SPEAKER_00 0:12

Hi, my name's Brendan O'Sullivan, a Toastmaster from Brisbane, Australia. Welcome to my Toastmasters World to a 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! We're still virtually in the land of a thousand welcomes. Cade MillerFolture in Tralee, Ireland, chatting to Anthony Garvey. Listen in to hear the conclusion of the same chat started in the last episode. For those paying close attention, you may have wondered why the last episode suddenly paused at the end, ironically, while discussing pauses. To explain, I have an exciting announcement. Next episode, I have a special edition of Toastmasters World Tour. In perfect timing for pending district competitions around the world, I have three Toastmasters evaluators from three different continents Europe, Oceania, and Africa. They are about to compete in their districts, which is the highest level the evaluation contest goes to in Toastmasters. They joined this podcast for an online global evaluation contest. The world-class judges are from North America and Asia. Anthony Garvey is the test speaker for this contest. It is his speech that will be evaluated. At the start of this episode, he goes on to discuss and then deliver his test speech. And I wanted his identity to be a mystery until the conclusion of the competition, which was recorded a couple of days ago. The competitors were only told his first name, so no one could look him up online during the competition. At the conclusion of official Toastmasters competitions, competitors only find out their placings. They never find out their score or get any feedback. For this online competition, the judges have agreed to discuss their scoring and give feedback to give both the competitors and this podcast's audience valuable insight. The hope is that it will benefit all those competing in Toastmasters evaluation contests and most immediately those about to compete in the upcoming district competitions globally. I hope you all find this extremely useful. Best of luck to all competing. Anthony, it's coming up to district competition season or conference season, and there's one of the competitions is the evaluation contest. And with the podcast, a lot of people, particularly non-Toastmasters, listen in. We're talking about all these different aspects of Toastmasters. And I've realized that we often talk about speeches and evaluation, all these sort of things. But wouldn't it be great to have some examples of the sort of things that go on both Toastmasters meetings and Toastmasters conferences? So I'm very pleased that you've agreed to be basically a test speaker, do a standard Toastmaster's speech, and then I'm going to see if we can find some people that want to both evaluate that and also get some judges to not only judge the evaluators, but then something different to competitions. In competitions, all you get as a result, you don't really get any feedback as to why you were judged a certain way and what you could have done to improve. So I've got some judges lined up and they're going to give some feedback to the evaluators. So when you're ready, we might hear your speech, and then that will be in a subsequent podcast. We'll have some evaluators and judges.

SPEAKER_01 4:22

No, that's great. And uh look, uh we uh we I know we're doing this a little bit on the fly, uh, but um we we might do this a little a little differently than uh than than how we had discussed. Yes, I'll uh I'll I'll deliver the speech, but I'm working on a speech for uh for next year. And because we were talking about theatrics, uh would you mind if I just did the very the opening paragraph of that uh that speech um for you as well? And uh I would welcome any feedback that your judges had uh in in terms of that.

SPEAKER_00 4:58

Um fantastic, yeah. That sounds fabulous.

SPEAKER_01 5:01

Right. So uh so so bear in mind uh judges, uh the the the the opening word is actually uh quite uh startling. So when you uh so be prepared, like uh when I've I've only done the opening of this in in a club, um, and there were a few people there, and there was a lady in the front row and she fell off her chair. So I don't I just want to alert you to that fact. Bear in mind what I'm trying to do here is with the opening, I'm really trying to capture your attention. There are a lot of people in Toastmasters who begin by saying, uh, hello. Uh my name is Anthony, and today I'm going to talk to you about my favorite steam engines that I have seen. So I think I think in Toastmasters we can do a little bit better than that. So I'll do the I'll do the opening uh for for the bits that takes you up to Mr. Contest Chair and see see what you think, and your judges might give me their opinion on that. Uh I'd be happy to change it, and then I'll do a speech for you.

SPEAKER_00 6:14

Wonderful. Take it away when you're ready.

SPEAKER_01 6:23

Our faces crunched into the hot African dust. I heard footsteps and peeped up. A small child, maybe five or six, was running, lost, alone, helpless. I started to rise, but Fergus was already on the case. Within seconds, he had scooped the little girl up into his arms, carefully lowering her to the ground before BAM the second gunshot rang out.

SPEAKER_00 7:01

Oh my god, did you ever captivate my attention and make me want to find out what's going to happen? And I think we're all very protective of kids, aren't we, too? So I think you know, kids are involved, that really touches our emotions, and are the kids gonna be okay. Don't worry about Anthony, he'll be fine.

SPEAKER_01 7:20

Yeah. Yeah, I'm still here. So uh, so yeah, so there's uh that's that's something I'm working on at the moment. So I'd be interested in uh like uh I did explain that really it's the theatrical element of Toastmasters that interests me most. Yes, I love writing the content, and I love the discipline of if you're lucky enough to get through a round in the competition, people give you advice for how you modify your speech, and I really like that. I love changing it, tightening it, moving things around, trying to trying to make it better and better. That's part of the uh part of the process. Um, but you know, one day I might be one of the uh 27 who appear uh uh uh uh in person at the uh grand finals. I would love that. I would love it, but uh but we'll see. We'll see.

SPEAKER_00 8:14

I think you've got a very good chance. Look, obviously, I'm nowhere near your level, but my own personal experience was when I started Toastmasters, I didn't find writing the speeches too hard. It was the delivery that for me that's a higher level, delivering it well, and I found that a much more challenging than the writing. So I think to me, it feels like a higher skill.

SPEAKER_01 8:36

Yeah, it may it may be, uh, but but but here's the thing the uh the delivery can be taught, right? Writing the speech, uh, writing the content is actually the hard part. Okay. Once you have the content, if you can write a compelling speech, if you can uh if if you can keep people's interests with the content that you create, the delivery uh which I enjoy is all the smoke and mirror stuff. It's it's the uh it's the icing on the cake.

SPEAKER_00 9:10

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 9:10

But the real core of it is is to be able to write a good speech. But I would hate to have to deliver it in a non-theatrical way. I think that'd be tick all the fun out of it.

SPEAKER_00 9:22

Yeah, no, look, I agree. But I mean, for my own case, I think you know it's a bit like my golf, the whole thing's a bit of a shimozzle, and I need to get back to the drawing.

SPEAKER_01 9:30

Well, look, I look I look forward to playing you. We'll uh we'll have one game in Australia and one game in Ireland, and I'm exactly in Shamozzle City. That's uh that's that's where where I am. Uh so it's yeah, we'll we'll stream it live, uh, maybe get Sky Sports to uh come in as the main sponsor. Head to head. Right. Well, here's uh here's here's a speech for you. Uh it did it did reasonably well uh for me uh over over here in this part of the world. So I hope I hope you like it. I hope your judges do too. So here we go. Come to the edge. We might fall. Come to the edge. It's too high. Come to the edge, and they came and we pushed, and they flew. I was fifteen years of age when I first read those words by Christopher Lowe. I had asked my dad for advice on how to win the heart of the most beautiful girl in Ireland. Her name was Helen, and I was afraid to talk to her. My dad asked me to read the poem I have just recited for you. Later on that evening at our school disco, I spotted Helen across the crowded dance floor. Spurred on by the words, I began to edge nearer. Our eyes seemed to meet just as flash dance started to play. First when there's nothing but a slow growing dream that your fear seems to hide deep inside your mind. As I edged nearer, I noticed out of the corner of my eye, my best friend Fergus was also walking towards Helen. Then I realized she was looking at him, not at me. I stopped in my tracks as the two of them held hands and started to dance. Come to the edge, climb onto a ledge more like it. But looking back, I realized how important that experience was. Helen may have chosen Fergus, but ten years later, Fergus chose me as best man at their wedding. And later that evening at their wedding reception, I got to meet my wife for the very first time. I was 35 years of age, and I had just failed my driving test for the eighth time. My dad sent me a press clipping about Cha Sasoon from South Korea. She had failed her driving test not eight times, not 80 times, but eight hundred times, and was still trying to pass. At the bottom of the page, my dad had added the words, remember. Come to the edge. It was the boost I needed. I reapplied for the test, took extra lessons, and on the day of the exam, greeted the examiner warmly with a firm Toastmaster-styled handshake. And just one short hour later, I had failed my driving test for the ninth time. It was the worst exam of the lot. I went the wrong way, round a mini roundabout, jumped a red light, and worst of all, reversed into a small bush outside our local garden center. Come to the edge, mow down a hedge, more like it. But looking back, I realized how important that experience was. Thanks to the press clipping and the words of the poll, I left the exam center that day, not despondent, but determined. And six short months later, I passed my driving test on my ninth attempt. Two years later, to the very day in South Korea, Sha Sas-soon passed her driving test on her 960th attempt. I was 45 years of age and I was on my way up to Dublin to visit my dad in hospital. He had gone in for a minor operation, and I took with me the book of poetry he had given me as a young man. I wanted to tell him about the positive impact it had had on my life. One hour into the journey, I got a call from my sister and I pulled the car over to take it. She told me that my dad had had a heart attack. They had tried their best to revive him without success. As I sat helplessly in the car, I took the book of poetry by Christopher Lowe and read Come to the Edge aloud. There was not a sound to be heard apart from the distant murmur of the car radio. When I had finished, I closed my eyes. Through the darkness on the car radio, I heard something I had not heard for over thirty years. Thirty years ago, my dad gave me a book. He taught me to live life to the full, to have a go, to try things out. If you have a dream. If there's something you'd love to achieve, but you're just too scared to try, then I have one piece of advice. Come to the end. Who knows? You too. Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_00 16:53

Thank you, Anthony. That's fabulous. What I'm gonna do is just have the speech only and edit out my comments when I put it to the evaluation contest. That was world class, thank you. It's amazing. That's gonna be hard to evaluate. The only trouble with this is it's gonna be hard to evaluate. I think like the better the speaker, it's a bit harder to evaluate, isn't it? Because you're always looking for points for improvement. So, you know, that will be I guess that's gonna be a challenge for the evaluators.

SPEAKER_01 17:19

Yeah, well, I mean, if they're listening to the to the audio only rather than the uh video, then uh uh you know clearly it if I was delivering that speech, I'd be standing up and I'd be doing all uh all of that. And uh there would be a lot more gestures that you would see. Um but if it's the audio only, then yeah, that's that's uh that's trickier. You're looking for um yeah, you're looking for maybe uh the little little tiny little things that you can find that that that'll help. Uh maybe pausing a bit more, maybe pausing a bit less. You know, it's when you hear it, when you hear it back, like people should listen to their own speeches, they shouldn't record themselves and watch themselves and see what how do they move, you know, what do they look like? Uh I know people hate uh watching themselves or listening to themselves, but they need to do it. You need to see how you come across.

SPEAKER_00 18:22

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 18:23

You know, what are they are they scratching their ears? You know, are they these there's like there's a fella, a fella who I uh I was training on the other day, and he had his hands in his pockets. Yes, and that's you know, I'm not mad on that. And then he had keys in his pockets, so he started jingling his keys, and it it looked like some kind of freak puppet show, like the his hands were moving up and down. I stopped listening to what he was saying, or there are people who have pens in their hands, you know. The head of the Irish Development Authority had a pen in his hand, and the pen is doing somersaults through the air and moving it, and again, I stopped listening. So, yeah, you know, little little things like that. Here's my best my best story, though, for you in terms of what people shouldn't do. So um I had paid to watch this guy do do a presentation um online, and he was okay, uh, but uh there were maybe a hundred people online, we'd all paid, I don't know, 50 euros or whatever, 50 pounds. And he had manipulated the screens so that you could only see his slides. He was like a tiny postage stamp down at the bottom, and normally you can change that, but uh, but he had set up the the restrictions so that you couldn't fiddle with it. You had to watch his slides, and he was the little stamp. Anyway, when he finished his slides, he uh maximized himself, and it was only then for the first time that we got to see what was behind him.

SPEAKER_00 20:02

Which was what?

SPEAKER_01 20:04

Which was a woman ironing. And I stopped altogether listening to him. Uh I was only kind of half listening to him anyway. And the woman had finished ironing this kind of complex blouse, and she uh put it to one side and she started to iron this skirt. And he continued to talk. I wasn't sure if he was aware of her, it seemed like he wasn't. Um, and then I kid you not, I kid you not, she started to unbutton her top so that she could put her blouse on. It was like being in a pantomime. We all uh, as one kind of went, look behind you. He turned round and he went, Oh my god. And the lady packed up her uh iron board and went and continued the strip tease somewhere else. So always, always check what's behind you.

SPEAKER_00 20:59

I mean, that was that that happened a lot in COVID, too, didn't you hear these stories of people going, you know, thought they'd turn their video off and they'd be off on the toilet or something. Not so good on a work meeting. Well, what you were saying before about watching yourself rings true with me because just producing this podcast and then you know you listen back to make sure the audio quality, and oh my god, there's all these things that you say that you that I say that I don't that I'm sort of subconscious, I'm not even really aware of it until you listen back, and you think, oh god, I didn't realise I was saying that. And equally with body movements or the body habits, I was equally guilty of putting my hands in my pocket in an area contest speech. And I think maybe in my mind I thought, look, I'm being pretty casual here. I I must I think it was subconscious, but maybe there was a part of it that was look how comfortable I am or something. I don't know. But one of my club mates picked me up and said, Look, I knew the moment you put your hand in your pocket, you'd lost the competition. So and clearly content wasn't enough, you know, it's the whole package, you've got to get the whole package.

SPEAKER_01 22:01

Yeah, I mean sometimes you sometimes you don't realize these things. That's why I'm saying it can be useful to have uh someone like me come in and uh and watch you and uh I'm uh listen to you, you know, an external pair of eyes. I had a guy the other day and he did a presentation, about a 15-minute presentation. I said to him, How many times do you think you use the word like in your presentation?

SPEAKER_00 22:26

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 22:27

And we all have crutch words that we use, so and do you know what I mean? Like depending on the the different parts of the world, you can use different uh crutch words. He said to me, Well, Anthony, I'd say five, six, thirty-eight times he used it in 15 minutes. 38.

SPEAKER_00 22:48

Yes. I know you know a lot of it is subconscious, you don't realise I've been pulled up on things. I thought I didn't even realise I was doing that, you know. Yeah, but uh that's fabulous advice, Anthony. Is there anything else that you'd like to add today to the podcast?

SPEAKER_01 23:04

Uh come to Ireland. Uh I I would say if you're uh whatever part of the world you're listening to this excellent podcast in, uh, get over here. Uh we need the money. No, uh, it's uh it's it's uh it's a great it's a great country full of rolling hills. The uh the people are nice and friendly, and I know there are a lot of Irish people who are living over in Australia where you uh where where you are at the moment, and we I'm sure they add great richness to your your culture. We're very open and warm uh country. We're very sad that we didn't qualify for the World Cup, the soccer world cup. I would say to all your all your listeners, pop into Shilling Speakers, type it into your uh your friendly Google, and you'll see you'll see when the next meeting uh is on. We we have a clever little thing. We try and do things in a very uh innovative way. So you can see where the where the next six months' meetings are and what the topics are, because we have a lot of themed meetings. Um I love that.

SPEAKER_00 24:07

I love a good thing.

SPEAKER_01 24:08

Yeah, so so you can uh you you you can follow exactly one of the meetings that we're having coming up shortly. I was told that there are three topics that you can't talk about in Toastmasters: sex, religion, and politics. And when I became president, I wrote to Toastmasters in America and I said, Is this true? And they wrote me a very uh nice letter back to say you can talk about the uh these subjects, but they need to be done tastefully. So we are having a meeting purely dedicated to sex, religion, and politics. The topics will be on sex, religion, and politics. All of the speeches will be about those three subjects as well, and it'll be great fun, you know. And we will uh we're we're all about bursting the taboos that uh that that surround this thing, pushing the envelope, trying different things that are a little bit new. So we uh we had we have, for example, around Valentine's Day. I'm not sure if in Australia you have we used to have a program called Blind Date.

SPEAKER_00 25:11

You probably got some of the programs like that, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:15

Right, and uh what would happen would be there would be a um a screen uh down down the middle where uh a girl would ask three people that she couldn't see, three men, you know, normally, well, in my day it was, uh uh three men, you know, uh three different questions and uh almost like uh table topics. So around Valentine's Day, we have uh a meeting where we disguise three of the people. And if we're doing this virtually, um with the uh the person uh can't we put them off screen so you can't see who they are, and they uh will answer the questions, and then the two people are then Cupid fires an arrow, because we have someone dressed up as Cupid, who fires an arrow in and sends them both to the breakout room, and they stay there and see if they're compatible, should they leave their partners and uh go and spend the rest of their life together, or has uh Cupid uh misfired? And in my live club, um we do uh we do a similar thing, but because there's a bar connected to the uh the location in which we have our meetings, we send the people out to have a drink in the bar during the meeting, um, and uh to see if they can uh they they can establish a connection. So it's great fun. You can be very creative in Toastmasters and do lots of things you never thought of. We had a uh a real wedding where one of our people came in dressed in a wedding dress and someone else hired uh a tuxedo, and we uh we had uh a celebrant marry them, and they then had uh we had the groom and the best man deliver speeches, and it was all about recreating that atmosphere where many people have to give the most important speech in their life, but they've had no practice in doing it. So we invited lots of the people from the community to come in and see how you do it and to give them the opportunity to watch it. So you can do lots of great things.

SPEAKER_00 27:27

I thought romance was taboo, but I do love that you're pushing the boundaries anyhow. It certainly sounds like a very entertaining club to be involved in. I love that, keeping it fresh and interesting.

SPEAKER_01 27:37

No, no, there's there's a club in Ireland where they they have restricted the membership. You can only join if you're single. Okay. And if you meet someone and you start going out with them from the club, you're you're uh you have to leave. So it's uh it's it's all about uh single people meeting up and uh staying together. It's not even about them getting together, it's just about giving them something to do to uh to keep them um entertained. You could do lots of things. Paulo Mahani, who you had on the uh the uh show before as one of your previous guests, he's a member of Toastmasters for golf. And uh people who enjoy golf and toastmasters, then they uh they meet up and they have um they play golf and they do speeches as well, which is fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 28:29

Hopefully not on the green as they're teeing off on the field. Yeah. Oh well, that's uh that's very interesting. I didn't know all that was possible. Thank you so much, Anthony. It's been an absolute pleasure and an honour having you on the show. And I look forward to catching up with you somewhere down the track.

SPEAKER_01 28:49

Great stuff.

SPEAKER_00 28:55

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 Toastmasters 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 Toastmasters World Tour at gmail.com. Thanks for listening.