MASTERING THE STAGE

Skillionaires Podcast Episode 16

Derek Smith

[Angela Thomas]

Hello everybody for another episode here on the skill in our podcast, the podcast where stories stick and strategies scale. Today's podcast guest I have brought freshly from an event that we have both the energy in our bones still and be very excited to have him here because he is the one who stands often behind very successful people who are on stages and present their outcomes, their knowledge and their expertise. And I have him here because I wanted to pick the brain today for you guys why it is so important to have an MC.

So here, welcome with me the one and only Derek Smith.

[Derek Smith]

Wonderful pleasure to be here. Thanks so much for having me.

[Angela Thomas]

Thank you Derek that you made it fresh from the event towards our podcast through the immense traffic of Dubai from one end to the other. We know all how and what you went through today. But however, I wanted to know first of all why somebody needs an MC and why can it not be just done like randomly going on stage to speak about whatsoever?

[Derek Smith]

That's a good question. You know, an MC, a master of ceremony is the individual who holds the room, frames the entire day and makes sure that the audience knows they're in good hands. An MC is the one that just makes sure all things are running smoothly and that the flow of energy continues.

And you've been to many events I'm sure in your life where there wasn't an MC and you could tell subconsciously that there was something missing. That MC is the one that just makes sure the day runs smooth and just makes sure that the audience maintains their energy so that way they can really keep engaging with those speakers that keep coming up on stage. So I'm a little bit biased because I am an MC but they're very important to every event.

[Angela Thomas]

I saw your performance on stage of the Gladiator event and I was really blown away how you took the energy in the room and just kind of swirled it around and had just taken account of that your performer, that your expert, that your speaker was put it into the sunlight and I was so amazed. And when you call out now that it has something to do with holding the frame, keeping the time, bringing up the energy, it's something that really much relates to me as a woman because exactly that behavior is something which makes a female really feel secure in the room and as I'm also standing on stages I can only know and relate with everybody who sometimes you know has their head in their speech but not in the introduction and then a keynote starts with of hello and very welcome my name is and I'm from etc.

[Derek Smith]

That's right yeah I like to think that the MC to some extent is it's the conduit with the audience. I am as an MC the audience's eyes so where my energy is that's where their energy should also be so I like to bring them up so that way they maintain that strength in their energy so that way they are excited about what's coming up next. One of the biggest mistakes a lot of MCs make is they make it about themselves.

[Angela Thomas]

I wanted to ask you this and this has something to do with a lot of energy management about yourself because I see a lot of people who want to shine and sometimes louder than the actual expert right and the actual speaker. How do you manage that to put your little ego so far aside that it is manageable for you to put the spotlight on somebody else?

[Derek Smith]

Yeah that's the role that's the job the job is exactly that it's not about the MC. You are there to be the eyes of the audience and to just make sure that the energy is flowing and that speaker is the priority. Everyone is there to see the speaker let's be very clear no one is attending an event to see the MC.

Nobody flew all the way to Dubai to see me speak on stage. I'm happy with that so you said the right words it's a little ego you know it's you know what I mean.

[Angela Thomas]

You shine actually in saying that with a big leader about yourself and leading your ego towards a safety zone where it can be small and you can leave somebody else in the sunshine. That's beautiful.

[Derek Smith]

Yeah there are there are many of us out there that are capable of not making it about themselves. I think there's something there you can see I mean again we also had some incredible MCs at our event just these past couple days and like all of them they were doing a great job not making it about themselves that's the sign of a great MC.

[Angela Thomas]

How did you come to this decision actually you know speaking on stage I know it's the biggest fear on one side of a lot of people but then it is also the biggest desire of you know it's combined with the point of having success to stand on the stage to have this and sometimes I'm asking myself what is the motivation of an MC and what is your motivation? How did you get to this point?

[Derek Smith]

To get to this point it's for and just like with speakers or MCs or anyone who finds himself on stage it's practice practice practice but for me years ago well over 15 years ago I was in attendance at an event and the MC didn't show up to be in attendance whatever the reason was and so they looked around they said Derek can you do this for us and again I had no desire I didn't even think I could do it but there wasn't any fear in it because it's just like hey this is not my job I'm just gonna do the best I can and it turned out that I was a natural at it and then over these last 15 plus years I've just honed that craft a little bit better at each and every time to the point where all what I'm doing as an MC among other things is I'm listening I'm listening to what's happening in the room I'm feeling the vibe and then maintaining and keeping it up and down and making sure that I'm in control and reigning that horse in as much as I can so over these past few years I think practice practice practice makes all the difference for everybody so yeah you're right it does take a lot of courage to get up on these big stages and you know there are ways to get around this and not make it such a big weighted deal if you've had a little bit of smaller stages to medium-sized stages to larger stages you realize they're all kind of the same thing in the long run exactly

[Angela Thomas]

practice is such a good good point and I'm already also some years on the stage and lately coming here to Dubai I've been also bounce around on stages for you know I always have this saying with my client stage bring stage you have to eventually start with one and then it brings another stage in another stage but what happened to me I wanted to shortly share and get your opinion on it because I was asked after holding keynotes yeah I can share keynotes out of my sleeve out of the sleeve of my arm easily you know after doing this and you know your subject and you know your keynotes and you can also go something together but I was asked to hold panel and I was like okay you know everybody who knows me I'll say yes to everything and then I figure out you know I think of knowing even if I don't know and then I figure out how to do it and I do it anyway you know this is like kind of me constantly leaving the comfort zone and and I found myself in that preparation time you know and I was like Jesus this is just totally something different than a keynote really is and I was thinking wow what a responsibility one somebody MC has to hold even the panel because you need to think of what you say what you wanted to ask what is in the benefit of the person who who needs to be asked and also then keep somehow the direction of the questions while still then reacting on the actually answer of the questions which you mostly don't know otherwise it would be very scripted so tell me your perspective about the difference of a keynote and MC and the panel

[Derek Smith]

for sure and actually and just even as a moderator of a panel you'll find you'll find that some of the panelists especially if you don't know them you know you've done your research you know who they are some have an agenda when they get up on that stage and they sometimes will take that microphone and speak for too long right so you're gonna need to know how to politely cut them off and say in the interest of moving forward let's keep going so that was a good yeah yeah you always have to you always have to keep it short keep it tight and remember understanding the power of a soundbite you know like let's make sure this is a tight minute not speaking for five minutes and trying to get your specific message out there a lot of people do that so to answer your question the difference between MC moderator and what was the third one I think you just said and just being on the panel itself right moderator on the panel yeah yeah so the moderator of course is the one who's controlling the environment keeping that flow of energy going which is very similar to the MC for the duration of a day where the actual panelists they're expected to just keep it tight keep your answers short and sweet and at at the very least hope that the moderator will ask you more questions about your particular topic but keeping it tight keeping it short that's what

[Angela Thomas]

panelists should be doing yeah what is also a very big um knowing or I came to know that it's actually often you get asked for a panel to hold a panel because you are an expert in some area for that's the panel about but yet you have to show up as the least biggest expert on the on the panel and so you can't really bring your expertise in the front and that is something so challenging because you sometimes then it happened to me as I was there on the panel you think like okay let me say this too and you wanted to bring somehow your expertise as well and that's the first thing that you obviously can do it one of the great ways to do it as a moderator

[Derek Smith]

is to again think about what the audience might be thinking think about what kind of questions they'd want to ask if they had access to these people so don't put yourself on the same line as the panelists don't try to be a panelist be an audience member and think what would the audience want to know and then go from that perspective I think would be the best way to do it Derek

[Angela Thomas]

I ask myself and that's how I see it and please forgive me to say that but I'm gonna spit it out in the benefit of the of the listeners because I wanted to pick your plane in my perspective although I'm having a big gratitude for MCs but I see them as the least point of being able to leverage their own business so how are you leveraging your own business yeah because this podcast is for skillionaires and as you are being an MC helping others to stay in the sunlight to scale their business how do you scale your own business ah very good question I'm uniquely

[Derek Smith]

positioned to be able to help speakers become great speakers because I'm the one watching every speaker at every event so you know what I'm what I do is as an MC people will see me speak on stage and they go wow that guy's really good at talking I wonder what he does for a living oh look he helps speakers become better at speaking so essentially it's my sales and marketing for my mentoring services as a public speaking coach so that's how that's how you leverage that you know I love being an MC at conferences and festivals but it's also part of my sales and marketing so that way people can identify me as an incredible speaker so you mean

[Angela Thomas]

that's actually your lead magnet bingo and then what is in the back end in terms of my business

[Derek Smith]

yeah yeah for sure so I help a lot of different types of entrepreneurs founders business owners to hone their message and their persona so that way they can engage with audiences in different ways at different types of events a lot of people out there are pretty reactive to how they get on different stages they'll wake up one day and have an invitation to a conference and they're like yes I'll take it yeah whoa slow down is that even the right audience is that even the right industry so I help them actually proactively select the right stages position themselves in the right way so that way they get the correct stages that align with their audience and so from that point forward I help them with their practice so that way they get their message on point they make sure they know what they're supposed to look like or what kind of clothes they wear on stage or how they stand or how they project help them with these types of things and then finally how do you engage your audience so that way you stand out amongst the crowd because let's be very clear a lot of these events not the one we were just at that was an incredible group of people but a lot of these events out there a lot of them are just copy and pasting each other they're doing what they see other people doing so they just repeat that being a copy of some of someone they saw on a ted talk years ago and they're trying to do that it's sorry it's things evolve and so be your own be authentic and be yourself and so I try my best to just pull that out of people and I have been working with some great people across the world and like and again you see them they're different than

[Angela Thomas]

everybody else they must be very grateful and having you I I mean again it's a you know as

[Derek Smith]

the story goes someone asked me many many years ago Derek what do you love to do and I began to explain my business to them they go and I didn't ask you what you do for a living I asked you what you love to do and I said oh well I love emceeing events and helping people with their speaking they're like oh cool so why don't you just do that the next day that's all I did it was just that's it the old business was gone and that was all I focused on so yeah I love I love the stuff I do and I think the people I work with absolutely love working with me let me take a little bit

[Angela Thomas]

deeper into this moment it must have been a big moment realizing aha I'm actually not doing what I love to do and let me switch this around this is a big big point a turning point for a lot of entrepreneurs out there they are fetching some kind of business model that is just right for the time and the market that they are in because there's a need and so on but it's actually not what they are burning for that's right so how did you make this for you happen you must have had a strategy for yourself to see also you know it's not only what I do but I can make money out of it because eventually if you do what you love but yet don't make money out of it it becomes in the end

[Derek Smith]

still frustrating right well here here we go again the question is what do you love to do right that's not a business model it's just what do you love to do and then of course what we're all doing to some extent the exchange is to be of service to others so find a way to be of service to people provide value in some form or another you do not need to do it the same way as everybody else you don't need to simply copy what other people are doing so every public speaking coach out there is not doing it the way I do it people are buying into me and how I make them feel or how or what I pull out of them just like so I guess what I mean is that yep there are a wide variety of ways of how you can create a business out of there but I think you should start with what do you love to do because you're going to be doing it every single day so you might as well do it with the things

[Angela Thomas]

that you love doing the most yeah very good that coming back to a keynote it just pops up in my mind I wanted to know because you said pass and copy and that's something a lot of people are claiming that I'm not doing and I'm always sort of unique and and I always look for some particular points in my keynotes and I would like to pick your brain what are you what out of your estimation what are the importance points in the keynote I absolutely I can I mean what you should

[Derek Smith]

be seeking out and for the record I don't think you should be rewriting a new keynote every time you go up and speak of course not what a what a stressful thing that would be wouldn't it problem solution match present a problem present a solution present as much what information as you can statistics what things that are factual so that way ultimately subconsciously people realize wow you know she's you know Angela's really given me a lot of great information today yeah but how do I do it I should probably just call Angela and then there you go you don't actually have to sell yourself you just have to showcase that you are the expert in whatever it is you're exactly but please never make make one to make one talk and and work on that don't make a series of

[Angela Thomas]

them I mean more a little bit about catching the energy of the of the public at the very first point and that's what I'm always doing I don't know if you have crazy stuff like this or if you even if you recommend this but I do crazy stuff like this I'm calling my mom on stage and talking with there for two minutes like mom you can't call me it's like kind of a little role game you know it's like and everybody's like what she's doing she's on stage you know then I'm turning around like that's how service is in often ignorant and stuff like that and sort of those intros I always have do you recommend crazy things like that yes well I mean I think that's incredible

[Derek Smith]

I don't think it's crazy at all I think that's what it is you gotta capture them yeah right from the get-go you know what I mean there's one of these you can google it right now you see one of the best keynotes ever whether you saw it or not is a man steps up on stage he lights a cigarette and everybody's whoa what are you doing you're inside of an event right now you know it's one of these things where it just captures everyone and you know it's not the end of the world to let a cigarette on stage but you know even the other day we witnessed one man uh Billy Ray Taylor was on stage this yeah and his first word that came out of his mouth was bang and it was just like right you captured us right away so it can be as simple as that but also you having your mom called you or you calling your mom I'm gonna steal that one from you by the way I like that

[Angela Thomas]

so you train or develop also ideas with your clients exactly around that intro and I think it's also beautiful to have a hooking outro because this is also sometimes a challenge you wanted to hold a keynote and that has to lead somewhere right and how you do this exactly to lead it into your I call it funnel yeah and let's be clear there are a million ways to do it so

[Derek Smith]

there's no one answer for this but I often will ask people what would you like to do would you like to inform people would you like to educate people would you like to challenge people and I always find the challenge is the best way to do it so concluding with some form of all right when you get back to your house I challenge you to do dot dot dot dot those types of things really stick with people but more than anything people will remember you if you make them feel a certain way so make them feel a certain way almost like I need to take action I'm going to take that challenge on or or whatever it is so always remember you want to hit them right here in the heart if you

[Angela Thomas]

can that's the best way to do it Derek I wanted to ask you what sprung into my eyes actually when I saw the first time it actually jumped into my ears to be honest it's your voice and it's very warm welcoming open sort of round how do you train your voice and I know from my own experience training your voice is much important for speaking in public right yeah thank you for

[Derek Smith]

the compliment I would love to give you the answer as though I know where it all came from but I do know some of what's happening right now my voice is this this is what my natural voice is however for the last decade I was known as Canada's unofficial fastest talker oh the story goes I was promoting a board game across Canada and I played this board game with thousands of Canadians okay it was the talk fast guess faster game and in that process I was expected to speak very very fast and I became very very fast at speaking oh what to the point where some as I became more international I would do more global events people who don't speak English as a first language would say hey you speak a little fast you know so for me I consciously began to slow down my my intonations the way I speak and that's when the voice came to this point you know I can still speak very fast if I need to but I also can slow down no I don't know what I would say I don't have a party trick to be able to do that but what I did was I'm aware that sometimes I will drag a word out like this or I'll speed it up like this if I need to so I think that's what you might have been hearing is that I would speed up and slow down my voice more so than make it feel raspy or make it feel deep or whatever that's not what I'm doing I'm actually just stretching out words or shortening them up as I go and it's completely unconscious it's just been

[Angela Thomas]

trained and practiced into me very good very good I once was at least rustberg in New York and had voice training because I used to have an yeah out of my beauty environment back in the days in Germany often exhibitions where the companies that I worked with wanted me to sell because I'm a very good seller and they put the microphone in the hand but what came out of it that in the end they unplugged the microphone because after yeah eight hours or so they could not listen to the sort of kind of high voice that I had and after this unplugging after the unplugged microphone I decided to do something about it and it just fell also in into my laps to have at least rustberg training for my voice and since ever then I do what you do with speed with lowering down the voice and bring it into a good mode where it's hearable and not avoidable my vocal coach and again I work

[Derek Smith]

with a vocal coach as well sometimes where it's just simply like a two seconds later I step out on stage and so I start on that low level of my voice and if I need to bring it up I can but otherwise I try to keep it low as I go I see some speakers they do some kind of training with the

[Angela Thomas]

bottle and the straw and the water and something yes and you know from what I understand and again

[Derek Smith]

I'm not a vocal coach but my friend my colleague he'll help me with that and I often will blow into a bottle with a straw and it just helps to keep the vocal cords a little bit vibrating and it really helps to get them warmed up before and especially after you finished and that's a big one that don't underestimate the value of making sure you're doing your vocal exercises after an event because even after we step off stage after a big day you're still out there shaking hands kissing babies talking to everybody and you can really lose your voice very very quickly so I highly recommend that you not only do the vocal exercises before but definitely do them after to warm or cool down I guess is what it would be the way to say it cool down that voice yeah cool down

[Angela Thomas]

like in sport yeah it is very important in the end uh sort of a sport for your voice huh that's right yeah Derek I wanted to know from you while you're self scaling your own business I wanted to ask your question and you can reject it if you want if you don't want but I'm asking this every of my guests and in business it is so important having a partner or even not but take the people around you with with you on this journey and I would like to know how you do this whether you have a partner or a family or how the loved ones around you how you take them along your journey and especially in a partnership it is the point where you have to choose your business the CEO of your life I always call it like that and how you make sure that this person would be in the same journey and not opting out no that's fair and I imagine you're speaking about a

[Derek Smith]

romantic partnership is that right that's it yeah so I'm a very fortunate person I've had many partners in my life but not because I'm a Casanova it's just because I'm I'm old so I've had my fair share and so along the way they've all been there alongside there and when you had originally just said partner there I thought to myself oh well then I'll tell you all about my partner ecosystem that I have in my business so as I grow I find partners business partners who help to support and to help service my offering so for example in my world I have as we mentioned earlier a vocal coach I have a posture alignment coach I have people who can help present my clients in a better way to help support them now to help with your question in terms of a romantic partner or a family member everyone I have around me are there supporting me all the way I like to align with great people around me but it's not necessarily a romantic partner that keeps me going but one day when I find one I'll let you know yeah but

[Angela Thomas]

it is totally okay and I don't want to bring you in any kind of vulnerable spot but what my question is is actually also to myself you have to choose and me I had chosen the wrong partners along the way that opted out on some stages because I was into my business so that's my question what must then if you had one a romantic partner do what supports you or goes align with your journey and actually I'm asking this question because if you do the business and have at home war zone you cannot fight a two-side battle and that's what I'm asking this question for and I would like to know for you in your imagination how you

[Derek Smith]

would have this alignment in implemented I found in the past all of my best partners regardless of how we how it all ended up the best ones were the ones that had an entrepreneurial mindset people who also had their own desire to earn and to be of service to others so finding other people that are in that sort of same desire to help people I think really goes a long way because they can understand that Monday to Friday nine to five or whatever your hours are they're also doing something similar to what you're doing of course you know it's interesting because this year every at the start of every year I always establish one word to balance out my year and that's the word this year for me balance so I would imagine even if I did find a partner this year it would all be within balance within not forcing anything or making more time for this or that it's let's balance it all out make sure that everybody's in a healthy environment to to succeed so to bring that all out I think it's entrepreneurial mindsets go a long way with them when it comes to partners

[Angela Thomas]

especially ones who have a business yeah that's cool I think it's also important to always bring the the other part that is on this journey with you on the same kind of entrepreneurial mindset for example when you go on events like we've been to you know you come certainly as a different person sort of back and then having this explained at home while somebody is not on that same journey with you is really hard and I think that is a point of where you opting out or taking a different road sort of isn't it well I like to I mean how's this

[Derek Smith]

anytime I step off stage after a big event I would give my partner a call and let them know how it went get them caught up on what happened today so that way I don't have to I'll let you know in seven days when I get home about how it all went I like to make sure that they are along the way in some form or another in the journey you know for me a lot of people would assume that I'm an extroverted person because of the way that I engage with the world around me but the truth is I have a lot of introverted qualities so when I how's this when you see me out in the world at these events I am what you see shaking hands kissing baby saying hi to everybody but when I get home it's let's go hang out let's go hang out in the hammock you know let's go relax because I

[Angela Thomas]

need to recharge yeah yeah so it's really good to recharge that is something I think that has something to do with the sign of Gemini isn't it I know what I'm talking about I can totally to Gemini's here yes okay so yeah very good very interesting how you balance this out and I have also one question for you that I give out all to my audience as well what is the book that most influenced you in your entrepreneur journey up so far

[Derek Smith]

I could go off on a lot of them one book one book going to the moon yeah and then you're only allowed to take one well it's a really it's a really small book and I'll say yeah it's a coloring book no kidding uh it's it's a really small book I was actually speaking about it just last night I wouldn't suggest or say that it's necessarily an entrepreneurial book but I think it's just a life book that everybody should take a moment and read it's the four agreements have you ever heard of this book before no again agreements with yourself there's only four of them I'm not going to rhyme them off right now but like the first one is being impeccable with your word so whatever you say becomes reality so be very clear on what you're saying and if you are speaking in negative terms or if you're saying you know oh gosh I'm fat feeling fat well yeah you are then you are you're fat today you are fat because you keep saying it you know so be very aware of what words come out of your mouth it will make a big difference but overall the book four agreements I think everyone should give it a read because it's so simple the concepts are so basic but every time you read the book you find something new and then you're reminded of just how simple the whole idea is and just how you can apply it to your everyday life cool I need to

[Angela Thomas]

look in that one highly recommend Derek wanted to know something that nobody knows about you share this with our audience maybe you have something nobody really knows about you

[Derek Smith]

that's a good question what is something that nobody really knows about me okay I don't think a lot of people know about this but I mean I'm not saying I'm no hero by the way I just do this it's my own time for the last seven years every morning I wake up and I sit quietly for 30 minutes by myself and meditate and it's not something that I ever had I I didn't learn how to do it I just started doing it and it has been the most valuable thing that's ever happened in my life and I don't really tell people that I do it what I do every day and I know I'm not the only person who does this but I just jot down notes after I do my little quiet thing every day my little notes and I never read the books that I write so I have stacks of these journals you never read them no I sometimes wonder if I should go back and take a peek at them I imagine I'm gonna learn a lot when I see them but it's not a thing that I like it's just my morning 30 minutes before I do

[Angela Thomas]

anything I do that you know what I do these journals sometimes from years ago I'll take with me on a journey when I'm sitting in the in the plane and then I'll read through and a lot of times they're coming a lot of ideas out and the ideas are totally different on where you sit in the plane whether it's eco or business class or first class I bet oh that's amazing well maybe I'll take those books with me to the moon one day yeah yes very good exactly well thank you for being on the podcast and I hope you had a good time and maybe you let us know and the audience maybe you let our audience know where we can find you and how to get in contact with you very very simple you

[Derek Smith]

can find me on mrderricksmith.com again I support speakers with their message their persona and their engagement so if anybody wants to reach out to me just check it out on mrderricksmith.com

[Angela Thomas]

I definitely have done this and I can only recommend it thank you thank you for being here I appreciate it thanks so much Angela that was the podcast Skillionaire the podcast where stories take and strategy scale so share this episode with somebody that you think has to hear it imagine how much you help them by sharing this message here and how grateful they will be for you forwarding this this message and I look forward for your comment leave a comment here in the show notes and yeah until the next episode looking forward to hear you

[Derek Smith]

all right very good you're very good at this did you like it very nice that was excellent yes