Ep. 164 PART 2 - 2022 World Championship Speech Critiques-Alexandre

Hey, there. Welcome to this week's podcast part two, where we're going to actually critique Alexanne, who is the stagetime member who made it to second place in the world in 2022. Let's do this.

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

On to number two.

All right, now, Disclaimer. He's here.

That's right.

But I'd like to give the feedback. But after that, maybe we'll bring him up and ask a couple quick questions. He's a stage time member. We've worked with him. He's gone through our courses and programs. So I. I looked at. I had all good stuff as opposed to critique, because we've taught him and trained him. Now, he did the work. He did the work, and he did this masterfully. So I'll just jump in since I'm yapping anyway. At 41 seconds, I love this. He said, if I were there with you in Nashville, you would see me on the huge screen. Why am I here and not there? This was such a great setup for what he was going to say. The reason he wasn't there is part of what his speech was about. Loved, loved, loved that. And it also. I love the question. And it evokes curiosity. Yeah. Why aren't you there? But guess what? If I'm thinking that I'm engaged, I'm connected, so I love that. And then at 55 seconds, one word tradition. And it's what he said and how he said that in one word. And then obviously this is, well, obvious to some of us. This is a line from Fiddler on the Roof, an old, old USA movie, US Movie in the United States. However, he then goes right after that, and if you don't know the reference and he goes on and explains it. So now, even if you weren't aware of it, now you're on the same page, guys.

Darren, when you said it's from the movie, was it the word tradition from the movie?

Well, Federer on the roof. Yeah. What he says tradition.

Yes. Well, actually, he said that I can tell you in one word, tradition. That is a direct line from the film. The words that I can tell you in one word, those who are familiar with the movie will say, oh, nicely done. I wrote down here, alexandre Biajue, well played. Okay. But he used it in a way that he could. That he could then return to his own story and connect with us. But I want to go back because at 51 seconds, he asked, I asked a question, but he kept speaking a little too quickly. You know, why am I not here? I'll give you the answer. Well, if we're wondering something, give us time in our own minds to answer the question you ask. We say this all the time in our, in our sessions, in our work workshops and our webinars. Answer the question in your own mind and give yourself enough, maybe a two or three heartbeat pause to give the audience time to respond to the question in their own minds before you then respond to them. We can be very nitpicky about this, and Alexander knows this, but that was an early observation. I know he's done several things well, but that was one that kind of jumped at me because we've been talking about it for so long. So I'll leave that right there.

Michael Alexandra immediately established the theme. We had no question where this was going, but he did it in such a way that we wanted to go along for the ride. And I used this word last night on our stage time call. It was a masterful use of the screen. That's where so many people have struggled. And I will, I will give it to our. The last two world champions and Alexander, who finished second and last year's second place finisher, Nitai. They each used the virtual screen so effectively. Now, you should not do well in a contest just because you use the screen effectively. That each had a message that is memorable. We take away. And Alexander made it very easy for us. It's tradition and he challenges at the end. And there was so much humor in here, which is difficult to pull off in a virtual presentation. And yet it was there. And he was schooled enough to give us time to laugh even though we weren't in the room with him.

I also love the at 108, if you're taking notes. I love how clear it was when he just sets up the relatability to what the world's going through, what I'm going through, what you're going through, where he says struggles with tradition and the changing world around him. So the main character, he's struggling with tradition and the changing world around him. Well, we're coming out of the pandemic. It's Pretty much changing. So it became a very relatable theme. But he did such a great job of explaining the character and what's happening and how we can relate. I also love the writing at 1 minute and 22 seconds. My friends online and my friends on site. What a great way to do the yin and yang on line, on site. Great writing.

Yeah.

I want to go to his use of describing his family, his grandmother, his grandmama, and his Aunt Christiane as the main ingredient. And the coffee, which played right into the ingredients of the no Bake cake. It was an excellent use of creating a metaphor for each of the people and their role in his family. And the cake was a perfect metaphor for it. So did a nice job with that. And now Denise pointed out something in the chat box. It's important. Not everybody loves just seeing the face and upper part of the body. Some people want to see more of the body. That's a personal choice. We're big fans of seeing the face because that's where you sell your message more than any other part of your physical being.

Nice.

And that is a challenge when you're virtual. We are accustomed to seeing television news reporters in a frame like Darren. Michael, you and I are all right now. The exception, of course, being the sports cast who's going to show his screen, or the meteorologist who's showing you the weather systems. We'll see their full bodies, but for the most part, we almost are accustomed to reporters and so on being in this particular frame. However, if as a presenter, you know, you'll be using body movements, you'll be using props and other devices that would require a fuller use of your body, then you must select. You must then selectively decide what is most appropriate for your presentation, for your style, and for your manner. I will confess I am hard pressed to try to imagine Darren Lacroix doing one of his illustrations in a little box on the screen, because Darren's very visual, very physical, and very active. Get over yourself. So it's hard to see Darren being Darren in this particular format. I'm curious to know down the road how that might work out for you, but that's it.

Well, and you also, you know, I see varying opinions coming in. You also have to go with what you believe. If I believe being closer up is more effective than, then I'm gonna. I need to be closer up. I can't go against my own beliefs. If I believe being further away is more effective so they can see what I'm doing, then I need to do that. So we have to go with who we are. And you're not gonna please everyone, but you gotta go with your authentic belief yourself.

Definitely. I concur.

I loved his, like describing his grandmama. Grandmama was humble, resilient and the best cook in the world. His eye contact was amazing. Amazing. And his. His audio was awesome. Which is critical if you're doing it from home. You've got to have good lighting, good microphone and great eye contact. And it can't just be good enough. It has to be amazing. Mike.

Yeah. Also this. I know this is a common refrain amongst the world champions. Back when we were. You were all sitting together for the in person contest, the death count. Alexander did something beautifully. He lost two family members in this speech. But the way he did it, one, a very subtle hand movement where he just said when we. Christian was no longer. Forget how he said it, but she was no longer with us. And then this is the first year that our main ingredient is he's already established grandmama as the main and great. And he just looked up that was. It didn't stay in it. It was just. That's how he established that they're no longer with us and moved on. And that's a gift.

Well, along those lines, regarding staging, my congrats to Alexandre because he established REM here, the main ingredient. He established Christiane's home here. And when he said that Christiane was leaving too soon, not only did we see her leave too soon, he lingered here as if to say farewell. Hope I'll see you again. It was subtle, but it moved me when I saw how he did that. Because that way we know, as you said, Darren, he has lost his aunt. But it's not done in a model, in a way to put our heartstrings and to gain any kind of sympathy. It's part of the story and it certainly was well told. And again, regarding staging, establishing Grandmamma here and having Christiane there. And Pierre kind of had this lean to him and attitude, a cynical attitude of who Pierre was was wonderful. Someone commented about using accents for names. I think it was wonderful. And also he used the phrase to describe the cake in the French word. And they said, oh, you need subtitles or humorous.

Yes.

But he didn't have to abandon his French Canadian heritage for us to understand the names of the characters or why it was important. That I thought was also very, very well done. And using that limited space so well, I thought was a nice touch. And I have to assume that took some work to plan and prepare and decide what's going to work best. Now. I did have a concern which I shared with Alexandre earlier before the contest, about his tendency to lean to the side a bit. When he was talking earlier, it seemed almost like this. And he and I talked about this and he did adjust it. But there were times, I think for the most part appropriately when he did that and leaned in well to the camera. To me. One of his most brilliant moments occurred in. Let's see, where is it? One of his most brilliant moments occurred when he talked about getting Kamama's recipe and having to establish it. It was a 344 in the video. Was the video there, Darren, real quickly?

Yes.

Let's go to about 340 in the video and I'll show you what I really liked here. Because it seems so natural. It actually made me laugh. Go about 340.

Start with a chunk of butter.

Chunk right there. That just emphasized how befuddled he was. And his hands. I don't know if he rehearsed that, but that made me loud. Lol. Laugh out loud. Because here's why. It was not a part of a well rehearsed web appeared speech. It was a man who was befuddled. He was stifling. How big is that? And that literally two seconds I thought, that's natural. That's real. That's authentic. And the reason I said that. Yes. Am I praising Alexander? Yes. But I also am aware very often we try so hard to deliver a speech. Sometimes our authentic vulnerability is cast aside at the expense of looking good on stage and being proper and correct every single time. That, to me was just brilliant. So there you go.

Yeah. Mark, I just. I wrote that down as reactions tell the story. You know, that is a classic. His reactions are so sincere and so authentic. The story is told in the reaction to that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That was not a gesture. I know we have a lot of toastmasters here. We don't like the word gestures here. And because it's prepackaged, it looks. It doesn't look authentic. That was totally, to Darren's word, a reaction. And that's why it works so well.

Yeah. I also had so the subtitles joke. When he pronounces it in France and then says, would you like subtitles? And just how he delivers that, that's at 2:02. I also loved at 2:13 when he leans in and it's almost like just, are you with me? Are you? You know, and that just makes you feel connected because it was. He wasn't doing it robotically. It was like sincere. Like, here's a line that if you were talking to him in person, he would lean in and kind of like or whisper to you. So I love that. Do you like it already? So I also love the character Uncle Pierre. And I'm gonna show a clip. Here's what I also want you to look at his smirk. His smirk at 241. It's powerful and distinctive. And then I'm going to end it. Mark on the reference that you had at 3:08 when he says, when Christian left us too soon. Watch the pause. And him almost respectfully.

Yeah. Saying goodbye.

Say goodbye. So I'm going to. It's a little bit longer, but I just. I want you to see the smirk, how it's powerful and distinctive, followed by a great pause. So that's 2. 41. And then Christian is at 4. 308.

My uncle P, the little brother, he was sure to tease her every time. Yeah, Christian, you don't make it as good as Grandmama.

Look at this merc. Come on. That's like Jim Carrey level.

You know, I wrote down Pierre appears cynical. Three words. Continue.

Was the cookies the main ingredient of the family? Christian was the coffee full of energy and flavor. So we started to think that maybe our family would crumble when Christian left us too soon.

Bam. Those extra seconds were gold.

Now, here's a thing about writing. Forgive me, Michael, real quick.

Okay, that's all right.

Throughout the presentation, he talked about tradition holding the family together. Right. Interesting. Maas mentioned uniting us. Right. But the contrast to that, using the metaphor of cookies, was crumbling. I believe that was just very well written. And I don't believe the word crumble was chosen at random. Cookies crumble. That's how the cookie crumbles. The no baked cake. I just thought the holding together and the crumbling were wonderfully chosen, opposing ideas to reinforce the message. Michael.

Absolutely. And it just occurred to me what Alexander did brilliantly that most people would give a lot of backstory to. He never told us that Christian eventually became a really good cook. He put it into Pierre's words. It's not as good as Christian's. Christian has replaced Grandma that fast. He didn't get an it's a time contest. So you got to be efficient with your words. But I just thought that was a great way to now establish that Christian's no bake cake was just as good as Grandma laws.

And of course, he goes, he, he. It takes 12 years. And he'll say, 12 years later. It took 12 years for Uncle Peter to say, ah, it tastes like childhood. And again, me being who I am. And I think it took him 12 years to perfect the recipe. But by then the family was still staying together. And when he first realized, wait, who makes the cake? And he leaned in at that point because it was important to pause with the look of wonder, well, I'll get recipe, I'll do it myself. But the whole, the progression, the arc of the story to me was just well taken. And he allows us to let his uncle Pierre tell us that after 12 years, he was able to perfect the cake, which he then offers to us in a very delightful way. He drops it. We don't see it, but he wants us to taste it. And I like the ending, at least. Farewell takes a bite and goes, that was kind of cute. That was so.

I do have a version. It was his version of Darren walking off the stage and doing that. About the moment you just described, Mark, where Pierre tells him it tastes like childhood, that sets up the moment of change, the shift. That's the moment, Alexandre.

That's the moment.

That's the setup moment.

The thing is, real quickly, Michael, you and I have always said this. There are moments in every presentation if you're missing a moment, if you're missing a change in the character, if you're missing that, you're missing a main ingredient in your presentation.

So at 4:16, I love the character exchange between Pierre and Alexandre.

Yes.

At 441, he still ate more than his fair share. Very funny line. Like, yeah, you made fun of it, but you ate more than your share. And then, Mark, you mentioned this moment, but I think it's worth witnessing together when he said, it tastes like childhood. So here's a guy who is like, no, not good enough, not good enough, not good enough. But the words, it tastes like childhood says so much. And then watch his reaction. I even wrote down freaking brilliant.

We'll leave it in.

Okay, let's see. See how his reaction is almost like he can't believe he said this. What? Did he really say that? Did he give me a comp and just, h, it's beautiful.

Years after my first try, Pierre said something different. Your cake, it tastes like childhood.

What?

It's just cake. Or is it? No, no.

I got choked up in that moment because of what that meant, what he was saying. That was like a simple line. Yet that bring Christiane, Grandmama and Pierre all into growing up. There is so much to that man.

Well, Garen, you're saying emotion. Let's go to. Let's go to six. I'll go to six minutes and eight seconds, please.

Will my family crumble? No, because I know my cousins will be there to hold the torch. Each one of them adding a special ingredient to our family's traditions.

Let's stop there. Alexandre, if you're still with us, please let me know if you had a burst of emotion in that moment. Because I felt something when you. Oh, omg. Yes. Yes. Your voice almost broke there. Yes, Kathy, you're right. His voice almost broke. And he says, my cousins were watching and I know they'll be there. Man, you want to give me sweaty eyeballs? Alexander, don't do that, man. Come on. I too old for sweaty eyeballs, man. Come on.

Also emotional and great writing at 5:19. Reminder of those we loved and those we lost.

Loved and lost. Yes.

Just terrific writing.

Great, great writing. And here's something I've never said before that he is the epitome of. He is a visual exclamation point.

Bring in Victor Borga.

His facial expressions. 5:44. Tradition calls back 6:50. My friends, what do you want to hold together? Bringing it back to us now, Darren.

I know you got all this good here, so I don't want to bring my downer. At last. Last. I'm going to ask the question before you finish your compliments. And it's this. I began to wonder, though, about the title. And here's why. Grandma was the main ingredient. Title says the missing ingredient. But I was so filled when I saw the speech. I wondered what ingredient is really missing from this family? They've continued to hold together. They've maintained their tradition, even though they've loved and lost. So I wasn't clear, Alexandro, what the missing ingredient was. And maybe I'm the only one. But that was a question mark in my mind when I saw the presentation. I don't want to end on that, so I'm going to let Darren continue. Unless you refer to put a comment in Alexandre to clarify. That's where my Jamaican brain went.

Mike, I want to keep this brief, but, Mike, why don't you bring Alexandre up? And while Mike does that, well, let me ask him permission, because his idea that he couldn't do was freaking brilliant as well.

Let him talk about that.

But I just want to make sure he's okay if I say it.

I'm trying to promote him.

Okay.

Okay. Says he'll be joining here.

Oh, here we go.

There he is.

Alexandre. Bonsoir, Alexandre.

Oui, merci. How are you?

Oh, we are wonderful, Darren.

I hope you are happy with the critique.

This is awesome. You're finding things that I didn't even think about.

Nice. Are you okay if we share your brilliant idea, or would you like to share your brilliant idea that you were not able to. You were not able to do?

Yeah. Okay, so you want me to share it?

Please, yes.

Well, so it's not only an idea that I wanted to share, but the cake. So at the very ending of the speech, I say, would you like a piece? Here, grab it. And I have that visual fun with it. In reality, there was cake in Nashville. I found a. A baker in Nashville to make 400 pieces of this. No Bake cake for me. And four friends delivered it to the people who were there, like, when the speech was. When the contest was over. So I was able to leave the ingredients, and hopefully people who were able to taste that cake in Nashville were able to remember the message that went with it.

Well. And is it okay to talk about your idea? I mean, I know you just brought it up, but you wanted to have that in the back of the room and mention from your speech, go ahead and get a piece. Which I thought was incredible. Like, that talk about interaction, because you had us salivating. Now, he was not allowed to do that. He was not allowed to mention it. So his friends Kathy, who's in the room with us now, she was out there handing it out. And I will confess, I had, like, Pierre, more than my fair share, because that's my piece. Yes, it was. It was awesome. And I thought it was a brilliant idea. Now, legally, I understand why Toastmasters couldn't let you do it because there's health code issues. That hotel, you probably couldn't even bring in a cookie. And they would have had an alarm go off because you have to buy everything there because it's uber expensive. So in Toastmasters defense, I get why they couldn't let you. It sucked because it was such an amazing idea. And it would have been the 11 that most people would have never been able to touch after that. So I wanted to, on this podcast, admire your brilliant idea.

Yeah.

Well, thank you, Darren. And you know. Yeah. You speak of the 11. That's what I was going for as well. And I even thought if I pull this off, maybe they will change the rule book so that you are not allowed to have a prop in a different city.

I mean, that's the coolest part, too, because you weren't even there. But everyone listened to what he did. He found a bakery in Nashville. He found people who are going to Be in the room. Stagetime members who are willing to go and get it and have it and serve it like, I just, I have a man crush. I'll just say that that's, that is revolutionary.

That's unique and definitely 11. I hate to spoil the fun, but Alexand help me to understand my, you know, the missing ingredient as opposed to the main ingredient. And what I was. I was a little unclear about that, so.

Well, yeah, of course, if I answer in two words, maybe in one sentence. I didn't put much thought into the title after I finished this developing the speech. This was a title that I had at the beginning of the process. And the content of the speech was slightly different. And there was a lot more, a lot more emphasis on Grandmama who was missing, or Christiane who was missing. When I changed the content, I didn't go back to change the title. If anybody has a suggestion for a better title, I will take it.

Nice.

Gladly.

Real quick before we let you go, Alexandre, you never know how your speech is going to touch someone. I think I've told you. I was born in France. My mother's French. She now lives in Arizona, 2,000 miles away. Three weeks after the contest, we're in Costco. We see these French gateau, these cookies, send them to mom. Three days later, I get a text that says, oh my God, these cookies are incredible. They remind me of my childhood. I got a chill and I thought, oh my God, did you see Alexander's speech? It was incredible. I thought of you like that. So you just never know how it's going to touch someone.

And sometimes it's just the simple things. Right? Grandmother's recipe. It doesn't need to be a trip to the moon or climbing Mount Everest to touch people's hearts.

So this may be self serving. And it is. And it's also true. So Alexandre, how did stagetime help you with that speech?

Well, quite concretely, we started. This was a speech that I had many years ago. And I just, I brought it to Stage Time in December. It was a December 29 or 30. And this was just three or four days after my grandmother had died. So it was. So it was the first time that I shared this story with anyone after our main ingredient went missing. And first it helped me to really go to the core of the message, or at least of the story, and find some really good nuggets. When we were there, Mark was there and Jennifer Leone as well. And then later on, just, I suppose I had at least one other coaching call with Stage Time. So you helped me with with some details and about structure and everything. So I mean, I'll be honest, it's especially the semifinal speech that was developed with stage time. But aside from the direct coaching calls that we have, just being part of the community is not only rewarding and friendly, but they are there for our success. And going into the semifinals we were five or six members and we were still helping each other even though we knew we might be on the stage together against each other, but really working with each other.

We're gonna take on no bake chocolate cake as the stagetime traditional dessert from now on. So awesome. Thank you for trusting us. Thanks for being a part of stage time. If you're watching this or listening to this, put a link in the chat. If you're watching the replay on YouTube, there's probably a link below on YouTube but darrenlive.com ti darrenlive.com ti thank you for trusting us. Thanks for being a part of this. We're gonna have to get going here. I know we've been going long, but we just so proud of you. The work you put in. You nailed it. You nailed it. Congratulations.

Congratulations.

Thanks for having me on.

Thanks for coming on.

Can you see the power of this level of feedback? Can you see how it could be a game changer for your presentations? Feedback like this on your stories and your presentations. If you'd like to work with us, we got two options. Number one, go right now to getaspeakingcoach.com you'll see the whole team there and the options of working with each of us one on one. Or number two, check out stage time, go to the special offer mentioned in this podcast, darrenlive.com ti and work with us and be a part of the weekly calls where we coach our members and give them this level of feedback. So tune in next week for part three where we dissect the world championship speech from 2022 by Cyril. His presence was amazing, his writing was brilliant. Watch how we dissect some of his magic moments and a couple of things that we might have advised on. Join us. Stay tuned. By the way, pass this along to some of your speaker friends. If you loved it, they'll love it too.

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