jumping into the Q&A Vin how do we become more humorous when it comes to humor you have to understand there is a really big difference between being humorous and being haha funny being a stand-up comedian and I think sometimes people confuse the two often they are thinking how do I become a stand-up comedian how should I tell jokes how do I become extremely funny no no I I think you've got to redefine humor and to me humor is just this beautiful quality that you can bring like right now I believe I'm being humorous right and how am I being humorous I'm being humorous because there's this lightness to me there's this part of me that is not too serious I've got a smile on my face I'm using lots of melody in my voice and and all of a sudden because of that I come across more humorous and I think that's as simple as it has to be just record a video of yourself talking and just going am I am I detecting lightness am I detecting lots of Melody am I detecting this kind of playfulness and if you if you're detecting that that's humor that's all that it is right if you've got that smile on your face you've got lots of Melody you you're you're giving good levels of volume that alone is humorous we don't have to over complicate that VIN do you have any advice on how to answer the interview question Tell me more about yourself with a story this is a good one because I think a lot of the times interviewers asking this as well because they're just so bored they're so bored of the answers people give in interviews because people always do the same thing in interviews tell me a little bit about yourself V oh well well well look thank you John John I I I am a considerate I am very thoughtful I'm trustworthy John and John I'm I'm also very adventurous John I I take a lot of risks and John I'm very committed I'm very punctual and and then again people just use all these words and and interviewers I believe when they ask this they're just bored you just want to hear something exciting and also they ask this because they want to get to know you a little more too but if you don't know how to story tell then even when they ask for a story that's what you do you just kind of give them adjectives about who you are you give them descriptive phrases no tell a story what you can do is like if for me I've got a back pocket full of stories to be able to throw at any time so if one of the jobs I'm applying for requires me to take lots of risks and do things that you know sometimes can be scary and require courage then I can share a story like this with John so John goes tell me a little bit about yourself VIN thanks John John I can tell you this about about 5 years ago I told my parents that I wanted to become a magician and I was on the path to becom an accountant I know not fulfilling the Asian prophecy at this point John's probably laughing and then building connection endorphins dopamine all being released wonderful and I said John I quit with 6 months left to go on my degree and I share this brief moment of my life with you because I'm not afraid to take risks and I'm not afraid to go against the grain because I can tell you now everybody in my circle at that point everybody in my extended family at that point they were going with the grain I'm not afraid to go the opposite way when everybody is going that way and John that's one of the main reasons why I think I'm perfect for this role I'm perfect for this role because I don't follow the crowd and I know that's a trait you're looking for so I didn't even tell that full story I just gave a little snapshot of that story because again in interviews I know I want to be Snappy and quick but all of a sudden now instead of just saying I'm a risk taker what does that even bloody mean the person's probably thinking provide some evidence please that's why they're asking for the story is because they're asking for some evidence to back it up and another example I mean I I I I see in the comments people really like pragmatic examples so I'll give you another example let's say I'm going for a job where I have to be very Innovative innov Innovative I have to be really good at innovation see what I did there just change the way you say it how would I share a story for that and I'm just thinking in my head if I had to be really good at Innovation for a certain role you see what I'm doing now is I'm just thinking back in my head for stories where I think I okay I got one and the reason I have these stories is because I document them if you can't think of stories like that well it's because you don't document them I document my stories and I review my stories so if I was talking to uh if I was talking to Sarah and Sarah goes you are applying for head of innovation and V I'd love you to hear a story about yourself and and and and an example of in your life where where you you you really displayed that Innovative way of thinking this is what I would say Sarah do you remember 20121 this was when everything changed actually it was 2020 my apologies in early 2020 Co happened and Sarah when Co happened my business was purely running in-person events and I I still remember my agent calling me saying hey Vin your entire business is now shut down the government has shut down all Live Events and I remember getting that call on March 19th and I freaked out I freaked out and I'll be quite Frank with you I think the whole world was freaking out but instead of freaking out for 5 years and instead of freaking out for 12 months I freaked out for a total of about a week and I gave myself permission to just express myself and and and and just go little bit crazy but then after about a week I I remember thinking all right then what can you control and what can't you control let's just focus on the things you can control and so I went out to a video store and I bought $50,000 worth of video a gear because I knew they had a refund policy of 30 days so I knew that whatever I don't use I can return it in 30 days but I for 30 days basically became Iron Man inside my garage and that's when I was building my virtual Studio sah I built my virtual studio so that I could teach people remotely and I did this in the second week of Co and Sarah I remember I I I got a message from the CEO of one of the world's largest speaking bureaus and he said something to me and I felt so proud of this and I hope you don't mind me sharing where he said Vin you have become a leader in this speaking space you are doing all the hard work and you're sharing all of these Innovations with the rest of the industry I'm so proud of you and and that moment Sarah I I I couldn't believe it but I I was the person leading the charge in the speaking and training space I was innovating a space that has not been innovated for over a 100 years and and Sarah now I teach people from all over the world online still from my garage you know so I I share this this story with you simply because that's why I believe I am the perfect fit for this head of innovation role I will be able to Iron Man out of Iron Man things out of the simplest tools and I'll be able to find a way out that no one's seen before okay there you go we can polish it we can make it better but that gives you a sense of how I would use that story right and I only have these stories again because I've documented them and if you document them you'll have them too and that makes for a far more interesting interview than if you just recited descriptive phrases hey Vin I notice I keep scratching the back of my neck and I keep scratching my face when I'm telling a story is this a bad habit first part of your question if you keep doing it right if you keep doing it like if I kept doing this you know if I just kept doing this every single say 20 seconds and you know if I if I just kind of kept doing you know things like this then the Golden Rule would that distract people from the message yes it would so then you have to recalibrate and go okay all right I need to reduce this if you do this once every 30 minutes because your face is actually itchy and your neck is itchy scratch your face scratch your neck it's all good it's totally fine right otherwise You' look even more weird you know when you get an itch and then you don't scratch it and you're kind of like then always seem like you've got a weird twitch so just scratch it it's totally fine but if you're always doing it then it's just like non-words and filler words nonwords and filler words um and so like do you know what I mean those things they are auditory they're auditory clutter it's auditory clutter that distracts people from the message and decreases your Clarity when you scratch your neck and you do all of these different things for me it's the classic adjusting of the glasses all of these things are visual clutter visual clutter that decreases your credibility that decreases Clarity same thing so there is such thing as visual clutter as well well done on paying attention to that apply the Golden Rule I want to understand how to curate short stories in order to shorten stories if you feel your stories are too long here are three ways to help you shorten your story number one focus on telling the part of the story where the most amount of action was occurring like the story of how I met my my wife earlier that day before I met my wife right I went to the shuton Fest which is a German festival in South Australia and I I for the first time had a German sausage and it was Bloody delicious it was filled with cheese and it was so young I didn't talk about any of that I didn't talk about any of that because to me where the majority of the action occurred for the story was when I saw my my my wife at the bar so by focusing on the action part he allows you to shorten the story second tip for shortening stories is focus on the peak emotion where in the story was the emotion heightened where was the most of amount of emotion present where was that and wherever that was Focus just on that bit and again it helps you tighten that up again and then the third way to shorten stories is focus on which part of the story where was The Lesson Learned was there a piece of wisdom in the story and wherever that piece of wisdom was in the story only Tell the part of the story around where you realize the lesson and again I can do this cool sound effect it allows you to pull that story nice and tight again so Peak action Peak emotion and where was the main lesson Lear learned those are three ways to about a shorten the story you told the story only around those three Arenas my God I'm good at that sound effect this instrument is capable of so many incredible things start to explore it more and don't be afraid to do things you're not familiar with there's a future version of you that will only exist if the present version of you is willing to venture out of its company Z