Ep. 239 Game Changing Advice

Hey there, Mark Brown, did you ever sit back and think of what was the advice that literally changed the game for you as a speaker to get you on that path to unforgettable? Now this could be life advice, it could be speaking advice, it could be, I think of Patricia Fripp, so many frippicisms that have helped me along the way, but not just things that you heard, but something you acted on and it literally did change the game. What was that for you?

Let's talk about it.

Anyone can give a presentation. Few deliver unforgettable presentations. What's the difference? You're about to find out. Welcome to the unforgettable presentations podcast with your hosts, world champion speakers and coaches, Mark Brown.

Mark Brown, your life tells a story and there's someone out there who needs to hear it.

And Darren Lacroix. And Darren Lacroix.

Stage time, stage time, Stage time.

Ready for some powerful presentation. AHAs. Let's dive right in.

Mark, let's go. Soundbite fashion. You know, first thing that comes to mind is frip, say Patricia Fripp saying your money should make more money than you do. I'm still working on that one. But it's out there, it's out there as that goal. But Mark, there's times when we're striving for something, but we get that right teacher at the right time. And because we all have different journeys, it's not the advice in and of itself, it's also partially the timing of the advice, the openness of the advice. Cause we're not always coachable. I mean, I made that story famous. If you're not coachable, there is no cure. However, I have lived it and both sides of it. So Mark Brown, what are some of the game changing tidbits of advice that you got along the way?

Well, certainly speaking my mentor, David Brooks, I called him the master mentor, always said, never let anyone out prepare you. Never let anyone out prepare you for speech contests. When you're on the job, when you're going to deliver, you want your client to think of you as their best resource. So I've always held onto that advice. He was my mentor, my gosh, 30 years ago when I met him, 94. And he said never let anyone out prepare. You love that one.

Yeah. And every audience is different. So if you're a keynoter like you gotta, you might have that great message. But it's our job to bridge between our content and their world. And I think a lot of speakers, they could be unforgettable if they Just got to know them a little better. If they just got an example from their world and then popped it into your structure of your keynote. I remember being speaking at Miracle Ear and the guy was just blown away. I've never seen a keynote speaker come in the day before, just being there the day before. And that's part of my process. And I honestly, I can't tell you where that advice came from, but when I latched onto it, it was definitely a game changer. What else you got?

Well, you know, real quick on one point, Darren, you know, some people, to be honest, there are times you know your product, you know your program, and you pretty much phone it in. No, no, don't phone it in. You always said, darren, there's no such thing as a practice speech. So prepare, even for what may seem to be a small event. Prepare, prepare, prepare yourself. I played football in high school, sorry, friends, soccer. We call it football in Jamaica. And my high school football coach, Altima Coy, I still talk to him by phone. He's 79 years old now. He's lost his sight to glaucoma. But he and I talk on the phone pretty much every week following European football. And I was probably 14 or 15 years old when I met him. And he said, a true champion conquers all adversities. And I wasn't quite sure what he meant. What he was telling me back then was, you will encounter difficulty, adversity and problems not only on the football field, but in life. If you want to be a true champion, you've got to find a way over, around, above, under or through it. But to be a true champion, you don't quit on it. You find a way to conquer every adversity. It did not hit me as hard as it should have when I was 15, but man, now, after the pandemic and all we have been through, that makes so much more sense. You have to find a way. And sometimes finding a way means not doing it all by yourself. Finding the right partners to collaborate with will help you become victorious. I love that advice.

Yeah, I mean, that's biblical too. I think of that. When troubles happen for people of faith, for Mark and me becoming Christian, it was, oh, my life is going to be better now. Angels will carry me through through tsa. No, no, no, no. And he, he says it, no, in this life, there will be troubles. And it actually, it is, that is game changing advice because it just reminds you it, it's going to happen. Stop complaining, stop whining. And going back to the David Brooks Advice. When I was working on the championship speech and I called all of the other champions, I got great advice from a lot of people. But the two that got me to work harder, get this, the two that got me to work harder were David Brooks, Let no one out. Prepare you. Just like you said. Just when I thought I was done, I'm like, all right, what else can I do to prepare? And so I was never done. I was never done. But I'm so glad because I did go, quote, unquote, all in. It was. Wow. It was. Those 77 days changed my speaking forever because I had these issues, these challenges, these egos, the insecurities from the past. So let no one out. Prepare you. And then Otis Williams Jr be so good. The only question is, who comes in second?

Okay.

That means you got to stand out. By the way, that's great marketing advice as well. The only question is, who would they have picked if they didn't find you, if they didn't watch your demo video, if they didn't see your website? So it's not just them speaking, but these are the things that truly make us unforgettable. Because when we dive all in, we change who we are. We go to that special place, as the great Robert McKee says that you go to that special place where things change permanently, and you take that change with you. Now, obviously, I can't do a podcast about game changing advice without mentioning Dave Fitzgerald saying, any day that you don't get on stage is a day that you don't grow. You know, I just joined the NSA Story Jam competition not to prove anything, but to force myself to work on a new story I was gonna work on anyway. Well, that added outside pressure gets me to work harder on it gets me to get more coaching. So, Mark, I did win the the Las Vegas Story Jam competition. Going to the next level. Yeah, Ed and I. Ed. Ed was going to compete. And then people around us were like, I'm going to compete just because I want to beat a world champion.

That's Ed Tate, world champion, certified speaking professional, nsa, Las Vegas. Right.

It's. But it's not it. Sincerely, it's not about winning. Hey, would cool to be tell the story in front of 2,000 people? Yeah, that'd be awesome. However, the fact that I'm working on it, that I'm getting advice on it, why? To do it in my keynote speeches and make it better. So I didn't try and take a story that I've told for years. No, I took a new story that I wanted to tell that my heart was in. So that advice still serves me today, whether it's virtual presentations or live presentations, like, just get on stage, you will grow, there will be breakthroughs. What else you got?

Mark Morgan MacArthur, 1994 world champion of public speaking, who beat me in the final 30 years ago, said, write a speech you can't wait to give. Write a speech you can't wait to give. Which really ties into what one of our coaching staff members, Jennifer Leone in Australia, always talks about, finding the story that lights the fire in your belly. And you know, when Morgan gave me that advice, I did not realize it then I was preparing a year in advance to compete in the Toastmasters World Championship one more time. And when I got to the final, I worked for six weeks, six weeks on a speech I had said I would prepare. And it was not working. It was just not happening for me and Darren. I changed that speech, went back to a previous speech that I couldn't wait to give. And you recall the story I told you. I was backstage in the 1995 World Championship. I was all mic'd up and before I put my coat back on, I popped to the ground. I did 20 push ups. I got to the side and I was like a caged bull waiting to go on stage to deliver this message from my heart to 1800 people who were there to hear what I had to say and Morgan's words. Write a speech you can't wait to give. As a presenter, think, not try, don't think to impress the audience, but think about how you can change them, how you can move them, how you can have an impact on their life, their career, their family, their existence. And that only comes from the deepest place inside you when you write the speech you can't wait to give.

Now, this advice didn't come directly to me from Dr. Robert Goddard, but when I think back of what really helped me understand what we're doing and Mark, you know, we're doing this for ypo. One of the sessions that you and I are doing for the Young President's Organization. Coming up in Where Are We Going to Be Turkey, they talked about, don't be informative, be transformative.

Right?

And that's a different way of saying what I learned from Dr. Goddard, that when he was 18 years old and it was like 1899, his grandmother asked him to go to the backyard to prune the top of the cherry tree. Well, he climbed to the top of the cherry tree, but instead of pruning it, he sat there and Daydreamed. And he had this thought, what would it be like if I could build a device to take off from the ground and to reach the stars? How. How cool would that be? My words, not his. But here was the game changer. When he climbed down from that tree, he was not the same boy who climbed up the thought, the perspective change happened. And that's what you and I, you want to be unforgettable. What are they going to do or think about after they heard you not you gave a speech? No one pays you to deliver a speech. They pay you to transform an audience, to give them a new perspective that they're doing different. They have different thoughts. They have a new perspective because they heard you. And I think some people miss the mark because they don't consider that they don't go that deep. And that's what we got to consistently and constantly keep working on.

Beautiful. My next snippet of advice comes from a guy named Darren something out of Las Vegas, originally from Massachusetts. And I love this one, particularly for those of us who are beginning to find some traction on the road or with. With agencies, with. If you're speaking out in a convention or a conference and you have to work with a technical team, you know, they want your slides, what microphone you're going to use, the lighting. And Darren lacroix, I'm going to paraphrase your advice that I love. Strive to be their favorite. Strive to be their favorite. They're meaning not only the tech team, but the client, the meeting plan of the organization you want to be their go to. And I watched you work this in real time, partnering you for the last 20, 23 years. Been that long, Darren, my goodness. But I've seen you live that out. You strive to be their favorite. You want them to come back to you. And part of that means being willing to listen to what they have to say and ask, how could we have done this better? Where did we fall short? And how can we be even better next time to serve you? And how else can we serve you? It's a servant mindset. And you always said, I want us to be their favorite friends. Strive to be the client's favorite.

Yeah, and I would love to take credit for that, but that was actually a frippicism. But here was the key. I put it to work and people notice. I still have clients, people at ypo, they love when we say that because they could see our servant's heart mark. That advice made it into Jennifer Lear's presentation at NSA Las Vegas this Weekend.

Oh, nice.

This goes to Ford. Sakes advice. It's not what you know, it's how well you execute. So you know that advice from me because I execute it. And look, that is a game changer. That is. That's not trying to close a sale, that's trying to set you up for the next sale. And when I had that first meeting with ypo, the biggest coaching contract you and I have ever had, that came from a meeting that they didn't choose me. Yeah, it was big keynote speech and they didn't choose me. But I just like, nope, they're gonna love me. I love them. Like they're just amazing people. So that makes it easy because I really knew there was a connection. I knew there was a service that could be rendered down the road. So I didn't get bitter, I didn't get upset, I didn't get mad. I'm like, yep, they know me better. There's more rapport. I'm on their radar screen because of executing that advice.

Wow. You know, funny you say that about, I had a similar deal with YPO in Prague. I'm going to be going in a couple of days. And that began with a no to a coaching job. I'm doing a one day program for them. But you know, I really admire the fact that you mentioned Ford 6. For those who don't know, Ford 6 is a business growth expert in the National Speakers Association. He's a certified professional. He's also a CPAE hall of Fame speaker and he has been partnering with us for years. And his advice has been so golden and he's fluid. And it's also wise to listen to the advice of people around you. And sometimes good advice can come from unexpected places. I remember my daughter was 11 years old and I was preparing for a speech contest and I thought a story I told was kind of corny, but when she said, daddy, it's funny, you ought to use it. It may not sound like game changing advice to you, but understand this, please. Sometimes the wisdom you would get comes from unexpected sources. And sometimes your children or people you don't expect can give you advice that could be a game changer. I took my 11 year old daughter's advice, told a stupid joke and got a 13 second laugh. And those who are toastmasters in Toastmasters, 13 seconds is an eternity when you're trying to meet a specific time limit. Worse, I didn't expect that response. So general thought, sometimes good advice can come from unexpected sources. My recommendation, be open to what advice you get filled what doesn't work but be open for advice from different sources.

Yeah. Two other ideas. Ed Tate, when he says csp, fellow world champion, when he says, our job as presenters is to take the numbers and turn them back into people. Like, that was a perspective change. That was a game changer. That's why we now say don't deliver a case study, deliver a case story. He also said, that was a game changer for me. You can't cheap your way to the top. You can't cheat your way to the top. And that's just a reminder. You got to invest. You want advice, you can get advice anywhere. You can get really, you can get advice for free. But that's probably not going to be the game changing advice. And look, these are just some snippets from our life, from our career and why we say this, if you don't know already. We have an event coming up called Game Changers where the industry has changed in the past couple of years, changed dramatically since 2020. So what works now? So we're getting together the best advice people. We have the best advice experts in Las Vegas. You can join us live or you can join us hybrid. Coming up April 5th and 6th, 2024. Depending on when you're listening to this, we'd love to have you join us. Just go to stagetimelive.com and if you know me and you know my passion for, for helping and delivering. We've been doing this for 17 years, Mark. This is going to be our 17th.

My goodness.

I get the best people and we know how to run events. So if you're serious, if you're ready, this is focusing on more bookings, higher fees. More bookings, higher fees. If that's something that right now you're into, hey, please join us. Please join us. We have fun. You network with people that are. You're gonna be talking about referrals, man. Like that. I have gotten so many referrals because of past work, but because of how I've also helped help people along the way and had that favorite mindset. So Mark Brown favorite.

That's why you've been their favorite. Yeah.

So Mark Brown gotta jump off for a call for a keynote in Spain which came from my 2001 World Championship video speech. Look at that, 20 years ago. That's crazy. But hey, but that came from when I was working on it. What's my 11? On a scale of 1 to 10, what's my 11? What's that thing that makes you unforgettable? So Mark Brown take us home.

Listen friends, accept advice. At least listen to it from various sources. For you, it could be a game changer. We'll see you next week. Beyond Forgettable.

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