join Toastmasters

My speech was about my plight as a pet owner. Of course my pet is a Betta fish.

The speech was generally well received. Things to work on include body language and pacing. I need to figure out what to do with my hands. Also, I have a tendency to rush through my speeches so that I can sit down as soon as possible. Plus today, my ending wasn’t developed enough anyway.

In order to become a Competent Communicator, one gives ten speeches from the Competent Communicator book. I joined a second toastmaster’s group earlier this month so that I would have more opportunities to give speeches. Both clubs are large clubs. The wait time for the first group I joined was 6 weeks! I give speech number 3 on 8/19 and speech #4 on 8/31. That will give me 7 months to complete the remaining 6 speeches.

Today I gave my second speech. I talked about my decision to change careers last year and gave a general summary of my work history. My evaluator mentioned how my body language gave away my nervousness. I leaned into the podium and fidgeted with my flip flops as I spoke. She also suggested that I might want to include vocal variety in my next speech even though that isn’t required until speech 6.

I gave my icebreaker speech on Sunday. The topic was my life as a runner in middle school, high school, and as an adult. The speech was pretty well received.

Originally I wanted to take an acting class. This goal is more doable at this point in my life. I’ve already attended a few Toastmasters meetings in the last month, will attend another tomorrow, and will likely join.