At our June 1 meeting, Linda Neff reported on a two day training session she attended which was presented by International Toastmaster Champions Darren LaCroix and Craig Valentine. The program titled, "Get Coached to Speak! Champ Camp", offered four people the opportunity to be coached on a speech presentation, while the remainder of the participants were able to learn by observing the experience and participating in the feedback sessions.
On day one the four focus speakers each gave a 5 to 7 minute prepared speech. Linda indicated that the learning experience was to hear, and participate in the the one hour feedback session following each speech. LaCroix and Valentine gave specific guidance on how the speaker could improve both the writing and delivery of the speech. Then, on the second day, the speakers presented the revised version of their speech. Linda said it was impressive to see the amount of progress they had made in this short period of time. Following the revised presentation the group offered further feedback and small sections of the speech were tweaked again.
The participants included a wide range of experience. All four speakers focused on topics of great personal importance and by the end of the sessions had a highly polished product that could be developed into a keynote speech for any number of occasions
The inspirational report to the Stone Road Toastmasters ended with Linda offering a few quotes by LaCroix and Valentine, from the notes she had taken at the training session.
"Sometimes we want validation, instead of education."
"The audience does not want you to be perfect, they want you to be present."
"When yo are getting feedback, look for patterns, not isolated comments."
"Techniques need to become automatic, so they are invisible."
"No technique can beat heart."
"Great speeches are not written, they are rewritten."
"A message is a mess...with age."
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