In this episode, Dan connects with marketing veteran, branding pro and official elevator pitch repairman Mike Verret. In Mike’s nearly three-decade career, he’s done everything from client service to product strategy to global brand management at Hasbro. The red thread that connected them all, though, was his unique ability to relate to an audience on their terms – and now, through his own marketing strategy company Verret and Associates, Mike teaches other entrepreneurs how to do the same.  Today, Dan and Mike discuss how meaningful connection happens, the value of understanding your audience’s perspective of your business, the power of storytelling in selling, and more. In This Episode (02:55) Mike’s background, and the genesis of Verret and Associates (11:46) Adapting to cultural differences in business (18:00) Mike’s “empathetic trigger” as the secret to his interpersonal communication prowess (29:15) “Connection is about getting to a conversation.” (37:40) How does connection happen in a meaningful way?  (42:57) The plumber example: connecting to a prospect’s need state via storytelling (47:35) The power of the “I help” statement (50:28) The key to an impactful elevator pitch (1:05:15) The value of connecting with the audience from their perspective, not yours Notable Quotes “What enabled [my success] was my understanding of an audience. And that's what I saw as the red thread that ran through my career. What I was best at was relating an idea to an audience on their terms. And that became exactly how I thought about everything. How do you take what you do – say, as a business – and translate that into something that your audience is going to find the meaning in? And that's what I always looked at.” – Mike (15:18) “When you're talking about your business to your audience, the reality is you think a hundred percent about what you do and what you focus on. The audience cares about five percent. I don't care if it's an internal pitch to the C-suite about a new piece of software that's been developed or it's a sales pitch to someone or it's your LinkedIn profile. The challenge is always finding the right 5% to get your audience's attention, keep it, bring them through in the right order and get them to a decision point. It’s really hard to do when you know everything.” – Mike (34:14) Resources & Links The Dan Nestle Show https://nestle.libsyn.com/ http://twitter.com/dsnestle https://www.linkedin.com/in/nestle https://www.facebook.com/TheDanNestleShow Mike Verret  https://www.verretandassociates.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-verret/ Mentioned “Conversations That Connect” by Brooke Sellas