Ep. 254 WHAT TO ASK PARTICIPANTS AHEAD OF TIME

Hey there, Mark Brown. Last week we talked about, what do you ask an event planner after you get hired? After they say yes, what are the questions? And you may have some normal standard questions, but we went a little deeper, and I realized that sometimes I take for granted what I learned over the years. I realized, ooh, other people need to know about this. And hopefully it encouraged you, gave you some new ideas to add to your standard questionnaire. If you don't have one, it's a great start. If you do have one, hopefully you've enhanced it. But now we're gonna go into what do I ask participants when I interview them prior to the event?

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.

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, I know we're in new ground for you. This isn't part of your procedure, which is perfect because I've been doing this for years. And you might have. You're so creative and your intention is so deep for the audience that you probably have some ideas I never even thought of.

Let's talk about it, my friend. So what, what's all about asking to talk to participants before the meeting? Who does that?

Yeah, when Mark and I teach unforgettable presentations at three day workshop, we talk about customizing your presentation. We use the Patricia Fripp speech model, and then we talk about using stories. Let's just say here's a point of wisdom and here's three pieces of evidence to prove that point of wisdom. What we suggest sometimes, when it's appropriate, is to maybe pull out your third piece of evidence and pop in a client piece of evidence, a client story. So now it looks like you wrote the whole presentation just for them. However, you didn't go off track. You didn't really change your structure at all. You just kind of inserted. Pulled one out and inserted another one. So what I do is I ask the event planner for a list of 10 names. Now, if you didn't listen to last week, go back and listen to last week. If you did listen to last week, hope you got some ideas from it. But I asked for a list of 10 names. I want them to contact them whether it's Email or phone call and get permission. This is critical. I can't just call them out. Well, I could, but they would not be as open to me. So when I do make these phone calls, I'm usually doing it about two weeks prior when my brain is wrapped around this presentation and focused on this presentation. And I do a little research ahead of time before those calls, looking up their lingo, their acronyms, their terms, their jargon, because I want to understand them or ask them about that. But when I set it up, I say, hey, thanks for taking. I put this right at the top of my form. If you're following along, if you're watching the YouTube version, I'm putting this up on the screen. If you're listening, I'll explain it to you. So right at the top. Thanks for taking the time to chat. This is just going to be like five to 10 minutes. And if you need to go at any point, please let me know. Very important. This kind of sets the stage because they don't know how long they've committed to. Now, if I have great rapport with them and I'm asking them questions and I'm listening, most of the time we go beyond 10 minutes and they're having fun because now I'm asking them questions. So for that situation, often it goes longer. But if not, if they're busy, then I want to respect their time. Five, ten minutes. All right, thanks. But this is where we get some of the gold. So I asked them right up front after that, how long have you been in the organization or industry or both, if it's an association, because they could be in the insurance industry for 20 years, but in the association only five.

Right.

So I want to kind of understand about their time frame and are they new to the industry, because guess what? I want someone new to the industry's perspective. I want somebody who's a veteran. I want their perspective because generally they're very different in some areas. So question one, once I build a little rapport, is, how long have you been in the industry and. Or organization, depending if it's working for the company. So adapt that to your situation. Next, I asked them, Mark, the same question we asked the event planners. Who were your speakers last year or in recent years? What did they think about them? What did they personally think about them? Did they like them? Did they not like them? And why? Because maybe they went too long. Maybe they went over time. Maybe they were boring. Maybe it was obvious that they didn't use the right industry terms. So they were kind of Just coming in with their standard boilerplate keynote, they didn't have time to connect. Maybe they were opinionated, maybe they upset somebody or were offensive. Had. Mark, you and I were talking about one of the organizations in Australia that the previous time they had somebody who was an influencer and was, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. It was a horrible presentation. Just because they're a TikTok or an Instagram influencer doesn't mean they can give a presentation. So even though they might be funny in 60 seconds, it's very different. But hey, that happens. But I want to know. I want to know. Mark, thoughts so far?

I'm kind of hung up on the idea of just because you are considered a media, a social media influencer, that does not make you a great presenter. And I probably do a half a podcast on that idea alone. But having that conversation with an individual who had been to the event the year before and you want to find out if the individual you're calling up is. Even though they've been around for a long time, did they miss the last three or four industry meetings. You want to be aware, were they, Are they, are they in a good position to answer the questions about last year's presenters. But when you have an individual, not an event planner, you're getting the heart and mind of somebody who was on the ground, who has been there in the room before and who was been around long enough to have a reputation, have experience, and you can pretty much bank on what they will tell you from their perspective. Now, it's important to ask at least more than one person because you may get a few different responses, but at least you get a feel for a general idea of what took place the previous year.

Yeah. I then ask if you're watching a YouTube version, you see them changing this as we go. I'm like, ooh, I also asked this. This would be important because we're adjusting it. We're creating a new workshop called Customize youe Keynote. And that's what got me revisit this. It's going to come up in the fall if you're interested. Customize your keynote like a pro. We're going to teach you how to write custom humor for the event, for the location, etc. So that's why this is near and dear to my heart right now, because I'm diving into creating content for this. Why? Next question. Why do you come to the conference? Why do you come to the conference? Meaning, is it for networking? Is it? You've got to keep top of mind by your potential Clients, if they're a sponsor or something like that, you know, maybe it's reconnecting with old friends, finding out what's happening on the industry. Am I. Is this the place they stay in the pulse? But why do they come? Because I want to know. Some of these things will trigger things that I say from the stage.

Nice. And when you get an answer to the question like that, you will realize very quickly. Most often individuals come for their own personal reasons, and very often they will be different. But sometimes an answer may bubble up that becomes the cream that will rise to the top. Because generally, if you get three or four people out of six who give the same answer, it gives you an indication of why that particular event may be important to the broader audience as well. And it's good to.

Yeah, I'm looking for commonalities. I'm looking for commonalities. And then, Mark, we talked about it last week when we talked to event planners. Next question is, are there any taboo topics I should be aware of? Yeah, because the event planner may not think this is a taboo topic, but a participant might. So I have two separate forms, two separate word documents that I have as my triggers, and I'm, as we said last week, I'm reading the Zoom Room. I'm seeing if they are into this, if they're just, you know, this is a task on their checklist, they're trying to check off, or what is that? And generally when you get people talking about themselves and their opinions, they keep going, which is great. And if you can get permission to record them, that way you can go back and listen after.

Yeah, point here, Darren. I want to clarify because it may lead to questions in people's minds when we say, we ask participants ahead of time. It may. It may very well be a phone call, but once in a while, you'll encounter an individual who say, look, can we. Can we do a teams call or a video call? Sometimes you ask for a video call. Yeah, sure, why not? I'd love to. Love to get to meet you. And they want to meet the speaker. So you get a video call, but you ask permission to record and say, look, I'm happy to send you a copy of the recording if you're open to this, but it'll help me to prepare for our presentation. They may say no. They may say, yes. They say, yes, I'll send a copy to them. Again, this may not always happen, but be aware that it may. And having their words at your disposal can be very helpful to you. If they're open and willing to have that level of conversation with you on a. With a video as well.

Next question. Who are the mentors, matriarchs or patriarchs of the organization? Who is that beloved person or people that everybody knows, they've been around forever? Everybody knows and respects them. Because guess what? With the event planners permission, I want to call them.

Yep.

How cool. Let's take our world Mark in the NSA National Speakers Association. How cool is it if I mention from the stage Jeanne Robertson, the late Jeannie.

She was wonderful. Yeah.

You know, or Naomi Rhodey, somebody who's been around forever. And I said, well, when I was talking to Naomi, one of the things she said that's important about the speaking world is it's a privilege of the platform.

Platform. Right.

So now they know I'm inserting this early on in my presentation. They know I talked to that person. What it does for me is helps give me some of that goo goo juice, you know, some of that good rapport that I took the time to talk to them and they talk to me. It's almost like I'm requesting a blessing from some of the higher ups. And that's why I want to say matriarch or patriarch that everyone knows and loves.

The love part is good too. Yeah, the loves part is too. You don't want the harbor boss.

They might know them, but not like them. So, yeah, so that is a good one. And then obviously do a call with them if it's possible, if they will take your call and if, if they love the organization, chances are they will be happy to talk to you because they love the organization. And I'd be willing to bet hardly any speakers call them and ask to speak to them ahead of time. Then next question. Again, I want to keep this short and brief, but these are some. If you got ideas for your world or your topic, jot them down. This is just the starter point for you.

Right.

And then I ask if there are any good stories related to my topic. Any good experiences or bad experiences, as Mark Brown says, best, worst, last and first. This is best, worst if you talk about customer service in their industry. If that was my topic, I would want to know of any good or bad customer service. Are there any legendary stories that everybody knows about Bob golfing and hitting the caddy by accident and knocking him out or something? There's those legendary stories.

Yeah, it's known by everybody. Ye.

You want to be in the know, you got to ask the question. So a good story from them as an example. Again, now I have my Point of wisdom. I have my two pieces of evidence, but now I have a piece of evidence from their world that backs up my point. That's gold, Jerry.

Gold. And it tells them that you are properly and fully invested in serving them. You didn't just come, put it out of your back pocket and toss it in their lap. That's a huge difference to an audience when they know you have made the effort, invested the time to prepare and to customize for them. That makes a huge difference.

Yep, this is what I did early on because I didn't have the content, but I continued. I streamlined the process from what I used to do, but I would overcompensate with customization. Now I realize I've streamlined the process. I can do it in less time and it's more effective, but what it does is it separates you from everybody else. You know, be that scrappy person that's willing to do more than other people will. And then the final question that I ask is, do you have any questions for me? Do you have any questions for me? Because I want to give them permission that, you know, hey, I'm transparent. You can ask me anything. And generally it's no. Because I could tell they, you know, they've got to go. But I open the door and I also tell them too, hey, if you have any more thoughts on these questions, any more insights or other stories you think of, call me. Here's my number, or here's my email. Because sometimes they're just caught up in the moment. They get another meeting, but then the next day they're like, I should tell them the plastic fern story. And then they call me back and tell me, and now, now it's gold. So you don't want to shut the door after. You want to keep the door opened and let some of the seeds that you planted germinate. And I also usually say, hey, when you see me there, you know, middle aged, bald guy, easy to spot. I always ask them to say hello to me.

Yes.

Because everybody's new to me. But I will probably stand out because I'm the new guy. You know, Mark, when you and I were in Istanbul, in Miami, we were the new guys. We were the lab guys, you know, the lab coaching guys. Because most people knew each other.

Forget short ball, middle aged white guy, six foot, two ball, Jamaican guy. Yeah. Kind of hard to miss us, right? But, you know, I appreciate that and I do want to say one thing here for those of you who may be, I don't want to say lazy like me, but I realize some of what we can glean from this conversation might be available to us at the mix or the night before cocktail hour. But what I like about Darren's approach is he is being proactive in that he's in having conversations beforehand with individuals and. And he has time to modify and customize his program so when he gets there, he is ready. If you're seasoned, there's no doubt you can hear something at the cocktail hour and you can probably quickly put it into your presentation. But if you're an emerging speaker and you get a great first opportunity, I would not recommend you rely on the cocktail hour to change your script at the last minute. For. For Friday morning's 8 o' clock keynote, I would not recommend that. I would much recommend what Darren saying. Have that conversation before. Can you get information in the cocktail hour? Yes, you can. Could you possibly insert it? Yes. But you don't have time to really prepare it, rehearse it, plan how you. How you will use it so it flows off the lip smoothly. You run a risk, particularly if you're inexperienced, of trying to drop it in your speech and hope it's the right time. Give yourself time, have the conversation. Darren said at least two weeks before. When you have that information before, you can truly customize, craft, prepare, plan, rehearse, and present with confidence. Present with power, and you have a much better chance of being unforgettable.

Yeah. What I love too is with PowerPoint slides, very easy to take a picture with someone. Hey, I met Brian Barbara. I did that at one conference that she was in charge of the foundation that the association was connected to, and everybody knew her, but I took a selfie with her and then talked about her and her commitment. I popped it in my slide. That goes a long way to creating that connection. You don't need much, just the picture. And then you can verbally tell the story because you lived it. They lived it. Mark. When I was in Spain, I had fun with some of the humor there. I went to the restroom and it said, like, caballeros Damas.

Correct. Very good.

So I showed a picture. You know, now I'm the guy from the US So I'm kind of the out of the fish, fish out of water guy. But I was acknowledging it, I was owning it. I'm like, I gotta be honest, Cabreros Damas know. But I showed a picture of both of the doors of the restroom. How relatable is that? And they probably know which one is which. But they can also laugh. If I can laugh at Myself that I didn't know which one was which. So they're in the know. I'm the outsider. I'm just making light of the situation. But I just literally took a picture of the signs of the doors. And then, Mark, you remember when Chris did his program at game changers, Chris McGuire, he flew into the airport and he had some observations along the way, took pictures of those observations and then tied them into the beginning of his keynote. And that's one of the reasons I was like, you know, he's got that down. So I've hired him. I hired him for Spain. And he and I were talking like, we gotta do a whole program on how to do this. Yeah, that's going to be in the fall. Customize your keynote like a pro. But what do you ask participants ahead of time if you choose to go this route? You don't have to, but at least when you get on the ground, when you're in the room on the event site, think of these questions. What are people talking about? Observe. Because some of the best gold is going to happen right there. And if I can, I go in early, spend a couple days with them and take notes. I want to know. Let's say, for example, if I can't be there early, when I get on the site, I start asking around, hey, anything happen at the convention or conference, good or bad, that really stood out? Guess what? I'm asking about moments that elicited emotion. I want to tap into that. So even if I wasn't there, it doesn't matter what happened at a breakout session, because not everyone saw it. I'm looking for the commonalities of what everyone saw and experienced. Like the NSA horse thing that that happened, where they came in with a horse in the middle of the convention playing a banjo. That was interesting. That was cool. But then the horse pooped in the middle of the song, and so everybody laughed. It got a big laugh. So I'm looking for a big laugh or a. Or maybe it's a phrase that resonates, you know, if someone else. A foundational phrase that everyone's talking about. We had that happen at the last year's Toastmasters convention. Mark. There was that foundational phrase everyone's talking about. So if I can be in the know and tie into that, and especially if it makes a bridge to my content, it goes a long way to being unforgettable.

Yeah. And the key line there is if it makes a bridge to my content. So part of the work we're going to have to do as presenters is is find ways to bridge our content to their world. Because listen, the common connects. When we establish connections through the call before the event, through the cocktail hour time and through being aware, asking questions, then the audience is going to be guaranteed to know. This presenter did not just come to drop an idea in our lap, they really came to be a part of the event and they have shown it to by not only their presentation but the content they shared and their willingness to build rapport with us. And when you establish that relationship with the meeting planner, with the attendees, with the participants again, you stand a much better chance of being unforgettable.

See you next week.

Make sure you subscribe to our show.

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

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