How to win an Area speech contest
How I did it: I competed in a Humorous speech contest about six or seven years ago and I told a story about a skydiving incident. It was a funny story, but that's all it was and I was beaten by better speeches. Since then, I have been unable to compete most of the time because of District 27 leadership activities. Now that I am out of that, I thought it was time to try competing again, so I wrote a pretty good speech and gave it at several clubs and listened to feedback and I made it an even better speech. I am still not quite satisfied with either the opening or the conclusion, but I have a week to work on those before the Division E contest. Wish me luck!
Lessons & tips: Keep giving speeches and keep listening to feedback, especially from people who are good speakers and are familiar with the competitive process. Once you have a speech in hand and you want to go for it, take it to as many different clubs as you can and listen to what they have to suggest and practice it as much as you can to get comfortable with it. Then just step up and give it your best on contest day.
Resources: Toastmaster clubs, experienced competitors, and Toastmasters clubs, especially advanced clubs, which can hear the speech and give you as much feedback as possible
