Ep. 137 The Unforgettable Broadcasting of Chris Broussard

Darren Lacroix. I say, hey, Darren Lacroix, how are you today?

I'm doing great, Mark. I've never seen you quite so excited.

Well, I'll tell you why. Today our guest is one of the most unique people we'll meet because he speaks on various platforms in different ways. And I tell you, I met him over 10 years ago. I get to work with him, I get to serve with him, and I can't wait to literally unleash this guest or audience. Let's just do that right now, okay?

Anyone can give a presentation. Few deliver unforgettable presentations. What's the difference? You're about to find out. Welcome to the Unforgettable Presentations podcasts with your hosts, world champion speakers and coaches, Mark Brown.

Mark Brown, your life tells a story and there's someone out there who needs to hear it.

And Darren Lacroix.

And Darren Lacroix, stage time, Stage time, Stage time.

Ready for some powerful presentation, AHAs, let's dive right in.

Yeah, Darren. Today we are uniquely blessed with a man who speaks in different ways, in different areas, different platforms. I'll give you two quick credentials is my friend, my brother. He is the host of First Things first on Fox Sports 1 and the radio program is the Odd Couple on Fox Sports Radio. Please meet my friend, my brother, a journalist and an all round awesome guy, Chris Broussard. Chris, welcome to the Unforgettable Presentations podcast.

Man, it's great to be on, guys. I appreciate you for having me. It's good to meet and see both of you.

Well, Chris, go ahead. Darren, I'm just bolting off the walls.

No, I'm just following your lead. Enjoying watching the bounce.

Well, Chris, I know you're doing radio, you're doing tv. I also know that you present as a motivational speaker your faith you aren't ashamed about. You are the president of a men's movement called the King movement here in North America. You appear on panels, you, you do one on one interviews. You have been on the main stage in the NBA finals sitting beside Magic Johnson and you analyze. I've seen your monologues. You do them on social media about basketball and the pros. You have talked to all these players. You've interviewed President Obama, you talked to President Clinton. I mean, you've done it all and you're versatile. But I'm sure our listeners want to know, how did you get involved in journalism and ending up on TV and radio in the first place?

Well, of course, you know, I got involved first with journalism in college. I went to Oberlin College in Ohio my sophomore year. I looked around. I played basketball at Oberlin, and I looked around at some of my teammates, many of my friends, my girlfriend who eventually became my wife. I looked at all them at the time, and they all seem to know what they wanted to do after college. And some were gonna be engineers, some were gonna be medical doctors, some were going to law school or some other type of graduate school. And I really didn't know what I wanted to do. I had thought about journalism in the past, I thought about broadcasting in the past, but I really hadn't pursued it in full force. And so I kind of got scared and said, man, I've only got like, two and a half years left before I need to become a responsible adult, take care of myself, whatever family I have. And so I came up with a formula to figure out what I wanted to do. And I took something I enjoyed, which was sports. I played football, basketball, and baseball through high school, basketball and college, as I said, always grew up reading Sports Illustrated, reading a lot of books about sports. And then I took something I was gifted at, which was writing. So I think we all have our various gifts, and writing is a gift that I've had. I mean, we all can be taught how to write grammatically correct, but I do think it's a gift to be able to write in a compelling and captivating way. And that's something I always was able to do from as far as I could remember. Whether it was essays in school or even as a young boy starting to write raps, all of that helped me, you know, learn how to write. So I said, okay, something I'm gifted at, sports plus something I. I'm sorry, something I enjoy, sports plus something I'm gifted at writing. Let me try to become a sports writer? And fortunately, I was able to go ahead and realize that dream. I got a summer internship at the biggest newspaper in Cleveland following my junior year in high school. That was a Cleveland Plain Dealer. And then when I graduated our junior year in college, then when I graduated, they hired me. I began. That's when I began my career as a sports writer. And it kind of blossomed into broadcasting and speaking and things like that. But it began strictly as a writer.

No, real quickly, you said it blossomed. I mean, when I met you were doing ESP in the magazine. I remember that I would even hear your voice on the radio once in a while, too. But we went from writing to broadcasting. Did you eventually have a goal to say, I'm gonna be on an on ear personality, was that one of the goals you'd set?

No. Well, it was interesting because back when I. The summer I graduated was 1990 and I sat. I had a summer internship at the Indianapolis Star that summer. And then in the fall I began working in Cleveland. But I remember in Indianapolis, you know, I was debating whether I would take the job in Cleveland. I got a job offer in Indianapolis at the Star as well. Would I take that job or. I did have desires to maybe do broadcast journalism, even though I hadn't been trained in it. I did a radio show on campus at Oberlin. I did news, I did sports, and I did like a hip hop radio show. I was a hip hop DJ on campus. So that you're speaking for that. And so I remember sitting down with someone that worked in TV in Indianapolis. He was telling me at the time, you really, at that time it was true too. You had to kind of choose, do you want to go into print journalism? Do you want to. Or broadcast journalism? Today, there's more of a mixture of the two. But at that time, you know, I kind of had to choose and it was easier. I already had job offers in print and there were just more opportunities in print journalism than there were in broadcast journalism at the time. And so I chose print, not thinking that I would ever, you know, move into radio or television. And I covered high school sports as a writer, then started covering the NBA in Cleveland or in Akron at the Akron Beacon Journal for covered the Cleveland Cavaliers, eventually moved on to the New York Times. And that's when I began doing more television in Cleveland as a reporter, as the beat writer for the Cleveland Cavaliers, I would be interviewed on radio shows just for the knowledge of the Cavaliers. So it might be a 10 minute radio interview. And then when I got to New York, that's when I began getting those same opportunities, not only on radio, but on television. And so that's really where my television career began.

Bridge that to speaking, doing lectures, doing motivational, doing men's conferences. How broad was the gap from being on TV doing sports to actually becoming a presenter, a speaker with a message to youth, to teams, to leaders? How did that kind of evolve for you?

It was natural. It wasn't really an evolution because when I graduated from college and as I said, I was working in Cleveland, Ohio, soon thereafter, I began, you know, as someone who, as an African American male who had graduated and was now working at a newspaper as a sports writer, I got speaking opportunities whether it was Boys and Girls Club, whether it was an elementary school, whether it was a high school, a college, even churches. I began to speak, whether it was just about my career or even faith based messages. And so I was just, I just started doing those and I didn't think a lot about it. I didn't, I never took speaking lessons or anything like that. I just went and spoke. And it was kind of, it was really natural, to be honest. And so I was already doing that before I began doing radio and television. So as I, as I did move more into television, I just continued to speak on occasion at these various places. That's really how I went. Like my career. I was at the New York Times from 1998 to 2004 doing television more and more. It started out in local television and then I began making appearances on espn. And then I, you know, espn, whether it was interviewing me for a documentary like Sports Century or they'd have me on SportsCenter or a show called Cold Pizza, that morphed into First Take. And then when I was hired by ESPN to write for the magazine in 2004, the agreement was that, hey, we've seen you on television. We like you, will have you do some of that. But mainly I was a magazine writer. But as time went on, they began having me on television more and more and more. And ultimately, and that's true for not only myself, but those who are sports fans. Stephen A. Smith, Brian Windhorst, Jamel Hill, Michael Wilbon, Tony Kornheiser, Skip Bayless. I could go on and on. All of us started Adam Schefter as writers, and some may have had desires to be broadcast journalists, but we started as writers. Television radio began having us and others on for our information about the team and the sports we covered, and also for that. And so those that had good information and those that had some type of charisma and comfort in front of the camera ended up morphing into television and radio personalities even more so than writers. And so that's really what happened to me at espn. I began doing more and more television and eventually that cut to my writing. So I wasn't writing as much. And then in 2016, I went to Fox Sports and I have not written a word since I've been at Fox Sports.

Has it been that long, Chris?

Been six years.

Has it been that long?

Yeah, now I've been there five and a half years. It'll be six years in October at Fox Sports. But now all I do is television and radio. No writing.

Wow. And Chris, what do you think? Whether it was a mistake you made or someone else because we're trying to inspire people to be unforgettable. And I know it's encouraging to others to know when people who've made it, we hear some of the mistakes. And you mentioned one thing, that you are likable. And I think that's one of the things that we all want more of. You want to be unforgettable. Well, part of it is you got to be likable. Any mistakes you made along the way, that lessons you learned, never do that again, that might inspire other people.

Yeah, I mean when you do live television, and that's what I do, I mean it's essentially all live. In the past there have been a few times where at ESPN you would tape something in advance, but well over 99% of my appearances are always and have always been live. And when you do live television, no matter who you are, occasionally you make mistakes. And there are times where I've gotten a fact wrong here or there. You know, you just have to own it. You own it. Don't act like you didn't do it when you called out on it. You own it and then you just move on and you just have to erase the voices from your head that maybe other people are putting in your head. Now of course with social media you can read all types of negative and positive comments. You get that out of your head and you just get back to work. Preparation is obviously always a key. Make sure you, you know, you focus on that.

And Chris, what do you do to prepare for live? Like what, do you have a little routine you go through or do you check some fat? Like what does Chris do to prepare?

I'm on the show. First things first, as Mark mentioned, every morning, Monday through Friday from 7:30 to 9:30am so it's two hours of straight live television. But what I do is we have a pre show meeting. I'll get up earlier, I get up around 4:30, shower, get myself together. And then from 5:30 to 6am we meet with the producers and we determine the topics that we're going to talk about. And then from 6am to about to 7:15am you have time to prepare your notes. You know at that point what the questions are. And so you're getting your notes together, what you're going to say, what your logic is, what your reasoning is, the facts that you're gonna use to back up your argument. So if you're having a debate about who's better between Michael Jordan and LeBron James, you need to be able to back it up. I'm doing research, I have my own thoughts and I'm putting those down on paper. And then we do have researchers who are available to us. I don't rely too heavily on researchers, but occasionally because again, I've made a mistake here or there on the air, you know, you may fact check your facts, your statistics with the researcher or ask them a question. You know, can you give me Michael Jordan's clutch time stats in the playoffs and they'll send them to you or something like that. Or you're also looking them up on the Internet. When I write things down, it enhances my memory of those things. So I'll write down all my notes. It helps me remember them. And when I'm on the air, I'll have my notes on my desk in front of me. But if you note, I'm not looking down at my notes, I'm not speaking. And hey, I'm just speaking, looking into the camera, but having written it down. And also, this is what you do for a living. You follow sports. So you know a lot of this stuff already, it's in your head. But the facts, when I write them down, if I write down three points, that helps me remember the three points I want to make about a certain topic.

That is brilliant. Write down the points. Are you hearing this, friends? Okay, now, Chris, regarding preparation and being in in the clutch. Because you're in the clutch every day. You're live every single day. As presenters, we aren't often recorded, but sometimes we get distracted or something gets in the way. Now, I don't know if you're on the air live and news is breaking and it's in your ear and you're talking and there's a producer in your ear. Does that happen sometimes?

I mean, it's not all the time, but at the end of a segment or before a segment, you'll have a producer in your ear here and there. So when my, one of my co hosts may be speaking and the producer will say, okay, Bruce R. Is next or Nick Wright is next, or, you know, you'll hear that in your ear. If you're getting close to a break, you may hear 10 seconds, 30 seconds, something like that. I have had situations at both FOX and ESPN where I have been speaking live. These are remote situations where I'm in a remote studio looking into a camera speaking, and I'm alone in the studio, but I'm looking into the camera speaking and I've got my IFB in. So I'm hearing the questions from the person that's in the studio asking me the questions. So you'll see on tv, maybe a split screen, I'm on one side, the questioner is on the other side. And I've been in situations probably 5 to 10 times during my career where there may have been an echo where I was speaking and everything I said I heard my echo. And I have had to. And I'm not the only one, but I've had to just speak through that and deliver my answer even as this echo is playing in my head or in my ear and not, you know, do it in a way where the people watching can't tell you, can't stop it and be, hey, hey, I got an echo in my ear. Like, hold on, no, you're live. Even if there's a slight delay of a few seconds, you can't. You've got to go. And so I've had to do that several times and fortunately I've been able to get through it and do it, do it well. But, yeah, you have some situations like that.

Well, I ask for a reason, Chris, because as presenters, and you know this too, you could be in an event, at an event, you are on stage and there is some distraction. There's a fire alarm that goes off down the hallway or the siren outside, and people are being distracted. You're speaking, you're in the middle of your talk, and you have to kind of hold it together and get through what you have to say. And for some people, that's really challenging. Is there a technique you have to handle distractions when you're on the platform or you're on the air that you can share with our listeners to help them kind of deal with that as well.

Prayer.

Preach it, brother.

You know, I'm a Christian. I'm big on memorizing biblical passages. And sometimes there's a scripture that may comfort me in a time like that. God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and self control. So things like that, I know, okay, I control myself in this situation. I don't have to be fearful in this situation. All things work together for good for those that love God. So this situation, even though it looks like it's not working out, will work out for good. So those are some of the things, like if I'm in a situation where it really could be stress inducing or anxiety inducing, I'll recite a scripture in my mind or trusting God to just, you know, get me through the situation, calm me down, keep me calm, keep me at peace. So that's that's my strategy. I don't know about other people.

Love it.

And, Chris, you've obviously seen a lot of presenters, whether it's in the Christian world, in the secular world, sportscasters, and what you do. What do you think it takes to be unforgettable? So what does Chris believe is unforgettable?

Well, one thing it takes. Preparation. Okay? You should prepare. When you speak in front of somebody, whether it's an interview on television, whether you're preaching at a church, whether you're speaking at a college, whatever it may be, make sure you're prepared. Make sure you have good information to share with the people. That's number one. I also personally think it's important to be natural, to be yourself, to come off as yourself. I think that's a big key. At times. You may use a little bit of humor here or there. You don't necessarily want to overdose on humor, but a nice icebreaker, a funny joke at the beginning can make people relax. It can make you relax as they laugh at your joke. Hopefully it's funny, but something like that can help. And I don't mean necessarily. Sometimes you do hear a speaker give an actual joke, tell an actual joke. Other times it's more of a natural comment that you may make. But that is meant to be funny. And I tell people honestly, there is a big it factor in speaking wherever it is, whether it's doing a radio show, doing a television show, or doing public speaking, everyone can be trained to do those things. And to be speak grammatically correct, to write grammatically correct, as I said, or to know all the technical things about appearing on television or radio. But to be compelling, to be captivating, to capture the imagination of your audience, whether it's a viewing audience or a listening audience, there's an it factor to that, where you either have it or you don't, is what I believe. Charles Barkley is not the most technically sound person on television.

That's terrible. That's just terrible.

But he's phenomenal.

Yeah, he is.

Because it's an it factor. There are people in my business, on television or radio, who have been trained and are technically sound. They rarely if ever, make mistakes and perfect and their speaking is great. But they may not have that it factor that captures the listeners and they're solid, they're okay. But the ones that really people remember that have the highest rated shows, those are ones that have something about them, about their personality that people are just drawn to. So that is a part of this business as well.

And I Think when the. The more people with the IT factor, the more they prepare, the better their it comes out, if that makes sense.

If you. Well, that's a great. That's a great point. Like, you may have a compelling personality and all of that, but if you don't do your preparation, if you don't understand some of the techniques and rules and things like that, then you won't be able to maximize that IT factor, and eventually you'll wear out. It's like, I think Michael Jordan is the best basketball player ever. So. And he had natural talent, obviously jumped high. He was quick, he was fast, he was strong. So he had all that. That IT factor, if you will, those natural gifts. But he combined it with a fundamental understanding of the game, high basketball iq. He worked hard at his skills, ball handling, jump shooting, defense, so on and so forth. So combining his natural gifts or that IT factor with the fundamental techniques is what enabled him to be so great. And it's the same thing in any business. You may have a natural gift for writing or whatever it may be, but you have to always combine that with preparation, with understanding of the rules and so on and so forth to really bring it all together and make it be an unforgettable presentation. As you guys said, you know, when.

When there's something on people's minds, like they walk into a convention, into a church, there's a thing happening in the sports world. Like one of those great opening lines, you know, you don't have to be funny. But I love Chris Rock's opening line at his comedy show in Boston. After the week, he just said, so how was your weekend?

And that's. That's it.

He didn't go into it. He didn't take sides. He didn't, you know, and, and. But bam. Just like you're saying that little bit of humor handles what's on people's mind and just kind of releases that tension.

Absolutely.

And Darren, you're going to segue to me because you mentioned what Chris Rock did in a particular situation. So, Chris, I'm going to yank the wheel slightly because you've been in different situations as a speaker, you've been a headline keynote speaker, but you've also served on panels. What is the difference in your mind that you can share with our listeners who some will be in a panel because they're doing a book tour or whatever the case may be? What is the difference in your mind in preparing for a keynote, main stage, headline speech, or being on a panel when you know, because, Chris, give us Two minutes and then we'll go to somebody else. How do you differentiate the preparation and the presentation in those two scenarios?

Well, when I'm preparing for a message that I'm going to present, be it a school, a church, whatever, I'll kind of write down an outline of things I want to talk about in, you know, in a certain order, like an outline and there's a flow to it and I grow into certain points and things like that. When you're doing on a panel, they may or may not give you the questions beforehand. Obviously you'll know the general topic. And so I may, if I just know the topic, I will do research on that. Almost as if you were doing it to write a paper or whatever. Like if I'm doing, if I'm on a panel discussion about fatherlessness, then I'm going to look up statistics and things like that and just jot things down or have. If I'm sitting on a panel, obviously I won't have notes in front of me necessarily. So I will jot things down and do research, look up various facts and think about the points I want to make. But a panel obviously is more. You're more ad libbing. You don't know what the panelists before you is going to say. They may jump in on a point that you've made and you may have a back and forth or you may jump in on a point that a panelist is making. They may bring up something you hadn't thought about. So just as much information as you can learn about the topic that you're speaking about on the panel, that is a great way to prepare so that no matter what way the conversation goes, you'll be ready for it.

Now, regarding panels, there are times, there will be times, there have been times where individuals on a panel don't agree. There have been times you and Skip Bayless didn't agree.

I mean, that's the whole point of the show is to not agree on our shows. No, we don't, we don't force it there. Obviously a lot of times you agree on a topic, but it is better for our shows when you disagree. And I clear up a misconception because when people look at these sports debate shows, sometimes they may think that people are just taking one side or the other just to have a debate, that they really don't believe it. Of all the shows I've been on like that, I've never once been asked just to take a side that you don't agree. Let's take this side. So we can have a debate. It's always natural. It's always, what is your true feeling about it? And because we understand if you don't believe it, it's not going to be believable, it's not going to be as good, it's not going to be as natural, as charismatic. And so it's always, what is your true belief about this? And if you agree, you agree. If you disagree, all the more, all the better. Yeah, when we disagree, I mean, you know, you just have to be able to argue your point and have logic to arguing your point.

Yeah. I can recall when Queen when you said, man, you're tripping, man, you're tripping. That was just years ago. I came kind of famous on YouTube for a while there when you said, man, you trippin. But it shows that because you're prepared and because you're convinced of your point of view, your perspective, your argument, you can then articulate that in a meaningful, credible and reasonable way. And we don't often think of ourselves as having to make an argument, but in truth, when we're presenting, we're making an argument. Another way I've seen you do that is I open my Instagram or my TikTok and there's Chris and you're giving us maybe two minutes monologue about what happened last night. You're comparing stats. How long do you normally like those monologues to be? And how is that different from preparing a speech for you as a presenter?

Well, a lot of those are probably just things that were taken from a show I was on.

Okay.

So if I'm on First Things first or Undisputed with Skip Bayless and Shannon Sharpe, they'll take a little excerpt from my point I was making and put it on Instagram or social media. And so that's a lot of what you're seeing. Just so. So when we talk, I mean, it's just kind of understood on my shows. I mean, we don't set a time, but you may have, you may make your point. It could be anywhere from generally. I'd say it's probably a 90 seconds to. You may even say something for three and a half minutes, four minutes, you know, on a segment. So it's just, it's very organic. Obviously you understand, you don't take up the entire segment, but you just make your points and you try to make them. There's a sweet spot there that we all kind of hit, but I don't know what the average is. Two minutes, maybe, I'm not even sure.

Well, Before Darren asks this question, I wanted to ask one more thing on that point. It sounds to me that you have given yourself time to prepare yourself, to gain the experience, to be able to make the critical points you want to make. In two minutes or fewer, some of our listeners will do TED talks, 18 minutes, 9 minutes, or do a full keynote for an hour. But you're saying you understand between 90 and 120 seconds. You got to make the point, make it clearly, make it strongly enough. What is the value, Chris, do you think, to our listeners and to us as speakers, presenters to find ways to condense our main points down into small enough sound bites to be meaningful, but not go on and on and on? Is there a technique for that?

I think it's just understanding what you're doing. And so if I know I only have two minutes, then I've got to really get my points out. You don't rush your speaking cadence, but you just know you need to get right to the point and make your points in a more succinct way. Whereas if I have 20 minutes or an hour, I've spoken for two hours. Things like that, like you can say more and you can flesh points out more. You may use stories, people remember stories a lot. That's always a good thing. Tell a story to illustrate a point. But I would just say it's really just understanding how much time you have and that'll dictate how deeply you can delve into a point or not.

The reason why I asked that question, Darren, please forgive me, is that we work with speakers often who like in speakers who are in Toastmaster speech contests and they have a certain amount of time to deliver their message. And I can't tell you how many times people come to us, they know they have seven minutes and they have a nine minute speech and they think they can talk faster to get to get more information in. I guess what you're saying is then you have to be succinct and choose carefully what content you will put in to make sure you get the best material in in the amount of time allotted so nobody loses. I appreciate that, Chris. Darren, over to you, my friend.

Yeah, so, Chris, want to respect your time and as we wind down here, one of the questions I love to ask. Thank you for being with us, really appreciate this. If you met someone who is new to sportscasting or new to speaking in a church or giving presentations and you're having co coffee with them and they're nervous, their anxiety is high, but they really, really want to do A good job. They want to be unforgettable. What advice would you give them?

Well, a lot of what I've already said, I would, I would say, you know, make sure you are prepared, that you have your information down pat. You know, what you're comfortable with, the speaking topic. I would say one of the big things I would say is be yourself. You know, be yourself. Don't try to. Like in sports, a lot of times you may hear a great point guard say, yeah, I used to watch. They'll take bits and pieces from a player of the past. So say a point guard today, maybe a John Morant for the Memphis Grizzlies may say, and I'm making this up, but just using him as an example, he may have said, you know, I, I used to watch film of Magic Johnson and I took from Magic the importance of being able to throw a no look pass. I watched John Stockton and I took from him the importance of being a tenacious defender. I watched Kyrie Irving and I learned the importance and I tried to handle the ball like he does. I watched Steph Curry to try to take the jump shot from him. Like you'll watch your predecessors and take bits and pieces from each of them and then kind of put it in your own way, in your own style and incorporate it into your own game. And it was the same way for me in writing where I would read good writers, whether it was books, whether it was newspaper articles, now articles on the Internet, but I would read good writers and notice different techniques that they use and then take it and try to incorporate it into my own style. You can't always emulate somebody. I've seen writers, colleagues I had when I was at the New York Times, who, one in particular, I'm thinking, who was tremendous at using metaphors. Like every story, she would write some fantastic metaphor. I think I remember one and I'm talking. Her name is Selena Roberts and she used to write for New York Times and then she went to Sports Illustrated. And I remember once she had a metaphor like Alan Houston. I think it was Alan Houston, a Knicks player. Alan Houston cut off, came off the screen tighter than the stripe on a candy cane or something like that, you know, but she was doing that every article. It was incredible. And I couldn't do that. I'm like, but every now and then I might be able to incorporate something like that if it fits my writing style or whatever. But you can't copy that because that's the gift she had. And I just didn't have that gift but you may take little things here and there from various writers and say, you know what, I'm gonna use that, but in my own way, in my own style. And it's the same thing with speaking. I've watched great speakers of various types, motivational speakers, preachers, people on television and said, I like that. Oh, wow, that's impressive. And you may take a little bit of their style and incorporate it into your own presentation, but in your own way, in a way that comes off natural to you. And so that's something I would tell them to read good writers, because reading and writing, I believe, helps your public speaking because it increases.

Say it again, brother preacher. Say it again. Say it again.

It helps you. Yeah, it increases your knowledge and it helps you put thoughts together. And so those are a lot of the things that I would tell the person. You know, watch great speakers and take little things here and there from them.

And as, as we kind of wind down, Mark's take, been taking notes. He's going to recap some of the bombs of wisdom you dropped from Three Point Land.

Nice. Nicely done. Okay.

I was the guy who never got picked. So where would somebody find you? So if they want to watch any of your shows, where would they find you? Or what is your Instagram handle if they wanted to follow you? So where would we hear you, Chris?

Long list now. Whole list.

Every Monday, every morning, Monday through Friday, I'm on Fox Sports 1 from 7:30am to 9:30am on our. I'm a co host of a show, First Things first, which is a sports show. I'm often on the show that follows from 9:30 to noon Eastern, which is Undisputed with Skip Bayless and Shannon Sharpe. And then you may even see me on Colin cowherd's show from 12 noon to 3 here or there. Then every week night, Monday through Friday, you can find me on Fox sports radio, the iHeartradio app, or Sirius XM channel 83, doing a radio show called the Odd Couple that I co host with my partner Rob Parker. And that's a sports talk radio show. I do speak in various venues. If you're interested in having me as a speaker, you can go to Chris Broussard speaks Chris Broussard speaks.com and book me on social media. You can follow me on Chris Broussard on Twitter, hrisbrussard on Twitter or Chris Broussard68 on Instagram. And so those are some of the places that people can find me.

Cool, Mark.

So you are highly googleable. You know, Chris I want to give you my keepers that I got, but I forgot to ask you one critical question in terms of presenters or speakers. Did you have anybody who said, man, they got. They have it. I admire them. Is there any one speaker you really admired when you were coming. Coming through as a speaker yourself?

I don't know if there was one in particular.

That's a great answer, by the way. You know why? You know why? Because you just. You just told us to look at different speakers, so you don't need to give me an answer. You gave me an answer.

There may be some that I only watch here or there or even one time, and I may not even know them well or know who they are, but you see a side. You see something that you like, and you may take it from them and incorporate it into yours.

That is wonderful. See, Darren, he didn't say Mark Brown, so it's all good. See, I'm just teasing.

But yeah, he told them to be authentic.

What's that?

You told them to be authentic?

There you go. No, this is all good. Listen, friends, we tease. Chris and I go back at least 10 years, so it's all good. All right? I get to work with him in his. In his men's movement. But you told us without saying these words, take the opportunities as they come, because you did that when you're out of college. Your main point, preparation is the key. Writing notes can help you remember your message. Always be yourself. Be authentic and be genuine. Use balanced humor in your presentations and give an engaging opening treat. Being on a panel, like writing a paper, prepare for it. Always be credible and use stories effectively. Learn the skills from different individuals who have done what you want to do. And if you want to be a good speaker, reading and writing will enhance your speaking abilities. Chris Broussard, my friend, my brother, I cannot thank you enough for spending some time with Darren. With our listeners, our viewers, and me, I want to wish you every blessing, every success. I'm glad to work with you on the King movement, and I know that we'll see each other down the road. Darren, I'll let you bring us home, man.

All right, thanks again, Chris. Join us next week. Tell your friends about the podcast, and please check out Chris and his shows. The more you learn from people who are doing it, not just by hearing the stories behind it, but listening to them do what they do. And ask yourself, what can I use to be unforgettable?

Unforgettable. See you next week.

Make sure you subscribe to our show.

Remember to subscribe because if you miss a week, you miss a lot.

If you like this episode, please leave us a review. If you want to get more from Mark and Darren, check out stagetime University where they provide experienced presenters a proven path and world class feedback. To become the speaker everyone is talking about, go to stagetimeuniversity.com join us next week if you're going to take the time to prepare a presentation, make it unforgettable.