I gave my icebreaker speech at our local Toastmasters club and won Best Speaker.

@ridwan Congratulations! I did Toastmasters for many years and it definitely helped me in my career and my life.

@ridwan woo hoo! Congratulations. Especially for a person who stutters. It shows that it doesn't matter how you speak.

@agilelisa I can see major improvements in my speech and how I communicate during meetings.

@ridwan That’s awesome! As the people that I work with at UT Austin have made me realize that fluency is not the goal but effective communication is. There are plenty of facets about good communication that even people who don’t stammer are well versed in.

@pratik Absolutely. I think the goal for PWS should be eloquence & better communcation rather than fluency. Although one should learn some fluency enhancing techniques. You do not want to blocking and freezing completely.

@pratik BTW, "through the awarding of a $20 million legacy grant" - WOW! Who is this Arthur M. Blank guy? 🤣

@ridwan Arthur M. Blank is a co-founder of Home Depot so a multi-millionarie if not a billionaire. He also owns the NFL and MLS teams in Atlanta.

@ridwan Fluency if it makes your communication better. People at the Blank Center at UT Austin believe that even if you stutter on every word but manage to communicate what you wanted to, then the stuttering doesn't matter.