Transcription Welcome to another episode of the Toastmasters Experience.

Today I've got a guest and he is actually my mentee.

Is that right?

I'm the mentor.

You're the mentor.

Yeah, let's call it that.

Let's call it that.

That's fine.

But he's one of the newest members of Blue Mountains Toastmasters.

So I'd like to welcome Guy to the show today.

Welcome Guy.

Thanks, Evelyn.

It's good to be here.

We're going to start at the very beginning.

What motivated you to join Toastmasters?

I knew about Toastmasters in my teens.

My mum mentioned it and this is back in Christchurch, New Zealand, and parents have always been

interested in personal development.

And when I was very young, sort of five or six years old, I was put into speech therapy.

I guess that different little indicators in life have highlighted to me the importance

of being able to speak clearly and be understood.

Yeah, I guess I was just, I knew about it.

And then I was curious about what it was actually like.

Okay.

So were your parents members of Toastmasters?

My mum was a member, but it was a long time ago now.

Yeah.

So when did you first join Toastmasters?

It was in Sydney and it was probably about 10 years ago.

And how long were you a member of that particular club?

Well, it was, you know, I guess like for a lot of members, they're juggling their personal

life and work and everything.

And so I think I was going for maybe about a year, maybe between one and two years.

And so when you remember at that time, it's when they still had the books.

It wasn't on Pathways.

Is that correct?

The manuals.

The manuals.

Is that right?

Do you remember that?

I vaguely remember.

Yeah.

I can't remember the exact details, but I think from my experience of the Katoomba branch,

it's very similar protocol and the way it's run.

Right.

Right.

And what made you join this time around?

Well, I'm wondering if there was some subliminal advertising around the mountains, but I think

I just heard about it somewhere.

And I think because I was already familiar with what it was and I thought, oh, it's at

the Carrington.

That could be a bit fancy and a nice little place to hang out.

And yeah, I think it goes back to curiosity and it's related to personal developments.

I thought, just check it out.

Oh, fantastic.

So you've been a member for, is it a month or two months now?

It'll be a couple of months now.

And have you have you delivered your first speech yet?

No, not yet.

Okay.

That's that's coming up.

But you will be delivering your first, I guess it's the icebreaker.

That's it.

And I'm looking forward to it.

I haven't really thought decided on what I'm going to talk about, but I do look forward

to it.

And I look forward to taking the time and to prepare something really.

It's the planning stage of deciding my desire here.

What's the outcome that I want in terms of inspiring people, it might be or informing

people or it might just be a personal goal.

Right, right, right, right.

And so you need to sign up for that particular speech, which you can sign up with your vice

president of education, which happens to be me.

So we'll sign you up to to deliver that speech.