How Toastmasters helped me build my confidence
Its not just public speaking. Its about building your personality.
I always thought my strength was my communication skills. My friends, colleagues and bosses would tell me that too. I wrote emails well, explained things well, my grammar was immaculate, people laughed when I joked, and on top of it all, I was a blogger. What could go wrong, right?
Wrong.
When I got a chance to present my work before the VP of my client’s company, being a failure was not on my mind! I fumbled for words while doing the opening scene, words came out jumbled and that surprised (or shocked) glare that I got from my manager sitting right next to me pierced like nails even without looking at him!
I quickly recovered, that was a different story, but the shaky start had me reeling for days. How could I fail so badly at something that I thought I was so good at !! It questioned my entire belief system and my self-confidence lay in pieces. I went down the spiral of self reflection, trying to revisit my whole theory and analysis of my strengths and weaknesses and got lost there.
That’s when I joined Toastmasters.