Should we do as you say or as you actually do?

On November 7, 2016 at his Manner of Speaking blog John Zimmer posted about Don’t join Toastmasters? Seriously? He was responding to an article by Jonathan Li at Entrepreneur on May 9, 2015 titled 10 Mistakes Successful Speakers Never Make Again. Those ten were:

 1] Feeling terrified before speaking in front of groups
 2] Joining Toastmasters
 3] Having a voice that shakes
 4]Avoiding humor
 5] Practicing in front of a mirror
 6] Picturing audience members ‘in their underwear’
 7] Worrying about what to say during the Q & A
 8] Designing PowerPoint slides that are dry and boring
 9] Starting your remarks with ‘Good morning everyone. Today I will talk about...”
10] Stopping efforts to improve your public speaking skills

Under 2] Joining Toastmasters Jonathan said:

“Successful speakers don’t go to Toastmasters, because the organization's forced-to-clap environment is unrealistic. Successful speakers practice public speaking in front of live audiences that provide constructive feedback. The realistic environment helps them grow and succeed faster.”

John discussed why he thought what Jonathan said was bad advice, and I agree.

But I thought I remembered that Jonathan was a Toastmaster. He was. Look at the announcement for May 27, 2015 at Wayfoong Toastmasters Club. Jonathan also appeared on the Toastmasters Podcast #88 with Bo Bennett, where he was introduced as an Advanced Communicator Silver and Competent Leader.

On November 12, 2015 Jonathan had another article at The Huffington Post titled 7 Secrets to Speaking with Confidence. They were:

1] Prepare for the best and the worst
2] Know when to close your mouth
3] Smell a lovely smell
4] Sing your favourite song
5] Talk to your audience as friends
6] Look your best
7] Practice with feedback

Under 7] Practice with feedback he said:

“I practiced my talk at Toastmasters and got useful feedback from live audiences. With quality feedback, we delivered our best TEDx talks.”

You can watch a YouTube video of Jonathan's  12-minute TEDx Hong Kong talk on How to Speak with Confidence. So, please do as Jonathan actually does, not as he sometimes says.

The 1903 image of Translating a love letter came from the Library of Congress.