Joel Weldon Reveals: How 3 Storytelling Techniques WILL Transform Your Life

You can change your life forever. When you know that, you know. So let me give you a speaking tip. Start with the point of your story. The audience knows, needs to know. Where is it going? Speaking number two. Tip number two, put your audience in your story. I asked you to be my invisible partner. I added in that little message to you. What would you be thinking? What would you have done? Put your audience in your message. And speaking tip number three, use a date, time and place. Because when I told you March 16, 1981, American Airlines, Miami, Miami, Dallas, the Phoenix, seat 1A, that establishes your credibility. You need credible stories and your stories can change your audience's life forever.

You have been hearing and telling.

You have been hearing and telling stories since you were a kid. They're a powerful tool when you use them in your marketing, in your sales, and in your speaking. How often when you hear a speaker tell a story, have you thought to yourself, what does this have to do with me? Or what's this all about? Or where is the story going? That won't happen to you. That won't happen to you or to your stories. When you use the three storytelling techniques Joel Weldon is going to share with you today. At our September meeting just two weeks ago that we did virtually, I asked Joel to share the story that one member of our Genius X, our 100K group said, Change his life forever. Joel told a very small part of that story, yet it was very helpful to many members. Today you are going to hear the rest of the story. Joel's been using stories for over 46 years as a hall of fame professional speaker who has been paid to speak at over 3,000 events and personally coach well over 10,000 speakers. Plus, he's been our go to speaker skills coach at Genius Network for the last seven years. Joel has personally coached over 170 of our genius Network members using his ultimate speaking system. Joe's also our oldest member, but also one of the most enthusiastic and high energy members. Those of you that know him personally know it is because of the story you will hear today that occurred almost 40 years ago. I saw the amount of energy and high level activity that Joel has at 79 years old. I mean, he's like, the guy's amazing. I spent four days with him on a houseboat at Lake Powell and the guy can do shit that I cannot do. It's crazy. And I can't believe I just used profanity in an introduction to Joel Weldon. But yeah, Joel is amazing. And the title is A story can change your life. Forever. Please help me welcome the always awesome and amazing Joel Weldon.

Well, thank you, Joe, so much for that wonderful introduction. And what a great day to talk about stories, since we had so many with Mike Koenigs and Alinka and then Kamau with what he just shared about love. So let me just share a screen with you. It'll just take a moment. And we will start with our theme, which is a story can change your life. And as Joe mentioned in the introduction, that's what Elko brought up at the last meeting just two weeks ago. And this is going to be that story. So you'll know the story. You're going to know how you can tell your stories even better. You're going to have three powerful speaking tools to help you, and hopefully you're going to be feeling inspired to break an unproductive habit. And then number two, to feel even more excited about sharing your stories using these three tools. And hopefully, you will want to have your own epiphany. And an epiphany is a moment of sudden revelation. And I'm sure at some time in your life, you have had that epiphany. So now would you just think, since we've had so much discussion about your own life and your beliefs, is there a behavior that you'd like to eliminate? Are you drinking too much? Are you still smoking? Even though we know that's not happening much anymore? Are you eating too much of the wrong things, or do you just lack energy? Now, the question is, how long will it take you to. To eliminate some of these bad behaviors? My premise for our talk today is instantly, once you have an epiphany, see, when you see it, when you believe it, when you know it. And two weeks ago, I gave you this example. You will never think that two plus two is five. Nobody could tempt you to think it's five. You couldn't be coaxed or tricked because you know in your heart of hearts that two plus two is four. And because you know it, there is no willpower involved. You don't need self discipline to know that two plus two is four. You know. You know. And that's the premise. That massive personal improvement can be instant once you know the truth. And that was the story I shared years ago with Elko at the annual event on a Sunday on our special bonus day. And the proof of that premise is in this personal story. So now one of the keys to help you in your stories is give the point of the story before you tell it. So point number one of this story is an ordinary experience can become extraordinary. A story can drive home a point with greater impact, even though the audience already knows the fact or the concept. And number three, someone else's story can change your life forever. So this story begins March 16, 1981. And will you come as my invisible partner? As we board an American Airlines flight in Miami heading to Dallas, connecting on another flight to Phoenix, you and I are sitting in seat 1A. And 1B is occupied by a man that we don't even know. And as we get up to altitude, about 37,000ft, the flight attendant brings the dinner, which in those days in 1981, was served on linen tablecloths with sharp knives. And just as that magnificent dinner is placed in front of me, I casually mentioned turning a little bit to the side to my seatmate. Boy, that smoke is terrible. Now, for some of you young members, you might not know that in 1981, smoking was allowed on planes. And it wasn't until February 25, 1990, that smoking was eliminated on airplanes. So now the story.

Hey, I hope you're enjoying this video. And I want to let you know that I have a new book that's come out, and if you'd like to get, get it absolutely free, there's a link below in the description. Or you can wait till the end of this video, or you can Simply go to joesfreebook.com and you can get a copy there.

And let me stop sharing and look at you as I share this story. So there is this plate of food in front of me. I casually mentioned to this guy, boy, that smoke is bad. And then he says, in these exact words and this tone, not as bad as that crap you're about to eat. Now, you and I are sitting there because you're my invisible partner, and you're thinking, what was that about? So I said to him, what do you mean? He said, do you really want to know? In that tone of voice, I said, well, yeah. What are you talking about? He said, you're eating crap. I said, well, it looks like a beautiful plate of food to me. He said, do you like rolls? I said, yeah, I love rolls. He picked up the roll. He held it in front of me and he squeezed it. He said, it's made out of white flour. Rats don't even eat white flour. He threw it on the floor. He picks up the butter. He said, you like butter on your roll? There's no butter in here. It's chemicals. Threw it on the floor, picked up the salad dressing. He said, you put salad Dressing on your salad? I said, yeah, it's chemicals. Threw it on the floor. You're eating crap. And I said, who are you? He said, my name is Alvin Cassuto. I'm just a guy. I'm 51 years old. I'm in great shape. And you're not now. I had just finished a meeting for IBM. I spoke for two hours and I was exhausted. Now, I wasn't overweight. I weighed pretty much the same as I weigh today, almost 40 years later. But I was tired. After speaking, he said, why do you look so tired? What do you do? I said, I'm a professional speaker. He said, how long did you speak? I said, two hours. He said, how do you get tired speaking for two hours? You know the reason you're eating crap? And I said, well, all right, what else on the plate? He said, that steak? You can eat that. Oh, I love steak. He said, it's your mother's fault. Now he's bringing my mother into it. I said, what do you mean? He said, your mother wanted you to be big and strong, so she told you to eat meat. What's the biggest, strongest animal you know? And I told him my name was Joel Weldon. He said, joel, what's the biggest, strongest animal you know? I said, I don't know. An elephant. He said, you ever seen an elephant eat a steak? He said, no. He said, it's crap. You don't need steak. Chicken, fish, vegetables, fruit, healthy things. That's what you need. I see a Pepsi on your table. Do you drink Pepsi? I said, I drink Pepsi all day. And how about that piece of chocolate cake? Oh, I said, I love chocolate cake. He said, you're eating crap. Put your hand on my stomach. Now, if you were sitting in the seat, what would you be thinking? I said, what are you doing? He said, just put your hand on my stomach. So I kind of reached over. It was like a steel plate. He said, I'm in magnificent physical shape. I know I'm older than you and I'm going to be playing tennis with 20 year olds and running them off the court for two weeks. But I used to be like you. I was tired, I was eating the wrong stuff, and I was drinking terrible poison. I said, what would you suggest? He said, drink water. I got my food underneath this seat and I'm going to eat some fish and some vegetables and I've got fresh food. I said, what would you suggest, Alvin? He said, why don't you try it for a week? Just drink water, get rid of all the sugar and Eat fruit, vegetables, chicken, and fish, and occasionally a little lean meat. Within two days, I felt the difference. Within a week, I knew I was never going back again. And that was the day I had an epiphany. Now let me go back and show you a couple of visuals to represent what my diet was alike. And as you hear this story, if you would think about what are you eating and what are you drinking? Because my life was filled with things that weren't that good, like seven layered chocolate cake, Pepsi. I carried a big, semi sweet bar of chocolate with me as I got out of Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix. I could go to Baskins and Robbins, get a double scoop of burgundy cherry. Every Sunday before church, I took my daughters to Baskins and Robbins and loaded up on donuts and loved apple pie with ice cream. Not once since 1981, on March 16, have I ever been tempted, thought of, or even missed any of that. I eat a lot of fruit and vegetables and fish. This is a picture when I was up there with Joe at Lake Powell of some of the striped bass we caught and chicken and lean meat. And since March 16, 1981, only water. What are you eating and what are you drinking? You can change your life forever. When you know that, you know. So let me give you a speaking tip. Start with the point of your story. The audience knows, needs to know. Where is it going? Speaking number two. Tip number two. Put your audience in your story. I asked you to be my invisible partner. I added in that little message to you. What would you be thinking? What would you have done? Put your audience in your message. And speaking tip number three, use a date, time, and place. Because when I told you. March 16, 1981, American Airlines, Miami, Dallas, the Phoenix, seat 1A. That establishes your credibility. You need credible stories, and your stories can change your audience's life forever. So what do you do now? Tell your story. Tell your story, Joe.

Wow.

You know, let's have you stop sharing the screen. Then we're gonna see if anyone has any questions to ask Joel about what he just shared.

Could you ask Elko? It's all his fault.

Elka, is Elko still here?

Oh, is he not?

I don't know. Let me see.

Because it's getting late over there.

Let me check.

Let me see if Elko is here with us. If you're there with us, Elko say something. And I don't think he is. Yeah, I think it's now past his bedtime.

I want to know what Howard Jetson was eating while Joel was telling that story.

Okay, so. So did. We couldn't hear you, Jim. So Jim asked, what was Howard Getzen eating while Joel was telling that story? Howard, you want to unmute yourself? Wait, what's he holding up? A beef stick?

Depends.

I'm not going to get into this.

Wait a second, wait a second. This is an Country Archer beef stick, and you had these as giveaways at the last Genius Network annual event. And I liked them, and I thought that they were pretty. Pretty healthy. It's 100% grass fed beef, 100 calories, no sugar. If you're gonna stick meat in your mouth, this is, you know, reasonable meat for your mouth.

You know what?

That's their new slogan.

I think we just created the best commercial that company's ever had. We should just take that clip. Yep. If you're gonna put meat in your mouth, and then it just stops right there. So, no, thank you. And by the way, what? He just. I cannot fault Howard. That is a. That is a better choice considering he's, you know, snappy.

Here's the other thing I'm putting in me at this time.

Bulletproof. So go ahead. Who was that? Oh, I'm certainly not a nutritionist.

I don't know anything about exactly how the body works, but everything I focus on is results. And I just knew that day when I stopped eating and drinking certain things, I just felt so much better. I was never sick. I wasn't. I mean, but I didn't have the energy I have. And that was 40 years ago. I was 40 years old. I feel I'm so much better physically than I was 40 years ago. And it's attributed to that one simple epiphany. What are you drinking and what are you eating? And that's why I love Ben Hardy's book, that willpower. It's not willpower. It's knowing the truth. So I hope maybe you will look for some truth in your life and realize when you see it's so easy to make those improvements.

Yes.

And by the way, when I went on the boat with Joel Weldon at his houseboat in Lake Powell, I got to actually see a byproduct of a person who has consistently added exercise and time off and just everything he's doing to his life. So, I mean, he lives what he preaches. And, yeah, I mean, there wasn't like, I couldn't find any cocaine or pot or anything on the boat. I mean, he's pretty much void of that. And. Yeah, I mean, so, Joel, this has become kind of a. Just a way of Living for you. And that's what we ultimately decide is what are you putting in your body? I mean, I'm waiting for someone to write a book on not what to eat, because there's so many diet books on what to eat. It's how to eat. And so people. I think the estimate right now is like 10% of. I don't know what it's been like during the pandemic, but 10% of Americans eat meals in their car in this rushed state, standing up in between, not chewing. There's so many things that go into nourishing your body, but the first part is, don't put poison into your body. All forms of sodas and many fruit juices and stuff, and coffees and stuff, depending on what's put in them. It's liquid Satan. And, I mean, you're just not putting.

Good shit into your body.

Anyone have a question for Joel on any of this? Go ahead, Tim.

Yeah, so, Joel, you are the world's premier speaker trainer. So I love how you say start with the point of the story. You've said that for years, and that's really helpful. The audience needs to know where you're going. The second and third that you presented today, I don't know that I've heard you share before. Put audience in your story. Maybe you have, but my question is, is that new? Is that something you've discovered? Is that something you've always done as well as the specifics with the date, time and place?

Yes, it's always been part of my speaking repertoire is putting audience in. And the audience's name is you. And not that you want to give.

Away a story when you give the.

Point, but, Kamal, if we had just. I'm going to tell you a story, and the point of this story is that no matter how difficult your present situation is, love could be the answer. Okay, now, I don't know exactly what would come next, but that's what I call the point then putting the audience in. So he talked about many of the things, and it was such a wonderful, heartfelt message that he shared. But notice if he had just added in. So if you were in that situation, what would you have done? Let me share what I did. Or how would you have felt if you had built this company, you had suddenly made all of this money, and now suddenly you're penniless, what would be going through your mind? That's exactly where I was. And maybe what I did could help you. Not that when you lose your business or penniless or homeless, but in that challenge that you might have. That's what I call putting your audience in the story. And then the use of the date, time, and place. So many times, Tim, we hear people say, now this is a true story. Oh, so in other words, all the other stories we heard were lies. Now this one is true. It's just like saying, let me be honest with you for a minute. Oh, you've been lying up till now. Now the truth is coming out. So rather than saying this is a true story by framing it with a time, place, and Alvin Cassuto's name, and by the way, on the anniversary of that day on that plane every year, I wrote him a thank you note telling him, I'm on the program and thanks so much. And that went on for about 15 years, and then they came back and I don't know what happened to him. So I've never seen him again. So thank you for asking that question, Tim. Okay.

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