New Campus Diversity Article By Toastmaster DTM

Diversity expert, speaker and Toastmasters DTM Clint Cora has a new article on diversity published in a college activities magazine by the organization COCA and in this article, Clint mentions that diverse student populations will benefit greatly from diversity skills development not only for enriched campus life but also for future careers since much of the working environment is so diverse.

Corporate Diversity A Huge Observation

I was the guest keynote speaker at the annual general meeting for a career skills company last week where they had 150 staff from nine different branches come together for an entire afternoon. One of the huge observations I made right away was the high level of corporate diversity among the staff. Many races, cultures and a few handicapped individuals were represented. I will be the guest speaker for a local telephone company later this coming week and I expect a similar observation since utility companies also tend to have much corporate diversity. Although both of my keynotes for these two companies are motivational, I would think (hope) that they will want me to return to do a corporate diversity talk given their diverse staffs.

Video Testimonials of Inspirational Speaker Clint Cora Coming

There are lots of video testimonials for inspirational speaker Clint Cora coming very soon.  Footage of at least 11 different video testimonials, many of them by Toastmasters members have been shot and edited.  It's just a matter of putting them online at the Clint Cora website.  Meanwhile, there are lots of written testimonials already online.

Must Take Control Of Your Audience

As a professional speaker, one must be ready to speak in any type of room and audience.  Last night, I was the keynote speaker for a cultural banquet of about 150 people.  The room setup was not ideal for a speaker.  Picture dinner tables set up on opposite sides of a dance floor in the middle.  Although there was a podium at one end, it was not ideal since I needed more room to work my martial arts weaponry during my speech.

The audience was challenging too since many people on the back tables continued to be rude enough and talk throughout the official presentations as well as the cultural acts like the singers and dancers.  The local media photographer sitting beside me at my table says that this type of thing has happened before as some people prefer to talk and socialize, ignoring what's going on up at the podium.  My speech was actually scheduled right in between cultural entertainment as well so I don't know how receptive the audience was going to be to a speech.

When it was time for the MC to introduce me, he requested that the audience be seated and pay attention.  Many in the back still did not.  So when it was my turn to perform, I knew that as a speaker, I had to take control of the audience the best I could if I didn't want to be speaking among people in the audience chit chatting all the way throughout my speech.

And this is exactly what I did.  With authority, I spoke right to those in the back who were standing and chatting.  I suppose partly due to my own status of a Canadian National Karate Team member, I boldly asked them to get comfortable back in their seats.  They did.  Then I spoke my heart out which was not hard once I got going since I am more of a big audience speaker anyway.  I did have to keep eye contact with both sides of the room which kept me moving.  I threw in a lot of audience participation, sometimes to each side at a time, which they really enjoyed so it wasn't just some guy talking to them.  

So was the speech received well by the audience?  Well, judging from the nice sized lineup afterwards to buy my book "The Life Champion In You", I would say that it went over quite well despite the less than ideal arrangement of the room.  I was quite happy with the outcome of my talk as were the organizers of the event.  There were lots of people throughout the evening who came up to me to hand me business cards, ask questions, take photos and introduce me to their kids.  Actually, some of the college age daughters I was introduced to were quite attractive.  I should have asked the parents right there on the spot if I could date their daughters, especially after they bought my book!  hahahaha  

So this proves that as a speaker, one MUST take total control of the audience the best possible right at the BEGINNING.  Otherwise chances of failure are high.  It's too bad the MCs were not able to control and insist the audience to be more respectful because some of the other cultural acts were quite entertaining.  It's a shame that they did not get the total attention that they deserved.  

I hope this illustrates to our Toastmasters club members the importance of taking control of your audience the best you could.  Most general audiences outside of Toastmasters are not going to be as attentive as our own club audiences.  I am sure that when I bring my full keynote to our club on May 16, I will have a much easier time with you folks as my audience than the one I had last night.  But the skills we learn here at Toastmasters, are intended to be used outside of our own clubs, right?

Toastmasters Club President To Speak In Atlanta APCA Conference

Karate world champion and Comfortably Speaking Toastmasters club president Clint has been confirmed to speak at the upcoming APCA National conference in Atlanta in March. The APCA (Association for the Promotion of Campus Activities) conference brings together US college staff and students in charge of campus activity programs with speakers, musicians, comedians and other acts.

Clint will be presenting two educational sessions at this national conference. One will be on Diversity skills while the other will be his signature Motivation and Achieving Success talk. He will also have a presense at a booth during the entire conference so that campus staff could meet him and secure bookings to have him come to their campuses to speak. This will be the first time that an APCA conference will have a karate world champion in attendance as a presenter.

New Video Footage of Diversity Speaker Clint Cora

Since our world is also about diversity, particularly at Toastmasters, this would be a good place to mention that there is some new video footage of professional diversity speaker Clint Cora, who was also the author of "The Life Champion In You". The previous video was over 8 minutes but parts of it were replaced by a recent motivation talk which actually brought the video down to under 8 minutes. This revamped video can be seen at the official homepage of diversity speaker Clint Cora.

Toastmasters and Diversity

We all know that North American workplaces and even Toastmasters clubs have become more diversified over the years. Diversity training has been an interesting topic for companies who want to take advantage of either doing business in diverse markets or have a diversity in their workplaces. Here is a new article by diversity speaker Clint Cora which highlights some major benefits of workplace diversity training for organizations.

Motivation Book Delayed For A Bit

Canadian motivation speaker Clint Cora will have to wait maybe another week before he can launch his much anticipated book, 'The Life Champion In You' due to a formatting issue with the printers. His ebook version is actually ready but won't be available until the launch of the printed softcover. Clint says that he wants to make both the ebook and the printed softcover available at the same time. Meanwhile, the Canadian motivation speaker is actively working on further projects including possible books on diversity and one for youth.

Speaker Available For Rotary Clubs Near Toronto

I will be the guest speaker at a Rotary club tonight. It will be the one up at Newmarket. This is a good opportunity to put all my Toastmasters skills to work as I speak at a venue outside of Toastmasters. If any of you are members of community service clubs such as Rotary, Lions or Kiwanis, in or within say 30 minutes of the Toronto area, I would be a willing guest speaker. Just contact me through my speaker website.

Goal Setting For Your Speaking

To be a better speaker, you should have specific goals. These can be to work on things like vocal variety, better eye contact or better organization in your speeches. To do effective goal setting, you need to be in the right environment. This is an important task where you want to plan your goals carefully so you don't want to do this in a place where you can't focus. You want to come up with the right goals and plans to achieve these goals. Goal setting is important for success in any field including public speaking. To help you, here's a great article on being in the right Environment For Goal Setting.

Great Mississauga Toastmasters Club Meeting

We had a great meeting for our Mississauga Toastmasters club yesterday with six speakers including one from a brand new member, Nkiru, who just signed up. Awesome turnout as well and as Susan mentioned, who would have thought that Saturday mornings could draw in so many people?

Great job done by not only the speakers and evaluators, but also every other member who did meeting roles yesterday, like Preeya who chaired for the first time. After a post-toasties lunch with four members, I went home and continued work on my latest work in process website for my Canadian motivational speaker career. Still lots of work to be done. In fact, I'll have to miss the next club meeting but will be back for Dec 20, the last one for the calendar year.