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INLSA<\/p>\n
In an effort to encourage her son Yaqshaan to join a speech competition, PR executive Lisa Sukdev joined in, unexpectedly taking top honours and winning a chance to represent KwaZulu-Natal and, possibly, SA.<\/p>\n
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Durban mom Lisa Sukdev joined Toastmasters to encourage her son Yaqshaan, 13, to do so as well, but she did not expect to represent KwaZulu-Natal in a national competition that could see her going to the US for the world championships later this year. <\/p>\n
Sukdev, 35, of Phoenix, has been in the public relations industry for many years and joining the Umhlanga Toastmasters Club, an international organisation that improves speaking and leadership skills, was hardly daunting. <\/p>\n
\u201cI want my son to be a confident speaker and I believe in leading by example. <\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough a new member, my club chairman Attie Swanepoel suggested I participate in the area and divisional Toastmasters International Competition.\u201d <\/p>\n
There are two sections to the competition, a prepared humorous speech which must last five to seven minutes, and the impromptu section, in which speakers are given a topic and speak off the cuff for two and half minutes. <\/p>\n
The local, vocal mom took the divisional and area titles in the impromptu section and is now set to compete in the district championships in Cape Town next month. <\/p>\n
If successful, she will go to the US for the world championship. Her topics were \u201cif only\u201d and \u201cno regrets\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cI have always enjoyed speaking. I am a PR executive, so public speaking goes with the territory. However, I love learning and appreciate constructive feedback,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Seasoned competitor Biddy White, 60, of Hillcrest, who has won many competitions in her 20 years of membership, took the prize in the humorous category, speaking about parenthood. <\/p>\n
White said she was impressed by Sukdev who had been a member for only two months. \u201cFor an impromptu speech you really have to think on your feet. Lisa is delightful and did a wonderful job.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
INLSA In an effort to encourage her son Yaqshaan to join a speech competition, PR executive Lisa Sukdev joined in, unexpectedly taking top honours and winning a chance to represent KwaZulu-Natal and, possibly, SA. Durban mom Lisa Sukdev joined Toastmasters to encourage her son Yaqshaan, 13, to do so as well, but she did not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[8275,953,2143],"class_list":{"0":"post-15088","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-durban","8":"tag-newspaper","9":"tag-the-mercury","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15088\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}