August 11, 2025 • 22 mins
Caroline Biesalski introduces the episode by emphasizing the importance of sharing failures in the business journey. She welcomes Dr. Danny Brassell, who discusses the transformative power of joy in learning. The conversation explores the ethics of crafting messages in storytelling for business, highlighting its role in client engagement and measuring success. Dr. Brassell shares insights on overcoming fear and enhancing presentation skills. They discuss the impact of mentors in achieving higher goals, offering strategies for personal and professional growth. The episode concludes with reflections on the endless possibilities in both business and personal life, encouraging listeners to embrace growth opportunities.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Yeah.
So we had a gentleman we worked with a coupleof months ago named Richard.
Richard's a very successful financial adviser.
I mean, he used to start off his presentationand say, oh, I've been working in this industry
for 30 years.
I've made my clients over
I've worked with this famous person and thisfamous person.
And I stopped and I said, Richard, what are thethree most important parts of real estate?
(00:23):
Location, location, location.
It's alright to brag, but not at the beginningof your speech.
The beginning of your speech, the way youconnect with an audience is not by sharing your
successes.
It's by sharing your failures.
Welcome to Inspired Choice Today.
I'm your host, Caroline Biesalski, here tobring you authentic stories, surprising
lessons, and powerful takeaways to fuel yourjourney in business and life.
(00:47):
In each episode, I'll take you from oneinspiring guest to the next, blending their
experiences with my expertise to uncoverpractical strategies you can use right away.
Whether you're starting out or stepping up,stay tuned for insights and actionable tips
that make a difference.
And stick around until the end for a specialfreebie just for our listeners.
(01:13):
Hello, and welcome, inspired podcast community.
This is your new episode.
My name is Caroline, and my today's guest isDr.
Danny Brassell, and I'm so happy that he saidyes to our interview.
How are you doing today?
Fantastic.
Even better with you, Caroline.
Thanks for spreading some joy in the world.
We need a lot more of you.
(01:34):
Yes.
That's so true.
And, yeah, let's have a look at what you did inyour life.
So far, I want to introduce you to theaudience.
And, yes, it's a great day to spread joy to theworld.
You are known as Jim Carrey with a Ph.D.
You are a dynamic speaker, trainer, and authorof 18 books including Misfits and Crackpots.
(01:58):
As cofounder of the world's top readingengagement program, you are on a mission to
bring joy back to education and the workplacewhile helping individuals and organizations use
speaking as a powerful client lead source.
Welcome to the Inspire podcast, Dr.
Danny Brassell.
(02:18):
Thank you, Caroline.
That's so great.
You know, Jim Carrey, I love Jim Carrey.
So we will love you, of course.
And my first question to you is, you believejoy is the secret ingredient to learning and
success.
How did you discover this, and why is it sopowerful?
Oh, well, that's great.
(02:39):
Great question, Caroline.
So for many years, I taught in the inner cityin South Central Los Angeles, and I saw that,
you know, I've taught all age levels frompreschoolers to rocket scientists.
I can make that claim because I used to teachEnglish as a second language to engineering
students at the University of SouthernCalifornia.
And what I learned is what works with olderstudents does not necessarily work with younger
(03:02):
students.
But what works with younger students works withall age levels.
And I learned with my little ones that if youkeep them laughing, you keep them smiling, you
keep them active, that's when they're learningbecause they don't even realize that they're
learning.
And so, when I started my speaking coachingcompany with Coach Jimmy Hayes Nelson called
(03:22):
the Well Crafted Story Workshop, we decided wewere going to separate ourselves from a lot of
so-called speaking coaches because a lot ofthese people will teach you to share all these
dramatic and sad moments in your life.
And there's three reasons why I don't want todo that.
First of all, the world just survived a globalpandemic.
Everybody's had bad things happen to them.
I don't think we need to hear another sadstory.
(03:43):
I think we need stories of hope.
That's why I listen to your podcast.
Second of all, what Coach Jimmy and I are doingis teaching you how to create a presentation
that you'll deliver again and again tointroduce yourself to new audiences to help
build up your client base.
Well, would you like to tell the same sad storyagain and again?
I don't know.
(04:03):
I don't know how some people do it.
They tell really depressing stories, and thisis a story they're telling me a thousand times.
And third, and this is where people can getangry with me, I have one objective when I'm on
stage.
I want you to leave feeling better than whenyou came in.
I want you laughing, smiling, happy.
I think there's something admirable about thatas my goal.
(04:25):
I believe that people that tell that same sadstory again and again, by the 20th time they
tell it, those are crocodile tears, and nowthey're being manipulative.
And I'm not saying it's not an effective salesstrategy.
It's actually a very effective sales strategy.
But it's also pretty unethical to me.
I don't want to have to take a shower when Iget off stage because I just manipulated my
(04:45):
audience.
And so life's too short, Caroline.
You know that.
I want people having fun.
I want a lot of smiles.
And, but it was the little ones that taught methat joy was the secret to better learning.
Wow.
What a great answer.
I understand your whole concept now.
And, you know, I can reveal to you and thepodcast community, you are the second person I
(05:08):
need telling me this about and I was doubting.
You know?
I was I'm not so long in that, let's say,personal development, but it brought me to
start my own podcast, so this is great.
I'm collecting all those stories, and I wasalways doubting, like, is it necessary that I
repeat my sad traumatized story over and overagain?
(05:31):
And what I think is it's the people it's like adrug.
It's like a like, there are biochemicals in thebrain.
I think it's like an addiction to repeat thosenegative stories, but I was doubting, and now
now I got clarity through you because yeah.
(05:51):
No.
Really.
So thank you for this.
I learned already.
Let me know.
Yeah, yeah.
Of course.
I have another question, and we can laugh.
Many people struggle with storytelling inbusiness.
What's the key to crafting a message that trulyconnects and converts?
Oh, that's a great question, Caroline.
(06:12):
I couldn't have written a better question.
Well, here, I'll give everybody in youraudience an exercise that Coach Jimmy and I
share with our clients.
You know, later on, once you get a pen andpaper, sit in a comfortable chair with a
libation of choice, and for an hour, I want youto write every story that's ever happened in
your life.
And there you go.
There's your pen and paper.
(06:33):
All right.
I don't mean the entire story.
I just mean triggers.
Like the time I locked myself out of the car infront of the grocery store.
The time Dad spilled mustard on his tie at thatfancy restaurant.
Most people in an hour can come up with atleast 500 stories.
So that's the first part of the exercise.
The second part of the exercise is now you'regoing to look at each story and figure out,
(06:53):
well, what's this really a story about?
Oh, this is a story about never giving up.
Oh, this is a story about accountability.
Oh, this is a story about loyalty.
And so on my computer, I literally have tens ofthousands of these stories.
So when I'm asked to speak and I want myaudience to have certain emotions, I have
various little stories at my disposal that Ican use.
(07:16):
And so really, what we do is we help a lot ofthe business people we work with take their
personal experiences and create compellingbusiness presentations that'll inspire action,
drive growth, and have a lasting impact ontheir audience is what we do.
Wow.
What a great exercise.
(07:37):
And when you talked about 500 or 10,000 on yourcomputer, I was a little bit shocked and
overwhelmed, but I think this is how it worksbecause you want to create or you call it craft
authentic stories, right, that you can tell.
You only need the keyword also, and then youknow where to start.
(07:58):
And it's not made up or yeah.
Yeah.
So we had a gentleman we worked with a coupleof months ago named Richard.
Richard's a very successful financial adviser.
I mean, he used to start off his presentationand say, oh, I've been working in this industry
for 30 years.
I've made my clients over
I've worked with this famous person and thisfamous person.
(08:20):
And I stopped and I said, Richard, what are thethree most important parts of real estate?
Location, location, location.
It's alright to brag, but not at the beginningof your speech.
The beginning of your speech, the way youconnect with an audience is not by sharing your
successes.
It's by sharing your failures, because noteverybody in your audience has succeeded, but
they've all failed.
And the more you talk about your ownvulnerabilities, the more you're gonna connect
(08:45):
with your audience.
And so we changed his speech.
So now, he takes us through at the beginning ofhis speech.
He talks about the very first client he booked,and it's basically a comedy of errors.
It's amazing the person actually booked withthis guy because he made every mistake in the
book.
And Richard, the way he gets clients is abouttwice a week, he has these presentations at
(09:05):
steak restaurants, and he'll get, like, 15married couples and try to book them to work to
put their money with him.
And he said he used to get about 6 out of the15 people to call up and make an appointment.
But he noticed that the guy is always sittingthere with his arms crossed, like, what's this
guy trying to sell me?
Now that he's changed the story, that same guyis now leaning in, patting his knee because
(09:29):
he's laughing so hard, and he was able toincrease the number of appointments from 6 to
12 out of the 15.
And that's really how Coach Jimmy and I measureour success is, you know, are we getting more
clients because of it?
That's really the only way I'm going to measuresuccess.
The numbers don't lie.
And if we're not increasing those numbers,we've got to figure out why.
(09:50):
If you want an opinion, go to your Uncle Frank.
I'm looking at the research.
I'm trying to figure out what is it that weneed to change in your presentation to increase
the number of people who decide to take thatnext step with you, whether that's an unpaid
offer like book a free phone call or subscribeto my podcast or a paid offer like buy my
(10:10):
product or invest in my coaching program.
That's how Coach Jimmy and I are alwaysmeasuring this.
Can we get that number up and how much can weget that number up?
Wow.
I love how you talked about the measurablethings.
We call it KPI, right?
And I learned about that.
But I'm not one of those boring people, youknow?
(10:32):
I can tell you my story now about being 16years in an accounting company.
But, yeah, you know, I dropped it, and I havenow my happy life with my podcast.
So thank you for being my guest.
I trained 620 interviews to be able to speakwith you today because I was not speaking
(10:52):
before.
This is my story, but I can it's not a sad, sadstory.
It's, yeah, about being a happy story.
The great thing that I admire about you,Caroline, is most people just talk.
You actually did something.
I mean, and what's great about you having over600 of these in the can is, I guarantee you,
your first podcast was horrible.
(11:13):
And the second podcast you did was horriblealso, but it wasn't as bad as the first one.
And every single time you do this, you getbetter at it.
And now you're pretty relaxed and you're usedto your format.
And that's really even in accounting, it's thesame thing.
Accounting intimidates me.
But believe me, if I do it every single day,you know, I'm gonna stink at first, but
eventually I'll get better at it because I'mdoing the work.
(11:35):
So I commend you.
Most people, they just talk about things.
I like working with people that are actuallygonna do the work.
Yes.
I totally agree.
Thank you so much.
This is also what I learned that you will notgrow when you procrastinate.
And, you know, so there were two things.
Yes.
It's the start that stops most people.
That is right.
(11:55):
In my first episode, I would say it was not sohorrible.
You don't recognize maybe, but it was inside,you know, like pressing the record button and
then just start to speak in my not motherlanguage.
And yeah.
Just go just do it, and you learn by doing.
And you mentioned it, practice.
(12:17):
How we get good at anything is practice.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
Thank you so much.
I have another question.
Of course, let me know what this is.
If someone listening wants to transform theirspeaking skills but feels overwhelmed, what's
one small step they can take today to startmaking an impact?
(12:38):
Well, as a thank you for you and your audiencelistening to me, Caroline, I wanted to give
everybody a free guide, a blueprint on how youcan create your own well-crafted presentation.
So if you go to freestoryguide.com, again,freestoryguide.com.
I'm gonna provide you with a blueprint whichtakes you through the process that Coach Jimmy
(13:00):
and I take our clients through.
We call it the five C's beginning with gettingclarity about your message.
This is before you write a single word of yourspeech.
And then the four elements of the speech arehow do you connect with your audience, how do
you teach content to your audience, what's yourcall to action, and how do you close in a way
that gets people to remember you and wanna workwith you again.
(13:21):
So you get that at freestoryguide.com.
I appreciate everything that you're doing,Caroline.
Thank you so much.
And you didn't know that C is my favoriteletter.
Of course, it's like Caroline, and I also loveCalifornia.
I think you mentioned California.
And I will come back one day, of course.
(13:43):
And Choice, Inspired Choice podcast.
Yes.
Thank you so much.
So now let's talk about your coaches andmentors.
Do you have coaches for yourself?
And who was the best coach you ever had?
Of course.
I've had lots of wonderful coaches.
The best ones were my parents.
I paid attention to my parents, but I've beenable to be blessed and work with some pretty
(14:04):
amazing people.
One of my mentors was a guy named Jim Rohn, andJim used to say, you can't pay other people to
do your push-ups.
Translation, you gotta do the work.
So, Jim, I was blessed to work with Zig Ziglar,who's a wonderful speaker, and Jack Canfield,
who's also another wonderful yeah.
Unfortunately, he's just retired, but he'swonderful.
(14:26):
But all of these gentlemen were kind enough towrite all of their thoughts in books.
And even if you haven't worked with themdirectly, you can always get all of their
thoughts, especially Jack's book, The SuccessPrinciples, I think is one of the best personal
development books ever written.
It's absolutely when I first read that book, Iwas just amazed.
(14:46):
I'm like, wow.
The concepts are amazing.
The stories are wonderful.
The teaching points are right on.
I'm like, he put a $25,000 coaching programinto a $25 book.
I would have paid $25 just for his bibliographybecause the books he recommends are wonderful.
So that's my pitch for Jack, is the successprinciple.
Most people know him because he's one of theco-founders of Chicken Soup for the Soul.
(15:09):
But, the success principles, plus every time Iwatch him speak, well, I do this all the time.
I watch 10 speakers a day.
I watched probably 25 speakers yesterday, and Ijust love watching them and trying to figure
out, well, how can I make their speech better?
How can I help them connect a little bitbetter?
But, yeah, those would be some of my what Ilove about your question, Caroline, is anybody
(15:31):
that's successful, people get them there.
I mean, Tiger Woods is the greatest golfer toever live.
I mean, he has a putting coach.
He has a psychology coach.
He has a driving coach.
Maybe he should have hired a relationshipcoach.
But, you excel when you surround yourself withpeople that are pushing you to go further
forward.
(15:53):
Yes.
That's so true.
And this is your message about asking for helpor support.
I was not doing this all the time and yeah.
But I learned it as well, how valuable it is tosurround ourselves with people like you, for
example.
Thank you for being one of my podcast guestsnow.
(16:14):
My last question for you is about your goals.
Do you set goals for yourself or intentions?
And what is one of your next projects?
Of course, I set goals.
I write them down.
This is what I actually was coaching a clientthis morning, and I told him the story about
the two salesmen.
Both of them wrote down a goal.
One, he set his goal to be a he was going tomake $100,000 that year.
(16:39):
And the other salesman, his goal was to make $1million that year.
And at the end of the year, the salesman whohad made the goal of $100,000 was bragging to
the other guy.
He said, oh, I hit my goal right on the number.
I made $100,000.
And he asked the other salesman, did you hityour goal of $1
like, oh, unfortunately, I didn't.
(17:00):
I only got halfway there, which meant he made$500,000.
So the lesson there is set higher goals.
Everybody underestimates themselves.
You should constantly be pushing yourselfforward.
I have lots of different things that, and Ialso believe, you know, I have an exercise with
clients called spokes in a wheel where we takedifferent elements of your life.
(17:24):
I use F's because I used to be a teacher.
Everything has to start with the same letter.
So, your fitness goals, your financial goals,your family goals, your faith goals, your fun
goals, your fulfillment goals, your focusgoals.
And the exercise is I ask you, on a scale of 1to 10, how do you think you are on for your
(17:44):
fitness?
And the person will say, oh, I've been workingout maybe about an 8.
I'm like, okay.
So I put a dot there at 8.
I say, what about financial?
Well, I didn't make as much money this year asI wanted to.
If I say a 5, I'm like, okay, here's a 5.
I do the exercise for every single one of them.
And then after I'm done with that, I have toconnect the dots.
(18:04):
And if the dots don't form a perfect circle,you're out of alignment.
So some people, they're doing really wellfinancially, but they're not taking care of
themselves physically.
Some people, they don't take, they don't spendenough time with their family, or they don't
give themselves enough time to have fun.
You need to make it.
And it doesn't matter.
You don't have to be a ten at everything.
(18:24):
You just have to be the same at everything sothat you have some balance.
The example I give people is John Belushi atone point was the number one entertainer in
America.
He was on the number one TV show.
He had the number one movie.
He had the number one album.
And he died of a cocaine overdose.
He was out of alignment.
He wasn't right mentally.
And so it's really important to consider allthese things all the time.
(18:49):
And so that's what I'm actually evaluatingevery single week.
I plan every single minute of the day.
I actually just read a great book written 100years ago by a British guy.
It's called How to Live on 24 Hours a Day.
And he was just arguing that because, in 1910,Britain had finally gone to a 40-hour work
week, and people were freaking out.
(19:10):
They didn't know what to do with all theirspare time.
And I think this author would be justdevastated that most people today waste their
time watching TV or they're on social mediawhen they could be improving themselves,
starting their own podcast, reading a goodbook, taking a different language, learning
something different.
(19:30):
Most people waste their time, and they're alsothe ones that like to complain about how
nothing good ever happens to them.
Things don't happen to you.
You make them happen.
So, that's a very long answer.
I give long answers to your short questions,Caroline.
But, yes, the answer to your question is yes,of course, I set goals, and I hold myself
(19:51):
accountable when I review those goals on aweekly, monthly, and annual basis.
Wow.
I love your answer.
It says, things don't happen to you.
You make them happen or you let them happen.
It depends on your faith or yeah.
We can talk about that as well.
But this was my last question, and I'm so happyfor our interview.
(20:16):
And now it's time for your final thoughts tothe audience, please.
Well, my final thoughts is, you know, I wasspeaking to a school in India several years ago
and I got the kids all excited and pumped up,getting them to believe in themselves.
And after I spoke, I saw this 6-year-old boy,he's looking up at me, he has a tear in his
(20:37):
eye, and I noticed he's missing his left arm.
And he says, How can, how can I succeed?
And so I crouched down and got to his eyelevel.
And I said, You know, when I was your age, Iwent to 18 different schools before I was 12
years old.
Everybody used to call me stupid because Istuttered.
And eventually, I went to a school, and ateacher, she took me aside, and she worked
(21:01):
one-on-one with me.
And she would sing things to me.
And I found that I could sing without mystutter, and eventually, I lost my stutter, and
I became a swan.
But this is the point I made to that littleboy.
I'm like, isn't it interesting that the littleboy who everybody said was stupid because he
couldn't talk right, now gets paid extreme sumsof money to travel the planet.
(21:23):
To do what?
And he gets the biggest grin on his face.
He's like, speak.
I'm like, don't let anybody ever tell you whatyou can't do.
Anything is possible when you set your mind toit.
If there's one lesson that I've learned in thehistory of the world, everything is possible
all the time.
And so I just thank you, Caroline.
I love your accent, by the way.
When I used to teach English language learners,they were always self-conscious of their
(21:47):
accents.
I'm like, that's what gives us flavor.
I love hearing people's accents.
Plus, I guarantee you, you're speaking Englishbetter than I'm speaking your native language.
So don't let anybody give you a hard time.
Sure.
Thank you so much.
Yep.
I form a new habit now to fall in love with myaccent.
(22:09):
Right?
Let's do this.
Let's set the intention, and I'm so happy aboutour interview today.
Thanks for all you do.
God bless.
And see you in the next episode.
Thank you for listening to Inspired ChoiceToday.
I'm thrilled to have you on this journey ofgrowth and transformation.
(22:30):
Don't forget to hit follow or subscribe to stayconnected and never miss an episode.
And here's something special (22:35):
Grab your free 20-minute breakthrough session with me.
It's designed to help you kick-start or levelup your business.
Just check out the show notes for more.
Until next time, keep making those inspiredchoices.
See you in the next episode.
Yeah.
So we had a gentleman we worked with a coupleof months ago named Richard.
Richard's a very successful financial adviser.
I mean, he used to start off his presentationand say, oh, I've been working in this industry
for 30 years.
I've made my clients over
I've worked with this famous person and thisfamous person.
And I stopped and I said, Richard, what are thethree most important parts of real estate?
(00:23):
Location, location, location.
It's alright to brag, but not at the beginningof your speech.
The beginning of your speech, the way youconnect with an audience is not by sharing your
successes.
It's by sharing your failures.
Welcome to Inspired Choice Today.
I'm your host, Caroline Biesalski, here tobring you authentic stories, surprising
lessons, and powerful takeaways to fuel yourjourney in business and life.
(00:47):
In each episode, I'll take you from oneinspiring guest to the next, blending their
experiences with my expertise to uncoverpractical strategies you can use right away.
Whether you're starting out or stepping up,stay tuned for insights and actionable tips
that make a difference.
And stick around until the end for a specialfreebie just for our listeners.
(01:13):
Hello, and welcome, inspired podcast community.
This is your new episode.
My name is Caroline, and my today's guest isDr.
Danny Brassell, and I'm so happy that he saidyes to our interview.
How are you doing today?
Fantastic.
Even better with you, Caroline.
Thanks for spreading some joy in the world.
We need a lot more of you.
(01:34):
Yes.
That's so true.
And, yeah, let's have a look at what you did inyour life.
So far, I want to introduce you to theaudience.
And, yes, it's a great day to spread joy to theworld.
You are known as Jim Carrey with a Ph.D.
You are a dynamic speaker, trainer, and authorof 18 books including Misfits and Crackpots.
(01:58):
As cofounder of the world's top readingengagement program, you are on a mission to
bring joy back to education and the workplacewhile helping individuals and organizations use
speaking as a powerful client lead source.
Welcome to the Inspire podcast, Dr.
Danny Brassell.
(02:18):
Thank you, Caroline.
That's so great.
You know, Jim Carrey, I love Jim Carrey.
So we will love you, of course.
And my first question to you is, you believejoy is the secret ingredient to learning and
success.
How did you discover this, and why is it sopowerful?
Oh, well, that's great.
(02:39):
Great question, Caroline.
So for many years, I taught in the inner cityin South Central Los Angeles, and I saw that,
you know, I've taught all age levels frompreschoolers to rocket scientists.
I can make that claim because I used to teachEnglish as a second language to engineering
students at the University of SouthernCalifornia.
And what I learned is what works with olderstudents does not necessarily work with younger
(03:02):
students.
But what works with younger students works withall age levels.
And I learned with my little ones that if youkeep them laughing, you keep them smiling, you
keep them active, that's when they're learningbecause they don't even realize that they're
learning.
And so, when I started my speaking coachingcompany with Coach Jimmy Hayes Nelson called
(03:22):
the Well Crafted Story Workshop, we decided wewere going to separate ourselves from a lot of
so-called speaking coaches because a lot ofthese people will teach you to share all these
dramatic and sad moments in your life.
And there's three reasons why I don't want todo that.
First of all, the world just survived a globalpandemic.
Everybody's had bad things happen to them.
I don't think we need to hear another sadstory.
(03:43):
I think we need stories of hope.
That's why I listen to your podcast.
Second of all, what Coach Jimmy and I are doingis teaching you how to create a presentation
that you'll deliver again and again tointroduce yourself to new audiences to help
build up your client base.
Well, would you like to tell the same sad storyagain and again?
I don't know.
(04:03):
I don't know how some people do it.
They tell really depressing stories, and thisis a story they're telling me a thousand times.
And third, and this is where people can getangry with me, I have one objective when I'm on
stage.
I want you to leave feeling better than whenyou came in.
I want you laughing, smiling, happy.
I think there's something admirable about thatas my goal.
(04:25):
I believe that people that tell that same sadstory again and again, by the 20th time they
tell it, those are crocodile tears, and nowthey're being manipulative.
And I'm not saying it's not an effective salesstrategy.
It's actually a very effective sales strategy.
But it's also pretty unethical to me.
I don't want to have to take a shower when Iget off stage because I just manipulated my
(04:45):
audience.
And so life's too short, Caroline.
You know that.
I want people having fun.
I want a lot of smiles.
And, but it was the little ones that taught methat joy was the secret to better learning.
Wow.
What a great answer.
I understand your whole concept now.
And, you know, I can reveal to you and thepodcast community, you are the second person I
(05:08):
need telling me this about and I was doubting.
You know?
I was I'm not so long in that, let's say,personal development, but it brought me to
start my own podcast, so this is great.
I'm collecting all those stories, and I wasalways doubting, like, is it necessary that I
repeat my sad traumatized story over and overagain?
(05:31):
And what I think is it's the people it's like adrug.
It's like a like, there are biochemicals in thebrain.
I think it's like an addiction to repeat thosenegative stories, but I was doubting, and now
now I got clarity through you because yeah.
(05:51):
No.
Really.
So thank you for this.
I learned already.
Let me know.
Yeah, yeah.
Of course.
I have another question, and we can laugh.
Many people struggle with storytelling inbusiness.
What's the key to crafting a message that trulyconnects and converts?
Oh, that's a great question, Caroline.
(06:12):
I couldn't have written a better question.
Well, here, I'll give everybody in youraudience an exercise that Coach Jimmy and I
share with our clients.
You know, later on, once you get a pen andpaper, sit in a comfortable chair with a
libation of choice, and for an hour, I want youto write every story that's ever happened in
your life.
And there you go.
There's your pen and paper.
(06:33):
All right.
I don't mean the entire story.
I just mean triggers.
Like the time I locked myself out of the car infront of the grocery store.
The time Dad spilled mustard on his tie at thatfancy restaurant.
Most people in an hour can come up with atleast 500 stories.
So that's the first part of the exercise.
The second part of the exercise is now you'regoing to look at each story and figure out,
(06:53):
well, what's this really a story about?
Oh, this is a story about never giving up.
Oh, this is a story about accountability.
Oh, this is a story about loyalty.
And so on my computer, I literally have tens ofthousands of these stories.
So when I'm asked to speak and I want myaudience to have certain emotions, I have
various little stories at my disposal that Ican use.
(07:16):
And so really, what we do is we help a lot ofthe business people we work with take their
personal experiences and create compellingbusiness presentations that'll inspire action,
drive growth, and have a lasting impact ontheir audience is what we do.
Wow.
What a great exercise.
(07:37):
And when you talked about 500 or 10,000 on yourcomputer, I was a little bit shocked and
overwhelmed, but I think this is how it worksbecause you want to create or you call it craft
authentic stories, right, that you can tell.
You only need the keyword also, and then youknow where to start.
(07:58):
And it's not made up or yeah.
Yeah.
So we had a gentleman we worked with a coupleof months ago named Richard.
Richard's a very successful financial adviser.
I mean, he used to start off his presentationand say, oh, I've been working in this industry
for 30 years.
I've made my clients over
I've worked with this famous person and thisfamous person.
(08:20):
And I stopped and I said, Richard, what are thethree most important parts of real estate?
Location, location, location.
It's alright to brag, but not at the beginningof your speech.
The beginning of your speech, the way youconnect with an audience is not by sharing your
successes.
It's by sharing your failures, because noteverybody in your audience has succeeded, but
they've all failed.
And the more you talk about your ownvulnerabilities, the more you're gonna connect
(08:45):
with your audience.
And so we changed his speech.
So now, he takes us through at the beginning ofhis speech.
He talks about the very first client he booked,and it's basically a comedy of errors.
It's amazing the person actually booked withthis guy because he made every mistake in the
book.
And Richard, the way he gets clients is abouttwice a week, he has these presentations at
(09:05):
steak restaurants, and he'll get, like, 15married couples and try to book them to work to
put their money with him.
And he said he used to get about 6 out of the15 people to call up and make an appointment.
But he noticed that the guy is always sittingthere with his arms crossed, like, what's this
guy trying to sell me?
Now that he's changed the story, that same guyis now leaning in, patting his knee because
(09:29):
he's laughing so hard, and he was able toincrease the number of appointments from 6 to
12 out of the 15.
And that's really how Coach Jimmy and I measureour success is, you know, are we getting more
clients because of it?
That's really the only way I'm going to measuresuccess.
The numbers don't lie.
And if we're not increasing those numbers,we've got to figure out why.
(09:50):
If you want an opinion, go to your Uncle Frank.
I'm looking at the research.
I'm trying to figure out what is it that weneed to change in your presentation to increase
the number of people who decide to take thatnext step with you, whether that's an unpaid
offer like book a free phone call or subscribeto my podcast or a paid offer like buy my
(10:10):
product or invest in my coaching program.
That's how Coach Jimmy and I are alwaysmeasuring this.
Can we get that number up and how much can weget that number up?
Wow.
I love how you talked about the measurablethings.
We call it KPI, right?
And I learned about that.
But I'm not one of those boring people, youknow?
(10:32):
I can tell you my story now about being 16years in an accounting company.
But, yeah, you know, I dropped it, and I havenow my happy life with my podcast.
So thank you for being my guest.
I trained 620 interviews to be able to speakwith you today because I was not speaking
(10:52):
before.
This is my story, but I can it's not a sad, sadstory.
It's, yeah, about being a happy story.
The great thing that I admire about you,Caroline, is most people just talk.
You actually did something.
I mean, and what's great about you having over600 of these in the can is, I guarantee you,
your first podcast was horrible.
(11:13):
And the second podcast you did was horriblealso, but it wasn't as bad as the first one.
And every single time you do this, you getbetter at it.
And now you're pretty relaxed and you're usedto your format.
And that's really even in accounting, it's thesame thing.
Accounting intimidates me.
But believe me, if I do it every single day,you know, I'm gonna stink at first, but
eventually I'll get better at it because I'mdoing the work.
(11:35):
So I commend you.
Most people, they just talk about things.
I like working with people that are actuallygonna do the work.
Yes.
I totally agree.
Thank you so much.
This is also what I learned that you will notgrow when you procrastinate.
And, you know, so there were two things.
Yes.
It's the start that stops most people.
That is right.
(11:55):
In my first episode, I would say it was not sohorrible.
You don't recognize maybe, but it was inside,you know, like pressing the record button and
then just start to speak in my not motherlanguage.
And yeah.
Just go just do it, and you learn by doing.
And you mentioned it, practice.
(12:17):
How we get good at anything is practice.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
Thank you so much.
I have another question.
Of course, let me know what this is.
If someone listening wants to transform theirspeaking skills but feels overwhelmed, what's
one small step they can take today to startmaking an impact?
(12:38):
Well, as a thank you for you and your audiencelistening to me, Caroline, I wanted to give
everybody a free guide, a blueprint on how youcan create your own well-crafted presentation.
So if you go to freestoryguide.com, again,freestoryguide.com.
I'm gonna provide you with a blueprint whichtakes you through the process that Coach Jimmy
(13:00):
and I take our clients through.
We call it the five C's beginning with gettingclarity about your message.
This is before you write a single word of yourspeech.
And then the four elements of the speech arehow do you connect with your audience, how do
you teach content to your audience, what's yourcall to action, and how do you close in a way
that gets people to remember you and wanna workwith you again.
(13:21):
So you get that at freestoryguide.com.
I appreciate everything that you're doing,Caroline.
Thank you so much.
And you didn't know that C is my favoriteletter.
Of course, it's like Caroline, and I also loveCalifornia.
I think you mentioned California.
And I will come back one day, of course.
(13:43):
And Choice, Inspired Choice podcast.
Yes.
Thank you so much.
So now let's talk about your coaches andmentors.
Do you have coaches for yourself?
And who was the best coach you ever had?
Of course.
I've had lots of wonderful coaches.
The best ones were my parents.
I paid attention to my parents, but I've beenable to be blessed and work with some pretty
(14:04):
amazing people.
One of my mentors was a guy named Jim Rohn, andJim used to say, you can't pay other people to
do your push-ups.
Translation, you gotta do the work.
So, Jim, I was blessed to work with Zig Ziglar,who's a wonderful speaker, and Jack Canfield,
who's also another wonderful yeah.
Unfortunately, he's just retired, but he'swonderful.
(14:26):
But all of these gentlemen were kind enough towrite all of their thoughts in books.
And even if you haven't worked with themdirectly, you can always get all of their
thoughts, especially Jack's book, The SuccessPrinciples, I think is one of the best personal
development books ever written.
It's absolutely when I first read that book, Iwas just amazed.
(14:46):
I'm like, wow.
The concepts are amazing.
The stories are wonderful.
The teaching points are right on.
I'm like, he put a $25,000 coaching programinto a $25 book.
I would have paid $25 just for his bibliographybecause the books he recommends are wonderful.
So that's my pitch for Jack, is the successprinciple.
Most people know him because he's one of theco-founders of Chicken Soup for the Soul.
(15:09):
But, the success principles, plus every time Iwatch him speak, well, I do this all the time.
I watch 10 speakers a day.
I watched probably 25 speakers yesterday, and Ijust love watching them and trying to figure
out, well, how can I make their speech better?
How can I help them connect a little bitbetter?
But, yeah, those would be some of my what Ilove about your question, Caroline, is anybody
(15:31):
that's successful, people get them there.
I mean, Tiger Woods is the greatest golfer toever live.
I mean, he has a putting coach.
He has a psychology coach.
He has a driving coach.
Maybe he should have hired a relationshipcoach.
But, you excel when you surround yourself withpeople that are pushing you to go further
forward.
(15:53):
Yes.
That's so true.
And this is your message about asking for helpor support.
I was not doing this all the time and yeah.
But I learned it as well, how valuable it is tosurround ourselves with people like you, for
example.
Thank you for being one of my podcast guestsnow.
(16:14):
My last question for you is about your goals.
Do you set goals for yourself or intentions?
And what is one of your next projects?
Of course, I set goals.
I write them down.
This is what I actually was coaching a clientthis morning, and I told him the story about
the two salesmen.
Both of them wrote down a goal.
One, he set his goal to be a he was going tomake $100,000 that year.
(16:39):
And the other salesman, his goal was to make $1million that year.
And at the end of the year, the salesman whohad made the goal of $100,000 was bragging to
the other guy.
He said, oh, I hit my goal right on the number.
I made $100,000.
And he asked the other salesman, did you hityour goal of $1
like, oh, unfortunately, I didn't.
(17:00):
I only got halfway there, which meant he made$500,000.
So the lesson there is set higher goals.
Everybody underestimates themselves.
You should constantly be pushing yourselfforward.
I have lots of different things that, and Ialso believe, you know, I have an exercise with
clients called spokes in a wheel where we takedifferent elements of your life.
(17:24):
I use F's because I used to be a teacher.
Everything has to start with the same letter.
So, your fitness goals, your financial goals,your family goals, your faith goals, your fun
goals, your fulfillment goals, your focusgoals.
And the exercise is I ask you, on a scale of 1to 10, how do you think you are on for your
(17:44):
fitness?
And the person will say, oh, I've been workingout maybe about an 8.
I'm like, okay.
So I put a dot there at 8.
I say, what about financial?
Well, I didn't make as much money this year asI wanted to.
If I say a 5, I'm like, okay, here's a 5.
I do the exercise for every single one of them.
And then after I'm done with that, I have toconnect the dots.
(18:04):
And if the dots don't form a perfect circle,you're out of alignment.
So some people, they're doing really wellfinancially, but they're not taking care of
themselves physically.
Some people, they don't take, they don't spendenough time with their family, or they don't
give themselves enough time to have fun.
You need to make it.
And it doesn't matter.
You don't have to be a ten at everything.
(18:24):
You just have to be the same at everything sothat you have some balance.
The example I give people is John Belushi atone point was the number one entertainer in
America.
He was on the number one TV show.
He had the number one movie.
He had the number one album.
And he died of a cocaine overdose.
He was out of alignment.
He wasn't right mentally.
And so it's really important to consider allthese things all the time.
(18:49):
And so that's what I'm actually evaluatingevery single week.
I plan every single minute of the day.
I actually just read a great book written 100years ago by a British guy.
It's called How to Live on 24 Hours a Day.
And he was just arguing that because, in 1910,Britain had finally gone to a 40-hour work
week, and people were freaking out.
(19:10):
They didn't know what to do with all theirspare time.
And I think this author would be justdevastated that most people today waste their
time watching TV or they're on social mediawhen they could be improving themselves,
starting their own podcast, reading a goodbook, taking a different language, learning
something different.
(19:30):
Most people waste their time, and they're alsothe ones that like to complain about how
nothing good ever happens to them.
Things don't happen to you.
You make them happen.
So, that's a very long answer.
I give long answers to your short questions,Caroline.
But, yes, the answer to your question is yes,of course, I set goals, and I hold myself
(19:51):
accountable when I review those goals on aweekly, monthly, and annual basis.
Wow.
I love your answer.
It says, things don't happen to you.
You make them happen or you let them happen.
It depends on your faith or yeah.
We can talk about that as well.
But this was my last question, and I'm so happyfor our interview.
(20:16):
And now it's time for your final thoughts tothe audience, please.
Well, my final thoughts is, you know, I wasspeaking to a school in India several years ago
and I got the kids all excited and pumped up,getting them to believe in themselves.
And after I spoke, I saw this 6-year-old boy,he's looking up at me, he has a tear in his
(20:37):
eye, and I noticed he's missing his left arm.
And he says, How can, how can I succeed?
And so I crouched down and got to his eyelevel.
And I said, You know, when I was your age, Iwent to 18 different schools before I was 12
years old.
Everybody used to call me stupid because Istuttered.
And eventually, I went to a school, and ateacher, she took me aside, and she worked
(21:01):
one-on-one with me.
And she would sing things to me.
And I found that I could sing without mystutter, and eventually, I lost my stutter, and
I became a swan.
But this is the point I made to that littleboy.
I'm like, isn't it interesting that the littleboy who everybody said was stupid because he
couldn't talk right, now gets paid extreme sumsof money to travel the planet.
(21:23):
To do what?
And he gets the biggest grin on his face.
He's like, speak.
I'm like, don't let anybody ever tell you whatyou can't do.
Anything is possible when you set your mind toit.
If there's one lesson that I've learned in thehistory of the world, everything is possible
all the time.
And so I just thank you, Caroline.
I love your accent, by the way.
When I used to teach English language learners,they were always self-conscious of their
(21:47):
accents.
I'm like, that's what gives us flavor.
I love hearing people's accents.
Plus, I guarantee you, you're speaking Englishbetter than I'm speaking your native language.
So don't let anybody give you a hard time.
Sure.
Thank you so much.
Yep.
I form a new habit now to fall in love with myaccent.
(22:09):
Right?
Let's do this.
Let's set the intention, and I'm so happy aboutour interview today.
Thanks for all you do.
God bless.
And see you in the next episode.
Thank you for listening to Inspired ChoiceToday.
I'm thrilled to have you on this journey ofgrowth and transformation.
(22:30):
Don't forget to hit follow or subscribe to stayconnected and never miss an episode.
And here's something special (22:35):
Grab your free 20-minute breakthrough session with me.
It's designed to help you kick-start or levelup your business.
Just check out the show notes for more.
Until next time, keep making those inspiredchoices.
See you in the next episode.
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