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Exposure provides a forum for student groups and area non-profits at Michigan State University and the Greater Lansing area. On the show, you'll hear discussions about the groups themselves as well as the relevant issues of today.
This is exposures on Impact 89 FM.
Logan:W DBM East Lansing.
Tessa:The show that lets you know about everything that goes on at the MSU campus that you otherwise might not know about. Tune in every Sunday at 9 AM. I'm your host, Tessa Creusch. Welcome to Exposure. Hello.
Tessa:Hello. And welcome back to Exposure. You are listening to season 15. I'm your host, Tessa Creusch. Whether it's delivering a class presentation, pitching an idea, or speaking up in a meeting, public speaking is a skill that can make or break a moment.
Tessa:But for many, it's also a skill that feels out of reach. That's where Spartan Speech Masters comes in. Today, I'm joined by Olivia and Logan, members of MSU's student run public speaking club, to talk about how they're helping Spartans find their voice and build confidence one speech at a time. Thank you guys so much for joining me today.
Logan:Yeah. Thanks for having us.
Tessa:Yeah. Thank you. Of course. Could you guys start off by introducing yourselves?
Logan:Yeah. I'm Logan. I'm the president of Spartan Speech Masters. I'm a senior here at MSU studying computer science.
Olivia:And I'm Olivia. I'm the vice president of Spartan Speech Masters, and I am a senior who is a pre med.
Tessa:Alright. And could you guys tell me how you personally joined the organization?
Logan:So me personally, I went to Grand Valley for my freshman year, and I was really in between the 2. And when I first went to Grand Valley, I absolutely hated it. It was too small. I met some really cool people there, but I felt like I made the wrong choice. So I transferred here, and I went to Sparticipation.
Logan:And I've always loved getting in front of the classroom, getting in front of people, and talking. I was a captain of my hockey team growing up, so I'm used to public speaking, but I always like getting better at things. So I was like, this club would be perfect. It's something I already like, and it'll help me get better. So I decided to join, and it's absolutely amazing experience so far.
Olivia:Yeah. I guess for me, like, what was it? 4 years ago now, my freshman year of participation, I was wandering around, and I heard one of the past club members, like, screaming, conquer America's number one fear, public speaking. And I was like, that sounds interesting. So I wandered my way on over and they gave me the pitch about the club, which was Spartan Toastmasters at the time.
Olivia:And, yeah, I went to a few meetings, absolutely fell in love with it, and decided to get involved.
Tessa:Before joining, how would you say your outlook on public speaking was?
Logan:Oh, I absolutely loved it. I have never had a problem getting up and talking to people in front of a classroom. I actually when I was, like, younger in high school, I was super introverted. Like, I hated talking 1 on 1, but I loved getting up in front of class. It's always something I've been drawn towards.
Logan:It's kinda weird.
Olivia:I don't know. I was always
Tessa:sorry, Logan.
Olivia:I was, I enjoy public speaking, but I would have to be pressed to do it. I would never do it on my own. So it would have it would took a lot of convincing to get me to get up in front of someone and give a presentation. So, yeah, the club has definitely helped with that in case that isn't obvious.
Tessa:Yeah. So for you, Logan, you joined because you wanna do it more and you wanna get better at it. And for you, you wanted to gain your confidence in it. And Exactly. Fantastic.
Tessa:So would you say that most people join for different reasons like those?
Logan:I feel like most people have the same reason. They always are nervous to public speak, and they wanna get better in, like, an easy environment. And so I think that's the perfect place. We are very, very easy on you. If you get up there and freeze, we won't make fun of you.
Logan:We won't do that. It's a safe space where anybody can practice. So I think they like, everybody here is joining a really good club if they're looking for that.
Olivia:Yeah. It's a very welcoming and safe space environment where you're not you don't have to worry about being judged for getting up and just trying.
Tessa:Yeah. And I know that the club used to have different names such as Toastmasters, Spartan Speak Up. Tell me a little bit about the history of the organization and how it's evolved since having those names.
Logan:Okay. So when I joined, which was my sophomore year when I transferred, it was Toastmasters. And I had heard of Toastmasters before just because I was interested I used to watch TED Talks all the time, and some of them were sponsored by Toastmasters. I I'd heard the name. So Toastmasters is very well known throughout the world and You're
Olivia:an international organization.
Logan:Yeah, exactly. Every a lot of people know about Toastmasters, and they're very prestigious. So I knew I was getting a good club, and I was gonna get good education with that. But last year, when the dues came around, it was a very large amount for a club, way too high for any student to wanna join.
Olivia:Especially an undergrad student too.
Logan:Exactly. It was outrageous. So we lost a lot of members from that. And to combat that, we decided, hey, we need to get away from Toastmasters because we weren't really gaining that much. The the biggest gain we got was the feedback we'd give, not the information we were getting, and that's what we were paying for.
Logan:We were paying for their education system. I would
Olivia:also argue we're just paying for the name. Yeah. Like, because people knew who Toastmasters were, so that's what we were paying for. But at the end of the day, if you can't afford it, a name means nothing.
Logan:Yeah. So we went from a pretty large group when I first joined to last year, we shrunk tons. And it was basically just the eboard and a few extra members. So that's when we decided we need to switch, totally get away, rebrand it. And then we had to rebrand again because I don't think personally the name fit us that well.
Tessa:Which one?
Logan:Spartan Speak Up. See, I would try to promote word by mouth. I've worked at a restaurant for years and it's a family owned business, and he would always repeat like, hey, word-of-mouth is so important. Word-of-mouth is the most important. You can have ads.
Logan:You can have this. You can have this, but nothing hits the same like the word-of-mouth. So I always try to do that. That stuck with me. And everybody I talked to thought it was some kind of, like, we were speaking up against something.
Logan:It was like an activist group almost, not like a public speaking club, and they were more questionable to join. So I was, like, we need to make this more generic where people just know to the point this is a public speaking club. So then that's why we switched again to Spartan Speech Masters.
Tessa:How long of a time span did all these changes happen?
Olivia:It was, like, within a year. It was really quick. Yeah. Because, fall semester last year, we were still Toastmasters. And then spring semester came, we decided, that's it.
Olivia:We're done. We're not gonna be Toastmasters. We officially moved away for the club, and we established ourselves as Spartan Speak Up. And then over the summer, we were like, hey, this isn't working. No one understands who we are.
Olivia:So we became Spartan Speech Masters.
Tessa:Yeah. Like we talked about, public speaking is a very common fear, and we talked about how people join in order to overcome it. But in what ways does that happen? What does a typical meeting look like?
Logan:So a typical meeting, we usually have the same layout every single meeting except when we have our special events just because getting better at something is doing something consistently over time and getting feedback, redoing it, practicing over and over. So we'll start out. The president introduces the meeting. We introduce the roles, who's gonna be what, and then we go into our prepared speech. So the week before, 2 people will volunteer and they'll be like, hey, we'll give a prepared speech.
Logan:So that week, they'll prepare. They'll come deliver that. And after that, we go into our my personal favorite part of the club. I think you get the most out of this part of the club. It's called table topics.
Logan:So table topics, you have to volunteer first. Or I'll
Olivia:make you go.
Logan:Or yes. Alinda is known for forcing people to go when no one will volunteer.
Tessa:I'm not surprised by this.
Olivia:I promise I'm a nice person.
Logan:So you have to go up to the front in front of everybody, and then you get your topic, and you have to speak on the spot. You have to give a speech on the spot, and that teaches you quick thinking. It teaches you I personally, let's say you have to give a speech for a class and you forgot to prepare, boom. You should be good. You should be able to think of things on the spot.
Logan:It it's really good for that for interviews.
Olivia:Especially for interviews like Especially. A lot of, like again, we have a lot of undergraduate students. Or we do have some graduate students too that come and join us. And so they do have to give presentations for their classes or they're preparing for graduate schools. Those include interviews.
Olivia:So just that, like, fast thinking and response time really helps. And it especially if you keep doing it, you start refining your ability to speak on the spot and cut down on your filler words and all of that fun stuff. So it really is helpful.
Tessa:For sure, I've already observed that you guys don't use a lot of filler words.
Logan:Try not to because then after that portion, we get into the evaluation where we have an a r counter. So someone the whole time is counting your a r's, am's, buts, ands, or's, your nose. Yeah. Anything you use as a crutch when you're speaking
Tessa:Yeah.
Logan:They'll track that. So at the end, you'll hear, oh, you had 5 likes. You had 2 you nose. You had 5 ors. You had this.
Olivia:Like 18
Logan:18 uhs. It's happened
Olivia:before, and it was me.
Logan:So we have that. We've got a grammarian where they'll give a word of the day. And in those speeches, you're supposed to be trying to expand your vocabulary by using that word of the day. Just throw it in there somehow and use it correctly. And then the grammarian will also, like, point out any grammatical flaws you had or any cool things you said.
Logan:And then we also have a general evaluator, which he will just he or she, they will just go over the meetings, say what we did well, say what we did bad, what we can improve on. And then we have
Olivia:Speech evaluators too. So we have 2 people evaluate the 2 prepared speeches where that's more like, see, I just used a bunch of filler words, where they will give a more in-depth evaluation of the speeches. So it's, like, what you did well, what you could improve on, things that they've noticed. Like, for a lot of our first time speakers, it's take up the stage more. Like, be don't be afraid to walk around, to make eye contact, control your pacing.
Olivia:So that's mostly what those evaluations are for, which are actually really nice. And I like Logan emphasizes this a lot. We focus on the delivery of the speech, not the content. Because if it's really good content but your delivery is poor, no one's gonna remember it. But if your delivery is great, people are gonna be more your speech is gonna be more memorable.
Logan:Yeah. Even if the context isn't that good. But if you can deliver it well, it'll be way more impactful.
Tessa:Right. Half the battle is the delivery Exactly. The stage presence. As for the content, what is it? What kinda speeches are people presenting?
Olivia:Anything. Anything you want pretty much. That's appropriate. Most of our first time speakers, it's an icebreaker speech. So just tell us kinda who you are, why you joined, why you like, public speaking fears and stuff like that.
Olivia:I know I gave my first speech on why my favorite animal was a turtle and how turtles relate to me. So that was kinda just my icebreaker because I wanna study wins the race, baby. But really can be about anything.
Logan:Yeah. No. A lot of people also like, I know I'm super busy with my classwork and stuff, so I don't always have time to prepare a speech. But sometimes I'll sign up, and then I'll have to do our impromptu speeches or, like, a minute to too long.
Olivia:The table topics?
Logan:Yeah. Those ones. But sometimes I'll just be like, okay. I'll do an impromptu speech that week where I have to give the 5 to 7 minute impromptu speech.
Olivia:Logan's gotten really good at those too.
Logan:I like those a lot. It's fun.
Tessa:It does sound fun.
Olivia:The other type of speech too, like, it helps a lot. I know this year or semester, I have a lot of presentations coming up for classes, so I will also use this club to evaluate how I give the speech and get feedback on that. So when it comes time for those presentations in that class, I can absolutely nail it.
Tessa:Wow. That's awesome to feel more prepared in that moment. Exactly.
Olivia:And it makes me, like, actually work on it and not procrastinate. So
Tessa:For sure. After doing all these speeches and getting evaluated, what did you learn? What did you pick up on?
Logan:I have a lot of patterns, apparently.
Olivia:Oh, yeah.
Logan:Especially with my my tonality. Usually, when I'm telling a story, I like telling stories a lot. So when I'm saying it, I last meeting, I got called out that I use the same thing when I'm trying to capture attention where I raise my or I go, like, super slow, and then I raise my voice and then, like, then, like, lower it super I don't know. He said I do it every time. My speech evaluator said that I need to get out of this pattern.
Logan:He said it works. It's very effective. Yeah. But you just do it every time. I wanna see you do something different.
Logan:And I'm like, I didn't even know I did that. It's just naturally how I was speaking. So you find out weird things that you don't even know happens in your speech.
Tessa:Exactly. I wish listeners could see your hand motions right now.
Logan:Oh, I do. I am all over with my hand.
Olivia:Hand motions are also, like, a huge thing too. Because some people use them way too much, but some people, it's like, you can break out of your shot. I'm not calling you out. No. No.
Tessa:No. Stop pointing to yourself.
Olivia:But you you're allowed to use hand motions and, like, break out of that and be deliberate with what you're doing with your hands. That can also help with delivery.
Logan:No. I was literally talking to people at the gym today, and they were like, you you use your hands so much when you talk. And I was like, I can't help it. It's just natural.
Tessa:It's helpful. It is. Get a point across.
Logan:Exactly.
Tessa:It express, expresses power too. Yes. Alright. And what else? You did you notice any patterns in yourself?
Olivia:Yeah. Actually, mine was more of an encouragement type of motivation. I used to give a lot of speeches. I would read from my phone just because it was like a safety crutch. And I felt like if I didn't have at least a note card or something with me, then I would fail miserably and everyone would laugh at me.
Tessa:Obviously, that is not the case.
Olivia:But it's a hard fear to overcome. And so, eventually, you just you just keep going at it and you keep hearing people say, hey. Your speech is really well written and your content is nice and your delivery was pretty good. Just put the phone down or put the note card away. You can do it.
Olivia:And so, eventually, you just get better and you if if enough people believe in you, you can start believing in yourself that you can do it, especially with table topics. That helps a lot too.
Tessa:I think that a lot of this has to do with the people that you're around and feeling comfortable to speak publicly in front of them. How do you guys bond and and make a space that people do feel comfortable to stretch out of their comfort zone? Well, let me
Olivia:tell you. One of my favorite questions to ask at every you see, Logan's not here.
Tessa:He knows how it's going. Every single Every single meeting.
Olivia:I like to ask people what they're having for dinner just because it's it's a good icebreaker. It starts a conversation, and I'm hungry always. So it's really nice to just hear what people are having to eat, and then you never know what can come of that. My favorite answer is always Logan's because, Logan, what are you having for dinner tonight?
Logan:What am I having for dinner? So I am having 6 ounces of medium rare steak. I am having 6 pieces of Dave's Killer Bread and 300 grams of broccoli.
Olivia:Broccoli is my favorite part.
Tessa:Is this the same every single day?
Logan:Every day. It's so funny. I meal prep all my food on Sunday. I measure it all out to, like, the t.
Tessa:Do you get bored?
Logan:No. No. Dude, am I eating so weird? I'm gonna be honest. I am such a picky eater.
Logan:Everybody complains about
Olivia:how it's Like, he gave a speech one time that he uses no seasoning.
Logan:I don't season my food.
Olivia:All of his season. Like, what are you doing?
Logan:Plain chicken. I eat plain everything. I I put salt on. That's, like, my seasoning. So I do that.
Logan:I hate cheese. I hate tomatoes. I hate basically everything. I hate pizza, so I don't like food.
Tessa:Really controversial.
Logan:I know. It's a hot take. It's a hot take.
Tessa:This is how
Olivia:we bond when we fight over food.
Logan:Exactly. A lot. But then I'd also say we have some cool events that one that I personally really love where, like, we'll collab with other clubs, and we'll bring food in, and people can just talk and bond like that. But my favorite event that we do every year during March Madness time is we do an impromptu speech March Madness, and that is the best competition ever. Because you have to go through 4 rounds, compete against people doing impromptu speeches, producing brackets
Olivia:and bracket style competition. Can do it.
Logan:Yeah. Wow. We let everybody sign up. We beforehand, we're all eating food. We're getting prepared.
Logan:We're just talking, bonding. And then we go into the competition. Friendly competition. It's awesome.
Olivia:It's really fun. And, like, it's crowdsourced too. So if the crowd likes you, you move on.
Logan:Exactly. I
Tessa:wanna talk a little bit about this March Madness competition. Yeah. What are some memorable speeches, impromptu speeches that you heard that night?
Logan:Oh. Oh my gosh.
Tessa:So many help.
Olivia:A lot of them.
Logan:I remember one, me personally, I won this year, but this was the first round. I talked about how my mom scared me so bad that I peed my pants when I was, like, I was, like, 10. So I went through the whole story. Obviously, I was doing my little my little voice thing. I probably did way too much when I was in that speech.
Logan:But that started off everybody loved that. That was like a clear funny speech that got me to the next round. And I just love the themes because they each change. Like, that one, I forgot. I I forgot.
Olivia:Yeah. So, I usually help make them. So Yeah.
Logan:I got this. Don't Okay. You you explain.
Olivia:So, usually, there's, like, 3 rounds, 3 or 4 rounds depending on how many people sign up for this via Google form because we're fancy like that. And so the first round is usually like some sort of quote from either like a movie or just sort of inspirational person. And your job is just to get up there and talk about it. Like, how it relates to your life, what you think it means, just anything in general you can think about. And the second, second, 3rd, and 4th rounds are just kind of whatever the maker of the table topics decides.
Olivia:So 1 year, we did, like, complete the story where it was like it was a dark and stormy night, dot dot dot.
Logan:Yeah. We did a sell the product.
Olivia:We did a sell the product one. That one was like hard. That was fun.
Logan:Those They were weird products.
Tessa:Did someone else give you a product and you had to
Logan:Like, it was just on it? Yeah. It was just on the slide. Like, it was like, sell this product. And it was some, like, crate like, hard product to sell.
Tessa:Like what?
Logan:Oh my god. Do you remember? No. They were, like, weird things. I was like, how do I even sell this?
Logan:But you had to think of it on the spot, like, how to sell this well.
Olivia:Yeah. I think 1 year too, we did, like, pick who's, like, quote, unquote winning where it was, like, this or that type thing. And I think one of the topics was, like, Michigan State or, like, you, them. And the poor person that got up there was not a football fan, and they're like, well, I really don't know, and we don't care. And so that was or, like, I think the other one too that I
Logan:I thought
Olivia:was really funny was, like, would you rather
Logan:fight, like, a bear sized rabbit or, like,
Olivia:a rabbit sized bear or something.
Logan:Or, like, a 100 rabbits.
Olivia:Or a 100 rabbits. So it was something like that. So it's just, like, crazy things like that.
Logan:Yeah. And then also sometimes we have, like so you'll be given a topic. And whether you believe in it or not, you have to choose. Like, you'll be assigned to one side. So, like, let's say
Olivia:Oh, yeah. There was, like, a debate.
Logan:For me, example, do you like cheese? Or or is cheese the best food in the world? One person would have to be for it, and one person would have to be against it.
Olivia:You were against it.
Logan:You know, I was
Tessa:not. Wow.
Logan:I had to sell cheese to everybody.
Tessa:As someone who does not
Logan:like cheese. As someone who does not like cheese.
Tessa:Wow.
Logan:Which that makes it fun because then I have to think of, oh, what makes cheese good? I don't know much about cheese. Mhmm. I have had cheese, like, once when I was 8, and I said never again.
Olivia:Maybe it's time to try it again.
Logan:Oh, no. No. No. It's the texture. It just feels weird.
Logan:It's yellow. I don't like the color yellow.
Olivia:So There are a
Tessa:lot of cheese textures in the world.
Logan:All the ones I've seen, I hate. Okay. Like, the the one string one Yeah. Where it's like a bouncy ball. String cheese?
Logan:String cheese. Yeah. I didn't I don't I don't know the terminology. That one
Tessa:Clearly.
Logan:Disgusting. That one freaks me out. It's like jello. It's weird.
Tessa:Alright. So you're learning not only how to feel comfortable speaking, but also how to debate, how to be convincing Yeah. Even through your lies Yes. About liking cheese.
Logan:That's one thing I said at the first meeting is that this club will teach you to lie very well. Use that power responsibly.
Tessa:Wow. So the club, for a small price, you get a superpower.
Logan:Exactly. Pretty
Olivia:much. Alright, Spider Man.
Tessa:And how would you say that being in this club has impacted your day to day life?
Logan:I think it's just made me better speaker in general. Like, on the spot, conversational skills, just it all because now my critical thinking, my quick thinking on my feet is way better. Way better than it used to be. Like, I used to be very, very introverted. Like, I would not talk to anybody, and then now I don't care.
Logan:I'll talk to everybody. I will talk to literally everybody. I do not care anymore. It's kinda awesome.
Olivia:For me, like, I also work as a ULA, for a biology course. So when I get nervous, I talk very fast, which isn't good if you're trying to teach people concepts. So the club has also helped me, like, learn to slow down and take pauses. So that has helped out a lot. And then also just being more confident in, like, what I have to say and more assured of myself, I guess.
Tessa:Exactly. I can imagine that it impacts your ability to just convey anything to anyone, whether it's publicly or just personally. And as far as your future careers, does public speaking or just speaking in general have anything to do with it?
Olivia:You have no idea. Oh my god. Like, I I the goal for me is to be a physician. And so you have to be able to communicate not only with your other fellow physicians, but with the hospital staff, with, like, your patients, patient families, literally everybody. And it it it's clear communication is essential.
Olivia:And so this club has been fabulous for helping me develop the skills. I've talked about it on applications. I'm sure I'll talk about it in interviews. And really, anywhere you go in life, you're gonna need to communicate. So it it's just I really think it's a skill that everybody could use.
Logan:For me, I'd say it's more working in t. I am going to school for computer science, and I hope to be a software engineer. So, normally, the stereotype is we don't talk to anybody. We just sit at our computers all day and just are glued to the screen. But you gotta talk to your team.
Logan:You gotta figure out things. I'm gonna need to use the speaking at some point. But for mine, it actually probably won't be that important.
Olivia:I'm sure it'll be more important than you think it is.
Logan:Probably. Maybe when I get out there. We'll see.
Tessa:Yeah. You're gonna break the barriers of what a computer scientist can be. I'm excited for this. Communicator. And we touched on it a little bit.
Tessa:But for every member of the club besides public speaking, what are some other skills that people can anticipate getting from being a part of this club?
Logan:So first, it's the quick thinking. It's the impromptu speeches. I think that's the number one. But besides that, we've touched on the confidence. If you can public speak, you've already beaten, I'd say, 90% of America's number one fear.
Olivia:Public speaking.
Logan:Public speaking.
Olivia:I still yell that it's participation. It's so much fun.
Tessa:But the
Olivia:other thing too, we mentioned a bunch of evaluator roles that we have, like Tymer, Germaine, Otter, Counter. If you're more aware of what other people are saying and how they're saying it, you also become more aware of what you're saying and how many filler words you're using or the grammatical errors you're making. So even just evaluating someone else helps you in turn.
Tessa:Right. Just being more aware of it. Exactly.
Logan:Also, filler words
Olivia:Are huge.
Logan:Are huge. You take out your filler words, your speech already gets 10 times better.
Olivia:Yeah. And you start noticing it when other people are speaking. You're like, they said, like, 15,000,000 times. They said another ah.
Logan:I'm bad with that. I know everybody I talk to.
Tessa:I'm starting to feel very insecure about how I'm feeling.
Olivia:In public speaking. That's
Logan:I thought that same exact thing.
Tessa:Thank you very much. I You're welcome very much. Alright. So now oh, no. I said, I'm gonna count it.
Tessa:Oh, gosh.
Logan:I've been counting this whole time.
Tessa:That is terrifying. Okay. Let's back it up. Do you guys have any tips for me personally or for anybody listening that people people can take away from this?
Logan:I'd say slow down. Everybody's such in a rush to get off the stage. Everybody wants to get out of the view of people. That's your stage. You're there.
Logan:They're there to listen to you.
Olivia:Yeah. Demand demand the room.
Logan:Yeah. That's your stage. Stay up there. Take your pauses. If you lose your train of thought, take a second.
Logan:Pause. Don't, backtrack. Oh, yeah. Oh, what was I saying? Just calm down.
Logan:You don't you don't have to do all that. Just take your second, recollect yourself, keep going. So I'd say slowing down is probably number one thing I'd say.
Olivia:Yeah. And again, like, practice makes perfect. The more you do it, the better you're gonna get it. The more comfortable you're gonna feel at it. And also just, everybody's nervous.
Olivia:I still get nervous. Like, going into this interview. My heart was pounding. My bones were sweaty. But here I am.
Olivia:I'm still doing it, and I think I'm doing relatively okay. So it's just, like, it's important to remember that everybody is human. And no matter if you're a practice TED talk person or this is your first speech you're ever giving, everybody has been in your shoes, and it's gonna be okay. You just need to
Tessa:take a deep breath and go for it. And what have you learned about body language?
Olivia:It's huge. But also you need to be aware aware of when to use it because some people use hand motions.
Logan:A little too much.
Tessa:A little too much.
Olivia:And some people kind of just hide into themselves and close in on themselves.
Logan:But I feel like more people are the latter. They hide in, and they close on themselves a lot. And they stay in place.
Olivia:Which makes them quieter. It makes them more nervous. People can't hear them well. So then everyone's leaning in trying to hear them, which they're like, oh my god. Everyone's watching me.
Olivia:Yep. And so it's just yeah. You gotta be more aware of what your body language is doing. And then you also should be intentional with your movements. Like, plan out when you're gonna walk or when you're gonna make a hand gesture to put emphasis on what you're saying.
Logan:I'd I'll add on more about the walking. When you're planning it out, I'd say a good rule of thumb is when you're changing points or when you're going on to a new topic, that's when you should probably take a pause, move, get that part of the audience, acknowledge them, then boom. When you get a next point, walk to that side, acknowledge them. Just make sure you're getting everybody. Because some people will find someone and just stare at them.
Olivia:Or turn their back to the entire side of the room, which is not good. You wanna include everybody. But with the walking, it's like as you're making a transition in your speech, you're making a transition in the room, and you're moving to a different spot and staying there, making that point. Next point, you move, station and then you're stationary making your point.
Tessa:We talked about how your careers don't necessarily align with the mission of the club, but what about other people? What would you say the general majors of people within the club?
Olivia:Just like us. It's a whole mix. Yeah. We got, like, what was it? Sales people.
Olivia:We got packaging people.
Logan:Yep. We've got supply chain. We've got finance. We've got all types of engineers. A lot of engineers do this club because a lot of them need it.
Logan:So we've I'd say we've mainly got business and engineering mostly. But I think it's really beneficial to anybody in the medical field because you gotta talk.
Olivia:Starting to get a lot of premeds in there too. Can't escape it.
Logan:Exactly.
Olivia:Effective communication is essential for any type of work, and I will die on this hill.
Tessa:It seems like a really wonderful mixed bag that you can network with people of other majors. Campus is large, but it's very divided. And clubs often attract the same majors, so it's nice to have a good mixed bag.
Logan:Oh, 100%. Yeah.
Olivia:Just adds to more perspectives too.
Tessa:For sure. Do you have any advice for anybody who's interested in joining or doing public speaking, but is unsure and nervous about public speaking?
Logan:My biggest rule, do don't watch. A lot of people will come to the club, and they will just sit there. They will not participate. I think you should speak at least once. And I usually force people to speak at least once at every meeting.
Olivia:You usually force people to speak.
Logan:She's even worse than me. But I would say, come try it. There's no hurt in come trying. And at least it if you sit there and don't speak, you can't say that you tried it. But if you get up there, you do it, you mess up, and you're really that scared it was really that bad, don't come back.
Olivia:Or even if, like, your tabletop is 15 seconds long. Yeah. You still went up and did it. And we're proud of you, and we're here to support you.
Logan:But I do think you can always get better, and you should just keep coming back even if you fail, even if you mess up. I think especially if it makes you uncomfortable, you should definitely come.
Tessa:Yeah. Yeah. Do you guys have any upcoming events or things that you're looking forward to in the club?
Olivia:Yeah. So I think we have our annual fall speech competition coming up, date TBD. But we normally have, like, 2 annual events per year, one being the March Madness competition in the spring and our, annual fall competition in the, well, the fall. And this year, actually, since we moved away from Toastmasters and we are now our own established club, we have more leniency in what we can and can't do. So we're trying to plan for more events, like, more joint club meetings or just other events, maybe, like, some workshops, or we'll maybe dedicate an entire club day, like, once a month, maybe to, like, interview practice where table topics are all just interview questions.
Olivia:So we we have a lot of ideas. Yeah. But we're pretty much open to anything.
Tessa:That seems really valuable. Interview practice? Yeah. That
Logan:was I did that once last year. I thought that one was really good. Yes. The entire meeting definitely gonna do that one again.
Olivia:Yeah. The entire meeting was just, like, table topics, but they were all interview questions. And so you would get feedback based on, your response. And then also, we would have people fill out a form saying, hey. What's your majors?
Olivia:Like, what's your field of study? So we can tailor those interview questions to you.
Tessa:What are you hoping for for the future of the organization? Any goals?
Logan:I wanna regrow the club. That's that's our main goal of the year.
Olivia:We wanna, regrow because we've seen what we can do, and we've helped a lot of people, I would say. Not to pat ourselves on the back, but, genuinely, I believe that we've helped some people. And I know I've grown through the club, so I just wanna help as many people as I possibly can before I graduate. So, definitely, membership is a big thing.
Tessa:And where can people find more information about the club?
Logan:Spartan Speech Masters on Instagram, or we've got our email list.
Olivia:You can contact me at, haassoli@msu.edu for more information if you would like. Just be like, hey. I'm interested in Spartan Speech Masters. And I'll be
Tessa:like, great. We we meet at Bessie Hall
Olivia:on Mondays at 7:15. We'll love to see you there. But, yeah, our Instagram is probably our primary mode of contact, and then you should email one of us, and we'll get you on the email list so you can
Logan:get And we'll get you in the group, me.
Tessa:And that's it for today's episode. Thank you so much to everyone who's involved in making this podcast what it is. If you like what you've heard, come back next week. I'm Tessa Creche. You've been listening to Exposure.
Tessa:This was this week's episode of Exposure. Keep in mind that the views and opinions discussed on exposure are those of the guests and do not necessarily reflect those of the staff at impact 89fm. If you're interested in going back and listening to our archive of stories, feel free to check out our website at impact89fmdot org. And of course, if you're interested in what's going on next week, you can tune back in and we'll see you back here. You've been listening to Exposed.