The speech contest is a timed event. Contestants are given five to seven minutes, with a leeway of thirty seconds. Anyone who goes over 7:30 is usually disqualified. In my case, however, there was a timing light malfunction. The contest rules state that if there is a malfunction the contestant will get thirty extra seconds. [...]

I actually studied the tapes of and tried to contact most of the winners from 1990-2000. I was surprised at how accessible they were, and how open they were with their insights. (I did not contact them until I had won my Regional and was going to the World Championship.) Mark Brown, 1995 WCPS, said [...]

Yes, I had two designated coaches, and a lot of “unofficial” coaches. My first coach was Dave McIlhenny, a Past District Governor and District speech contest winner. I wanted help from someone who had won before. When you want to learn something, who do you go to for help? Dave guided me through the District [...]

Yes, and no. It was not the winning alone that made me a professional speaker. Although I continued to work at Bose, I had been building my speaking career since 1994. Every year I planned to quit Bose “in January.” And each January led to the next. Then one day a fellow employee, Brad Creamer, [...]

I laugh when I hear that people think World Champions get prize money. There was prize money (not that much) several years ago, but not any longer. And I think the decision to stop was a good one. There is quite enough tension already without the added pressure of prize money. I believe the contest [...]

I joined Toastmasters in 1994. My comedy mentors taught me that “stage time” is essential to one’s growth as a comedian. Comedy clubs are only open at night, so I practiced there by night and at Toastmasters’ meetings by day. It didn’t take me long to discover the power of making mistakes in front of [...]

Let’s define “practice.” I believe you cannot “practice” by yourself. You can only “memorize” when you are alone. We present differently when someone is watching. I practiced my speech twenty-two times (including once at a prison club). A CEO I now coach recently told me that the best thing I’d taught him was that creating [...]

For each of the top three levels of the contest you must have a different speech. There are judges who have outlines of your previous speeches to ensure that you are not using prior material. Many serious competitors work on all three speeches from the start. But I prefer to focus on one speech at [...]

Unlike many of the champions before me winning the contest was not my initial goal. No one from my district had ever won before, so I did not even fantasize about going all the way. The reason I decided to compete was because of my mentors and the lessons they taught me. At the time [...]

“Everywhere I go I run into Toastmasters who are jealous of my winning the trophy. I understand that. But never have I run into anyone who was jealous of the work I did to win it.” ~ Darren LaCroix 2001 World Champion of Public Speaking . Each year Toastmasters International, the world’s premier organization for [...]