Many people join Toastmasters to hone their skills as a speaker but many also have a dream that perhaps they might be able to deliver a Tedx talk. My story shares how this is possible and how Toastmasters supported me in doing just that last year.
How Toastmasters Helped Me Take the TEDx Stage
Nine years ago, I walked into a meeting of Wicklow Toastmasters – and I’ve never looked back.
At the time, I was already doing some public speaking through my work as a health coach, but I knew I wanted to improve my public speaking skills – not just in terms of my delivery, but in how I could connect more deeply with an audience. I wanted to move from presenting information to telling stories that resonate and have an impact.
From the beginning, our local club welcomed me with open arms. Wicklow Toastmasters is an eclectic mix of personalities and perspectives – young and old, experienced speakers and complete beginners. That mix, I soon discovered, is one of the club’s greatest strengths. No matter how many meetings I attend, I always walk away having learned something new.
Over the years, I’ve served in a number of officer roles, including Vice President Public Relations and Vice President Membership. I’ve assisted in our club’s mentoring programme for many years and at our storytelling events. These roles deepened my involvement in the club and gave me an even greater appreciation for the leadership and teamwork that underpin the Toastmasters experience.
In 2020, I had the honour of representing our club in the District 71 International Speech Contest. I was thrilled to place first at division level – an incredible milestone on my speaking journey. While I didn’t advance further, the experience sparked something else in me: an interest in sharing my message around women’s health on a bigger stage.
That interest and the encouragement of my own mentor in Toastmasters led me to pursue a TEDx talk. As a health and mind coach with over thirty-five years’ experience across conventional and complementary medicine, I had long been passionate about women’s health, particularly the often-unspoken issues such as infertility, miscarriage, post-natal depression and menopause.
Although menopause is an ‘on trend’ topic these days, there persists an outdated narrative that menopause marks the beginning of a decline for women. The media and the marketeers sell us shampoo and skincare to help us stay young, as if that was the most important thing at this stage in life. Too often, in life, in work and on screen, we associate women in their 40s and 50s with invisibility or irrelevance, when in fact, this time can be a period of transformation, strength, and new beginnings.
My TEDx talk, “How Menopause Will Change Your Life,” was the result of years of reflection, research, and thanks to Toastmasters – refinement. The skills I developed at club meetings were essential: structuring a talk with clarity and impact, delivering it with confidence, and making space for humour and vulnerability. But more than technique, Toastmasters gave me the courage to take up space, to use my voice unapologetically, and to lead with authenticity.
Speaking on the TEDx stage was incredible – I still pinch myself that I’ve done it. But it was also a way of reclaiming my own story, of speaking out and of having my voice heard. From my work, I knew I wasn’t speaking for myself alone – I was giving voice to the millions of women who have been gaslit by the medical profession or who feel overlooked or misunderstood at this stage of life.
Looking back, I know that none of this would have happened without Toastmasters. It didn’t just help me improve as a speaker—it gave me the tools and support to grow into the kind of speaker who can shift conversations, challenge taboos, and inspire others to do the same.
Menopause is not the end of the story. For many of us, it’s where the most meaningful chapters begin. As a Toastmaster, you know that storytelling isn’t only entertainment. It can be medicine. A call to action. And sometimes, how we begin to heal.
Nowadays in my work, I incorporate stories and storytelling to help people feel connected and alive because that’s how we can transform who we are in the world. Thanks to Toastmasters, I now have the voice and the platform to do this.
Watch my Tedx: https://youtu.be/i12A5dtYnMw?si=5iaaqGkgG9JTMRed
Ashleigh Tobin
Wicklow Toastmasters
