Summary

Rasheed Hooda's experience with Toastmasters has significantly improved his writing and storytelling skills, demonstrating the organization's effectiveness in enhancing communication abilities.

Abstract

Rasheed Hooda, a member of Toastmasters since 2002, shares how the organization's focus on public speaking and leadership has unexpectedly transformed him into a better writer. Through the discipline of crafting concise 5 to 7-minute speeches, he learned the art of editing and refining his narratives. Guided by his mentor, World Champion of Public Speaking Darren Lacroix, Hooda embraced the practice of transcribing and editing his talks, which led to the mastery of storytelling within a limited time frame. Toastmasters' approach to feedback, emphasizing constructive evaluations over criticism, is highlighted as a key factor in personal development. The recent revamp of Toastmasters' education program, Pathways, offers modernized training in various communication forms, including blogging and podcasting. Hooda's three main takeaways from his Toastmasters journey are the transfer of public speaking skills to writing, the enhancement of research and storytelling capabilities, and the improvement of vocabulary and content editing.

Opinions

Toastmasters' tagline "Where leaders are made" reflects the organization's commitment to developing communication and leadership skills.
The author values the immediate feedback from Toastmasters as a crucial element for personal growth, considering it the best self-improvement program.
Darren Lacroix's influence is evident as Hooda adopts the practice of recording, transcribing, and editing speeches to refine storytelling.
The importance of condensing stories and using potent words is emphasized to create impactful speeches within a short duration.
The new Pathways program is praised for its comprehensive education in modern communication platforms, offering value at a minimal cost.
Hooda believes that Toastmasters has not only enhanced his existing skills but also equipped him with new competencies in writing and public speaking.

Self-Improvement: Storytelling — #ILLUMINATION

How Toastmasters helped me become a better writer

An introduction to storytelling in 5 to 7 minutes.

Are you familiar with Toastmasters?

I have written about it here and here.

It is a worldwise Communications and Leadership organization. Their tagline says it all.

Toastmasters: Where leaders are made.

When I joined Toastmasters in 2002, I had already been speaking in the religious circuit for almost 20 years. I wasn’t looking to learn about public speaking; I wanted to enhance my skills. I had learned to present using my inner guidance and mostly spoke impromptu based on my acquired knowledge of the subject matter over the years.

It was easier for me to deliver a 20 to 30 minutes speech on a topic of my choice than to condense it into a 5 to 7 minutes speech. That took effort and focus. Most of the projects in Toastmasters call for a 5–7 minutes speech.

What I didn’t expect was that it will force me to become a better writer.

To condense it into a 5–7 minutes presentation, I had to learn to write it down. My mentor Darren Lacroix, World Champion of Public Speaking, 2001, teaches that you record your talk and then transcribe it. Now you have a script you can edit as needed to make it what you want. You might have to use different yet more potent words or choose to move parts of it around to make more sense, and to create better transitions.

Not only that, you learn to condense your stories so that you can use more of them in a speech. It’s an art and a science, just like writing. Darren says, “Great communicators are great storytellers.” Writing and public speaking are both artistic forms of communication. He used 11 stories in his winning speech, which was less than eight minutes long.

The speech begins at 0:36 below

Compliments of Darren Lacroix’s YouTube channel

Toastmasters also teaches you to give and receive feedback positively and constructively. We don’t critique, we evaluate. Evaluation adds value, while a critique focuses more on what’s wrong. In my opinion, this process of immediate feedback is what makes Toastmasters the best personal development program in the world.

After 95 years of existence, Toastmasters recently revamped its entire education program to incorporate modern technology. The new Program is called Pathways, and there are 11 distinct paths you can choose, based on your needs and current level of competence. It costs you a whopping $20 to enroll in one Path. Each Path has five levels.

You learn to do research, give and receive evaluations, conduct self-analysis, and learn about presentation skills. You create Powerpoint slides, explore blogging, podcasting, and YouTube. There is more, but it will require a more extensive piece that I am currently working on.

My Three Takeaways

Toastmasters helped me become a better writer by teaching me new skills while enhancing my existing skills.

1. Toastmasters helped me to focus on my current strength, public speaking, and transfer its core competencies into my ability to write.

2. Toastmasters taught me to conduct better research to support my ideas and opinions and turn them into compelling stories. I became a better storyteller as a result.

3. Toastmasters enhanced my ability to create transitions, helped me improve my vocabulary, and forced me to edit my content by using better and more potent words.

Day seventeen of the 30-day challenge. My theme: Self-improvement

As always, thank you for reading.

Rasheed Hooda writes about Personal Growth and Self-Improvement on #ILLUMINATION

I am a self-proclaimed weirdo, Jack of Many Trades, Master of Some — Writing, Photography, and Public Speaking. I live a Nomadic, Freedom Lifestyle, and write about related topics — Travel, Personal Growth, and entrepreneurship. (Join the Tribe)

“You can let others tell you what it means to be successful, or you can decide it for yourself.”