Ep. 286 PREPARATION MOTIVATION!

Preparation, motivation. What really motivates you to do the work? Now, we want to look good on stage, but what else motivates you to do that work? That maybe what gets you to go all in in the preparation part portion of your presentation. So there's what happens before the stage and there's what happens on stage. But we just had an interesting, let's say true life motivation where we saw the importance of the expectation.

Prior preparation.

Yeah. Prior to the actual presentation.

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.

Okay, Mark, we talk about ego being bad, but sometimes ego can be good.

Oh, yeah.

Definitely helps motivate you to do the work you need to do and maybe even more so. Here's what we mean by this. When your ego's at stake, you're gonna put in more work. Now, we know there's a certain date that you present, but we just had an experience and we won't get into the organization. But it was executives, like high level presenters that we were working with and we were coaching and there was a rehearsal planned and one of the executives, oh, my goodness. When the rehearsal was about to happen, when it was approaching two or three days prior, this one executive went all in. And I believe having that rehearsal on the calendar was very motivating. Now, you may or may not have a rehearsal on your calendar, but what if you did? What if you put on your calendar that you were going to even do a walkthrough with your coach or a peer, it will force you to work, work more diligently, work more deeply to make a bigger difference. An amazing transformation happened in the last two or three days for this executive because of that power of the motivation prior to the presentation, because there was a rehearsal. So it's a presentation before the presentation. And Mark, I remember sitting with my first clients from Iprospect back in the early 2000, when the executives who are going out to pitch their company in a presentation, they had to sit with me and we would do what we call a walkthrough. So it's a presentation, one on one presentation. They would have to show me their slides, defend your Slide, defend your slide. And often because they had to present to me, they did more pre work. And even when they worked with me in the middle of that presenting, they would make some changes and adjustments. Well, had we not had that walkthrough, had we not had the rehearsal that we had earlier today, I don't think as much energy and effort would have been put in by everyone involved. So consider this. What if you schedule a run through a walkthrough, a rehearsal two weeks prior to keep yourself accountable because you have to show someone else your ego is at risk, you have the fear of judgment. Well, whatever it takes to prepare more is going to make you better on game day. So even though it's not the end audience and Mark, I told you prior when we were preparing for this, when I was working with Adi in Spain, the executive, unbeknownst to me I was there a day early, spent a day ahead of time, out of the blue, said, hey, I'd like to see your slides. Gulp, gulp. Now because he just wanted to see my slides. He doesn't have all the backstory or presentation with him. But I can't say no. It was my highest paid speech to date for that one. So obviously I couldn't say I wouldn't say no to a client anyway. And I also know that I needed to because they may use some different language that I use that I put in my slides. So I will say I was good with it and I was nervous about it and I prepared more because of it. I went through a walkthrough of my own to help prepare me and get me closer, get me better. And it increased all the way through. And some of the, you know, one of his comments, we took Adi, we call Chris McGuire I had writing jokes for me. He said, Adi, all drinks included. And I still remember to this day the event planner, I'll just call him Pierre, the event planner said, oh, I'm going to hear about this for years. And he laughed. But guess what? Also it did. It increased my belief in that joke and there were a couple others that I had to take out. A couple that I needed to clarify that one, the belief went up. The other edits, it made me better. It forced you to present ahead of time, which forced me to then rethink some of it as if I was presenting it that day, that time. So that preparation motivation got me to work harder. And now as a result the final presentation was much better and tighter.

Now, wish you told me this 20 years ago, Darren, because I had an opposite experience. I was speaking in Canada, in the province of Quebec, which is, you know, French and English bilingual. And I really wanted to impress the audience in terms of showing them how much research I did and my preparation. Of course I got my slides. Ooh, wouldn't it be cool to convert these into French so they can see me put French slides, Tell me it's a good idea, it's a good idea. Of course it's a good idea. But when you're using Google Translate From 15, 20 years ago, the grammar and tense isn't always accurate. And I should have done a walkthrough with someone from that area first because that preparation would have made sure when I showed certain slides, I didn't get laughs or snickers or incorrect or inappropriate responses because it had not been prepared properly. And the thing is, I didn't have the motivation 20 years ago. I didn't have the understanding 20 years ago that this would have been helpful for me. And I remember though, in 2023, I gave a 12 or 13 minute presentation to a French speaking audience en francais, completely in French. And I'm not French fluent, but I had a coach who, you know, our friend from Canada, Alexandre, Matt. And he, I think he told us in our, in a, in a podcast episode, he became concerned because time was going by very quickly and believe me, I had preparation motivation when I saw the date approaching and he and I haven't had calls back to back, I would run through with him time and time again and the program went very, very well. Was I perfect? No. But I had that preparation motivation to meet with him two days in a row, just as our client did met with us three days in a row to make sure they were ready for today's run through. And I say that to tell you this, you got to go back to a previous step and the previous step is having that coach, having that advisor. When Darren was with Iprospect, he was the coach, he was the advisor who was challenging them to prepare properly, who was motivating them to be ready for their presentations. In the same way, Alexand was that coach who was helping me to be motivated. I gotta meet Alexander and walk through before I think I had to get my butt in gear. And similarly, when you have that coach, they're the perfect person or coaches, the perfect people to help you to feel that preparation motivation and to be there to walk through with you to catch what you may have missed. And for me, having Alexandre in 2023 was a game changer. I want to believe for us, our Coachee having us and also the deadline date for the walkthrough was very, very inspirational and I will say motivational as well.

Yeah, you get feedback that we need to allow us to adjust, make key and critical adjustments. If you're a toastmaster, the speech contest is happening now. Okay. One of the reasons we're so successful, helping stagetime members do better in the contest is the fact that they run their speech by us, their story by us. So because they're doing it for us, two world class coaches on every call on Wednesday and then their peers are watching as well. The other stage time members, they prepare more, but now they get critical feedback, tiny adjustments that make a big difference on game day. There's a reason NFL, National Football League, our football, not Mark's football.

That's okay.

Super bowl is coming up this weekend and because of that, have no doubt. Why do you think they have scrimmages? Well, the people who are on the practice team, how do you think they get elevated to the real team in the scrimmages? They're outstanding. So on your scrimmage, on your presentation prior to the actual game day, work like it's game day. Be open to feedback and have fun. Have fun. That person listening to the practice presentation, they're real people too. You might just motivate them in the process. As I say, there's no such thing as a practice presentation, but there's a preparation presentation. That rehearsal is also important to motivate you to make more changes. It's that that ego filled energy and panic and stress which is good in this situation, that's going to help you on game day because you've already walked through it once to a live audience. We had one of the executives Today, Mark, text WhatsApp us and apologize for the delivery. Well, you know, it's late. We get that it was great, it was good. But sometimes we ourselves guilty, we're more critical. But had the rehearsal not happen, I don't think the motivation and the preparation would have been as much. But now, boom, it's internalized more. We can make more adjustments before next week when we do the second rehearsal. So do you have a second rehearsal? Is there another coach? Is there another live person that you could present to? Just knowing that you have to do that presentation, ask yourself, would I do a little more work? Yeah, I think you would. I think you would. Especially if this person, if you care how well it goes, if you don't care, well, they're, you know, they're a wannabe. Well, that's not gonna motivate you. We're talking about preparation, motivation.

And you know, what was important to me, Darren, as well. I thought about recording myself as I go back to my French keynote experience. I recorded myself quite a few times and I was not particularly thrilled with what I saw, how I sounded, trying to speak a foreign language to try and service this global audience. But at the same time having that run through, run through the whole thing on video, watch myself. And I had a critical eye as well. I had my bride, my Andrea, my wife of. My wife of over 40 years is a wonderful source to see, to tell me honestly, how am I doing? But having that recording, knowing that a timeline, all those combined were helpful. There are times you're going to walk through a part of your talk. You can go through your main story or you're going to go through your clothes, and that's fine. But having the whole walkthrough really helps to motivate you. How can I make this better? How can I make it better? I only have a week. I only have three days. And what was interesting with our clients on this experience we had with different speakers, not everyone hearing this will find themselves on the platform with three or two or three other speakers. I totally get that. But having a peer group there watch this. Of other individuals who understand what the experience is like was for them also very motivating. And it was nice to see them expressing gratitude and respect for the other speakers who were there, honored to be on the same platform with you. That was really great camaraderie because they haven't really met each other before in person. But the cool thing is, if you have the opportunity to do your walkthrough with individuals who have been down that road before, if you have, maybe you're a toastmaster competing, what about convening or meeting with other individuals who have been at that area contest before or that division contest before? I want to run through with them, my peer group who fully understand the situation, who fully understand my emotions, who. Who fully understand the pressure. Having that walkthrough with them is a key part of the preparation. Because now when they share with you from an experience standpoint what you have done, it can then inspire and motivate you to make even more tweaks. And their words of encouragement can also be the I didn't know I had done that well. I was so hard on myself. But they can offer you what you have done well, they can offer you some advice and some tips and ideas. But that experience of having them Those who have been down that road before with you can really inspire you and lift you up as part of your preparation. Assemble a team of those who have been down that road before.

Whenever possible, last insight from me on this subject. Don't tell them about your presentation. Actually deliver your presentation. So don't say, I'm gonna do this, and then I'm gonna talk about this, and then I'm gonna talk about this. That might be helpful early on, but when we get closer, much more powerful to actually deliver it, even if it's virtually compared to onstage, on stage is better. But if you don't have that opportunity, virtual works. It's gonna get it in your body. You're gonna hear yourself say it and. And as Mark said, record yourself. And oh, by the way, you're going to hate listening to the recording. You will not like it at all. Hate is a strong word, but appropriate. Here's what I want you to listen to when you're listening. Those moments. Let's just say those. Here's a new foundational phrase, Mark. Those cringe moments.

Mmm.

You're not gonna like some moments, but there's gonna be moments where you. Where you actually cringe. All cringe means is, if I cringe, I must correct. If I cringe, I must correct. It's just something that next time you're gonna make that better, stronger, faster. Maybe a different word, maybe a different delivery. Guess what? If you don't fix those cringe moments, the audience is going to cringe.

Yeah, I get a feeling, too. And Darren, really quickly, I do want to point out how powerful it is to not set up the presentation. In our today, we had three presenters, and all we did was applaud and welcome them. There was no setup, There was no preamble. There was no background. They simply told their stories. And even in rehearsal, I can say clearly there were a couple of people there online, virtually, who had sweaty eyeballs to admit I was one of them. I've heard these talks before. We've been coaching them. But in that moment when they had that walkthrough, they felt as if, okay, I've got my peers, I've got the leaders here. I'm going to go all in. And I know these stories, but I had sweaty eyeballs as well. So please don't. Don't discount the power of having that walkthrough, even if you don't know it perfectly. Having the individuals, the peers, the coach, having the meeting planner, having individuals in the room will inspire you with your preparation, motivation to deliver in a way you might not have expected and all the speakers today were moving. Give yourself a chance Engagement in preparation motivation for your next presentation.

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