At First Oakville’s regular Thursday Night meeting we heard three relatively new speakers give really excellent speeches. Now every speech needed some work but that’s the reason why we do evaluations.
I know whenever I give a speech the evaluations I get are really helpful. There’s lots I don’t catch when I’m writing and practicing my speeches. Now I’m lucky to be married to a very successful and accomplished Toastmaster so I have the benefit of getting an early evaluation.
But everyone can do this. One of the Toastmasters I mentor called me prior to giving their speech and read it to me. I offered some comments and they made some changes that I think really worked.
Sharing our speech with someone we trust to give us an honest and uplifting evaluation is critical to developing great speaking skills. And I know it works. I’ve seen people come into Toastmasters who could barely put a sentence together because they were so nervous and two years later they’re competing in speech contests! Fabulous!
Unless you’re living on top of a mountain, there’s a Toastmaster International club near you. Everyone is invited to attend their first meeting (at our club it’s your first three meetings) as a guest.
