Not everything a world champion says is a pearl of wisdom

On August 25, 2017, in Vancouver, Manoj Vasudevan won the 2017 World Championship of Public Speaking with his speech Pull Less, Bend More. Toastmasters International put out a news release and a 3-minute highlights YouTube video clip. Later they put out a video of the whole speech.

The usual spate of articles based on interviews followed. For example, at Business Insider Richard Feloni had three: The world champion of public speaking breaks down his winning speech, from word choice to body language, The world champion of public speaking says you should ask yourself 3 questions before giving any presentation, and A Toastmasters world champion who used to be ‘petrified’ of giving speeches says most people fear public speaking for the same reason: ego.

There is an unfortunate tendency to treat everything the champ says as an unquestionable pearl of wisdom. But back on February 17, 2017 I took him to task with a blog post on Bursting a hilariously overblown claim that 99% of the world fears public speaking.