Darren LaCroix
July 29th, 2005 by Steve Pavlina
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Darren LaCroix is the Toastmasters International 2001 World Champion of Public Speaking. Last night he gave a free presentation here in Vegas called “Learning From a Dead Frog,” which I attended eagerly along with about 150 others. During his presentation Darren dissected his 7-minute championship speech (titled “Ouch!”) and explained how he developed, rehearsed, and executed it.
Darren claimed this would ruin the magic of the speech but that we would learn valuable lessons about how the speech was put together. For me, however, the opposite was true. When I saw all the hard work and intentionality that went into every segment of that speech, it only increased my appreciation of it. I took copious notes and gained a plethora of workable ideas for improving my own speeches. Many of Darren’s ideas were subtle tweaks here and there, but collectively it was obvious how they can make a speech so much more effective.
From Chump to Champ
Darren shared many lessons about his path from a wannabe stand-up comic in 1992 to world champion speaker in 2001 to well-paid professional speaker/comedian today. He showed us a video clip of one of his early performances in a comedy club in 1992. His performance was downright dreadful! He wasn’t even remotely funny. It was hard to tell it was the same person in the 2001 video of his championship speech.
Darren emphasized what it took to go from chump to champ as he calls it. He had to learn to overcome failure, to fall down on his face again and again, and to keep getting back up to take the stage another day. I was amazed after seeing his 1992 video that someone so clearly lacking in comedic talent would have the wherewithal — nay, the insanity — to ever want to get back up on stage again.
Darren explained how his transformation wasn’t accidental but intentional. His talent was certainly not inborn. He built it himself brick by brick. He showed us photos of those bricks — shelves filled with video tapes and CDs of his speeches. He taped his speeches and reviewed those tapes for lessons he could learn. He invited multiple mentors to help him progress, and he did his best to apply their advice. And year after year, he got better.
Hard work was the key for Darren. If he had taken the lazy path through life, the path of least resistance, he’d never have achieved his goal of becoming a professional comedian and speaker. That became abundantly clear by looking at his starting point. No amount of luck would have made him funny. Without hard work his talent would not exist. For Darren it came down to sweating through the grind of giving lots and lots of free speeches and doing open-mic nights at comedy clubs, getting feedback (sometimes very negative feedback), and improving his technique little by little.
Darren asked us why people now pay him thousands of dollars to give a one-hour talk. He said what they’re paying for is his talent, the talent that allows him to change the way people think in just one hour. The way he sees it, he’s finally getting paid for all those lean years when he was working so hard to reach this point.
Stage time, stage time, stage time!
Darren’s mantra for building talent as a speaker is “Stage time, stage time, stage time.” What does “stage time” represent in your life? Everyone has their own stage where failures and successes occur and talent is expressed. For a blogger it’s the time spent blogging. For a salesperson it’s the time spent selling. For a programmer it’s the time spent programming.
What’s your stage? How often do you take the stage? And how can you improve your performance on stage?
After you step down off your stage, do you review your performance, get feedback from people with greater talent, and make conscious improvements? Or do you keep performing at the same level year after year? Are you blindly following the mantra “practice makes perfect” without doing anything to intentionally improve your practice? As Denis Waitley says, “Practice makes permanent. Only perfect practice make perfect.”
If you’re interested in developing your communication and humor skills, Darren LaCroix provides some free articles on his web site. I recommend you read “Ouch” — especially the part about finding your 11. Darren also offers a collection of books, CDs, and DVDs. I don’t own any of his products (yet), but several Toastmasters I respect have told me they’re outstanding.
Tonight Darren LaCroix is doing a 3-hour workshop at the Rio Hotel on how to go from free speaking to making a living as a professional speaker. I’m grateful that people like Darren choose to share their time and experience with those who are eager to sponge off someone with greater experience and talent.
July 29th, 2005 at 10:50 am
Steve, If you don’t mind me asking.. Is Darren your new mentor?
July 29th, 2005 at 11:53 am
No, he isn’t, although he has helped mentor many other speakers.
July 29th, 2005 at 1:57 pm
Darren is an awesome speaker and a great comedian. He spoke a few years ago at our District 12 conference for Toastmasters. He was laugh out loud funny! I have picked up some of his CD’s on humor and public speaking. Well worth the money. He is the first person that I have ever heard explain how to be humorous.
Highly recommended as a speaker for almost any organization.
July 29th, 2005 at 2:10 pm
Steve, I’m in great trouble.
I have developed a software product which is very successful. In addition to improving and marketing this product, I want to create other successful software products.
However, until now I failed.
Practice makes perfect, you will say.
But how can I practice and gain experience rapidly in a business field, when it takes my team 6-12 months to develop a product?
July 29th, 2005 at 2:24 pm
@Eric: It took Darren 9 years to go from his first stand-up comedy performance (for free) to becoming a full-time comedian and speaker. I didn’t experience a reasonably successful shareware game until my 5th release many years after I started. Zig Ziglar mentioned that it took him 25+ years to achieve financial independence after first setting the goal, and he supposedly gave about 500 free speeches before getting paid. I read that the average self-made millionaire doesn’t make their first million until their 40s.
“Fast and easy” success is tempting marketing but incongruent with reality for most people. You can shave some time by learning from mentors, but this approach still requires a lot of hard work.
If it takes 6-12 months to develop a product, then not much is likely to change over the course of a single year in that area. You have to think in longer time spans like 5, 10, or 20 years.
I grow impatient with long dev cycles too. I’d love to instantly have 5-10 products to sell right now. But if I rush them out, the quality will be lousy, and I won’t be contributing much real value. So instead I take a deep breath and think 5 years ahead, a time span in which it’s possible to achieve this goal at a high level of quality. It’s hard to be patient, but I know that if I just keep at it, I’ll end up where my goals take me.
July 31st, 2005 at 6:46 am
This one paragraph, I enjoy immensely:
“Darren explained how his transformation wasn’t accidental but intentional. His talent was certainly not inborn. He built it himself brick by brick. … year after year, he got better.”
This especially:
“… his transformation was not accidental, but intentional.”
Be it working on our nutrition and fitness, be it bettering our professional careers or creating a new product, be it becoming a better parent or student, etc … patience, hard work and persistence — eventually pay off in all areas of our lives — without fail.
~Shannon Collins
August 2nd, 2005 at 9:19 am
Thanks for sharing this inspiring story! I’ve just joined Toast I.T., a Toastmasters group in Toronto. I’d like to be a professional speaker on personal productivity and information management, and I’m looking forward to developing my skills over the next few decades!
August 3rd, 2005 at 5:28 am
Hi Steve. Enjoy your posts, I like the way you tackle many different issues. It is, I think unique in the self help world I have been exposed too. Anyway, I really wanted to comment on the “Stage Time” aspect and also to the notion that you sometimes have to wait till the cards are stacked a bit more but not perfect. Sometimes the only opportunity you might get will be a time you are not completely ready to shine. That is still a good time to learn a lesson. I am a drummer. I don’t have great practice habits, but I do have some creativity I think. I remember many years ago travelling to Toronto, from my home in PEI on the east coast of Canada to audition for a music school. I have some interest in jazz and found myself at a very small open mike. It seemed really casual. I didn’t know any jazz players back home in my small town and really wanted a chance to try it out. I was not a great drummer then. Still wouldn’t say great, but I have come a long way. Anyway I asked if I could get up and jam. They said yes. I was scared. I didn’t really know any jazz standards. I was really young and unexperienced. I remember asking the bass player, can I just start playing something and have you make it sound good? He said, very forcefully and rudely no, high-hat on 2 and 4, go now. Well it threw me off, intimidated me and I couldn’t find the 2 and 4 all the way through. After that he very rudely said maybe you should practice more before you get on stage. Now I don’t object to what he said so much as the way he said it. I knew I was inexperienced. But I just thought that it was not a serious performance, just an open mike in an afternoon. Anyway I didn’t let the bad experience stop me playing. I just thought “Well I might be a crappy player, but I can improve. In 20 years you will still be an a-hole” Of course maybe it was good for me to be taken down. It gave me a taste of what kind of situations I might have to deal with in the future. I have played with many musicians over the years and I find being with the good attitude folks makes me play better.
August 3rd, 2005 at 5:51 am
@Sacha: Congrats!
@Trevor: One of the advantages of getting lots of stage time is that it can help you become more resilient (if it doesn’t make you quit). I know several local comedians who started out doing open mic nights, and they’ve often encountered rudeness and poor treatment. Some turned to professional speaking and use their humor talents for motivational purposes because the audiences are much more agreeable, and the pay is better too.
August 3rd, 2005 at 9:08 am
It didn’t sound to me like this paragraph fit in very well with the rest of this piece:
Quote:
Darren asked us why people now pay him thousands of dollars to give a one-hour talk. He said what they’re paying for is his talent, the talent that allows him to change the way people think in just one hour. The way he sees it, he’s finally getting paid for all those lean years when he was working so hard to reach this point.
What they are paying for is mainly his skills, not his talent. Getting paid for your talent is not a big accomplishment. Improving on a natural talent until you’ve mastered it is more admirable.
We can be good at anything at all, if we are passionate about it, we learn the proper skills required, and put in the effort to excel.
August 25th, 2005 at 3:09 am
Hi Steve,
Darren is a phenomenal speaker. He breaks down the strategy to very simple but powerful steps. I met him and I have bought all his products.
I got my CTM last year and I am the past president of my Toastmasters club. I have tried to incorporate Darren’s suggestions to my speaking and the results have been phenomenal!
You are doing an awesome job through your blogs. Your tip about how to wake up early in the morning was very effective for me and I have been doing it for a week now. I am trying the second goal about leaving caffeine. It is tough but I think it would be worth it.
Thanks a lot,
Raj