Member stories

As VP of PR for Startup Speakers, I'm always curious how Toastmasters impacts our members. Shruti Iyer joined us three months ago, and I've been impressed with how she weaves her communication journey into her speeches and Table Topics answers. I asked her if she’d share one of her favorite things about Toastmasters so far, starting with a specific moment when she struggled with professional presentation. — Michelle Haynes, VPPR

By Shruti Iyer

I stood in front of senior stakeholders, ready to present my design work. I'd spent weeks on this project. I knew every detail, every design decision, every rationale. The work was solid. I was prepared.

Then I started speaking. My hands shook visibly. My voice trembled throughout the presentation. After it ended, a colleague asked, “Are you okay?” The question seemed to confirm what everyone had already noticed. Mentally, I knew my work was strong. But my body had told a very different story. It felt exposing and frustrating; like being betrayed by myself.

The Feature: Table Topics

I joined Toastmasters to improve my presentation skills, and I quickly found that Table Topics was my favorite, least-favorite thing.

Table Topics is Toastmasters' impromptu speaking segment. During each meeting, a Table Topics Master poses questions to members, who then have one to two minutes to respond - no preparation, no notes, just you and your thoughts under gentle time pressure. Questions range from lighthearted ("What's your favorite childhood memory?") to professional ("How would you handle a difficult client?").

The beauty of Table Topics is its simplicity: stand up, think on your feet, speak. It's the Toastmasters feature I don't look forward to, but it's also the most impactful thing I've done for my speaking skills.

The Real Problem

I thought my issue was purely physical anxiety — the shaking hands, the trembling voice. 

Table Topics showed me something deeper: I also struggled to gather and organize my thoughts in real time. When a question came at me, I had nowhere to hide, no prepared slides, no rehearsed talking points. Just me, a question, and 60 seconds to respond. The first few attempts were uncomfortable. I stumbled. I rambled. I realized my thoughts didn’t automatically form a clear structure; I had to consciously learn how to shape them on the spot.

The Transformation

Three months into Toastmasters, I can feel the difference. When I'm asked a Table Topics question now, my thoughts organize themselves faster. My answers have clearer direction. I know where I'm starting and where I'm heading, even without preparation.

This skill transferred directly to my design presentations at work. I'm more confident now. When stakeholders ask unexpected questions or challenge a design decision, I don't freeze. I gather my thoughts, organize my response, and speak with the same confidence I have in my work. My hands don't shake anymore. My voice stays steady. The disconnect between what I know and how I present it has closed.

Visit Us

If you've ever felt that frustrating gap between knowing your material and presenting it confidently, Toastmasters might be exactly what you need. Table Topics isn't comfortable, but that's precisely why it works. You'll practice thinking on your feet in a supportive environment where everyone understands the challenge because they're facing it too.

Startup Speakers is a hybrid Toastmasters club meeting Wednesdays from 7:15-8:30 a.m. Pacific. Join us in person at Plug and Play Tech Center in Sunnyvale, California, or on Zoom. We're entrepreneurs, designers, engineers, and professionals who believe public speaking is the tool that takes your expertise far and wide. Visit startupspeakers.us to learn more.

About the Author: Shruti Iyer works in product design at a design agency and has been a member of Startup Speakers Toastmasters for three months.

As a solopreneur, I live in my head. Everything makes perfect sense in the internal conversations I have with myself.

In September, I launched a content solutions company. Beyond larger projects like operations manuals and audit templates, I developed a new offering: collaborative writing sessions for individuals who don’t have the bandwidth to write themselves but still want to share their authentic knowledge. It was brilliant, at least in my head. I knew exactly how it worked, why clients needed it, and what made it different from traditional writing services.

Then I tried to explain it at a regional networking event. I meandered through AI assistance, then circled back to client expertise, mentioned Google Meet somewhere in the middle, and somehow landed on interview questions. It was a messy outpouring of tangled ideas. I couldn't articulate it clearly enough for anyone else to understand why it mattered. And if I couldn't explain it in a casual conversation, how would I ever pitch it to a potential client?

The Seven-Minute Forcing Function

This scenario speaks to one of my favorite benefits of Toastmasters: the forcing function of the seven-minute speech.

Toastmasters is an international organization that helps members improve their speaking skills, meeting them at whatever level they're at. But it's also a laboratory for clarity. The format forces you to think clearly because you must speak clearly — and you can't speak clearly about fuzzy ideas.

Before you give a presentation, you should set aside time and attention to map out how you’ll guide your audience through your message. Skipping this step risks a rambling show-and-tell of scattered ideas and ums and ahs (the dreaded "filler words").

The speeches often follow the familiar structure of introduction, two or three main points, and a conclusion. It’s the time limit that forces clarity. You're fitting those concepts into a five- to seven-minute presentation. If the intro and conclusion each take about 30 seconds, that leaves four to six minutes to express the main ideas.

The umpire in this format is the timing light and its green-yellow-red signals. The “light” manifests as cards, a Zoom background, or literally a portable traffic light, depending upon the meeting format and the club’s equipment. Green means you’ve reached the minimum speaking time, yellow says you’re nearing the max, and red yells, “Time’s up! Wrap it up in 30 seconds or you’re disqualified.”

Clarity Through Constraints

When I tried to compress my new service into a structured, seven-minute presentation, I discovered I was assuming people understood things I'd never actually explained. My presentation was a draft of a pitch I might give to professional organizations, asking them to share my service with their members.

Designing a pitch for a time limit involves choosing the right quantity of words. Cramming in more words faster doesn’t count. I’ve rushed through speeches before, trying to fit in all the words before the light turns red, like a legalese disclaimer at the end of a commercial. The feedback was, “Whoa! Slow down! You speak really quickly. I couldn’t process everything you said.”

With the constraints of the timer and that looming, red light, I can’t both slow down AND use more words. I had to make choices. Which details were essential? Which were just interesting to me but didn't help someone understand the value? What was the actual problem I was solving, and could I state it in one sentence?

The time limit also meant I had to know my topic well enough to not completely rely on my slides; otherwise I risked bumbling through a point, dropping in filler words, and using up valuable minutes.

Articulation Precedes Execution

You can't build what you can't clearly say.

This seems obvious when stated plainly, but we often jump from idea to execution, assuming we'll figure out how to explain it along the way. We build the website, create the service packages, maybe even line up our first clients, all while still fumbling through our explanation of what we actually do.

Harnessing the Toastmasters program and its timer's constraint distilled my writing service into a clear seven-minute pitch. I chose essential details over interesting tangents and articulated what I was solving in ways a stranger could understand. That has allowed me to recruit several associates to pilot the service, moving me a step toward selling the service. It all came from being able to articulate the offer.

About the Toastmaster: Michelle Haynes

Michelle Haynes operates Michelle Haynes Content Solutions, a consultancy specializing in AI-augmented workflows that transform institutional knowledge into structured documentation. She has been a member of Toastmasters since the early 2000s and joined Startup Speakers Toastmasters in February, 2025. She currently serves as vice president of public relations. Learn more at michellehaynes.com.