Ep. 74 Impromptu You! Ready?

Hey there, Mark Brown. I'm going to put you on the spot, okay? How often does that happen to you where you get put on the spot? If you want to give an unforgettable presentation, sometimes it's going to be unforgettable because you didn't prepare, because you're going to get an opportunity that you didn't know you were going to have. Why? Because it's impromptu.

That's right. And people say, hey, Darren, since you're here as a speaker, do you mind just saying a few words? How do we handle that?

It's gonna be unforgettable.

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 champ 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.

Hey, Mark. I always think of the story that Craig Valentine tells when he's walking through the airport with his trophy in his hand coming back from the world championship of public speaking, and a little old lady comes over and looks at it and reads it. Oh, world champion of public speaking. Say some things.

Yeah, it's a funny story, but in reality, there are times when people, presenters, pastors too, get called upon to deliver a presentation on very short notice. Unexpectedly, I can recall one of our podcast guests was Mark Sharon Brock, an NSA legend and a really, really nice guy. And the first time Mark and I were on the same program up in Canada was many, many years ago in the late 1990s for a youth event. And for some reason, there were airline strikes all over the place and Marc Sharon Brock could not be there. I was on tap to do my program, and I ended up being Mark Brown and Mark Sharon Brock at the same time on the same program on short notice. And the tr. I could not deliver the same program twice. That's one scenario. Another scenario is I was the NSA Youth Chair back in 2015. One of my speakers didn't show up. I'm the youth chair. Guess what? It's on me. So I had to change my hat and become a presenter to my youth audience again on very short notice. Pastors go through that when they go to an event and, oh, the preacher's not here. You're a preacher. Do you mind just doing a quick sermon for us or you Go to an event and oh, Darren, you're a speaker. Do you mind saying a few words? No doubt happened to many of us in our audience today. We want to talk about what do you do and how can you actually prepare even though you seem to be unprepared. Darren, can you prepare to deliver an impromptu presentation?

Absolutely. It's a muscle. It's a muscle that we need to work on constantly. I'm a huge fan and Mark, I think you know this about me. If you're listening to this podcast, you may not know, but I got married three times a week back in the 90s. I was part of a wedding show, one of those dinner theater wedding shows. And the ceremony was a scripted play, but the whole rest of the evening you were just interacting with people. It was the best training ground I could have ever had because me as a quiet, shy kid in character, it gave me permission to just be there, be in the moment. But what it really did is helped me build that muscle. I am so thankful for that background. And then I started studying improv. Keith Johnstone, one of the legends of improv, he's the guy who started theater sports and I studied with him and did the book. In fact, in Stagetime University, Kevin Burke, who's got an improv background, we actually have an improv class twice a month. If you want to check that out, go to stagetimeworkshops.com we don't record that one. Why? Because it's improv. You gotta be there. But it's almost giving you permission to make mistakes. And when you can have the ability to think on your feet. And we're talking about a few different scenarios, we're talking about last minute presentation. Hey, guess what? As a standup comedian, that's how I got to be headliner. The first night that I became a headliner was I was the middle act and the headliner didn't show up. Guess what? You're a headliner tonight. If it didn't happen to you, it will, especially in the presentation world. Somebody's going to get sick. Just we've got to be prepared. And Mark, that's why I thought this was a great idea you came up with. How do you like, prepare to be unprepared? How do you do that, Mark?

Well, you know, you mentioned two scenarios. One is the event where you're attending and maybe even know that you're a good speaker and they put you on a program or you were already scheduled to speak and somebody else is not there. It's helpful, Darren, if you have what some people call a back pocket presentation. In other words, you don't come with just one talk in your mind. Now, some may say, wait, I've only got my signature speech. Where am I going to find a second speech to deliver a program? I am so happy, Darren, that you have been drilling our clients, our stage time members, our students on the importance of having a story file. Because a story file is a reservoir. It's a goldmine of material you can use to put up a talk together if you absolutely need to. And there's one other scenario, Darren, which I think is rare, but it does happen. And I don't know if you're familiar with this, but you go to an event and in your mind, this is what my audience needs. And then they pull back the door, you walk in and everything on the wall tells you somebody misinformed you, somebody didn't communic well. And what you brought to the table is not going to work. And guess what, you're on in a half an hour. Have you been there before?

Yes. And if you're a presenter, if you're a professional presenter, it will happen to you. If it hasn't yet, it will. We've got to be ready and it's our job as professionals to be able to adjust in the moment. And that's why I love the idea of the story file. When I go back to my stand up comedy days. Think set list. You know, here's the set list I planned on. I show up and it's all senior citizens. I need a different set list. You know, one or two or three of the stories might be the same, but there's actually other stories in my story file. So if you have the ability, if you have a day or so to prepare, cool. Go to your story file, search for the stories that are going to speak and relate to to that audience and then adjust accordingly. We've got to have that slide deck ready to go. It happened to me this past weekend. One of our members, Amanda Mae Gray, was part of a TLI for Toastmasters and they were looking for a motivational speech and they didn't have somebody lined up. It was a 15 minute presentation two days before. She's like, can you do it? I said, let me check. I had three other presentations that day. Thank God we're virtual, Mark. I've never been in different cities in the same day before. We were going crazy in virtual. And so I put it together, but I adjusted it for that event and it wasn't truly improv, but it was impromptu that I wasn't planning. It wasn't my schedule. But I know, like when you had Mark Scherembrock not show up when we've got our slide decks that we can adjust. And Mark, when you and I teach in our presentation unforgettable presentations workshop, we always teach people to have a 30 minute slide deck, a 60 minute slide deck, and maybe a 90 minute slide deck, whatever variations you use. Because in the moment it's going to be impromptu, Mark, that they change your length of time. So by the way, as you walk up to the stage, event planners are going to change your time. So it's so much easier if we thought it through ahead of time and we can say, oh, all right. In this case, what I did is I took my 60 minute deck and just narrowed it down. But I had a day to do that to a 15 minute deck in order to serve impromptu for this situation.

And you were thinking not just about delivering, but how do I deliver a whole program using my visual aids in a way that is done smoothly and professionally? And by the way, for those who are not Toastmasters, TLI is a Toastmasters Leadership Institute. They do these programs all the time to really help their leaders grow. And yes, they often ask for something inspirational and motivational. You know what? I've often told a story, Darren, of when I faced an impromptu because I was dealing with an unexpected audience and theme. I was doing youth programs back in the early 2000s and I was doing a program on relationships, how teens treat each other and building strong relationships and a very, very heavy anti bullying message. And I was booked for this high school leaders conference and that was what I'm known for. That's my main street. Mark, come talk to these kids about relationships and not bullying each. I get to the event and all through the driveway I see these old screaming face the movie Scream. The face and the white face and the black shroud like death. And it's everywhere. The scream, scream. And they had a scream theme. And within about 7.2519836 minutes, I realized it's not gonna fly. And I'm on in an hour. I'm wondering, can I tweak? Can I manipulate? Can I massage? Nothing's happening. I hear these kids outside screaming, literally having a jazzed up time. And me to go there and then say, guys, don't bully each other was not going to work. And literally I'm backstage, I'm going to go on in about 20 minutes and I'm pulling up my business card with A blank back. And I start to think, okay, these kids are all screaming. The word scream is everywhere. What can I do with that? I wrote down S, C, R, E, A, M. And literally, I wouldn't recommend you do this, but it taught me a lesson. I wrote down, these are kids, youth leaders. S is for service. Good. C, C, C is commitment. Right. R, hug leaders, responsibility. And I went through service, commitment, responsibility, did a whole thing. Then I began to think, okay, what stories can I pull from my story file, especially as it relates to teenagers and youth that I could use with a humor and a serious message and entertainment to make this one hour this 900 high school kids were in the gym screaming. I don't recommend you writing a keynote in 20 minutes. But because, Darren, as you recommended, I had the story file, I was able to create that presentation in 20 minutes. And eventually I began to use that as an additional keynote later on because I could fall back on the story file and the experiences that I could use. So please don't take lightly Darren's advice. Having a story file at your disposal can set you up to be prepared even though you are ostensibly or seemingly unprepared.

When you get that last minute idea, we have that opportunity to be unforgettable. What you're saying too is we need to adjust in the moment to be unforgettable. Because you probably would have been forgettable if you went with that. If you went with that regular, tried and true speech that works. But in this environment with maybe some misinformation we got or maybe we didn't communicate to the right person, maybe we didn't ask the right questions, but having that story file is critical. Now, I know some people who listen to us are Toastmasters, and I am not a fan of that back pocket speech, okay? I'm just not for what we're talking about because that means that it's a speech you've never done before. Okay? As professionals, hey, if you get a chance at Toastmasters to practice one that you've never done before, great. But for us, we've got to have that tried and true story that we can adapt to the situation. So, Mark, I know one of the other things we were going to talk about is the let them eat cake moment. When you're in a social gathering and people there know you're a speaker, you're coming there just to eat the cake and to celebrate, and all of a sudden you're on, hey, by the way, Mark's a speaker. Hand him the microphone and you're like.

So that's real, man, that's real.

And so because people know what we do, it happens. And if you're listening to this, if you're a pastor, if you're a presenter, if you're a speaker, if you're even a toastmaster, sometimes you're going to get put on the spot at a gathering where there's a microphone and they're like, hey, say a few words. So we don't want you to do that. We want you have confidence. So here's a simple little formula. Let's just say it's Barbara and Tony's anniversary party and you're there to celebrate with Barbara and Tony and all of a sudden they hand you the microphone, they're like, yay, say a few words. Our suggestion is we think as soon as you, you're gonna see the moment coming, you're gonna have like a three minute, like in your head, like, oh, they're gonna hand it to me, aren't they? So you've gotta have that story file access in your head so you don't have time to prepare. So what's your random access memory to be able to go through your story file, pick out the story that's appropriate to this setting, and that is the tried and true story. So now all we have to do is have a bridge to that story connected to this audience for them and their anniversary. You know, it's great to see you guys have this incredible relationship and the joy in your face. I just admire your relationship. And that makes me think of when I first started, when I did it wrong and I started working with Mark Brown and then I could tell the Mark Brown story. So we just need a bridge to it. We tell our story and then a bridge back to the people we're talking about now. It's a rock solid story you've told before. You know how to tell that story. But if we can bridge to it and bridge back to the situation, we just look like a rock star.

And you know, I know some may think, well, hey, whoa, whoa, hang on, that's kind of heavy for me right now. I'm not sure I can do all that. But think about this. If you know Barbara and Tony, you're married 50 years, maybe they're your neighbors. You can call back to the stories of your experience with them. Living next door to people, you have stories, hopefully not too embarrassing, you'll have some humor. But you want to make sure the stories you tell about your neighbors uplift them, edify them. Remember the memories that you shared with them, but as a presenter, to be unforgettable, you can celebrate them, you can do all of that. But if you can also leave everybody there something valuable that they will make sure. You know what? I heard Darren talk about them. I want a marriage like theirs. But he also inspired me to whatever you have braids to and come back from. And that way, not because you want to upstate anybody, but they'll remember that you spoke about Barbara and Tony on their anniversary and remember how it felt, remember your stories. And that's what makes you unforgettable, is knowing that you're going to have these occasions. It's going to happen at somebody's college graduation. It could be the kid who delivered the newspaper every single day or cut grass, right? And you could even say, you know, I Josh. I remember the first time Josh cut my grass. I mean, it wasn't the best job in the world, but he was, you know, he was 14 and he was really enthusiastic. But I saw back then the kind of work ethic he had. That work ethic got him a scholarship when he went to college. And here he was with honors. And he's proven that. What I saw in him when he was 14 is proving that now. And how many of us want to show our kids what it means to have a good work ethic? And you could literally take that somewhere else to inspire the entire audience while giving kudos to Josh and his family, the life he has lived. But you got to go back to the memory, what it was like when he was 14 and he was cutting the grass. Find a funny story, a family picnic, a block party, a local barbecue, whatever. But you have the memories in your heart, in your life. And we're telling you something else. You may not think some of the stories your neighbors are worthy of a story file. You could not be more wrong. Every day we have stories that we can add our story file and mark.

One of the good ideas, strategy for this situation. Two things. Number one, think of just like we teach all the time in stage time, and at our event, what's the specific situation and what's the dialogue that was said? So if we use your Josh example, you know, I remember at the end when I asked Josh if he could, you know, trim a little closer to the sidewalk, Josh said, you got it, Mr. Brown. Well, you know, so now it connects more. It's dialogue from the person that you're honoring. And so I'd like to say to Josh and his new bride, you got it, Josh and new bride. Boom. As far as Relationships are concerned. You got it, Josh and your new bride. Something like that. So now you're using dialogue. You turn the dialogue around back to them. But again, remembering dialogue, remembering situation. You know, you could smell the fresh cut grass. Bring us to that moment. But paint the picture like we teach Craig Valentine's V A K s. Give us a visual, give us an auditory, give us the kinesthetic and give us a smell quickly and take us there and then let us hear the dialogue. It's just a powerful little thing. And strategy number two is whenever you walk into a party and you see a microphone, immediately start going through your little Rolodex story file in your head. And it may not happen, but if you make this a new habit, you're gonna be better prepared that 1 out of 10 times they do hand you the microphone. So start thinking right away, what stories would I tell? What would be most appropriate? Go around and talk and ask people as you go in there and see if you can dig up some stories while you're there. It will be great practice. Even if you don't deliver, you will have built that muscle.

One of the cool things is that many of us here are involved in Toastmasters. And Darren, you mentioned briefly earlier, a Toastmasters club can be a really great place to practice some of these things, to learn how to use these techniques. Toastmasters clubs have table topics every meeting where you give an impromptu one to two minute speech. You can actually practice giving impromptu speeches at a local Toastmasters Club. You can practice giving impromptu talk with your family and loved ones. If they let you keep talking to them. That depends, right? But it's a way, as Darren says, it's a muscle that you use. So when you walk into a scenario and your mind says this could be, I wonder if they might already you are thinking, should the opportunity come, I know what I will say. Hopefully, always positive. But you don't end up with a Ralph Crampton. You don't know who Ralph Crampton is. Honeymooners in the 50s. Check them out. They're really, really funny, Darren.

Yeah. And what you could do is make sure your story files on your phone. So if it's on your phone and you're at a party, you're going to have it with you. You Ed Tate uses Evernote. You could just take it and put it into a notes file, whatever is in your phone. But now you have it with you. And now you can go to the restroom and review it in the restroom and just again, it's gonna be that prompting of what's going to be best in this situation? Truly, I tell you, the immutable law of improv is yes and yes. And when Vinnie told me, any day that you turn down stage time is you're turning down your own growth. Any day you turn down stage time, I will never help you again. He was going to cut off the relationship. So I was forced to improv. And after that habit, after a while, I became better and better and better at it. You know, some speakers say they can't do it. We have a friend, close friend of ours, Mark, who's a great presenter. I think he can, but he says, I'm not good at that. But I'd be willing to bet in that situation, he could build that muscle if he wanted to. So if you're listening to this, just understand it's a muscle. If it's uncomfortable, join a Toastmasters Club. If you're already in a Toastmasters Club, join four more. You know, the cool thing with virtual is you could do three different clubs in three different cities in a day. But the more you get that opportunity, say yes. Don't hog the stage, but always be willing. Create that as your brand. I'm the person willing to do it. And really, seriously, take an improv class, even if it's not ours. Like, we teach one twice a month. Stagetimeworkshops.com Go check it out. But if not, find one. Find one near you, whether it's live or virtual. We didn't know if it would work virtually, but turns out it works. Works really good. We put people in breakout rooms and they do their exercises with each other. So thank goodness for Zoom Breakout Rooms. It allows us to teach improv online. But wherever you get it, get a book on it. But without actually doing it, you're not actually building that muscle.

You know, Darren, you're so right about practicing. I can't tell you how many times I've attended a Toastmasters meeting. And I get there and, oh, Mark's here. You know what? Speaker number one didn't show up, and we didn't want to feel left. But, Mark, will you do a talk for us today? And I say yes on pretty much 15, 20 minutes notice, because they're going to do table topics first, which is impromptu speaking. But I say yes because it gives me, even after all these years of experience, an opportunity to test something out, to try something out, to rearrange a story, include more dialogue this time, to make it much more engaging. It's also a great way to prepare yourself to use that Story in a wider way for a larger audience. Darren, you entered Toastmasters Contest with that mindset in mind. I'll take my story, I'll work on it, I'll improve it, put it back into my keynote, and charge a higher fee.

Yeah, Maureen Zappala did that, too this year. Our friend who made it to the finals, she was working on stories from her keynote. So no matter what, the story gets better when you focus that much. As Craig Valentine says, if you want to masterpiece, you have to master the pieces. So, Mark, if I ever show up at a Toastmasters meeting and they tell me, oh, you know, would you like to speak today? The first thing I'll do is grab a. You know, while you're. While the other things are going on, I'll grab a piece of paper and I'll write out my set list. I mean, I remember this from the standup world, but I would still do the same thing, but I would write down the stories. The one thing different from standup for what we do is we use stories to make a point, not just to be entertaining. So what's that point? And then how could we relate that point? And by the way, for those of you who are seasoned pros, if you're using Toastmasters, I would highly recommend. And you not only do this as often as you can, but then you try and relate it directly back to the meeting theme, which would be great practice, because when we're speaking at a conference, whenever we can tie it back to the conference theme or the word of the day, get that word of the day in there. You know, for new people, it's hard to do it because they're so nervous, but if you're experienced, like, make this. I'm gonna. I'm gonna get that in there. And if you forget once or twice, whatever, but make that your new mission. You've got to stretch yourself. And when you stretch yourself, that's when breakthroughs happen.

We talk about Toastmasters. I know some people think, that's fine. I'm past Toastmasters. I'm a seasoned pro. I don't need to use Toastmasters. It is a great learning lab. And I've even used impromptu techniques using customized keynotes at Toastmasters conferences. Again, I wouldn't recommend you do this, your first big conference, but I was speaking towards the end of the day, and they had their speech contest going on before my evening keynote. And I listened to the titles of all the speakers, eight or nine speakers in the contest. And I found a way between the contest and the evening keynote. To incorporate the titles of each of those eight contest speeches into my presentation. And the response was phenomenal. But as Darren says, what's the word of the day? And for those who aren't Toastmasters, at every meeting they give you a word, a vocabulary word, they give a definition, and they encourage everyone to use the word at some point in the meeting. So we get used to using this new word. And you know, meetings are normally thematic. It could be Valentine's Day, it could be romance, it could be patriotism. I don't care what the theme is. But as you find a way to incorporate the theme in your presentation, you're working the muscle for impromptu presentations in a very friendly environment where it's conducive for learning, for trial, for testing. Trust me, a Toastmasters Club is a magnificent learning lab. To work this muscle so impromptu seems a lot less scary, much more challenging. And it comes to a point where it becomes that much more exciting because you can't wait to use these techniques and see the results you get. You want to be unforgettable, Work that muscle. Use the improv. Choose to use the learning of Toastmasters to improve this skill. Because you never know when they're going to say, hey, Darren, ready? Want to say a few words?

Yeah. Another challenge for you. If you are a Toastmaster and you if you're not, if you get the opportunity, if there is a word of the day, cool, try and use it. But then turn to somebody to your right or to your left and say, just give me a word. Randomly give me a word. And then try and incorporate that as well. Look, you might make a mistake. Toastmasters should change their slogan. It should be Toastmasters International, the greatest place to make mistakes. So why would you not push yourself? They're gonna clap no matter what. So you might as well push yourself because that's. And guess what? You're also inspiring other people by your actions. Another. I don't know if it's impromptu, but I guess you could look at it that way if you push yourself enough. I started a 77 day video challenge, pound 77 day video challenge, where I'm challenging our Stagetime members, especially our Business Mastery members, to do a video a day, every day, two or three minutes. But one lesson from your life. And just what people are learning because they are pushing themselves. I don't know if you'd call it impromptu, but if you have three or ten ideas, well after day ten, it becomes impromptu. You have to figure something out. But here's a relating sentence to relate to the viewer tell a story and then what's the lesson learned from that story? Just three steps. Don't overdo it. Number one is just how does this relate to the viewer? Number two, here's the story where I learned the lesson. Number three, here's the lesson learned. Boom. Don't overcomplicate it. But it's about pushing yourself. But you truly can build the muscle. If you're anything like me, one of my favorite TV shows is Whose Line Is It Anyway? I watch YouTube videos of those. I can watch it for hours. I just love Ryan Stiles and Colin Mochery. I love watching them work. And guess what? Not everything you see is their. I mean, you're seeing only their best. You're not seeing their mistakes. You know, they probably film 60 minutes to get 30 minutes or maybe it's longer. So you don't see the things that don't work, but you see their brilliance. Well, guess what? They started right where you are right now. But they honed that muscle and they maybe had a talent, but they still had to hone it. And Mark, I love telling the story of your background versus my background. You had that natural born talent where people gathered around you. In high school, I was a shy, quiet kid. We both could not have been diametrically opposed more, yet we both ended up in a similar spot. And one of the keys was you had a mentor, you had David Brooks who helped you. Even though you had that natural talent, you still had to learn a few things to hone it to get to that world class level. And me, I was just clueless until I was. But here's what I did is I was willing to put in the effort where most people are not. And it wasn't until though I met you and learned world class techniques. But I'm telling you, that foundation of improv, I wouldn't be here today if it was not for that.

And you know, Darren, you mentioned the video challenge. And I've done video challenges before. And the key for that to work in terms of its relevance to impromptu is this. If you're going to record the video, don't do eight or nine takes. What you want to do is you want to do like a Facebook live. It is live, right? You're going to have the bumps, the bruises, the flips and the flubs and the faux pas if you do it live. And then of course, watch yourself over and over again. And after 77 days, I can almost guarantee you will see progress in the way you present yourself. And when I say do it live. I also mean don't read a script. I'm saying set yourself up. Turn. You know what you want to talk about. Turn the camera on, go live on Facebook and share your idea with the audience. Without a script. Now, that may seem scary to you at first. And, okay, So a day, five, maybe 10, you feel you need that help. After that, it becomes a crutch. I'm telling you, be bold, be strong. Try this. You will not be perfect. But after a while, you'll see, as Darren says, somebody will toss you a word, and you can deliver a presentation on that word. And I love when people say, okay, here's your word. Your word is, I love cucumbers. Cucumbers. Give us two minutes on cucumbers.

Yeah, cucumbers. I love cucumbers. I remember learning from my grandfather and watching him, and he would slice it, and then he would take out the salt and put it right on the cucumber and bite it and, oh, it was delicious. Right out of my grandmother's garden. But, Mark, the key is to not eat a cucumber before you present because you burp. I don't know. I was just going. I know you weren't really handed it to me, but I just said, what could comes up.

You couldn't resist doing that. No. But the reason why I say don't use a script, reason why I say go live and don't record it, is to allow each of us to familiarize ourselves with what it will feel like to be called upon to present in a moment on a topic without advanced rehearsal, without a script, in real time. Trust me, the most smooth, the most eloquent, the most polished, the most un. Unforgettable presenters have been through this process. And you and I can only continue to grow through that process because you know what impromptu may say. What do I say? You have the material, you have the stories. You have the audience. You have the opportunity. Think of being prepared beforehand. And think of it not as, oh, my gosh, I have to give a talk, but rather, oh, my gosh, I get to give a talk.

And, Mark, one more quick thing. Sometimes in the middle of a presentation, you could find yourself either during Q and A or might just get heckled randomly. And that's why impromptu, having comfort to be able to handle that. How you handle a situation is also impromptu. The fire alarm goes off, the LCD display goes out, you're on zoom, and all of a sudden you get kicked off, and you got to come back on like it's gonna happen. But the More you're doing improv, the more you're comfortable with being uncomfortable, the more likely you are to be unforgettable. And Mark, one more quick thing. If you do, take us up on the lives, I ran out of something to talk about, and this one right here was day 17. I'm showing it. If you're listening to the podcast on Facebook, you can look it up. Day 17. I was exhausted, and honestly, I didn't want to do my own challenge. I had done four presentations the day before, four zoom meetings from around the world, and I was just exhausted. And I was. And, you know, I started off, I'm just, like, rubbing my head, but it was real. And that one has, like, some of the highest views of the other ones. But I didn't try too hard. I didn't try to fake it. I was real. I said I was tired. The bags under my eyes confirmed it. And I just said how I felt. I don't want to do this today, but here's why I did so. Sometimes authenticity can make us unforgettable. And sometimes being put in that situation you're not familiar with can almost test your authenticity.

And, Darren, what you also tell me by that story is this. You can be unforgettable without being perfect. You don't have to be perfect to be unforgettable. It's what you deliver. It's the manner in which you deliver it. As Darren, you say, it's the authenticity, it's your vulnerability which gives you credibility. It's a genuineness that you have. And trust me, friends, when you have that call to give a talk at somebody's graduation or somebody's 50th wedding anniversary or as a pastor, the minister didn't show up for the traveling, didn't show up, the guest minister, or you're at an event and. And plain delays and the keynote speaker is not there. And they know that you can do this. Don't freak out. As Darren says, reference that story file. What applies to this audience, this event? Who do I know? What can I draw from relationships with these individuals? They know me. I know them. What stories can I share and how can I put that all together to maintain a synchronicity with their conference to when you deliver and deliver well in that scenario, that's when they want to have you come back and maybe give you the main stage next year. And that's how you become unforgettable. It is in you. It is a part of who you are. And you can make even the most difficult, impromptu situation, a breeze and a memory for you and your audience. The question is impromptu use Are. Are you ready?

Yeah. When the situation comes up, and it will, don't freak out. Dive in. See you next week.

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