I’m delighted to have my Ice Breaker speech over with. Because the weather here was bad (good night for an ice-breaker! Ha! Ha!), there was only a small number of members at the Toastmasters club. But - for me - it didn’t matter how few or how many, the challenge was to stand up in front of the group and make my first speech. It can be 5-7 minutes long and the subject is usually - yourself.

 

So I spoke about being the middle child in my family, and how that impacted on me as a child. I was trying to give out a bit of information about myself, but without getting into boring details. So I tried to make it like a bit of a story. I was very nervous sitting waiting for my turn to get up to the lectern, and was glad when it came to my turn to speak. Also, in our Toastmasters club (perhaps it’s standard throughout the organisation?) the lower stages of speeches are made first. That way I didn’t have to stand up to speak after a more advanced speaker, which was just as well since the following speakers were really good. That’ll be me someday.

 

If you’re wondering how to improve your self-confidence, or your ability to face a group and speak, I can’t recommend anything better than Toastmasters. It is supportive, positive, educational and there is a wealth of experienced speakers to draw on for advice and guidance. Stop putting it off. Go do it!