“6 Simple Steps to Getting Certified” – a Toastmasters Presentation

Since October I have been attending Toastmasters meetings and occasionally giving speeches to improve my public speaking ability.

Below is my 4th speech:

6 Simple Steps to Getting Certified

1. Ask your boss & peers which certifications are valuable.
   You don’t want to waste time obtaining a certification that will not ultimately help you to achieve your goals. Ask your boss to find out about certifications that would aide in advancement within your current job. Ask peers to find out which would provide opportunity outside of your current employer. Ideally, you should choose a certification about which you have some relevant knowledge already. Otherwise, the preparation process will be significantly elongated.
2. Research the governing body’s website or magazine to determine what is required. Find out:
   a. The format of the test (e.g. multiple choice, essay, etc.)
   b. Recommended training materials (e.g. text books, practice tests, etc.)
   c. Additional requirements (e.g. years experience, a verbal presentation, etc.)
3. Study
   a. Obtain the recommended training materials
   b. Review fundamentals
   c. Spend extra time learning new concepts
4. Practice Tests
   a. Take practice tests to get familiar with the testing environment
   b. Write down notes about surprising answers and concepts with which you struggled
   c. Schedule the official exam when ready and confident. In many cases, your company will pay for the exam fee.
5. Cram: study for an hour or two right before the test.
   Focus on those concepts you struggled with as well as facts & formulas that will be beneficial to have memorized. No matter how much you study before-hand, always cram. It’s important to have that information in short-term memory going into the test. Trust me, you don’t want to fail a test because of something trivial that you would have known if you had just done a quick review of the material before the test.
6. Pass the Test
   a. Many certifications last a lifetime
   b. Update your resume
   c. Now you can add those letters after your name on your business card

I have only been attending for 7 months, so I have plenty of room for continual improvement. However, I have already been helped by the members of my Toastmasters club to use fewer filler words and display fewer nervous ticks. I hope to become more comfortable, so that I can focus on my message while on stage instead of being so nervous my mind goes blank.

Toastmasters is useful because of the feedback given at the end of a meeting. It is helping me develop a sense for how long (in time) someone is speaking (including myself). I get to learn what I did well and what are areas for improvement. In the specific video above, I received the suggestion to not look back at the PowerPoint presentation but instead to create speaker’s notes to keep in front of me. My presentation could also have been helped with a personal, specific example.

I am looking forward to improving my public speaking by giving more speeches, receiving the feedback of others, videotaping, and personally reviewing my speeches. In fact, I look forward to improving the quality of my videos. I apologize for the poor video quality this time (I used a digital camera from 2004). To record my voice, the best option I brainstormed (that was mobile and not very distracting for the audience) was to use a blue tooth headset with my iPhone, call into a Free Conference Call number, and record the call. I later merged the audio and video. If anyone has any cheap, wireless recommendations for microphones that will work with my iPhone I am open to trying them.