Angela Lansbury Speeches and Making Speeches

Why should you listen to me? What are my credentials?

My Qualifications
I am an ACG, which means I have delivered at least 40 speeches.

I am an ALB, Advanced Leader Bronze, which includes mentoring others, evaluating and doing many roles.

My Experience
In Singapore I go to a meeting every day except Sunday, an average of 7 meetings a week, because I often attend two on Saturday or one midweek and occasionally a meeting Saturday or Sunday night.

Most meetings include three prepared speeches. (When the speaker is insufficiently prepared, you are getting an impromptu speech!)

My ribbons
I have won numerous ribbons. I have more than 50 in frames in London. In Singapore I have several for table topics and others for evaluating, which is itself a mini-speech, unprepared.

My Clubs
I belong to two Toastmasters club in London, England, Harrovians and HOD. In Singapore I belong to Braddell Heights Advanced and Tampines Changkat Advanced.

The person who introduced me to Toastmasters was Indra Sikdar who I met at Harrow Writers Circle. He took me to Harrovian Toastmasters Club. He was my mentor. When I did my Icebreaker, he told me to use props.

Hats and Books
I had a cowgirl hat for my time in the USA, a coolie hat for my time in Asia, and my book Wedding Speeches and Toasts about my writing career.

The Cheque Prop
Mike described a cheque for money he was paid. He was advised to use a prop. The cheque. Second time he gave the speech, he showed a cheque he was paid. Too small. You don't expect me to create an outside cheuqe like a poster. Yes. He did it, a huge cheque. Very effective. He won at next level.

The Michelin Man prop

Darren Tay and the underpants
International Winner 2017 (?)

The Coffee Cup
Gideon gave a speech about coffee. Where was the coffee cup?  Are coffee cups too small to see. Then print one.  Easy to find one, In any magazine advertisement. No printer. Cut one of the outside of a pack of coffee.

The Flower
My friend drove to collect me. I thought, I don't have a prop. My garden was full of daffodils. Just a minute I said. We're late.
I'm not going back insdie. Just picking a flower.
Wahat
st that for, to decorate the venue.
Er - yes.
When I got there we did not have a vase. I put the flower in my pocket.
The topic was, In spring a young man's fancy turns to love, what does spring men to you.
I pulled out my flower. Yellow daffodils. As Wordsworth said,
I wandered lonely as a cloud ...
Afterwards I thought everybody must have said the same thing, None of them did.

And I was the only one with a prop. My friend asked me, 'How did you happen to have a prop in your pocket?'

The Manual As A Book
I wanted a book. I asked somebody if they had a book or a notebook. No, only the toastmasters Manual they said.
'May I borrow it?

My topic was:
What book would you take with you to read on a desert island?.\
The TM manual! Never mind how long the rescuers took. I would have time to practise all my speeches. And when they rescued me I could give a thank you speech.

Topic: Tell Children To Take Precautions Without The Words Sex or Naming Any Body Part
John Cyriac was the winner. He said: Imagine you had just bought a new car or motorbike. You would want to protect it, wouldn't you. You would cover it up with a plastic cover to be sure it didn't get damaged. That's what you should do with your own precious body. Look after it. Protect it.







Author
Angela Lansbury ACG ALB

I won the best evaluator ribbon for my evaluation of Fabrizio's Icebreaker first speech at Harrovian Speakers club, a Toastmaster International club. Date July 3, 2017 Monday at the church hall of St Lawrence's Church.

"Fabrizio, well done for giving the Icebreaker speech, and rehearsing it with your mentor, me. Fabrizio completed the objectives of the first project in the Speech Manual. He found skills he had, and demonstrated to us, a confident speaker whose speech flowed.

"He gave a speech which combined a first speech which introduces us to the speaker, and a later speech, on motivating an audience to succeed at something. He told us how he sought success, was a perfectionist, which is why he joined Toastmasters to improve his speaking. That's a goal we share.

"He began by engaging the audience with a question, put your hands up, those of you who want to be perfect and think you are perfect. Hands went up and down and people laughed. Nobody wants to boast.

"It's great to engage the audience with a question, and to make a joke.

"Now, I'll tell you a secret. I'm his mentor and heard the first version of his speech. They say there are three versions of every speech, the one you prepared, the one you gave and the one you wish you had given. His verist prepared version told us three things about him. Fist his Italian origin, which explains his name, and he goes on holiday to Italy. Secondly that he lives in Mill Hill. Thirdly that he has a Hamster. I'd have liked personal stories, of his success. Was moving to Mill Hill a success. Was keeping a hamster a success. Plus props. A map of Italy or a picture of Mill Hill or his Hamster. Maybe he had succeeded in finishing his speech by rehearsing it to his hamster.

"His ending quoting Mohammed Ali was good. But I've forgotten it already. In order for us to remember the quotation, maybe give it out as a slide or a handout, or a business card with a quotation.

"This speech can be used again later as part of a motivational speech. I'd love to hear it again as a revised first speech, with more details about his success. Well done, on completing a first speech."

Records
To keep a record of ribbons I have won, and what for and when, this is what I do:
1I write out the details on a self-adhesive address label which I stick on the back of the ribbon.
2 I frame the ribbon.
3 I make a note when I have my evaluation recorded in my leadership manual.
4 I photograph myself receiving the ribbon.
5 I write a blog post about what I said to win.
6 I keep a tally in my diary of the number of ribbons won during the year.

I have more than 50 ribbons won in the UK where I belong to two clubs, HOD and Harrovians, which meet two or three times a month, so I go to a Toastmasters meeting four or five times a month. That is when I am in the UK.

I spend a lot of time in Singapore and also on at least two other overseas trips a year. In Singapore I belong to Braddell Heights Advanced Toastmasters Club. I have additional ribbons framed in Singapore where I attend a Toastmasters meeting almost every night for a month or more each year.

In the UK have run out of space for picture frames not he wall, and room in the frames for ribbons. Therefore I am slotting ribbons into spaces around pictures.


Angela Lansbury, B A Hons, ACG CL 

The first time I gave this speech at Harrovians Toastmasters on Monday May 15, 2017, I just clomped around pretending to be in men's shoes. The part of the speech people most enjoyed was my climbing about wearing imaginary men's shoes.

When I gave the speech the following Thursday, I thought, 'I should have brought with me a pair of men's shoes. Too late.'

On the other hand, there were men in the room wearing men's shoes. Several were unsuitable, white trainers, not what actually happened. I had been given a pair of men's large black rigid office shoes.

So I went up to the Toastmasters of the Evening in the middle of the speech and asked him, 'Can I wear your shoes?'

One person in the audience suggested on the feedback form the 'Evaluation Slip' that it would be better for me to have brought the shoes with me.

I thought that actually asking a man who was reluctant to help to take off his shoes and give them to me, would be more like the real situation. It was more realistic. More absurd. And funny.

The video doesn't show the positive reaction of the audience. Afterwards, the Table Topics master told me, "People were crying with laughter!"




Angela Lansbury, CL, ACG.

In previous years I have lost track of the number of ribbons I won and at which clubs. Why does it matter?

1 Counting Books You've Read and Reviewed
I counted the number of books I read in a year at Grammar School when one of the English teachers gave us a pocket sized notebook and asked us to write a review of a book we wrote on each page. I set myself the task of filling the notebook, reading a book every week, and reading more books in year two than in year one.

If I still kept this notebook system and re-read it at odd moments, as entertainment when waiting at bus stops, train stations and airports, I would be in a better position to answer the (on the) table topic for (impromptu) speeches at meetings.

2 Recording Titles and Authors
When I first did table topics I could never answer the question: What is your favourite book and why? I had too many books. Now the answer is simple. My favourite fiction book is Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, because it has a twist ending in each of the chapters.

2 Counting And Recording Photos
I used to wonder why composers gave their orchestral pieces numbers as well as names. Beethoven's Fifth, and so on. Then I met the head of a photographic society in New Zealand who had a basement room with stack os photos. He said he numbered all photos in date order by year. He kept indexes by country and subject, using the photo number to find the photo. So the first photo he took in the year 1950 would be number one. He would have a list of photos taken in New Zealand, starting with that number one photo. Another list of photos of skiing might also begin with that number one photo.

3 Counting and Recording Short Stories
When I started writing short stories I started by storing them alphabetically. But I kept changing the titles. It then became easier to store them in date order. This week's and last week's stories were easy to find.

4 Duplicate Filing
When I worked in the British Council we kept everything duplicate filed. One copy of every letter went into a subject file. The second copy was in a day file. If you did not know where the letter was filed, or it was missing, or misfiled, you could check the date file.

5 Counting and Recording Speeches
Counting and recording speeches is handy. One speaker I met at a hotel seemed very well organised. He gave a speech at a nearby restaurant table at Christmas). He told me he gave many speeches to clubs, often two a year. he had a card index on which he wrote the title of the speech he gave, the date, and the stories and jokes he told. When invited to give a second speech in one year, he took a second card and gave a speech of a different subject with different stories. However, a year later he felt he could repeat the first speech. Some of the audience would be different and most people would have forgotten.

6 Statistics Of Articles Written
I never bothered with statistics to tell others. I did count the number of travel article I wrote in a year.  I managed an average of only about 8-16 a year. I wanted to reach one a week. the maximum number of times I resumed the same story was four times. I usually spent one week on admin, researching a trip or press trip, then one week away. One week on filing, writing, sending off the finished article and photos, making revisions on request. One week post-writing on thank yous, filing, and so on.

Then I went to a lecture on travel writing given by another writer. She proudly claimed, "I have written over 100 travel articles."

I thought, "I must have done more than that. I've written about ten articles a year for more than ten years. She had made herself sound an expert, very important, not just by the quality of the places her work had appeared, but simply on numbers.

I then realised that I could boost my own ego in slack periods, as well as giving myself a more impressive CV and introduction when speaking.

Count statistics. Have you won three prizes for speaking? I have more than 50 ribbons for best speaker or best impromptu speaker or best evaluator, in the UK. Another ten or so in Singapore.

Look for statistics in every business or hobby. When you start a business or talk about your hobby. How many wine bottles do you have? How many stamps have you collected? How many books have you read or written. How many houses have you sold? How many flats have you rented? How many countries have you visited? How many mountains have you climbed? How many cars have you owned, bought, sold?  How many trees are in your garden?

When you fill out a questionnaire you are asked about your lifestyle. How many times a week, month or year do you eat out at restaurants? How many mobile phones have you owned? How many times have you made a home cooked Christmas pudding? Only once - never again? Or for fifty years?

How many husbands and wives or girlfriends have you had? How many times have you proposed marriage and been turned down. You can make a positive out of a negative. Cosmo Landesman was billed in the Sunday Times as having proposed marriage five times and been turned down and still looking.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, speech writer and performer, researcher and author.

 The purpose of Toastmasters International is to train you to give speeches outside Toastmasters and Ruth's advanced speech fulfilled that ultimate purpose when she rehearsed her speech on Medieval History. Her speech was to be given to the history group of the U3A, the University of the Third Age - mostly retired people with time to indulge in researching their interests.

When I listen to a speech I ask myself:
What do I know about this subject?
What does the speaker know and is the speaker on expert? and
What do I want to know - what's in it for me?

I know very little about medieval history so I expect to get information. But that might be dull or confusing, so I hoped it would be easy to understand and entertaining.

She began with an overview. The main events of the periods were famine, the plague and the peasants' revolt. I'd heard of the latter two, especially the plague. But the subject of this summary or excerpt was something jollier, food. Ruth as a retired tea-shop owner has food running through many of her interests and speeches.

She started by explaining the middle ages or Medieval period, 5th to 15th centuries.


My first recommendation, or suggestion, was that she might have related the period to a well known person, the king or queen or kings and queens of the time.

Or the common people. Were they post-Roman? Celts? Vikings? Before Henry the Vth and Elizabeth Ist? William the Conqueror and Harold in 1066 when the word boeuf came into the language? Who were these poor people and rich people?

She enlisted our sympathy by saying they were like us. She involved our imagination by suggesting we walk through the door of the cottage or the castle and look at what is cooking or what is on the table.

The poor people had potage, a thick soup or casserole, kept on the go from the vegetables in their garden. (I wonder when the fashion for flowers and lawns started? In those days the kitchen garden was the normal garden, like the allotments of modern times.)

Everybody in the Harrovian Toastmasters audience winced at the description of blood taken from living animals to make blood pudding. Yet, she could have pointed out that leaving the animal alive is kinder than killing the animal for meat. Blood is still taken from living animals in our times by the Masais (in East Africa, in Southern Kenya and Northern Tanzania).

(Ruth described the lord's house where we would see the use of bread as a trencher or plate and water scented with rose petals.)

I said that Ruth ended by answering what's in it for us by ending, how happy she is to be living not in medieval times but today.

I suggested she could have gone one better, by making this her title. She could make her start and end more memorable and dramatic by picking a quotation about medieval times, or a quotation from somebody in medieval times to start and end the speech.



I was surprised and delighted to be awarded the ribbon for Best Evaluator. Thank you Ruth for the opportunity.

OOh - I'm scared of people! I always have been. From childhood. I remember when I was scared at school. Were you scared at school?
SCHOOLCHILD
   I was afraid when I was at school to knock on a classroom door, open it, and walk into a classroom full of people, the teacher, and lots of children like me.
   Let's go back. Were you afraid as a child to walk into a room full of people?  
   What frightens you in that situation? Getting lost. Going to a new place. Knocking on the door. See new people. Crowds of people. Being looked at? Speaking to other people? Or even just getting a letter?Are you afraid as an adult to walk into a room?
   Yes, I see several hands raised. You are afraid to walk into a room. Some of you are even afraid to raise your hands!
   As a child in school you were afraid to walk into a room. Or raise your hand. Looking back, you can see that it was nothing to be afraid of. You did it many times. You were not injured. Many times you even got welcomed!
ADULT JOURNEYS
  Are you still afraid as an adult? Ever been afraid to go to a new place? To a Toastmasters Meeting or club to hear a speaker?
  As an adult I have often been afraid. To take a journey travelling to a new Toastmasters meeting. To go to a new place and walk into a room of strangers.
 (Are you ever afraid to take a journey? As an adult, to walk into a room of strangers?)
   I see people turn the handle, enter the room, stop by the door after a Toastmasters meeting has started.  They stand to one side of the room, stand leaning back, hesitate to walk in, afraid to attract attention.
   Let's break down the problem of travelling to a new club into small steps.  Plan your journey. Look at a tube map.
   Check the time of arrival. Calculate length of journey. Allow for delays and getting lost.
   On the journey, if you are late. Plan your excuse. Phone somebody at the meeting.
    Arrival. Knock on the door. Easy. No need to go in. Just knock and wait and see if anybody opens the door.
 Somebody opens and says, 'Yes, what do you want?'
  If nobody opens the door, no need to go in, just open the door, take a peek!
   Nobody noticed you? Open the door wider.
   Still nobody noticed you? Wave at the speaker? Raise your hand to get attention and open your mouth to show you want to speak. Ask if you're at the right place.
   If told to go elsewhere, politely, thank, nod, back out. Job done, Somebody helped you.
SECOND JOURNEY
   Now you are doing the same task again. When you reach the right room, take the same steps again. This time it's even easier. You've already done it once.
   Knock on door. Open door. Ask, 'Is this such and such a meeting.'
   If they say 'yes', look pleased. Instead of a tale of woe: 'I've had such an awful journey!' Say: 'I'm so pleased I've found it.'
   Cheer yourself up. 'I made it. I'm so pleased to be here.' Spread happiness.
HOW CAN SPEAKERS HELP LATECOMERS
  When people arrive late at Toastmasters I know they've had a stressful journey, the stress of being late, and now have the stress of opening a door to a room of strangers. So I try to smile and wave and beckon and make them feel happy.
   When you arrive late, you worry about the speaker as well as yourself. You don't want to disturb them. So I try to reassure the person who's interrupting me. 'Yes, you've found the right place.'
   Every speaker should practise what to say when interrupted. And how to get back on track in the speech.
   In Toastmasters competitions we speak in front of larger and larger audiences, until the finals where money is as at stake, prizes and prestige, so to make it fair to everybody we make sure nobody is interrupted.
   In real life speakers are often interrupted. Latecomers. Transport passing. Interruptions of noise, delivery of food, messages about cars blocking the way, emergencies, members of the audience fainting. The speaker needs to be able to go back to where they were before the interruption.
 

   Many of you would be afraid to step onto the stage and make a speech. I can remember sitting in the audience hearing a well-known author make a speech and wanting to ask a question. my heart would go pitter pat. Every year I would go there. I often hesitated to raise my hand.
Sometimes you are afraid to go out. You've lost your job. You applied for another. The postman knocks. Or you hear a letter. Your heart thumps. You are afraid to go to the door.
    You go to the door. Nothing interesting. Next day you run to the door. Oh my God, my last employer's chasing me! What have I done wrong. Something's missing and they think I stole it.

OPENING A LETTER
Are you afraid of opening a letter or reading an email?
Pick up the letter. Put it on the table. Look at the back and front? Take it easy. No need to open it. Just get a knife and slit it open. Take the letter out. No need to open it. Spread it out flat on the table, upside down if you like. No need to read it.  Unfold it. no need to read it. Turn it the right way up. No need to read it. Who is it from? No need to read it. Just see who it's from.
   Ok - take a peek at the first line. Sometimes it's just a circular. 'We are holding our annual get together. Here is our annual report' Sometimes it's good news! You got the job. Remember my first employer  who sent the letter which scared me. They were sending me a cheque, refunding my pension contribution. My friend Indra opened a letter from The income tax office, returning some money, paying him.
SHARE YOUR PROBLEMS
   Share it. If you can't tell your family, tell the stranger at the bus stop. Tell them: 'I got a parking ticket.'
   They will probably reply, 'That happened to me - when was it, I think it was a year ago.'
  You see, in a year's time, you'll have forgotten all about it.'
  You say, 'I lost my job.'
   They will probably say, 'That happened to me - a year ago. Now I'm working in McDonalds. Why don't you get a job there.'
   Hello Mum, the bad news is I lost my job, the good news is I'm working in McDonalds.
   When I went to school on the bus, I used to pass a sign outside the church: 'I used to complain because I had no shoes, until I met a man who had no feet.'

SPEAKERS' MEETINGS
  You have only to open any newspaper to see what a wonderful life you have. Every night of the week you can go to a speakers' meeting. Most of them are free. (Except catered events such as parties and competitions when they have to pay to hire a room and provide catering and need you to pay your share.)
   In many small clubs in suburban areas there's no charge and they are delighted to have a visitor. You have a roomful of friends wanting to talk to you at Toastmasters. Free tea and coffee - and even a cake or biscuit.
   Most people want to hear you speak. They would rather listen to you than make a speech themselves.
   Yes, it's always the case. I'll prove it to you. The front row of seats is always empty. People sit in the row at the back. They are afraid to come in. They don't want the VIP speaker to look at them, ask them questions they can't answer. When you are on stage, you are already more confident than half the people in the room.
   Smile at them. Smile at them, make them happy, teach them something useful. One day you will win a ribbon, or a competition. I once the little girl who was scared to enter a room. I was scared of the teacher. Now I'm a teacher. I had never met an author. Now I'm an author. I was impressed by people who made speeches. Now I'm making speeches.
    I wanted to find somebody who would help me. I joined toastmasters. I wanted to win a speech competition. I know I can. It's only a matter of time and practice. In Toastmasters, like most organisations, every month newcomers join, others move away and leave. So, there's always room for you in a club. If the club is too big, you can start another club. You can't all become president of the United States. But you can all become president of a speakers club. If you haven't - yet - got the courage to do that, at least today you have learned how to open a letter.
    If you are afraid, then go to your nearest Toastmasters International meeting, for example, HOD, or Harrovian Speakers in NW London, or similar speakers training meeting - there are dozens in many countries of the world, especially all the English speaking countries such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand. Also countries where they are keen to learn English. For example, I've been to clubs in Shanghai and Beijing in China, and at the YMCA and YWCA in Singapore, and Thailand. And clubs are all over the USA, where Toastmasters International started before becoming so successful that it spread worldwide. I and other speakers will be delighted to help you.
   Remember I started by saying that I'm scared of people. It's true - I'm scared you haven't enjoyed this speech enough to vote me the winner. But I no longer let it stand in my way. Why should I let anybody stand in my way?  I've never let my husband do it!
   After speaking at a meeting, I can go home and say, I met somebody else. In fact I met fifty people. And they all listened to me.
   You see, being a speaker isn't scary, it's fun.
  So don't just like me, be like me! A winner! Thank you.

More Information from
Toastmasters International Find a club
Harrovian speakers
HOD Speakers

Angela Lansbury speaking impromptu on June 18th at Harrovians Speakers, NW London