Interview to Franco Soldi by Diario Junin Argentina.
April 2018
Franco Soldi is an expert in creative thinking, entrepreneurship, innovation and effective communication. CEO & Founder of companies such as Young Potential Development (YPD) and content producer Next Stage, he is also author of the line of Metamorphoses® courses and seminars that present information on human development through the most fascinating form of communication known to man: Entertainment! In this personal interview, we’ll get to know more about his person, his testimony and what he offers to everyone he meets.
Who is Franco Soldi? Why is this Latin American, nicknamed the talent seeker, recognized as one of the best speakers in the world? Is he Peruvian, Mexican, Spanish or American?
Wherever I go I will be a foreigner. There is a little piece in me from each of the places I grew up. I enjoy a ceviche, a mariachi, a Royal Madrid match and the Super Bowl. I feel privileged to have grown up with the influence of so many cultures.
Did you study business administration?
Yes, I had to get my degree to learn how to manage my resources. Although truth be told, it was the degree everyone was choosing who didn’t know what they wanted to do. Currently, the vast majority of the universities offer degrees that are far behind the changes and innovation that our world is demanding.
Why did you name the first line of your seminars and courses metamorphosis?
There were many problems and extreme situations in my life from family issues to dangerous events (including an express kidnapping in Mexico City) …. I became a very passionate person and now use my communication channels to express how passionately I am living.
What metamorphosis have you undergone in your life?
I’ve been through a lot, and I’ve suffered like you or anyone else. Metamorphosis, transformation, is constant throughout human life and the environment we live in. Everything in the universe changes second by second, including us. So I am open to change in every instance of my life.
Why do you combine personal development and entertainment in your presentations and at your conferences?
We learn better when we’re not aware that we are learning. I try to keep the left brain entertained while I deliver my messages through the right side of the brain in a more emotional way that allows meaning to resonate with a greater impact.
I am an “entertainer” who delivers a message. I mean to say that I do not know everything or have all the answers. How can you behold a person’s truth if you do not know what it like to live, think or feel for someone outside of yourself?
So I use entertainment not to provide answers, but to inspire people to ask questions about their own lives, about their own truth.
What results have you seen from using this strategy?
That is something the audience would have to answer. It has brought me a lot of satisfaction, good times, knowledge and experience (I question my reality all the time) and, of course, the pleasure of meeting many people.
You started young right?
I gave my first paid talk when I was 18 and when I was 20 I set up my first company. I started young because life showed me its left hand and it was my decision to sit down to mourn my sorrows or to put myself into action to build the future that I wanted to live. I decided on the second option.
From a young age you have shared the stage with a number of different personalities. Can you mention some of them to us?
I have had the opportunity to meet many people. You learn a lot from some people and there is something great about the moment, with others it can be less so, and with very few people there is no connection at all, but everyone learns something.
I have been able to share the stage with influential people like the former Vice President of the United States Al Gore, the former Prime Minister of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev, the Nobel Prize winner Rigoberta Menchú, the former Mayor of New York Rudy Giuliani, the “Wolf” of Wall Street Jordan Belfort and the character of the film In Search of Happiness, Chris Gardner.
Why should companies come to you? What do you offer?
A different experience. And I do not say that as a slogan. Everyone has to prove it for themselves. Companies have always hired me because I have a very particular way of communicating my message. My courses and talks are a rollercoaster of emotions that will have an impact on whoever’s in attendance.
I do not offer a series of courses, I offer a tailored a suit of content for all of my clients using my technology: SINC (sound, image, neuro conditioning), which allows me to deliver the message in a unique way that nobody expects. All while using the best language: entertainment.
In your daily life how do you handle the following:
Communication…
a constant study, a passion, a whim. I want to know everything.
Entrepreneurship…
my way of life, my day to day. I always start and in many areas and in different ways.
Spirituality…
balance with my body, my soul and my mind. When this balance occurs in my life, I automatically come into balance with the environment. That gives me peace and that peace enhances my spirit and brings me closer to God.
Relationship and family…
team. My partner is my partner, my partner in life and our family is our team. It is the most exciting venture I have ever undertaken, the most satisfactory. And the one with the greatest transcendence.
Health…
the best way to take advantage of your resources. It is something that is grown and carried in the body, the mind and the spirit.
Motivation…
the sole internal engine that moves you in life. Nobody can give it to you, there is no motivation, only self-motivation. And it is necessary to understand where it comes from. Motivation comes from being able to find purpose throughout your life.
Two simple questions: Where am I? Where do I want to go?
It sounds simple but it is not. These questions are the cause of the vast majority of the social problems we face.
Self- improvement…
an advertising term
Self-esteem…
with self-esteem there is acceptance, self-knowledge, challenges, enjoyment, growth that forms into peace. It’s all part of knowing and loving yourself. Everything in your life comes first from you and when you have self-esteem, what comes out will always be good and positive.
Psychology…
something we are just beginning.
How do people’s life change after attending your talks? And how does yours?
Again, people do not know how they will change. It’s a process that depends on them. Each one will arrive with something different and will take from it something different as well. What I do know is that my life changes with each course and talk I give. I am very demanding with myself and have nearly given up on those standards several times; I feel fear, doubts and insecurities.
Every time I give a course, write a message, produce an event and have a moment when I question my existence; I recharge my energy and I move on.
You left a mark on the lives of people, who has left a mark on your own life?
My parents, my partner, my public … And in reality everyone who you encounter throughout your life leaves a trace in some measure.
How is an optimal state of mind achieved?
First let’s ask, what is it? I do not know, it’s different for everyone. Nobody seeks, or will seek, or has seeked God in the same way I have. God has a new ray of sunlight for each of His children and a virgin road.
Why do you work with young people now? How was YPD (Young Potential Development) born?
It was born from questioning whether we are giving the necessary tools to our children, not so they can have a life we would define as “successful”, but rather to be able to have a fulfilling and happy life.
In this world we need more happy and motivated people and to change that we have to start focusing on young people and education. This project was born 10 years ago in Madrid and it is difficult to execute since it is about innovating and the educational system is designed not to innovate.
What is the project based on?
On four pillars. Energy, because we do not give the body the necessary care, we need a balance between body mind and spirit. Creativity, something we lose over the years, although we all have the right hemisphere of the brain. Communication, essential in companies, in our relationships, with the children. Nobody teaches us how to empathize, stand up for your ideas, express what you feel. And leadership, from the point of view of self-management of happiness as a light. The happier the more it shines and that affects the environment.
What impact has it achieved?
Our method has reached more than 30,000 teenagers in Spain, Ecuador and Texas (USA). We are working hard to open Mexico, USA and Argentina.
Our method is taught form private schools in Madrid to Quito, to low-income public schools in the Ecuadorian Amazon and Houston, Texas.
What results can you say you get with the YPD program?
A badge of honor. I am about to publish my seventh book that includes in the prologue some testimonials of my former students from 8 or 9 years ago. This is the result of the YPD Program and the merit is not mine, but of the entire team of professionals behind YPD as well as the support and help of the partners who have invested capital and effort into the idea of being able to transform our educational system.
A new book? How many have you published?
This would be my seventh book. It’s called “Say NO to success”. It goes on sale in the next two months on Amazon.
No to success? But what people want is success, rigth?
That’s what the book is about. Success, and the no and yes to what really matters. To understand that success is, perhaps, a myth that has been invented to manipulate a society that does not know where it is and where it wants to go but is forced to produce and consume endlessly. But I’ll tell you more once the book comes out. That is material for another interview.
Define yourself in a sentence.
Easier, in one word: intense. Although my favorite phrase is from Saint Francis: “I need few things and of the things I need, I need little.”
T. @francosoldi
Facebook: Franco Soldi
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