20th prepared speech in the can, delivered, thanks Toastmasters
“What am I doing?” I thought to myself as I drove to Toastmasters to deliver my Ice Breaker, the first speech new members give. I wanted nothing more than to turn around and go home.
That describes much of my Toastmasters career—continuing when I didn’t feel like continuing.
But, after last night’s speech, I’m excited again. I got my Advanced Communicator Bronze award. In the past year, I’ve delivered 20 speeches. And, I’ve had a lot of opportunities that my working life hadn’t yet given me, but Toastmasters opened the door for.
What Is Toastmasters?
A lot of people haven’t heard of Toastmasters. It’s a not-for-profit speaking and leadership organization. It’s a global organization. By going to meetings you can learn speaking skills, leadership skills, impromptu speaking skills, parliamentary procedure (some clubs), and more.
It’s also a great social outlet. Our club has a few events throughout the year. We always have a good time.
What Can Toastmasters Teach You?
You can make major gaffes in Toastmasters—completely misunderstand your audience—but you won’t get flamed for it. You’ll receive constructive feedback.
That safe environment gives you a chance to try things aren’t without having your career on the line. You get a chance to really begin to understand your audience. You figure out how much you can change the impact of your speech just by adding gestures, pauses, eye contact, and vocal variety.
Feedback is the most important part. You’ll get written evaluations of your speech as well as one spoken evaluation. You can learn a lot about how other people are perceiving you.
For me, I’ve learned that I need to slow down. Even after 20 speeches I still speak too fast. It also helped me get rid of ums from my speech and stop beginning sentences with and.
Probably the most important thing is that it continually forces me out of my comfort zone.
How Can I Join Toastmasters?
Find a club. Finding a club is east to do by going to: http://reports.toastmasters.org/findaclub/
Go to a few different clubs—they all have different personalities. Find one you like and then give it a whirl. Even just getting through the first manual can make a major improvement in your speaking skills. If you really take to Toastmasters, there’s a virtually unlimited amount of things you can do for the organization.
For any Toastmasters out there, what would you add to this?
