Tag: Toastmasters International

“Leave Them On The Desk” or “The Night My Invisible Umbilical Cord Was Cut”

by communicatingcreatively, posted in Public Speaking, Stories From Life

It was late 2008 and I had been enjoying my Toastmasters experience for approx. 6-7 months and was looking forward to delivering Speech #5 from The Competent Communicator manual.

Upon delivering my speech I sat down and a Toastmaster of some 25+ years of experience said to me ‘next time you do a speech, I want to see you leave your speech notes here on the table.’ I remember looking at him a bit aghast, saying “you mean I have to try to do my speech without having notes to refer to?” He said “Yes.” Gulp!

This was something I had not contemplated doing at all, ever.

What if I forgot where I was up to? What if I had a ‘mental-blank’ up there?

He reminded me that Toastmasters was a ‘mutually-supportive environment’ i.e. every member sitting in the audience ‘wants you to succeed’ so that in the event of any hiccups they would understand. This is one of the great things about Toastmasters. It’s where we learn and practice so that we can take our skills ‘to the real World’, outside.

Preparation is but one of the successful keys to the success of the speech. Preparation in terms of not only writing a speech but preparing your mindset as well.

I had it in my mind that I could not do a speech without notes. This was true up to that point in time.

With the support of the members of my club, I delivered speech #6 without notes as challenged. Since that day I have only used notes on a small number of occasions, being my incoming and outgoing Club President Addresses at a Changeover Dinners and others being when using bullet points during PowerPoint demonstrations.

Accepting and delivering that challenge to use ‘no notes’ that night changed my mindset on what was possible for me in that regard and built my confidence a little more, which is one of the things being a member of Toastmasters International can do for you.

In my next article on Public Speaking, I’ll be talking about “A Speech Contest. Are You Crazy?”

Written by David Johnson
26 September 2015

Two More Lessons Learned or ‘How I Managed To Get Through Speech Project #4 Alive!?’

by communicatingcreatively, posted in Public Speaking, Stories From Life

Over the course of my time as a member of Toastmasters International, I have learnt many, many things to help me communicate better in my speeches, presentations, evaluations and endeavour to become a better leader. I still have a lot learn as well.

On joining Toastmasters you receive two Manuals, the Competent Communicator manual (10 speeches) and the Competent Leader manual (10 Leadership Projects).

One of the earlier prominent lessons I learnt was in my fourth speech of the ‘Competent Communicator’ Manual. Speech Project #4 was “How To Say It?”

I recall writing a speech called ‘Art, An Anaesthetic To The Problems Of The World.’ Hmmm, yes, it still strikes me as a dry title and speech for that matter!

It was two pages long, in 10 point font and I recall vividly that I memorised the whole speech and forty times I was able to ‘recall it by wrote…’

Come the Toastmasters Club meeting, I was very nervous.

All went well, for the first four lines…then came the fifth line and ‘I was nowhere…’ You guessed it, due to nerves I had forgotten what the fifth line was. Silence, awkward silence followed…

I had notes with me but nerves, being what they are took control and I endeavoured to just read the notes but that was not working and I felt awkward again. Then a thought occurred to me…’you know the speech, just tell them’ and I did.

I was able to finish the speech, not with the words I had written, but words that ‘just came out…’

Two lessons were learnt in this speech project.

  1. Never try to memorise the full speech. Know your Beginning & Ending well and know what you want to say in the middle without memorising it. (This was the kind advice from a DTM {Distinguished Toastmaster}, the highest level achievable in Toastmasters International).
  2. We write differently to the way we speak.

The above lessons have served me well, as in speeches since I have written the speech out but because I know what I want to say, I deliver it without having to go ‘word-for-word’ and this has worked well for me.

In my next article on Public Speaking, I’ll be talking about how ‘My Imaginary Umbilical Cord Was Cut…’

Written by David Johnson
23 August 2015

Why Toastmasters?

by communicatingcreatively, posted in Public Speaking, Stories From Life

Logo Website Tagline LockupI was a ‘born introvert.’ At school I would not volunteer to ‘read things out in class’, at parties (even as an adult) I would only talk to people I knew, and at meetings at work I would have an idea though I would be too nervous to speak in front of others.

What led me to Toastmasters?

It was a chance meeting with a former work-friend, Wendy White in 2008 who was then President of a Toastmasters Club. (Wendy is currently District Director of District 70 in Australia).

I saw the changes in her (from when I knew her previously) and suspected that Toastmasters had something to do with this.

So what is Toastmasters?

Toastmasters International is a world leader in communication and leadership development. It has 313,000 members around the world in 14,650 clubs in 126 countries.

Members improve their speaking and leadership skills by attending the meetings on a regular basis, either weekly, fortnightly or monthly depending on the individual Club and applying themselves through the Educational program.

I joined Toastmasters in March 2008 for the following reasons:

1. To gain a greater general confidence
2. To improve my photographic judging evaluations at Camera Clubs
3. To overcome nerves

Joining and putting myself well and truly into the programme has been a life-changing experience because it has helped me in 18 different ways/areas of my life i.e.

It has helped me in the following ways:
– gain greater general confidence
– am able to control my nerves prior to and during photographic judging/speeches
– am able to take photos in front of others without getting nervous
– am now able to walk up to strangers and introduce myself
– has improved my networking/business capabilities
– have no fear of speaking in public
– have no fear of taking on leadership roles
– has made me a better leader
– it has made me a better listener
– to evaluate better
– I can now ‘think on my feet’ better (impromptu speaking)
– improved my performance at job interviews
– has enable me to write & deliver coherent speeches
– has enabled me to win speech contests (who would have ever thought)!?
– has improved my writing capabilities to the point that I am now in the process of writing a book
– has given me the confidence to start writing poems (133 at last count)
– has opened up ‘outside of Toastmasters’ speaking opportunities including me being able to accept an MC role at a wedding & being able to speak at community clubs
– has enabled me to have a positive impact on people within and outside Toastmasters

As with life in general, the learning never stops! In all of the above areas there are still improvements to be made but when I look back I am thankful I had the courage to walk through the door of a Toastmasters Club.

Members, both experienced and new will be there to support you and cheer you on!

Whether you are an employee or are in business for yourself, consider visiting/joining a Toastmasters Club.

It will change your life for the better!

Click on http://www.toastmasters.org to find out more and ‘Find A Club’ in your area.

To your Success!!!