A member of my club recently entered our humorous speech contest. She won at the Club level and she moved on to the Area contest. At the Area contest, she looked calm and relaxed and she did a good job with her speech. She did not place in the contest but I was proud of her. After the contest was over, she told me she was nervous about the whole thing but she said she was glad that she had done it.
The next day, we had our regular club meeting. The same lady who was in the humorous contest did an evaluation. She looked truly calm and relaxed and the words just flowed out of her. She had done some very nice evaluations in the past, but this was clearly her best evaluation so far and she agreed.
In talking to her afterwards, it was clear to see that entering the humorous speech contest did wonders for her. She expanded her zone of comfort and took on something big. Returning to speaking at the club was now much easier than it had ever been.
Entering a contest will help you expand your zone of comfort - speaking on a bigger stage makes speaking on smaller stages much easier.
