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I joined Toastmasters, because I go to university, sleep during lectures, catch the buses, go to work and take breaks. At the end of the day, I get home to my lovely girlfriend - and all I want is a cheeseburger. I joined Toastmasters because I needed courage to tell her that I don’t like tofu.

Before Toastmasters, I often arrived at home and I smelt a girly meals cooking, when I craved a cheese burger. Unfortunately I lacked the courage and the words to tell her. Thanks to my Toastmasters training, I now have the confidence and initiative to commend, recommend and commend her cooking.  And before you know it we are pulling up to the drive-through. 

Toastmasters are also great for bosses. "Nic, I have seen your performance figures for the 1st quarter and they are disappointing"  Table topics teaches you how to use your knowledge of completely irrelevant topics to you advantage. "Boss, the way I see this company is like a game of 7s. Like the Samoans I am trying to pace myself so I can beat those Fijians."

Toastmasters builds confidence and the ability to make words work to your advantage.


The reason for me joining Toastmasters is that I believe that my next step in my personal journey in life was towards improving my communication and social skills.

Before joining Toastmasters, I was a very shy, introverted kid, with the unfortunate mishap of having crooked feet, and who despite all his qualifications and life experience, felt a ‘nobody’ in society, constantly the laughing stock of people around me.

But my internal thoughts processes are that I want to be a person respected around my peers, find my inner child qualities that I had lost by growing up to be part of adult world too quickly and also be proud of who I am, be proud of my achievements and look forward in my life.

One way was to improve my communication skills, and I joined Toastmasters. Since being part of Toastmasters at Victoria University of Wellington, I’ve been able to meet people from all walks of life who have inspired me to be a better person, given me a more positive outlook in life, and also freedom to express myself to what I am about and who I am, plus also the ability to laugh at myself, again.

Being part of Toastmasters has been a ‘turning point’ of my life, and it has allowed me to be the person I want to be, has given me self-belief in myself, and the opportunity to start living my dreams again. Thank you.    


As part of my post-grad studies and in my job, I have to give presentations to large groups of people.  I used to find this very scary.  I didn’t like speaking in front of large groups at all, not even people I knew well.

A fellow student suggested that Toastmasters would improve our presentation skills.  I’ve been coming to Toastmasters for about a year, and my confidence and skills have improved immensely.

My boss recently gave my team very little notice that someone would have to do a talk in front of our entire section.  I wasn’t working again until the day of the meeting, and it might be me giving it!  I arrived at work an hour before the meeting, and just had time to go through the presentation that my workmates had written.  I thought “I can do this”, which was quite exciting.  Somebody else did it, but I’m sure with my Toastmasters training I could have done an excellent job, even though they had the advantage of having had time to practice.

I love that speaking has become not something I fear but something I can enjoy doing, and I have Toastmasters to thank for this.