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Comment by RandomBacon | Hacker News Reader

Toastmasters is great.

The meetings are structured with an agenda, the toastmaster for the meeting makes sure the agenda is followed and stays on topic.

They've made the program more dynamic. I don't know the new details very well and not sure how I feel about it. It used to be everyone received a workbook on how to deliver ten short speeches about varrying topics, but now you can customize it and I think they use an online website/program to keep track of that.

Everything at a meeting is always explained to everyone, and everyone I've met at Toastmasters meetings have been very nice.

You can use the website (https://www.toastmasters.org) to find a meeting near you and usually just drop in, but it's always polite to give them a head's up that you'll be visiting.

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I just want to reinforce this. Toastmasters is where you want to go. The quality of the speakers is excellent, but more importantly, they are incredibly kind and understand to people who aren't great speakers. This is literally the answer I came here to find, and post it if it wasn't. Toastmasters 100%.

Totally agree. Toastmasters got me from barely being able to speak before a group to a point where I have no problems giving presentations before anybody. One of the best things I ever did in life.

+1 for Toastmasters

Most times you can just attend a local chapter speech for free, and if you like it, you can sign up for a membership. There have been plenty of great tips on giving great speeches, and more importantly, this is all hands on!

And you can speak freely without worrying about sounding imperfect, and nobody judges you, because everyone out there want to learn and improve themselves.

Another CTM chiming in to say that Toastmasters should be one's first stop on this journey.

I've found different Toastmaster groups operate a bit differently. Some are very strict (using clickers whenever you say "um" for example) and others not as much. So OP, if you do try Toastmasters, and the first group doesn't "feel" right, see if another nearby group is available.

I've done this in various forms and I think this is one of the best methods to get better at public speaking. I recommend at least dropping in on a meeting to see how they're run. You'll be very impressed at how organized they are.

This. Have been attending meetings for about 2 months and have given 4-5 table topic speeches. Give my first prepared speech next week. Definitely can tell I'm getting better just by having to do it repeatedly.

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