A few days ago, I gave a talk on “Soft Skills” at the local Free Code Camp Indy meetup group. I found it be a fun and exciting challenge giving this talk. The talk itself went very well. The only issue was I did not have any notes in front of me. I had to improvise a little bit and glance at my laptop and the screen behind to remember my talking points.
If I had to grade myself based on Toastmaster skills it was a good performance. I would knock myself for using the filler phrase “kind of” when I was thinking on my head. I also had my hands around my waste during the speech. In Toastmasters, they encourage speakers to keep their hands at their sides and then moving them up when they are done.
I actually enjoyed doing the talk and I’m hoping to do more in the future.