Ep. 1 The Top 10 Presentation Mistakes

Anyone can give a presentation. Few deliver unforgettable presentations. What's the difference? You're about to find out. Welcome to the unforgettable presentations podcasts 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.

All right. Hey there, Mark Brown. How are you?

So far, so blessed. Darren, what's going on, buddy?

Hey, welcome to our brand new podcast, Unforgettable Presentations. Mark, Thrilled to join with you. And if you don't know my story and Mark's story, Mark was my coach that helped me. After seven years, I thought I was pretty good. In fact, I thought I was the king of my toastmasters club. And then I met Mark Brown. He agreed to coach me. And I had never really had a coach before that season, and I worked with one coach. He introduced me to Mark, and I drove two and a half hours to work with him in New York. I handed him the first version of my speech. If you don't know Mark, he stands about 6 foot 2, he's got a heart of gold, he's a native of Jamaica, and he's got this beautiful laugh. I handed the speech to Mark. Mark looked at it. Oh, Darren, we have some work to do. Oh, my gosh. So, Mark, how was that for you?

You know, it was a wonderful and sometimes trying experience. There were days when we had our conflict, but the cool part is you ended up proving to me that you were coachable and that made all the difference. And over the last 18 years, I've had so much fun being with you, sharing with you, and helping other people to become unforgettable as well. So great memories. And the journey continues.

Nice. So, Mark, I thought for the first episode what we'd do is dive into the top 10 presentation mistakes. These are the unforgettable killers of a presentation. What are the mistakes? And then maybe a little insight into how we can fix it. And in future episodes, we're gonna have some that are content rich and some that will interview some people who gave some unforgettable presentations and get the story behind the presentation so we can all learn to be more unforgettable. So, Mark, let's do a quick countdown on the top 10 presentation mistakes. So, Mark, dive right in. Let's start 10 and go down 10.

Well, number 10 says, you know, very often we tell stories in narration. And we don't realize there's power in using dialogue. We tell something, somebody about something that's nice. When you recreate the scene, relive the event, the audience becomes invested, and they go beyond hearing a speech, and they get an experience. Number 10 is telling stories too much in narration.

Yeah. When I handed Mark Brown that first speech, version 1.0 of my championship speech, he looked at it. And one of my stories of how I went home to tell my parents I wanted to be a comedian, the original way was in narration. Mistake number 10. So I went home to tell my parents I wanted to be a comedian, and they didn't know what to say. They were speechless. That's boring. That's narration. That's a mistake. And that is very forgettable. So Mark taught me to take the narration. Bring us to the now, and let's hear that conversation. And it turned into. And by the way, you can check it out on YouTube. My championship speech. Ouch. Where it became, mom, Dad, I want to be a comedian. And then my face dropped. I stepped away and I said, there was silence. Ouch. And so that. That was dialogue, which made it a lot more powerful. All right, Mark, going down to number nine, being vague. Patricia Fripp teaches specificity builds credibility. Specificity builds credibility. It also builds engagement. When we're vague. When we're saying it was about 10 years ago. Well, how long ago was it? When presenters use vague language, the audience gets that opportunity to check out more specific language. More specific in our storytelling, but give us the details. That's one of the things that helps bring a presentation to life and make it more unforgettable.

That's great. You know, real quickly, we had a guy we're coaching at NSA last week, and he said a bunch of my friends and I were doing. Wait, what's a bunch of my friends? 17.

Or how many? How many is a bunch?

And here's one key friends. When you were specific, the audience in their mind can paint a clearer picture. And when they paint a clearer picture, they can truly experience what's going on. That's number nine.

All right, number eight, not using personal stories. Oh, my gosh. As far as corporate presenters and even pastors, I see this mistake over and over again. We want to know about your story, your life, your foibles, your failures, your flaws, your firsts. And those personal stories can even make powerful business points. And I think some people miss that. I think it's even more rampant in the corporate world that a story about your goldfish Dying your pet. Dying. Something you learn from your pet. It can make an important business point. Mark, anything to add to that?

My family will roll their eyes because they know I am guaranteed to talk about feminine representations. But you know what? It also gives the audience to get to know me as a person, not just a speaker delivering a message. And your audience wants to hear you. More importantly, they want to know you.

Personal stories, not using that. That's mistake number eight, presentation mistake number seven, thinking that people pay for a speech. Oh, my gosh. This. This is more for our professional speakers. If you think you're going to get paid for a speech, you don't get paid for a speech. Alan Weiss, one of my business mentors, says, we get paid to improve the client's condition. We get paid to improve the client's condition. But even if you're a corporate presenter or if you're a pastor, you're getting the privilege of this many minutes in these people's lives, in your audience's life. So we're still. They're giving you their time. We need to honor that. We need to be aware that it's our opportunity to transfer value. You may have heard the story when Mark Brown saw my ego bursting a little bit and turning into that creature from Lord of the Rings, when I would lust after the trophy. Precious, precious. That he would reel me in and pull me back. And he reminded me, he said, darren, on Saturday morning, the morning of the World Championship, he said, you have the privilege of 2,000 lives for seven minutes. What are you going to do with that? That was my opportunity to transfer value, to improve the audience's position. Mark, thoughts on that really quickly.

Two words. They pay for your perspective and they pay for your problem solving. They pay for your perspective and your problem solving. Always give them value. That's why you're there.

Thank you, Mark. And, Mark, where did that idea come from? When you taught that to me, how did you learn that you mean?

Well, I had mentors, too. What, the world champion? Listen, even the best mentors have mentors. And David taught me so much about the value of what you bring to the audience, and I continue to share that idea wherever I go, with anyone who will listen. We have the opportunity for the time you have on stage. You can change people's lives with your perspective, with your message, with your problem solving. That's why you are there.

Exactly. Number six is probably one of the ones I'm most known for, which is using insincere gestures sometimes, whether you're a toastmaster, you Talk about gestures. And if there's one word that just makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up because there's none on my head, it's gestures. There should be no such words. Strike that from your language if you want to give unforgettable presentations. Because an insincere gesture is a choreographed body movement which has no connection to the emotion. You're trying to choreograph emotion. Well, that doesn't work. And here's one of the things. When Mark and I do our events, when we teach this as a two day workshop, I encourage people to watch an animated film these days, a 3D animated film, and watch the actual eyes of the characters. No matter. Even if you're looking at a dimensional screen, they change the shape of the eyes based on excitement, scared, nervous. I don't even remember all the emotions, Mark.

Happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, disgust.

Boom. I knew you'd have it at the tip of your tongue. They use the change the shape of the eyes. And that's why to me, there's no such thing as a gesture. People say, darren, you have the best gestures. I don't have gestures. I'm expressive. I use my body to express the emotion. So if we're doing a rehearsed body movement at a certain time, it takes us out and the audience can sense that. Why? Because we're not feeling the emotion, we're not expressing the emotion. Because when you do that right, the shape of your eyes will change. It goes along with it. Anything else on that mistake? Mark, real quick.

I tell people gestures are really an extension of your natural body movement in the moment based upon the emotion you want to portray. That's it. To rehearse gestures will seem insincere. And sometimes our gestures are in congress with our words, our attitude and the emotion. So don't try so hard to create gestures, but consider yourself having a regular conversation with somebody. How would you express yourself in those situations? That's going to come out quite naturally. And the audience wants your authenticity and your vulnerability.

That's what connects us. And a lot of people miss that. All right, Mark, I'm going to hand number five over to you.

Number five is a biggie. Number five is stealing other people's material. It's called plagiarism for those purists and barbarians. Listen, I got a message one time from a buddy of mine in South Africa and she was very upset. She'd gone to a program and heard the speaker use a story that one of my other fellow world champions has Used for years. It was his story. And this person was using it word for word. And she had the presence of mind to audio record it right there in the room. So the evidence was there.

Wow.

I contacted her buddy, I told her what was going on, and I was shocked to find out it was not the first time the speaker, who was reputable, had stolen his material. It became a mess. We got lawyers involved, and I'm saying it's not worth it. Listen, somebody may have a great story. I get that. But your life tells a story. And there's someone out there who needs to hear your story. Your life is rich and full of material. You don't need to take somebody else's. Listen, you may enjoy reading Chicken Soup for the Soul. You don't need that. Look around you, man. You have stories in your own life you want to experience every single day. Use your own material. Your audience will love you for it.

Yeah. And don't mention the starfish.

Nice. NSA callback.

NSA callback. If you are not a member of the National Speakers association or did not intend to influence. Is the running gag inside of the professional speaking world that this famous starfish story, it doesn't matter. But it matters to this one.

That one, yeah.

If you're gonna use a story, if you have to, if there's just no other way, you just gotta attribute it to. To someone else or who you heard it from, then it's okay. But if you try and make it sound like it's yours, that's where you overstep the line. That's where it hurts your credibility, Especially in the corporate world. It hurt. We want to get you to raise your professional prowess in the audience's mind. We don't want to take away credibility because if you stole one story, what else could you steal? Mark, mistake number four again. Another Darren favorite. Moving without purpose. Oh, my gosh.

I got to use the whole big stage.

Got to use the whole stage. No. No, you don't. That hurts your presentation, you will. You'll be unforgettable for the wrong reason. And even Mark and I have seen even people at the highest level, professional speakers or corporate presenters or toastmasters in the World Championship of Public Speaking, they're like a caged lion. They're going back and forth and they think they're the stage. They have this energy, and it's really their nervous energy that they're trying to expel. Instead of using the stage with purpose, using the stage with purpose, we transition on a transition line. We use one story from one spot. And then we use a transition phrase, transition line, as we transition physically on stage. Even if you're at the end of a boardroom table, you're in a corporate boardroom, you don't have much of a stage, but you can still use it to, to help tell your story. When you use the stage on purpose, it adds clarity to your message as opposed to confusing or diluting your message by moving without purpose, without an actual strategy. Mark.

And one quick technique is to assign spots on the stage to represent scenes that you want the audience to see. And if you can map it out, almost like stage blocking that actors do on stage, and you can create scenes at certain spots on stage, the audience can remember it, you can call back to it, and once again, it goes beyond the speech and becomes an experience.

Yeah. I even love Mark. You know, Ed Tate's story. When he was competing in the world Championship, he took tiny little pink dots and placed them on the stage because as you practice, you might practice on a smaller stage. But then he had this enormous stage. Well, to sit back and actually plot out where the stories or where the scenes would be. It helped us because in the opening, again, you can see Ed's speech online. In the opening, he started off with getting a ticket from a police officer. Then he moved to the ticket gate at the airport and then the food court. So we clearly knew exactly where those scenes were. So he would go back and stand in that spot with no what it was. And again adds clarity to us. All right, Mark, number three, mistake number three for presentations, not pausing properly. I love what Patricia Fripp says in moment. True moments of learning happen. Moments of reflection. When we ask, we need to then. It's a Boston term. Forgive me for being direct, but my Boston comes through sometimes. Shut up. We need to ask a question and shut up. We need to let the audience think. If you're having a one on one conversation with someone, well, you would never keep asking questions and not letting the other person answer. Well, when you and I are on stage, especially if it's important message, we need to know where the audience needs to absorb and have their thoughts. Dale Carnegie said it great. He said, speaking is not a monologue, it's a dialogue. Which means we're having a conversation with that little voice in the listener's head and we've got to let them have time to think. Or we're creating a disconnect, which will make sure you're definitely forgettable. Mark, thoughts on that real quick.

We say pause for effect, but really pause to Reflect? Yes. Let the audience reflect on what you said. Let's sink in. Don't just get through your words. You want to get your message across. Then pause. Allow them to reflect on it, absorb it, and respond to it in their own minds and hearts.

If it's pause for effect, that's theater. That's not what a speech is. That has its place for us. Again, it's to reflect, to let the audience think. Mark.

Perfect. Number two, not structuring your speech. Sometimes you have an idea you want to share and you get a great story, an anecdote, you make a point, you go back to your story and your structure is all over the place. It's difficult for your audience to follow you when they can't follow you. And we think that stage time, a really powerful way of structuring the speech so your message is clear, every point is supported, and in the very end, your call to action is unforgettable and unmistakable. Darren?

Yeah. Structure is one of those things that I didn't learn after seven years. I learned the old format. Tell them what you're going to tell them. Tell them, tell them what you told them. And if you're just getting started, if you're, say, a new toastmaster, that's all you can handle for five minutes. But after that, you got to put on your big boy pants and your big girl pants and you've got to become world class. So you need a world class speech structure. And that's one of the things we teach at stage time. But you got to understand the importance of structuring your speech. Structuring your speech. Good structure helps you have confidence, helps your audience have clarity.

That brings us to number one, not getting clear on your message. You know, Darren, my mentor, David Brooks, 1990 world champion, told me the first time he entered the speech contest, he didn't win.

He.

And he wasn't sure what happened. And someone approached him and said, david, you know you'd have won that contest if you'd only made a point. You can have great language, you can have great voice, but if you don't have a message that the audience can respond to, then why are you there?

It starts when you're starting to put together your presentation. It starts with getting clear in your message. It helps become that gps, like plugging in the address you want to go to on a gps. Helps you figure out where to want to go. What's your best opening? I don't know. What's our premise? What's the message? What's your best closing Here are options. What's the best one? For this message, we suggest 10 words or fewer and ask yourself, what do you want the audience to think about differently when they're done? What do you want them to think about differently when they're done? So, Mark, I want to keep this tight. I want to keep people coming back. What else could people look forward to on future episodes of unforgettable presentations?

One of our great joys is guests who have become in their own right, truly unforgettable. And they'll share their tips, their tools, their techniques, their experience and their methods for being unforgettable. You don't want to miss this. I'll tell you right now, we have coming a man I call the virtuoso maestro. When you hear what he has to say, you will say, wow. That's how you become unforgettable. And every week we'll share with you new ideas that you can take, put to use immediately and become truly unforgettable.

You'll learn the stories behind those presentations. Even though he's an amazing presenter, there was one presentation that stood out above all. And Mark and I are gonna sit down with him and interview him about how did he prepare, what did he do, why that message, why that time? We got so many insights sitting down with Mike Rayburn. So please join us for episode two, when we sit down with Mike Rayburn and find out the story behind the story of his unforgettable presentation a few years ago. And we'll just leave that as a cliffhanger. By the way, if you wanna get the top 10 speaking mistakes that Mark and I just ment, go to toptenspeakingmistakes.com and we'll give you a download. It's free. Check it out. Stay tuned because we are excited to bring you more stories from our experience that we have learning and giving unforgettable presentations. Thanks for being a part of this podcast.

Bye.

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