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Are you cheating your audience?

Here’s the situation… You’re asked to give several sessions during a conference. You have different topics, but like most professional speakers, you you use some of the same stories when you speak about those different topics. Your first presentation is a special “pre-conference workshop,” so only about half of conference attendees will be there.

What do you do? Do you tell the stories you would tell even though half of your audience heard them in the pre-conference workshop? Or do you honor them by making sure you tell completely new stories?

Do you ever worry that someone may be thinking, “We’ve heard that story before!”? If you do, congratulations! You’re normal! I do, too.

That was the exact situation I found myself in when speaking recently in Montreal, Canada. I didn’t have one presentation — I had three! If you have been to any of my Boot Camps, you know that I teach people to use the best stories to cause the most transformation in the audience. In my four keynotes, there is a lot of overlap in the stories I use.

When I decided to compete for the World Championship of Public Speaking, it was not to win, but because the advice from my mentors was finally sinking in. They told me, “Darren, it’s not about writing a new speech. It’s about making what you have so good that people are willing to pay to hear it.”

Personally, I don’t worry for very long when I realize I’ll be covering some of the same stories. I know it’s the right thing to do. I can’t cheat my audience. I especially can’t cheat people who could only attend the main event, and not the pre-conference event. I often listen to my favorite speakers & comedians over and over again. To not tell my “signature stories” would be a crime. The same goes for your signature stories.

As I was getting ready to leave for the airport… it happened. I got the dreaded feedback. Someone told me that people at his table were talking about how I’d reused some of my stories. They forgave me, though, because I had technical difficulties and was unable to use my video clips for my Humor & Hope keynote. I wish I’d had time to educate them all that it was my plan to use those stories anyway. They were giving me great feedback though, from their level of understanding.

It wasn’t but a few minutes later, when an attendee came up to thank me for my presentation. She was so enthusiastic that I asked her if she’d say the same thing into my video camera as a testimonial. She did. After I shut the camera off, I noticed that her eyes started tearing up. I asked if she was OK. She mentioned my story about my mom & dad not understanding my dream. Then she said, “My daughter told me she wanted to be an artist. I was afraid of her being poor. After hearing your story, I’m going home to tell her to get a mentor and go for it.”

Wow…

I’m so glad I did what was right. If we’re more concerned about what the audience will think of us, than the effect that we can have on them, we’re cheating them. It’s not about you.

Do you work to make your stories so good that they can impact people this way?

Have you ever cheated your audience? Will you remember this story next time?

Stage time,

Darren LaCroix
2001 World Champion of Public Speaking

This Week’s Video Clip:

Sneak Peek at the 2010 Lady & the Champs Speakers’ Conference!
CLICK HERE

• • • • ASK DARREN • • • •

QUESTION: “Can anyone become a World Class Presenter?”
CLICK HERE for my ANSWER

P.S. LAST CHANCE! Secrets of Storytelling Virtual Champ Camp begins on Tuesday (December 1st). CLICK!