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EP328 How to Tell Stories That Actually Convert Your Audience Into Clients · Profit With A Plan

• 0:05
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Of course, my voice gets a little tickly now.
• 0:07
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: Yeah, of course.
• 0:10
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Ever notice how some speakers can grab the room in seconds while others just lose it fast?
• 0:16
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: The difference is in confidence, it's connection.
• 0:20
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: And in this week's episode of Profit with a Plan, we're breaking down the art and science of storytelling with Dr. Danny Brazel.
• 0:29
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Yes, the Jim Carrey of the PhD world, who has spoken to over 3,500 audiences worldwide. So, you'll learn the 5 C's of a well-crafted story that makes your message unforgettable.
• 0:42
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Why emotion and not information actually drives people to act, and how to communicate with impact without sounding pushy or rehearsed.
• 0:51
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: So whether you're pitching to investors, leading a team, or speaking from the stage, this conversation will show you how to turn every message into a story that moves people and moves business forward. So don't miss this episode, and your next client might be waiting for you, waiting for the story you haven't told yet.
• 1:14
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Hey entrepreneurs, are you working too hard for too little profit? Well, welcome to Profit with a Plan Podcast, where we help you scale smarter, increase profitability, and build a business that's worth more, whether you keep it or sell it.
• 1:28
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: I'm Marcia Reiner, business growth strategist and Profit Booster behind Infinite Profit. I've helped countless entrepreneurs to turn their businesses into highly profitable, sale-ready assets, so they enjoy more income now, and a bigger payday later on.
• 1:44
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: So join me for practical strategies, expert insights, and proven steps to make your business more profitable, more valuable, and built to last.
• 1:53
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Today's episode is sponsored by Infinite Profit, where we don't just talk profit, we deliver it.
• 1:59
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: But before we dive in, I've got something special for you.
• 2:02
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• 2:07
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• 2:20
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• 2:27
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: And start turning those missed revenues into real money.
• 2:32
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Alright, let's jump into today's episode. Dr. Danny Brazel is a sought-after speaker, trainer, and coach, affectionately known as the Jim Carrey with a PhD, for his infectious energy and humor.
• 2:45
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Having inspired over 3,500 audiences around the world, he's on a mission to help leaders and entrepreneurs to communicate in a way that truly connects and converts.
• 2:56
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: He's an author of over 20 books, right? Wow. Including The Leadership Begins with Motivation and Misfits and Crackpots. Danny is also the co-founder of the Well Crafted Story Workshop.
• 3:09
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Where he teaches professionals
• 3:12
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: how to use storytelling as a powerful business tool. His proven 5C framework will help anyone transform their message from informative to unforgettable, and so they can influence with authenticity and real action. Danny, thanks so much for coming on the show. We're excited to have you today.
• 3:31
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: Thanks so much for having me, Marcia. More importantly, thanks for all the joy you're spreading, and that was a mouthful.
• 3:36
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Right?
• 3:37
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: Kudos to you.
• 3:38
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Thank you, right? You know, I get my… my chat, you know, sets it all up for me, and then I'm like…
• 3:46
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: So the great thing is I don't have to talk too much now, it's all on you.
• 3:51
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: So, Danny, how'd you get in the world of speaking and influence like this?
• 3:56
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: Well, if I was going to write an autobiography, Marci, it would probably be called Pivots, because I feel like I've already lived 9 lives. 30 years ago, I was a reporter covering President Bush Sr. in the 1992 presidential election, and I loved my job. Got to meet every editor of every major daily, and one editor offered me a job doing the city beat for $16,500 a year. Meanwhile, a friend told me they were hiring teachers in South Central Los Angeles for
• 4:21
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: $25,000 a year.
• 4:23
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: So I became an educator for the noblest of reasons, Marcia, for the high pay, and…
• 4:29
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: High pay back then.
• 4:30
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: It turned out I actually loved it. I've taught all age levels, from preschoolers all the way up to raucous scientists, I can make that claim, because I used to teach English as a second language to engineering students at the University of Southern California.
• 4:43
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: And in 2005, my wife and I attended a real estate seminar, which turned out to be a scam, and we lost everything, and I could give you the woe-is-me story, but I'm a positive person. I learned a lot from that experience. First of all.
• 4:55
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: My wife is my soulmate. I put her through the ringer, and she stood right by me. She's an incredible human being. Second of all, I learned that money's not everything, because you can lose money just like that.
• 5:05
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: Third, I try not to judge other people, because if I was somebody who saw what I had done, I would have said, well, you deserve that, but now I realize, unless you know everything about a person, you really don't know anything about a person. Fourth, I became Christian, which I'm always embarrassed to confess, but the more I read the Bible, I realize I'm not the first screw-up to find Jesus.
• 5:23
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: And fifth, I didn't want to file for bankruptcy, and my accountant said, well, you have to make this much more money this year then. And so I started speaking on the side, and I hit that number right on the number. Well, then the next year, Marcia, he gave me a much higher number.
• 5:37
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: And I hit that number right on the number.
• 5:39
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: So in year 3, I thought, well, maybe I should set a higher number, and basically during one of the worst economic downturns in American history, I was able to build up a highly lucrative speaking business, which eventually caught the attention of some pretty famous people and companies who asked me to coach them. And I have to confess, I really resisted coaching at first, because
• 5:58
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: You need to know this about me. I have a very high standard for my students. I will not let you fail. I will be on your back, holding you accountable until you succeed.
• 6:07
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: Well, now that I work primarily with entrepreneurs and executives and business owners, I find that they're highly motivated, they do the work, and it's probably been the most gratifying thing I've ever done. So there's a long answer to your short question, Marcia.
• 6:19
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: I love it, I love it, but you know, it is so… there's… like, I've had clients, right, because I'm… I'm in a consulting, coaching kind of space as well, but I've had clients that we just create this…
• 6:30
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: incredible opportunity for them, and they don't do anything with it. And it's so… like, I mean, how do they do that? How did they get to where they were, and where… how are they going to get to where they want to be if they can't pull the trigger? And then, like you, I have the people that actually do it, and it's so much fun. It's so rewarding, and they really outperform anything that we've ever put in paper.
• 6:55
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: So, yeah, I love working with those kind of folks, too.
• 6:59
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: I had an event a couple of months ago, and the two speakers before me were introduced as thought leaders, and so I guess I was feeling facetious that day, and I got on stage, I said, raise your hand if you need another thought.
• 7:13
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: I'm not a thought leader, I'm a results leader. We take action, so that's what separates you from everybody else, Marcia. Kudos to you.
• 7:19
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Oh, I love it. And you know what? You hit it right on the point. How do you differentiate yourself, right? And when you're trying to grab attention in today's, like.
• 7:29
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: bonkers, you know, short attention span, and it's not that it's a… I heard someone say that it's not a short attention span, you're just not grabbing it, because how many of us have, like.
• 7:40
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: you know, binge-watched a show and watched, you know, 8 episodes in one sitting, going, wow, right? So I really think that it's not the attention span, but it's the…
• 7:52
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: The higher quality of what we're saying that will catch them and get them to stop.
• 7:59
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Yeah, there's an old saying, if people aren't calling you back, you just ain't attractive enough.
• 8:04
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: -Oh. That's great! See, I love those little coins because they sit.
• 8:10
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Right? And that's where I think you grab them. And if you start your speech, right, your talk, your presentation with, hey, I'm gonna be a disruptor.
• 8:20
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: What does that do for the audience? It gets them to sit up and go, what are you gonna… how are you gonna disrupt my thoughts, right?
• 8:25
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: That's right.
• 8:26
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: So, fantastic start! Okay, so let's go on with that question, then. How do you corrupt their attention and disrupt their thoughts?
• 8:35
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: Well, so, you introduced me very… it was a long introduction, a very gracious introduction. I'm a former school teacher, so you have to bear with me. Everything I do either rhymes or it's alliterative. And so, I have a company with Coach Jimmy Hayes Nelson and Dave Ward called the Well Crafted Story Workshop. I call us the professor, the performer, and the producer, because my background is in academia. Coach Jimmy was a Broadway actor.
• 8:59
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: and Dave is an attorney. And so, we take our clients through what we call the five C's process, and those five C's are clarity, connection, content, call to action, and close. And so, we'll address your question, which is specifically on the second C, which is to connect with your audience. So, again, former school teacher, I always say, in the first five minutes of your presentation, you need to wrap.
• 9:23
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: RAP stands for being relatable to your audience, demonstrating your authority, and then showing them your purpose. So, relatable.
• 9:32
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: I thought it was gonna be, like, a hip-hop, a hip to hip…
• 9:35
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: No, no, I'm as white as they come. My wife…
• 9:39
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: You and me both.
• 9:40
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: Yeah, my wife once said, there are white guys, and then there are white guys. And I'm like, well, I don't really know what you're talking about, but I assume, based on your tone, I'm the second type of white guy. So, relatable means, hey, I've had… I'm just like you. I've had that same problem that you've had, authority.
• 9:59
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: And I solved that problem.
• 10:02
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: purpose, and now I'm on a mission to help people just like you, so you don't have to suffer the way I suffered. If you can establish that in the first 5 minutes of your presentation, you're going from a good presentation to an actually great presentation. What separates them is great presentations are intentional. They don't just…
• 10:20
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: They don't just, move hearts, they also move the needle.
• 10:24
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: I love it.
• 10:26
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: You know, that is so important, and I preach that to my podcasting world that I talk into as well, that, you know, you're not just on the camera to…
• 10:35
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: to hear your voice and say something great, you have to do something with it, right? And I love that analogy that if you capture them and you rap in the beginning, you're gonna make it more intentioned throughout the conversation that they're gonna come… what they used to call in real presentations, they'd rush the table in the back, right?
• 10:54
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: Yeah, I mean, there's many people that have great stories, but your stories have to be very intentional, with purpose. So, I'll give you and your listeners an exercise. This is one of the first things I do with clients, is later on, I want you to sit in a comfortable chair with a pen and paper.
• 11:09
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: libation of choice, and for an hour, I want you to write down every story that's ever happened to you. And I don't mean the entire story, I just mean triggers, like the time I locked myself out of the car in front of Costco.
• 11:21
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: The time dad spilt mustard on his Thai, when we went to that fancy restaurant. You'll… you'll find that in an hour, you can come up with hundreds of stories like that. So that… that's the first part of the exercise.
• 11:31
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: wait a minute, is it really that easy? I mean, I'm sitting there going, okay, what would be my first one, you know? It's like looking at the blank cursor on a Word document, going, how do I start?
• 11:43
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: Well, you don't want to… see, you just… you impeded yourself by trying to figure out what's interesting and what's not interesting, which makes you the judge. I would write them all down, because even the most mundane… I actually once watched an interview with Cameron Crowe, who… he… he directed all kinds of great movies. One of my favorites is Almost Famous, but he used to be a writer for The Simpsons.
• 12:05
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: And the executive producer for The Simpsons is James Brooks, who's just another wonderful writer and producer. And Cameron said that when he was writing an episode, he'd go in and meet with Jim, and…
• 12:18
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: And he's like, well, this is what we're gonna do for this episode. And Jim's like, oh, how'd that… how'd that date go with you this weekend? And all of a sudden, you start talking about his date, and by the end of the conversation with Jim, the entire episode was about that date.
• 12:31
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: And that's… that's the power of really good storytelling, is taking the mundane. So, for example, I'm working with, by the way.
• 12:39
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: Everybody I work with, I'm very discreet. I always change the name…
• 12:43
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: You're dropping some serious names here, so I don't know.
• 12:46
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: Talk to my partner, Coach Jimmy, he loves to name-drop everybody we work with. I'm exactly the opposite. And so, we're working with a woman, she's a nutrition expert, we'll call her Kathy. And Kathy, she grew up with this intestinal problem, and she… no doctor could solve it, and so she created this diet that helps women with this type of intestinal problem.
• 13:07
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: And so, at the end of her presentation.
• 13:11
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: She offers a 90-day coaching program for 1997, and that's where she ended her presentation, which, first of all, that's a big mistake, because she's ignored the emotional, impact that she can have there, but…
• 13:24
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: And that's what I told her. I'm like, that's a big mistake that you're doing. I've always said that there's two types of people in the audience. I'm going to be stereotypical and say it's the husband and the wife.
• 13:34
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: The husband's… Well, you're gonna identify to one of those. Exactly. The husband's Joe Friday. He's the guy sitting in the audience with his arms crossed like this, who's thinking, how much does this cost me? How long does it take? What do I gotta do? And a well-crafted presentation addresses those
• 13:52
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: questions, so he's satisfied with those answers. But if you just focus on Joe Friday, you're ignoring the wife, who I call Julia Roberts.
• 14:00
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: Julia Roberts doesn't care how much it costs, she just wants to feel good. I want to work with Marcia because she's like my long-lost sister. She makes me feel good. And so, with Kathy.
• 14:12
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: she was ending on the call to action. I said, but…
• 14:15
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: what ultimately do you want your audience to do? And she said, I want them to buy my coaching program. I'm like, yes, I know you want them to buy your coaching program, but I had to ask her about 20 different why questions. We finally got to the heart of the matter, and she said, well, I want my audience to understand they can't do this on their own.
• 14:33
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: I said, oh, you need to hire an expert story.
• 14:38
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Okay.
• 14:39
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: She's like, what's a hire an expert story? I'm like, I'll give you an example. So…
• 14:44
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: My… I'll leave you with this. Many years ago, my wife and I, we had theater tickets. We were dressed to the nines, driving to the theater when we got a flat tire. My wife said, well, I'll call AAA and get the tow truck. I'm like, you don't need to call AAA! I'm a man!
• 14:59
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: I can fix a flat tire, so I got out of the car. Yeah, I got out of the car, I opened up the trunk, I got the spare tire, and then I got the pumper thingy, and then I got the big jack thing, and started trying to take off the nuts off of the wheel.
• 15:14
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: 27 minutes later, I have grease all over me. My wife is standing beside the car with her arms crossed, shaking her head, like, I could have done so much better than this guy. Well, unbeknownst to me, 27 minutes earlier, she'd actually called AAA while I was
• 15:31
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: This tow truck comes up, And this 17-year-old punk hops out of the truck, and he proceeds
• 15:38
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: To fix my flat tire in 3 minutes.
• 15:42
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: You know…
• 15:43
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: I think there's times in life when all of us think we can do it on our own, but if you want to save time, you want to save money, you want to save a whole lot of headache and embarrassment.
• 15:52
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: you hire an expert. And so what I've just done is I've taken a metaphorical story demonstrating to the audience that
• 16:00
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: you know what, maybe I should hire Kathy. I've tried lots of things in the past, and they haven't worked, but Kathy, I really kind of relate to her. And so, the exercise about writing all those stories, the first part is to write down all those stories. The second part of the exercise is then to think about, well, what's this story really about?
• 16:16
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: Oh, this is a story about never giving up.
• 16:19
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: Oh, this is a story about hiring an expert.
• 16:22
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: oh, this is a story about prioritizing, and on my computer, I literally have hundreds of files with probably tens of thousands of stories like this, so when I'm creating a presentation, I'm very intentional. I'm like, okay, this is the action I want the audience to take, this is the emotion I want them to have. And when you do that, that's when you're taking a good presentation and turning it into a presentation that actually converts your audience into clients.
• 16:47
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: And it keeps people leaning forward and not looking down on their phone and spacing off or thinking about the 25 things that they have to do when this presentation is over, right?
• 16:57
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: That's right.
• 16:58
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: that's really valuable, and like Netflix or whatever, we want to be drawn into that story, so we sit there and binge-watch 8 episodes. So, wow, that's really impactful. I love the idea… I'm sorry?
• 17:14
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: I was just gonna say, Netflix is a perfect example. If you watch the very premiere… the very first episode of Breaking Bad, it starts off… he's driving his motorhome in the desert, and you're all… I call that… that's a great technique. I call it the Lethal Weapon. So if you ever used to watch the Lethal Weapon movies.
• 17:32
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: A lot of movies, they start off like, oh, we're gonna introduce you to Danny Glover, and now we're gonna introduce you to Mel Gibson.
• 17:40
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: Lethal Weapon doesn't do that. It says, you know, MGM or Warner Brothers presents, and all of a sudden you're in a car chase, and all of a sudden.
• 17:47
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: what is going on? It's immediately… you're right in the middle of the story. Too many people, they screw up their beginning. Just get us right there, get us to it, because you said it very, very well at the beginning, because most of us have short attention spans. We gotta… we gotta get those people leaning in.
• 18:04
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: You know, it's so funny, I've heard so many presentations where they've got a 20-minute presentation, in 10 minutes they're still trying to build credibility, and you're like, I don't care about you, what are you gonna do for me, right?
• 18:16
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: And I think that's really important, so if we can… I love it, if we can start off with a car chase, I mean, that's gonna have everybody up on their seat going, what's next?
• 18:27
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: You're absolutely right, Marci, and what I love that you just said is it's not about you, it's about your audience. And so, I work with so many people, they're like, oh, I don't want to sound salesy. I'm like, well, here's my strategy. Stop selling. Just serve them. I want you to look at your audience as if they're dying.
• 18:43
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: And you have the antidote, and if they don't get your antidote, they will die. It's a very different…
• 18:48
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: frame of reference than, oh, I'm gonna… I gotta push my product. That's, you know, we've all been around those infomercials, like, I… I'm addicted to… I watch at least 10 speakers a day. I was watching this guy in an infomercial. He was so sleazy. He… he had his hair slicked back, he had the nice fancy suit. He said, there are two types of people in this world. Good, hardworking people.
• 19:08
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: And rich people. I'm like, ugh, I gotta take a shower after I live.
• 19:11
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Oh my gosh!
• 19:13
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: you know, and we've all been to those presentations, but then you watch a great speaker, like, one of my favorite speakers is Brene Brown. Brene has a wonderful technique, and everybody can learn from this. She talks about the importance of vulnerability, and everybody listening right now, here's my strategy for you. Stop sharing your successes, start sharing your failures, because not everybody in your audience has succeeded, but they've all failed, and the more you talk about your own failures.
• 19:37
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: The more your audience is going to see themselves in you, and that's what you want to do to connect with an audience.
• 19:42
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: when I'm working with politicians, I always give them a hard time. I always say, you ever notice that nobody running for president ever grew up middle class? We all grew up in a log cabin, you know.
• 19:54
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: That's what they always have to do, is… and what they're trying to do is they're trying to get you to identify with the struggle, because all of us have had the struggle.
• 20:01
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Right.
• 20:02
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Wow, this is amazing, because it frames the way you have
• 20:07
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: presentation conversations. The way that you're… and this isn't only for people that are on stage, right? I mean, this is when you're… when you're doing any kind of recording, or any kind of marketing, or any kind of conversation with someone, you have to build that connection and trust
• 20:25
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Before you can move to anything of, you know, of any matter that you're gonna sit at the table for. I mean, I can imagine even dating, right?
• 20:34
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: I use these same strategies with my 3 children, and actually…
• 20:37
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: And how do they play out?
• 20:41
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: What's your success rate!
• 20:42
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: I don't know if they've actually caught on yet about all the little psychological strategies I'm using with them all.
• 20:48
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: They're probably going, okay, dad's story, another story, right? Oh my goodness.
• 20:52
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: They definitely say that.
• 20:54
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Oh, right? But no, I think that this is really an essential part of communicating.
• 20:59
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: and getting that connection and relating, you know, so many, so many of the sleazy salespeople, they're like, oh, so you go to XYZ University, I was there, do you remember so, you know, which is not really anything of real, true connection, because…
• 21:15
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: You're… it's… it's a temporary connection, rather than a story like what you're sharing.
• 21:20
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Could be a long-term connection, because then they really
• 21:24
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: feel the emotion, they figure that we are similar and we relate, right? And so I think that would take it even farther than one of those, oh, you like the Raiders? Yeah, they're losers, right? They've won how many games? You know, I mean, you can go through… you can go through those kind of bonding things that a lot of guys go through, but I think the stories are better.
• 21:46
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: One of my favorite stories was Winston Churchill's mother, Jenny, was a contemporary of Queen Victoria. She knew every famous person of the day, and a reporter once asked her about the difference between Prime Minister Gladstone and Prime Minister Disraeli, and her response was terrific. She said, well, whenever I left a meeting with Prime Minister Gladstone, I left feeling like, wow!
• 22:06
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: He is the most interesting person I have ever met.
• 22:11
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: But whenever I left a meeting with Prime Minister Disraeli, I left feeling like, wow!
• 22:17
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: I am the most interesting person he has ever met.
• 22:22
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: So, the technique is make your audience the hero. Donald Miller has a wonderful company called StoryBrand, and I completely agree about… with what he says. He says, your job is… you're the guide, your audience is the hero. Your Ben Kenobi, your audience is Luke Skywalker.
• 22:39
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Yes!
• 22:40
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: And that's… if you look at it that way, and this is a very… this is a service mindset. My friend Joe Martin, a wonderful speaker, he calls it napkin leadership. He says, when you go to a restaurant and the waiter hands you a napkin, do you stuff it down your shirt and wait for others to serve you, or do you put it over your arm and go out to serve others? And that's…
• 23:00
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Aww.
• 23:01
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: To me, what a really good leader does.
• 23:03
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Oh, I like that. That's… that's a good… you know, that's a really good mindset, though, to have, is that your audience is the ones you want to connect with. They don't care about you, and your story, and your accolades, and, oh, we've been around since the, you know, dawn of the sun, and we have, you know, we've done this, and we've had this.
• 23:23
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: they don't care about that until they're ready to choose between you and them, then they're gonna look, I think, at the… at the quality or the… the consistency of it, but in the beginning.
• 23:34
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: They want to feel like you can solve their problem, right? And so, how do you solve the problem talking about yourself? You're talking about them.
• 23:41
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: You're a dream student, Marcia. Couldn't say it better myself.
• 23:45
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Oh, I love it, I love it. Oh, thank you. No, it really is, and I think that's where a lot of people get off.
• 23:51
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: and go down the wrong tangent, is even… even here in Las Vegas, oh my goodness, there's a flippin' billboard on every corner with an attorney on it, and… and it's like, yes, they're… they're terrible. And… and it's like…
• 24:06
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: they really don't say much out there, but they're up there, oh, we win, you know, we win thousands and billions, and, you know, it's like, yeah, but you took billions to get to those billions, right? So it's nothing really that the audience… there was one billboard that said… that got up there and said something about the line of.
• 24:24
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: We're gonna make you feel okay.
• 24:26
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: We're gonna make you feel better. Didn't talk about winning millions and billions, and look how cool my tie is, and, you know, that kind of stuff. Or the worst, the lady just has her face and her name, and I'm like, well, what kind of attorney are you, right? So she had… she had a total miss on it. But yeah, I think that's where you want to really
• 24:44
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: talk about.
• 24:46
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: The audience, and get the audience to feel and come along with you.
• 24:51
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: You mentioned your five C's. So, you gave us…
• 24:55
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: C2, right? Yeah. Are you teasing us with the other C's?
• 24:59
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: We're playing bingo, so the first C is clarity, and before you give a presentation, there are two questions you have to ask yourself.
• 25:06
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: And it's amazing to me, 95% of the people I work with cannot answer one or both of these questions in a succinct manner. So those two questions are, who is your audience?
• 25:17
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: And what is the problem that you solve? A lot of people say, oh, everybody's my audience. I'm like, well, if everybody's your audience, nobody's your audience. The riches are in the niches. You really want to narrow in and figure out who's that dream person that you're working with. And then, what's the problem that you solve? Most people.
• 25:34
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: they… they get very complicated, they get very clever. I'm like, you want to use the language of your audience. I mean, if they're… if they're starving to death, you know, always talk about, are you hungry? You know, are you able to sleep at night? This is common…
• 25:49
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: that's common language. Too many people try to impress their audience with their own ego and their vernacular. Like, that's not how human beings speak. It's alright to say… it's alright to say, and you know what I'm saying, and things like that, but that's how people speak, and that's what we're trying to do, is connect with people. And so, once you answer those clarity questions, we know specifically who your audience is and what the problem is that you're solving.
• 26:13
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: Then we connect with your audience, you're right, we've talked about that. You talk about… then you go into the content of your presentation, which is the largest part of your presentation, and ironically, it's the least important part of your presentation, because
• 26:27
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: Forgive me, I'm into research. The research shows us that people remember the beginning of your talk and the end of your talk, they don't remember anything in between. the bun's more important than the burger, but here's
• 26:40
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: Here's a key point I want your audience to understand. What people do remember is, are you helpful?
• 26:44
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: So this is fascinating to me, the research on this. So, one of my mentors was a guy, he's no longer with us, his name was Jim Treles, and he wrote this great book called The Read Aloud Handbook, and what he did is he went around the country training parents how to read aloud to their kids. Wonderful presenter, one of the best presenters I've ever seen.
• 27:03
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: And all of a sudden, in the middle of his presentation, he'd say, oh, oh.
• 27:07
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: I'm gonna teach you something, this'll save your life someday. If you ever lock yourself out of your car, and you don't have your keys.
• 27:13
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: All you have to do, as long as you have your cell phone, call your spouse, have your spouse put the key next to the cell phone, you put your cell phone next to the car door, it'll unlock the car.
• 27:24
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Get outta here.
• 27:25
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: Mercy, I've tried this from 3,000 miles away, it actually works.
• 27:28
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: No way!
• 27:30
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: It doesn't work on, like, It wouldn't work on a Tesla, because Tesla doesn't work like that, but the.
• 27:34
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Because I use my phone.
• 27:35
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: Old things that you have, like, a fob within.
• 27:37
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: I had a Toyota Corolla, and this happened to me. Really?
• 27:42
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: Here's what's great about this.
• 27:44
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: This has nothing to do with his presentation whatsoever. I've seen men and women come up to him after a presentation, oh my gosh, I saw you 6 years ago, I remember that trick you taught us, and oh my gosh, it saved my life. Ever since then, I've been telling everybody they have to hire you as a speaker.
• 28:02
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: Has nothing to do with his presentation, but what he demonstrated to the audience is he's helpful.
• 28:09
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: I love it.
• 28:10
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: They're looking for solutions to their problems. So, for example, I'm working with a woman right now, and she works with people with clinical depression. Of course, I don't have a pen on me, so, where's a pen? Again.
• 28:24
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Alright, I got it. Need props, need props.
• 28:26
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: I have a pen, I didn't bring my props. So, I said, well, why don't you tell your audience, hey, everybody, take a pen and bite down on it.
• 28:35
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: So this is interesting. So when you bite down on a pin.
• 28:39
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: it triggers a hormone in your mind which signals to your brain that you're happy, that you're smiling, and so it actually produces endorphins in your brain to make you happy. So there's actually a way to trick your brain into happiness, just by biting on a pen. It makes your brain think you're smiling, which then you actually do produce the same number of endorphins.
• 29:01
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: This isn't anything… this is just a simple little thing that she can do in her talk, and all of a sudden, people are like, that was a really cool strategy. For example…
• 29:09
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Exactly, they don't care what she talked about, it was the little tip she threw in somewhere in the middle.
• 29:14
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: I talk to people all the time, like, most people waste their time on social media when they're on phones. I'm like, I'm actually very intentional on my cell phone. I have my calendar give me reminders all the time, so every day, like, so, I'm a bad Christian, so I'm trying to learn different pieces of Scripture. So every day at 429, I go over Ephesians 429, which is what… whatever you… I'm screwing… I'm gonna screw it up.
• 29:38
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: I haven't be… You have to… I haven't learned it yet, so it's,
• 29:43
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: Oh, do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouth, but only
• 29:50
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: But only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. So I'm practicing it, but… so every day, I'm practicing that.
• 29:58
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: That's a great… that's a great mantra, though, to…
• 30:01
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: I mean, I read the book.
• 30:02
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Stay every day at 429.
• 30:04
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: Yeah, yeah, every… I read the book Dune, so every… and there's this thing called the Litany Against Fear, and so every day at 9-11, I… I practice, I must not fear. Fear is the mind killer. Fear is a little death.
• 30:14
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Yes, yes!
• 30:15
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: So I practice that. I married my wife on December 20th, so every day at 1220, I have an alert to tell my wife that I love her.
• 30:23
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Aww, you're so sweet! Guys, are you hearing this? This is fantastic!
• 30:27
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: I'm building empathy with my audience, but you see, you just demonstrated it. What I'm showing people is, here's how… here's a tool all of you have, but probably none of you ever thought of, oh, here's something you can use this tool for. And so, in the content portion of your presentation, you really want to demonstrate that you're helpful. There's another… there are other things that we love to teach people about, but I don't… I want to get to the other two C's. The other two C's
• 30:51
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: Are the call to action.
• 30:53
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: and the close. The most important thing
• 30:56
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: I always tell people on the call to action is you need one clear call to action. So, I was on a podcast yesterday, and the hostess at the end of the podcast, she said, I hope you enjoyed today's episode. Make sure you like, subscribe, and give us a 5-star review.
• 31:11
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: And when we got off the air, I said, you just asked your audience to do 3 different things.
• 31:16
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: they're not going to do any of them. Remember this, choices confuse and cause you to lose, and I'll demonstrate this. If you look at grocery store statistics in the United States, you look at all the big, major grocery store chains, Smith's and Kroger, Ralph's, Publix, all of them.
• 31:33
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: None of them are number one.
• 31:35
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: The number one grocery store in the United States, based on volume, is Trader Joe's, and I'll tell you exactly why. When you go to a route… one of these big grocery store chains, and you go to buy mustard.
• 31:48
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: There's 38 different types of mustard. When you go to Trader Joe's, there's one. It's called mustard. They've made the decision for you, and so…
• 31:56
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Okay!
• 31:57
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: And this is why it's so important to ask yourself those clarity questions. Who is my audience, and what's the problem I'm solving? So I'm going to create one call to action for that audience that solves that one problem. And then, of course, you need an emotional close. You need to end getting people
• 32:14
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: I mean, I think I'm a little bit different than a lot of these speaking coaches I see, because I… and Jimmy and I, this is kind of why we created the company, was we were trained to teach people to share that most tragic moment in their life. And there's 3 reasons why I refuse to do that. First of all, the world just survived a global pandemic. Everybody's had a lot of bad stuff happen to them.
• 32:35
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Yeah.
• 32:36
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: Another sad story. I think we need stories of hope, alright? Second of all, what Coach Jimmy and I are teaching people to do is to create what we call your well-crafted story. Politicians would call it a stump speech. You can call it peanut butter and jelly, doesn't matter what you call it. What this is, is this is a presentation that you're gonna…
• 32:54
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: deliver again and again. You're going to get so good at this, it's going to be like the Pledge of Allegiance, like the Lord's Prayer. You're not even gonna have to think about it, but this is the way you're going to introduce yourself. Do you really want to tell that same tragic story again and again? I mean, I have a friend, his daughter was killed in this…
• 33:10
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Livin' it!
• 33:10
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: Yeah, I have a guy, his daughter was killed in a school shooting. He's told that story over a thousand times. I have no idea how you get on stage and tell an audience about the worst day in your life again and again. And here's a third reason, this is where people get angry with me.
• 33:26
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: I have one objective when I'm on stage. I want you to leave here feeling better than when you came in. I want you laughing, smiling, happy. I think there's something admirable about that as an objective.
• 33:36
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: I believe the people that tell the same sad story again and again
• 33:40
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: By the 20th time they're telling it, now those are crocodile tears, and now they're being manipulative. And I'm not saying it's not an effective sales strategy, it's actually a very effective sales strategy, but I personally don't want to have to take a shower after I get off stage just because I manipulated my audience. There are ethical ways to get people to want to do business with you, and so I like things that are going to get people pumped up at the end, but I…
• 34:04
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: I like to… I like to keep it humorous all the time. I've always had a policy. I take my job seriously. I don't take myself seriously, because I ain't all that, and neither are you. And if you think you're all that, teach kindergarten for a week. Those little ones…
• 34:19
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: I had a little girl once, she raised her hand, I'm like, LaShawn, the question's like, Ms. Purcell, when are you gonna trim your nose hair? I'm like, this afternoon. Thanks for being all that.
• 34:29
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: That's great! Oh my goodness. I love these stories, Danny, this is fantastic. It really made, like, the half hour I looked, I went, oh my god, it's over! You know, and, you know, we can hear great stories like this all the time.
• 34:45
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: And I think I like the idea that you want to end on a happy note that gives someone hope.
• 34:51
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: And walking away with a smile on their face rather than a crocodile tear going down. And, you know, coming from the ladies' space and the ladies talking on stage, when she starts crying, I'm, like, tapping out. I'm like, alright, I'm done. You're gone. You know, you just lost all credibility with me when you start crying from stage because you're so emotional. So, I agree with you, happy is much better. There's enough crying
• 35:14
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: crap in the world right now that we don't need to focus on that, and so I love that. But you got me thinking now, on my outro, I've got two offers, so I'm worried on that.
• 35:25
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: But I love this. So, tie a bow on this for us, Danny, and tell listeners where they can find you, your program, and how they can learn to tell stories that really connect with people.
• 35:37
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: Well, as a thank you, Marcia, for having me on and enduring all of my stories, and again, there's no greater research than the movie Monsters, Inc, which shows that the power of laughter is much more powerful than the power of sadness, but I wanted to give, everybody in your audience a freebie, so if you go to FreeGift, excuse me, FreeStoryGuide.com, guide like a tour guide, free story guide.
• 36:00
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: I'm going to give everybody, your own well-crafted story blueprint. What this is, is the actual process that Coach Jimmy and I take our clients through so that you can create your own well-crafted story. What this does for you is it takes the guesswork out of, what should I put here, and why am I putting this here, and what this means for you is the peace of mind that you have an actual system
• 36:24
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: that's going to convert your audiences into clients, and really build a bigger impact for your community. You can get that at FreeStoryGuide.com, and again, thank you so much for having me, Marcia, and thanks for all that you do. I really appreciate you.
• 36:37
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Oh, back at you. I think this was so much fun, it was so enjoyable to hear, and I'm just… my face hurts because I'm smiling so much, because it's been so fun, and I love… that's the energy you want to give away, and I readily accept it, and I know my audience has as well, so…
• 36:54
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: All right, speaking of, thanks for tuning in today. I hope you picked up some valuable insights and actionable ideas that will help you make your business more profitable, and what better way to do it than sharing a story and making that connection with your audience, whether you're sitting across the table from an employee or a client, or you're sitting, you know, standing in front of a huge auditorium, or, you know, just at a networking event, having a
• 37:19
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: story is really where you're going to make that connection and get people to lean into you, and Danny's the expert at it, so definitely go get his, his story guide and figure out how to craft your own stories.
• 37:32
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Alright, but before we go, if you're ready to bring in more clients and keep more of what you earn, then grab the free Profit Booster Growth Map. It pinpoints 3 moves to grow your revenue and stop leaks fast. So go get it anytime at ProfitBooster.biz.
• 37:48
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: And, while you're at it, here's my second ask, is go subscribe, because you don't want to miss future shows. You can always catch Profit with a Plan on any of your favorite podcast platforms. We're looking forward to more great profitable strategies on next week's show. So until then, make your plans and profit with them. Thank you so much, Danny, this was a lot of fun.
• 38:08
  Danny Brassell, Ph.D.: Thank you, Marcia.