The School of Greatness - 410 Become a Master Speaker and Wow Your Audience with Sekou Andrews

Episode Date: November 23, 2016

"You are still your most important audience of all." - Sekou Andrews If you enjoyed this episode, check out show notes, video, and more at http://lewishowes.com/410

This is episode number 410 with Seikou Andrews. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, a former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin. If you want to learn how to become a better communicator, a better speaker on stage, a

better performer, then this is the episode for you. Sekou Andrews is an incredible person that I met, I think about four or five years ago. I saw this individual speak on stage at an event called Summit Series, and I was captivated from the very first word to the very last. His performance had such a profound impact on me that I remember going up to him afterwards and saying, I've never wanted to hire a speaker coach before until I met you. I want to learn everything you know about public speaking and connecting to an audience. Now, Sekou Andrews is an actor, a musician, and a national poetry

slam champion and entrepreneur, and now award-winning poetic voice. And on any given day, you may find Sekou presenting an original talk for an international marketing executives, giving a keynote speech at a leadership conference or performing pieces for Obama or Oprah. His work has been featured on ABC World News, MSNBC, HBO, Good Morning America, Showtime, MTV, and BET. And he has performed privately for people like Maya Angelou, Larry King, Hillary Clinton, and so much more. Some of his corporate clients include Nike, Time Warner, Cisco, eBay, Microsoft, Google, LinkedIn, Express, PayPal, General Mills, NBA, NCAA, and so much more as he teaches corporate leaders how to

perform better in the boardroom and more. And some of the things we covered today are the best ways and worst ways to open any speech, how someone can become a master speaker no matter what level you're at. Also, Sekou performs a part of his piece, Voiceful, which is extremely powerful. So you can see how he performs and delivers. We talk about the key to good audience management from the stage and Seikou's advice to people who are terrified of public speaking. Guys, if you want to learn to be a master communicator, if you want to learn how to master the stage, this is one of the best in the world at teaching this and performing it. I've only seen a few people really captivate me the way Seikou does, but he does it in such a unique, distinct way that

no one does it like him. You're in for a real treat. Make sure to share this with your friends, lewishouse.com slash 410 watch the full video interview on the link there as well or you can go right to youtube.com slash lewishouse to watch it as you'll get to experience his performance style on video more so than an audio and this is an incredible one so make sure to share it with your friends and without further ado let me introduce to you the one the only, Sekou Andrews. All right. Welcome, everyone, back to the School of Greatness podcast. Very excited about our guest, Sekou Andrews, in the house. Good to see you, man. How are you doing?

Good. I'm super pumped about this. I remember watching you for the first time at Summit Base Camp where was that Tahoe? Reno yeah about four years ago maybe three four years ago and I saw you for the first time and I was just like wow I came up to you afterwards

I don't know if you remember this but I was like I want to learn how to speak like you I don't know if you remember this but yeah I remember that but literally up until now I didn't make that connection that that was you. Yeah. That's crazy. Yeah, yeah. And I remember hearing you speak or I watched you speak and I was just mesmerized. It was like this magnetic pull to your style, your approach to not speaking, but performing and everything, which is what you call poetic voice, correct? Which is your style of public speaking.

And can you tell us a little bit about what that actually is? What's poetic voice mean? Yeah. So poetic voice is basically the seamless blend of inspirational speaking and spoken word poetry. So if you imagine, you know, if you're listening to a speech that's being performed and it gives you the same sort of energy and dynamic range and emotive power of a performance and you lose track of where the business content ends and the storytelling begins and the rhyming begins and the theater ends and the comedy begins and it just becomes sort of this one seamless experience. seamless experience because I would see a lot of poets or artists that were that were speakers and they would do sort of a set speech you know I'm saying where you'd be like okay I'm gonna do my poem and then I'm gonna you're gonna applaud and then I'm gonna talk about it right and then I'm

set up the next one tell you some stories then I'm set up the next piece then I perform and then I'm you're gonna applaud it wasn't seamless it was like this and I wanted to be this kind of constant leaning in effect where you were like wow that's great business content is content. Is he rhyming? Wait a minute. Is this a story? I don't know where we are right now, but I'm along for the ride. Interesting, man. And you used to be a teacher. Is that right? It was the last job I had before I started working for myself. Fifth grade teacher. Fifth grade, man. Fifth grade teachers out there. What up? Holla. Holla.

Dude, when was this? How long ago? This was 14 years ago. Wow, man. I've been a full-time poet for about 14 years, and that was the last job I had. I was actually on the law school track. No way. Out of college. Because, you know, your mom hears you got the gift of gab, and she doesn't say, you

should be a poet. She says, you should be an attorney. Right, right. So I was working at a bunch of law firms in LA after I graduated college. um you from here i'm originally from the bay area okay i'm a berkeley baby so i did berkeley right went to middle school high school in dc and then came out to la for college instead of pitzer college out in claremont and uh graduated sociology and was gonna do you know pre-law working in law firms and then i was dude, law. So law wasn't supposed to be my backup. Entertainment law wasn't going to be my backup to being an entertainer.

And then you kind of look up and you're like, you know, first of all, law is not really a backup. It's kind of a commitment, you know. And then I was also like, I'm not trying to be that bitter entertainment lawyer that's negotiating deals I wish I had, you know. Like, check out my demo, though. Exactly. So I was like, let's, you know, let's try teaching. And I ultimately knew that as much as I love teaching, I couldn't give the kids my all that they deserved if I was out pursuing entertainment at night.

Yeah. And so I decided to just take the leap of faith, you know? Interesting, man. How long were you teaching for? About four years. Four years. And you were doing your like side like gigs or yeah i mean i time you know initially during that period i was chasing hip-hop that was that was my route to spoken word came from hip-hop and acting i was

pursuing hollywood pursuing record deals and then somewhere along the way i was going to open mics to build a fan base for my music because I was always kind of too poetic for the record labels and they would you know the execs would be like dude I love your joints I listen to it every day on the way to work but it's not like you know bling shoot a mob hose you know to like sell to the man next to the man and so I said all right what I'm gonna do it myself entrepreneur me kicked in was like I'll start my own you know record label blind faith records baby you know that was the joint. And I started going to open mics to build a fan base for my music.

And I accidentally fell in love with spoken word poetry. That wasn't the plan. And then it was kind of like, well, damn, now what do I do? You know, like there's no industry for this. Right. So then part of me started getting more excited about pioneering new trails in spoken word than being sort of tossed into the sea of demos and headshots out there competing for the same crumbs you know wow and so when did you do the national poetry slam championship so um during the four-year period when i was teaching was when the transition happened i went in thinking i was like you know pursuing hip-hop trying to get a

record deal pursuing acting and then that transition of falling in love with spoken word happened. And so then it was like, okay, I started building my name up on the scene and my name built up pretty quickly. The spoken word scene. Yeah, spoken word. What, just locally, nationally? locally here in LA. Shout out to DPL. The Poetry Lounge was my home venue and still is. And then right after I quit, it's a pretty powerful story of like, I decided I was going to quit my job. I took my taxes, my tax return money. I upgraded my studio to Pro Tools. I was like, my tax return money I upgraded my studio to Pro Tools I was like I'm going to record my album I had a double CD

I recorded the CD wasn't out the day I was supposed to have my CD release show right so I quit my job on a Friday that Tuesday or Wednesday or something I had the CD release show I was freaking out like I don't have my CDs in my hand finally the guy in Carson that was duplicating

them was like with it done come pick him up I shot down to Carson. I picked him up. I rushed back. I ran to the stage. Dude was like, what took you so long? It was a Fly Poets Showcase. If you've never been, you need to check it out. One of the dopest shows out here. And he was like, you're on in 20 minutes. And I'm backstage

panting and sweating. And I go on stage. I do one of the best sets of my career at the time. I step out on stage afterwards, surrounded by audience members, and I make my rent in CD sales that night. And I remember one of the best sets of my career at the time. I step out on stage afterwards, surrounded by audience members, and I make my rent in CD sales that night. And I remember like when the crowd cleared, I just looked up at the sky and I was like, damn, I can do this. Like it was the most powerful moment of I can do this. And then the next day I took off to DC where my girlfriend lived at the time. So I could do like a safe tour, you know, meaning I had a place to sleep.

For free. Some bread in the fridge, you know. And I toured for about a week and a half, came back with a wad of cash about, you know, a few weeks later. Went to Atlanta, came back with a wad of cash after about a week and a half. Sell CDs. Right. Selling my CDs. And then a couple of weeks later is when I won the National Poetry Slam Championship.

And so then that made me the number one slam poet in the country, which then gave me the eyes of the country. So now I could go anywhere and my name preceded me. And that helped with that. It was like almost scaling myself. Well, how many people compete in the championship? So the National Poetry Slam Championship is probably about, I don't necessarily know exactly what it is now, but when I was competing, it's probably grown since then. Um, it was about 60 to 65 teams from around the country,

300 poets, you know, converge on a city, the city bids for it, like the Olympics, you know, and they get chosen as that city. Um,

and then the poets converge for about four or five days. Right. And, you know, different bouts going on around the city, semifinals, finals. And at that time, the team competition and the individual competition were on the same night. And I won the individual competition. Wow.

And then 2003, the following year, I then went back and I won the team competition. So that's why this is two-time national champion. Have you not gone back since? After that, you know, I joined it. You know what I it you know what i mean like right you know what i mean like i was just like what else is there to do here you know five-time champion right like i set my sights on other stuff you know sure sure okay what was that like for you going through that process and winning and it was amazing dude i mean how many people are there like the final one it's like like it's m&m How many people are there? Like the final one. It's like M&M, 8 Mile. You're like, let's, in Chicago, 2003, it was Navy Pier.

And it was a theater out there. And it was huge. And I remember, like, when I won nationals, actually, in Minneapolis, the individual, I just remember this amazing feeling of, like, as soon as I finished and the scores were announced, like, my whole team and community ran on the stage and bum-rushed me. Yeah, like, everybody just came in. It was, like, this real sense of community love. Because we had, like, at that time, we had about five teams out here from L.A. It was L.A., Hollywood, Long Beach, Inland Empire. You know what I mean? San Diego.

And so, it was a heavy community battling against each other. But at the same time, still family. That's cool, man. So, it was an amazing, amazing experience. And then after that, I mean, like I said, I would just show up at spots and it was like Sekou the Misfit. Sekou the Misfit was my name back then. So, you know, that was my hip hop name. All right.

So it was like Sekou the Misfit's here, you know. And so it just helped with me being able to turn this into a career. Yeah. Crazy, man. Yeah. So can we hear one of the poems? Word. Yeah.

you know crazy man yeah so can we hear one of the poems yeah um so i'll do one of i'll do a poetic voice piece that actually is um it'll give you a sense of the the sort of blend um of the inspirational speaking side and the spoken word we side together and um this is a piece I keep debating on which joint to do. I think I'll do this piece, Be Voiceful, which is when I last saw you at the SANG event, that was the piece that I shared in its more sort of extended 20-minute keynote form. And it's actually a 45 to 60 minute keynote that I do all about finding your voice, the power of finding your voice, but it's sort of based on this, this sort of self-contained piece.

So cool. Be voiceful. All right. It is quite simply a magical place, a universal womb that births each of our days with an act shared across this planet's face from the moment the nylon curtain is raised and you step butt naked onto your porcelain stage your hot and cold background singers engage you lift that soapy loofah microphone to your face and let your mighty bellow set this world ablaze with and i will always love you and every single human on the planet each shares a singular universal truth

I sound freaking amazing in here right there is a science to why we all sound good in the shower it's in the echo something about the compact quarters of porcelain metal and wood that reverberate sound

waves erupting from our throats transpose them into major chords from minor notes as if the walls themselves join in on your song like the bathroom just agrees with you and sings along. I sound freaking amazing in here. Sound freaking amazing in here. Sound freaking amazing. And with your talent now affirmed beyond all reasonable doubt, you settle down, towel off, suit up and step out into this buzz kill of a world.

And it's comments on your skills, something about nails on a chalkboard, whatever, and a cat being killed, whatever, and you not quitting your day job. and a cat being killed, whatever, and you not quitting your day job. And so you don't. Instead, you quit your daydreams. You abort your purpose. You divorce your passion. You call off the search for your power. You quit believing you sound good outside of the shower. And that is not actually to say, Lewis, that you can sing. OK, let's just be clear. It is entirely possible that you, my friend, are never, ever supposed to be singing in the shower ever, but rather. Dancing. Or drawing or designing, maybe you're supposed to be designing an event that will shower your community with leadership, right? Or creating a new product to bathe your company in liquid gain or crafting a

new strategy to wash away your greatest fears or creating a new magic trick for your kids using bath beads, finishing the final chapter of your book on clean water, right? Designing and inventing a new cutting edge tile that can heat an entire room sound of your truth and pulling out the proof in the echoes of a story. A post, a blog, a pirouette, a post, a strategy, a slogan, a vote. There's so many viral building blocks that drive the building blocks of a voice. Creative voice trying to enroll the world into your vision or a catalytic voice that narrates your passage in the lexicon of your life helping you to say you how you want to be heard when you don't have the clarity when you can't find the words when the cacophony in your head drowns out the symphony of your heart with a bed of white noise saying it's not that you can't hear your voice

it's not that you can't hear your thoughts it's that none of them sound like you you don't recognize the sound of your own voice can't believe your words so you bathe your throat in silence waiting for your throat to clear. Like a shotgun cock. A door unlocked.

A needle dropped onto a whirlwind of thoughts. This way. This is the full expression of what you were born to do. This is the how to do it. That is uniquely you. This is the how to say it with this voice, these words. This is the how to live it, to be joined by those you serve as the voice of your customers or your community or your cause. But you are still your most important audience member of all.

You are still your most important audience member of all. If your truth calls in the middle of life's forest and you ain't even there to hear it, it will not make a sound, a mark or a difference. So what is the point of showing up to life if you don't announce you're there? What's the point of having a story if it never gets shared because you're too scared to talk your walk own what you do different the first step to having defining your true voice is to listen to voices other than your own then print your edition let the similarities help you define your divisions then say you to the world and when met with resistance, when they tell you talk is cheap, you tell them silence is unaffordable.

Be voiceful because you are what you say. So don't say what you do until you do what you are. Only when your actions move with your words will your words move others to action maybe it's time to hit the showers like vocal booth and climb back in until your your future recognizes your voice and it unlocks your doors wide your fate fate's GPS speaks in your voice and announces you have arrived. And you step outside into life's voice booth of earth and seas and skies

and prove your voice sounds just as freaking amazing as it did inside. As you announce to this world, I am here right here and I'm finally the right me and it echoes off everyone around

you till the universe responds I agree and your future clears its throat for good and joins in on your song and your voice becomes an anthem and the whole world sings along.

I got the chills. I just got the chills. That was great, man. Holy cow. Thank you, dude. Appreciate it. So teach us how to do that. I just got the chills that was great man holy cow thank you dude appreciate it so so teach us how to do that

I'm just kidding right so what so what what you just did it was I mean everyone needs to go watch this

if you're listening to the podcast go watch YouTube slash Lewis Howes so you can see the performance side of this as well yeah it's so weird like performing at a table yeah you're not standing

yeah you're much more animated when you're standing i am but i you know also like that's i'm a big proponent of like be mighty on any stage no matter what it is you know like people get so wrapped up in but i'm in a boardroom i'm at a podium i'm at i'm on a in a camera frame i'm like tell meryl streep she can't be powerful in a tight camera frame yeah yeah you know what i mean like your facial expression you have to use what you have like literally your body becomes like tell Meryl Streep she can't be powerful in a tight camera frame yeah yeah you know what I mean like your facial expression you have to use what you have like literally your body becomes chest up so very little was happening obviously down here because there's nothing to do but I'm still connecting with you I'm still connecting with the room this entire room is my stage my face is my

vehicle my my body my arms my fingers everything is my instrument and you know I tell people all the people all the time when I'm doing something on video or for webinars, whatever, I'm sure you can, you know, like you can relate to the fact that you can be dynamic on a webinar. Like that's your whole business is like saying I'm going to bring the party to my webinar. Yeah. And it's like no matter how tight that frame is, you go, OK, so what do I have to work with? Eyes, nostrils, hair, you know what I mean? Like lips, I'm going to use all of it. Yeah. Amazing, man.

Do you feel like there can ever be too much performance if you're, let's say you're speaking on stage, for example, or in front of a boardroom, can you have too much performance? Oh, yeah. And is there ever a time where you should be more, I guess, hands down and not as expressive or what do you- So let me say this. It's not too much performance. Is there ever a time where you should be more, I guess, hands down and not as expressive? So let me say this. It's not too much performance. It's the wrong performance.

It's not the timing of it, right? Well, so a Broadway actor. A Broadway actor has to be big, right? That's why Broadway actors are like, it's Hollywood time. You know what I mean? Like they're big because you have to reach the person in row 50 has got to still be able to feel the emotion. So a film actor doesn't have to be big. If you bring a Broadway performance to film, then it's the wrong performance. It will feel like too much performance when it's not actually that it's poor performance.

It's that you didn't perform right for your particular environment. Yeah. And that's why I'm really big on know your audience, know what the environment is, know what your camera frame is, know what the mic situation is, know what your parameters are. And then you decide how big you want to fill up the space that you have to work with. Amazing. What is something that everyone could use more of when they're speaking on stage? Connection. What's the best way to connect? The best way to connect with a human being is to be a human being. So you stand on stage, you're not speaking to business cards, you're not speaking to

titles, you're not speaking to technology, you're speaking to the people that run technology. You're speaking to the people whose names are on the business cards. And so you find those universal connections, those universal threads and stories that we all share. You undress yourself, you peel off your layers, you show yourself, show your humanity, and you make sure that you become a masterful storyteller so that it feels like I just sat up there and watched you talk about your humanity and your stories and your life. And yet somehow I'm going, but I'm walking away with amazing business takeaways, incredible sense of what the data is that he delivered, all the stats, all the numbers, all of that I got. It was unrecognizable, but yet unmissable. And that's the power of really

you becoming a powerful storyteller. So is there a framework to this? Do you have like a structure to a speech, let's say a 30 minute speech or any timeframe doesn't matter, but you want to get some data points across or lessons or bullets? How do you know when to weave in story and vulnerability and connection and intimacy and reveal yourself? How does someone? If you think about, um, again,, again, I always go back to performance because I have a successful speaking career and I was never trained as a speaker. I was trained as a performer. So I'm always bringing what performers do to mesmerize an audience into speaking. And if you think about going to a concert or a dance recital or a comedy,

an hour-long comedy routine or whatever, it's an act and an exercise in energy management. You're always trying to harness the audience energy. And so you always juxtapose highs and lows. You always juxtapose different energies. You always juxtapose. If you look at a film, the most powerful films are the ones that make you laugh and cry. You know what I mean? And so you're always figuring out how can I put these diverse energies together in a way that creates a journey and creates a crescendo. And so, you know, if I'm looking and I'm in a tender moment too long, then I know the audience is going to need the valve to be released on that. You know what I mean? Some humor or something.

Something. Humor, a point, a powerful takeaway, an inspirational message that puts the stamp and the seal on that tender moment and gives me a sense of why I'm experiencing this and what to do with these emotions. And then I move you into a different place. The real trick to energy management and to audience management is to never let the audience get ahead of you. And that's what happens. A lot of times we get up there, we got our slides, the slides say what we're going to say. We just repeat the slides or you do things like, I'm going to tell you a story now. You forecast every single thing that you do. And the audience after a while, here's the three things I'm going

to talk about. And they go, great, well, I got that. So let me check my Facebook now. You know what I mean? And so they check out because they go, I understand what this is about to be. But if you can create an experience where they never understand quite get their

grounding, you know what I mean? They never quite get a firm foothold. So they always feel like, I don't know what's about to happen next and I kind of want to know, so let me pay attention. You know what I mean? And then, or at the end, would you wrap it all up and say, well, this is what I told you or this is what- Oh, no, no.

You don't have to wait till the end for that. You know, like you can deliver those. I deliver my takeaways all throughout, just like any other speaker. You just don't see them coming. You know, I have one of my most popular keynotes. It's called DIY Innovation. And it's all about how innovation starts with yourself. You innovate yourself. It's like the HGTV version of innovation. It starts with you. You have your hammer and your screwdriver in your hand. And if you're going to be a leader trying to

inspire a culture of innovation, you need to walk that innovation talk. And so one of the things – I have lots of different takeaways. And one of the takeaways that I make fun of is I want you to go Tom Hanks and big yourself. And then I stop. And they always look at me like – and I go, that's right. I just said that. That just happened. You know what I mean?

I'm a poetic voice. I can innovate the takeaways of my choice and I choose to tell you to Tom Hanks and big yourself. And then I go through the movie and how we've all seen the movie and they raise their hand. And I'm like, he was sitting there. And I go through the whole point of Tom Hanks in that moment saying, I don't get it. our sense of purpose and why we're creating toys. And then I tie that into how you as a company can't, don't transform yourself from a robot into a building as a company. You know what I mean? Make sure that you transform yourself from a what to a why, transform yourself from a product to an experience. So I then go back right in that moment and give them the takeaways.

But if I can tie it into a little bit of wonderment at the beginning, people never forget Tom Hanks and Big Yourself. And they will forget you are the master of your own innovation or whatever. They'll forget some other standard takeaway. And then it's delicious for them. And then they share it. And then it has this sense of like, yeah, Tom Hanks and Big Yourself. We got to tell our team to raise our hand and say, I don't get

it. And they all have this collective experience. And that's what you want in a speech. Yeah. What would you say is's what you want in a speech yeah what would you say is the best way to open a speech uh so i teach something called what's the wrong way to open a speech because i'm sure you've seen all sorts of people oh gosh there's so many wrong ways so many wrong ways um i would say one of the classic wrong ways to open a speech i think forecasting is just the wrong way to open a speech. Telling people what you're going to –

Yeah. I think telling – spilling it all and just letting them get that. So here's what I'm going to do. Forecasting everything. I'm going to talk to you about this, but before that, I'm going to tell you a story and then I'm going to – no, just take me along on the journey. I think one of the other wrong ways to start a speech is, so what I was going to say is I teach these things called communication calibrators, right? And it's the principle that in the first two minutes of any speech, you can engage any audience, right? And you can do

that with these calibrators that allow you to learn two things or allow you to create two effects. One is you can learn who your audience is and you can let them know who you are as a speaker. And then you can calibrate within the first two minutes of any speech, right? And so some of the calibrators are things like one of the probably most speaker 101 calibrators is state change, right? A lot of speakers will use a state change. How's everybody doing? Something that makes you respond. Who's here to talk about money, you know? And a lot of times the state changes are kind of like, you know, who wants to make a million

dollars? Me. It's almost like you're forced to answer, you know, and you hate it. And you just don't want to be a jerk because you feel like the guy's looking at you, but there's nothing that compelled you to respond. So I always feel like the state changes should come from inside if I'm going to do that, you know, or they should be funny or unexpected. And then I'll use things like I'll use humor. I'll use audience acknowledgement.

I'll use host acknowledgement. And again, host acknowledgement is one. These can all be used poorly and well. You hear a lot of people that will use host acknowledgement. And again, host acknowledgement is one, these can all be used poorly and well. You hear a lot of people that will use host acknowledgement. Thanks, Lewis, for bringing me up here. It's an honor to be on the stage with you all. Okay, great. But what if instead you told a really funny story about the first time that you met? Or what if you told a story about something that Lewis just said to you backstage? Right. You know, you tied it in in some way that was just unexpected, felt natural. You know, if you acknowledge the audience, why not acknowledge them in a way that's,

you know, you paid attention to the fact that the speaker before you just did a dance. I remember I was doing a, I was, or no, a perfect one. I was doing a speech where they had a prayer done. And the reverend that did the prayer before dinner was it was a dinner speech. He he rapped his prayer. Right. So my audience acknowledgement was to get on stage and make this whole joke about how, you know, thank you, you know, Pastor Pastor Johnson. I appreciate that amazing prayer. I just have one thing to say. Can I keep my job? Because, you know, you coming after I'm supposed to do thing to say. Can I keep my job? Because, you know, you coming after, I'm supposed to do the poetry up. You know what I mean?

And you, I didn't come over to your table giving the prayer. Can you back off my, you know? So a great moment acknowledges what happens, but actually ties it back into my speech and then I move on. So everything that you're doing should be to create the desired effect that you want and not just as if you're following speaker rules 101. And a performer always thinks, if I'm going to get you to say, oh, or scream or put your lighters up, I'm going to create that effect and harness that energy so that you want to do it. Nobody ever is forced to put their lighters up at a concert. You know what I mean? Like you do it because you're having a collective experience. And that's what speakers need to bring into their speeches.

Man. What do you tell the people that are just like terrified of speaking in the first place? What should they – I'm terrified of getting on stage. When I started speaking, I was terrified and I did Toastmasters for a year. And every week I showed up and I learned principles and just practiced in front of a group of 20 people who gave me positive feedback and what I could work on and how I could improve. And it gave me prompts. It allowed me to use props and different tools and techniques to try to just get out of my

comfort zone, get behind the podium and in front of it. And what would you say to someone who's like just terrified? It was like, all these things sound great, but I don't think I can stand up. Yeah. Yeah. Like all these things sound great, but I don't think I can stand up. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, so Toastmaster, there's so many great speaker programs out there. And what even to me, the worst ones or the most basic ones, I should say, are still good because we all are at different places. Like you said, with our public speaking, like if you're just like, I just need some tips to just be able to get out there, then it's great to just get out there. You know, something like Toastmasters is great to actually just force you to start getting on stage and just being in front of people. And, you know, they'll do things like,

you know, count your ums, you know, have a clicker, all that kind of stuff. And it's meant to stop you from the behavior that is debilitating for you, right? To me, the problem is then we stop there. Yes.

There's nothing after that. Right. There's no advanced training. Right. And even when there is advanced training, it's a continuation of the same mindset, right? So, it's still helping you to suck less, basically. You know what I mean? Sure, sure.

And I'm going like my goal is like I want you to move from sucking less to being instead of just focusing on eliminating your mistakes, to be able to be mightier than your mistakes, to be able to be Beyonce that falls and trips on the stairs and gets up and is still amazing. Everybody's like, that's the best concert I've ever seen. And yeah, the fall may go viral on YouTube, but, you know, you wrap that into your press and positioning and you get more record sales from it. Sure, sure. But it never stops you from being mighty on any stage. And I think it's a mentality shift. So say, for example, with someone that has – I'm actually working right now with an executive who has debilitating nerves and had a really bad experience and needs to be able to get over that so that he can be the voice in the face of his company. And one of the things that I have to remind people is that your nervousness has a source.

Your nervousness is coming from the fear that you will not execute something well. So people a lot of times will attack nervousness and that's it. And you have to do that because it is a physiological response. And simple, I mean, the most basic things, breathing and visualization and mindfulness and all these kinds of things that we work on that are performance techniques. But you have to recognize that there's an equal ratio with nervousness and confidence. So the more that you are building your confidence in being able to execute powerful techniques, the less nervous

you'll be. Right. Because part of your nervousness is- You're confident now. Right. You're not confident. You don't think that you're going to be able to stand out. You think your jokes are going to bomb.

When I work with people to say, give them improv training, improv training is to make you distraction-proof, right? An improv artist- No matter what happens. No matter what happens, I can turn any disaster into delight. If you walk on the stage with an improv artist confidence, nervousness goes away because you're like, come on, bring it at me. Whatever you got, you know, throw it at me. I can take anything the room can throw at me.

My slides are in the wrong order. Somebody laughs, door slams. I've had fire alarms go off. I've had stages collapse. I've had lights and music blare in my speech. I will turn all of it into an amazing moment because I think like a performer, like an improv artist. So even though I do get nervous and I believe nervousness is good,

by the way, I believe that a certain amount of nervousness is good to keep you present, to keep you focused, to keep you alert, right? So you never want to eliminate it because then you look like that robot on stage that's going to the speech that you've done a hundred times. But if you can keep enough nervousness so that it keeps you focused and alert, then it turns into the zone. It turns into flow. It turns into adrenaline. It turns into all those things that keep an athlete in the zone, keep a singer in the zone. You know what I mean? And then literally everything begins moving in slow motion and you just are masterful. And the audience watches you not only deliver, but they watch you recover masterfully. And people love a good recovery.

Whether it's a business story, in reading somebody's book, whether it's the hero's journey in a movie, or whether it's watching you on stage face incredible odds and overcome them and recover. They love watching that. Yeah. face incredible odds and overcome them and recover. They love watching that. Oh. Yeah. So what are the things we can do to be masters then? As opposed to, you know, we go through the basics to not suck. Yeah. Then how do we, do you tell people to do improv then?

Is that something everyone should do if they're going to be a speaker? I think that you getting outside of your box, outside of your comfort zone, you moving yourself outside of the mentality of just a speaker, I think that you have to do both. It depends on where you are in your level as a speaker. So if you are just starting out, then I think you want to learn from as many sources as possible. All of them are going to give you great tips, great techniques. As you become more advanced or even as you're starting off parallel, you know, in tandem to learning from speakers, learn from outside of the speaking industry. Yes. You know, I'm big on learn from outside of your industry to stand out within your industry.

And we do it in our businesses. Right. We do it in, you know, I'm working with corporations all the time where it's a health care company that's learning how to eliminate medical error from the airline industry. You know what I mean? Like we do that in our businesses, but we don't think to do it in our communications, our personal communications. So who are the people we can learn from? Actors, singers, musicians? So I'm big on if you want to learn how to be more graceful on stage, then why not learn from a dancer?

Right. Dancers tell entire stories with their bodies and no words. So if you think that your content is so dry, imagine if you had no content and you still had to deliver that story and there was no verbal content. Right. How could getting into your body help amplify your storytelling? If you want to learn how to create infectious speeches that leave your audience remembering them for years, learn how to write your speech like a songwriter instead of a speech writer. How many times have we had, because I'm happy in our head,

or hey, soul sister, or any of those hooks from the summer that we are singing and we can't get out of our head. I had a woman that was giving a TED Talk and as soon as we began recrafting her speech like a song, we realized that she had like 12 hooks in it. And nobody's going to have listened to a song with 12 hooks. And she had to restructure it. And this is the chorus.

This is the A verse. This is the B verse. This is the repetition. This is the crescendo. This is when the curtains pull back and the gospel choir is revealed and you stage dive into the audience, you know. And it was that sense. And so if you want to learn how to be authentic in your skin, why not learn from an actor? You know, if Jamie Foxx is playing Ray Charles, he's studying a human being and playing him

flawlessly to where you can't tell the difference. But what if Lewis was studying Lewis? What if offstage Lewis, sorry, onstage Lewis was studying offstage Lewis and saying offstage Lewis is charming and infectious and confident. And then I get onstage and my body betrays me. So I'm going to begin to study what it is that my character does offstage so that I can begin to play that role and give an Oscar-winning performance of that role onstage. So you learn from these performers and it cracks your mentality open in terms of what your power can be on stage right and did you do improv yourself then or no um yeah you did for a number

of years do you still do it every now and then every now and then really and I bring it into I bring it into all the speaking that I do and you know I mean it's almost like you know think about like a freestyle hip hop artist you know have you ever seen like an amazing freestyle artist dude like there it is oh yeah yeah I mean I've seen the videos of him oh my god it's ridiculous hip-hop artists, you know? Have you ever seen like an amazing freestyle artist, dude? Like, they're incredible.

I mean, I've seen the videos of him. Oh my God, it's ridiculous. Like, his ability to deliver complex rhyme structures, and you can just be like, hold up a cup and a book and he just goes. Like, what if you could wire your

brain like that to be able to handle anything that is thrown at you you know and so training like a freestyle artist or an improv artist helps to to to connect to get those types those synapses firing you know what i mean and connect those uh make those connections in your brain that allow you to think like that and we just you can't build those muscles if you're you know it's like if you're just doing push-ups you're never going to train the small muscles you know what i mean like and people are just doing speaker push-ups. And I'm trying to get them to train like the movies where the dance troupe or the cheerleaders learn from capoeira and kung fu.

You know what I mean? It's like that. Sure. How important is it to memorize certain parts of a speech or performance? Because you have memorized stuff and non-memorized, right? Yep. So here's one of the things that people rarely know about me. I am probably on teleprompter about 90% of the time. And no one ever believes it.

When you speak. When I speak. Oh, you are. So including the person that's in the front row sitting next to the teleprompter still does not, they're like, you were not on teleprompter. How do you memorize that is probably one of the questions that I get asked most often. You're usually on teleprompter. And I'm usually on teleprompter.

Now, so what that says is two things. One, I'm always 40 to 60% memorized, even when I'm on prompter. Because I created it and it's in your blood. You know your work, right? Yes. Sometimes it's just personal stories, anecdotes. And then the reason why I'm on prompter, just so I'm clear, is because of the nature of poetic voice, the poetry aspect, we're very, very specific about each word, each syllable, you know? So it's not just a free flow talk the whole time. I seamlessly weave in and out of the

poetry and I have to honor the structure of the poetry that I wrote. And poets, you know, we can agonize about whether the word should be yellow or canary for like an hour, you know. So after we decide the perfect word and the perfect structure and symmetry and so forth, you want to honor that. And then I'm constantly repurposing work. So I'm diabetes on Monday, cloud computing on Wednesday and shoes on Friday. So I'm diabetes on Monday, cloud computing on Wednesday and shoes on Friday. So I have to make sure that I'm, you know, I'm making sure that the work is applicable to memorize dense amounts of content very quickly. And one of the quick tips that anybody can use is just, again, so much of this stuff is like we've been taught it, but we just don't use it. Muscle memory. Muscle memory is one of your best assets to memorizing something quickly. The first time that I had to memorize that phrase, learn from outside of your industry to stand out within your industry. If you remember that when I first did it, I did this gesture, right? Because I had to memorize that phrase as part of something that I had memorized basically overnight, like less than 12 hours. And it's, you know, a lot of my stuff is tongue twister, you know, it's play on words.

And so it gets confusing verbally. And I kept messing it up, learn from inside to mess out to what is it again? And so I just forced myself to go learn from outside your industry, stand out within your industry. And so what happens is, right. And so I point to my head, I point out, you know, learn at point to my head at learn point outside at outside point, you know, stand and I point to my feet for stand. And then I, you know, make a gesture like it's coming from out of me for the word within. And what happens is you get to that part, your brain will blank. Your brain will go, what's the next line? But your body is already doing this. You know what I mean? And so then your brain looks at what your body's doing

and your body's going, hey, hey, psst, here's the line. And then your brain goes, all right, learn because we're pointing to our head. And then next thing you know, you're back on track. So if you can begin to use like, this is the part that I go down. This is the part that I reach up. The more you use a technique that I call body telling

in your storytelling, in your speech delivery, then you also give yourself a powerful memorization technique. That's powerful. Yeah. So you don't have to just memorize everything. Right. You have to more memorize the cues.

That's right. The body language. The body is the stage manager off stage in the wings. Telling you the lines. I like that. Exactly. Amazing, man. This is powerful stuff.

And you've got a program, correct, that helps people become better speakers. What's it called? It's called StageMight. StageMight. Yeah. It's a course that I've been teaching CEOs, C-level executives on down to entrepreneurs, on down to people that just want to be a more powerful attorney or a more powerful mom at the PTA meeting, you know, and just saying, like, I want to be a more dynamic communicator and influence people in a more powerful way, whoever they are. And where do they get that? So I do typically you can get it on my website, Sekou Andrews dot com. And, you know, you can also make sure you go to Rockstar Speaker Secrets dot com. And that's where I'm actually that's where you can. That that's where I'm actually – that's where I'm just training. That's where I'm just pouring.

You know what I mean? Like I'm literally just going to spend an hour or so on a webinar just literally teaching as many of these types of techniques visually for people as possible. This really came from – I didn't have a desire to be a speaker trainer. Like I'm a successful speaker. I'm good. You know, like this came from me getting tired of not having an answer for how do you do that. For everyone else. Yeah.

Yeah, because you were doing a lot of one-on-one training with people, right? Well, even before I was doing the one-on-one training. Yeah. Like I was just getting the CEO of the company that I spoke for going, how can I connect with my audience the way you just connected with my audience? Right. You know, and I was just kind of like, well, that's just my gift. It's my magic. I don't know.

You know, and as I begin to dissect that process, I was like, I'm not bringing in speaking stuff. I'm bringing in performance stuff. And once I realized that, I was like, that's the difference is all of them are trained as communicators and speakers. None of them are trained as artists and performers. And they all think, well, I don't want to train as a performer because I'm not trying to be a performer. And I'm like, well, yeah, it's not to be an improv artist.

It's not to be a singer. It's to bring Beyonce into your boardroom. You know what I mean? It's to bring Marlon Brando into your book tour. It's to bring the rock star secrets into your public speaking. I love it, man. Yeah, man. Rock star public secrets. Rock star. You got your public speaking. I love it, man. Yeah, man. Rockstar Public Secrets.

Rockstar. You got me messed up. Rockstar Speaker Secrets. Rockstarspeakersecrets.com. And Sekou Andrews. Yeah. And Sekou Andrews. S-E-K-O-U.com.

There you go. This has been great stuff, man. Thank you, dude. What's the thing you're most proud of in your life that most of us don't know or most people don't know about you? What is the thing I'm most proud of in your life that most of us don't know or most people don't know about you? What is the thing I'm most proud of? Wow. I would probably – well, if you're talking about – so you said specifically something that people don't know about me?

Yeah, something you're proud of that most people don't know about. Gosh, when your life is this public, I have to remember what people don't know. Maybe not a lot of people know right right um or just think you're most proud of i mean honestly when i think about the thing that i'm most proud of it really is being able to say i'm a full-time poet like there's just it's pretty cool you know what i mean like there's not there's a handful of people right in q right steve carl prince ea like right and most of them are my boys you know in q's my fam steve you know a lot of us came up on the same scene out here and there's very few of us that can say that and that's a real point of pride for me to just be able to say like this is you know i always joke how i left when I stopped pursuing hip hop and acting, I stopped pursuing multi-billion dollar industries to pursue like a

multi-hundred dollar industry and to figure out how to pioneer it into a multi, at least million dollar industry. You know, you've turned your passion into your profession. Yeah. And I'm, I'm, I'm very proud of, very proud of that. That's cool, man. Yeah. It's a gift. And I think there's a lot of people listening who can be inspired by that, where they might have a passion for something that is even small, that is a bigger niche than yours. Yours is a much smaller niche than theirs, but they feel like I'm passionate about surfing,

but I don't know if I can pursue it or pursue the industry or whatever, you know, whatever it may be, or they're passionate about singing, but they're not going to be a professional singer, but there's always a way in the industry that you could create something from that. Tom Hanks and Biggy stuff, baby. There you go.

Tom Hanks and Biggy stuff. Innovative. I like it. That's right. I like it. What's the thing you're most grateful for in your life? I am most grateful for today. for today.

It's a constant gratitude outdoing of itself in my life. I woke up yesterday. I've been trying to sell my house and buy a new house. I woke up. We had an offer on a home that we really, really wanted. And we were going to have to move out of our place. And if we didn't get this offer and get a temporary place until we found the perfect home and all this.

And the offer didn't come through. And my wife and I were just crushed. And I woke up that morning. And one of the students in my StageMight program had sent me an email that I had an email basically saying that in the Louisiana floods recently, she lost everything. And she was asking for donations and I donated very quickly because sometimes I can wait to send the most powerful emotional message and then I forget to do the thing that she needs immediately, you know. most powerful emotional message. And then I forget to do the thing that she needs immediately, you know? And so I donated right away, but I never got back to her. And I just sent her an email and was just like, you know, like your story reminds me

of how much that I have to be grateful for that. Not only can I help you in this particular situation, but also like, what am I tripping off of? Like, and you know, whether, you know, people, I always say like my daily prayer is that I thank God for my problems because I got good problems. Absolutely, man. I got fantastic problems. Living in Los Angeles.

You know what I mean? Got a good life, man. Yeah. Like I got the best problems in the world and I have the ability to solve them. I have the resources. I have the community, the love, the faith, the persistence, the endurance, the wealth, the skills, all of it to solve any problems that I have. And so it's a daily act of gratitude for me. That's cool, man.

Yeah. That's cool. This is a question I ask at the end called the three truths. And if this was the last day for you many, many years from now and you only could leave behind three truths of lessons or inspiration that you would pass on to your friends, family, and the world, you get a piece of paper, you get to write down the three things you know to be true about life, what would you say are your three truths? This is all they would have to remember you by. The three truths would be, the first would be be you are enough.

You are beautiful enough. You are strong enough. You are mighty enough. You are powerful enough to accomplish what you're trying to accomplish to do what it is that you set out to do in this world. So remember that you are enough. The second

would be on a sort of more overall human, like you are enough is personal. And then I try to think of, okay, so what would be, um, more communal?

Um, and I think it's see yourself in everyone, you know, find yourself in everyone, right? I think empathy is just probably one of the biggest solutions that we have to so many world problems that is not being utilized it's not being taught it's not being active uh engaged and activated in our in our lives and just finding

yourself in everyone is just a powerful truth to to to, to help, you know, your challenges and the world's challenges, you know, and to bring us closer together. Um, and then if I was to do one for sort of my, my career legacy, um, and people that are inspired by my story, um, by my story, it would probably be when you get tired of trying to break into the industries of the world, create your own industry and make the world try to break into you. That's a good one. I like that one. Is there any question that you would like me to ask you before I wrap up the final question? Good question.

Any question that you would like me to ask you, that I would like you to ask me? Or any question you wish people did ask you? or any question you wish people did ask you. I wish people asked me, that's a good one. God, there's so many. I'm like, it's like you got one, you know, you're about to die.

Every question is like final stakes, you know. I would say probably what favorite superpower? What is it? I don't know why that just came to me. I don't know why that just came to me. It's not necessarily a question that I wish everyone would ask me, but it is a question that, you know, standing in the room of greatness. Yeah. You know? What's the soup about it?

Well, you know, it's funny because as a kid, I always wanted to have telekinesis. Always, always wanted to have telekinesis. And I just thought it was the coolest. You remember the movie Zap? Did you ever see that movie? It was a long time ago, dude.

It was Scott Bale or somebody, and he was like lifting skirts with his mind. And of course, as a middle school kid, you're like, yes, that power. So I always wanted to have telekinesis. And then when I was creating the opening piece for Jim Quick, I was creating the opening piece for Jim's superhero you conference. And I was trying to think of, you know, what my approach to be superpowers would be. And it, and I, there was this book called the girl, the silver eyes. That was my, that was like my favorite book of a girl whose parents who,

who was born with these silver eyes and she could move things with her mind and do the dishes while she was laying in bed. And, you know, that was really dope. And as I was crafting this opening piece for him, the realization came that I have built my career moving people with my mind. And it was like, I have telekinesis. That's cool. That's dope, you know. And I was like, literally.

So now it's like I always tell people, well, I'm a telekinetic. Like I can move anything in this room with my mind. That's cool. I like that. Nice. Any other questions? What's your superpower? I would say I'm really good at creating a vision and bringing it to life, either for myself or for anyone else.

And either figuring out the way myself or showing others how to get to the vision they want. So I always say a vision is only as powerful as your voice, right? A story is only as great as your ability to tell it greatly. So how could your voice be more powerful for your vision? In what ways would you love to make your voice more powerful to bring your vision to life? and techniques would be extremely powerful. But I also think the work that I'm constantly doing for myself, just diving deeper into my own understanding and awareness. And I'm going to India for a month to do a meditation facilitator workshop to learn how to teach it to other people. So learning new skills, developing myself, mastering everything that's curious to me, like leaning into it, my curiosity and mastering that skill to use with my voice. You know, when I think about myself seven, eight years ago, when I was on my sister's couch with a

cast after a surgery for six months, after losing my dream of playing professional football, I didn't have many skills. And so I just started to be very curious about what is this thing? What is that thing? And started developing skills, which then I would use, package it in a way and use it with a webinar or on stage or performing something else. And so for me, I think it's developing more specific and powerful skills to use with my voice.

Yeah. It's range. It's vocal range. That's it for your inner voice that's it hitting multiple octaves that's right you know what i mean you have to stretch yourself to get to those octaves that's it so um it's it's doing the stuff that's scary doing the stuff that's challenging it's revealing things that are uncomfortable it's you know when i first did toastmasters it was i didn't want to do it you know it was terrifying to me to stand in front

of 20 people. And I sat there behind a podium and read word for word without looking up because I was so terrified of what people thought about me at 24, 25, whatever it was. And so I was doing the things that I'm – it's becoming Batman. It's becoming the bat in every area of my life. Whatever the fear is, it's like, Oh, that's what I'm afraid of. Time to go master it. That's right. I'm afraid of that. Time to go do that now. Oh, this, you know, okay. It's time to lean into the fear and become the bat in every way, every way that I can. So maybe my superpower is being a Batman. I don't know. Embracing the fear. That's right. That's dope. I love it. I love it. That's powerful.

Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for asking. Absolutely. Thanks for asking. Absolutely. Before I ask the final question, I want to make sure to do something that I always do, which is acknowledge my guests. So Sekou, I want to acknowledge you for your incredible voice and how you inspire the world and you move people with every word and story you tell. It's one of the first moment I saw you, I was mesmerized like most people are. And you moved me. There's a reason you're here now. It's because you've always been on my mind

to having you in this room with me to connect so I can learn from you because of the way you showed me what's possible for myself. Because I was able to see it in you, you showed me what's possible for me to stretch into becoming more of that for myself. So I acknowledge you for your incredible gifts that you've worked extremely hard to master over the years. I acknowledge you for your incredible heart for seeing people and for being able to bring them to life. And I acknowledge you for your ability to push your limits to continue to

show us what's possible for our limits. I appreciate that. I received that. Of course, man. Thank you, brother. Absolutely. That's what's up. One final question is what's your definition of greatness. My definition of greatness is the ability to see yourself bigger than what you thought was possible, pursue it, and achieve it. I think greatness, by definition, is outside of the range of what we think is possible. And when we think about people that have greatness, they like you just like you just got finished describing, they are pushing themselves beyond the range of what is supposed to be possible. What is good? What is good enough? You know, we live as a society and this is good. This is good enough.

You've done good. You've done well. And those that are great have pushed themselves beyond that. And whether that's living a great life, a life that achieves great things politically or socially, a Mandela-type life, or whether that's being exceptional as a parent or whether that's being an exceptional learner. But it's an ability to say my parameter, my circum, is beyond what most people consider possible. Right. And I think once you see that, once you pursue that, and once you achieve that, you land in greatness. Thank you.

Thanks for coming on. Appreciate it, man. Pleasure, man. Thank you. There you have it. LewisHowes.com slash 410. This inspired you, moved you, or you learned something in a different way, then make sure to share this with your friends.

Post it on your Facebook page, on Instagram, on Twitter. Let your friends know this is some powerful information, guys. We've got to get this message out there. We've got to share the message on how to become better communicators and better speakers. And Sekou has such incredible wisdom and information that he charges a lot of money for this information. So make sure to share this with your friends, lewishouse.com slash 410 or go to the YouTube slash Lewis House link and share that video with your friends as well on social media. I remember just starting out as a speaker feeling terrified of my voice, not having any control, not having any confidence in myself

that anyone would actually listen to what I had to say. And I'm telling you, it doesn't matter where you are at in your communication level right now, on your speaking level. If you're a beginner, if you're terrified, if you're mid-range or professional, there's so much you can learn to become a better presenter. And I look at myself, a guy that could barely stand up in front of five people without being trembling and terrified to speak and terrified of what people would think of me to now performing in front of thousands of people getting paid $35,000 a speech. It took time. But listen, it's possible.

It doesn't matter where you're at as long as you're dedicated and committed to creating something unique for yourself, to becoming better as a speaker. You all have the power to become better, but you must make the decision to start right now and start developing your skills as a presenter, as a speaker, as a communicator. You have the power. You just have to make the decision to move forward today. And you know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great. Thank you.