SPEAKER_02 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! For this episode of Toastmasters World Tour, we travel virtually to Munich, Germany, famous for its Oktoberfest beer festival. So far in this podcast series, I've chatted to friends or family, well known to me, to gauge their interest in joining or rejoining Toastmasters. Today I chat to someone I've never met before, Venice. She's also my first currently active Toastmasters member on the show, and has been a member in both Australia and Germany. Let's find out if there are any differences. Hi Venice, and welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_00 1:31

Thanks for inviting me, Brendan. It's so good to be here.

SPEAKER_02 1:35

Could you please tell us a little bit about yourself?

SPEAKER_00 1:38

Yes, so my name is Venice, and I'm currently living in Germany. I've been a Toastmaster for six years now, and I can speak um English, German, Mandarin, and Cantonese. And that is because I was born in Hong Kong and I grew up in Australia, and now I've been living in Germany for the past three years.

SPEAKER_02 2:01

Oh wow, that's amazing. So can you tell us why you first joined Toastmasters?

SPEAKER_00 2:10

I joined Toastmaster back in 2019. At that time I was working for an international bank in Australia, and I need to deliver a presentation to the CEO. I got up in the boardroom, and when I delivered the presentation, uh my palms was um sweaty, my voice was shaky, I just don't enjoy these moments of presenting at all, and that is why I was searching for a place where I can continue practice, practice, practice, presenting to a lot of people, and that is the reason I joined a Toastmaster.

SPEAKER_02 2:54

I think that's a very common sort of human reaction to that. You know, the the fear of uh public speaking is uh one of our greatest fears, isn't it? I've been talking recently to some non-Toastmasters who've been considering joining Toastmasters, and in reflecting back upon my own journey, I realized that before I joined, I had some preconceived notions of what Toastmasters was going to be like. Did you have any preconceived notions before you joined of what it was going to be like?

SPEAKER_00 3:24

I've done other workshop about presentation before, and it was more like a facilitator going through some lecturer's node and then giving us a short time to practice. So I thought it would be the same thing, but when I got into the meeting, um, actually the first meeting was a contest where people were giving really, really professional speeches, and one of them was about eating hamburger in a competition. It was so funny. She was doing all this gesture of grabbing a hamburger and just put it in her mouth, and how she um her belly was so full, but she won it, and I was thinking to myself, like, who helped her to practice to get to that professional level? And then I found out about the club, and then I noticed there are 20 people in their club, and they're all giving feedback to her, and that is the reason why I joined that club of the feedback, the positive and learning learning environment that she's getting, so that she can improve her speech, refine her speech, and get onto the stage for competition.

SPEAKER_02 4:40

Yeah, that's so cool. My preconceived notion was I don't know why, but I imagined it being very formal. I thought everyone was going to be in suits and ties, and they were all going to be very serious, and it was all going to be talking very serious issues. And then I researched what my local clubs were, and the club up the road was called Mad Chatters. And I thought, well, there's a good start because uh I don't like things being too serious, and uh I like things being pretty friendly or a bit crazy, but a bit different. And then I walked in, yeah, it was totally not like what I thought it was gonna be like. It was way friendlier and way more fun. That was what I would say would exceeded my expectations. Do you think it's lived up to your expectations now that you've had all this experience with Toastmasters?

SPEAKER_00 5:25

Oh, definitely. When I first started in Toastmaster, all I think about was how to get rid of my nerf. So I put myself writing once delivering one speech a month to the point the president who said to me, Okay, Fonice, you need to stop, you need to give people a chance to do this. And so I I took a little break and then I became the club officer, which is actually something new to me because I've always learned the leadership skills and I don't have a place to practice at work. And Toastmaster offered that opportunity, and since then I I served as a vice president of public relations and then public uh and then education and then the club president, and then when I moved here to Germany, I was the area director, and last year I was the division director.

SPEAKER_01 6:28

Well, that's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 6:29

So looking after 600 members in the Bafaria State.

SPEAKER_02 6:34

Wow, that's awesome. Just getting back to what you said before, I I totally relate to that because I remember doing my icebreaker speech, and you know, it was probably pretty ordinary, but you know, everyone sort of claps you when you go away with the warm and fuzzies. And I went home the same night and and got straight on the email to the to the VPE and said, Oh, okay, I really love doing that. When can I do my can I do my next speech, next, you know, next meeting? And they go, Whoa, Brendan, you know, you've uh there's 20 other members in the club, have you noticed? Uh they've got to have their turn. I thought, oh, sorry, I'm totally new, of course. That makes total sense. So, but I was a bit the same. I was very keen to get on with the show. So that's great. Now, look, I think you're in a pretty interesting and sort of unique position that is of particular interest to me because you've had the experience of being the Toastmasters experience in Australia, and you've also had the Toastmasters experience now in in Munich, in Germany. And of course, Toastmasters originates in the USA and the pathways, the online program is going to be the same around the world. But of course, we can still put our own tweaks on how these things are run. Have you noticed differences between Australian Toastmasters clubs and the German ones?

SPEAKER_00 7:47

Yes, I think before we jump into this question, let's talk a little bit about Pathway. The Pathway is an educational program, it's a self-paced program. So, as a member, you get to select different projects of what you want to do. The first level is uh it's the foundation of how to present a speech, so you get to learn about the structure, learn how to use your body language for cultural tea, and then moving on, you get um to do different projects. For example, you can make a podcast, you can host a panel, and then you can also learn more about how to uh be more tentative to attract your audience. So there's a lot of projects that you can do, and then you give a speech. In Australia, I was more focusing on the first three levels, and when I give a speech, I'll get an evaluation from one evaluator each time. And when I move to Germany, they actually have a different method. They also get the members and guests to write a little note on a piece of paper after listening to the speech, and you'll get to see what they like about your speech and what can be improved. So, in this sense, you're not just getting one feedback but probably 20 feedback or more each time. And I found this approach very interesting because it's like where can you get that many feedback in like life, like instantly? Yeah, and it's very important for a speaker to use those feedback and then find a trend. For example, maybe their focal priority is not that good, their voice is very flat, and then you see that over and over again in those feedback, and then you can say to yourself, ah, this is a task that I'm gonna work on, and I'm gonna do a speech next time, just focus on that particular part and do it over and over again until we've I fixed that problem.

SPEAKER_02 10:04

Yeah, exactly. And uh are they all in English there, the Postmasters meetings?

SPEAKER_00 10:12

Munich is an international city, so not only we have English and German, we also have a French club and a Chinese club.

SPEAKER_02 10:21

Wow. Okay. And you're division director over all those clubs.

SPEAKER_00 10:26

Yes, I am. Uh it's very it's a very wonderful time to go to different clubs and get to meet those people, and it's one of the reasons why I want to do it. When I moved here, I don't know any German at all. The first thing the first on the first week I went to a Toastmaster meeting because it's for I feel more familiar, it's like a family for me, and that's where I get to meet friends. Meet friends, and now like I know at least a hundred people in Germany and even the northern Europe as well, as part of District 95.

SPEAKER_02 11:07

How did you get on if you don't speak much German? How did you get on as the division director visiting those clubs?

SPEAKER_00 11:15

Just by purely having the determination.

SPEAKER_02 11:20

I guess you've got the the context of knowing how the a Toastmasters meeting generally runs, would that that would have helped to some extent?

SPEAKER_00 11:29

Yes, definitely. As an area director, we need to visit clubs and see how they're doing. What I and and we need to present a speech. So what I did was I wrote a little speech on the palm card. And because I'm I've always I was already a trained toastmaster, I know all the body language and use how to use my phones to be more I encourage more people to engage with me. So all I need to focus was reading the German with the right pronunciation.

SPEAKER_02 12:03

I love that, that's awesome. Yeah, and how did that go?

SPEAKER_00 12:09

Really well. Um, most of the people here under the age of 40 they know how to speak English, and that is one of the reasons why they want to join Toastmaster as well. They have a platform for them to practice English with expats, okay, and so are the people who move to Germany. They can when they reach a certain level, they can also join the German club and get to mingles with native. I think that is one of the best parts in Toastmaster is that not just in Germany, but there are clubs all over the world. Like we have our Toastmasters in 142 countries.

SPEAKER_02 12:48

Yeah, yeah, that's awesome. My home club, Mad Chatters, has a theme for every meeting. The theme is often inspired by what's going on at that time of year. For example, we've had Halloween-themed meetings where we all got dressed up in Halloween costumes and had a Ghostmaster running it, you know, because it's usually called the Toastmaster. I love that twist on the word, calling it Ghostmaster. Do you have themes to your meetings? And if so, being in Munich, have you ever had an Oktoberfest theme?

SPEAKER_00 13:22

I've seen so many clubs hosting different themes, and yes, um, being in um Munich, we have the privilege of hosting a Oktoberfest themed meeting, and the members are so into it, and some of them even dressed up as the traditional uh wear, uh, and then had a dance, a little bit dance and music. So that was really fun and enjoyable to see a bit of differences in a spark in the meeting.

SPEAKER_02 13:57

Oh my god, your FOMO now.

SPEAKER_00 14:00

Yes, they actually they put it up on Instagram, so you can definitely check it out.

SPEAKER_02 14:07

Awesome! Could we get a link to that?

SPEAKER_00 14:10

Yes, definitely. I can share that with you.

SPEAKER_02 14:14

And what did they call? Did they change the names for anything like the Toastmaster? What do they call the Toastmaster?

SPEAKER_00 14:20

The club has a really nice name already. It's called the Prostmaster. Being prose means toast.

SPEAKER_02 14:28

Oh, pros that means cheers, right?

SPEAKER_00 14:33

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 14:34

That's awesome. So have you had any unexpected benefits from doing Toastmasters?

SPEAKER_00 14:43

What I gained from Toastmaster is more than I expected. Just in terms of financially, because I was able to speak more articulated. I got put into projects that are more high-level, high impact, and that increased my salary. So that means um uh I got a bonus and that paid off the next 10 years of my Toastmaster membership.

SPEAKER_02 15:10

That's awesome. So that really helped your career. Has it changed you as a person, do you think?

SPEAKER_00 15:18

I'm definitely more confident, and speaking is one of the essential skills. I think a lot of Asian people know that or their culture, the way that they've been taught, was more about keeping the opinion to themselves, so they don't have a lot of time for them to practice how to speak up and uh voice the opinion.

SPEAKER_01 15:44

Right.

SPEAKER_00 15:44

And unless you're in sales, like people don't really get a chance, and but now these days, with the arrival of AI, it is one of the future skills that you can become more competitive in the in the workforce. At the same time, it is also a skill that you need to have if you want to have a good relationship, a so-managed marriage breakdown, and um coming from working in finance and and doing all this looking at all this research. It shows that one of the main reasons is how people manage finance, and when you're managing finance in a family, you need to talk about it. And if you don't know how to talk to each other, don't know the communication style, you end up in a lot of argument, and then most likely ending up in a divorce or breakup. So, to me, it's it's the foundation of human society. We need to know how to speak to each other so that we can live with each other.

SPEAKER_02 16:47

Yeah, yeah. It's interesting how culture affects these things as well, isn't it? Do you have a favorite Toastmasters moment?

SPEAKER_00 16:56

Last year I hosted uh the fishing conference, and in that we we had six contests and four workshops, and I'm very proud of myself because 100 people turned up well to the conference, and a lot of people are also helping out helping out um to run the operation as a volunteer as well. And I got a lot of yeses and they just wanting to help me without getting any pay, and I felt that is because I learned how to talk to people. I learned to say, not just ask, can you do this for me? But if you if you help me become a moderator, you also get to learn the skills to use it for your work, and they'll be more likely to do so. Or if you come to the conference, you get networking opportunities. So if you're looking for a new job, there were probably people working in the same industry as you.

SPEAKER_02 18:05

Tapping into what's in it for me.

SPEAKER_00 18:08

Yes, knowing knowing your audience. That's one of the projects that you can do in the Toastmaster Pathway program.

SPEAKER_02 18:17

I was also thinking, you might have it sounds like you might have done a persuasive speaking project as well in the Toastmasters Pathway.

SPEAKER_00 18:26

I am actually on visionary communication now, and previously I was doing innovative planning. They're quite similar. You get to learn all the uh foundation courses, and then they're electives, and engaging audience is a general elective that anyone can do in any path.

SPEAKER_02 18:48

I've been to some division conferences as well as area conferences, and the competitions I've seen are table topics, evaluation, humorous, and international. So I've only ever seen four, but you mentioned a moment ago that there are six competitions in the conference year-round, the division conference. Did you have those four and then did you have two others?

SPEAKER_00 19:10

It's six because it's in both English and German. Oh, of course. We have the international speech contest, which is more like an inspirational speech, and then the table topic, which is um for those who are not familiar with Toastmaster, it's improvising speech, impromptu speech. And then you have an evaluation contest where you get to listen to a speech and then you you present a speech of evaluating that speech. So that's three, and because you need to do it in German and English, that's why I have I need to manage six contests.

SPEAKER_02 19:48

Ah, I got you. That makes that makes sense. Okay, that's cool. Do you have any advice, Denise, for those non-Toastmasters or anyone listening that maybe contemplating joining?

SPEAKER_00 20:01

It's very important to go to different clubs and just experience the five because the clubs are run by different members from different backgrounds. The club that I'm in now is called the Munich Business Speakers Club, and it's a bilingual club where we can speak in English and German, and I choose this particular club because I want to practice my German, and uh there are other clubs out there who are more focused on English, uh, and obviously, people who want to practice their French can go to the French club, and most of the people here are working professional, but they're also students and also retirees. One of the members in my club, she is 82 years old. No, and she's been doing Toastmaster for many, many, many years, and I got a lot of wisdom and insights from her.

SPEAKER_02 20:58

That's cool. You mentioned like you have bilingual clubs. How does that work? Is it sort of all in English one week and all in German the next week, or do they mix it up within a meeting? How does it actually work?

SPEAKER_00 21:10

It depends on the Toastmaster, which is the host of the day. Sometimes they will ask particular members to speak in German or for the prepare speech, people can do it in English or German, and the education VP can help find an evaluator who actually know the language of the speaker.

SPEAKER_02 21:34

Okay, so it tends to be mixed up within the meeting, you know, you'll have both in the one meeting.

SPEAKER_00 21:39

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 21:40

I'd love that amazing. That's Toastmasters ever inspired you to do anything that you would never have considered before, pushing you out of your comfort zone.

SPEAKER_00 21:53

A lot of people come to Toastmaster because they have a fee off stage right. And I think once you get through that stage, you have that fearless mindset. And that encourages you to do a lot of new things. For example, one of the projects in Toastmaster, what you can do is a podcast. And that is the reason I believe why you're doing it. And um it's also my reason for trying it out. It's a new format to communicate with people all over the world. And it's it it sounds scary, but I apply the same mindset when I first started in Toastmaster. I reach out to different people and say, Hey, do you want to try and be a guest speaker on my podcast or even be a co-host? And through that experience, practicing over and over again, I get a little bit of confidence each time. So I think it is very good to be in Toastmaster, to have that fearless mindset in matter to us, and then in the future we can do things that is basically out of our mind.

SPEAKER_02 23:12

Couldn't agree more. I mean, you know, when I joined Toastmasters, I never had a thought that I was going to do a podcast. And even we went back, you know. In fact, it really only hit me after I did speechcraft only about a month ago. The thought started to get planted. But here we are. So and one of the wonderful things is meeting people like yourself around the world to have a chat and see what's going on in other Toastmasters clubs. Thank you so much for that. Absolutely. I really appreciate it, and I think we're uh very much on the same page there. What's the name of your podcast? And can you tell me a little bit about it?

SPEAKER_00 23:43

Yes. I started this podcast because after the conference, I want to be able to share that moment where I get to listen to all these amazing speeches, which is just in a room. And I want to bring those speeches to all over the world where people are inspired by success stories of others, and that is why I created this podcast, which is called Speak Your Way to Success.

SPEAKER_02 24:13

Speak Your Way to Success. I like that. That sounds fabulous. Could we provide a link in the show notes to that? Would that be okay?

SPEAKER_00 24:21

Yes, absolutely. It's actually on YouTube now, and hopefully I'll get that on Spotify as well very soon.

SPEAKER_02 24:30

Awesome. And wishing you all the very best for your podcast as well.

SPEAKER_00 24:36

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 24:37

Fabulous. Thank you so much, Renee. The other thing I was very interested in, because you're trying to learn a bit of German, you're starting your own learning, German learning app. Is that right? It's an app.

SPEAKER_00 24:49

Yes. At the moment I'm working on a solution to my problem. And my problem is I found German is very hard language to learn as an English speaker because the words are very similar and I found it confusing. And learning a long time makes it boring and create a lot of resistance. So I'm thinking, how can I do something fun and I can learn things at the same time? And reflecting back as myself being a singer, um I I enjoy it so much and I can learn the song very quickly in different languages. I was actually learning some um arias, the the song from opera, and I learned it very quickly, and for German it's not. So I'm thinking maybe there's a chance for me to use AI to help me generate a German song, and that will allow me to learn phrases for different situations. For example, creating a party. There are songs that are um with German words, but they're not the phrases that I wanted to learn in real life, and I want to really put that in the song so when I listen to it, I can easily remember it and then use it.

SPEAKER_02 26:27

I love this idea. You know, I I I um learned Chinese, Mandarin, uh, several years ago, and I I discovered some really great Mandarin songs. There was one of my one of my particular favourites, not sure if you've heard of it, was by an artist called Fish Leong called Coshi Busha Ni. Have you heard of that one?

SPEAKER_00 26:46

Not exactly, but tell me about it.

SPEAKER_02 26:50

Oh, it's just it's just it's like a Cushi Busha Ni, you know, as you would understand, means you know, it's a it's it's a shame, it's a pity it's not you. Uh the next so that's the name of the song, and the next line was uh Peiwar Dow Zwei Hall, which means accompany me to the end. In other words, you're not going to be my life partner. So it's sort of a breakup song. Um, and so you know, the it was interesting. I love that. So I love music as well, and I love that song. Um, but you know, so it's it's probably good to help the vocab, and and I think I agree, like songs are a great way. I I can still remember the lyrics from you know, I learned that song about 10 years ago. In fact, I tried to sing it in a China voice competition, didn't do too well because I can't sing, but it was just an interesting process. I think there was some good vocab to learn there, and so the vocab has stuck with me. But you're quite right, that's not you know, learning about breaking up. I don't want to learn that's not exactly, you know, in terms of the whole context. Individual words are helpful, but the whole context, I don't necessarily want to learn that vocab or sorry, that way of speaking. It's more just a fun song. But to tailor it the way you're trying to do and with AI sounds amazing. And maybe that's something that could also, if you could help me. I've not been very good at rehearsing my speeches, that's been a bit of a stumbling block for me. But if I could make it fun by setting it to music with AI, that might. I mean, I don't like the idea of AI writing my speeches, but once I've written it, if that could be set to music, that would be amazing.

SPEAKER_00 28:21

Yes, that is uh interesting approach to prepare your speech. I've never thought of that. It might work, the AI are very intelligent now.

SPEAKER_02 28:32

Yeah, yeah. So uh that sounds like you've got a few projects on the go. You're starting you're kicking off your podcast and you're getting this uh language learning to music um using AI. That's that's great. Have you got any other sort of upcoming Toastmasters plans or projects?

SPEAKER_00 28:48

Yes, I'm going to join the contests. We're going to have our club contests in February.

SPEAKER_02 28:57

Wonderful.

SPEAKER_00 28:58

It's been a while since I participate in the contest because uh as a club officer, unfortunately, um we are not allowed to do so. Yes. Uh last time I my club was very supportive and I got a lot of feedback, so it helped me. Um I won the area uh contest and then I also be uh got this first runner up as the division contest. So hopefully this time um I can win the division contest at least.

SPEAKER_02 29:31

Which of the contests is it that you're going in? Which is the contest you like? Do you like international or the humorous or uh the category?

SPEAKER_00 29:40

I'm joining three of them: the international, the table topic, and the evaluation.

SPEAKER_02 29:47

And so they have international in German?

SPEAKER_00 29:51

Yes. So our club will be uh organizing contests in both English and German.

SPEAKER_02 29:57

And I I guess there's a ceiling on the German. You wouldn't be able to tell is it do they do it?

SPEAKER_00 30:02

To the district level.

SPEAKER_02 30:03

Yeah, to the district level.

SPEAKER_00 30:04

To the district level.

SPEAKER_02 30:05

Yeah, okay, that makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 30:07

I won't be doing my speech in German, just in English.

SPEAKER_02 30:11

Not fair enough. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:13

But there are really some really good speakers in Munich. They've won the district conference as well, so um there's a lot of competition there. I will try my best.

SPEAKER_02 30:28

Yeah, so what do you know where the district boundaries are? Does that include all of Germany or yeah?

SPEAKER_00 30:34

So for um for my region it's called District 95. That's include not just Germany, but um Norway, Sweden, Denmark. Uh next year, I think they also have Finland.

SPEAKER_02 30:52

Okay, cool. All right, is there anything else you'd like to share with us?

SPEAKER_00 30:59

I think for the Toastmaster um listening to this speech, uh, sometimes we might reach a threshold and say, ah, I've learned enough, and then maybe I'll just take a break from Toastmaster. And I've seen that a lot of time because of the position that I was in. I and then I always tell them that maybe you try a different club because it's a different atmosphere, different people. Um, if you still want to stay in your own club, maybe try go and present a speech in a different club that might actually shock you because you're so comfortable with your with your own little group, and then you realise that when you give a speech at another club, you start to be nervous again.

SPEAKER_02 31:44

Interesting. That's a that's a fabulous bit of advice. I really appreciate that. Thank you so much for joining the show today, Venice. I've really enjoyed having you on.

SPEAKER_00 31:53

You're welcome and hope to see you in Australia when I'm back there.

SPEAKER_02 31:58

Best of luck with your competitions now that you're being freed from your duties.

SPEAKER_00 32:02

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 32:08

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 Toastmastersworldtour at gmail.com. Thanks for listening.