I’m a big fan of learning from experts.
So, when my friend Travis told me that Kyle Maynard was coming to Wisconsin this weekend, I got really excited.
I used my trick and emailed Kyle earlier this week and when he responded, I was over the moon!
After a rough start (car trouble), I made the two hour trek to Tomah from Madison and arrived just as Kyle’s book-signing session was starting.
Me and Kyle
After meeting Kyle briefly, I hungout with his best friend and manager, Joey, for the next hour and a half. Joey is great. It was a blast to connect with him and pick his brain about speaking and publishing.
The hosts of the event invited me to stay for dinner and afterwards we all headed over to the high school to watch Kyle’s presentation. There were probably a thousand people there! And Kyle’s talk was fantastic. Poignant, hilarious at times, powerful…he has a gift for challenging and encouraging others. If you haven’t read his book, No Excuses, you really should. He wrote it when he was 19 and it’s perfect for kids and adults alike. His “No Excuses” message is still prevalent, but as he said, “If you come across someone who’s positive 100% of the time…RUN.” He realizes that we all have those days and even those periods in our life when excuses creep in, but how do we respond to those times? Do we let them keep us down or do we get back up, dust ourselves off and move forward? He challenged us to get rid of one excuse last night. We can all handle that. So, what’s one excuse that is keeping you from what you want to be doing? From your dreams?
Get rid of that excuse.
He also spoke about finding your purpose, your “why.” When we know our why, there’s no how we can’t overcome.
It was so fun to watch all the people talk to Kyle after. Seeing their smiles and tears and hearing them laugh; clearly that’s what it’s all about for Kyle. Hearing their stories.
Yesterday was an experience I won’t soon forget. Kyle and Joey were both gracious and kind and I count myself lucky to have gotten the chance to get to know them. And to top it all off, Kyle agreed to do a little interview for LOH! “Joey, can I borrow you for a minute?” I asked, needing a camerman. Yeah, I probably could have phrased that differently. Oh, well. Enjoy!
Make sure you go to Kyle’s website and checkout the videos of him being super famous. You can also follow him on Twitter. And the documentary about his quest to fight MMA, A Fighting Chance, is on Hulu (naughty language alert).
