How Toastmasters can help you to blog

Posted on January 7, 2012 by Nicky Kriel

When I was a University, one of my professors wrote a very long attack on my writing style. He said that my work showed signs of both linguistic malnutrition and verbal diarrhea. His criticism was almost as long as my original submission. Maybe he was just having a bad day! But for a long time I believed him. Has anyone ever told you that you were bad at something and you believed them?

Fast forward in time to 2008: I joined Guildford Speakers Club which is part of Toastmasters International to improve my speaking skills. I learned the art of delivering a speech both by practising and by listening to other people.

Some of skills were:

how to speak to the audience rather than at the audience
how to think of your audience when creating a speech
how to translate what you want to say into a way that the audience finds interesting
how powerful the word “You” is when you are speaking
how different written language is from spoken language. You can hear when someone is reading from a script.
How to structure a speech
How to have a strong opening, middle and an end
How to get attention from your audience from the start

Meanwhile, in my business life….

My website guy told me that I needed a blog. He was very patient about explaining all the benefits of blogging and he even attached a WordPress blog to my website. For six months it sat there.

Eventually I took the plunge, but what to write about? Writers block can be very strong if you believe you have a bad writing style and then I had a stroke of insight. Why not use one of the speeches? I had delivered the same talk at a number of of networking groups and I knew it had struck a chord with people who had heard it. So I took the speech, modified it a bit and turned it into a blog.

5 Ways to Reject the Feeling of Rejection

The response I received was very encouraging, people liked it. I was even asked by Enterprise Nation if they could republish it!!! I felt that I had cheated using a speech rather than writing it from scratch, but it worked. My conversational style of writing worked. All I had to do was to write as though I was speaking to my audience.

Last year I had to do an impromptu speech at Guildford Speakers, I didn’t have anything prepared and for a while hadn’t the slightest clue what to speak about. Could I quickly sketch together a speech within a very short time? But then I had a thought. I had written a blog post that afternoon. I delivered my blog post as a speech and everyone thought it was a prepared speech! So not only has Toastmasters helped my blogging, but my blog posts can be used as speeches.

(If you are curious the speech I delivered was based on Are you just building castles in the air?)

The wonderful thing about blogging is that informal, spoken language works best. Developing your speaking skills will help your blogging skills. So my top tip if you are struggling with writing, is to find your local Toastmasters Club and find your voice. Besides video blogs or vlogs are being becoming very popular too.

Let me know if you have had a similar experience or been able to transfer skills from one area to another.

Nicky Kriel

Nicky Kriel is a Social Media Coach & Trainer inspiring, educating and empowering Business Owners to use Social Media more strategically. She is also the author of How to Twitter for Business Success. For more information visit http://www.nickykriel.com or to find out about her courses that she runs in Guildford visit http://www.nickykriel.com/courses

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How to use Twitter for PR for your Toastmasters Club

Posted on October 18, 2011 by Nicky Kriel

Do you need more members for your Toastmasters Club?

With over 200 million Twitter accounts, you probably have heard of Twitter and may even be using it, but have you thought how powerful it
can be to get new members to your club?

Using Twitter is like texting, but instead of texting just to people you already know, you broadcast your message out to the world.

The advantages of Twitter are:

Your updates can be seen by anyone so you are not limited to the people you know
You are limited to 140 characters or less (about one sentence) so it doesn’t take up a lot of time to write
It is FREE!

Twitter played a major role in Farnham Speakers getting chartered seven months after its first meeting. To read about how Twitter was used, click here “From Tweet to Toastmasters Club”

I am passionate about Toastmasters Internation because I have seen how people have grown in confidence in a positive supportive enviroment.

I tweet about Toastmasters and people often ask questions about it.
I answer their questions
and find out where their closest club is
and send them a link to it.

Twitter is a free way to get people who have never heard of Toastmasters International before to become interested in your club.

Here’s a Step-by-Step Guide

1. Set up an account for your club

It may sound obvious, but you do have to start somewhere!

It allows you to say a bit more about the club in the bio, provides a link to your website and it gives the location for your club.

You can use a photograph of a landmark that local people will recognise
your club’s logo
Someone speaking
the Toastmasters International logo.

Make sure that you include the words Toastmasters in your bio.

If you want a guide to “Setting up your Twitter Account for Toastmasters” please leave a comment below and I will send you one.

2. Find people to follow

To get people to follow you which means they will be following your Tweets, you need to follow first. Here are some ideas of of people to follow:

Club members who have a Twitter Account
Fellow Toastmasters and Toastmasters Clubs (type the word “Toastmasters” in the search box)
Local People (search for people using your town’s name)

3. Promote your Twitter Account off line and online

Twitter works best when it is amplified. The more people who are using mentioning your Twitter name and Retweeting your Tweets, the better.

Tell club members about it
Encourage people on Twitter to mention your Twtitter account in their Tweets
Add it to the signature of your club emails or newsletters
Add it to your website if possible
Remind your club members about it!

4. Tweet Regularly

Plan to do at least a Tweet the week before the meeting, the day before or on the day of your meeting and a Tweet about the meeting. The Tweet during the week could be generic like

“Are you nervous about public speaking and do you live near YourTownName?” followed by link to the website or
“Grow in confidence through public speaking in YourTownName. And it’s fun!” followed by a link.

The day before or on the day you would mention the meeting and always add that guests are welcome.

The Tweet about the meeting could talk about any aspect of the meeting, like one of the speeches or the word of the day.

If you are blogging or posting videos of speeches YouTube, announce them on Twitter too.

5. Use keywords

The most important words to make sure that you include in your Tweet are your location, the words such as “public speaking” or “speaking
in public” or any form of the word “speak” such as “speakers club”, “speeches”. If you include “Toastmasters” or the hashtag #Toastmasters fellow Toastmasters will notice it.

Webinar – Online Training

I presented a Webinar on the 19th October for District 71 (Toastmasters International UK & Ireland) to show how to use Twitter for PR for your Toastmasters Club. The recording can be found through the link below. Unfortunately, the slides weren’t recorded, so use these slides which are below while listening to it.

Twitter Training for Toastmasters International UK & Ireland

How to use twitter for pr for your toastmasters club

View more presentations from Nicky Kriel

Share this blog posts with fellow Toastmasters.

To follow Toastmasters International UK & Ireland on Twitter click here @ToastmastersD71

If you are on Facebook, Please like our Toastmasters International UK & Ireland Page

If you are on LinkedIn, you can follow Toastmasters International UK & Ireland as a Company or add yourself as an employee and join our Toastmasters International UK & Ireland group.

Download a Free guide to Setting up a Twitter for your Toastmasters Club

Nicky Kriel

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Networking through Facebook

Posted on April 28, 2011 by Nicky Kriel

“I have been watching you for some time now…”

…the voice on the other side of the phone said.

No, it wasn’t a stalker!

It was a Facebook Friend who I haven’t met yet. The introduction was the start of one of the many opportunities that have arisen through Social Media in the past two years. Lisa Cherry phoned me to invite me to run a workshop at a conference that she was organising.

Lisa Cherry runs Networking Women, a networking group that runs in Oxfordshire, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire. We share a mutual friend, although we have never actually met. Over the past year, I have read quite a few of Lisa’s blogs, read her status updates and seen her photographs. So when she said her name, I knew instantly who she was. (I must remind her that she has promised to make me a handmade item by the end of 2011!)

The interesting thing about Facebook is it allows you to develop relationships in an ambient awareness way. You find out what people are up to and they find out about you without you specifically having to email or phone them. I have rekindled some friendships with people that I hadn’t spoken to for twenty years. I was thrilled when a school friend wanted to meet me when she was visiting London. We had a lovely afternoon tea at the British History Museum! (I grew up in South Africa, so very few of my school friends live in this country.)

I think, the biggest step was accepting an acquaintance that I had met through networking as a Facebook Friend. I remember having a long hard think about whether to accept his request. Up to that point I had kept my Facebook strictly to close friends and family. By taking that initial step to open Facebook up to acquaintances, I opened up myself to living a more public life.

People who I have met through networking, say that they feel so much closer to me since they have been my Facebook Friend. The thing about Facebook is you can’t pretend to someone you are not, there is no point. Nobody can be that consistent day in an day out. The easiest person to be is yourself.

It is up to you how you use your Facebook Profile It is important to decide where your boundaries are and which parts of your life you want to keep private. I have found my Facebook Profile a powerful way to build relationships which, in turn, have created opportunities for me.

Like being featured in Heather Bestel‘s Mumpreneur of the Week recently.

And like being asked to present at a conference.

I am going to be running a Social Media workshop at the Networking Women’s First Conference in Oxford which is a nice twist because it wouldn’t have happened without Social Media. If you live anywhere near Oxford, it would be lovely to meet you. The Conference is on the 15th September. For more details about the conference click here.

Do you have any Facebook stories of your own to share?

Nicky Kriel

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From Tweet to Toastmasters Club

Posted on April 2, 2011 by Nicky Kriel

It started with a Tweet….Well actually, it didn’t, it started with a dream, but Twitter played a big role in Farnham Speakers Club starting.

For a while the thought of starting a Toastmasters International Club in Farnham had been mulling in my mind. I do a lot of networking in the Farnham area and in most networking groups and I had noticed how difficult some business owners found it to stand up and introduce their business to the group.

How confident are you at getting up to speak in front of twenty to thirty people?

For some people the idea of speaking in public is nerve wracking and stress inducing. At most networking meetings there are always the people who are so nervous they write everything down and bury their face in the paper reading the words verbatim. Or they make you feel uncomfortable because you are aware about how painful the experience is for them. When someone is really nervous, you pay more attention to their discomfort than what they are saying.

I am a member of Guildford Speakers Club which is part of Toastmasters International.

Now, in England, the word “Toastmasters” is associated with people in red coats who call everyone to order at weddings and corporate events, but the Toastmasters I belong to is about gaining confidence through public speaking.

Joining Toastmasters was probably one of best decisions, I have ever taken. There are very few places where people will spend more time telling you what you are doing right than what you are doing wrong. It is amazing how many people I have watched blossom and grow in confidence just because they are developing a skill in speech making.

Anyhow, I think you can guess I am a bit evangelical about spreading the word.

So back to Farnham, I made the decision I wanted to found a club, but how would I know if there was any interest in one in Farnham?

So I tweeted and asked people, ”Who would be interested if I started up a speaker club?”. There would be no point if there was no interest.
At least 20 people tweeted back that they were interested. In fact, I was tweeting about it so much that people started to ask what date it was starting, oops!

Look at Farnham Speakers Club's stunning venue.

I didn’t have a venue. So guess what? I tweeted that I need a venue.
A number of people came back with useful suggestions. One of the venues that a few people suggested came back with a very steep price.
Toastmaster is a not for profit organisation and the aim is to keep the membership fees as affordable as possible.
Then I had a stroke of luck, someone who I have never met in person, but only know through Twitter, decided to help me find a venue and she negotiated on a price with the venue on our behalf that was half the original asking price.

So we had a venue and a date was set. Then some lovely things started happening:

I asked on Twitter if anyone had pictures of Farnham that they would mind us using for our website and James Firth volunteered and also agreed to be our photographer for our opening night.
A friend who I knew through both Twitter and networking volunteered her mother who was the mayor of Waverley to attend our opening night because she knew I was looking for someone.
Unfortunately, no hot celebrities volunteered their services, but it was fun dreaming and tweeting about who we could get.
A single tweet secured me an interview on BBC Surrey radio show to talk about Farnham Speakers.

We had our first meeting and within seven months we chartered which means we are now an official member of Toastmasters International with over twenty members.

And yes, many of our members came initially to our club because they saw me tweeting about it.

Farnham Speakers opening night - photograph courtesy of James Firth

There was a lot of work that went into creating a lively, fun and supportive club. It was about a year from making the decision “Just do it” at an officer club training meeting to chartering, but my stroke of inspiration was collecting a great committee together to get Farnham Speakers off the ground. We have also been very lucky to have the support of local Toastmaster clubs who helped fill roles initially and visit regularly as a result we have a high standard at our club. It is our members who make our meetings buzzy and welcoming.

It has been a brilliant learning experience and it is sooooooo tempting to do it again, I even have another place in mind, but I will not Tweet about it just yet!

Nicky Kriel

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Toastmasters, NLP and Social Media

Posted on December 15, 2010 by Nicky Kriel

What would say if someone from another continent that you have never met asked if they could interview you? Would you be flattered? Or would you freak out?

A few weeks agoTerry Kozlyk from Canada contacted me on Twitter. I had recently started following him because he was a fellow Toastmaster. He told me that he liked my website and wanted to interview me for his podcast. Who says Twitter doesn’t work? Well, my theme for 2010 is “Go Boldly Forward” so I said, “yes!”

We had a chat via Skype and he said that he was interested in finding out more about NLP. As Toastmasters, we had common ground already! I found Terry very easy to chat to and we arranged a time for the interview; first thing in the morning for him and 5pm for me. I was expecting the interview to last about 15 minutes, but Terry and I ended up chatting about so much that he had a hard time editing down the recorded content afterwards.

Listen here

2010 has been an interesting year so far. I had no idea how it exciting it would be when it started. I have run webinars, launched online courses, been interviewed on the radio. Who knew when it started that I would be blogging regularly and shooting video for my website? I am really looking forward to 2011! What theme should I have for next year? Do you thought of what theme could make a difference to 2011 for you?

Nicky Kriel

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5 Ways to get Rapport as a Speaker

Posted on December 2, 2010 by Nicky Kriel

Have you noticed that sometimes when someone is speaking it is easy to listen to them with your full attention and other times you switch off and think about your to do list? There tends to be a lot of shuffling in seats when the speaker hasn’t got rapport with the audience. When you get up to speak do you want to people to pay attention to you? Would you like to some tips on how to do that?

One of the things I have gained from Toastmasters is, not only do you get the practice of getting up to speak in front of an audience, but it has give you the experience of listening to many different speakers and speeches. Sometimes the 5-7 minutes goes past incredibly rapidly, other times I am aware of how uncomfortable the chair is and I start filling in the comment slip while they are still speaking.

Here are 5 ways how to build rapport:

Pause and Smile: Before you start, stop take a moment to let the audience know you are about to speak and smile. So many people launch into their talk as soon as they take the stage. By taking a few moments before you start speaking, the audience can get ready for you to start speaking. You get people’s attention with silence! Once you have got their attention give them a big smile. Be glad that they are there and they will start warming to you. We are programmed to respond positively to a smile, it makes us smile back.
Give them a reason to listen: The audience is inherently selfish; they will only pay attention when they believe that there is something in it for them. Start by asking them a question? Leave enough of a pause to allow them to answer the question in their head at least. You could ask them for a response. Make sure you give them a reason to listen to you at the start of your speech.
Eye contact: So many speakers tend to focus on one or two people in the audience or have a tendency to look to one side of the room. When you speak do you make sure that you make eye contact with everyone, especially the people at the extremes of the room? A Toastmaster friend of mine practises her speeches to her teddy bears, making sure that she talks to each one of them. As an audience member when someone doesn’t look at you while you speak, you feel disconnected. It is uncomfortable to have someone stare at you while they speak; a nice leisurely glance in your direction makes you feel acknowledged.
Use “you”: There is something magical about the word you; you always feel that it is directed at you. Using the word “you” builds rapport because the audience feels that you are speaking to them. Simply asking them a few questions, like “Do you know what I mean?” or “Has this ever happened to you?” draws the audience in. Start with your talk with your audience in mind before you start talking about yourself.
Tell a story: People connect to stories. When we are tell a story, people can relate to it with their own personal experience and it helps them to get on board with your message. Using little stories to illustrate some of the points of a factual presentation can help the audience to connect to you better.

These are just some of the things that I have learnt from speaking and listening to other people speak. I would love to hear from you! What works for you? What have you noticed?

Nicky Kriel

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Telling stories again

Posted on November 20, 2010 by Nicky Kriel

What type of stories do you enjoy hearing or reading? Stories are a powerful way for us to learn from other people’s experience. In my last post, I spoke about the art of storytelling and now I am telling another story. I would love to know what you think.

I delivered this speech at Guildford Speakers Club on Tuesday. This story is part of my Storytelling manual for Toastmasters International. The objectives of the project was to tell a touching story i.e. to evoke an emotion response from the audience. What emotion did you feel when you heard it? I would love to have your comments.

Nicky Kriel

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The Art of Storytelling

Posted on November 12, 2010 by Nicky Kriel

Are you sitting comfortably? Once upon a time there was a coach who wondered about how to get her message across more effectively. She had always enjoyed reading stories. She loved being carried away into other worlds. Often when she was absorbed in a book, she would be lost in time. She enjoyed being shown a different way of viewing things. She would be so caught up in the author’s world. Every now and then she would be jolted into reality by practical things like needing to feed her children or needing sleep. This would leave her frustrated and longing to return the pages of the tale. She would read hungrily on until the book was finished.

Have you ever felt like this? Can you associate with the feeling?

Storytelling is a wonderful art. It is a skill worth learning. I love hearing stories. Sometimes stories that I read years ago will come into my consciousness, when I have an issue to resolve. Has that ever happened to you, too?

The following video clip is a story I told recently at Farnham Speakers Club (part of Toastmasters International). It is a project within the storytelling manual and just over 5 and half minutes I would love to know how the story makes you feel?

Does the story have any impact on you? Can you associate with the story?

Would you like to develop your storytelling abilities?

Nicky Kriel

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Using you

Posted on August 22, 2010 by Nicky Kriel

Do you think this question is meant for you? If you find yourself answering it, then you are succumbing to the power of the word “you”. “You” is such a personal word that when people use it we think that they are using it for us, even if they mean the general use of the word. Have you ever used “you” when you meant “one” and got a reaction from someone that you weren’t expecting? Only our personal names have the same effect on us. Ever been in a room of people chatting and suddenly heard your name mentioned? Suddenly we have supersonic hearing!

My gran was quite deaf: you had to repeat every phrase, very loudly several times. She wore a hearing aid but she had it switched off most of the time. It was a struggle to have more than a stilted conversation with her, but yet if you spoke about her, her hearing was crystal clear! A strong case of selective hearing, but we all do it to some degree. We filter out sounds that we don’t think are important and pay attention to those that we think are (Which in the case of my teenagers is most of what I say about cleaning their rooms!)

When you use “you” people pay more attention which is great when you are connecting and building relationships, but there are times when you should be cautious about using “you”. Be wary or using “you” when you are fighting, negotiating or evaluating. When we feel attacked “you” becomes accusational and we get defensive. When we are handling a situation that may lead to the other person feeling vulnerable we need to take ownership of our feelings and our opinions. What we want is to make comments about someone’s behaviour, not attack their identity. Behaviours can be changed, but we are always protective of our how we see ourselves.

Try saying “I feel (think, see or hear) when you say (or do)….”. In this way you are taking responsibility for what you are saying. Practise this pattern, because in the heat of the moment, you might find yourself using “you” and getting a defensive reaction. I know, I do it!

Nicky Kriel

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Nicky Kriel | Social Media Coach & Trainer | Social Media for Business

Inspiring you to grow your business through Social Media

Category Archives: public speaking

5 Ways to get Rapport as a Speaker

Nicky Kriel

Telling stories again

Nicky Kriel

The Art of Storytelling

Nicky Kriel

Using you

Nicky Kriel