Stand Tall (When Exiting a Competition Room)

You owned it!

I know that will not always be the first thought coming to mind when you are done with a speech. But even if it is not, you should feel good stepping out of that room. Walk out with as much confidence you had walking in.

Recently I wrote a piece about “walking on sunshine” while going into your room and those lyrics hold true to walking out too. I get it, you had a bad round. You forgot your opening sentence of your third paragraph, you stumbled over your main characters line, you did not connect to the audience.

In 10 minutes a lot can go wrong. But……………………………………………………………………………

If your judges see you deflated they will become deflated. Don’t let your judges deflate! Even though you might feel like that speech was the worst speech to ever be uttered your judges probably will not. By walking out of your room with less confidence as you walked in you are communicating to your judges that you did not like your speech. But you must always communicate to your judges that you LOVE your speech, even when you mess up.

And yes, that means you sometimes have to be your own motivational speaker at tournaments. Keep a mantra in your head repeating, “You did it. Nice job. You did it.” Or whatever floats your boat. Know what encourages you and keep it simple. When you are exiting the room you have to give the judge something to believe in. That sounds vague and cheesy but it is true. If you do not believe in yourself why should they? Make eye contact, smile, remain composed, and keep your posture (you can tell a lot about a person’s mood by their posture).

No matter what Do Not Deflate! I want you to know that I understand, sometimes you have a bad round and you are affected by it. It happens to everyone. I have never gone through a tournament without hearing someone say at least once that one of their speeches could have gone better. If you have a bad speech round you can still react to it. Maybe you need to vent to your friends, or maybe do a self pep talk. What I am advising is that you wait to go through that process until you have officially left the room. But you can still go through that process. Get through the entire speech. From the moment you walk into the room to the moment you are several strides away from the door you have owned it.

photo by: Julieanne Photography

This article was written by one of our Fantastic Lasting Impact! Interns. After they graduate their name will be released.