Ep. 8 | Why Misfits Build More Trust Than Experts with Danny Brassell

Why do some of the most talented people stay invisible while “misfits” build trust, authority, and loyal audiences?

In this episode, Vic Moser sits down with global keynote speaker and storytelling strategist Danny Brassell to unpack the power of authentic storytelling, why perfectionism kills connection, and how ambitious people can use their voice to create trust, authority, and real business growth.

Danny shares lessons from speaking on 3,500+ stages, rebuilding after financial loss, and helping entrepreneurs turn stories into action instead of just applause.

💬 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐘𝐨𝐮’𝐥𝐥 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧 𝐢𝐧 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐄𝐩𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐝𝐞

➺ Why misfits often outperform polished experts
➺ The difference between real confidence and performative confidence
➺ Storytelling mistakes that quietly weaken trust
➺ How to make your message actually move people
➺ Why reading changes how you lead and communicate
➺ How to stop hiding behind perfectionism and own your voice

🌐 Danny’s Website ➺ https://go.shopmy.us/p-60933557
🎁 Free Story Blueprint ➺ https://go.shopmy.us/p-60933490 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

I love that because I take my job seriously. Mr. Sal, when are you going to trim your nose here? I'm like, this afternoon. Thanks for bringing that to my attention. Stop sharing your successes. Start sharing your failures because not everybody in your audience has succeeded, but they've all failed.

SPEAKER_02 0:15

So I call myself now a recovering perfectionist.

SPEAKER_00 0:19

And I wasn't making any money at the time, and it was probably the happiest time of my life. Nobody can relate to you.

SPEAKER_02 0:27

Welcome to Make It Ambitious, the podcast for bold thinkers, doers, and leaders who refuse to play it small. I am your host, Vic Moser, strategist, creative entrepreneur, and conversation junkie. Each episode, I sit down with industry disruptors, creative founders, and corporate game changers to discuss the strategies, mindsets, and turning points that have shaped their journeys. Whether you're building your personal brand, scaling your business, rewriting your career story, or dreaming up your next big thing, this space is your permission slip to go all in because playing small was never the plan. Before we get into all of the stages, the books, everything you've built, I always like to start by asking who is Danny Burzel beyond being a speaker and a brand.

SPEAKER_00 1:24

Well, first of all, thanks so much for having me today, Vic. I really appreciate you and uh all that you do. We need a lot more of you in the in the world. You're spreading a lot of joy out there. So I appreciate you. 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 Citi 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 I became an educator for the noblest of reasons, Vic, for the high pay. And ironically, I fell in love with teaching. I've 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 engineering student 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 caustic 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 behind 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, Vic, because if I was somebody who saw what I had done, I would say, 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 applicable to this podcast, is I didn't want to file bankruptcy. And my accountant said, well, you have to earn this much more money this year. And so I started speaking on the side and I hit that number right on the number. But next year, Vic, 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 drew the attention of some pretty famous people and companies who wanted me to coach them. And I have to confess, I actually resisted coaching for a long time because you need to know this about me. I'm obsessive compulsive, Vic. I will not let you fail. I will be on your back holding you accountable until you succeed. Now that I work primarily with entrepreneurs, executives, and business owners, I find that they're highly motivated. They do the work, and it's probably been the most gratifying thing I've ever done with my life. So we can go whichever path you choose, my friend.

SPEAKER_02 4:03

Wow, that is crazy. So you've been a teacher, you've been an author, you've been a speaker, you've been an entrepreneur, like so many. You said a cat, a cat basically, with many, many, many lives. So looking back, where did you first start to realize that owning that story was going to be important for you?

SPEAKER_00 4:28

Well, I've been, I'm not really one that looks back. I look at every everything that happens to you actually pushes you forward. Uh, I was asked in an interview once uh if I could go back and change the real estate thing. I said, no, I wouldn't do that because that kicked me in the butt and propelled me to start doing the speaking, which eventually got me to the coaching. There's a reason. I I don't believe in coincidence, I believe in providence. God has a plan for you, and so everything should propel you forward. I can tell you that teaching kindergartners really uh helped me more than anything else about becoming a better speaker and helping other people with their speaking, because I call kindergarten New York. If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere because they have about a seven-minute attention stand. And if you're not interested in engaging, they will let you know it. And it really served me well.

SPEAKER_02 5:17

Wow, yeah. Kindergartners, I feel like that sounds like the toughest job from all the ones you've had so far. But it's funny because you said, I'm a teacher, and you said now I'm a coach. I feel like teaching is such a beautiful career, and that's basically what you are, because you can tell the kids what to do or whatever, but if you don't actually coach them or you know, like at the end of the day, it's basically the same thing in a way, you know? Whether it's with sports or with glasses or whatever, like that's crazy. Going back to what your accountant told you, what switch for you when you realized I need to hit these numbers? Like, what was it going in here on in here to help you get there?

SPEAKER_00 6:12

Well, I have a wife and three kids, and I I'm the breadwinner. So uh basically I was Cortez burning the ships. There's no looking back. I need to make that number because I need to make sure I'm providing for my family. So there was no other option. Uh, it's kind of like the movie Apollo 13. Failure is not an option. When you are highly motivated, uh, it kicks you in the butt and you do the work.

SPEAKER_02 6:36

For sure. So basically, you were just like, I have to do this, or like it's do or die, basically, for you. That's what was going on up here. Wow. Interesting. That's very interesting. So I saw that you described yourself as a gym carry but with a PhD. Um, I feel like that's a very bold statement to make, especially in academics and corporate spaces.

SPEAKER_00 7:07

By the way, I didn't make that statement. I've had audience members say that.

SPEAKER_02 7:10

So that's what you say that about you. Oh my goodness. Okay, interesting. How do you feel about that? How do you feel about them saying that?

SPEAKER_00 7:22

I love that because I take my job seriously. I don't take myself too seriously because I ain't all that, and neither are you. And if you think you're all that, teach kindergarten for a week. The little ones will set you straight. I had a little girl once, she raised her hand. I'm like, well, Sean, the question. She's like, Mr. Sal, when are you going to trim your nose here? I'm like, this afternoon. Thanks for bringing that to my attention. I ain't all that. And so uh in my presentations, I want to make sure to provide you with plenty of practical strategies, but I also want us laughing and having fun along the way.

SPEAKER_02 7:50

Totally. I feel like humility is such a beautiful trait to have in people. And you're right, like you'll never know everything, you'll never, you're always learning. Um, you'll never, and like you mentioned before, too, like you never know what people are going through either. So, like, why? Yeah, it's it's yeah. So with that statement though, like the Jim Carrey with a PhD, um, how did that make you feel in the professional spaces? Um, did you feel like people wouldn't take you so you say you don't take yourself too seriously? Um, but were you worried about other people not taking you seriously?

SPEAKER_00 8:36

I'm not worried about that at all. I work with some of the top speakers in the world and they have no credentials whatsoever, many of these people. They have no academic credentials, they have no professional credentials, and yet they're considered gurus in their trade. Having the PhD, I mean, when I when I uh got accepted into my PhD program and said, uh, congratulations, you've been accepted into our Doctor of Philosophy program. I'm like, oh, that's what PhD stands for. Yeah, I believe that Chris. Uh you know, people that want to uh the people that are comfortable in their own shoes will never tell you their credentials. I I bet you President Obama does not introduce himself as hi, I'm President Obama. I'm sure he just says, hey, I'm Pete. I'm P because he feels comfortable in his shoes. There's nothing sadder to me than people that are very uncomfortable and have to impress people. It's very unattractive to me.

SPEAKER_02 9:30

Totally. In corporate, though, there's this like stigma of like being professional or behaving a certain way or something. Um, what would you say to somebody who's hiding parts of themselves to like appear professional in the corporate world?

SPEAKER_00 9:47

Well, I don't even know what that means as far as being professional. You look at the top professionals, they all become the best versions of themselves. I mean, Steve Jobs, for all of his flaws, the one thing I always admired about him was he was him. Uh, he is true to himself. And that's what the best leaders are they're they're true to themselves. When I'm working with uh leaders on how to create a better presentation, one of the biggest mistakes I see most people make is they brag all the time throughout their presentation. So here's here's a great strategy for everybody in your audience right now. 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 share your own failures, the more your audience is going to see themselves in you. And that's ultimately the purpose of any presentation is how can I connect with the people in my audience? And you do that by humbling yourself.

SPEAKER_02 10:42

A thousand percent. And you know what? You're the second speaker who has told me that. And the other one is an extremely, extremely successful person too. And she told me in her episode, which is gonna come out soon actually, that when she used to work at Amazon, she became VP and all of these things, you know, all of these accolades, and she did so many amazing things. And they called her into a meeting to uh talk about something that she had failed on. And she was like, But I have all of this accomplishment. Why do you want me to talk about that? And they were like, no, no, I want you to talk about this. And she says that up to this day, after leaving Amazon, like she left a while ago to go to another company and build her own companies in between. She's amazing. She says that up to this day, when she sees Amazonians as they call themselves, they always tell her that that's the most important conversation that they've seen her at. And that's something that shaped their career because she was owning the mistake and because she was vulnerable enough to share it and she overcame it. Like that was the most that people loved about her and what who she was, and the more they learned from her. So yeah, that is incredible advice, I think. And I'm definitely needing to take that because I have these, like I've always been a perfectionist, but I and I'm working on it. So I call myself now a recovering perfectionist. And yeah, and I think that's incredible. So you've standing over more than 4,000 stages at this point. When you are up there, what do you think, when you see someone up there, what do you think is something that makes you know that they're really really truly being themselves and not just performing just for the art of performing on the stage?

SPEAKER_00 12:48

Well, I believe, Vic, that AI should be more about authentic intelligence instead of artificial intelligence. So I'm looking for those gems. So the woman you're talking about that worked at Amazon, I think that's that's one of the mistakes a lot of people make is they think they have to be extraordinary to be an extraordinary speaker. And it's exactly the opposite. I'm working with a gentleman right now from Saudi Arabia who's climbed to the highest peak on all seven continents. He swam with sharks in Madagascar, he did the I did a rat in Alaska. And I look at him, I'm like, nobody can relate to you. Nobody in your audience has climbed Mount Everest. But you know what everybody in your audience has, John? They all peed their pants when they were six years old. That's a good story. And that's what you're trying to do. I mean, this is something that's one of the first things I do with my clients. You can do this later on, Vic. I want you to get in a comfortable chair with a pen and paper, libation of choice. And for an hour, I want you to write down every story that's ever happened to you. And I don't mean the entire story, I just mean triggers like the time I locked myself out of the car in front of Costco, 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 literally hundreds of stories like this. 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 compassion. This is a story about loyalty. And literally on my computer, I have hundreds of files with tens of thousands of stories like this. So when I'm putting together a presentation and I want my audience to take a certain action or feel a certain emotion, I know exactly the story that's going to do that for them. So I'll give you an example. Um, by the way, whenever I whenever I talk to you about clients, I always change the names of my clients. All you have to do is talk to my co-founder, uh coach Jimmy Hayes Nelson. Uh, he's a Broadway actor, he was a Broadway actor, and he'll he loves some name drops. So he'll tell you everybody that we've worked with. I like the question. And so we were working with this woman, Dr. Kathy, who has this incredible nutrition program that she sells for 1997. For it's a 90-day program for women for 1997. And uh she was ending her presentation, and I said, Whoa, whoa, whoa, big mistake. Because you have to understand, there's two types of people in your audience. I I'm gonna be stereotypical and call it the husband and the wife. So the husband is the person I call Joe Friday. He's the guy sitting in your audience with his arms crossed, looking skeptical. He's like, What are you gonna sell me? How much is this gonna cost? How long is it gonna take? What do I got to do? And a really well-crafted presentation makes sure to answer all of those questions to appease Joe Friday. But Dr. Kathy, she was ending with Joe Friday. I'm like, wait a second, you're ignoring the wife. The wife is Julia Roberts. Julia Roberts, she doesn't care how much it costs, she just wants to feel good. You know, I listen to Vic's podcast because she makes me feel good. She's like my long-lost sister. And so Dr. Kathy was missing an opportunity to connect with that person. And so I asked her, Well, what do you want your audience to ultimately understand? And she said, I want them to uh, I want them to buy my product. I'm like, Yes, I know you want them to buy your product. Let's get we went back and forth like this for five minutes. She was so dense. Finally, she said, Well, I want them to understand they can't do it on their own. I'm like, Oh, you need to hire an expert story. And she's like, 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 had theater tickets. We were dressed to the nines, driving to the theater, when we got a flat tire. And my wife said, Well, I'll call AAA and get a tow truck. I looked at her and said, You don't have to call triple A. I'm a man. I can fix a flat tire. So I got it out of the car. I opened up the trunk and I got out the spare tire, and then I got the pumper thing and the big jack thingy to uh to take out the nuts and the bolts. And 27 minutes later, I have grease all over my hands. I haven't fixed the flat tire. I look up, my wife is sitting there, she's standing there with her arms crossed, shaking her head, looking up at the sky like I could have done so much better than this guy. Unbeknownst to me, she had called AAA 27 minutes earlier. This tow truck shows up, and this 17-year-old punk hops out of the tow truck and proceeds to fix my flat tire in three minutes flat. I think there are times why you all think we can do it on our own, but if you want to save Tanya money, you want to save a whole lot of headache and embarrassment, you hire an expert. And so, what I just taught Dr. Kathy how to do is I've taken a story to use as a metaphor, so now her audience is thinking, you know what? I've tried lots of diets in the past, but I trust Dr. Kathy. I think I need her to show me how to succeed this time. That's the per that's the difference between a good presentation and a great presentation. Good presentations tell stories, great presentations tell stories with intention. And that's what we want to do because the only way I'm evaluating your effectiveness as a speaker 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 vote for me. It can be more typically with the clients I work with, a paid offer like buy my product or invest in my coaching program. We need to know our numbers. How many people, after your presentation, have decided, you know what, Vic is the real deal. I need to work further with Vic. That's how we're going to evaluate your effectiveness, and that's the only way we're going to evaluate your effectiveness. It's important to move hearts, but I also want to move the needle because you are running a business.

SPEAKER_02 19:03

I agree with you, Donnie, because I feel like they throw the word authenticity out now, like it's kind of like uh it doesn't mean what it used to be because people are overusing it or misusing it. But from what I just learned from you right now, storytelling is the most important part of being on a stage and you know, sharing yourself with people. But the storytelling cannot just be fabricated, it has to be authentic to you. It's what it sounds like to me.

SPEAKER_00 19:39

You already demonstrated that with the woman you were talking about from Amazon, is she had these years later come up to her and say, Oh my, I mean, how many different presentations did she make that she thought were important? And none of those stuck in their minds. But the one time she was authentic and showed her true self at her most vulnerable state, that's what connected with people. Very important lesson.

SPEAKER_02 20:02

A hundred percent, a hundred percent. And I'm also not a name dropper, that's the reason I didn't say her name either. So you and I are more similar than your co-founder, and I for sure you speak directly about people who don't fit neatly into a system. So, why do you think that these misfits have the biggest potential? And where do you think that they might self-sabotage themselves?

SPEAKER_00 20:30

Yeah, I think it's important. I I read tons of biographies, and this is as an educator, it's almost offensive to me because if you look at the common thread with most biographies, most of these people dropped out of school, which makes me ask the question what are we doing wrong in school? Why are we losing these people? I mean, the reason I became an educator was I realized Oprah had a teacher that inspired her. I could inspire the next Oprah, or I could inspire the next president, or the next uh really good mom by my example. It's very important to me. And uh, you know, I I've been blessed my entire life. I had great parents, I've had wonderful teachers, I've had great mentors, people that encouraged me all the time. Uh, my wife, she came from Singapore in a system where people told her what she couldn't do her entire life. Oh, you're not good enough to be a doctor, you should be a nurse. Don't run the business, you could be the secretary. Whereas I have a photograph of me when I was four years old wearing space boots, a San Diego Charger jersey, a sheriff's badge, and a fireman's helmet, because I was going to be become the very first ever astronaut, professional football player, police officer, and firefighter. That's the world I grew up in. And I want a world where every kid says, why not me, all the time. And so that's why it's important to me to I think this differentiates me from a lot of these so called speaking coaches because. I look at the way a lot of these companies work and they say, Oh, you really want to be authentic. Talk about the darkest moment of your life. There's three reasons why I don't coach people to do that. First of all, Vic, the world just survived a global pandemic. Everybody's had a lot of bad stuff happen to them. I don't think we need more negative stories of sadness. I think we need more uplifting stories of code. Second of all, what Coach Jimmy and I take our clients through is how to create what we call a well-crafted story. Politicians would call it a stump speech. You can call it peanut butter and jelly. It doesn't matter what you call it. What this is, is a presentation that you're going to deliver again and again to introduce yourself to new audiences. It's going to be ingrained in your head like the Lord's Prayer or the Pledge of Allegiance. Do you really want to talk about the worst moment of your life again and again? I mean, most of the people I work with, they either don't want to speak or they're terrified of speaking. I want you having fun on stage. I mean, I have a friend, his daughter was killed in a school shooting. He has shared that story with over a thousand audiences. Rick, you've got to be a lot stronger than me to talk about the worst moment of your life. I have no idea how he does that. And third, and this is what gets people angry with me. I have one basic 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 noble about that as a basic objective. I believe the people that tell their 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 used to tell this to my students all the time: every day you have a choice. You can be Darth Vader or Ben Kenobi. Be the light, don't be the darkness. And uh it's the same philosophy I bring into speaking and to coaching my clients.

SPEAKER_02 23:59

Yeah, that's very interesting. I I'm a little bit conflicted about the statement you just made, actually, because I feel like yes, it's not nice to share a sad story, but if you're not trying to manipulate people when you're sharing it, and you are actually sharing it from a place of, you know, like, for example, like you mentioned, like you can lose everything, right? Like in a second. And that's why, you know, money is not in not important to you in that sense, because you're like, I could lose it tomorrow, like all of it could be gone. In my case, the same thing happened to me because my house burned down to the ground and I ended up with just what I was wearing. So I totally get how that is a very sad story. And when I used to tell it, I used to cry. It used to really hurt, but I learned so much from it. And I feel like it taught me so much about not clinging to things, you know? So yeah, so but I understand what you're saying though, because at the same time, that's the reason I said I was conflicted, because yes, like it's okay to share stuff like that, but what angle are you giving it? And do you actually care to share it? And are you trying to manipulate people or not? I think that's where you drew the line. And that's why I was like, at first, I was like, huh? And then uh the more you talked, I'm like, oh, okay. So yes.

SPEAKER_00 25:33

That's an important distinction that you're making, Vic, because I have people they feel very uncomfortable selling from the stage. And the strategy I share with them is, well, don't sell, just serve. So when you're sharing a story like your story, that's to serve them, to show, hey, you know, here's my Mary Tyler Moore moment. I'm gonna make it after all. I was able to overcome this. That's very different than being a person that's trying to get people. Uh, I want you to feel sad because that's how you're gonna open up your wallets, is if you feel that's a very different uh approach. And I I can't stand that because I see a lot of people use that where they start to slow down their words, and I can see the fake tears as they tell their story. That's very inauthentic as opposed to a person just sharing with you. Well, let me tell you something from my experience, and it it can be sad, but that's that's kind of where your story about overcoming a fire to your house. That's that's very different than if you were to say, uh, if you have this whole program, all right, and so that's why I created the don't let your house burn down program. Oh my goodness. You have no idea. I watch at least 10 speakers a day, and there's so many of them where I'm like, yik. This person because I know the the neurolinguistic programming techniques that they're using to try to manipulate people, and I it disgusts me when a person, one of my favorite speakers of all time, is Les Brown. He's told the same story for 40 years. There's nothing wrong with that. I've heard it, I've heard him speak probably 50 times. I learned something new every time I watch the same speech, you know, because I'm at different points in my life and in my journey. And he's able to share a lot of the horrible struggles he had to deal with throughout his life, but he's not doing it in a way to manipulate people, it's just part of his story. And I trust him for that, as opposed to I'm not gonna name it. I I give you the names of all the people that they're just I mean, when I work with politicians, it's one of the first things I give politicians a hard time on. I'm like, you ever notice nobody running for president ever grew up middle class? They all had to grow up in a wild cabin because they have to show their struggle and they're I mean, it's it's such a formula, and I I I can't stand that. So I always appreciate when there's actually a real moment when a person's just sharing something true about themselves and not performing, and I can tell it immediately. I think most audiences can as well.

SPEAKER_02 28:23

Oh, yeah, I feel like you you feel it. It's like if you're in tune with yourself, you feel it in your gut. You're like, okay, no, this person is being phony right now. There's no way. I mean, maybe that happened to them, but the way that they're telling it or you know, yeah, I feel like we could sense it a little bit, even if it's not obvious consciously to us, but at least our subconscious, I feel like for sure, at least that will pick it up. Uh I'm pretty, pretty sure. Going back to the misfits, um how do you think that they could protect their ambitions when they are in a system that was not built for them?

SPEAKER_00 29:09

Make a new system, that's what makes them misfits. Uh all the naysayers tell these people no. I it's like to me, critics are a waste of time. Be the evangelist, don't be the critic. Uh uh, there's people that keep on saying no, no, no. They always say it can't be done until it can be done. I mean, how many people told Jeff Bezos he was crazy to think that he could sell books online and expand the store? I I was listening to an interview with Jeff Bezos. It cracked me up uh because Amazon, people forget it started off just as an online bookstore. And he was interested to see if he could sell anything else on Amazon. And so he did this survey, I think it was in Northeast Ohio, and he was asking people what they would like to buy on uh on uh online. And this one person wrote in, I'd love to buy windshield wipers if you sell windshield wipers. When he read that, he's like, Oh my gosh, they'll buy anything. And that's why he became the everything store. Was he looked at that feedback, he's like, Oh my gosh, there's look at eBay when it I can remember, I what was it? The very first purchase on eBay was for a broken remote control to a projector, because a person collected broken remote controls to projectors. That's when all of a sudden they realize, oh my gosh, people sell, they can sell them by anything on eBay. I love those moments. This is why I for the missing. So I'll tell you what, if you're a misfit out there, that's why I read about the misfits all the time. I constantly love reading about people's struggles. Uh, it doesn't really interest me when a person's successful. I I was speaking at an event a couple of months ago, and the first two speakers talked about to their audience, they said, you need to enjoy the journey. And I guess I was feeling facetious that day because when I got on stage, I'm like, you ever notice the people that say enjoy the journey have already succeeded? I mean, exactly. Yeah, well, I mean, when you were broke and couldn't pay rent, are you saying to yourself, wow, I'm really enjoying this journey? This is a lot of fun. No, that's the stupidest advice I've ever heard in my life. I mean, it's good to be able to reflect, but you know, it's kind of the same. Both of those guys, they were considered thought leaders. I guess they just rubbed me the wrong way. I was in a bad mood or something because I got on there. I'm like, raise your hand if you need another thought. I'm not a thought leader, I'm a results leader. How many of you need a result? We don't need more thoughts. We need more results. We need actual strategies that will help us succeed. The misfits out there, my goodness, like it's kind of like I was doing a workshop once on self-published authors. I'm like, you know, Edgar Allan Poe self-published his first book. Mark Twain self-published his first book. There was this lawyer in Mississippi who uh he wrote this book called A Time to Kill. His name was John Grisham. He self-published 5,000 copies. He sold 10. His second book was called The Firm. He was able to get Random House to get the firm published. It went number one on the New York Times bestseller list. And they asked him immediately, have you ever written anything else? He's like, Well, I wrote this book called A Time to Kill, but it probably won't sell. And they said, Well, give us a shot. Well, that went up to number one on the New York Times bestseller chart. And anybody that's a John Grisham fan, which I am one, uh, will tell you that was the best book he ever wrote. Rick Warren wrote this, uh, he had to self-publish this book called The Purpose-Driven Life, which is the most successful nonfiction book of the last 30 years. Dave Pilke was an illustrator for a lot of uh children's books, and he wrote this book that everybody said, nope, we won't publish it. So he self-published it. He called it Captain Underpants, and 50 million sales later, a lot of publishers were wishing that they had published Dave Pilke on that first book. And so there's always going to be the naysayers. There's always, I mean, I that that's publishing. We can go into athletics. I can tell you about all the different athletes that people told them, no, you're too small or you're too fat or you're not smart enough. That I mean, look at Tom Brady, probably the most decorated NFL football player of all time, won seven Super Bowls, appeared in 10 of them, has every single major record. He was drafted in the sixth round, which means every single professional football team passed up on him at least five rounds. And all the New England Patriot fans that like to say, oh, we were smart enough to draft Tom Brady. I'm like, yeah, you were smart enough. You were so smart you missed him the first five times. That guy worked his tail off and he became the I mean, and that's what I that's the other thing. The other thing about the misfits, they become obsessed. Read, read Made in America by Sam Walton about uh all the people thinking he was silly, that uh he he believed that uh you you build these little retail stores in small rural communities and you give people a fair price, people will come to them. I'm gonna call them Walmart. You know, you're talking the most successful retail chain of all time. Like one example after another of that. And so the misfits out there, if you feel that you're a misfit, you're in good company. The most successful people in the world were all misfits. I get very passionate when I hear about that.

SPEAKER_02 34:47

Um, you know, I love that. I love that. And it's funny because you when you said, Oh yeah, they didn't want to publish his book and he only sold 10. Like, imagine uh what's her name, uh J.K. Rowland. She couldn't sell Harry Potter. Can you imagine? What? Like that movie, like people watch all eight movies in marathon still today, and nobody wanted it to publish her. I don't know how many. Uh there's there's this the data out there of how many times she tried to get somebody to publish it, and they were like, No. Like I bet those people were like hitting their head after, like, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:31

Yeah. One example after I mean, Stephanie Myers, a suburban housewife in Phoenix. She has this dream one night, she decides to write a book, she sends it to the top agent in New York City. One of her readers reads it and loves it, so convinces the agent to represent her. The book is called Twilight.

SPEAKER_02 35:53

Oh my gosh. Oh, yes, those movies blew up, too. I a little embarrassed to admit I was one of the people who was into those movies.

SPEAKER_00 36:06

I love it. I think they're great.

SPEAKER_02 36:08

But yeah, it's so funny. Now as an adult, I'm like, okay, this was not that great. But like when you're reading it at the time, you love it. It's so funny. But yeah, you teach people to condense like big ideas into like a simple narrative. How do you help someone simplify it without losing its meaning? Like, what's the trick for that?

SPEAKER_00 36:40

So the uh former school teacher, so everything I do either rhymes or it's alliterative. And so, Coach Jimmy and I take our through our clients through what we call our five C's process. So, before before we put together a word of your speech, the first C is clarity. We have to answer two questions. Who is your audience and what is the problem that you solve? Once we can clearly answer both of those questions, then we need to connect with our audience. We have to teach meaningful content that serves our audience. We have to have one clear call to action, and then finally end them on an emotional close that's going to get them rushing to work with you. I think most people overcomplicate things. Uh uh, one of the things I help a lot of people with is their PowerPoint presentations. Uh, here's the strategy: get the words off the slide. Think of a PowerPoint like when you're watching the nightly news. Now, I don't watch the news anymore. Uh so back when I watched the gym news, Peter Jennings would be talking about the war in Iraq. And in the upper right-hand corner is a picture of an explosion. You know, Walt Disney said people think in pictures, not words. He's absolutely right. You want to create a presentation where people are visualizing things. I'll give you an example of how we all think in uh pictures. Uh, Vic. I want you to think of an apple. I'm going to give you five seconds. I want you to think of an apple.

SPEAKER_02 38:02

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 38:04

Okay, so what did you just visualize?

SPEAKER_02 38:07

A foodie apple, like red with a little bit of yellow.

SPEAKER_00 38:12

Perfect. Yeah. I've had people say, oh, I thought of a Granny Smith apple, a green apple. Some people will get a little bit more creative. They'll say, I thought of an apple pie. Some people get even more creative than that. They'll say, oh, I thought of an Apple iPhone or an Apple computer. But having done this with now, I say tens of thousands, but it's probably up over 100,000 people I've done this exercise with. I've never once had a person say, Oh, I visualized A-P-P-L-E. Because we don't think in words, we think of pictures. Your job as a speaker is to paint pictures in people's minds, get them visualizing what their future is going to be. That's what an effective presentation does.

SPEAKER_02 38:54

A hundred percent. I actually saw this in social media the other day of a girl explaining how she doesn't see pictures in her head and that it has a name. Like it's like a not like a disease or anything, but just a way of thinking. And I was like, oh my gosh, like it startled me because I visualize things so clearly in my head. I'm like, how do you not see? So you close your eyes and they tell you to visualize something, and all you see is dark in your head. Like, what? Like what? Crazy. But yeah, when you said like A P P L E, I'm like, what? Like, no, how would why would you not picture like an apple tree with the Fuji apples hanging from it?

SPEAKER_00 39:39

Like well, that that girl works is a perfect example of the misfit concept. The fact that she's so different means she'll probably cure cancer. I I love people that see the world in a different way. There's totally to me than being around people that think differently.

SPEAKER_02 39:54

Totally, totally. I uh it's incredible to me. I'm like, wow, I couldn't imagine my world without beautiful pictures in my head, you know, but she's never had it, so she doesn't know what that feels like or is yeah. So tell me a little bit about what would be the difference between just having an inspiring, just inspiring speaking engagement versus having one that actually is effective for whatever the purpose is, like you said at the beginning.

SPEAKER_00 40:30

Yeah, so that's why it's so important to understand what your call to action is. What do you want your audience to do? That's how you're going to measure your effectiveness. If you want them to go register to vote, and you had 100 people in your audience, and after your presentation, 90 of them registered to vote, that's an effective presentation. Uh, but too many people, this is one of the biggest mistakes I see in presentations. They have multiple calls to action. I was on a podcast yesterday, and the hostess she ended the uh the presentation, she said, I hope you enjoyed today's episode. Make sure you like, subscribe, and give us a five-star review. We got off air. I said, You just asked your audience to do three things, they're not going to do any of them because you made them think. Again, former teacher, I always said everything has to rhyme. Choices confuse and cause you to lose. If you look at uh the major grocery store chains across America, Publix, Food Lion, Kroger, Safeway, Ralph's, Smith's, whatever, they're not the number one grocery store chain in America based on volume. The number one grocery store chain in America based on volume is Trader Joe's. And the reason is when you go to one of these major grocery stores looking for mustard, there's 38 different types of mustard. When you go to Trader Joe's, there's one. It's called mustard. They made the choice for you, they made it an easy decision. And I want you to always remember that when you're making an effective presentation, what do you want the audience to do next? Now it can be, you know, I'm working with a pastor right now. And so I'm like, well, what's your objective? Is it for them to remember the scripture? Is it for them to tithe? You can answer however you want, but you have to be very clear in your head. What do you want your audience to do next? If you're just talking for an hour, that's very forgettable. One of my mentors at towards the end of his life, he did a survey to find out uh how how impactful his presentations had been. And it fascinated him. Out of every hundred responses, only one person said it was the presentation. The other 99 people said, Oh, it was your books and your CDs and your courses that had the impact. And that's when he's like, Oh my gosh, I never understood that, you know, uh, you know, he said motivation's like bathing, it's temporary. That's why we suggest you do it regularly. And that's why you need to feed your soul every day by listening to positive podcasts, by reading positive books. Uh uh, Keith Harrell, wonderful presenter, he's no longer with us. Uh, he says a lot of people say garbage in, garbage out. That's wrong. Garbage in, garbage stays. But I also believe positive in, positive stays. That's why I became a teacher. Was I realized if I could talk to kids every single day and say, Vic, you know, you're a great writer. I bet you someday you become an author. And 20 years later, you win the pub chip prize. I remember Miss Pastel back in sounds great, told me I'll be a writer. You know, it's those positive things. Um and again, I'm very blessed. I grew up with a lot of people encouraging me. Um, when I stopped teaching, I was at a party and my mom was talking to my high school English teacher, and they didn't know I was eavesdropping on their conversation. And my old high school English teacher told my mom, she said, Oh, I'm so sad that Danny's retiring from a tea from teaching. He was such a good teacher. And my mom interrupted her and said, But Danny's good at everything he does. Wow, that I mean that's the environment I grew up in. How do you not succeed when you're around people that are telling you you can do it all the time?

SPEAKER_02 44:11

That's amazing. I love that. A lot of us don't have that. Um, so I love I love that you had that. It sounds like an incredible experience to grow up like that. Um I tried to create an environment like that for everyone around me because I didn't have that. So it shaped me in a different way, but still in a positive way, you know? You mentioned success. How has obviously you're a speaker and you know, an entrepreneur and a coach now? And of course you've become very successful, but how has the definition of success changed over time for you?

SPEAKER_00 44:52

Well, I think that there's, you know, I always tell people in your audience you have uh three different motivations in your audience. And if you can address all those motivations, then you're gonna be more effective as a speak speaker. So I always call it the 20-year-olds and the 40-year-olds and the 60-year-olds. The 20-year-olds are all interested in how can I make more money? So, how do you boost their income? The 40-year-olds, they've made the money, but they've neglected the family. And so it's all about how can I boost my freedom. The 60-year-olds have made the money, they've had time with their family, but they're starting to question is this all there is to it? You know, so how can you boost your impact? So if you can address income, freedom, and impact in any presentation, then you're going to be a much more effective speaker. You know, I've gone through those stages because now I'm the old guy, chop off my head and count the rings at this point. And uh I realized that uh, you know, money was important. Uh, it was able to uh uh make sure that my my family was taken care of, but it wasn't everything. I have uh one of my one of my fraternity brothers from college. I was speaking to him recently, and he's an he's an executive with a major corporation, and he was bragging to me. He said, uh, you know, for the first time in three years, I was able to take a vacation. So I took my wife and my son to the Bahamas for a week. And this is a guy who makes at least seven figures, maybe eight figures. And after that phone call, I could have sat there and thought, wow, I wish I was making seven or eight figures. But what I did is I looked at my calendar and I'm like, oh my gosh, I spent 89 days last year on vacation with my family.

SPEAKER_02 46:33

And I realized I love that.

SPEAKER_00 46:36

Freedom's important to me, you know. And I I used to have my own nonprofit where I used to build school libraries in Compton, where I taught in South Central Los Angeles. And I wasn't making any money at the time, and it was probably the happiest time of my life. I I I realized I just watching little kids that were used to not having a library, seeing librarians all colorful and just looking at their eyes, to me, that was great. I mean, uh, moments like that are when I want to get hit by a bus because I know I know I'm going to the good place after that. So um, but I I this is what life's all about. You have different priorities at different that's why I don't believe in life balance. I believe in being cognizant of where you're at. I mean, I pre-week plan every single week. I have seven different areas that I have goals in. Former teacher, so everything has to rhyme or be a literative. So I have my focus goals, my fitness goals, my financial goals, my family goals, my faith goals, my fun goals, and my fulfillment goals. And at the end of every single week, I look at how many of those goals I was able to achieve. And then I look and see, am I neglecting one over the other? Maybe I need to spend a little bit more time focused on that. Because I don't think you can ever, when you're really driven to succeed financially, that means you might not be giving yourself as much attention fit fitness-wise as you should, or maybe uh uh spiritually or something like that. But I think as long as you're thinking about her and have it on your mind, I think that's what's important. So uh gosh, I'm just rambling at this point, right?

SPEAKER_02 48:06

But you gotta we swe we change with the seasons. No, I agree. I agree with you. We change with the seasons, right? Like what was important to us at some point in our life. It doesn't even, it's not even about age, it's about where you're at mentally in your life and what what your need or your prioritizing. But just like you, to me, I'm like, yeah, making money used to be it for me, but now I'm like, no, it's not making money. I just don't want to be rushed in the morning. That's enough for me. The fact that I can open my eyes, calm, and go make my coffee and put my kettle and grind it and smell it when I grind it, and have my chemics and filter it the right way and smell it when it's blooming. Like just that, it's enough for like I'm like, I'm happy. Like I did something that I really wanted it to do today, and that made me happy because I love coffee and I'm a snob about it because I love it so much. But yeah, and that makes me happy, and I don't need these fancy titles or these fancy cars and these fancy things. Like I used to think I wanted that and I needed that, but I'm like, no, I want to be calm in the morning and then be creative enough after because I wasn't rushed and trying to like hustle to get to an office or do whatever it is that you're trying to do. I totally get it. So, for any people listening right now who knows that they're playing small, um, what is something? What is a brave step that you think they could take in the next 24 hours?

SPEAKER_00 49:54

Get started. You know, a rolling stone gathers no moss. Uh, it's just like you with your podcast. I mean, uh, perfection is the enemy to progress. Um, you know, I guarantee you the first time you did your podcast, it stunk. And the second time you did it, it's stunk. But it didn't stink as bad as the first time, and now you're a finely tuned machine, and that's the secret to everything. It's always in the reps. I mean, I'm teaching my youngest daughter how to drive, and uh, she's so cute when she gets in the car, she adjusts her mirrors and she puts her hands at the two clock. Yeah, I promise you, a year from now, she'll be driving with one hand, eating a big Mac, doing her lipstick, looking in the mirror. This will be more automatic because that's funny. It's the same thing I tell people when they're on stage. I work with a lot of people that are terrified to speak. And I say, My job is to make you comfortable on stage. And the way you're gonna be comfortable is with the reps. You know, uh, one of my mentors was a guy named Jim Rohn, and Jim used to say, You can't pay other people to do your push-ups. Translation, you got to do the work. Every single time you do it, you get a little bit better, a little bit better, a little bit more confidence. Yeah, and even if you for people with stage fright, I say you're in good company. I mean, Barbara Streisand vomits before she ever goes on stage to sing uh President Reagan vomited before almost every speech he ever gave. Bill Russell, uh, all NBA center for the Boston Celtics vomited before every single game. I mean, uh, if you feel nervous, that's great. That means it's important to you. But if you feel nervous because you didn't put in the practice, that's when you're gonna bomb on stage. Why we've made this way you make it automatic is you got to do the work. And so uh, those people that want to just get started, that's what I encourage you to do. Get started. Go out. I mean, start a podcast. Who cares if you only coach Jimmy drives him crazy that I do so many podcasts, he'll be like, Well, there's only one subscriber to that podcast. And I always point this out to him. I say, I don't care how many people are listening, I just care who's listening. If you only have one subscriber and that person winds up curing cancer someday, you did a pretty good job.

SPEAKER_02 52:02

Totally. Yeah, it's so funny you mentioned the state fright because I had the huge, like the most huge state fright ever. And um two things happen. One, like you said, the reps, but two, you know, like we can tell ourselves we're nervous, or I heard somebody saying you can reframe into I'm excited because they feel the same in the body. It's just what you think in your brain. No, you're not, it's okay to be excited, it's okay to technically it's okay to be nervous too. That means you actually care about what you're about to do, right? But yeah, and I also realize too that as soon as I reframe it to just be yourself and let it happen, like just be yourself and let it happen. Like I host this, it's called Pitch a Friend. And basically their best friends pitch their single friends to an audience, an audience of single people. And it's just cute and wholesome and all of that. Like there's no need to talk too much about that. But it's so funny because in therapy, when I was like going through like a huge group therapy, I couldn't even hold the microphone. I was so nervous when the microphone was coming to even say hi. Like I literally the first day, I was like, hi, my name is Victoria. Like I couldn't even speak on the microphone. And now I am see these events and I host them, and all eyes are on me, and I'm running it, and I'm in charge of the whole thing. And everybody's waiting for me to tell them what to do, when to do it, and everything. And it's like, who are you? I don't, I don't know who you are at this point because I used to be terrified of speaking in public. Like when I was doing my thesis for college, just to tell you an idea, like I ended up in the hospital from how nervous I was to do my thesis in front of my classmates. And it's hilarious to me. Now I'm like, wow, you're doing this now. And like, and people love it too, which is the funniest thing because I'm like, oh, they think I'm funny. And I'm like, well, you were probably always funny. You just didn't realize because you were scared to show yourself to people. So now you're like just showing yourself to people, and people are loving it. But yeah, that's enough about me. We're here about you. So we have a tradition here in this podcast, and I ask rapid fire questions to people. So just tell me the first things that come to your mind when I ask you the questions. Um one storytelling habit ambitious people should drop immediately.

SPEAKER_00 54:47

That they should drop or yeah. That they shouldn't do.

SPEAKER_02 54:53

Yeah, something that they shouldn't do.

SPEAKER_00 54:57

Trying to be perfect.

SPEAKER_02 54:59

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 55:00

I mean So what is something that they're you're not gonna speak the king's speech throughout your presentation. You're gonna make you're gonna say um, you're gonna you're gonna I speak naturally, be yourself. There's uh people prefer authenticity over uh perfection any day of the week.

SPEAKER_02 55:19

Okay, the fastest way someone loses trust on stage.

SPEAKER_00 55:25

I I I the first word, bragging. I don't like the braggers. If you have to boost yourself up, that tells me there's something shallow about you.

SPEAKER_02 55:36

Oh, I like that. I like that. A misfit from history you admire.

SPEAKER_00 55:42

Crush all of them. Uh, I'm gonna go with uh Madame Curie. I completely came to my mind. I was just watching uh I was just watching her speak in front of 3,000 men from like 1900, and they gave her a standing ovation. I'm like, wow, that's a hundred years ago. Like, wow, for a woman to be elevated at that level, that was pretty amazing to me.

SPEAKER_02 56:07

One word that speakers overuse that weakens their authority on stage. I just get to it. Interesting. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 56:24

You have to understand Donald Miller has a company called Story Green. I really admire him. He always says, your job on stage is to be the guide and to make your audience the hero. So if you go through a speech and you see a lot of eyes, you change all those eyes to use.

SPEAKER_02 56:42

Okay, that's funny because I heard, I misheard you, and I heard you say hi. And I was like, oh, so don't even say hi, just get into it. And that's the reason I said that. But then as you were explaining, I'm like, oh no, he said I. Don't be i-centric in your speech. So funny. Finish this sentence. You're playing small because you have yet to believe in yourself. Oh, I like that. Yes, I think that is so important. Like you mentioned at the beginning, you're like a lot of speakers on stage are not probably the ones with the most accolades or the most titles or the most whatever. They're just brave enough to like share their stories and put themselves out there, right? So that is awesome and incredible. But yeah, thank you so much for being with me. Thank you for being so open and honest. And I love your energy. Um, and just sharing all your stories. I think they're very important for people to hear. And they're going to 100% learn so much from this episode. I am going to leave all of the links of for you can find Danny in the description box. And it was a pleasure having you.

SPEAKER_00 58:01

Thank you, Vic. And as a thank you to you and your audience, I wanted to give everybody a free view. So if you go to freestoreguide.com, guide like a tour guide, freestoreguide.com, I'm going to give everybody their own complimentary well-crapped story blueprint. What this is, is the actual process that Coach Jimmy and I take our clients through so you can create your well-crapped story. What this does for you is it takes the guesswork out of why am I putting this story here and where should I put it? And what this means for you is a system that converts all of your clients, your audience into clients. You can get that freestoryguide.com. And I just really again want to thank you so much for having me today, Vic. And uh keep on doing all you're doing. You're getting better every time.

SPEAKER_02 58:44

Thank you so much. I appreciate you.