Ep. 128 Hybrid Speaking

Hey there, Mark Brown. This is a subject that we are actually uniquely qualified to talk about because we were doing hybrid before hybrid was even a word.

That's so true.

Yeah, we had live seats and virtual seats is what we called it, but we were doing this long before all the COVID thing happened. And you just had a situation happen where you recently were out there speaking hybrid.

Indeed I did. And I'll share the story after we open because I really want people to focus in on this because you know what? Hybrid is here to stay.

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

Yes, sir. Yes, sir. My most recent hybrid experience, I had an engagement, a live engagement at a school. I hadn't done a school for four years, but I got a chance to do a hybrid for a school and it was interesting. I'm used to doing a thousand kids gymnasium for me for an hour with me and my PowerPoint in my chair for the prop. Great. But in this particular instance is a grade six, seven, eight middle school. They had the eighth grade in the cafetorium, the cafeteria slash auditorium stage, drop down screen behind me. And then grades seven and six were using a zoom ID to zoom in from other parts of the building. Why that was interesting was one. Yes, it was hybrid, part live and part virtual. But it did have its own set of complications. And I'll tell you very quickly, Darren and friends, it was really interesting because I had to have my PowerPoint slides on their laptop. They had a laptop with a camera facing me so everyone could see from inside the building. But I had to remember to look at the camera when making certain key points. I had to also interact with young people who were in the room, laughing, smiling, giving me faces at the reception. And of course, in the middle school, very often teachers will find themselves on the periphery of the room, over on the sides and at the back, had to make eye contact with teachers back there, back there, with kids here, with students here, lean in. And also my confidence monitor with my slides to see where I was going next. Remember, hadn't done this program in four years, so I had my monitor, the laptop monitor, the zoom camera for the Kids on Hybrid, the kids in the building directly in front of me, and also faculty members all over the room who were monitoring situation. It was really interesting to focus on four things at one time and also to verify that what they saw on the slides looked okay. It was just really interesting. And the one thing I had to do was get there at 6:45 in the morning for a live tech check to make sure everything worked well. Hybrid is not always easy, but if you do it well, it can really give your audience both live and virtual, a wonderful experience.

It sounds like we're multitasking, so I think we need to create a new term. Multi speaking.

Well, as you know, Darren, we began doing hybrid in our programs, with our stage time programs many, many years ago, before, before the Pandemic hit, before we even knew what it was called. We just called them live seats and virtual seats. We never said they were hybrid. And you had the idea many years ago. Where did that idea come from to begin with?

That's a great question. I think it just became that Zoom was. I think we used another format, I can't remember the name of it. Before Zoom, before Zoom, in our time.

Maybe we had that one. I don't know what it was, but it doesn't matter. We couldn't all get live in the same room at the same time because.

We have an international audience and we have friends and fans around the world and some of them aren't going to come on a plane. Now we have three day experiences. When we were in the live days, it was two days, but we've shortened it and made it three days because that works better for virtual. So these experiences, we wanted to be able to tap in and let people access us. And then it also gave us the ability to record it because people wanted the replays. And now with my soundboard too, it's easy to create the MP3s that we can give people so they can go back and look at their notes and reinforce it. Honestly, before COVID hit, I was like, well, you know, you know, maybe we shouldn't do this anymore because it's a fair amount of work and a fair amount of setup and we would always get a few, but never really enough to make it worth the effort in the camera crew and everything like that. So I'm so glad. That doesn't sound good. I'm so glad. Because of the Pandemic, what it did is it accentuated the growth of virtual. So many people were forced to do it. So now it ain't going away. So I'M glad we had a head start on most people. But, Mark, I actually added a fourth. But four quick tips that are critical to you being successful with your audience. And Mark, I'm not even going to tell you. Number four, we're going to surprise you.

That's cool. We're going to go for it, man.

You're good at improv. But let's dive right into the four essentials of hybrid speaking. To be able to deliver that unforgettable experience not only for the people live, but also for the people virtually. And number one, and by the way, this one may seem. Well, of course, but it's an important reminder. Acknowledge early and regularly acknowledge the people. Online. We know that you're gonna acknowledge the people in front of you. It's a natural tendency, right? But early on, you've gotta talk to the people virtually right to the camera and say, hey, if you're watching us from home, come up with your line, your statement, that thing that you do that uses your own voice but helps them feel like they're not alone, like.

They'Re part of the group, you know, Confession, Darren. And look, we're being very honest here. We did this years ago, and I distinctly remember, you know, I'd fly to Vegas. We all get set up night before. We get a monitor there. We know we have virtual seats, but it was important for us to have a placard right underneath the camera. Talk to this audience. Look at the camera. Because it was brand new for us and it'll be new for. For many of us here right now, it's new for you as well. But we had literally a sign saying, look at this camera. Talk to this camera. Because it's easy when you have a live audience and they're enthusiastic and they're engaged, it's very easy to stay in contact with them and forget that the camera is, in essence, another member of the audience, an important member of the audience who at the moment doesn't have its own voice. So you have to acknowledge them early. And the other thing was regularly, you said, darren, I will confess, the first couple of times we did this, I had to remember, oh, yeah, there are other people watching on the camera. Talk to them. I think one time when we were off camera, he kind of nudged me, said, mark, when we were off camera, somebody was talking. But it was a reminder that it takes some getting used to, but it gives the virtual audience a different experience. We've got to remember to do that. Acknowledge early and often.

You can't just watch them from afar you have to engage them. And as you always say, Mark, it's not a speech. Make an experience.

Experience.

How are they going to feel like it's an experience if you don't even acknowledge that they're sitting home in their office or in their living room watching? Like, just acknowledge them. It's not that hard, but it's never going to be an experience. If they feel like they're just watching from afar, they're a fly on the wall. That's not an experience.

One more point there, Darren. You mentioned very briefly it could be at home in their car, their office. I have come to understand over the last three or four years that sometimes that virtual seat, they're in their car. They made the effort to log in from their car or in the back office in a restaurant somewhere. They got to use Mickey D's, Wi Fi, or they realize, you know what? The kids are going nuts right now. I'm wearing my long. I'm. They go in their laundry room for an hour because that's the only time they have or the only place they have. And they've made that investment of time. They have made that sacrifice. And to come on and not feel acknowledged is doing them a disservice. So here's my caution, isn't it reprimand. It's a caution, trust me. It is easy to not acknowledge the virtual seat, particularly when you are inexperienced in a hybrid atmosphere, because you feel so good with a live audience, the energy in the room is wonderful. It is easy to fail to acknowledge them. So please do not take point number one lightly. This is crucial. If you don't get this right, everything else is going to fall apart. Acknowledge your virtual audience early and often.

Yeah, one more on that. We say early because you want to set the trajectory of the experience.

Say it again.

I love that.

Say it again.

The trajectory of the experience. So if you acknowledge them early on, they're going to be sitting up a little straighter. If you can see them virtually, if you can see them, if they're on camera, they're going to sit up a little straighter. They're going to be a little more aware that you see them. So say that you see them if you see them. If you don't. If it's a different setup, like a webinar format where there's some people live, but we don't necessarily see the people, but they're on chat still. Acknowledge them and let them know, look, we have somebody here who's keeping an eye on the chat for me. Da Da, da. And I know some of the mega churches and some of the big presentations, they'll actually have a big screen up so the presenter can see the chat.

As it's going through. Right? It's going through. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I see that.

So let them know. Whatever the setup is, let them know, set the context that you're going to be engaging with them. So that way they know. That way they're more likely to. If you ask a question, put it in the chat. You know, put it in the chat, raise your hand, whatever it is. If you don't do it early on, it could be too late and they might be kind of shut down and not feel as close to you. So again, one more time, acknowledge early and regularly.

I'm going to ask a question, then I'm going to set you up. I'm going to tee you up for the next point. Okay, I know. Get them early. So they're in early. I've got to get them regularly. But what can happen? And I saw this happening one of our. On our coaching calls this week, we talked about being a hybrid audience. What happens often is the speaker who's inexperienced with a hybrid is not quite too sure when to look at the person called camera, as opposed to a person call live. And they may say, well, I need the camera time. When do I say that? What I noticed, particularly in our call, a coaching call, was that sometimes thoughts were broken because the eyes were wandering, trying to make sure I hit everybody at some point in time and there was no rhythm to that. So when's an appropriate time to. To make sure? I look at the camera and I ask that question to set up your second point, Darren.

Yeah. Number two, deliver key lines to the camera and mark. That's a great point. The more we get stage time. Stage time. Stage time. The more we get hybrid time. Hybrid time. Hybrid time. Look, you're going to be clunky at first, of course. Let it go. It's okay. Congratulations. Glad we can destroy the recordings from our early attempts. But when your heart's in the right place and you want to deliver. And I love when Patricia Fripp talks about pausing and when she talks about it, she says, now she's talking to a live audience. She says you pause, you deliver a line to one place pause and a thought or a line in between lines. And like you're saying you don't want to break up a thought, Right? So don't break up a thought looking to the camera and then looking away. Finish the thought wherever you are. But, Mark, I actually learned this last time at Toastmasters on the main stage. But I asked my NSA friends. I was at an NSA convention, and most of my audiences, live audiences, are like 2, 300, tops. But this was going to be thousands. So I realized there's a difference. Let me talk to people who have experience in front of the bigger audiences. And you know what's different? I know I can feel things out. I know my connection is important, but what do I need to know? And I believe it was Dan Thurman who we've interviewed before.

Yeah.

And he's. He's the one who said, look, and if you've ever been in a convention or a conference before, you know that unless you're in the front 10 rows at a big convention, you can have a speaker on stage and everyone's looking at the IMAX screens and the monitors off the side. They could be right in front of you, but they're looking by because the facial expression is bigger. There's more engagement. So Here you have 90% of the audience not even looking at you. They're looking off the side. And this was because that's not the size conventions I normally speak to. So that's why I asked somebody who does speak to them, and Dan reminded me. He said, your key lines, you deliver to the camera. Why? Because 90% of the audience is watching the camera anyway, even if they're sitting right in front of you.

That's true.

And I think it's really important for the people at home that you deliver the lines to the camera. Now, it doesn't mean you don't talk to people in front of you and you don't have other lines but the key lines, that foundational phrase, as we call it, the line of dialogue, when the character gives you that unexpected line of dialogue, bam, deliver. But you got to set it up so we know it's the. It's the character speaking.

So I know at first. I love that word clunky, Darren. At first it might seem clunky.

It's my career.

Because, yeah, we, you know, we're taught don't turn your back to the audience. And subconsciously, we may think if we don't make sure we look at the camera often enough, we are abandoning that member of the audience. It's okay. Work your way through it. Work your way through it and get. Get accustomed to understanding key to the camera. And you can, even using pause, you can deliver that key line to the camera and look at the live audience as well and have the Reflect on the key line. You don't need to say it to every part. Here's my point. Here's my point. Here's my point. Here's my point. No, you can say to the camera, deliver that key line and look at the audience as if to say, are you getting this? Is that sinking in? You get my point? And then continue. So the pause after a key line to the camera is room for the entire live audience to ingest, to receive, to ponder, to reflect. And again, they all feel engaged in that way. So key lines to the camera will make a difference. I won't forget that sign. Darren, look at the camera. Look at the camera.

Yeah. Thank goodness for Regina setting us up in those events where she. Guys, look here. So we had to train ourselves. We had to train ourselves because the other challenge is we had a large monitor, and the natural tendency is to look at the people. Yeah, but, yeah, even the monitor isn't the camera.

That is something we've been doing with virtual for a while. People have to look to learn. Yeah. We have a tendency to look at the person and lens. I always say, focus on your friends behind the lens. And you mentioned, you know, your assistant Regina, who was helpful, and sometimes you said, also, Darren, sometimes, you know, questions want to come in or people want to be engaged. And. And you're delivering in a seminar situation to a live audience. You've got virtual seats. And you said, multitasking. How do I keep track of. Well, somebody's in the chat, or somebody raised a hand, and they will have a question. How do you even keep track of all of that in a hybrid situation? Because that can really be a concern, particularly if you're doing workshops, one, two, three day, or even half a day to engage everyone and have that audience. Yes, you looked at them. They see you talking to them, but how do they talk back to you? And that can become a bit of a challenge, can't it?

Perfectly Setting up number three.

My job today. I'm setup guy today. That's it. I'm have a foil.

Have a producer host. Have a producer host. And we did learn this early on in our hybrid that we needed somebody keeping an eye in the chat. So that way they know. Now the person has to be acknowledging. And there's always wacky comments that you don't want to disrupt the flow. And it's almost like we had them raising the hand for the people online. So that way, if there's a clarification, okay. Otherwise, they don't stop the flow. So it's really important, not just to have a producer and a host, but have somebody who knows what they're doing and understands the flow of the training or the speaking. So you don't want them interrupting you every two seconds. And again, work something out with your producer slash host, and remember to check in with them. So everybody online, does that make sense to you? Is that clear? Let me know in the chat. And now, Mark, I was thinking of this too, based on what you had just said about letting it breathe, letting them absorb the idea.

Right?

It's kind of like George Burns and his cigar. He would throw out a punchline and he would put the cigar in his mouth to stop him from continuing to talk while people. And then he trained us that whenever he put the cigar in his mouth, there was a funny line in case we missed it. So he trained us to know that there were other comedians from the day that did that too. But for us, you can deliver the key line and then acknowledge the people in the audience as that time to let everybody absorb it online and live. So I love your idea of deliver the line, but you don't just hold the silence to that, right? That gives you the opportunity to see if everyone's getting it right. Look at the monitor if you have people online. So you deliver it to the camera, but then you look for the reaction.

And that also gives you an opportunity to work with your host producer. We had two for our events way back in the day. Were you a visionary, Darren? I can't believe this. But we had two. And we would get those literal, physical hand raised from Cheryl. We know a question was coming up or somebody had input to offer as well. And we had configured. Well, you had configured our room, our setup, so we could actually hear the virtual attendees, ask questions, make comments through our mic system. I don't know the ins and outs, but if you're doing a hybrid presentation in a seminar format, to truly make sure your virtual attendees feel engaged, you have to have a system set up where we can hear what they say, we can hear their comments, we can value their input. And when it's done well, you'll give them the experience that the people in the live seats actually have. As a matter of fact, Darren, I recall one of our attendees gave a testimonial. He thought he was actually taught better virtual than he would have been had he been live. And that was just really good to know that. We put the effort in to understand the value of the host and producer, to see when chat's coming through and don't Forget this sometimes, not always, but sometimes. There are individuals who ask wacky questions or make silly comments, or sometimes you'd have four or five people who want to offer the same comment or ask the same question. Your host and producer can actually curate the questions, curate the comments, and distill them down to the essentials. So that gives you more time to teach your material, to answer questions and to engage everyone there. So please do not undervalue the significance of a host producer in a case like this.

Yep. And get comfortable with them, have some signals with them. What works for you. If you can travel with your own host producer, that's awesome. Chances are you're going to be working with the organizations and every one of them is going to be different. But remember, they're an extension of your experience. Make them your bestie. Bring them an Amazon gift card. Say thank you right up front. That changes the trajectory of that interaction. Let them know they're appreciated, that they're not just being paid by the organization to do it or volunteering or whatever they're doing, but they're appreciated and they'll go the extra mile for you. Make no mistake. I like that. So, Mark producer, host curator.

Yes.

They are critical because you don't want them being overzealous, asking every question that comes in.

Right, right.

But the critical ones, and you also, as we had Cheryl at our events, she's answering some of the questions right then and there because she knew our content. So if someone missed something without disrupting the whole experience, ours were a training, but could be the same as a keynote. You don't want to disrupt the flow of it, but yet that person has their question answered, which is awesome. So it doesn't stop the flow for everyone else, but they're not left behind, you know, Mark, what we say, leave no attendee behind.

That's right. That's right. Real quickly on one more point on that. You know, you mentioned the curating and all that. I hope you all caught the power of what Darren just said. Having someone who understands our material as Cheryl does was really, really cool because we didn't get a mark. Darren, can you go back to what you said three minutes ago? We missed something here. And, you know, Josh went, wanted to ask a question that he missed, but when Cheryl knew what the content was, she could answer in the chat, as you said, not interrupt the flow. And his question got answered. And we didn't delay 30 or 50 people because he missed something. And whatever thought we were sharing was not interrupted. And by the way, your Producer host should also have a sense of timing. When's a good time to interject with the question? And if they know you and your material, it's a plus. Will you always need this? No. Because maybe you're doing a hybrid speech for a half an hour. It isn't a training or a workshop, but it's good to have awareness and awareness of all the possible options and have the tools in place and the processes in place. So when you do find yourself needing this kind of support, it's available to you and you can breathe a little easier knowing your team is with you and everyone will get the experience you want them to have in your hybrid event.

And Mark, I'm still. You're my hero. Still curious about you're doing the school hybrid. Oh, my gosh. Handling little kids on video as well as live, you are a miracle worker, my friend.

How did that go? I'll tell you what, it was not normally easy. I tried to be as engaging as possible. So I'm standing on a platform. That's if you're on the floor, it's at your waist height, maybe it's three foot tall. And the camera is below me, big screen behind me. And I deliberately would do the zig ziglar, lean in and look at the camera. I'd smile. I say something goofy to get the kids in the room to laugh, but look at the kids in the camera so they can feel engaged as well and they can laugh. And the reason why that was required, that was wise. Because in our current pandemic situation, nobody wanted to have 850 kids in one gymnasium at the same time. It was just not the best choice. So I agreed to serve them in the best way possible. And as you said, Darren, it's difficult enough dealing with 13, 12, 11 year old kids. I know you crazy thought, dude, I love this. I am 60 years old and these kids think I'm cool. I mean, perhaps I'm a big kid, but I would look in, I would lean in, I tell bad jokes, I do goofy stuff. I do one really silly routine with a handkerchief and I offer it to somebody in the audience and they just feel that I point to the camera, you want this? And they feel engaged. The thing is, all kidding aside, this comes with hybrid time. Hybrid time. Hybrid time. But here's a thought for you. Ask yourself, were I the virtual attendee at a hybrid event, what kind of experience would I want to have? Ask yourself, if I were a physical attendee at a hybrid event, knowing that a speaker would also talk to the camera. What kind of experience would I want to have as an attendee? With that mindset, you then decide for yourself, do I tick all the boxes? Have I put all these particular components in place to give my entire audience the experience I would want to have? So think about that and work on the idea of what can I do differently to make sure everybody's engaged. Could be the difference between another presentation and a wow experience.

Mark, a second ago, when you were talking about speaking to the kids and the experience you gave them, you said you weren't kid ing.

I know, I know. Thank you. First bad pun, and it wasn't even mine. There you go.

You rub off on me.

That's awesome.

So that sets up number four. So we got, number one, acknowledge early and regularly the people online. Number two, deliver the key lines to the camera. Number three, have a producer, host, curator, and check in with them. The people online, check in with them through the host or producer as well. And mark, number four, have fun.

Oh, yes, have fun.

You gotta just have fun. Sometimes we forget because you walk up and you're freaked out a little. That's why I had that little card, some of you know, or had the note in my pocket just before the world championship because I tended to be intense. And David McElhaney, my other coach, said, dude, you gotta remember to have fun. And so I wrote myself a note. So this is your verbal note. Five minutes before, put a note in your pocket. Remember to have fun because it is overwhelming and technology. And three minutes before, all of a sudden, camera two isn't working. And it's gonna happen. So have fun. Even with camera 2 not working, have fun anyway. Make it an experience. But if you want them to have fun live and online, they're never gonna have fun unless you first make it fun. Your own mindset, you know, I'm so.

Glad you said it, because I can remember when we first began doing hybrid and I come in a day early with you, when room is pretty much not set up. We get the room set up and you got one huddle cam here looking at the audience, a mic in the middle of the room. You got monitor for the virtual seats, and all this is going on. And then WI fi goes down and you're wondering how we're going to get this done. And all the technical issues. I started to bring up those nightmares.

Garen, that's okay.

But I remember we had a couple of days. It was a real struggle to get ready for the morning when people start coming in and they're Logging in. But somehow we always start the day with a fun experience and we enjoy it. And when we have fun, it shows not only people in the room, but people who are attending virtually. And if the mindset is, oh, man, I got to do this today. I got to watch four. I got to four this, I got to do that. I got to see my producer. I got to watch. Oh my gosh, I gotta, I gotta, I gotta, I have to, I have to. I have to change. I gotta to. I get to change. I gotta not. I got to, but I get to. And I know I have got to as bad grammar. I'm a wordsmith and a word nerd. I cringe that I say it, but you get the point. Don't say, I got to do this. I got no, I get to do this. And with that mindset, you get to reach a live audience and a virtual audience all over the world. Wow. How awesome could that be? So definitely we want you to have fun with the hybrid speaking experience. It is becoming much more required now, is becoming almost the order of the day in many circumstances. So this is not going to go away. And trust me, trust me, if we do this well, we will change the trajectory of our presentations and we will give our audiences great experiences and we will be unforgettable as hybrid speakers.

Darren, that time we go on stage. That time we're freaked out five minutes before. Keep in mind, there are thousands of speakers who wish they had your not so great experience. You're not so great opportunity. You know, it may not be perfect, but there's a lot of speakers sitting at home by themselves watching TikTok videos that they wish they could have had the opportunity to actually be there and your place. Don't take it for granted. Remember to be fortunate. Look, if you're listening to this right now, we appreciate it. Please pass it on to your friends who are speakers and presenters. Tell them about our podcast. We do this because it's a love that what we do and we hope it also gets us new stagetime members and gets people to our events. Look, go to stagetimeworkshops.com and see the different experiences we have there for you. Our humor boot camp, our better stories, better business boot camp, unforgettable presentations, our coaching boot camp. We love what we do and we would welcome the opportunity to have you join us at an event or as a stage time member. Again, Mark. Number one, acknowledge early and regularly. Number two, deliver key lines to the camera. Number three, have a producer, host, curator, somebody who has some experience some comfort and that you create that rapport with because together you're building that experience, especially in people virtually. And number four, remember to have fun. Mark Brown, take us home.

My friends, the hybrid world is here to stay. Don't be afraid of it. Don't shy away from it. Get involved in it. Do it well and go from good to great to unforgettable. We'll see you next week.

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