Ep. 183 After Your Talk

Hey there, Mark Brown. How do you handle after the talk? We've been talking for two years about the presentation themselves, but how do you handle when people come up to you and you can get overwhelmed? This question actually came in from Andrew Cooper, one of our friends, one of our students at stagetime and just a great guy. And he just, he asked the question. I thought we never talked about that.

This is true. And I think there are many among us who want to know. What do you do after your talk?

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.

So Mark, we never have talked about this. If you rock your presentation now you're the rock star in the room, which can be awesome and sometimes can be overwhelming. And I want to read the actual question Andrew sent in to us because he had a lot of successes at this presentation. He'd been studying us for a couple years. He's been working with us, he's been doing the work. Make no mistake, doing the work is critical for these big moments. And he speaks in the energy industry, so it's a very niche area. He said some successes getting my hotel and flights paid for. Very good. Good start.

Always a good thing. Oh, it's a good thing. Yeah.

He said the conference chair actually read the intro he prepared. I said, this is for those of you who are new to this world. These are rare items. So cool. Actually remembered to get testimonials from the conference organizer. One important critical idea is after your talk, if the event coordinator is loving you, please, please, please make sure you take the time to go over and capture it. Capture what they said in the energy with the murmur in the background. There's some great resources. An IRIG MIC IRIG 2 is the one that I have, which is awesome. To hold it up, go right into your phone and it leaves a little bit of the murmur in the background, which gives some great energy without being overwhelming or without being able to not hear that. He said he also used Mentimeter in person, which they loved. Something he learned from actually. Kathy, one of his co members of stagetime, he work with the AV team to secure everything he needed. Okay, again, if you're new to getting the big presentations. That is important. Make the AV person your hero. He used his own personal stories. He left them with one simple, clear message. What? Minimize waste, maximize efficiency. Mark.

Excellent. All good. And by the way, you said the IRIG Camp mic works with a mobile device, either iPhone or Android. It may require an adapter, but it's an easy way to carry your mobile phone and a really decent mic that is focused entirely on what's going into the mobile device. It's good quality audio with good video and it's all it takes. You don't need a three camera shoot and to hire a crew to get testimonial videos.

Yeah, and sometimes they might not give the greatest, but capture it. Because in that moment, with the excitement, as long as they're not distracted, running to set up the next speaker or something like that, that is the moment we want to capture. That's when the energy comes through and we love that. He wanted to say a sincere thank you to both of us. Here's what he said. He had the idea for this podcast and part of stage time we listen the idea for a future podcast. He said, I personally struggle with how to deal with people. I have delivered a presentation to at a conference. People want to talk to you, ask you questions, congratulate you, say hi. It's all a bit overwhelming. How do you focus on one when someone else wants to join in? How do you get testimonials from folks when other people want to talk to you? And how do you cut someone off when they seem to be cheating? And chatting and chatting and chatting and chatting and chatting while others are waiting. I thought it was a great idea. We've never talked about this. So Marks, what's your initial thoughts?

Well, the first part of his question is I struggle with how to deal with people who want to talk to you, ask questions, congratulate you, say hi all at once. It's all a bit overwhelming. And nobody wants to be rude. We don't want to be rude and our audiences don't understand. Very often at the end of our talk, particularly when it goes well, we can be really high in adrenaline. We're pumped up for what's happening next and they don't always know. Sometimes after a talk, we must now go and do a secondary breakout session. First of all, I try to be as courteous with everyone as possible. I try not to engage in long conversations, especially when I can see there are three, four, five people milling about who clearly want to speak with me. So my first Thought is give your attention to that individual. Let them know you, acknowledge them, thank them. But I try to end the conversation or at least tell them I'm happy to talk to you at greater length later. But as you can see, others want to speak with me and I really value your input. Can we get together maybe over supper tonight? Or here's my contact. Can we meet offline and talk some more? The caveat there or the exception there is if that first individual is someone who may be the event planner or someone who's high in the organization from whom I can get a testimonial, I'll try and secure that at that time because I don't know if or when I'll get them again. But the key is to be respectful and courteous at every opportunity and give them the understanding that even though I can't talk to you at great length right now, I would like to interact with you later and to answer your questions. Because the truth is, sometimes later may be a better opportunity to get a testimonial. Darren, your thoughts on that?

Yeah, I think what you're saying is great. And it's never simple and easy, but it is about connection and making that eye contact, shaking that person's hand that is important. I also learned a technique from one of my comedy mentors, Don Gavin, about shaking someone's hand and actually pulling them out of the shoe to go to the next person so the signal is clear. Now every situation is going to be a little different. There's a line of people lined up to talk to you that some people will get it, but some people you might have affected so much that it's all about them and they're oblivious to the line behind them. So we've got to find that way. You're going to make some mistakes. Always be polite, always understand, and then even bring your eye contact to the next person. Hello. As we wrap it up, thank you very much for coming to talk to me. And you gotta be sincere. I sincerely appreciate that. Hey. And then bring your eye contact to the next person. It's a fine line. And if you're an introvert like me, you have to get used to it. You have to get used to it. But we're trying to serve our audience because sometimes those are the magic moments that if you nailed it and you were unforgettable, more people are going to want to talk to you, but they want to tell you their story as well. They want you to hear their story. Mark.

Well, there's one more thought I want to Add which takes place before you have that conversation. What? Yes, there are techniques, and Darren is very good at this, of giving the audience different ways to get in contact with you offline themselves personally. If they have access to your program, to your book, to your email, to your business phone number, and you let them know from the stage, clearly, we don't have time to discuss everything. Please reach out to me. I'd love to chat with you offline if at all possible. So even if you don't get to them in that line, at least there is a way for them to get in contact with you later on, which may lead to an extended conversation, it may lead to a strong testimonial, it may even lead to another engagement. So give them a way to get hold of you before you walk off the platform so you do not lose potential opportunities. Darren?

Yeah. Have a stack of business cards handy. Say, hey, you know, I would love to talk more deeply about this and hand them your card. Say, send me an email. Or if you comfortable giving out your cell phone, then give out your cell phone. But whatever works for you. But give them that way that works for you. Lets them feel acknowledged and that they can continue the conversation. Now here, if you're listening to this, if you're new, if you've been around for a while, if you already are a rock star, make no mistake, this is gold. Gold, Jerry. I tell you, gold. I was just speaking to a chapter about multiple streams of speaking income, an NSA chapter, the National Speakers Association. And when I taught this class, it was a reminder to me because I had it on one of my slides, the Golden Secret. If you record yourself, which we say you should, Even an audio MP3 recorder that you just happen to capture everything, and I recommend it, even if they're going to videotape you, because sometimes they might videotape you, they might promise you the recording, and then you have to chase it, and sometimes you never get it. So it's always good to have that captured experience because if anyone, legally, if anyone comes back to you after and says, you said this, no, now you can document. This is what I said. This is a recording of the presentation. But here's the gold. Leave the recorder going after your talk after. Let it capture those comments from people. So you know what is gold? You know what they're talking about, you know what landed. And we're looking for those commonalities. Sometimes we are caught up in that adrenaline and the joy and the love that people are giving us that we don't necessarily hear anything. Because we're sitting back and enjoying the moment, trying to help people, but we're not hearing those tiny little seeds of what was awesome in your presentation. So now later on, outside of, of the energy of the room, we can go back and listen. And we listen for commonalities. By the way, here's a real critical question. What specifically helped you? What specifically helped you? Because people are going to come up and say, that was great. Well, that's nice for the ego, but that doesn't give you specifics. What idea, what foundational phrase, what story? When I was working on my championship speech, I kept hearing over and over again about the story of my telling my mom and dad I wanted to be a comedian. So the commonality was there that 80% of the people were mentioning that that stays. Some of the other things that I thought were great, nobody mentioned that goes. We either need to tweak it and try it again or let it go. Let it go. But please capture the golden rule. Capture the comments after when people come up and talk to you, Mark.

And to use an allucrative term, capture common comments. Capture common comments because they rise to the top and they tell your audience is telling you. This resonated with not one, not two, but 12, 15 people. And the beauty of the golden advice Darren just gave is this. Sometimes during that conversation, someone will say something valuable which you will not catch in the moment. You've got adrenaline, you've got people around you, you're hearing different comments and you miss it. But Darren says, go back and listen to it. And all of a sudden you hear a comment that says, whoa, that was dynamite. I can use. That could be a pithy quote, or it could just be an aha for you that reminds you that you accomplished your goal, you did touch someone in a meaningful way, and the message you wanted to deliver landed perfectly. So this is a critical piece to capture what is being said to you and around you that can help you to elevate your next audience's experience.

Yeah, Mark, I remember I was in Arkansas speaking to an engineer group from Tyson Chicken, and I felt like I was bombing. I felt like I was dying because my jokes would go out. And this was in the day of my Laugh and Get Rich keynote. My jokes would go out and die. They would go out and die. There was just no, no wave of laughter or anything like that. So I went through, we call it in the comedy world. I burned through material. I did a one hour keynote in 35 minutes. I thought I bombed. And then after the talk I turned to the speaker bureau. Her name is Carrie. I said, carrie, I'm sorry. I don't know what went wrong. Let's just grab my books and go. And I turned to grab the books, and there was a line of engineers to buy my book. I was like, what?

What?

What happened? And I realized my own problem was they didn't emote. They didn't express that energy. And we as speakers, sometimes, we love that. We expect that all the time. But just because a group doesn't emote doesn't mean they don't like you, don't enjoy you, don't want more from you. So after the talk, I realized the talk went better than I thought. It just wasn't funny to them in that moment, but they still liked it. So there's so much that we can learn if we take the time to study those 10, 15, 20 minutes after our talk. Maybe we connected, maybe we didn't. If you feel like you had this amazing connection, ask them what made you feel connected. Oh, well, I saw you milling about before the presentation, and you were talking to Barbara, and everybody loves Barbara. And it just made me realize you're not like every other keynote who runs in, does a presentation, or runs out. People are watching us, especially if they know who we are or they know we're the speaker. They're watching us offstage. And it is attributed to the connection. What we do and how we do it can be attributed to the connection that we have with them. What they see before, what they see in the airport when you land. There are other people going to that same conference at baggage claim with you, but you don't know who they are. They're not wearing their badges yet. Our point is, a lot can be done, a lot can be gleaned from what you observe after your talk.

And you made a point, and I shouldn't begin with the word and, but I want to connect a thought you made. Continue your thought. You said running out after you speak. We would encourage you strongly, if at all possible. Now, there are times when your calendar and your schedule, or schedule if you're in the uk, requires you to speak and run, but as far as possible, avoid having to speak and run. We've all had to do that at one point or another in our careers. But if you invest the time and build in time to have these secondary conversations, you can learn so much about the effectiveness of your presentation. You may find a point or two that you made resonated with that particular audience in a way it never has before. And you can find more value in your own presentation, so be accessible after your talk as far as is possible. Some years ago, Darren and I were at the National Speakers association national convention. And we gave a presentation, a 90 minute deep dive program. And after which we of course hung around in the room. There was time added on and we found ourselves getting a testimonial unsolicited from a speaking legend, Harvey McKay. I said what he wanted to give us a testimonial. Now have we simply left and gone to our next session? We would have missed an opportunity that was for us gold because in the industry this man is literally a legend and who's highly respected.

Well, let me just say one thing, Darren. I couldn't be more sincere. I'm one to ten. I can't give you ten. You were good.

Thank you.

Do you mind if I tell you why?

Please.

Because you are unbelievably 15. The best, best I've seen. I've been around 20 years, more take home value here than anything I've seen. I have four pages of notes. Congratulations.

Thank you.

Fabulous.

So an unsolicited testimonial from someone of that caliber was meaningful to us because we were there. And as Darren says, your entire Persona before the airport, on the ride to the hotel and afterwards can be so meaningful. Darren, I've never told you this. One of my biggest thrills regarding this particular experience came when Andrea and I were in India at the end of 2017. And after the program, Andrea and I had to. We were flying back late at night. We got to the airport and there was a group of toastmasters from Sri Lanka and they were part of the same event, maybe eight or ten of them. And they saw us in the airport and Darren, the response they had a looks of, oh, Mark Brown, want to talk to you. Of course they want a picture with my wife because she's whole lot better looking than I am. But the reaction they had days after at the airport flying back to Sri Lanka. We're flying back to the usa, but they wanted to meet us, took photographs, asked a few questions and they were thrilled. My point here is this. After your talk isn't always immediately after your talk because there are individuals who will want to talk with you later on down the road. And Darren, I appreciate what you do for your events. You try to go in there early and stay as long as you can for the whole event. You also get to hear other speakers. And I know it's a sidebar, but the experience of having you at the event for not just an hour, but for two or three days can really change the auditor's point of view and it gives you a chance to hear from them after they've had time to process what you've said. Maybe a few hours or even a day later.

Yeah. Also, Mark, I just spoke with you at NSA Georgia, Another after your talk, a new idea concept. A lot of you may be aware of this anyway, but just plant that seed or reminder or what can you do to encourage this is I had two or three people from NSA Georgia reach out to me on LinkedIn and connect with me on LinkedIn. So in your talk, are you inviting that to happen? Because these are people who I had time to talk to some people before I had to rush to the airport. But these three people reached out to me and continued the conversation and asked about my upcoming event, asked about my business mastery program. So it was another after the talk. But we've got to encourage it and give people that way, that channel in order to connect with us. And Mark, one of the other questions that Andrew asked in his initial question, thank you again, Andrew, for suggesting this podcast was how do you get testimonials if there's a lot of people? So at a bigger convention we create a percentage of people who want to talk to us. Better or worse, better connection less, but it's a percentage of them who want to talk. So if you're at a hundred person event versus a thousand person event, et cetera, et cetera, there's people who are going to want to talk to you. Well, how do you get testimonials if there's that many people? So here's what we recommend. Bring someone with you or deputize a friend at the event to help you capture. That way, if somebody walks up to me and Mark, we do this at Game Changers, our event coming up, somebody comes up to me and says, that was great. That was awesome. I loved what you said about every minute matters in my 17 minutes keynote. And so they say that that would be an awesome testimonial. But I didn't have my camera up, so I asked them, hey, Stephanie is capturing some testimonials for us. Would you be willing to say that again to Stephanie? And if they're really energetic and enthusiastic, they're happy to because you just gave them an aha moment. But now Stephanie or the person you deputized handles your overflow. But now you're channeling them so you capture more. You still may not get all of them, but you're going to Capture more. And they'll be better than if it's just you there by yourself, Mark.

Not only that, it's better than if you by yourself, trying to hurriedly get through a testimonial while somebody else is waiting to talk to you. Because sometimes a testimonial might take two or three takes. I speak from experience, but trust us, having someone deputized really transforms the experience. And sometimes it's kind of funny. Sometimes I can't say all the time. Sometimes the next person who talks to you sees someone being interviewed and I think, hey, I can do that. I don't mind being on camera. I don't mind having my face or testimonial on his website. I'll do it before they finish talking to you. They've already decided I want to do this as well because it was so meaningful to me, having someone deputized to help you to do that. Yeah. So I think it's also to our advantage when someone else sees an interview. Yeah, they might want to join. I can't guarantee they will, but it certainly increases your chances of getting another video testimonial.

Yeah. Mark, at NSA Georgia, I made sure I made time. Went over to Jeanne, your friend.

Yes, yes. Our program.

Our program chair asked her if I could get a testimonial from her. So here's an example we're just showing you. Here's what we do and here's why we do it, and here's the result. So let's check this out.

Hi, I'm Jeannie Snyder. I am President elect of NSA Georgia. And if you have not had Darren Lacroix at your chapter event, you're missing it. I'm just simply telling you you're missing it. We just finished and he did an entire day of us. Not just a keynote, not just coaching, he did the whole thing. But let me tell you where it started. When we first called him, I will say to the person, he got us the stuff the earliest. He's chomping at the bit to make sure he's adding value and bringing not just the content, but the energy to our chapter to NSA Georgia. So I wholeheartedly invite you to call on Darren Lacroix for your chapter of events. I'll get him. Just call me and I'll get him. But I want you to have him not only for his experience. Did I mention he's the 2001 world champion speaker? Okay, he's in NSA. He's one of us. But his generosity and his willingness to give in abundance, which of course Our values is so evident. He rocked it today. Not only with this keynote, but also giving truth, giving really great feedback to our speaker academy speakers that spoke today. It's priceless. Can I tell you also what wasn't priceless? He raised over $1,600 for our chapter by generously giving two of his programs. Two of his programs. Our members bought them and our members are still here. We can't get rid of them today because they're so excited about talking with Darren. Darren lacroix. Call me. I'll get him for you. He needs to come to your chapter. So engaging. You won't regret.

And I was there for that. I got you there, man. Come on, dude. You did? Yeah. I already honored him. Part of the other program committee at NSA Georgia. And I recommended Darren LaCour because I know what he has to offer. But what's also cool is this. Maybe you didn't catch this, but I was thrilled by the background conversations. People, we were done. People were still there, they were still engaged, they were still talking. And the background didn't told me people were still actively responding to what they had seen and heard that day. And I thought that was kind of cool. I am biased, but I'm being honest about what I saw and heard. And it was easy.

And I will tell you, I did not use the IRIG microphone for that. I was in the moment. I was just trying to make it happen. I have the IRIG was in my computer bag, but I just, I. I had a moment. I forgot I did it. But either way, I captured it. So I'm getting back to that habit, that pre Covid habit of doing that discovered on my way home. I have the IRIG microphone. Here's.

But see, you said you had the opportunity and you just did it. So yes, having the IRIG is more perfect. But if you can get that test module right there on your mobile phone, then just do it. Just do it. Don't wait. It could be the one testimonial that shifts your business.

What I loved about that was it was for an NSA chapter and that spoke from a chapter leader to other chapter leaders of NSA to bring me or you in because they talked about, hey, he got me his stuff right away. Okay, that's important because volunteer organization, they don't have time to keep chasing you. He raised money for us. Oh my gosh. That's one thing they need and want. So event planners want to know the concern of other event planners. So your event planner testimonial is different from your participant testimonial. And then later on you can edit them together so it jumps and it jives. But I have, in my YouTube channel, I have specific event planner testimonials as well as attendee testimonials. It's different, it's a different perspective. They want to see and hear different things. And so I just thought spur of the moment that just happened. Mark.

Yeah. Again, do not discount the value of responding in the spur of the moment. We may not get a perfect testimonial, but if we get a valuable testimonial, that's what matters. Maybe the camera isn't perfectly centered, maybe the lighting is not ultimate optimal, but it's a testimonial, it's honest, it's in the moment, it's raw. And that's what resonates as well.

I just want to bring up, look, if you love what you do, if you like our podcast, please, please, please tell other people we listened. This was a question that came up from Andrew Cooper, who's over in the uk, has a very specific niche market that he speaks to. We love helping people. So number one, check out stagetime University. We'd love to help you, give you feedback on your presentation. But if you're listening to this right now, today, depending on when you're listening to this, we have an event coming up the end of March, 24th and 25th called Game Changers. I love the quote by Jim Rohn. You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. Mark. They were thrilled to have two of us, two world champions at a chapter, two perspectives. Well, at this event, if you realize the value of a higher level of perspective, we're going to have seven world class coaches, performers, agents, seven in one room for two days. An event we do every year called Game Changers. Used to be called lady and the Champs, but we do have a guest again this year, Patricia Fripp. So check out Stagetime Live. StagetimeLive.com Join us because you're listening to this podcast. Use the code event25 and you will get a 25% discount. And the sooner you sign up, you get the early Bird special too. So look, it's our podcast. We love this. It's a labor of love. And so, yes, we're promoting our own event because this is what we do and this is what we love. And no one's paying us for this podcast. We don't have any advertisers. We do this because we love what we do and it's a service and we're hoping and we invite you to join us for this event. Mark.

Yeah. And please remember, as a presenter, if you do your job well, if you truly are unforgettable, there will be individuals who will come up to you after your talk. They will want to glean more from you, they'll want to learn more from you, and they'll want to connect with you. One last thought for you after your talk. Don't be shy about connecting on social media if that's strong for you. Darren uses LinkedIn. Some people are big on Instagram, some use Twitter. But if you want to engage and really want to serve people after your talk, give them other opportunities to learn from you, to connect with you. And then they will help share you and your expertise with people over whom they have influence their organizations, societies and other groups to which they belong. Trust us, when you deliver unforgettable presentations and know how to deal with people after your talk, the extent of your reach will be far beyond what you expect.

That's right. And you'll get more opportunities to be unforgettable.

Forgettable.

Join us next week. Join us at stagetime live.com join us for Game Changers coming up 2023 March if it's if you're listening to this after March, then we'll be there next March. But you'll get to enjoy Ed Tate, Patricia Fripp Ford Sakes. Mark Brown, Mike Davis, Stephanie McHugh. Mark Brown, Mark Brown. Did I mention Mark Brown be there too?

We should be there.

Jennifer Lear who who is our speaker agent? What's happening now? How is the industry post Covid? How can you do things differently so you can get on stage and you can be unforgettable.

Unforgettable. See you next week.

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