RV: (00:00) Well my friends, you are witnessing probably one of the greatest moments in my professional career right now because most of the people that we are bringing to you as part of this summit are people that I’ve known for years. Some of them, you know, several of them are clients or they’re people that I’ve helped with their launch or they’ve helped me with one of my book launches or something. But right now you are witnessing a chance for me for the first time ever to meet Les Brown and his daughter, Dr Ohno Brown. I’ve never talked with them before and through a connection, a friend of ours, a mutual friend named Judd, we set this up and so you have a chance to learn here at the feet along side of me too. One of the legends in this business Les Brown, if you’re not familiar, he has inspired millions of people around the world. RV: (00:51) He is won the CPE award from the National Speakers Association. That’s the hall of fame. He also won the golden gavel. It was also called one of the top five speakers in the world by toastmasters international. He’s spoken for audiences as large as 80,000 people, as hundreds of thousands of social media followers. And there’s just one of the most inspiring people on the planet. And then sitting next to him here is his wonderful and amazing daughter, Dr Ono Brown, who is also an expert in personal and professional transformation. She has been in the business for decades. She spoken throughout the world, Australia, England Stockholm and South Africa. Her client roster is very impressive in her own right American Airlines, British Petroleum, Federal Reserve Deloitte United way. And she worked with her father started out in his organization, climbed the ranks, you know, started as a sales professional. The customer service was a top negotiator. RV: (01:53) Eventually it was the CEO of Les Brown Unlimited and now as an entrepreneur herself. And so they’ve lent us here about 30 minutes of their time to just get to know them. So les and Dr Oana, thank you. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you. Thank you so much for the work that you’re doing and giving us the opportunity to share your audience and be able to give them some insight on this area that we love and has been a passion years. And I know it’s, it’s it, it really is amazing. And I, I, you know, I was trying to think about, okay, you get this one chance in your life to sit down with you two and what are you going to say? And I think my first question is just so simple is, and I would, I would, I would love for both of you to give me your opinions on this, especially since, you know, the people watching and myself, we’re, we’re playing the role of student and your teacher and Oana is both a teacher and also has been, you know, I would think one of your number one students side by side. RV: (02:49) But I guess to start with you less, if you had to say, what do you think is the difference between the kind of speaker that changes the world and just another and just another speaker? I don’t think there is such a thing as a bad speaker. I think everyone who steps on stage has this desire to serve and help. But I was personally mentored by somebody I know, you know, Zig Ziglar was a personal mentor of mine for about five years and you know, there’s, there’s people like that that changed the world is, is there anything that you’ve learned that you could say, this is what you should put your mind to if you want to kind of have that type of impact? LB: (03:33) Absolutely. Well, that’s a very good question. I’m glad you asked that question. Very few people asked that question. And Zig, I love Zig. He was a phenomenal life. I’ve seen him so many times. We’ve shared the stage. That was one of the goals and dreams I had to open for his day. And it was just a great experience. You’ve just an incredible human being. The, the, the major key to becoming successful in the speaking industry. And my daughter and I, we trained speakers and we share with them what we see as the major key, the, the, the difference between people who change the world and people who just speak, people who change the world use stories. When I came into the industry, the majority of speakers, they were speaking from the book think and grow rich by Napoleon Hill as the Bible providing information from that book. I listened to me. If inflammation could change people, everybody would be skinny. Richard had B. LB: (04:39) So what we do, my daughter as a, as a coach as a speaker and what I do, we come without story. You know why? Because a story has a human face. And so when I came into the industry and, and, and this is something else for people who are coaches, entrepreneurs and business people. The Mike Williams, who’s the author of the book called the road to your best stuff. I hired him as my coach and the reason I did, you can’t see the picture when you in the frame. I saw him speaking and I enjoy his style of sweeping man, how he had me on the edge of this, my scene along with the the other audience members. And I asked him to be my coach and mentor because I wanted to do what he did. I wanted to impact the audience the way that he did. And so the three things that’s important. One, getting a coach, somebody who speak on the level of [inaudible] RV: (05:42) I like that as a coach. The second thing is having a message that I’m known for. You gotta be hungry. You go on Youtube and put restaurants speaking LB: (05:58) In the Georgia Dome, you’ll see that story. So having a signature message, and that’s what Mike helped me to come up with. So everybody has a story, is my Angelo said there’s nothing as painful as an untold story buried in your soul. And the third thing is, which is major using your story to orchestrate an experience to transform the audience individually and collectively. Oliver Wendell Holmes, that that wants a man, a woman’s mind and has been expanded with an idea or concept or experience. It can never be satisfied that going back to where it was, the speaking industry had been hijacked by speakers who speak to sell. We speak and I train speakers to change lives. Impact drives, requests and income. You transform people’s lives and transform how they see themselves that’s going to impact the kind of results that they’re able to produce in their lives. And they will want your products. You don’t have to sham it down. The thoughts that come up with neuro linguistic programming or group hypnotics and other techniques or use all kinds of profanity, f bombs, all that. You know, you, if you provide value for people, they will want to develop a relationship with you. Does that make sense? RV: (07:32) Yeah, I love that. I, I, you know, so, so you know Dr Oana, you got a chance to kind of watch your father do this. You, you, you teach other people to do it is, is there anything you would kind of add to this idea? I mean, get a coach, super big believer, but what about that like the message part specifically? I think that’s one of the things I’m, a lot of the people that come to brand builders group, they’re struggling to figure out what their messages. LB: (08:00) Is there anything that helps with that? Well, let me just say that’s a good question because we call her the message midwife. Yes, go ahead. OB: (08:12) The method midwife and I help people to actually give birth to their unique message that they want LB: (08:17) [Inaudible] OB: (08:18) And that’s what I’ve been doing since 1995 and it is one of, it is my magnificent obsession. I’m so grateful and honored every time we are able to help a voice to come forth that’s been waiting and trying to figure out where is my voice, what does my voice have to share with the world? And one of the things that I would like to add to what dad just said is the fact that he genuinely cares about people. My father genuinely loves people and wants to see people be able to have their greatest life, to live their dreams and to become the greatest version of themselves. And so when I think about someone that’s able to actually impact the world, it’s important that we look at the foundation, the actual base intention of why you are speaking. Is it because you want to impress people and show people how successful is it? OB: (09:16) Because you want to be able to, are you feeling for the Mike or attention or is it because you genuinely are here to want to make this world a better place before you take your last breath? And that is the space that we have always come from and we enjoy working with and coaching because we don’t coach everyone. We, we believe there are certain people that are cut from the same cloth and branches up the same tree. And if you are coming from the space of wanting the world to be better and wanting to do your part to make it happen, that’s when you’re able to actually impact the world, which is the name of my company, world impacts now. RV: (09:54) Hey Man, I, I love that. That’s such a simple thing, but it’s like people can tell, right? Like they can tell when you’re there to serve them and support them and then they can also tell when you’re trying to steal attention or you’re trying to like, you know, satisfy your own self worth or, or sell something, you know, as you say. And I, I think that’s, that’s really good. One of the things, and I’m cheating here a little bit because you know, you coach Judd is one of your clients and that he’s also one of our clients on the strategy side. You know, as he shared with me that, cause I asked him, I was like, well, Gosh, like what are you learning? Like what are, what are the things they’re telling you? And he said, you, you know, that you guys really focus on teaching, kind of reaching the heart and moving people emotionally. And not just like Kinda like what you said with the story. And not just information, but is there anything that you think from a technical standpoint that people can do to move people on more of the heart level? And I think, you know, when people think of Les Brown, I think they think of this, you know, straight from the heart, like right to the gut, like honest, you know, catch you in the core. Is that something that can be taught or or yes. Let me jump in. OB: (11:28) We emphasize the importance of speaking from your heart and not your head. Most people are coming from their head, right? So we say get out of your head and get into your heart. Because when you speak heart from your heart is going to connect with the hearts of the audience members. Okay, go ahead. Yet. Well, RV: (11:46) How people live their lives as a result of the story. They believe about themselves, training people to LB: (11:53) Do three dimensional storytelling where you expand their mind and vision of themselves beyond their mental conditioning and circumstances where you touch their heart. Because the heart we’re in basically emotional people and you ignite their spirit, distract them from their thinking presently. Interrupt that mindset. Touch their hearts and ignite the spirit your lives. No saying who take a horse to the water. You can’t make them drink of it. You know how to effectively communicate and you create the thirst where they want to. Drake. And so when you look at how to get people to go there, I want to ask you a question please. When you look at your life and go back when you were like four or five years old, you look around, who’s the first person that you looked at that you admire, that you loved and that had a great impact on? Who was that person RV: (12:51) You asking me directly? Yes. Gosh, there’s so many people. But the person I usually talk about, well it’s really my mom. I was raised by a single mother and you know, she sold Mary Kay and like was trying to make money on this side and raise two kids and she was 22 years old and had no college degree and had been divorced twice and so, you know, but, and she wasn’t educated like, but she always, I remember her saying, she’s like Roy, one day you’re going to go to college and you’re going to get a full ride scholarship cause I’m not going to be able to afford to send to you. But she would, she was the first person that I remember saying you can do anything. Whatever. Whatever you dream of is available to you. So that was my mom. LB: (13:40) Good. What now? What’s your mother’s name? Tessy. Tessy. Good. Alright, good. Ladies and gentlemen, what did you announce you first day morning, Rory? RV: (13:50) Ori. Rory is how you say it? Yep. LB: (13:52) Hello, my name is Roy Ladies and gentleman. I want you to write something down. You can do anything. I want you to just, just that one statement and I want you to think about your goals and your dreams and your personal life, your professional life, and something you want to do in terms of your social contribution to make a difference. And when you think about that, here’s what I want you to do is look back at that statement. You can do anything. Let me share something with you. My mother, my mother was a single mother. She sold Mary Kay. She was an entrepreneur. She was a person that not only was she driven to make things happen, to create a great life for us, but she also, she inspired me and she taught me and it was constantly an affirmation. You can do anything that you want to do. LB: (14:48) And as you think about yourself and think about your dreams, most people go to their graves with their dreams still in them because they suffer from possibility blindness. What have they been in our household? They would be living their dream. Yes, like I’m living by and I’m saying to you, as my mother said to me, you could do anything. The other thing is that I learned from my mother. As you think about your goals and dreams, take responsibility for what you want. My mother was a take charge person. She was a person that took responsibility for raising us and she thought, like George Bernard Shaw said, the people that make in this life, they look around for the circumstances that they want and if they can’t find them, they create them. You take responsibility for your life as my mother did in raising us the possibilities of what can come out of that. I has not seen ear has not heard those in the heart of mankind. What God has in store for you. So do you see where I’m going with that? RV: (15:49) Yeah, so so and so you just, you, you kind of will like just have someone tell the story and then you kind of reconstruct it with the message, apply it to the audience and then kind of where did you learn it from? Your mother. LB: (16:03) Your mother impacted you between the ages of zero and five according to DACA Mod and seal, the man who wrote the book learned optimism the most exhaustive 26 years study on self esteem. He said between zero and five we form a word in our heart. That word is yes or that word is no. And so as you watched your mother and how she conducted herself, the values that she had, you pick those values. Some things are taught, some that caught. So there was an imprint that was made on you and that’s why you are who you are. Now. You were molding then who you were going to become in the future with your observation and unconsciously taking on that mindset, embracing those values that you witnessed and then began to incorporate them in your life to create a different kind of story for yourself. RV: (17:00) [Inaudible] I love, I love that. So it’s almost like it’s, it’s, it sounds like you could almost take, take the stories that moved you and those are the stories you tell to other people. It’s like if it moved you, it’s gonna move, it’s gonna move somebody else. It’s LB: (17:16) Also the end, the lessons that you learned from the story. You learned a lot from her just watching her as a kid. And so as as you, you know, Abraham Lincoln said all that I am and all that ever hope to be, I owed to my mother. And so when you, when you started talking about her, you immediately picked up inside talking about all the things that she did in a very short time that gave us a picture of who she was selling. Mary Kay being a driven woman, a mother who was single, found a way to raise us and was the kind of person that can make a way out of no way. All of those qualities are required today in this era. What the late Peter Drucker call that era, the three C’s, accelerated change, overwhelming complexity, and tremendous competition. So you have in you and we were working about [inaudible] and Ana and I spend time with you. LB: (18:14) We will extract the UN title out of your heart that resonates with you as a person. And out of that title of book, a title for your book in that keynote message, why we know about Dr. Model of the game, because I have a dream. The Kennedy’s ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you could do for your country, Les Brown, you gotta be hungry. So there is a story in you that will distract, dispute and inspire that will distract people from their current story. That through the execution of your story and the things you learned from your mother and your own life experiences, you dismantled their current belief system and you inspire them to become, as Mother Teresa would say, a pencil in the hand of God and started writing a new chapter in their lives. RV: (19:08) So I, I love this and I’ve got a question for you Dr Ono. Okay. So you know, it’s interesting cause you’re, you’ve complete a lot of his sentences cause it’s like you guys had a speaking from the same, you know, the same place. But if I, and I agree with this very much, you know, you said this earlier that that people beat people become I think you said we, we are the basically the stories that we tell ourselves about who we are. We live into that. So Dr Ana, my question would be from your opinion or your perspective, what is the story that your dad has told himself about himself over the years that you think has positioned him to do what he has done? Right. So there’s some story that we’re all telling ourselves in our head. Yes. From your firsthand like growing up in the house and being there with the man. What do you think is the story he tells himself about himself that has, has helped him become who he is? LB: (20:15) Good question. OB: (20:16) The question, the story that I believe my father’s told himself about himself is that he has greatness within him and he tells his audience members that. And I, I, we also say that when you are doing this type of work, whatever you put out, it comes back to you a hundred fold. And so I am sharpens iron and as he’s telling the audience, you have greatness within you. I believe that needs also repeating what he is told to himself. Time and time again, having rise above and against all of the different things that happened during his childhood and being adopted and being raised by my grandmother made me Brown and not really having any formal education and even build, I’m sure the negative inner conversation with kick in and say, I don’t have what it takes. I’m not qualified. I’m not worthy of this. To be able to stand in front of thousands and demand and command the stage so that people can can actually have your lives be impacted. However, if you would say to himself, I have greatness within me and I’m going to show them that they have greatness within them now within itself, now you’re coming from a different space because he is positioning himself to be utilized as an instrument in that moment. And so I watched my father be in times when he was battling the big C that we call it the little seat, that’s what we call cancer. And he would be in pain RV: (21:47) Twice, right? OB: (21:49) Yes. Several times throughout the years where he would take the microphone and actually be in pain. However, once he would start to speak because the message was coming through him and not from him, all of a sudden go away. And he would be able to empower people and uplift people and watch them go through what we call a transformational experience. So that is what I think is one of the greatest things that my father’s ever said to himself and to audiences around the world. And that is you have greatness within you. RV: (22:27) Nobody’s ever asked you that question before because that was pretty awesome answer that sounded like you’ve given that. That was really, really awesome. I love that. So the story, you know, if, if I, and I think this is really interesting, I think it’s ironic that the people who are speakers and authors, right? They’re sort of like, they’re supposed to be the experts teaching personal development yet they struggle on a day to day basis with the same things that everybody else struggles with. And I think there is a story that speakers, you know, have to overcome, right? They, they say, well, Gosh, there’s a million speakers out there and you know, I don’t have 5 million views on youtube and I don’t have a podcast. It’s 100 million downloads and I’m not a best selling author. And there’s already, there’s already a les Brown and there’s already a Tony Robbins and there’s already whatever. Is there anything that you would say, you know, to, to somebody that maybe has some of those doubts that either they’re too late or they’re too old or they’re not enough because the reality is there is a lot of noise. There is a lot of competition, you know, to what Peter Drucker said you know, talk to us about it. OB: (23:46) I would like to speak to this first because I know a little bit more about this and the reason why, because I had to find a way to find my voice in the shadow of this giant light, this gigantic. Did you do that? Yes, and so in my mind I was constantly saying to myself, it was no way on earth. 81 is going to find value in what you have to share and there’s no way you will ever be able to measure up and feel these huge, gigantic shoes. And that was my biggest challenge that I had to overcome and realize that it wasn’t about me becoming a a les brown jr or B becoming this person that was exactly like my father, but finding my own style, my own unique voice, my own way of expressing what I had to express in order to help the people that I would be able to help. OB: (24:48) Because what we teach our actual speakers that we work with and we have been grooming and cultivating throughout the years, is that there’s someone that has your name on them. There’s someone that will resonate with your voice and your voice alone and they won’t be able to hear it from Anthony Robbins or Brian Tracy or Jim rural or nor or Les Brown. They will only be able to hear it from you. And we sincerely believe that because it will have something to do with the makeup of who you are, your, your ethnicity, your, your, where you were raised and the beliefs that you have in some of these experiences that you had to grow through and not just go through. And so this was what I had to hold on to was to realize that I had something special in me. I had greatness in me. It was not just exempt for just dad. He was not the only person that had greatness in him and that I was going to be able to reach people. Once I was able to celebrate and embrace who I was in my own unique way, that’s what a speaker has to do for themselves. Celebrate and embrace who they are and get out of the comparison game. This is not a comparison. You don’t need to compete with anything except for the greatest vision of who you can become. LB: (26:10) And then he is, we start off first focus on the Messenger and then the message. Speaker 4: (26:19) Okay. LB: (26:20) Because to me the, Speaker 4: (26:30) Yeah. LB: (26:32) Live an achievement driven life so that you’re speaking not just from some theory or something you read from a book, but just speaking from that, you are still reaching higher. You know, when you think about something that cyber, he says that a man’s reaches to supersede his grasp war. What are the heavens? And so we must, until you get to the region, I’m just, I’m 75 years old and I still have goals and dreams that I’m working on. I used to think people in their forties, we’re all, now that I’m 75, I feel like I’m a waiter. RV: (27:14) Oh my gosh. Yeah, that’s incredible LB: (27:19) Ball. That is incredible. So I ha let’s talk about that RV: (27:26) Just a little bit less. You know, I, it was when zig zig, I met Zytiga NSA. I was in a contest called the world championship of public speaking for toastmasters and almost 23. And he actually came and sat next to me randomly and we became buddies. And then you know, I was, I was with him and I would go see him, I’d be backstage with him and stuff and right up to where he had his fall and he started to lose her short term memory. So it was, I knew him towards the very end of like his career. LB: (27:58) What, what do you [inaudible] RV: (28:00) What do you think about now? Like did you think about, you know, succession planning in terms of, you know, transferring things over to Dr own a or, or you know, like what are some of your goals? Like what, what, what is the thing that has your attention LB: (28:17) Now? Hmm, that’s a good question. I’m focusing now. Yes, he does. Yeah. You learn, you earn and you pass it on. And so what I’m doing now, and I’m very excited to being able to partner with my daughter to do that, is to train speakers on how to begin to tell their story in a way that they can make a difference. Oliver Wendell Holmes set that, that we should be ashamed to die until we’ve made some major contributions with human chi. We all have an energy signature. So my goal is to train people around the world and train others how to train them because it’s driven by system, not a personality. And so I’m excited. I’ve got speakers now who can go toe to toe with me now. My daughter thinks that she can. Yeah, I just want her to know, know a thing that too, because I’ve seen a Beta too. RV: (29:25) Echo c knows all your lines though. Yours. He, this is, here’s why she has an advantage. She knows exactly what she knows exactly what she’s going to say and she knows exactly what you’re gonna say. You’re the one that should be scared. You might not know what either one LB: (29:42) Of you are going to say, but she does. I like it. I lie. I like it so much. Well I guess so. So let me ask you this. You know, you’ve mentioned that you guys used to do some a speaker training and all of that and we’ll, we’ll put links, but where do you, where do you want people to go if they want to tune in and learn more about this or you know, follow on your journeys? OB: (30:06) Yeah, they can definitely go to own a brown.com that’s o n a B r o w n.com and they can go to Les brown.com. They can go to our social media and follow us there and dms and we’re going to be doing so much more. We just came back from Singapore. It was an amazing trip, 20 hours there, 20 hours back. We trained and did a work with an audience that they was around four or 500. And we really, truly, sincerely believe there are quite a few people that are going through the motions of training people. But here’s what we really, truly believe, Rory. And that is that the more voices that we’re able to uplift and to empower the more voices that come forward and start to speak from their truth and show people ways to get to their greatness and to make it through these seemingly dark times and to shine their light, the better the world will be. OB: (31:09) And so it is not about being afraid of someone becoming competition. There is no competition for who my father is. I believe that he is a walking, living, breathing legend, and he is a legend that is being, he’s doing the work of empowering others so then his message will live on and I’m so honored to be a part of that in carrying the torch and not allowing his message to ever die. You will always live on in the hearts of those whose lives he’s touched and he will definitely be a part of those who have taken on their boys and will spread the message that we are here to spread. I love the same evil prevails when good men and women do nothing. And so me as good men and women are doing our work to make the world better and that’s why worry. We’re so honored to be able to collaborate with you because you setting an intention to do this work and make this available to people in a time like this when it’s important to have something that can feed your faith. We love the same feed your faith and your fears will start today LB: (32:26) When you ask them, what am I doing? One of the things I did not mention, I want to, I’m looking for seven people that are hungry, hungry to make a difference to to be able to establish a company that they can feel good about it and pass it on to their children and to their grandchildren and so they can email me at Les Brown’s [email protected] that’s Les Brown, [email protected] this is not everybody. I work with seven people our whole year, one on one. This is my one on one training for high end clients and trust me at the end of that year. Well, even during that time, I don’t make a tremendous impact that unsurprised themselves. I will hand them back a different purse. OB: (33:16) That’s beautiful. Right. Do you ever, do you, have you ever heard of parent abuse? RV: (33:21) Don’t I heard of what? Parents Abuse? Yeah. well I’ve heard of OB: (33:29) My dad was female on major or right in the middle of the interview. What does he do? He gives out his email. RV: (33:39) Well, you may get a few [inaudible] you may get an email here and there. We’ll, we’ll, we’ll see. So last, here’s my last one, last little thing. So is there one, if there was one lesson that you wished you would have learned earlier, so you know, as a messenger, you know, is whether that’s on the platform speaker or just within your personal life or professional life, is there, is there a lesson that you learned? You eventually learned it, but you thought, man, I wish I would have learned this sooner. If I would’ve learned this sooner, it would’ve made a big difference. LB: (34:19) Absolutely. There’s one area that is glaring for me. OB: (34:24) I would have done been, no. RV: (34:29) Yeah. LB: (34:35) Creating collaborative achievement, driven, supported relationships with people who you can learn from, people that will inspire you to grow mentally and spiritually and all the various areas of real life. That to me is major. Oh, QP only quality people. RV: (34:58) Oh yeah. Yeah. OB: (35:00) I know. It looks like just to piggyback and add to what Dad said, when you’re having planes and time zones and stages and pull kids, often times you can have your blinders on, right? Because we’re taught to focus and to not be distracted and to do what we are actually born to do and to live out our purpose. However, in the midst of that, we were so busy doing what we were doing around the world and getting the standing ovations and and making these clients tickled peak and please beyond measure that we kind of lost. We kind of missed some of this technology shift that was going on and I remember I said, oh, Facebook, what sense does that make? Like if people want me, they can either call me or they can easily send me, you know, an email, but why would I need to go to Facebook? Then doesn’t make sense. And so I remember watching something and it said, Macy’s has a Facebook page. I said, Whoa, okay, maybe this isn’t going anywhere. OB: (36:08) So I would say this, being able to tap in to technology if it was something that I would do differently. And I tell all of the speakers that we work with, plug into the technology, build relationships with people like Rory, know how to actually utilize that to have your message be amplified and to reach people in different and various ways because we’re all schools. So we’re used to being able to do everything offline. But the younger generation, they’re doing everything online. Like this is, this is a summit and we are in our home. Yeah, that’s a perfect example of how times have shifted and being able to move and flow with the, with the shift of time. RV: (36:53) Yeah. Well I love that. And I think this, this has been some timeless wisdom, some timeless truths and just an absolute privilege and honor to get to see you too in your element, in your home, just chairing, like, you know, the secrets of what you do. And exposing people to everything that you have available. So thank you for everything that you’ve done for what you have yet to do. And, and thank you especially for being here. We are. We’re honored to have you. Thank you. Honored to have you Royce. Thank you so much for who you are and the light that you bring to the world. God bless you. I appreciate you. [inaudible].