One of the many skills that we get to develop at Toastmasters is the ability to prepare and deliver powerful speeches that can inspire an audience, and even persuade with power so that people will want to take action.

Here is Harrison Ford speaking at the Global Climate Action Summit that took place in San Francisco recently.

(From: NowThis. Full speech can be found here or here.)

If we focus on the content of the speech, we notice that he inspires the audience by appealing to noble motives and challenging the audience to achieve a higher level of beliefs or achievement. He does this, for example, by speaking with passion and by using logic and emotion to support his position. Here are some excerpts:

“You’re here, I’m here, because we care. Not just for today. But we care passionately for the future.”

“While you work to recognize the challenge of climate change, I beg you, do not forget nature. Because the destruction of nature today accounts for more global emissions than all of the cars in the world. We can put solar panels on each and every house. We can even turn every car into an electric vehicle. As long as Sumatra burns we’ll have failed.”

“Nature doesn’t need people; people need nature.”

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Would you like to know more about how Toastmasters can help you be a more effective speaker and a stronger leader? Feel free to come visit us.

Here is the programme for the St. Lawrence Toastmasters Montreal meeting of September 25, 2018.

Welcome back to the St. Lawrence Toastmasters Club in Montreal! After a well-deserved and relaxing summer break, our club meetings are now back in session.

We meet every Tuesday evening from 7 PM to 9:05 PM.

How can Toastmasters help you to become a more effective public speaker and a stronger leader?  By helping you to develop your presentation skills and giving you a safe environment in which to practice.

Here is an example of the sort of advice that you might get from attending a Toastmasters meeting.  This is a short video by Simon Sinek, a renowned TED Talk speaker, where he shares some of his best advice about how to begin your presentations.

“The best way to do it is to start with some sort of story, metaphor or analogy that captures the idea that you’re going to be presenting about. […] A story that is emblematic of the end result.”

If you’d like to find out more about how Toastmasters can help you improve your public speaking skills, then don’t hesitate to come visit us!

Here is the programme for the meeting of September 4, 2018.

Have you ever watched someone give a presentation with his hands clutched as if he wanted to cover his privates?  Or perhaps you’ve seen a speaker talking with her hands in her pocket, or with her hands on her hips? 

Such stances can make a speaker seem nervous, less confident, insecure, too casual, or even aggressive, depending on the body language that is projected.

Here is a video from Dananjaya Hettiarachchi (2014 Toastmasters International world champion of public speaking) revealing four essential body language tips.

Are you interested in seeing how you can improve your public speaking skills and even gain new ones?

Then visit the Saint-Lawrence Toastmasters Club, a bilingual Toastmasters Club in Montreal.

Here is the programme for the meeting of May 22, 2018.

Il peut nous arriver de penser que l’importance d’un discours repose sur la manière que la personne le présente, par exemple à travers le langage corporel, le contact visuel avec l’auditoire, et peut-être même du support visuel.

Si cela peut en effet être utile, il ne faut pas oublier que c’est le contenu d’un discours qui est toujours important, comme le démontre la vidéo suivante.  Puisque c’était pour une émission radio, les auditeurs n’avaient donc pas l’opportunité (ni le besoin) de voir l’oratrice s’exprimer en public, donc l’essentiel était vraiment dans le contenu du discours.

Rosalie Bonenfant : Est-ce que je te plais, s’il te plait?

(Pour le début du discours, vous pouvez défiler à 0m30sec.)

À notre avis, ce discours est une puissante réflexion bien songée, pertinente, d’une grande intelligence, et qui présente un angle susceptible de toucher les émotions de l’auditoire.  Il pourrait aisément répondre aux objectifs du Projet # 10 “Inspirer votre auditoire” du programme Toastmasters du Communicateur Compétent, qui sont de donner ”un discours inspirant qui permet de motiver un auditoire à s’améliorer sur le plan personnel, émotionnel, professionnel ou spirituel.  Le discours doit lancer un appel en faveur d’une grande cause et inciter l’auditoire à avoir des pensées plus nobles et à se dépasser dans ses actes.”

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Voici le programme de la réunion hebdomadaire du Club St-Lawrence Toastmasters Montréal (soirée du 9 mai 2017). 

The following video was shared by one of our members who came across it on Trendingly. As Emily Davis mentions quite fittingly:

“This 93-Year-Old Grandpa Had The Crowd In Stitches At An Open-Mic Night With His Hilarious ‘Love Hurts’ Story.“

“Tom Sitter won The Moth in Madison StorySLAM at the High Noon Saloon February 13, 2017. Tom scored our first ever 10 with his winning story tonight. The memory of the girls he carefully selected to give his five valentines to in 1933 was strong enough that 84 years later he still knew their names.”

As Toastmasters, not only do we enjoy seeing entertaining speeches, we also like to reflect on what elements allowed the speaker to give such a successful speech.  Among the things we observed:

• He uses gestures very often, and in a very natural way.
• He provides vivid descriptions that help the audience feel as if they were living the situation with him, for example by mentioning names of people and describing each setting.
• He is very comfortable taking pauses.  These give the audience adequate time to digest and appreciate, and to laugh heartily.

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Here is the programme for the St-Lawrence Montreal Toastmasters Club meeting of May 2, 2017.

Please note that our regular weekly meetings will start again on Tuesday January 10, 2017.

Here is the programme for the upcoming Toastmasters meeting.

Wishing you a wonderful new year!

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Until then, here is a video you may find interesting.

Nancy Duarte: The Secret Structure of Great Talks

From the "I have a dream" speech to Steve Jobs’ iPhone launch, many great talks have a common structure that helps their message resonate with listeners. In this talk, presentation expert Nancy Duarte shares practical lessons on how to make a powerful call-to-action.

In this article, Christian Turianskyj, a member of St. Lawrence Toastmasters the Hall of Fame, shares some of the commonly shared struggles we encounter during preparation for speeches. Here is the story of his preparation for the mastering of a monologue.

That’s my last duchess painted on the wall,

Looking as is she were alive.

A daunting task : Learn by heart – My Last Duchess, a 56 line dramatic monologue written by Robert Browning in 1842. This challenging Advanced Manual presentation, Interpretive Reading, will to be delivered on December 2013 at my Club, The St. Lawrence Toastmasters Club.

An entire week has passed and I can only recite 10 lines by heart. What has happened? Distractions, memory lapses, lack of perseverance or a mixture of the above have contributed to this dismal result. Now, in my computer room on a Saturday morning I am ready to forge ahead. But wait! The computer screen beckons; why not check the latest Emails? This shouldn’t take long.

Christian, we need to go shopping! shouts my wife from the downstairs kitchen. Didn’t we go to Costco yesterday! I answer. Yes, but IGA has some specials TODAY!  This afternoon, I shout back.

Back to the poem; this week-end I will learn 10 more lines. (more…)

Should we start by talking about us and give our credential to establish our credibility? Or start with convincing facts and figures? Or should we start with a giving approach?

In this thoughtful short video, Simon Sinek, a renowned TED Talk speaker, shares his best advice.

“The best way to do it is to start with some sort of story, metaphor or analogy that captures the idea that you’re going to be presenting about. […] A story that is emblematic of the end result.”

Here is the  program for the St. Lawrence Toastmasters meeting of November 1st, 2016.

Those who are not familiar with Toastmasters may think that it’s useful only for the corporate environment.  Useful only if you need to give presentations in front of your bosses, your co-workers or your clients.

Although that it is indeed one of the benefits of Toastmasters, your skills at public speaking can also be extremely useful for social events such as weddings.

If you need to prepare a speech for a wedding (as was the case for one of our members recently), Toastmasters can help you to not only prepare a well-structured speech, but also to deliver it successfully and with the right impact.

Here is an article published on LinkedIn that you may find interesting (thanks to fellow Toronto Toastmaster EC Morales for having suggested it):

7 Tips to Give a Great Wedding Speech

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Interested in finding out more about Toastmasters? Feel free to come visit us!

Here is the programme for the St-Lawrence Toastmasters Montreal meeting of September 27, 2016.

Dans un article publié par La Presse pour commémorer le 20^e anniversaire du référendum de 1995, Lucien Bouchard et Jean Charest parlent parmi autres de l’art du discours.

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Quelques citations de l’article sur Lucien Bouchard :

• “J’ai toujours été fasciné par l’éloquence, échanger avec le public, convaincre…”
• “Dans ces rares moments, ça vient chercher tout ce qu’il y a en nous-même. Ça sort. Toutes nos sensibilités profondes, tout ce qui nous rattache au Québec, mes souvenirs d’enfance, mes études, mes références littéraires, historiques… Ça sort, ça sort… Ça se résout en un discours, en l’expression d’une passion.”
• “J’avais l’impression que je disais aux gens ce qu’ils sentaient. Je me sentais comme eux, j’étais comme eux.
  En même temps je savais qu’on ne peut pas être purement émotif. Il y a un dosage de rationnel et d’émotion.”
• “J’avais l’expérience de la parole. Ce n’est pas simple. Il y a toutes sortes de paroles et d’orateurs. Il faut en rater aussi, pour apprendre !”

Voici une dernière citation, probablement en référence à Twitter:

• “L’art du discours a bien changé.
  Mais quand on vous oblige à vous exprimer en 140 caractères… essayez donc de soulever une foule !”

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Quelques citations de l’article sur Jean Charest :

• “L’art de la rédaction, c’est des phrases courtes et get to the point. Il faut se dire que les gens à qui on s’adresse vont retenir une ou deux idées d’un discours.”
• “Et celui qui livre le discours a une obligation envers la salle : être clair, utiliser un langage que les gens comprennent.”
• “Quand on se lève pour parler, il faut se dire : c’est mon moment. Il faut l’habiter. Et il faut vivre avec les silences. C’est très puissant, dans un discours, un silence. Les gens ont peur de ça au début, mais les plus grands orateurs, comme Martin Luther King, maîtrisent les silences.”
• “Je fais mes discours avec mes convictions et mes émotions à moi. Une émotion qui est sincère, sentie, et qui répond à ce que l’auditoire veut.”
• “Le symptôme de celui qui n’est pas préparé, c’est le discours trop long.”