Ep. 245 ADAPT TO THE SITUATION?

Hey there, Mark Brown. I don't know if you can hear it in the background.

Little bit.

They're repaving my street and we have to record a podcast because you and I getting on a plane to go to Turkey to. That's right, coach some CEOs. How do you. Inspired by true life events.

That's right, Darren. You have to adapt to. To the situation, dude.

Yeah, I just got back from speaking in Spain and a new one that I've never had before. A tent outside in the cold.

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

I'm sorry, I can't resist. You just mentioned a while ago being in a tent. I gotta go back to one of the questions you ask yourself before every speech. What is your intent in a tent? Oh, man, I know, I know, I know. I couldn't.

Oh, I don't have.

What is your intent? So it happened, man. Talk to us.

Yeah. So right now they're repaving my street. Not just once in a while. It's a landscape. We're gonna wait a while. But you and I are teaching unforgettable presentations. We have an all day training coming up. We're recording this podcast before that it's like, what do you do? Well, guess what? Most of the time you're going to be adapting to a situation you didn't plan on, you didn't see coming. No one saw coming. Oh my goodness. Here's what I'm going to do in the podcast. I'm going to speak and then in between, I'm going to mute. I'm gonna mute. So that way it minimizes. I can get my content across, but minimizes the distraction because look, there's other things you could do. Mark and I can do it on another day. Well, guess what? We don't have another day because of our travel schedule. And it's just not as good quality if I'm doing it on the road. So we adapt to the situation. So we just got three quick insights. Because it's not a matter of if, but a matter of when. You're gonna have to adapt to a situation. And Mark obviously The podcast, we're doing it, we're recording because we had no other choice, but we want to get the content out. But I thought it was a perfect, literal example of doing your best under the current situation. When I was in Spain, we were at. Mark, we're at this beautiful, gorgeous mansion. So I'm speaking to a group of CEOs in the auto dealer industry, the aftermarket auto parts. We gotta do a podcast. I gotta get Chris McGuire on about the location humor. I recorded it, so we'll be able to kind of play some clips on how it went over. But first I wanna just talk about adapting to the situation. So, Mark, it is gorgeous. It is. I can't even estimate how many millions this mansion was. And we're all staying at different hotels and they bus us over. Some people take a taxi. We get there and I notice on the. On the first night, it's pretty chilly outside. And then I realize we're. Wait a minute. I'm speaking in a tent now. A tent sounds like CEOs, executives in a tent. This is not your average tent. And Mark, I have not seen a more amazing AV setup anywhere. Now, this was about 200 people, but the. The AV. The screen was ginormous. The sound was impeccable. It was just the setup that they had. They brought in a crew from Belgium that they travel with because the event planner is from Belgium, the organization. So they brought in this whole crew, and it was an amazing setup. And so I pulled her aside the day before, and I was like, hey, what are we gonna do about tomorrow night? Can we move the AV equipment inside into one of the inside event rooms? And she's like, it's too much equipment and we're not able to do it. But what was amazing. Her name is Petra. What was amazing is Petra was all in. She knew the situation. She understood it. Now, forget me. Well, let's not forget me. But the leader of the organization, he was speaking as well. And it was a dinner. It was this beautiful, magnificent dinner. Oh, delicious. So the whole evening is planned. Well. People can be sitting at their table shivering, and guess what? The reviews for the whole event will be bad, even if the rest of the event was good. And it affects everything we do at an event, affects whether people come next year, recommend, have a good time, complain or moan. Now, these people are professionals. It was a great atmosphere. And Mark, what was curious, a side note, just when they introduced me, you know, I go ahead of time. I like to spend time ahead of time with the event, with. With the Group. So not only do my research, but I spoke on Wednesday, I was there on Sunday, they started gathering on Monday, and I was with them all day Tuesday. But what was really cool, Mark, you don't even know this. The opening speech was in this beautiful courtyard, these waterfall fountains behind him. They put up a little stage, like a courtyard area, and they had everybody there and they had the glass of wine and he's welcoming them and. And he turns to me now, I'm an outsider. Everyone is in the aftermarket auto dealer industry in Europe. So these are all people from all different countries too. So there's different countries. A few people didn't even speak English. And he said, I'd like to introduce our mystery man.

Ah, mystery man.

Darren Lacroix. Now, he is an outsider and he's going to be walking around and asking you questions. So please be gracious to him, please answer his questions and you'll find out what this has to do with you on Wednesday evening. Which was great. You know, Mark, you and I teach curiosity.

Curiosity, yep.

So almost everyone I talked to one on one, like, oh, you're the mystery guy. So there was already an appreciation and affection and a curiosity that added to our conversation. So that was great. So now I'm walking around. But not just this stranger walking around. The seed was planted. We'll have to talk about that on the. On the next podcast, but here's the situation. So I pulled Petra aside and I'm like, what are we going to do about tomorrow night? Because it's freezing out now. It was unseasonably cold. This was not expected. However, at events, the unexpected happens a.

Lot, a lot more than you think.

So the night in question was Wednesday. But on Tuesday night, they had an outside event and they had these heaters and they were out in the same courtyard by the waterfall. And there was a festival going on that they were celebrating in Spain. And they had these little heaters and they were beautiful and they, you know, like the little cylindrical cone in the fireside. Well, they were beautiful, but. But they were not throwing off much heat. So I'm up against the heater almost just trying to stay warm, you know, my vagus thin blood. And so when I talked to Petra, I was like, what are we going to do? She said, yeah, the heaters we had last night weren't working well, weren't enough to warm the tent. So she found a supplier to come and literally put blowers. I don't know if I sent you the picture. Put blowers along the side of the Tent that blew water, warm air into the tent.

Oh, nice, nice.

But here's, here's what I really love about all in. And Petra was all in. She found another company and on the other side of the tent had backup blowers.

Wow. So she had three, Went three deep.

Yeah.

First, second, and third. Wow.

The, you know, the point is if it's freezing, it's not going to be a great event. It's not going to be a great dinner. And I can't imagine the money that they invested into this event. So, yeah, they didn't expect this cost, but what's the cost of not doing it?

Right, right, right, right, right. And what's interesting there, Darren, is, like I said, her being flexible and being adaptable to make sure that the attendees have a good experience. And there is for me a side lesson there, Darren. As presenters, as meeting planners. And you may not be a meeting planner, you may only be only. But you may be a presenter at an event. But what? Part of our responsibility, I believe, is to give the audience the best experience they can get for as long as you or I are on that platform. It goes beyond just delivering your material. Ask yourself, what kind of experience will I give my audience or when I'm on the platform? And to have her adapt by not only getting a second set of heaters, but a third backup shows her commitment to giving the audience an experience they'll remember. And trust me, Darren, because of the way it was done, I'm sure they'll remember it and tell their friends and associates about the heat in the tent.

Well, that's just it. I don't even think they'll remember that part. But they would have if it was freezing, was cold.

That's true. That's true.

That's.

What will they remember about the experience that we've had? That's true.

That's the unforgettable part. If it was freezing, it would have been unforgettable. And. And then the other situation was it was a dinner. We started a little late. The other presenter, and then the president spoke and it got even later and I didn't go on until nine at night.

Surprise, surprise.

Yeah. And it was, it was just like, this is what we're saying too. You got to adapt to the situation because.

Right.

What else can I do? I don't have control over that. However, I can adapt to my presentation knowing that. Okay, now we've got to be a little more on the entertaining side as opposed to the content side. So I was brought in for inspiration and content but they liked the entertaining part of my passion, and so I needed to adapt that. Now, my initial idea was to go out into the audience at the beginning and just have my insider jokes about the event, about the location, about the industry, about me being an outsider, to literally stand in the crowd, go into the crowd. Not up on stage, go into the crowd, to just create that connection. Now, what was also cool is the people I met ahead of time. Every time I had those conversations in the hallway, when I would see them, they would smile. This is even before the presentation. So it's like, now I got some friends in the audience. And then, Mark, you know, I do the. The AA bit, the Toastmasters Anonymous. Well, this was aftermarket Auto Parts Anonymous. And I didn't do a whole routine, but when I threw the idea at the event planner, they cracked up. They thought, oh, they'll love that. That's funny. Now, in AA meetings, when you say, hi, my name is Darren, and I'm an aftermarketaholic, people in the audience will say, hi, Darren. So some of my friends that I had, I had them say that because in another country, different cultures, they might not be as prompted or as comfortable to dive in and be engaging, because these are very, very professional people. And I also had Mark in my head. I'll talk about this at the end is I really thought, like, I went back and forth about, do I tell the story of my dad signing books? And I really wasn't going to do. I just thought I got to be more entertaining and they want good content. And I prayed about it. I went back and forth, I prayed about it, as to whether put it in or not, but we have to. All right, so, Mark, what are our three ideas here in any situation here? So, number one, what are our three points of this podcast?

One was to assess the options. Right? And. And before I forget, you, you said you thought about culture and the difference between what we're accustomed to, North America, and what other cultures may. May accept or. Or not. And I like the fact you were able to assess what options you had in that situation. One was upset. Assess the options. One of our other options was to get a go hard, hard with the event planner. And I was letting go of her ego. Right. What was going through your mind? Do I do it? Do I not do it?

You know, so what we're saying here, too, is, so, number one, you got to assess the options. What could we do, Mark? I was speaking at a Toastmaster district over the weekend. On my way back, I stopped in Milwaukee and Did one district, and then Ohio, another district, and in both districts, you know, I assess the situation and what do I, what can I do? Because the, the meeting room was set up by the hotel, right?

Yeah.

Okay. So, you know, and I, I, I'm a big fan of those situations that often they're set up by people who don't understand the importance. You know, their, their agenda is keep tables far apart. So it's easy for the wait staff go in between.

Correct.

Not our agenda. Our agenda is different. So in one, you know, the old ask forgiveness rather than permission.

Right?

Yeah. I would talk to the event planner, kind of said, here's my thoughts. And they said, well, let's, let's, you know, let's talk to this other person later on. I'm like, I'm just going to move the tables. Is that okay? And then we'll talk to them. But now possession is 90%. So in one district, they were just too far apart, so I brought them together. In the other district, there was a dance floor. They had a dance the night before. You know how much I love dancing.

Oh, yeah. Big space right there.

So again, assessing the options, there's a dance floor between the stage and the audience. I literally teach people sit in the four corners of the room to see what the line of sight is. Now I'm short, so if I'm standing on the floor, how many rows back are they actually going to be able to see me? Because if it's too deep now, I have to be on the stage. And so I assessed the situation and looked and I asked, what did some of the other presenters do? And so I, what was cool was they had tables on each side of the dance floor, but not too many people sat at those. So I was able to come right out to the front of the dance floor and do most of my presentation there. So I wasn't behind people. People weren't turning and looking at my back.

Right, Right.

I almost had to. You have to assess it as you go because you don't know where people will sit. So improv is one of our most important skills to not only adapt to the setting, adapt to the situation, understand the culture and what, what's critical, what's critical to them and what, why are we there? We got to remember we're there for the event planner, the event planner. Whether you're getting paid or a lot or not at all, the event planner is there. They're the decision maker there. As Alan Weiss says, they're the economic buyer. So we have to get Things approved through them. And they. If it's, hey, if it's like, Petra was awesome and amazing. She's been doing this for years. You know, if you're at a Toastmaster conference or a volunteer or fundraising organization that maybe the person is put in charge, they haven't been doing this for a year. They got elected last year. And they. Sometimes we've got to educate and do our best in the situation and then we gotta let it go. Let it go. Because I gotta be honest, inside my monkey mind is. It's. It's 9 o'. Clock. They don't want to hear from me. I'm just, what if I just don't do it? I've been preparing for three weeks for this. I've been here for two days and my brain is actually like, eh, don't even go up there. You know? And again, it was an internal fight that I didn't want to go up in this situation. And I'm like, wait a minute. Like, I'm just telling you this to be transparent, that like you're gonna have these thoughts sometimes. But had to ground myself, okay, why am I here? Why was I brought in? What is my intent, right? What is best for the event planner? So when she said she brought in the heaters and I went down, I was checking the tent all day. I kept going to see what was happening and what was adapted. And then as you know, always make the AV guys my friends, always make the AV guys my friends. They normally, they really appreciate it and they really did in this situation too. So. Mark, I'm freaking on a tangent, rambling here.

Well, I'm curious. You said, we're going down there all day. You finally decided it was okay on the 10th time you went down there. I had to make you smile somehow, Jared. I know. And people are thinking, oh my gosh, Not a bad pun from Mark. Yes, I'm going to be good. I'm going to stop there. Now, truth be told, you may not find yourself in a situation where you have to speak in a tent in cold weather in a foreign country. But sometimes you may have a situation that's unexpected that may come around when you are presenting. I can recall one time, Darren, I was doing a youth program at a school in California on a Thursday morning. It was beautiful day in California and we had arranged to have grade 7 and 8 in a 68 building in the auditorium or the gymnasium for this assembly. I got there that morning, everything was set. I got my PowerPoint all planned out. I was ready to go and the principal says to me, hey, you know, Mark, we really value this message. We want the entire school to hear it. So we're going to bring sixth grade in. Here's the catch. We can't put them all in our little auditorium that we have. We can only do two grades there. We have a spot, though. It's our amphitheater outside. We can get all the kids in. We'll bring in these large speakers. You could speak from there. Okay, we're going to do it. Great. Didn't expect that situation. I had my PowerPoint all set. So question for you. What happens to PowerPoint slides on a beautiful Thursday morning at 9am in sunny California? Can you say wash out? There's no way. Yeah, I'm in a twilight zone. There's no way I can use slides. Here's the thing. My slides really are powerful visual aids. But my slides don't drive my presentation. We are presenters first. We are paid to provide our experience or, or expertise or knowledge or wisdom or stories to help them to achieve their goal. And yes, we may have a video clip, an audio clip, a slide, a picture, a quote on a slide. Yes, those are wonderful visual aids, but you really got to step up and let them get all of you. You bring all of yourself to that situation. And I had to adapt immediately. I had to immediately say, okay, I can't use slides. Okay, they're going to get me. So I have to really commit to the stories, the characters and everything else, be more interactive with young people. And it works really, really well. I also, because I was in the youth market, I remember one other story where I talk to young people a lot about how they talk to each other. I talk about the consequences, which include self harm, harming others. And I do touch on school violence. And I was in a school one morning and I was. And the night before, a news report came out of a young person who was in a situation that mirrored what the school was going through. And immediately I had to adapt. Oh, it came that morning. It came that morning. And I was there early and I saw the news report and immediately I went into my slides, found a news report, found the article, added a slide to my deck within a half an hour of the presentation. And it literally flowed smoothly into my presentation. It connected directly to what that particular school was going, was going through. It really enhanced the presentation, made it more meaningful to them personally. And it was very effective. It was a quick adaptation. And in that particular case, it was more of an ear to the ground, being aware what's happening around you because sometimes we can be so focused and keyed up. I worked on my presentation. I got to get this right. I've done it. I'm going through in my head, my brain, I'm doing all of this. I am processing everything. And I may miss what's happening around me right away. Last similar adaptation. Darren went to an event. I talked with the CEO for several weeks, going to the event, met with his secretary, his assistant, and everything was planned. Travel, hotel, arrival time, speaking time, and the week before I got there, I could not reach the man for I couldn't reach him. But everything was planned. I got there. I'm going to give this keynote about where the company was going and inspire them. Be your best and perform. And I found out the board released the CEO five days before I got there, but no one told me ouch until I got there. I found out when I got there, I'm going to speak in like an hour. And, oh, that's why I didn't hear from him. He was let go. So the company was now in a place where emotionally, things were changing. The industry was going through some adjustments, and I had to adapt to a situation that was unexpected for me. I had to be careful about the remarks I made. And some comments I would have made addressing him were gone immediately out of my presentation. I had to adapt. Why? I wanted to make sure to serve the audience in the best way possible. And the truth is, Darren, you and I have been through it so many times. We don't always get a heads up. We aren't always told, hey, here's what's coming down the pike. And there are times we have to really think about what will I say here. Here's a caution for me personally. I've worked hard, prepared this. I'm in a place where I've done all this work for you and you throw me a curveball in a case like that. Adaron is in. Let go of your ego. It's not about you or how things change for you. It's about how can I best serve my client. How can I when they walk away from here, will they say it was worth their time and their expense, have had you come in the door and share your experience and your life with the people in the audience. We could probably tell other stories of having to adapt to strange situations. But the point is, sometimes we think, I've done all this work, I should get the chance to do what I did. Especially when we're told, you know, one hour keynote, you just invested so Much time in. I'm sorry, we're running late. Can you do 35 minutes? Right. I put all this work in. I got my best material here.

What?

Let go your ego and serve the people in the room. That's probably your most powerful adaptation, is to let go of your ego and ask, okay, how can I best serve them? That is a game changer. And go all in when you do it.

Yeah. The reason we're professionals, the reason they bring in professionals and pay us, is partially our ability to adapt. Oh, yeah, Think about this too. This is a tough question. I know we threw some tough advice at you last week, but here's a tough question. If they tell you, as Mark said, that often you prepare an hour and they tell you last minute, 35 minutes, you have two choices. Number one, you can do the presentation you are going to do and do your whole time and completely alienate the event planner, who knows other event planners. Or you can cut your time.

You.

Can increase your relationship by being willing to adapt, or you can destroy your relationship by letting that ego be in the way. You gotta understand that we Recommend have a 60 minute slide deck and have a 30 minute slide deck and a 45 minute slide deck. So in the moment you can just switch and go put them all on the USB drive. You know, Mark, I'm thinking backups. What I didn't tell you, Mark, was I did. While I was in the city with Sieges, which is outside of Barcelona, I had a night free that I reached out to the Barcelona Toastmasters and I did a workshop for them. And I've never had this before. My slides flashed.

Wow.

And the HDMI was connected to someone else's computer, worked fine. So the slides flashed. And of course I adapted it and I had fun with it. But here's what I did for that situation. I asked the audience, do you want me to keep using slides because they had a handout or do you want me to stop? And they like the slides. So they, they chose, they chose to keep working under that situation. But meanwhile in my head, I'm freaking out about tomorrow night. These CEOs, you know, my highest fee gig to date. And I'm like, what am I gonna do? Because I thought maybe it was something up with my computer. So that was not it. But I was worried about it. So I planned my adaptation. So all of those customized jokes, I had slides, which gives me a visual and gives me a prompt so I don't have to memorize these custom things that I will never ever use again. But What I did, Mark, is I put it on note cards too. That if I did have that situation now, I never used the note cards, but I was more confident because I had them if I needed them.

I always say I'd much rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it. And by the way, please note what Darren says. I had note cards. We are professionals, 30 years doing this, but we're unashamed to tell you when we need note cards, we'll have them. There are those who may think, well, with all your experience, you can just stand up there and talk. Yeah, we generally, we do. But there's never any harm in making sure. If you have to adapt, you have the tools you need to serve your audience in the best way possible. And sometimes it could be a three by five card. As long as you serve your audience in the best way possible and go all in. I keep saying all in today. What is up with that?

Nice. Nice. And I had to adapt my whole presentation because it was customized and they gave me the bullet points that they wanted to speak to. So using the Fripp speech model, they wanted me to talk about all in. And they hired me because they saw a video of me and they loved my energy, enthusiasm and point infused with passion and entertainment. But now they handed me my topic. Now, fortunately, I had stories and different speeches that I could pull from to back up those points. So, you know, they had me talking about challenges because their industry is facing challenges. They had me talking about partnerships. I never talk about partnerships. But when I stepped back, I talked about Patricia Fripp. Why did Patricia Fripp choose to work with us? And then because of Chris McGuire, I talked about Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart. Now adapting, we've got to make sure they know our references. Mark. I did not know this in the uk, Hardly anyone knows Martha Stewart. That blew me away. Everyone knows Snoop Dogg, which is fascinating, but all it meant is I had to frame Martha Stewart. But what was cool is they knew Snoop Dogg. So had they not known Snoop Dogg, it would have not worked as well. But since they had one of the references and I was talking about the dichotomy of the two of them, when I painted the picture of Martha Stewart, prim, proper, eloquent baker that that helped set up what I'm talking about about partnerships that are all in. Some partnerships that don't seem like they work are perfect. Anyway, I digress. Let's just recap a little bit. So we're talking about, number one, you gotta assess the situation, what are your options? So if it's cold, as Petra did, okay, what could we do to bring warmth into the tent? So she unfortunately had the budget. She found two suppliers, not just one, but notice what she's doing. Two suppliers. Then we have to have a heart to heart with our event planner, knowing that some of them might not understand because they maybe haven't given a speech. But if they're an event planner and they're experienced and you're getting paid, they've probably been around, they understand. But we gotta get on the same page. What do you want me to deliver? How do you want me to deliver it? How long do you want me to deliver? Now, it wasn't planned that I go on at nine, but that happens a lot. But that's okay. I just knew I had to work on my own confidence because I'm like, oh, you know, they don't really. And they were super attentive. That was my concern, is that they wouldn't be as attentive and they were super attentive. So have the heart to heart. Number one, figure out all the options. Use creativity. If you're not sure, what could you do, ask ChatGPT why? Use all your options to come up with options. Have the heart to heart. And then we gotta let go of that ego because it's showtime. You can't. Yeah, there's things that maybe they're not right, maybe it's not fair. That's not your job to be right or fair. Your job is to deliver under the situation you're given. And I highly recommend, if you've never taken an improv class, find at a local comedy club, a local college, find an improv class. Because adapting is the difference between you looking professional and you looking pompous.

That's true. That's true. And one last thought. Don't forget, as Darren said earlier, also be willing to adapt your presentation, adapt your references based upon the audience that you have. Wonderful example of Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart where one of the reference points may not be familiar. And Darren always talks about this. And I'll reinforce one more idea by going in early whenever you can. You have the advantage of learning more about the organization than your pre event call ever could have. You get to build relationships with people who are there. And you may find in that day before, as you build those relationships, you get material that you can adapt or adjust on the fly that'll be more meaningful than what you had planned in the first place because now you're aware internally of what you're dealing with, what you're going through, what their stressors are, what their joys are in the moment and at that time. So have a mindset. I'm good to go. I'm going to be all in. But if I have to, I'm ready and willing to adapt to the situation.

I hope you join us next week. I'm going to try and get Chris McGuire on so we can talk about the process of local humor, humor about the event, humor about the industry. I hired him to write some jokes because I just did not have the time to do that research because we were coming off of Game Changers. I had this trip, I just, I did my research but I didn't have time to go deep enough to write the jokes. You really need a little more time. And what he came up with, Mark, there was a local. One of the things he found in his research is Sieges, which is the city I was in is actually the International Horror Film Festival capital.

Oh wow, cool.

Which is interesting. But the way he tied it to the automotive industry. Oh my goodness. You gotta join us next week.

We'll find out next week, right?

Just you're gonna get some great insights on how to create some humor specific for your audience and for that event that will hit home. Be there. Listen up and Mark, final thought, Listen.

No matter what happens, be ready but also be adaptable because you never know when you're going to be the person who will do one. Take one step that'll be different. It'll change the experience, it'll transform what the audience audience has and you will truly be unforgettable. We'll see you next week.

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