TMCP - North East News Letter - Q1

Confidence is defined as ―the feel-ing or belief that one can have faith in or rely on someone or something.‖ Here at Toastmasters it’s not different.

I remember when I joined my company I was asked where do I see myself in next 5 years. Instantly I said Management, very little I had known about it at that time. My first year passed under-standing the culture, the work, building relationship with col-leagues and other things to make me comfortable with the day to day routine. Seeing my work I was pro-moted to Supervisor level. I was happy and felt confident of achiev-ing my 5 year target. Here on I was asked to be more vocal, speaking for and to the team, rep-resenting them on calls, attending executive calls and presenting da-ta. I knew it would be difficult but not something I cannot handle. The next few months were like a nightmare to me. Whenever my turn came to speak I used to stut-ter not because I was not prepared but I lacked the confidence. I doubted myself if I could deliver and meet my Manager’s expecta-tions. Later, my Manager had a one on one session with me and told me that there was nothing to worry about. The team and you are good, you just need to be con-fident about what you are doing. Once you are confident you can deliver exceptional results.

Something called Speech

Craft was going to start in our of-fice. My Manager recommended it to me, I enrolled and took off my name from the list when it was about to start.

Why? Lack of confidence. Eight weeks of Speech Craft end-ed and I could see the difference in my peers. They were upbeat to take on challenges and started being more vocal in the office. I felt like I missed a golden oppor-tunity. After a few days I got to know that a club is being formed called Toastmasters in our compa-ny which can help me build my confidence. This time I didn’t miss the bus and I am glad I overcame my fear of failing. In few weeks I was confident enough to present/talk to any person that had an im-pact to my career.

How? Because one of the ways to build confidence is to Practise. At Toastmasters meet-ings we get ample opportunities to practise and overcome our fear of anything that’s stopping us to grow.

Toastmasters really helped me build my confidence and become a better professional. I was com-mended for my work and was awarded ―Leading and Going the Extra Mile‖ by EVP President, COO and Group Executive of my company.

I overcame my fear of be-

ing confident. What’s your fear

Build Up Your Confidence

TM Nitesh Agarwal ACG, ALB

President

“The Buck Stops Here”

Beacon

March’15

Volume 1, Issue 1

TMCP - NE

that’s stopping you to grow?

Attend a meeting and find

out.

I believe that complacency is one of the biggest human fail-ing. It generally has a tenden-cy to creep in silently and like cancer, it is oft discovered too late. Once complacency has us in its numbing grips, it taints our vision with ersatz rosiness forcing us to view life with a false sense of well-being.

That is why after 90 years of success, Toastmasters has not allowed this weakness to afflict its vision of making the best communicators and lead-ers. We are not going to rest on our laurels.

The art of training - learning is a dynamic one and introspec-tion drives it forward. At our club the executive committee and members are constantly engaged in reviewing the growth of the club and in en-couraging ourselves to contin-ually improve. The betterment of self is as important as the growth of the club and our goal is to become informed, sensitive to needs and chal-lenges of the club and the members. With this in view, we are striving hard not just to

do well at the club by giving speeches and doing various roles at the meetings but also to grow the club,

As time goes by we all hone our skills, grow big and learn the philosophy of Toastmasters club. At this point, my only re-quest to the readers is to be-come our partner in the pro-gress of self and the club in a proactive way.

Most of us are new to our club and it is my duty to welcome you in to this family. I am sure we all will enjoy being part of this extended family. At any point of time if you have any suggestions or criticism about us, you are more than welcome to voice them. Please write to me at [email protected]. Alterna-tively, you can approach any executive committee member of our club.

I once again thank you for choosing Toastmasters Club of Pune – North East and wel-come to the family.

Editor’s Note

TM Amzathun Nasreen, VP PR

Techie to Entrepreneur in 3

On your marks 4

Bravery 5

The Power of Speech 6

Servant Leadership 7

How to become a Speech

writer

8

Events between Jan’15 to

Mar’15 and photos 9-10

Editorial Team 11

INSIDE THIS ISSUE: CONGRATULATIONS!

TM Hemant Joshi for achieving CL award.

TM Swapnil Bhagat for being the first runner up at Area Level Contest.

Club’s DCP Status

I quit my technology lead job in Feb 2014 to chase my dreams .I started my own endeavour (enterprise), to the change the world - to my belief. I thought that the qualities required to build great endeavour are

1)great idea,

2)great technology play

3) ability to sell.

I knew that I need to work on my selling skills or depend on someone, who was adept at it.

It been almost a year now , since I started my endeav-our, but I have come to reali-zation that great qualities to make successful endeavour are

1)ability to sell

2)ability to sell and

3) ability to sell.

Yes, ability to sell is one of the cornerstone qualities to succeed. I would like to share some scenarios where you need ability to sell.

When you have just an idea on paper, may not have the best office space & you may be looking for a co-founder. You need to sell your idea, your vision & yourself. Con-vince the prospective co-founder that he and you to-gether are well placed to ex-ecute the idea and to be-come a success story.

When you are hiring. The prospective employee may be working for Thought-Works or Infosys. Their of-fice toilet is most likely to be swankier, plush & palatial than your office. You may not even have air-conditioners. You may bare-ly able to match their current

salary or may not afford to pay even half of it. In such scenarios, what will be your endeavour’s first impres-sion? On what you will con-vince prospective employee that her future lies with your endeavour.

When you are building prod-uct the first time, you may have not best tools or means to get things done. In such scenarios , you cannot be just a taskmaster to get things done. In short, you cannot just be a manager. You need to be a leader that inspires her employees to get the job done with the giv-en odds. Inspired employees can do wonders to deliver positive results against all odds.

Selling your products. You may have built a first class product, but without money power you may not be able to market or brand your com-pany and product. Without branding or customer histo-ry, selling to initial customers is always an uphill task. Ini-tially, it all depends on how you get the customers con-vinced about your product & company vision and finally selling your products to them.

Raising money. When reach-ing out to the investors or angels to pitch your busi-ness .In whatever stage your company is in, there will always be some missing pieces of the puzzle . Like, the product may not be ready or not have the ideal market situation or some-thing else. Definitely, there will be plenty of gray areas , where you may even not have answers ready. With all these odds, your ability to do storytelling to buy your vision

plays a very crucial role in raising money.

In short ability to convince , to motivate, to persuade, to inspire and to do story-telling are core ingredients to suc-ceed in your endeavour. Ability to sell is a common thread among skills listed. I learned it the hard way, after almost a year in my venture, I need to learn and regularly hone the art of selling.

I have been associated with toastmasters since three months now, it doesn't teach about art of selling but it defi-nitely focuses on the all core ingredients as listed above. Do attend as a guest , rest will be history...

Techie to Entrepreneur in making!

BEACON Page 3

TM Tushar Komawar, Treasurer

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1

On your marks, get set go! And they are off! Why do many Toastmasters like running be-sides giving speeches and role playing?

Health is the best wealth. Health is directly correlated with physical fitness and diet. All of us at one time or another have been concerned with maintain-ing our physical fitness.

While in college, there was a 400 m. race where I never ex-pected to win. It so happened that the favourite expected to win that day pulled a muscle while starting the race. That cold February morning at 7 am I was probably warmed up and before I knew it I hit the finish the line first unexpectedly. Since I won that race I got the confidence and belief that it was something which matched my temperament. Running became an integral part of my life. It was fun taking up the challenge of running 5 km in 40 minutes on the road. Today I keep the running routine to maintain fitness.

Besides running, I used to en-joy playing basketball. My dad used to encourage me to play tennis and say that it would be a great way to maintain fitness in later life. But I never did en-joy playing the game although I did enjoy watching the top ten-nis players on TV. In mid-career due to time limitations, many of us do not devote time to physical fitness, but all of us experience the feeling --- It’s high time to do something! I have been fortunate that with my family support it has been possible for me to maintain my running routine practice at least 3 times a week. Today after my regular running practice over the past decade, I can assert that it keeps one’s weight steady through life.

―Fitness is indeed FEASible‖. Aspects one should be aware of:

Flexibility - Regular prac-tice of Yoga certainly helps and it is some-

thing which could be done everyday. The additional benefit one gets is the mental calm-ness.

Endurance - One aspect cited by the aerobics experts is that a mini-mum of 20 minutes ac-tive running is needed to start burning the ex-cess body fat and helps in maintaining the ap-propriate body weight. With such steady body weight it is easier to build up stamina and hence endurance.

Agility - The ability to go faster is typically through interval training where one tries short bursts of speed fol-lowed by a rest period. This method helps in building up stamina with minimum risk of injury. To avoid knee and ankle injuries, ide-ally this is best done on mud tracks rather than on roads and concrete surfaces.

Strength - Core body strength is essential to achieve the best re-sults. Maintaining a strong body through exercises like self-weight bearing exercis-es - pull-ups, chin-ups, and dips on the bars can be done on alter-nate days.

A balance in these aspects goes a long way to maintain physical fitness. Interestingly, the same principles are also needed to be a good Toastmas-ter.

Flexibility in your speech through thinking on one’s feet is needed to quickly adjust to real-life situations at all times wheth-er on the job or in personal life. The Tabletopics guests and Toastmasters experiment with innovative ways to adapt one’s extempore speech regardless of the topic.

Endurance is gradually built up in Toastmasters after the expe-

rience of Tabletopics through prepared speeches like the Ice-breaker. Further one needs to have endurance to speak per-suasively and with inspiration to appeal to audiences to accept ideas or take action. Ultimately as a leader, you may want to keep up audience interest in situations like key note ad-dresses which are typically last-ing half an hour or more are a must.

Agility is related to flexibility in a Toastmaster, who needs to be flawless in vocal variation, body gestures, and presenta-tion skills to connect well with the audience and leave the au-dience feeling good about the speaker.

Strength in the sense of knowledge of excellent vocabu-lary as well as the ability to use idioms as well as figures of speech that makes a smashing impact on the audience. The Competent Communicator pro-ject speech “How to Say It” is particularly useful in this context to develop one’s strength.

Fauja Singh, a 103 year old marathoner sums fitness up: ―Living life is like running a mar-athon. It takes a lot of courage and tenacity to keep going till the end.‖

Practicing what you enjoy the most is the best way to main-tain your motivation. Follow your dreams, work hard, prac-tice and persevere.

On your marks

Page 4

TM Sadanand Konchady, CC

“Chances Choices Changes”

Bravery is a term with different meanings.

Sometimes it’s emotional but having no

feelings.

It’s about killing other people ,

for the sake of our own people.

It’s about establishing peace

at the cost of war.

It’s about fighting when the goal is very far.

It has nothing to do with war and battle field

You can see it at home and even on play

field.

It’s about handling pressure

and refusing to yield.

It’s about conquering fear,

refusing to lie, when death seems so near.

Intimidating a brave man is not that hard.

But keep away, be wise,

Terrified from inside

still he would look into your eyes.

Because he is not a fox in tigers skin,

He is brave and born to win.

Bravery

BEACON Page 5

TM Unmesh Mohitkar, Secretary

“Attitude is important than fact”

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1

In Dec 2014 world went into shock when the news broke that in Peshawar in Paki-stan, school children were killed in most heinous act of terrorism. Terrorist organisa-tion who carried out this das-tardly attack claimed that the army made them suffer and so they wanted them (Army people) to go through the same agony. The entire world condemned the attack by saying it was an act of cowardice. As a young per-son, I always wondered how can one call such an act a cowardly attack when it needs lot of courage to pen-etrate the security cordon and carry out the act in cold blood? And what is the gen-esis of this terrorist mind-set which takes boys in their ten-der age towards terrorism?

As a human being every in-dividual, every group of peo-ple, every country has it’s way of thinking. And all are adamant about their way of thinking. This difference in people’s way of thinking cre-ates conflict among individu-als and society. Everyone thinks that their way of think-ing is only right and so must prevail.

When that doesn’t happen frustration crops in mind. Fear is generated that my way of thinking is diminish-ing. And out of that fear a wish of vengeance is devel-oped. We all have original fear in us but it is not just we as individuals who are afraid, many countries and regions of the world are burning with fear, suffering and hatred. And we as hu-man beings do not like feel-ing afraid. Often we hold on to our fear, that fear is nur-tured and then one day it turns into anger. We are an-

gry that we are afraid. We are angry at whatever or whomever we perceive as causing our fear. And then we want to punish those who created a fear in us and we think doing so will make us suffer less.

A fear is buried deep in the heart, a sharp knife covered over by many layers. That sharp knife is what makes you behave in such an un-kind way --- Thich Nhat Hanh

When we are angry, when we behave in a very angry, violent way then we are not so different from the terrorist we condemn because we have that same knife of an-ger in us

In conclusion perception cre-ates all havoc. But we hu-man beings are also be-stowed upon with the power of words. But despite having a freedom of free expression a surprising number of peo-ple have no voice. Their si-lence also comes from fear, a fear of public speaking. Toastmasters help them dis-cover their voice. If we learn to use this power of words with love and compassion, they will be heard and help the other side make a peace

And together all will make

this world a better place to

live.

The Power of Speech

Page 6

TM Hemant Joshi CC, CL

VP Membership

“Pursue your goal come what may”

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1

“If you want to be im-portant—wonderful. If you want to be recognized—wonderful. If you want to be great—wonderful. But recog-nize that he who is greatest among you shall be your servant.” These are the words from Martin Luther King.

I want to discuss about Servant Leadership and traits exhibited by Servant leaders.

There are two parts or as-pects to Servant Leadership. The first part is defining the vision and direction so that people in the organization or a family or church or any or-ganization to follow. The vision or the direction helps the people where one is go-ing. People look up to the hierarchy in an organization for direction. This is what is called as strategic leader-ship. The second part of servant leadership is once the vision and direction is in place, operational or imple-mentation leadership sets in. To be successful in imple-menting the strategy it’s im-portant for someone to have the mindset of serving oth-ers. Servant Leaders are those people who put others need in first.

There are five traits that I believe are the core values that Servant leaders live by.

The first trait that Servant Leaders exhibit is listening. One of the habits that Stephen Covey talks in the book titled ―The sev-en habits of highly Effective People‖ but-tresses the im-portance of listening

– ―Seek First to Un-derstand, then to be understood‖. As a servant leader, it’s important to listen intently to others.

The second behavior rendered by Servant Leaders is empathy. What do we mean by empathy? Empathet-ic people are those who really under-stand other’s feelings and perspective. Friends how many times today have we thought about the challenges faced by a co-worker at the workplace today? Servant Leaders em-pathize with the peo-ple they interact or work with.

The third trait that is ex-hibited by the Serv-ant Leaders is fore-sight. The ability to predict the future. This competency en-ables Servant Lead-ers to set the vision and direction for the people in the organi-zation.

The fourth behavior is that they lovingly hold themselves and oth-ers accountable for their commitments. Servant leaders know that no one is perfect, and everyone makes mistakes--including themselves. With that in mind, they push for high standards of performance and ser-vice quality.

Servant Leadership

Page 7

The fifth characteristic exhibited by Servant Leaders is building a community. Helping connect the people share a com-mon goal. For in-stance, we are a community with a goal of improving public speaking skill. Any act of us that impact in building a community qualifies us a Servant Leader.

In conclusion, friends I

would urge you to think

what specifically you have

done today that has been

directly of service to some-

one that helped in removing

their barriers. You qualify

as Servant Leader if you’ve

helped someone.

TM Subramaniam R

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1

There comes a time in every Toastmaster’s life, often after delivering a particularly effec-tive speech, when he or she thinks: Hey, I could do this for a living! Why not? Philosophy giants such as Aristotle, Soc-rates and the sages of social media inform us that to achieve true happiness, we must do what we love. So, how can we, as Toastmas-ters, transform our passion for public speaking into a ca-reer? Many members be-come speaking coaches, only to discover that delivering a good speech and teaching others how to do it isn’t the same thing. They learn that coaching a club member on a seven minute romp about the family dog is different from coaching CEOs who deliver complicated keynotes on quarterly finances.

Read and listen to famous speeches, and then rewrite them.

Other members become pro-fessional speakers, meaning they speak for money. For some, that sounds too good to be true and, unfortunately, it often is. Everybody seems to be on the speaker circuit attempting to scale the slip-pery pole of success. It can leave one feeling more like the condemned Sisyphus, who never accomplishes his goal, than the great orator Cicero. Few, however, think of becoming a professional speechwriter. I understand. The profession is shrouded in a veil of mystery, seemingly populated by puppet masters whose sole purpose is to amass armies of Manchurian candidates who will, in great orgies of oratory, take over the world. Let me attempt to lift the veil. Speechwriting is a great job. I’ve been a profes-sional speechwriter for more than a decade, and I’ve writ-ten for ministers, prime minis-ters, heads of United Nations organizations and more than a few Toastmasters. Compe-tition—and salaries—are high for speechwriters; certainly higher than most writing gigs.

In fact, seasoned speechwrit-ers can earn more than $100,000 (U.S. dollars) annu-ally. Speechwriters also have the advantage of access: access to top decision-makers, access to those who shape policies and ideas, and access to people who want to change the world. But how does one become a speechwriter? Unlike most occupations, there’s no school that teaches speechwriting; no place to trade your life savings in for a piece of paper that will land you an unpaid stint as an intern. While many speechwriting workshops exist—and I’ll get to those shortly— there’s no Harvard or Yale, no Oxford or Cam-bridge for aspiring speechwriters. At the risk of putting myself and my col-leagues out of business, I’m going to let you in on the big secret of how to become a speechwriter. It goes like this: Find someone who needs a speech written and write it for them. Consider writing a speech for anyone. There are countless cities, villages, towns and hamlets through-out the world, all with council-lors, mayors and officials with multiple (often unpaid) re-sponsibilities and demands on their time. They don’t have time to write their speeches, so you can volun-teer to do it for them. Before you ask—yes, you do have experience in speechwriting. As a Toastmaster, you’re uniquely qualified. If you’ve completed your Competent Communication manual, you’ve likely discovered that successful speeches have three things in common: great style, good structure and a great storyline. That’s not all you need to know, but it’s a start. Becoming an ex-pert in anything takes prac-tice. Just as you can’t be-come a great musician by taping a picture of Tchaikov-sky to your wall, you can’t become a great speechwriter unless you actually write speeches. How many? The

How to Become a Speechwriter Toastmaster Magazine Spotlight

Page 8

answer is: As many as it takes.

Keep these points in mind: n Get to know some speechwriters, and learn about their struggles and stresses. Ask yourself: Do I really want to do what they do? Attending speechwriting conferences is a good way to meet other speechwriters and learn about their craft.

Read and listen to speech-es. Two per day is a good start. A simple Google search will turn up thou-sands. (If you don’t know how to handle a search en-gine, you might want to re-think the speechwriting thing.)

Develop a thick skin. Re-member that your speeches are for someone else. They’re not yours. Even if you’ve written something resembling ―I Have A Dream,‖ your speaker might want something else, like a few words of thanks, for ex-ample. Write to meet your speaker’s needs.

Keep giving speeches. Nothing has helped me more as a speechwriter than being a Toastmaster and regularly giving speeches. It’s vital, as it gives you an understanding of how a speech is constructed. You learn what works, and what doesn’t.

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1

We are a club of active

members. We not only grow

by attending our meetings

but also by participating out-

side and hosting creative

events to keep the momen-

tum going. Below are the

events we hosted and partic-

ipated during Jan’15 to

March’15.

1) COTP - 6 of the 7 offic-

ers did not let this oppor-

tunity go and got them-

selves trained on their

roles and responsibility.

Apart from that 4 of them

were also trained for Chief

Judge. This also gave us

an opportunity to network

with around 100 toastmas-

ters present for the event.

Attending a COTP is very

important for a club officer

as it helps to become a

better Leader and learn

the traits to run a club and

keeping the members en-

gaged. If you are not serv-

ing or assisting a club of-

ficer, you are missing out

on a good opportunity to

grow as a Leader.

2) Club Level Contest -

Our was the first club in

our Area E4 to start this

competing contest season.

We organized one on 3rd

of Feb where combined 5

members participated in

International Speech and

Table Topics Contest. TM

Swapnil cleared the house

by winning both the con-

test and proceeding to Ar-

ea Level. Contests are an

integral part of Toastmas-

ters Program. It gives us

that needed push to be

engaged with the program

by practising and compet-

ing with each other in a

healthy spirit with lot of

fame to follow and realize

a dream of being a Inter-

national Public Speaking

Champion.

3) Rendezvous at Hotel

Kapila - Meetings are not

the only way Toastmasters

enjoy. We do plan informal

meet ups to get to know

each other better over din-

ner and brain storm over

ideas to grow club by

meeting our member’s

goals of joining Toastmas-

ters in creative ways. We

last met in Feb and had a

wonderful time together

with some great ideas al-

ready implemented for

club’s success (see pt 4).

4) Club’s PR Campaign -

Promotion plays a key role

in the growth of a club.

TMCP-NE had grabbed

the opportunity to promote

Toastmasters club at

Konark Campus a society

in the premises of Viman-

nagar during Holi Festival.

An event was held just a

day before Holi for the en-

tertainment of residents of

Events hosted/participated

Page 9

Konark Campus . Food

stalls were opened and

orchestra was arranged.

TM Nasreen, the VP PR

approached committee

members of the society

and introduced about

Toastmasters to them.

Not long after knowing

about Toastmasters they

gave permission to open

a stall for free.

TM A.Nasreen and TM

Sadanand carried out the

promotion. A flier and a

pamphlet about Toast-

masters along with a can-

dy were distributed to the

people. People received

the info with warmth and

entered their name,

phone number, and their

email id on paper given to

them. Of the many 15

people entered their de-

tails and two of them at-

tended our meeting since

then with aspiration of

joining the club soon.

Promotion activity not on-

ly helps the club to grow

by getting new members

but also helps the promot-

ers to hone their Interper-

sonal and Sales skills.

That is what Toastmas-

ters is all about. Learn

while doing.

5) SPEAK - Movie

Screening - Since majori-

ty of our members are just

a couple of months old,

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1

everyone including guests

at some stage asked what

does Toastmasters lead

to? We had only one an-

swer and instead of an-

swering we wanted to

show them. On 17th

March we screened the

renowned movie SPEAK

which is the story of hope,

perseverance, and trans-

formation. It is a powerful

and inspiring documentary

Events hosted/participated

Page 10

Club’s Mission

We provide a supportive and positive learning experience in

which members are empowered to develop communication

and leadership skills, resulting in greater self-confidence and

personal growth.

Toastmaster Amzathun Nasreen

VP PR

Chief Editor

[email protected]

Toastmaster Swapnil Bhagat

VP Education

Editor

[email protected]

Toastmaster Sadanand Konchady

Member of TMCP NE

Editor

[email protected]

We are looking for your feedback, suggestions and articles for next issue due in June’15.

Editorial Team

We meet every Tuesday at 7pm at, Symbiosis Law School, Viman

Nagar New Airport Road, Pune

Phone: +91-9823363699 E-mail: [email protected]

Where Leaders Are Made

TMCP - NE

TOASTMASTERS

INTERNATIONAL

http://northeast.easy-speak.org

www.facebook.com/TMCPNE

Club Officers

President - Nitesh Agarwal ACG, ALB

VP Education - Swapnil Bhagat ACB, CL

VP Membership - Hemant Joshi CC, CL

VP PR - Amzathun Nasreen

Secretary - Unmesh Mohitkar

Treasurer - Tushar Komawar

SAA - Sagar Raut