How To Live Your Passion As a Professional Speaker - Dr. Reggie Wright

This is the Beyond the Story podcast, a show that goes way beyond the story. And now, Sebastian Rusk Dr. Reggie Wright is in the building. What's good, my brother?

Sebastian Rusk

Hey, man, I'm grateful for being here. Thank you for having me on, man. You the man. I'm just happy to be in your presence.

Dr. Reggie Wright Jr.

Oh, man, I'm just trying to be like you. My goodness. You and I met not too long ago, a couple of months back. in Washington, D.C. at podcast. Speaking of podcast, that podcast movement was a great show. And you were there with the team from The Speaker Lab. And that led to another conversation after that and me becoming part of The Speaker Lab to scale my speaking business. And you and I have been able to develop a relationship since then. So, man, it's good to have you here, man. I was, let me not choke here, was excited to connect further and tell your story. So, man, I love, I love telling stories on this show. Obviously it's called beyond the story. And, um, like, like for, for context, for our listeners, I like going back to the beginning of the story where, where it all started, what really brought you to present day. I don't know what that beginning is for you, but feel free to start wherever you're at. I just want to give our listeners an idea of what it looked like before dr. Reggie, right. The, the, the speaker. Um, and, and, and entrepreneur and businessman was, was, is what it is right now.

Sebastian Rusk

Yeah, man. Listen, well, first and foremost, again, thank you for having me on here. It's a tremendous honor, man. I really do appreciate the invite to be able to jump on here with you doing a great work and doing some great things, and I'm excited for you. So thank you. Thank you, bud. Just to give a little backstory, and I'll make it short, give you a short synopsis. I'm from the city of Trenton, New Jersey. So Trenton is the capital of New Jersey. It's a small city. It's about seven square miles. Approximately 85,000 people in the city of Trenton, New Jersey. And I was raised by my grandmother. My grandmother came from Mississippi to New Jersey back in 1960, 1960. And then she began her journey as an educator in 1970. And she raised me primarily for my entire childhood. My mother got pregnant with me at 19 years old. So back in the day, You know, as we call them, the older saints would say that's a baby having a baby, right? A 19-year-old having a baby. So my grandmother stepped up and did what a lot of grandmothers did back in the 80s and 90s. And that was said, hey, listen, I want to give this little baby a chance to grow up to be a young man and have an opportunity to be successful. So she raised me along with my grandfather. And they're both still here today. My grandmother is 84 years old and my grandfather is 96 years old. God bless him. 96 and still can see, hear, smell, talk, walk, like he's still doing extremely well. So, you know, that's where it all began back in the city of Trenton, New Jersey, long before I got to where I am today, but they kinda, they planted the roots. Yeah, they planted the roots.

Yeah, absolutely. And so what happened after high school?

Yeah, so my grandmother put me in parochial school, you know, some people notice Catholic school from kindergarten through 12th grade. Once I graduated high school, I went to a small division three school in Jersey City, New Jersey, where I majored in computer science and I played basketball. And just like a lot of kids that come from the inner city context, I had hoop dreams, right? I had dreams of either going to play professional basketball in Europe or in the NBA. Obviously, the ultimate goal was the NBA. But for me, I said, hey, if I get a chance to get paid to play a sport, that's a dream come true. And, you know, a lot of people that I was surrounded by had limited beliefs, just to be honest with you, Russ. And they would tell me what I couldn't do. But I had a mindset and perspective that said I can and I will. If it's reachable and it's achievable, I will do it. It may not be easy. But I'm not going to give up. So after high school, I went to the small division three school, played four years of collegiate basketball, graduated with a undergrad at computer science, and then went on overseas and played professional basketball in Europe. Amazing. How long did you do that for? All together, between full-time and summer leagues, it was about seven years of professional basketball that I played before I came back here to the States, and then transitioning to a different career, which was a career, believe it or not, I don't even know if you know this, in law enforcement. Yeah, in law enforcement. So, listen, I've done a whole lot in a small period of time.

Yeah, you sure have. You sure have. And now, You're a professional speaker, you work in the education space, and you're really good at what you do and deeply passionate about it. How did that whole thing start to take shape?

Oh man, great question. I'll give you, let me paint it to you this way. So I started teaching a character development SEL, which stands for social emotional learning curriculum into the schools, primarily to middle school students, upper elementary, middle school students. And I saw the impact that was making in their lives, but not only did I see the impact I was making in the students' lives, The actual classroom teachers and even administrators in certain schools is like, hey, listen, you seem to have a knack for communicating because these students are saying a lot of positive things about you when they're not in the classroom with you. And, you know, kids are honest. You know it, Russ. They're brutally honest. Either they like you typically or they don't like you. It's not much gray area. So the fact that I was getting such positive feedback, I was like, man, maybe this is a gift that I have. Maybe this is something that God has called me to. But it's still like the light bulb didn't go on, Russ, until one day I was on a committee. And this committee was trying to decide who was going to be a speaker for a conference. And this conference was for Young men in high school, it was a district-wide thing. So they were inviting a whole bunch of males throughout the entire district to come to this conference at a community college. So you're talking about 300, 400 male students. And on the committee, they had a budget for food, transportation, et cetera, but they didn't have a budget for a speaker. So somebody on the Zoom call, just like you and I talking right now, said, hey, I've heard Reggie do some speaking before. He's a good communicator. Let him do it. I had never done anything to this magnitude in my entire life, ever, at all. But peer pressure, right? We taught the kids about peer pressure. The peer pressure got to your boy. The peer pressure got to me. And I'm like, OK, I agreed to do it. Well, it was six months out. So what I did was, I prepared for it like it was life or death. But in my mind, what I was preparing for was to make an impact in the lives of those students. That was really my heart and passion and desire, is I wanted to get up there and say something that was meaningful, impactful, that would help them understand the value and purpose of an education. That was my heart and passion. So the day came, I did this keynote presentation, this 45 minute keynote. I never thought for one second that in a room full of 300 plus students, you're going to have principals, teachers, you may have some superintendents, executive directors of nonprofits. And that's who was in the room, some decision makers. And when I finished that keynote, they all thought I was an actual speaker. Not somebody that was just voluntold to be there, right? And agreed to do so. And I was like, that's when a light bulb went on. And I said, you know what? I feel like this is something that I have a gift. It's something I was called to do. Let me get some coaching so I can understand how to start a speaking business and kind of get things in place. You know, let me discipline myself and learn about my craft. And the rest, as they say, is history. I love that.

I love that. I, I, I'm a firm believer that sometimes you discover your passion as a speaker in real time on stage. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That happened to me in 2000 and I'll never forget it. 2008 I was in Las Vegas. I was contracted with a network marketing company and my job was to create a training curriculum and then facilitate that training curriculum at their live events. And I got the opportunity to do that. And I stepped out on stage and I said, this is it. This is what I was born to do. I was born to be on the platform and communicate. Now things have changed drastically in the past 16 years, but it's changed. It's been an evolution. And I think, you know, much like the human experience, being a speaker is an evolution because I look back on my talks 10 years ago and I cringe. I look at my talks these days and I was like, you boys got it. You know what I mean?

Yeah. Yeah. I look at that one, too. But I tell you what, my pastor, Dr. Darius Danes, I believe this quote came from him. He said, when you he said, when you chase your passion, you find your purpose. Hmm. When you chase your passion, you find your purpose. And that's essentially what happened. I was just so passionate because I understand the value of an education and how it's helped change my life. So if I could get students and educators to see the work that they do as educators, as administrators, and teachers is so valuable. And I get the students to see how learning, intelligence, and character can change their whole life, the trajectory of their life. Come on, man. It's all about legacy. That's what I want my legacy to be. The impact I had in the lives of other people. Correct. That's all we leave behind anyway. That's it. That's it. You can't take the material things with you, right? But I can create a legacy that becomes legendary.

What do they say? I've never seen a U-Haul behind a hearse before.

Never.

And we're not going to see one either. No, they're not going to start anytime soon. So has the message remained the same with the talks that you give now in the education space and for schools and colleges?

Yeah, so mainly, I mean, as it pertains to students, a lot of it is student apathy. So like I said, helping students to see the true purpose of an education and get them to have the right attitude and perspective towards that. And also, even high achievement schools bring me to talk to students about dealing with stress and anxiety, right? So I talk to students about setting reachable goals and you know, making responsible decisions, identifying, managing their emotions, you know, choosing friends based on healthy qualities versus unhealthy qualities. You know, all those types of things are extremely important. So that's the SEL character and part of it. And then with administrators and faculty and staff, I usually talk to them about teacher burnout, right? Helping them remember why they do what they do. You know, Inky Johnson says, people don't get burned out because of what they do. People get burned out because they forget why they do what they do.

Yeah. Yeah. That why is important. Once you get that thing anchored in there, it keeps you going when you don't want to keep going.

That's it. That's it. And that's, that's what it is. It's all about grit. So that's when I read a book from Angela Duckworth years ago called grit. And she says, grit is passion and sustained persistence applied towards a long-term achievement with no particular reward for recognition along the way. It could take years, months, weeks, or even decades. So when you look at people like Morgan Freeman, Morgan Freeman was almost 50 years old when he got his first big break. But guess what? He never gave up, Russ. When times get hard, when challenges come, trials and tribulations, adversity and opposition, most people give up. That's what they do, you know? It's easy to give up. Usain Bolt said it. We all know Usain Bolt, the great Jamaican athlete, right? Track runner. He said, I trained four years. Just think about this. Four years for one nine second race. But he said in life, when people don't get the results they want in two months, they give up. They're out.

Right. Colonel Sanders. Tap out. Colonel Sanders got his break. What? 64, 63, I think. I mean, how many, how many, how many doors he knocked down with that recipe? And people said, no, no, no, not happening. Yeah. So it's never too late to, to, uh, I always like to say, are you willing to give up who you've become to be who you are? And that's people's wheels for a second ago. And that's, that's a riddle to some people. So I'll say it again. Are you willing to give up who you become to be who you are? And, um, I think that's the evolution of life is, you know, in this in this human experience of being able to say it just doesn't it doesn't matter where we've been. It matters where we're at right now. More importantly, what we're willing to do with where we're at right now.

What are we willing to do? And that's why I admire you. Like, honestly, like, you know, we talk offline and it's like, man, like. the resilience, the courage, the willingness to keep going and not give up, because most people will give up. And sometimes people don't even get started. Some people don't get started because of fear, and fear will paralyze you. Fear will paralyze you. Fear will keep you from even going after your goals, dreams, and aspirations. That's why when I give my keynotes, I tell people all the time, the richest place on earth is the graveyard. Because people are born, when they're born, they have time, talent, and treasure. They don't maximize their time, right? And they never fulfill their maximum potential because of fear. They go to the grave with all their ideas, creativity, their imagination, and everything that they could have at least tried. I mean, what's the harm if you try and it doesn't work out? You know, listen, you can close that chapter and move on to the next one, but at least you try. You won't look back and live life with regrets. What if? What if I would have tried? What if I would have taken the first steps? What if I would have got some coaching? You know, like, that's the most important piece.

Yeah, I think that they say people's number one bedside regret on their deathbed is not doing more of the things that they love to do.

Absolutely. Yeah. And I always tell people too, it's like, like we just talked about in the beginning, if you really chase purpose and you follow your passion, you become a person of value, like the money will come, but you have to find something you're so passionate about that you won't give up. And then another thing too is this, Russ, oftentimes people will look and see where we are right now. Like people reach out to me all the time, right? And I'm sure there may be some people that listen to this that will reach out to me. They'll see where I'm at right now, but not thinking about what's the process it took for me to get here. Right? That's why there's a quote that says, an expert at anything had a beginning. Right? An expert at anything, you know, had a starting point. They have an origin. They started somewhere. I don't care who they are. I don't care if it's Oprah, if it's Tony Robbins, it doesn't matter who it is. They had a starting point, but guess what? They started. You know, they started.

Yep. It's a matter of just getting started. And that's, you know, I try to, I try to, I try to live my life as that example, especially when resilience shows up and especially with it, with, with, with being a, professional speaker, we have a message that we, that we give when we're on stage and that we're telling people that we want to impact lives. And if we're out of alignment with that message in our own life, it creates chaos in areas we couldn't even expect. And that's what I've been able to leverage at times of adversity. When things get hectic and uncertain, I say, who's missing out? because you're not showing up, Sebastian. I'm asking myself that same question that I'm posing out there. Because if I don't, Reggie, I'm a fraud.

Yeah, absolutely. You know what I mean? Yeah. And people can sense that. They can sense if you're not being authentic and genuine in your delivery and who you are. And that's important, right? Because if somebody is bringing me in as a speaker, bringing you in as a speaker, you know, ultimately I think they're bringing us in because they know us to some degree. They like us and they trust us, right? So they have to trust that we're being our authentic selves. They have to trust that what we're saying on stage is the same life that we're living. And that's extremely important. And like you said, hard times, adversity is going to come, but adversity builds character, Russ. You can't build character if you don't go through anything in life. And no matter if you're an athlete, if you're a speaker, if you're a doctor, if you're educated, you're going to go through some things and that builds character. You know, as my friend, my great, you know, close friend, Monty Williams said, oftentimes what you want in life is on the other side of heart.

You know? There was never a mention of easy. No.

Ever. No. My grandmother would say if it was easy, everybody would do it, right?

This is true. This is true. I posted that quote this morning. Tough times don't last.

Tough people do. People do. That's it. That's it. That's it. And it starts here. It starts here in the mind. Like the mind is- It's a crazy place. Yeah, the mind. People, like the mind will play tricks on people. It'll have people thinking that things are going to happen that's not going to happen. It'll have people thinking they can't do something that they can. The mind will play all kinds of tricks on you. It all starts here. Russ, I remember my son, my son is 14 now, but I remember when he was 12 and he was running cross country. At the time he was in sixth grade. He was running cross country. And I think they were running like a two mile race or something like that. And he was almost to the finish line. And there was a kid coming behind him. And the kid was closing the gap. And I'm yelling at my son, Isaiah. I'm like, Isaiah, he's coming. Isaiah, he's coming. Trying to get my son to pick up the pace. Russ, this kid ran. posed a gap with my son. As he ran past my son, he touched him on the shoulders. I'm not lying. He touched my son on the shoulders and said, pain is only temporary. That's a mindset, Russ. That's a mindset. That 12-year-old, somebody had taught him or he embodied a mindset that said, no matter what I'm feeling right now as I'm running this race, this two-mile race, yes, I want to stop. Yes, my legs may be hurting. Yes, I'm breathing heavy. But you know what? The pain that I'm feeling is only temporary. He knows that what he wants is on the other side of hard. It's got to get there. You got to keep running. You can't stop.

I always say you can't win the game if you're not in the game. If you're on the bench, you're not going to win the game. You have to get in the game and get there. So we're almost done with 2024, which is wild to say. What are you excited about for 2025?

Oh man, listen, my mission and purpose stays the same. I'm excited to get back into these schools with these educators and these students and really impact them. Let them know that they have worth, they have value. Let the teachers and administrators know what they're doing is the real work. They are the real superheroes. You know, as much as we like celebrities, man, these teachers are out here making a difference. And I want them to know that, you know, what they do matters. And I want to really help them understand how they can build rapport, you know, help them with classroom management, school and school culture and climate, and then help these kids again, man, just see that, you know, it's not just learning, but it's the application of knowledge that is powerful. Listen, what you're doing, Russ, is because you've been able to gain some intelligence and now you're applying it. You know, you're helping people. People have a problem and you're going to help them solve that problem. So you're extremely valuable in the space that you occupy. And I just really want to help these kids and educators see that. So I'm excited to get back after it. You know, like, just like, like I did in 2024, make an impact, empower, inspire, motivate. That's it. Love that.

Love that. Well, man, it's a privilege to call you a friend and be connected with you, and I'm so grateful for the opportunity to get in the mix with The Speaker Lab. I'm excited to see what's to come with 2025 and my speaking business as well, to get out there and inspire and motivate and differentiate and get people to just shift and do something different because we had an experience together for a little bit of time. on there. But man, I love what you're up to. I love your heart. I love your passion. I love the work that you do. The world needs more people like you. So it's a privilege to be connected with you. And I appreciate you taking some time out of your crazy busy schedule to hang out with me for a few minutes. Any final thoughts for our listeners?

Oh man, I would just say this. If anybody has a heart desire to speak, any aspiring speakers listening, I want to speak to the aspiring speakers for a second. I just want you to have the mindset that you can and that you will. If you have something to share, something that's powerful, if you have a story, if you have some shared experience in life experiences, you can make a difference in the lives of not just hundreds, but thousands of people, but you have to take action. It takes courage, right? And courage is not the absence of fear, but courage says, listen, I'm going to embody the traits that's necessary to go after my goals, dreams, and aspirations. So just have the courage, believe in yourself. If you need any help, you can reach out to me. I'm willing to, you know, talk to you, you know, give some coaching, mentorship, some guidance. You can find out more about me. My website is www.ReggieWrightJr.com. That's Reggie Wright Jr. And you can find me on all social media platforms, Dr. Reggie Wright Jr. That's D-R Dr. Reggie Wright Jr.

I'll include all those links in the description of the show notes of this episode. Make it easy for you listeners that may be tuning in and want to connect with. I highly recommend that you connect further with Dr. Reggie. Well, thanks again, my brother. It's been a pleasure. I enjoyed our conversation. I'm wishing you a blessed holiday season and a very, very prosperous 2025.

I appreciate that, man. Thank you so much for having me on here. Appreciate you, brother.

My pleasure. Until next time, friends. Thanks so much for tuning into this episode of the Beyond the Story podcast. We sure do appreciate it. If you haven't done so already, make sure you're subscribed to the show. This way you'll get updates as new episodes become available. If you feel so inclined, please leave us a review. We sure do appreciate it. Signing off from the podcast, Launchlab.com Studios. We'll talk to you next time.