Ronald E. Melvin, DTM, also known as "Mystic Mel", is a humorous speaker who combines his presentations and workshops with entertaining magic. In his speeches he tells unique stories that encompass life coaching, inspiration and humor. Mel has been a Toastmaster since 1992 and his public speaking experience spans more than 30 years.
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| Ron Melvin, DTM |
Roland Via: Did you think, when you first joined Toastmasters, that you'd be there [at the finals of the Toastmasters World Championship of Public Speaking]?
Mel: I always wanted to be there. To say that I'd get there... It is always a struggle.
Roland Via: Yeah, the desire is one thing, the ability to do it another.
Mel: I knew I could do it. It's just getting there... It's taken a lot of time, it's not an easy task to do. It takes a lot of time, a lot of effort and you have to get a lot of support from the other Toastmasters.
Roland Via: And that's one of the reasons that Toastmasters is so successful. It's not a “me” group, it's a “we” group more than anything else. Would that be correct?
Mel: I'd say that you're absolutely right with that. We in Toastmasters want everyone to succeed. That's the whole idea. Each club was started by people like the new people who walk in the door each week. They're there to show that they did it, and now we can help you do that.
Roland Via: That makes all the sense in the world. So you had to work long and hard on that, but Toastmasters gives you the tools, the ability and the training to move yourself along. As long as you have that master ingredient—and that's the desire to want to do it.
Mel: Yes, and when you have the desire, along with that has to come the desire to get support from others. You can't do this alone. Speaking is not only you; you can speak to a wall and be very good...
Roland Via [interrupts]: I know, I do that every day between 2 and 4 o' clock.
Mel [laughs]
Roland Via [laughs]: I talk to a lot of walls... Sometimes I laugh at myself...
Mel [laughs]: But you know, the other part is... who's receiving it. If you can get other people to understand and receive and feel the emotions that you're putting into your speech—that makes it a good speech.
Roland Via: But what makes it a good speech is this—when you put the emotions and everything into it, people can tell when you're connecting with yourself, and that's a rare commodity sometimes. Whenever we look at politicians, for instance, and we're looking at their campaign speeches, sometimes their body language and the emphasis they put on words are probably more important than anything else. And here I am on radio moving my hands... But that does make a difference, right?
Mel: It does make a difference, but I'm going to tell you a secret about speaking. It is when you can make the receiver feel what you want. You see, I can feel anything, but if I can't transfer that to you—and that's what you were saying—it's not a feeling that you feel. And that's what I want to do. I want you to feel any emotion that I'm trying to share.
Roland Via: How do you get the listener to feel?
Mel: By telling them a story that they can relate to. You don't want to tell them a fully detailed story, because now they're trying to think of what you're feeling. Give them enough that they can feel from their own experience what it was like. […] For example, remember the time that you were scared when you were going down the street and all of a sudden a car veered off the street and onto the sidewalk. What was that like? That's what I'm trying to do. I don't want you to see exactly what I see, but what you see that makes you feel that way. I'm trying to steal your emotions, bring them up.
I was one of the listeners who called in to ask Mel questions live on the show. After I asked him for his advice about how to overcome any potential fears of taking part in a speaking contest and why he participated, Roland Via added the following question:
Roland Via: Do you encourage the failure points, where you say, “I cannot learn how to do it right until I'm doing it wrong and understand that I'm still alive, I'm still breathing and people are still smiling and listening to me?”
Mel: No...
Roland Via [interrupts, surprised]: No?
Mel: ...there's no failure. Every failure is a learning element. You learn not to do it that way. It's not a failure. You just say, “Oops, that didn't work, let me try this one over here.” I don't like to use [the word] “failure”. That's a long story. At Toastmasters I talk about how I was raised in a family as the failure. Therefore Toastmasters has been a way for me to build up my own confidence, because I'm a shy person in my own way. I don't feel that I'm up to the standards of other people. But let's get back to this contest...
Roland Via [interrupts]: He's wrong by the way, everybody, he's dead wrong, but nonetheless [laughs], if you feel that way, Mel, okay, you can feel that way...
Mel [laughs]: When you're in your own club, your club loves you and they don't want to do anything to stop you from coming back again. But are you growing? [...] Where I learned the most was when I took my speech for the contest and went to other clubs and they beat me over the head. Sometimes I went home almost in tears. How could they hate that speech? How could they find that wrong? But I took it and I said, “Wait a minute. If they're feeling that way, that means if I go to a contest, somebody else is going to feel that way. How do I change it?” And I kept getting better at it that way. So go to the contests. Compete. Take the things that you find that don't work, rewrite them. You'll make it.
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