17: Connecting through Toastmasters and Travelling with Ron MacTavish

11/15/21 • 44 min

Ron MacTavish is a Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM) and the VP of Membership for Dynamically Speaking Toastmasters. With over 15,600 clubs in the world, Toastmasters is an international organization for people to develop their public speaking and leadership skills. In this episode, we talk about how he’s built connections around his interests of Toastmasters, travelling, and books. He says: Don't go through your life wishing “I wonder what would have happened if I had talked to her or talked to him? It's far better to step out and try and make that connection than to live in regret.”

Highlights & Takeaways

How Toastmasters helped him advance his career within sales and management, and why he returned back after a 16-year break from Toastmasters
How Dynamically Speaking Toastmasters has actually thrived during the pandemic by now having members from all across the globe
Ron’s “Lit Gang” and why he asks people about what they’re reading
Why his favourite books are “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” and the works of Leo Tolstoy
Why he takes literary tours when he travels to a country
The story of how Ron connected with someone in Burma because he chose to wear a Saskatchewan Roughriders shirt

Resources Mentioned

Contact Ron MacTavish: [email protected]
Dynamically Speaking Toastmasters
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Steven Covey
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

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Music by Meghan Rennie - Instagram / Soundcloud

Website: excusestoconnect.com

Email: [email protected]

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Highlights & Takeaways

How Toastmasters helped him advance his career within sales and management, and why he returned back after a 16-year break from Toastmasters
How Dynamically Speaking Toastmasters has actually thrived during the pandemic by now having members from all across the globe
Ron’s “Lit Gang” and why he asks people about what they’re reading
Why his favourite books are “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” and the works of Leo Tolstoy
Why he takes literary tours when he travels to a country
The story of how Ron connected with someone in Burma because he chose to wear a Saskatchewan Roughriders shirt

Resources Mentioned

Contact Ron MacTavish: [email protected]
Dynamically Speaking Toastmasters
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Steven Covey
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

______

Enjoyed this episode? Share it with a friend and make sure to follow Excuses to Connect on Facebook and Instagram.

Music by Meghan Rennie - Instagram / Soundcloud

Website: excusestoconnect.com

Email: [email protected]

Leave a Voice Message: https://www.speakpipe.com/excusestoconnect
Support Me: Buy Me A Coffee

Previous Episode

16: Volunteering to Build and Serve Communities with Alice Lam

Alice Lam is the co-founder of Good Neighbour, which is the first pay-what-you-want thrift store in the city of Calgary and it’s completely volunteer-run. The store opened 3 months ago and has been a hub of connections, and a way to create a more inclusive and sustainable city. But before co-founding Good Neighbour, Alice had a long history of volunteering. In this episode, we chat about the story of her parents fleeing Vietnam because of the communist regime, how that’s shaped the types of causes she’s passionate about, and the societal challenges that we are facing right now.

Highlights & Takeaways

For a long time, she had an identity crisis of not feeling like she belonged to her ethnic culture, but also not feeling like she belonged in Canada either. This contributed to her always searching for community and trying to reconnect with her roots and find herself
Volunteering to read to immigrant children instilling a strong impression of how valuable volunteers are in the community and helping people become better versions of themselves
Volunteering helps you find people who share the same intrinsic values as you and how you can find volunteering opportunities suited for you
The impact and inspiration behind Volly (an app to help people find volunteering opportunities), and Good Neighbour
Why she feels like we're on a race against time in terms of solving societal problems and wanting to help people who have passionate ideas

Resources Mentioned

Contact Alice Lam: [email protected] | Twitter
Good Neighbour YYC
Tigerstedt Flea Market
Calgary Community Fridge

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Enjoyed this episode? Share it with a friend and make sure to follow Excuses to Connect on Facebook and Instagram.

Music by Meghan Rennie - Instagram / Soundcloud

Website: excusestoconnect.com

Email: [email protected]

Leave a Voice Message: https://www.speakpipe.com/excusestoconnectSupport Me: Buy Me A Coffee

Next Episode

18: Collaborating and Storytelling through Hip-Hop with KTheChosen

KTheChosen is a hip-hop artist originally from Zimbabwe, but currently residing in Calgary where he is fostering connections and collaborations through his work. The recent release of his album +Vice which acts as an audio time capsule of the pandemic space that we’ve been in, and explores themes such as grief, feminism, and colonialism. In this episode, we cover topics like why his stage name is KTheChosen, his journey as a hip-hop artist, and his answer to the question of “What do you want to be remembered for after you’ve passed away?”

Highlights & Takeaways

How his mom would write letters to him while he was still in her womb, and how that’s shaped who he is today
Even when there’s only 1 voice in a song, there’s still multiple people involved in its creation, which means collaboration is inherent within music-making
Why he believes in nurturing future artists so that they don’t have to start from ground zero
Teaching kids how to write their own raps about science, and working with teenage artists on their marketing and branding
Life is about planting seeds that can continue to grow without you

Resources Mentioned