“It ain’t about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward, how much you can take and keep moving forward!” - Rocky Balboa

I have never watched a single Rocky movie even though my room mate and dad are huge fans. However after Monday’s presentation by this phenomenal speaker, I will most likely watch ALL 6 of them. (Read on to find out why)

In the previous article, I shared about four best practices that the speaker adopted which got his audience - including myself - mesmerized and inspired almost immediately.

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It has been a while since I was moved to tears by a presentation. Today was one such evening. The speaker is a self-made multi-millionaire who has undergone tremendous adversity before enjoying his current status.

And my training company, AdvantEdge Coaching, had the good fortune of inviting him to share - on an exclusive basis - his secrets of living an extraordinary life.

Not only was I reminded of life’s valuable lessons through his stories, I saw how he applied some of the best speaking practices that made his 2 hours presentation an unforgettable experience. Allow me to give you a low down.

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This morning, I was interviewed by the President of Oporto Toastmasters in Portugal. He asked me a fairly interesting question that made me realize why some speakers are so good, while others are only so-so. Here’s the question he asked:

Even the most advanced speaker has challenges and can improve in some area. What is the public speaking challenge you are working at right now?

It’s not the question per say that got me thinking. It’s the first statement he made.

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TO ALL MOTHERS WHO ARE READING THIS: HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!! *HUGZ*

If you have not wish your mum a happy mothers’ day, please do so right now. No no, this entry can wait. Go on.. wish her. Make sure you give her a big hug and tell her how much you love her. In fact, you should do it everyday because they deserve it.

Clockwise from left: Eileen (my sister), Dad, really beautiful Mum and my girlfriend, Yiting.

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Just got back from a hearty dose of hosting at Daiko 2007, an annual drum performance put by the S’pore Polytechnic Japanese Drum Team. Thanks to this hosting engagement, I had the chance to witness the grace and power of Daiko drummers. Trust me, it takes skill, strength and a sense of rythmn to drum up a decent tune. And as usual, I had a lot of fun hosting this event with Charissa whom I met at Irene’s hosting class.

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If you read 2nd June’s post, you will learnt that I played an improv game with a group of P4 - 6 kids. It is very simple actually. You can try it too at your meetings or social events. Get the audience to call out 5 random words or sentences. In my case:

Maverick
Food Court
Volcano
Rotten Cheese
A Bowl of Hot Soup

Get a volunteer up on stage and start telling the story by weaving in the words, in whichever order he wants. Optional: They can repeat the words OR go in a particular order like bottom-up. It’s all up to you!

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Found the above quote at some random blogger’s site. Was bored and decided to spice it up with some (amaturish) designer’s flair and post it here, with well justified reasons of course. Most people are wayyyyyyy too serious when they give their speeches on stage.

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One of the major decisions that have impacted me positively is joining the Toastmasters organization two years back. Interestingly enough, I was in the mailing list of the NUS club since 2002 but I never went for a single meeting. And the best part is I had no slightest clue what Toastmasters is. In fact, I thought it was some kind of political organization.

And then in mid 2004, I joined SpeechCraft, a four week public speaking workshop facilitated by Terence Lin, who later became my speech mentor. Coincidentally he was also the NUS past president and a distinguished Toastmasters. His passion for public speaking rubbed off on me. And I finally went to check out the NUS club and joined that very day.

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One of the toughest kind of speeches to make is an after-dinner speech since everyone will be feeling sleepy after their meal. And worse, they may not even give you their full attention. There are many things that can go wrong and as an after-dinner keynote speaker, there are a couple of things you have to observe in order to be successful or at the very least, to sit down without feeling embarassed.

1. Find an appropriate topic

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It has been a while since I play the role of the audience. Last night was one such opportunity. The presenter was an intern from Shanghai and he flew in with his boss to States. His presentation was titled “Life in China” with the aim of sharing with us his experiences. He did relatively well but hit several boo-boo which I thought reduce the effects of his presentation. And these boo-boo weren’t really new. Speech coaches and Public Speaking books/e-books/blogs have warned us against committing these seemingly innocent crimes, at the expense of losing your audience. But you know what, people still do it. All the time. Instead of reinterating the points, I shall get you into the head of the audience (since I was one yesterday) and perhaps illustrate why you should avoid these boo-boos.

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