What Toastmasters Gets Right — and Where It Falls Short
Every Thursday morning at 6:45 a.m., I walk into a meeting room in downtown Kelowna to join my Toastmasters club. I've been doing this for more than a decade, and I can say without hesitation that it has been worth every early alarm. Toastmasters has sharpened my public speaking, made me a better listener, and strengthened my leadership skills. But no program is perfect, and after ten-plus years of committed membership, I have a clear-eyed view of both the brilliance and the blind spots of the Toastmasters experience. Here's my honest take.
It's Both a Playground and a Gym
One of the best things about Toastmasters is that it functions as both a creative playground and a disciplined gym for your communication skills.
As a playground, it gives you the freedom to experiment. Want to move around the room while you present? Try getting up close with the audience? Test a new storytelling technique? Go for it. The environment is safe, the members are supportive, and helpful feedback is built into every meeting. You can take creative risks without real-world consequences.
As a gym, it gives you the reps you need. The best way to get in better shape is to show up consistently and put in the work — and public speaking is no different. I've met countless people who tell me, "Oh yeah, I did Toastmasters ten years ago. It was great." They talk about it like something they graduated from. But that's like saying, "I used to go to the gym ten years ago." We all know what happens when you stop working out: you lose the gains. The same is true with speaking. Skills get rusty without regular practice, and Toastmasters gives you that practice every single meeting.
Instant, Real-Time Feedback Is a Game-Changer
Perhaps the single most powerful benefit of Toastmasters is the immediate, structured feedback you receive within the same meeting where you speak.
Every Toastmasters meeting assigns evaluators to specific roles. Whether you're delivering a prepared speech, giving a toast, serving as the grammarian, or answering an impromptu table topics question, someone is watching and preparing detailed feedback for you. You walk away from every meeting knowing exactly what you did well and what you can improve — no guessing, no waiting.
And here's the clever part: even the evaluators get evaluated. A general evaluator closes out the meeting by assessing the evaluators and any other roles that haven't yet received feedback. It's a feedback loop that sharpens everyone in the room, every single time.
You Practice Every Element of Public Speaking
Toastmasters covers a remarkably wide range of speaking skills through a variety of roles:
- Prepared speeches: Full presentations you write and rehearse in advance.
- Toasts: Short, polished remarks that simulate real-life occasions like weddings or events.
- Evaluations: The art of giving constructive, actionable feedback to other speakers.
- Table topics: Arguably the most valuable exercise of all — impromptu speaking on the spot.
Table topics deserve special attention. A table topics master poses random questions — usually tied to the meeting's theme — and calls on audience members at random to respond with no preparation time. This is an incredibly powerful skill to develop. It sharpens your ability to think on your feet, which translates directly to real-life meetings, corporate events, and audience Q&A sessions after a presentation. When you practice this regularly in front of a live group, the fear of being put on the spot steadily fades away.
The Formality Problem
Now for the areas where Toastmasters could do better. One of the weakest aspects, in my view, is how unnecessarily formal the experience can feel.
Every club is different — I'm fortunate to belong to a club that keeps things fun and casual. But I've also attended meetings that are stiff, overly professional, and serious to a fault. There are rigid formalities baked into the Toastmasters structure: when you take the stage, you're expected to shake the Toastmaster's hand and open with something like, "Thank you, Mr. Toastmaster, fellow Toastmasters, and guests who are with us today."
The reality? You're almost never going to use that kind of language in any other speaking context. And what's more frustrating is that if you skip these formalities, evaluators will often flag it as a weakness in your presentation. For a program designed to prepare you for real-world speaking, this insistence on ceremonial protocol can feel counterproductive.
It Doesn't Fully Simulate Real-World Speaking Environments
My other significant criticism is that Toastmasters doesn't always replicate the speaking situations you'll actually encounter at conferences, corporate events, and professional gatherings.
Two examples stand out:
- Panel discussions: It took five years of Toastmasters membership before I saw my first panel conversation at a meeting. Yet at the conferences I attend for work, panel sessions make up roughly half the on-stage content. Practicing how to be an effective panelist or a skilled moderator is hugely valuable — but Toastmasters rarely provides that opportunity.
- Slide-based presentations: In our club, maybe 10% of speeches use PowerPoint or slides. In the real world, it's closer to 90%. Learning to speak with slides — without being enslaved by them — is a critical skill that Toastmasters largely leaves unpracticed.
While Toastmasters excels at building core speaking fundamentals, it doesn't fully simulate the environments where most people will actually be called upon to speak. This is a meaningful gap that the organization could work to close.
The Verdict: Far More Positives Than Negatives
After more than a decade of weekly attendance, I remain a passionate believer in Toastmasters — and I fully intend to keep showing up for the next ten years. The positives clearly outweigh the negatives: it's an unmatched environment for building speaking confidence, receiving honest feedback, and developing skills you'll use in every area of your life. But I think it's important to be candid rather than paint everything in rosy terms. The formality can feel outdated, and the program would benefit from better reflecting the diverse speaking formats people encounter in the real world. If you're considering joining a club, my advice is simple: do it. Just go in with your eyes open, seek out a club whose culture fits your personality, and commit to showing up consistently. The growth will speak for itself.