Hello from Saudi Arabia!
I hope you enjoyed today’s Stage Time article, “Your Content is Second Only to…”
Please share thoughts!
Darren
Darren LaCroix learned how to be funny the hard way by experience. He is a keynote speaker with a thriving publc speaking career. He authored books, CD’s, DVD’s, & other public speaking courses. He gives motivational speeches all over the world including Singapore, Malaysia, and Australia.
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Comments on Stage Time: "Your Content is Second Only to…"
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Darren.
Of all the pieces you have written, of all the advice you have given, THIS article, about INTENT, is the most powerful!
Even though you have tried to get me to see that point before, this illustration finally hit home. “Ouch.”
We need to get you back to one of our Northeast Oklahoma ASTD Chapter meetings … maybe a “statewide” boot camp? You and I can sit in the back of the room again and disrupt the meeting telling stories!
Thanks for making the point of INTENT so graphic and understandable!
Travel safely!
Walt
I can say from experience that Darren is right. It is not about how good you are on stage, it is not about the technique, it is about Intent.
Last Saturday at my Division contest, I had the speech ready, the technique was good, but I didn’t give the speech to help…I gave it to win the trophey.
In doing so I lost the contest, but I learned my lesson.
Thank you Darren for your help and feedback.
Because of what you do, we are all better.
Regards,
Chris Elliott
I will second Walt’s opinion. Your best post yet!
Darren,
So timely! Tomorrow I compete in the Area C2 Contest. My 26-year-old daughter (who is a good speaker in her own rite)admonishes me, “Mom, it’s too polished. You need to be passionate about what you’re saying, like Daddy.” It is a tough balance to polish the speech without losing the passion–to stay in the moment without having rough edges. Tomorrow, I will deliver the message to that person who has never heard it and the stories like I did the other night when I was sharing with my dear friends at a party.
Roxann Andersen (“Speak Life,” Las Vegas Champ Camp, June 2008)
Darren,
One of your best articles yet. Your comment about delivering to Michael in the third row really brought it home. It’s too late for me this year, but I am going to incorporate this into my club speeches.
It made such an impact that I wrote a blog article on it:
Thank you!
John.
Darren, Thanks for choosing this moment to ‘get naked’ with us about this! It comes at such a powerful time because, while I’ll be doing a lot of speaking this Spring, there’s no trophy (even potentially!) at the end of it. Content/Intent may be even more important as I ask to be elected as a Leader for my Division. Intent…. Got it! Not gonna let ‘politics’ get in the way of Leadership.
Thank you!!
Grace
As always Darren your comments are insightful and helpful. Intent is important and knowing how your audience might react is very important.
Just came from our Area 33 speech contest. I finished second and the winner went on the win Division. However, I felt good because this was my personal best yet. It is true when you say that competing is not about competing with another speaker but with yourself. I am learning and will continue to learn thanks to you.
This is a fabulous post, Darren! – Ah, yes, the Power of Intent; the more clear the intent, the more valuable the message. This is when we turn to adore the Messenger, and not try to shoot him, or at this time of the year, crucify Him.
Love the focus on the “one” person. Thanks for a refreshing reminder.
Ali R. Rodriguez
I am sorry to admit this, however many times when Stage Time arrives in my inbox, I don’t take the time to read it. On this eve of Easter 2009, something in the title…. enticed me to read the entire article to learn about INTENT! How amazing is the story telling here, and the simple truth that we speakers hold tremendous promise to effect the lives of others with our passion to speak our thoughts to reach our audience with the pure intent within our hearts. Thanks Darren for reminding me again that “People don’t care how much we KNOW, until they know how much we CARE>
I recently lost my Toastmasters area speech contest with a speech that I believe is technically very good ( if I don’t say it no one will ) and in comparing this speech to my performance in the club contest the only difference I can find ( haven’t stopped looking yet ) is in my connection with the audience. It wasn’t quite there for the area contest. I thought my content and delivery would be enough. On the night they weren’t. I didn’t touch the audience as I should have.