Edition 11: Public speaking: A novice toastmasters drive

Toastmasters International is a nonprofit educational organization that teaches public speaking and leadership skills through a worldwide network of clubs.

It has objectives such as;

Improve members public speaking skills.

Build leadership skills.

Maximize one’s potential.

Enjoy unlimited personal growth.

Work on networking in a small and supportive environment.

On 30th June, 2022, Toast Masters Muyenga Club had its regular meeting and new members were given a change to practice their speeches. This first speech for every toast master is known as an Ice Breaker speech. It is a speech where members can talk about their lives freely and are given 6 minutes to deliver a memorized speech.

Since, I was a new member, this was my first memorized speech in toastmasters. Since, the speech had to be personal, I decided that I would talk about something very dear to me. This was “leadership.” The title of my speech? was “She leads.” As? I began my speech, I was excited and nervous. I had presented various? intellectual speeches but not personal ones. The thought made me nervous as this was the first time for me to deliver a speech that was personal.

I prepared and headed for the stage. I started quite well with introducing myself, the title to my speech and began telling my childhood leadership journey. Midway, the story, I became nervous and my mind went blank, I could not remember, how my childhood contributed to my leadership journey. As I watched my audience, I panicked and laughed nervously. I was startled by myself but the audience was very supportive and I gained the courage to start afresh.

I asked for a few seconds to calm down, get my thoughts together and then head back to the stage. I returned more determined than ever to convey my truth, not from what I had memorized earlier on but from my heart. This sense of self assurance, that, this is my story and I have the right to tell it as I deem fit, awakened the confidence in me. I was able to tell my leadership journey through my eyes. I specifically shared instances where I failed at elected positions and how I had to get back up despite the failure. For example; in Primary 3, I stood for class representative and was shocked to learn that I lost because my opponent had bought sweets for the entire class. As a young child, this devastated me but it taught me the need to influence people to like me and speak to their hearts and show that I cared so that I could win votes. Despite this loss, I did not give up, I stood again for an elected position in my O’ level and won overwhelmingly with 90 % of the votes. The lessons I learnt from my first campaign journey, helped me secure the votes, this time round. From these elected positions, I have learnt not to quit and to keep serving even without a title. As I grew older, I have started organizations, not because I am the smartest in the room but because, I am not a quitter and I have learnt to start trends. I then my shared journey, from where I was able to start Kitabu-Buk Project a local NGO that has served over a million Ugandans country wide.

As I concluded my speech, I asked the young people, not to give up, keep doing good, keep serving and God will lift you higher than you have ever imagined.

As I concluded my speech, I looked back at how I began, the nerves, forgetting my story and simply freezing on stage.

This article is a call to everyone, not to be afraid to speak as ?“Public speaking is a journey that you can only move forward through walking in it.

In-case you are interested in joining toast masters, kindly follow the link

https://www.toastmasters.org