Ep. 36 How To Engage Your Audience Using 11 Essential Pace Elements

Hey, Mark, we did a few weeks ago episode number 31, which is how to be unforgettable virtually.

Yeah, I remember that. Sure.

Yeah. And we've been teaching it and realizing there's, like, a need for it right now. And I thought what might be cool is if we go deeper into one of the concepts that we introduced in that one. But take it and go deeper, because I think people don't understand whether it's online or virtual, a pace element is. Is critical. But, Mark, 11. What?

Hey, we have 19. There might be a lot, but let's do it, man. Let's change some people's lives.

Brody, pace elements. What?

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.

All right, Mark, before I met you, I met this man named David McElhenney. And we mentioned this before, but in case they hadn't heard this episode, I want to kind of catch him up that David taught me this idea, pace elements. And when I first heard that, I was like, what? I never heard of that. What's a pace element? And we're realizing that if you're presenting virtually now, this is not only essential, it's critical. There's just such a difference when you understand the concept and you use it properly. So, Mark, let's go a little deeper.

Well, wait, hang on now. When you say pace elements, somebody may be brand new to our podcast. What in the world is a pace element? Darren Lacroix.

Yeah, that's the idea of we need to change the pace if we're gonna keep our audience engaged. We almost have to feng shui or use flow in your speech or in your webinar. Your virtual presentation, your training, your virtual training. It's keeping them engaged. There's so many different distractions. You know, Mark, we talk about, okay, here's the fantasy that you think somebody's sitting behind their computer and there's absolutely nothing in front of them.

Are you kidding me, man? People are home now. They got kids knocking on the door. The dog is walking in, the phone's ringing. Somebody wants to watch something on cake, but daddy cable's not working. You know, mom comes in, honey have you had your lunch yet? My wife comes in, she gives me a nice bowl of fruit. No, this is the real world, man. It's difficult to differentiate your working world from your home world when you're working at home and you're sheltered in place. And the flip side is some people will. I'm going to give a presentation. I'm going to deliver that presentation for an hour, an hour and a half. I'm going to go through and get my content. And there's so much that can draw the listener and the viewer away. So the pace element idea is to switch things up and to keep them engaged. And you and I have at least, what, 19 of these. We can't share them all today, but what do you got for our audience, Darren, today on pace elements?

Well, let's step back for a quick second. And the pace element means. So for example, and Dave explained it to me, he said, darren, when you ask a question, that's one pace element. When you tell a story, that's another pace element. When you do, let's say an Ed Tate exercise, that's another pace element. And it's not that you, you have one, it's that you have several in your arsenal. And for you and your style, we're not saying use all 11, we're saying here's 11 to choose from. You choose the best five or six that meet your delivery style. So it's like you can't just tell a story, tell a story, tell a story, tell a story, tell a story, tell a story. Now, if you're an amazing, world class storyteller, you still probably have a good presentation. But if you're not asking some questions in between, you're not truly engaging the brain. And what we found that online, the fantasy is you think nothing's going on in their world. The truth is there's distractions. The wish is that we could get rid of them and eliminate them. But the solution is to be more engaging, which minimizes the distractions because they care about what you're saying and how you're saying it's. And so Here are our 11 top essential pace elements. And again, it's not you have to use them all, it's which ones work best for you. And are you strategically using number one? You got to use them right? Because just because you have one doesn't mean you're using it right. But number two, feng shui between them. All right, so Mark, number one, the talking head.

Well, duh. The first thing that they're gonna see is you on that screen talking to them, you become a talking head. But don't just be a boring talking head who sits there and just spits out data, never blinking, very stoic. That's not what we mean by talking head. The first thing is you have to be there and you have to engage your audience yourself. So you are the primary access they have. What's great, though, is like, you and I can go back and forth, is having a co presenter with you and they both talk to each other. Even the back and forth between them, the banter, the exchange of ideas, that in itself is a pace element within a pace element, don't you think?

Yeah. It's actually taking number one talking head and you can actually have two talking heads. That's one of the reasons, when you're doing it virtually, you've gotta be so much more engaging because you're trying to again, draw them into you, engage them. So when I go from talking head Darren, to talking head Mark, that is the change of a pace element, because it's not the same talking head.

Right?

That's like even when we do our live event. So we have one coming up. Virtual presentations workshop with Ed Tate. There's three of us. So now, as long as we're not talking over each other and keep it moving and keep it flowing, it absolutely is a change of pace element. Even though we're all talking heads, it keeps. They hear a different voice, which is more engaging than listening to one person the whole time doing the biggest enemy, which is sameness. We learned from Patricia Fripp.

Well, the good news is you get people like Ed Tate, who's way better looking than I am, and he might be standing, I might be sitting, you might be dancing, for all I know. But even so, the talking heads, done in different ways, are a pace element within a pace element. And it's the first one you have access to because that's what the audience first sees is, is you on screen when you deliver a program virtually.

And notice some of these are going to be more used online. Some of these may go in both areas. And when we're teaching this, we're also teaching you need to switch them even when we're talking live. So this isn't one of our pace elements on this list, but a bonus one is when you're doing live, use the B button on your screen to shut it off, black or blank. And, you know, I always teach this, using it as an example, that if you're trying to keep the audience engaged, when you show a slide and you Turn it black. The audience's automatic tendency is to switch their attention back to you. And when you turn on a slide, it's to switch the attention from you to the slide. So it's almost like you've got to choreograph that when you're telling a story, shut off the slide so they totally engage on you. But then when you bring the attention back to the slide, when you turn it on, it's not that the slide's up, it's not that it's off. It's actually the switching in between the two that keeps it engaging to your audience.

And the thing is, as long as you don't turn it off by going in front of the projector and saying, yeah, doing what you call those shadow puppets. Shadow puppets, exactly. That's kind of ridiculous. I'm silly, I shouldn't say that. But yeah, it's clear that our number one is being a talking head. The audience clearly sees that. But what's cool is this, even though you are the presenter with a talking head, you have in your arsenal right there another pace element that you can use very effectively. And that is a story. But not just any story or your favorite story or stories, they have to be well told stories. Because any story can be just meh. But if a story is told well, one, the pace element of the story is effective. But number two, a well told story gets the audience to lean in, to pay attention. And you're not just seen as a talking head, but you're an individual who's sharing a story that gets their attention. You can even go deeper than that too, Darren. If you're telling stories to a corporate audience about them and their success and it means something to them, them, that in itself makes this pace element very, very powerful. I know you have been using humor and storytelling for your corporate talks for decades and you also bring that to the table here, doing a virtual presentation. What are your thoughts on that?

The well told stories, well told stories can be about you, your clients, or even a case study that can become a story with statistics that back it up. But it's still a story if you do it right. So one of the examples that we use is by a woman, one of our stagetime members. Her name was Elizabeth Judith and, well, her name is still Elizabeth Judith, but oops, she came to us and she was a member and she was working on a big keynote speech coming up, but she was frustrated because she had been working on it for two weeks and she said, darren, I only have two days. And she was trying to do it without a process behind it. So she was struggling. She didn't know which stories to put in which order. So I said, elizabeth, why would you not go through Create your Keynote? It's designed to give you a process to know the order and the framework of the stories that you're putting together. And so out of frustration and desperation, she dove in and she did exactly that. She went through Create your Keynote, which takes a little while to go through, but she realized she needed to, it was essential. Then she popped out the other end. Now, she knew what to do with all of the elements, but put it in with the reasoning and strategy behind it. And she sent me a text next couple days after she gave the speech and she said, I nailed it.

Boom. Loved it.

And I love to hear that because she said, I went through Create youe Keynote and then I nailed it. So that's just a simple little testimonial story from one of our members. But notice we talk and we talked about this before and we were talking about stories and I think you even used that example before. So we need to see the transformation of the story story of the hero in the story, the main character. And so what was the difference? What was the catapult or the catalyst? Excuse me. That helped get her there. So that's just a quick example, but a well told story. It's not just a story. Anyone can tell a story, but is it well told? So we got talking head number one. Number two, well told story number three. Slideshares. Yeah, I get it. This is obvious, but it's a pace element that you need to use strategically and going back and forth between them, not keeping the slide up the whole time. Mark, I was just. I got a virtual keynote on Saturday and they told me I have to keep the slide up the whole time. I'm like, why? And I said, but you don't understand. You've got to stop sharing, share. Stop sharing, share. Because it's the engagement of that. And we're still going back and forth about that. But I'm like, you don't understand. They said, well, it's taken our web thing down. I was like, well, get a new web thing.

Put a blank slide up.

Yeah, there you go.

I'm being so bad. But no, you mentioned earlier about the B button or the blank button to put a blank slider to draw people's attention to you. I will confess, when it comes to slides, slideshares and the B button, I have gone one lazier. And I was doing youth programs for several years. And I began using slides. And I would put an image up or a cartoon or a letter or a note from a child that I received or a picture of myself when I was 8, 9, 10, 12 years old. And I would include in my deck, as I advance, I would include a blank slide so I didn't have to press a B button on or B button off. I simply went through my slides, hit a blank button, and automatically 500 kids would look at this crazy Jamaican guy for the next six or seven minutes. And when I was done, my next slide was my next slide. And I do two or three next slide blank. But that change of pace again, that's also a pace element within a pace element. We want you to catch this. That even though we're giving you 11 pace elements, within many of them are nuances and subtleties that can make them even that much more effective. And of course, as Darren said, slides. I get it. We'll be using slides, keynote, PowerPoint, and screenshots. Yeah. But understand what that accomplishes in the mind and with the attention span of your audience. Done well, slides can be a powerful pace element. And managed well, they can be a powerful pace element within a pace element with a blank screen and the shifts. But you always want to make sure to keep the audience engaged. That's the key. Keep the audience engaged.

Yeah, don't keep it up too long. And keep it up long enough, especially if you encourage them to take a screenshot of this, because people are going to do it, you know, with their cameras. They do it live, online. They do it with their computer. So you want to make sure it's up enough for them to do that. And obviously, if you're seeing in a live room, you can see people holding up their cameras. Sometimes you can. If you're doing a webinar, you've got to almost check in with them. Number four, short, meaningful video clips. Now, this is one pace element I will use always. It's part of me. It's part of my style. Cause I love video. I love shooting it, love filming it, love editing it. I love making it better. And I have been doing that for years. So for me, this is one I use live always. And now as I adjust it virtually, I realize I need to make it more succinct, more meaningful, be choosy with them. And yet it's more powerful. Now, one of the little tips I have is sometimes when I have testimonial videos, they're good, what they say, but the energy just isn't There by the person. So we add a little music bed, royalty free music to kind of add energy and engagement to that video clip. But some of our video clips, Mark, that you and I use, they're 8 seconds. Some of them are 32 seconds, some of them are up to a minute and a half. But it depends, it depends on your strategy of why you're showing that. But you gotta keep it as short as possible. If you're keeping it as short as possible, it will be engaging. You know, that's one of the secrets.

Yeah. And you said meaningful because it has to mean something. Now I'm gonna call you out on it. I'm gonna reveal a truth about you, Darren. And this Darren does use video clips. And being with him for so many years, traveling across the water with him, I have known Darren just checks on what he has. I have seen Darren take a photo 50 second video clip and pare it down to 32 because it wasn't short enough to accomplish the goal he has set. So he's always thinking, always shifting. He's now timing all his videos. The last video we showed in our previous webinar was seven seconds long. And I know Darren took the time to time those videos out because he said short, meaningful. He's not just preaching it, he's doing it. If you use video now in your programs, ask yourself, can I edit this video down to make it more succinct but still impactful and have the meaning not lost? Can I edit my video down, make it more succinct and still be impactful and not lose its value? Short, meaningful video clips. And as Darren says, he records his own. I have seen programs where somebody lifts a famous, well used, overused YouTube video. Oh yes. Where the kid is carrying his player on the back across the football field. You can do it, son. You can do it. And I've seen those. I've seen the video clips of Will Smith and other gold cast videos. I have a gold cast video out there somewhere on Goldcast. Okay, But I've seen all of those. But when you record your own video, use your own photographs and apply that in a short, meaningful clip, that's yours, man. The impact is even more powerful because they know it's not canned. It wasn't borrowed, it wasn't lifted, it wasn't copied. It was your video, it was your experience. And it adds to your credibility when you have your own material. What do you think, Darren?

Yeah. It becomes part of your brand as well.

Exactly.

Some of our video clips, Mark, you and I Have seven different webinars. Some of them find themselves into the same. Into all of them, I should say into all of them. And it may be used for a different meaning. But again, Mark, that one, that was eight seconds you talked about. I'll get it down to three and a half. As soon as we get off, I'll edit it down even more.

Fast forward.

Yeah.

Darren, don't discount the point you just made. You just said some of these video clips can be used in different programs for different purposes. So we want you friends to consider the versatility of your own video clips as well as ask yourself, how else can I use this space element, this particular video, to be effective in a different program? That's food for thought.

Yeah. And video is such an important medium for creating or generating or as Michael Hague says, eliciting emotion. It's so well received when it's the right one done the right way.

Yes. Thank you, Michael Hague, Hollywood script consultant and part of our Stagetown family.

Yeah, and again, really effective online, I would make them shorter than in a live program. But either way, you want it to be as short as possible. Making your point because the audience didn't come to watch video clips. But if it's short and meaningful, it can enhance the power of your point or the message you're trying to convey, the point you're trying to make stick. All right, Mark, number five, this is kind of a combined one more for just online. Type in or raise your hand if. Type in or raise your hand if. Now, obviously, if you're live, you can ask the audience to raise their hand if. Which is great and meaningful. And in online, we add the chat in. Type in.

Mark, what I like about this is now not only am I as a participant seeing different things, I'm seeing a different talking head. I'm hearing a different well told story. I'm seeing different slides, I'm seeing different video clips seeing, I'm hearing. But this time I am doing, I get to type my response in, I get to click that button to see a raised hand and hopefully if they're a decent presenter, they'll say, oh, Mark, I see you raised your hand. Great. Darren, your hands up in the air. Awesome. I get acknowledged for participating. Maybe when you're live you can have people raise their hands. Yeah. But when they say, Darren, Mark, Fred, Nancy, Jennifer, I see, oh, thank you for those hands raised. It's not likely I'm going to hear my name called in a live presentation for raising my hand. But in the virtual environment that may very well, happen. So I'm actively typing something in. I'm clicking a button myself, and I'm hearing my name acknowledged. That's guaranteed, almost guaranteed to engage me using that particular pace element.

Yeah. And if you keep coming back to that, you're also taking those distractions and minimizing them, because if they're typing in, they're thinking. Like you said, they're engaged. They have to be. So you and I, as virtual presenters, we've got to do this more often than we do live. Live. We don't have those distractions, because in virtual, we do have those distractions. We've got to be more engaging. And truly, honestly, you can make it more engaging than a live presentation once you have your content down and you use these elements properly in order to get your point across.

Okay, defeat the distractions. Defeat the distractions. That was number five. Number six, you says using custom captivating visuals, Darren, I just love the way you use words like meaningful video clips and captivating visuals to catch the eyes. And that includes branded infographics. There's so many visuals out there, and I know there are people who do Shutterstock and they use stock pictures and so on, but you have now being virtual, we can do so much to create our own visuals, our own infographics. There are graphic designers out there who want your business. They want to hear what your ideas are. They'll create for you customized visuals. I mean, you use tools like that yourself, Darren, don't you? I mean, like Fiverr and so on.

Yeah, I use Fiverr to create infographics. I send them to my brand color palette ahead of time so it can match and be part of my brand. As you know, I love taking pictures of things. I don't even know what it is, but when it, like, captures my attention, you know, we say capture what captures you. Capture what captures you. And then when you and I are doing our unforgettable presentations webinar, I show a picture of you and me in the Ukraine with our meeting planner, who brought us in there to teach these executives from Luxoft. And she's parked on the sidewalk. And then I show another one of a whole bunch of cars parked perpendicular with the front wheels on the sidewalk. Like you would get a ticket for that in the United States. But it grabbed my attention. Yeah, it grabbed my attention. And so I took a picture of it. And now it helps us show a visual that helps our audience to be more likely to take an action, which is to capture pictures. But then go back and as you teach them what amazes you, what amuses you, what moves you, and what story or what lesson does this teach?

And the cool thing is when we say custom captivating visuals, nothing is more customized than personal, is more customized than personal. Use your camera, record things. When you design something or you want it designed again, as Darren says, you can hire a graphic designer from Fiverr or somebody who you know is qualified, and they can create these graphics that are uniquely yours. They are branded for you. But you using those visuals, the audience sees something different. Ah, a new approach. That's how he does it. It re engages them. It's something new to look at, to absorb, and a new method for you teaching the material you've worked so hard to prepare for your eager audiences to hear. Don't forget that. Customized and personal, that's really the way to go with this.

Mark, what do you say about the audience not only wants to hear you?

Oh, they want to know you. I believe that the audience wants to hear you, but they also want to know you. And they get to know you by your photographs you take. The things you talk about. The graphics that you build when you customize, they also realize that it can go two ways. One, you customize it. Your own brand and your own name and your own material. But two, you can also customize to support or suit the audience. I had to do a program for the Boeing leadership in St. Louis, Missouri some time ago. They had their values that they wanted me to talk about. And I customized the graphic in my slides to accommodate their color palette, their values. And I spoke to them about how you can use all that together. And they were very impressed and they appreciated the fact that I used their colors, their values, their branding, customized for them for the presentation. So it works two ways, not just your own. When you customize for the client, that's one more buy in. Yes, they're engaged. They see their logo, their idea, their color palette, their statements, and they go, yeah, this individual has taken time to understand me and my company. I'm going to lean in. So think about that as well.

Yeah, it separates you from other people. Now, here's one of my favorite secrets about custom captivating visuals is that you, when you deliver the story or the point, you are more emotionally connected to that visual. So when you see it, you're brought back to that moment in time or that lesson that you learned. So now you're going to deliver better because you see your photo that came from your life. So you're going to deliver better than if you got some piece of Cliche clip art. That just is an image of that point. It just changes everything.

I love that. Some piece of cliche clip art, man. Darren Lacroix is waxing eloquent today.

Well, Mark, you had customized. When you customize, you realize like something like that.

Yeah, you personalize. I didn't write it down.

Personalize, you realize more behind the eyes. I don't know. Anyway, a stretch here. Number seven. Okay. This is one of my favorite. Mark and I do all day trainings. We got one coming up next week, depending on when you listen to this. Or it could be last week, virtual presentations workshop that we're doing together. And in all of our workshops, even our humor bootcamp, we didn't know how it would go as a virtual event. But to me, if you're doing all day programs, if you're doing a keynote, it may or may not work. But they also. Here's the key. It has to be done right. And what we're talking about is breakout rooms. I love the Zoom breakout rooms. It allows our two day events to be great, to be so much more engaging. When we can pair people up or put them in groups of three or four and have them discuss something, there's nothing more engaging than them talking to some of their counterparts in a room. It's just powerful. It's one of my favorites and it's likened to if you did an exercise and put people in groups in the room and had them have a conversation.

You know what's cool is because they're now physically in smaller groups, they're now engaged in conversation with other people. That's a really powerful change of pace. When you go from watching and listening and typing and tapping and watching and laughing to actually having conversation in a group for a season to bring an activity together, that's a wonderful change of pace. It's a pace element you should really consider when you're going virtual for a means to keeping members engaged. And what Darren will do sometimes is either A, maintain the breakout room groups throughout a period of time, or B, he'll just switch them up. And of course, being his co host, I get bounced wherever he wants me to go over there, go over there, go to the men's room, whatever. I get bounced everywhere. But the breakout rooms are really a great way to keep people engaged, active and focused.

Yeah, we're even doing this, Mark, with our church verve that we're doing some meetings and they love the idea of breakout rooms. So I'm teaching them how to do them effectively. And if you're Listening to this, here's what you need to know. One of the most important aspects of breakout rooms is instructions. Before you send them there, super clear, say it a second time. Because when they go there, you can't engage with them. They're kind of on their own. So you've got to have them be succinct, choose a leader, and give them a way to choose a leader. So that way they're not spending three out of the four minutes just choosing the leader. So we've got to be really careful with our instructions. And I love to say in training, instructions are to training as stories are to keynotes. Instructions are to training the heartbeat as stories are to keynote. So especially if you're doing a longer half day, full day presentation, breakout rooms are essential. Here's the other thing, Mark, that you just triggered when you were explaining it is when people in breakout rooms, it's less intimidating for them to talk because they're talking to two or three people instead of everyone in the class, which can be more intimidating.

No doubt about that. And what's also cool is you give individuals an opportunity to take leadership and take ownership because one becomes a leader or one becomes a scribe who will come back and report what they found. But having them not only talk to each other, but to get an opportunity to share with the entire group if they're comfortable with that is also another layer of engagement, another layer of pace elements within pace elements that gives them different things to do. So one, interact, discuss. But two, come back and report another pace element, in effect, within the pace element. This is powerful. Don't discount the value of using breakout rooms.

Excellent. And next, number eight, a shared experience. This is one I kind of stumbled on and realized the power of it when we were teaching our program on books on how to write a book, how to create your own book, how to author your first book. One of the ways to figure out what to write about and how to make it a subject that people would want to buy. We stopped and we said, okay, right now everybody go to your bookshelf and pick out a book and ask yourself, why did I buy this book? What's the story? Where was I at? What was the challenge? Did I see the speaker and want more of them? Did I have a challenge in my life that I went through? And I bought into the Tony Robbins personal power back in the day because I saw the infomercial, because I couldn't sleep, because I just broke up with my girlfriend. Like, what's the story behind it? So we had them Literally stop, go over to a bookshelf near them and pick out a book, and then come back to their seat and then share the experience from that. And I love this as a shared experience is so important because they all did it. And as Mark, you say done individual.

Yeah, done individually, but simultaneously, the shared experience, it's done individually. I get my own book, but it's done simultaneously. Everyone gets their book, everyone brings it back. And it was so cool watching the screen and gallery review that day, seeing everyone holding up their book. And even those of us who had audiobooks explained why we got the audiobook. And that was kind of different having the audiobook on the mobile phone and the physical book in their hands. Also the difference in the ways we all responded, so to speak. It was an effective use of a pace element, of us having a shared experience remotely. We're individually in our own spaces, but we did it together. It's a shared experience. Done individually but simultaneously. That's a shared experience.

You know, Mark, when I was thinking about how would that apply in a live situation, even if you pull an ED tape and you say, turn to the neighbor and give him a high five. Well, everybody's turning to the neighbor and everybody's giving someone a high five. Remember in the old days, Mark, when we could touch each other at a live event?

Yeah. You could have physical contact. Now we've got physical distancing. Right.

So ask yourself. Now, that one might not come to you right away, but starts by asking yourself, what shared experience could I give the people virtually that would help make a point? It's all specific. Specific. It's all for a reason. Nothing's using a pace element for the sake of using another pace element. It's not. Well, let me go from six to number seven. No, no, no, no, no, no. We're just giving you options. And we realized when Mark and I started teaching this, even Ed Tate was like, I love that idea. I've never considered that. Now, he did a lot of it naturally, but when you understand and have more of an awareness, you realize you could be so much more straight, strategic. Mark, number nine.

Number nine is the check in. Now, people hear check in, and they say, wait, check in? Is that like going to the hotel? We assure you that is not what we mean. But when individuals get a chance to check in, they get to share what they've learned. They get to share what ideas they have. I love, by the way down, I gotta digress for a second. We talk about keepers and ahas and action items, and we get individuals kind of share what comes to their minds, what's on their hearts, what they've learned, what they've gleaned. And having individuals get involved in that way, they feel much more a part of the group and not just sitting here hearing somebody teach, I'll take away what I want and I go home and I'm already at home, but I walk away with what I've got and that's it. I mean, what has your experience been? What are you hearing from people about this idea?

Well, I think it's almost many speakers and presenters do this naturally. So I'm just trying to create an awareness. Ed Tate, think of Ed Tate, he is the king of this. He every seven minutes says, does that make sense? So when you ask a question like, does that make sense? He's checking in to see if it's clear. Now, it may be clear most of the time, but these are different people than last time. Maybe they have a different background or there's a word you use that confused them because it wasn't in their lingo. So when we check in with the audience, does this make sense to you? So before we move on, we want to see if they're with us. Leave no attendee behind. There we go.

I like that. Leave no attendee behind. But you know, it's funny too, Darren, like you said, we check in. Does that make sense? Is it good? Does that make sense? And what we found, both live and sometimes virtually, because I get to watch the chat. When we do our virtual presentations, what I see is people will often write in something that they learned in that moment, like a keeper, just because you asked, does that make sense? Is it working out for you? And they go, yeah, I picked this up or I picked that up. And even not being called upon to respond to the check in, but some actually do and they'll tell you, yeah, it makes sense, but here's why it makes sense. And again, the attendee feels, yeah, lie, we ask, that makes sense. We get head nods. But when you're virtual and the attendee wants to respond to that, they'll actually type in love that point in our webinars as we go along. You'll see, oh, good idea, Darren. Not Mark, but Darren and I accept that. But you'll see, I love that. A simple phrase like love that they're checking back in with you to tell you, yes, it does make sense. Yes, I receive it. Yes, I pick something up without even being asked to share. So the check in is one good for you, the presenter to make sure they're with you. But the bonus is sometimes their check in leads to a response that tells you what they're learning on the fly. And to me, that's really cool. I love it though. Leave no attendee behind.

Yeah, absolutely. And Mark, I don't even know if this would just as you're saying this, I'm like, I wonder if keepers would be different or part of a check in.

Well, you know what, we could separate that because the minor check in is, how you doing? Does it make sense? You follow me so far, Great. But when you say, let me know what your keepers are, what are your AHAs, what do you pick up from this? You're actively asking an audience in a virtual environment to give you a response back, which you really can't do as effectively live with three or 400 people, even if you only had 30 people in a room. You may feel I could ask, but with in a virtual environment, you can feel very, very safe asking for those kind of responses. And because we are alone in our homes or our offices or wherever we are, hotel rooms, you ask us to tell us what you think. It gives us a chance once more to reengage, to type in an answer, but not just yes or no. I felt good. I'm telling you what I'm learning. I'm giving back to you. I'm confirming to you that your message is getting across to me. And again, I'm feeling heard, I'm feeling important. I'm saying, yeah, I got value. And I want to tell you what the value is as a potential pace element, asking for what people have learned. The keepers, the AHAs could really, really be effective. And guess what? It also tells you, as a presenter, how you doing? It lets you know if your message is indeed getting across. You are letting your audience help you to determine your own effectiveness. Who would have thunk it?

Yeah, it's a beautiful thing. You know what's landing, what's not what. Maybe you need to make clearer, which is one of the things you and I preach all the time. Maybe this is a 9B is a keeper. Since we said 11, so if we make it 12, I will feel like we didn't deliver. So 9A is check in, 9B is keeper. They are similar, yet different.

Please get this. I want to be clear about this regarding keepers, because we ask for this all the time. And we notice, Darren, very often, even in our evening webinars, we ask for keepers. You'll get two, three, sometimes four people will say the exact same thing or variations Thereof, which again confirms to you the audience is getting it and they feel that they're being heard. So when you get 3, 4, 5 for the same answer, you know your point landed. How cool is that, right?

It is different from a check in the more we're thinking about this, but on the fly. It's a beautiful point. And Mark, what I also think is different is when we are doing a live event and we have everyone in the room with us, there's times when we check in with everyone. So when we end the day, we want to keep her from every single person. We try to ask them to give us a different one. So we're not piling on, so to speak, to make it be creative. But we're also reinforcing for everyone. So I love the keeper section. That's why we do it in our podcast, why we do it in our live events. We do a webinar. We're not necessarily going to wait for one for everyone again, going back to flow. So it gives us a check in, it allows us to call out, but they are definitely engaged. All right, mark, number 10. This is probably my favorite in live presentations. I use this with video and virtual presentations, but it's illustrations. Mark, how would you define illustrations?

An illustration. Now, we're not saying you're going to draw a cartoon or do a painting. Book was illustrated by Darren Lacroix, but it's a visual representation of a point you're trying to make in a way that reinforces your message. And illustrations can be in simple form or complex form. I've seen illustrations using a piece of candy left on a hotel room pillow. I've seen illustrations using sledgehammers. I've seen illustrations using a cast of three or four people to reinforce a point. The thing is, it's a visual that is captivating, engaging. Make sure it reinforces the point you're trying to make. And for us at stagetime, Darren Lacroix, our fearless leader, he is the king of illustrations.

I just, I don't know why they resonate with me, but I love them. When I did the sponge keynote at Toastmasters, I used three boys bowls of water, one dark, one clear and one was empty. And then I talked about you can only squeeze out what's inside you. Anyway, I love that. In my championship speech, the fall forward was a physical illustration. You mentioned sledgehammers. One of my favorite is my pastor, Vince Antonucci, talking about the lies that we were told when we were young, that we need to demolish the lies and we can't do it with a fly swatter. So he pulls out a fly swatter, which is such a great dichotomy. Then out of nowhere, he whips out a sledgehammer and breaks a cinder block. He has a lot of great illustrations, but what illustrations could you create? I remember when Steve Jobs first came out with the iPhone. He did an illustration on stage with the iPhone, showing how it was different, how it was unique. Sometimes illustrations are critical, but the. The best part about them is when they're on message, they are unforgettable.

When they are on message, they are unforgettable. I like that. Awesome.

Yeah. Mark, you did an illustration of having a recipe where you.

Oh, yeah. I wore an apron on stage one day to talk about how to edit and craft your speech. I was talking about filet and fortify. The idea was Darren's use filet and fortify. And I ran with that thing, and I did an entire presentation about speech editing based upon the approach of a chef with a bony fish with a carving knife and a filleting knife and the whole thing, and cleaning the fish with lemon like my wife does. And I wore this apron over my shoulder suit for an hour doing this program. But it was effective and it served to reinforce the message of the Carey must take to prepare our speech. In a way, it becomes a delightful meal for the audience to enjoy. It worked.

Yeah. And you explained the ingredients. Everyone knows you need critical ingredients, and there's things you got to cut out and there's things you need to season it with, if you will.

So, yeah, you're right.

Yeah, it was a great illustration. So you've probably seen an illustration by a speaker or presenter before, but did you ever say, okay, how can I create my own illustration that would help reinforce and make my message unforgettable?

I love the question. It's a serious question. How can I create my own illustration? So we want you to think about what you've been doing. What can you do differently, perhaps by illustration? That'll be one more way to reinforce your message. You don't have to use it every time, but it becomes one more tool in your toolbox, one more weapon in your arsenal. And above all, it must always, always, always point back to your message.

Yeah, Mark, let's move over to number 11. Rounding it out, I need to get a drum roll for my sound effects machine. This is the first podcast I think we've ever done where I haven't used one sound effect.

We're not done yet.

I don't know that's true, that's true. But number 11, especially when you're doing live presentations, not necessarily as applicable it could be, but definitely when you're doing virtual, and that is the Live screen share web search. Live screen share Web search mark. I know when you and I were teaching virtual presentations in a webinar, I actually showed people when we were talking about, here's the microphones to use. I showed people a picture of the Audio Technica 2020. And then I said, okay, stop now. And I opened up a web browser, shared the screen, went on to Amazon, and then typed in the Audio Technica 2020. So they saw it come up, they saw me searching it, and boom. And I stopped, I stepped back and I said, which was more engaging, me showing you the picture or me searching to show you the search? Now, I gotta tell you, I got feedback from somebody who, let's say is experienced and kind of pooh poohed. He's like, you're teaching us how to search on Amazon. I'm like, no, I know you know how to search on Amazon. But what I was teaching you is how much more engaging a live search screen share web search is than just showing us a picture. The picture makes the point, but it's almost like fascinating seeing the search right in front of you. Now, you don't want to take too long to get there. You should already have maybe a website pulled up that you can just jump on and do it. You want to do it quickly and smoothly.

Why?

For flow. But it can be a very effective pace element.

Yeah, we've also done that. Darren, teaching our speaking program. We recommend a couple of websites for rhythm and rhyme. We mentioned rhymer.com, we mentioned thesaurus.com the key is if you get a screen share and you know you are, you want to pull up those sites on a browser beforehand. So when you go to screen share, the browser page is already there and you go boom. And we say use rhymer.com we type in a word, we click the button and they go, oh, yeah, I could use that one. And to hear people respond immediately because they see you do the search live, it also has great impact as a separate pace element. Think it through. Is this a viable option for you? Again, you don't want to use all 11 at one time, but are there times when doing that search and having your viewers, your attendees see it happen live and in the moment, could that be effective? So think about it, okay? Plan carefully and test it first. But don't discount the value of doing a Live screen share, web search and they go, yeah, I didn't know about that. Matter of fact, Darren, you mentioned a tool that Ed uses called, I think it's on splash.com in a previous webinar and having you go online live and pull that up and see, see what was there for me was very intriguing. I found it, I wrote the website down, I said, ah, I'm going to search myself. But seeing you do that search and see what popped up when you searched, that in itself can intrigue me. So here's the point. The result of the search, not the search itself, but the result of the search, that can be the one thing that triggers your audience member, your attendee to want to go to that search site, especially if what you're searching for is of interest and value to them.

Well said, Mark. And what I love about that is you're actually training them on how it looks, how simple it is and how quickly they can access the results they want. Sometimes we used to teach just go to rimer.com but when I actually pull up Rimer and go to Rimer and they see what it looks like, like they're blown away. Well, what kind of expert am I if I'm not trying to help my audience get one step closer to engaging with a tool that will help them go where they want to go. Because they may or may not go on their own. If I just say rymer.com but when they see how simple it is and how powerful it is and how they can use it, they're 90% more likely to engage.

Man, that is so awesome. I cannot believe we have gone through 11 of our pace elements already. Man, time certainly flies. Actually 11.5, we made one up, but time sure flies. Don't forget now the idea of pace elements help you change the pace. As Darren said up front, you don't need to use all 11.5 at one time, but you want to choose the ones that will really be most efficient. So let's run through them real quick to make sure we don't miss anything. Number one was a talking head, Darren.

Number two, well told stories.

Number three, slide shares.

Number four, short and meaningful video clips.

Number five, type in or raise your.

Hand if number six custom captivating visuals.

Number seven breakout rooms.

Number eight, a shared experience and number.

Nine that check in with nine B keepers and AHAs.

Number ten my favorite illustrations from the king of illustrations.

At number 11 we said the live screen share with web Search. These are tools you can use to change the pace elements and keep your Audiences engaged. Darren, any closing thoughts on this one?

Man? Well, if you want to spend some more time with Mark and me and Ed Tate, we're going to do a workshop called Virtual Presentations Workshop.com you can join us. I'll give you a discount code Mark25Mark25. If you want to join us and get a discount, you get 25% off because you've been listening listening to this podcast.

Darren, it has been a blast. As always. I appreciate spending time with you and giving a taste of the pace elements that we use at different times in our presentations. And I can't wait to hear the results of our listeners using these same tools and techniques so that they can deliver unforgettable presentations as well.

And join us next week when we have a mystery guest. And Mark, it's so much of a mystery. You and I don't even know who he is or she.

Full disclosure. I love this.

That's full disclosure. We're trying to catch up because we've been so busy doing virtual trainings, which feels so blessed and so fortunate that we jumped ahead of the curve and just kind of set us up for this. So we're both keeping busy. Thanks for joining us for Unforgettable Presentations Podcast. Hopefully we'll see you online or on stage. Stage Mark, what happens if they miss a week?

Hey, if you miss a week, you miss a lot. We'll see you next week.

Make sure you subscribe to our show.

Remember to subscribe because if you miss a week, you miss a lot.

If you like this episode, please leave us a review. If you want to get more from Mark and Darren, check out Stage stagetime University where they provide experienced presenters a proven path and world class feedback. To become the speaker everyone is talking about, go to stagetimeuniversity.com join us next week. If you're going to take the time to prepare a presentation, make it unforgettable.