Episode 116: The Power of Storytelling

Mike O'Neill: Welcome back to the Get Unstuck and On-Target podcast. I'm Mike O'Neill with Bench Builders and with leadership coaching and supervisory training, we help companies solve the people problems. They're hurting their profit and slowing their growth. Joining me today from Pittsburgh is Dominick Domasky.

Dominick is an author, storyteller, and founder of the inspiration sharing and Publishing platform, Motivation Champs. My friends Chris Michelle and Harry Spate work closely with Dominick as their publisher, and he is getting very, very high praises from both of them. And just based on those conversations I wanted to have you on as a guest welcome Dominick.

Dominick Domasky: Wow. Thank you so much. And you have the best voice for radio and podcasting.

Mike O'Neill: Well, thank you. I'm told I have the face for radio, but here we are recording this in a video format as well. Dominick, when you and I talked prior to us setting the date to record this, I kinda found myself a little bit overwhelmed by all the possible things that we could talk about.

You're a fascinating guy and I believe that you could speak on a variety of topics, but the one that really resonated with me is that, is the, the notion of storytelling. We've been reading about the power of storytelling and the like, but you not only are a storyteller because you too are an author, you help others find their voice to tell their story.

And because our audience is comprised primarily of leaders, who need to tell their story or their organization's story. That's what I'd like to spend some time chatting about today.

Dominick Domasky: Yeah, that, that sounds great. And it's interesting when you, you put it like that, because when I say storyteller, somebody might look at that and say, oh, that's corny, that's cheesy.

What is this guy doing? What's he telling? Bedtime stories or something like that. And then the way you put it right there, We are all storytellers in every facet of our lives. We have to tell a good story for our brand, for our business, for ourselves. We have to have a good story and have to be able to articulate that.

And that's where this conversation and me and you I guess we're gonna go.

Mike O'Neill: I have had the good fortune to come in contact with folks. I mentioned Chris Michelle and I mentioned Harry Spate and I found myself a little bit humbled because both of them had a story to tell, but they needed help to get that story out.

These are friends of mine who turned to you and I didn't make the connection until right before we got on our first call that you are the common thread between the two. Both of them have published books. Both of them are using that book to kinda help spread the word of who they are and to build community.

How have you found writing a book? Because I know other people who say, I would like to write a book. How have you found publishing? How has that changed in the last five to 10 years?

Dominick Domasky: Okay. Interesting. And Harry and Chris are fabulous. And those gentlemen, I'm honored to have worked with them.

We all have a story and they had such a, they had such great stories inside of them and I just helped them organize it and find those stories and remember them and bring them to the forefront and. Give us the detail that maybe you did this, but tell me, were you afraid? Were you scared? Were, how did you feel?

Those feelings like me and you feel like the nerves, like before I came on your podcast today, those kind of feelings that we have, those are the feelings that we each have. And so they were able to bring those to the forefront and then connect with more people because they didn't just go high level.

They went into the actual motion of the emotion of sales, the emotions of 365 day devotional. So when you ask how publishing has changed, I'm not gonna ditch the question. When you ask how publishing has changed, it's become more accessible to everybody. Amazon, when they came on the market, Amazon figured out that they could either sell CDs or books.

That's, that's how it started. They figured out, what was the easiest way, the most efficient way to sell things online. It was CDs or books, and they thought, well, books are a little bit better. Then as a business. It's so obvious that they decided right from the start, well, let's create a thing where we could get more books.

And the more books was, they basically are the founders of self-publishing of this idea where you don't just have to go to Simon & Schuster to write a book. Simon & Schuster, brilliant, beautiful, great, great books. I have a lot right there and, but there's a lot of stories that those people weren't finding that they didn't have time to find.

There was a lot of experts out there that had stories as well. A lot of niches. Those other guys that those big guys weren't in because they weren't writing thrillers. That doesn't mean that there wasn't a great business book. There wasn't, because fishing wasn't a huge market, doesn't mean there couldn't be great books on fishing.

A, a niche market that could, you could have a successful book. So now there's more online publishers, there's more availability to be able to write books. With that being said, I will quickly say there are more bad books too. There are more books that maybe needed a little more love, and that's where I come in and try to make sure that that book that you put the time in, that you put the love in, that you are proud of it, that like you mentioned, a lot of people wanna write a book.

 Well, why? And let's find out why. Why, what's the reason you wanted to write that book? And then from there, okay, well now that we know the reason, let's make sure this book represents the reason you wanted to write it. And it wasn't just cross something off the bucket list. And then you get it and you're like, well, this is just a piece of paper with words on it.

It doesn't have meaning. We wanna make sure that there's meaning behind really every word in that book. And I would think that. If we went back to Harry or Chris, that that's the thing. Every line, every line needs to mean something. There's no throwaway lines. It all matters.

Mike O'Neill: We started this by talking about the publishing business and for those folks listening who say, you know what, I really don't have any aspirations to write a book, but if I did, I know that I should turn to Dominick, but I know that I have to be able to tell my story.

And you said something a moment ago that kind of caught my attention. When I think of writing a book, I think of that being more of a head process. Get out of my head onto paper. And you said something about the feeling side. What feelings does that evoke? How important are feelings when you're writing? If you're a storyteller, if you are a leader who needs a bell to tell your story.

If you're a leader, to be able tell your organizational story, how important is feeling to telling that story?

Dominick Domasky: What a question, and I really think it's everything. It is it. If you're a coach and you're trying to, like, I played college basketball, low level college basketball, when the coach is talking, how does the team respond to what he's saying?

He has to be able to connect with them. He has to be able to let me know the guy who was the 12th man and got in once in a while. How do I talk to each of them in a way that it brings something out in the best player and that player. How do I, when I'm in with my sales team, how do I say something that doesn't offend the, I want the last guy on the ranking report to do good, and I want the top person to do good, but when I'm in front of all them, it's the greater good.

How do we, so there's so many ways I need to get into their head and figure out, because really, one, somebody told me one time, no matter what I'm saying, or what you're saying, whoever we're talking to is interpreting it through their own life. And so we have to think about that wall. How would they, how, if they're struggling, how would they feel?

So sometimes, like I have, I'm working with somebody right now that. Basically, it's a story of, they were a story of acceptance and never, they never felt like they belonged. And every one of us. So now I figured this out. So every one of us has felt like we don't belong on a daily basis.

I really would think every person feels that in their story. It was actually about a woman who came out and she had been in the convent and things like that. And she struggled with this the whole, her whole life. But really, so if she was just talking about that one, that single idea of coming out, well, maybe we can't all identify that we can support and things like that, but maybe we don't necessarily understand the depth of that.

But when she talks about not fitting in, not feeling like you didn't belong. We can all feel it. And that's the difference there of being able to share that story so that, Yeah, I get it. And then we can see it through her journey.

Mike O'Neill: We were talking a moment ago about telling your story. I'll speak for myself. I know that my writing style is very corporate. I spent 20 plus years in a corporate setting, and so it's very succinct. It's very fact driven. But I also know that from a social media standpoint, let's use kind of a platform that like LinkedIn.

LinkedIn is, kinda builds itself as more a kind of a business social platform. And I'm finding that what I need to be doing more of is show more of me. Beyond just what's in my head, but the personal side.

Dominick Domasky: Yeah.

Mike O'Neill: To show a little bit of vulnerability. When you are working with folks, maybe even outside of publishing a book, cause I know you do a variety of things, how do you help people kinda tap into who they are and the best way to express that.

Dominick Domasky: One, I'm a believer in all these platforms like LinkedIn, TikTok, publishing a book, podcasting, people consume content a myriad of ways like this. So either you are there or you're not. So if I'm coming for, if I'm coming and I need motivational content, or I need to learn about fishing, or I want to learn about golf.

If you do one of those things and you're not on one of those platforms, well then millions, potentially billions of people don't see your message. And so that's where like somebody would say, well, I'm not going on TikTok cause I don't want to dance. Okay, stop. I'm saying go on and be Mike O'Neill.

Go on and be Dominick Domasky. Do what you do there, whether that's on LinkedIn or wherever. Now of course, LinkedIn is skewed, they, for business, meaning they don't wanna see tons of pictures or memes of silly stuff, cause that's not the market. The market on that platform is businessmen, job seekers, men and women out in the corporate world, that kind of thing.

So how does your message tailor to that? So, one, I wanna tailor my message per platform, but I am always driven by why are you doing this? Why, where are you trying to go? What is the mission? So if I wanna share, for me, I wanna share inspiration, positivity, and smiles. I wanna live in a world and create a world where negativity no longer exists, where people don't share negative content.

Well, people don't even watch it. They don't even know what that is anymore. So any day that I share inspiration, positivity, smiles. Help other people do the same. So that's publishing in books, videos, anything like that where we're sharing that kind of content. Content that lifts you up, content that helps you become better at something.

Content that makes you open the door for somebody when you see 'em at the grocery store. That kind of content is on mission. So whether I, however I do that on those platforms, I'm on mission, I'm on brand, and so that's what would, for, like I was listening to one of your podcasts and she was great.

She was the dentist who had, the great podcast. And she was saying that basically she has three concepts that she wants people to get behind. These are the three things you can talk about. So sometimes you'll see there's, people will say that you should have silos or things like that, but this basic idea that, okay, let's say you wanna talk about fatherhood, business and fine wine or, okay, well these are the three things that I talk about.

So with me, inspiration, positivity, smiles is on, so being on mission, so that's why when it's all on mission and I would challenge anybody to, anything that I've posted in the last, really this, other than when I get mad at maybe the pit basketball coach, but I would really challenge him to look and say, is anything that he's ever put out off mission?

And then when you're posting, not when somebody's posting, if you're posting politics, but you're not in politics, if you're posting divisive content, if you're posting pictures of your legs, well that's fine, unless you're not in the business of that, so, I think it's understanding your place on the message you're trying to share and staying on brand.

Mike O'Neill: You mentioned the dentist. Her name is Angela Mulrooney. Dr. Mulrooney was a practicing dentist, had a very thriving practice, and then all of a sudden she couldn't do dental work due to a physical matter, and her whole world kind of collapsed, and she had to make a decision, what am I going to do? And so in our conversation, I learned a lot.

I think I was inspired.

She, she kinda, you mentioned inspiration, positivity, and smiles. She kinda embodied all three.

Dominick Domasky: Yeah.

Mike O'Neill: I keep coming back to Chris and Harry, friends of mine who have also been podcast guests. The thing that I enjoy most about these podcasts is the quality people that I get a chance to spend time with, such as you, I can learn from you.

Our listeners can learn from you. Tell us a little bit about Dominick's story. How did you come into where you are currently?

Dominick Domasky: It's, I like to say I have a master's degree in failure.

Mike O'Neill: Huh.

Dominick Domasky: So, and so I don't, I never, in this word failure, like some people are like, there is no failure if you try, however you wanna interpret that word.

I took those losses, failures, setbacks, and learned from them. I was a restaurateur and lost half a million dollars in my early twenties. Here, I chased this dream that I was always gonna be a restaurateur and lost a half a million dollars, lost a house, lost a car, was on government repayment plans. That was part of my journey.

Then I like, so did I set out to lose a half a million dollars? No, but you take that and learn from it is what I did. So now 20 years later, I can look back at that time and say, well, I could have been better financed. I could have done this, I could have done that shortly after. And even to get through the restaurant business.

I had started, my dad gave me a book, Og Mandino, The World's Greatest Salesman, when I was 13 years old and got cut from a basketball team. And the lesson in Og Mandino is basically, , persist, persist, persist. I will never give up. And there's scrolls in this book, and the scrolls are like, I will take action.

I will greet each day with love in my heart. And if you follow these 10 days, these 10 scrolls, they become a habit. And at 13, I really didn't know about it, but I understood maybe persist until I succeed. So later on, as I failed in business and I was becoming more of a reader, more turning to the Joel Steins, the norm of Vincent Peels, the Dale Carnegies', the Tony Robbins, John c. Maxwell, Jeffrey Gitomer, these people, I was turning to them and learning from their lessons and studying more, more, more. Who else could I get my hands on? Abraham Lincoln's, Reagan, studying these people in history, Truman, Kennedy. So, Kennedy's swimming across and saving lives when he was a soldier.

So, I started to read these books and as I, after going through what I was going through at the restaurant business or even struggling, I'm reading more and more of them and starting to learn these lessons. At first you read 'em and you're learning them for the first time. Then you maybe give them a try.

Then I started to implement them, so after my next job, I got a job in the corporate world, the first person that would hire me, I sold Yellow Page ads, and they were big on writing your goals down the first time writing. And so I might have wrote, I have a notebook somewhere. It says like, pay off produce guy.

I owed the produce guy $5,000. That was one of, one of my goals. So first it was, even though I was in business, I was still in sales, I'm starting to, I still have these goals cause I had the past debt. So quickly the goals became sentences and I'd start sharing things. the comeback or going broke, my story.

I thought I had something unique to say other than, like, my story was about getting beat up and pulling weeds and going broke, but that's where I started. So I started learning how to tell the story that way. Started, and I kept reading these guys and studying their, studying how they did things.

Zig Ziglar, another one. But as I'm reading and I started writing, I started in that little book that you wrote your goals down in. I wrote first book and cause I had no idea what I was doing and didn't pay attention much in school and things like that, it took me seven years to write my first book and then to find publishers and things like that.

And I made every mistake there was. So that's just what I want, even every step of the way, I made mistakes and you learn from them. So I sold all my rights to the book. Most of the rights, I made, 10 cents, 10 cents, 25 cents when the other person made all the money. Even today. Now it's 10 years since then. Or that they say, Hey Dominick, you can get these rights back for $10,000.

What I, the book wasn't even good. The book was Underdeveloped , when I put the, when I put the book out, it wasn't a book I'm proud of today. So when I, to what we earlier spoke about, being proud, knowing five, 10 years now, this is a, this isn't just a moment in time. That book's gonna be there forever. So put the care in.

So 10 years from now, you're still proud of that book. And so I, I'm learning these things like that about the process, about failing myself. And then once the book came out, I started to meet other people who had stories and I'd be on the stage and they would say, well, how did you, how did you do this?

How did you do that? Or, I'd meet a grandmother who was caring for her child and she was caring for her grandchild. And I said, wow, that's a story, that's a story, that's a story. And then I started thinking about this mission. Well alone, I can do so little. What if I could help more people share their story?

And I started like social media wasn't much of a thing back then. So equal parts. I was sharing these stories on social media and stuff, and helping other people share their story on social media, realizing, well, not everybody wants to write a book, maybe they just wanna share that their kid got an A on a test.

Maybe they wanna share that the whole family got together for the holiday for the first time in 20 years. That's powerful. And that's something that could lift a lot of spirits. So it became, well, some people like Harry or Chris. Well, Harry wanted to share a story of selling, of selling with Dignity, a different way of selling.

He can't always do that with one post. He can share parts of that, but he can't share the whole thing. And so that's why sometimes like sometimes the book you, somebody wants to share more of their story and that's where we develop into those other stories. And that's how my development came as well. You started to see, well, how can I help this other people share their story?

Motivation champs, the platform, like we're a publisher, but we're also everywhere on social media and every day 24/7, people post positive content. So we have groups we're 24/7, if you go on right now, the last five posts might not even be from me. It might be somebody that said had a great day at work today.

Look at this picture I saw and it says, you can do it. It might be somebody that said, lost 30 pounds and ran my first 5k. Wow. Super inspiring. It, that doesn't, they don't, if they wanted to write a book about it, they could, but in that moment to share that story, that's what we want to help people with and that's really.

You see, I'm passionate about it and the world I live in, how can we help get more positivity out into the world? More stories of encouragement, the world, it can be a tough place. We don't need people bringing us down or dumping and things like that. So, that's the mission I'm on.

Mike O'Neill: You're on that mission.

You're very clear. You're able to help others feed into positivity. Can you share an example where perhaps you got stuck. You're supposed to be the positive person here. You are stuck. Could you mind share an example where that might have happened and what did it take to get unstuck?

Dominick Domasky: Yeah, and it's interesting because I had, I made a decision and I talked to sometimes that I don't really share those kind of things cause I never wanna bring people down, but I'm not, but I don't live a perfect life, so I'm not afraid to say and let you in on things like, my mom's battled Alzheimer's for the last 10 years and seeing the journey of my mom getting basically early Alzheimer's and breaking down and losing my mother over and over and over.

I say that losing her over and over and over because early on when she would forget who I was, it was each time you lost her again, you lost her again, you lost her again. Now she hasn't really known my name for about five years, but it's unconditional love. So yesterday when I was with my mom at her home and she's basically staring off into, looking out the window, well, that's not the best day. But I live for the moment, and I could go down the rabbit hole there of, but some days, mom, mom, mom. And some days she might look at me and I think she might know, I see a smile or her eyes open a little wider. And so there, there's times throughout my life where whether it was, like I mentioned, going broke in business.

Well that was, that was, I was lost. I lost everything, I lost every form of money. I would, my sister-in-law used to make us spaghetti dinners. The government was re-garnishing my wages, so mine and my wife. So sometimes if I didn't make sales or something, I would end up with $12 and at the end of the week on, on my pay, that would. Just how it was. So there's times where you go down, my son's a type one diabetic.

He's been type one since he was three years old. I remember putting shots into his tiny little arms and it was heartbreaking. I spent a lot of time in Children's Hospital over those years. And each time you see what maybe somebody else is going through, you develop empathy and realize that the brazen person I was at 20 or 18 or 16, that I'm not that today.

And I, I've learned from each of these experiences and you put these into everything else that you are doing. All these experiences, even these tough times have made me stronger, that, and I will say, that I just want to point, that my son is now 17. He's healthy as an ox. He's getting good grades. He is growing where you have to stand up tall all the time.

And I'm six foot and I have to make sure that cause he wears big shoes and has high hair, if I don't stand tall, he can be a little closer to me than I would like in size. But all that from this kid that would get sick and get rashes and end up in the hospital now 14 years later. Different point, different, different person.

So, I say all this to let you know that even in the darkest times, there's light and you can get through it. And there's always hope. Just hold on to that hope. And that's really what I want people to take away from that.

Mike O'Neill: I had to chuckle. You're talking about your son who is about your height.

You're wearing headphones. I just wanna point out you do lose about half an inch cuz it pushes your hair down a little bit. So be mindful, we gotta fluff it back up when your son comes in the room.

Dominick Domasky: And he was just getting like a, an update at Children's the other day and they actually, when they put him on the scale, they pushed his hair down to to get that height thing, the, the right thing, so.

Mike O'Neill: That wasn't you pushing it down?

Dominick Domasky: I would've, yeah. , I'm gonna tease my hair up from now on.

Mike O'Neill: When you wake up on a given day and you just don't feel it. You don't know if you've got it in you to inspire or be positive or even smile. What has, what, what works for you?

Dominick Domasky: One, I, I'm a consumer of positive content as well.

Sometimes I'll let my wife know that my feed is full of puppies and rainbows. Cause, you know, we talk about algorithms and things like that of what you focus on is what you. What comes to you definitely in social, but some people would say that law of attraction as well, what you put out there comes back to you.

But, I am surrounded by positive content, whether that's online, whether that's books, whether that's shows like your own. I also am surrounded by movers and shakers and people that are trying to make a positive impact where I can call 'em and I don't have to say, I don't have to say this and this is going on in my life today.

I can just call 'em and I know they're gonna be full of energy. And even if they're not full of energy that day, cause hey, maybe it's the day that we both combined and we're both a little bit down, we've, we know enough that we can still pick each other up, even in those dark times. So I want to just say, Find some, if you have one person, find that one person. If you have nobody, find some, find an online source.

Find a podcast like this. Find content that will lift you up, find the Bible, whatever, whatever that is, that lifts you up, find it. Search for something if you can. That's what, like we talked about, all these different platforms.

Somebody's gonna go on TikTok and look for inspiration. Somebody's gonna go on Instagram, somebody's gonna pick up a book, somebody's gonna turn on their, the Good Morning America, or whatever it is. So in all these places, content's out there somewhere and that, that's what I would do.

Mike O'Neill: As you know Dominick, these conversations are not scripted and therefore all we knew is we're gonna be talking about storytelling and where it might would go.

What might be something that I should have asked that I haven't yet?

Dominick Domasky: Everybody always wants to, like, should I write a story? Should I write a story? So like to go back to that, should you? Are you called to do it? So that my, my rebuttal is, well, why do you think you wanna do it? Is there a good reason there? Well, because it's on my bucket list. Okay. Well then what's the story you're gonna tell?

So I, what are you passionate about? Is there something you are passionate about? Whether that could be business, it could be the Mets, it could, whatever that is. But I, if. Just ask yourself a couple more. As the person who wants to write a book. Ask your, ask yourself a couple more questions, and then take yourself on that journey, and you'll figure out the path is already laid out in some way because for 20 years, 30 years, 40 years, 50 years, 70 years.

You've already been talking about these things. You've been passionate about these things. You've already told these stories, you've practiced. There's a story. There's probably a story that anybody that we're talking to right now, they've probably told a story more than once, twice, three times, four times, five times.

Why? Maybe cause they're passionate about it. So are there more stories like that then? Could you write this story? Are these stories all on a similar subject. Are they all about fatherhood or are they all about parenting? Are they all about hanging out with your buddies? Are they all about travel? And then now you start to realize this is my book and I will say cliche, but sometimes a book is a business card for your business in some ways.

 So some, when you talk about why are you writing this book, why write this book? Well, sometimes it's to supplement the business, great, great idea. Sometimes it's because I have this yearning to tell this fantasy story that I've always wanted to tell. Okay. You, you're clear on both of those reasons.

So once you're clear on that reason, if somebody said, well, I wanna be rich and famous, well, there's a thousand ways to be rich and famous. You know that. So you, that wasn't a clear reason on why you wrote the book. So that's, I think it's, dig down. So, I want people to, you said, ask the question. I end up asking you five questions back, but dig down deep into why you wanna write that book and then follow the passion.

Mike O'Neill: Dominick, as you kinda reflect on what we've talked about, particularly around the theme of storytelling, what do you want our listeners to remember?

Dominick Domasky: Don't let anybody's limiting beliefs define you. It's a different world. People just don't know. It's not that they don't, it's not that they don't love your story. It's not that they don't believe in you. You can accomplish anything you wanna accomplish just because maybe nobody in your family's written a book before.

Maybe they've never told this kind of story. Maybe they've never worked in the industry that you're trying to go in. Maybe they're, they've never played athletics at a high level when you're trying to be a champion triathlete or something like that, stay the course. And then when I say, don't let the limiting beliefs define you, meaning you go out, you chase your dream, and later on those people will come along with you.

Mike O'Neill: I love that. That fits so perfectly in my work as a coach. You mentioned limiting beliefs. You started by saying the limiting belief of others.

Dominick Domasky: Yeah.

Mike O'Neill: But it also includes yourself.

Dominick Domasky: Yeah.

Mike O'Neill: And you're encouraging us if we find ourself imposing those limiting beliefs, forge ahead.

Dominick Domasky: Yeah.

Mike O'Neill: Dominick, I knew this was gonna be a great conversation.

It has been. I want, I wanna say thank you for sharing your passion. Thank you for your willingness to kinda have a platform out there that is motivation, that is inspiring, that it conveys positively and that we can simply smile. And I have found myself several times during this conversation just stopping and smiling.

You exude that. Thank you for sharing that with us today.

Dominick Domasky: Thank you.

Mike O'Neill: Dominick, if folks wanna reach out to you, what's the best way for them to connect with you?

Dominick Domasky: My challenge, I want you to look up Motivation champs. Motivation champs on any platform, whether that's Google or Facebook or Twitter, wherever you go.

We try to be in all these platforms as motivation champs. So if you look up a website or anything like that, you can message me on any of those platforms. @Motivation Champs.

Mike O'Neill: We will obviously include that in the show notes. Again, thank you Dominick.

Dominick Domasky: Thank you.

Mike O'Neill: I also wanna thank our listeners for joining us today.

If you would like to subscribe to this podcast, simply type unstuck.show in your browser. This will give you access to all the platforms, including Apple, Google, and Spotify. But while you're there, you can also subscribe to our weekly management blog called The Bottom Line. So if you're trying to grow your business, but people problems have slowed you down.

Let's talk head over to our website, bench-builders.com to schedule a call. So I wanna thank you for joining us, and I hope you have picked up on some tips from Dominick that'll help you get unstuck and on target. Until next time.