Struggling To Create a Message Customers Actually Want To Hear? Storytelling Wins the Day

The Business of Business Podcast

Struggling To Create a Message Customers Actually Want To Hear? Storytelling Wins the Day With Dave Bricker

Storytelling is the most powerful form of communication we have. We go about storytelling, by figuring out, what does our thought memory idea? What does it mean for somebody else? How are we going to convey that in a form where somebody wants to listen to it, one of our most innate desires is to be listened to, right? How do I want someone to think or feel?

About Dave

As a young man, Dave Bricker was inspired by the remarkable people he met in Miami’s “secret floating village.” The sailboat anchorage a quarter-mile off-shore from Miami City Hall attracted world travelers, squatters, and dreamers. All had remarkable stories to tell.

By his senior year in college, he was living aboard his own tiny sailboat. Soon after graduation, he set sail for the Bahamas with a locker full of food and dreams … and $40 in his pocket.

His voyages took him up and down the Bahamas, up the east coast of the US to Chesapeake Bay, and across the Atlantic to Gibraltar. He ran aground, dealt with mechanical breakdowns, got seasick more than once, slept in a volcano, survived powerful storms, and returned to the land of clocks and calendars with what he’d gone in search of—stories of his own.

Today, as a speaker, trainer, and coach, Dave Bricker helps remarkable people tell remarkable stories—through writing, speaking, graphic design, video, technology, and music. If you want to say it, share it, or sell it, bring him your story; he’ll help you tell it.

www.52speakingblunders.com

www.storysailing.com

www.thebusinessofbusinesspodcast.com

Full Transcript Below

Posted Struggling To Create a Message Customers Actually Want To Hear? Storytelling Wins The Day with Dave Bricker

Sat, 7/17 7:57PM • 35:38

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

people, stories, presentation, storytelling, audience, roy, talk, writing, story, business, living, dave, words, selling, adventure, started, slides, speaking, point, read

SPEAKERS

Dave, Roy Barker

Roy Barker 00:10

Hello, and welcome to another episode of the business of business podcast. I'm your host, Roy, we are the show that brings you a wide variety of guests to topic, talk about a diverse set of topics. You know, we want to try to point out ways to help help our small businesses be more successful. And so one one thing we can do sometimes we don't know what we don't know. But also sometimes we may be struggling and need some help. So that's why we always try to bring professionals from different disciplines and spaces on the show to talk about how we can improve and today is no different. We have Dave Bricker. He's with Story Sailing. And, you know, have you ever struggled to create a message that customers actually want to hear? Have you wondered why some messages connect with audience, audiences? and some don't? Are you talking about clients? Are you talking about yourself? Today's guest has spent 15 years sailing in search of stories. He's the author of 12 books, including an adventure sailing memoir, two books about writing, and three about storytelling, his company, remarkable stories, he teaches the art of business transformation through storytelling. If you want to say it, share it, or sell it, bring him your story, he'll help you tell it. Today, he'll be talking to us about how stories work and how we can use strategic storytelling to grow our business. Dave, thanks a lot for being here. And taking time out of your day. I certainly do appreciate it, and helping us overcome all these technical issues that we're just getting you on here. So it's an honor, thanks for having me. And technical issues are par for the course. Yeah. We're gonna say we're gonna call this the miracle podcast, it's the miracle that we've made it this far. So let's talk about storytelling. You know, we were, you know, as we were sorting through some issues, I love writing, I love telling stories. But sometimes it's that blank paper that gets in our way. Sometimes it's that, you know, how do we relate this to this situation? So, kind of help us out? How do we go about storytelling? Well, storytelling is the most powerful form of communication we have. We go about storytelling, by figuring out, what does our thought memory idea? What does it mean for somebody else? And how are we going to convey that in a form where somebody wants to listen to it, one of our most innate desires is to be listened to, right? We start off by figuring out, what's the transformation? How do I want someone to think feel or act different after they've heard my message? Okay, now, that's awesome. And so, but yeah, before we really get off into this, I wanted to ask you kind of about your sailing experiences. I I assume that that this, the storytelling has come out of that I know that you sailed around and you gained a lot of stories is that kind of the impetus of helping others tell their story? Well, when I was 18 years old, I met these people quite by accident. They were they were living in the sailboat anchorage in Miami, free Anchorage. And I'd always heard that those people were derelicts and bums and ne'er do wells. But when I actually met them, I found that many of them were real professional people, or blue collar workers or teachers, or I mean, there was this spectrum of people. But what they all had was stories to tell many of them had traveled all over the world and done it with out much money because they just decided to do it. And I realized that you can have adventures without buying a book or going to a movie adventures or something. You can really have an I wanted some I wanted stories of my own. So before I finished college, I bought a small fixer upper sailboat. And about six months after finishing college I took off with $40 in my pocket and a locker full of food and dreams to go see the Bahamas. Wow. That's interesting. So how did that trip go for you?

Dave 04:27

That was six months of being a boat bum and odd jobbing my way around the Bahamas, living like a king on next to nothing. catching fish and lobster and exploring the world and living inside this gigantic watercolor painting of vivid hues and just again, remarkable people amazing experiences. It was really quite quite a transcendent thing to do. So I did that for six months came back decided that coming back was a bad idea. Then went back to the Bahamas and jumped on a friend's boat. He had built this beautiful wooden boat and we sailed across to Gibraltar. Wow.

Roy Barker 05:09

Yeah, this is a whole different episode. But I do think it's worth saying, you know, encourage young people to go seek your dream out, go do these adventures like you had. I mean, it's, it's something that lives with you forever. And instead of, you know, sometimes getting out of school, we worry about getting that first job and things like that. But if you have an opportunity, get out, take the adventure, it's something that something that live with you forever.

Dave 05:36

And Roy, you're so right about that. And I know we're talking to a business audience here. But think about it. How many people how many would be entrepreneurs are sitting there thinking, I really want to start that business, but I don't have the money, or I don't have the experience yet. And they're all you know, what if I do this, and it fails, or it's the what if, what if, what if, and, I mean, trust me, I'm like everybody else, I thought, what if I sail across the ocean and the boat springs a leak halfway across? What if we hit a storm? What if? What if, what if, and we paralyze ourselves? And we don't get started with whatever it has to do? starting a business is a big adventure, too. Yeah. And too many people are just, it's paralysis by analysis. What if, what if, what if, and they're held in place by their own imaginations?

Roy Barker 06:26

Yeah, and I'm going to try to tie this into storytelling, because, you know, once we start that business, you know, we have to have some kind of a sales function. But also, you know, to those youngsters that may go on their adventure, and then get a job is that I've talked to another guy that said that when he would go and apply for a job and go through the interview, he said, people more worried about his aren't more interested in his stories of travel than they were actually his resume. And so, you know, I think that we can kind of connect that to the entrepreneurial to the small business that, you know, when we go out and sit in front of a customer, we need to have a good story to tell.

Dave 07:08

I think that's true. And I think we all do have good stories to tell whether we realize it or not. We're all grappling with this thing called life. And we're all battling the demons of self doubt. But I'll give an example, Roy, I mean, at some point, you said, I'm going to start a podcast, and something ran through your head, right? You thought, what if I start a podcast and nobody listens to it? Right? What if, what if, what if, but there's a story here we sit talking, we connected? Because you had a podcast, and we found one another? And we're having this conversation? And you've had many more like it? And hopefully it's enriched your life and their life lives of a lot of listeners along the way?

Roy Barker 07:47

Yeah, yeah. And I think the, you know, it's not only in that sales function, we want to tell that story. But also, you know, in our writing, we can, I think, and I will ask you as the expert on this, that we can mix the good story in with our product or service knowledge to really enhance that message that somebody wants to read our blog, it's not just, hey, I've got the very best widget that you've ever seen. I've got the very best price. And it's like, yeah, you know, we you're like, three 300 other people that have the best price, the best, whatever. But if we can kind of weave a story through that, then we spark some interest.

Dave 08:28

And Roy, you're absolutely right on that. The number one rule of storytelling, is that stories are always about people. If you remember nothing else today, remember that stories are always about people. And what that means is, if you're talking about prices, processes, ingredients or data, you're not telling stories, right? It's a data dump, and people are gonna tune you out pretty quickly, because there's nothing really meaningful there. So if you're not talking about people, you're not telling stories. And if you're not telling stories, you're not connecting. And if you're not connecting, you're not selling. And let me clarify what I mean by selling is not this process where whereby you get someone to write you a check or send you a payment. Selling is where you sell your credibility, you sell your influence, and somebody says, Hey, I like what Roy has to say. I like his guests. I like his message. I want to tune into this right and yourself. What you're really selling is your relationship worthiness in any transaction that comes from that is a byproduct. So anyone who's put a kid to bed is selling. We're all selling all the time. Yeah, inside a business. Anyone who's asked someone on a date is selling anyone who's asked a boss for a raise is selling, but we tend to talk about the products and the services, the the the features instead of the benefits.

Roy Barker 10:00

Right. Yeah. And that's what somebody told me many years ago, especially in sales, like if I may be trying to sell you on the product, and you're trying to sell me on why you need it. So we got to think about that we're always trying to communicate a message and sell something at some point.

Dave 10:18

Absolutely. But once people and this is certainly not original, right, but but once people know you like you and trust you, they tend to say, Hey, what do you have for sale? Exactly nice of you.

Roy Barker 10:27

Yeah, and I can't make I can't stress that point enough on this show is that people buy from people that they like, and that's kind of that, you know, the storytelling, it's trying to find some commonality. And it's very easy, you can within a few sentences, a few minutes of meeting somebody, you can always find something that's in common. And then, especially when you get as old as I am, of course, I've got, you know, a lot of life stories just from surviving this long.

Dave 10:57

And, and we all do and a size doesn't matter. There are lots of people with little tiny stories that are amazing. talk to somebody is worked in a cube farm. And there's this little group of four cubicles, that the notes that pass over that wall and the jokes and the little community that forms in that little pod, you can create a sitcom about it. Everybody's got stories and get it you don't have to run a marathon or climb Mount Everest or sail across an ocean to have stories, right?

Roy Barker 11:25

Right now, if we keep our eyes open, I think everyday living presents itself with a lot of unique opportunities. And, you know, for me there, there's so much beauty and nature around me that it's always there's always something new and different every day to try to talk about. That's the spice of life. So why do some messages resonate with audiences? And there are some that just fall on deaf ears?

Dave 11:54

Great question. So we talked about first, first of all, people get up there and talk about themselves. How many times have you been to the Chamber of Commerce breakfast, and the first there's this absolutely excruciating introduction where we get to hear about Mr. X's degrees and the clients they've worked with. And it's like, we don't care. Talk about us. And then you get up. And so there's the actual information. And then the presentations, a data dumping. The slides are full of stuff that we're trying to read them and the speakers interrupting us. So there are a lot of things that speakers presenters, storytellers do that disengaged the audience. Whereas you could start off with, with a question. How many of you have fill in the blank? Have you ever wanted to fill in the blank? Did you ever wonder what would happen? Or maybe you have a startling statistic? Did you know that 78.7% of all statistics are made up on the spot. You know, whatever it may be a little humor a little joke, or tell a story, bring them they're expecting a business speaker, I take them right down into a storm at sea. 30 seconds into my presentation, they forgotten what they came there for. And then I turn it around. And that turn around is the important thing. Because you're out there the storm at sea and you're dodging the ships that can't see you. And then Hey, have you ever felt like that in your business? Like there are these big freighters and cruise ships that these big clients big opportunities that could just run you over and not even feel it, and you're out there in the big sea saying, hey, pay attention to me, I've got value to offer. And all of a sudden, it's about them. So you have to make your presentation, your message, your story all about your audience. And as soon as they realize it's about them, they're gonna start paying attention.

Roy Barker 13:54

Okay. Yeah, that's good. And everything that you were just saying, I've been, I've been trying to do a little research on headline writing. And it's funny that everything that you've just said, is kind of what's the attention getters, for headlines of your articles or blogs? And I will, I will ask this as a question not as a statement, but, you know, to ask that question of somebody or to the statistics, the top five top 10 list, things like that really get people's attention.

Dave 14:26

So email headlines, yeah. You know, ask a question. You know, it could be you know, are you ready for this? Have you ever have you ever wondered about that questions are provocative, and then everyone loves a train wreck? A great email headline is, oops, I really screwed up. You'd be amazed at the open rates on that one. Oh my gosh, because it's vulnerable. Also, nobody's saying nobody say, you know, if you write Hey, I'm great. And I never make a mistake that's going right in the spam. People will open that so they can hit the unsub Describe link and report you as a spammer because it's so arrogant. But if you're if you're vulnerable and you're human, it makes you more likeable. Yeah. Oh, poor guy screwed up.

Roy Barker 15:12

Well, and se, I just wrote that down, you mentioned vulnerable, because I think that's something that we all have to do. And, again, I'm gonna ask this as a question, not a statement necessarily. But you know, back in the olden days, especially when the internet came out, it was, you know, we were all kind of buttoned down shirt and ties, don't let your personality out of the bag. It's just, you know, kind of, like you said, facts and statistics only. And then now we've kind of evolved, and it gets back to people buy from people that they can relate to, and people that they like. So let's talk about that vulnerability, and kind of the, there's always a line in the sand of where you don't want to cross. But, you know, kind of what does that look like for most people?

Dave 15:59

Well, I'll tell you, for example, if I'm giving a presentation, I don't care if it's to an audience of construction workers. I don't swear on the platform, okay? Because you never know who's in the audience who's just going to be offended, right? And there are plenty of ways to express yourself without, without swearing. And you can always say Bs, you don't have to say the whole word, right? Well, we will, we will offend anybody here. But some of us don't care. But on one hand, figure out what the culture is. And don't be offended, offensive, don't talk about politics and religion. You know, things that things that people are contentious about there, there are real obvious lines in the sand. And, you know, don't don't wear jeans and a T shirt on stage, though, there's a professional speaker named Scott Stratton. And he's incredibly casual. And that's his brand. And he speaks all over the world. And he's managed to, you know, they hire him for that. But you know, people are people and nobody likes to be bored. Nobody likes stiff. And people who are a bit people in business audiences, guess what they go out drinking on Friday night, they listen to rock music, they have sex their people, and they don't want to learn or interact in a sanitized, sterilized rated g world. So I think, figure out what the vibe is for your audience. be appropriate. And you can even be a little stuffy and academic and then throw something in there. That's Oh, that's kind of listen expecting that and then it's funny, right? It's right. It's deadpan humor, find, find that balance, find the joke in the room, make people laugh? Because if they're not laughing, they're not learning.

Roy Barker 17:52

Yeah. And so each opportunity presents its different challenges the audience, I think you just mentioned, you know, who are we speaking to? What are they there for? But then also length of time, I think, you know, you hear a lot of speakers that it was great. Three, four or five minutes in, and then it just fell off. And it's like, wow, if they had just quit, then they would have been much further ahead. How do we kind of how do we designed that? And like I said, I know each situation is going to be a little different. But you know, for the most part, kind of how do we get in that sweet spot?

Dave 18:26

Well, I talked in the beginning about the transformation. And throughout your speech, me too many people just get up there and blah, blah, blah, and they deliver the data. And it's like, okay, I covered point a point B, point C, I wrapped it up at the end, I started off with my agenda. But that's a lecture, that's not a speech, it's not a presentation. And if you know what the transformation is, okay, I want everybody to get excited about presentation skills and the importance of presentation skills. Okay, that's my end goal, right. And then I'm going to, I'm going to give examples and case studies and tell stories, depending on the length of my presentation, 23456, or I might bring people on stage and coach them, whatever I do, I'm going to keep it engaging. And so I might break that down. Like, I want to show my audience how important it is to to speak dynamically to really get big, and really get small. And I'm going to give them an example. And then they're going to be mesmerized by that because they're going to have an emotional reaction to it. And then we're gonna talk about pauses. And people are gonna have that experience and leaning forward in that, what's he gonna say? Is it exactly. So whatever it may be, if I'm just doing a presentation skills workshop, can I give people I can give people data, I can give people a principle but can I do it in a way where they're having an emotional reaction to it. I Got an exercise that I have people do. And it's funny because when I teach them to use the pauses, the whole line becomes comedy. And the audience, they've heard it four or five times, and when the person being coached, finally delivers it with all the pauses and gestures, the audience laughs, even though they already know the joke. They love it. Because the delivery hits you in a way that it doesn't normally hit you. Right? So, keeping audiences engaged, too many people focus on the words in the message, but it's really about the delivery, I can give you a jibberish speech that would keep you completely engaged for five to 10 minutes, even though it's all nonsense.

Roy Barker 20:42

So what about somebody told me years ago, instead of saying, Dave, I need to tell you something, is to substitute the word share. Dave, I would really like to share something with you. And I've been told that that is, it's less off putting than I'm going to tell you because people kind of get their backup when you say, I'm going to tell you something.

Dave 21:05

Well, when you It all comes back to this idea of stories, being all about people and serving the audience. When you tell me you want to tell me something that's all about your need to express yourself. Which I mean, no, no offense intended, but I may or may not be interested in Roy Barker is desperate need to express themselves. But if Roy offers to share something with me, I'm thinking, Okay, he's going to offer me something it's going to give is going to be vulnerable. And when we craft our language, the verbs that we use, think about words that are kind of there, they're perfectly correct. But words like us put, develop. They're not all that exciting, right? They're kind of the unflavored gelatin of the language, they're, they're functional. But when we start substituting words like create, explore, discover, all of a sudden, those words have, I mean, you can't quantify it, there's no math to it. But when you check in your word database in your heading and start thinking, what are those words that that glow in the dark and, and create a library of those words that you can use instead of the utilitarian ones. It's not about correct grammar, and then not the imgs off the end of them, get rid of those participles. So when you have the outcomes of your workshop, you can say discovering your, your secret power, and revealing how stories work. Or you can say discover your secret power reveal how stories work and those imperative verbs, you're telling people to do something without using that word tell. And, and what happens is the inference is I don't know how to do those things. But I'm gonna be able to do those things. If I attend Dave's workshop, so yeah, I'm in. So the way we craft the language and the verbs that we choose, absolutely makes a difference. Because it hits people emotionally. It hits people in in the heart really in places that they're they're making because people look people buy with emotion. And they justify with logic later.

Roy Barker 23:20

Yeah. Yeah. And I think is kind of you touched on it about verbs. But I've heard also from riders that they're action verbs that we need to work in, because typically, whatever we're talking, whether it's a live presentation or writing something on paper, I'm trying to convince Dave to take some sort of action, hopefully to buy my product or service. So can you talk about being cognitive about those as well?

Dave 23:46

I think it's the same thing. But yeah, having a call to action. There, there are those passive calls which which are like, discover, discover this and reveal that and explore that. And, and these are great, and they're kind of general and then there are these really exact thing. So when when you go home today, I want you to go, I want you to turn your television on. And I want you to notice how many shows are doing this, or I want you to do this or even better than saying I want you to see I'm falling into the trap. consider doing this or try this. Okay, hey, I always say vote yourself off the island and explore the world in a u boat. And it's so easy to slip into it unconsciously because hey, I just did. I'm on the same path I'm learning and growing to and practicing these things. I don't think you ever really master it. It's it's like any other art form. You always get better at it. But stop talking about yourself. And when you say we're proud to announce my company now offers this, you know our product does. You've just started with the wrong subject.

Roy Barker 24:59

So What about props? Especially when we're in person? Maybe we're writing a blog or an article, pictures, videos in the presentation, use PowerPoint, you know, can you help us through that?

Dave 25:17

props can be very powerful. Ideally, you can give your presentation without them. If the technology fails, which it inevitably will, sooner or later, that's, that's the nature of technology, amen. But the purpose of a prop is to support the speaker. And what happens is when people aren't confident of themselves as presenters, they tend to put a lot of information on the slides, I'll give you a simple example. Here's my slide, and it's got six bullet points on it. And they all appear at once. Now I'm talking about bullet point number one, and I'm interrupting you while you're reading the other bullet points, right. So don't never read your slides, because you've just made yourself unnecessary. If if the whole presentation involves reading slides, just send everybody the slide deck and don't waste their time, anxiety people read silently five times faster than your speaking. But when you've got bullet points, I love slides with bullet points or just images. And let's talk about point one, and it slides in there next to me. And when I'm done talking about pointing one, I hit my remote and point two comes in there right now in PowerPoint, it might just be one slide, but it's zing, zing zing, and I'm controlling the conversation. And all those points are for is to help keep the audience on the rails. Okay, now he's talking about, about this concept. People just overdo it with the slides. And there's a reason we have that phrase death by PowerPoint. We've all been to those meetings. Oh, God, just send me the deck. I don't need to listen to you. bloviate about what I can read. It doesn't make any sense. Yeah, we lose millions of dollars in this country to unproductive meetings, because people lack the presentation skills.

Roy Barker 27:10

So I want to get started on my story, my presentation. Do you sit down and start with the basic outline? How would you get started in that process?

Dave 27:22

Start with the transformation? How do you want the audience to think feel or act differently? After they've heard your presentation? Because if you don't know, if you don't have that, it's like going to an airport and saying, hmm, do I want to go to Guam? Do I want to go to Monte Carlo? Do I want to go to LA where am I I mean, nobody goes to the airport, trying to figure out where they're going. Right? Right. And even if you've got a subject matter, I want you to speak about podcasting ROI. That's great. But you're gonna think, Okay, what do I want to do? I've got x number of minutes. Do I want to give them everything they need to know about podcasting? Or do I want to give them a little inspiration and let them know where they can what the next steps are? Because I can't give them the whole thing and a half an hour? And you figure out what those goals are? And who should do it? who shouldn't? And then you figure out, okay, what's the path? What are my stepping stones, maybe I want to talk a little bit about mics and technology, maybe I want to talk a little bit about vocal skill, maybe I want to talk a little bit about how you find good guests and what you look for. And those are my three areas. So I've got an intro and an outro. And I've got my three areas, and you break those down and you make them interesting and exciting. And all of a sudden, you got a great 30 minute show that inspires people to either learn more about podcasting or decide that it's not right for them.

Roy Barker 28:52

Yeah, that's awesome. Because, you know, we talked a little bit pre show is, you know, sometimes that can be the daunting task because we have all these ideas floating around, and then we sit down in front of that blank sheet of paper or the blank screen or the you know, the PowerPoint slide that's white then seems to be taunting you. And, you know, so I've gotten where I've started doing pen and paper before I even pick up a computer and that way, it's just easier for me personally to to move things around before I actually start. It seems like once I start writing it on the computer, I feel very committed to whatever I've just put down there.

Dave 29:30

Yeah, I think it happens to all of us. But it's same thing. Don't. Don't call the play until you know which end zone you're aiming for. And I mean, know where you're going because as soon as you have a destination, you can plot a course to it. But if you don't know what the ending is, what where the story's going, you're gonna run around in circles and you're going to ramble, and hey, that's okay. Sometimes you find a story that way because there are all sorts of subconscious things that happen when we're trying to write a story we don't always know consciously what we're trying to write, and novelists love this process. I don't know, I sit down to write every day. No, I had somebody call me to help them with their novel. And they were almost 500,000 words. And I had to break it to them and say, yeah, I'm sure this is amazing. But nobody's going to read a 500,000 word novel. It's just, you know, so they got in the zone. And they wrote every day, and they loved the process, and the story and the characters and everything kept going. But you know, it's just, there's no forklift that can lift this thing. Exactly.

Roy Barker 30:35

Well, Dave, we certainly appreciate you taking time out of your day to come talk to us about storytelling. And are there any other points that you want to make before we wrap up?

Dave 30:45

Oh, I could, I could go on. I could, I could, I could go ahead and really challenge that forklift. Yeah, something

Roy Barker 30:54

I guess that's a good point. Sometimes less is actually more, because the DS can be so daunting to look at, you know, myself, I look at that big book like that and think it take me a year to get through it.

Dave 31:09

Yeah, I think I think to recap, my points would be first of all, whoever you are, you have stories, and they're big enough. We all battle the demons of self doubt, don't think, oh, gee, one day, I'm going to have my story. Your story is just could be out in your backyard. But if you need to take a step out into the woods, and go get a story today, it's not that hard, spend a night sleeping under the stars, talk to someone you're afraid to talk to whatever it is challenge yourself. Because if you're not afraid of something you're not really living. But go ahead and do that. And then turn turn nervous into service, figure out what the transformation is, how are you going to impact the lives of other people focus on doing that, and stop thinking about yourself and your fear and practice? Allow yourself time to climb that mountain?

Roy Barker 32:04

Alright, those are great points. Dave. So what is a tool that you use in your daily life? The could be professional, personal, what's something that you do that really adds value to your day?

Dave 32:16

What I do is, I connect with the most positive and brilliant people I possibly can. I have, I won't say I've gotten fearless. But I've gotten pretty brassy about approaching people, and trying to connect with brilliant, creative, influential people, and finding ways to offer them value. And, you know, it's not about Hey, can I buy your services, though? There's certainly a place for that. But it's like, how can I take what I do and augment your superpower so you can augment mine? surround yourself with positive people, and stay away from the doubters. And the naysayers who will always pull you down because there are plenty of them. Because that's the way they think they're not going to let you rise and elevate when they have the voices in their heads and the people in their lives telling them that they're not going to succeed.

Roy Barker 33:12

Yeah, exactly. It's so much about who we surround ourselves with that positive, positive attitude, the people that are going to be there to support us and you know, help us be successful.

Dave 33:22

Yeah, find a mentor be a mentor. Yeah.

Roy Barker 33:25

All right, Dave. But that's great. So tell people you know, basically, who who do you work for? How can you help them? And then of course, how can they reach out and get a hold of you.

Dave 33:37

So I work with organizations of all sizes and teams. So I'm available for keynotes and workshops for events. And I'm excited that I mean, I'm all set up for virtual events. But I'm really excited that the in person events are starting to open and I got my COVID vaccine. And I'm excited to kind of get back in the game because the speaking industry has been pretty hard hit by this. Yes. And then I have a course it's a one video a week subscription course it's at 52 speaking blunders.com. And it talks about all the presentation mistakes that people make. And it's three to five minutes, every week short, entertaining video. And I love this model because most people who buy an online course never even open it or they get a couple of modules in and we've all bought business books and put them on the night table and then we put another book on top of them and we never get to chapter three. So this is something that people actually engage with. So there's 52 speaking blunders.com and then my personal website is story sailing SAILING.com and more about what I do

Roy Barker 34:48

there. Okay, awesome. Y'all reach out. Let Dave help you tell your story. I know he can help you out. So that's gonna do it for another episode of the business of business podcast. We certainly appreciate your listening. You can find us at www. the business of business podcast.com we're on all the major social media networks, as well as a video of this interview will go up on YouTube when the episode goes live as well. We're on all the major podcast platforms, iTunes, Stitcher, Google Spotify, if we're not on one that she listened to regularly if you'll reach out, I'll be glad to get us added. So until next time, y'all Take care of yourself and take care of your business.

www.52speakingblunders.com

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