Serving Others Is Her Passion

By Lura Harrison, DTM

You might think that someone who holds a master’s degree in Human Communication Studies with a focus on Argumentation and Persuasion and lectures for 50 minutes three times a week teaching communications courses wouldn’t benefit much from Toastmasters. You would be wrong. Founder’s District Area Governor of the Year Stacy Bradshaw, ATM-B, CL, who led Area D-2, praises Toastmasters as a workshop that gives her another opportunity to stretch her communications muscles.

“As a lecturer in ‘Public Speaking’ and ‘Human Communication,’ I should be modeling the speech that I want my students to emulate. I view each lecture as a speaking opportunity, but when you have the same audience for every lecture, you have an artificial context in that it becomes very safe. It doesn’t simulate the type of experience you would have if you were hired for a job and had to speak frequently to new audiences as a part of your work. In Toastmasters, if you’re really working the program and bringing the right focus to your speaking and leadership opportunities, you have an opportunity to really stretch.”

Toastmasters Is a Family Affair

Stacy joined Toastmasters in 2001. Her father had been a Toastmaster, but she never really thought much about the connection between what he was doing and her interest in communication. It was the transformation she saw in her husband Vince (the 2004–2005 Division D Governor and the Area Governor of the Year in 2003–2004) that led her to join. An attorney, he had suffered a paralyzing attack of nerves while making a presentation on behalf of a client to the Placentia City Council. The experience left him with his confidence battered, so Stacy suggested that he join Toastmasters. Vince benefited so much from the experience that she soon joined also. “It was something we could do together, and we’re a couple that enjoys sharing activities.”

Stacy is a charter member of the Titan Toastmasters Club 4181 at Cal State Fullerton and is also a member of the Run for the Borders Club 4433 in Brea. She has served as Vice President of Education for Titan and Vice President of Public Relations for Borders. Last year, she followed Vince as an Area Governor. “Being Area Governor is a great opportunity to expand your leadership ability. What I learned from being an Area Governor is that the club and member experience are important. Our job as Area Governors is not to be heavy-handed. Our job is all about service.”

Toastmasters Need to Take More Chances

Stacy feels strongly that Toastmasters sometimes miss the opportunity to test their ideas for reshaping and improving the club and member experience. “People sometimes say to me that everything I’ve done in Toastmasters has turned to gold. That’s not true at all. I’ve tried a number of things that didn’t work, and I’d try them again. For example, I promised one of my clubs, Tongues-a-Flame, that I would help them with membership. They are a 10-year-old morning club that meets twice a month, and membership was down. We tried a number of things, but I just was never able to attract new members for them.

Still, people shouldn’t be afraid to be more innovative. I tried to do a Speechcraft at the Brea Community Center; it didn’t fly. But when we wanted to attract more people to our contest, we tried lowering ticket costs; the result was successful. The point is when you see things that aren’t working, or others ask you for help, to get in there and try your ideas, even if ultimately they don’t pan out. Toastmasters gives you that freedom.”

“We Need to Be More Mutually Supportive of One Another’s Growth”

“I see too many clubs with too many members who are not mutually supportive of one another’s growth. One of the things that I struggle with is that while I think the Toastmasters program does an outstanding job with its manuals, I think that too often in practice we see an absence of a rhetorical context in the speeches that members present. We can talk about an opening, body, and close, but I fear that in too many cases, we are failing to sit down with members and really work with them on how to choose good topics and then shape and develop speeches that are strong in the fundamentals. I credit John Latin and Wilma Springer for helping me stay prepared to give speeches. Both told me to keep a speech topic folder filled with quotations I cut out, newspaper clippings I find interesting, and other items to help me to create engaging speeches.

“We’re missing that opportunity to keep members growing and ready to step into new levels of responsibility. Members tend to join in waves, and when they do, we often fail to really get in there and work with them and help them develop a strong foundation. Yet, we have an ongoing need for new groups to come and grow strong to sustain our clubs. Just as new groups come in, existing groups tend to move on, and if we haven’t passed on the knowledge, the organization and the newer members suffer. We have to keep in mind that the life cycle of a group is very real. Many people really don’t appreciate that dynamic.”

“How Are You Going to Use This in the Workplace?”

“I think another missing piece is a strong narrative from Toastmasters that answers concretely, “How are you going to use this in the workplace?” In Greek society, people often hired private speech coaches to help them because the perception was that if you were a good communicator, you were more credible. I think we could really benefit from a similar mind-set.

“Years ago, I worked across the hall from Jack Canfield, of the ‘Chicken Soup for the Soul’ series fame. At that time, he was not well-known, but even back then, he simulated the behavior of someone who was already successful; he behaved as if it was already a fact. He printed a banner proclaiming that the book was a best-seller, framed it, and hung it on the wall so that every time he entered the office, it was the first thing he saw. And, of course, in time, everything proclaimed came true.

“What I take away from that entire period is the fact that even when he was simulating success, he was walking and talking the habits of success. Most of all, he believed it was essential to know your audience. Even then, he was doing his homework. Before he gave a speech, he sent out a 7–10 page audience analysis form. That’s how important he thought it was to know your audience.” Fast-forward to the late 1990s, and Canfield was by then earning $25,000 per speech. And I’m sure he earns a lot more today. Yes, the lessons we’re learning in Toastmasters, such as ‘know your audience’ are directly transferable to the outside world, and we’ve got to make that connection more tangible.”

The Rewards Have Been Many

It’s when she describes some of her most rewarding Toastmasters experiences that Stacy’s voice really lights up.

Starting a New Club
“ My most rewarding experience—starting a new club. I sponsored the ChoicePoint Club in Brea. I was involved from the moment they called and expressed an interest in having a club. They visited our club to get a feel for what it was like, and they attended our contest. They really wanted to get a sense of what this was all about before jumping in. I participated in the demo meeting, trained their officers, and attended their first meeting and then two more meetings. It was very rewarding to see a new club launched. I didn’t have a roadmap for how to start a new club; I just got out and started learning and kept learning and we did it.”

Gaining a New View of Training
“ I visited a number of clubs to do training. For example, the Anaheim City Communicators were a young staff of city workers with young children. Because of their scheduling and family needs, they couldn’t make it to LACE, so I arranged a lunch to train their officers. It became much more—an applied leadership coaching of an entire team. It completely changed my ideas about officer training and how it can be done.”

Youth Leadership
Stacy coordinated a Youth Leadership Group at Placentia High School. For one hour each week with the staff’s assistance, she led a Speechcraft for a group of 40 student leaders. We divided them into two groups, with two sets of officers. The participants gave speeches and evaluated one another. Some also competed, and she took some to Toastmasters contests to give them another view of speaking. During this year, which was also the last year of her master’s program, Stacy also coached a small debate squad.

Lessons Learned: Develop a Team

If she had one regret during her term, it was not recruiting a group to assume more responsibility for different jobs. “It wasn’t that I didn’t want to; I was just so busy. Assistants were hard to find. We had a vacuum of assistant leadership, which isn’t good, both from a standpoint of continuity and not burning yourself out. It’s important to have others to share with and to pass on the knowledge and lessons you’re learning. So my advice to new Area Governors is take time and build that team of assistants.”

“My Passion Is to Serve”

One more thing you should know about Stacy Bradshaw: All while she was serving as Area Governor and getting the kind of results that earned her the Area Governor of the Year award, she was just as passionate in her work on her master’s and the two classes she was teaching. As a student, she participated in a communications research project, “West Fullerton—Stories of Hope and Civic Renewal.” She interviewed residents to gain insight into the types of improvements that would benefit them, their perceptions of obstacles to their own civic engagement, and any additional problems immigrant families face. She continues to be active in volunteering in the West Fullerton community, believing that “We don’t have to look far to find places to perform public service; we can do it in our own backyard.” For her service to her students, she was awarded the 2004–2005 Teaching Associate of the Year in the Department of Human Communication Studies at Cal State Fullerton. How did she find the time to do it all? Stacy responds, “My passion is to serve.”