Uplift the Spirit

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying:
And this same flower that smiles today
To-morrow will be dying.

My fellow toastmasters, ladies and gentlemen. This is a poem from Robert Herrick. The most famous of that line “Gather ye rosebuds while ye may” was used in the film starring Robin Williams. Anyone can remember this movie? It’s Dead Poet Society. In that movie, Robin Williams used one term “Carpe Diem” to inspire and motive his students to seize the day, gather ye rosebuds while ye may, before we all become food for the worms and by that time, it would be too late.

My dear friends, tonight, can I shamelessly borrow from Robin Williams and say, “Carpe Diem” my dear friends, “Carpe Diem”. Yes, Seize the day, but for what? We are all toastmasters, that’s why we are all here tonight to attend our chapter meeting. We are benefitted so much from being a toastmaster, yes? Who can honestly say, “I am a toastmaster, but I really don’t think I gained much out of it.” No, you simply can’t. I can’t. I know  I can’t because I have indeed benefited so much out of this program.

The very first improvement we all see in us taking on the toastmaster journey is the increasing confidence when we speak. 
a.       Confidence

-         In the past, I never really think that people would actually be interested in what I present. However, as I worked through my speeches from the very first ice-breaker to the latest inspirational speech, I shared about my hobby of travel, photography and choir, I found out that people are actually interested in what I have to say.

-         This is of cos a combination of the content and delivery, and the toastmaster program gradually build up such essential skills for us. From helping me to focus on my subject to practicing the appropriate body languages to give an interesting delivery, these are done in an easy step by step manner to gradually build up the skill.

-         As our stage presence grew, we gained a lot of confidence in the ability to stand in front of people and speak.  I recall I have to fight butterflies in the tummy and jellied legs everytime I stand in front. I am sure at one point in time we all have that same feeling, even now. That might never go away completely, but at least now we are better at controlling our nervousness.

      

      The second aspect of growth that I believe we all experienced, is the intellectual growth. Creativity. We are driven to think out of the box, twist and turn our ideas, thoughts and especially the English Language. 

       b.      Creativity

-          In the past, I have never considered myself as engaging or humorous, but guess what? That changed completely after I started the toastmaster program.

-         Humorous – I also made a great discovery – I am actually quite funny! Does anyone here have the same experience with me? Well, we are not stand up comedians, cos we cannot be deliberately funny. But we can be accidentally funny with the play of word usage and interesting rhetorical devices.

- By far the greatest benefit out of our toastmaster journey, is something we can all relate to, better communication, improved interpersonal skills and your very own unique sense of humour. Who in this room can deny that? We all agree that the toastmaster program is indeed an excellent way to be better at communication and leadership.

- In fact the toastmaster program has a long history of making great speakers. Toastmasters International was founded in 1924 by Dr Ralph Smedly. Her Vision: To empower people to achieve their full potential and realize their dreams. Through our member clubs, people throughout the world can improve their communication and leadership skills, and find the courage to change, and make difference in others' lives. - Today, we have at least 200,000 members around the world, all going through this program to become more capable of communicating and leading.

Today, this very day, I would like to start a movement and I hope you will all join me in this movement. That is to share with our friends the goodness of being a toastmaster, to help them see that they can be a better communicator and leader through this program.

Carpe Diem my friends! Are you with me on this movement? If the toastmaster program has changed your life, let’s go and help change some lives out there. Truly, they need us! People out there need us, to tell them how wonderful this program can be, to us, and especially to them.

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may! And spread the good news to all whom you know. Share with them your experience, your gains and your personal growth. Ask them to come and join you in this amazing journey to experience it themselves. Urge them to get on this journey that will transform them from a good to great speaker, and from a great speaker to an excellent distinguished toastmaster!

Carpe Diem my friends! Carpe Diem!

Evaluation - as with all inspirational speech, there needs an element of emotional stirring, which this speech lacks. What I could have focus on, was the part where Toastmasters International was formed and how it helped the youth of that time.

Speaking Of the Cuff - Personality Profiling

Advance Project from Speciality Speech - Impromptu Speaking is by far the most difficult to prepare speech I have done so far. It involved the evaluator choosing at random 5 topics. After much thinking and selection, I settled with the following 5. These are topics which I have some knowledge about, in the event that my mind goes blank, I can still think of something intelligent to say about the topic.

- Being a toastmaster - How it has benefited me

- Adopt or Buy? The current stray dog situation in Singapore

- Personality Profiling – How to read a person like an open book

- Back to nature – Why I love hiking in the mountains

- The art of communication - useful tips for instant success

 

The difficult part is, these are unrelated topics and they requires a lot of brain power to memorize the speech, all 5 of them. This is precisely why this project is called impromptu. It was meant truly to be one - a researched topic but not a fully written speech.

At the demo meeting to a corporate group of people, this is probably not the best speech to prepare. Could have some simple and/or sales related type of speech. However, I decided to press ahead. It was fortunate that topic 3 was picked, the easily of the lot since it is by itself a very structured approach, plus the fact that I did this speech in P2. Since it is suppose to be impromptu, I wasn't planning to memorize all 5 topics (not possible!) but more of the points highlighted to guide me through.

After the delivery, some toastmasters found out this is my first advanced speech, and they were surprised that I would choose one of a most difficult project to kick off my advanced communicator journey :)

1.     Personality Profiling – How to read a person like an open book

There is a famous saying that goes: “The most basic of all human needs is the need to understand and be understood.” ― Ralph G. Nichols

Good Evening President and fellow toastmasters.

Today I would like to touch on a topic that is close to the hearts of each of us – To understand and be understood. In my profession as a human resource practitioner, I had the opportunity to be exposed to various personality tools that would help me to understand a person’s character and work style very quickly. Such tools are commonly used as a quick analytical method of deciphering the complex personality of a person. One such tool is the DISC profiling that is very easy to understand and useful to size up a person’s work style. 

The DISC personality profiling tool, advocated 4 typical patterns of human interaction – Dominance, Influence, Steadiness and Compliance, hence the acronym DISC. The first pattern – Dominance, demonstrates a personality that loves a challenge and is what we call a high D person. Such a person is a very bottom line driven person. He is very results oriented, and therefore he can come across as forceful and direct. How would we know if a person is high D, you might ask? Firm handshake and steady eye contact; fast speaker and does not quite care for details.  Such are the behaviors of a high D person. To communicate with such person, it is therefore important to get straight to the point and give him the bottom line. No beating around the bush if you wish to cling the deal. 

In contrast, the second behavioral pattern – Influence, is a more outgoing, persuasive, moderate temperament as compared to the high D pattern; what we call a high I personality. If I am a high I person, I would have a very friendly disposition, with warm handshake and striking up a conversation with small talks almost immediately upon meeting you.  They can sometimes become a little too intimate on a first-name basis at the first meeting. As they are usually crowd pleasers, they can quickly become the center of attention in a party. So if you want to do business with such a person, you gota first be a friend to him before you can talk business. 

The high ‘S’ person – the third profile – Steadiness, is our sentimentalist. A high S person is very reserved and controlled. Instead of hordes of acquaintance, such a person likes to build a close relationship with a relatively small group of intimate friends. A high S person gives people a warm feeling, a sense of security and will lend you his listening ears anytime. One interest behavior of a high ‘S’ person is the labeling of personal effects, and in office, their very own pens. High S people are sentimentalist; they take care of each and every one of their possessions and can be extremely protective of it.  So the next time you find a pen with a name written on it, please return it to the owner, for all you know, the owner may just have sleepless nights thinking of this lost pen of his.

The last personality – Compliance is a most studious of the lot. A high C person is a sucker for details, facts and guess what? Rules! A high C person is methodical, as an eye for details and is probably your most humble, loyal and hardworking employee in the company. Stable and order, rules and procedures, theories and facts are the guiding principles of a high C person. A very good example of a high C person is.. me! I live by demonstrated facts, proven theories and precise details, and at work, I need a To-Do list to start my day, without which I will feel directionless and be at a loss. I cannot do anything else unless I have this list on hand. 

Time permits – Give an example of the insurance agent trying to sell a policy to 4 different type of personality. Let me demonstrate -To a high D, a CEO – “Sir, I have compared all policies and done my calculation, this policy here is the most cost effective and the highest return. So you should just buy this.” To a high I, a teacher – “my friend, we have known each other for a while, trust me, I have done all the ground work for you and this is the policy to buy. Our friendship matters to me, and I don’t mind if I get less commission on this, it truly benefit you.” To a high S, a financial controller – “Sir, think of your family, your wife and your 2 young children. You need to provide for them and protect them as best as you can. This is it, this is the policy to buy. To the high C, the HR – “Look, let’s run through all the small print, then I will brief you on the government’s financial guidelines, and then you will clearly understand why this policy is the best.” Either way, so long as you understand your client, you can sell almost anything!

Ladies and gentlemen, tonight I hope I have given you a flavor of 4 major profiles of people and understand their style. To understand where they are coming from, we can then tailor our communication towards their style in order to be better understood by them. And that, it key to a successful communication. 

Thank You. TME.

Bits and Pieces of Me

Project Speech 10 - Delivered at my home club during chapter meeting. For a 'graduation' project, it was successful as an account of my toastmaster's path. However, as a speech that is inspiring, it fell short of its objective. That is the greatest regret in my journey towards Competent Communicator.

September 19 is a very significant day in history. In the year 1985 on this very day, an 8.1 scale earthquake shook Mexico and caused the death of 12 thousand people and another 40 thousand injured. In the year 2006 on the every same day, the Thai military staged a coup in Bangkok, and caused a political change that shook the whole nation. In the year 2011, September 19, a clueless lady walked through that door and participated in a Toastmaster event that eventually changed her life. That clueless lady, is me. Yep, it is not earth shattering like an earthquake, neither is it an international incident that shakes the nation; but it is still just as significant to me because that day, I  made the decision to sign up for the membership and became a toastmaster of this club.

One year hence (actually 2 days short of one year), I stand before you, a changed person after going through 9 speeches. Tonight, my fellow toastmasters and guests, on the occasion of my 10^th and last speech for the Competent Communicator manual, I would like to take a moment to share with you this amazing journey and some of the most memorable experiences I gain through the past one year. And I hope my sharing tonight will inspire you to join me in this toastmasters' journey.

We are all here for a purpose, and my purpose from day one was quite clear to me – to learn how to speak in front of an audience and eventually become a polished speaker. I knew that the Toastmaster program is a series of speeches with increasing difficulty to help us achieve our goal in a gradual and structured manner. And so, my first memorable experience was the most difficult task of actually preparing for these speeches.

Now, it is not like I have not speak in front of an audience before, I do presentations at work all the time, but, presentations to me is routine, I simply have to read out whatever that is written on the slides and I absolutely do not care if you listen to it at all, it might even be better if you sleep through it. That would mean no questions for me J. However, these Toastmaster speeches are a totally new ball game. How do you expect me to speak for 5 mins without slides or notes or any materials? I am not naturally a chatty person and I can’t just rattle off like that! I don’t think fast enough on my feet so surviving on only a few random thoughts in my head is absolutely not going to last me 5 long mins! And so it started, whenever I have to deliver a speech the next day, the night before is the most agonizing! I have to, absolutely have to type out my speech word for word, yes word for word! It is hardwork for me as it is something that I would naturally do. I don’t keep a diary, I can’t even get the grammar right in a sentence, and now I have to write out a full speech? And that, is not the worst part! 

The worst part is when I switched on the computer, opened a fresh word document, and… nothing happened! Many a times, I simply do not know what to say in my speeches! Oohh… to come up with the content of the speeches was an agonizing experience! Now for P1 – the ice breaker, it is relatively easy, you are supposed to talk about yourself so I shared about my childhood love for fantasies. The topic is given, problem solved, quite easily done. But, when I came to P2, that’s where I made the first mistake. I used a technical subject – the personality profiling tool – for my speech, and that was a disaster! With no slides to help me and too much content, the audience simply could not follow me! Lesson learnt – keep it light with manageable content delivered in simple terms. So, from P3 onwards, I decided to change strategy and talk about things and events that happened in my life, thinking that it would also help me to better memorize it, afterall those events did really happened to me. Sounds like a good plan, except that, I am usually a very private person, not someone that would tell my life stories to just anyone easily. However, somehow, as though I was spellbound, every one of my subsequent speech is a bit of me that is shared and left behind. In P3 and P9 the topics are related to my 2 lovely dogs whom I held so dearly. For P4 and P6, I shared about my travel experiences to the nearby countries, something that I enjoyed doing very much. When I delivered my P5, my choir just had a successful full house performance at the art house and that became the topic of my speech.  Ah, when I did my P8 and P9, it was simply great fun. I finally get to use presentation slides! But by now I was already a total convert. Sticking to my winning formula of sharing personal anecdotes rather than technical stuff, I decided to share my photography experience, and I get to show-off some of my best photos.  As I looked back at those stuff that I shared, I have no regrets. It has been great fun sharing a bit of me and left behind a trail of beautiful memories.

My toils and sweat while writing out the speeches eventually paid off. They turned into many 5 glorious minutes for me, knowing that I did my best and delivered the speech as it was intended, with my heart and soul. The satisfaction and sense of achievement is absolute, not to mention the adrenaline rush that I get everything standing at this very spot, battled my own nervousness. 

Yes, adrenaline, ladies and gentlemen, forget bungee jumping or sky diving if you are the kind that goes for the occasional adrenaline boost. Come to toastmasters and start delivering your speech, and every time without fail, I felt my legs are turning into jellies and my tummy’s full of wide butterflies! Someone measure my blood pressure now, it has probably shot through the roof! In my honest opinion, the toastmasters program expects a superman out of each of us.. imagine having to curb our urge to dash out of the door, we still have to ensure the right body language with right gestures and facial expressions, and the clear eye contact for every.. one.. in the room. That’s not all, you also have to pepper your speech with pauses, weird rhetorical devices such as “Onomatopoeia” and ensure the right volume. Hey, there are some people that simply could not multitask! But, look at me now… not that I have mastered all these, but I am now more conscious of what I say, how I say it and definitely the impact of my speech. Now, if anyone sleeps at my presentations at work, they had better watch out. I am more conscious of my audience responses and I adjust my words and mannerism accordingly. Absolutely no one, can deny that the toastmaster’s training has transformed me from a clueless lady and a stronger speaker. Truly, this has been the greatest benefit to me so far. 

So ladies and gentlemen, we are all going through this amazing journey together and I believe each of us will benefit in various ways. I for one, will certainly continue to work at it, for I can see all the good that happened to me so far. Now that I am already in this program, I am certainly going to get the best out of it, and so should you! Start your own toastmaster’s journey today, and I can bet you, you will not regret it.  In the words of my beloved friend and mentor, Carolyn, she once said to me “my dear, this, is only the beginning.”

Thank you, TME.

Life is Like a Box of Chocolate

My very first table topics master role at my home club. The chocolate idea was a success as the words are simple and easy to related to any incidents in life. This idea is also appropriate for a segment that allows for a large number of speakers. We ended up having closed to 10. 

Forrest Gump, in the movie of the same name said "Life’s like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get."

Fellow toastmasters and guests, we have come to tonight’s table topics’ segment. I am your table topics master for tonight, and I bring to you a time of chocolaty fun. The table topics segment is open to members and especially guests for a chance of impromptu speech. This helps us to listen, analysis and think on our feet. Good training in a fun way. We are looking for about 5 to 6 speakers to participate in this segment.

Each speaker will be given a topic to speak for 2 mins. At the end of 1 min there will be the green card, 1.5 min the orange card and after 2 min the red card. At 2:30 mins there will be a bell. 

Now… without further ado, let’s start. So what is the topic for tonight? As I promised, it will be chocolaty. I have with me a box of chocolate and underneath each of the pieces is a word that describe the taste and experience of eating chocolate. The topic for the speaker tonight is to share a life experience/story/incident/event base on the meaning of this word. The speaker will come up and pick a chocolate to review the secret word underneath it. The time will start when the speaker is ready to speak.

And at the end of the speech, you can have the chocolate!

So, who shall go first?

My Second Pair of Eyes

Project Speech 8 - Using Visual Aids. This project was delivered on the occasion of the a club's humorous and evaluation contest, as a test speaker. The experience of having 5 evaluation (4 from contestants and 1 from silent evaluator) was simply refreshing, especially when you hear differing opinions  of the contestants. This is certainly the true spirit of the toastmasters program - evaluations that reflects the evaluators' personal views that are sincerely presented for the benefit of the speaker. All photos are copyright to the author.

Contest chair, distinguished guests and fellow toastmasters, a very good evening to one and all. Recently I acquired a second pair of eyes and an extended brain. What? You might say, did I do an eye surgery or something? And did I get myself into an accident and crashed part of my brain? No, no, nothing that exciting and sensational. I simply bought a Camera (prop), a Digital single lens reflex camera, DSLR for short.These are typically used by professional photographers. Now, how is this thing my second pair of eyes and an extended brain? Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, allow me to show you the magic of photography!
 
A camera is gadget that operates similarly to our human eye. It makes photos just like how we human eyes capture images around us. Take a look at this diagram 

Source: Pasadena Eye Associates, http://www.pasadenaeye.com/faq/faq15/faq15_text.html

This is a camera (point) and this is a drawing of a human eye (point). When we want to take a picture, we press this button, and this opens the shutter, very much like us opening our eyes. Light from the object enters through our pupil (in the camera's case - the aperture) and our brain begin to see the image as it was formed on the retina, similar to the camera film in the past and of cos the memory card in the modern digital format. When we release the button, we shut the eye again, and the image is being blocked out. So isn’t this wonderful gadget my second pair of eyes or what?
 
And how does this gadget become my extended brain? It is because the photos that I took at that point in time are saved in the memory card or subsequently in the computer me allow me to store it forever! Well, not forever, but certainly longer than my leaky memory could last. Sometime down the road, when I needed to recall a place, a time or an event, all I have to do is to check my photos and it would trigger the memories of that wonderful moment. So, this gadget helps to create an external hard disk of the most precious memories in my life. And it is precisely for this reason that I took up photography in the first place – to capture the fleeting moments in our lives.
 
About one year ago I picked up photography, and decided to take this hobby seriously so armed with my newest camera I joined my first basic photography course to learn how to operate this thing and of course, how to take a good picture. I found out this second part of eyes can do certain things better than my original pair of eyes!  There are camera tricks that I can perform with ease.
 
For example, in camera, we can set the depth of field to make your picture looks either crystal clear or in a state of dream. Let’s take a look at this first example – this is a stock of flower taken in Bangkok Thailand before I took up photography class.

This is a very clear picture with everything in focus, the flower in the foreground, the pagoda in the background and everything else as well. It is a well-take picture, for my very first attempt at taking flowers. I was quite pleased and was patting myself on the shoulders. However, after taking photography class and got more exposed to what a camera can do, I realized that this is actually a very boring picture! It is nice, but not fantastic for it has no specific selling point. Everything in this picture is screaming for your attention – The flower, the pagoda and even the green textured roof! So how can I improve this picture? First, I have to decide what is the focus, what exactly do I want people to see – the flower, so everything else is not important, so I somehow have to make the rest disappear! The way to do this is to change the depth of field by adjusting the aperture, represented by a F-number in the camera. The aperture is essentially the hole at which light travel (point to lens), and as we explain a min ago it is very similar to the pupil in our human eye. When you reduce the F-number, it allows less light to come in, and therefore, creating an image that focus only on the subject that you wanted people to see. This (picture) is the final result - an example of having only one area being in focus. 

This is a stalk of flower taken in the Singapore Garden Festival held last months, but really it does not matter where, it is this particular heart of flower that matters for this picture. Magical isn’t it? The camera created this flower in a dreamy state and froze it in the moment, to be captured on film.
 
The second camera trick I can perform with this gadget is to capture more than one thing at a time! This is a fantastic feature that our human eye cannot do. You know how we always say that we cannot turn back time? Certainly we can’t, but we can capture time using the camera. Take a look at this fireworks photo, I took this during last month's NDP. 

It captures one burst of fireworks, which is great. I am very pleased with myself. However, consider this. What if I can capture more than one burst of fireworks? Our human eye can only see what is presented to us at that moment and never anything prior or anything after. Therefore we have to rely on our leaky memory to remember what we saw during the entire session. But hey, guess what, the camera can do this for you... Like this! 

This picture is taken during the previous year NDP and it captures a total of four bursts of fireworks. Isn't that a neat trick? How do i do that you might ask, well, with a use of a black card (demo) and wallah! You got each moment captured at precisely the right moment on the same image!  So you see, there is no need to rely entirely on our own memories, the photos will serve as extended memories to us to capture the whole splendor of the fireworks display.
 
Ladies and gentlemen, there are many more tricks I can do with the camera, and I am barely starting out. So far I have been very pleased with this second pair of eyes and extended memory, something which I will certainly exploit further. As Eudora Welty, the award-winning American author in the 19 century said "A good snapshot keeps a moment from running away". That is exactly what I wanted to do, and I hope you would join me to pick up this pair of eyes to capture the beautiful moments in our lives.
 
Thank you. Contest Chair.