Ep. 84 Your Unforgettable STRETCH

Hey there, Mark Brown. You showed me a picture of you and your big brother. And for those of you watching this on YouTube, you can see it. If not Mark, could you describe this?

Well, first of all, it's black and white from back in the day at circa 1970 or 71. My older brother went to secondary school and I, you know, one year younger I saw him and I wanted to be so much like him. He was so smart, he always got good grades and he was taller. And in the picture, I. I'm in my shorts, my skinny knees are showing and I'm on my tippy toes trying to stretch myself just to be better than I was, to be taller and to be as good as my big brother. And it occurred to me, Darren, that as presenters, even those of us who are experienced, we all need to stretch ourselves at some point in time. And I love what Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. Said. He said every now and then, a man's mind is stretched by a new idea or sensation and never shrinks back to its former dimensions. Our challenge today is for you to stretch yourself. And to do that, I want you to meet four of our students who have learned powerful lesson of stretching.

Anyone can give a presentation, few deliver unforgettable presentations. What's the difference? You're about to find out. Welcome to the Unforgettable Presentations podcasts with your hosts, world champion speakers and coaches, Mark Brown.

Mark Brown, your life tells a story and there's someone out there who needs to hear it.

And Darren Lacroix. And Darren Lacroix.

Stage time. Stage time. Stage time.

Ready for some powerful presentation, Ahas. Let's dive right in.

Oh, Mark, we all want to be like our big brother.

I tell you, man, he's amazing. To this day I have so much respect for him, but he really made me stretch.

And I think when people want to be unforgettable, there's a want, there's a desire for the outcome, but there's breakthroughs that we need that can only be achieved through stretching ourselves through that experience, through that bad presentation, through that horrible presentation, through that brutally honest, not even nice feedback that we get. But maybe there's. Even though it might be not nice, even though it might be brutal, even though it might be mean, there might just be a grain of truth in that. That is a lesson that you and I need to learn.

Yeah. And I've told this story before, but I recall I had won the Toastmasters world title back in 95 and I've been going around giving keynotes at different conferences And I went to one particular event in New York City and a toastmaster, his name is David. And he said to me after my talk, mark, as usual, that was good. We know you. You're a keynote speaker. You're six foot one, you're strong, you look good, got a good presence, a great body. But you need to push yourself. You need to stretch yourself. You need to find something you have not yet done and push yourself to do it. I said, okay, cool. And he really made me think. I thought, man. So I was given the assignment. I agreed to deliver a keynote in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. And I thought to myself, wouldn't it be cool when I talk to the meeting planner, wouldn't it be cool, I said to myself, if I delivered my opening keynote in French, that'd be awesome. And I realized I said that my opening story, I said it out loud. Oh, Mark, it's a very good idea. We'd love to hear Open Story in French. Very good. Thank you so very much. Now I was stuck. I had to deliver my opening story, as they say, in French. Solemn, en francais, completely in French. My high school friends wore out back in 1977, okay, I got a coach, Stella, from Reader's Dice, where I worked, and I gave her my story. She did a translation. We worked together on this thing for weeks. I was coached. I flew to Montreal. I told my opening story completely in French, and the audience gave me a standing ovation. And I received that not because, oh, I was good, but I received it because they realized I had stretched myself to serve them, to speak to them in their language because of my care and my concern for the audience. But I thank the man named David o' Neill back in New York City, who told me to stretch myself. And I continue to stretch myself. And ever since that day almost 20 years ago.

And if you're listening to this, you may have heard my story when my mentor said, darren, any day that you don't get on stage is a day that you don't grow? And my first thought is, but how am I ever gonna get booked unless I do good in front of an open mic night where there's a booker there, Like, I have to be good every time. And like, no, no, no, no, no, no. You've gotta. They didn't say it, but they're insinuated. You've got to stretch yourself. You've got to have those experiential breakthroughs. That's the only way we're going to transform. And so to our professional presenters, who are already good, already Confident, already getting paid. Well, if you're coming up with new content or you're taking the same content and turning it over to online, it's got to be different. You've got to stretch yourself and through that, make some mistakes, have some scars. It's just part of becoming unforgettable. We can't be unforgettable. We can't create new content that's unforgettable without help, without mistakes. When I was working on my new keynote For Game Changers, 17 Minutes to youo Dream, I gave it, delivered it, tweaked it, gave it, delivered and tweaked it. And I brought it to Maureen Zappala, who's a great coach, been to the finals before, somebody I respect, and Mike Davis, David, to get coached by them. And then I did it again and I brought it to them again so they could see the changes I made to make it closer to unforgettable. So, Mark, I thought it would be really cool when I was doing this as the conference opening, to sit down with some of the people who are our students, who we challenged. I created a 77 day video a day challenge to force people to stretch themselves that, hey, we need to be better at online, we need to be better delivering intently to that lens, as you say, your friends behind the lens, it's different. So professionals, when you're working on new content, when you're converting it to online, you gotta stretch yourself. For those of you who are emerging presenters, maybe even our friends who are Toastmasters. Look, if you're a toastmaster, cool. I started out in four clubs. Why? Because my mentor said any day that I don't get on stage is a day that I don't grow. So I could go to Toastmasters during the day, comedy clubs at night, Toastmasters during the day, comedy clubs at night. Why? So I could double my failure rate. And Mark might even call that double your stretch rate, of course, for the purpose of this podcast. And so I knew that. So there's some people who are Toastmasters and maybe you're in a second club, great. But in the average Toastmasters club, you really only get to prepare a speech and deliver it once, maybe every other month. No one became world class. No one ever became unforgettable as a presenter. Doing five or six speeches in a year and you're doing different speeches. No, you gotta work on that one and tweak it and get coaching and tweaking and coaching. That's not realistic. It's good. You'll grow. But. But until you truly stretch yourself. You'll never be unforgettable.

You know, Darren, I'm going to brag on you for a second. You don't want me to. You don't want me to.

You can take two seconds or three if you're going to brag on me.

If you're new to our podcast, you may not know it. Darren Lacroix is the only human being on the planet who is a certified speaking professional, an accredited speaker, and the Toastmasters world champion of public speaking. I'll say it again, he's the only person on the planet to hold all three designations. So he's unique, one of a kind, and he just confessed to all of us that he still gets coaching because he wants to stretch. I say that for those of you who are professionals, who have been around for a long time, who have become comfortable in your expertise, never stop stretching. And we practice what we preach, Darren.

So in this 77 day challenge, it was taking an idea, a lesson from your life, a story from your life, and every single day doing a Live. Whether it's YouTube Live, Insta Live, Facebook Live, doesn't matter. The point is that it's live. This is not. I'm doing 32 takes and uploading the best one. This is live now. Hey, if it is really horrible, I had one that I was doing that. There was a video going in the background. I was doing it in my studio and that video, YouTube video was playing, so I stopped. I. I deleted it and I started again. It was live. So the point is doing it live with your mistakes, with your foibles, with your ums and ahs in there. Why? Because you're stretching yourself. But if you do it every single day, transformation happens. And when I sat down with some of the people who took us up on that challenge, I was blown away. I was inspired. And those little interviews became part of the event. And I thought, mark, these are so good. People need to hear, not just from you and I, but from people who are actually stretching themselves and did this challenge. And when you hear what they have to say, we hope it inspires you as much as it inspired us. In fact, Mark, I haven't even told you this. These videos inspired me so much, I'm actually writing another book. Oh, 17 minutes to your dream. Because of what they did with it and how they transformed. So let's dive right into the first one. And these are in no particular order, but I want to start off with my buddy, Corey May. And here's what Corey had to say. Wait you did the 90 day challenge last year and never stopped.

I took the 90 day public speaking challenge and I went beyond 90 days. I went to 100 days, then I went to 200 days and to 500 days. And now last night I went to 700 nights consecutively of doing this 90 day public speaking challenge.

Wow, that's crazy. That deserves a little applause. Why did you start the challenge?

I saw you do it. I saw Mark Brown do it. I saw Albert Chang do it. I saw a number of stage time university folks doing it and I thought, well, if they can do it, I sure can. And I started and I stopped and I didn't record anything and I got butterflies and I was terrified and I was thinking, I'm gonna fall flat on my face and ouch. But the first one was the hardest one. It was a eulogy for my high school choir teacher and that got transmitted virally. And my chorus teacher's family actually saw my eulogy and reached out and told me what a job I had done touching them. And that gave me strength to do day number two. I moved into day number three and it just kept happening.

How has this helped you?

Wow. There are a lot of ways in which this has helped me. First of all, it made me see the world in an entirely different way. Events happen to us every single day. Storytellers are the ones that capture them, document them, and tell them again. Second, it also forces you to write. I journal every single day, and I'm constantly looking for stories. I'm listening for stories, I'm feeling for stories.

What positive side effects happened as a result?

I become a better speaker, I become a better listener, I've become a better thinker. All those things are happening because of the constant repetition of making that effort, as you say, investing your 17 minutes a day. This is consistency. I am reminded of the book from Kobe Bryant, the Mamba mentality that people would see Kobe go into the gym and do his workout alongside him for two hours. But when he said, ha, I'm going to do that four hours, six hours, eight hours a day, at some point or another, not only did his natural talent take over, but that work ethic enhanced and magnified whatever talent that he had. And I feel that whatever talent that I've gotten has gotten a little bit better.

Any speaking invitations as a result of your videos?

I've been asked to do some keynotes in Mumbai and in Kiev through Toastmasters. But more importantly, it has helped me build friendships globally. And I really appreciate that because business is one thing, but you can't have business without people and personal relationships.

What happened when you didn't feel like doing your daily video?

Inner voice kicks in and saying, are you going to let the streak end? You can't let the streak end. Come up with something. And it's also deepened by faith, because there's always something that needs to be said. When I don't think I have something to say, I close my eyes, I get centered, and something will appear.

What would you tell somebody wanting to stretch themselves?

Relax first, breathe second, third.

Do it.

Because you can't improve on something you don't try. It's not about the first time. It's not even the second time. But what it is is the accumulation of that effort and that energy that starts to help you see results.

Yeah, Mark. Wow, man.

That was something else. I mean, the idea that here's someone who said, I don't want to do it. I did it once. I didn't like it. I failed. I quit. I did it again. I was nervous. But then it worked, and it kept working, and he kept going. I didn't feel like doing it, but I said, I can't let the streak end. And the way he has stretched, he talked about building new relationships, seeing the world differently, all because he took a challenge and decided to stretch. Which then begs the question, Darren, what can you and I and our listeners slash viewers accomplish? What more can we do? Who else can we be if we decide, like a little kid in the picture you saw at the beginning, just to stretch a little bit? Because it was a small stretch at first for Corey, but it became much larger, much greater, much broader. And we have no idea what. What will result if you and I decide to stretch.

Yeah, Mark, we had a double dog dare episode where we challenged people. So this is almost like the. After what happened because of that. So if you want to hear our original episode, just check out Double Dog Dare you. I think that was the title of it, but this is what happened because people took us up on the challenge. All right, Mark, so let's sit down with Amanda Mae Gray and hear what she had to say about stretching herself.

Cool.

Why did you take the challenge? You seem to already have confidence on camera one.

I felt like I had to. And two, I felt like it was going to force me to get better at something I already felt comfortable and proficient in. So I had been wanting to start a podcast, a video podcast at some point, but I didn't have, like, the right idea, and that kind of fueled it as well. My YouTube channel kind of stalling out. I wasn't sure what to do with it. So I was like, well, if I do this, it'll make me talk every single day, get more comfortable, make me be innovative, figure things out, and just, you know, overall, get better at speaking on camera, which is ultimately what I want to do.

What have you learned about yourself during the challenge?

Interesting, because I think I actually said to you at one point, like, I'm not a motivational speaker. I want to be someday. But maybe, you know, I don't think that's. I don't know if that's really my thing. And it has forced me to start talking about different ideas because, as you know, doing the challenge, you think you have a few ideas up at the beginning, and then eventually you just got to turn that camera on and start talking. You're like, I don't know what I'm going to say today, but it's 11pm and I still haven't done my live. So we're just going to start figuring it out. And in doing so, I have inspired some other people to do it as well, which I didn't anticipate. And they now I actually have a couple of people in my own Toastmasters district that are not part of stage time, that are also doing the challenge because they wanted to jump on board, they wanted to get better at speaking. They saw where I started and they saw how I was improving, and they wanted that for themselves as well.

What have they told you? Have they grown?

Absolutely. So one of them ended up joining SageTime, and she actually was like, oh, I've been thinking about it for a while. You know, I see you doing this and doing that. And I was like, well, it's never going to be the right time, so now's the right time. And so she joined and she's so grateful to just expand her horizons and start being around other people that are of like, mind, that want more, that are pushing the boundaries, that are becoming better themselves. Because, as you know, we are like the people who we surround ourselves with.

What positive side effects have you experienced?

So I have started to interview other people, which I think is great. It's a good skill to learn, and especially if that's something I want to do as a podcast, I've been asked to be on a few other shows. I also now am doing a month or a weekly live show for our Toastmasters district every Monday night called Monday Night Live that we're just kind of messing with, and it's a livestream show. I have now Been recognized by other speakers as being somebody that knows how to be on camera and set things up. So they're asking me to help them with their setup. And I am now also being asked regularly to guest speak at other Toastmasters clubs. No, it's not paid yet. Yet. But it's all experience that is going to accumulate into what I know will be a successful career because I'm using this as a building block to create more and more people.

Love your energy. You are confident. Why do this?

Put on camera was something I took for granted. I've been in acting, modeling, just all the things, lights and cameras in front of my face for a long time. So I was naturally good at it. But that doesn't mean I good at formulating and using my own voice. Right. You know, selling a product, being a promotional model, being a model. There's a script, there's a specific thing that I'm told, this is the guidelines, this is what you need to say. Finding your own voice and being able to utilize it and utilize it in an effective manner is completely different. So, yes, I'm more comfortable on camera, but I didn't know how to put in structure. I didn't know what was the important things to me that I wanted to relay to other people. So this is a. It's forced me. I shouldn't say allow even. It's forced me. It shoved me into the deep end to find something that I find important or useful to give back to other people, which then will hopefully it's going to lead me to figuring out what my thing is.

What would you say to somebody considering this challenge?

Never going to be a right time. You just need to do it. And don't hold yourself to a super high standard initially. First of all, this is not that hard. It is not. And the first time you're doing it, you're going to think it's hard. You're going to be nervous. It's going to be kind of on edge. Honestly, the first day that you started doing it, I was like, oh, man, now I gotta do this thing. And I delayed a couple of days, which is why I'm a few days behind. And I did two, and then I took two days off and then I came back. So you can do it, number one. Number two, it's not as hard as you think it's going to be. And it's going to be innovation along your way. If you start at my first video to where I'm at now with the setup and all the toys and the gadgets, you know, it's night and day.

Why do you think 77 days was important?

So at first, 77 days, I was like, what are you talking about? That's just crazy, right? Had I done seven days of this, I wouldn't be where I'm at now. Had I done 30 days of this, I wouldn't nearly have innovated as much or grown as much. I didn't really start seeing the recognition or the opportunity or people being like, hey, Amanda, we still you're doing and we like it. From past district directors, regional advisors for in Toastmasters. If it wasn't a full 77 days, the growth would not be as great. So, yes, you could do a shorter one, but push yourself even more and see the growth that you're at, because once you're at the end of the journey, you're going to be so grateful that you started it in the first place.

Final thought.

Oh, and another thing is that I started a podcast through this, and I don't know exactly what the name is. I'm currently using hello Sunshine, which I just thought was fun. And honestly, I have a pillow that says it. So there you have it. But it's forced me into taking the idea that I had and implementing it. So even once the challenge is done, I might not do seven days a week. Probably not. But I will be continuing to do lives and turning it into a podcast.

There you go. Bam.

Wow.

I tell you, Darren, I took a few notes when she was talking, Amanda May was talking, and she used words like grow, expand, push yourself, like night and day. And what I received from her comments was that by making that particular decision to push herself, to stretch herself, she said, I could have done a week, seven days, 30 days, it would not be anywhere near as much growth. She chose to extend and stretch herself. And now she's seeing ideas for building her career, her business, having a podcast being. I mean, there's so much more that was that she was made aware of, that became real to her, all because she chose to stretch herself. And for me, the cool part is by stretching herself, she got other people to stretch themselves as well, and they're following along with her.

And.

And to me, that is the coolest thing. When you stretch, you inspire other people to stretch as well.

It's contagious. And just even when Corey May was talking, he started and he stopped and he started and he stopped. But he was inspired to even attempt it because he saw you doing it. He saw me doing it, saw Albert doing it. So that's why goes Back to that Jim Rohn quote. You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. Well, if you're hanging out with people who are stretching themselves, you're more likely to stretch yourself. And speaking of that friend Sarah McGill really stretched herself. And so let's take a listen to Sarah McGill. On a scale of 1 to 10, how did you feel before your first video?

With nerves. And being scared to be on camera and be there live and make a mistake and say the wrong thing. I was at a 10. I was at a 12, maybe 15.

It was.

It was incredibly difficult for me to do that very first video, but I did it.

How did the first video go?

I messed it up royally.

It was awful.

And everyone laughed and nobody gave me a hard time about it. And I purposely did not delete that. I wanted my daughters to see that I messed up and that, it's okay. It's out there, but it's okay. The second day, it was even slightly less difficult, but it was still hard knowing that I had to go back and do it again the next day. And I thought, oh, my God, I have another 49 to go. 5049 to go. It was a lot. And some days I missed it. Not because I was scared, although the first 20, I was probably scared. But anyway, I did it anyway. And I went from this person who was incredibly self conscious about how I appeared to others through that lens to being a person who knew that I had something good to say, something good to share. And I got to the point where people were commenting and agreeing and saying, where did you get that? Because a lot of times some of the videos were, this was a game changer for me. It was a product I use or something I enjoy or something I do. And they would ask me questions about it. These people were actually interested in what I had to say and putting in those minutes every day, doing those little, little live videos. And sometimes they were longer live videos. But doing that every day just moved me toward being this person who was comfortable with myself and with being seen through that lens by others. And that was huge. That was huge.

What got you to commit to doing this?

You did?

No.

I had friends and I had mentors within stage time who knew that I could do this, even though I was like, no way. I have no desire to go live. I can do a speech that I have memorized, that I have practiced. But to just jump on a live video and talk to people, anyone out there, that was terrifying to me. But I had other people who knew I could do it and had the faith that I could do it and said, you just gotta start. And I did.

What positive side effects have you experienced?

Oh, wow. As far as business side effects, I have a podcast, and it made me be more comfortable. It made me more comfortable just doing the podcast, especially the solo episodes that I had to do on my own. And through that podcast, I also have a private Facebook group for moms, for girl moms. And within that group, I go live a lot of times, and sometimes I plan it. I think about what I'm going to say, I make notes or whatever, but most of the time when I jump in there, it's because a thought pops into my head, and I think, this is something my audience needs to know about. So I will just jump on and do a live video without a second thought. And there's no way I could have done that if I had not done this challenge. No way.

No way.

I'd been tripping over my words, scared to say what I wanted to say, forgetting what I was supposed to say. But when you have conviction and when you've done these little minutes every single day, you get to that point where you almost have to do it. You're comfortable, you don't want to. Wait a minute. You think, my audience needs to know this. I want to say it. I want to talk about it right now. And you do, and you can.

What would you tell someone nervous about starting?

I will say this. I don't think that anyone was more scared than I was. And I screwed up royally. The first one. In fact. I will tell you what I did. I hit the stop record button. But apparently on Facebook, you have to hit two specific buttons. So I hit the stop button, and I was like. I said, oh, God. And then I hit the stop button. I was like. I hit it again, and I thought, oh, my God. Was that on video? And it was. It was. And everyone saw it. Lots of people. Because it was the very first time I had gone live, done a live video. So everyone's like, first of all, it pops up in everyone's feed because it's Facebook and that's the algorithm. Thanks for.

Here's a clip from that.

You are my game changer, number one. See you tomorrow. Oh, God. I thought I ended it. And everyone saw it. Everyone. And guess what? I didn't die. I didn't die. Nobody made fun of me. Everyone laughed. Laughed with me, not at me. And it gave me the courage to do it again the next day and to have a laugh about it. I laughed about the next day. Hey, did you see yesterday's go look? Because it was terrible. And I guaranteed it'll make today's look even better. And you have to just have fun with it. And no one's going to make you do it. But hitting that live button, you just have to do it. You just do it. Once you hit it, you go. The other caveat is you do have the option of deleting it as soon as you finish or in mid speech. But I never did. Not for one of them, because I wanted them to all just be real and raw.

There you go. Bam.

Wow, man. You know, Sarah, her, her message to me is very, very instructive because she says, you know what? I bombed. I messed up, but I left it. There's something about being willing to stretch when you fail, when you mess up by being willing to leave that out there for the world to see. That is the epitome of stretching. I may not get that brass ring the first time. I'll stretch, I'll slip, I'll fall, but I'm going to reach up again, I'm going to do it again, and I'm going to keep doing it until I get to that place I need to be. So I'm really, really excited for her. I'm very proud of her. She went and did her own podcast. Normally she has a guest and I was blessed to be a guest. Oh, blessed to be a guest. That's cool. On her podcast. But she said, I did it by myself and I would never have been able to do it if I didn't stretch. Friends, these are such powerful lessons. And listen, she says, what? I messed up, but I didn't die. Let's all decide to stretch ourselves. We're not going to die. We're going to grow. We're going to learn. And I'm so proud of what she did.

Yeah. And it affects the people around us. I love that. She said one of the reasons she left it there is she wanted her daughters to see. She wanted her daughters to see, to realize that's part of growing. That's part of stretching. And I wrote this down, Mark. Stretching spreads, spreads to other areas of your life. So she was doing a Facebook live video to help her with her podcast. So doing the lives help other areas of your speaking. You're presenting, you're communicating. And then I think it also stretching yourself builds your own belief, builds your own self belief, which, you know, a lot of us who are here in the self development world, that's one of the reasons we're attracted to it because we needed it, because we had our own little insecurities, if you will. So it helps you break through that. So I love these examples. Mark, I'm so glad the idea hit you this morning to, to do just this because I think it's powerful, it's inspiring to watch them over and over.

Thank you. There's one more thing Sarah said I want to catch hold of. She said, I don't think anyone was more scared than I was. And maybe you are saying to yourself, I'm not going to do that now. It could be doing stand up. I don't know what it is you're in your mind saying, I'm not going to try and do that. I'll never enter a humorous contest. I enter a humorous contest. I any table topics contest. That was not my thing. But you know, maybe you think you're the most scared person in the world, but she thought she was the most scared person in the world. But she did it and she made it public and you never know what you can accomplish. And I echo your thought, Darren. Her two little girls saw mommy stretch. What has she taught her two little girls about stretching? Wow, that's powerful.

Yeah. If you want to be unforgettable, yet you're not willing to stretch yourself. You just set yourself up for failure. You can't just get pure encouragement. You have to do the experience in which you want to grow. There's no substitute. Experience is the best teacher. And Mark, finally, this is Kathy Kalusha. I hope. Did I say that properly?

We'll find out. She'll let, she'll let you know. She'll let you know.

Kathy Kalesha. So this is her example. Now, before we show this, know that Kathy is a professional speaker. She is out there doing it. She's also a contract trainer. So she's in the process of moving from that to doing her own keynotes. And that's one of the reasons she joined the challenge. So let's see what Cathy has to say. Why join the challenge? You're already a pro.

Well, I'm a winger of a speaker and I do know that practicing and preparing and thinking through what your message is is beneficial to us as speakers. I'm teaching somebody else's content as a contract trainer and I want to be able to also share my own stories. So for me, I feel like it gives me a chance to share my own viewpoint and my own content and prepare a little bit more. Some people are doing it to be more off the cuff And I'm doing it in a way to be a little bit more intentional about my stories and what I'm sharing with the audience.

How has it helped you, Kathy?

I would say one thing is, because I have done it every single day, is that commitment to do something every day, even on the days when you don't want to, you know, just gives you that momentum and that sense of accomplishment. And actually, the days that we don't want to, I think, and you've seen this, too. Sometimes those days that are our worst days, and we're just being more real, we actually connect strangely more deeply because we're just being humans. For me, it's just that level of commitment. You do one thing every day for 74 days, and it really gives you that momentum in your business and in your life.

Has it helped your business?

Because you don't know who's watching when.

It'S on your own page.

So you're like, then people reach out to you, and you're like, oh, they're watching my videos. So I had. I've had a couple people I've reconnected with that are going to help me. So there's a project that I working on that is to determine how women can kind of calculate their own personal value as a leader. And I got connected with somebody in HR who's going to be working on that project with me, and I've gotten other podcast guest gigs as a result. So every time you get exposure and you get to tell your story and talk about what you're sharing with the world, it gives you more exposure in other people's worlds.

What would you tell someone? Thinking about it?

I would say the fact that you're considering it means you have to do it. If you thought maybe I should do that, that is your answer. Just do it. Especially if your goal is to share your story and try to help people like you feel like you have a message, a gift to give the world. Well, not doing it, you're doing a disservice.

What did you learn about yourself?

So I've learned some of the stories that I just kind of talk about, like, that they're no big deal. And I find out that they're really important stories and there's messages with them. I found that I can stick to something for 77 days, which, you know, ironically, I was in the wellness business, and they say that 75 days is around the breaking point of New Year's resolutions, where people quit them. So just making it 77 days, we're like, woo.

Woo.

Woo.

We did it.

They say about 75% of people quit their New Year's resolutions after 75 days of the New year.

Anything else?

I think the other thing that I noticed that was kind of a cool ripple effect is there are two people that I have relationships with outside of stage time who both started doing the challenge. One guy who's in wellness, he was already doing videos, but he adopted the 77 day challenge, so he's two days ahead of us. And another friend of mine that's in the training industry and ironically they actually started watching each other's videos besides watching everyone else's. So you never know how your network is going to grow as a result of doing this.

And Mark, here's the coolest part. You're working on your own material, new material. Maybe it's a story you told before, but maybe you tell it in a different way for a different purpose. In the process of helping people, all of these students, all four of them have gotten bonus unexpected side effects.

Right?

It's just when you reach out with the right intention to stretch yourself and to grow and to help people in the process. Wow, transformation happens.

And you have no idea what benefit your stretch has for other people around you. If you break it down. Kathy mentioned that she is able to get people who were not involved in the program to do it. They began to watch each other's videos. Amanda May said she had people in her Toastmasters group who began doing the videos as well. Sarah mentioned the impact on her young daughter seeing their mom mother stretch herself. What a lesson for these kids to learn. Corey realized that he could go beyond 77 and he has gone 10 times that now. He can't stop. He has been transformed and he has now had a chance to impact people's lives on different continents. I'm talking Kyiv, Ukraine and all over the world. You have no idea. When you choose to stretch yourself, what can happen. And I never told you my story in this way before, Darren, but I gotta tell you this. I entered my first Toastmasters speech contest back in 1994 as a replacement on two hours notice for a contestant who could not make the meeting. Now, I tell you that because I know of individuals who when asked, hey, you want to give a speech today? No, I'm not going to do it. You just do a short form. No, I'm not going to do it. And given a chance to stretch, they decide, no, I'm going to wait till I'm to going good and ready and perfectly prepared. Which by the way, friends never Happens. So I said, you know what? I'm a brand new toastmaster. Six speeches in minimum. Speeches. Okay, I'll do the job. I'll do it. That was in February or March of 94. I had no clue where it would lead. But because I was willing to stretch in the moment and said yes to an opportunity, it has literally transformed my life and brought me here. Now, 2017 years later, you have no idea the benefit to yourself, your family and the people around you if you choose to conscientiously stretch yourself and do something differently. Just incremental change can lead to massive results. Stretch yourself.

Yeah. We thank our students who gave us permission to share these video. Although they didn't know I was going to share it on the podcast, they did give me permission to share, but I'll let them know today. But seriously, I am so proud of what they did and they made that decision. We encouraged them, we inspired them. Just like people in your audience, if you're listening to this, you can't make them, but give them a path. Give them that thing to do. That will be their call to action. So this call to action, if you want to go on Facebook and check out the hashtags, hashtags77day video challenge. You can see, you can see their transformation. You can see the other people are doing it. Join, go ahead. It's a decision. We encourage you to stretch yourself. Join the hashtag. And even if you don't, if you choose not to encourage somebody else who did, because the people who are out there stretching themselves, they need that reassurance, they need that encouragement and I hope it will come from you. Mark Brown, take us home.

Hey, listen, take our challenge, stretch yourself and let us know how that works for you. Because trust me, when you stretch yourself, you will be unforgettable. See you next week.

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