Practice public speaking online

The art of the toast

Being able to speak confidently in public is overvalued. The first time you experience how differently people treat you once you can give a rousing speech, you’ll think ‘but I just said some words!’ And you will be right.

Life is not fair, some skills have outsized returns, and public speaking is one of them.

There’s a lot that can be taught about public speaking, but you cannot learn to be comfortable speaking off the cuff without practice, and so this spreadsheet.

It’s a list of open, active, and general Toastmasters International groups that meet online.

Toastmasters International is a nonprofit educational organization that builds confidence and teaches public speaking skills through a worldwide network of clubs that meet online and in person. End quote.

Here’s your step-by-step guide to how you can utilize these clubs to practice your public speaking or a specific speech you want to present:

1. Make a copy of the spreadsheet

2. The spreadsheet is in central standard time, so adjust accordingly by copying and pasting the values into the correct times. So if you’re in PST you’d want to adjust two hours back.

   

   

   

   Anything that would end up in a different day than it was originally is probably too late to be worth checking, but if it’s necessary you can adjust days as well.

3. Identify clubs that meet at times which work for you and click on their link to view their contact information and more specific scheduling details.

   

4. Give the clubs you’re interested in a text/call/email and ask them if you can drop in. All of the clubs I’ve reached out to have been extremely engaged and active.

5. Attend, watch to see if this is a group you would join, and then talk about your goals for public speaking and ask them how they can help you reach those goals.

This is networking, so be honest, polite and forthright, and you’ll be sure to succeed.

Good luck! And let me know how it goes.