My Recent Speaking Successes

On Saturday, March 16, 2013, I gave a 15 minute speech at my Toastmasters* meeting. I had been putting off giving a speech since October of last year, and I just had to get off the bull. And I did. The speech went very well considering I completed it at 9:12 a.m. and our meeting started at 9:30. However, I practiced as I wrote.

Despite the success of the speech, I did exceed my time by four minutes. I reduced my speech to 10 – 12 minutes from 15 minutes and spoke for 15 minutes. This is why practicing is important; you must stay within time limits.

On Monday, March 18, I spoke at a career day at Brookwood Junior High School in Glenwood, IL. It was interesting considering that there were only a few students that actually liked writing or did any kind of writing. One young lady was an “aspiring” writer and a few of them wrote poetry. There were no bloggers and only a few were active on social media.

I presented “Creative Ways to Blog the News” to high school journalism students at a conference at Roosevelt University. It was fun. All of the students were on their school newspapers, but only one was a blogger. One young lady wanted to share her opinions, which was great. All of the students were impressive and I learned as much from them as they learned from me.

Lastly, I presented my first 3rd Wednesday webinar, Intro to Blogging. It went well despite the few technical challenges. Between fifteen to 30 participants attended. The replay was posted on yesterday if you’d like to listen. I really enjoyed it and am looking forward to the next one.

My speaking journey is off to a good start. What a blessing it is to be in my purpose.

I’m a member of MJM Speakers’ Circle Toastmasters club and we meet every 1st and 3rd Saturday at Thurgood Marshall Library at 7506 S. Racine. Everyone is welcome.