I had just attended my first TOASTMASTERS CLUB (#137) on Wednesday the 16th at downtown Madison. Speaking has been a passion of mine since I had an audience; my parents. They tell me stories of how I would cry whenever I was alone and never stop with my “baby talk” when I was with people. This was not a habit that could be broken like sucking your thumb.
Diving into middle school I was the most outspoken person in the class. Now, it has gotten me in trouble quite a few times, but that was before I learned how powerful of a speaker I am. Even in my first two years of high school I was Mr. Talkative and always spoke at any events I went to, always contributed my input at conferences or meetings, and always wanted to know more than what I was told; resulting in the fact I asked a lot of questions.
I say that I was like this my first two years of high school because I passed a college admissions test and enrolled in a duel credit program in which I went to college full time for my junior and senior year of high school. That is right, no high school classes at all! I was the president and founder of The Running Start club at Rock Valley College, I gave a speech to all the students and parents of the students who were also enrolled into the duel credit program, I participated in Model United Nations, I gave the opening speech at my high school graduation,I attended the Extreme Entrepreneurship Tour, and many other events. All of which I was speaking in front of groups, or on the local radio, or on the television. Everyplace I went, not only did I have something to say, but I had something worth hearing. Now that you know some background of me, you can tell how inspired I am about public speaking which results with me attending my first Toastmasters Club meeting the other day.
Back when I lived in Illinois with my dad, I remember him bringing up the Toastmasters club one day. He had joined for about a month so that he could improve his group speaking skills since he is in the Archery teaching business and will have to speak in front of hundreds of kids and parents. I said he joined for about a month because he learned quickly it was not one of his talents, nor did he have the motivation to make it one. Other than that, he may have mentioned to me once more while I still lived there that I would be great at Toastmasters, but I never listened.
I have since moved to Madison Wisconsin with my girlfriend and have taken up a writing job for an entrepreneur, Dale Suslick. Dale is one of my mentors for business and balance management. He receives a couple speaking engagements each month and it is something that I wish to take up as well. Dale is also part of two Toastmasters clubs. Now you can bet that he has encouraged me to join Toastmasters and I decided that I would go to the next meeting nearest to where I live. I researched where the meeting was and found that it was on the first and third Wednesday of each month. I was really disappointed that I would have to wait two weeks until the next meeting. I emailed the vice president of public relations for the club expressing my interest in learning more and possibly joining. He offered me a quick response full of information, and at the end he noted when the next meeting was.. was in two days! I must have looked at the calendar wrong. I still did not know if I could make it to the meeting since I was still working on my eBook (Parents Cost Us Money Too).
That Wednesday was an extremely busy day. I worked at my temporary job at the Higher Educational Aids Board for seven hours, and came home and continued writing my eBook for another three hours. I gave myself a deadline to have the eBook done, and I knew I would not reach it if I went to the Toastmasters meeting. But I had to go. I can write more of my eBook every day for the next month, but I would not be able to go to a Toastmasters meeting for at least two weeks, and who knows if something may come up that day. As I said, I had to go. I quickly changed my clothes, sprayed some cologne on, and raced out to wait for the bus. I continued waiting, and waiting, and waiting, until I started considering skipping the meeting and going back home. My jeans were stiffening up from the cold 25 degree winds blowing all over. I stuck it out and got on the bus after waiting nearly twenty minutes out in the brutal cold. (On a side note, for those who did not catch the small lesson in this part of the story. Always take the earlier bus, or leave 10 minutes earlier to a meeting, because you never know what may hold you up. I arrived to the meeting on time because I took the earlier bus.)
I walk into the meeting room about five minutes early and am acknowledged first by a member of the club. His name was Dave and he requests that he is called the Sasquatch because he is slightly over sized and has a long hair and even longer and more thick beard.You can only imagine. I was then introduced to the Toastmaster, Matt. In meeting with him, he asked if I would be the Time Keeper of the meeting. I went into this meeting with an extremely positive attitude and a need to prove myself worthy. I readily accepted and was fed the info I needed to know to behold the responsibilities correctly.
Once the meeting had began and introductions were made, Matt asked everyone if anyone knew a good joke. I immediately raised my hand because I had heard a great joke while listening to some of Zig Ziglers pod-casts at work. In addition to the Time Keeper, I was now the Joke Master as well. Before I continue I would like to update you on how this particular club’s agenda was laid out. Hopefully having more of an idea of what goes on at a meeting will motivate you to join. Each meeting begins with the president giving an improv introduction. Following this the Toastmaster will give a speech reaching out to the members and persuading any noobies to join. Next, table topics are discussed. One person, in my case Dave, got up and began giving a speech about a topic. His topic was “Veterans”. After he spoke about his own experience having a family member that was in the Vietnam War, he began to ask each member in the club different questions related to the topic. He asked everyone a question except me. He was not trying to exclude me, he simply knew that I was new and already had a task I was trying to carry out. Fortunately for me, the Toastmaster interrupted and said that Dave had time to ask one more question, and he suggested to ask me since I had been the only one who had not participated. I was eager to respond since speaking was exactly what I went there for. Since he was all out of questions, I was able to give an impromptu speech related to the topic. I spoke for a minute and ten seconds (I had to time myself) about how my Papa was in the Secret Service and would always tell my family and I stories of when he was in the service. I related this event to reading a sci-fi, horror, military, and historical novel all combined in one. I described that I would hear the story and it would get extremely suspenseful, but I never heard the ending. There was no conclusion in the novel. As I said, my Papa was in the Secret Service and with that he has been sworn to secrecy about a lot of subjects. (All the good stuff!) Everyone loved my speech and applauded greatly.
The time carried on and I kept track of the time it took for the next four speakers who had speeches to present. Then people are selected to evaluate each speaker and they get up and present their feedback. After all the evaluators present their information, the Time Keeper (me), has to tell everyone their times. That was easy enough, but I was also the Joke Master that was next in the agenda. I told everyone how I had been listening to Pod Casts of Zig Zigler (who I highly suggest researching and learning from). I had to say that I could not attach the joke to the motivational story that Zig told because I did not remember it completely and I did not want to butcher his work. I stuck with the joke and I asked everyone, “Why are blind people afraid to sky dive?”. After dead silence and looks of puzzlement all the way around the room, someone shouted out “Why?” I said, “Because it scares their dogs.” Laughter bounced off each wall in the small room as everyone got a kick out of the joke.
The Poem Master was up next and he gave a phenomenal voice to a poem.
Then the quiz master was up and asked us questions to see if we had paid attention to the speeches.
Then the grammarian was up to say how many times people said “uhm”, “uh”, and other various faults.
During the process we were filling out ballets for best table topic, best speech, and best evaluator. The Awards Master was next up and he began by saying that I won the Table Topic award! I was thrilled and jumped up to the podium with excitement and thanks everyone for their votes, shook the Toastmasters hand, and sat back down with such a huge grin on my face that I could eat a banana sideways.
The Toastmaster gave a final discussion and the meeting was over. I could not believe it, I won an award at my first meeting and I was not even an official member! Looking back, I cannot believe that I even considered not going. You need to take advantage of every opportunity that comes your way, especially when it is something that interests you. I hope my story encourages you to give Toastmasters a chance, and your still the opportunity to be connected with other brilliant people. I greatly look forward to the next meeting and you can bet that I will post another blog about my experience.
Do you recall when I said that I often asked a lot of questions in life? Well, I do because I want to learn. So if you have any Public Speaking skills, lessons, websites, blogs, etc. that you would like to share with me, I would be the most grateful. I have a wide variety of experience with speaking and maybe we can connect! Feel free to contact me at TheGarthBox@gmail.com
Stay Positive and Stand Out Among The Others Who Stand Up
– Garth E. Beyer
