by Joyce Trimble, DTM

Mr. Cooper Speaks President, Andres Aguilar, recently contacted new and season speakers to share their experiences with ice breakers and virtual meetings.   Enjoy the insight of 3 Mr. Cooper Speak members.

Mani Jonnalagadda and her Ice Breaker experience: 

“I joined Toast Masters to learn and grow my speaking abilities and my goal is to deliver speeches that really harness my passion to inspire the audience by delivering auditory input to paint a vision ( that draw up in my experiences and learning from all those who inspire and have taught me something)  Once I committed to it, I knew that I had to deliver to a camera, but I was encouraged by the team to choose a topic that is very easy to communicate, a topic about me and to write it down. That helped as I thought of topics, a theme emerged and I was able to write it down to rehearse a bit.

Jessica Forsman and her Ice Breaker experience:

“My experience with doing my Icebreaker via Zoom was pretty great! I actually think it was a good thing I was able to do it virtually. I joined Toastmaster to get over my fear of speaking in public, so being in the comfortable atmosphere of my home was a blessing in disguise. Receiving everyone’s positive and motivating feedback in the group chat was so encouraging and has put me at ease for my next speech. It is such a welcoming and positive atmosphere even virtually. While I was preparing for my Icebreaker, Jesse Ford really helped encourage me and answered all my questions. As a new Toastmaster, it is nice to know I have support from the whole club.”

John Charlesworth delivering a speech via Zoom. 

For those of us that hate the idea of speaking to a large room, the time has never been better. Now you can literally choose the size of the room and no one will even be able to tell if you are reading from a teleprompter.   For those of us with OCD, you won’t have to shake hands with anyone, or risk coughing/sneezing on each other…you won’t even have to share the same air with anyone else. I highly suggest getting your fears out now, while there are other much more pressing issues to worry about. Thanks to COVID-19, Public Speaking is no longer the thing I am most fearful of.