A couple of months ago I was traveling to Orlando, Florida. I was going to give a speech and I remember I came onto the airplane and found my seat. And I was seated next to a woman who I would have described as a business executive. She looked the part. She had on a great business suit. She had her laptop open before we even took off. I, on the other hand that day, was wearing a tee shirt, shorts and flip-flops. I probably looked like I was headed to the beach or Disney World. As I sat down, she started the conversation. I don’t know, the way most people start a conversation in that situation. She said, “Are you headed to Orlando for business or pleasure?”

I said, “I’m headed for business. How about for you?”

And she said, “For business.” And then she said, “What do you do?”

I said, “I’m a keynote speaker. I’m speaking at an association conference tomorrow.”

And then she looked me from head to toe and she asked me a very blunt question. She said, “Why in the world would anyone hire you to speak to them?”

I was kind of offended for a minute and I looked at her and said, “Because I’m amazing?”

She laughed and we had a great conversation. I’m actually speaking for her company soon.

The reason I tell you that story is as we begin this conversation this morning, I want to start with a really blunt question for you. Why in the world would anyone choose you as their advisor? Why would they choose to do business with you? What makes you distinct? What separates you from all the other choices that they have? What makes you stand out?

The truth is the answer to that question is vast. Right? It’s probably a large answer to that question. There are multiple facets to it. But I would submit that one of the key skillsets for each of you to be able to answer that question effectively, to be able to set yourselves apart in the marketplace, one of the key skillsets to build is the ability to tell stories well. Stories do incredible things. Stories are powerful. Stories help people remember your message. Statistically, they’ve proven that people retain information told within the context of a story 500 percent better than just straight facts and figures.

So, if you want to be remembered, you want to use stories. Stories create a connection. There was a study that was just done at Princeton that I thought was fascinating. They measured brain waves and found that, as I’m telling a story or as you’re telling a story, the audience listening is experiencing the exact same brain activity as the storyteller. So, there’s a literal connection that takes place when you tell a story. And ultimately stories engage people emotionally. People buy based on emotion. People take action based on emotion. People move based on emotion. And so, you and I need to become proficient at engaging people emotionally to cause them to take action and to move forward. Stories are one of the best ways you can do that.

How many of you would agree with this statement that your ability to communicate will make you or break you in this business? Would you agree with that? OK. I think everybody agrees with that. It’s interesting because what led me to do what I do now was my inability to communicate. It was mentioned in my introduction 

that, when I was 21, my brother, Scott, and I started a business together. Scott was a lot older. He was a lot wiser. He had a lot more experience. He was 22 at the time. And the truth is we were young, naïve entrepreneurs and we jumped in. And I’d love to tell you that that business just took off like a rocket, but it didn’t. We had the ups and downs of growing that business the same way that all of you have the ups and downs of growing your business.

In August of 2003, about 11 months into that process, that month was life-changing for me. It was life-changing for a couple of reasons. Number one, I got married that month and that was life-changing in and of itself. But my wife and I were both going to school. We got married. We went on our honeymoon. We moved back to school. She was studying something. I was studying entrepreneurship and I had started a business on the side, because I thought that’s what you did when you studied entrepreneurship. And that was our main source of income. We moved into this tiny little one bedroom apartment. I think rent was $600 in that one-bedroom apartment. The living room and the kitchen and the bathroom, it was all the same room basically. It was a poor college student experience, right? We shared one car between the two of us. We had normal cost of books, tuition and living and I tell you that because I remember distinctly the day we moved into that apartment my brother called me.

He said, “Hey Ty. I just want to let you know that I transferred some money into your account.”

And I said, “Thank you. I appreciate it.”

He said, “Just so, you know, we only made $800 this month. So, I transferred $400 into your account.”

Now here’s the truth. That was for sure not the best month we had ever had. I don’t know if it was the worst month we had ever had, but it was the first time I was going to have to be accountable to somebody. I was going to have to go tell my brand new bride, “Hey, guess what. I only made $400 this month. Stupid choice, but you’re stuck.” Like, I didn’t know how to have that conversation. I just was embarrassed.

So, I sat down with Sarah and I just finally blurted it out. And I just said, “Look, we only made $400 this month.

She had a pretty normal reaction like, “Are we going to be OK? That doesn’t even cover our rent.”

We had some savings and things. And as we sat and talked, Sarah, in her wisdom, asked me two questions that really changed things. She said, “OK. Just for a second I want you just to step back and I want you to take the emotion out of it. Do you still believe this business can work for you?”

I don’t know if you’ve ever been in the situation where you feel like you’re talking to a lot of people and they’re just not responding. You’re just not moving people forward. That’s where I was. But when I looked at it with fresh eyes I said, “Yes I do.”

And then she asked me the tough question. She said, “OK. To get from where you are to where you want to go, what needs to change?” I hate that question. Don’t you hate that question? Because I was like everybody else, everything else. I didn’t know, but I needed to change. I realized that I was meeting with people, I just wasn’t moving them forward. So, I made a decision that night that I was going to do everything I could to master my ability to communicate, to grow my influence, to be able to move people. I started to read books like crazy. I started to go to seminars. I started to really dive in, study great salespeople, great speakers, great communicators.

I’ll tell you the thing that probably helped me the most. I started to record every presentation that I gave. Have you ever done that before? Is that not the worst experience of your life? Because first off, my voice sounds so, much deeper in my head. Like I don’t know what you’re hearing right now but to me it’s amazing. The first presentation I ever recorded was a sales presentation, 15 minutes long. I kid you not, I said “um” 144 times. 144 times. What was I selling? Um? There was no confidence. I started to work on it and I started to get better at it. And as I started to get better, people started to respond a little bit more. And one of the things I noticed in that process was that when people responded, when they laughed, when they engaged, inevitably it was when I was telling stories. Stories worked. They connected things.

Well, I remember at one stage in that process I was out talking to a lot of people. We were having great conversations and they weren’t dodging my phone calls, they weren’t avoiding me, but I couldn’t move them forward. They weren’t doing business with me and I couldn’t figure out why. I didn’t know what I was doing wrong. So, I reached out to a mentor of mine, a friend who is very successful in real estate and as an entrepreneur. He’s in his early 50s. I took him to lunch one day and explained my situation. I said, what am I supposed to do? Just give me some advice, I’ll do anything. He said, “Here’s what I want you to do. I want you to go to the last five people who told you no and I want you to ask them why.”

And I was like, “I’ll do anything but that. Anything else. Do you have any other ideas?” Have you ever done that before?

This was the scariest proposition in my life. I didn’t even know what I would say. But he kind of coached me through it and, so, I did. I went back to those five people, hat in hand, and said, “Look, I really want your help. I’m not trying to convince you of anything. I want your honest feedback. Tell me the truth, why did you say no? What am I doing wrong? I would love to get better at this.”

And they told me the truth. All five of them said multiple things, but all five of them said, “Ty, it’s your age.”

At the time, I was 21. I probably looked like I was 12. Some of you are thinking, “You still do.” But I’m 36, so, back off.

I had never thought about that before. I was just young enough and just cocky enough that I had no idea that was an objection. So, I went back to my mentor and said, “It’s my age.”

He said, “I know.”

I was like, “Really? Like we had to go do that? What am I supposed to do? I’m not going to wait until I’m 40 to start a business. What do I do?”

He said, “I don’t know.”

“What kind of mentor are you? Help me out here.”

He said, “What did the other young entrepreneurs do? What did Bill Gates do? What did Steve Jobs do?”

As soon as he said, “Bill Gates,” I had this idea.

It was something I turned into a story.

Jim, can I use you as an example? Come on up here. Give Jim a hand.

Jim, I’m going to have you take a seat right here with me. So, here’s the thing. I would sit down with people like Jim who were older than me, who were more successful than me, had more experience than me. And now for the first time I realized that Jim was probably thinking, “Why would I listen to this kid?” Before that I didn’t know. I would just talk and talk and he probably never paid attention because he was thinking, “This is pointless. Why am I listening?”

They call that the elephant in the room. Have you heard of the elephant in the room? That saying? What do we typically do with the elephant in the room? We pretend it’s not there. We try and talk around it. Just for a second I want you just to imagine that the animals at the San Diego Zoo escaped and they all came up here because it’s a nice resort. I don’t know why they’re here. And a literal elephant like right here. Like, huge trunk, actual elephant. I would have to acknowledge that wouldn’t I? I couldn’t just keep talking. I’d have to say, “Jim, I don’t know. There’s an elephant right there. Do you want to go pet it? I don’t know what it’s doing.” I’d have to say something.

And so, the first thing out of my mouth I’d say, “Jim, I kind of feel like a young Bill Gates.”

He would say, “Really?” Many people were like, “What?”

I wanted a reaction, though. I wanted them to engage. And I would say, “Here’s what I mean. If you remember, Bill Gates was 19 when he dropped out of school, right? And at the time computers were huge. They were the size of refrigerators. They were super expensive. And Bill Gates went around and told everybody he was going to put a personal computer in every home in the world. People probably thought he was nuts. Like, ‘Who’s this young, naive entrepreneur? No idea what he’s talking about.’ Right?

“And here’s the thing, Jim. I’m not saying I’m going to be as rich as Bill Gates is. And I’m not saying I’m going to change the world the same way Bill Gates has. But I do know that I have something here. And I’m just asking you to take a serious look. Is that fair?”

You see, that little story told thousands and thousands of times ultimately built a multi-million dollar business. And so, when I talk about storytelling, I am passionate about it because I can literally track a change in my career to learning how to tell that story in a way that connected and engaged me with people.

Jim, thank you so, much. Give Jim a big round of applause. I appreciate it. Thank you very much.

So, that led me to writing a couple of books. One of which is called, “The Power of Storytelling,” where I dissect this skill. I truly believe it’s a skill where you can learn how to tell stories more effectively and break it down. I want to give you some of those ideas here this morning so, let’s dive into it.

Here we go. This is my definition of a story. A story is a re-imagined experience narrated with enough detail and feeling to cause your listener’s imagination to experience it as real. This is key. Here’s the thing. We tell a story and if they can feel it, experience it, connect emotionally, they’re more likely to act on it, right? If we can tell a story in a way that truly engages them, it changes the whole dynamic. You’ve heard stories from people that made you cry. You’ve heard stories that made you feel like you were on the edge of your seat. You’ve had stories that you can literally feel and experience what’s happening. So, here’s the foundation for influential storytelling. And this is crucial. You don’t retell a story, you relive a story. Because when you relive a story you automatically invite other people to relive it with you and they can start to feel it and experience it in a different way. And so, the question I get from people is, “OK, Ty. That sounds great. How do you relive a story?” Well, I’m glad you asked.

I want to give you some techniques on how you do that, because the first thing I want to teach you how to do is to bring the audience into the story. So, for just a second I want you to think about a story that you tell. All of you have stories that you tell. They might be your story. They might be a client success story. They might be about a specific product. Whatever it is. I just want you to get one of those stories that you tell regularly in your mind. And what I’m going to do is teach you three techniques that are going to change the user experience for the person listening to the story. It’s not going to change your story, it’s just going to change how the other person receives it. So, these are real tangible, break it down, simple techniques.

The first is this. I want you to learn how to place them in the scene. You do this by saying, “if you had been there when…” or, you can use the word “imagine.” Say, “imagine being here.” Imagine is a great story telling word because it engages both sides of the brain.

I’ll give you an example. I could tell you a story where I say, “If you had been sitting in my office with me the first time I ever had to interview somebody, I was so, nervous. I was sitting behind my desk. My knees were shaking. The person was walking in. I still didn’t know what I was going to ask them.”

OK. Just stop right there for a second. What are you picturing in your mind? Picturing an office? Some of you have a desk. You’re seeing a man or woman walking toward you. What I’ve done is I’ve engaged you in a co-creation process where you’re picturing and creating the scene because I said, “If you had been there when...” I physically placed you in it. Does that make sense?

It’s simple. All you’re doing is adding a simple line of text to your story but you’re making it so that they can visually see it and create that image around them. So, the first technique is you place them in the scene.

The second technique is that you want to create curiosity. Curiosity is a storyteller’s best friend. Well, I have to tell you a hard truth. Here’s the truth. Nobody cares about your story. Like not even your mom. Nobody at all. Unless they see how it pertains to them. So, here’s the problem. Quite often we say, “Let me tell you a story,” or, “Let me tell you my story,” and whether it’s conscious or subconscious we kind of think, “Why do I care?”

So, instead of doing that, what I want you to do is to learn how to ask you-focused questions on the front end of a story. A you-focused question means the word “you” is in the question. The technique is this: I’m going to tap into your world with a question and I’m going to bring you into my world with a story.

Let’s say we were talking about goal setting and I could just jump in and say, “You know, when I was 21 I set a really big goal.” But why does that matter to you? So, instead I could ask a you-focused question. I could say, “You know, what stops you from achieving your goals?” What do you think? Right here in the front row. What stops you from achieving your goals? Self-imposed limitations? Anybody else feel like they kind of sabotage themselves sometimes? I know I do. Yes, time and money. For sure. “You know, it’s interesting you say that because, when I was 21, I set…” Now you would actually care about the story. I don’t actually have a story. I’m just making this up as we go along. But all I did was tap into your world with a question. So, I create engagement and dialog. Now that story has relevance to both of our lives. I create a connection. Asking a you-focused question creates curiosity for the story to make sense.

Then, as you dive into the story, the third technique is this. You’re going to reinforce relatability. You’re going to do that by having a conversational tone in the way that you speak. You’re going to say things like, “Have you ever felt that before?” “Can you imagine?” “Have you ever met somebody like that?” It’s like you’re standing right here in the story and just for a second you’re going to kind of step out and ask, “Are you with me?” “Are you still following me?” “Are you engaged?” Just in natural conversational cues. Sometimes, though, you can personalize this. If you’re sitting in front of a client or a prospective client and you decide you’re going to tell a client success story, somebody you worked with, there’s a point of engagement. There’s a reason you’re telling that story. Something connects to them whether it’s the struggle in the story or whatever it is. So, there’s probably a part of that story where you can stop and say, “Isn’t that kind of just like what you’re dealing with right now?” “Doesn’t that seem to be where you are?”

What you’re doing is throwing it back on them. You’re connecting it to them so, they can grab onto it.

You think about that story. What I’m asking you to do is not to change the story, but for the person hearing it to experience it differently, to relive it.

Before you jump in, you’re going to ask a you-focused question. What’s happened to their world with a question? Bring them into your world with a story. Then you’re going to place them in the scene. You’re going to say, “Imagine being here.” “If you had been here when,” so, they can start to visualize it. And then maybe once or twice throughout the story, you’re just going to touch base. “What would you do in that situation?” “Can you imagine?” “Have you ever felt that?” Do you see how I’m doing that right now? Do you know what I mean? Do you see how I just did that again? You’re just going to throw it back on them just simply and engage them a little bit around that. Does that make sense?

Let me give you my number one rule when it comes to storytelling. Last week I was being interviewed by a magazine. This woman asked me, “What’s the biggest mistake that salespeople make when telling stories?” Great question because a very simple answer. The biggest mistake we make is we talk too much. We’re really good at taking a two-minute story and telling it in five minutes. And nobody cares.

So, my number one rule is this: If it’s not necessary to say it, it becomes necessary not to say. Now here’s the truth. The only way that to start to trim the fat and make it more concise is to practice it. Script it or roll play it. That’s the truth. So, for those of you who are thinking, “My business strategy is winging it,” that’s not a business strategy. It works sometimes, but it’s not a long-term strategy. Right? You’ve got to take a little bit of time and practice some of those things and put those together so, you can deliver something that really works.

Now, there’s a model for influential stories and the model is really simple but we screw it up.

The model is struggle to solution. Here’s how it works. You hook people with a struggle. You help them with a solution. In other words, if the struggle is relatable, the solution becomes credible. There’s something in our body, in our DNA, where we respond to struggle, to conflict, to challenge. It engages us emotionally. Think about it this way. Let’s say this afternoon that we decide to go to a movie and we’re all excited because this is like the blockbuster of the year. You’ve seen the previews. It’s supposed to be amazing. We all go into the movie theater. You sit down. You’ve got your drink in one hand, your popcorn in the other. And you see how I just placed you in the scene. And now you’re going to watch this movie but it ends up being about a guy who just merrily skips through life. No ups, no downs, no challenge, no struggle, everything works out perfect. We would all leave and think, “That is the stupidest movie I’ve ever seen.”

But here’s the problem. That’s how we tell stories, in business especially. Most stories in business sound the same, don’t they? We say, “You know what? We’re great and we’ve always been great and we’ll always be great. And if you work with us, it’d be great.”

And most people think, “Great.” Because, what’s real about that? It’s struggle to solution. We don’t want to hear that you’re perfect and that you’re amazing. There’s some strength in vulnerability and we’ve got to understand that. So, when you’re talking, we want to hear where you’ve been and now where you are. We want to see where people are and where you’ve taken them from a client perspective. We want to see where you are today and where you’re going from a vision perspective. That struggle to solution. We’ve got to be real and we’ve got to be open enough to share some of that reality.

So, I’ve just given you a couple of ideas. Let’s apply it to a specific story that you tell probably daily.

I’ve had a chance now to speak to lots of groups about storytelling. I’ve had a chance to coach a lot of financial advisors who’ve reached out to me and said, “I’d love some coaching on presentation skills and everything.” Inevitably we would come down to this one key story idea and that is: How do you sell yourself without bragging. Because there’s part of the conversation when you’re sitting down with somebody where you have to say, “This is why you would work with me.” But you can’t just go on and on and brag about yourself all day long and expect the prospect to think you’re the guy. You’ve got to connect in some way.

I’m going to walk you through a little process. I’m going to help you develop what this story is for you so that you can leave here with a story that you can tell that will truly sell yourself in a unique way.

A couple of mistakes that we make. A couple of warnings I’m going to give you. The first warning is this: Don’t bash your competition. It does not make you stand out by trying to put others down.

Several years ago, I was speaking at a conference in Cheyenne, Wyoming. I was speaking to a group of high school leaders. So, 16-, 17-, 18-year-old kids. There was about 300 to 400 of them in the audience. I gave my speech. All these kids were coming up and taking selfies and saying hi and different things. And there was one girl who was waiting her turn. I watched as I talked to all these kids until, eventually, everybody left except for this girl. She said, “I’d love your advice. Can I talk to you? Can we sit down?” So, we sat down.

She said, “Ty, I’m gay. And every day, well I don’t feel like the laws in this country support me. And every day, we say the Pledge of Allegiance at school and I feel like I should boycott that. And my parents don’t think that’s a good idea. But I feel like I need to take a stand. What do you think I should do?”

This was not the question I was expecting. And the truth, I said, “You know, honestly I’m not in a position to give you advice. I don’t think this is my realm. But I will tell you this. I do believe that in general our world, our country, everybody would be better if we promoted what we love instead of bashing what we hate.” I said, “Does that makes sense?”

She said, “Yes. It does.” And we had a great conversation about what it means to stand up in a positive way for what you believe. I don’t know what she decided to do. That was not my decision to make. But I think that it’s important for us to recognize that you cannot put down your competition and make yourself stand taller. It doesn’t work that way.

Instead of bashing your competition, here’s what I want you to do. I want you to think about what makes you distinct, what makes you different. What is it about you that would cause me, a potential client, to choose you as my advisor? I want you to write down a word. Maybe it’s that your independent so you’re unbiased. Maybe that’s something that makes you distinct. Honestly, some of those things are not that distinct but maybe it’s what you want the client to know about you.  For example, you have integrity. That sets you apart. You can be trusted. Whatever it is. I want you to figure out what that word would be for you. And it’s not necessarily just what makes you completely different than everybody else, but what do you want the client to know and believe about you? So, once you have that word, then we can start to work with it. Once you have that word though, here’s the second warning that I’ll give you.

And the second warning is this: Don’t be the hero of your own story. That’s where we cross the line of telling our story but we’re bragging. We can’t be the hero. I’ll give you an example. I was coaching a guy named Wade. As we started going through this process, I asked, “What makes you distinct? What do you want clients to know about you?” And he landed on the word integrity. I said, “OK. We can work with that. Let’s figure out what that story is, but you don’t want to be the hero of your own story.”

He said, “What do you mean by that?”

I said, “Somebody else has to be the hero. So, here are three questions I want you to think about.”

Three key questions when you think about that specific word that you’ve chosen. The first question is: Who taught you about integrity? Who taught this idea to you? Maybe in that there’s a story about your first boss, about your parents, about somebody who taught you this concept and shaped the way you think or approach business. They would be the hero of that story. Maybe that’s where that story has its genesis.

As I was talking with Wade he said, “I don’t know.”

I said, “OK. Maybe it’s not a person that taught it to you.”

But the second question then would be: What experience taught that to you?

As we talked about that he said, “Actually yes. When I was 22 or 23, first job out of college, our company took us to an extreme team building event.”

I said, “OK. That sounds cool. Tell me about it.”

He said, “Well, it’s run by former Special Ops Navy Seals. They put you in a group. They called it a platoon. And our platoon leader he was like this unbelievable soldier out of an action movie kind of guy. And the first thing he said to us was “I want you to understand that integrity is about doing the right thing even when nobody is watching.” And so, as we’re working as a team we no longer existed individually. It was about the team. He said, “And you’re going to do the right thing for the team even when nobody is watching. That’s how we’re going to win.”

I said, “There’s your story.” Do you see how that can turn into an incredible story?

I was coaching another guy named Walker. Interestingly we landed on the same word -- integrity. He wanted to go down that road.

I asked him, “Who taught this to you?”

He said, “I don’t know.” We couldn’t come up with anything.

“What experience taught it to you?”

“I don’t know.” We couldn’t come up with anything. 

I said, “OK. Then let’s look at it from a different angle. What’s a good example of integrity for you? What do you like?” Obviously, you could think of good and bad examples of integrity in business, different things.

I said, “Do you like sports?”

He said, “Yes, but honestly, I love the Olympics. I love the Olympics.’

I said, “OK. Cool. We can work with that. Do you think there’s an example of integrity in the Olympics?”

So, we started talking through it. And we found the example.

So, here’s the formula. Three-step formula when you’re going to tell this story. You’re in that part of the conversation where you’re sitting down with somebody and you want to sell yourself. How do you do that? First off, you engage the prospect. You ask you-focused questions. In the case of Walker, I’m going to give you this example in just a second. His story has to do with the Olympics. It has to do with certain sports. So, he could say, “Are you a fan of sports? Are you a fan of the Olympics?” Whatever that you-focused question is where you’re engaging dialog. You engage the prospect. Second, he’s going to introduce the hero and then third he’s going to take that and he’s going to apply it to himself.

So, in Walker’s case, this is the story that we developed based off of his example. He would ask a prospect, “Are you a sports fan?”

They would say, “Yes.”

And he’d say, “Do you ever watch the Olympics? I love the Olympics. Do you ever watch the Olympics?”

They typically respond, “Yes.”

He’d create a little bit of dialog engagement and then he’d say, “I love watching tennis. Tennis is one of my favorite sports in the Olympics. You’re representing your country and it’s just cool. And tennis is a great gentleman’s game and at the Olympics it feels like that level is even higher. In Beijing in 2008, James Blake, who is an American, was playing a guy from Chile, I believe. It was the quarterfinal match. They were going back and forth. James Blake hit a shot and it literally bounced right at the feet of his opponent and it was in. But the umpire called it out. And James Blake went over and argued with the umpire. They went back and forth. But the umpire couldn’t change the call once it was made. Once it’s made, it’s done. But if you watched in on TV, it was clearly in. And not only was it in, it literally bounced right in front of his opponent. So, James Blake finished talking to the umpire and then he did something really interesting. He turned and stared down his opponent for like a minute. It was awkward. Just weird. He just stared at him. You didn’t know what he was saying, but he was just staring at him.

“They finished the match. James Blake lost. In the press conference afterwards, a reporter asked him about that point. And James Blake not only called out his opponent, he went further. He said, ‘It was in. Not only was it in, my opponent knew it was in. And if roles were reversed, my dad who was sitting in the front row, he would have come out there and he would have dragged me off the court because that’s not how I was raised.’

“And the reason I tell you that story is because that’s how I was raised. And I just want you to know as we go into business together, you can count on the fact that I will do the right thing. I will make that tough call. Because that’s how I was raised.”

Do you see how that story comes together?

So, I want you to take that one idea that you have. What makes you distinct? Figure out where it came from, because you’re not going to be the hero of that story. Somebody else is -- either a person who taught it to you or an experience that taught it to you. If you can’t figure that out, think of a good example of it where you can give credit somewhere else. And then, as you tell it, you engage the prospect. You introduce the hero and then you apply it to yourself. You take that story and you say, “Here’s why we’re talking about that. Here’s where I’m going to use this idea.” And that’s where you set yourself apart. It’s a story that, if you learn how to tell well, will truly differentiate you. I believe stories have power. What I’ve found is that in virtually every industry, whoever tells the best story wins. That’s true in your industry. I watched your heads right now as I’m saying that. You’re nodding and you’re saying, “Yes. That’s absolutely true.”

I want to share one story with you as I wrap up.

I feel kind of like the magician that just told you all the secrets. Now you’re going to watch for it. And that’s OK. You can watch for some of these secrets. That’s totally fine. I’m going to use the word “imagine” to place you in the scene. I’m going to reinforce relatability a couple of times and all sorts of other things that if you get a copy of the book you’re going to dive into. Because here’s what I’ve found: You have great stories to tell. I just want to help you learn how to tell them incredibly well so that you can engage with more people and you can help more people in what you do.

At the end of World War II, there was a gentleman named Michael Downing who was invited to go to Germany to speak to a group of wounded soldiers. He made the trip to Germany and imagine this scene. Imagine walking into a room where you see dozens of young men lying on cots. Some of them have been shot, some of them are amputees. Every one of them had lost hope in their eyes and Michael empathized with these young men. He was really emotional. He kind of stood back and waited for his turn to speak. He was trying to contain his emotions and when he was introduced to them, he started his speech by saying this: “I want you to know that anything is possible. I hope that you dream big dreams because you have a bright future ahead of you and the potential to achieve anything that you desire.”

Well, the soldiers weren’t in very good spirits and they started to boo him. And the booing got so severe that Michael finally stopped, grabbed a chair and sat down. And then, unexpectedly, he reached down and he removed his prosthetic right leg and he put it on the floor. Then he removed his prosthetic left leg and he put it on the floor. And then he removed his prosthetic right arm and he took off his prosthetic left hand.

You see, what the soldiers didn’t know about him was that when he was 14 years old he was riding on the back of a wagon in a snowstorm. Something happened. He fell off the wagon. By the time his parents realized he was missing and came back to get him, he had severe frostbite to the point that they had to amputate both of his legs, his right arm at the shoulder and his left hand at the wrist. Could you imagine what that would do to a 14-year-old kid?

He empathized with those soldiers because he knew exactly what they were going through. He had lost all hope in his eyes too. But somehow, with an amazing attitude and the help of prosthetic limbs, he went on to lead an incredible life. He was married, graduated from college, and had five kids. And he climbed the corporate ladder until he became the president of a successful bank in Michigan.

Now sitting there, quite literally a stump of a man, he started his speech over again by saying, the exact same thing. He said, “I want you to know that anything is possible. I hope that you dream big dreams because you have a bright future ahead of you and the potential to achieve anything that you desire.” To me, it’s got to be the greatest speech that’s ever been given.

And his message is what I want to leave you with today. Anything is possible. I know you’re high achievers. I know you’re doing incredible things. But I hope that you come here and you realize that you have the potential to take it to the next level. I hope that you’re inspired by the people who you interact with, by the people who you hear from, and that you leave here with a renewed desire to go and make an even bigger impact on the world. You have incredible potential to go out and do amazing things. And I wish you all the best. Thank you so much.

When Ty Bennett was 21 years old, he and his brother Scott started a business in direct sales, which they built to over USD 20 million in annual revenue while still in their 20s. As a young entrepreneur, Bennett continues to engage his team’s focus to grow sales. He has developed more than 500 sales managers globally with sales and leadership in 37 countries. In his talks, Bennett uses the power of influence and storytelling to provide audiences with tangible techniques that will increase their influence and their impact as leaders and as salespeople.