Meeting Minutes – 09.24.2020

Hi Everyone,

It was another great meeting last night at Silicon Speech and another step on the road to becoming the Xanadu of public speaking. It was Blake Samuelle’s first time as Toastmaster and she conducted the meeting with the confidence and expertise of a seasoned pro. Speaking of firsts, new member, Rafael Macho delivered his Ice Breaker speech which was met with great reviews. Rafael told us of his journey from Switzerland to sunny Southern California and his work with some of the biggest brands in the world as an illustrator, animator, creative director and more. Rafael is off to a great start.

Our Mystery Guest was Tristan de Montebello who wasn’t actually with us but, thanks to video, we were able to watch his winning speech in the Semi-Finals at the Toastmasters World Championship of Public Speaking in 2017. Tristan’s story is pretty amazing and covered as one of the examples in the book UltraLearning. If you would like to watch the speech again or watch the speech he delivered in the Finals, here are the links:

Here’s the speech that won the semi-finals (Don’t Listen to Jacques)

Here’s the second speech, from the finals (The Fear Olympics)

Speeches were followed by insightful and constructive evaluations by Karan Bavandi and Shar McBee then it was time for Table Topics. Questions ranged from “What’s the best part of being you?” to “What’s something that people don’t know about you?” and we got answers that covered everything from green fingernail polish to the fact that psychotherapists need to see a psychotherapist from time to time. Always a fascinating part of the meeting.

A quick shout out to our guests last night, Area Director Carla Taravella and Alex Bello. Thanks for dropping by and we hope to see you again, soon.