334 - Unlocking Your Storytelling Superpower - With Andrea Sampson - The Futur with Chris Do

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
In order to tell a good story,what you need to know is what are
you holding inside of thestory? Because stories are context.
If you're using stories toactually convey information and using
your own personal story, whatyou need is to know what lives inside
of it. What's the idea thatyou've put inside of that? And that's

(00:20):
what any good TED Talk is.It's an idea that's wrapped in story.
Hi, I'm Andrea Sampson andyou're listening to the Future.
I am deeply fascinated bystories, storytelling and helping

(00:42):
other people become betterstorytellers. We all should be very
good at it. I think we werewhen we were kids and somewhere along
the way we've lost our abilityto tell stories and we get really
self conscious. And so I'msuper delighted to talk to you today.
Andrea, you've had afascinating journey from advertising
to TED Talks to founding TalkBoutique and thought leader Academy.

(01:02):
Could you walk us through themoment you realized you were an idealist
in a capitalist world and howthat led to your current path?
Yeah, so I was, I had spentalmost 25 years in advertising and
I was senior vice president ofstrategy for a large agency, was
very successful. I had enteredinto that world with this vision

(01:26):
that I would be able to usethis powerful medium for good. And
you know, I think I've alwaysbeen an idealist. I never would have
said that back in my 20s and30s, but I, you know, I always truly
believed that people wereessentially good. And so I wanted
to do good in the world. Andso I came into advertising having
left a career in not forprofit as a fundraiser. And I left

(01:50):
this not for profit worldwhere we never had enough money to
do the things that we wantedto do. And I come into advertising
and suddenly we've gotmillions, tens of millions, sometimes
hundreds of millions ofdollars at our disposal. And so my,
I thought, look, I knowadvertising is about selling, and
so that's all good. But maybeI can make a little footprint of

(02:11):
having more inclusive ads andmaybe just having a message that
is a little bit kinder thansome of the ads that were, you know,
at the time happening. And Idid, I think I, in the work that
I did, I always had that, thisview of diversity, of bringing a
more inclusive. But at somepoint you have to look at it and
go, okay, I'm done. Like, thisis as far as I can go. There's nothing

(02:34):
more that this advertisingmedium is going to let me do, because
at the end of the day, it'sabout selling product and I had to
face myself and say, what doyou want to do? And it was the year
I was turning 50, and Iremember doing some soul searching.
And in those moments, youstart to realize at 50, it's like,

(02:55):
okay, I've been on this planetfor 50 years. I might have another
30, maybe 40 years on theplanet if I'm lucky. Not all of them
are going to be good, let'sface it. So what's the impact? I
want to leave. I'm running outof time here. And so I started to
really look at the work I wasdoing in the world where I was living,

(03:16):
the way in which I was living,how I was contributing. And that
was the moment. That was whenI was like, okay, I'm in this capitalist
world and it's not serving me,and I'm not serving yet, quite frankly,
because I don't believe in theideals that it preaches. And so there
was a mismatch. And so I knewI had to leave advertising, but I
didn't actually know what Iwas gonna do. Because the thing was,

(03:38):
I just wasn't leavingadvertising. I was leaving marketing.
I was leaving that entireworld behind. I didn't want to sell
one more thing to one moreperson who didn't need it. And so
I started doing a bunch ofvolunteer work and going to conferences
and like, just kind of doingmy own little sort of dark night
of the soul search and tryingto find what is it that lights me

(04:01):
up. And I remember, I remembergoing to one conference, actually.
It was called the WorldDomination Summit. It was in Portland,
Oregon, and it was a funconference. It was for travel bloggers,
as it turned out, which I wasnot. But it was interesting and I
learned a whole lot just interms of there were all kinds of
great speakers and greatindividuals, and I met some great
people, and there were a fewpeople from the TED world there.

(04:23):
And then I had the goodfortune to go to a. A TED conference.
It was the early days of theTEDx movement and found out it was
all volunteer run. And that'swhen I stepped into being a speaker's
coach. I didn't know what aspeaker's coach was, but like, my
job, I was a strategist and aplanner. And so my job was to actually
build the foundation for theadvertising stories we were telling.

(04:46):
And so I was always sort offinding those key consumer insights,
those basis. And so as Iwalked into the TED world, I found
out I had a skill I didn'tknow I had.
Okay, there's so much here IWant to pick apart and dive into,
if you will, like thesemorsels you're dropping along the
way. I've, for a very briefperiod of my life, worked in advertising.

(05:07):
I've always wondered, like,what are the strategists doing? Can
you open that box for us andtell us in layman's terms what the
heck a strategist does?
So what we do as strategistsand planners in advertising is we
understand, deeply understandthe consumer. I mean, the short answer
is we're the voice of theconsumer inside of the agency. But

(05:27):
what that really means is youhave to understand consumer behavior.
And so we do research. There'sa lot of research, and some of that
is primary, so qualitative andquantitative research. And then secondary,
doing a lot of desk researchand then making sense of it, like
pulling all of that togetherand starting to pull out. What can

(05:48):
we see? What are the trends?What are the patterns? What are the
things that people want? Whatare the things they don't want? Who
are they and why are theydoing the things they're doing? It's
a lot of thinking. When I fellinto that world, it was custom made
for me because that's. I lovedoing that. Like diving deep, going
inside, kind of trying to bethe investigator slash psychologist.

(06:09):
For me, a lot of it was likedoing clinical psychology. But instead
of having a maze with rats andfood, we had advertising with people
and offers. And so we wereplaying with that, you know, and
seeing how can we createoutcomes, the outcomes we wanted.
And so that's basically what aplanner does, a strategist. And the

(06:30):
outcome of it just to kind ofground that was. So we'd have to
take all of these broad, bigswatches of data and synthesize it
down, come up with usuallytwo, maybe three insights. And an
insight would be nothing morethan a sentence. And that would be
the basis upon which we wouldbuild the ad campaign. So we would
bring everything down to asentence that would then get turned

(06:52):
into what we call a creativebrief. And that creative brief would
then be given to our creativeteams who would then build the visuals
and the copy and all of that.So they would take it from that very
minute piece and then actuallyturn it into something that is accessible
by consumers.
Are you doing this before theagency wins the business? Is this
already the business has beenwon and now we're going to do the

(07:14):
real work? How does this work?
A bit of both. When we woulddo new business like that was like,
God, when we would do pitches,we'd get an opportunity to pitch
business. We might have aweek. And so I'd be out there. Sometimes
we were doing what we calledstreeters would be literally on the
street, doing interviews withpeople on the streets. And then we'd
be analyzing that and tryingto turn all of that into something

(07:35):
in two days so that thecreative teams would have a couple
of days to do some creative sothat we could have something to present
to the client. And then we'dhave to justify the whole thing to
the client of what it was wedid to get to that place. Right.
Those are crazy, crazy days.It was a lot easier when we already
had the client because wecould actually ask the time. We truly
need it.
Okay. A lot is arresting onwhether you've pulled apart the correct

(07:58):
in the site so that thecreative team can do their thing
to win the business. But I'mfascinated by this whole thing because
the idea of going to talk topeople in the street as an introvert
scares the bejesus out of me.So let's talk about it. Okay. Can
we go there for a little bit?
Huge introvert right here.Like huge.
Hard to tell with thatshocking blue hair and the red lipstick.

(08:19):
But okay. Appearances aside,can you take us through any one campaign
or client memory that you havein the 20 plus years that you've
been working in theadvertising space where here was
the account and here's where Iwent into the street. Paint that
picture for us. Help us relivethat. I even want to know what kind

(08:39):
of questions you ask and whatcrazy things people say.
The one that comes to mindright away. I actually wasn't the
person on the street, althoughit was sort of my team who came up
with the idea, but we hadother people who went out and did
it. So it was. God, many yearsago, E Trade, which you're probably
familiar with, was just cominginto Canada. We were launching the
product. Well, the product wasgoing to launch in Canada. We were

(09:01):
pitching this business. Youknow, this was in like the heyday
of online trading. So thiswas. This would have been, I want
to say the 2000, 2001, right.And so online trading had just come
out and there was a lot ofpeople who were like doing day trading
right online. And so thisidea, because you had all of the

(09:23):
like the no low priced or nopriced trades. And so there was like,
it was a whole. And so thebanks had all gotten into it and
E Trade was the leader in theUS and they hadn't come to Canada
yet. And so we were, we werepitching this account and the whole
agency got behind it becausewe were. We weren't just pitching
it as a. Because, like, whenyou're in advertising, there are
different aspects. So general,like sort of more brand advertising

(09:47):
versus direct marketingversus. In those days, we used to
call it interactive marketing,which today would be digital. And
I was working for a largemultinational agency. And so we brought
in all of our subsidiaries.Like, we all got together and we're
pitching this big accounttogether. And I was the lead on the
client side. So I was leadingthe pitch with the president of the

(10:07):
agency. And so there was.There was him and there was me. And
then we had an entire teamworking with us. And we got this
idea. And I'm trying toremember, like, the execution was
we did a video literally onthe street. We actually created a
commercial for E Trade. Nowthis, again, is in the. Think about

(10:28):
it, the early part of the2000s, we didn't have cell phone
video, right? There was nosuch thing as that. We did camcorder.
You weren't able to upload itto. YouTube didn't exist. There was
no video sites, like, none ofthat. And so we went out and we shot
this TV commercial. And it wasabout a guy, a squeegee kid, washing

(10:50):
cars. And it was all abouttrading. And so it was this concept
of the squeegee. I can'tremember what was the premise? I'm
trying to. Like, it was funny.Like, it was this kid and, oh, he's
giving stock ticks. That iswhat it was. Because everyone was
getting. Giving stock tips,right? I was like, where do you get
your stock tips from? Do youget it from the squeegee kid? Right?
So it was this commercialabout this guy stopped at a stoplight.

(11:11):
The squeegee kid comes out,and he's like, hey, dude, did you
hear about. And then it wassort of cut away to, are you getting
your stock tips from thesqueegee kid or are you going to
the source and getting, youknow, using. And so it was all about
using the platform to be ableto do this. This work. And that came
from. Because again, that's.What was the insight was that everybody
saw trading, online trading asgambling. And what we were trying

(11:36):
to do was to shift it frombeing gambling to being about being
responsible, but with an edge.So it's like, don't gamble all your
money online. Don't be one ofthose people who's gambling. Be one
of those people who are, yeah,sure, go and try it. But take a little
bit of your money and try itand see what it's like. Be responsible

(11:57):
with it. So we had found thesesegments of the market. So at the
time there was, the segmentwas called the, what we call the
GRQs, which were the get richquicks versus the AAs, which was
the aggressive affluence. Andwe were going after the aggressive
affluence. And so that's whatthe, so the ad was aimed at that.

(12:17):
Right? Don't be one of theseget rich quick people. Be in this
other area where you've gotyour portfolio and it's safe with
your broker. That's a goodthing. But take a little bit of it
and go play, have some fun. Sothat was the idea. And so we literally
found some of that out throughStreeters. We actually did some research

(12:37):
where we call people. We wentlike, literally we get in that point.
I think we bought lists oftraders of people who, who were in
the stock market, we calledthem and we were literally went through
a questionnaire to be able tovalidate some of that. So that's
one.
Before you move on to theother one, I just want to pause here
because some people might knowexactly what we're talking about

(12:59):
and I think the rest of themare like, wait, wait, wait, what's
going on here? So you kind oftook us through the anatomy of strategy
to creative in reverse. Youtold us the creative and then you
told us the insight and thestreeter. This is the part that I
need to know a little bit moreabout. So there are lists of brokers
that you talked to and did youtalk to actual investors?

(13:20):
Yeah, we did, we did, wecalled investors. The way that that
one came about, it actuallycame about sort of in two ways because
we had come up with the ideabecause we had some desk research
and some, I think there mayhave even been some syndicated research
so you can buy researchreports. And so we had bought some
research reports that hadgiven us the segmentation of the
market. So we knewsegmentations. We had done that work

(13:44):
and we had targeted and we hadan idea, but then we had to validate
the idea. So what we did waswe actually ran it in tandem because
we didn't have time againrunning against a clock. So we had
this idea that we should beusing this message of don't gamble,
actually work with the peoplewho really know. So it was sort of
this underpinning. And again,insights are often boring. It's creative

(14:07):
that actually brings them tolife. Right. And that's the thing,
it was like I always did themost boring part of the job. But
it was, without that, youwould never have creative. But we
were kind of the unsungheroes. I would say.
No, I get it. I totally getit. When I was young, I did not understand
it, but as I got older. Yeah, yeah.
So we had the idea and wefilmed that commercial, and then

(14:28):
we went and validated it usingagain, we did phone calls. I don't
think we sent people, becausein those days, you couldn't show
them the video because therewas no way to do that. You literally
would have had to bring theminto a room and film it. We didn't
have the time to do that. Butwhat we did, I think we read them
the script, if I recall. Youknow, that gave us the validation.
But I do to this day, I stillremember when we presented that.

(14:51):
So we're in the room with theclient presenting this, and our president
was actually, at this point,he was. It was his part of the presentation.
And he. Cause, you know,again, he's the president of the
agency. He's going to takesort of the big moment and he's presenting
to the client, and he says,you know, look, you know, I've got
an amazing creative team, andthey will do things that are just

(15:14):
really gonna knock you out.But he said, you know, this one almost.
Almost took me down. He said,we've been working on this, and,
you know, this is an importantopportunity for us, and we absolutely
want your business. And so asmy team has been working on this,
I had given them grace. Justgo do whatever it takes to get it
done. So we're getting ready.It was a couple of days ago, and

(15:37):
we're all getting together,and the creative team came in and
they said, we've got asurprise for you. And he said, what
is it? And he goes. And theyliterally show me a completely finished
spot. And he said, I almosthad a heart attack, because spots,
when you're doing a finishedspot, it can cost hundreds of thousands
of dollars. And he said to theclient, he said, you know, I had

(15:59):
said do anything, but I didn'tmean, like, go out and, you know,
like, spend next year's entirerevenue budget. And so I said to
them, how much did it cost?And they said, 179. I was done. Like,
I thought, oh, my God,$179,000. Where the hell are we coming
up with that? And the creativeteam said, no, $1.79 is what it cost

(16:20):
us for the squeegee. And Iremember, again, this is. Gotta remember,
this was all in the daysbefore we had access to all of this
stuff. I mean, you know, to doany sort of video meant bringing
in people who have expertise.And you know, video editing, there
weren't editing suites. Iremember we had an avid in the agency
and so we had an. But youstill needed to have somebody who

(16:42):
understood how to use it. Andit was a fun one because it was fun
to be able to do that. And itwas the early days. I mean, E Trade
was one of those brands thatwas right on the bleeding edge of
the Internet as it was sort ofevolving. And so we got to, we did
win that account and we got todo some really fun things with them
because they were moving sofast. So it made us move fast.

(17:04):
Yes, I can see your brain ismoving really fast too. And as a
non fast moving brain, I justneed you to finish that story. The
completionist in me, okay, sohe's surprised by the team's ability
to make something for verylittle money. And usually the way
I remember the way the world,the advertising world works is the

(17:25):
setup is really important.Framing the creative is everything.
Because without that then yousee a video like, what the hell am
I looking at? Why is thissolving any of our problems? So where
does he take the conversationsuch that the clients or the prospects
or the E Trade people arelike, yeah, show us the video and
then you land it. We know howthe video works. Take us through
that part.

(17:45):
So he set it up by, you know,giving this sort of like 179 and
the whole bit. And then heshows the video. And what happened
for the client in that momentwas, I mean, first of all, the setup
was fun because it was justsort of, you know, him really, what
he was really highlighting tothe client was the flexibility and
the, the agility of this teamto be able to solve problems, to

(18:07):
come up with a good idea andthen actually do it. And so when
he showed the video and thevideo, you know, like was it high
quality? And like, no, it wasgood enough. It did the job right.
But the client of course gotit. What happened for the client
in that moment was they sawnot only the creative that was created,
but what it took from a teamperspective. Everything from the

(18:30):
underpinning of that idea allthe way through to the execution
of a video done in less than aweek and put up in a new business
pitch and the agency presidentstanding up and standing behind it
and giving this sort of funnyand self depreciating story in such

(18:52):
a way that everybody wasbehind it and you know, it's powerful.
It's really powerful.
Okay, I understand somethinghere. I want to say it to you to
see if I got this part right,because I've been in some of those
pitch meetings, but only likeone, I think, not seeing them for
20 years. So is it. Am Iunderstanding this correctly? In

(19:14):
a new business pitch, thereare finite constraints to what you
can do. So it isn'tnecessarily about coming up with
the best creative because youhad a week to do it, but showing
them that you want thebusiness. It's important to you,
and the creative team arewilling to move heaven and earth
for you. And here's just anexample of how it would be like to
work with us knowing verywell. If you award us the account,

(19:36):
we gotta do the real work. Isthat about right?
Yeah. A new business pitch isthe combination of, can we do creative?
Can we think, how passionateare we? How much do we want this
piece of business and what arewe willing to do for it? It's all
of those things. And everyclient is gonna have a different
criteria in terms of the mixof those things, but they're all

(20:00):
there. When I think aboutdifferent pitches that we've done
and that I've heard of and hadfriends who did, the things you would
do for a pitch were crazy. Iremember at one point, it wasn't
a pitch I was a part of, butone of my friends was pitching one
of the major banks here inCanada, and their logo had a lion
on it. And the story was theybrought a lion to the pitch. That's

(20:24):
the kind of thing like, I'msure they had a story. I'm sure there
was something that went alongwith it. But that was the, you know,
sort of this idea of, you wantthe business, you do the work.
That stuff kind of likeadvertising lore. The extent in which
people are willing to go tosay, we want your business. Most
of the creative people wholisten to this episode are going

(20:44):
to sit there and scratch it.Like, why would you spend that much
money? Because the accountswere that big? Is that important?
We're talking about tens, ifnot hundreds of millions of dollars
of revenue for the agency. Soit's worth it to make that.
Effort just to add to that.Because it's not just that account,
it's what that account brings.So let's say E Trade as an example.
Well, suddenly that was anindicator to the market that the

(21:06):
agency that I was working withhad the ability to attract a high
profile client like that. Sothen you get more high profile clients,
clients so it's both the moneythat it represents, that particular
account. But sometimesactually you do it at a loss. You
take clients at a loss becauseof what they bring. I worked for
another client who had BMW asa client for many, many years. And

(21:27):
honestly, if they broke evenevery year, they were happy.
This is like loss leader orsomething like that. It's the jewel
and the crown that if youbring the big brand to your agency,
then the other brands, theywould chase after you at that point,
right?
That's right.
Okay, beautiful. Now, you saida couple things I just want to quickly
highlight here. For a creativepitch like this, I think you listed

(21:50):
five things, but I couldn'twrite that fast. I think with something,
are you creative enough? Canyou do it? Do you want it? And is
this important to you? Wasthere something else in there?
So let me just think about itfor a second. So, you know, how badly
do you want this account? Whatis your creative? Like, can you think?
Do you have the ability toexecute? Who's on that team? Like,

(22:11):
that's a big one too. Youknow, so many agencies used to be
accused of the bait andswitch. You put your A team in front
of the. In front of the teamand then, you know, when you got
the account, it was, you know,some people that they hired the day
before, you know, like. Andthat, you know, they're notorious
for those sorts of things.
They staff up once you win theaccount. And so the people who pitch
it aren't there anymore.

(22:32):
Yeah, you never see the pitchteam again. Right.
Okay, that's wonderful. Thanksfor sharing that. So the insight
that the desk research and thesyndicated research produced was
that there's this idea thatpeople want to be responsible with
their trade, but they're alittle edgy about it. They're affluently
aggressive. And that was the insight.

(22:53):
The aggressive. So it was thesegmentation. Right. So we had the
get rich quick segment. We hadthe aggressive affluent. And the
insight behind the aggressiveaffluent was that they were, I mean,
affluent people, they wereinvestors. They usually had their
own brokers. But what theinsight was is that they actually
secretly desired to be likethe get rich quick guy, but they

(23:17):
weren't willing to risk. Like,the get rich quick guy was usually
a day trader, so he didn'thave a lot of money and he was doing
like penny stocks. Right. Butthe aggressive affluent thought of
himself as pretty smart. Infact, smarter than the day trader,
wanted to do the day tradingwithout the risk of the day trading.
So the insight was take alittle bit of your Portfolio, keep

(23:38):
the bulk of it. Use yourbroker. And the idea was, beat your
broker because you've got theinsight from E Trade in this case.
Right? Because E Trade wouldgive them sort of trading tips and
things like that. And you'vegot the ability to do your own, and
you've got access to theplatform at your fingertips, which
had never been. It had neverexisted before. Right. You would

(24:00):
always have to go through abroker. Suddenly you no longer have
that middleman between you andthe platform. And so what can you
do with it? So the insight wasshow how smart you really are and
put your money where yourmouth is.
That makes the video make alot more sense, too, because the
car and, like, they seethemselves as better than the trader

(24:22):
who's getting advice from thekid who's washing your windows. But
they kind of secretly wantedto be part of that world. Makes perfect
sense.
They did. That was it. And,sorry, it took me a couple minutes
to remember. That was a lot ofyears ago. I'm like, I gotta go back
in my memory banks andremember this stuff. But honestly,
that was one of the funnestaccounts I ever worked on. We had
a blast.
Okay, in case you're justjoining us, I'm talking to Andrea

(24:45):
Sampson and we're going to getinto storytelling. And if you're
listening to this on thepodcast, I just want to just tell
you to go check out the shownotes, because you have to see Andrea,
her blue hair, her lipstickand the whole thing. It's a whole
vibe, everybody. And if you'rewatching this on YouTube, you know
exactly what I'm talkingabout. Okay, now, there are other
things I want to talk to youabout. This wasn't meant to be a

(25:06):
whole strategy, advertisingthing, but you open that door for
me in my mind, and I'm like,really into that. Okay, you're 50
years old. One could saymidlife, you're having maybe a midlife
crisis. I don't know. Is itlike you're blowing out the candles
on your birthday cake and say,what the heck am I doing with my
life? Is this all I was meantto do? Sell things to people who
don't want to buy things? Andwas there something that happened

(25:29):
that crystallized that momentfor you?
You know, I think it was abunch of things. My daughter had
gone off to university thatyear. I kind of had this awareness.
I'm like, I'm living in thesuburbs, in Toronto. My daughter
had gone off to university,and I'm thinking, what am I doing
with my life? Is this It. Soit was over time, and I was turning
50. And I'm like, if not now,when? It never felt like a crisis.

(25:53):
It felt like an awakening. Itwas more of that, like looking up
and looking out for the firsttime in probably 20 years and saying,
life is meant to be lived, notjust existed through. And I started
going, well, if that's true,then what's living to me? What does

(26:15):
that mean? And, you know,that. That just kind of spurred me
into a whole. You know, I toldthis story many years later about.
I think it was 2015. So, like,that started. That would have been
like, 20, probably 2012. 2013.Yeah. So 2012, 2013 was when I started

(26:35):
sort of having the awareness.2015 was when it really crystallized.
So I gave a talk many yearslater, but it was 2015. Every year
I choose a word for my year.And that particular year. So as I
was coming into thisawareness, I was turning 50. And
I remember I wrote the wordvibrant. I want to live a vibrant

(26:56):
life. And when I told thestory many years later, I was like,
you know, be careful what youask for. Because it was such a big
year, 2015, for me of like,you know, making this decision. I
sold my house. I bought acondo down. I destroyed my condo.
Cause I decided to completelygut Reno it. I traveled through Europe.

(27:17):
I quit advertising. That wasthe year that I actually fully decided
to walk away. I was. In 2015,I was the director of programming
for TedX Toronto. And so Ikind of. I blew up my life. It was
like the best thing I everdid, but it was all in service of
a vibrant life.
Is that when the hair changedor the hair was already vibrant at

(27:38):
that point?
I have had my hair in variouscolors for almost 20 years. It's
gotten brighter and maybe morecolorful, but I remember this. Another
story I tell often is one ofmy last years in advertising. I had
started off with just likedoing little pokes of color. And
then it got more and more. Andmy hair used to be very, very short

(27:59):
and spiky and kind of doingall kinds of fun things. And I had
finally gotten it the perfectshade of cotton candy pink. And I
remember walking into theagency just after I'd gotten it done.
This particular agency was alittle more conservative than most.
Anyway, I walk in and the HRdirector said, hey, can I talk to

(28:21):
you? And she was like, oh, wehave to do something about your hair.
And I remember at the time,like, that was actually the beginning
of the end for me in theagency world. Cause I looked at her.
And I went, you don't get it,do you? Like, if we're showing up,
I'm the head of strategy, Iwas the senior vice president of
strategy in this agencyworking with many, many multinational

(28:44):
companies. And I would be infront of the room and often clients
would comment on my hair andnever that they didn't like it. I
would get pulled aside oftenby the CEO or the VP of whatever
and it was often a man and,and he would always say, I love your
hair, I just wanna tell you.And it would just be that, you know.

(29:04):
And what I said to my HRdirector at that point is I said,
you know, I get it that I'mprobably a little more out there
than you would like. And Iunderstand that. But here's the thing.
Our clients hire us cause welook different from them. And when
we look different, we thinkdifferent. And if I'm showing up
in the three piece suitlooking exactly like them, why do
they need us? And I, at thetime I was like, I can't believe

(29:26):
I have to say this, but I do.And that was when I knew that was
the end of my, you know,again, like there were many other
things, but that was just sucha big telltale of like. And you know,
I think this is one of thebiggest challenges in advertising
is that advertising haschanged so much over the years that
it has had to become moreconservative just to maintain its

(29:46):
foothold in the marketplace.When I started in advertising, you
know, we were still doing thelong lunches and the, you know, like
big budgets and all of that.And it was like we were different.
We were the people that ourclients wanted to be, you know, but
they couldn't cause their jobswere different. And so we got to
be the fun people. And I don'tknow that that's the case anymore

(30:10):
in advertising.
That's too bad. Things havechanged a lot and advertising has
changed actually. So I thinkthe dress code is just one of the
many problems.
Well, that's the thing. It'sjust one of the symptoms of a much
bigger problem. And shift.
It's time for a quick break,but we'll be right back.

(30:37):
When I started my motiondesign company blind in 95, there
was a lot I didn't know. So Itried reaching out to other business
owners and professionals forhelp. What did I find? Many saw me
as competition. And those whodidn't weren't able to give advice
that made sense for my line ofwork. Thankfully, I was able to find
my first and only businesscoach, Kieran McLaren. Who mentored
me for 13 years. I alsolearned that my story isn't unique.

(31:00):
Many entrepreneurs feel likethey're left to figure everything
out on their own. It's why Icreated the Future Pro Membership,
a community I wish I had whenI first started. And I'd like to
invite you to check out allthat we have waiting for you inside@thefuture.com
pro.
And we're back.
Welcome back to our conversation.

(31:22):
So it sounds like you kind ofwent on this soul search and you
blew up your life. Yourdaughter went off to school, you're
single, you move from thesuburbs to the city, you travel the
world, and you have a majorcareer shift and change. And through
the World DominationConference, of course, that has to
be fun. You meet some of theTEDx organizers, and then you get
this, this opportunity to workwith TEDx. What was it in those early

(31:46):
days, TEDx, that captured yourattention? And could you share a
story about one of your firstexperiences coaching speakers?
Yeah, I mean, that first yearas a speakers coach was such an eye
opener for me. I mean, I hadnever heard of a speaker's coach.
And I was volunteered. Right.It was a tough interview process.

(32:07):
I think I interviewed withthree or four different people inside
of the TEDx Torontoorganization and then got Volun hired.
And what I didn't realize, Iwas a speaker's coach, but I was
also part of the programmingteam. And I remember going to the
very first committee meeting.So I get told I'm in, and here we're
meeting on whatever date. Andso I go to this meeting and I'm with.

(32:30):
I think there were maybe sixor seven of us on this particular
committee, which was theprogramming team, the curation team.
And I suddenly learned that,oh, I'm not just coaching speakers.
I have to find the. Oh, myGod. I had no idea. I'm like, where
do you find TED speakers? Iwas totally green to this whole idea
and learned a lot. But once Igot assigned, we went through. It
was a process and a hard one.But once we whittled it down to the.

(32:55):
I think we had maybe 12 or 13speakers on the stage that year.
And so I got assigned four ofthem. And I got. I mean, I had some
input into it. Like, we kindof all fought over who we wanted,
and there were four speakers,coaches. And so we all took the people
that we wanted or fought forthe ones we wanted. And so I ended
up. I just, I've always lovedscientists and academics, and I was

(33:16):
like, every time a scientistcame out, I Put my hand up. I'll
take that one. And no one elsewanted them. So I remember one of
my very first speakers was. Hewas a professor at University of
Toronto. He had two PhDs, onein engineering and one in medicine.
And he was working on theHuman Genome Project, which was the
worldwide project, Decode theGenome. And I remember my very first

(33:40):
meeting with him. I was stillworking in the agency at the time,
and so I had organized it forhim to come to the agency after hours.
And so I'm sitting in theboardroom, and, you know, it's like
any advertising agency. It'scool. It looks pretty good, you know?
So he walks in, and, I mean,like, honestly, like, you couldn't
have scripted it better. Hewalked in. He had, like, this. This

(34:00):
head of curly hair. He'sdressed in a sweater vest, a pair
of shorts, socks, and sandals.He was the quintessential academic.
You know, he was as nerdy asthey came. And we sit down at the
table, and he's just thislovely, lovely man. And he's, you
know, probably in his mid-40s.And I'm going through, like, all

(34:22):
of the things that we're gonnado. I'm kind of giving him the overview
of what's gonna happen. And,you know, anyone who comes in to
do a TED Talk, they don'treally know what to expect. And so
I'm giving him just some ofthe background, and then I'm also,
like, taking him through somethings. And he opens his notebook,
right, to take some notes,because in those days, of course,
we still had pencil and. Orpen and paper. And I glance over

(34:46):
at his notebook, and I realizeeverything in it is math. Everything
I'm thinking to myself, Idon't know if I can talk to this
person. I do not speak math.And so it was an interesting process
of learning how to communicatewith somebody who is so incredibly

(35:09):
smart, but also finding. And Ithink that was one of the things
that I've come to understandabout me and my style is, for me,
it's about the person first.And so it's always about the relationship
and who are they? And so I gotto know him on a personal level first.
And why that's important whenyou're a storyteller is your stories

(35:32):
are yours. They're about you.They're what describe the essence
of who you are, and especiallywhen you're doing a TED Talk. And
with him, I got to know a lotabout his personal life and about
some tragedies that hadhappened and things that really mattered
to him. And we ended up usinga lot of that in his TED talk. And
he ended up doing a six minuteTED talk on explaining the human

(35:56):
genome. To do that in sixminutes is incredible. And it was
such a powerful lesson for mein terms of understanding the power
of story. Because we used hisstory and his story of losing a child
and about why that sort ofcatapulted him into the world of

(36:16):
genomics and wanting to createa solution so that no parent would
ever have to go through that.Cause his child died because of a
genetic disorder. And so thatwas. It's powerful when you hear
people's why of why they dothe things they do. And those stories
resonate in a way that reallyno other story can. Right. Because

(36:40):
it is the human conditionwe're talking about.
I'm the absentmindedprofessor. Clearly I'm very smart.
I've got the two PhDs. I walkinto this office, I'm like, oh, is
it a little different? It'svery creative. There's fun furniture,
colors, artwork around. And Isit down with you. What are some
of the questions you might askme so that I can start to unearth

(37:00):
these stories? Because I'mjust thinking, human genome got a
problem solved. I'm doing mything. I don't speak human. What
are the things that you'redoing? Can you take us through? Let's
role play a little bit. Right?
What is that process like?
Yeah, just pretend like I'mthat person and talk to me.
Yeah, yeah. So always thefirst thing I ask is, tell me about
you. Like just what is it youlike? And usually that's a hard question
for people, especiallysomebody who's really steeped in

(37:24):
science or technology. Even.So I'll usually have to give some
prompts, things like, well,what do you like to do? And it'll
usually start with their work.And then we'll sort of chip away
at that and then I'll say, isthere, you know, what are your hobbies?
What hobbies do you have? I'mjust kind of trying to find end points
of like, what is it that makesyou you? And then I'll usually sort

(37:46):
of shift it because whathappens is they're not knowing where
it's going and they're feelinguncomfortable. And I can usually
sense the moment at which theyget to that point of discomfort where
if we don't switch, I'm goingto lose them. And so what I'll do
is I'll switch it into, well,tell me what you want to talk about.
And that they'll light up at.And then they'll usually talk for
about 20 minutes, which noneof it is understandable, but it'll

(38:11):
be what they want to talkabout. And I mean, I've been doing
this long enough that Iusually do follow them, but no one
else would because it'susually a lot of jargon. It usually
has a lot of really deepscience in it. And interspersed with
that, there will be some ofthe indicators of why it's important.

(38:32):
And I'll usually ask them acouple of questions. And so what
happens is, as we're goingthrough that, what do you want to
talk about? They're startingto leave little, what I like to call
breadcrumbs for me, becausethose are the things that I go back
to. They'll have a halffinished sentence or story and I'll
go back to it and tell me moreabout that and tell me more about
that. What happens is over thecourse of an hour or an hour and

(38:55):
a half, I'll usually getenough of their story that I then
tell it back to them and Itell it back to them as if I am them.
So here's what I've heard. I'mgoing to pretend that I'm you and
I'm probably not going to getit. All right, I'll make some things
up. But I want you to hearyour story as I've heard it, just

(39:18):
to make sure I'm clear on it.And so when I do that, it's usually
a huge revelation and a relieffor them. A relief because for the
first time somebody understoodthem. And a revelation because they've
never heard their own storytold back to them. Like, how often
do we hear our own story? Wenever do. And because I've done this

(39:43):
enough, I know where to putemphasis. I know where to bring emotion
in. I know how to tell it insuch a way that it touches them.
And our human brains are sointeresting because even though we're
hearing our own stories, wefeel like we're hearing somebody
else's. We lean into it and wewere like, oh my God, what's going

(40:05):
to happen next? And I've hadmany, many of my clients say that
to me, like, oh my God, I wasriveted. And it's like, yeah, that's
your story, though. That's thething. That's what's so cool about
it. That's why I want you tohear your story, because it is riveting.
You know, I do this for myfriends too. They tell me their story
and it's like dragging. Andthey put too much detail where none

(40:26):
is required. They skip overall the conflict, emotional turmoil.
And then I'm like, okay, sohere's your story the way I heard
it. And you say back to them,and it's a wonderful thing that you're
doing for them, whether you'rea coach or not. Just a human being
connecting with another to beable to see themselves from another
point of view. One coulddescribe that as a form of meditation,
but you're. You're doing itwith another person, so it's a really

(40:48):
cool thing. Do you get, like,big emotional reactions from them
when they hear it? Do theycry? Do they hug you? Do they tremble?
Yes, all of those things.
All of them.
I remember I was working witha client. I was in Sao Paulo, and
this one gentleman. So I did aton of work with Singularity University
out of Silicon Valley. And soI traveled all over, training all

(41:10):
of their faculty. And so thisparticular cohort was in Sao Paulo.
And so this guy, amazing man,he was a businessman. I'm trying
to remember what the tech wasthat he. Because it was all exponential
tech that we were working in,right? And so I can't remember. I
know what his business was,but I don't remember what the. Maybe
it was blockchain. That's whatit was. So he was in blockchain.

(41:32):
He had built a business on ablockchain platform, but the business
was basically bike shares. Andhe actually brought that into the
U.S. he brought that. Like hewas one of the founders of that whole
idea of bike sharing. And sohe was bringing it into Sao Paulo.
And. And so he tells me hisstory. Like, I was like, where did
this come from? Right? Wheredid this idea come from? Regardless

(41:52):
of the technology, just thisconcept of bike sharing. And he told
me this beautiful story abouthim as a child, basically was homeless,
and his mom, you know, theylived on the streets in Sao Paulo.
Cause that's where he wasfrom. And sort of told this story
about his mom taking care ofhim. And eventually they got off
the streets. And he alwayswanted to do something to honor his
mom. And so this bike sharewas a combination of. Of coming out

(42:14):
of such humble beginnings, butalso as something that I think his
mom. I think there wassomething she'd always wanted a bike.
I can't remember the wholestory, but he tells me this story.
And of course, he's telling itto me in such a way of like. And
then there was this, and thenthere was that, and there was no
real connectors. Between it,it's just like a bunch of disconnected
facts. And he finishes itsaying to me, well, and no one would

(42:35):
ever want to hear that story.And I'm listening to him going, you
gotta be kidding me. Like,this is like. It is gold, right?
So I tell him his story back.And again, this is like a big guy,
about as, you know, busy. He'sin a suit, he's like completely masked,
right? Like he's in thebusiness world. That's, you know,
just the facts, ma'am. And Itell him his story. And when I finish,

(42:59):
he is sobbing. And he looks atme and he said, I can't believe that's
my story. I would never havethought to tell it, nor would I have
thought that it was sopowerful. And that's your story?
I just, I mean, yes. Am I agood storyteller? Sure. I've got
some training. I know how todo this. But that's your story. That's

(43:20):
not. All I did was put ittogether in a certain way. You lived
it, and you could tell it waybetter than me because you lived
it, you know, and you've gotthe emotions that go with it and
you've got details that arereal. And he went on to tell that
story, but it changed hislife. I actually still get emails
from him saying how impactfulthat was. It changed the way he looked

(43:41):
at everything in his life,because up until that point, everything
in his life had just been adata point.
When you say you listen tosomebody's story, you find the part
that needs to be emphasized.What are those parts that you're
listening for? So if we'retrying to help our friend or we're
trying to help ourselves, whatis it that you're seeing? What are
those patterns that younoticed, like where we need to zoom

(44:03):
in and pull that part out?
So in order to tell a goodstory, what you need to know is what
are you holding inside of thestory? Because stories are context.
And so, I mean, we can tellstories for the sake of telling stories.
And those are great. If we'resitting around a campfire, if we're
just like with friends tellingfunny stories, that's one thing.

(44:24):
But if you're using stories,stories to actually convey information
and using your own personalstory, what you need is to know what
lives inside of it. What's theidea that you've put inside of that?
And that's what any good TEDtalk is. It's an idea that's wrapped
in story. I call it ideacentric storytelling. So when I'M

(44:45):
listening to somebody's story.What I'm doing is I'm listening for
the piece. So every idea hasgot some mechanism. Like, is it a
transformative idea? Is it asustainable idea? Like, what is the
mechanism inside of that idea?Now what you're doing is you're looking
for a story that couldactually mimic that. Think of it

(45:08):
as a metaphor for that idea.And so when I'm listening, I'm listening
for those points where you'vegot that mechanism and you're listening
in such a way that you want anemotional. Emotional connection.
So in the example that I gavewith that gentleman in Sao Paulo,
I think his mother had died ofcancer, but there was some points

(45:29):
along the way, his mom'sinteraction, them being homeless
and things like that. And so Iwas able to pull some of these emotional
pieces that are. They're meta,right? Like, we all have mothers.
Now, we may not all have closerelationships with our mothers, but
we all have mothers. We've allexperienced in some way some form
of medical tragedy. Whethersomebody we know has died or whether

(45:53):
we've heard of it. We knowthese things that are truly. They're
transcendent across time andspace. And so when you listen for
these things that areabsolutely universal, but then you
put them together in such away that they are so singularly for
that person, suddenly you'vebuilt a powerful story that speaks

(46:16):
directly to the emotions, butthen conveys this idea in such a
way that the idea becomes arevelation to the story. And so you've
combined emotion,predictability. So, like, the associations,
the predictability, and thenthe openness of the idea. Because
what we're really doing iswe're playing with brain science,
right? Cause stories, there'sa lot of brain science behind stories.

(46:39):
And so the. The predictivenature of our brain, the associative
nature of our brain, and thenthe memorability, those are the pieces
you're playing with. So whenI'm listening to a story, I'm listening
for all of those things. So Ican pull them in and I can actually
use the techniques that lightup the brain. So we remember them,
so we emotionally connect withthem so that we are able to remember

(47:03):
that idea associated to thatstory and be engaged with the story
all the way along.
Wow, okay. That was superbrainy what you just said. So I'm
trying to think of my audienceand myself. Let's make it a little
simpler, if we can. So in thestory of this gentleman that you
were talking about, what washis idea? What was the story that

(47:25):
contained that idea.
Like again, he was working ona blockchain based technology and
the. His idea was to createsomething that was safe, right? It
was about safety, likeblockchain, because of the discrete
nature of blockchain so itcan't be hacked and things like that.
And so he was using bikesharing on blockchain, which allowed

(47:49):
for, especially in a city likeSao Paulo where there's not as cause
there's a lot of crime there.So things like using a credit card
with a blockchain enabled bikewas safer than if you were using
it on a regular sort of creditcard processing system. So safety
was really the mechanism,right? It was safety, security and

(48:09):
privacy was sort of the basisof his message. This story about
him living on the street withhis mom having nothing. You can imagine
that you had nothing. Therewas no safety, no safety, no privacy.
And so using that, having thisbackdrop of being afraid all the
time, of watching your friendsbeing killed, literally of being

(48:34):
afraid for not only your life,but your mother's life and having
to grow up very young to dothat and now transition that to creating
a company that is now takingcare of people, giving them access
to transportation that theydidn't have, but giving them access
to that in, in such a way thatcreates safety and security for them.

(48:56):
And so there's the, you know,the connection points. And what we're
doing is we're building theemotional overlay with a son's connection
to his mother.
So what I heard you say wasthere was something about the lack
of security, physicalsecurity, financial security, and
his relationship with his momthat was the vehicle to deliver the
story in which. Why he thinksit's really important for them to

(49:19):
develop technologies to makepurchasing or renting bicycles really
safe. Something like that.
Yeah, yeah, that's exactly it.And so, you know, like every time
I'm working with a client,those are the types of things we're
looking for. What's themechanism? What's the story? How
do we align the mechanism andthe story? How do we say that idea

(49:40):
in such a way that connectswith people? How do we create that
why of your idea so that youraudience is along with you? And now
let's build the story to thewhy and the what and the how, which
is the mechanics of the ideathat comes along with it.
You talk about the threepillars of personal branding, awareness,
authority and differentiation.Could you share a story of someone

(50:04):
who struggled with one ofthese areas and how they overcame
it?
I mean, I think the biggestone is differentiation and Like,
I'll use myself. I've beenbuilding my own personal brand for
the past couple of years andauthority and differentiation are
really difficult things.Awareness is probably the easiest.
And I know that that soundscrazy because it's like, oh my God,

(50:24):
you know, there's, it's a bigworld. But the reality is we can
create broad awareness. Prettylike we live in a world of social
media, my goodness. Like wecan, we can get awareness easily.
But it's like, well, whatmakes you different and what gives
you those, you know, theauthority to say or claim what you're
claiming? And I know for me,you know, I think the thing that
we struggle with the most, andI would say this goes across to every

(50:46):
client I've ever worked with,is our own mind, our own perception.
So authority anddifferentiation, it's the thing we
attack ourself on. So who am Ito say that I'm not different than
anyone else? And so I had toovercome that with my own personal
brand of really stepping out.I said this earlier, I'm an incredible

(51:07):
introvert. Center stage hasnever been the place that I've ever
wanted to be. And it took me along time working with thought leaders
and people saying to me, youneed to be on stage, you need to
be saying this out there. AndI was like, who am I? I dropped out
of high school in grade 10. Idon't have education, I've done very

(51:27):
well. And have I selfeducated? Sure I have, but I don't
have that credentials. I don'thave the paper on my wall that says
I get to say these things. AndI had to overcome that. And then
I was like, there's a millionpeople out there doing storytelling.
Let's face it, I am not theonly person talking about storytelling.
So what am I saying that'sdifferent? And so those two things

(51:50):
are the things that for me, Ihad to really do my own sort of inward
journey of like, what is itI'm saying different? And I think
the thing that I really cameto is this deep understanding that
it doesn't matter who has saidthat, you've got the authority to
do it, you claim it. So that'snumber one. But equally as important

(52:13):
is that it's actually yourlife and the context of your life
that makes you different. Andso it doesn't matter what education
you have or whether a millionother people are saying the exact
same thing as you are, the wayyou say it, because of who you are,
because of the challengesyou've had, because of the culture

(52:35):
you've come from because ofthe awareness that you've gained,
you say it differently, andbecause of that, somebody else understands
it in a way they never couldhave. And I had to really lean into
that and believe it. And ittook me a long time of really, like,
listening to myself, becauseit's funny, you're on these journeys,

(52:57):
and I often say we teach whatwe most need to learn. And so I'm
saying these things out loud,and in doing that, I'm actually saying
it to myself, and it helped meto believe it. And so, you know,
it's been an interesting journey.
I love that. So that was a bigmindset shift, and I think that's

(53:18):
going to resonate with a lotof people listening to this. But
I want to get back to thewhole. In a sea of a million storytelling
coaches, how are you different?
Yeah. So I think my biggestdifference is that I believe deeply
that we are all different. Ibelieve that it's our differences

(53:40):
that make us strong, not oursameness. And in that, when we tell
our story, let's find thepeace that people resonate with.
So it feels like we're thesame, but the experience is so different
that it feels different fromeverything they've ever imagined.

(54:03):
And so it's that place offamiliarity in the place of extreme
difference, and that gives usthe ability to see ourselves outside
of our own comfort zone. Sowhen I'm hearing my story told through
your lens, because that's whathappens, right? You tell your story,

(54:24):
I populate your story with me.That's what my brain does. That's
all of us. That's just the wayour brain works, is we go like, oh,
yeah, I remember a time when Idid that. And suddenly in your brain,
it's. You're popping up. Butnow it's like they're telling this
story of this crazy thing thathappened. You've got some memories
that work with that, but I'mnow in your story, and I'm going

(54:45):
along for that ride, and thatchanges me. That's what's powerful.
I really help people to havethe courage, I think, to tell those
stories. Like, I rememberworking with a woman who had lived
in South Africa for a numberof years as a child. Like, she was
Canadian, but her family. Herfather was an ambassador, and he
had gone to South Africa, andshe witnessed one of her maids being

(55:08):
shot by her husband. And itwas a crazy story. I mean, she was
a child. She was maybe 8 or 9.And she saw this, like, horrific
event, and we ended up usingthat story. As an opening of one,
she was in PR and she opened aconference with her talking about
what she does. But she usedthat story. And it was all about

(55:28):
ethics, right? Because ashorrific as that was, the idea that
was inside of that was thefact that in South Africa it was
illegal for this woman to haveher husband living in the same house
as she was because she livedwith a white family. And this was
during apartheid, Right. Hewas black, so there was no problem

(55:50):
with them being together. Butit was that she was living within
a white family and he didn'thave a job and it was illegal. And
the family had said it wasokay for him to live there. But then
they got in trouble and theyasked her if he could live. I think
it was like they had foundanother house for him. But he took
offense and he shot her. Shothis wife. And the story though was

(56:15):
that it was actually herparents fault. They didn't understand
the cultural context they hadput her in this situation, that they
didn't fully understand theramifications of it because when
she asked him to leave, she'dshamed him. But they didn't understand
that cultural context. Did itjustify the end? Of course not. Like

(56:38):
that's not what the story wasabout. It was about understanding
that we can't look atdifferent cultures and think we understand
what's really going on insideof them. We don't have a right from
our Western world to judgesome of these other cultures and
what's happening. So, youknow, those types of stories are
powerful. Like I've never hadthat experience, but I have had the

(57:02):
experience of being completelywrong in what I thought.
Just to clarify, you said itwasn't her fault, it was her parents
fault. Did you mean herparents or the people that she lived
with and worked for?
The woman who I was workingwith was the white family, so it
was her.
Oh, I see. I see what you'resaying. You're saying the white girl's
parents fault, not the blackwoman's parents fault. Perfect. Okay.

(57:25):
And you said something earlieron. I just want to clarify. When
we tell stories, the personlistening to the story puts themselves
inside of your story and theylive it with you. If you're a good
storyteller. That's what yousaid, right?
Yeah, yeah, perfect. That'sactual brain science. That's some
of the stuff that they'velearned as they look inside our brain.
So then the personal brainingbit about differentiation is very

(57:49):
important, about leaning intothe things that make us different
when we are in a society thatWants to make us all the same. It's
problematic, and so that's whyit's such an unusual concept. And
this is my take on somethingthat a friend of mine says or writes
about. His name is JamesVictori. He says, what makes you
weird as a kid? And I alter ita little bit, will make you wonderful

(58:10):
as an adult. We need to leaninto that weirdness. And clearly,
you and I, I believe, areembracing it together. Separately,
but together. You know what I mean?
I couldn't agree more. I mean,for me, as I lean into my weirdness,
you know, And I often say, youknow, let your freak fly, right?
Like, to me, that is whatmakes us interesting. I found out
I was neurodiverse when I was56. And at the time, I was like,

(58:34):
what is that gonna do in mylife? I've lived this many years
not knowing. What differenceis it gonna make? Well, it's made
a massive difference in mylife. And why? Because I actually
now no longer try to stopdoing the things. Like, I now understand
what masking is. And so allthese things, as your friend said,

(58:56):
that made you weird as a kid,right? Well, when you're an adult,
you mask those. And whenyou're neurodiverse, there's a lot
riding on masking, right?Because it's just not okay to be
the person. Or at least itwasn't when I was growing up. And
now, as I unmask and I findwho I am, I turn 60 next year, and

(59:16):
I'm now sort of in this placeof, like, I am such a different person
today, and I'm much morecloser to who I was as a child now,
because I'm okay with the factthat I don't always get social interactions.
Jokes kind of go over my heada lot, and I don't have to pretend
anymore. And those are. Imean, those are small things, but

(59:36):
there's so many more.
Ooh. I came across this feedon my Instagram today, and how wonderful
and serendipitous it is that Isee this today of all days. And it's
a. It's a quote from CarlJung. To be normal is the ultimate
aim of the unsuccessful.
I love that.
I was like, why have I notseen this quote before?

(59:59):
Oh, my God. I was gonna say,like, I. I've read a lot of young
Youngian psychology. I'venever seen that. I love that.
Right. I hope he did say this,because it's like, it's so brilliant.
It's so brilliant. Okay, we'regonna land the Plane. I'm going to
segue to the end questionhere. And since you're a storytelling
coach and expert, what's thestory you wish more people would

(01:00:19):
tell about themselves or their work?
I think the story I wishpeople would tell about themselves
is why they do what they do. Ithink we get so far removed from
our own why that we have noconnection to it. I remember the
very first time I watched thevery famous Simon Sinek start with

(01:00:43):
why, right? And at the time,everyone was like, oh, what's your
why? What's your why? And, youknow, everyone was like, I don't
know, how do you find yourwhy? And it was like this big quest.
It's not that big a thing. Youknow what? In reality, what is it
that brings you joy? Like,we're not talking about, like, oh,
my God, if you get it wrong,your whole life is over. You're never

(01:01:04):
going to get your why wrong,because it's actually why you do
what you do every day. Youshow up to work, you parent your
kids, you love your husband orwife. These are the whys they're
underpinning. All of that is awhy. And that why is the thing that

(01:01:24):
will drive you forward. And sowhen we reconnect to it, and the
way you reconnect to it isjust by doing the things you love
and going. That's what it is.You know, for me, like, I've always
been a person living a littlebit in the future. I've always been
so incredibly curious aboutwhat's coming next. As a child, it

(01:01:48):
was always like, I wonder whatit's going to be like when I'm 10,
when I'm 20, when I'm 50? Iremember doing the math to go, how.
How old would I be at the turnof the century, you know, the year
2000 and imagining that. Andif I look back, that was me in my
why. Because what my why isall about is about creating a resilient

(01:02:10):
future, a future that isreflective of everybody who lives
within it. And that's why I dowhat I do every day. And I believe
that. I deeply believe inthat. And so what is it for you?
That's mine, but what is itfor you?
Do you know what. What achanneler is? Are you in Sudowu?
I do, of course I do. Of course.

(01:02:33):
I. I just had to ask forformality reasons, you know? Okay.
Are you familiar with achanneler by the name of Bashar?
Of course I am. Yes.
Okay, two for two. I'm gonnago from the gold all right, now,
I'm not a woo person myself. Iget secondhand woo from my wife.
Okay, so I'm just putting thatout there. Everybody. I've never

(01:02:54):
inhaled, but it's, it's aroundme. So it's, it's, it's here. So
Bashar, when he was ever askedthis question, he goes into this
monologue and it's quitebeautiful. There's some crazy things
that are said, but this one isreally beautiful, I believe. So there's,
of course, you know, the. Thisperson, his name is Bashar. And whenever
he's asked this questionabout, like, like, what's the meaning

(01:03:14):
of life? Or what's the plan?He says it matter of factly. What
does he say about this?
He says, you know what? Like,each one of us is here to live to
our highest potential, to stepinto all of who we are in the fullest
expression of who we are andto do so from a place of joy. To

(01:03:35):
let go of all of theexpectations that we put on ourselves
of being perfect or beingright or, you know, getting it right.
It's not about any of thosethings. We can't ever get it wrong.
We can't. It's just our job tobe the humans we are in the expression
that we have in the momentthat we're in, in the highest ability

(01:03:58):
that we have in that moment.
And that's how we end thisconversation. Because the things
you're talking about,storytelling, personal branding,
and if we're talking about amessage from a future intelligent
being and talking, talking tous about the human plan, it sounds
kind of the same. I was onstage recently, and it just came

(01:04:19):
to me as I was kind of writingsome thoughts and I was freestyling
a talk, and I came up with aphrase I'm quite happy with. Maybe
I won't feel that waytomorrow, but the phrase is the more
you, you are, the more youare. And I just want everybody to
be more of themselves, to letgo of all these ideas about what

(01:04:40):
perfect means, to lean intoyour inner weirdo and to let your
freak flag fly proudly.Because you're going to be in your
highest state of joy, yourdeepest passion, and you're going
to be doing that deep,meaningful work that you're always
meant to do and just realizesomething. You don't have to be 50
or going on 60 or whatever tocome to this conclusion. You could

(01:05:00):
be 12, you could be 17. Itdoesn't really matter. Just to realize
life is short. Make the mostof it and go out there and tell your
why story, everybody. Andrea,it's been a pleasure talking to you.
Thanks for being a guest onthe show.
Chris, this has been anabsolute joy and a pleasure. You
are an incredible questionasker and just very insightful. Thank

(01:05:23):
you. This has been such apleasure. Thank you.
Thank you. And if people wantto find out more about you, where
do we send them?
Check out my YouTube channel,the Thought Leader Academy, my LinkedIn.
I'm very active asandreasamson and then of course our
website, talkboutique.comThere we are.
We'll include those in thenotes. Be sure you check those out

(01:05:45):
and be well. Thank you.
Thank you. Hi, I'm AndreaSampson and you're listening to the
Future.
Thanks for joining us. If youhaven't already, subscribe to our
show on your favoritepodcasting app and get new insightful

(01:06:06):
episodes from us every week.The Future Podcast is hosted by Chris
do and produced and edited byRich Cardona Media. Thank you to
Adam Sanborn for our intromusic. If you enjoyed this episode,
then do us a favor byreviewing and rating our show on
Apple Podcasts. It will helpus grow the show and make future
episodes that much better. Ifyou'd like to support the show and

(01:06:30):
invest in yourself whileyou're at it, visit thefuture.com
and you'll find video courses,digital products, and a bunch of
helpful resources about designand the creative business. Thanks
again for listening and we'llsee you next time.

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334 - Unlocking Your Storytelling Superpower - With Andrea Sampson

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}334 - Unlocking Your Storytelling Superpower - With Andrea Sampson