Ep. 148 Four Critical Reasons You Must Get a Speaking Coach

Hey there, Mark. I'm about to lose the nice guy image right here.

Uh oh, uh oh, here we go.

And I'm okay with that, I'm okay with that. But here, listen, this is the idea behind this. I believe there are two kinds of speakers. Only two? You could call it two kinds of presenters. Only two. Number one, there's those who will invest in a speaker coach, and number two, there are those who will never ever reach their full potential.

Listen, if you want to be unforgettable, we recommend you get a speaker coach. And we'll tell you why in a minute.

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 LeCroy.

Stagetime, stage time. Stage time.

Ready for some powerful presentation. Ahas. Let's dive right in.

Breathe, Darren, breathe. Darren, I have not seen you like this in a long time. What's on your mind, brother?

I'm, I, I, I want to be sorry. I'm not sorry. It's kind of like sorry, not sorry thing.

Sorry, not sorry.

Right, because it's just the truth. Now obviously Mark and I coach, we do coaching, but this isn't about hire us. This is truly, if you want to be unforgettable, no one becomes great alone. We had Mark, you know, we had Mike Rayburn on the podcast. I think it was podcast number one or two or something. And he said, you know what the problem with being self taught is? The teacher is not that good.

That's right. Mike Rayburn, hall of fame speaker, way back on episode two. Feel free to check it out. But he says it's right when you're self taught. The problem is the teacher is not that good. And I know, Darren, I have seen you on the platform. One of your lines is let it.

Go right, get over yourself.

And people can laugh about that. But if we are honest with ourselves, we have to understand DIY can only take you so far. And it's important to understand the value of a coach. And I want to reiterate what Darren just said. This episode is not about, hey, come hire us, we're the best in the world coaching. No, it's about, it's about the principle, the concept. If you want to truly be unforgettable, you're going to need some help getting There.

Hey, I started standup comedy in 1992. If you know me, you know the story. But just for those of you who don't, those of you do, please bear with me for a second. But 1992, it wasn't till 2001 that I got my first coach. Cause I had clung on like a pit bull to stage time. Stage time, stage time, stage time. And trust me, it served me. I grew, but I grew incrementally. Incrementally. Once I got coaching from David McElhaney, my first coach, and then Mark Brown, my second coach, the summer of 2001, I went from growing incrementally to exponentially. Incrementally to exponentially. Because it was a whole new world. I was doing stage time, stage time, stage time. But like Mike said, if you're being self taught, the problem is the teacher's not that good. And it would be one thing if you were a world class coach and you coached yourself, which is still ain't gonna work because you're too close. You're too close. But this podcast is about, by the way, we have a podcast on how to choose the right coach for you, which Mark was episode number what, 14.

Episode 14.

Yeah, episode 14. So go and check that out for. For sure. But this isn't how to, this is why to. If you're serious, if you want to be unforgettable, there's times where you might have a coach for a little while, and then maybe there's a season you work on what you gained from that coach. And then maybe another season comes and you find another coach. Every coach has their own ninja skill, but we go into that deeply in episode 14. But this is about why. Why? Four reasons why. And Mark, let's just jump in. Reason number one is you don't know what you don't know.

Oh, really? You don't know what you don't know. You know, it's almost a cliche, but when you pause and think about it, you may believe you have everything you need to excel at anything. And then someone comes along and says, hey, have you considered this? And if you're honest, you go, oh, I never even thought of that. That's evidence. You don't know what you don't know. And a coach can help you to see that, to understand that, to expand it, and to really become adept at it. Darren, you know, we do our workshops, we do our webinars, and you often quote a coach whose words you really like that kind of reinforce this idea of us not knowing what we don't know. I'd love for you to share that with our listeners and our viewers. Darren. Yeah.

By the way, this is on YouTube as well. If you're listening to this podcast, if you like to see the visuals or see Mark's beautiful face.

Yikes.

Or my blue eyes, you can do that. But it's also, it's the same content we just posted in two different places. But Gita Ned Carney, NSA speaker, heard her. Brilliant. She said, a coach has the power to unlock what's always been inside you that you can't access. Again, a coach has the power to unlock what's always been inside you that you can't access. I mean, Mark, that's like my story when I came to you, for everyone, if you haven't heard the story, mustn't have listened to any episodes. Mark, the mindset is when I came to you, I just thought if you just gave me a couple little tweaks, that's all I needed, just those tiny little adjustments and I'd be fine. You held up a mirror and oh, Darren, we have some work to do. I'm like, what? What do you mean? I don't have. I'm good. And I think that's the problem, that ego gets in the way that we think we're good enough just because we can stand there or we're passionate or we have a message we care about. That does not mean it's transferred properly through the ether between your lips and their ears. And they get it, understand it, absorb it, and think differently because they heard you. That is just. That's like the Rubik's Cube puzzle in the middle of the air that we don't have time to solve. So you don't know what you don't know. So, Mark, I don't know when you approached David Brooks, your coach, if what your mindset was, but mine was just a couple tweaks because I thought I was good enough.

It's funny you say that, because I was actually thinking about David Brooks as you were telling your part of the story, because David Brooks, the 1990 Toastmasters world champion, he actually said to me, he wrote me a letter. Now, for the millennials, a letter is something you put with pen on paper. Nevermind, Google it. But he wrote his letter and in his note he said to me, although our contact thus far has been limited to only a few brief exchanges, your words and manner lead me to believe that you are a talented speaker and one with whom I'd be honored to confer. Now, I Read that. And after I put my dictionary down, I realized he saw something in me I didn't know was there. I was naive. I was young. I had joined this Toastmasters contest. I ended up in the world stage without knowing what I was doing. I. I did not know what I didn't know, but this man saw something in me and said, I'd be honored to confer with you. The world champion wanted to help me, what, because he saw something I didn't see? He knew something about me I didn't know. And I was recalling with Darren before we went on air with this podcast, something you have shared a few times, Darren, about when you looked at the script and you said, I could see in two minutes what you couldn't see after seven years. Now, we're not trying to build the mutual bromance society here on a podcast. It didn't occur to me at the time. But when I had that conversation with you, Darren, you said, wait, I've been doing this seven years. PhotosMasters clubs are getting paid to speak, and I have this perfect script in my mind. And in two minutes, you saw, change this, adjust that, make some changes. A coach will do that for you. I didn't know what I was doing. I was gonna write this new speech with all these great quotes of all these great famous speech. And they was like, why do you need them? You know, you have your own. I didn't understand those simple concepts. And a coach will see in you what you don't see. And they have that power to unlock what you, in your own brain, can't recess because you don't have the path to that understanding, the path to those resources. And sometimes, I'll be honest, even with professional speakers, we sometimes don't see the story we're telling might be good, but there's something else we have that is even greater, which is why Darren and I and the team at stagetime love to do what we call story digs. We help you to unlock some of those stories, the gems, the goal. We mine your life to find these great stories, these experiences that you may not realize are just what you need. If you and I don't have coaches, we cannot do that. And many of us leave valuable resources or diamonds and gold on the table because we don't have someone to help us to unlock that and to unleash that.

Yeah. And sometimes it could be an aspect of a story that is missing, an element of a story, a critical part that. He was on the golf course and it was raining. Oh, and then you Know we do this all the time. The coach is like, yes, yes, that is so either number one, a story that you haven't even considered, like Gita said, unlock that. That's been in there the whole time. That's the key is that you have gold in you. You just don't have the practice of mining gold at a world class level. So it's. And it's just not get a coach, it's getting a qualified coach or world class coach, somebody who does this for their profession or they're a natural talent at it, whatever that is. And most great coaches have been trained to coach. You know, Jennifer Leone, one of our coaches, she went through Craig Valentine's world class speaking coach, Mike Davis, the same. So they've been trained in coaching, how to know what to ask. I mean, when I came to you, Mark, with my first version of the speech and you told me, or excuse me, you asked me what my goal was or what the intention of the speech was, what the outcome I wanted for the audience and you said, we need another failure story. I didn't know that was missing. I would still consider myself at that point an emerging speaker. Even though it's been nine years, seven years in Toastmasters, nine years doing standup. I didn't know what was missing. I didn't know I had to be transparent. I thought I had to prove how successful I was, not realizing the depth of connecting. So for example, Mark, I just literally put out today, or re released today an article about the depressed motivational speaker. We should do a podcast on that. And I have gotten 10 times the number of comments I usually get. And it's an old article. I just felt the God nudge, like someone needs to hear this. I got more responses and all of them said they appreciated how transparent I was. See, if we want to connect with our audience, we got to be transparent. That's what you were saying. Yeah, okay, you achieved something, but what did you screw up? If you want to talk about the height of your success, we got to talk about the depths of your failure. And it just wasn't on my radar screen. So great coaches, world class coaches, they have different things on their radar screens. And if you want to be a great speaker, okay, you're studying speaking, but you haven't studied coaching. They're different, you know, it's more about the questions you ask. So again, reiterating reason number one, to get a coach, you don't know what you don't know and don't let your ego get in the way.

Big One. Yeah. Yeah. Because, you know, if ego is in the way, we are less coachable. And I love one of Darren. I love one of your catchphrases. I want to start it. Let you finish it.

If you are not coachable, there is no cure. No one can help you.

And just for the fun of it, I'll be honest again. We are. We are brothers, but I love that Darren is sharing that principle. Here's why. 21 years ago, when we were Reader's Digest, probably this time of the year, Too, June of 2001, we had our meetings. There were times Darren struggled with being coachable because his mindset was, I only need a few tweaks. What's the big deal? So we can laugh about this now, But I will tell you this publicly. Darren Lacroix will never teach you anything that I have not seen him do himself. And he had to become coachable. And now he just loves to help others become successful. We want you to be unforgettable. Remember, you don't know what you don't know. And let a coach unlock what's inside that you can't access. Number one of four reasons you must get a coach. What's number two?

Darren, number two. And by the way, these next three quotes or reasons come right from people we've coached. So, yes, Dave Chase, he was a VIP at one of our events and he came to many of our events and had been part of the community as well. He says getting coached forces you to risk, which ultimately pays off. Getting coached forces you to risk, which ultimately pays off. And I think, Mark, a lot of people aren't willing to push themselves. But look, if you invest in a coach and they say, try it this way. Go left, you invested in their advice. And then, I mean, this happened with you and me, that's first. Before I was truly coachable, I was truly uncoachable. When you told me I had to write out the script so you could work with me, I'm like, but you don't understand. I'm a bullet point guy. I need to be in the moment. I have to be a one with my audience. You're like, if you want us to coach you, you need to write out your script. But it's not how I work. You just don't understand me. You don't understand me. And you're like, I don't remember if it was you or Dave, but you're like, you want our coaching? This is what we suggest. You need to do. Do that or we can't help you. But, but, but, but, but, but. And as it's been said, get the butt out of your mouth.

I gotta clarify one thing, Daniel, very quickly, because you said, I mentioned you should get you write a script. Now, for those who are saying, wait, I, I'm gonna do keynotes, I'm gonna do an hour long talk, I'm gonna do 75 minutes, I must rehearse and write a script. No, the context was the Toastmasters International speech contestants, which is five to seven minutes long. When you have only five to seven minutes to make your audience think, feel, laugh and cry, you have to be careful with your economy of your words for that. That's the reason why we recommend having a script to cover all of that in a short space of time. So to give you context, that's why I was more insistent on a script in that situation, in that circumstance and within that context, and I offer it.

For clarification, I would still say, Even for a 45 minute speech, I would still. Now, with that perspective that I have thanks to you, I would still say you at least need to structure out your whole speech.

Definitely. Yes, definitely, definitely.

Write out.

Don't get me wrong.

Word for word, you're opening and you're closing. Because you can't edit what you don't write down.

Correct.

And David McElhaney, my other coach who work with Mark, said when I argued with him, I'm like, I can't do that. I can't sit down and write. He said, okay, take your bullet points, go to a Toastmasters Club and record yourself and then transcribe it.

Exactly.

And let me just warn you, if you've never done that before, you want to stretch yourself without a coach. Read what you wrote, read what you transcribed. I was like, bul, it's not that interesting when I go back and read it. But it allowed me to take a 1492 word speech and slowly edit it, tighten it, edit it, tighten it. And I couldn't edit it if I didn't have it in front of me. So there was a huge value in that. Now, again, if you're doing a one hour speech, you don't have to necessarily write it out word for word, or better yet, write it out word for word. But don't feel you have to memorize it. Don't memorize it. Check out our podcast on Don't Memorize. That's the whole title. Don't memorize. Check out that podcast. But you still kind of need to think it all through, work it out and write it out as Much as you can, because then you can make it better, you can make it tighter, you internalize it, but you don't want to know it word for word. But you can write better, better if you see it in front of you. So I think it's that. Again, reason number two, forcing you to risk. If you know what you know, then you know it. But as we said in reason number one, you don't know what you don't know. So there's going to be that push, that getting outside of your comfort zone, overused cliche. And there's a reason it's a cliche. It's real. So having that coach gets you to look at things differently and forces you to risk.

Yeah. And by the way, that episode about don't memorize, internalize, that's episode 141. Wait, that's backwards. It's episode 141. I know. One bad joke. It's okay, podcast, but please understand. Look, think about this, my friends. As you listen to my voice, think about a time someone you trusted or mentored you encouraged you strongly to take a risk that didn't seem to make any sense. And if you heard Darren and me talk about Darren's contest speech, I know you're probably tired of hearing it. But there was one key part of that speech. When Darren fell on his face and stayed down, there are those who will tell you that first minute and a half of his speech was pivotal in him winning that world championship contest. And that was one risk that we said, darren, I said, Darren, stay down a little bit longer. Let the audience get uncomfortable. It was a risk. It was a risk, but everyone else said, no, don't stay down. It turned out to be catalytic. It was that significant. And sometimes, if we're willing to listen to our coaches who know more than we do, who we have entrusted to guide us to do the risky thing, and even if the risk doesn't work out exactly the way you planned, what you will find is you are now more willing to take risk as you go forward because you understand the value. And that risk can bring great rewards. So give some thought to that. Be willing to take that risk, and you may find yourself in a place you never thought you would be, or certainly not that quickly.

Thank you, Mark, by the way, Catalytic. I think I have a catalytic converter on my car. At least I used to. I don't know if they're in the new ones or not, but anyway, that's how much I know about auto, but I've heard that word Ooh, just not used in the coaching context. And here's what we're going to say too. Mark, I didn't tell you this idea, but I think you might agree with it. If you've never been coached before, but you know someone that you know like and trust who has been coached before, sit down and ask them to just have a conversation with you and see if all the four reasons are not the exact reason why you should get coached. Now, maybe it's not in your budget, maybe coaching. You can't just do one session. That's not how coaching works. You got to do a minimum of three sometimes it can be a great relationship and continue for a while, but you can't just do one coaching session. You can get feedback once. And that's why we created stagetime University to give every presenter, whatever budget they have, access to some world class coaches. But that one on one relationship definitely goes deeper. And as Ed Tait says, you can't cheap your way to the top. You can't cheap your way to the top. So look, if you're an emerging presenter, then look, find the coach that you can afford, find the coach that you do trust. It's really critical we talk about this again in episode 14. You have to trust that person. When I first chose David McElhaney, it's because I trusted him and I knew he was gonna push back on me in some areas, but I had to and again let that risk happen in order to get the breakthroughs that I needed.

Please understand this as well. You may think again. We're trying to tell you, come get, come get coaching from us at stagetime. I'll be honest. I have had potential clients whom I've turned away and said, no, you need to go to that person because they're a better fit for you. I've had Toastmasters who have gone all the way to the Toastmasters World Championship, who I've said, no, I'm not the best coach for you. I recommend you go somewhere else. And I've had one Toastmaster contestant who I sent to someone else who went on to win the World Championship. I don't need any more feathers in my cap. I don't want any more notches on my belt. You know, I'm this kind of no. I want to make sure for you to be unforgettable. You align yourself with the right coach for you. As long as you're willing to get coached by someone who's qualified, who can help you to get where you want to be, who can help you to.

Become unforgettable, willing to risk it will be uncomfortable. But your growth, your breakthroughs are on the other side of that uncomfort. And Mark, I'm thinking back to our Rory Vaden podcast where he said something brilliant. He said he's talking to speakers and presenters about telling their story and having their message. And he said, you are uniquely qualified to help the person you used to be. And that's one of the reasons we're doing this podcast, because I used to be that person who just wanted a couple tiny tweaks. I didn't think I needed breakthroughs. My ego was in the way. And that's one of the reasons, because I'm uniquely qualified to tell you this. Don't do what I did. All right, so Mark, we got don't know what you don't know forces you to risk, which. That's where breakthroughs lie. And reason number three, great coaching expedites the process. This came from David Fritzlin. Great friend, super nice guy, big fan of his. David Footson says, great coaching expedites the process.

What's interesting there is that, Darren, you have said over and over, over the two decades I've known you, you mention it today on your own, you are growing incrementally. So there is growth, years, progress, it's happening. But with coaching, I don't want to say it's a fast track, but it certainly expedites the process. I think it was world champion 99, Craig Valentine, who says, let our long road be your shortcut. The long road the coach has gone through gives them knowledge, expertise and wisdom, which when they imparted to you, you no longer take that long road. You do take their shortcut. And therefore your growth is expedited. Your process is faster because you are willing to submit yourself and to glean the knowledge you can gain from somebody who's qualified to coach. So when someone who has been down this road says, you know what? I'm glad I got coaching because for me, my growth process was expedited, they're telling you, why take all this time to get from point A to point Q. A qualified coach already has the roadmap. Let the individual with the roadmap guide you along that path to expedite your process. Darren, you give a diagram about working really hard in the wrong direction, and then you get the right coaching, you get to a destination more quickly and you get greater benefits. Maybe you want to expand on that, I don't know. But I love what Mr. Fritzland says. It'll expedite the process and save you a lot of time because a qualified coach has been down that road before. They know where the potholes are, where the pitfalls are, where the speed bumps are. Let a qualified coach guide you along the path to your being unforgettable. It'll make a huge difference if you let them expedite the process for you.

Yeah. If you pull out your phone right now and you open the Maps app and just start driving.

Okay.

Don't put in the address you want to go to, just start driving. And it will tell you exactly where you're at. But without knowing where you want to go, you don't know you're going in the wrong direction. You know, you don't have somebody saying recalculating, recalculating. Like Mark, for example, when I came to you when you looked at my speech and you saw in two minutes what I couldn't see after nine years of being on stage, you could see clearly that I was telling stories in past tense in narration. So you could see, okay, here's a course. Correct. Here's a recalculating, recalculating, recalculating. Now you need to tell your stories in present tense. You need to tell them in dialogue. So had I done stage time, stage time, stage time, after nine years, I didn't know that in another five, working on my own, I may have figured that out. I may not have, but I may have. But in one conversation with you, the very first time I worked with you, you, you gave me a missing link, a Swiss cheese. The hole filled up for me, being world class and immediately and instantly I realized what I was doing wrong because you showed me everyone has challenges. But that's why I love coaching one on one with people or being coach because you get the full attention of the coach to look at you and your style in your way, with your stories. And they can hold up the mirror, they can point out where your hole is in your Swiss cheese. So now that's what David's saying. It expedites the process. Because a coach, a qualified coach, an experienced coach, a world class coach can see easily and quickly some common mistakes that you may not have seen yourself. Maybe eventually you'd catch on, but it's just, it expedites the process.

And Darren, what I like about your GPS metaphor is that whenever I turn my GPS on and I tell it where I want to go, it says calculating fastest route. That's this. It says calculating the fastest route. We're talking about expediting the process to Give you the fastest route to get where you need to be to becoming unforgettable. And sometimes things happen and you have to course correct, but GPS will also. Your coach will recalculate. And now you're now on the fastest route. Is a traffic accident. Okay. Is a traffic ahead or a slow on ahead? You're still on the fastest route or said, we'll recalculate your fastest route. Please. You got to get this metaphor in your hearts, my friends. A coach can be just that, gps. You need to get you to your destination in the fastest way. Not just for speed, but for economy. How much energy you use, fuel, gas. And these days with fuel, petrol, gas prices. Omg. Right. Your coach is just the individual. You have so much in reserve because you understand how to get to your destination more quickly. And I love what Mr. Frisland says. Coaching will expedite the process. You need to get a coach to be your GPS to calculate the fastest route and guide you to the destination of unforgettable.

Yeah, Mark, I'm still here. I haven't put in an address. I'm right here. And if I move, I'll then be over there. So again, number one, you don't know what you don't know. Number two forces you to risk. Number three expedites the process. And I love this one because I truly see it now. I feel it now. By Terry Bague. Terry Beg to many, he's been to highest levels of the world championship, come to many of our events. He said, I have so much more confidence now. I have so much more confidence now. Meaning now. Once, Mark, once you worked with me and you helped point a few things out, I would then try the new technique, the new style, the new suggestion that I had to force myself to risk. But now I see, Mark, the effect it has on the audience that they lean in, that they turn to their neighbor, that they grab their pen to start writing down a note. Now, that risk, that new technique, I see the payoff. And now I have more confidence in my speeches and presentations because I have been coached.

Yeah. And the thing is, I love the idea when we say, when Terry says more confidence. And I love Terry. I mean, Terry's a house painter who became an author and a speaker. Talk about versatile. He's a really, really nice guy, but he was also quite coachable because you wonder, wait, a house painter is a speaker and an author and a seminar? Yeah, that's confidence. I mean, I've heard of career shifts, but that's a little really unique combination There. But to have the confidence to go on a stage when you weren't always a speaker presenter, but to do it with confidence and know I have value for the audience. Often that comes over time on your own. You can hope and you can wish that didn't work. Should I go back? But having a coach by your side to give you that directional change. Listen, Mark, that was good. You're getting better. However, I recommend you do these two things whenever you go on stage, you. And you're going to find you'll feel much more confident on stage. You own the stage. And sometimes that coach will give you what may seem to be simple direction. But when you apply it, your level of confidence is so powerful, so strong. And I'll tell you this. For me, I had to grow as a speaker in Jamaica, my place of birth. I was a high school ball player. I was student body president. I was cool dude in school, but me, Jamaican, USA, Jamaican accent, young kid, 18 years old, fat broke. Before long, my confidence was shot. I was a bank teller, Darren, in the Bronx, New York, at a bank called Dollar Savings bank, with a strong Jamaican accent amongst these New Yorkers. And at the point in time they'd asked me a question, I'd answer, they couldn't understand my accent. And they go, what what you say, kid? And after a while, my confidence took a hit. It took a hit, man. And I remember I went to work at Reader's Digest and I knew I was the only guy in the whole place who didn't have a college degree. My confidence took a hit. I joined Toastmasters my fourth meeting. They were so good, my confidence took a hit. But I found myself on that main stage in 94. Don't know how I got there. And I was kind of, okay, I'll do my best. But then I got coached. David Brooks, the man taught me so much in one year about writing, about delivery, about telling stories. And I tell you, if anybody could see a copy of of my 1994 contest speech finals and my 95 contest speech finals, you will see two different presenters. The difference, the man I call the master mentor, David Brooks, who instilled in me the confidence to do well. One last quick anecdote. The day before the finals, August 95, I sat with my coach, David Brooks in San Diego at the Tonant Country Hotel resort on the nice little gazebo. He was talking, having a drink of lemonade. He said, mark, I've scouted the other finalists. And he said one thing I noticed about them, very few of them, if any of Them have the energy you have and that poise on stage. And I believe your energy alone will give you an advantage. That was a coach's pep talk to me the day before game day. He said, your energy will make a difference. And. And it brought back to mind a comment I received two months earlier. After I won my regional now called semifinal. The then Toastmasters president, Pauline Shirley gave me a three word bit of advice. She said, double your energy. So she reinforced what my coach told me and my energy and my confidence came through on stage. And the future Toastmasters president who had finished second in the contest in 92, Dr. Dilip Abyasekira. He said, mark your presence on stage, you were masterful. I'm like, what? This guy was second a few years ago. He told me I was masterful. And I bring all that back to the confidence I gained from working with a coach. Someone who had been there, who had done it, who had seen in me what I didn't see in myself. That's what coaching did for me. So I'm not just giving you concept here, friends. I'm telling you what I experienced. And coaching can instill a level of confidence in you you would never thought was there. And that will put you on the path to being unforgettable. I know it's a mouthful.

Bam. I may be the only one you work with and coach, you said, okay, I a little less energy.

Look, all kidding aside, we don't want you to not be yourself. Yeah, we want you to not be yourself. Be yourself in the best way possible. But you see, a good coach can help you harness that energy and give you advice as to when to bring it out and when to be more laid back. A good coach will not only help you to prepare a good presentation, they'll help you to deliver a good presentation. And Darren and I both thoroughly enjoy helping individuals on the delivery piece. Darren, you recall, is it now Maybe it was three years ago at the NSA, we did a 90 minute deep dive on owning the stage. We got to coach National Speakers association members both emerging and experience live on stage and show them how we do what we do. And it was a great thrill. The best thrill for me was when we would stop speakers after like eight seconds and say, wait, consider doing it this way. And Darren, I think you and I Both had given one speaker some advice to do it again. And about 10 seconds in, someone about 8 rolls back yells, it's better already. Maybe you forgot that, Darren, but it was us as qualified, experienced coaches giving advice to somebody we hardly Even knew. And in 10 seconds, somebody said, it's already better. They were more confident. They were more clear on stage. And again, it's not just about us being the coaches that you need. Get someone who's qualified. It'll make all the difference in your presentation.

I'm still shocked that the legend of Harvey Mackay came up to us.

Wow.

He said, I've been going to NSA for decade, and this session I've taken 20 pages of notes.

And.

And I was just like, put your Harvey. Okay.

Exactly. Yeah.

Pulling out my phone. Would you say that again? And he did.

And I. Yeah, he did. He was so kind to us that day. And again. But it may sound like a brag. The intent is not to brag. The intent is to show you that what we were able to accomplish as presenters and coaches at the National Speakers Association Convention is a result of coaching we have received and we continue to receive from qualified coaches and mentors like the great Patricia Fripp. We still go to her for advice because she's like, wow, legend. We got to listen to Nito Cobain and Ryan Tracy in our podcast. And Anita Cobain podcast with. We kind of sat here like, wow, wow, wow. Just learning from the wisdom of somebody who's clearly head shoulders eons ahead of us. But we also want to be sponges and to learn from great coaches. And we encourage you to ask yourself a serious question. What can I learn from a qualified coach? And better yet, how soon can I get one so I can go from good to. To great to unforgettable?

Even our friends who are speech contest junkies that love it. You know, it pains me when someone says they lose the contest, and they say, well, I'm gonna start on this in January. I'm gonna get a head start in January. I'm like, no, you're missing the point. You gotta evolve. And you can't just start just prior to contest. Mark, could you imagine Tommy Brady saying, you know, next season I'm going to start working out a week before preseason? No, he might take a week or two off, but he's already working on next year. And we've got to have that Tom Brady or world class goat mindset because there's somebody out there half as good as you working twice as hard as you. Someone who is in that sponge mindset. But whatever your reason for presenting, Mark, I know when you asked me about that failure. That failure. What's that? We need another failure. And I told you the subway joke. I was like, well, you know, I used to do this joke about my subway failure and I told you the joke and your reaction, you pulled a daring. You're like, yes, yes. But Mark, when you said that, my confidence in that story grew exponentially because you were so excited about it. You, who was a world champion, who have been there and seen that and help people and coach people. When you saw the belief in that story, I absorbed your belief and now I realize the value of that story. So it gave me confidence when. When you saw the value in something in me that I could not access alone. Going right back to what Geeta said. Going back to what Geeta said again, we'll wrap it up with this. A coach has the power to unlock what's always been inside you that you can't access. I actually could have accessed that but I didn't know to access that until you, the coach asked me the right question. I brought it up, told you you went out of your mind excited on the value and how it fit in this speech. It wasn't just the story alone, how it reinforced the message and oh, by the way, it was funny and going to laugh while making a point. Had you not asked me that question because it was not in version 1.0, I would not have had the confidence or the impact. Look, there's two kinds of speakers out there. Those who will invest in a coach and those in my opinion, who will never ever reach their full potential. Mark Brown, take us home.

My last thought is this. If you've played sports, had a good coach, the great coaches may not play like their players do, but they can inspire their players to find what's inside them and to excel and to play as a team and eventually win some trophies. We're going to encourage you. We're going to ask you really think about this. There are reasons why you must get a coach. Because we believe with the right coach, with the right mindset, you'll go from good to great to unforgettable.

We'll see you next week and check out episode 14.

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