Overview:

The podcast discusses the importance of personal branding and storytelling for businesses. It advocates using the "why, fight, contribute" framework to craft an authentic personal backstory. Stories that convey passion and heart are most effective at connecting with audiences. Viewers relate to vulnerability and care more about the person than the product or service. Examples are given of impactful brand stories that increased trust and willingness to support a company just based on the founder's courageous story. An engaging video using this approach was shown to dramatically grow awareness for a beauty brand.

Takeaways:

• Powerful brand stories focus on the founder's personal journey and why they started the business, including their "fight story" of what frustrates or angers them.
• An effective "why story" connects with audiences by explaining the founder's motivations and showing they want to solve a real problem.
• Getting the founder to open up about emotional experiences from their past can help uncover their authentic voice and purpose.
• Videos should aim to make the founder feel comfortable speaking naturally, as if to a close friend, to avoid coming across as inauthentic.
• Storytelling allows brands to stand out from competitors by humanizing themselves and making emotional connections.
• The consideration phase of marketing is important for high-ticket products, where storytelling can help sway decisions between options.
• Having fun, being carefree, keeping it real, showing passion, and speaking from the heart are traits that attract audiences.
• Drawing on a founder's personal struggles can help motivate and inspire audiences as part of the business message.
• Emotional stories have power to move people to action in strong ways.
• Courageously sharing one's vulnerabilities can build trust and loyalty with audiences.

Automatically-Generated Transcription:

Let, let's move on to our, our second presentation, which is Michael Hanson.

I'll just find Michael on the screen here.

So here we, here we go.

Yeah.

So, so Michael, um, I came across Michael's work, oh, it was probably over a decade ago.

He'd done stuff with, with Taki Moore.

He's done stuff with James Schramko, who, um, is in our niche, but also you massive brands.

He is also done things for like Mark Rolton from Massland and that sort of thing.

And he, he creates, like, the way he creates his videos, he's like a Hollywood, it's like a, it's like better than Hollywood, I say, but for performers, but for businesses, not performers, for, for businesses.

And I got to chatting with him and he is just explaining the questions he asks, and the way he frames the story, the stories.

And it's unlike after 20 years in the industry and writing copy and learning storytelling, I haven't, he's teaching me stuff.

So I wanted to bring him in here today to show everyone how you can execute this sort of thing in your own business and for your clients.

And yeah, Michael's not, this is the first time he's done this.

So he is not a professional speaker or anything like this.

He's just doing for me for a, for a favor.

'cause I said, Hey, come and do this.

Yeah, I'll, I'll hand the reins over to Michael, and if we can start Michael with that, the beauty video, I think that would be awesome, because that's, yeah.

In your head, again, think of how you'll promote a beauty product and then we'll see what comes next.

So, yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

Cool.

Thank you.

I'll put it on now, but I just wanna say yes, I have never done anything like I, I have done, but not, not recently, not for the last five years I've been sewing the trenches, just doing this stuff that, to me and Scott connected, and it was like he asked me to come.

And I think that these, some value in some of the stuff that I can do.

I can't give you the full science of storytelling.

I can't give you the full art of storytelling.

But what I am hoping to give you today is the foundation of, when I walk into a brand, I literally think of these three things every time.

And at some level, every single story that I've ever produced, made, directed anything, has always had these three elements in it.

And you'll see it in this story I'm about to show you, which I'll just show you now.

And then what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna talk about them three things, but th there's one other thing that I think I should talk about that I think one is the biggest barrier why people don't do video.

And I think it'll really help you is being scared of camera.

And I can, there's a couple of little tricks and a little, few little clues that I may be able to give you foundationally that'll get you to start and to maybe get you past it.

So let me just play beauty brand that we did.

Can you guys see my screen?

No.

I need to make you co-host.

Sorry.

Yes.

Let me just do that now.

I need to be the admit.

Am I on?

Can you see me now?

Not yet.

Should be that green button down the bottom.

Green button.

Should be a share screen.

Screen at the bottom.

Got it, got it, got it.

Share.

Oh, advance.

No, I'm pressing it.

We're having a bit of s**t.

I, you might have, you may have to do it.

Yeah, that that's all right.

Can you drop the link in there?

The exact one to the beauty brand?

Yep.

So it's, yeah.

Just gimme a second.

Sorry guys.

Yeah.

Hi.

Hi.

I'm Michael's producer.

I've just dropped it in there for you, Scott.

Ah, yep.

Beautiful.

Yeah, it's, uh, so I'll just do the share screen.

Everyone can see that.

You can see my, you can see my screen?

Yep.

Yeah.

Yep.

Can you hear?

No, Sounds not coming through.

Share sound.

Here we go.

Okay, let's go.

I used to wish I was European.

I knew that the European, I have such freedom Boling culture.

You're very suppressed.

You're very under the sun, and you don't have opportunity to explore and be a normal teenager.

Growing up in my family, I'm made to feel like I've got the darker skin, and I'm not pretty.

My dad will call me.

M is called Blackie.

When he calls me by my name that he gave me, it's not gentle.

It's very aggressive.

It's learned screaming at the top of his lungs.

I shake because I'm scared of him 'cause I know what that's gonna lead to.

Violence and anger.

And, and that could go on for hours after the age of 12, appearance become very important.

I want it to be white.

I would wash the rice and I would drain the rice, and then I'd let it sit for about half an hour.

Then I'd wash my face and I'd put the rice residue on my face hoping that this will make my skin white.

So I did that a day after day.

I wasn't turning white, I stopped doing the rice.

Every time I went out, I would put heavy makeup on To paint my face.

Then I started attracting men who were similar to my dad in the sense they were controlling.

That kind of relived the feeling of how I felt at home.

And at that point, I, I snapped and I started focusing on the inner side of me.

Once I started accepting myself for who I am, I was happy with who I am.

I was happy what direction I was going to.

That's when I met the love of my life.

His name's Paul.

I was searching for An open door.

I was looking for a peace of man.

It's a feeling that That brought me to a journey to learn about skin.

I developed a passion for it Before, And then I start putting a recipe together using natural product.

My company now named Frisk started.

I believe that beauty comes from first by accepting yourself for who you are.

That was amazing.

Yeah, Yeah, yeah.

Just, I've watched that several times, that video and every time it, like, I get chills.

Like you're watching a an like, when you watch a, like a, yeah, an hour and a half like movie that's really moving, but it's done in such a condensed format.

Yeah.

It's phenomenal.

Michael.

Phenomenal.

Thank you.

But it's, a lot of it is always with storytelling as well.

One of the, we, me and Ethan, we always talk about this.

It's like, it's the art, finding the story as well.

That was a very powerful story that she had.

And, and it's, it's not every time we can hit it like that.

We actually got banned from Facebook 'cause of that, because of, there was a heavy racism thing involved in it.

So we would've, that we would get, we were sure that was gonna go viral, sure.

But it just didn't because Facebook, because it had skin stuff.

So they, it just didn't, it just didn't, it didn't pop like we thought it was gonna pop, but it's gone on to do really well.

It won an award.

She started a movement around it.

She, a lot of confidence.

She was very shy when she first first put it out because she was worried about her family.

And she was, because she was so vulnerable in it, she was just so open with me.

And a lot of the story that happened, it was quite horrific what happened to it.

It didn't even get into it.

It didn't even make the cut because it was just too much.

But yeah, it was a really powerful story.

I love that one.

Okay, so let me try and help you guys with your own brand stories, which I think will really help you.

Whenever I go into a brand, I'm always thinking to myself, how can we make them differentiated or different?

And 'cause what I find is a lot of brands wanna copy other brands.

That's the first thing they wanna do.

They just wanna look at what their competitor's doing.

They wanna do something similar.

And that, and that's where I feel like you, you just losing yourselves.

And there's a massive opportunity here when you take the foundations, what I'm giving you to actually really believe that you have, and that, and I believe that storytelling, when you do it like this, it, it sets you up as the authority.

It sets you up as the goat of your industry, so to speak.

So the big thing, the, there's three principles, the three, three foundational things that I go into.

Now, there's gonna be a lot of stuff under each one of them.

There's a science and art underneath each one of them.

But I'm gonna give you some of the questioning around it, which can really start to draw out, especially if you've got a team or people that you can workshop this with.

And one of the best ways to get this out, I'll tell you, is it's very difficult to sit on your own.

If you're a consultant and you're literally just asking yourself what's, what's, what is my story?

One of the best ways to get this out is to grab a somebody that's very close to you.

So a friend, family, best client.

Your absolute best client is to sit and get them to tease this out of you.

So the first principle is the generic.

It's very generic, but it, the, I'm gonna give you the reason why it's powerful is the why story.

So the why story, what the, why story.

And Simon sin, you guys probably know much about Simon Sins.

Is it Simon Sins?

It does.

The why, the principles of the why.

Sinek Sinek.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

So he's very big on this and he, he's built a whole empire off the back end of just telling the why.

The one why story.

I think the reason why the why story works so well is 'cause what it tells your audience is that you're in this for a reason.

You are actually in it, not because you are trying to, you're not motivated by self gain.

And it's not, it's, it also ground.

It grounds you.

It actually says there's something.

And, and this is how you get to your why.

It's generally a why comes from a past event.

Okay.

That shaped who you are today.

Now, I was just in breakout session with Kitty.

Is it Kitty?

Said Kitty.

Kitty, yeah, yeah, kitty.

And she just naturally, I said, she just started to tell me about her and instantly I just went straight to my mind.

I was like, she said she helps people get outta debt.

So when she was in her early twenties, she was in heavy debt.

And that is immediately makes her unique immediately.

It immediately separates her from competitors, from all the other debt people.

Because most people will go to product, they'll go to benefits, they'll go to, they'll go to features, they'll go to percentage why, why we are the best, rather than personalizing and making it human and saying, this is what happened to me.

Or this was a past event that shipped who I am today to make this sort of ground real story.

Yeah.

This is the reason why I'm doing it.

It's not like something that just, I woke up one day, I thought, I'm just gonna do it.

It's because a past event happened.

It's my true reason and I'm trying to solve it because I know what it feels like.

You take a mortgage broker, for instance.

So I think I've, given this one is the easiest one to do is as a child growing up.

So I'll just give you the example.

And I do speak fast.

I'm not a trained speaker.

So just tell me to slow down if Scott, tell me to slow down if I'm going too fast.

Yeah, you do.

You're doing fine.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So I'm a, let's just take a mortgage broker.

All right.

One of the world's boring, it's a boring business.

Like, it just, just, it's a, if there's any mortgage brokers here, sorry, but it's gen generally a bo boring.

But how do you make that heartfelt?

How do you make that feel something a storyline could be as a child growing up, mom and dad could never afford their own home.

Mom and dad could never, ever get their own home.

And they dad hated it when the rent man came through and literally threw all our belongings and mom headed it every time we had to change schools and re 'cause we had constantly had to keep moving because we were renting.

And so I dedicated my whole life to help young Australian families own and get their own home.

Now, that to me is such a much more powerful reason of why you'd wanna work with somebody because there's an alt, there's a real reason.

He understands the pain and frustration of not owning your own home.

And he's dedicated his whole life to now wanting to solve that problem.

And I feel like there's a, there's a lot of instant trust.

It's just instant trust, especially if it's coming from you and it's coming from a true place.

And it's really happened because when you're telling the truth, you've, your tone of voice changes.

You're not in sales mode anymore.

You're really speaking from this place.

And when you're speaking from the heart center, you are, you just, we know we're different.

We just completely different.

We did, I think, I know when I'm in performance mode, when I'm talking from, just from my inner being.

So I think that really works.

That's probably the one foundation that I would definitely say is very powerful.

The second to, to get to your why, a question to ask yourself is what happened to you?

What happened to you when you were growing up?

What happened to you when you was in your early twenties when you was a child?

When you something, if you can relate it back to something that, a past event to lock in to your current situation of why it's led you to hear.

And a lot of people would find that really difficult to get.

It's one of the hardest stories to that is the, this is why people like me exist.

It, it is a very difficult story to get to.

'cause you, you instantly go, how do I get to it?

But it's something to do with your past.

That's all I can tell you.

Something that happened to you when you was younger has shaped where you are today at some capacity.

It's, you can link it.

Once you've linked it, you've got your why.

And then it's just a matter of fleshing that out.

And this can, all these strategies that I'm telling you, they don't have to be used in beautiful cinematic videos.

They can be used in social media, they can be used in email copy, they can be used in your presentations.

Just your, I've just helped a guy literally do it for a speaker.

It's a speaker and I, and he just wants to chat with me.

Look at my, look at his structure and his why.

And I, you can use it for anything.

So that's, you don't need to do a cinematic story is what I'm saying.

You don't need to make a movie about your, your, your brand, but it does help.

Second, the second principle is what I call the fight story.

And the fight story is a very powerful story.

This is how you can literally start developing your brand's voice.

This is where you can really start to get leadership authority.

And you can have probably a lot of people copying you and chasing your coattail.

And the fight story is all about the thing that angers you.

The thing that frustrates you, the thing that breaks your heart.

And so the powerful question that Scott was, was, was talking about that I always ask my clients, every single client I ask is, and I position it like this, I said, with all the forces that goes on in your industry.

So write this down with all the forces that goes on in your industry, what's the one thing that breaks your heart the most?

And what you'll find when you start to ask yourself that question, or you get someone else to ask you, that's that question, or you get somebody that, that, that you care about, that you would just be yourself, your authentic self.

You'll start to find that your, your voice will come out, your actual real core voice.

So the thing that you care about, and then all of a sudden your content and just start to pour out of you.

And so the fight story is a very powerful story for taking, I would say leadership, taking authority, taking over an industry, trying to conquer and to try and say that this is the way I do it.

It's really saying, I'm the trendsetter.

This is, this is what I'm, I believe in.

And because it breaks your heart, you get behind it, you get really behind it.

You can fight.

You can go on podcast.

You know exactly what to say, when to say because you believe in it.

It's something that's coming from you.

And so that's a very powerful way to, that is a really foundational story to do.

And I'm gonna show you how you can tie these all together.

The, it's actually a three act play if you'll see it in, in, in a second.

So there's a fight story is very powerful.

The the contribution, which is the third pillar, it's a contribution story, which is, I would say that's your purpose.

And if we look at millenniums right now, they just love wearing t-shirts that are changing the world.

They love to be associating products and services that are doing something to make the planet a better, better, a better place.

And it's, so you ask yourself, what is the contribution, legacy, the thing that you wanna leave behind, the thing that you actually want to change?

It, it makes you look at the storytelling as becoming a change agent, a change being a change maker.

And so that, a lot of people say, a lot of people struggle with their purpose.

They really do.

A lot of people struggle finding their purpose.

Some do like they, and, and they do these artificial purposes.

And it's really just a copycat of someone else.

And what I've always tried to do, and the reason I I think that I'm doing good in this space or what I do is because I'm really making it about the brand.

I make it about the person.

I try and find a human in there and I'll try and make it about them.

Now, entrepreneurs don't really like making it about them because they wanna sell, they wanna sell the brand.

So what you've gotta do is if you are an entrepreneur and you running multiple brands, is you make it about the brand.

What's the why of the brand?

What's the fight of the brand?

And what's the contribution of the brand?

And so if you, for instance, take all three of them pillars, okay, and you wanted to do your bio for instance, or you wanted to create a, a piece of content, or you wanted to do a sales pitch, or you wanted to do a speaking, a presentation, you would say, you know, as a child growing up, mom and dad could never afford their own home.

And you tell that story about how you've dedicated your life to, um, I'm still doing this on the wing right now.

And Ethan dedicated your life to helping change young Australian families.

The thing that breaks my heart the most is that people find it really difficult to get the loan.

And the, the breaking the heart part is the fight of showing people that you can actually do it.

And then the ending of that story would be, here's what I want to leave behind.

This is what I wanna leave behind.

This is the purpose of why I'm doing it.

This is the contribution of victims.

If I can help 100 families get their own home, all of a sudden now you're becoming a freaking tribal leader because you've, especially if you put a number to it, like you say, I've got 100, I wanna get 100 families into their own home, that becomes there.

It almost becomes it, it's so magnetic.

I'm a very, I'm very much, I don't believe in marketing at all.

I just think branding is where it's are.

I think branding is what will magnetically pull people in it.

That is the seduction, that is the magnetic pull.

There's no push, there's no features, there's no benefits.

There's no like hard sale when people see you've being in your authentic self and telling these really powerful, this is the reason, this is what I'm fighting for.

This is what I'm contributing.

We can't help but as humans be really pulled into that and like really want to be a part of it, especially if you do it correctly and you do it really well.

And, and it's, it comes from a really sincere place.

And so that's probably the biggest thing that I could give you guys that I walk into a m g I walk into big corporations.

We work with amazing entrepreneurs, like amazing entrepreneurs, crazy entrepreneurs that are doing beautiful things.

We just recently closed the $4 million campaign.

And we get, I'll just write this down 'cause I think it would really help share your websites.

I've had people work with me doing through pre-production, and then they've had to go on and completely change their whole website, their whole messaging, everything changes when they've done a video with us because they want everything to marry up because it's such a powerful voice or centerpiece, so to speak.

The brand story become the centerpiece that all the toks, all the Instagram, all the awareness.

So if you look at where we sit really well is where brand story would really work well for you is you've got awareness, right?

Which is all your social media and your, your TikTok and your Instagram and your Facebook, and we call that disposable media.

It lasts for 24 hours, obviously still you can go back to it, if it goes viral, it'll just keep going, keep coming and coming.

It can bring the traffic, bring the awareness.

It's like the radio and television, what it used to be like Gary V says.

Then the second component, I believe this is where we sit really well, where any body that focuses on their brand is the consideration phase.

Particularly if you're selling a high ticket product.

If you're selling anything of $2,000, you'd wanna have a really powerful story because you're going into, because there we could be five, five considerations.

There could be five different people that are, they're, they're thinking about working with.

And then it's, the question is, is what separates you.

And if you are hitting, if you are hitting them with features, benefits, logistical stuff, what you're doing is you're activating the, the part of the mind which just leads them to price.

And all they're gonna do is price for, for you.

But if you hit 'em at the heart, it's an emotional decision.

It becomes like they just lean in.

They just, they're just like, there's no one, this is such a unique thing.

This person's gotta fight.

He's got a, a real purpose and a contribution and a solid reason why they're doing what they're doing.

So the consideration fares is super important, which is the conversion, which then leads to conversion.

So you've got your awareness, your conversion, sorry, you've got awareness, then you've got consideration, and then you've got your, your conversion, which is when they do the deal with you or they do the sale with you or they purchase your products or service.

So that's really the baseline of what I want to teach you guys.

I don't know if I'm, how my time's going, but the other thing that I wanted to talk to you about that I think I can help you with is how to be on camera and or like the nerve around camera or like the, there's some trends that I, I not trends.

There's some, there's some magnetic ways that I see with people that they do it all the time because I'm very much into, I'm I these days.

I don't really work cameras.

I do a lot of camera work, but I don't, my focus is psychology.

My focus is human psychology.

Why does one video go nuts?

And like why does one TikTok video go nuts?

And why does one not go nuts?

Why is that boring?

Why is that working?

Why is that felt, why is that not felt?

I'm always asking myself this question.

I'm always trying to figure it out.

And so one of the things that you can do when you're in front of camera is you can you instantly, what happens to the brain?

What I found is when you sitting in front of the camera and you're looking at it and you're thinking, I'm gonna do a I'm gonna do a piece of content now.

And then you're thinking to yourself, everyone's looking at me and then your brand is scratching for which part of you will you show?

Because we all know we're different with the per boys.

We know what we're different, like when we're down with the pub versus when we're with clients, when we're with the family.

Women, you know what you're like when you're with your girls, when you're at home with your families and when you're with your clients, right?

So the brain is going, which version?

And that's what completely foxes up our whole brain goes, we don't know which one to be.

And so that's why we have, we freeze up and we tense.

Now if you look at people that are doing really well online, there's a couple of attributes that they give.

But the first thing that I think is the most powerful is to talk to the camera or to have someone interview you or have someone around you that is either your bestest friend or someone you genuinely love.

Because what it does is it'll put you in that energy of your real self.

When you look back on any piece of your content, of your videos in, in TikTok for in TikTok in, I don't know, like in 10 years from now, you don't wanna be looking at yourself like you were performing.

You wanna be looking like you were being your real self, like your honest self.

And that's one of the fastest ways to get to yourself is to actually just talk to the camera like it's your bestest friend in the world or it's the someone you really care about.

If you're doing fun videos, you wanna just be like, find someone that you love that that brings that out in you.

A big part of like when we are doing on set is that we've got the gear and the technicality side of things, but the one thing that I'm very strict with my team and myself and everyone is protecting the client from not feeling overwhelmed or nervous or trying to go into performance mode.

Because the minute you go into performance mode, you're losing the client.

'cause the client can sense it that we all know when someone's being fake, right?

So that's probably the best advice that I can give you is to be, to be yourself is to imagine or to feel that you're talking to someone that you would at home or someone down the pub or down your friend, whatever you do for fun, be like that because that's the real you, that's the true you.

That's really key.

And a couple of other things that you'll find that where you see people doing really is they bring a certain energy to social media.

So if you are looking at doing content and you wanna start doing your content, there's these four key things that I reckon everyone does.

I don't think there's a per, Gary does it, Conor McGregor does it.

Martin Luther King did it.

Princess Diana did it.

Tupac did it.

I love Tupac.

Every single person that is gone viral famous, everything, they, they bring one of the four, four things, i, I see it every day.

The first one is fun, is genuinely having fun.

So being able to self amuse yourself.

So if you're gonna do fun videos on TikTok or on, on any social media or do a brand story, let's say you're doing a brand story and it's just complete fun and you just want it to be funny and really funny then, so we're doing a kid show on the weekend.

And so we, me and Ethan and the team all have to become kids.

We have to become fun or you have to try because it's, we have to become my children to be able to connect to them because we're not gonna be able to get the best out of 'em if we come them with adult energy.

It's just not gonna work.

It's just, I just know it won't.

So the energy of fun when you're presenting on camera is very magnetic.

The other and attractive.

The other attraction that people really love is carefree when they just don't, no forgiving, zero carefree, like no care whatsoever.

Do not care about the way you look, do not care about your face, do not care about your anything about yourself whatsoever.

It people can sense that and they're very attracted to people that do that.

This third one is real, which is being honest and saying the elephant in the room.

That's very attractive.

It's very rare for people to do that.

And then the last one is passion.

And the fifth one I've already talked about, which is heart being yourself, talking to someone you love.

So that would be the five attributes that if you, you ever see a camera in front of you, if you write them five things down, just when that camera hits you just think, am I being carefree?

Have I got playfulness fun?

Am I being passionate if I'm being asked to speak and am I being real about my subject?

And I think that will really help you.

I truly do.

And I always go to that whenever I'm interviewing or however I'm speaking to my clients or when I'm trying to get, draw the story out of them.

If we're doing a documentary or if we're trying to, even if we're trying to write a script, we're trying to figure out how, even when like I get them to record just a voiceover for the script, my whole thing is tonality.

It's how can I get them to really feel what they're saying so that we can feel it on the other end?

And I think, Scott, I think that's it.

I I don't have much more at this point.

I've got a ton.

There's a ton of things that I can teach people under the why.

There's a lot of things underneath there.

There's a lot of fight underneath the science of the fight.

And there's a lot of, and then there's the color science and the cameras and the movement and then the, the way I put it together and how I find someone's story.

There's a lot there, but there's no way I could get through this in 30 minutes.

No way.

It's just too much.

So, yeah, no, I, I think you nailed it in terms of the, you know, the, the big three big things I took out of it was like, you know, the three, like those three questions of that structure of what happened to you when you were growing up, you know, the fight story.

Yeah.

And then the, the contribution story.

I think that's a, just an awesome structure and and don't forget, even if you're not doing video, this stuff can all be incorporated into your copy, your LinkedIn posts, your your Facebook posts, all of that sort of thing, your emails.

And then yeah, those five things in front of the video, like fun, carefree, real passion and heart.

And we've had a couple of questions come through.

Oh, let's give Michael a hand of a pause.

That was, uh, yeah, just a awesome presentation.

So we've had a few questions come through.

So from Jade, how do you find the right story and the right link that's right for your business?

I think it's easy for a motivational, inspirational speaker, but for a business.

So yeah, I don't know if you want to For an actual business, so for a mechanic or something like that.

Yeah.

Or maybe Jade, you can clarify.

Michael knows me.

So use me as a real example and you've heard a little bit of the story.

Um, so I find it really easy to like, you know, my backstory as Scott knows as well, uh, like easy to translate into a motivational transformational speaker, but using that backstory in relevance for what I do as a business consultant, specifically in team building.

So find like how do you, how do you find that that link the relevance and leverage that I reckon with you, uh, you are systemizing people, right?

You're systemizing and scaling them up.

Uh, yes and no.

The whole thing is about working with the whole human within the team.

So it's like a bait and switch on how we, if we make happiness is the greatest hack to productivity and profitability.

So convincing businesses on why they should make their employees happier to get better results and more productivity and profitability.

But there is obviously systems and processes in there as well.

So it's the recruitment, the retention, leadership and peak performance.

Yeah.

'cause you've got a really unique angle around yours like the business and barrel.

I just think you've got a very unique, I think yours is a lot about connection, happiness, being in business and then scaling up and making money as well.

So, uh, my thing with you would be like, what happened?

What happened?

Did something happened?

And it's about probing you and it's about really every time you say, nah, there's not really much to say.

A lot of clients will say, nah, nothing's happened to me.

I just look, I just, I'm just in a, Oh, we've got a whole f*****g book about what happened to me.

That's not the problem.

It's, but the relevancy between the personal life, what I'm struggling with is there's something happened not being necessarily a work thing to be related to what my purpose is with my work.

Does that make sense?

It makes sense.

When I was doing life coaching, like you can definitely draw on that backstory.

But yeah, I think with any type of leadership role in particular like yours, with you it, you would want to go to the fight story.

See what is the one thing that breaks your heart the most?

What's the thing that's really breaking you?

What's the thing that's really hurting you?

What's the thing that's making you angry?

What's the thing that's making you frustrated?

What are you wanting to change?

Why do you want to help people?

And it's, it's really digging deep to go like without, just take all the money off the table, get rid of all the money, get rid of all, say, let's just say, let's just pretend that you have billions of dollars and you're doing this.

What is, why are you doing it?

And what is breaking you?

What is hurting?

What is the thing that you want to change?

It's really asking them questions.

And look, this, it, it's hard work, this stuff.

I'm telling you, we, like Roy was saying, he worked eight hours on a video.

We work sometimes eight weeks on just the edit.

And then we've done a month prior to that.

So it, it could be a month of probe in digging, understanding, getting to know the client.

I will do anything to get to know them.

You have no idea what I've done.

I've gone to dinners with them.

I've woke up in the morning, I've gone and I've slept at clients' houses to understand what their rhythm is.

I have drove from Sydney to Canberra into, I said, don't catch a flight.

Let's drive from Sydney.

That's how I got to u r n off I joined.

I literally said no.

Um, she was in Sydney and she was gonna say, let's fly to us, let's drive.

'cause I knew I was gonna do most of my chatting about my life.

So what I did to, to get her to be that vulnerable with me as I told her all my problems in my life.

I was going through a breakup, I was going to all sorts.

I just went super vulnerable with her.

And then halfway there, she was like, she felt the trust.

And so I got the trust out of her.

So once I got that, I was like, boom, I can get everything now.

And she's just gonna give it to me.

Because for me it's story, first story first.

So it's, it is, stuff's hard.

That's why it works.

It's powerful.

But like anything that's hard, there's no quick fix.

It's very much about probing you and it's about, and we are having a session so we will get to yours.

But it's, it's, I can't, a lot of my stuff and the reason why I've never presented and the reason why I don't do these things is because I can't give people a step-by-step guide.

A lot of it comes from my own intuition.

And I'm still struggling to this day.

Like I'm still, we are actually just thinking about now going into group coaching, around brand storytelling.

But the reason I have not done it is because I've never been able to give the, it's 'cause it's an energy.

It's really, I don't wanna get too voodoo on you, but it's like an energy of being able to pick up on that individual person.

So the foundational, I, every time I walk into a any business, I don't care who it is.

Why fight, contribute, that's my brain goes like that.

I'm looking for the contribution, the purpose of the brand.

I'm looking for the fight.

And then I'm looking for why do they do what they do so I can ground them.

That's what gives them the human feeling.

It humanizes them immediately and it literally separates them from the competi competitor.

100%.

That, That, that I think is your, is the whole thing.

Which I see it because I was in a situation, I'll just close off on this and then we'll go to breakouts, but I was talking to a client recently and I'm like, I just couldn't work out their u s p I was just like, I was just like scratching my head and no matter what I asked, I i, I just couldn't do it.

And then I asked that question about the, the why, like what happened to you when you were growing up?

And it was just like the floodgates happened.

It was just like, boom.

And then I could just, everything opened up and that this is really, I would say in marketing we talk about unique selling proposition and yes, if you're a mortgage broker, you can be a mortgage broker who only does mortgages for lawyers or whatever, right?

But I think this sort of thing is just so powerful when you actually get to the half.

'cause when we look at anything, movies, whatever, it's the heart that actually moves us to act like when we meet someone new, someone will fly halfway across the world, right?

To, to be with someone that they have maybe never met in extreme circumstances.

When else would you do that?

You only do it because of the heart.

That's what gets the movement.

So let's break up.

What we might do is we'll break up into a five minute breakout room.

I'm gonna make these breakout rooms just two people and just, just a discussion about how we can use what Michael shared the storytelling and all that sort of thing in our actual, in our actual business.

So just a one-on-one, one-on-one discussion.

So I will recreate this and go for 10 rooms.

Sorry, State what we're doing in the room again For me.

Uh, yes.

So, so yeah, a discussion of how we can use this sort of storytelling skill either for, for our own business or for our clients' businesses.

Yeah.

So how we can take away and execute what Michael's just shared so that, how did everyone find just that?

'cause we had a short breakout room.

How did everyone find that?

Just one-on-one.

Was that just drop it in there.

Depends who you're with, Scott.

Depends who you're with.

It's like it could suck or it could be amazing.

Yeah, I thought it sucked because like we got cut off, but it could have gone the other way as well.

It could have been like, Because I, I just figure five minutes.

It's, it's hard for everyone to get a, a word in.

So we go smaller groups and it's a bit more intimate.

So yeah, it's, that's it.

It's a good point, Katie.

So yeah.

Can I share, Can I share a quick ninja tip with you, Scott?

Yeah, yeah, Absolutely.

If you're muted and you press the space bar, it's like a walkie talkie.

Ah, yes.

So you can leave yourself muted all the time.

Alright, so you, and if you want to talk, just press the space bar and it's like a, it's like a walkie talkie and it just bumps you in for a second.

Oh.

So you just hold it holds you down.

Oh, That's good.

Great.

So good.

Yeah, it's great.

I didn't know that I'm gonna do that.

I try now Try Mute, mute yourself and then press the space bar and talk.

Awesome.

Oh wow.

Cody's Hack Cody's hacks.

That way you don't have to, you can, you can leave yourself muted.

And you don't have to worry about what you're saying in the background when you get, you get distracted, right?

It's, oh my goodness, I've just been on the open mic for 20 minutes and That should be a TikTok right there.

Yeah.

Hey, can I, can I just say, Michael, I've seen lots of presentations in this group and there's some amazing people who present and you don't do many, and I haven't been that emotional listening to anyone in the longest of time.

And I, that video you did at the beginning, I, I don't even wear makeup, but I would probably buy that brand just to support her.

'cause I was like, that's such courage and stuff like that.

And there's some things missing in what I've been doing.

I like, I feel like I'm doing really good, but the way you ask the questions is, I love it, man.

So yeah.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

I really appreciate that.

I think, I think too, Michael, like everyone in this group has had success, right?

Like, everyone here has been successful, but it's hit and miss.

Like we do some things and it's super successful.

And then other times it's, we're back to zero again.

And it's, I think what you've done here is put a tangible framework where I can go back and look at what I've done that's been a home run and go, yeah, actually there was a y there was a fight and there was a contribution.

And I can look at the stuff that didn't land and go, yeah, you, you for me, like the takeaway for me is you've just given me a framework to where you don't need to even go into all of this stuff.

It's just shown me like, okay, these are the elements and, and it's given me a complete new framework to look at, like approaching a, a, a, a product or a business or anything at all.

Really.

It is just made the intangible, tangible for me.

So if I had a hat on, I'd take it off, but I'd give you a sleep.

Thank you so much.

I appreciate that.

Thank you.

Really appreciate it.

You're Welcome.

Thank you.

And that, that's a really big thing too, Michael.

'cause what I see with you is even when you've been in marketing folks like Cody has, it's, it, it's just, yeah.

For, and same with me.

It was just like a really, yeah.

Real aha.

Yeah.

So, no, it's, it's great.

Uh, I'll just read out a few comments.

Craig said, I've used the why component and contribution, not really the fight.

So that's really useful.

Thank you.

And then Julie, uh, said, Michael, we can really fill your heart in your business and helping others really peel away the layers to the beautiful authenticity of themselves, their purpose and their legacy story.

So yeah.

So that's, that's awesome.