Brock Johnson is a 21-year old millennial and brilliant young man who we can learn so much from. I wanted to talk to Brock about a lot of things: how he juggles his time being a student and quarterback football player, how he grew his business while doing both, and importantly, how he successfully uses Stories in building brands. Brock has worked with a lot of people in building their business and personal brands, and his most popular strategy is using short-form storytelling. It would be interesting to hear it straight up from Brock himself, so I made sure to ask those questions for you. Check out the interview down below or continue reading on to learn more!
The Passion For Telling A Good Story
I’ve had the chance to catch up with Brock during the Marketing Impact Academy and I’m just amazed at how far this guy has gone. He is a busy professional athlete and had just started his over own online business, and he is so successful at both. He’s also a passionate public speaker, so I’ve always wondered if he’s been doing this for a long while now.
Brock says “I’m not sure it’s something I’ve always known I wanted to do, but it’s definitely something that I’ve always been comfortable doing.”
Brock goes on to say that his role as Quarterback has a lot to do with his confidence in speaking before a lot of people. “I’ve kind of always been in that role you know a little bit of an authoritarian, just a leader really. Someone who is able to speak in front of crowds and has to speak in front of crowds, and then having the mom that I do, I’ve been kind of around this backstage environment.”
For those who don’t know, Brock’s mom, Chalene Johnson, is a renowned public speaker, podcaster, New York Times Bestseller and a lifestyle expert. Brock co-hosts with Chalene on the podcast show called “Build Your Tribe”.
He continues “I remember walking in fashion shows for her when I was younger, like modeling some kids’ clothing and then doing onstage dance-offs with some of her friends. So, I have kind of always enjoyed that and never really had the fear of public speaking, but also really never much of an interest in it. That was until I started to realize how many people I could serve and how I could really share my message much more broadly from a stage.”
Connecting With People Through Stories
Brock is a serial storyteller. He likes to share short-form stories, or Instagram stories, to connect with his audience and quite surprisingly, his interests in storytelling were piqued by his love for stand-up comedy.
He tells us “I think honestly, I could talk about like Snapchat and how those stories really got me and storytelling became something I was passionate about from stand-up comedy. I don’t think I’ve really ever told that before, or shared that before but it was really Netflix stand-up comedy. I was watching those and realizing it wasn’t joke-telling as much as it was storytelling.”
From there, Brock researched deeper on storytelling and found that stories affect us at a neurological level. “We’re hard-wired to tell stories and to consume stories. I also think they are really easy to tell. I always put stats and research into my onstage presentation and I try to remember it the best that I can but I never do. I always have these great stats that I wanted to share and then they just leave my mind, but the stories never do. The stories are easy to tell, remember, and easy to regurgitate. Storytelling comes naturally to humans. Statics reporting isn’t so easy.”
Brock believes, and I deeply agree, that stories are easier to tell because they have emotions. Stories make us feel something.
“I remember when you were doing training for my team and clients as well. I forget what the stat was but how much you remember stuff.” If you didn’t know, you are 22 times more likely to remember things as a story.
Brock On The Importance Of Prioritization
Some people overlook or pass up on storytelling because they say they don’t have a lot of time or energy. However, I look at Brock and I see a college student playing divisional football, and here he is telling us stories.
He says it all boils down to prioritization and explains his perspective by saying “when I got to college, my priorities had been to try to be financially independent so that I can support myself and provide for my friends. It’s also about finding the right balance. I wanted to provide for myself in a way that a lot of my teammates couldn’t and so that was my priority. I didn’t place a priority on socializing or going to parties. I had to cut out some of the things that are fun, some of the things that might make up the normal college experience. Because I had these goals I had to find balance too. So, I couldn’t be all football and all business, and then no free time. So, I think it has a lot to do with balance, and a lot to do with priorities that I knew was important to me. I had those goals of financial independence and starting a business and so it really just came down to making sure my time was aligned with my priorities.”
As of this moment, Brock is in the season for little sacrifices so he can make time for his bigger dreams. He’s sacrificing this now to earn it back later and better.
If you’re looking to connect with Brock and learn more about his business, or need some coaching or just want to get inspired by all the things that he does, you can find him on Instagram: brock11johnson and on Youtube: Brock11Johnson.TV.
Brock’s mission is to help others build their brands and connections through storytelling, and he’s doing an awesome job at it. So, if you need some wise counsel on storytelling, and how to use it in unlocking your brand’s potentials, he is the guy to go to.