YouSaid · the spoken record

Neal Foard

lines on the record: 69
first: 2023-01-02
most recent: 2023-01-02
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“The really powerful thing was when you find colleagues that you really enjoy working with or whom you deeply respect, grab hold of them. America is about initiative. It's about starting things and trying things and going on adventures and not being afraid to fail. And when you find people who would make good partners in that adventure and trying ventures with them because people that are really admirable and that you respect, they can cover up your flaws. If I knew in my 20s that the game was to find great partners, I think that would have led to a lot more ventures. Even if they weren't successful, they would have taught you the lessons that would have then subsequently led to success.”
2023-01-02 · Capital Allocators · Neal Foard – The Art of Storytelling (Capital Allocators, EP.290) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“My father had a very unfortunate quality and that he was so often disappointed by himself. He never felt like he lived up to his potential and it crushed him. It's quite a painful thing to watch your parent and they don't feel good about themselves. I thought it was completely unwarranted. It was a sad lesson, but I try not to be that person. I try to celebrate the small things that work out and not beat myself up too bad for the things that don't.”
2023-01-02 · Capital Allocators · Neal Foard – The Art of Storytelling (Capital Allocators, EP.290) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“My other boss at Sachima, the CFO of the global organization, Bill Cochrane was his name. I have never seen anybody quite as persuasive in my life. He had a knack for reading the minds of the peoples he was speaking to. He was a chameleon in the sense that no matter what kind of audience, no matter what age group, even though he wouldn't adopt their terminology to try to be hip with a bunch of 25-year-olds, they nevertheless looked at him like, oh yeah, that guy knows what he's talking about. He was affable, avuncular, he was easygoing, but ferociously intelligent and observant. He would look at you and take your measure very clever. So from that, I knew that it was possible.”
2023-01-02 · Capital Allocators · Neal Foard – The Art of Storytelling (Capital Allocators, EP.290) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I had a wonderful boss, Scott Gilbert, back when I was at Sachi, and he was all things admirable. He'd just absolutely delighted in helping his people advance, and he would encourage them to get training, and he really cared about your career on your behalf. And it had this marvelous after effect of for decades anybody that worked for him would tell you that was their favorite boss. And so to this day, he would teach at this community college. He will teach business. And he guessed speakers to come in. They are a murderer's row of the greatest minds and advertising. We'll come up to this small community college in Colorado just because they have such love for this guy.”
2023-01-02 · Capital Allocators · Neal Foard – The Art of Storytelling (Capital Allocators, EP.290) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I don't like bullies. I don't like smart people that like to hold it over dumb people and make them feel dumb. I don't like physically large people who try to intimidate others. That just sends me into a red mist.”
2023-01-02 · Capital Allocators · Neal Foard – The Art of Storytelling (Capital Allocators, EP.290) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I love to spend time outdoors, so I love hiking, especially long, long hikes. But any activity that makes my wife smile and laugh, that's my favorite hobby. Now she happens to like horseback riding, so we will often go on a summer trip for five days, six days out there horseback riding. I don't give a damn about riding horses, but it just makes her happy as hell. So that is my favorite thing to do.”
2023-01-02 · Capital Allocators · Neal Foard – The Art of Storytelling (Capital Allocators, EP.290) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Ready to turn off the light and my dad appears in the doorway and he Listen, no matter what you see in the movies, or you read in the papers, or you listened to on the radio, you listen to me. That's how people really are. And about two weeks later, Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. And the reason I love that story so much is in that single day my father had his faith in humanity restored. That was a beautiful thing to watch.”
2023-01-02 · Capital Allocators · Neal Foard – The Art of Storytelling (Capital Allocators, EP.290) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And we're starting to go. And the mechanics says, hey, whoa, where do you think you're going? And my dad's like, oh, I knew it. It's the deliverance moment where you're just like, oh, I knew these. And he stiffens like a leopard and all the fear and distrust and anger and frustration comes to his face and they mechanic goes, no, no, no, no, my wife's going to make us all Sunday dinner. And we figured that you and the boy could come over and get a shower, maybe a clean shirt, and we'll all have dinner together. So we sit down for dinner with these fellows, and they're lovely wives, and we're having fried chicken from the chicken right over there, and we're having corn on the cob from the corn over there. And I will never have a meal that good ever again in my life. When we're getting ready to go, wear in one of these old cowboy shirts they gave me it has a fake pearl buttons and everything, and it's just real Bakersfield. We get in that car and we go, and I don't think my dad said maybe three words on that whole drive back. When I got ready for bed, I was just”
2023-01-02 · Capital Allocators · Neal Foard – The Art of Storytelling (Capital Allocators, EP.290) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I cannot pay you. I do not have any money. We need to get this thing settled. And so he's terrified that somehow this is all a scam. So they go, look, if it'll make you feel any better, the cowboy says, I got about three loads of watermelons. I got to get off a rail spur down here. If you and the boy will help me load these watermounts, it's about three hours worth of work. I'll pay for the water pump. So my dad says, oh, okay. All right, he feels much better. Now we are inside a rail car. It is about 150 degrees. We are sweating, can't believe how hot this is, but my dad's whistling because he thinks this is great. Okay, we're getting this thing back together. And we're busting our rears for this work. And we get all these watermelons loaded. And just as soon as we finish, up comes the car, and it's running like a top. Wow, that's fantastic. It's late in the afternoon. And my dad says, wow, I really don't know how to thank you, fellas. I really appreciate this good turn.”
2023-01-02 · Capital Allocators · Neal Foard – The Art of Storytelling (Capital Allocators, EP.290) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We get down to this guy's place and put it up on the lift. My dad says, Hey, now, wait a minute. I can't pay you. And the guy says, oh, we'll work something out. And so then they find out they don't have the pump in stock. They have to rouse out the local NAPA auto parts owner. So now he's got to come down. And my father says, all right, hold on, slow down.”
2023-01-02 · Capital Allocators · Neal Foard – The Art of Storytelling (Capital Allocators, EP.290) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“This was way before cell phones. So we were stuck about nine miles south of Bakersfield with no coolant. We were going to have to hoof it into town to get help. And along comes this young cowboy in a flatbed. It looked like maybe he was about 22 years old. He says, hey fellas, looks like you got some trouble here. Can I help out? My father, all he's got on him is just a chevron gas card. He doesn't have any money. He figured we would just go south to north just off the card. And so he says to the guy, well, I can't pay you. And the guy goes, well, I wasn't going to charge you. So he manages to hook the car to his truck with electrical conduit and we drive on into Bakersfield. Now this is a Sunday and it is in the middle of summer. So it's hotter than the hinges. And he gets this guy literally out of church, this mechanic who has emerged from church and he says, hey, can you help these boys fix this water pump? He goes, yeah, I can do that.”
2023-01-02 · Capital Allocators · Neal Foard – The Art of Storytelling (Capital Allocators, EP.290) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Ted, we live in a day and age where everybody thinks that the country's lost its mind and we all hate each other and there's just so much conflict. And we really feel like this is unprecedented. America's never been like this. But they don't seem to remember what it was like back in 1969, back when the Vietnam War was tearing the country apart. And there was the Manson family and the zodiac killer and they had assassinated presidents. They'd shot JFK. They'd shot Robert Kennedy. They'd shot Martin Luther King. Political assassination was a thing back then. I was nine years old. And my father, who had grown up in the Depression, his confidence in America was just at a low ebb. He really felt you can't trust anybody, and this country has gone to hell. We were driving on the five, heading north from LA to Oakland, and we were in this old nineteen sixty Oldsmobile and the water pump blew out.”
2023-01-02 · Capital Allocators · Neal Foard – The Art of Storytelling (Capital Allocators, EP.290) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Because you have built in that next step. How do I know it's going to happen? Well, we don't know, but I will tell you this. We're going to get together and we're going to assess it.”
2023-01-02 · Capital Allocators · Neal Foard – The Art of Storytelling (Capital Allocators, EP.290) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And set the stage for us having gauging its results. People are going to be a lot more likely to do something if they know that you will accept responsibility for what happens. Let's say, for example, that in the case of investment, past performance is no guarantee of future results. That we just all accept that. That's the way the world is. It's chaos. However, what is nice is if you were able to say, and then as of such and such date, we'll come back, talk about it, and assess whether it lived up to that. And what happens is when they understand that you feel responsible and you are responsive and you anticipate that next conversation, they're going to be a lot more likely to push the button.”
2023-01-02 · Capital Allocators · Neal Foard – The Art of Storytelling (Capital Allocators, EP.290) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I had a colleague used to do a brilliant job of that because he would reach a part of the presentation where he was about to say so we'd like you to approve this. And what he would do is he would say, if you can approve that today, we can have this commercial prepared shot, edited, and on the air by April second. We expect that it will have an impact on sales as of April 15th. I'm going to turn it over to Jack to ask for your vote. What was nice about it was it was absolutely unambiguous what the next steps were provided that they did something. If you push this button, these things will then happen. And this is how we'll know they worked, and this is when we can expect to have another conversation. Not only was that closed a way of saying, if you do this action, the following things will happen, but it bakes in the, and I am responsible enough to live by my recommendation.”
2023-01-02 · Capital Allocators · Neal Foard – The Art of Storytelling (Capital Allocators, EP.290) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Great ending will make it quite clear that this is over, and here's how I expect you to react. What's more, a great ending will contain within it a germ of the very first thing you said. So you return to the beginning. This is why we were all here this morning. So those were my three points, and I hope you walked away with them.”
2023-01-02 · Capital Allocators · Neal Foard – The Art of Storytelling (Capital Allocators, EP.290) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You want to do is you want to land hard on something that emotionally. A great ending is usually a story, frankly, because a story has a conclusion, and it's got that appropriate moment for surprise or laughter or applause. Typically in my own presentations, I will begin and I will end with a story. And the benefit of doing that is that because it has such a clear punchline, it signals this is over. For example, Ted, when I tell that bartender in Chicago story, the benefit of it is that her reaction, her last line is you may applaud. And so I have the benefit of being able to say, and we have now reached the point where you may applaud.”
2023-01-02 · Capital Allocators · Neal Foard – The Art of Storytelling (Capital Allocators, EP.290) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The most brilliant woman in England. Her summary was, in my mind, the exact point about why I keep banging away on the audience and benefiting them. Are you there to impress everybody with how smart you are? Or are you there to make people feel like they gain something from this exchange?”
2023-01-02 · Capital Allocators · Neal Foard – The Art of Storytelling (Capital Allocators, EP.290) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Forgive me for banging away at this one thing, but people often misunderstand what it is that they're really trying to learn. They think they're trying to learn to be a professional, learn for it to be really seamless and clean and so forth. What I'm really teaching is let's get you to the place where you're helping people. It's a funny thing. There was a wonderful quote from Winston Churchill's mother who was an American. She had the chance to meet both Benjamin Disraley and William Gladstone, who were both regarded in the English tradition as great orators. They came from that long parliamentarian school of debate and speechifying where they were absolutely the world's best, no doubt. And they asked her for her impression of Gladstone and Disraeli, what was the difference between the two? And she said, when I met Gladstone, I felt like he was clearly the most brilliant man in England. And when I met Disraeli, I felt like”
2023-01-02 · Capital Allocators · Neal Foard – The Art of Storytelling (Capital Allocators, EP.290) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I'll say this and this and this. No, no, no. Go ahead and say it. Do the whole thing soup to nuts from how you react to the introduction to when you are asking for Q&A. Say the whole thing. When you rehearse it exactly as it's going to be done, it makes it that much easier for you. Plus, you walk onto the stage or in front of the camera in such a way that you feel confident because you know you've done it, you've put in sufficient effort. And that confidence is a very powerful thing that you can't fake.”
2023-01-02 · Capital Allocators · Neal Foard – The Art of Storytelling (Capital Allocators, EP.290) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Try to set the stage in such a way that everything about where you're going to present and how you're going to present, you are mimicking in your presentation. You won't be able to have the faces of your audience there. Nevertheless, it will help literally do it into a mirror so that you can see what they see. By doing it in a mirror and not being ashamed to just go ahead and buy yourself, do the real show, it will give you the chance to tune it up. I've had the chance because I've been doing so many videos. I've had the chance to watch myself again and again. And I can tell you that I've made a lot of progress in my own case in the last year, just watching myself hundreds of times. Because as I edit them, you get the chance to see, well, what works and what doesn't work and some of the affectations that you perhaps don't like and the tilt of your head and so on. When you are rehearsing, I would recommend a mirror. And the second thing is don't say to yourself, okay, and then.”
2023-01-02 · Capital Allocators · Neal Foard – The Art of Storytelling (Capital Allocators, EP.290) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It gets received so much better that it's not an issue of whether or not you are a good presenter. All that was important is that the takeaway was of benefit. That's what they remember about you.”
2023-01-02 · Capital Allocators · Neal Foard – The Art of Storytelling (Capital Allocators, EP.290) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Some people really are just natural storytellers around the dinner table in their household that somebody was able to really spin a yarn, which is fabulous. But even people that aren't necessarily good storytellers can nevertheless through practice acquire the needed signposts of what makes them good. It's like training for sports. You start out, you're a very awkward ice skater, ice skating maybe isn't natural to you, but over time you can become quite good at it. Lord knows that golfers understand perfectly. I don't know how many people walk naturally onto a golf course and know how to swing a club brilliantly. It does require a lot of practice. When it comes to nurture, I want to reinforce yet again how important it is that it isn't necessarily the slickness and your aptitude for presentation that makes you a good presenter. It's your motives and your authenticity and your real desire to help. If you genuinely want to help somebody, it just tends to be so much easier.”
2023-01-02 · Capital Allocators · Neal Foard – The Art of Storytelling (Capital Allocators, EP.290) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, in my case, what I have tried to do is isolate the background in such a way that the only thing that they can pay attention to is the story. Because people are so media savvy, they're quite critical of inappropriate images or badly timed execution. And so if you can get them to form the images in their own mind, it's perfectly edited. It's perfectly appropriate to the moment.”
2023-01-02 · Capital Allocators · Neal Foard – The Art of Storytelling (Capital Allocators, EP.290) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Number one thing that I've learned about video is that there's a power in gestures. When you are on screen, it sometimes helps to pull your hands up higher in the image so they can see your hands and you're explaining. And this dynamism of the gestures creates more of the impression that you are actually there with them. Sounds like a small thing, but it's actually a big thing. Whether you're on a Zoom call, and naturally they can't see your hands because it's above the shoulders. I would encourage your listeners to actually bring their hands into the frame so that they can see the gestures that support their talking. That extra added energy is useful and it helps overcome the metronome of your speech. Another thing is even in video, it really helps to not be monotonous. That is allow your voice to go high, go low, to swerve this way and that. And that will naturally engage your head. It sounds like minor things, but they're helpful to...”
2023-01-02 · Capital Allocators · Neal Foard – The Art of Storytelling (Capital Allocators, EP.290) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“There are two outcomes the first is that subconsciously people don't want you to succeed. They go oh my God, I just don't believe them and I don't want them to succeed. The problem with the credibility is that there's that great quote from George Orwell. No autobiography is to be trusted unless it reveals something disgraceful. Most people that self-aggrandize, they lie about other things. That creates a credibility problem. So that's the first thing. The second thing is that when an audience hears you as the hero of the story, they are no longer standing next to you. They're watching you. And that doesn't create an air of camaraderie and friendship. It doesn't make you one of them.”
2023-01-02 · Capital Allocators · Neal Foard – The Art of Storytelling (Capital Allocators, EP.290) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“This isn't about you. You're only standing up there to benefit other people. It's about the audience. It's about what they need. That helps in a number of ways, but the number one way that it helps is when you are being helpful to people, they see you as a friend. There's such value for you in them looking upon you friendly.”
2023-01-02 · Capital Allocators · Neal Foard – The Art of Storytelling (Capital Allocators, EP.290) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Don't feel obligated to use the entire time you've been given. Very few people will complain when you take less time than you have been allotted to tell the story or to make a presentation. Often they'll find it, they'll be pleasantly surprised that you were able to do everything in a shorter time. This requires a certain amount of rehearsal and this requires a certain amount of preparation to make it more compact, but it is a great gift to do things in bite size rather than long drawn out tails and lots of bullets. Another thing is don't yourself.”
2023-01-02 · Capital Allocators · Neal Foard – The Art of Storytelling (Capital Allocators, EP.290) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And more encouraging. It really does come down tattoo. Let's prepare for this moment. Let's acknowledge it's going to happen and get ready for it by knowing what you're going to do.”
2023-01-02 · Capital Allocators · Neal Foard – The Art of Storytelling (Capital Allocators, EP.290) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“When I'm coaching people, is to say, you are going to be nervous. This is going to be how you feel. Let's craft a beginning to get you past that moment, to use that moment to your advantage. So, for example, instead of getting up and saying, I'm really excited to be here, you say, I cannot wait to tell you what I'm about to do because this is how it's going to benefit you. When you walk out of here, you're going to have the following three things that you're going to be able to use. Okay, now once this has begun, Once you start down that road, the nervousness does tend to evaporate pretty quickly because who's nervous if they're being helpful? If the audience members suddenly go Oh, this is going to benefit me, their body language changes. Their attitude changes. You are the hero that they've been waiting for. And they are paying rapt attention. The eyes become less threatening.”
2023-01-02 · Capital Allocators · Neal Foard – The Art of Storytelling (Capital Allocators, EP.290) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Practice certainly helps, and that will get you over it. But there's another thing, which is it's the way that you frame your nervousness. So for example, before any kind of sporting performance or before any kind of big performance, whether it's a stage performance or stand-up routine, you're going to have butterflies. It's just, that's how it's going to go. That energy actually will power you. It can be gasoline. It can be gasoline in an engine rather than gasoline all over you on fire. So you got to just say to yourself, look, I'm going to get nervous. That's not a bad thing. Allow that to increase your energy level and get you out there and excited. I often caution people don't say you're nervous. It doesn't help any. It doesn't have the effect that you think it's going to have where it wins you over for them. They see you as a wounded animal. And that's a problem. Instead, let the nervous energy resonate in excitement. In order to do that, you have to be prepared for this moment.”
2023-01-02 · Capital Allocators · Neal Foard – The Art of Storytelling (Capital Allocators, EP.290) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“person and then you switch and you do the same thing with somebody else I'm just talking to that person it becomes more can I tell you a story or may I give you a piece of information I think is going to benefit you”
2023-01-02 · Capital Allocators · Neal Foard – The Art of Storytelling (Capital Allocators, EP.290) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I would encourage you to be the same. It helps to conduct yourself as though you are in a conversation rather than making a presentation. Because large or small, if audience members feel like you are just having a conversation with them, it's a powerful signal that you are comfortable and unafraid. There is no case in human evolution where it was ever a good thing to be standing alone facing five thousand pairs of eyes and be unarmed. That was never a good thing. It's no secret that people are nervous standing in front of a big room making a presentation. Yeah, you're supposed to be. That is how we survived twenty thousand years ago. We learned to freak out in danger. So it's a very powerful thing to be able to isolate members of the audience. Just pick them out, look at them, look at them long enough to say, look, I'm only talking to this person. I'm just talking to that.”
2023-01-02 · Capital Allocators · Neal Foard – The Art of Storytelling (Capital Allocators, EP.290) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The beauty of being in a small group is that it gives you the chance to engage people as though it's a conversation rather than a presentation. And you should engage people in conversation and ask for their feedback. Be prepared to call on them and say, hey, Ted, is this resonating with you? Does this make sense? I just want to make sure you're getting it because I think this can benefit you. Is it landing and encourage them to actually speak in doing so? You're engaged with them. When you are in a very large room and you're presenting to a big group,”
2023-01-02 · Capital Allocators · Neal Foard – The Art of Storytelling (Capital Allocators, EP.290) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“audience is that they will say to themselves Wow, okay, they're present, they're here, they're responding to me. My reaction to them is important, which means I really should be paying attention because I'm likely to get called on by this person. So when you are deeply enough engaged to be in the moment and recognize when it's not going over and be also prepared to stop and listen to feedback, that is a very powerful thing of communicating your level of sincerity and care. What is useful to do is to literally take a breath and look at the audience and remember where you are and think to yourself, I just want to help. I just want to help. Let me see, what is going to help them the most?”
2023-01-02 · Capital Allocators · Neal Foard – The Art of Storytelling (Capital Allocators, EP.290) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So the first thing is, I'd like you to prepare more so that you're able to do this in such a way that you're comfortable being yourself, not feeling like you have to put on a facade and read the teleprompter. There's something that I coach people on. It takes them aback, which is this isn't about you. This is about them. So you need to observe them closely enough where if it isn't working, you can stop and ask them why. Let's say you're in a room full of people and you're trying to explain to them the benefits of something, and you can see that they're confused. Well, clearly something's causing that confusion. And rather than just keep going to the end and leave them confused, you should stop and say, I'm looking at your faces, I'm getting a little bit of that confusion. That tells me I'm not successfully describing this. Can you tell me where I've gone wrong here? What's confusing you? You know, the beauty of that kind of engagement within.”
2023-01-02 · Capital Allocators · Neal Foard – The Art of Storytelling (Capital Allocators, EP.290) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Oftentimes, CEOs and CFOs and CMOs are very good. They're quite good presenters. That's how they got to where they are is because they're very good at representing themselves. What they are not typically able to do is devote a lot of time to a presentation. When they do that, they do themselves a disservice because they wing it. And in winging it, they're demonstrating their slickness.”
2023-01-02 · Capital Allocators · Neal Foard – The Art of Storytelling (Capital Allocators, EP.290) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It isn't important that he be a slick presenter, in fact, if that little seven year old boy was a really super slick presenter, it might have been a little creepy. They might not have been so inclined to lavish love and affection on him. But that's the way that most CEOs misinterpret what they're standing up in front of a company to do. They think that they're there to project power and that they are there to sometimes bamboozle an audience. When you're standing up in front of an audience and you're super slick, people are pretty sophisticated about knowing what your motives are. Therefore, you've got to be clean on what your motives are. Make sure that you really are there to help.”
2023-01-02 · Capital Allocators · Neal Foard – The Art of Storytelling (Capital Allocators, EP.290) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You would expect, I think, that nobody would buy anything that these women would be embarrassed by that whole thing, but instead the actual results were that he sold out his entire inventory of product, and not only that, but a few of the women made a point of complimenting him on how well the presentation went. You're thinking what? Well, the presenter was seven years old, and he was selling cookies that he and his sister had made so that they could pay for their summer camp. Now, the point is this, that the women were not there to be impressed, they were getting something different emotionally from that presentation.”
2023-01-02 · Capital Allocators · Neal Foard – The Art of Storytelling (Capital Allocators, EP.290) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You have to really fixate on here's how I'm trying to help. The idea is not for you to be a slick presenter. The idea is for you to be helpful and to make it worth their while, make it worth listening to you. Oftentimes people overestimate how important it is to appear professional when in fact what they need to do is they need to be sincere and they need to be their authentic self. They'll tell a quick tale that involves a group of businesswomen. There are these 12 businesswomen. They're all waiting to see a presentation. These are hard chargers. These are very accomplished women. They get introduced. A speaker stands up. He's there to sell something. He pulls a speech from his pocket, a short speech, and he proceeds to without looking up read it word for word haltingly, looking up once from the paper and then back to the paper and he reads the entire thing rather nervously. Then, without really proposing a call to action or a price, he simply sits back down.”
2023-01-02 · Capital Allocators · Neal Foard – The Art of Storytelling (Capital Allocators, EP.290) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Great thing for me to share. That kind of level of enthusiasm, that's real excitement. Imagine how much fun you'd have, Ted, if you were able to say to a retiree who was living on Social Security, hey, I just found out that you have an uncle that left you $10 million. That would be hugely enjoyable. And you wouldn't say, I'm so excited to be here. You'd go, Aunt Martha, check this out. You'd leap right into it. When people stand in front of an audience, if they go in with the orientation that I really am going to try and help you, it creates an impatience to get to it. That's very contagious. That sense of enthusiasm rather than this cringing throat clearing at the beginning of a presentation.”
2023-01-02 · Capital Allocators · Neal Foard – The Art of Storytelling (Capital Allocators, EP.290) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Important when it comes to you standing in front of an audience. What will sometimes happen, especially if trying to sell somebody something? It's very important that instead of thinking of themselves as superior to you, they engage in a contest with you and they give you respect because you have managed to present yourself well. How that manifests is like this. Oftentimes when people stand up in front of audiences, they'll say things like, we're so excited to be here. And they don't realize that that's actually a surrendering of status. Why are you excited? Well, it sounds like you're cringing a little and you're saying to yourself, I'm so excited to be in your presence. Thank you for allowing us to be here. That's no way to begin. If you're really excited to be there, then you should begin with Wow, I cannot wait to share this with you. This is going to be a hugely beneficial. And by the time you get to the end of this, I just want you to remember three reasons why this is...”
2023-01-02 · Capital Allocators · Neal Foard – The Art of Storytelling (Capital Allocators, EP.290) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“About this event. Therefore, I am not afraid to accept this challenge, but he outwits me, therefore I have to pay, but my wife will not let me, therefore I start to not, but he says if you're any kind of man, you'd pay me, therefore I pay him. Okay, so what I'm pointing out is you never go, this happened, then this happened, then this happened, you go, this happened, therefore that happened, but then this happened, therefore that happened. A great story will have this rhythm to it, a wave of a moment will then lead to another moment in such a way that it creates tension. It isn't enough to just say I was down at the market and I picked up a zucchini and it turned out to be five dollars Why a five dollars zucchini? That was the first reason is just to explain the story, but the second reason I wanted to tell the story was this idea of status is very important.”
2023-01-02 · Capital Allocators · Neal Foard – The Art of Storytelling (Capital Allocators, EP.290) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And in order to recover it, to get back to zero, if I'm any kind of man, I have to pay him. Because that's the only way I can prove that my wife doesn't tell me what to do. Let's go back to why you had asked the question. What are the beats of this and how do you decide what's going on? That power struggle is actually very useful for anybody that's about to stand up in front of an audience. It's useful in two ways. The first way is the story beats go like this. I'm going to introduce a story where I'm setting the stage. Okay, here we are. We're in New Orleans. We're on the waterfront. We're a couple of tourists. Okay, so you understand the context. Then something happens, which is a man asks about my shoes. We turn and I can see that he is slightly down at the heels and this is likely a con. So what has happened in the story beats is I've gone, we were here and this happened. Therefore, my wife reacts this way. But I'm curious.”
2023-01-02 · Capital Allocators · Neal Foard – The Art of Storytelling (Capital Allocators, EP.290) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Wife says, You're not going to pay him. This is a con. And in that moment, he says, it's all right. A lot of fellas let their woman tell him what to do. A panhandler is saying to me, I pity you. Okay. So my status now is really dropped.”
2023-01-02 · Capital Allocators · Neal Foard – The Art of Storytelling (Capital Allocators, EP.290) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So now he's slightly above me. But I say, no, you don't know where I got those. And he says, yes, I do. So there's now this power balance that's flexing. I'm saying no, and I'm trying to get back to zero. And he's saying, yes, I know where you got those. And he's trying to get above me. And finally, he challenges me to a contest. He's challenged me to a duel, which means he has claimed overtly, I am better than you. In order for me to not surrender that status, I have to agree to this contest. Okay, so he's trapped me. When he finally reveals the answer for five dollars prize, he has tricked me. So he has not only beaten me, but he's outwitted me. He has really risen in power, and the only way for me to restore my sense of self as a man is to honor the bet that I have agreed to. Now, this is the key moment.”
2023-01-02 · Capital Allocators · Neal Foard – The Art of Storytelling (Capital Allocators, EP.290) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“status with you. So he has lowered my status and raised his own, and now we are on the same level. He says, oh wait, I know where you got those shoes. He's asked me a question, but then he's beaten me to the end.”
2023-01-02 · Capital Allocators · Neal Foard – The Art of Storytelling (Capital Allocators, EP.290) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And it starts to descend down into my pocket. And the guy says, it's cool, man. A lot of fellas let their woman tell him what to do. So I'm like, okay, here it is. I have to pay him. Now, the story is important for this reason. What you saw there was a master class in power. When we walked into the situation, I have the money, I have the attractive spouse, I have free time to go on vacation. I'm the man. He has nothing. He's a panhandler. Now his job is to try to get money from me. Now he could ask, but you know how people are with panhandlers. It's very unlikely that you're going to get a buck. He starts out I am way above him on the status curve. But when he says hey, I like those shoes, I want to get some just like it. What he's communicating is I believe I am of equal state.”
2023-01-02 · Capital Allocators · Neal Foard – The Art of Storytelling (Capital Allocators, EP.290) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But we're on vacation, and I'm thinking to myself, is worth $5 to hear the punchline to this gag? Yeah, it is. So I go, okay. And he goes, you bet me $5? And I say, yeah. And he goes, you got those shoes on the end of your feet. Okay. All right. So I start dragging my wallet out of my pocket. And it gets to the top of the arc. And my wife says, you're not going to pay him.”
2023-01-02 · Capital Allocators · Neal Foard – The Art of Storytelling (Capital Allocators, EP.290) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Tell you another story and I'll do the postmortem on this story, and it really helps to understand the beats. My wife and I were walking along the New Orleans waterfront. This was back when people didn't have cameras in their phones. I had this big camera around my neck. Obviously were tourists. As we're walking along, I hear this man's voice say, damn, those are some nice shoes. Where'd you get those shoes? I want to get some just like it. I turn thinking this guy's probably looking at my wife's feet, and instead he's looking at my feet. You can see he's a little down at the heels, maybe a little rough around the edges. Is he a panhandler? I'm not sure. And he goes, yeah, those are some great shoes. Where'd you get those? And I'm trying to remember. And while I'm in that memory bank access, he goes, oh, I know you got those shoes. And I said, no, I'm from out of town. I don't think so. And he goes, no, I know you got them. I go, no, I don't think so. And he goes, I bet you. $5. I can tell you you got those shoes. And I'm thinking, oh, it's a con. My wife is literally pulling on my arm. Like, let's go.”
2023-01-02 · Capital Allocators · Neal Foard – The Art of Storytelling (Capital Allocators, EP.290) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source