Ep. 285 YOUR BACK POCKET SPEECH?

Hey there, Mark Brown. Okay, your back pocket speech. Now I've heard of this in Toastmasters before, but we were just on the line at a pre call rehearsal for YPO. So the CEOs that were coaching coming up in Barcelona and the lead who's putting this all together, we were just joking around about a back pocket speech, which I hadn't heard that term in the corporate arena.

Well, yeah, yeah, it's so funny because he said, yeah, in case you don't get a celeb to come and speak, we'll have one of you guys offer, of course you turn it back on him and made fun of somebody else. But what is a back pocket speech? When do you need it and how do you use it? Let's find 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, 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.

Even if you don't think it's going to happen, it will happen sometime. Someplace when people know you're a speaker or presenter, where someone gets sick, someone doesn't show up, something happens with the agenda and they turn to you and they want you to fill in an important gap in the schedule like it's going to happen. Mark, that's in my old days of stand up. That's when you go from middle act to headliner, when the headliner doesn't show up or they're drunk or, or they have a flat tire. So that opportunity comes, but we gotta be ready. And I love what Craig Valentine says. Don't be ready, stay ready. Or don't get ready, stay ready.

Yeah. You know, Darren, I had an actual experience like that very early in my career. I was doing a youth presentation in a little town called, get this, Nippawin, Saskatchewan, Canada. There were several flight delays and airlines tracks at the time. I had to go from New York to Vancouver, Vancouver across to somewhere in Saskatoon and get a ride in a car up north in the little Nippaway, Saskatchewan, Massive regional youth conference in that province in Canada. And I was one of the speakers. Of course I'm going to do my program. And while I was there, I was approached by the organizers because another speaker named Mark, who was supposed to be There couldn't be there. And those of us who are NSA National Speakers association pros, you will probably know the name Mark Sharon Brock out of Minnesota, CPA, CSP legend in the business, made his bones doing youth audiences. 20, 30 years ago, I became Mark Part 2, happened to be named Mark as well. I delivered my presentation and had to deliver a second one hour presentation in Mark's stead. Mark simply could not make it in time with all the flight cancellations. Again, this is probably 20 years ago or more. And I realized I had something to offer the audience. I was able to deliver. They appreciated it and Mark of course thanked me. But had I not been prepared just in case something went wrong, it would have been difficult for the organizers, for the attendees, and of course for the entire situation. And I'm so thankful. Not bragging, but I'm thankful I was able to serve them. Because you know what, Darren? When you can step in in a pinch with a back pocket speech, the meeting planner looks good, the event goes more smoothly, you build your own reputation. And the best part is you get to serve an audience who needed to hear a message from you on that day.

And you look like a rock star because you were able to, unprepared, go up and kick butt in a situation that warranted it. I mean, think about this. In my old days of stand up comedy, you're in a bowling alley in a comedy show and most people aren't trained to fill in. In that situation they might be funny people, but you can't just take somebody from the audience, hey, any funny people here? And hand them the microphone. Unless you're trained for that specific skill, that's tough. They have to give money back. Now I'm talking a tiny little comedy show. But the same principle applies to a whole convention or conference. Now at a convention or conference, they may have more options, but who do they know about? Does the event planner know you and Mark? I don't know if you've ever done this. I often tell the event planner, you know, hey, because when they're doing a big convention and conference, there's 12 breakout sessions. Like four, four sessions, three different slots. And that's, that's just one day, the next day they have another one. So I often say, hey, if you, if some, one of the breakout speakers doesn't show up, let me know. I'm happy to, you know, to fill in. And you may save their day.

Yep.

By just offering because they didn't think of that. You're the keynote speaker. They didn't think of that. Now, some of them will have the awareness to consider that, but some of them won't because they're handling a thousand challenges. Which by the way, is the reason you and I need to let the event planner know we're on the ground, the boots are on the ground, we landed, we made it, or we made it to the hotel. They need that moment that, okay, that one's in, that one's in, that one's in. Because when that one's not in and they're filling a slot, hey, look, at a convention or conference they could cancel one breakout and then people go to other rooms and spread out. But if they already have the room set up, they already have it on the schedule, they already have it on the calendar and they heard you as the keynote speaker. Now they love you, they have rapport with you, and so they're probably more likely to go to your session than someone else's because of your now notoriety that day. Now, if someone has a specific problem that one of the other breakout sessions solves, of course they're going to go there. But I'm just saying it's a huge opportunity. And that's not even a back pocket speech, that's a back pocket training. You know, I'm ready to go with my slides. So as we suggest, have a 30 minute deck, a 45 minute deck and a 60 minute deck of your main presentations. So what is that, let's say motivational back pocket speech that you could offer? You know, what are the stories that you could tell? And have the take the, have the take the time, invest the time to just say, what would I do if I get called upon? Because it's going to train your brain. And by the way, when you go to conventions and conferences and meet the event planner, make that a new question. Hey, if anybody doesn't show up, let me know, I'm happy to fill in. Hey, if anyone doesn't show up, let me know, I'm happy to fill in. They might say, oh, thank you, I appreciate that. And they might say, I didn't even think of that. And you might solve a problem. And it again, our goal is to help the meeting planner with any of their issues. Mark?

Yeah, I want to really drill down a little bit on the whole meeting planner side of it. I'm going to ask you to think about the meeting planner, what they go through. Darren gave you a pinch, a small snippet of what they may be going through as they're planning an event. And sometimes as he said, they want to Plan breakouts, opening keynote, closing keynote or end note to some people. And I want to fill all these slots in your pre event conversation. Maybe you there's they heard about you as offering a keynote. But if as Darren says, you mention that I can also do a breakout, they may book you right then. Or as he says, it's in the back of their brain. The event comes, they're handling 83 different things at one time and they find out, hey, you're 2 o' clock in a room in the breakout room C. They just called, they got stuck at the airport, they can't come. Oh my gosh. Oh, Darren Lacroix said he's here. I got his number. Me ping him. Hey Darren, could you do a talk for us on maybe team building or whatever? And it just may very well be one more topic that's right down your lane. It's a perfect opportunity. Sure. Now I'm going to cause a little bit of concern here because some may say, hey, look, I'm on the ground for a keynote. That's my schedule. I'm going to add a second piece. They're going to pay me for that first. I'm not going to argue or wrangle that. But what I do know is this offering that second program out of goodwill can go a really long way for referrals in the future. I'm not saying you must not charge them. You make that call. I'll say again, in my experience, making the offer out of goodwill can go a long way for referrals and callbacks. So think about it and ask yourself, what would I offer if somebody gave me the opportunity to deliver an additional presentation because they needed it? Remember, give value and serve your audience.

Hey Mark, hold on, wait. I need to grab something real quick. Can you fill in for just one.

Minute or can I fill it now? By the way, is it on rehearse? It is happening right now. I was going to go grab something real quick. I want to ask also ask you to think about the audience you have. Sometimes as presenters we go to a keynote, we know the audience is, we aren't that concerned about breakouts. We get to the breakout and we realize there are individuals in the breakout who have an opportunity also to refer us because they say, oh, we had a keynote speaker, he was awesome. I found out they filled in for a breakout and it was fantastic. We got to get this guy to come to our company, to our, our city, our state, our event. But think of the opportunities you can provide when you hear me carefully deliver additional Value. It also speaks to your character, to your mindset, and to your professionalism. Darren, what did you go get? Talk to me. What do you got?

Well, hey, I live in Las Vegas. There's a ton of meetings here every year, 24,000. One of the things that I've been doing as I market my all in keynote is I created a in emergency.

In case, break in case of presentation. Emergency speaker didn't show up, call me. Hot Topics all in 70 minutes to your dream. Better stories, better business, and unforgettable presentations. Wow, I love this line. Darren, I'm a local. I'm a local expert who has been presenting for decades. His card says, break in case of emergency. I love it. It's like you have a fire extinguisher on the wall. If you only hear in the. You can't see it. It's wonderful. Darren, drill down for a second on that for us.

Well, I just realized one of the reasons I moved here was to sleep in my own bed more often. And there are conventions and conferences that happen all day, every day here in Vegas. And guess what? Some people, some speakers, some presenters didn't make it in or they got Covid, whatever that is. So I made this little card, break in case of emergency. And I've had some people who work at some of the hotels here, who work in catering, et cetera, who love this and kept this, which is super cool. Now, can I tell you. Ooh, I got three speeches because of it. No, but I can tell you I'm creating awareness. And our job in marketing is the people who are the decision makers at the hotel, at the convention center, at the conference center. And if the decision makers aren't aware of you, they can't hire you.

Oh, Darren, please say that again.

If the decision makers who aren't aware of you, or if they aren't aware of you, they can't hire you. Now, awareness could come from somebody else who knows, who knows the problem and say, oh, I know of this presenter here in town. Maybe they could find fill in. So directly or indirectly. But that's why we need to be unforgettable every time you and I take the stage. So they want you to fill in.

I tell, I'm chuckling. I thought of the line, hey, I know a guy. I don't worry about. I know a guy. And of course I'm very bad Jamaican, being in Brooklyn, Italian. But that's beside the point. If they know you are there and they may be aware of you, you're right. If we can Raise awareness. They may not need me, but they know I'm there because one day they just might need me. One day they just might need you. How can we make them aware that you have a service to offer? It's available to them just in case they need it. Right?

Yeah. Have that motivational slide deck, even if you're a trainer, have a motivational slide deck ready to key in on your key stories. Have that theme that runs through it. Now you may have to adjust it because of the situation. Mark brought up team building. I don't teach team building. However, if somebody needed me in a pinch and I had to and it's going to make or break their conference, I can put something together from some of my other workshops that would make it work. Is it going to be unforgettable? Maybe not, but it's going to fill the void and help the event planner and they'll probably be super thankful because of that. So are you ready? Do you have a back pocket speech or training session that could be a breakout session?

Yeah. One more thought I want to share with you about this. You know, Darren just said, quite honestly, I'm not really a team building guy, but sometimes we think about our lives and, and our businesses. We may be able to talk about what our experience has been. Now Darren won't brag on you, but Darren has a team. He has team that works with him in doing administrative work. He has a team of coaches who we work together in stage time. Darren hosts our own event, big event once a year called Game Changers. We host a member Summit. We'll have 10 or 10 or 11 speakers at any given time at events like this. So I'm saying this to you while telling Darren he has a team, he understands how to put us together and he could talk about what it takes to plan an event. So I'm saying to you also think about your main topic. But are there peripheral topics that are not your expert? Number one, Go to topics, but you have experience in them that you can talk about. Make some notes, jot it down. Keep a file of potential back pocket presentations and you might be surprised to know exactly what you have that you hadn't really thought about. As Darren said, will you be unforgettable? No. But not only will you fill the void, it'll also help you to recall material, topics, subject matter and stories that you have in your own experience that can be of vital importance to somebody. Especially somebody who needs it in a pinch when they have no other options. I'm telling you, you already probably have in your in your disposal, at your disposal. Your own back pocket speech. Get it ready, use it and be unforgettable.

As Craig Valentine says, don't get ready. Stay ready with your back pocket speech. See you next week.

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