Storytelling for Real Estate Agents: How to Win More Clients (5 C’s Framework)

👉 Check out REIClosings out here:  https://go.ezreiclosings.com/tc?am_id=homeguys 

In this episode, Jen and James sit down with Dr. Danny Brassell—world-renowned speaker, coach, and co-founder of Well-Crafted Story. Often called the “Jim Carrey with a PhD,” Danny shares how humor, authenticity, and powerful storytelling can transform the way you communicate and connect.

From covering the 1992 presidential election to teaching in inner-city schools—and later rebuilding his life after losing everything in a real estate scam—Danny’s journey is packed with lessons on resilience, reinvention, and impact.

🔥 WHAT WE COVER:

Dr. Danny Brassell’s Story
• Career pivots from journalism → education → professional speaking
• How he rebuilt after a major financial setback
• Why he believes in taking your work seriously—but not yourself

The 5 C’s of Powerful Storytelling
• Clarity – Know your audience and their problem
• Connect – Engage emotionally
• Content – Deliver real value
• Call to Action – Keep it simple and clear
• Close – End with emotion that drives action

Becoming a Better Speaker
• Why authenticity beats perfection
• How sharing failures builds stronger connections
• Understanding audience motivations: income, freedom, or impact
• The importance of getting reps and studying great communicators

Practical Takeaways
• How to “blueprint” your life stories for future use
• Turning everyday experiences into impactful messages

🌐 GUEST RESOURCES
👉 Learn more + grab Danny’s free “Well-Crafted Story Blueprint”:
https://wellcraftedstoryworkshop.com/blueprint

👍 If you got value from this episode, make sure to like, subscribe, and share it with someone who needs to hear this.

💬 Drop your biggest takeaway in the comments!

#Podcast #Storytelling #PublicSpeaking #Entrepreneurship #PersonalGrowth

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:11

And I have to confess, I really I really resisted coaching for a long time, Jen and James, because you need to know this about me. I'm obsessed with compulsive. I will not let you fail. I read a great sales book. It was called uh The Bible. And uh Jesus is an incredible coach. I think Jesus I'm gonna use that one.

SPEAKER_02 0:33

I'm gonna use that one.

SPEAKER_01 0:34

If you can motivate inner city teenage boys to read Shakespeare, I'm pretty sure you can motivate the sales page. And it was good. He did me a favor, he got me thinking bigger.

SPEAKER_04 0:47

All right, everybody, get ready because today's guests brings serious energy and storytelling power. We're joined by Dr. Danny Brizzelle, aka Jim Carrey with a PhD, and I am curious to know how that came about. But a world-renowned speaker who's delivered over 3,500 talks and authorized 21 books. He's the co-founder of Well Crafted Story, helps entrepreneurs run their stories, I'm sorry, turn their stories into powerful presentations that actually convert into clients. From inner city teacher to global speaker, Danny knows how to captivate, connect, and communicate at the highest level. If you want to level up your message and your impact, this one's for you. Let's get into it. And welcome to the show, Danny.

SPEAKER_03 1:32

Danny, thank you. Oh, you're on mute, bud.

SPEAKER_01 1:38

Mute. Jeez, that's my my my my wife's biggest dream is to mute me. So uh you already got that. Well, thank you for that kind introduction, Jen and Jane.

SPEAKER_04 1:48

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 1:49

I'm nice to spread joy around the world. We need a lot more of you.

SPEAKER_03 1:53

Uh yeah, I'm so excited to hear talked about that before in their last one. Um, just spreading joy.

SPEAKER_01 2:00

We're too mean to each other as humans. Absolutely. And life's too short. I I, you know, I have a philosophy in life. I take my job seriously. I take I don't take myself too seriously because I ain't all that, neither are you. And if you think you're all that, teach kindergarten for a week. The little ones will teach you. Uh when I was teaching kindergarten, I had a little girl, Lashonda. I'm like, Lashonda questions. She's like, Mr. Cell, when are you gonna trim your nose hair? I'm like, this afternoon. Thanks for bringing that to my attention. I ain't all that. That's great. It's they are brutally honest.

SPEAKER_03 2:28

They I'm like the kindergartners, I'm brutally honest sometimes, and sometimes that's it's good and it's bad. Right? I mean, you know, some people really do appreciate that, and then other people they they don't want to appreciate that.

SPEAKER_04 2:40

So sometimes I'm like your wife, I want to find the off button, and I'm just like just take take a minute.

SPEAKER_03 2:46

Yeah, I don't know how long you've been married, but we're officially working together for the first time, even though we've been in business for um almost 10 years. Uh, we own a flipping business. We we flip houses, nice, and now we're we're franchising. That's one of the reasons why we're doing more podcasts. We want to get people out there to understand who we are, uh, what we do. Um, so yeah, it's uh it's it's I want to let you know what we do, you know, and how it can maybe pertain. You know, um, I want to do something that I saw what you do uh 3,500 times on an audience. Um I think I can hold a crowd. My problem is is I get scared, and then I I all of a sudden I veer off, I get off topic too damn easy. I got ADH squirrel syndrome, is what I call it, right? But I got a lot, a lot of good stories. Jen knows that I got some some stories. Uh I've been in Iraq, Afghanistan, all over the world, and it's like uh and a firefighter, firefighters have stories. So um what what what keeps you and you know how do you engage an audience for that long? How do you keep an audience? Maybe I'm jumping a little bit too soon, Jen.

SPEAKER_04 3:48

If I yeah, I I kind of I want to know how you got uh got the nickname the Jim Carrey with a PhD. Like did you get my joke and I said already then? Alrighty then.

SPEAKER_01 4:02

I I was I was lucky, uh uh well because I s when I first started speaking, I spoke primarily to teachers, and one of the teachers in the audience she complained to me. She's like, I brought all this work to do, and I got nothing done because you were so entertaining. You're like Jim Carrey with a PhD. I was like, Oh, I'm gonna use that moniker. That's pretty good.

SPEAKER_04 4:19

There you go. And just like that, there it is. So you do a lot of speaking. How did you what's kind of your path here? What was your journey? How did you get into doing this?

SPEAKER_01 4:34

Yeah. So, Jen, if I was gonna 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 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 teachers in South Central Los Angeles for$25,000 a year. Oh, I became an educator for the noblest of reasons, 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 to engineering students at the University of Southern California.

SPEAKER_04 5:19

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:19

Yeah. 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 a pretty incredible person. Second of all, I learned money is not everything because you can lose money just like that. Third, I try not to judge other people 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, really don't know anything about a person. Uh, fourth, I became a Christian, which I'm always embarrassed to admit it took a catastrophe. But the more I read the Bible, I realize I ain't the first screw up to find Jesus. And uh fifth, uh, and probably most applicably for this podcast, um, 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, Jen and James, he gave me a much higher number, and I hit that number right on the number. And so in year three, I thought, well, maybe I should set a higher number. And basically, during one of the worst economic downturns in American history, I was able to build up a highly lucrative speaking business, which eventually attracted the attention of some pretty famous people and companies who were asking me to coach them. And I have to confess, I really, I really resisted coaching for a long time, Jen and James, 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 business owners and executives, I find that they're highly motivated. They do the work, and it's probably been the most rewarding work I've ever done. So we can we can go down whatever path you choose. I I was attracted to you guys with your real estate. Uh, my wife used to flip houses. Uh, I always crack up because whenever we go to a Home Depot, all the guys come up and start talking to me, and she's like, Stop talking to him. He doesn't know anything. And then whenever we go to a school, all the teachers talk to my wife. I'm like, Stop talking to her, she doesn't know anything. So uh, you know, we we do our little role reversal, but uh there's nothing wrong with that. There's well, James, we the the rule we had before we had kids was I was always right and she always got her way. But then once we had the kids, now she's always right and she always gets your way. It seems to work for real, you know.

SPEAKER_00 7:47

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SPEAKER_01 8:23

How many years have you been married? 24. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 8:30

It adjusts, it pivots as as you go through the different seasons. But yeah, we're we'll be 27 this year.

SPEAKER_01 8:38

I always call her my first wife just to keep her on edge.

SPEAKER_04 8:43

He does the same thing, and people kind of I introduce her as my first wife.

SPEAKER_03 8:47

This is my first wife, Jen. This is my first wife. He does the exact same thing. But I always like to say things to get other people to go, yeah. Just because my wife knows me, she knows I love her. She I can pretty I can say anything. Everyone else goes, How'd you how'd you say that and get away with it? I go, because she knows the truth. I'm only going after you, I'm not going after her. Yeah, she knows that.

SPEAKER_04 9:11

Yeah, he's just going for the reaction.

SPEAKER_03 9:13

And I just I just I love I love that reaction because it just catches people off guard. Absolutely. Uh at the end. So, what's your main uh what's your message now? Like when you get on, let's say um, because this is something that we would do, we would hire you once our masterminds get bigger, and you know, we get up to uh 50 to 100 uh uh franchisees. We like to bring people in. That's what we we do in another group. We bring some uh people like you to motivate, you know, it's uh motivate those entrepreneurs. I don't know if you've ever heard of investor fuel, of course. Uh Mike uh Mike Hambright? Yeah, Mike Hambright, you know, he speakers and stuff, and maybe even spoke for for him. We've been part of their group for about five years now. Um, so what's your uh in a kind of a nutshell, what's your message that you're trying to get across that besides being you know Stuart uh Smalley, what was that one guy from Saturday Night Live? You're good enough, you're smart enough, gosh darn it. Gosh darn it, people like that's right, that's right.

SPEAKER_01 10:10

Your former senator. Um, well, I have a company called Well Crafted Story. I have two co-founders, uh Coach Jimmy Hayes Nelson and Dave Ward. I call us the professor, the performer, and the producer because my background is academia. Coach Jimmy was a Broadway actor, and Dave was an attorney. And what we do is we help people uh convert audiences into actual clients because the only way I evaluate your effectiveness on stage is how many people decide to take the next step with you. It's great if people think you're a great speaker, it's wonderful if you get a standing ovation, but all that matters to me, it's it's great that you move hearts, but we also want to move the needle. And so um, it can be an unpaid offer. So, like subscribe to my podcast or vote for me. More typically with our clients, it's usually a paid offer, like uh buy my co invest in my coaching program or buy my product. We want to know our numbers and look at how many people are are actually uh uh taking that next step with you. And so, what we do is we have a formula. You have to bear with me. I'm a former teacher, so everything I do is either alliterative or it rhymes. Uh, and so we call it the five C's process for creating a well-crafted story. So, well-crafted story. Politicians would call this a stump speech. I've heard people call it a signature talk. You can call it peanut butter and jelly, it doesn't matter what you call it. It's basically a presentation that's going to be so ingrained in you that you introduce yourself to new audiences, it'll be as second nature as the Lord's Prayer or the Pledge of Allegiance. Um, you know, it's flexible enough that you can deliver it one to many, one to few, one to one. You can do it virtually, you can do it in person, you can deliver it to a uh a ballroom, a boardroom, a conference room, a courtroom, a classroom. One of my clients delivered his in a restroom. Hopefully, his call to action was wash your hands. But uh, and so the five C's basically in a nutshell, before we put together the presentation, you need clarity. And then once we have answered our clarity questions, then we get into connect with your audience, teach meaningful content that actually serves your audience, have one clear call to action, and finally have an emotional close that gets people hopping up to want to do business with you. So we can go down whichever path you want, guys.

SPEAKER_03 12:28

Well, I love that you say that because um that's obviously what Jen and I are on, you know, what we're doing right now. Um so we have franchises, and that's what we're going down. We have three franchises already uh Orlando, uh Knoxville, Tennessee, and San Antonio, Texas. And now Jen and I, this is why we're doing the podcast. This is you know, I mean, it's never it's not something new where husband and wife get on, right? But we're trying to make it different, you know. Like, how can we be a little bit different than everybody else? Um, how can people the likability? Um, what I'm also finding is if you know, I I did not go to college, I was a firefighter. I fell into this business as um something extra to do, and then all of a sudden my hobby turned into my workplace, and then all of a sudden I'm like, all right, this is what we're gonna do, and it's turned into a different lifestyle, which is what why we we flip houses. It's it's it's not really for the money, it's for the lifestyle, it's being able to do whatever we want to do when we want to do it, right?

SPEAKER_01 13:26

I love that because I mean, this is something I always tell people there's three motivations in your audience, and if you can address them, you're gonna be a much more effective presenter. So I basically call it the 20-year-olds, the 40-year-olds, and the 60-year-olds. The 20-year-olds are all interested in how can I increase my income. The 40-year-olds are all they've made their money, but they're not spending enough time with the family. So they're interested in how can I increase my freedom. The 60-year-olds, they've done all that and they're like, is this all there is to it? And so they're interested in how do I increase my impact. So if you can address income, freedom, and impact, you're definitely you're gonna move the needle much farther. And that's what we're always looking for is how do we uh increase that conversion rate in your audience, right?

SPEAKER_03 14:06

And then what's your um I'm I'm hearing a lot of talk, chatter, whatever. I'm not the smoothest talker, you know. Um, I'm I mumble, I I make up my own words sometimes. Um and I always thought that that was going to hurt me at of how of just talking, but I will I come across as as genuine, as is and that's how I'm supposed to. I mean, that's just who I am. I'm not that guy that look at me, you can flip houses and own this Lamborghini behind you, too, you know. And I I don't care for people like that, to be honest with you. Um, because I look at it as a whole. I think we're all kind of what we were talking about when we first started the conversation. You know, you want to help everybody, but you still want to help myself.

SPEAKER_01 14:50

Yeah. Well, we can continue with the Minnesota theme. Your former football coach, Lou Holtz, is one of the best speakers I've ever seen, and he has like a speaking disorder or whatever. But people he tells great stories. He's very I tell people in the age of AI, I don't believe in artificial intelligence, I believe in authentic intelligence. And so probably the best strategy I share with people is 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 show your own failures, the more your audience is going to see themselves in you. And that's what you're ultimately trying to do uh is to connect with your audience, these people that are mechanics. Yeah, I know exactly what you're talking about because I'm addicted to watching speakers. I used to actually go to infomercials because I'm just and you know, this one guy had his hair slicked back like Pat Riley's in the suit, and he's like, There are two types of people in this world good, hardworking people and rich people. I'm like, ugh, I gotta take a shower after watching this guy. Uh he was so slick, and he's like, Oh, you know, here's my Ferrari, and I got, oh, I can't sit down because of all the hundred dollar bills in my back pocket. And you know, I'm like, I can't stand it was funny, it was funny. You got me thinking about this, James, because uh one of my coaching clients, she thanked me the other day. I'm like, what are you thanking me for? She said, Thank you for not using your faith in your family to sell your services. Because I've just never liked that. Oh, I'm I'm this, I'm this religion, and so you know, you should trust me. I'm like, you know, I'm Christian, I've been burned by more Christians than anybody else, you know. So I'm not using, and I don't my my my private life is meant to be private. So uh, you know, it's like this is probably my problem with social media, is every put everybody puts their best foot forward, and I'm like, you know, it's kind of I don't have you guys ever been to Disneyland to the haunted house ride? Yeah, haunted house ride, that's what I think social media is because when you step in, you're in this room and you look, and there's all these paintings of happy people, and then the room starts going down. You were just there in uh yeah, you see like the girl with the parasols smiling, and it turns out she's on a tight wire above uh uh above an alligator, and then there's a guy smiling, it turns out he's on a barrel of dynamite, and like that's social media. You you make you make yourself look like, oh, I'm I'm all this, and you're you're just sitting on a barrel of dynamite.

SPEAKER_04 17:14

That's a great comparison. I love that. Yeah, absolutely. Same way you don't know what anybody's dealing with behind the scenes, you don't know what's happening behind closed doors. Um you know, and that's you know, that that phrase, like everybody's dealing with something, just be kind. No matter what they're presenting out here, you know, there's something going on that's true. Um, and just be kind.

SPEAKER_03 17:43

Well, I do appreciate that uh advice, and that's kind of where I'm going, and that's probably what made me feel that much more um uh you know, more comfortable doing this each and every time, is because I don't I I mumble, I uh I forget what I'm saying sometimes. I just be I don't I I Jen always says, Man, it must be hard sometimes being you because your brain is firing so much that sometimes if I don't speak it out right then and there, I lose it.

SPEAKER_04 18:10

Well, I mean when he started a couple years ago, he he got up at an investor fuel event and he knew going in, so he was kind of spiraling and obsessing over it. But everybody we just kept saying get it doesn't have to be polished, get up there and just own it from the beginning. Like, hey, I'm James, I'm gonna make up words, I'm gonna lose track, I'm gonna follow the shiny object, but um, we'll just see where this goes. And everybody went, cool.

SPEAKER_01 18:39

I mean, the the great the great coaching that you just did was own it. And that's what I always tell people is uh so I'm I work with a lot of people, most of the people I I mean, I do work with speakers, but most of the people I work with, they're either terrified of speaking or they have no interest of speaking, they just want to get more clients. And so uh one woman I'm working with, she's just she's shaking like crazy, and she's like, What do I do? I'm like, shake even harder and tell everybody this is the most nervous you've ever been, because contrary to popular belief, audiences actually want you to succeed. All of us have all been in that presentation where the person was bombing, and it's just time stand still, it's like, oh man, this stinks. But if a person just fesses up to it and says, I'm nervous, now your audience is like, Hey, you can do this, you can do it. Like, people are actually pretty cool. And the what I always because I watch about 10 speakers a day, and I love watching comedians. Comedians are the best at this. Because if you watch Kevin Hart, he's a short black guy. So he makes a lot of jokes about being a short black guy. If you watch Jim Gaffkin, he's a big fat white guy, so he makes a lot of jokes about being a big fat white, big fat white guy. What they've done is they've taken their perceived weakness and they've turned it into their strength. I did not advise President Biden or President Trump, but if I advised them uh on their speaking with President Biden, I would have said, make fun of your age. I can't remember anything. I'm so old. But we were already doing that. People would have laughed and been like, oh, President Biden, he just he can't remember anything.

SPEAKER_04 20:12

We did instead of trying to fake it, we didn't pretend that everything was fine.

SPEAKER_01 20:17

And President Trump, I would have said, make fun of your humility. Oh, nobody is humbler than me. I'm the most humble person on the planet. Like when you make fun of it, now everybody's laughing with you instead of at you, and that's very important. So, like making up words or whatever, that's great. People are gonna like, that's a real person. Nobody, I can't stay. It's kind of like going to a party, and and you're you're the person next to you is like, Oh, yeah, my three-year-old just wrote another symphony, and I'm looking at them like, Well, my son, he just learned how to pick his nose with two fingers at the same time. I'm like, Yeah, you and it's actually one of the things I say with so I'm working with a guy right now from Saudi Arabia. He's climbed the highest peak on all seven continents. He swam with sharks in Madagascar, he did the Idida rod in Alaska. I look at him like, nobody can relate to you. Nobody in your audience has climbed Mount Everest, but I guarantee you everybody in your audience peed their pants when they were six years old. That's a good connection story. That's something that's real. That's what people want. They want real. We are in an age where we don't know what's real anymore. And so like the ums, like I I I have no problem with people doing ums and making up words and things like that. That's that's actually I would I would tell people that are polished to to study how to how to make those mistakes. That's the truth.

SPEAKER_03 21:43

Yeah, I think it comes more authentic when you know we're having a conversation. Um, and that's that's what I've always tried to do. Um, I I've I never even realized I was doing it until I started uh looking at some uh studies of uh how people sell. And I was asking the presenter at we're all done, and we still use him today. Um Martinez, uh John Martinez. You ever heard of him? Yeah, he does the sales techniques, and now it's Jerry Green. And And I asked him, I go, Hey, you're teaching this. Is there anybody who just knows this naturally? He goes, Yeah, about five percent of the people. I'm one of those five percent. It's like I know how to do empathy without I'm not trying, it's just the way I was raised or just the way I've always been. I'm like, I actually do give a shit, you know. I mean, at the end, sorry, my French, but uh, I love asking hard questions. I love sitting in front of somebody and talking. Um, I love sitting in front of the black lady in in Minneapolis because everybody stares, and I want everybody to stare because look, we can do this. We don't, you know, if we if more and more people do that, we're gonna be a better society.

SPEAKER_01 22:52

Yeah, I read it, I read a great sales book. It was called uh the Bible, and uh Jesus is an incredible.

SPEAKER_02 23:02

I think Jesus is that one I'm gonna use that one, I'm gonna use that one, okay?

SPEAKER_01 23:08

You're not stealing from me, James, you're liberating from me. So that's fine. Uh, but I mean, if you look, I always laugh when I read the Bible because I'm like, Jesus is the most frustrated teacher on the planet, and he's got 12 dense dudes around him, and they can't figure out what he's talking about. And so here's what he always says he's like, all right, let me tell you a story. Yeah, great sales strategy. So watch it. I bet you nine out of 10 non-Christians are familiar with the story of the prodigal son, they're familiar with the story of the Good Samaritan, they're familiar with the story of David and Goliath. I also bet you nine out of 10 Christians cannot tell you the Ten Commandments. And the reason is because the Ten Commandments were not presented as a story, they were presented as a PowerPoint slide with 10 bullet points that you were supposed to memorize. People don't remember that. And so the sales technique is net being now like I have people all the time say, Oh, I don't know how to tell stories. I'm like, Really? You've never had dinner with anybody? Yeah, I eat dinner all the time. Oh, you don't you don't tell stories to one another? Well, yeah, it's the same thing. That's all you have to do. How are you connecting? You're trying to figure out, you know, like we were off air and you said you were from Minnesota, so I immediately was trying to figure out ways to connect with you in Minnesota, even on the podcast now. I'm like giving you Minnesota examples or whatever. But it's those are the most basic ways to connect with human beings. Um, you know, you watch uh Godfather 2, uh, the Godfather's trying to get this uh slum landlord to help out this uh widow, and he's like, uh, hey, you're from Sicily, right? He's like, No, I'm from this part. He's like, Oh, well, we're both Italian. I'm like, oh yeah, he's doing a great job of figuring out. I love that. Hey, we're paizan. What can we do? And this is what this is what drives me nuts. We were talking about this also. I'm like, you know, the the politics in this country. I'm like, folks, we're not democrats and republicans. Let's start remembering we're all Americans.

SPEAKER_02 25:06

Like, let's let's exactly let's figure out the common. You're absolutely right.

SPEAKER_01 25:09

Let's stop it, let's stop saying you're different, so I hate you. I mean, let's say you're different, that's really cool because you know things I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 25:18

Let's learn from each other, let's have those conversations. Like James was saying our good friend who she's passed away, but um they she was an African-American lady and they would sit and have these conversations, and they wanted to do a podcast, and she got sick, unfortunately, and they weren't able to. But um, sit down and have those hard conversations because James would ask questions and then Priscilla would ask questions about well, why do white people do this? And James is like, I never thought about it. I don't know. And just okay to have those hard conversations and ask those questions. People just want to learn. How can how can we come together?

SPEAKER_03 25:53

It really comes down to it, Danny, that I'm really getting tired of answering, like, what race are you? And there's only one race human race. That's it. I'm getting tired of this, you know, because now everybody automatically goes to that and starts judging off of that. It's like just stop.

SPEAKER_04 26:10

We're all just doing the best we can. Everybody's just here doing the best they can. It's not competition, it's not uh, you know, we're all just trying to live.

SPEAKER_01 26:19

The older I get, Jen, the more I realize I don't know that much. I had my favorite post-it note that I have on my desk says, What if I'm wrong? Like, maybe everybody should step back and say, Maybe I should listen to the other person. And again, you don't have to agree with other people. I I don't yeah, you don't have to be disagreeable with everybody. Like, I can I can respect you, listen to you disagree with you, and we can still go out and have a beer together. I'm not gonna be this jerk that's oh well, you're this person, and you're like, I people love to label, and you know, no nobody's one-dimensional.

SPEAKER_03 26:55

Hey Danny, we're gonna still got a bunch of more questions to ask you, but um, at this time I always say about halfway through. Is there anything that you're like, hey, is there something I can help your audience? The audience wants to reach out to you, uh, you know, wants a little maybe on some more on coaching. You know, I I don't even know if you know that's part of what you want, but I always want to give everybody a chance to get their message across if they have one.

SPEAKER_01 27:17

Well, as a thank you for having me on your podcast and having to bear with me, uh, I always like to give everybody a freebie. So if you go to freestoreguide.com, guide like a tour guide, freestoreguide.com, I'm gonna give everybody their own complimentary well-crafted story blueprint. What this is, is the actual process that I help our uh clients go through to help you create your well-crafted story. What this does for you is it takes the guesswork out of what story should I use and where should I put it in my presentation? And what this means for you is you now have a clear system on how to convert any of your audiences into actual clients. You can get that at freestoreguide.com and uh uh I practice what I preach. I always have one call to action, and that's the important, you know. I tell people this all the time, and one of the biggest mistakes in presentations is multiple calls to action. So I'm on at least five or six podcasts a week. And uh yesterday I was on a podcast, and the hostess at the end 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 told her, I'm like, you just asked your audience to do three different things. They ain't gonna do any of them because people are lazy. And again, former teacher, everything rhymes. So I say, Choices confuse and cause you to lose. Uh, you can't you gotta have one clear call to action. So, the example I always give, if you look at the largest grocery store chains in America, Smith's, Food Lion, Kroger, uh, Publix, whatever, the biggest chains, they're not the number one grocery store chain in America based on sales volume. The number one sale, the number one grocery store chain in America based on sales volume is Trader Joe's. And the reason is when you go to one of these large supermarkets looking for mustard, there's 38 different types of mustard. When you go to Trader Joe's, there's one type, it's called mustard. They made the choice for you. People's brains can't handle too much information. What happens is when you're bombarded with lots of different choices, you know, it you'll see this in your field. Uh, you you show a person 10 different homes and they can't make a decision. What you do, show them one home and and that make the decision for them. Say, this is the one, this is the one.

SPEAKER_04 29:38

That's how my brain is like, yeah, you know, I'm the mustard scenario. You go in and there are 50 of them. I'm like, no, give me two. Yeah, I will pick the one that I like or the one that you know, label, whatever, packaging, whatever it is. I'll pick and and I'm done. I can move on. When I get 10 options, I'm I yeah, my brain gets overwhelmed. What's the what's the saying paralysis but no? Um analysis, paralysis.

SPEAKER_03 30:03

Yeah, that's what I was saying. Hey, um, so I I I really do think I got a kind of a good story, you know, how uh how a guy goes from being a firefighter to all of a sudden a real estate guy. And what we've what we've built, you know, again, been Iraq, Afghanistan, Jen, you know, she's a hundred percent part of the story because here I thought I had it hard being in a war zone. She had it harder because she had to be a big thing. Oh, you went there for war.

SPEAKER_01 30:29

I thought you went there for tourist purposes, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 30:31

Yeah, yeah. So I I was not military. I went over as uh I raised raised my hand. We needed to go over because of money. Um, it's just I know I can make big dollars over there and support my family. But just you know how I went from that to you know, now owning, you know, I'm a franchiser. Um I've I've kicked some ass, I've taken some names. Um, I will be honest with you, I'm struggling right now. On the fact is everything is is pretty smooth. Um, I used to live in chaos all the time, and my body's still wants chaos, even though everything is peace. I woke up at 6 30 this morning just going, I I don't have to do anything. You know, relax, James. Go over there and sit in front of the TV, you know, stroke uh uh scroll down on your stuff. But uh yeah, I really do think there's a there's a pretty good story, but I think is uh you know, I kind of going into this. What's the truth about public speaking? You know, I mean, ever everybody, you know, they always tell her make sure everybody looks naked out there, right? Imagine everybody naked, do they still do that or or not?

SPEAKER_01 31:38

That's that's they do, and I don't I've never understood that ever because frankly makes no sense to me. I don't want to look at my audience as if they're naked. What I do is like if you're scared, I say look at the one person smiling and just make it a one-on-one conversation because your eyes make it look like you're pretty much speaking to everybody. Uh, I always look for the one reassuring face in the audience. I like that.

SPEAKER_03 32:00

My my whole strategy before was don't tell me I'm gonna speak until I need to speak. So I truthfully, I didn't I didn't even realize we had a podcast today. I'm doing something else, going down another rabbit hole. Uh since she talked, you know, five minutes before is like, Oh, okay, great. But that actually helps me because then I don't have to sit there and hey, I wonder who this guy is. I mean, I wonder if he's cool or not, you know. Um, you're cool, Danny. Just so all right, good.

SPEAKER_01 32:26

I was gonna ask.

SPEAKER_03 32:28

I mean, I'm a social, sociable guy. I really truly am, but I'm one of those guys that you know, I'm a uh extrovert, but I get full at the end of the day. And all of a sudden I want to do an Irish goodbye and not say goodbye, you know, when it's cocktail hour because I've been talking all day. Like I struggle now. It's like now I guys want to meet at the bar at five o'clock, six o'clock. Well, I've been on podcast, I've been on the phone. It's the last thing I want to do is continue talking, you know.

SPEAKER_01 32:59

But uh so reframe it, James, is is when when people want to go out with you, that's a great opportunity for you just to ask a lot of questions and practice your listening skills. That's that's what you do, is if you don't want to talk, just ask lots of questions. Everybody loves to talk about themselves.

unknown 33:14

There you go.

SPEAKER_03 33:15

Yeah, that's that's actually really good advice, right there.

SPEAKER_01 33:20

It sounds so damn simple, but it's people's favorite subject is themselves. It's you know, Donald Miller has a company called Story Brand. I love Donald. His message, he says, when you're on stage, your job is to be the guide and to make your audience the hero. Uh, when people say, I don't want to sound salesy on stage, I always say, Well, stop selling, just serve. I want you to look at your audience like they're dying. You have the antidote. If they don't get your antidote, they will die. It gives you a different mindset. What can I do to help my audience? So I'll jump into when I'm teaching people the content portion of the presentation. This is usually the largest part of most presentations. This is the part most people stress the most on. And I'm like, well, don't worry, because the research shows it's the least important part of your presentation. The bun's usually more important than the burger. The beginning of your talk and the end of your talk is what people remember. They don't remember anything in between, but what they do remember is, are you helpful? And so when I first started speaking, um, and I always tell people the way you grow your audience is you should start with as narrow an audience as possible. So this get this relates to the clarity questions. The two clarity questions before we put together a presentation are who is your audience and what is the problem that you solve? If you can answer those questions succinctly and you'd be amazed, 95% of the people I work with cannot, when we start working together, answer one or both of those questions succinctly. But once we are very clear who is my audience, you know, people say, Oh, well, uh, I love speaking to women, uh, Christian women, uh, well, I also like to speak to men, and well, they could be Jewish. Uh I'm like, you just named like five different groups of people that like we can't do that. We need to very so when I first started speaking, I had been a teacher. And so I started by speaking to teachers. Well, then I was able to expand to school administrators, and then I expanded to parent groups, and then I was in a mastermind with a bunch of business people, and they were great because they got me thinking bigger. I was at a table once and it was me and eight billionaires. I'm like, I'm at the wrong table. They're like, no, no, no, stay here, Danny. You think differently than the rest of us. You say 10 things, nine of them are crazy, but the other one's worth millions of dollars. And they got me pumped. One of the guys, he uh he ran a very large company and he wanted me to motivate his sales team. And I'm like, I don't know if I'm qualified to motivate your sales team. And he looks at me like I'm an idiot. He's like, Danny, if you can motivate inner city teenage boys to read Shakespeare, I'm pretty sure you can motivate my sales team. And it was good. He did me a favor, he got me thinking bigger. But you got to figure out who is that audience that I'm speaking to. Very narrow. Um, I got off what my original point was on the content is how can you be helpful? So I started off by speaking to teachers, and one of my mentors, he's no longer with us, but he's a great guy named Jim Treleese. He wrote a book called The Read Aloud Handbook. And so what he did is he he trained parents how to read aloud to their kids. Well, in the middle of his talk, he'd say, Oh, oh, I guess this is gonna save your life someday. If you ever lock yourself out of your car, as long as you have your cell phone, call your spouse, have your spouse put your car keys next to her phone, you put your phone next to the car door, it'll unlock the car door. I tried this from 3,000 miles away, it works. Are you serious? It doesn't work with like Tesla's newer cars, but this was like 30 years ago. My corolla, it worked. I was like, and okay, so here's the teaching point. I watched one time he finishes his talk, at least five people come up to him. Oh my gosh, I saw you speak like five years ago. I remembered that. I locked myself on my car. Oh my gosh, it worked! You saved my life. I've been telling every school I know to book you as a speaker. Whoa, this has nothing to do with his presentation, but he did something most people don't do. He helped. This is my rule. Whether you decide to do business with me or not, I have an obligation to help you because you gave me your most precious asset, your time. So, what can I do to help you while I'm speaking to you? If you can at least give one nugget that everybody can leave with, and this is a practical thing that they can take action immediately, you're doing better than 95% of the speakers I see out there. Most speakers, you know, uh, I actually liked it. Uh, this isn't political, I just like the the speech. So uh Bill Clinton, uh uh President Clinton was giving a speech at the Democratic convention uh uh uh two summers ago, and he said, uh, oh, I thought Trump was an opera sinker because he always says, me, me, me, me, me, me, me. And I just thought that's such a funny line. This doesn't have that. I I'm not political. I just thought it was a funny line. I mean, I'm back and forth on the Republicans and Democrats. Well, all I'm looking for is what's the nugget? What is it that they I mean, my favorite still, I mean, here we're gonna do Minnesota theme. So Walter Mondale was from uh Minnesota. My yeah, so uh when when uh Vice President Mondale was the was facing President Reagan in the 1984 presidential election, in the first debate, President Reagan couldn't remember anything. And so the second debate, the very first question was Mr. President, you couldn't remember a lot in the first debate. Is age gonna be a problem in this election? And Reagan says, I am not gonna make age a political issue in this campaign, I'm not gonna point out to the American people my opponent's youth and inexperience. He got my the election is over, the one line. So I'm I'm always looking for there. Are people all the time that are brilliant on stage? I'm working with a lawyer right now, and he's trying to figure out how to uh uh convince the jury it's a big class action suit. What can I do? And I said, You got to keep it simple. Most lawyers they speak really big, but let's look at the the most famous trial of our time was the OJ trial, where you have all these highly sophisticated prosecutors, Marcia Clark and her team, but then you have Johnny Cochran. And he said, You got it, James.

SPEAKER_04 39:35

You must have quit.

SPEAKER_01 39:38

That's all anybody remembered. That is it. I mean, that's brilliant. This is all I'm looking for. You know, so one of my strategies, I always tell people there's only two ways to get better at a speaker. Uh, I've had lots of coaches and mentors in my life. Uh, one of my uh 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 reps. I mean, you got to get out there speaking. You two are on a podcast all the time, so this is great. It's great practice for you. But you even even the smallest towns in Minnesota have a lions club, an optimist club, a Kiwanis Club, they got schools, they got churches, synagogues, uh, chambers of commerce, you got to get out there, get your reps in. The other way you get better at speaking, you got to watch speakers. I watch 10 speakers a day. I mean, I watch televangelists, I watch politicians, I watch comedians, I watch them in front of big groups, in front of small groups, I watch them in front of men, in front of women. Here, here's my ninja strategy. I watch a lot of televised award shows because when the person wins the Academy Award, they only have 45 seconds to connect with their audience. I want to see how they spend their time. Now, most people they waste their time. They get up there like, I want to thank God, I want to thank the Academy. It's stupid, nobody's paying attention. But every now and then a person hits out of the park. So a few years ago, there was a guy by the name of Joe Walker who won the Academy Award for best film editing. Now, this is the Academy Awards. The important people are in the front of the room, the actors, and the camera scan in the crowd. You can see the actors, they don't care. This is film editing editing. Joe Walker gets on stage. He's British, he speaks very slowly and deliberately. He says, a lot of people don't know this, but when phrased properly, the term Academy Award nominee can be used as an insult. Well, now the camera scans the crowd, you see everybody leaning in, like, what's he talking about? He says, For example, yesterday I got in an argument with my 17-year-old daughter, and she said, Well, Academy Award nominee Joe Walker. All of a sudden you see everybody laughing hysterically. He gets on stage, Denzel Washington wants to meet him, Sandra Bollock wants to meet him, Brad Pitt wants to meet him. Time magazine said he was one of the highlights of the Academy Awards. Oh my gosh, that's how you connect. 45 seconds. It's only little things, all these little things.

SPEAKER_03 41:58

Um that's funny because I do I do things sometimes. I'm that guy that speaks in the elevator. You know what I you know what I'm talking about, where no one wants to hear anything, you're going to a sportings event. I'm like, come on, let's we're here for let's be theory.

SPEAKER_04 42:14

Or you know what I'm not exactly like catch them off guard, which is what James was talking about earlier, what he just likes to do as a hobby, but just catch people off guard, and then you kind of throw them, throw them off a little bit, and then you're able to connect and engage, which is no, this is the norm, right?

SPEAKER_03 42:34

You know, the so-called norm. And I will say something just to um just you know, it's a funny that everybody's thinking the elephant in the room, but I'm the only one brave enough to actually say something.

SPEAKER_01 42:47

Well, but that isn't that a great way to distinguish yourself, James. I mean, if I'm coaching, that's exactly what I'm saying is like uh when somebody asks you how you how are you, most people say fine. You've just totally eliminated an opportunity. I always say, Well, I'm on the verge of niftiness. Yeah, well, that catches people off guard. Or if somebody asks me the time, I'm like, uh, it's 15 minutes to 11:05. What I mean, you can do I like that one. Yeah, what what you're trying to do, this is very difficult. What can I do to be memorable? I read Michael Cain's autobiography on acting, and he said when he started off as an actor, he wasn't getting cast in anything. And so, what did he do? He bought these thick rimmed glasses, he didn't need them, and then casting directors are like, Well, who was the guy with the thick rimmed glasses? That's how he started getting roles. Okay, you know. Uh I still remember a speech I watched uh 30 years ago by Meg Cabot. She wrote the princess diaries and she showed up on stage wearing a tiara, and she looks at the audience, like, I'm always the only person wearing a tiara. I remember that 30 years later. She used to go. I mean, like, what can you do? What is it that you're doing to stand out a little bit?

SPEAKER_03 44:03

Maybe that's that's probably I didn't even realize what I was doing. Um, I wasn't a class clown, I was the bringing. Right up to the edge, type where I got the teacher to laugh, also, and never got pushed out. You know, I mean, I'm probably again never had detention at all for for acting up in class. I I made it fun for everybody, in even the teacher. That's that's how I that's the kind of guy that I was, or still am. I mean, I I still try to to make I I don't put up with as much crap as much as it was probably what I did back then, but you know.

SPEAKER_04 44:39

Talking about that, like James always, if he ever wrote a book or you know, autobiography or whatever it is, it was always going to be wear the orange shoes because he always the home guy's colors are naming orange, and so he always embraced the bright orange like his hat, you know, and and always like kind of give something people something to talk about.

SPEAKER_03 44:58

That's right. I wear a hat. I wear my um one of my other it's a different what is what are they called, Hunt? The the Scully hats. Yeah, the yeah, yeah. I just because you know what? I I don't care. I that's the driving driving style kind of yeah. I just want to I want to be different, but I also don't want to like be elaborate, different, you know, like some people are it can be a little bit way more elaborate than I don't need to be that.

SPEAKER_01 45:25

You don't have to be Elton John. There you go.

SPEAKER_03 45:27

No, that's that's that's probably a really good example again. Yeah, it'll be a luck. One of our things um is being like a guru because you know, we've done a lot of homes in the in 10 years, and it's probably 1200 uh at least. Uh, how many have we flipped? Yeah, and so now we're for franchising this model. So I again I'm always just trying to do something different. Like we came up with a commercial uh up here, my daughter and I, of undercover. Like I was calling and I was an undercover boss, but I'm calling on a phone, and then she goes, You're in costume, aren't you? I'm like, Yeah, well, you're on the phone. Why are you in costume? Because you're checking in to see if our systems are are right. We actually uh from our competitors, they call me up and go, damn it, that's a game changer. You know, you you're you're making it you're putting your daughter and you and people you're likable, and that's what people want. They want the likability. And I I think I I think that's yeah, I think I have the likability without the cheesiness. Well, it's just that connection.

SPEAKER_01 46:32

Yeah, well, so here's a here's an exercise you both can do later. This is one of the first exercises I take clients through. So later on, get in comfy chairs with pen and paper, libation of choice. And for an hour, I want you to write down every story that's ever happened in your life. 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 spilt mustard on his tie at that fancy restaurant. You'll in an hour you'll find you come up with a couple of hundred 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, excuse me, what's this story really about? Oh, this is a story about never giving up. Oh, this is a story about my priorities. Oh, this is a story about friendship. On my computer, I have hundreds of files with literally tens of thousands of stories. So when I'm putting together a presentation and I want my audience to feel certain emotions, I know exactly the story to use to evoke that emotion. I mean, the difference between a good presenter and an excellent presenter, good presenters tell stories. Excellent presenters, they tell stories with intention. The story is driving you towards the call to action. That's what you always want to be focused on.

SPEAKER_03 47:37

Yeah, and Jed knows I got a lot of stories because there's there's sometimes where all of a sudden I'll tell a story that happened and she looks at me and goes, I don't think I've ever heard that story.

SPEAKER_04 47:47

It doesn't happen often anymore, but there was yeah, there have been a couple.

SPEAKER_03 47:51

Yeah, 27 years, it really it shouldn't happen very often because in reality, yeah, yeah, it doesn't happen too often anymore. Being in her life, I don't really remember without her, you know. She's been in my life for more than half my year. Uh how yeah, more than half. So, but it's just it's kind of cool. I I got lots lots and lots of stories. I've been in positions for God's put me in a lot of different positions, let's put it that way.

SPEAKER_04 48:15

Well, and I think the the connection now is like uh we both are able we're able to kind of tag team and and you know combine some of those stories and some of those, you know.

SPEAKER_03 48:30

I don't know. Tell the story from my side and your side now, like being in Afghanistan. You know, that story could easily be brought into this is my day, and I'm telling my part of the story, then you're telling your part of the story of like what you're doing while you're being a single mom, but you're still married, you know.

SPEAKER_01 48:48

Well, that would be good because you could do the contrast there between being over overseas and being a mom, like so. The emotion is overwhelm. That's what you're looking for with the audience. Is have you ever felt overwhelmed, like you couldn't handle it? What were the things that you did? These are the things that both of us did in the in the overwhelm. That's that's what you're doing. That's a story with intention.

SPEAKER_03 49:09

You know, she had uh she would always hate it because I would come home for 10 days, two weeks, and guess who was the fun parent? Yeah, yeah, that I'm only there for two weeks. Guess who has to say no when when I leave? She does. So there's a lot there, I think, that we could uh that would be um being an uncle is a lot more fun than being a dad.

SPEAKER_01 49:32

Right, and so even being a grandparent right now, that is super awesome. That was my ultimate goal, but I found out you had to have kids before you got the grandkids, unfortunately. Yeah, that's happened.

SPEAKER_03 49:44

Uh our daughter was uh we were down in um Orlando, and they're like, Oh, it's it's pretty nice, you know. Your parents are pretty nice, you being a teen mom. She's like, A teen mom, I'm 24 years old.

SPEAKER_04 49:55

She's like, She's like, I guess I'll take that, you know. But she thought it was pretty funny. They're like, they're so supportive of you. And she's like, Well, why would you like?

SPEAKER_03 50:03

I guess we looked extra young, and then you know, then that makes like the daughter there, there's no way that that could be their grand their baby unless they're you know 17-18 years old. I'm like, No, it just that's what we like.

SPEAKER_05 50:13

Like, and it's fine.

SPEAKER_03 50:14

Hey Danny, this has been uh super, super great. Um it's one of those things where um I I learned a lot, I've been learning a lot doing these podcasts, and and which is super cool. Um, I learned a lot about you know a little bit more from speaking. Um, again, if anybody wants to reach out to you uh about coaching, um, you can talk to them. I this is something that within the next year, year and a half, I need to get better at writing a speech. Maybe I need you, maybe I don't. I don't know. I'm just getting this is the journey I'm starting right now. Um again, I like it. It's something I was that kid, Danny, in uh fifth grade, sixth grade elementary school that wanted to do the verbal book report because I didn't want to write stuff down. So just I appreciate all the tips. Jen, you want to say anything at the end here?

SPEAKER_04 51:07

Or um, yeah, this has been great. Uh Danny, you gave us the link again, give us that website again.

SPEAKER_01 51:15

Um freestoryguide.com, guide like a tour guide, freestoreguide.com. You'll get your well-crafted story blueprint, and uh I'm sure you'll be placed on some kind of email list for the rest of eternity. Um contact me that way. It's all awesome.

SPEAKER_04 51:32

We'll get Brady um our content guide to drop that in there. And um, if you're interested in hearing about a Home Guys franchise or just uh talking to James or myself about any of our stories, then yeah, shoot us an email. Brady will drop that in there as well, homeguys.com or um Jen at homeguys.com and James at the same um actually it's homeguysusa.com now. Um but yeah, so thank you so much, Danny. We appreciate it. And we really do, really appreciate it. Talk to you soon.

SPEAKER_03 52:04

Awesome.