HIGHLAND LAKES — Businessman Mike Clark smiled when asked how he would define the Highland Lakes Toastmasters club.
First, he said, attendance is not about making toast, so people don’t need to bring any bread.
Second, he added, the club offers a great way to practice public speaking, which can help one move ahead in business — and in life.
“I think the way I like it best described is how (fellow member) Teri Freitag described it,” said Clark, a Marble Falls mining company manager. “Teri said, ‘It’s not public speaking, it’s group therapy cleverly described as a speech club.’”
On the first and third Tuesday of the month, the local Toastmasters gather at Francesco’s Italian Restaurant, 701 U.S. 281 in Marble Falls, from 6-7:30 p.m.
The goal, members said, is simple — to practice public speaking.
Though it’s much more laid back than what many people remember from their high school or college speech-class days, Clark said the methodology works — including in business settings.
He recounted a team training workshop in Atlanta several years ago where he was asked to give a summation in front of several hundred people about what his squad had learned during the week.
Clark said he strolled to the front figuring the impromptu speech would be quite easy.
“When I got up there, it was like ice,” he said. “I mumbled and fumbled my way through it. When I walked back to my seat I said to myself, ‘Never again.’ After that I joined an Austin Toastmasters.”
Later, Clark became one of the founding members of the Highland Lakes Toastmasters. Now, he appears comfortable and confident in front of a crowd when speaking, though he said it took him time to get to that level.
“The thing is no matter who you are or what you do, you need to practice (public speaking),” he said. “Very few, if any, can get up in front of a group of people and talk — at least in a way that best communicates what you’re trying to say.”
The local club, which had its formative sessions in the offices of Victory Publishing Co. Ltd. — the parent company of the Business Journal — uses a format that’s been transforming people into competent public speakers since 1924 when Ralph Smedley held the first meeting in Santa Anna, Calif.
From that initial meeting, the club would eventually grow into Toastmasters International. The local club began in June 2009.
“Toastmasters has a very structured program, but it’s not like when you were in high school and it was so intimidating,” said Freitag, a Burnet County employee. “You start with a beginning speech and you work your way up. But it’s done in a very supportive atmosphere. That’s what I love about this — everybody supports each other.”
But don’t read “support” as easy or noncritical. Clark said one of the keys to becoming a better public speaker is getting critiqued, and that’s something Toastmasters requires.
During a meeting the agenda will include several prepared speeches. This means members give a speech on a topic of their choice, but usually one that follows a routine.
An “Ice Breaker” is a four to six-minute speech basically to introduce yourself to the club, Freitag said.
From that, members can progress through the Toastmasters’ public speaking manual. Each subsequent speech targets a specific skill, Freitag said.
Along with each speaker, the club leadership assigns each individual an evaluator. The evaluator’s duty is to provide his or her speaker an assessment of the speech. It’s not a written evaluation, either. Evaluators get up in front of the club and present their assessments.
The evaluator sounds a positive note, but can’t overlook mistakes or take it easy on the speaker.
During the Jan. 19 meeting, Grace Jennings, a member of an Austin-area club and the District 5 lieutenant governor for education and training, said the evaluator’s role is extremely important if a speaker’s skill is to grow.
“You always have to find something,” she said. “You don’t want to whitewash the speech. (The speaker) is depending on you to help them.”
While prepared speeches serve as the backbone of the Toastmasters’ progression, a meeting also includes “off-the-cuff” public speaking opportunities. Following the regular speakers at the Jan. 19 meeting, local member Drew Crosby — an insurance salesman — took the floor and introduced the Table Topics.
These, he explained, are a subject of the Table Topic master’s own choice. He or she calls on “volunteers” from the club to give a quick speech. There’s no planning by the chosen members and the topic changes from person to person.
The first Table Topic Crosby tossed out Jan. 19 was: “What was your favorite memory in a car?”
Other Table Topics for the night included “Who, what, when and where was your most memorable vacation?” and “Who was the most influential person in your life?”
“You want to keep it fun and educational, otherwise why would anybody want to come back?” Crosby said.
Club members and visitors also cast votes for the best Table Topics, best evaluator, most enthusiastic and best speaker.
Will Gilliam, a Highland Lakes businessman, said good public speaking skills are something everybody can benefit from.
“One of the things it does is give you the confidence to speak in front of people,” he said.
The Jan. 19 meeting marked Christine Bowman’s first Ice Breaker speech. As a nurse liaison, she is called upon to talk to groups from two or three people to much larger.
“I find myself not doing it as well as I should,” she said. “So Toastmasters is a way to develop those skills I need to help me in my career. I think this can help anybody no matter what they do for a living.”
Bowman said she’s already becoming better at public speaking in the short time she’s attended the meetings.
While improvement is the goal of the organization, Clark said it’s up to each person to decide his or her own time line.
“We don’t push people here,” he said. “We’re all here just trying to become better speakers.”
The meetings are open to visitors. For more, call (830) 613-0435.
“And remember, it’s just group therapy, but it’s fun group therapy,” Clark said with a smile.
