About Me

Who Am I?



Hi! I am Les Aquino DTM, and I write the speeches and articles in this website. I first joined Toastmasters in 2006 with the ON Semiconductor Toastmasters Club (#9948) where I served as the VP for Public Relations. With active members and officers resigning and declining club attendance, the club folded in 2007.

I transferred to the Alabang Community Toastmasters Club (#695753) or ACT in the same year. In 2009, I left the ACT club for personal reasons and have deferred rejoining because of a shoulder surgery that required extended rehabilitation. I returned to Toastmasters in 2014 after signing up with the BF Community Toastmasters Club (#1065841).

I helped relaunch the Alabang Community Toastmasters Club (#4786873) in 2015 and then I rejoined ACT. However, due to succeeding schedule conflicts with my church ministry activities, I had to leave ACT and returned to the BF Community Toastmasters Club where I am still an active member. I achieved my DTM norm in July 1, 2019.


Why Do I Write My Speeches?



Some Toastmasters I know do not write their speeches. At most, they only have a bullet outline of the speech on paper. I have also taken that route before since the structure or outline of the speech is all that is needed to give a speech. However at my age, I tend to forget the intended content when I wrote the outline. :) So I just write the speech in full!

The intention is not to memorize the speech although that inadvertently happens sometimes. For me, the best reason for writing speeches is to further improve the speech before delivery. How can you effectively incorporate your updates, additions and deletions to the speech without documenting them? By having the final written version before delivery, you can be assured that the final version has already undergone all the edits you wanted.

The speeches I write in this site are actual speeches that I delivered as a Toastmaster. Wherever possible, I also include pictures of props and visual aids that were used.





Why Do I Put Them Online?



When I was starting out as a Toastmaster, I had difficulty putting the speeches together. Although the manuals give the specific speech objectives and guidelines, the sample speeches that I researched through the Internet gave me ideas on how to approach a speech project. Even today, I still do that with the advanced projects. Surprisingly, the sample speeches not only gave me invaluable ideas, some inspired me as well to further continue in my Toastmaster journey.

We are fortunate that there are Toastmasters out there who are kind enough to post their own speeches in the Worldwide Web. Writing speeches in this little library on the Internet is my own way of “paying-forward” to the community of Toastmasters that has benefited me before.


How Can You Benefit?



Simply read the speeches. Go ahead. Browse and pick any speech in this library.

The speeches here may not perfectly address all the Speech Project objectives but some are pretty close. By reading them, you’ll get some ideas of your own, either with the content, style or delivery.

DELIVERING THE SPEECHES AS YOUR OWN
Please do not copy the speeches verbatim. This website gets thousands of page views a week and many of these page views come from other toastmasters as well. I've seen a couple of toastmasters on the internet use the same pattern as I did with the Starfish story (from my Inspire your Audience speech). Your speech evaluator may happen to be a visitor of this website, and you certainly don't want him to suspect that you simply scraped your speech, word-for-word, from this site.

PUBLISHING THE SPEECHES OR ARTICLES
You may publish or reprint the speeches or articles from this website, provided, that you cite and credit the source: http://speeches.blackdovenest.com at the bottom of the speech or article.

Also, be sure to click on the Speaking and Toastmasters links that are spread all throughout my pages. You may find them useful and get some interesting tidbits.

And finally, if the speeches here do inspire you to continue writing and delivering Toastmasters speeches, then this site would have achieved its objectives.

Thanx for visiting and do come again! Don't forget to leave your comments. Maraming Salamat po!



Cate Kinney, ACS,ALB said...

I'm a Toastmaster of 8 years in Alexandria Virginia outside Washington DC in the US. I'm not quite sure how I got to your site, but it was associated with some research I was doing associated with my upcoming HPL (DTM) project.

Tho I don't know how I got here, I'm glad I did.

Thank you for sharing the work you & your club have done in the course of the Toastmasters journey. Especially, I've enjoyed reading & appreciating your speeches.

I don't spend much of my time & energy reading speeches, much less posting to websites of strangers. Nonetheless, halfway around the world, I stumbled upon a Toastmasters connection that feels real & engaging & I wanted to let you know.

Thank you,
Cate

Unknown said...

Good work Les Aquino. Thanks for sharing!

Unknown said...

Continue this, Sir Les, please. This is a valuable resource for starters. This will inspire newbies in TMs to research well in their speeches.

Blackdove said...

Hi Cate! Thank you so much for the kind words - and for letting me know. I hope your HPL project went well for you and found it enjoyable. Good luck on your DTM !!!

Blackdove said...

Hi Pam! I'm glad you found the website helpful. Thank you!

Katie said...

All of this information is a great resource! I feel must more confident about what I am to do in toastmasters. Thank you!

Blackdove said...

Thank you Katie. I encourage you to use this resource as much as you can! Do share it with others too. Thanx for dropping by.

Diona said...

Thank you for generously sharing your well-written, inspiring speeches, sir! :D

Blackdove said...

You're welcome, Diona. Hope you will find them helpful.

Glendy said...

Thanks for sharing Sir Les! Very helpful!