USE METAPHORS IN A SPEECH

A well-deployed metaphor is a branding iron. Deployed effectively it can imprint a lasting impression in a listeners mind. It makes the message clearer, interesting and remarkable. But that is not all. What I like most about a metaphor is that it gives two stories for the price of one.

In the speech below, +Japheth Musau is discussing money issues. I found relating money to a spider extremely ingenious. It reduces a potentially boring money talk into an enjoyable narration. Alternately a boring scientific lecture is turned to an easy listening self-improvement elocution.

DANCE OR DIE

(By +Japheth Musau, +Kwanza Kenya Toastmasters club, for project 6 in the CC manual)

Dance or die! One mistake and he is dead meat! Literally!

When the male of the BlackWidow spider wants to mate, he has to dance for his prospect. This dance must be done right, with utmost dexterity and executed with the precision of a Swiss watch. Otherwise, the female will strike, kill and consume him instantly!

Fellow Toastmasters and welcomed guests money is like the female Black Widow Spider. If you don’t treat it right, it will crush your soul and pierce it with many sorrows and untold misery!

On the other hand, practising and using these money dance moves correctly will enable you to attract, multiply and protect the money that comes your way.

1.     Learn and use the right money vocabulary. The male black widow spider must dance not only to survive but also to achieve his divine mission. Dancing is hard enough when you have two left feet. The spider has eight! Yet he has to send the correct vibes to the prospective mate. The male spider initiates communication through the web by generating sporadic low-frequency vibrations. When this signalling is done right the ‘black widow’ sends back similar low-frequency vibrations. An elaborate exchange of courtship vibes ensues. The dance for survival slowly turns into a love dance.

Similarly, to court money use the correct money words. In the delicate web of finance, words have potent power. Profit! Capital gains! Break even! Bankruptcy, Risk, loss. These words are not the privilege or private property of accountants like Joseph (referring to +Joseph Muga our VPE) or bankers like myself. We all should learn these and other money words. According to money expert +Robert Kiyosaki, money is an idea. The greater your money vocabulary the more ideas you will have on how to make, multiply and protect your money.

2.     Instigate a total overhaul of your philosophy or attitude towards money. When the male black widow spider enters the domain of his prospect he must maintain the right attitude. Any signs of panic, hesitation or unbridled greed will have him dead in a flash. He must send constant vibes in a cool, calm and collected manner. He must focus on his goal without allowing the emotions such fear, haste and greed to drive him. Friends, you must have a clear reason for wanting money. Money is a tool whose purpose should be to help you achieve your lofty goals. If you allow fear or greed to drive you, you will soon find yourself marooned in a financial desert where you will starve and choke in the dust of your own gluttony. Be emotionally intelligent.

If you have a good command of the money language and have the right attitude towards wealth, you will attract, multiply and keep money that comes your way. Trillions of shillings circle the earth every day looking for a home. Like the black widow, they are listening out for the correct vibrations and looking for the right attitudes.

Will your dance moves make money eat you alive or choose you for a home?

If it does, will it be comfortable enough to stay?

TWEAK A FAMILIAR SPEECH TO FIT THE OBJECTIVES

When developing a Toastmasters speech, the temptation is often to study the objectives then come up with a speech that satisfies the objectives. That is good and logical, but sometimes it leads to a mental block. So how about a different approach?

 
Rather than starting with the speech objectives then looking for a speech topic to match those objectives, use a speech from a subject you are familiar with then adjust it to fit the objectives. There are advantages of speaking from a topic you are familiar.

1. The ease with which you can come up with the facts. Since you are already familiar with the subject, it takes less time to research on the facts and supporting material for your presentation.
2. Portability. You have spent time researching the topic. In fact you dug up more facts than are required for a (5 – 7 minutes) Toastmasters speech. The prudent thing then is to use a topic that you can carry with you out of Toastmasters to your career, hobby or side hustle. As such the time spent researching this Toastmasters project does not feel wasted after your presentation.
3. Passion: When delivering the speech you appear more natural. You are speaking from a subject you care about, therefore passion and enthusiasm come naturally.

 

 

HUMOROUS SPEECH CONTEST 2014

One of the things that make me a Toastmasters junkie is the numerous interesting people I meet there. This year’s humorous speech contest, hosted by Smart Speak Toastmasters club of  Nairobi - Kenya, was no different. I met many interesting people including the following

Bandage Head: He wears a bandage round his head to stop his intelligence from escaping. But it did not seem to be working since the IQ meter installed at the Goan Gymkhana hall would shoot up 10 scales when he entered the hall and fall 10 notches when he left.

Smart Alley: There is also this interesting fellow, I believe his name was Smart Alley who treats his car tires to fresh air every Sunday by removing the used air then inflating the tires afresh.

Colourvision: He cannot find a colour TV to buy because all the shops he has been to stock black ones, but he wants a green one. Any help to aid Colourvision find a colour Telly would be highly appreciated.

Kairerani: I had too the good fortune of meeting Kairerani the violin player and Karaoke Dj. Kairerani can bring eyes to your tears as the 12 year old poet found out.

The poet: 12 years old, as stated above, wrote a ‘persuade with poem’ letter to Kairerani that is available for download after sending a sh310 seed to +Job Mogire.

Leyong:  Oh! you should meet him some day. Leyong is 3 years old, single and not married or divorced before. He is still breastfeeding and therefore not sexually active.

Bunty: Accompanied +Komal Shah of Smart Speak Toastmasters Bunty Patel, risking his bread and butter, was there too but without his wife Babli. However we got to meet more of Babli through Bunty’s banter than we did Bunty himself. In fact I couldn't but wonder what would happen if Babli was to bump in to find Bunty bubbling on about Bablis battering ways.

The boys: Lovely lads! While others would device devious ways of snatching bicycles from their more affluent neighbors these were content to bet each other which one of the rich kids would fall off their bikes and how hard.

The Mud Man: Altitude sickness effects people in different ways. The milkman after leaving the city for the allure of a quick shilling in the highlands confidently tells his bosses that he knows the place. He knows it is muddy. Later he notices that the mud along his foot path was drying as fast as   he was making money. The Watchman: The Watchman at OFFICE OF THE CHIEF – RUTHIMITU (introduce to me by +Phillip Muhia) is such an inspiration with his shinny boots, trench coat and a World War II maroon beret. Many a boy want to be like him when they grow up.  Pastor Kanyari: was there reloaded and primed. The seed planters not only sowed, but were ready water the seed until  it matured

MBA generation: After his MBA thesis was approved nine months after valentine, he not only went on to learn critical thinking, resource and management skills, but was on hand to teach us vital communication skills. Accompanied +Harry Karanja of Early Birds

Building Membership - New Toastmasters Club

Once you decide to sponsor a #toastmasters club you will want to make sure it does not fail to charter. One pitfall to avoid is being stuck in a rut where you attract as many new members as are leaving. Attracting guests is not easy, getting them to join is harder and making sure they stay is even harder.   So what can you do? Three things;

Market your club and they will come.

• Make sure as many people as possible know your club meeting place and time.
• challenge each member individually to bring a guest.  When you ask one person to bring a guest, he or she will take it seriously.
• Encourage guests to mention who invited him or her and also encourage members to introduce their guests.
• Make sure you have an attractive, informative, and inviting web presence. Different members will have different electronic communication preferences. Have a footprint in each and encourage members to get active on it about Toastmasters.
• Contact speech lecturers and other speech trainers at your local colleges. They may be willing to direct students to your club.

Put on a good show and they will join.

• Run the meetings well. Stick to the agenda, fast pace the meeting and have not gaps between sections.
• Make meetings enjoyable, fun and devoid of tension.
• Let guests take roles such as hark master, joke master  and timer.
• Run on time in all sections of the meeting. Above all start on time and endeavor to end on time. Never wait for role takers to arrive. Instead replace any role taker who has not arrived five minutes to time.
• Never skip a meeting. Better have one speaker and evaluator than skip a meeting.
• Score highly on Moments Of Truth at every club meeting.

Meet their needs and they will stay.

• Make sure only manual speeches are delivered and evaluated in the meetings. 
• Let members receive positive support and recognition.
• encourage members to get involved in Toastmasters activities outside the club
• Ask the guests for comments at the end of the meeting.
• encourage members to set goals and mile stones such as purposing to achieve CC or CL in a given period year.

Toastmasters Speech Number 4 Hints

Toastmasters Project four will be 'judged' by the evaluator from two main angles: use of vivid words and use of rhetorical devices.

 

Use of vivid words: Be generous with adjectives and adverbs. Let no noun stand alone. For example if you have a man, make him a short man, tall man or fast man. Don't just say I was five years old. Instead, show whether you were slender, plump, dark, tall, cheerful, and happy or morose. How did you look during the holidays? Caked head to toe in black cotton soil, marinated in slimy red soil and looking every inch like pygmy warriors?

 

Rhetorical devices: I recommend you count how many of the devices you have employed in your speech. But space them well and don't over use them.

1. Similes: compare two items using the word like or as e.g.  sweet like honey; cunning as a fox; Bouncing and bumping downhill like a loaded spring.
   
2. Metaphor: compare two unlike things (without using like or as) e.g. at twelve I was a chef when I cooked.
   
3. Alliteration: is the repetition of consonant sound at the beginning of words in a sentence. e.g. petty pre-primary poets; cute clever Cate.
   
4. Triads: is to say things in threes. In the city, the roads were brightly lit, transport to school was provided, shoes were polished.
   
5. Repetition: I was never worried, I was never perturbed, I was never bothered by anything
   
6. Onomatopoeia is the naming of a thing or action by a vocal imitation of the sound associated with it e.g after the meeting vroom! the MP left while po-po-po-po the teachers followed.
   

 

An entertaining speech of about six hundred words is good for this project.

Speech Body Structure

Depending on the speech purpose, you can choose from a variety of speech structures such as a timeline, cause and effect, problem and solution, compare and contrast, or step-by-step. These structures form the body of your speech. Which you decide to use, let it ease the flow of the speech and make it more easily understood.

Chronological: A chronologically organised speech follows a time line. e.g. a speech topic about historical events such as a trip you recently took, Process or procedure of carrying out a task such as how to repair a puncture or a cooking recipe.

Spatial: The speech is arranged according to space, orientation, or physical structure of the subject. It is best for topic dealing with parts of an object. For example a speech discussing muscles of the body, estates of a city, parts of a ship.

Causal: Organises a speech from cause to effect, or effect to cause. e.g. Identify a condition, its causes, it’s effect, such as social malady, a war or a disease.

Pro and Con: organises a speech according to arguments for and against some policy, position, or action.

Problem-Solution: This structure identifies and analyses a problem in terms of its consequence and then proposes a solution.

Gimmick: A speech is structured according to a special memory device, such as alliteration, rhyme, or acrostic.

Creating a Speech on Short Notice

Confirm the purpose: If you have only a few minutes to prepare a speech, focus hard on your single most important point. The specific purpose. This will keep you glued to the point. The specific purpose could be proposing a course of action, entertaining, informing, or inspiring your audience. Make sure you can state your purpose in one sentence and write it down. Then organize your thoughts around that purpose. As you write, restrict your information to what directly relates to your purpose. Try to use a story or personal experience to illustrate each point you want to mention. One well-illustrated point is stronger and more memorable than multiple points that are explained but not illustrated.

Practice ideas, not words. A speech that is memorized word for word is risky because  if you lose your place you are in trouble. Instead memorize the outline. You want to be spontaneous enough to be able to insert comments about something from earlier in the meeting. Having examples planned for each point will make it easier for you to remember what to say next.

Delivery - When you give the speech use a powerful opening. State each point clearly. If you have an illustration use it. But Don’t ramble or belabour the point! Then use a strong closing.  Never apologize for your lack of preparation or nervousness – chances are good no one will notice.

If time allows

o    Practice your speech a few times in your natural voice. If you miss a point, keep going. Then go back to the section you had trouble with and work on it until it’s smooth. 

o  Polish your speech by working on finer points such as vocal variety, then gestures, and then stance and pacing, focusing on one aspect of delivery at a time.

o    Create an attention-grabbing opening.
 o   Craft a catchy concluding statement that is both a call to action and summarizes your main point.

PATH WAY TO DISTINGUISHED TOASTMASTER (DTM)

Frequently new members and not so new members ask me what lies ahead after the first ten speeches. Well, currently there are sixteen additional manuals (of five speeches each) and a host of other exciting things to do on your way to becoming a Distinguished Toastmaster. However at present we do not know what the landscape will look like after the revitalised program is deployed. Note too that these projects do not need to be taken in a sequence.

Communication Track	Leadership Track
Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM) Achieve Advanced Communicator Gold (ACG) Achieve Advanced Leader Silver(ALS)
Advanced Communicator Gold (ACG) Achieve Advanced Communicator Silver (ACS)  Complete two additional Advanced Communication manuals Conduct a Success Leadership and Success Communication or Youth Leadership program. Coach a new member with his/her first three speeches.	Advanced Leader Silver (ALS) Achieve Advanced Leader Bronze (ALB) Complete the High Performance Leadership program(available at $14) Serve as Club Sponsor, Club Mentor or Club Coach
Advanced Communicator Silver (ACS) Achieve Advanced Communicator Bronze (ACB) Complete two additional Advanced Communication manuals Conduct two programs from the Better Speaker Series and/or the Successful Club Series programs	Advanced Leader Bronze (ALB) Achieve Competent Leader Achieve Competent Communicator Serve as club officer Participate in Club Success Plan Conduct two programs from either the Successful Club Series and/or the Leadership Excellence Series
Advanced Communicator Bronze (ACB) Achieve Competent Communicator (CC) Complete two Advanced Communication manuals
Competent Communicator (CC) Complete Competent Communication manual	Competent Leader (CL) Complete Competent Leadership manual

Why Be A Club Officer?

There is more to the club than paying your dues, attending club meetings and participating in the program of the day. I am talking about why you should consider being a club officer.

I am confident that if more people could see it my way, there would be clamouring for every role come election time in the clubs. I believe that in order for us to continue benefiting from the fun public speaking atmosphere - prepared speeches, feedback, table topics -  then clubs have to exist and meet regularly. This in turn implies new members have to be recruited, dues have to be collected and submitted, meeting places booked and arranged and cleared, meeting agenda scheduled and participants signed up etc. If there is no one to assume the burden of these functions, the clubs will cease to exist.

Besides the above there are numerous advantages to taking up an officer role.

1. Being in the executive committee and attending the club officer training gives you the best exposure to the Toastmasters world.
2. You get to meet and befriend so many members from the other clubs.
3. Despite occasional frustrations, or perhaps because of them, you learn who you really are as a (successful) leader.  It is great opportunity to discover and develop one's leadership skills.
4. Nothing beats fitting-in and working in a team you haven't chosen. One that mixes people with numerous differing temperaments.
5. You learn to lead by inspiring. Unlike the corporate world where you can crack the whip to get workers in line, in Toastmasters you can only cajole and motivate.
6. It strengthens the team work in the club. You'll learnt to accept support from fellow officers and give yours. You learn the need to network by reaching out to fellow officers in other clubs.
7. It is a great opportunity to mentor others and watch them grow as leaders. It has helped members become better team mentors at work because learning to recognize the strengths and weaknesses of others in the club can be cut-and-pasted to the workplace.
8. Serving diligently as a club officer exposes knowledge, skills and talents you might never know you had or that others would never have known you have. This in many occasions has led to new and better or extra jobs for members.
9. In new clubs without experienced members someone has to take leadership albeit while ill equipped. This is transferable to many life situations where we are pushed by circumstances to take on roles we thought were beyond our scope.
10. It is a lot of fun.
11. It is your opportunity to help keep the club going and healthy, productive and fun. Most of the clubs that die start dying by lacking officers.
12. When you participate in the officer training, as a trainee or the trainer, you learn something new every time.
13. It is a good chance to give back.
14. You get more attached to the club. your sense of ownership multiplies. 
15. You have a chance to contribute, influence and place your thumb print in the decisions and traditions of club. 
16. You get to know more of and about your members.
17. Some clubs require current officer to identify and mentor a successor. This is transferable to corporate where workers are very reluctant to prepare, by mentoring a successor, for the day they will leave their position in a firm.

Don’t wait until that time that you feel you are ready for the officer role. It will not happen. Get into it now. However, these benefits only happen if as an officer you actually do or attempt the tasks of the role. Some roles appear mundane until you try to do them correctly. If you agree to the role don't use it just to check off your ALB goals or like someone told me once that he wants to join so that he can add “member of toastmasters” in his CV. Do the work it entails.

Moreover, even if you are not the officer, offer to help the person that is, as an alternate or as a member of a committee. You'll have a better view of what's going on, and an even better position to hold that role in a future.

Also, it pays to redo the role in future. Most executives only get to know and appreciate how much time and effort they should have put into a role towards the end of their term. In such case it is advisable to redo the task again.

Be aware of different cultures

For the first time I met a girl in the club whose culture does not allow her to shake hands with men. Although many are the times we are asked to be cautious of different cultures, I was quite ruffled by having to withdraw my extended hand. For a while I did not know what to do with it. I did not know whether to apologise for attempting to shake her hand or not. But, thanks to table topics, I guess I did mumble all the necessary noises as per the "moment of truth" requirements of our club. Next time I will be more careful.

Why join a budding Club

If you are completely new to Toastmasters there are compelling reasons why you may want to choose to join a sprouting club.

1.    New clubs tend to have fewer numbers. Therefore the few members get more speaking opportunities.

2.    You get more challenging leadership opportunities and quite early into your membership.

3.    If you join a long established club the culture is already set. But in a budding club you influence the culture of the club.

4.    You don’t suffer the baggage lag and drag  (we have always done this way) trying maintain the culture of an established club.

5.    Charter members learn to fend for themselves early as there aren't sufficient mentors to go round.

6.    You register your name as a charter member

7.    You receive your manuals immediately instead of waiting for shipment from TMI

If you are a seasoned Toastmasters the advantages are

1.    You can use the new ways of the new club to reignite your Toastmaster journey that has become dull and predictable.

2.    You can use the opportunity to further your Education goals by serving as a club mentor or club sponsor.

Toastmasters Member survey 2013

The Beauty and the Beast

The Beast of burden called +Kwanza Kenya Toastmasters Kenya Club kicked off a Beautiful Taped speech contest with the beautiful and able Contest Toastmaster +Catherine Kyambi at the rudder. Although she thought it was beastly of the VPE to send a new Toastmaster like herself hunting big game alone she put up a starring performance.   On the Judges bench Sat Chief Judge +Joseph Muga, +Esther Kariuki, +Angela Rarieya , +Wangu Kamundia and Tony Ndung’u (the self-made Millionaire). The elephant in the house was, "who would represent Kwanza in the International Taped speech contest?".

First to try and impress the judges and not pulling your leg was Ralph with Pulling my leg – A humorous treatise that painted life in Nairobi streets so graphically you could have smelt the uncollected garbage, in which the brutes at Kenya power cut off the power at a most inopportune time and the sugarcane man has taken over the side walk that is used my buses to overtake! How do you become a millionaire? Break a leg or two............

Meanwhile  some millionaires are vexing +Titus Mutwiri for paying a packet of cigarettes to a poacher to exterminate the African Elephant  thus leaving his niece with the indignity of viewing the beasts dead or the lifeless tin ones down outer ring road at the airport roundabout.

Who thought +Joyce Kaduki can rival Linda Hunt! When she sings ‘listen with your heart', she is “Beast!”. Nguru Wachira had his share of beasts too. The big five waiting to watch European tourists as the other beasts masquerading as Kenyan leaders are out hiding money in Europe while foreigners are commanding 70% of the investments in the country.

Toastmasters speech number 9 (CC9) persuade with power

Not Without a Fight

Why do many Kenyans behave like millipedes?

A millipede crawls along with its antennae stretched out in front. If any of the antenna comes into contact with an obstacle, the millipede immediately changes direction and goes around the obstacle. It encounters another obstacle, it meanders around it- never once pushing the obstacle out off its way. You will notice the same character among many Kenyans. Instead of demanding any service delivery problem they encounter be rectified, they look for a way around it.

Let me give you a quick example.  Why do you buy bottled water? I suppose it’s because you do not trust piped water for drinking, but so should you be in there buying bottled water or out there causing a rumble and demanding clean water in the pipes?

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Fellow toastmasters and welcome guests

Today I want us to make a decision. A decision to always stand up and demand what is rightfully ours. 
Picture this; I buy a 20 litre jerry

can of treated water for sh3. Next door half

a litre of bottled water costs sh60. Now do your math in Jimmy Gathu style and tell me; what value would someone or any anyone add to water for the price to increase 79,900%? 
As long as we remain frozen by fear as the swindling water barons adulterate piped water and create artificial shortages. As long as the employees of Nairobi Water Company privately engage in water vending businesses, we shall continue paying dearly for a natural resource that should be free.

But not if we stake it out together. We shall light a slow fire under their seats, a little fire in the form of a constant din in social media.  A fire that will eventually turn their irritating itches to smarting boils and shuffle them out of their taxpayer bought swivel chairs.  Therefore, complain today before you go to bed. If you do not what will you tell your grandchildren when swindlers get bolder and start selling air to them? Fresh air! Herbal air! Organic air! -buy one-get one free!

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Therefore, we all need to do away with our penchant for begging the government to help. We need instead to put to better use our social media accounts. Consumer Federation of Kenya and Kenya Bureau of Standards are two Facebook walls and Twitter handles you should follow often.

In summary, we have agreed that not without a fight shall we be mistreated. We shall fight it out in social media, news feeds and blogs

Not without a fight shall we accept substandard services and goods. We shall return them and fight the shoddy suppliers through social media, news feeds and blogs.

Not without a fight.