26/08/2026
Wow!!! Have a read of Geoffrey W Graham's journey to becoming an experienced toastmaster👏
"Imagine for a moment being a kid who loathed high school.
Imagine being the smallest kid in your year, the youngest, wearing glasses, and having an atrocious stutter with zero confidence.
That was my beginning.
It does seem incongruous that for many years now I've been an entertainer, performing to many different groups of people from students in schools to aged care, to festivals and major events. Also as an TV and film actor, though mainly small roles.
So one might ask with my background why do what I'm doing today.?
The simple answer is I love it…. To be able to deal with an audience, the tooing and fro-ing, the emotional buildups, the roller coaster of feelings, the taking an audience on a journey.
As a performer my goal is to be the very best that I can be -so when I discovered Toastmasters I realised this organisation can help me on my journey.
And I was right.
If you wish to be better at something, then do it more.
If you wish to paint pictures, then paint pictures.
If you wish to entertain or perform then entertain or perform.
It seems quite a simple challenge.
However there appears to be always fear involved. Once you put yourself out there to be seen by the public (as opposed to doing something on your own or with your partner or with close friends) it may seem like you are setting yourself up as a target.
A target for criticism or hecklers or people who will put you down for any number of reasons.
Once you realise there may always be people who don't like what you do- it doesn't matter- do what you wish to do, knowing you can't please everyone.
It comes down to what you think about what you are doing and toastmasters is a wonderful vehicle to improve and help you in striving to be better.
This may involve the following:
●Understanding what your role is with a particular audience ie understanding who they are, where they are from, and what they are expecting. Then you can deliver a talk/performance/speech etc to the best of your ability.
●The performance [structure, topic, length, etc) will depend greatly on the audience.
Eg an audience of 200 year 9 students, an Australia day audience of 5000, 50 aged care residents with a variety of cognitive differences.
●Basic structure may come down to answering the basic questions: who, what, why, where.
●Skills: There are certain aspects of the structure of a talk that have a common thread eg, using the various speech aspects: using the voice, the body, the stage.
●The marvellous thing about toastmasters is having an audience who are with you and want you to succeed in the best way possible and therefore having a critique on different aspects of your talk- vocal, structure etc.
●Another aspect that affects all performers is coping with being in front of a group of people in the aspect of nerves, remembering your lines, dealing with interjections [though this rarely happens in toastmasters) And delivering a talk we're at the end you say, wow that was fun.
●The structure of a toastmasters meeting also enables every person to speak in at least one role and then by volunteering for other roles means you can speak more or be involved in the organisation itself.
●For me another excellent aspect of toastmasters is I can help other people in many ways, on their journey to being a speaker. It's not about one size fits all. The challenges that each speaker faces may be vastly different and therefore being a mentor for people is a wonderful challenge in asking myself; how can I help this person?
●It is also a joy in watching other people speaking, the differences, the nuances, the way different minds work in fascinating ways.
If you are fair dinkum about being a speaker, having more confidence, and rising to the occasion, then Toastmasters is the organisation for you."
Thank you Geoffrey! We are lucky to have you as part of our club😊
