Speaker and kidney-failure survivor, Lori Hartwell, is a powerful patient advocate, spreading a message of hope.

Before I became a professional keynote speaker, an in-demand speech coach, and long before creating FrippVT, I joined Toastmasters. In case you didn’t know, Toastmasters International is a wonderful non-profit educational organization teaching public speaking and leadership skills through a worldwide network. In 1970, when Helen Blanchard wanted to join Toastmasters International it was still an all-male organization. Her membership application was simply submitted under the name “H. Blanchard.” As she explained in a 2008 Toastmasters article, “World Headquarters then requested my first name, and the club president asked me what kind of male name I’d like to use. I told him I’d never thought about it. So the members decided to name me during Table Topics, and they came up with ‘Homer.’” Blanchard rose from one Toastmasters’ leadership position to another, and in 1985 she was elected International President. In honor of women like Helen, and in honor of International Women’s Day, I share this from Toastmasters International: (more…)

Last summer, I was honored to deliver the opening keynote at the annual Toastmasters International Convention in Las Vegas. In case you aren’t already familiar with Toastmasters International, Toastmasters is a non-profit educational organization teaching public speaking and leadership skills through a worldwide network. I share Toastmasters’ roundup of the most buzzworthy speeches of 2015. Enjoy! (more…)

Executive Speech Coach & Hall of Fame Keynote Speaker, Patricia Fripp with Toastmaster Friends at The 2015 International Convention in Las Vegas

This last week, I had a wonderful time at the Toastmasters International Convention in Las Vegas, where I delivered the opening keynote to a truly international audience. (Just in case you don’t already know, Toastmasters International is a non-profit educational organization teaching public speaking and leadership skills through a worldwide network.) One of the many highlights of this year’s convention was the final competition for the World Championship of Public Speaking. Congratulations to Mohammed Qahtani of Saudi Arabia, who emerged from a field of 30,000 contestants to become the 2015 Toastmasters World Champion of Public Speaking! Past winners of this prestigious competition include: Ed Tate, Mark Brown, and Darren LaCroix, my co-presenters at the Lady and the Champs conventions. I share this from Toastmasters’ International: (more…)

What can you do to equip your employees with competitive communication and leadership skills?

Does your organization encourage, or even better, provide training to equip your employees with competitive communication and leadership skills? Have you considered your own in-house Toastmasters club or perhaps Fripp Virtual Training? If you are reluctant to allocate employee time or company resources to presentation training because you worry  “they might leave,” consider what my friend and colleague Jim Cathcart says, “What if you don’t train them, and they stay?”  (more…)