I haven't been very good about keeping this blog updated (see: 3 posts in a year and a half), but I recently joined Toastmasters and thought I might include some of my thoughts here as I work through the Toastmasters program. I might also put down some of my thoughts about running as I work through my fairly aggressive 2015 race schedule.
Today I presented my first speech to the Toastmasters club. The first speech is called an "Ice-Breaker", and it's a means to introduce yourself to your club in a more meaningful fashion. I equivocated quite a bit on what type of speech to deliver, but finally settled on something that I titled "My Business Card". It's a bit gimmicky, to be honest, but when you've only got 4-6 minutes for a speech, a gimmick can help pull it together. It wasn't the best speech I've ever delivered, but I thought it went over quite well.
I really don't like presenting something that's already written in its entirety (I don't think I've done that since High School), but I didn't want to stand up there and hum and haw, so I did put a good amount of time into practicing something close to the speech, if not what I actually delivered. My transcription below isn't exactly what I delivered, but it's pretty close. (Forgive the punctuation and the spacing - I use odd punctuation to match more natural language patterns.)
My Business Card
Thank you madame toastmaster. Good afternoon fellow toastmasters, welcome guests.
About a year and a half ago I decided to attend several networking events. For these events, I went out and purchased some business cards.
I've had business cards before of course, issued by various companies. They'd include the company name, my job title. But for this I wanted something a bit more personal, a bit more unique. Something to help me stand out from the crowd.
I hold up my business card at this point. So I had these made. They're different, as you can see.
But what to put on them? I couldn't just put a job title, so I came up with three things about myself. Today I'm going to talk about what those three things are, I'm going to explain why I chose them, and in doing so hopefully give you all a chance to get to know me a bit better.
The first thing I put on my business card is: "Student". Three years ago I returned to full time studies. So I was, and still am, a student in the literal sense. But I also meant student in a broader sense. In my decade out of school I read a lot - I read a lot - and I attended part time courses. I did stuff like join Toastmasters. I am a huge believer in self development. I believe in life long learning. So my business card says student because even when I graduate a year and a half from now, I'll still consider myself a student.
The second thing I put on my business card is: "Salesperson". I've been in sales for most of the past five or six years. Anyone who's lived with a commission salesperson knows that sales is less of a job than it is a calling. When you're in sales, you want everyone to know that you're in sales.
But for the past year I've actually not been in sales. I have another reason to include it on my card.
I'm not a born salesperson. I'm shy. I freeze up when I meet new groups, and I scramble to find my words*. I'm not very good at small talk, as John learned last week**. Sales is something I started doing because I worked for a company where everyone else was like me. Nobody liked doing sales, and I saw it as a way to stand out and get ahead. I picked up a phone and started making cold calls, and eventually realized I was good at sales.
So sales is on my business card because it's a skillset I possess, but also because it's a mindset. It's a mindset that says the things I need to do aren't neccesarily the things I want to do, and that sometimes I should do things even if I'm no good at them.
The third thing on my business card is: "Runner". I've mentioned it here before but I love running. I used to be pretty fat, and when I lost the weight I fell in love with running. The moment I really knew I loved running was about two years ago, when I got a book called Born To Run. Some of you may have heard of it. It's about how humans are born to run, specifically born to run long distances. It was majorly inspiring. I read it over the course of an evening and the next day I signed up for a 24 hour race.
Running is something I do when I'm tired, when I'm bored, when I'm angry. It helps me clear my head. But I also have "Runner" on my business card because every so often, maybe one out of fifty times, when I hand my business card over to someone they'll skim student and salesperson but they'll read runner and then for ten minutes we'll both get to talk about something we love. It's a way to stand out, to be remembered. And suddenly being bad at small talk doesn't matter any more. So that's why it's on my card.
So now you know the three things I have on my business card and why they're there, and hopefully you have a better sense of me. I want to thank everyone for listening, and also for the opportunity to meet with you over the last few weeks. I've really enjoyed it and am looking forward to more.
* Scramble was our word of the day - I planned its inclusion when it was first presented at the start of the meeting, and managed to remember to say it during my speech.
** This was a last second inclusion - I don't know what came over me but it just seemed like a natural thing to say. That's what I love about not presenting from memory - you can let last second changes fall into place.
Overall the speech went well. I mostly got positive feedback, particularly on the structure of the speech, and on the fact I wasn't using notes and was thus able to maintain eye contact. The #1 critique was that I was nervous. I can certainly attest to that, particularly before and even after I spoke (I think I was mostly ok when actually talking, though certainly not perfect). I usually just wing it, which allows for a certain number of umms and awws, and maybe a lost train of thought or two, but with only 6 minutes at most, I needed to be a lot more targetted than I'm used to. It was hard. I actually forgot to present a little section of the running portion of my speech. Oh well. Pretty sure nobody noticed.
I'm really looking forward to the next speech. If you haven't attended Toastmasters, I highly recommend it.
