Ep. 297 WHAT LANDED?

Hey there, Mark Brown. What actually landed? You feel connected, but how do you know what landed?

Let's find out how.

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 host, 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.

You know, Mark, sometimes we connect so well, or maybe not so well, and we think nailed it. But I have yet to go back and watch a recording of my own and think all the way through. Wow, that was perfect. I wouldn't change a thing. Never agree.

Yeah, same feeling. We always tell people, look, watch your video and review it carefully. And we always say, begin with a win. We want to have all wins 100% of the time. That does not happen. But it's wise for us to review video of our presentations to find out what landed, especially when we think it landed. But verbal sound effects, it didn't quite happen, so. And it's funny, we were doing this very same process earlier today with a client of ours, and we went through the whole. The whole script and the whole video, and it was really cool to stop and start and stop and start and review what we thought would happen, what we didn't expect to happen. And of course, there were times it landed so well, the audience will applaud unexpectedly.

And we need to look at those moments and realize, I need to do it that way every time. You know, sometimes we have this magical connection with a certain audience and we are better than we normally are because this magic happens when there's a connection. So our delivery is better. I remember still that Chance Langton, a famous comedian from New England that I started out with when I would drive him to some gigs. If I was opening for him, he would listen to his best set on the way to the performance to almost get that tone, that connection, that, that groove, you know, Stella, get your groove back. What's that groove that we need to so separate Tip. One thing to do in preparation is listen to one of your best presentations prior to or the morning of. It's a great just reconnection. But when we just sat with this CEO like he nailed it, everyone loved him and it was magical. But when we would go through and dissect, there are a few little spots that, hey, you know what? We could tweak. Look at what you're doing and how the audience's reaction, react. Excuse me, reacting. Because when we're in the emotion of the moment, we're on stage, we can't really notice as well as when we step back and watch the replay. When we watch the replay, we can be more critical. Now, we don't want to beat ourselves up. That performance is done. You did your best in that moment. This is not about beating yourself up. This is about going from good to great to unforgettable. If you won't review it, why should anyone pay you?

It's a good point. And the thing is, like we said a while ago, you said we can't see our best while we're in the moment on the platform. And I want to clarify a point here very quickly. Yes, when we are on stage, we can feel the audience response. And sometimes it is euphoric, it's even magical. But there are times we don't realize how well something landed until after the fact. We go back and watch it. And there are a couple of reasons for this, so please hear me carefully. One is there are times we want to. To do our best so badly. We're fully invested. We've got this laser focus on delivering a product, delivering our story, delivering our best material for the audience. And we're in that place of a hyper focus, and we're in the zone. And we give it and we give it and we give it and we feel good. We feel we have done well. But in that moment, there are times we don't fully appreciate the audience reaction, which is why we always say review your video. First of all, record it. And if at all possible, have the audience reaction in the audio as well, because that can really tell you a lot. And then watch how you react because there are times you may not see that in the moment, and you don't react as you thought you would have. We always surprise ourselves. So one, record, two, if possible, get audience audio as well. And three, know that in the moment, we. We may not always be able to fully gauge the reaction, but by doing the review to see what landed, you might be surprised. Oh, I didn't realize that landed so well. And when you do identify, you know what, I need to make note of that. If that landed so well there, maybe I can recreate that or maybe even enhance that. This is a tool here. As Aaron says, get your good to become great and your great to become unforgettable.

Yeah, you'll also, when you're Hyper connected, we'll call it. When you're hyper connected, sometimes we say things differently or say things we've never said before because we're more connected. We're more in the moment. I remember my early days of stand up, when my mentors almost forced me to record, and I did not like it. But you learn that sometimes you say something in a moment because you're connected, and you're like, ooh, that's good. I remember one of the jokes I had about running my Subway sandwich shop was about this lady who used to come in with a scowl on her face almost every day, like, looking at my veggies. And I was just so caught up and connected to the audience. One day I just said, you know, this lady came in this. She had a scowl on her face, this pickle sniffer. And I just said, pickle sniffer and got a huge laugh. But I had never said that before. Just like it did for you, Mark. It's just. It's good alliteration. We get a visual with it, and it just worked. But because I was recording it and went back and listened, and went back and listened, I could capture that and add that into my script.

Exactly.

So understand, there's some magic moments that we need to capture, and there's also some moments where maybe you are stepping on a laugh.

Yeah.

Or stepping on a thought, or you're moving in the middle. So we learned from Patricia Fripp, you always, you know, look at the audience one direction, one way, and then you only change to look a different way after a thought, a phrase, or a full sentence. A thought, a phrase, maybe an idea, or a full sentence. So we direct our language one way, and then we pause at the right moment at almost like, where there's a comma. Now we look at another place in the audience. So if we move in between there, it seems erratic. Now, this is being very picky, but if you want to be unforgettable, you got to dissect your own performances. Mark.

It's funny because I go back 30 years. I don't want to go back to Toastmasters too much. But I remember someone telling me after the Toastmasters World Championship, which I was blessed enough to win 30 years ago, as of this recording, I use one word in my presentation, the word why. And the way I delivered it on that day was completely different from all the ways I had rehearsed it. In the moment, it just seemed appropriate to deliver this word. It was meant to be poignant.

Why?

But in the moment, I felt like, just be glib. Why? And the audience bust out laughing. And if you watch the video of my record of my presentation, you'll see a look on my face. I'm saying, why are you all laughing at this? I didn't see that coming. But sometimes we don't see it coming. But what the audience tells you is, hey, Darren. Hey, Mark. Hey, speaker. That landed. And you can. For 30 years, people have still been telling me about that one word, why, in a presentation that landed unexpectedly. And I appreciate your comment. We need to dissect our speech. When we do that, we'll identify those magic moments.

Yeah, I still remember the advice from Bob Seibel, another headliner comedian from Boston, who tootled me growing up, if you will, in the comedy world. And he said, each time you deliver something, sometimes it might just be an eyebrow or a look. When you deliver just like what you did, you delivered it the same exact word, but you delivered it with a different tonality. Sometimes it is the raising of the eyebrows, the sneer, the facial expression, the lilt to the voice that makes the difference. Well, you're never going to remember that. If you've ever been to a comedy show where some comedians on stage goes off on a tangent and says something they've never said before, and they say to his buddies, his comedy buddies in the back of the room, hey, write that down for me. They actually mean that because they know that that that's something they've never said, it got a big laugh, and they want to go back and revisit it because you're too close in the moment. But if you're recording it, you can capture that. And look, I don't like listening to mine, but if you can focus more on your next audience, on the rest of your career, anytime you don't go back and listen to recording, you might miss some magic that landed.

Yeah, definitely. Darren, I'm glad you mentioned about might. You might miss some magic that landed. Here is a thought for our consideration. Those who are listening and maybe even watching as well as you listen to how you deliver. Your inflection, your pace, your rate of speech, not just what you say, how you say it, the manner in which you say it, along with your body language, even your micro expressions. As Darren says, a raised eyebrow can make a difference. Thank you, Dwayne Johnson, the Rock the wrestling wrestling pro for the people's Eyebrow. But think about this. Just the manner in which you deliver a line can make a difference, which is why we encourage our clients to rehearse using video to watch yourself with a critical eye. And we often say you may have a couple of ways of doing it. Test them out, record each way and then put yourself in the audience's seat and look at it carefully. If you can get some friends, family or buddies to join you, they can become your audience and they'll show you what landed. It's a great opportunity if you're a Toastmaster, to use your Toastmaster speech assignments in this way. A live audience to help you to see what landed. You've got live audience and the recording. Give yourself every opportunity to take advantage of every opportunity to find out what landed. It'll make a difference from being good, being great, to being unforgettable.

Take the time you had some magic. Figure out what landed so you can do it again. If it didn't land, that's okay. Then you just focus on how could I have done that better? But it's so much easier when you're out of the emotion of that moment. But focus not on how that went, but how can I do it for the next audience? And maybe I want to replicate how I did it. Maybe I want to adjust it just a little. But look at what landed and what didn't. Take the time to review because that's going to help you go from good to great to unforgettable.

Unforgettable. See you next week.

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