Ep. 276 NOT ENOUGH CONTENT?

Hey there, Mark Brown. Not enough content.

What?

Often we don't hear that, but it is a challenge for emerging presenters. But in this episode we've got something maybe creative for those of you who are out there who have a rock solid keynote that you're seasoned, you know your stuff. However, we have an idea for you.

Too, because you may have more content than you know. Darren, let's talk about it and then.

What to do with the extra content. Check it out.

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, Martin.

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. Not enough content. Yeah, more maybe relatable to a newer emerging. But what I'm gonna encourage people who are experienced and already have a rockin keynote is what if there's a better piece of content? What if there's better content that I know. Our friend Craig Valentine talks about this. It's the bounce method where when you add one new piece of content, it refreshes the whole load. It makes your whole keynote exciting when you're testing out a new piece of content, maybe new content, not enough content. Adding some content. Mark Brown.

Well, look, all of the above. And I know that as you said earlier, this may already appeal to our emerging speakers who are really eager, they're really excited, they want to go out there. And I met with an individual this week, a professor, a prospective client who's in just that place. And so many people are eager, they have passion for a topic, they're good at it and they want to share, they want to get out there. I want to get stage time, stage time, stage time. And there's two considerations, generations. One, they have an idea but they don't have enough content. And number two, they have an idea and they think they don't have enough content. That's one aspect of this topic I would like us to also take a look at today, Darren. When we think we don't have enough, but we may actually have more than we do now. Friends who are watching and listening. We did not come with prepared notes for this conversation. With. We're very spontaneous, we're very honest and we put each other on the spot sometimes. For example, Darren has Told me in the past, on many an occasion that when he began, he didn't have enough content. So, Darren, take us back to the mid-1990s when you felt you lacked content. How did you navigate that? And what do you know now that you wish you knew 30 years ago?

Well, Mark, I didn't feel like I had done enough content. I literally didn't have enough content. I mean, I was just getting started. I was clear that I wanted to talk about humor in business. I wanted to be motivational and humorous. So humor was my topic. Stand up was my background. But just because you love a topic doesn't mean you earn the right for an audience. And then even if you earn the right, it doesn't mean you serve them. So the early days, what I did was I overcompensated with client research that I had a few stories, I had some ideas, but I really wanted to connect with them. So I found one of the best ways to do that was to number one, I hired a comedian friend back then, which now I recommend, Chris McGuire, because he's the king at this Chris McGuire. You can check him out on LinkedIn. And I've hired him on two occasions. But back then I hired a woman named Katie Grady and she was a comedian in New England. And I needed some. I needed this brainstorming, if you will. But what we did together is we would research the client. I would do interviews. So I always asked for 10 people to talk to. And what I was looking for was their stories about their challenges that related to my subject. Because when you can hold up an audience member, now I still do this to a lesser degree, but now I'm doing it for connection as opposed to content. So I'm reinforcing some of my points with their ideas or their examples or their quotes or their stories. But back then I was, let's just say in a 60 minute keynote, I would say 30% was my content and or 30 minutes was my content and 30 minutes was all about them. So I did more research on the client to get their specific examples. Now switch that over a little bit. When I started writing the book Laugh and Get Rich, because that was in line with my topic. I interviewed business people who used humor as part of their business plan. So now what it does. Think about this. Think this one through. It upped my credibility because I was using mark. I was 23 years old. What do I know about business? You know, from experience? I had a Subway sandwich shop that failed. Okay, I moved on after failure, but I couldn't Say I was some successful business person at that time. So I tapped into stories of people who were successful in business and used humor. So I sat down with Sherwin Greenblatt. He was the COO. Dr. Bose, Bose speakers. Dr. Bose's first employee because he was known, when I worked there, he was known that he. I had this quote of his right up on my desk that I'll paraphrase because I don't remember word for word, but, hey, if we're gonna have to work hard all day, why not make it fun and play? If we're gonna have to work for, you know, eight hours in a day, why not make it fun? And so whenever my boss would give me a hard time about having fun, but like, but look what he said. I used. Embarrassing. But I used to work at one of those cubes, and there's a guy who worked. You know, there are four cubes next to each other. There's a guy who worked on the cube right across from me. And one day I just balled up a piece of paper. I hit it over and then he hit it back. And then we would play cube volleyball while we were working. But not the most productive thing, but it was fun. A little break here and there, but anyway, I interviewed Barry and Elliot, who in New England, they were known for furniture. They were the furniture guys. But they were. Had lots of commercials and a lot of fun. So I interviewed people who were there. Now I'm using their stories, their examples, but that upped my credibility. So that was really big back then, interviewing people in the field of my, let's just say my subject, my area of expertise, that thing that I wanted to talk about. So it was super helpful. And by the way, how does a 23 year old get to interview the COO of a company? Get to interview Barry and Elliot, who were pretty famous in New England? I asked.

No kidding.

Well, you know, I mean, these. The people that I interviewed, most of them were millionaires and successful in business. What did I have to offer? I could mention them in a book.

Exactly.

So that's one thing that maybe they never had before, was being a chapter in a book. And then, Mark, when I started teaching speakers how to be funnier, I thought, well, who am I? I'm still like an emerging comedian, a humorist, but I haven't really, quote, unquote, made it. So I interviewed the people I connected to. So Izzy Gassell, Rosemary Verrey, Judy Bush. These are people who are humorous back in New England in the day. And then comedians like Don Gavin. Comedy legends in New England who knew me and were willing to sit down for an hour with me, Dick Doherty. So I interviewed them. I ask them the questions that anyone would want to know and what was cool was on the back of the packaging. I didn't have any credibility, but Bob Cybele did. Cruise ships. Dick Daugherty owned his own comedy club and was a headliner. So I used their credibility to up my credibility, if that makes sense.

It does. You say if we can use the network, our network in our field of expertise and, and build relationships, we can not only get content but also build our credibility. And friends, please do not discount or think negatively or Darren said that only maybe half his content was his own and the other half came from the client. There is value in that. So there's a double edged sword here. You could say, okay, I'll get by with half mine, half theirs. Don't think in terms of getting by in that way. Think in terms of learning from them. But also understand when you reference the client stories to client employees, client team members, you're telling the client, I don't just come with a cookie cutter material that I think is going to work for everybody. It shows you put the work in. It also builds the habit of learning more about your client because the more we get into the habit of learning about our clients, the more effectively we can serve them where they are. And Darren, I don't know this to be true, but I assume it's to be true. You began doing this back in the 1990s, okay, over 30 years ago. But the habit you built, the methodology you began to adopt has helped you. And you say you still interview client employees to this very day because the practice was also helpful. You focus, your balance is different, your budget of time is different, but you've learned the value of finding out what the client's needs are, where their joys are, who the heroes in their company are. And it gives you the credibility of not only being an expert in your field, field after 30 years, but one who truly cares about the client. So, friends, you may think I don't have enough content, but part of your content can, and I daresay should reflect on what your audience is, what's important to your audience, what are they going through, what are their challenges? And you can solve their challenges by addressing specifically what they're going through. It's going to make a difference.

Yeah, it was an exorbitant amount of.

Time on the front end. Right.

But when you're new and emerging, I didn't have a lot of booking so I had the time. I did have a day job too. So what it allowed me to do is kind of figure out how to get to the heart of the matter much more quickly. So now I ask about frustrations, pet peeves in their day to day life. I still remember I spoke at Berkshire Life Insurance and one of their pet peeves when I interviewed people was the parking lot. So they were repaving the parking lot and so they had to walk like two miles from where they could park for a while. And so of course I had fun with that and that helped me build a connection. But now I've understand I can ask for 5 or 10 minutes now if a conversation's going good, I, I continue the conversation. If I can tell that they're very short answers with me, then I respect their time and I say thank you and goodbye and make sure you say hello when we get to the event. So now it's again more about connection or reinforcing some of my content. Back then it was a lot of their stories, a lot of their examples and content. But Mark, Fast forward to 2001. Here's for those of you who are experienced, listen up. Those of you who are emerging, put it right up to your ear. Let's get this. When I was writing my championship speech with you, Mark, I knew the story of Dr. Goddard. I lived in the town where Dr. Goddard launched the rocket. In my high school, right across the street There was a McDonald's. They had Dr. Goddard wallpaper with images of him and his rocket in the McDonald's. He was a big deal in our town. There was a monument at the golf course where he launched it. There was a monument next to the fire station, it's still there of an actual replica of his rocket. You don't know everything about your topic. I'm going to encourage you, I'm going to beg, I'm going to implore you to go deeper and always continue to research. Because even though I knew all of this about Dr. Goddard, I didn't know everything. So because I understood the gravity, the importance of this speech, I went to the Dr. Goddard Museum which was at Clark University where he was a professor and they had this whole museum set up in the basement. I went in, I, I learned that he invented the bazooka which is a shoulder launched rocket. I learned that the book this High man, they actually took one to the moon in his honor, one of those books. And then I also learned about the New York Times headline 238,799.5 Miles, the Moon rocket missed its target. And so, as Chris McGuire would say, my humor detector went off by strangers telling you, you can't do this. This isn't for you. And so I saw, because of my study in comedy, my relentlessly going up on stage. But I tuned in to humor. What makes people laugh, what triggers laughter. And so when I saw that headline, I knew it did. But now I couldn't just use it for a laugh. I used it to make a point as well as getting the laugh. But it's because I took the time to research more. I never used anything about the bazooka. I never used anything about the book they had, I think the flag that was on the moon there. I didn't use any of that, but I did find a piece of gold. And so we're never done. We're never done. We should always be upping our content. There we go, upping our content. Uc up your content. Mark.

What I find interesting there is the piece that's for the experienced speakers. In case you haven't noticed, the world is changing constantly. Technology is changing constantly, industries are changing constantly. Need I say more? So, as well versed as we may be in our topic and as experienced as we are, ask yourself, what more can I learn? What is new in my area of expertise? Who is trending in my area of expertise? We have so many tools available to us now. I won't go into AI and in depth, we can use AI tools, but who are the emerging leaders in the field? And maybe like Darren Lacroix, could I possibly call or interview or ask them a question? Because if you don't ask, the answer is always no. This may sound a little bit off track, but I need to go back almost two years. As we were working on our podcast, one of my dream guests was a man we interviewed almost two years ago. His name is Peter Drury. Peter Drury is an English football commentator, highly experienced and ranked as one of the best football commentators in the world. I had this dream, Darren, of getting him on our podcast. I want someone from his field to, to share his ideas, in a sense to bring new content to our podcast. It's World cup in Qatar in the Middle East. I'm thinking, I see his LinkedIn profile. No, he's a world known, he's the best. I mean this guy is famous. The whole world knows him. He's, he doesn't know who I am. I on a lark, I sent a note because he has no social media but LinkedIn. I send him a LinkedIn message and say, well, at least I sent it one or one. There's a couple days later I get a response back, then I get an email and he says yes. And Peter Drew it was appeared in our podcast, I think January of 2022, but 23. And I'm like, all I had to do was ask to do what seemed didn't make any sense. This guy doesn't know who I am. He's world famous. I mean Darren, we had him on the podcast. You saw this. He's his one commentary there. People play, I think over and over again for the last several years, he's famous. But I asked the question, he said yes. He came on and we have since maintained a good relationship because I asked the question, I asked who is the person I want? Who is the best at what he does? And Peter Drury stood up. Boom. I'll reach out to him. You may know someone who is now trending in your industry, in your area of expertise, who may be open to a conversation, maybe being mentioned in your speech, being mentioned in your book or on your podcast, but you haven't asked them. And they make whole within them a wealth of content that could help you to prepare more effectively, effectively for your audience. So the question is, who is trending? Who do I need to know what's new in the industry? Despite all I know already, what more can I learn and what more can I share? And if nothing else comes through, it's this, Darren, you were the example. My goodness, you are such an example of this, Darren. You put the hard yards in, you put the work in on the, on the back. So when it comes up to the front. Wow, you're so lucky. It's amazing.

Lucky.

You put the work in that's important. So we can find new content by simply examining what else exists in our industry, what's trending, who's trending, what's being said, what's new, what's different and stay on top of your game.

Yeah, Mark, I think this is more relevant to those experienced speakers than maybe they think we've got to be constantly upgrading. And we talked about it couple weeks ago that Ed Tate's philosophy of, okay, this piece of content, this piece of content, what serves this audience best and the winner, I think he called it the winning draw or something like that, that he would pit content against content in training, module against module. What is most important, what will serve this audience the best for this topic? So I took this to another level, Mark, I just. And it was just a Little tiny voice in my head that said, maybe you should check this out. So I was speaking to LV cva, which is the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. And I'm presenting to them. And my goal is to talk to their salespeople to help them be aware of my all in keynote where I use Vegas stories combined with my story and as a keynote. So it's a Vegas theme keynote for conventions in Vegas. I want to create that awareness. And at the end of the meeting, somebody pulled me aside and said, well, you know, sometimes we get requests for someone to present about the history of Vegas. And we have a historian, but she's not really a speaker. And it just. Something just like clicked. And I just held that thought. And then when I got back home, I was like, you know what? I need to meet this lady. She's a historian on Vegas. I bet there are some great Vegas stories from back in the day about all in. So I reached out to her, just hoping to meet her for coffee or talk to her, see what she might. She invited me for a personal one on one tour of the archives. So there's an archives building here that's not open to the public, but I was able to go in and she showed me these. Oh, my gosh. It was just amazing, all this memorabilia. There was like a program from when Muhammad Ali fought back in the day here, but he had just changed his name, so he was Muhammad Ali. But on the flyer it still said Cassius Clay. Wow, that's not an all in story. But it's cool that I'm just learning all this. So I go around and she's like, I have to show you this video. And Sammy Davis Jr. Had been part of, I guess, a trio with his uncles, and he had performed with them from when he was a kid. That's kind of how he got started, I think now she said, what do you notice about this video? And she played the video and he's performing. And I was just like, wow, wait, something. It's. It's his eyes. His eyes. And she said, yes, this was prior to his car accident when he lost his eye. And so I was so intrigued. And she said that he was done with entertainment. He was. That was it. He can't perform with one eye. And now I still need to research this and validate exactly how this was said. So this is my second hand prior to doing more research because you and I need to do more research to verify things before we go talking about it. But I'm just using this as an Example of. It's not verified yet, but apparently Frank Sinatra went into his hospital room, was talking about to him, and he said he's done with entertainment. And he said, wait a minute. He goes, look at your successes. You're black and you're Jewish and you made it in entertainment.

Yeah.

You can be an entertainer with one eye.

Wow. Perspective.

Yes. And so I just love that I was like, I didn't know Sinatra was a motivational speaker, but because so many of us know him after the accident, you know, his performance, that might not have happened without that perspective from Frank Sinatra. So that's going to be a story that I need to make better and stronger and verify it, obviously. But that's a great story of all in. We need to bring perspectives that people don't know. Look, all in. It's a universal message. I get it. It's not new, but it's as Mark says, I bring me to it.

Yeah.

And that's, you know, and I also. And marketing it. So they know it's a thing. Anyway, my point is that you're never done doing research. You're never done. There was another story of a gentleman who literally was one of the first photographers here in Vegas. And their whole. They were news photographers. Their whole goal was to market Vegas. And I don't even remember what year, but back in like the 50s, they were taking pictures of Vegas and they were trying to market Vegas as the entertainment capital of the world. Well, it wasn't back then. They were just getting started. But this is. There was a famous picture when the atomic blast, the atomic bomb went off. And they had a. There was a hill or, excuse me, a mountain where all the reporters could go to take pictures. Safe distance. Well, apparently this gentleman who was the leader of this news team slept in that day and didn't wake up in time. So he had to figure out something to do to take a picture of the atomic blast. And one of his friends owned a drugstore. So he went onto the roof of the drugstore and placed. And you can see the atomic blast in the background. But you see signs of Vegas on either side, these billboards. And the blast in the background. Well, apparently when he's taken the picture and his foot fell through the roof.

Oh, no.

And that caused him to like snap the picture. And this famous picture was done when he was literally all in or one foot.

Literally all through. All through the roof. He went through the roof. Darren. Boom, boom, boom, boom. Ching. I know a bad pun. I know I haven't done any bad puns. In a long time. But you've talked about Darren, the effort that people that we really need to go through. As much knowledge as we have, as much experience as we have is always something new to learn, particularly as as things as industry as the world is changing. And I can't discount in I can't devalue enough the power of research. I think research has become somewhat of a theme of today's podcast regarding not enough content. And I said earlier, you may have more content than you know. And to touch on that briefly, I will say this Darren, for everyone listening here, very often we think we got to have great stories, fantastic experiences. But you have. I say this. I restated this particular thought, Darren. I used to say your story need not be sensational, it need be sincere. But I've since changed that. Your story need not be remarkable, it just needs to be relatable. Which goes back to what you said earlier about the connection to the audience. You may have material from your own life, an experience you may have discounted that may be relevant to an audience you have or a potential new audience. So here's my Ask friends, over time, review the items and the content in your story folder over time. Once in a while, just go back and see what's there. You may literally unearth a memory and you say, oh wow, I had forgotten about that one. I haven't told that story in about six or seven years, but right now it's really relevant. And we have this mode. Darren, we want the next big new thing. We want the next new iPhone or Google Pixel 2. We want the next new tech. We want the next new AI tool. We want the next, the next, the next. But I submit to you, my friends, we may have more content than we know in the foundation of the building. We may have fantastic material in the basement. Picture, if you will, somebody going down to mom and dad's basement and they turn the light on and they go, they pull the chain but all chain light there and click, click. And you go, it's dusty down here. And you walk down and you see the tricycle you used to ride when you were 6 years old or 5 years old. And something about that sparks a memory that becomes applicable to a topic you're discussing now to a client you're dealing with right now. And you go, oh my goodness, I'd forgotten about that. In the basements of our memories, in the back of our story folders is material and content that could be dynamite, explosive for your audience if we invest the time as part of our process as professionals to review and rehearse what we've used in the past. In the past. Because sometimes you dust that thing off and it becomes pure gold. You may have more content in the archives, in the basement, in the back burner, in the back of the bus, or somewhere buried deep in that story folder. And when you pull that bad boy out, everything changes.

Yeah, research. Here's the cool part. If it doesn't make it in your keynote, it could be a social media post related to your topic. So more research. I think whether you're an emerging presenter or a seasoned pro, we should always continue to research our topic for that better example and maybe if even not better than what you have, maybe it's rock solid. That could be a social media post, an article, a LinkedIn post. Look, we've got to continue to be that expert. So we've got to continue to search, gather more content. And Mark, in the old days of stand up, there's opening act, middle act, and headliner. So of course all the middle acts are trying to become headliners. Well, how do you become a headliner that you are the middle act. That is so good the headliner can't follow you. So eventually you earn earn that spot. Same thing with your content. We've got to continue to get new content. And what's exciting, Mark, is if we know our keynote cold. But we have that one new story. I don't know about you, but it kind of gets me excited that, like I'm excited about the, you know, Sammy Davis Jr. Piece that I'm going to add in once I continue to verify, you know, what Frank said. But now it refreshes the whole keynote. And what's cool is it's not all brand new. I know the rest of it. Good. Well, cold could deliver it in my sleep. But now I put this one new one in and it becomes exciting to see what are people talking about after. And one of the great things about Takadot is what do they comment on? For those of you don't know, takadot.com, a game changer in our industry, a way to get feedback, get client leads, but also, you know, figure out what's working and what are people talking about. So if I do this, and right now I have a story about the Vegas sign, a story about Hoover Dam, a story about the Raiders. So the last time I gave it, people talked about the Raiders story. Well, if all of a sudden I start hearing about The Sammy Davis Jr. Or Frank Sinatra story, well, I know that's More memorable because that's what they're talking about after. And then when people come up to you after, ask them, they say, oh, it was great. Well, you know, it's nice to get the pat on the head, the pat on the back. That's nice. But that does not serve your next audience. It does not serve your career. It serves your ego. So we got to ask questions that serve our career. What was most helpful to you? What stories do you remember? So if we ask that question, they're happy to, you know, comply and give us that feedback.

Well, that's gold.

If we start hearing about the Frank Sinatra story a lot, we know that stays that just earned headliner status. Okay, which ones aren't they talking about? Maybe it's the Hoover Dam story, but we've got a. Doesn't mean I still can't use it in social media. It doesn't mean I can't use it elsewhere. But in the keynote, you only got 45 minutes. If you got too much content, go to episode 274.

One more thought for you. Well, one more thought, which comes in the form of a question. Now, friends, I know Darren Lacroix pretty well. It's been 23 years. We've been best friends, been brothers. And every year we do a program called Game Changers, our annual conference. We all get together with Vegas. All the coaches are there, We've been guest experts in. And Darren, you've made a commitment for the last several years that every year at Game Changers you're going to come up with new content really briefly. Just let our listeners understand why you feel so passionate about that and how it has helped you as a professional in your career to have that mindset.

Well, we have the same audience that comes primarily every year. We have a lot of repeat attendees, which is awesome. But now I bring in new experts, of course. But they're seeing you, me, Ed, and I feel obligated. And for me, it's a creativity thing. I need to be creative, so I need to create new content. So it drives me. But what's cool is I have a new audience that I deliver this to and then based on the response and how it goes, I may use it in the future, I may not. But I'm all in trying out and testing this new content. A few years ago, I did the 17 minutes to your dream. Well, that ended up becoming a book all in. I did last year, that became a keynote. So what am I going to do this year? I'm thinking before 8am.

How do you Start your day.

What do you do before 8am? Because then once 8am starts the rest of your day. So what do you do? What are those habits that you do first? I remember the best advice I ever got about writing a book was so simple, write before breakfast, by the pool, right before breakfast. But no, I didn't do it. But what it was telling me was then the rest of your day doesn't get in the way. And that's why I just heard this concept from a presenter, Terry Seville. Foy.

Yeah, yeah.

I've been listening to a lot of her lately and she has a book about it. And I was like, ooh, I like that idea. I love that concept. So I gotta create my version version of it. But anyway, so Mark, whether you're new or whether you're seasoned, we've got to constantly create and find and research new content.

Yeah, yeah. And I love that last thought, really. One bad pun, listeners. I know I was been good so far, but one bad pun said, Darren, should I write right before breakfast? Friends, we all have good content emerging. You may have a little. You may have more than you know. So I invite you to do more research. I invite you to go back to your archives. I invite you to invest the time and be bold enough to find out who's in the industry, who you can talk to and listen. One of the ways to get new content is to be a part of Statestown University. Why? We help each other on earth and we do story digs to find out what's inside of us that we can provide, provide to our clients, to our audiences, to those who depend on us to help inspire them, to instruct them, and to guide them into what we know. It's a worldwide community. We'd love to have you be a part of what we do. And Darren, I want to thank you for the opportunity I get to share with you, your constituents, your clients, and to bring this podcast with new ideas for everyone who listens. And it is my hope, friends, when this podcast is over and you leave and you turn this thing off, you begin to think, how can I find new content in my life? Who can I find new content in my experience? How can I find new content? Who can I interview, and what more research can I do? So my next speech will be unforgettable. That's my challenge to you.

See you next week.

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