Transformational Pathways - Episode 18 - From Being a Royal Australian Air Force Intelligence Officer to Being the President of Toastmasters Club In His New Adopted Country

Episode 18 - From Being a Royal Australian Air Force Intelligence Officer to Being the President of Toastmasters Club In His New Adopted Country

10/27/21 • 59 min

HIGHLIGHTS

28:05 How Adam ended up with Toastmasters after all of his experience in banking, the Royal Australian Air Force, and being an Intelligence Specialist.

36:03 A Toastmasters club of which he was supposed to be president until the pandemic hit and how it affected the members and himself personally

38:54 Service towards the people in Toastmasters and why it was fundamentally engrained into Adam's life

43:04 Tactics Adam used to rebuild the club from shambles

52:30 Adam's experience to convince young and hungry executives to join Toastmasters and why it's a must

QUOTES

21:35 "I remember going to sleep one night in a pitch-black room and a rocket landed nearby and exploded. And the room went from pitch-black to as bright as the mid-day sun in a flash. As soon as it was over, I rolled over and went back to sleep. That's how you got used to it ... It was normal."

28:36 "I lacked a lot of self-confidence and I really needed to improve my ability to communicate, and my leadership skills. And I remember someone recommending Toastmasters to me. So I joined the Toastmasters club in Wollongong, which sadly no longer exists. Its name was Collieries Toastmasters Club."

37:47 "To give people a break from what was happening with the pandemic, in March, April, and May were particularly dark times here in New York. To give people a reprieve was my objective, to give people that space to grow. To be supported and to discover who they could be, was my plan. It was not easy but it was a lot of fun."

39:00 "If you're in a better position than someone else then help that person to achieve, to succeed, to learn, to grow, and develop. I've always believed in it."

41:45 "I knew the pandemic wasn't gonna last forever, I knew it was gonna finish at some point ... but I wanted to set those people up for success. I wanted to give them that foundation on which they could step forth and become better people before this was all over, or during it."

Connect with Adam in the link below:

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-cole-pmp%C2%AE-pmi-acp%C2%AE-csm%C2%AE-270987158

Find out more about Toastmasters, visit https://toastmasters46.org/ and follow District 46 on:

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/toastmasters46/
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/toast-masters-district-46
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/TMDistrict46/

Please rate, review and subscribe!

Toastmasters - where leaders are made.

HIGHLIGHTS

28:05 How Adam ended up with Toastmasters after all of his experience in banking, the Royal Australian Air Force, and being an Intelligence Specialist.

36:03 A Toastmasters club of which he was supposed to be president until the pandemic hit and how it affected the members and himself personally

38:54 Service towards the people in Toastmasters and why it was fundamentally engrained into Adam's life

43:04 Tactics Adam used to rebuild the club from shambles

52:30 Adam's experience to convince young and hungry executives to join Toastmasters and why it's a must

QUOTES

39:00 "If you're in a better position than someone else then help that person to achieve, to succeed, to learn, to grow, and develop. I've always believed in it."

Connect with Adam in the link below:

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-cole-pmp%C2%AE-pmi-acp%C2%AE-csm%C2%AE-270987158

Find out more about Toastmasters, visit https://toastmasters46.org/ and follow District 46 on:

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/toastmasters46/
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/toast-masters-district-46
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/TMDistrict46/

Please rate, review and subscribe!

Toastmasters - where leaders are made.

Previous Episode

Episode 17 - Learn to Speak Your Mind or Others Will Do It for You with Jesse Scinto

HIGHLIGHTS

05:15 Toastmasters instilled confidence and a sense of accomplishment from the get-go

06:05 The Foreign Service Exam made it clear that public speaking is a necessary skill

07:36 Learning through imitation and challenging himself to join Toastmasters

12:30 Nurture the fire that led you to Toastmasters: Nerves are normal!

16:41 Public speaking is a practice in leadership

18:27 Story-telling as an executive skill and exercising leadership for a Fullbright scholarship

27:00 The lasting change of video conferencing and its effectiveness in teaching

30:53 Coaching and corporate training with Jesse

33:20 Barack Obama as an example of great executive presence

34:38 Being nervous means stepping out of your comfort zone and growing

QUOTES

02:33 "What I realized is that when you don't speak, other people make assumptions about what you're thinking. You don't have to dominate a conversation or try to control other people's thoughts, but it's really important to speak your own mind."

10:48 "I'm Toastmaster even now because I realized that the most important thing to public speaking is regular practice. It's like playing an instrument or playing a sport that, to keep up your skills, you have to do it regularly."

16:49 "That willingness to step forward, to put yourself forward, and willingness to put yourself forward. That's what leadership is. And when you practice public speaking, you're literally taking a step forward."

22:33 "I need to be out there putting my ideas in the world, publishing articles, giving guest lectures, basically going beyond what's asked of me. And when you start going beyond what's asked of you, that's when you start to exhibit leadership."

35:09 "The only way you know whether you're really pushing the envelope and challenging yourself is if you feel some nervousness about what you're doing. If you're completely comfortable with everything that you do, you're not stretching in any way whatsoever."

Connect with Jesse in the link below:

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessescinto/
Website - https://publicsphere.llc/

Find out more about Toastmasters, visit https://toastmasters46.org/ and follow District 46 on:

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/toastmasters46/
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/toast-masters-district-46
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/TMDistrict46/

Please rate, review and subscribe!

Toastmasters - where leaders are made.

Next Episode

Episode 19 - Standup Comedian, Writer, And Performer To Being a Toastmaster Blending Comedy To Everyday Life with Matthew Fay

HIGHLIGHTS

02:25 How Matthew started out in the world of comedy

12:58 Books, comedy, and the ability to laugh at one's self

15:37 Highschool humiliation, memes, and being banned from announcements

19:26 How to read the room as a comedian and a Toastmaster

22:51 How and why Matthew ended up with Toastmasters

28:36 Matthew's pathway: A helpful tool as a visual learner

32:58 Icebreaker: "A little alone time isn't so bad"

37:15 Toastmasters and comedy changed Matthew as the world is starting to open up

44:04 The Roosevelt line Toastmasters club vibe that Matthew is in

49:07 How Toastmasters pathway can help someone who wants to learn comedy

54:17 Matthew's favorite comedians and leaders

QUOTES

11:26 "It's important or helpful to come up with something funny to say when that bomb occurs as a way of rescuing the situation."

13:50 "It's all about control in any public speaking situation. The audience is gonna feel more comfortable if they feel like the person talking is in control. And comedy is a way of indicating you're in control by being able to ascertain an emotional response in somebody even when you're screwing up."

21:14 "What's great about Toastmasters is it doesn't just give you skills of how to talk to people, it gives you skills on how to listen to people. So it's a very conversational aspect to it... what people in this room and this group of what they're sensitive about. What might work and what might not."

24:40 "The best stand-ups are the people who don't view it as a performance, they view it basically just like a conversation you would have with anybody."

38:37 "Toastmasters to me has reignited just the love of communication with people. Just talking about anything, just being able to be out with people to talk of the cuff about anything. It not only makes you a stronger speaker as it has for me, but it also just reignited a certain for communication that maybe got lost when we were all inside or maybe never went away but now rediscovering."

47:34 "So just the idea of knowing that, like I can talk to this person and they will feel comfortable talking to me and we can have a free-flowing conversation. Even if either one of us has maybe had a rough day or whatever.”

50:21 "It can be a very uncomfortable, uninviting space for women in general. And also basically any marginalized group, because there are lots of men, shall we say who feel that comedy is still largely about who you can attack and who you can bring down and kind of revel in a certain amount of cruelty in their comedy."

59:20 "Leaders tend to just kind of naturally gravitate to positions of leadership. And part of gravitating to that position is respecting the people around you and making them feel important in a way that if they are asked that question, they will point to you."

Connect with Matthew in the links below: