great post.

Congrats on winning the Best speech at Toastmasters. I have been in Toastmasters for over 13 years. It’s a great way to practive your public speaking skills!

I would like to draw your attention to the final point about communication being 60% non verbal, 33% tone etc. Those figures are wrong.

They come from a study conducted in 1972 about the chances of being allowed to stay in a line when you push in. The reseacher found that 60% of the time when he pushed into the line (at the post office) he was able to keep his position when he said nothing at all. On 33% of the times, he was able to keep his position when he altered his tone. ONy on 7% of the time when he asked to be let in was he let in.

As can be seen, the figures relate to pushing into a line at the post office, not to speaking to groups of people.

There was a great article last year in the Toastmasters magazine about where these figures come from.

If you want to see the original article, it is in a book called, “An approach to Environmental Psychology” (1972) by Dr Alber Maharabrian. Sorry, don’t kn ow the publisher.

Good luck with your next speech, and I hope you win the award agin.

Cheers

Darren Fleming