Richard A’s Toastmasters Success Story

By Jordan S

Richard A – one of Ascot Speaker’s founding members – uses the skills he has learned at Toastmasters outside the club.

We asked him how being a Toastmaster has helped him.

He said:

I regularly have to give the vote of thanks at [other] meetings.

This is a subject which I know does not come comfortably to many people. I think, in the short time I have attended Toastmasters, several parts of our programme have already helped me.

In giving a vote of thanks it is important to have listened: to quickly pick out the best points from the guest’s lecture, and then stand up and deliver a short speech using these points and say thank you, all this within a minute of the speaker finishing. Learning about evaluations and also doing impromptu speaking both come into use in this exercise.

Lastly, Toastmasters helps improve one’s confidence for standing in front of an audience.

Richard has completed his first two speeches from his Competent Communication manual and won Best Speaker both times.