Ep. 294 “BETTER” MINDSET

Hey there, Mark Brown. Better mindset. But. But what's wrong with my mindset? Look, if you're listening to this, one of the things that I've learned over the years that serves me well is every presentation, every event. We just finished Game Changers. Every event is to sit down and debrief with the client. In my case, with our co faculty, including the gentleman, Dave Odie, who is my online host, including Regina, who is the person at the front door. How do we make it better? I have a speech tomorrow over on the strip here in Vegas, and I have my content that I always do, but I've got to bridge the gap to that client. So how do I make it better? One of their concerns was teaching unforgettable presentations. Mark, what you and I teach. One of their concerns was confidence that that's not in my deck, but for this client, it's better if I include that section.

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 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.

You know, Darren, as coaches, we always tell our clients to ask themselves a key question. How do I say it better in fewer words? It's a pretty good principle. But as I talk to you and I hear you discussing what you're doing, you know, next week and so on, tomorrow, rather for your program, it occurred to me that as presenters it's one thing, but as professionals, we gotta ask the same question in a few different ways. He said, yes, as a speaker, how do I say it better in fewer words? The key word here is better. We may say, well, how do I make it better? How do I do it better? And just for a few moments today, as we discuss mindset, we invite you to think about how do I make X, whatever X is better? How do I do Y, whatever Y is better? It's about a better mindset for better performance, not just better speaking. Hmm.

How do I better connect with this audience? How do I better improve my slides for next time? I look at my slides and I have, like my standard deck, and then I have, this is the most current one. So if I ever want to go back, I have the, ooh, you know what? I should bring that back in I should bring that back in. But it's in the mindset of making it better. And sometimes, Mark, as you know, just like in wordsmithing, making it better often means cut something.

Yep, cut something.

Because it will be stronger and tighter if there's, let's just say, less distraction, less tangent. And sometimes, even though we think it's good, we think it's important, we've got to remember, you know, we talk about this all the time. The thought process in the listener's mind. The thought process in the listener's mind. So what mindset are they bringing to our content? And what mindset. What we're talking about here is having that. How do I make it better? How do I make it better? We just had a debrief call. Literally just got off it from our event. Game changers. We do it once a year. I learned from Ed Tate. We gotta do the debrief and have everybody who's part of the faculty in on the conversation. Because one person might bring up one idea, and then everyone's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's true. I saw that, too. You know, we have. There's always going to be that one random person with a random comment. But sometimes that random comment might have been a common thought, that only one person voiced it. Or it could be that random thought that truly is random and doesn't matter. But as a, let's say, cohort of all of us who were there talking it through, you know, there was one person who was not happy with the walk to go from their hotel over to the event site. That was a random one. And they could have taken an Uber. They could have taken a cab. However, for them, it was legit. It was a long walk. It was only a block or two. And when we're in a casino, we also have the random thoughts. Oh, the casino was smoky. This was that. This was that. So we have to take all of it and into consideration on what truly will make this better. Next time, next year, next presentation.

And you said, darren, next presentation, which brings a thought to my mind. Many of us work really hard and really long on our presentations to the point where we've honed them, and they're pretty much perfect. I say that with air quotes because it's functional, it works. And I say this as a person of experience. I do a talk for young people that I've been doing since 1995 or 30 years. It has undergone several revisions and changes with content, but the core is still the same. And I can say, you know what? It really Works now. I'm in the groove. I'm set. But part of a better mindset regarding to our presentations might be in a moment of solitude. I'm going to take some time and revisit what I have. Is this really the best way I can deliver this? Has something happened currently that might be a good fit for me? And if the mindset is how can I make it better? Not so much in fewer words, but just stop. How can I make it better? As time goes by, what will happen is we'll find, oh, I can improve by inserting this, adding this, modifying this, and changing that. I tell the story often. Darren, you're probably tired of hearing it, of me going to the Middle east to speak as an opening speaker for a conference where the other speaker for the end was also from North America. At the end of the conference, I sat down with the conference planner. We had supper, and he told me how much he appreciated my talk because he could tell the other presenter was very seasoned, very experienced, but they brought what they always brought. He could tell that speaker probably gives that speech in Vegas, maybe also in Australia and right here in the Middle east as well, because they're so good and they're so comfortable. It's so well done. However, he said, you went the extra mile and you made it better by customizing for us. You spoke on our conference theme and we could tell that what you included was specifically done for us. I say all that to say part of the better mindset is I'm good at what I do. They want it perfect. But how can I make it better for the audience? How can I give the audience a better experience? And one way is to think as Darren, you always say, what does the audience see, what does the audience hear, what does the audience feel, and what does the audience experience? So if we take the phrase better mindset and focus on the word better, how do I think when I'm preparing? How do I think when I'm presenting? And if I think, how can I make it better? Every single time, it inspires me. It almost pushes me to improve not only my presentation, but. But the process by which I prepare for the audience to receive what I have for them. So here's my challenge. For those who are listening to this, who are viewing this today, in terms of your presentations, in terms of your planning, in terms of your preparation, in terms of your being coachable, how can you and I, how can we have a better mindset and a better approach to every aspect of what we do, not to mention the business Side, those of us who are part of Sage Time University in the Business Mastery program have to approach the whole process of how can I make my website better? You get Ford takes hot seats. How can I make my marketing better? And Darren, you can speak to that market more than I can, because I don't claim to be a marketing person or a business person, but I see the effort you put in to help our Stage Time family become better in every area of their presentations. So, once again, the invitation is to look at every. Every area of what you do and ask yourself, how can I be better? And that starts having a better mindset.

Darren and Mark, as you always notice when you and I are presenting, just like I literally did now, if you're watching the YouTube version, you saw it in action. If you're just listening online, what I was doing in the background was taking better mindset and putting quotes around better, which changes the meaning. And then because we've been talking about YouTube at Game Changers and thumbnails, or actually did Business Mastery yesterday was the thumbnail. So I made the words, the size of the font bigger to make it better. So on the thumbnail, it will stand out more, but it's the better mindset. Not just a better mindset, but having a mindset of how do we make it better. And those of you who are perfectionists, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. Yes, I get it. I'm sorry. But as I like to say, taking an idea from Alan Weiss and put my own spin on it was done is more profitable than perfect. You got to let go of perfection or you'll never have version 1.0. But you can't get the 2.0 making it better with without 1.0. And often we're trying to be perfectionists without feedback from eyes that will be on it in the moment. So how can we know their mindset or how they look at it or what the challenges or how do we make it better without that feedback? That's why in stage time, we have calls every week where we have two coaches, not just one, but two coaches giving feedback from two different directions, which helps make it stronger and how to make it better quickly, which is why we do that.

Mark, you know, I know some people, some folks may think, mark, I've heard you and Darren kind of nudge Toastmasters a little bit because of what they do. Don't get me wrong, I am a toastmaster. I pay my dues twice a year. I've been a toastmaster since 1993 at the time of this recording, that makes it 32 years I've been a Toastmaster, okay? And I was at my Toastmasters Club this week. I was involved. I was topic master. So don't get me wrong. However, I have said it before. One of the concerns I have that very often with our Toastmasters program is we get an assignment, we do a project, and it's done and we're on to the next project. One of the best experiences I've had as a Toastmaster occurred after I won the world title 30 years ago, as in my local club at Reader's Digest. And I was. I gave a project which I thought was okay, and my evaluator recommended I do it again. Sorry, Macon Toastmasters, where I. Where I live now, in Tindal, Georgia. Dr. Donald E. Kong, a doctor of. He's a professor of engineering at Mercer University, Macon, Georgia. I'm calling him out now. Dr. Donald E. Kong. He said, mark, I recommend you redo this project. Now, here was what was cool. As a Toastmaster, I am highly respected as a world champion, as is my partner, Darren here, okay? But it didn't matter. He knew in the environment, I am a member of the club. And he said, mark, you can do that better. I recommend you do it over. So that was a better. He gave me better advice, and he told me, if I do it again, I'll have a better result. Our ego has to be set aside. A better mindset trumps our ego. I'll say it again, A better mindset trumps our ego. And I'm so thankful that he. Dr. Ecom, gave me that evaluation. It made me do my best to make a presentation better. And now I think, hey, you can't rest on your Laura's body. Every time you prepare and present, you ask yourself, how can I make this better? How can my. My. How can I make my business better? How can I make my relationships with my clients better? And the idea of a better mindset enhances every area of your business, not just your presentation, not just your slides, and not just, you know, the content you provide. It really is the experience for the audience, for the meeting planner and the people with whom you associate. A better mindset will transform not only your presentation. It can transform your business. It can transform the experience your audience has, but it can transform you as a person with whom others want to work, associate and from whom they want to learn, because you have experience and expertise that they need. The question is, how can you even deliver it better?

Well said, Mr. Brown. Yes, better. If it ain't done. You can't make it better. And it's never done because you're always going to be making it better. Our friend Ed Tate says, freeze the design. There comes a point before performance that you have to stop making it better. And then once you do it, I highly, highly recommend you have a little debrief session with yourself or with a colleague that you say, okay, let me look at my slides again, and how could I make it better? Maybe there's a couple that I could cut out. So, Mark, in my all in keynote, I remembered that I had several years ago at Game Changers. I had talked about the biggest change in the casino industry. The biggest change in the casino industry. Now, keep in mind, all the casinos, they're looking at every penny and every minute and every. Every person. So they do the numbers religiously on. They get somebody in the door, they're going to earn this much. They get somebody in the door on a Tuesday, they earn this much. So they have it down to a science and they're always trying to up it. I get it. The biggest change in the industry, from my understanding and from my research, was chairs, Chairs, chairs. When they put chairs in front of slot machines, they made it more convenient to stay than to walk away. Chairs. That was one of the biggest changes in the casino industry. Chairs. Now, if you look at almost every slot machine, there's chairs there.

Why?

Because if they sit down, they're more likely to stay.

Right.

So you might not think that. Well, thinking about it, Mark, that's, that's a great example that I should probably incorporate into my all in keynote.

Made better.

So I remembered because I'm always, how do I make it better? How do I make it better? How do I make it better? So I'm now trying to find that research that I did, the slides that I did back then, and regroup, but now in a better format, tying into the new keynote. All in.

There's something you said earlier, Darren, we cannot gloss over. I was kind of working to get a point made, but I want to go back to it. And you said sometimes we can make it better by cutting something. That may sound a bit vague to some people, but in terms of your presentation and your script, there are times. We've mentioned this before on the podcast. There are times we are enamored and in love with a particular story that we have or an experience that we want to share with the audience. And it's really a cool story, it's a powerful story, but it may not be the best story for the presentation. You don't want to cut it, but you do. But it goes deeper than just cutting a story. I shouldn't say just. It goes deeper than cutting a story. The time you take to find out what is big picture necessary and what is superfluous. Nice, but not necessary. I know, Darren. I said superfluous. You're going to go for your dictionary. That's fine. I'll talk while you look it up.

Four syllables. We're getting.

We're kidding. Now, if you're new to the podcast, please know Darren and I have been friends for 24 years. We tease each other. I am the word nerd wordsmith. And Darren always says, please, Darren it down for me. So once in a while, I'll toss a word in that he may say, what? Superfluous? Yes, just for the fun of it. However, think about this. It's not just about the story that you tell in your presentation. Is there content in your presentation that looks good or sounds good, but really doesn't serve to advance the story, develop a character, or make your message more meaningful? We can tend to put nice words in it. Sounds good. But if you want. You want to make a tight presentation, ask yourself, would it be better if I took this one line out just yesterday? We were with a client who was reviewing their script and they pointed out, hey, I don't need that line, which was cool at one point. In terms of better mindset, both Darren and I identified another line in the presentation that we also recommended they remove. And they said, well, why would we want to do that? And Darren and I both said, ah, if we remove that line, the thought before it and the thought after it will flow more closely. Now, this may sound like getting into the weeds here for a moment, but understand this. Sometimes removing content in a presentation, sometimes removing a step in a process allows the process to flow more smoothly. But how do we determine that? I go back to what Darren said before. If we can debrief our presentation, if we can do a walkthrough or presentation, if we can debrief our process, which could be meeting with somebody we trust on a call or recording a presentation and having someone else watch with us as we go through it through the eyes of the audience, if we can debrief the process in that particular way, or after a talk was done, which we hope you'll record, debrief the talk. What went well? What could we do better next time? We always recommend our clients record your presentations with video and audio so you can see through the audience's eyes in the same way we invite you to look at your process or how do you run your organization? How do you run your business? How do you structure your presentation? How do you. How does your office operate? I'm going in two separate but important directions here, the business side and the presentation side. If the mindset always is how do I make this better? And for some on a business side, better means having a virtual assistant or a VA that may work for them. But if the mindset is how do I make my presentation better? How do I make my program better? How do I make my process better? The better mindset now applies not only to your speech, but to every area of your life. And sometimes it means cutting a step in the process, cutting a line or two, or maybe cutting a character representation because they only add to the confusion. Last thought on that is this, Darren. Yesterday I had a meeting with a client over in Singapore, Malaysia and he had sent me his script and he put a comment in here. He says, do I need to mention my sister? And I said, no, you don't. You only mentioned her twice in the presentation. You're adding a character. You can use the emotional truth. You and your mom were there. Yes, that's true. If you exclude her sister, you don't lose anything. And it's better. It's one fewer character for the audience to remember. We want to make it easier for the audience to understand and follow our presentations. So cutting a character, cutting a scene, cutting a few lines may be what you need to do to make it better. Editing isn't necessarily a bad thing. I'll repeat one more thought on the idea of editing. You may need to edit a step in your process as well. How you function, how you do, what you do. We want you to be better presenters, better, but also better in terms of how you build and create your business. Which is why we have business mastery with coaching calls twice a month. Right, Darren?

Yes.

So in a big picture, a better mindset is really an all encompassing idea to make you an unforgettable presenter.

The brilliance of Mark Brown, their better.

Brilliance from Mark, the better Brown brilliance. I should stop there. It's going to get worse.

We're talking about presentations a lot. I talk briefly about the events, but also more importantly, if you're a professional speaker. More importantly, your marketing.

Yep.

How do you make your marketing better? I remember when Mike Rayburn had lived here in Vegas and spending some time with him. I remember as soon as he finished the new demo video, he immediately, the next week, started working on Making it better, working on the next demo video. And that's what I mean by the better mindset. Okay, here's where we go. Let's get it out there. And okay, how do I make it better? And Mark, I was just taking notes a second ago thinking about the stagetime summit and this exact thing about better marketing and I had a few ideas from our earlier call that was like, oh, that needs to go on there. The summit is the exclusive connection to the coaches, you know, the one day exclusive. And that's better copy, you know, that adds to the value. So ask yourself your demo video, your one sheet. Ask AI, have AI look at your homepage. How can I make it better? How can I make it stronger? How would Ford sakes look at this copy. How would Russell Brunson change the copy, you know, whatever that is or whoever's style you appreciate the most because it's most like your voice. But how can you improve your copy? How can you improve your one sheet? How can you improve your website? How do we make it better? And Mark, I think we better stop because we're beating better into the ground. I hope you got the point. I hope you are serious about this because truly people look at me, they look at Mark like wow, you know, one of my favorite competent compliments is somebody seen me at a conference few years ago and then somebody sees me now. You're so much better. That's a phenomenal comment. Yeah, compliment. Because that means I'm, I'm living the better mindset. Okay, yeah, I was good, but I haven't stopped. I'm always trying to make it better. I'm always trying to make my stories more intriguing. More Vax, more smell, more visual, more impact in the story. And what's that new story that if I bring it into the keynote, would make the whole keynote better. Yeah.

And if you're brand new, you heard more of Vax, that's V A K s the visual, the auditory, the kinesthetic and the smell. Do we inspire the senses in our presentations? That's the Vax. Friends, it's now time for us. The better thing for us to do now is to end the podcast right here. We invite you to, to take a look at your presentations, look at your programs, look at your processes and adopt a better mindset and ask how can I make all of this better?

And a better habit would be to listen to us every week for more ideas and more insights. Or better yet, ha, better yet, join us in stage time and get some better feedback from our coaches. Or from marketing from Ford Sakes. So thanks for being a part of this podcast. We better go.

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