When you learn how to strategically share and craft stories.
This is not a technology that comes and goes, just like the art of negotiation.
This is a skill that you can use for the rest of your life.
Today's guest is Andy Enriquez, master storyteller, keynote speaker and the brilliant mind behind the story into profit framework.
And he has spent his career helping leaders, entrepreneurs, and communicators understand one thing.
The most powerful negotiation tool you will ever have is a good story.
It's more than just you're telling a story.
It's about strategic storytelling.
It's about using the story as a tool.
It's about understanding that the shortest distance between you and the person that you want to influence is a well-told story.
And so when you can leverage stories strategically, you are able to attract more customer and clients, increase your conversions, get people to actually remember what you had to share with them, actually get them to buy into your big idea.
Position yourself as an expert.
And it's different stories that do every single one of those things.
I'm going to be honest with you.
After this conversation I had to sit with it for a minute because Andy said some things that made me rethink the way I've been showing up as a speaker, as a communicator and as a negotiator.
So buckle up.
We go deep into how to find your stories, how to own them and why the ones that you've been sleeping on might be your greatest untapped asset.
And I'm not joking when I say that I fundamentally changed the way that I tell stories on stage because of this conversation with Andy.
So if you want to tell the perfect story, this episode will change your life.
Let's jump in.
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And Kwame, honestly, so when people say, Andy, when did your entrepreneur like journey begin?
So here's a crazy thing.
So you went to law school, right?
Because I was listening to one of your podcast sessions and so forth.
So I got my master's degree in corporate accounting.
I got my CPA license, became a licensed CPA working with PricewaterhouseCoopers.
And I'm working with this amazing company.
I got every reason to do well.
And I'm like, you know what?
This is a great place.
I followed the script.
My mom told me, go to school, get a good education, get a good job.
And I'm working for this company and they're great.
People have nothing wrong to say, but it's just like something inside me is like there's got to be more than this.
So in December of 2004, I write like my letter of resignation.
I turn it into Tammy Klein, head of H.R.
And I tell her something fabulous at the time, call me.
I don't know what I'm about to do, brother.
All I know is like I got to take a major leap of faith, or I'm going to be like every other manager on the job who, late night, when we're on the client side because I was an auditor talks about all the things that they wanted to do, that they were thinking about doing, but they're just going to give themselves one more year.
And now they're like five years in.
And I was like, if I don't do something radical now, that's going to be me.
Right after I left at a family friend that came over the house and he laid out these brochures talking about.
Costa Rica is going to be like the next number one retirement spot.
Like it's going to be amazing.
We could buy land there.
We could do these pre-cabin manufacturer homes.
And I mean, everything he said was true.
I flew to Costa Rica.
I took like all of my savings.
I bought this lot for him.
We find a manufacturer for these pre-cabin homes every week.
I'm getting a phone call from this guy.
I'm getting updates.
I'm like, man, I'm about to be this rich real estate mogul, man.
Couple months go by.
And I'm calling in, I'm checking in on him.
And he's no longer picking up my phone calls, Kwame.
My goodness.
And this is like back in the day where, when you were calling international you know because you know with your family, you know being from an entire different country back in the day you had to go get these calling cards at the gas station to call.
And so I'm going to the gas station.
I'm getting these calling cards.
I'm calling the morning, afternoon, evening.
No answers.
After like reaching out for like a month and a half wondering what's happening, he finally picks up the phone.
And, you know, in the Haitian culture, somebody answers and goes, oh, boy, boy, boy, boy, boy.
Nothing good is coming after that.
Right.
Because he's like he wasn't like, hey, man, I'm sorry.
It was like, oh, boy, boy.
And basically what happened is someone offered him a short-term investment and he took not just his money, but he also took my money and the land that we got as collateral and he lost all of it.
My gosh.
When I tell you, when he told me this Kwame, I didn't even have it in me To argue.
I didn't have it in me to go off, man.
I'm talking about I just went in the room.
I curled up like a baby man and I was just like just everything going on in my mind thinking about.
How could you be so dumb?
You put all of your savings.
Are you going to have to go to back to PricewaterhouseCoopers and ask for your job back?
It's going to be so embarrassing.
And it was like all this is going through my mind, and then not in an audible voice, but eventually I hear something, and here's what I hear.
So, like when you make a decision that you're like you're about to go after your goals and your dreams, you make a decision like you're about to chase the thing that you want to do in life, that you are going to put that stake in the ground,
And you're like, man, Kwame is here.
He's in the building.
Right.
I negotiate anything, baby.
I'm talking about everything from not just negotiating for products and services.
I'm talking about negotiating in life.
I'm talking about having hard conversations.
When you make that type of a declaration in life, expect to be tested.
And something's going to show up in that thing that shows up.
What it's asking is like, how bad do you want it?
Like, how bad do you really want this thing?
And to me if you were to ask me when my entrepreneur career started, it was not when I left PricewaterhouseCoopers.
It was when I was curled up in that room and every part of me was. saying I'm a failure.
I want to quit.
I can't believe this.
What was I thinking?
And I decided that I was going to go ahead and stay in the game.
The moment I decided I was going to stay in the game.
That was the moment my entrepreneur career started, brother.
So that's that's that's the thing.
That's the universal thing for all of us.
That put our stake in the ground, that we say hey, you know, I'm going to live out my purpose and my calling.
The moment you put the stake in the ground, normally not much further out.
Something is going to show up and it's going to decide whether or not we're going to pick up your stake because you're not serious, or whether we're like you know what.
Leave his stake in the ground.
He's serious.
He wants it.
Leave it.
Wow.
Pills, bro.
And I don't I don't know if you've ever heard this before, but you're a great storyteller.
Thanks, Kwame.
Man, that's fantastic.
I appreciate that.
This is amazing.
This is amazing because there's so much we could take from this.
Because it's incredible because, for us, everybody can relate to this in some form or fashion.
There's always going to be that moment where you're tested, where you are asked by the universe how much do you want this?
How bad do you want this?
That's true.
And we have to recognize that this is part of the process.
That's the first, the big picture thing.
And then for the folks who are trying to chart this entrepreneurial path I think It's oftentimes in order to create a strong personal brand.
We also do a disservice to the people who look up to us and admire us because they don't see how bumpy and messy the journey actually is, you know.
And so for everybody on that journey, it's just hard.
And then lastly, just from a skills-based perspective For the folks who are listening, I want you to pay attention to the way this narrative was crafted.
I felt like I was there.
So we need to we need to break down how you did that.
We need to because I know that is your skill.
But I want to actually take a step back to understand how you discovered that skill, because that's your brand right now.
How did you get to be known as this master storyteller?
Because we just all saw it.
Yeah, yeah.
So Kwame, you know, first of all, I'll introduce myself to everybody there, right?
Andy Enriquez, business storytelling coach.
I'm the founder of the Master Storyteller Academy and the Million Dollar Storyteller Mastermind.
But Kwame, like you said, that wasn't always the case whatsoever.
And way before I became the master storyteller, way before I had opportunity to do trainings with Bacardi, Office Depot, Pratt & Whitney, Accenture, Google, before training their executives, their salespeople or working with entrepreneurs, speakers and coaches.
Dude, I was the furthest thing from it.
But in hindsight, I realized.
When I first discovered the power of storytelling and Kwame, I was 16 years old and maybe you'll be able to relate to this, but I remember, when I was about to turn 16, whenever I went to the grocery store with my mom, on the way out they had this auto trader magazine, man.
And I would grab an auto trader magazine and I'd be flipping through and I couldn't wait to turn 16 years old so I could get my very first car.
And so I turned 16 and I'm all super excited.
I tell my mom, like, let's go get my first car.
And my mom's originally from Haiti.
I shared that with you and my mom and her strong Haitian action.
She goes.
And Z, you know, mommy doesn't have the money, baby.
So, baby, I cannot buy you the car.
And so I'm like, oh, man.
And Kwame, I'm persistent, though.
I'm asking mom every single day, mom, can we get a car?
Can we get a car?
Can we get a car?
And then one day I get home from school.
This is crazy, man.
I get home from school.
My mom's sitting on the couch and she said, NZ, NZ, baby, sit down.
I sit down on the couch.
She said, NZ, I receive a five thousand dollar loan from the bank.
And this weekend, we're going to go buy you the car.
And I was like.
And so apparently, my mom opened up the mailbox and she got this five thousand dollar check from the bank.
But the what what it really was was a loan, a preapproval loan.
Once you sign the check, you are basically accepting a loan.
And so we went out that weekend and I came back with this black Ford Bronco to Eddie Bauer edition man.
It had like 80,000 miles, but you couldn't tell me nothing, man.
When I got home that day, I started calling up all my friends and I'm like hey listen, I want you to meet me by the bus stop because I can't wait for them to see my new car.
That night I could barely sleep.
I wake up early in the morning.
I walk out to the kitchen.
I'm looking for my car keys and I'm like.
Where are my car keys?
I'm like, wait a second, Kwame, like I know I left the car keys here.
So I go knock on my mom's door.
I'm like, hey, mom, did you pick up my car keys?
My Caribbean mom, man.
She opened up the door.
She said, oh and Z.
You know, mommy had to get the loan to buy you the car baby, until you get a job and you can pay for the insurance.
Baby, the car is going to sit right there.
And I said, but no, no, no, no.
Mom, my friends are waiting for me at the bus stop.
Like, can I just drive it today?
She said no and Z and Z.
Today today no, baby you taking the bus, man Kwame, I'm getting on that bus and you already know man, all my friends are waiting for me by the bus stop.
Man, I remember, when I get off that bus, One of my friends who's a class cow, because I tried to wait.
I was hoping they were going to walk away.
The bell was going to ring, but they were just waiting.
They're looking for me.
They're looking for that black Ford Bronco to Eddie Byer edition.
When my friend saw me get off of that school bus, he screams like, yo, Andy, is that your new car?
Dude, it's so big.
It's so yellow.
And for the rest of the day, they calling me bus boy, Andy, like they're clowning me.
So all day at school, Kwame, my brain is working, right?
Because I'm like, where am I going to go so I can get a job, so I can pay for this insurance?
And so close to my house, there's a Publix grocery market.
I ride my bike over there.
The store manager, his name is Mr. Olson.
I fill out an application to be a bag boy.
And he says, come back in a couple more days.
Man, Kwame, couple days go by.
I come back again and he's like, come back in a couple more days.
I wait a couple more days.
I come back again.
He's like, come back in a couple more days.
Two and a half weeks have gone by.
My 16 year old reputation is on the line.
And so finally, I'm like, I'm gonna do one more thing.
It's a Friday.
I get home.
Once again, I jump on my bike.
I ride over to the grocery store.
Mr. Alston sees me.
This time he recognizes me.
He starts walking the opposite direction, but this time call me.
I run up to him.
I said, Mr. Olsen, sir.
Mr. Olsen, could you just listen for a second?
My name is Andy Enriquez, sir.
I go to Plantation High School, sir.
I turned 16 not too long ago and I've been begging my mom for a car, and she bought me this black Ford Bronco II, Eddie Bauer edition sir.
It's got like 80,000 miles, but it feels like it's brand new to me, sir.
But it's sitting in my driveway and she said I can't drive the car until I get a job and I can pay for the insurance.
I said, Mr. Olson, sir.
Don't you remember your first car?
Kwame, Mr. Olson's entire demeanor change.
Mr. Austin was like, yeah, at a Chevy Camaro.
He said, would you say your name once?
I said, Andy Enriquez, sir.
Mr. Austin, he reaches behind the counter.
He gets a stack of applications.
Call me.
I promise you, my application is at the bottom of the stack.
He takes it from the bottom of the stack and he puts it at the top of the stack.
And he said listen, young man, before you can start working here, you got to come to orientation on Saturday.
I said, hold on, Mr. Olson.
Stop playing, because orientation is only for people who have a job.
Mr. Olson, he said.
I guess I guess you're finally going to be able to drive that truck.
And so.
In that moment, I'm so excited, Kwame, because I'm like, they no longer call me busboy Andy.
They go call me Bronco Andy.
I was crazy in hindsight when I look back Kwame, and I'm thinking to myself like but wait a second.
Time out.
What changed?
All the previous times when I went to Mr. Olson, he told me, come back in a couple more days.
But this one time I frantically just told him a little piece of my story.
And at the time, I'm 16 years old.
Mr. Olson was probably late 40s, early 50s.
And the moment that I told him the story and I was like Mr Olsen, don't you remember your first car?
Something happened where Mr Olsen all of a sudden had a connection to the 16 year old boy who's standing in front of him.
And I went from being at the bottom of the stack, Kwame. to being at the top of the stack.
Listen carefully now, I went from being last to consideration to getting hired on the spot.
And so what I discovered didn't know it as a 16 year old boy, but what I discovered in hindsight is that a story can allow you to be able to build a genuine connection.
But not only that.
A story allows you to go from being elastic consideration to top of consideration.
A story can help you to shift someone's perspective, create connection and turn a no into a yes.
And a story can allow a 16 year old boy to influence a mid-age man who probably didn't have much in common.
But that story presented a common ground.
And all of a sudden, Mr. Olson hires me on the spot.
Call me.
That was my first time.
I didn't know it at the time, but that was the first time that I discovered the power of storytelling.
You mean to tell me that you can.
You can leverage a story to, all of a sudden, take you from being last of thought.
To now creating a genuine connection with someone that now it literally moves you from the bottom of the stack to the top of the stack.
And you mean to tell me I can use a story to change someone's perspective, where they go from saying come back in a couple more days, which is a nice way of saying no no, no.
To all of a sudden getting to say yes on the spot.
That is the power of story.
And you know Kwame, nobody knows more than you about Being able to negotiate in one capacity or another.
And the reason why stories sort of just help you in that whole sort of like connection negotiation, passing influence, is because it allows you to do a reframe.
Because before I was just I was just a sheet of paper in a stack of applications before to Mr Olson, one of many applications.
And I just represented my name, whatever address, you know, date of birth, whatever was on there.
There was no emotional connection for Mr. Olson.
And so I was just an application.
And when I kept showing up, I was an application and a nuisance.
There was still no emotional connection.
I was just that persistent kid.
But when I shared the story about the first car in Kwame, you know this as much as I do.
When I'm in front of a live audience man, I could get the whole audience to light up when I when I tell that story and I say
How many of you guys remember your first car?
Matter of fact, tell the person sitting next to your first.
Oh man, everybody remembers their first car.
Everyone's got a story about how they got their first car.
Some people are like, my first car was a hand-me-down.
Me, my first car, I didn't even get a first car.
I had a bike, I had a newspaper route.
All of a sudden The the the the, the common ground of the first car in the story connected to the first car, created a connection.
And I leveraged that connection to get inroads with Mr. Olsen and to be able to pass influence.
And it's funny.
Till this day, Kwame, my wife, she's always like she calls it lecture.
She's like oh boy, here you are with a lecture, because we'll go to a restaurant and there's something that I want, or something didn't go the way that I wanted to, or somebody is not meeting the standard.
She calls it the lecture.
It's not the lecture.
What I'm going to do is have a conversation with them.
And I'm going to first make sure that I get to know what's important to them.
But then what I'm going to do is I'm going to go ahead and reframe Whatever happened, the incident, the the, the thing that I'm unhappy with.
I'm going to reframe it as opposed to just complaining and saying hey, I wish you guys would have done this.
I'm going to tell a story.
And by the end of the story, they're going to come to the conclusion.
My wife goes, but he does it every time.
Next thing you know, she's like, they came and they comped our bill.
Or they're like, Mr. Henriquez, we want to give you a complimentary this.
We want to give you a complimentary that.
All I did was reframe it.
And Kwame.
I want to say this, speaking of reframe, because some folks may not know what I mean by that.
So Kwame, I'm looking at your wrist.
You got a nice timepiece on your wrist, right?
And so check this out.
So I go into the mall and there's a particular timepiece that I had been eyeballing or whatever.
And then I finally, you know, I'm real frugal and so forth.
And I finally decided I'm going to buy this timepiece.
Right.
And so I buy it.
And and when I buy it, it's a box that if most people saw the box, they would recognize it.
So I'm there and they call us into a back room and they're celebrating us.
Congratulations, Mr. Enriquez.
You know what I mean?
And then they they take the box and they stick it in the bag and so forth and call me.
I'm I'm holding the bag and I'm walking out of the store.
And in the sales agent says, Mr. Enriquez, hold on.
Hold on, sir.
Come back.
And when I come back into the store.
She takes this beautiful box in this beautiful bag and then she puts it into a brown paper bag.
And then she goes, here you go, Mr. Enriquez.
And I'm looking, I'm thinking myself like now that's odd.
And but then I finally got it.
I'm at a mall.
And the timepiece that I just bought is a well-known brand.
And it's also known that, you know, that particular timepiece is of some value.
And she asked me before I walked out.
She said, Mr Enriquez, are you and your wife done or are you going to be shopping in the mall?
We said we're going to be shopping in the mall.
She said, oh, hold on.
And so she took the box and she put it into this brown paper bag.
Why was she doing that?
By putting it in the brown paper bag, she reframed the perceived value of what was actually in the box.
So now I can walk around that entire mall with a brown paper bag and absolutely no one is going to look twice or even consider harming me, robbing me or anything, because they're going to be like he's just carrying a brown paper bag.
Now, only thing that shifted is was me going from their branded box in their branded bag, versus it being in a brown paper bag.
Most people, when they're presenting the thing that they have Kwame, they put it in that brown paper bag.
And so they got something of great value and they're wondering why I keep putting in front of people and I keep presenting it to people.
But no one seems to want it.
And they don't realize the reason why no one seems to want it is because you haven't put it in the right frame.
And what do we frame things with?
We frame it with story.
We've all been there.
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And so every single thing that we want to either add value to that, we want to change perspective, and so forth, all we have to do is change the frame, change the bag.
And how do you change the bag?
You simply change structure and put together a story, the same way that I just told you.
Hey, I want to talk to you real quick about a reframe.
A whole bunch of people were listening and they're like I still don't know what he means by reframe.
But all I did was I used a story to now explain to you what a reframe is.
My long time ago coach and mentor, the legendary Les Brown, here's what he said.
He said, never make a point without telling a story and never tell a story without making a point.
So what I just basically just modeled was that I'm simply making a point that, hey, guess what?
Stories can help you to reframe stuff.
Now, I could just tell you that or I could tell you a story.
And now all of a sudden the point sticks.
The moment I put it inside of a story, you are 22 times more likely to be able to recall it.
And now there is an emotional connection to the point that I wanted to make.
Otherwise, if you're taking some great notes, as you should right now, anytime you're listening in to negotiate anything, because listen, but I was listening.
Listen, when I was listening, I was listening.
It was one of your episodes where you had multiple interviews.
Um, that you guys consolidate back to back, and I was listening and I'm sitting there trying to do my stretch.
I'm trying to do my stretch.
And at the same time, I was like, wait a second, that's good.
I was like, let me go ahead and grab a notepad.
Let me go ahead and write some stuff down.
Right.
And so the, and what I love to call me, I got to say this, right.
For the people who are listening in and they're not seeing.
A sign of greatness.
Call me right.
It's like we already know you're great.
You're doing amazing things.
But I'll never forget this.
I I'm speaking at an event.
I'm at a direct sales conference and there's an audience of about two thousand three thousand people there.
And I'm nervous Kwame, because the reason why I'm nervous is because my coach and mentor at the time is sitting front row the legendary Les Brown.
For people who are listening.
If you don't know who Les Brown is.
That's one of the top five speakers on the planet.
He's the NSA Hall of Fame speaker.
He's also, you know, received the Golden Gavel Award.
I mean, this guy has generated over sixty five million dollars speaking.
And whoever is your mentor is he's your mentor's mentor.
If you haven't heard of him, make sure you go look him up.
So call me.
Less is sitting right there in the front row.
And I'm up there delivering my talk.
I'm nervous.
You know, I'm nervous, man.
Your coach and mentor is sitting right there in the front row.
And I see him sitting there, Kwame.
And I see him with his notepad and I see him taking notes.
And I'm like, oh, man, he's critiquing the light side of me.
I mean, he's go just man.
So I'm done.
And then he has his notes and I'm like I walk up to him and he just looks at me and I'm like OK, I saw you taking the notes like I saw you sitting in the front row.
Right.
I was trying to concentrate because you were right.
Right.
And so I was like, go ahead.
Let me have it.
He's like, let you have what?
I said, let me have it.
I was like, I know you were critiquing me.
He's like critiquing you.
He's like, no, whenever there's someone speaking, I'm always taking notes.
He said, matter of fact, hey, tell me again.
You said that one quote.
Was that by Kevin Costner?
He said, I like that part in the speech where you said when the defining moment comes.
Either you define the moment or the moment defines you.
Where would you said said that quote?
I said, Mr. Brown, Kevin Costner said that in one of his movies called Tim Cup.
He was like, oh, I like that one.
He was like, oh, I might give you credit the first two times that I I use it.
But after that, it's mine.
And I was like, wow.
Wow.
The sign of greatness.
The sign of greatness is that the teacher never feels as if they've arrived and that they're always taking the notes.
And so, Kwame man, as I'm sitting here and we're having a podcast, I get so excited because I watch you take notes.
Same way when I was listening to Negotiate Anything, I'm taking notes.
And to me, that's always the sign of greatness because we're always like, man, this is so good.
Let me make sure I write this down because I just want to be able to pull this back.
And Kwame.
By the way, on some of the stuff that I took notes on, I'm going to give you credit, probably like the first two, three times I shared.
And after that, brother, it's mine, man.
I'm jacking it.
Wow.
Well, what do I say next?
Here's what I'll say.
Everybody, that was our episode of Negotiate Anything.
I'm just sitting here.
I said I had chills.
I haven't stopped having chills.
I might need to go to the hospital.
This is incredible.
I have done this for so long.
I don't even... Simone, say something.
Can you say something, Simone?
What do I do?
This is incredible.
I...
You're so right.
And I'm thinking to myself as I'm going through this, I'm like, OK, what am I what am I doing here?
Because I'm so in this story that I'm no longer a podcast host.
And I and I kept saying to myself at some point is I had you got to get you got to get in the game.
You've got to get in the game.
But I can't get in the game because I'm in this story.
Like I was there.
You took me everywhere.
It's so fascinating.
And so for me, one of the things because I like this, because you said, when you're, when you are really good at something, you never stop learning.
And it's true because the thing is.
When I'm a host of the podcast, I'm always trying to advocate for the crowd.
For me as a lawyer.
I think I'm advocating for the crowd, but I can't stop thinking about how, when it comes to my persuasion game and I think about negotiation very technically
Classically, I've been a very technical negotiator, and I think that's from the legal side, very tactical, very strategic.
I've started to move to focus more on creating this connection.
And what I'm recognizing is that, even though we've talked about storytelling a lot, it really wasn't until this episode that I fully appreciated that I didn't understand stories fully.
This is a complete reframe, because I'm thinking about so many times where I might use a persuasive strategy or I might focus on psychology.
I might recognize the psychological barrier, come up with a negotiation tactic to circumvent that, create a deeper connection and it works.
It's been very successful.
And now I'm looking back on all of these moments and I'm thinking to myself how many times could I have gotten to the end state much sooner with a well crafted story.
And I think that's one of the things that is really coming to mind.
It's not just the fact that, hey, tell stories.
It's not just the fact that clearly there are levels to this game when it comes to telling stories.
It's me looking back on all of the presentations, the keynotes, the conversations and the negotiations and recognizing that
There could have been so much more in those interactions with artfully crafted stories.
So, man, I'm just...
I tell you, think about when.
You think about all the negotiation strategies and skills that you've developed over the years.
What happens is when you add this story component, all you're going to be doing is literally adding rocket fuel to what already works for you.
Right.
And one of the things that, and what's actually interesting, is Kwame, which you You know.
Being an attorney right means you're highly analytical.
And the thing is, there's a part of my brain that's exactly like that.
Right.
Because as I was sharing with you, you know, I'm formerly a CPA auditor with PricewaterhouseCoopers.
And so what was interesting is there's this like super, super analytical side there.
And that's what helped me, because what happened is, when I was watching people who are like teaching on storytelling, they'll be like, oh yeah, storytelling is awesome.
And then they would, and even the ones that could model it well, they weren't always really good at being able to teach it.
And I think the reason why is they didn't think in terms of like frameworks and steps and so forth.
And so one of the things that I've come to realize The framework that we are, we are normally teaching to the people we get an opportunity to work with is that it's not just like oh, you're telling stories and But Kwame, there's like five different types of stories that we actually take the time to share.
Now, I won't get into like the five stories, but there's one that ties in so well with negotiation.
And that particular story.
So there's five stories that every entrepreneur speaker coach, influencer should really be able to share.
And I'll say what they are just sort of high level.
There's your signature story that allows you to build connection and rapport with the people that you actually want to connect with.
There is the offer story.
Right.
And that is now you're looking to offer your products and your services.
And this is a story that you share, so that you can be able to overcome objections and be able to create urgency.
This is the one that I feel like ties in significantly to negotiation.
There's the landing story.
This is, you know, Kwame's on stage and he's about to deliver this keynote.
And now Kwame's like, hey, these are the main points that I'm going to make in my keynote.
But I want them to land well on my audience.
So as opposed to doing verbal gymnastics.
How can I take these points and put them inside of a story so that it lands better for the audience?
The fourth type of story is what we call a value proposition story.
This is, hey, you know what?
The value proposition story Kwame, You could almost say is the story that I shared a little bit earlier during this podcast interview, where I talked about the story about getting my very first car.
And so what happens is, Kwame, sometimes I will open up a keynote presentation with that story.
Now, I want you to think about from the lens of the person sitting in the audience.
First of all, they're like, what is where is he going with this?
He's talking about he was 16 years old.
He got a car.
Next thing you know, they're enjoying it.
But they're still like, I have no idea how this ties into storytelling.
Right.
And then I get to the moment where Mr. Olsen hires me.
But in this case, what I actually do, Kwame, is I ask the audience, what happened?
What changed?
Why did Mr. Olsen all of a sudden hire me?
And now, Kwame, the audience is screaming out, you made a connection.
You told your story.
You told the story.
And then I paused right there.
And I say, over the next 45 minutes I'm going to be sharing with you how you can use a story to go from being last in consideration to top of consideration.
How you could use a story to go from hearing a no to saying a yes.
What I did, Kwame, is I'm inside of my keynote.
And I'm in the first six minutes of the keynote and I just got the entire audience to buy into my topic.
What is it?
Strategic storytelling where most keynoters are going to be 20, 30 minutes in, still trying to lift the load of getting the audience to buy into their topic.
I'm done, baby.
Six minutes in, the audience is screaming.
It's the story.
It's the story.
Got them.
Value proposition story.
That is basically like me hitting over.
My daughter has these magnetic tiles.
In our day, Kwame would have been more like us putting the dominoes down, but we line up the magnetic tiles and then we knock over the first magnetic tile.
All of the magnetic tiles fall.
That value proposition story is the first tile.
Boom.
I hit that down.
Everything else is going to roll because I got you to buy into my big idea before I even got into the big idea.
And then the last one is what we call the expert story.
So what you're going to notice Kwame, is that it actually spells the word solve, because I believe that these are the stories that solve so many of the problems that entrepreneurs have.
And the expert story is, as opposed to us getting in front of people and saying You know, I'm a licensed CPA and I graduated summa cum laude from, you know, Florida State University.
I got my undergraduate degree in accounting, my master's degree in corporate accounting.
I worked with PricewaterhouseCoopers and the audience is like.
Like.
Nobody cares about your bio, right?
That's the thing I want people to understand.
Like, and Kwame, here's the crazy thing.
As much as we're like, we, we're so grateful for the things we've accomplished.
You know it cause you've been on enough stages that if you go and you're standing behind the curtain on the green room, Not when they're playing a video
I'm not talking about they're playing a video introducing you.
But if they're just reading a standard bio, people are still finishing up conversations.
They're on their cell phones.
Brother, you already know nobody cares about your bio and correction.
For most of us if our mother is still living.
Your mother cares about your bio, but nobody else cares about your bio, right?
So the expert story, what it?
What it is is Kwame.
Instead of me trying to tell you I'm an expert by listing accolades and the things, what I'm doing is I'm going to tell you a story.
And in the story I'm gonna talk about the mistakes that I made, the investments that I had to make to learn what I learned, the results that I created as a result of some of the things that I learned, personally or for my clients that by the end of me telling you the story, you're gonna come to the conclusion yourself wow, that dude's an expert.
I'm not going to tell you I'm an expert.
You're going to come to the conclusion yourself because of the fact that you're just.
You heard the story and through your own deductive reasoning, you're like She's an expert.
He's an expert So there's though all five of those stories is the five stories that every entrepreneur needs to craft This is what when we work with our clients in our million-dollar storyteller mastermind or a master storyteller Academy We start off with the signature story, but these this is a story framework but here's the crazy thing call me the negotiation piece is The offer story.
So call me, I know how you are.
Like for the people who wrote that down real quick the office story.
When you talk about negotiate anything, put like some stars next to it, because when we're helping someone craft an offer story, here's what we do call me.
We say when you are going to offer your products or your services, or I know some people are listening in.
They're like, Andy, I'm not an entrepreneur.
I'm you know, I work a corporate job.
I'm a professional.
OK, fine.
When you're going to make the request to your superior.
Or you're going to make the offer to your customers and your clients, your prospects.
What we're thinking in advance is we're saying
What are the potential objections?
So in my case as an entrepreneur, I know, hey, they may say, I don't know if I have the time.
I don't know if I have the money.
You know, oh, maybe this costs too much.
Let me talk to my spouse.
Let me think about it.
Sounds interesting.
And so instead of taking the ostrich approach and burying my head in the sand, hoping that.
These objections are going to go away, which they're not OK, because I ignore them.
So in offer stories, I say.
Let me think about this objection.
And let me think of a story that I can tell.
That can help me to tackle the objection before the objection even comes up.
Right.
And so Kwame a lot of times when I know I'm going to offer my prospects an opportunity to enroll into one of our coaching programs.
They may think, oh, I don't know if I can invest that much.
I don't know if this is the right timing.
So what I do Kwame, is I just tell the story about When I went to Orlando Florida, and there's this amazing guy at the front of the room and I was like man, I would love to learn and be trained by him.
And who was that guy?
Kwame is the one and only legendary Les Brown.
And when I ran up to the front of room, I was like, excuse me, sir, Mr. Brown.
My name is Enrique.
So I'd love to be coached by you.
And he told me, he said, young man, go to the back of the room and speak to my program director.
And so Kwame, I run to the back of the room and his program director, she hands me like these three pieces of paper, and I get the pieces of paper and she goes.
We're wrapping up right now.
I'll call you tomorrow.
And so when she's going to call me tomorrow, like at about 10 o'clock by 930, I go grab the paper and call me when I start flipping through the paper.
I get to the final page and call me.
I'm like, oh, Lord, maybe they made a typo because I thought it was a three thousand dollar program.
Call me.
It was a thirty thousand dollar program.
Now, here's the thing.
I'm in high ticket masterminds all day long today that are beyond that.
But let's I want to be clear.
This was over 18 years ago.
I didn't know too many people that were in $30,000 programs.
So I always tell people, like, don't judge me.
But she called me and y'all know I did not pick up the phone.
Right.
Call me.
She called me in the morning.
She called me the afternoon.
By the third time, bro, I renamed it.
Don't judge me, man.
But you I don't know if you've done this before.
Right.
Or don't admit it.
Don't admit it.
I'll admit it.
But you don't admit it.
I put next to her name.
Do not answer.
Right.
I put next to her name.
Do not answer.
So every time she was calling me and I'm thinking to myself like.
I got away with this.
Two weeks later, my phone rings.
It's a telephone number I don't recognize.
And I picked up the phone.
And when I pick up the phone on the other end, I hear, hey, what's going on, young man?
This is Les Brown, Mamie Brown's baby boy, pride and joy.
How you doing, my man?
I'm like, Les, Les Brown.
Yeah, my young man.
He said, hey, young man, I thought you said, I thought you said you wanted to become a speaker.
I said, I do, sir.
He said, I thought you said you wanted to be able to build and grow business.
I said, I do, sir.
He said, well, what happened?
I said, but call me.
I got the stutter, sir.
But I was like, but sir, the price, the price.
He said, the price.
He said, OK, young man, would you say you want to do?
I said, sir, I want to become a speaker.
I want to become a coach.
I want to build a I want to build a business.
He said, OK.
He said, well, what coaching programs are you in?
I was like, um, uh.
I read Think and Grow Rich.
I read The Richest Man in Babylon.
So I'm listing off books and stuff.
He's like, no, no, no.
Who's your coach?
And I was like, sir, I don't have a coach.
And in so many words, this is what he said.
He didn't quite say these words, but this is the best way for me to synthesize this.
And I invite everybody to write this down.
He said, you have to invest at the level in which you expect results.
You gotta invest at the level in which you expect results.
Because a lot of us, there's something we say we want.
We say we wanna have an amazing podcast, right?
Like negotiate anything.
But most of us aren't willing to pay the price to have a podcast that's as amazing as this podcast.
Right.
And so a lot of times there's something we say we want to do.
We want to be the best selling author.
We we want to get the career advancement.
We want to build a seven figure business.
We say we want these things, but oftentimes we're not willing to pay the price.
And so I say, OK, but it didn't negate the fact that I didn't have the money.
Right.
So I say to him, OK, sir, let me let me come up with the money.
Let me come up with the money and then I'll get back to you.
Let me let me come up with the money and then I'll get back to you.
And then so right there, he sort of starts laughing.
And after he starts laughing, here's the crazy thing.
This it did not negate the fact that I knew I did not have the money.
Like I knew I didn't have the thirty thousand dollars.
So I'm talking to Les Brown.
I'm like, OK, sir, let me let me figure it out and then I'll get back to you.
He sort of laughed.
He chuckled.
And he said young man, let me tell you the difference between successful people and non-successful people.
He says successful people commit first and then they figure it out.
He said.
Non-successful people, they want to figure it out first before they commit.
And because they're trying to figure it out, you know what happens, young man?
They never commit.
And so right after he said that, I did the last thing I could think of.
I tried to kill him with flattery.
I was like, but Mr. Brown, you're so amazing.
You're so awesome.
I've been listening to your CDs and so forth.
And he goes, whoa, wait a second.
Wait a second.
And he reminded me of something he said, young man, let me tell you something.
He said Tony Robbins interviewed Warren Buffett.
And during that interview he said to Mr Buffett he said, Mr Buffett, you've invested in real estate.
You've invested in the stock market.
You've invested in businesses.
He said, Mr. Buffett, what's the best investment you've ever made in yourself?
And Mr. Buffett thought about it for a moment.
And you know what the best investment he said he's ever made?
The best investment he's ever made is investment in himself.
Not only that, you know what it was?
It was a Dale Carnegie course.
You can go online.
You'll probably find the interview between.
Warren Buffett and Tony Robbins.
And Les Brown was like, young man, you're not investing in Les Brown.
You're investing in yourself.
And so call me.
The crazy thing is, man.
I remember when we were doing that conversation I did not have all the money.
And I ended up having to ask for a payment plan.
And I remember being so nervous that the bank that was still around, it was called Bank Atlantic.
And I remember I was going to go make that first ten thousand dollar deposit.
And then I remember sending off that ten thousand dollar deposit.
I was so nervous.
I tried to talk myself out of it.
But I discovered something the moment that ten thousand dollars left my bank account.
You know what happened?
I went from being fanboy Andy to saying, man, as much as I love Les Brown, that man got my money.
I need to get a return on my investment.
And so what I discovered in that moment is this.
The more you pay, the more you pay attention.
I'm going to say it again.
The more you pay, the more you pay attention.
And so the crazy thing is it didn't happen overnight.
But what happened is I learned how to be able to share and craft my message.
And I start off at first, you know, just casually sharing my message.
And at first no one's paying me.
Then people start saying, give me an honorarium.
Next thing you know, you know, give five hundred bucks to speak.
Then a thousand dollars.
Then then ten thousand.
Right.
Then fifteen thousand and twenty thousand and thirty thousand.
And Google pay me forty five thousand.
Right.
And then one of my stories get featured by Goldcast.
It gets millions of views.
And I'm like, oh, my goodness, all this thing happens.
And the crazy thing is, I want you guys to realize.
It was a result of one decision.
One decision.
I was scared, but it was one decision.
Here's what I know.
Most of us are one decision away.
From getting to our breakthrough.
We're one coach away from being able to get to the thing that we want.
We are one defining moment away from getting the thing that we want.
Now, here's the thing.
Kwame, that was more than the story.
That was a masterclass on an offer story.
Because what I am doing is I'm leveraging my own personal story to navigate through the thought process of what I know people are going to be going through and feeling themselves.
Later on, when I'm going to go ahead and extend invitation for them to either come into our Master Storyteller Academy, which is not 30000 right.
It's only a $2,500 investment at the time of this podcast, right?
Right?
But just think about how I got their mind stretched right now.
Or whether I'm going to extend an invitation to join my million dollar storyteller mastermind, which is, you know, a higher ticket investment.
But what I am doing is through the story.
I am navigating the very same thing that I know that they're going to be wrestling with, without even telling them.
I'm just telling my own story.
But the same reframes that were happening for me, because they can't help but participate in the story.
They're inside of the same reframes I'm doing.
So they're realizing like, man, you know what?
It's true.
I got to invest at the level in which I expect results.
I've been incongruent just like Andy.
I've been saying I want to I want to grow my business like, man, you know what?
I'm playing games, man.
I've been buying these little online courses, man.
He's right.
But you know what?
Just like Andy, I want to do it.
But I don't know if I have the money.
Let me figure it out first.
Whoa.
So I got to commit first and figure it out later.
So meaning I got to take action, even though I don't have it all figured out.
Man.
All right, but that Andy guy, you know, he's really cool.
He's a cool storyteller.
I want to invest in him.
No, no, no, no, no, no time out.
You're not investing in Andy Enriquez.
Who are you investing in?
You're investing in yourself, because when you learn how to strategically share and craft stories, this is a skill you will be able to use for the rest of your life.
This is not a technology that comes and goes just like the art of negotiation.
This is a skill that you can use for the rest of your life.
Kwame.
When, when my wife and I got married and I was watching her when we would go to like markets, we went.
I remember we went over, we went to Kenya.
Went to Kenya and we were in like a flea market type area over in Kenya.
And man, they were having a field day on my wife and on my mother in law because they were not comfortable with negotiating.
OK.
It's in my DNA.
Right.
Our culture.
We live for negotiation, baby.
Let's go.
Right.
And so they're uncomfortable.
So whatever price is presented to them, they just accept it.
And I remember just being so excited.
Just a simple thing.
I told my wife listen, you're probably not going to want to learn negotiations to the extent that Kwame does or to the extent that Andy does.
Right.
You're probably not going to want to obsess over the way that we like.
We geek out over this stuff.
Right.
But I said, can you just learn these seven simple words?
Is that the best you can do?
Is that the best you can do?
So just let them talk.
Just let them talk.
Everything they do.
Say, is that the best you can do?
And then just be quiet.
And then just let the silence do the stuff.
And it was so hilarious.
She's in the thing and she starts going and I start watching her with the vendors and the vendors are like telling her they're like no, this is the price.
And my wife looks at them and she looks at me and I'm like, say it, say it, say it.
And she looks over at them and she goes, is that the best you can do?
And then she just, she just be quiet.
And next thing you know, Kwame, they're negotiating against him.
The silence.
They don't know what to do with the silence.
They just thought, oh, well, maybe I told her, just be quiet.
Just because some people are just so uncomfortable with the silence.
But, you know, I share that because I remember that was just a simple thing that I learned.
That I'm able to use over and over again.
And there's so many people as they're listening into your podcast.
There's just a simple thing that they're just going to pick up from this podcast or any of the previous podcasts and the ones that come in the future.
And that one little thing they could just put in their tool belt and they'll be able to use it.
I was willing to invest in myself.
I developed one skill and that one skill now has to pay me for the rest of my lifetime.
And they always know my family wants to do something like call Andy.
And they're like they think they think I'm the master negotiator.
I'm like, no, Kwame is the national negotiator.
I'm the master storyteller.
The thing is, when you put these skills together, it's magic.
Wow.
There are levels to this game.
There are levels to this game.
This is so good.
Okay.
My brain is back online.
I can summarize.
I could do this.
Okay.
So let's love the five story types.
I want to make sure that folks got this.
We've got the signature story, the offer story, the landing story, the value proposition story, the strategic story and then the expert story.
And what I'm what I'm seeing here, though, Andy, is that this takes practice.
You don't just wake up.
Oh, yeah.
No, absolutely.
It's not wake up.
What we're doing is we are definitely making it super simple.
And if you remind me too I have a like a free download that it just literally summarizes everything, those five stories.
But yeah, um, 100%, like, so everyone understands it conceptually, right?
We talked about it as a signature story, the offer story, the landing story, value proposition story, expert story.
Now, those are the five stories we need to tell.
It's important that you understand it because most people They've heard by now, thank God, the importance of storytelling.
But what they don't fully really understand that it's more than just you're telling a story.
It's about strategic storytelling.
It's about using the story as a tool.
It's about understanding that the shortest distance between you and the person that you want to influence is a well-told story.
And so when you can leverage stories strategically, you are able to attract more customer and clients, increase your conversions, get people to actually remember what you had to share with them, actually get them to buy into your big idea.
Position yourself as an expert.
And it's different stories that do every single one of those things.
And so we strategically craft those stories.
And the cool thing is Kwame, once you strategically craft those stories brother, they become like your hit record.
And this is the point that I need folks to understand.
I learned this traveling around with the legendary Les Brown and in getting, many years later, being able to watch him.
What I noticed was that he'd be in front of different audiences.
And even though he'd customize the message, he was still using many of the same stories.
And so what most people think is is that oh, I got to, I got to, I got to have like a gazillion trillion different stories.
No, you need to strategically craft some amazing stories and those stories become your hit records.
So let me put this in context.
What I mean by hit record though, my wife and I were looking for like a concert to go to.
And so there's the legendary baby face, right?
So, you know, baby face is having a concert.
And for those of you who don't know who Babyface is, this guy is a legend in the R&B music.
He's written many songs that you don't even realize he's also the one who wrote the song.
And so we're getting ready for the Babyface concert, my man.
We're listening to like some of his old records so that we could sing along.
We're listening to some of the other songs he wrote, like we're getting ready, man.
My wife gets dressed.
I get dressed.
We go to the Babyface concert.
We're ready to go.
And as I'm there at the concert Kwame, I'm looking at how the audience basically can sing every single word that he says.
I'm looking at the fact that it is so many years later and like he can still pack a whole stadium because of those hit records.
Now, here's what I want people to envision as you listen to this podcast.
I want you right now to think about your favorite artists.
And preferably somebody who is still alive.
That was really amazing back in the day.
And you still love them because you have amazing memories attached to them.
Now you're in a new place in life.
You're no longer that college student that got to try to sneak into the concert.
Right.
You're doing a little better now.
You're listening to negotiate anything.
You're doing a little better in life.
OK, so now you don't buy you some concert tickets.
You're sitting closer to the front row, right?
You feeling good.
You got the VIP.
You've been listening to the CD, the album all week long.
You downloading songs.
You singing along.
You ready to get there?
Your favorite artist comes out on stage.
They're like what's up?
Everybody, thank you so much for being here.
It's going to be an amazing show.
I want to do something different this show.
I've been working on some new music and i've decided that for the entire concert I'm going to just play all my new songs, because I want you guys.
You know what's going to happen?
Call me.
I saw the reaction you just had.
Man I'm going to say right now wives husbands friends, go be hitting you like he better be playing.
She better be playing.
I'd like we'll give you one or two new songs, but you are going to play those hit records, because those hit records is the reason why we're here.
But here's the thing, Kwame most speakers coaches, thought leaders, experts never get an opportunity to drop a hit record because they're always trying to land a new track.
And they think that the key to influence at my letters the one that I heard say this they think that the key to influence is trying to find a way to say new things to the same people.
Will influence is saying the same thing, but saying it to new people.
Right.
I need to know that if I go check out Kwame, you know, on YouTube and I go check out my man Kwame, on Apple podcast and I go check out Kwame on stage, I need to see a consistent through line and I'll be like that's what makes him the man.
That when I think of negotiation, I'm thinking of Kwame, baby.
Right.
And the reason why is because you're always dropping the same hit record.
So what happens is, when it comes to storytelling, all you got to do is invest the time and the energy to craft some of those hit records.
And then you'll be able to play those same hit records for decades.
My mentor has been laying the same hit records for decades.
And here's the thing.
Most people don't know most influences you've been following.
You can actually repeat their hit record.
Anybody who's followed Les Brown will say oh Les Brown.
He tells a story about being born in Miami Florida, being labeled as the dumb twin, starting off as a sanitation worker, eventually becoming a disc jockey.
Most people, if you say Mel Robbins, they'll say, oh, Mel Robbins.
Oh, oh, wait a second.
Didn't she have the show?
And then the show got canceled.
And then her husband had this business and the business went bad and she was feeling all depressed and she's sitting down.
She can't get up.
And then she sees this rocket shooting off on the commercial.
And she's like, five, four, three, two, one.
They're going to say, oh, Lisa Nichols.
Oh, well.
Lisa Nichols.
Does she tell the story about going to the ATM machine to try to be able to get diapers for her son and, being so broke she has to come home and wrap him in a cloth that says no matter what?
Joel Osteen, does he talk about being the cameraman?
And he was the cameraman and he didn't have any intentions on becoming the pastor until his dad passed away.
Hit record after hit record after hit record.
Those individuals have been repeating those stories over and over, and over again which are, by the way Kwame, their signature story, which is the story that they share to build connection and rapport.
Because there's always new people coming into your audience and they could put you on a pedestal and we got to be able to show them.
No, I'm just like you.
So oftentimes that hit record, that that signature story is around a challenge, a transition or defining moment in your life that you use to be able to meet people where they're at and so that you're not talking to them from the valley, so that they feel that there's an absolute disconnect.
And so, man, we are laying down hit records.
And when we talk about strategic storytelling, why would anyone not take the time to actually craft these hit records that's going to pay you and allow you to be able to negotiate and influence things in your life for the rest of your life?
You take the time to craft it once and then you get better and better at sharing it.
And then you just keep using it over and over and over again.
And if you watch anybody that has massive influence, you will notice that they are dropping the same hit record, but just in front of new audiences.
Damn it, man.
What are you doing to my posture?
Simone, do you see what's happening?
I always sit up straight.
I'm always self-conscious, like, Kwame, stand up, look strong.
And I keep on slouching, thinking more and more.
My God.
Simone, say something.
Unmute yourself, say something.
Andy, thank you so much for sharing those insights.
I am in shock too.
And I can tell already that this episode is going to be one of the best episodes of Negotiate Anything.
And I'm going to use this time while Kwame gets back to life to ask a question.
Well, I have a couple of stories that I share with my friends, but I would like to improve them.
The problem is I don't know which parts of the story should I improve or how can I actually make them better.
What is your advice for identifying those areas?
So so Simone, so so one of the first things that we got to say is obviously, I'm a business storytelling coach.
So I'm always say get properly coached.
Now we got that out the way.
Yeah.
Coach coach with Andy Enriquez.
All right.
We got that out the way now.
Here's the thing.
What I love about, like strategic storytelling, is Simone.
This is one of the few skills that you can practice on people and they don't even know you're practicing.
They don't even know you're practicing.
I am repracticing my stories right now on this podcast.
These are the same story.
I've been telling some of these stories for a decade.
Now, what I do is as I share it, I do something which is interesting.
It's going to sound like a play on words.
It is something that one of my coaches, the legendary Les Brown, had said to me.
Many years ago, and it sounds crazy, but, you know, it's crazy thing.
Kwame would know exactly what I'm talking about.
I am listening to the listening of the audience.
Listen to me carefully.
As I am sharing a story, whether I'm sharing it one on one or I'm sharing it with a group of people.
I am watching.
How are they connecting and responding to the story?
Was there a place in the story where they laughed, where I didn't even know that part was funny?
Was there a moment in that story where they're like, hmm?
Right.
A lot of times people say hmm, because something hits them hard and they don't even know what to say.
Was there a moment when I told the story that they look puzzled?
Maybe something was unclear.
Did I tell a story and thought I killed it?
Then afterwards, they asked me 10,000 questions where clearly I left out many very important things.
Or did I tell a story and they're like, well, what's the point?
I completely missed the point.
So what I'm doing is as I'm sharing the story, I'm always going to.
Pay attention.
And my wife even knows it.
She's like, I know what you're doing.
I'm like, well, what are you talking about?
She's like, I know what you're doing.
You are too excited right now telling me this story.
And she's like, I know what you're doing.
I was like, what are you?
What do you know what I'm doing?
What she's saying?
You're testing a story on me, aren't you?
Right.
But it's so hard for them to tell because every time I tell a story I tell it like it's the first time baby.
Right.
So that's.
Another thing is the energy, because what happens to some speakers and influencers is they get tired of telling the story.
Number one, that it's your hit record.
And number two, there's always new people coming into your audience.
So, Simone, you know what it's like.
It's like having an uncle that has an awesome joke and he kills the joke every time.
And then finally, your two buddies come over.
Andy comes over and then Kwame comes over.
You like uncle.
Uncle, do me a favor right now.
Tell Kwame and Andy the joke.
And he's thinking like, man, you know, I've told the joke so many times.
He does it with low energy.
He leaves out the punch line.
He's whatever.
And it's so watered down.
You know, Simone, you know what happens?
You're going to look at your you're going to be so disappointed.
Because you are expecting that he's going to bring a certain energy signature to that actual thing.
And that's what happens to most people.
They end up getting the fatigue.
And the other thing is that I'll say, Simone is really important is that when we are crafting and telling the story, I craft the entire story based upon the point that I want to make.
And so what happens to most people is, when they think they're telling a story, they're not telling a story.
And this is important to write down.
No conflict, no story.
So going through a sequence of events is not telling a story.
Even paid professional speakers do this.
And I sit and I watch and they're going through sequence of events.
And then this happened and then this happened and this happened.
This happened.
It feels like it's a story.
It's not a story, folks.
It is not.
You are reporting.
You're going through a thing, because this is the way that we're accustomed telling stories to friends and family members.
This is how we tell things to friends and family members.
But the thing you miss is your friend and your family.
They love you.
They give you grace.
They will put the phone on speakerphone as they're doing the laundry, as they're washing the dishes.
And they'll say, oh, I'm listening.
I'm listening.
I'm listening.
Here's the thing.
Tell that story that way to.
A stranger.
Go tell it like that on social media crickets.
And you have to understand in the real world.
If a telemarketer calls you, you give them a matter of seconds.
In the real world, guess what?
You're the telemarketer.
And if you can't grab their attention.
Hold it.
Keep it.
Then.
They move on to the next thing.
Stories allow us to be able to do that.
So what I'm doing right away, Simone, is I'm looking right away.
I'm like, if I tell this story, am I holding your attention?
Am I delivering a powerful point?
Is there a place in the story where I see you do this?
I'm watching Kwame.
Whenever Kwame's like, if he does a... What's happening?
Oh my goodness, guess what I'm doing?
There's a new thing that they do now.
They're like, clock it.
They're talking about clock it.
That's like bookmark it.
Remember it.
I'm clocking it.
I'm watching.
Kwame said...
I'm clocking it.
So I see you grab your notepad.
I'm clocking it.
Did he just take note at a place that I'm used to you taking a note?
OK, cool.
Wait a second.
He just picked up his notepad.
Did I say something good there?
Clock it.
Boom.
Never remember.
So I can use it again.
And so these are all the things that I'm constantly doing, as I am now trying to perfect and make the story better.
And the reality of it is there's no such thing as perfection.
What I'm chasing is progress.
I'm trying to see, can I make it better?
Can I make it more impactful?
Can I make it hit even harder?
Right.
And then if I can energetically get it to do that, then each time I'm going to have fun telling it, because I know that, although it might be my thousand time telling it, there's always someone in the audience.
It's their first time telling it.
There's always the uncle that is sitting out there that's going to hear the joke for the first time.
Right.
And I don't want to let that uncle down.
So I'm going to tell the joke and I'm going to tell the story, like it's my first time telling it, every single time.
And this is when now we treat it like an art that it is.
And as Kwame says, there's levels to the game, baby.
There's levels to the game.
This is easily the the most impactful episode for me personally, completely selfishly.
Hey, audience.
Thanks.
Glad you're here.
This is about me now.
So like this is, this is madness, because here, here are the couple of the things that there's so many.
I've taken so many notes, but I remember Michael Jordan was telling a story one time and he said that uh,
They were asking, how do you always get up for these games?
You know, when you look at the NBA now, people are clearly mailing it in.
There's so many games.
You can tell there are games that don't matter, and then the people aren't really trying.
There's a lot of load management.
He said, for somebody in the audience, this is their first and only time.
Yes, sir.
See Michael Jordan.
Yes, sir.
And I think about some of the best speakers.
Like you said, they hit the greatest hits over and over and over again.
And I recognize I've been doing public speaking for a while now.
I've been committing, honestly, malpractice.
So let me tell you a story.
So you've been telling me stories.
Andy, it's my turn to tell you a story.
So so the my coming out party as a speaker was my TED talk.
So I'm really proud of the TED talk.
It was really well done.
I spent months.
I don't know if I've told this story on the which is all malpractice.
I've got these stories.
I don't tell them.
So because what happens in my mind is I say to myself, OK, I told this story one time.
Everybody's heard it.
Now let me tell some more stories.
So when it came to doing the TED talk, the first time I did the TED talk it was to the mentors of the group
The folks in Dayton, they were very regimented.
It was incredible.
So they gave me a mentor.
I had to pitch in order to get there.
And the content was really good.
And it was me up against, like there were so many people who applied and then a certain amount of people who applied got to pitch in front of everybody.
You got to speak for like three minutes.
Let's see what you got.
And technically it was flawless.
It was great.
And they said this was – it was really good.
The content was really good.
But it sounded like a workshop.
It sounded like a professor on stage.
And I was like, yeah. that's what I was going for.
Because for me, I went to school for way too long.
And those were the speakers that I saw.
They're like, no, this is something completely different.
You need to take people on a journey.
It's too technical.
You're going to lose people.
And I was like, okay.
So I had to relearn how to speak completely differently.
So when you see the TED Talk, that is the first time I spoke like that in my career ever, ever.
And I told a story and the story crushed the Cinnamon Toast Crunch story.
And I never told the story again, never.
Until one time, about two years ago, somebody said hey, I got you because of the keynote, the TED Talk.
So many people have said that.
Tell the Cinnamon Toast Crunch story.
And I didn't want to do it.
I was like, everybody's heard it.
It's gotten so many views.
Everybody's heard it.
And I mailed it in.
Like I didn't hit the notes.
I assumed everybody's heard it.
It barely got any laughs.
And then I went into the signature keynote and like the laugh points hit.
And I was like, yeah, see, they didn't laugh because they already heard it.
Now hearing you tell this story, they didn't laugh because I didn't tell the story.
You know, and so there's so many stories that I've been holding on to that I haven't told.
Like I told one time, crushed it, assumed everybody's heard it.
And there is a whole track of Kwame's greatest hits that were only Kwame's greatest hit.
Cause I only told it one time.
Yeah.
So there's going to be some Kwame that you're going to bank because there are some that yeah, there's going to be some stuff that like, can we tell one time, but then there's going to be others that you're like.
Number one, it's always consistently part of what I speak about anyway.
Right.
So it's like the story that I told about the you know, my first car.
Right.
Because it's one thing for me to say oh yeah, storytelling is so important and this and that, and so forth.
But like, you know, I want to make it so like I want to have such a huge gap.
If somebody listens to another conversation where someone's talking about like storytelling and they're like you know, when you storytelling is, you know you facts engage two parts of the brain and five parts, and this and that.
And I mean, those are great.
Those are all great facts.
But what happens is I want to do dramatic demonstrations.
So that, when it's all said and done, they're not like wondering like oh, this guy told a lot of great facts on storytelling.
I wonder if he really is a master storyteller.
I want to do dramatic demonstration.
As I'm teaching, I'm teaching through story because it's only congruent.
If I'm the master storyteller, right, there's got to be some level of congruency there.
So there are stories that Kwame, you've shared that now these stories are the ones that you know is always going to be anchored in with negotiation having, you know, difficult conversations and so forth right, and then you're going to bank those and be like look, i know these work.
But here's the other crazy thing kwame, you know, there's a story that i i tell about my mom.
It got, it got featured on goldcast and i think i end up uh, even sharing that story with you guys And the whole premise of the story.
It's an amazing story.
They can put Andy Enriquez, Goldcast, right?
I'm sharing in front of like 5,000 people.
It's got like millions of views.
They put Andy Enriquez, Goldcast.
They go to my YouTube, they'll find Andy Enriquez, right?
But the crazy thing is, I remember I went someplace and I closed out one of my keynotes and I ended with my mom's story, because I know this story is amazing.
It triggers the emotion.
It drives the point of showing up.
And so what happened is the, you know, event planner got me a speaking engagement someplace else.
And I got invited back to speak for that organization for another event that they were having.
So my brain, Kwame goes crazy.
I ended with my mom's story the last time I spoke for this organization and they're bringing me back for another conference for another department.
So clearly I should not put the same story in there.
I mean, they'd be like, come on, seriously, dude, are you a one trick pony?
And so I'm getting towards the end of my presentation.
And so I ended with another story and I think I do well.
And when I'm done, the event planner has the look of disappointment on her face.
And I'm like, oh my goodness.
I was like, is everything okay?
And she goes.
Andy no, I mean, you did pretty good, but you know the whole reason why we brought you back.
The whole reason why we brought you back was because of your mom's story.
And you did not tell your mom's story.
And I was like, oh, my God.
It's like, I'm so sorry.
I ended the last time with my mom's story.
I thought you guys would not you guys would be upset if I shared them.
They're like, no, that's the reason why we brought you back.
Right.
And so a lot of times, like the very thing, the very thing that is the special sauce is.
That is that story.
And we have seen it.
Right.
Kwame, you've seen so many people who launched the book and launched a platform and so forth.
And it was off of one very powerful story.
And they leverage that story into a talk and they leverage that story into a speech.
And you and I both have witnessed people do that.
And, over a period of like two years, be like one of the top ranked speakers in that category.
From sharing that.
A powerful story and of course, delivering great content through it.
But it was anchored through one story that got them on the stage after a stage after a stage, after a stage after a stage, after a stage after stage.
So when we just go through our own personal Rolodex, there's going to be some stories that's worth developing so that we can leverage those stories year after year after year.
I host the annual conference called Story in the Profit Live, and I brought in my mentor, the one and only legendary Les Brown.
And Les Brown has been at this now for over four decades.
And Les Brown still gets on stage.
And guess what?
He still has.
Many of those same magical stories.
And when I look at it, the audience, the audience is still super excited about it.
And, as he's saying it, I'm finishing with him, just like you would expect when you got the uncle that tells the great joke.
You're finishing the words with him in your mind, and so forth.
And you're looking around at the audience.
You just want them to be able to experience what you experience.
So it won't be all of them Kwame, but most definitely you got some hit records and them hit records need to be in the vault and need be pulling those hit records out at all times.
Right, and that goes across the board, for everyone listening in, when you develop your powerful stories, you're going to leverage those stories repeatedly, anytime that you are either offering your products and services, when you're looking to build connection and rapport with people, whether you're trying to get them to buy into your big idea, position yourself as an expert.
Now, mind you, those are all different types of stories, but once you develop it, You don't need to come up with a whole, nother one.
Then every single time you're trying to put a new story together, that's exhausting.
That's not what we're trying to do.
And you'll be inconsistent.
People love familiarity.
Just the reason why we go back to see our favorite artists many years later, because we will then emotionally go back ourselves to where we were at the time when we were listening to the song.
What was going on in the whole nine?
And so give people, give your audience, an opportunity to get emotionally enrolled into you as a speaker.
And then to anticipate and be excited when they finally get to get to the part that they remember something that they've experienced with you before, so they can finish the words with you.
Andy, I need to end this episode immediately so I can start going back and listening to this episode again.
And here's some of these greatest hits, bro.
This is amazing.
And I appreciate you.
This has been, I don't think masterclass is a good enough word for this.
So thank you.
Listen, before you go, if the audience is anything like me, they want more.
So let the listeners know how they can connect with you, work with you and continue to learn from you.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
So, first of all, anybody that wants that five story framework, it's literally spelled out five story framework dot com, five story framework dot com.
You can download a free PDF there.
The other thing is you can find me on social media if you're going to connect with me on Instagram.
My handle is show up for your life.
Show up for your life.
And on every other platform, I'm Andy Henriquez.
And the other thing is.
Kwame, you know, we've been playing around and not taking YouTube seriously.
And so we just relaunched our YouTube and I've been dropping some great storytelling strategies and techniques on there, especially for anybody who's really serious about getting better at being able to communicate, being able to convey their message.
Definitely want to find me on YouTube as well and start taking in some of those new videos that I'm dropping.
Amazing.
Andy, thank you so much, man.
Really appreciate it.
Hey, man, I appreciate you have me.
You guys are doing some amazing work here.
And I'm glad that I discovered your podcast, man.
And thanks for having me as a guest, brother.
Oh, my goodness.
This was mind blowing.
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