Accredited Speaker Tips

A professional speaker relies chiefly on the spoken word to leave an enduring impression on the audience. He or she is an expert who speaks.

Toastmasters International’s Accredited Speaker Program acknowledges members who already possess and regularly demonstrate expert public speaking skills. Many Toastmasters give acceptable presentations inside and outside of their Toastmasters clubs. But Accredited Speaker applicants must meet a higher standard. They have mastered professional speaking techniques and are better able to attract and hold the attention of an audience as they deliver their powerful message.

Members with this ability are rare and few. Less than 20 percent of all applicants have qualified as Accredited Speakers since the program began in 1980.

Each year a review panel appraises every applicant’s presentation for speech development, audience response, speech value, voice, platform style, appropriateness in word choice and correctness of language use. The most common recommendations offered by members of the review panels to applicants who did not pass the first application level are provided here.  

Prepare a proper introduction

• An introduction serves as a bridge between speakers and their audiences. With it, the speaker crosses into the audience’s territory with ease and confidence. Without it, the speaker faces an uphill battle to establish credibility and understanding.
• Countless submissions have no introduction or a very poor one. Often a title isn’t even provided. This means judges lack insight into the speakers, their subject, their credentials and their audience.
• Many introductions do not answer the four questions needed to provide a strong foundation for the speech: Why this speaker? Why this audience? Why this subject? and Why this time?
• Those giving introductions often lack the knowledge and skills to do it properly. Write your own introduction and be sure to answer the four fundamental questions. Give the introduction to the person who will introduce you as far in advance of your speaking engagement as possible. Ask that he or she rehearse it and present it as written. Point out that by rehearsing the introduction the audience will perceive both you and your introducer as professionals.

Make a high quality recording

The quality of the audio recording you submit is another indicator of your professionalism. The performance you submit for the Accredited Speaker Program should be planned well in advance and arrangements made to ensure you have a first-rate recording.

• Recording quality of many presentations is amateurish at best. Frequent blunders include:
  • The venue’s poor acoustics makes the speaker unintelligible.
  • The speaker does not speak clearly into the microphone.
  • The speaker’s voice is overpowered by a crying baby or other audience disruption.
  • The recording equipment malfunctions and the presentation is lost in the resulting mechanical noise or interference.
• To prevent these gaffes:
  • Make sure the venue has acoustics favorable to recording (e.g. no echoing auditoriums).
  • Make your recording from the speaking microphone. Simply setting a tape recorder on a nearby table will not produce a quality recording.
  • Do not record in stereo. Most judges will use portable cassette or CD players when reviewing applicant’s presentations.
• Good sound quality enables judges to clearly hear your words and the audience’s response. Judges can’t make an accurate assessment of your skill if they can’t hear the presentation.  

Give your presentation before a live audience

Professional level speakers are able to connect with their audiences and often interact with them. Judges consider the audience’s response to your presentation and can tell when a speech is recorded without an audience present. 

• Many applicants’ presentations have weak, unimaginative openings or lack a closing. Others switch subjects and, in effect, give several different speeches. Always create a clear opening, body and closing.
• The opening should get the favorable attention of the audience. State the subject. Leave no doubt of your topic. Tell them why your subject is important. Give them a reason to pay attention to your message.
• Deliver your main message or points and supporting information with the body of your speech.
• The closing summarizes your speech and leaves your main message clear in the audience’s mind. Include a call to action in the closing – tell your listeners what you want them to do as a result of what you’ve told them.

Select a meaningful subject

• Topics for the presentations are as varied as the people submitting them but presenters who select a powerful, meaningful subject appropriate to their audience are more likely to be successful.
  • Presentations appropriate for the Accredited Speaker Program include (but are not limited to):
    • keynote speeches
    • seminars
    • after dinner speeches
  • Some topics that are not appropriate include (but are not limited to):
    • a portion of a roast for another Toastmaster
    • a segment of a longer workshop
    • a eulogy
    • a speech containing “blue” humor

While following these recommendations does not guarantee your success in the program, incorporating them into your presentation can positively enhance your performance.

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