Last night I was invited to an “Advanced” Toastmasters club. I was asked to make a brief comment on a speech from a “Distinguished Toastmaster.”

I said, sincerely, that she’d be a fine theater performer — but that she’d have a stronger connection to the audience if she spoke with us as though we were all sitting down over coffee.

But the next evaluator disagreed with me. He said she *was* over the top — but he believed in had the right effect.

And what effect would that be? Alienating the audience?

Olivia, thanks for your tips. I’m going to carefully avoid the temptation to perform rather than to connect. This “communication disease” is spreading like cancer in Toastmasters — with equally fatal results.