There are a lot of reasons why you might not want to compete in Toastmasters. To be honest, after a few outings where I lost pretty handily, I was unmotivated to every do it again. That doesn’t mean I won’t; I’ll just have to think about it.
So, considering my reluctance, why am I writing this blog post about competing?
First, you can use the speech as one of your pathway assignments.
You’ll have a different audience than your club. Consequently, you’ll have a larger and more diverse audience than your club.
You’ll spend more time in practicing and perfecting your speech, and that will pay off in your next presentations.
You will meet new people and extend your network
You will hear quality speeches from other clubs.
Last, if you move forward, you will have a line item for your resume or CV.
Granted, competing is somewhat time consuming and not a little nerve wracking. And you have no promise of winning and moving on in the competition. You might, like me, hit the blank wall pretty quickly. But I do know I benefited, if only from the practice and having to memorize the speech, good training for my brain that’s on the verge of senior citizenhood.