Speech Video: Not Self

Here’s a speech I did as a test speaker for an evaluation contest back in the fall of 2010. I discuss Steve Andreas’ concept of Not Self, in which a person defines his or her self concept in terms of things he or she is not, and how it applied to me. I later took this speech to our International Speech contest, but didn’t make it past the area contest. This was my 1st Advanced Communicator speech (my 11th speech overall) and more importantly, the first time I got outside my club and spoke to different people and a larger audience. I didn’t mind baring my soul to strangers; little did I know there were a few people there who I probably didn’t want to get so open with. It worked out for the better though.

For some reason I can’t remember, I had decided that the only way to really improve was to be able to watch myself on video. That is very true. Uncomfortable, but true. Despite having five verbal evaluations of my speech that day, there were things I didn’t realize until I watched the video. For one, watch how I move awkwardly from side to side. A large part of that is due to my weight. (There’s a good incentive!) Another is that my voice doesn’t have nearly the vocal variety that I thought it did. And finally, I seemed pretty sad and pathetic in the speech, but I didn’t intend the speech to come out that way at all.

I highly recommend that anyone who wants to speak better watch themselves on video. Nowadays almost any digital camera or even phone has a video mode, so use it on yourself.