The Power Transformation Podcast
The Power Transformation Podcast with Alethea Felton is where unstoppable resilience meets life-changing success. This Top 5% ranked show dives deep into the extraordinary journeys of entrepreneurs, thought leaders, and visionaries who have shattered obstacles, conquered adversity, and redefined success on their own terms.
Hosted by resilience expert Alethea Felton who has thrived with autoimmune disease since birth, overcome severe stuttering, and turned setbacks into stepping stones, this podcast delivers raw, inspiring conversations packed with actionable strategies for personal and professional growth.
Whether you're an ambitious leader, a high-achiever seeking motivation, or someone ready to transform challenges into breakthroughs, this podcast is your blueprint for success.
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The Power Transformation Podcast
119. Unlocking the Power of Storytelling for Success with Andrea Sampson
Did you know that the stories from your past could be the key to unlocking your future potential? In this episode, we sit down with master storyteller Andrea Sampson, whose journey from an 18-year-old secretary to a renowned TEDx speaker coach is nothing short of extraordinary. Andrea shares how childhood influences, bold career pivots, and a deep belief in the power of narrative shaped her path to helping CEOs and founders craft impactful stories. Get ready for a captivating conversation on resilience, reinvention, and how embracing your personal history can transform your future.
Connect with Andrea:
Episode 119's Affirmation:
My story holds power, and by sharing it, I create meaningful conversations that inspire, connect, and bring greater good to the world.
I invite you to leave a positive message with your insights, feedback, or uplifting message.
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Did you know that you have a story to tell? Well, my guest today, andrea Sampson, certainly lets people know that they have a story to tell. You see, she helps get CEOs and founders on TED stages and even more global stages through her training, coaching and simply being there to help them spread stories nationwide. Andrea Sampson truly has a transformational story to tell and I am so glad to have her as our latest guest on the Power Transformation Podcast, and I welcome you to the Power Transformation Podcast. And I welcome you to the Power Transformation Podcast. I am your host, alethea Felton, and it is so exciting that we are now releasing episodes every Tuesday and Thursday. And so Andrea is my honored guest today, and you know what she turns founders and CEOs into business storytellers and, as I said, she gets them on the world's biggest stages. But she is the epitome of resilience and overcoming obstacles, as her journey has led her in multiple directions, leading her to where she is now. Thank you for joining me.
Alethea Felton:Follow this podcast if you have not already done so, and we're going to jump right into this interview. I will start with an affirmation. I'll say it once and you repeat it my story holds power and by sharing it I create meaningful conversations that inspire, connect and bring greater good to the world. I am so thrilled to have Andrea Sampson and some of my guests that I do interview. I feel like I have celebrities. She's so humble so she's not going to act like that, but she is famous y'all. People know her. Okay, people know her, but it is because of the fact she is making such a huge difference in the lives of many. So welcome to the Power Transformation Podcast, andrea.
Andrea Sampson:Thank you so much. I am so excited to be here and you're making me blush. I think most of us don't know the impact we're having when we're having it, and so thank you for those kind, kind and generous words. I really appreciate them.
Alethea Felton:You are so welcome and I'm so glad to have made your acquaintance, and this is going to be such a wonderful conversation based on transformation, storytelling and so much more. But prior to us getting into that, I'd like to start with just a fun, lighthearted, icebreaker question, just so that we can get to know you even more. So, andrea, this is the question for you. My question for you is as a child, what was one of your favorite stories and why stories?
Andrea Sampson:and why. Oh gosh, you know I loved hearing stories about my family and ancestry. I always so, you know it wasn't so much about reading books I loved books, don't get me wrong. But what I loved was when my mom would tell me about my grandfather or, you know, my great grandfather, and I would sit and be, just you know, wrapped, couldn't hear enough. I always wanted to know where did we come from? Who are we as people? My family is from the East Coast of Canada, a small. We're from Nova Scotia, but we're actually from a very small community on the island of Cape Breton, and so I would want to know how did they get there and what brought them and why did they leave, where they were from and what's our background. And so those were the stories I loved. But as I got a little older, some of the stories that I loved were anything that had to do with a series, and I absolutely loved. I remember and you might remember this stories as well because they're still around the Encyclopedia Brown series.
Alethea Felton:Oh, yes, I remember those.
Andrea Sampson:I do. You know. I loved them because I loved that they were solving mysteries and that they were outsmarting the main character, encyclopedia Brown's father, who was a police detective. And of course there was a girl and she was his sidekick and I always saw myself as that girl's sidekick to the Encyclopedia Brown.
Alethea Felton:Wow, that is such a phenomenal answer and I like how you took the spin of thinking about your family. I've traced genealogy. I'm 43 now, but I've traced genealogy literally ever since I was 12. It started with the school project and after that I was so into it, and what I love about it is at the time my grandmothers were alive, many of my great aunts and great uncles, so I was able to ask questions. Now all of my grandparents have transitioned. I only have one great uncle who's alive. He's in his late nineties, and so everybody I asked are all gone now and I'm so glad that I asked them that, because they are a part of me, which leads me to this question. You were so into your family history and you are a product of those ancestors, so if I were to ask you who is Andrea Sampson, what would you say?
Andrea Sampson:Wow, that's a big question. You know when I think about those and I so agree with you. You know it's similar. I would, you know, ask my grandmothers and my grandfathers, and, you know, my mom. I got to speak to them while they were still alive, but you know, my birthday is at the end of October and it's one day apart from my grandmother's birthday, and my mother always used to say that I was just like my grandmother, who was this incredibly powerful woman.
Andrea Sampson:Now she was about four feet 10. She was tiny little woman but had power beyond. My grandfather, who was quite an accomplished man, used to always refer to her as the Philadelphia lawyer, whatever that meant, you know, and because she was smart as a whip. But yet, you know, very, because, of course, in those days women didn't always have the benefit of education, so didn't have formal education.
Andrea Sampson:Had spent most of her life in a servant sort of, you know, sort of capacity, working for either very rich people or working in serving capacities in restaurants and things. But yet she raised nine children, she ran a farm, she, you know, and always figured everything out. You know, she was the one who, when the town got the first knitting machine back in the Second World War because all the men overseas needed socks. No one else could figure out how to use it. She figured out how to use it, and so when you ask who I am, I'm a product of that.
Andrea Sampson:I'm a product of being compared to this woman who was by no means an easy person to be around, because, as smart as she was, she was opinionated and difficult too. And so I got to see both sides of being a woman that you have to hold your ground and you have to know who you are and you have to be unapologetic about being that. And it hasn't always been an easy path for me to take that route, but it has been what has really given me the drive and the gumption, quite frankly, to become the woman I am today, the career person I am today, but, more importantly, the human I am today. I am today, but, more importantly, the human I am today because I am many, many things, and each one of them has that fingerprint of my grandmother and my mother and all of the strong women who I am a product of.
Alethea Felton:Something that stood out to me when you were speaking about that leading up to who you are was how your grandmother was determined to find out how to use that knitting machine. And our lives. I like to think of our lives as this intricate, woven, knitted pattern of different experiences, events, character, traits and so much more. And that leads me to the art, or even the concept, of what we call storytelling, which is a huge part of who you are and what you do. So, prior to kind of peeling back some of those layers, or more so, unraveling that ball of yarn, let's go to storytelling in general. If you were explaining storytelling to an eight-year-old who really didn't know all of the intricacies, in the most basic layman's terms, how would you describe storytelling? What is that?
Andrea Sampson:So storytelling in its most basic form is a way to communicate so that we understand exactly what you want us to understand. You help us to feel it, you help us to see it, you help us to experience it along with you. As a storyteller, it is our job to bring in whatever it is we're trying to explain, because stories are context, they are the backdrop of something we're trying to make meaning of. And so, if I think about the story of my grandmother, you know that story held an idea about how we as women have, you know, have to be unapologetic and strong and show up with conviction. And I told you a story about my grandmother, who was not only that, but I gave the example of the knitting machine, I gave the example of the Philadelphia lawyer. I brought in the emotion of this incredible woman who was loved and yet in some ways, also feared. You got to meet her in a way that brought her to life, and that's what storytelling is.
Andrea Sampson:We use our sensory language. We actually excite our brain, and that's actually part of the science of storytelling. Excite our brain, and that's actually part of the science of storytelling. But to an eight-year-old, what they really need to know is that storytelling makes us feel what you feel, and so tell us the story with as much emotion as you can, so we understand how you're feeling. Mm-hmm.
Alethea Felton:And storytelling is certainly expression, and while this interview will be both audio and video, it may not be released at the same time because I'm kind of postponing some of the videos, but the world will eventually see you, and so I know that I can see, and I do have some visually impaired listeners who do subscribe to the podcast.
Alethea Felton:So what I will say for those of us who are seeing or even just listening to the audio? When I see Andrea, every time that I've interacted with her, just like me, she's a colorful person, literally Her expression, with how she dresses, her hair, her accessories, her eyeglasses, everything about her is so vibrant and alive that's the best way I can describe it. I'm seeing shades of purple or some might say shades of blue, so many combinations of just this beauty that is exuded in so many ways and the way that you help people share their stories in their businesses, careers, on stages and in general. Take us back to your early formative years, Andrea. If you could think of something in your life before you were who you are now, what is something pivotal or transformative that happened in your life that led you to this place and space of who you are today?
Andrea Sampson:You know, my childhood was not an easy one. I had a lot of challenges. You know there was not an easy one. I had a lot of challenges. There was, unfortunately, lots of turmoil with my parents, there was abuse and there was difficulties, and these were things that, as a child, are difficult. But I think what I've learned, and especially now, looking back, is that these are the things that shape us. They are the ways in which we learn how to overcome, but also who we are and what we're made of, what we're capable of. And so, you know, if I look back, there are so many moments, you know and I'm a positive person, so I'll go to actually one. That is, you know, probably one of the most surprising and positive things that happened to me in my early childhood.
Andrea Sampson:Well, my teens. I was 18, had just turned 18. And I was, at the time, enrolled in a community college. I had dropped out of high school and, at 16, and had decided because this is the person I was, I was always thinking about where am I going to go, and I couldn't imagine spending four or five years in university. It seemed like a lifetime. And so, in grade 10, I made the decision, because I was 16, that I could drop out of high school, but I wanted to have some form of an education. So I enrolled in a local community college, because they took people at 16. Okay, and so I was able to enroll in a secretarial program and I thought, okay, well, I can become a secretary. That was going to be what I was going to be and I, because of who I am, I also decided well, I'm not just going to be any secretary, I'm going to be a legal secretary. So I started taking night classes to become a legal secretary.
Andrea Sampson:So I was in my second year of this program and I was at school one day in class and I'm the youngest one in my class, as you can imagine and there was a knock at the door and I looked over and I could see my sister imagine. And there was a knock at the door and I looked over and I could see my sister there and I remember my heart dropping, thinking, oh my God, my sister had a young daughter at the time and I thought, oh my God, something's happened to Sarah. And I was called to the door and my sister said you have to come home now. You've just won a car, what? And I was like what? And she said, yes, you have to call them back because you have to answer a skill testing question. And I'm like what? And, as it turns out, I had, as we do, entered in a ballot. It was one of these ballots at a mall, of all things. I had entered in this ballot and, sure enough, my name was drawn and I called them back and I remember being, oh my God, so incredibly nervous and having my calculator and a piece of paper and three other people beside me, all doing the same thing, and we had to figure out this skill testing question. And I gave the answer and, sure enough, I won a car.
Andrea Sampson:I won at the time it was a Rabbit convertible and I didn't even have my license, and you know, but that was such a lesson for me and, you know, you never know what life is going to throw at you. You sure don't. And here I was, 18 years old, about to graduate as a secretary, driven and arrogant as we all are at 18, thinking we know everything about life. And here I had this incredible rabbit convertible that I had to learn to drive and I had to be responsible for and I had to figure out how to pay for insurance and all the things that suddenly, as an 18 year old, I had no plans on figuring out. And so it changed me, you know, and it also gave me freedom for the first time in my life. That car, you know, I owned it for five years and when I decided to sell it, I actually sold it to fund my move from Nova Scotia to Toronto, and I literally sold that car on the way to Toronto and it was my ticket to freedom. In so many different ways.
Alethea Felton:That is so my mind is going in so many different directions. Because the car, although it's literal, it's so to me, symbolic and metaphorical for where your life is going. So here you are in this secretarial program, you have your entire life planned out. So what in the world led you to this place and space of where you are now with storytelling? How were you empowered to create Talk Boutique and everything else that goes along with what you do now to help inspire others?
Andrea Sampson:You know, as I look back on my life like I lived an incredible life I'm I'm, you know, often so humbled and grateful for the people who have believed in me and supported me and helped me to find my path. I never really had a North Star of I want to be a storyteller. I want to be. You know, that was never where I was. What I always knew was that I was passionate and wanted to create change and make a difference. That I knew, and it took me through so many different paths, everything from as I landed, you know, I mean coming out of that secretarial program and becoming a secretary and two years later, realizing, wow, I had hit the pinnacle of my career. I was working for the federal government, making more money than anyone I knew, and I was like, well, this is it, I'm 21. I have hit the pinnacle of my career and, you know, realizing that that wasn't all there was for me, and going back doing university but never finishing it, ending up going a couple of years in university, moving to Toronto where I started in fundraising, did a number of years in fundraising and then transitioning into advertising, and these were places where I really felt like my passion and my desire to create impact had the ability to be realized. But the challenge with both of those careers was that it was always limited. In the not-for-profit world, you're limited by the fact that you don't have money and so the impact that you want to create for these and I worked in health charities and so here we were, you know, doing fundraising, and I was a fundraiser, and so we're fundraising, but you could never get the traction or make the impact that really you knew was needed to solve the challenges that you're working on. And I transitioned into advertising, thinking oh, now here's a place that has a lot of money and maybe I can use this idealist nature to influence some of the advertising in such a way that we start to create impact. So, yes, it is a selling medium, but perhaps I can influence it.
Andrea Sampson:And I spent almost 25 years in that career of marketing and advertising and I'd like to think that I did create some impact. But what happened for me was I realized that my impact was always going to be limited as long as I was working within a confining construct of a career, and that I started. And I realized that and I always like to say I was an idealist in a capitalist world, and that idealist in me would not be quiet, and so I had to find an outlet for it. So I remember it was about almost 10 years ago now it was probably more than 10 years ago that I started this conversation with myself. I was approaching 50 and was thinking where from here? What do I want to do with my life? And so I started to volunteer, without any real idea of why, but just to do things that made me happy.
Alethea Felton:More than anything.
Andrea Sampson:And the second thing I started doing was going to conferences. Like in conferences I would never have gone to, I remember I went to one in Portland, Oregon, called the World Domination Summit, which was amazing. And then went to the Creative Problem Solving Institute and learned about creativity and just started dabbling. And in doing these things I started to see my own patterns emerging.
Andrea Sampson:I started to see what I liked and what I didn't like, and one of the conferences I was fortunate to go to was a TEDx Toronto conference, and it was the very first time. You know TEDx was in its early, early days, like it had just come out, and so you know I was a big fan of TED, had watched many TED talks. In fact, at the time I was the vice president of strategy for a large agency and advertising agency and we used to do TED Talk Tuesdays.
Alethea Felton:Every.
Andrea Sampson:Tuesday in the morning I would put on a couple of TED Talks, as people would arrive and they would get their coffee and sit down and watch a TED Talk with us. And so I was very familiar with the format but had never been to a conference. And then this iteration of TEDx emerged and I had the opportunity to go. You, in those days, had to apply to be in the audience, and so I had applied to go and I got accepted. And I remember sitting in the audience in that first conference that I went to and being blown away Like wow, this is incredible. I mean the quality of the speakers, the quality of the event and somebody said to me you know, this is volunteer run. And I was like wow, I had no idea and I literally went back to my office, brought up the website and applied to be a volunteer and, lo and behold, a few months later I was volun-hired because I actually had to go through an entire hiring process.
Alethea Felton:Volun-hired yeah.
Andrea Sampson:As a speaker's coach. I'd never heard of a speaker's coach, but I was like you know what my whole job was? Presenting. I used to present four or five times every day, and so I figured you know I got this, I can figure it out.
Andrea Sampson:But here was the thing being a presenter is very different than being a storyteller, and even though I was working in a storytelling medium advertising is all about telling stories no one had ever taught me how to tell a story.
Andrea Sampson:And the TED world taught me how to be a storyteller, and it taught me that I had a skill I didn't even know I had, which was the ability to synthesize an idea into a core, one sentence and build a story around it.
Andrea Sampson:You see, I at that point, as a strategist, used to do that. Of course, I would do research, I did tons of research, and we would have to build out what I called a core consumer insight, and so we would take large swatches of data, synthesize them down, come up with one piece of information that the consumer believed, and that's what we would use as the underpinning of the creative that you would see in market. So I would build a creative brief and then our creative teams would build that creative, and so that skill is the exact thing that my TED speakers needed. And here I was, a high school dropout, someone who never finished university, working with some of the smartest people I had ever worked with in my life. These were scientists and academics and technologists and even artists, and they were doing incredible work in the world.
Andrea Sampson:And it shifted my worldview and all I could think of what can I do for these people? Look at what they're doing in this world, and, as I started working with them, that skill was the exact thing they needed. And they would say to me what you do is something I could never do. You're taking my entire life's work and you're turning it into one sentence, and that was the beginning of my journey into storytelling. And that is also the basis of why I built Talk Boutique, because I saw the need for these incredible people who were doing incredible work in the world that none of us knew was happening. They gave me hope for the future and I wanted to give others hope, and so I wanted to create a place for those who were doing that work, who were so busy doing that work they weren't telling anyone about it, and so how could I get them known? How could I help them to synthesize that work so others would understand it and not be confused by the complexity of what they were doing?
Andrea Sampson:And that was the origins of Talk Boutique, and that's how I fell into the world of being a storyteller.
Alethea Felton:Andrea, your heart and your compassion just pours through everything that you say, and what I mean by that is there were a couple of things that really struck me wholeheartedly with this entire origin story. That's absolutely incredible that I'm not even certain, if you realize how profound this is. Two things Number one you said you had the audacity to say you were almost 50 when you decided to make this change. The reason why I want to hone in on that. I have come across so many people who are 40 plus, 50 plus, who may have dreams, desires or want more for their lives, but have that doubt or don't think that they have anything to give or that they're too old and that they can't do it, and people reinvent their lives every day. That's number one that really struck me. The other thing is you said earlier you've always been a generally positive person, but how you said you wanted to give others the hope and give others the means by which they could take the incredible things they're doing in this world and really bringing it out more and consolidating it.
Alethea Felton:To this one sentence, andrea what in the world kept you going, meaning? Why didn't you stop? Why did you just keep going, as opposed to saying you know what? I have this comfortable job. It's okay, I want to do that, but that's a tad bit lofty. And the reason I'm asking this is with the hope that perhaps something you say may spark someone listening to get a little bit more courage someone listening to get a little bit more courage. So what is the reason that kept you going as opposed to staying locked into your comfort zone.
Andrea Sampson:You know, as you're asking the question, I'm sort of my mind was spinning of like why did I stay?
Alethea Felton:You know, why did I keep?
Andrea Sampson:moving and it's a complex answer and I'll try and make it simple. I think that there were really two things happening for me. One was as a woman approaching 50, especially in the ad world, there's a lot of ageism. And there's a lot of ageism and look, I was successful and had a good job and probably could have kept in the ad world for a long time, but I was watching women around me being let go and let go often because they were approaching 50, you know, in that place of no longer being the young ingenue and their wisdom wasn't being valued.
Andrea Sampson:And it bothered me a lot and I knew that idealist in me wanted to fight. I wanted to go and fight that and I thought is this my fight to win? I had to ask myself that and at the same time I was also looking at my daughter, who at the time was approaching so she would have just turned 20, or maybe not even 20 yet and in university, and seeing her struggle as a woman, trying to find and in fact I mean today she is both a woman and a person. She identifies as gender, non-binary, and identifies as both.
Andrea Sampson:And so as a person and as a woman, and so I was watching her in that struggle and seeing that this world was not made for this next generation. You know we were in a binary state of men and women. We were. You know we had so many struggles when it came to, you know, understanding diversity and all of its complexity. And so I looked at advertising and went this is not the place for me to win this struggle, because the reality was, if I stayed in advertising, I might have been able to make some impact for those within the industry, but I wouldn't have made impact on a broader scale, and I knew that for me, as the idealist I am, that it was not big enough. The fight was not big enough for me, and so I had to take it to a bigger level. And that was why Ted was so pivotal for me, because suddenly I saw this global platform that was actually making a difference. And I remember at the time I made some decisions, the year I turned 50. I quit advertising completely. I had been volunteering for TEDx Toronto at that point for about three years and I was head of curation that particular year and I had, I think, eight speaker coaches reporting into me and we were, you know, populating the speakers for that conference. The conference was happening in October and I made the decision to take a sabbatical. I stepped away from advertising. I sold my house in the suburbs, I bought a condo in downtown Toronto and promptly destroyed it because I decided I was going to renovate it top to bottom, and I booked myself a trip to Europe to spend a few months traveling around. And I did all of that because what I wanted to know was what was it that inspired me? What was it that I would, what was it that would bring me back from travels and experiences and who would I become? And what happened for me was I came back from that and we were about to actually run the event, and that was how Talk Boutique was born. It was in that place where I started to understand that the passion I had was bigger than just advertising. It was bigger than just me.
Andrea Sampson:I had written down and I found it and I find it every now and then because I keep putting it in different places a note that I had written, and it was you know, I journal often and sometimes I just write notes to myself and I wrote a note that said, I wanted to be part of a global movement that was creating change, so that the future that we're building together is reflective of all of who are living within it. And I didn't know when I wrote that. I remember and I can still remember it. I was still in my house in the suburbs. I used to get up very early in the morning and I was meditating and it was dark and I had candles and I wrote this very inspired, again, not even knowing where it came from, and folded it up and would put it. You know, I had places where I would put sort of these little notes to the universe and that's what it was.
Andrea Sampson:And then, you know, eight months later, I found myself building Talk Boutique and a year later, I found myself part of Singularity University, which is a global movement that creates change by applying exponential tech to the world's biggest problems, and I have continuously built things that have brought me towards that. And that's the fight. That's the fight that I wanted to take, and it was the thing that I thought at 50, the goals that I had as a child of 20, I had achieved, and I needed bigger goals from 50 onwards because, look, I don't have much time left on the planet. Maybe I get another 30 good years, maybe, and what am I going to do with that time? That's right, great impact. The impact that I want to create is I want to create a kinder, more resilient future. Yes, and the way that I can do that I didn't know 10 years ago, when I dreamed that I didn't know what I could contribute other than this skill of being able to help people define their ideas, and today what I can see is that very skill, along with my own understanding of my own diversity, has helped me to really hone that vision and show up in places that are so much more impactful.
Andrea Sampson:Ted was one of them. Singularity was another. I've been on stages. I've been in boardrooms all around the world, been on stages. I've been in boardrooms all around the world training individuals in storytelling, and all of that came because I knew that if I stopped, who was going to pick that up? It was mine, because it was my dream. That's right. I'm the only one that gets to fulfill my dream. That's right, and so it drives me to this day. I turned 60 next year and and you know I'm, you know I'm a little more tired than I was at 50. I will admit that I'm as driven and as passionate about this. I'm more passionate because I know that, with a pen and paper writing down what you believe, you can make a difference, because somehow, some way, the universe will conspire to make your dream come true.
Alethea Felton:I got chills, I literally got goosebumps hearing you I'm not exaggerating, because and that is such the premise of this podcast and the vision that I have for it, you know, the Power Transformation Podcast is that innate power that's within all of us that we have to really create the lives that we desire, in spite of the challenges and the obstacles that come our way. It does, I'm telling the listeners, viewers, I'm telling you, if it seems weird or hocus pocusy, it's not, it is just a fact of law. It is a universal law, regardless of whether you are religious or not. I'm telling you it works, religious or not, I'm telling you it works. There is such power in writing down your goals, your dreams, statements.
Alethea Felton:It has happened in my life, it's happened in Andrea's life, and the thing is, although you say you're a bit more tired age might play a part in that However, I think it's because you have really affected the world just not your local community, but the world and your reach is far wider and you are really pouring into others, which can, of course, drain energy, but you're also being fed in return with what people are doing. And so that leads me, as we start to come to a close, and you all. I'm very strategic in my interviews with guests because, while I love the things that we do, I'm so passionate about the backstories, the journey behind who we are and what we do. And, andrea, I want to give you some time now to really talk about how you're coaching these different business owners, tedx speakers, etc. Coaching these different business owners, tedx speakers, et cetera. How does empathy play a part in the work that you do and what has been the transformation you've seen in the people that you coach?
Andrea Sampson:You know, that is the perfect word empathy it's when I'm working with and I mean you know, talk Boutique has become many more things than what it launched with. You know we are, we do individual coaching, we do group coaching, we work with corporate leaders, we run corporate programs, we have a speakers bureau. There are many different things that we do, but when I'm working with you know, because I still do coach I do one-on-one coaching, and when I'm working directly with a client and I'm brought back to a memory of working with an individual, I was actually in Sao Paulo, brazil. We were working with a cohort there for Singularity University. These were all individuals who were incredibly accomplished, and this man that I was working with, an incredible leader. He was building out an infrastructure that would give not just Sao Paulo but all of Brazil and he had already done it, actually in some other countries alternatives for transportation that would allow for more climate-friendly transportation, and so he was creating these networks and it was really powerful what he was doing and he's telling me his story and he's like look, and this is what I hear a lot and and from especially people who are highly accomplished is no one wants to hear my story. It's not that interesting, right? And? And so he told me this incredible story of his childhood. And he'd grown up literally on the streets of San Paolo, you know, and had a strong mother and had, you know, had a lot of love around him but not opportunity, and he had sort of pulled himself up from his bootstraps and was able to, you know, not just survive but thrive and eventually become this incredibly powerful individual that he was in that moment and continues to be.
Andrea Sampson:And I listened to his story and he said, you know, it's not very interesting, but let me tell you and he tells me it, and it's the way that most people tell a story, which is, you know, first this happened, then this happened, then this happened, and it's very linear in nature. And I listened to all of the pieces and I said to him you know, I want you to hear your story, because here's what I've heard you tell me. And I told his story back to him in the way in which a storyteller tells that story, which is knowing that there is an idea inside of it. And for him, the idea was the desire to create a world where transportation is available to everybody, so that they can actually contribute in the ways that are important to them, because transportation is freedom, right. And so I told him a story through that lens, using all of what he had told me.
Andrea Sampson:And when I finished he was crying and he looked at me and he, first of all, he thanked me. He said I have never heard my own story, of course, because we never do, no one tells us our own story. But he said, you know, I didn't understand the power of my story and you've just shown me how powerful my life has been. And I still hear from him every now and then he writes me. But what was important in that, and the reason I share that story, is that when I listened to him, I listened with empathy. I could hear the struggle and the fear and the, you know, the in some cases, sheer terror that happened and the sadness too, you know, and that's how I shared the story back with him.
Andrea Sampson:I used those emotions because they were part of his story, and so empathy is such a big part of my job as a coach and I'm a communications coach, you know, I'm not a life coach but, yet I have to know how to hold a space for my clients so that they can show up fully with authenticity, without fear, without judgment, and they show up and that one story is one that sort of sticks out for me because it was powerful for both of us.
Andrea Sampson:But I've had that happen again and again and again, because we don't know how powerful our stories are. We think we don't have stories and yet we live a life full of stories. And when we take the time to understand what it is we're trying to convey with the stories we're telling, what it is we're trying to convey with the stories we're telling, we can find the moments in our life where that story is most powerful and we can build the story around that idea so that our audience not only gets our idea but they get to know us in a way that they feel connected enough that they want to help us with the ideas that we're sharing. And that is the power of story. And that is what I do and that's how empathy lives in what I do.
Alethea Felton:And I think that the reason that stories still resonate, even with adults, no matter how old we are, is that I haven't come across a child, a kid, who didn't like a good story. Even if they might not like reading, they like to hear a good story and I think it's that childlike innocence that's still in us, even as adults, that yearns for hope, yearns for adventure and yearns for a lesson or a moral or some type of value. So if a listener is watching this or just hearing the audio, and maybe they're a business owner, a career professional, someone who has a desire for TEDx talk, or maybe wants you to come to their corporate company, andrea, how can someone connect with you? Maybe they'll say well, she's in the country of Canada. I don't live in Canada, but so much technology now, how can someone?
Andrea Sampson:connect with you. Yeah, so I mean check out our website, talkboutiquecom. Follow me on LinkedIn I'm very active there Also. Go to my YouTube channel, the Thought Leader Academy. These are all places where you can connect with me, either directly or through the work that I'm doing, you know, directly or through the work that I'm doing.
Andrea Sampson:Also, for anyone who wants to learn some of the ways in which I tell stories on our YouTube channel and also even through this happy, I would love to offer them our storytelling toolkit, which is actually a series of frameworks that we use, and it explains how to use those frameworks, and they're really powerful, because you know this, this craft that I have been able to really build over the past 10 years of working with speakers. You know it. To make it repeatable, to make it something that anyone can do, you have to build frameworks for it, and so that's what I've done, and so I've got a storytelling framework. I have an idea framework and then a talk framework that helps you to take any talk or presentation and do it in the TED style. So it could be a corporate presentation, or maybe you're actually giving a TED talk, so whatever that looks like for you, I think this toolkit is helpful.
Alethea Felton:Wonderful and I'll have all of that in the show notes and as a closing question, and I'll definitely check out some of those toolkits, because I have been intrigued by your work and I definitely want to even learn more for myself. But as a closing question, what about your story? Inspires you the most?
Andrea Sampson:I think for me, it is this, and it's the thing that I wonder about the most actually, is this deep-seated need and desire to help build an acceptance of diversity. It is something that drives me every day, and I look around myself and I realize that everything I do always has some, you know, like the shows that I watch. I don't watch traditional TV. I watch things that are usually featuring people who are marginalized or minorities or in some way different marginalized or minorities or in some way different. You know, I, I, when I look at my clients, often they look very different than the traditional thought leaders. Um, even myself, I mean, I, I discovered my own diversity, my own neurodiversity two years ago. Um, you know, as a, you know as someone who now, I understand some of that. You know, I have both ADHD as well as autism.
Andrea Sampson:And so you know, understanding this, and I look at it and go. You know, that has been driving me since I was a child me, since I was a child, and I think, on some level, there is something I need to achieve in this lifetime to feel that I have actually achieved my purpose in life, and so it's the thing that interests me the most and also the thing that I wonder the most about. It's like where did that come from and why?
Alethea Felton:Yes, and I am so thankful for the journey that you've had, for the risks that you've taken in life, where you didn't sit back in complacency but you chose to take leaps of faith and to walk fully in abundance, because the work you're doing is truly transformative, changing the lives of many, and I want to thank you, andrea, from the very bottom of my heart. Thank you for gracing us with your presence here today on the Power Transformation Podcast, and I hope and pray nothing but the best for you, for your child, for your entire family and loved ones, and may Talk Boutique continue to affect the globe in ways that absolutely blow people's minds. Thank you again, andrea people's minds.
Andrea Sampson:Thank you again, andrea Well. Alethea, thank you. This has been an absolute pleasure. Your questions are incredible. You are an amazing interviewer. Thank you, thank you for inviting me here and thank you to your listeners for getting this far into the podcast and listening, and I appreciate each and every one of you. Thank you, it's my pleasure.
Alethea Felton:Thank you for tuning in to this episode of the Power Transformation Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow or subscribe, leave a five-star rating and write a review. It helps us inspire even more listeners. And don't keep it to yourself. Share it with someone who could use a little power in their transformation. Until next time, keep bouncing back, keep rising and be good to yourself and to others.
