5 Steps To Becoming a World Class Speaker w/ World Champion of Public Speaking Craig Valentine

Good presenters speak to be remembered. But great presenters speak to be repeated. Welcome to the action Academy podcast staring back while I celebrate freedom, the show where we help you achieve financial independence with the mindset methods and actionable steps from guests who've already earned their freedom, the freedom fly. Choose to do what you want, what you want with who you want, with who you want, when you want when you want with another episode today. Now, here's your host, Brian Luebben. Hello for the first time or Hello again, this is your host, Brian Luebben. welcoming you back to another episode of the action Academy podcast, the show that brings you the mindsets, methodologies and actionable steps for you to earn financial independence and freedom back into your life. So you can choose what to do, when to do it and who to do it with. Today, I was very, very intentional about who I was bringing on this as a subject matter expert in the topic of public speaking. So why do you want to listen to a podcast about speaking and what are you going to get out of it? If you're talking to your team, if you're talking to your manager, if you're talking to a customer, or if you're trying to build an online brand, or even to the point if you want to be like my guest today where you're going to be paid to go and speak in front of live audiences, you need to be able to be crystal clear and articulating a vision and be able to tell a compelling story to be able to get either your customer to buy in your boss to buy in your team to buy in, or people to buy in on you on social. So this is a very, very valuable skill. And as time progresses, it becomes even more valuable because it has an infinite ROI. And the people that are good at this are going to take over and the people that aren't going to get good at this are going to be left behind. So that's a heck of an intro for my guest today. Mr. Craig Valentine. Craig is actually the World Champion of Public Speaking for the organization. Toastmasters. Toastmasters is a local, what's an international group that has local chapters in just about any city, I'm not affiliated with them for through promotion, they're not paying me to say this, but I'm a member. And what it is, is it's an organization where you go in, they help you become a better speaker, they teach you how to tell a more compelling story and how to get over your fear of public speaking. So I'd go look into that today. And Mr. Valentine was the world champion for them out of 25,000 contestants, they had a contest, and he won. And ever since then he has traveled to literally just about every country in the world, and every city in the world. And he's been speaking on average 160 engagements per year for the last 20 years. So Craig's an author on public speaking, he practices what he preaches, and today, he's going to break down five very specific tips on how you can go today, and become a better speaker yourself and be able to really, really articulate a story, be a better salesperson, be a better manager, be a better business owner, be a better content provider. So without any further ado, Mr. Craig Valentine. Mr. Valentine, already? I'm doing great. Great to see you. So for everyone listening, I watched Craig speak live at an event that I was at. And it was the first speaker he was the first speaker to come up on probably a panel of five to six different speakers for the event. And we saw Craig Valentine. Okay. Like, this seems interesting. This seems like something because it was like, how to articulate a story or something was the topic of your speech. And we were like, okay, Craig downtown, and I was like, I'm curious to see what this guy's got. And you just came out. And just absolutely had every single person in the audience completely engaged, every single person on the edge of their seat, and every single person talking about every word you had to say, after the after the keynote and after the entire event. So can you please share what you just said to me previously, while we were off camera about your other engagement, where they were like, we got it this this, you are not worth what we're paying you? Which is? Yeah, that's interesting way to put it first, before the engagement you were just talking about? I've been speaking on Zoom for 18 months. I was just glad to see anybody. Right. So I was fired up about that, that engagement in Colorado, but the other one was, I got hired by a healthcare company to come in and do a keynote for them. And she said, well send me what your your prices. So I sent her over the price. And she immediately called me and she said I just deleted your email. So why did you do that? She said, Because you weren't charging us nearly enough. And I said, Well, what do you think I should charge and she gave it to me and I was like Okay, I'll take that. I'll do that. So I gave her I read, proposed it and got it accepted. And I went in and I spoke and I got a standing ovation. It was really good. And it was in Vegas. How long give away too much. But afterwards, she came up to me the same lady. And she said, you are much better than the person we had yesterday. And I said, Well, who was it? I'm not gonna mention any names. But it was an NBA All Star who's probably one of the best 10 NBA players of all time. And I was like, wow, so what happened? She said, Well, he just stood up there, gave seven minutes, and then just said, are there any questions? And so I walked away from that Brian, feeling like, wow, I know, I did better than him. But I know, I didn't get paid as much as him. He got paid a whole lot more than I did, which is fine. But in terms, yeah. But I made a bigger impact. I know. I was about to say, but in terms of impact, they were talking about that guy, Mr. Ballantine over there. Yeah, made the impact, he got the income. So it's all good. Because you know, not all of us can be in the NBA, none of us can win. Not all of us can win an NBA championship, but we can win the championship of public speaking, which is actually what you literally did Correct. For good. I won the I won the world championship of public speaking. And the funny part about that is people will come up to me nowadays, and they'll say, Well, Craig, you don't even know what it feels like to lose a contest? Because I actually won in my first year. But I said, No, no, I do know what it means to lose a car because I actually Brian, I lost the humorous speech contest. At the Club level, that's the lowest level possible. And I'll never forget a seasoned Toastmaster came up to me afterwards. His name is Alan mish. And he said to me, Craig, you can win the world championship of public speaking. And I said, What are you talking about just lost the humorous speech contest at the lowest level. He said, That's okay. He said, The only thing wrong with your humorous speech was that it wasn't funny. But it's I'm laughing and he's laughing. But he's like, Look, if you if you continue on that way, with having great content with some humor, you're going to go a long way. And I end up going and winning the world championship of public speaking. So I have Alan mish to thank for that. But I am the 1999 World Champion of Public Speaking. And we can get into before we get into what Toastmasters is, and what the World Championship what that actually entails. Because that's an interesting story. And that's a very interesting organization in and of itself, that I'm I myself, I'm looking to join. But let's talk a little bit about the art of public speaking and why it's important at all. Why is this? Why should somebody listen to this episode right now. And I'll give my perspective. And then I'd love to hear yours as a seasoned keynote speaker. And if you're noticing, while I'm speaking, I am very, very much trying to speak with brevity. I'm trying to eliminate the ohms and the Oz, because I've got a professional speaker here. So I have to be on my game. So to that point, there's a lot as as we progress in society, and as more things are online, and as more content is online, it's becoming important for a business owner to not only be able to articulate a message in a compelling vision to a team, it also is very important for a business owner, or a content creator, to establish an online brand where they're communicating through a screen to an audience. So that's something that doesn't have a finite ROI, the ROI on that is infinite. You can take someone that's doing something small, but they know how to speak, and they know how to hit home and they know who to talk to when there's when they're producing their content, or they're talking to their team. They're going off to the races. It's not even a competition at that point. So that's my perspective on why the world needs more training and more specifics and actionable items in the art of public speaking. I'd love to hear your opinion on it. When you get the bus you get the biz. Oh, right. When you get the bus, you get the bids when people are talking about you, you're gonna get that business. And here's what I was just thinking about this before we got on here today I was thinking average presenters speak to be heard. Good presenters speak to be remembered. But great presenters speak to be repeated. Speak to be repeated. And the same thing with communicators great communicators speak to be repeated. Because again, you get the buzz, you're going to get the biz. So the question is, well, how do you get repeated? And the answer, Brian, as you probably figured out when we were at the event was you got to be a master of being able to tell a story and making the point. Tell a story and make a point. I'll give you an example here really quickly when I was in prison, visiting. The next inmate came up after my presentation. He said Craig, I'm getting out of here in a few months. Feeling good about life and I'm back on the right track. I said, Well, there's a quote by Will Rogers, who says you might be on the right track. But if you just stand there, what's going to happen? You'll be run over. So I left that day thinking, Well, I'm glad he's back on the right track, but maybe, just maybe I'm standing still as a speaker. Now, Brian, I don't know if you've ever asked yourself, you. Have you ever wondered whether you're getting better or worse at what you do? Absolutely. Every day? Yeah. So I decided to call up this lady who's supposed to be one of the best speech coaches in the country. And I said, Listen, I need a coach, and I need to be coached by you. She said, Are you sure? I said, Yes, I did my research. I know you're the one I want to coach me. She said, You know how much I charge. I said, it doesn't even matter. She said, Great. That's a wonderful attitude. That is fantastic. That will be $4,000 per day. I said, Look, I'm pretty happy with the skills that I have. Thank you very much. But here's what I came to realize. So many people look at the price of doing something. And they don't look at the cost of not. Hmm. So I went off to Vegas and I went and I got coached by Patricia Fripp and here's what I came to realize, Brian, I was nowhere near where I needed to be as a speaker, I was already the world champion. What got me here won't get me there. And Marshall Goldsmith is later coined What Got You Here Won't Get You There. It always takes new strategies, new tools, new techniques, new way you agree with me on this, right? Absolutely. And you can apply that to anything, any skill set or anything that you need them business, exactly what God should have, what got you to this level is not going to get you to the other level, and then that's for the friction is associated is in that in that transition? Exactly. I appreciate that so much. And you know what people are gonna walk away saying, what the speaker talks about what got you here won't get you there. What Got You Here Won't Get You There, because I told a story. And I made a point that they can walk away with. Now I'm not just being remembered, I'm being repeated. So if you can master storytelling, and be able to leave them with a point, that's great. But as I said, in Colorado, the lock, I don't know, I asked my audience this the other day, and they laughed. I said, raise your hand if you have a drunk uncle. Right? Yeah. Have you ever seen a story get away from people? Yeah. And it's because they don't have what I call a foundational phrase. And a foundation a phrase is, what got you here won't get you there. Another story, I tell the foundational phrases, your dream is not for sale. Another story I tell the foundational phrases you master what you measure. So it's the takeaway phrase. But it also is important because it determines what you keep in your story and what to keep out. So if you can tell a story, make a point foundation a phrase fewer than 10 words, then you're not going to just be heard, you're not just going to be remembered you're going to be repeated. Being the world champion is a blessing and a curse. Because if you have been walking towards me in the Chicago airport, two days after I won the world championship, we would see my wife on one side of me and me carrying this gigantic crystal trophy. Right, just walking through the Chicago airport. And everybody's looking at me like, wow, who is that? Is that? And Brian, I thought I heard a lady say is, is that Denzel Washington does that. Like, you have to laugh that hard. But this is what I realized my life would never be the same. This petite lady in a pink dress runs up to me in the middle of the airport. Everybody's watching. And she starts reading the bottom of my trophy. And she says Huh 1999 World Champion of Public Speaking, wow. Say some things. I was speechless. But Brian, that's when I realized no matter where I go in life, people are going to say, Would you mind saying some things. So I came to a fundamental understanding about my life, and really about yours to any business owner. I can no longer get ready to speak, I have to stay ready to speak. i My new motto is don't get ready. So you can't get ready to sell. You have to stay ready to sell. Right? You can't get ready to market you have to stay ready to market. If you're a doctor, you can't get ready to operate. You got to stay ready. So My new motto is don't get ready. Stay ready. And that's how you can take advantage of all the opportunities that exist because here's the thing. You want to get lucky. Stay ready. Right? Finish this one. Good luck is when preparedness meets opportunity opportunity. You want to stay lucky. Stay ready. So look at what I just did right there. Tell a story make a point foundational phrase what's the foundational phrase don't get ready say stay ready. But here's the other thing. We have to have a sale. So what's the sale? What happens when you stay ready? You get more luck. You get more luck. What happens when you don't stay ready, you miss out on opportunities that you couldn't have and now somebody else is walking away with your opportunity. So you want to tell your story. Make your point foundational phrase fewer than 10 words and then give them a sale. What's in it for them if they do. What's in it for them if they don't, so I got caught up Brian, I just had to go off a little bit. No man it's okay because I and are specifically remembered the phrase I knew as soon as you started the story, I knew what it was going to become because I remembered your speech literally months ago, and is now something when people remember the story, they're going to remember the point. Exactly. And it's funny because there's another story that comes to mind. Ed, my let had Dabo Sweeney on his podcast, I think his podcast called max out if you want to go listen to it. But Dabo Sweeney is the head coach of the Clemson Tigers for anybody that doesn't know or that lives under a rock, or that doesn't live in the southeast United States of America. So Dabo is spoken about as one of the best college coaches of all time. But what they don't remember is when he was an assistant, and he was like the third assistant in line, and he was doing what he needed to do every single day to be a head coach of a football program. Right? Right. Oh, he was he had his binder, he had his playbook. He knew exactly what he needed to do if he were to become a head coach, even though he was three or four positions behind. Long story short head coach gets fired, takes the entire offensive staff with him. Dabo Sweeney is the last one standing Athletic Director Director pulls him in and says, Hey, Dabo, you're the new head coach of the Clemson Tigers, this is gonna be a preliminary thing. This is going to be a temporary thing. It's not permanent. But I want you to go out there and operate like it is. If you're ready, we'll see what happens. And you know what happened, he was ready. And he won national championship after national championship, but he's done. He's done a heck of a job. He stayed ready. He stayed on. I can't remember who said it. But somebody said don't prepare for the job you have prepared for the job you want. Alright, and that's what he did. He stayed ready. And but as a communicator, I like to get that message across because I know it's going to help people stay ready. I know. There's another story I tell where the foundational phrase is your dream is not for sale. This is the story where the this gentleman is trying to give me a radius to keep me working for him. And I will go to my wife and I said I don't know what to do. And my wife initially says take the money full, right. But she says I don't care how much they try to offer you. Your dream is not for sale, right? Don't sell out your dream is not for sale. So I gave that story. I gave that foundational phrase in my sore India, on the Infosys campus in India. The next day, I'm at this hotel, they slid a newspaper under my door. And there was a picture of me on the front cover. And the headline read your dream is definitely not for sale. And I was like see that's what I'm talking about. When you tell a story. Make a point have a foundational phrase, you're going to be remembered, repeated, reposted nowadays retweeted, right? And you're going to get the buzz that gets you the biz. And so you're gonna get some incomes, your car doesn't get repoed Oh, there it is. So let's let's let's walk backwards for a second because this is this is fantastic. So I want to talk a little bit about Toastmasters about your origin story behind all of this. So where does the guy just randomly decide, hey, I'm good at talking because I would like to think that I'm a decent talker. I'd like to think I'm a decent talker. But I'd prefer to think of myself as a really good asker of questions. Hmm. So where take us on an origin story about where Craig Valentine is joining Toastmasters? What is the organization in general? And then talk take us on that roadmap from you joining, learning about public speaking to becoming a world champion, so that people know who the heck they're talking to? And Who the heck is talking? Yeah, I love that question. And you are a master of questions I'm going to tell you, I was not a master of communication of any kind. That's the misconception. Because when I was 10 years old, I always tell people, I'm the least likely person to be a communicator, a speaker, or especially a world champion or anybody in any room that I've been in. And I'll just tell you the abbreviated version of the story. So you know where I came from. When I was 10 years old, something disturbing happened to me, I was in the mall where I lived. And I ran into a father of one of my friends. And just to make a long story short, I had a lisp that was so bad. He said, Don't talk anymore. Because every time you open your mouth, you remind me of Daffy Duck. I'm a 10 year old kid kills my confidence kills my steam everything. And really, for the next four or five years, you couldn't get a word out of me. I just stopped talking because I, you know, Les Brown, who I have a product with now, but didn't know at the time. Great motivational speaker says when you open your mouth, you tell the world who you are, right? I didn't want people making fun of me. But finally, after about four or five years, when I forced myself to face reality, and I started talking again and getting in shows and doing things I could stand before you as the World Champion of Public Speaking, but here's the thing. I end up winning the world championship of public speaking just to gloss over the story for a second, and I ran back into that guy. Right, Mr. H. Who said it said I was Daffy Duck. You know what he did? He took all the credit for my success. All the credit. I was mad at him. But I uncovered some humor because at the end of our conversation, I said man, what you did to me was disrespect. And we just laughed, based off, but the back into it. Here's what happened in between. I was studying public speaking for about four or five years by myself, just reading everything I could get my hands on about public speaking, communicating, but I hadn't given one speech. Not once, but I was scared. And it took me four or five years till I finally decided to get the courage to call up a Toastmaster club. They told me Come on out. So I come out I was just thinking about this. The other day I came out to the club, I had no idea what it was about. They had something called a Table Topics contest. And what they do is they put a topic on the table and they say speak about it for two minutes. And you speak about it, somebody else speaks about it. Somebody else speaks about it. I'm the newcomer. I go in there. I speak about it for two minutes. And guess what? I win first place. And I tell you, Brian, it wasn't about it until about a year later when I realized they always give the newcomer first place. Always only my club Yeah. So that you come back. And it hooked me and I came back. And then I learned about the contest I got in the first one, I lost the humorous speech contest the night, I kept going. And I think I just didn't know any better. And I I think all the studying I had been doing for those four or five years kind of caught up to me, and pushed me to a level where I was able to win the world championship out of if you really look at it at the time, it's about 175,000 people in 68 countries. But in terms of contestants, I think it was 25,000 contestants and 14 in 14 countries. So that was my origin story. And that's where I got but it all started with Mr. H and me feeling like Daffy Duck. That's that's a hell of an origin story. So so now we fast forward and now you're doing keynotes, you're doing speaking engagements, I think no matter who I speak with, even if it's in real estate, if it's real estate adjacent, if it's sales adjacent, if it's just about any business vertical, adjacent, every single person that I know in there is not only training to speak to teams, but wanting to do keynotes wanting to branch out, like I said, with their content with their social because they want to be able to build their brand. And that's one of the reasons behind this podcast as well, you know, I'm able to provide value to the world at large, but then I also get value from guests such as yourself. And then I also get to hone my craft and then be able to build my brand as well. So it's a win win win. So when we're talking about business owners, and people that are looking to be able to make an impact with their, with their speeches with brevity. So you said to have an anchor statement, he goes into a couple of the other tips that you shared with us in Colorado about how somebody can really make a lasting impact with what they have to say, yes, one of the other things, not just telling a story and making a point and having a foundational phrase fewer than 10 words and, and make an ACEF you've got to realize something and every business owner needs to realize this. And I asked an audience last week I said, nod your head if you agree with me about this, when you're in leadership, you're in sales, and all them nod their head so when you're in business you're in say all of them nod their head, when you're in parenting, you're in sales, all I'm asleep, nod their head, because you got to sell ideas and so forth. The greatest business owners and speakers and leaders embrace it. The least effective ones avoid it and the sad part Brian is all you have to do in my humble opinion is really become a master of one formula. And this is one that I shared in Colorado, never sell a product always sell the result. Never sell an idea always sell the result never sell a service always sold sell the result if you're in leadership, never sell change, always sell the result even if you're going for an interview. Never sell yourself well you know I have 15 years of like nobody cares, always sell the result. And the same case in point I gave you in Colorado was this many decades ago because I'm older now. I went to buy my first car ever in life. And the salesperson came up to me says are you looking at that car? I said yes sir. He said great. Let me tell you about it. This car has these types of brakes this type of motor this type of window this What was he trying to sell me the car I said just never sell it never sell a product always sell themselves. I said thank you but no thank you I'm not interested. I went to a different dealership on the same day, different salesperson, same car. And this guy must have you must have understood why I was mentally and emotionally at that point in my life, you know, young and single and and looking to mingle and so he walks up to me feel free to use that. But he walks up and he says are you looking at that car? I said yes sir. He said huh, you're gonna look good in that one. He said yeah, man you can be flying down the road the winds gonna be blowing through your hair and the girls let me tell you the girls will be all over. Right What do you think I did? Man. He said what he said what can I look out payment plan can I get? Where do I sign right? He made the sale not because he sold me the car but he's told me the results. And he lied. I was lonely in that car. Man, I tell you, I just felt like it was just me and my payment. But I was saying don't don't lie, but definitely don't sell the product or the service, or the idea or the change or the result, or the change or yourself, always sell the result. And a lot of times, Brian, they don't know what that result is. That's a problem when it comes to business people. They don't know what that result is. I'll give you an example. I was talking to guy he said, I said, Well, what kind of results you give your marketing guy, right. He said, Yeah, I help people create a marketing plan. I said, don't they want customers? Right? Don't they want customers don't they want product, they don't want a marketing plan. That's just the means to the end, we need to go. So what you do as a business owner, as you keep saying to yourself, so that you can write. So if he was to say, I help people develop a marketing plan, okay, so that they can work. So that they can be clear on where they're going, okay, they're clear on where they're going. So that they can work so that they can get their message out, okay, so that they can work so that they can get through to people, okay, so that they can work so that they can have prospect Oh, yeah. Okay, so that they can work. So those prospects can turn into customers, okay, so that they can work so that they can make money, oh, God, and they can pay you with that. Right. So that's what I'm saying. It's like, sometimes you have to drill down seven times with so that you can, until you get to the real thing that you're offering. And it usually comes down to three or four categories. Either I say take them across the edge, it comes down to a steam, right, they're going to get more recognition, they're going to get more confidence, they're going to get more self esteem, or comes down to they're gonna be able to do more today than they could do yesterday, right, or comes down to gain which I put profit and time in. So they're gonna be able to make more money, save more money, or they're gonna be able to free up time, or cut their learning curve, or comes down to the last key, which is enjoy more, they're gonna have more joy and more of what they do. But they're also going to have less stress and less frustration that goes. So if you can tell a story, make a point Foundation, a phrase, If you can not sell a product, but sell the result. And then you can take them across the edge. Now you're talking, now you're really talking and you're doing way more than what most people do. And you're going to get much better results than most business people get. So that's it. That's another tool when it comes to speaking that you got to be able to sell. But one other thing about that Brian is I always asked my audience, I say raise your hand, if a year from now. You'd like to be at least three times better than the presenter you are today. All hands go up. I say okay, the so great, then for absolutely free for no money. For no fee, you can go to my website, which is 52 speaking, tips, calm. That's five to speaking tips calm. And every week for a year, you're going to get an audio lesson from me. And by the end of that year, you will be at least three times better than the speaker or presenter you are today. Now, if we were to just deconstruct that really quickly, Brian, what was the result? Three times better? Right? What was the resource? The website 52 speakers? Which one that I mentioned first? Whenever Yeah, but whenever I'm in person, somebody always says free. You mentioned free. I said, Yeah. That is That is true. And well. And for everyone listening, we'll include that in the show description. And we'll include that in the show notes. And we'll recap that at the end. Thank you. But you're right, I mentioned the result first. Right. So here's the addition to the formula, never sell a product, always sell the result. Always put the result before the resource in leadership, state the result? Before the request. Because Brian, if I did it the other way around the way most business people do it the way that marketing consultant was doing it, it would have sounded like this. Raise your hand if you'd like to receive 52 emails from me. Yeah, I don't think my opt in rate would be as high. But because I'm doing it the way I've done it, I've gotten 10s of 1000s of people to be on that list that I can serve over and over and over again. So, gotta realize we're in sales and understand that we need to sell not sell the product, but sell the result. If people do that and become a master at that. They can, they can write their own ticket to wherever they want to go. Swap, I like to call a swap. So without annoying people, right? And the way you do it. Maybe that's it. So and the best way you do that is by telling your story, right? Because the story does most of the selling for you. So when I tell my story about your dream is not for sale, and my wife comes and says I don't care how much they try to compensate you your dream is not for sale. And I go back in there. And I looked at vice president in the eyes and I say, Look, my wife said My dream is not for sale. I'm leaving. And I went out there and spoke 160 times in 44 states and five countries in that first year. Well guess what? I didn't have to say I didn't have to sell anything. My audience my audience is now saying to themselves, well shoot, I have what he's having. Right. And I can do that by following the same advice. Your dream is not for sale. So you sell with your story. And a lot of times if I'm selling a product in my engagements, people will come up to me afterwards and say, Craig, I didn't know you were selling anything until I bought it. I was just listening to a story. So if you can, again, if you can become a master storyteller, it won't feel like sales. I'm sorry to interrupt you, though, Brian. No, absolutely. Like that was completely fine. Like, you're, you're absolutely right. And I was just thinking back to, I was talking to Craig about an event that I just recently was at, and you have subject matter experts, air quotes around everything, to where the more detail the more experienced another air quotes around that, that somebody is the I find over and over again, the less they're able to articulate it to a normal person. So what you get is a lot of PowerPoints, what you get is a lot of initials next to their name, a lot of PowerPoints and a lot of talking. And you don't really understand either A, what they're talking about a or b, you understand exactly what they're talking about. And they could have done it 37 PowerPoint slides ago. Yeah, if you think about Made to Stick, which is a book by the Heath brothers, and they talked about, I can't remember the term they used, but it's when you have so much knowledge that you forget what it's like not to have that knowledge. And so you can't get it, it's hard to get it across to people who don't yet have that knowledge. I think that what some people suffer from, I always say, and you know, me, you saw me speak, I don't use many slides at all, sometimes. Sometimes I'll use. I didn't use any there. I don't think No, I didn't. On zoom. Now I'm using them because it's, you know, it's a different animal. But I always say this, if you're saying the same thing, on your slides that you're saying out of your mouth for your presentation, then your lip synching your presentation. You're the you're the Milli Vanilli of presenters, it's your lips. Because one of you isn't needed, right, I could have just read the presentation if that's the way it's going to be. So when it comes with for things like slides, you should have your message. And then the only time you should use slides, if it is if it helps clarify your message. And usually that's in the form of a chart, or a table or a photo is not going to most of the time be in the form of words. So again, you don't want to be the lip sync as the Milli Vanilli of your presentations you want, you are always better than your than your slides. And your story is going to be better than everything. And that goes back to Biblical times. I mean, we didn't call them stories and points. We call them parables, but it's the same thing. And I remember this day. Yep, exactly. And then I was just at Tony Robbins. And as a camera's obviously, I don't even need to make an introduction for Tony Robbins, everyone pays a lot of money to listen to Tony Robbins speak. And as the cameras panning behind him to paint a picture. It's you you see all these cameras and all these different angles, and then you see his teleprompter in front of him. And you would think that the teleprompter would be reading. I mean, if you take away his four decades of experience, that's one thing. But you see the teleprompter in front of him, you would imagine that it's reading out a script and that he's just kind of going you know where he's got some of it memorized. That wasn't the case, what he was doing was it was a topic on the teleprompter. So it would say it would say story on XYZ, five minutes. And then the next thing on the teleprompter would be music break, then the next topic would be speak on this. And then he would just have like cues about what story to go to to articulate his point. And he would bounce around from story to story to clarify and further drove home your point. That's exactly correct. That's it. And it's the same thing that I do. I don't do a teleprompter. But I'll most the time have a graphic organizer like this, if you can see. And it's just telling me what what story or what point or what activity I'm going into next. Because the people who try to remember their speech word for word, what happens when you miss a word? Freeze, you freeze, you're stuck. I always tell people don't memorize, internalize, internalize, you know what happened to you, you lived your story. You know what point you want to make with it. All you need to know now is how are you going to transition into it? How are you going to transition out of it? What activities you might pull in to bolster your point. And then you're you're you're cooking, right? So but now the thing about me and you saw it, if I get interrupted or if I'm asking questions or something spontaneous in the audience happens, I can go out there, and I can deal with it and embrace it and have a good time and turn it into an experience. The first thing I said on the call was great speakers, unless especially for talking about public speakers speak to be repeated. But also great speakers create an experience. Right? You don't want to just have them listen to a speech. You want to create an experience if you talk about Tony Robbins. He's been having people walk on fire or coals for years, right? Oh my god. I didn't really I'm a Firewalker brother. Go I'm not but we were. And while you're walking across while you're walking across, he puts you in such an experience is such a mental state that what you're supposed to do was, you're supposed to be like, obviously, physiologically and in a state that you need to be in to do it. And it's about 20 feet of hot coals and they shovel them in front of you to drive the point home. And so their flaming hot, you see the fire in the background that they just pulled them from. So you know, it's not fake, and you can feel the heat. And so as you're walking across the coals, you have to just mentally or out loud whichever one you prefer, say cool Moss, cool moss cool moss as you're walking across the coals because you're, you're tricking your mind to think about, you're walking across a nice bed and cool moss. So it's like the same thing where you're talking about driving a point home and focusing on a point, you're focused on the point so much, you can even use that as an analogy to what you're saying that the story writes itself, you're focused on the point. Yeah, and now you what you do is it that's another anchor, like a story as a great anchor, when people remember the story, they remember the point. But an activity is also a great anchor. When people remember the activity or think back on it, they remember the point that it makes, if you're talking about an analogy, I use sometimes the crabs in a barrel pulling you down, that that's what people remember that they remember that the crabs in a barrel stand for negative negativity and negative people. But let's imagine you have a tough situation coming up in your life, you can easily call back to that activity that anchor and say to yourself, cool Moss, as you go through this next hot, or next trying time or activity or whatever in your life. So I love that because that's what speaking does. And that's what creating, creating an experience does. When people get to a different when they get to a fork in the road. I've had people over the years say to me, Craig, I was going to stay with this organization, they were giving me raises, and I thought about what your wife told you, your dream is not for sale. And I went for it. And they're like, and I'm happy now. So I'm happy for them. I know, maybe I'm maybe I'm the one who who provided a lot of unemployed people, I don't know if that's the case or not. But they're trying to live their dream. So to that point, where you you have a gift and an ability that's both natural and acquired and very purposeful, about as you speak to an audience, you're able to really, really hone in on each individual person and make them feel seen, make them feel heard and make them feel involved and accepted in the activity in your speech, even if you're speaking to I think we had probably about 2000 with us. So can you talk a little bit about that technique so that if somebody is given a speech to a large number of people, or I think this applies on social whenever you're doing some some screen time and you're trying to deliver a message to someone across the screen, to the masses? How do you articulate what are some actionable things that anybody can take from this today to be able to make every single person that views that feel heard of love the way you put that, because that's exactly the result that we want, we don't want everybody to feel like you're speaking directly to him or her. So if I, if I'm on stage, and I bring somebody up and I say I want you to imagine that this is your audience, let's say there are 2000 people out there, I want you to imagine this is your audience. And I want you to find out how many of them have ever been to Baltimore? Well, most of them, Brian will say something like, how many of you have ever been to Baltimore? Or I want you to raise all your hands if you've been to Baltimore, these types of things. And I'll stop them and say, How would you like a tool you can use to make a deeper connection with your audience than you ever felt before? Again, that's the sale right? But the sale first, I all say yeah, okay, so this is what I'm teaching. Now. This is a slight edge principle to slight change in the way you do things. But if you do it throughout your entire presentation, no matter where you are online, on stage on the radio, no matter what, you do it throughout your entire presentation, just like Brian said, What a difference in how they will feel your message, not just hear it but feel your message. When audience members leave your speech, do you want them to leave thinking whoa, it really felt like I was part of a group or would you rather than leave thinking well, we're really felt like Brian was speaking directly to me. Directly. Yeah. Well, most of the time, people speak to everybody. How many people should they speak to one so how would that person rephrase that question? How many have ever been about No Have you ever been to Baltimore? Can you imagine should you would you could you singular grammatically and this is what's going to change your your your life as a communicator right now write this down. Speak to one but look to all speak to one but look to all it tears me up Brian there are far too many speakers speaking too far too many people far too often. And now say things like folks and friends and boys and girls and societal members and members of the committee and met you. You might as well be saying friends Romans cut, stop. Speak to Brian, you ever heard a speaker say something like? Now some of you might be thinking? Uh huh. Well Guess what, there is no some of you. Now you might be thinking, yeah, there it is. Or the people say many of you probably came to the conclusion. No, in case you've come to the conclusion. And here, here's the big test that people can take right now. Imagine if you walked by one person in the hallway, if you can say it to that person, you can take it up on stage. So Brian, if I was walking by you in the hallway, when I walked by you, and only you and look at you and say, How many of you have ever been to Baltimore? Unless I'm schizophrenic? I wouldn't go go there. One, podcast guys. Say that unless you're civil and have eight personalities, but I didn't know if that was okay to say nowadays. But yeah. But if I walk by you, and I say, Have you ever been to Baltimore, then we can connect? Right? So whenever you're on stage, you want to make a sound and feel grammatically, like you're speaking to one person. And it's the same thing with a podcast. You haven't heard me one time on here today. Say now to all the people listening, you didn't hear anything like that. Right? Or if you're on a radio, I want to speak to all the listeners out there. No, you and I got a I gave a speech. It was about 4000 people, I think it was in Minnesota was a University of Phoenix commencement speech. And I did about 10 of those. But I gave one of them. And a person on Facebook, send something into my DM. He said, Look, I wasn't a graduate. I was just a person who was at that event, and there had to be 4000 people there. I gotta tell you, it felt like you were speaking to me. And I said, See, that's nothing to do about me. It has everything to do with speak to one but look to all. So that's just one delivery tool that people can use. Don't forget to look to our part, though. Right? You got when you ask your audience, you can't just look at one person, you got to look to all so if you ever been to Baltimore, and you look for an answer, small change, huge difference over time. And I was on the receiving end of it. So it everything that Craig is saying is completely correct. Because as we're all sitting there, no matter what, and there was probably 100 different lines of work in there. 100 different people in 100 different positions. And we all were able to, like really connect and latch on to what you were saying. And we all felt like we were specifically specifically involved. And this is something that everyone can apply when you're when you are on social media. When you're doing an Instagram Live. When you're on Facebook, when you're creating a piece of content for Instagram video or real Tik Tok, anything like that. This is something that can be applied in the same principles, correct? Everything, all of that, that you just said it can be applied. And even in writing as well. If you go to any of my websites with my sales letters on it, like if you were to go to speak and prosper Academy, you're going to see u u u u, I feel like you is the most important word and speaking. If somebody asked me you sure I said yes, you is, right. Most important you and you're in any derivative of that, the most important word and in speaking and also in writing. And maybe the second most important word would be the person that name could could flip flop it. Right. Yeah, this person's name his most beautiful sounding thing though. Dale Carnegie? Oh, yeah. But, but to make your point that you were saying before, like I come from sales, too. So I come from McGraw Hill, right there textbook company. And the reason I used to win a lot of textbook adoptions was because when other people were telling, we're selling textbooks, I was selling test scores. Now not literally don't get me in trouble, not literally. But when they were going in, and they were going in and saying well look at the look at the book, look at the whitespace in the book, look at the flag on we put up you know, we put up a state flag on the top of your book for your state and all this. I was going in and saying, Yeah, I'm going in saying you want to raise the kids test scores? Yeah, then you're gonna need a program. That's that's aligned with the state curriculum. And I was working from there, right. But here's the other thing I knew. I knew to speak to one but look to all because I knew that there are always audiences inside of an audience. Just like you said, there were 100 Different probably people in 100 different ways of work or industries. I know that when I'm trying to win, I used to try to sell to the school districts that in my audience, our students who need to feel heard and feel like I'm speaking directly to them, teachers who need to feel like I'm speaking directly to them with their results they need Assistant Superintendent of Instruction who has a different set of results that he or she needs. So I've got to know what results each person needs. I need to speak to one I need to look to all and I need to make them all feel like I'm speaking directly to them. That's going to make a difference. And ironically, it's the same kind of principle and same kind of concept with this podcast because as I hone it in If you create a podcast, right, and you're like, I want to have something that's applicable to everybody, I want everyone to listen to my podcast, everyone to get value from my podcast. And I want to just get to every single person's ears. It doesn't work like that. And you find that out very quickly, the more general your scope, the more general fishnet that you cast out. It's like a shotgun shell, where you what you want to be as a sniper rifle, you want to really have that really individual niche. So I know exactly who I'm talking to. And that, and I know you, and you're listening right now, because you're interested in public speaking. See, Craig, what I did there? I said, you just I love that. Greg, did everybody did? The process but yeah, it's like you have to you have to focus on a specific person specific, individual, specific niche. I want to be conscious of your time here, Craig, as we wrap up, I want to ask just a couple of tips that you can give to anybody that's looking into getting into public speaking, paid speaking, in particular, and kind of what that process looks like, if you have any kind of tips for someone that maybe doesn't necessarily have a any kind of fame or any kind of necessarily following what would you say to that person to be able to start getting booked for events and booked for engagements, just develop a compelling story. Yeah, can develop a story and turn that into a keynote, and speak your way into speaking, that's the easiest thing you can do your way into speaking, you can't write your way into speaking, you can't read your way into speaking, you just got to get out there and do it. Take your lumps get back up. And what you're doing every time you speak, as I always say this, record your spell or record yourself, whether it's audio or video, what gets recorded gets rewarded. Okay, if you record yourself, then you can go back and listen to it. And you can figure out, yeah, I want to keep that I want to let that go. I want to keep that want to let that go. Essentially, it's like Michelangelo, you have the block of marble, and you're trying to get down to David, right? You're just chilling, chiseling things away that you don't need. And you can only do that by speaking your way into speaking. But a couple other things that you just mentioned, I think are very important. The more niched you are, the less competition you have, the easier it is to climb that mountain. Now, here's the thing, when you get to the top of that mountain of your specific niche, mine, usually a storytelling, I teach people how to get their story across, or the company's how to get their story, I've been licensed it my storytelling model to companies, when I stand at the top of that mountain, people on under other niches can see me. So even though you start off in a niche doesn't mean that that's the only place that you can serve, people will see you from every book, climb that one mountain. Again, the more niche you are, the less competition you have. And something else that Brian said earlier is important. Also, he's focused on brevity, I am always saying Craig, even running your mouth, this whole show. But here's the thing that's been purposeful. Yeah. There's an old speaker proverb that says, when you squeeze your information in, you squeeze your audience out. So that's the other thing, you when you speak your way into speaking, you get to understand what you should keep, and what you should let go. And the advice I would give also is, you gotta you have to have a guide, you have to have a guide. And that's why I say, three years from one year from now, if you'd like to be three times better than than the presenter you are today. Go to 52 speaking tips, calm it is absolutely free. And as funny as you're speaking about nits, I'm thinking about one of my good friends, Lance, all red, who is actually a he was on this podcast before. He was the first legally deaf player in the NBA. And so he's deaf. And so he has a tool like dual hearing aids that he wears whenever he plays. And he was it was funny, because when and now he's a keynote speaker, ironically, because he had the same problem as you but in reverse where he had he he could obviously couldn't speak because he had to go to speech classes and, and classes to learn how to read lips and everything like that. So as he as he's beginning his intro, and like his origin story on the podcast, he's like, yeah, so terms of NBA players, it's kind of a broad stroke. But when it comes to the niche of Deaf guys from a polygamous Colton Montana making it to the NBA, I've got, I've got this mountain. He's like, this is what I speak on. And to your point, when he speaks, he uses his story that's very individual specific to him, because Cray, I don't know about you, but I myself am not a Deaf rural Montana kid from a polygamous goal. But when he speaks, this, the messages and the point and the results that he sells from the story, I feel, because they're universal. He's unique, but his message is universal. I would be remiss if I also didn't say the first step to be Common speaker get in Toastmasters jump in Toastmasters. I'm I'm in Toastmasters now for 23 years, and I am a Toastmaster for life. It literally changed my life within one year, and it can do the same for you. And that's the way you can practice your speaking and get better at it as well. But the other thing it does, and I'll just leave you with this, Brian is it allows you to start to see it mentally. Right, you know how important imagination is how important I would say if you can see it, you can be it, you can view it, you can do it. Because in the mid 90s I was an event planner for a technology expo company and believe it or not, my job was setting up the stage for speakers. All the while I was having this quiet want or desire to be a speaker. So I would go into these ballrooms, and I'd lay down the power cords and tape down the cords and I would move chairs around, I put the lectern up front. And I'd move more chairs. They used to call me the chairman because I used to move so many chairs and legend. But it never failed. Every time I walked into one of these empty ballrooms, I walk up to the front. I stand behind the lectern, and I look out. And Brian, I would just imagine that one day would people would show up to see me. But it's what I would say to myself every time I stood behind the lectern that I think made the difference. And I always knew one day I would tell this story. I always said to myself, when I stood behind the lectern today, I move the chairs tomorrow, I moved the audience. And I bar has become today. I drop my drop. Okay, Greg, I'm gonna stop you right there. There's nothing left that needs to be said. I don't need to say anything. I'm gonna absolutely taint what he just said. Where can people find you? So 52? What was what was the website? 52 speaking tips calm. That's five two speaking tips. Calm. Perfect. Any social media? Where can people find you? Craig Valentine speaks at Craig Valentine Speaks and on pretty much every social media platform. Okay, I just listened to this podcast. And man, I love what you had to say I need you to speak at my next event. Where do I go? Oh, that's where you would go to info at Craig valentine.com. And just leave a message. Just leave a message after the beep all right, Craig, thank you very much, my friend. This has been very, very awesome. This has been very actionable as as what the podcast is. And to you listening, taught myself. I hope that you really enjoyed this hope you got some value from it and hope that you can take everything that he just said, squeeze out the three to five points that we made purposely throughout this and then take that and apply it to your next team meeting, apply it to your next staff meeting, apply it to the next Instagram video that you're making to spread your brand, spread your message, use this to be able to really, really pinpoint into that person that you want to connect with which it's either your target buyer, your target customer, your target listener, anyone of this nature or sort. So Craig, my friend, thank you very much. Thank you, Brian. Thank you. This is Brian Luebben and Craig Toastmaster, but speechless in the airport on time. You've been listening to the action Academy podcast helping you to choose what you want with who you want. When you want. You've been given the gift of freedom. Don't turn your back on that. We hope you've enjoyed the show. And we hope you've gotten some practical and useful information make sure to like rate and review the show. We'll be back soon. But in the meantime, hook up with us on social media. Remember financial independence is freedom. The freedom fly