Speaker 1 0:08

You're listening to the Talkative Toastmaster podcast. I'm your host, melanie Surplus. In this podcast, we explore how Toastmasters can help you to polish your public speaking skills, communicate with confidence and amplify your authenticity. You'll hear from my fellow Toastmasters and I how this global organization has impacted our lives for the better and how it could impact yours. Now let's get talkative. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to episode 38.

Speaker 1 0:42

This week, I'd like to talk about some of the many ways that Toastmasters can step out of their comfort zone by venturing beyond their home club. My guests and I have touched on these opportunities that Toastmasters offers through the various episodes, but I wanted to wrap this up into one focused episode. I know that when I first started to venture outside my own home club, firstly with club officer training and then through competing, an entirely new world of Toastmasters opened up for me, and it continues to do so. Before we begin, though, I'd like to reiterate a message about the podcast that I shared in episode 32. If you're not yet a Toastmaster or are relatively new to Toastmasters, the first 30 episodes of the podcast will give you a deep dive into the benefits of joining Toastmasters, what you can expect from visiting a club, what happens at meetings and what each of the speaking roles at club meetings involve. In those early episodes, you'll also learn about how club meetings can help you to develop confidence in both prepared and impromptu speeches, and how you can develop additional skills through speech contests or taking on club leadership roles. My amazing guests have illustrated these points with inspirational stories of their own Toastmasters journeys, so definitely check out those episodes too. Going forward, this podcast will focus less on introductory topics about Toastmasters and more on leadership and some of the more advanced skills that you can develop, particularly if you've been in Toastmasters for a little longer. Of course, I'll continue to interview other Toastmasters and share their inspiring stories, and that's one of my absolute favourite parts of this podcast. So, with that brief explanation out the way, let's dive into why it's worth getting out of your comfort zone of your club, and we'll look at 10 different options that are available for you to do this.

Speaker 1 2:51

The comfort zone is a psychological state where activities and behaviors fit a routine and a pattern that minimizes stress and risk. Within this zone, a person feels at ease, secure and in control. However, while it provides a sense of safety, staying in the comfort zone for too long can lead to stagnation, life becomes predictable, growth can be stifled and the potential for new experiences diminishes. And this is exactly what can happen if you don't get outside your own Toastmasters club at some point. I'm not talking about if you've just joined, but if you've been in your own home club for a year or two without venturing beyond that club. This is the time to think about it, because at our home club we can feel comfortable and supported. We get to know more about each of our fellow members through their speeches and our interactions with them. Some people even say that their Toastmasters club starts to feel like family, and that is the wonderful part about our home clubs. There's that sense of familiarity, of being very clear about what's going to happen, who the different types of personalities are and what we can expect from them. But it's also one of the potential limitations of staying put in your own club all of the time.

Speaker 1 4:18

So here's 10 comfort zone stretching activities for you to consider. Now, you may have already done one or two or many of these activities, but if you haven't, it just gives you something else to consider. Firstly, you can simply visit another Toastmasters club in your area, see how things run, get a feel for whether they do things differently. See if there's things on their agenda that you like and you might be able to take those suggestions back to your club. Chances are you'll be asked to do a table topic or some other small role and it just gets you into a different room and potentially speaking in front of a different audience. That is one of the easiest things to do to get out of your club. Along the same lines is item number two, which is to see if you can weave in a club visit in a city where you might be traveling to for work or for a holiday.

Speaker 1 5:12

In episode 28, I talked in detail about what ended up being an amazing experience on my recent holiday to Malaysia, where not only did I deliberately visit a club or two, in fact but I ended up at the District 102 annual conference completely by coincidence absolutely not by design, but I had the best time and really got to see the scope of Toastmasters in another country. It was so different in terms of culture but so similar in terms of activities and the things I could expect at that club and it was an amazing experience. And, again, many of my guests have talked about visiting other clubs and it's just such an enriching part of the Toastmasters organization to know that you can literally turn up to any club in the world or most clubs, if they're not restricted or corporate clubs and enjoy the experience as you would in your home club. So if you're traveling for work or a holiday, I would absolutely recommend seeing if you can tee up a club visit, and I would recommend contacting the club in advance, just reaching out to make sure there aren't any particular holidays or anomalies with their agenda for their published dates, but definitely that is worth doing.

Speaker 1 6:38

Item number three is consider joining a second club. A lot of people may think, oh, I don't have time to do that or that would just be too much, but one of the things I love about being in two clubs is the added consistency it gives me with speaking opportunities. As I've mentioned before on the podcast, I'm a member of the Mount Gravatt Toastmasters Club and the Leading Edge Advanced Club. It took about 18 months into my stint at Mount Gravatt to realize that I wanted to join a second club, and an advanced club at that. But it might be that you want to gain skills, say in online presentations, and there are plenty of online Toastmasters clubs that welcome new members and that would help you to develop skills in that particular area. In fact, if you listen to some of the episodes with many of my guests, you'll hear about some of the quite specialist Toastmasters clubs out there, and a lot of them are online or hybrid. So there are so many benefits, in my mind, to joining a second club, not the least of which, as I said, is getting more speaking practice. I know that just hanging out with a different set of people and getting different feedback on my speeches and having the opportunity to speak more regularly than just at the two meetings a month that I would otherwise speak at, being able to do it more consistently, I feel is really improving how I do things.

Speaker 1 8:16

Then number four. So item number four can be think about taking on a club officer role and attending club officer training, and club officer training is run at least twice a year. There's less speaking opportunities in this instance, but you will definitely expand your network and it will put you in a position to meet and network with more Toastmasters, and I find that when you're networking with like-minded people, it's a fantastic experience and you'll also, through club officer training, get a sense of how big the organization is and how much support activity goes on behind the scenes to make it the organization that it is. In episode 18 of the podcast, I talked in an in-depth way about each of the club leadership roles that you can take on and what transferable skills that they can give you. Even though we've just come into the new Toastmasters year and pretty much all clubs have their club leaders in place, if you are interested in a specific role, have a chat to the current role holder about what they do and perhaps see if they're open to mentoring you into that role for the coming year.

Speaker 1 9:32

Now, if you've held club leadership roles and are interested in getting some training experience, my item number five is potentially volunteering to get involved as a trainer at club officer training. So if you've been a VP of public relations once or twice and you feel you had a really good handle in that role or you had a really successful year as VP of membership that role or you had a really successful year as VP of membership, that experience is invaluable and district and division level leaders are always looking out for new trainers for the club officer training. So if this is of interest to you, have a chat with your president or your area or even division director, if you know them, and just ask what opportunities might be available for you to present at the next club officer training sessions. This can be a fantastic way of pulling together a different kind of presentation and getting some training experience in the very supportive environment that we know Toastmasters provides. Now item number six.

Speaker 1 10:38

If you want to pursue the leadership path in Toastmasters further, you might want to consider taking on, say, the role of area director, which is really the first level of leadership outside of the club, and from area director it goes into division and district leadership roles, and there are plenty of those. Now, this is my first year as an area director. It's the first experience of it, and I talk in detail about what my role for this year involves in episode 32. But certainly one of the aspects about this role that I love is that as part of my role I have to get out to each of the five clubs in my area for an official visit at least twice in this financial year. You just learn so much by visiting other clubs and even going back to clubs that you've been to. You'll pick up different things each time and it's just such a invaluable experience to see again what other clubs do, what other people are speaking about, how they're doing their evaluations, how they're giving feedback, and I've never been to a meeting yet where I haven't picked up something, at least one tip, that I thought, oh, that's great, what a good idea. And so then your mind expands with all these possibilities about speech ideas or all sorts of things.

Speaker 1 12:07

As I said, there are plenty of area, division, district and beyond leadership roles. Again, if you're interested in understanding any of these, the Toastmasters website has pretty solid material about what each of those roles does and what the requirements are. And if you are interested in learning more about what these roles entail, by all means reach out to your president in the first instance or your area director and just ask them. Ask the questions. If they can't provide the answers, they will put you in touch with someone who can. In the six or so weeks I've officially been in my capacity as area director, I feel like I've probably learned more about the Toastmasters organisation than I really knew about in the whole entire time I've been a Toastmaster. It's given me a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at how the organisation is run to some extent and what effort goes into providing the experiences for members that we do through our clubs. So it's a fascinating experience. I'm really enjoying it and already I'm thinking about what roles might I want to take on next year, because I just like having a bit of a say in the area and in the division and the district through being able to vote at area council meetings and things like that.

Speaker 1 13:44

You know there's all sorts of outcomes that come from being involved at the more senior levels of the organisation. Activity number seven is consider competing in your club's upcoming contests and this would give you the opportunity to potentially compete at the next level that is your area. So all members of good standing can compete in the table topics, evaluation and humorous speech contests and you will have needed to have completed level two of any pathway to be eligible to compete in the international speech contest. Now, in episode 20, I went into a lot of detail about the contests and how they work and again, these are a standard part of Toastmasters clubs around the world. You'll also hear in some of the interviews with guests first-hand accounts of Toastmasters who have competed or placed in district level competitions and the like. Go back to some of those previous guest interviews and you will hear the benefits that they got from competing, not the least of which it gets them out of their clubs and in front of different audiences.

Speaker 1 15:00

I know, when I competed at district level at the Caloundra Conference in the May just gone, that it was a fantastic experience, but it definitely got me out of my comfort zone and in doing that it's helped to cement in my mind that I'm capable of speaking in front of a room of a couple of hundred people. Now I don't get that experience at my club meetings and I will never get that experience at my club meetings and I'm not sure I would want that experience on a regular basis, to be honest. But the point is that it was an experience that I had, I learned a lot from, and it gives me confidence to be able to do it again should the opportunity arise in the future. My item number eight is again along the lines of contests, but if you would prefer not to compete but you still want to get outside of your own club, you could volunteer to be a test speaker for another club's evaluation contest. I've been a test speaker once, I believe, and I got five different people's evaluations of my one speech. So if you want some feedback on a speech. This is a fantastic way to get it. Every club, in every Toastmasters club around the world, is going to need a test speaker. So if this is something you're interested in doing and it would just be a five to seven minute speech it can be a speech that you've given or it can be a new speech that you want to develop and want feedback on you can volunteer to be a test speaker. I would just have a chat with your president. They can reach out to your area director or other clubs and, as I said, every club is always looking for test speakers. So it's highly likely that if it's something you want to do, you'll be able to find a club near you that would welcome you as a test speaker.

Speaker 1 17:05

Activity nine again along the contest lines, is if you don't want to compete but you could volunteer to be part of the administration team of your area or division contest. Area contests are typically held in October through November of each year, after all the club contests have been run, and then division contests are usually held in about the April or May of the following year, and there are plenty of roles at both of those levels that need filling. This can range from contest judges, timekeepers, ballot counters, sergeant at arms, even assistants, just with event management or catering. Each event in its own right is a project that needs to be managed and whether it's the area director or the division director running those events, they will welcome any help. So if you want experience on an event team, just again reach out through your president to your area director and make contact and just let them know how you want to get involved. Similarly, with things like the district conference, I know that when Leading Edge was the host club for this year's District 69 conference, we were on the lookout for really anyone who wanted to volunteer to help in any capacity, and we had people who helped out with registrations. We had people who helped out with making cakes for the gala dinner and all sorts of random activities, but important activities that needed to be done to make those events the fantastic experiences they usually are.

Speaker 1 18:59

Item number 10 is that if you don't want to compete or be part of the logistics team or organizing committee or any of that, you can simply just attend the area, division, district and even world level events if you choose. By doing that, you'll hang out with other Toastmasters for a day or a weekend or however long the event happens to be, and just immerse yourself amongst like-minded people. You'll hear some amazing stories because, as we know, toastmasters are fantastic storytellers and generally fun people to hang out with. If you haven't been to any of those kinds of conferences in your area or beyond, I would highly recommend visiting one, at least one this year. In episode 26, I gave an overview and the impressions of my first time as a attendee at the District 69 conference in Caloundra, and little did I know I would be backing that up the following weekend with my experience of the district conference in Malaysia.

Speaker 1 20:12

Unless you've been to one of those events in the flesh, it's hard to imagine how big the organization is and how many more like-minded people there actually are. For me, it was really the highlight, probably, of this year in terms of Toastmasters, and I will absolutely be going to these types of events on a regular basis. They will be part of my Toastmasters calendar going forward, just because I can now see how much value there is in attending them and how fun they actually are. So I've given you 10 potential ideas that you may or may not have tried, and you may or may not want to try, but I would certainly challenge you to think about how you can push out of your club, even if it's in the smallest way, even if it's just visiting another club or inquiring into joining a second club to give you different skills, or volunteering at any of the upcoming area, division, district or whatever events.

Speaker 1 21:20

I love this quote from Robin Sharma, which says we have a normal as you move outside of your comfort zone. What was once the unknown and frightening becomes your new normal. So I would invite you to think about what might your new normal be, beyond your current home club. If you try any of these things and you have a great experience, I would love to hear about it. In fact, I would welcome you to come on the show and tell me about it. So, if that's, you feel free to get in touch. There's email details in my show notes or you can contact me through Facebook, instagram or Twitter, and I really hope that you have a fantastic Toastmasters year, pushing just a little bit outside your comfort zone.

Speaker 1 22:18

Thanks for listening to today's show. Head to TalkativeToastmastercom, where you'll find the show notes for this and all other episodes, as well as links to some awesome Toastmasters resources. If you found value in today's content. I'd really appreciate if you could share it with friends and colleagues who may be interested, or leave a review on iTunes. This helps more people to find us. Until next time, remember the words of Rave Robinson the best speeches come from the heart and reflect your passion. Speak as if your life depended on it. Have a great week.