Ep. 217 The CORE 4: Part 2

Hey there, Mark Brown. Last week we talked about core one and core two structure and stories. Today we're going to go into Core 3 and Core 4. Let's open the door.

Let's do it.

Anyone can give a presentation. Few deliver unforgettable presentations. What's the difference? You're about to find out. Welcome to the 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. Last week talked about core one structure, the importance of structure, Core two stories. If you didn't hear those, please go back and listen to episode 216. This is episode 217, Mark. Let's dive right in. Core three humor. Talk to me, Goose.

You want me talk to you, Maverick? Oh, nice stop. Top Gun reference there. Here's the funny thing, folks. One or two of us is a was a professional, semi professional comedian with a photograph on the wall of a local comedy club. And guess what? It was not I, it was somebody else. And he wants me to lead on humor. I keep telling you, Darren, I am not funny. I'm just funny looking. Okay? So I don't lead. I don't lead that course recall on the third Wednesday of the month. And for those who are just joining a few minutes, I know, I know bad humor. But for those just joining us, we mentioned the core four is four core elements that we build our speeches on. We build our book about delivering unforgettable presentations around a structure and the four. The core four are the rudiments that build a great presentation. Core three is humor. I was not being very humorous just now, but people ask, do I really need humor in my presentation? I'm not very good at it. Do I really need humor? Darren, what do you say?

Well, it's an old adage in the National Speakers association, only if you want to be paid. And I'm going to take humor and back it up just a little and say humor and engagement and interaction. If you're not funny but you like engagement or you can get the audience to participate, that works. It's about engagement. Now we teach formulas that help you get it across to your audience and your subject and your style. So, Mark, I have a keynote coming up next week. I have my notes right over here. And there's one of the guys I'm Interviewing. So, you know, I always ask for people's names to call ahead of time because I want to see what their stories are and how I can take their stories and connect it to my world. Well, one guy, I kid you not, his name is seven letters long, but he has all these designations. He has 23 letters after his name. I'm not even exaggerating, but that's funny. So I'm gonna go out into the audience and find, like, he's a cool guy. I'm gonna talk to him, get some of his stories. But then I'm gonna, at the beginning of my presentation, go out, engage, you know, break the fourth wall, walk into the audience, and then highlight that, but in a playful, fun way to help create that connection. One of the things my mentor taught me early on, humor mentor. Her name is Rosemary Varey. She says, the problem is funny. The solution is serious. The problem is funny. We make light of the problem, the frustration, the conflict, the things that bug them. So I'm asking people, what are your frustrations? What are your pet peeves? So when I find their frustrations and their pet peeves. So my interview yesterday, I won't mention the client or the person's name. They said, yeah, every year we have one guy come in and he gives the quote, unquote compliance report. He said he scares everyone because if you're out of compliance, you could be out of business. And so I saw that. Okay, I'm not sure what I'm gonna do with it yet, but that's gonna be something. But I've trained myself because of my comedy. Humor training to. To find the frustration. And get this, if you're taking notes, comedy cuts down, humor lifts up. Comedy cuts down, humor lifts up. Which means we're finding the stress, we're finding the tension, and then we're putting a pin in it to release that tension. So a comedian, there's a victim. That's perfect. In the comedy world, people understand that that's acceptable.

Don Rickles. Don Rickles.

But in the corporate, unless you're brought in for a specific reason, humor. Humor allows us to be more engaging, to be more likable, to create a deeper connection. I love what sales guru Jeffrey Gittamer says, at the end of laughter is the height of listening. At the end of laughter is the height of listening. So after a big laugh, that's when you slide your message in. We don't have to become comedians, but there are comedy principles that can help lighten up or bring levity to a tough subject.

Mark and before you dive into that, Darren, I want to go back to what you said about comedy cuts down. Humor lives up to some that could be slightly confusing, particularly those who say, well, there's something funny about the company or how they operate their business that I could really jump on. But we have to be careful that the humor we use, though it may seem somewhat to be at their expense, is not received as such. And I'm gonna. I'm gonna publicly pay my brother Darren a compliment here because I know several years ago he did one of the most, to me humorous but educational bits I've ever seen him do, I've seen anybody do, actually. And I really appreciate humor and comedy. And he's wondering, what am I talking about? But you had to do a. You were engaged to do a presentation for an association, and as we all know, association love their acronyms. You know, you were the ABC and the qb, whatever, qvc, we love acronyms. And you spent, I don't know, what, eight, nine minutes on a routine about acronyms used within the organization. And they were laughing like crazy and nobody was offended. And I say that because it's. It's easy to cross a line between being funny and being offensive, particularly in the corporate world, even in real life, if we're not very careful. And I know we didn't really plan on doing this, Darren, but could you share very quickly the thought process behind using one of their pet peeves, the acronyms, in a way that kind of made fun of them but didn't insult them, that made them laugh? How did you find that balance to create that. That routine?

Well, it's finding that connection with the audience and asking them. And what I did was I asked, okay, who are the new people here to this association? So a few people raised their hand and I said, this is for you. You might have come from another industry and then not realized, oh my gosh, these acronyms, how do I figure out my way through them? What do they mean? What is their importance? So I created a routine years ago, and I just keep upgrading it and applying it to new audiences. So I had the structure of the comedy about acronyms, and then I just apply the acronyms from that industry and it really goes well and is fun. So it's also the intention behind it. Mark, I remember when Johnny Carson retired, late night comedy show host. If you are young, you might not know him, but he used to be before Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon, he was their hero. But Johnny, when he retired, I remember watching it and they said, what's your secret? And he thought about it and reflected and said, I always played up to my audience. I always played up. So there's a comedy idea that you can punch up, but you can't punch down, meaning you can punch and make light of the CEOs and the VPs, but you can't make fun of frontline workers. You have to punch up to people who are above you as opposed to. And then whenever I get something that I'm like, I don't know if this is going to work. So one of the things I do in the acronym bit is I speed up at the end and I say that. And I always say, bring up one thing that drives them crazy. So one of the common ones in many organizations is Sir Baines Oxley, something like that. And it's this litigation legislation that they have to go by, blah, blah, blah. So it always stresses people out and especially when I talk to people. So I say, you know, Sarbanes Oxley. And I say, Sarbanes Oxley sucks and always gets a huge thing. But I always run it by the event planner if I'm not sure if it's not blatantly clear. And even if it is, sometimes I just double check because I never, you know, I go through da, da, da, da, da, E, I, E, I, E, I, O. And I end on that. I'm like, E, I, O. What? Anyway, I tie back to common acronyms that we've all heard. Bi, N, G, O, B, S. That's B.S.

Sol.

Yeah, SOL. So I have fun with it, but it's intended. Now, I don't do that everywhere because some industries aren't riddled with acronyms.

Appropriate. Appropriate.

But if they are riddled with acronyms, chances are it frustrates some people, especially the newer people, because they're overwhelmed, which is why I set it up. The context. So last week we talked in stories. How you set up the context to get us curious to want to hear it is important. Well, same thing. How you set up a bit that you're going to do. Now, remember, you don't have to. We're not trying to make you comedians, but you have to be aware that you. If you're going to be a true pro and get paid, it's expected that you bring in some levity. Now, if you don't know how to do that. Mark, I don't know if you saw Judy's speech, her first speech, she sent it out where she had hired Chris McGuire, comedy writer, to punch up her speech. Oh, my goodness. She had some hysterical lines that he wrote for her. So why not bring in a pro to help you if you're not sure if that's not your strength? That's what we're talking about in the core four. If one of them isn't your strength, get help in that area just because you can do. Maybe you're a great storyteller, you're a classic storyteller, but if you tell your stories without structure, we're still going to be scratching our heads. Even though you're a great storyteller. We've got to get help in the core four that aren't our strength, but continue to improve. What is our strength, Mark?

Yeah, and I like the idea of looking at our strength. And you may say, you know what, I'm naturally funny. I'm going to. I'm going to slay this thing. And you have cautioned, Darren, that those who think they're funny as comedians often struggle with humor in a presentation. Why do you think that is?

Well, sometimes being off the cuff, they might be really good at that. The planned humor is where they're maybe lacking. And that's what we heard. The other gentleman won't mention his name from our event last week, who is a naturally funny guy, had some funny lines, but he needed some help and wanted some help, which that's awesome. Get help. Perfect. Nobody cares. Nobody said to Judy, hey, did you have a comedy writer help you? They just appreciated the humor.

They liked it.

Yeah, that was humor. For those of you who don't know her, you know she talks about depression. That's a heavy subject.

It is.

When you can make a heavy subject lighter. Oh, my goodness. Powerful, powerful. So core three, humor and engagement, however, we can get our audience engaged and connected. If it's not your strength, get some help. Chris McGuire. If you go to getaspeakingcoach.com he is a head writer for a lot of late night comedy shows, wrote a lot of the comedy roasts, produced some movies. Excuse me, some TV shows including Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart. He made Martha Stewart funny, which is awesome. But he understood her as a character so he knew how to write for her. So that being said, get some help. You can go to get a speaking coach dot com. Check out Mark me, but I'm not going to do comedy writing for you. It's not my stream. But Chris Will. Chris McGuire. So Core 3. All right, Mark, let's go to Core 4. Core 4. Delivery.

Delivery. What do I do on stage today? No, that's the best. That's really ott, which means over the top.

Well, we see that we've done an episode not too long ago about speaker man or speaker woman going over the top. And their delivery is so commanding, so dictator, so ultimate expert. Look, your delivery matters, your intention matters, and your intention is part of that delivery. One of the things Mark and I do when we coach is we coach from a coaching checklist. We have a three day event called Own the stage, which we work right off the 49 point checklist. So delivery, we step back and we look at. Okay, here's what we have. How do we make it better? Well, let's look at our 49 point checklist. Must have, must avoid. We have a list of must haves and a list of must avoids. And we see the same ones over and over again around the world. Mark and I have coached in Europe, we've coached all over the world, and we see the same issues again and again. But delivery is so important. And one of the things we teach is you just went through our workshop last week. You got a brand new keynote. You got to internalize it. So at the beginning, you're in your head thinking of what you're going to say next, but you've got to internalize it. So don't beat yourself up. Congratulations, you're human. You've got to own it. You want to own the stage, you got to own your content, which is why structure is important, which is why storytelling is important. Core one and two. It's important and critical, and let it go at the beginning. If you're in your head, your emotions are dead. If you're in your head, your emotions are dead. So if we want to be present with the audience and have that connection, have that delivery, we also got to take our time and let them absorb what we're saying. So part of delivery goes right back to structure. When you tell certain stories, when you ask certain questions, the old Boston term, ask and then shut up. Shut up. Let them think. Mark. I was coaching a pastor. Not that I had permission to, but I was coaching a young pastor and taking notes. I couldn't help it because his mentor was open to what I had to say about it because he knew what I did. So I said, you know, he's going so rapid fire. He's not letting us think. And we say the most important part of the process is the thought process in the listener's mind. So if you don't have somebody helping you slow down and deliver, guess what the thought process is. I can't keep up with this. You ask a question, you don't let me think. Okay? And they lean back and they're leaning out.

They check out. Yeah.

And you may have heard the old adage, pause for effect. Well, we say, no, that's drama. That's theater. Pause to reflect. Pause to let your audience reflect and absorb the key lines. We have to know what those killer lines are, which is why, like, when I write, I go and I ask the audience. I will deliver it. I will go to Toastmasters and practice, and I will ask them, what inspired you? What made you think? What was unclear, Clear. And what I'm looking for is I'm hoping I get my foundational phrases back at me, but I don't know which ones will land. When I was working on 17 minutes to youo dream, it was, you are the CEO of your life, of your dream. And that resonated. So I knew I was hitting a right one. So a few of them that I wanted to hit didn't. Well, how am I gonna know what the audience thinks unless I deliver and ask? Part of upgrading your delivery is seeing what's landing, asking for that feedback. Again, three questions that I ask. I asked four, but the first three, what did you think? What made you think? What was unclear? And then what inspired you? And then the fourth question is just anything else?

Anything else. Open window. Yeah.

And so what I'm looking for is commonality when I start. And, Mark, like, when you first helped me. We talked about structure. Last episode, when we had that, I had my second fall in the middle, and you helped me move it to the end. Well, my ending was anticlimactic. I thought the Robert Goddard quote that I used originally was brilliant. I thought it was brilliant. That's the reason I wrote the speech. Well, nobody ever gave me that as feedback. And so I tried it a few times. I tried it a few more times, and I didn't want to give up the downside of being an optimist. But then I had to come to realization that the second fall was stronger and that that quote needed to go. It inspired the speech. It did its job. Now I need to let it go.

Let it go from frozen, huh? A couple of thoughts here, Garen. You know, I know they're individuals. Perhaps you are. They're new, and they see whom they determine to be great speakers. They admire their style and their delivery. And the desire is, I want to deliver like Mark Brown, Darren Lacroix, like, you know, Les Brown, like, I don't know, Dean Graziosi, or, you know, these big Names that we know. They're great presenters and we admire from afar, which is fine. But I always say part of effective delivery and please hear my heart with this friendship. Part of your effective delivery is you bringing your personality to every presentation. Not everyone will deliver with the same style. Some seem vibrant and think I need to be vibrant to be effective. Really? Ask comedian Stephen Wright. If you don't know who he is, search on Vimeo or YouTube or whatever other video service you might find. Free, free video. And look at Steven Wright's delivery. The man is downright hilarious, but he is the most deadpan, low key personality you will see. But he's just very effective because that's him and his. In his delivery, his personality works. We often think we must deliver based upon what the words say. Yes, we should. But we have to bring ourselves our own personality, our own style, who we are to every presentation. To me, one of the worst things I could hear is that when someone hears me speak is, you know what Mark Brown reminds me of? That guy. I don't want to be that guy. I really want to be seen as an individual for what I bring and how I bring it. Let's not take delivery lightly and let's not be overly concerned about trying so hard to be effusive or trying so hard to be poignant. Who are you really? And when you deliver your presentation as yourself, that makes you more credible because the audience sees you in the way that you deliver. Conversely, if we deliver in one single style, the entire presentation, it can be monotonous. Monotonous. Either low key monotonous, or always upbeat to the whole presentation, which is emotionally exhausting to see someone do that. Your delivery of the lines you deliver, and I shouldn't say lines, but the content you deliver, the way you deliver the content should be commensurate or congruent with what you are saying when you portray a character. We're not saying you would be overacting. No, we're saying relive that character and speak as that character with the emotion of that character within the context of, of the situation in which they find themselves. This may sound like a mouthful, and perhaps it is. But it is a rudimentary principle that when you become the characters and not simply retell but relive stories, then you create a more realistic experience for the audience. You may not be telling a story or becoming a character. You may simply be sharing an idea, a principle, a technique the audience needs to hear. We'll share that idea, that principle, that technique, as you would Sharing with a friend over a cup of coffee or lunch one day, be genuinely, authentically you in your delivery. And it's remarkable how much the audience will embrace you, because they know that was that individual honestly sharing with me what they know. And I get it now. Follow them because I believe not only what they say, but I believe in who they are.

Yeah. And a great coach will enhance your delivery, will bring out your delivery style. He didn't say to me, okay, Darren, hold your hands down. Don't use your hands. I wouldn't have been able to talk, but he helped me be more deliberate with what I said and how I said it. He allowed me to tell dialogue, to speak dialogue of my characters in an authentic way. Without his guidance, I would have been, again, the train wreck. I would have continued as the train wreck. So in review, core three, humor, engagement. Your way, your style. Get some help. If that's not your strength, and it's okay. You're not getting paid to be a comedian. You're not getting paid to be funny. You're getting paid to deliver your expertise. But if you get a little enhancement and help in your writing, in your comedy, in your humor. Hey, we have a humor bootcamp. Come join us for that. We'll show you. Work with Chris McGuire and me, and we'll show you all the different formulas so you can create your own or get a coach, get someone to write for you. Chris McGuire is awesome at that. And then four, core four is delivery. Your style is your way. Mark, I remember when you talked about being hot. Like, there's mundane monotone and there's high energy monotone. We had an NFL football player at one of our events. Great guy, great content, but he was just the whole time. And it was exhausting for us. But what was missing was that time that he came down, looked us in the eye, and asked us a few questions.

Yeah. So, yeah, and that. That point really quick. I want to elaborate very quickly on that because I know it's easy for us to see vibrant, energetic speakers in the world of sports. You'll see that also these. These individuals who are vibrant, you know, yes, you can go get them. And they're those who believe that is what an inspirational speaker is supposed to look like. And I'll tell you right now, friends, if you think that way, I urge you to stop and think again. That is what that specific inspirational speaker looks like. That's them, their style, their personality. I remember when I was first starting out, Darren, I. I would hear speakers who'd get the crowd they play music, come clapping hands and get them up and dancing. And they'd say, ready to earn. Ready to earn. Ready to learn. Ready to learn. Ready to burn. Yeah. I say, yeah, yeah. And they pump. We are here to pump you up. To pump the audience up. Yeah. Okay. And they wanted to pump everybody up. And I thought to myself, that ain't me. My son went to university in al Georgia and they had the first assembly that were there and they had his, his gentleman come up and he was pretending to be very lowkey. Mr. President, faculty students, I want to thank you for being here today. And he's like, no, no, no, it's not my style. Nah, B. All of a sudden we get this loud hip hop blaring and this guy's going off and this audience is loving it because Albany State University is an hbcu, historically one of the historically black colleges and universities. And he knew that his style really matched that audience. And I thought to myself, I'm a speaker. I'm not so sure want to be in this environment because that's not who I am. I say all that to come back to one point. Just be who you are and deliver your content from your heart, from your essence, and the audience will remember you because when you are yourself, you're so much more unforgettable.

So if you want some help in any of these areas, get a coach. Doesn't have to be us. Join stage time. We do coaching calls every week, so we have step by step programs for each of the core four as well as we coach every Wednesday on the core four. So you can get coach from two world class coaches. But understand it's dribbling. It might not be exciting, but you've got to dribble before you can get the opportunity to throw the three pointers. I hope this has inspired you to step back. If you didn't listen to last week, please do go back, check out Core 1 and Core 2. This is about Core 3 and Core 4 and Mark Brown, I invite you to close the door.

Oh, here I'm rhyming again. Core one, Core two, Core three, Core four. Master these rudiments and you will be unforgettable. We'll see you next week.

That didn't rhyme.

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