Ep. 172 What is Casual Costing You?

Oh, Mark, you know, isn't it good enough? I've been doing this for a long time. Like, isn't. It's, it's, it's good. It's better than most.

Come on, Darren, don't, don't phone it in, man. You're being, you're being too casual, right? And as presenters, we can fall into the trap of being too casual until we find out that casual is costly.

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

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

And Darren Lacroix. And Darren Lacroix.

Stage time. Stage time. Stage time.

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

All right, Mark, I think this sound says it all. Sometimes as professionals, if we truly want to be unforgettable, we need some reminders that sometimes we've done some things for so long or it's good enough. By the way, good enough isn't unforgettable. This podcast is to remind you to strive for unforgettable. So there's a few areas we've been thinking about that, you know, maybe you got to revisit this. You know, maybe it's okay, maybe it's really good, but let's just revisit so it's not costing you. And anywhere you take something too casual or don't take inventory again of how good you can make it. You're not the same presenter you were a year ago. You're not the same pastor you were a year ago. You have more insight, you have more knowledge. And so life, let's apply what you've learned over the past year and upgrade everything. Upgrade everything.

You know, Darren, I'm glad you said that because it brought to mind, it came to mind actually, when we had last week's episode about the introduction, it occurred to me that's what's one area we can be kind of casual because you mentioned that this particular presenter was like, eh, it's fine, you know, it's fine. And after you said you were very experienced as a presenter, which goes to show sometimes you can get relaxed, comfortable and casual. But if your introduction is not up to par, if it doesn't really set the audience up, and you said this last week, Darren, you can be really, really good and deliver an on fire presentation, but why put yourself in a position of having to climb a hill from your first word. When you can prepare a good introduction that sets you up and you're in the flow before you even say a word. So I guess we call it like, like a. No, no. You don't want to, don't want to be neglectful of a well prepared, customized, purposeful, intentional introduction. So I'm going to ask you right now, wherever you are, to think about your introduction. Have you prepared it carefully for your audience? Are you adjusting and modifying it for different audiences? Darren said last week for different audiences to set you up for success, let's not neglect the importance of, of getting the audience ready to hear what you prepared just for them.

And the other thing is, I like to stand on the side and watch the audience as the introduction is read. And maybe you'll start to see, if you do that often enough, you'll start to see where people nod. Okay, nodding's good. Or people like looking at their phones. Now, every audience is different. So every one of audience is going to bring their own mindset to your stage that day, that time. So there's going to be some audiences that are eager. There's going to be some audiences that are complacent. But what we're looking for is in your introduction, what really works. And it's time to revisit that. Even if you know you got what works, go back to our episode last week, check it out and just rethink your introduction. Because if you're too casual there, it can be costly. Maybe not in dollars, but maybe in dollars. Because if it was set up better, maybe you'd be more likely to be referred. Maybe you'd be more likely to have those one or two people on the fence who are skeptical with a boring introduction. Maybe just confirm that they should be skeptical. They cross their arms, they lean back. Why would you not put effort into setting up the listening? Now, I made the mistake in the past myself too. So we're not saying we're holier than thou.

Trust me, we're not.

The thou came from being unholy and making the mistakes and coming back. So number one, your introduction. Revisit it. Check out last week's episode. Mark, what's number two?

Yeah, but don't forget, it's okay to play the wordsmith and really check out the language that's in your introduction. Choose your words carefully, particularly how well you know your audience. You can literally cater to them. You can even use your audience's own language in your introduction to let them know how important it Is to them. So, one, revisit your introduction. Be careful. Number two. Oh, Darren, breathe. I know you hate this, but just breathe, my brother. We are so confident and so experienced. And after a while, you want to phone it in. You know what? I've done this before. I can wing it. I know what to do. It's my jam, it's my feel. I got this. Of course, nobody has ever done that before except me and falling flat on their face. But seriously, think about this. It's okay to be confident, but if you get to a point of complacency and casual, I can win this one. I've done it so many, I can do it backwards, upside down, in my sleep. And maybe you can, but doesn't your audience deserve your best effort for you to be unforgettable? You know, Darren, when I was doing school talks a lot over the last 20 years, I would deliver the same talk maybe 150 to 200 times a year, year across North America. And somebody asked me, mark, how can you give the same speech over and over again? Middle school, kids, schools. A school's a school. Are you, like, tired and sick of it? And my answer was honestly, no. What? You're kidding me. How come? Because I said, I'll get this audience one time at that day. I'll never get the same audience again. I'll never get the same kids again. I'll never get the same situation again. I'll never get the same circumstance again. So I have to be on my game and to give this audience the best I have every single time I want to ask you, don't phone it in. Please, my friends, do not do that. You want to be unforgettable, give it your best effort every time. And even if you know you can wing it, Darren says, put the time and the effort in. Serve your audience well.

Yeah, there's people in the audience smiling, but each one of them is broken in their own way and has a challenge that on the surface they're not showing. And you, if you phone it in, you phone it in. But please don't, please, please put the.

Phone down, get in the car, get in the plane, get over there, put.

It on airplane mode and be with them. Be present. So important. And yeah, we, we do this most of us, because we love it. If you stop loving it, you got to reevaluate. If you stop loving it, step aside and let someone who does love it step in because it's going to cost you. Phoning in is costly, Mark.

Well, Darren, I appreciate the moment of honesty there about stepping aside. Sometimes we do need to take a break. Step back. Yeah, we want to earn the money. We want to get the gigs going. But you know what? If. If you need to refuel yourself, if you need to refresh yourself, step back and come back strong. Because if you're running on empty. If I am running on empty, I will not serve my audience well. I mean, it's about me, and I'll. And I'll. And I'll take the hit for this. If I'm running on empty, there's no way I can I serve my audience. My mind is saying, oh, here we go again. If you ever. Oh, my goodness. If you ever catch yourself saying, okay, another one of these. Oh, boy. It's time to assess where you are. Right? Because what can happen is you can end up with the third concern that we have. It is the image you deliver off stage. Okay? And the image you deliver off stage has tentacles attached to it. What I mean by that, if you're going through the routine. I'm doing this over and over again, okay? I heard someone make a complaint at a high level recently at an event I was attending where somebody had a guest speaker who was coming in. They. They came in. They didn't let us know when they were in town. They showed up at the venue. The meeting are going to be here. They show up, like, 10 minutes before their speech is going to go. And I'm ready to go. We're right where I go. And the poor meeting kind of was freaking out because you may be great on stage, but how do you treat people off stage? How do you communicate? And I asked myself this question first, but I put it out there for us for general consumption and consideration. What image do I present off stage?

Yeah, we're hoping you're the person that even offstage you are the same. And remember that if you're flying into a convention, there are thousands of people flying into that same convention, into that same airport, maybe on the same plane. Especially as soon as you get on the plane and especially when you hit the ground, there are other conventioneers walking around you. And if you're a jerk and then you get to the stage and you could be awesome, they're still going to bring the jerk you with them.

I shouldn't laugh at that, but it's so true. Because our impact does not begin when we set foot on the platform. Our impact. Our impact is who we are. We all. I always say, bring your whole self to a presentation. That means the individual they see at the mix or the night before. As Darren says, the person who I see at the airport, don't forget particularly for for or your some of your professional gigs. The meeting planners have put a website together. They have your photograph, your credentials, your bio. They have a. A program description and the outcomes either online, check it out online. So they see your face, they get to the airport and they're going to connect with you through Salt Lake City, Utah. And there's something to do with you with your flight and you're having a conversation with somebody and they hear you at your not so very best and they wonder who is that? Darren says, who's that jerk over. Wait, I look, is that Mark? Is that our keynote speaker Hikes. And he's going to talk to us about joint happiness and motivating our sales team. Wait, that does not compute. Now we may laugh at that, but I have no doubt there have been times that has actually occurred. Now I can't prove it, but here's my thought for you. You have to bring your whole self not just to the platform you want to be in. Every, every communication if you have to over communicate. Over communicate. I have a habit. And Darren, I got this from you. The folder with your full itinerary. Every contact name, every hotel contact name, the location, the car rental. I mean you have a list of what to pat down to your toothbrush, man. But the habit of contacting your contact. When you arrive at the airport, they may send a car for you. You may say, I'm going to Uber, I'm going to get. I'm going to rent a car. But listen, I've landed, I'm going to get the car now. I should be at the hotel in 25 minutes. And what I always do when I go remotely, once I get to the venue, which oftentimes is in a hotel, a conference hotel, I will go straight to conference central. I will eyeball the meeting planner. I'm here off the plane, my luggage is here. I'm going to check into my room. Can we get together in about an hour and do a quick run through of the program? The meeting planner beams because, oh, I wanted to meet so and so because, oh, here's a speaker they know again. I'm bringing my entire self. I'm being accessible, I'm communicating. So who I am off stage already makes the impression beyond the bio they read, beyond the video they saw, beyond. Yeah, we're going to have him do this. Beyond the call we had the zoom call to seal the deal. They are seeing me in Person on the ground. And I go, yeah, I can work with somebody like that. Simply communicating and know it's who you are offstage sets up the expectations for when you go on stage. Don't neglect that piece. It is critical. And don't be casual. I've done this. I'll be there. No worries. I'll let him know in the morning when I show up. Not cool. Not cool.

They're stressing about so many things. Mark, I don't know if you've seen this before, but more often than I would have thought, I will see the event planner almost take a breath because of the fact that you're there. Okay? In their mind, it's like, check. That's one huge thing. Did the speaker show up? And so, Mark, when we're talking about offstage, you know, I think of the Maya Angelou quote that people don't remember what you say, but they remember how they made you feel. Well, if you made people feel like you're a jerk in the airport, at the convention center, when you're checking into the hotel, I've needed this reminder, too, because sometimes I'm so adamant that I forget that. And that's why we're doing this episode, to just remind everybody, just to be with everybody. Hey, check in. It's almost like a discount double check. Let's check in and see if there's upgrades that are necessary. Again, a lot has happened since maybe you created the first one, or maybe you had that mindset also off stage, anywhere at the event, anywhere in the city, in the airport, all the way there till the time you go up on stage. But also, another point is, how's your image on stage? Meaning how are you dressed now for a guy? Oh, just put on a suit. Well, when's the last time the suit was tailored for you? Maybe you lost a few pounds, maybe you gained a few pounds, whatever that is. But check. I've seen a lot of professional speakers who, you know, the jacket's a little too big or it doesn't fit quite right. Yeah, it's a suit. But it is the right suit. Is it the right color for you? I learned many years ago that I suck at my own personal image. So I get somebody, a professional to help me, and it's Mark. I don't know if you remember the old geranimals when we were growing up, Kids, clothes that the hippo. Goes with the hippo. You know, there's a little tag on.

Oh, yeah, I thought about that.

And it's like, I need granimals. And when I had the image consultant come and help me figure out what to wear, I would take pictures. So I literally have a folder on my computer. This shirt goes with that jacket, goes with these pants, goes with those shoes. Now, that might be the extreme, and maybe you do know fashion, but step back. Have you tailored things recently so you look like a pro? So we're not our brain. Remember, the most important part of a presentation is the thought process in the listener's mind. So my brain is not as the listener. My brain is not. Well, that jacket's kind of baggy. You know, they could be talking about a life skill that you need, and you're. The brain is noticing the attire. So are they the right colors? Have they been tailored lately? Is it appropriate now? Are you distracting? We talk about Jay Baer. His image is the plaid. The plaid thing. He even gives his event planners a chance to pick which plaid suit. That's awesome. That's part of his brand. So when he goes up there, that's connected to who he is and what he talks about. So it's okay to have something that's striking as long as there's a reason for it.

There is one more piece there, Darren. I mean, when we're recording this, okay, we are still dealing with the shift from fully virtual to hybrid to in person. And a couple of years have gone by, and camera can flatter us. But some people are going back on the road now for the first time in a couple of years and having.

A couple of more pounds.

Right. And they may have lost weight. You may have lost. I've had to adjust some of my attire because, you know, I began doing more of RNC or fitness, and my chest got bigger, so. But that jacket won't button anymore. Okay. I gotta get a new one. I gotta. You know, so it is for real. And we have to be aware that our professionalism. Part of being unforgettable is being unforgettable visually. And Darren hinted at this. Are we distracting, or is it complimentary? So you assess yourself as if you were in the audience watching yourself on stage. It sounds a bit corny, but believe me, ask yourself, what does the audience see? Is the way I carry myself the way I look? Am I giving them a distraction and a reason to take a mental detour and focus less on what I'm saying and more on what I'm wearing? That's just food for thought. All right, so to think about your image off stage, image on stage as well. And when you're on stage, many of us like to use visual. We use photographs, we use images and different tools to enhance our presentation. Sometimes we may have the perfect visual aid, but we say, I don't need it, I don't need it. In terms of our professionalism, I have to ask myself, okay, what's the best way I can deliver this message? Well, use a tool like mentimeter or do I use a visual? Can I get a good picture of Internet? I love what Aaron Lacroix taught me. Use your camera, use your mobile phone and capture what captures you. Because you have custom visuals at your fingertips that are so uniquely yours that'll make you that much more unforgettable. And sometimes investing in custom visuals might be what you need. Now I can get by without it. Now, don't get me wrong, there are times when your vision visuals will not work. I was delivering a talk, I've told a story before at a school in California on a sunny, sunny morning. And I had my visuals in for the gym assembly inside and they told me, well, you know what, we want to get more kids in, but we can't put them all in a gym. We have a wonderful commons area we can put all the kids in. We have a great, we have two huge speakers, it's a great sound system. It's going to work perfectly well. We're going to have the kids outside. I'm at the location and guess what? Outside 9am in California on a bright sunshiny day, visuals on a screen are going to work about 0%. In that particular case, I had to abandon the visuals and go just with me. My story, my interaction with the kids, my voices, and have a good time with them. So my image on stage was important there that I could deliver with a technical challenge. But when you have technology and you have images, why not use your own customized images rather than get a copy of a picture of the Internet, which some of us can do, right?

Even just cliche clip art that you get it from a service, well, guess what, other people, there's a reason that service is in business. So even if you pay a low fee, other people can get that exact same image. Now you look, if someone saw another presentation on the same area or with the same slide, you look less professional. It's like custom and upgrade your logo, your branding slides. Is it time to revisit that because it's costing you? Because it looks like it's from 10 or 20 years ago. So people think, how professional. I mean, even when I was looking at our logo for the unforgettable Presentations podcast and I looked at the very first version we had and we've only been doing this two years. I was like, ooh, I'm glad we upgraded because yes, the first ones were, you know, headshot next to Headshot. And now I look at this one. So much more engaging. So what do you need to revisit with your slides? We know we had Mark Camp on who marvelous Mark. Some people know as that he invested $10,000 into having his slides done. They look amazing and they look awesome and they're his and it's unique to their brand. It's just that is what we need to do. We're telling you these are places to revisit, to upgrade. If you want to be unforgettable, we've got to continuously upgrade so we can be unforgettable in the minds of our audience.

And there's one more thing, Darren. I'm going to ask myself this question. How old is my profile picture, my headshot on my website, in my materials, I know there are individuals who have not changed their photograph in 20 years and you look at them. I had matter of fact, one of my somebody I know who's a meeting former meeting Planner in the UK posted about it on LinkedIn where she was supposed to meet with someone to pick him up for an engagement, but she had just gotten this profile picture from what he, what he was, you know, what he's doing, did could not find him and she actually posted the profile picture she got and a picture of them modern day. And I understand why she couldn't identify because they look so different. So seriously, your LinkedIn profile picture, your website picture. Havida said, you know what, I'll leave it there for the longest, for the long haul. You know, we don't want to surprise our meeting panel, we don't want to surprise our clients. We want to keep it fresh, you know, and let's not neglect to make sure our image is as current as possible. Off stage, on stage, on social media platforms. What the world sees of us when we walk in the door, it shouldn't say, oh my, you've changed. Ha ha ha. Oh, I knew it was you right away. That's my dream, right? I hope this makes sense to you because in these simple ways it isn't always your presentation, but it is your personal presentations related there that can be a factor in how forgettable or unforgettable you may be. And we don't want you to be unforgettable for the wrong reasons. So real quick, do not Neglect writing your introduction in the way that best serves your audience right. Please don't think I've got this. I can wing it. And give yourself an excuse to phone it in. Be very, very aware of your image off stage and your image on stage, please. You can over communicate to meeting planners and people you're working with, technical teams. You can't over communicate with them because they want to know that you are there. They have, they want less stress when they got so many more things to do. And Darren, you always say be their favorite for the meeting planner, for the tech team, for the audience you're going to serve. And don't forget, use custom visuals. Don't forget custom visuals, custom images, custom custom presentations to make audience feel special. And if you have to upgrade your profile picture. Okay, thank you Eric.

Awesome. And by the way, if you have friends who are, let's say in this world and you know their profile picture is old, gently and lovingly remind them because other people obviously haven't. Or maybe it was a choice that they don't care. All these little things matter. All these little things add up your intro. Yes. Do you need an amazing one? Well, we say yes. Can you get away with the one you've been using for years? You could, but what's it costing you? Mark Brown, take us home.

Yeah, we, we hope, we pray, we wish for you to be successful on the platform, on stage, online and even offstage. So review these ideas and ask yourself, is casual really costly? We'll see you next week.

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