speaking-Anxiety:-4-Ways-To-Control-It&id=465420