Zoom Is No Substitute For In-Person Nervousness

Zoom is no substitute for standing in front of an audience and getting sweaty palms, butterflies, and feeling nervous.

Meeting for Toastmasters over Zoom was always a last-ditch effort to keep the club going during the pandemic. I’m sure this was true to various degrees for all 15,000 clubs and 300,000 members worldwide.

Our club finally started meeting in-person again 2 months ago. And it’s so much better because it’s all the real-life reasons that guests and members are looking for: facing the fear of public speaking and getting better at in-person communication. And you can’t get better at in-person communication over Zoom because, well, Zoom isn’t in-person.

Just like you can’t learn to swim unless you get in the water, you don’t get the same degree of sweaty palms, butterflies, and nervousness over Zoom. You gotta show up in person.