Fostering Self Confidence and Personal Growth

For many of us, the prospect of speaking in front of a group of people is MORE TERRIFYING than anything else we can conceive of.

It doesn’t need to be like that and there is a solution at hand.

Public speaking, like many things, is a learned skill, and like most learned skills it requires a combination of training and practice. The more you do, the better you become.

But where do you practice without feeling like you are making a complete fool of yourself?

           

TOASTMASTERS!

Every meeting you’ll get the opportunity to speak in front of an audience in a variety of settings, and you’ll receive a helpful and positive evaluation of your performance from people who have a vested interest in your success.  Not only will you be commended for the things you do well, but you will also receive some helpful suggestions on how you might improve. 

Meetings are structured with a series of timed activities where the first half of the meeting is about speaking and the second half of the meeting is a review of everyone’s contribution.  These activities may be:

• telling a story one sentence at a time where each person contributes a sentence;
• an impromptu response to a question or scenario; or
• a planned and rehearsed speech that you have prepared in advance of the meeting.

Some people are given roles for the evening and these are planned a meeting in advance.  You might be:

• a timekeeper;
• counting "ums" & "ers"; or
  
• evaluating someone else’s speech. 

So, some meetings you will deliver a prepared 5-7 minute speech or an impromptu 60-90 second speech, or you may be called upon to give a brief 2-4 minute report on something that’s happened during the meeting.

All these activities give you practice and the more practice the better you get, and the more confidence you gain and on it goes.  Everyone at the meeting is there to develop their skills in a non-competitive way, so everyone helps and supports each other.

The skills you gain will help you present yourself with more confidence.  You will become a better communicator and listener.  You will develop negotiation skills to be a better manager of your resources and even to negotiate a better performance review.

So, if being able to present to an audience, whether they are prospective clients, work colleagues or friends at a wedding, is something you want to do, you really can’t go past Toastmasters for a structured and supportive environment where everyone is on your side.

The second and fourth Thursdays of each month at 6:30pm for a 6:45pm start.  Meetings held at the Hannans Club, corner of Brookman and Maritana Streets, Kalgoorlie.