Project Candor: Ordinary People. Unexpected Stories

Full Sails. Full Smiles. with Danny Brassell | Ship's Log #25

• Jeanne Andersen • Season 1 • Episode 25

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Education is valuable, but execution is priceless.” - Danny Brassell

EPISODE SUMMARY 

 Danny Brassell has delivered more than 3,500 keynotes across four continents, but he didn't start on a stage. He started in the classroom — teaching inner-city kids to love reading in South Central Los Angeles. In this episode of Ship's Log, Danny and Jeanne trace the unlikely journey from Capitol Hill journalist to kindergarten teacher to one of the most in-demand speaking coaches in the world. 

 Along the way, Danny shares the five lessons he took from a catastrophic real estate loss, why kindergartners are the toughest audience in the world, and what Paul Harvey taught him about how a well-placed story can change an entire room. He breaks down the single biggest mistake most speakers make (too many calls to action), and introduces his guiding principle: choices confuse and cause you to lose. 

 The episode closes with a Two Truths and a Lie that includes a six-year-old in India who asked Danny if he could succeed — and the story Danny told him that he'd never shared before. Sometimes you win. Sometimes you learn. Danny lives by that line. 

 GUEST BIO 

 Danny Brassell is a keynote speaker, trainer, and coach often described as "Jim Carrey with a Ph.D." — with more than 3,500 talks delivered worldwide. He's the author of over 21 books, including Leadership Begins with Motivation and Misfits and Crackpots, and co-founder of WellCrafted Story, where he helps entrepreneurs turn authentic stories into real business growth. He started as an inner-city teacher, and that thread of education and humanity still runs through everything he does. 

GUEST CTA 

Free Story Guide: http://freeSTORYguide.com 

To thank the audience, Danny is offering a complimentary "Storytelling Blueprint: 5 Steps to Craft a Compelling Business Narrative." Learn to identify your core message, connect emotionally with your audience, and structure your story for maximum impact across all platforms. Transform your business story into a powerful asset that drives real engagement and revenue. You're just a well-crafted story away from 7 figures. 

 GUEST LINKS 

 Website:  https://www.DannyBrassell.com 

Who do you know who'd make a great guest for the show? Please let us know.
Email: info@projectcandor.com

Website:   https://www.projectcandor.com

Social Media

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LinkedIn:     https://www.linkedin.com/company/projectcandor/
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YouTube:    https://www.youtube.com/@ProjectCandorPodcast



Introduction

Jeanne

Hello and welcome to Project Candor. I'm your host, Jeanne Andersen. Today we've given Danny Brassell permission to aboard our little ship, Project Candor, and I'm really glad he's here. Danny is a highly sought-after keynote speaker, trainer, and coach, often described as Jim Carrey with a PhD. He's spoken to more than 3,500 audiences across the globe, authored over 20 books, including Leadership Begins with Motivation and Misfits and Crackpots, and he's the co-founder of Wellcrafted Story, where he helps entrepreneurs and organizations turn powerful stories into real connection and growth. Before all of that, Danny was an inner city teacher, and that thread of education, communication, and humanity runs through everything he does. Danny, hello. Welcome to Project Candor. I'm glad you're on board.

Meet Danny Brassell: “Jim Carrey with a PhD”

Danny Brassell

Thanks for bringing me on board, Jeanne. And more importantly, thanks for spreading some joy around the world. You run a happy ship.

Jeanne

Oh, great, great. We want to keep it that way. All righty. I'm going to ask you something because you said you've been known as the Jim Carrey. So give us your best Jim Carrey imitation.

Danny Brassell

Oh dear. I I I didn't say that, by the way. A person in my audience described me as Jim Carrey. I guess I'm very hyperactive. I'll move around a lot. I remember watching Jim Carrey. So one of the ways you get better at speaking, I would say that there's two ways to get better at speaking. First of all, one of my old coaches was a guy named uh Jim Rohn, and Jim used to say, you can't pay other people to do your push-ups. Translation, you gotta do the work. And that's so like you're a perfect example of that, Jeannie. I mean, I guarantee you the first time you did your podcast, you stunk. And the second time you did your podcast, you stunk. But you didn't stink as bad as the first time, and now you've been doing it over and over again, and you're getting very comfortable and much better every single time. So it's all in the reps. That's one way to get better at speaking. The second way you get better at speaking is you got to watch lots of speakers. And so I watch at least 10 speakers

Getting Better at Speaking: Reps and Observation

Danny Brassell

a day. I watch politicians, I watch televangelists, I watch comedians. Uh I I watched uh Jim Carrey once uh was doing there was a roast for uh Steven Spielberg, and he's like, he he says, uh they asked me to roast Steven Spielberg. I have no idea why they asked me, because he's never cashed me in any of his movies. He's like uh he's like, I tried out for E.T. And he starts doing that. Hey, and I know I'll tell you what, Steven, everybody knows that was a puppet, you know, and he starts like he's like, I tried out for Jurassic Park. I was a perfect velocity rafter. So I I I just love his physicality. I think he's uh I really think he's a genius. Plus, his life story is one of the most inspiring things. I don't know if you know this, but he was homeless as a teenager. Well in the famous No, I did not. Yeah, when he was, I don't know, like in his twenties, he went to the top of uh uh La Cianega Boulevard in Hollywood. He was crying, and he wrote himself a check dated ten years later for ten million dollars, and ten years later, he made ten million dollars on a movie. It's one of the most inspiring stories I've ever heard. Uh, but he's he's fascinating.

Jim Carrey, Persistence, and Betting on Yourself

Jeanne

So I've I've talked way too long about Jim Carrey, but I No, no, you made me want to go back and give him a second chance because he's not one of my favorite, but I was wondering if your head was gonna reshape and have steam coming out of it or something.

Danny Brassell

So here's the story with him. Uh I I'm I'm gonna convince you that you should pay attention to Jim Carrey because he came out with uh uh two movies at the same time, Ace Ventura, Pet Detective, and the Mask. And the word around Hollywood was that uh the mask was was good, but Ace Ventura was crass and wasn't gonna do well. And so he had been cashed for Dumb and Dumber, and they offered him, they offered him a quarter of a million dollars, and he said, You know, I've always wanted to make a million dollars on a movie. And they're like, Well, that's nice, but we're offering you a quarter of a million. He said, Well, I'm only gonna do it for a million dollars, but I'll also tell you this my price is gonna double every single week. And they looked at him like, you're crazy. Well, Ace Ventura came out and it was the number one movie in America, and so the producers came back and they said, We'll pay you the million dollars. He said, Oh, you didn't hear me. That was last he's like, that was last week. Now my price is two million dollars. And they said, No way, no way. Well, Ace Ventura was number one the next week, and so they came back, they're like, We'll give you the two million. He's like, You didn't hear me. It's now four million dollars. Well, he wound up making ten million dollars on Dumb and Dumber because he kept on doubling the I mean Oh my goodness, that is a fantastic story. It's amazing. I mean, I look at it's the same as like Sylvester Stallone making Rocky's one of the most inspirational. I mean, he was he was down to like a hundred bucks and they offered him a hundred thousand just for the script. He's like, No, I need to star in it. And they said, Well, we're not gonna pay you. He's like, I need to star in it. And so they they cast him, and the rest is history. I uh I just I have so much admiration for people that are so persistent fighting for their dreams. So uh those are couple of role models. I'm gonna get you to watch a Jim Carrey movie, Genie.

Jeanne

Oh,

First Impressions: Authenticity, Kindness, and Energy

Jeanne

wow, you will. I guess I have watched them, but I get I guess Dumb and Dumber was dumb and dumber, but yeah, I'm gonna have to go look that up. I I do know that Rocky would have not been Rocky without Sylvester Stallone. I can't even imagine. Because he had everything going for him with the accent, uh, the look, the thug look, you know, the messed up face. I don't know. And I had his poster in my college room, and we were all drooling over him. Yeah. I didn't know he was like this guy with a a hundred bucks to his name, and that's hilarious. I'm gonna you're inspired me to go search on people's stories, and I always like to get people's stories. So well, now we're gonna go and I'm gonna ask you some questions because I have a lot for you. So, Danny, when someone meets you for the first time outside of the gym carry, what do you hope they understand about who you are and what really drives you?

Danny Brassell

Well, that's a great question, Jeanne. Hopefully they think I'm authentic. I always tell people I believe in AI, but I just think AI should be more about authentic intelligence instead of artificial intelligence. So uh what you see is what you get with me. And hopefully uh I'm helpful to others and kind. Kindness is very important to me. We need a lot more.

Jeanne

Yeah, that's a great, fantastic answer. And you know, so far I would say you should add just in general, exciting to be around because you know, people need to have that extra charisma. You know, it's it's a blah day if you just you know just walk through it and don't have people smiling at you like you do. I love your smile.

Life Is a Buffet: Choosing Joy

Danny Brassell

There's an old movie in the 1950s, Auntie Mame, and she has a line in that movie. She says, she's like, Life is a buffet, and most people are starving to death. And I always loved that. I'm like, yeah, you know, we should enjoy ourselves. We're only on the box for a little while, so uh enjoy ourselves and and spread a little bit of joy around the world.

Jeanne

Yeah, I need to start writing down a lot of these quotes that I see because I used to love old movies, and there's so much gold in those. I mean, it's just what they said and what they thought. And we kind of in this era, there are people that think well, but we kind of depend on somebody to feed us information in the electronic age, I guess. And we don't even think of you know these great sayings that are in some of these old movies. So I I think I'm gonna start writing them down. I think you're giving me an idea. You might have them in your book already.

Danny Brassell

For some reason, it's it's pathetic. My parents have probably told me 30 times how they met, and for the life of me, I can't remember, but I can watch I can watch Dumb and Dumber once, and I can memorize dialogue. I mean, you know, I was watching Blazing Saddles the other day with my son, and it's got one of my favorite quotes. Uh he's like, Mongo only pawn in game of life, this dumb character. I just thought that was the funniest thing. So many gems like that in movies.

Jeanne

Oh, that's great. Yeah, so start writing them down. We should make a project to do that. Uh, you've gone from classroom to stages all over the world. When did you first realize, oh, this might be actually my path?

Danny Brassell

Well, I

From Journalist to Teacher to Speaker

Danny Brassell

fell into the path, Jeannie. I mean, um, you know, if I was gonna write an autobiography, it would probably be called Pivots because I feel like I've already lived nine lives. Uh, over 30 years ago, I was a journalist covering President Bush senior in the 1992 presidential election. I loved my job. I got to meet every editor of every major daily, and one editor offered me the City Beat for $16,500 a year. Meanwhile, a friend told me they were hiring a teacher in South Central Los Angeles for $25,000 a year. So I became an educator for the noblest of reasons, Jeannie, for the high pay. I actually 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 to engineering students at the University of Southern California. And in 2005, my wife and I attended a real estate seminar, which turned out to be a scam, and we lost everything financially. And I could give you the woe is me story, but I'm a positive person. I learned a lot from that experience. First of all, I learned that my wife is my soulmate. I put her through the ringer and she stood right by me. She's an incredible union. Beautiful. Second of all, I learned this money's not everything because you can lose money just like that. Third, I try not to judge other people anymore, Jeannie, because if I was somebody who saw what I had done, I would have said, Well, you deserve that. But now I realize unless you know everything about a person, you really don't know anything about a person. Fourth, I became 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 your question was I didn't want to file for 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. Well, the next year, Jeannie, he gave me a much higher number. And I hit that number right on the number. So in year three, I thought, well, maybe I should set a higher number. And basically during one of the worst economic downturns in American history, I was able to build up a highly lucrative speaking business, which eventually attracted the attention of some pretty famous people and uh companies who wanted me to coach them. And I gotta confess, I resisted coaching for a long time, Jeannie, because you need to know this about me. I'm obsessive compulsive. I will not let you fail. I will be on your back holding you accountable until you succeed. Well, now that I work primarily with entrepreneurs and executives and business owners, I find that they're highly motivated. They do the work. It's probably been the most gratifying thing that I've ever done. So uh I guess that's a long-winded answer to your question to say, you know, I'm still a work in progress. I don't know if even this is the end of uh of my journey, uh, but I love what I'm doing right now.

Jeanne

Oh, that's fantastic. So I need you in my camp, actually, when I figure out what I'm doing. Uh so what did the classroom teach you about people that no book ever could?

Danny Brassell

I

Lessons from the Classroom: Why Kindergarten Matters

Danny Brassell

learned what works with a 12th grader does not necessarily work with a kindergartner, but what works with a kindergartner works with all age levels. I call kindergarten New York, New York. If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere. Those kids have about a seven-minute attention span, and they taught me how to connect and be engaging all the time with audiences because uh little kids won't let you stink. You gotta be interesting to them.

Jeanne

That's wonderful. Yeah, that's very true. I don't know. I I hear stories from my uh my kids are older, but uh I hear stories from my friends now whose kids are in kindergarten and growing up, and I'm just amazed at, you know, the things that they're getting into and their attention span and how it's it's like entertainment, entertainment all the time. But uh they're still really great kids. So I really enjoy being around them. Alrighty, uh, you're known for something, and I I'm gonna say this you're known for Paul Harvey style storytelling. I don't know how many people remember Paul Harvey, but I I really I do remember him. So do you remember the first time a story landed so well you knew it actually changed the room?

Danny Brassell

Wow,

Storytelling That Moves a Room

Danny Brassell

that's powerful that it changed the room. Well, I mean, I was speaking last night to a group, and uh I usually like telling funny stories, and I ended my presentation with a personal story that was kind of uh, you know, a sad story, a cautionary tale to the audience, and you could hear a pin drop and people were like in tears. They're like, that was the most inspiring thing I've ever heard. I was like, wow, I didn't realize that that would land like that. So so that story, I guess, last night was uh that was pretty I usually like telling funny stories, but the one that landed last night was the uh the inspiring one.

Jeanne

Wonderful. So you have had that experience. So do you want to explain what Paul Harvey does for those who don't know?

The Power of Paul Harvey-Style Storytelling

Danny Brassell

Yeah, when I was a kid, I always listened to Paul Harvey on the radio. Uh Paul Harvey would come on every day at 1215 and say, I'm Paul Harvey, with the rest of the story and provide describing a person or a place. Yeah, and you're trying to guess what he was. And so when I was a middle school teacher, I was the only teacher in the school that none of my students were ever charty to class because I always started off with a Paul Harvey story, and they loved it. They were always trying to guess who it was or whatever. But the problem with Paul Harvey is a lot of his stories are about Fred Astair and Sears Roebuck, and kids today don't even know anything about that. And so um I wrote the book Leadership Begins with Motivation. This was an homage to Paul Harvey, and it had updated stories about more contemporary people like Jet Bezos and Elon Musk and people like that. But after I wrote it, Jeanne, I read it, and I'm like, huh, that's interesting. Completely unintentionally. So many of my stories in this book were about white male Americans, and so the book I wrote right after that was called Misfits and Crackpots, and the the stories in this book are more about women and minorities and international people because I just think people need to hear about okay. There's a great story. Actually, the story that inspired the entire book. So there's these two women, they're both choreographers in New York, they're at a diner, and uh one's named Martha, the other one's named Agnes. And Agnes has just opened up her third Broadway show, and audiences seem to like it, but the critics are panning her. And she looks at Martha, she's like, I give up. I think I'm just gonna close down the show. And Martha looks at her, she's like, You can't do that. It's not for some critic to tell you how good your work is. It's not even for you to tell you how good your work is. But if you close down this show, you're denying the world your gift. There's only been one you, there's never gonna be another you again. And if you close down this show, you're denying the world your gift. Well, Martha was Martha Graham, who is considered the mother of modern dance. She won the Kennedy Center honors and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Her friend was Agnes DeMille, who won the same honors. She became the first woman to have three hit musicals on Broadway. She kept the musical open, but she changed the name to Oklahoma.

Jeanne

Oh, wow, that's fantastic.

Danny Brassell

I love stories like I mean, so I want I want story-inspired people like that.

Stories That Inspire Action and Purpose

Jeanne

Yeah, that's great. So I when you said DeMille, was that like Cecil DeMille? Was she related to Cecil DeMille? He was the theater.

Danny Brassell

You know what? I don't know, so you'll have to Google that. I'll Google it afterwards because that's probably I'm sure that I probably thought the same thing as you related to Cecil B. DeMille, but uh I'm not sure about that.

Jeanne

Oh, okay. I'll check it out. Yeah, but that's a very great story. Uh so you talk about reading and speaking as being deeply connected. Was there a book that quietly shaped how you communicate even before you realized it had?

Danny Brassell

Well, it's

Reading, Storytelling, and Finding Great Ideas

Danny Brassell

ironic because you know, reading is my passion now, and I grew up hating reading. My father was a librarian. I always hated the library. It was always uncomfortable furniture, it smelt funny to me. There was always an elderly woman telling me to be quiet. There's always a freaky homeless guy who thought he was a vampire hanging out by the bookshelves. I always hated the public library.

Jeanne

Where what kind of library did you grow up around? That's not my experience at all.

Danny Brassell

I promise you, Jeanne. You go to any public library and it's a daycare center, it's a homeless shelter, there's dates going on. I mean, there's a lot of stuff going on at the public libraries. I think it's our greatest institutions are our public libraries. I commend them. I didn't appreciate them as a child. It wasn't until I started teaching in the inner city and I saw that a lot of my students didn't have the advantages I had growing up. I mean, I was very blessed. I mean, 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 in front of us, and we had plenty of access to reading materials. And I basically said, shame on me. And I it was important to me to get my kids to start, my kids being my students, I wanted them to read because uh, you know, you can see the world with a library card. Uh actually, that's something I love to tell people is a lot of people don't know that Jules Byrne, who wrote Around the World in Eighty Days, never left France his entire life, and yet he wrote that book. Um I just love story. I mean, I'm a storyteller, so I'm always reading to find anecdotes. I'm like, give me that anecdote. Um You know, it's precious to me. I actually just read a book recently, and the whole book stunk, but there was one story in it that was great, and I'm like, hey, if I can get one good story out of a book, it was worth my time. So that's the big connection how I use reading to affect my speaking.

Jeanne

Well, I I'm gonna interject my own story in here, and I'm gonna say when I was reading as a child, and like I'd guess a middle schooler, the book that I can't put out of my mind is the stupidest little romance book called A Valentine for Vinny. And and in there, it I think it probably you can Google it and find an old copy, it's maybe 50 bucks now, but it was just the dumbest little goofy love story about someone who was looking for a Valentine for their boyfriend, and they went to college together, and she became his wife early on, and but she had to find a Valentine for him. She went everywhere looking for this thing. I don't know. It was just so sweet. Everything about it was so sweet and touchy. So I was just reading it and thinking, I've never been interested in reading a lot of these books, and but that took me somewhere. It's like, oh, I'm just a kid, and I'm seeing people falling in love for the first time on in this book. I'm seeing people get married and going to college, uh seeing somebody that uh was supporting her husband in college when she didn't have a degree, and and she just spent all this time finding a Valentine, and I I just and it ended really sweetly, and so it set the standard for me to say you can fall into a book and just lose yourself. And so now I totally fall into like audible and put my headphones on or you know, just sit and just go into another world. It's amazing.

Danny Brassell

No, it's a good book when you slow down because you don't want it to end. I mean, I I did that when I read Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove. I'm like, I don't want this book to end. It's like so beautifully written. It's such a great Yes.

Jeanne

Yes, that one is a good one too, because my library was a lot better than yours. Uh we had a really nice lady, Ms. Ward, and it was really clean in there, and I'd bike over there every day during the summer because it had air conditioning, and I'm not gonna say we had window units or something. And uh it was really clean, no stinky chair.

Danny Brassell

Well, that's great.

Jeanne

And no homeless people, but I was in a little town of about 5,000 people, so it's not like it wasn't like that was gonna be a problem. But anyway, that's a good it's it's good to talk about books and how they can send you into other worlds. But I didn't know about Jules Verne either. I'm gonna check that out. You know, after thousands of talks, what's something audiences consistently get wrong about what makes you a great speaker?

Danny Brassell

Well, when I'm

What Most Speakers Get Wrong

Danny Brassell

working with people on how to craft a better presentation, the biggest mistake I see most people make is they brag throughout their talk. And so this is what I always suggest to people stop sharing your successes, start sharing with 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, which is what you're ultimately trying to do is to connect with your audience. The second biggest mistake I see people make in presentations is they give multiple calls to action. I'll give you an example from earlier today. I was on a podcast, and the hostess at the end of the podcast, she said, I hope you enjoyed today's podcast. Make sure you like, subscribe, and give us a five-star review. We got off the air, I said, You just asked your audience to do three things. They're not going to do anything. You know, I'm a I'm a former teacher, you have to bear with me. Everything I do either rhymes or it's alliterative. So I always tell people choices confuse and cause you to lose. You have to give one clear call to action. I'll give you an example. If you look at the largest grocery store chains in America, like Publix or Food Lion or Kroger, Wegman, Smith's, yeah, all these different ones. 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 into these big chains looking for mustard, there's 38 different types of mustard to choose from. When you go to Trader Joe's, there's one. It's called mustard. They made the choice for you. And there's lots of research on this. Humans are inundated with too much information. You give them choices, and what what they'll just say is no, I'm not going to make any decision. And so give people one clear decision.

Jeanne

That's

Simplicity, Focus, and One Clear Call to Action

Jeanne

really great. You made me laugh because I'm thinking this movie that I have, another movie that direct makes me pause, is Moscow on the Hudson. Did you ever see that with Robin Williams in it?

Danny Brassell

I think Yakov Smirnoff, it's the one last.

Jeanne

Yes, he's in there. He got too chicken to uh actually defect, but Robin Williams defected. And then he ended up living with some woman in some department store that he grabbed onto, latched onto, and she took him home, right? He lived with this black family. And he went to the grocery store and he did exactly that crazy, overwhelmed problem that you're talking about, where he tried to get coffee and he was looking at roasted ground beans, whatever, all that Max was he fainted from overload. So that was hilarious. And you proved your point, right? There's just too much. You can't take it all in.

Danny Brassell

So well, I mean, here's a perfect example. We now all have like 500 TV channels, and isn't it interesting you can't find anything to watch with 500 channels? When I was growing up, when you and I were growing up, there was ABC, CBS, and NBC.

Jeanne

And PBS.

Danny Brassell

And BBS. You're just stuck watching one of them.

Jeanne

Right. Yeah, that's exactly true. And I I think about that. I actually was writing a chapter in one of the book I'm writing in. It was about that. It's like, what happened? Because it stunts people from innovating and doing things because you have all of these choices and everything at your fingertips. Because we had, and I said this in my first episode. The one you said was probably I stunk at. But anyway, I I thought it was okay. Anyway, I I said, you know, what in the world are we doing here? We had to invent fun. We didn't have people give it to us. We didn't have like, oh, I'm bored, go sit in front of the TV. You're going to find something in one of these channels. I mean, I get crazy now when nieces and nephews look at me and say, Whoa, there's nothing on TV. Seriously.

Danny Brassell

I call today's generation Videots because they don't know what to do without a video screen in front of them. Like when I was a kid, it could be 20 below zero, and my mom's like, go outside and play. Dinners at six. It didn't matter if it was we had to play.

Jeanne

Right, exactly. I mean, you could get in a lot of trouble in that time, but still. And you know, the the fun part was is that, you know, those were the times when you take your bike with your friends and you'd make a ramp over some crack in the sidewalk that was really not a crack, but a big giant hole.

Danny Brassell

Right.

Jeanne

And then you would race on it or something and you know, and have a blast. And now people don't invent anything or even try anything. It's all like, you know, hey, I gotta be entertained. Well, the last thing I said on on that podcast was that as a child, you know, we would have to invent our fun, but we also would um come back in and nobody wanted to come in in the if you missed an episode of something, you would just miss the episode because you didn't want to spend the summer waiting for that stupid episode to come back. So it's like nowadays I see the episodes I missed when I was a kid.

Danny Brassell

When I was a kid, I couldn't wait till the second Saturday of April every single year because that's when CBS would have Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory on. And I had to I had to wait until there was a commercial break. I mean, now my kids are walking around with their phone, they can download any movie they want, it's right at their fingertips, pause it, you know. Uh and it's interesting because that's what they're seeing in movies, is most people don't even have the attention span to sit through an entire movie. They're usually on their phones or they're doing something else. Uh, we've really lost uh the ability just to concentrate.

Jeanne

Absolutely. I agree with you. Uh, I want to throw a bit of a curve ball, before we move to our next segment. But um, if there is a student you've had maybe from your teaching days that you you still can't forget, and why has that student stayed with you?

What Kids Teach Us About Life and Honesty

Danny Brassell

Oh, I've had so many different students. Uh, you know, when I was teaching kindergarten, I had a little girl, Loretta. I'm like, Loretta, question. She's like, Miss Percell, when are you gonna trim your nose hair? I'm like, uh, this afternoon. You know, I ain't all that.

Jeanne

That is hilarious, Danny. I kids, why did she ask you that? I mean, did you ever say, like, I'm gonna talk to your mom?

Danny Brassell

Yeah, kids are kids are wonderful in their brutal honesty and just the the way they see the world is totally different. I had a little girl, Maya, and Maya comes up to me at recess. She's like, Mr. Passel, Miss Passel, this is Angenet. Angenet is Nikisha's friend. Nikisha is my friend, so that means Angenet's my friend too. And I'm like, what a lovely way to look at the world. I recently wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper and they didn't publish it because they're stupid. Because they're like there was an article and it said that the president and Congress were behaving like children. And the gist of my my letter was that is such an insult to children. Because children get over it. Children get in a fight, and 10 minutes later, you're like, This is my best friend. And it's adults that hold these grudges, and we'd be so much better off if we the kids. Kids are really good about uh they're honest, you know, they'll tell you when something's up. I I I love that. I mean, they lie too. Uh don't get me wrong, they lie all the time, but they also are very brutally honest about things, and uh they just see the world in a totally different way. And I think we we ignore kids at our own expense because they have beautiful insights every day.

Jeanne

Yeah, and I bet this was you too. When did you have brothers and sisters when you were growing up? Okay. Yeah, I think you said that. And I had two sisters and a brother, and we would be playing together. And as children, you know, you might get in a little fight, one might push the other one down or something. When the other one got hurt and started crying and everything, what did we do? I'm sorry, and we started crying more than the one that fell. And then we wanted to go and hug them and everything, and that's the thing that's missing is yeah, adults get mad, they hold the grudge, they won't let it go. They just can't. Kids, they don't. They let it go and they're they're sorry for what they did most of the time. All right. Well, let's see. When you look back at all the chapters of your life, teacher, author, speaker, entrepreneur, which version of yourself surprises you the most?

Life Lessons, Gratitude, and Letting Go of Worry

Danny Brassell

Well, I think they're all surprising. I mean, I guess life's just a journey. I'm always interested. You know, when I die someday and I have my my chat with God, God's just gonna be giggling. He's gonna be like, oh, you know, when you were stressed that time, I was just laughing because I knew exactly how it was gonna end. And I mean, I I've been very blessed. Uh, you know, there's a lot of people that have very hard lives. I've been very fortunate, Jeannie, in that I've been surrounded by wonderful parents, friends, teachers who encouraged me. And uh, that's my responsibility is to encourage the the people around me. And so uh yeah, it's all surprising to me. I mean, I've been very blessed, and uh even this actually earlier today I was thanking God for a miracle he he produced, and I was like, man, this is just you know, why do I even worry? I I think worry is it is the most useless emotion out there. Every other emotion has a purpose. Worry actually has no purpose, it doesn't serve you in any way. I don't under I understand fear. Fear there's a purpose that but worry worry doesn't serve you, and I don't understand. So I'll ask that. That'll be a question I ask God is what was the purpose of worrying? So many people are held back because of worries and it doesn't serve them whatsoever.

Jeanne

Yeah, you know, in Matthew it says that why worry? Don't worry, because it will not add another day to your life. So no.

Danny Brassell

One of my daily journals says, turn your worries into prayers. That was very good advice. I just if I have a problem, I pray about it. I don't worrying doesn't serve me whatsoever.

Turning Worry into Faith and Action

Jeanne

Absolutely. All right, well, now it's time for us to go to our signature game, Two Truths and a Lie. Are you ready? Because you've given us you've given us some great headlines. So for those listening, our guest has given us three stories. Two are true, two are not uh one is not, and it could be a lie or it could be just a twisted truth, so we don't know. I'm gonna read off the headlines, I'm gonna put it on the screen here in a second, and then I'm gonna guess. And then once I guess, then our guest is gonna take us through each of the stories without revealing the lie until the end. So this is gonna be a lot of fun. This episode is sponsored by Rebel 180, the home of brave pivots and fresh starts. Rebel 180 is all about helping you rediscover what's possible when you stop settling and start listening to that little tug inside that says, life can be different. Whether you're navigating a career shift, dreaming about a new direction, or standing at the crossroads wondering if it's time for your own 180-degree turn, Rebel 180 is a reminder you don't need permission to change your story. And now, as we open the door to our second sponsor, we're stepping into the world of tech. Simple socket print, the lightweight blazing fast label print solution designed for those who need reliability without the bloat. With version 1.5, you get instant printing in milliseconds, fully maintained print sequence, and automatic base 64 decoding all without needing print driver installs. If you're running SQL Server 2016 or newer, SimpleSocket Print 1.5 drops right in and gets to work. Keep your workflow simple,

Two Truths and a Lie Begins

Jeanne

keep your label printing fast with Simple Socket Print. Thank you to our sponsors. So, Danny, your stories are here. You told us you went from Capitol Hill to inner city teacher to global speaker. Now 3,500 talks across four continents, and it changed your life. How could it not? All right, so then the next story the day a six-year-old in India taught daddy more about communication than any graduate course ever could. And then number three, how losing everything in a failed tech startup forced daddy to rebuild his career from scratch. All right, so I get to guess, and I'm gonna guess number three, because we haven't really talked about you being into technology. Because you're really so artistic and creative and all. So I'm gonna guess that one's a lie, but don't tell us. I'm gonna turn it over to you and you're gonna tell us story by story.

A Life of Pivots and Possibility

Danny Brassell

Oh gosh, I'm not prepared on how to tell these stories. Well, the first one I've already kind of told in my introduction, you know, I I've lived lots of different lives, and so I think we already have that one. The second story, so uh I was uh speaking at a school in India, and at the end of the talk, all the kids come up afterwards to say hi, and I look down, there's one little boy, he has tears in his eyes, and I notice he's missing his left arm, and he looks up at me, he's like, How can I succeed? And so I I crouch down and get to his eye level. I say, uh, you know, when I was your age, I went to 18 different schools before I was 12 years old. Everybody used to call me stupid because I stuttered. And eventually I went to a school where a teacher, she worked one-on-one with me, and she would sing things to me, and I found that I could sing them back without my stutter, kind of like the movie The King's. And eventually I lost my stutter and I became a swan. But I looked at that boy in the eyes, I'm like, isn't it interesting that the little boy people used to make fun of for being stupid because he couldn't talk right? Now gets paid ridiculous sums of money to travel the world to do what? And he gets the biggest grin. He's like, I'm like, never let anybody tell you what you cannot do. Everything is possible. Uh so then the third story.

A Powerful Moment of Encouragement

Jeanne

That's wait, wait, that's a heartwarming story. Just pause for a minute. That's fantastic. So have you seen that kid again?

Danny Brassell

Well, do you know if the story is true or not?

Jeanne

I mean, maybe you No, I know what I'm just saying. Okay. I'll I'll let you go away with that one, and you don't have to tell us you.

Danny Brassell

Make the story even better. Yeah, I saw him. He's now the Prime Minister of India.

Jeanne

No, I okay, that's good. Was that Modi? What no, that's something. Uh president. Yeah. Okay, you did that.

Danny Brassell

I I guarantee you 99% of Americans have no idea who the Prime Minister of India is, but you do, Jeanne. Well done.

Jeanne

Hey, I'm into everything. I always want to learn, learn, learn. Okay, number three, tech startup. Now, this one, you're gonna have to be good at this one because I'm not gonna buy it, I think.

The “Failure” That Wasn’t

Danny Brassell

Yeah, so uh one of the my first entrepreneurial ventures was I created uh one of the large the world's largest uh reading program online, which in just over two months shows parents how to teach their kids how to read more, read better, and most importantly, to love reading. And uh the reason it failed was uh we didn't have the uh venture capital funding that we wanted. We wanted to make the uh program available to everybody in India, in Pakistan, in Indonesia, in Africa, because I feel like the first world's had their opportunity. It's the third world that really needs the opportunity to learn uh to have a joy for reading. And so uh I don't think I should call it a failure just because uh sometimes you you win and sometimes you learn. And I think failures are a necessary part of uh the process of uh where you're gonna have your greatest successes.

Jeanne

All right. I just heard what you did there. You said sometimes you win, sometimes you learn. That's awesome. You didn't say lose. I you said you learn. I like that.

Danny Brassell

Yeah, yeah.

Jeanne

All right. So which one is the lie? Was I wrong or right?

Danny Brassell

You were right. It was the number it was number three.

The Truth Revealed

Jeanne

Oh, okay.

Danny Brassell

Yeah, I do have that reading program. It's not a uh failure. We're we're actually the largest reading motivation program on the on the planet, and uh, we made sure that it's available for one dollar to any any parent that's interested in getting their kids excited about reading because I find schools do an adequate job of teaching kids how to read. But the question I always ask people is what good is it teaching a kid how to read if they never want to read? I teach kids why to read because I've never had to tell a kid go turn on the TV. I've never had to tell a kid go play a video game. And I never want to have to tell a kid go read. I want them to choose to do it because they love it, and there's simple strategies, which I don't think that they teach in school, that'll get kids really excited about reading.

Jeanne

Okay. Oh, that's great. I enjoyed playing this game with you. So I know you've been such a fantastic guest. I know people are going to want to get in touch with you. So I'm sharing my screen again because I want them to see your contact information. One of the things, on top of the quote you just gave us about sometimes you win, sometimes you learn, um, you have another quote here. Would you like to talk about that?

Education vs Execution

Danny Brassell

Well, whether I was teaching my little ones or my older ones as they exited my classroom for the day, they always had to hear the same refrain. 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. So let's go out, do the right thing, and make this world a better place.

Jeanne

Very nice. I love it. And you gave a lot of ways that people can get in touch with your website, your website, LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook. All of these links are going to be in the uh show notes and transcript. So I really hope that people can reach out to you. But you also have a call to action here for folks listening, a free story guide. Do you want to tell them about that?

Speaker 1

Yeah, as

Free Story Guide and Final Takeaways

Speaker 1

a as a thank you to you, Jeannie, and your audience for having to listen to all my stories. I wanted to give everybody a free. Yeah, if you go to freestoryguide.com, guide like a tour guide, freestoreguide.com. I'm going to give everybody their own well-crafted story blueprint. What this is, is the actual process that my business partner, Coach Jimmy, and I take our clients through to help you create your well-crafted story. What it does for you is it takes the guesswork out of what story I should put in my talk and where should I put it? And what this means for you is you now have an actual system to convert your audiences into actual clients. You can get that at freestoryguide.com. And again, Jeanne, you're just a delight. Thank you so much for uh having me today, and I really appreciate all that you do.

Jeanne

Oh, thank

Closing Thoughts and Farewell

Jeanne

you so much. I really appreciate you being on. I wanted to ask you about your story guide. Does that work for other things other than a talk? Does it work for just like social media posting? Like, when do you tell this? When do you tell it?

Danny Brassell

I mean, um, when I was first in India, I was just touring schools, and this principal opened up a door and there's 5,000 kids in an auditorium. There's 20 newspapers and five TV stations. And he says, and now for the next hour, Dr. Brussel is going to teach us the three secrets to reading better. Nobody's told me I'm speaking and I have no such speech, but I got 5,000 kids. I got media in the room. Fortunately, it's India, so I get to speak a little slower. So I look at the kids and like, today I am going to teach you the three secrets to reading better. Who wants to learn the three secrets? And the kids are going crazy and in my head. I'm like, what the heck are the three secrets to reading? And using this exact same system in 30 seconds, I came up with a talk that was broadcast to 1.5 billion people, and that's what formed my reading habit uh reading motivation program. So I can tell you it works.

Jeanne

Oh, that's wonderful. Uh well, thank you so much for being here. And for those listening, especially my tech friends from India, we do not speak slowly for you. You do have English as a first language in a lot of the places. But anyway, thank you so much, everybody, for listening. I appreciate Danny being on. And please tune in next week for another episode of Project Candor. Until I see you later, I wish you all smooth sailing. Thanks for joining me on Project Candor, where the doors are open, the stories are unexpected, and the treasure is always real. If today's episode made you laugh or think, follow the show and share it with your crew. Otherwise, I might just make you swab the deck. I'm Jeanne Andersen, your Admiral of the Unexpected. See you on the next voyage.