By Amy Campbell, DTM, Club Growth Director
It was a Friday night, mid-January, when my phone rang. It was Kimberly… with an idea.
Speechcraft. In a day. I was all in!
This took some ingenuity to understand how it could work, while still adhering to the policies of Toastmasters International, but I’ll admit I thrive in the middle of a good challenge.
To describe it as “exciting” was an understatement. The initial plan was to host the day at the end of February. But the fast lesson learned was that it was just not enough time to advertise the event to the public. Success was not on our side… initially!
We regrouped. We changed the date. We put it everywhere. We organized the volunteers. We raised eyebrows of our fellow members, who were skeptical (and understandably so), but they were willing to go on the adventure with us!
2021-05-01, the big day arrived. 4 meetings. 17 paid participants. Over 20 fellow members. 14 new members. All driven by 60,746 organic Linkedin page views to the event and 5,330 Eventbrite page views on the ticket link.
WE DID IT! So much was gained that day. From the hard lessons learned about LinkedIn, to the “success” of numbers listed above, to the support, creativity, and willingness of our members to go on an adventure with us.
However, that’s the technical stuff. The personal gains were powerful. It dawned on me THIS is why I stay in Toastmasters. The people (new and wise), make this experience what it is. It’s not about new members (okay, it is… but stay with me here), it’s about how we make people feel.
It’s about the exchange of smiles, excitement, and gratitude knowing we have lifted someone up and you can SEE them beaming with pride. New and wise – the ability to be a part of something that made someone else realize their next success is a joy within me that never gets old.
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Maya Angelou
I aspire to lead in this manner.
If you want to continue the conversation about Speechcraft, I’m more than happy to teach you our method, and share our success stories, and our lessons learned to make your adventure smoother! Email me: cgd@tmd61.com
Stay tuned for important announcements:
- Meetup is BACK!
- The District will support YOUR club’s marketing. ☺