054 — Robert Kennedy Tells Entrepreneurs How to Share Their Stories on Stage

hey busy business people I am here today with another entrepreneur taking action Robert Kennedy the third Robert helps entrepreneurs tell their stories on stages and on video so they can attract and close more of their ideal customers and I'm getting the scoop today on how he does it so stay tuned [Music]

okay so Robert okay on stages in videos like why is that important well do me a favor Christina um I'm a speaker and so one of the things that I do when I come on stage is I bring a little bit of energy so I just need you to do me a favor and just say ladies and gentlemen introducing Robert Kennedy III ladies and gentlemen

[Music] [Applause] [Laughter] yeah hey how you doing

listen I just you know I I how many of us would like love to enter a room with like our own band or theme music just following you you enter every space and everybody just knows you're there because not they're just they're not identifying your face they're identifying your theme music they're like oh Robert's here Christina's here let's go oh my gosh that would be amazing that would be amazing I remember back in the day they remember back in the day shirt you could like program it with like song you could push which one so when you're walking around it's like walking around it's like Yeah I wanted one of those yeah one of those back in the day yeah so yeah you totally asked the question I forgot what it was go ahead go go ahead go ahead the importance of Storytelling on video and on stages

should do well you know what anybody can throw information around anybody can throw facts and figures around but our goal as business owners our goal as speakers is to be memorable and what better ability to be memorable than to share stories we've told stories since like the beginning of time it's how it's how we've transmitted family histories before photo albums and uh you know Flickr became a thing right we we how do we share information we shared information through stories that's how we remember stuff so um we I don't know we got grown and we got into this businessy world and we're kind of like yeah we gotta we gotta figure out the figures and the facts and the statistics and the data and we're like dude no nobody's interested in that they really want to know how it connects with them they want to know the emotions the feelings and and stories bring feelings and emotions so I think one thing that you mentioned there too that um there's kind of the negative side of stories too though that I would love to kind of hear your thoughts on here like as more and more people it's like their stories into their presentations from stages presentations from stages yeah it's all their story and it's not about like them and how the audience and how the audience yeah so like you mentioned that and I was like I mentioned that grab on that for a minute grab on that for a minute yeah so that's super important because the whole goal of you being in front of a group of people is not to give them your information it's to connect with an issue or a challenge or a problem that they're having and then hopefully as a business owner you're the person that will solve it or you have an idea a resource a tool a product that can help solve it but the first thing is is about the audience the best stories are about them not not us right and so um even if you are telling your personal story what is the connection what is the relevance to the audience everybody's on you know you know after we've heard the statement before everybody's tuned into we FM right what's in it for me right and so that that's the the lens that they approach it with so how can you connect even when you're telling a personal story

it's like so important and I love that so important it's like that it's like one thing I would love to see we've done away with when speakers when speakers is their big big bio monologue as soon as they come out and that is the worst monologue and it's just like and it's just like I've forgotten why I'm even here forgotten why I'm even here yeah that that is the worst as a matter of fact um one of the things when people come to me they say hey Robert how can I engage my audience right from the beginning um I say you know do not ever say good morning my name is Christina and I'm here to talk about blah blah blah right that that's that's so boring what is one of the best ways well let me give you a cheat code really quickly uh let's go back to brain science I was a science teacher for like 10 years right and so I'm that that's kind of like cool for me so brain science in scientific theory there's there's this response that our brain has called instinctive elaboration and what that means and here's the cheat code people it means that anytime a question is asked our brains can't help but answer it right so if I want to engage my audience immediately is there a question that I can ask right up top that allows them to begin playing a video in their brain or create an image in their brain because here's what the Mind does when you start to speak the mind is doing is like flipping through its mental Rolodex saying hey do I want to experience that have I experienced that do I not want to experience that how the heck is this important to me how does this connect with me and if it doesn't then immediately they're like we're off and we're not listening I'm gonna start scrolling on Tinder not Tinder no no swipe swipe right no sorry um all right they're starting to scroll they're starting to do something else so you've got to figure out how to engage their brains not on you but inside of their own experience right from the very beginning so that they then give you permission to speak with them or to share with them for like 30 seconds more and then you got to do it again yep and I want to point out something that you just did and then we're talking about speaking in engage your audience age you just wrote in an elementary story saying that you were a science teachers you also before you kind of explained it a little bit more detail you're like I'm gonna give you the channel I'm going to give you the cheat to capturing engagements

like woven bio getting the details to back up the details to back like that's the sign of an experience some of the best ones some of the best that's exactly what they do that's exactly what they do yeah so yeah but you got to get people's attention I mean and we do it we're online right what are the things that we click on something that is like clickbaity or something that gets our attention and all of the best copy editors copy editors marketers that that's what they know we're like we got to get their attention we got to get them give them some reason to click on this so that then we can give them the the info right and so yeah then we want to feel good and we want to I mean you started off this episode with music and some explosions and some flowers and it just sets the tone for the whole sets the tone for the whole like when you look at what we engage with on social media there's a reason why it's scary happy little babies because it gives us the happy because it gives us the happy feelings if you see someone that's just constantly talking about how bad things you can have a little bit of negative content most of it's got it most of it's got to be and when you look at what a lot of speakers do they're like 70. all of The Struggle Bus All Of The Struggle Bus and how everything and how negative and then at the last pivotal moment

and then now they're a millionaire and that's the thing no that's like most most people can't relate to that most people are not going to have a million dollar napkin idea right most people are like listen I woke up this morning I I poured a bowl of like Fruity Pebbles and I'm having you know my I'm going about the rest of my day here right I drove to work I did whatever I'm going about the rest of my day you know what what is it that I can do to have an amazing day or what is it that I can do to solve an issue or challenge or a problem that I care about so you know a lot so I'll I'll flip to the left side of that in that a lot of people are nervous about telling their stories because they don't feel like their stories are dramatic or big enough and the truth is most of us don't need all of that we just need regular stuff that connects with us you know one of the stories that I tell and I won't uh go into it just yet but a story that I tell is about how I learned to ride my bicycle at the age of eight and I connect that with like a whole host of experiences that managers and anybody can can really connect with so yeah and those are some of the best I'll tell us later right I mean it's like they don't kick off the presentation Maybe here's a few bullet points I spoke on so many stages

and then you weave all the other little stories in all the other little stories

it feels good it feels comfortable it takes you out of like listening to your third grade teachers when there's like little interruptions of story yeah yeah absolutely absolutely absolutely well I know like we just kind of spoke to one thing the Imposter syndrome posture syndrome where it's like what do I do

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doing it the right way doing it the right way yeah well one of the things that a lot of my public speaking clients they they come and they ask the question hey Robert can you tell me how to get rid of the nerves and my response is our job isn't to get rid of the Butterflies it's just to help them fly in formation right so you you've got this energy that's inside of you that we our brains interpret as fear or embracing our brains interpreted as anxiety and it's really biologically the same chemicals that are happening in your body when you're excited so the difference is what you tell your brain to do with that information so if you're feeling a certain way when you start to speak it's not oh my God I'm so nervous oh my gosh I'm so afraid it's oh my gosh I'm super excited about what's gonna happen next I'm gonna surf the heck out of these people and I'm excited just I'm excited about the information that I have to give to them so reframing what you're feeling physiologically is an important piece of that at the beginning um and I forgot what the question was again what did you say my mind is going you were like how how do they not be nervous or something of that

well yeah well the fear I mean feeling never totally goes away I mean I've been speaking for a long time I still get up on stages and there's still this feeling that I feel right I still have the butterfly feeling sometimes I still get a little bit jittery and I have to walk through my process okay what is this why am I feeling this way what do I need to do with the energy that I'm feeling right here right so um you know a lot of people kind of saying okay my gosh I just gotta wait until I'm motivated to do it um Nike has the slogan that has been successful for like decades just do it yeah right I mean it's like you you can't swim by by sticking your tone of water that does that doesn't work right in order to swim you gotta get into the water if there's anything that you want to do if there's anything that you want to accomplish at some point you just got to do it there's this movie called um We Bought a Zoo and there's this line in there that I love and it's like to do anything great all you need is 20 seconds of insane courage right you anybody can do 20 seconds it's not that long of a time if you can be courageous for 20 seconds you can do anything great so just decide that you're gonna do it I had one lady I interviewed Katie Katie and she said that the secret is just a second and do it anyway yeah absolutely and it's like I keep hearing her in my head when I'm doing things now because it's like when I first started to be like when I first started I didn't seek out to be a speaker I got invited I got invited to stop the center of the area it is awesome stuff I was doing invited me I used to hyperventilate people can't believe that I used to like hyper penalize like and I get nice and [ __ ] watching so like nice Red Blocks

you know red cow and it is just absolutely terrible I was wearing turtlenecks [Laughter]

really excited

[Music] and you did when you when you were nervous though you you used the cheat code you asked questions so what happens when you ask a question what does the audience do they're not focused on you anymore right they're focused on themselves they're figuring out what their brain is saying to them and part of the reason that we're fearful in the first place is because we're like oh my gosh I'm gonna say something and they're gonna laugh at me they're gonna all point then go right they're gonna do all of that stuff and I'm gonna be I'm gonna mess up I'm gonna forget what I'm saying and sometimes that mess up is really authenticity right and US accepting our flawed selves the other one the other day like two weeks ago um I am president for a volunteer or for an organization and um we were doing a session and I had to present some awards and when it came time so the awards were named after people who were in the organization like way before I got there and somebody was supposed to put together the bios so that I could present the award and for some reason it didn't happen so they were like Robert just go go up and wing it and so I go up and I got a couple of notes and I totally flub it I totally messed this thing up and you know I just kind of was up there I laughed at myself I was like OMG I'm supposed to know this stuff and I totally don't is anybody in the audience that wants to come up and share it and do this right and so now everybody's cracking up and you know they're laughing they're doing it you know and then I go back and I read the awards and I kind of invite the award winner onto the stage but it was just that point where I'm like listen I'm not taking myself too seriously right that I'm here I'm doing this thing we're all everybody is in this room is human all right at least I hope so right and everybody in here is human and they know what it's like to have made a mistake in their life so I just owned the mistake I'm like yeah that wasn't good that was terrible Robert yeah let's do that again all right and the more that you can own those moments the more real the more authentic you are you the more you connect with people because they're like yeah Robert is not this unapproachable unattainable person Christina's not unattainable Christina's sharing her story and she's being real with it and I can too no well now I get at least a few people the weeks that are like thought about that in my hair but my hair but people wouldn't take me professionally

people take me plenty people take me like I don't lose any credibility points because my hair is blue because my hair is blue it's not away for eight years

[Laughter]

yeah yeah yeah your Vibe attracts your tribe I mean you're really being you allows the people that um connect with you the people that are magnetized to you that they'll find you because you're just being you and you're comfortable in that space and most people aren't there yet and they want to learn how to do that and they're attracted to the fact that you're able to do it yeah oh that is so true that is such a good truth that is such a good point so I know we're kind of coming

and video well so we we already said just do it I think the other thing is and you know this from a personal branding perspective what is the message that you really believe you're you're you're meant to share with the world what are you passionate about what is the thing that you could talk about for for hours or the thing that you can talk about without preparation and maybe the question is when people think about you what do they associate with you right when people say Robert oh Robert's the communication guy rubbish the storytelling guy right uh Robert loves technology also so they're you know depending on what group I'm in those are the things those are the main things that people say about me right what what is it that people say about you and then how can you utilize that stuff to teach people because there's something that you take for granted that you like do like super easy you like you're like oh you know why would anybody else pay for this why would anybody want to know about this and there are people that are like oh my God gosh that is so amazing I don't know how to do that and you're like what are you talking about right so look for that look for the thing that you are maybe taking for granted that you're amazing at begin to share that because that comfort zone that that level of connection to this skill this ability is also going to make it a little bit easier for you to share with your audience without having to be nervous about whether you know this thing or not yeah I know this one thing that I've started since I started doing myself is like myself when you're having those conversations writing down what you were talking about and what their reaction what their reaction was like I was doing an AMA this morning and I was talking about how you can use your personal brand to right and establish a business and grow it as well start separating yourself from your creating yourself from your so that your company but so you know your company because if you're still in it for the day today the main reason it has new minds and it has new clients you can't sell it so I was talking about that and then when the ladies on the AMA was like that you were thinking about and we're thinking from all those levels from all those levels yep and it's like that was what impressed

Evolution here evolution of a personal brand and a personal brand and a business yep absolutely so it's like jotting that kind of stuff like yeah

absolutely absolutely yeah and figure out what questions people are asking I mean there are a lot of neat resources answerthepublic.com um Google Trends um using Amazon search

yeah absolutely absolutely and yeah you don't have to literally scroll through it just use the shortcuts people control F yeah and you can you can figure out what the question marks are yeah I've done that like in YouTube comments um um yeah I have to like YouTube comments or um there's a lot of people now that go live people now that go for like amas for like amas and especially on YouTube you can actually search the transcripts you can view the transcript and searches and look at all the questions so even if it's not your content you can look at somewhere else's that's putting that kind of stuff out there for the questions and see what's coming out like it's such a powerful way it's such a powerful way figure out what to talk about figure out what to talk about yep yep answer people's questions solve their problems help them and uh they're like they're not going to focus on you as much they're focusing on how they can solve their issue and we've even started doing something now where people are trying to figure out what to talk about and how to position themselves where we start by planning a book start by playing so it's like if you're trying to help one person trying to help one person accomplish and you're writing the book that's right I'm helping that person do that person do that what would we put in the book what would we and we start mapping out the sections kind of the gist of each

so that's been really helpful that's huge I mean I you know I think a lot of us struggle with content repurposing um you know because we're like oh my gosh I gotta write a blog post and then I got to put it on LinkedIn that I got to put it on Facebook and then I got to put it on Twitter and Instagram and oh my gosh I gotta create a tick tock about it too um

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and then they end up doing stupid stuff then they end up doing stupid so they just take a video segments and they're not even like completely wrong or it just kind of cuts it out it just kind of cuts it out let's get a complete segment and put it on whatever platform will accept it yeah yeah for a lot of people I mean uh here's a resource we can share as well if you don't mind um there's software like this script or Pick 3 that if you upload vo into them they'll pull out the transcript and you can literally highlight the portions just in the text that you want to create video from and so if you're like I want to create a 60 second video of a thought but there's like some stuff in between that I didn't really want as a part of the thought you can just highlight the text that you actually want and then generate some highlight videos from that and then pop that into your social media yeah descript is one that I've been recommending for a long long time and there's a new update comes and it's going to make it even more it's going to make it even more powerful yep so I'm excited about that one with the story that one with the storyboards that's going to be fantastic it could be fantastic yeah yeah absolutely and I'm I geek out on some of that stuff too I keep trying not to because I'm like I should be letting myself but it's like it's fun it doesn't like to play a little bit you got to play keeps the joy alive the point too right to scale your business

and what you're doing today absolutely so oh man this has been so great it's obvious and you're like demonstrating it and sharing the tips and sharing the tips so how do you help people who do you help how do you help them help how did you help them where do they find you so my website is Robert kennedy3.com we help people as I think we mentioned at the beginning teach small business owners how to tell their stories on stage and on video so it can attract their ideal audience and generate more income um we do that in a variety of ways through work Ops through Keynotes through seminars through online courses and recently we've been doing that a lot in the real estate industry so that's kind of part of that's the main focus of ours these days but um we absolutely love working with with business owners who are like man I need to be able to create greater impact or I feel like the world's best kept secret right now I need to create some more visibility I need to get more eyeballs on my stuff we help people to do that on video and not just saying hey stick a camera in front of your face and record something we're like no let's help you to framework the content that you're saying that you're going to share let's create let's create the story that you're going to tell not just the ones upon a time but the actual Arc of everything so that you can then end with a call to action that drives people to action because you connected with their heart and their emotions and their actual mate oh that is so powerful call to action at the end call to action at the end yeah I mean that's something that so many people forget many people forget or they try and just like attack on something randomly like they haven't really thought it all the way through well let's just talk this off and it's not relevant to the story relevance it's not a logical it's not a logical Next Step yeah I love that that is so awesome and I'll make sure the links here right now the number three yes not Roman numeral Apple numeric yeah Robert Kennedy I'll make sure the link is

absolutely

yeah well thank you so much for coming on this has been absolutely great we've had absolutely you've demonstrated this perfectly Illustrated this perfectly thanks Christina I appreciate it this has been fabulous uh awesome so entrepreneurs this is your call to take action as well if you want to learn from other people just like Robert head over to EPA today

until next time bye

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