The eighth project in the Toastmaster’s Competent Communicator manual is entitled “Get Comfortable With Visual Aids” and involves the use of visual aid to help the audience understand and remember the main thrust of the speech. The first objective for project number eight is for the speaker to select visual aids that are appropriate for the message he or she intends to convey to the audience. For example, if the speaker decides to give a speech on the topic of what the experience is like to actually join Scentsy as a sales consultant he or she may choose to employ various Scentsy products including but not limited to candle warmers or Scentsy bars.
The second objective to project number eight is for the speaker to use these selected visual aids correctly, with ease and confidence when delivering the speech. Because the time allotted for this particular speech is a mere five to seven minutes the speaker must deliver the speech and use the visual aids as efficiently as possible. On efficient and effective way the speaker might employ the use of visual aids is to pass around a Scentsy product so that the audience can actually take in the scent and appreciate it for themselves.
Not everyone can truly appreciate what it means to join Scentsy if they have never done that on their own. Accordingly a speaker who is attempting to faithfully describe this phenomenon accurately has their work cut out for them. This, of course, is both the true challenge as well as the true reward of project number eight in the Competent Communicator Manual. There are many factors that will work to determine whether or not the two objectives of the speech have been successfully achieved by any particular speaker. The most important factor in this determination is probably how comfortable the speaker is in using the visual aids he or she has selected to use.