Ep. 240 BIG STAGE, FIRST TIME WITH JODY LAVOIE

Hey there. Mark Brown. First time, big stage. Do you remember? Do you remember yours?

Oh, my gosh. How did you. Almost 30 years ago, man. A long time ago. Wow.

Back in the days of black and white.

Thank you, man. I love you, brother. It's all right.

No, but that, like, going on stage is one thing, but going on a big stage, it's a game changer. And we worked with this amazing woman, CEO Jodi Lavoy, and we're about to talk about her journey. Big stage, first time. Let's do it.

Let's do this, man.

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.

All right, Mark. You know, sometimes we talk. Let's start with the end in mind. So this is my favorite moment, one of my favorite moments, I should say. Jody on the first big stage. First time. Check this out, everyone. We the ending, the closing.

Together.

Let's do it. Rise.

All rise.

All rise.

All rise. Bam.

Oh, we got to see the. The Exhi exploration at the end, right? Jody Lavoy. Welcome, welcome, welcome.

Thank you. Thanks for inviting me. This has been a fun journey with you two. And it's not over.

Nope. Going to phase two. First of all, Jody, explain a little bit about how this even came about. How did you all of a sudden, out of nowhere, have a first time in a big stage?

Sure. So I am a member of the young Presidents organization, ypo, and they put a call out for speakers for what they call their Leaders Across Borders segment. So you tell your personal story with a message. And frankly, I thought, okay, do I want to do this? Am I ready to do this? So I had some trepidation before I even pushed send. And I said, yep, I'm going to push send. And then they picked me probably about three to four weeks before the talk, and you all know that, and a little bit of crunch time to get ready, but they selected me and three others to present at their big global leadership conference in Miami with 1200 attendees.

Ouch.

And you've never been on a big stage before. What's the largest audience you spoke to before this?

About 85 people.

Okay, from 85 to 1200.

Yes.

That's a bit of a change.

It was a podium talk. So not working the whole stage and the lights and the production team and the whole nine yards.

And so early on, what was going through your mind when they selected you? What was your first thought?

So my first thought was a, they selected me and I had to accept and I thought, okay, do I want to do this? I don't know. And then I asked my daughter because I'm going to miss her move out from college when we go to Turkey. And I had to make sure that was okay. But then I said, okay, I'm going to do it. I'm going to say yes. But I knew in my mind by saying yes that I would want some professional help to help me. And when ypo said, we've got Darren and Mark to help you, I was thrilled because this is all new, big stage, first time, nice.

Thank you for that and the privilege of working with you. You have just been so fun. We've seen you work so hard on this. You first started working with us, you had a story. Now you lived, lived a powerful story for everyone listening. This is not just, oh, I've got a cute little story. No, this is not a cute little story. This is a life changing story. Mark, your questions.

Well, first of all, you know, knowing that you have this powerful story, knowing you have zero experience and knowing you've had to get some coaching, what were your first thoughts going into the coaching process? Knowing you wanted to leave a powerful message with the audience, what was your concern, your fear and your hope?

Well, so I came in very open minded to the process and I know you said I was very coachable along the way and I believe that because you two are the experts. I haven't done this before. I've written my own talks, of course, but in our time together, oh boy, I had a lot of learning to do and a lot of learning to keep doing and just how to refine and make sure every word is clear, concise and on point and all within seven minutes. So that was, that was also a challenge. I'm like, I've never done that in seven minutes. So what elements of your story do you pick to make sure you're delivering the call to action that you want to have.

It's a powerful lesson, choosing the correct elements of your story towards the purpose of your call to action. You know, Jody, many of our listeners and viewers are fairly new. Some are very experienced. But you just made a point that everyone needs to really hang on to. You decide what elements, what Parts of your story are most important to achieve, achieving the goal of your call to action. And you clearly had a call to action towards the end, and the audience so didn't respond to it. And just tell us a little bit about the idea of the why you found that the story elements you chose were to be most effective for your call to action because you did say to bring it down to seven minutes. There's so much you can talk about. What is your process for deciding what to keep and what to. Let's. Let's sit for the time being, you.

Know, starting with the end in mind. What is it that I want the audience to really take away? And Darren did a great job in sharing with me of thinking of parts of my talk in scenes. And so how many scenes would I want to spend to develop my personal story and. And still have enough scenes at the end to get my message across? And so that was helpful to think about in the writing process, but also super helpful to think about in the delivery process as I was working this huge stage that I'd never been on before.

Excellent, by the way, Jodi. You'll see my head go down occasionally. I'm taking notes at the end of our podcast. I recap the wisdom you share with our viewers and listeners, and you might be surprised at what I find as I write my notes here. But that's very interesting, using scenes not only to decide what parts of my story do I tell, but leaving enough room at the end to have a strong call to action. So using scenes is a helpful tool. And Darren Lacroix is the king of the scenes, or so it would seem.

And I have to say, we edited and edited and edited and finessed and marked. What was the title?

That was Machete Mark.

Machete Mark was a huge help because it was tough. It was tough to pull out and eliminate certain parts of the story and getting a second person's point of view, because I've lived all these moments and they're close to me and have a fresh set of eyes from you two that this, my story was new, even though you came to know it quite well throughout our time. But being able to spend the time, which I think is really important, refining, refining, refining, refining your story and your message. So important.

When we started working with you, one of the first things we said is, all right, what's that message? What's that foundational phrase, the term that we introduced to you? And you chose one. What did you choose? And do you remember how you felt trying to come up with that Because I know a lot of people struggle about that foundational phrase, yet we feel it's so important. What was your perspective on that?

I had never thought about a foundational phrase. I had never thought about how important it is to weave in a foundational phrase and repeat it. I think I repeated it three times, maybe in my talk, but it really created a pause for the audience to allow it to sink in. And I felt it was a very powerful, powerful phrase. And it took us time to get there. I didn't start this talk going, this is my phrase. In fact, when I pushed send on, I'm going to accept this talk. Frankly, my call to action, while I had three or four of them, was not what I ended up with. Throughout the process and conversation with the two of you, I was really able to tighten that.

Now, Joe, you mentioned tighten that. And I would like to remind our viewers and listeners of a principle that Darren and I have been teaching for a long time. The question you ask yourself for editing is, how do I say it better in fewer words? And you really took that, Jodi, and you began to work through that. And you. You honed and tested and tried, and then, as Darren mentioned, you came up with your foundational phrase. It wasn't really on your radar to begin with, but in the end, how did you feel about it? Particularly when the organ on. When the organizers put the foundational phrase on the big screen behind you with your name, how did, how did that resonate with you? And what was the final impact on you seeing it in that?

I thought it was powerful, and I felt proud standing on the stage. There were four of us, each with our foundational phrases above us. And it felt like that was the perfect message to leave the audience. It was crisp, it was clean, it was easy.

Crisp and clean. And no caffeine. Never had it.

Never.

I'm sorry, Squirrel. Crisp, clean, and easy. Couldn't help it. Couldn't help it.

Now everyone's probably wondering, what was your phrase? So what did you land on?

Grief is universal. Support is not.

Bam. Now for everyone, Jody has a very deep message, very deep, tragic story, too. So just to give them a framework of what your story was about, give us some insight into that from your perspective.

Sure. So in a minute or less, I was a stay at home mom. One day I received a knock on my door from a police officer who told me that my husband had been gravely injured. And about a minute after that, I got a call from the press who told me my husband had been shot at work. And then I came to learn that it was the chief Technology officer that he had demoted that shot my husband and killed himself.

Wow.

Yeah. And so overnight, I started running the business that my late husband had founded and solo parenting my three daughters and trying to figure it all out.

Oh, Jodi, this is an amazing story, and I've told you privately, I'll say it again. I admire you so much for the mom that you are and for the strong woman that you are. And I just feel privileged to get to work with you, help you share your. Tell your story. It's a powerful story. And. And you're smiling so radiantly now. You exude so much joy and. And so much. I'm meeting your daughters by video and two of them in person. You've done a wonderful job as a mom, as a leader, and I just can't thank you enough for the. For the honor of serving you. The story continually moves me, and I'll stop there, lest my eyeballs get sweaty. So here you go.

And it was so special for me to have my daughters be a part of it. And for those out there, they introduced me via video, and then two of them happened to be local at the time, and they were able to physically come and be there for their mom. And the fact that they wanted to be there for their mom and they went out of their way and took off work, and all the things to be there meant the world to me.

They all avoid women, right?

They're strong, Lavois women.

There you go.

Nice.

Interesting. Now, Jody, at one point, if I'm wrong, just stop me right away. I seem to recall at one point you're saying you ask a question mark. Darren, how do I not get tired of this? I mean, you would say you have been doing it in rehearsing, and at some point, what did it feel like? Did you hit a wall, or what was that feeling for you? Like, why am I even doing this? What happened there?

I would say I hit a wall a couple times. So the first wall I hit was writing it, doing it. I think there was some frustration, probably because I was just like, it's a week and a half away from this talk. I've got to start making it mine and getting it in my head. And we were still finessing and editing, so there was a little bit of frustration in that. But yet, ultimately, I know how important that was. There was nervousness on my part because I really wanted to deliver a powerful presentation, and I wanted to be as prepared as I could be. And ultimately, I was my second. I'D say it's my first freak out. But the day before the presentation, freak.

Out, we're going to start numbering them, Mark. Okay, us about freak out, number one. Tell us about freak out. Love that. If you're listening to this, if you're listening to this, I just want you to know that you're not alone. I went through this. Mark went through this. Jody went through this. So just know that you're gonna have those moments. It's part of your process. Keep going. Go ahead.

That's right. But okay, before we get to that freak out, let's stay on that. The first one. So feeling like I was getting. I don't want to say Bo with my presentation.

Yeah.

Really helped me is Darren and Mark, when you shared. Okay, this isn't about me. This is about them, the audience, and making sure that what I'm delivering is connecting and landing and resounding with them, which was really helpful for me because it took it out of me and put it out to the world and to the audience, which was very helpful. Very helpful.

If I can summarize that idea in one phrase, it's three words. Serve your audience. I'm hearing you say that once. Once you came to the point of, you know what? It's all internal here, but if I serve them, then it'll be okay. So that's really powerful because you said to us, how do I not get bored with this, Mark? I mean, I'm doing the thing over and over and over again. When you understand how you can serve, it made a really big difference. We want freak out number seven now. Darren. No, I'm just kidding.

Then when I got confident with my talk, you know, not the memorization of the words, but when I got confident with all of the scenes and the parts, then I could really own it, feel it, deliver it, connect it, own.

It, feel it, deliver it. Connected. Nice.

So what happened the day before?

Well, in the conference room, which I was very thankful we had this conference room to rehearse because prior to that, I'd been in my little living room, so I hadn't been able to move more. But the weekend prior, I had been visiting with my daughter and had not had as much time to practice it. And I show up the day before and I'm tired and I was forgetting and I was scared. And then I kicked you two out of the room. And I spent three hours, like, running it, running it, running it, running it. And then I think I texted Darren. I'm like, I got it nailed. Good confidence back. Yeah.

One more question regarding the room. The first time you saw the ballroom, we always say, go in early, feel the room, walk the stage, listen for creaks and squeaks, and own the room. What was your experience the first time in the actual ballroom, on the actual stage, with that Juliet staircase off to the right? Explain what that was like for you, please.

Overwhelming. I. I want to say terrifying. It was. And it wasn't because I felt prepared, but it was terrifying from the standpoint of, wow. I've never looked out on this many chairs. I've never seen a production team of, I don't know, four or five people over to my right out in the audience, let alone the enormous amount of equipment that was backstage, which was crazy, and the people supporting that. So there was just. There was just a lot of components and technical aspects that I wasn't familiar with. But I felt supported by the production team, understood by the production team, aided by them, and I knew I had the two of you that were there to lift me up and coach me along the way.

So, Mark, in the background, I've been grabbing clips that we're talking about.

I can see you working. I know you, buddy. For a long time. So I know you.

So this is the rehearsal. Just. We're getting ready backstage, and if you're watching the YouTube version, you see this. If you're listening online, I apologize. Go check out the YouTube version for the clips that we're showing. But this was us the day before. Miking up, getting ready.

Checking the teleprompter.

Yeah.

Yep. What is that? What? Memories come back for you on that, Jody?

Well, first, that was only half the room because if you recall, they blocked it off at lunchtime.

Oh, yeah, true.

So that wall in the back was midway through the room. I think I was ready. I was very ready at that point. I just wanted to get on the stage. I wanted to try it. I pictured that moment in my mind like the first time on the stage with all these unknown production people in there, and, oh, no, what if I mess up? What are they going to think? They see all these professional speakers. Okay, that was gone. Like that. That was like a month prior. So I wasn't feeling any of that. I was feeling ready and prepared to deliver.

And, Jody, one. One idea that came out through our conversation. If you're listening to this, this is podcast 239. Go listen to 2:38. When I specifically talked in detail about the stage plans, when you and I were talking, I was like, huh, that helped me. And when she talked about Scenes, each different scene. When there's an emotional shift, it helps the audience to feel that, see that. And the structure of your talk should mirror or echo the structure of your movements. So I'm showing on the screen now the Jody lavoie stage plan and each of the shifts. Now hers was very logical. Did you see the others at all, Jodi?

I did, and I was thankful that one of the other gentlemen came down with Juliet balcony, because that was not something I wanted to do.

Yeah, Smokes was super complicated, but it worked for him, but it also helped him understand. So, Jody, how did this help you? How did the stage plan help you?

I think what helped me the most in each of the stage plan, those were scenes. So just thinking of my story in these different compartments or scenes, because I. When I would run it in my head, it was always like, what's the first line of scene one? What's the first line of scene two? Like, if I. If I know that I got it and I knew when I was moving, so I knew what was coming. And that was really, really helpful.

It's interesting, Jody, because the first time you were rehearsing with scenes, I know we kind of chuckled a little bit because you were almost physically in your brain. Okay, two steps left. And you were physically trying to find a scene in your living room. And the thought of seeing you with your script on the back of the sofa, turn, navigate the scenes, and then you get to the Fontainebleau and you've got this much larger stage. And then we think, oh, it's a big stage. Then they say, well, no, you really only have that much room because we got markers by the speakers for the cameras and production. And you don't want to see picture in picture behind you. And let me try to clarify that for a second. For those who are listening and not watching, tech is really interesting. The imag. The image magnification screen behind was physically covering the whole stage behind the speakers. And they kind of had picture in picture. And if you got to a certain point on the stage, you'd be picture in picture in picture. And it might just really miss the people's vision. So what that meant was the presenters, though we told them they had that much room, they actually had to limit how much they could move on the stage as well. And I commend you, Jody, for being flexible enough to reset your scenes to accommodate the limitations based upon technology. I'll just comment here and say this. As great as tech is, sometimes it can be too good. It can get in your own way because I happen to like the idea of using the whole space to show how time passes and how you change as a character. But that was my observation, and you did a wonderful job handling that very, very well. Darren.

Yeah. During the process itself, anything surprise you working with us, learning about yourself? Any surprises that popped up that you can think of?

Surprises. I don't know if I'd use that word. Positive thing. It was all positive. I learned a lot about myself throughout the process, and I think that was really important to me because I'd never delivered in front of that big of a group. I didn't know how that would feel and how it would be received. And if I could get out of my head, which I could. And that took a bit of time to be able to do, and I'm proud of that. I guess what was different for me in a way of thinking is also the writing of the talk and how to really be succinct not only with words, but syllables, which was another thing that you taught me about, because as I'm practicing, I was getting hung up on some longer words. And at least for me, I don't know, using big words sound. You're so much smarter with big words, right? No. And it doesn't. It doesn't deliver as well. And so that was certainly a realization for me.

Well, you know, I'll comment on that. Being the resident of wordsmith Machete Mark, Very often we use big words. Yes, we do sound educated. We do sound erudite. But because we want to focus on the emotional impact, sometimes fewer words, shorter syllables, are more memorable and more impactful because they get to the heart. I spend less time trying to figure out what does erudite mean. I spend more time connecting with the pain and the emotion. And Darren will tease me continually, as he has done for decades, about my verbosity and my language. Love. I am a word nerd. Those who listen to us know I'm a word nerd. But at the same time, it's choosing when to use the words for impact. And seeing you go through that editing and finding simpler words that really served you was, for me, quite gratifying. So how can I say it better? In fewer words and sometimes shorter sentences, fewer syllables are really emotionally impactful.

And I'll say the acting, the stage presence of the whole thing, Because I had never worked a big stage before. Darren, you taught me how. If I'm having a conversation with a police officer, like angle just a little bit this way, and then if I'm talking with myself, angle A little bit this way. And it creates this effect on the audience of these conversations that was totally new to me. No clue. And because this. All of that piece of it, the acting piece, I'll call it, was new, I think I over Darrened.

I love that. I've never heard that before. My life. Over Darren.

Write that down. Write that down. Over Darren to come back to fully yourself.

Right, right. And. And because I was watching some of Darren's talks, I'm like, wow, he's like, moving around and doing this. So my. My whole entrance was like, what was it?

Imagine.

And I did imagine like I'm on Broadway. So we think we. We edited that to make it mine.

Back a little bit. Right. But I love that. I hope you all caught that. We edited that to make it mine. And what Jodi saying is, as an individual, you bring your personality and your character to the stage. If I try to be Darren on stage, that could be painful. You have to bring yourself. And you did just that. Jody, we're so proud of you. Bring yourself.

Yeah. And Jody, is it okay to show a quick clip from one of your practice speeches when we were in the practice rehearsal room?

Sure.

So for everyone, this is just run through. We're sitting in a boardroom. Basically, Mark and I are watching her, timing her. Her encouraging her. And then I have one thought about the.

Oh, no. The rehearsal universal support is not. We have a chance to change that together. Let's do it, Christine.

So going from in the boardroom, and we were trying to teach you to pause. Mark. I remember when they pushed back on this, I was hurt a little bit when I was doing the 1001, 1002. Trying to make sure you had that moment to let us absorb you. How did that feel in that rehearsal time? I know it probably felt awkward in the moment, but that transferred to stage, right?

It did transfer to state, and it did feel awkward because two to three seconds feels like a long time. When you are the speaker waiting to deliver your next powerful phrase, but for the audience to receive it, it isn't. They need that time.

You know, Jody, you just dropped a gem. When you are the speaker waiting to deliver your next line, that's a powerful thought because here it is. Many of us do just that. We are speakers. We want to deliver our next line. However, if, as you say, you want to serve your audience, you have to be aware. Are they responding? Are they receiving? And it could be difficult, and I can't be sure. Were you able with the lighting to see the entire audience or Only a few rows.

I only saw a few rows. And, you know, I think the next time I deliver it, I will feel more confident directly connecting with certain audience members, which I did a little bit, but I felt like that might throw me off. So I obviously was looking at the audience, but it was more over their heads as opposed to feeling that direct connection. And that's just me getting more practice.

Well, you've. Okay, go ahead, Darren.

Mark. So the line that we just saw in rehearsal turned into this.

How to empathize and humanize. This is more than just a human issue. It affects your bottom line. Grief is universal. Support is not. We have the power to change that together. Let's do it. Thank you.

Nice. That smile at the end. No. That smile. Yeah.

Because your story was so deep, one of the lines that you wrote that you came up with that we were just. Yes. Was after you. You found out, and then. Well, I'm just gonna play the clip. But for a deep, traumatic story, having any moment of levity, even if it's not funny, you can't go from levity to hysterical or. It's rare. But to have that depth, to go to just a little bit of taking a breath. This was one of my favorite lines to give us that release, if you will.

Aerostream every day. It was like our fourth child. The plan was, if anything were to ever happen to him, I'm in charge. A few more details to that plan would have been nice. Honey.

Now, you probably heard me backstage. I laughed out loud, louder than anybody in there. But for everyone, when you go deep, we've got to look for these little human moments to lift things up. How did that feel, Jodi?

You know, that felt great. I've done that before in other talks, so that was very natural to me and aligned with, I guess, the type of humor I have.

So it felt very Jodyish.

Yeah.

You're using your humor. That worked for you, and you've seen it work before for the other audiences, so why would it not work now? But it does. It does give us a bit of a lift after hearing the depth of your tragedy. And that was skillfully done to let the audience know we're okay, you know, and take us through your mindset and your process. So that was wonderful. I just commend you again for a job well done, Jody, because it really. It really helped us to see your perspective. And as presenters, we want the audience to see our perspective, but applied to their own situation. And that's what the lab speakers do every year.

Darren and I Feel like you got a lot of we'll talk about comments in just a minute. But you get a lot of comments and you really made CEOs think about what is their backup plan if something does happen to you. So that line not only brought levity, I believe that hit home so deeply and made them all go home and rethink what if something happens. So I just thought that was powerful in so many levels. My next question is a lot of people have been coached, but what do you think was the value to have two coaches because we're very different and have our own perspectives. What your. What's your thoughts on that?

Well, and I think. I think that was beautiful because you did come with different strengths, both of you. And Mark was so good at the words and making what I said in my message super concise. And Darren, you were very patient and, and encouraging and present and helping me with my stage presence and that that piece was just as equally important.

Nice.

I wanted. I wanted to go back to the. To the 1, 1000, 2, 1000, 3, 1000, one more time. The first time we began doing that with mostly Darren because he always wants to do a heartbeat. Pauses. You said it felt like it was an empty space. The lesson that you learned that you carry with you from that exercise, how would you verbalize that lesson that you've learned? In simple terms, for anyone who's a brand new speaker, their first time is coming up. What would you tell them about that process?

Yes. So I think a. I would start with my whole script. If you were to count the number of words that I had at the beginning and the pace in which I was delivering those words, I was fitting way too many words in the same amount of time. So it wasn't delivering and landing with the audience as strongly as it could. And so by being so careful with the word selection. Less. Less is better. Less words because then your.

More.

The tempo in your delivery is easier to be received and there's drama or there can be drama with your pauses and taking those 1, 1000, 2, 1000, 3, 1000 when put in the right spot.

So I know we have limited time here with both you and Mark. What were some of the comments you got after when you're in the hallways, when people called you on the phone, what were some of those comments?

Wow.

First of all, overwhelming. People I'd never seen before came up and gave me hugs and said thank you. You delivered such a powerful message. You're so brave. I could never do that. And. And my daughter was with me. Even the next day we're at breakfast and people were coming up and saying something which, which frankly got a little overwhelming. I did not anticipate how physically and emotionally exhausting the delivery of this would be for me because I really was, I was done like after it, I, and I, I had all the energy and everything for it. And then I really just needed two days of doing nothing. And I think that's important for people to remember because if you're scheduling yourself, oh my gosh, I've got this humongous, important presentation today and then I'm going to do something else tomorrow that's equally important. That would have been really hard for me. And I had very in depth conversations with a couple CEOs too, whose spouses happened to be present in the audience and they were founders of their companies as well. And thinking through, wow, if I die, my wife's in charge, but does she really know what to do and how much of in charge do I want to put on her? You know, so that opened up dialogue and conversation and things that are going to happen from a secession planning perspective. And then secondly, you know, conversations about I have to demote or let go a very key player of my team and perhaps I need to rethink how I was going to deliver that message from a safety perspective. And then lastly, of course, what was my call to action was go home and look at your bereavement policy and educate your managers and employees on how to empathize and humanize and, and being able to share that with that kind of audience because that's what I'm here to do. I want everyone out there, but everyone to be able to talk about grief, to know how to support others in grief and to normalize that kind of conversation in the workplace, at home, everywhere we go.

And Mark, I know you got some keepers there. I have another question we will ask her in just a second. But if you want to gather your keepers. But Jody, what's next for you? TedX? Can we convince you to do this as a TEDX speech? Please, the world needs it.

Second off is we're making a stop in Turkey.

Yeah, we're for everyone doing this again.

So I'm going to check that off. I've always wanted to do a TEDx talk. Being able to do this kind of venue, this kind of talk first has given me the confidence that I need to say yes, I will.

So we want to help you and for everyone. YPO is a big convention coming up in Turkey. So Mark and I and Jody and smoke and two new presenters are going to be over there. So we're going to coaching 2.0. We'll have a session next week. Jody will dive back in. Any quick thoughts on what you would change for next time?

You know, and this is what I want to talk with you and maybe others out there. So my story was really heavy at the beginning because it's a, it's a heavy life that I led in that moment. And I think some people got stuck there because it was hard for them to move to the, to really my, my message at the end because they were thinking, oh, I've got to demote my person or my wife. So they were ruminating in that space. And I don't, I don't know if there's anything I can do, but I certainly want to have that conversation with you and, and how one can get an audience to really transition from a heavy message and get them back engaged. Not that they weren't engaged, but I don't know. It's a thought I had.

That's next session. So, Jody, thanks for being here. While Mark gathers his thoughts. How could people reach out to you and what are you doing now? Like, if people want to know more about you or your story, where do they go? How do they find you?

Well, LinkedIn is an easy place under Jody Lavoy and I'm sure you'll have the spelling out there. And then I have two companies. One the grief company where I do all of my education for managers and employees on empathizing and humanizing and reviewing bereavement policies. And then I have a second business called Widows in the Workplace where I coach widows one on one. So widows in the workplace or the grief company or Jodi Lavoy. I'm there.

Nice.

Excellent.

Mark, what do we got?

Some keepers. Wow. Majority told us to be open minded your first time going into this. Be open minded to the advice you're going to get when your story. Start with the end in mind and build your story in scenes right. Also, be open to someone else's point of view, preferably a coach, even those who are forced upon you, not the one you choose yourself. Invest time in refining your message. Definitely have a foundational phrase. It creates a pause for the audience and makes your message meaningful. You want to make it crisp, clean and easy. Always serve your audience and be prepared to deliver your best message. If you do, you will learn about yourself. You'll also learn how to use the stage movements and angles in conversation. Whatever you do on stage, don't ever over Daren Bring yourself to the platform and a key was this for me, focus less on delivering your next line and more on the impact to your audience. Your message must land with your audience and use pauses to create drama. Most importantly, after your time on the big stage, make sure to do nothing tomorrow.

Nice. And they ended it. This was the rehearsal, but this is what we're talking about. The foundational phrases. I just thought this was so cool having each of them have their phrase. That was super cool. Jodi Lavoy l a v oie connect with her on LinkedIn. If you know somebody who's grieving a widow, a widower. That's what she does. But Jodi, you change lives. Thanks for trusting Mark and me. Last quick thought as inspiration to others.

Just do it. Don't like push send on the application.

Because as Mark Mark says, you have a story to tell and someone out.

There needs to hear it. And Jody, thank you for telling your story not only with ypo, but for our viewers and listeners today. You truly are unforgettable.

We'll see you next week.

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