Shake, Rattle and Speak!

Speech 1

The Power of One More Try

Jose Wilson Geolin, Jr. · Motivational Strategies, Level 1

Jojo (yes, he gave his speech dressed as the grim reaper) has spent years in car sales, and he opened with something everyone in sales knows. You hear a lot more no's than yes's. You prepare, you follow up, you explain every feature, and then the customer says thank you, but no.

He built the speech on three lessons. Failure is not the end, it's part of the process. Courage is taking action while the fear is still there. And one more try can change your future.

Then he told the story behind the title. In November 2017 he was close to losing his career. He had one month, December, to sell 16 vehicles. He sat down and asked himself whether to quit or give it everything for one more month. He chose the second one, and by the end of December he had sold 18. That month saved his career and, in his words, gave him his confidence back.

Courage does not mean the absence of fear. Courage is taking action when fear is present.

Try this: A speech with three clear lessons is easy to follow. A real story from your own life is what makes people believe them.

Speech 2

Wait... They Bought WHAT?!

Niño Joseph Sumampong · Persuasive Influence, Level 3

Niño's project was about connecting with an unfamiliar audience, so he picked a topic most of us knew nothing about: private equity. He started with a board game, Robert Kiyosaki's Cashflow, where he drew the janitor card and kept landing on the tile that gives you more kids.

Then the hook. If you went to Anytime Fitness in the morning, got a Dunkin' coffee and grabbed lunch at Subway, he said, you just gave business to three brands owned by one private equity firm. Regular investors buy a small piece of a company. Private equity looks at the whole business and says, I'll buy the whole thing.

But the speech wasn't really about finance. It was about mindset. Are we earning money just to spend it now, or are we building something for later? He said it this way: we are faucets, but faucets can run out, so are we building other faucets for the future?

A good plan takes care of the present but also prepares for the future.

Try this: Want to connect with a room that doesn't know your topic? Start with something they already know, like a game or a coffee run, then walk them to the new idea.

Table Topics

Superstitions, on the spot

Table Topics Master Dave Kevin Visaya · Evaluated by John Icamen

Fitting the theme, Table Topics went after the superstitions we grew up with, like not sweeping the house at night. Our General Evaluator Martin Esoto took the sweeping one and flipped it completely: for him, cleaning at night invites good luck, and he closed by telling all of us to go sweep tonight.

John Icamen evaluated the round and left everyone with two tips that work for any impromptu answer.

• Close strong. End with a call to action, or throw the question back to the audience: how about you, do you believe in this?
• Use PREP: Point, Reason, Example, Point. The example can be a short story from your own life. No story yet? Talk about the future, what you would do when the moment comes.

Try this: Even a one-minute answer can have a beginning, a story and an ending.

Grammarian

The least loved role, and the most useful

Louise Espina Pellero · Word of the Night by Gladdys Jane Melrose

Louise explained the Grammarian role for our guests (basically the grammar police) and admitted it's the role people least like to take. But she thinks it's also the one that helps us improve the most.

The Word of the Night was petrified, and the room apparently was. Only three people managed to use it all night. She also shared her germs and gems: the small slips in English worth fixing, and the lines from the night that were worth remembering.

Try this: Volunteer for the role you avoid. It's usually the one that teaches you the most.

From a first-timer

"Everyone is warm"

One of our guests was the youngest in the room that night. She told us she expected it to feel intimidating, even suffocating, before it started. Instead she found the opposite, and what stood out to her most was how people give feedback here.

The way the Toastmasters express their feedbacks, it's not criticizing them, but it's really well laid out.

A first-time guest