Immersing Your Audience In Your Story

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How’s everyone doing tonight? Well, welcome everyone to another edition of lead with your story and Sharyn, we’ve got some exciting news before I let you sort of introduce the format of the show. I just want to mention that today’s show is actually sponsored by P and G. P and G ventures. The startup studio is now accepting submissions for its next pitch competition and innovation challenge.

They’re looking for entrepreneurs and inventors who are, who have groundbreaking technologies, businesses, or capabilities that contain a fast moving consumable product to improve the way people care for their families, clean their homes and live healthier lives. So this is a pretty neat thing because the top three submissions will get a fully paid trip to CES, to pitch their idea [00:01:00] where the winner of the P and G ventures innovation challenge will get $10,000 and have a chance to partner with P and G ventures.

So this is pretty cool. If you’ve never been to CES, that’s the consumer electronics show. It’s a pretty amazing, amazing conference coming up in January in Las Vegas. So submissions close on November 29th. They extended the deadline. So if you’re interested, go to ventures, challenged.com. And we’ll pin that up to the top of the room to find out more.

So, uh, we’re really excited to have a sponsor for this. Evening’s lead with your story. So with that, Sharon, I will let you introduce yourself and tell everyone how lead with your story is going to work. And we’ve got Olivia here to help out as well. And I’ve got my finger on the timer, Sharon, I’m ready to give people their three minutes of fame.

Awesome. Thanks, Jeffrey. That’s really exciting. It’s so exciting to have a sponsor for our show. Um, I am Sharon cognac. I’m a storytelling coach and brand strategists. I’ve been [00:02:00] doing this for about 25 years and, uh, I really believe that the power of storytelling exists in our opportunities to, to, you know, really communicate and tell our story in a, in a way that resonates with other people and gets them involved and gets them buying into our journey.

And, and I think for this, uh, particular situation that Jeffrey’s talking about, this is a really good example of why storytelling is so super important business. Um, let me just give you a quick rundown. If you haven’t been in this room before we give you a three minute timer. Uh, as soon as we bring you up to the stage, Jeffrey, we’ll give you the introduction opportunity.

And then we start the clock. The clock starts at three minutes, counts down at the end of three minutes, you’ll hear a, uh, uh, a buzzer. And, um, at that time we ask you to just stop pretty much right there, or wrap up that very thought. And then we will give you feedback [00:03:00] and tell you where your story hit the mark and where it might be able to be improved upon, because it’s really important to have a story that resonates with your audience.

And I mean, the reason that we tell stories is because they’re captivating, right? You could give anybody a long list of product benefits or. Uh, you know, things that you think that might be interesting to them, but if you do not hit their pain points, and if you don’t understand what they’re looking for from you, then you won’t get those opportunities for those lean in moments.

And you certainly won’t get those opportunities to convert those people, to customers or investors or whatever you’re looking for them to do. So, um, with that, I will see if we have anybody up in the room to bring up and we’ll get started. Thank you, Sharon. And we also have Olivia Valdez here as well as one of our panelists tonight.[00:04:00] 

I’m here. I’m sorry. Couldn’t unmute myself. Hi everyone. Um, I’m happy to join. I’m also a brand strategist and just here to help and listen to your story and see how we can help. Thank you, Olivia. And I’m Jeff sass. I’ve been telling a lot of stories for a long time. And I think this is a great time for you to practice telling your story because you know, all good marketing revolves around good storytelling at the end of the day.

That’s the way you connect emotionally with people. Um, it’s the way you make your product or service resonate with them. It’s by having a good story and telling a good story. So if you’re interested in coming up and giving your story in three seconds, please raise your hand at a few people joining us and then we’ll get started.

So we’ll dive right in with Deshawn Deshawn. When you start telling your story, I’ll start your three minute time.

Thanks for bringing me up. Hello. [00:05:00] My name is Tishara. I am a motivational speaker and mentor and advocate and author.

I am a speaker for leadership empowerment, which is the company that are. The reason why I decided to start leadership empowerment is because I believe that a lot of our young adults need the motivation, inspiration, and the dedication shown to them so that they can improve and achieve their goals in life.

This came about when I was told by hospital staff in 2018, that I suffer from a crippling disability, otherwise known as depression. Uh, we started, uh, had colored red depression, which means that I would, which means that at the end of the day, no matter what happens, I felt [00:06:00] like the only way out was to try to commit suicide.

And that was another reason why I was inside the hospital. And I remember while being in the hospital and they told me that.

And instead of it wham me down, it actually lifted me up to where I could say, Hey, you know what y’all said, I can’t do this, but I’m going to prove to myself that I can. And over the, since 2018, over the years, I have been speaking on stage and speaking on podcasts and writing books on how our thoughts can get the best of us, but also how we need to shift our mindset to become a better person, to become a better version of ourselves, to reach our goals.

And I help [00:07:00] others through a monthly subscription. So I always tell people I’m not a coach. I’m a mentor, a market myself more as a speaker because I speak into existence. What I believe others w. And so I mentor young adults on how to become a leader, how to shift their mindset, how to become a better person and how to become a leader that empowers the next generation.

Because when you think about mental health, especially in our young males is often overseen and is overlooked and not paid attention to where Austin told man up, get tougher because we’re the backbone. But in all honesty, depression has real mental [00:08:00] health. It needs set awareness and both men and female.

All right. That’s three minutes right there. Thank you to Sean Sharon, thank you to Sean for sharing your story with us. Um, and we did talk about on one of the other previous shows that sometimes when you tell something raw and emotional, um, that, you know, it can be difficult for both the speaker and for the listener to hear it.

So thank you for taking the opportunity to, to open yourself up to us and give us that, that glimpse. Um, and I thought you did a nice job. I would, um, I wrote down, you know, become the better version of ourselves. I think that’s really important, especially when you’re talking about depression and when you’re talking about things that are, have sometimes negative connotations that people want to, um, [00:09:00] sort of look at the flip side of it.

So one of the things I would suggest that maybe you can incorporate in your conversation. And first of all, I think you’d start out with a stronger. Um, in terms of telling your story, not that it’s not important the way you started it, but I think that maybe if you moved up the hook part where you told the story about how you wound up in the hospital, we started out with that might be stronger.

And then also, if you were able to give maybe like a little shop snapshot of your experience, that’s not necessarily going into, um, all of your secrets in terms of, you know, letting us really inside your brain, but in terms of experiencing what it was like to be in that place and how you got to that place and how maybe you see other people getting to that place and how that’s, how you help them.

So making it a transformational thing, like, you know, I [00:10:00] was in a very dark place and this happened to me, maybe just a broad stroke of it. And then I see other people that may have be in that particular situation. And this is how I help. And I hope that’s helpful.

Yeah. I think that’s a really good feedback. Um, Sharon and Deshaun, hopefully it resonates with you. I think that you have, um, the opportunity to bring people in a little bit sooner and then culminate with, you know, how you’re taking your own experiences and turning that into a system and a process to help other people.

But, uh, thank you for sharing your story. Hopefully this was helpful. Olivia, did you have anything you wanted to add?

Hey guys, I’m here. I’m sorry. It’s I’m having trouble unmuting myself. Um, no, I think I was going to say what Sharon said. Um, bring in some. Details on the [00:11:00] experience to just help other people connect and maybe other people that are not there yet to share their story can connect with those specific areas of your story.

I think that helps a lot when it comes to, um, opening up a little bit, so, yeah. Um,

great. Well, thank you to Sean. Thank you for sharing your story with us tonight. Uh, Lawrence, you’re up next. When you start telling your story, I’m going to start the three minutes. Hello guys. I’m from Egypt. Sorry. I can’t, I’m talking is good, but um, I want to practice my language. So, um, I Jones is. My, my Habiba, we’re going to, we’re going to go, we’ll give you a chance to speak after Lawrence.

Okay. So what we try to do is we go in the order, the people came on stage, so [00:12:00] Lawrence will be next and then you’ll have a chance to speak. So if you could just be patient for a few more minutes. Okay. Okay. Sorry. That’s okay. Thank you. Uh, welcome to club. Thank you so much, Jeffrey.

My name is Lawrence I’m from Nigeria. Actually run a startup in Asia point about my business sometimes and do moderates. Sometimes I gave, I gave posters pitches to youth. Um, they’re trying to start up their business and probably you have an issue in your business. I try to as much as possible motivate them and then guide them on what to do to become better persons.

Now, leading on with my story actually had a very rough start way back in 2019, because physically in Nigeria is difficult for you to get funding for your business ideas. Very, very difficult.[00:13:00] 

Had to be resilient. As one thing, I have to believe in my story and to believe in my vision, I had to learn how to sell myself. That’s one thing why growing up myself first people love me when they get to hear me talk or speak about what I want to do and what I’m doing currently. But I noticed that as much, I have to be better.

I have to be better than want to actually just tell them alone, do the things I say, because I’m in Nigeria where you’re from. We basically have good leaders with this. We have people like mental figures for the youth. So. Um, the way I started actually gives more youths around me. That’s cool that they could actually start from nothing and naturally get to [00:14:00] become something again, because I’ve used my company from zero to $200,000 evaluation company.

I have nothing when it started, but I had to be resilient. Like I said, I believed in the best to come actually put in my best every time, this room five agendas room, I’m currently working with my metrics, I think about three or four pitch rooms today. And I’m supposed to pitch tomorrow because I told myself something, I actually am looking for funding for my company.

So I told myself that I’m going to pitch my way till I get the fund. So I’m not going to stop teaching. I’m going to do it over and over again, just to keep better guaranteed. So that’s when tomorrow someone asked me Lawrence, how did you do. I can easily tell them these was what I did. I had to be resilience.

I had to be steadfast. I had to keep on going, because I believe in myself, I believe in the dream that [00:15:00] happened. I believed that I can not keep frosty, then change people around me. So, um, basically does my story is still being written though. I’m not done. I’m still writing. Thank you so much. I appreciate.

Thank you, Lawrence. Three seconds left. Very good timing wise. There you go. Sharon had in Lawrence’s story resonate with you.

Hold on for one second. We’ll unmute you when it gets to your turn or is that a that’s? Okay. I know you’re I can see that you’re new to the platform. So there’s a little bit of learning curve sometimes. Um, so Lauren’s. Thank you for sharing your story with us. And I think it’s an important one that I do know that I’ve been on a lot of rooms where, um, people from Africa have been talking about the Nigerian experience and some of the difficulties that, that, that you’ve been having in the startup world while there’s a [00:16:00] lot of opportunity there, there’s also been a lot of sort of roadblocks.

So thank you for, you know, bringing that back to light. Uh, I found myself asking or wondering where the story was there and where the beginning was, where the middle was and where the end was. So I got a little bit, um, waylayed in trying to sort of like put all the pieces together. We do think linear linearly in a story.

So we have to be really cognizant. I think of. Starting at the beginning and then going through a linear progression. And I know sometimes people struggle with the start part, like where do you start? And, um, being an author and a novelist, I can tell you that starting in the action is always the most important place.

So find the point of your story, where the first bit of really important action happens and start there. So what was the galvanizing thing that led you to get into business? Or what was [00:17:00] it, what experience happened to you that made you say I can’t stand by and watch this anymore. I can’t not do this anymore or whatever those questions are.

And then I think the other thing that I found was it was felt very general to me. So I was hoping that maybe you could consider focusing it more and move that focus from you to the audience. One of the things that sometimes we struggle with as storytellers is we were telling our story, but we want our story to be like a universal story.

We want it to be, to resonate with other people. And so they have to see themselves in the narrative. And so you have to be very careful to not make the story focused entirely on you and your experience, but make it so that the other person can see themselves in the narrative. And they say, oh yeah, I understand.

That’s where I was, who I was, what I was doing at the time. And now [00:18:00] I can see my connection to this person. And I hope that’s helpful. Yeah, sure. It is. Yeah. I felt like, um, you had, um, all of the elements were there. But they weren’t in the right order. So it’s like you had all the pieces of the puzzle, but you have to organize it in, in something that has a beginning and the middle and an end.

This Sharon said, you know, you touched on a lot of things from mentoring and helping others with their pitch to really honing in on your own pitch, you know, and raising money for your own company. And so I think you want to organize that in a way that could be a little bit more compelling, but I think all the elements were there.

Yeah. And I actually want to highlight your, um, tone of voice and you could, we could tell like your, the passion behind the story so that that’s like, it helps a lot when you’re telling a story.[00:19:00] 

Thank you, Lawrence. Yes, sir. Thank you so much. Thank you for joining us. And now Habiba now is your chance. So the way this works is we’re going to, uh, start a three minute timer and you’ll get to tell us your story. And this will be a good opportunity for you to practice your English. Um, as you had mentioned, and then we’ll give you some feedback on the story at the end of the three minutes.

Okay. So now it’s your turn go,

uh, be a BB. You can unmute yourself and tell us your.

Okay, of course Biba may have stepped away for a moment. So we’ll go on to Dina. Habiba we’ll come back to you after Deena. Okay. Do you know, thank you very much, Jeffrey. Uh, good evening. Jeffrey Sharon, Olivia, everyone in the speakers and everyone in the room. My name is [00:20:00] Dina. I am an Egyptian American. Um, I was born and raised in Egypt and Cairo Egypt.

My husband is from, uh, Boston, Massachusetts. I have moved to the states in 1998. Um, trilingual. Um, I used to work as a tour leader for a German company in Egypt. Um, my challenges have started. Actually since 19, uh, I’m sorry. Since 2017, um, after some emotional and mental problems that have actually effected my physical state so much that all of a sudden, um, it was like, um, not only my Edison’s that I have been [00:21:00] diagnosed with since 2012, but in 2017, it was also.

Diabetes, heart problems. Um, many problems. And then, um, eh, I have been working with my doctors and I also had blepharospasm in my eyes. It was the hard because my husband has been on travel and I only had my kids with me. Um, well, they are now 22 and 20, but my son has been taking care of my daughter and I actually, since he was 11 yet I was working still as a freelance makeup artist with Lancome at the Dallas Fort worth area.

And then, uh, AF and in 2018, I had to get laid off of work because I was working at the time in. And infectious disease clinic. [00:22:00] And yet, because of a, my immune system, I would get sick all the time. Whenever someone comes second, I get hospitalized. Therefore I got unemployed. Um, then we’d moved here to Maryland the end of 2019.

And, um, I had my stroke and afterwards, um, Many problems with my, um, peripheral nerves neuropathy. And I just had actually a loop recorder the other day. And I had, they have found so many problems with my vocal cords also. And, um, I had my second fusions for my neck, um, which have actually, um, her more, um, of my nerves back there.

Uh, but yet I still just [00:23:00] couldn’t stand. Sorry.

So the three minutes are up, but first of all, I hope that you are feeling better these days. Dean, it sounds like I’m so sorry. It took me so long. Yeah, you are good. You are.

Okay. Um, but, um, yeah, I, I know that you were leading up to something and I think, you know, one of the things I would suggest, and then I’ll hear what Sharon and Olivia will have to say is, is when you’re telling a story, it’s just that it’s a story. It’s not a chronology, so you don’t have to go step by step through everything that happened.

You want to pick out the things that are going to move the story forward. It’s not diminishing all the other things, but you can summarize again, you know, it was horrible to hear about all the different [00:24:00] medical challenges you had, but you can say in a much shorter amount of time that I’ve, you know, been in an unusual situation where I found myself, you know, played with, with a large variety.

Of medical issues and maybe you can highlight one or two and then get into where you were leading to. And I felt like you were just about to get there when time ran out. So you don’t have to Chronicle every single event in your life when you’re telling your life story, you want to highlight the things that will move the story along with the beginning and the middle and an end, um, you know, Sharon or Olivia, what, what did you, yeah, absolutely.

I, I agree with you Jeffrey. And I was going to say Dina that, you know, thank you for sharing your struggles with us, because obviously that’s going to resonate with some people who have had other health struggles or things that have gone on in their lives that, you know, they thought it was an insurmountable, um, situation for themselves.

And then clearly obviously, you know, you’ve found a way [00:25:00] to get to the other side of that. One of the things that we need to do, I think when we’re telling our stories, um, Not get in the weeds is what I’d like to say. Um, and that might not translate well for people who are not, uh, you know, from the states, but essentially that means like don’t get yourself involved in all the little specifics and nitty gritty, the very tiny little minutia that we have in telling the story.

Like we have to tell every, like Jeffrey said, it’s like a laundry list of things that have happened to us. Um, not that they’re not important and not that they’re not valuable, but they don’t help move the story forward as quickly as we need to. And we have to remember that when we’re telling a story, we have to get our audience’s attention.

And the longer it takes us to get to the part that really grabs them, unless they have the exact same experiences. Um, you’ve lost them. So they’re, [00:26:00] they’re vowing out of your story before you even get the opportunity to really drag them in. So, um, one of the things I like to tell people is if you have some background information that you need to give, make sure you give the, the very limited background information, only what the audience needs to know in order to have a frame of reference for the story, and then you can move forward.

And then also take the opportunity to maybe put some of that information about yourself in the background and just weave it into the story and little bits and pieces. And I hope that’s helpful. Yeah. And if I want to add to what Jeff and Sharon just said, um, don’t forget the call to action. Um, we need to lead them somewhere.

So the call to action is very important in your like, It would be great, uh, Dina, if you would join us again in another, another [00:27:00] week and come back and tell your story again and take us to the part we missed. Um, and what got you to where you are today?

Hopefully that was helpful. Dina.

I don’t know if you said anything DNA, but we didn’t hear you. But, um, I think I said yes, thank you very much. This was extremely helpful and I appreciate y’all very much and, uh, I can’t wait. So next time I told my story and we look forward to it. Thank you, Dina. So in a moment, we’ll go to Habiba. I just want to remind everyone that our sponsor this hour P and G ventures, which you can find in the link above is running an innovation challenge for entrepreneurs.

And this could be your chance to pitch your idea and potentially win $10,000 and have a chance to partner with P and G ventures. Not to mention a possibility to go to the consumer [00:28:00] information. Habiba welcome. Now’s your time. Let’s try again. Yeah, I listened to you. I listen. So tell us your story. Have you okay.

Um, I can’t, but I try, I try,

uh, I’m from Egypt. I live in Cairo with my mother and the brother and my sister. Uh, my father did.

Since my mother had me since for a month since

I can’t, I can’t sorry. I can’t. [00:29:00] Yes, yes, yes. You can. NCR therapy. I think she meant to say that her dad passed away since she was four months old and she was all by Bob at WhatsApp. I left

no, no, no. My mom, my father did, uh, um, four months, four months when, uh, when 15 years.

Okay. You’re doing okay. You can unmute yourself and tell us,

sorry. Um, I speak English and English. I take course, but the start, [00:30:00] um, that’s okay. We appreciate you that you took the chance to try and practice. And I think hopefully listening to other people tell their story can help you a little bit with your English. And we would love to have you come back in a few weeks after you’ve had more of your classes and try again.

I was just going to say also there’s a tiny little, like a paper airplane down there. I Dina, I know that you said you had a similar background, so I don’t know if you’d be interested in back-channeling Habiba and giving her some, some, um, help or information or giving her, you know, a platform you guys can also start a closed room.

It’s not just about, we’re here to provide opportunities for everyone. So you can always create a closed room with just her and have a little conversation and maybe a week or two, when you come back and tell your story, maybe in a couple of weeks, you can come back and tell her, thank you so much.

Absolutely. I’ve already [00:31:00] followed her so that I can help if I can expend any help. I, uh, it makes me so.

Jeffrey. Do you want to pull the next? Yeah, sorry. I was having some connection difficulties here. I keep getting that, that red bar, but let’s continue. Thank you. Habiba for trying and Deena, thank you so much for helping out lib welcome. It’s time for your story. And when you start telling your story, I will start the three minute timer.

Thank you. Thank you. Um, hi everyone. My name is Lubna. I’m from Los Angeles, California. And. My story, um, is pretty extensive. I actually come from a B2B background and I’ve been selling consumer products nationally to many stores and boutiques. And I’m a mom, I’m an entrepreneur, I’m a woman on the go, but I [00:32:00] have dry feet.

So I have developed a product to help reduce dryness for women, um, that are just too busy to take care of their feet. It might be an embarrassing issue. Um, but it’s, um, organic product that I’ve actually created homemade and actually, um, did a lot of products and I encourage women to busy women that is to really, uh, take care of their feet that spend thousands of dollars or hundreds of dollars on pedicures just to have their feet.

Um, you know, not, uh, really at the part that they like to have it as. I’ve created this product for them. Um, and what it is now is that I’m actually just promoting it and sending it over to a lot of boutiques and hopefully try to help. So my whole model and my whole thing is all things feet related. So I have a brand of shoes as well that I sell, and I compliment it with my foot cream that helps, um, reduce [00:33:00] dryness.

And, uh, he helped heels cracks on the heels of women’s feet. So I really encourage this product for women that are really busy, that are on the go again that have, um, that are moms and they have a, a business on the side, but just don’t have time to take care of themselves. So I’ve created this product, uh, just.

And so, um, that’s really pretty much my story. And I just, so would love any opinion, any advice to help promote it, to help push it? Um, I had some, you know, uh, tick tock, uh, influencers that, you know, a lot of women, they were, you know, beautiful women, they were dressed up, but then, you know, their heels and their feet is that really, um, that cute.

So, uh, this, uh, cream is to help, uh, uh, make you feel better and look better. And it’s all made of organic materials and, um, which unlike the other products that are out there right now in today’s market, they have [00:34:00] glycerin in there which actually, uh, encourages more dryness. So a lot of people are a little bit misled to that.

So my process is actually all made, um, plant-based materials and, um, components that create this cream. And that’s pretty much what. Okay, well, you have 22 seconds left, so you did a nice job on the timing. And before Sharon kicks in, I just want to say, I know you focused on women, but I can tell you right now I am suffering from cracked heels and I am not a woman.

So your cream is not necessarily just for women, men get dry cracked heels. Yes, that is very, very true. Actually created both for men and women, but actually put myself as the first customer. So I guess, I guess, uh, I actually related to women more, but yes, you are.

Yeah. At one time or other, we are [00:35:00] always dealing, especially when we deal with the change of seasons, right. We deal with dryness and things like that. So, um, Linda, thank you for stepping up and sharing your story with us. Uh, I think one of the things that I heard you say was, you know, have you spent hundreds of dollars on pedicures and I thought that is exactly where you should start your story.

Um, have you been in this situation because what you want to do when you tell any story, especially if you’re doing it in the guise of building a brand and selling a product, is that you want to find the customer pain point. What’s the thing that you found, um, you know, in the market that needs to be addressed.

What’s the pain point and what’s the solution. So you want to do that right up front. That gives you an opportunity to put that hook right in there. So. Yeah. You know, have you spent hundreds of dollars on pedicures and then you’ve got people going, oh yes. As a matter of fact I have, or, you know, and those are the people you want because you want to pull the people that [00:36:00] are interested and push away the people that don’t have any interest in your story anyway.

Right? You want to pull the people towards you, who they are. Story will resonate with you and who with, and who are potential customers of yours. Right? So that gives you right upfront the opportunity to ask a question, that’s going to get the buy-in and buying is super important when you’re telling a brand story, because you want people to then lean into the story and say, okay, take me on this journey that you are going to transform my life now.

Not going to have cracked heels. I’m not going to be embarrassed to wear open shoes or wear sandals, or if I am at the gym and my, you know, I’m changing, uh, and someone looks at my heels and they are not at all happy, then what, you know, what can I do? So I think you have that opportunity to take it from transaction transformation.

And again, I’ve said this before in other rooms, but it bears repeating every single time because those are the [00:37:00] things that are from a brand storytelling standpoint are important to highlight. You always want to, don’t be transactional. Don’t ask for the sale, make it more so that they want to ask you, well, how can I get your product?

And I think that would be.

And I wanted to say, don’t be afraid to have a short, quick story. Um, you don’t necessarily need to have a long three minutes story to like connect. I feel like the first minute and a half you were right there on point and it was perfect.

Thank you. Yeah. One of the things I’ve actually wanted to do is also make it a little bit, um, comical in a sense where, you know, you’ve seen a lot of, and again, I know it’s mostly for men and women, but you know, a lot of this has happened to me when I would dress up and I’m ready to go out. And I got called out on my feet.

They’re like, oh, you [00:38:00] look great, but you really should add lotion to those feet. So it is kind of embarrassing, you know, but it’s, it is seasonal. Also some days are better. Some days are worse. It just really depends. But I felt like, you know, um, you know, listen, I, I, I work with many, many women and, uh, you know, work with many businesses and I’m thinking, God, what could I do to help me while I’m, you know, on the go and cooking and cleaning and running a business, it’s just, you know, those many different types of things.

So that’s why I just thought, okay, something that I can relate to and something that other people can relate to it. And I thought you did that well at the beginning. And so, but I think then it kind of veered off and wasn’t as focused, but your beginning was very good where you said, you know, I’m busy, I do this, I do that.

So we weren’t sure what you were going to be telling us about. And he said, and I have dry feet. So that definitely got, I think that got the desired effect. But I think from there you could have taken that it’s like you went down the runway, but you didn’t get the plane off the ground at that point, if that makes,[00:39:00] 

got it. Got it. Well, thank you, Linda, for joining us and for playing along, uh, next up we have J B J B. When you start telling your story, I’ll start the three minute timer. Thank you. I’m so excited to be here. Um, so, uh, my story is, um, well, I’ll just get into it and hopefully you’ll be able to tell me, or my story is about.

I am one of 10 children between my mother and my father. My parents were not rich. My mother worked as a data analyst from foreign Ohio county and my father being mentally and physically handicapped was a homemaker. Despite all the difficulties they face my parents, especially my father found time to support many people in the community that they belong to.

My dad gave free rides to women and men to doctor’s appointments, food banks, and homeless [00:40:00] shelters. He took in additional people into our home and help to ensure that children in the neighborhood had activities to empower them, to make good life decisions. When asked why he did it all he replied. Should I not be a thankful.

Thankful servitude is the catalyst behind the shatter collaborative. My father never felt like he had nothing to share and give of himself. He was not perfect by any means, despite, and maybe even because of his imperfections, he was encouraged to be a partner to anyone that was trying to do good for themselves.

And others Shataka is an Arabic word. That means partnership. There. Isn’t an obstacle to Excel, to excelling in life that cannot be overcome by the appropriate collaboration to support an individual or the community it hinders. Therefore it only makes sense to have an organization that is all [00:41:00] about creating strategic partnerships.

My dad was my greatest partner and I want to be a great partner to all those people in need. Now. Thank you. Thank you JB. Very nicely done. You have a minute left. If there’s anything you want to. Well, I would like to add what, um, the, the point of that is I’m working on building a nonprofit organization. I just recently completed my, um, pitch deck to like pitch this, um, the funding to, um, donors.

And I have completed a business plan and, um, advertising material and a website. And I D I’ve done pretty much everything all by myself, um, while healing from, um, the traumatic loss of my husband and my sister this year. So I’m really [00:42:00] proud of, um, the work that I’m trying to accomplish. And I feel like, um, my dad is really cheering me on from afar.

So. I’m excited. And I wanted to share that with everybody and get your feedback. Thank you so much. Perfect. You that you literally filled that last minute perfectly. So thank you so much for that. And thank you for sharing your story. Yeah. JB, thank you so much for sharing your story and we hope you continue in your healing process.

Um, I thought you did a really great job of taking us through the journey of, you know, your father’s story and how we are, how everything that happened in your life and in, in how your father, um, approached life, led you to make some of the decisions that you did and make, create the company, the, the nonprofit that you’re creating and things like that.

Um, and I think that last minute where you came back around was where you had the opportunity for the [00:43:00] ask or. Uh, the call to action, as we like to say, and you could have taken, can take that opportunity to maybe add on your story that you told, but be careful about where you want to take it in terms of, um, really describing what the next step should be for the audience.

And so, you know, talking about that, you’re looking for investors and maybe how, what that investor looks like to you think about a lot of times, I ask people to think about like a customer avatar or, or, you know, the main character in your story. If it’s not, um, when it’s, when it is you are, when it’s another person, sometimes you have to sort of like take.

Through the story and then return it back to you and where you’re going. If that makes sense. I think that probably didn’t make sense the way they just explained it. But, but, um, sometimes when the story’s not about it, doesn’t [00:44:00] start out about you. You have to be careful to connect those dots through and then make it so that at the very end that the person knows what it is that they, you want them to do.

Yeah. I think that’s, that’s good advice, Sharon. I almost felt like, you know, the story about your dad and the way you told it was very compelling. And, and I think that you might’ve started with this notion that you know, that you’re in the process of starting a nonprofit organization that you hope is going to do X, Y, and Z, and then quickly get into.

And the reason why my inspiration is my father and then tell your father’s story. And then at the end, You could bring it all home by saying, as Sharon said, here’s what I’d like to accomplish. I’m looking to raise money or whatever you call it. The action is, and I’m confident that my dad has, you said, which was nice wrap up is, is, you know, looking on at me and proud of the work that I’m doing kind of thing.

So you could take it full circle.[00:45:00] 

Olivia, did you have anything you wanted to add? Um, yeah, no, actually I just wanted to say that I love when I understand the why, um, and like behind every brand organization or whatever we’re listening to. I just wanted to point that out. I love understanding people’s why’s but I think you mean that JB did a good job of sharing.

Sorry. Yes, that’s what I meant to say. Um, JB, I think you did. Really, really good in and helping us all understand your why, even though some of us may not experience what you’ve experienced. So that helps a lot. Thank you guys so much for the feedback. And, um, Mr. Jeffrey, I don’t know if you noticed, like in the beginning I was going to tell it, and then I said, wait a minute.

No, just get into this story. And then [00:46:00] hopefully it will explain itself. So I’m really glad that you said that you give me an idea to do it in the beginning. Give a little bit of front front story before I go into the full story. And thank you, miss Olivia for, um, telling me that you understood the why, because that’s my most important part.

And Ms. Sharon, you made all the sense in the world and I totally understood you. Thanks for your. Thank you so much for joining us and for sharing his story. We really appreciate it. Um, next up we have Vivec Vivec when you start your story, I’ll start the clock and welcome to clubhouse to hi Jeff. Hi guys.

Thanks for bringing me up on stage. Um, my name’s and I’m from India and I’m an engineer turn filmmakers lash in a waiter. Maybe I actually dropped out of university and got into filmmaking at the age of 17. Uh, over the course of the, my career I’ve personally faced and seen my fellow filmmakers struggle to [00:47:00] understand, or basically the advancing technologies in terms of capturing the foam softwares we use to edit or even accessing are exploring new tools that’s in the market.

So it was few years ago when I came up with a collection of ideas to develop tools and softwares, to tackle these situations and bring those stories. So when I mentioned those two people, everyone thought that was impossible. Uh, some even discouraged me and asked me to drop it and there was no support to even pursue, uh, researching on it.

So I sold my house and I moved to LA. It’s been three years from that moment. Now, uh, we are a year old from tech startup based in Estonia, specializing in developing tools, mostly hardware and software to bridge the gap between technology and creativity. So we have a couple of MEV products that solves our replaces, a decade, decade, old, conventional complicated workflow.

And we are three to five months away from building a final product. That’s going to rock the world, especially the filmmakers world. And while we are [00:48:00] preparing to raise the two 50 K pre-seed level to finalize our development. So yeah, hoping to give it back to the community I grew up with. And thank you.

That’s about it. So Vivek, you have some time left. You have a minute and a half left. If, if there’s anything else you want to add or share or feel you might’ve sure. Um, yeah, we’ve had amazing faction, uh, doing demos and, uh, Netflix and Disney are, are probably going to be now for our clients. And we have actually sold a prototype of our MEP to a studio earlier this year.

And, uh, we are starting to see some revenue I was ready.

Great. So those are, those are obviously very important additions to the story. So I’m glad you use that extra time and I’m just going to dive in real quick, Sharon and Olivia only because my background is in film and TV as well. So I think, um, a congratulations and, and, and on the traction you’re getting.

So I think it would have [00:49:00] been helpful. Um, I liked that you mentioned, you know, film tech is a great expression. People think of FinTech. So film tech is, is a new and emerging area. Arguably, it’s been an area ever since the avid came to be, you know, back in the nineties, early nineties, but it would have been great to have some type of a more tangible example of what your products and software actually do.

Like what piece of that filmmaking workflow are you attacking, simplifying, improving so that we had a little bit more of an understanding, especially for people who aren’t familiar with it. So, you know, is it the, is it the pre-production process? Is it screenwriting? Is it something that changes the production process?

You know, there’s, what is it that you’re doing? And obviously you don’t want to give away your trade secrets per se, but once you share what it’s all public anyway. Perfect. So then yeah, it would have been great to know, like what piece of the puzzle are you solving that would make my eyes light up and say, and Netflix is interested in it and it [00:50:00] would say, yeah, of course they’re interested.

This is amazing. Like, I didn’t get a sense of what. The problem you were solving was I got a good sense of what industry you were in and what market you were going after, but not what the pain point you were actually solving. If that makes sense, right? Like, nah, if you want to know, I could quickly explain it to you in like a couple of minutes.

Well, you had a couple of minutes. Let’s see what Sharon and Olivia have to say. And then, and then I would like you to tell us in like one minute or less, what, what, what your product actually does. Sure. Yeah. In fact, what I was missing was your specifics. I was, I agree with Jeffrey. What I was looking for was something that I could really hang my hat on.

I just want, like, what was that, that, that specific information that I needed, um, it was very generalized and I didn’t know, also it was confusing who your audience might be. So are you talking to people just in the film industry, are you talking to people [00:51:00] who are, um, in, you know, who may be in production, but for.

Yeah, like you mentioned Disney and Netflix, we know that, you know, a lot of these houses now are doing their own PR film production that they’ve gotten out of the business of doing, um, even Amazon, right. It’s gotten into the business of filmmaking now. So that’s getting to be this much larger piece of the pie.

So is that who your audience is? Um, and I did think you also had the opportunity there to, uh, use what we call an underdog story, because you mentioned that people, um, told you to get out of it and not to do it and those kinds of things. And so those are always opportunities cause we always love to root for the, for the underdog, Jeremy.

So take the opportunity to take, uh, your story in the direction that if you were the underdog that paints you, uh, you know, on your journey and how you overcame obstacles in [00:52:00] order to get to where you are right now. All right. Thank you. Thank you. I do want to say that it was, um, a very structured story. It was easy to follow, um, simple.

And I think that just that one missing piece of the puzzle would be like, if you add that missing piece, you would be perfect. It would be a perfect story for, so, uh, tell us, uh, uh, Vivec in one minute or less, what, what is that missing piece? What is it that you do? So our products, uh, like structured for independent filmmakers who cannot afford a million dollar for making, like, especially in a science fiction movie, you need a lot of CJ work.

So our product can slice off a pre-production production. And the post-production all under one roof. It’s an all-in-one software that deals with creation of a virtual world and shooting in it and the next 40 a movie while you’re [00:53:00] shooting it. So it’s a unified solution for virtual production. So that’s super incorrect information that we needed that were missing for us, that we really, really needed that that left us.

Scratching our heads a little bit so that I would try to move all of that information up. And also, uh, one of the things I always caution people with is try not to be too technical act like you’re taught speaking to a child in terms of explaining your, your, um, your services, if you can. So try not to get too technical because then you’ll lose people who are not technical and you never want.

Understood. Thank you. Thank you so much, guys. Thanks for your time. Thank you for sharing your story, Vivek, and best of luck with, uh, with the product. I hope to see a movie soon that was made with your technology. Thanks, Josh. Uh, great. So we’ve got, uh, just a few minutes left, so we’ll try to get to, um, the two remaining people [00:54:00] on stage who haven’t spoken yet.

Kunal and then Rick. So canal, you’ve got three weeks. Thank you Jeffrey. And thanks for hosting this platform. I don’t have I’m canal. I’m a program manager at Azure, Microsoft. I don’t have any specific story to share, but I was here to listening and identifying what are the key elements and the characteristics of any story to, I think I kind of hear the feedback from Jeffery, Shirley and Olivia around what a good story looked like.

And what does, why a certain story is more memorable than the other? I would just love to hear your perspective on this topic.

Okay, Sharon, you want to give a quick overview? Yeah, I think certain stories are more memorable than others because they resonate with people. We’ve spin. I think we’ve been talking about that. If you see yourself in the narrative, if you see yourself in the story, then you’re going to be engaged in it.

You’re going to be [00:55:00] rooting for the storyteller’s story to take you on a journey and you’re going to want to root for them to have success at the end. And so that’s the really, I think the crux of the important elements of a story is to get the buy-in from your audience so that you feel that the person listening to the story feels like they’re invested in it.

They’re invested in the outcome. They want you to win. Um, and then they want to be taken on this journey so that at the end, if they’ve, if you’ve really grabbed them and taken them through the process at the end, they’re so interested in what you had to say, that they want to know what they can do next to help.

You want it to be about that? That, what can I do for you? Not what can you do for me?

Thank you. Thank you for that, Sharon. Nice, concise answer. Thank you for asking the question canal. Hopefully that was [00:56:00] helpful. So we’re coming up. Can I have a followup one followup? So when I took some class here at my company, um, they mentioned about a story should have a beginning, middle, and hopefully with a climax, the correctors protagonist, antagonist, um, depending upon who the audience is and what the goal in mind, do you also recommend this kind of framework?

Yeah. Yes, for sure. I mean, I think one of the things that, that I always feel is very helpful is that. Who your audience is because you want to tailor your, your talk to the audience. So to Sharon’s point earlier, uh, to VBAC, if you, who is, if he was speaking in front of the association of cinematographers, he might go about it a lot differently than speaking in a room here in clubhouse to a general audience.

So you want to target to the audience, and it’s always good to know that final moment. What is it you want to [00:57:00] convey? What do you want the call to action to be? What do you want people to feel at the end of the story and then work backwards from there? So when you say there’s a beginning and a middle and an end, they should all be contributing.

So the beginning sets it up, the middle carries it forward and the end brings it home, but they all flow together. And if I can add, um, a little structure that I’ve used for branding is basically the statement has to have. A what, why and how that’s, how I start writing a story for branding. So maybe that is no, I think Olivia, I think that’s great because when we have to write a spec, when I have to write a spec, a feature spec, a functionality spec to all this has to start with what and why, and then for how we lean on the engineering team.

So I completely agree with, thank you all for sharing your perspective. Really appreciate thank you for participating and asking some good questions and giving us a [00:58:00] chance to share. So with that, we’re going to go to our final storyteller for this evening. Rick, welcome to lead with your story. When you start your story, I’m going to start.

I appreciate that Jeff. And I’m honored to be here with you and Sharon and Olivia and the rest of the speakers. Let me see if I can keep it brief since we’re kind of coming up toward the end of the night. So if you, your car isn’t running well, you bring it into a mechanic. If your body isn’t feeling. You go to a doctor.

If you’ve got legal problems, you go to an attorney. The question is, if you’re an executive or an investor or a board member of a company that’s not growing as quickly as it should. Who do you go to? That’s the reason I created a company called strike zone. My training as an engineer has allowed me to be able to come in and not dissimilar to what a doctor does [00:59:00] diagnose in very granular detail.

The specific reasons that a company is struggling to grow, it could be because of the sales organization. It could be because of marketing. It could be because of product. It could be because of competitive factors. When you’re, when you have questions that you don’t have a great answer to all too often people guess, and that guessing can be extremely expensive in the life of a company.

And if you make too many mistakes, you probably are going to run out of either customers money or both. We take the fear out of making changes to organizations, especially B2B organizations that are fewer than 50 sellers that are selling software tech or tech enabled products. They’re highly competitive.

There are a lot of companies that may be more [01:00:00] well-funded than the candidate company. And what we’re able to do is come in and help them specifically understand what needs to get fixed in what order for what reason with great transparency, what that allows companies to do is to be able to.

Significantly increase their sales. In fact, we say we help you break sales records, and we’ve been able to do that multiple times with multiple companies and multiple industries. Given the fact that it’s now six o’clock, I’m going to curtail it there. My name is Rick and I’m. Thank you, Rick. And you did that in about two minutes and well you had about 40 seconds left, so you’re, you’re close to the three minutes, but that was nicely done.

Well-organized Sharon, any thoughts for Rick? Yeah, I agree. I thought it was well done. Well organized. There’s a couple little pivots. I think you could make to make it stronger. Um, instead of saying it could be [01:01:00] because of why don’t you give specific examples where you found maybe production issues or marketing issues or organizational issues might be helpful because then if you give a specific example, a lot of times people.

Can relate to an example better than sort of a generic general vision of something. Uh, and then I think if you took the opportunity to pivot from them to you, and that’s just literally as a switch of, of, of your verbiage of your pronoun, instead of saying the companies to say your company, or if you are in this experience or in this, in this space right now, instead of we’ve helped other companies, um, we can help your company.

I think

I was trying to keep it short, but I appreciate, yeah. And Rick always, and any kind of a testimonial, even [01:02:00] if it’s, you’re saying yourself, but just a, a tangible example of something that you did for one company. So, you know, you did sort of in broad strokes, but if you could say, you know, we came into one company and this is the.

This is what we actually did for them. This is what we accomplished. Right? So an example that people can kind of wrap their heads around, I think would have been helpful, but otherwise, very well presented and well done. And I love the beginning of your story. Thank you. Appreciate it. Folks. Appreciate being in this room.

I will be back and I wish you all the way, uh, an incredibly great and safe and joyous, uh, Thanksgiving holiday. Thank you so much, Rick. And thank you everyone who joined us tonight, I want to remind everyone that today’s show was sponsored or is sponsored by P and G ventures and their startup studio is now accepting submissions.

As I mentioned before, to its next pitch competition and innovation challenge, and this is a chance for the three runners up to win a [01:03:00] trip to the consumer electronic show in Vegas to pitch there. They’re looking for entrepreneurs and inventors who have groundbreaking technologies, businesses, or capabilities that contain a fast moving consumable.

To improve the pay the way people care for their families, clean their homes and live healthier lives. So it’s pretty exciting. The top three submissions, as I said, we’ll get a fully paid trip to CES to pitch their ideas. And the winner will win $10,000 and have a chance to partner with P and G ventures.

So submissions close on November 29th. So you still have a few days left and you can get more information at the link at the top of this room, www.ventures, challenge.com. So thank you for joining us tonight, Sharon, any closing remarks?

Nope, thanks and have a great holiday weekend. If anybody is traveling, travel. Thank you everyone for joining. Thanks everyone. We hope to see you again. We do lead the lead with your story [01:04:00] every Monday night at 6:00 PM Eastern time. Um, so please join us again. And this show is recorded. So you can find the recordings over@startup.club.

And of course you could find the. Of this show here in clubhouse with their new replay feature, which is really neat. If you haven’t checked it out. Thanks everyone. Have a great holiday.

Thank you for all.