Boaters Toastmaster Blog Friday 29/7/22 by Jai Bilbrough

Today we were blessed to have our Toastmaster, Natalie Perzylo take us on an enlightening journey
around the world with the topic ‘World Facts’.

With myself as Grammarian, and the word of the day (scintillating) being very fitting for the talent
coming up on stage throughout this session.

First up we had Alexandre Matt who Zoomed in to us all the way from Canada to present his speech titled ‘Lift Up’. This was a beautifully structured and presented speech highlighting the value of listening rather than impulsively reacting to someone’s ideas with “You’re wrong!”. To create a better world, which arguably, most of us do want, it is better to ‘sit, listen and uplift’. It may surprise you as to the great conversations you can have with
someone you inherently disagree with, if you just… listen.

Our second speaker was Rachel Walton, presenting her speech titled ‘The Artists Way’, taking us through 2 ‘time loops’ of her life where she encountered adversity, sought help through different means and came out the other side stronger. From the identification of unhealthy
thoughts to reflection, journaling and finding balance to manage the chaos. Rachel
presented a heartfelt story of personal struggle which swept us all away on the journey with her to find and balance the six pillars: journaling, reflection, people, sleep, food, and water.

Table Topics Master, Max Delaney challenged us with great conversations starting
questions around favourites for a pub quiz, Commonwealth Games vs Olympics, Mountains vs
Ocean, and where to put a holiday home.

The Toastie Award went to Rachel Walton. Jolly well done!

Oh, what a morning! I never thought I’d have fun public speaking. Yet, here I am. I think
you can to if you give it a go!