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About the Club

Confidence Builders has been established Toastmasters club since 2015. Our members represent all levels of experience, but we all have at least one thing in common: we are eager to grow and learn from others. We inspire ourselves and the community around us in an open, friendly and encouraging manner. The weekly cadence of club meetings further strengthens the communication and leadership muscle, allowing for more opportunities to grow.

Confidence Builders is a President's Distinguished Club with several Distinguished Toastmasters and a Nationally Accredited Speaker serving as resources. The mentor program is available to all members, with a tailored growth program to suit your individual needs.

Mission Statement

The mission of the Toastmasters Club is to provide a mutually supportive and positive learning experience in which every individual member is empowered to develop verbal communication and leadership skills, thus resulting in greater self-confidence and personal growth.

The mission of Confidence Builders is to build confidence, build leaders, and to have fun while building lasting relationships!


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That Role Called Speaker

How to prepare and memorize a speech  Awesome, you've been assigned to speak! Ideally, you will have at least 3 weeks to prepare. Taking a 3 weeks prep time as a sample, this is how to use my speech prep formula: Week 1 Review speech objectives in the manual – this will influence the topic you choose. Once you have your topic, you'll need to focus in on a single facet and consider what message you want to convey. Ideate and hone your message and then start typing out your speech -- keeping within your speech timeframe. Typical speech lengths are 4-6 mins, 5-7 mins, 7-9 minutes. Target the middle minute – for example, for a 4-6 minute speech, target for the 5 minute mark. Target for 4 and you may risk ending too early or not developing your message enough. Target for 6 and you might go over.  A logical breakout of that 5 minutes is: 1 minute intro, 3 minute body, 1 minute conclusion.  For reference, a minute translated to word count is roughly 100 typed words ...
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Your Dream Team

With Toastmasters contest season fast approaching, I thought I'd share a contest speech that survived three contests last year, went through 15 drafts (I have them all), numerous practice sessions in front of two clubs, in the living room in front of a big dog and a cell phone, and in the driveway working on my footwork! I received good feedback on using parts of the speaking area (contest-speak for stage) to emphasize transitions from one point to the next - and to refer back to earlier points.  There are two "maps" one for the speaker's perspective and one for the audience's perspective.  The solid lines are movement, while the dashed lines are prompts to refer back to an earlier area. Did I get carried away?  I don't think so.  Having every detail mapped out and refined gave me the confidence to compete and improve each time - and confidence-building is what we do! Speaker's Perspective Audience's Perspective -RM Image ...
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The Awesome Power of Storytelling

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