The Power Of Storytelling: Inspiring Others To Dream

Storytelling has been around since time immemorial. It is what drives influence and is a vehicle for communicating and messaging. In this episode, Yanet Borrego explains the power of storytelling to not only influence but inspire. Yanet uses this chance to tell her own story and how she discovered her passion for helping people. From her childhood in Cuba to a career in engineering, all these led her to where she is today. Get to know more about Yanet’s inspiring journey to finding clarity and purpose by tuning in to this episode and gain invaluable insight from her experience.

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The Power Of Storytelling: Inspiring Others To Dream

I am extremely excited about this topic. The topic is about the power of storytelling and the spirit of telling stories. I'm going to share with all of you my story of how I was able to align and gain clarity on my career path in order to be here with all of you, living my passion, purpose and doing it full-time. I'll make sure to share all the goodies of my journey on my path.

What Is Storytelling?

Let's talk about storytelling first. Why is storytelling a big deal? Storytelling is a skill that if you're in a position of influence, which by the way we all are, it doesn't matter what you do. Influence with our partners, the way with our kids, families, coworkers, clients, if we have clients and even our boss. It is so important to know the right skills and tools for communicating our message.

Storytelling is a great vehicle to do that because of several reasons. There is an article in the Harvard Business Review that speaks about the science of storytelling. What happens with storytelling is that when we tell stories, there are certain parts of the brain that just fire off. It helps stimulates the creation of oxytocin, which is called the love hormone.

That means that it makes you feel great to listen to a good story. It is one of my favorite things. Why it is so important is because I truly believe based on experience and based on the experience my coaching clients have had and everyone else. Stories help you learn faster and better about any material. Why? It's because there is a flow to the story. It's not like an isolated piece of information that you're given, but instead, there is a flow to the story that you can follow and remember better.

I have one coaching client that I'm coaching right now, and one of the things she told me was that she had an awful memory of remembering names. The first thing that we did was release a limiting belief because what you believe, you attract. One of the techniques that I gave her was to make a story with every name she would get from someone to relate it to something she was familiar with because that is the key. Stories make us feel that we are familiar with whatever the storyteller is telling us. One of the things that they discovered is when someone says a good story and you're listening to the story, the waves in your brain align and synchronize with the ones from the storyteller.

That is crazy. I was like, "That makes so much sense." That's why we feel so good when we hear stories. I love this quote that says, "Neurons that fire together, wire together." It's because once we are synchronized, then we start learning the information a lot better. My other favorite part of storytelling is that whenever someone is telling their story and experience, in your mind, you're also applying the lessons from their experience that may apply to you.

You go through your self-discovery process and journey of finding the right person for you. The ones you need. It's not anyone telling you, "You have to do this. Based on what I did, this would work.” It's your own discovery process through someone else's story. That is powerful. That also reminds me of the process of coaching because coaching is all about helping the client or helping the person find their own truth.

What Inspired Me To Share My Story

One of the things that I truly believe is that all of you, how they answer already to whatever question you're seeking. It doesn’t matter if you have the right tools and skills to dig deeper and find that answer. That is why storytelling is so important. With that, I wanted to share my story. It's something that I have been inspired by a lot is reading people's stories that have taken a bold decision and they have taken a path that is not conventional. People that are courageous enough to step into their light and follow through with what they're passionate about.

You can create your future in the now.

I mentioned this in one of the previous episodes. Years ago, I had a vision of collecting different stories from different people who had an unconventional path, mainly in a career, as I have experienced. This was because a lot of people that I coach right now and a lot of people that I was meeting, I knew they were not happy with the situation they were facing. One of the things that stopped them from moving forward was them not seeing that anyone else would take that step and not having that inspirational role model, letting them know that it was possible.

Whatever they wanted to achieve. Whatever dreams they wanted to pursue that is possible. I started gathering different stories from inspiring people that have taken the non-conventional approach in their careers that is very similar to mine. Right after this episode, I'm going to start sharing some of them. I'm going to start sharing the stories of the people that I have interviewed so far. It’s not going to be every episode I'm going to share every 3, 4, or 5 episodes.

It's going to be very impactful because I want to help all of you. I want to guide, support and empower you with more examples. I feel I can find people that are leading their truth to be more empowered you are going to be because you're not alone in this journey. I'm with you. I'm here. I'm committed to your success and anything that takes you to get you there.

The Beginning Of My Story

It's because I have been through my own journey, which I'm going to share right now. Part of this show will be all of those stories from all the inspiring people who have taken an unconventional path, mainly in career. I'll share with all of you mine. I have so much to say. I was born in Havana, Cuba. My mom and I left Cuba when I was nine years old to go to Mexico City.

My stepfather had an assignment there in Mexico City. Three years after, we were supposed to go back to Cuba and my mom decided that I deserved a better future. She wanted me to have a future with more opportunities. We run away and asked for political asylum at the border between Mexico and the US.

After we were granted that political asylum, we flew to Puerto Rico, where I lived for twelve years. I lived a lot of my life in Puerto Rico, which I deeply enjoyed. As a result of my journey, one of the values that are being very driven by our hard work and integrity to make things happen, because I truly believe that you can create your future in the now and wherever you have come from, it doesn't define where you go to.

That, for me, is a principle that has guided my whole life and has inspired me to take a step that I believe in. We moved to Puerto Rico. I finished high school. I was great at Chemistry. I like a career with something Chemistry-related because I'm good at it and something that makes good money. One of my inspirations for my career has always been to support my family, my mom.

I wanted to make good money in order to do that and that's why I decided to study Chemical Engineering. I went to college in Puerto Rico. I studied Chemical Engineering for five years. I had five internships and the oil and gas industry are a lot of them. I have a leadership opportunity with a great GPA. One of the biggest oil and gas companies recruited me to work as an engineer in Houston in Baytown, Texas.

My First Big Discovery: Finding My Passion

I started to work as an engineer there. When I started there, I started to question myself. Before that, I never questioned who do I want to be. Does this align with my purpose and values? Who do I want to be as a person? Who am I as a person? I feel like that was my first big discovery at that point.

I was 23 years old. I didn't have that guidance. A lot of us don't get asked, "Who do you want to be?" When we are seven years old, we get asked that. That saves a life. We have to take many tactical steps without any direction, just because we want to have certain things to impress others, but is that what fulfills us?

I started to have discussions within myself. Before I had started my full-time job, my mom and I have visited Cuba to see our family after twelve years of not being able to go back. My dad, uncle and grandma, saw me when I was 12 years old and 24. There was a twelve years gap where I couldn't see my family, just my mom, of course, because we have always been together.

When I went back to Cuba, my uncle, who was my role model all my life, introduced me to Neuro-Linguistic Programming and Tony Robbins. He gave me my first NLP book in Spanish and my first two Tony Robbins books in Spanish. I started reading it and I was amazed. I'm connecting with this at a deeper level.

I'm connecting with these desires to know why I behave in certain ways. Those behaviors are to know how I can replace them with desired ones, know how I can change my limiting beliefs and replace them with empowering ones. I started to get passionate and driven towards understanding my mind better and understanding myself.

I remember going to my first Tony Robbins event, Unleash the Power Within. It was magical, 10,000 people in Dallas. I went by myself. I was like, "No one wants to go with me. It's totally okay. I'll do it." I met people in the same community. I knew that field of helping and empowering people to lead their life on their terms to break that jail they’re having in their mind because it's imaginary.

Everything is here. That was my passion and purpose. I just knew it. I didn't know the format and what this meant to me at all. I was doing my engineering job and experimenting on the side. The thing I knew was that engineering wasn't my passion. It took me to go there to work and go through challenging situations in order to understand that.

Where you come from doesn’t define where you go.

In years, I needed something that I didn't like and an environment that I didn't appreciate. I pushed and forced myself through that. It wasn't until a moment where I truly realized what was important. I remember I was working night shifts from 6:00 PM to 6:00 AM because one of our process units was down, and it was a very stressful time.

It was four months off non-stop stressful working. Thirteen days of non-stop. We would get one day off every two weeks and you're working twelve hours every day, non-stop. I think me not wanting to be there. Me knowing that it didn't align with myself and there wasn't a purpose while I was there. There wasn't any intention, other than money, the financial piece.

Everything else doesn't align. I think my body was so stressed out from all the physical work and mentally, I wasn't there. I got to a point that my body and my mind were exhausted for the first time in my life. I remember being in the grocery store because my mom needed to get out. That weekend, I was working like a lot of weekends I worked. I’m expected to work twelve hours.

While we were boarding all the groceries in the trunk, my left arm was suddenly completely numb and I had been having these chest pains. I told my mom, "We need to go to emergency. I think I'm going to have a heart attack." That was my first anxiety attack ever in my life. I just knew that my body was telling me something.

My body and mind were telling me, "This is not good for yourself. You have to move forward, break the pattern and change." I took that very seriously. In the emergency, they told me, "What you need is a glass of wine. Relax. It's not an anxiety attack." The next day, I went back and I said, "I'm going to change departments. I'm not going to continue here, and I'm going to figure out where I'm going."

My supervisor told me, "We support you. Figure out where you want to go next." I had a good supervisor. I interviewed a lot of organizations within that company. I didn't know where the heck I was going. I trust in my gut. I remember I was between 2 or 3 organizations and supply chain was one of them.

I remembered going into the intranet. It's like the internet we have internally within that company. I typed supply chain. The first slide had a PowerPoint deck. The first slide I saw was about developing people. I was like, "This is it." I didn't know anything about the supply chain. I didn't know SAP, purchasing process and working with suppliers, but I just knew that was it.

I talked to someone from the supply chain. I got the contact information. I gave that contact to my supervisor and I told her, “This is all the information. Please call this person to transfer all of these towards that organization.” It took five months and I’m still working there. After that, I transitioned and I loved it so much more. I love the culture, environment, and even the job. I learned SAP. I started to develop relationships with suppliers. Even though I didn't know much about it because I never went to school for supply chain, it was something that I was so passionate about and was hungry to learn more.

I was hungry to make an impact in that organization and in that culture. In a matter of few months, I knew SAP and the process. I was analyzing the contract data and materials data. They find that you're passionate about something, even though you may not have the skill initially. That doesn't justify you’re not doing it.

I truly believe because I believed in my life and hard work. If you're passionate about it and driven, you're going to figure it out. It's a matter of time. I don't have the minimum doubt about it. I would recommend you if you have a belief around, I don't know anything or I don't have the certification, just let go of that belief and start learning about it. If you're going to go to training, you can practice and figure it out. That's the way it's going to take you a long way.

That mindset of, even though you may not know, you're going to figure it out. If you want to think that unconventional path, you find your own life and reality. That's a mindset that you have to lead your life by. “I don't know. I'm going to figure it out.” I'm in the supply chain for four years and I love it. I'm doing really well.

The Transition To The Next Step

After four years, I told myself, "It is time to align more with my values." As I'm walking this path, it's something I didn't mention in the background, I went to John Maxwell Team training. I got certified as a Coach Speaker Trainer. I was using my two weeks’ vacation to incorporate and go to all these events to become certified and get new learnings.

Even if I was enjoying my supply chain job, I knew that was not it. I knew that there was something else that I had been connecting with from years before, and that was helping people in their mindset, align with their purpose, live their life empowered, and recognizing that we are not the victim of this reality of circumstances. It's all the opposite. We are empowered and in control of it.

I wasn't just doing my supply chain career, I was also getting ready for my next step a few years after. I still wasn't ready to transition full-time to entrepreneurship. I knew that was something that I wanted to do and I hadn't even done multilevel marketing. I feel like a lot of people had done it and I learned a lot either it works out for me, I did learn a lot.

I have been trying a little bit of everything. All of it aligned with what I was interested in doing in different fields and trainers. That was 2017. Two years after I started in the supply chain, I was 35 as a Neuro-Linguistic Practitioner. Two tears after as a Master in Neuro-Linguistic Practitioner and few years after as a coach.

I kept growing on the backend. I also started coaching people in the back to get in practice because I knew that’s where I’m going and I knew that was my direction. That's why even in my corporate career, I kept outlining my purpose and my direction. It doesn't matter what situation you're in. There is always something to learn and something that you can do to align yourself further to the person that you want to be.

There is always a lesson to be learned from anything or anyone.

After four years in the supply chain, I knew it was time for a change, so I did it. I transitioned to another company, another corporate job in consulting. It was more people-oriented and more solving problems. It was about developing a strategic mindset about developing thought leadership by content, learning how to sell with clients and how to deliver value to clients, which is the most important part.

It was a lot more aligned to my values. I also moved to a company that I truly, from my heart, appreciated the culture. It's a great company and I did very well. Two years in, I was promoted that same year I was recruited. I've always done a lot. I did a lot during those two years as a strategy and management consultant for oil and gas.

In the background, on the weekends after 5:00 PM every day, I would coach clients and continue working on my certifications and training. I always knew that was it. I didn't have clarity on the how, the format or if it wasn't going to work out. I gained clarity through taking action and experimenting on all of those things all day. For several years, I was in corporate. I spent two years in consulting.

Something happened with my uncle, the one who introduced me to NLP and Tony Robbins. He was battling a couple of years with cancer and he lost his battle. That was the first person in my life that I had lost while being alive, and my family is super small, my dad, two uncles, grandmother, mom, half-sister and half-brother. My family is small and I have lost the person that had been my biggest role model after my mom.

To me, that was a hard realization. I feel the death of someone puts things into perspective. When he passed away, I realized how fragile life was. He had a lot of dreams and aspirations. He wanted to empower people. He wanted to help people realize that whatever they were seeking is within and whatever they are wanting to receive, the answer is from the outside. It may sound easier but long-term, that's not the more fulfilling and efficient way. He passed away. He had a lot of aspirations that he was not able to fulfill, and to me, that was a moment of reflection.

Pursuing My Passion

After two weeks of processing what had happened, I realized that this was my time to live my purpose, passion and whatever I had been working for in the background. Even in corporate, I would be involving wellness activities and meditation and I tried to incorporate who I was authentically into a job I was doing.

At that point, it was time to work full-time. I started to ask myself, "What am I afraid of?" I know we asked, "What's the worst that can happen?" I did ask that and I also asked, "What's the best that can happen?" I knew I was ready, committed and driven by my purpose and passion. I told myself, "I'm going to make it."

It's a matter of time. It's not a matter of if. I wanted to also honor my uncle because he was my biggest inspiration. It's because of him that I learned the tools, skills and discover my path. Looking back, it's so interesting to see how certain people are in their path with a purpose and there is always a lesson to be learn from anything and anyone.

As all of you know, I transitioned to full-time entrepreneurship. A full-time mindset and clarity coach. Employing all of the Neuro-Linguistic Programming. He knows these techniques that I've learned. It’s the techniques that I learned with the John Maxwell Team. I've also been training different healing modalities.

Kahuna Healing is the native ancient Hawaiian way of leading and working with energy. I love everything about the human being because I know what all of you start knowing yourself on realizing how powerful you are. How much potential you have to do anything you want in life. You started getting excited about your life, what's next and all the things that sometimes you can start doing in the background with a purpose and direction.

I always tell everyone that direction is one of the most important things. No matter what you do, you got to start with what's your direction. Who is the person that you want to be? I mentioned it several times, but that is important. Before committing to something, what's your direction? Who is a person that you want to wait? Is that thing you want to commit with aligned to that path to get there in your direction? Everything else is an instruction.

That's basically my story. I started in Cuba, even though I didn't give a lot of details. I need to start from the beginning. I hope all of you enjoyed it, at least the first time I shared the story completely for sure. I wanted to be vulnerable. I wanted to be able to allow you to know the lessons that I've learned and know my path.

It did take a couple of years. The one thing that I was consistent with was action. Experimenting, trying to understand better, and how I could make my passion my full-time career. The reality is that we spend our careers most of the hours of the day. It is a really important element in our lives. You can be happy in your career, fulfilled and satisfied, and it's in your control.

In the next episodes, I'm going to share one of the interviews I did with the back strategies, Lyndsay. She's super inspiring. She has her own business. In the beginning, she wasn't working for herself. It is sharing her own journey of fun, excitement, and challenges at the same time. All of you can learn from her like I hope you learn from me.

It was my story. I want stories like I always do. There is a question at the end. A question to make you reflect and when you reflect on who you are. The question is, "What stories haven't you told yet that will be of a huge impact to the people around you?" It doesn't matter if it's work and in the family. What stories can you tell or even have the stories you have? Which ones can you share more often, so you're going to impact, empower and inspire other people? I hope you enjoy this episode. I definitely spoke from my heart. I hope that you can share these with all of your friends and some families so almost can be even more empowered. Thank you so much.

Important Links:

• Unleash the Power Within
• John Maxwell Team

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