YT YouTube2Text

YouTube2Text → Transcripts → Expertos en Storytelling: 7 Trucos Narrativos para contar Historias y escribir Libros

Expertos en Storytelling: 7 Trucos Narrativos para contar Historias y escribir Libros — Transcript

by Fernando Miralles · 22,482 words · 3,347 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

Open in transcriber Summarize with AI Download SRT/VTT

Full transcript

0:00In this world, people will forget what
0:01you say, but never how you made them
0:03feel. We live led by people who know
0:06how to tell stories. We follow great
0:08orators who have created religions and
0:10inspired you through their values.
0:13There have been phrases in
0:14conversations, one day at a café, that
0:16have radically changed our lives. Today
0:19we are going to learn to tell the best
0:21stories from the best writers so you
0:23can apply it to your books, but also to
0:24your conferences. So that when you go
0:28to a meeting with friends, what you
0:30tell is with so much passion and plot
0:32that you leave anyone speechless.
0:34Because don't forget that you are not
0:36boring, it's just that you don't know
0:37how to tell the right story. Let's
0:40begin. Stories are a fundamental tool
0:44for transmitting messages. Throughout
0:48human history, it is what has connected
0:50civilizations and allowed us to
0:51integrate morals that have gone beyond
0:54our own values, from the religious
0:56aspect to small tips given by our
0:57family and friends. Today we are going
1:01to work on stories in an extraordinary
1:03concept where we will dive into how to
1:06build captivating characters, book
1:07stories that keep you awake at night,
1:09and how to do the same so the audience
1:12listening to you is left speechless.
1:15And for that, I have two extraordinary
1:17professionals. To my right, Francesc
1:19Miralles, co-author of the book Ikigai.
1:21Thank you for being here. And we have
1:23Valen Bailon, my book editor, among
1:25other things, and a great professional
1:27in the world of writing. Thank you for
1:29being here. Thank you very much.
1:31For those who don't know you, as there
1:32may be people who don't know you.
1:33Briefly, a short description of why
1:35they should listen to you. Francesc,
1:37well, I think we are going to explain
1:39some secrets of the writing kitchen,
1:41but that also works for telling stories
1:44at a table, to seduce a future partner,
1:46or to give a product presentation. I
1:49mean, in the end, knowing how to tell
1:50stories is what opens people's hearts
1:52and the purpose will be whatever you
1:53choose. Oh, how beautiful. Valen.
1:57Well, look at it from history, right?
1:59When those tribes existed, there was
2:00always someone around the fire telling
2:02that story and people remained
2:04captivated, right? Well, in the end,
2:05that person was the one who set the
2:06pace for that tribe or that group,
2:08right? And that has carried through to
2:09today. And the art of storytelling is
2:11what you say: that in any area of life,
2:13it can make the difference between
2:14achieving your goal or not. Knowing how
2:17to enter, knowing how to explain things
2:18...and even more so today, with the
2:20impact we have in terms of
2:21communication, I think it's a challenge
2:23from which we will all learn a lot.
2:25We are going to enjoy this, and many
2:26stories will emerge. In fact, people
2:28will forget what you say, but never how
2:29you make them feel.
2:31When students come to workshops, they
2:32always struggle with the part about
2:34creating stories. In fact, we have a
2:36dedicated section for it because it
2:37doesn't usually happen. But for me, for
2:39example, there are stories that have
2:41changed my life, and there is actually
2:43someone at this table who told me a
2:44story a few years ago that saved my
2:46marriage and saved my own life. It was
2:49a year where, due to work stress, I had
2:51just gotten married and after two
2:52months I barely saw my wife, I was
2:54hardly ever home, spending all day
2:55giving lectures and training, because I
2:57had to put food on the table. And the
3:00problem is that the stress and pressure
3:02of not being able to provide my wife
3:04with the promise I had made to be there
3:05for her was burning me up inside. And
3:09one day we were in Chile; I had to give
3:10a lecture to 300 people, and it had
3:12never happened to me before, but that
3:14day, about to open the door, I grabbed
3:15the handle and burst into tears. Before
3:18going out, I was fully suited up, and
3:20when I'm in a suit, I'm in superhero
3:22mode. I said, "I can't fail now." And I
3:24just held onto the doorknob. And I
3:28broke down. And I started yelling—not
3:31at her, but in general— "This is
3:32garbage, this is horrible." And my wife
3:36got very scared because it was the
3:37first time she had seen me in a
3:38situation like that, and she didn't
3:40understand what was happening. Because
3:43at first, especially, I tried to hide
3:44many of the things that were happening
3:46so she wouldn't worry. A big mistake,
3:49but there I was, shouting. And that
3:52same night, before giving the lecture,
3:54I vented. I was having a terrible time.
3:56I had been to the hospital three times
3:57because I had lost vision in my left
3:59eye, and it was taking its toll. And
4:02before I left, she looked at me and
4:03said, "I want a divorce." Two months
4:06after getting married. And inside I
4:08thought, "Look at that, I haven't even
4:09reached the three months required by
4:11law to get a divorce." I mean, I really
4:12have done things right, my goodness.
4:14and I went to the conference, it went
4:16very well, and upon returning we had a
4:19difficult conversation, but just after
4:21that difficult conversation, I don't
4:23know if it was at dinner or breakfast,
4:25I was lucky enough to be with Valen and
4:28there was a story you told me that
4:30completely reordered my life. Today
4:32I've been with my wife for 6 years and
4:33have a wonderful son, partly thanks to
4:35you. We could tell that story.
4:37We need to know that story. But look
4:39how beautiful, Francesc, because from
4:41that tour we did on stage, he, I, and
4:43another guy, what we remember most
4:45whenever we see each other is that
4:47conversation and that story. And look
4:49at that, right? And now you've just
4:50narrated it in a way that has left us
4:52all wanting to know more, right? Well,
4:54I remember that back then, it's true,
4:56uh, Fernando was working great on stage
4:58, we would take turns, and you couldn't
5:00tell anything there, but when he got
5:01off stage, he felt a tension that we
5:03were all noticing, right? And not just
5:06because of that, but because of his
5:07business too. Do you remember that you
5:09had partners there and were with some
5:10workers with whom you were feeling
5:12incredible pressure? And I remember I
5:14sat down with him and said, "Look, I'm
5:15going to tell you the story of my
5:17father." My father, a person with
5:19practically no schooling, built a
5:21clothing workshop from nothing. This
5:23was many years ago with many hardships
5:25and triumphs, especially in the
5:27beginning, but he managed to have a
5:29company with 50 women working for him
5:32sewing. And not only that, but also 30
5:34or 40 more in their homes who also
5:36sewed, which meant it was a company of
5:3880 people sewing. And for a while,
5:40everything worked very well and we
5:42lived in a certain prosperity because
5:44some money was made and my father had
5:46certain properties and managed to amass
5:48a small fortune, uh, but small, eh,
5:50we're not talking about a lot of money.
5:53But the bad times came; they started
5:55manufacturing in Morocco, which began
5:57to cause incredible damage because the
5:59price and the cost dropped a lot, and
6:01he still held on, but then it came from
6:03Asia, it came from China at prices that
6:05were totally impossible to compete with
6:08, and of course, the clients told my
6:09father: "We are very happy with you and
6:12we prefer to manufacture with you than
6:14with China, but you have to match the
6:16prices, because if not, we can't work
6:18with you." And my father made the
6:21terrible mistake of having to lower
6:23prices, which meant he couldn't pay all
6:25the workers he had. And I remember
6:28family conversations at that time where
6:31we told him, "Dad, you'll have to lay
6:33people off because if we can't sustain
6:35so many, you'll have to let them go."
6:37And he would say, "No, because they are
6:38like family." He said, "I don't want to
6:40fire them because this will change,
6:41this will turn around, little by little
6:43.""We make much higher quality than in
6:45China, and people will see that and
6:46will want to pay us more, right?" But
6:49just imagine the wages for nearly 70
6:50people every month—well, every week,
6:52since they were paid weekly back then
6:54—I mean, just imagine, right?
6:56So, what did my father do? He started
6:58selling off assets. He sold the house,
7:00and with that money he held on a little
7:02longer, but that ran out very quickly.
7:05When he sold the house, he sold another
7:07apartment he had, and my father went
7:08completely bankrupt; I mean, he sold
7:10everything, everything, and was ruined.
7:13And those people he didn't want to let
7:15go at the time, do you know what
7:16happened? Most of them sued him for not
7:18paying them in the end. So, he sold
7:20everything and gave it all up to give
7:22them work and not fire them, and then
7:24those same people sued him. And that's
7:26what I discussed with him regarding the
7:28issue of having employees. And that's
7:29why I told him that at my publishing
7:31house we were very few, because that
7:33was seared into my mind, and I said, "I
7:35prefer to reach only as far as I can,
7:36but with very few people and being very
7:38selective." And he understood that too,
7:42and shortly after, he took measures in
7:44his company, and that made everything
7:46change completely. I remember it was 24
7:49hours; your face changed, everything
7:51changed, completely, right? And it all
7:54came, look, from a simple story. It
7:57wasn't even advice, it wasn't a "you
7:58have to do this," or business advice or
8:00anything. It was simply the story of my
8:03father, right? And that, well, it
8:05helped him a lot at that time.
8:07It was a very beautiful story. How do
8:08you see it, man? We learn through
8:11stories. I always say, for example, in
8:13non-fiction books—and Valen is also a
8:16great editor of non-fiction—authors
8:18who only include theory...
8:21Artificial intelligence could do that,
8:23but telling personal stories that move
8:25people, that is what's human, right? So
8:28, the art of storytelling is what
8:30distinguishes a good speaker or a good
8:32writer from an average one. And we see
8:35that in meetings with friends too,
8:37don't we? There's nothing more boring
8:39than meeting someone for a coffee who
8:41has nothing to tell. They say, "How are
8:43things?" Fine. Well, you know, just
8:45getting by. And you think, "Well, when
8:46is the story going to start?" If
8:48there's no story, you don't take
8:49anything away from that meeting. If
8:50it's someone very funny who tells
8:52anecdotes, you take that with you and
8:54pass it on to others, which means
8:56you're already making that person's
8:57content go viral.
8:58Totally. Actually, there's one thing,
9:01Fran, if I may, about a detail in
9:02stories that fascinated me. When we met
9:04, we recorded your podcast, then we
9:06went to eat, and I told you the story
9:08of how I met my wife.
9:10And there is something that never—and
9:12I dare say it with conviction—that no
9:15one had ever done, which is to ask
9:17questions at such a level of detail,
9:19and I saw an excitement in your eyes, a
9:21level of understanding, and a desire to
9:24know those micro-details that go
9:26completely unnoticed by most people.
9:29And you asked, "And how did she look
9:30back at you?""And how exactly did you
9:33feel in that moment?"
9:35It's just that I'm like a child who
9:36loves stories. So, when someone tells
9:38me anything—that they've started a
9:40business, met someone, moved houses—I
9:42want to know it all. How much did it
9:44cost? What did you think when you
9:46opened the door? Who was there? What
9:49were the former owners like? So, I
9:51always ask questions to find out more,
9:53right? To be able to get deeper, right
9:55into the heart of it. And I've always
9:58been like that since I was a child,
10:00with the curiosity to learn, and you
10:02told me one of the most beautiful
10:04stories that we all have: the moment
10:06someone begins a relationship with
10:08another person, right? So everything
10:11that happens there is narrative gold,
10:13because there are always awkward
10:15moments, fears, insecurities, turning
10:17points, and we can talk about all of
10:19that today.
10:20And what do you focus on most, Fran,
10:21when it comes to constructing a good
10:23story? Let's imagine I want to convey
10:25the idea that communicating is great
10:27because it gives you freedom.
10:29How could we understand that?
10:30We would need to provide a good example
10:32. Look, I know it sounds a bit vain to
10:35talk about myself, but I didn't want to
10:38do a PhD in German Philology, which I
10:40could have done, because I was
10:42terrified of presenting a thesis four
10:44years later in front of four people who
10:46would have been my professors.
10:49I can't believe it.
10:49And just because of that, I didn't
10:51enroll. And then I find myself 10 years
10:53later giving lectures in theaters in
10:55India. You say, "Well, what changed
10:57there?" Well, first, understanding that
10:59everyone has the ability to tell
11:02stories. I always tell people in my
11:04novel workshops that, especially after
11:07the age of 30 or 40, everyone has at
11:10least one good story. It’s a
11:12different matter how to tell it, right?
11:13If you know how to present it in an
11:16attractive way, but there’s no one
11:18who has a flat life, right? We’ve all
11:20suffered, we’ve all experienced, I
11:22don't know, strokes of fate. And what
11:25this is about is acting a bit like a
11:27miner of yourself, finding the jewel,
11:29finding the diamond, and showing it to
11:31the world. In this episode, we are
11:34looking at many tools to become a
11:35bestselling author, but this
11:37information won't just lead you to
11:38generate many sales with your books;
11:40you’ll also be able to apply it in
11:41many areas of your life, and once you
11:43generate that capital, you’ll need to
11:45know what to do with it. And that’s
11:47where the official sponsor of this
11:49program comes in. Many thanks to Trade
11:51Republic for betting on communication
11:53and for sponsoring such a beautiful
11:54program as this. Trade Republic is a
11:57German neobank with over a million
11:59clients across Europe and, mind you,
12:01more than 150 billion euros in assets
12:03under management. That is huge. It is a
12:07very solid and fully regulated bank,
12:08and it offers many features within
12:10Europe for day-to-day savings. For
12:12example, one thing I really like is
12:14their interest-bearing account. What is
12:16an interest-bearing account? You put
12:18capital into this account, you can use
12:20it, you can spend it, you can transfer
12:22it—meaning it’s not locked—and
12:23they are paying you approximately 2%
12:25annually. That is huge because it’s
12:29paying you the same as the Central Bank
12:30, but in that account without having to
12:32lock it away. And that is very good
12:35because few banks offer this
12:36functionality. It also lets you have
12:39your IBAN, receive your salary, sign up
12:42for subscriptions, and one of my
12:44favorite features is their card, which
12:46gives you 1%cashback when you use it;
12:48so, you buy a coffee, you get 1%back,
12:50and they give you two options. Either
12:53you save it or you invest it in one of
12:56their funds and assets that they allow.
12:59In the end, a bank is one of the best
13:00tools we can have; it's necessary, we
13:02have to transfer money, make purchases,
13:04and we need a good bank that's fast and
13:06agile. In this case, Trade Republic is
13:09very good. And what if you have other
13:11banks? Perfect. I always recommend
13:13diversifying and trying it out. I'll
13:15leave a link in the description so you
13:17can download their app and create an
13:19account with them. Or if you're
13:20listening to me at fermires.com/banco,
13:22you'll also be able to access it.
13:25Thanks a million, Trade Republic, for
13:26betting on communication, and if you
13:28want to keep supporting the show,
13:30download this app, create an account
13:31with them, and start enjoying these
13:33benefits. Back to the podcast. How do
13:35we find that diamond? Because we see
13:38many people and see that they have
13:39those diamonds, but they themselves
13:40aren't able to recognize it. They still
13:43only see the coal. Look, I was a
13:45terrible student who also changed
13:47majors four times in 2 years, and in
13:50the few months I was in journalism, the
13:52motto they gave us was: news isn't a
13:55dog biting a man, news is a man biting
13:58a dog. So, you always have to find the
14:00man who bit the dog, the rarity, that
14:02which surprises you, that which throws
14:04you off, right? And that’s when you
14:06start winning over the audience, when
14:08you start with a geeky detail, with a
14:10story, with a promise of something
14:12that’s about to happen there. So,
14:14that is very important, the openings,
14:16and you, Fernando, know that very well
14:18as a speaker. Depending on how you open
14:21, people either leave or stay. And that
14:23in a novel is extremely important, in a
14:26talk as well, and on a first date—I
14:28mean, one of those Tinder first dates
14:30where you launch into a super boring
14:33monologue, the other person is already
14:35predisposed to leave, right? So, you
14:38have to start. I always say, when
14:40there's an author I have to advise, for
14:42example, there was a case of a person
14:45who, due to a very complicated personal
14:47issue, jumped from a seventh floor of a
14:50building and
14:52miraculously survived.
14:53From a seventh?
14:54Yes, from a seventh floor.
14:55And they survived,
14:56survived.
14:57He fell on his leg, lost a leg, but
14:59didn't even end up in a wheelchair and
15:01he survived. And this person, who is
15:03also wonderful and gives lectures and
15:05everything, wanted to tell his story,
15:07but also what had led to this, what his
15:09life was like afterwards, and he asked
15:11me, "Where should I start?" I say, "
15:13With the jump." You have to start with
15:14the jump. In a book, you always put the
15:16strongest part on the first page. Then,
15:19you already have a captive audience, as
15:21Alex Robira would say, and from there
15:22we’ll see if we go back, if we go
15:24forward. But the biggest thing you have
15:26, release it right from the start.
15:28And how can we find it? Because
15:30you’ve also found yourself, there are
15:32so many stories when you've been
15:34editing, your own stories in your
15:35biographies. Often, when I meet people,
15:38they have extraordinary lives, but
15:40they’ve normalized them. So they
15:43enter a kind of strange impostor
15:45syndrome where they don't consider
15:47their abnormal and wonderful life to be
15:49abnormal and wonderful. They think it's
15:52just the everyday. So, how can we
15:54detect or help the people watching us,
15:56listening from home, to detect those
15:58rarities and place them at the
15:59beginning? Well, look, uh, I, for
16:02example, have several cases. When I did
16:05Daniel Rojo's biography, for example,
16:07the ex-robber who spent 16 years in
16:09Barcelona's La Modelo prison, when I
16:10told him to write his biography, I said
16:12, "I don't want your life, I want those
16:1416 years you spent in prison." And he
16:17said, "Man, but I’ve already talked a
16:19lot about that and it was a bit normal.
16:20" And what you just said, his life was
16:23normal. We’re talking about a person
16:26who was stabbed three times inside
16:29prison, who caught AIDS, where 97%of
16:31the inmate population was addicted to
16:34drugs, 97%of the inmate population
16:36caught AIDS, 50%died of AIDS, he had
16:39hepatitis C, he had pancreatic cancer
16:42and the guy is still alive, you know?
16:46So, the "normal", each person’s
16:48normal, right? So,
16:51making that person understand by
16:52telling them, "No, what you have is not
16:54normal." And what are we going to bring
16:55out in this story? Because that's
16:56another thing, too. When you talk about
16:59a story, especially in biographies,
17:01usually the protagonist wants to avoid
17:04the things, the best things. And it has
17:06happened to me with many people, not
17:08only with Daniel Rojo, it also happened
17:09with José Elías. If you want, we can
17:11talk about it later. Of course, Daniel
17:13Rojo had a problem where he said, "I
17:15have no problem talking about violence.
17:16I have no problem talking about drug
17:18addiction or AIDS." He says, "But I
17:20have a bit of a taboo regarding sex."
17:22Oh, wow.
17:23But why? He says, "Not about talking
17:25about it, I've talked about it
17:26thousands of times," he says, "But my
17:27kids are getting older and I'm afraid
17:28that when they read this
17:30they'll have that impact, right?
17:32Because he told me that in those cells
17:35at La Modelo, which were for one person
17:38and 12 were crammed into four-tier
17:40bunks—meaning four, four, and four in
17:43a hole where there was only one hole,
17:45pardon the redundancy, for defecating
17:48and urinating. And 12 people crammed in
17:51there, he said that when a new guy came
17:53to that cell, the boss of that cell
17:56would say," You have to masturbate us
17:58all. "" That was the initiation for
18:00every new person who came to that cell,
18:02right? Well, of course, details like
18:04that, or how they had sex, because he
18:06tells you, "We had sex, but the sex was
18:08between men. Sex in prison changes; sex
18:10is between men." And of course, when he
18:12talks to you like that and tells you he
18:14doesn't want to give those details,
18:15well damn, you have those details and
18:16you say, 'Damn, we have to share this.'
18:18"No, because that's how we'll get the
18:20audience to say, 'Wow, I want to know
18:22about this.'" No, with José Elías,
18:24too. When I proposed the biography to
18:26him, José Elías told me, "Wow, but I
18:28don't know if I have enough material
18:30for a biography." Do you know that
18:32José Elías was kidnapped? His father
18:34kidnapped him when he was a baby and
18:36took him away. Uh, do you know that in
18:3810 years he went from being completely
18:40ruined to being a billionaire? I told
18:42him, "José, are you seriously telling
18:43me there isn't enough material for a
18:45biography, or wondering if anyone would
18:47be interested in this?" Well, he's a
18:50guy, look at how his life started, that
18:51his father got mad one day, got angry
18:53with his mother, and just went and
18:54kidnapped him. "He kidnapped him, to
18:57the point that she even went on that
18:59high-rated show back then to find him,
19:01the mother pleading," Please, my
19:02husband has kidnapped my child, "and
19:04asking for help to find him. I mean,
19:07just imagine that start to life, right?
19:09You have José Elías, right? How could
19:11you not start—and of course, how do
19:13we begin the biography? With that
19:15anecdote, right? Of the kidnapping he
19:17experienced from the very beginning,
19:18right? So that people would know what
19:20they were getting into, what kind of
19:21book they were getting into, right?
19:23Well, look how different that is. I
19:25could have told José Elías's
19:26biography starting at age 10, about how
19:29he went from zero to a billion, which
19:31is wonderful and fantastic, but in the
19:33end, it would just be business
19:35anecdotes. Or I can start when he was
19:37kidnapped as a child. His father
19:38kidnapped him and he was gone for weeks
19:40until they found him. I mean, wow,
19:43right? What a way to tell both stories,
19:45right?
19:45And how can we help people realize all
19:48those inner gems?
19:49Well, they have to know themselves.
19:52There are people who don't even know
19:53their own history because they're
19:55afraid to tell it to themselves, right?
19:57So, for example,
19:59ah, something that works very well in
20:01American books or programs, like TED
20:04Talks, is—you know this well—
20:06adventures about losing everything or
20:09winning everything, right? So, a good
20:12American speaker, a good author, if
20:14they are going to talk about money,
20:16they'll first tell you about when they
20:17were poor as a rat, how they survived,
20:19and what made it click. Because, in the
20:22end, the audience is waiting for you to
20:24share the secret of that click. In fact
20:27, when we went with Héctor García to
20:29Okinawa to do the interviews for Ikigai
20:31, we started with one topic and ended
20:33up on another. But what we were looking
20:36for was the secret to how these people
20:39could live to be 110 with full
20:41faculties, energy, and all that. So, in
20:44the end, you have to tell a story, but
20:46there has to be a purpose. What is it
20:48that you want the other person to learn
20:50? Beyond the anecdotal, which should be
20:52entertaining, there must be a message,
20:53a little gift you leave them, and you
20:55have to be clear about that, right?
20:57Because, in all biographies—I really
20:59love reading biographies more than
21:00anything else. In fact, the last book I
21:04gave Valen was a biography, a little
21:06book from Libros del Asteroide that all
21:08the intellectual hipsters are reading,
21:11which is a biography of Julio Iglesias.
21:15Yes, it’s written by Peiró, who is a
21:17super-intellectual, director of the
21:19Instituto Cervantes, first in London,
21:21now in Rome. He’s a guy who writes
21:24essays on very lofty subjects and he
21:26chose the figure of Julio Iglesias to
21:28narrate 60 years of Spanish history.
21:31And it’s a brilliant book where every
21:34paragraph has a double meaning. So,
21:37what I’ve realized is that every
21:38biography I’ve read has an underlying
21:41theme, right? I would say that in the
21:44one about Julio Iglesias, the theme of
21:47chance is very present
21:49and all the things that have to happen,
21:51which are many, for you to be that one
21:53person in a million who ends up winning
21:56the public's favor. Then, if for
21:58example we read Limonov, which is a
22:00great biography by Emmanuel Carrère,
22:02the theme there is ambition, and it
22:05tells you how there are people willing
22:07to sacrifice everything, even their
22:09dignity, to achieve a goal. So, if you
22:12are going to tell your life story,
22:13whether it’s a biography or a small
22:15story, you have to be clear about what
22:17the theme is, what we are really
22:19talking about in the end, right?
22:21As if there were a theme,
22:23an underlying theme, right? A leitmotif
22:24we build upon
22:25a leitmotif, right? Maybe the anecdote
22:28has to do with a pig farm, but in the
22:29end, what is the audience going to take
22:31away? What are we talking about?
22:33We’re talking about money, we’re
22:34talking about love, we’re talking
22:35about relationships, we’re talking
22:36about trauma. So, that is in the
22:38background and having it clear will
22:39help you structure what you are telling
22:41.
22:42Great. So, we already have that base,
22:44that cornerstone upon which we build,
22:46but we need people to empathize.
22:47Exactly.
22:48How do we build a character? For
22:50example, your father's story. Why do I
22:52identify with your father? Why do we
22:54identify with Jose? Why do we identify
22:57with the person who jumps from the
22:58seventh floor? What are the strategies
23:01we can recommend for both a book and a
23:02lecture when it comes to crafting a
23:04character? Look, I, there’s a phrase
23:07I heard when I started writing, a
23:08phrase that stuck in my soul,
23:09especially since I read a lot of
23:10biographies; the same thing happens to
23:12me as to Francesc, I’ve loved
23:13people's stories since I was little,
23:14right? Maybe that's why I do what I do,
23:17right? And I really like Walter and
23:18Saxon, right? He’s this biographer
23:21who has written wonderful biographies,
23:24and I once heard him say," Those books,
23:26stories, or dialogues that make you
23:28laugh and cry, you will never forget. "
23:32So, whether I’m talking about a book,
23:35a speech, a presentation, or anything
23:39else. If you can get the listener to
23:42smile at some point and get goosebumps,
23:45or almost feel an emotion, they will
23:47never forget that talk, that moment.
23:51And it's true because it’s
23:52scientifically proven that those
23:54moments release substances in the brain
23:57that help you remember that moment.
24:00That’s why there are books, talks,
24:02and such that you practically forget
24:04over time, but that one detail, that
24:06moment, you can recount 15 or 20 years
24:08later. That helped me a lot, and I try
24:12to make sure every book I publish and
24:14write has that, at least at some point,
24:15right? Those moments that give you
24:18goosebumps and those moments that make
24:20you smile.
24:21And let's start, because you mentioned
24:23the hook earlier, let's go straight to
24:25the hook. Do we start with the negative
24:27, do we start with a laugh?
24:29Let's start with something that has a
24:31big emotional impact and then we’ll
24:33explain how we got there or the
24:35consequences of it. I mean, the first
24:38mission is to capture the reader so
24:40they don't give up, because for most
24:42books started or videos watched, a huge
24:45portion of people just close them.
24:47What's more, nowadays, many people
24:49won't buy a book until they've read the
24:51preview on Amazon. And I haven’t
24:53bought many books I intended to because
24:55I didn't like how they started. Hmm, I
24:57get the impression I'm going to be
24:59bored. So, we have to combat that fear
25:02the reader has of wasting their time.
25:06The time they give you in your lecture,
25:09your video, or your book must be worth
25:12more than any leisure activity they
25:14usually do. Therefore, it’s a huge
25:16challenge,
25:17a very big challenge indeed. Usually,
25:20in lectures, we tend to play with
25:21something quite negative, something
25:23that starts with tension, because on a
25:24survival level, we connect more with
25:25the negative than the positive. But
25:28sometimes that’s not the case. There
25:29are times when
25:30Not always, sometimes there's a promise
25:31of something that's going to be
25:33positive, right? And you know, the art
25:35of storytelling is also the art of not
25:37telling everything at the beginning,
25:39promising that you're going to tell the
25:40story, because if you tell everything
25:42at the start, who's going to read the
25:44other 99%of the book? If you don't say,
25:47look, I was miserable, I lived in these
25:50conditions, and then today, as the
25:52super coach explains, right?,the one
25:54who rides in a helicopter, we were
25:57talking today about the book on money,
25:59right?
26:00Tony Robbins.
26:01Tony Robbins, there's a book of his—I
26:03don't remember which one—where he's
26:05in a helicopter passing over an office
26:07where he had been the janitor during a
26:09very miserable time in his life. So,
26:11what he tells you later is how a simple
26:14janitor ends up riding in a helicopter
26:17and giving million-dollar lectures,
26:19right? So, that is a promise. They
26:21aren't telling you the secret yet, but
26:23they warn you that you're going to find
26:25out, and they aren't going to give it
26:26all to you at once. Maybe in chapter
26:29one or chapter two you'll get a first
26:31clue, then another, then they entertain
26:33you with another story, then another
26:35point comes, and at the end, maybe
26:37they'll wrap it all up for you and
26:39package it and hand it over. In fact,
26:42my friend Kare Santos, a great novelist
26:44, told me that suspense is the art of
26:46the striptease. She says," A good
26:48striptease
26:49is when you show a shoulder to someone
26:51else, the other person wants to see
26:53more, and while they wait to see more,
26:55you tell them other things. "What a
26:57great way to describe the art of the
26:58striptease, right? And it's just like
26:59that,
27:00I'm stuck with the image—you show the
27:02watch or the underwear and you think,"
27:04Well, I want to see more, "but in the
27:06meantime, they tell you other things
27:07that you wouldn't have paid attention
27:09to otherwise.
27:12Very good example.
27:13To put it into examples and books,
27:15which is what we know best, but it
27:16applies to any aspect. There's also the
27:18iceberg technique, which is practically
27:19this, right? Showing a little bit of
27:21what's there. Imagine the protagonist
27:24walks into the house with a bloody face
27:27, a black eye, and a torn shirt. He
27:31enters the house, his parents look at
27:33him and say," What happened to you? "
27:35And he, without a word, goes into his
27:37room
27:39and that's it, that's where the chapter
27:41ends. Would you keep reading or would
27:43you close it right there? You'd say,"
27:44I'll start another chapter tomorrow. "
27:46I'm going to ask you to continue and
27:47explain what happened.
27:48See? Do you see what you achieve with
27:49this? I mean, I need a little bit more,
27:52but he could have said," I fought with
27:54so-and-so and in the end we finished
27:56like this. "" And just explain
27:58everything at once, like Francesc was
27:59saying, right? "But I'm not going to
28:01explain it all, and on top of that, I'm
28:02leaving you hanging. And maybe in the
28:05next chapter I'll start with a
28:06different plot instead of picking up
28:07from this moment.
28:09Exactly. The typical cliffhanger.
28:11Cliffhanger means hanging off a cliff.
28:14You place it at the end of the chapter,
28:17so the reader says," Well, what's going
28:19to happen now? "" And usually, the next
28:22chapter takes you to another subplot,
28:24and maybe after two more chapters it
28:25picks up again, right? "But meanwhile,
28:28they keep drawing you into different
28:29stories. So, that is a very subtle art
28:32of keeping you hooked.
28:35The cliffhanger in TV series now, if
28:37you notice, they use it constantly;
28:39every episode ends with something that
28:41makes you want to keep watching the
28:42series, right?
28:44You leave a promise at the end and then
28:46change the subject for a while to
28:48another parallel story
28:50to distract,
28:50not to make it so easy. Hey, regarding
28:52character construction, we were talking
28:54mostly about, for example, the case of
28:56Robins, the speaker,
28:57what his personal history is like, but
28:59I've read books that have hooked me,
29:01which are sometimes fables or metaphors
29:02, where there is a king, some turtles,
29:04the knight in rusty armor, for example,
29:06or a king goes to a castle one day and
29:08finds...Which ones tend to work better?
29:11Look, I think we have a brutal example
29:12here so the audience can perhaps
29:14empathize and perfectly understand what
29:16we are saying, right? Uh, now in
29:18November, Francesc is going to release
29:21a book, I'll say it, called*God's Phone
29:23*.
29:23The audience has seen something for a
29:25little while now and said," There is a
29:27box with a phone. "
29:27Coincidence. But this is magical
29:30because, see, I could tell you like
29:32this and now have Francesc start the
29:34story, but I can tell you that Francesc
29:36and I were in Japan, we were in a
29:37coffee shop, and he says to me," Valen,
29:40do you want to read the proposal? ""
29:43which is, well, the subject of a book
29:44I'm working on to see if you'd be
29:46interested in publishing it, the two of
29:48us on a trip in Japan. And I remember
29:51drinking my coffee and starting to read
29:53that proposal, I couldn't stop reading
29:55it, and in the end, I told him, "Let's
29:57publish that book.""So, just by reading
30:01a few small, nothing, a few small
30:03passages from that book, right? Which
30:07is the one with the beginning, it was
30:09the first, the first chapter, but he
30:11explained and started it in such a
30:13special way that I was hooked. What's
30:16more, I then had to wait months to read
30:18the rest, just imagine my pain. I had
30:21to wait months for him to give me the
30:22rest of the book, the, the rest of the
30:24draft, right? It left you hanging on a
30:26cliffhanger for months.
30:27It hooked me and left me there, left me
30:29hanging there. But you see, it's what
30:31we say,
30:32how important stories are. He was
30:34explaining to him, we are friends,
30:36right? But he could have been an editor
30:38for me to publish it. He was trying to
30:40sell me his book. He could have told me
30:42," It's a book that can sell a lot,
30:43that can be similar to this, that can
30:45be similar to that. "He told me," Read
30:46this first chapter. "" And that first
30:49chapter secured a deal in this case,
30:52because we are...I want people to
30:54understand how important storytelling
30:56is in every area of life: to convince,
30:59to sell, for a relationship, for a book
31:01, for a dialogue, for a chat. And, if,
31:06it's just that I don't know if it's a
31:08bit long or if you can...or you can
31:09read it or explain it a little; it
31:11would be great if you could read a
31:13little to leave us hooked and then also
31:15so that people can discover it in the
31:17description, so they can get it and
31:19know firsthand the whole story behind
31:21that beginning.
31:23Come on, let's see if
31:24I really like the box, the theme of the
31:27book's image is very nice with the sky,
31:29the colors.
31:30Well, of course, that's another topic,
31:31right? Of how, of how to present that
31:33story, right? We could have brought you
31:35the book here and we brought you a box,
31:36right? The whole thing.
31:37We can explain the beginning a little.
31:40The protagonist of God's Phone is an
31:42extremely bored and unmotivated man who
31:44works at an insurance company. He has
31:47very few relationships, very few
31:49friendships, and he feels all his days
31:51are the same. So, he lives in a
31:53neighborhood in Barcelona, San Gervasio
31:55, where I lived as a kid, where there
31:56are certain areas where Sunday
31:58afternoon makes you want to commit
31:59suicide because not even a single café
32:01is open. And wandering around like a
32:04lost soul, he finds a restaurant that
32:06he had never noticed existed called The
32:08Universal Flood. He goes inside, he's
32:11the only customer and he thinks, "Now
32:12Noah will come to serve me because it's
32:14called the universal flood." And while
32:16he's looking at the menu to see if
32:18he'll order some dinner, a very young
32:20girl walks in, homeless-looking, very
32:22haggard, like one of those junkies who
32:24sleep in ATM vestibules. And she sits
32:27at another table and looks at the menu
32:28too. And this man, who has never been
32:31known for being generous or empathetic
32:33or anything, he orders his own meal and
32:35sees that when the waiter attends to
32:36the girl, she tells him, "Look, I'm
32:38sorry, but I don't have the money to
32:40pay for any of the dishes." And he, for
32:42the first time in his life, has a
32:44gesture of generosity and says, "Let
32:45her order whatever she wants and put it
32:47on my tab." He had never done anything
32:49like that. Sometimes what changes a
32:51life is starting to do something you
32:52have never done. So this girl, very
32:55grateful, sits at his table, which
32:57bothers him, and tells him, "May God
33:02repay you," she said, looking him in
33:04the eyes. "Better yet," God will repay
33:06you. "Then she clinked her glass
33:08against his, which was still on the
33:11table." How will He repay me? "Teo
33:13asked her coldly." He will know how to
33:16reward you. "" I have his phone number,
33:18you just have to call him, "and she
33:20hands him God's phone number. And here
33:24begins a story with many twists, many
33:26discoveries, and many vital changes
33:28where those conversations he will have
33:30every afternoon with God by phone, well
33:33, will lead him to turn his life around
33:35completely in every aspect. You just
33:39left me hanging off the cliff again.
33:40I'm hooked now.
33:41Well, just imagine how it left me,
33:43right? I mean," I'm leaving you God's
33:44phone number here in case you need it,
33:46"right? I mean,
33:48and of course, my head for months—
33:49which is another thing the human mind
33:51does, when it lacks the data, it tries
33:53to fill it in. I was filling in
33:55thousands of plots. Who was that God?
33:57That would be a lie. Uh, God is going
33:59to appear and He is going to appear to
34:00speak. I mean, thousands of plots to
34:02find out who that person is or or
34:03what’s going to happen, right? Well,
34:05he left me like that, and in 10 minutes
34:07, Frances had sold a book.
34:09Just look at that, right? If he had
34:11perhaps presented it to me in another
34:12way, starting to talk about the
34:14book’s virtues. It’s like
34:16such-and-such a book, we can sell this
34:18much, we can do this, we can do that. I
34:20probably wouldn't have been hooked, but
34:22the way he left it with me, he just
34:24said," Here, read it. "He didn't have
34:26to say anything else. I had it, I read
34:28it, and I finished it saying," It's
34:30already sold. "
34:32Yes, because I'm already imagining the
34:33possible plot for Teo, that's the
34:34protagonist's name,
34:35seeing if he calls or not, seeing if
34:36it's him, who could it be. Teo goes
34:39back home that night. He says," Well,
34:41this lady is crazy, this phone can't be
34:44God's phone. "" But even so, he’s so
34:46bored, so desperate, that at night he
34:48calls and an answering machine kicks in
34:50with no voice. "He says," Well, this
34:52has to be a joke. "" He goes to sleep,
34:54and at 4 a.m. the phone rings,
34:56there’s a deep voice that asks him, '
34:59What did you want?' "" He says, 'Are
35:01you God?' "" And the other says, 'You
35:02said it, didn't you?' "Which reminds us
35:04of a moment in the Bible." And the next
35:06day he has another normal day at the
35:08office, and when he gets back, he
35:10doesn't even turn on the house lights,
35:12he’s bitter, he’s sad, the phone
35:14rings, and God tells him, 'Why don't
35:16you start by turning on the light?' ""
35:19And let's have a conversation. "Oh,
35:21spectacular. I can't wait to read it.
35:24How cool.
35:26Well, just look, if you master this
35:27language, you master this way of
35:28telling stories like Francesc does,
35:30right? Not just in this book, but in
35:32many he has, well, look at that, right?
35:34Then you can achieve things, right?
35:35Like books that can sell millions. See?
35:37Did you see?
35:38And then it surprises me, and we'll get
35:40into this now, but I think the
35:41protagonist, the key to the success is
35:43that he is a miserable guy.
35:44Yes. Something I always recommend to
35:47novelists is that they never tell
35:49stories of people for whom things are
35:50going well. For example, what kind of
35:53novel can there be about a lucky man?
35:56None. What kind of novel can you write
35:57about a couple that understands each
35:59other, gets along, and loves one
36:00another? There is no story there. In
36:01fact, every story is based on a
36:03conflict. So, we must keep that in mind
36:07when approaching a lecture, a TED Talk,
36:09or whatever we do. It's someone facing
36:14an apparently unsolvable problem who,
36:16magically or through inspiration, finds
36:18a key, manages to cross the threshold,
36:20and then, as they would say in the
36:22hero's journey, returns with the elixir
36:24and shares it with everyone. But there
36:27must be a conflict, there must be a
36:29problem, there must be a great obstacle
36:31to overcome. You mentioned Isaacson
36:33earlier when he explains Elon Musk's
36:36story—a man many people don't like—
36:38but in that biography, he makes you
36:40empathize by telling you about the very
36:43difficult childhood he had in South
36:45Africa and all the bullying he went
36:47through, right? Uh, he's a person who
36:49has a very painful starting point. So,
36:52when someone is suffering like Teo, the
36:55bored man from God's phone, you want
36:57things to go well for him. It’s like
37:00you’re on his side, rooting for him,
37:02and hoping things turn out well, even
37:04though there will be many difficulties
37:07along the way.
37:09And there is something wonderful about
37:11the narration here, because I'm
37:12remembering it, picturing the scene,
37:14and remembering when you asked me for
37:16the details; there were things that
37:18made perfect sense to me. For example,
37:22the girl approaches him, but it bothers
37:24him. Mm.
37:25You gave me an indicator of how Teo
37:27reacts when she approaches.
37:29Exactly. He’s invited, he doesn't
37:31know why, but he doesn't want to
37:32socialize. He wants to be left alone
37:34with his bitterness and his solitude,
37:36which is something God will teach him
37:38how to change.
37:40You also talked about the clinking of
37:42glasses. Yes, exactly. Uh, there’s a
37:44clinking of glasses, as if something is
37:46being agreed upon there, right? And he
37:48doesn't even know it, right? I mean,
37:50they’re handing him a little piece of
37:52paper that will change his life, but it
37:54will still take him a couple of days to
37:56realize that everything he was up to
37:58that moment has crossed that threshold,
38:00and now he’s in another story and
38:02another adventure, having left his
38:04comfort zone, for better or for worse,
38:06to discover other things. So, you're
38:09telling me that the clinking of the
38:10glasses isn't random, it's not just for
38:12detail, but it has a deeper meaning.
38:13Yes, it has a symbolic point,
38:15you know?
38:15In fact, there is another moment in the
38:18story where he sees this girl again in
38:20a bookstore and that's all we can say,
38:23right? I hope people read it, I'm dying
38:25to read it.
38:26Yes, no, no, no, a wonderful book, but
38:28look, right? The little details, right?
38:30Which sometimes go unnoticed, but not
38:32to your mind. Look at that clink of the
38:34glasses, that" I'll approach, but damn,
38:35a homeless woman is coming my way. "Yes
38:37, yes, I paid for this, but I don't
38:39want to fraternize, as you were saying,
38:40right? Well, these small details in a
38:43story, in a narrative, in a speech, in
38:45the end are what add up to many good
38:47details, right? And what makes the
38:49difference between one narrative and
38:50another, right?
38:52And so, to recap, so that people have
38:54it, we have a main idea, for example,
38:56the book will ultimately leave a great
38:58message,
38:59more than one, but there will be one
39:02perhaps at the core, right? Maybe the
39:05motif, but logically there will be a
39:08story about a man who has the
39:10opportunity to ask God about everything
39:13—love, money, pain, fear, death—
39:16well, that person is going to receive
39:19many messages, right? But perhaps for
39:22each reader, there will be a part that
39:24illuminates them more according to what
39:26they are experiencing at that moment.
39:28Because the beauty of books is that
39:30it's a co-creation between the reader
39:32and the author, because the author
39:33doesn't tell everything that happens in
39:35the books. In fact, it is the reader
39:38who bridges the gaps between one scene
39:40and the next and who puts the focus on
39:42one thing or the other, right? That's
39:44why there are no two identical readings
39:45.
39:46Yes, because it's also the person's
39:47mind that recreates the scene. Maybe I
39:49imagined it differently than Valen did,
39:51for sure.
39:51And of course different from when you
39:53wrote it. Each of us imagined that
39:54place
39:55in a different way.
39:57And the good thing is that when you
39:59touch on two or three different topics
40:01in the same story, even if there is a
40:03main one, as Frances says, but there
40:04are other secondary ones, most of the
40:06audience will identify with one of them
40:08. If they don't identify with the lead
40:12because maybe he has a job he loves,
40:13he's fascinated by, and the protagonist
40:15has a job he dislikes, working 10 hours
40:17a day and living a super monotonous
40:18life. But maybe in the romance,
40:22with that partner, with that girl he
40:23meets, with that I don't know what,
40:25maybe they do identify with that
40:26because they're going through something
40:27similar, right? And so, well, that's
40:29how you touch more souls, right? Which
40:31is what you were saying. Exactly.
40:32So, we have that base argument. We
40:35build a character, based on what we've
40:36discussed, as relatable as possible so
40:38anyone can identify with them, but they
40:40also have to be a wretched character,
40:43who suffers, someone who suffers and
40:45who, against all odds, has to solve
40:48many life puzzles and open many doors
40:50to get to the other side. Actually,
40:54Kafka, who was a great storyteller—it
40:57was my specialty in college—what he
40:59did in all his stories was put an
41:01ordinary man in an extraordinary
41:03situation, right? In The Metamorphosis,
41:06it's a guy who is an office worker who
41:08finds himself turned into a beetle. In
41:11The Trial, a guy comes to arrest him,
41:13and no one tells him what crime he has
41:15committed. So, the common man, the
41:18common woman subjected to an
41:20extraordinary test, that really gets to
41:23readers. It surprises me because when
41:26we do all the presentations, I always
41:28tell the audience that people want you
41:29to do well, but not better than them.
41:32In other words, people want miserable
41:34people. Because if you go, imagine a
41:35superhero movie where the superhero
41:37arrives and everything goes great for
41:38him, you leave because it frustrates
41:40you to see that things aren't worse for
41:41him than for you. That is, the human
41:43being, mentally speaking, I have the
41:45thesis that they love to see that there
41:47are others worse off than themselves to
41:49validate their own pride.
41:50Yes, but they like to see how someone
41:52else solves problems, because it's like
41:55a mirror and it tells you," Look, if he
41:57was able to get out of the hole, "why
41:59do we like The Count of Monte Cristo so
42:01much? It's the great novel of
42:03overcoming adversity. Exactly. Let's
42:06remember that the Count of Monte Cristo
42:08is a good, successful, attractive man
42:10who has everything in life, and that
42:12generates a series of envies that end
42:14up defaming him, and he ends up in
42:16prison, right? So you say," Well, what
42:18is the worst thing that can happen to
42:19someone who has gained everything? "
42:21Losing everything and becoming an
42:23outcast in a prison, on an island
42:25you'll never leave in your life. So,
42:27when the Count of Monte Cristo jumps
42:30into the water, you want him to get his
42:33revenge, right? And for everyone who
42:36put him in that situation to get what
42:38they deserve. Why? Because we have
42:41lived our own version of the Count of
42:43Monte Cristo story in our own way.
42:45People have been unfair to us, they
42:47haven't given us the credit we deserved
42:49. There were people with bad intentions
42:52who succeeded. So, the justice that
42:55isn't served in reality is served in
42:57the novel or the movie.
42:59And that’s where that conflict that
43:00must always be present comes in.
43:01Exactly. The conflict and a whole
43:03series of trials that the hero or
43:06heroine can only overcome if they learn
43:08a series of lessons. It is always a
43:11transformation from the inside out.
43:13Let's remember Star Wars, right? When
43:15Luke Skywalker connects with his master
43:18Obi-Wan Kenobi, it seems like a Zen
43:20Buddhism class, right? What they teach
43:23him is to control his own fear, his own
43:26fury. The message they give him is, if
43:29you are a master of yourself, you might
43:30be able to defeat the other, but first
43:32you must win over yourself.
43:35And when we build stories, for example,
43:36The Phone of God, where we have an
43:38ordinary character who suffers and then
43:39I understand it will get better, we
43:41have main messages and everyday things.
43:44When you build it, what is behind it?
43:47Let me explain, because there is a
43:49phase when many students come to build
43:51their own talk, and say," Ferran, I
43:53want to convey... "But sometimes they
43:54tell me," No, I have a good story, what
43:56do I convey with it? "Then the chicken
43:59or the egg dilemma begins. Do I tell a
44:03story and make up a moral to justify
44:05telling it, or do I build a story from
44:08a moral? When you wrote it, Francesc,
44:11was it," I want to convey this message
44:13because it comes from within me, "or
44:15because you saw a market proposal,
44:17something you knew would work? What was
44:20it?
44:20No, no, there was no marketing proposal
44:21. This book had a strange origin. I had
44:25had the idea for a long time of what
44:26would happen if you were given God's
44:28phone number, right? In fact, the
44:31origin of many stories, and this is an
44:34exercise we can give to everyone
44:37listening to us, is the" what if, "
44:39right? If you complete that sentence,
44:42you have a hypothesis there that can
44:43lead you to something magical, right?
44:45An adventure. In this case, I had the
44:47question of what would happen if they
44:48gave me God's phone number. And it just
44:51so happened that a good friend, who is
44:53in the book and has participated in it,
44:55named Mar Vives, had written from his
44:57farmhouse, from his country house where
44:59he lives alone like a man in his castle
45:01in the woods, he had written a kind of
45:03little Bible of the conversations he
45:05might have with God. So, here there was
45:09a synchronicity between what I wanted
45:11to write and the little Bible he had
45:13created. Then, a friend, Adriana
45:15Hernández, dedicated herself to
45:16expanding those conversations, right? I
45:20took all that material and thought,"
45:22Well, now we have to assemble the story
45:24because we have the material, but it
45:26needs to be novelized and we have to
45:28create other characters, create
45:29subplots, and make a strategy so that
45:31it isn't predictable. "The big problem
45:35with a story is that perhaps it
45:36surprises you at the beginning, and
45:38then you get settled, and there are no
45:39turning points. It is very important
45:42that there are turning points in a
45:44story, and you have to plan them
45:45beforehand. In fact, when you are
45:48planning a novel, a short story, a
45:50fable, what you do is take a sheet of
45:52paper and make a sort of fishbone
45:54diagram, as it's called. So, what do
45:56you put there? You put the beginning
45:59first, which could be the jump from the
46:02seventh floor or the meeting with the
46:04quirky girl who hands you God's phone.
46:07An impactful start that either moves
46:10you or gives you or promises you
46:12something. Then you write the ending,
46:16or what—where do you want this story
46:18to end? It is said that there are two
46:21types of stories, circular stories,
46:24right? Where the ending gathers a bit
46:26of what was promised at the beginning
46:28and you take that gift home with you;
46:30and balloon stories, typical of Poe and
46:32Murakami, where you keep inflating the
46:34balloon, and when you can't anymore,
46:36you pop it, and the story ends anywhere
46:38, and that's it, right?
46:41I mean, circular, for example, could be
46:42, let's imagine the case of Teo, who
46:44suddenly becomes homeless and helps
46:45someone else.
46:47That could be a circular story. Exactly
46:49circular, and the balloon one is, for
46:50example, The Awakening by Serrano.
46:53In this case, the ending of God's phone
46:54is very circular because it ends on a
46:56Ferris wheel, but we aren't going to
46:58say what happens there because the
46:59Ferris wheel is a good metaphor for
47:01life.
47:03Wow, listen, I find it fascinating how
47:05all of this is built.
47:07But you know, a large part of the story
47:09builds itself. I mean, you need to
47:12Yes. You need to at least know where
47:15you're starting and where you're going
47:16to end. Maybe you'll know a few plot
47:19twists that will happen and you create
47:21some characters, right? And here
47:24something happens that is very annoying
47:26when you're told, when an author says
47:27to you," I create the characters and
47:29then they do what they want. "It's not
47:32exactly like that, but in a way, it
47:35works this way because, for example,
47:38you plan for a certain dynamic between
47:40two characters, that they be just
47:43friends, and suddenly the story leads
47:46them to fall in love. You hadn't
47:49planned in your script for those two to
47:51fall in love or you hadn't planned for
47:53one of them to die, but the very
47:55inertia of the story leads you there.
47:57In fact, when an author starts writing
48:00a book, a novel, if it has matured
48:02enough, the story is already written in
48:05their unconscious and you have the
48:07feeling that you are pulling on a
48:09thread that already exists.
48:12And in this case, when you go to
48:13character construction, something that
48:15fascinates me, do you develop them
48:17beforehand with the goal of fostering
48:18empathy? There are, for example, I
48:20think you once told me that there are
48:22two types of writers, the compass ones
48:23and the map ones. Exactly.
48:25I understand that in the end there must
48:27be some kind of character profile with
48:29a description that creates some empathy
48:31, but I have no idea, I have only
48:33written non-fiction and, moreover, very
48:35instructional, as you said, but very
48:37practical and very, very useful. Well,
48:39look, I believe the art of creating
48:41characters is that the characters must
48:44be real. Therefore, if I put a young
48:46lecturer in my next novel, I'm going to
48:49be inspired by you. I'll write about
48:52those eyeglass frames, that hairstyle,
48:53the way you wear your suits. Why? Why
48:56create something that doesn't exist
48:58when you already have real-life
48:59references? So, what the novelist does
49:01is recycle. You take a woman from here,
49:04a man from there, he talks like this
49:06one, but dresses like that other one.
49:08So you reassemble, but you have someone
49:10real in mind and the characters must be
49:13imperfect. I mean, ah, if you remember
49:17the Twilight saga
49:20And the movie V for Vendetta, the
49:22protagonist, then in the movie they
49:23cast a very beautiful actress and such,
49:26but in the novel she is a clumsy girl
49:28who, whenever she tries to run to hear,
49:30trips and falls. And that conditions
49:33all the adventures because when she is
49:35in danger, she knows she cannot run
49:37because she will fall. So, one must
49:40know what the imperfections of that
49:42character are, right? If they are too
49:45fearful, if they think badly of
49:47everyone, if they have a complex about
49:49a certain thing, if there is a trauma
49:51from the past. And something more
49:54important than that, you have to know
49:56what the life journey from A to B is
49:58for each character, meaning, who will
50:00Theo be at the start of the story and
50:03who will Theo be at the end? What has
50:06he become? You have to be clear about
50:08that, because there is an evolution arc
50:10where some get better, others get worse
50:13, and they cannot be in the same place
50:15where we started because the adventure
50:17must have transformed us.
50:19Of course, that is the
50:20that is what is important. There is the
50:22word, transformation. And notice that
50:24this extrapolates to a novel and a
50:26non-fiction book, right? That the
50:28people who read your book, Discovering
50:30the Art of Public Speaking, when they
50:31finish that book, there has to be a
50:33transformation in them. If there wasn't
50:35a transformation in them, I assure you
50:36that you wouldn't have sold even 200
50:38copies. You would have sold the first
50:40ones, but no one would have recommended
50:41that book or anyone would have. Why?
50:43Because there is a transformation. And
50:44in novels, it's the same, you have to
50:46see how that protagonist starts one way
50:47, as Frances says, at the end there is
50:49that transformation in the speeches.
50:51Likewise, if I go to a TED talk, what I
50:53want is for that person, when I finish
50:55watching that talk, wow, even if it's
50:57just an idea, even if it's an emotion,
50:59even if there has been a small
51:01transformation in me. If it is a flat
51:03conversation where I have remained the
51:05same from beginning to end and it
51:07hasn't transformed me in any way, then
51:09it will leave me completely ambiguous,
51:11right? That is what we have to look for
51:12, that transformation, right? Aside
51:13from the impact, because impact is very
51:15good. I always remember, I think you
51:17mentioned it in one of your videos, a
51:19guy who gave a TED Talk that's been one
51:20of the most watched in the world, who
51:22does beatboxing with his mouth, and he
51:24comes out saying," Well, I'm such and
51:26such and I make money with my mouth. "
51:28Right. Damn, see,
51:30what a good introduction. my mind,
51:32which is very
51:34doing strange things with
51:35Exactly. My mind, well, everyone's mind
51:38went wherever they wanted it to go,
51:40right? Because he didn't tell you right
51:42away what it was, but left that space
51:44so everyone would wonder how this man
51:46makes money with his mouth.
51:48Pay attention, because this is the
51:49importance of the first sentence, which
51:50is a separate topic. Let's remember
51:52that Amenábar, the film director, his
51:55first movie that was a massive hit
51:56called Tesis, which was made on a very
51:59low budget, if I'm not mistaken, the
52:01first line is," My name is Angela and
52:03I'm going to be killed. "
52:06That's how you start. So, how are you
52:07not going to follow that story? No.
52:09It's throwing yourself off a cliff, a
52:11leap into the void from the very first
52:13moment.
52:13What moment? And something else we have
52:15to keep in mind, Fernando, is today's
52:17audience. I mean, today's audience is
52:19not the audience from 20 years ago. 20
52:21years ago, a novel, a talk, a speech,
52:23you could start it and have it
52:24crescendo, as they called it, right? I
52:26start soft and I grow, growing like a
52:28novel, right? At the beginning it was
52:31simple and then the novel would grow as
52:34it went on. Not anymore. Now people
52:37need those quick impacts that keep
52:39happening, because otherwise, there's
52:40another phenomenon that happens with
52:42books—and I'm sure it happens in many
52:44other fields—simply because of the
52:46cost you had, the opportunity cost and
52:48what a book cost you, you gave it more
52:50chances. If it started slow, you'd say,
52:53" Well, I'll keep going because I
52:54believe. "And I've sat through books
52:56that, in the end, finished just as they
52:58started; there was no transformation,
52:59there was nothing, and I said," Hmm, "
53:01that feeling of having wasted my time,
53:03but not anymore. Now, studies show we
53:06have no problem reading 10 pages of a
53:08book and if we don't like it, we're
53:10wasting our time. We move on to the
53:11next one.
53:12It has changed. It has changed, and
53:13this applies to everything. Well, since
53:15you give speeches, I imagine that if
53:16after 10 minutes you haven't managed to
53:18wake up the audience, you're sure to
53:19see the first one yawning, the other
53:21looking at their phone, the other one
53:23drifting off.
53:23A practical example.
53:25I took my son to a revival cinema in
53:27Barcelona, the Phenomena, which is
53:28under construction now, to see Alien. I
53:31remember when I saw the movie Alien it
53:33seemed fascinating, terrifying,
53:34exciting. He told me," This is so
53:36boring, nothing is happening here, it's
53:38very slow. "That's when I realized how
53:40the pace of stories has changed, right?
53:43Now you need many more things to happen
53:46in less time.
53:47I have noticed it myself. Since I've
53:48been a reader since I was little, for
53:50example, I'm going to make a confession
53:51here, Francesca, but you gave me the
53:52lead. I read Twilight in one night.
53:55I liked it, you know? I really like the
53:58first Twilight book.
53:59I couldn't stop at all. I read the
54:00first one. The next night I had to go
54:02buy the second one. They had an edition
54:04that cost 5.95 and I said," Bah, for
54:065.95, "I had 10 € in my school
54:08backpack. I bought it. The first one
54:11seems like a very good book, a very
54:13good book, because the characters are
54:15also imperfect
54:16and it takes place in an everyday
54:18setting, which is high school, right?
54:20So, who hasn't been in high school and
54:21wouldn't have liked to live a story
54:23like that, right?
54:24Yes, then you're there at school," This
54:25one is a vampire, for sure. "
54:26Exactly. Right there, professor, these
54:29stories are wonderful. How difficult it
54:31is to tell stories, but how important
54:33it is. We are seeing in this program
54:36with Francesca and Valen that people
54:37will forget what you say, but not how
54:38you make them feel. And when we are
54:41going to build a speech, a message, a
54:43video, whether for a conference, social
54:45media, wherever, we always have to see
54:47the way to introduce the characters, to
54:49make them have a conflict, place them
54:51on the cliff's edge and leave them
54:52wanting more. This section on stories
54:55is so important that we see it in
54:57detail in my online public speaking
54:58course, a course in which you will be
55:00able to learn how to create the best
55:02stories for your conferences, for your
55:04videos, for any presentation. Beyond
55:07the stories, we look at the strategies
55:08to connect with the audience's
55:09self-interests, the structures that led
55:11me, for example, to win the Spanish
55:12Public Speaking Championship and the
55:14ones I personally apply so that a video
55:16like this one you're watching is a
55:17total success. I'll leave the link in
55:20the description so you can see all the
55:22information about the program, so you
55:24can sign up and be one of the best
55:26storytellers that exist. Let's continue
55:28with the program. So, we have drama and
55:30how can we strategically place that
55:32drama, because there are people, and I
55:35will always use this example, who
55:36believe that drama has to be
55:38extraordinary. And a guy says:" The
55:40other day I went to see my grandparents
55:42, I open the front door, I give my
55:43grandma a kiss, and when I see her turn
55:45around, my grandma explodes and flies
55:47away. "And I say:" But wait, you can't
55:49have your grandma explode, I mean, you
55:50can't, it makes no sense, because it
55:52just can't happen. "So, how can we make
55:54people understand how to create drama?
55:57Because when they start telling their
55:59story, they think they need to impose a
56:01level of drama as if there were bombs
56:02everywhere and this seemed like a
56:04conflict.
56:05Drama can be something very small. In
56:08fact, I have studied quite a bit
56:10through a friend who gives lectures on
56:12this, Gabriel García de Oro, about how
56:14stories are narrated at Pixar studios,
56:16right? Which are very good stories
56:20through their graphics. So they have a
56:22rule for all their screenwriters, which
56:24is" make me care. "Make me care. If you
56:26don't manage to make the audience care
56:27about the character and their situation
56:29, you aren't narrating well. And then,
56:31something very interesting that we
56:33talked about yesterday at an Ikigai
56:35conference is that all Pixar stories
56:36are based on the same thing. It's an
56:40emotional journey for the character
56:43from point A to point B. Point A is
56:45what the protagonist wants, point B is
56:47what the protagonist needs, and that
56:50journey is the dramatic arc. Examples,
56:53right? Ah, Cars: Lightning McQueen
56:55wants to be the fastest, but what he
56:57needs is to learn how to stop, and
56:59that's why there are so many adventures
57:01in that garage. Toy Story. Woody wants
57:05to go back to being the boy's favorite
57:07toy, but what he needs is to learn how
57:09to be a friend, and that's why the
57:11soundtrack is" You've Got a Friend in
57:13Me. "So that also happens to us people
57:16sometimes, right? We believe that our
57:18destiny is a certain thing, that this
57:20is our path, but life tells us that's
57:23not the way, that's not the way, and
57:25until you listen to the messages life
57:27sends you, you don't get on the right
57:29path. I think this just—my head just
57:32exploded, I loved it so much because,
57:34clearly, point A to point B, it's so
57:36easy to see it that way, what you are
57:37and what you actually need, and the arc
57:39that is produced. And you said before,
57:43first the story comes, the concept of
57:44what would happen if I could talk to
57:46God,
57:47and from there point A and point B are
57:49born afterward. But that is justified
57:51later on.
57:51Exactly. Yes. First there has to be
57:53some idea like that. What if?
57:55What if they gave you God's phone
57:57number? What if you woke up tomorrow
58:00inside another person's body? Right? So
58:03, we can make many hypotheses there and
58:05once we've grounded it, then we have to
58:07create that universe. For example,
58:09secondary characters are sometimes more
58:11loved by readers than the main ones. In
58:14the Wallander saga, which is a bit far
58:17from us now, right? Millennium,
58:20that girl with the piercings and the
58:22vengeful attitude, Salander,
58:26well, she had much more attention from
58:27the public than the journalist himself
58:29who does the investigation. So, in
58:32secondary characters, you also have to
58:35put people you can grow fond of, right?
58:39That they are very different, right?
58:40That they have something very funny
58:41about them. Let's remember that
58:44Cervantes places Don Quixote and Sancho
58:46Panza, one who is a madman and the
58:48other who is a kind of old-fashioned
58:50man for his time, right? All the time
58:52with those proverbs. So, in the
58:54opposition between two characters who
58:56are very different, that's where the
58:58charm of the story lies. So you,
59:00Francesc, always do it that way. But,
59:03what about the landing?
59:05Because I think Valen does it the other
59:06way around. I think you first see what
59:09transformation you can achieve and then
59:11you build. The same thing happens to me
59:13.
59:13Well, it's just that, clearly, a
59:14fiction book changes a lot from a
59:16non-fiction one and all that. Keep in
59:18mind that 95%of the non-fiction books
59:20on the market don't keep that promise.
59:23But of course, for example, this would
59:24be fiction. This is a, it's a hybrid
59:27genre that we already find in very old
59:30books. In fact, The Little Prince
59:33is a novel, but it is a philosophical
59:35book at the same time. You learn things
59:37there. The Alchemist is an adaptation
59:40of a Czech tale that Coelho expands
59:42very beautifully into a novel, but
59:44it’s actually a box, it's a chest
59:47full of messages. So, that is what a
59:50modern fable would be. When we talk
59:52about a fable, we are talking about a
59:54book that, through a story for adults
59:56—you mentioned a very good one
59:58earlier, The Knight in Rusty Armor—
1:00:00gives you a life lesson.
1:00:02Okay. I mean, it’s a hybrid.
1:00:04Well, and there are wonderful books,
1:00:05right? The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari,
1:00:06right? Just look at that, right? They
1:00:08could have told it to you as a story of
1:00:10good luck. That’s why I tell you
1:00:11there are ways. You, for example, your
1:00:14book" Discover the Art of Public
1:00:15Speaking, "which is fascinating and
1:00:17teaches you everything, could have been
1:00:18told through your personal experience.
1:00:21One day, Fernando will write a fable
1:00:23about a guy who is unable to even talk
1:00:25to his son, who can't get a date, who
1:00:28goes to a cave in the Himalayas, and
1:00:30finds a master there who gives him the
1:00:33keys to oratory. In the end, it's about
1:00:35building that hero's story.
1:00:36Yes, the tale. We all need—Yes, the
1:00:38hero's journey.
1:00:39Let's think about the structure of the
1:00:41hero's journey, which was a very
1:00:43interesting concept by Joseph Campbell,
1:00:44an American anthropologist—because we
1:00:46aren't going to talk about all the
1:00:48phases as it would get too technical,
1:00:50but we will talk about the beginning,
1:00:51right? He says," In every great
1:00:54adventure, there is a call to adventure
1:00:57and an initial refusal. "I mean, in
1:00:59many stories, we see that what is
1:01:01proposed to the common man, to the
1:01:03common woman, you don't want to accept
1:01:06at first. Why? Because you're doing
1:01:08just fine at home. And heaven forbid
1:01:10things change. Now, then there is a
1:01:12mentor, a magical event, a second
1:01:14signal that leads you to really take
1:01:17the step and leave your comfort zone,
1:01:19but the normal thing for human beings
1:01:21is that when there is the first
1:01:23invitation to change, we say no.
1:01:26It’s that comfort zone, right?
1:01:27In fact, do you remember? We mentioned
1:01:29Luke Skywalker earlier, when he is with
1:01:30his aunt and uncle and they tell him he
1:01:32has to join the rebellion and such, he
1:01:33says," Leave me alone. "No, then his
1:01:35aunt and uncle are killed, he meets the
1:01:36master, and he takes the step, right?
1:01:38And he begins to train to become a
1:01:41warrior. Well, that is in every story
1:01:43ever made.
1:01:44So that, clearly, so that people
1:01:46understand it well, just imagine, right
1:01:47? They show you the first scene of a
1:01:49child enjoying his village, playing
1:01:51with his brother, with his family,
1:01:52being happy, right? That’s what it is
1:01:54, right? But some barbarians come,
1:01:56destroy the village, take his brother,
1:01:58and he disappears, right? And he is on
1:02:00that path of" I’m going to go get my
1:02:01brother back, "right? Well, it’s that
1:02:03, right? Just so you see, that’s
1:02:05where the adventure begins.
1:02:061,000 movies and 1,000 books come out.
1:02:09They all have that structure. That’s
1:02:10why that Campbell book is so beautiful,
1:02:11right? Because he realized that in that
1:02:13structure, there are steps that might
1:02:15happen and steps that might not, that
1:02:17maybe not all of them do, but most have
1:02:19the majority. Well, because" Building a
1:02:21StoryBrand "by Donald Miller, I don’t
1:02:22know if you’ve read it, is a book
1:02:24more focused on marketing, but it deals
1:02:25with the hero’s journey. The refusal
1:02:27of the call isn't there.
1:02:28The refusal isn't there. I think it’s
1:02:29so important.
1:02:30It’s very important because in the
1:02:32beginning it’s very common, look, Joe
1:02:34Dispenza explained this to me while
1:02:36having a paella. He told me," Every
1:02:39person who wants to change their life
1:02:41faces two dangers because it's, "he
1:02:43says," like jumping into an icy river,
1:02:45trying to swim to the other side. "He
1:02:47says," The two dangers you face are the
1:02:48people who stay on this shore, who will
1:02:50tell you, where are you going, you
1:02:51crazy person? "And the second, your own
1:02:53fear, that when you get to the middle
1:02:54of the river you'll say, 'This water is
1:02:56so cold, I don’t know what’s on the
1:02:57other side, I’m going back the way I
1:02:59came,' right?" So, only by overcoming
1:03:01the fear of others and your own fear
1:03:03can the adventure begin.
1:03:05I’m like a little kid. I think it
1:03:07must show, and the audience will be
1:03:09seeing it because it’s a subject that
1:03:11, furthermore, I am facing the writing
1:03:12of my first novel,
1:03:14I tell Valen, "Valen, the poor guy,
1:03:15I’ve got him fried." It’s like, I
1:03:16knew it, Fernando, that you had a novel
1:03:18in the kitchen,
1:03:19but I’m having a blast and at the
1:03:20same time I suffer. Because how hard it
1:03:23is, how I admire those of you who are
1:03:25novelists.
1:03:26Because you’re judging yourself, you
1:03:27shouldn’t judge yourself. Yeah.
1:03:29I mean, look, there is a key to writing
1:03:32fiction: first, vomit the story.
1:03:35and then you'll see what you take out,
1:03:37what you keep, what you polish. If
1:03:39you're critiquing yourself the whole
1:03:41time, you're going to get stuck on
1:03:43certain chapters, right? So, don't
1:03:45judge. Just think of this as a first
1:03:48draft; there will be a second, a third,
1:03:50and a fourth, and you'll make it shine
1:03:52like a diamond in the end, right? Right
1:03:54now, the important thing is just to
1:03:55move forward. My big challenge, and he
1:03:59knows it, is the topic of characters.
1:04:02That's why I ask so much, genuinely,
1:04:03about characters. I can't manage—I'm
1:04:07taking away several pointers today, but
1:04:08I can't seem to make it look, or at
1:04:09least that...
1:04:10be inspired by real people, right? If,
1:04:12for example, a grumpy man is going to
1:04:15appear and you had a teacher or a boss
1:04:18or a cousin who is like that, nail it,
1:04:20put him in exactly the same way, change
1:04:23his name, his age a little, and...
1:04:26put in all the quirks and all the
1:04:28little gestures that person had and it
1:04:30will turn out perfect.
1:04:31Sounds good, I'll try it and let you
1:04:33know how it goes.
1:04:35But the beauty of these techniques that
1:04:37you've been summarizing, right?,a
1:04:38little bit to help the audience, is
1:04:39that they aren't only used for books,
1:04:41which is, I think, the message we need
1:04:42to give here, right? That those same
1:04:45techniques in your day-to-day, when
1:04:46explaining things to your friends, when
1:04:48looking for work, imagine, right?,when
1:04:50you're in a job interview, right? The
1:04:53difference between knowing how to tell
1:04:54a story and enthralling them or staying
1:04:55there self-conscious, telling things
1:04:57that have no importance in all areas of
1:04:58your life, going out, what are you
1:05:00going to tell them? No, walking onto a
1:05:02stage with a bunch of people who are
1:05:03there giving you their time and you
1:05:05have to entertain them, right? Well,
1:05:07how different it is to know how to tell
1:05:08a story
1:05:09than to go out there and tell something
1:05:10that is inconsequential.
1:05:12I can propose a challenge with this, I
1:05:14think. Let's see if it works. One of
1:05:16the things the audience asks me for
1:05:18most is, "Fernando, when I go to a
1:05:19gathering with friends, I talk and they
1:05:21get bored. I talk and they get on their
1:05:23phones, I talk and they don't pay
1:05:24attention to me. How can a person,
1:05:27regarding what you said about when the
1:05:29story begins? When does the person
1:05:30start to tell it? How could we manage
1:05:32to tell an everyday anecdote, but make
1:05:34it interesting to the other person?
1:05:37To manage to suddenly make them perk up
1:05:39their ears and say," I decide to listen
1:05:41to you. "How could we achieve that? Do
1:05:44you want us to introduce ourselves in
1:05:4630 seconds and try to do something so
1:05:48people can see? Come on, come on, let's
1:05:50go.
1:05:50Well, I'll start, Francis, if you don't
1:05:52mind. Well, I was a shy boy who always
1:05:55liked listening to stories until there
1:05:57came a moment when I said," Maybe I
1:05:59should be the one performing these
1:06:01stories. "So I studied dramatic arts. I
1:06:03did a lot of commercials, but life
1:06:05didn't want me to be an actor. So, I
1:06:08studied marketing and advertising and I
1:06:10was very good at it, and I became the
1:06:11commercial director for two
1:06:13telecommunications companies and I made
1:06:14a great living, but I wasn't happy. Why
1:06:18? Because that wasn't what I had come
1:06:19here to do. And then I was lucky enough
1:06:22to have a partner at the time who is
1:06:24now the author Elena Valenti, a
1:06:25bestseller author, she wrote her first
1:06:27book and was going to publish it with a
1:06:29publisher here in Spain and we realized
1:06:31that this publisher had cheated a lot
1:06:33of authors. So we managed through
1:06:37lawyers to break that contract and I
1:06:38made her a promise. I told her," Don't
1:06:41worry, I'm going to publish you. "
1:06:43Without having any idea what the
1:06:45publishing sector was like. But not
1:06:47only that, she quit her job and I left
1:06:49my two companies for that dream. We had
1:06:53a 99.9%chance of failing and going
1:06:57broke, but it was the exact opposite
1:07:00and it exploded and became a real
1:07:02phenomenon that got us into all the
1:07:05media outlets and they even made a
1:07:07documentary about our story. What I
1:07:10couldn't be as an actor, the books gave
1:07:12me on the screen. Wow, that is
1:07:14incredible. It's one thing what you
1:07:16wanted and another what you needed to
1:07:18do.
1:07:18The dramatic arc is fulfilled. Do you
1:07:20realize it?
1:07:20What I find fascinating is that this
1:07:22has been live and in the moment. There
1:07:23was no preparation at all.
1:07:25It's just that I read a lot of Francesc
1:07:26Miralles.
1:07:26Oh, well. Hey, but it's true, from
1:07:29point A to point B you've done a Pixar.
1:07:31You've
1:07:31done a Pixar.
1:07:32Look, no, but you get it, with dramatic
1:07:34points, right? It's true. And besides,
1:07:36all of this is true. Everything I just
1:07:37explained is completely, well, you know
1:07:38, right? You already know me, don't you
1:07:39?
1:07:40Also, in the process of creating the
1:07:42publishing house you were deceived
1:07:43several times, you lost everything
1:07:44several times, which is what the hero
1:07:46does, facing great defeats before the
1:07:48final victory comes.
1:07:49Exactly. We only had 30 seconds here,
1:07:51right? But that was very important
1:07:53because we were experiencing success on
1:07:55the outside,
1:07:56but we had been robbed on the inside,
1:07:57right? And we had, well, the
1:07:59distributor had closed, they had stolen
1:08:00books from us, they had...and of course
1:08:02, those are moments that you have to
1:08:03explain. Here we had 30 seconds and we
1:08:05had to make an impact from the
1:08:06beginning, right? But if they give you
1:08:08more time, well, imagine what you can
1:08:10develop in a talk, in a...Well, I could
1:08:12have told you this:" Well, I'm Valen, I
1:08:14was born I don't know where, I studied.
1:08:17"Just think about it, I mean, in a
1:08:18while you would be drinking coffee,
1:08:20looking at your phone, uh, whatever,
1:08:22right? Exactly.
1:08:23And at some point you would have made a
1:08:25promise, Francesca. I mean, for me, I
1:08:27have the theory that you always have to
1:08:28tell the audience why they should be
1:08:30interested in listening to us.
1:08:31Yes. Well, he told us the whole story
1:08:34now, but if he had told us that nothing
1:08:36he thought he would do in life happened
1:08:37that way and leaves us with that
1:08:39cliffhanger.
1:08:41Of course, what you want is for the
1:08:43audience to say," And now what? And now
1:08:45what, and now what. "So, that's why you
1:08:46don't tell everything at the beginning.
1:08:48He gave us a summary now, right?
1:08:50Sure, a closing of, well, one of these
1:08:5130-second ones, right? But of course we
1:08:53would have closed with something, right
1:08:55? Of uncertainty, of...
1:08:56But you would have said a sentence like
1:08:58," I'm going to tell you something that
1:08:59I hope never happens to you. "
1:09:01That's very good.
1:09:02To tell the audience," Hey, listen to
1:09:03this, this that I'm going to tell you,
1:09:05pay attention to something like that. "
1:09:06Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
1:09:07Because I see that people have less
1:09:08attention every day.
1:09:09Sure, you tell me that and I'm already
1:09:11like this. Right? And then you tell
1:09:13them the story and you win them over.
1:09:14Right. The thing is that here you have
1:09:1530 seconds, right? So you say," Well,
1:09:17I'll start with something and get their
1:09:18attention right from the beginning. "Or
1:09:19since there are 30 seconds, I know
1:09:21they'll pay attention to what I'm
1:09:22saying if I know how to break it down
1:09:24and tell it or narrate it, right? But
1:09:27if it had been a little longer, of
1:09:28course I would have started with
1:09:30something like that to hook you, and
1:09:32keep doing one every so often to keep
1:09:34you attentive, right?
1:09:36That's great. Valen, hundreds of books,
1:09:37if not thousands, have passed through
1:09:39your hands. When you decide whether or
1:09:42not to publish an author or develop a
1:09:43biography, or now that you're launching
1:09:45an imprint, what do you look for? Is it
1:09:48that transformation from point A to
1:09:50point B and then we market it, because
1:09:51I understand there will be people who
1:09:53come with the book already done or
1:09:54people who come with an idea and try to
1:09:56bounce it off you to see how to carry
1:09:57it out. Where do you focus? On the"
1:10:00what if "or on the transformation from
1:10:01point A to point B? Look, I was at a
1:10:04Hotmart meeting where they said
1:10:06something that blew my mind, which was
1:10:08that 95%of the courses, books, and
1:10:10everything published in Spain, and the
1:10:12courses taken in Spain, do not meet the
1:10:15expectations of the reader or the
1:10:16course taker.
1:10:18There is dissatisfaction, meaning they
1:10:20buy it and it doesn't satisfy them.
1:10:2195%.
1:10:23That's in Spain, eh? And do you know
1:10:24why? Well, because we Spaniards prefer
1:10:27to spend all our time on marketing
1:10:29techniques to get people to buy the
1:10:30course, and if they don't buy it, I do
1:10:32retargeting, and I do this, and I do
1:10:34that. And we're perfect at that, but we
1:10:37forget the most important thing: the
1:10:39product. If the product were good, you
1:10:41wouldn't need so much marketing, and
1:10:43we've forgotten that. And there is
1:10:44nothing worse than an unsatisfied
1:10:45person because they bought from you
1:10:46once, but then you lose them. On the
1:10:48other hand, you can keep selling to a
1:10:49satisfied person later. It's the same
1:10:51for me with books. I have to fall in
1:10:53love with the story. I am incapable of
1:10:55publishing an author that I don't fall
1:10:57in love with. And I have a story with
1:11:00you.
1:11:00Oh,
1:11:01that we can explain here, about how I
1:11:03published
1:11:04tell us, tell us, we don't know that.
1:11:06Well, I remember one time I was
1:11:08launching a writing course with Euger.
1:11:11We're talking about 5 or 6 years ago, I
1:11:13don't remember. More or less.
1:11:15Pre-pandemic. Exactly. This too,
1:11:17but it was surely in '19,
1:11:18well, 6 years ago, a writing course and
1:11:21I receive
1:11:22a private Instagram message from
1:11:24someone named Fernando Miralles, so I
1:11:26look at it and the first thing I do is
1:11:29check his profile, to see who he was.
1:11:32Wow, and I loved how he spoke. First,
1:11:33he addressed me with exquisite manners,
1:11:35I’m telling you the truth, eh? I mean
1:11:37," he did it really well "because it
1:11:38was such exquisite politeness and a
1:11:40very well-written message, whereas
1:11:42people sometimes write to me with
1:11:43spelling mistakes in the very first
1:11:45message, or all in caps; they say:" Hey
1:11:47, bro, hey, bro, come on, publish me,
1:11:48right? ".
1:11:49Which is already starting off on the
1:11:50wrong foot, isn't it? Like we were
1:11:51saying, right? Anyway, and of course,
1:11:53he wrote to me, he told me he had a
1:11:55book and he seemed like a person—I
1:11:57said, this guy has something, I promise
1:11:59you, I even told Esme, I told Lidia, I
1:12:01told everyone, this guy has something.
1:12:03But of course, we were in the middle of
1:12:04launching EUGE’s course, where many
1:12:06people were going to join whom we then
1:12:08had to help write their books, and of
1:12:10course, I was at a point where I
1:12:11couldn't because we were obsessed with
1:12:13that, right? But he was the only person
1:12:17that, a year and a bit later, when I
1:12:18finished with all the people taking the
1:12:20course and everything, I remembered
1:12:22again. I said," What became of that guy
1:12:25who wrote to me so politely and made
1:12:26such an impact on me? "So I went ahead
1:12:29and contacted him again. I’ve never
1:12:31done that in my life with any author,
1:12:32especially after so much time. And I
1:12:34wrote to him, I said," Fernando, how is
1:12:36your book coming along? "
1:12:37Yes, I had already completely forgotten
1:12:38.
1:12:39And he says to me," Well, you won't
1:12:40believe it. "He says," Because I was
1:12:42with a self-publishing house that is
1:12:44editing it, and in the end, I want to
1:12:45self-publish it myself. "And I told him
1:12:47," No, don't worry. "I said," We’re
1:12:49going to publish it ourselves. "And
1:12:50it’s the first time in my entire
1:12:52history that, after a year and some,
1:12:53I’ve called an author back.
1:12:55Coincidentally, you hadn't published it
1:12:56yet because you could have published it
1:12:58, it was about to happen.
1:13:00And from there
1:13:00I broke the contract, I had to pay all
1:13:02that money for the self-publishing, and
1:13:04I said," It doesn't matter, I'll pay it
1:13:06and go with Valen. "
1:13:07And I have to say that Fernando’s
1:13:09books have been some of the
1:13:10best-sellers for the publishing house.
1:13:12How great, how beautiful. And it's been
1:13:14a super beautiful journey because
1:13:15it’s what we say, right? I wasn't
1:13:17just in love, I fell in love with the
1:13:19transformation you could bring to
1:13:20people through communication, but also
1:13:22the way you approached me; do you see
1:13:23the importance of words? It caught my
1:13:26attention. You see? Do you see the way
1:13:28of saying things, the way of addressing
1:13:30them? Well, it's what we say with
1:13:31Francesc when he offered me God's phone
1:13:33number, right? Well, it's a bit like
1:13:34that. How many people write to me? What
1:13:35you just told me, right? So many people
1:13:37write to me, and why do I choose this
1:13:39one and not that one? Well, there it is
1:13:41. Yesterday, I got an Insta message
1:13:43from someone I don't know who said,"
1:13:45What's your phone number? "Of course,
1:13:47that would be a very bad way to
1:13:49approach someone, right? Send them the
1:13:52link to God's phone, and this is my
1:13:54phone.
1:13:55We'll move them there. It is true that
1:13:57we have talked about the importance of
1:13:59beginnings. Fernando's email was a very
1:14:01good start. And why is it so important?
1:14:04Because of that saying that you never
1:14:05get a second chance to make a first
1:14:07impression. What a great phrase.
1:14:09The first thing is what sticks with you
1:14:10, right? From a book, from a story,
1:14:11from a person, right? A person who
1:14:13approaches you the wrong way. Then it's
1:14:15very difficult to, uh, reshape that
1:14:17impression you have. Therefore, we must
1:14:20think very carefully about what we say
1:14:21when we open our mouths for the first
1:14:23time.
1:14:23Totally.
1:14:24There is a question I have to ask you
1:14:26because it happens in conferences, but
1:14:29it also happens with books. And I know
1:14:31it’s a debate that you, being friends
1:14:33, actively have. Many people tell me,"
1:14:36Fernando, how can I make a good living
1:14:39with my conferences? "And I translate
1:14:42it to the world of books, because for
1:14:44me, a good writer and a good speaker
1:14:46are like cousins; they are disciplines,
1:14:48and what we are discussing today about
1:14:50writing, I am enjoying because I am
1:14:52going to apply it—in fact, I am
1:14:53already applying it here on this show.
1:14:57How do we build a story, a message, a
1:15:00quote-unquote bestseller? How do we
1:15:03make it something that people say,"
1:15:05I'll buy it, but not just monetarily; I
1:15:07want more, I want to know it, this
1:15:09moves me, this moves the world. "And
1:15:11here we have, geez, you both have
1:15:13bestsellers. You have one of the most
1:15:15important bestsellers in the world.
1:15:16First, you have to discover a good
1:15:18story, which very few people actually
1:15:20have. So, if you want to know if your
1:15:23story is any good, look for sparring
1:15:25partners or beta readers—people who
1:15:27will hit you hard and tell you," Look,
1:15:30not this one, not that one, not this
1:15:32either. "We have a practical case we
1:15:35can mention here with Valen; we met a
1:15:38unique author because he’s a
1:15:39construction worker,
1:15:43who became a coach and eventually a
1:15:45writer and an inspirational leader for
1:15:47thousands of people. I call him Pedrito
1:15:50, others call him Peter, and his name
1:15:52is Pedro Cortés; I mention this
1:15:55because it will help answer your
1:15:57question. I saw that this man had
1:15:59something special because he is also a
1:16:02very kind, polite, and fun person who
1:16:04creates empathy; just seeing him makes
1:16:06you like him, and that’s good for an
1:16:09audience. And, he sent me 40 pages of a
1:16:12story that was very well written. I
1:16:15know he has a van named Lola, that
1:16:17he’s an itinerant builder traveling
1:16:19all over Spain, and all that, right? So
1:16:22he said," Tell me what you think of
1:16:23this. "And in that story about the man
1:16:25driving his van, there were a thousand
1:16:27adventures he had in Spanish towns,
1:16:30like being kicked out by the Civil
1:16:32Guard for sleeping in the wrong place,
1:16:34it was about him.
1:16:35So I said," Hey, you write really well,
1:16:37and what a beautiful adventure. "And he
1:16:39said," I made it all up. "He said," I
1:16:41haven't even taken that trip yet. "Then
1:16:43one day he said," I'd like you to
1:16:45advise me on what to write. "So I said,
1:16:47" Okay, look, let's meet on such and
1:16:50such a day, we'll do a Zoom call, and I
1:16:52want you to read all your proposals to
1:16:54me; don't just give me one. "" Come
1:16:57with a shopping list and tell me
1:16:59everything you've got in your drawer. "
1:17:02So he started rattling off titles to me
1:17:03." This one? No. This one? No. This one
1:17:06? No. Not this one either. "And when he
1:17:08had already listed about 20 ideas, he
1:17:10says," From Builder to Buddha. "And my
1:17:13eyes just lit up. That’s when I
1:17:17realized there was a very good story to
1:17:19tell, which is the story of that book;
1:17:21in fact, it’s being published before"
1:17:24The Phone of God. "I mean, by the time
1:17:27people are watching this, they might
1:17:28already be able to order it or find it.
1:17:30We'll leave that in the description as
1:17:31well.
1:17:32It’s the story of a boy from a good
1:17:37home. Due to a series of poor decisions
1:17:39and family trauma, he ends up hitting
1:17:41rock bottom, living in a car, and
1:17:43eventually not even in the car because
1:17:45it gets stolen, and he ends up living
1:17:47on a park bench as a homeless man. And
1:17:49in front of that bench, there's a
1:17:51construction site with a female foreman
1:17:52, which is quite rare. Oh, and this
1:17:55woman, who is very compassionate,
1:17:57notices there's a guy who's always
1:17:59there and says to him," Hey, I see you
1:18:01here all day. If you want to come help
1:18:04us out as a laborer, I'll pay you a
1:18:06daily wage. You have a little corner
1:18:07here where you can sleep. And besides,
1:18:09while we build this house—since we
1:18:10have to demolish it and start from
1:18:12scratch—I'm going to teach you how to
1:18:14rebuild yourself. Inside the house, the
1:18:16only thing they respect among the ruins
1:18:19is a Buddha statue they find, which all
1:18:21the bricklayers grow fond of; they even
1:18:23leave their hard hats there when they
1:18:25take their snack break. It's a, it's a
1:18:27bricklayer with a hard hat. So I
1:18:30thought, wow, here we have a great
1:18:32fable of a bricklayer and a Buddha,
1:18:34right? So I told him, "Pedro, you have
1:18:37to go down that path, right? And that's
1:18:40how, from a forest of 20, 25, 30, 35
1:18:42stories that didn't land, we discovered
1:18:44that this one had to be the one he
1:18:46wrote, and in the end, it was published
1:18:49, he found a publisher and everything,
1:18:51right? Well, it's the same with anyone:
1:18:54don't settle for your first idea. I
1:18:56mean, a—I know the advertising world
1:18:58quite well; I have many friends in
1:18:59agencies and they tell me," The worst
1:19:01advertiser is the one who sticks with
1:19:03the first thing that comes to their
1:19:05mind. "No, think of a second, a third,
1:19:07and a fourth. Apply lateral thinking,
1:19:09think of crazy things, and when you
1:19:11have everything, find a couple of good
1:19:14critics and let them tell you," That
1:19:16one is going to work well. "
1:19:17How can we fight against immediacy? We
1:19:20live in a society—we've talked about
1:19:22it in several programs—with the
1:19:24TikTok effect; we want everything now,
1:19:26there's a lot of impatience, and apps
1:19:28drive that impatience, but all creative
1:19:30processes are slow.
1:19:31That’s what I was going to say. If
1:19:32you are looking for immediacy in the
1:19:34publishing industry, I think you're in
1:19:36the wrong sector, because I don't think
1:19:37there's, I don't know, even Bitcoin—
1:19:39There is no sector slower than the
1:19:41publishing sector. And regarding what
1:19:44you said earlier, I think people are
1:19:46going to be a bit curious about how to
1:19:47craft a bestseller.
1:19:49That is a topic Francesco and I have
1:19:52debated dozens of times, and first,
1:19:54what does a bestseller mean to you?
1:19:57Because maybe selling 30,000 copies in
1:19:59Spain is a bestseller. But if you are
1:20:01talking to me about a global bestseller
1:20:02with millions of units in different
1:20:04countries, we are talking about
1:20:05something else. Those bestsellers that
1:20:08appear once or twice a year, like, look
1:20:10, we have Francesc and his phenomenon
1:20:13Ikigai here, right? I don’t know if
1:20:15people know this, but it’s translated
1:20:17into over 70 languages and is one of
1:20:18the most translated books after Don
1:20:20Quixote, just so people understand the
1:20:21scale, right? And millions of books
1:20:24have been sold, right?
1:20:25An outrageous amount. He was never
1:20:27aware of that, he says it many times,
1:20:28he could tell you better,
1:20:30but it wasn't...I had written 50 books.
1:20:3350 books written for children, for
1:20:35young people, co-authored, under a
1:20:37pseudonym. Sometimes, to win at
1:20:40roulette, you have to place many chips,
1:20:43right? It’s not always on the first
1:20:45try. In fact, any phenomenon we see,
1:20:47for example, The Da Vinci Code wasn't
1:20:50Dan Brown's first book; he had two
1:20:52previous books that went unnoticed, and
1:20:55sometimes you have to warm up and play
1:20:57with previous things. The problem is
1:21:00when an author wants recognition with
1:21:02their first book, wants the red carpet
1:21:03rolled out, and expects it to be done,
1:21:05right? Maybe it’s not the first,
1:21:07maybe not the second, maybe it’s the
1:21:08seventh. And here, there is a reward
1:21:10for those who stay the course. You have
1:21:12to have a marathon runner's mindset.
1:21:14And I think we can detect—it is
1:21:15impossible to predict a phenomenon with
1:21:17these characteristics like Dan
1:21:18Brown’s, for example, The Da Vinci
1:21:20Code, which nobody wanted to publish.
1:21:22In the end, a friend of his published
1:21:23it with a publishing house, and then it
1:21:24eventually scaled, right? I mean, it is
1:21:26impossible to detect that kind of
1:21:28global phenomenon. For example,
1:21:30Francesc can tell us what happened with
1:21:32Ikigai, because even Oprah Winfrey read
1:21:34it. I mean, things happened—and not
1:21:37by paying, far from it, but things that
1:21:39made you say," Wow, it seems like that
1:21:41message had to reach humanity, and life
1:21:42pulls its strings for that to happen in
1:21:44a beastly way, right? "He can tell you
1:21:47all the little things that happened
1:21:48with the subject of
1:21:49it." I mean, I think literary successes
1:21:51can only be analyzed in hindsight,
1:21:53because it's the black swan theme.
1:21:55Usually, what succeeds is a formula
1:21:57that hasn't been done before. The Da
1:21:59Vinci Code was a mix of elements that
1:22:02hadn't been practiced in the thriller
1:22:05genre: on one hand, a novel conveying
1:22:08cultural aspects of a specific place,
1:22:10Paris, the Louvre, Leonardo da Vinci,
1:22:13combined with a thriller plot, a
1:22:15provocative idea, and so on. That
1:22:18formula hadn't been done, so it came
1:22:20out, found its niche, and it was a
1:22:23smash hit. But there are many other
1:22:25similar experiences that don't work;
1:22:27one out of 100,000 works. So, it's only
1:22:30later that we can say, 'Well, it was
1:22:31successful because of this or that.'
1:22:33Therefore, the only thing you can do is
1:22:35write the best story possible, because
1:22:37what you write today will perhaps be
1:22:39published two years from now. Two years
1:22:42from now, we don't know what the world
1:22:44will demand, what the world will be
1:22:45like, or what will be in fashion.
1:22:47Therefore, you have to be guided by
1:22:49intuition. I mean, I think this is the
1:22:52best I can write right now, release it
1:22:54to the universe, and the universe will
1:22:56tell you if it was for 100 readers or
1:22:58100,000. It's a surprise that life will
1:23:01give you.
1:23:02Those are these phenomena, right, that
1:23:03we could talk about. It is true that
1:23:05they have certain ingredients, for
1:23:06example, an original theme, right? At
1:23:08that moment, Ikigai, of course, in
1:23:09Japan, it was certainly known, but
1:23:11but there wasn't any book, even in
1:23:12Japan. Right, but they brought this
1:23:15term to the West; I mean, that thing
1:23:16about ikigai, the purpose of life, wow,
1:23:18they brought it, it was something
1:23:20original, right? Which precisely at
1:23:23that time was very interesting, right?
1:23:25Because many were searching, 'Hey,
1:23:27really, uh, how long has it been, how
1:23:28many years ago did it come out in
1:23:29Spanish first?'
1:23:31Well, when people started to ask, 'Hey,
1:23:33am I really doing what I came here to
1:23:34do, really that purpose and all,' it
1:23:35was a very interesting theme.
1:23:37Notice that they achieved the Kleenex
1:23:38effect.
1:23:39People say, "I've found my ikigai." Yes
1:23:41, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. They
1:23:43coined a term that, in the end, is on
1:23:46everyone's lips today. It's called, '
1:23:48Have you found your ikigai?' we talk
1:23:49about it so casually, right? Then
1:23:51notice how they knew how to do it
1:23:52because, besides touching on the
1:23:54subject of Ikigai, they also touched on
1:23:55the subject of longevity, right? With
1:23:57this one,
1:23:57but we’re never asked about that part
1:23:59of the book, huh? But anyway, just look
1:24:01at that, right? Well, certain details,
1:24:03right? Sure.
1:24:04And then this book had a launch with a
1:24:06€ 0 marketing investment everywhere.
1:24:09I mean, in Spain there wasn't any
1:24:11marketing campaign beyond the
1:24:13publisher's existing structure, but
1:24:16nothing was paid to have ads anywhere.
1:24:19And when it came out in the United
1:24:21States with Penguin, the investment was
1:24:22zero. In fact, they have never taken us
1:24:25there to give interviews or anything.
1:24:27But then the book starts to move. This
1:24:30is like the atomic bomb. You need a
1:24:32critical mass, you need 500
1:24:34enthusiastic readers. If you achieve
1:24:36that, it’s like the uranium club.
1:24:39From here on, the thing can blow up.
1:24:41Why? Because each of those 500 readers
1:24:43might give it as a gift to five or 10
1:24:45people. Then, the shockwave begins. Of
1:24:49course, they become 500 of your
1:24:50salespeople who go around with your
1:24:51book recommending it, giving it away.
1:24:53We already know that when something
1:24:55transforms you and catches your
1:24:56attention, you're dying to, right?
1:24:57Share it with the people you love,
1:24:58right?
1:24:59I’ve given that Julio Iglesias book
1:25:00we were talking about earlier to 10
1:25:02people. It’s not the book I’ve
1:25:03liked most in my life, it’s the book
1:25:04I’ve liked right now. There are books
1:25:07I’ve perhaps given to 50 people, so
1:25:09imagine if those 50 give it to another
1:25:1050, right?
1:25:12And this is the magical phenomenon that
1:25:14books have, which no one has really
1:25:15been able to break down, because if
1:25:17they had, all the publishers with the
1:25:19potential they have would be doing it
1:25:20constantly. But then, something that
1:25:23blew my mind and that we were talking
1:25:25about yesterday: a guy named Alex
1:25:27Hormozi, an expert marketer, comes out
1:25:29and gets a Guinness World Record that.
1:25:32In 24 hours he sells 3.2 million books
1:25:35and brings in 100 million dollars in a
1:25:37launch, breaking all the records that.
1:25:40The previous one had been Prince
1:25:42Harry’s, who sold 1.2 million in 24
1:25:44hours, but he has pulverized it, right?
1:25:47It’s outrageous what he has achieved.
1:25:48I have the exact data here. 2,917,443
1:25:55copies sold in Las Vegas, Nevada, on
1:25:57August 17th, 2025, and the Guinness
1:25:59World Records page specifies it. This
1:26:02record is for a one-day launch, I mean,
1:26:04this is
1:26:058 hours perhaps.
1:26:06Sure, because it’s in one calendar
1:26:07day, he says August 17th. That’s why,
1:26:10and plus in this case, this guy
1:26:12developed the whole strategy beforehand
1:26:14. He built the bestseller, and here we
1:26:17see those two schools of thought: the
1:26:20format of "it’s the idea that can
1:26:22make this expand even more," or the
1:26:24bestseller format. I’m more on
1:26:27Francesc’s side because I believe
1:26:29Ikigai will last longer than Alex
1:26:31Hormozi’s book. That’s an impact
1:26:34book, an impact...Yes, and the
1:26:36marketing campaign itself is like part
1:26:38of the content, and people find the way
1:26:40they sold it to them amusing, right?
1:26:43It’s part of the game. Of course,
1:26:44here if we were to study the launch,
1:26:46first of all, we aren't talking about
1:26:47someone unknown, we’re talking about
1:26:49Alex Hormozi, who has millions of
1:26:50social media followers, a marketing
1:26:52expert, right? And he does a launch for
1:26:54you where it’s not, it’s not the
1:26:56typical "I’m selling you my book"
1:26:57launch. No, no, no, I’m not selling
1:26:59to you. On top of that, he isn't
1:27:01selling you the book; he says you’re
1:27:02making a donation. I mean, you’re
1:27:04buying 200 books. So people understand,
1:27:07let's break it down: because the
1:27:09product he had was "I’ll sell you 200
1:27:10, I’ll gift you 200 books so you can
1:27:12give them to your community or whoever
1:27:14you want," but besides that, I give you
1:27:16access to these services and that’s
1:27:17worth $ 6,000. But he isn't telling you
1:27:20he’s selling to you, rather he’s
1:27:21telling you...hey, you’re making a
1:27:23donation to your community, to the
1:27:24people you care about, who you’ll be
1:27:25able to gift this book to. And I was
1:27:28watching people live buying that $
1:27:296,000 pack and they were buying it, I
1:27:31don’t know whether to do it, I
1:27:32don’t know about that, sure, people
1:27:33marketing it, right? Because later
1:27:36those are videos that went viral. I
1:27:38mean, you’re buying $ 6,000 worth of
1:27:40books, which also grants you access to
1:27:42his content and everything, which
1:27:44already has value. He tells you it has
1:27:46much more value than what you’re
1:27:47paying, but then you market it on your
1:27:49social media. Look, I’m buying the $
1:27:516,000 Alex Hormozi pack, which is why
1:27:53that kid’s video also went viral. I
1:27:56don’t know how many hundreds of
1:27:57thousands of views it had because
1:27:59people were watching how he bought it,
1:28:00but you see the screen, Francesc, where
1:28:01he does this with the card. At first,
1:28:04they don't give him authorization, he
1:28:05has to call the bank to get
1:28:06authorization for such a large payment.
1:28:09They approve it, he can buy it.
1:28:11And, uh, the Alex Hormozi sales funnel
1:28:13said, "Damn, congratulations on being
1:28:15part of this.""You'll have 200 books to
1:28:17give away, I don't know what else.""Do
1:28:18you want the premium package that costs
1:28:2118,500 to join my community?" I mean,
1:28:23look at how carefully thought out that
1:28:26whole sales letter was, right? I mean,
1:28:28there’s a story here in how this is
1:28:31sold. I can share a great anecdote that
1:28:34happened to me on my only trip to
1:28:36Israel. I was walking through Tel Aviv
1:28:39—I'm not the type to buy anything in
1:28:41clothing stores. I mean, I only go buy
1:28:45clothes when all my pants have holes in
1:28:47them and there’s no other choice.
1:28:49That day, I buy eight pairs of pants
1:28:51and forget about it. I never stop to
1:28:53buy clothes. So, walking down an avenue
1:28:55in Tel Aviv, I see a man come out of a
1:28:57shirt shop, and he starts calling me
1:28:59over and says, "Can I take a picture
1:29:00with you?""You're a famous actor." And
1:29:03I say, "You're, you're mistaken." I say
1:29:04, "I'm not an actor.""You're confusing
1:29:06me with someone else.""Don't be so
1:29:08modest.""I've seen you in several
1:29:11series, in a movie, please, come in.""
1:29:13It would make me so happy if we could
1:29:15take some photos and you wear one of my
1:29:16shirts." Well, I ended up buying two
1:29:19shirts. And I assume he said that to
1:29:22everyone. That right there...
1:29:23That is Alex Hormozi in real life. This
1:29:25guy...
1:29:27The shop, the shirt factory and store
1:29:29was called "Made in Hell," if he ever
1:29:31told me.
1:29:33So, well, a funny story you use to
1:29:36start selling can lead to a sale
1:29:38because you find it endearing or cool,
1:29:41or you think, if this guy is capable of
1:29:44coming up with such a masterful sale,
1:29:46surely there are good things in the
1:29:49book for me, right?
1:29:51I mean, the message already starts in
1:29:53the sale.
1:29:54Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Though we
1:29:56could later—I mean, of course, we
1:29:57don't have time to break all of this
1:29:58down now. A non-fiction book is not the
1:30:00same as a fiction book, a novel. It’s
1:30:02not the same for an author who’s only
1:30:03going to do one book, for example, like
1:30:05you, right? And you say: "Hey, I want
1:30:07to get the most out of this book, where
1:30:09perhaps the least valuable thing for
1:30:10you will be the sales of that book, but
1:30:12rather being able to have, perhaps,
1:30:13that person's lead, being able to
1:30:14continue selling them your courses,
1:30:16your training, having them go to your
1:30:17workshops, which are so wonderful,"
1:30:19right? How much in the end can you get
1:30:21out of that reader, right? On the other
1:30:23hand, a novelist, well, they will be
1:30:25able to get the royalty from that book
1:30:26and at most from the next one I write,
1:30:28if they recognize me and liked it,
1:30:29right? But on the other hand, you who
1:30:31are professionals can get much more out
1:30:33of it, like him. Alex Hormozi, I'm not
1:30:34giving you my training, but then when
1:30:36you swipe the card that you just gave
1:30:386,000 for, I'll put another 18,000
1:30:39ticket in front of you. Do you know
1:30:42that the kid said, "No, no, this one no
1:30:43, not here, not the next step on
1:30:44American Express." But look at that,
1:30:46right? I mean, what a way to sell,
1:30:48right? I was studying it and I am
1:30:50studying it because this was just a
1:30:52little while ago, but well, look, it's
1:30:53fantastic that a person can reach these
1:30:55milestones, right? That it seems
1:30:57that in the end he sells you the book
1:30:59as a product instead of a work of art.
1:31:01In some way it is something totally
1:31:03different, like an experience too. Look
1:31:05, Fernando, yesterday I was having
1:31:06dinner here with Jordi Segués, who you
1:31:08know well, a friend of both of us, who
1:31:10by the way, I can reveal is going to
1:31:12release a book that will be very cool.
1:31:13Yes, it's already confirmed.
1:31:14Yes, yes, yes, it's already confirmed.
1:31:16It's part of Emprenbooks.
1:31:18And he told me something that also
1:31:20taught me a lot. He says, "Look, I was
1:31:23with a copywriter, taking a course with
1:31:25a copywriter who he didn't give you any
1:31:27course, it wasn't an online course or
1:31:28anything, you bought the course and he
1:31:30sent it to you on paper." Okay, so you
1:31:33say: "In the end he was sending me a
1:31:35book, because it was a package like
1:31:37this, on top of that with spirals, I
1:31:39mean, it wasn't even bound, I mean,
1:31:41with spirals, and he was selling me a
1:31:42book because it was a book: page one,
1:31:44this, this, this, page two." I mean, he
1:31:47could have done that in a book
1:31:48perfectly, but the book would have cost
1:31:50me € 20 and he sold me the course for
1:31:52400. And when I told him, because I had
1:31:55the chance to speak with him, I said, "
1:31:56Hey, this is a book.""You're selling me
1:31:58a book, and spiral-bound and
1:31:59photocopied at that, and you're selling
1:32:01it for € 400 when it could be a book
1:32:03for € 20," and you say, "No, but this
1:32:05is a course.""Simply by calling it a
1:32:07course, the approach, uh, the human
1:32:09mind is willing to pay more money than
1:32:11for a book, where there's that mental
1:32:13limit of € 20 or even less, right?"
1:32:15Well, look at that, right? Things,
1:32:17right? How they change depending on how
1:32:18you approach them.
1:32:19It's impressive. In the end, we live in
1:32:22a world of stories, and look, what you
1:32:24just told is a story in itself that
1:32:25will help people realize how they can
1:32:27go about marketing that book.
1:32:30Yes, imagination in sales is everything
1:32:32. Let's remember that when Henry Ford
1:32:35started, he didn't have the capacity to
1:32:37produce cars in different colors; he
1:32:39only had the infrastructure to make one
1:32:42color. So, he popularized the phrase, "
1:32:45I will sell you the car in any color
1:32:46you want, as long as it's black." Well,
1:32:50I'm sure that phrase made a fortune,
1:32:51right? I'm convinced. It's a very good
1:32:53line for persuasion. Very good. Look,
1:32:57we have many topics we've talked about,
1:32:58and now comes one of my favorite parts
1:33:00of the show,
1:33:01and that is that this morning
1:33:03I had to go live with my community at 6
1:33:05in the morning.
1:33:06Wow.
1:33:08To ask them—and there's something I
1:33:10love doing—to share questions they
1:33:12have for you. This way, we give a voice
1:33:14to my community on topics that truly
1:33:16matter to the audience. So, let's open
1:33:18the debate. The goal of this section is
1:33:21for me to pose the questions, and the
1:33:22two of you discuss them.
1:33:24The first question is also very
1:33:26interesting because if we swap this
1:33:27term for public speaking, it would work
1:33:29. They ask, "How can I write an
1:33:31entertaining finance book based on
1:33:33stories?" That hybrid mix of fiction
1:33:35and non-fiction.
1:33:37Look, my advice: explain it as if you
1:33:39were teaching a kindergarten or
1:33:41elementary school class. If children
1:33:44understand it, it will reach everyone.
1:33:48So, look, with Héctor García,
1:33:49something we set as a goal when writing
1:33:51Ikigai could have been a very technical
1:33:53book, right? Because he knows a lot
1:33:56about Japan and I know a lot about
1:33:57popular psychology. We could have made
1:34:00a real snoozefest, but we said, "No,"
1:34:02he says, "this book has to appeal to
1:34:04the taxi driver and the hairdresser."
1:34:07If the taxi driver and the hairdresser
1:34:08don't get it, then it's not well done.
1:34:10You have to ground the language. Simple
1:34:13characters. How would you explain those
1:34:15economic concepts to a class of 12-
1:34:17year-old kids? If you can hook them,
1:34:20then you can reach everyone.
1:34:22Maybe Scrooge McDuck there
1:34:24while using a bit of humor. Look, the
1:34:27big money book right now, Housel’s
1:34:29The Psychology of Money, is made with
1:34:31one story after another, and it’s
1:34:33very entertaining, very funny, and has
1:34:35very short chapters. Well, look for the
1:34:38most digestible way, like Reader's
1:34:40Digest, for that to reach people, so
1:34:43that this topic, which can be very
1:34:45arduous, the topic of economics, ends
1:34:47up being something attractive, fun, and
1:34:50with stories to remember.
1:34:51The one I like the most in that regard
1:34:53is The Richest Man in Babylon by Clason
1:34:55, I think it's called, and I listen to
1:34:56it every year. I have it as an
1:34:58audiobook and every year.
1:34:59That book is like 100 years old.
1:35:01100 years.
1:35:02Yes, yes, yes, yes. It is very old. It
1:35:04is very old. From the 20s, 30s, of the
1:35:0620th century.
1:35:07A work of art. I love it.
1:35:08Yes. Well look, on that I can give you
1:35:11a Well, another story, get this, and
1:35:12Frances knows it well. Ferrán
1:35:15Martínez, the basketball player for
1:35:17Barça and La Peña and all, who was
1:35:18one of the best Spanish players. Few
1:35:21people know he is an expert investor,
1:35:24but from his earliest stage in
1:35:25basketball, even his teammates asked
1:35:28him to help them with the topic of
1:35:30investments. So, Frances introduced me
1:35:32to him one day because he wants to
1:35:34write a book about that, and we talked
1:35:36for like two hours, a chat with him and
1:35:38everything, right? And he had precisely
1:35:41the finance book that is the exact
1:35:42example you just asked me, or that the
1:35:44listener just asked, and he was asking
1:35:45me or asking us and seeking our advice
1:35:47on how he could write the book. Sure,
1:35:51there was a way to make a book like
1:35:52chapter one, the art of such and such,
1:35:54chapter two, what to do when so and so.
1:35:57And I told him, damn, Ferrán. I said,
1:35:59with the stories you have, people don't
1:36:01know that he had an investment fund
1:36:03where Messi was.
1:36:05People don't know that once with the
1:36:06king, with the King of Spain, there was
1:36:08an attack and the king took cover
1:36:10behind him.
1:36:11People don't know that And I say
1:36:13Ferrán or
1:36:15that he was a guy
1:36:15who took care of himself.
1:36:16Besides, he was a basketball player for
1:36:18the national team, at Barça, but also
1:36:20in Greece, where the arenas are
1:36:22terrible. And he told me that his
1:36:25stress resistance is such, I mean,
1:36:27he’s so immune to anxiety that,
1:36:29whether he was playing (I don’t know
1:36:31if he played for Panathinaikos visiting
1:36:33Olympiacos’s arena), he did what no
1:36:36other player did, which was to go out
1:36:3815 minutes early with all the rival
1:36:40fans shouting there, just to practice
1:36:42shots. He says 2 € coins were raining
1:36:46down on his head, and he was just a
1:36:48legend. Now tell me, Fernando, how
1:36:52would a finance book engage you better:
1:36:54by giving you examples like him being
1:36:55in an investment group with Messi, or
1:36:57by telling you these anecdotes, or by
1:36:59giving you chapter one, the art of
1:37:01finance, and so on for chapter two?
1:37:04Without a doubt. And now, to build, for
1:37:06example, Ferranes.
1:37:07Ferrán Martínez.
1:37:07Ferrán Martínez. In Ferrán's case,
1:37:09we are talking about a character you've
1:37:10sold to me as extraordinary. Yes, it's
1:37:12just that he’s sold as someone who
1:37:14takes care of himself. I would tell you
1:37:16that the goal of a book like Ferrán's
1:37:18is for everyone to understand from the
1:37:20first paragraph that AI could never
1:37:22have written it. While a textbook might
1:37:26be something where someone pushed a
1:37:28button and prompted the topics, AI
1:37:29won't give you the story about the
1:37:31coins on his head.
1:37:33Right. And the beauty of it is also
1:37:34what he talks about, isn't it? That
1:37:37people don't know that most athletes
1:37:38lose all their capital due to a lack of
1:37:40financial information and financial
1:37:42education, which we all lack, but
1:37:43athletes much more so. Almost all of
1:37:47them lose their wealth in less than 3
1:37:48years, and not many people know that;
1:37:50they go broke 3 years after, sorry,
1:37:52after retiring, right? So, of course,
1:37:55he wants to teach what these finances
1:37:57are like, and he has a wonderful story.
1:38:00And how he could be his own hero's
1:38:01journey. We were discussing that phase
1:38:04of being mediocre, an ordinary failure,
1:38:06because he isn't ordinary,
1:38:07right? But he started in a very
1:38:10ordinary way, I mean, he didn't succeed
1:38:12at first, but he was a person obsessed
1:38:14with excellence; and I don't remember
1:38:16now, because he is a good friend, but I
1:38:18think he spent about a year dribbling a
1:38:20ball in his room for 10 or 12 hours a
1:38:22day because he was obsessive about
1:38:24detail, right? He tells those stories
1:38:27too, and it wasn't easy at all for him
1:38:29to get where he is. The thing is, we
1:38:31often make the mistake of just looking
1:38:33at the result. This Orma, what's his
1:38:37name? I'm sure the beginning wasn't
1:38:40easy, right? Let's not assume this man
1:38:43launched his first product and it was a
1:38:44hit; there was a lot of trial and error
1:38:46. So, seeing all the failures through
1:38:48trial and error in a book is very
1:38:50interesting. In the book we were
1:38:52talking about earlier, Elon Musk, how
1:38:54many of his businesses failed? For
1:38:58example, I've also studied Richard
1:39:00Branson quite a bit, several of his
1:39:02books, and he says his secret is having
1:39:04tried so many businesses that even if
1:39:0799%were disasters, there's always 1%
1:39:09that saves him, right?
1:39:13And he says his philosophy for life and
1:39:14business is "screw it, let's do it" and
1:39:16we'll see if it works later.
1:39:19His biography kept me up all night, "
1:39:21Losing My Virginity,"
1:39:23Losing My Virginity. "Losing My
1:39:25Virginity" at 18, it was my first
1:39:28e-book. Do you remember?
1:39:29I got a cramp from clicking the little
1:39:31Kindle button like this.
1:39:32Do you remember how it starts with that
1:39:34hot air balloon trip where he almost
1:39:36crashed and all that? He could have
1:39:38started with his childhood, et cetera,
1:39:40et cetera, right? You see how he
1:39:42shifted it, see the magic, right? Of
1:39:44that narrative, right?
1:39:46And it had you hooked right there,
1:39:47didn't it? Uh, do you see Andre
1:39:49Agassi's biography,
1:39:50which I recommend to everyone if they
1:39:52want to see it? Although, for me, there
1:39:53was a point where it had a few too many
1:39:55pages, but it also starts with his
1:39:56childhood and how his father was a Nazi
1:39:58.
1:39:59I mean, he hated tennis. People don't
1:40:01know it, but he hated tennis. And what
1:40:04people don't know, because you can do
1:40:05things like that, but there are details
1:40:07you'll never forget in your life. I
1:40:09don't know if, damn, I'm going to drop
1:40:10a spoiler here, but well, I think it's
1:40:11allowed.
1:40:13I don't know if you know he was a sex
1:40:15symbol, playing, he was the first one
1:40:17who, instead of wearing the typical
1:40:18classic gear, played in ripped jeans
1:40:20and shirts like that. He was a sex
1:40:23symbol with his long hair and
1:40:24everything, right?
1:40:25Playing in jeans.
1:40:26Yes, yes, yes. And he was with Nike,
1:40:28right? And he had long, blonde hair and
1:40:30everything. Well, I don't know if you
1:40:32know that he played for over a year
1:40:34with a wig because he started losing
1:40:36his hair, and he played for a year and
1:40:37some with a wig, and his biggest
1:40:39obsession, which is why he didn't win,
1:40:41was that during a turn or something,
1:40:42the wig would fall off, would slip, and
1:40:44...that obsessed him. I mean, that
1:40:47story
1:40:47is good.
1:40:48How could you not tell that story? I
1:40:50think it's the best, the best one in
1:40:52the book, right? Well, look, there are
1:40:54also details you sort of overlook, and
1:40:56those are the wonderful ones. From the
1:40:59whole story, I only remember that his
1:41:01father was a Nazi and that he hated
1:41:03tennis, that he played because he
1:41:05played very well and because he made
1:41:07money, but he hated it, and that detail
1:41:10about the wig. Now, ask me about more
1:41:12things that happened, what he won, huh?
1:41:14How many tournaments did he win? How? I
1:41:16don't remember any of it. It connects
1:41:17us to the storm.
1:41:18Of course, we want to get to the storm.
1:41:20And that detail, like we were saying,
1:41:22you remember the emotional and the
1:41:23slightly ironic part, that detail is a
1:41:25bit ironic,
1:41:26yes? Because it's negative and it's
1:41:28funny.
1:41:28Sure, sure, imagine the guy going for a
1:41:31slightly forced ball and the wig...it
1:41:33would have been a global impact, you
1:41:36know?
1:41:37The meme of the year.
1:41:37Totally.
1:41:39To the chair umpire with the wig here.
1:41:41He wouldn't know whether to call "in"
1:41:43or "deuce," I mean, he wouldn't know.
1:41:44That's why. Well, look, I will never
1:41:47forget that ironic touch, and I've told
1:41:48it on several podcasts, the thing about
1:41:50, wow, a number one player in his sport
1:41:52who hates that sport, right? Damn, well
1:41:55look, those contrasts are important.
1:41:57Spectacular. Wow. Let's go with the
1:41:59second question from the community.
1:42:02What has been your biggest challenge,
1:42:03or your biggest challenge that you
1:42:05faced while writing any of the books,
1:42:06and how did you manage to overcome it?
1:42:09I have it very clear. The first
1:42:11biography I wrote, that of Fernando
1:42:13Belasteguín, I remember I was a
1:42:15kamikaze, I was introduced to him.
1:42:17Fernando Belasteguín is the number one
1:42:19in padel, for those who like padel, and
1:42:21he has managed to be number one in a
1:42:23sport for 16 years, which very few
1:42:25athletes have achieved, right? And I
1:42:27was fascinated by what kind of mind it
1:42:29would take—not just in terms of
1:42:30quality of play, but what kind of mind
1:42:32to be competing year after year,
1:42:33winning, winning, winning, and wanting
1:42:35to win even more, right? And I was
1:42:37introduced to him once in Barcelona,
1:42:39and shortly after, I told him, "I want
1:42:41to write your story." Thinking he would
1:42:43tell me no. And he told me yes, that I
1:42:45should write it, even though he knew a
1:42:47ton of journalists who could have
1:42:48written it, perhaps even much better
1:42:50than me. And he said yes to me. And
1:42:52when I started writing that biography,
1:42:54I was filled with every fear in the
1:42:57world. First, because he was a number
1:42:59one in his sport and I wasn't a number
1:43:02one in mine, which was writing that
1:43:03book. Second, because right when I
1:43:05started the book, just look at the
1:43:07things that happened to me, huh? He
1:43:09says to me, "Valen, every chapter you
1:43:11write, pass it to me because sports
1:43:13journalist Cristina Cubero, who is a
1:43:15close friend of mine, is going to
1:43:17review it and see if it's of sufficient
1:43:19quality."
1:43:20Oh, so he really put the pressure on
1:43:21you.
1:43:22Just imagine, shortly after that, he
1:43:23calls me and says, "Hey Valen, we're in
1:43:25luck because Andrés Iniesta is going
1:43:27to write the prologue for the book."
1:43:29And I say, "Wow, how great, how nice,"
1:43:30and so on. But he says, "Yeah, but his
1:43:32team wants to review every chapter
1:43:34because they want to see that nothing
1:43:35of what...nothing of what you say
1:43:37interferes with Andrés's image or the
1:43:39philosophy he respects, or his brands
1:43:41and all that, so that I don't know what
1:43:43, I don't know how." I mean, I was
1:43:45writing under pressure that you just
1:43:47can't even imagine.
1:43:49100 people watching you write, one...
1:43:51I mean, it was that thing of writing
1:43:52like that, saying everything that, eh,
1:43:54and I developed an incredible impostor
1:43:56syndrome. The thing is, look at what we
1:43:58were saying, right? That yesterday I
1:44:01think you mentioned it in the other
1:44:02interview: going for the toughest thing
1:44:04first, and then everything seems much
1:44:05easier, because after that biography,
1:44:07you can bring me whatever biography you
1:44:08want now, and I assure you it might be
1:44:10tough, but we'll get it done. And
1:44:13besides, it took us almost a year and a
1:44:15half to make the book because he had a
1:44:16ton of commitments; he was competing
1:44:18all year and we practically couldn't
1:44:19get together. So, uh, we couldn't find
1:44:23a way to get it out, and I had a
1:44:24torment in my head because I couldn't
1:44:26move forward, and on top of that, with
1:44:28brutal pressure for a year and a half,
1:44:30right? But hey, look, later we launched
1:44:33it, and it was a resounding success; I
1:44:35mean, it was one of my best-selling
1:44:37books, and the reception was very
1:44:38beautiful, because a lot of Barça
1:44:40players and a lot of people came to the
1:44:42presentation—very well-known people.
1:44:44It has gone around the world; even
1:44:46Maradona's son was given the book. I
1:44:47have wonderful photos and it was an
1:44:49incredible experience, right? And he is
1:44:51a wonderful person, isn't he? But
1:44:53if you ask me about my first challenge,
1:44:55and the challenge
1:44:57by far, that first, that first
1:44:59biography.
1:45:00What pressure. your case, Francesc.
1:45:02Yes, my challenge has never been
1:45:04writing, because writing has been a
1:45:05skill for me since I was a child; even
1:45:07though I was a bad student, I was good
1:45:09at writing. The problem I had because
1:45:12of my shyness was defending the books.
1:45:15And the great, the great trial by fire
1:45:17in that hero's journey we were talking
1:45:19about earlier was when Ikigai became
1:45:21very famous in English, uh, it came out
1:45:23as Oprah Winfrey's book of the week.
1:45:26Marie Kondo wrote an article about it
1:45:28on her blog. Then the book reached
1:45:30India and in India, it became number
1:45:31one for two years. Uh, of all books,
1:45:34yes, fiction and non-fiction, of all
1:45:37the books in India, it was the
1:45:38best-selling to the point
1:45:41that you would go through India, any
1:45:43city, and children would sell you
1:45:45pirate copies of Ikigai at the traffic
1:45:47lights with our names misspelled, and I
1:45:49have five or six different ones, right?
1:45:53Well, the thing is that a moment of
1:45:54great commitment comes, and that is
1:45:56that Penguin calls me and says, "Look,
1:45:58in India they want you to go on a book
1:45:59tour, you're going to give talks in
1:46:01theaters." with 1,000 to 2,000 people
1:46:04who are waiting to hear you, right? I
1:46:08was super shy, I had never given
1:46:09lectures in my life; I had gone to
1:46:11schools, I had done workshops, but
1:46:13small-format things, I had never been
1:46:15on a stage in front of 2,000 people,
1:46:16and even less in English. So I thought,
1:46:21my legs are going to tremble, I'm going
1:46:23to faint in front of the audience; I
1:46:24would have needed a Fernando Miralles
1:46:26to train me. So what I did was I
1:46:29consulted my therapist, Xavier Guis,
1:46:31and said, "Hey, they're telling me this
1:46:34about India, and I'm about to tell them
1:46:36no." And he gave me a phrase that
1:46:39opened every door. He told me, "Look,
1:46:42if they're asking you, it's because you
1:46:44can do it. If you couldn't do it, they
1:46:45wouldn't ask you." I thought, well,
1:46:47bulletproof logic, so let's head over
1:46:50there and come what may. And in the end
1:46:53it went very well and all, but it was a
1:46:55moment of realizing, you have to defend
1:46:57the book in a place with a very
1:46:58different culture, with crowds that
1:47:00don't match your personality, you have
1:47:02to embody a different character than
1:47:04who you've been from now on, right? So
1:47:08I think that was a very important step
1:47:10because as Valen says, later coming
1:47:12back from India, any conference they
1:47:14asked for in Spanish was a piece of
1:47:15cake.
1:47:17You had to do them in English.
1:47:20In English with so much pressure
1:47:22because then you'd start signing books.
1:47:26There were hundreds of people who
1:47:28wanted you to take photos, to sign
1:47:29their book, to take a photo with the
1:47:31father, the mother, the child, with the
1:47:33baby on top and in the end they would
1:47:35say, "And your telephone number, sir."
1:47:39Ah, well maybe the one who wrote to you
1:47:41on Instagram was one of those Indians
1:47:42from the phones. So there was a lot of
1:47:45stress there, but I survived the India
1:47:47tour and from then on, well, whatever
1:47:49they asked me for I thought, "Well,
1:47:51this is nothing compared to India,
1:47:53let's do it." And and delighted.
1:47:55You also started with the hard stuff
1:47:57first.
1:47:57I started with the hard stuff. I
1:47:58started with the hard stuff. Yes,
1:48:00we got out. And also the organizers of
1:48:02that tour, someone here deceived me
1:48:05because I went for free to do all of
1:48:07this. Then I find out that in one of
1:48:10those theaters, I've never told this,
1:48:12where there were 1,000 people, people
1:48:14had paid € 50 per ticket, which in
1:48:16India is a lot of money. It's a lot of
1:48:19money because the Ikigai book in India
1:48:22costs € 5, so they had paid € 50 to
1:48:25listen to me, and I wasn't paid
1:48:27anything to do that, right? So, I find
1:48:30myself on a stage in front of 1,000
1:48:32people who are expecting that what they
1:48:33paid for is worth it. Well, imagine the
1:48:36pressure that was.
1:48:38I think that's one of the greatest
1:48:39pressures, going out on stage and
1:48:41justifying with your words the amount
1:48:43they've paid.
1:48:43Exactly. That's why I don't usually
1:48:45like going to forums where they pay an
1:48:48entrance fee. I prefer it when they are
1:48:51conferences where people are already
1:48:53funded by their companies or whatever,
1:48:56and therefore, everything you give them
1:48:58is a gift to them. It is, it is a lot
1:49:00of pressure. Today we have had an
1:49:02exciting program. You have taken me on
1:49:05a rollercoaster from start to finish,
1:49:07enjoying every moment. People must have
1:49:09seen it. I was jumping out of my seat
1:49:11because we have provided a lot of value
1:49:13. We have talked about stories, we have
1:49:16talked about how to build characters,
1:49:18we have talked about how to introduce
1:49:19drama, and above all, we have something
1:49:21pending, which is the call to God's
1:49:23phone.
1:49:24Of course.
1:49:25They will be able to find it in the
1:49:26description. You also have a new
1:49:29imprint that is coming out soon. Tell
1:49:31us, to wrap up, anything you want to
1:49:33communicate.
1:49:34Well, no, we have three imprints, right
1:49:36? The new one is this Ikibooks, right?
1:49:38Which is also very dear because of the
1:49:41Ikigai topic, right? And
1:49:42it's even in "Ibu" already.
1:49:45In Japanese, it means life. They are
1:49:47books of life. Books for life. Books
1:49:50for life. And it's a little kitten.
1:49:52And it's a kitten like Pollito, the cat
1:49:54I have, uh, because I love how magical
1:49:56they are. And above all, it was also a
1:49:59nod and a thank you to Francesc
1:50:01Miralles, right? Because well, we were
1:50:03there in Japan on a wonderful trip,
1:50:05wonderful because of being with him,
1:50:07truthfully. The, the environment was
1:50:09the same, right? And from there was
1:50:11born, well look, this wonderful book
1:50:13and others like the one by Albañil
1:50:14Abuda that he also mentioned. And
1:50:17that's why, when we were registering
1:50:19the name—because it's one of the
1:50:21hardest things in the world, since
1:50:22everything is registered—we finally
1:50:24got this hybrid of Ikibooks, but also
1:50:26in gratitude and in honor of that
1:50:28Ikigai, right? And to that Francesc
1:50:30Miralles who has helped this imprint so
1:50:32much and who we are delighted to be
1:50:33releasing this book with. What a
1:50:35beautiful project.
1:50:36Well, thank you very much, Fernando,
1:50:38for leading this conversation where I
1:50:40think we are all taking away many
1:50:42things ourselves, too.
1:50:43Yes, yes, yes.
1:50:44That is the most important thing,
1:50:45always being in a conversation where
1:50:47you are nurtured. And to those of you
1:50:49listening, watching from home, in the
1:50:51car, on the way to the office: let's
1:50:52not forget that people will forget what
1:50:54you say, but not how you make them feel
1:50:56; that if you go to a meeting with
1:50:58someone, the most important thing is
1:50:59the emotion that remains, the story you
1:51:01have told. Remember that Valen's
1:51:04father's story changed my life, and you
1:51:06never know the story you might tell, or
1:51:08the lives you might change. See you
1:51:11next Tuesday.

About this transcript

This page contains the full transcript of Expertos en Storytelling: 7 Trucos Narrativos para contar Historias y escribir Libros by Fernando Miralles, generated from the public captions YouTube serves with the video. The transcript has 22,482 words across 3,347 segments, with the original timestamps preserved so you can click any line to jump to that moment in the embedded player.

What you can do with it

Use the transcript to take notes, quote the speaker, build a study guide, generate a summary with ChatGPT or Claude via the YouTube Summary tool, or export it as a timed subtitle file with YouTube to SRT. You can also re-open it in the transcriber to translate the transcript into 100+ languages.

Free YouTube transcript tool

YouTube2Text is a free YouTube transcript generator — no signup, no daily limit. Paste any YouTube link and get the full transcript instantly, with timestamps, click-to-jump, translation to 100+ languages, AI prompts for ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, and exports to TXT, SRT, VTT, or Markdown.