Episode 65: Rain Bennett on Finding your Story Hub (and Spokes!)

Rain Bennett 00:00

Let's look at it like a bike wheel. Right? There's the hub and spoke model. When you understand what is unique about your personal story, then your story becomes the hub then those pieces those things you're interested in once they're connected to that, like a spoke. Now that circle becomes a wheel, which we can imagine rolling forward and making progress because they're all tied together by the central thing, which is your story.

Michael Mioduski 00:44

Welcome back to presentation thinking aka the storyteller, Study Club. This is Michael Mioduski. I'm a co host and founder of presentation design agency called Ghost ranch communications. And Molly, my podcast partner. We've got a pretty cool guests. Two guests today really Asha from Ghost ranch and presentation thinking and rain Bennett, who is someone Asha, who you stumbled upon? On the Tiktok. Right?

Asha Alaji-Sharif 01:11

Yeah, I was on our press thinking tic tock doing some scrolling and trying to find like minded people. And I came across a marine and I was like, oh, storytelling coach, and he has some really, really awesome content. So I just started interacting and reached out to him.

Molly Geoghegan 01:28

And if you aren't following press thinking on tick tock already. Now is your excuse to make an account if you don't already have one. But rain Bennett, you're you're here smiling. We've been waiting to talk to a story coach since the inception of this podcast, and project. Welcome to presentation thinking.

Rain Bennett 01:44

Thank you so much. I'm happy to be here with with all you fine, folks.

Molly Geoghegan 01:48

Yeah, so so fun. Yeah. And as I said, like you have such a variety of story centered content. Story coach is probably just like one of your titles, I think maybe you would call yourself what how do you introduce yourself to people, as a storytelling guru? I

Rain Bennett 02:03

just, I just say I'm rain, you know, I'm one of those people that like it. What do you do is like such a hard question to ask. But also like, that's the type of people that I help now, the more I've learned about that journey, because that that can create a lot of problems when you don't know how to answer that. But like my, I have a, you know, in my family, from a very small family very close to my mother's a real estate agent, my brother's a caterer or chef. And there's this kind of classic story that we have at one point, because I was always always had different projects going on. I'm a filmmaker, I'm a writer, yada, yada, yada, a lot of different interest in creative pursuits and business pursuits, etc. And there was one point where we were all talking as a family, and it got kind of silent. And my brother was just like, what is it that you do? And my mom just turned over backwards? Because, you know, they didn't really know there's very, they can very clearly understand like, I have a shelf, I am a real estate agent. And and I really couldn't answer it either. You know, it's like, Well, I'm a little bit of this little bit of that, like, yeah, so everything.

Molly Geoghegan 03:09

All right. So here's

Rain Bennett 03:11

the thing, if you don't mind, if I can jump into that a little bit, because this is who I helped through their stories, right? The problem that that can create, because there's nothing wrong inherently wrong with having different multiple passions, different creative pursuits, our current society, which is kind of built on the model of the Industrial Revolution, you know, be a specialist, be a specialist, yada, yada, yada, which is never how it used to be right, is set up to make us feel bad about that or feel like we don't fit in when we're a jack of all trades, master of none. And all of these, you know, cliches, et cetera, et cetera. And being a generalist is not problematic, inherently. But it can be in this approach, when the world is set up for people to be specialists. It is also problematic when you can't tell someone what you do. Or you jump from this thing that you jumped to that thing, you jumped to that thing, and we all know that you need focus to hit deep work, and you need deep work to really create progress in your pursuit, right. So I can't make it as a filmmaker, if I do a film. And then I go for a couple of years and do a book, and then golf a couple of years, and yada yada, yada. So what happens is you have all these different things. And for those that are listening, I'm just pointing to different, you know, dots points, you know, these are the certain things you're creating them. They're surrounding me right now. Well, if I bounce from this, to that to this to that, eventually I start literally quite literally going in a circle, and then you're spinning in that circle and you will burn out on that circle, that hamster wheel whatever metaphor you want to use, however, and how it will be done in 45 seconds. No, it's great when you understand what is unique about your personal story, the lessons you've learned through that story and the perspectives you have on one If the way you move in the world, your view on on the work you do in the world, then your story becomes the hub of that. Now that that's spinning in circles, let's look at it like a bike wheel, right? There's the hub and spoke model. And that is the center, your core narrative beliefs, your unique perspectives, your view on the world that makes you unique. Then those pieces, those things you're interested in once they're connected to that, like a spoke, now that circle becomes a wheel, which we can imagine rolling forward and making progress because they're all tied together by the central thing, which is your story. So I'm a podcaster. I'm a writer, I am a keynote speaker, I am a filmmaker, I am a story Coach, what else do I do lots of different things. They're all tied together by that unique belief, that storytelling is how we connect and communicate as humans. And if you want to move your audience in an emotional way that inspires them to take action, then you have to leverage that power. So I can create that transformation, I can deliver those results to the people that I serve in multiple ways. Now, right doesn't just have to be this. And if something comes along, like let's say a global pandemic, and whites out my public speaking spoke, then I can that's fine. Because if you lose one spoke to a bike wheel to stop the bike from going no, right. And I can replace it, which I did in my real life with one on one coaching personal story, coach. So that's what I do. But I don't do one thing, right. That's the type of people so identify what I do by who I tried to help and how

Molly Geoghegan 06:36

we could probably stop recording because that was just perfect to share with the visual Yeah, very visual. Yeah. So clearly a visual communicator as well. I'm glad you brought up all those things, though. Because I'm curious like, bring us on the rain Bennett journey then what what came first was like you say your filmmaker was it? Like

Rain Bennett 06:57

it was definitely film, okay. It was film and writing, you know, I go back and there's some like projects that I did when I was a kid and my mom kept a lot of those like scrapbooks and things like that, where, you know, I was writing at an early age, but I also you I don't know if you all remember the show, there was an HBO show called Dream On back in the like, early 90s. And the guy viewed his life and certain events in his life, he would flashback to shows that he watched as a kid and relate them to different scenes that he grew up in these like classic TV shows and the beginning of that show Dream on. And so the whole thing is him living through his race romances or whatever and he's like, he gets in a fight with a girlfriend and and then he imagines you know, a similar fight that he watched on Bonanza or something I'm making making the intro to the show the opening credits was him as a, you know, toddler, and then a youth and an adolescent young man, etcetera, sitting like two inches from the TV, like his whole life and seeing all the scenes that we then see in the episode. My brother always laughed and said that that was I was that kid. So like, from from a jump off, when I was very young, I was watching things, things that I shouldn't be watching. But I kind of give credit to my mom, like I was watching HBO as a five year old. And I was just always immersed in that. So I mean, that's what came first in the storytelling journey is is I wasn't like, hey, I want to like be a speaker and help people tell stories. I am a documentary filmmaker, that's my bread. And butter is still is my main thing. Now it's becoming more like I'm writing and directing narrative film. So it's becoming more just the filmmaker. But my background is in documentaries. However, why and how that led to the storytelling thing. Storytelling is obviously inherent into that. Field, it that's what it is. But the lessons learned are because even the top documentaries that you love, they're on Netflix and Amazon, etc. It's not a money making thing, right. They're all low, low budget compared to like Hollywood blockbusters. So you are tasked with and I'm an independent documentary filmmaker, so it's really low budget, you're tasked with connecting with people conveying that message telling that story. Without a lot of resources without a lot of money. Without a lot of crew, you know, you're trying to do a lot with a little. And that shaped my philosophy on story first, and tools and technical knowledge and production value. Second, it doesn't mean these things aren't important. But often what happens is, we look for the tool to make the job easier. We look for, you know, the platforms, the algorithms, the best practices, yada yada, yada, and we neglect understanding how to simply and clearly communicate our message to our ideal audience. And if you can do that, then you can use your phone to connect and communicate with people and you don't need to spend all this time figuring out you know, what, gadget or what you know, is best to get, you know, yadda yadda yadda. And so that shaped my philosophy and that's how I help people now think about, you know, the film that really was The catalyst for this I released and in 2017. So at that time now all brands or content creators, all solopreneurs or content creators are know that they need to be. However, I would say the mass majority of them don't have a background in writing filmmaking or art, right? So they are tasked with the same thing that I was because I'm not that technically gifted as like a cinematographer or an editor. I don't like that, right. I like the story part of it. I struggle with a lot of like, limiting beliefs, thinking that I'll never be as good as my peers that are like, like AV nerds just put on this earth to make beautiful images with a camera, right? I'm not that do. So I struggle with that for a while. Once I went through my journey and transformation and developing that philosophy, I realized that so many content creators, that's exactly what they are dealing with, because they're struggling, they don't know how to make an impact. They're hearing people like Gary Vee, tell him to make 1000 videos a day. Right? And they're like, I don't know how to do that. What camera are you? And this is who I help, specifically, because that's what I learned how to do very effectively is like, how do you take just a little bit in terms of what you have resources and do a lot with it?

Molly Geoghegan 11:10

I'm so glad you brought that up. Because I feel like a lot of people now find themselves with so many media outlets that are on different platforms and have to be expressed in different ways. But they all have to fit within the same narrative, like core a statement, as you said, you know, the center of the center of the wheel. And yeah, tell us a little bit more about like, what was that catalyst where you're doing documentary filmmaking? And you're in the film, when you the moment where you're like, Oh, this is like, deeper intellect, story strategy, and I can help people with this. And this is my, this is my bread and butter if I'm not the AV nerd, right.

Rain Bennett 11:44

Yeah. So do it. You know, the first feature documentary that I did, I started in 2012. And and we released that's the one I was mentioning a moment ago, we released in 2017. And eventually, I did raise some money from some investors. But I was certainly self financed and self propelled in the beginning and probably on to the second stage of all of that five years. And it was it was tough. Like I was over it. I was exhausted after doing that, because it's like literally pulling a weight up a mountain by yourself, right. And so afterwards, I was like, well, one, there's a lot of lessons, I learned the hard way. Like, I don't want to do it like that, again, where I just go off. Now I'm happy with that with the story of making that film I took, you know, my wife laughs at me because I say this story so much, but took a camera and a backpack. And I went around the world, and documented this street fitness culture. So it was like, it was a beautiful experience. But I mean, it took a lot out of me and I had quite a big fall off after that financially, emotionally physical health, mental health, like, there was a struggle for me to complete that. So for a lot of reasons afterwards, I mean, I was exhausted. And so I started thinking like, one for my next project, I knew I wasn't gonna stop making films, like, I need to raise the money before I go, I need to have a better plan before I go yada, yada, yada, but but also, I need a break, and I need something more sustainable. So I started looking inward then and really trying to figure out what you know what, what I was put on this earth to do, or how I could help people. And so the first place I started with was like, Okay, well, what do you have uniquely that other people don't? Well look at this journey that I just went on. And it was a success. We sold the film to Red Bull Media House, and they put it out globally, right. So that happens to less than 5%, probably way less than the of independent documentary filmmakers, they never seen the light of day, it was totally a happy ending sounds like Well, that's quite a feat, you know, what could I take from that? And I started looking at the lessons that I learned, which that started understanding what it like that, hey, there's a lot of people that think that put the cart before the horse, right and think that it's all about, because I met those people along the way. The culture that I followed was very big in the social media, it was freestyle calisthenics. And so you might have seen some of these videos on YouTube and Tiktok. But the camera was inherent to the culture because you do a crazy move, or at a competition, people would film it and they put it on YouTube or Instagram at that time. And that's what helped grow the culture. So always I'd have people hobbyist with nice cameras a lot of times nicer than the one that I had and a lot of gadgets and gadgets that were out there making highlight reels for you to kind of this is in the book if you read that part of it kind of like you know sizing me up or comparing their equipments. This is the type of thing you would do like if you have somebody's got a you know, a charger and the other person has a Camaro and they pull up beside each other at the red light, you know, it's, it's natural, but that always really messed with me and kind of flared up my imposter syndrome because sometimes, you know, I was the professional filmmaker. And sometimes I could tell that it like they were unimpressed or it kind of disappointed them more they're like oh, what does this guy know you know now that was probably my ego and insecurity that was making up that story. That's a whole nother conversation right there. You but it's still influenced me, right? It's still it's still kind of messed with me. But then I realized how many people do that that are worried about. And I had this moment I wrote about in the book where it's just like, everybody I had, I'll tell tell you this story, it was in Russia, at Luzhniki Stadium. It's like their big Olympic Stadium, it was outside of that. And we and we had a competition. And it was the World Championship. And so I looked around, and there's all kinds of cameras, there's people holding GoPros on selfie sticks, there's big like news cameras, and they're all pointing at the same thing, which is the athlete on stage, rightfully so it's an event a sporting event, it makes sense. But that's when it really became clear what I was doing was different. And why am I comparing myself to them or letting myself feel that we're not even playing the same game, I was quite literally turned and facing the other direction, because I was filming the environment, the culture, the audience, the people that haven't gone yet. And they're nervously waiting for their turn, that people high fiving and hugging the other competitors as they come off stage. Like I was telling a story. And that story wasn't the World Championship in Moscow that day, which is what everyone else's story was, I was telling the story of this culture that was birthed out of the parks and playgrounds of New York, straight out of hip hop culture that was born out of like, the world is our gym, we'll utilize scaffolding or parks and playgrounds, whatever we can take, you know, to get in shape. That's the heart of the story that I was telling. So that was like the switch where I was just like, just chill, you're not in there, you're not in their lane, you're playing a different game. And that's a good thing, right? And so, you know, after that journey, that's what really shaped then I started being able to see how much people do that. They're like, well, if I get this lens, or I get this camera, you know, I'll be able to make beautiful footage. And it's like, No, bro, like, you're, you're, you're the one that makes the footage. And it's you know, that's you know, I started having this kind of line where it's the man, not the machine, it's the human, it's the person that this is just a tool. And now a lot of my content, which you all might have seen is like I really rag on, or focus on skills over tools, tools are a way to help us achieve what we want to achieve. But the skill is way more important, because if I took a master carpenter, and I gave them like, something that is not exactly what they wanted, they could figure out how to do something with it, right? If you have a master painter, they don't necessarily have to have that. Now, of course, they might prefer their particular type of brush or whatever. But if they're a real artist, they could take, you know, a dry eraser from a dry erase board and blot it and make some you know what I mean? Because they have the vision, they have the skill, at least that's my status, right. And the same thing is like, I feel like I should be able to take this smartphone, or my you know, Panasonic GH five, which is off camera right now, or of cinema camera that's $15,000 or even something more and still be effective with the story that I'm trying to tell. That's what I'm trying to help people do. And it resonates with people who don't know how to use that camera, or don't have the money for that camera. But we all have a smartphone in our pocket, right?

Michael Mioduski 18:05

That's gold, I love that's really a lesson in positioning to when you turned around and said, Okay, everyone's doing this one thing. And I'm doing something different and recognizing where where that whitespace is, and how do you. I mean, that is a story in itself is saying like, here's where they are, here's where I am. And this is why it's different and unique. And that's pretty sweet. There's a line

Rain Bennett 18:24

and I, I use this a lot. And it was kind of the thesis of a TED Talk TEDx talk that I gave, and I can't remember who it was like on a podcast, I can't remember who to credit this to. And I hate that because I always like to credit people appropriately, but the line was being different is better than being better. And that's where it kind of shifted to is like, we get caught up in trying to be better. So we get more acronyms at the end of our title, we get more gear, you know, for a filmmaker, we you know, our stats in our data are certification. I'm Emmy nominated, I'm you know, yada, yada, yada. And it's like, that's not what separates you, right? Being different is what separates you and figuring out who you specifically help through your unique perspective. It's not going to be everybody and I say this all the time. I don't help Nike or Budweiser or Apple, tell great stories. They have the best agencies in the world to do that. And they have the biggest budgets in the world to do that, right. That's not who I help. I help the people who I just talked about, right, who are struggling, they're overwhelmed and they're under resourced. Right. That's who I helped because that's what I uniquely learned through my perspective is how to do it now. Even in the storytelling coach, storytelling speaker space. A lot of my contemporary some of them came from marketing teams at Google. Some of them came from journalism. I came from boots on the ground documentary filmmaking so video storytelling is what my specialty is but specifically on like, how to actually do it, you know, their perspectives are all going to be slightly different because or they should be because their story is different.

Michael Mioduski 19:58

Their hub, do you help them to steal down and like figuring out what their hub is. Yes. Throughout the country.

Rain Bennett 20:03

Absolutely. Absolutely. I

Molly Geoghegan 20:04

want to know some of the processes you go through with people. Yeah.

Rain Bennett 20:07

100. Yeah, great. So there's a couple of different things. And I'm still working progress, right. So there's a couple of different things. There's so many ways to use stories and storytelling. And sometimes it's hard to determine, you know, when I very first started, because of my background in documentaries, I was helping a lot of nonprofits because documentary work tends to go hand in hand with cause based organization, right. So I was doing public service announcements and short documentaries for nonprofits. So I started speaking to that community. First, I've spent time speaking to realtors. But what I really personally love, and this came from the pandemic, when I stopped public speaking, or it was kind of there was a moratorium due to COVID, one on one coaching for like solopreneurs, small business owners, personal brands, influencers, graders, etc. Absolutely. I help them with that, Mikey. Because that's where it all starts, then if we don't have that clear, then we will continue to bounce back and forth between all those things and spin in circles. So the process really is often deep dive interviews with them, like me, interviewing them, and learning their story is very similar to therapy. To be honest, that might sound a little bear with me why? I hope it doesn't sound too pretentious. But that's the feedback that I've gotten because we are diving deep into what makes them them. And sometimes, folks, we don't really love to look that stuff in the face. It's important work just like therapy is for us to understand who we are why we feel the way that we feel potential stories that we are telling ourselves because this is where it all starts. i There's a clip I'm about to put on tick tock, probably when we get done with this, that's like the most important story you will ever tell is the story you tell yourself if you ain't got that one locked, that everything else is doomed, as far as I see. Right. But most of us don't have that one lock because we won't even address it right? It's tough. This is not easy work. So it is like therapy, people leave my sessions, emotional, because we're getting in there to the nitty gritty. But you have to do you understand your unique perspective on the world? Because it's shaped by the things that you've been through? Right? Yeah, we could do the same exact thing. But you will be doing it should be approaching it differently based on the way you move in the world. And the way you move in the world is determined by your perspective on it. And your perspectives are influenced by your experiences in it right. So we don't tap into that to that enough. And so the very first thing is to deep dive in an interview. And I also the analogy that I use, maybe metaphor, sometimes I conflate those two is like if you have 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle, and usually the pieces come in a little satchel or bag or they're just loose in the box, right? If you tried to put that, let's make it even a little more manageable 500 piece jigsaw puzzle if you try to make to put together that puzzle by pulling out one piece at a time and putting it on the table. Would you ever get there? Of course not. I'll answer for you. Right. So what do you do? You dump them all out onto the table, you flip them over? And what do you have, at that point, a big heaping mess that you can't make meaning out of it's just scattered little pieces, right? But you have to scatter them out so that you can see where you're starting. You can't do it one at a time. And then you look at it from this bird's eye perspective, which is us removing ourselves looking at our story, objectively, this is what I have to help you to do. And that's hard right? To remove yourself and be objective about your story. You look at yourself as the character in the story. And then just like back to the jigsaw puzzle, what do you do you see a corner piece? Okay, cool. And you see some edges, then you start to see like if the image you're looking on the box cover, and you see the image has a sun and you see a bunch of yellow pieces, you're like, Okay, now the image is starting to become clear. Oh, there's the grass. Oh, and what happens the image starts to reveal itself, it starts to become complete. That's the process, right? But it's very messy. At first, we take up the whole kitchen table with a 500 pieces of cardboard, because we have to dump all that stuff out. So that's what we have to do. And so the first session that I have with people is that I asked them their life, it is structured, it's not just a random interview. Because the three pockets. This is like this finding your unique intersections exercise that I take people through. It's a three part Venn diagram, you can picture like that. So you have your skills, which are the things that you are good at, and not just what you do for work. Like I'm really force people because people were resistant, and they'll put two to three things down and like most of them are what they do for work or their number one hobby. And I pushed them to put like 10 to 15 things now and we're more. So going back to your childhood, soft skills, hard skills, things that are hobbies, things you do for work, what are the things that you are good at, even if they're unrelated, like I had one client coaching client that was like, Well, I'm not going to put snowboarding down because it has nothing to do with Real Estate, I was like, stop, put snowboarding down because you don't know how it connects to the other pieces, that's something you're skilled at. That's the task, do it. The next circle is your passions, what you're passionate about What lights your heart on fire, right? Now, of course, if you know the Venn diagram, the three parts, they're gonna have some overlap, right? I'm passionate about storytelling, and I'm skilled at it. But I'm also passionate about NFL football. I'm not skilled at that, right. So there are going to be certain ones that are in the separate circles and certain ones that are going to overlap there, then you have the third one. Now, what I just said is not very unique or original, right? There's a lot of different ways people say like, find the thing that you do better than anybody in the world. And that you can do every single day. I think that was I forget the book that came from but there's a lot of different versions of that. This is the one that I really think separates what I do is a third part of that Venn diagram is your experiences, right? Your skills, your passions and your experiences. This is where you come from, what you come from, who you come from, what unique communities you belong to the different things that you've experienced in your life that have influenced the way you view the world. Okay, so that's where we really start to understand the why, and the who we are fighting for, and why we view things the way that we do. So some of them are easy. Race, geography, like where you're from gender, age, yada, yada, yada. Other ones we might overlook, like, I'm from eastern North Carolina, I grew up on the coast, the water is very important to me and my associate, you know, yada, yada. I grew up with an abusive, alcoholic father, did that shaped my view of the world and my experiences? What do you think, right? Does that tie directly into it? Maybe, maybe not. But this is the jigsaw puzzle, we're dumping everything out. Because then I start to realize, like, oh, I come from like a, you know, blue collar working class group of people. There's a reason why I'm always attracted to helping out beginners and underdogs. And people like that, like, I'm just spitballing here, right? We have to understand I'm an athlete, I grew up with an athlete, I have an athletes perspective on life and approach to the work that I do. Like, these are the things that really inform the way we view the world. And that's super important to understand how you do the skills that you're passionate about differently than others.

Molly Geoghegan 27:18

How what are like you said, you're, obviously you're passionate about helping the underdogs, and the people that have the passion projects, what are some of the types of clients that you've worked with? That are Yeah, connecting this Venn diagram,

Rain Bennett 27:29

most of the times this process is for my like, one on one, like personal story coaching, I do a lot of speeches and workshops for businesses. Yeah. And and though, and I answered both ways in the businesses and the conferences, it's still either sales or solopreneurs, or like real estate agents, but it's almost, it's more often with associations. So even in the realtor space, it was realtor associations, because that's a membership community. So we're talking about how we, because stories are very, very effective in building community and connecting people, right? And so often, it's in that space, and even more specific, and how do we use content to do that, in the personal one on one story coaching, which I quite, I don't know if I'm more passionate about, but I really love helping people unlock those things. And having those light bulb moments that I had that changed my life. And I think with the way the world is going, that is going to be more and more important as the years come on. Right? So those people, I mean, all different types in terms of what they do. I mentioned one, the snowboarder, you know, in the real estate. That's just a coincidence. Because I also have helped realtors, there's a current one who's like we're trying to figure out, he has a very interesting, unique intersection of documentary filmmaking and storytelling, but also things like Reiki and healing that he has. And he's also fluent in Spanish. And so he does a lot of documentary work in in South America. And I'm like to there's some really, the, this is the one like where it's coming to the image is coming to shape right now. We're not quite there yet. So it's really exciting, because I'm like, you've got something very interesting here. If you can figure out whose stories you want to help tell in that healing space, specifically that we need to get that specific, that can be really powerful. And the people that I see on tick tock Asha, like in the Reiki world, are almost all women, right? Not only there's some and there's one, there's one man that I saw that was he had an interesting tie in where it was really fitness, you know, base but also with the healing aspect, which I think is good. That's not my client. So like, what's the way that my client like, could he help? You know, men heal through storytelling, right? I think so. Absolutely. I mean, navigating traumas, another way that stories can be very, very effective, right for sharing because it's all about connection with people. So that's a really interesting One for me. And most always, they are personal brands solopreneur types, like they want to build a business that is an extension of them. So that is the unifying factor. There was another client that was, was longtime diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. And so she's become kind of an influencer in that chronic conditions category. And so we're, you know, working with her on how to monetize that how to build a brand out of the influence that you have on people in that community, how can you help them so it's people all over the place. But that's the unifying factor is that there are people who are trying to carve out their own lane and build a business just based on who they are as people. That's what I really love helping people do.

Molly Geoghegan 30:44

Yeah, we've seen that a lot with working with venture cap founders, Mikey. So I'm thinking of like the people that come in with like, it's really a passion project. So teasing out the story and being strategic about it, so that they can make the biggest impact is such a like, meaningful project, obviously.

Michael Mioduski 31:00

Yeah. And rain. That's a lot of these, like early stage investor pitches that we sometimes help out on. But really any presentation, I think, the analogy or metaphor, the puzzle is like, I mean, you're a keynote speaker as well, you build lots of presentations, you write books, I imagine that is a similar approach when you're building a new presentation, or like you have a new idea for a new documentary or a book. Similarly, I imagine you're like, You got to get messy first, to find that like to find the vision that comes into focus as one clear idea. Do you mind talking to us, because I think a lot of listeners here are on a journey of their own to become better presenters, yes, whether that's keynote speakers, or just better business communicators, because we know if you can sell your ideas, you can climb that ladder a little more, probably efficiently and effectively. So can you talk about your how you became a keynote speaker? And maybe some of the tips along the way? Yeah,

Rain Bennett 31:57

I wanted to pursue both of those. When I started understanding around those 2017, that, yeah, riots are released that film, that this might be a space that I can move into. I've grew up on the stage, in church and in school. So I was never a stranger to that. I always kind of had a dream like a hidden dream of wanting to do stand up. And I had done one or two, like, storytelling, open mics. So it's not necessarily stand up. It doesn't have to be funny. It's mostly comics, just trying to work their craft. But it was it was storytelling. Oh, in 2017, I was living back in New York and did that. And so I knew I wanted to speak because I thought that that would be an effective way to get the message out there to a wider audience. But it's also great for sales, right? It's a great way to grab new clients, almost after every speech, almost people, you know, there's people lined up wanting to talk to you. And often it's either Hey, could you come speak at our company? Or our Hey, in my world, we have a budget to do a video this year. You know, could you help with that? Well, of course, Clarice. That's what that's what I do, you know. So that was how it started is like I wanted to start speaking. And it happened all pretty quickly, unfortunately, as right before the pandemic. So I went from my first non paid in the basement of a public library, you know, workshop lunch and workshop for like eight or 10 people to a national keynote, unless in less than a year. But I think that's because I had very clearly identified how I wanted to help people through stories. And then it was going well, you know, I, in February of 2020, I had a national keynote and San Diego was awesome, close down the session, had people crying, it was great. And then it was like March 2020. We all know what happened. So that pivoted things quite a bit. But that's, that's when I really started finishing, finishing the book. So let me get let's get back to the question about presentation. So I've talked a lot about the personal story. And I will say that in any presentation, what people are buying into almost always, or at least in the great degree is you. So the more back to what I was saying it's not unrelated because the more you can clearly understand why you okay, I'll give an example. I'm a co founder and a new startup right now, we haven't launched yet. It's still in stealth mode. But when I'm talking to people, I have to clearly understand why I am one of the ones with the seat of the table. What's my unique path there? Yes, I have to communicate the business. But also if I'm just having coffee with them, or whatever, it's like here's why I'm that guy for this part of the business and same thing on the business. So let's not forget that when we're presenting that you being tapped in and understanding your why is very, very important because almost always those people who are either going to be backing you or choosing you or whatever, are wanting to find someone who is passionate about it, right. They are also making a decision based on emotions, and a lot of numbers. But a lot of times and you don't need to take my word for it. Ask the people who put up the money like if you see often you know they are backing somebody because they believe that person won't sleep until they achieve it. It's not necessarily because they show them all the data that proves they can do it. Those types of people, you know, venture, you know, venture capitalist people, anybody who's going to be accepting your pitch or presentation, are looking for that thing. And most of them can identify the person pitching or presenting, they can identify if that person is one of those people or not based on how they present. In my opinion, I feel pretty strongly it's damn

Michael Mioduski 35:29

good. I mean, because really, yeah, that's the triangle of the skills, passions, experiences that you've laid out for us, right? Even if we're being sold to if we know someone's not really, like, passionate or like, doesn't have a unique insight about what they're trying to sell us because they lack the experience. Yeah, we're like, No, I think I know more about this than you do like, pass. Right. Right. Totally. Yeah. So that's, it's a beautiful equation if we if you can tap that passionate experience. So

Rain Bennett 35:55

and then when we get into the structure of the presentation, you need to leverage stories when you're communicating that one of the worst things that people do in presentations is they have a slide up there with a lot of information or bullet points. And then what do they do? They just read the damn slide to people, I don't need you read the words that are on the page that you're showing me. Right. And that's still done all the time. And it's just like, that's the majority, you need to give me something to complement that that fits into what you're not doing. So mu moved me emotionally. And then you may have the data up there for me to see to kind of hammer the point home, right. I did a public service announcements for Red Cross 1.6 years ago, and is based on a hurricane that hit us in 2018. Here in North Carolina pretty terribly well, the video that move people emotionally, what do you think we're seeing, I mean, people hugging and holding each other and helping them clean up their houses that were scattered all over the street, literally, their houses, not even just their belongings. And then we talked about the data, the metrics of like, how many Red Cross volunteers were deployed, how many meals were provided, and all that we didn't open up with all that list of data, we move people emotionally by seeing humans help humans through time of crisis. And then we zoomed out and said, and this was happening all over the state of North Carolina with this many people that allows us to make meaning out of those data, or out of that data. Data by itself, it's hard for us to make meaning out of so when you're presenting the stories are important, because that's how we make meaning of information, plain and simple. And often people will go through a whole presentation, and it's just spouting off information. And to me, that's the easiest way to lose people's attention, their motivation, and they're passionate about what you're talking about, you know, that information should always they're not mutually exclusive. They are delivered together. Yeah, right, that you need them both. But I think that you hook people emotionally, and then you make them ask, okay, well, how is it done? Or why does it work? Or who's going to beat you? They ask these follow up questions, which then you're like, Steve, I'm so glad you asked, here's the data that you need

Molly Geoghegan 38:03

to follow ups, right?

Rain Bennett 38:05

If you just jump off with like, Hey, Steve, thanks for your time. One out of every 200 Americans is like

Molly Geoghegan 38:14

this is so validating, I feel because as you I do think it's moving slower than it should for like the world is knows that storytelling is impactful. People keep talking about it, and marketing strategies. And yet, presentations are so full of bullet points in these data things and connecting the two and having like sharing the experiences, the skills, and the passion that you have, like your Venn diagram makes so much sense for people to actually breathe some life into their presentation. So it's validating to have someone that's done the experience you have, tell us that? Yeah, this is this is why it matters, because people are gonna buy into the experience in the person and not just the language, hearing the words. So

Rain Bennett 38:53

and what you just said, this is the problem people struggle with is determining what matters and what doesn't. And the storytelling approach is very effective at determining that we go back to that piece when we're looking at like the puzzle pieces. And when looking at it from the perspective of creating a presentation. Well, whatever your presentation is a bit about, you start with a bunch of pieces like that, and you don't know which ones to include and which ones to not include. So you go through this process of storytelling, you start to see which ones are lumped in clumped together. And then you start you should start to ask yourself, which ones matter the most, right? And that's what storytelling is because storytelling is not include all the information possible. It's include only the information that matters without losing the meaning, right? Because there's a line somewhere, if you keep taking out the information, there's a line where the now we can make sense of it. But once it conveys the meaning that you want, you don't need anything else, you eliminate all of that. That's just extra. And that's hard for people to do when they're writing a book, when they're creating a presentation when they're delivering a speech is we're trying to cram in all that Information is possible. But in comedy is the same way, when you're writing a joke, it's the same way. You don't want any extra words in there possible, you want to deliver it with the magnitude that you needed to land with as few words as possible storytelling is exactly this the same way doesn't mean that you don't need color sometimes, right? Are things that, you know, aren't necessarily just structure, structure structure, but they have a point to that is needed, right? And that is not just, let's get how much information can we squeeze into the 62nd video that we're going to do? That is not the approach folks do not do that. What you want to do, and this is storytelling, one on one is delivered to that one minute piece in a way that creates a new question in there in the audience's mind, or the listeners minds so that they lean in and be like, Yeah, but what about this? And then you give them that story? And then they'd be like, Oh, I got it. So will it work like this? Then you give them the next one? It's this is how stories work. It's a trail of breadcrumbs. One thing, one part of the sequence leads to the next part, it's not a collection of random facts, or events, or scenes, each one leads to the next. Totally,

Molly Geoghegan 41:09

this is a perfect segue, because I want to just talk about this briefly before we lose our time with you. And we're

Rain Bennett 41:15

not going anywhere. Five hours,

Molly Geoghegan 41:19

guys, where we got a lot, don't we? We could talk all day for sure. Right? But you wrote a book called six second stories, maximize your impact in minimal time with video storytelling. And this line alone, I think speaks to what you just said, of how to be strategic and what you choose to put in your story, especially with video content, like as you said, like you start a business, you immediately have to be a content creator, you have to put out stuff that all fits within your brand and your narrative. And that's a part that's like way easier said than done. So yeah, what inspired the book? How did that come to happen?

Rain Bennett 41:51

Well, it's a raving success all around the globe, I'll tell you, it's changed my life in tremendous ways. Now, the reason was, I mean, part of it is that documentary approach, like how to do a lot with a little and then part of it was influenced by the way the world of content was changing. You know, back in the day, we had 62nd, like ad slots in 30 seconds, and 15, then 10. And then down to like, you know, Google Bumper ads, or YouTube Bumper ads probably was the first one these non skippable six second ads, and then that six second length of time became really popular and so much so that it now it's on like primetime television events, you know, the World Series, the Superbowl, etc. And they can do them while you still have the camera on the sporting event, right? You still have the main it's like the box within a box approach. And then you have like a quick six second hand. So it's that our technology and our media gave us these new kind of like, what is the word I'm looking for y'all? I mean, time time running times, what is there's a word I'm looking for? Add length, yeah, add length, you know what? I got too excited about the jigsaw puzzle. They tasked us with with this, right? So it's quite literally how to tell six, six second stories. But then it's also figurative in the sense that what I just said, All storytelling is about how to tell it as efficiently as possible without losing the meaning behind it. So the path or the journey to take to be able to tell a story in six seconds, is still effective, even if you can only get it to eight, right? It's still what the muscle that you want to work. And the question that I wanted to answer was, can you you can make someone laugh in six seconds, right? Think about Vine, right? That's all that's all it was. You can do something visual in six seconds like a Doritos commercial that just does. You know, a bunch of triangles falling from the sky or something like that, or Taste the rainbow from Skittles. Can you move someone emotionally? Can you make them cry? In a six second story? That is the question that I pondered. And I have to give a little homage a little hat tip to the this is kind of like an urban legend, but the Hemingway six word story if you all are familiar with that, are you all familiar with that story? No. Oh, tell us I give it to great. Okay. Now this might be urban legend. But let's consider to be true because it's so much fun. Much more fun that way. So back in the day would probably Paris in the 20s. Papa was sitting with some of his famous famous friends during that era at a bar of course, drinking drinking whiskey. I presume that goes. Exactly. And a bet wager a friendly wager arose? Who could tell a story in as few words as possible, right. And so Ernest Hemingway was like, I can tell a story and six words and they're, you know, his his, his friends, contemporaries peers, like no, you can't shut up. I'll take that bet. So yeah, I'll put up their money and he grabs a cocktail napkin, a beverage napkin, and on it he writes, For Sale. baby shoes, never worn.

Molly Geoghegan 44:54

Oh, yeah, I have heard that. Right.

Rain Bennett 44:57

And thus, you know, the six word story was born the Let you and that has been the premise of a lot of English professors exercises, which is how to tell an impactful story that tells a whole story that moves people in as few words as possible. It's very easy to write something moving in 100 words, or 100 pages, can you do it in 10? Words, can you do it in six words? Right. So that is that is the skill that we're trying to cultivate. So it is a little bit of an homage to that as well, which is a story that I've always really loved. And yeah, I mean, as soon as you hear that, you're like, oh, you know, like dagger to the chair, and it takes a second and then once you realize what the story is, right? Oh, God. So yeah, that definitely inspired it a little bit as well.

Michael Mioduski 45:40

So good. Have you seen it's been so long for me? I think we're in the spice cabinet. Now Molly reminds me of a river runs through it when Norman Maclean remember his dad's like English prof, like Reverend and everything, but before he goes out, fly fishing and excursion hang out in the woods in Montana. He makes him do these like English literature writing, you know, workshops. Yes. And every time so that kid comes brings him a paper that he wrote. And the dads like, good. Cut it in half. You know, it's like, and then he goes back to like, so like, keeps like chopping it down. Yeah, good cut in half. You know, it's like, such a cool process. But by the end, I'm sure it was pretty damn good. Yeah.

Rain Bennett 46:13

And that's the extent that I want to discuss that movie. Right now, Mikey, if I'm gonna keep my shit together. But if you haven't seen it, that's a yes. So good, man. Yeah, it's a good one. And young young Brad Pitt, by the way, which is just like 90s Brad Pitt was on another level.

Michael Mioduski 46:34

Or maybe urban legend to there. But I think Norman Maclean, the the author of that book, I think he wrote that when he was like, 85, or something like he'd always wanted to be an author. I think I've heard that fact check me on that probably totally made up. But I think like, that was like, at the end of his life, he finally broke never

Rain Bennett 46:50

let the truth get in the way of a good story, Mike, it's good.

Molly Geoghegan 46:53

It also reminds me of big fish. And we're talking about like, just the various stories evolving, you know, and passing down from like, you know, to a family member to family member. That one's a little different, that they're not short stories, but like, that's enough that like, the characters are like, stick with it throughout and they change from person to person. And I just

Rain Bennett 47:11

love that's a North Carolina story, too, by the way.

Molly Geoghegan 47:13

Yeah, totally. Okay, well, here we are in the spice cabinet. Because right and we're gonna read your book that's already on our presentation. It's bumped up on our presentation thinking reading list. So we'll do a whole episode, top core talking about that, and we'll tag you and make sure that you get some clout for that, for sure. I'm curious, ya know, what's some of the you've, you've talked to a lot of people on your storytelling lab podcast, which we will plug what some of the best advice you've learned from storytellers and other presentation goats that you've come to interact with?

Rain Bennett 47:43

You know, it's not, it's too quick answer. I'll try to be quick. I'm sorry. You know, I get I get excited.

Molly Geoghegan 47:50

So it isn't.

Rain Bennett 47:51

It's not a secret, or it's like not surprising to me that so many of the conversations I have on my show, get into, like, the real stuff that we've navigated in life, right, like, a lot of them get heavy. I've cried on my show, like so many times, if not very, very close, like moved emotionally even when we're like, talking about like, hey, how do you tell stories on stage it will get there because this is all how we make meaning of life and life is it's heavy sometimes and beautiful and tragically beautiful, right? So a lot of times we get to these, this content and conversation that it's really like heartfelt and moving. And to me that's my favorite because like that's what it's about. It's what we're all here for. And then to more directly answer your question. And this is probably because I recently had him on I know that you all are familiar with David JP Phillips, but in his was one of those like, I mean, we talked about loss, we talked about depression, right? But he really does such a good job of explaining. And this isn't like a one sound bite so apologies to you, then this this question isn't like a you know, a tweetable answer. But we there's so much content about how it directly impacts the brain, and how our brains work. And for me, and listen, I talked about this in my book, I've talked about this with plenty of my guests, but the way he views it and the different neuro chemicals that are involved in that process, and how they play out not just in our storytelling, but in our lives and how we live the best life that we want to live in for him. This is how he his journey into it all was how he hacked his depression, you know, which was deep. And so for me, that one was really impactful when we talk about why stories are so effective and why communication and that includes the story that you tell yourself as well as the one you tell others

Molly Geoghegan 49:38

totally Yeah. And we'll link that David JP Phillips up so because I started listening to the other day and I

Rain Bennett 49:45

that's one of the episodes that I have people that have been guest on my show writing me about like, oh my god, right and this one Yeah, nominal. I'm like I know.

Molly Geoghegan 49:53

Right? And like when you can get to that, like innate human level, that's so yeah,

Rain Bennett 49:57

it's everything. It's everything. Even we're talking my presence. So we're talking about business, but it all comes back to humans. Yeah,

Michael Mioduski 50:03

totally. And then I think like, the authenticity behind everything is, is will get you through to people far more often because of our, our BS detectors these days, right? And so like, because you get so deep and truly, you dig in and embrace those emotions involved in the storytelling and developing of something new, and giving it to people. Yeah. Cuz speaking is, and writing and sharing things on the internet, you're vulnerable and total. So yeah, you putting yourself out there? I think other people feel it and probably attached to it more when you do come at it pretty genuinely like that.

Rain Bennett 50:39

I agree. humans crave connection. Yes. And that's what it's, you know, I just said like, it's all about humans. But that's what I meant to say. It's all about that human, that human connection, no matter what you're trying to achieve. You have to have the connection and storytelling is the way we do that. That's why it's not a marketing tool says it's a communication tool, like right, so whatever you're trying to achieve, has to have that connection through communication. And stories are a very, very, very effective way to do that.

Molly Geoghegan 51:06

Yeah, and marketing miscommunication. So that's Okay, switching gears a little bit since we have Otto here. Who has been yet starting a sweet series this weekend, storytelling twist. Press thinking tick tock. And that's how we got connected with you. And I am curious. Yeah. What do you think about tick tock so far? What's your favorite trend? favorite creators? What What got you like you're like, should I just start posting shit on tick tock and see what happened? What got you started there?

Rain Bennett 51:32

Me or Asha?

Molly Geoghegan 51:34

Both? I suppose. You go first.

51:38

I mean, the pandemic, I guess.

Rain Bennett 51:40

This is a lot of our stories.

51:42

For everyone really? starts off as a joke, but then you get like, sucked in. Yeah, it's never ending.

Rain Bennett 51:48

There's still so many people that think, you know, it's something different than it is. And I think we were all that because your point is you hit starts off as a joke, like, yeah, I was just a voyeur for a few months watching people. But I also had a very specific during the movie that I talked about earlier. It was 2012. And I was very resistant to getting on Instagram, even though some of the athletes are like, No, dude, it's, trust me, it allows your content to get in front of a lot of people. And I vowed I would never do that, again, like miss a boat. And I was still later to tick tock than I wanted to be. But I watched for a little while. And I was like, oh, nobody's in here on here really doing storytelling content. And then I started finding the people and you see people like David, JP Phillips has like 2 million followers. You're like, okay, there are some storytellers on here. But But yeah, that's why that's why I joined was I thought it was a new space with a lot of whitespace to kind of operate with in the content that I created. And it took a long time to kind of figure out the right recipe.

Molly Geoghegan 52:44

Yeah. Okay, Asha, and rain. What is your favorite tick tock trend so far? Like funniest and most ridiculous? How should you go first? No, no, do this but I'm trying to think of what

52:58

I might expose myself here. But I think it's always funny and I'm guilty of this but when people just like tell these outrageous lies and like stories, and everyone believes it even though all of the information there is telling you that this is not true. I think that that's so like, I don't know, I think that's one of the most interesting things about tic tac I've never really seen a platform like that where people I guess are so just like believe whatever you hear.

Molly Geoghegan 53:27

Oh, yeah, like celeb stuff and like otherwise Yes.

Rain Bennett 53:33

So I my first I was gonna say my favorite trend is people being more authentic and not doing trends. I don't really like the trends I'll be honest and be because and a lot of people get that wrong and I coach people is like, you don't have to do the dances, you don't have to do any trends. Yada yada yada. I'm more about you know, like finding your message and telling it however, to answer your question. I think the cap cut trends, even though I'm really resisting, not likely doing that, but some of those are really funny and then when you see the different versions of them, it gets to be even funnier, like one of the more recent ones is like the Nic Cage and Pedro Pascal one. I'm talking about Asha, right like that one cracks me up because it's teed up and you know something is you know, it's kind of a two part story which this that's another thing when it comes to six second stories is instead of looking at as three or five acts you look at pieces and that's a real good one is like this then then this and you kind of fill in the middle one but that one cracks me up but there's a lot of those that I think are funny but I get caught up in like I really love like scare cam videos like that just I love the same person and there's a lot would you like somebody's nephew gets their like great uncle like every day or there's one where a guy gets his wife everyday like that kills me.

Molly Geoghegan 54:50

I love that stuff, too. I was gonna say the the Nic Cage and Pedro Pascal one is a perfect setup because some of these trends and the memes in general set up such a recognizable story where people looking like it's a format or something where people can see it right away and it's identify with

Rain Bennett 55:05

it and relate to it right. And so you'll see some you know, I'm a millennial, a guy born in the 80s grew up in the 90s. And so there's a lot of us on Tik Tok making millennial like content. And it'll be something that you immediately can identify with. Because it might the punchline might be like, This is what it's like growing up in the late 80s, or whatever you're like, yeah, no, right. So it's that immediate connection, and you can resonate with people. So that's the that's the effective part of the trends

Molly Geoghegan 55:27

in a super quick visual. Exactly

Rain Bennett 55:29

right. Six seconds or less, right. Yeah,

Michael Mioduski 55:31

absolutely. Totally. And then there's something out there for everybody, which is kind of sweet because like, you can really embrace your little Nishi. Like, like, I'm from the Midwest, or I'm totally whatever. Yeah, that's great. It was all rain. I feel like we could go on for days and we got a part two, I sent my friend the rest of the week rain, a weekly guess maybe?

Molly Geoghegan 55:53

Yeah. to host another podcast.

Rain Bennett 55:57

I'll be a co host, a guest lecturer.

Michael Mioduski 56:01

I love it. Your next big keynote when you're back on this big stage, national audience. What is your walk up song?

Rain Bennett 56:09

Oh, I'm like everything today. I have two answers. There was one that I did my firt This is my first the one I told you about earlier my first national keynote and I did some because I was coming off of that movie which was a freestyle calisthenics, callousness just like push ups, pull ups and dips bodyweight exercises, and this was a freestyle format. So it was like an art form people could express themselves a kinda like breakdancing on the pull up bar on me. So I was telling the story of meats, learning the lessons that I told you all in this conversation. And I started like, veering off and getting very esoteric with it and on purpose. And I was like, I feel like I'm losing you guys already. Maybe I should show you instead of telling you because that's the number one rule of storytelling. And so I took my jacket off and just went and did a routine on the floor, which is like crazy flying push ups and handstands and all this stuff. And that was to a song called a lingo by p square, which is a twin brother, Nigerian group that I was into when I was when I was traveling. However, here's the other story. When my brother and I, when I was young, we had like a fake Wrestling Federation. I grew up again in the 80s and 90s, like Hulk Hogan, Ultimate Warrior, Randy Savage. So we had to grow up. My brother was very creative. And he made all the characters we would play different characters sometimes, you know, because it was just the two of us on our trampoline. So we would play tag team, we could play four characters at a time, but my main character was called beast or rain. And he was half Tiger face pain and half like leopard down to the booth. I think it was definitely modeled after Hulk Hogan. And a lot of ways, but this will definitely timestamp it. My walk out song was I have a tiger because that was right around rocky three time when that song was introduced, which was in the I was probably like, 83 or 85 when rocky three came out, that was the one where Hulk Hogan was in it, Mr. T, et cetera. So that song as a walkout song has has definitely a story in my childhood, so I hold a special place for that one as well.

Molly Geoghegan 58:09

Yeah, that song is just like a story in of itself. Yeah,

Rain Bennett 58:13

it was indeed. Beast or rains. Walk out song. Matter of fact, so

Michael Mioduski 58:17

yeah, perfect. Still is and he started a big trend, because a lot of speakers are big. I had a tiger fan. Yeah, yeah, I started. Now we know where it started.

Molly Geoghegan 58:27

I think you already sent us the you know, headshot for your podcast art. But if you could send a picture of that. I think we should we should shift we should definitely no,

Rain Bennett 58:36

no, no, let's not say my brother drew all these characters. I still have a folder. Like 4040 characters. My brother's name is Bo. So this was rainbow wrestling. And we had all the characters and he made that he made the mixtape on cassette for everybody's and you know, it would be like Jimi Hendrix, Neil Young, you know, survivor of the Tiger and all these songs. I say he really fleshed it out. But I do have these two reins image. Not with me. It's at my mom's house. So I don't know when this episode is coming out, but I can get it to you.

Molly Geoghegan 59:08

Awesome. Okay, well, yeah. Do you want to share with the world? I mean, it sounds like Yeah. That's such a perfect like, childhood storytelling. A little world you built for yourself?

Rain Bennett 59:20

Yeah, we would be trying to break each other's necks on the trampoline when I was like five. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Molly Geoghegan 59:26

Oh, that's awesome. Oh, Ryan, thank you so much for joining and responding to Ashley's DM on ticked on Instagram. So

Rain Bennett 59:34

well. Let me just say this. I said it earlier, but like you all said that she found me but like when that I got the notification and I was like presenteras thing. I always check out everybody who comes in and your stuff is so good. That I can't wait to see how it goes. Because when I when I saw it, like you definitely could have had like a huge following by the way you're creating the content that you're creating. I love how you're tapping into pop culture and using references to show you're doing good Keep doing what you're doing because when I first saw I was like, Oh shit. Oh, okay, you know, so I was very, very impressed. Yeah 100% Like you know what you're doing you all are in good hands. So I'll bounce it back and say follow rain Bennett story coast, but also a follow up presentation.

Molly Geoghegan 1:00:16

Yeah, thank you. Awesome. No, yeah, we need the validation. You know,

Rain Bennett 1:00:21

the twist this weekend. Storytelling is also very, very great

Molly Geoghegan 1:00:24

idea. So fun. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. That's been awesome. Yeah. Trying to practice what we preach you know, so, indeed, six second stories. Well, we will we've got tons of stuff to link for rain to and follow him but anything in particular like yeah, following on Tik Tok follow you on Instagram. Do you have a newsletter?

Rain Bennett 1:00:41

Yeah, I mean, I would say like, you know, shout out to my mom, she gave me a very unique name. There's not a lot of rain Bennett's out there. I'm easy to find. I'm quite Google double. That sounds terribly pretentious, but it's true. So I love what I do. I'm always happy to talk about it. And I don't charge you for just emailing me or hitting me up. So if you have a question, don't hesitate. Hit me up here.

Michael Mioduski 1:01:04

Awesome. Thank you rain, we've learned a ton. I think everybody on this path to wanting to improve their own storytelling game is going to benefit immensely from this episode and from following everything you're doing online. So appreciate it. And everybody listening. Thank you for being here and keep on pitching phone pitch and talk to you next time. Thanks, everybody.