Starter Girlz Podcast

Empowering Leaders Through Storytelling and Positivity with Dr. Danny Brassell

• Jennifer Loehding • Season 7 • Episode 63

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In this episode of the Starter Girlz podcast, Jennifer Loehding sits down with Dr. Danny Brassell, an acclaimed speaker and coach known for reigniting passion in education and leadership through the transformative power of storytelling. Together, they explore how positive narratives can inspire, connect, and empower while discussing the significance of addressing emotional blocks and fostering resilience for true growth. With insights from real-life success stories and lessons drawn from influential figures, this conversation highlights the art of authentic communication, the impact of optimism, and the essential role of vulnerability in building meaningful connections.

Takeaways

  • Storytelling can inspire and motivate others.
  • The objective of a presentation should be to uplift the audience.
  • Authenticity enhances the impact of a speaker's message.
  • Positivity and resilience are vital for overcoming challenges.
  • Vulnerability in presentations fosters audience connection.
  • Effective communication is key to navigating challenges.
  • Emotional blocks can prevent success and must be addressed.
  • Coaching can help individuals overcome blocks to success.
Jennifer Loehding:

Welcome to the Starter Girlz podcast, your ultimate source of inspiration and empowerment. We're here to help women succeed in every area of their lives career, money, relationships, and health and well-being while celebrating the remarkable journeys of individuals from all walks of life who've achieved amazing things. Whether you're looking to supercharge your career, build financial independence, nurture meaningful relationships or enhance your overall well-being, the Starter Girlz podcast is here to guide you. Join us as we explore the journeys of those who dare to dream big and achieve greatness. I'm your host, jennifer Loeding, and welcome to this episode. Welcome to another episode of the Starter Girlz podcast. I'm your host, jennifer Loehding, and wherever you are tuning in today, we are so thrilled to have you and I am excited about my guest today, so let me tell you just a little bit about him before we welcome him officially on. We welcome him officially on. So today's guest is a dynamic communicator on a mission to bring joy back into education and empower leaders through the art of powerful communication, which is so good because I like to communicate. With expertise in listening, speaking, reading and writing, he helps individuals and organizations grow their influence and impact, and so you guys are going to hear from him in just a few minutes. But before we do that, I do need to do a quick shout out to our sponsor.

Jennifer Loehding:

This episode is brought to you by Walt Mills Productions. Need to add excitement to your YouTube videos or some expert hands for editing? Look no further. Walt Mills is the solution you've been searching for. Walt is not only your go-to guy for spicing up content. He's the force behind a thriving film production company with numerous titles in the pipeline. Always on the lookout for raw talent, walt is eager to collaborate on film and internet productions. With a background deeply rooted in entertainment and promotion, walt Mills leverages years of skills to give you the spotlight you deserve. Want to learn more about Walt and his work? Head on over to waltmillsproductionsnet and let your content shine All right, and with that I think we're ready to bring our guest on.

Jennifer Loehding:

But before I do that, I do want to make a quick mention to head on over to startergirlscom and make sure you should know this by now. But just in case you don't, it's with a Z Starter Girlz with a Z. When you go over there, you can find all of these episodes, if you're not following them on another platform, but also you can sign up for our newsletter and then that way you'll be in the know of all the fabulous content that's going out and all of our future guests and the content that we put out around them. So I think we're ready to bring our guest on today, that we put out around them. So I think we're ready to bring our guest on today, Dr. Danny Brasselll is a highly sought after speaker, trainer and coach who has delivered over 3,500 presentations worldwide.

Jennifer Loehding:

Known as the Jim Carrey with a PhD, danny is the author of 16 books, including Leadership Begins with Motivation. He co-founded the world's leading reading engagement program, which empowers parents to help their children read more, read better and love reading. Specializing in creating impactful presentations, Danny helps business owners, entrepreneurs and executives increase their income, freedom and influence through engaging communication strategies. So, danny, welcome to the show. We are so excited to have you here today.

Dr. Danny Brassell:

Thanks so much for having me, Jennifer. More importantly, thanks for spreading some joy in the world. We need a lot more of you.

Jennifer Loehding:

Thank you, I love it. You know, I just I was on another show a few minutes ago and I was talking about wearing rose colored glasses. You know, because I think when you tend to be an optimist, a lot of times people think that your head's in the cloud or you don't really know what's going on out there. And I always tell people I'm kind of the practical optimist because I see everything that's going on. I just choose not to sit in it every day. And I love spreading optimism because I think that we need it right Like we need it.

Dr. Danny Brassell:

Absolutely no-transcript. In superhero movies. They call it your origin story In his book. Start With why Simon Sinek would probably call this your visionary statement. You can call it peanut butter and jelly, it doesn't matter. I call it a well-crafted story. It really doesn't matter what you call it. But most people, what they're training people to do is to talk about their most devastating moments again and again.

Dr. Danny Brassell:

Here's the reason I have a problem with that and I'm just like you with the rose-colored glasses, Jennifer. I mean, first of all, the world just survived a global pandemic.

Dr. Danny Brassell:

We've all had a lot of bad things happen to us. I don't think we need to hear more sad stories. I think we need more stories of hope. Second of all, I'm teaching you to deliver this story like 20 times a day. Do you really want to talk about the worst moment of your life 20 times a day? I mean, I don't know how people are able to live with themselves doing that. And third and this is where people get a little bit angry with me I have one objective. When I'm on stage, I want you to leave feeling better than when you came in. I want you to smile and laugh and happy you in. I want you to smile and laugh and happy. I think there's something admirable about my objective to get you to want to feel better at the end of my presentation.

Dr. Danny Brassell:

I believe that a lot of these people that tell that same sad story again and again, by the 20th time they're telling it, those are now crocodile tears. And now you're being manipulative. And I'm not saying it's not an effective sales technique. It's actually a very effective sales technique. But I, for one, don't want to have to take a shower every time I speak because I've just manipulated my audience, and so I really love spicing up presentations, showing people how to engage their audience in a positive way, and that's what I love about your show. We need a little bit more optimism and happiness in the world, not this negativity.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, and you know what, as you're telling me this, I was kind of get chills because there have been times, you know, like you go to listen to somebody speak and and I and there's, you know, there's some stories like I've heard some people talk and they have some really compelling stories and you hear how they they overcome, but there's something about how they spend very little time. They'll talk about the hardship, but they really talk about what they've learned, like that. The other side of that. It's so crazy because when I was writing my book, it was it's a very like I say it's a cheesy book now because it's just, I need to like probably do a 2.0, but it was good at the time, right. But I think there there were like seven chapters in there and I think I dedicated one chapter to telling the story and all six to what I learned, like all the good that came out of it and the aftermath of that, right.

Jennifer Loehding:

And it's funny because I was having this conversation with someone the other day and I'm like you know, I was talking about how, you know, like God doesn't give us things that we can't handle, and I was joking that I'm like man, I feel like he just keeps giving me things all the time, like he he must know that I have a voice and I need to teach people lessons. So he keeps tossing me with these hard things and I'm like you know what? Look, I've had enough. I think I'm okay telling the stories, I want to share other people's stories, right? But it's so crazy, because I was telling this person, I said I've had so many things I've never even talked about, like really bad things, that I have just kind of never brought up, cause I'm like, does anybody really want to even hear that I wouldn't talk about it, right? And so while I think, yeah, you can't erase those things, I think there's something powerful on this other side when you can say, okay, yeah, I went through some of this.

Jennifer Loehding:

Let's briefly touch on that, but I don't want to spend my whole time talking about that. I want to tell you everything over here that's happening, because I want to feel good, right, and we've all been in those presentations. You're right when you come out and you're just like, oh, I'm sad. Well, that's, you know what I mean.

Dr. Danny Brassell:

Like I'm depressed. Yeah, I tell people I mean you can talk about the negative things that your approach is perfect. What I'm, what I'm interested in, is the happy ending. I mean that's why I like watching American movies rather than foreign films. I mean, if Julia Roberts dies in the middle of a movie in America, I know that they're going to resuscitate her and she'll be alive by the end. If her movie's in France and she dies in the middle of the movie, I'm like I look at my wife and I'm like I think she might be dead.

Dr. Danny Brassell:

That's a downer.

Jennifer Loehding:

Oh, I know what you're talking about. Those movies are like yeah, it ends so awful and it's so awful, and then you're just oh, that was terrible. Like I hate the ending, right you?

Jennifer Loehding:

don't want that kind, I'm with you, I'm with you. I would much rather hear people, and that's why I do this show really is because I like to show, and I don't say we don't talk about things like I. Really I like to ask people. You know what are some of the struggles you had to go through? Because I think people can relate. But I'm really more interested on what you're doing. I'm interested about, like, where you're headed, what you're excited about. That's the stuff that lights me up. And so I think, yeah, we should, you know, focus on the positivity, and if it's putting rose colored glasses on, then so be it, absolutely.

Dr. Danny Brassell:

And that's what's great about your audience is you're really focused towards that female audience, which is really one of my passions. I was speaking in India to a school of 5,000 girls and at the end of my presentation, these two beautiful girls come up One wants to be a lawyer, one wants to be a doctor. I'm like that's great. Are you going to go to university here in India? Or maybe you'll go to the UK or maybe America? And they look at me and they shake their heads like, oh, we're girls, we can't leave India. I'm like get back in that auditorium. I got them in. This is in 2018.

Dr. Danny Brassell:

I'm like now is your moment, ladies. Within the next five years, india is going to become the largest country on the planet in terms of population. I'm like you're a very young democracy. You're only about 75 years old, yet you've already elected a woman prime minister. America still has not elected a woman president. I'm like right now, there are twice as many women in India as there are people in the United States. There are actually more women in India with a graduate degree than there are people in the United States. I'm like you just made it my mission the next prime minister, the next CEO and the next really good mom is coming out of this audience.

Dr. Danny Brassell:

Don't let anybody tell you what you can't do. You know what I get pumped up about this stuff. I love your energy. You're really reaching out, especially like I work with so many women entrepreneurs. They're like well, I don't know. I'm like wait, why not you? Why not you? I mean, women are you know. My wife gave childbirth three different times. She's much stronger than me. I couldn't even watch it. She's happened to go through it. I mean, you got to give yourself a little bit of credit and that's what you're doing. You're empowering your audience and that's that's really what I want to see in a presentation is I want people leaving feeling empowered, like I can do this, and that's what you do and I commend you for that.

Jennifer Loehding:

Thank you. Thank you, yeah, I mean, it's something powerful. It's funny too, because I feel like, you know, in this world we spend so much time beating people up, you know, and I always tell people like I don't know, I, and maybe I know there's other people out there like me. I sometimes feel like I'm in my own little bubble, you know, in this world, because, especially, I think women, you know, talk. Going back and talking about women, I think women are so hard on each other all the time they really are.

Jennifer Loehding:

And and I'm grateful that I spent you know, just so you know 27 years in Mary Kay. You know I had that, that, that constant empowerment and motivation. I didn't come to it like that. I learned through it, going in that environment. I'm grateful for it every day, because I don't know that I would even be doing what I'm doing right now had I not gone through that experience and had those people that were believing in me and telling me I could do things even when I didn't. You know, and there's power in that, and so yeah it's.

Jennifer Loehding:

I think that we need more of it and definitely that's what I try to spread through here is that I don't care where you came from, I don't care how much money you have, I don't care your political affiliation or your religious affiliation, I don't. I just want you to be a decent human being and I want you to know that, no matter what you do, if you want to do something, you can do it. You just got to be willing to get up, put your shoes on and decide. Today you're going to do it, and that's why I always end this with you know, in order to live the extraordinary, you must start, and every start begins with a decision, because it really isn't just a choice. You get up and you decide today I'm going to be different than I was yesterday. Yeah, you know, it's what I do.

Dr. Danny Brassell:

Well, and Mary Kay Ash was a perfect example for you. I mean, the book I wrote a couple of books ago was called Leadership Begins With Motivation. So I used to teach in the inner city and when I was a middle school teacher, I was the only teacher in the school that none of my kids were ever tardy, because I always started off class with a Paul Harvey story. I don't know if you remember Paul Harvey.

Jennifer Loehding:

I know, Paul Harvey.

Dr. Danny Brassell:

yeah, Okay so, paul Harvey, he always gave these great little five minute stories and you're trying to guess who's he talking about or what's the company. My kids loved it, but a lot of the stories he used to tell were about like Sears and Roebuck. Well, kids today don't know who Sears and Roebuck are, I know, sears and Roebuck too.

Dr. Danny Brassell:

So the Leadership Begins with Motivation book I did was an homage to Paul Harvey. It was about people like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. Well, here's the thing, jennifer. After I wrote it, I read it and I'm like huh, completely unintentionally, so many of my examples were of white male Americans. And so the last book that I wrote, the latest book, misfits and Crackpots.

Dr. Danny Brassell:

These stories are primarily of women, minorities and international people, and in the preface you would love it, because one of my stories is about Mary Kay Ash. I mean, there's all kinds of cool. There's a great story in there about these two women, martha and Agnes. They're both choreographers and Agnes has just opened her third show on Broadway and audiences seem to like it, but the critics have panned it and she's like I'm just gonna close it, and Martha's like you can't do that, agnes. You know it's not for some critic to tell you who you are. It's not even for you to tell you who you are. You know you have to understand there's only one you. There's never been another you and there's never gonna be another you. There's never been another you and there's never going to be another you. And if you close this show, you're denying the world your gift.

Dr. Danny Brassell:

And so Martha was Martha Graham, who's known as the mother of modern dance. She won the Presidential Medal of Honor, kennedy Center Honors, everything. Well, agnes. Her friend, agnes DeMille, was also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and Kennedy Center Honors, and she went on to become the first woman to have three concurrent hits on Broadway at the same time, and she decided to keep the show open, but she just renamed it to Oklahoma. And it's just the power of you have no idea what you're producing. And I just love these stories where people I was watching this horrible show on TV the other day called the News and it totally depressed me. I'm like why am I even watching this? I need things that inspire me and so surrounding yourself with that positive energy, showing yourself that there's people out there that are just like me, that they had all the adversities that I had and they overcame them because they just didn't take no for an answer. So that's what we need to really get out there in the world. That's what I'm trying to promote a lot more of.

Jennifer Loehding:

I love it. I love it. Well, I want to. Yeah, let's talk a little bit about you. I got you here and all this good stuff because you've had a dynamic career and you're definitely I love it. I really I think communication is so important because I tell you when you don't, when people don't have it, it is so hard to navigate, you know, and it's something I really had to work on. I will tell you. You know, it's funny because in all the years I was at Mary Kay, I did a lot of presentations and I would have to speak in front of you know train, but I think probably like the most significant training that I have gotten is doing this podcast.

Jennifer Loehding:

It has been over the years of interviewing so many dynamic people and I'm talking people that talk, talk, talk to people who don't talk at all and you got to pull it out. You know, I was telling someone the other day that you know like everybody is so different when they come on here and I've really had to learn and navigate all of that, but it's important. So I kind of want to backpedal this a little bit and talk about you, your career, kind of how you got to where you are today. So give us you don't have to tell us everything, but just kind of give us the highlights of what brought you to where you are today.

Dr. Danny Brassell:

I guess my life is defined by a lot of pivots, jennifer. So many, many years ago I was a journalist. I actually covered President Bush Sr on the 92 presidential campaign. I had the greatest job in the world. I got to meet every major newspaper editor in America and a major daily offered me the job for being their city beat reporter for $16,500 a year. And then a friend mentioned to me that they were hiring teachers in South Central Los Angeles for $25,000 a year. So I became an educator for the noblest of reasons, for the high pay, and so I was teaching for many years.

Dr. Danny Brassell:

Then I wound up becoming a professor and in 2005, my wife and I attended a real estate seminar which turned out to be a scam and we lost everything and I could focus on all the negatives from that. But I'm a positive person, just like you, and I focus on all the great things that happen. First of all, my wife is my soulmate. I put her through the ringer and she stayed right by me. She's an incredible human being. Second of all, I learned that money's not everything, because you can lose it in a second, just like that. Third, I learned to try not to judge other people because unless you know everything about a person, you really don't know anything about a person. Fourth, I became a Christian, which I'm always embarrassed to admit, but the more I read the Bible, I'm not the first screw up to find Jesus. And fifth, I didn't want to file bankruptcy at the time, which I eventually had to do because of North Cuba, also known as Florida but my accountant said that in order to avoid bankruptcy, you're going to have to make this much more money this year. And so I started speaking on the side and I hit the number. Well, the next year, jennifer, he gave me a much higher number and I hit that number right on the number. So in year three, I thought, well, maybe I should set a higher number. And basically, during one of the worst economic downturns in American history, I was able to build up a speaking business which far outpaced anything I ever earned as an educator. Well then, the pandemic happened and overnight I lost all of my speaking engagements, since we couldn't gather in public, and so I pivoted towards coaching.

Dr. Danny Brassell:

I'd always resisted coaching, because I've always had a high standard as a teacher. I want you to succeed and I actually hold you accountable, and I'm not going to get off your back until you do succeed, and I didn't want to work with people, and I've actually found my niche with entrepreneurs. They do the work. I love it, and so I'm very excited to work with people. I mean my best example.

Dr. Danny Brassell:

So I always have to say your results may vary, but I had a guy I was working with probably 18 months ago, gustavo Jennifer. Gustavo should be president of the United States. Gustavo came to America 30 years ago from Ecuador, didn't speak a word of English, did every menial job possible, saved every dime, invested in real estate. 30 years later, the guy's worth like $40 million. He's incredible, and so we were putting together his presentation, and so his offer is he has a four-month real estate coaching program for $40,000. Well, that's a tall offer, but I always tell people there's two ways you get better at speaking. First of all, you watch lots of speakers and, 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 pushups translation you got to do the work. It's just like your podcast. Your first podcast stunk and your second podcast stunk, but it didn't stink.

Jennifer Loehding:

And he helped him get it.

Dr. Danny Brassell:

Yeah.

Dr. Danny Brassell:

And now you're just a seasoned pro. This is, you can roll out of bed and do this in your sleep. Well, gustavo. I said, hey, you got to get out there and start delivering this presentation. I'm like you speak to Rotary Club, speak to schools. He said, well, I'm going on a podcast tonight. I'm like, hey, you call me tomorrow. Gustavo, you got to make the offer, tell me how it goes. He calls me the next day, jennifer. He's like Danny, you are a genius. I'm like did you go on the podcast? He's like yes. I'm like did you make the offer, Gustavo? He's like yes. I'm like, did you sell any? He's like 23.

Dr. Danny Brassell:

Jennifer, reading is my background, not math. If I'm doing my math correctly, he made $920,000 that night on a presentation we had crafted that afternoon and since then he's made eight figures off this one talk. And the reason I give that example is I love it because he did it. He did the work. So many people I mean nobody can ever deny you that one thing, jennifer. You made your podcast. So many people say I'm going to do a podcast someday. They don't do anything. You did it. So I commend. That's what I love. So I'm sorry, that's a very long answer to your short question no it's good.

Jennifer Loehding:

And to your point on the podcast, and many of them quit. The statistics are very high that most of them stop podcasting after one or two episodes. Very few of them like I'm in the top, like one person, one or two percent of actually that stick it out.

Jennifer Loehding:

It's funny too because you know, like for so long and I'm going to be honest, you know this has been a labor of love project for me. Really I love doing it. I didn't really care when I started it that it needed to be anything particular, but it's funny now because we've gotten our YouTube up to about 14,000, which in the YouTube world, I mean, I know there are people that have lots, but we were at 3,000. We've gone to 14 in like three months.

Dr. Danny Brassell:

Nice.

Jennifer Loehding:

So probably less than three months, I don't know we got 2,500 new subscribers in 28 days. So I don't know, you know it's growing. It's growing and it's funny because my, my vision has sort of changed with it in the last few months, and so I've been actively trying to build it and do things with it. So yesterday I applied for the trademark for Starter Girl so I could protect my you know, my intellectual property, and that was mostly because I had another podcast friend that's up to 200,000 now and she had somebody come after her for her stuff, and so she's like trademark your work, you know.

Jennifer Loehding:

But to your point, with all of this, you mentioned so many things. I wanted to congratulate you on your wife, because I think that is huge and important. If you have a partner that sticks behind through thick and thin, it's all good. There are so many things to your story here that I think are really profound, and I love, though, even just your journey from the journalism to the education to the speaking. Interestingly, if you were to look at your journey from here to the end, you'd be like, ok, how did you go from here? But if you look at the pattern, like, look at the path, they're all really connected.

Dr. Danny Brassell:

Right.

Jennifer Loehding:

They're all about teaching and coaching and communication. There's some parts of this that go away and that's what I think is so interesting about our journeys. You know, when we look at our paths and we go because I even you know, I got to talk about mine in all the years I was doing Mary Kay, I was actually, I was coaching in some way, I was leading people across to victories, basically coaching them across, communicating in some way. You know, and and and then I end up here and and I just think it's fun how our journey is kind of a ball. That's why I like to talk about a little bit about them, because people always think they look at you here and they go you got all this greatness happening here, but they don't know that you had all these pieces in between, that sort of laid the foundation to get you to here where you are now. You know.

Jennifer Loehding:

So, kudos to you on all of that. I think it's awesome, thank you. I love it and I love your story about Gustavo. Is that that's his name? You said, yeah, I love your story about that. And then, and even on the coaching front, I don't know. You know, I'm kind of funny about that too, because I feel like there's a lot of coaches out there. I feel like people just wake up every day and they're like I want to be a coach today.

Dr. Danny Brassell:

Well, that's what I like. To be facetious, I have a friend that's a life coach and I'm like a life coach. What's a life coach? I'm like, if you need a life coach, go to.

Jennifer Loehding:

Starbucks. There's six of them sitting there right now. Yeah Well, and I am certified in that, but I'm weird because my coaching is really more of a holistic nature.

Jennifer Loehding:

And most of the people that come to me are entrepreneurs that are looking to grow their business, and I tell people I do more work with helping them overcome the blocks that we're talking about to get them to act. Because what I and what I found is that these people would come to me and they're like I want to grow my business, and what would happen is, I would say, you know, somewhere around the sixth or seventh week, we have this coming to Jesus moment. That's what I call it. It's basically I have repeated the same thing. We start off to get to know you in the beginning. Somewhere around week two I start getting probably where you do. I want them to succeed.

Jennifer Loehding:

So now I'm starting to be like I've got to get the needle, I got to move the needle, I've got to help them succeed because I don't want them not to, I don't want them paying me if we don't get them to winning Right. And so I start going through okay, what do we need to do to get this to moving in the right direction? We'll start looking at stuff. Where are you stuck Now? I find that week three goes by, week four goes by, week five. We're talking about the same thing. Nobody's moving Right. And now I'm like, okay, you're paying me, we're not moving. Something's got to happen here. That's the coming to Jesus moment.

Jennifer Loehding:

And then I realized it doesn't matter what I've taught them. It doesn't matter what script we talked about. It doesn't matter if I've taught them how to close. It doesn't matter if I taught them how to strategize that day. It does not matter because there is a freaking block right there that's got them stuck in this hole, and I got to figure out what that block is. Is it a perfectionism thing? Is it imposter? What is it that's keeping them stuck?

Jennifer Loehding:

So, that's really where my work is centered is on how do I help them create this holistic success. But I want to get back to like getting to that that block work and the emotional ties that are keeping them stuck in there. So I say all that, say all these people come up and they're like I want to be a life coach, right, or I?

Jennifer Loehding:

want to be a business consultant, you know, and that's all wrong with that if it works for them. But my work is really. I feel like it's so much deeper than that. It's really I want them to win. I want them to win and I know to win. We got to get deep, we got to get to the raw. We got to figure out what's keeping them stuck, and then I can help them with that, or I can send them to the people that need to help them with getting better at the presentations or whatever it is they need. It's just I'm doing more of that root stuff with them. So I'm with you on that. I think the reason I brought that up is because you were saying you had high standards. I feel like my standards are high too, and so not everybody can work with me because not everybody's willing to do that work. They're not. Not everybody's willing to get deep.

Dr. Danny Brassell:

I have no interest in working with a person that's not going to work. I mean, I want them to get a return on investment. So I do these. I do two day seminars with my partner coach Jimmy Hayes Nelson. I call us the professor and the poet because I come from an education background, he comes from Broadway and we're good chiropractors.

Dr. Danny Brassell:

You know, you come for two days for $7,500. And I always tell people I'm like, well, what's one client worth to you? And most people they're one client over the lifetime is worth 50, $60,000 at least. I'm like, well, if I can get you one client, then you've had a return on investment. But I'm like, don't work with me if you don't think you're going to get at least one client, don't worry. I mean, hopefully you're going to get hundreds of clients, thousands of clients, but I have no interest in working with a person that just wants to sit there and brag that I'm their coach. I'm like I don't. I get no satisfaction out of that. I get satisfaction out of you know, gustavo, I had a guy I worked with, jason three years ago.

Dr. Danny Brassell:

This guy, jason, he was you know. Now I know I'm old At this point. Chop off my head and count the rings, I'm pretty old now. And Jason, this young whippersnapper, he's 22 years old and he complained to me that he had no audience. I'm like Jason, then you got to build your audience. I'm like you know, and I tell him you got to go out into the world and he was just negative, negative.

Dr. Danny Brassell:

I'm like, okay, hey, you have Facebook, right. He's like I'm like, go on Facebook Live today and give your talk, and I want you to give your talk every single day, because what's going to happen is you're going to get better and every now and then somebody actually might watch you. And so, again, like most people unlike most people Jason actually did it. On that day he did his Facebook Live and one woman from like Ontario, canada, accidentally watched him and he stunk. And then the next day he did it again and like three people watched him and he stunk. And then the next day he did it again and like three people watched him and he did it again. Jennifer Jason has done the same talk on Facebook live now for three years, consistently.

Dr. Danny Brassell:

He has now 6,000 people in his tribe and he, he earned almost seven figures last year. He came, he started literally with nothing, but he did it. He did the work and that's where I get satisfied. I mean I get satisfaction. I worked with a woman, carol. Carol, like three months ago, carol has the smartest niche I've ever seen in my life, cause I always tell people, you know people. I'm like oh, who do you serve? Like everybody. I'm like well, if you're trying to serve everybody, you're serving nobody.

Jennifer Loehding:

You need to niche it down.

Dr. Danny Brassell:

I mean like men or women, you know Christians or non-Christians, or like people in in uh Harper's Ferry, maryland, like you got to niche it down. Well, carol, she sells horses to professional polo player, or no, she sells saddles to the to uh professional polo players. She made $800,000 a year selling saddles to professional polo players.

Dr. Danny Brassell:

I was like this is the smartest bitch I've ever seen in my life. She was great. She was very enthusiastic. Maybe this is why I like women. Women tend to be a lot more positive than the guys. I don't deal with women.

Jennifer Loehding:

There might be some truth to that. There may be some truth to that.

Dr. Danny Brassell:

I deal with a lot more David Downers than Debbie Downers.

Jennifer Loehding:

I haven't heard that one, the David Downers. That's great. No, and I think it's great. I will commend you on two things. One, your expectations. You're putting an expectation on these clients that if they're not willing to be at this level of thinking because it's not going to happen, if they're not, If they're coming to you and they're like I can't make this, then they're not. We know that. What you think you can do I mean, what's that Henry Ford thing? If you think you can, you can.

Dr. Danny Brassell:

If you think you can, you can't, you can't, you can't or whatever I made it, get that wrong.

Jennifer Loehding:

we're certainly not going to get.

Jennifer Loehding:

And I say that about everything, I say that about your health, your wellbeing, everything Like if you think you're going to be sick, you're probably going to be sick, and if you think you're not, you're probably not going to be as bad. You know it's. It really does start up here and so I like that you're putting. You're saying that, but I think also the importance is that you are niching that down right, because you're saying this is a certain type of client that I'm looking for, and I agree with you. We should be honing in. I mean, I do that with mine too.

Jennifer Loehding:

There are people that have come to me that most of the people I find that do the work are good. But sometimes people will come to me and they'll be like I'll go through this like little I'm sure you do too where you talk to them and then I realize I can't help that particular person because they're looking for somebody to tell them exactly what to do. And I'm a coach. I'm not going to tell you what to do. I want you to come up with your ideas. I'm going to facilitate, but I'm not going to tell you every move to make, because if I have to tell you to get out of bed, that's stuff you do with kids.

Dr. Danny Brassell:

I don't do that with adults. Well, I can't motivate another human being. I can give you strategies. I have no problem working with people here. I'll give your audience a strategy. So here's one of the best speaking strategies I share with people. I say, hey, stop bragging about your accomplishments, talk about your failures, because not everybody in your audience has succeeded, but they have all failed. And the more you talk about your own failures, the more you express your own vulnerability. Great speaker, brene Brown. She has a book called Dare to Lead and I totally agree with her. Share your own vulnerabilities. When you're doing that, you're showing people. Hey, this person's just like me. I was working with a guy, richard. It was about two months ago. So Richard's a financial advisor, financial planner. Two months ago. So Richard's a financial advisor, financial planner. And so he'd start his presentation. He'd say, oh, I've been in the industry for 30 years. I've made over a billion dollars for my clients. I've worked with XXX, these famous people.

Dr. Danny Brassell:

And I said you know that's great, Richard, but what are the three most important parts of real estate? Location, location, location. You have that. That's great. Those credentials are great. You're putting them in the wrong part of your presentation.

Dr. Danny Brassell:

You need to start your presentation by connecting with your audience, and so we rephrased his opening, so now he talks about the very first client he ever got and it's basically a comedy of errors where it's amazing that this person even signed with him. And Richard said two weeks later he does these dinner seminars at steak restaurants for about 15 couples to invest their I don't know their retirement yeah, I've seen those yeah their retirement funds, and so it's always the husband and the wife.

Dr. Danny Brassell:

And he said Danny, you're a genius. He's like. I've always noticed that most of the couples, the guy always is sitting there with his arms crossed. He's like oh, what are you trying to sell me? How much is this going to cost? Now that he's changed his story, those same guys. They're leaning forward, they're smacking their knees, laughing so hard, like he connected with them and he has a higher close rate.

Dr. Danny Brassell:

And this is what I always tell people. You can feel better as a speaker after I work with you, which is great. You can tell me about all the kudos people are giving you that's great. But I only evaluate my own success based on one thing Are you getting more people to hire you or to take the next step? The next step can be different things.

Dr. Danny Brassell:

I work with different people. Maybe the next step is an unpaid offer, like sign up for my newsletter or book a free call, you know. Maybe it's a paid offer like, hey, buy my product or invest in my coaching program. But that's how we evaluate if we're succeeding. Are you getting your return on investment? Are more people taking that next step? Whatever that is, you know, if I'm working with a politician, are more people voting for you. If I'm working with a pastor, are more people putting in their tithe, you know. If I'm working with an entrepreneur, are more people, you know, purchasing your whatever it is that you're selling. I mean, that's how we're going to evaluate. You know you'll get better as a speaker, which is all great, but there's no, that's an amorphous way of of figuring out. I mean, if you feel good about yourself, I mean that's great, but that's not how I'm evaluating success.

Jennifer Loehding:

I mean we need you to have tangible results. Yeah, no, and as you were talking about this, I was thinking about John Maxwell's latest book, which was on communication. I don't know if you read that. I love John Maxwell, I love that book, and he was talking about that whole connecting. Do you want to, like inform me, do you want to connect with the audience? And the thing that was sticking out in that particular part he was talking about, like you'll get that speaker up there that ask a question that nobody knows the answer to.

Jennifer Loehding:

And it's like you sound smart. That's what I was thinking about when you were talking about the accolades. It's like you get up there and you're like I have all these accolades and everybody's like, okay, you're a superhero, but what's that have to do with us? You know what I mean. Like people want to connect, right, and so I thought that book was really good. But that's when you were talking about all that. That's what was like going through my brain is that whole idea of yeah, you know, but are you connecting? And so, funny enough, I'll tell you a quick story.

Jennifer Loehding:

I was at so I network here with the Texas Legends. It's a GLE basketball team. They have a business owner, business owner program and there was a doctor I guess not the doctor, he was like the PR person for a hospital that was speaking about the hospital here in Frisco and I guess she was a nurse or something. Somebody asked a question and I was like, oh, that's great. The only people that know what she just asked is if the nurses in the room, if there's another nurse or a doctor in the room, they might. Nobody in the room knew what this girl was talking about, which is a classic example of what I'm talking about. Like, you sound smart and everybody's like, great, you're smart, but man, we have. No, we're just not even on your level right now. None of us know what you're talking about. You know? Yeah, you have to make that connection.

Dr. Danny Brassell:

I mean, comedians are the best at this. I mean, if you watch like Kevin Hart is a short black guy, I love.

Jennifer Loehding:

Kevin Hart. He cracks me up.

Dr. Danny Brassell:

I love him. Yeah, jim Gaffigan's of being a big, fat white guy. There was a great 30 Rock once where Tracy Morgan he realizes he's no longer connecting with his audience because now he's a very wealthy comedian. They show him doing his standup. He's like don't you hate it when your personal chef screws up your foie gras? And like everybody in the audience like I don't have. It's fantastic, it's a perfect illustration. You know, john Maxwell is like as big as they come. He's one of the top five speakers on the planet.

Dr. Danny Brassell:

You don't hear him talking about. I am one of the top five speakers on the planet.

Jennifer Loehding:

He doesn't talk about that.

Dr. Danny Brassell:

He talks about all of his mishaps and the lessons he's learned along the way, because that's a way he can actually reach out to people where a person's like, well, if he can do it, maybe I can do it. And what can reach out to people where a person's like, well, if he can do it, maybe I can do it. And maybe and what he's great at is he's getting people thinking about well, I wonder how I get to work with a person like well, john Maxwell actually works with people like me. I would love to work with him, and this is one of the things that coach Jimmy and I are training people is. Well, how do you whisper those sweet nothings in people's ears during a presentation where, instead of sounding salesy, you're just serving your audience? Because I, for one, believe that you have a responsibility when you're on stage, whether people decide to take the next step with you or not, you still have a responsibility to give them as many nuggets to help them as possible.

Dr. Danny Brassell:

And I see a lot of people. They're just. You know, here are my seven. Here's the first three things, and if you buy my program, I'll give you the seventh secret. And it's like you're just scuzzy man, like help people out, like I have no problem giving away all of my best stuff. You know, maybe you'll never work with me, that's fine, but hopefully I served you so you can help people. I mean, think about your audience now. You now have 13,000 people on YouTube. You're right on the precipice, by the way, jennifer, because it takes a lot to go from that 1,000 to 2,000. And it takes kind of a long time to go from the 3,000 to 13,000. Now you're at 13,000.

Dr. Danny Brassell:

It's about to just become an avalanche where you're going to just see those numbers like crazy. But people don't. You know. I always love that quote by Kobe Bryant. He said you work hard in the dark so you shine in the light. People don't see all the work that you've put into the podcast, they don't see the consistency, they don't see all the time that you've committed. So I commend you for sticking with it. Most people never stick with anything. It drives me nuts.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, yeah, it's good.

Jennifer Loehding:

I love all that you're saying. I agree with you on all of it. I think these are all important points and really, yeah, I mean one of the things I love about John Maxwell. I was thinking he always says hi, my name is John, I'm your friend. He always says that when he does his speech. I actually got to see him. He came to Dallas last summer and was a present presenter at a church. It was so great because he does a lot. He just he's really good at storytelling and he was actually telling a story about in the Bible to do by Ruth and different and telling us how, if they were alive today I have not forgotten that speech but how, if they were alive today, how would we see them as people you know in our world and stuff, and so he's really good at that. But yeah, I think I think it's an important thing and I think getting in there and doing your presentations where you're effective and we've all been there I mean I had some people come out to bid us some prices on flooring and just to show you that's all communication, right. Like I had one guy came in and I tend to be sometimes a person that's like could you just get to the point please?

Jennifer Loehding:

Like you're giving me too much garbage and I'm bored. Like get to the point. You know, one guy comes in and he's like looking at everything and he's quick and he gives me what I need to know, texts me, gets back with the price. I'm like, okay, this is easy. Next guy comes in and does his presentation and spends the entire beginning nice guy but spent the entire beginning of the presentation telling me about why they get bad reviews because they're a big company. And I'm like Danny, I'm like man. Two hours into this I'm like can you just give me the freaking quote? Can you just give me the quote? Surprising, you know.

Jennifer Loehding:

Like it was so pitchy that by the time I got done it was like if he would have been funny, if he would have been funny if he would have just asked me questions about like just been authentic and personable in that presentation the whole time I might've been like you know, like hey, this was pretty good, you know, but I just the whole thing and I think that's how we do things. A lot of times when we're out, whether it's on stage or selling or whatever it is we're doing, you know Exactly that might've been a good thing.

Dr. Danny Brassell:

What can I help you? I mean seriously Reach your room.

Jennifer Loehding:

Danny, right, it's crazy.

Dr. Danny Brassell:

Yeah, I like I've worked with so many people where they're like if you build it, they will come. I'm like that's wrong. If they want it, then you build it. Listen to them. They're giving you answers all the time, you are just not paying attention to them. So you know those flooring guys. Oh well, I mean, and I love working with people that are actually willing to listen, that are like OK here, so here.

Dr. Danny Brassell:

I'll give you it. So we're talking to connection. So when Coach Jimmy and I and I didn't realize you're in Frisco because we do these in Dallas all the time and because Coach Jimmy lives in Dallas, and so we go through our, our five C's process, which are clarity, connect, content, call to action and, uh, uh, your, your clothes. So connecting. I'm going to give a gem to your audience right now for connecting.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yes, give us a gem.

Dr. Danny Brassell:

I am going to give you a gem. So I actually watch a lot of award shows and people always ask me Danny, why do you watch award shows? I'm like because when the person wins the Academy Award, they only have 45 seconds to connect with their audience and I want to see if they're actually going to connect. Now, most people they waste their time. They get up there like, oh I thank God, I want to thank the Academy, I want to thank my agent. It's stupid. Nobody's paying attention. But every now and then a person actually connects.

Dr. Danny Brassell:

And so a few years ago there was a guy who won the Academy Award for Best Film Editing. Well, this is Hollywood. All the important people are in the audience the actors. So you can see that the camera's panning, they're not paying attention. This is film editing. Well, the guy that gets up there, his name is Joe Walker, I think he's British and he speaks very 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's panning the audience and you see people leaning in like what's he talking?

Jennifer Loehding:

about he says.

Dr. Danny Brassell:

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 off stage, denzel Washington wants to meet him, sondra Bullock wants to meet him, brad Pitt wants to meet him. Time Magazine said it was one of the highlights of the Academy Awards. Wow.

Jennifer Loehding:

That's a power connection.

Dr. Danny Brassell:

It only took him less than 45 seconds. He was able to do it. So that's what I'm encouraging people. You got to watch people. I'm watching people. I watched, like John Maxwell. We keep on talking about him. What I love about John he's one of the very rare speakers where he's also a good author. I love his books. He's a very good author. He tells great stories. He has like this radio voice. I'm like gosh. I can just listen to his voice all the time. He's very personable. He's like I'm John, I'm your friend. You know a guy like Les Brown Wonderful, he's only. Les has told the same story for 40 years, for 40 years.

Jennifer Loehding:

And this is where I'm telling people you only need one talk you don't need 28 talks, you need one talk.

Dr. Danny Brassell:

I mean, look at politicians all the time. I mean this is the other thing that always cracks me. I always make fun of politicians because I'm like you know you ever notice that no politician ever grew up middle class. They all grew up. They were born in a log cabin and they had. You know, they had to struggle.

Dr. Danny Brassell:

Yeah, it always cracks me up, and so I'm always looking for people. So I tell people I mean, I watch televangelists, I watch comedians, I watch politicians, I watch people in front of big groups in front of small groups, in front of men in front of women, in front of international audiences, in front of American audiences, in front of a business audience versus an educational. I mean that's what it was interesting. I was in a mastermind years ago and one of the guys in my mastermind he asked me to train his sales force. Well, at the time I was a teacher, I wasn't working in corporate at all. And I said well, I don't think I can really train your sales force, I'm really just a teacher. And he looks at me and he said well, I don't think I can really train your sales force, I'm really just a teacher. And he looks at me and he said, danny, if you can get middle school teenagers interested in reading Shakespeare, I'm pretty sure you can motivate my sales force. And he did me such a favor, jennifer, because he got me thinking bigger than I was thinking.

Dr. Danny Brassell:

And shame on me because I always tell my students. I'm like, hey, sometimes you need somebody else to believe in you before you believe in yourself. I believe in all of you. They only give me the best and the brightest. Now let's go out and make this world a better place. I mean, I said that every day. The kids can recite it from memory, no-transcript. Now there's people that are dealing with some very difficult stuff and if you can give them words of encouragement to get them to, you know, les Brown has a great line in his presentation. He says suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem.

Jennifer Loehding:

And he's absolutely right. You and I have both had those lows.

Dr. Danny Brassell:

Everybody in your audience has had those lows and maybe the low was a financial low, or it was a relationship low, or it was a health problem low. All of us have had them. What people I believe need to hear is you know, that's why everybody loves the movie Rocky Rocky, he gets back up.

Dr. Danny Brassell:

He gets back up, and that's what we need to see. We need people surrounding and that's why I tell people turn off the TV, listen to your podcast, read a positive book. You need to get yourself thinking about the people that overcome. Stop thinking about you know, I stopped watching the news years ago just because especially as a parent. The first three stories are this kid's missing, this kid's dead. There was a school shooting. I can't watch it. It's just negativity.

Jennifer Loehding:

I have no interest in politics.

Dr. Danny Brassell:

When I work with politicians, I'm like I don't care anything. I'm going to show you how to create a problem.

Dr. Danny Brassell:

I don't care, I don't want to hear it Like we need positivity, we need encouragement, we need I mean, when I read the Bible I don't read it as a sad. I'm like laughing all the time. I mean, one of the best passages to me is Genesis 50, 20, where you know Jacob has passed away and Joseph's brothers are freaking out. They're like, oh no, joseph's going to take vengeance. And they're really slimy. They come up to Joseph. They're like, hey, joe, before dad died he said like you're not supposed to take vengeance on us for all that bad stuff we did to you. And it's a beautiful part of the Bible because Joseph looks at him and he's like, oh man, no, everything you meant for evil, god meant for good. It's exactly your story, jennifer. It's all those bad things. Every time you got knocked down, you were able to get back up because God gave you that power. He was only testing you to see your resilience and so far you're coming through. He's going to shake your hand when you get up to that key. I was going to heaven.

Jennifer Loehding:

Amen, that was good. No, it was good. I agree with you on all of it. I agree with every bit of it. So good, so good. Well, yeah, this has been amazing. I have a feeling you and I could talk forever on this. I get, sometimes I get people on here I'm like we could just go off for a long time. We'd be like ping, ping, ping, ping, ping, ping, ping, back and forth on this. But I know you got things to do, and I do too, and when you come to Dallas, you'll have to let me know when you have something here, so maybe we can get some people to come that direction.

Dr. Danny Brassell:

I'm there every month, yeah, Awesome.

Jennifer Loehding:

In the meantime, what I do want to say is for our listeners listening to this today maybe somebody's hearing this says workshop, whatever. Where do you want us to send them?

Dr. Danny Brassell:

Well, thank you to you and your audience for bearing with me. I wanted to give everybody a freebie. So if you go to freestoryguidecom again freestoryguidecom I'm going to provide everybody in your audience a blueprint which takes you through those five C's, so that you'll have that blueprint to help you create what we call your well-crafted story. That's at freestoryguidecom, and I just want to thank you again, jennifer, not just for having me on, but for all that you do. Keep on spreading that joy.

Jennifer Loehding:

Thank you, it's been fun. Yeah, this is so great. The guy that I talked to you before does book writing, so how perfect these will be together. We've got the speaking and the book writing, which really go hand in hand a lot of ways. So thank you for your wisdom and for the conversation, your contribution to the project, that what we're working on here and just all that you're spreading out in the world too. It's good. We need positive stuff. It's all good.

Dr. Danny Brassell:

Thank you, god bless.

Jennifer Loehding:

Absolutely, of course, our audience. We hope you found this episode inspiring and informative and, of course, if you did, you know what to do. Go hit that subscribe button, like comment, share, do all the things so that we can continue sharing all this fabulous content with you. And, as I always say, in order to live the extraordinary, you must start, and every start begins with a decision. You guys, take care, be safe, be kind to one another. See you next time, thank you.

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