Do you want to be more confident? Would you like to improve your communication and leadership skills?
If the answer to either of these questions is “Yes,” then I strongly suggest that you join a Toastmasters club. These clubs are available all over the world, and you can find the ones closest to you at www.toastmastersinternational.org.
The mission of a Toastmasters club is to “provide a supportive and positive learning experience in which members are empowered to develop communication and leadership skills, resulting in greater self-confidence and personal growth.”
I have been a member of Toastmasters for nearly 20 years, and the fact that it’s a cliché to say that my experiences have truly changed my life doesn’t make it any less true. In fact, my experiences in Toastmasters have unquestionably contributed to my success as a social media tutor and trainer.
Ways That Toastmasters Contributes to My Success
- Developing time management skills. Almost everything in a Toastmasters meeting is timed – the prepared speakers, their evaluators, and the impromptu speakers. These people are expected to complete their remarks within a certain time frame. Whether I am training a group for 20 minutes or two hours, I know how to pace myself so that I finish within the allotted time. This not only respects the time of those listening to me (who can relax, knowing they will receive the information they came for within the promised time frame), it also helps me pace myself such that I know I will get everything covered within that time allocated.
- Adapting to different speaking environments. Over the years I have been in Toastmasters, I have spoken and trained in a wide variety of environments, from small meeting rooms to large lecture halls. In my business, I speak and train in many kinds of spaces and have had to adapt on the spot to both the size of the space and the technology available.
- Creating rapport with an audience. No one in an audience will care about what you have to say until they know you care about them. Building rapport with an audience is essential to ensure that the audience feels you care about them and are there to serve them. As a social media trainer and speaker, I have Toastmasters to thank for helping me put my audience first and always remember to adapt my remarks to their needs.
- Building self-confidence and enhancing personal growth. The increased self-confidence I have gained through Toastmasters continues to help me grow my business by allowing me to solicit new clients and new speaking and training opportunities. The insights I have gained about myself through the personal growth work I have done with Toastmasters regularly helps me make healthy choices regarding ways to contribute my time and energy to business and volunteer opportunities.
- Improving feedback skills. One of the reasons people join Toastmasters is to get feedback on their speaking skills. Each prepared speaker is assigned what Toastmasters calls an evaluator, who provides both written and verbal feedback to the speaker. This feedback is offered in a kind, yet direct manner, which is the style I use when giving feedback to my clients about improvements needed in their LinkedIn profile or their Facebook business page.
How About You?
What kinds of training have you done that contributed to your success? What was it about that experience that helped you the most? Which organization provided that training? Do you recommend them to your friends and colleagues?
About Joyce
Joyce Feustel helps people, especially those age 50 and up, to become more comfortable using social media, especially Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Twitter.
She works with business owners, business development professionals, leaders of nonprofit organizations, job seekers, retired people, consultants, and many others. Find her at www.boomerssocialmediatutor.com.
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