Ep. 264 ARE YOU STAYING CURRENT?

Staying current. We don't want to put in the work. We don't want to put in the effort. We've already got content that works.

Mark.

What?

Listen, I understand. I just went back into schools after not doing it for several months and things have changed. And for all of us in the business of speaking, we need to stay current. The question is, are you staying current?

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.

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

Oh, Mark Brown, it's a lot of work to stay current.

Well, it is. Yeah, I know, I. Look, stop whining, okay? The thing is, actually, you know, people do that. They do whine. Look, I'm sad. It's just so much work. And it is. I tell you, it is. We get that. And it's exhausting, but it's worth the investment because, you know, the old cliche is the world is changing every day. It's a cliche for one reason. It's true. People, things are changing constantly. Industries are changing, Requirements and needs are changing. And as presenters, we constantly have to think, am I being really good, entertaining, or am I giving value? Am I adding value? Am I offering more to my audience? And my belief, Darren, is this. When I stop learning, I stop living. When I stop growing, I stop serving. Well, so my first statement is this. We need to continually stay current for the purpose of serving our audience as well.

Yeah. Mark, There was a speaker back in the day in the 1990s. His name was DJ Harrington. Still, remember he came to speak at our NSA chapter National Speakers association in New England. And he talked. He had one of his assistants there and he talked about every time he presented, they updated the deck, they made notes about what he was going to change for next time. It was a regular part of his process. And I always remember that, which is, Mark, maybe one of the reasons that you see me fixing slides in the middle of a trip, training that we're doing, because I want to do it right now. I don't want to just think about it or make a note and have to go back to it. If you're talking, I'm updating. So I'm not exactly sure if that's where it came from. But I still remember DJ having that as part of his process. And Mark, you just went to schools.

Yeah.

You have to be even more topical and tie in. So you're not talking about Barney anymore, I assume.

Well, it's funny. Look, I began my first talking to school was in 1995, almost 30 years ago at the time of this recording. And I, yes, I used Barney the dinosaur. I love you. And the kids loved it. I use even Stevens from Disney Channel. I have used different methods. I've used SpongeBob SquarePants in his middle schools. I've used various of these different references, but every so often I have to update references. I spent a week in schools last week for both students and educators, and I found myself considering, okay, gotta change that. I gotta trash that. I'll insert this. And what I offered do, which I did last week, was I inserted information about school events across North America happening that day, that week. To stay current, I have to be vigilant. And one of the tools I can use if I can offer an idea for everyone to stay current regarding material, Google the company you're working with or the association. Yes, we do that. But then click on the News tab. The News tab, and find out what's new in the news for your client and for your organization. But be aware what's trending in the world today, what's trending in the industry, what's trending within the association, what's happening? What's happening at the company. I've told you before on this podcast, Darren, about going to speak for an organization. And they had released the CEO a week before I got there. I found out when I got there and it, it, it made me have to adjust on the fly. But we need to stay current with our industry for our clients, for associations and our organizations to be effective. And for me, certainly it's tough staying current with the schools.

Yeah. And obviously as we record this, right, AI is a hot topic. And we don't have to be a speaker about AI. There's plenty of them. It seems like some people are abandoning their old topic and now they're an AI expert. And we know people like our friends Ford Sakes or Terry Brock. There are many of our friends who are experts, but a lot of people are jumping topic and diving into that. However, I'm not recommending that. What I'm suggesting is how does AI affect your topic? Because if that's what we're looking for is references that are top of mind. So Mark, when you say looking at news about a specific company, if we're speaking to Wells Fargo or Hallmark, what's going on in that company? Why? Because the news that's happening in that company is top of mind. Whenever we can leap from our content to their top of mind, it becomes more relevant, it becomes more topical. Doesn't mean you're changing your content. It means you're tying your content in with different examples. Obviously, that's one of the reasons when I'm customizing, I wait till two weeks before, before I start researching a company because something new might have happened and I want to get fresh stories from that client. And I also don't want to in my head have too many clients going on and confuse one client with another client. That's also the reason I go there and I spend two days, I'm going to speak at a Water park association convention coming up in Vegas. And I want to interview ahead of time, but I want to find the relevant stories that are relevant to what's happening now in that industry. So the reason I hang out for a day or two is because anything that happens right in the moment at that convention, at that conference is very top of mind. And it's not just something that happens, but something that happens, that stands out, that has emotional juice to it. You know, something that happens on stage, a mistake somebody erroneously makes, but we're not making fun of them. If they could laugh at themselves, then maybe it's okay. Maybe the CEO used the wrong word or something. Or anyway, there's so many ideas. But you get the idea is that what happens right in the moment, right at that convention and conference on the May main stage, not in a breakout room. If it's happened in a breakout room, most people didn't see it. We're looking for what's top of mind.

And I love the idea of the emotional juice. It could be a horse making a mess on stage.

Yes, it could.

That was current for you at that time. So think about what's top of mind. Definitely. And with that thought in mind, it's useful to update materials. Now, Darren, you mentioned earlier, and folks, if you work with Darren like I do, you go get, you get laugh at this. I mean, we're doing a program and Darren's an idea that comes top of mind that's covered for the audience. And in the middle of our training, I can get Darren's secret signals and he's updating the deck while I'm talking. And it's a beautiful thing to behold. But on a serious note, it need not be done on the fly during a presentation, but coming up down the road, you may have a presentation or you may collaborate with someone else on a presentation and it may require you to make some changes. Darren, you're going through that right now with your slide decks for an event coming up pretty soon, right?

Yeah. I'm doing some humor workshops with Chris McGuire, our friend, comedy writer, TV, TV showrunner and producer. And I realized how much work it is to take two, two people, two presenters, and merge them into one slide deck. So he has his topics, I have my topics. We cover them very differently. But if we're presenting together, it's got to be one slide deck and it has to be somewhat organic when we hand off, just like you and I do. But when you're doing a formal live presentation, we don't want to go back and forth as you and I do here. It has to be a little longer for each of the presenters, though. We can have piggyback thoughts. So I had just mentioned to you how much work it was. I didn't realize it, and so next couple of days I'm all consumed just to be able to make it work. We both know our expertise. However, when you're co presenting, it's different and it's different to look seamless.

You know, it may seem a bit off topic, but it really isn't. Here's why. When you do that review, I get my deck and Darren's deck, we're going to merge those decks. It gives us the opportunity to look at what needs to be updated at that time. So collaborating is actually a reason for us to review our material. What has been around for a long time, and I have found, as has Darren, that there are times you go to a program, several times, you stop for a few months, you go back to it, oh, that reference is no longer valid. And there are times you have a quotation that really works for you. But you know what? I think I want to change that. For example, I have been using a particular line for the longest while. I tell people about stories. It need not be sensational. It needs to be sincere. It need not be sensational. It needs to be sincere. I have recently adjusted that statement to this. Your story need not be remarkable, it needs to be relatable. Your story need not be remarkable. It needs to be. I had to update that statement. And that's my hint to Darren. Chet, all our decks change the slide around. Darren's hearing this for the first time, but if you're not watching this, you're hearing on audio, you didn't see Darren go, ooh, because he saw the value of updating the content to be more significant for the audience. That's one quotation. So, friends, have you checked your deck recently? Have you checked your references recently? Have you checked your website recently? Many of our clients now saying, you know, I have a client just told me I'm going to redo my website and I have two clients recently who said, I'm going to go and do a brand new recording through a different service. I'm going to spend six hours on site with them to get a new demo reel going because I need to update what I currently have. And as presenters, most of us every two, three years are updating our decks, updating our websites, updating our demo videos as well, and also reviewing our testimonial reels. We may have some that are pretty old that are okay, but we get new ones as often as we can. And to do that, Darren and I both recommend bring a recording device and ask for testimonials. When you get them, use them, update and change out. Because that's going to be very, very helpful to you as you go forward. Darren, your thoughts on that?

Yeah, and it also makes it more interesting to you because you want to see the reaction of your new quote. For example, does that get a more of an emotional reaction? Does it elicit emotion more than the old one used to? The old one was good, but this one I see as going deeper. So ask yourself, your content, your quotes, how could you say it better?

Better?

How could you go deeper and how could you connect it more to today? What are the hot topics that people are talking about? That again, going back to AI. Not only does how does AI relate to your topic specifically, but how could it relate to one of your points? So we look at topic and we look at each of the points we're trying to make. Your points of wisdom, if you follow us and the Patricia Fritman model, how could AI connect to one of those points and make it more relevant when we talk about feedback on your speeches? Well, you use AI in the term of udli to get feedback on speeches. That, that wasn't, that wasn't a thing. Whereas now AI is a thing. Now that has to be something we consider. How could you use AI? What is that feedback? How do we have to be careful if we take AI feedback? What are the drawbacks? The more relevant. There used to be a song and I can't think of the artist, rap artist, and he said, you gotta stay rapid to Remain relevant. Just if you hit the top of the charts, well, that's great for that time. But unless you're out there creating new content, you slowly become less relevant. And that's same for us as speakers and presenters. It is our job to stay current, to stay relevant.

You know, Darren, that's true. And many of us have our prepared presentations. I'm not saying to go and revamp the whole thing. If you follow the frit model like we do, we have points of wisdom and supporting evidence that comes in different forms. Could be a poll or a stat, an anecdote, a story, a humorous experience. And sometimes to stay relevant, we can take one of those bits of supporting evidence and replace it with something that's more current. We're not saying change your speech and change your points, but revisit the examples that you use. Revisit the stories that you use. Can I find a better one? Have I had an experience in the last six months, the last six weeks, that may be a better example to insert into my talk because it is a more current example and more audience members can relate to that example. What we're asking you to do is to be constantly thinking, how can I improve on my presentation? How can I improve upon my image? How can I improve my impact? How can I improve my footprint? How can I be current and relevant and top of mind for the audience? And sometimes staying current means examining new technology and using new tools. Tools recently. It's kind of funny, Darren. I was, I am so the pro speaker for the Georgia chapter of the NSA National Speakers Association. What that means, friends, is we have an academy, a cohort of speakers twice a year. Our cohort this year was 11 presenters and my role is to be the coach at their boot camps on their zoom calls on the presentation skills. Darren came to our chapter and also did a wonderful session on how to use a stage. Well, as a pro speaker, I'm always trying to find new ways to encourage the audience, my speakers, the cohort, and let them stay relevant to what's happening in their industry at the same time. But I was also keep myself current and find ways to learn continually what I need to learn to be more effective. For example, learning new technology. We had a chance to have Aral Moody on our podcast, who was the CEO of Talk A dot and I noticed the cohort, 11 presenters at the showcase on Saturday all ended with a Talk A Dot slide. So they are updating their tech to use a tool that fosters engagements and engagement and lets the audience remember who they are. It could be to begin to use a tool like, like talk about. We have seen other tools, bent media have come our way. Tools like Zoom have other tools to help us run meetings. What tools are available to you on the platforms that you use? Should we learn a new platform? Are we doing more Google Meets? Are we doing more, more teams meetings? Are there other platforms I need to become familiar with or are there aspects and updates to the platform that I need to be aware of so I can stay current as a user expert who is using these platforms? This may sound like a lot, but if we were to pause and take a look at what's available to us, what's out there, what we can begin to employ to become more effective, we might be surprised. So high level, I invite you to take a step back, look at your business, look at your tools, look at your tech, look at your stories, look at your illustrations, your examples. Are there examples, tools, techniques you may have that are more current, that you can insert and begin to use effectively to become more relevant and more visible in the industry. It comes down to one thing, putting the work in.

Yeah, we want to be careful that we're also not so topical, that we're tangent, that we send people off on a tangent. So for example, right now, as we record this, the middle of September, the election, the debates are happening.

Well.

Depending on what you say and how you say it, you could alienate yourself from some people, but it is a topical conversation. Mark, as you were chatting, I just looked up what are some of the trending topics and AI wanted to say trending topics on YouTube and I scratch that out. But mental health, Google trends, machine learning, digital transformation, sustainable topics, blockchain, virtual selling, diversity and inclusion.

Yep, hot topics. Yeah.

So it's easy to look and see what people are talking about, but if we keep our ear out there, if we're on any social media platforms, we may see some things or ideas. But ask yourself, how does this relate to my topic? Or how does this relate to my points of wisdom? What example do I use? Maybe it's time to let go of that example and update that example so your content doesn't change, your specific example does. You and I were talking before that. You can't really use a Seinfeld reference like you could years ago when Seinfeld was on regular tv. Now you could use the reference, but you still have some people, some people who may not be as familiar. They may know the name, but they might not be as familiar with his sense of humor, with the show, with the Characters. So if it's. And maybe Mark, this is a way to stay current as well, is we have to be aware that if we're using Seinfeld as an example, for example, we may have to let people know what we mean if they're not familiar.

Yeah.

So we got to bring them into the moment of knowing so we can explain it. People might not know about Barney the Dinosaur like he said anymore. No, he used to be very relevant. Not so much anymore. So it doesn't mean you can't use that example, but we may need to make that bridge so the audience has an understanding of the reference. Before we use the reference, not after. Before we use the reference.

Yeah, and you're right. Maybe I should try Barney one day and see what happens. But I do talk about back in the day and with youth. I show myself my photographs in black and white. I know. Not yet remastered. Darren, no comments from you, please. But in terms of really staying current, I also invite you to reexamine your network. Because as your network grows, as time goes by, we meet more people, our network can grow. And within our network, we can build relationships that can help us to understand what's trending. Because we can only learn so much on our own. Being a part of a good network and be willing to share what you have learned with your network is one more opportunity to stay current. Because, you know, even a mastermind, there are individuals in a mastermind who may be aware of what you aren't aware of, but you can always help each other and grow together. So consider your network and maybe mastermind as well as ways for you to stay current. Leon, those who are in your line of work, who may have had experiences, have come across individuals or situations with which you are unfamiliar, or when they reveal them to you. Oh, I'd never seen that before. Oh, hadn't considered that before. And that's one way for all of us to stay more current and do that together in a very inviting and very cooperative environment. So consider your network and also masterminds as tools for helping you not only to stay current, but help your friends and your peers stay current as well.

Yeah, it's a great question for your mastermind, if you're in a mastermind, to ask, ask people, hey, what are some of the current topics? Or are you updating your content? Are you staying or how are you staying current? Might be a great example for mastermind or just for your fellow presenters, speakers, trainers, Ask at a. At a networking meeting or an NSA meeting or a Toastmaster meeting or A trainer's meeting. Look, it's our job and guess what? It is a little bit of effort. But if this is what we choose to do, we need to take the time, invest the time, invest able to stay current so we can stay relevant. We got to keep rapping to stay relevant, man.

Good point. I think that's the driver right here. We're not just saying stay current so you know what's going on, but stay current to become relevant. Because you have advice, you have wisdom, you have experience, you have expertise that your industry needs to hear about. But if we don't keep ourselves current, they're going to go someplace else. Look, there's room for all of us to share what we, what we have, what we've learned, what we know and who we are. But it's up to us to stay current, stay relevant and have an impact on those who listen to us.

Yeah. If we are truly experts, it is our responsibility to stay on topic, on top of mind. What is out there, what is trending in our world. It's expected of us. So that's what we need to do to stay relevant. So, Mark, final thoughts on Are you staying current?

I invite all of our listeners and viewers to review and revisit your website, review your offerings, review your videos, review your references. Just take some time and take a bit of inventory and ask yourself, what can I upgrade to be more relevant to my audience and to serve them well. You do that, you will be unforgettable.

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