Latest / Leading Leaders Podcast with J Loren Norris / 4/14/2026 LEADERSHIP VULNERABILITY VS PITY PARTY PRODUCTION
Transcript
- 0:00Subscribe now for our extensive video library of leadership
- 0:03lessons promoting faith, family, and freedom.
- 0:07Leadership demands vulnerability, transparency,
- 0:10authenticity. And sometimes people will make
- 0:14up authenticity to appear vulnerable so that their
- 0:17transparency wins them brownie points.
- 0:20That is not what I'm talking about.
- 0:22I'm not talking about making up stories to get pity, to get
- 0:26people to feel sorry for you, to win them over.
- 0:29That's not what I'm talking about with Story Power, and
- 0:32that's what I want to talk about in this episode of Leading
- 0:35Leaders. So if you've been lying about
- 0:37your story to get empathy or pity, stay tuned and stop it.
- 0:42Subscribe now for access to our extensive media library of
- 0:46leadership lessons promoting faith, family, and freedom.
- 0:50Begin your personal growth plan at storypoweracademy.com for
- 0:54leadership development and communication skills training.
- 0:57There is a retreat coming up that I want you to know about.
- 1:00It's called the Story Power Academy Retreat.
- 1:02This Story Power Retreat is about focusing on your
- 1:05communication skills, taking them in the next level.
- 1:07Discover, develop, draft, deploy, and deliver some of the
- 1:11best stories you've ever learned.
- 1:13You're going to listen, create, connect, relax, and reflect
- 1:16around this beautiful lake scene in Granbury, TX.
- 1:19It's a chance to rejuvenate and refresh and start over with some
- 1:22of the best training you can possibly imagine around
- 1:24storytelling, leadership, and communication.
- 1:27Join us, get away and relax. I'm Jay Lauren Norris with
- 1:32Leading Leaders Podcast. I've been telling people for
- 1:36years that as a leader, you've got to be vulnerable.
- 1:39You got to be transparent, you've got to be authentic, you
- 1:42got to be honest, you got to have integrity.
- 1:45All of these things build together to create the authority
- 1:48that you're looking for as a leader to bring about
- 1:50transformation in people's lives.
- 1:53I don't care if you're a leader as in currently in the position
- 1:56of management, you're unifying people.
- 1:58You're building them together. You're helping them erform as a
- 2:01team to accomplish a goal, a function.
- 2:05I, I don't care if you're in leadership in that way or if
- 2:07you're in leadership as ACEO or COO and you're gathering around
- 2:11your stakeholders and your shareholders.
- 2:13You're getting people to invest. You spend most of your time
- 2:16gaining the buy in to get people to participate in what you're
- 2:19doing. I see the the challenge with
- 2:21both sides of that from a storytelling standpoint is the
- 2:26first step in story power. You've got to select the right
- 2:29story to tell. Now I know there are people who
- 2:34believe that because I've had a traumatic past, then I have a
- 2:38story to tell. And because I have a traumatic
- 2:40past with a story to tell, I can also stack that story, the
- 2:44emotion, the drama of that story into everything that I do.
- 2:47And I'll gain the pity, the attention, the do well kind of
- 2:54sympathetic mentality of the audience.
- 3:01You with me. I want you to think about this.
- 3:04I'm about to give you what thousands of people have paid
- 3:07thousands of dollars to get. I'm going to give it to you in
- 3:10this podcast if you're paying attention now, I want you to
- 3:13understand who I'm talking to because I'm talking to you.
- 3:16If you're a leader who runs a business, if you're ACEO or an
- 3:20investor and you're looking to build deeper relationship with
- 3:23the people who have the money. If you're a manager of a small
- 3:26team or if you're an entrepreneur who's in the
- 3:29information space and your job is leading, coaching, training
- 3:34other people, and you want to write a book to speak on stage
- 3:37to do that. Because this is a universal
- 3:39principle that a lot of people really mess up.
- 3:44I see people do it a lot of different ways because they're
- 3:46poking at the concept, but they haven't really got a grasp of
- 3:49the concept. So in this episode of Leading
- 3:52Leaders Podcast, I'm going to give you a story power Academy
- 3:56concept called the drill bit. This is the drill bit.
- 4:00Your story is a drill bit. If you are not part of the six
- 4:04weeks to story power, I hope after just watching this episode
- 4:08you're going to go, Oh my gosh, I need to get it on to this
- 4:10because this is 1 fragment of what we're going to teach in the
- 4:13six weeks. If you are in the six weeks, go
- 4:17back and watch this episode again because it's going to take
- 4:20you a little deeper into even what we're going to have a
- 4:22chance to talk about in the six weeks.
- 4:25This is 1 fragment of the whole program.
- 4:28Your story is a drill bit. Write that down.
- 4:31Your story is a drill bit. Here's what I mean by that.
- 4:35Let me first tell you what I don't mean by that.
- 4:37Now, maybe you have climbed Mount Everest, maybe you've been
- 4:40bitten in half by a shark. Maybe you've been through years
- 4:43and years in in a POW camp, or maybe you were abducted and
- 4:48mistreated or trafficked or something of that nature,
- 4:50something that people look at go, Oh my gosh, how did you
- 4:53survive? And so your story that the pain
- 4:56that you went through, whether it was just a bad divorce or it
- 5:00was the custody of your children, or it was a bankruptcy
- 5:02or it was mistreated by the by your neighbors or your
- 5:06government or whatever else, whatever tragic, traumatic,
- 5:10disastrous thing happened in your life, there's a story
- 5:15there. But the truth be told, there's
- 5:18probably more than one story. Here's the key.
- 5:22No one, including you, benefits from your trauma.
- 5:31I know that's hard to hear. Therapist everywhere are falling
- 5:35out of their chair. People who've been in therapy
- 5:37for years are falling out of their chair.
- 5:39No one benefits from your trauma.
- 5:41Maybe the idiot who did it to you, they'll get theirs.
- 5:46Trust me. There there is a judge who will
- 5:49eventually make sure that those who traumatized you pay the
- 5:52price. They may not get justice that
- 5:54you can see, but justice is coming.
- 5:58That's an eternal promise. We'll deal with that later.
- 6:01Here's what I want you to know though.
- 6:03There is no audience member. There is no person you lead.
- 6:07There was. There is no investor.
- 6:10There is no one whose life you will speak into for the purpose
- 6:14of bringing them up to the next level.
- 6:16Who benefits from the trauma you suffered?
- 6:23Let that sink in for a minute, and then let me tell you where
- 6:26the power really is. Put that on hold.
- 6:30Put it in in a parenthetical bracket because we're coming
- 6:33back to it. No one benefits from the trauma
- 6:36you suffered. Set that reality aside for a
- 6:40moment. Here's what I want you to think
- 6:41about. We moved into a house about 3
- 6:43years ago. New house when we moved in, they
- 6:47had done beautiful tile work in the bathroom.
- 6:49It was one of those walk in showers with a little, you know,
- 6:523 inch curb at the bottom so you don't trip over trying to get in
- 6:54and out big enough for my wife and I, because we like to do
- 6:58that to shower together. We have a great time in the,
- 7:01that environment. And so walking into the
- 7:05bathroom, there's this beautiful tile shower and tile floor and,
- 7:08and everything is, is gorgeous. The one thing that I was
- 7:11concerned about, though, was that that tile shower had no
- 7:14door. No door, no wall, not even a
- 7:17place to hang a shower curtain. So good thing it's just me and
- 7:21my wife in there 'cause there's no modesty whatsoever.
- 7:24It's just, hey, there's a shower.
- 7:26But beyond that, I was terrified that I was going to step out of
- 7:29that shower one day. From the wet tile in the shower
- 7:32to the wet tile on the floor and slip and crack my head and I
- 7:36will be laying there, host shower free, getting dressed
- 7:41when the ambulance arrives. I don't want that.
- 7:45Nobody wants that. Nobody wants to be a part of
- 7:48that scene. Me laying unconscious in the
- 7:50floor, freshly showered. No, nobody wants that.
- 7:54Being a little terrified of that, I thought, well, I need a
- 7:56solution. Write that word down.
- 8:00I needed a solution. So what was my solution?
- 8:02I need something that keeps the water in the shower so the floor
- 8:06outside the shower is dry when I'm done showering.
- 8:11I think a beautiful idea would be a piece of glass just to keep
- 8:15the water in the shower. And so it just happened to be
- 8:18that I had a beautiful piece of tempered glass like you would
- 8:22use for a shower door. Not easy to break, easy to keep
- 8:25clean. Still have the same light, you
- 8:28can see through it if you want to, but it keeps the water in
- 8:32the shower. Now the challenge I have is I
- 8:35have a piece of glass and I got to stick it to a wall.
- 8:40How you going to do that? So I went to Home Depot.
- 8:45Now, normally when you go into Home Depot, it's like a cavern.
- 8:48You're just talking, talking, talk to yourself, to yourself.
- 8:51But I happen to wander in and I found an old dude.
- 8:55Those are good things to find in a Home Depot.
- 8:57And I walked him to the old dude and I said, listen, I want to
- 8:59mount this piece of glass in my shower.
- 9:01I think what I'm going to do is put a frame around it.
- 9:04And when I put the frame around it, it's just going to be that
- 9:07quarter inch, you know, trim. But I want to drill a hole
- 9:10through the trim and mount one side of that frame to the wall
- 9:14and one to the floor before I slide the glass in it.
- 9:17And then I can glue it. And then it'll be attached to
- 9:19the wall on the side and the bottom.
- 9:21And then I'll put a rim across the top to hold it in place.
- 9:24He said, A brilliant idea, I said, So I'm not sure exactly
- 9:28what I need to be able to do that.
- 9:30He said, well, you need a masonry bit.
- 9:33A what? A masonry bit.
- 9:36What? What's a masonry bit?
- 9:38He said, Well, you said it's covered in tile, right?
- 9:40Yeah. Well, it's probably got concrete
- 9:42underneath that tile on the floor.
- 9:44So you've got to be able to drill through that without
- 9:46overheating the drill bit and shattering the tile, because
- 9:50then you're going to have to replace all the tile that you
- 9:52tried to drill through. Oh, well, that's good to know.
- 9:58So he takes me to a place in the store to find a masonry drill
- 10:03bit. This is a very specialized drill
- 10:05bit. And I don't know about you.
- 10:08I've run into a couple of people who swear they know someone who
- 10:10collects drill bits. Some people collect coins, some
- 10:14collect shoes, some collect purses, some collect ball caps.
- 10:20I personally, I've never met someone who randomly go shopping
- 10:26for drill bits. I'm going to go to a local
- 10:28thrift store and see if they have any drill bits.
- 10:30I'm going to go check out the antique store and look for drill
- 10:33bits. I don't know anyone who does
- 10:34that. I don't know anyone who just
- 10:38collects drill bits for the sake of drill bits.
- 10:41But on this particular day, there was no other path to my
- 10:45solution. Keep the water inside the
- 10:48shower. The fear, the pain being found
- 10:52on the floor, freshly showered, not yet dressed.
- 10:56That's the fear, that's the paint.
- 10:58That's the thing I'm trying to avoid.
- 10:59The solution? Keep the water in the shower.
- 11:01How do you keep the water in the shower?
- 11:02I'm going to put up a wall. How am I going to put up a wall?
- 11:04I have to drill a hole. I didn't have a hole problem.
- 11:11I didn't have a glass door problem.
- 11:13Those are all part of my solution.
- 11:15My problem was the fear of being found on the floor.
- 11:18Post showered pre dressed. Nobody wants that.
- 11:23But the only way to get to the solution of putting up a wall to
- 11:27keep the water in the shower is a very specialized kind of drill
- 11:30bit. And so I went to get a very
- 11:33special drill bit and I paid 20 plus dollars for one drill bit.
- 11:38Not a set of drill bits, not a drill one bit 1.
- 11:42You know how many times I've used that one bit?
- 11:44One it cost me $20 for 10 minutes of hole drilling.
- 11:50With one bit that comes out to about $120.00 an hour.
- 11:55That's crazy. Who pays $120.00 an hour?
- 11:59And I was doing all the work. Hope this is clicking with you.
- 12:07So I got the drill, but I went home and I installed the wall
- 12:09and I've been able to keep the water in the shower.
- 12:12That's the win. That's the whole thing.
- 12:15Now if you have followed the model of most people, that story
- 12:22misses something because you're looking for a traumatic event.
- 12:28Look, I didn't actually slip and fall and hit my head and be
- 12:31called, carried off in an ambulance post shower, pre
- 12:34dressing. That never happened.
- 12:37But the fear was very real that it could happen and the
- 12:39potential was very, very high that that it could happen.
- 12:42And I wanted to mitigate that risk before the opportunity
- 12:46came. It wasn't the trauma of that
- 12:50event that created the story. Now here's the other thing you
- 12:55need to know. Your story is not like my story.
- 13:02Your story is like my drill bit. Let me say that again.
- 13:08Your story is not like my story. Your story is like my drill bit.
- 13:12It's the one thing standing between the pain or the fear of
- 13:17pain and the solution necessary to prevent it or solve it.
- 13:23It's the one thing standing between the pain or the fear of
- 13:26pain and the solution. It's the one thing necessary to
- 13:30solve it. I could not have put that glass
- 13:32door up without drilling holes in that Mason that that tile.
- 13:37And without a masonry bit, I could not have sufficiently
- 13:40drilled holes in that tile. In order to have the solution
- 13:44necessary, I had to have one step, one ingredient, one tool.
- 13:51The story that I'm encouraging you to tell as a leader, as a
- 13:54manager, as a communicator, as an author, that story is a drill
- 14:00bit. It's the one tool that stands
- 14:03between your audience's pain or problem.
- 14:06Fear of a problem, The pain avoidance that they're looking
- 14:10for is the solution that you offer.
- 14:13The story is the drill bit that makes that solution work.
- 14:18You with me. See, here's one of the
- 14:20challenges. One of the challenges I see in
- 14:25those who want to tell stories is they feel like the only value
- 14:28in the story is when they can just dump all kinds of trauma
- 14:31into it. What they're really looking for,
- 14:33sadly, is not a solution to somebody else.
- 14:35They're not looking to say, here's what I experienced and
- 14:39here's what I learned, and here's how that will help you.
- 14:41Often what they're doing is just reliving their trauma again, and
- 14:48what they're looking for is a pity party.
- 14:51And they may not say that. In fact, truth be known, they
- 14:53may not know that they're not thinking in their head, hey, I
- 14:57need a pity party. What they're thinking in their
- 14:59head is I've been told that if I tell a true authentic story, a
- 15:03real thing that happened to me, if I tell about my pain and I
- 15:06tell it emotionally, that people will connect with me.
- 15:08And yes, there's truth to that. And there's truth that if you
- 15:12tell an authentic story that people will see the real you and
- 15:17that that vulnerability in that transparency builds a deeper
- 15:20connection then using an anecdote or a made-up story.
- 15:24Those are all true, but they shouldn't be the only purpose
- 15:30for telling your story. Your story should be a pathway
- 15:33to a solution because that's what people want.
- 15:38See, we go to the movies. We we read a novel, we, we watch
- 15:41a television series because we vicariously live through other
- 15:44people's trauma and drama. We don't go to those sources for
- 15:50anything more than entertainment.
- 15:53When we move from entertainment to problem solving.
- 15:58I mean, what's the most you've ever paid to go to a movie?
- 16:01Forget about the concessions for me.
- 16:04Forget about the $47 popcorn. You got to take out a mortgage
- 16:07to get a Slurpee. I'm not talking about that part.
- 16:10I'm talking about to go to the movie.
- 16:12Now we know that Hollywood spends sometimes three, $400
- 16:15million making a movie and they're getting their money back
- 16:216 to $10 at a time. It's only by magnitude of scale
- 16:27that they could even be profitable on a movie like that.
- 16:31But your investment, your value for return isn't about the
- 16:36popcorn and the Slurpee. The reason you went to that
- 16:39movie and told your friends they should go see that movie is for
- 16:42the pure entertainment value. Most of you, not I watch movies
- 16:47on purpose as part of my job. And yes, I write them off as a
- 16:52business expense. Why?
- 16:53Because I study story, I study the way people craft stories,
- 16:59how they develop the character, what kind of things they include
- 17:02and leave out because that's part of my job.
- 17:05Part of my job is coaching my clients on how to better tell a
- 17:07story. It's what I do.
- 17:09It's a leadership capacity. It's a leadership role in my
- 17:12life to help other people who are going to stand in front of a
- 17:15crowd tell a better story. Story Power Academy.
- 17:18We help leaders tell better stories, better from the mirror
- 17:20to the media. It's my job, so I go to these
- 17:23movies as part of my job. I watch good movies and bad
- 17:28movies as part of my job. But see, you don't go to the
- 17:32movie theater to find solutions. You might go to a therapist, you
- 17:37might go to a counselor, you might go to a coach or a mentor
- 17:40to find solutions. Let me ask you this, if you go
- 17:45see a phenomenal movie that's 2 1/2 three hours long and there's
- 17:50a few of them that are pushing 3 hours.
- 17:52I believe all of the Avatar movies were in the three hour
- 17:55range or at least well over 2 hours.
- 17:58And you paid top dollar, 15 bucks to go to a nice movie
- 18:02theater with the recliner and they bring your food to you.
- 18:05You don't even have to chase down our stand in line at the
- 18:07popcorn line, right? That you pay top dollar to sit
- 18:10in this nice leather recliner and and watch this film.
- 18:13You paid 15 bucks, put you there for three hours.
- 18:15So what is that $5.00 an hour that you're paying to experience
- 18:19the movie? What's that storyline worth to
- 18:22you? 5 bucks an hour?
- 18:25Now, if you went and sat in a leather recliner and talked to a
- 18:27coach for an hour, it's going to be in the hundreds, maybe
- 18:32thousands. Bernie Broussard only has four
- 18:35clients a year. They pay close to $1,000,000.
- 18:37Why? Because he's getting to the
- 18:39bottom of the problem. He is the drill bit in their
- 18:42life to solve the problem, to keep the water in the shower.
- 18:47He's not there for entertainment.
- 18:51The questions he's asking, the answers he's providing, the
- 18:53stories he's telling, lead them to I'm going to keep the water
- 18:57in the shower for you. Whatever your problem is, I'm
- 18:59going to help you find the solution and we're going to put
- 19:01it in place. The implementation of installing
- 19:04that glass wall was the business of the leader, the manager, the
- 19:08coach, the mentor in your life. That's not a $5.00 an hour
- 19:12entertainment value. That's an implementation value
- 19:16that requires some imagination and some great communication
- 19:19skills and some understanding the unification of people
- 19:22skills. If your story is purely on the
- 19:28entertainment side, that's a different thing.
- 19:34A purely entertaining story might make for a great keynote.
- 19:38At that point, you're not getting paid for solutions as
- 19:41much as you're getting paid for entertainment.
- 19:43And that's fine. There are entertaining speakers
- 19:45who make great money and all they do is entertain.
- 19:49Nobody's looking to them to go. Here's the problem I have in my
- 19:52life. I need a solution.
- 19:54They're looking to them to go. I'm bored.
- 19:57I need some entertainment. Tell me something fascinating.
- 20:00Tell me something funny. If you've ever been around a
- 20:03comedian, one of the most common and annoying things that they
- 20:06hear is, hey, tell me a joke. I That's not how it works.
- 20:12First off, you have to pay for me to be funny because that's
- 20:15what I do for a living. I get paid to be funny.
- 20:17I'm not talking about me, I'm talking about comedians.
- 20:19I don't get paid to be funny because I'm not that good at it.
- 20:24On the other side, you've got those people who like an
- 20:26accountant, an on call doctor, someone you might call dial, a
- 20:32nurse. I know there are lots of
- 20:34companies out there who now provide that, some of them even
- 20:37provided by AI. You tell it your symptoms and it
- 20:39gives you a diagnosis and you never see a doctor.
- 20:41You just get an answer. OK then.
- 20:45But you pay by the minute for that kind of service.
- 20:48You pay by the hour and it's a bigger price than $5.00 an hour
- 20:51to go to the movie. The value of the story has to do
- 20:56with the solution that it provides, the pain that it
- 20:59prevents, the obstacle that it overcomes.
- 21:03The drill bit value of your story isn't entertainment, it's
- 21:08providing a solution. So telling an authentic story,
- 21:12telling a real story, telling a dramatic story, telling a story
- 21:16that has something in it that causes people to lean in and
- 21:21they're pay attention and they're listening to the
- 21:22characters and, and what's happening matters to them.
- 21:26Maybe it resonates because they've been through it before.
- 21:29Maybe it resonates because they're thinking, wow, I never
- 21:32want to experience that. How do you prevent it from
- 21:34happening again? Now, there are a whole lot of
- 21:38people out there that had been victims of assault.
- 21:41They've been victims of robbery. They've been, you know, victims
- 21:44of some kind of crime, home break in or identity theft or
- 21:47whatever else. And the result of that
- 21:50victimhood didn't send their life down a path of utter
- 21:57destruction. It didn't send them in a way
- 21:59where they were like, I just quit.
- 22:01I give up on life. I'm never doing this again.
- 22:04It sent them on a path of research and dedication and
- 22:08devotion to say, I'm going to take this pain that I went
- 22:11through, this problem that I experienced because I know there
- 22:13were other people that experienced it and I'm going to
- 22:15find a solution and then I'm going to make that solution
- 22:18available to others. Now, the power of their story is
- 22:21still a drill bit is to say, I know the pain you're going
- 22:24through because I've been through it.
- 22:26I know what you did and I know what you're doing right now.
- 22:31I can also tell you if you don't change what you're doing right
- 22:34now, here's where you're going to be headed because I, because
- 22:36I did, I, I, I walked that path. But let me tell you where the
- 22:40next landmine is and let me tell you how to avoid it.
- 22:43That's what a good coach, mentor, instructor, the guru
- 22:48Sherpa does for you. It's to say, this is your life.
- 22:52I want you to be the hero of your life.
- 22:53I want you to move forward with your life.
- 22:55I want you to have a great life. But right now you have this
- 22:58problem that I once had, and I'm not here to commiserate with
- 23:02you. I'm not trying to create a pity
- 23:03party. I don't want you to feel sorry
- 23:05for me that the same thing happened to me.
- 23:06What I want is for you to realize there's a better
- 23:09opportunity. There's another option.
- 23:13I found the solution you're looking for.
- 23:15Let me show you how it works. If you can do that, you have
- 23:23value. Not $5.00 an hour entertainment
- 23:26value, you have that 202,000 as Myron Golden says, $10,000 an
- 23:32hour opportunity in the palm of your hand.
- 23:37Masterfully communicating that I went through this problem, I
- 23:42found these solutions and if you will implement these solutions,
- 23:45the first thing you're going to have to do is decide what kind
- 23:48of wall you're going to put up to keep the water in the shower.
- 23:51Are you going to build more brick?
- 23:53Are you going to put a piece of wood up there?
- 23:55Are you going to stretch some garbage bags with some duct
- 23:57tape? The level of your solution is
- 24:02going to be directly related to the amount of investment you're
- 24:06going to have to do. A glass wall was not as
- 24:09inexpensive as duct taping some garbage bags.
- 24:13Would they both have served the purpose?
- 24:16Yes. Would they have increased the
- 24:17value of my house? No.
- 24:19Garbage bags, Duct tape to the wall?
- 24:21Not so pretty. You follow me.
- 24:26The solution that you want is probably not the cheapest
- 24:28solution. The solution that you want is
- 24:30probably not the easiest solution.
- 24:33You're going to have to invest a little bit of time, a little bit
- 24:36of effort, maybe a little bit of pain in getting to that
- 24:39solution. But in the end, the solved state
- 24:44of your life is so much better than the drama state of your
- 24:47life. It's worth the investment.
- 24:53The story of the leader isn't about a pity party.
- 24:57It's not about producing drama just to make you look.
- 25:01It's not about re experiencing the trauma of the past.
- 25:06It's telling the story so that people find the implementable
- 25:12tools, things that they can look at and go, Oh well, I could have
- 25:18done that. Then do that.
- 25:22I remember walking. It's been years ago probably, I
- 25:26don't know, close to 15 years ago, maybe longer than that.
- 25:32I was walking through a little multi acre, probably 200 acre
- 25:36flea market called Canton First Monday.
- 25:38If you've never been to Canton, TX on the first Monday of the
- 25:41month, it's worth the trip. First Monday starts on Thursday
- 25:45of the week before the last week of the month.
- 25:47The first Monday of each month. That's when they do it.
- 25:50But you will find all kinds of stuff, people who are reselling
- 25:55salt and pepper shakers that they bought at the thrift store
- 25:57all the way up to people who are selling hand carved more than
- 26:02life-size grizzly bears carved out of the trunk of a tree.
- 26:07Some beautiful work. And one particular booth had
- 26:11these little signs. Most of them were carved with a
- 26:14router out of a piece of barn wood hung with a piece of
- 26:17bailing wire. Cute little wire, twisty,
- 26:19twisty, so you can hang it on your door, like a little door
- 26:22plaque and their monetary value. I mean, it's a piece of barn
- 26:26wood and a piece of bailing wire.
- 26:28What do you got invested in making that thing?
- 26:3018 cents? It took you maybe what, 20
- 26:33minutes to take a router and lay a stencil down and go and cut
- 26:36the words into it. Brilliant.
- 26:39They sold for $20. What?
- 26:42How many of those can you make in an hour?
- 26:4440. So you're making $800.00 an hour
- 26:48making these silly little plaques and signs.
- 26:50And he was selling them hand over fist.
- 26:53And right there in his booth was this beautifully printed.
- 26:57It was a metal sign, like a street sign, like, like what you
- 27:00would see when it says don't park here because I'll tow your
- 27:02car. It was that kind of sign.
- 27:04And on that sign it said and said, I know you could do this
- 27:09yourself but you didn't. So $20.00 is a great price.
- 27:17Good point. That's a good point.
- 27:21If I knew that I could do it myself, but I haven't.
- 27:25I I spent almost 3 hours doing my lawn care yesterday and in my
- 27:30own yard, the wedding, the trimming, the leaf blowing, the
- 27:33whole thing. Almost 3 hours.
- 27:36Why? Because I don't want to pay
- 27:38somebody else to do it. I want to do it myself.
- 27:40But by the time I got to it, the grass was almost up to my knees.
- 27:43Because we've had several rainy weekends and traveling weekends.
- 27:47I could have done it myself, and eventually I did.
- 27:50But if I'd paid somebody to do it, which would have been a
- 27:53better use of my time? For me, it's a little
- 27:55therapeutic. I put on my headphones.
- 27:57I don't like the work, but I like the quiet time.
- 28:00Nobody messes with me. I got to listen to three hours
- 28:02of podcast uninterrupted while I mow the yard.
- 28:06That's how I redeem that time. But for anybody else who says I
- 28:10don't want to have to mow the yard, well, now you've got to
- 28:12find the equivalent, right? If you don't want to do the
- 28:14work, you're going to have to pay somebody to do the work.
- 28:17The power of your story rests in the fact that you've already
- 28:21experienced the drama, experienced the trauma, and
- 28:24found the solution. What they want to pay you for is
- 28:27not your drama, not your trauma, but your solution.
- 28:31They don't want to go through everything you went through.
- 28:33Maybe that journey took you 2 years.
- 28:35Maybe it took you 5 years. I can tell you there are
- 28:38millions of people who've gone through bankruptcy.
- 28:41There are a few 100,000 who have gone through bankruptcy and
- 28:44recovered. There are a handful of people
- 28:47who went through bankruptcy and in 18 months made back more
- 28:50money than they lost because they found a solution that the
- 28:55rest of the world now wants. So what's your story?
- 29:00Is your story valuable because you're filled with drama and
- 29:03trauma? Or is your story valuable
- 29:05because you found a painful experience and a path out of it?
- 29:12It's the end, the path out of it that people want.
- 29:15It's not the entertainment value of your drama, story, or
- 29:18reliving the trauma of your story.
- 29:21Nobody wants that. If they did, they pay 5 bucks
- 29:23and go to the movie theater. What they want is a solution so
- 29:27that if they've experienced the same thing, they can get out, or
- 29:31the solution that prevents that from ever happening to them.
- 29:35If you've got that story, they'll pay you good money for
- 29:38that. That's what you need to work on
- 29:42in your story. The process of story power
- 29:46starts with story mining, story selection, story qualifying, and
- 29:53then we start actually crafting the story.
- 29:56If you're not going to take the time to dig through your
- 29:58stories, not just the big meta story, not just the big drama
- 30:00story, not just that I was bitten in a hat by a shark
- 30:02story, but the moments where you learn something valuable that
- 30:09you can transfer that value to somebody else in the form of a
- 30:12story that keeps them engaged and listening.
- 30:14Not just that, here's what I did and here's how you can do it.
- 30:17That's a great part, but the more you can embed that in a
- 30:19story that keeps their attention, the more likely they
- 30:22are to hear the solution you're offering.
- 30:25At the end of the day, they can choose to mow their own yard,
- 30:28they can choose to make their own plaques, or they can spend a
- 30:31little bit of money to get it done faster, to get it done with
- 30:36less pain to get it done by somebody who knows what they're
- 30:39doing. I don't care if you build
- 30:41websites or social media. I don't care if you lead a a
- 30:45team of people in a fast food restaurant or a mega
- 30:49multinational corporation. The stories that you tell
- 30:53provide solutions. They develop attitude, they
- 30:56create your internal culture, and eventually they become the
- 30:59brand the world knows you for. You're responsible for those
- 31:04stories, not drama and trauma, but solutions.
- 31:09And if that's something that you're interested in working on,
- 31:12go to storypoweracademy.com because we have a lot of
- 31:15solutions for you both in the leadership development side and
- 31:18the how do I communicate that story side.
- 31:21I really hope you'll take the time to stop rehearsing the
- 31:25trauma and start providing solutions.
- 31:28Your story isn't just entertainment, it's a drill bit.
- 31:32It's a tool to help others solve the problems that they're
- 31:36suffering with right now. I'm Jay Lauren Norris with
- 31:38leading leaders podcast or tell it like it is TV.
- 31:42Have a blessed day. Think storytellings just for
- 31:50bedtime. Nah, it's the secret sauce for
- 31:53business magic. Stuck in a rut with bland
- 31:55pitches and yawning clients? Enter Boost your business with
- 31:59Story Power, Six weeks of epic storytelling training.
- 32:03It's like leveling up in a video game, but for your career.
- 32:06Master the art of narrative and watch connections blossom like a
- 32:10viral TikTok. Simple, impactful and game
- 32:13changing. Ready to transform your biz
- 32:15vibes? Dive in now and make
- 32:17storytelling your superpower. This six weeks guided program is
- 32:22specifically designed for those people who say, I know I need to
- 32:25tell stories, I need to tell better stories because the ones
- 32:28I have are boring or they're not getting across or as John
- 32:31Maxwell says, everyone communicates and well, you
- 32:34connect. Now as a participant in this
- 32:37course, what I would really love to know from you, put it in the
- 32:40discussion on the course. If you're already registered
- 32:42online, send me a chat, send me Adm, send me a text, send me an
- 32:46e-mail. I'd really love to know what you
- 32:48hope to get out of this course. Now, I can tell you what we're
- 32:51going to discuss, and I can tell you what I plan to teach and
- 32:54train you on, and I can tell you even what we plan to discuss
- 32:58each week on the calls for the next six weeks.
- 33:01I'm going to go over all of that for you in just a moment.
- 33:04I can also tell you that my clients who get the greatest
- 33:07success are the ones who apply the story power process to their
- 33:11business development to increase their impact, their influence,
- 33:14and their income. Now, the story power process
- 33:17includes story mining, story selection, story qualification,
- 33:21story crafting, connecting with your audience, and leading the
- 33:25narrative. And if you leave any one of
- 33:27those parts out, you're going to find that or you're just not as
- 33:30effective as you want to be. You're not going to grow your
- 33:32business to the same level. You're not going to lead with
- 33:35impact and influence like you hoped to.
- 33:38I can also tell you that the people who apply these things,
- 33:41well, they're not failing in their business.
- 33:44The reason a lot of people fail in their business is they
- 33:48continue to fail to connect the solution they offer with the
- 33:52problem that their clients have. The pain and the solution never
- 33:55come together. And a lot of that failure is
- 33:58because they're not clearly articulating how their solution
- 34:04solves someone else's problem. It comes down to a question,
- 34:08something like this. Who do you help and how?
- 34:11Yes, that's one of the first things we're going to discuss
- 34:14over the next six weeks of Boost Your Business with Story Power.