Ep. 208 Are You a 'Super Speaker?'

Darren Lacroix. How are you, buddy?

I'm doing good.

That's great. Recording this shortly before the Toastmasters International Convention. And I get to serve as the vog, the voice of God. Welcome to Toastmasters convention here in Nassau, Bahamas. And people say, mark, I love your voice. You got this really great radio voice. And I realize, Darren, sometimes speakers want to use that voice to become super speaker. One of your thoughts about that? Let's talk about it.

I think they gotta realize there's some kryptonite in that.

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 Mark, before we do, I want to do a quick shout out to our stage time members who right now, as this is happening, are competing in the semifinals of the world championship of public speaking. Mark, this year we have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 people who are stage time members who made it to the semifinals, which is huge. Out of how Many, Mark?

There's 28 semifinalists. We got how many? Six.

Six. And we have three people who were stage time members from the past that we've helped and supported and taught. So big shout out to John Lund, Glenn West, Anastasia Gopi. How do you pronounce Gopi's last name? Kalil Khalil, Molly Hamilton and Mariam Gani.

Yes.

Say that properly. So, hey, they're part of our stage time family, so congratulations. No matter what happens, we love you. And we see the work you've been doing on our Wednesday calls and bringing the speech back. And bringing the speech back and rewriting it. So I believe people who truly put the effort in for the audience, those are super speakers. However, we're talking about super speaker Maha.

I am super speaker. There is a concern that I have about presenters who believe to be effective, they have to be a super speaker. They'll tell you you can be all that you can be. You achieve your goal and you follow your dream. And there's no one who can do like you can. I know you're laughing, but we get this voice, I know I can play the game. And when I do the convention, I do have a more of an announcer type voice. And those who Know me from birth. Say, wait, isn't he Jamaican? Yes, I'm a Jamaican, Jamaican friend. I talk like this because I'm Jamaican, but I also want to honor my, my multinational audience and respect you in the way I speak. That being said, some of us go overboard and try to sound super overly dramatic. Our speaker person. And we have this cape behind us in our mind. I know I say this lovingly and somebody may misinterpret it, but I'll say it anyway. We get in preacher mode sometimes, you know, we have this dramatic sound to it and it's. It sounds good. But my, my question is this. Are they getting the genuine, authentic you? If I try to really sound impressive, are they getting authentic, genuine me on stage? And I will have one more clarification again with the Toastmasters convention. It's a role I play. I have an announcer's voice for that purpose. They've engaged me to use that voice at that event for that purpose. I need to clarify that you see me in person on stage. I do not sound like that.

Yeah. We have on our coaching checklist, we call it Speaker Man. Now, whether it's speaker man, speaker woman, speaker person, speaker him, speaker her. What we're saying is sometimes we see people who are genuine, authentic. We're talking to them in the audience and then they go up on stage and they turn into Tony Robbins and they think, no. And they've got to. Now, look, Tony Robbins is Tony Robbins. He can do what he wants. But. But he's also being authentic because that's who he is. The problem is when we try to give that Persona of the ultimate expert, that's the challenge. Now you become inauthentic, even though you're passionate and charismatic, if there's no authenticity within the charisma, that's the problem. If you're overcompensating and just over modulating trying to impress. Now, look, I'm animated. I can't hold that back. But I'm doing it. When I'm emphasizing points, I'm doing it. Not the whole time. Mark, we should do an episode on sameness. That's another challenge. However, it's got to be that real, authentic you. So passionate. Bring it out. We want that soft spoken. We had someone else at our event last week who is very soft spoken and it could almost be misleading because she's brilliant. So for you, what we're asking you is to kind of do a gut check, kind of look at some of your recordings and ask yourself, are you trying to be super speaker that you are the ultimate authority? No.

Well, see, Darren, what happens is often you mentioned here the ultimate authority. It's very possible. And you and I have done this for a long time. Not only possible, but likely. There are times individuals feel I have the information. And since I'm on the platform, I must be the authority figure. So therefore, I must adjust my voice, my posture, my stance to prove to the audience I am the authority figure. I submit to you that the audience who is there knows that you have the expertise. They know you have the experience, they know you have the knowledge. And they choose to be there because they respect you for who you are. My thought is, do you really believe you have to change your Persona to convince them to receive what you have to say? And Darren, this brings to mind one of our earlier lady and the Champs in Las Vegas with Patricia Fripp. It was then called lady and the Champs. We had a panel of speakers, professionals who were women, which you asked me to moderate. Thank you very much, buddy. But one of the speakers talked about in her, early in her career, very experienced, 30 years plus number, very experienced years ago. He thought it was appropriate for her to have a slight voice modulation in that scenario. Because at the time, at that time, it was important for her to assert herself in the business world. I realize that is a consideration, but for the most part, do we need to change our voice, change our posture? I've heard, yes, a higher power pose, I've seen that. But do you maintain that for the entire 45 minutes to try to show the audience how great you are? I submit that when we are authentic, people are drawn to us. I've said it before. Say it again. Authenticity plus vulnerability equals credibility. And I'll believe and respond to someone who I see as being themselves. And one of the worst things I've heard, worst in quotations, particularly in Toastmasters, when someone comes to me and says, mark, I want to be like you on stage, I shut that bad boy down right away. No, you do not want to be me. You need to be you. I always teach to bring your authentic self to every presentation. You don't need to don a Persona to convince the audience they are already in the room.

Yeah, Mark, we talked about Tommy last week. Fictitious name, but someone who was one of the VIPs at our event. And it's a three day event and we literally work with the VIPs and we see their story transform over three days. And Mark, Michelle had come in only on the third day, had not seen him on the other days. And Just saw the last one, and she was blown away. And she thought, wow, that was amazing. He doesn't need this workshop. Your audience should judge you as a super speaker. We should not attempt to put on the latex suit and the cape.

Yeah, and the cape.

And the Persona to pretend we're the super speaker. So when we are authentic in our own way with our own delivery, they will judge us that way. Great. But if we're trying to put on that Persona, that's the challenge. We've often said for two decades, we've seen people. You're sitting next to them and, hey, how are you? Good. Nice to meet you. Hey, what do you think of this conference? And then they go up on stage and.

Yeah, women know the preacher thing, too. Very often. I, again, I may offend some people by saying it, but, you know, the preacher will get up and they're nice to talk to, but somehow they're on the platform and. And they get ready to deliver as preachers do. And when it comes out in a certain way. But then over lunch, it's like, how you doing? I'm cool. That can be, in some people's minds, a bit of a disconnect. And though it is unintentional, it may seem disingenuous, although it may be unintentional, it could appear or seem disingenuous. And I wouldn't want anyone to take that risk. And by the way, Darren mentioned Michelle earlier. No wonder. Who's Michelle? Who is one of hers? One of his friends and staffers, Director of business development. Darren is what we have here, and she's learning about the business, and she came and witnessed what Tommy had gone through. But I encourage you to think about the fact. The fact, in some cases, some may think it's disingenuous. And I would not want anyone to face the uphill climb to prove to them, no, I really am who I say I am. It really isn't worth it.

Yeah, just breathe it in for a minute. Ask yourself and ask your friends and watch a recording of yourself. And, Mark, I love that you pointed out that 20 years ago, 30 years ago, that was okay. That was wanted and expected, and it was fine. Back then, however, audiences are more savvy. And now it's not fine. It's not okay. And it's. It's a simple check. But are you trying and look at one of your recordings through the eyes of a mere mortal?

That's hard to do, Darren. That's hard.

But if we can. If we could just get you. If that is a challenge of yours. Or, by the way, if you know other presenters who have that challenge, send them this episode as a way to, hey, check out the podcast. You don't have to tell them why. So, by the way, if somebody sent this to you. No, but seriously, it. It is a simple fix. And it's Mark's job and my job to create awareness of the challenges out there, to help you become more of who you are with your own style, with your own stories, for your chosen audience to be unforgettable, which is not easy. So there's many challenges, many insecurities we all have to overcome. So we're just trying to help you create awareness.

I cannot help but re emphasize one point you made in the perspective of being so honest and genuine. It gives the audience members the freedom to say, you know what? I can relate to them. They're just a regular person like me. They may have a great title or position or accomplishment, but when I hear them like that, it just was so genuine. It's so honest. I can relate to. And when your audience says I can relate, they don't see you as the super person. Because you know what? I have a hard time trying to compare myself to a guy who walked on the moon if that's his Persona. But if you come across as an individual who has learned, failed, pick yourself up and are passing on some wisdom in an honest, genuine, personable way, the audience, I believe, will be much more receptive to that than anything else. Thanks for allowing me to interrupt you, Darren. I didn't mean to step on your toes.

Oh, no, all good. So it's a simple, simple idea. If you have moments of that or you becoming a character to make a point, that's one thing. But we don't want you to try and do that if it's not you and not who you are, and especially the whole time, that becomes annoying. So. But look, we sincerely. And all the mistakes that we point out, we've seen it, we've had it, we've had clients have the same challenges. It's okay.

And we have, too. I will confess. We have too.

Absolutely. I used to think that's what I needed to do. And Mark, you mentioned business development. By the way, quick favor to ask of you. Mark and I are taking our business into the corporate world and we're going to do some more corporate training and take our events that we have and turn them into corporate trainings. B2B business to business. So if Quick favor. If you work for a company and you think our workshops or our knowledge might be helpful there. Please reach out, let us know. We'd love to have that as a door opening if you can do that for us to help some corporate executives either. Unforgettable presentations, better stories, better business, own the room, executive presentation, coaching. Please reach out. We'd really appreciate that. We love what what we do and we're going in a. We're still going to have our events but we're going in a new direction. So if you can open the door, we'd love that and appreciate that. It would be a great help to us. Mark Brown, take us home.

My last thought are you super speaker? I hope not. But I hope that what you provide, your content, your personality, your effort, your love and your care for the audience is all that you deliver and that's how you will be unforgettable. We'll see you next week.

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By the way, Mark, in future episodes I think we ought to leave a little bit a carrot here after the outro of some little special idea. I don't know what that is, but just a thought.