Video transcript

The surprising things I’ve learned at Toastmasters

 

1. Lightbulbs

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I have heard a few speeches now about lightbulbs. Different kinds of lightbulbs, what’s more energy efficient, what happens when you break one, I have learned a surprising amount! When I first came to Toastmasters, I think I was so caught up in overcoming my own fears and what was I going to talk about. But you really quickly realise that you are in this incredibly rich and diverse environment where you are learning from other people’s stories. I’ve heard speeches on World Wars, electric bicycles, fermented food, all sorts of interesting topics, including lightbulbs.

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2. Custard is okay

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Have you ever heard the expression ‘and then everything turned to custard’? It’s a very New Zealand expression that means when everything starts to go wrong. And believe me when I first came to Toastmasters, I could picture everything that could possibly go wrong. The surprising thing I learned was that at Toastmasters custard was okay, because I was learning strategies, tools and approaches that would help me deal with those situations when they came up. So, the surprising thing I learned at Toastmasters is custard is okay.

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3. Courage

Like many people I came to Toastmasters with a lot of fears around public speaking, and I knew that I was going to have to be brave in order to overcome those fears. But the surprising thing that I learned was that courage that it took to get up and speak publicly, those skills that I learned in order to do that was something that was transferrable into other parts of my life. I’ve become more courageous in all sorts of areas and that was a surprising thing for me to learn at Toastmasters.