Ep. 193 Think 3 Presentations Ahead

Hey there, Mark Brown. Think three presentations ahead of time. What?

What? So many of us give a talk, we get for it, and then it's done and that's it. But wait, there's more.

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.

Mark, whether it's a presentation, a workshop, anything at all you always comment on, Darren is changing slides in the background. And I don't even think of it. It's my normal way of habiting processing of setting this presentation up. Because if we don't take the time in the moment or to mark something down or to write that reminder right after the presentation, we're going to miss some go that could truly help our audience next time. And like we always say, a great presentation isn't written, it's rewritten. A great joke isn't written, it's rewritten. A great workshop isn't created, it's recreated. And so we have to take the time to think and act today for that. Three presentations down the road.

That's a good point. And you know, Darren, you didn't mention this, but I realize many of our listeners are also involved in Toastmasters and they give contest speeches, and sometimes they don't think three talks ahead either.

Yeah, not just for the contest. And ironically, in the Toastmasters contest, people are in that mindset up until they lose and then they miss that. Ooh, this could be used in another presentation. Or who else? What other audience could benefit from this? And Mark, you have such the perfect example. Yes, you did win the world Championship, but that speech did not end there. Number one. It's on YouTube. Still helping and inspiring, still relevant two decades later.

Polarized there is what you're saying. Colorized, remastered.

But you took that presentation, that story and expanded it. Even got Emmy nomination as well as you brought it around the nation. See what I did there? Nomination.

I heard that. Nomination. You're taking my job. Nobody. Come on. It's all right.

Sometimes you deserve a break. But what other audience? Because sometimes when you're in that moment of delivering, you're connected with the audience, you're in that moment and you even think, ooh, this could Be better if I did it this way, or this was a little confusing, or maybe there's another audience that just truly could benefit. That's why I think it's gold to keep your recorder going. We talked about this before, but wear a MP3 recorder and keep it going when people come talk to you after. Because they might even say, hey, did you ever consider about giving this to youth or to high schools or to entrepreneurs or someplace that you're not at? Because those people may be in another organization or connected to another organization that they can see that your message could help a different audience.

And that's true because, as you said, my example, my contest speech was written and delivered to an audience of adults. And before I knew it, I had modified it for junior high and high school students. And I'm still being asked to deliver that talk 28 years later. Matter of fact, as a recording this right now, I'm preparing to fly out two days from now to deliver that talk to a junior high school in the Northeast of the USA, 28 years later. I didn't see it coming back then. And maybe they're individuals here. You give a talk and it seems perfect for your target audience. But think, could you possibly share that message with a different audience, with a different emphasis maybe, and therefore expand your reach, your influence, and your impact? It's worth thinking, what could I do two, three talks down the road with this presentation as it is, or slightly modified for a broader.

I remember Zig Ziglar saying, it's easier to get a new audience than create a new speech, which obviously is true. However, a lot of us don't take the time. And Mark, I don't know where I got the idea, actually. I think it was D.J. harrington, who was NSA legend back in the day when I started, and he actually had his staff there in the back of the room. I forgot about this, Mark, until we're talking about right now. He had his staff in the room, and he said to his staff, hey, when we do a presentation, what's the first thing I do after? And they said, we sit down and figure out how to make it better next time. But the key is the timing, that you've got to take a note, you've got to make a mental note. You've got to. As soon as you walk off the stage, ooh, I need to fix that valet story. And just make that note. But then as soon as you can, go and make some adjustments to your slide, because you're not going to remember this moment next time you give it a month from now or even a week from now. So if you can get in that mindset, that, ooh, here's a place I can make it better, clearer, stronger, shorter, tighter, better metaphor next time. So if we can get in the mindset, which I love to say is resolve to evolve, it's just one presentation one day and it might have worked. But if you can get in the mindset, how do I make it better for the next audience? How do I make it better for the next audience? You can't go wrong because it will constantly be improving.

That's right. Maybe you've written a speech prepared very diligently for a TEDx audience and it's perfect audience for you. But where else could you use that presentation? I know we mentioned Toastmasters earlier, but perhaps the most watched YouTube video of a Toastmasters winning speech was delivered in 2014 in Kuala Lumpur. You and I were both there, Darren, by a man named Dananjaya Hetiarachi. He was clearly the winner. But we found out his contest winning speech was a TEDX speech he had written and modified and adjusted for a Toastmasters audience. Yes, he had given it. Yes, it was well received. But when he brought it to a Toastmasters audience and received acclaim, it literally took him around the world. I'm not saying your talk will do that for you, but I'm saying it'll reach a broader audience. 8.5 million people is not too shabby for a TEDx presentation that was modified to suit a smaller demographic, which ended up being having a global impact. But you had to think, as Aaron says, after you deliver it. How else can I use this? Where can I tweak it? Who else could use this? Could it be a youth audience? Could it be for a civic organization? I never talked to them before. Maybe you're involved in a house of worship and they could use your message in a way that you never thought before. We'd like you to expand your thinking beyond your current talk, or maybe your next. Why we say think three speeches ahead. Who might be a good demographic to hear even a portion of your message. And get this, Darren, you also began to expand your reach before you even gave your contest piece because you were delivering it as part of a keynote. You modified a keynote by taking stories out and trying it on different audiences. So there are myriad ways, many ways you can begin to expand the reach of your presentation. One, two, and three speeches down the road. First, if you think beyond your current.

Demographic, really want to emphasize the immediacy though, when you're out of the moment, you're going to forget, probably. But jot it down on a post it. Jot it down on a, post it on your phone, a note in your phone. However you take notes.

But voice recorded too, is always record.

Awesome. And then as soon as you can, go and change your slides, go and change your notes. If you're doing a text script, go and change your text script. I mean, we've seen it when we coach people, Mark, in stagetime, our members who come and they bring us an idea and we give them a few insights and then they work on it, they bring it back, and then we give them a few more insights and it gets better and stronger. We just had one of our members, Miriam, who gave an amazing speech on her story of how she lost her sight and how the realization of that. Well, she brought it to us in several iterations, but it just kept getting better and stronger and just found out that she won the district. Congratulations, Miriam. But it's contestants, yes, they get it because they want to win. But we're trying to say think beyond the contest. If you're a keynote speaker, think beyond this audience and set yourself up to be better, stronger, clearer for the next audience. Because some of the ideas are going to hit you while you're on that speaker's high, while you're in the mode. But it is a, make no mistake, it is a mindset. But when you start to set that mindset, you're going to see that mark. When we do workshops now we do Mastering Virtual Presentations coming up. It's a different workshop than it was right when we created it, when Covid started, because each time we've made it better, stronger, faster. But I love, you know, I'm not bragging, but it's a habit that serves my audience that I make adjustments, I make notes. We just did the humor boot camp not too long ago, and I have notes here that I took in the moment that need to go back and a new exercise to write a joke that was perfect, but I didn't see it and it wasn't. I didn't have awareness when I did the workshop last time. So this time I had a new insight, new idea, took a note, and I'll go apply it before I dare throw that note away.

So take the notes and as Darren says, act immediately. I mentioned about your demographic. Now, it may apply to some listeners today, certainly to contestants. You may have written a speech specifically customized for a particular audience and on a particular occasion, and you put the work in and it's perfect for that audience and that occasion for contestants. That's for the speech. We have friends and clients who say, we have seven levels of contest. I'm going to write a new speech for every different level. God bless you, that's fine. But the other six year old before that were successful in the contest. Might they have value beyond the contest? Could they be used in a different environment for a different audience? Similarly, if you're a speaker who's not a contestant, but you have created a customized talk for a certain audience or a certain occasion, and it's perfect for that occasion and that audience, perhaps you may not see value beyond that particular audience at that time. We're asking you to think how else, not only who else can hear it, but, but how else can I use it? For example, the how else can I use it? Becomes valid when you convert an address that's 20 to 30 minutes long into maybe a 90 minute two hour workshop because the audience wanted more of your expertise. Conversely, you could take a two hour workshop and you can, you can extract the nuggets that could be used and create a keynote from that workshop, which you can then use for a different audience. Because some audiences want workshops. They want training, others want keynotes. When we think about this, if you think 1, 2, 3 speeches beyond your presentation, maybe you can convert a workshop to a keynote or you can expand a keynote to a workshop. That's another area. If you think three speeches down the road, you can expand not only what you provide as a presenter, but the value your audience gets as a result of you being willing to think three presentations ahead.

We learn so much by the reactions we get. And as we've said in previous podcasts, the audience teaches you, the audience teaches you what's working and what isn't. When you have that audible mmm, yeah, from several people all at the same time, it's like, ding, ding, ding, ding. Okay, that works. And Mark, you know the story behind this. But in one of my keynotes, when I used to do one called Chump the Champ, I talked about the cherry tree effect. And it was in the middle of my presentations because logically that's where it belonged. And then I kept seeing that one third of the audience when I said a certain line, what do you want the audience to think about differently when you're done? And I go, mmm. And I saw a third of the audience write things down, I realized how powerful that was. So when I had that realization, I realized that that chunk could be moved to the end as the closing. Now I'M closing in strength now. I had to find the way to make it work, and it actually worked better, better in that position. But if I didn't have that three presentations down the road mindset, if I didn't have the audience teaching me my in unison, that's what we got to be looking out for. Or on the other side, if you bring up a point or you're trying a new analogy and you see people, like, looking at each other like, what? What did they say? What did he say? What did she say? That might be an indication. Okay, that needs to be clearer. That needs to be clearer.

So one more thought for you now, quickly. If we ask ourselves after every presentation, how can I make this better? Who else needs to hear it? Where else could I use this? That could really be. We begin to think, you know what, there is another way I could use this. And as Darren says, listen to the audience, because they'll tell you somewhere else you can use it. You may end up, I'm not being a predictor here, not being prescient, but you could end up converting a presentation into a book. You could end up converting a presentation into a series of workshops. My thought is the possibilities go beyond what I'm telling you here on this podcast right now. I'm asking you to think of the value you can give to your audiences by asking yourself a question after every presentation. How else could I use this? What could I add? And that way, your slide changes the notes to yourself, the voice notes, the post. Its become that much more meaningful and that much more frequent. So if you say, the next time I deliver this, I will. The next time I present this, I'm going to and fill in the blank. You might be surprised at where it will take you.

Yeah. When I created the keynote for my new book, 17 minutes to your dream, I was talking and having a conversation with Jennifer Lear about settling that keynote. And when we were talking about what the value is, what's in there, it bubbled up that I could create a title. Same, pretty much 90%, the same speech or presentation, and use the power of all in. And I remember Jennifer saying, oh, wait, that would be a perfect keynote for Las Vegas. The power of all in.

All in, sure. Gambling.

I'm all in gambling scene. And so my brain started going and I realized there's so many stories here, you know, the power of all in. In terms of, like, right now they're building the sphere. And I don't know if anyone's heard of that, but the MGM sphere, it's Going to be a new concert hall. That's a globe. That has a video going all 100% around the globe.

You told me that.

Yeah, but they didn't just decide they were going to start a new concert venue. They made a choice to change the Vegas skyline. Because now once that's up, the skyline of Vegas will change. When the eye came out, when the, the Ferris wheel came out, that changed the Vegas skyline. Now that was an icon. Now this new concert venue, that globe, that video globe will be part of the Vegas skyline. So are you building a casino, are you building a concert hall or are you changing the Vegas skyline? It's a different question and we're all be said was I didn't realize that I could with one title change, I could take the same speech, talk about the power of all in, bring in a couple of Vegas stories and now it's a Vegas keynote. Well, when conventions and conferences are coming from around the world, they're in Vegas. So they're looking for Vegas themed ideas. Maybe not for every presentation, but for a couple of them. So I've been working on some new pictures and new little video clip of showing all in. So I've got to create a new one sheet and I got to create a new demo video. However, the bottom line is it's coming from the same speech. I didn't see the Vegas audience when I created it.

So here's a thought for you now. As you hear this, think about your most recent or your current presentation. Is there a powerful through line, Is there a powerful statement embedded in your presentation that could be the seed of a modification that you can customize for a demographic, for a location, for a type of audience? It's the same presentation but the emphasis is different and now you find new ways to use it. That's the power of thinking three speeches ahead. Darren, the all in idea is brilliant, particularly since it's, it fits your demographic. So friends, as you listen to this, is there a portion of your presentation and you can redirect to use the same presentation but in a more powerful way for a broader audience? That's the power of thinking three speeches ahead.

Yeah, when you can get the mindset that that's just how you operate. So it's not just this time think this way. We're inviting you to create this new habit that will literally change the trajectory of your audience, impact maybe of your career just by bringing this mindset. But no matter what, you're going to serve the next audience better because one small idea, one small tweak one new metaphor. And hey, if you got a metaphor that, oh, this would be great. Ford talked about in the AI program at Game Changers talked about using AI to create a metaphor and he came up with the rolling down your window, the fresh breeze that comes in if you're trying to stay awake while you're driving. Well, new idea. Try it. It may or may not work, but when I learned from the comedy world is you put it in between two pieces of content that you know works and that's how you test it. That way it's a small risk because if it doesn't work or confuses people, well, then you go back and go to the next piece of strong content that you know works. But unless you're trying and attempting new content, you're never going to reach its full potential. What we're saying here is think, act immediately after your presentation or when we do the workshops. I do it during because I have a co presenter so you can handle and you can read my mind and face and see that, oh, he's.

Yes, I do.

Updating that slide in the background. But when you can think that way, you are going to be on the path to being unforgettable.

Yeah. One last thought for you. I'm going to repeat this idea after every presentation. Think the next time I do this, I'm going to try. The next time I deliver this, I will. And you'll be surprised to know what happens as a result when you begin to think. Three speeches ahead. We'll see you next week. Yeah.

Please pass this on to friends and presenters that you know that could benefit from it. And next week we're going to go in and ask a tough question. Are you selfish? Hmm.

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