Ep. 129 Single Story, Multiple Messages

Hey there, Mark Brown. Single story, multiple messages. You and I were just having a conversation about this, and the depth of it became fascinating to me.

You know, truth is this, we all have stories, and very often we tell our stories from a certain standpoint, but depending upon the audience's mindset, they may receive not single, but multiple messages.

Anyone can give a presentation. Few delivery, 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. So, Mark, I love your perspective that you and I were just talking about off, off recording, when we were not recording. So I want to save that for the second half.

Cool.

So. Because I think it's so good about when you deliver that unforgettable story. But first of all, sometimes we have that story and we know it's good and we want to work on it. We want to find a place to use it in our presentation, but there's different messages in it. So first I want to talk about you as the deliverer. Not talking about the audience yet. That'll be part two. But when we're crafting a story, one of the best advice I ever heard was Craig Valentine when he was talking about this, that if you got a great story, go to your Toastmaster club. For those of you who are toastmasters, or if you just have a group of speaker buddies that you could test something out on. But don't tell them what the message is, just tell them the story part, and you will be shocked 90% of the time of what they take from the potential of that story. And stories really could be told in different ways for different purposes. So almost every time I take the stage to a fresh audience, I tell my stitches story. But if I'm doing a motivational presentation, I tell the same story, but. But I arrive at a different point. The courage, the fear that I had the outside of my comfort zone. So I tell it in a motivational way. Now I tell the same exact story, but I tell it differently when I'm making a point about presentations, about that one moment when I forgot about my audience, I forgot about my routine that I was gonna do. I forgot about my friends in the audience, and for one split second, I became real. And that's when the audience laughed. And it was about that magical conn that I was, quote, unquote, bit by the bug. And I'm like, I'm all in. I love that moment. Even though I screwed up, I'm gonna figure out how to screw up more often and do it. But it was the authentic moment. So when I teach presentation skills, I use the story to deliver a different message than when I'm delivering the motivational side. Same story. So my thought right up front is, look, each audience, depending on your purpose or your subject for that audience, you may have multiple messages, but you got to deliver it with that one intended message, that one intended point, because you can't tell a story well. And on the surface, on the literal, on the conscious side of it, that we deliver three points from that one story, the audience might get three points, but you gotta be clear and make sure you know what is the message you're trying to deliver for that audience that day, that moment.

Definitely. As presenters, we have a responsibility to know exactly where we want our audience to go. And we always tell our clients or coaching clients. What do you want the audience to think, feel and do as a result of your presentation? We call it our tfd. Think, feel and do. You have to be clear on the message you are trying to send. And I want to go back, Darren, to what you said, what you and Craig talked about. Take your story and deliver it to an audience and ask them, what message did you receive? You said they'd be shocked. But don't take that as a negative because if you take it that way, you're going to miss an opportunity. Number one, you know what your message is. If the audience, if the majority does not tell you your message is clear, it means you need to go to work and to make sure to clarify your message, which is wonderful. Great. Don't deviate from that plan. However, here's the cool part. If 60 or 70% are telling you, well, I got this message, I got that message, they're creating for you a file of potential possibilities of other directions you might be able to go in. But wait, there's more. You also get two carving knives and an emery board. No, I'm kidding. The last piece.

Is this the Gen 2 keynote?

Yeah. No, but here's the cool part. So one, you know, I wasn't clear. I need to work on that. Two word potentially. There's more messages there. Okay, great. But here's three. Number three is if a majority of the audience gives you the same different message that they received. They're telling you, hang on, Mark. There may be something significant here that you aren't even aware of yet. But wait. Do not deviate from your plan. You have a certain message you want to deliver. How can I craft my story to make sure I deliver that message? That's still goal number one. Benefit number two, they're telling you potentially you have different messages. But benefit number three is the majority tells you they got a different message. You need to now think to yourself, could I craft a different program with the same story and focus on that message as well? So what you may end up with is you now have potentially two powerful uses for that one story when you walked in in your mind with only one. I'll say again, do not deviate from the plan. Follow through on that. But be open and broaden your mind to understand that there is potential there for something else. If my audience tells me something I heard Craig Valentine, a world champion speaker say and speaking coach say, your audience helps you to write your speech. In this particular instance, Darren, what they're telling you is, hey, Darren, that's a cool story, but we got this message. Perhaps you need to develop that for future use somewhere else. So please do not despair if your audience gets a different message. They're actually helping you to prepare something else that some other audience may need desperately.

Hmm. And be aware, too, that there's gonna be rogue answers, rogue ideas, of course. But if you see the commonality in part of the audience that they got this message. And again, it's just, you're testing it out. You're asking for feedback. It's something that you could explore. You just didn't see it. Cause you're too close to the story. And the story has different meaning to you in your life as opposed to meaning to them, the listener. And so, number one, just you have a single story and it could deliver multiple messages. But you can't be lazy. You have to be clear of what's the one message for this audience. In our intention to get our point across, our main point, that this is just one point of the major point. This is a point of wisdom, as we teach in our workshops for the greater premise of what we're delivering now, Mark, in our conversations beforehand, you were talking about an experience that you had that I thought, whoa, didn't really see that coming. But we all need to be aware.

Yeah. I had traveled to Canada to do a keynote and a workshop for a Toastmasters group several years ago. And in the workshop, you know, it's much more Loose and conversational. And I told a story about my dad, my late dad, who. Literally, one of my heroes, because I'm in this country, because my dad made a choice to leave Jamaica at the age of 47 with a wife and three teenage kids and to start over from scratch. And he could only afford to give me 40 bucks when I came. But I told a different story about my dad. And the point of my story was, man, my dad was so cool. I didn't realize just how awesome he was. And I learned to respect him, and I was able to then appreciate the kind of man he was and how cool that was. And it was fun. And the love he had for me. And it was a really touching story. And I saw a few sweaty eyeballs in the audience that day. But I asked the audience now what was. I actually asked him, what was the message you received? And I heard a father's love for his son, a father's dedication, what you meant to him, how much he loved you. And the love theme was just coming through in spades. I was like, yes, that was what I wanted. And then one man waved his hand and said, I got a completely different message. I said, oh, okay. Should I want to hear. I want to hear this now, or do I want to back out? And I said, please share with us. And he said. He stood and said very quietly, you know, I heard the story. It was very touching, very moving. I guess people were crying. I get that. But I'll be honest with you. I can't relate to that because I never experienced that. I don't know what that's like. But the message here is this. That's the kind of father I need to be. Whoa. Wow. I had never. I had told that story for years about my dad and his love for his son and what he would do for Sonny. Love. And no one ever said to me, I see it differently. I see not what your dad was. I see what I need to be, because my dad was not. I'm like, wow, okay. And I left there that day thinking to myself, I never, ever considered that. And that's what we want you to do when you do your testing. Be open. Be open to something else that you can develop later on. Do not abandon your first plan. But, man, be willing to hear what other people hear, because we do not know, Darren, where they are in their lives on that day, in that time of their life, in that season of their life. And we don't know how many other people are experiencing that. We can try, but if nothing else, I would encourage everyone hearing this podcast today not to abandon the power of your story, but to be open to what other people tell you that story might mean. Because you never know. For a different audience at a different time, it could be a powerful secondary message. And I go back, my last thought is this. You taught us and so many others about the most important part of your presentation and you said it was a thought process in the audience's mind and in that man's mind. What he verbalized to me that day totally changed the way I thought about my story and the impact it can have. So my exhortation is be open. Because you never know. If you make one slight shift in your story or the approach of your story, or the emphasis, as Darren does with his stitches story, you never know the impact you could have. Yeah.

The beauty of that is, as you said, people bring their own experience to your presentation, good and bad. You know, as we teach in storytelling, the old When Harry Met Sally, I'll have what he's having. So part of it is the I'll have what he's having. But this is the I want to avoid what I had to give my child what Mark had. And that is just incredibly, incredibly powerful. And that's why, Mark, when we do our weekly calls and stage time, we have coaching calls every single week. We coach our members and give them an opportunity to find out what their message is, if they got a cool story, but they don't know what it is or what other messages could be in this. And I want to go back to what you're saying though, Mark. It's a story you've been telling for years. It's a great, proven, powerful story. We can't be lazy with our stories. We have to tell them so good that as in this example, a man takes away a different message than you had intended, which is awesome. But the story was so good to begin with. People will take away multiple messages if it's a story well told, just like a movie. You watch a movie. What is a movie? A movie is a 90 minute story where the character is one place at the beginning and a different place at the end. But if you ask anybody watch the movie, what's the message you got from it? A lot of times it's similar, but many times it's different. It's literally the same movie. But we all bring our own experience to that. So, Mark, single story, multiple messages.

Yeah. There's something else I want to consider as well, and I can't emphasize this enough, when we said earlier you would test your story with a Toastmasters Club and, and. Or a different group and say, don't tell them what the message is. You may get some rogue answers, you may get some quirky answers. People will think differently. But please remember what I said. Don't abandon the intent of your story. The new thing I want to share is this. Going forward, as you begin to tell stories, or if you keep a story file, which you should, and you go back to a story, whenever you put a story out, to ask yourself, could there be something else? I never considered before because I always told the story in this way. What I'm asking you to do, friends, is to change your process. Not change, but improve your process. I'm going to ask you going forward to improve your process as you revisit your older stories. If you listen to us with any regularity, you know we always say maintain and build a story file. So here's your assignment this week, which we never normally do on the podcast, but if I were to give you an assignment, it would be this. It'd be, go back to a story you have told fairly frequently, one you're very comfortable with, and ask yourself, could I have possibly missed an opportunity to see a different message? How do you do that? Bring it to your Toastmasters Club. Talk to your speaker buddies. You may be a part of a mastermind group or even a social group that meets in your home as a small group from your church or house of worship. Tell a story to them. Ask them what they receive. They're not speakers, they're human beings. And ask them what they got. And maybe a story you've had for a long time, something another one you've used several times is also telling you, hey, buddy, I've got a different message you can share. And here's why that's important. Over time, we change. Our dear friend Craig Valentine, who won the Toastmasters world title in 1999, has been asked for several times over the years, hey, Craig, can you do your winning speech again? And Craig always says, no, I can't and no, I won't. He says, at that time, where I was in my life, that story was relevant, but over time, it's no longer relevant. But here's a little twist to that tale. You may have told a story some time ago that may no longer seem relevant, but if you resurrect it and look at it from a different standpoint, you may find it may be relevant today, but in a different way for a different audience in a different century. So I'm really asking you to work at this. Now, if you're serious about being a good speaker, one, revisit the story. Two, tell it to a neutral audience and get their response. And three, be open to the fact that not only is your current signature favorite story may have different messages, but a story you have not used in a long time could be resurrected for this season because someone needs to hear it now. So I urge you to think about that. I ask you to do it and I'm curious to know what kind of reaction you get. We now have an option for you when you go to our podcast page to ask questions or leave comments. And if you do this and you get a result, say, hey, I heard a podcast about single story and I learned this. Let us know what's going on, how we can serve you, how we are serving you, and how we can help you going forward.

Darren Yep, just go to unforgettable presentation presentations podcast.com and Mark, they could also come to Stagetime University as a member and bring the story to us. Literally to us and the other world class coaches. We do a call every Wednesday night, 6pm Pacific, 9pm Eastern, where members can get coached. We also have a new thing called the Story Dig that if you have an idea or a potential story, the coaches will literally do a session with you and help dig that story out of you and just something new that we tried and people love it. What's cool about coaching from World class coaching is like what you did for me, Mark, is yeah, it helps that story immeasurably, but it also teaches me and it permeates all of my stories, all of my presentations. So it's focusing on one story or one idea. But it was so much bigger than that. I was never the same speaker after I got coached. Now I worked hard. You can't just get a coach and listen and you're done. You got to do some work. Just want to be clear about that. But if you're Interested, check out stagetimeuniversity.com Become a presentation mastery member and join us on the live calls. If you're not quite ready for that, you can join us and watch us coach other people.

People.

But we meet you where you're at and we really love to help people and that's why we designed stage time that way. Because I believe Mark, I don't know if you agree with this, but every presenter can become unforgettable. But most of them don't get the level of feedback they need in order to make the adjustments to take A story and make it unforgettable. They're trying to DIY it, which you can't do, or they're getting feedback from people at their level and there's nothing wrong, wrong with that. But they're never going to give you what a world class or a qualified coach would.

Yeah, and I love the, I love the story that we began doing several weeks ago because it's just that you bring a story and the coaching staff, I get to do this too. We dig into the story and we find out a little deeper what's really going on, what is the message, what is the wisdom, who is the guru? What can you then share with your eager audience? So not only do we dig out more detail, a more conversation and more dialogue, but we dig out the deep, meaningful message that you want to give. That's also part of the process of finding out what is the true message of your story. And a great way to do that is to join us at Stagetime University.

Yeah, single story, multiple messages. People are going to walk away if it's well told with messages you didn't even think of. But take the time, get some feedback, get some ideas, just tell the story without delivering your foundational phrase, let's say and see what people, what they think the message is. And most often you're surprised. You're like, I didn't think of that. But that could be and it might not be the way you want to go with it and that's okay. But if we truly want to be unforgettable, we must realize we have magical stories that just need a little magic potion, a little uncovering. Mark Brown, single story, multiple messages, Take us home.

Yeah, listen, like I said, go back to your old stories, resurrect them, tell them, get the feedback and be open to understand. The power of your story may not lie in only one message. If you can find those multiple messages, then you just could be unforgettable. See you next week.

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