Thursday proved to be another fun and informative evening! The Toastmasters meeting had the theme of ‘nurturing’ with the word of the evening being ‘exultant’ meaning joyous, delighted, elated, jubilant, or overjoyed. It was certainty a good word to describe the evening!
Liz was the chairman for the evening and also gave an excellent speech about the importance of a having a Toastmasters mentor as our “experienced and trusted advisor”. She mentioned a mentor helps us in not “what” to do but “how” to write an effective speech. Kevin also gave us some excellent tips on preparing effective speeches. Kevin gave us two useful marketing acronyms to remember to apply to our speeches with AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action) and WIIFM (What’s in it for me?).
Other prepared speeches were presented by Les about franchises and Lisa about different leadership styles (Transformation, Democratic, Laissez-faire, Autocratic) and the different situations these are best applied. Les mentioned that although a franchise model can mean you are paying fees to the franchisor, the effective systems (such as pricing) you can implement in your business can ensure your business remains profitable.
A highlight of the evening for me was the smile story. I am still smiling now when I think of Ade’s smile story! She gave a hilarious speech about a family member being shut out of his hotel room in his underwear! We also heard many interesting travel stories in the Table Topics speeches lead by Yetzabel.
I can’t wait to our next meeting on 2nd December!
