Thoughts on Black Lives Matter

Brendon Burchard, and I hope this message finds you safe and healthy and well and strong. And today there's no fancy music. It's just me and a microphone trying to have a conversation with you about the turbulence of our times, about the divisiveness, about the inequality, about the lack of justice, about the frustration and about the hope and the opportunities for change that we are uniquely witnessing right now at this moment in history. And I want to begin right off the bat for those of you who are like, why are you talking about this? You're not an expert and who do you think you are? And why don't you highlight other experts and resources here? I absolutely, 100% agree with you. And so I want to encourage you, if you have not seen over the last weeks me sharing resources on these topics from people who are way more qualified and from resources about, from courses we've made available to books we've recommended to documentaries, to academic articles, to resources of how to have difficult conversations and listen and talk about some of these difficult topics that we'll address today, from racism to inequality to how to make social impact and how to have productive dialogues of change. Well, again, I'm not the expert on all those things. So we created a resource page for you@brendan.com equality brendan.com equality and so what are we going to cover today and why am I doing this? Because many of you already know are like, brendon, why are you talking about this? And trust me, thousands of people have already told me, Brendon, who do you think you are? Why are you talking about that? And not just in the last couple weeks over the last 20 years that I've discussed these topics, that I've trained or shared resources on many of these topics. So I want you know, this is not a new story, not a new argument, not a new dilemma that I face as a person trying to speak out for something I believe to be good. When of course, people will accuse you of having weird intentions or will accuse you of not being enough or not accusing or accusing of not getting the right words right, I will let you know right off the bat. I'm comfortable with that and I understand that. And if you're somebody who doesn't agree with me or doesn't want to hear from me on these topics, then just hit pause, go to the next episode or go listen to someone else because I totally, 1000% encourage that. So what are we doing today? Well, I do want to talk about why I'm speaking about this. I do Want to talk about the fact that to be able to speak about it, we got to have some rules of engagement today about this conversation. I'll share with you my exact stance, why I stand, where I do, where my values and my perspective has been informed from, what my involvement in this movement and this entire conversation has been over the last two decades, and how we might be able to affect some change together as a community and as a global community at that. So I want to let you know first, my hope for the world is that we figure out a way to work through this in a way in which we respect each other, care for each other, have compassion and understanding and patience for each other, and find a sense of unity behind the ideals that our country was founded upon in the first place, that we are all equal or supposed to be, and that we all want freedom. And if you've read the motivation manifesto, you understand my perspective and belief that the main motivation of humankind is seeking personal freedom, the ability for each of us to live our own lives on our own terms, without oppression, without tyranny. The idea that we all want to be who we really are, fully unencumbered by social oppression, that we all want to pursue the things that are deeply meaningful and matter to us without being held down or mistreated or facing inequality or unfairness. And so this is an important topic to me, and I know it's an important topic to the world right now. And my hope is that we can listen to diverse viewpoints, that we can listen to people we don't even agree with, and that will allow each other to have a voice. And I know that a lot of people don't want me to speak up on this. I've gotten hundreds of texts, trust me. However, I think that discounting another person's value and voice is the problem we're facing now, that we have discounted peoples, humanity and voice for too long. And right now, the focus is on that fact that we have discounted people's voice and values and rights and freedoms for far too long, specifically associated with the black community. And we must be willing to speak up for that. And it doesn't mean that other topics aren't important. Today we're going to talk about some fallacies of argument that are preventing people from learning, but also preventing from people from being part of a productive conversation for change. Because I know if you're listening to me, you want to change the world. People who are attracted to my work are attracted to the work because it's always been about how do you live and love and matter? Well, guess what? How do you live a vibrant, authentic life? How. How do you love others openly? How do you matter? That's gonna require you to change, for you to improve and for you to improve other people's lives. Cause you can't make a difference in this world without wanting to improve other people's lives. And if you want to improve other people's lives, it's not about improving just some people's lives. And we certainly know that some people's lives have been discounted, devalued and destroyed. And right now the focus is on black lives and the Black Lives Matter movement of people of color who have been systematically mistreated. And it's gonna be tough discussion for those of you don't agree with what I just shared. But I also want to share with you. Maybe today isn't about whether or not you're a nice person. And maybe today isn't about whether you are prejudice or whether you are mean or whether you do racist behavior towards others. That it's not just about those things, but it's about a bigger thing. Could we all agree today at the beginning of the conversation that we have some social problems, that there are some structural, systemic problems that impact everybody, but also because it impacts everybody. It impacts everybody. Everybody or every group uniquely. Right? So we'll have some conversations about that. I want to let you know I understand some of the objections and accusations, and I'll address those as we go. But I won't be defensive about them because I'm very comfortable acknowledging my own work, my own privilege, my own blessings. The system in which I grew up in, that gave me advantages. And that's not a new conversation for me. Been exploring that, researching that, analyzing that, discussing and training about that for 20 years, as you'll hear. So I'm comfortable with people thinking that, well, Brendan, you're going to be defensive today or you're going to make this argument day or whatever. I still think it's right to speak up. And I still think it's right for everybody to speak up when they witness wrongs. And that's what we are witnessing right now with global protests that were incited when we witnessed a black man, George Floyd, being murdered by police officers. And of course, that was an inciting incident that drew the world into protest and drew our attention back towards the problems that we face. And I am somebody who feels deeply that we all must speak up against that. The challenge we're seeing is some people are scared to speak up. Or when people do speak up, they're doing it in a way that is hurting the conversation and the opportunity for change versus helping it. And so we'll discuss some of those things today. And again, I'm not an expert in all these areas, so go check out brendon.com equality for dozens of incredible resources on these exact topics. I'd love to ask for some rules of conversation today. Number one, let's if you could be open to just hearing what I'm saying without seeking to judge me or even judging yourself right off the bat, but rather listen to some descriptions of challenges that we all face, then identifying ourselves within that. Because if we go right to our own behavior, we become defensive. But if we can start by looking broadly to the topics at hand, then we can identify where we are within that and where other people might be within that and understand that we all have different experiences. And those different experiences can actually come together to unite us to address the overall problem without feeling defended or defensive about our own individualistic reality. And so some rules of conversation. Number one, if we could be open. Number two, let's talk about judgment. And I did a post on this that I think was important in that what won't help this conversation are judgments or generalizations or assumptions or accusations, condescension or belittling on both my behalf, but also your behalf as you listen, if you want to be open for a minute, you know, because I'm somebody, I wrote about this. You know, I'm inspired by the conversations and the courage I'm seeing during these times. And we're also witnessing so many generalizations and accusations on social media that it's really shutting people down and shutting down productive debate generalizations like, well, all black people are this or all white people are that, or all police officers are this, or all leaders are this or all media or that. And there's accusations, you know, peppered within all of that, you know, well, quote, unquote, they are to blame for everything, or you don't know what you're talking about, or you're not doing enough or you're this without knowing their background. You know, people are being called, you know, too sensitive. They're being attacked for not speaking up. They're being attacked if they do speak up and don't get, you know, all the words right, they're being attacked if they don't speak up because they're not speaking up for something they believe in, they're being attacked if they do believe in something that they didn't get, you Know the whole complete argument made in 140 characters. People are being calling racists, people being calling wimps, people people will be calling terrorists, people will be calling rioters, people will be calling dispassionate. And none of that is really helpful to moving the conversation forward. So what's emerging during these times is not just a failure to understand that we have a historical problem that we are dealing with here, that we have systemic injustices. But often we're also experiencing a failure to communicate well, you know, to debate well, to deal with differences of opinion. And so I keep reminding my friends and my communities who are so scared to speak up or to debate or to even propose solutions or even to post something that you can't cover everything in a single post. I won't cover everything in this episode that you shouldn't be expected to cover every angle in every conversation that you ever have. That literally is impossible. So you can count on people accusing you of not saying everything perfectly or comprehensively. I'll get accused of that today. But you speak up anyway. You share anyway. Some people, they don't know how to express their anger and their hurt and their pain. So when they come at you, they're going to throw generalizations and accusations. They're going to label you as bad or negative or, or, you know, it's equally easy for you to label them as bad or as negative or as just quote unquote haters. They just might not know how to communicate and they might not have the time to comprehensively address everything, just like you don't. So they might be throwing in an idea into your bucket of ideas and you're getting offended either way. I keep letting people know, don't let that slow you down. Listen, be open. Learn. Seek to understand, seek to share. Seek to communicate your perspective with openness, kindness, compassion, and a realization that people can change and people can grow over the time, including you. So I ask, let's be good to one another in this conversation. I ask for an allowance today to let me share some things, knowing that I'm not going to say everything in a short episode on the topic. Okay, it's going to be a long episode. But I think that we can withhold judgments and generalizations, assumptions and accusations, withhold our own self righteousness and condescension against others. Then we can have more productive conversation. I also think we have to address fallacies that we are seeing in these debates. And these are logical fallacies. Debate fallacies, if you will. Two specific ones I want to get out of the way, so I can have a productive conversation with you about what I've learned and about this conversation, this movement that we are seeing for black lives, for people of color, for indigenous peoples who've struggled with things that maybe you haven't or I haven't. And here's what we're seeing. Some major fallacies that I would love to address. Number one, this. You know, this fallacy that when we say, you know, black lives matter, that people get so upset, especially people who have not visited these topics before, who get so upset and say, but all lives matter. How could you even discuss this all lives matter? And I want to let you know that, yes, they absolutely do. But by trying to shut down the conversation by saying all lives matter, you're making what we call the exclusion fallacy. And let me talk about this, because this is really important about why black lives specifically are being highlighted right now. And that's okay. It doesn't diminish you or others. So let's talk about the exclusion fallacy. Let's say you and I go out to lunch and I tell you a story about my mother and the hardships that she's gone through. If I say during that conversation, moms are so important, do you immediately consider that rude and suggest back to me, but dads are important, too? No, you allow the focus to be in that specific context on mothers, even if, yes, dads matter and so do brothers and sisters and cats and dogs. The exclusion fallacy means you object that someone has covered everything or has failed to cover everything when they make a specific point or draw attention to a specific thing. For example, in the last three months, did you notice the world turned its attention to COVID 19. No one was saying that cancer didn't matter or that heart disease didn't matter or that clean water didn't matter. The attention was on something specific because it was urgent. It was on something specific in a given statement that does not, you know, exclude the value of other things. That's the exclusion fallacy. Another example, if you and friends are carrying buckets of water and you come to a row of cars and one of those cars is on fire and you're all holding buckets, which car gets the attention? Well, the one that's on fire. And right now the focus is on black lives because the inciting incidents and events are of the last few weeks. But it doesn't mean that all lives don't matter, or your life doesn't matter or your background doesn't matter. And it doesn't mean that You're a terrible person or you're mean. Just because we have to bring up and talk about topics of racism, what it means is we're focusing on this topic. If I came into your home and said, you know what? I really care about you and you matter, does that mean I don't also think that your neighbor or your friends matter? I can tell you that you matter without discounting or devaluing your friends. Got it? Understanding the exclusion fallacy is required in order for you to make or understand any argument in life. So I hope that helps you. And I think that we are also witnessing what I sometimes just call the false attribution fallacy. And that is when someone says they support something specific, we tend to bring our own fears into that specific thing, and we make globalizations or generalizations or accusations about what they're saying even though they were saying something specific. Right. Another example right now is if there's a huge debate right now of people saying, I hate this Black Lives Matter movement because it says, defund all of the police. Get rid of all police departments worldwide. Well, those two things don't go together in that the Black Lives Matter movement isn't one organization making one policy debate, that we are speaking to a broad, general movement now at this moment that is saying, hey, Black Lives Matter, let's prioritize this conversation and let's make sure we deal with the racism and inequality that is causing continued hurt, pain, and death of this community. Now, that's a broad conversation, and there's literally thousands of proposed solutions of how to deal with those issues. You can't cherry pick one of those solutions that you don't like or that you hear and apply that one solution or policy or even set of policies amid thousands of them and attribute it to the movement and say, the movement doesn't matter, because I don't like that solution proposed. What we need to do is say this is an important topic and then do the hard work of coming up with the tens of thousands of solutions it's going to take being okay that not every solution is going to be perfect, and just because we don't hear a perfect solution, that we discount the entirety of the thing. That's what I mean by the false attribution fallacy. We take a specific policy or solution we don't like and we try to throw out the entire thing that's not productive here. What we need to say is, you know what? Indeed, right now, our focus should be this situation, because this situation is important and it's incited protests around the globe of people asking for change. So let us ask ourselves what can change? So these are some of the rules of conversation here. An openness to maybe there are bigger problems than just your behavior. An openness to not quickly judging or making assumptions about other people and accusing them. And an openness that when we have specific conversations, it's okay that we don't include every angle of it. You know, myself personally, as I've spoken up so much for the black community over the years, people say, well, you didn't bring up this person's incident or that person or this specific thing. And you know what? I can't bring up every topic and neither can you. But we can have this important topic and discuss these themes consistently and seek solutions consistently, just as we can consistently address other issues in our life. You're consistently addressing your health. It doesn't mean you do everything perfect for your health. It means it's important for you and you're focused on it. And sometimes you focus on it more than other times. True. That's what's happening now. So let me share with you my specific perspective and where it is informed of. And again, I want to remind you that there's no justice. I'm going to be able to do this entire conversation coming from my perspective and my privilege. So please visit brendan.com equality to see tons of resources information. There's many of those informed my life 20 years ago and throughout the last 20 years. I want to talk about my specific statements and where they came from, specifically related to the death of George Floyd and specifically related to some of the solutions that I proposed. Whether you agree or not, because all I want you to do is, hey, come up with some solutions and start sharing them. I'm totally okay if you don't agree with mine, but let's get in the dialogue of proposing solutions without destroying each other, seeking to cancel each other and seeking to subjugate each other's voices, which is the problem we are already facing. Let's be solution minded. All begin with where I'm coming from in the most, you know, well known inciting incident recently, and that is about George Floyd's death. You know when and I'll share some things I've written about this and discussed on social media in terms of my public statement. This one specifically I wrote. When people talk about justice for George Floyd, I hear some say, but this is a complicated issue and they use that as an excuse to stop the conversation or to speak up for it because they're scared they're not going to address the whole issue, which is a very broad and wide ranging issue of freedom, inequality and racism, of police brutality, of justice. It's scary to take this on, but listen, the issue at hand when he was killed was not a complicated issue. A man was killed and it was documented. And the murderer and the victim are both clearly identifiable in the video. And the killers heard the pleas of the victim for over eight minutes and did not stop. That is murder. The victim's name is George Floyd. It is only complicated in air quotes when people avoid the reality or attempt to overlay their own narrative to what undeniably occurred. What is complicated is people's fear to face the facts because of what it means in that situation and in our society. But let us not lose the fact in a conversation of where we're at, no matter the person's or your personal perspective or the events prior to the crime or history. A black man was restrained and prone on the ground with police officers atop him for over 10 minutes. At no point does he appear a threat or uncooperative. A white police officer had his knee on the restrained man's neck for over eight minutes as the man expressed 15 times that he could not breathe and pled for his life. George Floyd lost consciousness and the officer did not let up pressure from his neck. And the other officers took no real action to save him during that time. That's not complicated. What's not complicated? Murder is wrong. Brutality is wrong. Not charging and imprisoning a murderer for days, that's wrong. Not charging or imprisoning those who aided the killing was. When they hold a public position to help people, that's wrong in my viewpoint. But listen, I agree the complication is there because the complication is, now what? How do we deal with the bigger issues? What's complicated is why does this keep happening? What's complicated is how do we ensure that justice and peace and equality prevail here. What's complicated is how do we discuss changes in police reform? What's next? How do we express anger and protest and cause change without forgetting our own humanity and tearing each other and our cities apart? You know what? Let's face ourselves as a nation and deal with the issues that George Floyd now symbolically represents. That not just George Floyd, but the countless headlines and those who have never been addressed or spoken up for or documented, who've been killed at the hands of police or racism or injustice or inequality or the rampant violence we have against one another. You know, we've got to remember our oneness and our humanity and recognize that a wrong against another, no matter their background or skin color or demographic, it's wrong. It's a wrong against our human family. So we have to ask the hard question of how do we ensure that that doesn't happen again? And that is where the controversy is and belongs. How do we get right now? But my belief is that what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Said of injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. My belief is we got to care for one another. And as the fight for change happens, whether you believe that needs to happen at the police level, at the society level, at the cultural level, at the individual level, as the fight for equality wages on, which I hope you believe should happen at larger levels because you'd want that for your family, well, let's carry on in caring for each other through that process. Let's not fall victim to becoming that which we are fighting against. Ignorant, intolerant, hate filled. Listen, there are a lot of good people in this world and love is going to prevail, but it's going to take a lot of hard work. People say, where do I stand? Well, I stand strongly with the movement for valuing, supporting and rising black lives and the black community, people of color and even our indigenous populations who have just historically in the United States faced such violence and discrimination. And so where do I stand on these issues? I stand on the side of you proposing solutions, you doing the work, you trying to figure out ways to help, just as I'm struggling with it. People often make the attribution fallacy here as we talk about change related protests. They make all the attributions. The fallacy I talked about, they judge, you know, all protesters are bad. So they globalize. They say, well here this riot or this looting here is bad. I don't like it. So they discount the entire movement or the value of peaceful protest. Well, protests don't matter. Just like people say voting doesn't matter, they're taking a specific thing and globalizing it into something. And that's a fallacy. I mean, protests are demand for change protests, peaceful protests are sparked by blatant problems. And protests are important inflection points. But historically protests fizzle when the there are no clear and shared outcomes, when there's no leadership at local levels, when there's no rules for peaceful engagement, when there's no policy changes specifically sought. And no one knows what all those should be, but those are going to be necessary for the movement, for any positive change movement to happen. And so we got to start with proposing some ideas. If we're ever going to have direction and hope, people are going to have to propose ideas. I don't pretend to have them all. Matter of fact, I think the best proposals for ideas in this area have been made. And again, I turn Your attention to Brendan.com equality for incredible resources there that do a much better job and more comprehensive than I could ever do here. I did propose some ideas on social media and luckily they were not seen as too controversial in the sense that it was shared millions of times and that I just said, I think there's five things that could happen right now that would be important. Number one, let's deal with the inciting incident. So let's immediately charge and imprison the other three officers who aided the killing of George Floyd. That has happened now. And I proposed that the day that I saw the, the video of George Floyd being murdered, I said that the, the officer and the other officers should be charged. And people said I came out too early on that and I didn't understand policing and, and I. And made lots of other arguments, some of which I understand. But at the end of the day, that was a solution I proposed. It's happened. I'm happy about that. And by the way, yes, tens of hundreds of millions of people wanted that same thing. So believe me, I'm not suggesting I'm proposing anything new here. Again, I don't think I'm proposing anything new, period. So I turn your attention again to brendan.com equality I suggested that we pass new police brutality laws in all 50 states, new police training in all 50 states. Without new policies and procedures in all 50 states and US territories, we're not going to see systemic change. I suggested we implement many ideas that people have spoken about in terms of reforming criminal justice laws that would help to end all the discrimination that leads to inequality and mass incarceration. We have a criminal justice system that still has structural deficiency and historical racism and inequality. And I don't think it takes a very astute observer to recognize that. I think we have to teach peace and acceptance and meditation and anger management and emotional intelligence and in schools. And I know people say, but that's the place of the parent and the place of the home. I agree. And we also know that that's not sufficient because if it was, we wouldn't have the systemic problems we have. So we have to institutionalize and institutionalize change. We have to roll out a new way of educating that will help people have better, more peaceful conversations, more understanding of how to deal with their hurt or their hate or their anger or even inequality. We have to have better conflict resolution training in our schools. And if you don't agree with that, just go study the conflict resolution and the emotional intelligence work being done in the school system in the United States, and you will find it quickly, immediately, and systematically deficient. I also believe we have to vote. And I know some people say, well, I voted before and things haven't changed. We've been voting for hundreds of years and things haven't changed. No, no, no, no, no, listen. Especially related to these topics, if you want to change policing in any way that happens at the local level, you have to vote at the local level. Take your eyes off just presidential politics, which everyone symbolizes, but move down to local voting, which most people do not do. And the changes that happen at local levels happen when we vote for mayors or we vote for local leaders, you know, commissioners, district attorneys, etc. Local congressional seats. These things have to happen for change. They have to happen. If you agree the system doesn't support everybody, it might be useful to also agree that changing the system will be required of everybody. And the only way we have to do that is our individual actions, our community organizing and voting. So people ask, well, what should my first individual steps be, Brendan? Again, I'll Turn you to brendan.com equality for so many resources there. My thoughts are, hey, number one, examine your own mind and bias as a way of relating and living. You know, root out the judgmental thoughts and open your mind once more. That's not easy, but I think we have to do it. I think it's fair that people want to know where, you know, my perspective comes on this one, because you listen to me and I get it. And so I think I'll share a little bit about that, knowing that in sharing it, people will accuse me of trying to defend myself or fail to acknowledge my privilege or trying to be an expert. And I can promise you that is not happening up in here. You know, if you know anything about me, that ain't happening here. I teach personal development because I'm always working on myself, and that's been the entirety of my life on some of these topics because of how I grew up. So maybe I can share my story with you and some of that might help to inform where I came up with these ideas and why I'm speaking up against this. Because again, this is not a new topic for me. I've wrestled with and research and as I said, even built programs on these topics throughout my Adult life, and I'm not done and I'm not perfect. And we're all stepping up in a new territory here. No matter what we've experienced before, black or white or otherwise, you know, this is a historic moment. And this is all new things we have to navigate, despite our past. I was watching Oprah Winfrey on her recent special, which I've linked to via brendan.com equality. You can see her last two major episodes that she brought in. Black leaders, black thought leaders. Talk about their perspective, which, by the way, is way more valuable than mine. So go check it out. But she said after doing over a hundred shows on racism throughout the 80s, 90s, 2000s, over a hundred shows after this being part of her life, she has never seen a moment like this, such an inflection point. You've heard that from almost every black leader, especially those who have done a lot of speaking out about these topics in the past. This is a different time. And so we're all facing something new, even though we might have experience or background in it. So I don't pretend to know the answers. I'm trying to provide ideas here, and I hope you jump off and provide your own. That's the openness of this discussion, where my stance and where my speaking up came from. I'll share a little about that background. For me, in college, I got my undergraduate degree in political science because I was fascinated about how things change, about how the United States was founded and progressed and changed and what the issues were. So my undergraduate was in political science. My master's degree was in communication, specifically organizational and leadership communication. And, you know, that work of studying communication with an emphasis in leadership brought me into seeking to understand, well, how did people communicate in times of great change. And in exploring that, as a young man, I watched, I remember for the first time ever, watching Dr. Martin Luther King's I have a Dream speech and not only being in awe of it and inspired by it, but recognizing my own ignorance of not understanding the depth of the conversation, the breadth of the conversation, and the background of the conversation. And I didn't like that. I was so inspired, but I didn't know what to do. And I didn't know where that was coming from because I grew up in a place that was not incredibly diverse. I grew up in Montana, and I grew up white, and I grew up in an economically impoverished area. We grew up below the poverty line. But for me, I didn't have a lot of people of color. I didn't have a lot of black community around Us. So I didn't have a lot of perspective, though I understood the inspiration behind watching the speech and I was moved so much. I said I got to understand that. And that began my study of their rhetoric and the policies and the change of the civil rights movement of. In those years, reading the entire collected works of Dr. Martin Luther King, of James Baldwin, of Malcolm X, of Toni Morrison and Maya Angelou, of W.E.B. dubois, of Booker T. Washington, of Frederick Douglass. I mean, these things changed my life. And notice I didn't say I read a blog post about them. I read the entire collected works throughout that time and it really shaped my values here. I was so moved by that and wanted to be part of that and understand it better because I hadn't been exposed to it. And I'm still learning. I remember where I was sitting when I read Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. S books. I remember, you know, where I was sitting when I read the Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela. I remember reading the Fire Next Time by James Baldwin and being so feeling that anger. I remember Tears We Cannot Stop by Michael Eric Dyson later on. Now, of course, as you see all those recommendations, so many important books you got to read, you know, from, you know, books like so youo Want to Talk About Race or Stamped from the Beginning or how to Be an Anti Racist or, you know, White Fragility, Eloquent Rage. What comes to my mind, you know, it's time to talk and listen about race. It's, you know, the new Jim Crow. There's so many. Again, go to brendan.com equality but those shaped me. But let's go back. So I read that work in college. Some of those works I referenced in college, specifically Martin Luther King, James Baldwin, Maya Angelou, W.E. b. Dubois, Booker T. Washington, to name a few. And then I also read about the founding of this country. And more relevant to today's conversation, I researched and analyzed the history and the cultural norms and the entire legislation that led to the Civil Rights act of 1964, which you all know, ended segregation in public spaces, banned unemployment, discrimination on the basis of race and color, religion, sex, national origin. Really considered then the crowning legislative achievement of the civil rights movement. I analyzed and researched the rhetoric and the policies leading into the Voting Rights act of 1965, which was so landmark in that that's what prohibited racial discrimination in voting. And it began the process of removing barriers to voting. You know, banned poll taxes and literacy tests and a lot of other measures that were used, you know, especially in the south, to prevent African Americans from voting. And to give you an idea, it really only began the process because I think it was amended, you know, three, four, five, six times to get it right. There was so much systematic problems preventing African Americans from voting at the time. So to me, that work informed my values. So if you think I'm biased, I am. I am biased towards the causes of freedom and equality and justice for all. I am biased in my belief that everyone deserves personal freedom to be who they truly are and seek the things they really want for themselves and their family without oppression and tyranny, without having to deal with systematic injustices against them. I'm biased towards that. That work, I mean, remember that was in my, you know, late teens and 20s, that led to what's been largely a self driven effort that's just never stopped. And you've seen it, it's emerged as sweeping themes in Motivation Manifesto as an example, but also in all of my content and live trainings. If you've ever been to them, you've heard me quote and speak to many of these issues, you know, from playing some videos at our public speaking events, but way larger, to discussions of, of freedom and equality broadly. But I'm still listening, I'm still learning, and I want to let you know I haven't done enough. So for those of you who think I'm trying to defend or explain, what I'm trying to do is do what I thought that my audience deserved and wanted, which is, where have you been with this topic, Brendan? Why are you speaking up in this way? What are your biases? You know, in my 20s then, I was blessed to work with incredibly inspiring diverse leaders, volunteers, researchers to build some of the most inclusive and large scale student leadership programs in the nation that almost universally had diversity programs built in early diversity programs that really shaped millions of people. And so for some of you who don't know my background, my first book, when I was, what, 20 years old, I wrote the Student Leadership Guide, which is based on the ideals of servant leadership, on the ideals of proposing change, getting involved, being active, volunteering. That was when I was 20 and throughout my 20s, because that book literally, you know, millions of, whether it was mostly downloaded at the time or binders with student leadership programs or books that allowed me the blessing of building student leadership programs. In my 20s, in my early 30s, that led to getting a job in my late 20s, getting a job for the largest global change management and technology company called Accenture. And there I was a change management consultant and mostly worked on leadership type initiatives and was able to build large scale leadership programs that literally reached millions of people. And they were global and always had some kind of tie into or interaction with a major diversity initiative. And I learned so much from them. I'm not saying, hey, I built all those. I'm saying I was on those teams and I learned so much. A ton of my exposure came from that. That from literally the smartest people on the planet trying to build global programs in these areas. Hey, they weren't enough. But that was informative to me. I was blessed in my 30s to train over 10,000 nonprofit leaders on how do you partner with entrepreneurs and change agents and thought leaders to share and further their mission. Their mission, and vice versa. Teaching entrepreneurs how do you partner with nonprofits. That led me into working with literally tens of thousands and training tens of thousands of nonprofit leaders who taught me about social impact and social justice and community activism and how to effect real change in people's hearts and minds. So again, I was informed by that and that is what informed some of my values today. So it's not about I'm an expert. It's like I went through a lot to learn a lot. And I'm still learning. And that's why I bring these topics to mind. Because I've been exposed to a lot of these ideas. In my 30s, because of those global programs I was part of. I began a real earnest effort to diversify my own audience, my own growing audience at the time, which now, as many of you know, if you've been to my events, is my global overall audience is comprised of over 46% international non white subscribers. And our programs, our courses and our events, if you've ever been to them, you've seen, you know, at least 30% of our audiences are international at any given event. We do a lot of events. Many of you guys know we do eight events per year. So I'm not speaking to all of our programs here, but the vast majority. The research we conducted, the largest global research that's ever been done on high performance, was representative of population, meaning it equally represented the black community. It equally represented other diverse cultures as well. It was in 190 different countries. If you've been to our events, you've seen us invite great black inspirational leaders and speakers. Not enough. If you've been to our events, you've seen the diversity of my team. Not enough. If you know the companies I've invested in that have social impact built to their core. Not enough. But many of you know, if you didn't know, you can go take Courses on unwinding prejudice and confronting racial bias and how, you know, conscious activism and leadership really works through not. Those aren't my courses. Those are courses that we helped fund through one of our companies. And you take those courses for free. Just go to again, brendan.com equality and we've made them available for free. Props to Commune and Jeff and team who unlock those courses for the world for free that they spent, you know, tens and tens of thousands of dollars producing, you know, even course on how to organize a march, peaceful march. Those are all@brendan.com equality under the commune section of free courses you can take. So try to fund companies like that and, you know, I guess I can just say my whole adult life, it's been inspired by these experiences and these resources I'm sharing with you. I've tried to surround myself with more and more black leaders, women, diverse people of color from any country around the world in my industry and other fields to help me keep learning. And I want to let you know, still, I don't feel like I know much. And if you keep feeling I'm just kind of punting here to that website of resources, I want you. I totally am. I totally am. Because I know. I already know. I already know there's hundreds of people who are going to come and listen to this and say, there's Brennan pretending to be an expert because, you know, he read some books in college and he's invested in some companies and he's read about this legislation and he's been active. Oh, here he is thinking, no, I'm a white dude of privilege who grew up in the most fortunate country in the world. A guy who lucked out on the lottery and who's aware of that. And any conversation you want to throw at me, if you think that's a new conversation to me, you forgot I've been in the public eye for 20 years of my life. You forgot I built programs that impacted millions of people. I'm not new to the feedback on these topics. And so I welcome them, I understand them. And I'd like to end today with what I think I can speak to, with expertise. Without doubt, not coming from a place of who I am, but coming from a place of global academic research. And that is what most of you listen to me for, which is personal development, high performance. So here we go. What do leaders do? What do we know that in times of crisis, leaders do? No matter what side you're going to fight for, no matter what you believe in, no matter whether you agree with anything I said today, what do we know that leaders do and in times of crisis? Well, we know that has a lot to do with how they approach courage and influence. Number one, academically, when we studied courage, what does it mean? Courage tended to mean not only the willingness to take more risks. That's part one, willingness to take more risks, but part two, the consistency in which one speaks up for their own ideas, values, needs and dreams. And number three, the consistency in which one speaks up for other people's right to have their ideas, dreams, needs and freedoms. Three parts right, willingness to take risk, that's courageous. Doing it is another thing. But speaking up is foundational to measuring courage. Does the person have the guts to speak up for themselves and for other people? When someone's being bullied, does someone speak up? That's courage. And so that's not my opinion. It's what we continue to learn from the world's largest study of successful people that we conduct at High Forms Institute. And the research is just clear. Change makers push past their insecurities and they speak up for what other people believe. So as insecure as I doing this episode for you today, I know my audience wants to know where I'm coming from on this perspective, and I'm sharing it, even as I'm recommending and elevating other resources that you have to push past what's uncomfortable for you and being willing to fight for yourself, but also for other people who don't have your voice. The team members on your team who don't have the voice, the people in your communities who don't have the voice, who are overlooked or who are bullied regarding influence. What we've learned from the greatest leaders, they make a positive difference through three things. Number one, they help other people discover what they truly think about issues. They help other people learn how to think, not by imposing everything on them, but by opening the door and listening and asking questions. Meaning they inquire, not accuse. They inquire, they ask questions, they propose ideas. They open up the door to conversation so that you can find your own answers. And I'm trying to do that here. I haven't. I hope you don't sense I've tried to accuse any specific group of anything here. Instead, I'm opening up a dialogue. Meaning great leaders help other people find their own clarity. You don't have to listen to me. Go to the resource page. Listen to hundreds of other experts. Do your own work. Number two, leaders challenge other people to improve their behavior, their relationships, and their contributions. I hope you get Better. I hope you deeply care for other people and treat other people with respect and care and kindness. I hope you contribute to your world in a way that makes other people's lives better. Leaders challenge other people in respectful and thoughtful and collaborative way. Leaders challenge other people in a respectful, thoughtful and collaborative and humble way. You gotta admit, you don't have all the answers, you know, all the self righteousness out there right now. Boy, there's a lot of that. I try to propose solutions but I'm not self righteous in the sense of I don't have all the answers. And people every time I propose something, someone comes back and says you didn't do this or you didn't do that. And they get on a self righteous soapbox and attack me for one angle I didn't cover. But you know what? That's part of the game, that's part of the process. Part of the courage in life is willing to have other people influence you who don't agree with you, to check yourself. And I'm comfortable getting checked. And I appreciate all those who check me. You know, I think the other thing is finally she's leaders role model the way they demonstrate patience and passion and curiosity and humility and a dedication to collaboration to make things better. They role model the way. Have you been role modeling the way. Have you been role modeling open and thoughtful conversation or even role modeling accusation and hate? Have you been role modeling taking action or role modeling just getting angry, screaming at people? You know, I know we live in a take down culture right now in a cancel culture, but I think that role models don't do that because a role model has the guts to have the golden rule in their heart. And no one wants to be take down or canceled because of mistakes they've been made. Part of the reality is we have to accept that there are really bad people in the world and we still have to lead with love and kindness and not become the very things we dislike. I only know what leaders do and don't do it academically, but I can tell you philosophically, nothing I have ever read from any great leader from the founding members of our United States to the leaders of the civil rights movement, to the leaders of today. What leaders do not do is avoid issues. But you know what? Avoidance is easy. Because avoidance is always a comfortable short term solution, but it almost always leads to long term suffering. Avoidance is a comfortable short term solution, but it's also guaranteed solution to long term suffering. It will lead to long term suffering. I'm not saying it right I know you know what I'm saying. The longer we put off facing something, the longer it grows to hurt us. So victory change here, it's not a result of avoidance. It's going to be a result of having the tough conversations and fighting for the good fight over and over and over again and learning not just now, not just one book, but, but for decades. I've been learning about this for decades, and I still don't know crap. And I'm still learning. I'm still exploring these issues with you. Listen, I don't expect that you or anyone agrees with me on all these issues. And I know lots of what I've said has opened up doors of things I didn't cover or issues that aren't fair to you or where you come from. And I get it. I don't expect anyone to agree with every perception, yours, mine, or anyone's. But I do hope that we can all agree that learning right now is necessary for our own personal development and for the betterment of our society. So you got to learn. You got to learn about the history affecting the movement today. The history of racism or inequality, the history of police reform, the history of civil rights, Black Lives Matter. I think it's. If you don't understand the issues at play here, it's hard to propose solutions. So, again, check out my resource page for books and courses and videos and articles@brendan.com equality I think it's important that if you're someone who says you want to make a difference and you want to change the world, then when you have incendiary moments like these, that you speak up, that you propose solutions, that you demonstrate your values, that you act with integrity. You know, I know it's not popular. I've always been attacked when I speak up for things like this. But I can't put my values or those experiences over the last 20 years of my life on hold and just say, well, I guess I'll throw my hands up and not comment because I'm not black or I'm not a police officer or I'm not, you know, in this situation or that situation, because that doesn't make any sense. Silencing voices, probably not going to be the answer right now. It's encouraging people to speak up with courage for what they believe is right and elevating and giving voice to others. It's why I've driven so much unbelievable levels of traffic to people who are way smarter than me on these topics. But I do have a recommendation, and it is a strong recommendation, and it is controversial, and I deserve the controversy on it. And I get it. And that is the advice I've been giving to my peers in the industry. After the death of George Floyd, I was in my personal industry, in the personal development space, one of the very first, at least in terms of the audience size, that I have to speak up and speak out and call a wrong a wrong and get involved in the conversation of this being related to race. And I know that lots of others didn't speak up. And it's because it's scary. And because when we don't feel like we have all the background or all the knowledge or all the solutions, we want to be silent and we want other people to kind of step up and lead who are more knowledgeable and who are more expert. And I believe I had all those impulses to be quiet, too. But then I couldn't stand it. I started texting, calling, emailing, asking people in the broader. Not just the personal development space, but the broader influence space to say something, say something. And I didn't tell him what to say. I just said, say something. Because it's not about whether or not we need to speak up on every issue. I'm not a news agency. I can't speak up on everything, but say something. Acknowledge that we got something going on here. Acknowledge that this moment became more than just the moment. It's not just an issue of a police officer with his neck on a black person's. With his knee on a black person's neck that became a symbol of something so much more representative of something so much more. Acknowledge that. So I personally advise over a hundred major organizational, governmental and influencers leaders in the last several weeks to get involved. And I want to let you know, I am not telling them what to think or what solutions to agree on. And I'm not telling you which side politically to embrace. Notice I didn't make this a political, you know, play. I didn't take on, you know, other things outside of where I'm coming from. I just said, have the courage to get involved. When the world is changing, have the courage to get involved and listen. You can stop listening if you don't want to hear this, but I wrote this to my entire newsletter for those who don't understand the risks of influencers. With millions of fans and people watching every word and judging everything, it is scary, and I get it. So if you don't want. If you don't want to speak up, you probably just stop listening right now. But to my peers out there who are listening right now who continue to ask and message me or wonder silently at home whether or not to speak up and share an opinion or propose solutions or even if you don't know the answers, share other people's solutions that you're like, hey, I like that. Here's my short reply, which I realized does not make me neutral on the matter. And I sent this to my email newsletter list. You know, 3 million plus people now have gotten this. I understand addressing every injustice and murder and controversy and headline is not possible and not what you might do. I don't either. I'm not a news agency. However, as injustice after injustice has been brought to more people's view, as you've seen the killings of George Floyd or Breonna Taylor or Ahmaud Arbery and so many others that are just too countless, that as the world, whether you agree or not, has chosen to focus on this conversation of Black Lives Matter, whether you agree we should focus on it. We should not focus on it. Globally, it is focused on. You cannot deny the tens of millions of people who are protesting right now. When that happens, you got to take it seriously. You can't avoid it. You can't dismiss some people as crazy or outlandish. You can't make the fallacies of exclusion or the fallacies of attribution. I say, have no doubt this is a significant enough time to use your voice. And if this is not a significant enough time to use your voice, when was, when will be. So you can choose to speak up, but you can take a B. You can do some research. You can understand things. You don't have to have all the answers. You can literally post something saying, hey, I see and acknowledge what's going on. It hurts my heart. I'm sad that we're so divisive. I don't know what the answers are. And honestly, I need to do some work. I need to do some research. I need to look within, but I need to get some voices of expertise on this area. I want to let you know I'm working on this. Love to hear what you're working on, what you're learning about. It's an important time in our lives, isn't it? Let's all be a positive force for change. Even that that's as neutral. It's saying this. I see something's happening. I'm gonna learn about it. Hope you do too. What are you learning? Let's be positive, let's change. That takes nothing. There's no risk. But some of you should take risks. When Your heart feels called to speak out, to lead, to call a wrong a wrong. If we don't do that, then we don't set standards in our society. If you don't know what to say, elevate others who are saying something you like. But don't fear backlash or fret about making a perfect or a complete statement. Because this is not this podcast, this episode. To me, this sucks. There's so many things I want to share and say. I don't have the time. I can't say everything. But I don't fear the backlash. Because you know what? Judgment always happens. You will be judged for any opinion you put out there. You will be judged for any content you will put out there. So be true to yourself is all I can say. Don't worry if everyone does not agree with every idea. Don't agree. Don't worry if you get hate. You don't have to reply to every piece of hate or every accusation. You don't have to defend yourself against every absurd comment. But share some ideas. Share some ideas. Don't worry about the unfollows and the unsubscribes. They're going to happen anyway. When you share more of your art, more of your heart, more of your voice, as your platform grows, more people will come in and more people won't follow. More people will hate. That's the cost of building something real. I say don't worry about the hate or the unfollows, and those will happen. I say worry about congruence. Worry about your congruence. Because if you're a leader or you're an influencer again, I'm speaking to my peers right now. No doubt you have told people in the last years, if you've been on Instagram and you're an influencer, you've told people to share their voice, to speak up for themselves, to make a change. So do it. You feel uncomfortable, you feel awkward, you feel like you don't know enough. You feel unsure of yourself. But aren't those the very vulnerabilities you've asked other people to embrace and to work through, to have a courageous life? You're upset. Have you asked other people to speak up for their feelings before? Have you asked other people to share their truth before then share yours? You said to us, be positive, be compassionate, be collaborative, be open. Okay, tell us how to do those things now. You don't know what to post right now. Okay, tell us, how do we manage this? How do we think about this situation? How do we think about change. How do we stay positive and compassionate through this? No matter what side you take, you've urged us to lead before. And so now, in a historic moment, you are being measured not as much for your exact position on the issues, but on your congruence with your very calls to action. If you've called people to action before, you're being measured on the congruence of whether or not you act. You said take action people, so you do it. I also say to my friends, you spend your career learning and you spend your career trying to communicate well. But you know, a lot of people right now aren't learning, and a lot of people right now don't know how to communicate well. And a lot of people don't know how to express their pain. And a lot of people don't have a platform. And a lot of people know how to share their thoughts with intention and empathy and kindness. So be the example to my younger friends. I wrote about this in my newsletter as well. I'm reading some of this here for you all. You risk nothing posting against violence, brutality and injustice. Those are values. Yes, you risk when you post a solution or an idea or a stance or a position. But arguing for safety, arguing for kindness, arguing for justice, arguing for equality and freedom. You risk nothing if you think posting something is a risk. My dear young friend, you've forgotten how social media is so transient. But more than I invite you and I beg you to read more history, to volunteer more, to widen your circle of friends and awareness to the world's lasting issues, there's a lot bigger problems and risks in life than pushing send on your smartphone. There's a lot bigger problems in life than dealing with a person's three sentence comment of hate that is judgmental or impulsive or incomplete. If people want to attack you and your character or your intelligence or your brand because they've seen one comment or they listen to one episode that didn't cover every issue or your entire background, or state everything perfectly seriously, don't worry, because they're going to go on and attack someone else real soon. Because that's what people do when they don't want a real conversation. They make an accusation. They run on to the next person to point and scream at. That's how it works. But personally, I want to let you know too. I don't expect anyone listening to this to speak up if you saw what's coming after I post this episode. Literally the thousands of accusations, the thousands of who do you think you are? The thousands of you're White, the thousands of you know you haven't done enough, invested enough, contributed enough. It doesn't matter how many people I've invested in, brought to my stages, elevated, recommended, doesn't matter. It doesn't matter how much you do. They're always going to say it's not enough and how dare you. So we have a choice. Do we shut down or do we continue on? I don't expect anyone to speak up, ever, because I know that fear. And I also know that in life, complacency usually wins. And that's why we still have the same dang problems we've been facing for hundreds of years. Complacency, avoidance usually win the day. But it is just so that when you do speak up, especially when other people have already pierced the silence for you, you're not speaking up. You might be speaking up for the first time, but people have been speaking up about this for centuries. And right now, the biggest influencers in the world right now have already pierced this silence and have spoken up. When you join a strong chorus and rhythm against inhumanity and injustice, then that seems like the most natural thing, doesn't it? I wrote I'm reading again here for you. It seems like just one more sure voice in the gospel of humanity. I ended my newsletter with this. You know, this opportunity for change can easily be weighed down by the weight of these difficult issues. And it can be overshadowed by when you see all the negativity and the hurt and the hate and the accusations and the conspiracies and the blatant divisiveness on social media and the news I get can feel awful and dark and horrible and like there's no hope. But please, I am telling you, after 20 years of studying this, of learning so much and traveling the globe talking with change makers, I can tell you there are good humans who wish you and others joy and health and freedom and equality and abundance in this world. There are white people and people of every variety in the world who want to see this movement of black lives matter win so that we have the ability to say that all lives matter because we respected a demographic that currently is not. We want to see change. There are people around the globe who understand right and wrong, who desperately want to change things for the better. And I want you to know if you have it in your heart to change things, you can. It happens. It happens. For those who just literally just don't understand the ability for a small group of people to change things. Study history. For those of you, if this is the first conversation you've ever had or explored in this way. Please go research the events leading up to 64 and 65. I want to let you know to have hope. There are volunteers and there are leaders and there are police and there are protesters and there are military and there are government leaders and there are people down your block who care. Not everyone gets everything right, but they don't have to. Not everyone says all their words right. They don't have to. We don't have to know all the answers and have the complete solutions. We just got to get in motion to change, man. Get in motion to change this episode. I'm just trying to be in motion with you. Not trying to be fancy, not trying to be the expert, not trying to pander, not trying to apologize. I'm just straight up trying to be in motion here with change. There are people who are spreading kindness every day. They might not make the headlines. I trust that you have been kind and caring and respectful to other people in ways that I could never see. So I don't judge you and I don't accuse you. Just like I hope that you realize you don't have a clue how much kindness and generosity and caring that I've extended in my life to others. And when we can understand that each of us hurts and each of us struggles and each of us has a hard path, then we can begin by opening the gate of empathy and understanding that will change this world. So do not lose hope or perspective, my friend. Caring people abound. I know it's scary to get involved. People are going to judge anything you say. Nothing's ever going to be enough. No one will agree with every solution. There are going to people who hate me and hate this episode for years and years and try to accuse me of tons of things. And that's fine. The path forward, it's hard. Get involved. It's hard. We're gonna disagree. We won't get tons of things right. The solutions we do propose, just like 64 and 65, will not be enough. The Emancipation Proclamation. Not enough. Took a hundred years. From the Emancipation Proclamation to the Civil Rights Act, 100 years still didn't get right. Never will. Justice always takes too long. Educating people on issues that we all face as a society. Big task takes too long. Equality takes too long. Teaching people to listen, to empathize, to withhold judgment, to be peaceful, to collaborate, to lead takes too long. But it's necessary. And goodness will always emerge and leaders will rise and things will change and the future will be better. And love will prevail And I believe that with everything in my. Things get better when we try to make things better. Today was my small effort at that. I thank you for your time. I thank you for your patience. I thank you for your involvement. I thank you for your support of my community and my work over the years. I wish you well.