Bryan McAnulty [00:00:00]:

Communicating the story of your business in the right way might just be what helps you grow and thrive. Robert Kennedy III, also known as RK3, is an introvert who built a career using his voice.

Robert Kennedy III [00:00:10]:

I want to say a voice. I'm not talking about a deep voice. I'm talking about a voice that when people hear it, touches their heart. They feel it, they're connected to it, and they realize that something good is going to happen.

Bryan McAnulty [00:00:20]:

Today, he's a communication coach, international keynote speaker, and founder of Kennetik Kommunications, helping executives, business leaders, and real estate professionals turn everyday conversations into conversions. His clients include Fortune 500 companies, the U.S. Coast Guard, and even the Baltimore Ravens. Robert believes that your story isn't just something you tell. It's a strategy. And when you learn how to own it, your communication becomes your competitive advantage. In this episode, we'll talk about how to discover your signature story, how storytelling directly impacts sales, and why strong communication is one of the most important leadership skills that you can build.

Robert Kennedy III [00:00:53]:

We can give people facts all day, but when it comes down to it, if they're going to make a decision about trust, they've got to have a feeling. And that's why we talk about gut instinct or gut feelings all the time. A lot of people give credence to gut feelings because it's how we ultimately make decisions. So storytelling is important to that because stories are made up of four main elements. Context, characters, conflict, and conclusion.

Bryan McAnulty [00:01:23]:

Welcome to the Creator's Adventure, where we interview creators from around the world, hearing their stories about growing a business. Hey, everyone. I'm Bryan McAnulty, the founder of Heights Platform. Let's get into it.

Bryan McAnulty [00:01:38]:

Hey, Robert. Welcome to the show.

Robert Kennedy III [00:01:41]:

Thanks, Brian. So glad to be here, my friend.

Bryan McAnulty [00:01:43]:

First question is, what would you say is the biggest thing that either you did or you are doing that has helped you to achieve the freedom to do what you enjoy?

Robert Kennedy III [00:01:53]:

That is a huge question. The biggest thing would have to be mindset. Just getting yourself in the space where you actually believe that what you dream is possible. Man, I think so many of us have fears that we walk through or we were grown up in a certain way. Our environment shared with us that this was the space, this was what you had access to. And so walking through that and realizing that the majority of the stuff that we fear, the stuff that we're anxious about, most of that's not real, and getting to the place where we just do more than just dip your foot into the water, man, head up to that diving board and jump off.

Bryan McAnulty [00:02:35]:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, great point. Any tips or advice for kind of getting through that and being able to get that right mindset?

Robert Kennedy III [00:02:45]:

Well, some of the biggest things that I did were just being around groups of people that were driven, groups of people that were moving in the same direction or had the desire to go into greater places. When you try to do this on your own is challenging, man. Willpower is finite. It's a finite product. Right. And so over the course of the day, you're making all these little decisions, micro decisions, and all of that depletes your willpower. So if you're in spaces where you have others that are doing things that are similar, or if you're at a place where you're not sure yet, but you can just borrow somebody else's belief in you. Right? And so being around others, reading, I would say stuff that is empowering.

Robert Kennedy III [00:03:27]:

I was on a podcast yesterday, man, with a guy where I was actually hosting this podcast and just listening to him speak. I left that room. I left that podcast fired up because he was just so inspiring about how he had. This guy had lost $50 million in real estate investing and then came back and now has this ridiculous portfolio. So I just, by being around him, came out of that space inspired. So the more that you can be in spaces that inspire you, the easier it is for you to navigate the fears that hold you back.

Bryan McAnulty [00:04:07]:

Yeah. Yeah. That's excellent advice. I've said it so many times that this podcast right now, like, even if it didn't have any marketing value to us, I would still do it just because of getting to connect with the other successful entrepreneurs. And definitely there's many times in my life that I can point to something where kind of just the unlock of realizing that it's possible because I heard it from somebody else, was able to help me move forward in achieving that thing for myself.

Robert Kennedy III [00:04:39]:

Yeah.

Bryan McAnulty [00:04:40]:

Awesome. So you started in biology and became a science teacher. At what point did you realize that communication, not science, was your real path?

Robert Kennedy III [00:04:51]:

I don't know if that there was a specific point, a line of demarcation. It was an organic journey. I mean, I would say that when I was in high school, I took a career inventory exam, and that career inventory exam said, hey, you would be good at either communications or something in electrical engineering. So, of course I went to college and did biology because, yes, that makes sense. I wanted to be a doctor, or so I thought at the time. And so I did that. Came out. I was in the mental health field, went into teaching for a little bit. But before I started teaching, I actually had a gig as an intern for a news anchorage at a radio station. And so I was doing some radio journalism for a little bit. And that was, I was good at that. And that could have been a clue that communication was something in my lane. But I was scared of the work in relation to the finances.

Robert Kennedy III [00:05:54]:

The pay wasn't high enough at the time. And so I skipped out on that, became a teacher. While I was teaching, I started a couple of businesses. I started an online music promotions business and a web development business. And the bulk of what I did in that music promotion business was I did a lot of interviewing. I interviewed a lot of musicians and artists. And we had an online radio station, which I was the DJ for. And so I had all of that. And still all of that. Nope, not a clue at all. And in my third business, I was developing some courses and I was doing some training. And as I was doing those trainings, people kept asking me the same question. Hey, are you a speaker? Hey, do you speak? Are you a motivational speaker? Do you teach other courses? And I didn't realize at that time that people got paid for speaking like that. So I finally started to do the research on it. Once I heard the question enough, and sure enough, there was a career in it. And so I figured out what needed to happen and joined the right organizations and then started my company. And here we are, brother.

Bryan McAnulty [00:07:02]:

Awesome. So we saw that you describe yourself as an introvert, but how does that work with becoming a professional speaker?

Robert Kennedy III [00:07:12]:

So what a lot of people, when they hear the term introvert, they automatically think shy hermit, want to be in the room by myself at all times. Don't like people, get away from me. No, that's not exactly what it means. Introvert versus extrovert is kind of just an energy and how you consume versus get rid of or give out energy. My wife is the complete opposite of me. My wife is the extrovert. If we go to an amusement park, my wife wants to stay and shut it down, right? She wants to see the fireworks. She wants to see everything. If they close at 11:59pm, she wants to be there until that time. I'm like, okay, three hours in, I've had enough peopling. Let me go. I'm fine while I'm there, but I've got my limit.

Robert Kennedy III [00:08:27]:

So as a speaker, if I speak all day, if I do a keynote or if I do a workshop, if I speak all day and people are saying, hey, let's go to happy hour now, I'm like, no, I. Nope, I'll go back to the hotel room because I need to recharge at that point because I've given out my people energy all day.

Bryan McAnulty [00:08:27]:

Got it. Yeah, I think that makes sense. And I can relate to that myself. Not in the professional speaker sense, but I'm a musician. Growing up in high school, I was in a band and I see myself very much as an introvert, but had no problem being on stage and performing. But then, yeah, after that, I'm not going to be all night at the parties or whatever. I did it, it's done. So, yeah, definitely. I'm curious, why, what's your take on why is good storytelling important for any business?

Robert Kennedy III [00:09:06]:

Well, in order to be successful at business, you've got to be able to connect with people. You've all heard the saying, people do business with people they know, like, and trust. How do they know you? Well, one of the ways that they know you is by seeing you and by seeing you enough. Which is one of the reasons I'm a big proponent of you as a business owner. As a business owner, you got to get on video at some point, right? How do they know that they like you? Well, they begin to vibe with you. There's, you're doing something on screen, you're doing something on stage, you're doing something in conversations that they connect with that they like. Either it's something similar to what they do, or they think it's funny or they think it's something that they might like to do or try, or the way that you talk about it shows your passion or your conviction.

Robert Kennedy III [00:09:55]:

And they're like, oh, I like this guy Bryan. Bryan's pretty cool. So that's the know and the like. But then they've got to trust you. How do they get to the point that they trust you? They trust you because they understand or they feel like you understand what they're going through, what they're going through on a personal level, what they're going through on an emotional level, what their needs are, what their challenges are. And you won't criticize them for feeling that way or for experiencing those experiences. That's one of the ways that leaders build trust, and that's first built through emotion. We can give people data all day. We can give people facts all day, but when it comes down to it, if you're going to make a decision about trust, they've got to have a feeling. And that's why we talk about gut instinct or gut feelings all the time. A lot of people give credence to gut feelings because it's how we ultimately make decisions.

Robert Kennedy III [00:10:33]:

So storytelling is important to that because stories are made up of four main elements. Context, characters, conflict, and conclusion. And the part that really connects with people is the conflict section. I'm answering this question a little bit longer, and I want to take my time with it for a second.

Bryan McAnulty [00:11:11]:

Let me give you an example. I think this is important.

Robert Kennedy III [00:11:14]:

So there was a couple, and they had a child, and they decided that they were going to send the child on a trip. So they put the child in a spaceship, sent the child to another planet. Child landed on that planet, landed in a cornfield. Another couple found the child and took the child home, sent him to school, went from regular school to high school to college. After college, he went to work at a newspaper. He met somebody in a newspaper. They fell in love, and they lived happily ever after.

Bryan McAnulty [00:11:49]:

What's missing from that?

Robert Kennedy III [00:11:53]:

No conflict, right. There's no bombs, there's no villains. There's no stuff that goes wrong. It's just a regular bit of information. It's not even a story. It's just information. It's data that says, okay, yeah, that happened. But how does that connect to me? Why is that interesting to me? Is there a challenge inside of that? Is there something inspirational inside of that? All of that stuff has got to be in there in order for people to pay attention. Because our brains don't like open loops, right? Our brains want to know what's next. And our brains are always seeking connections.

Robert Kennedy III [00:12:52]:

And one of the ways that our brains seek connections is through our own personal lenses, right? If something happens, if there is information that's placed, our brain is saying, okay, did I experience that? Do I want to experience that? Do I like that? Is that something that I don't want to experience? And our brains are searching all of that stuff out, looking for that connection. And that connection is made here, but then it's mainly made here through the emotion. And once you can capture that through storytelling, then it's much easier to move people to that level of trust.

Bryan McAnulty [00:13:03]:

Yeah. Yeah, that's an excellent point. I think that's a great way to describe the importance of having the conflict in there. I forget who is the original person who shared this idea, but I saw, I think, was it. I think maybe the writers of South Park were talking about it, but I don't think that they originally had it. But it's the idea that when you're telling a story, if you find that your story is just “and then, and then” versus okay, so no, they went to space, but then something happened. That's when it gets interesting. And that's where that conflict is coming into it. And so, yeah, I think that's really important.

Bryan McAnulty [00:14:09]:

I am curious about your thoughts, because I think that storytelling is actually more important than it ever has been. Because now we live in this world where there's this abundance of content, there's this abundance of products and solutions. And also now we have AI and it's only going to increase. And so people always say, you sell the benefits, not the features. And before, I think people could get away with even still selling the features. They wouldn't be as successful if they tried to sell the benefits. But they could say, hey, we do these things. And then the customer has to reason in their mind, well, okay, does that make sense for the thing that I need? And if they can make it through that process, maybe they will still buy.

Bryan McAnulty [00:15:08]:

But if you could instead speak to the customer and say, well, here are the benefits of my product or my service, then it's a lot easier to get them to actually buy. However, I think that with proper storytelling, that's everything. The storytelling beats benefits, because storytelling is what actually emotionally connects the customer to whatever it is that you have to offer. And especially if AI is talking about everything or whatever, the compelling story is not just going to be, oh, there's all these benefits out there, but it's going to be the one on one, or who can I hear that's telling me the story that I'm connecting to?

Robert Kennedy III [00:15:25]:

Yeah. Yeah. Well, customers, I would say that it's not even so much that they connect to the product. They connect to you. They connect to the emotion that you've shared. So if I give an example, I was sitting in my living room in Massachusetts and my doorbell rang. I go to the door or go to the window to look out, and there's this dude in my driveway, and he's got this big, long, rectangular display board. And on that display board, there's these little squares. I'm not sure what they are at that point because I can't see that well out into the driveway.

Robert Kennedy III [00:16:08]:

But I open my door and go out into the driveway. And he says, hey, my name's Mark. I'm selling carpet. I've got all these different types of carpet here. Go ahead and touch them. I've got Berber. I've got high pile, low pile, gomer pile. I got all the piles. Just touch the piles. And I'm touching the little squares on this thing and feeling them. And we're talking about this for about a minute. After about a minute, he says, what do you think? And I open my door, and I show him the inside of my house, and it's all hardwood. So he says, oh, you've got hardwood. All right, cool. Thanks for your time. And he packs up his stuff and he leaves. I'm like, well, okay. All right. Well, that was a waste.

Robert Kennedy III [00:17:02]:

So as I thought about it, I saw kind of the direction that he was walking in and where he might have come from. And I thought, well, why didn't he approach it this way? He could have said to me, hey, listen, my name's Mark. I was just across the street at your neighbor Judy's house, and we were talking, and she said that, oh, my gosh, she absolutely hates her heating bill. As I was coming over here, I noticed that you had an oil tank out front. How are you feeling about your heating bill? If he'd have said that to me, I'd have been like, oh, my God, this is terrible. I hate the heating. Why is it so freaking high? This heat sucks. But, you know, I would have gone on a rampage. Or, you know, I would have gone crazy with him at that point.

Robert Kennedy III [00:17:57]:

So after I go crazy, he can then say, well, you know what? As you open your door, I notice you have hardwood inside. What if I could tell you about a way to save a little bit on your bill each month, even if you have hardwood floors? My head would have turned to the side, and I'd have been like, yeah, save money. Yes. This oil bill sucks. Tell me how to save money. Then he might have told me about, I don't know, area rugs or whatever he wanted to tell me about. But that would have been through creating the connection by, number one, stating somebody I'm familiar with. Oh, I just came from Judy's house. Yeah, I know Judy. All right, Judy was complaining about this. Okay, what was Judy complaining about now? All right, Judy complained about this. I noticed you have something similar. How are you feeling? Now we've got this connection happening because he's created a story, he's created a connection with a pain that Judy had that I might have. And now once he's created that pain and riled me up a little bit, now he can say, well, what if I told you about a way to get past that pain? Then I'd say, okay, yeah, I'm interested. Let's chat. And now he can share with me a solution.

Robert Kennedy III [00:18:34]:

But he's walked through the storytelling. Judy, character. Context, I was just at Judy's house and we were having a conversation. Conflict, the oil thing. Now I've got a solution.

Bryan McAnulty [00:18:45]:

Real quick, Bryan here. You know me as the host for this podcast, but what you might not know is I'm also the founder of Heights Platform. It's an all in one platform that over 10,000 creators have used to build their online courses, communities and digital product businesses. We recently added some awesome updates to Heights AI to help you turn your idea into a viable business. Heights AI can build entire product offers, review your content, and even coach you on how to grow. You can try for free for 30 days. Links in the description. Now back to the podcast.

Bryan McAnulty [00:19:14]:

Yeah, so that's a great example for our audience of creators, coaches, kind of like online entrepreneurs. Should they aim to replicate that exact format for their own business or is that just one way of doing it? What do you suggest?

Robert Kennedy III [00:19:34]:

Well, you know, all stories essentially have the same pillars or the same makeup. It's really about you deciding where to put some of the stuff. So the conclusion is essentially your process, your product, your program. You don't want to start with that. You always want to have that last. But you can mess around with, do I introduce a character first? Do I introduce the conflict first? Do I introduce a context first? In the online space, content creators, we typically want to introduce the conflict as soon as possible because we don't have that long to keep their attention.

Bryan McAnulty [00:20:15]:

Yeah, that's, and that's that open loop that then your brain says what's going to happen?

Robert Kennedy III [00:20:20]:

Correct, correct. So, and all of us do it and all of us are students of this in some way, right. We've all succumbed to the whole idea of a hook. Right. We've clicked on articles that are purely clickbait. We click on videos in our reels or in our Instagram feed every day that start a certain way. And that might be a verbal hook, it might be, hey, what if I could tell you this? Or it might be, hey, if you're this type of person, you won't believe, blah, blah, blah, hook. Or it may be one of those things where you see that Instagram reel. I forgot the comedian's name, but he's driving in a car in a passenger seat with his friend, and he's got these water balloons, and he throws the water balloons out the window at some guys on a park bench, and he's making a joke out of it, and he hits the people on the park bench with the water balloons, and he's like, go, go, go, go, go, go. And the friend supposedly driving doesn't go anywhere, so the guys on the park bench come and drag him out of the car.

Robert Kennedy III [00:21:32]:

Right. So that is a hook that is used. And some creators then use that as a hook to tell a story about their business or whatever. But they've hooked everybody with a sequence of pain or fun or something. They're like, okay, what's going to happen to this guy? He's throwing water balloons at people. Or you've seen the ones where somebody's crashing into something, or somebody jumps off of something and it's stitched together and the creator is now saying, hey, this is what I want to share about my business. But, yeah, in the online space especially, you've got to have a hook, you've got to have something that grabs people's attention, and that hook is typically a conflict.

Bryan McAnulty [00:22:05]:

Yeah. So I saw on your website that you talk about owning your voice. What does that mean in practice for an entrepreneur?

Robert Kennedy III [00:22:16]:

Well, it means several things. Number one is that especially when you are starting in business, you look for inspirations or you look for other people who are successful. And a lot of times we try to do things exactly the way that somebody else did it before us. If I'm a speaker, I'm like, who are the most successful speakers? Tony Robbins? Eric Thomas? Let me try to tell stories or speak like them. I've seen a lot of motivational speakers try to sound exactly like Eric Thomas. Right. So in business, it means you have a story, you have an experience, you have a background that is worth sharing. So it's time for you to own that, believe that it's worth it, believe that the reason that you went through the experience that you went through is so that you can share how I navigated that with somebody else. And so that is a piece of owning your voice, owning your story. So, yeah, I'll leave it right there for now.

Bryan McAnulty [00:23:34]:

Yeah. So for somebody who is listening to this and says, okay, I get it. There's these ingredients that make the story. I should have a story. I should share something about myself and then I can connect it to my business. How do they pick what is the right story for them? Does it have to connect directly to their business? Are they just telling a story and then now people are interested in talking to them? Or like, what does it actually look like in practice for somebody to decide what is the right story of theirs to tell?

Robert Kennedy III [00:24:07]:

Yeah, and that's really good. So there are several stories that you can tell. One story is the origin story, and that is a story of how your business began or why you do what you do. Neither of us wears glasses, but there's a company called Warby Parker that on their website, on their about page, they share this story about how the company started. Some kids went on a camping trip. They were college students. They went on a camping trip. Somebody was hiking, and one of the students dropped their glasses. Somebody stepped on it. Their glasses got broken. They spent the rest of the trip not being able to see properly. And then they went back to college and tried to get new glasses, but they were so ridiculously expensive that they couldn't afford them. And they spent the rest of the semester squinting to try to see the board or to see what was in the front of the classroom. And that was a terrible experience for them. They made up their mind that nobody should ever have to suffer or not be able to see effectively because of price. And so that was the impetus behind Warby Parker. That's the origin story. That's why they do what they do.

Robert Kennedy III [00:25:36]:

And if you have a business of any sort, or if you are a creator that is starting a business, why is it that you do what you do? I have the saying that says if you're wise and strong enough, you won't be around long enough. Why do you do what you do? What drives you when it's challenging for you? What causes you to get up and say, you know what? I'm going to try this again. That is your why. That is an origin story. And people are interested in why you do what you do. Right.

Robert Kennedy III [00:25:52]:

So there are other stories. There are some other strategic stories that I share with regard to the process that you walk through or the product that you have. Testimonial is a type of story. Do you have a client or have you walked somebody through a specific process? Okay, yeah. Can you share what happened as you walked that client through that process? And then if they can share it and tell the audience or tell somebody in their words, how it was working with Bryan or how it was working with Robert, that's another type of story. So if you're a business owner, I would say, yeah, you've got to have your origin story be clear about that, because that is the underpinning and that drives why you do what you do. And then start to get comfortable with some of the strategic stories, the product stories. Why the product is the way it is. Where did it come from? What process have you used with somebody else, and how did that help them? So those are several different types that you can share.

Bryan McAnulty [00:26:59]:

Got it. Is there anything different about storytelling if you're kind of telling that story via a video behind a camera versus like a sales call or in person?

Robert Kennedy III [00:27:13]:

Well, so a sales call is definitely more interactive. You've got somebody there that is responding to you, and so you don't want to tell an entire story without getting some sort of response from them. So a sales call, I might start out a story in a way that allows them to answer a question for me. And that might be asking them a question like, hey, have you ever experienced this? Or what was it like the last time that this happened in your space? They can respond, and based on their response, I can now share. Well, you know what? I've had that happen too. Here's a time that that happened. And you can then walk through it and ask them questions along the way. So when you're on a call, you want it to be interactive.

Robert Kennedy III [00:28:03]:

If you're on video, it's going to be a little bit different because they're not going to interact. However, you can still act that way. You can still ask a question. Our brain goes through this process called instinctive elaboration. And what that means in English is that anytime a question is asked, the brain can't help but answer it. So if I ask a question, even if I'm on video, your brain goes through that same sequence that I talked about before. Did I experience that? Do I want to experience that? Do I not want to experience that? Is that familiar to me? Your brain begins to play a video or look up whatever images or stories in its own database that it can connect to what you're asking.

Robert Kennedy III [00:28:53]:

So if I start out a video with a question, and I'll say, do you remember the last time that it snowed really bad and you got stuck in your house for a couple of days? Pause for a second, the person is thinking, and then I can say, well, you know what? I live in Maryland, and just a couple of weeks ago, we had a really bad snowstorm. It snowed about 8 inches, which isn't so bad. But then we had ice on top of that. There was another two or three inches of ice on top of that. And I really realized that the little snow shovel that I had in my house was not working. As a matter of fact, the snowblower that I had in my garage wasn't working. I needed something else. I needed another solution that was going to help me chop through the ice, you know, and maybe my solution is you should get heated driveways, whatever it is. But, you know, now I've told a story that brings them through the experience to a point where they're like, oh, my gosh, yes, I've experienced that. Oh, I can relate to that. Okay. Yep. I'm vibing with what Bryan's saying now. I can listen to what he's saying, the solution that he's sharing, because I've connected with the problem that he's talked about.

Bryan McAnulty [00:30:07]:

Yeah, so you mentioned before that the conflict should ideally appear early. Should this question appear early? What's the order of that? Does the question maybe have to appear before or after the conflict, or does it not matter?

Robert Kennedy III [00:30:22]:

Well, the question would be a part of the conflict because you want people to lean into the challenge because that, the whole reason I told you that the Superman story without the conflict is because there's a lot of information there that's just data. Right? So if I told you that story, you wouldn't be asking me, hey, what were the names of the parents that found him in the cornfield? You don't really care about that. Hey, what was the name of the lady at the newspaper? You don't really care about that. You're asking me like, okay, so what happened to the baby? Were there any struggles that the young man had as he grew up? What did he go through? You know, he's. Oh, my gosh. You said he came from another planet. He's an alien. How do you skip over the alien stuff? What was it like being an alien on another planet? Did he look funny? Did he look like us?

Robert Kennedy III [00:31:13]:

So those are conflict types of questions. And so the purpose of the question is to bring people into a space where they say, okay, yep, that's a challenge. Yep. That's recognizable. Yep, that's a problem. Yeah, I remember when that happened. So that now you can bring them down into the story that you're sharing.

Bryan McAnulty [00:31:47]:

Got it. So now I've got a couple quick questions for you. And I want to go through, I guess, maybe four to five questions and kind of get your quick take on them.

Robert Kennedy III [00:31:59]:

Yeah.

Bryan McAnulty [00:31:59]:

First is, what's one communication habit that will just instantly make somebody lose credibility?

Robert Kennedy III [00:32:07]:

Oh, my gosh. There are a lot of these. I actually have a book that we're working on called The Language of Strategy: 28 Phrases to Upgrade Your Leadership and Your Influence. And there are words that you may not recognize them, but they diminish the authority that you may have when you say. So I call some of these the ly words. So if I'm in front of an audience and I'm overusing a word, like literally, or if I say actually a lot. For example, I literally went to his house yesterday. Okay. It seems like it emphasizes something, but it actually takes away. So if I just say, you know, I went to his house yesterday, speak more definitively instead of passively and adding words that don't really add to your idea or don't strengthen the idea.

Robert Kennedy III [00:33:15]:

Another phrase that I share with people is, in my opinion, I'm like, get rid of it. Get rid of it. In my opinion, if I say something. If I say, you know what I believe that LeBron James is the greatest athlete of all time. Okay. That's your thought. Great. You think that if I say, you know what I believe that LeBron James is the greatest athlete of all time, in my opinion, does nothing. You made it to you. And it's just something that is attributed only to you and your thought. But if I just left it by itself. Now the person has to go back and say, okay, Robert believes that LeBron James is the greatest athlete of all time. What has LeBron James done? Let me go find out. Let's find the data. Let's find the information.

Robert Kennedy III [00:33:55]:

It's not just his opinion. Let's find out all this information. I have a little bit more interest in it. So removing statements that soften or qualify your phrases. And I just am doing something right now. When you talk to public speaking coaches, they talk about filler words, like and ah. And I utter those sometimes. I'm not a believer in, oh, you got to remove every and like and so. And, you know, some of that is authentic. Being aware of it is helpful. Some of the most powerful speakers use filler words from time to time, and it doesn't take away or diminish their authority. It is about really being meaningful and looking at how you can create connection with your words. I hope I answered your question. I feel like I was talking in my brain.

Bryan McAnulty [00:34:49]:

No, that's good. If somebody said to you, I'm bad at public speaking, what would be your response?

Robert Kennedy III [00:34:59]:

My first response would be, what makes you think that? What leads you to that belief? When I ask that question, a lot of times people say, I am nervous about it. I'm scared about public speaking. I feel like people are going to criticize me.

Bryan McAnulty [00:35:18]:

Yeah.

Robert Kennedy III [00:35:19]:

So those are fears that people have. Is that reality? No, not necessarily. Or somebody might say, my gosh, every time I get up to speak, I have the butterflies. Robert, I want to be in front of an audience more. How can I get rid of the butterflies? I say to them, well, our job is not to get rid of the butterflies, it's to help them fly in formation. Because the same chemicals in your body that cause you to be anxious are the same chemicals that cause you to be excited. The difference is what your brain has told those chemicals to mean.

Robert Kennedy III [00:35:51]:

So if you go, if you watch athletes at the beginning of almost any sporting event, they're running out onto the field. What are they doing? They're jumping up and down. They're active. They're changing their physiology. Tony Robbins, one of the greatest motivational speakers that we've heard in our generation. What does he do before he goes out on stage to speak? He has a trampoline backstage where he's jumping up and down on the trampoline. Robert Kennedy III, not one of the greatest motivational speakers you've heard in your time, but I still have an action. I still feel the wigglies. I still feel the flutteries before I get out of stage. What I do, I'm backstage, I'm shadow boxing. I'm doing something because I'm telling those chemicals in my body what the meaning of the next moment is, and the meaning of the next moment is excitement. I'm going to serve the heck out of these people. I'm going to give them something valuable, and that's the message that I'm telling to my brain. If I'm telling my brain, oh, my gosh, I'm so nervous, then, yeah, that's what your brain is going to believe. But if I tell the opposite, that's what your brain's going to believe.

Bryan McAnulty [00:37:06]:

Yeah. Earlier in this interview, we talked about introverts versus extroverts. Would you say introverts actually have an advantage in communication?

Robert Kennedy III [00:37:17]:

I'm a believer that introverts tend to be that. I don't want to make a blanket statement, but they tend to be a little bit more observant. Introverts do not rush in looking for the energy in the room. They may observe the room before they jump to the front of the room or do what they need to do or interact in the room. So there's some observation, some social cues that introverts may be more adept at gathering beforehand. Again, if I use my family, if I use my wife as an example, she's. We open the door to a party room and she's walking in, she's dancing. She's not. She doesn't really care who's in the room. She's just like, oh, there are people in there. Let's dance. The introvert, I look in the room and say, okay, who's there? Let me observe who's there. As a matter of fact, I don't even want to look in the room. I want to be the first in the room so I can see the other people as they come to the room. So, yeah, there are some, I would say, benefits or some things that introverts do differently.

Bryan McAnulty [00:38:33]:

Use the differences to your advantage, I guess, like, realize what they are.

Robert Kennedy III [00:38:37]:

Yep.

Bryan McAnulty [00:38:38]:

Awesome. So on the show, I'd like to ask every guest to ask a question to the audience. If you could ask our audience anything, whether something you're curious about or kind of just want to get people thinking about, what would that be?

Robert Kennedy III [00:38:52]:

The question I would ask your audience is, what is the greatest victory in your life? I'm asking that because quite often we don't give ourselves enough credit. We don't understand what the experiences that we've gone through, how those can be meaningful to somebody else. So if you are able to grab your greatest victory and be excited about it and why it was a victory, not just that you got a gift or that you won the lottery, but there was something that challenged you, that you were able to overcome and you were able to have victory over. What is that? Because that gives you some experiences that you can then share with people. And that just may be an origin of something for you, or it may be a signature story that you can use to help somebody else be inspired or combat whatever obstacle or challenge they're facing.

Bryan McAnulty [00:39:58]:

That's great. Well, Robert, thanks so much for coming on the show. Before we get going, where else can people find you online?

Robert Kennedy III [00:40:05]:

Thanks a lot, Brian. Robertkennedy3.me is the easiest place to find me. All of my social media is there. I'd love to connect with you on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is one of the places that I use a lot. I'm there quite frequently. That's my biggest social media. LinkedIn and Substack are the two places that I am. So robertkennedy3.me is the easiest place to find me.

Bryan McAnulty [00:40:28]:

All right, awesome. Thanks, Robert.

Robert Kennedy III [00:40:31]:

Thanks, Brian.

Bryan McAnulty [00:40:33]:

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