23. Why Toastmasters is perfect for aspiring podcasters with Gaye O’loghlen

This transcript was created using Headliner. It has been copied and pasted but not proofread or edited, so it may contain errors or inaccuracies.

Laura: Welcome to Podcasting for Business Owners. I’m Your host, Laura McRae, a podcast consultant, educator and self confessed podcast nerd. If you’re thinking of launching a podcast or want to grow the one you have, you’re in the right place. Hold on to your headphones and let’s go.

Laura: Welcome back to Podcasting for Business Owners, the podcast that helps you share your story, lead your industry and grow your network through podcasting. Today’s episode is close to my heart because I’m joined by Gaye O’loghlen, who was my mentor at Toastmasters and has been a member for over eight years. If you’re not familiar, Toastmasters is an international organisation that helps people build confidence in public speaking by practising public speaking. Members are encouraged, but not forced to go up in front of the group and give speeches on a variety of topics. The first speech every member delivers is called the Icebreaker Speech. It’s a chance to introduce yourself and tell your story, a topic that’s easiest to talk about because you know it so well. It’s also a fantastic way for other members to get to know you. This structured and supportive approach helped me face my fear of public speaking when I joined Toastmasters last year. My goal was to build enough confidence to launch this very podcast, and I’m so glad I did it. In today’s conversation, Gaye shares her own journey of overcoming public speaking nerves and becoming a mentor, as well as practical tips to help you develop confidence behind the mic. If you’ve ever worried that public speaking skills might hold you back from launching your podcast, this episode will inspire and equip you to take the leap. Now, let’s get started.

Laura: Hello, Gay. Welcome to the show.

Gaye: Thank you. I’m, um, very happy to be here.

Laura: Can you please share a bit about your journey with Toastmasters? How did you first get involved and what motivated you to stay?

Gaye: Well, I was working in the highly competitive wine industry and I was increasingly being called upon to do presentations and I was totally not ready for that. So I had to do wine training for various groups like restaurant staff, and in Duty free, their floor staff had to train them. And then suddenly, after Covid, when there wasn’t too many people travelling to Perth, usually because we were locked out from the rest of the world, I had to start doing wine dinners. So I actually had to be a keynote speaker at a wine dinner and I never done that before, so it was very scary and I had to be entertaining, I had to be knowledgeable and I had to actually be a little bit funny. As well, which was not really me.

Laura: Oh, the pressure was on then.

Gaye: The pressure was on. So I decided I needed some help. I always knew Toastmasters existed, but it just, life was busy and I just needed to find a way to fit, uh, it in. And I immediately loved the community. They’re just a group of people that are moving forward and, um, they want you to succeed.

Laura: So you’ve been a long standing member of Toastmasters. Now, how long have you been at Toastmasters?

Gaye: Oh, it’s about eight years now.

Laura: And what role do Toastmasters play in helping you overcome any initial fears or challenges with public speaking?

Gaye: Initially, the fear was the fear of failure in front of a large group of people. So it was a major motivator. So I need to learn how to harness your nervous energy. And the first thing I learnt which really helped was just the old feel the fear and do it anyway. And like a lot of people, I really hated speaking in public, but I knew the main thing was I had to get the nerves under control because they end up buggering everything up. They control everything. So you just gotta. The more times you do it, the less it hurts, I suppose. And at, ah, Toastmasters, you get to speak every week and little by little, strangely enough, you get used to it.

Laura: Yeah, you definitely do. And Gay is my mentor at Toastmasters and she’s really supported me. Um, what strategies did you find most effective in helping me and others, uh, build confidence in public speaking?

Gaye: So it’s all about slowly building someone’s confidence. You wouldn’t chuck them out in the front of everybody and make them do a five to seven minute speech. So it’s just short, easy speaking roles, usually about something they know a lot about that they feel comfortable speaking about. So a review, for example, on a book or a movie or a restaurant, so it’s virtually just telling us what you liked or you didn’t like about it or

00:05:00

Gaye: how you would rate it, etc. So it’s a simple thing, but it gets you talking in front of people and feeling confident about doing that. And just slowly over the weeks and months, you just do small rolls like that until you’re ready for your first big speech.

Laura: And that would be the icebreaker speech.

Gaye: That would be the icebreaker speech, which is your story. So the easiest speech that you will do because you know it so well, it’s your story.

Laura: And how have you seen members transform through their Toastmasters journey, especially those who are, uh, initially nervous or shy.

Gaye: So most people go through a transformation at different levels. The longer you Stay, the better you get, of course. Cause it’s a learn by doing process. And the challenges get harder as time goes on. So you keep moving forward. The system is the same the world over. And, uh, it works.

Laura: And that’s the thing. I think you really need to keep going. Cause there’s sometimes of an evening, I think, oh, I’m too tired, I can’t go. But then I think, I really need this, I really need to go. And then I get there and I love it. So it’s just a case of practising and keep on keeping on.

Gaye: Definitely.

Laura: And how do you think the skills learned at Toastmasters translate into successful podcasting?

Gaye: Once you’ve got some of your nerves under control, like the butterflies are flying in formation in your stomach, you can start to work on your presentation. So I know facial expression is not something that you need to worry about with a podcast, but I know people can’t see you, but I remember when I was given instruction on how to answer the telephone in sales, the first thing they tell you is you need to smile. And the smile comes through your voice. Oh, yeah, sure. But it works. Vocal variety is very important, so you do learn that in Toastmasters. So you need to experiment with different voices and developing different sounds. And voices sounds like a lot of fun with a podcast. So it’s not just about what you say or how much you know, it is how you say it and what you look and sound like when you’re saying it.

Laura: Yeah, you’re definitely right about the smiling thing. I try and do that when I’m recording a podcast episode is to make sure that I’m smiling when I’m talking. Oh, and another thing I really struggle with is the tone. This is something I know comes up for me and I’m, um, trying to go up and down a little bit more. But it’s something I’m practising and, yeah, it just comes with practise. I guess I’m hoping I’ll get better as time goes on. But it’s all about practise, isn’t it?

Gaye: Well, it is all about practise and it’s all about relaxing and enjoying yourself. And once you do that, it’s easy to get a bit of different tones into your voice.

Laura: For business owners, specifically, how can improving public speaking skills at Toastmasters benefit them with podcasting?

Gaye: It will fast track you. You will be given professional, supportive and constructive feedback every time you speak. It’s impossible to know what you don’t know. Do you, um, anur or do you Use distracting filler words. In general, we all know the presenters that we most enjoy watching and listening to. They look and sound like they’re having a casual chat and are, uh, having a ball doing it. They never sound nervous, they look confident. Even if they’re faking some of it, they’ve got some of the nerves under control. After a lot of practise, I would say, by the way, you still need to feel a bit nervous to give you an edge, but they should not be controlling you, the nerves. I mean, we all know there’s a lot of competition out there to get people’s attention, so you need to make sure you’re locking people into your podcast.

Laura: And what I found really helpful at Toastmasters as well is that I’ve gone in with something I want to talk about and I’ve done a speech based on it, which is a topic I want to talk about in a podcast episode. And everyone’s so helpful when they come back with feedback in telling me what I could improve on. And, uh, they’ve helped me make these changes and made my episodes more interesting.

Gaye: Yeah, it’s a bit confronting when you first start getting some feedback, think, oh, what are they going to say? But it’s constructive and it’s honest and it’s not meant to be criticism, it’s not meant to be nasty, it’s meant to help you.

Laura: And I’ve never found it like that at all. I’ve never felt criticised, I’ve always found it very valuable feedback.

Gaye: Yeah, that’s exactly what it is.

Laura: And what advice would you give to someone who is nervous about public speaking and is considering launching a podcast?

Gaye: Come to Toastmasters. You can just come and observe us for three nights and see if it’s for you or not. But if you’re nervous about public speaking, don’t launch a podcast without help, because that’s not good. None of our members began their Toastmasters journey not being nervous about public speaking.

00:10:00

Gaye: There is still a statistic out there that says most people would rather die than speak in public. It shouldn’t be that hard with just a little bit of help.

Laura: And I was the same. I still hate public speaking, but I’m not as nervous as I used to be. I remember the first time I went to help out at an event for work and I was the event’s coordinator, so I just thought I’d be round the back sorting out the audio and making sure everyone was having a good time. Then someone said, oh, we’ve got Laura here from head office and she’s going to present to us what we’re here today to celebrate. And I was like, no, I’m not. I’m just helping you out for the day. And so I got up and done, um, a diabolical 30 second speech and ran off the stage.

Gaye: Oh, uh, we all remember those times when we were called upon to do something that you weren’t prepared for. An impromptu speech, which at, uh, Toastmasters, we have this fabulous thing called table topics where you’re called upon just to speak off the cuff. And it’s probably the hardest thing we do because there’s no preparation. You just gotta. There’s a table topics master. The table topics master will ask questions and they might just say something like, gay, come up and tell us about snow. That was my first ever table Topics question. So I had the time from getting out of my seat to walking up the front to have a think about what I was going to talk about snow for one minute. So very confronting.

Laura: And one minute doesn’t sound like a long time, but it really does when you’re up there talking off the cuff for a minute.

Gaye: Yes.

Laura: Can you share an example of how Toastmasters help someone you know or yourself gain the confidence to start a podcast or another public facing project besides the.

Gaye: Fabulous Laura, who certainly gained the confidence to start a podcast and a podcast company? Samantha Jackson, that name might not mean anything to you, but she was a member of Swan Toastmasters. She was sat next to Mel Gibson at a restaurant, struck up a conversation with him, and she became his personal trainer. He lost 14 kilos in eight weeks. She was training a good friend of mine, actually, and I asked her if Toastmasters had helped her, and she said it was one of the things that gave her the confidence and herself to believe she could do anything. And now, uh, she’s personal trainer to the stars.

Laura: Oh, wow. That’s incredible.

Gaye: Yep. Just starting from Toastmasters, what are some.

Laura: Practical exercises or techniques from Toastmasters that people can use to improve their public speaking and podcasting skills?

Gaye: So, clearly I want you to come to Toastmasters, but if you can’t, for some strange reason, you can just take every opportunity you possibly can to get up and speak in front of people. Whenever anyone says, would you like to get up and say a few words, say, yes, I would. I was once asked to mentor a really, really nervous guy that came to our club. He didn’t even want to talk to anyone, he was so nervous. So I told him that the thing he needs to do is just start to talk to anyone, anywhere, anyhow, so, like, if you’re in a queue, you just talk to the person that’s next to you. They can’t get away. They’re a captive audience because if they want to get served, they’ve got to stay in the queue. So that was perfect for him. So also, personal stories really resonate with people and help them connect to you. So they’ll suddenly just go, oh, yeah, I’ve already. I’ve been to America before. And they suddenly start to think about that and they, I suddenly have a personal connection with you. So that’s good. Also use things like alliteration, big bucks, cool cat or zigzag are just fun words. And if you can use brand names, that also helps.

Laura: Why do brand names help?

Gaye: Because they’re fun. They’re more fun. Like, I staggered out of bed after a big night out and sat down to a big bowl of Coco Pops. Sounds funnier, uh, than just plain old cereal.

Laura: Yeah, you’re right, actually. I never thought of that before.

Gaye: Yeah.

Laura: And that’s it with telling stories, doing speeches or anything. It’s good to put stories in there, isn’t it?

Gaye: Absolutely. Especially personal stories. And they’re the easiest ones for us to tell, aren’t they?

Laura: What would you say to someone who feels that their fear of public speaking is too great to overcome? How can Toastmasters help them get started?

Gaye: We have a beautiful man at our club who was a really bad stutterer, and his speech therapist recommended that he come to Toastmasters. I reckon it’s a bit like cuddling to a snake to get over your fear of snakes. Took a huge amount of courage, I would say. How scary it must have been that first time that

00:15:00

Gaye: he got up to speak at a Toastmasters meeting. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house when he told us his first story about how when he first spoke at Toastmasters. So just give it a crack. We love new members and their stories, and it’s a very gentle introduction to the world of public speaking. You are among people that are on your side.

Laura: We can’t even notice that this gentleman had a stutter. Now when he speaks, he’s so clear. So he’s done amazingly. It took him a couple of years, I think, but he’s incredible now.

Gaye: Yeah.

Laura: And, um, what’s one piece of advice you would give to a business owner who wants to start a podcast but feels they lack the speaking skills or confidence?

Gaye: We’ve all seen those terrible ads where a business owner has decided, how hard can it be to do your own ads? And how terrible they are because they needed just a little bit of training, believe me, because I’ve been there and seen it. If your audience sees or hears you being awkward, nervous or doing something distracting, they stop listening. And that’s death for a presenter. That is just what you do not want. I remember that happening to me all the time while speaking in public before I went to Toastmasters. Once you’ve lost them, you have to work really hard to get them back. The important lesson I learnt very quickly was it does not matter how much you know about something, you have to be able to deliver it in a somewhat entertaining way.

Laura: Yeah, I found Toastmasters helpful not just for helping me start this podcast, but also for going on social media and making videos and things like that, which I still find really awkward, but I find them less awkward. And I’m just practising and just keep doing it. Yeah, yeah.

Gaye: It’s amazing that you started doing that. That’s great.

Laura: And how do you see the supportive community aspect of Toastmasters, helping individuals grow not only as speakers, but also as leaders and communicators?

Gaye: So once you’re a confident speaker and you actually enjoy speaking in public. Yep. It does eventually happen. You can talk to anyone on any level and make it look and sound easy and fun. There are many different roles during a Toastmasters meeting to challenge you and help you become a competent leader and communicator. The evaluation part of our meetings is taken very seriously. The feedback is a mixture of commendations and recommendations, not criticism, to help you improve.

Laura: Yeah, uh, that’s something. I struggle with evaluations at Toastmasters because I feel I’m not a perfect speaker myself. So I feel like the pop calling the kettle black by pointing out recommendations for other people. But it’s something I’m again practising with and it’s really good practise as well to listen to what other people say about other speeches, because you learn from that and, um, how you can take that on board yourself for your own speeches.

Gaye: Yeah, it’s not an easy thing. And you get a bit of imposter syndrome, don’t you? Just thinking, oh, what would I know? But you do, because it’s only your opinion and they can take it or leave it. They don’t have to take your advice.

Laura: Looking back, what’s the most valuable lesson you’ve learned through your time at Toastmasters that you would pass on to aspiring podcasters?

Gaye: People love to laugh, and when they laugh, they relax. And when they relax, they’re more open to listening. Find a way to weave some humour into your presentations. But I’m not funny, I hear you say. And I definitely wasn’t funny either when I started. I’m not hilarious now, but I managed to weave a bit of humour in. Take the piss out of yourself and you’ll soon have them laughing. Stay authentically you, but bring out the fun, creative side and be a bit extra, but still have clarity about your message.

Laura: Yeah. By the way, Gay’s speeches are always funny.

Gaye: Oh, are they? Good.

Laura: She always manages to bring humour into her speeches.

Gaye: Thank you.

Laura: And how has your experience with Toastmasters influenced your professional life?

Gaye: Oh, so many ways. I suffered from major imposter syndrome when speaking in public, even though I knew more about my subject, which was wine, than most of the people in the room that I was speaking to. So I was able to develop a big dose of belief in myself even after a short time at Toastmasters, even if I forgot something or said something incorrect, I was able to laugh at myself and not take myself so seriously and move on with all of them in the audience laughing with me. It was incredibly liberating.

Laura: Yeah, I remember doing that. I think it was in a. I think it was even in one of our club contests. I was in the table topics contest and I just drew a complete blank. And I remembered, was that

00:20:00

Laura: when I done a Kate Bush dance in the middle of the floor, just because I was stuck with what to say, I obviously didn’t win the competition. But, yeah, when you can just laugh at yourself and everyone laughs with you.

Gaye: Yeah, brilliant.

Laura: What’s one thing you wish more people knew about Toastmasters and its impact on personal and professional development?

Gaye: For a start, it’s not a big group of old men sitting around toasting themselves. Toastmasters is a fun, supportive environment where you can practise your public speaking and get positive, helpful feedback and help you improve and become an awesome public speaker that people really want to listen to.

Laura: Yeah, I think it might have a bad reputation sometimes, Toastmasters, because I thought it was going to be, no offence, a lot of fuddy daddy people sitting around doing boring speeches. But it’s not like that at all. And I’ve visited other Toastmasters groups too, and it’s the same there. They’re just a fun bunch who are, uh, getting up and practising their public speaking and helping each other and motivating each other to do better and improve and, yeah, it’s a fun place to go, believe it or not.

Gaye: Well, and you get to hear some amazing stories, don’t you?

Laura: You really do.

Gaye: People have always got incredible stories. Even if it’s something that happened yesterday or something that happened 20 years ago.

Laura: And everyone’s got incredible stories that you never would have heard, you would never met them, never heard these stories if we hadn’t been at Toastmasters.

Gaye: Well, cause it’s open to everyone. So we have a really diverse group of people that just get thrown together and we get the benefit.

Laura: So thank you very much for joining me today, Gay. I look forward to seeing you on Wednesday night at our Toastmasters. We meet every Wednesday above the library at Ellenbrook. So yeah, if anyone fancies joining us, come and see us.

Gaye: Yep, just come on down. You don’t have to let us know you’re coming. No RSVP. Just roll up. Get there before 7:00 though. Cause they close the big doors downstairs.

Laura: Okay, we hope to see you then.

Gaye: Bye Bye.

Laura: What an inspiring conversation with Gay. I loved hearing her insights about how Toastmasters provide such a supportive environment for people to practise public speaking and gain confidence over time. Her tips about smiling while speaking and adding vocal variety are, uh, so practical and really help to make your voice more engaging whether you’re presenting to a group or recording a podcast. If today’s conversation got you thinking about launching your own podcast, but you’re not sure where to start, I’ve got something just for you. Download my free resource called the Podcast Launch Roadmap.

Laura: It’s a step by step guide that.

Laura: Takes the guesswork out of starting your podcast so you can confidently share your story, lead your industry and grow your network. Head to the link in the show notes to grab your copy and take that first step towards launching your own podcast. Thanks so much for listening and I’ll see you in the next episode.

Laura: If you found value in this podcast, please leave. A five star rating and a review would be even better. Your support shows that this is a good show which will attract high profile guests and in turn deliver greater value to you. This podcast is produced and edited by me. Don’t waste your time on editing. Let me help you with your podcast. Cheque out the links in the show notes to get in touch.

00:23:30