Well, my run at the 2008 International Speech Contest came to a screeching halt on Saturday.  My good friend Bob Ingram gave a marvelous and poignant speech that brought a tear to every eye and sent him packing for Region 1.  Congratulations to Bob and best of luck.

Even though I ‘lost’, I learned something about myself as a speaker.  During the first part of my speech, I made mistake in one of my key lines.  I was internally horrified, but found a way to recover and keep going.  My wife Barb later told me that even though she had heard this speech a gazillion times, she didn’t catch the mistake. 

LESSON LEARNED – Never give up even when you think everyone knows that you blundered.  The reality is they don’t.  If you give it away by either telling them, or giving up on the rest of your presentation, you are doing them a great injustice.  I was pleased that I was able to ‘grind out’ the tough part and finish strongly.

BOTTOM LINE -Every presentation presents an opportunity for you to learn.  Do you seek out those opportunities?  If you don’t, then you will never grow as well as you can as a presenter.  If you do try to learn from every speech, regardless of how you think you did, you will grow exponentially and be rewarded with more chances to present and get invited back more often.

By the way, I was very fortunate to take 1st Place in the District Evaluation Contest.  I had tough competition and feel fortunate to come out on top.  Evaluations are another great way to learn and grow.  If you’d like to see my evaluation for that evening, please watch it below.  You can see all my videos on DanTVon YouTube..

 

 

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