Below is an AI-generated transcript and therefore it may contain errors.
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 Andy and Rica's in the is a keynote speaker, business storytelling coach and founder of the master storyteller Academy. He trains corporations and entrepreneurs on how to unlock the power of story to elevate their brand, build greater connection and increase revenue. And he has been featured in the Huffington Post Black Enterprise and entrepreneur magazines. And some of his past clients include Office Depot, Accenture, NASA and Bacardi. As you'll find out today, in the and I share a lot of things in common, but there's one thing we absolutely don't, or nicknames, or the legendary speaker, Les Brown has nickname and the great one. My two nicknames growing up were couscous, and lame joke. And these days, I'm lucky my wife calls me anything at all. So in ego boosting nickname is definitely out of the question. Ladies and gentlemen, the great one and the Henriques.
Andy, welcome to the show.
Andy Henriquez 2:12
Hey, Francisco. Thank you so much, man, I have been looking forward to spending this time with you and your amazing audience. Man. I love the fact that you have such a passion for storytelling. And I know that this is an area that you helped so many of your clients with. And so it's always great to connect with somebody who does the same type of meaningful work. And so I'm excited man, just happy to be here Cool Schools. I believe in that in the past, and maybe I should have brought it back. We'll leave that nickname in the past man.
Francisco Mahfuz 2:46
I when I when I started looking into into your stuff. One of the things that that that hit me was how, in many ways our our sort of our origin stories were very similar. Because Because I I grew up as a big nerd. I loved superheroes. And you know, I was the worst kind of nerd I played Dungeons and Dragons. That's when you know that I had no girlfriends growing up. But I you know, I sort of wanted a lot of adventure and excitement in my life. So it was a bit of a surprise when I ended up becoming a financial advisor. And I know you you share a boring job in your past as well, right? Yeah, absolutely,
Andy Henriquez 3:27
man. You know, it's funny, but you know, Francisco, you know, my parents are originally from the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. They're from Haiti. And you know, my parents coming here as immigrants to the United States. They really wanted me to become successful. And so one of the things that they were telling me over and over again, they were like, listen, the key to success is you got to go to school, you got to get a good job and get a good education. So I took their advice to heart like I was a really great student, focused really hard to end up going to Florida State University. I got my undergraduate degree in accounting, and actually graduated Summa Kuhn Lahti. So that's like a fancy way of saying I spent way too much time studying when I probably should have been hanging out with some friends. And I got my undergraduate degree in accounting out of all things. And then I stayed and I got my master's degree in corporate accounting, and there was a group of us were pretty insane. Like we decided to study for the CPA exam, and we took the CPA exam, and I passed it and I was working with this really amazing company. Price Waterhouse Cooper has every reason to do well every reason to be happy. But yet and still Francisco, you could probably relate to this. I was waking up every single day and saying, oh my goodness, like there has got to be more than this. And the reason why I was like I was waking up every day to the sound of an alarm clock, I'm jumping out of my bed. I'm getting my car and fighting traffic to get to a place in which I knew that I knew That's something inside me was saying, Andy, there's got to be more than this. And I bet that there are some people who are listening right now that you have showed up to a job set of circumstances. And you've been saying to yourself, like, there has got to be more than this, or you've been there in the past. And Francisco for about a year and a half man, I thought about taking a chance on myself, I thought about becoming an entrepreneur, I thought about becoming, you know, a speaker or a coach. But here's what I did for about a year and a half man, I would talk myself into it, and then talk myself right back out of I talked myself into it, like, Come on, man, you could do it, you could become an entrepreneur, you could become a speaker, you can become a coach, and another part of me be like, but you did spend a lot of time getting your undergraduate degree in accounting, you studied really, really hard to pass that CPA exam. Man, you spent a lot of time doing the things that you're doing right now, man, and this is a good job, like your mom's really, really proud of you. And so for me, man, finally, December of 2004, became what I like to refer to as a defining moment. And Kevin Costner has a line in the movie I always like to bring up and one of his lines, he says is when the defining moment comes, either you define the moment or the moment defines you, that became my defining moment, because that's when I decided to step out on faith, even though I was afraid, even though I didn't know exactly what the game plan was to sort of go down this path in this journey of entrepreneurship, and trying to figure out what my purpose in my calling was. And so I'm hoping if somebody's sort of listening in right now, and if they're at that place that you were at Francisco that I was at, that they would be bold enough and willing enough to sort of step out on fear, and move out really on faith and do it, do it afraid, do it anyway. And hopefully get out there and eventually figure out what your purpose and calling is and and now today, you know, it's a blessing. As you said, Francisco, you know, I get to work with, you know, major corporations and companies like Bacardi Office Depot, Accenture, I did a training just couple weeks ago for Google for literally for three separate continents, I did training for their US market, their Europe market, and their Asian market. And I almost have to pinch myself and I realised this, the only reason I get to do that is because of the fact that I was willing to do it afraid I was willing to step out on faith. But one of the things that I love is in addition to those corporations is working with individuals like the the people who are coaches, the people who are speakers, the people who are entrepreneurs, who are trying to gain some traction, or they're just trying to uplevel their game, and they want to get better at leveraging and sharing stories, man. And so that's why I'm a big fan of your work, Francisco and why I'm so excited to be here talking to your audience. Man.
Francisco Mahfuz 7:47
Let me pick you up on something. You were discriminated screw describing your story. What was the user term very well known in story and a term I know you like? What was the inside inciting incident? Or the inciting? Yeah, you had all that time. But at some point, you decided to do it. I'll tell you mine. But what was yours?
Andy Henriquez 8:09
Yeah, yeah. So here's what was interesting, right. So as I was an accountant, but specifically I was working as an auditor, alright. And so it's not uncommon for those of us that were auditing clients, we go to the client site physically. And we are asking the clients for their records their statements, so that we can prepare their financial statements. And what typically happens is we're working at the client site late in the evening. And so we're working at a client site, it's pretty late in the evening. And I'm sitting there with about three of my counterparts. And as we're sitting there, I've got like a senior manager, they're all been at the company longer than me, they're all at a higher position. And they start talking about all the things that they wanted to do. So one of them said that they always want to sort of open up a restaurant, there's another one that said that they always wanted to, you know, be like a professional artists. There was another one that I believe said that they want to travel internationally and travel the world. And I listened to everyone say what they wanted to do, and ask them why they weren't doing it. And they just kept saying, Well, you know, I'm working. And every year I say, I'm gonna do it. And, and, you know, but then I get a promotion, and I'm working here, and now it's harder and harder to leave. And so what I realised is like, they were sort of like telecasting, for me, and allowing me to see the future. And I was like, if I don't do something right now, if I don't do something radical, I am going to be several years removed, basically saying the exact same thing that they're talking about, talking about how I always wanted to become entrepreneur, a speaker and a coach, and I didn't do it, because now I'm working. I got promoted and I've been here and I would find myself saying what if I would have taken a chance on myself What if
I would have decided to do something. And for me, it was like a blessing in disguise, because they showed me what my future would look like if I didn't do something radical. And so I remember I wrote up my letter of resignation, and I was sitting on it, I was so nervous. And I was like, Oh, my gosh, I can't do this, I can't do this. And the crazy thing is, when I finally built the courage, it was right around promotions. And I actually got promoted. So of course, that made it even more difficult. But then I kept remembering that conversation with them. And I said, You know what, and if you don't do it now, then you're never going to do it. And that's when I finally turned in my letter of resignation, I was afraid didn't have a set game plan. But that was the inciting conflict, right? was looking at them and realising that they were basically showing me what my future was going to be. If I didn't do something different and something radical in that moment, it was a Francisco, your you said, you're going to tell me about yours, man, I'd love to hear it. Yeah. So I saw I was I was a financial advisor. And you know, it was a very good job, and I made good money. I had after many years apart, I had married my high school sweetheart, we move to Barcelona, we had a kid and life was pretty good. But the job was boring. You know, you're not very excited about making rich people richer, necessarily, and looking at spreadsheets all day. And I only really felt excited when I was on stage sharing stories, because I had gotten into public speaking. And one of my friends Peter, who, who got me into public speaking, he would come to me and say, you're pretty good at this thing. But you want to maybe take this professionally. I don't want to rock the boat. It's all good, man. It's I don't want it's fine. And then, and then I remember, this was 2016.
Francisco Mahfuz 11:44
My 2017 My kid was, I think one and my wife and I were woken up in the middle of the night by some loud noises downstairs. And he generally sounded like someone was breaking into the house. So she got up and ran to the to my kid's room. And I got up and said, Well, I guess I have to go downstairs and see what they face this burglar. And I started looking for some sort of weapon. And I didn't have anything I went to the bathroom or something I can get the toilet cleaner was like no, no, no burglar deserves that. So I walked downstairs. And just before I'm about to push open the door of the kitchen and go in my life sort of flashed before my eyes. And I didn't dwell on it because I was about to go in and see what the hell was going on. But, but later I started thinking about it. And I wasn't too happy with what I'd seen. You know, I thought this you know, this is not if I'm going out as face a burger and this is the end of me. I don't want that this was all there was to it. So you know, I went into the kitchen, and and there was no one there. But I could still hear the noises and I realised that the noises were coming from under the sink in the kitchen. I opened the door of the kitchen sink any was a gigantic black rat inside. I close the door terrified, walked back upstairs in this shows you how little I understand women that I said to my wife. There's nothing to worry about. It's just a huge rat.
Andy Henriquez 13:20
That is hilarious, man.
Francisco Mahfuz 13:22
That's that's what got the that's what the got the thought in my mind is I kept coming back to that moment and thinking there's got to be more than this, as you said, and, and I only really got pushed over the edge when when my wife and I were surprised by by getting pregnant with a second child because even though we're adults and should know better, clearly, I don't know how these things work. And and then I just realised you know, I'm I'm I'm almost 40 I have a good job. I have a wife I have two children. Is this it? Is this life for now come to the end of days. And that's when that's when I got over the line and said okay, now I have to I have to do something about this. And that's when I got started.
Andy Henriquez 14:07
I love it, man. Absolutely love it. Yeah, so yeah, that's that probably wasn't the best line just It's okay, honey. It's just a big big rat in the house. Yeah, you know what, I think a rat over a burglar any day of the
Francisco Mahfuz 14:22
week? Yes. Yes, it did. So, so one of the things I wanted to ask you about this, because I know a lot of your focus is on finding people signature stories. So and I heard you talk a lot about this, but what would because everybody has, they don't think they have stories, but they have plenty of stories. So what what is the thing you're looking for? When you're trying to find the one story that's going to work for that person? Because there's so many you can generally pick from what do you what makes the alarm bell go in your head go bang. I found it. That's the One. What is that?
Andy Henriquez 15:01
Yeah, absolutely. So first of all, we got to sort of define what a signature story is for everybody who's listening in good point. So when we think about a signature story, the way that I define a signature story is this is the story, that whether you are an entrepreneur, a speaker, a coach, this is a story that you leverage so that you can really create like a genuine connection between yourself and the people that you're looking to connect with. And actually influence. You know, for most of us, even if you have a product, you have a service or something that you want to offer people, you've got to have something that is going to attract that person, and make them actually want to want to work with you, right. And typically, that signature story is the story that you're going to lead with, that allows your ideal customer, your ideal client to say, my goodness, this is the person that I feel a connection to, that makes me actually want to work with them. Right. But to your to your to your question, Francisco, one of the things that people ask all the time, I've got so many questions. And so out of all these questions, how am I supposed to know which one is my signature story? So one of the things that we like to start off with is we oftentimes we like to start off by first just trying to figure out who is the audience that you're looking to connect to like, Who do you most envision yourself actually speaking to? That's one of those things that's that's super super critical. is who you're is who you're who you're actually the Pacers? throw you off your game. Oh, my goodness. I love it.
Francisco Mahfuz 16:37
I love it. Your season your season speaker and this? Talking with no interruptions has been there.
Andy Henriquez 16:48
I love it. I love it. Yeah, absolutely love it. So they're, they're right outside the room. And so so one of the one of the things we have to be thinking about is is we got to be thinking about who do we actually want to connect with, who do we intend to connect with. And this signature story is the story that we use, so that we can connect with our ideal customer and our ideal client. That's the story that oftentimes we're going to lead with. And if we can lead with the story, then everything begins to change, and begin to shift. But the question that's asked so often, Francisco is how am I supposed to know, out of all of the stories that I have? How am I supposed to know which one is my signature story. So typically, I start off with a three part framework. And I've had the opportunity to use this framework in front of audiences of hundreds of people in front of audiences of 1000s of people, and even working with people one on one and every single time. This leads us to being able to find and develop what is known as their signature story. And so there are three places that we want to start off looking when we're trying to identify what our signature story is. So one of the things that I have them often focus on Francisco is number one, what are your significant challenges? Like? What are the significant challenges that you have faced or that you have been through in your life? What are the significant challenges, most of us have gone through some challenges some of you as you're listening right now, you've been through a financial challenge, maybe perhaps you've been through a relationship challenge, some of you have been through a health challenge. If you look back at those significant challenges that you've been through in your life, chances are you have a story there. And it's not just a story that that makes sense to you. But if you were able to actually extract the lesson from that challenge, somebody once said, When you lose, don't lose the lesson, oftentimes, that is going to contain with it a powerful story, that the people that you're looking to connect with the people that you're looking to attract, it's a story that they're going to be able to relate to and identify with. Why because we've all experienced challenges in our lives. And especially for those of us that are looking to work with our ideal customer and client, if that challenge is something that you used to face and that you were able to overcome that you know, that your ideal customer and client is currently facing right now. So challenges is one of the places that I always direct people to look. The second place I was talking look, is I want you to think about this. And that is what was that defining moment defining moment. You know, we think about the the story you just shared earlier Francisco. Yeah, you know, just some loud noise down there. But in some ways also like a defining moment, because when you sort of like having to think about your own life, right, the defining moment, the way that I categorise that it's the moment that you look at your life, and there was the before that moment, and then there was the after that moment, right before that moment. And then the after that moment, when you look back at any defining moments in your life, you're normally going to find a very powerful, powerful story for you to share. And those are the moments that the trajectory of your life change. And most people are seeking that breakthrough that you encountered at that defining moment, most people are looking for a massive change in their lives, they want things to go in a different direction. So challenges defining moments. And and the third is what I refer to as your major transitions. You know, we've all been through transitions in life, some of you who are listening in at one point, you were married, and now you got divorce, you're single now, some of you, you were working a nine to five, and then now you become an entrepreneur, those are all transitions. But then the real question becomes when we talk about transitions, is this, right? It's great to have a transition. But what about those major transitions, those transitions normally have a powerful story. And especially for anyone who's listening in right now, if you're a coach or consultant, or you help people who are earlier on in the process than you the story around the transition allows you to say, hey, look, I know what it's like to be where you're at, I know what it's like to struggle, my finances, to want to get in better health, to want happier, more fulfilling relationships, to make more money, whatever it is that you help people do. But now you get to identify with them where they're at, look, I know what it's like to struggle, but this is what I figured out. And this is how I got there, right. And so that story about a transition ends up being the perfect story. So here's what I find, when we're looking for that signature story, we're looking for a story that is going to relate with people that is going to help us to connect with them. And we are wanting our story to be a story that they can see themselves in the story, in other words, that they could see part of their story within our story. And as a result of that, then they feel they lean in a little more. And they start saying you know what, man, there's something about this Francisco guy, there's something about Andy, I feel a connection to. So now therefore, I feel some type of a connection, I would love to learn more about them. Right. And that's what we're wanting to do in the signature story is give people something to connect to. So that way it buys us more time to possibly be able to work with them, to connect with them, and to have them actually make a decision that they want to work with us. You know.
Francisco Mahfuz 22:23
So one question that I see, a lot of people that are not used to telling stories struggling with is when exactly, you drop that signature story. Because if you if you're a speaker, that's a pretty straightforward one, you are given the time and the stage to do it. If you're doing any type of presentation. That's easy. You can you can build that in. But how would you advise people to use it outside this? You know, if it's not the stage, if it's not a presentation you're doing? At what point is just like listen, after they say hi is not the moment to drop your your five minute long signature story?
Andy Henriquez 23:01
Yeah, so here's what's interesting, man, one of the things that I do advise, though, is for anyone who's looking to connect, we want to find opportunity. So let's think about this for the everyday person, right? All these different scenarios, the everyday person, maybe they're just going to be one on one with a potential client. And instead of just getting right into whatever it is you're trying to sell that client, it wouldn't help you do you think that someone is more inclined to buy from you if they feel some type of a connection with you. So you'll find people who are really great at sales and enrollment, take the time to connect with people first share part of their stories so that they can build connection and rapport before they pivot onto whatever it is that they actually have to offer. So that's something the other thing is we're now we're in the age of social media, right? So for anybody who you're listening in, and you're like, Hey, I'm gonna go live on LinkedIn, I'm gonna go live on Facebook, on Instagram, or even if you're on the new social media platform right now called clubhouse. And what you're looking to do is you're looking to connect with people who don't really know you, when you're going to go live, even no matter what it is that you're going to talk to, it always sort of helps if you know that there are people who don't know you in the audience, to find a way to interject and find a way to bring in a piece of your story. You'll see even here when Francisco brought me brought me into to have this discussion with all of you, you have to think about it he wisely was like Hey Andy, you know, tell me tell us a little bit you know about you know, you know your story and so forth. Why are we doing that because yeah, we might be talking about storytelling dropping gems and we could get great right into content, but you're more inclined to lean in and listen and get value from me if you felt some level of connection and me just share my story there was so many ways you could connect number one if like your your family or immigrants you find a connection point there right? If for people were listening, you went to Florida State University you find a connection there right. If your accounting major you find a connection there, right but Here's the other thing, the real connection when I tell that story is, have you ever been at a place in your life where you said, there's got to be more than this. And so the reason why I put that line in there is because I know that even if you can't connect with being an accountant, or, you know, working as an auditor, or any of the other things I share, the one thing for sure, is that we are all human beings are wanting more. And you probably have been at a place in your life where you say, man, you know what, I surely wish that there was more to life than this, I wish that there was more in this relationship, in this job, and so forth. And so the mere fact of me sharing that it gives me more opportunity to connect, now that you feel a level of connection, you're more inclined to stick around and listen to what has to be said during our conversation here. And so we want to find opportunity. So my students asked me all the time, how often should I be telling my story? And I say as many times as possible? And they said, Well, what if I get tired of sharing the story? I said, What tell it again, and they said, Well, what if I get really tired said tell it again. Because there's always going to be new people to your audience, there's always gonna be people who don't know you. And they need to, to feel some level of a connection, so that they're willing to lean in and so that they're going to stick around. So true influence is going to come as a result of you taking the time to actually connect with people. And the fastest way for you to connect with people is by leveraging your story, whether it's casually whether it's on the stage, whether it's on a virtual presentation, whether it's in a podcast, whether it's on a television interview, we always want to find a way to interject and bring in our story so that we can build a connection and rapport with people.
Francisco Mahfuz 26:39
Yeah, I think that that concern that you just shared about, you know, his wife, I get tired of telling it. I think that people that have done any speaking or any type of performance work. Realise that that's kind of nonsense, because I don't know if you if you feel the exact same way I do. But when I'm working on new material, the worst part is working on the material, once I know the material, and I've done it a few times, and I know what parts work well, what parts I need to tweak, you're on stage, are you sharing that story, and then you can completely forget what the material is because it's it just comes so naturally. And then you go, okay, the audience is a bit cold, maybe I don't want to drop this funny part of the story. Now, I'm going to push that a bit later. And then you you sort of just playing against the playing with the energy of the audience. The last thing on my mind is, oh, I'm going to have to say this line for the 100th time in the last month. That is not a problem. And it's for me, there's not a problem at all, there is no boredom of sharing a story I've shared many times, I actually think I enjoy it more. Because it's there's no thought that goes into it at that point.
Andy Henriquez 27:53
Now, absolutely. And that's the thing, right? That's part of why we do this work. And why encourage even the everyday person, if they're not a professional speaker, we want to create that story library, we want to develop stories that we're going to use, and that anytime we need to we can sort of pull those stories out because we know they're going to be great at helping us to land a point, we know that those stories are going to be great to help us to build rapport, we know that the stories are going to help us to become memorable, so that people can actually remember the things that we shared. And I think that everybody whether you're professional speaker or not, you will in fact benefit from being a better communicator, and being a better storyteller. And so we should be intentional about you know, observing life trying to figure out where we could pull these stories, and then develop these stories so that we can leverage these stories over and over again, every single time that we need them. We're trying to make a point, or we're really looking to connect and enrol people into our vision into our cars, into our products into our services, or into yourself personally. Because if you can get them to connect with you, then we know we're more inclined to be able to influence them in the future, to want to do business with us to be a part of our tribe to be a part of our community. I think it was Bob Berg at first, I first heard say that people love to do business with people that they know like and trust. But I always posed a question to people how to get to know you how to get to trust you and how they get to like you, right? They get to know like and trust you through your story. It's the reason why we can get in the presence of a complete stranger, take the time to open up, share some dialogue, share our stories, and and now all of a sudden, we don't feel like we're strangers anymore. Now the sudden we feel like there's a connection there. And that connection just becomes an absolute game changer for us.
Francisco Mahfuz 29:37
Yeah, this is a point that a lot of people don't necessarily realise, which is it's the most natural thing in the world that when you you had let's say a great meeting and you're considering taking on a product or service or hiring anyone. There's always either someone you know a friend or a partner voice in the back of your mind that's gonna go but who is this person again? And then is when you go and look up The company or you look them up, but you actually go on LinkedIn and check their profile. Because you have you haven't been able to as a no, no, I, I know Andy is a great guy in and you can tell whoever is questioning, questioning you all those things about nd you don't know that person in unless you answer that question of who this person is, you typically are not going to feel confident doing business with them. And the story is, in many ways, a shortcut between two people. And that five minutes story might get to get allow me to know you more than perhaps I would have known you by working casually with you for months or years, as is the case with with many companies. And I wanted to pick up on something else. You talked about many different types of stories. And we talked about the signature story in and I've seen you talk about five different types of stories, I believe you use the acronym solve, right. So it will be the signature story, the offer story, the lending story, the value story and the expert story. So I wanted to just ask you about some of the signature recovered the offer one is one I'm maybe this is the one I've seen a lot of people call the value one or the or the client story. And is that correct? Is that is that is the offer one a very client focused story.
Andy Henriquez 31:22
Yeah, so it can be so the way I like to really just define an offer story, you know, in the framework, and the way that I teach it is that we think about this, for all of us, at some point we're going to be making offers, right? We're offering our products, we're offering our services. In addition to offering our products and our services, we might even just be offering people to support our cause our movement, if you're listening right now you got a nonprofit, or you've got a ministry or something. So we all are going to make some type of an offer, whether we're offering our products or services, or we're offering for people to come in and actually support us. And but we have to think about this that even we make offers, that there's going to be specific reasons that we know where people choose not to move forward on those offers. We've seen it over and over again. And if I were to ask you right now, what are some of the common objections to why people don't move forward on your offers, we most of us would be able to list some common objectives, right? Sometimes we know they're gonna say, I don't have the money, I don't have the time, you know, or they didn't see the value. So what is an offer story, the way I define the offer story, it's a story that we share, that allows us to do three things, either a to get people to see the value, right, it's to just get them to see the value of our products and our services. Because sometimes people don't take action, sometimes they don't buy because they flat out just did not understand nor see the value of what we have to offer. And so how sad is it that somebody should buy your products or your services or should support you, but we didn't do a clear enough job for them to see the value. So an offer store would be a story that we share today see the value. The other thing is offer story helps us to overcome objections. So the fact that we know what the potential objections are, we can use the offer story to tackle some of those objections that we know that people are going to have, right, whether they're going to say that I don't have the time, I don't have the money. What if you shared a story that allowed you to address that objection that a person has maybe you're going to share about another client who also said that they were limited on funds and find a way to figure it out and get the resources. Maybe you're going to share a story about somebody else who said they didn't have the time and somehow they managed to make the time. But it's just you thinking about what the objection is, and then coming up with a story that addresses the objection. And then the final thing, and this is one of those things that's really, really critical is creating a sense of urgency, because oftentimes people don't take action when they should, because we haven't created enough of a sense of urgency, there's something called the law of diminishing intent. And that is when someone intends to do something and they don't do the thing that they were intended to do. They don't do the thing that they were intended to do. The longer that they take to do it, the greater the likelihood that they won't do it. So sometimes we use the offer story so that we can create a sense of urgency to start to get people to understand why don't have to take action right now. Not delayed till next week, not delayed till next month. But take action right now in this present moment. Because if they take action, right now there's gonna be a reward, or there's gonna be great pain if they don't. So the offer story does not necessarily have to do all three of those things. But at least do one of those things. Get someone to see the value, overcome the objections or create a sense of urgency, and what is the ultimate intent of the offer story, so that more people say yes to your offer. It's to increase conversion. It's to get your ideal customer, your ideal client, your potential donor, whoever it might be, to say yes, right, because you have gotten them. You've gotten them to see the value. You overcame their objections and you created a sense of urgency so that they can take it So that's how I define the offer story. And I believe that for anybody who's making offers, that they should take the time to develop some powerful offer stories that can help them to increase conversion.
Francisco Mahfuz 35:10
When you started talking about the law of diminishing intent, I started thinking of most marriages. There's plenty of things are indented there, right at the beginning of marriage, and then it starts going down slowly over time. All right. Okay. So that was the that was the office story, we touched the signature story. Now, I don't want to go into all of them. But one that I thought I think was interesting, because I can see how people can fall into a trap there is the what you call the expert story. So I think the trap would be, you're just telling some sort of self aggrandizing tale that shows how amazing you are. And that that one can easily backfire. Because as people say, you don't want to make yourself the hero of your own story, if you're the one telling it. So what do you think works well as an expert story?
Andy Henriquez 36:01
Yeah. So what's interesting is we think about this, you know, most people when they're trying to position themselves as an expert, they have a tendency, Francisco to just really just try to list their accolades, right, I've done this, I've gotten this degree, I've been doing this for this long. And that's great. The only problem with that is that you are telling the audience, that you are the expert, right, and you're just simply listing accolades or reading off your bio. And one of the things that I love to share all the time is the reality is nobody really cares about your bio. I mean, as any professional speaker, when they're backstage, you're peeking around the curtain, they're looking at the audience, and they are watching their bio being read, if you watch the audience, most of the audience is not really paying attention to your bio, right. And the reality of it is if we just want them to read our bio, they could go to your website, they could just look at your, at your, at your LinkedIn profile, whatever it might be. But we have to be thinking about, we're talking about real true influence. And real true influence would be as opposed to you telling somebody you're the expert, real influence would be them coming to the conclusion themselves, that you're an expert. So an expert story is a story that we put together, we craft and as a result of us sharing the story, the audience, our potential customers, our client, they come to the conclusion themselves, that we must be the expert. Because perhaps in that story, we end up highlighting, you know, the struggle and the pains that we went through how we overcame the pain, the amount of money and resources we spent to learn the skill, the amount of coaching that we have spent, right, or the results that we've produced in our own lives are results that we produce in other people's lives. But it's the story that we share. So to give you a little quick example, I one of my clients, he ended up selling on Amazon. And when we're crafting his expert story, what we did is we talked about his journey, he first started off saying he was gonna sell on Amazon, he started off with just a couple of $100, he he thought it was gonna be simple. I just buy stuff, and I sell on Amazon, when he first started off, it was terrible, he violated every rule on Amazon, he got his account shut down and suspended multiple times, he was sitting on inventory in his house. And he was devastated. Right, because he wasn't making any money, then He completely forgot that he also need to ship these products. And he thought that people would just buy it, it was a nightmare. But then finally he was realising like he can't do it on his own. So he decided to get coaching and mentorship, he goes to an event. And he finds out about this amazing mastermind programme, and he enrols in this programme, and then he ends up learning about fulfilment, he ends up learning that wait a second, I don't have to hold inventory here, like Amazon can ship this stuff out, he ends up learning, like how to make sure people see his products. And then now like everything begins to shift and change, because now he's collecting money for products. And then he goes in by where before he was buying the product first. And so what happens is when he shares that story, and then he ends it by saying, and today, I'm so grateful that by implementing these things, I'm in the top 10 percentile of Amazon sellers, and there's over 2 million sellers on Amazon. What happens is when he's done telling that story, he doesn't have to go tell the audience, he's an expert, because when he's sitting on a panel, he shares that story. People come to him afterwards and like, Hey, can I talk to you? Can I pick your brain? I want to ask you a question. Why he didn't say he was an expert. He shared his story. But he shared it in a way where you could see the trials, you could see what he had to go through, you see all the things he had to do. And then now you as the listener, you've come to the conclusion themselves, Man, this guy knows more than I do. He's probably an expert, based off of what I heard. Let me seek him out to find out what else I can learn from him. Does he have any coaching or is there anything I can actually do? And so that is the power of the expert story. It's a story that you share, and a person just thinks they're listening to a story. But what's happening is As the story is completely positioning you so that they can connect, but then also positioning you so that they could say, wow, you're an expert, you know more than I do, perhaps I need to see if you if there's anything you could teach me.
Francisco Mahfuz 40:12
So I guess that that's the one where I'll eventually be able to drop the the fact that there have now. And I've listened to hundreds and hundreds of hours of storytelling experts of all kinds and read dozens covering up to hundreds of books while I was preparing for these interviews. Okay, go, that makes sense. Something else that that I wanted to, that I wanted to ask you to talk about is, so it's a really cool concept is really obvious in a way, but I don't think I've heard anyone else talk about it, which was this, this intersection between learning to tell your story or your stories, and how that allows you to use your time, a lot better to music, as long as it's like, ah, you know, maybe I knew that, but I didn't really and I haven't really seen anyone put it the way you did it. So I just wanted you to talk a bit about that.
Andy Henriquez 41:10
Yeah, absolutely. So you know, for all of us, it doesn't matter how much success you're having in this moment. If you wanted to reach more people and have even more success, one of the things that you have to constantly try to figure out is, how can you maximise your time, right, because that is the one thing that it doesn't matter what your nationality is, doesn't matter what your race is, doesn't matter how much money's in your bank account, we all get the same 24 hours in a day. And so if you are the best salesman or sales woman on the planet, and you are having one on one sales conversations, and you convert two out of every three sales conversations, even a mediocre salesperson can outperform you, if instead of speaking to one person at a time, they're doing a sales presentation to 2050 100 people at a time. And so that is one of the best ways for us to be able to leverage our time is to get out of the hole of just having one to one conversations, but rather having one to many conversations. But then the question becomes, we get that conceptually. But why is it that most of us do not seize those opportunities to do one too many conversations? Why don't more of us do start our own podcast? Why don't more of us do Facebook Lives, LinkedIn lives and iG lives? Why don't more of us open up a room and go live in clubhouse? Why don't more of us find opportunities to get in front of live audiences? And when when I ask people that question, the number one thing that comes up is fear. Right? It's the fear of judgement, the fear of criticism, the fear, and also the fear of what if I say the wrong thing? What if I don't know what to say? And so one of the things that's really important is I believe that one of the things that boosts your confidence level, is when you've taken the time to develop these stories. And you've tested these stories, you know, they connect, you know, they resonate, and and now you have these stories, and think about how much more confidence you have, because you have these stories ready and accessible to you. And I always ask people, What would you begin to do more of if you did have a powerful, compelling story, if you did have a powerful, compelling message, and you knew that it resonated with people, because you had been sharing it over and over again? What would you do more of in Francisco like clockwork, man, they start listing off, oh, I would start my own podcast, I would write my book, I would, you know, get in front of more people, you know, I would do presentations, I would do my own webinars and so forth. And the question is, well, why don't you do that. And it boils down to, they haven't taken the time to really be able to develop this skill set, and develop their ability to communicate and work on these stories. Because if they did, they would get more confidence, they would have more clarity and with more confidence, more clarity, we take more aggressive action, right, we're willing to do some of the things that we would hesitate from. And so I believe that for everybody, regardless of what your profession is, not only can you benefit from becoming a better communicator, but you will have so much more impact and more stickiness to your ideas and the things that you have to share. If you can get better at being able to craft and share powerful, compelling stories, because those stories have the three R's. And I just heard a new friend of mine on clubhouse shared this, but it's the fact that people will remember it. And they're more likely not only when they remember it, they're likely to repeat it right? When we think about you go to a workshop or seminar people share frameworks, you may not remember all the frameworks, but you will remember the story. And then finally, will they respond to Do it. And that's what we want to do. We want to connect with people in such a way that they will respond that what we have to share with them resonates with them, so that they'll actually take action.
Francisco Mahfuz 45:10
So this is another three words that starts with the same letter that you can now add to the arsenal. So I think your I've seen you describe what you do in your, in your academy, as discover, develop and deliver their signature stories or their stories. And this one is good. Remember, repeat and respond. It's good that there's that there's a lot of power to, to this to this alliterations. So I heard, I heard Mark Brown, who you might know of. And Mark Brown talks about when he tells people to find stories, he says, first and lasts worst and best. And I have another friend John Zimmer, who says, it's your first your fears, your frustrations and your fiascos. So again, this does, they do a lot for remembering these things. Now, one other thing that that I wanted to pick you up on this, this is me, maybe just having a minor go at you is you have that questionnaire about what type of storytelling, so I kept trying to game the thing to just get a you are an amazing storyteller. But the one time that I don't think you described there, and I'm sure you and I know that this type 100% exists, is the reluctant storyteller. Because if you know, you describe people, as you know, you know, they they leave the end, they don't complete the stories, or they are too passionate about it. There's lots of different types. They're all true. But I was surprised at that questionnaire didn't give you options to basically say, I don't really tell stories.
Andy Henriquez 46:49
Yeah, yeah. So there's actually one of the ones that are there is the one that we refer to as the juggler. Okay, and aka the accidental so we don't use we didn't we don't necessarily say reluctant, but accidental storyteller, right. And this person that has no intention to tell the story, if they did start telling a friend a story, Francisco, they don't even realise they're telling a story. And they likely did not finish it up and really put it because that juggler or the accidental storyteller, they just literally share whatever comes top to top of mine. And because of that, they're not ever really intentional about sharing and telling stories. And you know, it's really cool to maybe before we end, will tell the folks how they could take that storyteller quiz. What's interesting is I love when people take the quiz, because either they go, Oh, my gosh, that was exactly or they go man that really had me thinking, I didn't realise that or they go, I totally disagree with this. No, no, no, no, no, I love it. Regardless, it serves its purpose of getting people to think that wait a second, there's probably a way that you're naturally sharing and telling stories right now. And however you're telling your stories, there is room for improvement, you can become a better storyteller. And if you took the time to become a better storyteller, then ultimately you're going to make more impact. And ultimately, if your goal is also to make more income, that if you make more impact, the byproduct of making more impact is that you also make more income.
Francisco Mahfuz 48:13
There is a there's a word you used a few seconds ago, and it's a word I use a lot. So I, I describe the type of storytelling I do as intentional storytelling. But there is another word that you use, which is strategic. And that's something that I think is really important. And if anyone hasn't noticed it yet, we are always taught we have always talked today about when to use what story for once. So if I understand it correctly, for example, you you talk about storytelling and about the power of storytelling. So you have a very specific story that you use to sell that idea to people I think it's the story of your first job.
Andy Henriquez 48:55
Yeah, basically, when I got my first job, which was really because of my first car friend, Cisco, but yes, I, I literally share that story, specifically just to get people to buy into the importance of storytelling.
Francisco Mahfuz 49:08
Yeah, so for the people who have not listened to hours and hours of Indian recast as I have. If I remember the story correctly, it was essentially that your mum let you choose the car you wanted, but didn't give you the keys because you needed to get a job to pay for the insurance. Absolutely. Trying to get the job in a grocery store. I think a supermarket and the guy just wouldn't give you the time of day until you basically gave him a plenty of context. I said no, but this is my mom got the car. It is the first car and I I need I told all my friends. It's looking bad now, man, you need to help me. And they said, Okay, fine. You know, I'll give you I'll give you a chance.
Andy Henriquez 49:46
Yeah, and Francisco. The beautiful thing about that was that it was this. The fact that when I shared with the store manager, his name was Mr. Olson. And all of the previous times I went to him and I was just like Mr. Olson, I turned in my application he told me come back in A couple of days come back in a couple of days. But when I finally told him the story, I was like, you know, Mr. Olson I turned 16. And couple of months ago, I've been begging my mom to buy me a new car. She bought me this black Ford Bronco to Eddie Bauer edition, sir. It's sitting in the driveway. She won't let me drive the car. And I was like, Mr. Olson, this is my first car. And Mr. Austin ended up saying so like, this is your first car. Hmm. And then he went down memory lane Francisco. He started telling me about his first car. He was like, Yeah, I had a Chevy Camaro, right. And he told me I had to work like a newspaper route and do all this extra work, to be able to take care of the car and everything. And then it was in that moment is when he said, What'd you say your name once again, young man. And he walked me over to the stack of applications. And I couldn't believe how here was our 16 Mr. Olsen, probably his early 50s. I was like, Why is it every other time this guy just told me to come back. But this time, he hired me on the spot. And what I realised is that was the first time that I shared the story. And it wasn't that I just shared a story. But it was the fact that that story was something that he could relate to, because he could remember his first car. And that created a connection between myself and Mr. Olson, that allowed me as a 16 year old to be able to influence this man, that was so much older than me that we don't look anything alike that we probably didn't have much in common. But there was a commonality there, which is like the excitement and so forth of just having that first car. And that became a game changer. And when I share that story, I share it so people can understand that a story can separate you from your competition, because the moment before that I was in a stack of applications competing on the same thing as everybody else who filled out an application. But when I told the story that allowed me to separate myself from the other applicants, right. The other thing is Mr. Olson took my application which I didn't realise so many people applied to be to be employed at this grocery store. He took my application from the very bottom of all these application that he put it on the top. So what I realised is the story can take you from being last to consideration to topic consideration. In other words, story can take you from being at the bottom to being at the absolute top and how many of us would like to be first of mine, in our industry, with our customers and our clients? And then the final thing is how stories allow you to be able to influence people to be able to say yes, and I was able to influence Mr. Olson finally to say yes, all the previous times being persistent wasn't enough. But when I shared the story, that finally was the turning point that allowed me to influence Mr. Olson to say yes, and so that was a major game changer. But I share that story. For one reason, one reason only. And that is to get the audience to say, Huh, you know what that is, right? stories do allow you to connect with people. Stories can allow you to influence stories can separate, you know what, man, maybe I need to start telling more stories, you know, and if I can get them simply thinking that then that story has done its job.
Francisco Mahfuz 53:05
And they I think it's pretty clear that you know, you've done you've done all right for yourself, and you learn how to tell some stories. But I think your mom did you a disservice by by giving her that car. Because if she had bought the car for herself, and you had to borrow it, your storytelling skills would have improved much. Because you need the story for why you borrowed you need the story of why it returned without gas in crashed or totaled?
Andy Henriquez 53:39
Absolutely, man, I would have had to come up with stories like every single week to try to figure out a way to borrow my mom's car, man. Very good point, Francisco.
Francisco Mahfuz 53:50
All right, Andy, if if people want to get more of your content or reach out to you what's the what's the best place for them to find you? You're everywhere. But where
Andy Henriquez 54:01
is the yes, yeah, so So absolutely. So they can connect with me if they're on Instagram. I'm at show up for your life. And then everywhere else. I'm at Andy and Rica's. So just on Instagram, I'm at short for your life. On Facebook, LinkedIn clubhouse everywhere else. I'm at Andy Henriques my full name. And I know some of the folks if you don't mind Francisco to if anybody's curious and they want to take the quiz, I could tell them where they could take the quiz as well. Right. So perfect. So if anybody wants to take the quiz, it figure out what your storytelling style is. There's basically five different storytelling styles. We all naturally have a storytelling style. And the cool thing is there. There's parts of the way that you're telling a story that's working for you, and there might be some parts that you can improve. And so if you're curious, you can go do one of two things. I'll make it easy for you. You can just text the word story to 95427 837 701 I'm gonna say that again, you're going to text the word story to 954-278-3701. So once you initiate that text, it is going to ask you, what's your name, as well as your email, you're going to receive a text response that gives you a link to be able to take the quiz as well as an email. So once again, you can text the word story to 954-278-3701. And if you happen to have issues with that, and you're like, Man, I don't know how to do this text thing. You can just go to storyteller, quiz, calm, storyteller, quiz.com. Either way, it's gonna take you right there. And by the way, if you happen to take the quiz, reach out, let us know. Let me let Francisco know what your quiz results were. Let us know if you like, oh, man, I totally disagree. I'm not a reporter. I'm not evangelist. Are you? Like, you know what, man, this is a pretty good point. I do realise, you know, I happen to be this style. And I got some some good nuggets from that. So we're looking forward to hearing back from you on that.
Francisco Mahfuz 56:03
It's such a it's such an American thing, the whole text text or whatever, I don't think they do that in Europe or anywhere else. I'm always baffled, like, why why would someone want to tax the internet, just go to the website. But maybe maybe it's an old school thing where people do, because I've had, I've had other people that do this work, that they're based in USA, and everybody has like a text thing. And people in Europe are like, what?
Andy Henriquez 56:30
I remember I remember the first time Francisco, I remember the first time I spoke in Europe, I ended up getting an international number to do that. And even then, I can tell right now, for me, the reason why is that typically, and you know, this Francisco from the stage, when we're trying to, let's say give somebody a free training, or a resource, like we just did, they have a tendency to just write down the website. And then I don't know what the percentage is. But I would argue that probably less than 30% will remember after the fact to do it. So typically, when I'm on stage, I will actually have them pull out their cell phones on the spot, and have them do it. And I actually would give something away to the first person who actually comes in shows me that they got the link. And we do that because what we have found is that if I'm speaking in front of an audience, couple of hundreds or 1000s of people, the response that I could get via text, and getting them the key is not just the text, it's the key is that they're doing it right in that moment, we find gets a much bigger response than here's a website, because let's face it, how many of them remember to go back to the website to go do it, you know, very small percentage.
Francisco Mahfuz 57:46
Yeah, I think this idea of getting telling people to just get their phone out. I remember when I when I started in financial services, I had his manager, it was a great salesperson. And he would say, you know, you're trying to get you want to get referrals, right. So you want to know who their friends are. But before you ask them anything, just say Can you can you just do me a favour and I can just get your phone out and you and you sort of automatically get it out? You can just go into a context now when you kind of Yes. Before you know it, you're like in bed already. It's kind of awkward to go. Why? I don't know anyone. Joe. I can see Joe Yeah, Joe.
Andy Henriquez 58:23
Oh, what about Deborah? Okay, good guy.
Francisco Mahfuz 58:28
Yeah, it definitely works. Sorry. And in your your website is Indian records.com. Right. Andy and Rica's calm. Okay, perfect. Andy. It's been an absolute pleasure. The painting guys. I don't think I don't think they got nothing on you. You managed to rise above the guys painting the outside of your house or whatever the hell they were doing there.
Andy Henriquez 58:50
Yeah, I'm in a condo Francis got the funniest thing, man, a condo, there are literally 12 floors to this condo, and hundreds of units. And out of all of the units to be right outside have to be doing the window and scraping and painting, they chose mine. But this is the beauty of what we get to do. Right? We have to learn how to be able to still push through, regardless of what the distractions are. And it's so funny because I'm right next to the window, and I'm looking at this guy plastered and he sees me speaking and he could tell him obviously doing something, but now he's like, I'm just gonna do my job anyway.
Francisco Mahfuz 59:30
This is no coincidence, man, that people realise that you're giving power to the people. So now maybe expect every single interview or podcast you get for them to deserve more. It's just outside. We have to stop that Indian rakez guy. It's getting
Andy Henriquez 59:45
it's out of control, man. He's, he's pouring into the people, man. He's getting them to share and tell their story.
Francisco Mahfuz 59:52
Yeah. All right. Thank you very much for the time again, it it's been a it's been a great pleasure.
Andy Henriquez 59:58
Thank you, Francisco man. Thank you so much for having me, man. I had a blast. And it's awesome man to be here, man. Hope everybody listening in got some value. I'm sure
Francisco Mahfuz 1:00:08
they did. Alright everyone. Thanks for tuning in. Take care of yourselves. And until next time
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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