Ep. 2 The Story Behind Mike Rayburn’s Famous Hologram Keynote

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. Hey, welcome, Mark Brown. How are you?

So far, so blessed, my brother.

All right, well, we are excited to be here with Mike Rayburn. Mike is one of my men and one of the most unforgettable, consistent presenters I've ever seen.

I just call him the virtuoso maestro.

Thank you, guys.

How are you, Mike?

I'm doing great. Thank you for having me here.

Delighted to have you. I want to dive right in. I mean, your background is amazing. How long have you been on stages?

On stages for 35 years. Probably about 35 years, but that's counting college, so.

And you sold out Carnegie Hall?

Yes, I've played there a few times, and I have a Live at Carnegie hall cd.

Nice. You have given so many presentations, it's crazy. I have seen you so many times, and what I love is when you do Bohemian Rhapsody every time. It never gets old.

Well, cool. Thank you. And clarification here. If you came to this thing thinking we're talking about presentations, and then now we're talking guitar. Okay, There is a. There is a bridge between the two here. They do come together, folks, so don't. Yeah, I played Carnegie as a guitarist and comedian. I do Bohemian Rhapsody on the guitar, but I use those now for the past 18 years as a. In the context of a keynote presentation.

Amazing illustrations. Mark, let me hand it over to you.

Well, real quick, Mike, I've seen you, I've heard you. You know, you're a comedian, you're a humorist, but you move people at a higher level. CEOs, C suite executives. How do you bridge that? From the history I understand of doing those dive bars, People are still sober. How you get from doing the dive bar college circuit to influencing CEOs and CFOs and top executive at the highest level.

Great question. The quick of it is that while I have always been a guitarist and I've always used guitar to. To deliver comedy, to do funny things with music, to do funny songs and parodies and that sort of thing, in 11th grade, my dad gave me a book called Psycho Cybernetics. By a guy named Maxwell Maltz. And it's basically about the power of belief, thought focus, mindset. Pretty heady reading for 11th grade. And I devoured this book. It made total sense to me and I found out that it worked. The things, the principles in it worked. So at the same time, I'm developing. Well, of course I had an athletic thing going because my. My dad's a football coach, but the same time I'm developing as a guitarist and comedian and an artist. I was a songwriter in Nashville for Sony. I was a staff songwriter. I'm doing all this at the same time. I had this background where I was just to myself. I was goal setting and thinking about mindset and creativity and how the mind works, how the balance of mind and heart and how those things affect our. But I kept that to myself because my artist friends were like, that's pretty weird. So what happened is they finally came together. I started doing a little bit of a motivational thing at the end of my presentations. And I don't know if you want to get into that story, but quickly. I was headlining Zany's comedy club in Nashville and my friend Jana Stanfield was there. And Jana is also a speaker, but she's written hit songs for Reba McEntire and all this. And I knew her as a songwriter and so she saw my show and she. I came off stage, said, mike, you're clean, you're funny, and you have a message. You're a speaker and you don't even know it. And I said, what's a speaker? And she explained it. I said, you mean like a motivational speaker? And she said, yeah. And I thought, ah, I don't know about that. It took a few years to listen to her, but then once I did, I realized that, and this is the key to me, this is the reason, the direct answer to your question mark. I realized then that using guitar and comedy as my delivery mechanism for a motivational speech, for a speech that was sharing the things that I tools that I find work for life. I could do something no one has done. And that's why I'm on this planet. I want to do things that haven't been done. I want to think things that haven't been thought. I want to try things. I just got to. I can't just do the mundane. I have to do something different.

That's awesome. And that's part of the reason why I find you, your style and what you deliver to be truly unforgettable. I mean, there are a couple more Things I want to ask. I want to ask you one particular question to reinforce the idea of you being unforgettable. Because I heard you in Vegas, I don't know, maybe 10 years ago, and your whole focus for your audience was on doing the things that were impossible. And you asked us a two word question. It became your trademark, actually your signature. What if? And how did that idea of wondering, can I do the impossible? How did that transform the way you presented and the way you speak now to the point where you've been given the CPAE Award, Council of Peers Award for Excellence? I mean, you are the best of the best. You're truly unforgettable. How did that come about?

Thank you, man. The question what if? Is something that I. Once I put my finger on what it was, I look back at what worked. I don't think you want to be unforgettable. Teach what you know works, not what you've heard works. We know people who do that, right? Teach what is authentic to you, what you have experienced working. And when I look back, everything that had happened, I realized it was all based on a what if question. I was always asking, well, what if I could do this? Or what if, you know, when somebody yells some silly request, you know, in the bars, you're talking about the dive bars, some stupid request. Michael Jackson, right? Like, I'm going to do Michael Jackson. This is, you know, late 80s, early 90s. I could shy away from it. I could say, ha, move on. And then something in me thought, what if I could? Well, I didn't know the song. I didn't know the thing. What if I could? And it didn't mean I went and did it. It meant I changed it. I did something funny with the lyric. I did the crotch grab. I spoke in falsetto or whatever, and they laughed. And what that gave me was a new reaction. It was a good reaction, but it was a different reaction than I'd gotten. And everybody laughed. And so then I tried it again, and they laughed again. Everyone who was coming to hear me regularly was kind of like, what's up with Rayburn? Is something different going on here? Over time, it turned out, and this is the key, this is why it works. The requests that were holding me back, I mean, this is holding me back. I'd be on stage, I'd want to perform. They're yelling things, and I don't want them to yell. And I don't want to handle it right. It was holding me back. Turned out those requests were there to deliver to me everything that I wanted. It just didn't look that way in the beginning. And I guarantee you, any of your listeners are sitting here right now going, this thing's holding me back. I'm saying, what if there's something good about it? What if there's something positive? What if there's a. An opportunity in it? That's great.

So our focus on this podcast is to help people deliver and create unforgettable presentations. So I'm going to back up a half a step. You, Mike, have been in the speaking industry for decades. You, as an audience member, what's one of the unforgettable presentations you've seen as an audience member, what stood out or what do you think made it unforgettable?

Well, the first one I ever saw, when I went to my first NSA as a National Speakers association, people hear nsa and they go, really? Security, you know, and we're the ones who speak, not the ones who listen. I went to the first conference, and the first speaker I saw was Jamie Clark. And Jamie talks about climbing Mount Everest. He's very funny in his presentation. And what struck me is he was willing to go all out. There's a point where he's portraying a guy who is about to die on the side of Everest, and they've patched him in through his radio to his wife in Australia. Okay, wow. And the guy ends up living. But Jamie is laying on the stage, on the ground on his stomach. He's laying with the microphone up to his mouth, and he's acting out. This guy nearly dying, talking to his wife, thinking he's giving his last words. And it was. It just moved me beyond measure. And I thought, not only was it great, it was so well written, it was funny. Not only did he say all the things, forgive me, I know you guys are Toastmasters, but he broke all the Toastmasters rules. You heard him. Every now and then, he said, yeah, I know. I put my hands in my pockets. I am not a good speaker. But. And he just did it anyway. He was willing to sell out. He was willing to do whatever it took to get the audience to portray the situation, to create an impact. And so that whole just willing to do whatever it takes, that's what did it.

I think one of the keys that you just tapped into was his intention. His intention. He wasn't trying to be coached, and Mark and I coach people, but his intention overrode everything else. And that's what the audience can sense. That's one of the keys to an unforgettable presentation.

Right? It's not that those guidelines, rules or whatever, it's not that those are not important. Here's a great example. I think Bruce Springsteen is one of the best songwriters who's ever lived. Bruce Springsteen knows the songwriting rules and he breaks them on a regular basis, but he knows when and how to break them, okay? And he knows that they exist and he knows when. I mean, he phrases things that are weird and they don't fit, but it sounds cool. It's like you hear all those rules, you guys are hearing all these rules. Do this, don't do that. Put your hand, whatever, stand and deliver. Don't move there. Move your hand up on this word, you know? And the bottom line is, does it impact your audience? Does it work? And so learn those rules, but don't be unwilling to throw them out as you need to.

I remember Lou Holtz on the main stage at NSA one time where most Toastmasters would cringe on this, but he said, have something to say and a desire to say, it doesn't matter where your hands are. And I think that's one of the big keys.

Yeah, exactly.

So, Mike, I know a lot of people listening to this may not be world class yet, and they're working on getting there. Random question, have you ever bombed?

Have I ever bombed?

Give us an example and maybe what you learned from it, and then we'll dive into your presentation.

The times I've bombed or it hasn't landed the way I wanted it to. That's a more euphemistic way to say it when it hasn't. And luckily those are fewer now, few. They haven't happened in a while, but it's almost. Usually there's a mismatch. There's some kind of miscommunic communication beforehand where I'm in a situation. For instance, the one that came to mind is a company who has since booked me about eight or ten times. So evidently they didn't. Or maybe they just didn't remember. It was middle of the day and it was to a sales group, a group of salespeople, and it wasn't a big room and they were all sitting at classroom kind of desks. And here I am coming in as funny boy with a guitar and teaching what if? And they had booked me expecting a little bit more of a high content, bullet points on the PowerPoint kind of a presentation. And I didn't. I don't do that now. If I were in that situation, I know what to do to make that work. I didn't then. And so I Think they came away with not a very positive experience of my presentation. I bombed. Then there was another time there was a mismatch where I was doing my little. At a college. I was doing my guitar and comedy thing. They booked me to emcee, which I'd not done at that point. Now I've done a lot, but I hadn't. And they booked me to MC a sexy legs and sexy chest contest at a college. And so here I am, funny boy with little cute, little funny songs. And these folks. This is football players who wanted to see skin. I came away from the first 10 minutes and introduce whatever. And then I came back for the next 10 minutes and they booed.

Ooh.

Yeah. So in other words, I'm 10 minutes into the thing and they're booing the fact that I am back. Ouch. And I don't have risque, but I came as close as I have to that. And I did, like, I just threw out everything else I was gonna do. And I went to this and kind of turned it around a little in the next. That. In that 10 minutes. And then when I came back for the last 10 minutes, they didn't boo. And I went with COVID songs, which, okay, they could enjoy the COVID songs. And I came away righting the ship. I didn't bail it out, but I righted the ship.

And what was the lesson you learned from that?

Make sure there's a match between what they're expecting and what you're delivering. Always make sure of that. Number two, don't be afraid to be flexible in the moment. Now, there's a weird balance there. There's also the balance where I use a phrase. This is my own axiom. I came up with this to coach myself, and that is when it just feels like there's nothing that can make this work. Do what you do. Do it the best way you know how. Do what you do. Do it the best way you know how. If I'm going to bomb, I want to bomb doing what I do rather than having punted completely and done something that's not me. And then that bombs because then I didn't even do me. You know, at least. Does that make sense? Do what you do. Do it the best way you know how.

And I think one of the principles that you just brought up there is there can't be a mismatch between what you do and what they're expecting.

Exactly.

Figuring that out ahead of time. It's almost impossible to be unforgettable in a good way. If there's a mismatch on that.

That's the key, I think all of those situations, unless you're just bad, and that's a different story. But if you're good at what you do, just make sure it matches with what they're expecting.

Yeah. For people who might be listening, who might have learned from Mark or me, or if you're a toastmaster, I always say stage time, stage time, Stage time. Which means get on stage, get that experience. That's not what we're talking about. Like, that's still a good concept at the beginning when you're trying to get more experience to learn. However, once you reach the professional level and you're getting paid now, you gotta be choosier and make sure that match is there.

Right. I one time did a comedy show with a comic. I don't hear him much anymore, but he was huge. Back in the 90s, a guy named Shang. It was a college in Michigan. I think it was western Michigan. And he went on before me. Well, he's what they call. He's a blue comic. You know, he works dirty. He was doing pretty base kind of material. It was funny. He was good at it. And then I get on to follow him. Well, I should have gone before him. And he knew that. He kind of. He snaked me on that one.

Ouch.

And so then I went on to follow him, and my material is not that. And so that was a little bit of a rough. A rough evening. I got through it, but again, there's a mismatch.

All right, so let's fast forward to the presentation. That was one of the favorite presentations I've ever seen. I've been going to nsa, the National Speakers association, for years now. Granted, you're a mentor, you're a friend. You're somebody I learned from. I love your commitment to being a virtuoso. Let's start there. What does that mean to you?

Virtuoso? That's a dedication to excellence. It's a virtuoso in the music world is someone of mastery level skill, someone who wakes up in the morning making the choice for excellence. So often, it's not even a choice anymore. It just becomes who you are. And I don't claim to be a virtuoso. I'd love to be. But I do claim to have chosen to be on that path. And that's what I teach audiences. Choose to become a virtuoso. Choose to become the very best. And it's so funny because across the board, when I hear I bought the Masterclass, Steve Martin. And even in the advertisements, the first thing he says is, you know, I talk with these students and they say, well, how can I get an agent? And how can I get booked and how can I. And he said, how about focus on just being good? Just be good. And that's the key there. If you're good, all the other stuff will come in time. And if you're not good, all the opportunity in the world is still polishing a turd. Forgive it.

You had said in our session at the nsa, you used a quote from Mike Rayburn about a problem you have when you're not getting booked.

The problem is your speech.

It's your speech.

You're not getting paid what you want as often as you want. The problem is your speech. People aren't rushing to the back of the room to learn more from you or get connected to you.

The problem is your speech.

Now, I don't do a great interpretation of Mike as I do of Mark Brown, but, like, I couldn't tell whether.

That was you or me talking, Darren. I couldn't tell. It was pretty transparent.

Let's go to the presentation.

Sure.

So when was the presentation? Tell us. Give us a little background.

This is 2014. It's the closing keynote for the National Speakers association. So here's 1500 people who do what I do, and I'm going to do the closing keynote for it. Yeah, you got to bring it. I knew that early on. I don't know how much you want me to just kind of go into.

Yeah, go ahead. Describe the presentation.

So first of all, I had to. This is one of my best friends. Dan Thurman was the conference chair. And it was not a done deal that I was in. Okay, so that's a real important point. There are a few things that were completely up in the air that I just went out on faith. First thing was I had had an idea when I was teaching my virtuoso class at Verve. I try to. Again, you got to model what you teach. You got to walk the talk. And so I asked them to set goals where you don't know how, but you know what. And so I got in front of this class and I just had this idea that it all appeared in one shot. And I don't know, you know, thank you, God. You practice, you exercise your creative muscles. They keep getting better and they keep coming easier. So this idea popped into my head that I wanted as a guitarist, to do a duet of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. Dun dun dun dun dun dun dun Dun. I wanted to do a duet, a guitar duet of that symphony with myself via hologram so that a hologram of me would appear next to me, and together we would play the first movement of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony on the guitar. On the guitar, on two electric guitars. And I had. And it was. And I. And I told the class, this is what I'm gonna do. And they looked at me like half of them didn't understand what I was saying. And. And so I said, I'm doing it. And the cool thing was, I also teach. When you have a goal like that, it's out there that's different, that someone that you know is pushing you, that you have no idea how to do this, but you've set the goal. Only share it with people who've got your back. Don't share with people gonna shoot you down. You don't need that. It's hard enough as it is. Share with people who've got your back, and they're gonna encourage you and in a good way, hold you accountable. And my class, I kind of considered that way. Well, you know, there's one woman in the class who would check in with me about every two or three months. Go, how's the hologram coming? You know, hey, have you worked on the Beethoven? And I appreciated her for that. So, anyway, I set that goal. That was 11 months before the actual presentation. And so I started writing this without having been chosen to do the slot yet. And so I started writing it, and I realized I needed to write the presentation first. And I knew that the presentation had to work regardless of guitar, regardless of hologram, because the message. Yes, the message, and the delivery of the message had to work just on its own. They needed to walk away from that thing going, this worked just for the message. This was everything we wanted. He delivered. Because if you're relying on your slides or your music or some little thing that you add to it to be the thing, that's the reason people book you. Then you're not doing the art form. That's not what it's about. It's gotta be about the message first. So I knew I had to write a stellar keynote. And I had, by the way, I had 25, 20. I ended up with 27 minutes to do this.

So just real quick for people listening, too, Mike, you're known for. And you have a keynote that you paid really well for.

Correct.

So this was outside of that and reinventing. Because it's one thing to have that presentation, but now to be at your level and Then create something completely new. Wow.

Completely new. And when you have one presentation that you do over and over again, you hone it. It gets better each time. I have the benefit with what if? Of having done it for 17 years. And so it's gotten good over the time. Well, this one didn't have that. So I had to dial that into it. I had to just present it myself and kind of record it and listen to it and stuff like that. So I wrote the presentation and then I had to. I'll sum this up as quickly as I can. So turns out there is not a guitar duet of Beethoven's fifth Symphony anywhere in existence. So I had to write it. I had to make the arrangement myself. So twice I flew to Nashville to work with a studio guitarist friend of mine to go ideas back and forth on coming up with this arrangement. It was my arrangement, and I also wanted to do it. I had this vision because if you listen to the tune, the melody that everyone knows. Dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun. Okay. They go back and forth. Fourth, that could be done in a kind of a dueling banjos way. Like one guitarist goes dun dun dun dun, and the second one goes dun dun dun dun. And the third one goes dun dun dun dun. Or the second first one again back and forth, right? Dueling. So I wanted to do it that way. So I went back and forth twice to Nashville just to work on the arrangement. Finished the arrangement. I literally charted the whole thing. Usually I memorize, but this one I charted. And then I had to record it. I had to record each of the parts, both sides, left and right. Because we're going to get rid of one of them and I'm going to play it live. But the hologram had to play the other part, right? So I had to think all this through. So then I had to. This is a really important point. When you have a major project, a major speech, a major whatever you're trying to create, there's always something called the limiting step. You got a step of things. Okay. I had to write the speech. I had to make sure it delivered. I had to do the arrangement. I had to record the arrangement. I had to find a company to do the hologram. To create a hologram that was affordable, I had to write the dialogue between me and myself that the hologram and I would have to do. I had to record it. I had to rehearse it. I had to be ready with it. Okay, there's a series of just a whole bunch of steps. But there's always one step that decides whether you're going to do the. Whether you're going to be able to accomplish this or not. Always in any project. And this one, the limiting step was finding a company to do the hologram. I could do everything else. If I don't find a company that can do the hologram affordably, this doesn't happen. And if I find the company that can do this, then all the other stuff will fall in place. But I that. So I started day one along with writing the thing, I started looking for the company. And the first quote I got was a quarter of a million dollars to do this seven minute slot. A quarter of a million dollars. Well, that wasn't going to happen.

You can't just cover that in one keynote.

Oh yeah, well I could say if you're certain political figures, you could, but there's some other things going on there. Anyway, to move this forward, I'm moving forward with this keynote and I have no idea whether I'm even getting to perform it, let alone whether I'm going to do it with hologram. And so I finally found out about five months beforehand, four or five months beforehand, it's going to be a go. And whether I have hologram or not, they want me to do this. So I am in to do the. I've already written the thing and I mean I changed it a lot but the basis of it was there. So I still had to find the company. And I fast forward, I found the company to create this thing about two months before the presentation. And you never want it to come down that far. And I was just, I went on faith, I just put it out there and it cost me as much as a pretty good car, really good car. For me, it costs a lot of money. But this is for a seven minute spot. Okay? So once I did that, once I found that company, I went, this is actually gonna happen. And I was. And it was like, there's a weird rush. Cause keep in mind you're in new space. You're in like out of your comfort zone. Well, way the heck out of my comfort zone. But you're in just this totally new territory just going like, what's next? What am I doing? And so when I shot the hologram, it had to sum up the keynote. It was the summation, right? So I had to have the summation. I had to have what the keynote was about so that the thing could do. So I went to Hollywood and literally Hollywood movie studio is where we shot it because you have to have a lot of crazy lighting and high res cameras and all this stuff. I had written the dialogue between me, so I had to memorize half the dialogue. I had to memorize half the guitar part. And then I had to perform them, allowing for comedic timing because I had.

Jokes in there and you don't know how long they're gonna laugh.

No, you don't. And all. But one of them landed. One of them was a little bit. It didn't quite time out right. I mean, you can't tell it, but I know it, so. And so I had to perform it. So I spent eight hours in the studio shooting the thing and we got it down. And then I had to go and work on forgetting all of that because the worst thing I could do is live with the guitar, start playing the part I already played that the other guy's doing. So I had to forget all of that. I had to memorize the other side of the conversation. And I had to practice it timing wise with the video, I mean the video of the hologram.

How many times did you do that, do you think? Guessing.

Guessing. I did it four or 500 times.

Wow.

I did it over easy to be unforgettable. My family, oh, I put all together, I figured in 11 months, I put well over 1100 hours into this thing. Probably 1200, maybe more. This, I lived this. And it was all for 27 minutes. For 27 minutes. Then I felt good. Oh, and here's the other thing. And I heard this talked about. What I ended up doing was. Ended up being talked about by Eric Chester about 10 days beforehand, still knowing what the conclusion of the keynote was. I threw everything out. I was like, no. And I threw all the speech out. And I made every. This is a good thing to do. I made every piece audition its way back in. Meaning look at like, is this point good? Is this story good? Is this should I do this or not? And stuff found its way out, ended up on the cutting room floor and a few things replaced it.

And we gotta be willing to do that.

Yeah.

We gotta be willing to let go.

Yeah.

Let your babies go.

Oh, yeah. It's. What is it that makes you good but keeps you from being great? What is it that you're doing now that gets you by but is holding you back in the long run? And it'll be something, I'll guarantee you, if you have a good speech, if you're doing something that's working for you to improve, you have to get rid of something that's working for something that's going to work better.

Make space.

Yeah, you have to make space for it.

One of your messages in the keynote, I still remember this today, is write music you can't play.

Correct.

And when you said that, the illustration at the end was such the perfect demonstration or illustration of the point. So I love that you've explained that. Look, you got to get the message right first, then you make it more unforgettable, Right?

And then you look at the ways you can augment and illustrate and kind of blow it over the top if you want. The premise of the keynote is very simple. Number one, make the choice. We talked about the choice to become a virtuoso. Make the choice to become your personal best, the way it's set. And Brian Tracy, you and I both know Brian, great friend and mentor, had said that to me years ago. But he said in his own words, he said, have you resolved to be the best? And I thought about it and I was like, dude, I'm doing it's college market. I was winning these national awards and things were going. And I was like, dude, I'm doing pretty well. He's like, no, that's not what I asked you. I said, have you resolved to be the best? And I realized, and the answer was no. Because here I was doing what was working. And because it's working, I was coasting. And my whole thing about coasting is the problem with coasting is it only happens downhill. Anyway, that was the premise, was that make the choice to become a virtuoso. And once you make that choice, there's two things you got to do to make it happen. Number one, write music you can't play. Meaning set goals where you don't know how, but you know what. Meaning dream goals, people call them big, hairy, audacious goals, whatever goals that you don't know how to do it, but you know this is where you're going. Number one, write music you can't play. And then number two, do whatever it takes to play it. That's the practice, that's the work. So you create this unequivocal vision and then you do whatever it takes to make that vision come true. And that was the premise of the keynote.

And how did you come up with that idea for the message?

Based on what works, based on what I had experienced. Brian asked me that in the late 90s and I made that choice. And then I realized it drew a line in the sand. Everything great that happened, the exponential growth in income Bookings, speeches, playing Carnegie hall, headlining Carnegie hall cd. I can name a bunch of things all came after having made that decision and acted on it. It's like, here I am as a guitarist and it's working well. Are you working on improving your guitar playing? Are you taking lessons? I make the joke. Yeah, I'm self taught. Yeah, you're proud? I'm self taught. We get proud of that. Here's the problem with being self taught, the teacher's not that good. So, you know, go seek people who can help. That's what I love about you guys. I mean, you guys have been teaching this forever. You just did a killer. One of the top rated breakout sessions at the National Speakers Association. And it's. It's all about trying to be best, be good, keep improving, get coaching, get people who are going to help you.

I love hearing the story that you went and studied with Robert Fripp.

That was a direct result of this choice. What would it take for me to become a virtuoso? That's the question I asked her. What's it going to take? Make a list. What are you going to work on? What are you going to do every day? What are the things? And one of the things is like guitar. Okay, take lessons. So I start, you start. And here's the key though. You start right where you are. Start right with what's in front of you. There was a guy at my church who plays jazz fusion guitar. And I love it, but I did not know how to play it. So I started taking lessons with him. But then you also take it as far as you can take it. And so we both know Patricia Fripp and her brother Robert Fripp is on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the top 100 guitarists of all time. He's a guitarist for King Crimson. He played with David Bowie. He's playing on Heroes by David Bowie. He's playing on Salisbury Hill by Peter Gabriel. He's okay, that kind of that level guitarist. And here was a chance to go over and study with him for a week in Spain, in a small monastery in rural Spain. And so I'd never even been to Europe at that point. And so I flew out there on my own and found my way train station out there in the middle of nowhere and just walked through this Spanish countryside and there's a hidden little monastery there. And I went in, I stayed there for a week and I studied with.

And what was one of the first things he taught you? Like, I've never forgotten this.

Well, I went There saying, I wanted to reinvent. Okay? I wanted to reinvent. I was getting tired of my own playing. I wanted to do something new. I wanted to learn. He has a new scale that he developed. I mean, a new tuning that he developed called new standard tuning. And I wanted to learn that or whatever. And so you're going to reinvent. You got to start with the fundamentals. Robert Fripp. Here I was, I've been playing guitar for. For 30 years at that point. 35. Robert Fripp taught me how to hold a pick. He taught me how to put my arm on the guitar. Wow. He taught me how to put my left arm on the fretboard. He taught me how to pick a string. I'm not kidding. I mean, he taught me as rudimentary basic fundamentals as one can teach. And keep in mind, when you do this in your metaphorical way, however that applies to you, there is immediately a setback. Don't get thrown off by that. There's immediately unlearning. Yes. You have to unlearn the old habit. And so you get worse for a second, for a little while, however long, depends on how long you practice.

That's brilliant.

Yeah, I got worse at first, but what it did was it allowed me to reform, a remake, a foundation that then I could move forward with my playing and I could get that much better than I would have had I continued the way I was going to. And so it took a setback at first, and it did. And I had to relearn how to pick the way he did, and I end up with my own version of it. He probably. I don't know that he would approve of it the way I do it now, but it came from him. It came from that learning.

All right, so this presentation that I'm talking about blew me away. And I have seen so many speakers and so many presenters, and some wowed me. I remember the feeling in the room when you were done. Nsa, you know, they sometimes do the obligatory standing ovation, like, we jumped up. The feelings and the emotion that you got through was what made it unforgettable because of the feelings that we had as an audience member. I love that you gave the perfect illustration. And I love that you even talked about PowerPoint. Like you skipped over PowerPoint.

Yeah, exactly. Well, the hologram couldn't be just something you. I've seen people who do that with comedy. I've seen people do it with music, how they teach, teach, teach, teach. They do the speaking, and then they jam some joke in there. Or they jam some song in there or whatever. No, it's got a thread. It's got to all be continuous. It's got to dovetail with each other. One's got to feed the other.

Craig Valentine says detour, free humor. Like you don't go off to tell a joke and then come back.

Exactly. And so the whole point of the hologram had to illustrate this. So the point that it's illustrating is a point you don't need a hologram to get. Put a nice exclamation point on it. The point is that you're going to have. Now, the way I say it is, sooner or later you got to eat your sacred cows. That there will be things that you don't like that you're either scared of or that you avoid or that you're not crazy about. Where at some point in your career, you're going to have to do 180 degree turn into the thing that you don't like or fear or avoid. Not to defuse it, but to use it, where you're actually incorporating that thing that you thought you would never do or you thought would never. And I mean in a positive way. Not you'd go dirty or whatever. I mean that you thought you would never. And for me, that thing was tech. I've always been a purist. I've always been, if I can't get up there with a guitar and a vocal mic and do it, then. Then I don't need to be up there. And there's a level to which that's absolutely valid. So once you learn that, once you learn the fundamentals, you can get up there and do a speech just on your own, standing there with a microphone or standing there with a laugh and just deliver. That's great. Now, what if you can enhance it some way with graphics or with whatever else you do? So for me, guitar, yes, I can get up there and do it, but effects might actually make it sound a little better. Okay. So I learned to embrace those. So I was deciding my whole thing was turning into tech, and I've just avoided PowerPoint like the plague. And because I've seen too many PowerPoint presentations that are just. Just they. They just drive me crazy. So that's being nice. I was going to turn 180 degrees into the thing tech that I fear or I don't. It's not fear. I just don't like it. And not only am I going to embrace it, but I'm gonna skip all the way over the graphics, the PowerPoint thing. I'm going to 3 freaking D. I'm going to hologram. And that was kind of the basis of it. And so the hologram. So when I say it, you watch it. Watch. This is on my website, mikerabern.com, you can see just the seven minutes of it. When the hologram appears, I say, so here to help me perform Beethoven and to illustrate everything I've talked about, please welcome Mike Rayburn. And I appear in a swirl next to me and we talk and we do my people and we play.

I love the my people. My people. Our people.

Our people.

And yeah. So please check that out on Mike Rayburn's site. You can also search it on YouTube. Mike Rayburn. Hologram. Hologram. Hologram.

Did you notice, by the way, Dan Burris and I just recently did hologram at the National Speakers association two weeks ago. And you notice, I don't know if you noticed that Dan pronounces it hologram and I pronounce it hologram. And we're standing next to each other pronouncing it differently.

Because Darren uses both. He'll say, one day hologram. One day hologram. It's Darren style.

So take us to five minutes before the big presentation. One of the things that Mark and I teach along with Craig Valentine is skill set without mindset will leave your audience upset. Skill set without mindset. So how do you prepare five minutes before, or let's go to this presentation. How did you prepare for this?

Well, first of all, if you're waiting to five minutes before then, you might be kind of shocked. But I get what you're saying. I'm not shooting that down at all. I had prepared. I had spent so much time on this, so much money on this, so much of my life and soul and heart and everything. I was riding on this in a positive way. I didn't sleep at all the night before. I just didn't. I just. It wasn't. I wasn't like nervous. It was just so much was caught into it. There was no way to just kind of go, I think I'll just dream for a while and then get up. You know, I couldn't. I just. I didn't sleep. What I do, number one in warming up is because I use guitar. I warm up on the guitar so I have to play. And earlier in the program, I used what has been one of the big points of my whole program, which is my guitar version of Bohemian Rhapsody classic and look that up, too. I have to practice that every time I perform. I mean, if you threw me in there, I'd do it, like right now. But I like to play it at least all the way through, at least one to three times before I actually perform it in the morning to warm up, to make sure my fingers are there. And so I do that and I have a series of scales. And so I was warming up on the guitar. I had gone through everything. I rehearse the things that I think through, you know, the things that are coming up. I don't pace in a nervous way, but I just kind of walk back and forth backstage with a guitar on. I tend to. I just notice that I do that, but I'm just thinking through the whole thing. I'm imagining through all the details. And what I find is, I'll say it as God. You can call it what you want to, but that's when God will make things occur to me. And that. So, for instance, a. About five minutes. It's funny you say five minutes. About five minutes before the presentation, I thought, and what if you could. Using the question, what if you can use for negatives? People will say, oh, well, what if this negative thing happens? Or, what if this negative. Well, that's. Actually. You can turn that as a positive because it can be problem solving beforehand. And I thought, well, what if I get out of sync with the. This is a video playing, essentially. So what if I get out of sync and it's talking and doing things and I don't know where I am or I forget where. And I knew I wasn't going to forget, but I thought, what if that happens? I got the countermark that Beethoven starts. I knew I could do that. So I went to the hologram folks who were going to put this thing on, and I just went to them, I said, if for some reason there's a catastrophic failure, just go to 337 or whatever the countermark is. Start it there. That's where Beethoven starts, and I'll just play. And so we had a backup plan that occurred to me in that time period. But I'm just. I'm thinking through the program. I'm getting my mindset, but I'm here in the audience. I'm getting excited. I'm visualizing success. I'm visualizing it going well. I'm picturing the audience. I'm picturing myself walking on. That's kind of what I do.

And I know you're a believer. Do you pray?

Oh, yeah, I pray. I pray. Well, I prayed at this point so much, God probably went, I'm pretty Sure. God went. You again?

Hang up. Just for a few minutes. My ears hurting. Mark, do you have any more questions for Mike? For my final question for Mike.

Well, I want to recap real quickly because, Mike, I want to make sure everyone gets some of the components of what it takes to be unforgettable. You said, master the basics. You said, do what it takes. You said challenge yourself. And I love this one. Do what you fear and do what you don't like. Do what you fear. Do what you don't like. Hold fast to your fundamentals and master your message. One of the keys, Mike, we are all going to play guitar with a hologram. But you said sometimes the PowerPoint won't work. A mic won't work, a tech won't work. You were prepared to deliver your message without hologram, without the guitar, because your message was central. And that really hit me. So, friends, hear what Michael says. Master your message. If something fails, you must always have power in your message. Mike, thanks so much. I really appreciate that, buddy. That's hard to be unforgettable, man.

Yeah, and I took some notes too here. Your limiting step. What's your limiting step? Match your message and their expectations. Make sure you're in front of the right audience and we have the right expectations. You gotta master the basics. I wrote that down too. So many times. People want to be unforgettable. They want to leave that indelible mark, and so they're looking to stand out. Yet it's not based on the core message. I love, love, love that you said, hey, the SPEEC work without the hologram. That's so important.

Absolutely.

You had to unlearn some things when you're relearning the basics, you got to unlearn. And I love that you said you're going to go back, you're going to stumble, it's going to be uncomfortable, but you're building a new foundation. And then the hologram was just the explanation point on your presentation. So, Mike, we have corporate presenters listening, pastors listening, professional speakers, emerging speakers. What would your best advice be to them? To become unforgettable.

To become unforgettable. I mean, it starts with being absolutely 1000% authentic. Don't do something Saudi or wheelhouse. Don't do something that you think is what people want. And I mean, not that you're not aware of your audience, but stay within what you know is you. And beyond that, go to your personal. Either to or beyond your personal limits. This was beyond my personal limits. The keynote we're talking about delivering. I've done a few other things that were beyond my personal limits. I didn't know that I could do them. And I set out to do them to be unforgettable. The bottom line, it's the power of your message. If my message didn't work again, like I said, the whole thing would have just been a nice little exercise in like, wow. But just for a moment. So make sure the message is. Is absolutely powerful, absolutely affecting of people. Absolutely takes people, creates an impact and takes them to some place that they have not been.

Yeah, you gotta make them think and you gotta make them feel.

Absolutely.

Mike, I was inspired when I watched you prepare it. So that's one of the reasons too. I was so connected. Cause it was inspiring for me to watch my mentor stretch himself and work so hard.

Yeah. I was just saying to watch me be scared and go, oh, crap, I don't know if this is gonna work. Oh, this and that I was going through. Yeah. You guys hear this stuff, like, oh, wow, he did this press. It's like, no, you have no idea. The emotions, the negativity, the anger that I don't mean. Like it was an angry thing. But you know, you're like, oh, crap, this is not worth. Oh, this is great. I can't believe this. Oh, no, this, it's. It's a. It is a roller coaster. Yeah, it is absolutely roller coaster ride. When you're doing something like this.

Love that you said that you went only to people you knew had your back and told them of the crazy idea. Because a naysayer can just take you out with one comment. Dream gone.

Stop.

Go back to what you always did.

Absolutely.

If you want to know more from Mike, you want to book Mike for your event. He's an amazing keynote speaker. He keeps them in rapt attention, blows them away, but delivers an unforgettable message. Check out mikerabern.com, also on XM radio, right?

Yeah. They go through periods where they're playing me a lot and they're not as much and they have. I don't know what.

Find him on YouTube, but check out Mike Rayburn. Learn from him. Mike, thanks for joining Mark and me for unforgettable presentations.

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