The Vision Architect

[video] VISION 216 -
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[00:00:23] Simon Vetter: Welcome to "The Vision Architect." I'm excited about my guest today, Michael Davis. In first grade, he got humiliated in class when he spoke. For 25 years, he didn't wanna speak in front of a group. And then he worked as a financial planner and his manager said, "You have to give presentations, otherwise you're out."

He became a, speaking coach and has coached executives, TEDx speakers, and has written multiple books on how to give compelling presentations. His latest book is called The Story Trio. We'll dive more into it. Michael, welcome to the show

[00:01:09] Michael Davis (2): Thank you, Simon. you know, I've enjoyed working with you and our time together

the last

couple of years, and, was thrilled that you asked me to be on

today

[00:01:16] Simon Vetter: Yes. Looking forward to our conversations. So you didn't have a very healthy relationship growing up with speaking . What was the pivotal point

[00:01:26] Michael Davis (2): it was that moment you mentioned in the opening where I was, humiliated by my first grade teacher, in a way that caused me to think, "I will never

stand in front of

people ever

again."

And for the

next 25 years, I never voluntarily stood in front of any group,

'cause it was just, it just

planted that seed in me that this is a terrifying experience, '

cause I didn't wanna be laughed at or humiliated.

and it wasn't until I

was 31 years old

and I was a financial

planner, and I was asked to go out and give workshops and presentations. You can imagine that was quite a

combination, that terrifying fear and this, "Well, I have to go do this." And one day

I sat down with my boss and he said, "I've been getting some

feedback from your workshops, and, Michael,

you-

suck at

presenting.

You need to fix this or you're out of here." He was a real touchy-feely kinda guy.

So,

that's what, where I found Toastmasters. That was back in 1994

[00:02:22] Simon Vetter: And what happened at the beginning? I mean, how did you start to become comfortable speaking in front of a group?

[00:02:31] Michael Davis (2): Well, the key to Toastmasters is, and it's like any other

fear we have, you just have to keep getting up and doing it. So I, I, I volunteered

a lot.

I, I

went in thinking, "I'm gonna go to two or three meetings, pick up some

tips, and I'm gonna just save my

job."

But I very slowly began to discover that some of the myths and misconceptions I had about speaking were just totally not true.

Like, you have to be born to be an effective speaker, that speaking is all about just getting up there and talking, talking, talking, talking, talking, not really having any structure, just talking. that's not true. You need structure. You need frameworks. And I mean, it took me several years to start to feel like, "Okay, I can do this." But it wasn't until 1998 when I was sitting in a workshop as an attendee, and I saw somebody at the front of the room who said, and I thought, "Well, I'd like to do

that."

But then a little voice came in right after

that and said, "

Who'd wanna listen to You You haven't done anything." So immediately

I shot it down.

But

that voice kept coming back

over the years, and some point I decided I needed to listen to that voice

[00:03:44] Simon Vetter: You mentioned Toastmasters. I joined Toastmasters in San Diego in 1997 when I got here. A friend said, "You should join Toastmasters." And I became a member for 18 years. And I remember the first few times I had a very, very heavy accent. And as you said, I got up, I practiced, I failed a lot . And what I love about Toastmasters, it's a safe environment.

It's encouraging. And when you make mistakes, people support you moving through that. And I used Toastmasters to practice and make mistakes to get better. , You get better when you practice. And I believe Toastmasters is the driving range for golf pros for speakers

[00:04:33] Michael Davis (2): Oh, I

love that. It's a terrific analogy. I haven't heard that one before. you're right. Here's the thing about speaking,

tell me if you've, if this

has been your experience,

Simon, is that a lot

of people think that the

best speakers

they just get up there and they start talking And they don't make mistakes

They have to be perfect, and that is absolutely not true

[00:04:53] Simon Vetter: And what I see, especially in golf, the easier the swing looks, the more time and practice and sweat they have put in . Easy, smooth, chances are the more they put in to become that speaker

[00:05:11] Michael Davis (2): Yes. It, it, this just happened to me 'cause you know I did a TEDx talk back in August, and I, it's not out yet, but I got

to see the raw footage, and I watched it and I

thought, "

That guy looks like he's having a conversation with the audience." And to your point, it's because I, I did over 250 reps on that story.

By the time I hit that circle, it was like, you know, I'm just having A, conversation with some friends. But that takes the swing over and over. Make adjustments, tweak this, tweak that, put emphasis on that word.

There's

no replacing that.

You have to put in the

time

[00:05:47] Simon Vetter: I coach a lot of executives, and often I coach them on presentations, and they spend a lot of time on PowerPoint and rely on PowerPoints, and most of them , they don't practice, they don't rehearse.

What have you seen are the big downfalls of executives when it comes to presentations?

[00:06:07] Michael Davis (2): Well, number one you just hit is they will not practice, and I get it, they're busy. However,

how

much is it worth to you to, to become seen as a high-level communicator?

second

is they believe that a presentation is giving them

information.

Give them the quarterly report, break down this data, bring, bring in the slides.

Look, I can get that on a s- a PDF, or I can just go now to AI and say, "

Tell

me in two

minutes, what's

this all about?"

I

don't

need

information from you. What I need is your interpretation of that information and how it applies to me, my team, my

division.

That's what people are

desperate for today,

and,

executives keep just

glossing over that.

And I think it comes back

to that basic human

fear

of standing in front of others and risking being

humiliated

[00:06:55] Simon Vetter: Yeah. What makes a powerful, compelling speech?

[00:07:00] Michael Davis (2): Someone who is being real,

someone

who

will get up there and talk about a relatable challenge, relatable problem, share their

experience where they

struggled, they had strife,

they had setbacks,

and

then ultimately, if they overcame it,

how did they

do that?

I

see

this

a lot. You

and

I

have

talked about this in our work

together.

So many people want

to rush by the

struggle

in

their story,

but that's

where

the emotional connection is made.

That's where you're sending the signal.

No matter

what your title, I'm just like you. I'm human. I've had

these struggles.

May

still be struggling

with it,

but

here's how

I was able to manage that

problem.

That's what makes a speech?

or presentation compelling, is when you're able to, I like to call it take off the armor,

take

off

the title,

And just say, "Look,

here's my

s-

here's what

I did. Here's

what I went through.

If I

went through

it, you can

too."

[00:07:53] Simon Vetter: And they're able to connect with the audience and what you said the audience can relate to the speaker

[00:07:58] Michael Davis (2): Yes. one of

my

good

friends

has

a

phrase that

I just love.

It is, "Be relatable to their pain and

relevant

to their

goals."

Because When You're relatable,

you're

showing them, "

I get you. I understand what you're going through,

and I have a solution to help you overcome it," which is being relevant to

their

goals

[00:08:16] Simon Vetter: And that also requires courage to talk about our own pain

[00:08:22] Michael Davis (2): Yes. I don't deny that it is scary

to get up in

front of people, and the

higher

you are

up in the

corporate hierarchy

or within an organization, there's a little

voice inside

of you saying, "

You can't

do

that.

You're

gonna

be

showing weakness." That's

old school thinking.

That is not

true.

I mean,

we have the neuroscience

behind this, so this

isn't just

some pie

in the sky

feel good

about...

No,

this is not

that at all.

This is

proven science

that when you are willing

to

share

relatable,

painful

experiences, people are drawn to you. They don't run from you.

They don't

look down on you. They, they actually think more of you because you're not

trying to

impress them

[00:09:02] Simon Vetter: Yeah. Yeah. You talk from a human to a human

[00:09:05] Michael Davis (2): That's exactly it

[00:09:07] Simon Vetter: Yeah. Let's dive into your latest book,

[00:09:11] Michael Davis (2): Hmm?

[00:09:11] Simon Vetter: Story Power Trio. I start reading it and I love it because it's, it's a different approach to presentation. You talk about the three important stories. Can you give a, a brief overview and then we can dive into each of the three stories?

[00:09:25] Michael Davis (2): Sure can.

Sure can.

it was just born

out of

an

observation I made that, yeah,

there are a lot of people talking

about storytelling

today,

and yes,

the,

the, all

the frameworks

are

out there,

the

hero's journey,

and you pick

a framework. All speech and

story coaches

have one. I do. But

something wasn't

happening.

People

weren't getting

through

with their stories,

and it occurred

to

me one day

it's

because

there are

two other stories that

people

aren't addressing. The first one, I think the most critical one,

is what's

the

story we're telling ourselves?

And these stories

are

typically

born or they're, accepted when we're young.

One of mine was, "Don't stand in front of people." It's terrifying because what happened in first grade. I had an even

deeper story that it took

me almost, you

know, over five decades to uncover that I absorbed when I was two years old that was, "You're not worth sticking

around for."

That's because my father walked out on my mom and me when I

was two and never, never saw

him

again.

So we absorb a lot of stories?

and we don't realize it, and if we're not clear on those, it is going to impact how we communicate.

It impacts our

energy,

the way our

body shows up,

our

voice,

all

of that,

and it also

sends messages on

holding us back from

taking

certain actions.

Now, Simon, in full confession, it took me over five decades to discover that the one story that had

been holding

me

back. it won't take you that long if you're willing to do the work and say, "Okay, what, what are some potential messages I picked up as a child?" And it's not always the spoken

message.

It was

actions you observed as a

child.

Children are incredibly

observant,

and if

they

start to see patterns, they create a story in their mind, and they absorb it

[00:11:01] Simon Vetter: I had a similar story growing up. I had a lot of energy, a lot of enthusiasm, and I wanted appreciation. I want appreciation from my classmates, my parents, and, the way I try to get appreciation is being active and loud and, and in class, it's, yeah, I raised my hand all the time and a few times I messed up and people laughed at me and then I put my hand down.

I didn't speak up anymore. So to your point, it created a deep impression, and it was an unconscious impression that I

didn't realize and, and through self-awareness and inner work, I had to first realize I gotta change that story

[00:11:48] Michael Davis (2): Yeah.

what was specifically the story

you think you

absorbed?

[00:11:52] Simon Vetter: If you raise your hand, if you take risk, chances are if you don't are perfect, then you get criticized. People laugh at you

[00:12:02] Michael Davis (2): Yes, and that hurts

[00:12:04] Simon Vetter: That's hurtful and

[00:12:06] Michael Davis (2): So I'm not gonna do that anymore

[00:12:07] Simon Vetter: Yeah. How do you help your clients uncover that?

[00:12:11] Michael Davis (2): Well, I ask them to think about messages they got growing up, and if, and it's not always easy. I mean, I've often been asked when I share this information, "Well, how do you do that?" Well, let's look for specific messages you got, and if you can't remember any, think about actions that you observed as a child.

What was your family like?

And

then

ask a third question. That's what could

the message be? You've got

hints at it in your life. It's,

it's, if I

work with

a lot of salespeople,

it's like, "Why aren't you picking up the phone?

Why aren't you going to networking events? Why aren't you meeting people?" Well,

let's talk

about why

you hesitate.

And by the way, there's a great story in there for everyone, right? We all have those narratives in us that can help others. But I'm trying to help them get to the core message, and it sometimes takes a while. Sometimes it jumps out. It just, you just never know. there's no timeline

on this. But

I just

dig

and dig and see.

And

usually

it

happens where they'll just throw something out,

and that's

usually they,

th-they, they're

so

used

to that experience

or that?

message they got that they don't think anything of it, but that's usually what

we're looking

for

[00:13:17] Simon Vetter: And one of the core obstacle is fear.

[00:13:21] Michael Davis (2): Yes

[00:13:22] Simon Vetter: And fear helps us not to get hurt, and fear also prevents us to get out, to speak up, to stand on a stage. fear is natural and it's a safety measure, but it's also avoiding

[00:13:36] Michael Davis (2): Well, it is. And then when it comes to speaking, and again, I'm, I'm not talking about professional speakers, which you are and I are in that world, but leaders who stand up and speak, and that happens a lot. There is a natural fear of speaking, which a, a lot of sociologists have traced back to

our

earliest ancestors.

If you stood out from the crowd, you put the

tribe

at

risk,

so you had to be very careful.

and I mean,

it

could

get

you kicked out of the

group,

which meant death. So there's a

story

that's

been passed down subconsciously over the generations

is, "Don't

you

stand out." But

the way modern society has evolved,

we need to stand

up and speak and, and get

messages out.

so

yeah, there's a natural fear, but you can overcome it. You don't get rid of this, by

the way.

You know this, Simon.

Being

nervous before you speak is

perfectly natural,

and

it's a good reaction.

It shows that your body is

in tune,

it's

ready to go.

You

don't want it to paralyze you. That's when it becomes a problem

[00:14:32] Simon Vetter: I did a presentation in a big university hall, 150 people. I had a suit, I looked sharp, and I was sweating. I was trenching underneath my coat because I was so nervous. And then a friend of mine said, "This is good. You are ready now. You're prepared." You don't have that. A friend of mine, uh, said, " If I'm not gonna be nervous I'm gonna give up speaking."

So To your point, it's natural to be nervous, but you don't want to be fearful. So there's the big difference

[00:15:02] Michael Davis (2): Right. And there's a series of exercises I have people go through,

questions they ask

five to 10 minutes before

they go on, which

helps a lot.

but I

just

realized

that you asked me to go quickly through the

three stories.

I went right into the first one. So I'll give you the second story

we need to tell,

which

is the story

our

audience,

whether an audience

can

be one or 1,000 or 1,

what

is the

story they're telling themselves?

Because if we're not clear on that, I don't care how good your story is, it won't break through their barriers.

Now, one-to-one like we're doing here, is pretty easy. I can ask you questions and dig down and, and try to find those stories.

What

about

when we're leaders speaking to a large group of our, in our organization or your speaker standing up in front

of an audience?

Well, AI has made it possible to very quickly find out what are some common concerns that audiences have, the people sitting in front of you. You can do the demographic search. You can find out, what are common issues within this

organization,

challenges they have.

AI will

go in and

look

at

social media posts, Glassdoor reviews, all

of that,

and it can

very quickly tell you

these

are

the common challenges,

and you can build that into

your presentation so

that you can show I'm

relatable

to

your pain

and relevant to

your

goals

[00:16:21] Simon Vetter: What are some tips to better understand the story of the audience and not only using AI? What are some of the questions?

[00:16:30] Michael Davis (2): Well, I'm going to ask what are some common concerns? What are just fears that people-- I'm just gonna pick an industry. I was in the financial industry for years. What are common concerns that financial advisors have today? Well, definitely AI is a concern, that it's going to replace them.

also, maybe their

commissions

are being

cut. So I'm,

I'm

gonna go find out specifically what

are the

top

three

concerns they have right

now,

and

then what

are some challenges

to

their

day-to-day

operations.

Concerns and challenges will be very different. What I'm trying to do is do a deep dive, and I'm not gonna use all of this in my presentations,

but

I'm going

to try to get those

points

that I know are common concerns or issues so that they can say, "Okay, this

guy is relatable

to

my

pain.

He

understands me."

I'm also going to, if,

and

this

is something a lot of speakers do, is

see if

I

can

talk to five to 10

people who

are gonna be in my audience

and

just ask them those same

questions. What are your three biggest

concerns? What are your biggest challenges?

what's

going well?

I don't,

I

don't wanna ignore that too because we wanna point out what's going well, too, because as a speech and story coach, I often tell people, "I wanna know what's

do-

you're

doing well

because if

I

don't point it out to

you, you'll

stop

doing

it."

So we wanna point out both sides of the coin for folks, but show that you understand their day-to-day

[00:17:53] Simon Vetter: Yeah. And the third story

[00:17:55] Michael Davis (2): Third story is the actual story we go there to tell,

which again, there are a lot of story and speech coaches out there, many

good ones.

the challenge is I don't see them

addressing the first

two.

And

there are certain elements

that

need to

be

in every story

that have

been proved

neurologically.

The

work of Dr.

Kendall Haven, a

fabulous storytelling coach,

actually former military that got

into this, the science of,

of

this.

And there are

eight elements we need

to have

in

a particular order

to have maximum impact

with

our

stories

[00:18:27] Simon Vetter: Can you give a brief summary of that?

[00:18:31] Michael Davis (2): Sure can.

first is you have to have a relatable character,

someone

you can see yourself in

that?

character,

in

relatable circumstances.

Now,

that

character

has a goal,

and

there is a

motive behind that goal.

If we don't

understand the

motive behind

the goal, as an audience, we won't buy into

it.

We'll just

say, "Okay, that's entertaining," and

move on.

then

we

have

to have conflict.

Something risks or something comes up as a risk to this character achieving the goal.

And then we have

to know what's

at stake. If

this

goal

is not

accomplished, what will this

character lose?

And when you're

structuring your story, you have

to

make sure all

this

is

relatable

to the audience.

if

I'm talking to a

group of financial

advisors,

I need to make sure

that all

my examples

follow in, uh, kind of track their

world.

I don't

wanna talk

about

an, an Olympian who was struggling

to get

the

gold medal

after missing the first

two

times, right? That's

not gonna

be

quite as relatable.

so we've got The

conflict,

and we

ultimately need

to show that this

story has

been resolved.

Now,

that doesn't

always mean the goal is achieved.

Sometimes it

isn't.

However, there's

still

a lesson learned

in the pursuit of that goal, and that's the gift to

the audience.

You share this experience,

and

then

here's what

I learned from

this

[00:19:50] Simon Vetter: The key I take out here is there's a tension, there's a conflict, there's a challenge, there's a pain point.

pain point has an impact, and that impact, the higher the stake, the more we can get people's attention and grab their-

[00:20:06] Michael Davis (2): Yeah. You, you grab them at a deeper emotional level and they can sit there and say, "Wow, that sounds like my experience."

The

sub- the subliminal

message to them

is, "

I

get you.

I understand you because I've been through this. I know you're going

through

this too."

[00:20:24] Simon Vetter: And then you give them a lifeline. To get Them out of that conflict

[00:20:28] Michael Davis (2): Yes, and show them that there's hope. See, I think the, there's two purposes, there are two purposes to telling a story. Number one is to give people hope.

[00:20:36] Simon Vetter: Mm-hmm.

[00:20:37] Michael Davis (2): To say, "Okay, you're not stuck here forever."

The

second one,

and,

and some

people push back on me on

this one, Simon, I think the purpose of a story

is to get

people uncomfortable because people don't

change

unless

we push

them

out

of their comfort zone.

If everything's okay or good enough, they're not changing.

I need to show them what's possible, or

if they don't change what they're doing, why

eventually they're gonna be in

pain

[00:21:04] Simon Vetter: What's at stake?

[00:21:05] Michael Davis (2): What's at stake? And this gets into what you talk about in your work so beautifully is this vision. It's creating a future story to say, "Okay, you're okay now, but let me tell you What's coming."

And you need to create a new vision, and we're gonna create a

new story based

around that. But yeah, we need

to show

what's at stake?

if you stay where you

are right

now

[00:21:24] Simon Vetter: Let's talk about the future story. How do you

craft, articulate a story about the future to get people compelled about that future?

[00:21:36] Michael Davis (2): yeah, it's,

it's an excellent question, and it's take the

e- eight elements we just talked

about and, and create

two stories.

One where this is almost like the, ideal situation

that,

here's a character who's living an

ideal life,

and they overcame this

challenge,

and this is the

lesson

they learned.

And then you show a, a parallel story of somebody who didn't make changes. What you're trying to show is, here's the future we see coming if nothing changes, so you put

those eight elements in.

And then

here's

a view

of the future if

we make these changes. It's not forcing it on anyone.

I'm just saying, "Here,

you choose.

Which

future do

you

want? The one where we

have

outcome A, which is positive, or outcome

B, which

is

negative?"

[00:22:20] Simon Vetter: So you basically show them two scenarios

[00:22:23] Michael Davis (2): Two scenarios. Yeah

[00:22:25] Simon Vetter: One, if you keep doing what you're doing, if you're not using AI, you risk to become invaluable, and that's a path. Scenario B, AI will be there if you get on the train, if you start using it, if you become relevant and valuable, you have a, a bright future to compete and have a job

[00:22:49] Michael Davis (2): Yes, and I'll take that one step further. Also, go in and understand what are the misconceptions and myths about AI, 'cause clearly there's so many. Go down and find what's the reality of AI.

I, was just arguing with one earlier today that I work with trying to create a video, and I'm like, "This thing's not taking over the world.

It can't even understand a basic instruction." So there's a myth that it's taking over. No, it's not.

I'm not

saying it's

not a

risk,

because there are some concerning things going on with the AI

companies.

I'm not blind to that. But let's not give it total power when it can't even get a sentence right sometimes still.

but yeah, to your

point, point, show both sides of

it.

I,

I discovered this when

I was

a financial

advisor.

I'd

sit down with so many

couples, Simon, who thought, "

Oh, we're in good shape."

And when I

painted a picture

for

them, if you keep

doing

this, this

is

where

you're going to end

up,

that was

pretty

scary.

Now,

that wasn't

manipulative sales

tactics.

All I was doing was saying, "Based on what

you've

given

me and

said these are your goals, this is where you're going.

Are you okay

with that

or do you wanna change

it?"

And then we

would create

a

new

story

based on the changes that they said they

wanted

and what they had

to do

to

get there

[00:23:58] Simon Vetter: Now take AI or the future we live in, the, the reality we live in. There's a lot of uncertainty and we don't... There's a lot of assumptions, a lot of things we make up about the future. How do we Distinguish what is noise and what's relevant signals to pay attention to, and how do we integrate that into the storytelling?

[00:24:22] Michael Davis (2): Well, I think we have to strip it down to what do we absolutely know with certainty? And that's not a lot, frankly. But we can work off what

we know with certainty. What is

AI? It's large language models, and

this

is

what we

know

it

can

do.

It

can

help us

plan our day. It

can

help us,

you

know,

fill in the blank.

That's what we know. All the other noise we have to just put aside and say, "Don't even worry about that.

We

can't control that.

Focus on

the elements you

can." And the

way I parallel that with

storytelling?

and tell me

if

I'm answering your question here, you and

I

have done this before where

we felt like one of your

stories

was getting a little bit too

convoluted.

So what we did, is I said, "Simon, let's go back to the basics. What are the basic elements? Who's the main character? What's the goal? What's the obstacle? What was the conflict? And then how do we resolve it?" And often we need to strip our messages down to the bare essentials

The challenge that you and I and you watching this have is

we

know our stories so well

That we make assumptions.

We start filtering our own stories because we think we know the important parts.

We

don't

my recent TEDx experience was a perfect example of

that. I had my

opening two lines were meant

to be very serious,

and the more I practice it,

every time

people are laughing at those first two lines.

I'm like, "Okay,

it's not

about me, it's

about them."

I need to take that feedback and change the tone of the opening, and it did have the humorous two lines, and then I hit them with the third line serious.

But I wouldn't

have known that if I didn't

keep my mind open to say, what, what

are

they telling me?

So

we

can't

assume

that we

know our stories,

are gonna have

the

impact that we think they should because we

know it so well,

and

that's why I strip

stories down to their

basic

elements.

Let's take out the assumptions. Let's

get what

really happened, what was

the

conflict, the emotion you experienced, and what was the

lesson

learned

[00:26:14] Simon Vetter: I worked with you and you helped me practicing my stories and

that was helpful. You practiced your TEDx talk 250 times. What was your

process to make it a little bit better?

[00:26:26] Michael Davis (2): First of all, I had a coach, 'cause you can't coach yourself, and she's wonderful. so

I

came with

my

first version,

which ultimately, I think I just recently checked

this,

I think

s- 23 perc- no, not even 23% of the original version was in

the

end.

So you

don't change it in huge chunks. You look at certain

pieces, you

look at

the flow.

Does the flow make sense, first of all? Is the message clear? With TEDx, you gotta have an idea worth spreading. So am I clear on the idea?

get that straight,

and then work

on what is supporting that idea. What

stories,

statistics,

research do you have in?

what

is confusing

to

the audience?

It was

clear to me, wasn't clear to them, so my coach helped me see what parts weren't clear.

But we didn't do this all at once. 250

rehearsals yielded, I'm gonna have to look at the

numbers, Simon,

probably

35

different versions

of

that story. But they weren't 35

major shifts. I think there are

eight, major changes

to the structure

of

it,

but each one had

four or five within it

a- as I

went

along.

So

it's incremental change. Sometimes it's th- the

wording

of the

message.

Sometimes it's just placement. Does this phrase belong here

or later in

the

talk?

and it's just

little

by little. And you and I

have done this.

Sometimes even as

a coach,

I'll see something different the fifth

time as the first and say, "Okay,

now I

see

why it's not making sense."

But

you can't

change it all at once. It's just too

much

[00:27:54] Simon Vetter: Yeah. The outcome is a powerful story, but also you learn the skills and next time telling a story becomes easier.

[00:28:03] Michael Davis (2): Yes.

That's an excellent point

[00:28:06] Simon Vetter: and that's what I see about the visioning. a lot of people talk about, "Oh, this is my vision." Even if they have one, oftentimes they're not able to articulate it. And to

practice to articulate, think about the vision, the future, the better we become at visionary skills.

And, I think it's like with presentation, you made a, a men- tremendous commitment to invest in your presentation.

Oftentimes we don't invest that commitment because we don't see what's at stake

[00:28:40] Michael Davis (2): True. Story elements come in. And I'm fascinated by the work you do with visioning because and, and a parallel idea here is when you sit down with somebody and they throw out a first vision, that's not the end vision, Right

It's a starting point.

[00:28:53] Simon Vetter: Right

[00:28:55] Michael Davis (2): with each iteration, they get clearer and clearer And say, "Well, that part of the vision doesn't make sense.

Let's throw that out.

[00:29:00] Simon Vetter: Right

[00:29:01] Michael Davis (2): This new part makes sense. Oh, maybe we need to change the order up." It's just like writing a story. It is a story, right? You're writing a vision story, but they constantly have to adjust it because their vision makes sense.

what's that

old saying? Mike Tyson, right? Everybody has a

plan

till they get punched.

So

the vision

gets punched,

and

they gotta go and tweak And then conditions

in

the world

change, so

they're

constantly changing that vision story,

aren't they?

[00:29:25] Simon Vetter: And those three stories apply. The first is like, what is my own story about the future?

And we have to uncover that. Just like, what is my story about how I speak? And so it takes self-awareness and understanding of self. And okay, how do I approach the future? Do I come more from a, from a fearful approach, or where do I see hope?

And then who is the audience? If I am a leader and I talk to my team, I gotta make that vision relatable to them.

[00:29:59] Michael Davis (2): Yes

[00:30:01] Simon Vetter: the audience and what's in it for them, and how they look at the future, and how, what's their pain point. And so I think that second story about understanding who I speak to and who I tell the sto- the, the vision.

And then the third one, what is the vision?

[00:30:17] Michael Davis (2): Mm-hmm.

[00:30:18] Simon Vetter: It is power trio applies very well, about Division

[00:30:22] Michael Davis (2): Yeah, what you're saying makes me think-- I've done a lot of work with,

military veterans, and

one

thing

I've

discovered

about the

military is that

when

there is a

mission,

it's the

leaders who are very clear about the mission and say, "Here's the objective." Like, they call it commander's intent. "We gotta go capture that hill." They don't micromanage it. They say, "Here is

the story.

We're on top of that hill.

You're

gonna have to

change the story

as you meet

the enemy

and make changes, and you gotta change how we get there and, and how we're gonna

fight

back."

It's

very

similar

[00:30:55] Simon Vetter: I did a podcast with, Pete Logan. He was 26 years in the Navy.

[00:31:00] Michael Davis (2): Yeah

[00:31:01] Simon Vetter: And we talked about the commander's intent, which

[00:31:03] Michael Davis (2): Okay

[00:31:04] Simon Vetter: has three points: the mission, why do we do what we do? And in the military is keep our country safe. What are the tasks? What do we need to do? What are specific steps? And the third one, most importantly, what is the desired outcome?

When we come back from a en- engagement, from a mission, what do we want? We want everybody to be safe. We want to have captured this. We want to have invaded this. And so that desired outcome is that future state, which is the picture. And I think it's such a powerful concept that we can apply to our life and, and our work

[00:31:41] Michael Davis (2): Well, and it, it

creates the same image in, in companies, corporations, organizations, is that so many leaders think they're being clear on what

are we

doing here. And

the, and the rank and file's like, "I don't know what the heck we're doing.

Why are we doing

this? This makes no

sense." And

it's

the ivory

tower concept. I'm

gonna sit up

here and dictate what you do." Well, y-

your

troops are not gonna fall in line, Right

As opposed to, "This is what we're doing,

this is

why we're

doing it,

and this is why

your specific

team needs to do this." Well, now that I understand it,

I'm

buying

in

[00:32:15] Simon Vetter: Right. Yeah

[00:32:16] Michael Davis (2): it's,

it's

create that vision. By the end of quarter two, we are gonna be X.

I don't know if we have certain number of sales or we're gonna be first in the world, whatever it is,

be

specifically clear about the

goal. But then

how are we going to measure that? How will

we

know we've accomplished the goal? This is

why s- most storytelling

or most

stories

fail,

because we don't have

a clear

goal

that the

audience can root for

the

main character to accomplish. So

we don't

even know what's accomplished

[00:32:45] Simon Vetter: There's an ele- there's an element about that end state. And there's been studied on that when leaders use more sensory rich emotional language instead of business jargon, they significantly engage their audience better. So the story has to address the person's senses, the hearing, the seeing, the, sensing, the tasting, and address the emotions to your point, address the conflict, the tension, the pain point.

And so people relate to that. And oftentimes that emotional component is missed in a business environment. And then people, "Why, why don't people get it?"

[00:33:29] Michael Davis (2): Well, Yeah. and that's how you, you mentioned the emotion. I've been studying this A- lot the last couple years. There's this mistaken belief that emotions don't belong in business. It's like, are you kidding me?

I mean, th-

they, they've

done the science

on this, that when we are in

any

situation, our bodies have

the initial reaction,

our

emotions are then triggered,

and then our thought process is triggered.

They're

all

combined. We cannot

treat business like

emotion doesn't belong

here. You're

dealing with

emotional creatures.

Like

it or

not, human

beings are

emotional. And

if we don't...

Yeah, go ahead

[00:34:05] Simon Vetter: the story people tell themselves about, yeah, emotions don't belong into executive

[00:34:11] Michael Davis (2): And if you're not clear on the

story that you want people to have when you're done presenting, they're gonna create one themselves, and you're not gonna like that

story most likely

[00:34:22] Simon Vetter: Yeah. Let's talk about your... What do you do? What are some of the exciting things that you're working on or towards?

[00:34:31] Michael Davis (2): right now I'm working on

just getting this Story Power

Trio

out into the world. I mean, I've been doing this for 15 years, Simon, as far as the coaching and speaking for

30,

and once I

found

this

trio,

I felt like this

is what I'm supposed

to

be out sharing with the world

because

I'm constantly seeing

people not

effectively

communicating.

This is

my way

of doing it.

I

wrote the book.

TEDx Talk is coming out. These are my keynotes. These are my workshops,

and

I

just

get jazzed. But when I

see

people,

the light goes on, it's like, oh my gosh. If

I

get clear

on what I'm

telling

myself right before

I go into a presentation,

I

know what they're thinking, my audience, we're gonna have great communication.

One of the thing, and I'm an entrepreneur, my parents were entrepreneurs, and one thing I hate to see is somebody who has a fabulous idea that doesn't get it into the world

because they're not effectively communicating to

themselves, to their audience, or

getting that story

across, that future vision

of what

my product, service, or idea

could do for the world,

and that's what I'm driven by now.

I think I'm gonna spend the rest of my life

doing this.

[00:35:36] Simon Vetter: I wanna do a shout-out to your book, The Story Power Trio: Master the Three Stories That Win Trust, Close Sales, and Increase Influence. What I love about it, it's only about 85 pages, a very easy read, but it's very insightful, and, so thank you for writing this.

[00:35:54] Michael Davis (2): Oh, thank you, Simon. Appreciate

that were giving advice to your 20-year-old self, knowing what you know now, what would that message be?

Ignore that message that speaking is scary. Go and learn as fast as possible. Learn everything you can about communicating with others.

not just speaking, but becoming

a

better listener

and negotiator and understanding humans.

I would dive deeper into

human

communication

much sooner

[00:36:23] Simon Vetter: Yeah. And joint token

[00:36:24] Michael Davis (2): And joined Toastmasters 10 years sooner than you did.

[00:36:27] Simon Vetter: Yeah, wonderful. Michael, any other final recommendations to the audience regarding what we've discussed?

[00:36:35] Michael Davis (2): Yes. I'm gonna pull a l- like the, the through line for my TED Talk. the through line is you're not stuck, you're scripted.

wherever you are in your

business journey,

leader,

sales,

doesn't matter

what the

title

is,

there are

messages in you that

may be restricting you,

and it

feels like

those are permanent

conditions, like they're carved in stone.

They're not.

They're more like sticky notes that

somebody wrote

a message

on

and got stuck to your brain, and you believe that for

years or decades.

They're not

permanent

[00:37:08] Simon Vetter: Mm-hmm.

[00:37:09] Michael Davis (2): You're not stuck, you're scripted, and scripts can be

rewritten

[00:37:13] Simon Vetter: Yeah. And speakers are not born, they are taught and they

[00:37:18] Michael Davis (2): Excellent

[00:37:19] Simon Vetter: Michael, this has been such a wonderful conversation. Thank you so much. Where can we

find you more if you are interested in your

[00:37:29] Michael Davis (2): You can,

yeah,

you

can

jump in on

my,

website speakingcpr.com. I

spend a lot of

time on

LinkedIn,

and

I would

love to connect with

you there.

And then

you can reach out to me, michael@speakingcpr.com

[00:37:41] Simon Vetter: I'll put all that into the show notes . Again, Michael, thank you. I appreciate you you. Have a great day .

[00:37:49] Michael Davis (2): Appreciate you, Simon. Thanks