Helping people find their voice
One of my friends scoffs at Toastmasters, but moments like this make it definitely worthwhile.
Today one of the members brought his girlfriend to listen to his first speech. The girl was painfully shy and clearly terrified of public speaking, even during the Table Topics and guest comments section.
She approached me afterwards, though. And oh, the stories I could see inside her... CN Tower Stair Climb T-shirt, colored bands around her wrists: these are the marks of someone who cares deeply about some things. I listened to her fears and shared my own experience learning how to speak - at first starting out because I couldn't stop talking about technology and I wanted to get into conferences for free, and then realizing how much fun it was to help people learn. I told her that the real trick to speaking in front of an audience - or at least in front of Toastmasters - is to speak to them one person at a time, treating them as your friends.
Most of all, I looked into her eyes and told her in many different ways that she had stories worth telling.
When I felt her tentatively reaching out, I closed the loop and we hugged. The hug was one of the best I've ever had, and her thank you one of the sweetest.
This is what I live for: that deep connection, that chance to help people find their voice.
On Technorati: toastmasters, teaching
Random Japanese sentence: 猫ãŒソファーã§ãÂÂむã£ã¦ã„る。 The cat is sleeping on the sofa.
Save to - del.icio.us - Digg it - reddit - StumbleUpon
No comments yet.