Fast Results through Powerful Communication
While I recommend Toastmasters to my classes and clients, it’s not always the perfect solution for becoming a good speaker. It’s hard for me to not seem wishy washy on the subject because my four plus years in Toastmasters were mainly positive. Yes, there were those not so good moments, but in general I enjoyed being part of an amazing club and making some excellent friends.
Toastmasters is a great organization for people who want to become better speakers. It provides a safe, low-pressure environment where you can achieve your speaking goals at your own pace. With thousands of Toastmasters clubs throughout the world, chances are there is at least one club in your area.
Regardless of your reason for wanting to join a Toastmasters club, there are three things that you want to look for in selecting the club that’s right for you: convenience, membership, and experience.
I’m a big fan of false deadlines — milestones that force you to complete part or all of a task before its scheduled completion date. When I have a big project, the first thing I do is set a date to complete it. I then go through the process I teach in my goal setting workshop to create tasks and subtasks. But whenever possible, I’ll give myself a false deadline so that I ensure I stay on target. It can be as simple as sending a draft of a piece of writing to a friend to critique or as complex as testing out a new part of a talk on a safe audience.
Toastmasters is a great place to find good yet inexpensive speakers, especially for nonprofits and organizations on a budget. The nice thing about Toastmasters is you can often find incredible values as this is where many professional speakers go to start out. Many of these budding speakers are looking to just get their name out or get some “paid” (or non-Toastmasters) speeches on to their resumes. So it’s an excellent way to find a good speakers that will speak for free or a small honorarium.
There are a couple of things that you’ll want to do when you look to your local Toastmasters club for a speaker. But something you don’t want to do is just email all the local club Presidents to see if they have anyone willing to speak to your group. This is a common mistake companies and organizations make and usually results in them finding a speaker that’s eager to do the talk, but not necessarily the most qualified. So here are some tips:
I’ll never forget the night I assumed the role of Vice President of Education for my Toastmasters club. I had been a member for only about 5 months and pestered the Club President for the prior week about getting more involved. When I was told I could have the role, I prepared like crazy. I researched everything I could about how to be successful in that role.
So there I was, nervously awaiting my turn to get up to address the club for the first time as an officer. I was very self-conscious about the role because while I had gotten to know most of be active members and gave several speeches, being so new I felt like I needed to prove myself.
Even though it’s been several years since I was an active member, I get asked all the time about Toastmasters. Is it worth it? Which club should I join? Should I just take a class instead? Well these are all valid questions and I’ve written about these and many other Toastmasters-related topics in the past, so I figured now might be a good time to round up some of my more popular posts and tips about Toastmasters into a convenient place.
So here are some of the Toastmasters tips that I think are most helpful. As always, if you have a question that you can’t find answered or if you have a Toastmasters tip you’d like to share, please feel free to leave me a note via my contact form. Also, all Toastmasters tips and articles can be found under the topic Toastmasters here on the blog.
With the Toastmasters year coming to a close, many clubs are racing to get those final goals completed and choose their officers for the coming year. It’s an exciting time but it’s also a time where people are looking into their own futures as speakers. So it got me thinking about my involvement with Toastmasters over the last couple years and how much fun it’s been to work with so many people from this great organization.
I’ve had a number of Toastmasters clubs contact me through the years for everything from permission to link to an article on this blog to inviting me to speak at their club if I’m ever in their area. The two topics that seem of most interest to them are how make their clubs successful and how to speak outside of Toastmasters.