How To Turn Any Talk Into Clients: Danny Brassell

Want to speak in a way that wins both the head and the heart? We sit down with author and coach Danny to break down how to turn any presentation into a client-converting experience without leaning on manipulative sob stories or death-by-slide decks. He takes us inside the Five C’s—clarity, connection, content, call to action, and emotional close—and shows why a single, focused next step beats scattered CTAs every time.

We dig into the nuts and bolts of clarity: define your exact audience and the specific problem you solve, then build content in their language. Danny shares how to create a story bank in an hour, tag each story by theme, and choose with intention so your close lands with the “Joe Friday” logic seeker and the “Julia Roberts” feeling seeker. You’ll hear the “flat tire” metaphor that reframes DIY as costly, plus how a well-placed laugh lowers defenses and boosts trust without trying to be a stand-up comic.

If you’re starting from scratch, you’ll learn how to get real momentum by speaking where communities already gather—Rotary, chambers, libraries, churches—and how to swap a fee waiver for high-value assets like testimonials, referrals, and newsletter placements. We also cover the RAP opener—relatable, authority, purpose—to connect in minutes, and why parables, nursery rhymes, and everyday moments stick better than bullet points. By the end, you’ll have a practical roadmap to build talks that serve first, sell ethically, and grow your business faster.

Grab the free Well-Crafted Story Blueprint at freestoreguide.com, then hit follow, share this with a friend who speaks for growth, and tell us the one story you’ll add to your next talk.

Transcript

Two Decision Makers In Every Room

SPEAKER_01 0:00

And I always point this out to people. You have to understand that there's two types of decision makers in your audience. And I'm going to be very stereotypical and say it's the married couple. So the husband is usually what I call Joe Friday. The husband has his arms crossed. He's sitting there looking skeptically, like, how much is this going to cost? What do I got to do? How long is it going to take? And it's very important that you're very clear on answering those questions so he understands how you can help him. But if you end on your call to action, you're ignoring your the wife, who is Julia Roberts. Julia Roberts doesn't care how much it costs. She just wants to feel good. I listen to Morris's podcast because it makes me feel good. It's like my long-lost brother. And if you can do that, then you're going to have a much more effective presentation.

Host Intro And Mission

SPEAKER_00 0:55

Welcome again to the Commission Code Podcast. We appreciate you taking the time to listen and join us here today. We're here to help you increase your business revenue and have time to enjoy it. I'm your host, Morris Sims. I've been consulting and training business people for, well, let's just say over 40 years. We're focused on increasing revenue and having time to enjoy it. After years as a professional salesperson, I spent 32 years in the corporate world. I retired as vice president and chief learning officer of the sales department of a large insurance company where we designed and built and delivered training for over 12,000 professional salespeople. Now I get to consult one-on-one helping people grow their business and organize themselves to make the most of the time they have. We also build online courses to support business owners in their work as they strive to build the business that they've always wanted. Our objective is really very simple. It's this we're here to help you get what you want from your business and your life. So right now, let's get on with this episode. Danny Brussel is our guest today on the Commission Code. And by George, this gentleman has all sorts of good things to share with us. He's an author, he's a speaker, and he does a wonderful job of teaching people how to do that speaking thing that so many of us have an aversion to. But Danny's with us. Danny, I'm not going to try and mess up your introduction. Just tell us a little about you, okay?

Meet Danny: Pivots And Lessons

SPEAKER_01 2:32

Well, first of all, thanks so much for having me, Morris, and thanks for uh spreading some joy around the world. We need a lot more of you, my friend. Uh, if I was going to write an autobiography, it would probably be called Pivots because I feel like I've already lived nine lives. Uh 30 years ago, I was a journalist covering President Bush Sr. in the 1992 presidential election. I loved my job. I got to meet every editor of every major daily, and one editor offered me the City Beat for$16,500 a year. Meanwhile, a friend told me they were hiring teachers in South Central Los Angeles for$25,000 a year. So, Morris, I became a teacher for the noblest of reasons for the high pay. And ironically, I fell in love with it. I've actually taught all age levels from preschoolers all the way up to rocket 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. And in 2005, my wife and I attended a real estate seminar, which turned out to be a scam, and we lost everything financially. And I could give you the woe is me story, but I'm a positive person. I learned a lot from the experience. First of all, I learned that 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 is not everything because you can lose money just like that. Third, I try not to judge other people anymore and Morris, because if I was somebody who looked at 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 a Christian, which I'm always embarrassed to confess, it took a catastrophe. But the more I read my Bible, I realize I'm not the first screw up to find Jesus. And fifth, and probably most appropriately for this conversation, uh, my my uh accountant warned me I was gonna have to file for bankruptcy unless I earned this much more money. And so I started speaking on the side and I hit that number right on the number. Well, the next year Morris, he gave me a much higher number. And I hit that number right on the number. So in year three, 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 attracted the attention of some pretty famous people and companies who wanted me to coach them. And I have to confess, Morris, I really resisted coaching for a long time because you need to know this about me. I'm obsessive, compulsive. I will not let you fail. I will be on your back holding you accountable until you succeed. Well, now that I work primarily with entrepreneurs and executives and business owners, I find that they're highly motivated. They do the work. It's probably been the most gratifying thing that I've ever done with my life. So we can go down whatever route you choose, my friend.

SPEAKER_00 5:09

Oh, that's amazing, Danny. Absolutely amazing. And you know, you're right, everybody's got a story and everybody's got a life. And it uh it just makes all kinds of good things happen. Now, you're in Colorado, right? I am. And while we're only going to use the audio on this, I'll just let everybody know. I just happened to see a Denver Broncos Cup in your in your uh picture there. Are you a Broncos fan?

SPEAKER_01 5:34

I am. Uh I actually met John Elway a few years ago, and uh I I walked by him, and I'm always I I'm always hesitant to meet people that I've idolized because I don't want them to turn out to be jerks. Well, uh I'm like, you know, when are you gonna meet your idol again? And so I went up to him. I said, Well, Mr. Elway, uh, I don't want to interrupt you, but my name's Danny Brussel. And just so you know, before I married my wife, I told her that no man has given me more pleasure than John Elway. And he he laughed and took a photo, so I was happy that he wasn't a jerk. He's great.

SPEAKER_00 6:10

Oh, that's great. That's super. Well, the reason I mentioned it is I'll do this real quickly. I'm an Auburn graduate.

SPEAKER_01 6:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:17

Your quarterback, your quarterback was brought up as an Auburn man and probably still is. I hope he still is, because we did a terrible thing, hired a terrible bad coach, and he had to go to Oregon. And I'm still disappointed in that fact all the way around. But finally got to see Bo Nicks play this week and was impressed with that young man again. So, anyway, we'll get back to the real world now and talk about business.

SPEAKER_01 6:41

But besides Bo Nick's, just so you know, our replacement, Jared Sitham, he went to Auburn too. When I spoke at Auburn years ago, I got to meet him. So, uh, so we're we're all about uh War Eagle this weekend.

SPEAKER_00 6:54

Yeah, Jared, Jared did pretty well for the short, short period of time he was on the field for us, that's for sure. Danny, let's talk about this whole this whole speaking thing and and how you do that well, because I bet every one of us has, for whatever reason, wound up sitting in an audience virtually or in person and be bored to death or just totally wondering why in the world this guy or gal is up there talking and you know, yeah, somebody reads a PowerPoint to you and those kind of things, and you just want to cry. It's just incredible. Where do you begin with someone to help them understand how to communicate better, especially in front of a group?

Building A Speaking Business

SPEAKER_01 7:35

Yeah, so I have uh two co-founders, uh Coach Jimmy Hayes Nelson and Dave Ward. I always call us the professor, the performer, and the producer because my background is in academia. Coach Jimmy was a Broadway actor, and Dave is an attorney. And most of the people that we work with have no interest of going on stage or they're terrified of going on stage. And uh we work, we work through, so you have to you have to bear with me, I'm a former teacher, so everything I do either rhymes or it's alliterative. And so we take people through what I call our five C's process. And the five C's are uh clarity. Before we put together your presentation, we need clarity. And then once we have clarity, then we have to connect with an audience, teach meaningful content that serves the audience, have one clear call to action, and most importantly, uh end with an emotional close that gets people to want to run and do business with us because the only way I monitor our effectiveness with you is how many people in your audience decide to take the next step with you. Now, it can be an unpaid next step like subscribe to my podcast or uh vote for me. Uh more typically, it's usually a paid offer like buy my product or invest in my coaching program. But we want to know our numbers and know how many people in your audience are deciding to take that next step with you because I believe uh speaking is the fastest way to grow your business. And uh, so I'll give your audience a quick little uh the first thing I usually do with clients is later on you can do this more, sit in a comfortable chair with a pen and paper, libation of choice with you. 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, the time dad spilled mustard on his tie when we went to that fancy restaurant. You'll find in an hour you can come up with several hundred stories like that. So that's the first part of the exercise. The second part of the exercise is then I want you to think about what's this story really about? Oh, this is a story about never giving up. Oh, this is a story about loyalty. Oh, this is a story about love. And so on my computer, I literally have hundreds of files with tens of thousands of stories so that when I'm putting together a presentation, I want my audience to feel a certain uh emotion. I have exactly the story to accommodate that. So I'll give you an example. We're working, just so you know, I never name the names of anybody we work with. All you have to do is talk to Coach Jimmy, he blabs about everybody's name and all the companies. I believe in discretion. Um, so we're working with a uh a nutrition expert. Uh, I'm gonna call her Dr. Kathy. And Dr. Kathy, she grew up with this really interesting intestinal disease, very rare intestinal disease that no doctor could figure out how to help her. And so she developed this entire dietary program, and and she's she's uh really done very well with it. And so she has an offer now for women with the same condition to work with her for 90 days for 1997. And that's how she used to end her presentation was her call to action. And I always point this out to people you have to understand that there's two types of decision makers in your audience. And I'm gonna be very stereotypical and say it's the married couple. So the husband is usually what I call Joe Friday. The husband has his arms crossed, he's sitting there looking skeptically, like, how much is this gonna cost? What do I got to do? How long is it gonna take? And it's very important that you're very clear on answering those questions so he understands uh how you can help him. But if you end on your call to action, you're ignoring your the wife, who is Julia Roberts. Julia Roberts doesn't care how much it costs, she just wants to feel good. I listen to Morris's podcast because it makes me feel good. It's like my long-lost brother. And if you can do that, then you're gonna have a much more effective presentation. And so I asked Dr. Kathy what she wanted her audience to do, and she said, I wanted to buy my program. I'm like, Yes, I know you want them to buy your program. Let's get lead.

SPEAKER_00 11:38

Okay, people are so dense.

The Five C’s Of Speaking

SPEAKER_01 11:42

So we went on and on like that for about five minutes, and finally she let it slip. She said, I want people to understand they can't do this on their own. You need to hire an expert story. And she said, What's that? I'm like, I'll give you an example. I'll leave you all with this. Many years ago, my wife and I we had theater tickets. We were addressed to the nines, headed to the theater, and we got a flat tire. And my wife said, Well, I'll call triple A and get a tow truck. And I looked at her, I said, You don't have to call triple A. I'm a man. I gotta fix a flat tire. So I got out of the car, I opened up the trunk, and I got the spare tire, and I got the the pumper thing, and I got the big jack thing, and I started trying to take the uh the the nuts out of the out of the tire. And 27 minutes later, I had grease all over my face. I looked up, my wife has her arms crossed, she's shaking her head like I could have done so much better than this guy. Well, unbeknownst to me, she'd called AAA 27 minutes earlier, and this tow truck shows up and this 17-year-old punk hops out of the truck and he proceeds to fix my flat tire in three minutes flat. You know, I think there are times in life when all of us think we can do it on our own. But if you want to save money and you want to save a whole lot of headache and embarrassment, you hire an expert. And so what I've just done there, Morris, is I've taken an anecdote as a metaphor that now the audience is sitting there thinking to themselves, you know, I've tried lots of programs before that haven't worked, but maybe, you know, Dr. Kathy, she's an expert. She's done this. Maybe that's who I need to just hire. And that's what you're trying to do. Old, I mean, that's the difference between a good presentation and a great presentation. Good presentations tell stories, great presentations tell story stories with intention.

SPEAKER_00 13:40

Yeah, that's amazing. And Danny, you're so right. Because I mean, what I'm what am I sitting here thinking about when you tell that story? I was sitting here thinking about the fact that I tried to build my own website. And it was okay, but it wasn't great. So I hired somebody to come in and build my website because they're expert and they know what they're doing, and it's professional. And I spent some money in order to get what I really, really wanted because what I tried to do on my own, I wasn't, I needed that professional. That's what it brought me to in my mind. So you're absolutely right. That story brings us to how it relates to me directly, right?

SPEAKER_01 14:17

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you're exactly right. And that's what you're thinking. Everybody in your audience is thinking their own, they're exactly what you're thinking, their own story. I mean, I have an attorney I'm working with right now, and so I'm just gonna piggyback off of you, Morris. He just tried to build his own website, and I asked him, how long did it take you to put it together? He's like, two days. I'm like, okay, you're an attorney. How much do you bill clients per hour? He's like,$1,200. I'm like, so you just spent$24,000 to build a mediocre website.

SPEAKER_00 14:47

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 14:49

He didn't think of it that way, but I'm like, your time is money. Why don't you get somebody that does this all the time? It's gonna save you all of those problems, and you're gonna have a better result at the end.

SPEAKER_00 14:59

Oh, isn't that the truth? Oh, that's incredible. So uh in in you mentioned earlier, Danny, you said that speaking is a great way to grow your business. And I would have to agree with that. It makes perfect sense to me. But where I struggle, and I bet other people do as well, if you're willing to get up there and and speak and get in front of a group of people, how do you find the opportunities to do that? Where do you get speaking gigs to begin with? I mean, I I can't go out there and tell people that I'm a great, wonderful speaker, and I've spoken in these particular places and was on the stage in Carnegie Hall and you know, yada, yada, yada. I can't do that. So, how do I how do I get started in this if I really want to use speaking?

Story Bank And Emotional Closes

Clarity First: Audience And Problem

From Free Talks To Real Momentum

SPEAKER_01 15:42

So that's the very first C is clarity. So the two questions I always ask clients, and you'd be amazed, 95% of the people I work with cannot answer one or both of these questions in a succinct manner. Those questions are who is your audience and what is the problem that you solve? If you can answer both of those questions, now you have a presentation. If you can't, we need to figure out exactly. You know, a lot of people they'll tell me, Well, my audience is everybody. I'm like, well, if your audience is everybody, your audience is nobody. You really you really want to look at us. I mean, you can always grow your audience. Excuse me. So, like when I first started speaking, I I always tell people that the way you start your audience is find find your tribe. Who are you already comfortable with? So when I first started speaking, I had been a public school teacher, and so I started by speaking to public school teachers, and then I expanded to all school teachers, and then expanded to parent groups, and then to administrators, and then to uh, you know, ultimately to companies and and people like that. But I had started with a very specific niche. So who is your audience? Figure out who's that niche, who is it that you're very comfortable with as far as what the problem you solve is uh most people they talk about their solution, and I'm like, that's not the right way to approach it. You know, they say if you build it, he will come. I'm like, that's not right. If they want it, then you build it. Figure out what it is that they want and always use their language. Uh that's what you should be focused on. Um so I actually really like your question, Morris. Nobody's ever asked me that because I'm thinking about when I started, okay, I was exactly like you're thinking, oh, who wants to hear me? Well, even the smallest towns in America have a lions club, an optimist club, a rotary club, a Kiwanas Club, uh, an Elks Club, they've got American Legions, they've got uh schools, they've got churches, synagogues, chambers of commerce. And so I gotta confess I probably gave a hundred free speeches, but I've never actually given a free speech. Every speech I've ever given, I've always created a letter of agreement. And so when I was starting off, my letter of agreement said, I will waive my speaking fee of$5,000. Morris, I wasn't making$5,000 at the time, but I still put that on the contract. I will waive my speaking fee of$5,000 in exchange for, and I had 10 items on the list. One, a video testimonial from the president of your organization, two, three written testimonials from people in your audience. Three, um, if you have a newsletter, I want to be able to write a monthly column in it for the next year. Four, uh, two referrals to other organizations that could benefit from this. Five, uh, if you're videotaping, I want a copy of the videotape. Um I don't I I I don't remember all 10 of them, but I was I was interested to see if anybody would do any of them. And I can tell you, everybody did at least one of them. And some people did all 10. And the way I was able to build my business very quickly was I built my credibility very quickly because I had all these video testimonials, all kinds of referrals from other organizations. Um, you know, people say foo-foo-y to these service organizations. I can tell you right now, a rotary club, you'll speak to a rotary club on a Tuesday morning at a holiday inn at a rubber chicken lunch uh luncheon, there's gonna be about 15 to 20 people in the audience. But most of these people are civic leaders, they are insurance uh agents, they're bankers, they're people that are very connected to the community. And I I learned it doesn't matter how many people I'm speaking to, it matters who I'm speaking to. And I'll give you an example. Uh when I was first speaking, I did have two um I was very lucky because I spoke at a at an education conference, and there happened to be two speaking bureau headhunters there, and they both hired me on the spot. And so I started speaking for a couple of speaker bureaus, and I was getting I was getting paid$700 a day to speak for these speaking bureaus for like eight hours a day. And my local library, they asked me if I would do a free presentation for the library. They're like, We're gonna get 500 people in the audience. I'm like, sure, that sounds great. Four people showed up, Morris. Two of them were. Two of them were my realtors. The other two was a Hispanic couple, didn't speak a word of English. But I believe in giving 110%. So I did as much in Spanish as I could. We all had a good time. A week later, it turns out the Hispanic woman was taking English classes at the Adult Literacy Center. She recommended me to do a 45-minute keynote for$4,000, which at the time was six times my daily fee. And that's when I learned, whoa, whoa, you have no idea the resources out there. So these people say, I don't know where to speak. I'm like, there's, I mean, look at you. You have a podcast. How many of how many of your friends say they're going to start a podcast? They never do anything. I can't stand the talkers in the world. They don't do anything. So I love being around entrepreneurs. They do things. Your podcast, this thing is going to be permanent. Like, you don't even have to do another podcast, but it's still out there on the airways forever. I mean, I just booked a gig. I spoke in October in Montevideo, Uruguay. The woman had been on my mailing list for 11 years. It took her 11 years to become convinced that I'm the person she should hire to uh speak for her organization. And I kind of pat myself on the back for that. I'm like, wow, that's pretty persistent, Danny. I didn't give up for 11 years, and you never know. Um and you just never know. So these people say, and plus, when people think speaking, they think, oh, you got to be in a ballroom, you and I are speaking right now. This is very comfortable. A lot of people don't realize a podcast is an incredible forum. Um, Jimmy gives me a hard time. He's like, why do you go on that podcast? There's only one person I ever listens to it. I'm like, again, I don't care who's listening, or I don't care how many, I just care who. If the only person listening to your podcast is the president of the United States, that's a pretty powerful person. So you should be thinking about that all the time. It doesn't even have to be that. I've spoken, I've given so many free presentations to a lot of churches have mothers' groups for preschoolers. They call it mops, mothers of preschoolers. Or and I love speaking to Christian women. Why? One, they gather, and two, they talk. And you need people talking, popping you up. Like when they uh you have no idea. I mean, I I've gotten a lot of gigs because of speaking to organizations like that. So there's all kinds of opportunities, but even you know, uh, right now we're working with a Silicon Valley firm, um, it's a group of engineers, and you know engineers, not exactly, not exactly extroverts. And uh I'm I'm working with one guy, he's the greatest guy, he's an Indian engineer, and he's a he's a very difficult name to pronounce. And he's like, Donny, please, please, you have to make me funny. So the people who listen to me. And so and that's where my spot I'm I like a lot of people tell you to tell sad stories. I like happy stories, so I like to add a lot of humor to talks. And so uh he now starts his presentation. I'm not gonna give you his real name. He now uh starts his presentation. He's like, Hello, my name is Shubanakar Maja Hardin. Gee, I sort of hope I'm pronouncing that correctly. See, and that's what I'm going for. You don't need to be a stand-up comedian. All I want is the audience to just to recognize, oh, that's funny. This guy, he's a good guy. And I mean, uh, whenever I give political examples, it's never based on the politics, it's just based on the communication style. But I really miss I it's pathetic. I I still watch it all the time. I love watching clips of President Reagan. He was so good at speaking. I I don't care what audience he's he always had some kind of silly little anecdote that would get people to laugh. And uh I use that kind of as my I'm a little bit different than a lot of people, Morris, when they're talking about speaking. And all these people are teaching, oh, talk about that tragic moment in your life. And there's three reasons why I refuse to do that. First of all, the world has survived a global pandemic. Everybody's had bad stuff happen to them. We don't need more sad stories. I think we need more stories of hope. Second of all, Coach Jimmy and I, we're teaching you how to create what we call a well-crafted story. Politicians would call this your stump speech. You can call peanut butter and jelly, it doesn't matter what you call it. This is a this is a presentation you're gonna deliver again and again. It's gonna become so ingrained in your head, it's like the Lord's Prayer of the Pledge of Allegiance. You're not even gonna have to think about it. It's gonna be flexible enough to do for a thousand people or one-on-one. Um, you can do it everywhere. Well, do you really want to talk about the worst moment of your life again and again? I mean, I've got a friend, his daughter was killed in a school shooting. He's told that story to over a thousand audiences. I have no idea how he does that. There's no way I could talk about the worst day of my life again and again. And third, and this is where people get angry with me. I have one objective when I'm on stage. This is my most basic objective. I want you to leave feeling better than when you came in. I want you laughing, smiling, happy. I think there's something admirable about that as a basic objective. I believe these people tell the same sad story again and again. 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 because I just manipulated my audience. There are ethical ways to get people to want to do business with you. And I I and this is very important to me, is integrity in speaking and showing people, you know, when we talk about the content portion of the presentation, I I always tell people, you know, whether your audience decides to do business with you or not, you have an obligation to serve them because they gave you their most precious asset, their time.

SPEAKER_00 25:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:36

What can you do to help them?

SPEAKER_00 25:39

Oh, I love it. I love it. And yeah, and I guess the only, you know you tell me, Danny, the only exception I would think to the tragic story is that is one is a tragic story where you you can take that tragedy and show how it turned into a very positive, a very good thing, right?

SPEAKER_01 25:58

Absolutely. And I I mean there are people that do it as that play. I mean, obviously, you know, if you're trying to raise funds for the Holocaust, you're not gonna be telling jokes. I mean, obviously you're gonna have to give some stories, but again, I I'm with you. It's the reason I watch American movies instead of French movies, because if Julia Roberts gets shot in the middle of the American movie, I I know that she'll be revived and alive by the end of the movie.

SPEAKER_00 26:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:20

But if she dies in the middle of a French movie, I look at my wife, I'm like, I think she might be dead. This is funny.

SPEAKER_00 26:28

We do we we my wife and I have said so many times we're watching something, and the the head name character on the show gets gets shot, or oh my god, is he gonna make it? Well, of course he's gonna make it. If he didn't make it, they're gonna have to cancel the show. Anyway, yeah, no, I agree. I agree completely. I I was I'm I hate to do this, but it it I do it all the time. When you're talking about stories, I'm thinking about the story I've used in front of groups a lot of times, and that's the story of my son who was diagnosed at 12 years old as being a juvenile diabetic, and how that changed his life and our lives. And the the end of that tragic story is that everything turned out great, and he's wonderful, and he's a practicing attorney in a law firm and doing a great job as two little girls. That's the only way or the only opportunity, I guess I could see for a tragic story.

SPEAKER_01 27:25

Well, to me, that's the most effective way, though, because what you want. So, again, former teacher, when you're connecting with your audience, you got to rap in the first five minutes. Rap stands for uh you got to show that you're relatable, you got to demonstrate your authority, and you have to share your purpose. So relatable. Oh, I've had that exact same problem. I'm just like you, authority. And I solved that problem, 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 do that, you're gonna really connect with your audience. It's it's one of the most important strategies I share with people. 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, the more people are gonna see themselves and you, and this is what you're ultimately trying to do to connect with your audience. I mean, I'm coaching a guy right now, he's climbed the highest peak on all seven continents. He swam with sharks in Madagascar, he did the I did a rod in Alaska, and I look at him, I'm like, dude, nobody in your audience can relate to you. I mean, nobody in your audience has climbed Mount Everest, but everybody in your audience peed their pants when they were in first grade. That's a good, that's a good story. That's a connection story.

SPEAKER_00 28:43

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And we've all had something happen to our kids that uh that caused us to you know think, oh my God, the world's coming to an end. Yeah, it's it's just it's amazing to me how those things happen. But your framework there is so right on, Danny. I mean, here it is. I'm relatable, I had a problem, I failed, I didn't do this. Happened to me, the world's coming to an end. But, you know, we saw that happen and we solved it. And here's how we solved it. And I want to help you make sure you don't ever have to to deal with what I did. I mean, that that just that framework makes it so easy and simple to think through that story. What do what are the what are the things in a story that make it really good? I those are obviously some of those things, Danny, but what I bet you've got a uh an idea or to share with us about what what what do I do to build a good story?

Humor, Integrity, And Avoiding Trauma Bait

SPEAKER_01 29:41

I again I think the most important thing you can do, Morris, is to look at uh just simple things in your daily lives. Those are those are the gems. I mean, all of us have had some silly argument with our spouse where we didn't talk for two days and it was just the dumbest argument ever. I mean, that's that's how you're gonna connect with people. I mean, I use a um, you know, when I'm when I'm speaking to groups about the import of why you should hire us to come to you, I say, you know, when I was an elementary school teacher, I was I I was the only teacher in my school who only who only went through one band-aid every single year. I mean, every other teacher went through hundreds, if not thousands, of band-aids. I mean, kids want band-aids. They work better than smokes on the prison yard. Well, again, every year I went through exactly one. And my colleagues used to ask me, well, what's your secret? Well, on the first day of class, I always have some chubby little boy in my classroom. We'll call him Paco, and Paco's picking at a stab all morning long. And finally, after recess, he he's he starts bleeding. And the annoying little girl raises her hand, rubs her nose, says, Mr. Marcel, Paco's bleeding. I'm like, oh my gosh, Paco, you know what you need? You need a band-aid. Now, 33 heads look my way. I got a drawer full of band-aids in my desk, and I don't just have ordinary band-aids, I have mighty more from Power Ranger band-aids. And I'm gonna give you the Green Ranger because he's the coolest. Now, Paco's smiling, all the little kids are grinning from ear to ear. I take Paco to my desk, I open up the drawers. Oh, before we put on the band-aid, I gotta clean out the wound. And I show all the kids the bottle of rub and alcohol. I say, Hey, Paca, squeeze on my hand. This might sting a little bit. I start pouring on the rubber and the alcohol. There you go. There's your band-aid, Paco. Anybody else need a band-aid? My students can have a skull fracture, and they will never ask me for a band-aid. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm not gonna give you band-aids tonight. I'm gonna give you practical strategies on how you can take your stories and create a well-crafted story that converts your audiences into clients. Pretty basic story, but again, I like the humorous elements. I'm always looking for something, you know. I I mean, people say, well, you can't you can't be funny all the time. Well, okay. I mean, I'm working with uh I shared with you earlier, I'm working with a financial services firm. And so uh they have me doing presentations uh to get retirees to uh to uh invest in them. And so my presentation, I say, well, well, retirement planning, there's five elements. It's income, uh, taxes, investments, healthcare planning, and legacy. And so I end the presentation with legacy. I say, um, you know, in 2013, when my father had passed away, my mom asked if I would help her go through her things. And so I went into his office, and there's this old filing cabinet with four drawers. And for the next three weeks, I went through file after file of my father's. I mean, this guy had kept everything. I found his 1987 tax return. I found a receipt for a sports car he bought in 1964, I found warranties to products that don't even exist anymore. You know what I couldn't find? Oh, Will. I couldn't find a copy of his life insurance policy.

SPEAKER_00 33:14

Bingo.

SPEAKER_01 33:15

I couldn't find uh the passwords to any of his retirement accounts, I couldn't find uh the name of his insurance agent. My mom looked at me in tears. She's like, Your dad was so organized about all the wrong stuff. He kept every receipt for 50 years, but he didn't make it easy for us to find his life insurance policy. We found it about six months later in a file marked MIS. How many of you have been organizing things for a long time and they're in all colored photos? But if you do pass and statistics show that there's a hundred percent likelihood of that happening, can your loved ones find the important documents in 30 seconds? Or are they gonna have to spend six months going through 50 years of Sears receipts to find the important documents? So I'm using a much more powerful, I'm slowing it down. This is these are the things I mean I can because I want people in the room, I want them, and it's what they're and this is why I'm not a big fan of using PowerPoint slides, because I want everybody to picture their parents right now. I don't want them seeing my dad, I want them seeing their dad, and I want them seeing, well, maybe their dad didn't have a filing cabinet, maybe it was in his deck desk or or where in the garage or something, because all of us have that story. This is what this is what we're trying to do in storytelling is connecting. Um, I always tell people my one my favorite storyteller of all time is Jesus. When you read the Bible, I'm like, this is the most frustrated teacher on the planet. Like the his disciples never figure it out. He's like, oh, all right, let me tell you a story. And that's how he's able to communicate everything. Uh and this is the argument I always make. I bet you nine out of ten non-Christians are familiar with the story of the prodigal son.

SPEAKER_00 35:17

Oh, sure. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:18

They're familiar with the story of the Good Samaritan. They're the they're familiar with the story of David and Goliath. I'll also bet you nine out of ten Christians cannot name the Ten Commandments. And the reason is it wasn't presented as a story, it was presented as a PowerPoint slide with 10 bullet points for you and hey, Moses did the best he could.

SPEAKER_00 35:39

He did. They did, yeah. No, you're absolutely right. Absolutely right. And the great part about the stories that Jesus told, those parables, is that they all had, if you will, a point. They all had a moral that was just so dead on that you couldn't miss it. And yeah, so many preachers take those stories and try and find something deep and un No, it was very simple and straightforward. He didn't want to make it hard for you to understand, he wanted you to really get it and understand. Anyhow, we could we could go with it forever.

RAP: Relatable, Authority, Purpose

SPEAKER_01 36:13

It's true. It's the same with like nursery rhymes. I tell people those nursery rhymes, they serve a point. I mean, look at the story of the three little pigs. I'm using this on this retirement planning seminar. I'm like, look at the three little pigs. So you got you got this mom who's sick of her three sons, so she kicks them out of the house. They each have to build their own house. And so one builds his out of straw, one builds his out of sticks, the other one builds his out of brick, uh, out of out of bricks. Well, the big bad wolf comes and he he huffs and he puffs and he blows the straw house down. He husts and puffs, blows the stick house down, but he husks and puffs, and he tries as much as he can. He can't build, he can't blow down that brick house. And the thing that's important to remember is uh all of these brothers, they all started with the exact same budget. They did. What was the difference? One decided to take the time to plan. Most people have a straw house retirement plan and they're just praying. Now, if you actually hire the right professionals, you get a brick house plan where you're covered from every angle. This is the I see again, I'm showing people this is from a nursery ride. I I I think adults uh, you know, when I read um one of my favorite books is The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris. And uh in that book, I learned that uh by the time he was 30 years old, uh Teddy Roosevelt had read over 20,000 books. So I told that to my little ones. They're like, wow. So I'm all right, kids, we're gonna read a lot of, we're gonna read 10 books a day. I mean, many of them are scratch and smith and pop-up, but I do read 10 books a day. But people laugh at me when I say that, but I gotta tell you, Morris, when I'm reading, you can read kid books. I mean, before I read biographies of famous people, I usually read the kids' picture book because I'll learn a couple of things about them. Before I go to a cocktail party, I'm always going to Barnes Noble or the children's section of the library to just read about people so I can just drop some amazing fact and people are wow, did you read a 700-page biography by Walter Isaacson? No, I read a picture book, a 32-page picture book. It told me everything I needed to know.

SPEAKER_00 38:16

That'll work. That'll work. Danny, this has been so much fun. Thank you so very much for taking the time to join us today on the Commission Code.

SPEAKER_01 38:24

Thank you so much. Uh, I really appreciate you, Morris. And as a thank you to you and your audience for having me, I wanted to give everybody a freebie. Uh, if you go to freestoreguide.com, guide like a tour guide, freestoreguide.com, I'm going to give everybody their own free 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 well-crafted story. What this does for you is it takes the guesswork out of where should I put this story and why not why am I putting it here? And what this means for you is you now have an actual system to convert all of your audiences into clients. You can get that at freestoreguide.com. And Morris, thanks for just letting me talk. You're you're such a kind host. I appreciate you.

SPEAKER_00 39:09

Oh, we had a good time, man. And you you added so much value to me and to our audience. I really do appreciate you. I got to go to that website, man. That sounds great. I will do that right now. Uh yeah, besides that, Danny, how did we get in touch with you?

SPEAKER_01 39:23

Well, like I told you, Morris, this is the biggest mistake I see most people make, is they have multiple calls to action. I I was on a podcast the other day, and at the end, the hostess, she said, if you enjoyed today's podcast, make sure you like, subscribe, and give us a five-star review. And after we go off the air, I said, You just asked your audience to do three things. They're not going to do any of them. Because again, former teacher, I always say choices confuse and cause you to lose. If you look at the largest uh grocery store chains in the United States, Kroger, Foodline, Publix, uh, Smith's, whatever, uh, they're not the number one grocery store chain based on volume. The number one grocery store chain based on Based on volume, is Trader Joe's. And the reason is when you go into one of those big supermarkets looking for mustard, there's 38 different types of mustard. When you go into Trader Joe's, there's one. It's called mustard. And so I'm going to practice what I preach, Morris. And if people just go to freestoryguy.com, I'm completely confident you'll be put on some kind of email list for the rest of your life that uh you can communicate with me.

SPEAKER_00 40:24

That'll work great. Danny, thanks so much again. Really appreciate you. Best wishes, my friend.

Everyday Moments That Convert

SPEAKER_01 40:29

God bless.

SPEAKER_00 40:36

Well, that does it for this episode of the Commission Code Podcast. This is the place where we want to help you find the Commission Code to success in your business. Remember, go to Morris Sims.com for more information. And in the meantime, hey, have a great week. Get out there and meet somebody new, and we'll see you again next time right here on the Commission Code. Best wishes, I'm Morris Sims.