How Toastmasters helped me build my confidence

Its not just public speaking. Its about building your personality.

Photo by Christina Morillo from Pexels

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.

What is Toastmasters?

Toastmasters is a global non-profit organization that runs clubs everywhere around the world, lending a framework for members to develop public speaking and leadership skills. It provides a playground where you can practice making speeches, run meetings, get a taste of leadership by taking up officer roles at your club, like the President, Vice President, the Officer of Public relations, Treasury etc.

You can know more about it here.

How being a regular member at Toastmasters helped me?

And how it might help you too.

1.Overcome my fear of public speaking

The first time I gave my ice breaker speech at my Toastmasters Club, I was a nervous wreck. That was the easiest topic anybody could have chosen, because it is about yourself, but I was so terrified of the impending speech that I didn’t sleep for many nights ahead of the D-day. My hands shivered as I drove towards my club…