Table Topics Speaker – Speaking Unprepared

Speaking on Table Topics is a challenging but fun part of Toastmasters meetings. Most speeches in life are unprepared, so if you are good at it you will benefit greatly. The good news is that you can certainly learn how to capture and convince others when speaking unprepared.

Here is what I've learned during the years:

How you start is crucial.

You have a few seconds to show that you are confident and like to answer the question.

If you look around quickly, stare at the floor, tighten you lips, stiffen your shoulders, rock back and forth, hug your notes, or make thinking noises you will look uncomfortable.

Instead you should:

  • Pause
  • look at people slowly
  • smile.

With the pause you take control of the stage, the eye contact connects you with the audience, and the smile shows that you are friendly.

It usually takes many seconds, sometimes even a minute, to find a good answer. If you rush before an answer pops up, you will ramble. Instead, you should take your time and build anticipation. Even if you find a good answer quickly, you can first dramatize it. Explain why the question is crucial to us, then answer it.

In a two-minute table topic, you have time for making one point, with two or three short arguments. Or you have time to tell one short personal story, and a make point.

Telling a story is not complicated. Tell them something that happened to you, and what you learned. The format can be simple: a challenge, a solution, what you learned and what we all can learn.

It can be:

  1. Something that happened last week.
  2. A childhood story
  3. A challenge you've met
  4. A vacation surprise

You can prepare for unprepared speeches.
“It usually takes me more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech.” Mark Twain.

Great speakers collect and polish stories all the time. You can, and should, reuse material!

The art is to go from the unknown start, and slowly lead it to your prepared part, and motivate why.
But you have to collect enough stories and points so you don't have to stray away far from the topic.

You can prepare short stories, smart tips, witty quotes, and funny one-liners.

So here is what you can do:
Download table topics and practice one a day.
2 minutes a day means 365 speeches in a year!