Learning From Your Mistakes

Yesterday I gave a speech in our Cottonwood Toastmasters Club. It was probably one of the most difficult speeches I have ever given. That's a good thing! I learned the most from this speech because of the topic difficulty and the mistakes I made. The topic was "Interview Skills". This topic was assigned to me for the Speech Craft Series we are doing during the next three weeks. To make it more challenging, I wanted to give a speech out of my Entertaining Speaker Manual to assist me in my goal of Advanced Communicator. Whew, I tumbled thoughts around in my head for days, all the while asking myself "How can I make this speech informative and entertaining?" It wasn't until the night before my speech was to be given that I got a FLASH of an idea! 


I had recently read an article from Pine Tree Consulting Service "Things Not to Say at a Job Interview". They surveyed top personnel executives of 100 major American corporations and asked for stories of unusual behavior by job applicants. It is from this article that I chose to be the person of the "DO NOT DO'S" at an interview. It was a lot of fun being the wacky one, wearing the bold jewelry, kicking off my shoes, making insulting comments, talking on my phone, etc... The difficult part came when I realized I'd forgotten to pass out the hand out and had to do it during my speech, oops. And I ran out of time and didn't tie up my ending very well, which is something I pride myself on doing. Okay, so maybe it was a lesson in humility. I can take it!


How are you going to learn if you don't make mistakes, if you don't get up in front of an audience and speak? There are some club members I have not heard from in the year I have been in our club. I would like to extend this challenge to you of speaking at least ONCE each month. It is good for you, even though it hurts! I still get anxious before my speeches and often ask myself  "Now remind me why you are doing this Laina?" and the response is always the same, "It's good for you girl!" 

So how about it? Are YOU up to the challenge?

Cottonwood Toastmasters meets every Monday 12:00 to 1:15 at the Cottonwood Village, 201 E Mingus Ave. Guests are welcome. For more information call Laina Lloyd at 928-300-8638 or Dave Ellison at 634-6540