Ep. 119 The Power of the Walkthrough

Hey there, Mark Brown. This is one of those techniques that most people aren't aware of, never thought of, but for sure never really understand the power of the walkthrough. What?

Yeah, it's important for us to actually go through the process of preparing our presentation and seeing it play out before we actually deliver it. Because when you do that, you're on the way to becoming unforgettable. Let's do this.

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, Mark, this is gonna be a shorter episode, but the principle is powerful and a lot of people don't understand it. What walkthrough? I don't need that. I don't have time for that. And I don't even know what that is. But we do this at all of our events. And I always ask the question, we return from the breakout rooms. Cause we have people do a walkthrough with each other. And I ask, raise your hand if that was helpful. And everybody's hand, everybody says yes.

Yep, it was helpful.

This idea came from when I was working with one of my biggest first coaching clients. I was working with a company in Boston called Iprospect. And these were presenters who were younger. They're account executives. And they're out pitching, pitching their service, which was search engine optimization, which is like a $40,000 a month contract at the time, every month for companies like Ford and Disney and a lot of big brands. And they're pitching their product, they're pitching their service. And so one of the things, when I worked with the CEO and I worked with the president, he had me working with the account executive. So one of the things I had them do was defend your slide. Defend your slide.

Yep.

Every slide, one purpose, one clear point. Otherwise, make another slide. And every time we would do what we call a walkthrough, which is, let's just walk through our presentation. Don't deliver it, but actually walk through the structure first. Okay, here my opening is going to be this story. And the purpose of this is to get them to understand or remind them the importance of SEO or natural search or whatever it is for your presentation. Then I'm going to cover this, which helps uncross their arms, which helps them deal with the skepticism, their initial skepticism. And then I'm going to talk about my first point. And what I found is every time people are forced to do a walkthrough, they would make changes right on the spot. Hold on, here's what I meant. Oh, okay, that's better. And they'd get another five or ten minutes. Oh, well, this is, you know. And I get it. I do the same thing. I do it for sometimes even live. I'll do it with a Toastmaster group when I'm working on my new keynote. 17 minutes to your dream. Every time I would do it, I did a live walkthrough. So I would walk through beforehand and then I would do a live walkthrough as preparation for my next one. As preparation for my next one. But it's always those adjustments. And I know you tell me all the time, you can tell when I'm adjusting a slide during one of our free trainings that we do online to let people know. But it's taking that time to literally step by step walk through with someone listening to you. It's good to do it by yourself, but it's even better if you're telling someone, even if it's on a zoom call, even if it's a friend who doesn't even understand presentations. Obviously it's good if they do. But if you can do two or three walkthroughs, you're going to adjust it. And it's about the flow. It's about the flow. This follows this. That doesn't feel right. So you get those feelings that there's just something wrong. It's not a smooth flow. Okay, that moves. Okay, let's move that to the close. And that other point, let's put that in the other point of wisdom. And so by taking the time to walk through your presentation and if you follow us, we talked about this last week. Go back to last week and check out life lessons, reverse engineering the life lessons in your life. Check out that episode from last week. But this week we talk about literally taking the time to walk through your presentation. Again, not necessarily delivering it. Delivering is good, but that's next. But if you just walk through the structure and if you follow us, we use the FRIPP speech model. We teach it, we use it, we live it for our online trainings, for our keynotes as well. Now, they're different for a training and a keynote, but it still follows the same structure.

It should Flow properly. Yeah. You know, Darren, one thing I realized also with the idea of walkthrough, the added benefit for me is I'm pretty sure I know what I want to say. We actually hear yourself say it and you walk through. I'm going to do this first. Here's my opening line. I'm going to have that particular statement. It's going to lead me into this first point, and I've got this support for it. And then I'm going to lead that into this particular. Wait, that point should be the first point. Let me flip that and make my second point the first point. I'll move that story into here. Okay, I'm going to do that story first. I have this supporting evidence. I won't tell that. I'm gonna tell this anecdote. Come down here with transition. Now I have. Okay, that good report. Okay, good. And you almost find yourself adjusting in your own mind while you do that. Think of the impact that you can have when you have someone who understands presentations going through that process with you. And they may simply ask, so why is that story there? Oh, you know, you're right. That's actually. Hey, Mark, that's your best story. We actually did that with someone in our last workshop. That's your closing story. That should be your closing. And they go, yeah, boom. But without the walkthrough, they would never have seen that that belongs somewhere else. In the same way that if your sequence and structure is off, you may end up with an anticlimactic close, because your best option for closing is actually something else. But if you don't really walk through and logically see why, if you ask yourself, why is that there? Why am I throwing it in this way? What is my destination? You may realize you may need to actually remove something or replace something or reset something. And the walkthrough is a simple tool that helps you end up saying, okay, now this makes sense. It's now properly seamless and flows logically.

It'S clearer and flows better. And you can't be unforgettable without clarity and without flow. You might have an unforgettable moment, but it's truly the package of that experience that they have with you that is critical. And guess what? This might sound like work. It is. It is.

It is work.

This is not how to put together a presentation quickly and poorly. This is put together an unforgettable presentation.

Yeah.

Yeah. And it's the work that most people won't do. But remember, if you want to get paid for this or if you want to get paid more, higher fees. One of your number one marketing tools is how good you are in the platform and how good you are in the platform or behind the lens. If you're doing it virtually, it's the work you do when the camera's off, when you're not on stage, it's that preparation. And then every time, just keep that in mind. How can I tweak it? How can I make it better? How can I make it better? How can I make it stronger? And, Mark, you know the story, but I had this moment where in my Original keynote in 2002, from Chump to Champ, when I was traveling the world delivering that to Toastmasters, I had this moment where I talked about the cherry tree effect. And the cherry tree effect is asking yourself, before you even start, when you have a blank piece of paper, what do I want the audience to think about differently when you're done? And I used the idea that Dr. Goddard, who was in my championship speech, Dr. Goddard was told in 1899 by his grandmother to go up to the top of her cherry tree and prune it. And he didn't. And instead, he sat there and daydreamed. And. And that's where he had the thought, wouldn't it be wonderful if I could build a device to take off from the ground and reach the stars? Dr. Goddard said, and you can look it up in history books. It's called the cherry tree dream. Okay, the story in history books is a cherry tree dream. But when he climbed down from that tree, he realized he was not the same boy who walked up the thought.

He came down different. Yeah.

Changed who he was. And I say to my audience, what does that have to do with your presentation? Everything. Why are they there with you? They should think differently, process differently, because they spent this hour with you. That's a huge privilege. That's a huge responsibility. And whenever I had said the line, what do you want the audience to think about differently when you're done? Three quarters of the audience, their head would always go down. They'd pick up their pen and they'd start writing. Some would type on their phone. Realized it was such a powerful line because I was giving it. And I realized my closing was good, but it was anticlimactic. So I did just what you're saying. Now, that was a live presentation. It wasn't necessarily the walkthrough, but the principle is the same. That I realized it was so good, it was too powerful that I had to move it to my clothes because it just Felt like it would be a more thoughtful close. And as Patricia taught us, your last words, Linga, it leads up to that.

But the thing is also when you do a walkthrough, you can also identify something that you thought was clear, but it's not. Because when you walk through, you see, I'm going to tell this story for this purpose. I'm going to give an example. I'm going to tell the story and use a poem to reinforce it. I'm going to share this experience. But something, oh, you know what? That's not going to be enough. That does not fully identify or fully clarify the purpose. I'm trying to make that particular point. I need something more that may seem like a small change you're going to make in a presentation, but unless you walk through, you may not see this. A walkthrough also helps you understand. I'm going to use that story. That story. Wait, I'm at the very end of my speech. If I use that story, how do I even get a character? There's no background for that character. I can't use that story because I never introduced a character, and I can't develop that character at the end. I need to change something else. The walkthrough can help you identify gaps, the Swiss cheese holes, identify the incongruities that may exist, that may seem logical to you or may seem normal to you when you first put it together. But, yeah, if I do this here, if I do that there, okay, I need to enhance that. I need to make that make more sense. There's so many, I won't say permutations. There's so many variations of what you can learn about your presentation. That looks good right now, but when you walk through and identify what I'm going to do next, I'm going to do that. I want to do that. I'm going to do that. When you do the walkthrough, you actually get a picture, like a storyboard for the movie maker, of exactly what's going to happen. And you'll see what may be out of sequence. You may see what's missing, you may see what is redundant that need not be said again. And there's so many variations to that. Ultimately, when you walk through your presentation, it gives you a picture of what the audience is going to see. In synopsis, of course, the Cliff Notes, so to speak, if you're American. But at least now you know, okay, finally, I have what I want. Because sometimes there are people who go on the platform prepared, not having done the walkthrough and they end up with audience members going, wait, I missed something there. What was that? If you've been in that audience before, you know what it's like. We go, oh, something wasn't quite there. Chances are the speaker did not do that walkthrough to get clarity and then share that with the audience. It seems simple, Darren, but it's so critical and so important.

Yes. And not just one, but several walkthroughs. Especially if it's a brand new presentation and if you're a corporate presenter, walk through it with some of your peers and also walk through it with one or two people who aren't associated with your company or what you're doing because you're gonna have different people in your audience. Some people will be aware of and some people won't, and listen to the questions people ask you. Now, the questions may be answered in the content when you're actually delivering it. But let's make sure. Let's make sure it's good to do a walkthrough after a presentation, or let's just say if it's one you've given many times, maybe step back and walk through with somebody. Now you're not in delivery mode. Your brain is in another place, but you're really looking to make sure the flow is. Is easy and natural and understandable again, as we teach clarity, clarity, clarity, not.

Only will the flow be understandable, sometimes, Darren, I've discovered a walkthrough can help you to understand that there may be a reference that you make that not everybody will get. But because we live in this world, we use our jargon, we use our language. And when you walk through it, you say, wait, if I say that, you know, they may not get that. Let me change that to make sure everybody can understand it. And you'll be surprised to know how many times speakers use the jargon. They're so used to using it, they don't realize for this particular audience, I need to be more clear. Or it may require me to make a little bit of more of an explanation or give more of a backstory for the audience's clarity. We live with our presentations. It's close for us. We have to be mindful of what the audience thinks. Thinks. Because Darren Lacroix, somebody I know, once said the most important part of a presentation is the thought process in the audience's mind. And sometimes we're so close to our material, we don't realize we're much closer than our audience might be. And the walkthrough Gives us the opportunity of, one, to make sure the flow is correct, two, to make sure the components are correct, and three, to make sure the audience has clarity as well.

If we're trying to influence people, if we're trying to persuade them, if we're trying to inspire them, we need to remember, as one of my favorite lines is, we must convince the jury in the audience's mind, and we can't convince them if we're not clear. We can't convince them if there's not that logical flow. We don't want a hung jury. We don't want the case thrown out because of a technicality, because of jargon. Look, it's a simple idea. It's powerful. I required my clients to do it. We do this in every workshop when we're teaching unforgettable presentations, step by step. And every time people see the power of it, people make their adjustments. Even if they're talking to somebody else who's newer, they're just walking through it in their mind. And they know, they feel uncomfortable. They feel something's not right. They feel something's missing. So a lot can be done with a coach. Hey, if you want a coach, a coach can definitely help you with this. But doing a walkthrough, before you even bring it to your coach, you know you want to get the most out of your time if you do decide to invest in a coach. If you're looking for a coach, check out mark, go to getaspeakingcoach.com you'll see our whole stage time faculty there, and you can work with them one on one. But it would be better if your presentation was moved along even further, farther, further before you bring it to them farther along.

You know, I wanted to ask you, Darren, seriously, I wanted to ask you because you did that program, that coaching, you brought the idea of the walkthrough to one of your earlier clients. When they did the walkthrough and found the gaps, what was their reaction when they realized the power of the walkthrough and how the walkthrough served them and helped them? Was it a case of, oh, okay, you said, defend my slide. I actually understand why. How do your clients respond when they did the walkthrough and saw the value of it for the first time?

I don't think they really understood where the idea came from. I don't think they really understood. And a lot of them, when they were working with me, their CEO put the fear of God in them because I ripped him a new one, which was to show my value. And he's like, who do you got today? He would be all excited. And I realized, Mark, I needed to do a walkthrough with my slide. I forgot the R and walkthrough earlier, but I fixed it and I made it better and made it clearer. And now anybody who was messed up by that, if you were watching the YouTube version of this podcast, you know, they just took a breath. Oh, he noticed. He fixed it. And that's kind of the idea of a walkthrough is you're going to correct a lot of your mistakes. I don't. To answer your question, Mark, I don't think they really understood how important it was. But when I was brought in and hired to be their coach, I'm hired to get the result they want. But if you're listening to this podcast, you're the CEO of your own presentation, so you need to make sure it's right. You need to get the hired gun, the coach, to help you. You need to go through the walkthrough. You're responsible. I was responsible to my client, who was the person who hired me to help make the presenters better. So I truly don't think they understood the power. I think it helped them, but I don't think they truly understood the power. And at the same time, each time they did a walkthrough, it got better, clearer, faster, and stronger.

And that's the point. Maybe they didn't see it in the moment, but when they did it, the result was a better presentation, a smoother flow, and a more effective delivery of what they had to offer. Similarly, for us, if we do the walkthrough, we may be confident in what we have. But I will say this. Allow yourself to do the walkthrough. Challenge yourself to do the walkthrough. Ask yourself one question. Is this the best that I have? Can I make it better by making a few tweaks and adjustments? And when you do that, I'm so happy that Darren Lacroix chose to record all the versions of his speeches to show you what it was at the beginning and after walkthrough and rehearsal of what he ended up with. And then we challenge ourselves to do the same. By using the walkthrough as a tool, we can only go from good to great and I dare say, to unforgettable.

Darren, don't underestimate its power. Join us. Next week, we're going to sit down with Jane Atkinson. And Jane is the author of the Epic Keynote. She works with some of the biggest clients keynote speakers who we've had on our podcast Kendra hall, one of her clients Ryan Estes, one of her clients. So join us next week as we sit down with Jane to figure out how and what else you could do to have that epic keynote. Why? To be unforgettable.

Unforgettable. See you next week.

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