Can This Help You To Break the Fear of Public Speaking?
I am happily surprised. I’ve just received “the most improved speaker award 2008″ from my local Toastmasters club. Toastmasters International is a worldwide network of clubs for developing public speaking skills. Below you will read about how meetings look like, what will happen if you join and at the end you will be able to do a search for a nearby club.
The first step in improving your public speaking skills is breaking the fear of standing in front of an audience. Most people fear it more than death. You can overcome this fear with Toastmasters quite easily in a safe and supportive environment. It doesn’t have to be a speech straight away, there are plenty various roles like introducing a word of the day, saying a short poem or just saying few words in a proper time.
Meetings are very organized and the program is almost identical in all clubs globally. Most clubs meet fortnightly or weekly and duration is usually two hours with a break in the middle. The first part is informal and is mostly filled with impromptu speaking, that means that one specified person - a Topicsmaster - asks a question to someone in the audience or waits for a volunteer which has to give a quick answer off the cuff. For beginners it’s hard, the first few times I was selected I stood up and couldn’t breathe, the heart was pumping loudly, I just kept thinking “Why me? I have nothing to say on that. Couldn’t they ask me another question?”. Now I volunteer on every meeting and I like to say something even if afterwards I have back thoughts like “I forgot to say about the most important thing”, “I could say it without tension” etc. I like it because I know that it’s normal and I see some progress. Usually there are plenty of interesting questions during the first part of the meeting.
The second part is more rigid and timed, those are the prepared speeches and evaluations. That is really cool because in Toastmasters we do evaluation internally - one member to another like a friend to a friend. In some clubs like in mine there are even paper slips that anyone from the audience can fill in with a feedback and comments about what could be improved and what are the strengths of the speech.
Any interested guests are always welcome and it feels good to all members if there are guests. First three meeting a free, then if you decide to join there is a yearly fee of something about $90 and on each meeting about $5 for renting the room, prices vary. You will receive helpful manuals at the beginning and then a not so helpful monthly magazine sent to your address. When you join Toastmasters and decide to give speeches you will get an assigned mentor - advanced member who can guide you or at least give some clues. I have a privilege to have a mentor who was a president of the Toastmasters International several years ago.
Now you should know how to break the fear of public speaking. Do it with small roles, volunteer to answer impromptu especially if the question fits you. When you join you get manuals, a mentor and warm support of other members. I definitely recommend Toastmasters. You can search for clubs right here: www.toastmasters.org/websiteApps
Remember, the first three meetings are free but you will know straight away how much it can help you.
Tags: club, fear, public speaking, solution, support
August 2nd, 2008 at 8:18 pm
hi there,
I just thought of droping these lines to add something to the helpful mentiened ideas.every public speaker has to bear in mind that
as a humain being,no one on the face of the earth can proclaim that he doesn’t feel afraid of standing in front of a crowd.my point here is that feeling a fraid in such setuation is something purely natural,so we cannot triumph over it,the only alternative that is left for us is to learn how to speak in public while we are afraid.