The Power of Story, Leadership, and Legacy — with Dr Danny Brassell - Full Episode

Welcome to Life & Leadership Connected—a podcast about living and leading with purpose, clarity, and impact.
Today’s episode is one I truly enjoyed recording. I had the pleasure of sitting down with Dr. Danny Brassell, an internationally recognized speaker, author, trainer, and storytelling expert.
Danny has spent decades helping people—from classrooms to corporate stages—rediscover the joy of learning, the power of story, and the importance of authentic leadership.
In our conversation, Danny shares his personal journey from journalism to teaching to becoming a globally sought-after speaker. We explore why storytelling is more powerful than statistics, how to lead with humor and heart, and how routines and self-discipline form the foundation of lasting influence.
We also talk about legacy—what it really means to serve others, and why your failures, not just your successes, are the keys to building connection and trust.
Whether you’re a young professional finding your voice, or a leader trying to grow in influence and impact, this episode will give you practical wisdom and fresh inspiration.
So grab a notebook—or just lean in—and enjoy this rich and joyful conversation with Dr. Danny Brassell.

To learn more from Dr. Danny Brassell, connect with him on social media:
🔗 Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram

🎁 Grab the free resource Danny shared – the Well-Crafted Story Guide – right here:
👉 https://wellcraftedstoryworkshop.com/workshop

If this episode spoke to you—or if you know someone who needs this message—share it forward. Whether it’s a teammate, employee, or friend, you can point them to:
🌐 https://lifeleadershipconnected.systeme.io/7bab630d

👣 And as always—We empower your journey.

Transcript

0:05

I'm a big reading ambassador uh and... uh It's ironic because I grew up hating reading. My father was a librarian and I always hated the library. I hated the public library. The furniture was always uncomfortable. It always smelled weird to me. There was always an elderly woman telling me to be quiet. There was always some freaky homeless guy by the bookshelves who thought he was a vampire. I always hated it. And it wasn't until I started teaching in the inner city where I saw a lot of my students didn't have the advantages I had growing up. And I basically said, shame on me. Yeah, I'll give you a story about that David. I was speaking in India to a school. I got all the kids pumped up and after the presentation the kids are coming up and saying hi and everything and all of sudden I see this little boy. He's about six years old and he has tears in his eyes and he looks up at me and he says how can I succeed? And I noticed he's missing his left arm and so I crouched down. get to his eye level and I say you know when I was your age I went to 18 different schools before I was 12 years old, and everybody called me Stupid, because I stuttered. And eventually I went to a school and a teacher worked one-on-one with me and she would sing things to me and I found I could sing them back without my stutter. It's kind of like the movie The King's Speech. And eventually I lost my stutter and I became a swan. Well, I looked at that boy in the eyes and I said, Isn't it interesting the little boy that everybody used to make fun of because he couldn't speak right now gets paid a lot of money to go around the world to do what? and he gets this big grin on his face, he said, "Speak". I'm like, don't let anybody ever tell you what you can't do. Everything is possible. It was teaching the little ones that made me a much better speaker and communicator because six year old children have about a seven minute attention span and I learned I got to keep things rolling all the time and I Love laughing with the kids But when I need to make a point, I usually try to blend that the the humor with the with a little bit of heart uh you know, I I said that the silliest thing I ever said when I was teaching first grade, the silliest thing I ever said as a teacher. I once told the kids, OK kids, write about your lives. And they looked at me like I was from outer space. They're like, we're only six. Nothing's happened to them. No, nothing's happened to us. And I said, no, man, things happen. Things happen all the time to you. I'm like, okay, when I was in first grade, I had a teacher, she called me stupid. She smacked me on the hand and got me to cry in front of the whole class. And so the next day when I was walking to school, I had an apple and I peed on the apple and I gave her the apple and she ate it and said it was the best apple she had ever had. My kids are like,"That is awesome!". This is also the reason I've never accepted food from a child. But you know, I learned that if you want kids to tell you stories, you need to tell them stories. The same with leaders. I mean, if you're running a company and you want to hear those great stories of customer service and employee satisfaction, well, you need to share your own stories and create an environment where people are celebrating the triumphs and pointing out, OK, here's my trial and tribulation. Can somebody help me out with this problem. That's how we move the needle. Hello and warm welcome to the Life and Leadership Connected podcast. I am David Dahlén D'Cruz and I'm so excited you're here today. In this podcast we dive into what really matters. Finding a life's purpose. Discovering a why. and learning how to connect life and leadership in a healthy and sustainable way. What fuels your energy and passion? How do we grow and stay as leaders who make a real difference? inspiration to live with greater purpose and lead with heart. Want to learn more? Visit lifeleadershipconnected.com. I'm your guide and coach, David Dahlén D'Cruz. Let's get started. Hello and welcome to a new episode of Leadership Connected podcast. Today I have a uh very special guest here whose name is Danny Brassell. Danny Brassell, welcome to the podcast, Danny. Thank you so much for having me David. More importantly, thanks a lot for spreading some joy in the world. We need a lot more of you. I appreciate all you do with this podcast. Thank you, thank you. And as I usually do, I will give a short presentation of who Danny is. And he's a highly sought after speaker, author, trainer, and educator who's been igniting audiences around the world with his energy, humor, and heart. And he's also a storytelling expert. And he has dedicated his career to helping people communicate effectively and acquire more clients through speaking. And he works with entrepreneurs, business owners, thought leaders, and people terrified of speaking who want to leverage public speaking as a client acquisition tool. is a recognized authority on leadership development, motivation, and communication skills. And for over 25 years, Danny has dedicated his life to helping people, whether in classrooms, boardrooms, or on big stages. to fall in love with learning again. And he's the founder of programs like Read Better Faster, author of more than 15 books, including bestsellers on education, motivation and leadership. And he's often referred to as the Jim Carrey with PhD. What makes Danny unique? is that he helps people discover the power of their own story and how that story can be a tool for impact, influence and legacy. So is that correct description of you, Danny? Well, that's a very nice, very generous description of me. I appreciate it. I mean, if I were to describe myself, I'd say if I was writing an autobiography, I would call it Pivots because I've had lots of different lives. uh Over 30 years ago, I was a journalist covering President Bush Senior in the 1992 presidential election, and it was a great job. I got to meet every major editor in America, and one editor of a major daily offered me a job doing the city beat. for $16,500 a year. And then a friend told me they were hiring teachers in South Central Los Angeles for$25,000 a year. So I became a teacher for the noblest of reasons, for the high pay. And I fell in love with teaching. I've taught all ages 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 then 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 focus on all the negatives but I'm a positive person and I learned all kinds of things. First of all uh my wife is my soulmate. she stuck by me when I put her through the ringer. She's an incredible human being. Second of all I no longer place so much uh attention on money because I learned you can lose money just like that. Third I try not to judge other people because if I was somebody who saw what I did, I would have said, you deserve that, but... You know, now I realize if you don't know everything about a person, you don't know anything about a person. uh Fourth, I became a Christian, which I'm always embarrassed to confess, but the more I read the Bible, I'm not the first screwed up to find Jesus. And fifth, I didn't want to have to declare bankruptcy, and my accountant said, well, you have to make this much more money if you don't want to declare bankruptcy. And so I started speaking on the side, and I hit his number right on the number. Well, the next year, David, He set 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. So basically during one of the worst economic downturns in world history, I was able to build up a very lucrative speaking business, which was rolling along really well until 2020 when a thing called COVID happened and people said, well, how's your speaking business doing? I'm like, wow, it's great how they just shut down the world. My last 200 speaking engagements, it's doing great. ah So for years, people have been asking me, David, if I would coach them in speaking. I always resisted because as a teacher, I've always had a very high standard for my students. I actually will not let you fail. I stay on your back and hold you accountable until you succeed. And I found I love working with entrepreneurs and business people because they're highly motivated and they do the work. And so that's a very long answer to your short question, but I've been doing lots of lots of different things and that's what I love. Now I empower leaders to to basically transform their personal experience. experiences in the powerful business stories that inspire action drive growth and create lasting impact and I absolutely love it. Thank you. Thank you. I usually ask uh four to every guest in the podcast and I will start with one here. Tell me about what gives your Life Danny within the area of focus that you have chosen to spend most of your time in your life and how do you keep your energy at high level day by day? That's a great question, David. It's kind of ironic, you know, a lot of I'm a big reading ambassador uh and... uh It's ironic because I grew up hating reading. My father was a librarian and I always hated the library. I hated the public library. The furniture was always uncomfortable. It always smelled weird to me. There was always an elderly woman telling me to be quiet. There was always some freaky homeless guy by the bookshelves who thought he was a vampire. I always hated it. And it wasn't until I started teaching in the inner city where I saw a lot of my students didn't have the advantages I had growing up. And I basically said, shame on me. I mean, I was very blessed, Both of my parents were in the home. We were poor, but we always had food on the table. And my parents always read to us kids. They read in front of us kids. And we had plenty of access to reading materials. And so I find most of my joy in spreading a love for reading. uh You know, even in today's electronic environment, people think that books don't matter, but they really do matter. And uh they're almost like nourishment for me. They nourish my soul, even books that aren't very good. I read lots of bad books, but if there's one little story in there that I like, it was well worth the read. So I'd say that's what feeds my soul and keeps me energized all the time. Wow, interesting. you, what would you say is your favourite genre of books to read? Well, I always like uh personal development books and biographies. I like books that inspire me. Biographies of famous, it's kind of, I always tell people it's ironic if you read books about famous people, they usually have one thing in common. Most of them dropped out of school, which tells me what are we doing wrong in school? We should be doing a better job if these people aren't, I mean, these people are geniuses and for some reason we're missing out on that. uh But I always love reading about people from around the world and figuring out uh what did they do to uh overcome the challenges and get their success. It's fascinating to me. Thanks. met quite a few people, and very many people in fact, who don't believe their story matters, Danny. And why do you think that's such a widespread fear that they don't think that they are not important? Yeah, it's interesting of all people it was Joseph Stalin who said a million people dead is a statistic and one person dead is a tragedy and that's the key point that people need to understand is that facts tell but stories sell. I work with so many people that they think they're going to impress their audiences with stats and charts and diagrams and the opposite is true. The more they give that personal story about well why did they do what they do that's what's going to really connect with people. I'll give you an example. We were working with a gentleman, a financial planner named Richard a few months ago and Richard began his speech. uh He said, I've been in the financial industry for 30 years. I've made my clients over a billion dollars. I've worked with this famous person and this famous person. And I said, Richard, time out. What are the three most important elements of real estate? Location, location, location. It's all right to brag, but you're doing it at the wrong part of your presentation. The most important thing at the beginning of your presentation is to connect with your audience. And if there is one strategy I would share with your audience, David, it's stop talking about your successes and start talking a lot more about 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 they're going to connect with you and see themselves in you and see that success is possible. And so Richard now the way we changed his presentation is he talks about the very first client he got 30 years ago and it's this hilarious story. He made every mistake possible. I still can't believe the person actually invested money with him but he says that audiences used to be with they'd sit with their arms crossed like what's this guy trying to sell me and now he tells this story and the same people are patting their knees because they're laughing so hard. Well, that's the power of story. And I think what separates me from a lot of coaches is a lot of coaches will tell you to tell stories about traumatic experiences in your life. And there's three reasons why I don't do that. First of all, the world just survived a global pandemic. Everybody has had bad things happen to them. I don't think we need to hear more sad stories. I think we need more stories of hope. Second of all, what I'm coaching people to do is create what I call a well-crafted story. Politicians call it a stump speech. Superhero movies, it's your origin story. You can call it a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. What this is is this is a speech that you deliver again and again to introduce yourself to new audiences. Well, do you really want to tell that same sad story again and again? I mean, I have a friend and his presentation he talks about the day his daughter was murdered. He's given that story about a thousand times. I could never do that. He's got to be a lot stronger than me. I don't know how he does that. And third, and this is where people get a little bit angry with me, I have one objective when I'm on stage. 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 my objective. I believe the people that tell the same sad story again and again, by the 20th time they're telling that story, 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 when I get off stage because I just manipulated my audience. There are much more ethical ways to get people to take that next step with you. And so that separates me. I think there's way too much misery and negativity in the world. I'd like to spread some joy and positivity. That's why I listen to podcasts like yours because it's always going to have uh great guests. You always provide insights and it's positive. It helps me. Yeah, thank you. you're very successful and obviously have a very strong self-confidence, but not everybody has that. So I wonder, have you had moments of self-doubt yourself, times when your message didn't land or when you questioned your path? Yeah, I'll give you a story about that David. I was speaking in India to a school. I got all the kids pumped up and after the presentation the kids are coming up and saying hi and everything and all of sudden I see this little boy. He's about six years old and he has tears in his eyes and he looks up at me and he says how can I succeed? And I noticed he's missing his left arm and so I crouched down. get to his eye level and I say you know when I was your age I went to 18 different schools before I was 12 years old, and everybody called me Stupid, because I stuttered. And eventually I went to a school and a teacher worked one-on-one with me and she would sing things to me and I found I could sing them back without my stutter. It's kind of like the movie The King's Speech. And eventually I lost my stutter and I became a swan. Well, I looked at that boy in the eyes and I said, Isn't it interesting the little boy that everybody used to make fun of because he couldn't speak right now gets paid a lot of money to go around the world to do what? and he gets this big grin on his face, he said, "Speak". I'm like, don't let anybody ever tell you what you can't do. Everything is possible. ah So just like everybody in your audience, I've had a lot of self doubt. My youngest daughter, David, the other day, a teacher uh kind of squashed one of her dreams. He said, well, you can't do that. And I told this to my daughter and I'm telling this to your audience as well. When a person says you can't do it, what they're really saying is, they can't do it. Don't let other people put their limitations on you. That's good. That's good. Thank you. me about your leadership, Danny, of yourself and others and about some challenges and milestones that have shaped you to the person you are today and the most important lesson that you've learned as a leader. Oh, That's a great question, David. I think uh leadership requires a lot of... discipline, self-discipline. I always tell people that all of us are leaders. uh If at a very minimum you're leading yourself and so are you doing a good job of leading yourself? And I have my failings like everybody else and what I've learned is what I really need to do is I need to establish habits, routines and those routines are what make me successful. And so I begin and end my day reading something positive because I think there's way too much negativity in the world. uh You know, I have a planner where uh every Saturday morning I plan out my week for the following week so that I know how I'm going to spend the time in my day. uh Things that I think are a waste of time, I now outsource to people. I mean, I have employees in Bangladesh and in Costa Rica and in Bulgaria. uh If I don't like doing it, I've decided life is too short. I'm gonna let somebody else do that. And people say, that costs money. I'm like, no. Money is pretty easy to replace. I can't replace time. My time is valuable and I'd rather spend my time on the things that are important to me. uh I spend, I'm a former teacher so everything has to be a literative or rhyme and so I have seven F's in my cycle. So I have my Focus goals. my Financial goals, my Fitness goals, my Family goals, my Faith goals, my Fun goals, and my Fulfillment goals. And by structuring those, and I'm a guy who likes to check boxes, I have them in my pre-week planner, and I'm constantly going through that, and it's a constant struggle, and I think that that's probably what most, I mean, most of leaders I work with, they're struggling with something, and it's usually, you need to show it in black and white to them, well, this is how you're actually spending your time and you know numbers don't lie. No, good, thank you. one of your videos that you have on your webpage, and when you shared a story about a lady, I think, oh some mother, that came to you and asked about her child, and you said that they should change school. oh it was, yeah, you talked about a short period when you were a teacher. And I saw that you were in your talks, you blend heart with humor and depth. And there's wisdom in your speaking messages also. What helped you to develop that kind of story style that blends this, that mixes those together? Well, that's a great question, David. Thank you for that one. uh I started off when I started teaching, I started off teaching high school students and then I went to middle school, then upper elementary to lower elementary to pretty soon, instead of preparing students for college, I was coming home with snot marks all over my pants from my little ones hugging me all the time. And what I learned is what works with a 12th grader does not necessarily work with a kindergartner, but what works with a kindergartner works with all age levels, even and It was teaching the little ones that made me a much better speaker and communicator because six year old children have about a seven minute attention span and I learned I got to keep things rolling all the time and I Love laughing with the kids But when I need to make a point, I usually try to blend that the the humor with the with a little bit of heart uh you know, I I said that the silliest thing I ever said when I was teaching first grade, the silliest thing I ever said as a teacher. I once told the kids, OK kids, write about your lives. And they looked at me like I was from outer space. They're like, we're only six. Nothing's happened to them. No, nothing's happened to us. And I said, no, man, things happen. Things happen all the time to you. I'm like, okay, when I was in first grade, I had a teacher, she called me stupid. She smacked me on the hand and got me to cry in front of the whole class. And so the next day when I was walking to school, I had an apple and I peed on the apple and I gave her the apple and she ate it and said it was the best apple she had ever had. My kids are like,"That is awesome!". This is also the reason I've never accepted food from a child. But you know, I learned that if you want kids to tell you stories, you need to tell them stories. The same with leaders. I mean, if you're running a company and you want to hear those great stories of customer service and employee satisfaction, well, you need to share your own stories and create an environment where people are celebrating the triumphs and pointing out, OK, here's my trial and tribulation. Can somebody help me out with this problem. That's how we move the needle. Interesting. you bring others into their own story, especially those who feel stuck? Yeah. That's a great question, David. It's actually the first exercise I usually take my clients with and I'll share it with your audience is later on, I want you to sit in a comfortable chair with a pen and paper, a 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 the grocery store, the time dad spilled mustard on his tie in that fancy restaurant. You'll find in just an hour you'll come up with about 500 of these little stories. So that's the very first part of the exercise. The second part of the exercise is now I want you to figure out what's this story really about? This is a story about never giving up. This is a story about loyalty. This is a story about kindness. And so on my computer, I literally have hundreds of folders with tens of thousands of stories that when I'm speaking to people and I want them to do something, I have a story for that. So I'll give an example. I was working with a woman a few weeks ago, Kathy, and uh we were working on in her presentation, her call to action, what she wanted the audience to do. I asked her, I'm like, well, what do want them to do? And she said, well, I want them to hire me. I'm like, well, Why should they hire you? She's like, well, because I'm an expert. I'm like, okay. So you need a story about hire an expert. And so what we'll do is we'll use a different story that has nothing to do with your industry, but it shows the audience the importance of hiring an expert. And so the example I gave her, said, okay, I'll give you an example. Many years ago, I had theater tickets. And so my wife and I, were dressed to the nines going to the theater, but on the way to the theater, we got a flat tire. And my wife she said, well, I'll call the towing company. I said. We don't need to call them. I'm a man. I can fix a flat tire. And so I opened up the trunk and I got out the spare tire and I got the the pumper thing and I got the X thing to uh I started trying to to repair the flat tire and 27 minutes later I had grease all over me. I hadn't repaired the flat tire and my wife is shaking her head like I could have done so much better than this guy. Well unbeknownst to me while I was trying to fix the flat tire she called the tow truck company. A tow truck comes and this 17 year old kid pops out of the tow truck and he was able to fix the flat tire in about three minutes. You know, I think there are times in our lives when all of us think we can do it on our own, but if you want to save time, you want to save money, and you want to save a whole lot of headache and heartache, you hire an expert. And so what I'm doing is I'm taking a story to illustrate the point to the audience. The best leaders are constantly used... I mean, if you look at the Bible, that's all Jesus is doing all the time is he's looking at his apostles. He's, okay, people, all right, let me tell you another story to illustrate this point because you're so dense. uh And it's great though, because people remember stories. They don't remember facts and figures, but they can remember. I mean, look at you, you even at the video, you remember the story. of Jonathan's mother looking at me like what can I do with Jonathan because I told the story in a way that touched you. So that's the power of story. Wow, yeah, so amazing. gives you purpose and meaning in life? What is your why, your purpose and your motivation for what you do? Well. That's a great question, David. I mean, I love, there's nothing, I never thought I would like coaching because again, I have a very high standard. And when I was, the reason I left teaching is I could get 30, I'd have 33 students and I'd get 31 of them above grade level, but I couldn't think about them. I thought about the two, I hadn't done that and it killed me because I'm a perfectionist and it's, I'm obsessive about it. And it's, it kills me. I'm still, working on it, but it also makes me a very good coach because the people that work with me, they know that I'm invested in their success. I mean, to me, to me, there's nothing more exciting than seeing one of my clients succeed well beyond where I'm at in life. I absolutely love that. love, especially most of the people I work with, they're not speakers. They're people that they were using speaking to help them grow their business or to grow their non- I mean, like if I'm working with a pastor, it's to grow their church. If I'm working with a politician, it's to get votes and to get elected. I'm working, you know, there's different purposes for people. ah But I love watching that growth. And most of the people I work with, they're terrified to speak on stage and watching them go for, I mean, it's just like you, David. I always tell people this. It takes time. It's a skill though. You the first time you did your podcast, I guarantee you it stunk. And the second time, you did your podcast, it stunk. But it didn't stink as bad as the first time. But the more you've done it now, you have this fine, this well-oiled machine. Now it's like, no problem. I got my four questions. I know how to talk to people. And it's because you have that practice. And that's what I, I always tell the people I work with, there's two ways to get better at speaking. mean, first of all, you got to watch lots of speakers. I watch 10 speakers a day. I watch politicians. I watch comedians. I watch televangelists. I watch them in front of big groups. in front of small groups, in front of men, in front of women. Here, I'll give your audience a little ninja strategy I share with my clients. I watch a lot of televised award shows because when the person wins the Academy Award, they only have 45 seconds to connect with their audience. I want to see how they use that time. Now, most people waste their time. They get up there, like, I want to thank God, I want to thank the Academy. It's stupid. Nobody's paying attention. But every now and then, somebody does an incredible job. So a few years ago, There was a gentleman by the name of Joe Walker who won the Academy Award for Best Film Editing. Now this is Hollywood. The front rows are always the important people, the actors. And you can tell that none of them are paying attention. This is film editing. Well, uh Joe Walker, he gets up on stage and he's British and he speaks very slowly and distinctly and he says, uh a lot of people don't know this, but when phrased properly, the term Academy award nominee can be used as an insult. Well, now the camera's scanning the crowd and you see people leaning in like, what's he talking about? And he says, for example, yesterday I got into an argument with my 17 year old daughter and she said, well, Academy Award nominee Joe Walker. All of a sudden you see everybody laughing hysterically. He gets off stage, Denzel Washington wants to meet him, Sonder Bullock wants to meet him, Brad Pit wants to meet him. Time Magazine said it was one of the highlights of the Academy Awards. That's the power. of connecting with an audience quickly. So the first way to get better at speaking is to watch lots of speakers. The second way is what you and I have been talking about. I've had lots of great coaches in my life. One of them was a guy by the name of Jim Rohn. And Jim used to say, you can't pay other people to do your push-ups. Translation, you got to do the reps. And that's what you've been doing with your podcast is the more you do it, the better you get at it. When I work with clients, I'm constantly emphasizing we need you speak. because the more you do it, the more comfortable you're gonna get at it. And that's really where my purpose is, is watching people that were shaking and nervous and couldn't do anything, watching them six months later, and they still might not be comfortable, but gosh, they look so much better and their stories are connecting with audiences. That's what really gives me purpose and satisfaction, David. So again, that's a very long answer to your short question. Thank you. It's so good. Thank you. It's so powerful. Thank you. We are going to take a short break here for maybe 20, 30 seconds for some information and we'll be right back soon. Hey listeners and viewers, I'm so glad you're here. I hope you enjoyed this podcast. Do you ever feel stuck in patterns you want to break free from? As a life and leadership coach, I help young leaders find their direction, grow with meaning, and live with purpose. the first step? Download my free guide, Unlock the Overlooked Path to Fulfillment, the one thing blocking your purpose and how to remove it. You will find the link to it on my LinkedIn page, David Dahlén D'Cruz . or simply visit lifeleadershipconnected.com um and click the button to book your free 30 minute call. I would love to hear your story. Welcome back to Connected podcast. Today I interview a guest called Danny Brassell. I will continue with the questions here. Danny, if someone is listening or watching and wants to start growing in storytelling, what is the first small step that you would suggest? Well, again, they should watch speakers and then practice themselves. You know, I'll be self-serving right now. I would say, well, hire a coach. You know, uh the most successful people, they all know that that's the secret is you hire a coach. I mean, you look at Tiger Woods, the greatest golfer in the world. He has a putting coach. He has a driving coach. He has a mental coach. He should have hired a relationship coach. But, you know, all of us need coaches to get better. I mean, I have coaches that have coached me in speaking, in marketing, in developing my business. uh I have a coach right now who's teaching me AI and so you know it is very self-serving but I would say well hire a coach and preferably me. That's my experience too. Those small growth steps that I've made, they are because of mentors or some coaches. oh that's really true. Yeah, they speed up the process. That's, that's, mean, you can try it on your own, but it's going to, it's going to take longer if you do it on your own than if you, if you get a hoax. I I've invested in lots of coaches throughout my life. Yeah. And I wonder how do you personally prepare to deliver a message that connects deeply with people? Well, so, okay, that's a great question, David. the, so. My business is called the Wellcrafted Story Workshop. I do it with my two co-founders, Jimmy Hayes Nelson and uh David Ward. I always call us uh the professor, the performer and the producer because my background is in academia. Jimmy was a Broadway actor and Dave was a lawyer. And so all of us have our own different skill sets. And so the process we take people through is what we call our five C's process of creating an effective presentation. five C's are Clarity, Connect, Content, Call to action, and Close. And so to directly respond to your question, before we do anything in a speech, the first step is clarity. And there are two questions that I ask clients. And if you can answer these questions, you're in pretty good shape. And if you cannot... you're going to struggle and you'd be amazed. I'd say easily 95 % of the people I work with cannot answer one or both of these questions. The two questions are "Who is your audience?" and "What is the problem that you solve?" Now who is your audience? A lot of people say, well, everybody's my audience. I'm like, well, if everybody's your audience, nobody's your audience. uh The riches are in the niches. It's very important to get very specific and it sounds counterintuitive, but the more specific you are, the better you'll be able to serve. Now, you can always expand your audience. mean, look at John Maxwell. He's one of the best speakers in the business. Now, he talks on leadership now, but he had begun uh as a minister, and so he had begun his speaking by speaking to ministers. And then he expanded that beyond just ministry into general leadership principles and communication skills. And so you can always grow your audience, but it's important to be very specific to begin with. Who is your audience? The second question... is what is the problem that you solve? And you know, the biggest problem I see with a lot of people on this is they don't phrase problems, they phrase solutions. So for example, we were working with some fitness trainers and I asked them, what's the problem that you solve? And they said, lifestyle. Like, well healthy lifestyle is not a problem, that's a solution. Maybe the problem that you're solving is obesity, living longer. You know what? with financial planners, what's the problem you solve? A uh healthy retirement. Well, that's not a problem. That's a solution. Maybe making sure that you have enough money through retirement. Maybe that's the problem. And so it's really important. These are important questions. And you should really sit down and get very specific. I go with the demographics and the psychographics of who I'm serving in my audience. So let's say you have an entrepreneur and they've just started. I don't know. They've started a marketing agency. So I would sit down with them. I'm like, well, who is your audience? And they say, well, I help people grow their business. I'm like, okay, who are those people? Small business owners. I'm like, great. Let's get more specific than small business owners. Small business owners in Sweden. Great. Let's get more specific. Small male business owners in Sweden. Great. Let's get more specific. Small male... owners in Sweden who are between the ages of 35 and 55 who earn at least $250,000 a year. Great! We're getting much more specific. The more specific you get, you're gonna have a much better idea and it's gonna help you with your... I'll tell you why this is helping David, is when you're looking in your audience, one of the biggest challenges most of the people I work with have is they're like, I don't want to sound salesy when I speak. I'm like, great! Here's, let's just change your mindset. Replace the word selling with serving. I want you to look at your audience as if they're dying and you have the antidote. And if they don't get your antidote, they will die. It's a different mindset than, hey, get my product, buy my coaching program. And frankly, and this is an important point I always stress with my people is that, your audience is giving you their most precious asset, their time. Whether they decide to do business with you or not, you have a fundamental responsibility to help them. And so this is the most important thing. When you help people, it's amazing how the world works. I find when you help people, good things come back to you. You know, it sounds silly, but you know, I'm there to help people as much as possible. And you never know. This is the great This is why I mean I was I was working with a guy last week and I told him I'd given my Contacts and he said why would you give me your contacts you and I are competitors? And I said well, that's where you and I differ. I have no competition. I only have potential collaborators You know David you and I could coach the exact same thing, but we're not gonna coach it the same way I'd rather make friends with you and say hey, I have a client and She's much more comfortable working with Swedish men than with American men There you go. And I give you a client and you know what happens David? You're like, gosh, that was really nice. He gave me a client. I wonder how I can help out Danny sometime. That's the way the world should work. Instead, you get this mindset. A lot of people are competitive. I can't. And I'm like, you know, that's that's a scarcity mindset. The world is much more abundant like that. And I mean, again, so there you go. I was coached by a woman, Barbara, and I don't know if Barbara's still alive, but Barbara got me thinking abundantly because of Barbara. When I'm stuck at a stoplight, I realize that there's a million dollars worth of vehicles surrounding me. She got me thinking, wow, there's so much wealth in the world if you look at it. And I really hope that your listeners are looking at the possibilities. This gets me excited. This is I used to always do with my students when they were little. I'm like, hey, you can't change your past, but you can change your present and you can change your future. Let me help you with that. Wow, yeah, very powerful. Thank you. Thank you, Danny. I mean, you're a reader and you teach other people to read and to love reading and learning. And I wonder what are a few books that have shaped you as a leader and a communicator? Well, the standard answer, David, would always be the Bible. I always have to say the Bible is where everything comes from. Some of the books I like the best, one of my mentors was a wonderful guy by the name, he just retired recently, his name is Jack Canfield. He wrote the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, but he has an incredible book called "The Success Principles", and that's the reason I hired him as a coach, because when I read that book, I'm like, this guy put a $25,000 coaching program in a $20 book, and most Most people won't read the book, which cracks me up. That's what I always tell people. like, don't need to... I mean, yes, I believe in investing in coaches and they can take you farther, but there's a lot of wisdom in these books and the success principles. I mean, first of all, the principles are right on. Second of all, the stories he uses are incredible. Third, I would have paid $20 just for the bibliography because he gives all these suggested readings, which I've read, which are phenomenal. So I can't speak highly enough of the success principles and he's a great speaker. It kills me that he's retired. That's all good people retire eventually. Jack retired and he's a good soul. He's a good person. ah I also, if you want to get better at selling ethically, uh I'm a big believer in the book "Influence" by Robert Cialdini. Robert Cialdini is a professor emeritus at Arizona State University and he shows you how you can ethically get your audience to do the things that you want to do. And what he's doing is, I'm a person that loves research. So he's showing you why you do these things based on studies. I always tell people if you want an opinion, ask your aunt Ethel. If you want a reason why you're doing this in your speech, I will give you the exact research behind why we're doing this. uh There's just uh that's a fantastic. That's a book that I actually read at least once a year. And then obviously there's all kinds of classic books out there that are really short, that are really good. mean, Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People" is, you know, is written, I think, probably in the 50s and it's still a timeless classic. uh love Norman Vincent Peel's "The Power of Positive Thinking." That was probably written in the 40s. It's a fantastic book. know, Og Mandino, The Greatest Salesman on Earth" was probably written in the 40s. That's another great, you know, John Wooden, the UCLA basketball coach, he said, the problem with new books is they keep us from reading the old books. And he's right about that. There's so many great things. So I could go on and on. ah But but then the other thing I always tell people, and I learned this as a teacher, is don't discount a lot of those kids books that you grew up with because there's a lot of really great lessons in those books and there's nothing that pleases me more. I have a book called "Read, Lead and Succeed" which uh every week I give you a concept, an inspirational quote, an inspirational story, a book recommendation on a book you should read but you're probably too lazy because you're an adult so I also give you a children's picture book that demonstrates the same concept and there's nothing that pleases me more than a CEO starting his move, his meeting with a Dr. Seuss book. There's a lot of wisdom in these books and we discount, I mean the Grimm's fairy tales, I mean there's a lot of wisdom in those and people discount them. uh So ah I'll read anything and everything uh but... Yeah, if I was going to give you a couple of books, would be "Influence" by Robert Cialdini for how to sell ethically. like, that's the word ethically. We need more integrity in society nowadays. I see a lot of rotten people and they're sleazy and it bothers me. I don't like that trend. uh This was a big deal for me. I mean, when I was a teacher, whether I was teaching my little ones or my older ones, they always had to listen to the same refrain as they exited my classroom. I said remember kids "Education is valuable, but execution is priceless. Knowledge is not power only applied knowledge is power knowing what the right thing to do and Doing the right thing are two very different things to go out do the right thing Let's make this world a better place." I think if I tell people that enough they start thinking about well, how can I be a little bit kinder today? uh And it's it's in such short supply uh as a Christian I always tell my my Christian brothers and sisters I'm like my goal is to put my Christianity as a verb not as a noun. I don't want to just tell people I'm a Christian. I want to show people I'm a Christian. Great, great, great, perfect, Tell me how you successfully combine your role as a leader of yourself and other people and your life as a healthy human being. What challenges are there and the success factors? And to rephrase it, how do you keep healthy work-life balance between your stressful life or your very hectic life, I imagine? and keep your family life intact. Yeah, one of my favorite coaches, it's actually a father and son, were Steve Schellenberger and Rob Schellenberger. And Steve has a bestselling book called "Becoming Your Best", which takes you through 12 principles. of leadership and he had an exercise, I don't know if it's unique to him, may have been another one of my mentors was guy named Zig Zigler and Zig I think used the same activity. And so earlier I shared with you that I have my seven F's that I pre-week plan. I have my focus goals, my financial goals, my family goals, my faith goals, my family goals, my fun goals and my fulfillment goals. Seven of them. And so this is actually a very interesting exercise everybody listening can do It is I want you to make a circle and I want you to make seven spokes in a wheel and I gave you my seven F's. You can do whatever you want. Maybe you have like education goals, emotional goals, uh fitness goal, whatever you want to call them. So create a spoke for each of those different links of goals, different parts of your life. And then what you do is you give yourself a score of one to ten. How am I doing financially right now? oh I'm doing pretty well financially. I'm going to give myself a nine. Great. Okay. How am I doing with my family? You know, I haven't been spending enough time with my wife. I could do better at that. I'm going to give myself a five. Great. Okay. How much fun are you having? Well, I haven't had a vacation in probably a year, so I'm going to give myself a two on fun. Okay. Great. Faith. Well, I don't really actually know. You know what? I'm in that Bible study. I'm going to give myself a seven. Great. Okay. you get the point. So you're putting a dot on each spoke based on one to ten and then what you do is you connect the dots. And if it doesn't form a perfect circle, you're out of alignment. And the example I always give was the actor John Belushi, the comedian. At one point he was on the number one TV show in America. He had the number one movie in America. He had the number one album in America and he died of a drug overdose. He was out of balance. He wasn't enjoying his successes. you know, I see CEOs all the time and yeah, they're making ridiculous sums of money, but they're a hundred pounds overweight and they're on their third wife. ah You know you have to think about these. I mean you don't have to. I mean plenty of people are fine without that. But I pause. I consciously evaluate myself first of all doing the pre-week planning. But then at least once a month at the end of the month I try and figure out what were the three things I did really well this past month. Were the three things that I need to do better at. uh And I want to be thinking about them. And so that would be what I would share with people is you should be thinking about these things. When people say they're out of balance, well, anybody can say they're out of balance. Let's put pen to paper and let's figure out how do we get that balance. And I don't know if you can ever achieve balance. mean, yeah, obviously sometimes in your life you're working a little bit harder. You're not spending enough time with the family. And sometimes you're spending a lot of time with family and maybe you're hurting a little bit financially. The thing is to be thinking about these things and constantly pushing yourself to be a little bit better. was Teddy Roosevelt said, ⁓"Comparision is thief of joy" and the only person you should be comparing yourself to is the person you were yesterday. Are you better today than you were yesterday? That is a good measure of your success. Yeah, great, great. And I love the Tool that you mentioned. I think it's called the "Life Wheel. Okay, good, so you've heard of it too. And I apologize, I don't know who created that, but I love it. It's a wonderful exercise. really good. And then the rule you mentioned about three, that's also very, very good. And it's something I do. I try to uh set up three things that I want to complete every day, because that keep me in balance and that I can be a strong encouragement to other people too. And as you said, three things you did well this month, or what you said. So there's a power in that really. to structure your life in this way. Well, There's an even better, there's a good book. Well, now I'm thinking of books, but Greg McKeown, his book, "Essentialism", that book had one line that changed my life. He said, in Greek, the word priority can only be used in the singular. And that changed my life because every day I give myself one priority that I have to get done. I can get other stuff done, but I have to get the priority done. You'll be amazed at how more effective you are when you give yourself one. And again, that priority, it can be in any of those elements of your life. like, okay, fitness is my priority today or fun is my priority today. But I think, and you were just sharing about that. I love that you're doing that day because most people don't think about why they're doing things. Most people are, you know, they're wasting time on social media. They're sitting in front of the TV. People say, I have no time. I had a coach on uh time management and he used to always joke. He's like, there's no such thing as time management. There's only priority management. All of us have the same amount of time. It's how are you using it? And he had a great exercise for two weeks. He had me keep track of every minute of my day. How was I spending every minute of my day? And you just have to be honest with yourself. And it was crazy, David. In two weeks, found I had spent each week, I spent about 12 hours on social media. I'm like, that's a day and a half of work. And believe me, when I found that out, I outsourced that immediately. I'm like, I am off social media. That is a waste to my time. So that was a wonderful activity. Yeah, That's another thing I can share very quickly also. That's something I also call "Micro wins". Micro wins. Because it's often, you want to achieve this big goal, but it's often too big. But if you set smaller goals and you get an easy win, then you keep your motivation. And that's a huge secret that can keep people, you know, reaching their goal one by one. It's a process. I like that David, I'm waiting for your book on that. That's the title of book, is micro... No, I like that because most people don't celebrate their little successes. All of us are our biggest critics and we only focus on what we're bad at. I'm like, no, no, no, no. Let's celebrate. Even like when I'm working with speakers, they're like, well, I screwed this up. I'm like, yeah, but look at where you were a week ago. You wouldn't have even gone on that stage. know, you got to celebrate. Give yourself a little bit of credit. And again, you're always your own toughest critic. Yeah, What's one story of, a story of transformation that stuck with you? Someone who stepped into their story and saw a real change. I think you shared a little bit story before, but can you share maybe another small one? ah Well, I work with lots of people that have uh transformed. It's unbelievable. I hate to give monetary claims or anything because that's not what makes me proud of them. What makes me proud is when, okay, I'll give you two stories of people that did the work, Jason and Gustavo. So Jason, I worked with him about three years ago and Jason drove me nuts, David. Jason was 22 and I said, hey, you got to practice. You got to practice."I don't know anybody." I'm like, every town has like service clubs. They have schools. They have churches, temples, synagogues, chambers of commerce. You can speak at these places for free. I don't know any. So difficult David drove me nuts. And so finally I said do you have a Facebook account? He said yes. I'm like good. We're going on Facebook live right now. He's like what? I'm like we're going on Facebook live right now. And so I forced him to go on Facebook live and he gave his 45 minute talk and he stunk. uh Like one woman from Ontario, Canada accidentally watched him. And then I forced him. I said tomorrow you're doing it again, but I didn't watch him the second time, but he did it again. Here's what makes me so proud of Jason, David. He has gone on Facebook Live every single day, including Christmas, for the last three years. He now has 6,000 people in his Facebook community, and last year he sold almost a million dollars worth of products to those 6,000 people. Yes, most people are going to focus on the million dollars. That's not what I'm focused on. I'm focused on, look at him. He did the work. Most people would never have that kind of commitment. I'm so proud that he had that commitment. the other one, Gustavo, Gustavo, he cracks me up because the guy should be President of the United States. He came to America 30 years ago from Ecuador. Didn't speak a word of English. Did every menial job on the planet. Saved every dime. Invested in real estate. 30 years later, he's worth like 40 million. dollars, very successful guy. He came to me and his offer, I work with lots of offers. Here was his offer David, his offer was he has a four-month coaching program in real estate for $40,000. I work on a lot of offers David, that's a very high ticket offer. But I told him exactly what I told you and Jason. I'm hey, you gotta do the work. You gotta do the work. And you gotta get on stages. And he said he was getting a, he had a podcast that night. He was gonna be appearing on it. like, all right, Gustavo, go on the podcast, make the pitch, and tomorrow tell me how it went. So the next day, David, he calls me up. He's like, Danny, you are a genius. I'm like, did you go on the podcast, Gustavo? He's like, yes. I'm like, did you make your offer? He's like, yes. I'm like, did you sell any? He's like, 23. David, reading is my specialty, not math. If I'm doing my math correctly, he made $920,000 that night on an offer we had created that afternoon. And again, again, I'm not. I'm not excited. I mean, he's made eight figures. This was a year ago. He's made eight figures on this speech. Yes, it's great. He made all the money. But again, the reason I use Gustavo as an example is he did something most people, I guarantee you, I've given some pretty good strategies to your audience. Most people aren't going to do any of them. Drives me nuts. It doesn't matter. I'm looking for the one that's always the person I'm coaching. like, okay, who's my one? I used to tell this to my students. I'm like, nine out of ten of you are going to perpetuate the same nonsense, but one of you is going to change things. And that's why I teach is I want to be part of that transformation. So ah again, I give both of those examples not because I mean, yeah, it's great that they succeeded monetarily. But what I'm proud of is they did the work. They were committed to the process and they followed through. And so if there's one and in this something I hope that your listeners are getting from this is that there was nothing special about Gustav or Jason. What made them special is they did it. Most people don't do anything. I can't stand the people that don't do any. I mean, anybody can gripe, you know, this is why I don't watch politics. Politics is stupid. Politics. People are always putting each other down. They're not part of the solution. Anybody can do that. If you're going to make a, if you're going to make a criticism, then provide a solution. That's what a leader does. Anybody can gripe. Leaders have to figure out, what's the solution to this problem? And that's what I, I get excited about the transformations of people. And if you look at this is again the reason I'm reading biographies all the time is I'm always trying to figure out what made this person special. What did they do differently than other leaders. Yeah, wow. So good, so good, Danny. Maybe you already answered these questions, maybe you can add something. What would you say to a young leader who feels overwhelmed and unsure of where to start? Would you add something to your last answer here? Well, if I was overwhelmed, mean, first of all, you need to breathe. Most people don't breathe. Take deep breaths. And again, turn off the TV news because that's just negative. It's just, you know, fill yourself with positive things. And so read positive things. That's where I would start is, uh you know, my wife, I don't even think she knows who the president of the United States is. She just watches comedy. She has no interest in, and that's great. She's a happier human being. uh There's something to be said about that. uh I mean, I have an uncle who watches the news 24 hours a day and he's always angry. And I'm like, of course you're angry. You're watching the news. The news uh just shows... all the failures in society. What you should be watching is, you know, watch a children's play. The kids, you know, kids are always singing about, we are children of futures grant. It's like, that's great. I want to be around positive. That's what I miss about the little ones is little kids, just laugh at everything and we could learn a lot from them. Actually, I have learned a lot from them. Yeah. So if you're overwhelmed, you know, also put things in perspective too. uh Whenever I find my griping, you know, I just always say first world problem. I mean I was just recently in Cuba. There's people starving to death in Cuba. Those people have some problems. You know, put things in perspective. If you think you have a miserable life, why don't you go volunteer at the cancer wing at the hospital, especially the children's cancer wing. You see an eight-year-old dying of cancer. It's gonna put things in perspective real quick for you and you're gonna realize my problem is not such a big problem. Yeah, good. Thank If you could encourage the 25-year-old you, Danny, what would you tell him about leadership, joy and purpose? I'd say enjoy the ride Danny, because every door that's going to close in your face is going to open up a better door. ah Enjoy. Great, thank you. What legacy do you hope your work and message leave behind, Danny? Well, I hope people remember me as a kind person uh who was very helpful and made the world a little bit better place. I hope that's all of our goals. Yeah, good. Where can listeners and viewers connect with you and invite you to speak or learn more from you?⁓Danny? Yeah, as a thank you for having me, David, and to your listeners for having to listen to all my stories. I wanted to give everybody a tool that'll help them. So if you go to freestoryguide.com, freestoryguide, guide like a tour guide. freestoryguide.com. I'm going to give all of your listeners their own complimentary well-crafted story blueprint. What this is, is the actual process that we take our clients through on how to create a well-crafted story. What this does for you is it takes the guesswork out of how to put together an effective presentation. And what this means for you is the peace of mind to know that you're going to connect much stronger with audiences, uh serve them, and also increase your clients. and your impact. You can get that at freestoryguide.com. And again, I just want to thank you, David. I really appreciate all that you're doing. You are spreading some joy in the world. You're part of the solution. You're not part of the problem. And I just hope you continue what you're doing and just call on me whenever you need any help, my friend. Thank you, thank you Danny, thank Dear viewers and listeners, If you would like to learn more from Danny Bracell invite him for a speaking engagement, ask him questions or even work with him as a coach. You can connect with him through the following social media channels, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or Instagram. Feel free to reach out and continue the conversation. you. Is there any final words of encouragement or something that you can share with those people before we leave? I'll say exactly what I used to always tell the students. Remember, Education is valuable, but execution is priceless. Knowledge is not power. Only applied knowledge is power. Knowing what the right thing to do and doing the right thing are two very different things. So go out, do the right thing, let's make this world a better place. And God bless all of you. Thank Danny. Wow, thank you. Super, very powerful. And thank you, listeners and viewers, that you've been with us today. And welcome back. uh the next time we release a podcast. And I'll speak to you who are listeners on YouTube, listeners on maybe Spotify and viewing on YouTube and so on. So welcome back next time. Bye bye.