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 this episode of Toastmaster's World Tour, we travel virtually back to the City of Champions, Edmonton, Canada, to chat to Harriet Tinker again. She is a three-time district champion evaluator, the highest level in Toastmaster's evaluation contests. After being one of the judges in episode 18's Global Online Evaluation Contest, she reflects on the contest and gifts us several recommendations for being better evaluators and scoring better in evaluation contests.

SPEAKER_04 1:22

I think a lot of the evaluators then definitely need to read the judges. And I think a lot of speakers don't even know it exists. I don't know why they think it's only strictly for the judges, because I tell a lot of the evaluators it's accessible to all of us. You can actually read and see where you're leaving the points on the on the floor, so to speak. Summation is an easy one. You can easily get 15 points.

SPEAKER_01 1:48

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:50

And recommendation, don't spend too much time saying the good things that you did, and don't say the usual suspects. You've, oh, your voice was good, your body language was good. Everybody's gonna say that. Pick two things that you can say. The personal story is good, it's relatable. But also the other thing I would recommend, like this particular speech was uh uh what was the name again? I call it something on the edge. You could start off with something, um, something with a theme that you know that's the story. Is it I was on the edge listening to this story? Wow, like bring something out of the speech that stands out from everybody because everybody's gonna start off as saying the same thing, like, oh, the speakers was good. Thank you, Anthony, for that great speech. Don't start off like that. Always have something uniquely different. Like, wow, I was on the edge listening to this story, and then start off with something, start off with a theme because I always start off with a theme, and I always uh I always call it myself what I say when it comes to areas of improvement. I never say that. I just say two gifts I would offer our speaker today. So my recommendation are gifts. Gift number one is you know, maybe focus on your organizational skills. And the second gift I would offer our speaker, maybe use um I would use holograms in your characters. Maybe plant is a particular character over here. As you come to age 35, you plant your character over here, and then when you're in your 60s, you put your hologram on this side. So staging, because that's something Toastmaster doesn't teach. So you want to have an education piece as well, saying what this does to the speech, it gets the speaker to know when you say 65, they know you this is the the corner you're in. When you say you were 30 years old, you can know that that's the speak the place that you can speak. So when they because it's all gonna be live, so you just give things about staging, because most people don't do that, and you say why you do it, and so there's you always want to have an educational piece in uh in this in the presentation. Let me see. I wrote down some of the key things that I would I really recommend people do because you you're gonna send up something educational when you're giving the speech, and um and what what I usually do with the strength, I usually do one or two, not more than two. Because nope, you're not getting points for the good things that you you're saying, you're only getting the good points when you're talking about um you're showing how focused you are, and that's that's good too. But the whole thing, the whole entire uh presentation that you're giving, most of your points come from recommendation and an analytical quality. Like, what are you really focused on? Are you focused on summarizing the whole thing that we already saw the presentation? Or are you giving your two recommendations and one one uh good one good thing they did and two recommendations and then summation? Like you always want to always have the speaker and I don't know how the speakers do it. So when I'm speaking, as soon as I hear the speaker, I divide the my piece of paper into two right away, and I'll write down the things that are good on the left side and the things that need improvement on the right side, and then I put down the very last thing that I'm gonna remember. So when it comes to my five minutes, I already know what's what I'm gonna say. So I spend the five minutes kind of presenting, getting the presentation ready. Because I know these are the two things that stood out for me. These are the three areas I want to really recommend. So I already have my evaluation ready to go. And all I have to do is just practice in my head because they take away your your handout after you've had the five minutes. So I already know what I'm gonna say, but that's how I recommend. But the speakers were good, I can tell they're not new kids on the box, so to speak. They've done this before and they spoke well, and they just I recommend look at the judge's ballot, very important to see where you're leaving the points.

SPEAKER_01 6:09

You mentioned before about referring to the contest chair and friends, and I've seen like in Anthony's this latest first paragraph for his upcoming speech, he was going to do that after the paragraph. And some people do it right at the start. Do you have do you have a preference whether you should just say contest chair, friends, and then go into your speech?

SPEAKER_04 6:31

Or whether it's to do an opening paragraph and then in an opening, because what's gonna wow everybody, contest chair or bang?

SPEAKER_00 6:40

Bang.

SPEAKER_04 6:41

Bang is going to bang is going to really get us hooked. In the first 30 seconds, you want to get us into your speech. But if you say, Oh, thank you, quantus chair, friends, bang, it doesn't work. So you want to start with a bang and then talk about the things that you want to talk about. And but there's nowhere in the judge's uh uh guide where he says you have to acknowledge Quantus Chair. There's nowhere you don't even have to say it, but it's just a courtesy thing you say. Like if you watch world champion Ed Tate, never once ever said, Thank you, Madam Toastmasters, or whatever. He never said anything. And he's a world champion. So it all depends on your style. It's nowhere on the guide where you will be marked zero for not saying it. And that's mostly on the world champion stage. In division district, because some of the judges are not very experienced, they might say, Well, you never said you never acknowledged us. So I would say maybe from the district and lower, you should probably say it just because they are not experienced judges. But once you get to the world champion and semifinals, you don't have to. You can just continue with the bang and talking and talking and and on and on.

SPEAKER_01 7:56

That'll make sense. Do you have a personal preference? Do you usually acknowledge?

SPEAKER_04 8:00

Uh I've never acknowledged the Toastmaster at the beginning. I mean, the contest chair at the beginning ever. Ever. Mine is always midway.

SPEAKER_01 8:08

I said engaging you. But you do do it midway, whereas you're saying you don't have to do it at all.

SPEAKER_04 8:13

But you don't have to these when I do humorous speech, I do not even acknowledge the contest chair. Even in my next humorous speech that I'm doing on next Saturday, I don't even acknowledge it. The contest chair, and I want division. I just start off with my speech. The first time I went to a Toastmasters meeting, they rolled up the red carpet, and then I keep going, keep going, keep going. And not once, you don't even know that I didn't say that. That's how engaging it is.

SPEAKER_02 8:43

I thought I could hear that speech. That's the one you referred to when we last showed.

SPEAKER_04 8:50

Yeah, I'm competing on Saturday, next Saturday for the humorous speech. They thought it was hilarious. I was like, oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 8:58

Oh no, I've got such MOMO, I really want to hear it. Please let me know if it's recorded anyway.

SPEAKER_04 9:06

You know, we they usually don't record it because they say you we can't record our speeches unless somebody, I mean, somebody can record it if I give them permission. Because it has to be me giving permission. The contest cannot. So I may be able to tell them to do that. It may be funny.

SPEAKER_01 9:23

Here's an idea. So because this is district level, is it that you're going to do that? Okay. And humorous ends at district, okay? It does, yeah. So would you be happy to come on and just do a do it for us on another podcast, maybe? Because this this looks like particularly because it's it's actually making a humorous speech about Toastmasters. So I think everyone will be off relate.

unknown 9:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 9:49

Oh, yeah, it's so funny. Let me see if I have my uh my poster here. Can you see it?

SPEAKER_04 9:55

Oh, yeah, Bostmasters. Oh, it's upside down. So it's it's got the B, yes, and then you get Bostmaster, yeah. Where the egos are made.

SPEAKER_02 10:05

Yeah, I remember you're saying that was the tagline.

SPEAKER_04 10:09

So it's kind of funny because uh when I it's it's when I I take it on and I have the big, big certificate that I that we get as egos, because you know, you gotta have the big certificate. So I say that in Toastmaster, or you have to go online, yeah, print your certificate with your own paper, yeah. But here we deliver it to you because you know we care about your ego.

SPEAKER_01 10:33

It's when people win the lottery or something and they get those massive checks, you know. Yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_04 10:40

Yeah, so this is similar, but yeah, once I finish district, I can absolutely let you know. I don't know if I'll win, but you know, it it doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_02 10:51

That's right. Either way, it sounds like gold, so I've got to do it. Please let me know.

SPEAKER_04 10:57

Yeah, I know you've got something after May 3rd. I can I can present it.

SPEAKER_02 11:02

Okay, awesome. Best of luck, that's this Saturday.

SPEAKER_04 11:08

Yeah, yeah, for sure. I did do my international speech contest I didn't place. Um, the gentleman I you know, I did not know you can recycle your speeches. Like, you know, Sao Bon, I can actually present it again, but I can't go on the world stage with it again. I had no idea.

SPEAKER_01 11:26

Yeah, I knew there was a rule about once you're on world stage. That's right, because you do the semi-finals and you have one speech and then you have the other one because it's got to be a different one in the final. So the one that you haven't used because you know, because it wasn't used in the final, that one could have been recycled.

SPEAKER_04 11:42

Actually, I could still use I I could you could use any of your speeches that were at the world stage in the lower, like I can use anything from district down. I did not know that. So the gentleman that beat me, the gentleman that beat me at the world stage, his um you he was a finalist in 2013. Okay, one of the seven final. So he used that speech to compete against me. So he he beat me. But the only way I can compete if I go over to his house and trip him or tie him in a chair or during the contest day.

SPEAKER_03 12:19

I'm not gonna do that, of course.

SPEAKER_02 12:23

It's like wow, because it was number two, right? It would make for a great story. That could be an award-winning story to it. Let's see what happens.

SPEAKER_04 12:32

It could be a good humorous speech, too. It's like you won't believe the number one contestant, just somehow it did not show up. I'm not sure. I can guess maybe it was tight on a chair, but who knows?

SPEAKER_02 12:44

We'd applaud your passion, you know. That's gold.

SPEAKER_04 12:52

Yeah, it's not my year. I'll try again, I will keep trying.

SPEAKER_02 12:55

Yeah, yeah. Oh, well, you're amazing. So good luck for Saturday, is it?

SPEAKER_04 13:01

Yeah, May 3rd.

SPEAKER_03 13:02

May 3rd, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:03

Saturday. Okay, look forward to uh speaking to you after that.

SPEAKER_03 13:07

Yeah, I'll let you know how I did. I'm just gonna go and have fun. That's all I can do. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 13:12

Look if you've been on the world, just have fun with it because you can't take it any further anyhow, that one, because it's it ends at district. They apparently they end it. Apparently they used to go all the way to the humorous and some of these other contests or evaluations.

SPEAKER_04 13:26

I think so. Yeah, they used to once upon a time. I think they did away with them.

SPEAKER_01 13:30

I don't know why they did it. I guess it's just such a big logistical thing to organize. So yeah, it's a pretty backed program as it is, so it's a shame. But anyhow.

SPEAKER_04 13:39

Uh yeah, it was expensive too, probably. They're cutting back. Times are rough. Tosmas is poor.

SPEAKER_02 13:45

Yeah, that's right. Oh, thank you so much again.

SPEAKER_01 13:49

Yes, sir. You're just amazing. I really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_03 13:51

Oh, you're most welcome.

SPEAKER_01 13:53

Enjoy Saturday. I look forward to hearing about it.

SPEAKER_03 13:55

Yeah, sounds good.

SPEAKER_04 13:57

And all the best to the speakers.

SPEAKER_01 13:59

Yeah, thank you.

SPEAKER_04 14:00

Yeah, I like evaluation. I'm the I'm the champion in my district.

SPEAKER_01 14:04

Awesome!

SPEAKER_04 14:05

Like three-time champion. Sometimes I do presentation on it. How to be a good evaluator.

SPEAKER_01 14:11

I know that you've been on the world stage for your own speech, but some people have their preferences, right? But I knew you'd be amazing.

SPEAKER_03 14:17

I enjoy it. I like to challenge myself.

SPEAKER_02 14:21

Thank you so much. Lovely chatting to you guys.

SPEAKER_00 14:28

Yeah. Yeah, bye for now.

SPEAKER_01 14:44

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 Toastmastersworld tour at gmail.com. Thanks for listening.