Hi Brandon
Appreciate you sharing this with us and I'm sure it will help many tentative public speakers.

I used to belong to a speakers club and managed to get to two national finals in the UK.
I advise anyone who needs practice at public speaking to join Toastmasters in the US or the Association of Speakers Clubs in the UK.

I still keep a public speaking website and this is a link to an article I wrote on joining a speakers club - hope you don't mind the link.
http://easypublicspeaking.co.uk/find-a-speakers-club/