World Championship of Public Speaking

You have a group of friends in 149 countries wherever you go.

For me, what impacted me most was the speech contest finals, the World Championship of Public Speaking, because one of the contestants totally forgot his speech, and he was just quiet for about a minute.

He was pacing, trying to remember his speech, and I really felt sorry for him because in a way, that thing also happened to me before, and I could totally relate.

And wow, he was probably the most congratulated person there.

I'm here in Vancouver because I love this city.

It's something magical about it, and I'm going to come to Toastmasters convention wherever they are.

I really enjoy the educational session and the World Championship of Public Speaking and everything that Toastmasters has to offer.

After the convention, I'm going on an Alaskan cruise while I'm here.

She's South African.

She won the World Championship of Public Speaking in 2021 and she does online coaching.

And it turned out we were the same age, born the same year, had a lot in common.

And I think I've done, oh, I must have done 10 or 20 sessions with her over the last couple of years.

And if you're watching this, the top three videos are on YouTube.

Just search 2026 World Championship of Public Speaking.

And we encourage you to watch We're going to talk about some specifics, but see if you see what we see, what was good, what maybe could have been even better.

Mark?

Exactly.

And they were all disadvantaged by this arrangement.

It was not an appropriate setting for a world championship of public speaking.

Lance, any comment on that?

Darren presented and I also was a panel host for discussions.

And part of the program is the World Championship of Public Speaking.

with which both Anne and I are very familiar.

But what has happened is over the years, the Toastmasters audience is truly international.

Yes, some people have more natural gifts in communicating and presenting, but there are so many tactical things that, you know...

I went to the World Championship of Public Speaking twice out of 25,000 contestants, you know, and I was in my early 20s.

I had to learn these things, and I noticed all of these patterns.

There's patterns in how you tell jokes.

Our quote for today is from Jeff Bezos: "Your brand is what people say about you when you're not in the room." Our guest today, Rory Vaden, is the co-founder of Brand Builders Group, a firm that helps clients identify their voice, tell their story, and share their unique message.

He's a world-class speaker who has competed in the World Championship of Public Speaking.

He's given a TEDx Talk, How to Multiply Time, which has been viewed over four million times.

And he's also the New York Times best-selling author of three books: Take the Stairs, Procrastinate on Purpose, and his newest one, Wealthy and Well-Known, that publishes the day this episode releases, and that he's going to talk to us about, and is also available to our listeners in audiobook for free.