RONALD MELVIN: This is one of the most important things of my life.

RYAN AVERY: I dreamed big, and that's what it took for me to get to where I am right now.

DIANE PARKER: I'm in this to win it, and I'm gonna go all the way.

KENNY RAY MORGAN: This is my moment, man. If I'm going to do it, I wanna do it now.

ANNOUNCER: And the 2012 World Champion of Public Speaking...

[Music]

[Music]

ANDREW KNEEBONE: Fear of speaking is a common thing that everyone goes through. And so I decided that Toastmasters - give it a shot and teach myself to speak in public. My club,

they said, "Why don't you go in competitions?" I didn't even know there were such a thing

as competitions for public speaking, but then the bug sort of bit, and I really liked the

sport of competing.

RYAN AVERY: It's 30,000 people all over the world who all have a message, who all have

a speech. It goes from the club, then the area, then the division, then the district,

then the semi-finals, and now it's the top 9 speakers. Best speakers in the world.

[Music] [Music]

JESSICA CARDER: Thank you all for being here, um, we're all very, very excited for the world

championship tomorrow.

KENNY RAY MORGAN: When I was a kid, I wanted to be on stage in some capacity, and so speaking

became a passion of mine, and I yearn now to be able to speak to the world.

RONALD MELVIN: I am not a good reader. I have dyslexia. But I am a storyteller, and Toastmasters

allowed me to tell my stories by speaking them to people, because I could not really

write.

RYAN AVERY: I enjoy speaking so much, I love motivating people and I want to remind people

my age that we can do anything.

JESSICA CARDER: We're going to go ahead and draw for speaking order right now.

[Music] [Music]

ANDREW KNEEBONE: I have no idea what it is. That would be number 1.

JESSICA CARDER: The focus and the preparation for this always blows me away. They're fiercely

competitive.

MARIO LEWIS: It is one of the grandest stages you'll ever be on. An audience of 25,000,

projectors everywhere. For 5-7 minutes your face is in absolute primetime. So for me,

I don't take this opportunity lightly.

KENNY RAY MORGAN:: The speech for the finals has to be totally different than the semi-finals.

PALANIAPPA SUBRAMANIAM: I haven't actually finished writing my speech, I only have a

basic framework because I was focusing on the first speech, so there's a lot of work

to do now.

JESSICA CARDER: Over the next 24 hours most of them will lock themselves in their room,

and really just walk through their speech again and again and again.

ANDREW KNEEBONE: My biggest fear for the competition is that I don't prepare enough. I don't have

a fear of the moment I get on stage. I aim to prepare.

[Music]

ANDREW KNEEBONE: [Practicing speech] This story is about passion, obsession and blood.

[To camera] I'm on first tomorrow, so I've got to come out hard. You've got to - I'm

the first speaker. I would prefer to be somewhere else, yeah, but I'm not, and again it's the

luck of the draw, so I'll give it my best.

KENNY RAY MORGAN: Before I even do a speech, I have to have a reason for giving that speech.

I don't just randomly throw speeches together. Anybody can do a speech but I think the passion

that you have behind it in connecting with your audience makes a great speech.

CHELSEA AVERY: Trust Is A Must, Ryan Avery. Oh, he's so handsome.

RYAN AVERY: You have an obligation as a speaker to go up there and not just say something

that you care about but something that can really change the lives of people. I love

this next speech - it's called 'Trust Is A Must'. It means so much to me. It's how I

started off my relationship with my wife. "Chelsea, I promise."

RANDY HARVEY: I think that's much better- RYAN AVERY: Oh, you do?

RANDY HARVEY: -and I think that's a much stronger conclusion.

CHELSEA AVERY: So when you read it, it was literally 6 minutes flat, when we just read

it through? RANDY HARVEY: Yup, that was 6 minutes.

CHELSEA AVERY: Okay. KENNY RAY MORGAN: I keep this baby with me

all the time. If I would have brought this with me last year I would have known I was

going overtime. See I had to abort my ending last year. But I think I got this speech down

enough where I can finish it in like 6:50, 6:48. I don't even want to get close to going

overtime.

CHELSEA AVERY: We've worked our butts off to get here - since January.

RYAN AVERY: Yup.

CHELSEA AVERY: And have fun with it.

RYAN AVERY: I know.

CHELSEA AVERY: We've worked really hard, we're well prepared, you're a rockstar. You're a

great speaker, with a good message, so have fun with it.

RYAN AVERY: Bam.

[Music]

ANNOUNCER: Let the speech contest begin.

[Music]

RONALD MELVIN: My best is winning. It's not coming in second, it's blowing this thing

out of the window.