Before 1.1 million TikTok followers and 440,000 Instagram followers, before over 200,000 leaders trained, and the best-selling book (Amplify Your Influence: Transform How You Communicate and Lead), René Rodriguez is happy to show you the video of his first presentation training.
“Here’s me at 300+ pounds, forty-five-percent body fat, stumbling over my words and looking like I have no idea what I’m doing,” Rodriguez says. It’s an old clip, but one the communicator keeps close at hand. It’s a video of someone who doesn’t seem comfortable in their own skin. One certainly wouldn’t consider it an engaging presentation. When you compare it with the person onstage today, it may as well be another person entirely. But Rodriguez says it’s imperative to not only be vulnerable but also demonstrate what people are capable of becoming.
“The beauty of anything like this is that a kid who was bullied, a kid who got made fun of, a person who had trouble communicating, a kid with an all too common sob story. Through hard work and a commitment to excellence, you can change your life. If you’re willing and open to grow, and if you’re willing to be coached, great things can happen.”
As Much as Necessary, As Little As Possible
Rodriguez has more than three decades of coaching, keynote speaking, transforming, and driving real change, not just motivating. He works with CEOs, entrepreneurs, celebrities, professional athletes, Sales Professionals, political figures, and even school systems. The differentiator, at least one of them, is Rodriguez’s behavioral neuroscience-backed work. How much science is part of his message?
“As much as necessary and as little as possible,” he says. “People need the science because while they’re going to come with me because of the emotional impact of what I do, they’re going to have to defend that process with logic. When you explain how, neurologically, this works, the level of confidence and trust goes up. That intentionality becomes clear.”
In practice, he’s able to demonstrate this fairly succinctly. At a presentation, Rodriguez will invite someone onstage and ask them to answer three questions. In effect, it’s the process of watching someone bomb. People naturally start covering up parts of their bodies because they feel exposed. You’ll see people even cross their arms to cover their vital organs or put their hands in what I call the “fig leaf” position, covering themselves in a similar way that Adam and Eve used a fig leaf. These are leaks of information about how they feel inside. Their body language is confused and lacks confidence; the same goes for their answers. Rodriguez is able to change all of this over time, but he needs to point out exactly what is happening in the brain. It’s amazing what happens when awareness is created.
But he doesn’t want to provide people with too much information in those short experiences that they can’t transform into action.
“My expertise and passion is applied science,” Rodriguez explains. “And that’s what people want. We don’t want the abstract from a journal, we want to know how to apply it to our own lives and business.”
The Paradox of Vulnerability
Rodriguez cuts an intimidating figure, with his shaved head and close-crossed goatee. That’s probably why his willingness to talk about vulnerability may seem so refreshing. The speaker says the paradox of vulnerability can create a tough situation for those trying to convey a message.
“Witnessing a leader express vulnerability in the right way feels courageous and strong. But it can leave the speaker feeling weak and exposed,” Rodriguez says. “We have to be weak and courageous and exposed and strong in the same dynamic. That’s a challenging proposition. It’s like salt. A little bit goes a long way.”
Again, in demonstration, Rodriguez preps a crowd with the idea that he is going to share something vulnerable. People get quiet, invested, and interested. He then calls on someone in the crowd, asking them to share something vulnerable before he continues.
“They go from holding their popcorn in anticipation to mortal terror,” the speaker says. “We live in a ‘you go first’ society.” We all want everyone else’s vulnerability, but we don’t want to be the first to share our own.”
Who Can Best Be Served?
What makes Rodriguez most effective as a change agent isn’t just the fact that he spent years in change management. It’s how he thinks about his craft. It’s not one size fits all, and that’s never how he’s operated.
“I think about who your customer is, who your team is, who your audience is, and why they come to you,” Rodriguez says. “How do we serve them at the highest level? If we can achieve that, my needs have already been met.”
Rodriguez is committed to helping those he serves become impossible to ignore or be misunderstood.
Through his interactive AMPLIFII program, Rodriguez takes a small group of participants through a two-and-a-half-day event aimed at enhancing communication and thinking skills, cultural awareness, and other leadership skills. It’s a course he’s built over eighteen years and one that he codified in his book.
Ten people come together to uncover their origin story and understand the power of their own narrative.
“Important to understand that narrative that we use narrative as a construct of reality. If you own the narrative, you own people’s construct of how they understand the world,” Rodriguez explains. “In essence that’s how you can shift someone’s reality based on how well you tell a story. We dive deep and examine how that is manipulated against us in the media, in politics, by gaslighters and narcissists. I realize this sounds dark, but it’s once we understand this process that we can harness it for good. You have to understand the darkness before you can find the light.”
Own Your Story
Rodriguez says that his identity as a Cuban and as a Latino is one of the most important things in his life but he has never leaned into it in business because he believes in creating undeniable value. If you make a sale, solve a problem and add value to the business, people don’t care what you look like or who you are. At least that’s what he’s chosen to believe. Now, he wants to create communicators who are undeniable, not great with a caveat.
“But over the last ten years, I’ve realized that I need to actively reach out more to my Hispanic community,” the speaker says. “There is a lot of good work to be done, and I believe I have a duty to give back as much as I can.”
The best part of speaking with René Rodriguez is the feeling you walk away with. You feel capable and energized. But that’s not what he’s after. That feeling is fleeting and temporary. He wants to ensure that in whatever capacity you’re engaging with the world, that you know who you are, you know why you’re there, and you understand the power of your own story.
