Each year, Toastmasters all over the world take part in the Toastmasters speech contests. The contestants start at the club level and the winners then advance to the area level, then the division level and finally the district level. For one speech contest, the International Speech, the winner at the district level advances further.

This year during our Annual District conference that is dabbed TEACON, the top contestants from our 6 Divisions went head on in four contests and Grace Moraa (Evaluation), Erick Opon (Table Topics), Japheth Musau (International Speech) and Paul Kavuma (Tall Tales) emerged the winners.

The speech contests not only entertain us and showcase the best of the best Toastmasters, but offer great opportunities for our contestants to develop as public speakers. We reached out to our winners to find out what lessons they learned from their incredible journey. It is with great pleasure that we present to you their responses.

Grace Moraa – Evaluation Contest Winner
What went through your mind when you heard that you had won?

Hearing that I had won filled me with a mixture of disbelief, confusion, and delight. On the one hand, we all contest to win; therefore, there is always the possibility that you will hear your name called out as the winner. When it does happen, there is very little that can prepare you for that feeling. It takes a while to sink in. There is also great humility in knowing that you are a district champion. I am passionate about mentorship. Therefore, I immediately started to envision how I would use my win to impact members to become better evaluators. I am excited to share what the contest environment has so generously taught me.

Comparing yourself at the club level and after you won at the district level, what impact has participating in the contest had on you?

What a brilliant question. When contesting at the club level, the stakes are much lower. I hardly felt invested. I also did not have to prepare as much as I did for the Area, Division, and District levels. As it happened, the contest chair read the names the other way around, such that I was the second runnerup. I remember being genuinely happy for the winner until the chief judge corrected the error, and I was declared the winner. Comparing this to both the division and district levels, where I waited with bated breath all afternoon to hear the contest results.

What lessons on public speaking did you learn in the course of preparing?

Through this journey, I have learned to be open to receiving feedback, not only in public speaking. I believe that my win was mainly through the precise observations, feedback, and recommendations of my coaches Jared Ouko and Sarah Adhiambo, who walked the journey with me.
Real growth happens outside our comfort zone. I cannot emphasize how much I have learned and grown as a speaker in these last months competing in the evaluations contest. Take the plunge!

Erick Opon – Table Topics Contest Winner
What went through your mind when you heard that you had won?

Winning the District 114 Table Topics Contest was an amazing feeling. It left me with so much joy in my heart. The days preceding the contest were not easy for me. I was laid off from my job three days to the contest. But I gave it my all and it was good enough to convince the judges that I was worthy of the coveted title of Table Topics Champion.

Comparing yourself at the club level and after you won at the district level, what impact has participating in the contest had on you?

My Toastmasters club usually sets the bar so high in terms of contests. Having several experienced speakers, who have won speech contests year after year challenges you to raise the stakes higher and not let them down. Club level competition has so many worthy adversaries and that challenges me to do better.

District contest was a whole different ball game. The speakers are good, if not better than you at expressing themselves. But you have to trust that the effort you have put in, the time you took to practice will be your saving grace when you are called upon to stand and deliver.

What lessons on public speaking did you learn in the course of preparing?

In preparing for my contest, I learnt a lot on determination and the ability to trust on my limits. Once I knew where my limits stood, I understood the effort that was needed to reach my goals and I got down to work.

Public speaking is approached with trepidation by many people and research puts it as one of the most feared elements of humanity, second only to death. But there is no tool more powerful and more compelling than telling your own story. And public speaking is the avenue by which I do that.

To all Toastmasters, new or experienced, I encourage them to undertake the journey we all take. Learn the art of being a confident speaker and a competent leader. Deliver, speeches, take a role in your own club or in a sister club and learn the ropes. Challenge yourself to participate in a contest as well. It is a new experience and it opens your eyes to see just how great your journey is. It can even make you a winner and set you on your way to greatness. So take that first step. It is always the best.

Paul Kavuma – Tall Tales Contest Winner
What went through your mind when you heard that you had won?

Before the contest, I had decided that if I did not win, I was ready to try again in the subsequent Tall Tales contest cycles. So when I heard that I had won, it was a sigh of relief because I knew that, I didn’t have to do it again.

Comparing yourself at the club level and after you won at the district level, what impact has participating in the contest had on you?

In the past, I had always delivered straight-jacketed speeches but I have come to appreciate the Toastmasters platform because it keeps providing opportunities for me to try out new speaking styles that are outside my comfort zone.

Participating in the tall tales contest was an opportunity for me to learn how to be more expressive, use exaggeration and pun in my speeches.

At the club level contest, I had no idea what a tall tale speech entails; but I just decided to participate because it was something new for member in District 114.

What lessons on public speaking did you learn in the course of preparing?

With the help of our Division Program Quality Director Hope Kansiime, contestants were able to have rehearsal sessions where I received feedback that helped me to learn more about tall tales speeches.

Participating in speech contests has boosted my confidence to try out new things and not to be held back by my fears and doubts.

I would like to encourage my fellow toastmasters to participate in speech contests because contests provide a unique opportunity for one to receive invaluable feedback from the best speech coaches in the district.

Japheth Musau DTM – International Speech Contest Winner
What went through your mind when you heard that you had won?

The immediate reaction is excitement because you’re very excited and you feel quite satisfied that your labors have been rewarded with a win. It’s usually just a flood of emotions that you cannot really describe.

I remember I was trying to record that segment of the announcement of the winner and I ended up dropping the device that I was recording with from the excitement.

Comparing yourself at the club level and after you won at the district level, what impact has participating in the contest had on you?

For one, it’s a journey of growth. You grow a lot, you learn how to self-critique. As you rehearse and prepare your speech, it goes through a lot of transformations. You get new ideas, you look at your recordings and you develop that ability to self-critique and even take notes from your recordings and correct yourself. The other thing that you learn is to work with other people, including mentors and sounding boards. You learn to listen to the point of view of other people and see how you can incorporate that in your speech. You grow in so many ways.

What lessons on public speaking did you learn in the course of preparing?

Learning is never ending. I have learnt a lot and I continue to learn. One of the key things I learned from this journey is something that is taught by my mentor, Mark Brown (the 1995 world champion of public speaking). He teaches that you should view your speech, like a gift you have been preparing for your audience. Even when it is a contest, not to think too much of it as a contest, but think of it as the gift that you have to the audience. The gift is your message. My greatest take away was to really make my speech about a message that will resonate with my target audience.

I would encourage anybody who plan to compete to go for it. It doesn’t matter what level you get to. You will definitely grow. Even if you just get the opportunity to compete at the club level, I can guarantee you that after that, you will never be the same. You grow because the Toastmaster method of growing us is ‘learning by doing’. I would recommend anyone who can to participate in the protests.