May 2017 – Abhinav Bhatt

So I recently read: The Art of Public Speaking, by Dale Carnegie

So, I just finished reading, The Art of Public Speaking.

Have taken interest in learning to speak better in public, I had heard of this book a lot from many people who kept on quoting from it. So I bought it from Amazon one day and delved into it. Here are some of the things I felt after reading this book.

This book is indeed a classic, published in 1915, it has all the information, tips and tricks to be a better speaker. Of course, being written over a 100 years ago, some parts are a bit drag in terms of millennial-attention-span. Also, at some places, some shortcomings people might have with being able to communicate more effectively can be called as slightly obsolete with the advent of visual aids like PowerPoint.

However, the core message still holds. All the basics mentioned in the book about how to make your content better, and the ways to articulate more effectively, the methods to enhance voice and tone, the importance of rhetorics, etc are all explained in great detail. The book was written for the time when there was no or nominal usage of microphones and speakers, so, in a way this is really good for a novice speaker to follow. Using mic, one can cheat a bit with vocal variety but unless one use the inflections and volume in the ideal way, the difference can be easily noticed.

For new people who want to enhance their craft, this book will help as it gives ample explanation and importance to all the skills needs. I guess, once you start speaking in a group, you may start referring from this book and then you can measure yourself as to how are you doing. It also has some case studies sort of examples which are from good speakers from that era to learn from.

All in all, I found a majority of this book useful. So could you!

Some of my Favorite Quotes from this book:

Concentration is a process of distraction from less important matters.

The first sign of greatness is when a man does not attempt to look and act great.

If you believe you will fail, there is no hope for you. You will.

The worst punishment that human ingenuity has ever been able to invent is extreme monotony, solitary confinement.

Destiny is not a matter of chance. It is a matter of choice.

Charles Dana, the famous editor of The New York Sun, told one of his reporters that if he went up the street and saw a dog bite a man, to pay no attention to it. The Sun could not afford to waste the time and attention of its readers on such unimportant happenings. “But,” said Mr. Dana, “if you see a man bite a dog, hurry back to the office and write the story.” Of course that is news; that is unusual.

It is not work that kills men; it is worry. Work is healthy; you can hardly put more upon a man than he can bear. Worry is rust upon the blade. It is not the revolution that destroys the machinery but the friction.

Speech is silvern, Silence is golden; Speech is human, Silence is divine.

Wilkie Collins’ formula for fiction writing well applies to public speech: “Make ’em laugh; make ’em weep; make ’em wait.

Yesterday is already a dream and tomorrow is only a vision; but today, well lived, makes every yesterday a dream of happiness and every tomorrow a vision of hope. – Kalidas

Also, why stop at this and why not watch this too?http://www.theonion.com/video/how-conquer-fear-public-speaking-55392

You may get this book from below link:

Collywobbles – 2.0

Phew!

So on May 10th 2017, I finished my 10 Projects from the Toastmasters’ Competent Communicator Manual. I am a “CC CL” now.

It took me 11 months, 8 days to deliver 10 Speeches. Excluding one Contest Speech which I delivered twice. That was some journey, I must say. Out of the 10 CC Speeches, I delivered 3rd, 4th and 5th twice. As the evaluator thought that I wasn’t good enough. I mean, it wasn’t a harsh evaluation as such but partly I didn’t take it in the right spirit, I must admit. I thought I did a fair job of achieving all the objectives. But the evaluator apparently didn’t think so.

In the 3rd speech, I used a visual aid which got into technical issues so I thought I should deliver my speech again. I thought I did a fine job in my 4th speech but Evaluator suggested me to repeat. I delivered the second-time 4th Speech in a different club than mine. This club was 8 years old Club and had an audience of close to 30 people. I started in really good style but in the middle I felt my mouth going dry. And then bombed super hard there. I went blank for about 10 seconds (which felt like gigantically long) but still somehow, they gave me the Best Speaker Award there. In my 5th speech, again I thought I did decent but I was told to repeat. That actually irked me off. I almost felt like leaving this thing altogether. I assumed that Toastmasters was supposed to be a fun and friendly place where you could be supportive and encouraging. Being asked to repeat twice in a row didn’t go down well with me. So, I thought either I should quit or fight hard. I chose latter because I knew that I could do it. I shouldn’t get bothered by small lows as that one. So I concentrated on my CL, improving on my confidence and chose to deliver the CC5 Speech only after 100 days or so. But then I eventually did it and I was back at it, with more energy and passion.

I decided to explore other clubs where I could go and face a totally different audience. And so the 6th Speech was delivered in a different club. That fetched me Best Speaker again. I delivered my 10th speech again on May 16th in the same again as well later with another Best Speaker. After the 5th speech, it was a ride in 5th gear. I did my 5th speech in March and then raced, mind you with each evaluator appreciating the speech, with all the rest of the speeches in next 1.5 months. In the middle, I also participated in International Speech Contest and somehow won in the club too, didn’t win at Area level though. And contesting was anyways not my intention in my first year.

Collywobbles haven’t disappeared completely, which is actually a good thing too. But I thought it is good to jot down my experience from a really thorough, fully devoted and mind-bogglingly passionate last year.

So, let me share the changes I feel in myself after almost 1 year of my Toastmasters’ journey.

Disappearance of Fear of Public Speaking

I feel that now I can speak to a big crowd, without feeling afraid of them. I might still feel nervous and jittery in order to trying to do good. But I don’t feel intimidated by an audience because, I know that when asked to come up on the stage, half of the people will dig their hands in sands, half of the remaining half won’t be able to speak anything understandable. So it is liberating to know that you are in the minority of people who can go up to a stage and speak. It might not really make good sense but ability to speak on a stage eliminates fear.

Huge Boost in Confidence

Man jump through the gap between hill.man jumping over cliff on — Confidence

There will be a shift in one’s confidence surely. Speaking in front of a group, making people laugh, seeing people taking inspiration from your speeches, taking leadership roles, being a Club Officer to decide the future plan, makes one feel confident about oneself. You know that you have to plan something, and then deliver on it. And if it turns out good enough, you get the small shot in the arms which make you feel real good about yourself.

Being in a Classroom Again

There is always a feeling of going back to school when you are in a club. You feel like a student again. There’s so much to learn from others. So many in-jokes to share. So many times you feel like speaking impromptu. It gives a sense that nobody will judge you (of course they will but you get ‘so what who cares’ feels imbibed into you). Also, you might feel bored while someone is speaking. Totally like being a student, right?

Toastmasters_Disliked_Member — Pic via Toastmasters Magazine

There are so many other changes but I am listing just the top 3. After my first year in Toastmasters, I could win these small tokens of appreciations. At least some people would have liked my speeches and at least a few of them would have taken some inspiration as well to do good in their journey.

So I Worked in a Movie

I didn’t get a chance to say these lines…

but still, I got to work in a feature film.

Things happened in the following fashion:

Back in 2012, when I was getting fame ~~and money~~ for the minimal posters, film-maker Sandeep Mohan approached me to make official posters for his movie, Love Wrinkle-Free. So I made the posters and became friends with Sandeep.

He’s a full-fledged Indie Movie Maker so he usually also casts non-actors to do parts in his movies, in true Indie style. For more of his work, follow this.

For his new movie, “Shreelancer” he had come to Bengaluru sometime in 2016. He posted on his Facebook page that he wants to shoot a scene involving a Company’s Induction day. He invited his friends to be a part of the shoot, or if someone just wanted to see how a movie shooting’s done. I went there and then being his friend, I was asked to be a part of a couple of scenes. There was one more scene but unfortunately, the camera was slightly ahead of me so I couldn’t be seen there.

Nevertheless, I am there in 2 scenes and can brag about it to my grandkids.

Also, funnily, Shreelancer is a tight budget movie where they get things done via Jugaad if they run out of resources. For some reason, they couldn’t get a blue colored formal shirt. By chance, I had one. So they used my Shirt for a big portion of the movie.

Arjun Radhakrishnan, who’s the protagonist in the movie and does a fine job, wore my shirt and spoke many dialogues. So what if I didn’t get any dialogue, my shirt looked fab and played a major role in the movie.

Here’s the trailer for Shreelancer: