Ep. 12 How to Master Your Presentation Mindset

Hey, Darren, how you doing, buddy?

I'm doing great. Totally entertained by your warm up exercises. Ooh.

Flee, faith, laugh, all that stuff to get the muscles going. And I actually do them more when I do the Toastmasters event. I know I do still stutter at times and I try to prevent that by doing these loosen up cheekbones under here, by the lips, the chin. It really does help, especially when you just wake up in the morning and you're like so listless. One day we'll do outtakes. But seriously though, a couple years ago I went to a presentation. I saw a guy who was gonna do PowerPoint and something went wrong and it totally threw him off. His mind was blown. He couldn't do what he had to do. And I was amazed they had to reschedule his presentation for later in the day to get things straightened up. Cause he had totally lost it. Have you ever seen that before?

Yeah, we've got a saying about that. Skill set without mindset will leave your.

Audience upset as they prepare to be on the platform. Let's do it, buddy.

How to master your presentation mindset. Let's go.

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

Again. We can't say this enough. You can be fully prepared, you can be an amazing presenter, but if your mindset is not there, not in the moment, not connected with the audience, you can take that amazing presentation and make it very forgettable. Mark.

That is so true, Darren. And not too many presenters are aware that yes, you're going to be on the platform on the day and deliver your presentation, but you can really begin to get your mindset ready not only that day or days before. You can actually begin to get your mindset ready weeks before your presentation. And it's helpful for us to understand that preparation begins way before you take that platform. I mean, you and I have taught people for years the importance of making sure you know what the audience needs, build our relationship with the meeting planner, and to make absolutely sure you are ready mentally and physically to serve them on the day.

Yeah, there's so much that can be done way in advance that's gonna help you in that moment, if you try to take shortcuts, it's gonna come back and bite you. Maybe not this presentation, but another one for sure. So the more effort we put in ahead of time, the more confidence it's gonna give us as we walk up on that stage.

Darion When I was first starting out, I didn't really understand the power of doing just that. But you learn as you go and you learn as you grow. And there was one simple concept that just blew my mind when I first began to learn about it. And it was a concept of having a pre event questionnaire that the client will fill out to give you the tools, the information, the backstory that you need to write. Then begin to prepare your mind. So when you get to the event, you have knowledge, you have insight, information can help you really serve them well.

Yeah, we can't stress this enough. When you get booked, like, boom, the ticker is clicking, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. And you're just counting down to that time. So, Mark, let's just use the timeframe of a month before, whether it's six months before, two months before, but let's just use an idea. That timeframe has been getting shorter and shorter in the industry. But whatever it is, once you get booked, however long it is, let's just say a month before you get booked, what do you do, Mark Brown? What do you do?

For me, a couple of things are key. The first is having contact with a meeting planner and the client. And the way I do that is I arrange for them to send me what we call a pre event questionnaire. I have specific questions, I ask them about the event, who's been there before, what do they expect? How do they see me serving them? In their mind, what's a big win? When I am done, I want to know who they are, watch their heart, watch their pain. How am I going to serve them? Because if I can begin to think about that, my mind is already being set up a month out to take that platform. And that's part one of a two step process. Step two is the pre event conference call, where I get the meeting planner and the key players on the phone. I review their questionnaire with them, I ask additional questions, I ask what they have to ask me about, and I cover everything from technical to subject matter to who do I speak after, who do I speak before, to hotel, to rental car, to ground transportation, to everything. I want to leave no stone unturned, and I want them to know when I come, I'm fully prepared physically and mentally to serve them.

One of the best pieces of advice I got from Patricia Fripp f r I p p.com, one of the foremost speaker coaches in the country. Friend of ours, a mentor of our. But she said, we wanna be the meeting planner's favorite. We wanna be their favorite presenter to work with in this industry. There's so much ego, there's so many people who have that quote unquote entitlement attitude that's just horrible. And look, you might be a celebrity, you might be this, you might be that, but if you wanna be unforgettable, you've gotta be connected. You've gotta let go of that ego and connect with your event planner. They're your teammate, you're actually working for them. You're just a piece of this enormous puzzle of all these moving parts. You're a stressor to them whether you like it or not. But here's the cool part. Meeting planners. No, meeting planners. So if you create that reputation, which how they interact with you is your reputation and they're gonna tell other event planners, they're gonna tell other event planners if you're hard to work with and high maintenance or if man cared about the event. So that matters. And that's going to affect your mindset because if they start treating you, even though it's their job to be nice to you, you're going to get some little extras and some little bonuses if you're easy to work with. Mark.

And the key here, Darren, I'm so glad you stressed that because we as presenters don't often think to put ourselves in the shoes of that meeting panel. That event planner and I had an event recently where the individual who was planning the event had me come in to speak to a particular group of people at this organization. What I found out was they had four separate events going on that day. And my piece was one piece. I called her the Octopus because she had me set up with a team of people to work with me. And then she was gone. She came back at the end of my presentation and I said, you were managing four different things at one time. I can't believe you did that. And I told her, I want to make your life as easy, easy as possible. A simple thing like doing PowerPoint or Keynote depending upon your, upon what tool you use. I bring an old school laptop with an HDMI connector. But sometimes you go to an event and they've got a VGA connector. Guess what? I have my own clicker. I have my own VGA to HDMI adapter and you're like, oh, look at you. I need not worry about that. And that small thing is huge to them because they've got room two and room three and room four. They're doing all those things. And if you act in a way that lets them know you understand what you're going through and you are there to serve them, man, that makes a big difference. Plus it gives you peace of mind knowing you have done your best to prepare to serve them and you can focus on doing your job to the best of your ability.

Yeah. And this might sound like a fair amount of work. Guess what? It is.

Yes.

But if you want to have that amazing connection, this pre work is going to give you confidence when it comes time. I always ask the event planner for at least 10 names of people who are gonna be in my audience. And I want from the board of directors. Cause a few of them we need to feed. There we go. And then some of the frontline people who may not necessarily be on the board, but they're representative of my audience. I don't just wanna talk to the board of directors. I wanna talk to the people who are in the trenches, whatever that association or company might be. Because they're gonna give me some classic stories that, that will help prove my point. And we'll talk a little bit about customizing a little later on. But I want to do those interviews now. I always ask for 10 people. I always get the names and phone numbers. And I let the event planner know I'm going to contact them two weeks before. And I want them to make the introduction for me. So I'm not calling them out of the blue. And they have no idea who I am. Now realistically, I'm only going to talk to four to six people just because of the back and forth. Now I want to talk to 10 because you're going to get a nugget guaranteed from each one of them. Some nuggets will be bigger than others, but all of them are gonna help you be a little closer to unforgettable. So take that time, have that conversation and have those conversations, take notes. Record the call with permission. Because you wanna be able to go back and listen again and again to be able to pull out those nuggets. Cause if you just go by your notes, you might miss some gold mark.

I'm glad you said that too. Because in my pre conference calls, very often by my last couple of assignments I've had, I would have the meeting planner and maybe three or four board members or individuals who are involved in the organization on the conference call, we record the conference call, we take notes and we'll have somebody on the team who will actually record and keep notes and send an email out saying, this is what we talked about. I make sure everybody on that call, they have my mobile phone number and I say, can I call you? And they give me the green light. And like you, I know I can call John or Sally or Celeste or Frederick and have those conversations to help me become even better prepared to serve them and to understand where their pain is and show them how I can best serve them. That pre event call and those interactions can be gold and set you up to be at ease and in the moment when you get there because you've done all this awesome pre work. As Darren says, it sounds like much and it is, but the payoff man, it is golden.

And Mark, I'm going to put you on the spot here. I have one idea to add to this, but remember our calls to Ukraine when we talk to those executives over there. So think on that for a second as I remind people. Now here's the cool factor that you're not understanding what happens, especially some of those frontline people, the fact that they got to talk to the keynote speaker. Number one, most presenters won't take the time to do it. So number one, you're differentiating yourself from other people. You show your intention that you care and guess what? They tell their buddies because they like to, oh, I talked to the keynote speaker. Here's the cool part. They start spreading the word and you're starting to build what I call before rapport. You're building rapport before you even get to the event. And they're gonna start going and looking at your videos on YouTube and looking at your website and get to know more about you. So when they show up now, they even have a closer connection. You become their friends, you become the cool person that they know and they talk to you ahead of time. So you're gonna get that effect when you do it and do it right now. Here's one quick tip on this. Always give them a specified time, 15 to 20 minutes. And then when I approach that time, I always say, I asked for 15 to 20 minutes. We're about 20 minutes. Would you like to continue or do you need to go? And usually if it's going really well, they're going to keep going. But you've got to respect that time that you requested. Otherwise now they might have another appointment. Again, make it your goal to be the favorite and you will Be if that's your goal. So, Mark, do you remember any little tidbits from the Ukraine interviews with Luxoft?

Well, what's interesting was we didn't have just one conference call with them. We used video conferencing and I think you had three of those. And we had different groups of people on different times because it was a huge organization and we wanted to get top people. And if one or two couldn't be there, we would schedule a second video call because we wanted to make absolutely positively, as in absolutely, positively sure that we met, not only met their need, but we met them. And the cool thing is this. We do a video conference. They see you, you were somebody in a video or a picture they saw or a website, but then they see you face to face, they interact with you, they build that before rapport and they develop a relationship with you. And trust starts early. So when you get to the event, before you even hit the platform, a level of trust has been established that sets you apart from the other speaker who had their assistant call him or said, yeah, we'll email you. And they never built that personal rapport with the organization. And as such, it got to a point with that particular group. We had an agent on the ground in Ukraine, Alona and Marino, who were really wonderful and they were conduits for us. But we ended up having conversations with the actual people there. We built the rapport early and we got there. It was as if we're seeing some friends we hadn't seen for a long time. And it, trust me, it differentiates the entire experience for you so much. So our agent Alona, when she fell in love with my laugh, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. She shared that with her son who's like 6 years old, and he and she were sending me videos after the fact of them doing my laugh. That all began when we began doing these calls early on. And to communicate early on, to establish a rep and a relationship that'll set your mind at ease and free you up, to really serve your audience well and to be unforgettable.

Yeah, two quick more tips on this when you're doing these calls. So, number one, the question that I always ask is, what is your pet peeve? What are your common frustrations in day to day? If it's an association of speakers association as a speaker, if it's entrepreneurs, as an entrepreneur, whatever that commonality is of that group and why they're there, because whatever those common frustrations or pet peeves, by the way, I ask it both ways. What are some of your common frustrations in your day to day activity? What are some of your pet peeves in that world or that industry? Now it's the same question, but somehow it just dislodges or unearths a different part of the brain because the question is asked differently. It's really the same question, but the different words accesses different parts of the brain or different memories. And I get some gold. Sometimes you'll say, eh, but that's not the norm. And number two, here's the key, Mark. If you remember when you walk up to people and you've already had that conversation, as soon as they see you, they smile. They smile. That doesn't happen if you don't do the pre interviews, you know, or they might, oh, there's a speaker. As opposed to hey, Mark. And that is gold. You can't be unforgettable without connection. And what we're talking about is working on your mindset to create that connection and long before you even take the stage. Mark.

Yeah. I love the idea about a name we all know. Nothing sounds so sweet as your own name. And to hear someone mention your name and as someone with whom they've had a previous interaction as opposed to yeah, I saw a YouTube video you did back in about using pause. It's not the same thing. It's high Mark. As in high mark, it's good to see you again. And that sets you up in their mind as a known resource. And that means they want to hear from you. They're expecting from you. They've had that conversation. They get to know who you are and that is goal. When you can build that rapport and that relationship, it sets you apart from the average speaker who may be very good technically, but it's more like Darren Lacroix. I know him, we've talked, we're tight. He's my buddy. And they can feel that. And that makes them open to receive what you have. And if all it takes is investing the time to establish that before rapport and build a relationship with a meeting planner, executives and people on the ground who are a part of that organization.

And when you do that, they give you high marks.

Not Darren. I'm with a bad bones. What are you doing?

I don't know.

There we go. There you go. This is fun, man.

All right. We're going to continue to have fun. I love working with you, Mark. This is so much fun because most of the thing people in my life, they don't care about all this information that I know but speakers do. And I love you, brother. All right, so one more idea, like a month before. Well, you want to make sure you have a good introduction. They're going to ask you for a bio. Be very careful when they ask you for a bio. Ask why. Because if they're going to put the bio in the conference brochure, great. But a lot of people, because they don't know any better, they're going to use that bio to introduce you to. No, stop. Do not do that. That is a boring introduction. The introduction. So you've got to. If you want to be unforgettable, you got to have a separate introduction than bio. And we'll get to this a little later. But you want to print two of them and send it ahead of time. And be prepared to send it more than once because you want to make sure it goes to the right person, because sometimes it's not forwarded.

And send it as a PDF, not a Word document. Because a Word document can be, oops, altered. And somebody, what did I just do? And they'll try and fix it. But a PDF, they won't alter that. It is as it is. So send them separately and send it as a PDF file. And Darren's correct print copies, take them with you. And why must I have two copies on the ground, Darren?

And I'm going to leave that as an open loop. We're going to come back to that.

Sweet. I like it there, buddy. Cool.

A cliffhanger. And one more important idea is you've got to have an AV checklist. They're going to expect that and make them separate documents. Do not put them all together because one needs to go here, one needs to go there. And make your file name of your PDF very easy to understand. I actually put say better stories, better business. And then intro, I N T, R O, all caps, Better stories, better business description, all caps. So they can easily differentiate because they're doing a thousand things. And your speech, as important as it is to you, is not the most important thing to them. And we've got to remember that we have our agenda, they have theirs, and we're just a part of theirs. Another idea that I love to do, and I'm famous for doing, is I always ask for their page that people register on, and I create a YouTube video just for them, just for that event. And I'll look at their sales letter page or their signup page, and I'll see the copy they have on that. And I'll use some of that in my video. Now, here's the key of the video. I don't make it about me. I make it about why they need to sign up. I give them two or three times the URL for them to sign up at the very end. It's like a little whisper. Find out more about Darren lacroix.com and. But it's not the yelling screaming part that's about the event. And I've had an event planner tell me, oh my gosh, I love what you said in the video. I'm like, well, you wrote it because it came right from their page. They ended up putting it on the association's homepage of their website, which got me a lot more views. But most importantly, just what we talked about earlier. It helps you build before rapport, definitely.

And I've done that too, Darren. And at times I'll say we're going to talk about and give a nugget or a sound bite of what we're going to cover in a presentation so they know what's coming. It builds anticipation and it lets them know you are there to serve them. It's a real key part of establishing rapport and building relationship. And I've had different groups put a post on social media. They asked for the video. I put the video on the homepage of their event. And they have some will have separate pages for their conventions. So they'll say, our convention will take place on a particular day and on that front page their theme is there and your video is there. Your face, your voice, your message which ties to their theme. That's definitely a win. And you are seen as someone who comes in to really establish that relationship and serve them. And that puts you in really good standing. And the cool thing is you begin to be unforgettable before you've even gotten there. How cool is that?

Differentiate yourself every way you can. Because that's also going to lead to getting rehired for this company, to getting referred for other companies for being that person that they loved to work with. This is a business and we do business with people we like. So be more likable if you don't set that intention and you think, oh, I'm the celebrity speaker, yeah, that's going to catch up to you. And they may love you, they may be nice to you, they may thank you politely, but they ain't gonna refer you to somebody else or their friends. So just be super careful. By the way, on the intro, we forgot to mention this mark. Make it at least 14 point font. Cause half the people who introduce you don't have the best eyesight. And so they may or may not use the glasses. Make it simple. So make it a larger font, one page and it should maybe be half for three quarters of the page tops.

Mark, don't make it too long. They want to know why you were there, who you are, how you will solve your issues and build anticipation to hear your presentation. And that's why Darren and I also ask that you write your own introduction carefully. Always think about why you're going to be there. And don't just rehash what's on your bio. That's nice to know. But they want to know what have you got for us? What's in it for me? You do that and, and also help set you up for your presentation before you even say a word. It's all strategic. And when you know all these are in their hands. You've got the AV checklist, they've got your bio, they've got your introduction. That also allows you to have your mindset set and free to not worry. Did they get my intro? That was the old intro. That's on the right one. I know I'm using hdmi, not vga. Is it going to be okay? And when that happens to your mind, you, you can't serve them to the best of your ability. Set yourself up for success early and do these simple things. You prepare yourself to be unforgettable before you even get there.

All right, Mark, anything else prior to traveling? Anything else that we want to cover?

I work with a company for consulting and they have a document called a logistics sheet. Now I don't know what Darren calls it, but years ago I used to see Darren prepared to go on a trip. And my brother had a manila folder with every detail about the trip. He has his flight information, rental car information, ground transportation. He also has a checklist. He had a checklist of toothbrush. It used to be comb. It used to say comb. Now he doesn't have a combination.

Oh man, you didn't just say that, did you?

Hey, when I met you, you had hair, buddy. I was very impressed. Darren had everything he needed in that checklist. Camera. And Darren is never without his camera because his camera is a tool for his presentations. And his checklist was so comprehensive and so intensive. It was something. It was a thing of beauty to behold. I mean a little thing like get this. A large clip to clamp the curtains in your hotel room because they always seem to un fold and let light in at 5:30 in the morning when you want to Sleep. Everything that he needed for the trip was on that checklist. And the folder had a cover sheet that shows you exactly. He could look at it one look and know where he's going to be, what flight's going to be on, what times they are, where. I work with this company, particular company, we call it a logistics sheets. Who's a contact person, what's their phone number, what's their email address? What time is tech check. What room are going to be in capital B at 7:30 in the morning? Tech check. Who's your tech guy? John Smith. His phone number, his email, Every detail sets your mind at ease. When you have that one document in your possession, that's one less thing for you to think about or worry about. And that gives you a more prepared mindset. Darren.

Hey Mark. Thanks. I actually ran to my assistant's office to go get one so I can show you this. But seriously, this is important and here's why. I actually got rid of it for a while and I started using Espeakers. I don't. You're familiar with Espeakers, Mark. And I had all the information I needed right on my cell phone. Problem was when I landed I didn't have my cell phone. I didn't have. We were delayed and I had a challenge getting there and my cell phone was up above. I don't do that anymore. But also, even if I had access to E speakers, like let's just say your phone is not connected, it was international. Well, what do I do? Who's picking me up? So this is. I ran and grabbed it. So this is just a local event I'm doing here Monday. But even though it's a local event I'm doing Monday, I still have my office manager create one of these. So it's a folder with every email is printed and goes in the folder. I want to be able to have this. So without technology I've got everything. I also want to review my notes. So those interviews when Mark and I interviewed the executives from the Ukraine, as we're going over there, I can flip through them, I can highlight things, I can remind myself of things. Why? Because I might have done that three presentations ago, two weeks ago and now. Okay, this is. I'm all in. I'm totally focused. This is my checklist. Usually it's all filled out but what it is is it gives my office manager the fill in the blanks. Like before I leave it's all gonna be filled out and that's the prompter to her. So I Just do it on a sticker. And I take the sticker and slap it on the folder. So we've got everything we know. What's my hotel confirmation number? What's the hotel phone? If I have to have somebody from the hotel come pick me up, if. Let's just say the person picking me up didn't show up, what's my flight time? My flight number arrives, when, what airline, rental car, address of hotel, address of event? They're often different. Sometimes they're the same. And then I have the follow up. Did we get reimbursed by the expenses? All of the different questions that I have. So you make up yours. You're going to tweak it as you go. But if you don't have one of those, it's going to affect you. Let's just say you land and all of a sudden something's not right. Well, that's going to freak you out. So the more you do ahead of time, the more it's going to help your mindset. So you can be unforgettable. Mark.

Yes. And don't forget, inside that folder, you want to have as much detail as helps you to survive, to do. Well, in my case, I may have notes like this of an actual presentation. I'll have a copy of my intro. Forgive my ego, but my intro has my picture on it. But they'll know when they get that. That's Mark Brown's intro.

Absolutely. And it's not even about ego. It's about connecting it to you. It's. We should have it on our card, on our intro, on every piece on the bio, on the av. Why? Because the AV person might not know who is who. So if your picture is there, they're like, oh, that's that guy. Or that's that woman. It's not about ego. It's about making it simple and clear.

And yes, you did see, right down. Hotel and plane and all that. I often travel with a trip company and the trip company actually sends me a paper or email and it says here, my trip. And it has my hotel, my car, national car rental, everything, my flights, everything. Include that in your folder and put whatever else you need to make sure you have peace of mind. Going into a trip, you want to make sure you have that available to you. Make your life easier. Make your meeting panel's life easier, and bless your audience with what you've brought for them.

All right, Mark, let's fast forward to you hit the ground. What's the first thing you do when you hit the ground?

Mark, I want to back up one step when you hit the ground. I used to do presentations. It's going to be at three o'clock in the afternoon. I'd arrive there that morning and I'd be fine. But you know what? I had a talk to do in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I was living in New York at the time and it was maybe a 10 o' clock talk at a school in Pittsburgh and they had a thousand kids in an auditorium waiting for me and the flight time was great. 6am flight, I'm getting there by 7:30. It's all good. My plane gets delayed from New York and when I finally get to Pittsburgh, my contact gets me the airport. He breaks every speed limit to get to the venue. And there are a thousand kids in the auditorium trying to calm these kids down, to have me come in to get mic'd up, to get my mindset ready, to reach a thousand kids who are all hopped up because I wasn't there. I made a decision then. I'm not gonna fly the day of anymore. Even if my talk is 4 or 5 or 6pm, I'm gonna fly the day before and eliminate the possibility of anything going wrong.

Darren always, and I always fly direct on my way there. Coming back, I have a connection if I have to, but going there, always direct and always, at least the day before. And honestly, because they're paying me such a high fee, I know everything I can gather from the conference before I speak is common to everyone because everyone's at that conference. And I learned this from Vinny, my comedy mentor. He said, always be there and see the whole show because you want to know if any other comedian touched on one of the bits that you might touch on. If they talked about traffic and you have a bit about traffic, you want to piggyback on that, not look like you were clueless. So he said, always get there early, always watch people and read people as they're coming into the room. What's on their mind, what are they thinking about? The cool thing, Mark, about being a middle aged bald white guy is I blend. No, I do not stand out, which is beautiful. So I can overhear conversations and they don't know I'm actually doing my work. I'm actually trying to find ways to connect with my audience. What are they talking about? So I sit in the back row and I always try and spend a whole day, I want to be there the whole day before. If I'm speaking Tuesday morning, I want to get there Sunday night so I can spend all of Monday with them, go to their meals and just take inventory of what's top of mind. So definitely, if possible. Now, obviously, if I have another speech the day before, I can't do that. But whenever possible, I always try and get there for the entire event, an entire day beforehand. And last time I did this for Wells Fargo, they said, wow, nobody else does that. People want to zip in and zip out. Well, it just differentiated me for asking. It's a beautiful thing.

You know, Darren, what's sad is I've actually had individuals involving meeting planning act surprised when I told them, no, I'm here for you for the long haul. Do you leave right afterwards? No, I'm going to stay. I'm going to speak, but I'm going to stay. And I've been even asked to stay for a mixer afterwards or even by the beats at one particular case because I came in early to find out more about them. I said, I'm committed to you for the duration of the event. And that made a big difference. And funny you said about comedian having a similar joke. I went to a conference many, many years ago in Austin, Texas, and I was a morning keynote speaker. And the lesson is, don't use canned jokes. Use your own material and humor and use that. I was fairly new at this.

You know why, Mark?

Tell us Crickets. I told this joke early in the day and it went very, very well. And another speaker arrived late in the morning and she spoke at lunch. She told the exact same joke. And in the words of Darren Lacroix, ouch. That was not fun at all. I learned a lesson there. The earlier you can get there not only that many conferences, they'll have an evening mixer or a social time. And as you're right, Darren, during that social hour, they hang loose. They're not worried about what's going on. They talk, they say things, and you hear things that could be gold for you on the following day. So, yes, definitely you want to get there early enough to not have to think about hurrying to get things done. So get there a day or two early if you can, where possible, and set yourself up to be prepared. And again, your mind is at ease because you're ready. Now, sometimes you can't do that, but you want to give yourself every possible advantage. And you asked Darren about what do I do?

What do you do when you land?

When I land. First of all, I have made sure to give my information to the meeting planner or my main contact person. And sometimes bear in mind, sometimes your first point of contact is not the meeting. Planner, there is a designee whose job it is to get you from the airport to the hotel or to the venue. Or they have someone whose job it is to make sure to establish contact. I don't leave my phone up in the luggage compartment.

I learned that lesson.

But when I land, I send a text message or I'll call, I am in town, let you know I'm heading out the airport, I'm going to the venue or to the hotel. And what's cool is this. Very often an organization will arrange to host you for supper with their key players, their board members and their leaders. And that's also a great opportunity to pick their brains, let them talk, ask questions, and they give you you information you can use the following day. It's almost a no brainer. I make contact immediately. Yes sir.

You want to be an unforgettable presenter, Be an awesome listener.

I'm listening.

So Mark, when you send that text, guess what happens to the event planner as soon as they get that text?

They breathe.

And they may have a whole stable of speakers. You don't want to be that one that doesn't reach out because they've got anxiety for each person. What do they do if you don't show up or what do they do if your plane doesn't land? Like you've got to realize as much anxiety as you have over your one hour. They have anxiety over every presenter that they're trying to stable and they're trying to corral and all the speakers and all of their egos and all the tech people and all their issues and all the hotel staff and all of their issues. And so you want to be that one person. Hey, I made it on the ground. Now we don't want to be verbose and start yapping. They don't have time for that. But they want to be able to check that off. You landed, you're at the hotel. And then, Mark, one of the first things I do is I go to the room, not my sleeping room, I go to the event room. All right, I do put my things up there, let me be honest. But then I just drop them and I go down to the event room. I want to see what's happening. I want to be in the moment. And then I have a new best friend who is the AV person, the AV tech team, not just one person team, you've got to make them your best friend. And one of the first things I say is I walk up to them, I shake their hand with a big smile and I say, you are the most important person in this room to my presentation. What can I do to help you? What do you need from me? And they will be in shock because no one says that to them. A lot of speakers will treat them with an entitlement attitude, like, here's my PowerPoint. Get it ready. Well, that's not cool. In fact, we were running an event here in Vegas, one of our boot camps, and they had a tech person who was not told ahead of time that they needed to be there in the room to. To set it up. There was some miscommunication. Hey, that happens. But they were upset. They were ripping. And here it is, my event. I did not miscommunicate. It was the casino hotel that had the miscommunication because it was their equipment in the room. And this tech person was mad, was upset. And I went up to them and, hey, it's my event, and their mindset is going to affect my event. I came up to him and I handed him a hundred dollar bill. I said, look, I'm sorry. I don't know what happened, but I want you to know that I'm glad you're here and I appreciate you. I handed him a hundred dollar bill, and he was speechless. He turned into MacGyver. For everything we needed, like, if we didn't have an adapter, he made one out of a paper clip.

You know, Darren, I want to jog your memory. You and I went to California to do a program for an organization and their tech guy in the back of the room. We ended up taking a photograph with him and using him in our presentation. He was so professional, and he was blown away that we did that because we were able to appreciate what he had to offer. And you have no idea. You could be the one person who makes their day, who makes their month, who makes their year, because everyone else will treat them just as, quote, unquote, the hired help. You have a chance to build a great relationship here. You want to be nice to people. You want to serve the people, not just your audience. You want to serve the client. You want to give them a positive experience. Oh, Darren, one more thing about the venue. As you said, sometimes the venue and the hotel are not the same. But I have been known to go to the hotel, drop my bags off, get in my rental car, and drive to a different location. Especially when I was working with school districts, they don't always have a hotel next to a meeting center. But I will literally drive to the location if I can get in. That's great. At least I Want to scope the place out. If you are in a hotel, conference hotel, go to the room, see the room. Maybe the only person there, but at least you want to feel the room, walk the platform, listen for it to creak or squeak. You want to make sure you own the room, check temperature, where are the exits. All these small details you want to know. You also want to sit where, Darren? Everywhere.

Four corners.

Why?

Because the people who set up the meeting room have maybe never, ever been on stage and don't know what's important to us. I've had it happen a huge percentage of time, maybe 40%, where they put the lectern, front left corner, and where you're standing and where the far corner seat is on that side. They can't see the PowerPoint slides. They can't see half the stage. Like, it's crazy. Well, they never took the time. Well, guess What? You are 100% responsible. You may not have full control, but you're responsible. And sometimes we have to educate the event planner. Even with some small presentations or conferences they put out, and I'm not going to use the exact association name, but it was that industry, and they had put out 400 chairs, but they had 200 people signed up. And I said to the event planner, you know what? It's going to look like a better event if we just have 200, let's even say 180 chairs. And doesn't it add more energy if all of a sudden we have to grab more chairs?

Ooh.

As opposed to having 400 people and 200 sit in it? Now, they look sparse. And as my comedy mentor Dave Fitzgerald says, if they're not seated close together, he said, laughter is contagious, but if they're seated far apart, it doesn't contage.

It's funny you say that, but real quick. This actually happened to me one day. I had a program at a school in New York, and the principal of the school thought it was best for. For the kids to behave properly, to have kids sit in every other seat. So it was child seat, child. It was absolutely crazy. I told him, no, it's okay. I can handle the audience. Trust me, it'll be fine. And also now, Darren, I'm not sure I want to do this, but I'm going to say it anyway. Darren and I have had events where the individual responsible for setting the room up just did a symmetric layout of chairs, which was not conducive for our program. But we got there a couple hours early, and Darren and I tweaked the layout to create a true theater style. We turned the room sideways, had a theater style layout, and it was so much more conducive to what we're trying to do. But had we not gotten there early enough to see this could be a disaster. We could never have made that change. And on that day, it was important. I'm not saying to go and try and change every room you speak in. But in that day, in that environment, we were able to see it was not going to work well for us. Remember that day, Darren? It was years ago.

And that's why, again, we are fully responsible but not fully in control. So we have to sometimes educate the event planner as to why, because they don't get it. Like that school that you spoke at, he thought this would be better, but he doesn't know. He hasn't, you know, he's principal principled school. That's his thing. That's his ninja skill. Yours is presenting. We have to work with what we're given, make the best out of the situations we have, and then take it from there and do our best. So going back to that association I was speaking at, where they had 400 chairs and 200 people coming. It's not like people are gonna walk off the street to sign up last minute for the Actuarial Accountants of America Association. They're gonna do it in advance and maybe you have a couple people, but unless continually, it's just not gonna happen. And yeah, they were being positive, but they were hurting the experience of their own event. Unknowingly. I was in another country. I won't even name the country, but I was in another country. And you ever go to a presentation where they set up the room and it looked like Moses was there, meaning they parted the Red Sea. And in the center they have this enormous center aisle, and that's prime real estate, man. They were going to have. Granted, they were going to have a red carpet and have all the leaders come down the center. I get that. So I said, but if we could just add maybe two rows on the left side and two rows on the right side, it would squeeze that and we would have that feeling of one. Not the left side and the right side. That's just not conducive. We could do a whole podcast on just the room setup and we might just do that. But we've gotta be careful now. It's their event, but we can bring our experience and try to lead them in the situation that would be best for them for their conference, because they're not Gonna know. We even did our old event stagetime live a few years ago, Mark. And, and I wasn't even thinking. And Ford Sakes walked in the room and said, why is there such a wide aisle? Oh, don't I should know this. And immediately we just pounced on it. So sometimes we just forget. Why? Because we're doing a hundred other things. And so is your event planner.

Definitely. Well, our time is fast, fleeting. Darren, let's talk about the day of the event, what we can do to get the right mindset. Mindset so we don't leave our audience upset. For me, I have dealt with breakfast events, morning events, early keynotes, and they have meal service and so on before the, before the speech. Personally, from my mindset, I do not go and have steak and egg before I speak because my body is now thinking, let's digest this wonderful meal. And in the middle of a great talk, I might be going and some is this. Trust me, your body is trying to digest that three pounds of steak and eggs that you just had. I tend to have a lot of fluids in the morning, get myself ready. I'll have maybe an energy drink early on, but I don't eat before a morning presentation. I want to be fully present for that. So I give myself a chance to just get my head right. For some people, it also has to do. What they do is they prepare themselves mentally in different ways. Some will say a prayer, some, some meditate, some do yoga, some go for a morning jog, some go for a morning walk, whatever works for them. And I know, Darren, you have really adopted a process that gets you really set for a presentation. Please share that with our eager listeners. Buddy.

Thanks. Mark, let me jump in on what you just said too. If you need to eat something, you should have something that is fruit or natural. So no processed foods because it becomes easier for your body to digest. So there's like Maslow's hierarchy of needs. There's body has its own hierarchy of needs. And giving you energy for presentation comes after food digestion. So that's why we do that. So if you need a little something to fill your stomach, make it a natural or raw food and just have enough to take care of you. And then again, no caffeine, no milk, creams, no dairy. Mark, I have to tell you, I was speaking at NSA in New Zealand, I kid you not. And it's just before the presentation, they introduced me to this new drink I had never heard of called a flat white. And a flat white, I was like, ooh, this is Tasty, and it's like a latte. But I did I just. A flat white. Okay. So I'm. I had like three of them because they were so good. Well, they are jacked with caffeine. And I kid you not, I had no idea. And David Nottage was in the room, fellow world champion. And I literally could not hold my remote control and I could not pick up a glass of water. I needed two hands. It was so bad because I wasn't paying attention and I made this mistake. Mark and I have made all these mistakes. Trust us, we are not immune. We're just trying to pass on from what we learned the hard way to help you make it easier. But to get to your idea of my little system. So I have four questions that I ask myself five minutes before. By the way, one great strategy is music. Music is a great way to calm the mind, calm the nerves and channel it into good energy. You can listen to. I would suggest create a power playlist. Create a power playlist on your smartphone. That is these are my like pre presentation rock songs that whatever rocks your world or whatever soothes your soul. Whatever it is for you that could bring your mindset present. So you are with this audience in this moment, at this day, for this occasion, for this content. This idea came from the one hour before the world championship. Darren was a little intense. And I wrote myself a note, actually came from my other coach, David McElhenney said, you gotta remind yourself of this just before. So I'm like, I'm never gonna remember. So I wrote it down, I put it in my pocket, and five minutes before I walked out there, when the preceding presenter was on stage before me, I was like, oh, my gosh, I gotta get. And I pulled out this note and it said, remember to have fun. And my whole physiology changed because if you want your audience to have fun, they're never gonna have fun unless you have fun. And so because of that idea, I developed what I call my connect card with the four questions that I ask myself now invented by that moment. So I created this card and for our stagetime University members, they get this when they sign up because it's so important. So I created it in a way that they can keep it in their pocket or in their wallet or purse. So here are the four questions. Number one, so you're all frazzled and you want to keep yourself grounded and bring yourself present. So number one, what is my intent? And your intent should never be self focused. It should be audience focused. It's not like I'M going to be great. It's. They're going to walk away with. They're going to get these insights. They're going to understand them, them, them, them, them. Number two question, am I present? Am I right here, right now with these people? Let go of your preconceived problems. They're going to be there when you're done. I guarantee it. It's going to be at the door. You can pick them up and your problems will be back and they'll probably be bigger when you're done. But right now, I guarantee it. Yeah. So right now, in this moment, you have this privilege to present. And as Mark taught me, what are you going to do with that? So, number one, what's my intent? Number two, am I present? Number three, came from my world championship. Will I have fun again? If you want your audience to have fun, they're not going to have fun until you have fun. And the fourth question came from Willy Jolly, one of our previous episodes. Go check that out. Because it came directly from him and I use it with permission. And the question is, how would I give this presentation if I knew it was my last one ever? How would I give this presentation if I knew it was my last one ever? Think about it this way. If you knew it was going to be the last conversation with one of your children, would it be different? I would hope so. If you knew it was going to be the last conversation with one of your parents, would it be different? Absolutely. Well, guess what? There's going to be people in front of you who will never, ever see you present again. You could be their hope in this industry on your topic. You could be the one thing that is the breakthrough to them. If you knew it was your last presentation, how would you give it? Mark, I think about, like, my high school football Thanksgiving weekend, the big game with the next town over your rivalry. And I was never going to play college football. So I knew this would be my last football game ever. And I played differently because why? Because the coaches kept reminding us this is the last time some of you are ever going to play football. They even talked about that in Rudy, the movie Rudy. And you know, hey, some people went on, but for you, what if. What if this is something happens and you lose your voice and you can never give a presentation again? What if this one lingers in your head for the rest of your life? How is it going to go? What are you going to remember? If you can bring that mindset, that presentation mindset, that unforgettable presentation mindset to everyone. It doesn't mean every presentation will be awesome, but it does mean every presentation will be much better than it would have if you had the regular mindset.

Mark I don't know how to top that Darren because that's absolute goal for everyone to understand. Getting your mindset ready because as you said, skill set without mindset leisure audience upset. And for me, there's one more thing I do, Darren, to get my mind right for the moment before my speech. I avoid social media, texts and phone calls unless it's an absolute emergency. I don't want to see who's trending, who didn't like my post, who commented on my last video that those are.

It could take you out.

Distraction.

Yeah, it could take your take you out.

Take you out. You don't put the phone away, turn.

It off, put it on the airplane mode. Tell your family, tell your loved ones, tell your spouse, look, an hour before, a half hour before, whatever it is for you, tell them, here's my rule. I shut off my phone then so they don't freak out because you're not getting back to them if something's up. But look, the problem will be there when you're done. Pick it up then.

That's so true. My family and I use a program called group Me Group texting and messaging and I'll tell them I'm going to be on a platform at 9am until 10am so my wife, my kids, they know as Christians, my wife and my kids, they'll pray for me when I speak but they know when I'm going to go on stage so they will not be the ones distracting or bothering me because they know where my heart is. My focus is on my audience and my clients. I want to serve them well and with a great skill set. Forgot the wrong mindset. I leave the audience upset. Darren this has been absolute pleasure and a joy sharing these nuggets we and I have learned together the hard way with our audience today.

What's our keepers?

Mark Quick establish a before rapport. Get to know your client, your meeting planner, well in advance. Call them and let them know how well you want to serve them. Always ask for their pain points, their pet peeves and their frustrations. They'll give it to you. Arrive at a venue at least a day early to become acquainted with what's happening around you. You get nuggets, you meet people, you build relationships and you also get material that you can customize on the fly to prove to them you are there to serve them. Write an intro and a bio separately. Send the introduction in PDF form. Also send your AB requirements in PDF form. Clearly label everything and differentiate them. Do yourself a favor. Have what I call a logistics sheet, an event folder with everything you need to know to set you up for success. And when you get to the event for the day of the event, make sure you are mentally prepared. Take care of yourself physically, take care of yourself spiritually, take care of yourself emotionally. Avoid all distractions and be in a mindset that sets you up to serve your audience and to be unforgettable.

And two, follow up thoughts. Reminder number one, choose to be the meeting planner's favorite. Make that part of your mindset and then they will serve you to help give you the tools, give you whatever you you need to set you up for an unforgettable presentation. And final idea we haven't mentioned is if you want to be unforgettable and you have mindset issues, if you have challenges sometimes being present, take an improv class. Take an improv class and that's one of the best things that you can do, especially learning outside of speaking. It might be a little wacky, but find the local comedy club near you, look it up, find one online and it will create this muscle to give you the ability to adjust in the moment to any situation so you can deliver your unforgettable message. And Mark, this is a perfect segue to next week we are going to have an unforgettable presentation. Pastor on with us, Vince Antonucci. He's just the king of illustrations. So he's got one where he used a sledgehammer in church to make a point. It was beautiful and it made his point so well. And then Mark, he's known here in Vegas because he actually got a tattoo during a sermon. Like, that's crazy.

Amazing. It's amazing.

It hit the news, even the national news when he did that of getting a tattoo during the sermon. So we're going to get the story behind that. And whether you're a believer or not believer, whether you're interested in sermons or not, Vince is going to give you some tools that truly will work. If you're an entrepreneur, if you're a corporate presenter, if you're a pastor, if you're an emerging speaker, you're going to learn from this guy. Even though his topic may be God, his principles will help you be unforgettable. Join us next week.

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