Ep. 229 Unforgettable Business Growth With Mark LeBlanc

Hey there, Mark Brown. You know, if you're going to be unforgettable, you got to get on the stage a lot, which means we have to have a business. When I think of business speakers, business growth speakers, first thought, Mark LeBlanc, he has been a mentor since the 90s. He's just an incredible man. Mentor, a business builder, and then he goes, does these little walks, I don't know, just a few miles type of thing. Anyway, we are going to introduce you to a business mentor. We're going to have fun with this. We're going to go deep. And he is content rich. So let's just dive in. Mark, here we go.

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

Mark Brown, please welcome my mentor, my friend, just a brilliant man. I think brilliant is the word I would use for him. Please welcome Mark LeBlanc. Mark, welcome to Unforgettable Presentations.

Thank you so much. Good to see you.

We're thrilled to have you here.

I've heard for many, many years. I first got into NSA back in 96 thanks to a man named Willie Jolly, a man you know very, very well and names like yours were floating around. And the sad running joke amongst three people was need to get a Mark Peg going in NSA with Mark Sanborn, you know Mark, Sharon Brock, Mark Brown, and of course, Mark LeBlanc. So the honor is mine to finally meet you in this forum and I can't wait for you to fill my mind with wisdom and knowledge. I'll be here with my trusty pen making notes as we go and to offer to our listeners and viewers some, some nuggets of wisdom you share with us throughout our conversation.

Welcome, Mark. Well, thank you so much. Stay alert because every time, every once in a while, I say something good. Not quite sure where it comes from, but I guess I'm in the mood. I feel like something good is going to pop out of this interview.

Let's be thankful it comes. There we go. So, Mark, for people who don't know you, how did you get started in Speaking?

I was 21 years old and I was having a conversation with the mother of my best friend at the time. And I said, you know, maybe I could do something with my voice or maybe radio. I said, the only thing that I've ever really felt like I could do well was stand up in front of a group. And she said, oh, my gosh. My best friend is a national speaker by the name of Joan Kennedy, who was crisscrossing the country in the 70s and early 80s. And Joan had written a book titled, I Don't want much out of life, I want more. And she said, let's call her. And Joan answered the phone and we chatted. And she invited me three weeks later to be her guest at one of the first meetings of the Minnesota chapter of the National Speakers Association. And Darren and Mark, when I walked into that room, it was as if a switch went off in my head and my heart and my gut. And I'm 21. And I went home for Christmas a couple of weeks later, I told my dad, I now know what I want to do for the rest of my life. And he said, what's that? And I said, I'm going to be a professional speaker. He said, can you make any money doing that? And I said, I don't know. But I met this group called nsa, and they're all rich.

Nice.

Little did I know then what I know today. Of course, they were not all rich, but where could a young guy put his toe in a profession and have the opportunity to have the kind of impact and influence that I've been able to have over the last now 42 years?

Great story.

And tell us about, like, that first professional presentation, because some of our listeners have been around for a while. They're hall of fame speakers as well. Some of them are just emerging speakers, and we like to kind of inspire them by that first presentation. Mine was for, you know, 75 bucks.

Do you know this story, Darren?

I have a feeling I heard it back in the day. But for everyone, please, I'm all in to hear it again.

Well, I sure appreciate you shining a light on my first paid speech that turned out to be the ultimate bomb. I at the time was young, obviously, and I got a call from a speaker's bureau, and they thought that they had found a young rising star in me. And they booked me to speak for a group of about 60 or so young managers of a fast food franchise. I won't give the name, but I was paid in roast beef sandwiches. But at any rate, I prepared to the best of my ability. It was a $300 booking. And I thought, wow, this is Amazing. And I remember delivering the speech, and I met one of my best friends after the evening speech, and he said, how did it go? And I said, you know, I think it went okay. And, you know, I'm new in the profession, but. But I'm pleased. And about three weeks later, I got an envelope from the Speaker's Bureau, which I thought would hold my check, and instead was a letter sharing with me. That client was not happy at all with a young motivational speaker. In fact, they thought he was a demotivating speaker.

Ouch.

And I'll never forget that letter and the impact that it had on me. In fact, I think the painful part of my journey is sort of living in that chapter of doubt and uncertainty and chaos. But I still had that dream inside of me. I think I quit a thousand times. And fortunately, I recommitted myself. You know, I retreated like a frightened turtle after that experience. And I was running another business at the time. And so I was an entrepreneur. I was a small business owner. And back in the. In the 80s, wow. It's hard to believe I'm saying the 80s, but we used to talk about something, and you don't hear a lot about it today, but we used to talk about something called, you know, you have to earn the right to speak. We don't hear that very often anymore. And at the time, I guess I wasn't really a true speaker. I just was doing a little bit of research, and I was doing an oral book report. And it would take me years to sort of find my voice and find my place as a professional speaker and in the profession.

A motivational speaker. At 21, with a harsh early lesson. Being that young and getting that message from your first presentation, what was it that kept you going?

I will say, by the grace of God and the fact that I kept going, which is kind of an interesting little sidebar. I went to the NSA convention in 1983. Now, this would be a year or so before this catastrophe. And I sat in the audience of about 800 speakers. And at that time, I might have been the youngest person of 800, sitting in the last row of the ballroom at the Westin Hotel in downtown San Francisco. And I heard a speaker who still today is on my Mount Rushmore of speakers. And his name was Ira Hayes. And he passed away about 26 years ago or so. But one of the last pearls of wisdom that he shared in his speech, and I remember it like it was yesterday, he said, keep going. And I hung onto that and just. I wasn't Speaking often enough to really. I wasn't Darren. I wasn't getting any stage time. And I was running. At the time, I owned a small business. I owned a creative graphics printing and mailing company, and I built that business and sold it. But at the same time, I was attending almost every single meeting of the Minnesota chapter of nsa. And for all practical purposes, I sat on the sidelines. I had a broken wing, and it just took a long time. And sometimes people will say, what's the biggest mistake that you made? And it's very easy one, thinking I was better than I was preaching enough. If given enough time, I could prepare a speech and deliver it like a pro. But along with that ego or attitude, mistake or misjudgment, I wasn't in gear with getting stage time. I wasn't in gear with working with someone like you or either of you to develop my craft. What would I do over again, I would raise my hand and get some help. Because there's an enormous difference between speaking in high school or college. I did a lot of speaking at high school retreat program in the Catholic church, and I was a bit of a rock star. But when it comes to a career as a professional speaker, that's a whole different ball game. And when there's, when there's a fee involved, it can mess with your mind. And so my start as a professional speaker was incredibly rocky.

Now, Mark, you're a Hall of Fame, cpae, csp. You've been doing this for decades. When it comes to unforgettable presentations, what do you think? In your opinion, from your perspective, what do you think an unforgettable presentation is for the listener or for the Bureau?

I think a master speaker. I think a Hall of fame speaker. By the way, I overcame all of those disastrous speeches in the beginning and go back to the commitment I made. I told my dad I now know what I want to do for the rest of my life. And so there was. Leaving the profession was never even a viable option. Today, I believe that a master speaker does four things. Number one, they will engage your mind. Number two, they will touch your heart. Number three, they will stir your soul. And number four, they will make you laugh. And over the course of time, I've worked on my presentations and worked on my stories and worked on my humor in such a way that now I don't hit those four points every speech I give, but that's the standard. How do I engage their mind? How do I touch their heart? Have a soul stirring moment? I have a moment in my Keynote speech. Never be the same. That will almost stop your breathing. And then people will say to me today, you know, Mark, I've watched your career, and you know, you've always been pretty good. You've got incredible content, but you're so darn funny today in a way that you weren't before. Not to take away from your content or your message. And today, I think the bar to be a professional speaker actually is very low. And my meeting planners and decision makers often say two things to me today. Number one, no one left. And number two, Mark, I don't believe it. Nobody was on their phones. And the only way that you can achieve those two aims is by story and humor.

That sounds so familiar.

Thank you. If you can captivate their attention with story. And if all of a sudden, right out of the gate, and it's not uncommon, Darren, you know, you were in Orlando when I was inducted into the hall of Fame. My opening line of my five minute or so acceptance speech is, and of course, in the introduction, we set it up. I'd been nominated 19 times before. I had 19 rejection letters and 19 rejection letters. Boy, you begin to question everything about your dream. And so we made sure that the introducer set that up, because my opening line was, I never imagined getting the CPAE this year, a couple of years ago maybe. And 1,000 people busted a gut laughing when the typical acceptance speech is thank you. And Bill Stainton, who you know well, has won 29 Emmy awards for television, comedy, writing, producing, directing, he said, mark, your line, you crushed it with that opening line.

Nice. And from your perspective and your experience, if you say, okay, engage the mind. Okay, great. Unforgettable presentation engages the mind. If somebody's new or emerging or just saying, okay, maybe I'm not as good as I think, they're kind of letting go of that ego. How can I be unforgettable? How would you go about creating some content that engages the thoughts?

Typically what I will look at anybody who knows me or is familiar with my work, I'm a framer. And when you can frame your content, I feel like you have a greater likelihood of engaging their mind. So when I think about engaging your mind, that's really sort of stage one or phase one for an emerging, aspiring, developing professional speaker. They're so nervous about their content if he or she can begin to frame their content. So, for example, I have nine best business practices for growing a business. I've got four traps that prevent us from moving forward in our life and work. I've got four Decision making filters. I've got three reasons why. So when we can begin to frame our content in chunks and segments and sequences, we have an easier chance, we've got a better chance of remembering where we're going. Now, obviously you need a good opening and a good close and a signature story or two, a vignette or example. But the sooner we can latch on to framing our content, we can get up and over and through stage one of engaging their mind.

Darren, that sounds like nine do's and don'ts or top 10 that we often share. But that's a very helpful tool for those who are brand new hearing this. Like we always say, you can't give your audience your entire content in one presentation. And if you can, as you say, mark, frame four keys, three techniques, five strategies, and that gives them a framework to build everything they need and the audience will get that instead. That's brilliant.

Thank you.

So how do we touch the heart? What would you advise people? Okay, I got them to think, how do I touch their heart? And then to follow up on that. I don't know if it ties in, but how do we stir the soul? Like that's going deep, that's on the.

Edge of unforgettable touching an audience member's heart. For the most part, you can only do that with story. And when you are telling relatable stories that connect with the majority of your audience members, you can touch their heart. It's not about telling a story for story's sake, of course, but it's about finding the right stories over the course of 40 years. I have three signature stories. One is about my first 500 mile walk across Spain. That's an incredible story. I have one about my mother who quadrupled the family business from the age of 60 to 70 after my father had a massive stroke at the age of. And then I have a third story titled the Miracle of How I Met My Wife. And after an extraordinary set of circumstances and those stories, three signature stories. And I don't, obviously don't tell all three in every presentation. One thing I learned, I'll go back to Ira Hayes. Ira Hayes was the master of one presentation that he delivered over 4,000 times. And at 22, sitting in that audience, I stepped back and I thought that's brilliant. And I don't know how I latched onto that. But as I began to study and observe and actually get to know Ira, I realized that he had an accordion presentation. He could do a 30 minute version of it. He could do. I watched him do A three hour version of it, but it was the same title. He could just expand and contract based on the audience and the length of time that he had and the objectives of the meeting. And so I've really fashioned my business development expertise around the fact that I can speak on business development from 30 minutes to three days or anything in between.

And I love the phrase an accordion presentation and the reminder to use signature stories. We engage their mind, you touch their heart. Now, for many, there may seem to be not much difference between touching their heart and stirring their soul. Can you expound upon storing their soul? How do you do that, Mark?

Well, you mentioned Mark Schoenbrach. Yes, and I'll take a cue from Mark, who is also on my Mount Rushmore of speakers, but Mark Schoenbrock. And I've watched him do this in front of an audience of nearly 2000, an audience of 200 and an audience of 500. Dis. Same soul stirring moment. And of course I'm just giving you the Cliff Notes version of it. But he will talk about the, about the Vietnam wall in Washington D.C. and then he will honor veterans in an audience now. And it's been a while since I've heard him speak, so I'm not sure I will frame this properly. But every veteran has a number. And Mark will pause for a moment and he will invite. He will invite. I get teary eyed just thinking about it. He will invite the audience, the veterans in the audience to shout out their number. And in just a moment you don't hear any. You could hear a pin drop because the veterans are not sure he's really inviting them to share. And then all of a sudden in one corner of the audience you'll hear 72, 131 and you start to hear these numbers from all over audience and it literally takes your breath away. It stops your breathing. And I have not to fall into the comparison trap. But we can. In the world of professional speaking, my soul stirring moment is maybe not quite as deep as that, but it has to do with, with the story of my mother and how she not only did she overcome adversity and quadruple our family business after my father had a massive stroke and was forced to retire. But they had no money at the time of my dad's stroke. And the story starts out as if it's a woman overcoming adversity. And there's a moment where you begin to think, man, Mark's mother must be amazing to have taken them from potential bankruptcy to quadrupling their family business. From age 60 to age 70. And so that's inspiring just by itself. And she sold the business at the age of 70 and got a residual income every month until she was 80. She got them debt free, mortgage free, bought a new car, wrote a check for it, put money away for their retirement. But then the. The real kicker was she did it while she was on dialysis three days a week. Wow.

Wow.

And of course, we're proud of her. She passed away a couple of years ago and my mom and dad were. Of course, my dad is paralyzed. She's doing this all while she's caring for him. But the moment is when her son, the business guy, says to her, mom, how did you do this? With everything that you had on your plate, how did you do this? And the line is, and it's true story. My mother looked at me as only a mother can look at her son. And she said, I read your book. Wow. I said, what? And she goes, well, Mark, I don't know if you remember, but you wrote a little blue book titled Growing your business. I said, what are you talking about? She said, mark, I didn't understand half of what was in that little book. But I learned one thing. If a prospect is not interested in what I have to offer, I simply move on to the next one. You can hear a pin drop in an audience.

Wow. Wow. All right, so, Mark, I wanted to switch over to as speakers. Some of us may be super talented, maybe we may be passionate, we may be engaging, but we also got to be entrepreneurs and run the speaking business or we don't get on any stages. What are some of the mistakes that you see that actually block us from getting booked or recommended? What's your thoughts on that?

Well, I will tell you the turning point for me, and I live in a world of two or more right answers. So it's not necessarily my way or the highway. I think every speaker has to crack the code on moving forward in their career. But when I was starting to get some traction as a speaker and I was beginning to find my voice and I was beginning to fill my calendar, I like so many emerging speakers. I spoke on, I don't know, four different topics. I had four, five different presentations. And I remember, and it was about 1996, when one day I looked at those five presentations and I thought, if I could do that one titled Growing youg Business, if I could do that presentation 50 times a year at my then fee of $2,000 a pop, I'd be happier than a pig in mud. And I Threw away. That's how we talk in northern Minnesota, by the way. I cast aside those other topics and other presentations and I put 80% of my marketing muscle and might and messaging around one presentation similar to Ira Hayes a couple of years later. And I'd like to say, sometimes I say I was either accidentally brilliant or divinely guided. And most of the time I'll go with divinely guided. But it would be three years later when people said, I kept hearing, mark, you're a pretty sharp guy. You should write a book. And my confidence as a writer was not very high. My confidence as a speaker was growing. My confidence as a business coach was a little bit higher. But I was getting traction. I knew now that I had a place in this profession and I started to ask people, well, what should this book look like? Well, it should be 10 chapters and it should be 50,000 words. And if you don't charge a lot for it, Mark, nobody's going to take it seriously. And I wrote a 50,000 word manuscript and when I got done with it, I looked at it and I thought there's a lot of crap in here. And I cut 43,000 words. Whoa. And was left with 4 by 7 inch. The little blue book, mass market paperback size. And that book became what I refer to as a crucible moment. The decision to put my focus around growing your business and then a couple of years later to publish growing your business. And then a couple of years later I bought the domain name growingyourbusiness.com I refer to that as the trifecta book and presentation. Book title presentation is a one, two punch but book presentation, title and domain name, you're almost unstoppable.

Nice. And I have to just do a shout out. The fact that you are the publisher of our book that Mark and I did along with Patricia Fripp as well as my 17 minutes to youo Dream. But Mark, this is self serving but I was blown away by your offer to write the foreword to 17 Minutes to youo Dream. And then when I read it I literally got choked up and I had no idea of how you looked at me in my perspective. So I just in the middle of this I want to just do a shout out if you're interested in. If you got a book idea, reach out to Henry DeVries and Mark but definitely check out growingyourbusiness.com and how many you've. Is it like 1 or 2 billion of those growing your business books that you. Or is it do we hit trillion yet?

Well, that little Blue book. I'm just as proud of it today as when it came out 25 years ago. We are releasing the revised or enhanced edition here in the next couple of months, mostly because I have to get my junior high photo off the back cover. But that Little Book moved 80,000 copies, and half of those were in volume or quantity sales. And I'm so incredibly proud of that. And 25 years ago, I obviously don't know what I certainly know today, but I broke every rule, every editing rule in the publishing world. In fact, I have the scars on my heart, and I've taken the bullets from many of my peers on that little blue book. But I will tell you this. It does not shortchange an entrepreneur or an independent professional. It meets them right where they are and the best of what they need and want. It only has one story in it. Now, I didn't understand that, but in chapter two, if I ever get an email or if I ever get a note about the book, they always reference chapter two. And chapter two. I have a story that solves a monster problem for business owners and people in sales. But I didn't know there was such a thing as a monster problem that needed to be solved. It was my problem, and I figured out a solution to it. And I thought, if I have this problem, other professionals have this problem. And it just turned out to be the one chapter in the book that became the game changer in the book. But the rest of the book is some good tips and ideas and questions and concepts, but it's a little winner, and I'm just as proud of it today, more so when the revised edition comes out.

Nice. Well, now that you brought it up, what's the major problem? What's. What's. We're cliffhanging. We're leaning in.

Now, here's an example of framing. Again, the problem is the greatest single obstacle that you and I face in the marketplace on a daily basis. Just framing the problem like that gets people's attention. And so when I would talk about the greatest single problem and the problem is our inability to communicate effectively what we do and who we do it with best. And one of the things that I'm known for because of that book and because of my presentations, the solution is to create a one sentence, what I coined, a defining statement. And so the chapter after the story has the seven rules again, framing the seven rules, the three tests, the four tips, and how to create a great defining statement.

If you're. If you're leaning into this, Love the curiosity. Brilliant. And I love the idea of framing. If we could all frame our different stories to get the audience to want to hear them before we even tell them, it goes a long way to number one, engaging the mind. Engaging the mind. So consider that. That's. That's brilliant.

Thank you, Darren.

Any other common business mistakes that speakers make when they're trying to build their business, you know, when they're trying to, excuse me, grow their business?

Well, I think people have a strategic choice, and the strategic choice is you either become known for something or you become known to a sliver in the marketplace. So I'm known for a single topic, business development. The outcome, the single outcome or primary outcome is that is growing your business. That's what I'm known for. There are some people who become very successful speaking on multiple topics, but to a single sliver of the audience. So one of our friends, Bill Bachrach or Bill Cates, and this was one of my funny lines early on in my career, because three of the most successful people I know, Bill Cates in the financial services world, Bill Bachrach in the financial services world, and Bill Lee in the world of independent lumberyards. I made the joke once I was going to change my name to Bill so that I could be as successful as the three people that were my heroes. But they became known for a certain target market or sliver in the marketplace. And so if somebody chooses to speak on multiple topics, the best next decision is aim your business development efforts at a single target market and all of a sudden you become known in that market as the go to speaker. If you do consulting or coaching, you become known as the go to consultant, author, speaker, trainer, facilitator, advisor, mentor in a sliver of the world. The challenge that most emerging speakers make me too, in the early days was thinking, well, the more topics I have, the more somebody is going to want to need something that I have. So I was multiple topics to multiple audiences. And that's hard. That's really hard.

So here's the big question for us, myself included, experienced presenters. I have four keynotes. I can do them all. I can do them great. At the World cup, how do we find our sliver? I know it's a tough question, but you're the brilliant one. Who better to ask than Mark LeBlanc?

Hear, hear.

Well, that's a great question, and I think it starts by looking in your rear view mirror. If you go back in time over the course of now, maybe the pandemic a little bit different, but if you went back over, let's say the last five years or the last 10 years in your career and you began to look at your list of satisfied clients and organizations and audiences. It's almost as if you could create a dartboard in your office and you could create some columns. Perfect fit, presentation and audience. Right fit, good fit, bad fit, wrong fit, horrible fit. If you took a pad, a Post it note pad, and you began to write your clients and the speech, maybe the fee, maybe the strategy that got you that booking, if you have that information or remember, and then all of a sudden it's like, start placing these Post IT notes and you're going to find that you have some organizations you hope will never call you back. You have some organizations, you know, Mark, it was pretty good. It was all right. They seemed to be happy. That's a good fit. Your bad fit are, you know, it didn't quite connect, but it wasn't too bad.

Okay, not too bad. It's bad.

But our right fit is like, ah, boy, that, that really worked today. But your perfect fit is when you look at the Post it notes under the perfect fit column, it's like, if I could have 50 growing your business presentations in front of these post it note organizations. Oh, my God. But that takes a lot of courage to claim. It takes a lot of courage to claim a topic or a presentation. It takes a lot of courage to say, well, yeah, these were amazing. But if I put my marketing muscle and might behind this sliver, Mark, am I not losing opportunities over here? And I believe with my whole heart, mind and soul that the more you clearly identify that sliver of the pie and you aim everything at that sliver, pretty soon you're going to have a bigger and bigger slice of that market.

Nice. Brilliant, Mark. Other questions?

I am just being blown away. That last thought about sliver becoming a slice of before long becomes a quadrant. It works for you and we have some years to make that happen.

From sliver to slice.

From sliver to slice.

I did grow your business.

Yeah.

Grow your business from sliver. Grow your business from sliver to slice. A very quick off topic question, mark. I'm bringing you back to 1980s or 1981, 82, 83. When you thought you would find an enterprise that would use your voice. Had you been radio voiceovers or DJing? What led you to think the voice was the instrument that would allow your future to unfold before you?

Well, I was young and I wasn't sure. I wasn't sure. I was just sort of brainstorming that well, maybe I could be a DJ or. But I didn't know at that, at that moment that professional speaking could be a career. And when my mother's friend said, did you know that this could be a career? And that my best friend is a professional speaker and speaks all over the country, it was like, what are you talking about? Is that, is that for real? And I found out it was.

And you never looked back?

Never looked back. Looked back.

That's an encouraging story. Thank you, Mark. Thank you so much, Darren.

Yeah. So Mark is going to gather the keepers, we call them keepers. From this, the brilliance of LeBlanc droppings. The question question I ask, as Mark does, that is if you were to sit down over coffee with a. Either a presenter who is emerging or a presenter who's like, finally let go of their ego and really wants to kick it to the next level, what would you tell them over coffee about growing their business to become unforgettable?

The first thing that I would suggest is be open to raising your hand and reaching out for help. Most likely, you're not as good as you might think you are. Number two, trust your intuition. I wrote the foreword to the book go with your gut by Mary Goulet, and according to Mary, your gut or your intuition is always right. And even when people, sometimes, according to Mary, when people say, you know, I'm really confused about blank, she will say, you're not confused. You just don't want the answer that your intuition is suggesting to you. So you're in conflict between your intuition, your heart and your head. And she will say, never follow your heart. That's the most dangerous thing you can do because your heart is where emotions and empathy and compassion. But if you trust your intuition, your heart will support you and follow you. But your heart is not a leader. And so I would say to an emerging or a veteran, trust your intuition. Success leaves clues. You have clues in your rear view mirror. If you can just trust that, you can identify 10, 20, 40 presentations. And I hear it all the time, even from aspiring speakers. You know, I'm speaking on this and this and this. But what I really want to do is speak on this or sometimes. And I'll say, well, what are you doing to follow that path? Well, nothing, because I'm doing this, this and this or worse. Someone will come up to me and they'll say, well, Mark, I'm really passionate about blank. And I'll say, well, wow, that's great. What specifically are you doing to follow your passion? Well, not really anything right now. Because I have a job. And then my response is, you might not be passionate about that at all. You might be merely interested in speaking on that. Because if you were passionate about it, you would put in 17 minutes, Darren, every morning before you go to work. You would be working on it day in, day out. You'd be dreaming about it day in, day out because that's what you're passionate about. So until you get engaged and in gear, even if you're moving like a snail, if this is your passion, sink your teeth into it like a pit bull. And then pretty soon there's going to be one piece of evidence after another that will tell you it's time to leave your job. Wow.

All right, thank you, Mark. By the way, as Mark Brown gets together, the keepers. If you want to find out more about Mark, where would we find you? What website? What social media? How do we find more brilliance?

Well, thank you, Darren. And probably the best resource is to go to my site, growingyourbusiness.com and I also have a 45 minute luncheon speech on that site that I think that if you like what you're hearing now, I think that you would enjoy seeing that presentation. And that's exactly it.

There he is.

Yeah.

Nice.

All right. And so all of my contact information is there. Perfect.

Thank you. And thanks for what you do, what you've done for people like me with my encouragement early on and then moments when I needed it even later on. So thank you for that. Really thrilled that you're here. Mark Brown. What do we got for keepers?

Well, several and some come indirectly, but they're all from Mark. First, based upon his life, you might quit a thousand times, but you must start again. 1001 and you have to earn the right to speak. And please, please avoid thinking that you are better than you really are. Raise your hand, get some help. And when you begin to get more money, a fee can message your mind. But there are four ways to really win the audience. Engage your mind, touch their heart, stir their soul, make them laugh. Use stories, use humor and frame your content to make your message clear and digestible. Use signature stories. You'll be unforgettable. It's wise to build an accordion presentation. 30 minutes to three days. I love that a book, a presentation and the domain are unstoppable. Communicate what you do and to whom you serve. Create a great defining statement to grow your business. Aim for a target market and find your sliver. Eventually that sliver will become a slice. If you look in your rear view mirror, go go back five or 10 years. Trust your intuition and your gut because your heart is not a leader.

That's a mouthful.

Nice, Nice. Well, Mark, thanks for giving back, spending time with us and giving your brilliance to our listeners. Thank you for being here. If we can help you or serve you in any way, please let us know. Please reach out. Mark Brown Take us home friends.

You got a sliver or a slice of what it takes to grow your business to be unforgettable? That's what we do. We hope today's episode was helpful for you. Please check out Mark Lebron@growingyourbusiness.com and check us out at Stagetime University where if you miss a week, you miss a lot. We'll see you next week.

Make sure you subscribe to our show.

Remember to subscribe because if you miss a week, you miss a lot.

If you like this episode, please leave us a review. If you want to get more from Mark and Darren, check out stagetime University where they provide experienced presenters a proven path and world class feedback. To become the speaker everyone is talking about, go to stagetimeuniversity.com join us next week if you're going to take the time to prepare a presentation. Make it unforgettable.