Ep. 202 How Do You Know if You are Unforgettable

Hey there, Mark Brown. How do you know if. If. If you're unforgettable? How do we know what's the report card?

That's a good question to ask. And you know what? I think today it'll be a good topic of discussion. So, friends, how do you know if you are unforgettable?

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

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

And Darren Lacroix. And Darren Lacroix.

Stage time. Stage time. Stage time.

Ready for some powerful presentation. AHAs. Let's dive right in.

All right, Mark, you deliver a presentation, you give a speech, you do a training. How do you know it's working? Now, there's different audiences, there's different objectives, and this is not the only way. But we're going to look at one of our favorite ways to truly know you've delivered value, that there's something different on the other side of the after you present. Otherwise, if nothing's different, if the mindset hasn't changed, if the new action ideas has not changed, then maybe you missed the mark. Maybe you missed the mark, maybe you didn't, but maybe you did.

Well, you know what's interesting, Darren? Because in our workshops, in our programs, in our webinars and seminars, we try to get our attendees to identify immediately what's going to resonate with them and give them a reason to apply it. And I found that, yes, we can find out if it worked. If someone sends an email or calls us two days or two weeks or two months down the road, say, hey, Darren, Mark, I really enjoyed your program. And I tell you what, I'm still using your techniques. That's great. But is there a way for us to almost ensure that happens more quickly and more in the moment? Well, friends, we have an idea for you that I will confess Darren, brought to me a long time ago, and now we use it. I won't say religiously, but I'll say we use it consistently in our coaching calls, webinars, seminars, workshops, and it works.

Yeah, the idea originated from our friend, our brother, Ed Tate. And so the idea is, how do we capture value now? Again, there's many different ways, but how can we also know a little more immediately in the moment? And it also helps. We're gonna talk about keepers and action items. It also Helps the fact that we set up the context at the beginning or near the beginning, maybe not the first thing, but after your opening, kind of setting up the idea of the helpfulness.

The value.

Yeah, the value. You walk away with the value. And what is really cool, too, is that it lets us see what's resonating all along the way. I love when people go, ooh, that's when you know, ooh, that's a keeper. So the idea originally came from Ed Tate to us, and it's evolved over time, but it is literally having a Keepers and action items, interactive PDF form or live, a physical card stock. We print them on cardstock in two different colors, yellow and blue. We want to differentiate them. Keepers is an idea. It's an aha. It's a new thought. It's a reminder of a thought that we maybe have to revisit. So it's very simple. And the idea, as Ed always says, it doesn't even have to come from the teachers. It could come from a conversation in the hallway. It could come from one of their co participants.

And that's key, Darren, right there. We often think that the wisdom will come from the presenter, the expert in the room. But the beauty of what we experience in our programs is we confess. And again, Ed Tate, certified speaking professional and world champion speaker, often says this. The answers are in the room. It's about our ego. We realize we've intelligent audience members, we've intelligent clients who have their own experiences, their own expertise and their own knowledge. So we encourage everyone to find the value, find the keeper from what we share. But you never know what nuggets you get from other attendees as well.

Hmm. So again, two different forms. And by the way, when we first introduced it, we used to have it at the front of the workbook when we were doing a training. But then we started noticing that, okay, we'd say, update your keepers and action items, and people be flipping forward, flipping backward, flipping forward a couple pages, flipping, oh, write that one down, write that one down. And all of a sudden, it was realizing it would be easier and simpler if it wasn't part of the workbook. And so we also wanted to show it was special. This wasn't like the other note pages. So we printed them different color cardstock so it'd also be easier to differentiate. As well as the cardstock made it special. It was heavier weight paper. And so what the cool part of this, and for those of you who don't want to chop down trees, we get it, we understand it. Our job however, is to make sure value is transferred. So if people are taking notes, I understand, but our job is to change people's perspective. And if they're physically taking notes, writing it down rather than typing in, it's going to go more deeper into their conscious and their subconscious mind. So I believe there's a value there. This is just my thought. I am open and welcome to anyone who thinks it should not be done. We should never use paper. I get it. I respect that. My job is to deliver and transfer that value so that they can transfer their value and their stories to their audience. So I believe it's a very powerful tool for us to use for virtual. We have virtual versions where they can type in or they can print out. It's their choice. So we're conscious of it. But we also know that having a separate sheet outside, now you're sitting there and you can see them from the stage, you can see them when they're taking notes, what they're writing down. And mark, at the end of our programs, we always say, okay, update your keepers and action items. This may or may not be appropriate for a keynote speech, for a training or a presentation. Absolutely. So you could still have it at a keynote. You just might not take the time. But if you even went around the room, okay, let's take 60 seconds. Write down what are your keepers and action items. Look at your note. Now you get a few people from the audience. Engaging engagement. It's reminding them, refreshing. It's also seeing what they heard that resonated. If it resonated, that gets you closer. That's confirmation you were unforgettable, or one of your stories was unforgettable, or one of your points of wisdom was unforgettable. So this is a way to kind of keep track along the way. What it also does, we learned from Ed, is now if they bring that back to their boss, they can show physically that they got value, which helps sell me to come back or to teach another branch of the business. I know I spoke for Wells Fargo, they love me in this treasury convention and conference, so they brought me in for their customer. So if we're showing and the boss sees, ooh, I sent you to a training and you took notes. You took good notes. I'm going to send you to another training because you're confirming that this person is a sponge. This person is eager to learn and grow.

And also, not to belabor the point, but if the individual, the employee, can show the manager or the team leader how much value they got and Then say, look, I learned all of these things, all of these points, all these ideas I can begin to implement right away. These are keepers for me. It then gives the manager a thought. If the presenter gave that much value in a one day training to my organization, I wonder what more they could do within the corporation or the company to really make this more significant and enhance our performance. Because they're thinking, bottom line, if my employees are performing better, if they can tell you the value they got, what if we can spread that across the entire organization? It could be an opportunity for you as a presenter to enhance your reach to serve more people and be more meaningful as far as your impact is concerned. And chances are you might even make some more money for yourself and your family as well. That is not to say we're going to point to the money, but when you deliver value, we believe the dollars will follow. When you deliver the value, we believe that dollars will follow, you will follow. And we have both experienced that. But if you have the audience writing down, it's like telling them, is this valuable to you? Write it down now so you won't forget it. And one of the cool things with keepers is this, Darren. It also gives the attendee value they can implement, value they can implement immediately. Hopefully when they go back to the job, they can start to implement these ideas right away. And the thought of a keeper just tells you it's worth keeping, therefore it's worth using.

And here's what it is. If I had to define it, in my opinion it is a written confirmation of the transfer of value. The written confirmation of the transfer of value. We're brought in to transfer value, not talk, not present. Anyone can do that. We're there to deliver a transformation of value. And so now keepers and action items. Keepers is that, aha, that insight, that foundational phrase that, ooh, that's good. The action items is a list of. Here's what I need to do. You know, I heard Mark talk about introductions. I need to go to Mark's blog and read Mark's article and rewrite my introduction for my all in keynote. So that's an action item. And if you looked at our forms, it's super simple, just lines and then at the top, keepers and action items. Design your own. Please, please, please. We want you to use this. But what we do is on the action item one, we have parentheses at the beginning of the line. And if it's a one day training or a two day training or like our three day workshops, at the end, we give them time to prioritize the action items. So as they go through, they might not know what's important. They just have a list of here's what I need to do. But now at the end we say, okay, this is number one, this is number two, this is number four. And so now they're prioritizing, but they have a action list and it's our job to get them the AHAs and the action list. It then becomes their job in order to put that into action.

Yeah, and the key there is please don't misunderstand. We're not saying we tell you what is your priority number 1, 2, 3, 4. We leave those spaces there for the attendees when they finally look at final list and say, you know what, I've got eight things I need to do here. And the fifth one on that list is actually my most important one. Therefore go to the blank parentheses, number one in there. So even though it's fifth on the line, it is number one in their mind. And they choose what they prioritize. And the cool thing is this, particularly for a corporate event, the attendee can then decide what is their priority and then they can coordinate that with their management team. To make sure my understanding is based on what I've learned, I should do this first. And if the manager buys into that and the team buys into that, the impact you've had as a presenter goes beyond the individual. And now you're impacting a whole team. This can be really powerful. Having the action items. We always emphasize we want to make sure your action items are immediately implementable, not it'll take me six months to get this done. What if I can start doing this? And some people I love, Darren. We do our three day workshops and on the stage or delivering a presentation, we have, oh, action items. I'm gonna do this tonight. And day two of our training, someone says, you know what, I got to bed a little late. I got it at 1am Because I wanted to make sure I did this action item. How many times, Darren, have you heard? I didn't get that much sleep. I was doing my action item. That's key. Make it immediately implementable as well.

Again, things should be different. After you present my old cherry tree effect, what will they think about differently when you're done? So it's not only think differently, but it's an act differently. Now they have a list they've prioritized based on what they think, which is perfect. We're not responsible for them or responsible to them. As the old age old adage from My NSA experience, many people had said that, but it's just. It's very true. We can't make them do it, but we can inspire them, we can encourage them, and we can give them a list of what to do. Again, this is one way to track. And what I love, Mark, is when we talk about it, they see them writing things down. We've set the context at the beginning. We see the opportunity to allow them to do that, and they may do it along the way, too. And I'm also a fan of if you know, there's something. If you remember our episode on your One thing. If you saw that, know what your one thing like, if they just walk away with this idea, they'll be better off based on the subject and their industry and their personal life and their challenges. So I think it's great. If there's one or two places where you know, this is a keeper, you would say this. If you're taking notes, this is a keeper. Write this down. And most people, if you're good, if you're transferring value, they will go along with it because you're raising it up and show this is important. They may or may not see it, but it's our job to emphasize it, stress it, and then deliver it with that importance in our voice and in our body language.

Definitely, Darren. And there's two things I want to say or two points I want to make regarding how we process or we handle keepers and action items. One is in our trainings we have built into our training programs. We have times we will say three words, update your keepers, or update your keepers and action items. So along the journey, it's an ongoing process and you'll find at the end of a day we'll say, okay, give us one or two keepers. The beauty of doing that, Darren, is we get them to tell us immediately at the end of the day. I had these many keepers, and sometimes we realize individuals have so many keeper, we say just one keeper and one prioritized action item. So there's value in the recap as well. Secondly, when we do our weekly coaching calls, an hour and a half maybe, we ask everyone at the end of the day to put in a chat what keepers you have. And I continue to be blessed and amazed by the number of keepers some individuals will put on the screen after 90 minutes with us. We cannot make fun of people who are keeper kings and keeper queens. And we have members all over the world. We've got one particular member, a team member, in Africa, in Nairobi, Kenya. And when they Put in their keepers, you go, oh, double digits. We have one in India. Same thing. Notice as we go through the keepers list, many of the keepers are from the trainers, but there's always a few from fellow attendees at the event, which reinforces the value. So trust me, friends, if you continually ask your attendees to look at the keepers and write them down, you might be surprised at the volume that comes your way. And you'll also be surprised that keepers are not only aha about presenting, as Darren said earlier, it could be a phrase that resonates, that gives them insight to a way they can change their presentation or change the way they think. Let's not discount the value of the keepers. The aha, oh, I'm going to write that down. And the action items. Specific steps individuals will take as a result of hearing what you say. And as those keepers begin to expand, as the action items take shape, you will realize, you know what? My audience is getting it, and maybe to them I am unforgettable. So let's not discount the value and the power of keepers and action items.

Yeah, Mark, there's such value to this. And when you set the context, you're getting their brain. You know, we talk about the ras, the reticular activating system, the part of your brain that looks for things. So it's the beginning of your presentation. If you're boring, they're going to look for, oh, this is going to be boring. So they look for that. If you say, hey, keepers and action items, I want you to look for them, you're also setting up that the value is transferred. They're more open to that. So if you are a stage time member, we have many stage time members that listen to the podcast too. But if you want to know more about stage time and our weekly coaching calls, you get a ton out of it. Just check out stagetimeuniversity.com join us. Love to have you on one of those live calls. Love to coach you. But Mark, here's I think the aha that I got as we started talking about this is a lot of our stage time members. We've trained them. If they come to our event, we've trained them, we're doing updates and keepers and action items. And so they get it, they are trained to do it. But I want this podcast to be the thing that inspires them. The inciting incident that says, ooh, maybe I should do that, because they're used to doing it as a student, but why not do it as the teacher? Why not do it as the presenter? Or the expert. Because I think when you have that in front of you, I believe people who come to our workshops, they see that, they transfer that, that this was worth my investment because I have this and I have this. That shows me I got some AHAs, I got some wisdom, and. And now I have a plan, my own unique, customized plan. And Mark, when we just had train the trainer a couple weeks ago, one of my favorite moments in any workshop is when somebody in the room, physically in the room, says, I need another keeper form.

Oh, yeah, I love that. Yeah.

So I personally run right out to Regina in the front lobby and grab a couple more and bring them in because I want them to keep going. And again, think of this. If you've ever been to a seminar before and you take home your pages of notes and you get home and you plop them on top of your pile of pages of notes, and if you go through them, bless you because that's awesome. And we all should. And once in a while I do, but I intend to. But when it's just a one sheet or maybe two one sheets, you're more likely to review your notes. If you're more likely to review your notes, you're more likely to internalize the concepts. So, yes, this episode is about how do I know if I'm unforgettable? And it's also about how to help your audience receive. Here's a new word, Mark, your unforgettableness.

Unforgettable. I shouldn't sing. I'm sorry, friends, because one more thought for you, Darren, I mean, that I want to thank you for is when you mentioned being asked to go outside to get an extra sheet. I think back to the times we've had individuals that are at our events who say, I need one more. I, I took so many keepers, you only want one or two. That tells us that the value they're receiving from us and from the experience is giving them what they need to take their speaking to the next level. And one more thought to reiterate the value of the yellow and the blue cardstock, sheets of paper, as Darren says, is it's easy to have books of notes, but when you have it pops, the yellow pops, the blue pops. And the yellow says, ah, make more of that and put a light bulb on there, yellow light bulb to reinforce it. And the blue is, oh, these are my action items. It is a lot easier to navigate. Two sheets of paper and workshop work. Paid workbooks full of sheets of paper and notes that you've written over the last Several months. And here's a cool part. What we can do is personally, with whatever system we choose, we can create a separate folder physically of blue forms. The action items I've decided upon over the last six months, the last year, the last two years, a separate folder of the AHAs, the Keepers. You could literally create a volume of keepers. And who knows, one day you may need to write a book of things I Learned and the AHAs I received by going to training programs. But having a separate folder of keepers does one does two things. One, it reminds you of the AHA's you can implement. And a separate folder of the action items not only tells you what you had chosen to take to take on, but it gives you a record of the actions you have taken once you have implemented those action items. And there are times in our life and career when we hit a low. But you pull out your completed action items list and you will see what you've accomplished in a year or two. That in itself should be inspiration for you to take the next step, go to another program, go to your next level. But when you see what you have accomplished, it's tangible, it's right there. So beyond helping you to achieve more in your work, it can also serve as your own inspiration, which you can then pass on to people under your sphere of influence. And you never know how much value you can share by simply recalling what you have done and Simply reusing the AHAs you've received over time. It's not just for the individual event, it's for your career and for your life.

Yeah. Taking the time to do this, setting it up, providing what they would need in order to apply this or execute this. It's going to help you build your own belief in what's valuable and what's not. Because you look at the list of keepers, just like I did when I was practicing my speech, Mark, which stories did people comment on? Which quotes did people comment on? And 90% of people said they loved the mom and dad story. So I knew that had value. So that stayed some of the other ideas that I thought were brilliant and the audience didn't. And that's our challenge as a presenter and a speaker is knowing what really resonates and what doesn't and testing new ideas. And if it doesn't win, if it doesn't overvalue one of the other items, then that goes. If it does overvalue, deliver more value than one of our other items, okay. The lower value loses. And now you're evolving your presentation so it's going to help you with your belief. It's going to help your students or the attendees see the value that they invested in or that they got because their company sent them. And also it's going to prove the value to the paying client, to the economic buyer, the person who brought you in. So keepers, AHAs. One form, action items, the other form. Here's the thought, here's the idea, the new perspective, and here's what I need to do because of your presentation.

When you have these ideas clearly available to you as a presenter and by and therefore to your attendees, your audience, your clients, it then gives you the opportunity to clearly see you're passing on value, you are having impact. And that certainly, Darren, is one surefire way to know if you are unforgettable.

If you're interested in truly transforming, we've got an upcoming workshop called Own the stage. Go to stagetimeworkshops.com and you'll see the schedule coming up. Check out Own the Stage. It's going to be hybrid. It's going to be in Las Vegas live. Mark's flying in and also wherever you are, wherever your computer is or wherever your phone is, in your town, your city, your office, and what we do is literally coach people for three days and watching the transformation will be a true aha and keeper. And then you look at how can I do this? How can I apply right now? At the time of this recording, we have one VIP seat left. But you don't even have to be VIP. You'll be part of the experience. So check out stagetime workshops.com join Mark and me for one of our upcoming workshops. Mark Brown, take us home.

My friends, we want you to be unforgettable. We believe you can be unforgettable. So tune into our podcast, come to a workshop, join us and by sharing your expertise, your knowledge and your wisdom, you will begin to grow. And I guarantee, or is that guarantee you will be unforgettable. See you next week.

See ya.

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