This Toastmasters Leader Shares Her Public Speaking Secrets with Rotary | Rotary Voices Podcast

From Rotary Magazine, this is the Rotary Voices Podcast. I'm Michelle Berg. Aletta Roshaw became the first African president of Toastmasters International, the global organization that helps people develop leadership and public speaking skills. Aletta was born in South Africa and spent much of her childhood moving around the world, as her family frequently relocated. Rotary also played an important role in Aletta's journey. At age 17, she spent a year in Ontario, Canada, as a Rotary Youth Exchange student. Living with host families, she adapted to a new culture and volunteered alongside Rotary members. With that experience, she developed the confidence and independence that would shape her future. Years later, she attended her first Toastmasters meeting. What started as a way to strengthen her communication skills soon became a passion that led to leadership roles throughout the organization and ultimately to the Toastmasters presidency. Rotary and Toastmasters have been strategic partners since 2019, bringing together two organizations dedicated to leadership development, communication, and service. Recently, Aletta and Yinka Babalola, the Rotary International President from Nigeria, have invited each other to speak at their respective conferences, hoping to create more opportunities for collaboration around the world. Today, I'm pleased to welcome Aletta from Cape Town, South Africa, to the Rotary Voices podcast. Thank you, Michelle. So excited to be here. So before we get into your personal story, could you tell our listeners a little more about Toastmasters International and its mission? Michelle, Toastmasters has been created to help people become more confident communicators, to speak up confidently. And that could be at home, it could be at work, it could be in the family situation, it could be when you're pitching for investors or trying to sign up a new client. And we teach through a learning by doing experience in our clubs. So we each get given a project to do and someone in that audience evaluates us and gives us real-time feedback. is so rare and they'll say Aletta, you did this this and this really well next time I suggest you do this to make it even better. So in this wonderfully supportive community we develop leadership skills, we develop communication skills and as a result people become more believing in what they can create. So they see more possibilities for themselves and they take that newfound confidence back to their families, their communities, their careers. It is a wonderfully A transformative experience in an incredible community. Aletta, the weekly Toastmasters clubs, what is the format of the club and how does one actually improve their public speaking skills through involvement in a club? Great question, Michelle. We have a variety of meeting formats in terms of the cadence of the meeting. So some clubs do meet every week. My club, for instance, meets every two weeks. And we also have some clubs that meet once a month. But the majority, depending on where you are in the world, are weekly or twice a month. So we get together and we practice the same things every time. We have some members who are doing projects or speeches and they're generally about five to seven minutes. So that's the prepared speaking. And then they always get an evaluation from somebody in the audience that gives them real-time feedback so that they can improve. So the evaluators are also speaking in an unprepared format because they just have to listen to the speech, they practice their listening skills and then their analytical skills to give feedback. We also have what we call table topics, which is unprepared speaking. And somebody is running table topics for the evening. They pick a theme and you get called up with no idea about what the question is. You get the question, you get a few moments to think, and you've got to speak in two to three minutes or one to two minutes. I beg your pardon. And give a response. And that's usually very entertaining. So we practice those again and again and again. Everything is timed. Everything gets feedback. And that's how you improve over time. You have lots of little speaking opportunities with feedback in front of a live audience. Or it could be a hybrid meeting or it could be an online meeting. And that repetition, that builds this public speaking muscle and the confidence over time. When you look at some of the most effective leaders that you've met, What qualities do you see that both maybe Rotary and Toastmasters help develop? Michelle, for me, leadership is not about the title. It's not about the badge. It's about the people. And the most effective leaders are the people who can lead in a way that brings people along with them. So in Rotary's case, you're doing these incredible community projects. You need to work as a team. You need to communicate as a team. You need to work towards certain objectives. And in Toastmasters, we do exactly the same thing with a slightly different focus. But a leader cannot lead alone, and your ability to inspire and motivate and hold your team accountable often is expressed in the way you communicate. So the more skilled we can become as communicators, the more effective we can become doing whatever it is we love to do. And in Rotary's case, it's absolutely transforming communities. Let's talk a little bit about your Rotary experience. I was so excited to learn that you were a Rotary Youth Exchange student. So if you could speak to your 17-year-old self, go back in time, what advice would you give her before you went on this exchange? Just to enjoy every moment. Every day is an opportunity. I first learned about the Youth Exchange Program because we had an American exchange student come to the school I was at. And I remember spending much time learning from her, being curious about her life and her learning from us. And that sparked my interest. And I was lucky enough to be selected. I think there probably were four or five girls from my school who were selected. And it was the adventure of a lifetime. You can imagine going from midsummer in Cape Town to northern Ontario midwinter. And just, I remember arriving at the airport and seeing this long line of Rotarians there to welcome me. And when I think back on the experience, the one word that comes to mind is kindness. Those people opened their homes to me and I stayed with four different host families. I had a counselor who I became very close to. He and his family, I'm still in touch with them today, many years later. And they gave me a chance at experiencing a lifestyle I couldn't possibly have done any other way. As the year went on, I tried to find ways that I could contribute to that community as well. And I also, I just wanted to meet as many people as possible. So I learned, and this is funny because I went to a boarding school and I hardly ever had permission to leave school because I was... In Canada, doing a grade 13 curriculum, I could sign myself out of school if I wanted to. So I volunteered to speak at any school that would listen to me and I'd tell them about South Africa. And in my Rotary Club, I also said to the Rotary members, I'd love to come and have dinner with you and meet you and be in your homes. And they were so kind. When I was in North Bay, Ontario, the first weekend I was there, Canadians who'd been somewhere else on exchange invited me to his house so I went there and there were all these young kids and you know there was a cultural shift of they said what do you want to drink and I said what have you got and back home I would have been drinking wine or maybe a Sancerre or something like that and he says we've got pop or we've got rum or beer that was it so that was the first cultural shift and then during the course of the evening I went to the washroom And I put my hand out on the toilet paper and it was heated. And I thought, boy, these Canadians think of everything. Meanwhile, there's the air vent that just happened to be under where the toilet paper was, you know. And I shared that story at our district conference, the Rotary District Conference, and they asked a couple of us to speak, and it brought the house down. They thought it was hysterical, you know. So it's those moments that catch you by surprise, and that's part of the story you tell, you know. It's just, yeah, silly little moments, but they tell a story. So I had a very rich experience due to the kindness of those Rotarians. And I'm forever grateful for that. I'd love to hear that. Sounds like you made the most of that opportunity. Did I hear that you also had another Rotary experience later on? I did. When I was, I think I was in my mid-20s, I saw that there was a Rotary Group Study Exchange Program, and those were for young professionals between the ages of 25 and 35, and five of us were selected, and we were the first all-female group that was selected from South Africa, and we went and spent six weeks in Illinois in the USA, and it was a... Fascinating program because, again, we stayed with Rotarians in their homes in various places around Illinois. And again, they opened their homes to us. They were so generous in sharing their culture. I recently found a diary I kept at the time. And again. All the things they put in place for us, you know, they took us to see special places or meet special people. So it was an incredibly enriching experience once again due to the power of that rotary network that is just incredible. Aletta, from your experience in both youth exchange and group study exchange, what did you find had a lasting impact on your life and your career? Michelle, I think the biggest thing is your awareness of the world. So going as a youth exchange student, I'd been overseas before as a young child, but this is the first time going as a, you know, just finishing school. And suddenly you're in a different culture and you're exposed to a different way of doing things. That's incredibly enriching. On top of that, you have the experience of meeting other Rotary Exchange students from other parts of the world. So you get that multi-level cultural exchange, again, incredibly enriching. For the group study exchange there we went and did presentations at Rotary Clubs all over Illinois and interacted with those members and of course they were from different backgrounds, different ages, so again you get to receive from them their worldview and you share your worldview with them. So I think any of those experiences you come back incredibly enriched, just exposed to a far wider world. It gives you a lot of confidence if you've been able to take yourself out of what's normal and comfortable for you and go live in another country and experience that. You come back more mature, you come back more. I wouldn't say wise, but more aware of the world and more aware of how interaction with people and a network like Rotary can change your world. So for me, I'm forever grateful for those experiences. And, you know, when people say to me, you know, what's your Toastmasters experience like? I use the same word. It's one of the most enriching things I've ever done is to become a Toastmaster. So I think there's a lot of parallels. Especially when you do something like go to an international convention, whether it's a Rotary Convention or a Toastmasters Convention, you are being exposed to that beautiful tapestry of people from all over the world, all united by a common purpose, and that is incredibly exciting. So, Aletta, you were born in South Africa, and during your childhood you lived in… Several different countries and you've experienced these other exchanges. So how did growing up across these cultures shape the way that you connect with people and lead today? I think it became almost a survival skill so you know by the age of five I was we'd moved around South Africa my father was in the mining industry and he was in demand and we went to first to Zambia then we went to Canada and stayed in Toronto and then we went to Tasmania so there were many different moves and I remember distinctly by the age of eight Standing in front of yet another class of strangers, because I was a kid who came midway through the term, I was a kid with a funny accent, and thinking to myself, Aletta, you've done this before, you can do it again. And what I'd learned at a very young age was the way you listened, primarily, was a conduit to. fitting into that new group. So if I listened about what was important to them, it was easier to start a conversation. And the way you showed up, the way you communicated, determined whether or not you had friends at break time. And of course, when you're eight years old, you really wanted to be invited to those birthday parties. So I became very aware of communication as a conduit to fitting in and feeling like I belonged. I think that's where my fascination with communication started, and then it's just continued. Now I coach people in communication skills, and of course Toastmasters has been a big part of that as well. How did you first discover Toastmasters? What inspired you to become involved? Well, it's not the traditional way. Most people will tell you they needed to improve their speaking skills, or someone told them to join. I literally, I had three young kids, I was a stay-at-home mom, you know, very privileged to do that, and I joke I was running away from my kids. I wanted something that was just for me, that I could be with other adults, and I'd heard of Toastmasters, but I'd never met anyone who was a Toastmaster. So I did a quick Google search, and two clubs came up, and I went to the one that was the most convenient for me, and I was just so, so fortunate. It was one of the strongest clubs in our district. And the minute I went there, I could see I could learn, and I loved learning. And within minutes, I knew I would join. I could never have predicted that that single wish for a night out away from the kids would have led to me becoming international president. I couldn't have foreseen that. I was going to ask, how did you go on that journey to become a Toastmasters international president? What inspired you to do that? I have a habit and again I joke that I suffer from a syndrome and it's called the helium hand syndrome. So whenever anyone asks for a volunteer my hand magically goes up even sometimes when I try and keep it down and that's been a lifelong thing I've done. At school I volunteered for all the committees and the clubs because I just found life was more interesting when you got more involved. So in Toastmasters, the same was true. I'd hardly been a member for about two months, and our president said to me, you've got a marketing background. We need someone to do PR for the club. Somebody else has had to step down. Would you be willing? And I just said yes. And I just kept on doing it and having so much fun, learning so much. And I kept on saying yes to the next level and the next level and the next level. And because of my marketing background, at one point I volunteered to do the PR for Southern Africa. And I was a relatively new Toastmaster, had a lot to learn, but put my name forward for election and bless my fellow members in the district, they elected me. And then I had a steep learning curve to find out how the district worked and what I needed to do. But fortuitously, in that year, our international president at the time, a lady... by the name of Pat Johnson from Canada came to our district for a visit and I planned her trip probably about a 10-day trip and I traveled with her so maybe inadvertently the seed was planted spending time with Pat because she and I got on very well and I learned a lot from her. So I just kept on saying yes, kept on having fun. And eventually, you know, 18 years later, I was international president. And you served as president last year. What was that experience like? And what leadership lessons did you take from it? That's a question I got asked so often, Michelle. People say to me, what's it like to be international president? And the only way I could answer it was that it was more. It was more challenging. It was more rewarding. And it was more humbling. But it was the most incredible opportunity and a big focus of my presidency was to have contact with the district leaders. So I'd invite them to have calls with me and that helped me to really understand what was happening on the ground, how I could support them. And it was a rich give and take. You grow through these roles, like any of these roles. There's things that you think you know that are coming your way, then there are other things that you don't know are coming your way. But always, you're never alone. There's a lot of support. from members, from world headquarters staff, from your fellow board members, from your fellow executive committee members. So I always felt very much supported and very grateful for the opportunity to give back to an organization that has touched so many lives. Many service organizations and professional development organizations, including Rotary and Toastmasters, are navigating challenges with membership growth and member engagement. So what strategies has Toastmasters embraced to remain relevant and attract new members? I think a lot of it has to do with our mindset, Michelle. You know, the pandemic hit all of us hard. And certainly for Toastmasters, we lost many members and clubs. And yet we are growing in parts of the world where it isn't logical for us to grow, where it's expensive to be a Toastmaster, where things aren't necessarily easy. But, you know, we're growing in Africa, we're growing in the Middle East and the Far East, you know, and in Europe. Those are our growth areas. And it struck me, why do those people grow where other more affluent countries aren't growing? And a lot of it, I do believe, is mindset. And one lesson I had many years ago when I stepped into district leadership, we had a previous district governor, Eric Viji, who challenged our beliefs in terms of what was possible. At the time, we were... We have a rating system. We distinguish as a district or we're not. And we were hardly ever distinguished. And one year we were ranked 83 out of 83 districts. So we were rock bottom at one point. And he said, look at what they're doing in New Zealand. Look what they're doing in Curacao. Their density of clubs per population is far higher than ours. You know, we're underperforming. And he challenged us to think bigger. So we started having this vision of doubling the size of our district. In five years, we actually took 10 years to do it, but within five years, we'd increased by 50%. And nothing else had changed except our mindset. So this past year in particular, we really worked on what we believed to be possible. And we are surrounded by opportunity, but how do we translate that into action? So we are now getting pretty close to starting to grow again as an organization, which is really exciting. And I believe it's possible for all of us. The need is there, whether it's communication or whether it's people needing what Rotary does for them. The need is enormous, but it needs us as members to step up, build the strong clubs, grow the clubs so we get more members doing the work. And I believe it's possible, but we've got to keep focusing on outcomes. So we do need accountability, but we need that vision as to why it's important. And put those two together and inspire people along the way, and we will grow. I'm absolutely confident of it. Absolutely. Yes, we have so many parallels in our organization. And we have this strategic alliance since 2019. And so from your perspective, how can Rotary and Toastmasters work together in practical and meaningful ways to strengthen both of our organizations? I think the big thing is to have that personal connection. When I was doing a project as part of the... Distinguished Toastmaster Award I completed last year and it was called Africa Leads the Way because I wanted the fact that I was the first African president to help other Toastmasters in Africa. And then when we discovered that Yinka Babalola was coming in as the first, well, second African president for Rotary, we thought, wow, what are the chances? You know, he's only the second in, I think, I believe, 124 years of history and I was only the first in 102 years of history. So we Contact with each other, and he spoke at an Africa Day event that we had, and subsequent to that, he's invited me to speak at some Rotary events in Africa. And I believe that's where the connection comes in. It's person to person. So for anyone listening to this podcast, if you're a Rotarian, find a local Toastmasters club, connect, invite them to speak at your meetings, ask them to invite you to speak at theirs, because there are so many parallels. We've had in my own club. Members of Rotary come to us because the one man was stepping up as club president and he wanted to improve his communication skills before he stepped into the role. So there's so much synergy, but it all starts with personal connection. So this alliance comes alive, not at world headquarters level, it comes alive at the club level. So just reach out to your partner, wherever you are, and I bet you they would be delighted to hear from you and delighted to contribute, you know, you to them and them to you. Excellent, thank you. In our world today, people are becoming more and more polarized. How do our organizations, Toastmasters and Rotary International both, help bridge that divide? Michelle, the way I look at it is that our connection through Rotary or Toastmasters, in my opinion, builds bridges of understanding. In my Toastmasters club, I get to meet people I'd never meet in ordinary life. I get to hear their stories through their presentations and speeches, and I get to understand them better, and we connect. It doesn't matter if I've never met them before. The fact that we are both Toastmasters immediately gives us that connecting point and that, as I say, bridge of understanding, and I believe Rotary does the same. So I have a greater empathy towards people who are different to me, who come from different cultures and backgrounds and religions, And more. passion for them and more curiosity to learn from them. And that's all as a result of this powerful Toastmasters network. And I would imagine exactly the same is true of Rotary. We have something that unites us and that becomes the primary connection point. And from there, because we've got the same philosophy, we share the same values, we can connect and we can make a difference. And that is incredibly meaningful. Well, as a speech coach, I know you've helped many people become more confident communicators. So what are some of the most common mistakes that people make when trying to improve their public speaking skills? And what advice would you offer someone that was trying to become a more effective speaker? Michelle, it's a muscle you have to build and you can sit at home and you can get AI to help you write these wonderful things, but you've got to get up and do it. You've got to actually get in front of an audience. You can start with your cat or dog if that's where your comfort level is, but ideally you want a room of people that can, you can read them, they can give you reactions. So first of all, it's a learning by doing, it's not a spectator sport. The biggest challenge I often find is that it's not what to say. It's we've got too much to say. How can we? curate what we say in a given period of time. In Toastmasters, we're very strict on how long you speak for because we want people to learn to speak in a certain given time and not ramble on and on and on. You know, we've all experienced that at some point in our lives. So you know, if you've only got two minutes, what deserves to be in those two minutes and what should be left out for another presentation? And the thing that I teach my clients the most is clarity. So. The technique I was taught years ago was, if you only had 10 words for your entire presentation, what would those 10 words be? And if you can... Distill it into one 10-word slogan or statement, then you know what the focus is. And if you know, you can communicate that to your audience. But if you're rambling on and thinking, oh, I better add in this and I better add in that, your audience is going to be confused. So less is more. And practice in front of a live audience. And that's where Toastmasters is so great. You're guaranteed an audience and you're guaranteed applause. And there's not many places in the world that can give you that. Do you have any pre-speech rituals that you go through before stepping on the stage? It's called breathing. You know, it's so often when we, no matter what the audience is, you always get a little bit nervous. And I always try and spend a moment or two just taking a deep breath and giving thanks for the opportunity because it's a real privilege to have people's time. They can never get that time back and you can never get that time back. And I always remind myself to trust myself. But I don't need to be perfect, but I'll find the right words in the moment that will honor this opportunity and honor the audience. And it's all about the audience. If you make it too much about yourself, you get caught up in, you know, what am I saying? What am I doing? What are they? thinking or looking at me. So it's much better to try and focus on the audience. What can you give your audience? And in that way, if you can connect with your audience, it's so much easier. With all your experience, do you still get nervous speaking in front of a group? I do. And I think part of the reason is if you're speaking as international president, people expect you to speak really well. So the burden of expectation increases as your seniority increases. But always, I don't take it for granted that I'm going to connect with an audience. I don't take it for granted that they will remember what I say. I try and really work hard to do my best. It's not going to be perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but I do my best to connect. Because if I can connect it in, Somebody can change the way they think or how they feel about something or what they do about something. And if I can influence change through the way I speak, then I think it's a job well done. But if it's just about me telling you something, telling you as opposed to connecting with you, then it's a limited experience for everyone. I see that you have great skills in that arena. So thank you. And as we wrap up before, I want to ask a personal question. What brings you joy when you're not working or speaking or leading? Definitely family, spending time with family and friends. And I also need to be in nature. So if I'm stressed, if I'm worried about something, I need to go outside, go for a walk, take the dog for a walk. I need to just be. In nature to kind of rejuvenate myself, but people bring me great joy, but primarily family, but friends. And when I served as international president and people said to me, what was the highlight? Inevitably, my response would always be an interaction with a member. That is where it really comes together, where it becomes meaningful. It's not about leading an organization, that's part of your role. But if the decisions you make at that level can help an individual member, Then that's the ultimate goal Excellent. Well, thank you so much for being with us today. I appreciate your time and your connection to Rotary as well as your service to Toastmasters International. Thank you so much, Michelle.