The influence story #2 | Karen Knight

Mentoring makes a huge difference. My mentor is Pat Johnson who is the Past International President. She used to live in the same city as I did. I had moved since then but she is still my mentor and I talk to her regularly and Pat Johnson has a mentor who is Ted Corcoran who is another Past International President who also has a mentor. I have about six people that I am mentoring right now.

I am a huge fan of mentoring

There is so much difference that you can make. One of my mentees Yasir Khan, he is from Pakistan - when he joined our club, he had never spoken in public before, but he really wanted to do things and he wanted to go to international stage. So he came over to my place one night and because he had joined in January, we did about three or four speeches so that he would be eligible for the club contest. He entered into International Speech Contest at the club level and won, and then he entered at the Area level and won, and then Division Level and won, and then he came second at the District level. He had been in Toastmasters for only three months.

If you have the right mentor, it can make all the difference in the world

This happened during last year (2017). This year, in March, he spoke on TEDx. It is just over a year, and he went from having never spoken in public to speaking on TEDx stage. He was amazing but, if you have the right mentor and that person has time to spend with you, it can make all the difference in the world.

Mentoring has a lasting impact

It has far more influence, long lasting influence than any other medium. I have been influenced by speeches, but it tends to be short term. Public speech is the best way to influence a large number of people - if you need to get A message across in a short period of time, a well-crafted speech will work for that. But if you wish to make a lasting change, then it is mentorship that does that definitely in my opinion.

-Karen

About Karen:

Karen Knight, DTM is a Past District Director - District 21 (Canada) and an avid Toastmaster since 1995. She has recently received her second DTM title and has finished the Competent Communicators manual at least 10 times. She is extremely amiable and a fantastic storyteller. She told me lots of stories about different influences. I thank her and take this opportunity to publish these stories through this blog.