Ep. 216 The CORE 4: Part 1
12 Oct 2023 · 41 min
Darren LaCroix and Mark Brown break down the foundational elements of unforgettable presentations. They explore structure, content, and storytelling through personal anecdotes and coaching insights to help speakers improve their delivery.
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Hey there, Mark Brown. I think this reminder is important that sometimes we don't look at the individual parts of putting together a presentation. We look at my presentation's good. How do I make it great? But we really have to isolate what we call the core four. This is exactly what we built stage time on. And we have our coaching calls. Core one, week one, core two, week two, core three, week three, core four, week four. So we dive deep and help coach our stage time members on this. But I think it's time. We might have done an episode of this early on, but we are in a different place. And hopefully you listening to this, you're in a different place. So you may have some skill sets that you're really good at and maybe a couple others. Eh, meh. And that's okay. But our job as your coach and coaches is to create that awareness that maybe even though. Mark, if you remember, when you met me, I was very animated. I was great at delivery. I had passion. I wasn't saying anything that anyone could take home and do something with. I mean, I was okay, but it was like watching a train wreck. Like, is this what. What I remember, Mark, when I spoke at my own district the year after I won, I literally, I kid you not, like, what about the old rule? I was kind of teasing old rules in the Toastmaster world. I said, what about the old rule? Never stand on a conference table. And they were rounds. Like, you know, rounds. And I literally walked out into the audience and stepped on the conference table and used that as a stage. And people at the table like, what is going on? He's gonna lose it. So I was interesting, but certainly I was missing some of the other core four.
Well, the thing is, Darren, I'm happy we mentioned the word core, because core gives us a chance to dive deep on the essentials that takes a presentation from good to great to unforgettable.
Anyone can give a presentation. Few deliver unforgettable presentations. 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.
So, Mark, I gotta tell you this. Cause I think it sets up the analogy that I remember early. I was in my middle school years. I wanted to play basketball. I wanted to play in the team. I wasn't very talented, but I wanted to play in the team. And I remember we would go there for tryouts and first thing we had to do was dribble. Okay, I'm like, I wanna shoot a three pointer. Show me how to show a three pointer. I need to get it in from the far back. The cool guy, you know, on tv, the highlights that we see on sportscenter every week, I want to do the three pointer. No, let's start with dribbling. And I think once we become good, we kind of want to go for that three pointer as opposed to take the time. That's what we're doing with these two episodes. Part one this week, part two next week is go back and let's talk about the foundation of being unforgettable.
It's funny you say that because I just had a talk with my high school soccer coach a couple of days ago and I first played for him in 1976. Used to hate those rudimentary drills. Three guys, one more. Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. But as you said, Darren, that became the foundation for our ball control, our passing. And I remember, I remember our first game in 77, the area where national runners up. The commentator said the best football was being played football in Jamaica was by the fit, fast moving team from my high school, Calabar High school said every move was designed to set a player up for the earliest possible shot at goal. Why? We took the basics and laid that foundation. So when we played, we played as a team and performed well. The same principle applies when you. When you're doing a presentation, you've got to have the core, the basics, to make sure you're building your presentation on a foundation that is so solid it puts you on a path to being unforgettable. So what is the core four, Darren?
Yeah, just one more little thing. I remember when I played football, American football, in high school, same thing. Let's get the. Get the rudimentary foundation right with tackle. Like I want to, you know, reach for the end zone and catch the ball in the air as I cross the end. Okay. How about you learn how to tackle? Because you're on defense, Darren, you know, so, same idea again. I know I'm beating this up, but if you're serious, sometimes we've got to step back and look at those fundamentals. So core one, Core one is your content and. Yeah, of course I know that, but core one is your content and what we really mean by this too is taking your content and put it In a valuable structure. Mark, you and I do a whole three day event we just did a couple of weeks ago called Unforgettable Presentations, which, which is about the structure. And good structure gives you confidence because we gotta be confident to be unforgettable.
Definitely, definitely.
But here's what most people miss, myself included. Early on in my career, I heard the structure was tell them what you're gonna tell them. Tell them, tell them what you told them. Now that's the structure. I didn't know what that was. I just thought, well, let's tell them what you're gonna tell them. Then I heard, have an opening, tell a story, make a point. Tell a story, make a point, Tell a story, make a point, Tell a story, make a point. Have a closing, which is better. But still the stories, you could have moments that are magical, that could be legit, and you think you're unforgettable, but they miss the core message of your whole presentation. So what a structure, what a strong structure will do, which we both teach and use the FRIPP speech model right out of our book, Deliver unforgettable presentations. And part of stage time, we know that it gives the audience clarity. Because if you're going to be unforgettable, you got to be. Here's a new one, Mark, just made up on the spot. If you want to be unforgettable, you got to be digestible.
That's a new one. If you want to be unforgettable, you must be digestible. But you're right, Darren, you're right. Because good structure gives you confidence and gives the audience clarity. But what I didn't realize also when I was learning about this, there is everything is a structure. The question is, what is the better or even the best structure? And I know there are those who will hear us, who are Toastmasters, and those will say, oh, no, not Toastmasters again. I reference Toastmasters because I grew up in Toastmasters at the basic level. And one of the first things I learned was your story has. Must have an opening, a body and a conclusion. That's a broad that. Weren't you taught the same thing down in your first couple meetings in Opening a Body and a Conclusion, and that was it. But the idea of a structure where content fits, how content fits, was not part of my early learning. And for those listening to us today, trust us, after a combined 60 years of doing this, we're telling you, having a good structure will be a game changer for you. Having the right structure means when the content fits in. Now we have beginnings of your unforgettable presentation.
Yeah, I know one of our students, Elizabeth, she was giving a big presentation in her career, and it was one of those first big ones. And she was so excited. She had all these stories, she had all the ideas, she had all the content, but she didn't have a structure on which to hang it. She didn't have a structure on which to hang it. And I told her, go check out Create youe Keynote by next week, which is what our book is based on. And she went through it, the step by step process, and she said it all came together and I nailed it. Well, without that strong structure, you're not going to know which story goes first, first, which one goes second, which sets up this point. And I hate to say it, but I've seen some celebrities give some commencement speeches which riddled with wisdom, yet undigestible. I even did a YouTube critique of one of them. I won't mention the actor's name, but he had 13 points.
Whoa.
Who's going to remember them now? I would guess his philosophy was they'll take one point away. But here was my challenge as an outsider. I'm looking at this as a coach saying, yeah, but you had three or four that were really good. What if you went deeper? What if you went deeper to make sure they got those? It's just that not getting a coach, being lazy, thinking it's good enough. They're bringing you in because you're a celebrity. Yeah. But you have this huge opportunity. Why would you not get someone to help you? So that it would multiply your wisdom. The strong structure multiplies. The wisdom helps people understand and digest what we're saying. So we not only need the good content, but we need to structure it in a way that is digestible. Mark. I've also even people who use the FRIP model with the three points and the evidence to back up each point. Right. I've seen people do three points. One point is 32 minutes long and then one point is three minutes long and the next point is four minutes long. And so people are feeling like they're missing something. Why? Because it wasn't. Yeah, it wasn't balanced. So if it's not clear, again, it gives you confidence. It gives your audience clarity. And without clarity, you're just not going to be unforgettable. For the right reasons.
For the right reasons. That's true. And it's funny you mentioned 13 points as opposed to 1. Please consider this. Would you rather have the audience hear 13 points? And take away one idea or have them hear three and take away three solid ideas. Because you know what? Yes, they may get one idea from you, but it may not be the best one. Perhaps the best one gets lost among the other 12. I'm not being facetious. I'm asking you, and I'm asking myself to always think about the audience. What's the best benefit I can provide for them? And I love what you say, Darren. That structure multiplies the wisdom you provide. I know we say content and we think, well, isn't the content just the stories I tell or the points I make? That's part of it, but it is the entire experience the audience has. It's the way the content is delivered, structured and delivered that makes it memorable. Darren, we talk about this a lot. And you go back to one of your favorite speeches where you wow the audience by falling on your face, and you planned to do it not once, but twice, and it was working well for you. But it wasn't unforgettable because at the time you did it the second fall, it was not structurally in the best place to be effective. And part of using your content well is not not only knowing what content to deliver, but where to put it in the presentation. I have a client in Hong Kong, and he and I are going to meet tomorrow morning to talk about his latest. His latest presentation he's going to deliver in about 10 days, in a week, rather. And he's really working on this presentation. And he sent me the script and he sent me a video, him rehearsing a chunk of it. And we sat down to talk by zoom, and I showed him where you could take this particular piece. Those two lines, move them up here, two lines forward, and move one more line down. And he looked as if I had said, eureka. I found it because it made more sense to him when he saw the content properly structured was much more effective, had a stronger emotional impact, and it drove his point home more poignantly by simply looking at the content and the structure together as part of the process of creating the unforgettable presentation. So please, friends, let's not just think opening body conclusion is going to do it, because in that body, there is so much regarding your structure, what content, which stories to use, at what point do I tell those stories, when do I tell those stories in dialogue, when do I narrate all of those components together? When they're structured properly. My goodness, you can be unforgettable if you know what, when, and most importantly, how to apply those concepts.
Yeah. Mark, one more thing on Core one, what you just said, I want to kind of highlight this for a second. What a coach does for you, whether it's me, Mark, or any world class coach. We understand that it's about the thought process and the listener's mind. You and I as speakers ourselves, we're too close to our own content. We don't know which will really resonate, which will resonate even more deeply. And what are meh. Because a lot of times that, that one that you mentioned where I had the second fall right in the middle of my speech and then I had an anticlimactic ending. You helped me move the second fall to the end of the speech. Now it made the whole speech stronger just by moving one of the pieces. And that's the power of a great coach. They're going to help see that.
Why?
Because they have decades of experience understanding how this will land. And that's what we don't know ourselves. We think it's a great idea. And I don't know about you, Mark, but I've also had some stories that I thought it's cute. And people are like, what.
Are you. For me, it's the opposite. I've had stories. It's going to kill. It's going to be great. And I get the crickets like, wow. And I remember one time I was testing a story that I was using. The first time it fell, I thought, okay, I need to change one small bit. I changed slightly different audience. Live it again. Nothing. I said trace section here out. Let me look at the story. Okay, maybe I didn't deliver it well. Okay, I'll say this line this way. And the third time I did it, this time it was worse. And I realized this is not going to work. Now sometimes it can be stubborn. When I say stubborn, the idea is we say content. Many of us have stories of our experiences that we love. Oh, this was. This is great. My experience. I can do so much with this. I have to tell the audience this story. It's going to be great, but it's not the best story for that audience and for that presentation. So the content there may appeal to you, the speaker, but which content, which story best serves your audience? And we say core because core is at the center. It is so significant. That's one small detail. Is my content the best content I have for that audience at that time? When this assignment and in that environment, these are questions we must ask ourselves. And having someone to help guide us through that process, to have us question what we have what we have, what we're going to do. And I love what I think it was. Ed Tate talked about, Darren, how your stories have to audition their way into your presentation to find the best story, the best content for that audience at that time. Feel free to elaborate if you wish, but think about it. What best serves my audience?
So backing up for just a second, looking at the Core 4, you may have strength in delivery, you may have strength in storytelling, you may have strength in one of the cores. But we need to at least take our structure, the foundation of exactly what we're saying. And if that's not your strength, that's okay. Get some help, find a structure that will work. And Mark, when we walked people through the seven step process last week, it was amazing because at the beginning of the event you could see there are a couple newer people who were whoop. Who were glassy eyed and overwhelmed. But by day two and then into day three, you could see it start syncing up and they'll never be the same again because now they get it, they understand it, and that's what we're asking you to do. You've got to start with Core1 if you're not great at it. Well, I can do this speech and people say, okay, but what if you back up a step and you might have the exact same content? You might just structure it differently. And do your slides and your stage.
Use.
Reinforce the structure of your speech?
Oh, nice.
Do your slides and stage use reinforce the structure of your speech? So we have a program called Stageology where we talk about that, how to use the stage, your slides. Whenever I go to a new point of wisdom, so I have white slides with blue lettering, Stage time colors. However, whenever I go to a new point in my structure, it's very clear because then I have a blue slide with white text. So now I'm also training people. So in that first one, okay, so secret number one, I make the first one real clear and then they're getting it, they're more clear on the structure. Okay, now we're going to a different point. I always use the analogy of when you're reading a book, you're done with chapter two, you flip a page. How do you know you're going on to a new subject? There's a big number three there. Well, we don't have that opportunity. Well, we have the opportunity. We don't have that with such clarity when we're using the stage and or slides and or presentation. So how do you clearly. And what I love, Mark, is By day three, everybody got it. It was so clear about the importance of clarity to get there. So, Core one, that structure and content, what's your content, in what order? And as Ed's analogy is to you have people or content auditioning there. Which one do I use? Well, do this one and that one and find out from your coach or get feedback from other great presenters. Which one is stronger? Well, how do I know which one is stronger? Well, what's the point you're trying to make? Because they could be stronger. But if it's not stronger towards the point you're trying to make and the overriding premise, which is the thought or the idea you're selling, then that's how you know which one's stronger. Yeah, but I like delivering this one better. Okay, we'll build another speech that is about that. You know, I get it, I get it.
Deliver what is best to serve your audience and good content with the right structure. Core one, that's your foundation.
Yes. All right, so core two. Core two is deliver unforgettable stories. So now that we've talked about the structure of the whole presentation, stories are the heartbeat of it. And if you're listening to this and you really want to focus on it, I'm going to encourage you to join us. Go to stagetime workshops.com and join us for better stories, better business, because this is the heartbeat of your presentation. I love what Craig Valentine says. If you want to be a $10,000 speaker, you've got to tell $10,000 stories. And Mark, you know the story. If you've been to our events, you might have heard me say this before. But as a reminder, Dave Fitzgerald, my comedy mentor, saw me searching desperately for that story that would launch my career. Because I heard in nsa, the National Speakers association, you have to have a signature story. You have to have a sign. You have to have a signature story. Okay, So I got to find it. I got to find it. I got to find it. And he saw me testing new stories, testing new stories, testing new stories. And he said, darren, stop, stop, stop trying to find that story that will launch your career. And instead take the stories you already have and make them so good, someone will pay to hear them. And it was like one of those cartoons took my head and shook it up, because that was a new perspective. I just thought, well, you add a word, you take away a word. I didn't realize that there is a structure to a story. So we talked about core one structure of the whole 60 minute presentation, give or take a few Minutes. But now we're talking about the structure of an individual story. I didn't know the importance of what we talk about, of understanding and introducing the characters. Let them see the characters, let them feel the conflict. Mark, I love the little checklist that we put together. So let them see what is it. Let them, when I don't even remember.
See the characters and just wait to go deeper into that. But before you even get there, I want to go back to something you said earlier, and I'm hoping everyone catches this because I have had clients who come to me and say, I don't, you know, write stuff out. I don't bring up my story, it's my story.
I don't know what you're talking about, Mark.
Yeah, I. Someone did that to me 22 years ago, but I won't say who. However, that being said, I understand it's your story, but have you stopped to examine that the way, how you can tell your story in a way to intrigue the audience, to take them along for a ride, for them to feel the tension of conflict? Do you understand the conflict being escalated? Do you understand the role of the guide who comes in and change? I mean, no, but stories, my story, I'll just tell it. And I suspect that there are individuals, and I was guilty of this myself, Darren. I suspect the individuals who will say, it's my story, I know it, I can tell it. And yes, I give it to you. But my question is, are you telling your story in the best way possible? I take you back to the comment I made earlier in this broadcast. While the individual I'm coaching, who I recommend, to whom I recommended here, is someone who's experienced, who don't want to be on the platform much more frequently. My point being, yes, we have our stories, we know our stories. We must also know there is a way to tell the stories. Well, basically, we haven't attempted to dive deeply into this, but basically, one, we have to choose the right and best stories. And two, we have to craft these stories in such a way that they're most effective. There has to be an emotional component. We have to have real characters. We have to have dialogue in the conversation. And these are just highlights of what we need. The point is, we need the components of the core. 2 well told, good, effective stories.
Yes. And Mark, also one of the tricks of the trade, one of the techniques that we like to let people know about is make us curious to want to hear the story to begin with. If you don't engage me and get me to Want to hear it?
Or.
I met with someone today and he was describing it and he. I won't mention his name. Great guy, super sponge, but he's newer, so there's still some things to learn. He said. So I say to them, I want to share with you.
And I'm like, oh, okay.
Because. And. And I made this mistake too. We see it all the time. So I'm not saying he should have known that. Unless somebody points it out, how are you going to know that? So I pointed out that the audience doesn't care what you want. Now, I know we're being picky here, and that's world class. If you want to be unforgettable, you got to be willing to be picky and be a sponge. So I said, don't ever say that again because the audience doesn't care what you want. I said, same story, just frame it differently as to it was a lesson to you and Mark, you don't even know this story. You might have heard me mention what happened. But here's a quick example. I just literally put this on TikTok today. There are some elements that we've learned along the way that I put into this. So this might not be perfect, but it's solid based on what we teach. All right, check this out. I hope you approve because this is live without a net. Quick. This is a 60 second story. Or, well, 70 seconds. It was one of the coolest moments of my life. I got to create a magic moment for my dad. Okay, I'm going to stop it right there. It was one of the coolest moments of my life. I wanted to create a magic moment for my dad. That's part of what we were just talking about, making people curious. It was. Oh, what was one of the coolest moments? Oh, really? You know, and I wanted to get in there, dad. So people who've seen me talk about the world championship speech a bazillion times like, oh, you're going to talk about that again. So anyway, so I just. I want to show you as an example what we're just talking about. There may be other ways to do it, but we need to take the time to how do we make the story curious? So people lean in. So here we go. And a bonus moment happened that I didn't even see coming. Okay. And that is curiosity to say, ooh, I didn't even see it coming again. For TikTok is to help people watch to the end. But it's the same thing in any good story. My dad's 93. He hasn't been doing great health wise. He hadn't seen me speak in years and can't drive. So my sister, who's the hero of the family taking care of my mom and dad back east, she drove him to get him to the event. Well, during the event, I tell the audience, if you've seen my experience acceptance speech, you know my dad's advice, I'll never forget. My dad probably doesn't even remember. He said, I don't care what you want to do, just be the best. And I am, dad. So I told my audience they had a one of a kind opportunity to have my dad sign the book. 17 minutes to your dream. He is a quiet, shy guy. He didn't know what to do with it. It was so cool and I'll never forget it. But what came next blew me away. People actually asked my sister to sign the book. Now, she had been a high level executive, but she came up to me after saying, no one's ever asked me to sign something. What a double bonus. Create magical moments for the people in your life.
Nice. Nice. Wow.
Yeah. So when I was setting that up and we were filming it, I knew what I wanted to say. But I realized I had certain elements because of what you and I teach. I had to mention my sister drove my dad there. The health issues, he can't drive. I showed, for those of you listening, I show a picture of me and my dad at the beginning and then my sister and my dad. But I have to plant the seed that I mentioned. My sister was the hero so people will understand why they asked her to sign the book. And honestly, I did not see that coming. I was just trying to do the right thing and create this moment for my dad. I did not see people walking over to her asking her to sign it. And she, it was just so beautiful when she came up to me later dialogue, by the way, and said, no one's ever asked me to sign anything before. And it was just really beautiful that I could create that help with my now. I flew all the way there. I delivered that speech for local Toastmasters organization in Boston. I took it because I wasn't getting paid just for that moment. Because I'm like, what else can I do for my dad? He's 93, you know, obviously I can spend time with him. But I wanted to create that moment. So there were certain elements and Dawson was helping me. I had to plant the seeds so it made sense later on.
Your thoughts just the way you told that one minute story. And I Hope everyone catches this. We understood who the characters were. You gave us context for the characters, a little detail. He's 93 and doesn't even drive. So my sister, who's a hero in. In a few seconds and in a few words, you introduced two central characters and gave us context as well. He didn't just say, my dad came, I spoke. He signed the book. Nice story, so what's the big deal? So giving us the context of the characters, letting us hear dialogue. My dad's kind of shy, quiet. He didn't know what to do. And for those who are listening while Darren is speaking, let's voice over to the video clips of his dad actually signing the book and his sister as well. Very touching moment and the beauty. One of the. One of the beautiful parts of this story is there's no car chases, there's no gunfire, there's no sensationalism.
That's what I missed.
It's a touching human story, but here's one of the cool things. It triggered emotion. And a good story, a story well told, will trigger some kind of emotion in the audience. So I urge you, I ask you to examine the stories you're thinking about telling right now or a story you told quite recently, and ask yourself, is there a strong enough emotional connection? Will the audience relate to the main characters? Will the audience understand the circumstance? Will they feel something as a result of watching this? And how might that inspire them to act when they leave? For example, after watching Darren's 72nd video, I confess, I thought about my dad, who has been gone. It'll be six years next month. But I thought, you know, he didn't quite make the 93, but he had a good life. And I found myself just thinking about my dad and what I've done for him. Emotionally, I was connected because I saw a son and a father. Darren's dad was in the audience that day in August 01 when he won that title. I was there and I thought again of my dad and our relationship. There was an emotional draw for me as well, and I hope for you, even if those who are listening who didn't see the video, do your stories elicit emotion that draws the audience in, thereby giving them reason to listen to what you have to say? Because I will confess, I just saw the video just now. I did glimpse it earlier this morning on LinkedIn. I will confess that to you, Darren. But it did make me think, how can I do something special? How can I create a moment for somebody in my life? So I'm thinking now, okay, Whose birthday is next? Well, my youngest son's birthday is going to be in a couple of weeks, you know, so it's all, we've got Christmas coming. How can I create memories and moments for my family? And it's really intriguing. And I say all that to say one component was there, the emotion that Darren's story elicited. Not every story is going to be a feel good or romantic. Some may inspire other emotions, but that's good if the emotion is appropriate for the objective you have in your presentation.
And Mark, you always say something really worth reminding people of. It's your story, but it's for them. So I didn't just say, and there it is. I said, you, you know, create trying to inspire people, create moments for the people in your life, your friends, your family. So it had an intention and had a purpose. Now I had to leave out a part that I loved, which was I was up on stage and I said, my dad's here. I got him to have a round of applause. He said, you know, he and my mom has been. Have been married for 65 years. And so applause comes out and then my dad goes 67. And if you knew my dad, he doesn't yell anything out. But in this moment he did, which was made it freaking hysterical. And when I have more time, I will tell that, but it will be a different intention. And in this 72nd story, I just didn't have time for that. And it didn't necessarily. It was funny, but it didn't necessarily add to my point, which was create moments, magical moments for the people in your life. It didn't add to that. It was funny. So I had to pull that out for this story. And sometimes we have to pull out some things that we want to say. And I do that because it's a new story, but I used everything we talk about. And as Mark said, but a reminder, make your new goal that your story must elicit emotion. So if you're not considering the emotions of the characters, you're not there yet. You've got to consider the emotions and the before emotion. And there should be an emotional shift. I was surprised I didn't see this one coming. What is that emotional shift? Here you are beforehand what happens when the character. My dad didn't know what was coming because I didn't tell him ahead of time or he would have said no. I didn't even give him a chance. But he'll never forget that moment. It was cool. And now instead of me saying it egotistically, it was A plan that I had that worked. Now I want to tell the audience, hey, you could do this too. It didn't cost me any money. It was a moment. Sometimes people don't want gifts, but you deliver a moment to them and that is powerful. So going back to the story principle, so again, core one, the structure of your whole speech. If you're not good at it, get good at it, because it's going to simplify the process for you. It may seem like a little bit of work to get comfortable, but once you do, you can generate better presentations more quickly. And then core two stories, make it your goal to be unforgettable, but understand the structure. And Mark, we had a VIP sign up today, Marty, who's going to be joining us as a vip. Two more slots open. So we're going to work with him on his stories. And his goal is to help divorced men deal with divorce. You know, how do you overcome that? How do you get stuck? Because he's talking from his experience, so he is open to having our help to be able to tell that story. But you tell that story, it's going to be able to be used on social media, be a great video for your homepage, and it's going to get you hired. It's going to be better in your demo video as well. So this story is so important in so many ways, not only your marketing, but how you connect on stage to your audience. The more deeply you connect, the more referrals you're going to get, the more higher fees you're going to get, the more book sales you're going to get, the more people who follow you. Why? Because he connected deeply. Who wants to connect to somebody they didn't connect with? Who wants to follow?
The more effective you will be. Yeah, the more effective you will be on the daily day, on that. On the day at that site with the audience who is there. And you never know. We can never fully anticipate the impact that our stories can have. And I say that because, Darren, as you know, I spent many, many years giving talks in junior secondary and secondary slash high schools here in North America and across the world as well. And even the young people respond well to stories and stories well told. Of course they laugh at me because I saw. I show my. My childhood photographs in black and white, which of course by itself is amusing, but having the emotional connection where here I am in my 60s and here these kids are 12, 13 years old, but they can connect and relate to my experience. When we share stories well and have the Right. Emotional connection. As Darren says, the impact can be astronomical. And that's why when here at stage time, we invest the time to practice and work on these Core 4. We share two today, the Core 1 with the content and structure, and Core 2 with the stories. But we invest time every week drilling down on these core principles. Week one is Core one, Week two, Core two, Week three, Core three and week four. Core four. As Darren said earlier, when you have the core basic rudimentary foundation to a presentation, you're on your way to being unforgettable.
And when it is the foundation of what you do, it will become natural. But if you're willing to not go deep on those two, Core one and Core two especially, you're just missing it because you want to be world class, you want to be unforgettable. It's got to become second nature. Then you can throw the three pointer. Boom. Why? Because you got everything else down. It's down. It's part of me. So if it's not your strength, go back and learn the structure again. Once you do it, everything else falls in place and then the stories once you do now you're going to tell better stories more quickly. A new story comes across and you know the elements that need to go in it. Just like that one that I did. Boom. It just happened. Here's 70 seconds. I can't believe I did a story in 70 seconds, but well done. Join us next week when we go into Core 3 and Core 4. Check out that episode. If you want to join us for better stories and go deep and we'll hold your hand through the process. In three days, you'll have a new story or an overhauled story and I promise you, it will change how you tell stories for the rest of your career. Join us for the workshop stagetimeworkshops.com better stories, better business. Join us next week for Unforgettable Part two, the Core four.
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