Sara Sheehan’s guest in this episode is Dr. Danny Brassell, a highly sought-after speaker, trainer, coach, and author. Danny has spoken to over 3500 audiences worldwide and authored 19 books. He talks to Sara about his latest book, “Leadership Begins with Motivation” and the life journey which has brought him to his current position. Danny believes in education and his mission is to infuse joy back into education in the workplace.
Danny shares a summary of his career path going back 30 years where he started as a journalist before becoming a teacher, then a professor. He credits becoming a Christian and beginning a public speaking business on the side to avoid bankruptcy for propelling him to his present success. Danny explains how strategy and storytelling form the backbone of the company, The Well-Crafted Story Workshop, which he co-founded with Coach Jimmy Hays Nelson.
Sara and Danny dive into why a well-told story is the foundation of a great speech, what shaped a client’s journey from complete inexperience to a daily audience of 6000 people, and how to find the heart of the story being told. Danny tells three powerful stories from his book, “Leadership Begins with Motivation” and emphasizes the impact the right tale can have upon an audience. Danny praises the greatness of reading, touching on the reading engagement program he runs, and stresses that adults need to be modelling good reading for children. The episode is engaging and upbeat, driven by the positivity and motivation of Danny Brassell.
About Danny Brassell:
For nearly three decades, Dr. Danny Brassell has served as an educational advisor to students ranging from preschoolers to rocket scientists. While he has held a variety of titles and worked with leaders from a variety of fields and disciplines, Danny has always considered himself first and foremost a teacher.
A recognized authority on leadership development, motivation and communication skills, Danny has been honored consistently for his strategic intellect and practical solutions. Audiences rave about Danny’s ability to deliver meaningful and memorable messages that are applicable for individuals within all levels of organizations. A gregarious, sought-after author, speaker and business consultant, Danny is characterized by friends, colleagues and clients as one of the most insightful, powerful and compassionate individuals in business today. Thousands, from small business owners to corporate executives, have enjoyed his energetic, interactive and informative presentations.
_
Resources mentioned in this episode:
- “A Game of Thrones” by George R. R. Martin
- “Living with a SEAL” by Jesse Itzler
- “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- “The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion” by Beth Brower
—
Contact Sara Sheehan | Sara Sheehan Consulting:
Contact Danny Brassell:
- Website: FreeStoryGuide.com
- Website: DannyBrassell.com
- Book: “Leadership Begins with Motivation” by Dr. Danny Brassell
- YouTube
__
Transcript
Sara Sheehan: [00:00:02] Hi there! I’m Sara Sheehan and welcome to my podcast, Transformational Thinkers with Sara Sheehan. Today I’m joined by Dr. Danny Brassell, who is a highly sought after speaker, trainer, coach and known as Jim Carrey with a PhD. Dr. Brassell has spoken to over 3500 audiences worldwide and authored 19 books including his latest, ‘Leadership Begins With Motivation’. He helps entrepreneurs, executives and business owners boost their income, freedom and impact by leveraging speaking on stages as a major client lead source. Danny is on a mission to bring joy back into education in the workplace. Welcome to the show, Danny.
Danny Brassell: [00:00:53] Thanks so much for having me, Sara. Thanks a lot for spreading some joy in the world, we need a lot more of you.
Sara Sheehan: [00:00:59] Thank you so much. I’m so glad to have you here, and to be able to provide a spotlight on all that you do, it’s so very positive. You are a fascinating person to me. When we first met, you shared your background with me and I counted around seven pivots in your life, which is truly remarkable. So Danny, can you share with me and my listeners your backstory and how it led you to where you are today?
Danny Brassell: [00:01:34] Like I shared with you, if I was going to write my autobiography it would probably be entitled ‘Pivots’ because I feel like I’m a jack of all trades, master of none. Over 30 years ago, I started my career as a journalist. I was covering President Bush Sr. in the 1992 presidential election, and it was a great job. I got to meet editors from all the major dailies, and one editor offered me the city beat for $16,500 a year. Then a friend said they were hiring teachers in South Central Los Angeles for $25,000 a year, so I became a teacher for the noblest of reasons: for the high pay. I absolutely loved working in the inner city, loved my kids and everything. Eventually became a professor. Then in 2005, my wife and I attended a real estate seminar, which turned out to be a scam and we lost everything. I could focus on all the negatives but I’m a positive person and I took a lot of positive lessons from that. First of all, my wife is my soulmate. I put her through the ringer and she stuck right by me because she’s an incredible human being. Second of all, I no longer put all of my faith in money because you can lose that just overnight, no problem. Third, I try not to judge other people because if I was somebody who looked at what I had done I would have said, you deserve that. But now I realize if you don’t know everything about a person, you really don’t know anything about a person. Fourth, I became a Christian, which I’m always embarrassed to admit, but the more I read the Bible, I’m not the first screw-up to find Jesus.
Danny Brassell: [00:03:06] Fifth, and this was most relevant, was that I didn’t want to file for bankruptcy. My accountant said, in order to avoid bankruptcy you’re going to have to make ‘this much more’ money this year. So I started speaking on the side, and I hit that number right on the number. The next year, he gave me a much higher number and I hit that number right on the number. In year three I thought, 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 was highly profitable for many years. Then in 2020, a thing called Covid occurred. People asked me, how is your speaking business? I’m like, it’s great I just lost 200 speaking engagements overnight because they’ve shut down the world. So I had to make another pivot, and I started coaching people, which I had always resisted. People had been asking me for years to coach them in their speaking, and I resisted because I’ve always been a teacher with very high standards. I really want you to succeed, and I’m going to actually hold you accountable and be on your back until you do succeed. I found that working with entrepreneurs and executives has been just a godsend, because these are highly motivated people that do the work. I find it very gratifying, so to encourage all of your listeners, you can make lots of mistakes and God closes one door and opens up another.
Sara Sheehan: [00:04:24] That’s a truly wonderful and touching story. Often it doesn’t fall short on me when I hear a story about new beginnings and how we’re all provided new opportunities, we just need to take them. Super story. You help your clients by using storytelling for business success, leadership and audience engagement, and you’re empowering them to connect deeply and drive results, ideally through speaking on a stage and generating participants to want to engage in a deeper relationship with that speaker. Being a lead source, that’s a really tremendous way of approaching speaking. I’d love to hear examples of a few clients who have worked with you, and how storytelling impacted them and their business results.
Danny Brassell: [00:05:36] I’m very blessed. The company we have is called The WellCrafted Story Workshop, and my co-founder’s name is Coach Jimmy Hays Nelson. I always kid that we’re the professor and the poet, because my background is in academia and his background is from Broadway. Together we’re able to provide our clients with lots of stagecraft and research based strategies that get their audience to take the next step with them. Sometimes that might be an unpaid offer, like ‘subscribe to my podcast’ or ‘book a free phone call’. Sometimes it might be a paid offer like ‘buy my product’ or ‘invest in my coaching’. We only evaluate our effectiveness in one way and one way only and that’s, will people take the next step with you? We’ve been blessed to work with all kinds of wonderful people. You’re looking for some case studies, so I’ll give you three. A gentleman we worked with about two years ago, his name was Gustavo. Gustavo should be President of the United States, he’s my favorite case study of all time. Gustavo came to America 30 years ago from Ecuador. Didn’t speak a word of English, did every menial job on the planet, invested every dime in real estate. 30 years later, he’s worth about $40 million, highly successful. His coaching program offer, he has a four month coaching program in real estate for $40,000. Well, that’s a very high ticket offer.
Sara Sheehan: [00:07:04] That’s a high ticket item.
Danny Brassell: [00:07:06] It sure is. I do a lot of offers, that’s one of the highest ticket offers I’ve ever had to construct with a guy. I always tell clients there’s two ways you get better at speaking. First of all, you need to watch lots of speakers. I watch at least ten speakers a day. I watch televangelists, I watch politicians, I watch comedians, I watch them in front of big groups, in front of small groups, in front of men, in front of women. I’ll give your audience a ninja strategy. I watch a lot of award shows because when a person wins the Academy Award, they only have 45 seconds to connect with their audience. I want to see how they use that time. Most people waste their time, they get up there and they’re like, I want to thank God, I want to thank the Academy. They’re stupid, nobody’s paying attention to them. But every now and then, a person does an amazing job. A few years ago, there was a gentleman by the name of Joe Walker who won the Academy Award for Best Film Editing. This is Hollywood, the important people are in the room, the actors, and you can see the camera scanning and none of them are paying attention.
Danny Brassell: [00:08:01] Joe Walker gets on stage. He’s British, and he speaks very slowly and distinctly. 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. Now the camera is scanning the audience, you see people leaning in like, what’s he talking about? He goes on like, 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 in the audience laughing hysterically. He gets off the stage, Denzel Washington wants to meet him, Sandra Bullock wants to meet him, Brad Pitt wants to meet him. Time Magazine said it was one of the highlights of the Academy Awards. That’s the power of connecting with an audience quickly. The first way you get better at speaking is by watching lots of speakers. The second way, one of my mentors was a gentleman by the name of Jim Rohn. Jim used to say, you can’t pay other people to do your push ups. Translation: you got to do the reps.
Sara Sheehan: [00:09:02] You got to do the work.
Danny Brassell: [00:09:02] I told Gustavo what I tell everybody. I’m like, even the smallest towns in America have a Lions Club, an Optimist club, a Rotary club, a Kiwanis club. There’s schools, there’s churches, synagogues, chambers of commerce. Gustavo revealed to me that he was going on a podcast that evening. I’m like, here’s my phone number Gustavo, you got to call me tomorrow, tell me how it went. He calls me up the next day, he’s all excited. He’s like, oh my gosh Danny, you’re a genius. I’m like, did you go on the podcast? He’s like, yes. Did you make your offer? He’s like, yes. I’m like, did you sell any? He’s like 23. Reading is my specialty, not math, but if I’m doing my math correctly, he made $920,000 that night on an offer we had crafted that afternoon. Since then, he and I are in touch about once every quarter, he’s made over eight figures off of that speech. I always have to say, your results may vary, but the reason I share that story is that I love that Gustavo did the work. Most people, they just talk and don’t do anything. It’s like you with your podcast. How many of your friends have said that they want to start a podcast, but all they’re doing is yapping. You actually started a podcast. Most people don’t do anything. The reason I love it is the first time you do a podcast, you stink. The second time you stink, but you stink a little bit less than the first time. By the time you’ve done 20, you’re an old pro, no big deal. I’ll give a better, a more practical, example. Jason was a 22 year old we worked with about three years ago. Jason was being difficult. I told him exactly what I tell Gustavo. Two ways to get better at speaking, and you got to get out there and do the work. Jason was a Debbie Downer. I don’t know anybody, nobody will hire me to speak, wah wah wah. I couldn’t stand it. I said, all right Jason, do you have a Facebook account? He’s like, yeah. I’m like, okay, we’re going on right now, you’re going on Facebook Live, let’s go.
Sara Sheehan: [00:11:02] Awesome. That’s a great thing to do.
Danny Brassell: [00:11:05] Put him on Facebook Live, one woman from Ontario, Canada accidentally watched him and he stunk. The next day I had him go on again and three people watched him and he stunk, but he didn’t stink as bad as the first day. Here’s why I’m giving Jason as an example. He’s gone on Facebook Live every single day, consistently, for the last three years. He now has 6000 people in his community, and last year he made almost seven figures delivering the same speech again and again, every single day. Again, I use Jason as an example because he did the work. I’m just so proud of him. I don’t think I could be that consistent, it’s amazing.
Sara Sheehan: [00:11:43] That is awesome. That is an awesome example of putting hard work to use.
Danny Brassell: [00:11:50] That’s right, most people don’t do the work. Third example I’ll give you, for some reason we’ve been working with a lot of financial planners lately. About three months ago we worked with a gentleman named Richard who’s a financial planner, and he started off his presentation. He said, this is my name, I’ve been in the industry for 30 years, I’ve made over $1 billion for my clients, I’ve worked with this famous person and this famous person. I said, Richard, stop. What are the three most important aspects to consider when purchasing real estate? Location, location, location. You can brag, but you’re doing it in the wrong part of your speech. This is a strategy for everybody in the audience to listen to: stop talking about your successes, start talking about your failures. Because not everybody in your audience has succeeded, but they’ve all failed. The more you share your own failures, the more you’re going to be able to connect with your audience. They’re going to feel like, this person is just like me. Now the way Richard starts his presentation is he talks about the very first client he ever booked. It’s a comedy of errors, he made one mistake after another. I can’t believe the person invested their money with him. This was what Richard told us, he said he couldn’t believe it. Twice a week he has a free steak house dinner for about 15 married couples, and he’s trying to pitch them his financial services so they’ll invest their retirement savings with him.
Sara Sheehan: [00:13:12] That’s a big investment on his part.
Danny Brassell: [00:13:14] He said that he noticed when he has 15 couples, the guy usually has his arms crossed like, what are you trying to sell me? Now that he’s changed his story, that same guy he says is patting his knee laughing so hard. He said that he went from, out of the 15 couples, usually about six of them would book a phone call to talk about investing their money with him. Now he’s getting 12 to 13 of those 15 people actually booking the call. Again, all he’s doing is connecting through story. So that’s the power of story. This is something everybody listening can do right now, here’s an exercise. Later on, sit in a comfortable chair with a pen and paper, a libation of choice beside you, and for an hour I want you to write down every story that’s ever happened in your life. I don’t mean the whole story, I just mean triggers. Like, the time I locked myself out of the car in front of Costco. The time dad spilled mustard on his tie at that fancy restaurant. You’ll find in an hour, you can come up with about 500 of these triggers. That’s the first part of the exercise. The second part of the exercise is then I want you to look at all those stories and figure out, what’s this story really about? This is a story about perseverance, this is a story about loyalty, this is a story about love. If you were to look at my computer, I literally have hundreds of folders with thousands, if not tens of thousands, of these stories. So whenever I’m giving a speech and I need to make a point, I have different stories to draw from. Because a lot of people tell stories, but they don’t make any sense. There has to be a purpose behind this story. I’ll give you an example.
Danny Brassell: [00:14:53] Here’s how you can do this. When I was an elementary school teacher, every other teacher at my school went through hundreds, if not thousands, of Band-Aids every single school year. Kids, they want Band-Aids. They work better than smokes in the prison yard. Every single school year, I went through exactly one Band-Aid. My colleagues always asked me, what’s your secret, Danny? On the first day of school, I always have some chubby little boy. We’ll call him Paco. He’s picking at a scab all morning long, and finally after lunch, he has success. The annoying little girl next to him raises her hand, rubs her nose and says, Mr. Purcell, Paco’s bleeding. I’m like, oh my goodness Paco, you know what you need? You need a Band-Aid. Now I have 33 little heads looking at me. I’m like, I’ve got a drawer full of Band-Aids in my desk, and I don’t just have ordinary Band-Aids, I have Mighty Morphin Power Ranger Band-Aids. I’m going to give you the Green Ranger because he’s the coolest. Now Paco’s grinning ear to ear, all the kids are smiling, I take Paco to my desk. I say, before I put on the Band-Aid, we got to clean out the wound. Then I show the kids the rubbing alcohol. I say, Paco, hold on to my hand this might sting a little bit. I start pouring the rubbing alcohol on his wound, he starts screaming bloody murder, I put on the Band-Aid. I’m like, all right, does anybody else need a Band-Aid? My students can have a skull fracture, and they will never ask me for a Band-Aid.
Sara Sheehan: [00:16:22] That is funny.
Danny Brassell: [00:16:24] Ladies and gentlemen, I’m not going to provide you with any band-aids today. What I’m going to do is I’m going to provide you with practical strategies on how to create a well crafted story that gets your audience to take the next step. That’s how I use the story. That’s an illustration of how to use a story in an effective way, and I like it when it’s funny.
Sara Sheehan: [00:16:43] That is a very beautiful illustration of that. And it’s quite funny and humor does work.
Danny Brassell: [00:16:50] I’m a little bit different than a lot of so-called speaking coaches because I just don’t like sad stories. There’s three reasons why I don’t like that. First of all, what you have to understand is what Jimmy and I are teaching our clients to do is to create a well crafted story. This is a story you’re going to tell again and again to introduce yourself to new audiences. Politicians would call this a stump speech. This is the same speech they give 20 times a day. Superhero movies, they call it the origin story. In his book ‘Start with Why’, Simon Sinek would call this your visionary statement. In his book ‘Drive’, Daniel Pink would probably call this your purpose driven speech. You can call it peanut butter and jelly. What this is, is how do we introduce ourselves to new audiences? I don’t like sad stories for three reasons. First of all, the world just survived a global pandemic. Everybody’s had a lot of bad stuff happen to them, we don’t need to hear another sad story. I think people need to hear stories of hope.
Sara Sheehan: [00:17:49] Something uplifting, for sure.
Danny Brassell: [00:17:51] Exactly. Second of all, this is a story you’re going to tell again and again. Do you really want to tell that story about the worst moment of your life over a thousand times? I have no idea how people do that. Third, and this is where people get 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 laugh and smile and be happy. I think there’s something admirable about that as my objective. I believe the people that tell that same sad story again and again, by the 20th time they’re telling it, now those are crocodile tears, and now they’re being manipulative. I’m not saying it’s not an effective sales strategy, it’s actually a very effective sales strategy. But I, for one, don’t want to have to take a shower every time I get off stage because I just manipulated my audience. There’s better ways that have a much higher degree of integrity to get your audience to take the next step with you. So that’s why I love humor. Life’s too short to be sad, I want to laugh.
Sara Sheehan: [00:18:47] I love the focus on the ethical responsibility behind what you’re doing on stage, and I’m completely aligned with that.
Danny Brassell: [00:18:59] Awesome, thank you.
Sara Sheehan: [00:19:00] Yes, absolutely. In your most recent book, ‘Leadership Begins with Motivation, you seek to empower readers to become a potent and positive influence in the lives of those around them. You use a style that is reminiscent of the late, great Paul Harvey, and in the book you spell out 33 unique ways that successful leaders think and act as examples. I was wondering if you could share your three favorite stories from the book. The book is filled with lots of memorable stories of CEOs, world class athletes and celebrities. So Danny, what are your three favorite stories from this wonderful book?
Danny Brassell: [00:19:56] I’m going to bring you on the road with me, you’re a wonderful promoter for me, Sara. I appreciate that. I’ve taught all age levels from preschoolers all the way up to rocket scientists. I can make that claim because I used to teach English as a second language to engineering students at the University of Southern California. When I taught middle school, I was the only teacher at my school that none of my students were ever tardy. The reason was because I always started off by reading a Paul Harvey story. You’re younger than me, I don’t know if you remember Paul Harvey, but when I was a kid Paul Harvey would come on the radio every day at 12:15 and say, I’m Paul Harvey! My kids absolutely love the stories. They’re trying to figure out for five minutes, who’s he talking about, or what’s the company or whatever. But the problem with Paul Harvey is a lot of his stories are about Sears and Roebuck. A kid today doesn’t even know what Sears Roebuck is. So when I wrote ‘Leadership Begins with Motivation’, this was a book dedicated to Paul Harvey, but it was updated with stories of people like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk and people like that. It was interesting, after I wrote the book I read it, and completely unintentionally, so many of my examples are of white male Americans. The most recent book I wrote that just came out, it’s called ‘Misfits and Crackpots’. These stories are primarily of women, minorities and international people. It’s a lot of fun. I’ll read a couple of stories from ‘Leadership Begins with Motivation’, the stories are a little bit longer in ‘Misfits and Crackpots’, so I’ll just summarize one of them. But here’s two of my favorites in ‘Leadership Begins with Motivation’. With the 33 chapters, I always use the suffix ‘-ation’ because ‘-ation’ means to take action. Chapter three is on realization. On the morning of January 17th, 1977, Gary Gilmore, in a plain t-shirt strapped into a chair with a bag over his head, awaited a firing squad of five law enforcement officers to execute him at the state prison in Draper, Utah.
Danny Brassell: [00:21:56] Convicted of murdering a gas station employee and motel manager in Utah the year before, Gilmore would be the first person in the United States to be executed in nearly a decade. Shortly before his execution, prison officials asked Gilmore if he had any last words. Neither he nor anyone else that day would know the impact of those words. Over ten years later, in 1988, Dan Wieden, an advertising executive who co-founded the Wieden and Kennedy Agency in Portland, Oregon, made something of a morbid pitch to a struggling fashion company. He recalled the inmate’s final words and used a slight variation for his pitch, and seemingly everyone hated his idea for the company’s new slogan. Trust me on this one, Wieden implored the company’s co-founder, and the co-founder, his company and the public have not looked back since. The co-founder’s name was Phil Knight. The struggling brand he co-founded was a shoe company called Nike, and advertising executive Dan Wieden slightly altered death row inmate Gary Gilmore’s final words ‘let’s do it’ into the phrase ‘just do it’. So there’s one for you.
Sara Sheehan: [00:23:04] That’s beautiful.
Danny Brassell: [00:23:05] This one always gets me teary eyed, so I’ll tell you the teary eyed story. It’s a little bit longer. This is the chapter ‘Consideration’. I say a prayer before I go on stages to speak. Basically, I ask God to use me as an instrument to inspire others. There’s a neat line in the Bible in Ephesians 5:1 where the apostle Paul writes, be imitators of God as beloved children, and live in love as Christ loved us. Loving one another without judgment is something all of us could do a little more, but I often wondered what it means to live in love. Then I heard the story of Tony Campolo. Tony had a hard time sleeping one night, so he got up at 3:30 in the morning and went searching for an all night coffee shop. He found one and ordered a donut and a cup of coffee. When two prostitutes came in, they were loud and crude and quite disagreeable company. Tony was ready to leave when he overheard one of the women say that the next day was her birthday. Her friend sneered, so what do you want from me, a birthday party? To which the other woman replied, why should you give me a birthday party? I’ve never had a birthday party in my whole life.
Danny Brassell: [00:24:14] Now, when Tony heard that, something clicked inside. He went over to the waiter and asked if the women came in every night. The waiter said they did. Then Tony asked if he could hold a birthday party for the one woman, Agnes. The waiter thought it was a wonderful idea and agreed. Tony was back at the diner the next night at 2:30 in the morning to decorate. He brought some crepe paper decorations and made a big birthday sign out of pieces of cardboard. He covered that diner from one end to the other. Somehow, word of the party must have gotten out, because pretty soon the diner began to fill up with friends of Agnes. At 3:30, Agnes and the other woman entered the diner. Everyone shouted Happy Birthday Agnes, and began singing ‘Happy Birthday’. Agnes was stunned, her mouth fell wide open. By the time the waiter brought in the cake, she was crying. A little later, Tony led the group in prayer. I just love that story, it’s just a beautiful story.
Sara Sheehan: [00:25:11] That is so touching. It’s very touching.
Danny Brassell: [00:25:12] Every now and then you realize that there are angels among us. I like stories that are inspiring. Now, in the ‘Misfits and Crackpots’, I won’t read you the entire story, but here’s one of my favorite stories. It’s New York City, there’s these two women choreographers. One’s named Martha, the other one’s named Agnes. Agnes has just opened up her third play on Broadway and audiences seem to like it, but the critics are panning it. Agnes looks at Martha and she’s like, I give up, I think I’m just going to close it down. Martha looks at her friend and says, you can’t do that Agnes, it’s not for the critics to criticize your work, it’s not even for you to criticize your work. You have to understand something. There’s never been another you, there’s never going to be another you. But if you close down this play, you are denying the world your gift. Martha was Martha Graham, who was considered the mother of modern dance. She won the Kennedy Center Honors and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. And Agnes, her friend, won the same awards, it was Agnes DeMille. She was the first woman to have three concurrent hits on Broadway, and she decided she was going to keep the show open, but she just changed the name to Oklahoma!
Sara Sheehan: [00:26:25] It’s a great story.
Danny Brassell: [00:26:26] Those are the types of stories I just love. Some people collect trading cards, I collect stories.
Sara Sheehan: [00:26:35] The beautiful part is that you know how to use them and you know how to elicit emotion in the people that you’re speaking to. It’s a very beautiful thing, such a gift. If you had the magical opportunity to go back in time, what advice would you give your younger self based on what you’ve learned?
Danny Brassell: [00:27:01] Probably, don’t look back and know that God’s always on your side. I didn’t know that for a long time, but I’m pretty amazed at how God’s always been there for me, even when I wasn’t paying attention.
Sara Sheehan: [00:27:12] It’s pretty remarkable how He can shine a light and direct your steps, isn’t it?
Danny Brassell: [00:27:19] I completely agree.
Sara Sheehan: [00:27:21] Definitely. Danny, what are you learning now?
Danny Brassell: [00:27:26] Oh gosh, if you’re not learning, you’re dying. I’m always reading about 20 different books at the same time. I have three children and a wife so I do, what are called, book dates with all of them. I have different books with each of them. My oldest daughter Kate likes Game of Thrones so we’re reading the series A Song of Fire and Ice by George R.R. Martin. I’m not thrilled with some of the language and situations, but it gives us time together and she likes it. That’s the rule, whatever she wants. My son and I, we’re reading a book by Jesse Itzler called ‘Living with a SEAL’. He’s married to Sara Blakely, the founder of Spanx. He founded the NetJets or whatever. He basically has a Navy SEAL living with him who they revealed it’s David Goggins. David Goggins’ ‘Can’t Hurt Me’. It’s just a hilarious book about the Navy SEAL making him do these workouts that are insane. My youngest daughter, for some reason, likes literature. I just had to read ‘The Great Gatsby’ with her. I hate that book, I hate the story. But as I read it aloud I’m like, it’s Scott Fitzgerald, he knows how to write a sentence. Very beautifully written. Then my wife and I, we’re reading this series, I can’t believe Hollywood hasn’t purchased the rights. Reese Witherspoon should purchase the rights. It’s called ‘The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion’ by Beth Brower. These are the nicest books I’ve read, and there’s like 7 or 8 of them. It’s about this woman in Elizabethan England. Her three best friends are a pastor, an American photographer, and a duke. I love it. It reminds me of when I took my daughters to see ‘Hidden Figures’ a couple of years ago, which everybody should see.
Sara Sheehan: [00:29:22] That’s a great movie.
Danny Brassell: [00:29:23] It’s a beautiful movie. They don’t use the f-word, nobody’s raped, it’s an inspirational movie. This is how I know I’m sounding like an old guy because I’m like, you don’t have to have all these negative things to make a nice movie. It’s a nice movie, any family can watch it and be inspired. I just wish that we saw more things like that. I was watching a horrible show on TV last week called the news, and it totally depressed me. That’s why I don’t watch the news. I just surround myself with positive stories because life’s too short. I don’t care what anybody tells you, I’ve been all around the country and people are great. They might have completely different points of view, but deep down, people are really good, most of them.
Sara Sheehan: [00:30:07] That list that you just shared, of all the books that you’re reading with your family, that is a pretty remarkable list in that it’s tremendously diverse in the content that you’re reading and taking in. That’s tremendous.
Danny Brassell: [00:30:23] That’s my thing, is trying to get them all interested. When the kids were little, I made a rule, because I have a feeling television is here to stay. I don’t think we should fear technology, I think we should embrace technology. So I made a rule, the kids can turn on the TV, but the price of admission is they have to bring me something to read. When the kids were little, they’d bring me picture books and we’d read a picture book, and then they could turn on the TV. Now they’re all older, so they’ll bring me their iPad and we’ll read a news story together or something like that. There are little strategies. One of my businesses is a reading engagement program that shows parents how to get their kids to love reading. It’s not rocket science. The most important thing is kids ain’t stupid. They don’t see us reading, they’re never going to be reading. So as adults, we need to be reading in front of kids.
Sara Sheehan: [00:31:13] That is a wonderful thing to be doing. Not only for yourself, so that you are always learning and expanding the aperture of the view that you have in your life, but also that you’re influencing those that you love to do the same.
Danny Brassell: [00:31:30] Thank you.
Sara Sheehan: [00:31:31] Very tremendous. Are there any big goals or aspirations that you’re currently working on?
Danny Brassell: [00:31:38] A couple. With my speaking business with Coach Jimmy, we want to influence as many business people as possible and show them how to create better presentations that have a higher closing rate. Another project I have is with my reading engagement program. My goal is to have at least 3 billion people on the planet using that program. I repriced it to a dollar and I want every kid doing it. And 60 years from now, when I’m already dead, I want some woman telling her child that the reason that she loves reading and won the Nobel Peace Prize and cured cancer was because they enrolled in my reading engagement program.
Sara Sheehan: [00:32:22] There you go. Are you doing all kinds of social media on your reading program?
Danny Brassell: [00:32:27] I have a team working on that. Social media has never been my thing. To me, it’s a waste of time. But obviously it’s not a waste of time, it’s just something I don’t understand. Probably one of the best lessons I’ve learned as an entrepreneur is I just don’t know everything. When I first started out, you should have met my personal assistant. His name was Danny, he was amazing. And you should have met my director of marketing. His name was Danny, he was amazing. You should have met my website designer. His name was Danny. I tried to do it all on my own. Now my goal is to always be the stupidest person in the room and let other people tackle all of those challenges. My job is the big stuff, the 30,000 foot view. This is my vision, here’s how I’m going to get you all working together and make that vision come to fruition.
Sara Sheehan: [00:33:20] That means that you’re focused on your genius work, which is a really good thing. A very good thing. Is there anything else that’s on your mind today that you want to share?
Danny Brassell: [00:33:35] As a thank you for listening to me and all my stories, I wanted to give you and your audience some freebies. If you go to freestoryguide.com, I’m going to provide everybody their own complimentary storytelling blueprint. What this is, is the exact process that Coach Jimmy and I take our clients through in creating a well crafted story. What this does is it takes the guesswork for you out of creating a speech, and shows you exactly why you’re putting in the different elements of your speech that you are. What this means for you is you no longer have to worry about getting those clients because you have a proven formula that will show you how to get those clients to sign up for you. You get that at freestoryguide.com. Again, I just wanted to thank you so much for having me on today, Sara. I just love your positive energy and all that you’re doing, and help me support you in any way I can in the future.
Sara Sheehan: [00:34:27] Fantastic, Danny. I am so glad that we had the opportunity to meet and to explore all that you’re working on, because I believe you will impact 3 billion people with your reading engagement program, and I believe that you will transform countless lives of business owners that choose to lean in to storytelling and creating a story brand and drive tremendous results as a result of it. What does being a transformational thinker mean to you, Danny?
Danny Brassell: [00:35:06] A transformational thinker is what a good student does. To keep your mind open and look for new opportunities every single day.
Sara Sheehan: [00:35:14] Fantastic, how would our listeners find you?
Danny Brassell: [00:35:18] If you go to freestoryguide.com, I’m sure that puts you on some list that you’ll get an email from me once a week for the rest of your life. I’m sure it does that. My name is really easy spell, Danny Brassell. My last name is spelled ‘bras sell’. No, I never took any grief over that as a child. I’m sure my team has me plastered on YouTube and all those types of things, but I just adore having time with real human beings. Like you, Sara, just having this time to be able to share and to inspire as much as I can.
Sara Sheehan: [00:35:53] Wonderful. Thank you so much for your time today.
Danny Brassell: [00:35:55] Thank you. God bless, Sara.
Sara Sheehan: [00:35:57] Thank you so much for listening to today’s episode. The key takeaways from my conversation include: Embrace life’s pivots. Danny’s journey from journalism to education and public speaking is a testament to the power of resilience and embracing new opportunities. He reminds us that when one door closes, another opens. Storytelling sells. Successful storytelling in business and public speaking isn’t just about relaying facts, but about connecting deeply with your audience. Danny emphasizes the importance of crafting well-told stories to foster engagement and drive results. And finally, focus on positivity. Danny prefers uplifting stories over sad, melancholy experiences when speaking on stage. This approach not only leaves audiences feeling better, but also supports ethical engagement free from manipulative tactics. Danny’s insights are a reminder that authentic connections and positive storytelling can propel your professional journey. Thanks so much for listening today, and as always, subscribe and never miss an episode.
