Intro: Welcome to Toastmasters World Tour

SPEAKER_01 0:12

Hi, my name's Brendan O'Sullivan, a Toastmaster from Brisbane, Australia. Welcome to my Toastmasters World Tour podcast. Please join me as I travel virtually around the world and chat to Toastmasters from different countries and all walks of life. Let's explore! Today, in my very first Toastmasters World Tour podcast, I'm going to start with something that may seem counterintuitive. I'm going to be starting in my hometown, Brisbane, Australia. You may be feeling already let down by this and feel that it's not in keeping with the overall theme of the podcast. False advertising, you may cry. However,

3 Reasons for Starting in Brisbane

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please give me a chance to give you three good reasons I'm starting out this way. Firstly, any world tour starts with planning and preparation at home. This also gives context and contrast when exploring overseas. Secondly, I have the grand ambition of reaching a global audience of Toastmasters and Toastmasters curious. So while my hometown may not be abroad for me or for my compatriots, hopefully it will be for many of my listeners. And you, dear listeners, are what counts. Thirdly, what I said at Secondly, Toastmasters often suggest giving three points, and I couldn't think of a third, but hopefully two will suffice and you're still with me. Before I get to my very first guest, let me start by telling you a little bit more about myself. I'm a skin cancer doctor and educator from Brisbane, Australia. I joined Toastmasters nearly five years ago, shortly after I'd been asked to lecture. I decided I didn't want to be boring. I wanted to be as engaging and as effective as I could be, so I popped along to my local club. Though I still have a long way to go, I found it enormously beneficial. Now let me give you some context as to how the seed of an idea for this podcast came about. As the final project to achieve my distinguished Toastmasters award, I recently coordinated and ran an online speechcraft

Who I Am: Skin Cancer Doctor + Toastmaster

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course over Zoom. Speechcraft is like a crash course in Toastmasters for total beginners. It has many of the same elements of a regular Toastmasters Club meeting, but in a much more intensive time frame and focused on up to five speechcrafters as opposed to more like 20 Toastmasters in a club. I considered this, but my club is healthy. I then considered why I got into Toastmasters in the first place. I realized I was perfectly positioned to coordinate and deliver a speechcraft course for my fellow skin cancer doctor educators. I both had the Toastmasters experience, but also understood the needs of the skin cancer educators. I could tailor a course specific to their needs. And so, though having never attended a speechcraft course myself, I leapt straight in. Of course, I got advice from experienced Toastmasters who had run speechcraft courses before. I'd like to give a shout out and particular thanks to Thomas Kraft for his advice and encouragement that got me started and for generously sharing his resources. Pam Polly also shared her resources, which was also enormously helpful. The skin cancer educators I enlisted for speechcraft are spread around Australia. So by necessity it had to be online. It was impractical to try and organise

The Speechcraft Seed: Online Course Idea

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it face to face. Of course, this has certain disadvantages, but I didn't want to focus on that. I wanted to focus on the advantages, the main one being that suddenly the world was my oyster. I wasn't limited to who I could ask to come and help me with various segments, educationals, evaluations, and other various roles. I was so fortunate and honored that I ended up with an all-star cast from some of the very best Toastmasters from around the world. Toastmasters are such a generous and helpful group of people. And when I say the world, I mean around the world. I had Toastmasters and special guests from all seven continents, including Antarctica. There were five two-hour meetings and each had a pretty packed agenda. I did my best to introduce each Toastmaster and special guest, but with such a tight program, I didn't feel I did these wonderful people justice. I'd love to have not only introduced them better, but had much more of a chat with them. Such interesting people. Thus the

Shoutouts: Thomas Kraft, Pam Polly, Melanie Surplus

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seed of this podcast was born. I also have to give a shout-out and special thanks to my Advanced Toastmasters club mate, Melanie Surplus. I didn't realise when I appeared on episode 43 of her wonderful Talkative Toastmasters podcast, which I highly recommend, that she was sneakily planting a seed that I hadn't recognised till now. She has also been very helpful with advice on starting this podcast and has produced three fabulous episodes on her podcast that give advice on starting your own podcast. The other thing I'd have taken a slightly different approach with this episode is I'm starting with a non-Toastmaster who is just contemplating joining. I do intend to mostly interview existing Toastmasters, but again, in a journey-like fashion, I thought I'd start at the very beginning of someone's potential journey, explore that a little, see what that looks like. If he does join, I'd be particularly interested in a follow-up interview to see how his experience compared with his expectations. I'm a GP by background, and when it comes to advising someone on smoking cessation, we talk

All-Star Cast: Toastmasters from 7 Continents

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about the pre-contemplative stage. I see some parallels to being a non-Toastmaster who has no intention of joining. They don't realise how bad it is for their health. However, in a recent chat with our next guest, my brother-in-law James Caldwell, I discovered he was contemplating joining Toastmasters. Welcome to the show, James. Thank you, Brandon. You're my very first guest, so thank you so much for agreeing to be my guinea pig. You're an experienced company director of a very successful electrical business. You mentioned to me recently you were considering joining Toastmasters. What has sparked your interest?

Guest Intro: James Caldwell, Non-Toastmaster

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Well, I suppose it's twofold really. And then the last reason is that each, you know, it's it's December, um, and uh it's I try and set myself a goal or a challenge for the next year, and uh this this just seemed like it it had been rolling around in my mind um with some other other things that I had that maybe this might be my 2026 project.

Why Toastmasters? James' 2026 Project

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Sure. So uh let me respond to that. I mean, for the first thing is uh I certainly wasn't trying to sprook it or talk anyone into it. I just you know you get to a family gathering and you just sort of catch up with what you've all been up to. So it was kind of uh unexpected. Uh you know, I'm I'd be the world's worst salesman, really, I think. It was sort of uh unexpected, but I thought, gee, actually, I could give being really good at that. And can I say a couple of things? One is that you're ahead of the curve to start with by speaking to 100 people. Most people start in their like 20-member Toastmasters club, which is a very safe place, and we're all sort of going through the same journey trying to support each other. So to get up in front of 100 people is is uh quite amazing. It's interesting that you wanted to, you were having your own self-critique and wanted to improve. So that's uh that's also impressive. And what Toastmasters are generally like, uh, you know, that we're sort of become our own sort of critiques and just striving to improve. So that's also uh quite impressive. The other thing I noted from what you said, it's it's interesting how the seed can have been sort of planted some time ago, and and people often do sort of mull these things around in their brain for a while. And the other cool thing I think is that you have a clear vision of um what you potentially want to get out of it. So I think that's great. Could you just elaborate a little bit further, James, on what you expect to gain from Toastmasters?

What James Expects to Gain: Safe + Tried + Collegial

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Yeah, uh I I suppose the first thing I'm expecting is that it's a safe place. That um everyone's there to no one's an expert or and everyone, it's an it's an encouraging space. It's a sp a space to learn. Um that's that's possibly the the first thing. The second thing is it's a tried uh and a tr a tried formula, so it's not and I imagine it's uh been around, well I believe it's been around for a long time, and it would have been tweaked over a long period of time, I believe. And so that that's the the second thing is it's a tried and true sort of formula. Um I suppose the third thing is that uh it uh it's just normal people. It's not people they're just from the community, they're just uh it it it it has a collegial sort of feel from what you shared with me. And I mean we don't know what we don't know, but to actually know someone first hand um equals you know that that that that collegial feel interests me a lot. That you know it's just people trying to to be there for other people and help other people and provide it that again that safe place to to learn um and uh and and and stretch and and and take your time uh and you know there's no rush with this. It's not like I'm you know, I'm not I'm not really doing it to get a certificate to say that um I'm capable of doing it. I really am very interested in being competent at it. So and I feel like this type of course or this type of group is is more about like developing a competency in something as opposed to developing a capability in something that's but with a certificate that really no one's interested in. I just genuinely want to be able to deliver a message better uh to a group of people. And I believe, yeah, as I went over before, that that that you know you know you've spoken about it um glowingly. Not not not trying to sell it to me at all, at all. Um but also I I as I indicated, someone else kind of said to me, Oh, I I remember he yeah, he's he he did a great speech at our at our national conference, and I thought, oh wow, you Brendan had talked to me about it. So there now that that's that does that Clara does that make sense that answer?

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100%

The Power of Networking + 3 Points

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and and one of the things you said there was about what we'd call networking, and and I found that one of the greatest things. It's it's fabulous the people you meet because we're it's sort of you know it's instant friends, you've got an instant group of friends, and I found that great. The other thing I've noticed that you've done in both sort of questions I've asked you is you've given three uh reasons for for the for your answer, and that is something that Toastmasters sort of teaches that people can't remember if you give a list of 10 uh but to make three points, and you've naturally gone to that. So that's uh once again, you're sort of ahead of the curve there. So that's quite impressive.

SPEAKER_00 14:58

Well, I don't think I am the ahead of the curve, but I suppose I I genuinely have have um a in uh up until this number two question, I genuinely have had more than one answer to give to give, thank goodness for that.

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That's that's

What Does a Toastmasters Meeting Look Like?

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a really good thing. It's sort of something that people can retain, which is ultimately what you want. You know, you want to be people to want to listen to you and then you want them to sort of remember what you've said. So that's kind of one of the big goals, I think. If sort of segueing a little bit, like what do you think a meeting itself might look like?

SPEAKER_00 15:36

Yeah, look, and and again, I've I've done little to no research on this, but I can imagine that there's um look, I'm not sure, so I'm just I'm I'm completely making this up. But on the night, the people that turn up, they might name might go into a hat and they might pick a name out of a hat or two or three, and they become like a lucky jaw prize, a lucky door prize, and they get to speak on the night with limited notice. And then there might be a more so that might be part of the night. Um, then there might be uh a more structured where people are given advanced notification. There might be like five or six different styles of speeches, I imagine, that people can deliver a short one, a long one, medium one, a one where they're getting feedback, I'm not sure. And that's rotated through the group so that everyone is getting a turn at practicing speaking in front of a group and and delivering on a subject. That's kind of what I imagine there might be some meal or a drink or a beer, or I imagine it goes for sort of one and a half to two hours. That's in my mind.

Level of Formality vs Friendliness

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Yeah, sure. And like, you know, in some ways it's an unfair question, but also I think it's an interesting question because I know when I joined, or before I joined, I had some preconceived notions of what I thought it was gonna be like, and it was actually quite different to what I thought it was gonna be like, and that's why I asked the question because I maybe I was just yeah, hadn't done much research, or but I had a very so let me ask you this as a follow-up question that what about the level of formality and the level of friendliness? What are you sort of thinking that's gonna be like?

SPEAKER_00 17:29

I think it's going to be there's going to be a necessary level of formality. Um but it's more about structure really than formality. I I believe it'll be relatively friendly. I mean, I can't remember seeing anything in the news, you know. Uh recent Toastmasters meeting goes off kilter, and three people have had pisty cups, so it might be entertaining, but it won't do the cops. I haven't actually seen that in the news recently myself. So on that basis, I'm sort of thinking they're pretty friendly affair. Yeah.

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So

Barriers to Joining: Finding the Right Club Fit

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that leads into my next question because I mean I think you know, a lot of people do have some hesitation going, you know, because it can all be a bit scary to step in the door, but I know that you got you are the sort of person that would bravely go where you know no one had been before. Um do you see any barriers to joining?

SPEAKER_00 18:27

Uh not really. I I mean, as as I said to you, it's it's um I I suppose the only the only slight query I have is there are different Toastmaster groups that I'm aware of. Not that I've looked, but someone who works for me looked for me and said, Oh yeah, there's ones here and there's ones there, and there's ones that look like this and that. And so I suppose what I might try to do, which is again, I hesitate to share this, but is maybe go to one and get a feeling, and then maybe go to another one and get a feeling. Because I we're you know, for the people that could potentially be listening in, I'm I live fairly close to the centre of Brisbane, and um it there's there's three or four very close options that are available for me. So um I'll be trying to get a good fit. I don't know what that fit feels like. Hopefully I can just feel it and go, oh yeah, this is these people are because I you know I do need that level of I do need some level of formality. I don't need it to be too friendly, and I need I suppose I need the numbers to be there too, because you're trying to get that that real experience of of of delivering something with with you know a few people there um who are who are not your friends, who are not on your side that that that that you know they if I'm lucky they might nod back to me while I'm speaking, but that's the best I can really hope for.

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I

Advice: Visit Multiple Clubs

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think you've answered my my next questions, and uh, you know, I I think that's perfectly valid, James. Like uh people are often encouraged to visit more than one club, find where the best fit is. Uh so it can be sometimes it's a matter of when their meetings are scheduled that's gonna fit in with your schedule the best, but also yeah, that that fit of do I feel right in this in this sort of setting? Uh does this feel the right fit for me? I'd encourage you to go to you know more than one meeting and you know sit in on a few and then decide what's gonna work for you. Uh so thank you so much, James, for joining the show today. Uh I I hope if you do join that I can ask, would you be interested in coming back and uh reporting back on uh how you found it and how it compared to your expectations?

SPEAKER_00 21:00

Absolutely,

Outro: Would You Come Back and Report?

SPEAKER_00 21:02

very happy to. I mean, as I said, there's no I mean, you last time I'm I'm not sort of too concerned that I'm dealing with Saddam Hussein or someone and like, well, yes, no, your answer's wrong and you're dead. Um it's kind of like everything's a free hit. So um, you know, so what have I got to lose? You know, just exactly. I mean, I'm related to you, so you're not gonna make me look too stupid, I hope. That's the spirit.

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Thanks,

Final Thanks + Evaluation Call to Action

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James. I appreciate you coming on the show today. No problems. Thanks for listening to today's show. One of the key elements of Toastmasters is evaluations. This is how we grow and improve, both by encouraging comments for things we got right and points for improvement. We all learn and benefit from these evaluations, not just the person being evaluated. So any feedback in the comments is greatly appreciated. If you have a Toastmaster story you'd like to share or would like to be on the show, I'd love to hear from you. You can reach me at Toastmastersworld tour at gmail.com. Thanks for listening.