April 21 – next meeting Hanover Toastmasters

The next meeting of the Hanover Toastmasters will be Monday April 21, 6pm at the Rockland Trust building in Hanover.  See side bar for details.

The April 7 meeting was a great success with 2 guests and our regular core group.  We had a great tip for the night which I want to share with you here about commitment.

Whether you are telling a joke, a story or giving a speech to a large crowd, commit to the content! Believe in the content and your audience will believe it, too.  Act unsure and you will not been heard as funny, believable or the expert that you are!

Thanks, Joan, for that great tip!

Toastmaster tip – Be Yourself

I’ve been giving Stress Management trainings quite a bit over the last couple of weeks. One thing I continue to learn when I give a training is to be myself. Today I was finally able to really be myself with a particular group and when that happened we were laughing, the participants were engaged and even I was having a good time.

When I’m stiff and nervous the real me doesn’t have a chance to shine through.

The next time you give a presentation just be yourself! Add a little of “you” flavor without going overboard. You’ll feel more comfortable and so will your audience.

Toastmaster Tip – Keep Your Mouth Off the Mic

Today I attended a women’s networking breakfast in Wellesley and learned a very important lesson. If you are giving a speech or presentation at a podium with a microphone there is one thing you must know:

Keep your mouth off the microphone.

To be heard clearly through a mic your lips need to be an inch or two away from the microphone. Today at the breakfast meeting the facilitator had her mouth just about touching the mic and as a result her words came out muffled and there was a lot of static.

I couldn’t hear a thing she said.

Think about Bob Barker on the Price is Right. Where did he hold his microphone? It was long enough so his hand was down by his belly button and that allowed the mic to land just around his chin. Now, we don’t all have the luxury of using a long, lightweight microphone. The key is to keep the mic around your chin, not your lips.

Lesson learned – microphones can be very helpful and if not used correctly can hurt even the greatest of speakers.