Interview with Toastmaster
Priya Shastri 01:57
I’m conducting a podcast with Abhijeet Joshi district director D101
Good morning.
Priya Shastri 06:20
Okay, let’s get started. So today on my podcast we have Abhijeet Joshi, who is the district director for D 101. Welcome Abhijeet. And I’m very glad to host you today. I have a few questions that I want to ask you and you can keep it as interactive as possible. interrupt me if you have more answers, and I will gladly stop. So let’s start. When did you start your Toastmasters journey and how long have you been a Toastmaster and what is your favorite thing about Toastmasters? So there are three questions in one.
Abhijeet Joshi 06:57
Thank you so much for having me. I joined Toastmasters in February of 2019. But it was totally accidental. I used to see the poster of Toastmasters in my break room for over three and a half years and I never wanted to join because it reminded me of my trauma I had from 2004 I was elected President of the Graduate Student Association and I had to give a speech that day during the banquet, I was not prepared. And my turn was coming. I was very scared. So what I did was there was a beer on my table. I just gulped that beer, got on the stage and mumbled something. To this day. I don’t remember what I said. But the only thing I remember is the relief sitting down and the thought that I never wanted to do this again in my whole life.
But in 2018 One of my friends who was part of Toastmasters started encouraging me to join Toastmasters because of her encouragement. I took that leap and joined Toastmasters in February of 2019.
There are so many good things about Toastmasters here are just a couple of things which I really enjoy. The first thing is mentoring. We can have amazing mentors. I remember my first mentor, Dan Marquette. He was very regular at the club, but one quality which I really enjoyed was his kindness. For every meeting, he used to video graph the whole meeting, and then edit those videos out and send it to each one of us. He was very regular at the club. And I asked him can you be my mentor? He became my first mentor. He helped me to create a very strong foundation. Over the years of time, my mentors changed and they helped me grow.
Another part is having mentees because whatever I’m learning I’m sharing. Whenever I’m doing that, it defies whatever I have learned. So mentoring and having the mentees made a big difference. The second thing which I really enjoy about Toastmasters is learning about people’s smart skills. They go to colleges, we go to universities, we learn from books, but we never get a chance to learn how to work with people, how to communicate with them, how to connect with them, how to influence them. But in Toastmasters, we have that platform. The leadership showed me the safe lab where you can practice those skills and hone those skills and make a difference. So these two things, I would say have been very helpful for me in the My Toastmasters journey.
Priya Shastri 10:33
Thank you for sharing that. I agree that mentoring and finding mentors is the most difficult thing that a person can do. And Toastmasters provides you a forum where you get access to highly knowledgeable, educated people who are experienced and willing to share their time and knowledge with you. So I agree that those my mentor mentors, finding mentors is the most important advantage of Toastmasters. What is the most important focus area for PR for the one on one? You’re a district director now. So let’s switch gears and go into what is it that excites you the most about being a district director at D101. And any words of advice for the team? What is working for you? The PR team? We are huge. We’re about 10 people, and we are the content creators. We are the block creators, the Video Creators. Tell us what do you expect to see as part of the PR efforts for this year? 2023–2024?
Abhijeet Joshi 11:41
Thank you for that question. I feel the PR team has a huge responsibility. I can outline two major areas of work. This year. Our theme is together we grow and this brings to the first agenda for the PR team is trying to bring our members together so they can use the bar to let them know about the events which are happening so that we can have more people join us when more people join us. I get a chance to interact with them, build on that energy, create that sense of belonging.
And that’s one of the reasons we belong to Toastmasters, creating that sense of belonging and that connection. So that is the one responsibility.
The second thing which I feel is Toastmasters has made such a big difference in our lives. And there are many more people where we can make that difference in their life and PR can help us be or can help us to reach those members and get them in Toastmasters so that they can also see the benefit of Toastmasters. These are the two things which the PR team is responsible for this year.
Priya Shastri 13:13
My next question is what is your important goal to accomplish as a district director be 101?
Abhijeet Joshi 13:24
The thing I’ve learned in Toastmasters is every time whenever I get to the podium, I need to create value. My mentor said that whenever you get to the podium, you have to be distinguished. You have to work. I want to do the same thing in that sense. We want to create value for our members. As a district director, we can all create value for each one of us. Then together we grow. That is one thing which we want to do is create value for people by bringing them together and together we grow
Priya Shastri 14:19
Thank you for your interpretation of the membership fees that have increased starting September 1. So I believe the membership fee is $45. Now it’s going to $60. What are your ideas to overcome that increase in membership fee? And how do you convince new members to join us now rather than later? What are the topics that you would like us to focus on as PR to tell the new members please join now versus later.
Abhijeet Joshi 14:59
If any members join by 31st of July, they still get to keep the old rate which is 7.5 dollars per month. We want to reach as many new members as possible current members so that they can renew or join Toastmasters by 31st. But if they end up joining after July I feel the rate increase is not that much. It’s just $10 per month and dollars is nothing as compared to the courses if you join a course outside. They charge you $2,000 for a 15 day course here. You pay only $120 per year. I think that plastic creates value for us. Joining Toastmasters at any rate is going to make a difference for you.
Priya Shastri 16:08
Any ideas on the one on ones? Programs that are going to be introduced starting August for this year? And will that justify paying the $60 so the new programs are enhanced? or new initiatives started this year versus last year? And that justifies the price increase? Can you give an overview of what to expect in 2023–2024 compared to what was there in 2020 to 2023? Are we making any software improvements are we make adding new speech programs just give us an idea
Abhijeet Joshi 16:53
When we went to the training in January last year, they told us that they are going to upgrade the pathways we will be able to use from our mobile phones. I feel that it will be a huge improvement that we don’t have to get stuck on with our laptop but we can just use our phone to go through our levels or our project which we are working on. That one improvement in software is going to make a difference for all of us and make it easy to access pathways.
Priya Shastri 17:34
I agree that accessing pathways from the mobile phone is an extremely valuable advantage. Are we having new speech programs that we are adding like speech craft or advanced speech craft? Advanced Toastmasters? How do you take the existing members who have been in Toastmasters for five plus years and move them to an advanced program? What are your ideas?
Abhijeet Joshi 18:04
Yes, toastmasters as an advanced program this year, we are having a TLI on August 25 and August 26 We have an accredited speaker, Cheryl Roush who is coming and she’s going to talk about how to get into this advanced program for people who have been in Toastmasters for over five years. So this is your opportunity to learn from Cheryl and apply yourself towards that advanced accredited speaker program at Toastmasters.
Priya Shastri 18:45
Thank you for sharing that Abhijeet, are we going to do publicity efforts for the advanced programs? And do you have any timelines that the PR team should know about?
Abhijeet Joshi 19:01
The PR team is working on promoting the TLI. We have a two day TLI event and we have three amazing speakers coming. We have a world champion from the year 2000 who is going to talk about storytelling as well as how to influence people. We have Cheryl Roush who is also going to talk about outreach and how to market like a pro. And she’s also going to give information about speech craft and how to use it to attract more members. We have Pat Johnson, who’s going to talk about club excellence and also creative leadership. We have very good programs and the PR team is working very hard to promote the CLI so that we can see a crowd of over 250 people coming together to see these different workshops and sessions. And also train as a club officer if there was someone who is a club officer.
Priya Shastri 20:14
Thank you, it looks like you have a lot planned for the TLI sessions. And I look forward to attending the TLS sessions. I know I will gain a lot. I have attended TLI so far, and each of them have been uniquely successful in their own way because of the characteristics of the speakers. And I’m sure it will bring in a lot of his expertise. And for the new members. That’s going to be a value add. I think we should publicize that when members are renewing their membership and paying that extra fee. We can justify that that is what you’re getting for the $60 Yes.
Abhijeet Joshi 20:51
Not only that, you can get a chance to have breakfast with the speakers and ask them any questions. You have two opportunities, one is in the morning, having breakfast with them and asking them questions. Or at three o’clock when we have ice cream social. These are the moments where you can gain wisdom from these experienced speakers.
Priya Shastri 21:17
Thank you for sharing that. My next question is what is a fun activity that we are going to do in 2023–2024 What is a fun activity and you look forward?
Abhijeet Joshi 21:33
We are going to have a big Christmas party this year on December 9. Our immediate past district director Kalpana Arada is chairing that event and she is very excited and I feel we want to fill that room with at least 300 people and mix and mingle and learn from each other.
Priya Shastri 21:59
end I’m sure we will have great food catered. So I look forward to the event. Definitely. So great food. music games and lot of speeches are lots of exchanges of ideas.
Abhijeet Joshi 22:15
There’s one more thing we are also having district Got Talent during the Christmas party. People will get a chance to showcase their talents
Priya Shastri 22:32
i think we should get prepared right away for honing your talents and showcasing them. Nice one. What is your takeaway from? I’m going to change gears a little bit. We’re going back to your role that you had this year that ended on June 30 2023. So what is your takeaway from program quality director as a program quality director and what is the advice for the next program quality director
Abhijeet Joshi 23:06
We decided to create a very strong foundation by having high quality training as well as workshops sessions, where we can learn from the best speakers around the world. We want to continue this. The one advice we have for the upcoming PTT is to build on that there are so many things that can be done there is a lot of room to take the bar a little higher. And I’m very sure that the incoming PQD Raji is going to make that difference.
Priya Shastri 23:54
I have one question on the PQD area. I remember there was a club coach program that was started last year 2020 to 2023. And I received an email from the club coach director at that point to become a club coach for one of the members. But I see the process taking a long time. So by the time a club coach gets assigned, six months have passed, and the club coach only gets to work on the club for six more months. Do you have any ideas to expedite that process? Can you put the club coach in direct contact with the club officers that need help?
Abhijeet Joshi 24:35
This year? The club coach chair is Suzanne. She has already started working with the clubs as well as potential coaches. We want to make sure there is a match. The club also wants that coach and the potential coach also likes that club. Once that match is done. We are trying to enhance I’m trying to reduce the time as much as we can so that we can make that appointment of the coach faster before December 31 so that they get some time to work with that club and potentially turn around that club in six months and get the two credits one is the district office a credit and another one is the coach credit and these two credits can help them with their DTM Susan is working very hard on that she’s already on it. She has a lot of experience from the last over 20 years.
Priya Shastri 25:30
Thank you for sharing that. And I’m sure the new area directors can take advantage of that.
Words of wisdom
What’s in it for me? Differences in your life and other people’s lives, Serving you grow tremendously. Seve others
It was a huge speechcraft program with a number of clubs called number of speechcraft coordinator’s about eight or nine if I’m not wrong, and there were about 1520 participants or more than that. Do you have any learnings or feedback and are you going to conduct something like that this year, so that people who are on the verge of getting their DTM scan get it?
Abhijeet Joshi 26:13
I think speechcraft is very valuable. As far as the new members. It gets a chance to showcase those masters’ Toastmasters to the new members. What we are doing is we are promoting speechcraft for the TLI upcoming on August 25. We are having a session on how to bring in new members with speechcraft . Sherald Roush was an activated speaker and is going to give her plan how she did it. And as a district we want to promote more and more speech clubs. And we want to promote people so that they can get the details and also there is another big benefit. When you do sessions in speechcraft like evaluation or how to craft the speech or how to give impromptu speaking and ever work on those sessions are delivered the sessions I grew tremendously so that is a big value. The second value, you get a chance to mentor these new people who want to learn things. And when you mentor them you are making a difference in their lives. That service brings in a lot of value not just for them but for everyone involved. So I want to encourage people to take the speechcraft, take it to as many people as they can and make a difference in people’s lives and grow from the experience.
Priya Shastri 27:52
Thank you Abhijeet for that insightful advice. Can I ask you a rapid fire question? Okay. So I will make a statement. And you will say true or false or and if you say false refuted. Okay. So my statement is Toastmasters is getting expensive every year.
Abhijeet Joshi 28:23
False. The reason I’m saying it is false is $10 per month. Oh my goodness. It’s like Starbucks coffee. I think that’s very cheap. If you go for any professional course. It’s 2000 plus dollars. Oh my god. So I’m $20 per year. Can’t beat it.
Priya Shastri 28:47
You’re the district director. You can’t say it’s expensive. I know that. I want to hear that from the members after they see the value of this year. So I’m going to do this again towards the end of 2024 to see how we did. So remember these questions. I’m going to come back to you at the end of 2024 and see how we did.
Abhijeet Joshi 29:08
Okay, the next I get I can add one more thing. See in Toastmasters, we create value by ourselves. We have to put in effort once we put in the effort. It creates value for us. So I encourage members to put in that effort and then you will see the words are from Toastmasters.
Priya Shastri 29:28
Evaluation in Toastmasters is overrated.
Abhijeet Joshi 29:34
False evaluation is something which has changed my life. When I joined Toastmasters, my friend who encouraged me, she was a phenomenal evaluator. I wanted to learn that art of evaluation, but it was tough. I did over 5060 evaluations. But one time I got a big break. One of my friends Derek asked me hey, can you share an evaluation workshop for our club? And when I started teaching other people, I learned a lot from it. And the best thing about that is that I was able to apply these evaluations. At work. It helped me to learn how to give feedback at work. Giving that challenging feedback in a caring manner. And in an empathetic way helped me to build more relationships at work and make a difference in their lives as well as my life and build a strong project team.
