Les Brown: The Power of Your Story

Me and Mrs. Mamie Brown's Baby Boy

Last week, I shared my notes from Dr. John Maxwell’s talk on “Put Your Dream To The Test” at The Big Event 2011, an awesome event co-hosted by Bob Burg and Paul Martinelli. I have notes from all the speakers, but it would take a 6-part blog series to share them all, so I chose just a couple of them. I must tell you that it was a real treat for me to hear Les Brown speak for the first time live. I’d heard that he was a pretty powerful speaker, but you can’t really understand it until you’ve experienced him for yourself. He was phenomenal!

Les spoke about how your story has the power to change lives and create incredible wealth. Before I talk about the specifics on that, I thought I’d share some of my favorite quotes from his entire talk. I’m pretty sure my Facebook friends will see each of these quotes in my status over the next couple of months!

“If you do what is easy, your life will be hard….but if you do what is hard, your life will be easy.”
“You can be bitter or you can be better.”
“Have a goal-driven life, not a survival-driven life.”
“Knowledge is the new currency.”
“You do what you can, and God will do what you can’t.” {Loooove that!}
“Reinvent yourself. Invest in yourself. Never give up.”
“You don’t get in life what you want, you get what you are.”
“You will fail your way to success.”
“Study the masters.”
“Provide more service than you get paid for. Build relationships. Give before you ask.”
“You gotta be HUNGRY!” {You just have to hear how he says this….it’s not the same reading it. Couldn’t find a YouTube video to demonstrate. Sorry.}
“Give before you ask.”
“It’s not what you say, it’s what people hear.”

Now…onto some notes from the main message. Les’ key message was:

Your story has power to change lives and create incredible wealth.

Les said that if you learn to be a strategic and experiential storyteller, you can create extraordinary amounts of wealth. It’s all about using storytelling, personality, and passion he said.

Here are some of the key points about storytelling that he shared:

You always want to create value for your audience with your story
You never make a point without a story and you never make a story without a point
You have to create special moments in your story so that when people leave you they feel better about themselves, but are talking about you.
Never let what you want to say get in the way of what the audience wants to hear…know your audience

There was an event attendee who raised her hand and shared with Les that she felt as though she hadn’t accomplished enough to have a compelling story that will create value and grow her business. I’m pretty sure that there were a lot of people in the room who felt that way….in some ways, I did (we’re our own worst critics!).

However Les’ response was pretty powerful. First he had her come on stage and asked her a series of questions which really drew out her story right in front of our eyes. That was cool, but I took note of the following things he said in response to this common concern:

“You can’t see the picture, when you are in the frame.” [Often we have a hard time recognizing our accomplishments and the value of our experiences]
“It’s not where you start, it’s where you’re going.” [You don't have to reach your finish line before you can provide value to others]
“There are people who are waiting to hear your voice.” [Your unique story is meant to serve others...not everyone, but there are specific people who need to hear from YOU]

Well, that just about covers my notes from Mrs. Mamie Brown’s Baby Boy (and no, that’s not what I call him…that’s how we refers to himself)!

I really do enjoy sharing what I hear and learn at these events, so I certainly hope this has been both interesting and useful for you. I realize that not everyone aspires to professional/public speaking, but storytelling can create wealth in a number of ways in our businesses so the same principles apply.

If you want to hear Les Brown for yourself, check out his new daily talk radio show (you can listen online) – details here.

Have a great week!