My Toastmasters Story
Note: This is the abridged text of a
talk I gave at the Speakeasy@Sun
Toastmasters (http://www.speakeasyatsun.org/)
club open house in May 2012.
A few centuries
ago, when I was in my early 20s, I joined Toastmasters
(http://www.toastmasters.org/). My favorite uncle took me aside and
told me that he was a Toastmaster and I might like to check it out. A
year or two later, I found a Toastmasters club right at my workplace
in San Francisco. Recalling my uncle’s advice, I tried it. My first
impression was that the meeting was weird! It seemed extremely
regulated and the members clapped a lot. Despite the weirdness, I
decided to come back.
I could tell you
that when you join Toastmasters, you will challenge yourself to do
things you wouldn’t normally do; you will learn about what makes
you tick and begin discovering what you’re passionate about; you
will get lots of leadership opportunities by volunteering as an
officer.
But you know what?
I can’t guarantee that. I don’t know what your Toastmasters path
will be. In fact you might hate Toastmasters and leave the room
screaming! If you do join, you'll have the company of 270,000 other
members in 13,000 clubs in from Argentina to Zimbabwe.
I’m just going
to tell you about my Toastmasters story.
- I’ve learned about myself and what’s meaningful to me.
- I’ve seen some significant career growth.
- I’ve gained a community of friends.
I’ve learned
about myself and what’s meaningful to me.
In the 4th century BC
Socrates said that “the unexamined life is not worth living.”
What does that
mean? The unexamined life is not worth living? I think it means that
it is worth the effort to look around at our lives and to seek
meaning in our lives. Through joining Toastmasters, I've been given
the opportunity to speak on a semi-regular basis. I have looked at
what’s important to me, what gives my life meaning, what I enjoy
and what I mourn. In Toastmasters, you get to speak about whatever
subject you want. Toastmasters just gives you a rubric: a plan, a set
of goals for your speech.
I looked back at
my manuals and I’ve talked about social networking, being green
(environmental), gay rights, my trip to China, my vacation in Japan,
personal stories from my car accident in Taiwan, how I bounced back
from my divorce, and stories I’ve written.
One thing you
should know about me is that I’m a writer. I’m not only a
technical writer, but I also write books. In fact, a Toastmasters
speech helped launch my book-writing career. The 3rd
speech in the Competent Communication manual is “Get to the Point,”
which is about organizing your speech. I chose to speak on social
networking because I learned that social networking was an essential
skill for me to survive as a non-engineer in a high-tech world.
After I wrote the
speech, I took my notes and wrote an article for the San Jose Mercury
News. After that article as published, I was invited to speak at the
dinner meeting for the Silicon valley chapter of the Society for
Technical Communication.
Heck, maybe I
could write a book on this. I wrote a book proposal, sent it to 11
publishers and garnished all rejections or no answer at all. A few
years later, through a personal contact, my book “It’s Who You
Know” was published. After that book, I switched genres from
self-help to children’s literature. My 7th book,
Operation Marriage, launched at Kepler’s bookstore last year.
Toastmasters has
fed my literary career. And my literary career has fed my
Toastmasters speeches.
I’ve seen
some significant career growth.
When I was in my 20s, I was an entry-level writer with not much
experience in anything. Over my career, I’ve been able to do lots
of things and I believe Toastmasters has helped me through the
challenges of my career:
I’ve been laid off many times and I have gone thru many job
interviews! Doing Tabletopics has helped me answer questions with
calm and poise. I don’t get rattled too easily.
I’ve taught college (five years part-time as an adjunct lecturer at
De Anza, four years part- time at Santa Clara University).
Toastmasters helped give me the confidence to try teaching.
Somewhere along the way, I became a manager. I started out as a
writer at three companies, Oracle, i2 Technologies, and Sun
Microsystems and I’ve been promoted three times to manager.
Toastmasters helped me develop leadership skills that helped me learn
to become a manager.
In 2007/2008, I had one special opportunity in my career that was
directly related to Toastmasters. In 2007, my director at Sun
Microsystems, started an engineering office in Shanghai. Since I have
a degree in East Asian Studies and am Chinese by descent, I had a
special interest in going to Shanghai and I have visited China many
times before. I asked my director if she would let me go to the
Shanghai office. She asked me to make a proposal on what I would do
to justify the trip. So I told her I would give communication
training classes to the engineering staff. Those classes were from
the Toastmasters Speechcraft program. We got such great interest I
ended up doing two Speechcraft programs concurrently! I solicited
help from the local Shanghai Toastmasters clubs and met many members
of the international Shanghai Toastmasters community.
I stayed in Shanghai for 6 weeks in a company-paid apartment and
brought along my husband and son at my own expense.
I’ve gained a
community of friends.
My Toastmaster friends are many. I’ve listened to my fellow members
speak about their passions, what makes their lives meaningful.
They’ve influenced me just as I hope I've touched them. A few weeks
ago, some of my friends from my old club Tandem Toastmasters
(http://tandem.toastmastersclubs.org/) called me to have lunch. I
hadn’t seen some of them for over 15 years! It was like going into
a time machine. We caught up with each other and shared both laughs
and tears. I feel so blessed by the community of my Toastmasters
friends.
What will your Toastmasters story be?
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