Ep. 250 IT’S TOO LATE!

It's too late, Brown. It's too late.

I need help.

I care about my audience. I'm gonna get a coach. Why did you wait so long? It kills me.

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.

Hey there, Mark Brown. I know this has happened to you. Most of the coaches that I talk to, people want the polish. They want that one little tweak. And hey, when I came to you originally, that was my thought too. So I get it. I lived it. But now it breaks my heart because people do genuinely care about the audience. But one critical issue that we wanted to bring up is that you're waiting too long. You want the polish on delivery, but the problem is the structure doesn't work. Mark, what's your thoughts?

Yeah, sometimes we believe we have what's right and we're going to add a little tweak here. Oh, you know what? I'll talk to Darren. He's a funny guy. He's helped me to add humor to my speech at the last minute. And very often what happens is in our zeal to serve the audience well, we don't realize proper preparation should take place earlier. And the consultation to add humor should have been working with a coach. How do I uncover humor? How do I incorporate humor and make the humor a part of a seamless presentation? But very often, particularly with Toastmasters contests, the pressure of performing at a high level may inspire someone to go get help. Two days before the contest is over is going to take place, and we're going, oh, my goodness. Had you come to us sooner or had you come to me sooner, I'd have showed you. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. So, Darren, here's a question for you. Can you remember the most recent time you had an idea to share with a client and say, you know what? I can't give it to you now. It doesn't make any sense. We'll put it on the back burner for later. You're too close to your contest. You're too close to your event. You're too close to your TEDx talk. You're too close to your presentation, and you're saying oh, it would be so good. But I can't give it to him because it came too late.

Well, Mark, when you and I were just in Istanbul, Turkey, coaching the CEOs, you had to catch me a couple of times.

I did, yeah.

These are people that we've worked with for a long time. They did come to us early enough. They did. However, I had to bite my lips because it was like 24 hours to showtime. I had some ideas I wanted to share, but I know that if I planted that seed, it would create some doubt, they would lose confidence and they would be less effective. So it's got to go in the next time folder. Brilliant idea, Darren. Go in the next time folder because they're going to give the story again. But sometimes I've seen coaches give too much. I've been guilty in the past myself, but you caught me that. Okay. Not. Not now. Not now. What's your thoughts on that, Mark?

Well, sometimes, yeah. Yes, as a coach, we may see an opening we want to go, go through. But to be fair to the coaches, there are times the client creates the opening because they came with a presentation we thought was ready and. And they say, yeah, I got to make one more tweak. And they bring that idea to tweak, to tweak it in. And the idea triggers in our mind as a coach, something that would really work well. But we realize if you're going to internalize your presentation and you got 24, 48 hours to go, we're going to violate the idea that Ed Tate, CSP always talks about. It's time to freeze the design. It's time to have one final aversion that you internalize. Now, here's a caution for everyone hearing or seeing this. There are times presenters feel confident, oh, I can make a change today, it'll be fine. I can. I can do it. And the times they believe that they can, but when the time comes to deliver it, you can see the confidence is not quite there. Because while they've made the change to the script and maybe a bit in their head, they haven't fully embraced the. And internalize that change. And it could throw them off or totally ruin the presentation. So be mindful. And even as pro speakers, we have to also be mindful of a level of confidence that says, I can make this change last minute, it won't be a big deal. Now, Look, I've got 30 years in the business and I can do that fairly, fairly easily. And not to brag, Darren and friends, but I can and I have But I don't highly recommend you do that. And very often, if we're not careful, we'll try to implement new language, new characters, new ideas, new concepts and new themes at the end. And it's just too late.

Yeah, the, the other thing is, Mark, you know, you're making a tweak to a story you already know, to a presentation you already have that's different from a new story that you're still working with. I just delivered find the funny three day workshop with Chris McGuire and it's about finding humor, discovering and uncovering humor in the stories that you're already telling. But we tell people right up front, it's a three day workshop. They want the laughs, they want the humor, but we tell them first. We've got to get the story right.

Yep.

We can't make it funny until we have that structure, until we get it right. So it's really critical that we get that help early on because sometimes there's going to be that, aha, your coach gives you that problem that they see that you can in fact fix early on. You don't have time to fix a couple of days before, even a month before. If you're trying to re internalize this idea, this presentation, this new presentation, this new story, or even a tweak to a story, it's too late often. Look, here's what we're appealing to. You get coaching sooner, Mark. You know, Mark has that ability to pull the critical parts of your story out of you. I'm more of, I help better. My ninja skill is the polished side. So it's like if you miss the Mark part of the process and you just go right to the daring part of the process. Okay, now you're, I hate to use a cliche, but now you're polishing a turd afford sake ism. But the challenge is it would be so much better if we fixed it earlier on. It's just that important. So if you're even considering coaching, don't wait and expect miracles in the last minute. So there's no last minute miracles. We might have a last minute tweak, but you might need a structured tweak. And now here's the bigger challenge, Mark. They have to spend time unlearning a story that they've been internalizing for and trying to memorize, which we say internalize, don't memorize that they've been working on for a month now. They have to unlearn it and then relearn it the new way, which adds to stress, frustration, and less impact for the audience.

That is so interesting, Darren. I was in Asia, I was in China for two weeks at, in three different cities there and someone made a comment and I think they've been competing in the Toastmaster speech contest for a while and they said one of my problems is I get the speech ready but then I think there's something better I could do with it. I want to change that. And then I get an idea, I want to change that, then I get an idea, I want to change that right up until my contest and I can't quite seem to get the one I want. Simple solution for you or simple suggestion? First, consult a coach to begin with because any coach, not, not necessarily Darren or myself, but any good coach will tell you you need to find out what is your theme, what is your premise, what is your message. Center on one and then work towards making that message real to your audience. And I have no idea how many people who are hearing this find themselves in a similar predicament. I got an idea, it's a good idea, I work with it. But hey, ah, different idea here. I want a different conclusion or I. And they're beginning to make changes towards the end. And you may find yourself working for weeks at a time on a speech, a presentation that never ever matures because you can't continually and constantly tweaking, changing, rearranging. And one of the reasons that happens is some people, when they write a presentation or a speech, they write and edit at the same time. It may be a sidebar, but recommend at least write it out first and then begin to work with your sloppy first copy as Darren always says. But these are also ways that we find ourselves under stress because we have, we don't have what we want and we try a last minute fix that's too late. One get a coach early. It's not a coach. At least people who you trust, who you can consult with, who can guide you along that path so you aren't struggling with what is the best way to end this. What is the best story here? Did I pick the wrong one?

Did.

And you struggling with it towards the very, very end. And this is not restricted to Toastmasters or speech contestants. This could be anybody, anywhere, under any circumstance. Who figures I know my subject matter, I know my topic, I've got a bunch of stories I can tell. And then you realize it's almost time, it's incohesive, it's not coherent and you're panicking and then you say, hey Mark, Darren, I need your help. I'm going to give a talk on Thursday. Well, today's Tuesday. Yeah, but please, please, please, you come to us and I don't mean to insult anyone, we try our best to help, but with two days to go, you want to change your program, it might be too late. So think about what help do you need? Think long term. I've got a program coming up in. Okay, I got three and a half weeks to do this. I'm gonna need some help right away because some people say, I'll get help. Towards the end, Darren, your individuals who come to you and to me and say, listen, I'm going to be in the contest for Toastmasters. I'll give you a call when I get to that level. I'm going to win the first two. I'm going to be fine. I'll give you a call. Have you got those calls, Darren?

After I win the district, I'll call you. And again, we don't want to focus on Toastmasters, just part of our lives, part of the analogy, part of the metaphor. I had someone, Mark, you don't even know about this, but I had someone call me about a month ago who wanted help on their speech and they were told by some well meaning presenters that they knew at their level. Oh, we're just going to do a round robin evaluation so you get more feedback. You don't need help from Darren. I was like, you know, and look, their heart was in the right place. They were trying to help this person save money. You don't need that. I get it. When I spoke to this person because they didn't do as well as they thought they would do. We had this conversation, she transparently told me and I'm like, I get it, I understand it, their intentions were good, but they gave you feedback at the level they were at. You want to be world class, you got to get world class feedback. Here's what I'm going to say. Look, Mark, his ninja skill is creating the content, structuring, wordsmithing. Mine is more in the polish and the characters, the, the delivery, the use of stage. That doesn't mean Mark can't help in that area. It doesn't mean I can't help in the first area. It's just not our strengths. But this I will tell you, if you could only invest in one or the other, you would be better served by working with Mark or someone early on who can help with the structure and the story. Yes, polish is good, but if you don't get the structure right, if you don't get the heartbeat of the story. Those moments that are critical, polish don't matter. Confidence on a bad story doesn't matter. It's not gonna, as Michael Hague taught us, it's not gonna elicit emotion. And that's our goal. And so early on, coaching is more important, in my opinion, than the Polish coaching. Now, look, both are important. And when, Mark, we just went through this process with the ypo members, the CEOs from around the world. We did two cities, we did Miami, and we did Istanbul. We had a time crunch for Miami when they chose their presenters. So we had just, I think two to three weeks with some of them, and then we had much more time for Istanbul. And I will tell you, there was a difference in confidence. Think about it. It's partially the confidence that we're talking about. And when you're on stage, if you want to connect, you gotta be confident. You got to believe in your story. You've got to own your story. And so, look, I don't want to belabor this, but I do want to make sure we're clear. Get coaching sooner rather than later. Get it sooner rather than later. Mark, other thoughts?

Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned the benefit of confidence when you get the coaching sooner. And again, I want to say it. We're not saying it has to be Darren and me, but get professional support and help. When you get help sooner, you create a better product, as in your presentation. You'll find better stories, you'll tell better stories better. You will uncover humor more effectively. And as Darren says, you will have greater confidence going on that platform. Because I'll tell you, not only with the CEOs that we have coached, we have seen individuals who, because they had time to work with us or other coaches, when they finally got on the platform, those who were initially apprehensive were so much more confident. They knew what they were going to say. They had internalized their script, delivered their message, and they all got standing ovations for their presentations. And these were not seasoned professional speakers. And I think the beauty of the, I don't want to say naivete, but their inexperience was they were willing to get coached as often as they could. You know, I think Darren, we talked about having so many sessions per person, and there was a couple speakers who, every chance they got, they came to us. They were sponges. They were ready and willing to learn from us and implement changes early on and watch the speech progress. They didn't say, you know what? I got this. I'm busy, I'LL get with you in the last two or three weeks. And that may happen. You're, you may have a, you know, wild, busy life, but if you want to be unforgettable, you invest the time, the effort and the mindset to get the support you need as soon as you can. So it becomes less of an uphill climb. It's more of smooth sailing with confidence, with assurance, and with the commitment to deliver to that audience the message you have for them in that moment.

Yes. So again, whether it's Mark and me or just Mark or just me, it doesn't have to be us. But if you're gonna get help, if you care about your audience, get some coaching help, but get it sooner rather than later. It's gonna change the trajectory. It's gonna change. I mean, look at our situation. Mark, you looked at my speech. You saw that I had a failure missing. I was talking about failure. Falling on your face. I was talking about failure. And you realized right up front, day one review number one of my speech, that I needed a story, a personal story of my failure. I could have not had that aspect gone to you later on. And then it's too late to add that in. When we found it and discovered it, the subway story, then it was a no brainer. I was already confident. I already kind of told that story, but I didn't realize it fit here. If that was brought up later, it's too late. It's too late and it was critical. But a good coach can see what's missing. Get help sooner.

Mark Brown Final thoughts Friends, find your gems earlier. Get help sooner and you will be unforgettable. See you next week.

All right, next week we're going to be covering the critical questions to ask your audience and how see you then. Pass this along to your friends.

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