I joined the Monday Morning Toastmasters back in the mid-1970s in Cayce, start time 7 am.

Having served as Grand Knight of the Knights of Columbus council 724 in Columbia at the age of 21, I was recruited to become an insurance agent with them providing their members with insurance and annuity products the company offered.

I really did not want to pursue a career in the insurance industry. Three years earlier, I had formed my own real estate company, ERA-Aun Realty Group in Lexington, but the real estate biz in those days sucked.

Mortgage interest rates were in the midto-high teens. You could get a 15% mortgage loan rate if you were blessed with good credit and about 30-50% down on the home you wanted to buy. That pretty much defines a bad real estate market.

In pursuing insurance, one of my early sales was to a friend, Pat Callahan, who purchased a nice sized policy from me. I knew Pat from church. He was a Lector at St. Peter’s Catholic Church on Assembly Street in downtown Columbia. As a fellow Lector, he suggested that I join Toastmasters.

Mind you, I knew nothing about Toastmasters. I assumed they were a bunch of old codgers who sat around toasting one another. Boy was I wrong, but I still came up with every excuse I could for not joining.

When Pat suggested to me that he could shop his insurance around, my immediate response was “What time do we meet again?” And just like that, I became a member of Toastmasters.

Over the years, I have been asked to speak at Toastmasters’ District and International meetings all over the world. There is always a Q&A session about how I got involved and how I won.

The truth is, at the time I did not know I was even entering a speech contest. The club announced that we all had to give a speech the next week and a club winner would be selected. I was lucky enough to win, but was told I had to advance to the next level.

After winning the city, area and district contests in 1977, I advanced to the Regional Finals in Jekyll Island, Ga., where I competed against the best speaker I ever heard, a radio announcer named Sonny Dixon.

The only reason I was selected is he had won the Humorous Speech Contest the day before. I guess the judges felt sorry and awarded me the serious speech contest title.

From there, I advanced to the International Finals in Toronto, Ontario, Canada where I also won, but was disqualified for going 8 seconds over my allotted time limit of 7 minutes and 30 seconds. I got a standing ovation in the middle of the speech which lasted 8 seconds. Oops!

Long story short, I came back and won the finals contest a year later in Vancouver, Canada. I am fond of saying “You have to go through Toronto to get to Vancouver.”

Interestingly, at every level of competition, I had to submit all previous speeches so that no material was duplicated (including the previous year’s speeches). Not sure, that may still be true today.

I am often asked about my best speech ever. I can tell you this much- it was NOT the one with which I won! By the time I got to the international finals for the 2nd year in a row, my material was watered down.

I forgot what my winning speech was about until I came across it in a The Toastmasters magazine of October of 1978.

Just for fun, next week’s column of “Behind the Mike” features that speech. I’ve already warned you, it was not my best speech ever. Enjoy!

Michael Aun still attends 7 am Toastmasters almost every Friday in Kissimmee, FL. Once you’ve won, you’re no longer eligible to compete in the World Championships.