Ep. 298 THE 11TH HOUR

Hey there, Mark Brown. The 11th hour. What does Miriam, our friend, say about that?

Merriam Webster says the 11th hour is the latest possible time before it's too late.

By the way, my friends, as professional speakers, we are paid to make great decisions in the 11th hour.

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. Mark.

I wish there was only 1/11 hour, but for every event there's a new 11th hour.

Yeah. And that's part of the experience of being a presenter. It's funny, I can remember when I was very young as a speaker, very early on, I had an event in Nippawin, Saskatchewan, Canada. Had to fly from New York, Vancouver, Vancouver, someplace else and then back across to Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Get a ride up North Danipawin for an amazing, amazing youth leadership conference. All these Canadian teams all over Canada and it was wonderful. I was ready. I was in my zone, youth high school audiences and it worked out really, really well. But there was another speaker who was also on the agenda. A well known NSA speaker, I can say his name, Mark Scherenbrock, csp, CPAE was also on the agenda. He was the second Mark. Turns out there was an airline strike that week and there was way you could get to the point in time. At the 11th hour I had to do two keynotes. I was Mark Brown and Mark Sharonbrach at the same event. At the 11th hour, I had to be prepared for the unexpected. And as presenters we will have our 11th hour moments.

Yes, as we're recording this, usually as par our course, we come from a place of authenticity when we come up with a subject often because we're in it, we're in the middle of it. So we feel that's the most genuine, authentic time to share. And we're like, what are we going to talk about today? We got to get on a plane tomorrow to go to dc. So as we're recording this, Mark and I are in 11th hour for working with YPO, coaching four CEOs in DC. And what's fascinating is we have our 11th hour. Each of our clients in YPO have their 11th hour. And what's fascinating is each of them, let's say, acts differently in the 11th hour. And I have to remind myself, our event planner, the team, the leadership team that we're talking to, they have their 11th hour. We need to remember that our 11th hour is, is not the only 11th hour. They have much bigger challenges than, ooh, where's our rehearsal room going to be? Now, they know it's important, but they have other 11th hours as well. So it's just. We're just reminding you you're not alone. And it's our ability to make those good decisions, though often we're going to make mistakes. What's cool is the longer you've been in this world, the more you have experience to draw on to make a better decision. You know, Mark, I talked about this before. I think maybe, maybe not. I had an event planner in Vegas contact me about, oh, my gosh, our main speaker tomorrow has Covid and can't speak tomorrow. Do you know. And this was for a group of female entrepreneurs here in Vegas. Do you know any female. They want a female speaker who could speak tomorrow. What's cool is she called me. She called me and this was not an event. I'm trying to help her get into the Toastmasters world as a place because she has a big fear of speaking. So I'm. So this is like a different thing. But she knew what I did and she knew I would probably be able to helper how we act in the 11th hour ourselves. And helping others in their 11th hour goes a long way to building the relationship. And that relationship is going to get you more gigs, more referrals, more recommendations, more, more money.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But it's based on the trust of the relationship and how we dive in and how we can all in it to help them win it.

Oh, be all in it to help them win it. Now, please, let's not discount the value of the relationship piece and part of your reputation as a professional speaker depends on how well you can refer someone else when you may not be available or when someone comes to you for help, as someone did with Darren. I have received phone calls myself from friends of mine saying, listen, man, I. I'm double booked. Can you help me out? It's gonna. I know it's last minute, but can you help me out? Within the professional speaking world, that may be more common than you know, but I have responded to those calls myself and Darren, at times I said, mark, I need your help. Can you fill in for me? I got them booked also at the 11th hour and Darren's Right here. So I can tell you this. He has called me saying, mark, I got to talk to these kids tomorrow. What do I do? And how. If you watch in the video, you'll see Darren doing a face plant right now or the face palm. But my point is how well we serve not only our clients, but our fellow presenters in their 11th hour. It really extends your reputation and the integrity that you have as a presenter, because being a presenter is not only about what you do on the platform, it's the life you live off the platform, how you interact with people within the industry, with your clients, your prospects, your associates, those who serve in AV bureaus, meeting panels, and on and on and on and on. But if you can be helpful to someone in their 11th hour, either by showing up and taking the stage or referring someone to fill a spot or any other way, it goes towards your stellar reputation as a professional.

Yeah, Mark, this goes back to our philosophy that we learned from Patricia, but I think we're applying it incredibly well. Is be the favorite. Be the favorite because you can get mad, you can get upset, because all of a sudden, you know you sent. Let's just say you sent your PowerPoint ahead of time and somebody in the AV team lost it and they don't have it. We have to be prepared for everything. I had a little backup USB drive that has a USB C on one end and a USB on the other end that I can flip it because I don't know what I'm going to walk into and what kind of connection they'll have. Well, Mark, we used it at Game Changers and I couldn't find it yesterday, so I Amazon primed it a new one to get it to me. So I have it with me because from dc, which I probably don't even need one for dc, but I'm going straight to Denver, Colorado Springs, Colorado to present there. And I just. I'm going to use my own computer, but I need to be ready. What if my own computer doesn't start up that day? I need to have my files on that as a backup. Now, Mark, here's another thing I did, my remote. I love my little remote because it fits perfectly in my hand and I feel very comfortable with it.

Yeah.

Well, how fresh is the battery and what's my backup plan? So I have three, Mark, three remotes that I take with me.

Wow.

One is USB powered and I will be honest, I haven't recharged it in a long time. And. But I have two that are ready to go and that one Just kind of like sits in my bag. That's like the plan C plan. Now, most places will have presenters who would have an extra one if you need one, but what if you're the one they need to borrow one from? And then you don't get it back because somebody else used it in another room and then they got waylaid. We get paid to do well in the 11th hour, right?

We get paid to as pros, to make great decisions in the 11th hour and to perform well in the 11th hour and as presenters, I mentioned earlier having it to take Mark Sharon Brock's face in the 11th hour. But we can also, and we've talked about this in previous podcasts, you can set yourself up to be the go to person in the 11th hour. Darren often says, hey, while I'm here, if you need someone for a breakout, if somebody won't show up, I am ready and prepared to help you by making the offer to be the go to person in the 11th hour. Look, we have no clue what kind of panic meeting tenors go through when there's Nobody in room 208 in the Grand Ballroom C and they're wondering, what are we going to do? We've got 85 people who have signed up for that particular lecture and they're freaking out. But when you show up and say, listen, if you need me in a pinch, that's the 11th hour, I'll pinch it for you. Forgive the baseball reference from a guy who likes football, Soccer, football. But you need me in a pinch, I'm here for you. You are telling the meeting planner. You're telling your associates and other presenters. I, I will be your 11th hour presenter. Be the 11th hour presenter. Be ready for that. What does that mean? Maybe you're keynote event, maybe doing a workshop or a breakout session and you're focused on that, always go to the event website, look at the entire program, see where is it possible I can help them if they need someone in a hurry, I have a second program. I could do that in a pinch. And truth be told, the 11th hour may not always be the 11th hour, but you're being available. Can go miles, kilometers and halfway around the world. Darwin, you did that last year with one of our best clients at their event in. We were in Istanbul last year and you said, hey, we're going to be there anyway. What if we do X or Y for you? How'd that work out? They use both of us. They put us on the agenda. Be the 11th hour presenter for all your events.

And Mark, that led to you speaking in Sydney.

Oh, that's right. Yeah, that's right.

That extra bonus session that we did, we don't charge for those. Now look, you're probably pro. You're the CEO of your speaking business. That's your call if you want to charge. But if I'm going to be there, I look at it as here's the best marketing I can do. Value at no charge. Value added.

That's right.

Value at no charge. So, Mark, let's just call this little segment in Your notes the 11th hour opportunities that we miss if we don't suggest it. It's our job, as Patricia has taught us, that is our responsibility to let them know how we can help. So wherever you present, talk to the meeting planner, say, hey, just, if just I'm here. I have other presentations that I could do in a pinch if you need me to pinch hit, as mark said. So 11th hour opportunities. Now there's another 11th hour. But Mark, your thoughts first.

Quick follow up. Even if they don't need you for the 11th hour opportunity, now they know what else you can do and that could possibly lead to an assignment somewhere else down the road because you one, are available. Two, you have a servant's heart, you want to serve, and three, you have proven yourself. So don't miss the magnitude of being that 11th hour speaker. There's something else. Darren, go ahead.

Yeah. 11th hour coaching. The 11th hour coaching. Now there's a yin and yang. And Mark, I'm going to be very authentic here and very direct. So I apologize if I hurt your face feelings. I'm guilty of this myself, which is why I understand it. There's nothing wrong with 11th hour coaching, but that should not be your plan. And now, Mark, you and I know around this time of year, people in the speech contest, the classic line, I'm going to reach out to get you to coach me once I win the next level.

Right, right, right.

What if I know you don't make the next level? And what if we could have helped you before the next level, which would have been helped you connect more deeply with your audience and prepared you to catapult after 11th hour coaching can be helpful without a doubt. But now it makes it more challenging to change. More challenging to change in the 11th hour. Working with the CEOs, there's a couple of them that are making last minute changes. We're like, no, stop, stop. You had that opportunity. That opportunity is gone. Because the challenge is now. You've got to relearn it in the 11th hour. Now if you're Jim Key, our friend Jim Key, world champion speaker, he has that ability to change in a minute. Done. I do not. Mark, you remember when you and Dave McElhenney were working with me, like all of a sudden this feedback would come in in the 11th hour and I would say, no, like, like tell Mark, tell Dave. Yeah, let them sift through because here's the problem. If I didn't pass it on to them, they knew me, we had a relationship. So they knew me what I could do, what I couldn't do. And, and if somebody planted a little negative seed, even if they were incorrect and I knew it, that little self conscious voice would have screamed in my ear just before I took the stage and that could have messed me up. So I'm glad I'm easily overwhelmed and know it. I handed it off to you guys and then you gave me one or two tweaks that, that I could do in the final hour. But I didn't listen to the negative tweaks or feedback from well meaning people. But people who don't get it and don't know me and my style. And Mark, when we're, I love the opportunity. When we're working with the YPO CEOs, we get that reminder that each of them are individuals and they need different things at the beginning and in the 11th hour.

And regarding 11th hour coaching, one of our associates, also CSP certified speaking professional and world champion Ed Tate, has a phrase. He says at a certain point, you must freeze the design. You're no more script changes, no more updates. And we have had clients in our coaching careers who said, oh, what about this? Oh, what about that? No, we froze a design. Oh, it's game day. But last night I thought about this and if we change all of this and they're hearing so many voices, somebody said, their wife said, their dog said, you know, on tv, some guy on TV said, now I'm being a bit facetious, not really, but this does happen. And at some point we say freeze the design. Those of you who are part of our Stage Time University know we have weekly coaching calls and it is Toastmasters contest season and this time of the year we have several of our members who will submit a video or come live to deliver their presentation because they want to get ideas. And we had a coaching call 3 days ago this past Wednesday and Michael Davis and I were careful when reviewing many of suggestions. We say listen for your contest in three days. We don't recommend you do this right now. You're, you're pretty solid where you are, but we observed two or three places. You could make some adjustments but don't do them tomorrow or don't do them in two days. Do what you do, work on it. If you succeed, great. You will have several more weeks to make the adjustments. And even if you don't make it to the next level, you can then begin to add these adjustments and make what you have even better. But we are very careful to say please, you're going to hear so many comments, you see them in the chat. Do not adopt them all for a contest in the next 38 hours. We do not recommend it. We don't recommend last minute changes. And listen, the idea of, oh man, I wish I'd come to you guys sooner. We also hear that more often than you would know. But mentally people think, nah, I don't need any help, I'll be fine, I'll be okay, I'll get through it and then I'll get help at the 11th hour. Think of it this way, not because Darren and I are also coaches. Whoever may coach you, the principle is get as much as you can on the front end. Then you can hone it, make it better, you can master a technique. You can become that much more effective with your delivery, with your writing, with every area of your speaking. If you don't wait until the 11th hour. And trust me, I know what it's like to wait until the 11th hour and it's almost always doesn't end that well. But I also tell you, I got one more 11 hour story for you. And it was my fault in part. Again, I was new to speaking and I was doing youth audiences again around North America. I was doing youth leadership conferences, student leadership conferences for student councils at the state level. I was in Pennsylvania and my contact person for the company I worked with, I said, yeah, Mark, we got you on board. You are going to be the keynote speaker. It's going to be in the gymnasium. We're going to have a thousand kids. It's going to be great. The energy is going to be fantastic. And I'd been to youth programs before and trust me, high school student leaders on a three day conference away from school. They're all fired up and these are really great kids. I get to the event, I've got a program about, you know, how we can treat people with respect and about being responsible and being great leaders and all that stuff. I get to the venue, Darren and I begin to see these posters hand drawn and the image of that ghost, you know, from Scream I'm like, scream. We're going up the driveway. I see all these Scream posters. It hits me. They have a Scream theme going on, but it's conference. I'm talking about bullying and name calling, and these kids are ready to scream and fire it up. I'm like, this is not gonna work. We're pulling in. I speak in an hour. Darren. I'm realizing I've not got the right presentation for this audience. So at the 11th hour. No kidding. I took out my business card. Now, for those who are millennials, a business card. It's actually a piece of cardboard where you put your. Never mind. I had a business card. And thankfully, on the back, it was blank. I'm literally backstage getting mic'd up and I say, scream. S, C, R E A M. What do I do here? And these are all student leaders. Okay. S? S? Oh. S is for service. Cool. Service. I got a story for that. C C stands for commitment. Awesome. Service. Commitment. Leaders are responsibility, Scre, ease for education, attitude, Me. Motivation, Service, commitment, responsibility, Education, attitude, Motivation. I can do this keynote. And I literally cut my card in the palm of my hand, and I was doing all these motions, and I'm reading my card and on the fly, I'm saying, okay, pull that story out. Pull that story out. And Scream was born in the 11th hour at a Pennsylvania student council convention back in the 1990s. And I've made that program one of my talks I've been giving to youth groups over the past 30 years. Now, I am happy to report it worked out well, but I would adamantly say this. I do not Recommend Writing a 45 minute keynote backstage when you only have 10 minutes to go on stage. I consider myself blessed to have done that. The difference now is I think of what else can I offer, what my program is. I go and look at the entire program and see, okay, that's what's going on. I have conversations. We have pre event calls. I did not learn all this back in the 1990s, but it helped me to understand I can Prepare for the 11th hour. And we invite you to do the same too. We encourage you to adopt the mindset. I want to be the 11th hour speaker. I want to adopt 11th hour thinking and not miss 11th hour opportunities. We gotta go, friends. I got a plane to catch early in the morning. And we did record this at the 11th hour for this, for your benefit and for your edification. Darren, bring us home.

Yeah. And Mark, never have I heard, never has anyone who's been coached ever say, I wish I got coached later on and not so soon.

Mic drop.

Never, never. Why? Because you can do if like 11th hour coaching can be helpful. Second hour coaching can be much more multiplied. The value can be much more multiplied. I know that's not good English, but we're in the 11th hour so we're gonna go with it because the foundation, like tiny tweaks and words, that's not as important as the foundation and the structure of where you start. And it is very challenging to make structure changes in the 11th hour. So we know too if someone like you said Mark, is in the 11th hour where they're being coached, we caution them and we say here's something you could do but don't make that big change. Now again, some Jim Key people, they can make those changes but most people can't make major changes or structure changes in the last minute. So the 11th hour, be the favorite. The 11th hour. That's what makes you a pro. Making better decisions in the 11th hour. And I'm just wearing like a baseball type shirt here. Why? Because we're in the 11th hour. Mark and I gotta jump on a plane. I hope this has been helpful. We gotta get this up before I go out the door. See ya.

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