The difference between a Speech and a Story!
I have been a member of Toastmaster International, since January 2009. Toastmasters is a world-wide entry level speaking organization that started in October 1924. Now I never really had a problem with speaking in public. It’s not that I didn’t get nervous when I spoke to people, I did, all the time. It just wasn’t the incapacitating kind of nervousness that I know some people experience when having to speak in public. When I joined Toastmasters, I did it because I wanted to figure out a response to an ongoing insult my then wife would say to me all the time. I think she hated my voice and although she would never tell me to shut up directly, she would always say “Jesus Christ, you talk all the time.” “ You are a Fountain of Useless Information”! Now I wasn’t hurt about being told that I talk all the time….that was just fact. Her saying that to me was like telling me my skin is brown. It is what it is. My problem with her statement was with the “Fountain of Useless Information” part. Useless?? I didn’t think so. The whole history of mankind has been directly or indirectly affected by gemstones and precious metals, but most of that information sits in books, that only gemologists or people who love jewelry would ever read…I wanted to tell those stories.
“...But if you make yourself “more” than just a man..If you devote yourself to an idea...and if they can not stop you...You will become something else entirely...”
As I said earlier I am a Toastmaster, in fact I am a Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM). I competed in my first Toastmaster Speech contest, the International Speech Contest (ISC) in 2009 and I came in second place in the District Championship Finals. I had to wait two years to compete again and in 2011 I won the Evaluation Speech Contest. On the same night I became a DTM. The very next year, in 2012, I won the Table Topics and the International Speech Contest, in 2014 I won the Humorous Speech Contest, and in 2015 I won the Table Topics speech contest again. Making me the only person in the History of Toastmaster International to ever win all four of the Toastmasters International District level Championship contests.—-How did I do it? What was my secret? How did I do something that the thousands of people who joined Toastmasters and competed in TM contests have never as yet been able to do….It’s simple. It is actually something that all of us are born to do….I told a Story.
The Distance between where you are…and where you want to be…is called a Story!
One of the major themes that I will discuss throughout this website is the vital importance of Story and Storytelling. Before you can understand the importance and power of telling Stories, you first have to realize the difference between telling a Story and giving a Speech.
One of the greatest things I learned by being a Toastmaster, competing in speech contests and winning speech Championships is that I have never won a speech contest by giving a speech. My secret to winning speech contests or giving memorable presentation is to strive to never give a speech. The truth is A Speech will Never beat a Story.
A Speech will Never beat a Story
A speech is a wonderful thing. It has a flow and an energy that can be palpable if delivered well. But there are limitations to speeches. A speech has the power to touch the heart and minds of the people in the room. Whereas a Story has the power to not only touch people in the room but to inspire them. Years.…Decades later… people who weren’t in the room can still find themselves moved, because of the way the people who were in the room, still remember what they felt when they heard that story. And because of the elements that makes a story, so memorable, the people who tell it years later still maintain that power. Telling a Story is like playing Mozart. Mozart died on December 5, 1791, but his music is as exquisite, as extraordinary and aesthetically beautiful, if not more so, hundreds of years later. So when you play one of his masterpieces it still maintains that power. Why? Because Mozart’s music always told a Story.
