Ep. 210 Watching A True Pro In Action

Hey there, Mark Brown. Watching a true pro. You know, you and I, with national speakers associations, toastmaster conventions, any convention, we see pros all the time. But when somebody stands out to you and me, like, that's a big deal because we've seen so many. We have. And it's one thing to, you know, connect with the audience and own the stage, but when you really. When you get us to say, wow, that's a big deal. So, Mark, you said that you were sitting there watching at the Toastmasters convention, Lisa Nichols.

Yes, sir. Opening keynote. She was amazing. Let's talk about what it means when you're watching a true pro in action.

Anyone can give a presentation. Few deliver unforgettable presentations. What's the difference? You're about to find out. Welcome to the Unforgettable Presentations podcast 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.

Oh, Mark, I. I have not seen you so blown away just talking about a speaker. And I was not there. For the record, I was not there yet. I saw the residual effects through the whole conference, and that is impressive. That's impressive. So we're going to cover three insights watching any true pro. We're just going to use Lisa for that example because I. Man, people were talking about it, and there's been some good, great keynote speakers at a convention, but this was. This was a wow level compared to most.

Oh, definitely. You know, I mean, first thing I noticed was her engagement. It's instant engagement with the audience. Now, Darren, she used the tool that you also use when you introduced an intro video to whet the appetite. And the intro video, when done well, can really set the audience up to receive the speaker. So when she came on stage, we were ready to receive her. But the first thing that got me was the radiance in her smile. It sounded like a small deal, Darren, but very often you come on stage and you're ready to see the audience and you're like, wow. And I'm going to have this demeanor. She just came on and she had a brilliant, bright smile. She was dressed radiantly. She exuded presence. And immediately she engaged the audience. She was aware where everybody was, you know, a thousand people in the room, and she was just right there. Boom, boom, boom. And her eyes, her smile, her presence, her energy. It was as if she Got herself ready before she even got backstage. And I say that because I know you also prepare yourself before you go on stage. You ask yourself some key questions. So when you come on stage, instantly you are on. And I encourage everyone to think about that. We often think of the moment we go on stage. Think about the moment before you go on stage. How will I engage the audience immediately? How will I feel? Will I feel them? Will they feel me? And Lisa Nichols, I gave her an a plus for just engaging the audience instantly. Yeah.

And that's hard to coach. You know, we coach people and we coach on techniques and strategies and dig out their stories and show them the part that we need to hear, the part that we want to hear, the part that we don't care about, but that instant connection. And remember to be connected to yourself.

Yeah.

And totally present, which is easy to say. And if you're listening, saying, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know that. Be careful because when you say, I already know that, but do you know that and do that to the deepest level that when you walk out there and Mark, we just had this past weekend, Chris McGuire, Butch Bradley, and me, we did the humor boot camp and we had getting people up on stage. And there was one of our students, Artrell, who he just came up there and he was so loving the moment. He stood out before he even spoke. You know, we were talking about that too. And I brought up the fact that in my old stand up days with Vinnie, he would teach us in his living room. We're literally practicing how to pull the microphone out of the stand. That's it. That's it. And that seems crazy. Like, look, when do we get to the funny stuff? When I want to learn how to be funny, I want your secrets. And I was totally missing the importance of this. And here's what Chris McGuire said. And if you don't know Chris, we. We had him on an interview a few weeks ago, and he is head writer for Arsenalio hall for 158 shows. A lot of the Comedy central comedy roasts, one of the producers of the Snoop Dogg Martha Stewart show. Writing is his thing. And here's what he said. Mark. The first second and a half.

Wow.

The first second and a half is critical. And that sets the tone of whether you gotta, you know, bear down and do some work or if you're there instantly, if you're there. Loving the moment when you walk out on stage. Mark, I remember the story of you literally on the stairwell with your hands on the railing just when you were waiting for Them to introduce you. And then they finally did. You launched yourself up the stairs. But here's the key. That excitement, it's not about you. It's about your being present. To connect instantly. Yep, connect instantly. And I think to be able to walk out on stage and have that. Hey, a great intro video. Yes. You've got to have an unforgettable intro video. Helped set the stage. So, Mark, what do you remember some of the elements that were in her intro video?

Well, she did have clips of interviews of what she had done. You know, she had Steve Harvey and she mentioned Oprah Winfrey. It was a. And the clips included a bit of her journey from a very, very difficult background to massive success. So it gave you a snippet of her journey, and it made you want to know, who is this person? How do they do that and how can they help me? So I believe. And we talked about intro videos with. I think it was Chris west some time ago. And it was. It's a story that leads us to want to know more. It was very strategic, and it. It made us lean forward. We're leaning in. Okay, who is she? What's she going to say to me? Oh, this is amazing. So it was all very well produced, and I was just. I was eager to hear what she had to say myself. And I was in the back by the sound booth because I was narrating. I was the voice of God. But it was wonderful to see her there and just instantly, boom, engage the entire audience with brilliance. And sometimes that instant engagement. Darren can come by how we dress, how we carry ourselves. And it was, to me, a lesson to remind us. We talk about owning the stage. My goodness. From the moment she came on, Lisa Nichols owned that stage. It was instant audience engagement.

Now, again, we are. I haven't spoken to her. This is just my summarization from the outside perspective. But also, Mark, you said it's what you. What you're wearing. Yeah, but it's also not just what you're wearing and the contrast to the background, but that's your brand and what you put on. Do you feel comfortable and confident in that? Are you wearing something that's out of your norm? And, yeah, it will look good. I mean, I know there was a huge difference. When I started working with an image consultant to help me buy clothes, I always knew it was an issue. But now when I walk up on stage, because I know this shirt goes with this jacket. And so I feel confident when I walk out there. And Mark, when I do the humor boot Camp, I do a set. I was so freaking nervous at the LA Comedy Club on Saturday night when day one was Saturday. I do a standup act, and the cool part is, even if I bomb, it becomes a lesson for everyone. But there was something different this time. I knew where I was and what I was wearing, so I took my jacket off because this was a comedy club now. So during the day, I'm a teacher, I'm a trainer, I'm an expert. At night, I took my jacket up. But the color of the shirt work with my eyes, works with the backdrop, and all of it together. Now, I'm not saying that's going to make you feel confident, but it does matter.

You know, it's funny. I don't know if you recall a question you asked me last week before the conference, because you and I were on a panel together, a panel of world champions. You called, you asked, you said, mark, are you gonna wear your bow tie on the panel? And I said, darren, that's my brand, brother. I'm gonna wear the bow tie. And I was very. I was very thankful and humbled because in the Toastmasters world, there is a Facebook group called the finalists. Those who have ever been to the World Finals are in the group. And last I found out last week, the moderator of the group shows as a photograph for the COVID photograph, a picture of the three winners, first, second and third in the World Championships, being interviewed on stage. And I was privileged to be the moderator. And in the photograph, I've got my suit on, my light shirt and my bow tie. My profile picture has the bow tie hand tied by me. It may seem a small thing to me, but I always wear a bow tie. But people expect that now because that's how they see Mark Brown on the stage. And in the same way, when you're going to go on stage, what will you represent? Will they know it's you? And what is your unique brand that will draw the audience, engage the audience, want them, want to hear from you? That's also a technique for instant audience engagement.

This isn't about what you wear. It's about how you feel and how. Mark, you said it best when you had a gift. Gift you couldn't wait to give.

Yeah.

And I'd be willing to bet that Lisa Nichols felt that way herself, because if she had that instant connection. So it's almost like, well, I got to get warmed up. A lot of comedians, they need that first laugh and then they can relax. It's like that's already been done, that mindset's. Been done backstage before they come out. But there's just. There's that something special, Even someone in a speech contest or a keynote speaker at a convention that sets the tone, they come out and they have. They're. They're a true pro, and they can't. They have this gift that they've been given this presentation a long time, and they know the results, and they know how it helps people.

And that's true, Darren, because, yeah, you. You know what you can do. You've been there before, you've done it before. But every time you do it with that level of presence and engagement and the willingness to give the audience something of value to them, I think that elevates your own attitude, your own presence, and gives you the opportunity right then to truly engage the audience in a special way. Because every single audience is new. And every time you present to an audience, if you think, I may get one shot at this audience, and even though my keynote is mine, I want them to be engaged. I want them to feel this. I want to serve them. And I believe that mindset also helps us to engage the audience and keep them engaged through the entire presentation.

Yeah. And if you love that moment, if you love that audience, if you really care about them, I think that's part of the critical essential to instant engagement. You love them. You realize it's a privilege. You realize, you realize you want to help them. You realize you've been given this privilege. So, Mark, there's a comedian, toastmaster speaker named Evan Green, who is the host. On Saturday night, when I was going up there, and he. The host does 10 or 15 minutes before he brings up. I was just a guest spot. I was just doing five minutes, but I stood in the. On the side and watched the audience, and they were a great audience. They were. They were leaning in, hinging on his every word, and he just had them. Well, that set the stage for me to be able to walk out more confident that, okay, I just need to connect with them and their energy where they're at, and then take them where I want to go. I didn't have to, you know, it's a host job to kind of congeal them. But he had them right from the beginning, so it was easier for me when he passed the baton to me to now just love on them and connect to them. And I had a different level of confidence. Some people who had been there and saw me love last year, because at the humor boot camp last year when I did this, I was way more nervous. But this Time I had a lot more confidence. And, you know, look, it's a different muscle. I do this twice a year. So people like, why are you nervous? I'm like, yeah, I go up on stage. But guess what? These people don't care about my experience, about I'm an author, about I won the world champ. They don't care. They just want me to make them laugh.

That's it.

So I. I felt a little bit of that. But it goes back, Mark, to I love them. I love the opportunity. I didn't have the pressure of having to do 45 minutes to be. I just brought my best five minutes. And it was noticed, but I think it came from how I walked up there. So for you, you want to be a true pro. Observe. Like, this is what Mark and I do for a living all day long. We coach people, but that doesn't mean we don't have more to learn. That doesn't mean we don't sit and watch and observe. And when somebody w them, just like we're talking about now, we don't step back. What did they do? How did they do it? How did they do it their way as opposed to some technique or somebody else's? How did they adapt it?

And she was absolutely wonderful, Darren. So I would just say this instant audience engagement makes your job that much more easy. Because in effect, when you do this well, you establish a relationship with the audience, and that sets you on the right path. How the impact you really want to have. Your message, your humor, your personality, and your entire self involved. That's how you really get the audience to love you, to connect with you, and to stay with you to the very end, take your wisdom and to follow your call to action.

Thanks.

Something else you did, Darren, was very important, too. You know, people may say, wait, wait, she was great, yes, but she did something I admired greatly. I don't know everyone caught this, Darren, but Lisa Nichols had a note card with her, which she put on the lectern and left it there and came forward and. Yes, I know. Wait, she had a note card. She's been on Steve Harvey, on Oprah. She's been all over the place. She's amazing. A note card. And, Darren, when I tell you that this pro who was amazing brought a note card and put it on the lecture, what comes to your mind?

First thing is some people in some speaking organizations, you should never use notes.

Why? She was not concerned about looking perfect. She was concerned about serving her audience. I want to repeat that. Lisa Nichols was not concerned with perfection. She was concerned about loving and serving her audience. And I'll tell you, if the best way to serve your audience is to put a note card on the lecture and look at it once in a while, then do it. Darren, you were speaking at a conference convention one day and you asked a question. Raise your hand if you want to look good on stage. Remember that question you asked?

Oh, I remember one of my favorite jokes.

All these hands. And your answer was, let it go. Let it go. I can't do a very good Darren Lacroix impersonation. But it's so true. And many of us feel we have to be so good, so perfect, so poised and look great on stage. And sometimes the best way to reach your audience is to make sure they get the benefit of everything you have for them. And if that means a three by five card or a little note card on a lecture, by all means, use it. They deserve your best, not you looking your best and being substandard. I'm going to stop preaching. Darren.

Yeah. What's really good, Mark, is, you know, sometimes early on we're taught some things that early on, I get it. Like you're not supposed to read your speech.

That's true.

Right. You're not supposed to read it. She wasn't reading it. But if she was looking on occasion at note cards in between points or when she was getting a big laugh, if that note card helps her to be more present, that connection is what happens. And you don't have that connection if you're in your head. Like I always say, if you're in your head, your emotions are dead. So if that gave her some confidence to make sure she hit the key talking points that she wanted to hit, then use it. Because that's what a true pro would do. A true pro would do whatever they could to stay present, connected with their audience and serve them and hit the talking points that they had planned on. So if using a note card that, you know, that's very different from having notes and reading them.

Yeah, yeah, that's.

That's a whole different ball game.

Yeah. Unfortunately, we people often think of notes as being a crutch or being a liability. Technically, many of us use more notes than we admit. We call them PowerPoint slides. Okay, let's be real here. Many of us and I look, I have been known to say, let your slide be your guide. Let your slide be your guide. I have said that. I have used it, and there's no doubt it works. Having a note card at your disposal does not prevent you from serving well. And it's time for a confession. It's been nine years. I'm going to confess something. Okay. In 2014, I gave a keynote in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, at the. At the Toastmasters convention there. And I would have been struggling to make sure everything was right. I had worked on the speech, but I was doing several duties at the convention, so I wasn't fully focused on just the keynote. And the afternoon of the keynote, I kind of got back together and I'm just. My brain was going so fast. I took some sheets of paper. Darren. And we're on a large stage elevated, with a lip in the front where they had lights under the lips to hit the back, hit the backdrop, and all the LED screen behind me. Really, really cool. And I had laid out sheets of paper at different points on the stage as reminders to me of what points I wanted to make at which place on the stage. And for me, it was tremendously helpful. It was a successful speech, but I'm not ashamed of having done that because it was a way for me to make sure everything I wanted to say and the way I wanted to say it was done. So I used cheat sheets on that day. Would you watch the video? I was fully engaged. I was fully present because the cheat sheeps helped keep me on track and focus my attention on serving that audience on that day, despite what was going on around me. And it's okay to use the note if it helps you to hit your talking points, serve your audience well, and keep you well connected to them. So I give her props for doing that. She didn't go back there eight or nine times. She had it there in case she did it. I can recall her going back once, maybe twice, just to peek at it while the audience responded. That was not a point of focus. It was just to make sure I'm good. And if your confidence comes from a reassuring note, by all means use it. There may be those who will disagree with us on this, Darren. And that's okay, too. But what I saw was a pro knowing if I need a little guide, I'll take a quick peek. It'll help me out. And she was on. She flowed, she moved. And that helped her to do something else. Darren. That's really going to be important. It helped her to have the confidence to work the room masterfully. When I say work the room masterfully. Most presenters will use every inch they can of the stage in the best way possible. Lisa Nichols took it one step further. She came down from the stage into the audience and Interacted with the audience in a very personal way. Literally. Lisa Nichols knew how to work that room. You could hear the audience responding. You'd hear cheers and laughter and applause. And she would seem to move in that direction, feed on it, and then interact. At one point, she got real close to the audience and she did a cool thing. She had a through line in her presentation. She set it up as if we were here at convention. And Lisa Nichols just stopped by for a half an hour to talk to us. And she kept saying, I just stopped by to tell you, and man, she said, I just stopped by. And she walked down one particular aisle, saw a gentleman. He had a unique color, I think it was pink color, suit on. And she was talking about being diverse and loving all kinds of people. She got up close to him, she put her hand out while she spoke. He stood up, she looked him in the eyes, she talked to him. But she talked to all of us. And it was just masterful the way she did it. She kept moving, said, just stop by. And she worked the room, worked the audience, one side to the other, up front, front, always smiling, literally eye to eye with audience members. And I, as I said, was at front of house in the back booth with the producer and my show caller and the sound guy. But I felt engaged even back there behind a barrier, because she masterfully knew that the room was with her. And even though she was moving about the room, I don't believe at any point, any particular side, felt abandoned because she would talk to somebody on her left, but still look to the right and say a few words, come back. So she was aware of where everybody was in a room that seated a thousand people. She worked the room masterfully, inserted her line. I just stopped by and we just felt she came by to talk to us for a while. What an experience. What a feeling. And I challenged you, my friends, if you've thought about, might it be appropriate to come down and talk to people, if that's what you feel works for you, by all means work the room in the best way possible. I will never be Darren Lacroix. This man can work a stage in an amazing way. I know I can't. In the past, I have stepped down. I have gone into the audience when it was appropriate to do so. But what is your best method of making sure the room is engaged and working so people feel you're having that one on one with them? All I can say is watching Lisa Nichols do it for me was impressive. Was impressive. And I really enjoyed the experience of watching A true pro in action. See what I did there, Darren?

Nice. Yeah, I think, Mark, it was Bill Gov. And if I'm misquoting, please let us know. I just want to acknowledge who I think it came from. But Bill Gove back in the day said the difference between a good speaker and a Great speaker is 100 speeches. And I've heard many NSA mentors, national speakers association mentors say, hey, you know, people new or merging, they want help. They say, go give 100 speeches and then come back and we'll talk about what you learned. And the rare ones actually do come back and follow through after they did 100. But it goes back to stage time. Stage time. Stage time. Stage time. You learn to walk, work a room. If it's part of your style, how do you, individually, for your style, work that room? And you may see speakers like her who go out into the audience and think, oh, I need to go out into the audience. Well, maybe, maybe not. But if you choose to, you need to do it your way and your style. And a few times you're going to do it wrong, but you got to be willing to do it wrong to get it right to it, so it becomes a part of you sometimes. Mark, when I'm speaking at a convention or conference, I remember when I spoke to Miracle Ear, I spent the day with them beforehand. I took notes. I met people, I found out their stories. I heard their stories. I heard how they tied into what I was speaking, which is the reason I do it. And so I will, at the beginning of my speech, hey, hey, before we get started, I'll go right out to the audience and stand with these people that I'm talking about. Oh, I met Todd. And Todd was this. And I met Barbara. And Barbara. Oh, you know what? You may not know this, but this guy who worked for Miracle Year, he, like, runs a marathon, like, every month or something like that.

And.

And I edified him. I held him. But I'm standing with them in the audience, and I love that I. That's my. You know, one of my things when I'm doing this, instead of just pointing them out from the stage, I'm pointing them out with a handshake. And one of my marketing pictures is me giving this guy a high five when I'm standing on a chair. So everyone see me because I'm short. So I'm literally standing on a chair, and he's sitting in his chair and I'm giving him a high five. But that's, you know, when I watch Robin, when I Early on, when I was studying Steven Wright and Robin Williams, two bipolar opposite comedians. But I love them both for different reasons. I remember I loved the playfulness of Robin Williams. I loved when he went into the audience. Well, if I love doing that, I'm going to be willing to do it and do it wrong so I can learn how to do it my way when I do it. So I don't always go out into the audience. However, I do go out into the audience when I'm talking to individuals one on one like that. Now, there may be other places. And Mark, you've seen me, I think, when you were an ira, nsa, Georgia, I go and I sit down on the edge of the stage and I just talk to them, right? Well, that's when it's like, hey, pull up a chair. I do that to engage them, but I'm super comfortable with it. And they have a different feeling when I do that. But I love doing those things. It works for me. But I did it wrong before I figured out how to do it right my way. And then it becomes natural. It becomes a part of who you are. So a hundred speeches have you say that. Oh, that sounds like a lot. Well, if you want to master anything, you've got to do it a lot. Your own voice will come out. Just like when I did the 77 day challenge for people when during COVID for speakers who want to be better speakers. Well, you have the unique privilege of Facebook Live, YouTube Live, Instagram Live that I didn't have back in the day. But you're stuck in your house. Well, guess what? You could get stage time every single day. You test material, you try things. Some don't work. You got to figure out, you listening to this, how you best work the room. It may not be going out into the audience, but how does that person know if. In my championship speech, when I did my fall and I laid on the ground, I said, and the people way in the back. Well, that was because I went as Mark, you and I teach to sit in the four corners. Sit in the front left. Front right. Back left. Back right. The back right. Mostest right. Mostest in the front left. Most is in the back left mostest. And I was sitting back there. Like I teach, by the way, great way to connect with your audience before they're even there. Sit in their seats, see what they see. And I was, I was sitting in back. I'm like, wow, this seat sucks. And so that gave me the idea. But that idea came from talking to Don Gavin. Don is a Legendary Boston comedian. And he was telling me that when he was first in the on the Toronto Montreal Comedy Film Comedy Festival, he said, the first year you're in, nobody makes it to the next level. It's just a thing. You got to earn your way. He said, I was the first comedian to make it to the second level. And one of the reasons was because I acknowledged the people in the balcony and nobody else did. I acknowledge the people in the balcony, that's work in the room, by acknowledging too. So that's where that idea, that joke came from. When he was telling me about that, I was like, ooh, and the people way in the back. So it was a technique that I adapted for a certain situation and a punchline on the joke. And I've talked to many people there. They said it felt like I brought him right up to the front row. That's working.

And funny enough, it occurred to me I've seen that technique used in a virtual and hybrid situation as well, which may sound kind of odd, but when you're in a virtual meeting at a gallery, view on, and you acknowledge individuals who are in the gallery, so to speak, on your screen, that makes them feel that much more engaged. And whenever I'm doing a large meeting, I have two laptops working, you know, one of them with my camera, but I have another one where I can see the gallery more, I can move it. And there are times I'll reference somebody on my page three of my gallery, and they'll. I say, hey, good to see you there. Panels, my friend. And you go. And they feel so that much more engaged. So technically, I'm working a virtual room, even though I'm the only person in this physical room. And the audience feels engaged just by seeing them there, recalling a moment when you. When they spoke something that they said, acknowledging them. You went in China to the back of the room to Howard. Right in here in China.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Remember that? Yeah. You often tell that story and the pictures that are. Show it when you're with Howard in the back of the room in the sound booth. And when you. When you work a room that well, the audience feels engaged. The audience, because. Yeah. They're not just talking to one person up front. It isn't the general speech. They really are engaging the entire room. So I watched Lisa Nichols come out up front, instantly engages. I watch her abandon the idea of perfection to make sure she served her audience. I watched her work the room in a magnificent way. And Darren, as a bonus, I also saw her use a technique we Talk about a lot in our coaching, having a foundational phrase, a unique. Her phrase is unique. It was yes, yes, with a strong yes and a stronger second yes. Now, Darren, you weren't able to attend the opening ceremonies and Lisa Nichols keynote, but you told me you became aware of yes, yes very early on on Thursday morning and throughout the convention. What was your experience with her foundational phrase even though you weren't there?

Well, it was one of our coaching clients, one of our stage time members was also Drew number one. And because I had heard the yes, yes around the convention and conference, I suggested that she add that in at the appropriate spot. So this is a technique that we teach called a callback. And by the way, it's so powerful, it's been outlawed in the Toastmaster speech contest. Call back to another contestant. You can't call back to something else that happened at the convention or conference. You just can't call back to another contestant. So it was so apparent. I saw almost every speaker on stage. Yes, yes. I, even though I wasn't there, I knew what was happening. But the magnitude of how many people were calling and it always created a connection. See, it's a way to magically and beautifully tap into that emotional moment that Lisa created that we could tie back to, call back to. But what it does is creates this bond with us and our audience. Now, we never want to call back to a bad moment or a moment that was, say, a joke that didn't work, that's no good. But we want to call back to those. As Mark, you know David's line, the magic moment.

Yes.

To us at the convention and conference. So how can we call back to that? So she had a foundational phrase that people were saying in the hallway. Oh, my goodness. Never say it on stage.

Every day. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Very well. That. Yes, yes. And you talk to anybody who went to convention, say yes, yes. Your faces light up. Because again, Lisa Nichols, a true pro, use these simple tools, came across a supremely conversational, told, endearing and engaging stories. And even when the audience were kind of going to try to get a get ahead of her in her story, she had a way of just. No, no, hang on. Just really, really smooth and just. She was truly a pro, a delight to see her in action and to see her love on the audience offer herself to her audience for expertise. It was truly a delight to watch a pro, a true pro in action. And I'm better for it as a human being and as a presenter. And I invite you to really think about how Can I connect with the audience instantly? If you do a video or an intro, that should support and lead the audience right to where you want the to be and encourage you to think of your intro as a setup for you going to talk about. So connect instead. Don't be concerned with perfection. If you need a tool to help you use it, and when you use it well, you'll get the results that Lisa Nichols got.

One of my favorite lines, one of my own foundational phrases is don't be perfect, be present. Don't be perfect, be present. It's more important. And she had the note cards, it allowed her to be present rather than she could have spent hours and hours and hours memorizing something. But if this is a keynote where she's doing different bits of content, then tomorrow or the next day, she's going to quote, unquote, waste so much time memorizing something that she's only going to do once in that order, she might reorder it another day. I'm just surmising. So for you and me, we got to take what's, what's the thing she, she save time, but more importantly made sure she hit the point she needed to hit. And you do that, you bring yourself confidence. Confidence is the key to presence. So Mark, I don't know if you hear it in the background. I had a street sweeper going. Now I could have said, mark, let's make sure this is perfect. Let's go back and do it. But this was going, we were rolling, we were connected. So I just tried to talk, talk, talk. So I was talking over it and then as soon as I was done and Mark, I would point to you. So you knew to take the ball. Well, the street sweeper weren't going around when we started the podcast, but timing's everything. But again, do whatever you can. And Mark, you might remember one of the game changers, I was doing a brand new keynote and it just doing the same thing, using cheat notes. And cheat notes is legal. I put them on a flip chart. This is a smaller room. I put them on a piece of flip chart paper, two or three of them, my bullet points, and literally put the flip chart on the back wall. So my cheat notes are on the back wall, which works effectively in a smaller room. Because in a smaller room, if I put them on the floor in front of me, on the stage in front of me, I'd really have to be looking down in order to read them. So on a big stage, that's different. You can kind of glance down because you have some space in front of you as opposed to a different situation. So whatever your situation, what can you do to make sure you're present? And please let go of being perfect. They want the perfect connection, not the perfect word for word memorization. When you're not even connected with us and the words are not authentic, you're just trying to say the words instead of connecting.

I could not have said that better myself. So one more time. You want to have an instant engagement? Abandon the idea of perfection, work the room with your style and leave the audience with a foundational phrase that will be unforgettable.

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