While I may sound old-school, but when it comes to improving our public speaking and literally any form of communication, there’s really nothing like doing it face to face. For me, as those who know me know, I credit the Toastmasters program and those weekly in-person meetings for truly helping to make a difference. Meetings over Zoom has also been helpful for when those face-to-face meetings were not possible. But with technology having come along way, there’s a new kid on the block that can help add value to all of the above. It’s called Yoodli: Your AI Public Speaking Coach. And in a recent podcast episode, I was able to sit down and speak with Yoodli co-founder Varun Puri.
Web-based Platform
In a nutshell, Yoodli is a web-based platform, that helps individuals practice, record, upload and store speeches or interviews and provides feedback and AI enabled analytics as well as an auto-generated transcript of the speech.
In my conversation with Varun, he enlightens us on a little more detail of what Yoodli is, why it was created in the first place and how it was funded.
He’ll also share a little about how it works and why he refers to it as a “smart- mirror.”
He’ll offer up a few examples and explains on how Yoodli, in real-time, provides users with personalized feedback such as filler and repeated words, body language, word pacing and more. We’ll also hear about the added bonuses like games you can play to further step-up those skills.
Partnership with Toastmasters International
We also hear a little bit about the recent partnership between Toastmasters International and Yoodli, giving Toastmasters members, at no-cost, a customized version of the Yoodli platform tailored to the Toastmasters experience including the ability to practice your Table Topics (impromptu speaking).
We’ll also hear about how you can get your analytics on your Zoom communication by inviting Yoodli to join your meeting through a pasted link or your calendar. (Public version only)
And finally Varun shares with us how the platform has helped him in fine-tuning his own communication skills.
Varun Puri, Co-Founder, Yoodli is based in Seattle, Washington and can be reached at Yoodli.ai where you can also access the public version of Yoodli.
Toastmasters members are encouraged to access the Toastmasters Yoodli by simply logging onto their accounts at Toastmasters.org/myhome.
You can also read more about Yoodli and the partnership in Laura Mishkind’s new article on Yoodli in the Toastmaster Magazine On-line.
My Take
I have had the opportunity to test-drive both versions of Yoodli and find them quite impressive. I truly appreciate the ability to not only get feedback and analytics and transcripts of my speeches in real-time, but the fact that as a 21-year Toastmaster and professional speaker I can upload existing audio and video and get those reviewed as well – not to mention the value of the written transcripts.
Greg Gazin, also known as the Gadget Guy and Gadget Greg, is a syndicated veteran tech columnist, communication, leadership and technology speaker, facilitator, blogger, podcaster and author. Reach him @gadgetgreg or at GadgetGuy.ca.
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