Patrick Mosher
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Shawn Buttner: [00:00:00] Is there a mindset or belief that you have about story crafting that others don't have?
Patrick Mosher: Yes. Thank you for asking . So, if I talk about story building is,and storytelling struggle, search solution, I look at story crafting as three pieces as well. Okay. And, so, storytelling is the third component.
And people,so much in our world is like, Oh, Patrick, how do you do storytelling? It's like, back up. First phase of good storytelling is what I call story sourcing. Hmm. And source good stories. You have to realize when you're in a story
that's key. And then if, if you walk around with a sense that you're in stories, you'll be a much better storyteller.[00:01:00]
Shawn Buttner: Hey everyone. Welcome to the Meaningful Revolution podcast, the podcast where we help you live more into a life that you've designed, so that you feel more purposeful, more confident, and more happy. Today I'm with a very special guest who is an author, international speaker, world class business advisor, certified high performance coach, US patent holder in analytics, a teacher, husband, father, and granddaddy.
He spent his life helping individuals, teams, and organizations get from point A to point B, working with a very successful career at Accenture, with energy, momentum and, and, with energy, momentum and achieving success, these helps organizations. With that, that said, I'd love to welcome Patrick Mosher.
Thank you for being on the podcast. I'm really excited that
Patrick Mosher: you're here, man. My pleasure. It's so great to be here and,I even [00:02:00] like the name, the Meaningful pod,podcast. So let's, let's dive in and, and have some meaningful conversation and help people out there do what they need to do with their lives.
So let's get it on.
Shawn Buttner: All right. So, today, you know's topic is very nebulous. I know Patrick, you're a storyteller. You talk a lot about, you have a program about significant impact, and we can maybe get into that a little bit more later. But living with purpose and telling stories, which is an ancient human technology and art form I'd love to start there.
So, could you tell us maybe a little bit about your journey on being a storyteller
and
Shawn Buttner: how you got to take, taking,getting into that type of
Patrick Mosher: world? Yeah, it's so good. So I'd say. In some ways, I've been telling stories for a long time. Um, and the, the power of stories [00:03:00] is, is so relevant.
And, and we know this from,ancient religious texts,parables and stories. And, and the thing is about, the thing about stories is that they, they carry wisdom, I think of, of stories as wisdom packets and or bottled wisdom. And so, I think that's the beauty of, of stories doing a little bit of research.
And I, I just, I, I teach a story crafting class here, at the university I'm teaching at, at Purdue. And, one of the things that that came up, Yeah, like boiler up, let's go , is, is stories they gave, this is, this is a very old, research and, and pardon me if I don't have the exact details, I don't have the details in front of me, but you get the drift of this thing is that, They gave students, like, they'll just say 12 words to memorize, a series of words to memorize.
And they said, memorize these words. And then they gave group [00:04:00] B, the,12 words to memorize, but they said, put it in a story and memorize the story. And what they did, they said in the immediate recall, both A and B groups recalled at the same retention level. It's like, okay, great. Later, let's just say a month later, they asked them again, and the difference was like 12% of the a remembered and like 90% of the bee, remember the, the, the words.
The point of this is that, man, if you have something important to tell the world, if you package it in a story, it'll be memorable. And, and so how's that useful? To you to, to the people out there, your, your listeners,being memorable. Okay. We all wanna be memorable in some ways. I get that. Um, but let me give you another mini story of that.
Um, when I was at Accenture, I was [00:05:00] there for 28 and a half years. I, at the end of my career, I would be an orals coach. Orals are where you package, a proposal to a client and then you pitch. And usually they have like two or three competitors pitching for the same big piece of work. And so typically when partners would go in and coach a team before they go into these big orals, presentations, they can be like two hours long.
The first thing that most, executives would ask for, these coaches would ask for is like, Show me the deck, show me the PowerPoint deck. Andwell, the color's off, or the flow's not right, or you didn't pack in this information. The first question I would ask everybody who was gonna show up from our team into the room is like, what three stories will you tell?
And they're like, We, we didn't, we didn't prepare that. What do you mean? What are the three stories? And this is where I would tell people I would, I would tell the teams, Look, [00:06:00] clients don't buy companies. They buy the people in the room. And when they wanna buy the people in the room, they want to hear how they've got a monkey on their back.
And the people in the room can get that, take that monkey and put it on their back for them. Man, that's persuasion. So,if you think about an executive and you've got a 20 million pitch, and they're going like, I get this 20 million gorilla on my back. They wanna make sure that these three, seven or eight people that you take into that room, that they know how to take that gorilla and put it on their back.
And you know what that comes through in a story. So you tell a story, you tell a story of like and it's not like, Well, I have all these credentials with my background. It's like, let me tell you a story of how this one client, they were facing this problem. Andthat's a problem that they're facing.
And man, this is what we did. It was huge. And it's big, as big as the grill on their back. And then you go, This is what we did. And they go like, Okay, [00:07:00] we, we need to do those things. And then this is what the success was in the end. I'm like, I want that. And then you sell the work. So I just explained it in terms of selling work, but do it in terms of selling, a workshop,whatever it is.
It's like, what's the story you tell and how iden,how does that pull your audience in? So the, the power of stories is, is I believe one of the most persuasive tools that we have as human beings. And we love stories. We love stories, we love to listen to stories. Okay. I could go on and on. I should stop there.
That's a nice snippet for you, but, where do you wanna go from there? Cause I, I love stories. Yeah. I,
Shawn Buttner: I mean, I, I think,to, to put a nu a loose number, of course, not having it in front of me. Like if we think about industries based around stories, like how many billions of dollars is Hollywood come in and, and,bring in because, or any type of movie or Hollywood, all of that.
And [00:08:00] it's just storytelling at, with different elements attached to it. And hopefully not the same story over and over again. Like, the sequels get a little,Yeah. It's still good. It's still good, but ,
Patrick Mosher: Right. It's good. It, it's, it's interesting you brought in movies. I'm gonna, I'm gonna go down that path a little bit.
So so, yesterday, I, I had, I was so geeking out on this. Um, I got to go into the, The performing arts, building the visual and performing arts building, here at Purdue and teach a class on, on musical theater. Oh, cool. And it was interesting cuz 40 years ago I took a class in musical theater here.
Um, they didn't have the building back then. There's a,beautiful building for that these days. But I got to go in the building and literally I walked through the doors of this big beautiful building and I, I was tingling cuz like, oh, this is gonna be so good. And so I was guest [00:09:00] lecturing for, for a, a professor guest lecturing.
There's three students in this class, so it's, it's not, it was a huge class. Um, but I, but I was like, this is gonna be so good. And I walked in and, and I was gonna tell them, teach them about story crafting. I call it story crafting. I'll get to that in a little bit. Okay. Why? I think it's important to think about story crafting instead of just storytelling.
But I, I, I was like, How, what am I gonna teach them? I'm gonna go and, and I thought about this. And, I had just watched the beginning of a new movie that just came out Thursday. I, I love movies. I think you do too. Yeah. And, I mean, so what happened with this movie, and I, I was recognizing this and taught this in the class, it's like when a movie opens, you get the credits of the production companies.
I get that. But,you get that, but then the first thing that hits you in this story is music. Mm-hmm. . It's ominous music. It's like a, a [00:10:00] string violin.Horror movies have their own kind of vibe coming into those, romcoms have their own kind of happy light music coming into it, but there's this music that puts you in a tone.
It, it puts you in a place. I was like, What? And I, because I teach story crafting, I was like, Wow, that's so powerful. Before the movie even starts. Sound is starting to put you in a place. And then this particular movie, opens up and you see, you hear a sound and you hear this. And so in my brain,I'm starting to form, Oh, we're on an ocean cuz these were,this.
And it's like, Oh, and there's this, this gentle,I was like, Oh. And as the, as the camera,tunes in on, on the scene, it's actually snow. And what you're hearing are cars going by with Slush.
Shawn Buttner: Oh, okay.
Patrick Mosher: [00:11:00] And it's like so and so purposeful because what the whole point of this was, it's disruptive.
Something has been,disruptive and then they panned back to, I don't know if I wanna ruin the First, First Brother. A very famous actress who we all know. And, so you go like, Oh, she's in this movie. And then they pan further back, she's in a wheelchair. It's like, okay, , this is,so, so, and, and the whole movie is about disruption.
It's about how expectations are broken. And I was like, they got me in the first 48 seconds of this thing, and they didn't say a word. Yeah. I was like, powerful, powerful stuff. So, so think about that when you tell your stories,how do you set things up? Uhoh, I'm, I'm gonna go on this, Sean, so here's, Go for [00:12:00] it.
Yeah, yeah. I love this . Here's another story. So so to go with that, just to, to show the power of an opening, of setting a tone. I got asked to, to. To address 400 sellers from all over the world at a, at a large company. This was their global sales meeting, and they,they have it,every other year.
And so I got asked to do a keynote there. And so I was sitting at one of the,you can imagine a conference room or a hotel room and there's like these tables of five and this large conference room, race stage, all the, the lights and the,the heavy lights and they got camera guys in the back, all that kinda stuff.
All this like major, like this is a major production. I mean, companies spend millions on these kind of, of, of meetings. And so I did this keynote and so I'm sitting at a front table and they tell me, this is what, where you are in the agenda. Here's this thing, what's gonna happen? Then you're gonna be next.
I was like, Okay. So I did that thing now for me, [00:13:00] People always think, Oh, you're such a natural speaker. Oh, you're so good at, It's like, Oh heck no. I'm just, my nerves are like,off and everything like that. And I go and and then they announce my name over the speaker and,nobody knows who I am.
Nobody knows me from a hole in wall. Cause I'm, I'm not a public figure. I'm not, I'm not Tony Robbins or something like that. . Right. Um, but everybody's like,it's the polite, but it's sellers. Right? So they're very enthusiastic. So, so they're like, Yay. And so 450 people,applaud. And I walk over to the, the ray stage, walk up to the stage, and I walk to the back of the stage on the back corner, kind of in the dark.
And I just look at the crowd
and the clapping was like,
And then everybody stopped and I waited till you could hear a pin drop. [00:14:00] And I walked forward to the front of the stage and I said, Have you ever looked a, a, a chief executive officer in the eyes at the, at the end of a proposal meeting and you knew you weren't gonna win? Wow. That was me. We had eight minutes left and we won the work.
I wanna share with you how that was done. And I said, in about that level of a voice, and now you could go, people going like, I need to hear from this guy . You know? Now I set the stage, I put them in a room with a CEO and I put them in a place of saying they've all been there of like,that, that, that awkward silence, that moment where you go like this, this isn't gonna.
They all knew. They all knew that place. So part of this is like, how do you set the tone in the very first 30 [00:15:00] seconds? How do you get people wrapped up and pull them in to the story and, and wanna know what's next? So powerful. Okay, so that story is, this is, I, I, I've, I've been looking at this for a long time.
Mm-hmm. , you asked how I got into this. I don't know my favorite story growing up. Maybe that was it. Um, I remember growing up my, my favorite story is, the little Engine that could, I think I can't, I think I can't. I used, I remember it saying that over and over. So maybe that's when I first got into stories.
I don't know. But I think I started recognizing the power of the story itself. Not in the story, but like looking at, wow, wait a minute. Stories matter. And started using them. Um, in my, in, In the work that I did. So, I think it started back when I was a kid, maybe the first book that was opened and, and read a story to me.
But I carried that throughout because I, I love how [00:16:00] engaging a good story is. Mm-hmm. , so Right on. So that's my, that's my long story about storytelling. .
Shawn Buttner: Okay. So I do have, I have a couple of follow up questions I do wanna mention, since you mentioned the little That Could, my favorite book growing up that really I found was really engaging was, there's a monster at the end of this book
where is like so worried about the monster being at the end of the book, and then he realizes at the spoiler alert at the end that he's the monster.Like, and it's all cool. But that, that, that set of suspense, that builds up through that story. Even as a little kid, I was like, Oh, this is like so funny and so exciting.
And then like, oh, . Um, I have that magical moment of the first time hearing it and realizing that like flip at the end that like, oh, you got worried about nothing. Which I think is the, the, the, lesson of it is something that I think about [00:17:00] all the time. Like, how am I the monster at the end of this book?
You know,
Patrick Mosher: like , like how old were you when you first heard that? Like, guess about three or
Shawn Buttner: four.
Patrick Mosher: Okay. Three or four. So here's the, first of all, what I love about that is, well, they ruined the end of that story. They told you the end of the story at the title of the thing. Yeah.So it's like, Oh, no, no, no.
That creates suspense. That's so good. And then here's a story you heard when you were three or four years old, and again, looking at you, but also looking at your,whoever's listening and watching this, it's like, how often have you been the monster at the end of your story? . I mean, yeah. That happened yesterday.
You know, it happened today and it's like, Man, that story lasts forever. The good ones too. The good ones are just imprinted on your soul. Um, Oh, that's so good. So yes, yes. Awesome. Yeah.
Shawn Buttner: Um, they, they, they really are. And we, we could probably do a whole podcast [00:18:00] just on the, the important stories, but this transitions really nicely, I think, into the next question that I'm curious about.
And what would you say is the most important story you've had to tell so far? Having, knowing,your business and the Wisdom Council work that you do? Um, we can talk about that to, there's so many things you can talk about, but yeah. Is there like one story where you're like, Oh, this was a lot on the line,personally, work wise?
Um, yes. Whatever that was meaningful to you and, and
Patrick Mosher: what happened. Yes. That's great. Um, I, I'd call this a, a, a two part story. There's two, there's two stories that, that, maybe call this two chapters or two parts of a story. Okay. So I'll, I'll, I'll give you the first part of the story and then we'll see if we do the second part.
Okay. But I just told the story, yesterday when I was [00:19:00] teaching the story crafting, class to these music students, these musical, theater students. So, and here's the story. I'm not gonna tell you about the story. I'm gonna tell you the story. Yeah. Yes. So, so, I was walking down the hall and in high school and on the right there's the classrooms and on the left there's the lockers.
And it was a change of. And so, I was in an all Catholic boys high school. And so the, the, the halls are crowded with everybody changing classes, going to places. And as I'm walking, I'm invisible to people. People are bumping into me. I wouldn't say,they were knocking the books outta my hand cuz it wasn't, nobody was mean bullying, but, but they, I just was invisible.
And literally two guys walking down the hall, they didn't like move because I existed. They just [00:20:00] walked through me. Wow. And, and,it's just like, so I was, I was literally just like invisible to people. So I'm, I'm walking through the hall and I'm getting bumped right and left. And, and again, nobody was being purposely mean.
I was just, I wasn't there. I just wasn't there. And I had a mantra in those days. I said I have an invisible strength. Invisible strength. I, I'm just, there's this invisible strength. They can't see it. I have it invisible strength. And I walked down those halls
and I realized that invisible strength was just the lie. I was telling myself that to keep myself from crying from an outburst of anger, to anything, to anything, just to say, I'm here. [00:21:00] Let me be seen. Um, I never did that. High school. Never did. And so imagine that's the change of every class, is that, that invisibility and the lie.
So that's the first part of the story. Second part of that story is in this, all men's school. Um, it was a college prep school and, academics were huge at the school. Um, of, of, I think 286, high school students that graduated my class one didn't go to college. Wow. Two of the, of the people I graduated with, scored perfect.
S a t scores, 16 hundreds. English and math, both. [00:22:00] I mean, these were brilliant people and I got really good grades, got really good grades. Our, our, report cards every quarter. We're we're reported in four significant digits. So you got, soyour cumulative is 94.6235. Mm-hmm. , your, and your, your, your semester grade is this and your a and you had a plus AA minus all the way down, and those are worth points and all this kind of stuff.
And then also on it was your rank. Mm-hmm. , your quarter rank and your cumulative rank. I mean, this is hugely competitive. I don't, I don't even know if that's legal these days, . Um, so, but throughout my high school with this invisible strength, what I did have is I knew how to work hard. I [00:23:00] wasn't the smartest kid in the room, but I, I worked harder than anybody else.
And so I remember this the second, the, the, the fourth quarter of my senior year, I went from seventh to sixth in the rank, and I remember it was Dave Lineman. I got, Dave was six, I was seven. , Dave, if you're out there 45 years, 50 years, sorry. But I got him on the second, the, the fourth quarter of the last year.
And I got, I ranked six in there that year. Our high school was ranked seventh in the country. Wow. In academics. So,I took ap, everything, AP Calc, AP chemistry, AP English, AP whatever. And and so theoretically speaking, I was one of the top 50 students that graduated from high school that year.
Wow. [00:24:00] However, I was terrible at standardized tests, SATs, acts, that kind of stuff. So I wouldn't say terrible. I was comparatively mediocre. I wouldn't even say mediocre. I was comparatively average. Okay. But these guys that got 16 hundreds and stuff, there were a lot of those guys and they would get consistent bees cuz they didn't work hard.
I don't know if you know the types, but they're really smart. They don't work hard, they get bs. They were getting literally four year scholarships to Yale, Harvard, Stanford. It was like the school said, Well,we don't really care about grades that much. We really care about these sanitized tasks.
And I didn't get any scholarships anywhere. I mean, there's like the list of scholarships was just fill the page. Like,everybody had scholarships. I didn't get any. And that's when I realized that invisible [00:25:00] strength was a lie. Getting good grades was a lie. It's not gonna propel me into life. Now that may or may not be true, but Wow.
And what I had given up for those good grades was any bit of social awareness, any kind of, of communication skills. I was an introvert, I was a wallflower, and I couldn't talk to anybody unless I was in my cocoon of safety. Um, and so I graduated that year, came to Purdue, studying chemical engineering, and I promised myself that in this new, in these new digs that, and I, I s saw Sean, this is like yesterday, I can remember this.
I was like, I got here. And I was like, I don't have to be that person that I was. I get to come here and [00:26:00] create whoever I want to be.
And so, I came here and I said, I, I wanna learn two things. I, this is controversial, to people cuz it's not politically correct, but I'm gonna do it anyway. . Cause I love you, Sean. I'm gonna reveal this, but I said you're, you're here. Thank you. As I said, I had two objectives when I got here freshman year.
I was gonna learn how to, how to drink beer. Mm-hmm. . And I was gonna learn how to talk to the prettiest girl in the room. Now if you,I've, I've, I've told this story from stage and, andpeople have said, Oh, that's so cute. That's so great. That's, everything's like, No, no, no. First of all, I went to every fraternity rush party I could find and I'd go down and I would stand by the beer, the keg or whatever, poor beer out, stand by the keg.
[00:27:00] And I don't know if you can identify with Sean. I'd Iden I, I'd Id the person in the room. That I was gonna talk to and inside of me was this huge, like, Don't do this. It's the worst thing. You're gonna die. It's gonna be the stupidest thing that happens. And then you walk across the room and all your fears come true.
You walk across the room, you fumble on your words, you sound, you sound like an idiot. They laugh and giggle at you. You walk away, you go home and you cry yourself to sleep.
And then that was Friday, Saturday, you wake up, you go to another fraternity party, you go stand by the Kegar beer, you id, who you're gonna go talk to. You walk across the room and you do it again and again and again and again. And so, no, [00:28:00] that wasn't fun. It wasn't easy and it wasn't cute. There's a lot of crying myself to sleep at nights,
and, but I got better. I got better and better. And then it just, it, it became like this test of courage and that's where I sunk,that all that, who went into getting these good grades and working so hard. I was like, this, I'm gonna figure out, this is, I'm gonna get an A in this. So I would walk across the room, walk across the room, So by the end of the semester, I would walk across the room confident.
How I walked was different. How I stepped into it was different. How I talked to the people were different and I could talk to them. Now that sounds. I don't know, in today's political crap. Sounds like targeting, it sounds like whatever. It's like, [00:29:00] No, it was, it was all about me. It was just like I was overcoming my own fears.
Um, what I learned from that is that from that moment on, I could talk to anybody in any room. Mm-hmm. , I had overcome my biggest fear so I could talk to anybody in any room. Now, from that moment on, I could talk to professors, I could talk to famous people. Later in my career, I could talk to CEOs of Fortune 100 companies and be warm about it.
It's cause cause they were the prettiest girl in the room. AndI've done that, been there. And so that fear just didn't rise up to, to shut me down. I wouldn't let that shut me down. Today people say, Patrick, you're such a natural storyteller. Oh, Patrick, you're a natural speaker. It's like, no.
Yeah. . This is a craft , this is learned. And, so my, my [00:30:00] to end that story, part two of that story is, our self talk about who we are. Mm-hmm. , that's a decision you make in any moment. In any moment. You get to break that if you want. Yeah. And, so that's, that's the moral of that story. It really is,personality traits.
Yeah, I get it. They are very strong. But you can change 'em, you can change how you show up. You can change a lot of the things. Um, oh, part three of the story. Okay. Are you okay with part three of the
Shawn Buttner: story? Yes, I am hooked. So yeah, continue .
Patrick Mosher: So, so it's interesting. So, I was at a, an event where Daniel Amond spoke.
Daniel Aman is one of the lead guys on brain research, and I was in row. I was in the first row when he was teaching, actually, in this big event,the kind of events, those arbor and,Right. It was a Brn Burchard event and I was in the first row and every [00:31:00] time Daniel Aman, Dr. Daniel Aman came across the stage, I swear he was looking at me.
You know, like, I was like, When you're a speaker, you target somebody in the audience. I know that now I was his target on that side of the stage. So every time he came across and he's like, he's looking at me and I'm like, Dude, stop looking at me. What's, what is that about? You know? And so of course that's, that's a hook, right?
So at the end of this, he's saying, Well come to one of my, my, clinics and get a breakdown. I was like, Okay, I'll go do a brain scan. And they're, they're pricey. But I was like, I wanna learn about my brain cuz I care about my personal development. Mm-hmm . And what better way to look at,who you are and what you are than study the brain where everything rattles around it.
So I went to Bellevue, Washington, flew there and did this brain scan. Three days of testing they do. Wow. And on, on the third day, you go talk to the, the, this guy was a neurologist and a psychiatrist that study the brain and neurology. I was like, This is great. [00:32:00] So I walk in and he's got my file open and he looks, he's looking at this, just the, just the brain scan, right?
Mm-hmm. just what's there. And he said you were shy at once and overcame that. Right? Whoa. Well, I, How did you see that on that picture? And then he described it. He said there's a part of your brain that, that you know how shy you are or, or anything. It sits and, and I think it, I don't know if I have this right, but on the left side there was like, you could see on the brain scan, just a slight dip.
In the, in the, in, in, how they analyze the results of that. So there's a slight dip on left side, but it was, it looked like it was kind of filled in. So it was this dip and it was kind of filled in. He said that that dip indicates shyness, but, but it also shows that brain, the, the blood flow over lots of time that you've forced brain the flow of [00:33:00] blood through that part of your brain.
So it looks like,it's repaired. Wow. And I was like, Okay, now I'm all in now, and, and tell me more. Tell me more about me. Um, so it was just amazing to see that kind of of results. Again, I look at this and I go like, I changed the flow of blood in my brain over a long period of time through the right habits that changed who I am.
Yeah, man. You get to wake up every morning and say, Who am I? And you get to live into that. That's, that's core, core of that story. Okay. Three parts of that story. I never told all three parts at one time. That's good. Oh,
Shawn Buttner: thank you for, for sharing it on with everyone listening. Yeah. Yeah. Um, that's super cool.
And, and also as a Purdue graduate, I'm not sure if, if my audience actually knows, I don't, haven't talked about school too much yet. Um, I actually had a really similar, experience to, of being [00:34:00] introverted in high school, being invisible, but that was on purpose. Like can't be a target.I was the quiet kid that like could get along with all the different tribes, like every, like jocks, the AP kids, punk rockers and all that stuff.
Um, but nobody really, like, I had a core group of friends. Nobody really knew me and. My, I knew that going to Purdue, I would need to get outta my shelf. I was gonna make any type of friends and survive cuz all my crew was going to other places. And so with, I, I had a friend that was part of this like theater thing.
They were doing a coffee club where you do poetry or music. Mm-hmm. And I absolutely love music. And with three months of guitar lessons not being able to hold a tune, I agreed to get up on stage in front of like 50 of my peers. And I'm like, this like paralyzes me with fear when I consider it. I just want, don't think [00:35:00] about it until you're up there.
Right. That was my, I'll avoid it until it happens. But I also knew that doing this would help me push me in a way where I would be like, I wanted to be the mayor of Purdue. Like, that was the mentality I was going in, leaving, senior year of high school. And so I like did a terrible job with these songs that I didn't think anyone knew, but there was one person I remember with the lights on the stage, like I could see him singing along to this song I thought was obscure and like digging it.
And I'm like, Oh, like people want you to succeed. And so anytime I had that, that crushing fear of somebody, like they don't want you to look like a fool, Like they'll try to help you out unless you really b it. Um, and I did my fair share of really bing it over the years, but most people like understand like, Oh, you're just a little nervous and [00:36:00] we'll help you along.
So and that, and I, I perfected that skill at Purdue also. Um, yeah. So very really thankful to that organization that the,the college for or helping me experiment socially, I guess. I don't know. Um,
Patrick Mosher: it's so good. And, and, I'm teaching, career readiness to sophomores right now. Oh, awesome.
And, and they're so focused on,getting, summer internships next summer. . That's the big thing. And I literally, I, I, I degreed, I have three degrees from Purdue and I, I literally tell 'em, I'm like, Look at the end of this thing, if you walk away with a piece of paper, you missed the learning environment that's here.
Mm-hmm. . And I'm like, What do you mean? It's like, look, I, my degree says BS my chemical engineering Patrick Moher Purdue. [00:37:00] It doesn't have my GPA on it. It doesn't say anything else. That's the piece of paper. Great. That's a ticket to the game. Yes. That's great. That's great. That's great. But when you leave Purdue or any place, any major, experience like that, leave with a story.
Mm-hmm. , what's your, what's and I, I'm telling them over and over again, what's your Purdue story? And, and they're like, What? Right. Because it's, because it's what you just said. It's like your Purdue story isn't like, Well, when I took, Physics 2 51 on,week 10,there was this great problem that I got to solve and I feel really good because I got a hundred percent on that quiz point.
It's like, that's not your story when you leave Purdue, or, or any event,the story is, I, I got up in front of 50 people and I played guitar. Your story is, my story of. I, I actually got [00:38:00] invited to three of the fraternities. I turned 'em all down. Um, but my, that's my story. Yeah.That's a part of the story.
Um, that's what you leave with. And you know what the end of life,you've done your job.In, I, I was in consulting for 28 and a half years. Yep. I delivered a lot of projects, delivered a lot of PowerPoint decks, delivered a lot of solutions to clients. I had a lot of meetings. If you ask me,what happened on these projects, You know what I'm remembering?
I remember the people. I remember the stories. And, that's what you take with you.As you go through life, you string together these pearls of amazing stories. That's what you remember. That's why storytelling and story crafting is so important. You're in a story right now. Mm-hmm. . How would you tell that story?
Well, it's not worth telling. It's like, Oh, every story's worth telling [00:39:00] if you're good at story crafting. Yeah. So good.
Shawn Buttner: And, and I think that leads really nicely into the next phase of the podcast. And like what, number one, like where do you think most people get wrong in telling their story? I think number one is, is not believing that people are interested in it, but we are wired, I think, at a very primal level to once upon a time you're like, Oh, I know this, but what's your twist on it?
You know, like,
Patrick Mosher: Yeah, yeah. I, What, what do people get wrong in stories? I, you name The first one is, I don't have a story worth telling. My story's not interesting. I think, people get wrapped up in that, you can tell a great story about a very mundane. . Um,but, but you have to, you have to have the story crafting skills to do it.
So I think where people get wrong is that I don't have a story worth telling. Everything in my life is mundane. Um, another part about [00:40:00] that is, that I'm not special. Hm. My experiences aren't special. And I, I get that with these sophomores, here, they're like, Well, I, I don't, I don't have a great story to tell,interviewers.
I'm like, the story, the string of decisions that you made to get to this institution. Mm-hmm. are unique to you. And it's special because you grew up in your family. You grew up with your parents either pushing you towards this or pushing you to something else. Those are all amazing stories. And it's, you, it's your superpower that's coming through.
And so,by the time,I don't know, by, by the time you're 15, you've got a string of stories of decisions that you've made in your life that are unique to you. And no one else because no one else had your mom and dad. Mm-hmm. , no one else had your mom and dad who [00:41:00] were either like, incredibly supportive of everything you did, or like were really tough and,strict or were passive aggressive or whatever they were.
Right.I mean, everybody has their own story. So it is unique. You just don't think it's unique because it's your story. Mm-hmm. , wait, wait, wait, back up. It's your story. That's what makes you unique. So I think that's a huge part is that, that people think that their story's not,um, helpful.
Um, I'd say, ah, by the time, and I don't know your, your, the demographics of your, your podcast, but, but I'll, I'll, I'll put, I'll put in here. Um, when you get to your early to mid thirties, By that time in your life, your career, you've made a, a number of career choices. Um, when you first leave high school or college.
When you get into the professional life as an entrepreneur, even any [00:42:00] of those things,the first things you do, they're not it mm-hmm. , and you realize, Oh, that's not it. And then you make an adjustment. These are, and I just taught this today, in class today, , you make these course adjustments.
They're course adjustments. There's these big, it's like these big dials on the side of your career,instrument going like, Oh, avoid that. Oh, I didn't realize that. And then by the time you're in your mid thirties, you're, you're kind of using finer tune course adjustments on this. And it's about that time where the, the world is recognizing, Oh, this.
This person's special and you're, you're realizing that, hey, I've got this thing. And it's about the time where you have a realization that, a self realization that wait a minute, I've got a thing that nobody else has. And you start leveraging that equity, that brand equity you have consciously. [00:43:00] And that's a powerful time in, in your career.
And at that moment, man, if you have stories about how, who you are and what your superpower is, it's gold. So I'd say that's the second part. It's not worth saying, but I'd even lift that further. It's like, what is your superpower? How do you define it? How do you describe it? And this isn't entirely true, but I put it to your audience this way.
It's like, if you can't articulate your superpower, guess what? No one else can either. So,figure out what that looks like. Now that's not entirely true because sometimes, other people can say, Sean, this is what you're really good at. I was like, No, I'm not good at that. It's like, No, you're really good at that.
It's like, well, nah, I'm not really good at that. Stop saying no. Yes. Thank you. I'm good at that.Cause, cause you are so, I've asked, Oh, this is so good, dude. I've asked [00:44:00] three words that I've asked. 50, I I did this a couple years ago. Um, I asked 54 people, clients, family, friends, give me three words that describe me as my best self.
It's a great exercise. Hopefully I'm giving people snippets of challenges to go out and do as a part of the suit, go out and ask,I asked 54 people. I'm a nerd. So I got, I have a list of people and I put it on a spreadsheet. So I could analyze the results, and, and so I put it on a spreadsheet and I have three words that,I say, Oh, this is my best self.
So part of it was the hypothesis was like, well,people are gonna say, this is who I am, my best self. Only one of the three words turned up to be calm and across most of the people, only one. And, and I was totally surprised at the word that came up most often, that I literally was like, I had to [00:45:00] check the results again.
I was like, really? The word that came up most often was compassionate. Wow. And I was like, I'm not a compassionate person. Person. Oh, self-talk. Shut up. You now have data that says you are a compassionate person. So shut off that self-talk because it's true. You're a compassionate person. But I would never use that to describe myself.
Hmm. That's like, wow. And, so, so that was fascinating to me about people could see what your superpowers ask 'em, put it together, and then when you start looking at that, it's like, what are my stories where I show compassion? Mm. What are my stories, of, and what I love? One of the words that I had in my list is,an authentic, I'm an authentic guy.
And so so, and that was the one word that many of the people did say was true. And I was like, What are my stories of authenticity? [00:46:00] And when you tell a story of authenticity, it's not like, Well, Patrick's just an authentic person. No, no, no. You tell a story where you, authenticity is challenged. You tell a story of where it's so easy to sweep something under the rug and be a little bit inauthentic just to make the situation easier.
And you choose not to do that, tell those stories. Andwhat if, if somebody tells you that you have this as a one of your three words, that's really strong, then, what's the story around that? Yeah, My favorite. That person said, I asked for three words. And you, I think of those three words. And one person said, I think you'll appreciate this.
They said, Legendary Jedi master . I accept, I accept those three words. ,at least for that person it was so good. But, butit's a great exercise to do. So so that's what people get wrong. They don't accept their [00:47:00] superpower and then they don't, then they can't think of stories that are relevant to that.
Stop it. Stop it.You have a superpower,Um, you're an adult human. Yeah, you've made a set of decisions that got you where you are and you've, you've gotten certain kinds of success because you've guided yourself there with these decisions. That's who you are. What is that superpower? And then tell stories around it.
Okay. That's so
Shawn Buttner: powerful. And I'm putting myself back sophomore year at Purdue wishing I would've had this advice cuz it took me a little bit longer to kind of realize I do have a superpower. My stories aren't tied up in my gpa. I fell into that, that trap. Yeah. And so it is such powerful advice no matter where you are in, in, in your life.
Um, I, I think, but especially as a sophomore in
Patrick Mosher: college. It, it's so good. So, so here's the thing that over years that have changed, [00:48:00] I believe, is that when I graduated from college, to your point I'm, I'm a tail end baby boomer. And so credibility, credibility had to do with, leadership roles and this and that and everything else.
And then you'd go into your interviews and go like, This is how I did everything great. And this was great and that was great, and I'm great and so give me a great job. And that,that's how it was, right? And it's just like, and that, that was what success was decades ago. Mm-hmm. , that's what credibility is today.
I, I'd like to think, and I know this is true, that we've evolved. We've evolved and so, that is not credibility these days. All your accomplishments and all those things, honestly, credibility these days is, comes with vulnerability. And so I was talking to one of these, sophomores and, [00:49:00] came to office hours and, and, and, and he saidProfessor Mozier, I love that.
Professor Moser. It's so weird. , Professor Mozier, I wanna tell a story, in my job interviews for summer. Um, so I wanted to bounce off the story. I would tell, I was like, Great. Tell me the story. So this is what I heard of the story, Sean, he said, So, a friend of mine and I, last Christmas were selling Christmas trees.
And,we hit, we hit, we hit a glitch in, in the operation of,how we were gonna do this. And then this is what I heard, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, , blah, blah, Success, success, success, success, success. And we filled a lot of trees. And he said, How was that? And I said, It sucked. And he said, What?
Like, this is a terrible story. I was like,I, I know. [00:50:00] I know the business school is telling you that's the right story. Mm-hmm. . Um, but you know what? The business school is a bunch of people my age telling you what that story is, what that story should be. And these days we're, we're not the ones interviewing people,people interviewing them are people that are fresher and newer in their careers, not me.
And they said, Well, what story would you tell? And I was like, Christopher, his name was Christopher. I said, Christopher, I want you to think about a time in the last three months where you cried about school. Mm. And he said, I said, Do you have one of those? And he goes like, Yeah. It's like, Okay, tell me that story.
He's like, Well I got two months ago. I was taking [00:51:00] accounting and I, I got a 56% on the first test and I was flunking, I was, I was gonna flunk out of this class and I just felt so bad about it and I, I called my mom and my dad cuz we don't, we don't live,in Indiana. We're, we're, we're outta state.
And, and so, I called them up and they were so disappointed in me and, and they were angry with me. And I got off the phone, Gosh, I'm almost coming to tears. And I, I, I got off the phone, cried on Saturday morning, I woke up and I said, No, this isn't gonna. I am going to study every day for the next accounting test every day until the next test in like three weeks.
So I called up my, my mom and dad. My dad was there. [00:52:00] I said, Dad, this isn't gonna happen. It's not gonna happen this way. And his dad said, Okay, I just want you to know one thing, son. What's that? It's like, he said, I just want you to be better than me. First generation. They're first generation. Mm-hmm. , you know.
So his dad came over an immigrant. He said, I just want you to be better than me. And so Christopher said so, and I was like, No, stop there, Christopher. How did that make you feel? And he said, Oh, my dad's so awesome. Um, it's, it's an impossible expectation. How can I be better than my dad? So I felt like this was an impossible mark, an impossible expectation I felt.
Like, I was in this chasm, this precipice, and I also felt like, angry at myself for not doing so well. Um, and I felt defeated and, and fearful. I felt all those things at once. I was like, Great. Now what'd you [00:53:00] do next? He said, I studied every day. Studied every day for the next accounting task, and three weeks I got an 87%.
Wow. I said, Congratulations. You probably just ruined your 4.0 at Purdue . And he is like, Oh, I know. And I was like, You know what? And this was, he, he was a, he was a freshman at the time of the story. I said, So if I were interviewing you for consulting job and you had a 3.89 mm-hmm. , and you had one B that was freshman year accounting, I'm telling you, I would want you to tell the story you just told me.
Yeah. He's like, Why? I said, because in that story, when I hire at accounting or at at, at Accenture, what you just explained to me is when I do something wrong, I escalate it to supervisors. [00:54:00] I let them know that I messed up. You resolve yourself to do better. You have the perseverance and the grit to do better, and then, and you feel it.
You have an emotional feel and you're coachable. I love people who graduate that are coachable. Mm-hmm. , and then you nail it at the tail end. Those four qualities I would hire every day, every day to be a good consultant. It's not the 4.0 that matters. It's, it's the resilience, it's the coachability, it's the vulnerability, it's all those things.
He's like, Wow, I didn't think about that. So, That was the coaching I gave him to say, your, that story is so powerful. Tell that one. Yeah. So I think, I think credibility comes with vulnerability. People want to hear the mistakes that were made. I bet your podcast people,are listening to this, [00:55:00] what they don't wanna hear.
You know, me say, Well, Sean, I had it all figured out from the start. I was successful from the start. I did everything right and I was very successful. They'd go like, Sean, what numb nuts did you just like, bring into your podcast? ? You wanna hear that story? Um, and, and these are the three important components of telling a good story.
Oh, is, you've read
Shawn Buttner: into my next
Patrick Mosher: question, so there you go. Is is there's a struggle. Start with a struggle. Chris's story. Christopher's story started with, I got a 56% on an accounting test.That draws you into the story. It's like, Oh, and you feel for the protagonist. It's like, I, And what's really cool about that story, I mean, you could do a movie on that story on getting a B, getting a D on a test or flunking a test.
How many people have done that? But how he told the story was, ugh, so powerful. So how many people out there have failed at [00:56:00] something?Everybody, right? So it's like, okay, so, so there's a common mark with that story. So it starts with the struggle. What's the struggle?I talked about the movie earlier on in this, in the podcast.
It's like you open up with, a woman in a wheelchair. Okay, How'd she get there? What'd she do about that?Your brain just goes like, I need to know more about this story. Start with the struggle. And start with a struggle that many people can identify with. I think of it as How do I, yes.
I'll say it. It's, it's start with a very low reference point,lower than people in your audience have for themselves, or common to the people in the room that they have for themselves. They go like, I got a 56%. What's the lower reference point than failing something? [00:57:00] Everybody's got that as an experience.
And so, so that's the first part. Struggle. And then there's a search. It's, it's, and it's the, Oh, this is so, Joseph Campbell,the heroic journey. It's like, then there's the quest for the holy grail.It's like, and there's dragons to slay and there's mountains to climb, and I fell down and skin my knee or fell down the side of the mountain or whatever.
So, so people want to hear, there was a struggle and then things were hard. And, and so in the way are these obstacles, the dragons to slay? And as you tell that part of the story, people go like, I, I, I can identify with those. Yes, I've had that obstacle. I get it. But also what's happening in that story is that they are you, you're a protagonist.
They want you to win. And they're going like, I want him to win because I'm in the story. If you're a good storyteller, people are in your story there. There's like, I wanna make you win because I wanna win. [00:58:00] So the struggle is like, and this happened and we overcame this, we did this. And what you're telling them is there's a process.
Mm-hmm. , there's a process of going through, getting to the success, and in the end there's a solution, there's an end result.Maybe it's the holy grail. Um,maybe I was mean by telling him, was like, Congratulations, you just ruined your 4.0 . But, but he is like, But he was like, Yeah, I did. I said, But that, that's, You got so much better of a pearl of, of wisdom out of that than all the, all the rest of the a's that you could get.
Mm-hmm. . And I'll tell you, if that's the one course you gotta B on or a C on in your whole college graduate program, when I'm looking at your transcript, I can tell you a one. I'm gonna ask you about the C You got freshman year in accounting, . Yep. Because it's the glitch. [00:59:00] It's the chin in the armor. Why?
Because credibility is where,that's credibility is built through vulnerability these days. Mm-hmm. , they wanna see grit. People wanna see resilience they wanna see coachability, they wanna see adaptation. These are all words that are just like, that's what we wanna see. Which I think is an evolution from, I wanna see success and win, win, win, win, win.
Oh, I don't wanna see that. I wanna see how you could do stuff. So, So struggle, search solution. I think those are like the most important three components of and I wouldn't say storytelling. I'd say that's a part of story crafting,um, how to build that story. Um, so anyway, those are, it's a great storytelling struggle, search solution.
I love that.
Shawn Buttner: Um, and got the, the hamster wheel going on in my head on a bunch of stories I need to tell and more in my business than [01:00:00] I have been. So, I, I do appreciate it. And it, I also think that intuitively, especially I would imagine in hiring, and that's a whole other subject, but seeing how people struggle is almost more important than the struggle.
You know, like that's when I would hire for engineering teams. It was never about like anyone could do code, I believe with enough experience. Like it's the same stuff there was. Problem solving and all that. But how did you handle the guy in the project that was mean to you? and the people that are like, nobody's ever mean to me.
I'm like, I don't buy that, number one. And number two, that means you're gonna be fragile when it happens. And we don't have time to pick up,pick you up and put the pieces back together. We need you to be able to like, adapt quickly. So you're telling the story, I'm putting myself in the story, just like you had mentioned.
Yeah. Um, that's the, the power of this and that's so good. So, so, [01:01:00] so good. I'm so like extremely, like, pumped about this. Um I was then curious like, before we start wrapping up, and I feel like we could probably talk for hours and hours and hours, but indeed we could. Is there a mindset or belief that you have about story crafting that others don't have?
Yes.
Patrick Mosher: Thank you for asking . So, if I talk about story building is,and storytelling struggle, search solution, I look at story crafting as three pieces as well. Okay. And, so, storytelling is the third component. And people,so much in our world is like, Oh, Patrick, how do you do storytelling?
I was like, Back up. first phase of good storytelling is what I call story sourcing. Mm. And source good stories. You have to realize when you're in a [01:02:00] story o that's key. And then if, if you walk around with a sense that you're in stories, you'll be a much better storyteller. Hmm. So, So let me give you an example of one of those.
Oh. So, um, Very mundane situation. This is so good. Um, so, my grandson was playing in a sandbox. It was a raised sandbox. So to hold the sand in, they had, what is they, two by sixes, boards. Two of them nailed together to create the perimeter of the sandbox. Okay. And so in the sandbox there were these two digging tools that you could play and dig,so kids like to play and, and dig these things up.
And, and then it moves around and you could move the sand around. And my grandson was, playing in, in one corner with a little one [01:03:00] of those things. In the other corner there was a bigger one, , and there was another kid playing in that one. And so I could see him eyeing the other one. And so he's, he's Digg the thing and moving around.
And then his, the other, the other kid's parents came and. So the kid ran away with them. And so Eli stood up and I was standing at the corner, the, the one of the corners. So this other machine was catty corner Dam. Mm-hmm. . I was sitting at the, the mid corner. And so Eli stood up and started balancing on the two by sixes,to go over to the other machine.
And so he is coming, and right when he came by me, I said,Eli, it would've been faster if he'd going across,directly to the other machine. Mm-hmm. . And he looked at me and he, and he stopped and looked at me. He said, Papa, I didn't wanna do it fast. I wanted to make it worth it.
[01:04:00] Okay. Wisdom is anywhere, if anywhere. , I got, I got story told, I got wisdom slammed, quiet. It was so good. And he walked over there and sat down to the other thing, and I was like, Dang, okay. You know what, Sean? I can't tell you how many times I've told that story, but it's mundane. Mm-hmm. , it's a mundane moment, but because I love story crafting when that happened,so many people would go like, Oh, wow.
And then Boo, they move on. I was like, No, no, no. This is a story, story sourcing is going. Like I, I just have a, I need to tell the story over and over again. Why? Because here's this old dude, me who's,like, Oh, Patrick, you must have all these great stories. No, I got wisdom slammed by my grandson,
That's awesome. stories are story sourcing. These great stories are anywhere [01:05:00] and even the most mundane things. Mm-hmm. . But if you see how I told a story,there was this machine on the other side struggle. There's a sur who's walking across solution. Oh, Papa. I wanted to make it. I didn't wanna do it fast.
I wanted to make it worth it. How many times do we go from point A to point B, but we don't make the path of the journey worth it. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Sometimes the path between A and B is more important than A or B. , you knew that. So good. So, so story sourcing is knowing that you're in a story. And boy, when you know you're in a story, I have a story, inventory.
Again, I'm a nerd, so I have an Excel spreadsheet with stories listed on. And so, and literally and for, for your audience, That spreadsheet has the story name and it has in it struggle search solution. And I write those in there, and it's story inventory. [01:06:00] And when I'm asked to do something big, I look at the story inventory and go like, what story would be relevant for this group?
Okay, So people go like, You're such a natural storyteller. It's like, Oh no, I'm a story crafter. Because I literally think about what story is relevant. I think about that ahead of time. Yeah, some stories are extemporaneous, some stories I do from the hip, but a lot of my stories are off that inventory and I think about that ahead of time.
So good. So story, story sourcing is so big. The second part is story building. So story building is what I just described too. It's like if I know that I'm in a story, then the story build is the simplest form of that is write down the story. What's the theme?If you're gonna say what it, what the theme is, what's the one liner?
And maybe the one liner from the story from my grandson, Eli, is I wanna make it worth it. Mm-hmm. , what a great story title. [01:07:00] Um, but then what's the struggle? Search and solution, And fill that in that story build at plus form. And then now that you've done the story sourcing, you've done the story building, now you're ready to tell the story.
Here's, here's the last piece of this, that I'll share with you. And again, I could, I've taught lots of this stuff for hours and hours and hours, so you're gonna snippet here, but I'm, I tell my, my sophomores, I said, Hey, you have a, you have a resume, right? And they're like, Yeah, I want you to look at your resume.
And every bullet point on your resume is a story. Hm. I want you to be able to tell every bullet point story in 20 seconds, two minutes, and 30 minutes. So if you have stuff on there that's a resume filler, guess what? I can smell those in interviews. , you [01:08:00] know how that goes, Like, mm-hmm. , I was president of the accounting club.
I was like, Okay, I'm gonna ask about that. So, Sean, tell me about the president of the accounting club. And you're like, Well, it really wasn't that active. And I'm like, Eh, you're out . Yeah, right. What if the answer is like, Tell me about this being president of the accounting club. Oh,it was, it was, it wasn't very active, but I really wanted to make it something I wanted learn.
So I,when I started, it hadn't been there for years, and then I got a few people together. It was five, and then it was 10. Then we had these meetings. At the end I was like, Okay, now there's a story. Yeah. So, so everything on the, every,on your resume, everything should have like a, a, a 22nd snippet story, like an elevator speech story.
It should have like a two minute story that you could tell in an interview. And then there's the long story that you could tell around a campfire. Hmm. Right? That you go like, let me tell you a story. And then,so the stories can get longer and more sensory and more stuff in it. So that's what I think story [01:09:00] crafting is.
That's what makes a good storyteller. But a lot goes into that, like any craft. It's a craft. It's not just tell me the skills of being a good storyteller. It's like, Mm. Starts way long before that. Okay. There's my answer.
Shawn Buttner: I love that. I, I, for me, like the big like, mind blown thing is like, oh, like the belief that you're in a story.
Um, and just training your mind to be like, Okay, like you're, tell you're living your story right now. Remember this because this. Could be something special for someone else that gets them that breakthrough as a coach or as just connecting with people around the campfire. That might be the, that title of this episode of the podcast.
Cause I, I think it's so good. Um, so, okay. Um, so that, that belief for mindset, that's different. Um, if someone was to get started in becoming a better storyteller [01:10:00] of going from, I, I would say we're all probably beginners cuz it comes natural as a human. But how would you, maybe if people wanted to get more intentful and more focused, is it the, thethree steps of your, believe you're in the story, craft it and then tell it?
Or is there something else?
Patrick Mosher: Absolutely. Hey, I'll go back to my story of, of, talking to the previous girl in the room. Okay. Yeah. Hey, the first time you do it, it's gonna be awful. Hey, it's your story of being on stage. It's like, Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's awful. You know? Um, everything in your being, your ego is thing.
Shut it down, wrong thing to do. Never do that again because you got so embarrassed. You need to protect me, the ego. So stop it. And you gotta go like, No, you need to be quiet right now. I'm gonna go embarrass [01:11:00] myself again and again and again. You know? So, so if you go like, Oh, I'm not a good storyteller, Okay, fine, then don't be, I'm not a good storyteller, but I wanna be okay now we got work to do , because then you need to lean into it and, and,build your stories and get better and better.
Um, how I thought about that early in my career. Oh, this is so good. Another story. So early in my career I did change management work. Okay. And, I watched early in my career, I watched people pitch, change management work to clients, the importance of it, the benefits of it, that kind of thing.
And,it was just so conceptual and frameworks and,um, and then I heard the circular logic.Why should we do change management? Well, it's good for your people. Well, why is it good for your people? Well, becauseyour people really like it. , [01:12:00] Well, why would they like it?
Because it's good for them. It's like, what do we, No. And, and I just watched this happen over and over again. I was like, This isn't working. So I said, Okay, so if I get ever get asked,what's the value of change management work? Now, mind you, my BS is in chemical engineering, so I wasn't a typical, liberal arts guy doing change management.
I, I have an engineers like break it down into his pieces and parts. Let's make this go. I'm an analytic geek , so I'm not gonna go through how I used to sell it, but I was like, I can, if I get good at this and I can sell a significant piece of work or convince somebody to do this work in an hour, that's great.
So if I'm asked to do a change management presentation to a client in an hour, and I can do a compelling story in an hour where they come back and they go like, We want you to do this work, whether it's selling the work or just doing the work or, or whatever. But if the importance of this, or like, I want, this is the importance of it.[01:13:00]
Give me a team of three people to do this.So, so there's, there's money, there's resources, there's budget involved in this. That's the true,did I tell the story in a compelling way where resources flowed? So, so,and, and then I, I started doing that. It was like, okay, I started making that work.
You know, as I said earlier, it's like early thirties, late twenties, early thirties. I started making that work and then I realized, and this is the key part of this, what if I could do that in 30 minutes instead of 60? So then I was like, let me, and I think about this as like a tin foil ball, right? If I can squeeze that ball down,and really just kind of crush it, if I could do that in 30 minutes, I'm gonna be a much better professional.
Think about stories the same way. If I can tell a really compelling story and take it and do it in 30 minutes and sell,sell an idea, great. So if I did that, I got good at that and I was like, what if I could do that in 15 ? [01:14:00]
Shawn Buttner: Squeeze
Patrick Mosher: that ball down,and now you're rolling that tin foil ball on the, on the table, cuz you're really trying to squeeze that thing down.
And it took a few years and I could do that. And I was like, Okay, now I can do this. Now I'm, now I'm, I'm able to, to tell this a really compelling story. This, this thing that moves people in 15 minutes. And then the end of the story, with a story, we were doing a pitch for, I think it was a 12 million piece of work at a client.
Mm-hmm. . And, it was a two hour pitch and there was like eight from our team, that was pitching the work. And, as usual, the change management piece was last . And so, all my other colleagues that were doing the tech know piece and the process pieces and all that stuff, and the, the industry pieces, they were all going over time.
And I was looking at this, I was like, I'm [01:15:00] not gonna get 20 minutes on the back end of this. It's not gonna happen. And I watched my time crunch like this 10 fo block isn't gonna happen. Now, this was at the time, this was a Fortune 23 company. This is like major bucks. And how this was shaped, the room was shaped, is that the consultants were, it was a U-shaped room.
The consultants were sitting on the U and the, and the clients were in the middle of the room and the CEO is dead center CEO of a Fortune 23 company. I mean, so,like intimidating. And then I, they literally said, Okay Patrick, you're up eight minutes.
And, and we weren't winning. I don't know if you know how that is, but you can feel it in the room. It's like we aren't winning. And I took a deep breath and I made in that decision, in that [01:16:00] moment, I was like, This room's going away. This is a conversation with me and the ceo. So I walked to the front of the room and I looked at Dave in the eyes and I said, Dave, I'm gonna talk to you about change management.
But you know what? Here's the thing. The thing that you care about the most, about this major transformation is that your people aren't gonna buy in. Mm-hmm. , this thing that you built, this carefully crafted thing that you've built over 12 years of your career, it's your baby. It's this thing that's in your hand.
And now we're talking about changing everything. And all you can think about is how you we're gonna break everything. This carefully crafted, beautiful ship that you've built. My job is to hold the people together, to keep your crew from jumping. So let me tell you, I can we, how we're gonna do that? And I spent six minutes going through a very [01:17:00] simple methodology and he said, That's great.
We won the work. Wow. And I got named in the contracts, like, we, you guys won the work. Patrick Moser has to be dedicated to this project a hundred percent of his time. Wow. They're like, Okay, where'd that come from? I was like, Dave, Dave wants you. Um, and so I learned how to crunch that little ball into an eight minute snippet to win $12 million worth of work.
Hey that's the power of story. There it is right there. So, yeah, if you're not good at storytelling, keep working at it. And you know what? Oh, Patrick, that's a great story. Yeah. It took me 17 years to craft my story to get to that place. So work on it. Work on, It's a craft. Any craft,you get good at it over years, not times.
Yeah. So there's my story.
Shawn Buttner: [01:18:00] Awesome. Awesome. So thank you for sharing that story. All the wonderful stories, on today's podcast. Um, I have a couple of pages of notes here just for my myself that I'm going to need to like, listen again to just really focus in on, I absolutely love this topic. Um, it's something I've, I've been crafting and, and working on in a while.
Um, having again overcome like, my story's not important. It's like, no. Like you need to, Get over that and re like, like for me it's, it's like, how can this serve Yeah. And help people out in the world. Um, and I think storytelling is such a powerful act of service in sharing your knowledge,and, and sharing what you, you've experienced and learned.
So I guess like the only thing left to ask you is if people wanted to follow up or, or connect with you on social media or on the [01:19:00] web or, or whatnot, where would be the best place for people to, follow you?
Patrick Mosher: Oh, that's so good. Thank you. So my business is called Wisdom for Humanity, and I got it on my shirt here.
Wisdom for Humanity, . Right on. Um, by the way, another story, but I'm not gonna tell you, but my daughter, designed the logo, so, Oh, cool. She's a, she's a graphic artist. It's kind of modeled after the book of Cals. Um, but anyway, Wisdom for Humanity. You can find my website at,Wisdom for Humanity.
Um, and then you can get into all my goodies there of what I'm doing. And, and, I have a weekly blog post, so you can go there and subscribe if you want to. Um, and I send out, I think about this, this way, it's a blog post, but it, but it's, it's, it's weekly wisdom. It's like, take this conversation and boil it into like a two minute read every week.
Um, I always have a wisdom challenge in there. I always have some quotes. Um, the whole point of, of exchanging wisdom is to, is to give [01:20:00] people these wisdom packets so that they, they change how they, they do their work, how they live their lives. So that's our, our weekly. So you can go out there and subscribe Also out there.
I have a monthly program, that we talk like this. A little shorter than this, but, but, it's called Significant Impact Monthly fondly. I call it sim. Um, and so significant impact monthly is, and I have two forms of that. I have a masterclass, which is videos of me teaching, but I have an interactive where I, I get on zooms like this every month with folks and we talk about, topics I'll usually teach for a little bit like we did today, but then there's an opportunity to do q and a and say, How can I like today's story if today, if I was doing story crafting and be like, I wanna tell this story in this situation, How would I craft that story differently?
like, Oh, well let's talk about how to do that. Um, so I have that, interactive program as well. So you can, you can find those on my website as well. And then I'm [01:21:00] out on social media. Just look at, go out to YouTube. I have a YouTube channel. Go look up Wizard for Humanity. I have lots of stuff out there.
Um, Sean up front, you asked about. My, I, every year I go to, a sacred place on the planet, so Oh yeah, Pastor went to Delphi, Greece. The pandemic stopped us a little bit, but we went to Machu Pichu, Peru. Um, we went to Glenda Lock Ireland. And so I have snippets of those things in my, my, my YouTube channel, so you can see, find little snippets of the teachings from there.
So in that sense, I'm kind of all over the place. I'm easy to find .
Shawn Buttner: Oh, right on. I will have links to all, everything you've mentioned below, just to help get the, the word out to folks. I could listen to you talk about Delphi and Machu Picchu and all of those events. Like, I, I think I already have like hours log just from,our interactions outside of this, this podcast and it, it's so fabulous.
I encourage everyone to check out, Patrick's YouTube channel. It is also fantastic. Been getting into [01:22:00] a lot of your videos recently. Um, so thank you for sharing your stories and, and knowledge with us. Um, I'd love to have you back on the podcast at some point because like we had talked about before, this could have very easily been a three hour plus episode, and I would be totally fine with that.
Maybe we should, we could plan for a longer form or something, but that's
Patrick Mosher: so good. Maybe we get around the fire someplace and, and really literally and do that and just like get a group of people and just like talk about around the campfire for hours and hours. That'd be awesome.
Shawn Buttner: That would be amazing.
So that's, Yeah, let's
Patrick Mosher: figure it out. So, so let me leave you with this. The, the last thing I'll put out there with you is, is,wisdom for humanity is what I do and, and my life mission, everybody should have a life mission. We should talk about that sometime. Yeah. But, but my life mission at this point in my life, Is to build a [01:23:00] better world for future generations.
I'm not in it for me. Um, I have two daughters. They're doing fine in the world. One of my daughters has three kids, so I have three grandkids. You know what? She's a great mother. Um, so in,and so in that way I get to give back. I don't, I don't have,um, these urgent needs that are yanking me into things, which, that is lots of people's life missions.
Mm-hmm. , so I get to give back. And so, so when I think about wisdom and building a better world for future generations, exchanging our stories, but in those stories are these wisdom gems and exchanging wisdom is probably the most important thing we can do from cradle to grave. Mm-hmm. . And that's how we change future generations.
Change the trajectory that young people are on. Um, so in the [01:24:00] end, what wisdom for humanity, the importance of it is that wisdom isn't something somebody has. Wisdom really isn't wisdom until it's shared. And that's what this podcast is all about. Yeah.
Shawn Buttner: Thank you for, for that. Um, that's such a beautiful side of it, and it is part of my personal meaningful revolution is getting the, this information positive, like positive information out that uplifts people and lights them up in their pursuit of what's ever important, fulfilling to them.
So yeah. Oh, we nailed it today, man. I am so, so excited for, I'm thankful for our, conversation today. So with that said, Patrick again, check at below in the show notes for all the, the links to connect with [01:25:00] Patrick. Start crafting your stories. I, I think we all could be better storytellers and it would, that that alone could have a really positive ripple effect out there in the world, folks.
So, with that said, thank you again, Patrick Mosher. I hope to talk to you soon. Sounds good. We will. So what a fantastic discussion with Patrick. I hope you're like me and you had your journal out and took pages of notes like I did throughout this podcast because there's so many good things about the power of stories, stories and different contexts and how it really helps,communicate and share information and spread good ideas.
I guess it could spread bad ideas too, but the whole idea of this podcast is to do things that we find meaningful and it's pointless to do meaningful things if you can't share that with the people around you. You can't tell [01:26:00] stories. Why you do the meaningful things that you do. And that's one of the things that I hope to focus on going forward more with the podcast.
That's one of the, the big takeaways I had, but I'd love to hear your takeaways. So please leave a comment, please.If you're, you're subscribed on Apple Podcasts, that helps me out, leave a comment with a question. If I can't answer it or if it's Fort Patrick, I can get it to him and get the answer back to you.
But yeah, so another, like, again, I'm so excited and stoked to be able to share this conversation with you, and to highlight my friend Patrick as, that guy is awesome. I really respect his,career, but he's helped me a lot in my business just as a, a mentor running in some of the same communities.
So I'm very, very thankful for that. So thanks again, Patrick, for being on. Thank you for listening and make sure to, to again, subscribe an Apple podcast. If you like this [01:27:00] episode, please share it with three of your friends. Get the word out, help the podcast grow becausewe all want to be living into this world that we've designed for ourselves that's really meaningful and brings us, again, that, that sense of joy, that sense of confidence, that sense that we're making an impact and, and bring in the people around us along.
So thanks and we'll see you guys in the next episode.
