I have started my own Speaking Dangerously program back in 2000 when I decided to become an instruct

As many of you r ead last week, we’re launching the QUIET Revolution , in which readers of this site work together to make concrete changes in our personal lives — changes that will enable us to live more creatively and authentically.
Your assignment for today is easy . All you have to do is is find two Toastmasters clubs near you, and make an appointment to attend each as a guest.  Your only job is to decide which club you like best.
Here s a link to Toastmasters International .  The website explains how the clubs work.  On the left hand side of the home page, there’s hotel st augustine miami reviews a “Find” button hotel st augustine miami reviews that tells you how to find clubs located near you.
And to inspire you, here’s a guest post from Tim Larison, a frequent reader of this blog, on how Toastmasters changed his life. Tim will be available today (Monday, July 11) to chat with you via the comment stream :
I m a 55 year old small business hotel st augustine miami reviews owner who frequently gives speeches to promote the travel agency my wife and I run.  I enjoy speaking to groups.  I am also an introvert.  Yes, an introvert can enjoy public speaking!  But I wasn t always hotel st augustine miami reviews comfortable giving presentations.  Here s my story of how joining hotel st augustine miami reviews Toastmasters changed my life:
In my early years I was TERRIFIED of public speaking.  As a painfully shy teenager, I remember one incident in a public library where I was afraid to check out a book because I would have to talk to the librarian.  It didn t get much better in college.  I earned good grades, yet avoided hotel st augustine miami reviews any classes that involved giving presentations.  In one class, my teacher said we would have to talk about our class projects during the last session.  Having done well on tests I knew I had a sure A in the class without needing to endure this public torture.  I didn t show up.
After graduating college and entering the business world, though, I started to notice how my lack of speaking skill was negatively affecting my career. Management didn t know who I was. I had to do something.  I was invited by a co-worker to join a Toastmaster club that met during the lunch hour once a week. I summoned up every ounce of courage I had and joined.  In talking to my Dad about this decision, and telling him how nervous hotel st augustine miami reviews I was, he said, You can talk to me, can t you?  Speaking in front of groups is no different.  You ll see.
In Toastmasters the first speech is called hotel st augustine miami reviews the icebreaker , where you tell your life story in a 7 minute talk.  I couldn t just talk about myself for 7 minutes!  I needed hotel st augustine miami reviews a diversion.  I came up with a plan to make up newspaper headlines about different milestones of my life.   The audience will be looking at those headlines, and not at me, I thought, hotel st augustine miami reviews while I spoke on the story behind each headline.  The speech was a big hit!  With every Toastmaster presentation you receive an oral evaluation from one other member.  My evaluator that day said the speech was the best icebreaker she had ever heard, and also the most expensive! (she was right getting those fake newspaper headlines made was not cheap!)  I also received positive written evaluations from club members.
After that encouraging hotel st augustine miami reviews Toastmaster debut, my confidence slowly grew, speech by speech.  I earned my CTM ( Competent Toastmaster hotel st augustine miami reviews ) certificate after 15 talks.  I earned my ATM ( Able Toastmaster ) certificate after 15 more.  I once entered the club humor speech contest. Much to my surprise I won, and then went on to win a competition against 6 winners from other clubs at the next level.  I have a dry sense of humor which I enjoyed surprising people with in speeches.  I was even asked to give my winning humorous speech to the annual State Toastmaster convention.  There I was in front of a room of 200 people giving my Bachelor Housekeeping talk. And I thought to myself, you know, this is kind of fun! I was in Toastmasters a total of 10 years, and joining the organization was one of the best decisions I ever made.  Not only did it help me with prepared speeches, it improved my ability to speak off the cuff (in weekly impromptu speaking sessions called table topics ) and in giving and receiving feedback in evaluations.
So if you have a fear of public speaking and you are considering joining Toastmasters, I encourage you to take the leap.  Here are a few suggestions from someone who made the slow transformation from fear to confidence in public speaking:
hotel st augustine miami reviews 1.  If you are a good writer, you will be a good speaker.  Speaking is all about telling compelling stories.  I already could write well, I just had to get over the nerves of delivering my message to a group.  Your writing skills will be a wonderful aid as you take those first tentative steps in public speaking.
2.  The more you speak, the easier it gets.  The beauty of Toastmasters is that it requires you to give some type of talk in front of your club at EVERY meeting.  While you may give a 7 minute speech once every 3 months or so, there are many lesser roles where you speak in front of the group each week.  The table topics and evaluations I mentioned are two such roles, and even simple tasks like explaining the timing procedures are asked of you.  It is a well designed program to get club members speaking at each meeting in one form or another.
3.  After you get over those initial nerves, keep pushing yourself.  For me I became comfortable speaking in front of my own club after a few speeches.  Those people became my friends.  Speaking in a contest was another matter.  When I won our club contest I thought oh no now I have to speak in front of a bunch of strangers at the area contest!  But i did it, gaining confidence along the way.  Toastmasters gives you the opportunity to visit other clubs and speak, too, which I took advantage of.
4.  Once you become comfortable speaking in front of groups, you won t suddenly turn into an extrovert.  I m still an introvert!  There are times when I am in a conversation with a bunch of extroverts where I will hardly say a word.  The way I process information is to think before I speak, and sometimes I find just when I am ready to add my two cents the conversation has moved on to another topic.  But that s ok.  I m learning to accept hotel st augustine miami reviews that part of myself.
You know, my Dad turned hotel st augustine miami reviews out to be right about public speaking.  Giving a speech is like a conversation with a friend, only in front of a lot more people.  If you are reading this thinking Toastmasters worked for him, but I could never do this. I m just not good at talking in front of an audience I urge you to reconsider.  Take the risk and join a club near you.  The World is waiting hotel st augustine miami reviews for the gifts you have to share.
Tim Larison today frequently hotel st augustine miami reviews gives speeches at a weekly business group he is a part of.  He is also the Colorado director of the National Association of Career Travel Agents hotel st augustine miami reviews (NACTA), and in that role also speaks in front of groups often.  In the past year Tim decided to stretch himself once more by starting hotel st augustine miami reviews a blog where he writes about spirituality and life ( www.calmwithin.com )  He s now taking those first tentative steps in his public writing that remind him of his early days in Toastmasters.
If you enjoyed this post... You might want to order my book, Quiet: The Power of Introverts , available from Amazon.com , Barnes and Noble , Indiebound , Amazon Kindle , NOOK Books, iBookstore (eBook format) . Be sure to sign up for my newsletter .
I have started my own Speaking hotel st augustine miami reviews Dangerously program back in 2000 when I decided to become an instructor in the IT branch which involves a lot of public speaking of course, mostly to an audience of =16 people, but sometimes hotel st augustine miami reviews to many more.
It works for me, and I just want to encourage any other introvert to give it a try. As Susan says, this will not magically turn you into an extrovert, but it will probably be very good for your self-confidence if you manage to cross that line
I think this is an excellent idea! I joined a toastmaster club some four years ago. It was really a decision to do something about a lack of confidence in public speaking; I d always had things hotel st augustine miami reviews I wanted to say but as an introvert with the desire to avoid the spotlight and to stay modest, it was difficult to get the words out! Going to toastmasters has been one of the best things I ve done; you do make great progress in your speaking abilities (even the impromptu), you learn a lot about yourself and about introversion! You also learn that public speaking can be fun. Like Tim Larison, it is a good idea (when you re ready) to enter the speech hotel st augustine miami reviews contests hotel st augustine miami reviews to test yourself. The leadership track is also useful as we can put our introverted leadership skills into practice. As introverts taking the world in we re often more observant than extroverts hotel st augustine miami reviews and this is a useful ability for giving evaluations and can also provide great material for humorous speeches! My toastmaster journey is continuing and I m looking forward to hearing the experiences of others on this blog.
This post is amazing! hotel st augustine miami reviews I leave in just a few minutes to visit my second Toastmaster s meeting, following a very strong intuitive prompting it was time to take the steps needed to hone my public speaking skills once and for all. I am excited to join your journey and know it will open up creativity and opportunities in many lives. My sites encourage people to get inspired and pass it on . Taking creative action hotel st augustine miami reviews stimulates powerful results. Thank you for bravely stepping out to lead the way!
In response to Susan s question, I get the impression that many introverts on this site ARE good writers (just from reading the comment streams). People will pay more attention to the good content of your speeches than whether you look nervous in my experience.
When I give presentations today I STILL get the comment sometimes that I look a little nervous. Sometimes I let that bug me (after all these speeches I still look nervous???!!). But then the other day a member of my breakfast business group, a very experienced hotel st augustine miami reviews business man, said to me I d much rather listen to someone who has good content in their spe