Ep. 109 Close up with Roger Caesar

Hey, Darren Lacroix. How are you doing, buddy?

Doing good, man. Doing good.

Glad to hear that. You know, for those who are not really with Toastmasters, Toastmasters has a Contest Every year, 35,000 people worldwide enter. And we're just coming off the Toastmasters contest season. And there's been a buzz all over the world because none of the winners, first, second, or third this year were from the usa. And today we're going to meet the one who finished third. I tell you what, it's going to be a great conversation. Darren, what do you think?

Yeah. Anyone who makes it to the top three out of 35,000 contestants. Are you kidding me? There's stories there, there's effort there, there's work there, there's mistakes there. So that's why we want to have with us today Roger Caesar.

Anyone can give a presentation. Few deliver unforgettable presentations. What's the difference? You're about to find out. Welcome to the unforgettable presentations po with your hosts, world champion speakers and coaches, Mark Brown.

Mark Brown, your life tells a story and there's someone out there who needs to hear it.

And Darren Lacroix. And Darren Lacroix.

Stage time. Stage time. Stage time.

Ready for some powerful presentation, Ahas. Let's dive right in.

And Mark, if I can take a little. A little play from the playbook of Roger. Close ups matter. Emphasize certain lines. Close up. We call this close up with Roger Caesar.

Well, I'm going to do that. Close up with Roger Caesar. I like that. Okay. It's the truth, man. Darren, today we have with us Roger Caesar. Straight out of Brampton, not Compton. Inside joke, bad pun, but let's.

Hold on, hold on now. I gotta. If it's gonna be one of those kind of shows, we gotta get the machine going here.

Let us meet the second runner up, third place in the 2021 World Championship of public speaking from Brampton, Canada, Roger Caesar. Roger, how are you doing, buddy?

I'm good. How you doing? How are you guys, man? We are doing absolutely be here.

Well, I'm glad to hear that because you know what? We always ask speakers their journey. But first of all, congratulations, man. As Darren said, 35,000 people across the planet, some six, some nine, some 10 months out, work really hard for a chance for a shot to get on the big stage. You made it and you walked away with a medal. What many people don't know about you is that even though we say from Brampton, Ontario, Canada, that's not the route. See, you're like me. You're an island man like me. Tell us, Roger, from whence do you hail? Tell the audience where you're from.

Originally, I am from the Isle of Spice, Grenada.

Yes, sir. Another West Indian. Yes, sir. Right.

I'm outnumbered.

Yeah. My understanding is you grew up when you were youngster, but you got involved in the family business, a business being around for a long time in transportation. And I know when people hear that successful business in transportation for over 35 years, how in the world does one go from running a transportation business to public speaking that may not seem like a real good connection. Help us to understand that transition real quickly, Roger.

Well, that is the whole reason why I actually joined Toastmasters. When my father was in the process of retiring, or as I put it in my speech, I fired him. No, I hired him. The fact of the matter was that I knew a lot of the executives, a lot of the people that we were in contact with over the years, but I was always known as Ray's son. And once I took over with regards to how they approached me, and I remember specifically, and this is the reason why it all started for me, was that there was a gentleman that was starting off as a new supervisor at one of our main customers. And I walked into his office and I wanted to introduce myself. And of course, I walked in and I said, hello, my name is Roger Cesar. I just wanted to come in and introduce myself to you and to welcome you here, and if there's anything that I can do to make things easier for you, just let me know. And he just stood there silent. And then what felt like five to 10 minutes long, he just turned around and said, thank you. And I tried to generate some more conversation with him. I started sweating. And I'm sitting there wondering, well, what do I say? So, needless to say, once I left there, I said a few choice words that I cannot say here today. And I figured I need help because I never wanted to feel intimidated anywhere, any place, at any time, when I had to talk to anyone. And that's how I started with Toastmasters.

Did you go looking for a club? I mean, how do you know the name Toastmasters? I'm just curious.

Looked it up.

Old school, you said.

For our younger viewers.

I'm telling you, there we go. I just looked it up. Public speaking, and Toastmasters was one of the first ones. And I just took a chance of where in Brampton there was a location found. One walked in and immediately felt so comfortable with the way they welcomed me right away, and I never looked back. I didn't go to another club or anything.

And what year was that? What year?

2011. 2011.

So you found Toastmasters 10 year, and you find yourself in the World Championship 10 years later, walking home with a medal. And when you first joined, you said, I want to be a better communicator in my business, and I don't want to feel intimidated. So confidence was one of the goals you had, and I bet you didn't have any idea it was a speech contest when you first joined.

Not at all. And the fact of the matter is, I wanted as well to feel comfortable when I had to go into executive meetings. See, the reality is, I don't fear large crowds. One of the other things that you need to know about me is I ran track and field for the majority of my life, and being in front of large crowds actually fueled me. It was a great feeling to see that. So it was never a problem to be in front of that atmosphere. What it was was when there was just two, three, four, five people in a room staring at when you have to present in front of them. That scared me. And that was why I joined along with that gentleman. Could be a time when I'm going to actually say, you're the reason why.

But I haven't gotten there yet. Now, what's interesting, you know, Darren and I have been helping so many people for so much, for decades, and very often it's the opposite. I'm fine one on one, I'm fine in a small room, but give me a large crowd, and I panic. So right away, you are the antithesis of most of the people that we encounter in our coaching and our training. And you talked about going to Toastmasters for a purpose, to improve an area of your professional life. Now, Darren had a similar journey, but he was presenting as a professional. But he wanted to make his stories gooder. I mean, better. I know, Darren. I know. Bad, bad grammar. But thank you very, very much. The idea is you joined the organization for a chance to improve something in your professional life. And some people join because they want a good social environment. But when you joined and saw and began to enjoy the experience of being in Toastmasters, what was it that eventually led you to the contest and why?

This is a famous story that I talk about all the time. When I did my icebreaker speech and I sat down, of course they all stand up. Standing ovation. That's the norm in Toastmasters. I looked around the room. Oh, they're giving me a standing ovation. This is crazy. And there was a gentleman sitting There. And he looked over me, and this sounds so much like the Najaya heterochie. And I see something in you. And it's funny because that's why that resonated with me so much when I heard it. But I had a gentleman there by the name of Sanjay Sharma, and he was a seasoned toastmaster at the time. And he walked over to me and he put his hand on my shoulder and he said, boy, listen, let me tell you something with the way you speak, you're gonna be a champion one day. Not at all. Come on. I'm only here to learn how to feel comfortable one on one, you know, in settings like that. He said, no, no, you're gonna be a champion one day. I could feel it. And he kept saying it to me after every speech that I did. He constantly was sitting there in the corner just looking at me like. And that was the start of it. And then I started feeling it for myself and wanting to be a part of that atmosphere and wanting to start to compete. That's how it started. So I always give credit to him for pushing me in that direction, saying that, it's okay. You can do this.

And a lot of people who are, if you're listening to this and you're not a toastmaster, understand that the learning process, whether you are a toastmaster or not a toastmaster, the process, the journey, is the same to becoming unforgettable. So whether it's the toastmasters or non toastmasters, so we want everyone to learn. We just think this is such a great metaphor, too, for the journey, for those of you who are toastmasters. So, Roger, here's a question that we hear all the time asked to contestants, so I'll ask it on behalf of our listeners. How many times have you competed? I think it's just. It's a fascinating journey. So how many times have you competed or for how many years? And then what did you learn each year and why did you come back?

I started to compete in my second year. I started with the table topics contest. That was a shock to me because it was, of course, trying to speak on your. On your feet. Learn to be able to get a subject thrown into. Into your face and be able to talk for one to two minutes or two to three minutes.

One to two. Yeah.

And I thought that that was amazing because that essentially was what I was lacking in that conversation with that gentleman that time was the ability to just continue a conversation open ended so that we could continue to have a dialogue. So I love that, and I Jumped into that right away from there. I competed in the humorous. And the funny story with regards to that was I absolutely sucked at making people laugh. Naturally, naturally, I'm a funny guy. But to create a speech, and I think this is the thing that I learned along the way, is that creating funny is very difficult. You have to really take the time to learn how to create funny in a speech. It's not the same when you're just naturally making people laugh. And for me, that was part of the work that I put in to try and learn how to be funny. I looked at the other individuals in my club, great members who were competing and were doing well at it, and then started asking questions. And that's the key. I constantly was asking questions and learning from them, seeing what they were doing. That was. Was dynamic, that was great. That made them successful. And then whatever I felt did not suit who I was, I filtered it away kind of like, you know, orange juice in the pulp. And I just let loose the things that I cared for and threw away what I didn't. That didn't work for me.

So you did table topics contests. That is exemplary speaking. You did humorous contests. That was like 2012, 2013. Did you enter the international contest right away after that or when was your first international contest?

The first time I competed in the international was in 2013. 2013 was the first time. And I didn't even make it out of my club. I didn't make it out of the club. But there was a gentleman there. His name was the Tim, who was fantastic. And I remember constantly looking at him. I was in awe actually, because he had just a smooth style with him. Very quirky at times, but just smooth in the way that he carried himself. And when he spoke, it was like you were floating on air. And I would sit there like, wow, right? And I wanted to learn how to do that. And then I took those little nuggets from him. And in 2014, I went back and competed and I made it this time to the division level, three level. So I made it to the division level. And that is a speech. You talk about unforgettable moments. I think that was where I realized, okay, this is it. This is what I really want to start doing and learning and getting better at. I did a speech about bullying. And this was a time before. You know, nowadays we talk about it a lot, whether it's cyberbullying or the actual in person type of bullying. We talk about these things a lot nowadays. But back then it was just emerging and I Saw a story, watching a program on a Friday night, and it was called Extreme Makeover, Home Edition. I don't know if any of you ever remember that show, but a story there. And I've never watched the show before until that night. And there was a story there about a young lady who had four kids and her youngest son, who was absolutely spectacular, 12 years old. Name was Carl. He was a straight A student, played on the basketball team. Used to go home every day, same routine, kiss his mom, go upstairs, do his homework, and then wait for dinner. No one knew he was being bullied in school. No one knew the pain that he was going through. And then one day he came home, did the same routine. Mom called him for dinner, didn't hear from him, and found him hanging from the banister. And it scared me. Scared me so much because I had kids that I looked at them and I said, you better tell me. Tell me now. If there's anything going on, let me know right now. And immediately. The next week, we were having our contest for our club, and I decided to join, and I said, can I just do a speech? And I never even wrote it. I just did it from my heart.

That's awesome.

And everybody was so shocked, and then they were so moved, and the emotion was so high, and it just carried through to the division contest. And there are people to this day say to me, that's the speech that I remember you most for.

Now, interestingly enough, Roger, to this point, you've gone 20, 11, 12, 13, 14. You haven't told us that you entered the contest. I want to win a trophy. When did that idea of a trophy or potentially what it could mean for you or did it ever click for you?

That wasn't why. For me, it wasn't why. When I saw the impact I had when I started speaking and taking it serious, I think that's what moved me more. The movements along the way and getting higher and higher was great. But that's not why. It's when I hear people say to me, and I have, you know, in 2014, I also won my very first speech contest, which was the Humorous Speech Contest. And I remember people coming to me afterwards, even to this day, and always hearing them say, man, I remember that speech, or I remember the speech you did here. Those. Those moments for me, is what makes me feel like there's a reason why I'm doing what I'm doing, the trophy. And I've heard you guys say before, you can go buy the trophy. All right, you can go buy it. That's not the purpose. The end all be. Be all end all for it. It's making lives matter, making people realize how much you and your stories and the things that you say impact them. And that has been my.

Yeah, Roger, I love that you realized that that speech was so unforgettable. And I can tell that your intent, that you seriously just wanted to help people. And I hope everyone listening realizes one of the reasons it was unforgettable. He was on a mission, and it wasn't about a trophy. He was on a mission. He had kids hit home with him. He wanted to get that message out there. He was on a message mission. And, Roger, what else do you think about that particular speech on that day? What were maybe some of the other elements, other than your intent, which is critical? What else do you think made that so unforgettable?

I think more than anything was the fact that I felt that there are so many people out there that are probably suffering in silence and going through some situation of bullying, that being able to hear a story like that and understand how impactful it was, because then they went along and they started an entire movement. They. They did so much with this story, not only with the cast on the show, but it carried on. Her name was Sir Dina Walker. That was the lady's name. And they did an entire movement helping people to understand that if you're being bullied or if you know of anybody, that is to speak up, talk up. And I think that my part was just small. It's a small piece of. Of it by being all the way here and talking about something that was happening in the States at the time. But it allowed me to be a voice for those who were voiceless. And that was important to me.

Be a voice to the voiceless. Now, you mentioned earlier that the emotion was so high when you gave that presentation. At what point did you realize the power of emotion in presenting? Particularly since your original goal was more of how do I communicate in. In business in a small group setting where emotion isn't always high on people's priority list? At what point did you realize the power of emotion in your speaking began to apply as often as you did? Because all your talks this year were about family. Mother, father, sister. Did you realize the emotion of family? So when did emotion click for you as a valuable component of making a speech unforgettable?

I think it started right with that one, that particular one, The. The bullying speech. And it was called Stand Up. And I think that in that moment, I realized that sometimes it Shows vulnerability. It gives people that. The authentic allows them to see your authenticity in how you're delivering. Anybody can give a speech, but if it doesn't come across the right way, some people, and in fact, a lot of people will see through you. And that one had all my emotions, emotion, all my feelings. And, yes, it was definitely because I had kids, and I learned a valuable lesson. And I'll say this, I learned as well that there is also a gift and a curse to that, too. The gift is that it shows you being vulnerable, being authentic. But if you put too much of it out there, it then makes your audience pull back because they feel it's. It's too much in their face. And that was one of the things that were told to me when I lost at the division, because I even said, well, how.

How did I lose?

And I didn't understand at the time. And somebody came up to me and said, it was too, too much. It was just too much in my face. Way too much. And you didn't have anything that kind of brought me back up. And that was my first lesson that I learned when it came to speaking, that you can't keep an audience down the whole way through. It was a very hard, tough speech, and it made a lot of people cry. And I saw that in the audience. But it was. It was all about. In a way, I felt it was more. At that time, what I learned was it was more about me. I was upset about it. I felt I was angry with it. I wanted you to know that I was angry, and it became an I thing rather than you, we. Let's learn how we can be better.

And I appreciate your transparency on that. That's big. That's huge. And I know Mark, with his puns, makes me cry often. And I want to know.

I don't mean to punish you that way.

See what I mean, Roger? See, I will. I want them to come out with the Extreme Makeover pun edition.

All right?

So I just. Just. I'm giving an example of bringing it back up. So. No, but seriously, thank you for saying that, because a lot of times people learn those lessons along the way, and then they don't have the confidence to say them, which is transformational. So thank you for having that confidence, Roger. Mark.

And so this journey so you're going through, you. You get to this level and you wonder why I lost. But then you begin to shift your perspective. And at some point, was there a point where you said, you know what? I could take this all the way to the world. Championship. When. When was that? In your journey, your speaking journey?

I think it was when I won the humorous speech contest. I realized at that point that I changed the way I started speaking. And I'll give Tim, the same member, a lot of credit on that as well, because after that same speech that I did for the International, I remember him coming to me and saying, you need to learn to change your style. Right now, you're coming off as a preacher. You're coming off as a preacher. You're a great speaker, and we've already passed the baton to you, so to speak. And this is his words. He said, we've already passed the baton to you. We know what you're capable of doing, but you're coming across very preachy. And he said, only so long that people are going to take that on, and then they're going to. It's going to just. It's going to become passe and they're not going to want to hear you, and you don't want that. So you've got to try to adjust your style. And I took that serious and I realized that, okay, thank you very much. Appreciate that. And when it came to the humorous, I had a bit of that preachiness because it was my commanding voice. Kind of like you Mark, that deep voice. You have that command. And I wanted to still have that, but I also wanted to have the fun. Kind of like you, Darren, where you can put in the jokes, enjoy the moment. It was all about skydiving. I skydived for the first time in my life. Yeah, me. And that speech won me the humorous speech contest. And I had everything in that, from serious moments to just absolutely making everybody laugh hysterically. And when I got off the stage and I won, that's when I realized, hey, I can actually really do good with this. That's when it really hit me.

What year was that?

That was 2014.

Oh, wow. So, yeah, that was seven years ago. So did you embark on this quest? Oh, I'm going to become a champion one day. I'm going to get to the finals one day. Was that kind of like a goal that you. You would set for yourself?

Of course. I think that anybody who starts to compete, the word compete means you compete to try to be at the highest level, to be the best you can. We can add all the other adjectives to it, but the reality is when you compete, you want to go to the highest level and hopefully win as a competitor in track and field. And everything that I had learned through that, I learned a lot of Discipline. Shout out to Ms. Sullivan. Shout out to all my coaches from, from growing up, Mr. Williams. All my coaches that I trained with, they taught me a lot of discipline to understand that it's a process. Everything is a process. It comes with highs and lows. And with regards to speaking, I learned from those that I saw before me and champions like yourselves. I watched the videos constantly looking to see who, who is similar to the way I am, how can I improve myself, what are the things that I needed to learn. And one of those things was make it about the audience, not about me.

About the audience.

That was make it about the audience, not about me. And that was where I changed my focus. Instead of, instead of telling my stories because they made me laugh or they were important to me, I started to see how is that story going to impact the audience in a way that they can take whatever it is that they're going through in their life and use it to help them. And that's where it changed for me. And then in 2015, that's when everything kind of went with the international. That's when I finally broke through.

And here we are. Six years on, you end up on the world stage. You finished number three in the world. I mean, that's pretty awesome when you think about the work you put in over the last, just last six years. Some people, they win on their second try, their ninth try, some do it for many, many, many, many years and finally get to the top three. But what did you learn about being unforgettable over that six year growth process? You really taught us one thing. You told us without saying these words, that the advice and coaching and mentorship of people like Tim and others really helped to guide you with. When you were off in the Mr. Preacher mode, they kind of steered you in the right direction. You need to tone that down and be so all along the way, you've had individuals helping you, guiding you and helping you be the best you, so to speak. What other key lessons to piggyback on? Darren's first question did you learn that you think helped you as you progressed towards the world stage?

One of the things I learned was to be humble, be accessible to learning and understanding, how to change your craft every time, how to use your stories to impact people. One of the things I say often is your stories are personal. Your message is universal. That to me is very important. I like understanding that every person has their own personal experiences and I wanted to learn how to use those stories to my advantage. How can I take a story about me Skydiving and scaring myself out of my mind and turn it into something that everybody can take away from. Well, the takeaway was if you have things in your bucket list that you are sitting on and not doing anything that you wanted to do in your life that you're just putting in the back of the car and not doing, it's about time that you step up and take them out and go ahead and do them. And that was what it was when it came to the skydive. It has nothing to do with. If you want to go skydiving in the past, that would be what I would say, go and skydive. Try it out. But that's not for everybody. That was my thing, and I learned that. The other that I learned was sometimes you have to be able to. This is going to sound funny. Sometimes you got to be able to take the criticisms that come with it and know that you're not as good as you think you are all the time. And I had to be humbled many, many times in the past because sometimes you get a little bit of an ego where you think, hey, I'm winning. This is good. All right. Everything I'm doing is great. Everything I touch is gold. And you learn very fast. And that is from a person who is almost like a sister to me, and that's Jacqueline Payne, who is one of our past district directors. She became pretty much my mentor in helping me to understand, hey, stay grounded. Stay grounded. You can be amazing, but stay grounded and understand the value that you bring to others.

That's great advice. As soon as you think, though, that you start, everything you touch turns to gold. That's when it starts getting tarnished quickly starts going the other direction. But it sounds like you really surrounded yourself with great people who cared about you, who were pushing you, who are encouraging you along the way. That's awesome.

You and I had a private call last week. Roger and I found out that your success in the contest, having won a trophy at the world level, has gone past Brampton and gone past your province. It is now a thing in your land of your birth. What has the impact been on your home country knowing that somebody from this small island paradise has made a name for itself on the world stage? What has happened there? Your family, your friends, your community? Tell us about Errol quickly.

Well, once I. Once it went through that I had won third, I immediately I called my parents, and I'll tell you right now, the scream that came through the phone of my mom. Ridiculous. Oh, she screamed to the mountaintops. And immediately, oh, look, you know what? Listen, I've got to tell some people that I know here. My parents know a lot of people back home in Grenada. They live there now. So they said, you know, we're going to talk to some people here. And of course, they got in touch with those from the radio stations, from television. And the word was I was the first Grenadian to ever make it to the podium of the World Championships of public speaking. So it was a big deal. They ran a huge promo on me, had it on there. And the amount of comments and love that I received from my little island, the Isle of Spice, has been amazing. I spoke to some of the people in the actual higher levels, so to speak of. Yeah, the echelon.

There you go.

And they were congratulating me, saying that, you know what, it's a. A great feat that you were able to make it that far. And of course, we have Toastmasters in Grenada. We have quite a few clubs there. But the thing about it is, it's not well known. It's kind of like, oh, there is a Toastmasters Club here.

It wasn't.

Well, you can change that. You can change that, right?

You have impact, brother.

So. And even before this happened, I would often when I go down and. And visit my parents, I would always go to a club and just visit. I think it was important to do that now that they know who I am. Yes. I've already gotten invitations when everything opens up to come down again.

Have you reached out, by any chance to, like, some of the news media in Grenada in terms of, like, a publicity sheet or something? You could be doing interviews right now nationally, in your home country, on the island.

That is in the works right now, actually. That is absolutely in the works right now. I'm happy about that. My dad is and my mom are taking care of that while I'm here, but that is in the works as well.

Very cool. Yeah, I'm glad to hear, because, you know, when I'm, you know, only Jamaican to win the world title, and I have been back to Jamaica several times for conferences and for other occasions. I went back for a church anniversary three. Three years ago, as my church. I went as a kid in Jamaica back in the 1970s. I went back as a keynote speaker for their. For the anniversary event.

They had parchment paper back then, Roger.

We had scrolls. Yeah, yeah.

Had a bird in his church. Yes.

Yeah. All right, thank you.

I was a step up from the tablets.

So you both had the tablets. But, you know, when I went back, they organized Jamaican Toastmasters organized an event, a Toastmasters event, and I spoke at that event. So my brother, who lives in Florida, sent me an envelope a week and a half ago. It's not in my desk right now. It contained a clipping from a Jamaican newspaper from 1995 when they talked about Jamaican is world champion of public speaking. So there's a lot of pride there as well. It didn't hurt. It didn't hurt that my uncle started the first Jamaican Toastmasters Club back in the 1980s. But that being said, you have an opportunity now to extend your message across the island using the media available to you. And because you are so highly respected, even more so now for your accomplishment. Who knows the impact you can continue to have? So I congratulate you, and we urge you, and Darren's going to push you to expand your reach because there's more lives to be touched, more hearts to be changed, and more people to learn these messages. And because you mentioned your mom and dad, I thought you would give your mother's words. Inner mother's accent. I didn't hear. I didn't hear the accent a while ago, man. I thought they would hear the accent a while ago. Oh, gosh.

You mean it.

There you go.

Those of you wearing headsets, we apologize.

Hey, that's. That's called recreating the emotion of the moment, which we talk about. But on a more serious note, I noticed also you do speak about family. You mentioned your sister, your mother, your father. And clearly family is important to you very much. What do you tell. What advice do you give to a young, new emerging speaker who wants to become the next Tony Robbins? They want to be like Les Brown was. They want to be the next. The world's next great motivational speaker and change the world. Believe in yourself and these motivational messages. What would you share with them about your perspective of being unforgettable? When you stay close to home and leave a heart message.

You have to first and foremost, be authentic. Always, always believe within yourself, within you. Be authentic. Everything that I have said, everything that I do is straight from my heart. My grandmother's speech that I did in 2015, which is one of the most important speeches that I ever, ever wrote for the world Championships that still impacts me to this day. And she's passed away. She passed away two days before I was heading down there for that. But I would tell every single person out there to be yourself, Understand the true value of what you bring to the table. And when you bring it, make sure that you always make Your audience, your forefront of your thought process. What can the audience take away from what you are delivering? It's not about you, it's about them. And when you change your mindset, to think of it from that perspective and what you can bring and what is the power of your words? What are the power of your words when you speak? What can you tell people that will make them automatically say, you know what? I want to do this. I want to move mountains. I want to become that. That, to me, is critical. That's important. It's not about you. It's about the audience. Always be authentic and remember those.

Roger, did you have any moments? I know I did. Like, three times where I just went to an advanced club and they told me this, that, the other thing. And I listened to the wrong people. Like, nobody's gonna like this. You got no emotion. You're not gonna win. I didn't feel anything. Like, did you have any moments that you were just ready to quit and how did you keep going? How did you pull yourself up by your bootstraps? Or how did you get through those moments?

I'm gonna use two examples, and I'll say it this way. The first one is that because I had started winning a lot throughout the years from 20, well, 2013, I went to the district and I got second in the table topics. And then it was 2014, 15, 16, 18, 21. Those were the years that I ended up winning. In terms of the international, there became a point, and I've told people this all the time, your club is the hardest on you.

When you get out of your club.

It'S a smooth sail road, but your club knows you so well, so they have these high expectations all the time on you. And there were times, no doubt about it, that I would hear feedback from them or they would say, you know, this wasn't one of your best speeches. My kids.

Never.

A prophet in your own hometown.

Yeah.

You mean you're my.

You're my club, my home club. You're supposed to be the ones to push me forward, but they were tough on me. And I remember there were times where I would say, you know, geez, maybe this isn't what I want. But I kept pushing. And again, certain people in the club that kept saying, hey, hey, give your head a shake. You are. You're phenomenal. This is something you can do. You. You are going to make a difference to people. And then the second time was actually at the World Championships in 2015. Many people don't know the story or haven't heard it. But when I went there for my, you know, my grandmother just passed away two days before. The speech that I was delivering was about her. I don't know if you were there in 2015, Darren. It was in your hometown, Actually, Las Vegas. I dropped the mirror on stage. There was a part of my speech where I said, if you're searching for that one person who will change your life, take a look in the mirror. It all begins with you. And throughout the contest, I only used my hand as a prop. But then I was so discombobulated with everything that was going on around me that I started hearing people saying, oh, you should have a prop here. This is the world championships. You need to have props. And I went and bought one five minutes before I was going on stage. Wow. Mistake biggest for people who are about to learn how to speak or going out there. Do not try to use a prop five minutes before speech. Learn, practice with it. I tried it. I put it in my pocket. It fell out of my pocket. And it was the most embarrassing moment on the world stage for me. But I could talk about it. Wow. I could laugh now. I wanted to curl up under a rock and just die. Didn't want to do it because I felt like I embarrassed my grandmother. I embarrassed everything. My club, my district, myself. And that was the other moment when I just wanted to quit. And again had great people around me. They picked me up. They picked me up.

But you didn't. You didn't. And that's amazing. I have one more question. When our time is going. But I want to really switch to a technical question now. You went to the finals twice, you.

Said, fourth time for the finals. This is my first.

Yes, this is my first final. But. But you made the semis. You made the semis. Semis, though. Four. Okay, four times now. Now you have been on the physical stage, and this year you had to be on the virtual stage. And many of us, even professionals there are professionals right now who will tell you, I'm not doing the virtual thing. I'm going to ride this thing out until it's over. And Darren has often cringed when he says, what, you got a message and you want to wait till it's back? I can't do a very good. Darren. I say that seriously. To ask, almost humorously, you had to transition from being in a physical stage to a virtual stage. How did that affect the way you presented, positive or negative? And what did you learn from the transition to the virtual?

I love being in front of a crowd. I love it the energy that you receive when you deliver a joke, hearing the roar of the crowd, when you show emotion, seeing their faces, that is not comparable. It was something that I enjoyed so much. Loved staring into someone's eye, just looking directly into one person and asking a question right to them. Those are the moments you can't take away from when it comes to the in person. And I loved it. It was a challenge for me to come onto the online scene. I'm not technically sound, so I had to learn. And I took that as a positive challenge. I learned, I listened to those who had more experience with regards to it. And then I just watched people. Last year was an opportunity for us to watch a lot of people who were doing it for the first time in Toastmasters. And I looked at them, of course, looking at and seeing what he was able to do with the screen, like going in the corners and using the screen to his advantage. I thought that was brilliant. Some people would say, oh, it was a little too much. And I. And I say to them that, you know what, when you're doing something like this, you have to try to have some type of advantage, some type of advantage. And for me, I thought that that was my advantage. And Darren, you touched on it in the beginning when we started, was learning how to get close to understand how powerful it was when I had to say something important, look in the camera and then pull back. Little things like that. I learned along the way. I had a guy in my club who taught me how to maneuver around the screen so that it looked like I was further away. And then of course, the infamous that I did when I was wiping the screen. It's clear now, that was something that my kids taught me. So they were also pretty. That as well. Yes. My daughter said, dad, I started the speech doing it from here, and I was wiping the screen like this when I first started the speech back in the club, and it was my daughter that said, dad, move up. Pretend that the screen is actually the class. And I went, whoa. Wow. That was why. So it's a challenge that I love.

Even our kids can teach us. I believe me, I know what that's like. Well, you know, Roger, I'm gonna keep. I'm gonna take a look at my keepers. We always have keepers, little nuggets that we get along the way. And I know before we close, Darren has one more question for you, and I'm gonna give you my keepers after this. Darren.

Yeah. And so, Roger, you talked about the advice you would give before, so that's the question we end with. But my big question for you, since we've already talked about that, is what do you really want to tell the world?

Wow, great question. I want to tell the world simply this. Each of us have stories. We may not realize the impact that they will have on others, but you need to know that there is always somebody out there, whether it's in front of you, in your community or abroad, that is anxiously waiting to hear your story. I learned that a long time ago. The power of being open and vulnerable to talking about the embarrassing, the funny, the stories that got you upset because there's somebody, There is one person. It could just be one person that is out there who needs to hear that. The voice or the voiceless. Be that person that will always accept the challenge to open up your heart and allow people a gateway to your greatness.

Wow. And if anybody wants to get hold of Roger Caesar, how can they find you?

You can find me at. On LinkedIn. You can also get me on Instagram. My handle is Caesar Empire. And as well on my website@roger caesar.com.

That'S C A, E, S A R, right?

Yes, spell it right. It's C A, E, S A R. Excellent.

And Roger, you. You've given a TED talk.

Well, I have given a TEDx talk. See, I'm not gonna forget. I have given a TedX talk. It is on YouTube. I have a YouTube channel as well. So you can look up my name and you'll see all the videos that I have there. Had a great time doing a TEDx talk and would love for you to connect with me at some point.

And real quick, what was your TEDx talk about?

Is communication broken? Talked about the differences between when we were growing up and it was about speaking and socializing versus what is is today, where it's texting and it's a lot of technical warfare, as I call it, and learning how they can adapt and become one.

Excellent. Wow, that's a good idea. And listen, I think it's a great place to go to. Keepers down. What do you think?

Perf.

All right. Keepers. I love this. It takes time to create funny. Put in the work to grow. Ask questions continually in your presentations. Never leave your audience down. And to be unforgettable, be disciplined because everything takes a process. Be humble and stay grounded. Also, be accessible to learning. That way you'll make it about your audience. Because your stories are personal, but your messages are universal. Be willing to take criticism, you aren't always as good as you think. And most importantly, be A voice for the voiceless. Thank you so much, Roger. It was our joy being up close with you and for our viewers, our listeners, you got a chance this season to hear from all the top three in the Toastmasters competition again. It's part of their process. As Darren said earlier, it may not be through a contest, but if you want to be unforgettable, it's always good to hear the processes, the failures, the successes, the lessons learned from people like Roger. And Roger, thank you so much for being with us today and kind of sharing a part of your journey with us.

Yeah, thanks for being transparent and vulnerable and telling it like it is that I think that's where we all learn from each other as well. And if you're listening to this, join us next week. We're gonna sit down with Nito Quebene, Dr. Nito.

Wow.

Mark and I have already recorded that it'll come out next week, so please check that out. It was. We were both in awe. And Roger, I don't know if you know him or not, but he is like a legend. He's somebody that our icons, our mentors look up to. And Mark and I barely asked a question. He just went and. And Mark and I were taking notes. Continue to learn. Continue to be a sponge. Why? So when you get the opportunity to present, you can be Mark. What?

Unforgettable.

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