Hey Steemians.
As you can tell, this isn't a 20 questions interview. This post is a brief break from my interview series to talk about something that I've gotten fairly involved with over the past 18 months: Toastmasters.
My journey through Toastmasters
For those who don't know what Toastmasters is: it's a global organization, which promotes public speaking and leadership skills through thousands of individual clubs throughout the world.
Nervous to speak in front of crowds? Maybe Toastmasters is for you.
Speaking in front of large groups is something I've always been decent at; however, it used to give me incredible anxiety. I'd be asked to deliver a work presentation to a crowd of 200, and I'd be thinking about it for weeks beforehand. I'd lose sleep. I'd have difficulty focusing on other tasks because I was so stressed out about the upcoming speech. Then it would happen, and it would be fine, but the anxiety that preceded those events would always impact me.
A friend of mine told me he was planning on checking out a local Toastmasters group and invited me to come with him. I took him up on his invitation and that Thursday morning, I woke up at 6 a.m. to meet him in time for the 6:45 a.m. meeting. I walked in feeling groggy; I walked out feeling energized.
For the past year-and-a-half, I've gotten up (almost) every Thursday morning bright and early and headed down to my local Kelowna AM Toastmasters meeting. I've delivered a number of speeches, given countless evaluations and even led a few meetings as the main Toastmaster.
Being forced to stand up and speak in front of a group on a weekly basis has a positive effect. It's like going to the gym: when you haven't worked out in a long time, it's difficult to convince yourself to exercise. But if you're in a steady routine, it's not hard to work out on a regular basis. I've found the same for public speaking. When you speak in front of a crowd on a regular basis, suddenly, a lot of the anxiety is gone when you're asked to deliver a work presentation to a crowd of a few hundred people.
Becoming British Columbia's Evaluation Speech Champion
In March, I decided to try my luck at a Toastmasters competition. Every spring and every fall, Toastmasters clubs across the world host various competitions. The contest I entered was the "Speech Evaluation" competition.
How it works: a test speaker delivers a speech and then all of the competing evaluators have 5 minutes to take notes about the speech. After that, the contest chair takes away your notes and, one at a time, the competitors stand in front of the crowd and deliver a 2- to 3-minute evaluation of the test speaker's speech. A good evaluation will include information about what the test speaker did well, and areas the test speaker could improve in future speeches.
Only myself and one other entered the Speech Evaluation contest at our club level—I managed to win that competition. Then I competed at the city level (Kelowna)—I won again. The next stop was Penticton, B.C., for the Division Contest—sure enough, I managed to earn another victory. Finally, I competed at the provincial level (British Columbia) this past Saturday and... (the photo above tells the story).
It's always a good feeling to be awarded for our accomplishments, and I was thrilled to be named top evaluator in the province; however, I can honestly say the best thing I've gained from Toastmasters is the daily confidence to push my introverted side to its limit and be a more confident public speaker.
Feel free to comment below if you have any interest in Toastmasters. It's not for everyone. But, for some, it's an organization that can potentially offer a lot of value to those who are willing to give it a try.