One week after my first Speak the Rainbow workshop for the Division A Toastmasters Conference in Paris, here are the three lessons I learnt: REPEAT the question! You heard the question. Before answering it, make sure everyone in the room heard it by repeating it with the microphone on you or in your hands. Pretty simple advice from Nancy Norton which I will remember next time I present my workshop. GET A GREAT PHOTOGRAPHER. It will do wonders for your speaking confidence to see powerful professional photos of yourself on stage.

Luckily, I had Laurent Qy at the workshop and am grateful for all the super shots he took of the event.

Images are not only worth a thousand words. They help us form positive images in our mind which lead to greater achievements. DO NOT ASSUME. I mistakenly assumed people would not see this image as an example of a rainbow. However, some did.

I should have explained before showing my video that it was an example of what not to do and not an example of successful rainbow speaking! That said, I did connect colorfully (thanks to orange and red mostly) with some of my audience just as you will always connect with some of the audience when you use the 7 colors of your rainbow. The goal is to connect with as much of the audience as possible and for that I needed to create a more balanced rainbow. Perhaps something like this rainbow…

In fact, this is the color breakdown I have made for a speech callled Outsmart; Outlast by Darren Tay, the 2016 World Champion of Public Speaking.