Going back to a 5th grade play, I froze on stage. There I was in front of a cafeteria full of students and parents and could only mumble the few lines I had to read. And, that was after Jenny and Derrik nailed their lines. In 6th grade, the teacher wouldn’t even let me on stage. I was backstage pulling curtain strings and making sounds, and honestly, I was okay with it.
Is it easy to learn to communicate effectively? Yes, it kind of is. Does it take away the fear of getting up in front of people? No, not really. To this day, I still get that nervous feeling when I get up in front of a crowd, but it quickly turns into positive energy because I have now learned how to harness that energy when speaking.
There is a great book called Change or Die (read it), and it explains three simple rules to follow when wanting to change. relate, repeat, and reframe. If you want to be a better communicator, Toastmasters is exactly this. Relate: you are surrounded by people who are wanting the same thing you want and going through the same journey with you. Repeat: you get a chance every meeting to talk, whether that is weekly or every other week. Reframe: you get feedback when you speak to improve what you did.
In summary, I encourage anyone and everyone to become a toastmaster, because our world is about communication.
Chris Cloutier
Architect/President at Autoflow
The Desire for Continuous Improvement
As an auto repair shop owner of Golden Rule Auto Care, Chris Cloutier realized the need for a better way to communicate with his customers as he observed how communication gaps created bottleneck situations and wasted valuable rack time.
