Speaker 1 0:00

the day. So I'm sort of I'm on a laptop and I'm not.

Speaker 1 0:03

I'm not used to it, I'm sort of you know, like, as long as the sound still works, I'm not so fussed about the video. But normally I've got a big screen and and yeah, this laptop business is like ah, all right, so we're recording. I just need to scratch my nose, all righty. Um, all right. Oh well, I'll. I've just got notes here, so I'm just going to scratch my nose, alrighty, all right. Oh well, I've just got notes here, so I'm just going to look up there and then I'll be able to look back at you. So, all right. So, counting down in three, two, one. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen. Well, see, there you go. I'm going to start again.

Speaker 1 0:42

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to episode 43 of the Talkative Toastmaster podcast. This week, my guest is Brendan O'Sullivan. He's been a Toastmaster for just over three years, starting in the Mad Chatters Club on the north side of Brisbane. He recently joined his second club, leading Edge Advanced Toastmasters. Brendan has packed a lot into his time in the organisation, having held positions of club president, area director and club coach. Brendan, I believe we first met when I evaluated you in an Area 20 evaluation contest last year. It's so cool that we're now club buddies and to have you on the show, so welcome.

Speaker 2 1:22

Thanks, mel, lovely to chat to you tonight. Awesome, I'm really looking.

Speaker 1 1:24

Mel, lovely to chat to you tonight.

Speaker 2 1:25

Awesome, I'm really looking forward to hearing about your Toastmasters journey but can you perhaps start where it all began and why did you join Toastmasters? Okay, so I'm a skin cancer GP and at some point I got tapped on the shoulder and asked to lecture. In that and I immediately had, like, looking over my shoulder, you know, had imposter syndrome. But anyhow, I thought I'll take the challenge. This is an opportunity, and I did it. And no one really comes up to you and says, hey, you really suck, mate.

Speaker 2 2:02

I kind of felt that you know, I probably wasn't that great. I definitely had the deer in the headlights, I was self-conscious and I thought you know what? This is a great opportunity. I want to continue to pursue this opportunity, but I don't want to be really bad at it and I thought I'm going to take myself along to Toastmasters and learn how to be a good public speaker, because I don't want them falling asleep on me. I want to be engaging and I want them, if I'm making some learning points, I want them to learn as I'm delivering it, give them some really ram home, some take home messages and be an effective teacher. So that's what I did.

Speaker 1 2:41

Okay, and so you've been in Mad Chs ever since and completed one entire pathway, which, and, and moving on to the next pathway, how did you find that process and then the skills it gave you to go on to lecturing?

Speaker 2 2:59

look, I found it great and I think that you know what I found is that the more speeches you do, the first thing it probably helped with was being less deer in the headlights. I got more and more comfortable with getting up in front of you know, lecturing, or just in front of fellow Toastmasters. It was very supportive, of course. Then I think the next thing that I mean maybe that was something that was going to happen anyhow. If I just kept doing it, I probably would have got more comfortable. But whether I got more effective is a whole other question.

Speaker 2 3:31

And I think the next thing that it really benefited me with was at least making me aware of the sort of things that I should be concentrating on. You know, vocal variety, pausing I definitely talk, you know historically, and probably pausing definitely talk, you know historically, and probably still now I talk really fast, yeah, so it's all about pausing eye contact, which is a very easy thing to sort of overlook, and so that you are engaging with the audience. I'm certainly not saying that, even three years down the track, that I am good at it, but it's definitely made me aware and given me things to, you know, continually try to work on and improve and I think that's been and it has, you know, it's been enormously beneficial, but I've still got a long way to go.

Speaker 1 4:16

And that's the great thing about Toastmasters is that continuous learning? And do you find you practise material that you're going to deliver in lectures as a Toastmasters speech?

Speaker 2 4:29

Well, that's a very good question, mel, because in terms of doing your pathways and getting pathways ticked off, it's sometimes hard within a single club, because there's other club members, to get a lot done in the space of a year because, know, you've got to wait your turn. There's a lot of sort of take their turn and this was one thing I found um was. I was, you know, a couple of members of my club uh, jeff and sue very kindly came along with the permission of the skin cancer college and evaluated a couple of my lectures and gave me feedback, and then I picked up another couple of projects, but I was also trying to really focus on, you know, doing the best that I could.

Speaker 1 5:12

Yeah, it's great that there's that flexibility and that your Toastmasters colleagues you know were able to support you in evaluating and making those speeches outside of the club count. Ultimately, I think that's what we join Toastmasters for. It's not necessarily to speak to groups of other Toastmasters, it's to be doing what we're doing in the world, getting our message out there, right.

Speaker 2 5:34

Exactly right, yeah, so I was very grateful to both Geoff and Sue for generously giving up their time and coming along to evaluate me.

Speaker 1 5:42

Oh, that's great, and also to be evaluated in situ, amongst your colleagues and peers and the like of the industry. That's, I think again, that's one of the benefits of having those relationships in Toastmasters where you can call on people like that and there's always someone to lend a hand. That's what I love about this organisation Everyone, everyone. You just ask for help and people appear.

Speaker 2 6:09

I'm saying you know very kind, generous people I've found yeah, definitely.

Speaker 1 6:13

And so how then did you come about being club president? Because you haven't been in the, the organization, that long, so how did the president role find you?

Speaker 2 6:23

I've been in Mad Shadows for about a year when it was coming up to the time of working out who is going to be the next executive for the club, and historically I have avoided those things like the plague. But I tend to sit at the front now just so that I don't miss anything you know, miss anything with my hearing or my vision and I'm sitting up the front there and they're sort of putting out the word, trying to get people to be president or whatever, whatever, whatever other role, and I'm, you know, slinking down in my chair, sort of almost, you know, averting my gaze but still listening yeah and Peter, our immediate past or outgoing president, then made it sound very easy, the role of president, compared to a lot of the other roles.

Speaker 2 7:11

It just got me to thinking I thought, well, I've never been a president of anything, you know, and no one else put up my hand, and so I went away and thought about it a bit and emailed him and the other message that came with it I mean, peter was a very good salesman, I must say the other message that came with it was it was more of an overseeing thing where you tried to generate a great vibe, and you know, one of my favourite movies Australian movies is the Castle. Of course it could be like the Dennis DiNuto of Toastmasters, you know, generating the vibe of theters, you know, just running around with a lot of other things. You know, before I knew it, I was putting my hand up and no one else wanted to do it, so I was in like Flynn, you know.

Speaker 1 7:53

Oh, straight to the pool room. That's right, oh, excellent, and how was your experience as president?

Speaker 2 8:02

Oh, look, you know, I think I had no idea what I was doing, to be honest, yeah, quite newbie at it, um, but you have, you know, you have all these more experienced people around you that are giving you, you know, advice, or you can go to them for advice, and you know. So you're kind of, by the end of the time of the year, you're starting to get an idea of what you should have been doing. Yes, also, my mother passed away during that sort of tenure, so I definitely dropped the ball a bit, but people then pick up the slack, so I was very grateful for that.

Speaker 1 8:38

Yeah, it's certainly very supportive. You know, in all sorts of life situations I guess we experienced that as club members and you know wanted to support club members along whatever lines and whatever's going on in their life. But it's interesting you say that by the end of the role you actually have an idea of what you meant. It's like I could do that so much better next time.

Speaker 2 9:04

And so I guess you try and pass that on to the you know the person for you and try and make their road a little bit easier, you know.

Speaker 1 9:10

Yeah, epic handovers. I'm a big fan of detailed handovers, but you know, and then it's up to the next person to make the role their own, and it's like here it is, it's all yours now. And so did you move straight from president into area director, or how did?

Speaker 2 9:30

that happen. Well, yeah, after fumbling my way through presidency, I kind of thought I'd had enough of any kind of administrative role. So I wake up one day to find I'm being area director. Oh, and I realised. When I thought back upon it. I thought, oh that darn Jim Carrey. I blame Jim Carrey. Have you ever seen a movie called yes man where he just says yes to everything? Oh, yes, yes. I think I took that on board too much. So that's how I found myself as area director. You embraced the yes.

Speaker 2 10:03

Embraced, just saying yes and giving everything a crack. So and seeing what happens, you know.

Speaker 1 10:10

And so it was literally president one year, area director last year, yes, yes. And how did you find moving out of the club? Because obviously, as an area director role, you're getting well out of your comfort zone, going into other clubs. Was that the first time you'd visited other clubs?

Speaker 2 10:27

Yes, I, I think so and yeah, it was like a real eye-opener. It's like you know I guess you're aware that it's not the only club but it feels like that's your whole world and suddenly there's a whole other world of other Toastmasters, clubs and people and people to meet. I loved it. The best part the worst part was trying to organise the area conference and finding a venue for free. That was a struggle with that because I went. I got a fabulous handover from Graham Cairns before I actually started my area director role and immediately on the same day that he gave me the heads up on you know where to go and what to do I went straight to the libraries.

Speaker 1 11:07

Yeah.

Speaker 2 11:08

Because you can potentially get them for free. Yeah, they were all totally booked out for the rest of the year. It was a no-go, and so anything that was free or very cheap was very difficult. Right Once I sorted that out, you know, formed like a conference committee and basically sourcing the advice of the more experienced people on that committee.

Speaker 1 11:37

Yeah.

Speaker 2 11:38

There was Kevin from Crest. He was very helpful because he'd done it all before. Yeah, he'd just get very good at listening and you know what advice to take on board and that was fine from then on. But my favorite part was the club visits, which meant I met a lot more people, all very friendly and welcoming. I felt I once again had imposter syndrome, sort of being very respectful and I thought, oh, you guys would all know more about what's going on in the road. It was great and it was also another opportunity to get some more speeches ticked off as well. Yes, feedback from a wider sort of audience, you know.

Speaker 1 12:14

Yeah, and I think you can get into your own club bubble and they become like family. And it is when you start to speak at whether it's your own area conference that you're hosting or speaking at other clubs. It's just that extra level because you know people are going to be supportive, but it's still a different audience and different rooms and different situations. So, yeah, all more practice.

Speaker 2 12:39

Yes.

Speaker 1 12:40

Yeah, and so you got through all the club visits and then so you didn't sort of move into division, so you gave yourself a break from saying, yes, moving up the leadership chain. But what happened then? Because I obviously know that you went to the District 69 conference in Caloundra. Was that your first district conference?

Speaker 2 13:04

That was my first district conference. I basically knew no one before going there. It's fabulous. I mean Toastmasters is just so friendly.

Speaker 1 13:13

It doesn't really matter.

Speaker 2 13:15

And you know I just had a fabulous time. You know just people and listening to you know some really incredible speeches and, yeah, just thoroughly recommend it, you know and it's the next level. So you know, you really start to appreciate, you know where you should eventually be aiming for if you want to be really good. You know.

Speaker 1 13:40

Yeah, the level of speeches and evaluations and table topics is all just notches up. With each level, you know whether it's the area or division or district and and and the uh, the world championship. So yeah, and we'll. We'll get on to that in a, in a moment, but we'll do. You think you'll keep going to the district conferences now?

Speaker 2 14:03

um, he's put a pause there. So did you ask me about caloundra, or? Yeah, I'm sorry, can we rewind all that that should I was talking about. Um, I already knew a lot of people I should have silly me oh okay, no, no, that's cool.

Speaker 1 14:22

I'll just ask you about caloundra again well, no, I was talking about.

Speaker 2 14:26

But my answer wasn't correct. I was talking about Eaton's Hill, district 69.

Speaker 1 14:31

Oh, okay, right, Okay, so Okay.

Speaker 2 14:36

So sorry, I've lost my train of thought.

Speaker 1 14:39

That's okay. So we're talking about well, do you want to just sort of ask you know, and have you been to sort of beyond the area level, or have you been to District 69 or district conferences? We can just start with that again.

Speaker 2 14:57

Yeah, so I think you were asking me about what happened, that I dropped the ball after area director and maybe that's.

Speaker 1 15:04

Oh no, not dropped the ball. You didn't say yes. Division level.

Speaker 2 15:09

I went on to club coach. After that. Yeah, you can say you didn't say yes to division level. I went on to club coach after that. Yeah, you can say, I didn't go to division, but then maybe we should talk. Club coach was the next thing that happened oh, okay, yep sorry, is that okay, yeah?

Speaker 1 15:18

yeah, yeah, no, that's fine, okay. Um, so okay, I'll start with the question again. So you moved on from the role of area director and it sounds like you like setting goals and taking on new challenges each year. What did you then do after being an area director?

Speaker 2 15:41

Well, I felt like I, you know, once again I thought maybe I should take a break from all this side of things and concentrate on the speeches. And then Joshua, my Eastern Division director, sort of tapped me on the shoulder and said hey, brendan, would you like to be a club coach? There's a club that's sort of struggling for numbers, sort of thing. And I said, oh look, I wouldn't have a clue what to do as club coach, to be honest. And he goes oh, kate Norris will be also a fellow club coach, right. And I thought that fellow club coach, right. And I thought that, you know, and I knew Kate by, you know, kate was, you know, all over it. And I thought, okay, sure, I'll just go along. She took me under her wing and I'm just there taking notes, basically. So, basically, you know, learning by apprenticeship or whatever you want to call it. But but, yeah, kate is fabulous and yeah, she totally is all over it.

Speaker 1 16:30

And what does club coaching involve? How did that work and how much time did it take? And, yeah, what was that like for you?

Speaker 2 16:39

So I was visiting Jim Boomba Club. Oh yeah, a fabulous club with a great group of people, but they're just a little bit low in numbers. I'm not sure why, if it's because they're quite rural and it's a bit of a hike for some people or not, but it was about trying to work out ways to get more people through the door and then retain them. And then basically, yeah, sorry, I've made a total mess of that. So it was basically about working out with Jim Boomer how to get more people through the door and then get those people to join and then retain the members that you have. And so the first step in that, I think, was, you know, kate and I just going along and sitting in on one of the club meetings just to see how they ran and, like, honestly, they were so welcoming from the get go, they're really fabulous. There was nothing glaringly wrong.

Speaker 2 17:38

So we sort of focused on social media campaigns, on Facebook and stuff like that. And then we sort of had sort of semi-regular Zoom meetings where we'd sort of Kate, basically ran them. And, as I said, I'm sitting there taking notes and trying to think of something wise to say every so often. You know, throw my two cents in. But yeah, kate had a great plan and was sort of running through that with the club president and VPE, marty and Fiona both fabulous and just you know brainstorming basically on what we could do to, you know, help the club get their membership up, which was basically the only thing. Everything else seemed to be running well. It was purely a numbers thing because you know you need to have a minimum number for the club to continue to function.

Speaker 1 18:27

Yes.

Speaker 2 18:28

The numbers are low, it puts a fair bit of pressure on the executive that are running it, et cetera. So it's been a combination of in-person going and sitting in on their meetings since then as well, as you know, sometimes contributing to the meetings and, yeah, just having some regular Zoom meetings and then thinking about things you know, brainstorming.

Speaker 1 18:52

And so, being a club coach, do you effectively feel like you're part of the club? Does it feel like you're your third club?

Speaker 2 19:00

To some extent. Yeah, I mean, you know I love the members there. They're all fabulous. You know really great group of people and we had a campfire sort of meeting just outside. You know really great group of people and we had a campfire sort of meeting just outside the you know winter bonfire, if you want to call it sort of clubhouse only last week, which was a lot of fun as well which was another idea we had to maybe attract, you know, advertise on Facebook et cetera, and it was another idea we had to try and entice some more members and they did have at least one other person there that night okay that was talking about joining.

Speaker 2 19:36

So that was encouraging, um, but yeah, you know, I you know I'm not an official member, I guess I'm their coach, but one of the coaches. But, um, yeah, it definitely feels, you know, feel part of the crew there.

Speaker 1 19:51

Yeah, and I'm having a brain fart now. I did actually see photos of the campfire meetings. I think there was a couple of them over the last few weeks. I was going to try and get to one, but I just think I was doing my own club visit so I missed out on that. But I definitely want to get down to that club. It's not that far down the road for me, so, um, but I guess that's the thing about Toastmasters as well you could decide on a whim to turn up to any club and they would welcome you with open arms, which is lovely, um, and so what then? What? What, then, are you working towards now? Are you actually working towards your DTM achievement, because it sounds like you're slowly ticking off the various requirements for the DTM. Are you working towards that? That?

Speaker 2 20:47

Well, you know what I heard of this thing called DTM, sort of, I guess, partway through my first pathway. Being a total noob, I never really looked into it and I kind of thought you know, naively, that maybe that's what you are when you've sort of completed a pathway. You know, I got to the end of the pathway and heard, oh no, it's two pathways plus some other stuff. So then I got to the end of the pathway and heard, oh no, it's two pathways plus some other stuff. So then I got towards the end of the second pathway and I found out you had to be an area director, which was another influencing, you know factor in why I said yes to becoming an area director. Yeah. And then there's I don't know I keep becoming aware of I should have looked at the start, I guess, but aware of other sort of. The goalposts in my mind keep moving. I think the goalposts have been the same the whole time, but when I discover more things that you need to do, they seem further and further away.

Speaker 1 21:41

Yeah, you've certainly ticked off some of the big items, and so what then drove you to become a member of Leading Edge?

Speaker 2 21:48

Look, I just got once again tapped on the shoulder and once again imposter syndrome and I thought why not? You know, I really liked the members that I'd met of. Leading Edge. I guess it's another way to, you know, get more speeches done. And you know we had a fabulous time at Caloundra. You know, at DCP, yes, so it was shortly after that that. You know I got asked to join, and not because it would help them reach one of their goals. You know one of the DCP points.

Speaker 1 22:27

I think it was the rock lobster costume actually. Is that right? Yeah, and so you've been to a couple of district conferences. You were saying so Calandra wasn't your first. You were saying that you'd been to Eaton's Hill. So how did you find the district-level conferences?

Speaker 2 22:48

Oh, absolutely fabulous. You know the level of the speeches was just next level, basically really really top notch, and you know you learn so much from that. And then there's also outside of the competitions, you've got these keynote speakers, you've got educational sessions, but then there's the whole network meeting people. You know I don't necessarily want to network because I'm not really trying to do anything for my work, I just like meeting people and you know it's just been fabulous in that respect.

Speaker 1 23:22

Yeah, I was having a chat with another guest and we were sort of talking about it being like networking without the pressure. You know, there's no sales pitch, everyone's just there because they're interested in Toastmasters and public speaking and improving themselves, and no one's selling anything, which is so nice for a networking event, right? Exactly um, and and I know that you've just come back from the States uh, over at the global convention. So how was that? I?

Speaker 2 23:50

what an amazing adventure for you, yeah well, you know, shortly after Colin won at Caloundra D69, he'd won at the district level D69 level, but the video of that speech had to go through regionals. So I believe that there were for Region 12, there were eight people vying for two positions going through to the international competition in Anaheim.

Speaker 2 24:19

Mm and so at that point it hadn't been decided and you know this was sort of at the end of that d69 conference. Uh, there was a everyone going home, there was a dinner and colin was there and you know they were all talking about going to anaheim, you know. And that someone's me and said you know, would you like to come? Brennan and I had a uni course thing to do down in tasmania like the week before and I thought I couldn't possibly go, you know.

Speaker 2 24:48

I'd like to go and thank you for the invite. Couldn't possibly go, but you know the seed gets put in your head then you know I was thinking, geez, it's the 100-year anniversary of Toastmasters. There's a good reason to go. I really liked the group that was asking me to join them. Yeah, that, yeah. Reason number two and then the third potential reason and you need three, right, yeah was that they're going to be there and I love his speech so much and and the message that he gave what I reckon he's going to be there, I'm sure of it. So I reckon that's going to be three good reasons. I was backing that in at that and I turned around shortly afterwards and said actually, count me in, I'm going wow, the power of the shoulder tap and you know the planting of the seed right that's right, I know.

Speaker 2 25:44

Yeah, I was very, very honoured and happy to be invited.

Speaker 1 25:48

Yeah, and I think that's one of the things about Leading Edge and that particular group of people. They're all very driven, they're all very committed to Toastmasters and I think it is infectious. You can't help but become a Toastmasters. You know, I've always been interested in Toastmasters, but I think I've I've reached tragic level status by joining Leading Edge and I've been there for 18 months now. The only reason I didn't go to the States was that the weekend after Caloundra I was flying out to Malaysia, which I'd had booked for months. So, um, yeah, I probably would have gone too, actually, had you know, just had had I not been flying out on the Tuesday after we got back from Caloundra.

Speaker 2 26:31

So it would have been great to have you there, but you know.

Speaker 1 26:34

Yeah, and so when you're in Anaheim, obviously many more people did. You find that they were fairly similar to Toastmasters here?

Speaker 2 26:45

I guess. So Everyone was so friendly and, like you know, I guess one of the first things that really struck me is, you know, they had this opening ceremony and it was very much like the Olympics opening ceremony, I think. There were like something like 162 countries there, wow, you know, there was a marching of the flags, you know, and the room was packed up enough. It was like like something like 1500 people there or something like that. It was just enormous. And so, because of so many flags, that went on forever, you know just, yeah, how global, you know. I mean, I was aware that it was global. I mean feet to, you know, time and money wise to just, you know, pack up and, you know, head over to america. You know, not everyone's necessarily going to have the means to do that. So I was really quite surprised at how well the whole world was kind of represented. There were people from everywhere, you know.

Speaker 1 27:34

Yeah.

Speaker 2 27:35

Yeah, I met a lot of people from all over the world, yeah, so it was just amazing.

Speaker 1 27:41

Yeah, I think it just makes Toastmasters feel like a really small world. And it's so nice you know there's so much other stuff going on in the world and to be able to just get together with you know 1,500 people who you know that you could strike up a conversation with any of them and you're going to have something in common. And you know Toastmasters and, yeah, it's cool. I experienced that when I happened across the or happened upon the District 102 conference in Malaysia. That wasn't a planned visit for me, so that was, yeah, same kind of experience. You know, they just take you under their wing and it was like the Kalounda conference just in Malacca. You know, just a very cool experience. And so what are your goals now? Because you keep saying yes to things in Toastmasters and it keeps taking you over, you know, into different roles and overseas, and so what's next for you in Toastmasters?

Speaker 2 28:44

I guess I need to get my head around what is left to do to get the, you know, the DTM thing. So I've got something, I guess, to show for it. And you know, I guess in achieving a goal, you know that means you acquire certain skills, I guess. And I think one of the tasks is to do a keynote speech, which has kind of been a little bit of a stumbling block, and I just need to find the time and energy to really get that ticked off, because I've had some ideas on what to do there. But it's a matter of finding the time, I think. And I think once I get over that, then you know it'll be. I think there's a project to do and I've got to work out that and yeah, so that's really my goal, but I can't see it happening any time soon.

Speaker 1 29:37

Well, the way you keep saying yes, you probably will have it, you know, done very soon. And in all this Toastmasters experience, you know what are some of the skills that you would say that you've learned?

Speaker 2 29:53

Well, I'll share with you a couple of tricks because, for example, when Marty asked me to do a speech last Wednesday, this was after work and I didn't have a speech prepared. I was doing a speech and someone had fallen out at the last Wednesday, this was after work and I didn't have a speech prepared. Yeah, I could do a speech night. Someone had fallen out at the last minute, so I had to sort of had about, you know, not even an hour to quickly, you know, write a speech and sort of try and memorise that before I got there. And actually I ran out of time to do it on this occasion. But other times, when I've done, I've found myself in similar situations before where I know you should rehearse and that would really make a difference potentially, um, because otherwise, if you write speeches at the last minute, it becomes a bit of a memory exercise and it can detract a little bit from your delivery, I think yes and uh.

Speaker 2 30:46

So you know, when I was area director and you do these club visits, it was probably a good. Some of them were like a good 40 minute drive away, and so one of the first tricks I learned is, if I was writing my speech at the last minute, I would then copy and paste that just as I was getting in the car. Copy and paste that into a message to myself. Yeah, ask Siri to read it on the way.

Speaker 1 31:13

Oh, perfect, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 31:15

Yeah, except that Siri is very much monotonous. It does my variety of pausing and everything like that. So that was for my vocal right variety and pausing. Then the next trick I learned was to, if it had, you know, another five to seven minutes yes before you jump in the car yep, to dictate it on a voice. Voice memo. Yeah, play that back to yourself on the loop in the car.

Speaker 1 31:42

Yes, yes, I do that. I have used that tip before. I haven't done the Siri one, but I have definitely embraced the recording it and yeah, and if I can do it the day before or even further in advance, I'll listen to it on the way to work or on the way home. And yeah, I might listen to a speech many times and talk along with it. So, yeah, I do that. I find it really helpful because then you're sort of evaluating yourself as you go as well.

Speaker 2 32:10

Yeah.

Speaker 1 32:11

Yeah, but I think longer speeches too, and I'm gearing up to do a 20-minute I think it's the 20-minute preparing to be a professional speaker, keynote kind of speech, and I did that once in the first pathway. I completed. But I think I don't know why I'm feeling a little bit more nervous about this one. I think I'm putting more pressure on myself to make it a solid, meaty keynote as opposed to a long speech. So I think the keynote type of message has got to have. If I look at the type of speakers that were at Caloundra, for example, or those those kinds of speakers, and now I have a bit more of a, a goal, a bit more of a benchmark, for I want to be doing those kind of speeches. So probably putting a bit more pressure on myself with with that one, as opposed to the last pathway. How about you? How are you finding of? Because you've got ideas about what you want to do for yours?

Speaker 2 33:11

Yeah, well, as I said, I initially used to speak way too fast. That's. My natural thing was to be a very fast speaker. So when I was writing these seven minute speeches probably going closer to you know, seven and a half minutes and miles an hour so if I slowed it down to a better, there's a 15 minute speech, you know?

Speaker 2 33:31

yeah, yeah, you have to get enough minutes and there's a keynote speech, uh. So, yeah, I've got, I've got ideas there, but I've just got to, you know, sell it. I think, uh, get someone who's willing to. I wanted to do it at a school and give a skin cancer message. That was the idea basically on skin cancer prevention. Yeah, I've got to just work out how to pitch that and get people that are interested enough to put me on.

Speaker 1 34:01

Yeah, message so Interesting and I guess because there's a lot of information out there about skin cancer. But I guess it's sort of the way you present it and your message and you know, speaking from your experience, and yeah, it's just putting your own spin on you know, that important message. Yeah.

Speaker 2 34:22

I wanted to target sort of high school students because you know I mean you get to my age, a lot of the damage is done. You know it's so important to get that early prevention going on you know?

Speaker 1 34:33

Yeah, definitely, definitely. And how are you finding lectures now?

Speaker 2 34:39

I was going to say, you know, get that message out there at a time that they might be sort of shying away from the parental advice about it, you know.

Speaker 1 34:48

That external voice? Yeah, yeah, and so are you still lecturing in the topic now, and is that getting easier?

Speaker 2 35:05

Yeah, it is, I am still. I'm doing it online this Saturday, so and it's, you know, as I said before, like I guess, to a certain extent, the more you do something, the more you get comfortable with it anyhow. But yeah, I'm focusing on trying to speak a bit more clearly and, you know, emphasise whatever points need to be made, just thinking about those things that Toastmasters continually get you to reflect upon, which you learn not only from your own speeches, of course. You learn from listening to evaluations of other people's speeches, don't you? And then seeing the best in the world do it, you know, like at Anaheim.

Speaker 1 35:46

Yeah, and it's even interesting to watch some of those speakers practice their speech and refine it and and take on feedback and then deliver the speech again. I, you know, I've seen both of Colin's speeches many times in different environments, you know, in the leading edge. We heard it a few times in leading edge and there are other events where he delivered that speech getting practice. But each time it's just like, ooh, is that new? You know just oh, sorry, okay, yeah, each time it's like ooh, ooh, that's something new. And you get to know the speech and there's so much work going into it and, yeah, I think that's what makes the really, you know, great speakers great because there's so much refining.

Speaker 1 36:33

And I think I want to do less impromptu presentations or preparations, like you were talking about. I will often jump in at a last minute opportunity to do a five to seven minute speech in a club meeting and I'll throw something together and I know it's not going to be the best speech, but it's like I'll do it. So I think I would like to do, you know, focus on a bit more crafting of speeches in the next pathway, you know, rather than just a lot of impromptu last minute spot filling in which I think I've done for the last, probably the last year. Um, it feels like the other thing.

Speaker 2 37:14

Yeah, I learned and I'm sure you know this, but is that once, when you've done those last minute speeches, toastmasters allows you to redo those speeches again, and so you've already written them. Now it's time to you know like edit them. You know, get the material down but also work on your delivery. I think that's you know. You develop sort of a body of work, I guess, of your own sort of stories or whatever it is, and really you know work on them.

Speaker 1 37:46

I think yeah, I think so, and I also find that helpful for table topics. You know, if you've got this bank of stories that you can somehow latch onto and the more of those speeches you do, and in a competition situation like I was explaining this to a mentee last night you only need a bit of a thread was explaining this to a mentee last night. You only need a bit of a thread, a remote thread, to get you from the topic that you've been given to a story that you know really well. And if you can find that thread real quick in your mind and get you onto something that you know and that you can talk about passionately, that can be one of the easiest ways to do table topics. But it's always luck of the draw because you never know. You never know with table topics it's so random. Do you like table topics?

Speaker 2 38:33

Oh look, sometimes I've loved it. You know, if they ask me something, you know that gels with me or that I think of. You know something that I can work with straight away, and other times it's definitely been like deer in the headlights Help, why are you looking at me?

Speaker 1 38:51

you know yeah yeah, One of the online tools available in the Toastmasters portal is this platform called Yoodly and it can throw you practice questions and you record yourself doing it. And I was playing around with it and some of the questions I couldn't even speak for two minutes on it. I'm like I've been doing this for how long and I just could not. And I don't know if it's the online delivery and the fact that there's no one else around Just talking into a computer for two minutes, but I found that really hard. So I'm going to keep doing it every couple of days just for practice, because I figure, if I can't get to two minutes on any table topic at this point, I need to practice more. So that was something I discovered the other day. I'm like, oh okay, need to practice more.

Speaker 2 39:43

Yeah, I think it depends too on sort of what sort of a day I've had, if I'm knackered from, you know a pretty big day, and you know I'm sort of doing my best to just rock up. Yeah, yes, this is not necessarily something I'm filling up for, but but equally, if I was in a, um, if I was in an energetic mood, you could yeah, I'd quite happily, you could throw anything at me and I could probably find something, you know yeah, yeah, I definitely think it's a matter of cognitive function.

Speaker 1 40:10

Yeah, now what would you say to people out there who might be interested in Toastmasters? But are, you know, nervous about walking into that first meeting?

Speaker 2 40:21

Go onto one of your streaming platforms I don't know if it's Netflix or what it's on and look up, find the Jim Carrey Movie yes man, and then watch that and then send it up to your Toastmasters club and just do it. Feel the fear and do it anyway.

Speaker 1 40:38

I love it.

Speaker 2 40:40

Honestly, if you can't do it in front, like Toastmasters are the friendliest, most welcoming people, and you know you could. Just I think you could get up there and be. You know, I'm sure I was very, very ordinary when I first got up and probably still am, but you know people are very encouraging and you know they make you feel warm and fuzzy about yourself no matter what you do. So it's a very safe place, you know.

Speaker 2 41:01

So I think, do it. You'll only grow from it and you know no one's going to come and say anything mean to you or anything yeah.

Speaker 1 41:10

Yeah, I agree, it's definitely very supportive and I think, as well, as you were touching on earlier with the different roles, there's people to support you at every level of whatever role you're doing in Toastmasters, whether it's at the club, you know, president level, through club officer training, or even the area director level. Now They've got the area director, mentor and all those committees and there is a support network. So I kind of feel like it's like that at each level of the organisation, which is great. You sort of don't know about it until you get there. It's like, oh wow, there's this whole other infrastructure.

Speaker 2 41:47

That's right.

Speaker 1 41:48

Yeah, and so is there anything else that you would like to share before we wrap up?

Speaker 2 41:56

I met my first joyologist at the Anaheim. That was pretty interesting.

Speaker 1 42:00

A joyologist. What is that?

Speaker 2 42:03

Someone who studies in bringing joy to the world. Wow that someone who studies in bringing joy to the world wow, and, and did they did, did they bring joy to anaheim. I'm sure they did, I'm sure wow I think that was quite interesting, and so this is. You know what I'm saying is you meet all sorts of interesting people in toastmasters, not just supportive, but from all walks of life. The other thing I love about it is they're usually very passionate people and very positive people. So you know, that was quite a revelation at Anaheim.

Speaker 1 42:37

So you're always learning from these interactions, you know I agree, and I think everyone's actually interesting in their own right. I think humans are interesting as a species, but I think it's also interesting that Toastmasters learn how to articulate that and tell the stories that make it interesting. So you know, I don't necessarily think Toastmasters are more interesting people than everyone else, but they just talk about it and they do it in an interesting way and I think being able to share your story in a way that is engaging makes you. You know, that's what I think makes people interesting, because they, you know, yeah, they, they look at life in a different way and share their stories. So, you know, maybe the joyologist has it right, excellent, well, I really appreciate that.

Speaker 1 43:32

I'm going to start that again, it's been awesome, oh, okay, okay, all right, all sorts of sound issues. Look, it's been such a pleasure speaking with you tonight, brendan, and I really enjoyed hearing about your Toastmasters story and your message about just saying yes, and listening to Jim Carey's yes. Man, I think you are an example of where Toastmasters can take you when you keep saying yes and keep learning and growing, and so I wish you all the best for the Toastmasters year and thank you for sharing your story with us.

Speaker 2 44:05

Thanks, mel. Likewise, it's been an absolute pleasure. Thank you for having me on the program.

Speaker 1 44:09

Welcome, okay, let me just.