I get asked this a lot by aspiring speakers, especially those in Toastmasters that are looking for a shortcut on the path to becoming a professional speaker. The short answer is no, you can become a successful paid speaker without joining the National Speakers Association (NSA). The follow up question is then “will it help me if I join?” My reply: it depends.

Just like joining Toastmasters alone won’t make you a better speaker, joining NSA will not necessarily get you booked as a paid speaker. It all depends on how you use it. Anyone can join a Toastmasters club, attend meetings and even give speeches but it doesn’t guarantee that they will become a good speaker – there’s a lot more to it. The same is true for NSA – except you need to qualify for membership and not everyone does.

Before I get much further into this topic, let me tell you my experience with the NSA. I have attended several meetings here in the greater Boston area but never joined. A few years back, I had set a goal to join the NSA. I think back then you needed to give roughly paid speeches in a calendar year to qualify. I qualified the year after I set that goal but never ended up joining.

I don’t have any problem with the NSA. The people I met there were friendly and very helpful – especially to someone like me who was still learning the ropes of being a paid speaker. I also learned several good ideas from the workshops they offered. Truthfully, I owe quite a bit of my success to the NSA because several years ago I attended a workshop (which ironically, most of the NSA members were disappointed in) where the presenter talked about blogging. I figured I’d give blogging a try and now blogging is a big part of what I do. So I recommend at least checking it out.

Here in New England workshops are held monthly on Saturdays. They go a full day often starting at 8 AM and lasting until the late afternoon. While I enjoyed attending these meetings, it became difficult for me to continue to do so as at the time, I had a lot going on both personally and professionally. Since this, to me, was the biggest benefit of joining the NSA, I never pursued it. Sure there are other benefits such as the monthly audio program (which is decent) and to be listed in their directory. I’m not truly sure of the value of the latter as most of the companies and meeting planners that have hired me have never heard of the NSA (or think it’s the government agency) and the couple members I’ve asked about it couldn’t tell me about any business generated solely by being in the directory.

With that being said, you can definitely benefit from attending their workshops. I am lucky because the New England chapter always puts on great workshops and is a great group of people. I can’t speak for other areas, but some of the speakers I’ve met from other regions have spoken positively about their local chapter.

So my advice is to check it out but don’t sweat it if don’t qualify to join. You can still benefit from it and it’s worth checking out. If you’re not sure how to find it, just use the search box on this page and type in “NSA” followed by your state or country. Then take a look at the website for your local chapter to see what they have to offer.

Related posts:

1. Transitioning From Toastmaster to Professional Speaker
2. Public Speaking Myths: Joining Toastmasters will Make You a Better Speaker
3. How Toastmasters Can Help Professional Speakers
4. Toastmasters – A quick way to become a good speaker

It’s no secret that most people associate some sort of discomfort with public speaking. In fact, many people flat out hate it. I believe part of the reason for this is that there’s a lot of advice on how to be a better speaker (and even how to get rich from public speaking) that is either only semi-accurate or in some cases, completely inaccurate. So when people follow it and it doesn’t work they get frustrated and think that there’s something wrong with them.

The good news is that it’s usually the advice that’s bad and not the individual. I have a huge problem with these “one size fits all” programs that allegedly help people succeed – in reality, the only person that gets rich is the one selling the program. And now these programs have moved to the world of public speaking – some making ridiculous claims like you can be better speaker without getting up and speaking to groups.

What I’ve done is taken the five worst pieces of public speaking advice that I’ve seen making its rounds. I’ve already labled many of these “tips” as myths and debunked them in prior posts, so feel free to click on through to get a more detailed analysis of why these “pieces of advice” are actually pieces of something else. So if some alleged presentation skills expert fires off one of these beauties, don’t even consider hiring him or her. If you see it in a book or hear it in an audio program, return it to get your money back. Chances are, following the other advice you’d potentially get would do you more harm than good.

1: Joining Toastmasters will make you a better speaker.

I credit a lot of my success to Toastmasters and have seen a lot of folks overcome their fears and become great speakers through the Toastmasters. But I’ve also seen almost the equivalent number of people join and only be seen a handful of times before their semi-annual dues expire.

To succeed in Toastmasters you need to find a good club that fosters growth, take an active role and have the discipline to attend meetings and speak regularly. If you actively participate in a good Toastmasters club, you will be a better speaker. Otherwise, you’re just spending money to put something on your resume.

2: Public Speaking is like riding a bike.

I developed a fear of public speaking in high school. My first job as an instructor (which required me to teach 5 classes per week) when I was in graduate school helped me quickly overcome that fear. But after four years of working as a computer programmer which required no public speaking, I found that my fear returned.

To use a more accurate analogy, public speaking is like exercising – you have to work at it continuously to stay “in shape.” If you ran a six minute mile in high school but haven’t exercised in three years, you most likely won’t be able to run a mile in six minutes today. You have to keep at it to keep your public speaking “muscles” in shape. I recommend speaking to a group at least once every three months to stay in speaking shape.

3: There is no such thing as a dead audience.

I’ve heard a number of so called speaking experts say that if you’re truly a great speaker, you’ll be able to revive any audience. That might be true in their fantasy land where they wow their audience with their gestures and vocal variety. However, in the real world where people (and sometimes entire audiences) have issues, problems and concerns on their minds, it’s not unrealistic for audience members to focus on more important things than your speech.

If you’re speaking to a corporate audience that recently received bad news (layoffs, death of a coworker, lower than expected earnings, scandals, etc…) then all the vocal variety and motivational stories in the world won’t get them to focus on you. Nor can you rally an organization that recently had a big setback which has dampened the mood of the audience members. And sometimes, a prior speaker can say something that infuriates the audience to the point where they’re still angry when you start. These situations are rare, but they do happen.

4: You should never open with “Thank you” or “it’s great to be here.”

Nearly every public speaking program I’ve seen or heard contains this advice – it’s like they all copied this advice from each other. They all state that you must grab the audience’s attention within the first five seconds of your talk otherwise you’ll lose them. Newsflash: this is absurd.

I have seen hundreds of speeches in person over the last decade and hundreds more on television. While I’m sure some of these speakers followed this rule, I can’t think of any off the top of my head that did. And when I think of times when I’ve lost interest in a speech, it was because the speaker didn’t grab my attention in the first 5 minutes, not the first five seconds. So next time you’re planning a speech, don’t knock yourself out trying to get that killer opening line. You have your first several sentences to create interest and draw them in.

5: Imagining your audience in their underwear will make you less nervous.

Au contraire. I get asked about this in nearly every speaking class I teach and my response is that it actually makes you more uncomfortable. It distracts you from important things like remembering your speech and depending on who is in your audience and your current state of mind, it can either turn you on or make you sick. And yes, neither of those sensations will help you during your talk.

I don’t know the real origin of this idea, but I remember seeing an episode of the Brady Bunch from the 1970′s where one of the children had to give a speech and was given this advice to prevent nervousness. It may have worked back then, but in the post Victoria’s Secret era this has potential for some embarrassing Freudian slips. Some folks recommend visualizing your audience wearing funny t-shirts, but again, it distracts your mind from your talk. You’re better off practicing your speech so you know the material cold and then focusing on your material.

So these are my top five “anti-tips” on public speaking. As I see more propagating themselves, I’ll be sure to point them out in future posts. So keep an eye out on this blog for updates.

Related posts:

1. Public Speaking Success: How to Give a Great Speech
2. What I Hate About Toastmasters
3. Do People Really Care About Public Speaking?
4. How I Got Interested in Public Speaking

While I recommend Toastmasters to my classes and clients, it’s not always the perfect solution for becoming a good speaker. It’s hard for me to not seem wishy washy on the subject because my four plus years in Toastmasters were mainly positive. Yes, there were those not so good moments, but in general I enjoyed being part of an amazing club and making some excellent friends.

With that being said, there are a lot of things to look out for with Toastmasters. The main culprit is the focus on style over substance. People overdo style in their speeches and Toastmasters audiences love them. I’ll never forget the first (and only time) I sat through a district speech contest. Some of the speeches were good but others, including the one that won, were far from impressive. It was at that point where I realized that winning speech contest doesn’t really amount to anything outside of Toastmasters.

I recently came across a video of a speaker that to me is the perfect example of what’s wrong with Toastmasters. You can view it below:

There are couple things of interest here. First, the audience loves the speech. If this guy gave this speech to pretty much any audience outside of Toastmasters, he would not get such a positive reaction. I’m not saying that his material is bad, but it’s hard to find the point of his speech beneath all the goofy vocal variety, exaggerated gestures and the crazy outfit.

Second, its’ supposed to be a funny speech but because it is, again, so goofy, a lot of the clever humor (such as where his tattoo is and the jokes about the biscuit) is missed. The sad part about it is that it probably could have been a good speech. I don’t think the speaker is a bad speaker and the speech itself (if you can focus on it) isn’t so bad. But the delivery is absolutely horrible. And the fact that this guy is not alone in thinking that this is acceptable for a speech is the main problem with Toastmasters.

Related posts:

1. 10 Ways For Toastmasters to Take Their Speaking to the Next Level – Part 1
2. What I Hate About Toastmasters
3. How Toastmasters Can Help Professional Speakers
4. 10 Ways For Toastmasters to Take Their Speaking to the Next Level – Part 2

Toastmasters is a great organization for people who want to become better speakers. It provides a safe, low-pressure environment where you can achieve your speaking goals at your own pace. With thousands of Toastmasters clubs throughout the world, chances are there is at least one club in your area.

Regardless of your reason for wanting to join a Toastmasters club, there are three things that you want to look for in selecting the club that’s right for you: convenience, membership and experience.

Convenience:

With our lives becoming busier and busier due to increasing family and career commitments, you need to find a club where getting to a meeting isn’t a big chore. Toastmasters clubs fall into two basic categories: community clubs and corporate clubs. Community clubs often meet in the evenings, early morning or on weekends so they are perfect for people that have a busy work life. Corporate clubs mainly meet at lunchtime with some meeting towards the end of the workday or immediately afterwards. If your only availability is during your lunch hour, you might want to look to see which companies have clubs in your area (and if they let non-employees join them). So factoring the meeting time is important when addressing a club’s convenience.

Location is also a big factor as you don’t want to spend two hours traveling to attend a one hour meeting. Plus, you don’t want your commute or inclement weather to prevent you from attending meetings. In addition to distance, you may need to consider whether the facility has free parking or is near public transportation.

Membership:

A club’s biggest asset is its membership. If you look at just numbers alone, small clubs (less than 15 active members) have plenty of speaking opportunities but you’re less likely to make connections or get useful feedback from other members. Additionally, small clubs may close down due to lack of interest. Conversely, large clubs (30 or more active members) are more difficult to get speaking opportunities (unless the group meets frequently) but there is good chance that you’ll learn a lot from the club’s members when you do speak.

Membership diversity and attitudes is what determines the success of a club and if it will meet your goals. Now by diversity, I don’t necessarily mean demographic differences, although clubs with members from a variety of backgrounds have numerous benefits. Look for clubs with members at all levels: newer members that you can grow with and advanced members that you can learn from.

Member attitudes is also an important factor. A club where everyone is negative and provides such feedback would not help you reach your goals and clubs where the feedback is always watered down and positive will not help you improve. Look for clubs that are easy on new members but provide experienced members with useful ways to improve. Also, look for clubs that are open to new ideas and to thinking outside of the box. If you limit your learning to the book, you’ll limit your skills to the book, so look for clubs that are always giving their members new and exciting challenges.

Another thing to consider with member attitudes is are the members of the club friendly and welcoming. If they are, it’s more likely that you’ll be encouraged to take risks, try new things and get up and speak. Clubs that are welcoming also attract new members and keep their existing members longer.

Leadership:

A club’s leadership is a direct reflection on the health of a club. Clubs that have all leadership positions filled indicate that they have strong base of active members. Each club has a banner in which award ribbons are attached. Clubs that constantly reach their goals at the club levels signify that they are properly servicing their members.

Each Toastmaster year (which runs from July to June) clubs are encouraged to achieve ten goals. Some goals have to do with the club officers doing their jobs (such as filing documents on time and attending training), some have to do with membership (attracting new members and helping existing members earn individual awards). Clubs that achieve five or more goals are given distinguished status – seven or more goals are considered select distinguished status and clubs that meet nine or more are considered Presidential Distinguished.

The best strategy is to visit several clubs before selecting one to join. Keep in mind that you can attend meetings for free as a guest – and only a rare few limit guests to three visits before having to join. Each club has its own unique spirit and offers its own benefits, so you’ll most likely find one that meets your needs. If your schedule allows, you may want to consider joining multiple clubs. But in any case, Toastmasters is a great place to learn more about public speaking.

Related posts:

1. What I Hate About Toastmasters
2. Happy Birthday: My Toastmasters Club is Turning 30
3. Toastmasters Success: Six Ways to Revive Your Club
4. A Toastmasters Primer