Ep. 196 Unforgettable Preparation

Mark, here's the thing people don't want to do as presenters and speakers. They don't want to prepare. They have charisma, they have confidence. I don't need to prepare. Well, you know, you and I have been coaching a lot of people for a long time. And for right now, we're recording this during Toastmaster contest season. So a lot of contestants come to us and they're working on a brand new speech, a brand new presentation. And I won't mention a name, but I had someone who I had given feedback to say they first pros in the middle of their presentation. It was just for a few seconds, but in a keynote, people would forgive you. And if you're giving good content, it's okay. But how do we avoid that? And I think the key is in preparation. What do you think?

Well, I have an idea I want to share with you on that, but let's see what you got to say. We'll hear what I got to say and hopefully you will all leave with greater ideas about preparation.

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.

And hey, Mark, before we dive in, quick heads up. We're enjoying this 20 to 30 minute format. If we have someone we're interviewing, we will go 45 minutes or 60 minutes again because we have a special guest there. But if we feel we covered the subject in 20 or 30 minutes, there's no need to keep going. So we'd love any feedback you have. If you know us, you can reach out on our website, markbrownspeaks.com or Darren lacroix.com love any feedback on that. Or deliverunforgettablepresentations.com that being said, going back to preparation, that thing we don't want to do. Not the fun part, but here's a quick reminder. If you're a professional speaker, you're getting paid to do well in a tough situation. Anyone can deliver a great presentation when it's, let's say a network marketing company, multi level marketing, and they're conditioned to just love whoever's up there, respect who's ever up there. That's easy. I Even remember from the comedy days and those easy nights, it's like you can do no wrong. A joke that goes, eh, other places, they love it there. Okay, that's not why we prepare. We prepare so under adverse conditions we can still deliver and we won't get flustered. So as I mentioned in the opening, having one of the people I was coaching and helping, they, you know, it's a new speech, it's a contest speech. Same thing applies whether it's a contest speech or high paid keynote. We have to know internalize. We've done other podcasts on internalizing, but this is kind of the why behind internalizing. In terms of Mark, I don't want to steal your thunder. You're the one who taught me this. Go ahead.

Well, I say you should know your talk so well that if I were to shake you awake in your bedroom at 2:17am and say go, you'll pop up and deliver the speech not from memory, but from your heart. Now, as to why I'm in your bedroom at 2:17am that's not a story.

Completely, that's another podcast.

But you get the idea behind it. The point being, if you know it so well internally, you know, when you look for a script in your brain, you're delivering what's in your heart from your being. And that way when distractions come, you are less flustered by it. And Darren, you had to deal with that when you were competing, oh my gosh, 22 years ago in a Toastmasters contest.

Yeah, and it's still the same principle in my keynotes. Knowing the content, knowing the intention that I need to get across and what they need to walk away with. Last week we talked about your one thing. If you didn't listen to that, go back and listen. I think it's going to change the way you present just that one short podcast. But this week we're talking about the preparation, the work behind giving that privilege to that opportunity to be in that moment. Yet how are you going to perform when things go wrong? And so one of the ideas that I had is I would go and rehearse in a stage. I went to my church and borrowed the auditorium, used a big stage, and I laid out with yellow card stock my key lines and phrases and where those stories would be. And then here's the key though. I remember from my early days of standup when I memorized things, I was memorizing words in a row. And the problem was if people heckled me, I would get flustered. And then in my head I Would have to go back to the beginning and, like, reread it quickly in my head to see where I left off. That's the problem because it doesn't have a strong structure that something can phase us. And that's the difference between internalizing and memorizing. Memorizing words in a Internalizing knowing what you're gonna say. So if something does happen and what I did is I would move physically to that spot where the mom and dad story. Physically to that spot. Dr. Goddard, VNI valuable negative information. But here to me was the key is I had my dad pointing randomly to different spot. Oh, so I wasn't. Now, I would go through the speech in order, but then I would go through it out of order. So that way I was internalizing and anchoring that physical spot on the stage. So I knew it. I might not have the right word because I'm dyslexic and I'm not good at memorizing, But I knew the point that I was trying to get across. And that gives us confidence. Now, Mark, you know at the end of my speech, and if you haven't seen it, it's on YouTube, you can look it up. Darren Lacroix winning speech. At the very end of my second fall, unexpectedly, my battery pack for my lavalier microphone fell off. When I was about to deliver my key line of my life, you'll notice I didn't even miss a beat. I grabbed it, I put it on my belt, and I delivered the line. It didn't fluster me. So I really say it's the preparation. Now, I don't know if you remember this, Mark, but one of the other ideas I did was I had intentional distraction. While I was preparing, I literally cranked the song by Tina Turner. Simply the best. I cranked it up, and then I would deliver my speech. And what that got me to do was focus was focus. This is what I'm doing. This is what I'm saying. Here's where I'm going. It was that intentional distraction. So when a real distraction did happen, it didn't phase me. And it allowed me to be more in the moment. If someone smiles, if someone laughs at an odd place, or if somebody starts shaking their head or nodding, it's easy to acknowledge it. If you know your presentation so well that nothing can faze you.

And that point is not a slight one. Friends, anyone who was given talks for any length of time will tell you it's not a matter of if. It's when. Someone in the audience will surprise you. By their reaction, they'll laugh seemingly out of turn. You'll get a reaction you don't get. It's funny. If you watch even these Toastmasters winning speeches invariably is someone who responds in a way the speaker doesn't expect. And the speaker has to adjust to it. You can't just plow through it. You have in real life, you're in a meeting and you realize it's a siren going off outside a garbage truck. Something happens. I was in a church one time and the pastor was delivering his sermon, and it was in a rented space. Because very often new churches will have a meeting in a school or a movie theater. Happened to be in a movie theater. And for some reason they had sent an employee on the roof with a leaf blower to blow the fall lean off the top of the movie theater right when this pastor was delivering. And the poor man was visibly flustered. He could not even concentrate. He sent one of his associates to go talk to the manager to get the guy on the roof to just wait for 30 minutes before he cleaned the roof off so he could get a sermon done. Literally stopped what he was saying because he could not focus with a distraction. Am I being critical of him? No, I'm simply telling a story. A true story. I was there. I witnessed it. But it made me realize we do have fire engines at conference events. We do have some kind of announcement. It's amazing what can get in the way and surprise you while you're presenting. The question is, will that completely throw you off? And Darren, you mentioned having music playing. It was a young man, Ryan Avery. I think it was in a Toastmasters conference. He had his wife. I think he had his wife to say things and yell and make sounds and drop pans and pots to try to distract him because he was aware of the potential of having distractions. And I don't believe in my experience there, and I don't believe there are too many speakers who say, I am prepared for distractions. Comedy world. It's easier because you might get heckled. You don't expect heckling as a presenter. But if we think I am prepared and in case something happens, I've got this. That may be a dimension of preparation that we don't often consider. What do we do with unexpected distractions?

And here's the double bonus for this. When you can be in the moment and be able to adjust to something that happens, that is when you will be unforgettable. They'll be amazed that you have the ability to bob and weave and Acknowledge something. That's when the connection is beautiful. That's when the connection happens. So this isn't just about not freezing. It's about taking advantage of those opportunities, those unexpected opportunities that will separate you, will get you referred, will get you asked back. Mark, I remember one time in the old days, right after winning, I spoke in Toronto, I think it was to a Toastmaster conference, and I literally was showing my championship speech. I show the video of it because I can't reproduce it, you know? You can't reproduce. I can tell the speech, I can say the words, but it's nothing like being in front of that big audience and seeing how I performed under that pressure. Well, in the middle of showing the video, it went out, and I just. Instinct, I ran up on stage and finished the speech from where it was, and they raved about that. And you. And I gotta know, Mark, I think I mentioned this on the podcast before, but I had one time that I was showing a video and I didn't go to the restroom beforehand. So I was like, all right, I'm showing the video. I got five minutes and I ran out to the bathroom. I came back and the door to the conference was locked.

Are you banging on the door?

Hey, excuse me. Little help here. Little help.

You know what's interesting, though? You mention conferences, and not everyone here is a conference speaker who hears us. But some are. And as professionals, what we. We ask in our arrangements with our. With the venue, we asked that if it's a meal event, please, no food service while we are presenting. And most clients are wonderful, they do that. But then once in a while, they'll make sure the meals are served. Yes, but you go to speak, and then there's coffee service, there's clink, there's clang, there's a cup falls on the ground, there's movement going on. And you're thinking, we asked them do no food service. We meant coffee service as well. I guess I didn't understand it. But what do you do? You find a way to work with that and don't get flustered. Preparation prevents us from being flustered in the unexpected situations. So here's the key. Well, a key for us to consider in preparation. Yes, we want to get the words, we want to get emotion. We want to get our blocking on stage. What will we look like in the moment? But prepared. Be prepared for the unexpected, because things can happen one day. Darren, we should just do a funny podcast on all the incredible, unbelievable but true experiences we have had as presenters that centered around the Unexpected, the serious and the humorous. We should do that one day just to give our listeners and viewers an example of what you can face. Because I don't know what will happen when I go to next school I go to. I don't know what happened my next, my next keynote, I don't know. But it is my responsibility to my audience to be so well prepared that should a distraction even come, I can still give them the value they have paid me to deliver. I can still give them the experience they expect to based upon my personal high standards. And I walk away knowing I have served the audience well. So think not of your preparation, only about how well you can do as a presenter, but think of your preparation as your service to your audience.

Yeah, again, don't memorize. That's the challenge. Internalize. I know Patricia Fripp talks about going over her presentation while she's on a treadmill mill, but find your way. I did it on a stage. Ryan Avery had his wife heckling him, whatever that is. But practice with distractions, random distractions, and you will internalize it. But most importantly, you'll be able to be unforgettable in the tough times. And the tough times will actually show your value to the event planner, to the audience, and you'll create a deeper connection because you took that time to internalize and know your presentation so well that Mark Brown couldn't come into your bedroom at 2 in the morning. That would be unforgettable, by the way. I'd be like, crap, how did he get in here?

Does his wife know what's cool? Darren, you mentioned about the meeting planner. You've always said you want to be the meeting planners favorite. Trust me, when you show your dexterity and being able to perform, especially under extremely unexpected circumstances, meeting planners. Talk to meeting planners and they'll see not only how well you served, but your character, your level of preparation. And they'll refer you because of the way you bless, serve and meet their needs as an audience. When you make that meeting panel look good, chances are you'll get opportunities to serve others as well. So please don't forget, with unforgettable preparation, the result and the benefit to the audience could well exceed your own expectations.

It'll benefit you too. We'll see you next week.

See you next week.

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