Thanks, Aristotle!

New Orleans, the city of Jazz and Mardi Gras - it has always been famous for its unrivalled French Quarter with its vibrant nightlife! I dove into it once when I stopped over on a roadtrip in 1995. Cats Meow on Bourbon Street - a famous Karaoke joint. I was standing in the crowd, admiring those people who dared to step onto that semi-professional stage. I wanted to sing, too - so much! But… I couldn’t. I was just terrified of the multitude of critical eyes in the audience. I suffered from what we all suffer from… stage-fright!

14 years later. I speak at weddings, I speak at parties. I write and perform songs, I have created my own entertaining public speaking seminar, and I am the initiator of The Festival, a pan-European movement where I am constantly confronted with giving motivational and inspiring speeches to a wide European variety of people and audiences.

What has happened?

The answer goes back to the year 1924 when Ralph C. Smedley founded the first Toastmasters club in Santa Ana, California. Toastmasters, which today is present with local clubs nearly everywhere around the globe, has changed my life. It has transformed me into an outgoing, extroverted and passionate public speaking fanatic.

When I first attended a meeting of Prestigious Speakers Barcelona, a local chapter of Toastmasters International, in 2005, I signed up right away. Wow, I thought, these guys are turning into Aristotle - meeting voluntarily twice a month to learn how to speak in public. What I personally liked best were the oral evaluations which were given to the speakers by fellow members of the club after those had performed their five to seven minute speeches. In normal life nobody tells you what you do well and what you still could improve. This is the key differentiator of the Toastmasters approach.

At Toastmasters you learn by doing with people you like! You learn how to speak, how to move your body, how to vary your voice, so that the last row won’t fall asleep. You learn how to use supporting visual aids, how to include catchy anecdotes, quotes, humour. You learn how to keep the eye contact with the entire audience, how to structure any speech, how to keep your time, speak less, get to the point. You learn how to engage with enthusiasm. You turn into a passionate speaker - always showing your greatest asset: your smile!

Maxwell Maltz once said, “Low self-esteem is like driving through life with your hand-break on.” Toastmasters does not only help you to release the hand-break - Toastmasters makes you accelerate with infinite speed…

I will definitely return to New Orleans. I will walk straight into Cats Meow. I will get on stage right away. I will take a deep breath, calm down, look everyone around deeply into their eyes. And then - with passion - I will start to sing: “And now the end is near…”

By Florian Mueck

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Florian Mueck is co-founder of thefestival.eu - bringing the European idea to life. Before coming up with the idea to create this pan-European movement, the entrepreneur based in Barcelona and Berlin had been working for KPMG, the global advisory firm, for more than eight years as a consultant and business development manager.In both activities, public speaking has always been an important tool to make things happen.

Since Florian joined Prestigious Speakers, a Barcelona chapter of Toastmasters International in 2005, public speaking has become his greatest passion. Florian has an entertaining speaking style which is fuelled by humour, acting and impromptu talk. // https://www.xing.com/profile/FlorianB_Mueck