Archive for December, 2007

public speaking usually terrifies me

Published at December 20, 2007 in Communication. 2 Comments

The first time I heard of “Toastmasters“, I wasn’t quite sure who they were or what they did. After some research, I found out they were a group of people that got together to improve their public speaking skills by doing speeches in front of one another. The idea of public speaking usually terrifies me, so I decided not to do anything about it at that time.

I’m not exactly sure how it happened, but I ended up making an appointment to visit a toastmasters meeting near my house a few days later. The members at North Star Toastmasters made me feel welcome and just let me observe their meeting; which was fine by me. At some point during their meeting, they asked me if I wanted to participate in something they called “table topics” and I agreed, mostly because they made it look very easy.

Table Topics
Basically, someone asks you a question about a certain topic and you answer it however you want; the only requirement is that you have to speak for at least one minute, but no more than two and half minutes; and that’s it. I won’t go into the details, but I will just say that I spilled the beans and gave out too much personal information. I won’t be doing that again. Lesson learned!. Overall, I had a really good experience that first day and made the decision to return to the meeting and eventually I became a member.

One year later
It has been about a year since I joined toastmaster and I’m finding myself looking for a goal or target. The Competent Toastmaster (CTM) award is the first level of accomplishment a Toastmaster can achieve. It also serves as a goal for working through the essentials of public speaking. To reach CTM level, you must complete 10 prepared speeches. Last week I completed my 6th prepared speech towards CTM status and I’m getting really excited about completing all 10 of them!

You too
Public speaking still terrifies me, but I’m finding it a lot easier to do thanks to Toastmasters. They provide you with the right tools and knowledge you need to pull off a fantastic speech or presentation. If you feel uncomfortable in your own skin at the thought of speaking in public, then consider visiting a toastmasters meeting in your area. They have thousands of meetings all over world; even in Tukwila, WA. Who knows, you might even enjoy it as much as I have.


scary goals

Published at December 17, 2007 in Life. 0 Comments

I’ve been thinking about doing freelance web design for quite some time. I’ve even worked on a few paid projects, but haven’t pursued it beyond that.

This weekend, I started reading The Web Design Business Kit to further understand the business side of things and liked what I read so far. While reading the 1st few pages I started to think, “yes I can do this” and as I continued to read the thought of running my own business became just a little clearer in my mind.

Funny coincidence. Today, I stumbled upon a post by Shane titled 2008 Goals: Scare Yourself in which he talks about his goal of making a million dollars in 2008. (Good one Shane!) The idea behind this is to set a goal that makes you reach further than what you are comfortable with. He also believes in telling the world about it, that’s why he blogged about it.

This made me think about my situation once again, so I’ve decided to take the first step and set my goal.

I want to run my own web design business

With that being said, I look forward to learning tons more and pushing myself past my own comfort zone.

If anyone else wants to join me in this challenge, you can start by setting your goal and saying it out load to yourself. I’d love to hear about it in the comments area.

Mario Seijo
web developer