#15 The Heart of Success with Todd Lamanske

How is success defined? Magician Todd Lamanske’s answer to that question may surprise you. Having graced stages such as The Magic Castle in Hollywood and Penn and Teller’s “Fool Us,” you might imagine this award-winning entertainer’s idea of success comes down to fame and money. But don’t be fooled – success to Todd is about so much more.
Learn how a history of two broken arms, three heart attacks and countless “puddle splashing” moments have helped Todd discover true success not in worldly pursuits, but in gratitude, a passion fulfilled and meaningful relationships. Devin’s good friend and peer of nearly two decades, Todd Lamanske’s inspiring stories are sure to capture your heart and inspire you to define, or perhaps redefine, what success means to you. 

Guest Website: https://magicdude.com/

A special thanks to Eggtc. Shawnee for sponsoring this episode!

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:04

Hello everybody, welcome to the possibility mindset podcast. I'm your host, devin Henderson, and I believe that something greater is always possible for you. Good morning, todd Lemansky. Good morning. Well. Before I introduce Todd formally, because it's going to be super formal we're going to put our tuxes on just for the introduction. But before we get there, I want to give, of course, the normal, well-deserved shout out to EGCEDRA Shawnee, who is just crushing it. We just had breakfast, so thank you to Shane and the manager, michael Phyllis. Chris, sean, excuse me, sonia, our server. I know their names. It's like trying to name my kids.

Speaker 2: 0:47

I'm like.

Speaker 1: 0:48

Eva, I mean Haven Met. I do that with my servers and they're very confused and seriously. Egcedra, thank you so much for the space. They give us the place and they give us the time and the breakfast, so they're a sponsor.

Speaker 2: 1:03

Well, we do have to mop the whole restaurant once, and for all.

Speaker 1: 1:05

Okay, you're not supposed to tell that to my listeners, do you? I'm trying to keep an image here, right? I don't show me mopping the place afterwards.

Speaker 2: 1:12

I'm replacing a couple of shingles on the roof. It's a whole thing, but they're nice, they're very nice. Oh man, oh, my goodness.

Speaker 1: 1:18

Yeah, this is going to be a long episode, as you can already tell Todd, before we introduce you, how was the Despierda burrito?

Speaker 2: 1:25

It was very good, like really really good, Very filling. I actually couldn't finish it, but I know.

Speaker 1: 1:31

Now that reminds me of Anchorman, when he's like this burrito is good, but it is filling, and he throws it out the window and Jack Blash says so, did you say that? That's all I could think about. So it was good, it was filling.

Speaker 2: 1:41

It was excellent. I had Mayouche.

Speaker 1: 1:43

They're awesome here. Sonya remembers my order every time because I always order the same thing. I get a veggie omelet and then oatmeal and she's just like boom. So she even knows all the details. It's amazing. Let's just talk about Ect For a while, forget about you.

Speaker 2: 1:57

It's amazing.

Speaker 1: 1:59

Hey everybody, this is my very good friend, todd Lemansky. I was going to read Todd's introduction, like I have for some of the other speakers and whatnot, or just pull their bio off their website, but what I thought I would do is play a little. I'm just going to throw out some fun facts that I know about Todd, because who's better at introducing someone than actually their friend? Because I don't know about you. I go a lot of places. People read our introductions. Some people crush it. They read it word for word. Sometimes they'll add things and that can either add to or take away.

Speaker 1: 2:29

It just depends on who it is it usually takes away, but go ahead Right right, I'm with you, but then sometimes it's just someone who's like I am reading this bio. This person went to the moon and back, very exciting. You're like, oh man, okay, some people have a video introduction, which is really cool.

Speaker 2: 2:47

Let's cut to that now. We didn't have the budget. We didn't have the budget. Sorry what I like to do.

Speaker 1: 2:55

we didn't have the budget, I didn't have the budget. This is my deal. Yeah, you're just disappointed. As soon as he walked in, he's like oh, a little ring light in your own camera. But before we get to your introduction. Do you ever just have someone you just say, hey, this person's fun, they're awesome. Hey, here's a couple of fun facts about me. Just get up and talk to the people like you're a normal person and set me up in the best way possible. Have you ever done that?

Speaker 2: 3:22

Yeah, but it's rare. Usually I want them to stick to my intro, just because most people don't know how to give an introduction. If I don't care too much, or just a small group, I might just say you can just say whatever you want. But generally I give them because my introduction is pretty short, yeah but you got some hard-hitting things in your intro. I remember the first couple of times I saw you on stage.

Speaker 1: 3:46

I was like I didn't know some of these things about you. So let's start with. Todd is an incredible magician, that's like whoa, whoa.

Speaker 2: 3:53

I know You're not going to start with handsome, you're not going to lead with he's really handsome, I know.

Speaker 1: 3:59

That just shows how much I think your magic is so good that it's like overrides your hands on this.

Speaker 2: 4:04

Sometimes, sometimes Today.

Speaker 1: 4:07

Today for sure. No man, he's an incredible close-up magician, stage magician. He's been performing I approximated about 35 years, based on how long I've known you. Does that sound about right?

Speaker 2: 4:20

Believe it or not. I mean, he just depends on like 45, really that was when I was young. But yeah, 35, yeah would be an accurate. You started learning maybe when you were 45 years ago. Okay, cool.

Speaker 1: 4:30

I'm thinking more like professionally making money career-wise. Yeah, because I've been like I've finished my 20th year professionally, so you got 15 years on me. You're 15 years better than I, am you punk? But Todd's magic has been featured in TV commercials. He has been a regular performer at the Magic Castle in Hollywood, which is huge. A lot of people always ask me you're performing in the Magic Castle? And I have to say no, but my friend has.

Speaker 2: 4:55

That's always my no, but I know a guy, he's very handsome. Yeah, I hope you threw that in, yeah.

Speaker 1: 5:02

I have it at every other bullet point. You just caught me on the one off, but I didn't get it. You performed at the inaugural ball for George W Bush, which is incredible.

Speaker 2: 5:11

That was incredible yeah incredible.

Speaker 1: 5:14

Yeah, maybe we can hear more about that. You performed for a variety of other celebrities and he just did a trick for our server. Phyllis blew her mind and I saw her out there. I didn't tell you this shit, but I saw her. She was. My mind is still blown. My son would have loved that. He's 21. And she said we watched those two people who were on A&E. Is that the channel there? The?

Speaker 2: 5:37

WE yeah CW, yeah the CCW, thank you.

Speaker 1: 5:40

We watched that. I can't remember the names. I was like Penn and Teller and she's like, yeah, I was like, yeah, he was on there and she was freaked out. Oh nice, so she's probably going to want to touch you on your way out the door, of course, of course.

Speaker 2: 5:49

So anyway, she was fun. They can all line up for $5. It's not a big deal.

Speaker 1: 5:54

But you can, probably they can watch your Penn and Teller, which was awesome. Just Google it, youtube it Todd Lemansky on Penn and Teller, you'll love it. So, most importantly, on top of all of that, todd's a family man, he's a husband, he's a dad, he's a grandpa, just to name a few. I know he does not look like a grandpa, but because he's incredibly handsome you're handsome grandpa.

Speaker 1: 6:16

Today the reason I want to bring Todd on. I knew it would just be a fun conversation, because when we we haven't done this for a long time and we need to do this just go on a road trip together, man. When one of us is performing out of town, we'll take the other and we'll just like laugh so hard in the car it's almost like you got to pull the car over Dangerous kind of laughter.

Speaker 2: 6:35

It's always fun.

Speaker 1: 6:36

It's so crazy, yeah, and Todd's the kind of guy that I can just call anytime. I don't have to have a reason, I can just be like, hey, dude, what's going on? It's true, it's really fun. So really good, friend, we're really tight.

Speaker 1: 6:47

But today I wanted to bring him on, especially because you know, this is the possibility mindset podcast, and a theme that I've seen in your life over and over again is just like unexpected things happening but then greater things happening because of it. So I feel like you've really had that possibility mindset and that you said, okay, this thing that happened, that I wasn't planning, but what else is possible? Which is what the possibility mindset asks, and I've just seen you achieve incredible things in your life. So I hope that you listeners, that my vision for you is that you'll kind of glean from some of this wisdom in his experience today as we dive in. So anything from the introduction excuse me, anything from the introduction that was me burping deep down, don't worry, they'll edit that out totally. I don't all be edited out. I've got a team and a sound crew over there.

Speaker 2: 7:37

Hey, crew, wave to the crew. You're doing this on the wrong side.

Speaker 1: 7:40

Am I doing that on the wrong side? No, is that go over here? My bad, I don't have camera awareness. Anyway, man, anything we need to add that I've missed from the bio or the rap sheet.

Speaker 2: 7:51

Nope, I think that's it, hey, listen really great chat with you how many felonies I? Forgot to mention that just every road trip we get one. Every road trip One per One per. That's awesome, man.

Speaker 1: 8:04

Oh, by the way, people think we look a lot alike. I've been mistaken for you several times.

Speaker 2: 8:08

Yeah, and vice versa. We don't really. Maybe when I was a little younger and thinner, and that's when people say that I say, yeah, that's Devon, he's younger and in better shape. I hate him and I do actually do say that I'm kidding, we're best friends, but yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 8:24

And then you swing at me the first time you see me, absolutely.

Speaker 2: 8:28

Well, I've got a. You're on my dartboard at home.

Speaker 1: 8:29

Yeah, yeah, totally, you can't even recognize me anymore. It's ridiculous man, but anyway it is funny how, I think, just being in the same industry, in the same town, you know people hasn't seen one of us for a while they're like, oh, is that?

Speaker 2: 8:40

you know, is that taught us at?

Speaker 1: 8:40

Devon. So is that anyway? So all right, man. The other thing I have to say just get ready for this. I have in my podcast right now. I have a lot of oh and, by the way, this before we start. Oh and by the way, this before we start, and then we never do a podcast which is it's all these, uh asides, and then it's like it's over. He's a lot funnier than I am.

Speaker 2: 9:03

Oh.

Speaker 1: 9:04

Meaning that, like in general conversation, I'll come up with a joke and then he always just takes it to here and I'm like how do you do that? Every time it's like I come up with a punchline and he just then he takes it to the grand slam and it drives me crazy.

Speaker 2: 9:16

So I do want to say this I think there was a time, maybe because I'd been doing it for a long time, when you were still pretty green, I'd been doing it for a while. So I think maybe there was a time that maybe I was funnier than you, and I'm not so sure that's the case anymore, because all of your years with the standup comedy and dude, you're funnier than you think you are.

Speaker 1: 9:37

Well, thank you Thank you. That brings us to funny contest number one Ding it's just coffee.

Speaker 2: 9:45

I swear it's just coffee.

Speaker 1: 9:50

It is just coffee, I was but.

Speaker 2: 9:52

I like doing this here.

Speaker 1: 9:53

What did you do, yeah?

Speaker 2: 9:55

I was just water, yeah.

Speaker 1: 9:56

Jeez, you're like one of those people on the talk show late at night when it yeah, are you?

Speaker 2: 10:00

okay. Yeah, I'm all right, I was just acting All right man.

Speaker 1: 10:02

So, dude, let's take it way back. Let's take it way back you how you started magic, right? Yeah, like I said, unexpected things happen, amazing things came from it. You broke not just your arm, you broke both of your arms when you were a young kid. And that led to what? How'd you break your arms?

Speaker 2: 10:20

So I'm going to back up even a little bit further. Sorry to do that to you.

Speaker 1: 10:26

So you just asked how far are you going to back up? So, not that far. Okay, not that far.

Speaker 2: 10:33

So just as far as like how magic started for me, the magic bug bit me when I was about seven years old. My brother got a trick deck of cards, a little magic deck of cards, and I saw it. I was like that is awesome. So that was kind of my first exposure to it and it was I fell in love, probably about age 12 or 13. I think I got a magic kid for Christmas and so then I was doing that and studying that, but at 13, that's when I broke both my arms. So I was lifting weights and I was just standing in my living room and I had 95 pounds over my head and my knees buckled and so I fell. And when I fell, you know, I fell kind of like in the military or the bench press position basically.

Speaker 2: 11:20

But you fell, you felt back, I fell back and the barbell hit my arms so hard so you can see about where the bar would have been. It would have been at least six, eight inches maybe from my chest. It buckled my arms so bad that the bar bruised my chest so it really crunched my arm. So yeah, sorry to be so graphic when I left arm I had to cast just halfway up and then this arm I had to cast, you know, all the way up to the bicep and the arm was bent. And I do remember. I do remember when I got to the hospital they had to set my arm so they put me out for it. And back then hospital beds weren't plastic, they were all you know. The rails were those metal, like kind of chrome metal rails, and I will come. You know, I came out of recovery and I'm waking up and I don't really know what's going on and I just remember it was like slow motion.

Speaker 2: 12:11

I lifted my arm and it went boom and it hit that metal and I was like, oh no, and I realized I had two casts on and that was like, I think, six weeks for one and then eight weeks to get the other one off.

Speaker 1: 12:24

So you didn't feel anything when you did that? No, it was just the realization of the cast. This wasn't a dream.

Speaker 2: 12:31

I am oh this is bad.

Speaker 1: 12:32

Did you black out when you hit the floor?

Speaker 2: 12:34

No.

Speaker 1: 12:35

Okay so you were wakefrogging. You were just yelling, I'm sure, In fact.

Speaker 2: 12:38

I didn't know. This arm was broken. This one was clearly broken.

Speaker 1: 12:40

Okay, there was no mistaking.

Speaker 2: 12:42

It was broken and my brother helped me because I didn't have a shirt on, because at 13,.

Speaker 1: 12:47

I didn't have a shirt on. He's not wearing a shirt right now. I'm not wearing one right now.

Speaker 2: 12:51

This is CGI. But so he real gingerly helped me get a jacket on and then, as soon as he got that one on, he grabbed this arm to stick it in and I was like ah, so yeah, so they were broken, jeez Anyway.

Speaker 1: 13:05

He was doing that to get the hospital. It was a cold day?

Speaker 2: 13:08

Yes, exactly, I don't remember. Yeah, it must have been. But so while I was in the hospital, one of my mom's friends bought me some books on magic. She bought me seven books on magic, and that's when I started. You know, I couldn't do anything at that point, but I was reading, and so that was. That was kind of a big turning point.

Speaker 1: 13:27

Man, can you imagine like the pain? I mean, that was before the days of viral videos, but had you been videoing that, that's one of those that would have gone out there and not a great way, but man yeah, I can't. Why were you lifting in your living room?

Speaker 2: 13:42

I mean. So keep in mind the house I grew up in. I'm the baby of eight, right, so 10 people in my family 900 square feet house. It was living room, kitchen, there was like a little hallway and there was three bedrooms and one bathroom. So there was four boys in one bedroom.

Speaker 1: 14:01

No basement.

Speaker 2: 14:03

No, there was a crawl space. You had to go outside to get to like if there was a storm you could go down there or whatever, but no, no, no basement. Wow, I'm telling you, dude, if you saw it you'd be like there's no way 10 people could have lived in this house.

Speaker 1: 14:14

Yeah, so yeah, I should have mentioned that about all the siblings.

Speaker 2: 14:20

So when you say, why in your living room?

Speaker 1: 14:22

Yeah, no, it makes sense. Yeah, for sure, I mean yeah.

Speaker 2: 14:26

Outside would have been the only other place to be doing it.

Speaker 1: 14:29

Well, not a lot of space to put in a CrossFit gym. Huh You're just doing barbells in the TV.

Speaker 2: 14:34

No, I got this physique the hard way.

Speaker 1: 14:37

Because the CrossFit people get it the easy way. Yeah, Come on, flippin' tires, Come on, Wow dude. Okay. So then you're reading books and I can relate because my journey happened when I was about 11. So around the same age you start sort of reading, digesting and taking all this in, but what's frustrating for you is you couldn't do anything with it at the time. You're learning all this cool stuff, thinking oh, I'd love to try this card trick in six months.

Speaker 2: 15:00

Right, not that long, but yeah, that's right.

Speaker 1: 15:03

So crazy man. Okay, so you get this fast forward, so you get through high school, and then how does magic become like a job? How do you start? Getting paid for gigs. What's?

Speaker 2: 15:14

that progression like. I met a guy when I was 18. He showed me a couple of tricks and that's when I started kind of taking a little more seriously. I mean, it was still a hobby but I was putting more effort and work into it. But when I was 21, I was selling office supplies and I was like an outside salesman. So I would call on companies and my thing was I wanted to set myself apart from anybody else selling off supplies.

Speaker 2: 15:43

So I would just casually bring up that I did magic. And just you know, I would kind of try to make it seem organic. I would just go oh yeah, I did a magic show over the weekend. And then I'd be like oh yeah, you didn't know I was a magician. And then so it just got to where my clients knew that I was a magician. So whenever I'd pop in to see them, like every couple of weeks, I would do a trick for them and so kind of gave me a little bit of an edge over the competition. But then that turned into like company Christmas parties and it just kind of snowballed from there. I just started doing events.

Speaker 1: 16:14

Crazy man.

Speaker 2: 16:15

Yeah, this story is so exciting that I need more coffee to hear the rest of it.

Speaker 1: 16:20

You're not a coffee drinker. You wouldn't understand A couple of things I pulled from. That is number one set you apart, which you know. One thing I always encourage people with is share your magic, you know, because we all have something unique.

Speaker 1: 16:34

So, even if you don't do magic tricks, what is that thing about you that's going to set you apart? If you're in sales, say, you know you're trying to build relationships, you know what is it about you? And for some people it's just their sense of humor, their personality. Maybe they, like they have little gifts that they give away. Maybe they're a good storyteller and you just always count this person to tell a story, maybe they have a joke of the day or whatever, and I just think it's cool that you had that thing that set you apart. I think that's great. And then the fact that it's like, wow, this became something, and just how it starts. So I always talk about start small and end big. You were just starting these little things and then it just started turning into parties here and there, and then I'm like look at you now, man, that's cool, you just followed your passion.

Speaker 2: 17:19

Well, it is weird. I think a lot of people think that there's this moment of clarity when it's like this is what I want to do and maybe that's the case for some people, but that wasn't the case for me it just kind of became that. It just kind of became that I realized, oh, I can do this for a living. You know I can, this can be my full-time thing. And there wasn't that moment. I do know I've talked to other magicians who said, yeah, there was that moment where I knew that's what I wanted to do.

Speaker 2: 17:48

That wasn't the case for me, in fact, when I was 18 graduating high school man, that was a confusing time for me because I didn't know what I wanted to do and I felt like a lot of my friends knew what they were gonna do and I was like I don't really know.

Speaker 1: 18:03

Well, by then were you pretty proficient in magic.

Speaker 2: 18:06

By the time you were graduating, I was okay, but it wasn't like I had even thought about that, for, like when I was trying to figure out what I'm gonna do with my life, it wasn't like that even dawned on me as the way I'm gonna go. It wasn't till, like I said, 21, you doing it for companies when I called on them to sell them off supplies. That that's when it started like, okay, I can, maybe I can do this. But even back then it was still part-time for quite a while.

Speaker 1: 18:34

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So then you fast forward. You had a day job for a while and then you were able to part ways. You had the opportunity to part ways with your day job eventually, and so obviously this is now what you do full-time. You don't. This is your day job, and that I think that's scary for a lot of people, which we're not out here saying everybody quit your job, right now but.

Speaker 1: 18:55

I think there's that message of are you living your best life? Did you follow your calling? Did you give up on a dream too early? And I think a lot of people are thinking like how can I, how can I move on in this area of my life? And maybe the message is there's something that you have to let go of it. It might not even be your job, maybe it's like an old way of thinking, or it's a relationship that's toxic, that's not good for you or something. But you were able to let go of this, which was scary. It's always scary to let go because there's a sense of security in it. And for you it was like you were making so much in your day job, so much as a magician, but how could you let go of that? So, telling about that like how was that scary? But also, how did it? You know, how did you embrace the possibility mindset through that process?

Speaker 2: 19:42

Yeah, so the day job I had right before I started doing Just Magic. Only I was there 16 years and at the beginning I liked it and liked everybody I worked with. Towards the end I hated it. I absolutely hated my job. I mean I hate to say it, but that's just. That was the reality. I hated going to work every day and it was just miserable. And yet I was still resistant to pulling away because, like you said, I have this big chunk of money that I'm making for my day job. I was actually making about the same amount of money as from my day job as I was doing Magic. The problem was you put those two together. I've got this decent income that if I walk away from the day job, I now have to take that the magic money and double it and fortunately for me, I'm very blessed within a year. I did that, yeah that's amazing.

Speaker 2: 20:40

It really is. It really is.

Speaker 1: 20:41

I watched it happen. I'm not patting me on the back.

Speaker 2: 20:44

You and I both share the same faith, so I'm very blessed, yeah.

Speaker 1: 20:48

I watched it happen and it was like, in theory, people might be like, hey, you let go your day job, you'll be able to focus here, and it's kind of like, is that really gonna happen? It happened with this man and the reason I think I mean, on top of being blessed and your faith and all that I think the way that I saw it happen was you were able to focus your energy, your effort, your resources, your finances, your passion into this one thing that you love the most and you're gonna work way harder for that because you love it than you ever would have that old job. And because of that, you didn't have to say no to any gigs because you had a day job. You had to work around that schedule. You could go anywhere anytime and that's what freed you up to like I mean, your business exploded.

Speaker 2: 21:29

Yeah, yeah, I mean I give it to God, but yeah, I mean honestly, that's where I put my faith as far as like cause I'm not really doing anything to market like, which maybe goes against everything you're preaching here.

Speaker 1: 21:44

Don't listen to this part. Entrepreneurs no, I'm kidding.

Speaker 2: 21:47

I think it, you know, like for me, when people have asked me for advice, and that I think the first thing is you gotta make sure you have a product that's good and I feel like I'm good at what I do. I don't wanna say I'm great, I know what I am, but I mean I'm good. You know, if you book me for an event, I'm gonna deliver. Yeah, I'm going to, it's true, it's very true, right. But so I mean I think you have to have that, you know. So if you're thinking I don't need to quit my job and I'm gonna be a skydiver, whatever it is like, make sure you know what you're doing in that other thing.

Speaker 1: 22:22

Yeah, you know that's.

Speaker 1: 22:23

Right man Maybe common sense, but Well, it reminds me of what Steve Martin says be so good they can't ignore you. Yeah, you know, and I'll hear so many magician speakers say you know, how do you get out there? How do you market yourself? It's like, man, just be good Like. I think it's. People just need to focus more on how good are you Like? Are you just rocking the stage? Are you crushing like? What kind of feedback are you getting? If it's not, you know, then why market yourself Right? Why market a less than good product?

Speaker 1: 22:51

I remember a guy in the speaker industry. For years he worked with the speakers bureau. He said nothing kills a speaker's career faster than great marketing with a bad speaker. Yeah, and then that's true, and I've experienced that too, where I've gone to the next level with my website and my demo video, where I'm like whoa, this is like better than I am, so I need to like. But instead of being like I'm going to not get a new website or not get a new video, I'm like how can I make myself better to make sure that I'm really going to deliver? I don't know why you're laughing, but deliver on this level of demo video or what Cause? It's like I need to make sure that when people hire me they're not like. His three minute trailer was awesome, but he was awful.

Speaker 1: 23:27

You know that's not what you want man.

Speaker 2: 23:29

Well, here's why I'm laughing, because it reminds me. There's a female comedian from years ago and I think her name is Margaret Smith or Maggie Smith or something like that and she's, she's kind of got this way of delivering stuff this way. She talks and she says my mom says why don't you wear a lipstick on stage? And she goes well, ma, but what if I'm not funny? It'd be like being a crummy outfielder with a paisley glove. And that's why I would laugh, because it's true, yeah yeah.

Speaker 1: 24:00

Totally man Well it is funny, cause sometimes I do think about what am I wearing? How's my hair, you know like what's? What's my appearance like when I come in? What do these people know about me?

Speaker 2: 24:09

But it's like oh man, so I see you stopped caring about that kind of stuff.

Speaker 1: 24:14

So I let myself go and now things are soaring.

Speaker 2: 24:18

My career is like you lost that one up. I had to swim, I did.

Speaker 1: 24:22

I liked to lob things up to you unknowingly. But yeah, man, but it's just like, oh man, I forget, like more I could go up there and T-shirt and jeans If I'm helping people transform their lives and go, wow, that's profound. I can apply that to my situation, my work, my life, right now you know and for you.

Speaker 1: 24:40

You know you didn't didn't really haven't really done the speaking thing You've. I've tried to nudge you there a couple of times with some messages, but it's like I mean you make people's lives better too, just making people laugh. You know, I know there's been situations. You and I have both worked in restaurants you longer than I have but people will come in and you'll approach a table and they just seem down and out and you just find out they just came from a funeral or something. And then you can just completely transform their day.

Speaker 2: 25:06

You know so it's, it is true.

Speaker 1: 25:08

Your work is just as valuable as any motivational speakers in terms of lifting spirits up, making people smile.

Speaker 2: 25:14

I know you know this. Your audience may or may not know this, probably doesn't know, don't know this. I had quintuple bypass surgery a little over two years ago and I remember laying in the hospital and and, by the way, I got a huge appreciation for nurses. I think we all know nurses are awesome. We all know that, everybody knows it. But it was like big time wake up call for me on what nurses do, like they are rock stars, saving lives every day. Nurses, you guys, heroes, rock stars. I love you.

Speaker 2: 25:52

But as I'm laying in the hospital, I'm looking at what the nurses do and what the doctor did to save my life and I was thinking about what I do and I mean I felt small. I felt like I do card tricks for a living. I know that's over simplifying it, but it made me feel small and I remember talking to a couple of people that said, no, what you do is important, people need that and you do bring joy and it. It took me a little while to fully embrace that, but yeah, I mean I do believe that now that it is, it's important. It's not saving lives, I know that, but I do believe there's value to doing that.

Speaker 1: 26:33

So, yeah, good, and I'm glad you see the value in it. It's true, and I think about, like you know, todd and I kind of started from the same place magicians, entertainers and then at one point someone challenged me to start being a motivational speaker. And I don't see that as a I took the right step or I went the right direction. But I do believe I went the right direction for me and if you did that, maybe it would have been the wrong direction for you. You know, I don't know what's in your future. I don't know what's in my future, obviously, but it just shows that, like to me, two people can still have this, be putting out the same value, but it just has different forms. But we're doing what's true to our calling. Maybe if you try to be a motivational speaker, you'd be like this just isn't me, like I can just impact people more with just this entertainment factor, you know. So I'm still gonna try to pull you over to the dark side.

Speaker 2: 27:23

Hey, I probably need to.

Speaker 1: 27:24

Only because I see so much. I see that there is so much there. But if that's not your calling, then I only see it because that's what I do. So of course I'm naturally gonna see people's story and the value in it and how it can impact people, but maybe that story is just meant for you know podcasts.

Speaker 2: 27:39

Well, it's interesting you're saying that, because I feel like sometimes people may try to define success for you. Let me give you an example. I feel like most people equate when they look at an entertainer. They equate success with fame. So, like I think people, if I was on America's Got Talent or if I was on like something, some national stage, they're like oh, to them, that's you know, and I know guys who are millionaires, magicians, who are millionaires doing magic. You don't even know who they are, but for some reason, if they have fame, oh, they work.

Speaker 2: 28:25

Like here's what I will hear on a fairly regular basis Like, why aren't you in Vegas? And like to them that's the gauge, that's the oh man, if you were in Vegas, like that's when the reality is, I'm exactly where I wanna be. I don't wanna. First of all, I don't wanna be in Vegas because my family's here. My wife is here, my daughter and my grandchildren are here. One of my daughters is here, but I don't wanna be in Vegas, they're all here. So for me, success is that I get to do what I love and make a good living and I get to be with my family. I wouldn't trade that to you know. So I guess don't let other people define what success is for you, you know.

Speaker 1: 29:11

Yeah, I love that and I know this isn't what you're saying. But it made me think when you said you know some people are millionaires but they're not known. But also, money doesn't determine success, you're just using the best example. Yes, yes, yes, thank you, Thank you for yes, I know you didn't mean that, but I wanted to bring that up because it's like, even if, like for us, like there's birthday party magicians right.

Speaker 1: 29:31

so at one time I was a birthday party magician and then I moved to corporate because for me it was like there was a next level. But I've often told my wife I was like that doesn't mean that that's what every birthday party magician is supposed to do, to make some shift to you know, bigger, higher paying audiences, whatever. Because if, like, your calling is to be a birthday party magician for life, that is success.

Speaker 2: 29:52

If that's your calling, Not to mention you were killing it back then, you were doing a ton.

Speaker 1: 29:56

Yeah, yeah, I love birthday parties. So as far as that goes.

Speaker 2: 29:58

You were very successful at that. But people again, people could view that as well. He just does kids parties and I think there are some magicians who would maybe look at that. But for what you were doing very successful, you were doing 20 to 30 a month, weren't you? Yeah? Yeah, that's crazy. That is crazy. That's before kids. So I could do that.

Speaker 1: 30:17

I could do four birthday parties on the Saturday. That's true man. But you know, I remember when I was doing, I was working at Fizzoli's on kids night, you know, walking around doing magic, and there was this girl that I had known because I used to watch her in after school daycare, and her family would come into the restaurant and after I'd been working there for a few years, she goes you're still here. This child is telling me this like kind of like that, why aren't you in Vegas? Now? You know, and honestly, I at the time I didn't have this knowledge of thinking, well, yeah, this is a success for me. I was like, yeah, you're right, I need to get out of here. And I eventually, you know, but she didn't probably mean it that way.

Speaker 2: 30:52

She probably meant like she thought you it was more of a compliment than you think it was.

Speaker 1: 30:57

Right, right right.

Speaker 2: 30:58

You're still here because I think you're so good you should be, you know, to another level or whatever. In her mind that was so she didn't mean it as an insult.

Speaker 1: 31:07

Well, it's funny because the offense is in the eyes of the beholder.

Speaker 1: 31:11

So, it's like if people define success for us, it's only because we're letting them do that Right, they can compliment us or whatever they want to. Oh, you should be in Vegas. And it's kind of like, yeah, I could be, maybe my skill set warrants that, but, man, I'm happy right here, this is right where I want to be, and I'm the same way, you know, like I feel so blessed to be where I am. My brother-in-law just shared this last night that he's up for a worship leader position at a church, at a small church, and he's got some high credentials.

Speaker 1: 31:41

You know he's like performed with people who have like worked with Michael W Smith and just like he's an incredibly musician, can play multiple instruments and during the interview process they're like why do you want to work here? Kind of the same idea, like why don't you want to go to some mega church or something huge? And just you know his answer is like this is my calling, this is where I've been put right now to something more like this. And but I think people do, I think the general public sort of see that the perception of man you're up here, so you should, you'd be long in a certain place where it's like who's to say, you know? So all right, man, so you covered the heart attack thing. I was gonna talk about that. So what's that?

Speaker 2: 32:21

Sorry, I got it no no, no, no, no.

Speaker 1: 32:23

I'm glad you did, I'm glad you. I just didn't want them to think that I hadn't say that's the pride in me going. I was gonna say that I was getting to it. I can't just let you have your moment. I gotta be like no, I was gonna do it.

Speaker 2: 32:34

If you want, you can just edit it later.

Speaker 1: 32:36

I will.

Speaker 2: 32:37

You look like you asked about that.

Speaker 1: 32:38

I come out like how was that heart attack? I'm like crazy, huh. You're crying. So I mean, yeah, I mean again, I talked about things in your life that were unexpected and then amazing things happened. I mean, and you've already talked about you've just, you know, you're thankful for nurses. You see different things in people that maybe you didn't see, where you didn't see value before, value in yourself. What else came from that? You know experience in terms of new possibilities or a new mindset.

Speaker 1: 33:08

Yeah, hey, sonya, come on in. Yeah, oh, I'm good, I'm good, thank you, yeah, totally, she's out of the shot, I think. But that's Sonya, hi, sonya, hi. Yeah, she's our incredible server here at Etc and your husband, tony, is gonna be serving me next week I think probably next time yep One of the few times in.

Speaker 2: 33:26

November.

Speaker 1: 33:26

Okay, in November, maybe a guest on the podcast, perhaps. Okay, all right, coming soon, tony, all right, sonya's awesome. So yeah, man the heart attack, the surgery, being in the hospital for so long. Are there what greater things came from that experience in general?

Speaker 2: 33:45

I think for me the biggest thing is prior to that, and I think we're all guilty of this is that we look at age as a number and you know sometimes it's like, oh my gosh, I'm getting ready to be 50 or I'm getting ready to be 60 or whatever the number is for you, that those numbers can be scary, and I don't look at that anymore. Old is the goal is what I say. Old is the goal. You wanna get old. I mean, you don't wanna fall apart, but you wanna get older. So those numbers don't bother me at all. I won't get into big detail here, but I almost died. I had three heart attacks leading up to the five bypasses. I shouldn't even be here. So when something like that happens, it's eye opening, it is yeah you just. It makes you take everything and appreciate it all so much more.

Speaker 1: 34:45

Everything, everything.

Speaker 2: 34:47

So I mean, I guess what I would say is I appreciate the fact that I can do magic for a living. I mean, who gets to do what they love? It's a rare thing. It's rare you get to do what you absolutely love. And a lot of people may like their job Some people hate their job but to actually love it it's pretty rare. And I get to do that and I'm still here. I got an awesome wife, kids, grandkids. It's just like I'm blessed in so many ways. I'm blessed in so many ways. So I guess the biggest thing I would say is I don't take any debt for granted anymore. Like I try to embrace that. And as far as like my work, I mean nothing has really changed for me, as far as, like I'm still doing the same thing. I guess I need to push myself to do some more speaking, or just some speaking, not more some speaking, because I think I do have a couple of messages and things that I could share, but ultimately I just try to embrace each moment of each day.

Speaker 1: 35:56

Yeah, it's crazy, man. I mean we, like you, say we have the same faith background. Our faith is in the Lord, that there's something better for us after this life, and we've had these conversations on the phone. I know it was a hard time for you. Crazy. That like the transformation was all just up here and in here. It was in your mind, in your heart. It was just. Your faith grew, your relationships grew, that sense of gratitude became deeper. You know, that's one thing I talk about in my talks. They always give thanks, but until you experience something that deep it's, I feel like you've hit like a new level of gratitude, not taking things for granted.

Speaker 1: 36:35

You know I mean when you're that close to death, right, it really makes you think about your life and everything about it and what success looks like. So I know we both married up we said that several times. Yeah, Kim's awesome. How did she support you in all of this? I mean, I know there's a lot of obvious ways, but yeah, I didn't know, you know.

Speaker 2: 37:01

So sorry, take your time, she's a rock star, she's everything to me, my best friend, she's everything. So something happened, maybe a couple of months after all the stuff, my recovery was awful. It was very hard. I talked to other people who had, you know, multiple bypasses and they were like, yeah, it wasn't that bad. Well, mine was hard. I mean, it was full two months before I could really do much of anything. I missed a bunch of work. And, by the way, this guy he showed me love in a way that was unexpected and amazing and I'm sure if you were to ask him about it he would say it was no big deal, but we don't need to share any details about it. But ultimately he did something for me that was amazing when I couldn't work. And he's Devon's a good man, you all know that, I'm sure. But so while I was on the so I had three heart attacks. While I was on the table, they went in to do the heart cath, where they shoot die into your veins and that can tell you where the blockage is. While they were doing that and I was on the table, I had three heart attacks After, I think after I had my first heart attack.

Speaker 2: 38:27

They actually brought Kim in. Let me come back to that. So when I got home from the hospital, I could barely stand long enough to brush my teeth Taking a shower. We're talking 10 minutes. Max wiped me out. I didn't just have to sit down, I had to lay down after that and that lasted for at least two weeks to a month. That kind of just no, no energy, no stamina, like I would get up to walk or I would just make a loop around through my dining room, my kitchen dining room, back to my living room, and I would do four of those and we're not talking very far at all and I was wiped out.

Speaker 2: 39:14

So anyway, during my recovery there was a point, maybe a couple of months into it, my wife and I we had a couch that the two end things like recline, and we got that right. It was a blessing we got that right before any of this hard stuff happened. It was nice because I actually slept on that for a while because I couldn't sleep in a bed anyway. So what we love about this couch is that we can sit and watch TV and hold hands. I know that sounds silly, but we're still in love and we'll sit and hold hands. And so we're sitting there holding hands and I looked over at my wife. She looked at me and I winked at her and she started crying. I said what's wrong? And she said that when they brought her in to see me when I had my first heart attack, they brought her in. They said it's getting, it's bad. Do you wanna come in and see him? And she said they brought her in and I looked over at her and I saw her and I winked at her and that reminded her of that. And she said then she had to go back out into the waiting room by herself and wonder if she was getting ready to lose her husband.

Speaker 2: 40:24

And up until that point as crazy as this sounds I had not even thought about what she was dealing with. During all that I was just struggling to get through my recovery and figure out how I'm gonna. Everything about the recovery just was all about me and what I needed to do, and I hadn't even thought about how it had been affecting, how she was affected. And at that moment they brought her in. She knows I'm having a heart attack and multiple heart attacks. I wink at her, they take her back out and now, anyway, I hadn't thought about her and what that was doing to her until that moment, like two months later, and I felt terrible that I hadn't been thinking about her.

Speaker 2: 41:10

At any rate, she was awesome. She took care of me big time and if I lived to be a thousand, I will never be able to repay her for whatever, everything she did for me, nor does she want me to, but you know you get it. But yeah, it was, she was. She was amazing. She did everything for me cook my meals, cooked healthy food for me and, you know, help me. I had to put these like Stocking things on my legs so you wouldn't, they wouldn't get swollen. She'd help me do everything. So, yeah, it was just yeah, she's, she's amazing. I know you've got an amazing life too.

Speaker 1: 41:49

Yeah, so your marriage became stronger.

Speaker 2: 41:52

Oh, you're trying to tell yeah. I think you can easily say that, yeah, yeah that's.

Speaker 1: 41:57

Yeah, you know it's too bad. I think that sometimes things have have to happen like this. Not saying yours you know this is not a shot at you at all but you watch so many marriages Fail, relationships fall apart, before something like this could happen. You know what I mean where it's like oh, how many, how many, not not the years was in jail you already had a great marriage I for some reason I'm just thinking about, you know, like the divorce rate is like 50%.

Speaker 1: 42:23

It's like how many marriages with something like this have saved you know yeah it's just a rhetorical random question.

Speaker 2: 42:29

Yeah, that's an interesting take.

Speaker 1: 42:31

Yes, it's kind of like huh, like, because, because, man, if you already loved her that much, yeah, and it went to here. It's like what potential is there for love and for caring and for nurturing and for altruistic love? That's like right at our disposal but just the right circumstances have. So I guess then the question is don't wait for a heart attack Right for this to happen. How could this, I mean but, but really I mean what's, what's the message to?

Speaker 2: 42:58

so how can you generate what? How can? What do I have to do?

Speaker 1: 43:06

And, in my case, just eat whatever you want for many years and and cross your fingers oh man, see this what you get when you get taught them and Take it from crying to laughter. But but really I mean I don't know, even know if I have the answer. I was gonna be marriage and family therapists, but you know. But I know there's books, there's how to's on how to grow closer. I think that's what it is. It's like it doesn't have to be some significant moment. I think really it just takes nurturing over time and this is a dramatic part of your story. But even for you it's been the nurturing, the love over time that even maybe help you get through that.

Speaker 1: 43:40

Because who knows, maybe, maybe heart attack sometimes is the, is the thing that breaks people apart. It, you know, it's kind of like it was already hard. Now it's really hard. I'm done, you know. So it's kind of what came first, the chicken or the egg, that the strong marriage of the heart attack. What really made it, I don't know, but I guess. I guess the point is I think we all it's just easy to give up Early on things, and this is not a shot at divorced people, I'm just saying, like if you're in a relationship, it's on the rocks. I mean you start Looking outside yourself because, like for you, you're laying the hospital bed. You wouldn't even think it about her. I think that's where we are. A lot of times I'm thinking about Devon, devon, devon. What is Devon need? Oh wait.

Speaker 2: 44:20

And it sounds like I'm self-centered and I'm not right. But in that time Understandably.

Speaker 1: 44:25

You know that's the thing. Survival. You're like okay, what?

Speaker 2: 44:28

what? How do I need to? And she was focused on that too, so it was all like everything every day, from wake up to go to sleep, you're focused on okay, what do I need to do today to get better? I need to walk. Okay, I've got to take this medicine and everything is about me and getting better. Yeah so, yeah, it sounds on the surface it's like you didn't think about her at all. Yeah, you're not thinking that way.

Speaker 1: 44:50

Yeah, you're just not yeah, well, but to parallel that it's true for life, even though it's less dramatic and your life isn't physically in the light at that point. We're all in survival mode. We're all thinking about how am I gonna get through today?

Speaker 1: 45:01

Yeah, you know, without a drink, without gambling, without whatever addictive behavior, or just you know how am I gonna get through today? And you just are not looking over here to when you get caught in that trap of selflessness, of isolation. That's when your relationships start to deteriorate. Now I'm, you know, I don't speak as a relationship expert, but I we've all seen this, you know, so it's like I think.

Speaker 1: 45:25

For me, I think this is more. I'm probably just airing out my own dirty laundry here. Oh man, I need to focus more on others. Love other people more. That's always the goal, but it's so easy to get that you know You're in survival mode and you're just.

Speaker 2: 45:38

You're just looking at yourself when you get home today, you're gonna wrap your arms around. That's just wink at her. Just wink at her and she'll be like Just wink. That's gonna be the name of my new podcast you and me together just winks, it'll be a Todd cast oh.

Speaker 1: 45:54

Todd cast. That was worth it. Yeah, yeah, man. Okay, dude. So thanks for sharing that, thanks for going there.

Speaker 2: 45:59

Yeah, of course I really appreciate that man.

Speaker 1: 46:03

So, okay, we, you know, we've kind of talked about you know, man, todd could be a motivational speaker. I mean, with that story, right there, he's ready for the stage, right, you know, comment, let us know, should Todd be a motivational speaker?

Speaker 2: 46:15

again, not trying to like, magic dude calm, just book me now and that's and that's.

Speaker 1: 46:21

He's not kidding.

Speaker 2: 46:21

It is actually magic dude calm. It almost sounds like you were joking. Yeah, magic dude calm magic dude, calm it's.

Speaker 1: 46:27

How do you get that URL?

Speaker 2: 46:29

I had to pay for it.

Speaker 1: 46:30

I guess, yeah, quite a bit, I mean because it was like people wanted that one yeah cuz. A lot of people probably dub themselves the magic dude.

Speaker 2: 46:38

Yeah, probably, so yeah.

Speaker 1: 46:39

Yeah, so you're like oh, business card.

Speaker 2: 46:42

Yeah, I've been thinking about you. Some of I should probably do that, I should. You need to get a website. I should get a website. And an act. I should get an act, yeah but.

Speaker 1: 46:53

But there's this one story that you told me a long time ago that I'm always like that's that could be your whole brand Right now. This is. This was pretty hard attack that I had this idea, so you know. Anyway, both would be part of the story, but your mom right Like your mom Passed away recently, like six or seven years ago.

Speaker 2: 47:12

Oh, actually ten years ago. Yeah, yeah, yeah, been ten years.

Speaker 1: 47:15

Yeah, I know yeah okay, I, I've known you longer sometimes than I realize, like. I know my oldest, my former, sixteen year olds.

Speaker 2: 47:23

Yeah, we go way back where you were married.

Speaker 1: 47:25

Yeah, yeah, it's true. Before I was married, I was thinking about that Because you had a gig. You're so dang successful.

Speaker 2: 47:32

You were like I don't think I want to marry this chick. And I was like come on, go ahead and take the Plunge.

Speaker 1: 47:36

I don't know, I'm kidding, I'm kidding by the way, no, man, there's a story about your mom when you were a kid and I'll let you tell the story. But will you tell me the? Tell the story?

Speaker 2: 47:45

Yeah, yeah, yeah and and, by the way, like you helped me and convinced me that I actually have used that as kind of just like a little short keynote at the end of my act a few times.

Speaker 2: 47:55

But yeah, so what you're referring to, I believe, is the, the Splashing story, the puddle splashing. Yeah, so my mom, so my dad. This is probably irrelevant, but he died when I was eight years old of a heart attack, ironically. But so my mom ended up raising all of us. Like I said, there was eight, eight kids, and by that time a couple of the older ones were already gone, but at any rate. So my dad worked at cats. It was a KATZ cats warehouse.

Speaker 2: 48:34

It was in North Kansas City and I Remember we must only had one car for some reason, but I remember that we had to go pick him up at work and the route we took, and I couldn't even tell you what streets it like now, what streets they were. But if it had rained, there was one street that always had a big puddle of water kind of on the side of the road and Instead of avoiding the puddle, she would drive through the puddle and it would make a big spray and I loved that and she knew I loved that. So she would. Anytime that was an opportunity, if there was water on that street, she would do that because she knew I loved that and that that's the thing that we talked about. That, that puddle splashing moment, that just a small thing that she did to make my day, and that we all have that yeah, we

Speaker 2: 49:22

all have that ability. We all have that ability every day to be a puddle splisher, to go out and do something, go out of your way, and sometimes you don't even have to go out of your way. I mean, how hard is it? Sonya comes in here. How is it hard for Devon to say, hey, man, you are awesome today and you have no idea the impact that that may or may may not even register, but it might be something that changes their day or their life. You have no idea how some small positive thing that you do that isn't even a big thing, like like the thing you did for me when I was going through my difficult time, how amazing that was. And For you I'm sure it was like, yeah, it's not a big deal. He did a show for me and it was. It was amazing.

Speaker 1: 50:12

I didn't perform a show for him in the hospital. It made it sound like I came over to clown suit and I'm like all right, todd, it's your turn to be entertained. What's?

Speaker 2: 50:25

that behind your ear.

Speaker 1: 50:27

Use a little soap and water to clear that up. That's Todd's joke.

Speaker 2: 50:30

If you haven't, if you haven't ever booked Devon. That is what his act is like.

Speaker 1: 50:33

Yeah, very clown-ish and yeah, but so. So what I'm getting from you is that, with Sonya today, I was a puddle splasher for her and impacted her in a way maybe bigger than she realizes, and that everybody listening Can also be puddle splashes in their life and in their work to impact the, the relationships, whether it's you know, the people at home, their customers, their co-workers, and that if you were on stage as a Motivational speaker, you would be encouraging all those people to be puddle splashes as well in their life and their work.

Speaker 1: 51:06

See me, I see so much gold in this message and potential, whether it's a calling or not, I don't know, but I've been every time.

Speaker 1: 51:12

Every time Todd has a gig where they're kind of like Can you give us a little message at the end? Like recently, you did it for some teachers in California. Mr Success travels all over the country, coast to coast is not just a you know thing. He says, yeah, but you did it for a teacher like an in-service or a back-to-school thing, and they wanted some kind of message at the end. So he, he calls me. It's like okay, time to time do this puddle splashing thing again.

Speaker 2: 51:33

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 51:34

I think you call me about, like it's so fun. That's. One thing we do is we call each other and whether we're working on a trick or whatever it is, we're like, hey, I'm trying to do this and so many of my, so much my comedy and my tricks have been up level just just from our Bouncing things back and forth and I think you had it. You had a question about sequence of yes, yes, this me better.

Speaker 1: 51:50

This me better. What should I close with? And I turn to what you're doing. The puddle splashing thing, right, and I think you were already planning on doing it, but for me that's, I think, the best way for, like an entertainer who's wanting to go to the speaking side, it's just to start talking more. That's what someone told me. Just add that five minutes at the end of your magic show to show People, well, you've got some content here, and then let that part of it just start growing. Yeah, right, and so for me, that ending with that story. And did you end with that story for those teachers?

Speaker 2: 52:19

I. You know what I told you?

Speaker 1: 52:21

I forgot I remember you gave me an update.

Speaker 2: 52:23

I can't remember what so I do a trick with money and it ends up inside of a lemon and that's usually my closer, because it's just this crazy impossible thing and that's what people always talk about. And I said do you think I should end with them, the money in the lemon, or should I end with the little keynote about puddle splashing? And you said, for sure, end with the puddle splashing. And I was just nervous about it because here's what happens. As you know, we've been doing this for long enough. We know, we know what will work. Yeah, and that was the thing for me. Like I know that if I close with the bill and that that's gonna bring the house down, but I don't know if Ending with the puddle splashing will. So I, before I brought the money back out of the lemon, I did the, I did do the okay, the puddle splashing story and then brought it back and did so. I remember this now. Yeah, I, yeah, I remember the conversation.

Speaker 1: 53:22

Because what? Because I actually validated him on that decision, because you trusted your gut and your gut. You were there more as an entertainer than you were as a speaker and you wanted to close strong and since you were hired Mainly as an entertainer, it was, I think that was the right call. Yeah to do that now, if they were like we want the message to really be the thing that hits home Make sure you emphasize the mess.

Speaker 1: 53:42

If they would have said that, then maybe the puddle and I would have, yeah, and the speaker thing in me was like well, of course, because I've, I've had coaches, show me how, when I, when I for me, since I'm a speaker first, magician second right opposite of what you were. That day yeah since I'm, since I'm a speaker first, if I end with some hard-hitting crazy magic, it makes it about me.

Speaker 2: 54:02

Yeah, this is my production, and thank you.

Speaker 1: 54:05

But if I end with the story, then it's about look, I did all this, this was fun. This is what it means for you, and this is the last thing I want you to remember. You know, keep asking what else is possible, and so that's so. I remember that conversation and saying, hey, you trusted your gut, you did the right thing so no, that's, but that's smart.

Speaker 1: 54:23

Yeah, but anyway I see value in that. I mean obviously that the story is there, the ability is there. I think the question is is the calling there? You know so I'd never want to force you into it, but you better do it Is this.

Speaker 2: 54:35

is this just an intervention? Is that what this is?

Speaker 1: 54:37

come on in, tony Robbins, let's go. You got me, but but got me good. So, but I am just curious how does that land with you, is that? Not that you even have to answer this, but I, I am curious. Is it something you think? Do you see in your future? Any kind of motivational speaker? I do?

Speaker 2: 54:55

I do and the thing is and we've talked about this in the past I have other ideas for that, so I think that's maybe what clutters it is. It's like, do I because I've thought about doing a keynote on communication, because, working in customer service, I just I've got a ton of ideas about communication. That's definitely.

Speaker 1: 55:16

What you have over me is you've worked in corporate America. I've just worked with people who have worked in corporate America.

Speaker 2: 55:21

You actually have the grinding in the trenches experience, yeah, yeah. So there's that and then there's. You know, I could go in the direction of the puddle splashing and just that you know just.

Speaker 1: 55:33

Well, and I could see those two maybe going together. Because, by the way, the communication thing is, we joke about this over time, but when we're talking over the phone trying to explain something and I have to explain, okay, because we use a lot of props I'm like, okay, this props, imagine a box that's I don't know. You're like is it the size of a deck of playing cards or a shoebox? Devin and Todd can just like hey, when you're explaining something to me, though, it's very clear, you can just somehow know what I don't know and explain that to me over the phone. You have that ability, you have that strength.

Speaker 1: 56:03

So, before the puddle splashing thing came along, like over a decade ago I remember talking to you about you should do some kind of communication you could use mentalism talking about the end, but I could see the two going hand in hand, because if we talk about communication how to be clear, but also how to communicate in a way that serves other people I mean that falls into that umbrella of puddle splashing, you know, like that could be kind of what it comes to. Because why do we want to communicate effectively? Why do we want to serve people with the way that you know that we talk? Well, here's why you could change someone's life and here's how someone communicated love to me in a way that didn't even use any words you know yeah.

Speaker 1: 56:38

Let me tell you about puddles. And then you talk about the puddle splashing thing and I see puddles splashing. You need to buy that URL, by the way, before someone takes it. Yeah, but I just see that being. And then obviously, the heart attack thing coming in the wink, there could be a lot of nonverbal communications, which are the two most powerful forms of communication the wink from the heart attack story and the puddle splashing, two incredibly modes of communication that had, you know, crazy impact.

Speaker 2: 57:04

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 57:05

I think we just wrote your keynote Awesome, I think we just did it. And you know what dude I was going to. I was. We were thinking about titling this episode, something like making moments of magic with Todd Lemansky, but I'm more like how do you define success? And you had talked about maybe doing a trick on the podcast, which obviously is harder for our listeners people who are only listening, that is but I honestly didn't want to do it because, while he's incredible at magic, you can go look at him online at MagicDude and YouTube Todd Lemansky. I didn't want that to take away from what this conversation you know. I didn't want it to become all funny and jokes.

Speaker 1: 57:38

And so I'm really glad we got to a lot of the meat and a lot of the heart of what you're about, man, because you're a deep dude and people when you come up in the restaurant and you do a five-minute show, I mean they get to see some awesome magic, but they don't always see like, oh man, this guy's been through a lot.

Speaker 2: 57:53

I think it just would have cheapened it. If we would have done a trick, wouldn't it have just cheapened the whole thing somehow?

Speaker 1: 57:58

Absolutely that would have taken away from it so thank you for refraining from any kind of pyrotechnics or anything like that For you, buddy. Yeah, yeah, people listening for that moment. To make sense, you'll just need to go watch on YouTube. That's all I'm gonna say. That was good, by the way, for that trick right there. You became somewhat famous locally because they featured it in a Royals game, not just locally.

Speaker 2: 58:22

It blew up, okay yeah, so do you want to hear that?

Speaker 1: 58:27

Yeah, absolutely, it must be a good one to close on.

Speaker 2: 58:30

Yeah, yeah, yeah, so sorry.

Speaker 1: 58:33

We got all day.

Speaker 2: 58:34

My wife and I and another couple were at a Royals game. This would have been believe it or not, it was the week before I had my heart attacks. The week before it was July 5th or something like that.

Speaker 1: 58:44

That's great, because you called me right after it happened and that was right before your heart attack.

Speaker 2: 58:47

Yeah, yeah, wow, crazy, okay, so at a Royals game and a guy walked by with a camera. He walked. How did it go? He walked by with a camera, like, and I said to my wife joking guy. I said, oh, they found out. I'm here Just joking, obviously. And the guy heard me and I wasn't intending for him to hear me, I assure you and he turned around and looked at me and he came back and we were sitting kind of like the door's, like a little aisle right next to us had really good seats, and he turned and came and stood right here and aimed the camera right at me and I was like okay, so I pulled out my wallet and I have a wallet that I can catch on fire and I lit it on fire and you all just saw the listeners like what.

Speaker 2: 59:29

So I light the wallet on fire and I closed the wallet and that was it. I thought no big deal. So we're at the game and I start getting texts that hey, dude, you're on TV because there's like the Royals local channel that they I guess they showed that on there. I thought, okay, that makes sense. Then a little while later, somebody texted and said dude, you're blowing up on Twitter. I'm not even on Twitter. So I was like, okay, cool. Then, and then Harold Koontz from channel 41, I believe he had he had tweeted the video. Nice. And then I get a text Patrick Mahomes just retweeted your video and I was like what he's the?

Speaker 2: 1:00:10

quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs. He's the quarterback.

Speaker 1: 1:00:14

That's the guy that throws the ball. No, no quarterback. Thank you, thank you.

Speaker 2: 1:00:20

So then the next day, like I woke up and I know a guy that was that lives in Indonesia, and he messaged me and said dude, I just saw your video and I was like what is?

Speaker 2: 1:00:32

going on and channel 41 called me, wanted me to come, like, do a spot on there. But what was crazy was on Fox News, like on the website, I was trending above Britney Spears, which was a big deal at that time. Like it was, it was nuts. It was just all because of this silly. I mean, I was honestly wasn't even thinking about that, I was just messing around.

Speaker 1: 1:00:56

Yeah, you were honestly. In a way, you were like puddle splashing that day.

Speaker 2: 1:00:59

You know what I mean. You're like hey, here's a guy I'm just gonna, because that's your gift.

Speaker 1: 1:01:03

And it's like something that's like whoa, you know and sometimes that's, that's a gift to people, something unexpected and safe, albeit it's fire, but still it was, you know, in an unexpected moment. How cool is that. And I was not expecting you to do that on this podcast.

Speaker 2: 1:01:17

I should have been, but here's what.

Speaker 1: 1:01:19

I love about like in a way, you proved me wrong, that the magic, I feel like, added you know, and gave us this awesome story. Now I'm getting all lesson motivational speaker on you, but in a way it's kind of like in my speeches, you know, I don't want to come out and lead with magic tricks. I'm going to be doing magic tricks is like oh, we got a clown, we don't want to clown, we want to speaker. But then you bring the magic in in a very tasteful, subtle, fast, relevant way and it actually adds rather than the tracks.

Speaker 2: 1:01:47

And I feel like your trick added today.

Speaker 1: 1:01:50

I'm serious rather than taking away. That's how I sell it to my clients that, hey, they weren't. Sometimes, even after speech people like oh, I had heard you did magic. I wasn't sure if you were going to do any. I'm glad you did Rather than, rather than beforehand. Are you doing some of that magic, you know? Because they don't really know what that means.

Speaker 2: 1:02:08

Are you?

Speaker 1: 1:02:09

going to be like pulling scars out of a hat Right but after they see the kind of magic you and I do, it's like, oh okay, I see how that was better, but you can't always advertise it that way. You know when you're a speaker. First, so, anyway. Motivational speaker Todd Lemansky.

Speaker 1: 1:02:24

Ladies, and gentlemen, I'm excited man, even though you know, as we cultivate your message I say we because I've already claimed myself his speaking coach you're going to be creating one of my toughest competitors, especially here in the Kansas City Metro area, so I'm going to have to somehow figure out how to make you disappear.

Speaker 2: 1:02:40

Wait that would have been a cool place to end the were those heart attacks a coincidence or were you trying to eliminate?

Speaker 1: 1:02:47

email in the mail. Hello, fresh, awesome. Well, hey, two, two real quick questions.

Speaker 2: 1:02:53

If that's cool before we close out, man.

Speaker 1: 1:02:55

It's been so good. Thank you, man. This is like more than I expected.

Speaker 2: 1:03:01

Honestly yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:03:01

Yeah, okay, first of all, before the last two questions, thanks again to et cetera and Todd endorses the Despiata burrito. I do, the burrito was good but it was filling. And yeah, thanks to Sonia and Shannon and Michael and Phyllis and Chris. And then we got Minsky's next door. That's a story for another day. They're awesome.

Speaker 2: 1:03:20

If we keep talking, we'll be. We'll be the last time you know me.

Speaker 1: 1:03:24

Okay, we've already touched it, but how can they find you, how can they connect with you?

Speaker 2: 1:03:28

Yeah, best way. I mean, I'm on Facebook, but magicdudecom, that's my website and you can. There's videos and information about my services.

Speaker 1: 1:03:37

Magicdudecom. Awesome, okay, last question for you Can you give, since you're also a dad of daughters, can you just give one piece of advice for my daughters?

Speaker 2: 1:03:50

Oh.

Speaker 1: 1:03:51

I know Hit you with this one.

Speaker 2: 1:03:53

Yeah, this is not planned, because I don't know I'm not going to get back to me in a week Advice for your daughters.

Speaker 1: 1:04:02

If my daughters are listening to this and you were to say, hey Devon's girls, what would you tell them?

Speaker 2: 1:04:07

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:04:07

A piece of advice yeah, don't screw this up.

Speaker 2: 1:04:10

Your dad is much cooler than you think he is. Thank you, that's true. That's true because they probably don't know how cool you are. They just don't, I wonder. They just I mean, maybe they do. I haven't seen your daughters for a while. There's some of your daughters I haven't met. You know that I am, but he's much cooler than you think he is. Otherwise I don't know. Dude, yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:04:31

Oh well, you've given a lot of advice in the fabric of this whole podcast anyway, so don't worry about it.

Speaker 2: 1:04:36

So what I'm hearing is that was a terrible answer. Maybe they can clean something from.

Speaker 1: 1:04:41

Rewind hit back 15, few times. No man, Thank you. No, I am cool, Let it be that.

Speaker 2: 1:04:47

Come on, you're good, you're good.

Speaker 1: 1:04:48

This is Aaron, the manager of Minsky's.

Speaker 2: 1:04:50

You won't see him in here.

Speaker 1: 1:04:51

We're wrapping up I know you have your party. We're wrapping up and then we will get out of here. Okay, either man, okay, hey y'all. Thank you so much. Minsky's needs the room. Yo, thank you, et cetera. Thank you, todd Lamansky, and remember never stop asking the question. What else is possible?