Public Speaking

How to Write and Present a Winning Speech

I won the Best Speech award (again) at my Toastmasters club last meeting, for a humorous speech entitled Share The Love. I love delivering funny speeches, because I get to make people laugh, I’m able to live in the moment, and I get distracted from self-consciousness by the story-telling. In short, I get to feel free. Plus I can tell immediately that the audience is engaged when they laugh. Even if they’re not laughing, they seem to be paying attention, and either way I’m in the zone having fun.

Now I know it was just a regular club meeting; it’s not like I won a humorous speech contest or anything yet, that’s coming up in a few week’s time. But here’s my process for writing and delivering a humorous speech:

Pick A Painful Story

The essence of public speaking is to tell a story, and make a point. Story-telling … Continue reading…

By Graham Stoney, ago

How to Tell Better Stories

The difference between a $100 public speaker and a $1000 speaker, is $1000 stories. If you want to be a more powerful public speaker and command higher fees, you need to tell better stories. With this in mind, I spent last weekend at a 2-Day Storytelling Bootcamp run by Craig Valentine and Darren LaCroix here in Sydney, Australia.

Craig and Darren are past World Champions of Public Speaking, and this was Craig’s first visit to Australia. His specialty is Storytelling, so I really wanted to go along and learn from one of the best in the world. Craig has a great storytelling system where each story incorporates these elements:

  • Curiosity.
  • Characters.
  • Escalating Conflict.
  • A Cure, usually provided by a Guru.
  • A Change in the emotion or attitude of one or more of the main characters.
  • Conversations, depicted with dialogue rather than narration.
  • A Carry-out message called a foundational phrase:
… Continue reading…
By Graham Stoney, ago