A Moment My Presentation Coach Uncovered by Darren LaCroix If you’d been sitting in the front row at the Champions’ EDGE Summit (our bi-annual “members only” event on Tuesday), you would’ve heard me say something that had never came out of my mouth before! As soon as the words left my mouth, fellow World Champion, Craig Valentine said, “That was gold!” Wow… what did I say? Sometimes if we’re speaking from our heart, we have moments of brilliance that we ourselves don’t even recognize. Sometimes we only notice them when we see the reactions of our audiences. As presenters, we need to capture these moments and make sure we continue to deliver them in our future presentations. (This is one powerful reason to record yourself every time!) Here’s what happened… I was sharing the stage with Craig Valentine, and 1995 World Champion, Mark Brown. We were talking about common mistakes most speakers make. The topic was: how to “add humor” to a speech. I mentioned a brilliant quote by Craig, “Don’t add humor… instead, uncover it.” Too many speakers say to us, “My speech is done, I just need to add humor.” To do that is truly like squeezing a square peg into a round hole. The audience will notice. Mark had mentioned to the EDGE Members that when I was working on my Championship Speech, I drove two and a half hours each way to work with him. Twice. This prompted a memory of my “process.” In 2001, I struggled to find an idea for my speech. We had come to a stand still. After one of the run-throughs of my speech, Mark asked if I had any other stories that might fit. I hesitated, “Well, I do have this one joke I used to tell years ago when doing stand-up comedy?” and Mark said, “Let’s try it.” So, I told my (not-so-famous at the time) “doubling my debt” joke. Mark’s chin — and pen — dropped. “That’s perfect!” he said. “Really?” I replied. Because of his years of speaker coaching, Mark saw something that I didn’t. I did not understand why he was so excited. The joke was: (Said with an overconfident delivery) “After four years of business school, I went for the American Dream. I bought a Subway Sandwich Shop. I don’t want to brag, but I took a $60,000 debt… and in just six months… I doubled that debt. That’s right, I turned my Subway into a non-profit organization.” After years of coaching other speakers, I can see what Mark saw. It’s quite simple and obvious. My “double my debt” joke was based on true experience from a personal story. On Tuesday, here’s what I said, and how I summed-up that story… “I didn’t add humor to my speech… I uncovered a concise personal story, relevant to my main message.” This may sound obvious, but if it’s so obvious, why do so few presenters use it? Why didn’t I ever understand this self-effacing joke when I was writing my speech so long ago? Thank you, Mark, for your perspective and coaching. And, Craig, thank you for recognizing the “gold” in that statement I made on Tuesday. Will you record yourself to capture your own “brilliant” moments? Will you search for your own “funny, concise personal stories relevant to your main message?” By Darren LaCroix ©2009 The Humor Institute, Inc. .DarrenLaCroix.com

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