I remember when I was just thinking about joining a Toastmasters group. I asked a friend of mine if they knew anything about it. My friend said, “Judd, those people sit around making each other feel ackward, asking each other questions that they have no idea they will be asked, and then they have to present their ideas to the group! You may have to discuss the virtue of worms or something weird like that.” At that moment I knew that this was for me. I enjoyed engaging conversation, and this was a chance to show my mettle, or so I thought.
I went to my first Toastmasters meeting, and you know what, it wasn’t that bad at all. They did topics about current events and I was able to EXPRESS myself. Having the floor was a terrific experience though, which I really never had, and this enabled me to progress on to giving speeches. So this is definately where you can break ground as a Toastmaster. So back to taking the fear out if Table Topics.
With everyone asking your opinion, you lose site of some of the latitude that table topics gives you.
- Did you know that you can lie with table topics? You are not obligated to tell your true beliefs or anything of the sort. If you don’t know what something means, or just aren’t sure about something, a good fib confidently delievered will come across just as good as the truth.
- Did you know you don’t have to answer the question that you’ve been given? This especially applies when you’ve heard someone else get a question that you wanted to answer, and then you’re stuck with one that you don’t like. Say something like this… Mr. Topicmaster… that is a very good question, however I would just like to make a point of a question I heard earlier…. This works rather well, and you get to answer the question you want.
- Don’t fear the silence! Don’t speak until you’re ready to. You are not obligated to say anything until you are ready to present your topic, so don’t feel rushed.
- Don’t like the question, ask for another one…. Topicmasters rarely hear that!
