Ep. 56 How to Create Unforgettable Magic Moments

Hey there, Mark Brown. Your mentor David Brooks came up with this idea of magic moments and he was review magic moments from the speech contest. So not necessarily the winner. Sometimes we look at big in demand speakers or a world champion or something like that, but in a contest, at a keynote, at a convention, there are these magic moments that happen between the audience and the presenter and those are game changers, those are life changing.

And you know what, I can't wait to discuss some of these today because we want everyone to understand that they can have these magical moments and sometimes they happen unexpectedly.

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, so here we go.

Where?

I love this concept and I've been thinking about this for a while and I just love the idea. This is when we look at unforgettable presentations. This is like there's the piece, there's the element, there's the part, but this is the atom, if you will. This is the smallest element, is that moment. And maybe it's in a story, maybe it's just the connection, it's the revelation, whatever that is. But sometimes we put too much emphasis on, let's say, the world champion in a contest or you know, that highly paid keynote speaker that everybody knows because they're national bestseller, New York Times bestseller. Yet at the conference, there's other magical moments that happen in individuals lives and I just think it'd be really cool if we focus on that this episode.

I agree. And again, I want to say thanks.

To my mentor, the master mentor, I call him the 1990 Toastmasters World Champion, David Brooks, who first had the idea of sharing these magical moments.

And I just, I'm really eager to.

Work with you today and share some moments that we have seen, some we have had happen to us and some happen through us. And it is our, you know, our hope today that those who listen to this podcast will think about those times when they heard a speaker. They had a magical moment experience and the impact it had. And also in their own experience as they spoke, as they delivered a message or gave a short presentation when the impact was so powerful for the audience that it was magical. So, Darren, my understanding is you kind of broke this down into three different categories of magical moments. What are those categories, Darren?

Well, before we get to even the categories, which I love the categories, but let's talk about the moment itself. That I think there are elements to an atom that, that make it up. And I think sometimes it's the visual that is in the minds of the audience. It's the conflict that may be in the story or in that person's life. It's the emotional shift in that moment that just strikes us. It's the surprise, it's the revelation, it's the game changing moment. And sometimes it's the timing in the audience's life that that's what hits them. So sometimes it's a well crafted moment, but there's a lot of these elements. And Mark, what are your thoughts on just the elements of the moment that makes it magical?

Well, I'm glad you emphasize the word moment because I think every presentation has.

Moments that are memorable in terms of.

A point of dialogue.

For example, a character says or does something in particular, but as I said, also is the impact on the individual and the audience who at that point in their life, that moment means that much more to them because of where they are. And the cool thing is we as presenters may not know where someone is in their life. And without knowing it, we create for them a magical moment by being authentic, by being genuine, by being vulnerable, by sharing our story, by relating our experience and by being willing to reach out and connect with the audience. And the more I think about that, I realize I've been the recipient of those moments. And there are times I've been the one to deliver those moments as well.

And I think if somebody does want to focus on going from good to great to unforgettable, we've got to focus on creating those moments for our audience. Like you always say, Mark, don't give a speech, give an experience.

That's right.

That critical element of what we're shooting for is those magic moments in your presentation. So, Mark, the categories that I came up with, I think it breaks it down into three unforgettable moments or magical moments is one is when it's an intentional moment created by the presenter. Second is a spontaneous moment that wasn't necessarily planned ahead of time, but in the moment this thing happened and all of a sudden, boom, it became. And I think third category in my mind is the personal magic moment. That the speech might have been good or great to a lot of people, but to that person Facing that challenge, dealing with their issue in their life, bam. Then the moment becomes magical because it's what they needed when they need it.

The stars were all aligned and it came together at that moment. So I think the caution here for everyone listening, I shouldn't say caution, but to be advised, we often hear about that was a great moment in the speech when everybody could see it, and it was fantastic. You want to create the right moment. Sometimes the moments are not what you create. It happens to be right for the audience at that time, at that moment where they are in their lives and for a circumstance or situation they're dealing with, it becomes a moment for them when you didn't even see it coming.

So let's go with examples, because I'm a fan of using real life examples. And one of the things that stands out, one of the magical moments that stands out. And Mark, I know you weren't there, but for me, it was so amazing and overwhelming. And I think when we interviewed Mark Sanbord, and I think he even mentioned that in one previous episode, but was Joe Calloway. And Joe Calloway at the main stage at an NSA convention. This was like 10, 10, 15 years ago, he gave a keynote speech about letting go. But what the magical moment was is at the very end or near the end, he actually walked off stage, really? And just walked off, did. No big closing, no dramatic anything. And on the screen as he walked off stage, he said, no, no, no, no. That's it. He's gone. Joe has left the building. And we all thought, oh, that's cute. Waiting for him to come back out. And then he came up, no, no, no, no. He's actually left the building. He's in a car on his way to his flight. And we thought that was funny. And it just kept going and going. And we're like, wow, it was so.

Poignant to the message. And everyone there was. It's like, what's that moment at a convention or a conference that everybody's talking about that moment after the fact? And this. I'm sorry you missed it, Mark. This to me, was one of the most unforgettable moments because we all thought for sure he was coming back. Had he come back, it would have.

Diminished the effect of the moment. And even people talked about it after and asked him. He's like, no, I left the building. I got on a plane and he left the whole convention. It wasn't just like he was gonna come back, you know, and would see him in the convention halls later. He's like, let it go. And anyway, it was just a beautiful magic moment. You know, he created that. But I think part of the key, too, Mark, is knowing what people are thinking in your audience as you create that moment for their thoughts and how they will process it. So it then becomes magical because we didn't see it coming. It was a surprise.

That calls back, Darren, to what you always say. The most important part of the presentation is the thought process in the audience's mind. And in that particular case, Joe knew what the audience was thinking, and the impact was so powerful because then his intent was to connect his action to the thought process. And. And, wow, you're now saying, mark, I'm sorry you missed it. I wish you were there. Which is evidence that it was truly magical, because here you are wishing I could have gone back in time and joined you. And when the audience responds in that way, you call those the nudge your neighbor moments, you know, wow. Wish you could have been there, man. Dude, if you had seen this, when that happens and the intention is clear, that's what makes an intentional magical moment that much more magical. You know what? I'm sorry. I did miss that. I really am. But I know one intentional magic moment I did not miss. And that would have been, I guess it was our last lady and the Champs that we did a few years back. And we really wanted to uplift the audience. Not just by having great presenters come and teach and instruct them, but we wanted to create a deep sense of community. We wanted the audience to feel free to express themselves and to understand the gifts and talents that they had. And you helped to create a moment. And even though I was suffering from laryngitis, I almost had no voice that day. But my role was to kind of guide everyone through an experience that turned out to truly be magical beyond my own expectation. And since it was kind of your plan to make it work, I'm going to ask you to give your side of the story and I'll share mine, and we'll show everyone just how powerful that magical moment was. Darren.

Well, yeah, be careful. When you create a conference theme of unforgettable, you've got to deliver it exactly. Deliver these magic moments. And the idea was actually inspired by a great keynote speaker. Wonderful guy, Steve Spangler. Might have seen him on some of the talk shows and things. He's the guy who started the Mentos and the Pepsi bottle, and it was like the first viral video on YouTube ever. But super nice guy, and he inspired it by showing us our church had done the same idea where you would write things on this canvas. So we took the idea and we connected it to what we were trying to create. I want to give Steve Spangler credit. And we had people at the convention, we had these three canvases around the convention hall and had people who were in the audience write down their lies with these markers on the canvas. What lies were they were told when they were young. They were ugly, they were fat, they were stupid. We even had Steve Watkins, NFL superstar, long career, John Elway's main receiver. Like, he wrote down something on that. And you're like, what you? But it was powerful just for people to take it and write it down. And so we did that on day one, and then on day two, we, you and I took and we had some music going and we literally erased the lies. So I had a blow dryer going, a special one. And it actually, literally, as the heat touched the ink, it disappeared. And as you mark Brown with your raspy voice, I had no voice.

And I had to guide us all through a very short process and explain why these lies needed to be erased. My goal was to inspire everyone to understand that if we can erase the lies, we will find out. We will discover that deep down we can all truly be unforgettable. And the way it was done, it's hard for you to visualize this, but think of these three white canvases. And as I'm talking, Darren is erasing all the lies. And there was one word left on all the canvases. When we erased all the lies, there was one word left. And the word was unforgettable. And the timing was so cool because as I got to the point where I said, I want you to know that you are unforgettable. And the word remain. And the response from the attendees, the cheers, the applause, but the emotion was so powerful. And when you have intentional magic moments, you never know just how powerful the emotion can be. Because one of our dear friends, a fellow coach and the host of our weekly coaching calls Mike Davis, certified world class speaking coach. William was our emcee for the event and everything was planned. We had a run of show minute by minute, and Michael comes up and goes to our next agenda item. And he was speechless. I mean, you told me I had gone backstage to kind of get myself together and you told me that Mike could not initially continue as emcee because he was so emotionally moved. What was powerful about that moment was the realization that all of us, no matter what we've accomplished or what we have done or where we are in life, have been told by someone at some point a lie about ourselves. And as you listen to our podcast today, friends, I want to tell you something you may have been told about your body, about your skills, you may have failed at something and been told you were no good. But trust me, you if a skinny knock knee, buck teeth kid from Kingston, Jamaica, can be a world champion speaker, can be a CSP certified speaking professional and host a podcast with one of his best friends in the world and touch people's lives, despite what I was told as a kid, I want to encourage you to understand. We didn't plan this by the way, but whatever lies you have been told, maybe it's time to erase them and rise to a level of being not just good, not just being great, but being unforgettable. And I believe that that's spontaneous. I just share it from my heart. I just share it because I know, I remember very clearly the impact of that truth. And we didn't see at the time, Darren, just how powerful that moment was going to be in the event, but for in the lives of those who had come in attendance. And it was so powerful. So remember this, you can intentionally create a moment, but you never know how deep the impact of that magical moment can be.

Yeah, we, I don't want to say.

Choreographed, but we planned that moment. And this wasn't even in our presentation, this was in between and the theme of the conference, but it was still planned. It came from an idea we got from someone else. We used it and modeled it for our purposes, for our audience. And, and like you said, you figured it would be good and it's a gamble cause it had never done this before, it became magical. And I just. When people were getting choked up and you and I, when we teach our Unforgettable Presentations program, we actually show the video clip. And even just showing the video clip, people watching it and part of that two day event, like they get it, they see it. And so we, you and I have a two day event by the way, it's coming up. Unforgettable presentations masterworkshop.com you can check that out if you want to join us. But we love what we do and we use that example. And again, not to be self aggrandizing, I don't know if that's the right word.

Nicely done. Nicely done my friend.

From the things that worked, we had many other things that didn't work or we thought would be great. But we just want to inspire you that this is our goal. If we Want to be unforgettable. We have to create those magic moments.

Yeah. And when we clear one thing, Darren, please, I don't want anyone to misunderstand the event we're referencing. Our intent was never to be manipulative. It really was intended to inspire everyone, to have to rekindle within them the understanding that no matter what you've been through, your life has experiences you have lessons you can share, and even a conversation you have with somebody can be to them, unforgettable and inspirational. So please know our intent was not to manipulate, but to truly inspire and uplift the people who attended the program that day. Just for clarification. Thanks, Darren.

Yeah. And last week we interviewed Craig Valentine, and he's had two unforgettable moments or magical moments that I remember experiencing. And what I also loved is I've experienced the same moment more than once.

Wow.

Well, watching him give the same closing speech in different areas to different audiences. And even though it was super magical the first time, it was still magical the second time because you could almost feel the audience. And Mark, you could probably speak to this even better than I. One of them was when he ended his world championship speech in silence. He had a gift for the audience and he built it up. And his gift was silence. And he didn't say that. I'm just saying it. But listen to last week's episode. And he goes more deeply into that. But it was just a magical moment that you didn't see it coming. It proved his point. And we just thought his line.

Right, Exactly. Exactly. And you said we just thought his line. Think about this. When a presenter can bring the audience to a place where they say for him, the word he intends without him saying it, that, my friends, is a moment. And can get details on what Craig did. If you go back to last week, episode 55, we talked with Craig about this and how he ended his speech in a very unorthodox way. But it became a moment. It became a magical moment. It became a memorable moment because I still, to this day, remember that from way back in 1999. We're now at 2020. That's 21 years ago. But the moment is still strong. The moment is still fresh. And you never know how long the impact of a really powerful moment can last. You think some of the great speeches and the moments they have, you know, we go Back to when Mr. Reagan in the USA said, Mr. Gorbachev, tear that wall down. That was a memorable moment. And history changed. It need not be that grandiose, but Just remember that there are moments that when they're done well, can have a long shelf life and have lasting impact. But Craig's intent that day was to visually prove his point without verbally doing it. And that was magical.

And grandiose is good. I think grandiose for an individual is even more important. Getting that moment for that person at their time in life. From your experience, Craig, we also talked about this story too. He has a story that after the world championship winning, when he came home, the first thing he wanted to do was go back to the bookstore where that first woman gave him those encouraging words when he bought. At the bookstore, when he bought his first motivational book by Les Brown. And she said, you can, you know, you can live your dream. And he wanted to go back. And he's just got a powerful moment where he said, you know, he went back and he realized the store wasn't there and he wasn't supposed to find her or tell her. He was supposed to find us and tell us, the audience.

That's a moment.

Think about that. It's just so brilliant and so powerful and it's magical every time he does it.

And you know, again, we want to let you know there are moments in your presentations when you remember why you do what you do. People ask, well, having a great best stories, you know, to really grab the audience. And I always say, your story is about you, but it's for them. And if the magical moment really connects with the audience, that's what you really want. You know, we can say, well, you know, we do our best to give the best speeches, tell the most awesome stories, have the most amazing stage present and the most wonderful presentation style, and these are wonderful components of a presentation. But when you have an impact on the audience where they remember you. I love what our mentor, the great Patricia Fripp, says. You want the speak to be remembered and repeated. And when somebody repeats what you said, it probably means they had a moment hearing you speak. And Craig gave us a wonderful moment when. When he talks about it, I wasn't meant to be there to meet her, but to meet you. And there are moments in your presentations too when you can have that kind of impact on your audiences.

Yeah, I remember Ja Jiang, who we interviewed early episode. Episode number 11.

11. Yeah.

He is just amazing. You and I both saw him at Toastmasters convention and at the NSA convention a month apart in the same hotel on the same stage. Yes. And he showed a video that he had taken and he talks about rejection and it was a YouTube video. That went viral about when he went into a Krispy Kreme donut shop and asked the manager to create the Olympic symbols using donuts, his intention was just to be rejected. Yeah, that was his intention. But when he shows this video clip, and it's a clip in his speech, so he's giving a speech. But there's a magical moment for me and I think for the whole audience both times when this woman who's the manager of the Krispy Kreme shop, she's.

Like.

All right, give me a minute. And she, like, figures it out and she didn't know how to do it, but then the audience is pulling for her. Yeah, his intention was rejection. But when the whole audience have that empathy and is striving for a character in a speech, even though it was a video, like how, like getting applause that turned into Krispy Kreme, ended up using it as part of their training.

But it came from him and his experience and helped him get his point across. But to me, when the whole audience is pulling for a woman who's running a retail shop like that, because you can see her intention is to help, like, that was magical, I thought.

Yeah, yeah. That was the kind of customer service or client support we wish we got everywhere in the world, don't we? As an aside, Darren, as I think back to what Jai told us when we were talking with him, you know, his intention was to get a no. He thought it was going to be a no. He had his camera there to get a no. But to his surprise, he did not get a no, he got a yes. And when he chose to insert the story in his presentation intentionally, the impact on the audience was, wow. I mean, that's just amazing. And when you intentionally insert moments in your presentation, not just to show how cool you are, but to have the impact on your audience, that can truly be magical.

I also think when the presenter can get us to think, can get us to see things differently. And I think a lot of magical moments mark, too stem from truth or are inspired by truth. And I remember this year in the speech contest, the woman who came in second, Linda Marie Miller, really controversial subject which divides the audience sometimes, but the way she delivered it, taking what she said but then holding up a sign that was actually her truth, just to me, like that grabbed me. And I know you were even saying that one of our other coaches couldn't even after that, couldn't even comment on the next presenter because he had to kind of. I just thought that was a magical moment. And then she did it a couple times, but the message came through. The truth came through. But she verbalized what we all verbalized, but she showed us what we really thought. And I just thought that was powerful.

Well, what was powerful? Yes, I agree. And it was also powerful because it was a technique not widely used, certainly in the Toastmasters contest, not before. And to clarify for those listening, when I said that one of our coaches couldn't respond. Every year after the Toastmasters contest, we kind of get together and debrief. We discuss our opinions of the presentation of the presenters and their speeches. And we try to be kind and kind and be nice. And one of our fellow coaches, Kevin, was with us doing this kind of debrief. And we asked Kevin. I asked Kevin for a comment on Linda Marie's speech on the following speaker after Linda Marie, and he said, basically said, listen, I can't comment on this person's speech because after Linda Marie, she had me. I can't. Don't even ask anybody else. I was still stuck on what she said and where I am. I consider myself a pretty liberal guy, but I realized I need to change some things in myself. And the impact was so powerful. Now I know Linda Emery knew exactly what she was doing. It was definitely intentional, but the impact was, in her case, wow, truly magical. She was creative, but she was intent on getting a message across in a creative way that was perhaps controversial but so, so powerful. And that, to me, was the epitome of an intentional use of a technique that created a magical moment.

Yeah. Especially under the guidelines of doing it virtually in a speech. How do you be creative with this tiny little box that you have? Well, she did. And so did Mike Carr. We'll get Mike Carr on a future episode, too.

We should. Yeah.

So that's kind of intentional. So for us as presenters, we've got to make it our goal to at least have some magical moments for our audience. Like, that's the reason. That's what's going to make us unforgettable. That's what's going to get us rebooked and hired and people wanting more of us joining our podcast, people who want to buy our book, all the different things. I think that's what separates good speakers from unforgettable speakers, is magical moments. So, Mark, let's go to category two, where it's spontaneous. Sometimes it's just what's happening in the moment, but the way the presenter handles it, the way the audience handles it, that is what makes it a magical, memorable moment.

And sometimes when we say spontaneous, it may not mean that the speaker delivers a line offhand. It could be a circumstance to which.

He or she responds in a given situation. For example, our dear friend and fellow champion, fellow CSP Ed Tate, A few years ago, he had a moment that could have been tragic, that ended up being magic. When he was keynoting the Toastmasters convention and he was about to deliver his great opening and his mind went blank. He literally froze. He wrote about it in an article for Toastmasters. He has since done blogs about it. And I give the man his props for being so willing to share what could have been a really, really bad situation. Like I say, when went from tragic to magic because of one factor. The factor was the audience pulling for him to find his place and deliver the message he had worked so hard for us to deliver. And before I get to the magic of that, I want to point something out. For the most part, your audience does not want you to fail unless they're a fellow contestant in a contest someplace. But your audience wants you to do well. And I remember I was at the back of the room, front of house, doing my announcing work that night, and I was thinking, God help this man. Come on, Ed, you can do this, Ed, you can do this. And I realized that 2,000 people in the ballroom were doing the same thing, willing him to find his place and get back on track. What was going through your mind that night, Darren?

I just remember seeing the audience just.

They didn't stand up, but they were almost willing him applauded. They literally applauded, but they were pulling for him. And I think that's what helped him get his traction and get back on track and just take it and run with it, that it's okay. And I think it was triply inspiring to most of the people in the audience because here's a world champion having that moment, and it went from tragic to magic. That's a. Is that a new foundational phrase? Market?

I'm going to claim it, actually, Darren, honestly, that was spontaneous. It really, really was. I didn't think it through. I pulled a Craig Valentine magic. Yeah.

I just think the audience pulled for him. And then he realized, look, you're around family, you know, these are all Toastmasters. And it was inspiring to other people seeing a world champion have this issue that made them feel like they're not alone. Now, that might not happen in front of every. Any audience. You know, if you're in front of a group of, let's say, introverts, I'll just leave it at that. Introverts they might not. Even though they might be pulling for you, they're not going to emote as much that they're pulling for you. So in a different audience, he might not have had that, but it was. It was just great. And he went with it and he kicked butt in keynote. But at the moment, at the beginning, you.

And the thing is, you know, again, I can certainly the scope of this, an international convention, 2000 people all over the world, and to freeze there, it really could have been. Could have been tragic, but the spontaneity of the response of the audience to him gets him back on track. And it was just beautiful how it works out. And you never know when a spontaneous action, reaction, comment, or a word or a line can really have an impact on the audience, perhaps even greater than you expected. Now you can have one of those happen to you, Darren, when you were shortly after you had won the world championship, you get a really good opportunity to share a pretty awesome stage. And I think there's a moment there that was pretty spontaneous with amazing and hilarious results. Tell us about that.

Thank you, Mark. And by the way, if you're listening to this, we know that you've experienced some magical moments. Write them down later on, go back and reflect what made it magical. It may give you some clues into how to create more of your own, just understanding all the forces that came together. So please, please, please, any idea that you have listening to this, write it down of a magical moment you experienced in the audience or on stage so you can focus on that. And it is going to give you some insights from your life and your experience. Now the Mark is talking about. In 2002, I was invited to give my championship speech from ToastMasters on the NSA stage.

And I was very excited. This had never. I don't know that it's ever been done in the history of NSA and Toastmasters, but they were trying to have a closer relationship, symbiotic relationship. That's two big words, Mark.

Symbiotic. Whoa, Darren, I'm impressed.

And it was Phoenix, Arizona. You always remember them because there becomes this emotional memory peg, I like to call it. And it was Phoenix, Arizona. I remember the backdrop of these southwestern mountains that were behind as the backdrop.

And.

And they had. Friday night, they had this pomp and circumstance opening and they had a gentleman come out on a horse playing the banjo, going down the center of the convention hall and he's singing a song. It was really good. Gets to the front, the horse turns around, and in the middle of one of his songs. The horse poops, but the horse had a bucket on its butt to catch the poop. If, God forbid, that should happen. Well, this was like projectile. This was. We're shooting the bucket going everywhere. And of course, the audience roared because it's like, what do you do? It's, you know, it's a magical moment. And so I sat there right after this and I said, okay, this just happened. There's a magical moment at the convention. How can I tie into that? By the way, write that down. If there's any magical moments at any conference that you're attending, how can you tie into that? How can you tie into that? Ask yourself, how can I tie into that? How can I connect that to my content? Because it will help your content resonate. And even though you planned on saying it anyway, if you make that bridge to your content from what just happened, you'll look like a rock star. And so I sat down after the convention, right in the convention hall at the back of the room with Ed Tate. Ed Tate and Michael on another world champion, and a couple other speaker buddies.

In the back of the room.

And I said, okay, how can I tie this into my speech? How can I tie this in? Because I was giving my speech the next morning on the same stage at the convention. So this was Friday night. So I brainstormed with the guys and different things I could say. I didn't want to cross the line, but I wanted to tie like. It's not like I was revealing a secret. So the next morning, if you know my speech at the opening, I fall on the flat on the stage. Now I was up on the stage, the horse was actually down on the ground, but I fell on a stage. I gave my line, and then I just took a moment and I said, is this where the horse did it? And it got. It was like an 11 second laugh.

It was huge.

And I still have people to this day who talk about that moment. Now, if you're into comedy or humor, that was a setup from God. If I was given any other of my speeches, I couldn't have tied in as well as that because I was literally falling on my face. And I don't do that anymore in any of my speeches. But that day I did. And it was right in the same spot. Not literally, but pretty much to the audience's perspective. And it just got this huge laugh. And boom, I had them again. People still talk about it to this day, but it started also with the question, what's the magical moment? How can I tie in so this would be considered planned spontaneity in the moment at the event.

Mark?

Yeah, now you mentioned that about the event. A thought just occurred to me. I went to an NSA convention several years ago, and the humorist Dale Irving brought out a harmonica, and he was playing a harmonica in the event. And at some point in the program, there was music being played. And I asked Dale this afterwards because he began playing harmonica again spontaneously in the exact same key as the music. I said, dale, did you plan to bring harmonica out and to be in the same key and create this moment? He said, no, it was purely spontaneous. But the music and the musical key was quote, unquote, in. In sync, and it made for a great moment. So I ask you all again to hear what Darren just said earlier, look for those moments and ask, how can I tie this in to my presentation? Maybe use a callback somewhere later on in the day or the following day or in the evening. But it connects everything. And when you can connect well to a moment, connect well to a moment, you can actually create a secondary moment for. For the audience to experience and to enjoy. So sometimes it can be spontaneous. And I know what that's like. I know we have mentioned the Toastmasters contest before, but there was one of my experiences. I must share this because in 1995, when I was competing in the World Championship, I had been working on a speech for quite a while, and I changed my speech with three weeks to go, and I created a new speech.

Called A Second Chance.

And in my presentation, I get to a point where I talk about movie, Beauty and the Beast, the cartoon movie where the villagers all attack the beast's castle and they tried to tear it down. And the bad guy, Gaston, will lay siege to his castle and bring back his head. And there's all this furor, torches and clubs and swords and knives, and they attack the beast castle. And it seems so poignant. And I rehearsed. I said, and they attacked the castle for years. I said, why would they do that? I said, why? Why? And on contest day, in the middle of my presentation, I chose to use the word why in a more comical, almost flippant way. And I was like, why? And the poignancy was lost, but the audience roared with laughter. If you watch the video, The Old on YouTube For Mark Brown, 95, world champion, you'll see I say the word why, the audience busts out laughing. And there is this look on my face to say, why are you laughing? What is wrong with you people? I'm trying to be serious. Here. And in my head, I'm counting 1, 1,000, 2, 1,000, 3, 1,000. And finally, about seven seconds in, I step on the laugh and continue my speech. Because the reaction was totally spontaneous, because I said the word why differently. But the impact didn't really hit me until years later when I had a conversation with Philip Kanpani. Philip Kanpani was the second place winner that year in the speech contest, and he's from England, and I'll do a very, very poor British accent. And he said he'd been asked several times about the contest, and he said, I knew when I lost the contest, but Mark Brown said, why? And of course, the H sound isn't why, but he said he lost the contest. When I said one word, why, everything broke right there. It was at that point he knew, I can't beat this guy. I didn't know this at the time, but I do know this now, that my spontaneous change to the way I delivered one word in a presentation seemed to have made a significant difference. And that one word said in a different way became my magic moment 25 years ago. So here's the thing. What one word can you play with in the way you deliver it for impact on the audience that can change it from mundane to magical? And I say that because, Darren, I kind of want to blame you for this. You have asked me to do voiceovers several times for states at university. And what I find myself doing is I'll rehearse it three or four different ways, low key, upbeat, low voice, and I'll send you these different tracks. You'll pick the one you want, but by trying to say something, the same words in different ways, I get different impact and different inflection. And I changed one word 25 years ago. And that one word was instrumental in not only creating a magic moment, but changing the course of my life. So I ask again, what word or phrase can you say differently can you present differently that could create a magic moment for your audience?

I love watching that speech. That is my favorite moment of the speech. Watching the confusion on your face. Why? And you're like. You see the gears working the. Check out Mark's speech. And by the way, if you do check out Mark's speech, check out the earlier episodes when we dissect it. Ed Tate did a brilliant job dissecting it. I remember I had another couple of magic moments that were spontaneous. They were truly in the moment. When I was speaking in Taiwan, they had this grandiose reception. They had 50 volunteers. And I know that they're Always going to thank the volunteers at the end. But there was one gentleman, his name was Howard, and he translated in a little booth in the back of the room. And he took the time to ask me for my slides ahead of time so he could work on the translation. So here's a guy helping put together the conference. He's also doing the translating for the conference. And he just stood out. So I said, you know, the best way to honor everybody is to not just say everybody, but to take one person and hold them up. And, Mark, you know, we talk about this in unforgettable presentations, two day event as well, where in the middle of my speech, I literally ran to the back of the room, and people in the front row actually were standing up on their chairs looking back, like, what is going on? And I walked right up to the booth, and knowing legally, a translator has to say exactly what you say. So I'm in the booth and people are like, what is going on? And I said, howard, you rock. And he had to say it, and he turned beet red. And so sometimes we need to create those magical moments for the people who help support us.

Yeah, I like that. That's good. Yeah.

And I know I got some good juice back. I'm okay with that. I'll say it. But my intention was to help him and raise him up and honor all the volunteers with one specific personal story of a guy who went above and beyond. So Howard never forgot that moment, but neither did I, because it was, like, so spontaneous and was not planned. And I just kept asking myself over and over again, how can I honor the volunteers? How can I. Ooh, how can I honor Howard? So just asking that over and over again, and that became a great moment. Mark.

Yeah.

I think what's cool is you were.

In the middle of your speech, and you leave the platform, you go down.

The aisle, and people are wondering what's going on.

And the act of spontaneity, it kind.

Of broke the expectation, but it also gave you a chance to honor Howard for them to feel, wow, he took time to go and see one guy.

He'S in the back of the room, in the corner, in a booth, almost invisible. And you were able to elevate him.

And in that moment, you created magic for Howard.

But I believe. And I wasn't there.

But I believe you also created magic for everyone who was there that day because they saw your heart and the way you were attentive to somebody who seemed insignificant and invisible at the back of the room. And when you are spontaneously Blessing your audience. You have no idea how powerful of.

An impact you can have.

Yeah, it's the difference between you want to appreciate volunteers, but it's the difference between a nice moment and a magical moment.

I like that.

It's good to be appreciative, and we should. But when you can make it a magical moment for somebody else, not just thanking. I want to thank the event planner. What a great job she did. Da, da, da, da.

Okay, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Okay, give us something specific. She did or he did. Above and beyond. So it becomes a more important moment. Mark, I just want to mention two others super quick because I think they're important examples. I remember early on in my standup career when I was just a wannabe and I was following around one of my mentors, Vinnie Favorito. And special event. It was in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts. I'll always remember it. It was like in a meeting room hall, not where you're not a normal comedy club, but it was three headliners. It was a benefit, and they were trying to raise money.

And.

And the first two. These are headliners. Three headliners never work together. Each headliner is a headliner. So the first two went up and they did. Okay. It was polite laughter. It was nice. But there was just something wrong. Yeah, exactly. It was just something wrong. And then I saw Vinnie go up, and he was the last headliner, and he was on the same plane as the other two guys. But here's what he did. He went up and started into his normal routine and got the same response. And I always remember, he's like, what? He dropped the mic and walked out into the audience and started yelling, okay, what's going on? What's the problem here? And just the acknowledgement of the truth of what was happening in the room. All of a sudden, the audience just kind of connected to him. Let go of whatever the issue was. He had fun with it. He pointed out a few people, and then he picked up his mic, went back on stage and did his regular routine that he was at the beginning of. And it was a whole different level. Acknowledging the challenge in the room, stepping, breaking that fourth wall, stepping out into the audience and saying, what's going on here? To me, as a wannabe comedian, it was like watching a master at his craft, creating a magical moment by connecting when the audience didn't really wanna be connected to.

You know, I think what happened here is Vinnie created that magical moment when the horse. Is that what A horse did it. You created that. My.

Why?

Even though it was Unintentional. I created that. I wonder, what magic moments can you create as a presenter or even as an audience member when the experience that you have with your fellow attendees, but more importantly as a presenter, to be unforgettable, what magical moment can you. You create? Think about the different ways everything we've told you so far. Has there been an experience that you have had a time when you had a similar experience or had maybe looking back, could you have created a magical moment? Do you have now material or at least an idea you can use going forward to bless your audience with magical moments? Think about that.

Yeah, Mark, I had one other that I just wanted to mention because I. I was sitting at a head table at a district conference for Toastmasters contest. I want to say it was a table topics contest. And there was this guy who was brand new to Toastmasters, made it all the way to the district. He had never spoken before in front of more than 10 or 12 people before. And here he is at the district conference in New York, and he goes up on stage. And the courage, you could just see every fiber of his body did not want him up there, just courageous. And he was new, so it's understandable. But the audience is just pulling for him now.

He didn't.

I don't think he even placed, but I know he didn't win for sure. And I don't know what compelled me, Mark, you. And I know I'm a believer and you're a believer. And it was like the Holy Spirit's like, you've got to do something.

You've got to.

Because I was afraid this kid was never, ever going to come back to Toastmaster. And I turned to the district director and I was like, you've got to give me just two minutes to honor him. Just two minutes. And after all the awards, I went back on stage and I took the microphone. I said, okay, I just got to do this. And I had Adam. This is actually a picture from that night. I don't know if you can see this. I can see Adam go up on stage. And I stood down on stage and I said, adam, just open your arms and just receive all the love from your fellow Toastmasters. And they jumped up, applauded him because everybody saw his courage and he, like, got choked up. But again, I don't want to take credit for it. It was like an inspired thought, but it was just like, this has to be done. Fortunately, I was in a role as the keynote speaker that the district director allowed me to do this. So you might not always have that, but it was just a moment that I'll never forget, the audience will never forget. And I know, Adam, wherever you are, you'll never forget that moment. Mark?

Well, I think the key for me here, and a wonderful story, the key.

For me here, you kind of blew.

Right past it, was you were in a position as keynote speaker to create that moment.

And as presenters, we have opportunity, we have ability, and sometimes we have responsibility to create moments that will honor individuals and to create the experience that uplifts everybody in the room. We had that opportunity and we took it. Adelaide and the champs. When we say you were erased allies, you're unforgettable. You saw a chance to help Howard in Taiwan and you took it. So as presenters, we have a great opportunity, but we also have responsibility to use our platform, physical, virtual, or otherwise, in ways that can really uplift people. And there are times you'll be prompted spontaneously to say or do something that could really be a magical moment. Darren.

All right, so let's go to the third category, personal. So we talked about intentional, which is good, which we should always be trying, doing. We talked about spontaneous, that the opportunity arises to create this magical moment, connecting to something that's going on in the room or with someone. But now, personal. I think this one is what's often overlooked, but yet the reason why we do what we do and that we were inspired by our mentors, is that someone in the audience has something going on in their life. And even though it might be a good speech to that person because of what they're going through in that moment, it's magical. Even though to everybody else, it was really good. I loved it. I want to hear you again. But to that person, life changing, game changer. And I know, Mark, you and I have witnessed some of these all along in our career as an audience member and as a speaker, that you didn't know about that magical moment. So, Mark, I know you had one from back in Region 7 when you were working on your semifinals speech.

Yes. Back then, in the previous millennium, when we had VHS videotape, we didn't have a semifinals. We had region contests. And I was working so, so hard to win my region contest. And I wanted to do my very, very best. And in my preparation is a moment, and I don't mean to get super spiritual here, but there was a moment in my prep time where I was writing furiously in my script, and I heard a voice say, that is what you must say in Columbia, Maryland, at your contest, because there will be someone There, who needs to hear it? I thought, okay, God, if you said it, I'm going to do it. Now, deep down, I want to win this contest, man. It's my last shot to get. If I win this, I'm in the World Championship. But remember, my why is not to win a trophy. My why is to deliver a message. Because there's someone there who needs to hear it. Sure enough, I go to Maryland, I deliver my speech, and I'm declared the winner of Region 7. I've now qualified to be in the World Championship. I'm getting high fives, applause, pats on the back, handshakes. In the middle of this crowd, a woman approaches me about five seven, five eight, young, Caucasian, brown hair, and she's got tears in her eyes. And she gets right up to me and said, thank you, Mark. Your speech was just for me. That was a magic moment. I said to myself, oh my goodness, you're the one. Now, I don't mean to get kind of woo and creepy here. I'm telling you, I knew in my heart, deep in the depth of my being, I knew I had to deliver that speech on that day, at that time, for someone, I knew not whom, but she revealed herself and said it was just for me and the moment was for her, but. But in a sense it was also for me, not for the whole audience. That moment was for two people in the room, for me as a presenter and for her as a recipient of what I now know and believe to be a blessing. And there are times, I believe there will be times when you present, when your material will be. As Darren said earlier, it's the right words at the right time for where they are in their lives. And it can be so powerful because it's so personal.

When we get this privilege of the platform, as Naomi said, let's just say you had three points and one story that goes with each one of them. You can give a great presentation, but this point for that person can be magical. This point can be magical, and this point for that person can be the magic moment. So sometimes what we're delivering, there might be spontaneous magic moments popping up. Right, right in individuals minds. And that's what we want to say. So for example, a couple years ago when Patricia Fripp was doing our last conference with us, she said a quote.

And I had been, as you know.

Mark, I was talking about writing my script. Writing my script. I'm writing my movie script. I'm writing my movie script. And she said, tell me what you say you want.

Show me One week of your life and you and I will both know if you'll ever achieve it. And where I was at at that moment that hit me and said, okay, shut up, Darren, stop talking about it and create this new habit and start doing it. Because writing once a week is not going to get a movie script done. It's not going to get a book done. I had to step it up. So I changed over to five, five nights a week I went out to the pool right in my community here and wrote by the pool. And it just, I got it done because of that. But it was the timing and the right person saying the right thing that made it a magical game changer for me. Mark, I don't know about you, but early on in NSA I had one of those moments when I had been a standup for a while. I loved my comedy buddies, but I never really felt like one of them and found NSA and Toastmasters, my family. But when I went to my first NSA convention and it was Naomi Rhodey's privilege of the platform, Washington D.C. the first night, Captain Gerald Coffey, prisoner of war, was the keynote speaker and Ken Nedima was playing the piano.

Some of.

Them and he, this was his first time recapping keynotes. And I just remember, I don't know specifically what he said, but I think it was being around 2000 presenters like my family and people around me, my friends didn't get what I do or why I wanted to do it. But to be in this place and seeing him, a master of his craft, giving his keynote, I remember I got choked up. I grabbed a pad of paper from my hotel room and I went out to the pool. It was closed, but I went out to the pool anyway and, and I wrote my mother a seven page letter that for the first time in my life I felt like I found home. That here are all of these people who were messed up just like me. To me my favorite metaphor is like finding the island of misfit toys. The people who are messed up just like me. And I said, I don't know how or why or what it's going to look like, but I'm going to be a part of this the rest of my life because this is where I belong. These are my people, Mark.

Wow.

These are my people. I have one brief story.

We didn't talk about the story in our pre show conversation, Garen.

But you don't need to be a.

World class professional speaker or a top toastmaster to create a magical moment. My wife Andrea and I are married now 38 years. And for our 30th anniversary, she planned. We renewed our vows and her kids were all home. We had a tent in the front yard of our house, and we had, you know, suits and boutonnieres and dress. I mean, we had, we got married again. Our pastor came and it was glorious. Had a reception, had tables laid out. And my son Joel, who is 34, was my best man, so he had to do a toast. And of course, we taught how to do a toast in Toastmasters. My son isn't a toastmaster. He was on a toast with mom and dad. Fine.

And in his little talk, very brief.

Talk, my son said, growing up, you know, I saw mom and dad always lovey dovey, loving each other, loving us kids. But I got to school and I saw so many kids from broken homes living with a mother or a grandmother and, you know, 50% divorce rate. And I see all this and I did not believe that true, long lasting love was real. You know, I just thought it was idealistic.

But here I AM Now, I'm 25 years old. I see mom and Darren doing their vows, 30 years married. And because of them, I now believe that the idealistic can be the realistic. When my son dropped that line, Darren and friends, that was, I mean, literally, he says, because of my mom and dad, I, I now believe the idealistic can be the realistic. A simple line in a toast to his mom and dad that got me so moved by what my son said. And the point is not to tell you how great my son is as a speaker, how awesome my marriage is. And it is. The point is, sometimes that one line that is delivered by someone else creates a magic for you. And similarly, that one line you deliver in your presentation honestly and authentically can create the magic for someone else. Magic moments don't have to come from great speakers or world champions or NSA legends. Magic moments come from our honest, authentic, truthful experiences that we share with our audiences. Don't give a speech, give an experience. Bless them with what you have, with your experience, your life, your truth. And you can create these magic moments. But now we want you to think differently going forward. What was a magical moment I heard last week in a Toastmaster speech in a virtual program. And how can I use that as an example to create a magical moment for somebody else? You can do so intentionally. Some will be spontaneous and some will be just for you, and some will be created by you. Either way, magical moments abound.

Darren, Mark, let's get to the recap here. So we talk about intentional magic moments, spontaneous, whether it's planned or actual spontaneity and personal that someone in the audience, they need to hear. By the way, if you're an emerging speaker, just getting going, creating and developing more magic moments is what gets you to be more in demand, to become a legend. So they didn't start that way. By the way, most of them were horrible at the beginning. Whether they'll admit it or not, most of them were. So this is how you do it. Let's hope this inspires you. Please write down any magical moments you had you can think of. This pops up and then go back and say, was it the audience? Was it what they said? Was it how they said it? Was it a moment in your life where you needed to hear that? All of these factors are what create them. So how can you use this idea to create more?

And I want to piggyback that real quickly. Don't forget. Also think back to a presentation or a talk you gave in the last several weeks or months. When more than one audience member gave you a reaction one on one, afterwards in the hallway, they sent you an email, they sent you a note because you created for them a magic moment. And if you hear similar comments from 2, 3, 5, 10 people, they're telling you you have created magic. And maybe that's something you want to include in your upcoming presentation. Maybe it becomes part of your signature. It becomes part of who you are, of the brand you create and the impact you can have on your audience. So remember, manic moments abound. You can receive them, you can create them. And if you do that well, you can go from good to great and you will be unforgettable.

So if you want to create some more unforgettable moments, hey, go check out stagetimeworkshops.com and join Mark and me for our upcoming event. We would love to have you join us because we want you to be unforgettable.

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