Create Your Speaking Career On "The Toastmaster Circuit"
HiFi Speakers · The Best Toastmaster Club In San Diego · Carmel Valley · 92130
We’re going to break new ground here, and I can prove it. Exhibit A? The phrase “the toastmaster circuit” does not appear in the Title Field of even one document indexed by Google.
I developed my comedic and storytelling chops on what I like to call The Toastmaster Circuit. I reside in San Diego. Not L.A. or New York. I am not in the so-called Industry. I self-produce. And, yet — BOOM! — here I am (circa 2011) on the cover of Robert’s McKee’s iconic Story Magazine with household names, Drew Carey and Russell Brand.
WHAT IS THE TOASTMASTER CIRCUIT?
The Toastmaster Circuit is all of the Toastmaster Clubs within a two hour drive of your home. If you live in a metro-area you have a bunch of them.
I live in San Diego, where we have 102 Toastmaster Clubs. The tri-county region of San Diego, Orange and Los Angeles is 20 million people. 300+ Toastmaster Clubs.
Every speaker needs stage time. Toastmasters provides that. At no charge.
When you speak at a Toastmaster Club that is not your club, you are speaking to a real audience. When you speak at your club, you know the name of everyone in the audience. Everyone knows your name. You know the room. Everything is known.
A so-called “real audience” is defined by unknowns. Room is different. Energy varies. Culture varies. Lighting. Sound. Tech. Seating. Stage space. You prepare differently (and better) in the face of unknowns.
If you want to build an online show, you need to work out in front of real audiences. Toastmasters provides that opportunity.
The upshot is that when you take the mic or the camera from your home studio you will be more confident. Listen to how I command the mic in this dramedy I created when they coronated King Charles. No hedge. Total confidence. You know you’re in good hands.
JOIN ONE CLUB, JOIN THEM ALL
Most Toastmaster Clubs are thrilled to host you as a guest speaker. However, the inventory of speaking slots at some clubs are impacted, reserved only for their members. But, these clubs are few and far between.
Ninety percent of the time, if you are a Toastmaster, you’re in for the asking.
If you ask for extra time beyond the default 5-7 minute slots reserved for prepared speeches, your request will usually be granted. You can talk about anything. If you are bringing tech most clubs will provide their Sergeant At Arms to assist you in setting up and tearing down.
If I have a 45 minute or 60 minute one-man show in the works, three to six months beforehand, I will contact large clubs with a great room with the following pitch:
“I know you’re coming up on your annual Open House to recruit new members and there’s going to be a pot luck and everybody is inviting a friend or colleague so there’s going to be like 25-75 people there. How great would it be to promote this occasion with a free 45 minute theatre performance. The piece is not quite ready for prime time. If I rolled it out today it would get a solid 3-1/2 Stars. How about you help me get it to 5-Stars and I give you and event instead of a meeting? How about that for an idea?!”
The answer is almost always an enthusiastic “Yes.”
Whatever else might be said about Toastmasters, it cannot be said that they do not know how to produce a meeting or an event. Toastmasters truly excels in this area.
Sometimes clubs have purely social events and I can negotiate away the corporate-clean caveat and do the identical PG-13 show I’m bringing to the independent theatre circuit.
I can’t do this at a comedy club because I don’t do stand-up as such. I do long-form, satirical storytelling, perfect for Toastmasters which is comprised of folks who are fully vested in society (i.e. like those who buy theatre tickets).
If I want, I can be on a different Toastmaster stage multiple times a week. I can do five, ten, 15, 20, 30, or 45 minutes. I’ve done 75 minutes on The Circuit.
There are not enough days on the calendar for me to book all of the 200 seat venues in Southern California. And, that’s where the one-person show plays best — 100-300 seat venues.
On The Toastmaster Circuit, I might do 10 minutes in the middle of the workday, at the noon meeting at say, Scripps. Might be 10 people who all work at Scripps and there will definitely be an H.R. vibe to the room. People will be tight in front of coworkers they may or may not know. I like that because it’s uncomfortable. Definitely not ideal, which is the whole point. The job is to transfer my emotion to the audience and not ever allow an audience to lull me into their workday vibe.
A great speaker instantly flips the energy of a room.
Later that night, I might do 20 minutes at a club near Miramar that are Marines or Marine adjacent. Totally different deal. People are checked out of work and ready to laugh.
There is literally no end to the unusual and useful settings I can seek out to layer and hone my act.
I literally cannot believe this is not already a thing.
Before I started stand-up in 2004 and before I joined Toastmasters, from 1996-1999, I toured the Fortune 500 and Tech 100 Circuit, sometimes generating more than $50K in a single day. I didn’t even know Toastmasters existed because I was in Vermont which has like three clubs in opposing corners of the state. So, I worked my seminar out on the fly — one city, one boardroom, one ballroom at a time. Definitely sub-optimal.
Because Toastmasters is defined by a corporate bent for the career-minded, had I not lived in a backwater, I could have saved myself a lot of pain by touring The Toastmaster Circuit, smoothing out the kinks in a collaborative setting before taking my seminar series on the road.
People will put down good money to hear a bad speaker with a great message. With Toastmasters you don’t have to choose. You can be a great speaker with a great message. If you want to see how I make this point in an unscripted speech at my club in San Diego, click the link below.
As a guy who has produced 500+ seminar dates generating more than $10M in speaking fees, 500+ comedy shows, 500+ one-person show performances, and 250+ high production value, audio-only political dramedies, to say nothing of countless stand-up performances and Toastmaster speeches, I say that “The Toastmaster Circuit” offers the single-best opportunity to acquire 100% on your terms the one thing that unlocks the key to greatness in all things.
Stage time.
JOIN US!
You Are Invited To Audit A HiFi Speakers Toastmasters Meeting
If you live in San Diego, I would love to meet you at one of HiFi’s weekly meetings in Carmel Valley (92130). Meetings are open to all, and free to attend, with or without advance notice. Bring a friend!
Location: 12790 El Camino Real, 1st Floor, San Diego, 92130
Plenty of free parking.
Meeting Time: Every Thursday, 12:00-1:00
If this is your lunch hour, bring a sandwich. Please time your bites carefully, so when the laughs hit you do not pass Jersey Mike through your nose.
You have been warned.
~Mark Whitney, President, HiFi Speakers