#166: Mike Carr—2020 World Champion of Public Speaking

The Toastmasters Podcast with Greg Gazin with Ryan Levesque & Bo Bennett

The Toastmasters Podcast is a talkshow designed to amplify the Toastmaster magazine content, featuring interviews with Toastmasters, contributors and those connected with the articles of this monthly publication. ALL 250+ Episodes can be found at ToastmastersPodcast.com.

[29:59] This year, Toastmasters International shifted the entire 2020 International Convention to the virtual stage including the World Championship of Public Speaking. On August 29th, after the bits and bytes settled, Mike Carr, a 53-year-old Financial Analyst from Austin, Texas, with his inspiring speech, "The Librarian & Mrs. Montgomery," emerged as the 2020 champion. Carr is also the first to win this coveted award in an on-line virtual format.

In this episode, hosts Greg and Ryan speak with Mike about his surreal experience and how preparing to speak from a virtual platform necessitated a change in plan for his final speech.  Mike also shares some of his wisdom he's learned along the way and pulls back the curtain on how the competition, judging etc., actually took place from the club to the world stage.

Mike is also featured in the October 2020 Issue of the Toastmaster Magazine.

Mike Carr can be reached at MikeCarrOfficial.com.

If you missed the 2020 World Championship of Public Speaking, you can catch the entire event finals at Toastmasters.org or on Toastmasters' Official YouTube Channel.