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Francisco Mahfuz 0:00
Hi everyone,
Francisco here. Just before we get started, I wanted to share something I'm really excited about. I recently launched the story powers bootcamp, a course that teaches you everything you need to know about how to find craft and tell stories that work. But it's not just an online course, because you get personalised feedback from me for all the practical activities in three hours of life coaching to work through any challenges, or focus on specific projects. So it's like if you bought a cookbook, but the chef came along with it. So go to story powers.com and click on Course, all the information you need will be there. So please check it out. And if you love the show, and would like to support us, you can go to buy me a coffee.com forward slash story powers. I drink about five coffees a day, so any support would be much appreciated. All right on with the show.
Welcome to the story powers podcast, the show about the power of stories, the people who tell them and why you should be doing it too. I'm your host, keynote speaker and storytelling coach Francisco mahfuz. My guest today is David JP Phillips. David has devoted his entire life to communication, presentation and self leadership skills. His 5 million views on his TEDx talks, is seen by many as one of the top authorities on the subject. After his seven year study on 5000 speakers, he built a JP university that launched earlier this year. David is clearly a man who likes a challenge, which is probably the only logical explanation for some of the fashion choices he's made in his biggest stocks. But hey, why make it easier on yourself? Ladies and gentlemen, the man the legend David JP Phillips.
David, welcome to the show.
David JP Phillips 1:50
Thank you, Francisco. This is an absolute honour. It's sure gonna be a story I can tell my grandkids right.
Francisco Mahfuz 1:58
Well, I'm not partial to you know why trousers and the blue jacket that Avast but you know, you pulled it off. I don't know if the if the storytelling TEDx would have had 10 million views if the fashion choices are different, but hey, you know, you you do you
David JP Phillips 2:17
know, the comments about that was insane. You're you're awesome at storytelling, and I really, as a public speaker, but who dresses you your mother? Wow,
Francisco Mahfuz 2:29
no, I don't think it's a it's a conservative outfit
outfit. But but it was quite interesting, because I watched that. And I thought, Okay, well, this guy has a very particular sense of how he likes to dress. But then I watched your first TEDx and you know, you're just dressed normally with a nice cardigan and everything. And it says something had here.
He felt not himself in the first one. Or, you know, something happened there. That he decided to go out?
David JP Phillips 2:59
Yeah, sure. Yeah. Well, I think I'm, I'm the kind of guy who doesn't really care. I just, I just love to experiment and do different things. And so if people judge me, based on that, I, it doesn't really impact me. I just love doing things in a fun way and experimenting and being different.
Francisco Mahfuz 3:21
Well, the one thing I would say about that is when you are looking through YouTube, or Ted or whatever, it that def definitely draws the eye. Because you're not you know, most people dress sort of conservatively when they do when they do those talks. So that is the magic of science of storytelling. And then I think the screenshot is you, you know, in your full glory, at least that one, will you stopping? Oh, whoa, whoa, hold on. This might be something I want to watch. And yeah, for us. I actually wanted to ask you about the the TEDx Talk since you've done three. Right, right. And so the first one was the PowerPoint and death by PowerPoint and the magical science of storytelling, and 110 presentation skills. I wanted to ask why you chose that order. So when you had the chance to do the first step back stock, why did you think that death by PowerPoint was the sum? That's the message you really wanted to share with the world?
David JP Phillips 4:15
Well, you see, I, I had a sit down about 10 years ago, and I put down a strategy in Excel for the next coming 10 years exactly what would be popular, and what would attract people, and exactly which subject would be really good to deliver in a TED Talk? Or maybe I didn't, maybe, maybe it was just sheer luck. Maybe it was just the talks have been in line with my passions in life. So seven, eight years ago, my passion was I hated how people misuse PowerPoint, so I wanted to put an end to it. So I built a TED talk. And then I got into stories. Tell him because I saw how incredibly powerful it was, but how have you used it? So I wanted to inspire people to do that. And then I am, I had simply been coaching people for so long. And the 110 steps, it kind of just gave birth to itself, I never had a plan to not going to study 5000 people to define 110 skills, it just gave birth to itself at that point of time. And people asked me if I'm going to do any more TED talks, and I say that I have three more in my head, which I need to get out there. And the next one will be more about the internal communication in your brain, what you say to yourself as a human being, but in this case, it would be as a public speaker, before you go up on stage, what stories do you tell yourself? Do you take that story from when you failed? Or do you take a story when you succeeded in your head and replay that before going up on stage? How you manipulate your own neuro chemicals and hormones to become the best presenter possible when you go up on stage? That would be my next next talk.
Francisco Mahfuz 6:04
And with I mean, with PowerPoint, I think, you know, I think you're slightly ahead of the curve on the PowerPoint hating or at least on hating PowerPoint when used improperly. Do you think there is a definitely there is definitely a case to be made that people should use PowerPoint,
David JP Phillips 6:23
well, I guess, maybe not PowerPoints, per se, but they say images and videos are really easy to use in PowerPoint. So images and videos are super powerful. So you should obviously use those in presentations, if, if it requires it. I would say that if you show a lot of data, and you need to break it out systematically, PowerPoint is awesome for that, like for animations and charts, just takes too long time to draw it on a screen or on a whiteboard. So there are some functionality, functional advantages to PowerPoint.
Francisco Mahfuz 6:57
Okay. Now, you talked about storytelling and how powerful you found it. And I think the very first time I ever came across you, it was I think so our mutual friend, Eric Eklund, he shared the very cool image of the angels cocktail. And I thought, Oh, I didn't know Eric was hosting parties. And eventually, I found out that the angels cocktail and the devil scarf day award and that to do Would you mind just this sharing? You know what that was? And how'd you come across that concept, which I think is really cool. Yeah, I
David JP Phillips 7:33
believe that the shortest version of a story is a metaphor, because as soon as I give you a metaphor, you play store in your brain. So I thought, hey, if if, if a talk is going to succeed, I need a metaphor for what I'm going to talk about. So I created the metaphor, angels cocktail metaphor, the devil's cocktail. And these metaphors are simply a construction and a summarization of the neuro chemicals in your brain. So we know that there are certain neuro chemicals that if you have, if you have stable levels, and higher concentrations of those particular neuro chemicals, you'll feel better, you'll be happier, you'll be more confident, you'll be more motivated. And the names of these are the likes of oxytocin, serotonin, and dopamine and testosterone. Okay, so if you if you have one of those in your system, it is the absolute opposite of having a devil's cocktail. Because a democratic Devil's cocktail can be seen as a cocktail or a combination of neuro chemicals high on cortisol and adrenaline, putting you into an incredibly stressed state. And as we all know, when we're stressed, we are not our best, best version of ourselves. And that's the idea behind the metaphors and it's really stuck with people. So I'm happy I created them.
Francisco Mahfuz 8:53
I think I've not seen anyone else have that type of focus on storytelling. I don't think you've ever I don't know if you've ever given it a name. In my head, I tend to think of, you know, chemical storytelling or hormonal storytelling. Hormonal doesn't have the right ring to it, I don't think but. But yeah, it's that research is not that old. Is it? The one that defines what the, the hormones and the connection to the to what story does to that? Was what first 10 years or 15 years of that came out?
David JP Phillips 9:24
Yeah. last 10 years. And it's it's constantly increasing. Yeah,
Francisco Mahfuz 9:28
yeah. And there was one, there was one choice you made on your, on your TED talk on storytelling. When when you were talking about oxytocin, you shared, perhaps the most personal, painful experience that that most people can share which was to do with, with your wife or your partner having a miscarriage. I can hardly imagine how difficult more not only the experience must have been but the sharing that in It's not something I think a lot of speakers would do particularly in that type of in that type of environment or that type of venue. Why did you why did you think that or decided sharing something so personal so powerful was, you know that that was the stage for doing that.
David JP Phillips 10:21
It was a tough call, I must admit, and I'm still to this day, not certain that it was the right choice. I think I think it could have benefited the talk better and my career better if I told a story, which didn't have such an incredibly strong impact. But then again, my objective when delivering talks, is to give it as much impact as humanly possible, people should feel my talks, because if you feel it, you remember it. And if you feel it, and remember it, you talk about it with others. And that's how you create, like a viral effect of it. And yeah, so it was a tough choice. But it felt right at the moment. And it still it still served me really well, because it's still become a massive big TED Talk. But who knows, it could have been been a bit bigger if I'd turned it down into a different oxytocin story. Because I think some people could have been a bit too rough. Yeah.
Francisco Mahfuz 11:28
Yeah, I can see, I can imagine that if, if the person watching that is from say, more of a corporate background, and they're watching this and thinking, do I want this guy to come to my company, and give this type of talk? I think I can see how someone might think well, this is perhaps not appropriate for a corporate environment. But you know, it is a very obviously, it's a very powerful experience and perhaps what you lose on on the professional side of it, you gain by humanising yourself. And I think that's, that that's a very important thing. And and I think the same goes for when the 110 scales. You talk about the Kings mile, it's one of the pillars of that talk is that is that the canes mile? Which by the way, have you now gotten? Have you now learned how to do it without some without looking a little less crazy?
via your pillow off? looks, looks a bit a bit demented? I didn't know if you're, if you were like very much exaggerating it. Or if you were still getting to grips with the with the smile that gets their eyes,
David JP Phillips 12:40
fluent in the change in the chain. While these days.
Francisco Mahfuz 12:46
The reason I thought that that was that was very interesting is because for people who don't know, can you just explain what the do Shane Duquesne, I never know how to pronounce this thing.
David JP Phillips 12:56
Yeah, so yeah, there was a a chap neurologist, the French guy, the chain did belong in 1852, who, who loved to he loved her love the idea of facial expression. So he puts patients into a room and he put electrodes on their face and gave them electrical impulses in order to contract the different muscles in their face. And irrespective of how he tried this, and never accomplished a genuine smile. But then one day, apparently, he was joking with one of the patients, and the patient lit up. And he saw that a chain smile. And he understood completely that it had to be a combination between the Supermatic major muscles and the org ocular ocular muscles up here. And when you combine those two, that is when you launch a genuine smile. And the genuine smile has been shown in studies over and over again, that people who have a chain smile, I just superior in life, and anyone can learn how to launch one. It changed my life.
Francisco Mahfuz 14:05
I saw, I saw a post on social media today. Someone's saying how now that everybody's wearing a mask, then you can see people smile. And I think I don't know if I actually send him to your talk or if I just thought of doing it. But you mean you can see people's mind 100% You can see people's minds this myelin properly. Yeah.
If there's one improperly gets to your eyes,
I mean, there's no real question about that. And that's one thing that I mean, if I hadn't watched your talk, and I wasn't familiar with that concept. I definitely noticed once I started doing the podcast, because sometimes I started listening back to myself in the introduction, particularly and said, I mean, I'm just sounding off. I mean, I don't know what it is, but there's just something I'm doing with my voice that is not working. And then it occurred to me, I don't think I was smiling. Yeah. And if you if I did, this doesn't make a difference. But if I do this, then it definitely makes a difference to the voice and it's thought it was real. markable how quickly you noticed that with the audio, that's cool example. And one thing with with your talk. So at the end of that talk, you show a whole bunch of pictures of you're going on holiday and how you use Meiling, before going on holiday didn't seem like you're overly ecstatic about the holiday because you didn't have the chains by one. And this is one thing that I've seen you do that I don't think I've seen many people that work on sort of the public speaking arena do, which is this, this focus on skills that make you better as a speaker, applied to normal life? And if I'm not mistaken here, you actually do some of that work. Right? Not not teaching people just to be better public speakers. But, I mean, this might sound a bit pretentious, but how to be better as people?
David JP Phillips 15:52
Yeah, absolutely. I think that's, that's probably the that's the foundation I come from. That's my thesis. And the thing is the same thing for public speakers. Because if you take the 110 skills, and if your idea if you imagine, and if you think that you can just practice those on stage, or in specific periods of time during the day, now you're off, you'll never become a great public speaker. That's not a chance. When you understand that you apply those skills in your everyday life, by the coffee machine, in the car, with your wife, with your kids all over the place, when you understand that if you apply them there, and you become skilled there, when you go up on stage, you're automatically brilliant.
Francisco Mahfuz 16:38
So again, I can definitely see that happening. Because I've seen, I've been in public speaking for quite a long time, and I'm part of, you know, Toastmasters clubs and things of that nature. And you see people that are very shy, very uncommunicative. And you know, just getting up on stage is the most terrifying thing they've ever done. And they definitely come out of their shell, after a while, you know, as they get better as speakers, you notice that they actually say back for the bar, and they talk to people more. But then my question to you is, you've been doing this work for a while, and I think that talk was from 2017, or 18. Right. But in your pictures, the change is my only really comes on at the very last picture. So so my question is, because you've been teaching these things for a while, what would you say explains that, you know, that particular aspect of it, although you were teaching it, you hadn't quite mastered it, or realise the importance of it yourself?
David JP Phillips 17:38
Yeah. And I think that will probably always be the case, because the 110 steps of excellence, there is a programme in the Jaypee University where a person can send up their video, and one of my trained coaches will then rate every single one of 110 steps and give you an individual score on each day, you can then get a maximum of 110 points, and no one in this world has achieved 110 points so far. And I haven't gradually become better and better on the stage. So if I were to measure my three TED talks, I would be starting at around 70 On Death by PowerPoint, I think I was at a like a 80 on the storytelling one, and 83 on 110 steps one, but the 110 steps one was a horrible, horrible experience. It's got a very, very horrible backstory for that day. So I would have achieved probably an 8687 if the day would have gone as I would have wished. So yeah, I'm constantly practising new things. And I, what I do is I look at the 110 steps, and I asked one of my coaches and asked them, Which one do you think I should practice now? And they go, like, do that one. And then I usually do that for like three to six months. And then I've got that ingrained in my system, and then I go for the next one. So for the last 18 months, I have been practising roleplay in all my, in everything that I do, and it's so much fun, because during the last two or three months, I have succeeded on YouTube, and I think I've officially become a YouTuber, because I've hit 100,000 subscribers. And it's such a different format, so I can just play full out and do roleplay like I've never been able to do before on stage. It's good practice arena.
Francisco Mahfuz 19:30
I want to talk about YouTube, but I can't let you get away with that one. What was the horrible what why was that less than talking like,
so horrible.
David JP Phillips 19:39
Oh my god, you know, so it's Instagram. I arrived in Zagreb with my plane the evening before. I think the talk is at two o'clock one o'clock in the afternoon. And I'm quite particular with my clothes. So I pick a set of clothes I know I'm going to wear so I had spent quite a bit of time finding In these clothes for myself, my bag is lost by their by the airline. So my bag is just gone. So I get to saga I've got nothing to change into. And the stores they open attempt. And I'm supposed to go on stage, say two o'clock. And I go around and there's just nothing that I can see even remotely fits me in my fashion because sanggup and Sweden, we just the opposite sides of fashion right? At the end, I actually find something at like half past 12. So finally I have it still just 90 minutes left until I'm supposed to get up on stage. And I'm so stressed because I've been looking for clothes all over the place. It's warm, it's hot, and I have to get lunch, I get there. And I stopped prepping getting into the mode, which I should have done like five hours ago, going up on stage, all feels good, I get up on stage. So usually when you're on TED talk, you have one screen for a timer, you have one screen for your slides. As I start, the timer just shuts off. turns off, you can't stop, you know, TED talk, because it's becoming it's getting recorded. So if I stop, the TED Talk won't be qualified to go on the internet. So I have to continue. But the thing is on TED Talks is that if you pass the 18 minute mark, it won't qualify again. So I had like five alternate endings and constant changes to adjust for the 18 minute mark. But as I don't know, the time now, I'm absolutely lost. And I have to cut out all five, just to know that I hid under the 10 minute mark. Two minutes later, my preview screen for all my slides goes black. So I have no time. No slides, nothing to help me. And yeah, I would call that not a good circumstance to deliver an excellent talk. So you if you look carefully, you'll see this happening around minute to 30. And you can see my focus, getting a bit off, I still pull it off fairly well. But it could have been way better. I was so pissed off at these people. I was so angry with them because they hadn't set the tech up, right. I don't think I've ever been as angry as I was done in my entire career when it came to, like public speaking situation. Because for me, that talk could have been one of the top rated talks in the world because I was the first one who'd ever done this and spent seven years this was my time to show it to the world. And they messed it up. So yeah, I was pissed.
Francisco Mahfuz 22:50
I meant well, it turns out that my my my Jive at the beginning about your fashion choices. Now. Now that's a lot more interesting, because that explains why you were stressed so much more conservatively on that last one compared to the previous one. But again, I understand that from from the views, that that one is the one that has had less views than the other two. Personally, that might be mean, that was the first talk of yours I've ever came across. And I really liked it. I think that did incredibly well delivered. I think that ending with the chains mio is amazing. The reaction in the room was was great. I would guess that I don't think it had anything to do with your performance. I don't. Personally I don't think that had you performed in that any better? I don't know how exactly would have looked. But I mean, storytelling and PowerPoint, I think are just catch your subjects. And particularly when you did your storytelling one, I don't think there had been another 50 that came after. So it might just be the presentation skills is nowhere near as sexy. You know, I think you're sexy, you're sexy enough.
Subjects perhaps is thank you is not so much
interesting, you say that you couldn't stop the talk. Because again, this varies a lot from TEDx, TEDx. I have involved with X Coaching here in Spain, and the guy who's, who runs it has lots of experience in it. And he said that he knows some TEDx around the world where not only they can stop, but the directors stop it. They will say, Listen, David, you're a bit off. Let's do that bit again. Wow. And I think there's there's one or two in the US where generally where they're saying they say to people, you're not here to watch a TEDx talk, you're here to watch the recording of a TEDx talk. So they will actually stop people in the middle. They will say, Listen, that beginning was off. Let's just do that again. And then do it as many times as they can to try and get the best recording of a TEDx talk. So I think you know, if you are in one of those places, you just go my sound is out and the time is out. Then they were just Okay, fine. Let's
Let's do that again. Yeah.
Strange. That was strange. So you mentioned the Jaypee. University. Right? So can you just explain to the audience what that what that is exactly, because I don't think we have actually said what it is.
David JP Phillips 25:15
I'm sorry, it was? Well, it's, it's my brain in a digital version. And it's, it's a new way of learning. It's a, it's a new way of distribute the seeing content online. So there's like this 200 chapters, you can dive into which one you want, whenever you want it. It's about two years worth of content. And I know that anyone that will go through that and devote their time to it, it will change their lives entirely, both professionally and privately. So anything or storytelling, every single 110 skill, and tie death by PowerPoint package, the entire self leadership thing, it's a massive, massive platform, it took me about three years, I think, to just create all the content, and then the development team on that.
Francisco Mahfuz 26:06
And you said before that, you know, you joked that you plan, your talks didn't years in advance. But you know, you could have done a lot worse with timing with this one, because you your launch was gonna be live. So by the time that everything hit, and you couldn't, you couldn't really launch it live. It was the time that everything was going online. Now, from the first reactions of CNET, as I watched your your live launch, it seemed to take off pretty pretty well. But I can only imagine that launching this now and online is pretty much all we can do. Muslim must have helped the compared to if you had done this last year. So you might not have full ended. But it seems to have worked out pretty well.
David JP Phillips 26:53
Yeah, I'm happy, I'm so happy that that came along. I've never had better timing in my entire life.
Francisco Mahfuz 27:00
And, you know, you're also ahead of the curve there. Because this is something I've seen, I'm seeing a lot from from keynote speakers, which is that, you know, most keynote speakers business models involves, you know, you go out and speak and then you try to sell some consultancy or workshops on the back of that. I mean, people sell books as well. But that's not doesn't bring a lot of money. And not many speakers had an online training course of some kind to sell on the back of their speaking, I've seen now they started popping up. But I can only imagine that if that's not already happening, they will definitely be a massive string in your bow to whatever speaking you do, from now on to say the companies, you know, and I've got also got this thing, you can just get your whole staff on it. And the fact that yours is already working well, and an employer has been in place now for a few months. Again, not many people, I don't think anyone else in Europe has anything close to that. When they were asked, you might have some competition, but here I don't think there's anyone doing it.
David JP Phillips 28:01
Now, no, I've been told that it's it's the most massive online system out there from a speaker, you know, Tony Robbins has and the likes of those, they have massive, massive portals as well. So it's in the likes of those Yeah, in the US, but it's big.
Francisco Mahfuz 28:19
So, one thing I have a question about with regards to, to the 110 skills and the approach of of the Jaypee University in your approach in general. And this is what it is now. So So my background was the public speaking type of public speaking or other than professional speaking, so say Toastmasters and things of that nature, it tends to be very granular. So we know you fix specific skills, you fix how people move on stage, you you you improve them on, you know, eye contact and how they use their voice. So we know you are attacking a lot of the 110 skills bit by bit. But one thing I started feeling after with people that had been in Toastmasters for a long time, or that type of speaking, but hadn't done, you know, speaking in front of different types of audience so so to not your your mates from those pastors who are super positive. The impression I started getting sometimes is that there was a lot of focus on the granular stuff on the micro skills. But people that were technically very accomplished, hadn't necessarily mastered, maybe their storytelling, or their, their content just wasn't at the level that their delivery was, you know, perhaps their vulnerability wasn't there, or it just wasn't punchy enough or there wasn't there weren't enough stories, but you know, they moved away when they spoke well, and they looked at everybody and they did all these things. So what I wanted to know, because obviously, you know, you subscribe to a great extent to let's learn all these skills one by one. Do you ever see that? That some speaker that there is a risk in some speakers becoming technically accomplished, but not necessarily being able to go into don't have 200 people and deliver a great talk. Because perhaps no, the, the writing or some of these other skills haven't been developed as much as the as the delivery ones.
David JP Phillips 30:12
Yeah, absolutely, definitely. I, my analogy is always a guitar player. So you can become incredibly skillful on your guitar. And you can play it in every possible manner. But if you never really learned to connect with your audience through the songs, they'll they'll just get bored, you'll become a tick tock clip, and they think that'll be fun to watch. But you wouldn't be able to entertain them for for an hour, say. And she currently for example, he has amazing guitar skills. But he has got amazing ability to transform his thoughts into words and rhythm and songs, which attract millions, maybe billions, even around the world. So yeah, definitely, you need both of those worlds, for sure.
Francisco Mahfuz 30:58
Because Because dad or the DAX is a very interesting study, a case study with regards to what I'm not saying that isn't the things are not important. But this what is exactly, exactly essential. And what is not, because I remember, you know, when I had been public speaking for maybe two or three years, and then Ted started blowing up, and I remember one of the first reactions when I watched some of those, those talks were, these people are not terribly great speakers, at least, to what I understood, the great speaker was, and some of them are incredible. But you look at at a lot, you know, Sir Ken Robinson, who left us recently, unfortunately, but I remember watching that talk and thinking, wow, this guy is so good, and so incredible in so many things. But there's some things he's doing there that if he was at a different type of public speaking, people will be saying, Oh, but he shouldn't be doing that. So his hands are there is movement or whatever, right. And I identified that very interesting that some talks that are very popular and have had an impact, because they've changed the way people thought about certain things. The speakers are not technically accomplished at all. So that's what got me thinking about. Are there some skills that are not technical that override all the, you know, inverted commas bed speaking? But yeah, so again, just just throwing that out there?
David JP Phillips 32:21
Yeah, I think it relates to the same thing, I think. I think there are plenty of plenty of artists, musicians, who have written one good song or maybe two good songs, but they are not skillful enough to be able to reproduce that. That is one example. Another example could be that the song itself is so brilliant, that it overrides the skillfulness of delivering it. And then famous, well, famous fame makes us blinded to the lack of skills, you can have people who are just simply famous and we just adore them because we're biassed to the fame that they they come with. So there are when I, when people come to me and they say I want to become I want to become a big public speaker. And I say, Okay, you have a couple of options, number one, become famous and have fairly good content and fairly good skills, and you'll be alright. create incredible content. You don't have to be famous, but you need to have fair skills, or you have exemplary skills, really good content, you don't need to be famous. So it's a balance between fame, content and skill. And the times when you find somebody who is incredibly skillful, incredibly good content, and they're famous, you know, it's it's mind blowing to watch those people, they they fail.
Francisco Mahfuz 33:55
There's also the the platform aspect of it. I just just a few days ago, I saw Sean Callahan, who was well known in storytelling circles. He was showing a talk from Steven Levitt from Freakonomics. And he was saying how, you know, this is why you shouldn't really tell, you know, fables or fairy tales, in business, storytelling, it just doesn't really work. And I started watching and it's a very awkward beginning of a TED talk, you know, he's trying to make imagine there was a land when there was a doctor, and there was a disease and the disease, they found a cure for the children for not for the babies get in, there was a talk about like seatbelts, but you know, what the talk is about so you know exactly what he's doing. And he does. And then he said, that truncal and said, you know, this is why you shouldn't do it. And this is why he's talked, bombed, and he knew it had bombed nothing like his first talk. And then I went on the third platform and his first talk who had done very well had 5 million views. This one which seems to be not that good, had 1.4 million views at Anyone that have gotten 1.4 million views on a talk would be delighted with that. So you know that there is also the platform, you know, if for whatever reason you've been invited, and then they put you on the on the major platform, then, you know, I think your 5 million views would be 20 million views. If you weren't ted.com on TEDx. That's not quite the same. So that's that. And I don't know how many how much people who see it from the outside realise how much harder it is to do well, with with an outside outside talk, than with a with an inside talk. That was the last thing I wanted to ask about the Jaypee University is about the the mission you have behind it, because I know that I've seen you talk about making people better communicators. But that's not all. I mean, I've seen you talk about something a lot more important than that. And something you your goal with that. Do you want to share that?
David JP Phillips 35:53
Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for asking that. And I think I am of the solid belief that communication is the greatest segregation of mankind. It's more segregating than anything else, because we're all born equal. But we're not giving the equal opportunity of being able to communicate with others. So if you're not good at communicating, it means that you will have a lesser chance of a job, lesser chance of a good wage, you won't be successful in your marriages and your relationships, they will crack and dissolve as you go through life. You tried to teach your kids to try to be a good parent, but you'd never learned how to communicate with them in a good way. So you fail at that as well. There is a chance that you consistently fail in life, with friendships and everything around you. Compared to the person who's learned how to communicate, they might not even have a good idea. They might not even be smart, but they know how to talk. And they're able to get into jobs to get awesome salaries, get fantastic relationships. And at the end of the day, it all comes down to your mental health as well. People who have learned how to communicate with themselves in here can have a beautiful psychology, and those who haven't, are depressed or can become depressed. So yeah, the greatest mission I'm on is to be able to create a version of JP University, which can be given to kids all over the world for free, so that any child, any youth anywhere, can learn the skills that they need. Because the thing is, if you go through the gap, you know, acident, you've got at least 90% of the desired skills that you need in life when it comes to communication. Now, as I mentioned the YouTube thing, it's I wasn't expecting that I wasn't expecting my youtube channel to blow up. But because of Mr. PewDiePie reacting to my reaction video, it went from 10,000 to 100,000 subscribers over two months, two and a half. And that usually takes five to 10 years in a normal rate if you don't go viral, which very people do, few people do. So And what happened then is if I read the comments on my reaction videos, and other YouTubers, I've done them a lot, Markiplier and KSI and PewDiePie. And Mr. B, so far, the comments are, oh my god, I learned something and I enjoyed it at the same time. And other comments can be, I just watched two of your videos, I've applied the skills, and I'm already feeling more confident. Third version is I learned how to use the chain smile, and people are approaching me differently. Thanks to your thanks to your action media. So it just just seems like my vision and my hope to reach out to kids all over the world and youths just came as a Christmas present. And I made I just found the perfect format
Francisco Mahfuz 39:01
for people who like me until, I don't know, a month ago, had no idea who PewDiePie was. I mean, I had heard the name, and I knew he was big on YouTube. But I mean, I had no idea. And then then I saw and I saw your reaction video to him. And then as soon as I found out who he was, I thought oh, that's pretty smart. I mean, I would imagine that if you do that you'd expect that you know by association some people that are liking PewDiePie stuff might you to my point to them to you and obviously him doing the reaction on your reaction is I mean again both very he's very funny on that video. I don't know if he's always that funny, but he's incredibly funny on that video. And I remember I had seen some of your reaction stuff and I has seen you with 20,000 subscribers I think he's doing well we know this channel is picking up fast after that one, and he was already at like 75 Like, like I can see what's happening here. So yeah, I know the I think the reaction videos war. Were very interesting. Turn them in between. And also they're a very different thing than what we're both you but you have been doing before and some of the other stuff I've seen you put out on social media, because you were doing that. Was it the 90 seconds or 120 seconds? Yeah. Videos, which is more like a newscast format about the brain? How did the idea of the of the reaction videos come on? When did you think of that someone in your team said,
David, I think this is the way
David JP Phillips 40:28
it's entirely my son's, the health of my son, my son is 20 years old. And he is, is a pure copy of myself and my wife, but it's more intelligent, is more clever. And he's compared to me, he's more connected in emotion than I am. So it's like, he knows what is necessary to attract people's attention on on YouTube, for instance, and he's been using it for quite a while. So he listened to my to my vision that I wanted to give this to youths all over the world. And he said, Okay, if so you need to make it on on on one of the social media platforms. And I think YouTube is your thing. Let's do reaction videos, let's do them. PewDiePie is the biggest guy is Swedish. If you do this, well, he will react back to you. And that will give you a massive boost and get you started. Because if you don't get help like that, it's almost hopeless. It's like, I had my channel for eight years, and I had 10,000 subscribers. It's it's not easy to succeed in YouTube. But that was the plan. And now, because YouTube has graced is present on my channel, the chances that one more of those big YouTube stars will do as well, once I've been doing recently, so I just hoped for that. Because that can just elevate it even more, and I can reach even more youths and kids.
Francisco Mahfuz 41:49
It's, I mean, I'm not a big watcher of YouTube videos, I try to stay away from YouTube, because it's because I've seen what it does when you give it two seconds of irritation. I had a long time. So I didn't spend any time on YouTube. And then a few Sundays ago, I saw something you know, they recommended something like, you know, the, the top 10 Auditions on X Factor. So five hours of my life when I call him up, like you have to watch this. This is incredible. Like, no, I can I can fall down that rabbit hole. But what I was going to say is, I don't know if many people are doing reaction videos from the type of with the type of content you're doing, you know, this very brainy speaker evaluation of people. So you know, if nothing else, you've got that you've got the the novelty factor in your in your side, and the opposite the knowledge to back it up. So So yeah, I mean, I think if more people you know, a few more PewDiePie is I mean, not PewDiePie. But a few more people that react back with Yeah, will be with the doing of that channel. And it would be pretty cool with if, between that and JP university, you managed to get that mission out in the world, because this is something anyone I think that does any training with communication or speaking feels is this. Why could you possibly not think that this is important? I mean, you speak to companies like, why would you ever do sales training, but you wouldn't do communications training, it's all the same thing. He just is like, why would you possibly have to explain to someone that this is important, but you know, we bang our heads against the wall sometimes?
David JP Phillips 43:27
Yeah. I agree.
Francisco Mahfuz 43:32
Or the last one, the last questions I want to ask you here is this on your storytelling video, the way you you, you make the audience feel dopamine is by telling the story of your meeting from hell. Yeah, well, I say telling the story, but you don't tell the story, you tell half of the story.
So and I'm sure this is not the first time we've been asked this. But what happened in that meeting with the ex army vets that did adventure services in in the biggest trading company in Sweden?
David JP Phillips 44:07
Well, I don't know maybe one day I'll do a TED talk on it.
Francisco Mahfuz 44:12
Right, so So just before we
go, David, you've been you've been doing a lot of online stuff and I think compared to a lot of people you've you've taken to the to the online and virtual world very well and and you thriving on it. Are you actually missing the stage?
David JP Phillips 44:28
Yeah. Definitely I do is just after the after the seminar, I feel that I really want to go up on stage again, I want to connect with people so but I am so blessed and so grateful and thankful for the opportunity that I've had during the COVID phase where I have been able to do this online, because it has given me a new perspective on public speaking. And it's made me even more comfortable as a public speaker. So it's been made same amazing period where you have to trust your own, you have to trust yourself in this in a very different way when you speak to a camera. So when you look into the camera, you have to know that what you're doing is good enough for your audience to stay there. But when you're on stage, you don't have to know that you can always alternate your, your delivery by looking at the audience, maybe they don't need that much of an effort because they're sitting like this, or maybe they need this much of an effort. And, and it's been nice just learning to trust once. Once these things like that,
Francisco Mahfuz 45:38
I guess the challenge that you're going to face soon, if things keep going, the way they're going, is the realisation that your reach, and perhaps your your ability to advance the mission might be significantly better. If you doing things online, then if you're going out and talking. But you know, at the same time, I guess we have to feed the soul as well. Otherwise, otherwise, we burn out looking at a camera nonstop, all day long. Takes a different tone than travelling around and going on stage. But but it does take a toll.
David JP Phillips 46:15
Yeah, no. That's a nice way of putting it. Do you miss it?
Francisco Mahfuz 46:20
Yes, yeah. So particularly, because in my case, what had happened was I had been doing, I had been doing a lot of speaking and I had been speaking here in Spain, and I was on the cusp of of taking the speaking internationally. So that's when I had everything set up. And I started a podcast and I had everything done. And I decided to focus on storytelling other than communication skills, which was my first my first thought, and then when everything was just about good to go, and I was going to start contacting companies outside of Spain to start speaking. That's when COVID hit. So by now I wish I had been travelling around and getting that life. And then all of a sudden, it's okay, well, do I wait, do I turn everything virtual? And, you know, it's, it's, I'll be missing it. Personally, I'm fine. I haven't had any, I've been lucky not to have trouble with what's been happening, my family's healthy, I feel in a good mental state. And I'm very busy and inspired. But I'm I'm raring to go. I've got, and I've got stuff coming up. And I've got a storytelling Congress coming up. But I really wanted that to be live. You know, it'll be it'll be fun. And I'll be probably 1000s of people that I wouldn't have talked to otherwise. But I'll be in my living room.
I just think though, the lights on my face? Not not perhaps worried that the airline has lost my luggage? And then I have to dress less in a way that is not quite me. No.
So So Where Where can people find you? What do you want people to find out these days?
David JP Phillips 47:51
Well, I use a lot of I spend a lot of time on LinkedIn publishing good stuff there if you're into business. And then of course you have a YouTube channel if you want more playful stuff. More personal on Instagram. And then you have JP University comm or David JP phillips.com, where you can find me respect of what you need me for. And I'm always here to inspire and to teach and to learn new stuff as well, of course, but give you learnings. David,
Francisco Mahfuz 48:20
thank you very much for your time today.
David JP Phillips 48:22
This has been great. Thank you, Francisco. Alright, everybody.
Francisco Mahfuz 48:25
Thanks for tuning in. Take care of yourselves. And until next time.
I hope you enjoyed the show. And if you did, I'd love for you to subscribe and leave us a review or a rating on the Apple podcasts app. It's very easy. You open the app and find this show and scroll down a little and when you see the stars tab. I'd really appreciate it and it does help other people find us. And if you'd like to get in touch or find out more about what I do, reach out to me on LinkedIn or visit my website story powers.com
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