You have an awesome responsibility every time you take the stage, whether it's 12 people in a boardroom, 10,000 people at a stadium. I know this because Mark Brown, my coach, the night before the World Championship of Public Speaking, he saw my head growing. He saw my ego getting in the way, and he sat me down and he said, darren, tomorrow morning, you have the privilege of 2,000 lives for seven minutes. What will you do with that when you can take that mindset to the stage? We know that right now we have 54 minutes in your life. What will we do with that? So we have an awesome responsibility. So it was 2001. I've been an NSA member since 1990. 4.

Toastmasters. Since 1994, four Toastmasters clubs. I was working hard. I was finding stories and finding stories. I had story envy. Do you ever have story envy? You see great speakers. Like, I wish that happened to me. I wish I had to chew my arm off on the side of a mountain, Then I'd have a story.

Yeah, maybe it's story process envy that they walked it through, a process. They probably got coaching that you're not aware of. I went back awake. Thank you. Thank you very much.

It worked.

It worked. So it's 2001. I had been lusting after that signature story. I kept hearing at nsa, you got to find your signature story. Got to find your signature story. And I remember one of the things my comedy mentor said I started in Stand Up. He said, darren, stop trying to find that story that will launch your career, and instead, take the stories you already have and make them so good, someone will pay to hear them. What I didn't know.

I just thought stories happened. I didn't realize there's a proven structure to hold it up against. So I sat at my desk. Now, at this time of my life, I was working a day job. I worked at Bose Corporation. I had a sales job as I pursued my dream. So I was working my day job marketing myself, speaking anywhere and everywhere for free. The one thing I wasn't doing was working on my craft.

So this little newsletter came across my desk about this speech contest, Toastmasters World Championship of Public Speaking. I was like, ooh. So I looked at my keynote. I pulled out one story. I added an open and close, put it in a Toastmaster format. Seven minutes to work on it. Work on it, work on it. Just to put it back into the keynote in an improved format.

Craig Valentine, our friend and fellow world champion, says, if you want a masterpiece, you have to master the pieces. Think about that. If you Want a masterpiece? You have to master the pieces. So I joined the contest. I got coaching. I went up through five levels of the World Championship. I was about to go to the World Championship of public speaking. There was five levels, six level.

I won that. I was going to the World Championship and I was at a conference and this guy named Mark Brown, the world champion of public speaking, was speaking there. My coach walked me over to Mark after I had won because now I was one of eight finalists in the world. Walked me over to Mark and get this. He said, darren, I can't take you where I have not been. Whoa. He introduced me to Mark. Mark gave me some keys to start writing this speech.

So I wrote the speech. I followed his process. I drove 2 1/2 hours to New York to work with Mark. Reader's Digest office theater. I was so proud. This is the hardest I've ever worked on a speech. If you have seen me that day. Oh, yeah.

And if you don't know Mark Brown, he stands about 6 foot 2, he's a native of Jamaica, and he's got this beautiful booming laugh like the guy from the old 7Up commercial. That was my coach. As I handed Mark the greatest speech in the history of Toastmasters. I swear it was so good you could hear choirs of angels. Mark took the speech. Oh, Darren, we have some work to do. What? I did everything you told me to do. I wrote the greatest speech that I could write from the level I was at.