Episode 58: Why We All Have Stories To Tell with Akeem Shannon

Hi everyone, I'm Ben Wright, successful entrepreneur, corporate leader and expert sales coach to some of the most talented people our amazing planet has to offer. You're listening to the Stronger Sales Team podcast where we bring together and simplify the complex world of B2B sales management to help the millions of sales managers worldwide build, motivate and keep together highly effective sales teams. Teams who grow revenue and make their businesses actual profits along the journey. We also provide great insights and actionable steps to managing your personal health. A happy and productive year is not only better for your teams, but everyone around you. So if you're an ambitious sales leader who wants to build the highest performing and engaged teams, stronger sales Teams is right where you need to be. Welcome back to Stronger Sales Teams, the place where we provide real world and practical advice to help you develop super powered B2B sales teams. So as you're listening, hands up. One hand, two hands. If you've pitched Shark Tank, I think we're going to have most people with the hands, hands up. If you've pitched Snoop Dogg, I think we're going to have most people with their hands down and hands up. If you've got a patent around your product, I think there'll be a few that put their hands up there. But most people listening, these are firsts. And for me certainly as well, I've never pitched Shark Tank and I've never pitched Ship Dog. But Akeem Shannon, who is our guest today, has. So we are going to have some fun. But before I hand over to Akeem, let's have a little bit of a look into his journey because he's one who's had more than his fair share of setbacks, failures, hurdles if you like. But he's also a guy that by failing again and again, he's found himself inching his way towards success. So that true definition that I talk about a lot around grit and persistence beating resistance. So Akeem has self classified himself as a man who was a college dropout and is now a CEO of an Inc. Magazine top 50 fastest growing consumer brands in the US and has, like I said, shared his stories on stages such as Shark Tank, the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History and many other places that are very public. But what I really like is that through his journey he's had to navigate mental health management, motivation, marketing, and a whole lot of challenges that a lot of business owners do, but certainly in his fair share. So great to have you on board, Hakeem. Thank you very much. We had some logistical issues getting here today that were completely our fault. But really good to have you here, man.

It's great to be here, Ben. Thanks for having me.

My pleasure. Tell me more about Flipstick. Tell me more about your product and your really cool business that you've built.

Yeah. So you know our company is called Flipstick, so we make a line of phone accessories and really they're around making it accessible for people to create and consume content hands free. So our chief technology is our synthetic CT technology, which is a reusable adhesive that's based off the feet of geckos. And essentially it allows you to stick or mount your phone to virtually any hard, flat surface. So you can imagine if you're in a plane and you want to watch a video, you can stick it to the back of a seat and kick back and watch it. If you're on the go and you need to record yourself on TikTok or even maybe do a Zoom call or a FaceTime, you can stick it to the wall and be able to record yourself with ease. And it's rewashable, reusable, and you can use it again and again. And then they have a couple other features in there for some power users as well too. But we like to say that we want to empower the creator within you. So whatever that means for you, whether you're a content creator or you're just a mom who's trying to get a family photo on vacation, we try to make devices for you.

So geckos feet, you said, in terms of a sticky compound. Tell me more about that. Because certainly where I live, there's snakes, there's geckos, there's sharks, there's just about every type of animal that you can think of.

Let me first say we harm no geckos to create this product. One time I had a little girl, she's probably about 7 years old, starts crying because she thought we literally were putting geckos feet on the back of our product. But. But no. So this actually all started six or seven years ago. I was on a phone call with my uncle, who's an engineer at NASA, and he was telling me about a project he was working on for the Space Launch System and how he was gonna use this adhesive that NASA had invented in the 70s that was based off of gecko's feet. It's called synthetic ct and it essentially mimics the microscopic hairs on the bottom of a gecko's foot using different materials can be used, can use carbon, you can use plastics, all kinds of stuff. And so as he was tell this adhesive. I had recently quit my job and I was on my own. I was at the time I was doing marketing, wasn't really in love with doing marketing for people as a consultant. And I had recently mounted my TV on the wall and I just, I couldn't get this thought out my head that if I had this special adhesive, it could have saved me a lot of time and energy, you know, mounting this TV to the wall. And so in most times in my life, probably, you know, we all have those thoughts where you have an idea and, you know, you think of it for a little while, you're like, oh, that'd be cool. And then it kind of just goes, you know, in one. But at this time in my life, I had recently read a book called the Alchemist, which is about a boy who goes on this journey to find this treasure. International best selling book. And this book put me in this mindset to say, hey, you know, your treasure is out there and if you follow the omens and the signs from the universe, you'll find your treasure. And I just felt like this synthetic CT adhesive was a sign. And I started doing research and seeing MIT and all these different universities had done research. And eventually I made a prototype out of, of literally double sided tape and cardstock, made a video, sent it off to some manufacturers in China, and I was off to the races. And that's kind of where the idea was born.

It is so common for people that I meet with and I work with a huge number of salespeople, sales teams, entrepreneurs. But to hear them having that moment in time where they realized they had an idea and they wanted to bring it to life and it became a real pivotal moment for them in their life where they actually changed everything. I've certainly been in that path for a long that journey for me in the businesses that I've had. But I love speaking to people who have also had that moment in time, because what has ended up as a result is that they've really doubled down into what they do and become experts at it. So when we talk about flip stick, you spoke about creating content, and I think I heard the word stories somewhere in those last few minutes. That's what we want to talk about today. And I think you are as well equipped as anyone that I've had on the show previously to talk about storytelling because you actually sell a product. Your business embodies everything about storytelling. So tell me please, for you, what does storytelling mean to you and how did it help you with Shark Tank with Snoop, with all those other type of big pictures that you've had to make.

Yeah. You know, I think a lot of times when we think about sales, right, we're always thinking about, okay, well, let me talk about the features, you know, let me talk about the problems that it's going to solve for people. And sometimes we get so caught up in the technical aspects of why something is meant for someone that we forget the human connection there. And the human connection is the story behind the products. You know, that is really just about, okay, well, what happens in someone's life when this variable changes? And I think for me, I didn't, you know, prior to starting Flip Stick, I had been in sales. I was actually the top sales rep at two Fortune 500 companies. So I had always been good at sales, but I didn't know why. You know, I just came natural to me. I like talking to people, so it always kind of just worked out in my favor. But when I started at Flipstick, the first thing that I went out to do to sell the product is I had a kiosk at our local mall and I would stop every person that I saw and say, hey, have you heard of Flip Stick? Because I knew they hadn't heard of Flip Stick, right? So I knew it was an easy one to get. And then I'll present to ask them stories about their lives. You know, what do you do? Do you have kids? You go on vacation, you watch videos, you use your phone to watch videos. And they start telling about their lives, and I start telling about what that story of their life would look like with the Flip Stick. Remember last Christmas when you wanted everyone in the photo, but grandma wasn't in the photo because she was taking the photo? Well, now that won't happen anymore. Now the story is going to be different. And I was able to sell Flip Sticks one to one. And I thought at the time, yeah, you know, I'm telling people a story about how their life will be different with the product, and that's why they're buying the product. But what I didn't realize was that that wasn't the only story that they were buying into. Because, see, they were also buying into my story because they were saying, here's this kid stopping me in the mall, it's Christmas. I'm just trying to get my shopping done. But he's really trying to go and do something. He has a pretty cool idea. And so, yeah, I'm buying this because I think it may work for me, but I'm also buying this because I want to be a part of his story, and I want to see where his story goes. And when I first started Flipstick, you know, I didn't realize the power of that story, which I like to call, what is your founding story? Why did you get started doing whatever it is that you're doing? But that is a very powerful story. And I remember the first time I applied to be on Shark tank. You know, 40,000 people applied to get on the US version of Shark Tank every year. And out of 40,000, only 120 people get on the show each year. And so I went, I applied. I wasn't even a year into my business. I got down past 40,000, down past 10,000, a thousand. It was the final 250 people. And I just knew, I'm like, I'm getting on the show. It's going to happen. I'm in here. And they called me up and they said, akeem, you're not going to be on the show. We decided to go in another direction. And I was devastated. It really hurt me, and I didn't know why. You know, I thought the product was great. I thought it was fun. But what I didn't realize then that I'd realized later when I would actually get on the show, is that there was no story there. I was just telling them prayers. The product. Here's the product. Here's the product. But people invest in people, and they invest in a story. And so when I was able to come back the next year, well, now there was a totally different story. It wasn't just that, hey, here's a product that allows you to stick your phone to surfaces. And now it was, here's a kid who tried to get on Shark Tank, didn't make it onto the show, then convinced Sean Diddy Combs, via a rap. Yes, a rap pitch, to invest into his business and buy product. Then he invited him to la. Then he convinced Snoop Dogg to be part of the product. And Snoop Dogg called Shark Tank. It was like, you got to get this kid on Shark Tank. And now here this kid comes with this great product, but he went through all these hoops in order to get right back here. That's a great story. And that's a story we want to be a part of that. We want to help propel forward into the stratosphere. And so once I started to realize, like, wow, like, yes, there's the story of the product and what it can do in someone's life, but there's also the story of why I'm here. And some people may buy it because of the product, but some people may buy it because of me and because of what they see that I'm doing. And that was a huge. That was like, the first time I realized the power of that story. It wouldn't be the last, and it wouldn't be even the most profound story, but it really went to show me that that human connection that you create with people is far more important than any set of features that are out there. And that's why when you see Apple, you know, advertise their product, it's never about, oh, here's the battery life and here's how loud it is, and here's how large the screen is, and here's the pixel density of the screen. They're not talking about that, right? They tell you the story about how a man was hiking in the mountains and he lost signal for his phone. He was another country. He had no signal, and he had a little bit of battery life. He left, and then he remembered his iPhone had a feature called SOS that could connect directly to the satellites. And he makes a phone call, and that phone saves his life. 99.99% of people never gonna be in that situation. That applies to practically no one. Yet. I remember the commercial, and so does everyone else who saw it because they think about, wow, what if my loved one was in that situation? What if I was in that situation? What if it was my kid, my grandmother? I'd want them to have this phone. And Apple knows that. And they're master at storytelling. And they really showed me the piece that I was missing. In the beginning, when I first started telling stories to make sales for Flip Stick, it was always about why we got started, why I did it, here's my journey. But the real powerful moment that came up for us is when we started using those customer stories. Because then people really connected because they saw themselves in other customers.

So powerful. The art of storytelling. I talk a lot about presence with salespeople. So that's having presence in front of the customer. You can be the best technical, most diligent, most convincing person on this planet. But if you don't connect with the other side of the table, or the phone or the video call or the other side of the world, as we're doing now, then these salespeople, they don't cut through. And when you don't cut through and build that relationship, you don't actually generate sales. A common response that I get, a really common response around storytelling is Ben. I just don't have it. And we take you, for example. You present well. You've got a great personal story, you've got the hair, you've got the confidence, you've got everything about you. To get in front of someone and say, here's my story, listen up. And quite commonly I'll get the response that says, I just don't have that in my Persona. I'm just not likable like Akeem or whoever it may be. And to an extent, I understand that. But I look at it more that they haven't trained themselves to become really good at stories. It's like riding a bike. No one knew how to ride a bike when you first started that. No one knew how to sell a product, no one knew how to write, no one knew how to talk. No one knew a lot of things in this world. So when you're working with your team members around stories, what do you do to help them become better at telling stories and engaging with people?

Yeah, you know, I often like to equate it to a movie trailer. I'm like, everyone knows we've seen movie trailers. The trailer's incredible. We go see the movie, it's terrible. Okay, but why? Why are trailers great? Why do trailers make almost every movie seem incredible? It was like you have to take all of the excitement and the sadness and the fast paced moments and the slow paced moments and the love and the joy and the hurt and the pain, and you gotta pack it all in to two minutes, two hours worth of story. Tell it in two minutes. And I think that when you do that, when you take all that content and you put it in something really tight, a really small package, it's very hard not to tell a good story. It's very, very difficult. And I think that if more people looked at their case studies as story studies, where instead of it being, hey, let me tell you how we went in and this person did this and this is how it changed. If instead you wipe that off and you just started talking about who are these people whose lives were changed because their chance encounter with you and the product or service that you sell and how it was different. To me, it becomes a lot easier to tell that story. And I'll give you a quick example. I was running a sales, not even a sales training, it was a pitch training. And this gentleman had a product and this product was an innovation for doctors and nurses for stethoscopes. And, you know, he starts talking about the stethoscope and it's technical and it has all these Features. And it's better, and it's more compact. You can take it places. And he goes through this whole thing, and the audience is there, and I'm like, okay, that's cool. And I said, you know, why did you create this stethoscope? And the first thing out of his mouth, he's like, well, my colleague almost died because she got strangled by a regular stethoscope. The whole crowd went, what? And I was like, wait a minute. Where was that story? That's what I want to hear about. Because I had no idea that the doctors are getting strangled by stethoscopes. And you just told me you created this after that happened. If you start off telling me anything about this product, I'm not a doctor. I could care less about this product. But if you start off telling me the story of what it was like, turned out he was an ER nurse, he's an emergency nurse. And I was like, if you tell me what it was like in that emergency room that night when that moment happened, and the way you felt in that moment when you saw your colleague almost lose their life from a tool that's supposed to save people's life and how that inspired you to create a product. Now, it doesn't matter what I know or what I do, I believe in that product already. Just because the story you told me of how you came to the concept of it. And so here you have a guy, right, Who. Not a storyteller, right? He's in the medical field. It's really not what he does. But I'm like, just because you're not a storyteller doesn't mean you don't have stories to tell. And you got a story to tell. And I think for each person, it really just comes down to identifying what the good stories are that they have to tell. Because everyone can tell you that story about their. But their college, you know, buddy, and the crazy thing they did on their honeymoon or the trouble they got into with their sibling when they were young. And they get animated and they get excited and they're reliving the experience, and that's really what you want to create when you're having these sales story conversations. It's got to have that same emotion, that same feeling. Like I said, like it's a movie trailer. Because if you don't have that, if you're not interested, if it's not exciting, the person on the other end is definitely going to sense the fact that it's just not genuine, right? And they're not going to Listen from the jump.

So let's talk about that. Getting a story, right? And I fundamentally agree with you about writing down your stories. It's like when you're learning features and benefits of a product. You've got them all sitting there in the back of your mind and you can reel them off when you need to do the same with your stories. Write them all down, know them, have them ready to roll out on cue. It is no different to everything else you train and learn around in your life. So when we're talking about sales, good stories love to know in your mind how good stories help you make more sales, but also in reverse, how stories that aren't quite so genuine or not quite pitched in the right way can impact sales.

Yeah, like, you know, different stories work for different audiences. So, you know, having a consumer product, you know, when I'm selling, you know, to another business, right, like maybe like a major retailer, you know, we're looking for them to buy, you know, 10,000, 50,000, 100,000 or so units to really invest into, you know, the business, to market it all this kind of stuff. You know, I'm going to tell a totally different set of stories than what I'm going to tell on our social media pages or through a Facebook ad or to a consumer that we want to buy a single product. But even though the story may be different, the way I tell doesn't always mean it's going to be a different, completely different story. So for example, one of my favorite stories that we had, we had this customer who started using our product signed up to be a brand ambassador and get flagged that this guy's making this content. He's starting to sell quite a bit of product on his code. And turns out that this customer deaf and he was using our product. And you know, I guess I pretty ignorant, you know, I didn't realize, I'm just assuming, hey, you're deaf, you send text messages, problem solved. Back in 1998, you know, it's all good, but, you know, if we're being honest, just like you and I here, we're talking over zoom. We want to see each other. You know, you can't get all of your emotion and expression and you can't tell great stories through text message alone. You know, you need to be expressive. And with sign language, the visuals are the expression. And so rather than send text message off the time, the most popular way to Communicate is through FaceTime. But there's a problem. If you have to hold your phone with one hand, that means you only have one hand to sign with. And so this customer was telling his audience on social media, hey, if you want to be able to FaceTime, you want to be able to sign with both hands, get one of these flip sticks so you can stick your phone to the wall when you're on the go and you can sign and have a full conversation with someone. And I just thought this was so incredible because here I'm thinking people are just buying our product to make TikTok videos. And for this entire community of people, like, this is actually, like, meaningful and important. And I remember we were in a meeting with Best Buy, one of the largest electronics retailers, probably the largest electronics retailer in the United States. And I'm telling them this story of this customer who is deaf. This is a tiny portion of their customer base, right? But I'm like, think about what I told them was like, think about if we did this for one set of customers, think about all the sets of customers that come into your stores and the set of customers, more importantly, that aren't coming into your stores and what our product can bring to them that you don't have today. Because we're coming from a space of creativity and a space of inclusivity and a space for people who are younger and are thinking differently from the average customer that's walking in your store. And the rep at Best Buy was listening to this story and he immediately is like, you know what? Even before you got on this call, I was already thinking this because I was at our Christmas party and we had our Christmas party and I had a flip stick on my phone and I remember we would have to take a photo and I was getting everyone together and I stuck my phone to the wall and everyone was so excited because we're all in the photo. We were having a great time and I was just so excited. And I'm telling her a story, but then she's telling me a story back about my product that we're trying to sell to her. And it was one of those genuine moments where, you know, she was waiting to tell her story, but then also receiving the story of these other customers. And instantly it clicked for them. It was like, wow, like, here I am, fully able bodied person at a corporate event and I'm using it this way. And here's a totally different person, completely different use case. And then they're using it. And when you see those two things, they realize the wide spectrum of customers that they would be able to serve with the product, right? And so it wasn't even a Sales conversation at that point, because, boom, you had these two stories and they're like, yeah, this is. Let's move forward with this.

You absolutely nailed it. When you get storytelling right, there's no need for a negotiation. There's no need for a pitch. Decisions are made on stories, and then facts are used to support that decision, rather than decisions being made around facts and trying to find a good business sense or business point to arrange a product or to embrace a brand or a service. So if you, Akeem, had to. Before we let you go, if you, Akeem today had to give your top three tips on storytelling, and you could only give three, the best, meatiest, most impactful tips, what would they be around? Stories.

Number one, tell your customer stories. And tell them, well, not in a PDF document, but tell them the way you would tell your mama at the cookout, you know, at Thanksgiving, you know, at Christmas time. Like, tell it in an engaging way. Number two, personally, for me, I like emotion. Either make it funny, make it sad, make it exciting, or make it as an overcoming moment. But it's got to have emotion there. You got to take me on a roller coaster ride, because as humans, we connect emotionally. And if there's no emotion in your story, well, you can just keep it. No one's paying attention. I'm going to forget it as soon as you walk away. Okay, so the third piece that I would say, keep it succinct. Don't go on forever. If you can say it in one sentence instead of five, then say it in one. But get your point across quickly because the more you can condense it, the more powerful it becomes.

So we've got practice telling stories. I love it. What you practice at, you get better at. Be real and genuine. Let that emotion come out. And the last one is make it. Make it concise. Say what you gotta say, get off the stage, hand over to someone else. It's their turn to speak. Right? But the shorter that story, the easier they are to hear. Fantastic. Thank you, Akeem. I really enjoyed today. I enjoyed listening to your stories. And I think that above everything else is a really compelling reason that we should be investing time with our teams and ourselves into telling stories. So please, everyone, check out Flipstick. Akeem, I'm going to be a customer. I do create a lot of content. I've beautiful property here where I'm always outside, so I'm going to find a way to use it. Thank you. Please check out Flipstick. Where else, Akeem, can people learn more about you?

Yeah, if people are interested in, you know, learning more about story selling. Coming up, some of the methodologies that I came up with over the years, they can connect with me directly through my personal social media, which is akeemshannon, that's a k e e m Shannon, as well as akeemshannon.com awesome.

Thank you, Akeem. Been a great, great session for everyone listening. Keep living in a world of possibility and you'll be amazed by what you can achieve. Want to be kept up to date with any of our free materials to help you build the best sales teams possible? Well, the easiest way you can do so is to follow us on your favourite social media channel. We're onger sales teams on most of them and if you DM us stronger, we'll send you right back some great resources to help you build your super powered sales team. If you'd like a little more help, please get in touch directly and book a free discovery call with me. I run a limited number of these sessions and they're free for my podcast listeners. I'd love to help you out. Until then, see you next week for another podcast of stronger sales team.