Ep. 45 Be Practical, Creative And Unforgettable with Freddie Ravel

Oh, my gosh. Darren Lacroix, I cannot tell you how excited I am. Now, you're not quite my age, but if I say names like Al Jerome, you might know who that is. If I say Earth, Wind, and Fire, you might know who they are. Well, our guest today was intimately connected to both these groups in a musical arena. And talk about shifting careers and becoming unforgettable on stage. Oh, my gosh, Darren, I can't wait for you to meet Freddie.

I saw his demo video. I was blown away. And that's not easy, especially because I've seen a billion of them. I know a lot of the bigwig speakers, but when I saw him and Freddie. Well, we'll talk about this. But when he took the two musical tones and did it together and it didn't sound right, I was just like, I love that metaphor. The dude's talented. He's got history. Let's dive in.

Anyone can give a present. 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, like, I know you, you're an amazing guy, but when you get pumped out of your mind and tell me for two months, we got to get Freddy. We got to get Freddy. We got to get. I'm like, who's Freddy? So, Mark, I'm going to let you lead on this because he's your friend and you got him here. And, Freddie, I am thrilled to have you.

Thank you, man.

Freddie Revelle, it is my honor, my blessing, my privilege, not only to have shared a platform with you at a major convention a couple years ago, to be introduced by you, to do a mini duet on stage with you, but to call you friend and brother, Freddie Revell. How in the round world are you, man?

Thank you, Mark, and thank you, Darren, for inviting me to be part of your amazing show. And life is good. I feel very blessed, albeit we're in really unique times right now, but I feel exceptionally good.

Well, Freddie, I want to jump into the who of Freddie Revell. Imagine my surprise. I go for this convention, and I'm told, you know, Freddie's going to do a little lead. He's going to introduce you, and, you know, right away, I Can see this man thinks differently. He's got a great, strong musical background. And he says, oh, you know what we could do? You could do that Jamaican song. Sad to say I'm on my way. He starts playing that thing. I start singing. That's my intro at this huge convention. It was so awesome. But then I find out, wait, this guy's got great musical skills. His background is in entertainment. He has traveled the world with the best, and he becomes a speaker. We want to know about that transition. But before that, what's the backstory behind the incomparable Freddie Ravel? How do you get started in music and then get from there to speaking?

Well, wow. Thank you so much, Mark. And it was an honor to be to share the platform with you that day in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I loved it. It was great. I started playing music when I was seven years old. The first instrument I took up was the accordion. The squeeze box. Yeah, it was my first instrument. A lot of it has to do with the fact that my parents are from two really different worlds. My mother is from Columbia, South America, and my dad's a Russian, German, Polish, Jewish guy from the Bronx.

What a combination. That's awesome.

And she. My mother was raised Catholic. My dad was raised Jewish. So I tell people I'm a cashew.

Boom.

And all that to say that from a very early time in my life, I've always been in a world of great diversity and great cultural Stewart always brewing together for so many years. And I grew up in a house where I heard Brazilian, Latin, South American sounds, Caribbean sounds, and at the same time, Eastern European, Asian, Africa. And then, of course, being raised as an American with rhythm and blues and soul and rock and Motown and jazz and funk and R and B and all those. So I just kind of grew into this cultural soup of sound, of melody, harmony, and rhythm. And once I grew up into that, I just couldn't resist diving into it more. I eventually switched to the piano at around the age of 11, and I landed on the piano, and I felt much more at home on the piano than I did on the accordion, because in the piano, you have 88 keys. And in my opinion, the piano is like an orchestra, from the lowest notes to the highest notes, much broader than just an accordion. So I continued on the piano, and I practiced about 10 hours a day while I was in, from about the age of about 11 to about 18. I was completely crazy. I was nerd. My hair was down to here. I was playing in funk bands, rock bands, you name it. And then I went to college and got a Bachelor of Arts degree in music and got hired at the age of 23 by Sergio Mendez. Play Brazilian music and go around the world and play, you know. Oh, oh, oh, oh. And my first gig was for the King of Thailand. I was 23 years old, and we flew out, and the first gig was in Thailand, and that was my first out of college. Bam. And from there, I got my first album deal at the age of 29 and did a record for Polygram Records, which is owned by Universal, Universal's the largest music label in the world. And then from there, I got discovered by Earth, Wind and Fire, and I did a second album, a solo album, a second album called Soul to Soul. And the reason I bring that up is at the same time as I'm working with Earth, Wind and Fire, I get a call from Deepak Chopra.

Wow.

And Deepak Chopra is still not famous. It's around 1993, 1994, and Deepak is Dr. Deepak Chopra from India, an endocrinologist from Massachusetts, moving to Los Angeles and starting to be introduced to the entertainment world of la. And I get introduced to him there, and he approaches me because he wants to write a song called Slip in the Gap, a song about the space between the notes.

Okay. Okay, Good background here. Okay.

And I'm coming full circle, Mark, because that was one of the first things you said in this interview. But what's good that you said that is. That's actually the pivot. That was the moment that said to me, to my heart, you know, I love music. At that time, I had done. I had already worked with Prince, I had already worked with Madonna. I was. You know, life was amazing in terms of the touring and the things I was doing. But my heart wanted to do more than the typical music career. And to make it short and sweet, the typical music career is if you're. If you're good at what you do, you get a record deal or you work with other people who have a record deal. You hustle really hard, you make a really good record, you go out on the road, you promote the record, you go on tour, you come back and you do another record. It's kind of this hamster wheel, kind of like a speaker goes out, writes a book, goes out, speaks about the book, comes back, writes another book, and the hamster wheel continues. And it's all good. But I wanted something more. I always felt that there is some way to blend entertainment and music with knowledge and value. And when I started working with Deepak and we decided to write this song called Slip in the gap. I realized that understanding the space between the notes not only makes good music, but it teaches human behavior. Wow. And when I figured when I was gifted the opportunity to work with Deepak and he and we started really digging into this together, it left me with a very deep impression that humanity is on a bullet train. We run very quickly. And in the process of pursuing our dreams and pursuing our goals, we may forget about the most important people in our lives. How many men go to their graves and women go to their graves feeling unfulfilled? Or, God, I wish I did that. Or, God, I wish I was better with my children. God, I wish I had done more to do a career that wasn't about money, but rather was more about service and more about bringing value to people. People get to this place where they do that, and I realized, wait a second. Music is the oldest language on the planet. It's been around. You know, when we talk about the origin of the universe, we don't say the big sight or the big smell. We say the big bang. We refer to the origin of our universe in terms of sound. Right. And, I mean, they found a flute in Germany a couple years ago, Mark and Darren. It's 40. It was made from a vulture's bone.

A flute.

A flute. Do, re, mi, fa, so vatito. 43,000 years old. You know how long we've been using the written word and the spoken word? About five, six thousand years. That's it. So here we have our use of vocabulary and words, and way back here in timeline is music. And so I'm thinking, how on God's green earth can we be not thinking about music in a much broader application? Why do we think music is just itunes and Spotify and going to a concert? And I go to the gym and I work out to good music. Why is it limited to this when it really is? I mean, we got a drummer in our chest beating with a heart constantly, and it's got a specific rhythm. It's about 76 beats per minute is the standard beats per minute of the human heart. So how. And we're all about harmony. We're all about resonance. And most people will tell you things like, when I'm with those people, I get a good vibe. I get a good vibe. What does that mean? I resonate with the people. I feel a great vibe when I'm with my brother Mark Brown. I feel a great vibe with my new friend Darren. I feel it. I'm not. We're not. We're not articulating it in a big way. We're not. But you can feel the love, the respect. And that to me is the basis of helping us move forward in society, learning and everything, you know?

Real quick, I'm going to let Darren speak because I'm kind of overwhelmed right now, but I just had to look up quickly. The play the Morning Bride, as in Morning in Mourning by William Congreve. When he says music has charms to soothe a savage breast, people often say beast. It wasn't beast, it's the breast. Music has charms to soothe a savage breast. Music has the power to enchant even the roughest of people. William Congreve. Music has charms to soothe a savage breast. And you just said that in these difficult times we're living right now, Freddie, music has an ability to connect people, to calm people, to soothe people. And you use music and then you take it to a different level, to a corporate environment, and you help us to understand that those spaces between the notes can be so fulfilling if done well. I'm going to ponder that and let Darren take over here because I'm just like, wow, right now. Darren.

Yeah, I'm just wondering what's the note of sarcasm? Because we've kind of missed that so far. Mark, you and I are usually very sarcastic. So. But anyway. So, Freddie, how did you make that transition? How did you say, okay, I'm doing the music. I love what I do. I love audiences. You just, you beam when you're on stage, from what I've seen. How did you say, hey, let me do a little more of the knowledge part and the stories behind it and the metaphor. How did that transition? What was your first speech or where did the idea come from?

You guys know the saying, a 20 year overnight success. I mean, tons of failure. Let's just start off like that. I would do things that would kind of hit and miss for years because people were like, how is this guy bringing a piano on stage and connecting it with human behavior? He's fun to listen to. But, you know, so for me to get over the but and to start to put meat on the bone, if you will, I began to dig really deep into some very deep case studies on how music works and started to make observations about the way human beings process music. And there's some broad generalizations that people know about music, but virtually every human being on the planet has a playlist of, let's say, 10 pieces of music that transformed their being. I mean, and usually it happens at a very early age. It's pretty typical that we form our tastes in high school. That's a kind of a common thing. And when people talk about the bands they love, they tend to refer an era that was around the time they were about 18. The coming of age part of life, when you enter into adulthood is a very big moment for people. And they form musical references and many other references in life. Right. So when I started realizing that, I realized every audience I speak to, I would know what their demographic was. I'd do a lot of homework. I'd find out, and I'd find out. I wouldn't make an assumption that they know who Earth, Wind and Fire is. After all, Earth, Wind and Fire hit their peak probably in the late 80s, early 90s. Well, that was 28 years ago. Now. They're still awesome and they're still killing it. But most of my audience these days are people in there. I'm going to say between 30 and 60 is typical of my audience. So I better be delivering Ariana Grand, Bruno Mars, Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift, Adele. I better have those reference points, and I do. But I'm still going to give him some Frank Sinatra, some Chopin, some Mozart, some Duke Ellington, some jazz, because there's a whole, especially in the United States, it's often said that jazz is the only true art form in the world that is uniquely American. See, almost everything in our country is imported from somewhere else. But jazz is actually a uniquely American thing. And it can only happen in America because of the melu of the melting pot that we have. It can only happen because we had people from different parts of the world that mashed up into things and created things like gospel and blues and soul and rock and roll. And all of that led to where we were with jazz. So I hope that answers a little bit of the question.

So more specifically, what was one of your first paid speeches? Or how did somebody say, okay, he's musically great, but we want the message, too. Where did that transition happen?

Again? I'm going to go back to Deepak. Deepak was doing an event called Seduction of Spirit was the name of the program. And he was very big on meditation, which is. Deepak was. Before he became famous, he was about to be groomed to lead the TM movement. That's a lot of people don't know that, but that's where he was headed. And when Bruce Willis and Demi Moore discovered him in 1992 and brought him to Hollywood, everything changed. And he was on the COVID of Newsweek about 18 months later as the new guru of Knowledge. But Deepak was very big on these things and he was doing these workshops and he said, Freddie, we did this beautiful song called Slip in the Gap. Why don't you come down to San Diego? I'm doing a seven day seminar on meditation. Come verdeen White of Earth, Wind and Fire. The bass player who's one of my very best friends, I brought him into the project. Verdin got involved. So we both went down and I ended up bringing a nine foot piano from LA and a truck and having about eight musicians come down from Los Angeles and set up in San Diego. And we did a performance for about 800 people that were all meditators and Deepak people. When I was done with that, people came to me and said that was fascinating. You talked about music, but you also talked about the space between the notes and meditation and the way then you gave musical examples of, of that. And that was so interesting. Could you do that again? And that's when the light bulb went on. And then about a year later, I was invited to do a speakers series. Now that was usually I come on as a concert artist, but this time I came on as a speaker. I was not called a speaker before that. This was sort of official. And I had a keyboard with me because I always have a keyboard with me. It always helps me explain things better if I have a piano. And so I had a piano with me and I presented this idea that melody is the lead in music. Who's ever dealing with the melody is leading. So I started thinking about melody as a leadership idea. Then I started thinking about harmony. You know, when you make harmony, you need at least two notes or more to make. You cannot make harmony with one note. You need at least two or three or four or five. So I started thinking harmony's about collaboration. Okay, so I got my melody. It's a single idea. It's the lead spotlights on the melody that's a leader. Harmony is about two or more notes. So that's like a team of people working together. And then tempo, rhythm. What does rhythm do? Rhythm gives you structure. Rhythm gives you synchronicity. Rhythm gives you timing. Rhythm gives you pacing. So wait a second. If I got my CEO, who's the leader? Now I'm going to throw the executive twist on this. I got my CEO who's the leader, and I have, let's say my project manager or HR running the team and helping the people support the leader. I've got my melody, my harmony. But if the drummer doesn't show up, who says, hey, Guys, deadline for the project is this coming Friday. I need this on my desk on Friday. Otherwise we can't release the third quarter profits. We can't deliver products, we can't deliver the services. If we don't have a tempo to execute the melody and the harmony on, we never get there. It's kind of like a band with a great lead singer and a great guitar player, but the drummer doesn't show up. Now, before the pandemic, the numbers were 80% of businesses failed. Right. Four out of five businesses start and they fail. And most of the time it's because they lack a drummer. They have a great idea. The melody, beautiful melody, full of passion. Good idea. Maybe it's a family business. So they have harmony. They have a team of people supporting the leader. But they're underfunded. Guess what? Money and timing are intertwined. Very much so. Right? Give you an example. When we had the giant earthquake in Los Angeles in 1994, the entire city was down. There's a very big freeway here called the Santa Monica Freeway. It is a main artery to the city of la. It's in the heart of la. City of LA said we need a construction company to build one of the bridges that caved in. If you can get that bridge built every day sooner than the deadline, we will put an extra million dollars into the budget every day that you complete that sooner than promised. Guess what? They got it done in about a month and it saved the city hundreds of millions of dollars because people could get in and out. So what I'm trying to say is money and timing and effort are intertwined. And therefore, when I speak to the world of financial services, banks, insurance companies, and I do a lot of that kind of work, I talk to them about being the drummers of society and they love it. That's kind of the thinking that is applying music to, to human behavior.

Somebody asked you to do it again and you begin to develop this program that's very unique. And what I'm hearing without you saying it, Freddie, is as presenters, what unique approach do you and I have to a topic that will serve or will solve a problem for an individual, an organization, maybe even a country? So I think as presenters, we gotta really look at what we have. What problem do we solve and how can we uniquely and creatively bring that to the audience and serve them? Because I hadn't heard of anybody doing what you do in the way that you do it. It's truly, truly remarkable. Any thoughts on that?

Darren, I got a question. So obviously I Love your background, and you have so much experience. 10 hours a day. That was awesome. I love that. The mark. I don't know if you picked up on this, but it was the audience at the Deepak workshops. When the audience speaks, when the audience gave him that insight, that's when the transition happened. So I just want to point that out, that the audience gives us feedback. But I want to go back to your Earth, Wind, and Fire days. What did you learn from that experience that you now use to entertain and educate audiences?

There are many, many things I learned from there, but I'll give you one that comes to mind right off the bat.

Perfect.

Maurice White is the founder of Earth, Wind and Fire. He's the lead singer of Earth, Wind and Fire, and he said that if you can get people in the root chakra, which is the pelvis, if you can get people to feel the music that is, in other words, feel it in the body. If you can get them to put it in his language, if you get them to feel the groove, you can tell them anything you want. So I have my keyboard here, right? Yeah, you guys. Can you hear it? Let me see if you can hear this. Let me get this a little closer. Can you hear this?

Yes.

Yeah. So, ah, B, seven chord.

Do you remember? Right. September, right? So one of the most famous songs, say, do you remember Bahia? Right? Mark is like, for years, I've been in front of stadiums where there's like 300,000 people like this, and I'm looking at this going, why don't I take this lightning in a bottle that moves an entire stadium and bring it inside of the corporate world? What do we got to lose? Chances are most of those executives are out in the audience with their kids dancing, and I have found that to be true. So I started using that idea of the root chakra. If you find music where it's infectious and you give people a taste of that in the context of a keynote, and then you connect what you just did with something relevant to their business. Relevant, not just pale. If I go, 1, 2, 3, 4, and I go, hey, it's great to be here in front of Blue Cross Blue Shield. And I'm so glad that all of you in this room have stepped up your customer service, because now they have a connection to what you do, and you only got 30 seconds to make that connection. So let's talk about the team tempo of those 30 seconds to make that matter. In other words, you have to take the joy of the music, kind of a right brain, creative heart, centered and connect that with something left brain, analytical and technical. Because business is a dance between these two worlds. In business, they want to talk about innovation and creativity. That that's kind of the right brain side. But we also got to talk about profits, accounting, taxes, hiring, firing, all that. That's more of the balance of the numbers and delivery and getting things done, getting exports handled and sales and those kinds of things. So there's a dance between the practical and the creative. And I believe in my heart, Darren and Mark, that we as human beings thrive on that dance. We tend to live especially now. Here we are in the year 2020. We're in a world of ones and zeros. A lot of digital stuff. Digital, digital, digital, digital. Now. It's amazing, but we have to now. And I think the pandemic, by the way, has been given us a deeper opportunity to explore the space between the notes. I mean, what a privilege it is for me to stand in my studio in Los Angeles and be with Mark and Darren. We weren't doing this a year ago, so I view this as a tremendous opportunity. And I kind of want to share something with you guys. This is a quote from Plato. It's music of soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything. And I think when you have that understanding, it opens up a lot of things. And there's kind of one more thing I also wanted to share with you quickly that I think is interesting. I talk a lot about this area that we're in right now. I call it that the world is on pause. And I feel that instead of calling it the great lockdown, I like to call it the great free up. And I think that we need to stay positive.

Nice.

Let's find the space between the notes where we can stay positive. And I think a lot of things can happen that will make things more effective. So those are the kinds of themes that I'm working with to kind of talk a little bit about where we are at right now and where the opportunities lie. Even though people might call this whole thing a massive crisis and be very negative about it, there's the other side of it, where the ability to dig into the space between life and agenda and ego. And this is what I think it should be to a greater level of respect and understanding. And how can I serve my brothers and my sisters on a deeper level. Wow. And I think we see that coming. We see that erupting in our culture. We see that erupting around the world. People are yearning to reset humanity right now, and I know I'm opening up a big can of worms. No worries. But I want to be 100% authentic with you. It keeps me up at night. I've got two beautiful children. I'm concerned, and at the same time, there's a part of me that's really optimistic.

And I just have to ask, did they ever consider changing the name to Earth, Wind and Freddy?

Hey, everybody, I want you to talk to Darren. He's my new agent.

Just saying, you know, still the same first initial there.

So I got a question real quick. Trinity, I met you as this unique, entertaining presenter with a strong corporate message with the music base. How do you balance the need for corporations to get some of this life in tune experience with going to the studio, being creative on your own, musically, being a father and a family man, how do you balance all of that? Especially for those emerging speakers who really want to push this thing and they want to become successful on the platform, how would you do that? How would you advise an emerging speaker to navigate these waters?

I think one of the most important things to navigate is using the golden rule that's been around forever. Right. Do unto others as others do unto you. Or namaste. Right. The light in me recognizes and honors the light in you. Now, that sounds like a very spiritual thing to say. It is, but there's another side to it, and that is, oh, Freddie, you got a phone call with the c. CEO of Nike. A lot of people might go, God, I'm freaked out. I'm talking to the CEO of Nike. What am I going to say? And the first thing I do is I do my homework and I find out what makes that executive man or woman, what makes them tick, where are they? How old are they? Do they have family? What kind of taste do they have? Where are they coming from? And I try to get a musical profile or era of where they are at. And usually before the phone call even happens, I have a feeling for the energy that they're coming from. And then that's one side of it, the other side of it. Let's get the numbers. How's the company doing? What kind of event have they called me for? What are their challenges? What are their triumphs? What are they celebrating? Where is the hope or where is the hope diminished? And how best can we talk about the science and beauty of music as a tool to help their team work together? Usually I am called in to inspire a higher level of collaboration within the company. Usually the areas I get called into would be communications, hr, collaboration, team Building and inspiration and motivation. Those are kind of the areas that I tend to get called for and then often open up an event or close an event or both. Kind of like what we did, Mark.

Yeah.

Where we would. Because it. One of the most important things in life is the first impression, right? You have. What is it? You have like 5 seconds or 10 seconds to make a first impression. And so I'm a real believer in homework. Prepare like crazy. I'm actually a fanatic about it. I study like crazy. I really learn the background of who I'm going to talk to, what their goals are, and then I kind of go into chameleon mode. How do I blend and match their culture? And that's what I did as an artist. When I went into Earth, Wind and Fire, I came in fully, all ears open, knowing their music, knowing how to play it, how to support it. And then how do I, you know. And then I would huddle with the leadership. Maurice White was my guide. And then I would get really tight with the drummer because the drummer is the rhythm and energy of the band. And if I'm locked in, if the drummer and I are married, the rest of the band's going to benefit if I am not in sync with the drummer. So as a speaker, what is that? Who's the drummer? When you're a speaker? Because your show is all about unforgettable presentations, right? The drummer is. In most cases, of course, the client is your drummer. Client comes in with an agenda. Hey, Freddie, you got 45 minutes. Lunch starts in 50 minutes. We gotta clear the room. It's like very logistical, right? We gotta clear the room. They gotta come in, then we gotta change the room. Because at one o' clock we have another. Right? There's a little bit of a logistical side, then there's the other thing is, man, I hope you can fire up the troops. Make sure you don't mention this and make sure you do mention this. So you get all your ducks in a row and then you go. So a lot of preparation, but your drummer is the client and in many cases, the event planner. That's my drummer. I am the melody and the harmony on stage. I'm delivering the main idea, I'm delivering the collaboration. But my drummer is not me. My drummer is the people who hired me. And if I serve that right, they're going to call the bureau that booked me and say it was out of the park, we had a fantastic experience. And that's the way you get booked again and hopefully again.

Question. Did you have a Coach or a teacher or a mentor on the spot speaking side of it at all or.

Oh, yeah. I've had a lot of different people that work with me. I hired a coach 25 years ago to help. I was so deep into the creative, I couldn't even see. I was so into the music, I was so about playing, I couldn't even think about a system. I was kind of in trouble until I figured out an architecture. Kind of like when you construct a talk as a speaker, you kind of have an idea of like, okay, I've got like five pillars. You know, I'll cover this as the setup. I'll cover this. Then I can open up here at stage three, then at stage four, I can play with the audience. And then at stage five, I can kind of put a bookend on what I said and review, you know, tell them what you told them, Tell them, tell them, tell them, tell them, tell them again. Right. That whole weaving and driving home a message, I wasn't very good at that 25 years ago. It's taken me a long time to do that. Now I'm at a place where I'm very comfortable and I find myself going with the flow and walking in with a game plan, but ready to throw away the game plan.

Oh, so what you're saying, Freddie, is that you are sensitive to what may have happened before you got there. In that space between the booking and the pre event call and the actual presentation, you walk in with your eyes open. That's powerful. That's powerful. Because some speakers, I know, we work so hard, Freddie, in our presentation, we got it down pat. And we get on stage, we're going to deliver that presentation for that audience. But you're saying you are feeling the vibe, so to speak. And you might say, you know what? That's not the best thing to do in this situation. So what's the backup? I mean, how do you.

Mark, when I met you, I didn't know you until we met. Like, what? Soundcheck?

Yeah. Right. Yeah, yeah.

We had a little phone call, we talked for 10 minutes. But when I got to meet you and I got to see your beautiful smile, the love in your heart, your energy and the depth of your voice and the connection. So my brain went, oh, my God, this is a rock star. How do I align the energy? I kind of took what I'd been doing for many years working with Al Jarou and Sergio Mendez and all, and I just kind of said. I said, mark now is my Carlos Santana, my prince. He and I are gonna we're gonna find a way to resonate. And it didn't take me long because you put out so much beautiful energy. I was like, okay, okay, okay. And really in a matter of seconds, I had Jamaica farewell as like, what do you think?

Yeah, yeah.

But the key is not to make an assumption because then the danger of it might have been Mark might have said, wait a second, that's sort of stereotypical, you know, maybe. But I think it's important for a speaker to be on guard for plan B. Many times plan B is plan A. Well, you know, embrace and embrace. And then when it becomes. When plan B goes, hey, the microphone's back or the microphone feeds back or how many. Now, I know you guys are both world class speakers, so how many times has the lavalier scraping when you're talking? Yeah, it's doing this.

Yeah.

Oh, I'm sorry. You know, and the people are like. And so you find that if you stop and don't move around, you can speak. And then when they're taking a question, they're speaking. I fix it. Now, you only know that because you do it for so long, people don't even know there's a problem. But both of you, I'm sure, have had bad mics, bad battery packs, weird reception. Oh, you got to stand. I better stand 10ft over here or I'm going to have a radio station come through my door. You guys know what I'm talking about. You guys have been there, right? This is the stuff that happens in the real world. So of course, when it happened to me the first time, I panicked. But I think the difference between a professional and an amateur is the professional makes the mistake look like it was made to happen.

Well said.

Well, you know, you made some mistake. I gotta ask you, Freddie, have you ever bombed and thought to yourself, that was the worst I've ever done as a presenter?

Oh, yeah.

What? No.

Oh, yeah. I've had places where I was just not in the right room. It's happened. I got to imagine it's happened to you guys where you. It's early in my career. It happened early in my speaking career. I ended up in a room where people were so technical. Technical that the beauty that I felt I was putting out there, they just weren't ready to get that. They wanted something else. And I did not get called back to that audience because they were not. And guess what? That's okay. It's not about. It's impossible to hit a home run every single time. Now I have a pretty good batting Average. Now, I usually do pretty good. I usually do really good right now. I've been pretty steady for the last couple decades. I usually do. I'd say about 98% of what I do. I deliver what I promise and I get great feedback. But, boy, there was many times where I blew it. And I think it's really important for everyone to have the permission. In fact, you better go out there and blow it a couple times. In fact, I would invite all your unforgettable presenters. In fact, I don't know any unforgettable presenter who didn't stick their neck out and step in the wrong thing. You have to take a risk. Is it a risk to walk out on stage with a piano and try to integrate the piano into human behavior in front of corporations, corporates? Yeah, it's pretty crazy, but I believe it's possible. So I set up the point of view and the references so I could make that case by weaving a bit of magic and science and a lot of listening to the client, more than anything.

I have one more question. You, Freddie, sitting in front of an audience, and there's another speaker up there. Who was the. What was the most unforgettable presentation you saw? And what do you think made it unforgettable for you?

Tony Robbins is amazing. I mean, I don't. You know, I know he's a household word and one of the gurus of our. Of our craft, but he's. He's something else. And I was in Vegas doing a show, and he invited me to the show, and you'll see him on my website when he was working with Pitbull in Vegas a few years ago. And I'm like, God, this guy's good. This guy, like, he puts himself in front of people he's never met in his life, and he kind of reads them and he becomes like a walking psychologist and motivational speaker. And it's definitely like jazz. He's improvising. It's not on a script. And it comes out of him because he's been doing it for a long time. So I think he's one of the greats in terms of how he can activate an audience. I think Brene Brown's another one. She's just. Because it's a different perspective. She's about the introvert and the beauty of holding the cards a little closer, close to your chest and opening that up, you know? And then we, Mark and I, we have a lot of. We all. And you too, Darren. We have colleagues. I've got some friends at nsa. Like Waldo Waldman, the wingman.

Wingman, yeah.

Another Georgia brother. Another one of my Georgia people. Right, right, Peachtree. And I'm also gonna say Mike Rayburn, my brother out of Las Vegas.

Hey, Freddie. Freddie. You have no idea how close Darren and Mike Rayburn are. Let him tell himself. Go ahead, Darren, tell him.

He was the first interview Mark and I ever did when we started this podcast. Yeah.

And they also hang out together every week, believe it or not.

Oh, man, you give my love. I've been to his church in Vegas.

I go to that church.

Oh, what a great place. I love it. And I saw him play guitar there. And my girl and I went there when I was. I was doing a presentation for IBM in Vegas and I said, hey, Mike, I'm in town. He goes, come by on Sunday. And I did. We took an Uber out there and I'll never forget it. It was beautiful. So I love Mike. I love everything he's about. So Mike is another guy, another master of taking music. And it's again, using something that is kind of creative and innovative and then boom, adding some meat to the bone that the client needs to hear. So I think I would encourage all the people watching the podcast take your gifts that are innovative, creative, spontaneous, comedic, musical, dramatic. Maybe you're a Shakespeare trained actor. Use it and then put some juice into it. That matters for the client. I always make it client first and then use your skill set to frame it. And I think you got a much better shot at success if you go that direction.

Question for you, Freddie. Do you still record and do musical projects or are you mostly involved in speaking now?

I do do musical products. I have a band. In fact, we were scheduled to do a concert July 19th. Right. Coming up in a couple weeks. And Governor Newsom of California just said, no restaurants. We're not going to keep it going. But there's a Herb Albert. The great trumpet player.

Yeah. Horn player.

Yeah. The founder. He's the A of A records. He's a living legend. I mean, his name is on the Grammys and he's an amazing man. He owns this beautiful venue in Beverly Hills and I've been lucky enough to be invited to play there for the last several years. And it's a spoiler. And I bring a beautiful band with me and horns and female vocals and I bring a nine piece group. I was all set to tackle the pandemic with some music and put a rehearsal together with everybody socially distanced. And this notice just came out 24 hours ago.

Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. Now I know you gotta go. Last question. I heard you bring a nine piece band with you to Tulsa on a flash drive and you told me you did a concert recently virtually online. Was it with the same flash drive band? How do you put all that together?

Just real quick, the way we do that is the band is pre recorded and I've done many, many engagements in my life where we have the recording but then I have an engineer go in and remove the piano that I was playing in the recording but leave the remaining sound of the full band. So it's kind of like karaoke piano. The piano is instructed but everything else is in place. And when everything else is in place, you can do some amazing things.

Yeah, well, Freddie, I wish I could talk to you forever and ever, but I gotta let my buddy Darian get the last word in. Thank you for joining me and John joining us. Darren, over to you, my friend.

And Mark, do you want to get ready with your keepers? Freddie, my last, last question for you. If you were sitting down with another presenter who had the privilege of the platform over coffee and they were really seeking that advice. Freddie, I really want to be unforgettable. I love what I do. I have a message that I care about. But what would you tell them?

Figure out your bookends of your presentation. How are you going to open and how are you going to close? It's a game. Given that you're well prepared. It's a given that you've thought about the client and the value. Let's assume that you've done your homework, get that opening, come up with something nobody's ever done and come up with a closing that maybe makes you come full circle and make sure that what you do is sensitive to, to the time that we're in. If you sound too rah rah rah right now, that may not be the right message, it's not the right vibe. But if you sound confident, hopeful, and you see, I think those of us who can see the light at the end of the tunnel, see the glass half full and look at where we're headed as opportunity in spite of crisis, now you got a message that's really, really great. In fact, it's making me think of one thing to leave you with. You know, we have this situation called Covid, right? But if you take the word co, just look up the word co. It's connected to collaborate. And if you look up, I'm talking about the Latin definition, the Latin definition of. And if you take the Latin Definition of vid. Vid. It means to see, like video. I'm making a video, it's to see. So vid is see. Co. Is collaborate. Covid. We are collaborating to see and learn more about each other. And for me, I kind of stumbled on that. I accidentally stumbled, stumbled on this discovery because I was looking for it. But every time I hear Covid in my mind, I don't go, oh, the pandemic. I go, collaboration. See, how do we see and collaborate on a deeper level and every day, because remember, we're going to see that word for a while. For me. Elaborate. See, how do we make service to one another? When the tide comes in, all boats rise. So I just want to say we're here for each other. And I think that the best advice to give any presenter who wants to be unforgettable is understand, ultimately we are here to serve one another on all levels.

Wow. Awesome.

Mark, let me just pop in. If you're listening to this, you know, I love that advice. Thank you so much for bringing that up because that's a huge reminder from a guy who gets it. If you're interested in working on your open or your close, check out episode 43 and 44, ironically, the last two episodes where we cover both. In each episode, Freddie, I just want to say thank you for being here. And Mark, you got some keepers from this episode.

How can we get hold. How can anybody get hold of Freddie Ravel? Is they want to reach it.

Well, everyone is invited to visit Life in tune right there. Lifeintune.com. it's right there. That is. That website is pretty much putting out what we're doing. There's going to be. There's a book, of course, in the works. Life in Tune, how to Reset Humanity Through Music. That's coming up and that is in the works. And then I'm doing quite a bit of virtual engagements these days.

Oh, sweet. Boston.

And so. So even though you're looking at videos on there, that show, live audiences. Right. This format, being able to speak with you in different parts. I did an event 14 hours ago here in Los Angeles. It's 8 o' clock at night here in LA. Yes. Last night we're doing a spontaneous event. There are about eight other countries on the call. One of the people is in Brazil and his father plays the trumpet and they're speaking in Portuguese and the guy says, my dad would love what you're saying, Freddie. I know it's weird, but can I pull him into this business talk? And I said, sure. And he Comes on. He's probably 75 years old, and he starts playing the trumpet like an angel. Like if Louis Armstrong were 8 years old with a mute. I couldn't believe his professionalism. He was playing a song called Poinsiana. I happened to know the song. I heard the key, and I started playing the piano. We may have. It was magical. It lasted about 20 seconds. Mic dropped. Everyone on the call just said, what just happened? I said, that's melody, harmony, and rhythm in spontaneous surrender. Respect. And when you let things happen, magic happens. Because human beings, we all got a little magic in us, and we can't forget that. Wow.

Well, here are my keepers. I got a handful speakers. Do a lot of homework on every audience demographic. Okay? Remember, the audience gives us instructions on our presentations. If you get people to feel the groove, you can tell them anything. Use the root chakra. Because business is a dance between the practical and the creative. The right brain and the left brain. Stay positive at all times and study your client, putting them first. Get a coach. Use good structure and always give value. Come out with something nobody has ever done. And be sensitive to the times in which we live. Take risks, but don't forget Covid. Collaborate to see and you could change your world. Freddie, I cannot thank you enough. I am so blessed. I'm so thankful. I'm honored to call you brother Darren. Bring us home.

All right, Freddie, thank you so much for being here. You're everything Mark said and then some. If you're looking to have a keynote speaker virtually or live, please check out Freddy. You gotta watch his demo. Just watch his demo. I've seen a lot of talented people, but then you have that clip where you make that metaphor and you play a little bit out of tune and then show the difference. So you gotta go check out his demo video. And Mark, one that he said to one more keeper. Rhythm gives you structure. Rhythm gives you structure. So, Freddie Vel, thank you for being here with us on Unforgettable Presentations podcast. If you're listening, join us next week. We're gonna have a super secret guest. I don't even know who it is because we don't know yet. But join us next week. We'll have fun. Freddie, thanks again. And if we can help you in any way, please let us know.

Thank you, Mark.

All right, yo.

All right, gentlemen. God bless.

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