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You're listening to the Talkative Toastmaster podcast. I'm your host, melanie Surplus. In this podcast, we explore how Toastmasters can help you to polish your public speaking skills, communicate with confidence and amplify your authenticity. You'll hear from my fellow Toastmasters and I how this global organization has impacted our lives for the better and how it could impact yours. Now let's get talkative. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to episode 40.

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This week, hot off my podcasting miniseries and an interview with a fellow podcasting Toastmaster, I'm going to share seven podcasts which focus on helping you to improve your public speaking skills, Whether you're a newbie or a confident speaker looking to break into the world of paid public speaking. I've tried to ensure there's something in this list for everyone, wherever you may be in your speaking journey. For each podcast, I'll look at its focus and what you can expect to learn from its hosts and guests. All of the podcasts I mention are available via Apple Podcasts or wherever you prefer to listen to your favorite podcasts. So let's get stuck into the first one, the Toastmasters podcast. This is the official podcast created by Toastmasters International and is hosted by Greg Gason, ryan Levisque and Beau Bennett. This podcast is an extension of the Toastmasters International magazine and it interviews guests who have had articles featured in the magazine, and it interviews guests who have had articles featured in the magazine. It's dedicated to enhancing public speaking and leadership skills through the Toastmasters international framework. Each episode offers practical advice, as you would expect from Toastmasters, and they're inspiring stories as well as expert insights tailored for Toastmasters members and anyone interested in improving their communication skills. This podcast typically features interviews with experienced Toastmasters, industry professionals and motivational speakers who share their personal journeys and tips for success. Topics, as you would expect from a Toastmasters-focused podcast, often include effective speech delivery, overcoming nervousness which is a common topic throughout Toastmasters mastering body language and organizing compelling presentations, and the focus really here is about providing actionable strategies and encouragement to help listeners develop their speaking and leadership skills, obviously in conjunction with visiting their local Toastmasters club regularly. With this podcast, I'm really looking forward to catching up on some of the latest episodes about the international convention just held in Anaheim. There'll be, I'm sure, quite a few more episodes coming out of that convention. So overall, the Toastmasters podcast aims to foster a supportive community where listeners can learn from others' experience, gain practical knowledge and stay motivated on your journey to becoming a confident and effective communicator.

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Number two is the Toastmasters experience and you may have heard me speaking with its creator, toastmaster Evelyn Kalunan, who I interviewed in episode 39. Now Evelyn has been a Toastmaster for 16 years and she's doing this podcast as one of her level four elective projects, just like me. So it was a fun interview where we both got to speak last week about how we were both enjoying our Toastmasters podcasting experience. Now each episode in Evelyn's podcast typically features interviews with seasoned Toastmasters, including Evelyn's mentors and club members, and she's a member of both a community club and an advanced club, so you get different perspectives of people in their Toastmasters journey. Now these conversations offer listeners again actionable strategies for refining their public speaking skills, improving their presentation techniques and navigating various aspects of the Toastmasters programs. If you really want to delve into the Toastmasters organization, these first two podcasts are a great way of really hearing it firsthand, both from the Toastmasters International perspective and then an actual member's perspective, and Evelyn's podcast is very much like the guest interviews in my podcast. Again, this podcast serves as a valuable resource for anyone looking to understand the inner workings of the Toastmasters environment, as told by Toastmasters.

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Now the third podcast is the Presentation Boss podcast, and this is hosted by my Leading Edge buddies, kate Norris and Thomas Craft, both of whom are professional communications trainers. Thomas and Kate appeared on episodes 11 and 19 of my podcast respectively. This podcast is not currently publishing. Kate and Thomas did 100 episodes and the last one was in October 2023. But going back through the back catalogue of this podcast, you'll find gems which really get into the nitty gritty of helping individuals refine their presentation and public speaking skills. This particular podcast focuses on helping individuals refine their presentation and public speaking skills to become more effective communicators, and it's told through the way of actionable advice, tips and strategies, as told by people who are in the field, doing this work all day, every day.

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Each episode of the Presentation Boss podcast typically covers a range of topics related to presentation skills, including speech structure, audience engagement, visual aids and, again, dealing with nervousness. This aspect of nervousness and anxiety, or stage fright or the many names for it, is a common theme amongst all of these podcasts. In addition to individual tips and techniques, the Presentation Boss podcast also features interviews with guests and professionals who share their insights and experiences related to public speaking and presentation, and I find it's always just so interesting to hear different perspectives from people who are in the field, doing paid presentation work or speaking training. So this podcast also addresses specific issues such as handling difficult questions, managing stage fright and creating memorable presentations that resonate with audiences. By offering a mix of expert advice, real world examples and practical exercises, this podcast serves as a valuable resource for anyone looking to boost their confidence and effectiveness as a speaker.

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The fourth podcast is the Magnetic Memory Method podcast, hosted by Dr Anthony Metivier, and this is dedicated to exploring techniques for enhancing memory and learning efficiency. This podcast mainly focuses on the magnetic memory method, a system designed to improve memory retention and recall using visual imagery and association techniques. I came across Anthony's work when I was looking for material to send to one of my Toastmasters mentees in a question about how I prepared for delivering my own speeches, and one of the episodes in this podcast featured Thomas, who I mentioned in the last point, and how he and Anthony had worked together to help Anthony prepare for his TED Talk called Two Easily Remembered Questions that Silence Negative Thoughts, and I'll put a link to that in the show notes so you can get a feel for what Anthony talks about. Now. In each episode of the Magnetic Memory Method podcast, metivier delves into various aspects of memory improvement, offering practical tips and strategies for applying mnemonic principles, and the topics include the use of memory palaces, which is a method of associating information with specific locations in your mind, and the effectiveness of visual imagery, and techniques for memorizing complex information, like speeches, for example, or things like foreign language vocabulary, historical dates and so many other things. I'm definitely trying to weave some of these strategies into my upcoming speeches.

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So I'm listening a fair bit to this podcast at the moment and I really love how it features interviews with memory experts, educators and practitioners who share their insights and experiences with memory techniques and cognitive enhancement. I think being able to retain your memory and this has come up quite a few times by guests on this podcast about how important it is to retain your memory as you get older. So this podcast provides listeners with a broader understanding of how memory works and some of the strategies that can be used to optimize it. This podcast also covers common challenges related to memory and learning, offering advice on overcoming obstacles like forgetfulness, distractions and mental fatigue. Metivier's approach is practical and accessible and really just requires practice, so listening to a number of the episodes of this podcast can help you really to understand the actionable steps you can implement to enhance your memory skills in everyday life and academic settings. I feel that this podcast really does serve as a valuable resource for anyone interested in improving their memory and learning capabilities and, by blending the theoretical insights with practical advice and expert interviews, the podcast offers a comprehensive guide to leveraging very specific techniques for better cognitive performance and information retention.

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The fifth podcast is the Speaker Lab podcast, hosted by Grant Baldwin, who's an American guy, and this resource is dedicated to helping aspiring and experienced speakers develop their public speaking careers and enhance their professional presentation skills. A lot of Toastmasters end up in the realm of either semi-paid or fully professionally paid speaking engagements, so it's really valuable to hear a professional speaker talking about techniques and strategies for marketing oneself as a speaker. Baldwin often shares practical tips on how to structure presentations effectively, create impactful content and deliver speeches with confidence and clarity, and obviously the quality of your speeches is paramount to your career as a professional speaker. In addition to the solo episodes where Baldwin offers his experience, the podcast often includes interviews with seasoned speakers, industry experts and successful entrepreneurs. These guests share their personal experiences, challenges and strategies for building a speaking career, providing listeners with diverse perspective and real-world examples. Again, when you're looking to break into an industry that's new, you want to hear it from people who are actually doing it. He recently interviewed one of my all-time favorite content creators, pat Flynn, who was one of the very first podcasters I ever heard, so he's getting some very high-profile guests on this podcast. The Speaker Lab podcast also addresses the business side of speaking, offering guidance on how to find speaking opportunities, negotiate fees and manage the logistics of a speaking engagement. Baldwin's approach emphasizes practical steps and actionable strategies to help listeners advance their speaking careers and achieve their goals. If this is an area you're remotely interested in, and even if it's not, but you are interested in how you might potentially be able to stretch yourself in the future as a speaker, this Speaker Lab podcast really provides a great framework and it provides resources and inspiration for speakers at all levels.

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The sixth podcast is the Think Fast Talk Smart Communication Techniques podcast, hosted by Matt Abrahams, and this focuses on enhancing communication skills in both personal and professional settings. This is more of an abstract kind of a podcast, although there's a lot of practical tips and each episode covers a variety of topics related to communication, including, again, techniques for delivering clear and impactful messages, managing public speaking anxiety and engaging with different audiences. This podcast host is actually a communications expert and lecturer at Stanford University, and he shares actionable advice on how to organize thoughts quickly, respond to unexpected questions and communicate with greater clarity. And if you're interested in all things Toastmasters, that would be, I'm guessing, one of your prime focuses. This particular podcast also features a mix of solo episodes and interviews with communication experts, professionals and academics. So, as I said, it's a little bit more broad perhaps than the other podcasts I've mentioned, but the guests will often share their insights and practical tips on topics such as persuasive speaking, effective storytelling and the use of body language to enhance communication.

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I feel these discussions really aim to provide the listener with a deeper understanding of how to adapt their communication style to different contexts and audiences. After all, every speech is different and every audience is different, and the way the audience responds should very much guide your moves as a speaker. You know how you respond and connect with an audience can really determine the impact that you have on that audience. Some of the key themes explored in this podcast include strategies for improving impromptu speaking skills, techniques for crafting compelling communications and presentations, and methods for handling challenging communications with ease, and Abrahams emphasizes the importance of preparation with ease. And Abrahams emphasizes the importance of preparation practice and adaptability in becoming a more effective communicator. As a Toastmaster, I can definitely attest to the fact that preparation, practice and adaptability are really important skills. It's one of the things that Toastmasters does provide practice on. Every meeting, in fact, is different. We're speaking in front of a slightly different audience, the roles are mixed up between each meeting and you're not normally doing the same thing twice in a meeting, so you do have to be adaptable and you do get practice doing different roles. So this particular podcast I feel supports the Toastmasters agenda and, again, anyone just looking to improve communication skills.

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The seventh and final podcast I want to cover is called the Speaking Club Mastering the Art of Public Speaking, hosted by Anna Willard, who is an English lady, and this again focuses on practical advice, strategies and insights into the various aspects of public speaking, again looking at how to improve listeners' confidence and presentation abilities. Each episode here dives into the world of public speaking and gets into some basics like speech preparation, audience engagement, overcoming nervousness there it is again and refining delivery techniques. Anna also offers actionable tips on how to again create compelling content and use body language to reinforce spoken messages. So there is a lot of overlap in these podcasts, but again, it's great to hear different perspectives and even just different speaker styles. Some of these professional speakers well, all of these professional speakers actually have their own way of doing things, their own style, and it's that style that makes them unique. This podcast also features a blend of solo episodes where the host shares her experience as a professional speaker, and she also interviews guests and successful speakers.

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You'll hear advice here on how to tackle common challenges in speaking engagements. Listeners can expect to learn about practical techniques for various speaking scenarios, from delivering persuasive pitches and keynote addresses to handling impromptu speaking situations and managing Q&A sessions. And this podcast also addresses issues such as dealing with stage fright, crafting memorable openings and closings and using visual aids effectively. And I've seen a number of professional speakers lately through a number of conventions and conferences I've been to through work, and it is really interesting to see how different speakers handle, say, microphones not working or the pointer on a PowerPoint presentation not working or interruptions or all manner of situations that unless you have been there and on a stage and experienced it and worked through it or had the luxury of practicing that kind of setup in a Toastmasters environment where it really doesn't matter too much if anything goes wrong, and that's one of the benefits, again, of Toastmasters are practicing this stuff. So it is interesting to hear these professional speakers talk about how they deal with any of the range of mishaps that can happen in the middle of a paid speaking engagement. And so there you have it Seven podcast suggestions which hopefully are new to you and hopefully you'll find value in and places where you can immerse yourself in all things public speaking.

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There's a couple in there by Toastmasters for Toastmasters that delve way into the world of Toastmasters, as we know and love. There's also some paid and professional speaking tips and ideas for how to get into that part of the public speaking world. And then there's also podcasts in there about specific techniques like the magnetic memory method, and these can be applied, obviously, in other areas of your life beyond public speaking. I hope this helps and if you have any suggestions or examples of podcasts that you love listening to about public speaking or communication skills, please let me know. I'd love to hear what you find useful and interesting in this world of public speaking and, who knows, I may add them to my playlist.

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If you're ready to unlock your potential, consider joining a Toastmasters club near you. Check out the Find a Club link on the Toastmasters International website at wwwtoastmastersorg. It's worth visiting a couple of different clubs as a guest to see which club best suits you. If you do take the leap and visit a meeting, I would absolutely love to hear your experience. Feel free to message me at talkativetoastmaster at gmailcom or tag me in the comments if you found this podcast on YouTube, facebook, instagram or Twitter. Thanks for listening to today's show. Head to TalkativeToastmastercom, where you'll find the show notes for this and all other episodes, as well as links to some awesome Toastmasters resources. If you found value in today's content, I'd really appreciate if you could share it with friends and colleagues who may be interested or leave a review on iTunes. This helps more people to find us. Until next time, remember the words of Guy Kawasaki simple and to the point is always the best way to get your point across. Have a great week.