SV Business Toastmasters

04/29/2021

Next Meeting is: Monday, May 3rd @ 12:00 pm
Time: 12:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
Every first and third Monday of the month

Topic of the Day:
"Accountability Partners"

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86954971000?pwd=K3RXWFc0bEhZYXhUaDdzclZPejd4Zz09

Meeting ID: 869 5497 1000
Passcode: 201934
Dial by your location
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)

Zoom is the leader in modern enterprise video communications, with an easy, reliable cloud platform for video and audio conferencing, chat, and webinars across mobile, desktop, and room systems. Zoom Rooms is the original software-based conference room solution used around the world in board, confer...

04/29/2021

Hey Toastmasters (and those thinking about becoming Toastmasters)!

This weekend is the District 33 Conference.It starts Friday at 6:30pm and picks up again on Saturday at 8:00am!

There is a SUPERHERO theme to the conference and there will even be a costume contest on Friday night. All my Lycra is at the cleaners, so I won't be competing...but it should be good for a few laughs. I was also part of a "secret" superhero movie project that will be unveiled during the conference (probably Friday night).

Yeah...it's serious NERD fun....but it is FUN.

There will be 2 AMAZING speakers (of course), some great educational stuff throughout the day, and then there are the contests!

The Humorous Contest starts at 10:30am. There will be 7 speakers competing. This is the end of the competition for these folks, so this will be the best in our division. Should be some great and very funny speakers.

The International Contest starts at 4:00pm on Sunday it gets REAL this time as 7 competitors (including yours truly) will be battling it out to move on to the big, BIG time. We spun the wheel for our speaking positions last night. As if I needed more drama...I'm going dead last!! They record these speeches and the winner's video gets sent to the next round. I hope to represent our division well and make you all proud.

This is a free event and you can come and go as you please for the things that interest you. Registration IS required. Click a link below.

Friday Registration Link: https://bit.ly/3mTXo70

Saturday Registration Link: https://bit.ly/3n0JcZN

I hope to see you there!

03/30/2021

I received a great question today on my personal FB page that I thought I'd share with you.

I was asked "Is it true that you have no idea what you will be speaking on until about five minutes or so before you have to stand up and speak your piece? "

That's a great question and the answer is "Yes...kind of..."

In our meetings, our members are all working on their chosen course of study, called a "Pathway". You can choose from Leadership, Presentation Skills or other subjects and there are usually 2-3 members that have prepared speeches of 5-7 minutes as part of their project.

After all the scheduled prepared speeches are done, we go into something called "Table Topics" where a designated member asks each member a different topical question that the member is to speak about extemporaneously for 2-3 minutes. The people who are chosen to answer the Tables Topics arent' really given ANY time at all. You just jump in and start talking!

Sure, it sounds scary at first...but there are strategies to make this less daunting than it sounds.

After the questions have been asked and answered the club members vote for who answered their question best and they are awarded for it. It's all in good fun, but it IS challenging.

I think it's one of the BEST things we do because people are MOST afraid of being called on to speak when they are LEAST prepared. As you learn the tricks of the trade to speak off-the-top-of-your-head, your confidence REALLY grows. You learn to think quickly, gather your thoughts and relax. You learn to stop "umm-ing", "ahh-ing" and it really improves the way you are received by listeners. You are clearer, more thoughtful and your listeners perceive you as smarter and more knowledgeable because you seem to have your subject matter well in hand.

After they get the hang of it, Table Topics are often members' favorite part of the meeting.

03/29/2021

Hey FB friends,
Many of you have sent kind words and congrats on the Toastmasters Speech contest and I'm very excited to be competing again next month.

Some of you have said "I could never do that!"

And that's where you're mistaken...

Toastmaster is all about gaining confidence and skill in speaking. It's something that you do gradually, at your own pace with others who are all there working on the same thing.

It's VERY supportive and much of the stage fright is eliminated because you're among FRIENDS.

JOIN US!! No, really! JOIN US!!

Next Monday, April 5th, at 12:00 PST we're having a special meeting just to introduce what we do. No obligation! It's a ZOOM meeting of course, so there pressure is OFF. Just come prepared to see what we do and have some fun.

Are you game?
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86954971000?pwd=K3RXWFc0bEhZYXhUaDdzclZPejd4Zz09

Meeting ID: 869 5497 1000
Passcode: 201934

Zoom is the leader in modern enterprise video communications, with an easy, reliable cloud platform for video and audio conferencing, chat, and webinars across mobile, desktop, and room systems. Zoom Rooms is the original software-based conference room solution used around the world in board, confer...

03/15/2021

Our next meeting will be April 5th at 12:00 pm. Our Topic of the Day will be "Be My Guest"
Join us on Zoom by clicking the following.:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86954971000...
Meeting ID: 869 5497 1000
Passcode: 201934

Zoom is the leader in modern enterprise video communications, with an easy, reliable cloud platform for video and audio conferencing, chat, and webinars across mobile, desktop, and room systems. Zoom Rooms is the original software-based conference room solution used around the world in board, confer...

03/03/2021

Our next meeting will be March 15th at 12:00 pm. Our Topic of the Day will be "Making Time for What Matters"

Join us on Zoom by clicking the following.:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86954971000?pwd=K3RXWFc0bEhZYXhUaDdzclZPejd4Zz09

Meeting ID: 869 5497 1000
Passcode: 201934

03/02/2021

It's ON! Saturday morning at 9:00 am. The contest begins. I am looking forward to competing with our friends and colleagues throughout the area (and beyond, hopefully).

I served as a judge at one of our local clubs and was blown away by the speeches and the speakers.

If you like "Ted Talks" or "The Moth Radio Hour", you'll love this. Funny and inspirational speeches from great speakers from all over our area. If you've ever wondered what Toastmasters is all about, this is a great way to see just some of what we do.

It's free to register. Just go to:
https://us02web.zoom.us/.../tZUrc...

03/01/2021

My First Year In Toastmasters
Article #6
By Bill Perry, PM3

Leadership

Towards the end of my first year, elections for Toastmasters officer positions were brought up. A big part of my interest in joining Toastmasters was to have a solid foundation in business communications, so I was looking for an opportunity to lead in some way. I’ve been in a few leadership roles in work situations, volunteer opportunities and at church.

Being a natural-born loudmouth and class-clown means I’m not afraid to speak up. Being the loudest or most obnoxious isn’t leadership, of course, and I was challenged to decide what kind of leader I wanted to be.

I chose something that is often called a ‘servant-leader’. The concept is that as a leader you serve those in your organization not by delegating the jobs you don’t want to do, but instead taking responsibility for them. Leading by example and putting the needs of members above your own.

I chose a few goals for myself for the leadership role. Goals for the club were also defined. I discovered some ways that the goals of the club could be achieved by me achieving mine.

The club’s goal was to increase our membership and become a “distinguished club”.

I decided that my first goal was to see if the members of the club are getting out of the club what they want and expect. The nexus of these goals as I see them, is that if members are getting what they want/need from the club they will invite colleagues to join. To become a distinguished club, our members will need to complete projects and proceed along their pathways.

We’re several months into my tenure as president at this time and we’ve been relegated to ZOOM-only meetings by the COVID shutdowns, but we’ve still managed to increase our membership despite losing a member. I hope this means that members are seeing improvement and have greater confidence in their speaking skills.

I expect to continue pursuing both the club’s goals and my own and to learn from the experience.

02/23/2021

My First Year In Toastmasters
Article Five

Nervousness when speaking

There is a commonly quoted ‘statistic’ that most people are more afraid of public speaking than they are of burning to death.

In my research for this article, I found that in the top 50 commonly-held fears, it occurred in roughly 12th place. It was just behind the fear of spiders and just a few ahead of the fear of zombies.

This is a misleading statistic for a number of reasons, but the key fallacy in ranking one fear above another is that while you may have a real fear of zombies, your likelihood of facing the undead is far less than the very real possibility that you will need to speak to a room full of people at some point in your personal or professional life.

Plenty of books have been written on how to overcome stage fright. To me, the silliest one is that you should “picture the audience in their underwear”. This works on the concept that you can alleviate your anxiety by removing the fear of embarrassing yourself by imagining the audience in a vulnerable position themselves.

I experience stage fright like most everyone, but I can honestly say that I don’t “suffer” from it. While I don’t pretend that I can ‘cure’ anyone of such a deeply ingrained fear, I figured I’d share my perspective, and maybe it might give you someplace to start to alleviate some of your fear.

#1 Preparation -
Much anxiety comes from “what if…” Extensive preparation doesn’t mean you won’t make mistakes, but lack of preparation all but guarantees something will go wrong.

#2 Practice -
Practice is part of your preparation. Use all available time to practice. Don’t just practice till you get it right. Practice till you can’t get it wrong. If you were simply asked to cross the room to receive a promotion, you wouldn’t be that freaked out, would you? That’s because you have confidence that it’s something you have done almost effortlessly for most of your life. The more time you spend practicing, the greater your confidence can be.

#3 Take your fears for a walk -
Part of the discomfort of our fears is that the situation will end in catastrophe. But will it? Instead of jumping to the end of the consequences of failure, think it through methodically.

If your speech DOESN’T go well, what would be the first result? Would you actually lose the respect of those attending….or would they be empathetic to the fact that you were struggling? Being an exceptionally strong public speaker is rare, so your expectation of your performance may be far higher than that of your audience.

Public speaking is a common fear. Your audience is more likely to be rooting for you if you are making your best effort, smiling in the face of your fear, and persevering the best you can.

02/16/2021

My First Year In Toastmasters
Article Four
By Bill Perry, PM3

Speechwriting

I enjoy writing speeches. I know this is a common sore spot for a lot of Toastmaster members, so rather than writing about what I learned in my first year, I thought it might be helpful to write about what I already knew about writing when I came through the door at Toastmasters.

There is an old adage in songwriting that says “write about what you know”. It sounds simple, and it IS helpful to write about things that you already have knowledge about. No research required, right?! I think in order to make your writing more compelling it’s equally important to write about your perspective on what you know.

There are hundreds of thousands of love songs, so the subject is well covered. Given those numbers it would seem to be impossible to write anything new on the subject, right? The difference is in the perspective of the writer. Another way to illustrate how important your unique perspective can be is to consider theatrical actors. For a classic piece of theater, they are required to present the EXACT same situations, actions and emotions of every actor that has ever played the role before (word-for-word!), but it is also their responsibility to bring their personal experience and analysis to the performance.

When writing a speech it can seem so difficult to present anything anyone hasn’t heard before. If you do have some new information, it can be hard to make what you’re speaking about relatable or intriguing to your audience. Whether you are presenting new information or are speaking about something that we all have in common, the key to making the speech compelling is to provide the audience with your take on the information.

Writing can be tough, but when you look at the material you are going to present, it can be much easier if you invite the audience into your experience of the information they are hearing. How has the information you’re presenting affected your life? How do you think it might affect the listener’s world? By internalizing the information that you’re sharing you can take away some of the anxiety and complexity of writing a speech by incorporating the subject matter with “writing about what you know”.

02/15/2021

Our Meeting tomorrow, February 15th, will be informative and fun. We've planned a Panel Discussion about what is means to be the President of your organization or business. Plan on joining us on Zoom!!!

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86954971000...
Meeting ID: 869 5497 1000
Passcode: 201934
Dial by your location
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)

02/10/2021

Here's post # 3 of my "First Year in Toastmasters"

When you join a club, a team or even volunteer on a project, it’s common to examine “What’s in it for me?”. You’re giving up your time, not only to attend the meetings, but to prepare for them. The costs aren’t huge, but what are they pay-offs? While this list is by no means comprehensive, these are some things I’ve benefited from in my first year.

#1 I’m a better public speaker.
Well, duh!? That seems like it should go without saying, right? But, I was already a confident and experienced public speaker when I started. To get better I needed to surround myself with people who were strong public speakers, and willing to compassionately and knowledgeably help me improve.

#2 I’m a better leader.
Leading can be tough. Keeping everyone on track and being accountable for the success of others is a real challenge. The Toastmasters environment can be demanding, but it’s also very supportive. No matter what the challenge might be, there is a MASSIVE organization behind you and resources to help you.

#3 I’m more organized
Organizing is one of my least favorite management tasks. Being in Toastmasters has given me responsibilities that require me to keep my projects organized if I want to get better. Again, Toastmasters is BIG, and following their procedures and training is good skill-building for my professional life too.

#4 I’m a better writer
Toastmasters is highly focused on giving speeches and that means you have to have something to say. I enjoy writing, but knowing I have to refine my words to connect with an audience in-person and with a limited time has helped me to write more concisely and focus on reaching my audience.

#5 I’ve made friends
If you’re nervous about public speaking, you’re not alone. That’s why so many people join Toastmasters. When you allow yourself to be vulnerable and look that fear in the eye, it can be a process that really binds you to the people you share that experience with. Toastmaster is about lifting each other up to improve our communication skills. That’s a great goal to pursue with friends.

#6 I’m more confident
As I’ve shared in previous posts, I wasn’t afraid of public speaking, I just wasn’t as good at it as I wanted to be. That awareness of the lack of a solid foundation, always eroded my confidence. Working through projects that are focused on developing basic skills gives me confidence that my speech will be well-constructed from the ground up.

What will you benefit from if you join Toastmasters? The answer to that question relies on what you’re looking to learn, what Pathway you decide to follow and how much effort you’re prepared to employ.

Want to learn more about Simi Valley Business Toastmasters? Visit our website at: https://svbusinesstoastmasters.toastmastersclubs.org