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Saturday 17 March 2018

From Motive to Message: How to be the Biggest Fish in a Small Pond



A cool and confident person, dressed up in blazers with nice wet gel on his hair, came up in front of the crowd at Anchorvale Community club to give a speech craft and introduced him as “Justin Timberlake “aka “Jaz.” The audience was immediately hooked by his introduction as his actual name according to the programme sheet was “Hijazi” and the synapses in the audience brain fired over other possibly interesting things were in store during his speech – “How to be the biggest fish in smallest pond?”


Over the next 35 mins, he didn’t belie the expectations and took people on a roller coaster of insights from his own experience on public speaking, relationships and life in general. He told us how he learnt during his journey and audience learnt from his life experiences. 

There were 3 key messages in his speech
  1. To have authentic self-transformation you need to ask “Why?”
  2. To be the biggest fish in the smallest pond and to be a public speaker of repute, share one key message, a message so unique that only you can share to the world.
  3. Use the 4M Model to draft the message – Messenger, Message, Method and Motive

He concluded with strong practical ways to apply these ideas in our speeches

Message 1: To have authentic self-transformation, ask “Why?”


His story was about a typical Toastmasters journey.  Jaz like all of us toastmasters went “on road” in search of one thing as part of their TM journey– Ability to impress girls, social skills etc and wound up discovering, especially after the down turn he faced in life after giving up toastmasters for 2 years ,  that Toastmasters was important to him because that is where he discovered himself through learning.

Jaz shared a prolific insight based on his journey. We all know what we want from TM journey – better presentation skill, better communication skill etc. However, when we reach our goal our growth stalls because we never ask “Why do we really want those skills?”

To have deep and authentic self-transformation, Jaz mentioned that we should ask the deep, searching question “Why do we want what we want?” His view is that our deep probe of using multiple “Whys” will lead us to the truth of our personality, unlocking the meaning of life.

This theme set up in the initial part of the speech and was underlying throughout his speech.



Message 2: To be the biggest fish in the smallest pond, to be a public speaker of repute, Share one key message, a message so unique that only you can share to the world.

Jaz, took us on a thought experiment to illustrate the importance of having a message that only we can communicate.

The story was of a fish tank with 5 guppies and 1 sucker fish. Guppies did a lot of things to attract us, but the sucker fish only kept cleaning the pond. At the end while all the Guppies died, the Sucker fish survived.

As public speakers, we can be of repute only if we have a message that only we can explain to the world. That would make us the biggest fish in the smallest pond because nobody else would have that message with the authenticity as ourselves.



Message 3: Use the 4M Model to draft the message – Messenger, Message, Method and Motive

Jaz explained a fabulous view of how to be good public speaker using his 4M model. He shared that while Messenger, Method, Message etc can be mastered, what sticks in people’s mind is the Motive. He used the analogy of Martin Luther King’s speech to explain how great speeches transcended time because of their intention or Motive not because of the messenger, method or message alone.

As such, we should focus on the motive of the message – that was Jaz’s direction.


4M Model                      

In concluding, he explained about 4 kinds of speakers for the audience to benefit from. He mentioned that we should identify which category we belong to and use that to our advantage to communicate the message.


In conclusion to implement the theories, he had a few practical suggestions.

  1. Whenever we have to prepare a speech, identify first what we want the audience to do,  then the title and finally the content. When you are delivering you can follow the order as title, content and finally action.
  2. Apply the “onlyness” framework – Are you the only one who can deliver the message in your way? This is important to ensure your message sticks and clicks.
  3. Always ask, “What next?” So that we can move forward not only in our communication journey but also in our life


Overall, it was a highly illuminating session. We are most grateful to Jaz aka Mohamad Hijazi, ACG, ALB from Jauhari Bilingual Toastmasters for his sincere sharing.

Written By:
Muthu Rama Ganesh, CC, CL

Tuesday 13 March 2018

Anchorvale CC Toastmasters Club International Speech & Table Topics Contests 2018 10th February 2018, Saturday


It’s the one weekend to feel the approaching festive mood of the Chinese New Year coming the following Friday. At Anchorvale CC Toastmasters Club, this mood is one up further with the anticipation of the highly awaited International Speech & Table Topics Contests 2018. A yearly event at Anchorvale CC Toastmasters Club is known to have customary huge attendance.



Such crowd only exude our brave contestants’ finest. And finest is an understatement to describe what the audience took away. With such deep treasures of messages from our International Speech Contest Participants:


Cherish every moment with your loved ones (Ricky Setiawan)



Do not wait to tell how much you love them…the important family, friends (Deepthi Valsan)


Talking a troubled youth into the correct path, it is possible (Salma Begum)


Don’t look back, don’t attempt to change the past (Muthu Ganesh)


Emotion is the key to motivation for motion (Owen Lorena)


Step out, step in (Zulhafni Zulkeflee)


Keep the wisdom of our ancestors…do good be good…to move from real life hell to real life heaven (Hareesh BN)

Good spread of food and drinks during the refreshment break followed after the International Speech Contest. Beside an opportune mingling time, as if to hint at anything, the Table Topic Contest commence right after with the hand picked topic by our Chief Judge, Carolyn Street, DTM, … “Food or drink? What is your poison for 2018?”

Our stomach filled contestants tackled the topic with great humour; our audience however, took it all in with jest even though they are no longer hungry, literally.

Balance is the key. Just like her love of perfume. No excess. Eat in moderation (Deepti Monga)

Grape growers funded research stating red wine is “good for health” (Hareesh BN)

Food beyond what you need is not appropriate. Just look at me (Muthu Ganesh)

Coffee during day time to keep awake. Alcohol at night to lower the energy for a good sleep. As long as you know how to use it (Owen Lorena)

Liquor - can be poison to many people. Overeating is poison – antidote is to exercise. Worked hard at poison. Need to work harder on the antidote now (Ricky Setiawan)

Excessive bulge comes from overeating after marriage. Abundance of food she cook now becomes “poison” to her husband (Salma Begum)


Poison is sugar drink. To cut body fat, cut sugar drink – Coca Cola. Painful but necessary (Vincent Wong)


She drinks alcohol. From vodka, to tequila shots, to cocktail, to finally appreciate wine – not just for old ladies. (Gu Weite)

Tried cutting out gravy on food. Only to prefer no mental stress, over stressing on reducing fatty food. (Zulhafni Zulkeflee)

Photos with some of our appointment holders.

Norman Tan - Organizing Chair

Mishrita Gundluru - Timer

Sarah Ong - Food I/C

Richen and Manonmani - Tally Counters


Anchorvale's Adopted Member - Debbie He


Carolyn Street DTM - Chief Judge



Many thanks to our appointment holders who made the Contests a great success. What better way to show our appreciation than to give them gifts of love ……. Carolyn Street (Chief Judge); Sarah Ong and Norman Tan (Organizing Chairs); Chye Bei’an (Contest Chair); Sathya, Vincent Wong, Debbie He and Narayana (Sergeant At Arms); Hu Richen and Manonmani (Tally Counters); Mishrita Gundluru and Suresh Subramaniam (Timers).

Drumroll….. and the winners are……….

International Speech Contest:


Champion - Salma Begum


1st Runner Up - Muthu Rama Ganesh


2nd Runner Up - Zulhafni Zulkeflee

Table Topics Contest:

Champion - Salma Begum


1st Runner Up - Zulhafni Zulkeflee


2nd Runner Up - Gu Weite

Come support our winners representing Anchorvale CC Toastmasters Club at the Area A1 International Speech & Table Topics Contests to be held on 24th March 2018 at Function Hall, 2 Bishan Street 25 #26-07, Singapore 573973! See you there!

Article by: Wee Chee Sian CC, ALB