#3 How You Can Inspire People

Devin talks about people who inspired his journey to becoming a magician and how you can inspire others too. Also, “Confessions of a Motivational Speaker” and a public service announcement to all baristas!

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SPEAKER_00 0:07

Hello and welcome to the Possibility Mindset Podcast. I'm Devin Henderson, your host, and I believe something greater is always possible for you. Alright, I'm excited today. I I really am not just trying to force some kind of excitement, right? I I really am happy to be here, shiny, happy people. Don't know where that came from. I I guess I'm a little giddy today. I just kind of have like that unexplainable joy if you know what I'm talking about. And uh I hope you do too. And if you don't have just like an overflowing joy today, I hope that maybe you can turn that around and decide that and to to to have that joy, to have that peace and excitement that comes from a life that where you're living in your the purpose you're meant for. So wow, I'm getting all deep right off the bat. I just kind of dove into the deep end. I'm like, let's do this. Um maybe you'll turn your day around by listening to this podcast. You know, so much of our happiness and our attitude, it's up to us, right? And we're always looking at external things to like make us feel better, but really that decision starts from inside. Uh, and there's some days I fail to remember that, and I'm like, what's going on? Why can't people or things make me happy? Well, Devin, you have to decide it for yourself first. So, all right. Um, I just got back from Target. I love Target. We've we live close to Target. We live like uh maybe like uh three quarters of a mile from Target. I don't know why I'm getting that specific, but it's uh we can walk there. So sometimes we'll just pack the kids into the stroller and we'll just walk to Target and it's like a field trip. Um well I went by myself today and I drove. I didn't walk. Um, but um I was like trying to multitask, right? My awesome social media person, Stevie, was texting me about like passwords and stuff, and I was like trying to shop while texting and doing this, and it was like I was like bad things were happening. Like, well, I dropped my sunglasses, didn't realize it, and someone's like, hey, you dropped your sunglasses. Then I was like in the self-checkout line, and someone the lady had to like kind of like clap her hands and be like, there's one open over here, and I was like, Wow, hard to multitask and uh shop at the same time, and she was just kind of like yep, kind of like, yep, we see it all the time, and I wish people would stop. She wasn't rude, she just kind of had an understanding look, and so uh anyway, that's just the way some days go. Sometimes you just feel like you have to multitask, so that's why I came off of that. So I'm just like a little wired. Also, it's afternoon and I'm drinking coffee. I went and I got like a venti from um from Starbucks. And if you're listening, I'm I'm showing the cup here. You know what you have is this is for all you baristas out there who don't know this. I'm not being judgy. I just want you to know that when you put a lid on one of these to go cups and the hole is here, you want to make sure that it's not right above the little crease. Okay, I don't know if they just don't train for this or if people forget. I'm not angry. I'm just trying to spread the good news. I have found that when you put that mouth hole right over the crease, the drink dribbles, like it dribbles out of this little crack. And so always when they give me my coffee, I make sure it's not over that, uh, that they're not lined up. That ideally it's on the very opposite side, the hole in the line, just trying to make the world a better place here, okay? But this Barista did good. She gave me about a quarter turn, so it's about halfway around from the full side. So we're not dribbling today, but I will say she filled it extremely full and it uh spilled out under my hand on the way home, and I did not cuss. I didn't cuss. Scalding hot coffee on my hand, and I held it back. Alright. Which now implies, does he cuss sometimes? Well, I don't know. Maybe that's for a confession for a later episode. Anyway, I got my coffee on, my afternoon coffee. I might be paying for that later tonight when I'm actually trying to sleep. So here we are. Um let's see, let's let's catch up to speed. What happened this week? Um, had a great Father's Day, best Father's Day ever. I got to choose uh the food, so of course I chose Chipotle. It's like, why are they even asking me? Uh, my favorite is Mexican across the board. So we have a place here in Kansas City called Jose Peppers that's they have the best cheese espinaka dip ever. If you live here, you know what I'm talking about. If you don't, I hope you have something as good where you live. Um, but I had Chipotle and it was awesome. Uh also I got this mug. Again, if you're listening, the mug says best dad ever. This mug wouldn't lie, you know. I love when I got it, it reminded me of Michael Scott when he bought himself the mug that says world's best boss. So I wonder how many people are gonna think I bought this for myself, right? But I got water. I got water here, I got coffee, I got every drink imaginable. Uh so we're good to go. Um, it's so funny because I realize when I'm this podcast is on YouTube and it's on all the podcast platforms. So I have to be aware if I'm ever showing something visual, I have to explain it to the listeners. It and it reminds me of that game. Have you ever played that game? It's like an icebreaker game where um you have one person who's looking at an object, and they have to describe that object to someone else who's blindfolded and cannot see the object, and it might be the most simple object, but then when you try to explain it in words, you start to realize how hard it is to explain things in words because we're used to just showing things. And one time I remember it was like a fleece water, and this person looked at the fleece water, thought, this is gonna be easy, and they were explaining it to the blindfold person, and they're like, Okay, there's a square, and under the square there's an upside-down triangle, and from the tip of that triangle, you make a line going down, and immediately the blindfolded person's like, woo woo, woo, woo, woo. Right? It makes every sense it makes sense to everyone who knows that it's a fleece water, but to the person hearing these words, it's like, what's happening? So sometimes I'm like, I hope I don't leave my listening audience in the dark, like they're like, What's he doing with these drinks and these mugs and these lids? And so, anyway, oh deep breath, Devin. Deep breath. We got a long way to go. My goodness. Okay, other good other good things about Father's Day. Eva, my six-year-old, lost her first tooth, so that was very exciting. She got a visit from the tooth fairy that night. Um, she got a dollar. The tooth fairy is given out dollars. When I was a kid, the tooth fairy was given out dollars. Turns out most of my friends were getting like quarters and stuff. Uh, and I think uh my tooth fairy was like, wait a minute, what? Like, I'm really I'm giving you more money than the other kids. What how does that even happen? How does the tooth fairy decide who's getting different amounts, right? So uh now the tooth fairy comes to our house and gives the kids a dollar. Well, we have seven kids. How many teeth are a kid gonna lose in a lifetime? How many baby teeth? I don't know. I could Google it right now, but I don't Google things. You know that, unless it's super important, I don't Google it. Uh, I'm gonna let's say there's uh um 10 on the bottom, 10 on the top. All right. Uh that's 20 teeth times seven kids. What is that, 140 bucks that the 230 is gonna bring into this house and all? Do you know what kind of IRA accounts we could start with that kind of cash flow if all came in at the same time? But anyway, that's not what it's about. It's about fun and using that money to go buy candy so you can get cavities and then spend more money to fill those teeth. All right, this is the Possibility Mindset podcast. In case you were like, wait a minute, Devin has derailed. Here's the thing. I just love life. I like to share personal things. We're gonna get to some deeper things here in a minute. I just thought, hey, it'd be fun to catch up. All right. So uh speaking of more catching up, I had a gig earlier this week. Oh, I drove here from Kansas City up to Des Moines, Iowa, to speak to the Farmers Mutual Hale Insurance Group. They are a re-insurance group. And, you know, as a keynote speaker, what I've learned over the years is that it's not about me, it's about the audience. But sometimes when you're going into a certain group, depending on the setting and the people, you don't know what kind of energy is gonna be coming back your way. So sometimes you start to anticipate, okay, this is gonna be a lower energy crowd. So, you know, maybe start by matching that energy and then bringing them up. Sometimes you go into a room and it's like the energy is already over the top, and you're like, wow, I don't really have to do anything. I'm just here to kind of calm things down. Um, well, in this, it was 40 people, um, ag people who are great people, but sometimes tend to be more on the quiet side. Uh, and it was 8 a.m. Let me say that one more time. 8 a.m. Alright, so very small crowd, um, very early in the morning. So I'm thinking, okay, this is good, I'm gonna deliver value, but I'm not gonna expect people to be like giving me back a lot right now. I anticipated it all wrong. They were phenomenal. I mean, we're talking like they blew me away with their interaction and how much fun they were. And and that's not even how I define a successful keynote because sometimes you're delivering that value and people are just taking it in and they're not as loud, but it was like it made it really fun for me. So I have to give them a shout out, Farmers Mutual Hail up in Des Moines, you were a blast. Um, and then on the way home, I stopped at a gas station and ran into a guy named Jason Devad, who uh has become a friend over the years. He's a juggler, so we kind of come from that background of entertainment. Well, he's wanting to get more into speaking. Uh, and I so we've kind of reconnected recently. And then the fact that we ran into each other as I was coming home from a gig in Iowa and he was going to a gig in Iowa, to me, it's kind of like the world's crazy, right? Of all the people I could have run into, it's this guy who I just recently rekindled a friendship with, who's kind of asking me about what is a speaking world like, and I'm kind of telling him what he could expect and what's possible for him. And uh, we run into each other in a gas station. See, I I believe things are meant for a reason, and we just got to chat for a little bit. So I'm really hoping Jason can take his amazing entertaining skills and take them to the motivational stage because I know he has stories and lessons that he could use to impact people. So it is fun to you to be an inspiration to other people, which is kind of where we're going today with this podcast, by the way, is uh, you know, just the power of inspiring other people toward new possibilities. Because remember, this podcast, it's about fun, but it's also about helping you and the people around you ignite their untapped potential and to never stop asking what else is possible because there are such great things out there before us. Sometimes it takes other people outside of ourselves who aren't so close to our greatness to recognize that greatness and to see the potential of how that can affect the world and impact other people. So we'll get there in a second. First, I want to take us to what's becoming my favorite segment. Even though this is only my third episode, I have so many ideas for this specific segment that I was actually thinking about starting over and renaming the podcast Confessions of a Motivational Speaker. Because I'm starting to realize, again, this segment is not just about unloading and getting things off my chest. This is about I have these confessions, and I told my wife the tagline could be keeping it real to help you become unreal. Right? Because if I'm sharing kind of like the behind the scenes of the motivational speakers and what's really in our heart and our attitude and our life, that like if we uncover it can be an inspiration to you because you're like, oh, okay, we see that motivational speakers, as much as they seem like they have it together, also have issues and struggles they're dealing with. Now, sometimes arguably, as motivational speakers, since we're immersed in self-help, um, in other words, we listen to a lot of books and podcasts. Maybe we're hyper-aware that there's many tools at our disposal to uh overcome those struggles, those problems, those insecurities. Um, so we're here to kind of help you just become aware of it. At least that's that's my um part of my, what's the word, passion, is to recognize the the weaknesses in me, how they've made me become stronger, and how I can help you also go from weak to stronger those same ways. So uh confessions of a motivational speaker. Uh here we go. Today's confession is sometimes I fail to follow my own advice.

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Right?

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It's like that, hey, do you practice what you preach kind of thing? Well, a lot of times I do because the tools I come up with I know are tried and true because they developed from my own situations in life where I've said, hey, this is this is an effective tool. Sometimes I either forget or it's too hard to go through the hoops of having to follow that advice. Usually it's the fact that I forget, and this happened recently, and so I'll just tell you what it was. Um, you know, I call myself a perfectionist. I I would actually claim that I'm a recovering perfectionist. Like I've heard a couple people mention that lately. Uh, Sue Falcone, my friend, my friend Karen Allen, they've used the term recovering perfectionist. And I would put myself into that bucket because I have come a long way in going from everything has to be absolutely perfect to you know what, go ahead, just do it, do it the best that you can and don't lose sleep at night. Easier said than done, but that's the whole goal, right? Do the best you can and then have peace. So um something ironic happened, and this actually uh pertains to the last podcast episode that I did, uh or one of them. Um I was talking about perfectionism and how uh, you know, even starting the podcast, I wanted things to be perfect before I even launched my first episode. And my awesome social media person, Stevie, made that clip from the podcast into a real. And in the real, I sort of have like a like a grammatical error while I'm talking. And I say, if things don't go as perfect, and I meant to say if things don't go as planned, or if things don't go perfectly, but I said, if things don't go as perfect, then just keep going. And I was like, oh, we can't put that out on the social media. I sound I sound silly, right? We've got to fix that. So I was texting her before she was gonna put the reel out because she was sending me sort of like, hey, this is about to launch, what do you think? And I was like, can we fix that? And I was showing it to my wife and my kids, and I was like, Do I need to worry about this? Do I need to fix this? And then great minds think a lot, uh, think alike, right? And the the two great minds here were Stevie, my social media person, and my 13-year-old daughter Charlotte. And they both, uh, Charlotte in words, Stevie threw a text at the same time, were pointing out to the irony of how I wanted to fix uh this whole perfection uh this perfection message clip in the term in that I was coming at it from a perfectionist, like, hey, we have to make this perfection thing. Perfect, and it was just so funny. I hadn't seen the irony and that this perfectionist was trying to fix the clip about perfectionism. So I decided we're leaving it, we're gonna keep it like it is, show the world you can be imperfect, that they can be imperfect too, and that the job can still get done. All right, because I feel that the clip made the point and it showed Devin Henderson as being imperfect. So honestly, it felt so good to release myself from that. So uh maybe maybe you're the same way, you know. Maybe you are a perfectionist, maybe you're a recovering perfectionist, and maybe sometimes it it holds you back from greatness because you um you're just like, I'm not gonna start this process until things are perfect, right? Or I'm gonna hit pause because I feel like things have not been perfect. Just move forward, you know. And as a as a manager, as a boss, as a leader, as a coworker, um, you could practice this confession to other people too. And just, you know, um, sometimes it's like you tell people, hey, uh be on time, leave your problems at the door, will you forgive me? Um it it's like I guess what I'm saying is like just practice. I guess I made notes and now I've confused myself. Uh the note was about be willing to make confessions to the people that you lead. Okay, whatever that confession might be. You might and you might tell people, I'm always telling you to follow your own advice, right? And that's that's my confession today. That sometimes I don't follow my own advice. Are you following your own advice, right? Um, if you tell people to be on time, are you on time? If you tell them leave your problems at the door, are you doing that? Um that modeling it is what does it. I've learned that as a parent. They're not gonna do what I say, they're gonna do as I do. Um, so build trust, build loyalty, build respect by by practicing what you preach, by um following your own advice. So alright, that was that was fun, that was good. It is time for a sip of coffee. You know, my awesome um booking coordinator slash overqualified office assistant, Crystal, listened to the last episode before um she uploaded it to our um our podcast platform. This is kind of along the perfectionism lines, and she said, Hey, at the end of the episode you you cough. She was like, Do we do we want to fix that? You know, which I'm really glad that she caught that, and that's what she's there for quality control. And I finally decided, you know, I'm not gonna try to make this podcast thing perfect, right? I don't want to do a lot of editing, not because I'm lazy, but it goes back to that perfectionism thing and just showing that you're human. I want this to be raw, I want it to be real. I don't want to be, you know, going back and fixing things, editing things. I mean, my whole life and career has been about I gotta perfect the wording of this keynote because it has to be done in a certain amount of time, or this really short video that I'm making for social media. I have to crush every second of it and be meticulous. Where with the podcast, I have a little bit more time to kind of just breathe and give as much commentary as I feel is necessary to help the message, to help you. So there's gonna be a lot of imperfection in this podcast, which I'm excited to make that announcement and make that commitment to myself and to you. Um, because like I say, start ugly, start small, pick up the ball. Alright. Okay, today what the what I want to share with you is about you know the the power of inspiring others toward new possibilities, and I'm gonna I'm gonna uh share that in the context of telling you the story of how I got my start with magic and how other people inspired me in that journey. And just a little look ahead, it wasn't just one person, it was many people, right? So so here it is, and I hope this inspires you to inspire other people because you never know when it's gonna happen. So, this is how my magical journey began. I was always interested in magic from a very young age. I would see magicians at festivals, at school assemblies, and I was always blown away. I always knew it was a trick and an illusion, but it was just like so intriguing. Like, wow, you can do the impossible. This is awesome. Uh, I remember specific tricks from when I was like very young, like five or six years old, that I saw magicians do that blew me away. Um now, the first time I actually knew that I could do magic in my own hands, right? I I thought there's a special people who like have gone to school for years to learn this, but my sister, Gretchen, had a friend Kelly, come over to spend the night. Um, and I think I was in about second grade or so at the time. And Kelly knew some magic tricks. She knew a coin trick and she knew two card tricks. And she showed us those tricks, blew me away, but then she showed me how to do them. And the first one was making a coin disappear, and then this the first card trick was the classic pick a card and I'll find. And then there was another card trick that, you know, more takes more explanation. But anyway, I I learned all three of those tricks and started performing those card tricks like anytime there was a deck of cards around. Like, so that set me on a path for I I know some tricks. Well, um, also I was a big David Copperfield fan growing up. He just did, he was my favorite illusionist. I thought he was just awesome. And so I he he helped me um really just just grow that passion, that excitement for magic in general. Um, and then when I was in about fourth or fifth grade, get ready for this, I was inspired by none other than the new kids on the block. How do the new kids on the block inspire a young how do they inspire a young aspiring magician? That sentence was a mouthful. Um, well, Joey McIntyre, who was my sister's favorite from The New Kids on the Block, one time during one of the it was like a backstage thing on one of her VHS tapes, he was, they were doing backstage kind of some b-roll stuff, and he was just doing this magic trick where he just shows his hand empty and then and then he pulls a colorful um scarf out of his hand, and I was like, whoa, that was awesome. And then he puts it back in, makes it disappear, and I was blown away by that, right? So I start asking people, hey, have you seen that trick that Joey McIntyre does? Of course, everyone's like, uh no, why are you watching New Kids on the Block, Devin? Whatever. Um, so anyway, uh finally I knew someone whose uncle was a magician, and he told me how the trick works, and I was like, You gotta be kidding me. Um, but there's apparently many methods to making it work. So, so in in when I was in fifth grade, 11 years old, right around the same time, soon after that, a magician came to my school uh and and was doing this awesome show. Well, check it out. He did that trick that Joey did with a handkerchief, disappeared, and came back. And I was like, What? And I was like, it doesn't look like he's doing it the way that this other person told me it could be done. So I was like, how is this trick really done? Now, in that same show, this magician got me onto the stage. Right, and you know there's something different when you get in when you get brought into and you are hands-on with some kind of activity, you're inspired at a whole new level because it's almost like I've done that, I've gotten a taste of it, now I just need to take it to the next level. Well, this magician's name was LC Collier. He was local here to Kansas City. And he and he's the way he brought me on stage was he said, Okay, I'm gonna choose someone from the crowd, and we're all like, ooh, me, me, me. Going crazy, you know how kids are, we're crazy. Uh and then he goes, Wait, wait, put your hands down, everyone be quiet. He said, I'm gonna choose the person who can make the ugliest face. And who do you think he chose? That's right. Me. I didn't even make a face. I was just I just sat there. He's like, That's hideous. Come up here. That's a joke. That didn't really happen. I actually made a face. I don't usually do this, but since I have a camera right now for this, I'm gonna make the face. Now, if you're just listening, you just need to picture just a hideous face. So here we go. Here's the man, this is so unprofessional of me to do, but this is fun. Here's the face. Okay, that's it. That's all you get. That was the face. Well, immediately he was like, get up here, you! So I'm like, yeah. So I go up to the stage. My friends are all clapping for me. He does he involves me in a trick, and it was so much fun. And and now I've got this bug, right? Where it's like, okay, I know three magic tricks. I love magic, but I am ready to become a magician. I mean, that was the pivotal moment for me where I was like, I want to, I decided I want to be a magician. So that night I went home. I was like, Mom, will you take me to the library so we can see if there are books on how to learn magic tricks? And so my mom, always supportive of me, said, Of course, we went to the library, the Antioch library. We checked out uh a book of a stack of books about like this. It was like 10 or 12 books on how to do magic tricks. I took them all off the shelf, took them home, and I couldn't wait. I just start on the car ride home, I start looking through the books. Now, what I'm really looking for is how to do the appearing and disappearing scarf trick, right? Because remember, that's the one I saw Joey do, and that's the one this magician did, and it had been explained to me, but I didn't believe that. I was like, there's there's got to be a bigger secret here. So I start looking through the books, trying to figure out, and I'm looking for in the in the index for handkerchief, hanky, silk, scarf, vanish, appearing, and I can't find that handkerchief trick. And I'm starting to look through all the books, and it's like not in any of them. Well, I didn't realize, but that like opened up the journey for me because as I was looking for the handkerchief trick, I was finding other tricks that were also intriguing. I was like, it's not in here, but ooh, this trick looks cool. What what what's this magician doing with this rope, right? So I'm starting to read, so I'm starting to collect this information, right? That's gonna eventually lead to like really my my knowledge of magic just launching. So uh fast forward later, finally, finally, I figured out how to do the handkerchief trick. A friend's mom knew how to do it. I don't know. Uh the mom's name is Stacy, and I don't know how she knew it. She explained it to me, and I was like, that makes perfect sense. Well, I called the local magic shop here in town. Um, I didn't know there was a magic shop until that point. You're like, why didn't you just go to the magic shop in the first place? Finally, I looked in the yellow pages and I was like, there's also a magic shop. Went to the magic shop. You can buy the trick where you make the handkerchief disappear and come back. It gives you the method. So I bought it, started doing that one, but guess what? By then, it had probably been months of me digging in magic books, trying to find the handkerchief trick. So I had this whole repertoire now of not just the handkerchief trick, but also several card tricks, rope tricks, and coin tricks. And boom, I was a magician. I love it. Uh so that was really kind of how how that got started. Now, uh then, fast forward to middle school when I was about 13. I went to a summer camp and there was a guy named Nick there who knew some card tricks. He it was kind of like the way Kelly had card tricks. This guy, though, had kind of card tricks at a next level, so it added even more uh tricks to my card trick repertoire. Am I saying that right? Repertoire? It just like it sounds like I'm trying to like be all cool and smart, but anyway, repertoire. But these tricks were really cool. So um I was starting to you know learn more and more tricks from the books, from people at summer camp, and then it this was like a game changer, right? Because up through high school, magic was always sort of like an on-again, off again hobby. It would have its peaks and valleys because, see, there were other things I was interested in in high school, like I played piano, I was even in competitions, I was in drumline, I played snare, and we were in competitions, and I was really into that. I also played sports, I played soccer, I played baseball my freshman year. Uh and so I had these other things that kind of edged magic out. Well, when I graduated at 18 years old, there's a magician who came on TV who just took took my perception of magic and just made it even I just made it different. And here's what I mean it was David Blaine. Okay, now if you're not familiar with David Blaine, he's a street magician, and his specials consisted of him walking around in various cities on streets, just walking up to people with a camera crew following him, and doing some of the most mind-blowing magic I had seen up to that time. And I was like, who is this guy that's not David Copperfield on a stage with big boxes and assistants and animals and all these things who's just walking around with things in his pockets, walking up to strangers and freaking them out? I was like, that's something I think I could accomplish today. Becoming a stage illusionist would take years because you gotta like build a team, get the props, you know, like um put rigs up in the theater and on the staging. But I was like, I already have I already have a lot of knowledge of some of the tricks David Blaine is doing. All I needed to do is get out there and go do it. And so, um, of course, he was doing things I had never seen. And so I started emulating a lot of the tricks he was doing because I had enough knowledge of magic that I could figure it out, piece it together, work on it, and do it myself. And I remember I was like, I need a place to perform, meaning I need a place to walk around where there's people. Well, one of the first places I ever did that was at a garage sale in our neighborhood, and my next door neighbor, Michael Howell, shout out to Michael. We walked around that day while people were garage sailing, and I just got to do my close-up tricks over and over and over again, and I felt like David Blaine walking around my neighborhood doing these tricks. So that's what got me interested in street magic. I owe it to David Blaine. Well, as I went into college, uh I continued to grow my knowledge of magic and hone my skills, but it kind of became like it was before it kind of ups and downs, ebbed and flowed. The passion now was stronger than it was in high school because there were less activities competing uh for my interests. Like I wasn't doing piano or drumline as much. I wasn't doing uh I wasn't doing drumline at all, but I was um sports weren't a thing, you know, and so it was like this was like my one hobby that I can kind of pour everything into. Well, I was in a fraternity at Kansas State University, which was a great opportunity because there's people around you constantly. You're living with like 60 other dudes. So anytime I need to try out a new trick, I can just walk to the next room and be like, hey man, pick a card. And they were always happy to because they they loved it. Uh, but then also at parties, when people come came over, we had this unique thing in our fraternity. There's we had this magician, right? So other people were partying, and I was like, you know, doing magic, and it was it was just great. Uh so so at through through college, I was learning just like David Blaine level tricks. I was learning how to steal watches without people knowing it. In other words, pickpocket entertainment. Um, and then through, you know, through college, I really my skin, I had been doing magic since I was 11 years old. That's when the real journey started when I first got that magic book. And by the time I graduated college, uh, you know, early 20s, I'm like embarrassed to say my age. I think I was 24. Uh, because I took like a semester off, and anyway, I'm gonna judge because I'm really smart, but I took a lot of time off, but I'm a smart guy. Anyway, um right toward the end of college, I kind of came to this like uh place where I was like, what am I gonna do here? Um am I going to try for a life as a magician or am I going to come back after I graduate and get a master's in marriage and family therapy? Well, right before I graduated, uh, a group of friends and I um we went to go see another magician. His name was Andre Cole, who it turns out he was really like he and David Copperfield happened to be really tight. But uh one of my friends had a connection with Andre Cole, so we went to go see a show, and he was a guy who did uh big illusions like David Copperfield on college campuses. That was like his, it was a ministry where he'd go around to different college campuses, and people were like, you should go like intern with him as one of his stage hands to be learn what it's like to be an illusionist. Well, we went and saw a show, loved his show, it was great, but as I was watching the stage hands, I thought I don't want to be a stage hand. And I'm sure that I could learn a lot, but you know what? I don't even want to be an illusionist. I don't want to be a guy with the big props and all the assistants. I want to be a close-up magician walking around at cocktail parties, kind of like street magic, but in ballrooms for corporate events. That was like the whole idea, right? That's what I want to do. Also, if I ever do any kind of stage act, I want to do a one-man comedy magic show, right? Where it's just me and my bag of props and my microphone where I don't need uh all this, these other um people. So it that was a really enlightening moment for me, knowing it kind of helped me define exactly what kind of magical performer that I wanted to be. So that was sort of like the last straw because right after that happened, I graduated, and then I had a semester off because I graduated in the fall, so I graduated in the December of 04, and then I had that spring semester to kind of play around because I was gonna start my master's degree in the fall. So that gave me what is that like seven, eight months to kind of play with uh and until I was gonna make a decision whether to go back to school. Well, what I did is I um I woke I got some gigs in restaurants, which I'm excited to tell that story later. Um I I landed a couple gigs walking around in restaurants, so doing street magic in restaurants at tablesides while people are waiting for their food. I started doing birthday parties, small corporate events, and I it took off slowly, slowly slowly. And then that first year, I made about what a kindergarten teacher makes in terms of income, and I was like, that means it's a profession. I mean, for your for my first year, that's a real job. And so in the course of that time, I decided not going back to school, not getting my master's degree. I chose magic over helping marriages. Um so that's where I am today. And and the whole reason I'm telling you the story today is because if you think back on all those people who inspired me. I mean, it started with um random magicians at festivals and school assemblies, and then my sister's friend Kelly, and then the magician Elsie Collier, David Copperfield, uh Nick, my friend at Summer Camp, David Blaine, Andre Cole, and and there's even other people in the gaps in there that have inspired me. And I can't imagine that one of those people was thinking, I'm going to inspire this young boyslash man to become a professional magician. But they did. And so I think I think it's just so cool that when we use our talents and our passions and we really put ourselves out there, we just never know who we're going to inspire. And like every second we can just find peace with remembering I am helping someone else right now ignite their untapped potential. And that that doesn't just apply to performer performers or painters or artists. I'm talking about just the way you live your life, uh, with integrity as a strong leader, uh, as a person who's unselfish, selfless in the way that they live, that they're generous because when we do that, we're inspiring other people to live life in a better way. So there's so many ways we can inspire people. So never undermine the work that you're doing or the person that you are because that impact might be touching other people in ways you will never see. Alright, well, thank you so much for letting me share that story today. I appreciate that. I hope that this episode has been an inspiration to you to remember the power that you have to inspire other people toward new possibilities. Well, if if this did help you, if this did impact you, uh if you're watching on YouTube, please go ahead and hit that like button. Yeah, I sound like a YouTuber now. I guess I am. Uh hit the like button, share it, uh, subscribe if you're listening. Please, um, you know, if if you really felt impacted in a good way, give me a five-star review and uh comment. You know, let us know how this touched you or how you might live differently. Okay, so so do please stay in touch. You can follow me on social media at Devin HendersonSpeaker. Um, for more information about speaking bookings, you can go to DevinHenderson.com. Let's see, are there any more shameless plugs I need to give? All right, well, hey, uh, thank you so much for joining. It was really, really fun to be with you today. Uh, and do remember that something greater is always possible for you.