Ep. 64 Lessons from the Master Mentor David Brooks

Hey, Darren, how are you today?

I don't know. I'm just excited because by popular demand, people were like, who is this David Brooks guy? Why aren't you interviewing him? Mark's mentor and man, I got a great question that anyone who's a toastmaster, if you've ever heard a world champion ever live at a district event, you got to know this is the guy that changed the game. He's a game changer, and I can't.

Wait to unleash to this audience my mentor, the master mentor, the 1990 world champion of public speaking. I can't wait to meet him. Darren, let's do this.

Anyone can give a presentation. Few deliver unforgettable presentations. What's the difference? You're about to find out. Welcome to the Unforgettable Presentations podcast with your 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.

So, Darren, we are in the presence of such greatness, the man I call the master mentor, the man who walked into my life in 1994 and literally changed the trajectory of my life. And you're right, people have asked us for so long. You talk about this guy who has changed your life. When are you gonna get him on a podcast? Well, friends, today he is here. David Brooks, the 1990 world champion of public speaking, the man who literally phys. Walked into my life and transformed it, is here from Austin, Texas. David, how are you?

Well, I'm doing great. I wish you guys would just keep talking about me. Go ahead.

It's been, my goodness, 26 years since we've met and we have talked about you over and over again. The lessons you taught me, I have gone on to teach Darren. And now we are teaching people all over the world. And I can trace so many of those lessons back to meeting you back in 1994. And just as a quick refresher, I want to tell people how that turned out. I had been competing in the Toastmasters World Championship as a totally green toastmaster. Didn't know what I was doing, got to the finals, promptly lost. And I sat there with my son joel, then about 7 years old, in my lap in a quickly empty ballroom, and he was crying about me losing. And you said to me as you approached, I said, mark, I don't mean to interrupt what's clearly a tender family moment, but I may not get to see you again. And you offered to help me. You gave me a business card and you were gone. And I remember the following day, I got home to New York, dropped my bags, I saw the card, I picked the phone up and I called, hello, David, you said, yes, said, david, it's Mark Brown. Do you remember me? And you said, mark, I met you yesterday.

He tells that story all the time, David.

Yeah, well, it is true that it was sort of like, are you kidding me? Yeah, it was only less than 24 hours ago. I'm sorry. Alzheimer's is not an issue right now for me.

But the thing is, Dave, you have to understand, for me, having been again, a brand new Toastmaster, my goal going into that contest was to get my CTM, get my first 10 speeches done before the final. That was my big goal for me. And then that you knew who I was and you offered to help. And I want to publicly ask this question. What made you believe I had it?

Ooh, good question.

That's one that I'm going to have to think about. I. As you said, I. Well, I don't think you said this that day. At the end of the contest, as I tried to do every year, I went to all of the contestants that were still in the ballroom. Now, I didn't get to see all nine of them because some had already departed. Because if you don't win frequently, you just disappear. Well, there were still probably five or six or seven of those nine that were still in the ballroom. And I said the same thing to them. I'll be glad to help you if you wish. And gave them my card. Well, only one person called. There you go, man.

That's a lesson, too, because Mark always talks about this on the webinar. But it's why, if you have the right mindset, if you're serious, why would you not want help from someone who's been there and done that? Mark.

You've asked the question, Darren, why wouldn't you answer? And again, I don't know. David, you say you don't know why no one said yes. And I've told people for decades I was the only one who said yes. And the thing is, I was the only one to return to the stage the following year. And I don't believe I fully, at the time, David, was able to appreciate exactly what you brought to the table. And I don't have my hands on a copy of a letter you wrote to me. And I always tease and I tell people, to the millennials, a letter Is written on paper by hand or by our typed. And you sent me a letter, David. And in it you said, although our contact thus far has been limited to only a few brief exchanges, your words and manner lead me to believe you're a talented speaker and one with whom I would be honored to confron. And after I closed my dictionary, I realized you were saying that I was talented. And you have no idea what that meant to me to have the 1990 world champion tell me I was talented. Because remember now, back in the day, in the previous millennium, I had heard your speech on an audio cassette. So you were a name and a voice and an audio cassette, and you were louder than life. You came to me then you tell me you think I got. I entered my contest without wanting to. But you saw something in me. And I am forever in your debt for the investment that you made of time to help me to be the person that I am today as a presenter. And what Darren does not know, David, is that during the time when you and I began to correspond, you had sent me. You told me to send you my script and you give me your notes on it. Well, I began to fax you and you would fax back to me. And you sent me a package in the mail a few years ago containing all the letters that I had sent to you, all the copies of my scripts with all the notes, the list of questions I had when I first began to compete, all of this. You kept this, and you sent me this package in the mail. And I have since held onto this as a memory of the investment that you made in one man's life to make him a better speaker. So I say all of that to add two words before Darren jumps in. And those two words, David, are thank you.

Well, thank you. And I'm afraid I better go now while I still have a little polish left on this. No, no, no. That's very flattering of you to say, and I'm delighted that it meant that much to you. And it means a lot.

Hey, mark, is that parchment paper?

Yes.

Oh, man.

Yeah, let's. Let's go ahead. Let's go down that road. Okay. All right. I spoke last year, and I believe it was District 35. And in the on site program, they had my picture and underneath it they put the 1900 world champion. Yeah. So when I saw that, you know, they were embarrassed and I laughed and I said, are you kidding? I said, this is a gift. I said, I'll use this forever. I opened my presentation just by saying, well, as you see here, I was the 1990 world champion. When Ralph Smedley and I were little boys, we used. Nice.

David. I always have a joke about Mark when we show a video clip of his. And obviously it's old VHS converted into digital. And I say that we had the Toastmasters, had to colorize the Murai.

And the way that I refer to my video legacy is, well, this was before video, but there are some known cave drawings to depict it.

Hieroglyphics. Hieroglyphics out there.

And Mark, I gotta jump in here because I think this is one of the critical organization changing stories. David, I have to ask you, before you. Most people don't know this, that Toastmasters and world champions speak around the world. Most people don't know this, that that was not the case before. David Brooks, would you be kind enough to share the story of your very first speaking at another district? Because before you, people never spoke at another district. I gotta hear that story, man.

Yeah, well, I'll tell you, it does take a few minutes, but I will get through it all in 10 minutes or so. But Andy Warhol said, in the future everyone will be famous for 15 minutes. Well, the day that I won the contest, I experienced that literally. The convention used to adjourn immediately after the announcement of the winner. So there's approximately 15 minutes before checkout time. And I'm surrounded by people for 15 minutes wanting to shake my hand, pat me on the back, autographs, photos. It was just wonderful. And then it was. Everyone just almost simultaneously looked at their watch and went, oh, checkout time. And it vanished. And the ballroom was. Was, you know, it was. It was me and my wife and a few tumbleweeds blowing through. I. I thought, oh, wow. So that was it? Is that it? And then I thought, well, you know, maybe. Maybe here in the hotel there'll still be some people and I can go out, you know, in the walkway area and, and see some other people that would like to. To make me feel good. And nobody, I mean, I'm talking about nobody was coming up to me because these were all people that had just checked in and they didn't have a clue. And I thought about just saying in a loud voice, hey, I was somebody just 15 minutes ago. Wouldn't you like to come over and talk? Well, it just happened that I was feeling pretty darn low. I mean, went from what I consider to be a. An apex that was the height of Mount Everest to the depths of Death Valley in 15 minutes. I was just miserable that I thought the Whole thing was done, finished, over. Now it just happened that there was another man that was a few yards away, and he just waved and he pointed and he said, hey, great speech today. And I went, oh, great, thanks. So I started walking over there just mainly because I needed it for my ego. And I went over there to him, and he said. He said, listen, I'm the running for lgm. That's the term that Toastmasters doesn't use anymore. But he said, I'm running for LGM in District 60. That's in Toronto. And he said, I'm arranging for the conference for this spring. Would you be interested in coming? And at the time I thought, well, Canada, huh? That seems so exotic. I said, sure. Are you kidding? Because I had literally barely traveled out of the state at that point. I had been to a few states, but I had not been a world traveler by any means, and going to Canada the first time was a big deal. So I waited. That fall, that is. This contest was in August. Their conference was in April or May of the following spring. In that period of time, I thought, oh, well, I'm just going to be. The phone's going to be ringing off the hook. Well, it didn't. In fact, Beth and I were traveling to Germany, Austria and Switzerland the week after the contest. Just a private vacation. We had nothing to do with. With Toastmasters, with that. That vacation. And we went over to. To Germany. And I had called because I only had an old answering machine. And so I thought, well, that doesn't sound professional if somebody wants to call and book me, well, then I'd better have something nice and sharp and. And sounding professional. Well, I hired an answering service. And you want to. You want to know about how you can go even lower than Death Valley? Try calling from Berlin two days into your trip and say, hi, this is David Brooks. I'm just calling for any messages. And they went, no, no, no calls. And I thought, okay, well, it's too soon. It's too soon. So I waited until about later and in Austria, and I picked up the phone, called, got the same answer. And it was there, in a little town in Austria that I. I said, okay, if I'm going to make anything of this, it's going to be up to me. It's going to be up to me to do it. Well, I kept waiting for all these calls that did not come. And so I went all the way until the spring with nothing more than just a few local friends that congratulated me and made me feel good, but then knew I was, I was completely invis in April or May, that following spring, when I went to District 60, my flight arrived after the conference had started. And so the man who was picking me up called the hotel to say, I've got him, we're on our way. And so they were prepared for my arrival. And I, unbeknownst to me, and we walked into the back of the ballroom and it was not a contest going on at the time. It was just some announcements, or it could have been an international director speaking, I don't know. All I know is that somebody was, was speaking. And they paused, they stopped and said, ladies and gentlemen, let's pause for a moment and recognize the world champion of public speaking. And are you standing ovation there? And I went, ah, no, you see, this is the style to which I would like to be accustomed. And so I was treated like an absolute king that weekend. And I will always be indebted to District 60 for making this journey begin because I had had great disappointment up until that moment. And that's when I realized, wait a second, there's something important to this. So on the plane on the way back, I thought, how am I going to get more opportunities like that? And at the time, Toastmasters magazine printed all of the district governors and their mailing addresses. And so when I got back home, I saw the Toastmasters magazine that had just come a day or two earlier, and it has all 60, I think it was at the time, 65, some such clubs with the person and their mailing address.

And I thought, well, districts, Right, districts.

Exactly, exactly. Thank you. And I would love to tell you that I said, I'll write to about 10. That was just a ballpark. It could have been 12, but I said, I'll write to about 10 just to see if there's any response. So I wrote to them and I said, I just did this for District 60. I would be glad to come do it for your district, if you'll just get me there, take care of my expenses. And I didn't expect that I was going to get the kind of result results that I did. First, I would like to tell you how did I choose the districts that I wrote to the 10 or 12? Well, I'd love to say it was based on how good the district was and how they had just performed in the district club leadership programs. And no, instead I looked at the addresses and I said, well, if I'm going to get a free trip somewhere, where would I like to go? And the last one I sent, I sent approximately 8, 9, 10, something like that. And then the last one, I thought, oh, this is not even worth the price of a postage postage stamp. It was District 49 in Hawaii. Well, a week after sending that letter, guess who responded first. I went, whoa, yeah, I'm gonna get a trip to Hawaii and all I have to do is just go speak. I mean, that's, that's terrific. And then shortly after that, then District 42 in Grand Prairie, Alberta called and, and, and they said, we want you to come too. And so on back weekends that fall, I went to Hawaii and way up near the Arctic Circle, but I was having the time of my life. I was thinking, this is so cool. Well, it just happened that I went through and they did about eight or something like that. Conferences. Other people said, oh yeah, we're glad to do that. Well, then I thought, okay, well, the year has pretty well run its course. It was only like three or four that I did in the fall and three or four that I did in the spring. And then I thought, okay, now coming up, next contest, it's going to be over. I thought, truly I would have a life expectancy in terms of freshness date of only a year. Well, the following year, the man who won the world championship, another friend of mine, his name is Dave Ross. And Dave Ross was career military, so he didn't have the opportunity to be able to travel around. So the other districts that had heard about what I had done the previous year, they said, oh, well, listen, we'd like to get Dave Ross, but he's not able to travel. Would you like to come? And I would, of course. So. So I got a second balance out of that. Well, then the next year it was Dana Lamond. And Dana went out and did a lot. And Dana is still one of the great ambassadors for Toastmasters. And Dana did a lot. But the reputation of what I had done for the previous two years and what Dana did in 1992, then that led others, other districts to call me up. And so they were saying, well, look, I know that you're a couple of years removed, but would you like to still come and be our guest speaker? And I accepted all of them. Then it went to the next year and it was Morgan MacArthur. And I thought, okay, well, you know, Morgan, you know, and he wanted to. And he went out and he started doing all of them, started doing all the conferences and I got nothing. And I thought, okay, that's just the way that it should be. I just had an extra three year lifespan on this. Well, then Morgan at the convention decided he wanted to get married to a woman in New Zealand. And so he had already accepted three conferences in the fall. I had zero. And Morgan called me up one day and he said, look, dude, he said, I'm moving to New Zealand. I'm going to recommend that you take my place at these three districts. And I said, well, if they want me to, that's fine. Well, the first two said, oh, we'd be glad to have you. They were just relieved that there was. There was somebody that was. That was willing to fill in the gap. The third person that I called late one night said, hi, I'm David Brooks. And she said, yes. And I said, one the. I didn't even. I didn't even get into that. I just said, Morgan MacArthur. Morgan MacArthur told me that he recommended me. And she said, yes. She said, I'm just so down because we really wanted Morgan. And I'm thinking, I'm thinking, well, you know, okay, you know, clearly, you know, my. My stock is not quite as high as I thought. And I said something about, have you been in Toastmasters long? And she said, oh, well, just for a year. And I said, have you been to any other Toastmasters contests? And I was sort of like, playing around just to see if she even had a clue who I was. Yeah. And she. She said, well, no, she said, I only went to that one year contest and saw Morgan, and he was great. And then she was just so. And. But she said, but he can't come, so, yeah, we'll be glad to host you. And, you know, you could just see the. Or the emotional roller coaster that she was on. And I said, well, have you seen any of the videotapes of the previous contest? And she said, oh, I've only seen one. I saw the contest live with Morgan, and then I saw one videotape, and it was a guy who did a speech about the Lone Ranger. And. And I. I just paused and I said, so you like that? She said, oh, yeah, he was great. I said, well, would it help you to feel better if you knew that was me?

That's a great story.

And then it was like, well, forget Morgan. We want you.

What a journey it's been, huh, man.

Then Mark came along, and Mark went out and started doing a lot. But then again, it was because of that institutional memory of the first two or three years that I was doing this on my own, then filling in for Morgan. And then when Mark went out and started developing great reviews for his. His ambassadorship, then it became institutionalized today at the International Speech Contest, when a person wins, there's people that are, that are flocking to the stage with formal invitations to join us in the Middle East. Please come to Europe, come to wherever. And it didn't happen just a few years before that. So I can say that because I was so crushed by the lack of, by the lack of interest that people had from the day that I won all the way up until the day I got to Toronto, the whole Toastmasters universe for Toastmasters speakers changed as a result of what happened in Toronto.

And for everyone listening, if you ever saw a world champion at your district, if you ever are a world champion and got to travel the world for our listeners, thank you for just letting us for a few minutes go down that, that road of this beautiful story that literally was a game changer for Toastmasters. So, David, Mark always brags about you being the master mentor and the godfather of the world champions. So thank you for letting us hear that story.

And do remember that the key word is godfather, not grandfather.

That is worth mentioning.

You know, in many ways, well, it was 1900s.

Well, in all honesty, in many ways, you're going to pioneer, David. I mean, you know, we talk about how to deliver unforgettable presentations, so we want to thank the audience for indulging us the story to give the background behind why Darren and I even are here as world champions because of not only the example that you set, but the way you have actually spoken into our lives and guided us and directed us and taught us because you yourself mentioned that you early on had to be in some ways teachable to find out how to deliver your presentation. Darren often tells the story of you not winning a contest and being puzzled as to why until someone, maybe Mr. Abel, gave you some wisdom about the ballot. And what was that story about that kind of transformed the way you gave speeches in contest, that story go, David?

Well, the short version is that I made it to the division contest my third year of competing. The first year I went to my area contest, I finished second, and that's because I didn't have a clue what I was doing. And somebody then gave me a blank ballot and they said, do you realize you would have won tonight if you had just made a point? Oh, so that's important, is it? They said, well, of course. Haven't you studied the ballot? And I said, there's a ballot. They said, well, of course, all the judges used them. I went, there were judges. I was that oblivious when I went to my first area. But I Took that person's advice, I took that challenge, and I said, fine, I'm going to study this ballot and I'm coming back next year and show that I can make a point. And so I went the next year, working on my speech nonstop for a year. I got to my club and I delivered a fantastic speech, all 7 minutes and 32 seconds of it.

Oh, over time, wow.

And the fact that there were only two contestants that day, it just kind of made it sting that much more. So the next year, I said, all right, fine, now I know what to say and I know how long to say it. Then I'm going to put together a speech. For the third year, the third year, I came up and I won club. I won area, I won division, or so I thought. The judges thought otherwise. They thought I finished second in that one. And it was second to a man named Jim Walsh. And Jim Walsh went on to represent our region at the international contest that year. And so Jim Walsh is the person who beat me. And I knew that when I was watching this, I was saying, I know he's good, but I'm this good too. And I couldn't figure out the difference. I couldn't figure out what it was, what was different between. We were both technically proficient. But the difference I finally figured out is that he told personal stories and I was doing what so many speakers do, telling somebody else's.

Wow.

And I realized then, oh, so it's the little personal stories that makes the difference. So the following year, I said, all right. I said, fourth time's the charm. I didn't know where the convention was going to be. Now I live in Austin, Texas. I grew up in Dallas. Well, it just happened that the convention that year was in Dallas. And so I remember the day that I saw that, I called Beth. I called her and I said, this year, as far as I'm concerned, others need not apply. This one, this one is going to be mine. Because if I'm ever going to win this, I want to win it on my hometown stage in front of my family and my friends. And so for the next year, I worked harder on that one project, on those three speeches. This is back when you had to give three speeches. I worked harder on those three speeches than anything else that I have ever done. Even since. When I got into the contest, I told myself, there may be others that is into the finals, there may be others who can outspeak me, but there will be no one who has out prepared me. Because I had worked non stop for a year with that goal in mind. And so when the dust settled and the trophy was in my hands, I truly was not surprised. I was delighted, but I was not surprised.

David, I remember when I asked you for Advice back in 2001, that quote, Let no one out, prepare you stuck in my head. And whenever I thought it was good enough, I heard your voice in my head. Darren, let no one. Oh, sorry, that's Mark's voice. Darren, let no one out prepare you. And I'm telling you, between that quote and the Otis William quote be so good. The only question is, who comes in second? Those are the two things that, that drove me to work harder to help my presentation become unforgettable. So the fact that we focus on unforgettable, David, we have to hear the story of the fact that you, let's just say, had different attire. So a nice transition from doing it in Dallas, that your attire, you were told, don't wear that. You can't wear that in a speech contest. But tell us about what happened and what led up to it and the naysayers who told you not to.

Yeah, okay, you're glad to. Because I was going to give this speech in Dallas, and because I was from Dallas, I said, ha, this is as close to home field advantage as anyone's ever going to have. And so I wrote the speech for the room. I wrote the speech for the room. I said, who's going to be in the audience? Who's going to be in the audience? And I said, okay, there's going to be about, I think it was 2,500 or so people that were in the contest. That is in the, in the audience back then for the contest. And I said, I know that at least a third of them are going to be from Texas or Oklahoma or New Mexico or Louisiana. I knew that there would be a large imprint of people that were locals.

A lot of y' alls in the audience.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And so I decided, okay, fine, I'm going to. I'm going to use my attire as a prop. And my attire was that I'm the only person to ever speak in the world championship before or since wearing blue jeans. And they were, you know, these were, these were fine, formal blue jeans. They had the crease. They had the crease down the front. So we're talking about formal wear. So I wore, I wore the blue jeans. I wore a boots and a Texas tuxedo. That is a tuxedo jacket, along with a tuxedo shirt and a string bolo top. And so when I walked out on the stage, you could literally hear people going.

Now, David, don't forget you had the black cummerbund, too.

Oh, yes, yes, yes, true. But people were gasping. And so I was aware of the fact that that could be divisive until they figured out why I was doing it. I moved a portion of my speech in which I addressed the reason for it up to the first 30 seconds, so that. That way, in the first 30 seconds, they went, okay, I can accept that. And then they were willing to listen.

Nice.

Now, previously, it was going to be a big surprise at the end. But no, in fact, I moved it to the beginning because that was a preemptive strike to be able to keep people from saying, well, you don't take this contest seriously. Well, I did one other thing in that contest that is different than anyone had done before. Now, since this time, since then, there have been a number of people that have gotten an audience callback. I mean, a number of people have done that since, but no one had done it before. That is where you prompt the audience to respond and you let them call it back. And so, because I was doing this speech that was heavy in Western imagery, I was speaking of my childhood heroes that I had grown up with there in Dallas, and my television heroes I'd grown up with watching. And the greatest one of all for me was the Lone Ranger. But before I revealed who that was, I just said, but the greatest hero of all, though, was, wait, I'm gonna start a famous phrase, and I want you to finish it. And then there was. It was silence and kind of a murmur. And I said, are you ready? And I said, okay. Remember, now, we do things big down here, so I want them to hear you from Singapore to San Antonio. And then I said, a fiery horse with a speed of light, a cloud of dust, and a Hardy. And everyone in the room shouted, hayo, Silver. It was absolutely the most electric moment I have ever experienced. I could not believe the energy that I got. And well, before the contest, all of my advisors told me, don't wear that. And don't do the audience callback. It's not been done. Don't do it. And after I won, every one of them came up and said, I knew that was a good idea. Yeah, every one of them wanted. Mark Twain has a great quotation. He says, the man with a new idea is a crank until the idea succeeds. And so I went from. I went from having been a crank to a visionary in a period of seven minutes.

I remember, David, when you were giving me advice because I know you were coaching someone else, so you didn't want to. You left the coaching to Mark. But I remember when I was talking about my fall, and you said, darren, you may win by it, you may lose by it, but you'll stand out. And if you don't stand out, you don't have a chance. And that's unforgettable. That's what we're talking about here.

Exactly. And that's the deal, is that I always tell contestants, now, I say, well, here's my philosophy. Find out what you think everyone else is going to do and then do something different. Do something that makes you stand out. And in my case, it was the attire and the HIHO silver. And it changed the trajectory of the Toastmasters speech contest because they had been relatively somber. It is significantly somber, standard motivational speeches. In fact, it was only in. I think it was 1976 was the first time that anyone spoke away from the lectern. He's the first person who said, I don't need that lectern. And he's the. Michael Lawn is that person. And he was a visionary there. And now you can't imagine anybody using a lectern. Well, likewise, I've seen a number of people that have done things that have pushed the envelope, and it's because I broke the glass ceiling on it.

You ran the board.

I want to point out, though, regarding being unforgettable and technique, that's one thing, but just some basic principles that you used so well. We're always told rule number one, know your audience. You spoke to the audience on home field. You were different and unique, but you also understood what was going on at the time. For example, you mentioned tuxedo, but you said, we put a little too much money in Texas Savings and Loans. And that line was timely for a reason which may not make any sense. When audience know. Could you clarify real quickly why that line was so important?

At the time that year, Texas Savings and Loans had gone belly up, and it was a financial catastrophe for the state. And it was widely known throughout the country. And so Everybody from the U.S. at least, was aware of, yeah, Texas Savings and Loans, you know, that's. That's a fine investment. Well, so I use that as a joke. And I just, you know, with the jeans. Jeans just means we put a little too much of our oil money in the Texas Savings and Loans. And it just got a big reaction. And then I said, but it's. It's respect. And I stroked the collar of my Tuxedo jacket. I said, it's a matter of respect that I'm here to talk about today. And so that was the bridge. That was the explanation. That was. That was what got me into the speech. Speech. Now, I did something in that speech that I will actually. I know I speak differently now than I did then. That is, there's a number of things that I did that I would do different if I could do it over. But when I look at that speech and I look at it on paper or on video, I can proudly say I'm still proud of that message today. And it still, to me is as relevant and as germane to today's world, curiously, even more than it has in. In recent years. That speaking of honor, integrity and self respect. Well, good grief. That those are classic themes and there's something that is in somewhat short supply these days. And so the message still holds up. Well, and there is. If you wish to see the video, you will see that I made one timely reference that is absolutely astonishing. I'll be honest, I am astonished that I actually thought of this, frankly. But I was speaking of how people had fallen from grace. And I said, why, in just the last two years, we've seen not one, but two television ministers fall from grace. We've seen billionaires bankrupted by greed. We've seen an Olympic athlete stripped of his gold medals because he used drugs. And we've seen, can Donald Trump be Donald Trump.

30 years later?

Yeah, let's put it this way. Let's pause for a word of the day. The word is prescient. P R E S C I E N T. Having the ability to foretell the future.

You talk about that. It almost seems to me, and maybe it's deliberate, but you were very careful to use references that the audience at that time would understand. It's quite likely a hardy hio silver may not be as valid today. Detective Savings and Loan reference would not be valid today. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, they have come back, I think. But you were very careful. You knew what the audience understood. So you play, you say, here I write the speech for the room in more ways than one. It's three different ways. Right there I can see where you knew where the audience was, you knew where the world was, and you knew that everyone would land. And it's important for us. If you want to be unforgettable, you have to know what Darren Lacroix calls the most important part of a speech is the thought process in the audience's mind. But if you can respond to what's top of mind, that's one where you become memorable. And the idea that, David, you talk about prescient honor, integrity and self respect. I just got off a two hour zoom call with the Toastmasters Group in Asia and they wanted to emphasize the core values of Toastmasters respect, integrity, service and excellence. So respect is in there and integrity is in there, and that's timely for the audience back in 1990 and right now it's still timely today. So the timelessness of the message is another layer that we want to consider. If you want to be unhappy, forgettable, you truly want to be unforgettable, it means your audience is going to remember you 10 years from now, 20 years from now, 30 years from now. And that's the Mark, David, of an unforgettable presentation.

Darren, man, I just, I want to go back one paragraph or two and just remind people that when David's talking about standing out, that way you stand out. It's best if it can tie directly into the message because we've had a lot of people, David, that took it so literally. And then they go and do something like, I seen one where the guy literally set up a dining room table, candles, and he had this scene and it was fascinating. And then that had nothing to do with his message and it was just. So I just want to remind everyone, okay, stand out, but stand out with intention to reinforce that message and make the message stand thick. Mark.

Right. Make it, make it organic, make it fit the moment and the mood. So if you can have it where it makes sense, then it is not an obstacle. But if I hadn't, for example, clarified about the genes early, then that wouldn't have made sense. That would have been an obstacle and.

People would have turned off by then. It would have been too late. So for everyone listening, what he's talking about is the structure, is that he took the idea he was saying at the end and brought it to the front because people would have crossed their arms, leaned back, crossed him off the list of possibilities. And Mark, I love this. The preemptive strike. The moment and the mood. Mark, that's a new one. The moment and the mood. Brilliant. I knew he'd. For 120 years old. I got.

David, your brain is on it.

You've been taking or whatever, man.

I want to kind of jump away a little bit, David, because for many, many years I have proclaimed to the universe that I could not think of any other Toastmaster speaker, world champion who had sewn into the lives of so many other finalists and so many other place finishers and so many other world champions. What prompted you to invest so much of your life into other people? And I'm going to mess you up now, David, deliberately so. I'm giving you a fair one. I'm going to mess you up. Breathe. Because I remember sending you a letter after you worked with me. And for people who don't know this, I worked diligently for six weeks on my world championship speech, and David knew it was not a winner. Six weeks out of nine I worked on this thing and David knew it was not a winner. What did David do? Nothing but guide me. And I wrote him a note. Said, David, like a wise father, you let me walk down a path you knew was wrong, knowing I would find my way home.

Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Yeah.

Any thoughts about that, David?

Well, I appreciate you saying that and I like that thought still. And I've used that many times in raising my son, who's now 26 years old, but he was. He was. Yeah. I just got married, in fact. Wow. I know that there were many occasions when I said, okay, I'm going to have to show that restraint. I'm going to have to just say, go ahead, learn the lesson, then come back. I'll still be here.

That's awesome.

And I said, like a wise father. And in response to me, you told me, you called me and left me a voicemail saying how much that meant for you because at the time, you were raising your only son and you wanted to be a good father to him. So allow us to get for a second emotional here, friends. But I asked that, and I tell that story because you literally invested your life knowing what was best. And over the years, you have helped so many more people to do this. What has driven you to keep doing that and producing so many successful proteges?

Gratitude. It's that simple. I know that I didn't get anything by myself. That is any good fortune that has come my way has come as a result of what others have done. And I considered that all the others that showed me the way, that's how I repay them by paying it forward to someone else that is waiting for that lesson.

Did you have any idea that the motivation of that trip to Hawaii would turn into literally heard of the ripple effect? Everyone knows what that is. But you truly have lived that legacy where if it wasn't for what you did, Mark wouldn't be who he was, I wouldn't get to do what I have done. And we've literally trained tens of thousands of speakers around the world. Did you have any idea that your ripple effect would keep going 30 years later?

No. There's a case where I was not prescient. I did not see that. I didn't know that was likely. I didn't know it was even possible. But I see, I didn't know if Toastmasters had a. What I call an institutional memory. I didn't know if the year after I won, if anybody would still have a clue who I was. But when I went to that convention and people started recognizing me and coming up saying, wow, you're last year's winner, then I realized, oh, well, there is something here. And that's when I realized I'd better give back to all the people that helped me to get to that point.

David Brooks, you'll always be a part of my story, and I thank you for that and the wisdom that you have given all of us. It's amazing. I cherish this moment to say thank you in front of all of our listeners. And you rock.

Well, thank you. I'm delighted. And I've learned and enjoyed. I've learned from you and enjoyed both of your company immeasurably. And I just want you to know the feeling is mutual.

And, David, I'll always remember the trip to the Palace Abustan, when that was my first trip to the Middle east and I had. David Brooks is with me. Oh, my gosh. And I was so thankful because you were the classy one. And then the story I tell about you and me and the green tea and if you remember the lamb when we.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

I'm not feeling well. I gotta go sleep in the truck. I'm like, David Brooks, you're taking one for the team here, because I am out anyway. So I apologize for everyone listening, not telling you that whole story. Yeah, it's not. It's just one of those little inside stories. David Brooks, I have a real important question for you. Because writing and journalism is your background, and when people are creating unforgettable presentations, writing is critical. What best advice would you give someone who wants to create an unforgettable presentation about the. The writing aspect of the presentation?

Well, I think the most important question that you can ask, and you must ask and must answer, what do I want my legacy to be? What do I want to be remembered for? If. If I can only do one thing, what do I want to be remembered for? And I didn't want it to be forgettable. I wanted it to truly have an impact. And I told you, and as I told Mark it's curious that all three of us are in the same situation. We did something that was unique, we did something that was different. And I remember telling both of you, as I was told, go big or go home. You either win big or you lose big, but either way, do it big.

Well, you do things big down there in Texas, don't you?

Yeah.

David, in terms of. I'm going to wind up very quickly here, but in terms of preparing unforgettable presentation, one of your strengths, as Darren has said, has been the writing. What do you think is the most challenging aspect of writing a speech that if presenters could master, that would make them unforgettable with greater facility and ease? Is it writing for the eye versus the ear or vice versa? Is there one particular principle. Well, writing you want to share with us?

It definitely is writing for the ear. Now, there's a difference in writing an article and writing a speech. They're not. They're not even close, except for the fact that both use words. But, yes, you. You certainly want to write. Not so that you can read it. I. I'm a huge proponent of writing your speeches because I say you write it so you can edit it, but you cannot edit what you have not written. And that's the number one thing that I say. This is why you write it. It's so that you can edit it. Now, when you sit down in front of a keyboard or a piece of paper and you start to edit, then a lot of people mistakenly assume, well, I must now write like a writer. No, you write as if you were the listener. And instead of, you know, most people say, oh, well, I'm going to get a thesaurus and I'm going to. I'm going to dress it up well, I can tell. No, you don't dress it up. Your goal in editing is to strip it down. One of my favorite quotations from Longfellow, he said, in character, manner, and style, in all things, the supreme excellence is simplicity. Wow. And that's what I believe that writers need to remember, is that the supreme excellence is, in fact, simplicity.

I don't know what to say to that. Simplicity. Don't dress it up. Strip it down.

I love it.

I wish I had two more hours to go into some other details. Things you've done. We've done things together where we've been. We've been to Jamaica together.

We've been.

We've learned so much together. We faced the new millennium together with the fear of Y2K. Remember, we went for a long walk talking about that many years ago.

No, you had the fear. I said it was nothing. You had the fear.

My job as a computer programmer, I had to go and program all these records to make sure the dates are right. Because if it doesn't go, if it goes wrong, the banking goes crazy. People were going nuts. I remember that very, very clearly. But we had so many experiences together, and they all come back to the idea of you wanting to help a neophyte like me to become unforgettable, Investing your life, your talent, your skill, your expertise to help someone to grow. And then doing that over and over again for many other champions and for many other individuals. And for that, my friend, to me, you will always be my master mentor. And to me, you'll always be unforgettable.

Thank you. It was very kind. Now, Darren, it's your turn now. Go ahead. Now you gush.

Darren, you turn to gush. Darren, you turn to gush.

It's David Brooks. Yeah. I don't think you even understand the full aspect of your impact and how it's been multiplied. Like, there's no better words than what Mark came up with.

Thank you, legacy man.

Thank you. Thank you. You've touched so many people, and not just those people who are presenters, but the audience that they were in front of that they impacted more because of your wisdom, your willingness to give and your generosity and your kind gentleman status, which probably saved our life over in the Middle east. Because I'm not so gracious. When I'm, like, freaking out. My first international trip, I'm like, oh, he's got an oc.

Yeah. It could have become an ugly international incident. Yeah.

But your graciousness. No, but seriously, as a friend, as a mentor, as a mentor to Mark, just wish you nothing but the best and eternally grateful. And we're trying to pass it forward because of what we learned for you. So you're a classy dude. Delighted to call you friend. And I'm going to turn it to Mark for this week's keepers.

The keepers. Little nuggets we get from our guests. And of course, David, you told us. Because when you're writing, you cannot edit what you do not write. First of all. And don't dress it up, strip it down, because you want to write for the ear, not for the eye. Go big or go home. You commit to being excellent and being unforgettable. Okay? And ask yourself always, what do I want my legacy to be? How will I be remembered? A key for knowing your audience. You want to write the speech for the room and use timely references, be unique, do something different and when possible and valid, use your attire as a prop but for a reason. Three more thoughts Let no one ever out prepare you and remember, remember that little personal stories make a big difference and my favorite is going to sound really simple but serve others out of gratitude. David, I am grateful to you for the way you have blessed, served, helped, inspired and changed me. Darren, take us home.

All right. Hey David Brooks, thanks for joining us. Great wisdom. Let's listen to this again. Join us next week too. We're going to be sitting down with a live coaching which we've started to do more and more but David Brooks bless you. Mark Brown, you got something to add?

Yeah.

If we want to get hold of you, if our listeners want to get hold of you or contact you, what should they do? How can they reach you?

Right now the best way is just to catch me on email because I'm not using any social media. I just simply do not care for it and so you can't find me on Facebook or Snapchat or Instagram or whatever because I just simply, I don't play those games. So people want to just get in touch. They can just simply email me and it's Dbrooks. That's d for David. Dbrooksexas.net David Brooks.net Forever all the World.

Champions will be grateful. All the districts who've had world champions either live or online. You are the game changer and District 60 for just planting that seed that you multiplied by a hand written letter to published addresses. They'll probably never do that again. But David Brooks, you're a game changer and you help us all to be unforgettable.

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