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| Susan McDaniel |
From pithy to poignant, her reflections, observations, and ironic commentary were delivered with pitch-perfect timing. For nearly seven minutes, Susan McDaniel owned the stage, keeping her audience entertained and thoroughly engaged, as she shared her remarkable journey.
You might be surprised to learn that Susan has only been in Toastmasters about six months. She works at Sprint, and joined Sprint TSO Toastmasters. “A lot of the top performers in sales are in Toastmasters,” she said. “Joining Toastmasters was a way to meet and network with them.”
Her Sprint Toastmasters experience has been productive. “Our speeches are based on our jobs. We learn from each other about products that Sprint offers and we share sales techniques.”
When asked how she had prepared for the competition, Susan said, “I went into it knowing I had a message I wanted to give—a story I had to tell.”
“A lot of my writing takes place first in my head,” she explained. Eventually, Susan writes the speech out verbatim. “I have a tendency to change the wording,” she said. “I write it out in real big font, in paragraph form.” She has those notes when she first gives the speech.
She estimates that she gave her winning speech about six times prior to the competition. Every time she performed, Susan made adjustments based on the reactions she received.
The last time she performed the speech, she did it for her Toastmasters group, and they all sat down and talked about changes that might make the speech better. In her last run-through, they also talked a lot about the timing, and leaving time for audience reactions.
When asked if it felt any different performing at the District level, Susan answered, “I find when you are doing comedy, the audience is key. When you have a larger setting, your audience is less inhibited. Laughter is contagious.”
While Susan had never competed in any type of speech contest, she had done a lot of training, and felt comfortable speaking in front of people. Her comedic talents seem to be genetic. “I come from a family of very, very funny people. We’re always trying to crack people up.”
Susan shared some of her conference experiences. “This was my first conference. It was a lot of fun. I had about seven family members there. My sister came with me as my ‘handler’, and she helped me run through my speech. My brother heard me speak for the first time at the competition. Seeing him afterwards, he was a little bit in awe. He
kept saying it was so great that I could do that; that it was amazing.”
When asked if she had any special rituals before going onstage, she replied, “For me, it’s all about state of mind – making sure that I go into it with the right attitude & mentality. I try to talk to someone that I find funny before my speech. I get to a point where I don’t want to talk about it, think about it, or do any more preparation. I want to
be in a place where my nerves are calm, my head is in the right place, and I’m feeling funny – a little silly
What is next for Susan? She has been thinking about doing more comedy. “As a forty year-old mother of four, I may do a little bit more comedy writing. I’m not into bars.”
This spring, she has been asked by her company to do a little bit of a routine, which is exciting.
On the Toastmasters front, Susan is eyeing the International Speech Contest in the spring. She has done six speeches out of her Competent Communication so far, so she is already eligible to compete.
When asked for any words of wisdom to aspiring Toastmasters speech contestants, Susan said, “The most important thing when giving a speech is to expose as much of yourself as possible; let your heart, emotion, and pain show.”
If you wonder what she did with her First Place trophy, here’s what she said: “I tried drinking from it, but the Margarita leaked!”
She said the trophy is currently sitting on top of her desk at work. She has a deal with her seven-year-old: every time Susan gets a new trophy, her daughter gets the old one. That may mean the Humorous Speech trophy won’t be on Susan’s desk for long! That’s probably okay with Susan McDaniel; after all, she’s perfected the ‘Art of Adaptability’.
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