Find and Share Your Story with Jude Charles

John Ryan 0:00
You're listening to key conversations for leaders. This is episode number 17. Welcome everybody. In today's episode, we'll be discussing how to find and share your story with filmmaker Jude Charles will be covering sharing your story no matter where you are in the organization, the timelessness of starting with your why, as well as connecting with your audience and how you can get started today with your smartphone.

Leadership is about vision. It's about creating a vision and sharing that vision with others in a way that inspires them to walk with you towards its fulfillment along the way, leaders encourage, motivate, guide and even challenge people to bring their best each and every day. And it's all done through conversations. That's what this show is about better conversations for better leaders. Hey everybody, and welcome to key conversations for leaders. I'm your host John Ryan and today we have a very special guest, Jude Charles Jude started his company as an teenager he is a brand strategist, filmmaker, and speaker. For almost 15 years, he's been helping purpose driven seven figure and eight figure entrepreneurs to bring their stories to life through documentaries and videos. Welcome to the show Jude.

Jude Charles 1:16
John, thank you for having me. It's a It's a pleasure to be here with you.

John Ryan 1:19
Awesome. Thank you so much for being here as well. And I want to ask you, I know that you help people and just in talking to them ago, that you work with a very selective group of people, like only, you know, four to five people a year, and you help them tell their stories. Can you tell us a little bit about your story?

Jude Charles 1:36
Sure. So I have always been in love with storytelling since the age of eight years old. As an eight year old, I wasn't the kid that was outside playing basketball or football. I wasn't even the kid inside playing video games. Instead, I would lock myself in my room after school. And I would write stories I would write so much that I ended up writing books, 11 books and all 11 100 page books. And these books were what I thought my future life would look like. So at one point, I wanted to be a police officer. So I wrote the police life of jus Charles. Another time I wrote the baseball life of jus Charles, because I had just read the Jackie Robinson story, and I was like, Okay, what is it gonna be like to be a baseball player, like, what if I want to do that? But it's just this fascination with what could really happen in the future. Right? And so fast forward to I'm sick 17 years old, and I'm in a TV production classroom. And this teacher, Mrs. Donnelly took a liking to me. She taught me everything that she knew about video production. And then on May 4 2006, she looks at me and she says, dude, you know, you're really talented at this video production. I think you should start a business. And at the time, I didn't know anything about starting a business. I was 17 years old. Not only that I am the youngest of 10 children. My father was a construction worker, my mother worked at a chair factory.

So there wasn't any blueprint for that. But the following day, may 5 2006. This is Donald, he comes into the classroom, she hands me a yellow envelope, and I'm like, What is this? And when she's like, you know, open it up, look at it. And when I open the envelope, and I look inside, inside were my first set of business cards. May 5 2006, I never forget the day that's the day that I became an entrepreneur. That's the day that Mrs. Donnelly gave me the courage to say that you can do this. There's no reason not to. And so that's what started my journey. Now. The first five years of business were brutal because I didn't really understand, again what it meant to be an entrepreneur how to sell myself how to market myself how to get paid the right amount for the value of work that I was creating. But it wasn't until 2000 I woke up to the sounds of chains hitting the floor 70 and it jolted me out of bed and I ran outside because I knew what the sound of chains were I'd heard them before they were the sounds of a tow truck driver coming to repossess my car for the second time in eight months. Hmm. And you know, I went out to her ran out that I pleaded with him like please please just don't act like you haven't seen the car Just give me one more week. Of course he had a job to do so he took the car and I remember walking back inside and I sat on the edge of my bed. say you know what, I've given a good five years and the you know, hang it up and say like a have tried, I started at 17. I got started early, didn't know what I was doing. I need to just take a different route here.

And about 30 to 40 minutes of just sitting on the edge of my bed. I get a phone call from a client that I had been working with for a year Her name is Keisha de or and, like I don't know if I want to pick this up right now because I'm not in the right headspace to be talking to a client. For one reason or another, I decided to pick up the phone. And you know, I can hear acacias excitement on the other eye. She's like Jude Jude, you won't believe it. You won't believe it. I'm like What happened? Keyshia she's like you know, I've been doing this business for a year and it's been 12 months and I just got off the phone with my accountant and he just told me we crossed over the seven figure mark. So for context, he should be your is running a cosmetic business selling color. lipstick blue, purple, green, yellow lipstick. They weren't popular back then. But in 12 months, she was able to take this documentary that I've given her, leverage it, launch her business and leverage it in order to make $1 million in order to get, you know, a large amount of people to pay her $1 billion. And here I am, in the same moment, struggling for five years to make at the very least 20 to $30,000 a year. That moment was a light bulb that I need to get out of my own way. There isn't any difference between me and Tisha viewer, outside of she understood how to market her product in a way that would get people to buy. And so that started me on the journey of doing documentary series for entrepreneurs. This is what you led to, and I wanted to give you the full background of it, but that is that's my story. Like I started as a 17 year old kid, I think struggled for the first five years. But ultimately it was because of what I got to see behind the scenes from a client that helped me transition and truly excel in my business almost 15 years later.

John Ryan 7:12
So two major signs, right? So Mrs. Donnelly, right, here's your business cards, you got the equipment, there's no reason not to go forward in this. And then one of your lowest points, chains are on the ground, the car gets taken away, questioning everything. And then the universe, the world opens up and says, Hey, you got something here. You can help people tell their story. And in that case, that kept you going. So what what, what did you do next, like from that point on? Did you reposition yourself and refocus or what was the shift for you at that point?

Jude Charles 7:48
Yeah, I decided to take a break. I continued working with HDX because I worked with her for three years, but she was the only client that I took at the time. And I decided that I would go back and learn what it means to operate. Business what it means to do marketing and sales. And so the first I took an online course and the first online course that I took was a course called earn one K. And it's all about it took me back to the basics, because it's all about earning your first $1,000. And then how do you repeat that? Right? And the teacher that taught that lesson, he talks about basically how you know how to market yourself, how to promote yourself, how to build momentum, so that when you do make your first thousand dollars, you just repeat it and repeat it and repeat it. Now, of course, I hadn't made $1,000 at that point, but I hadn't made it, in my opinion, the right way. And that's what I want to learn is how do I go back and do this the right way. Positioning was a big part of it. I mentioned that after a documentary series. I positioned myself for that. But here I am. I'm the person that can create stories for entrepreneurs, specifically. Right and she was the blueprint she was the proof that this can work. It was also the time that I invented roadmapping because I went back to, and I know we're going to talk a little bit about road mapping, but I went back to understanding, okay, this document, it helped to make a million dollars.

Why? Why were people so drawn to her, or to her product or whatever it is that they were willing to spend $20 willing to spend $100, some of them spent $500. Why is that? Right? And that's where I begin to put the pieces together that if I'm going to position myself as the filmmaker, for entrepreneurs, the person that can tell their stories bring this story to life. What's the blueprint for that? Or what as I like to call it, the roadmap for that? And so that's what I set out to do is to learn marketing and sales so that I can then continue to build a business the right way. It took a year to do that. It took a year off and it had just read a lot of books and I involved everything that I could about entrepreneurship. It's a lot of read e myth, which is a great book even I didn't read too much later, but that's how I begin to take the steps toward going in the right direction.

John Ryan 10:11
Michael Gerber goes right into that repeatable thousand dollars you create your system, which is I imagine a lot of what the roadmapping process is about, and then you can replicate you're gonna find that unique story, right part of its structure but then it's also customizing based on the individual the company their story, things like that. Very exciting. Sounds like you really did some really great research because he's definitely classic for sure. And I want to talk more about you know, messaging in just a minute but let's take a moment talk about the the medium, because it seems I mean, especially right now time of this recording, you know, it's pandemic, you know, people are working remotely and video is has been taking off for a while you look at the growth of YouTube up YouTube is the number two search engine online. on the planet right now, what do you really see happening in the marketplace with a video and branding and sharing stories?

Jude Charles 11:10
Yeah, you know, YouTube came out in 2009, I believe. And it doesn't either technology wasn't there for everyone who have a video camera in their hands. By 2015 16 that's when we started to see more cell phone footage begin to pop up on the internet. I think what's happening now especially in the moment of 2020, where we're in the midst of Coronavirus and we're in the midst of the majority of people are at home and and we're creating much more content. What's happening is that a very select few entrepreneurs very select few creatives are breaking through the noise in their breaking through the noise because instead of simply sitting in front of the camera and talking. They're showing you with violence things of their life looks like. And I think that was where the shift and branded marketing began to change where bloggers or what became known as vloggers. With a V, begin to create this content that could really show you, instead of just telling you what to do, I could show you what to do. I can give you the experience of allowing you to see it with your own eyes. We're visual creatures, we're visually human beings. That's the way that we learn how to communicate. When we first learned the word cat, we read the word cat see a T, and then we saw an image of a cat. And so anytime we saw the cat after that, we knew that was a cat, right? The same way with visuals. I think if I tell you about a time that I went to New York and I was mesmerized by the buildings, you see me your buildings in your head and ice or buildings in my head right? Because of something that we've experienced weather It's a movie or being in New York. And so that's what's happened with video where Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, have all created their own video platforms. Why is that? Because they're engaging because they allow us to experience in a much different way than words words are important. But, but when you can watch a video that you can hear that you can see that you can feel it changes everything. Right. And I think you know, we talked about we talked about in the beginning of this, he should do his documentary part of it was that it was being able to see, hear, feel what she was talking about, because what she talked about was not about the color lipstick and how beautiful they are. She talked about women empowerment. She talked about being comfortable in your own skin. Right if you wanted to go out that day and wear blue lipstick Don't wear blue lipstick and then she shows you how she does it herself. Okay, that is the magic of video now in 2020 where and I mentioned like there's people breaking through because there is a lot of noise out there but as people breaking through because they're creating content in a much different way that gives you a three dimensional view into their lives. That's where I see video going even 10 years from now is that people will want to see that see what life looks like behind the scenes.

John Ryan 14:30
People want that they want that behind the scenes and the big thing that I was thinking about was your need then you said it was the feeling yeah that like you know words and you talk about writing stories when you're a kid right so Jude Charles as a baseball player as a police officer. But the feeling that comes across in getting that connection with with Keyshia Dior, because going behind the scenes and showing her out and about wearing bright blue lipstick, because you can talk about it, but until you see it say wow, okay, I can With her on a personal level, I feel that and so that makes it okay for me in it versus a written word. It's not going to communicate that in the same way. Right? So videos got, yeah. So video is going to continue to go forward and people want that access, like to celebrities to non celebrities to high value content. Is there a specific type of company that that should bring you behind the scenes? Or are there some companies where maybe that would not be indicative?

Jude Charles 15:33
I think, in my opinion, I do not think startup entrepreneurs or startup businesses should focus on video. Why? Because I think there's other things you have to prove that what you're selling, whether it's a product or service, people actually want it. And while you can do that with video, for sure, it takes more time to just get your feet off the ground and do market research and make sure that is what people want. So I usually recommend that an entrepreneur or entrepreneur or business making at least $300,000 in revenue should focus on video, the type of video that we're talking about here today. Now, what I'm talking about specifically is a type of video that tells you a story. And that goes deep into your story. Is there room for q&a type of videos? Like us sitting in front of a camera? Is there room for how to videos for sure. But what we're talking about specifically, is storytelling videos. I think storytelling videos are for entrepreneurs that are making at the very least $300,000 that they proven people are willing to pay them and it's not a fluke. It's not like they had a good year or anything like that. People are willing to pay them money for their product or service. At that point, I believe it's important to begin to stand out from the noise, stand out from the crowd and truly show how different you are. Because now you have an audience. You have people that have purchased from you, right and again, we've proven that people want this. So now you can begin to create these other stories that show, how did you even get started? Right, that shows why are people buying your product so much? So what I call social proof, what do other people have to say about you showing the transformation? How does someone's life change after they use your product or service, not just the before and after, which is all people like we've seen in the fitness world, where, you know, the person may have been 300 pounds, and then they lost 150 pounds or whatever. That's the before and after, but how does life change after? And we'll talk a little bit more about that. But that is where I think the kind of entrepreneurs that I'm talking about 300,000 and above should be focused that those are the type of content that I think there is $1,000 and above, that's the entrepreneur that should be creating that content.

John Ryan 17:56
And that content is there a different level of content when there just starting out in not producing that kind of results and revenue because they're not market tested that they should be doing.

Jude Charles 18:07
Yeah, I think there's How To videos. So showing that you're an expert in your field, right? I think there are QA, like, let's say you get people that give you pushback. And there's a specific type of objection that someone's giving you kind of like, this cost too much, or Will this work for me? Or should I be doing this right now? Why should I do this right now versus doing something else right now? Those are great q&a videos that you can do just to show that you're the expert in your field just to get people to begin to trust you. Right, I think those type of videos every video has its place and it's just understanding how to use the video effectively, effectively for where you are right now.

John Ryan 18:51
So there's phases it sounds like so like yeah, phase zero to one is like getting started establishing yourself as a brand when building brand away. But once you have that proven model, like you said, $300,000. and above, now people want to know a little bit more behind the scenes. And that's where a deeper level of storytelling, the social proof and tell them that success stories, not just the before and after, but how is their life? How is their business been impacted? That really opens up?

Jude Charles 19:19
Yeah, absolutely. I think, you know, if we talk about what I like to do with my clients is roadmapping. Let's get really clear on before you even get started, let's get really clear on where's this even going? In the same way that you cannot build a house without a blueprint. You cannot create videos without a roadmap. And so really quick, I want to talk about what's in a roadmap and why it's important to to build that before you ever get started in a roadmap are three phases. It's what I call dramatic clarity, the first phase, dramatic demonstration. That's phase number two and then dramatic leverage. Dramatic clarity is all about understanding who you are. are what your brand's about? What do you stand for? What do you stand against? What are your philosophies? What are your core beliefs? getting really clear on that? Right? So let's say hypothetically your core values integrity, because that's one that a lot of people like to use, we have a lot of integrity. What does that look like? What does that feel like? That's where dramatic demonstration comes in. So you set all these things and dramatic clarity, we really care. A really good example that I talked about on the podcast recently is that for a pest control person, if you say you really care for family, well, what does that mean? What does that look like? Why do you care for family? Right? Why do you care about protecting the home from insects or from lizards or from rats? Like why do you care? If you say it's about family in dramatic demonstration, so maybe the behind the scenes of your family, maybe you have three children, and you don't want an insect to be crawling in their bed at night. Right, like, that's dramatic demonstration, it's going very deep and showing and not just telling. We started with telling. But now let's show. So you can show that there's five different ways what I call behind the scenes, live illustration, social proof, transformation and unique mechanism. There's those five different ways and then dramatic leverage. So now you created the story, you've created the content. Dramatic leverage, is how do we make sure the right people see it at the right time. And they see it over and over and over.

The reason that I mentioned that case should be or was able to make $1 million dollars after 12 months is because she took this documentary series that I had created for her. And she looked at all the different ways that she could just continue to share this documentary. Even if it was just one new person that saw it. She did this for years. As a matter of fact, we created the document we started in 2010. As of 2017, she was still promoting this doctor Fibonacci series, although she's created other content, although she's had a reality show, she's still promoting the documentary series. Right? So that's the roadmap is that let's just say, oh, let's just create a cool video because we need to create a video because we're being told videos, the next thing we need to create, let's get really clear on what we're creating and why we're, what we're creating, why we're creating it, and then how we're going to make sure people see it. Because the worst thing that could happen is that you upload your video to YouTube and only 20 people see it. Right? You want to make sure that people are engaging with it, they're seeing it and you're getting the most leverage out of the content you've created. In my opinion, entrepreneurs are always on the next shiny object like they're what I often say they're searching for silver when they have gold in their hands. Once you've created the gold, how do you make sure to leverage that gold for years to come?

John Ryan 22:57
And that's the thing as well. Once you really have that, if you because if you're getting sucked into the next shiny object, you're not really leveraging it sounds like Keesha, seven years later, maybe even still to this day is still using portions of that. And that's important to the high quality. Yes, you come in you you're putting in that time and energy through the roadmapping process. What are your, as you said, the quality you have that you want to show like integrity, one of the one of the five ways or multiple multiples of that, and then how are you going to get that out there? You can use that over and over again, because if it's high quality, it's evergreen.

Jude Charles 23:34
And even if you start to do another business, let's say hypothetical use case you didn't do this. If you decide to go into another business, who you are doesn't change. Hmm, because we started with your core values, your philosophies, because we started with the stories that you have. That doesn't change what changes is a product issue. So maybe this service that you sell, maybe what who you are doesn't change when Apple started, they started as Apple computers, right? They sold computers, but then they went into the iPod, and then the iPhone, and then all these different industries that had on the surface that had nothing to do with the computers that Apple started with. Well, because Apple started with the idea that we want to challenge the status quo that changed everything, it doesn't matter what they create, because what they create still goes back to their core beliefs and it goes back to their core values. And it goes back to their philosophies, when they can change industries like music and health and the phone industry, right? Like it's because of their core values who they are never changed. Just the products that they sell.

John Ryan 24:47
It's like Simon Sinek starting with why Yeah, hundred percent. Yeah, I know you'd be on all over that tear. There you go.

Jude Charles 24:54
Well, in roadmapping, that's what I start with. So I start by showing the Simon Sinek video you start with why Oh, perfect. Yeah, you start with why? Because I think entrepreneurs, they spent a lot of time talking about what they do is exactly what Simon Sinek talks about. We talk about what we do, why we do it isn't talked about. And part of why we do it is because of who we are. Right? Because that's what I'm looking to show. I'm looking to show you authentically, in authentic light, I'm looking to show who you are so that people feel deeply connected to you. That creates the know like and trust bridge, it takes it from a person that skeptical they've never heard of you and they don't know if you can really help them out. It takes them from that point to they walk across this bridge, are they seeing the content? And then finally, they trust you and they're like, how I'd be silly not to work with it. Right. So yeah, it starts with why. And I in my opinion, why starts with who?

John Ryan 25:53
Perfect, perfect. I like that because if you you can pivot like Apple's pivoted like he has pivoted and Because who you are doesn't change. That's the timeless, that's the goal work with the gold. And you can use that over and over and again. So if I'm a business owner of a certain size, or I'm a leader in a company that maybe I'm not the owner of the company, but rising or an executive level, is it important for me to create a YouTube channel and promote my own brand? Or am I promoting the larger brand? Or? Or maybe, I don't know, I'm just kind of wondering like, does that come into everyone's world?

Jude Charles 26:35
In my opinion, it does. I think we are all living breathing personal brands, whether you are a professional that works under a major corporation, or you are the executive at the top. I think everyone has a personal brand. Now whether or not you create a YouTube page that's up to you. Well, what I do believe is that you should have a video that tells you a story about who you are. Why is that every brand or corporation is made up of people. And every person has a story. And it's the stories that we have that makes this brand or corporation much more relatable, much more humanistic. Right? And so, in my opinion, every person should have a video that tells their story about where they're Where are you from? How did you end up here? What is the moment in your life that made you realize this thing that you're doing right now is a part of your purpose. We talked a little bit about I think this is off camera. We talked a little bit about how, you know I don't focus too much on the tech side of video production. I focus on the storytelling and I focus on, on on the leadership and I focus on other things outside of just creating video. The reason that is is Because the video is just a tool, just the end product. But what makes that video relatable emotional trend makes you feel more short trustworthy towards the person is because of what we put in the video. And I think that when you're looking for the next job, or you're looking for your team to be inspired and motivated so that they want to follow you, because the stories that you tell is because of being able to relay that point to them through video. Right, I think that is, every person, every human being should be creating video for themselves.

John Ryan 28:42
And I think you've kind of already discussed on really where you start because it's not even from your perspective as a professional filmmaker. It's not necessarily about having, you know, the highest most expensive camera on the planet. It's really about the the story and knowing who who you are, why you do what you do, knowing where you came from and telling that, that in there? Does it make sense for people to not invest in the high level equipment if they're doing it themselves at this point in time? Or is an iPhone sufficient? Or should they upgrade to some higher level stuff? Or where does that make sense?

Jude Charles 29:20
I think an iPhone is sufficient. The iPhone or any phone smartphone that you have is the most powerful tool that you can have simply because even if you were a higher film production crew like myself, there's still so much content that we're not able to capture. And in my opinion, I think people should be documenting everything now. Of course, not documenting everything that you get lost and just filming everything. And if you don't spend time you're not present. But I think there are moments that have to be captured where it's like, this can be used sometime in the future. I don't know how I don't know when, but it can be used. And so Think so one of the great examples of this, I think, is a client that I'm getting ready to work with. He owns a skincare line. And with this client, he started his business in 2012. And he has a gold mine. And what I mean by that is, he started in 2012. And he documented everything that he was doing. He started in his apartment in his condo, and he had all the products in his condo he was mixing products in his condo he was he had a backpack where he was going to show people the products himself, it was just him. Right now. It's a luxury brand. You know, almost eight years later, it's a luxury brand, but this started in a condo. It started with him getting his hands dirty. We have the content for that. You can't fake that. I think that is why I would say in my opinion, until you're ready to have a production crew to hire a high level production crew. Use your phone. Isn't isn't about getting The perfect angle isn't about any of that stuff. Just capture it. Because when you can capture it, and I've done this before, where I've used my clients cell phone footage of what they've captured, from the past, to tell the story to document the story to illustrate the story.

So I think for sure, I think every entrepreneur should focus on or every human being should focus on documenting because we are in a an era where this technology is available. We're also in an era of being able to capture our family's legacies. Right? Because sometimes it's not just about business. Sometimes it's just about, let's say, hypothetically, you're an entrepreneur that goes from, you know, having nothing to creating 100 million dollar business. How will your grandkids know the story of what you were able to do in an authentic way so that they can replicate it. To me, that's what leadership is about is preparing the future generation with what we've been able to do. I just so happen to be focused on entrepreneurship. But there's so much more to that. Right. And I think it starts with a video camera. It starts with what you already have. I didn't come on here to teach video production or storytelling, so that you can hire me, of course, I would love that. But I think it starts with you wanting to realize like you have a powerful story to share, no matter where you are in your career right now. That's the important piece. And so yes, to answer your question, that's why I think we start with an iPhone, the very simplest thing, don't complicate it, just get started.

John Ryan 32:49
I love it. And in really, again, you connected to the why even more. It's not just about sharing your story and giving behind the scenes access but to leave a legacy and to add educate your children and their children's children and then they can connect. Because if you look at our grandparents, we don't know. I mean, we hear a couple stories, but there wasn't video there's not a lot of audio if anything, and and that's that's a lost treasure. We're in a world right now where we can we can actually leave a percentage or replica of what our life was like. It's really cool. That's exciting. So get out there, get equipment, whether it's your cell phone or something else doesn't really matter. It's tell the story. And it sounds like that. Raw iPhone footage Android footage actually sounds like it's useful for creating even more intimate behind the scenes stuff because it's actually lower quality.

Jude Charles 33:47
You know it I wish I would have started with this because I want people to really understand you can do this today. This is not something that is hard. And the reason that I'm saying that is because storytelling has been confusing. A little bit over the years, it's become a buzzword. And I think people have complicated in the creative structures and they've created, you know, the hero's journey. All of that is important. But here's the thing for you to be able to do this tomorrow and why I'm saying pull out your camera and record now. Here's what a story is. stories about a very specific moment in time. That's it. Right? When you say, ju, Charles is a filmmaker, it's not my story. But if I bring you into the moment that I was 17 years old may 5 2006. and Mrs. Donnelly brought in the yellow envelope with the business cards in them. It's about a very specific moment, time that I brought you into. So when we talk about capturing video content, it's about capturing moments, those moments tell stories, because there's a beginning, middle and end. Right. And you talked about like our grandparents in the stories that they would tell us of course, there's stories that I've heard over the years. But when you again when you can see with your own eyes hearing something said 1000 times is not as convincing as seeing it once.

I'm going to say that one more time, hearing something said 1000 times is not as convincing as seeing it once. We can hear the stories that our grandparents have told us, we can hear the stories that our parents are even telling us. We can see what they really had to go through if we can see what it meant to hypothetically be able to be there the March on Washington when Dr. Martin Luther King gave his speech. If we can see that with our own eyes and feel the energy, there's certain things you can't replicate. And that's what video helps you do. It helps you to replicate the moment. The moment is the story. And that's what you need to focus on is the moment and if you focus on that moment you capture that moment. There's just so much more that you can do with it. Which goes into dramatic leverage, right? Like you talked about a little bit I mentioned how Keisha use it over and over. There's ways to cut up the video to use it over and over. This is one piece of content, right? Creating the gold, creating the legacy, reading the stories that continue to help others.

John Ryan 36:23
I can appreciate that because you know that the old sounds cliche, but picture's worth 1000 words, and we'll have videos 24 frames a second 34 depending on your frame rate right there. And at the same time, not all stories are persuasive. And I love that you're lowering the bar and saying, hey, it's just a moment in time. Don't worry about being persuasive. But part of what you do as well is creating a compelling story, which is why you focus on the Why, yes. Is the Why is the beginning of that. Are there any tips and suggestions you have for making that connection? The know like and trust compelling persuasive story.

Jude Charles 37:02
I think the what? So I'll walk you through what I do with my clients are roadmapping. What I'm looking to do is connect the dots I am looking at I usually start with their origin and their origin is not the origin of creating the company, the origin is, when were they born? What were they doing? Where did what kind of family were they born? So what did they learn growing up, and then going to where they are in their career right now. That is where you can go deeper to connect the dots to really understand why because there's usually threads within there. I mentioned for me at eight years old, I was writing 100 page books. I didn't know that it would lead me to the work that I'm doing now, but it did. One thing I haven't talked about is that well, I did talk about that I talked about that I wanted to growing up I wanted to be a police officer well because why I wanted to be a police officers because I would watch these cop drama TV shows with my dad. Those are shows that he loved and I want to spend I'm with my dad. I'm the youngest of 10. And he was older by the time he was, well, by the time I was born, he was 48.

So he's in his 50s by the time I'm a young kid, right, so I'm spending time with my dad. And I want to become a police officer because of it right? But I hope the reason that I want to become a police officer is because I was fascinated about being a detective. While I've still brought that into the work that I do now, I am digging deep for the truth. I'm not allowing you to tell me Oh, well, I'm just doing this because it's what I'm passionate about, well, why are you passionate? And you might say, Well, you know, it's something that just brings me joy. I always get excited when I can see other help other people, why do you like helping helping other people? I get deep and I go deep, because instead of you giving me service level instead of just seeing what's on the surface, I want to go beneath that and get the pull out the evidence that shows this is why this is your why. Write one of my clients in the way she likes to say it. I don't know that I I say it The same way with my clients. But she says, if your wife doesn't make you cry, you don't know why. Hmm. And I think the essence of what she's getting to is that your y is so emotionally deep. It has to make you cry. And I don't know that you always have to cry. But that's the essence of it, right? Like you got to go deep enough. So finally compelling story that no one else knows. And that compelling story is what makes someone feel instantly connected to you. I think even with my clients, I think even sometimes they don't realize the compelling stories that they have. The client that I mentioned that talks about your wife has to make you cry. Her name is Danielle and she's a business coach. And one of the stories that we've created for her is the story about her journey through motherhood where she's 44 years old now, and she still hasn't been able to bear a child. And she's gone through a miscarriage, she's gone through a bad round of IVF. But she's telling the story. She's showing someone what she's doing in her own life to get through this moment. As a business coach, that makes me more connected to her than just her telling me, she can help me get my business in order, or she can help me make more money or she can help me figure out systems and in all of it, like, it's about who she is as a human being, and encourage the people that are listening. So watch that story. Because I don't want to give it away what she does, but what she does towards the end of that story is inspiring.

And that is ultimately what it's all about. It's about going deep enough to find that compelling story. So how do you find that compelling story? You think about your origins where you grew up? The transitional moments in your life so that's the second thing transitions. Then you just think about those very specific moments that just maybe just changed your mind about everything. My father unfortunately passed away in 2014. And for me as the youngest of 10 children, I was asked to give his eulogy. That moment changed everything for me. Because it helped me understand my purpose. And I realized my purpose is not in telling. It's in telling story. Sorry, it's not in holding a video camera. It's in telling stories. It's in. It's in leadership. My family saw something in me that almost I didn't even see in myself. The fact that they trusted me to lead them through this moment. The youngest of 10 children. Right. It's those specific moments that completely changes everything. The only reason I'm on a podcast with you today is because of that moment. What shifted for you

What shifted was that? I never saw myself in a leadership position, because that was always at the lowest level. Right? I think the other thing is that I always ran away from leadership, because I only thought leadership as the president or pastor of a church, or CEO of a major corporation. When I looked up, so when my father died, and my family asked me to do this, and I went on this journey of leadership, and just really trying to understand it, I looked up the word lead, le ad into lead just simply means to guide. It's a guide a group of people, it doesn't mean you're at the front, right? It just means you're guiding them through whatever it is, whether it's through a corporation, whether it's through hard times, whatever it is, and I think that was a light bulb for me, because then I started to connect the dots, that anytime my friends were in trouble, or anytime they needed advice, they would come to me and say, hey, what should I do here? I was like, All this time I've been leading people. All this time I've been sharing stories and sharing my wisdom at that age of what they should do. And then here's my family axing me because it was hard for me to, of course, I lost my father as a man, I lost my father. And it was hard for me. But here's my family asking me to lead them through this journey. And trusting me to lead them through this journey. Right? Yeah, that is what shifted and made me realize, even with my clients, our clients are looking to me to help them shape their story, and roadmapping their health, they're looking to me to say, okay, is this a good story? Is this something I could really share with others? Is it gonna create more impact, and when I can do that for my clients, I can lead them through their stories. Now I'm creating a greater impact and other people that I will never meet. Right? Because I've helped my client do that. I've led my client who's a leader. I've led them To lead others, and I had never thought about it in that way until that moment when my father passed away. Because he was always in my opinion, I said, this is huge. He was always the quiet rock of his family. He wasn't loud spoken. When he spoke, it mattered. And he was everyone's centered around him. He wasn't the oldest and he wasn't the youngest either. But everyone's centered around him. And he was the quiet rock not only of our immediate family, like his children, but his siblings. Right. And I think that's when I begin to realize, and I often say, it sounds crazy to say this, but I often say my father had to pass away in order for me to understand my own purpose.

That moment of asking him to do the vaccine me to do the eulogy would have never happened. Without that, and then that moment of me going to figure out what is leadership? What does it mean to lead? What is it? How does this look like? Who am I am I being asked to give a eulogy? All those things had to happen like he had to pass away in order for all those things happen. So overall, it's about a very specific moment in time, but it changed everything. And that's why I mentioned it is because it's about your origin, transformational moments, or very, very specific moments that you know, just it allowed other things to happen. That's where to look finally is compelling stories. we as human beings are compelling. Every single human being on this earth has a story. From the moment you're born. even beyond the moment that you die, your story still carries on. So everyone has a story, go out and find it. How do you do it again? I just want to repeat it. You look at your origin Where were you born, you have something that's unique about where you were born, the family that you were born into transitional moments. moments that you were you quit a job moments that you got fired? x bad accident, right? Or a very specific moment where I'll tell one last story. I watched a woman, I was at a grocery store and I watched a woman teach her young son, he had to be no more than five. She was teaching him how to pay his using how to pay taxes based off of what he purchased at the store. So she was teaching him math with real money while in the grocery line. For me as a person who has not become a parent yet, that inspires me to teach my children the same way. Awesome, because of that very specific moment, right. It's not a big transitional moment, because I didn't have any kids. I still don't have any kids yet. But is this very specific moment? It's changed the way that I think?

John Ryan 46:46
Well, it's about that little piece reflects so much more about that dynamic they have as parent child. Yeah, it's that because how you do one thing is how you do everything, which is part of the story. Tell them process because as they get to know you, they get to know your story and your why your origin story, your transformation story, those types of things. Then there's that connection, which is, you know, and I feel like honestly, everything you've shared today is as well woven together as I imagined some of your films that you produce because because it all connects, it connects. You mentioned Steve Jobs, you know, he says, you know, it isn't until the future that we look back that we can connect the dots. And and it sounds like that's what you got people to do through the road mapping process. And thank you so much for sharing a little bit about your story as well in leading others who lead others. That's fantastic. Dude, what is the best way? Thank you so much for being here and what is the best way for people to connect with you to learn more from you and to to watch the amazing films that you're producing?

Jude Charles 47:51
The best way to connect with me is through my private email list where I share much more about entrepreneurship leadership, storytelling, persuasion and do go deeper on persuasion. And that is through my private email list, which is to get to that you go to Jude charles.co slashed list. So again, that's ju charles.co slash list. I'm sure it'll be in the show notes. But that's the best way to connect with me and to continue this conversation to understand how to roadmap for yourself to telling your own story. I go very deep on that, because I'm really passionate about it. I'm sure you could tell and the best way to do that.

John Ryan 48:32
Wonderful. Thank you again, so much for being on the show.

Jude Charles 48:35
Thank you for having me John.

John Ryan 48:36
To connect with Jude and find out more about discovering your story and sharing it in a persuasive and compelling way. When and again to visit Jude charles.co slash list until next time, develop yourself empower others and lead by example. Thanks for listening to key conversations for leaders with your host John Ryan. If you enjoy the show, please let us know give us a rating or write a review If you have a question, send me an email john@keyconvo.com. And if you haven't already, you can connect with me on twitter @keyconvo and on LinkedIn under JohnRyanLeadership.