From Keyboard to Keynote

The writing world is a highly underpopulated one. The solitude can be nice, yes, but sometimes it's just lonely. A lot of writers become speakers (and sometimes vice versa), and, even though public speaking involves the opposite of solitude, these two jobs often go hand-in-hand. I have thought about the thrill of professional speaking, but I just assumed I would have to have a book published before anyone took me seriously. But maybe they'll take me seriously sooner.

I run Girlz 4 Christ Magazine. It's not a professional publication, but it is a magazine-style PDF that is distributed every other month to 200 girls and counting. It is a wonderful opportunity to network, as I have been in contact with musicians, philanthropists, authors, and other people of influence. Last week, a woman e-mailed me asking about an opportunity to feature her daughter in G4C's "Jammin' With..." section, which highlights aspiring young Christian musicians. As we continued to message, I found out that she ran an inner-city ministry for kids in South Carolina. The ministry included a spring girls' retreat, and I had to ask her about how it ran since Camp Rivercrest is trying to revamp their girls' retreat. After she realized how involved I was in children's ministry, she asked if I ever did speaking engagements, because she's planning a convention in one year. I was honest and told her that I never did that sort of speaking before, but would love to help if she was still interested. I don't know what will come of that, but this made me realize that I perhaps DO already have a unique angle that could be beneficial in speaking engagements. However, it's been years since I've done public speaking, and I've never done anything professional before. Regardless of skills, I won't ever become a decent speaker if I don't have opportunities to work on it.

Last night, I went to my first Toastmasters Club meeting. Toastmasters is a leadership and public speaking club, which is perfect for skills I want to develop and that would be beneficial in all my work. I haven't officially joined yet, but I decided to try it out. After this meeting, I want to be a visitor one more time to make sure, and then I'll likely join.

I figured the group would consist mostly of gray hair, which was proven true. I think I'm used to working with older people by now; I work with people significantly older and significantly younger than me so I hardly ever see people my age anyway! It was a one-hour meeting in the evening and everyone was very friendly, supportive, and helpful when it came to how our speeches went. Even though I was a visitor, they put me to work! I had to count how many times each speaker used the word of the day (prodigal) and filler words (ah, um, you know). When it came to the "Table Topics" time of the meeting, they even gave me the opportunity to give a two-minute speech. The theme was Thanksgiving, and my topic was about a Thanksgiving experience with family. I told about the time my family went to my grandparents' house for an extended family thanksgiving- without telling them!  They also gave me a job as a speech evaluator for the next meeting. Overall, it was a great new experience- and a weekly chance to get away from camp!