So you want to overcome your fear of public speaking and/or learn
good public speaking skills and you've heard about Toastmasters. These
only scratch the surface of the benefits that you'll gain from becoming a
member of Toastmasters.
Toastmasters San DiegoHere are 8 Top Benefits you'll get from joining Toastmasters
- Affordability
- Joining Toastmasters is peanuts for a year's membership. Part of
the cost depends on the cost for hiring the venue. But overall you'll
find Toastmasters costs less for a whole year's membership than the
$/£/EUR200-800+ that you could easily spend on a weekend public speaking
course. I don't know if all clubs work the same way, but of the ones I
know, you pay for the year in advance and you can then attend and
participate in as many sessions as you like for no extra cost during
that year.
- Receive Constructive Feedback
- Toastmasters operates on a constructive feedback ethos. The aim is
to give constructive feedback. Typically this will come in the "commend
recommend commend" format. This is significant as how often have you
experienced in life people being quick to tell you what you did "wrong"
and never telling you what you did "right?" Well in Toastmasters the
aim is to always leave the speaker feeling encouraged, and never
"wrong." Hence, even if the speech was poor, the aim is still to find
some positives and deliver a recommendation for improvement rather than
castigation. It also helps your general everyday communication skills
to learn to give people constructive feedback.
- Safe Place to Practice and Learn
- Due to the constructive feedback ethos, regular speaking
opportunities and the manuals members are supplied with, Toastmasters
is a safe place to practice, learn and develop your public speaking
skills.
- Overcome your Fear of Public Speaking and/or Learn Good Public Speaking Skills
- Being a member of Toastmasters, you'll learn how to become a
competent public speaker by completing the 10 speech projects from the
Competent Communicators manual that you receive when you become a
member.
- Learn Leadership Skills
- Toastmasters is not just about developing public speaking skills.
Each club is run voluntarily by members for members, and each meeting
consists of a number of roles that are performed by members. Ideally,
when joining Toastmasters you'll want to share some of the
responsibility and contribute back to your club by offering to perform
one of those supporting roles if you'll not be delivering a speech
during the meeting. If you're really keen and happy to give back to your
club as an established leader, then you can put yourself forward for
one of the club committee positions during the annual elections.
- Meet and Network with New People
- Toastmasters attracts people from all sorts of life for all sorts
of reasons. You might just meet your next business partner or employer
there, or someone that can put you in touch with someone that can help
you with some goal.
- Specialise in Specific Speech Areas
- After completing the 10 basic projects, you can then choose from a
selection of advanced speaker manuals to teach you specialised public
speaking skills in a variety of areas. For example managerial speaking,
public relations speaking, humorous speaking and professional speaking.
- Personal Growth and The Confidence to Branch Out
- A number of Toastmasters members gain the confidence to start their
own business and/or try things they'd have never have thought of
doing, or wouldn't have done if they had thought of those things, had
they not first developed themselves during their time at Toastmasters.
Life
is a journey and so is being a member of Toastmasters. And like you're
always learning in life, so it is with public speaking. Enjoy being a
member, and enjoy growing your public speaking skills and confidence.
Toastmasters San Diego 
