#11) Join Toastmasters

Sometimes your life changes to the tune of a 40-piece band. 

I don’t remember what the band was playing, but I will always remember leaving my first Toastmasters’ Club meeting through a concert of brass instruments set up in the building’s atrium lobby. 

Now might be a good time to mention that “the building” was the Seasons Retirement Community in Kenwood and the band was not for me, or even for Toastmasters, but for the retirees who had gathered in the lobby for an after-dinner recital.   This might also be a good time to point out that this Toastmasters’ Club is not for retirees, it just happens to meet at Seasons because there is an available conference room and offers easy highway access. 

But it felt like the concert was in my honor and it probably should have been.  Here’s why:  Toastmasters is something I’ve been putting off for fifteen years.   This all started my senior year of high school when I turned down the opportunity to give the Valedictorian’s address at my graduation ceremony because the thought of speaking in front of four thousand people made me sick to my stomach.   Everyone said I would look back on the decision and wish that I hadn’t given up the opportunity, but this is a good example of a time when everyone was wrong.  To this day, I haven’t felt an ounce of regret.  Instead, I feel like I smartly avoided a traumatic situation. 

During my freshman year of college, a friend’s father recommended Toastmasters as a way to overcome my fear of public speaking.  Obviously, I didn’t heed his advice right away, but I did tuck it away in my back pocket as something that I would get around to eventually.  As I eased into my professional career, I continued to put this off and almost began to accept that I would always be anxious in front of a crowd. 

It wasn’t until recently that I began to recognize that I could no longer turn down speaking events or just fumble through them without limiting my career potential.  I’ve worked too hard.  There is too much on the line!  This is the year!  Time to “lean forward”!

(Actually, I have no idea what people mean when they say women professionals should “lean forward” but it sounds like it fits here.)

So I left Toastmasters on Monday night with my membership application in a smart red folder and I woke up at 4:00 AM on Tuesday morning to read through the materials and start preparing my first speech.  I hadn’t set my alarm that early—I was just excited. 

This is the year!