Well, I didn't throw up last night. Truthfully, I don't even know why I was so nervous; I'd been working on that speech for weeks, and it wasn't the first time the class had heard it. But I came dangerously close to having a nearly full-blown attack of hyperventilation just before I was introduced. Somehow I survived it.

The assignment was to give a five to seven minute speech on any topic of my choice. I talked about retirement planning and the three biggest mistakes that people make when investing for retirement, and my presentation came in at a very tidy 6:21.

I think my speech was well-received, and the evaluations from my classmates and the facilitators were very positive. The main facilitator, Robin, couldn't have been more effusive in her praise. She told me that I have a natural warmth in my voice that is very pleasant to listen to, and that I am able to project my voice without sounding shrill. Who knew?! She told me that my strengths include good speech organization and flow; appropriate use of gestures and facial expressions to accompany my message; and excellent vocabulary. Her comments also mentioned that I "radiated confidence and competence" while speaking, and that she learned anew about planning her investment portfolio. Later in the class, she pointed out that I have a very rare ability for a beginner speaker to avoid the use of filler words such as "uh" and "um" and "like," even when I'm not quite sure in which direction my speeches are going.

I just about floated out of the classroom at the end of the night! Taking this class was an overwhelmingly positive experience for me. I really went outside of my comfort zone when I signed up for the class, and I wasn't sure I'd enjoy it or do well at all. The group was so supportive and provided such excellent constructive criticism, though. I'm eternally glad that I went for it.

The facilitators also encouraged me to check out a few of their Toastmasters meetings, so I'll be going to one later this month. As I thanked each facilitator for their help and support during the course of the class, one of them shook my hand and said, "You're going to go places, I can tell."

WOW.

Labels: accomplishments, Toastmasters

Tonight is my final Public Speaking class. I'm giving a seven-minute speech on investing for retirement, and I'm so nervous that I think I might throw up.

Wish me luck...

Labels: scary, Toastmasters

Imagine being presented with a variety of strange-looking kitchen instruments, the purpose of which you have absolutely no idea, then having to choose one and speak about it for two minutes without stopping.

That is one of the exercises I performed last night at my second public speaking class. It was hilarious!

I picked an instrument that resembled one of these:



and I guess I had a bit of an unfair advantage, because I actually knew what it was. Still, I talked about it for the requisite time period, including how to use it and exactly how and why I knew what it was.

Does anyone want to take a guess at what it is?

We also had to give one short speech about our first cars and another speech describing any kind of dessert we've ever made.

This class is the most fun I've had in a long time. Yes, I suppose that makes me a loser.

Labels: accomplishments, Toastmasters

Remember my post a while back about Toastmasters? I thought about dropping in on a meeting of my local chapter to check it out, but had been putting it off for several weeks now.

Well, fate stepped in and intervened yesterday morning. I happened across a brochure for adult education classes at the local high school, and noticed that one of the offerings was a ten-week class called "Public Speaking with Confidence," sponsored by another local chapter of Toastmasters! Kismet, I decided. So I enrolled and last night was my first class.

It was really fun! Initially, there were four of us in class: a born-again Christian couple in their 60s who have been married for forty-two years, a married-with-kids guy in his early forties who works for Lockheed Martin, and me. There were also four members of the Chester County Toastmasters who will be taking turns facilitating each class. About an hour into the class, each of us partnered with one of the Toastmasters and were interviewing each other in preparation to speak about our partners. Suddenly, the fifth member of the class walked in, a little out of breath.

The jaws of the four females in the room, including mine, dropped to the floor. He was fricking GORGEOUS! Like Abercrombie-male-model gorgeous.

You know what happened next, right? Grinning stupidly, my female Toastmasters counterpart stood up and told him to be my partner. I could hardly make eye contact with the guy, he was THAT good-looking. Not to mention he's apparently a rocket scientist. Since I interviewed him for the first speech, I learned the following facts about him: He is 31 years old, married for almost five years with no kids. He graduated from Drexel with a mechanical engineering degree, but works as an area manager for Enterprise Rent-a-Car, supervising 30 employees. He's very athletic. Oh, yeah--his dad was a professional soccer player.

Anyhoo, getting back to the class itself, I had the opportunity to speak three times already last night. The last occasion was for something that the Toastmasters refer to as a "table topic." Basically, the facilitator gives the general topic, but each person does not know exactly what they are going to talk about until right before they speak. It's an exercise in improvisation. The other goal is to reduce or eliminate the use of speech fillers such as "um" or "uh" or "like." Don't laugh--it's much harder than you'd think. We rely so much on those fillers that most of us don't even realize when we say them.

The facilitator announced that last night's table topic was "color." She then asked me to speak about the color blue. Somehow, I managed to riff about blue for almost two minutes, with a minimal use of fillers--don't ask how. I was scared to death but plowed through it.

Should be an interesting nine weeks...

Labels: accomplishments, pretty, Toastmasters

If you know me, then you know that I like to keep myself occupied at all times. I'm truly happiest when I have some kind of project to tackle. Nothing excites me more than a to-do list. It keeps me out of trouble (read: distracts me from my shopping addiction).

Obviously, home improvement projects have been keeping me considerably busy for the past year. We've done a lot of work to the house since we moved in last August: some basic landscaping, upgrades in the forms of new ceiling fans, lighting fixtures, and plumbing work, and TONS of painting. That's all well and good, but lately I've found myself wanting to engage in more cerebral pursuits.

My friend Christina recently emailed me and asked me to join her book club. I've also been investigating an advanced non-credit Spanish class at a local college, just because I love foreign languages and I miss using that part of my brain.

And then there's Toastmasters.

My career will soon be taking a turn that will require quite a bit of public speaking. I find that prospect at once exciting and utterly terrifying. Contrary to all outward appearances, I am really very quiet. Unless, of course, there are copious amounts of Bacardi involved. Last year, I blogged about the results of my Myers-Briggs personality type indicator (which I found to be DEAD-ON for me, incidentally) and I am a true INTJ--introverted to the extreme. Most days, my job requires me to be the total opposite of who I naturally am. It's almost like flipping a switch.

Anyway, back to the public speaking thing. I'm wondering if any of my (laughably few! but very loyal!!) readers has experience with Toastmasters. Are they really as cultish as they seem? I guess I should check out a few of my local chapters, just to see what exactly goes on in there.

Labels: friends, home improvement, Toastmasters, work