Five years after joining, I sold Mr. Mailer, Inc., by that time, a flourishing direct mail processing and mailing list brokerage and I became a for-profit professional speaker which I practiced for another 17 years. I still pinch myself when I recall how many people actually paid me (and, still do) for opening my mouth.  

Toastmasters can take most of the credit for giving me the confidence I needed to stand and deliver over 1,917 paid speaking engagements during my professional speaking career. I tested much of the material for those speeches at my weekly Toastmasters meeting. If those I knew responded well to my message, I figured it was good enough to try out with paid audiences and most of the time, this was a correct assumption!  My weekly Winter Park Toastmasters meeting became my ‘learning laboratory’ and it still is after 32 years.  

It was there that I made lifetime friendships with some outstanding people from all walks of life. Preachers, poets, professors, lawyers, business professionals; actually all very positive, professionals who joined to become “Masters of the Spoken Word”, the slogan of our chapter which was founded that 1963 day JFK was assassinated.

This group made me truly appreciate the sacrifices of the generation, which came before me. Tom Brokaw’s Greatest Generation had many alumni in our chapter. One in particular, was my mentor. First, he repeatedly harassed me to come to my first Winter Park Toastmasters meeting in February 1978.

Like many over-worked new business owners, I was too: busy, overworked and tired. The meeting was too:  far, early and frequent. Actually, I was too chicken for fear I would have to stand and speak in front of strangers and probably embarrass myself.  My mentor, a successful insurance professional, Harold Lanigan, would not take no for an answer. True to his nature, he just kept on closing. Finally, I relented and attended, and that singular experience forever changed my life.

Harold’s signature WW2 stories galvanized our attention with his narratives of a 22-year-old pilot of a B-17 over the war-torn skies of Occupied France. In one losing encounter with an enemy plane, he and his crew parachuted out of their broken War bird at 11,000 feet. In a second two years later, piloting another plane, he was shot down and spent the rest of WW2 in a Nazi POW Camp.

Harold is gone but his stories, his character and his influence on me live on as my legacy. I am still a Winter Park Toastmaster. I still enjoy speaking and improving with each speech. Even more, I enjoy sharing my knowledge with our newer members, so they too can carry on the tradition of our great Toastmasters chapter.

This is one anniversary I have truly enjoyed celebrating. To learn more about Toastmasters International, go to www.toastmasters.org and maybe, someday you will thank me. FYI, if you visit the website soon, CLICK on “A Funny Thing Happened”…..and read my Talk about starting over! story.

Since joining their Winter Park Chapter in February 1978, the Chapter has grown to 65 members and Toastmasters International has added 100,000 members and robust chapters in nearly every country.

Toastmasters International vision statement empowers people to achieve their full potential and realize their dreams. Through our member clubs, people throughout the world can improve their communication and leadership skills, and find the courage to change.

I joined to improve my public speaking skills but I stayed for 31 years because of the camaraderie and total pleasure I experienced from nurturing others to improve their communication skills. Lifetime friendships have evolved from my active participation in Winter Park Toastmasters. I met my CPA, travel agent, doctor, financial advisor and several business services-providers plus, many of my best social friends at the chapter.

My chapter has become my ‘learning laboratory’ where I have:

• Tested new speech material for my paid sales training seminars and workshops.
• Adapted skills from impromptu speaking venues to enhance my training techniques.
• Applied many communications tools to make my presentations more memorable.
• Acquired the confidence to communicate to 10 or 1,000 audience attendees.
• Learned how to apply humor to anchor my key presentation points.
• Expanded my vocabulary and broadened my appreciation of other languages.

How has my Toastmasters’ Training improved my phone-use skills? Every Toastmasters meeting agenda includes an impromptu speaking segment called Table Topics. During this portion of each meeting, members who aren’t scheduled to participate in the week’s meeting are called upon to speak extemporaneously. The meeting Table Topics Master calls on a member, who will stand and then be given a topic to speak about for 1 minute.

Now, 1 minute may not sound like a very long time but it can be quite daunting to converse on a topic one has had no opportunity to prepare, especially in front of a room full of members.

This impromptu speaking opportunity is excellent training for sales people who use the phone to cold call or who are conducting scheduled phone communications. Its excellent training that prepares one to think on their feet and to respond to the unexpected question or phone objection by the other phone party which often occurs during a phone conversation.

Toastmasters Membership is $95 annually, plus weekly chapter meeting dues and nominal fees for Toastmasters International Training Manuals. Weekly chapter attendees have the opportunity to polish their Table Topics skills where repeated practice leads to confidence and communications ease over time.

Whenever I have been exposed to sales training client sales people who lack communications skills or who shudder at the thought of using the phone to speak with strangers, I encourage them to attend a Toastmasters International chapter meeting in their vicinity.

Hands down, Toastmasters International training is the best investment to develop one’s communications skills. Once one becomes a chapter member, they will have the opportunity to learn, by doing, which is the most effective way to anchor their newly acquired learning skills.

Go to www.toastmasters.org to find a chapter and to participate in this wonderfully relevant and rewarding learning experience.