cbhmagic
Stop it !!! Enough!!!!
This is how my parents yelled at me and caught me off guard when I logged into Orkut.That’s a social media of 2009.
Those yelling faded away my interest. When everyone was engrossed into the book, the only book – Facebook, I didn’t! When the COVID was at its peak, everyone was socially interacting through Whatsapp, Instagram, Facebook. But I didn’t! Because I have an aim that my baby, my toddler by then, should never be addicted to any electronic gadgets.
Years rolled by. My toddler started growing up as a kid. But I was growing down in my communication and socialisation skills. It would be better to say that I was the queen of the Crutch words by then. I was in desperate need to improve.
Boom!
Broadcom acquired VMware.
All employees back to full force at the office, five days mandatory.
That was a blessing in disguise. I channelised my energy, my time towards growth, upskill and my transformational journey started through… Toastmasters (Waited for the Audience to respond Toast masters).
Right, My journey commenced well with vTalk Toastmasters. I was amazed, moved by the different speeches, the body languages, confidence and the vocabulary that every speaker in our club was bringing to the table. I was also happy to grow along with them. Did reach out to many people to understand the mantra behind articulating my thoughts. All mantras boiled down to one act:
“Just pen down your thoughts”.
Yes, penning down my thoughts, I was able to recollect my old days when many were fond of the Retrospection that I shared with them towards the end of the year.
“Good. CBH, why don’t you create a website or a blog for you?” I asked myself.
Website? Isn’t that a big huge milestone for an introvert?
Whatever it is milestone or small stone- I felt the need to warm-up. I have to familiarise myself with social media, digital communications and so. Instagram was the first shot. But somehow it got delayed to create an account. By then vTalk celebrated me for achieving my first milestone, Level-1 completion in LinkedIn. Only then I understood, ohhh I have a LinkedIn account.
Okay, I have something up and running. Why don’t I use that?
December 6, 2024. I took my first leap. What’s so special about December 6?
It was my day and I was the toastmaster of the day as well. I wanted to share the droplets of wisdom to the entire world that I conveyed during the meeting. I penned down my thoughts and I was ready to click that “Post” button in LinkedIn. And I remember how my reactions were.
I was nervous!
I felt chill as if there was an iceberg on me.
That one click is going to open the world, is going to open the communication door between me and the world. There were a lot of butterflies in my stomach. I was about to click. I clicked and immediately closed the laptop and just hided under the table. And slowly I peeped out and closed my ears tightly. Felt like I triggered an atom bomb. Because it’s about to create a noise from my friends, from my colleagues, as that was my first post in LinkedIn in my life. But nothing happened… No reaction…
I asked myself , “Did I really click that post? Did it reach the world?” I don’t know!
Alas! I was not able to spot that post in LinkedIn.
No matter, the CBH in me is resilient. The resilient CBH bounced back again at Feb 2, 2025. Do anyone remember? I highlighted and honoured our COTP program that happened on Feb 2. This time I ensured that I clicked the post button and yes, eventually got some likes, impressions and followers as well. After a lot of contemplation I have got into the world of fresh air, better communication. But I have to make it often.
Why don’t I take a plunge to improve the frequency of my post? This project, building the social media presence, made me aware that respecting and responding to the comments on your posts is equally important to build that presence. This enabled me to view others’ posts, share my ideas, understand others’ perspectives and it also introduced me to a lot of people, like-minded people and the conversations with them enriched me, keeps me in high spirit more than the likes and the impressions.
Yes, my dear fellow Toastmasters, like Everyone, I had the same notion that social media is full of likes, followers. But beyond that, there is something which helps us to understand ourselves. This building the social media presence, builds you, it discovers you, it engages you with a lot of like-minded people.
And it did not stop there. Two major highlights, two major stunning events that happened recently are:
1. The prime one is, I volunteered with a long-standing Toastmaster of Chennai, DTM Saro Velrajan. I’m very happy to introduce myself as the co-founder of Speakers High, a non-profit organization, a speaking fraternity that helps students to bring down the fear and boost up their confidence.
2. My institution, my college, felicitated me as a chief guest to inaugurate a debates club.
With these warm-up, I’m gearing up to create my blog “cbhmagic”. Soon I’ll be making it, rolling it out during our Quincentennial meeting(#500th meeting) of vTalk. Now do you get the rationale behind my topic cbhmagic?
Over to you Toast master of the day