Ep. 151 Where is Your Heart Now?

Knock, knock.

Who's there?

Are you?

Are you? Ooh.

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.

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 we're bringing things back up. We had an interesting podcast last week where we talk about the depressed motivational speaker. If you haven't heard it, please check it out. So on the lighter side, this, I think, I think this is important though. And Mark, the way I became aware of this, this idea, this concept. Do you still live there? Are you there? And where is your heart now? Where is your heart now? I remember the first time I kind of heard this. What it was. Craig Valentine. And Craig, our Buddy, world champion 1999, had done this powerful presentation, world championship speech. And you know, Mark, we always get asked to deliver the winning speech. Even though everything's changed, it's a different audience, it's a different time, it's a different connection. You can't reproduce that. So in my age, I was able to have the video up on YouTube, but they didn't have YouTube back in your day being funny and. And not actually be very factual in that one. I didn't say anything about colorizing. There just was. There just was not YouTube back then. Actually, I think YouTube wasn't there when I won as well. But now it's out there. People see the actual one. But he had got asked over and over again to deliver that speech. And he said, and I quote, I don't live there anymore. And it actually struck me, I was like, what? The speech, like what?

It's a great speech.

And it just, it just. After he explained it, it just made so much sense that what he was talking about, the subject he was talking about, he didn't live there anymore. It was something he went. But now that's in his past. And I think we talked about taking inventory on your title a few weeks ago. Well, now we wanna take inventory on your heart. Where is your heart at? And Mark, just for me, the relevance of this is perfect timing as well, because right now as we record this, I'm launching a brand new book, 17 Minutes to youo Dream. I have a brand new keynote speech. Well, I say brand new, I'VE been working on it for a year as I wrote the book. But right now, if you asked me, well, do you want to do the 17 minutes keynote or do you want to do own the stage? Do you want to do Chump to Champ? After I won the world championship, my program was Chump to Champ. You know, my journey. Well, when I was fresh on my journey, that's where my heart was. That's where everything was vibrating. That's where I lived 20 years ago. And not that I still don't tell a couple of stories now, but I'm in a different place in my life now than I was back then. I have different things that are important to me now. I'm a different person than I was back then. So now my heart and where I live is in the 17 minutes to your dream. That's where you bring me on to talk about that. And I get excited. I still can do Chump to Champ. If it was really requested, I can do it, but the audience is not gonna get the benefit of Full Frontal Darren.

Okay, you wanna call it that.

Full on Darren. And the Holy Spirit speaking through me. It's just. It could be good. It could be really good. But it's not nearly as going to be good as that. Here's where my heart is now. Here's where I live now.

And for context, those who are not as familiar with Toastmasters, what we're talking about is, when you become a world champion, what often happens is you get requests and invitations to speak at district conferences around the world. Literally flying to different continents to deliver a keynote and to do a workshop. And invariably, the first two, three, four, five years I was traveling, I would get the request. Hey, can you give your world champion speech live? Of course. Back in 1995, there was no YouTube to get hold of. They heard the audio. They may have gotten the VHS videotape. No comments please, Darren. And they were in color. They were in color. Okay. And they didn't get to see you do it live. There was no videotape to look at on television or on YouTube on your laptop or your mobile device. So we got requests to deliver the speech live. And the audience felt so special, they felt so blessed because they get a live performance of a world champion speech, and there was no concern about how many views on YouTube. But over time, that changed. And over time, we changed. And I give Craig Valentine so much credit for saying, no, I can really can't do that. I can't do that speech justice. Because where I was at the time I'm no longer there. And I hadn't thought much about this, but I remember in 1990, 1994, I competed in the World Championship for Toastmasters and did not win, place or show. I was an also ran one of those people who makes the contest necessary. Yeah, that was me. But I made a decision that fall. It was an August contest, and September, I said, I know exactly what I will talk about when I get to the finals next year, if I make it to the final next year. My final speech will be this one. It's called Just like youe. It's about integrity. Based on where I'm in my life right now, what it means to me, definitely. And I worked on that speech the following year. I rehearsed it for the World Championship, and it was not very good. It never really got to the place it needed to be. So I changed that speech within fewer than three weeks to go to the World Championship. And I delivered a second chance, which, of course, I've morphed into a youth program that had been seen by over a million kids worldwide. Well, that was September of 1995. And, you know, I have never revisited a speech I planned to give because times changed, I changed, my position in life changed, my family dynamic changed. So many things changed since 1994 that what I planned. I planned to deliver that speech, but it wasn't quite good enough for the final. Where I was then, I'm no longer there. And I had not even thought to pick that script back up because it was for a season, and that season has come and that season has gone. Now, Darren, there's a flip side to this, because you and I both know in the pro speaking world, there are presenters who are hired and paid well to deliver their signature presentation. So they pretty much have to live there for years and decades because that's what works for the audience. But I have to wonder if at some point in time there may be this presentation that does so well that might kind of wear on you. But then I remember, if you make little adjustments as time goes by, your central message can stay the same, but the stories around it and your perspective as you get older can certainly change. Because, as you know, I took my ToastMasters speech in 95, and I made it into a youth, middle school, high school assembly program, which eventually got the Emmy nomination. And the last version of that talk that I gave was actually delivered this year, 2022, when the first version was delivered in 1994. So it's been 20 years between my first version and my most Current version. But a lot has changed over the years. It's not the exact same presentation because I don't live where I live back then. Matter of fact, real quickly, some of the references I made back in the day. Barney, the Purple dinosaur, TeleTubbies, even Stevens TV show, you know, SpongeBob. So many things have changed over, over, over time. So I can't go back to exactly where I was in 1994. And maybe there are individuals here who are falling back on a presentation that was effective five years or ten years ago, but it doesn't quite have the same pull or bite as it did back then. And it's certainly worth some consideration, Darren, to wonder, do I still live there and where is my heart now? Am I in a different place where I can serve more effectively with a different type of message? Hmm. Food for thought.

I don't know if you've ever done this, Mark. If you've gone back to Jamaica to look at your childhood home.

Oh, yeah.

But if you ever have, you know, your childhood, school maybe, and you go back and you look at it, man, it's much smaller.

Yes, yes.

Oh, I remember those stairs being like, dun, dun, dun. It's like four steps up. You know, when you're younger and shorter and coming from a different perspective because you don't live those. You don't live those thoughts anymore. You live new thoughts. You've evolved. You've learned new life lessons. So when you go back to your childhood home, you see that. You know that tree house that we used to have in the yard, that garage? Really? That was Death Mountain. That's like a tiny little hill. Like, that's. But, you know, we used to go sliding on that. And it's. Yes, it's a metaphor, but at the same time, look, if you're loving what you speak about and you've been speaking about for 10 or 20 years. Good, perfect. We're just asking you to step back and say, is there something else, given the opportunity. Yeah. Or something more, given the opportunity that really gets you juiced up or jazzed up? The more juiced up and jazzed up we are about a subject, the harder we're gonna work to make it unforgettable. Every year when we have Game Changers, we have the same cast of characters come back. Then we have some special guests to keep it fresh. But I always open the conference, and I always create new content. I get excited about creating new content, and when I do, sometimes one or two of those stories will now be a part of my new presentation or my old keynote, but now it's refreshed because of that, or there's a better story or a better point. But, man, this book, 17 Minutes to youo Dream. I'm just jazzed about it. I'm jazzed about the effect it's having on people. Better than I thought. So when I see that reaction, it gets me excited. Went on and read a couple of the Amazon reviews, and these are people who know me. And of course, they're the first ones to buy the book. But what they take from it, wow. And that gets me more excited. So if I get an opportunity to do a Better Stories, better business keynote, I'll do it. But I'm more excited because I live there now in the 17 minutes to your dream. That's where my heart is. And we're just asking you to go back and step back and say, is there a subject or is there maybe a slant on a subject that you've been talking about for years, that maybe you live somewhere else, but it's easy? Here's what we want to stop you from doing. Taking the easy road and not creating new content where your heart is and continuing to do the same thing, thing you've always done. So we're pushing you here. We're nudging you to get excited, to fall in love with your new subject all over again. If it's the subject where you live.

Well, you see, Darren, you mentioned something about we've evolved. We have matured. I hope we have. I know my wife hopes I have after 40 years of marriage.

We like your immaturity, Mark. We like your puns.

One of the truths is, as we mature, what does happen. We often see even the same experiences, but through a different lens. And when we evolve and begin to see things through a different lens, we now become more keenly aware of perspectives, ideas, maybe principles, and even our experiences. We view them differently and. And we pick up lessons heretofore unseen by us. I never saw heretofore. I know I could say one word.

Or is that three?

Well, my daughter is an attorney and one of their words is here in before mentioned. Okay, the herein before mentioned party. Here, herein before and mentioned is one word. But think about this. You go back to an experience I never saw. Oh, wow, there's something valuable there. It's like picking up an old book you've not read for 20 years and you read the story and you say, wait, who put that in there? That wasn't there when I last read this. That's Part of our growth and our maturation process as we get more mature. You said we have evolved. Yes. When we evolve, we no longer live where we used to live. And I find myself same thing. I look at my old stories in my speeches, and the material I covered was good, but it seemed in many ways rudimentary and elementary and foundational. And I look at it now and I realized there was more to that story. There was more meaning, There was more meat to it, there was more value to it. And I live in a different place where I can look back on that experience and go, oh, here's what I learned. But back then, I was going through this, and I understand this now, but over 10, 20, 30 years, wow. It's a whole new perspective, a whole new vision and greater value for the audience. So there's two cautions here. One is, we're not saying completely abandon anything old. We're saying step back with a fresh pair of eyes and look at it differently. And maybe the way you were approaching a topic, the way you told a story, as good as it was back then, when you shift and change and adjust it, it'll be more effective in serving your audience now. Because here's a Darwinism that I just heard. What served you then may not serve you now. But here's part two regarding your audience. What served them then may not serve them now. So we need to change, we need to adjust. We need to apply our life expect and our life lessons to the old subject. So don't completely abandon it. How can I refurbish it? Like the book with the revised edition? It's outdated. No, they do a new edition. Oh, that's good. That's. It's even gooder. Sorry. Better, right?

You're not sorry.

And so we may say, well, you know, I'm no longer there. I'm a new person. I'm doing different things. And that's great. We have friends who have rebranded, and that's wonderful. But there may be something you can take from the previous program or the previous presentation or the previous brand that you can apply to the new one that still holds truth and value. So when I said two cautions, one was to get stuck in the old. The other caution is when we go for the new, that we don't abandon something that's still of value with the old. We may not live in that particular place, but a life lesson is just that. It's a life lesson. So in the same way I changed my youth program, I no longer do honor the purple dinosaur or Pinky Winky, Pinky Winky, Lala Poe and Tellytub is the principles I teach young people today. And I'll be doing it next week when I go to deliver a one day program in a different city. They're still there, but I have a different approach, different perspective and a different vantage point that I believe will have even greater value for the audience now than it did back in 1995.

So ask yourself, where is your heart now? Where is that passion now? And by the way, you might even ask some of your friends, people you hang out with, because they might have a great observation of, well, you know, you teach presentation skills but you get really excited about Boom. Yeah. So it was a fascinating concept when Craig first brought it up and I see that now, especially because of the 17 minutes to your dream. Like, I get excited to talk about that. So what do you get excited to talk about? What subject, what stories do you get excited to tell? And that people like to hear it because when you're excited, your delivery is improved. And when your delivery is improved, you make much more of an impact.

Yeah. And I will say this, I love when you ask the question, Darren, where is your heart now? Because if your heart is truly in it, you can't help but want to deliver it. I can remember, and we've talked about this before, I was on backstage in the World Championship and I was like a caged bull, could not wait to get on that stage and deliver that presentation because that's where my heart was at that time, okay? And I tell you, my heart is not so Beauty and the beast right now. There are other passions that drive my presentations and my coaching. There's still value in that and I still talk about that. But if you can serve your audience from the place where your heart is now and your heart connects with them, oh man, what an experience. That's when you become unforgettable because you made that connection with an audience at a time in their journey where they needed it. So ask yourself, do you still live there? But more importantly, where is your heart now?

See you next week.

Make sure you subscribe to our show.

Remember to subscribe. 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.