Ep. 8 How to Clarify Your Unforgettable Message

Hey, Mark, after two decades of coaching presenters at all levels, executives, pastors, presenters, professional speakers, what do you think is the number one mistake that we see over and over and over again?

Oh, Darren, I'm so glad you asked that question. In my experience, one of the biggest mistakes is not being very clear on your message. So many presenters have a great story, they love to tell it, and, and they use it as part of their presentation. But when it's all over, we're left wondering, that was a nice story, but what was the real. Yeah, what was the real message behind that? It's a great story, but I'm not sure what that message is. And that's one of the reasons why I know you and I have been preaching another three word Darwinism. Clarity, Clarity, clarity, clarity.

Yeah, yeah. People, you just, they, they might have great stories, they might have a phenomenal intention, but yet, unless me as the listener is clear and understands it, you just wasted our time. So this episode, episode number eight, is all about how to clarify your message. Let's go.

Anyone can give a presentation. Few deliver unforgettable present. 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.

All right, Mark, let's dive in. Let's get started. Hey, I want to start this off with a quote which I love from George Carlin. He talks about when putting together your routine, we think speeches. He was a comedian. Routine, when putting together your routine is more like going on a field trip than working in a laboratory. That's how Patricia would say it. Laboratory. But laboratory putting together routine is more like going on a field trip than working in a laboratory. And I think what we need to understand about putting together a speech is it's a process, it takes time. But the number one thing that you need to do is get clear on your message first or that laboratory and that field trip is going to be never ending for you or your audience.

That's so true. And Darren, you and I both know in our experience as coaches, they're individuals who are really enthusiastic, they have great passion and as you said, wonderful intent. And they have an experience of a story that's really cool. It's fun, it's intriguing, it's interesting. And what Many speakers do is they build their speech around the story without first trying to clarify, what is the lesson? What is the message? What's the premise? Why am I telling this story? And what can my audience walk away with? And what happens is, it's great. We're enthusiastic, but we're muddled on the very end. When the audience walks away, what will they do? What will they think? What will they feel? What will they change? How will their life be different? And if you don't establish the why before you do it, then it's a cool story, but the impact is diminished.

Yeah, we've got to stop our audience from scratching their head at the end. It's got to be clear. The awesome, amazing story that we're passionate about is great, great. But we as presenters, as opposed to entertainers, the point of our story is to plant a seed, to plant a message. But we've got to step back and look at. Okay, how much time do we have? Whether it's 30 minutes, 18 minutes at a TED talk, 45 minutes in a keynote, 90 minutes in a workshop, here's the time you got. What's the one idea you're trying to give us? Patricia Fripp, who is our friend and coach and a mentor to us, and you mentioned a word premise. If you're not familiar with the word premise, Patricia has the best definition of premise. And she says a premise is the thought or the idea that you're selling. The thought or the idea that you're selling. Even if you're a pastor given a sermon, you're still selling an idea. You're selling a message, if you will. Even if you're not selling a product, like a professional speaker might be, or a book, like, what is the premise? What is the thought or the idea that you're selling?

Mark, if the audience cannot walk away with a clear understanding of the why, the thought, the idea, the message. If the audience can't walk away clearly knowing that, then you've fallen short in your goal as a presenter to give them the value that they need and the reason why they came to hear you in the first place. So we have to be very clear. We have to be clear on the thought and the idea that you're selling. And so many people think, hey, Darren, Mark, time out. I am not a salesperson. I want to give you a powerful message. I want to touch people's hearts. I want to inspire and motivate. I get it.

But you want to inspire and motivate them to do what?

Exactamundo. Darren and that's where we're falling short. We don't clarify what the premise is, and the audience has to be super clear what that is. And when they're clear on that, they can enjoy the experience of hearing you and your stories are more impactful because we see the end game. We see where that story is going and why you're telling it. Got to establish that premise.

Exactly. And by the way, for our younger viewers. Exactamundo. You'll have to go back and watch Happy Days, which, yeah, you're gonna have to find that on maybe YouTube or something. But, yeah, thank you, Mark, for that levity right there. But Mark is absolutely correct. You and I as a presenter, whether we're given 15 minutes or an hour and a half or an hour and 15 minutes, we need to get clear. And this is the hardest part yet, the most important part. Craig Valentine has a great line. He says your message is a mess with age. Like, that goes back to what George Carlin said. It's like you're going on a field trip. You're going to have frustration, you're going to have time where you're like, ooh, you have these. Aha, this would be great. And then you're like, oh, man, but how am I going to transition from this to that? Or, what's the best opening? What's the best closing? That's why your premise or your message is most important. To get clear on first or the rest of the field trip is really going to be a wandering. You'll be a wanderer. I'm a wanderer and I can't sing.

But a lot less fun. And again, for those who are unfamiliar, Craig Valentine is our brother. He's a 1999 world champion of public speaking and also a magnificent speech coach himself. We find ourselves in really good company. I want to tell you, you've got to get that mess with age out. And the thing with a field trip is, a field trip is a voyage of discovery in a laboratory. You have a lab, you have your formula, and you'll conduct your experiments in that very pristine, safe environment. A field trip is full of the unexpected. And the field trip gives you a chance to expand your mind, look at different experiences and be open to new and exciting things. But you take the field trip. Remember, though, you have to know where that field trip is going to end up. And that's where your premise comes in.

Darren, Nice. Well said, Mark Brown. Well said. We can't emphasize this enough. If you really want to be an unforgettable Presenter consistently getting clear on the premise up front. You may have an idea, explore it, have fun, write down your ideas. But then when it comes time to structure your presentation, meaning putting it together, what's the order and the framework of it? Well, now, first step is clarifying your message. And we can't emphasize this enough. You can have some amazing moments without a clear message. But the reason you get the privilege of the platform is because you're brought in, whether it's for free or for a fee, you're brought in to influence the audience with your message. That's why you get the privilege. So, Mark, the question then is how do we clarify our message? So I think we've sold the point that you got to get clear on it. So how do you do that, Mark?

Well, that's a good. Again, good question. If you go back to episode four, you recall I asked you some key questions to help you to hone your message and find your premise. For example, I told you, Darren, think of a child in your life and if you had one chance to leave that child one message, what would that be? What we need to do is to really dig deep and to find out why is this going to be important, not just to me, but to the audience. And when you can be very clear on why it's important, you can begin to frame your message in a way that you know will bring clarity. And I love that you and I as coaches can also testify to the fact we use coaches and we draw from the wisdom of other coaches, not the least of whom, of course is Patricia Fripp, our mentor or friend or associate. And she had some really strong ideas about how to clarify your premise and make it clear that what you were selling, idea, thought, product, principle is clear to your audience. And I know you've had some really interesting conversations with her about this. Darren, anything you want to share from that?

Yeah, absolutely. What, Mark, when you and I do our two day event unforgettable presentations, which if you're Interested in spending two days with Mark and me, go to stagetime workshops.com and you'll see all the different Stagetime University workshops. And one of them is Mark and me two days where step by step, we walk you through this whole process. So this is just a little bit of that process, but so important for everybody who does this. And Patricia Fripp, if you don't know Patricia, she's one of the foremost speaker coaches in the country. She gets about $5,000 a day to coach executives and drag out of them their stories. Their ideas, their premise and the premise formula that we share of hers with her permission. It's called the FRIP premise formula. And write this down if you're taking notes. Every blank can blank. Every blank can blank, blank. And the way this works is every. And then the first blank is your audience. Who's your audience? Who are you presenting to? So it might be every presenter can. I'll just work with the first blank. Every presenter can. If I was talking to pastors, every pastor can. If I was talking to professional speakers, every professional speaker can. If I was talking to entrepreneurs, every entrepreneur can. So our premise is so important because it's helping get across and helping us clarify what's the point? What's the message? Why are we listening to you? So it's really good if it's said up near the beginning of your presentation, like after the opening. So you want to grab our attention and intrigue us and get us connected to you. But right after that, what is the premise? Why you here? What's the idea you're selling?

What's cool is, and you don't want to miss this when you say every blank. Darren said it. The blank there is the audience. We've got to go back to one important thing. Every time you stand to speak, you are speaking to a specific audience. And it may be your story may be about you, but it's for them. So every sales professional, every attorney, every insurance agent, it all depends on who the audience is. But the premise is about them, not always about you.

Now the formula again is every blank can blank. So the first blank is about your audience. The second blank is the result they desire. What is it they want? What is it that is that aspirational outcome? Maybe it's solving a problem, maybe it's giving an aspiration, but what's that result that they want? That you're there to give them, that you're there to help them with. So for example, when Mark and I do unforgettable presentations, two day workshop, our premise for those two days is every presenter can create a world class presentation. What's the result? They want to create a world class presentation. Every presenter can create a world class presentation. So now that gets us. So see how few words, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 words. Here's the goal. To come up with a premise. Whether you use this premise formula or come up with your own, it's gotta be 10 words or fewer. And here's the key, if you can't get it down to 10 words, you're not clear and if you're not clear, the audience doesn't have a prayer, you'll.

End up in the fog. And the thing is, on the field.

Trip, the bus without you, you don't.

Want that to happen. And the thing is, you know, Darren, I gave a keynote last week to a state board of education and I'm thinking about a premise. And my talk was about elevating your level of excellence. And very simply put, I could easily tell you that my message was every state board member can elevate their level of excellence. That's it, my keynote. I've done it in different industries. In the trucking industry, every trucker can elevate a level of excellence. And that particular process allowed me to customize my presentation but not lose the power of the premise. So every blank your audience can and the other blank is what's the outcome, what's the benefit, what's the result? Now please note also especially as pro speakers, for the longest while, Darren, you know, we were called pro speakers, motivational speakers, you were all these kind of speakers. But some time ago, a few years ago, the idea was shifted. We don't just give speeches, we solve problems. So if your premise is every audience member can and get a resolution to a problem or achieve a certain goal, then you know, you've aligned your message to your audience for them to walk away with value and benefit.

Yeah, it can't. This is just one formula and I love this formula and it's the one we teach with her permission. Again, by the way, if you want to learn more from from Patricia Fripp, check out her website, fripf R-I-P p.com fripp.com she has several premise premises. Premise formulas. So formulas is plural?

Yes, or formula if you want to get really?

Oh man, I thought I had it. Those of you listening, Mark is the wordsmith, I am the dyslexic with grammar issues and a limited vocabulary. But we both bring our ninja skill set. Okay, so here's one of the keys that I love that Patricia teaches that after your premise is stated, here's the key. No matter what formula used, any 10 word or fewer premise should get the audience to think, well, how? How? That's it. That means you've got them engaged, you've got them hooked and that's why you're there. You're there to bring your skill set, to bring your formul formula, to bring your seven step process, to bring your structure, to bring your infographic that helps us understand whatever you're teaching or Maybe it's your inspiring stories, but what do your inspiring stories get us to do? That is the reason you're here again, the reason you've given that privilege. Ten words or fewer. If you're not clear, they don't have a chance. Remember, our goal is to get the audience to think, well, how, when they're thinking, how, now you've got them intrigued, now they're hooked. Now you've just opened the doors to have the opportunity to give an unforgettable presentation. And we've got to unlock that door. We've got to get their brains to be curious or our message will not stick.

And having them ask in their mind, well, how opens the door for you to give them the answers that they need. Here's truth. Audiences love to be entertained. We like great stories, we want to laugh. But audiences want and need solutions. And once they begin to ask you, non verbally, they're asking you how you have this wonderful opportunity to impart value, knowledge, wisdoms, tools, techniques, methodology, new ideas that'll change the way they think, change the way they act. And when you can do that, then you know the value you want to give your audience is very, very clear. But if they aren't asking how, they aren't tuning to your message, you've got to set that stage to let them know I'm going to give you value and provide for you a solution to your problem to get the outcome that they need. Hmm.

Mark I remember when I was travel weary and I was going to give a presentation. I was at a hotel, I checked in, I was tired, I got in the elevator, I got up to my floor and I walked out of the elevator and I looked at the sign. You've seen the picture of the sign. I took a picture of the sign because I looked at the sign and it was, it was contemporary, it had brushed aluminum on the sides and it had these room numbers go this way and these room numbers go this way. But the way the sign was set up, I just sat there and scratched my head. I don't know. I didn't know which direction was going to turn into a math problem. It was cool, it was contemporary, it was fashionable. But what they didn't do was clearly communicate which way I should go. Because of the way that they place the arrows, they didn't clearly communicate it. So think about this. Someone designed the sign and someone else in management approved the sign. They thought, oh, this will be great. But both of them forgot their reason. The main purpose of the sign, which is to clearly Help me know which direction to go when I'm tired and I don't want to have to figure it out. I don't care that your sign looks cool. I just want to know which way to go. And it's the same thing for a presentation. Mark, you and I see presentations like this all the time, where they might have some great moments, they might have some good stories, they might have some great foundational phrases, but in the end, I don't know, what are you trying to get me to do.

That happens also even in road signs. I was driving last week on an assignment in both Virginia and Maryland, and I had my GPS going and it would tell you in a half a mile, two right lanes to get off at exit 1, 2, 3. And at one point it said, stay in the right lane to turn left. And I said, what? It repeated it, staying in the right lane to turn left on Main Street. And my brain was going, what am I doing? And then I see all these different signs. And I thought to myself, if that were a little bit clearer, I wouldn't panic as much and wonder, should I get off or should I stay on? I'm going right or left, what am I doing? We have to be very, very clear that sometimes we enjoy the process. I love telling the story. I love being this character. Oh, you're gonna love this. But as Darren said, if you as a presenter are not clear on how will the person getting off the elevator at 11:58pm After a long day, what will they see, comprehend, understand and experience when they see that bright orange brushed bronze sign with arrows pointing every which way but loose? And the issue is, for many of us, we are so into our story. We believe in what we have to offer. We think it's a really cool, fun experience. But we forget to turn our brains around and put ourselves in the audience's shoes and ask ourselves, what are they seeing? What are they hearing? What are they feeling? What are they experiencing? Am I sure that they'll get the message? And that's on us as a presenter, to be absolutely clear on our premise and absolutely clear on how we want the audience to receive what we have worked so hard to prepare for them.

Yeah, it breaks my heart when there's great presenters who don't take the time at the beginning of the process, when they're in the mess stage, when we put together a presentation, we don't like that stage, we don't feel confident. But if you're a pastor delivering important message, if you're an executive, if you're the president and, well, you know what you want to say and you're clear in your head. But if it does not come out that way, if you didn't take the time to make it super clear, you've just wasted your time and confused people. Please take the time. Create some premise that makes the audience go, well, how very simple. You get that statement tested out on a few people and ask them, does this make you curious to want to hear more? If they say, no, you're not done clarifying your message, Mark, Go back and rework it.

And that's very sage advice. Darren. Part of the process of preparing an unforgettable presentation is the busy work, the grunt work of testing. I spent many years in the information tech field. I was a mainframe computer programmer programming in IBM assembler language and COBOL back in the 1980s. And I was taught very early on to do something called unit testing. A program could have four or five different functions. They'd say, okay, take function one, put an opening on it and an ending, make a routine out of it, and have the program perform that routine to make sure the routine works. It's called unit A. Modular testing, like a module. And our modular testing could be, as Darren says, asking a few people, who we know, are you clear? What would you. What was the message from my speech? Don't tell them. Ask them if they're clear on it. They'll let you know. If you ask, did you get that? And they go, no. They say, no. It means you're missing something. And the cool part of that is in the process, you're learning to think from the audience's vantage point, and that's gold. If you can master that, you begin to become more sympathetic, more understanding. If I were in the audience, would I have gotten that? No. And that sends you back to the drawing board. And the mess begins to get cleaned up with age. And then you begin to get clear. Before long, you ask the question and they say, I totally get it. So how do I do that, Darren? Mark, how do I accomplish that goal, Mark? How do I elevate my level of excellence? Darren, how do I improve? By having more and more stage time. Then he began to ask those questions. Now, you know, they've got the premise, they're with you, and they want to know the how. It's on you then to deliver that how in an engaging, powerful and meaningful way.

If you're listening to this and you go back to episode three, when we talk about the questions that helped me create my world championship speech, When Mark asked me to go back and ask myself, if you were going to die tomorrow, what one lesson that you learned from your life would you want to pass on to a child? I had to reflect on that. So think about it. If this was the last presentation you ever gave and and the most important person in your life was in the audience, what do you want to leave them with? Because sometimes there's going to be people who are in your audience who never ever see you again, who you never ever have that opportunity to influence again. So for some people, it is the last time. This is the one time you'll get that opportunity to impact their life. If you're a pastor, this might be the one time that first time attendee is in front of you and it's your one opportunity. If we put that mindset on, it will give you the energy to do the work you need to do to clarify your premise. And honestly, that's what we all need to do. If you're a CEO and you have new employees in front of you, well, they're framing you up. You are the big shot. You are on the stage. Do they want to work for you? Well, if you're not clear, if you're confusing, the answer is, well, I'm working for a paycheck, not to help this guy accomplish the company goal or this gal accomplish the company goal. Right or wrong, when you get the privilege of the platform, we're being judged and how good we come across, how clear we are, it really starts with the clear message and the premise.

So here's a deal, Darren. I know everyone who wants to be a presenter really believes they have something the audience needs to hear. So I recommend you be very, very clear on your premise. The FRIP model is pretty cool. Every blank can blank. You want to make sure that when you deliver this premise in ten words, reviewer, the audience is intrigued enough to ask you, well, how? When you answer that, you've got to deliver on the promise of the premise and give the audience what they need. Remember, you may have a great story, funny story and a wonderful experience, but it has little value if you can't be very clear on your premise. The audience gets the message and they walk away with something of value. It's important to be very clear. And as Darren always preaches, clarity, clarity, clarity.

So, Mark, you are such the wordsmith. You don't even have to think this through ahead of time. You just think this way. You're like Craig Valentine is with foundational phrases. You are just the literary master. You said the promise of the premise. Of the premise. And it just. That's just so memorable. And seriously, that's what we need to do. We need to take the time, and we've got to convince the jury in the audience's mind. So we not just have to make that promise now, we've got to convince them throughout our presentation. But that's what the story, the evidence, the case studies are for. We're just talking about helping you clarify your message, because without that clarity, you're not going to know which stories are the best, what's the best opening, what's the best closing. We've got to deliver the promise of the premise during the rest of our presentation. I was trying to get one more P in there than you got in there. So, Mark, this is so apropos, because we've got an interview coming up with the legendary CSP cpae, Jason Hewlett.

And you know what's cool? He is all about the promise of being legendary in so many ways. And that's a great segue by he. And I really appreciate that. Now, Jason Hewlett is truly unforgettable. The man is an entertainer, he's a singer, he's a comedian, but he has powerful messages that he leads to audiences all over the world at a million dollar roundtable. I mean, great audiences, great moves. This man truly is legendary, and he has a face like none other.

Jim Carrey would be jealous of what he can do with his face.

Yeah, Jim Carrey is good, but Jason Hewlett is the. The best in the world. And he has been known to deliver unforgettable presentations with poignancy, with humor, and with laughter. And I can't wait to get together for episode nine when we get to sit down with the man who makes and delivers on his promise, the inimitable Jason Hewlett. CSP cpae, an all around awesome dude. You don't want to miss that one.

Yeah. Join us for episode nine. We're going to have fun, and most importantly, we're going to get the stories and the strategies behind one of the most talented speakers on the circuit today. He's amazing. So I'm excited about that interview. We haven't even done it yet. But join us for episode nine, Jason. And to wrap this one up, we're going to go back to. You've got to prove your premise throughout the rest of your presentation, but in order to do that, you got to clarify your message and your premise first. 10 words or fewer. Remember the FRIP formula. Every blank can blank first blank is who's your audience for that specific presentation? And then what's the outcome they want? So it's going to vary from audience to audience, but that's the intriguing part that gets them to lean in. Mark, Any more takeaways from this episode?

I leave you with three simple words. Clarity. Clarity. Carroty. Be Unforgettable.

See you next week.

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