October 2025 Leader Letter
Elevated Energy!
Reflect on uplifting insight gleaned from convention speakers.
Did you envision y(our) next leadership move? As the formal kickoff to the next 100 years of Toastmasters, the 2025 International Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, motivated attendees to get on board with new ideas, found in informative sessions and exciting highlights that are now available On Demand. Whether you missed it, or just want to revisit, here are a few wise slices to get you started on an empowered new era:
Communicate with focus. While an intended message might be very clear in our minds, it won’t come out that way unless we keenly stick to the topic, putting the ‘bottom line’ right up front, offers Matt Abrahams, university lecturer, keynote speaker, communications consultant, speaking coach, author, podcast host, and this year’s Golden Gavel Award Honoree. “Tell the time, don’t build the clock,” he quips. And to keep the attention of your audience, it’s important to connect where you’ve been to where you are going. “You need effective transitions, and structure helps you remember,” he suggests. While there are many cues and frameworks that a presenter can follow to stay on course, Abrahams’ favorite is this trio: What?—So what?—Now what?
Pause in the ‘discomfort of uncertainty’ to brainstorm new ideas. When there is change or a challenge before us (such as how we can grow declining membership), the big idea is to let go of what we used to do and come up with new ways to solve it, believes Anne Bonney, speaker, trainer, author, podcast host, workshop facilitator, and this year’s keynote speaker. Instead of “swirling in old information,” she recommends going forward in a slightly different direction. “Action shrivels anxiety,” she said. “Get off the porch of your comfort zone and start moving.”
Pick your perfectionism; accept more praise. Do you consistently find yourself exhausted, cynical, and experiencing low productivity? Burnout is very real, especially among leaders who try to overachieve, recognizes Cait Donovan, international speaker, author, podcast host, and emotional intelligence expert. She is in favor of re-evaluating several personal factors, such as perfectionism. “Look at where it is needed and where it is not; if it requires you to neglect or abandon yourself, drop it.” Conversely, she advises learning how to take in more praise, partly by creating a “love folder” of positive words and success snippets. “Most leaders try to deflect praise, but they should reflect on it instead,” she adds. “It activates the reward system of your brain.”
Front-load presentations. Business presentations are not like mystery novels that are read eagerly to the end to find out what happens; good business presentations give the conclusion up front and spend the rest of the time revealing how to get there, emphasizes Ed Tate, 2000 World Champion of Public Speaking, international speaker, author, and business executive. He recommends a strong opening that breaks the audience preoccupation and a single sentence to frame your message. Next, jump into the content to—"get into it and get on with it,” he says. Stories and dialogue can be effective if they’re told succinctly. “The problem with most storytellers is they spend too much time talking about the place or the people; get to the action and the resolution quickly!”
Make dreams come true with a “Futureboard.” This is not the vision board of old, filled with random magazine cutouts, this tool is a simple three-step process of “dreaming it, thinking it, and seeing it,” according to Futureboards creator Sarah Centrella, motivational speaker, author, life coach, executive coach, and podcast host. Regarding the second step, she took the audience through an exercise that showed them how to “train your thoughts to align with your desired outcomes.” She explained how we all have negative voices in our heads that whisper why we shouldn’t do something. Rather than absorbing those and believing them, she advises stopping and reversing them through repeated positive affirmation “I am” statements that describe who you want to be, how you want to feel, and how you want to be treated, not who you are today.
Be aware that just like integrity, branding is a 24/7 endeavor. And the two are acutely tied together, emphasizes Forrest Tuff, multimedia entrepreneur, Master Life Coach, Accredited Speaker, award show judge, and philanthropist. “Let your haters be your motivators,” he says. Focus on your market, not the volume of your engagement. Keep things relative to your audience, don’t mimic the efforts of others. “Branding isn’t about being famous, it’s about reaching your very specific clientele,” he states. Additionaly, remember to research, plan, implement, and critique what you post and put out there, he says, “just like you do with your Toastmasters speeches.” And the two are acutely tied together, emphasizes Forrest Tuff, multimedia entrepreneur, Master Life Coach, Accredited Speaker, award show judge, and philanthropist. “Let your haters be your motivators,” he says. Focus on your market, not the volume of your engagement. Keep things relative to your audience, don’t mimic the efforts of others. “Branding isn’t about being famous, it’s about reaching your very specific clientele,” he states. Additionaly, remember to research, plan, implement, and critique what you post and put out there, he says, “just like you do with your Toastmasters speeches.”
Use NET (Notice, Explore, Transform) to move away from fear and an old mindset. You can stretch out of your negative default zone and transform yourself by first just noticing internal signals and cues when the stakes are high and the pressure rises, according to Melinda Lee, organizational psychologist, presentation skills expert, speaker, and researcher. She encourages forward-thinking leaders and professionals to explore new reactions to get to transformation. “Underneath our typical reactions, there is often an old story,” she states. “Emotions can move through our body in 90 seconds if we do not fuel them with old stories.” The idea is to thank your heart for the valuable information of noticing your internal signals, exploring the story underneath it, and then setting it free with visualization.
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