Ep. 155 The Greatest Story Never Told

Hey, Darren. How are you, my friend?

Hey, Mark. You're starting off. Whoa.

I know. We're gonna throw our audience a curveball today because I've been thinking, you know, 28 years ago, when I was competing in Toastmasters, I got to the final and I did not win. And I told myself, if I ever compete again, I have one particular speech I want to give. It's a story I need to tell. And would you believe a year later, I got ready for this. I went all the way to the finals. I got a chance to prepare, and I had the story ready. I had the speech ready, and it was not good enough. So two weeks before the finals, I tossed it out and I gave a different speech, which thankfully won me the World championship. But what happened next? Well, when we come back, you'll hear the story of the greatest story never told.

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

Mark Brown, what a cliffhanger you gave us. All right, come on, close the loop. Close the loop. Close the loop.

Okay, okay. Well, I tell you what, I did change that speech, and I was blessed enough to win with a second chance. Most of our listeners know that. But what happened to that great speech I was gonna give? I never did. I had chosen a topic of integrity. I had stories about my dad, who was a model of integrity for me, and how I should live my life. But here we are, 28 years later, and I've never delivered that speech. And I guess one of the questions I'd like to answer today, and maybe you help me to pull it out, is why would I leave something that I thought valuable, so valuable on the table? And by asking that question, I want to also ask our listeners and viewers to think about this. Is there a story? Is there a presentation? Is there a message that you have left on the table? For different reasons, My reason back then was, well, it wasn't good enough to share. And I will confess, I didn't think it was good enough to win the world Championship. So my focus was on the value of the program. In my mind, in the context of the contest, what did I not consider? Darren, I did not consider the value of the speech beyond the contest. And that's a lesson I learned. Working with you for the last 21 years is not about a trophy. And that's why my brain shifted. So maybe now, 28 years later, I should revisit that story and tell it because it may have value to somebody else today.

You know, Mark, one of the big ahas that I got when we did the 77 day challenge, we challenged people to do a video every day. Facebook live, Instagram live, YouTube live, whatever your platform was. And one of the big lessons learned by the people who went through the challenge, the survivors of the challenge, they said that those stories that they were just giving because they ran out of content or stories or ideas, those were the ones that they were surprised and shocked how much people loved them, how much people got from them. So that's why I love the idea of the challenge, because you're going to come up with those stories you never told that you didn't think had a lot of value. Turns out you were wrong. You were wrong. So that's why I love the challenge, because you discover on a format that's not the paid, professional, keynote speech format, platform, I should say, where it's okay to test and it's legit to test, and then you get surprised by the people's reactions. And then it almost raises your own belief in your own story. I shouldn't even say almost. It raises your belief in your own story because you realize it struck a chord. It helped people in a way that you weren't aware of. And that's the tragedy. Stories inside us that are great stories, but we don't think they are, so we don't tell them and the audience loses.

Oh, that is so heavy. The tragedy is the stories inside us that we don't believe have value. For me, a lesson I learned along the way, Darren, is that very often we may think that's a throwaway experience. And I have, quote, unquote, preached this lot in the last couple of years. And I use the word man not for gender, so please don't get angry at me. I use the word man as in mankind. But I've been teaching one man's mundane is another man's magnificent. And I say again, the m alliteration. One man's mundane is another man's magnificent. And very often what we think is mundane and not noteworthy in our story, we leave behind. But here's a problem, Darren. Yes. When I say my mundane is your magnificent, because it's mundane to me, I Don't see value in it. I think it's insignificant. Darren, you could, you can't, probably can't count right now how many times you and I have been on a coaching call or in a coaching workshop and we asked someone to go deeper. Well, no, it was the first time he did it because, you know, he was only 8 years old and we go, what? What? Are you kidding me? What? Why are you telling us that? I didn't think it was important and you want to smack him in the head, right? So please understand, friends, there are aspects to our lives. There are stories in our experiences that one may seem mundane to us and we don't share them. That's only part one. I'll let Darren comment and I'll tell you my part two thought about why we don't share some stories in our lives. What Darren? What? Tell us what.

We don't see the significance. We don't have the coaching eye of a world class coach. Even coaches don't have a coaching eye about our own stories because we're too close. Because we forget. We don't realize. Oh Mark, you and I recorded a class today, this morning on your big crazy ridiculous dream plan. And I showed two things. I showed a clip this morning of when we had no choice and we had to get my mom off the dock and she wasn't mobile and how do we get her there? We don't have a wheelchair, what can we do? And there was a time when I thought oh that's interesting. But.

Eh, yeah.

Meh. From meh to magnificent.

Oh that's nice. I like that.

That's a new one. That's a new one. From meh to magnificent. Just realizing, oh, I thought, oh okay. So I'm talking about being all in. When you are all in you think and act differently. What examples do I have that. And honestly I thought it was cute. I didn't realize it was powerful. It was cute. But I didn't realize this, this 6 second video showing how we overcame that challenge was powerful. And then another little. Again I thought it was cute. When I went home and you saw me do this at the lunch party or at game changers when again I thought it was a little throwaway so I used it but I didn't really realize how powerful it was. When I talked about just going home and having dinner with my dad and he's not really a cook and he kind of doesn't throw things away and we're having my sister's leftover spaghetti and meatballs. She makes the Best meatballs.

Good.

And I go in the refrigerator to grab. And we have been cleaning out the whole house as we realize they keep things and they don't throw things away ever, because that's a lot of what that generation did. And so I just looked at it and grabbed the parmesan cheese and I was like, huh. Based on my previous experience, I should check. And I turned it around and whoa, it was. It was expired in 2015. This is 2022. I'm. I'm a germaphobe. I'm almost through. Through up in my mouth. However, I just thought, oh, it's an example of letting go. And I had people come up to me after the first time I used that, say, what's my grated cheese? And I was just telling a personal story to my sister about it, and she said, huh, I gotta realize, what do I need to let go of what's my grated cheese? I did not realize. Now, I wasn't holding off on that story. I just found a place where I thought it might help reinforce a point. But I had no idea how powerful it was.

And that was truly memorable. I remember at Game Changers when you talked about that, that was just powerful. An idea that was meh. Became magnificent and memorable. Okay, now here's the thing. Another reason I said part two, why we often don't put value in those stories or those concepts that we've been talking about is because perhaps over time we have said it before. One, two, three times. I'm tired of saying that one. I need something new. Because the world we live in is always clamoring for the new and improved. You get a new iPhone. MAN on here in North America on Black Friday. You get run over in the live store. Because I want it in my hand in the store. Otherwise for what's called it Monday. What's the Monday to call it, Darren? To get things online. I don't want to call it, but people are coming to get things now. They want a newest plan. People are changing jobs every seven months. We want the newest, the best and the brightest. But sometimes the old is rock solid and is always going to get results. But we, we as presenters can sometimes get tired of our own story. So we stop telling it. And when I say we say the greatest story never told, it may not be never ever told, but it may mean it was put on the back burner 5, 10, 15 years ago and you had audiences for a decade or more who have never heard that. To them it's a new story. It was Never told. And then you bring it out and they go, whoa, where did that come from? Because you've always had it, but never saw the value in it. And you said, darren, sometimes we are so close to it, we don't see the power and the value in it. And that's why it's helpful for us to sometimes seek out new audiences just to test material, because you never know what kind of results you're going to get.

Yeah, I had that happen, Mark. The greatest story never told in over a decade.

Yeah, that's fine.

I had, when I was working on my book, 17 minutes to your dream. I was looking, I was searching for that experience. Experience is the greatest teacher. And how do I get that across? And when I thought back, I remembered this old Clyde is your guide in the Everglades story, something that happened back in the early 2000s, being on this boat tour. Well, I haven't told that in over a decade. It was a good story. I can't say it was great or amazing. However, to make my point, I resurrected that story that I hadn't told in over 15 years, and it became the Hallmark chapter or the foundational chapter. Chapter one, wisdom from Clyde, you guide in my book. So it was a story I hadn't told in over 15 years, and it just stopped resonating with me. It stopped other content kind of pushed it out into the back burner. But I remembered it and the point it made, and for what I was trying to say in the book, it was perfect. So I resurrected it and brought it back. So we ask you, listening to this, what are some of the stories you used to tell that need to be resurrected with your new perspective, your new keynote, your new zest for your passion, for your message? Maybe there's an old story that revisiting now is the perfect time, especially since.

Your perspective has changed. You have grown, you have matured. We have been through so much as a world in the last couple of years where things have changed for us. And it's also possible that you may have taken something for granted. It was fine. It was okay. But you look at it now in the context of your life the last decade or so, and knowing that people who know and love you now have never heard it before, it could be like, wait a minute, where did that come from? And it's funny, Darren, I don't even know why I remember the picture of my brother and me in 1971 that you love so much. I know they're all black and white. They have not yet been remastered or colorized. Okay, it's true. They really are black and white. But I don't recall. In all my almost 30 years of speaking, I hadn't recalled ever using that photograph, that image, and that story of my brother and me until I don't know what it was you said to me one day that made it meaningful to us. But now you've actually poked me in the eye, you parted me, and you've. You've guided me on the value of using that little anecdote. It's a. It's a woman anecdote with a picture on it. But it's so powerful and so meaningful now. It never occurred to me until my brother, Darren Lacroix, showed it to me. So here's something else to consider. Other individuals in your life who can be the ones to be sort of amused to help you, to guide you and say, listen, you got to tell that story. It's meaningful, it's powerful, and the audience needs to hear it.

Yeah, Mark, I believe that came around couple years ago when we were doing the Summit Awards and we were talking about the stretch goals or the stretch awards, the people who stretch themselves. And I think that's when you first said, ooh, I have a picture of me stretching myself because I wanted to be like my big brother.

That's right. But see here, it was you planting a seed in my mind that triggered a thought. Hey, I could use that photograph from 1971 that nobody ever saw before. It's now part of what we do every year for our awards. So thank you for that. That story was never told until you helped me to see the value in it. Do you get the picture? People who know and love you will see value in your story.

And here's one of the best tips I can give you. I challenge you to go back and listen to an early recording of one of your speeches or two of your speeches. If you had two or three different ones. Go back, because I guarantee you're going to remember a story that you haven't told in a long time. However, you may have, number one, a new application for that story, and for sure, number two, you're probably two or three times the presenter you used to be. You could probably tell it in a much more powerful way than you had the ability to back in the day. Do you like that, Mark? Way day.

Clever, my friend. That's true. An old story, new application, and your expertise will allow you to tell it differently. That's great advice. Go to an old story, an old video, even an old audio cd, if you have one now, if you're old, is an audio cassette and you rock. Okay?

You may have to find a way to play it.

I would actually. I could play. I can play an audio cd and I can play a VHS videotape. I can do that from. From back in the day. But the point is, friends, is there some kind of recording of anything that you've done in the past? Or is there something that you wrote down? Is there a note you wrote to yourself? Is there a letter you had? There's a story there. Was there a vacation you took back in 1975 that you go, oh, we went to Disneyland and this happened. It's a story you could relate that did not seem significant at the time and may not have for several years. But now with your new life experience, your new perspective, and your newfound eloquence and expertise on the platform, you could really make that story meaningful.

And.

And one more thought. When you revisit old stories based upon our lives right now, we may find messages we did not know were there 10, 15, 20 years ago, but now we do. So I guess the assignment is to go back over your treasure trove of experiences. Go back to an old presentation. If you're brand new at this, that's okay, too. Don't think about all these great lessons I'm learning now from my life experience, but maybe there was a time when a family situation occurred or something in school when you were younger. I don't know. I do know this, that all of us have within us at least one great story that hasn't been told yet. And I say yet deliberately.

Second best point I can give you. We've taught for years. If you've been following us to have a story file. Now we say have a story folder with all ideas and pictures and images. If you go back to your story file and you scroll through it, I'd be willing to bet you jotted down a story idea that you never developed, you never took the time to develop. But now it's time, spurred by this podcast you're listening to right now that's encouraging you to go look at your story file, and you then find that gold and you realize, ooh, I jotted it down, but I never used it, Mark.

And here is step two of the assignment. If you are a toastmaster, and I know some of you are, if you are a toastmaster, force yourself to volunteer for a speaking position and take that story. Put it in a presentation, put it in front of an audience live or virtually, or hybrid, put it in front of an audience. Watch for their reaction, listen to their response and find out what lessons did they learn from this story? Because you know what you may find out that one story you resurrect from your story file you never thought about, that may be the greatest story you've never told and it could transform what you present and give to your audiences going forward.

So that being said, there's stories in you that you haven't tested, you haven't given it life, given it a chance. Even if you test it out on Facebook, just tell the story Facebook Live or Meta Live or Insta Live and just see. See if you don't get great, powerful feedback that it has more value than you originally thought. Please this week take some time to go through your story file, listen to old recordings or MP3s or whatever format you have it in, and then go test some greatest story of yours that was never told.

See you next week.

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