SPEAKER_06 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. Seemingly anchored there by my ancestral roots and feeling so welcome in the aptly named Land of a Thousand Welcomes that I'm reluctant to leave. In Trulli, Ireland, chatting again to Anthony Garvey, listening to today's podcast to hear his reflections on both the evaluations and judging of his test speech in episode 18, as well as the feedback on the first paragraph of his new speech. Welcome back, Anthony. It's so exciting to have you back on the podcast. You've listened to the Global Evaluation Contest that I ran online and published on Friday. That was your test speech. I'm wondering what you thought of the evaluators, if any of their evaluation suggestions were helpful. And also reflections on what the judges thought. So, starting with the evaluators, what did you think of their feedback?

SPEAKER_07 2:00

So I find it an incredibly helpful process to be a test speaker. And I would encourage anyone out there to put themselves through the same process. In an actual Toastmasters contest, you can have up to eight people evaluating your speech. And it's really, really useful because, particularly if there is a common theme stretching through any of the evaluators' analysis, you then think, hang on, there's something going on here that I really need to take extra attention and special care of. What I think you have done is you've given us a glimpse of what evaluation contests will be like in the future. Because if you think about me, uh as a test speaker, I get lots of evaluation either way with your with the the traditional system or with your system. But you bring an extra layer of education into it. Because if you're an evaluator and you're in an evaluation contest, whether you finish first, second, or third, you have no idea why you finished in that order. Even if you are disqualified because of time, you get no evaluation. Um, under the current system, there is no feedback. So you don't have any points for improvement, you don't know why you won. You don't know why someone else finished second or third. In the current system, if you are last uh drawn in the competition, you sit in the breakout room or out in real life in the uh the waiting room with the sergeant at arms, and you don't get to hear any of the people who went before you. So you miss out on the uh the uh the listening to the participants under your system, all of them can listen back to a recording of the uh of the tournament. So there is learning there for everyone, all of the evaluators learn, and that is hugely rich, particularly for people who are disqualified because of time. You can say if um if you had stayed within the time, you would have been placed. Probably better not to say where, but that kind of encouragement could be invaluable for a speaker who may have strayed a few seconds over time. And we all know from looking at the world championship that that happens more often than not. So I I think your tournament here is fantastic because it shows the possibilities of technology bleeding into the uh system, and how I would refine it, because even creators and innovators like you deserve uh a tiny bit of positive feedback, how I would refine it would be this if the chief judge was able to give feedback, which is aggregated on the basis of the opinions of the other judges, and they're looking at what the judges say for points of improvement or things that they like, and then the chief judge delivers it, it's not then one single judge who's giving their opinion who might be followed home in the car by a disgruntled uh competitor who didn't finish in the position that they would have liked. It is the chief judge, like in a court case, uh summarizing the views of the panel of judges and giving feedback then to the competitors. I think it's awesome. I think you're on to something here, Brendan. I really hope Toastmaster sits up and listen because it turns an evaluation contest where the evaluators don't get any feedback or any sense of where they are as a benchmark against other people. It gives them real positive educational feedback, and that is credit to you.

SPEAKER_06 7:10

Thank you. That's an amazing thought. Having a chief judge that summarizes, I really get that. That's fabulous. And as it said, it keeps them safe and it gives a consensus of opinion. Did you have any other thoughts on that test speech evaluation? Anything you would change now, having heard the evaluations and judgments.

SPEAKER_07 7:29

Yeah, well, well, for me, the uh the the big challenge was to take a speech which I had delivered 15 years earlier. Yeah um when my dad had passed away uh in a different district in a live uh to a live audience. So I was delivering it live with my mother and my brother and my sister sitting in the audience listening to it for the first time. Wow. So so that was uh it was to take the bones of that and see how I could play with it online, how I could use, I've got a very rubbery face, as you can see here, Brendan, which I can distort and I can uh I can maneuver into all sorts of positions. I love pressing my face up against the uh the the uh the screen so that people can see uh all of the contortions that I go through and the emotions that I'm pouring into the speech. So that's uh that none of that would have come across, sadly, to your to your competitors. But if you were doing the evaluation contest so that they could see it, then uh then it would, and they would be able to uh give give feedback on that. So I was that was one of the elements that I was really interested in was maybe the first time I delivered it uh in real life, it was much more of a somber speech. Uh so there was the it the content was more or less the same. But uh looking back on it now, uh and at my uh my younger self, I wished I had been a little bit more theatrical in the areas where because I've now got more experience, um, I was able to use uh some of the assets that I have. Um but the technology enables that, and I really think this this is the big point that you you you are you you are touching on here. If you think about the current contests, they will change and technology will change them eventually, even though for the time being, Toastmasters International seems to be moving away from technology, it has to come back because this technology it's not going anywhere, and it enables so many more possibilities. So just thinking about how you could use the technology to improve the four contests that there are at the moment is uh you've you've really you've opened Pandora's box here, and uh and and it's uh given all of us great hope.

SPEAKER_06 10:17

Yeah, awesome. You mentioned that your speech was a bit more somber back 15 years ago. I'm imagining that your emotions were raw and fresh at the time because it wasn't too long after your father's passing. Would that be true?

SPEAKER_07 10:31

Yeah, and uh as I said, looking out and seeing uh my mother uh in the audience beforehand and my brother and sister, you know, I knew where they were sitting. Uh, like when when the contest starts, the lights kind of come on, and you can't actually see anyone uh personally, but you know they're there. And uh yeah, I was I guess I was giving the speech more to them than uh than I was to everyone else, and for that reason, I probably reeled it, reeled it in a little, and it and it was much more real. Uh it was much more genuine and heartfelt, and yes, emotions were uh were very raw at the time. Whereas the speech is probably uh in in real life, it's more of a celebration of my uh father, and uh um and that's that didn't come through until after because I was still grieving and uh there were people who I was close to who were still hurting. So that's uh that's kind of probably the reason why um it wasn't uh as flamboyant as most of my speeches normally are.

SPEAKER_06 11:48

I get that you were being authentic, yes, and that's what we want more than anything, I think, is authenticity.

SPEAKER_07 11:55

Yes, and someone once famously said if you can fake authenticity, then you have it made.

SPEAKER_06 12:01

So that's a good quote. I haven't heard that one. All right, well, we might move on. You threw a bit of a curveball at me, Anthony, which was that you're working on a new speech and you had the opening paragraph that you wanted to get some feedback on that. So I did at the end of the online evaluation contest throw that out to the both the evaluators and the judges to see if they wanted to both listen to it and give feedback, and they all put their hand up and said, Yes, they'd love to do that.

SPEAKER_05 12:32

Oh fantastic.

SPEAKER_06 12:33

So I will play for you that, and then you can hear their feedback, and then I'll get your thoughts on the feedback.

SPEAKER_07 12:48

Our faces crunch into the heart of African dust. I heard footsteps and picked 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 swooped the little girl up into his arms, carefully lowering her to the ground before the second gunshot rang out.

SPEAKER_06 13:26

Louisa, let's hear your thoughts on Anthony's opening to his upcoming speech.

SPEAKER_02 13:33

So, Anthony, you start with bang. I don't think you said anything about it being a gunshot until maybe three or four sentences in where you say bang, the second gunshot. So with this, there's a lot of things going on. And since we are only working with the first five or six sentences of the speech, you say bang. You could say right after that, you could say the gunshot was deafening. This the child is running, the sand hits us in our face. So now we know what the bang is because you got me thinking, what is the bang? And I'm not really focusing on what you're saying after because I'm trying to figure out what the bang was. Then you say, bang the second gunshot. I said, Oh, okay. So now I have to stop and think, okay, so that first bang was the gunshot. Now, when you're giving a speech like this and you're going to start like this, it's okay. However, you're creating a lot of tension and pressure at the very, very beginning of the speech, and that pressure has to be released soon. If not, you're going to take your audience down to the pit with you, and that's not what you want to do. Just a quick example, and I know I shouldn't do this because I said not to do it. But in 2024, when I said clear, clear, my heart stopped beating for six minutes. Then I said, best sleep ever. So I went and created the pressure, and then I put in a joke and I let everybody laugh, and then everybody's like, oh, okay, we can breathe. So I'm not sure what you're doing after those first four or five sentences that you described, the second gunshot, but whatever it is coming after that has to be something that's going to release the pressure so that the audience wants to keep listening. That's my evaluation.

SPEAKER_06 15:28

Fabulous. I love these insights. It's just, I really enjoy it, even though that's not for me. I just think we all learn so much from this. So, Anthony, you've just heard Louisa's feedback on your opening paragraph of your new speech. Any thoughts on that?

SPEAKER_07 15:47

Sure. Well, first of all, it is it's an honor uh to be evaluated, even to have a little paragraph evaluated by Louisa Montalvo, who, as everyone knows, is is the uh the uh the a world champion of Toastmasters International and finished first out of 20,000 speakers. She's also a uh a uh a firm favorite at Shilling Speaker. She came and gave us an educational uh talk there. So hello Louisa. Lovely, lovely to hear you, you just your voice, and you're as cool as a breeze when it comes to doing evaluations. And I love that uh you could you could arrive and deliver an evaluation off the top of your head and then be uh be gone uh 10 minutes later. Um I I think the point that you make about the uh the gunshot and people not knowing it was a gunshot might come across more clearly if you were able to see me and the uh the the way that I was reacting to the bang. But I accept completely what you say it could be uh uh a wall falling down or a crash of a car. Uh it it was uh a very uh the the idea was to have a very dramatic uh opening that really captures people's attention. But what I value in particular is your idea of diffusing the uh tension and not leaving people uh lying around. Yes, the next line um is is meant to be uh a little bit of humor and it uh it becomes lighter uh after that, and we uh return to the uh the gunshot at the end. But um your your evaluation is spot on. I'm uh I'm now going to rework that a little to make sure that people people understand it, not least because very often um speeches speeches are audio speeches. I have um speeches from world champions that I listen to in the car, and I can't see them uh doing their body language or their movement across the stage. So it's important that I'm able to visualize uh my audience is not just limited to people who see me live um taking part in a contest or people who see the visual recording, that there are audio elements to it too. Thank you, Louisa. Wonderful to hear your voice. Come back to Schilling sometime soon.

SPEAKER_06 18:29

Fabulous. All right, we might move on to the next bit of feedback. Ravi, I might give you the option if you'd like to go next.

SPEAKER_04 18:40

Thank you, thank you. Um so um in terms of the opening, I mean it's pretty tough to comment on an opening without knowing the knowing where it's going. But uh the opening was visual, there was a bang, there was you know running, there was falling, lifting, all of that, which is pretty visual, um, which is sometimes good in terms of setting the scene and setting the stage. Um and in terms of uh sorry, in addition to being visual, it's also emotional, right? Uh there's a little girl, and there were some emotional words being used, lost, alone, helpful. So there's a bit of emotion as well, and there's a gunshot to end it up with. Um, so in terms of uh establishing a hook, I think it's a good hook because in my mind I was okay. What next? What next? What's happening? What's what's going on? So you've got my interest uh and attention. So, in terms of a hook, it's good. Um, and as Louisa mentioned, a lot would depend on what comes next. Uh, we just heard the first para. I hope that little girl doesn't die. Because sometimes if you what the the thing uh what happens is if you take them too low, it's probably difficult to lift them up. So so it it depends on where you're taking the audience. So as Luisa very correctly said, okay, you've got a lot of tension built now, release it. Uh hope she doesn't die, or hope something bad doesn't happen. Because if it happens right at the beginning, uh you might you know kind of break that emotional threshold and go too low where you you find it impossible to take the audience up. So that's something to be wary of.

SPEAKER_06 20:25

Thank you so much, Ravi. Okay, Anthony, what did you think of Ravi's feedback?

SPEAKER_07 20:32

Thank you. Thank you very much indeed, Rabbi. And thank you for your earlier evaluation of my uh my longer speech come to the edge. Both uh gratefully recedes receives some great uh suggestions in both. Uh listen, it'll come as some source of comfort to you to discover that the little girl doesn't die. So uh so she she is safe and well and alive, and uh no uh no harm comes to her. Um, in terms of your evaluation, I like the uh the the idea that you you felt I was trying to build up the tension. That's exactly what I was trying to do to capture the um imagination of the audience. To I suppose have the audience a little bit swirling in chaos and not knowing what's going on. Most speeches kind of begin with Mr. Contest Chair, fellow Toastmasters, and welcome guests. So this is like a radical departure from that. And it's um it's meant to be uh theatrical, it's meant to pin you to your seat. Indeed, I was telling Brendan that when uh when I delivered this in my club, um, a young lady fell off her seat with the bang. Uh, such was the velocity of it coming at her from my lungs. So I had to tamp it down a little. But uh, yes, you're right. It's important that I've got this from both you and Louisa already. That I find a way to uh release the tension um coming next and I will make sure that I do that.

SPEAKER_06 22:20

We might reverse the order for the contestants now, if that's okay. So we might let then wife a go first.

SPEAKER_05 22:30

I think that opening was quite cinematic. Um, even without the gestures, it was not too hard to understand what the ban was about. Um, especially if they match it to body language, ducking and looking around, you know, it's three lines before he resolves that it's gunshots and it's kitchens are space for three lines, which is not too bad. Uh, but it's a beautiful cinematic opening. Imagine that, like immediately I'm visualizing what's happening. Um, um he's using very effective language, so I can see the hot African dust. Uh it's a very hard opening. Um, quite loved it. I love the early use of the triads. Um, so very early on is displaying beautiful writing language uh using a triad early on. I can't remember it exactly, but it wasn't describing the globe as a document. Um what I could improve about it uh is uh in terms of English speakers globally, there's a three to one ratio between native speakers and non-native speakers. So we have uh three non-native speakers for every one native speaker. Uh and because of that, when someone comes from a country where they are a native speaker, they often don't think about the connotations words have and what imagery they you know uh exact in non-native speakers' minds. For example, uh hot African dust uh for me felt like derogatory. Um the the choice of the word dust instead of sad soil or other synonym. Um because dust itself is something, you know, um that could have been turned into as our faces hits the hot African soil or sad, or you know, there's other synonyms beyond dust. Um to a native speaker, it might not matter, but to someone who comes from Africa who's sensitive about you know the use of English globally uh and how it references Africa, a choice of words always has to be put in place the bigger the stage you speak on. Right. So that's the only thing I could say that. Very cinematic, lovely. Um, it's got my attention.

SPEAKER_06 24:39

Thank you so much, Tendwefika. Anthony, what were your thoughts on Tendwefika's evaluation?

SPEAKER_07 24:46

Tendwefika, thank you, thank you very much for your uh comments and thank you also for evaluating my uh my speech uh earlier, come to the edge. Um I I love the fact that you uh you you were able to see that uh the uh gunshot uh happened and it was resolved fairly quickly and that you were you were you were clear on the noise. So so that's that uh brings in some ambiguity into the the uh evaluators. I think if you were there and you were able to see it, it would be clear enough that that that it was uh gunshot. Um but I'm I'm happy as well that you use the word cinematic. That's fantastic. It's uh it's the ultimate compliment. Without being able to see me, I am painting an image in your head that you can see on a cinematic scale. Wow, that that is that is just awesome. And you bring up uh yet another uh valuable point, which is as a native speaker, a native English speaker, I infrequently consider those who are from another territory, and I had no idea that using the word hot African dust may in any way uh be uh may upset uh anyone, and it will immediately be changed to hot African sand. So there you are. You have uh you have made a massive impact on my uh speech, and I hope now that uh I won't offend anyone, certainly with the opening. Uh plenty of offense, no doubt, later on in the rest of the speech. Thank you, Tanwi.

SPEAKER_06 26:34

Nithmi Gala, can we hear your evaluation?

SPEAKER_00 26:40

I think Anthony's uh desire to have an impactful opening has definitely been achieved. It's just how we refine this going forward. Two parts here. First is really the pacing about how he used that loud bang. I feel like he moved on to his next point really quickly. Just let that settle a little bit, let the shot come down so that people can hear the next parts of the sentence and get drawn in. Um beautifully descriptive opening sets the scene. Uh, you know, using those triads about the girl and then the the crunched, your faces crunching into um the hot African dust to the point of using specific language. Um, for me, Africa is a continent. What we're what I'm trying to imagine what part of Africa we're talking about. That's just me as a person. I would immediately try to identify the locale. And I think it's just a little too generic, especially if we're talking to an international audience, maybe pick the specific part of Africa so that I can visualize it a little bit better. Um a little bit around uh pacing, the use of creating tension between pacing and pause. That loud bang, hit the pause, and then gentle description of how we hit the hit the sand or the dust. Um, and then this slow down a little bit when we're talking about the girl to just create the emphasis around her vulnerability and then pick up the pace a little bit as we're getting to the second gunshot, just so that you can build that back up again. Um and in terms of context, we bought Fergus. Now we know Fergus from the previous speech, but not everyone else is going to. Uh, I I thought to myself, maybe an audience might go, who's Fergus? Why is he there? Um, so maybe just saying my best friend Fergus was on it. Just that two words to describe who Fergus is will just make sure the audience is staying with him as he's opening up that speech. But definitely not a boring opening, definitely not one I've heard uh before on that international speech stage. And I think he's got a real winner. Um, how he pulls away from it and continues that tension and then brings it back down is going to be the real clincher. But if we're specifically looking at that opening, just balancing out the use of pause and pace and giving a few context clues: where in Africa are you? Who is Fergus? So that we the audience can stay tuned in to the visual that he's trying to create. That's me.

SPEAKER_06 29:17

Thank you so much, Nethmi. Fabulous. Nephmi went on at the weekend to win her district finals and evaluation contest.

SPEAKER_07 29:26

Fantastic! Congratulations! Well done, nephni. And you know it's it's all down to this process. So so we uh we we are looking for a share of the prize money, uh Nephani. If you could send it care of uh Brendan to uh District 69 Toastmasters, we'd be uh delighted. Well done, well done, delighted for you, delighted, and well deserved uh because you've given uh you've given me more food for thought in your evaluation today, not just from um the the opening of this speech, but from my earlier longer speech too. Thank you for both of those. Um, I will take on board your suggestions about the pacing and try and try and get that right and how I move from the uh the opening bang into uh the next lines of the speech. Um, the title of the speech is Fergus, so it's about uh my best friend uh Fergus, without giving too much away, and how he was the person who inspired me to do lots of uh different things, and he was always suggesting that we uh go places and do things. So one uh year he said, Let's go to Sierra Leone, which is the country in Africa where this is set, and we went over there and taught uh primary school children for the uh summer, but there was a civil war on at the time, and uh you can kind of guess what uh happened next. Um, the girl is safe. Um but uh yeah, no, I really liked your uh your your suggestions. I loved the uh the fact that you picked up on the triads and the descriptive nature of it, uh, and that uh I had derived the setting. The idea is that you know where you are and what's uh kind of happening a little bit, that it's very disruptive and there's a lot of chaos. So you picked up on that. Um and I will take on board your suggestions and refine it. Thank you so much, and congratulations once again on your well-deserved victory.

SPEAKER_06 31:41

Well, I am even more hooked to hear the whole speech now. Like that sounds like an amazing experience going off to teach in Sierra Leone. So, anyway, I'll have to wait for it in due course, but I can't wait. Harriet Tinker, she was a semi-finalist at Anaheim in 2024. This is her feedback.

SPEAKER_03 32:03

Well, there's really not much to say yet because it's just the beginning of it, but it definitely gets me curious to say, ooh, okay, what is that gunshot all about? And if I understood, did he say a little girl in there? There's a little girl in there, okay. So it would be helpful to describe the little girl instead of saying little girl, because in my mind, when I'm thinking of a little girl, I might think of a little girl with blonde hair, maybe I might think of a little girl with braided hair. So it would be helpful to describe the character of the little girl. Just say, oh, a little girl with sparkles in her eyes or something. You always have to be very descriptive in your speeches so that as listeners, we can see we are in there with you. Because you just try want to transport us to the scene. So we are right there instead of telling us, transport us to the scene. So that's one I would really recommend. So that that's the most um you you always want to make sure you elicit emotions and you get us curious, because now I can visualize this little girl, maybe with blonde hair. Wow, is she terrified? What is the emotions of this little girl? So I don't know if that he wants to say that at the beginning, but even if you don't want to say a terrified little girl, you need to say instead of little girl is not is not useful, you need to describe the little girl's uh description. And bang is good, like he really started me. Bang! Like okay, that's funny. It in in some ways, and not what it triggered me because I listened to a lot of speeches all of the the world championship. There was another speaker who went over time, she never won, but she I won't remember her name of her speech. It's it's I know it's um she said a speech saying, Roof, Roof, Roof, and said, I wasn't barking. There was me trying to call my sister. Her name was Ruth, but I had a speaking impediment. So there's a speech like that. So when he said bang, reminded me of her because she said it's off like almost like barking, saying, Roof, Roof. So it's a that's what he triggered, reminded me of. And that speech stands out because I remember it because of that particular thing. So for him saying bang, I'm like, whoa, that's gonna startle me. And it's uh he's right. A lot of speakers said, Thank you, Madam Toastmaster. I never say that ever in my speeches. Outside of my speech, and I'll say contest chair. I don't thank everybody else because it's a contest chair that introduced me. So I'll thank contest chair and then I'll also maybe I'll say contest chair, friends, so that these kind of like almost like I acknowledge it, contest chair and my friends. So we here in maybe in in the UK is and Australia is different, but universally you never say ladies and gentlemen because it's uh some people don't, they're not ladies, some people are not gentlemen. So you want to say friends. So uh universally, you never say ladies and gentlemen. If you go in the world stage, you always want to say friends because they're your friends, they're listening to you. So that's uh short feedback there. Yeah, and I know he didn't say it at the beginning, but that's something if he decides to add that into his speech, just a contest chair of friends in between. Um yeah, but overall, there's not really not much to evaluate other than the the beginning is definitely strong, but I would also recommend just describe the little girl. And I'm like curious what what comes next? You got me there.

SPEAKER_06 35:49

Well, we'll have to watch exactly, we'll have to watch and why.

SPEAKER_03 35:52

Yeah, yeah, awesome.

SPEAKER_06 35:54

Yeah, thank you, Heat, for that, Harriet. So, Anthony, did you have any thoughts on Harriet Tinker's feedback?

SPEAKER_07 36:05

Yes, indeed, Harriet. Thank you. Thank you very much for your evaluation and for your evaluation of my earlier speech. Um, I achieved my uh my goal, which was to spark your curiosity, and I love that you began wondering what was happening, and when you finished your evaluation, you were still wondering what was happening, and that that was the burning theme going throughout. So I'm delighted, delighted about that. Um, yes, I think uh the you made you made some really, really valuable uh points there. You'll be pleased to hear that uh I acknowledge the uh contest chair in the very next line after the opening. So the opening, and that is that's to break uh as well as being um polite, it's also to break the uh tension and move move away from the uh the difficulty to something else. Um but uh the the points that you make about the the emotions and the the building up and the attention I think uh is is uh really really good. Um I've taken uh a lot away from your uh your analysis um and I'm very very grateful to you for putting the time in to look through and evaluate both my speech and the opening to a new one. Thank you, Harris.

SPEAKER_06 37:31

And finally we have Samuk.

SPEAKER_01 37:35

Um yes. Um as Rory also mentioned, it was quite short, and uh there are a lot of things which can possibly develop into. Uh the only two things that I observed was that he mentioned to you in the podcast before he started that his idea was to capture the interest of the audience, get the attention, which he did very well by starting uh such a very large statement called time. Um but then it did create a curiosity of uh how it how the speech is going to develop into. Then, since it was long before we heard the second capture, the curiosity might have converted into confusion. Uh maybe that is one thing that Anthony can uh consider. Uh how long of it will be curiosity and when will it turn into a confusion? So that is one um suggestion or uh observation that I made. Uh and another thing is that even in the voice modulation, I think it could have been a little uh different with the fear in his voice as well. Uh when he said bang and then followed up with the next statements. I heard that the voice was more calm, but it it can also be shown in his voice a little trembling, maybe. Uh, that tells you that gives the audience in the scene more clearly. These are the two things that I thank you so much, Samook.

SPEAKER_06 38:52

It's fabulous getting just insights from everyone. Interesting when you get different perspectives, isn't it? What did you think of Samook's evaluation there?

SPEAKER_07 39:02

Oh, terrific. Uh, last and certainly not least, Samuc. Uh the thank you, thank you so much for your evaluation and for your evaluation earlier of my uh longer speech. Um, I like that you uh picked up from the the opening analysis. So you started your work, not just listening to the uh paragraph, but listening to the preamble, and that's uh that's great. So it's a bit like someone looking through the objectives of the speech as an evaluator and matching them to see if I achieve what I was setting out to do. Um, and certainly yes, I was looking to uh get your attention to uh keep you wondering, you know, what's gonna happen here? Where's this speech going to go to develop that kind of curiosity for you? Um, I was looking to make it a confusing setting because it was um when uh when all that uh chaos happened, but I hear what you say in terms of building in some trembling and some fear into the uh into the voice at the beginning because it was a very chaotic uh situation, and yes, it was terrifying. And so my voice should have reflected that more rather than perhaps the calmness with which I delivered the opening uh the opening speech. So thank you everybody for your evaluation. It just shows you how amazing this whole process is that I now walk away, having given you the opening few paragraphs of the speech, with ideas that I can put into the whole speech with an extra awareness for the sensitivities that a non-native audience might experience and realizing how I can't just rely on what I feel are my gut feelings. I've got to listen to other voices out there who know what they're talking about and who give sound, solid, sensible advice. Nice bit of alliteration there to finish. So thank you so much, and thank you to Brendan for making this whole experience a possibility. I really enjoyed it and benefited enormously from it.

SPEAKER_06 41:29

Well, once again, thank you so much for your time today, Anthony. It's been an absolute pleasure and honor to have you on the show. And you've been so accommodating and easy to arrange these meetings. So I really appreciate that as well.

SPEAKER_07 41:41

Not at all, Brendan. And like uh, like most people who um come to Ireland physically, they find it difficult because of their love for the country to actually get away. And uh, you know, that we have tourists who come here for a couple of weeks and decide, you know what, I've only cycled around 20 of the 32 counties in Ireland. I'll do the other 12 seen as I'm here, and I'll ring up the airline and extend my stay. So I know that you had planned a virtual trip of the world and you've been stuck here in uh the Irish Republic for quite some time. I hope you've enjoyed our stay, your stay with us, and I wish you uh the best of luck uh on the rest of your journey.

SPEAKER_06 42:29

Thank you so much, 100%. I don't want to leave, but I think I should mosey on. But thank you. I've enjoyed my stay immensely. Thank you, Anthony.

SPEAKER_07 42:37

You're very welcome.

SPEAKER_06 42:44

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.