Get with Toastmasters

Are you afraid of speaking in front of a large group of people? Would you like to conquer this fear?

Join a Toastmasters club.

With clubs across the world, Toastmasters is an organization designed to help people effectively improve their oral communication skills. The club is offered to anyone at all levels - good or bad. A typical Toastmasters club is made up of 20 to 30 people who meet once a week for about an hour or two. Each meeting gives everyone an opportunity to speak or to gain information on how to improve your speaking and presenting skills.

Once you become a member, you are given a pamphlet with a set of outlined speeches and goals. You can move at your own pace, but the more speeches you complete, the more you will notice improvement and the higher through the ranks you will climb. Most clubs I have looked into generally cost about six dollars a month. Not bad, considering that having the ability to speak in front of a large group of people without thinking about it twice is priceless.

Speaking and presenting in front of people is something that all PR people will need to learn and do. It can be used when pitching new business, for speaking engagements later on down the road, or when it comes time to introduce new information to your company. Having these skills not only applies to our work in PR, but to life in general. How nice would it be to give a toast at a wedding without breaking a sweat? How great would it feel to go deliver a business pitch without cracking your voice? While I personally fear these situations, I am going to do something about it. You have that option too. We have to learn and practice somewhere, why not get a head start now.

I made my first steps towards conquering this fear last night when I took the opportunity to sit in as a guest within a regular club meeting. As I guest, I was only asked to introduce myself in the beginning of the session and to give feedback about the club at the end – which was still nerve racking because I had to stand up and do this in front of thirty people. In order to participate in regular activities and speeches, you need to become a member.

In the first half of the two hour session members of the club played a game called Table Topics. In this game, a moderator stands at the center of the room and shoots of phrases. The moderator then calls out a member to speak about the phrase. That member has to stand up and speak for two minutes. If at anytime throughout the two minutes the speaker says the word ‘um’, ‘like’, or ‘so’ or any other word excessively out of context, everyone in the room clicks their clicker buttons. For example, “So (loud click), I was like (loud click) at the store the other day and um (loud click) I saw an old friend who I hadn’t seen in a really really (loud click) long time.” This is a great speech improvisation game.

The second half of the session I sat back and listened to people deliver speeches. If I were a member, I would have to sign up before hand with the Toastmasters coordinator to pencil in some time to speak. What’s nice about the club is that you are not forced to deliver a speech, you can move at your own pace. After each speech was delivered, everyone wrote feedback down for the presenter to read later on. Each presenter was also assigned one person to thoroughly evaluate their speech. The evaluator of each speech then has to go to the podium and give feedback on the presenter and their presentation in front of the entire club. Pretty intense, but how else are you going to conquer this problem? You’ve got to face your fears.

I urge all people who have a fear of public speaking to look into Toastmasters, especially the young PR people out there. Gaining these skills will help you build confidence in all areas of your work. In addition to learning these invaluable skills, you will become a more valuable asset within your company. Don’t get burnt, get with Toastmasters.