Welcome to The Thrivewell Journey.
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And with that, I wanna thank you
for being a part of The Thriveau Journey.
I think that energetic and great teachers
bring about energetic and great students.
So where does that disconnect?
What do you think that disconnect is?
Well, and this is-
What is it?
Hey, is it, what do you think it is?
Well, I think teachers are, I mean,
everybody blames every problem on teachers
and they just keep on giving teachers more and more to do.
I mean, there's a survey done every 10 years
on teachers' greatest fears.
In the 1950s, the greatest fear of teachers in America
was students were talking about raising their hands.
In 20, 20, 70 years later-
In leadership and speaking,
what are the key things that people should work on?
Okay, so when I'm working with clients,
my co-owner is a guy by the name of Coach Jimmy Hayes Nelson.
It's great, because his background is Broadway
and I'm the educator.
I call us the professor and the poet.
And we teach people a structure.
And this structure works,
whether you're speaking to 1,000 people
or to 100 people or even one-on-one.
It's flexible enough to use live or virtual.
It's, you can use it on a webinar
or you can use it when you're there.
You can use it in the board room, in the ballroom,
in the courtroom, in the classroom, in the,
heck, one of my clients, he used it in the restroom.
He did a pitch in the urinal.
I don't recommend you do that.
Hopefully, he told the guy to wash his hands afterwards.
But it's a structure.
So there's four key elements
to a really well-crafted story.
MUSIC
Welcome to another episode of The Thrive Well Journey.
Check this out.
According to Statisa.com, did you know that 42%
of college graduates never read another book after college?
70% of Americans have not been in a bookstore
in the past five years,
and 60% of U.S. public school students
do not read at grade level.
And this was published on February 21st, 2024.
Well, today we have a guest who truly embodies
the spirit of bringing back joy to reading,
teaching, and education.
He's a highly sought-after speaker, trainer,
and coach, affectionately known as Jim Carrey with a PhD.
And we'll talk about that nickname in the conversation.
Dr. Danny Brasel has delivered over 3,500 presentations
worldwide, captivating audiences with his insights
on leadership, motivation, and powerful communication.
He's the author of 16 books, including his latest,
which is Leadership Begins with Motivation.
And he's the co-founder of the world's
leading reading engagement program,
helping parents ignite a love for reading in their kids.
But that's that all.
Danny's on a mission to help business owners,
entrepreneurs, and executives unlock greater income,
freedom, and impact through engaging presentations,
through inspiring action.
Get ready for an exciting conversation with Dr. Brasel.
Dr. Brasel, how are you doing today?
Fantastic.
Thank you so much for having me, Michael.
More importantly, thanks for spreading some joy
in the world.
We need a lot more of you.
Yes, we do.
Joy, you know, I was talking to someone not too long ago.
And there was a difference between happy and joy.
And I'm like, yeah, there is a difference.
And joy is this internal thing that just,
it's not a fading thing.
That's a state of mind.
What is your mission?
Yeah, yeah.
I know we talked about your mission just to kind of skimmed
over it in the intro.
What is your mission?
So my mission, Michael, is to bring joy back in education
and workplace.
I do that by enhancing communication skills.
And so basically, there's four areas of communication,
being speaking, listening, reading, and writing.
And so I've made sure to create different businesses that
deal with those various aspects.
So in terms of writing, I've now written,
now I'm up to 18 books, just finished number 18 this past
week.
I'm very excited it's coming out in December.
Like you said, I speak over 100 dates a year
all over the world, pumping up audiences, primarily schools,
but also businesses as well.
You did mention in terms of reading,
I had the world's top reading engagement program,
which in just over two months shows parents
how to get their kids to read more, read better,
and most importantly, to love reading.
And then finally, my real passion right now is,
as listening as a coach, is I get
to work with individuals, businesses, and entrepreneurs,
leverage speaking on stages as a major client lead source.
So that's a whole big mouthful.
Hopefully, I'll be more succinct in my answers
to your short questions.
No, that's good because it gives an overview of all
the questions that I do have.
So it's really great and perfect.
But just so that we can get a sense of who you are,
let's go back to where I understand that you
to be at the beginning of who you are, which is a journalist.
Did you start as a journalist and then move into school
teaching or what was that?
It was kind of funny, Michael.
I started as a journalist.
And then I was having drinks with people.
And I had a great job.
I was connected to basically every major newspaper editor
in the country.
And an editor of a major newspaper
offered me $16,500 a year to do the city beat in their city.
And meanwhile, a friend told me, hey,
they need teachers in South Central Los Angeles and Compton.
They're paying $25,000.
So I always tell people, I've been
an educator for the noblest of reasons, for the high pay.
And it turned out I love teaching.
I really love my students.
And it's just become a passion of mine.
It's so funny because we were talking
about the statistics in the introduction there.
And again, 42% of college graduates
never read another book.
And just going back to the 60% of US public school students
do not read at great level.
What do you think that attributes?
What's attributed to that?
So that's actually why I created my reading program,
thereadinghabit.com.
It's basically, I think schools do
an adequate job of teaching kids how to read.
But the question I always ask people is, well,
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 are simple strategies that I
share with parents and teachers on how
to get kids to love reading.
Because the more excited we get kids to read,
the more likely they are to read.
And the more you read, the better you get.
That's true.
I remember I was a little, I was a youngster.
And I was tagging along with my mom,
but she would always take me to a library.
And back in Michigan, so back in Michigan,
they would have these initiatives back then,
early 80s or something like that.
And I really enjoyed going to the library.
I can still smell what the library was like back then
and enjoy reading.
And it was just, it was a passion of mine back then.
I didn't know it was a passion, but I loved doing it.
And now I have a nephew who's about one of my nephews, 10, 11.
Or so I think he's going to be 11.
And he's smart.
He's really intelligent for his age.
And he loves to read.
But we have to tell him, you have
to read at least 10 pages today.
And bringing back joy to reading,
like what do you do to inspire that within the parents?
So I just went to a football game with a buddy
that we had been to a game about a year ago.
And he complained to me that his two sons hated reading.
And I said, well, what are they reading right now?
And he's like, well, the teacher has him reading these things.
I'm like, stop that.
What are the kids like?
And they're like, well, they like Marvel Comics.
I'm like, get them reading Marvel Comics.
You know, again, our research is very clear on this.
It doesn't matter what you read.
What matters is how much you read.
It doesn't matter if you're reading James Joyce
or James and the Giant Peach.
People who read more read better.
The little boy who only reads Captain Underpants
is going to become a better reader
than the little boy who refuses to read anything.
Captain Underpants is the gateway drug to Shakespeare.
But we got to get the kid hooked first.
And I can't tell you how many kids.
When I was teaching second grade, I had a little boy, Chiara.
And Chiara's first grade teacher told me,
Chiara, don't know nothing.
I'm like, well, thank you for that.
Well, Chiara, who don't know nothing,
comes into my classroom one day.
This is a long time ago.
Michael, he's like, hey, Mr. Bustel,
you see, Barclay last night, he had 18 points
and 16 boards.
I'm like, thank you, Chiara.
Because from that day forward, every day, after lunch,
Michael, I'd sit Chiara on my lap.
We'd read the LA Times Sports page together.
And guess what?
By the end of the year, he's one of my best readers.
And all that kid ever read about were sports stories.
Now, do I think you need to expand your reading
to other things?
Yes, but you got to get the kid hooked first.
And that's where we're missing so many kids.
I was exactly the opposite of you, Michael.
I hated reading growing up.
My father's a librarian. I always hated the public library.
I always smelled funny to me.
It smelled funny to me.
The furniture was uncomfortable.
There was always some elderly woman telling me to be quiet.
There's always some freaky homeless guy.
I think he's a vampire hanging out by the shells.
I always hated the public library.
And it wasn't until I started teaching in the inner city
where I saw a lot of my students didn't have a lot of the advantages
I had growing up.
And I basically said shame on me.
I mean, I was blessed, Michael.
Both of my parents were in the home.
We weren't wealthy.
We were poor, but we always had food on the table.
And my parents always read in front of us kids, to us kids.
And we had plenty of access to reading materials.
And I realized, you know what?
Something has to be done about this.
I need to make sure that everybody has at least the opportunities
to succeed.
And that's what drives me nuts is when you give a statistic
like that with over 40% of college graduates
never open up a book again.
I'm like, what are we doing wrong in this country?
That's crazy to me.
That shows me that we're forcing people to read things
that they don't want to read rather than showing them
that reading is a lot of different things.
I mean, when I was in high school, I had a teacher.
She made us read the Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
And no offense to people that love Nathaniel Hawthorne.
The book is about, it's written like the 19th century.
Hester Prynne commits adultery.
And she's forced to wear an A on her chest.
And I raised my hand in class.
And I asked my teacher if I could wear a B on my chest
because I was so bored reading that book.
And I think about, why doesn't that teacher just get me,
I'll tell you right now, sports illustrator's written
at a higher level than the network news.
Why not have the kid read sports?
I have little kids all the time.
They say the kid can't read.
The kid just read the word Tyrannosaurus Rex.
I mean, that's a pretty difficult word to read it.
But it shows me the kid's interested in it.
So I think there's a disconnect.
I'm sorry, I just got on my soapbox.
So it gets me irritated that I see people
that don't like reading this because they were force-fed things
that, and I'm not saying, I was just doing a podcast earlier
today with a journalist in Nigeria.
And she was talking about how a lot of the kids
didn't like what they were reading.
I said, well, of course they don't.
Cause you're still based on a, I mean,
Nigeria's been independent, I think since 1960.
It's still based on a British schooling system.
So the kids are forced to read Jane Austen and Charles Dickens
and William Shakespeare.
There's nothing wrong with those authors at all.
But maybe the kids would like to read like a Nigerian author,
like Chinua Chebe, or something that they're actually interested in.
Figure out what the kid's interested in and let
that drive your instruction.
Right.
You know, there was, I watched a video of yours, and it was a snippet.
And just, it was a story about a gifted young man.
I think it was, I think you said the teacher was Ms. Hampton.
And how she basically, she would, basically she would destroy the young man.
Can you talk about that?
Yeah.
So, you know, one of my favorite, I've taught all, most of my career I spent in
South Central Los Angeles and the Watts Compton area.
I did teach third grade for a year in Houston, Texas.
And I know you're not supposed to have a favorite student.
I had a favorite student.
So his name was Howard.
And Howard was a son of a Baptist minister.
And Howard's father spoke like Martin Luther King, Jr.
Which meant Howard spoke like Martin Luther King, Jr.
And so one day I was reading a book to the class called,
Stuart Little by this guy named E.B. White, write his name down.
He's going to be big someday.
E.B. White.
And after I read a chapter, I always have the kids applaud the author.
And so one day the kids are applauding and one of my little boys, Deshaun,
he's like, he starts laughing.
He's like, I like Stuart because he's little.
And Howard stands up and he's like, don't you get it?
Don't you get it?
We all be little.
But we be big someday, like Mr. B. And he pointed at me.
And I realized this child could lead a revolt.
And Howard is the reason I became a teacher.
I love his unbridled enthusiasm.
And I was worried to death for Howard because I knew next year he was getting
Miss Hampton.
And Miss Hampton was going to treat his, she was going to misinterpret his
enthusiasm as a discipline problem because Miss Hampton is a direct descendant
of Darth Vader.
And that really taught me something very important.
Never give a kid an answer.
Give him a strategy because sooner or later all of us are going to have a
Miss Hampton deal with.
Have we properly trained people on how to deal with people like that?
So I mean, Howard is one of my favorites.
That's pretty exciting.
I like the impression that you gave him.
It put me in the space of where, how brilliant he was and or is.
And just the magnanimous energy that he has at that age.
Oh yeah.
It, this is what disappoints me, Michael.
I mean, I've taught, I started off as a high school teacher.
I went from high school to middle school to upper elementary to lower
elementary pretty soon.
Instead of preparing students for college, I was coming home with
snot marks all over my pants for my little ones hugging me.
And what I learned is what works with a 12th grader does not necessarily work
with a kindergartner.
But what works with a kindergartner works with all age levels.
You know, we need to get those kids up and moving and pumped up.
And it broke my heart because my kindergartners would go to bed with
their backpacks on.
They were so excited to come to school the next day.
Meanwhile, my eighth graders were thinking of ways to get sick.
What happened in those eight years to get that kid to hate school so much?
If I'm doing my job, my kids should be banging on my classroom door at six
in the morning.
They're so excited to come in and they should be in tears when they hear
that final bell at the end of the day because they don't want to leave.
And, you know, if it's not fun, I'm not doing it.
And I always told my kids, I'm like, hey, you got the rest of your life to be miserable.
This year we're laughing, you know, average adult lasts 15 times a day.
Average kindergarten lasts 300 times a day.
You guys got to make me laugh 315 times every day.
Kids are great.
I actually, I'm very passionate about the little ones.
And I miss being in the classroom.
I can hear that.
I mean, as you were talking, the connection that I was hearing is that energetic
and great teachers bring about energetic and great students.
So where is that disconnect?
What do you think that disconnect is?
Well, is it pay?
Is it what do you think?
Well, I think teachers are, I mean, everybody blames every problem on teachers
and they just keep on giving teachers more and more to do.
I mean, you know, there's a survey done every 10 years on teachers' greatest fears.
In the 1950s, the greatest fear of teachers in America was students were talking
without raising their hands.
In 2020, 70 years later, it's school shootings.
Crazy.
I mean, we've actually had, we've lost more students.
In school shootings in the United States in the last four years,
then we've lost troops stationed abroad in the military.
You know, everybody says, my brother's in the Air Force.
And so we were at lunch one day.
He was in uniform and the waitress comes up afterwards and she looks at my brother.
She's like, thank you for your service, sir.
We're going to give you a complimentary lunch.
And I look at her and I'm like, why don't you thank me for my service?
I've had many more weapons drawn on me.
I'm a public school teacher.
You know, he's living a good life.
And so I think that one of the big disconnects, I mean, teachers just get,
I mean, I can't use language, but they get pushed aside all the time.
They get blamed for every single thing.
And I always say to the critics of teachers, I encourage them to do that job for one week.
They will see how difficult it is with all the different, you know,
and I was actually kind of delighted when COVID happened.
I told my wife, I'm like, oh, there's a couple of things that America is going to learn
because of COVID.
And my wife's like, well, what's that?
I'm like, well, first of all, they're going to learn the deep secret that 12 to 15 million
12 to 15 million kids in this country, the reason they go to school is so that they can eat.
A lot of people don't know that.
And then second of all, they're going to these parents are going to have to teach their own kids
are going to be become so frustrated.
I'm like, yeah, multiply that multiply that by 32 and they're all different kids with different needs.
I mean, it's actually what I loved about teaching is the challenge is what what makes what makes Michael get excited about learning.
You know, what what helps Howard?
What helps Tyra?
I'm always looking at what gets this because every kid's a little bit different.
And that's the thing.
The other thing in America, we try to do everything the same.
And I'm like, you know, but that's the problem.
When is America going to figure out the strength of our country is our diversity?
You know, I was being interviewed and a person said, well, what do you think public school or private school?
And my answer was yes.
Some kids should go to a public school.
Some kids should go to a private school.
Some kids should be home schools.
Some kids should go to a vocational school or a magnet school.
I mean, there's lots of different ways to get through to a kid.
The reason I love teaching that I'm also a coach.
Thank God for sports because the reason a lot of my boys would come to school is so that they, you know, they'd be eligible.
So they could play basketball or football or whatever, which is great.
But again, I don't know why we're not.
I don't know.
It's very, you know, you get philosophical about these things.
But I always tell people anybody can teach.
It takes a lot of hard work to be a good teacher, though.
You know, I hate that saying when they say, oh, if you touch just one child, you have succeeded as a teacher.
I used to tell my teachers, if you touch just one kid, please find another job.
You know, let's shoot for the moon.
Get at least half the kids.
It's amazing how low we set the expectations for students.
So there's it.
It's a big thing.
And of course, you know, we have we have elections in this country and nobody ever really talks about like education.
You know, I was just speaking at a school.
It's beautiful.
There was a chandelier in the auditorium.
And I told the teachers, I'm like, you better be thanking God.
You're at this school.
I've never taught at a school without metal detectors and heavy security.
You know, and it pains me that some kids are put in what seems like a penitentiary.
I'm like, every kid was a great book by Jonathan Cazal, Savage and Equalities.
I think she needs to be read by the president of the United States and every member of Congress.
It talks about the huge discrepancies in public school funding in this country.
And until I see every kid getting a fair opportunity, you're going to hear me passionate like this, getting angry and saying, hey, we need to make sure every kid has a fair shot.
That kind of leads me into.
This is a, this is not reading, but it is math.
And there was a, my fraternity brother had something on his page where it said that, I'm going to say a certain public school system has like 23 students.
They have zero students, proficient in math.
And then at their grade level and many more having only one or two.
And I was like, you know, why are the public school systems, you know, failing this children?
And his response was, it's systemic and it has become an issue that requires the full support of the nuclear family and involved community.
Relying on a failing system to correct an intentionally created problem is an exercise in futility.
I love the way you phrase that. That's great.
I'm a Baptist in the front row with your fraternity brother.
I think that's exactly right.
I mean, it's the same thing with math though.
I mean, I'm not a math expert.
I will say this though.
I've never understood how an elementary school teacher has a difficult time teaching elementary math.
I mean, I can teach almost every single elementary math standard provided I related to food, money or an NBA box score.
We graduate kids in this country with calculus, but they don't know how to, how to balance a checkbook.
You need to show kids how they're going to use this.
The same thing with Kiara was a perfect example.
So Kiara, my boy that is first grade teacher, say he didn't know nothing.
Oh, we can't do math.
I'm like, he can't do math.
I guarantee you he can figure out Mookie Betts' batting average within three seconds.
No problem because he's interested in it.
You got to figure out what the kids are interested in and how they're going to use this stuff.
Yeah, make it practical to them.
Like it's, it's, it's amazing how, and I get to know like what they're learning through my nephew and, and it's, it's crazy.
It's a whole different math system.
It seems like it's just a little, it's a little gnarly.
Yep.
One plus one equals 11 in today's math.
In today's math is, it's something else.
You transition from the classroom to, to basically becoming like a leader in communication.
Well, what brought you out of the classroom into that new world?
Yeah.
So, well, I'll be, I'll be very vulnerable right now.
So it was basically out of financial necessity.
My wife and I attended a real estate seminar one weekend.
It turned out to be a scam.
We lost everything.
I could focus on all the negatives that came out of it.
I prefer to focus on the positives.
So first of all, my wife is my life mate.
You know, she, she, she stuck by me even though I put her through the ringer.
Second of all, I no longer value money as much as I used to because I realize you can lose it all in a second.
You know, third, I try not to judge other people because if I was somebody who saw what I did, I would have said, you deserve that.
But now I realize if you don't know everything about a person, you really don't know anything about a person.
Fourth, I became a Christian and I'm embarrassed about that.
But the more I read my Bible, the more I realize I'm not the first screw up to find Jesus.
And then fifth, I did not want to declare bankruptcy.
And my accountant said, well, you have to make this much more money this year if you want to not file for bankruptcy.
Well, I started speaking on the side and I hit that number, Michael.
Well, the next year he gave me a much higher number.
And I hit that number right on the number.
And so in year three, I thought to myself, 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 speaking business, which has afforded me all kinds of incredible opportunities, which I'm now basically always looking for the pivot.
I always take the bad things and figure out how to make them to turn them into my advantage.
So for example, I had always resisted coaching, people would always ask me to coach them.
I don't like coaching just because I coach and teach the same way.
I have a very high standard and I'm on you.
I hold you accountable.
I'm like, no, you're going to have to do the work.
I used to always, when I was talking to my players, I'm like, hey, I'm looking for the guys with heart, not talent, because heart will be talent in the end.
Heart, I'm going to teach you the habits to win.
Talent gets lazy.
But that being said, COVID, I lost over 100 speaking gigs overnight.
And so I had to pivot.
And so I started coaching people and I absolutely love it.
It's just as rewarding as teaching used to be.
I get to see now instead of seeing like kindergarteners learn how to add.
Now I'm watching entrepreneurs expand their business clientele and produce wonderful results.
And I just love it.
How do you lose over 100 gigs in one day?
COVID, COVID within 24 hours.
Okay, I'll never forget that night.
I know everybody listening.
They all had their COVID stories because I was in Warranty County, California in a hotel and I'm watching a basketball game.
And as I'm watching the basketball game, it said that the, which I think was like the Salt Lake City, New Orleans game was postponed.
And I'm like postponed. It's a basketball game.
Why are you postponing a basketball game?
And as I'm thinking that the announcer is like, why is that game postponed?
And then like an hour later, they say Rudy Gobert has COVID work.
And then like an hour later, they shut down all the NBA.
And I'm like, what?
And then like an hour after that, they shut down the NHL.
I'm like, what?
And then it's like Tom Hanks has it in Australia.
I'm like, what is going on?
And I was supposed to speak in Orange, California the next day and the conference organizer calls me at about 1130 at night.
He's like, he's like, hey, Danny.
And I'm like, I bet you're calling to tell me you got twice as many people coming.
And he's like, man, Danny, I hate to do this, but we got to cancel.
I'm like, you know, what are you going to do?
And like literally within 24 hours, every engagement on my schedule canceled.
And yeah, I never thought you could lose business like that that quick.
But it happened.
So it's a good humbling experience, good, good lesson.
Yeah, COVID calls a lot of people to learn how to pivot or get lost on the pivot.
One of the other.
I remember actually, this was 2020.
And I was actually I was dealing.
I was on dialysis at the time.
Oh, wow.
But it's crazy because before it was actually announced, I was talking to a friend of mine.
She was just like, I'm not feeling well.
And she was going through all these symptoms before COVID was announced.
After I left the phone with her, maybe a week later, I started having the symptoms and was really sick.
And I called her back.
I was like, you got me sick over the phone.
And then not but a month later, you know, here's COVID being announced what COVID was.
And it was interesting during that time.
Everything just went crazy.
But in that space, you found a new way of forwarding your life in your business.
Yeah, it was it was great.
I mean, again, I'm an optimistic person.
I always look at the good that comes out of the bad.
But one of the great things that happened, I started doing podcasts like yours, Michael.
And I started doing podcasts like even today earlier today, I was on a podcast in Nigeria and one in England.
And all of a sudden it dawned on me.
I'm like, wait a sec.
I've just been thinking about the United States.
There are all kinds of opportunities around the world.
And, you know, one of my businesses was basically created in India.
And I was just telling the guy the other night, I'm like, I don't care if anybody in America knows me.
I just want to be a rock star in India.
India is 1.5 billion people.
It's amazing.
Yeah, a lot of people there.
That's right.
That's amazing.
So when you're now that you're actually you're still you're coaching, you're going around the world and you're.
You know, you're causing leaders.
What is that?
How you got the name Jim Carrey, the PhD?
What's what's that all about?
Well, I take my job seriously, but I don't take my job seriously because I ain't all that neither you Michael.
And if you think you're all that teach kindergarten for one week, those little ones will set you straight.
One of my little girls, LaShonda raises her hand one day.
She's like, Miss Basal, when are you going to trim your nose hair?
I'm like this afternoon.
Thanks for bringing that to my attention.
I ain't all that.
And so it's also what distinguishes me a little bit as a coach, Michael is a lot of these people.
What I what I train you to do is how to create a well crafted story that you can use again and again to introduce yourself to new audiences to acquire clients that way.
Now, a lot of people they teach you to tell the saddest story of your life.
And there's three reasons why I hate that.
First of all, the world just survived a global pandemic.
Everybody's had some bad stuff happen to them.
I don't think we need to hear another story.
I like stories.
Yeah.
Second of all, do you really want to tell the same sad story again and again?
I mean, you got to be stronger than me to talk about the worst day of your life to strangers of over a thousand times.
But third, and this is the most important one, which which I think people hate me for.
But I have one objective when I'm on stage.
I want you to leave feeling better than when you came in.
I want you to smile and laugh and happy.
I can tell the same stories and the same jokes and I feel like it's admirable that my goal is to get you to feel better about yourself.
I believe that these people that keep on telling those sad stories again and again by the 20th time they've told that sad story,
those are now crocodile tears and now you're being manipulative.
And I'm not saying it's not an effective sales strategy.
It's a very effective sales strategy.
But I personally don't want to have to take a shower after I speak because I've just manipulated my audience to buy my product.
I want them to want to do business with me because they want to it's a relationship is this is a person I want to do business with because this is a person that's about service, not about sales.
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Let's get back to the podcast.
So how does one get into being a speaker, a public speaker?
Well, you know, like I said, the more screwed up your life, the better that that'll help you out a lot.
There's two things that I always suggest to people in order to get better at speaking.
First of all, you got to watch lots of speakers.
So I watch at least 10 speakers a day.
I watch comedians.
I watch politicians.
I watch televangelists.
I watch them in front of big groups in front of small groups in front of men in front of women.
Here, I'll give you a ninja strategy.
I watch a lot of awards shows because when a person wins the Academy Award, they only have 45 seconds to connect with their audience.
I want to see how they use their 45 seconds.
Now, most people waste their time.
They get up there like, I want to thank God.
I want to thank the Academy.
It's stupid.
Nobody pays attention.
But every now and then somebody does something remarkable.
So a couple of years ago, there was a gentleman.
I think his name was Joe Walker.
He won the Academy Award for best film editing.
Now, this is Hollywood.
A lot of important people in the audience, a bunch of actors sitting there and they're not paying attention because this is best film editing.
Well, Joe Walker gets up there and he's British and he speaks very slowly and deliberately and 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 pans the audience and you see people kind of leaning in like, what's he talking about?
And he says, for example, yesterday I got up to an argument with my 17 year old daughter and she said, well, Academy Award nominee Joe Walker.
All of a sudden you see everybody laughing hysterically.
He gets off stage.
Denzel Washington wants to meet him.
Sander Bullock wants to meet him.
Brad Pitt wants to meet him.
Time magazine said it was one of the highlights of the Academy Awards.
That's the power of connecting in 45 seconds.
So the first thing you have to do to get better at speaking is watch a lot of good speakers.
Second of all, one of my mentors was a guy named Jim Rohn.
And Jim used to say, you can't pay other people to do your push-ups.
Translation, you gotta do the work.
You know this, you were an actor, Michael.
It's all in the reps.
You know, you're the first, same thing with this podcast.
The first time you did this podcast, it sucked.
The second time you did this podcast, it sucked.
But it didn't suck as much as the first time.
And now you're in a flow.
So you've got no problem.
And that's how you get better at anything.
And this is what I'm always working on clients with.
I'm like, hey, you got to do your reps.
I have a guy, Jason, I worked with three years ago.
I'm so proud of Jason because he did what I said.
I said, Jason, you got to go out there and speak, speak to schools, speak to service organizations,
speak to synagogues, to temples, to churches, to chambers of commerce.
You know, he said, I have none of those audiences.
I'm like, hey, you have a Facebook account.
He said, yes, I'm like, go on Facebook live every day and practice your speech.
And so he did that.
The next day he went on Facebook live and one woman from Ontario, Canada accidentally watched him and he stunk.
The second day he did it at exact same time.
He had like three people watch him.
And he stunk, but he didn't stink as bad as the first time.
Well, three years later, Michael, Jason now has an audience of over 6,000 people and he made,
he didn't make seven figures last year, but he almost made seven figures based on that audience.
He did it through consistency.
He did the work, you know, you don't get better at anything.
These things, everybody loves to look at Tiger Woods.
Say he's the greatest golfer ever to live.
I'm like, people don't watch how much he practiced me and that kid, he practices harder than anybody else.
I mean, plus he was wise enough.
He hired a putting coach and he hired a driving coach and he hired a mental coach.
You know, maybe he should have hired a relationship coach and that would have been a little bit better too.
But it also demonstrates the power of coach.
A whole different world there.
That's great.
You know, so when you talked about the guy who went and did Facebook live, he stunk.
You know, the first few times or whatever.
Was there a time that you ever bombed?
All the time, man.
Just swimmers get wet, new boxers take it in the face from time, of course.
Yeah, I've had lines where, you know, you look at the, they're just staring at you like, what do you, I mean, I shouldn't say it.
Back, I went to college in Washington, D.C.
And before I was a journalist, I, when I was in college to pay for my spring breaks, I used to do stand up comedy.
And my agent was a six foot 11, 300 pound X defensive lineman from the Cincinnati Bengals, Sherman.
And he only booked me in all black strip clubs in Anacostia in southeast Washington.
And I would sit there and do my routine.
And they're looking at me like, what is this guy doing?
And I'm just sitting there.
I get paid $75 for a 15 minute set.
And one, one night it was ladies night and the guy before me went out and he had like this nitpikini.
And so my opening line was, wow, my mom used to knit me sweaters.
Total silence, Michael.
And I'm looking at my watch 14 minutes and 50 seconds to go.
Yeah, it gave me a spine.
But that's what I loved about teaching.
If, you know, as an actor, you would have loved it.
I mean, being a teacher, you got your audience.
They're, they're forced to be there every single day.
And the kindergartners are what made me a better teacher because they have about a seven minute attention span.
And it taught me, keep it moving, man.
I got to keep them engaged and moving.
And they were great.
I learned everything I needed about tension in kindergarten.
Yeah, the, the, the youth keeps it keeps it real.
That's what I'll say.
The youth keeps it real.
Absolutely.
So in leadership and speaking, what, what are the, like the key things that, that people shouldn't should work on?
Okay.
So when I'm working with clients, I, my, my co-owner is a guy by the name of coach Jimmy Hayes Nelson.
It's great because his background is Broadway and I'm the educator.
I call us the, the, the professor in the poet.
And we teach people a structure and this structure works.
Whether you're speaking to a thousand people or to a hundred people or even one on one, it's flexible enough to use live or virtual.
It's, you can, you can use it on a, on a, on a webinar or you can use it when you're there.
You can use it in the board room, in the ballroom, in the courtroom, in the classroom, in the heck.
One of my clients, he used it in the restroom.
He did a pitch in the urinal.
I don't recommend you do that and hopefully he told the guy to wash his hands afterwards, but it's a structure.
So there's, there's four key elements to a really well crafted story.
My seventh grade teacher, Lynn Escridge, she, she gave us the four eyes.
I do the four C's, but she did the four eyes.
So a good presentation has an introduction.
I call this connect.
This is when you're connecting with your audience.
This is the most important part of your presentation.
Cause if you don't get them, this is going to teach your audience, should I be present or should I be
engaged? Am I into this person or am I just stuck here?
All right.
Second of all, is your instruction is what Ms.
Escridge used that was her second eye.
My C is, this is the content of your presentation, which research shows is actually the least important part of your presentation.
This is a big mistake.
Most people think they want to teach, teach, teach, but it's not going to convert in sales.
It's teaching, over teaching actually confuses your audience.
Then the third part of your presentation, Ms.
Escridge would call your invitation to the audience.
I call it your call to action.
What do you, what do you want the audience to do next?
And then finally, you end with inspiration.
I call it your conclusion or your, your, it's, it's just another way to connect.
But if you do these four things and you do them in the proper way, then you're going to see your audience take the next step.
That's the only way I judge success.
I only judge success in that the people I work with, you know, I was working with a guy, a realtor the other day.
I said, well, what's, you know, what's a, what's a client worth to you?
He's like, well, one client, he's like, when I sell a house, my commission's about $120,000.
I'm like, okay, well, my fee isn't $120,000.
All I have to do is find you one client and I'll pay your fee.
It'll pay my fee.
No problem.
And so we worked on that.
If I'm working with people, the other thing I, so I just told you, content's the least important.
There's research that shows this, that it's called the primacy and recency effect.
People remember the beginning of your presentation and the end of your presentation.
They don't remember anything in between.
Oh my gosh.
That means the bun is more important than the burger.
Load up the beginning and the end with the important stuff.
The other fatal mistake I see most people make in presentations is they only speak to half of their audience.
They ignore the other half.
So Nobel Prize winning economist Daniel Caneman has a book called Thinking Fast and Slow.
And he says that there's two types of thinkers out there.
There's the people that are based on fact and the people that are based on feeling.
I call it your Joe Fridays and your Julia Roberts or if you want to stereotype in a husband wife.
The husband is the Joe Friday.
He's just the facts.
You know, how much is this going to cost?
How long is it going to take?
What do I have to do?
You know, some of your audience when you're making your offer, they need to know that information.
That's, you know, they're all about numbers.
But then the other part of your audience, they're the Julia Roberts.
They don't really care what you sell as long as it makes them feel good.
I don't even know anything about Michael, but Michael makes me feel good.
I want to work with Michael.
And so you need to make sure you have a connecting story that accommodates Michael that way.
So, and then what I take clients through is how to, you know, a really effective speaker.
They're also a farmer.
They're planting seeds throughout the talk so that by the time you get to your offer,
your audience is like, oh, I was hoping he would make an offer.
And again, I'm into numbers.
I'm actually into the research.
There's nothing I do based on opinion.
Jimmy, I always say Jimmy is the wife in this relationship.
I'm the husband.
I want hard facts.
I want to see what our numbers are.
If you speak to a hundred people, how many of that hundred people actually decide to take the next step with you?
And it can be a paid offer.
It can be an unpaid offer.
I mean, it can be a paid offer like, you know, buy my product or enroll in my coaching program.
It can be an unpaid offer like sign up for my newsletter or get my free PDF.
The choice is yours, but you're trying to get your audience interested in staying engaged with you.
Yeah, those are interesting methods.
I was putting myself back in the spaces when I went to different talks.
And I would think that I'm a bit of both.
I need to have hard facts, but then I have a part of me that like if you, you know, make more heart go boom, boom.
You know what I'm saying?
Or you maybe feel or see a possibility in what you're saying in addition to the facts.
The hard facts, then you probably got.
Yeah.
And don't discount the emotional connection though.
That's very important.
And so here's here's an exercise your audience can do.
So I want everybody in the audience to get a pen and paper, sit in a comfortable chair, get a libation of choice beside them.
And for an hour, just write down every story of 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's built mustard on his tie.
When we went to that fancy restaurant, you'll find typically in an hour, you'll come up with four to 500 stories like this.
So that's the first part of the exercise.
The second part of the exercise is then you want to figure out, well, what's this story really about?
Oh, this is a story about perseverance.
Oh, this is a story about loyalty.
And so on my computer, I literally have thousands, if not tens of thousands of these stories catalog.
So whenever I'm trying to make a point in the presentation, I need to I need to make a point about
the importance of sticking together.
I have a folder called sticking together.
Here's some stories about that.
You know, and every now and then I work with a difficult person to say nothing's ever happened to me.
Well, even if that's your attitude, look at if you look at personal development books, one of the most successful
personal development books of all time is Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, in which he shares no personal stories.
All of his stories are based on interviews he had with millionaires.
So that's another way to do it is take other people.
I mean, I'm, you know, I'm Irish.
This is my entire childhood was listening to stories.
That's what they always, you know, we don't let the truth get in the way of a good story in Ireland.
So it's all a catalog.
And that's what, you know, of all people, it was Joseph Stalin who said a million people dead is a statistic.
One person dead is a tragedy.
It's all about the story.
You know, we're in an election cycle right now.
And I this has nothing to do with the politics.
I'm always looking at the methods that the different politicians are using.
I like to make fun of all politicians because if you ever notice Michael that no, no presidential candidate ever grew up middle class.
They all grew up dirt poor because you all want to sell.
Oh, I grew up in a log cabin.
I was able to make myself live the American dream.
Same thing with motivational speakers.
You know, they always, oh, I grew up in a garage or I had to wash dishes in my bathtub.
Really?
You didn't have a sink yet to wash dishes in your bathtub.
I, I don't know if I buy that story, but that's, that's the powers.
We're always trying to get, get through points through those store.
I mean, this is through the history of civilization.
I mean, cavemen, they used to tell stories of the campfires and this is how you connect with people.
I will give a political example.
This is not a based on politics.
It's just a very effective strategy.
So President Reagan, when he gave his state of the union address, I think he was the first president and every president's copied him since then.
He's, he wouldn't talk about healthcare. He'd be up there and he's like, well, it's like, it's like Tom.
Billson, Tom stand up and this guy is in the gallery and ways and everybody applaud.
Tom works at the GM plant in Louisville, Kentucky.
He got injured on the job.
He doesn't have health insurance and he can't make his rent payment because you have to pay the doctor.
So now when Americans are thinking of healthcare, they're not thinking of healthcare.
They're thinking Joe.
That's really smart.
You got to put it through the framework of a store and they do this.
Best example I can give was we just watched the Olympics.
I love the Olympics.
I absolutely love the Olympics because they do the background stories.
Yeah.
I mean, my wife hates watching the Olympics with me because I always root against America.
I'm like, honey, what honey?
Who am I going to root for the American with the microchip in his Nike shoes or the barefoot Sudanese refugee who just survived a civil war that is background stories.
Like I learned how to run running away from the bullets in my village.
I'm like, of course I'm rooting for that guy.
It's an amazing story.
It's the story.
And this is why I love sports is sports is always about the story is, you know, how do we, you know, CBS, when they used to do the NFL today, they don't do it the way they used to, which was better in the 80s when it was madden and summer all because at the very beginning of the game, they'd be like,
Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun.
He'd be like Joe Montana, you know, is known as the greatest of all time.
But here's one nemesis he's always had.
And then it shows Bill Parcells, the New York Giants who have a defense and it's like building up a story.
So now, now when you watch it, you're like, oh, I want to watch these different matchups.
It was really smart the way they do that.
They do that a little bit.
I think the NBA does a little bit better job of creating those matchups now where you're like, oh, let's see the storyline between these people.
But that's how you that's really how you create the interest.
It's really not as much.
That's why Americans always want the underdog because we love the story of the struggle.
And so it's really a good thing for all.
So totally drifted off from your question.
But that's really trying to get better as a speaker is that's what people want.
They want that.
That's why Rocky's like the greatest movie ever made because Rocky people forget Rocky lost Apollo Creed.
But it doesn't matter because in the movie the night before he's sitting there in bed with Adrian.
He's like, Adrian, I'm going to lose.
But I just want to go the distance with the champ.
I want to go the distance.
If you watch Rocky, he goes the distance with Apollo Creed.
He loses, but he's the champion because he went he went the distance.
And that's why everybody loves Rocky is he gets hit, but he gets right back up.
That's I mean, his greatest story of all time.
It's the stories, the connections, the emotion.
Yeah, that's that's that's good.
That's good.
That's really good because now in the audience, you have something definitely to go away with.
If you are interested in moving on as a speaker, I have a couple more questions for you.
What?
How do you how do you in your speaking?
I know that we're probably not.
But in the beginning, did you have stage fright stage fright?
And if you did, how did you get over it?
Or how would you help someone?
Yeah, so I was speaking to a school in India and I got all the kids all pumped up.
And afterwards I was shaking hands with all the kids and all of a sudden this little boy comes up to me.
He's about six years old and he has tears in his eyes, Michael.
And I noticed he's missing his left arm and he looks up at me.
He's like, how can I succeed?
And so I get down at his eye level and I'm like, you know, when I was your age, I went to 18 different schools before I was 12 years old.
Everybody called me stupid because I stuttered.
And eventually I had a teacher that worked one on one with me and she would sing things to me and I would sing them back and I didn't have my stutter when I sang.
And I eventually lost my stutter and I became a swan.
It's got like the movie, The King's Speech.
But I looked in that boy's eyes and I'm like, isn't it interesting that the little boy everybody said was stupid because he couldn't talk right.
Now gets paid a ridiculous amount of money to travel the world to do what?
And he gets the biggest grin on his face.
He's like, speak and like, don't let anybody ever tell you what you cannot do.
So if I can do it, anybody can do it.
And again, a couple of weeks ago, I gave a presentation.
This woman comes up to me afterwards.
She's like, oh, I would love to be a speaker like you, but I can't be as quick as you.
You're so quick with those questions and answers.
And I looked at her and I'm like, just so you know the question you asked me.
I've had 500 people ask me that question.
So before you asked it, I had 500 opportunities to craft the perfect answer, which totally made you feel like I was really smart.
But I'm not that smart.
I just had a lot of practice with it.
Same thing with the podcast.
And so if you have stage fright, you got it.
And it's and frankly, you're in great company.
I mean, Barbara Streisand, she was terrified before she ever took the stage as a singer.
President Reagan, another example, used to bomb it before every speech you ever gave.
Bill Russell, one of the greatest basketball players of all time, vomited before every single day.
They were so freaked out about that.
So you're in good company.
There's lots of people with stage fright.
It's not a big deal.
It's something that you can get over.
It's it's retraining and mental mental exercises and breathing.
But I work with most of the people I work with aren't speakers.
They're just people trying to get more clients.
And I show them simple strategies you can use to make your your speeches engaging and to get rid of that stage fright.
Yeah, I never had stage fright, but I did have performance scare.
I went out when I was a wrestler, I would always throw up nothing before I went to a match.
And it was it was like, I mean, I was totally frightened.
And I would get in in the ring and and wrestle or the Matt, rather and wrestle.
And, you know, I would win most times, but it would just that that that emotion that would show up before I went in and did the wrestling.
But after a while, I stopped, you know, doing the dry heaving and fake the better than Bill.
I mean, Bill ruffled it his entire career.
As a matter of fact, it got to the point where Red Arbac, the coach of the Celtics, he's like, damn it, Bill.
Will you will you puke so we can go out onto the court?
You know, they knew he couldn't play until he had bomb it.
It was ridiculous.
It's going to play.
But you're in good company.
And that's completely and isn't it interesting how your mind I always tell this to students.
I'm like, in your mind, you'll create things that are so much worse than anything that can happen in that's why I like older movies as opposed to newer movies.
Newer movies, they show everything and people like, oh, that's very violent.
I'm like, actually, it's more violent when you have to imagine for yourself some of the things.
You know, some of those older movies, they leave your mind to the imagination, which is much scarier the imagination.
Yeah, the imagination can do some some tricks.
They can play games and play tricks, man.
I tell you, even as an adult, I tell you, of course, especially for kids, kids are better than that.
I always say this, we underestimate kids, you know, kids.
I love their spontaneity, their enthusiasm.
You know, I can ask my kindergartners what's two plus two and within three seconds, kids are like four, seven, I got a dog, you know, and it only takes me till about third grade where the entire class is quiet because school taught that kid never take a risk.
And it just breaks my heart.
You got it.
You got to get comfortable being uncomfortable.
Yeah, that's pretty much my life these days.
And I'm okay with it.
I'm okay with living in the unknown most times.
Well, you were an actor, too, Michael.
I mean, you've dealt with all forms of rejection.
I mean, you should be excited every time you get a rejection, say, great, that's getting me closer to yes.
Keep on.
I need the people to tell me no, it's getting me closer to the yes.
That's the attitude you have to have.
Yeah, these days, no, they don't they don't affect me like they used to, you know, especially in the beginning.
It was like, you know, you have these bright eyes and it's like, oh, my God, you know, this is this is a great part.
Yeah, they're not they're not going to pick you.
All right.
Okay.
Then over and over again, the nose would, you know, dimmer bring the dimmer in my eyes and I wouldn't have that much of a gleam.
But, you know, as as, you know, you kind of live in life and you shift.
Your mindset shifts your mindset shifts.
And that's that's where I'm at now.
My mindset shift.
My mindset has shifted.
I know I can't talk right now.
But you have really shown us like how you've really pivoted from, you know, being a journalist to a teacher to teaching professors to, you know, teaching leaders and speaking.
It's an extraordinary journey.
Like, what would be your message to somebody who's in the middle of their pivot and trying to make sense out of their life?
Keep your eyes open.
There's all kinds of opportunities every single day.
I mean, that's what when one of my speeches, you know, I talk about in Chinese, the word crisis consists of two characters.
One means danger.
The other one means opportunity.
And while there's all kinds of horrible things happening in the world, there's also amazing opportunities.
If you look at them from the proper point of view,
it reminds me of a story I used to share with my little ones about the king who had the childhood friend that had this ridiculous habit.
No matter what the situation, whether it was positive or negative, he always said the same thing.
This is good.
Well, the king was out hunting with his friend one day.
His friend was always in charge of loading the king's rifle.
What's something went horribly wrong this day as the king fired his rifle at blew off his right thumb to which his friend responded.
This is good.
The king was furious with his friends.
We put his friend in prison.
Well, a year later, the king was out hunting in forbidden grounds when he was captured by a tribe of cannibals.
And as the cannibals tied the king to a post, put logs at his feet to set him aflame to make their supper.
One of the cannibals noticed that the king was missing his right thumb.
Well, being a superstitious tribe, they never believed in eating anything that was not whole.
So they released the king to his freedom. The king could not believe his good fortune.
As he ran back to the palace, he remembered what his friend had said.
So he rushed to the prison, released his friend, apologized profusely, told his friend the entire story to which his friend responded.
This is good.
The king couldn't believe his ears.
Like, how could it be good?
I just put you in prison for a year.
His friend looked at him and said, but if you hadn't put me in prison, I would have been out hunting with you.
And the cannibals would have eaten me.
So everything in life is a point of view.
So keep your eyes open, folks.
And as a thank you for having me today on your show, Michael, I wanted to give everybody a free guide.
If you go to freestoryguide.com, again, freestoryguide.com.
This is a blueprint that will help you map out your presentation because I believe everybody is just one well-crafted story away from seven figures.
You can get that at freestoryguide.com and I just really want to thank you again, Michael, for having me today and enduring with my technical difficulties and all that.
I appreciate it.
That's okay.
Yeah, I appreciate you being here and showing up on time and you're really sharing your story.
And what you had to give myself and the audience was, it's a treasure.
So I definitely appreciate it and you're welcome back anytime.
And for you wonderful listeners, if you want to catch the nuggets and get into the conversation and follow the communication with Danny Bras- excuse me, Dr. Danny Brasel, go to our Facebook community, The Thrive Well Journey, and connect with us.
And as we always say, let's make thriving our new normal.
Take care.