Mastering the Art of Business Storytelling with Park Howell

Tim: Well, today we have Park Howell from the Business of Story. Park, it is definitely an honor to have you on our podcast, and, uh, if you don’t mind, why don’t you share with our audience the, your backstory.

Park: Sure. Well, Tim and Olivia, thank you so much for inviting me on your new show. I, uh, Congratulations. My hat’s off to you. You know, I’ve been doing my podcast for almost eight years. And people are like, dude, how you know how much can you actually talk about storytelling? You’ve got like 425 episodes, but there’s just something about it.

You get a chance to meet really interesting people and talk to great guests. And um, I think through my show, I got, uh, acquainted with you all and they did a little bit of work with you over the, uh, well what was that? Pre pandemic or that was during the pandemic, I think some brand storytelling work with y’all.

Tim: Well, so originally Park, we worked pre pandemic, and then when pandemic hit, uh, we did some other, uh, some of your courses, et cetera. So,

Park: Gosh, that just seems like it was so long ago now, but I’ve been at this for a long time. You’d asked quickly about my backstory, so. As you know, I’ve been in the branding, advertising, marketing world for 35 plus years. I ran my own ad agency in Phoenix, Arizona for 20 of those years, and really about 2004, I started looking for other ways to communicate because technology, the internet, you know, took over and where our clients used to own the influence of mass media, the masses had become the media and they are more, you know, vocal and louder than ever.

This day and age. So you and I and everybody watching and listening to this program, you know, our biggest struggle is how do we get our messages to land right the first time, every time quickly, so that we can hack through the noise and hook into the hearts of our audiences out there. And it was, I went in search for that very answer to that very question, and that’s where I found story tell, telling back in the early 2000 aughts and have studied it inside and out and, um, 2016 really pivoted away from my traditional ad agency.

Uh, closed it down, and now all I do is consult, teach, coach, and speak on the power of story internationally from sales and marketing to brand building and so forth. And it’s probably more crucial or critical now than ever to be able to really understand the power and use the power of story because we are all competing in this cacophony.

Of communication out there, and it is almost impossible to be heard unless you use these three primal frameworks that we teach. And you know, they all begin with the, And, But Therefore, but that’ll give you a quick little background in who I’m a, who I am, what I’m about. My ultimate goal is to help everybody here excel through the stories they tell by using these frameworks.

Tim: Well, the, you know, and, and we could attest that it works. Uh, we, our messaging has been spot on since we had consulted with you, um, Park share with us Also, you know, a lot of us have read. And our, our proponents, so to speak, of Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey, and I know that that sort of played into part of your journey.

Why don’t you share with us how that’s worked?

Park: Wow. It sure did. You know when I went back looking for an answer as an ad agency owner to how do we possibly be effective in this very noisy internet driven world? We were lucky, our middle child. Our son Parker was going to film school at the time over at Chapman University in Orange, California. A very, very prominent film school.

And he graduated, went what? 2006, graduated 2010. Spent the next 12 years in Hollywood, primarily directing virtual reality and mixed reality films. And he has since moved on to Austin, Texas, and he’s doing a ton of work out there. He loves the intersection of technology and movie making in Austin. But I tell you that because since I was looking for this answer to this question of how do we stand out in this noisy world, I asked Parker.

I didn’t ask him. I, I prompted him. I said, listen, Send me your books and your recorded lectures when you’re done with them since, well, we’re paying for them because I want to know what does Hollywood know about coaching and building? Right. You know, competitive storytellers in the most competitive storytelling market in the world.

Los Angeles and Hollywood. That’s when I found Joseph Campbell read the Hero’s Journey. Looked at this monomyth. That’s anywhere from 12 to 17 steps, um, depending on who you read. It is an amazing, amazing framework and we’ve used it to great effect in, in brand development, brand story strategy. In fact, growing one brand by 600% using our story cycle system, which is based off.

The Hero’s Journey, I tell you all that because I started in the very complex world of storytelling and started to learn that in the business world, most business leaders, sales and marketers don’t want complex brand storytelling. They don’t even care about the theory. What they really want is give us a simple, foolproof, proven way to be able to communicate that uses the three forces of story.

And so everything I teach now, Tim and Olivia, I, I, I, I teach exactly backwards from how I learned it. I learned the very complex. Hero’s Journey, applied it to the 10 step story cycle process, tried the eight step Pixar way, which is really cool in its own right. But you know what? Majority of us are not screenwriters, so it’s kind of hard to figure out.

Um, Blake Snyder’s, 15 beats of story is brilliant still. It’s hard to figure out. So I’ve boiled it down to first the five primal elements of a short story for big impact and then even reduced that down to the, and, but, therefore. This ABT framework that we know works because it uses the three forces of story of agreement, contradiction, consequence, which plays to this subconscious, primal limbic brain, which is pattern seeking cause and effect decision making.

In the background while all the rest of this noise and hub hub is going on around us. So long-winded way of saying I learned it for the complex, create it simple, and now I teach it just the exact opposite way.

Olivia: That’s interesting Park. Um, because the, what really hit me there is. The business owners do want the simplicity as, as someone who’s working in the business, give me an equation that’s going to work time after time. I know I need to tell the story. I know that’s how I relate to people, but the how, how can I do it as effectively and simply and consistently as possible to make the biggest impact?

So that certainly makes a lot of sense.

Park: Yeah. And that’s where the And, But, Therefore, comes in because you don’t have to be a story theorist to be able to apply it in all of your work, whether you’re doing a brand strategy, an email campaign, social media focusing, a sales presentation, you name it. It starts with really understanding how to use the, And, But Therefore, and real quick, just for your viewers, listeners, what that means is, the And is a statement of agreement.

You want to get your audience nodding yes, saying yes, that’s what we want. But is a statement of contradiction, but you don’t have it because of this problem. Your Therefore is a statement of consequence. Therefore, imagine what it’s gonna be like when you get it. When you follow my advice to do this or whatever, set up problem resolution.

It is literally what I have learned is the DNA of storytelling. Get this three word framework down and it will completely revolutionize how you communicate everywhere else. Using those three forces of story, agreement, contradiction, and consequence.

Olivia: That makes a lot of sense.

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Tim: Now Park, we, uh, we’ve been, uh, subscribers or loyal listeners to your podcast. And, uh, I’m, I’m amazed almost every time I look at a guest and I’m thinking, oh my God, I have nothing in common with this person. And then they come out and tell their story and it’s like, Oh my gosh, this is so fascinating and it’s because of how they’re, I really think it’s because of what you taught them and how they’re delivering their message.

Uh, you had a, uh, uh, a woman on not long ago from the Better Business Bureau, uh, and I was thinking like, oh my God, there’s no way. Yes. And, and I’m thinking, there’s no way, well, I’ll listen to it because Park’s podcasts are usually pretty interesting, but son of a gun, I’m walking out, I’m thinking I gotta join the BBB.

Olivia: It’s funny, it’s funny how, how, how stories allow us all to, to connect and, and you know, you could be listening when I’m listening to keynote speakers especially, it’s like I have nothing in common with them, but I, I’m so interested in, in. In relating my own story cause we look at everything through our own lenses and relate everything in our, in our existence through our own lens.

So I love listening to other people’s stories and how they triumphed and, you know, the story is just so powerful how it’s able to connect so many people with so many different lenses and, and cause action. You know, it’s, it’s a very powerful way to, to cause people to take action and, and move forward.

Park: Yeah, and, and you’re exactly right and, and what we all have in common. Whether you look at that guest and go, I’m not really sure if the BBB show’s right for me, or there’s a lot of guests on there. You could look at the business of story and go, really, where’s he going with this? But we always have one central focus with the show, and it doesn’t matter who comes into it.

We’re always trying to find that Central focus, and that is to help our listeners excel through the stories they tell, which is the tagline for the business of story. And what I have learned in this whole process is you can approach storytelling from myriad directions. And where, and, and, and people that seem so far removed from you that it couldn’t possibly have anything to do with your business.

My job as the host is to show you how they’re using story to be able to build their own thing, be it a career, a business, a nonprofit, for-profit, whatever, and then weed out, suss out those tips that they have that you have never thought about before in your own line of work and go, I could use that. I’ve never thought about it that way.

I wanna see how I can apply it now in my world. And I think, again, it kind of goes back to this, And, But, Therefore, methodology of getting you super focused on who your audience is. Who listens to my show, who listens, watch, watches your show? What is it they want relative to our respective offerings? And why is that important to them?

What is it that they want out of life, and why is that important to them? That’s our statement of agreement. So in my case with the show, you know, these are often small business owners, solopreneurs, chief marketing officers, HR leaders, you name it. What do they want? They want to be able to connect and convert their audiences as quickly as possible into their way of thinking, feeling, doing.

Could be an internal initiative, it could be a sales and marketing program, whatever. That’s what they want in the world, but they quite often don’t know where to start. And storytelling can be really confusing for ’em. Therefore, with the business of story, I try to simplify it and approach storytelling from any number of surprising directions that hopefully our listeners, viewers have not thought about before, that they could at least take one tip from that and apply it to their business.

So, you know, my next question for you two, what’s the ABT for your show? Let me put you on the, uh, hot seat for a minute. Who’s your listener, who’s your number 1 listener?

Tim: Well, you know, park, I. I was, I was sitting here chomping at the bit, hoping you would ask that question. So, um, yeah, so the, the, here here’s our ABT, our ABT. Everybody wants to be in control of their cash flow.

And their money, and they think that every move they’re making financially is putting them in control. But the reality is that we’ve been conditioned by the financial institutions and the government to give up control of our money unknowingly and unnecessarily, therefore, We designed a process to show you how to put you in control of your money so that you could win not the financial institutions and not the government.

Park: That’s awesome. 

Tim: Well, I had a good coach. I just wanna say that I had a really good coach.

Olivia: So the goal of the show is to, to showcase business experts or business owners and share their experiences and how they either help businesses grow or grow their own business and, and share that with other business owners out there so that they could take advantage of the same opportunities to be in more control of their cash flow and more in control of their life.

Right? We always say whoever controls your cash flow controls your life. So if you’re able to gain more control without increasing your income or you know, having to chase and increase your sales and just gathering information from this community and take it out like you say and, and just apply that one thing to move yourself forward, that’s a win.

You know, that’s a good use of your time.

Park: Absolutely. And we’ve all bought into that old story, haven’t we? Of what? Of the way they want us. To save the big corporate industrial financial complex that in some cases uses predatory tactics to get us to save so that they can live off of that money, pay us in the long run, but then tax that payment even when they do that too.

So what you are to are about is not creating a new story because it’s, there’s revealing this new narrative about how you can get in control of your own cash flow.

Tim: Yeah, and we’ve, we’ve found that it’s. People. People have the wherewithal and the cash flow and the money to do almost anything they want to do. The problem is, is that they’re so inefficient in areas that they shouldn’t be inefficient with their money. That, it ties their hands and prevents them. It sort of puts them in a position of scarcity rather than abundance.

And when we free them up, a lot of times Park, it’s, it’s sort of like, uh, it’s just a, a different way of thinking or a different way of looking at things. And when you. Open up that lens for them and show them how they could be in control of more and more of their money, more and more of their cash flow.

All of a sudden, the world is just completely different for them, and now there’s opportunity, after opportunity, after opportunity. And it, and now they’re, they’re, they’re sitting there and saying, well, what’s the best utilization of my money? Rather than saying, boy, I’d like to take advantage of that, but I don’t have the money to do it.

Park: Mm-hmm. Yeah. I mean, it’s a tremendous service you provide to the world out there. It’s just getting people to, for lack of a better term, buy into that story. Right. Um, I know when I’ve shared your story and some, some similar stories from your competitors to people, I go, what do you think of this? This is pretty cool.

The one thing I hear back, and I don’t know that you probably hear this too, and I’m kind of curious from a storytelling standpoint, how do you overcome it? People will say, it just sounds too good to be true. Everything I know. It doesn’t work that way. How could this possibly work that way?

Tim: So here’s, we, we give, I think we give really good examples and we tell it in this form of a story. So when you’re talking about folks who, uh, let’s say we’re thinking about things a little differently, or needed to think about things a little bit differently. I, I met with a gentleman about four years ago.

Who was making really good money and, you know, over $600,000 a year, and we’re thinking, I was thinking like, well, there’s not really much I could do to help this guy. But the reality was he had two business loans and a credit line, and the business loans and the credit lines, uh, popped up because he couldn’t pay his quarterly taxes, uh, without drawing on his credit line. And ultimately what would happen is he would draw on his credit line and then not pay back as much as he he drew for for the previous quarter, and then keep adding to that, and then the credit line would be maxed out. So the bank would term out that loan, make it a five year.

Monthly payment loan instead of an interest only credit line loan. And then he’d have to get another credit line. So he had two of those business loans and an open credit line. And so I, I asked him, at this point, I didn’t know how much money he made, and I said, well, how much, what was your income? And he said, well, I’m making about 600,000 a year.

I said, what was your goal when you started this business? He said, if I thought, and he started laughing, he said, I thought if I could make 150 to 200,000 a year, that we would be in pretty good shape. And I, I started laughing and I said, isn’t it ironic that you’re making three and four times what you ever dreamed you could make? And you can’t pay your damn credit your your damn, uh, quarterly taxes without drawing on a credit line. And he, he, I, I remember the, the look on his face, he said, you know, I never thought of it that way, but that’s just what I do. And that’s where I realized that the system conditions us to do things in a way that benefits the system, but is to our detriment. And, you know, we, we got him straightened out. This is the, this is the great part about it. We started his plan in October of 2019, and in, uh, July of 2020, he filed his, uh, 2019 taxes on extension on his way back from his CPA’s office. He texted me and said, Hey, Tim, I just want to share with you. That we just finished up my 2019 taxes.

I had enough money to pay my tax liability for 2019. I have enough money set aside for my September quarterly, our January quarterly, and what we think we’re gonna owe for 2020 in April of 2021. Thanks so much for everything you do for myself and my, my family, and my business. Now, that’s a great story,

Park: Oh yeah.

Tim: it’s even better. Because in December of 2022, now here’s a guy who couldn’t pay $50,000 a quarter in cash. He had to borrow on a credit line. In December of 2022, I met with him and his CPA and we found out that he’s got all these little businesses set up for various locations of his business. He has over 1.8 million of cash sitting in those businesses.

So what a transformation that was from, from October of 2019 to December of 2022. What are we talking? Three years? A little over three years. He went from not having 50,000 to having almost $2 million in cash, all because of how we taught him to think about using his money. So that’s the power when people ask.

It’s too good to be true. This could be you.

Park: Well, and when we met, and you were talking about this a few years ago, we sort of arrived at this central narrative for you all. I’d be curious if you’re still using it about this idea of. You know, playing off of cash flow to cash fluency, meaning understanding everything that you teach that we don’t, we aren’t all the best at cash flow.

And really, how do you do it? It’s not our world. It’s where you all live all the time. It’s your swim lane. The rest of us are floundering in that swim lane. But are you still using that concept of cash fluency?

Tim: We do, not as much as I think we should, but at the other, the other side of it is, one thing that we did walk away with from, from consulting with you is that the money is literally hiding in plain sight.

Park: Yeah.

Tim: And, you know, and this was a great, this, this example that I shared with you was a great example of this gentleman had the money.

It was just, and it was hiding in plain sight. All he needed to do was look at things through a view, things through a different lens. And now when you view things through the lens of being in control, all of your choices and all your decisions with how you’re gonna use your money. Become much, much more clear.

And that’s why he’s in this significantly stronger position financially.

Park: Yeah. That’s awesome. It’s a great story.

Tim: Now, Park, you co-wrote a book recently, uh, The Narrative Gym of A, is it of ABT, was that the title?

Park: No, The Narrative Gym for Business, but it is all about the ABT. Yeah. So my first book that I came out with, do I have a copy of it? Well, look at that. I just happen to have a copy of it right here. Brand Bewitchery, this is the 10 step story cycle system that will teach you how to develop a real powerful brand strategy for your business.

Plus, it’ll teach you the two other, uh, frameworks that we share so you know how to talk about it. But Tim, since you asked, here you go. I wrote this, co-wrote this with Dr. Randy Olson. He’s the gentleman that introduced me to the And, But, Therefore, Har, uh, you know, as you probably know from listening to my show, Randy is a Harvard PhD evolutionary biologist, turned USC film school grad, produced three documentaries on climate change and global warming now has 10 books under his belt.

Teaching scientists what he learned from Hollywood, how to communicate their big ideas. It was Randy in his second book called Connection that I read back in 2013 before it came out actually, they sent me a galley proof of it, and that’s when I was first introduced to the ABT. And that’s where I thought, wow, this thing is so powerful, but it’s so short.

Can it really work? And so I spent the last decade working with Randy. We teach it in the science world, I translate it to the business world. And yes, this is the book, very simple, you know, 75 page guide to help you craft ABTs in all aspect of business, not science, but business.

Olivia: Oh, that’s awesome. And, and so much that’s so applicable. I mean, the thought of how many, how many great scientists and business owners have a great story to tell, a great message to get across, I should say, a great, something that could be transformational and life-changing for the people in their community.

And you know, so many people out there, but if you don’t know how to communicate it in an effective way, It’s, it’s like a pile of rocks. You know, it’s not gonna do anything for you if, if, if you don’t know how to communicate it and communicate it in a way that is going to provoke emotion and cause action.

So that’s great. And man, the, the, the thought of applying it to scientists, That’s gotta be so powerful and, and rewarding, you know, to, to be able to translate it into science and have them communicate their message.

Park: Yeah, well, Olivia, during the pandemic, you know, when a lot of our speaking gigs, in-person courses and whatever got shut down, Randy went through the same thing because he was, again, working with science and then academics, big thinking, academics, and so he started an online 10 session online. Uh, course ten one hour sessions, four scientists.

Specifically during the pandemic, we were working completely, virtually on it. Myself and Randy and a few other colleagues, and we trained, we log over 300 hours training this program to the science world, and guess what? In that process we learned so much, about how to communicate it, how to train it, um, that it was invaluable for us.

And so, yeah, I, I travel all over now, thankfully, and I do virtual work too, but I was just in Virginia last week. I was working with McCormick. You know, the Spice Spice people, you go in your pantry, the McCormick Spices. Well, I had done, uh, several full day training sessions for them. Pre-pandemic. Hadn’t heard from them in a couple years, but now they’re just bringing their sales teams back in and people back in.

And so I did another half day session out there with them. I do in the tech world, uh, the music world, I mean, you name it, you can apply this to any line of work you’re in because what do they all have in common? As you and I and everybody watching and listening to this, we are trying to communicate and convert that Homo sapien sitting across from us.

Essentially that storytelling ape. And I don’t mean to, you know, dissolve us down to apes, but essentially we are, cause we’re not that much different than our brethren, you know, the, the monkey out there. But we are the only organisms that we know that plan, think, organize, and act in story. So you know, Tim, that story you just told earlier about that gentleman who you helped out, who went from being in debt every quarter to 50 for 50,000 bucks to whether he had 1.8 million in cash reserves that he could use anywhere.

Well, that’s a story that happened now, but you are telling it to a prospect and it’s still a fictional account for that prospect. Because, what you’re trying to do is get them to buy into this fiction, and then you make it fact by delivering on all the promises you make in that story to show them what a brighter tomorrow would be if they follow this, and then you know, you prove it out by making that happen for ’em.

Well again, we are the only organisms that we know of that can buy into that fictional account. See that bigger picture. Then of course, as a storyteller, you’ve gotta deliver on it and make that fiction fact as you’ve done so many times before with all of your other customers. And that’s why stories work.

It’s, it’s a bonding agent. You know, you, when you hear a good story, you can feel it. You can well up, you can laugh, cry, make, you know, the hair stand up on your arms on the back of your neck. It has a visceral connection with you. And make no mistake, we buy with that visceral emotion and we justify the purchase with our logic reasoned brain.

That’s why we always in business want to begin with placing our business points in the context. Of a story so that Homo sapien sitting across from you can easily process it in their primal limbic brain without any effort. And then you start backfilling with the logic and reason to support your emotional problem solution point.

Tim: Well, you know, and, and, and that’s the struggle for a lot of business owners and, and a lot of salespeople, right? We’re good at what we do. I could, I, I, and I think I told you when, when you and I first started working together, I could say with a hundred percent certainty that you’re giving up control of money.

I not even seeing your situation, but I know for a fact you’re, you’re probably giving up control of your money now. You don’t believe that. Because you think everything you’re doing is moving you forward. You wouldn’t do it if you didn’t feel that way. True?

Park: Right, right.

Tim: And so the easy part for us is to deliver on what we’re, what we’re saying or you know, our story.

The hard part is doing it in a way or communicating that in a way where people understand it. And that’s where we got invaluable coaching from you to. Be able to deliver on what we actually do in a way that our clients and prospects can understand it, and more or less, uh, more so take action for their betterment.

Park: Yeah, that’s, that’s so awesome to hear and what you’re saying right there, Tim is a very valuable point for all your audience here, and that is, Whenever we are trying to sell something to someone, or let’s say selling people have such a bad connotation of the word sales, but that’s what we all do. Let’s say we just want them to buy in to our way of thinking, feeling doing brand, product, service, or your way.

Of ma- of doing a better job of managing cash flow. What we’re doing and every single time we ask them to, to consider this is we’re trying to shake them out of status quo. To your point you just made there, mark, you’re not gonna change because you think it’s actually working for you, but I want you to consider doing something like this.

Well, I’m gonna tell myself an anti-story. I can’t help it. It’s gonna pop up and it’s all about survival. Well, no, you know, Tim, I can’t possibly do it because I bought into this story here and it seems to be working okay here. And don’t shake me outta my status quo because it’s comfortable for me. I don’t feel like I have to deal with any sort of change if I don’t have to move.

But how often by remaining in status quo do we find ourselves shooting ourselves in the foot? Blowing it? Because we didn’t move. We didn’t change when we need to change. And our jobs, no matter if we’re leaders, sales, marketing, branding, nonprofit, teachers, coaches, consultants, parents, our job is to do what’s best for that person sitting across from them, right?

And quite often that means change. From their point of view, it would be better if you exercised more, if you drank less, if you got out and saw more people, if you stopped working so hard, if you managed your cash flow a little bit differently. You’re asking me to change, I’m gonna well up. I’m gonna create a anti-story.

You and I, and everybody else has to have a better story. A true story well told to combat that anti-story because there are no amount of numbers. That are going to beat an anti-story cause they have emotionally bought into it. It’s that what they believe, it’s what they value. Even if it’s wrong for them, that’s our job then to go and show them a new way of looking at a new vision, buy into a new belief.

And then, you know, as we’ve been talking about, you gotta pay off on that. You gotta absolutely deliver so that they go, wow, this change blew my mind. I was scared as hell going into it, but I am so glad I did it.

Tim: Yeah. That’s so powerful. You know, and, and just as well, I, I, I’m gonna give a plug for you Park, but one of the, the things that we found of incredible value, Is that, uh, even on your online courses, once you go through that, and I think it’s each course is what, an hour?

Park: Yeah, if, if that, and I’ve got a new one I’ll tell you about here in just a second, but go ahead. But yeah, I try to keep ’em under an hour.

Tim: Yeah. So in, in an hour’s time, you’re gonna walk out with something of value that you could utilize to help. Craft your message and to help people to take action, that is gonna put them in a much better position.

Park: Yeah, and, and again, it starts with this basic, simple framework And, But Therefore, that you can use in everything. And I do have this online course called the ABTs of Agile Communications. And it is just under an hour. It’s three 20 minute modules, 20 minute or less modules where I walk you through how to build the ABTs.

I give you a whole ton of examples in all different kinds of businesses, all different kinds of communications channels. But what I’m doing right now is something new, and I’m not exactly sure when this show airs, but I just launched, uh, the ABTs of Business Storytelling, and it was an answer to people, entrepreneurs, solopreneurs.

Folks like yourself and Olivia, smaller companies that wanted to take, go through one of my mastery courses, but didn’t have the benefit of a large brand paying for it coming in. You know, I, I mentioned, I was just worked with, uh, McCormick, the Spice Company. I had 40 of their sales and marketing people in that session before that.

Technology group up in Whistler. I had 60 people in the room. The Home Depot, Walmart, Canada, Dell, you name it. I’m typically hired by these large organizations that come in and work with their large teams, but in this case, it is meant for yourselves, solopreneurs. Any customers that you may have that wanna get really.

Good at their communications so that they can grow revenue, and it is what the way it’s set up is it’s like a four week deliver practice program, but it’s really, really simple. We start by having them take the one hour session and they immediately learn the ABT. They can start applying it in all their work right there.

Plus they email me their ABT, and then I give them some personal coaching. Then I’ll do a live 90 minute virtual training for the entire cohort. The cohort’s, only 25 people. And we just launched this last week, so we’ve already sold, I think, 10 of those seats. We have 15 left. I wanna keep it small so I can work with everybody.

So then on Thursday, June 1st, I’ll do a 90 minute virtual training. We’ll do a bit deeper dive on the ABT, and then we’ll get a chance to work everybody’s ABTs during that session and they learn from each other. Take a week off while people are working on their ABTs. And on Wednesday. June 7th, I’ll do another Ask Me Anything session where we’ll come in and we’ll do some more ABT building and then that final week is just answering any questions via email.

The thinking here is that anybody can take advantage of this course. They don’t have to belong to a big brand that covers the cost. It’s only 250 bucks and that 250 bucks, Tim and Olivia is absolutely guaranteed. If people get done with this mastery course and don’t feel like it’s worth like 25,000 bucks to ’em, I’ll give ’em their $250 back.

Cause you know how it works. I’ve got testimonials day in and day out of how well this works. So I want to take any fear out of anybody’s minds and say, look, it. Invest 250 bucks. It will revolutionize how you communicate and grow your sales. And if you’re not a hundred percent pleased, I’ll give you all your money back and you get to keep all the wisdom you’re learning so they can learn all about [email protected], they go to the website, there’ll be a quick little popup there.

Click on that and it’ll explain what the whole course is about, but it’s underway now. So that people are taking that online course, and then we’ll kick in and do that training on June 1st and again June 7th. And even if they get a late start on it, they can do one of those virtual trainings first and then do the online course as well.

So if they feel like they’ve missed this boat, they haven’t. It’s just we only have about 15 seats left for anyone that’s interested in it.

Tim: Very good, and I would say well worth it. So if anybody’s out there, jump on it.

Park: Well, thank you.

Olivia: Do you have anything else you wanna touch on Park before we, um, close out?

Park: Well, you know, number one, I wanna thank you both for having me here and in your world, the financial world. It can be extraordinarily stressful for the folks like me that don’t understand your world inside and out. You know, a lot of business people, a lot of your viewers and listeners here are really adept at at their businesses, and they probably made a lot of money in it, but a lot of time we don’t know what to do with it.

All right, well, should I put it in that 401k or should I put it over here? I know when I was running my agency, we got to be about 20 people, which was a lot for me. And we had quite a lot of, you know, I mean, we had $125,000 a month payroll that I had to meet, and I always stockpile a lot of cash. I was raised by a, uh, uh, a father who came out of the Depression Era in North Dakota.

And you know, of course his business advices, cashflow advice was make more than you spend, son. And so I would stockpile cash in case that rainy day came that I could still write checks to people and whatever. And I would have no end of financial people say if Park, you have $400,000 of cash, right?

They’re not working for you, you should put it in these different instruments. And I was fearful to do that because I was raised with this Depression Era. Thinking of don’t trust the banks, you know, I mean, keep that money there, divide it up and make sure that you have access to that cash. Now, I think in hindsight, that was probably not the best move.

It was a safe move for me. Extraordinarily conservative move for me. But what I’ve learned a lot since then is that um, you know, there are a lot better ways to find that cash fluency to understand how can I really put this wealth in this cash flow to work for me? And I, I know that that’s the great work that you were all doing.

Cause I had a chance to peek under the hood when I was working with you all on your brand story work. So keep up the great work and I’ll be curious to hear how your storytelling helps people overcome. That big fear of change. This is what I’ve been indoctrinated into the, you know, industrial financial complex.

You’re saying, I can have more authority and autonomy over my cash. That scares me. Shouldn’t I trust all these good people over here, or you? And that, and that’s the story tension you deal with day in and day out. Right?

Tim: Exactly. And, and I like the, the wording there, tension cause it is definitely tension And uh, the idea of being in control for a lot of folks is probably scary. And I think that, that that’s behind, you know, a lot behind the psychology of maybe some folks who don’t move forward.

Park: I read something Tim the other day, that somebody equated fear is nothing more than ignorance about a problem and, and he wasn’t even being like calling people ignorant. They’re just saying if you’re really fearful about something, it just simply means you haven’t done your homework. You don’t completely understand whatever this scenario is you are in.

And so this fear wells up inside of you because you just simply haven’t done your homework. And I think maybe that comes to play quite a bit in a line of work you’re in.

Tim: Oh yeah, it does. And, and you know, another acronym for fear is, um, Fake Emotions Appearing Real.

Park: Hmm. Yeah. Isn’t that the truth?

Tim: Yeah, well Park, I can’t tell you how much we’ve enjoyed this. I, I can’t believe, you know, 45 minutes has gone by so quickly, but, uh, I can’t tell you how much we appreciate you appearing on our show and sharing your journey and putting people hopefully in a position they might take you up on your, uh, your upcoming, uh, help me with this again Park.

Park: I called it a mastery course because in those three to four weeks, you’re gonna be able to master this ABT and use it in all of your communication.

Tim: Absolutely. And uh, for $250 you don’t have anything to lose. It’s fully guaranteed. Uh, it is definitely a bargain. Uh, so Park, thanks so much. Thanks so much for appearing on our show. We appreciate your time.

Olivia: Thanks, Park.