"Les" Is More: Speak, Heal, and Thrive... Les Brown's Unfiltered Journey Through Grief, Recovery, and Business Success at Joe Polish’s Genius Network - Genius Network Episode #203

What you're doing now and the relationships that people are building here, one goose can fly 75% further in formation with other geese than it can ever fly by itself. And so the relationships and the sharing that people have and building relationships, building a new reference group. They did this 85 year study at Harvard University and they said the people who were successful had a reference group of about five to seven people that they connected with, that they identified with, that they had goals and dreams and held each other accountable. The same things that you're talking about right now. This is extraordinary. This is what the Genius Network is. Something that needs to be replicated all across this country and around the world.

If you'd like to join world renowned entrepreneurs at the next Genius Network event or want to learn more about Genius network, go to www.gienstruitnetwork.com. You've heard the expression less is more, which is a paradox in an oxymoron. It means that a smaller quantity could be of higher value than a larger quantity. Like less complicated is often better understood than what is more complicated. You get the point. And no, this isn't going to be an English class on word usage, but it could be, especially when you meet our next friend speaker. So much more. It's our version of Genius Network of Les is More. As you get to know the one, the only Les Brown. Yes, the world famous motivational speaker, author, politician and thought leader. Once called mentally retarded by school officials, Les proved to be much more and has surely achieved more. Today we're going to get to know the man, the legend. Please help me welcome my friend, Les Brown.

Thank you, thank you.

Mother preferred seat. Alright, so we also have a copy of Les book. You got to be hungry. And I wrote the foreword to this which was awesome and it's a powerful book.

Thank you very much for that.

Yeah. So what is the best and the worst parts of being Les Brown? I mean, in your story, you got to be hungry. You've been through so much, you overcame so many things and you're in a position where people have looked to you. I mean literally, I mean, hundreds of millions of people have witnessed you, have been inspired by you and you have been doing this for so long. What is in your book, which I have all the highlights off to show you because you've not seen how I highlighted up your book. You tell some of the darkest times of your life, everything from your addiction to your struggles to your challenges to relationships and some of the high moments with the goal to inspire people and let people know that they can become great, that they have greatness within them and how to unleash that. So before we get into talking about what is hungry mean and all that jazz, which I'm going to ask you all those things, give us two perspectives. What's the best thing and the hardest thing about.

The best thing about it is that my oldest daughter asked me that question, but she asked in a different kind of way, what's the most difficult part of your speaking? Was it to earn a million dollars? And I said no. And she asked me, well, what was it? I said to believe that I could do it given my circumstances. Born in an abandoned building on the floor, being labeled educable, mentally retarded, put back from the fifth grade to the fourth grade, failing again in the eighth grade. No college education, never worked for major corporations. To believe that I can develop the level of credibility and an impact with people with a message that will transform their lives and create a demand for me to teach something that I've never done. You know, I had to study a lot, had to face a lot of rejections. I had to make know my vitamin. The most difficult thing that I've ever faced, I feel, is that when I was diagnosed with fourth stage prostate cancer, I just received from cancer center's award, Cancer center of America award of perseverance last year, that during the time that I was struggling with that, my PSA, which stands for prostate specific antigen, was 2,401 to 4 is normal, as the guys here know. And I remember, I got. I believe one of the best things that I feel that speakers must do is learn to listen. And I had a very unusual doctor and the team that worked with him, they came in and they were telling my son, you know, we're going to make him provide palatal care. And I said, what does that mean? You know, make him comfortable. I said, hell, I got a fight on my head. I don't want to be comfortable. And so they gave me all of these drugs and I became addicted and I didn't know. And so my children, they came to pick. Two of them came to pick me up to take me to my youngest daughter's house. And as we were approaching the house, I see the line of cars on both sides of the street. I said, is there a party going on? I said, no. I said, what's happening? He said, dad, you'll see when you get in. I went in, I saw my mentor, Mike Williams, who wrote the book the road to your best stuff, who saw this. Les Brown. Before I Saw him and all my kids were there and friends and two people that I did not know. They were from the Darryl Strawberry drug program. So I said, is this an intervention? They said, yes. I said, I'm the king of intervention. I said, who is it for? They said, you. Me? Yes, dad. And so my oldest son said, dad, we got together. We're doing an intervention. You're addicted to drugs. What are you talking about? Do I look like a drug addict? Dad, there are two types of drug addicts. Those who go seeking drugs and those who have been prescribed drugs if prescribed to you. I have the list here from Walgreens. 25 drugs, three times a day. 75. Dad, you're addicted. I said, I taught all of you not to drink, not to smoke, not to ever do drugs. And you're going to tell me I'm addicted? Dad, we've been watching you, and you taught us you can't see the picture when you're in the frame. And so I went to my second oldest daughter. I said, do you believe that I'm addicted to drugs? She said, yes, dad. And my youngest daughter, who is very, very important to me, she's my big choice. And I said, do you believe that I'm addicted? And Serena, she started crying. She said, daddy, you taught us that you can't read the label when you're locked in a box. These people are here to take you to a program several hours away from here, where you go, and you'll be there for several months. I'm asking you to go. We want you to live. You can't do this by yourself. You taught us that. Ask for help not because you're weak, but because you want to remain strong and ask for help, and not until you get it. And we're asking you to help yourself. You're not Superman. And so my mentor, Mike Williams, who. He was there, your kind of personality. I get emotional. Just think about him. Because I'd never known my father. You know, I just saw a picture of this dude. I said, mike, do you think I'm addicted? He said, brownie, I'm with the family. I said, oh, my God. And so the guy said, we'll come get you in the morning. I said, oh, hell, no. You got to take me tonight. Because if you don't take me tonight, I'm running away. And I've never been confined before. So it was a long drive. I got there and went in, and I'd never been in some place I couldn't get out. And I was. They had me stripped down to my underwear. And I was crying the whole time. I said, man, I can't believe this is happening to me. And so they gave me a gown and everything to put on. They took me to a room, and I said to myself, as soon as the lights go out, I'm getting out of here. So I didn't know that they'd locked the door. I said, oh, my God. I've never been in a room I couldn't get out of. And I'm overcoming the challenge of claustrophobia. And so the next morning, I never forget going to a class and people doing double takes. You look like Les Brown. I am Les Brown, man. I'm here because of you. What are you doing here? They say I'm hooked on drugs. And when they had the group where you stand up and people have to give their name and say, I'm a drug addict, I couldn't make myself say it. I said, I'm Les Brown, and I've been prescribed. And I started listing all the drugs that I was taking. They said, you've been on the big horse, but you're still a drug addict. So I say they prescribed them for me. I said, no, man, you're a drug addict. And so they want to suggest Suboxone as a transition drug. And I said, no. So I went into the director's office after I was there for about a month, and I said, listen to me. I said, I was prescribed these drugs. I said, I'd like to volunteer and do some work, but I cannot stand up here and say I'm a drug addict. And he said, every junkie has a story. You are chunky. I grabbed the telephone that was on his desk. I was about to hit him in the head. And fortunately, the counselor that he had in there, she had heard my voice. And she said, Mr. Brown, please don't hit him with that cell phone. She said, trouble is easy to get into, hard to get out. And that stayed with him. I've had three. Two different people that tell me that in different situations. I call them angels. And I took the phone and I called my son. I said, come get me. He said, what do you mean? We paid for you to be there for several months. I said, listen to me. Come get me, or I'll walk from Toledo back to Columbus, Ohio. It was like 10 degrees outside. I said, dad, you're freezing death. I said, I don't care. I can't do this like this. And so they came to get me, my second oldest son and my baby daughter, and we all get all the way back to Columbus. And the director of the program said, don't worry. At his age, he'll be back. He'll be back real soon. Trying to go cold turkey. Nah, you won't do that. At 70, you're in your 30s. You could do it. So I went to a friend of mine who lived near my daughter, and I said, I need you to help me. I've been diagnosed with having an addiction to the fentanyl and all the different drugs they're giving me. I said, I gotta beat this. I teach people all the time, it's about mind over mind. I've got to beat this. I can't just be a messenger. I'm not going to do this. Suboxone. They want me to take another drug to get off drugs. I'm not doing this. So she said, okay. And so she took me downstairs to her basement, and she was a nurse, and she said, I'll come down and check on you. So I prayed, meditated, and I was there. And, man, I started having dry heaves. She said she could hear me all over the house. I started hallucinating. I saw a giraffe run through the basement and everything. And then she would come down. I would be passed out on the floor, and she would call and have somebody come help her get me up off the floor, take me to urgent care. And at the sixth time, when I was gaining consciousness, I heard them say on the other side, I don't think this dude understand what he's dealing with. He could die. He's emaciated. He's not. He doesn't have enough fluids in his body. He's weak. He doesn't know what he's dealing with. And that night, Joe, I prayed. I said, mama. I said, mamie Brown, my adopted mother, you gave me love. I need your help. I said, dorothy Bell, you gave me life. I need the both of you to help me. And I have a cousin named Boo who had died. I said, boo, I need y' all to help me do this. I'm not gonna go on a drug to get off drugs. I'm not gonna do it. It goes against everything in me. And that night, I was praying and gagging and. And then a sense of peace came. A peace came over me. I was able to sleep that night. And when Denise came to get me, she said, you're quiet. Did they give you something? I said, no. I said, I believe I'm free. I prayed to both my mothers and my cousin Boo. I'm not going to Go back there. I'm not going to take the Suboxone. I'm going to do this my way. So she said, okay. And I never had another urge for the drugs after that. And they said, you're crazy. This doesn't make sense, what you're doing. I said, it might not make sense, but it makes faith. I'm going to do this. And I did. To God be the glory.

You know, since we're on that topic, I'm definitely not going to jump off this one right. Right away. There's a lot of people that are struggling with opiate addictions.

Yes.

A lot of them are prescribed. We live in a culture now where I was.

I had it. I took all types. I mean, 25 different drugs three times a day. That's 75. I'm lucky to be here. Yes.

And we had talked. I don't know, you know, we've never gone back and really talked about it. If you remember the conversations we had during that.

Yes. I called you during that time. Yes.

And I mean, it's agonizing pain for people, you know. I mean, I can only relate it to when I was a cocaine addict and I went six months without rehab because I couldn't afford it. And I was taking, you know, Tylenol and different things every day just to deal with the headaches. And, I mean, and opiates are at a whole nother level of withdrawal. And so it makes sense why people die, why they overdose, why they commit suicide, because it's just agonizing.

I couldn't even drink water. I mean, they had to give me water through IVs. I was. I was just vomiting 15, 20 times a day. Couldn't hold food down. I'd lost a lot of weight, you know, and they said, man, you got it, too. So you need nourishment. And I said, I would love to be able to hold something in my stomach, but I could not for a long time.

You know, the spiritual awakening that is really hard for a lot of people to comprehend. I mean, even myself. I cannot tell you how many stories I've heard in recovery rooms of people that they just. That connection came and something was lifted from them. Now, what advice would you give to someone that is struggling with addiction? Because I know in your book, you don't say that. You don't tell people this is the path to do it. I mean, everyone.

Because what I did, I don't suggest that to anybody. Everybody can't do what I did.

Yeah, okay.

I went to something that I was told how many of you speakers, raise your hands, please. Speakers, how many of you are coaches? Okay. What we do is when we speak as speakers, as coaches, as entrepreneurs, the people that are with us, they all have stories in their head that they got from life. My favorite book says, be ye not conformed to this world. Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. When Dr. Alfred Goldson came to me and said, les Brown. Yes? I've got some bad news. I said, what is it? He said, man, he said, you got prostate cancer. Your PSA is 2,400. I said, what does that mean? That means your prostate specific antigen 1 to 4 is normal. And I asked, I said, is there anything else? He said, yeah, what? It's metastasized to seven areas of your body. I said, wow. He said, why are you smiling? I said, man, seven is my lucky number. He looked at his nurse. I said, I was born February 17th. I'm one of seven children. Joshua marched around the walls of Jericho seven times. Naaman dipped himself in the River Jordan seven times. I said, Seven is my lucky number. And I asked, is there anything else? He said, yes. And I said, what is it? He said, you're ugly, too. He said, but you got this. You got this. Brown, are you listening to me? He said, I never tell my patients they're terminally ill. What I say is that my knowledge, my abilities and my skills have terminated. I determine the diagnosis. You and God determine the prognosis. A fact is not a verdict. You got your work cut out for you. And I said, thank you. I want you to write this down. Distract, dispute and inspire. What he did was cancer. Yeah. Yeah, distract. Cancer is the most feared word in seven different languages. So when someone distracts, told you have cancer, the fear alone. There's a book called the Biology of hope, that it compromises your immune system to protect you by 40%. So what he did was he distracted me from the fear. And when he made me laugh, when you laugh, and I use humor in my presentation because when people laugh, Joe, they're not thinking and their hearts open. And then I come up back with something I want them to get in their heart. He said, you're ugly, too. And I started laughing. Say, go. That ain't funny. He said, but you got this. You got this. And I felt it in my heart. He said, a diagnosis is not a prognosis. No, this is no verdict. You and God got this. And that's what we do. When we distract them from the current story and speak affirmatively. You can make it through this, you dismantle their current belief system. You're now in their heart, and you inspire them to become, as Mother Teresa would say, a pencil in the hand of God and start writing a new chapter in their lives. And that was 39 years ago. That's why I got the cancer center's center Cancer Center's Award of America perseverance, 39 years, fourth stage cancer. Yes. So when we speak, the mindset, your mindset, the whole area of psychoneuroimmunology, the mindset, the biology of hope that Norman Cousins talked about, who was a physicist and he saw old Groucho Marx movies and I Love Lucy and use humor to get through it. And so through your mindset, through changing your eating habits and decreasing the toxic negative people in your life and things that's not in alignment with you, being able to live a life of joy, harmony and peace, that's very important. You have to begin to assess yourself and look at your life, and you have to say, who is it I can count on and who should I count out? And you're one of those people. I called, I said, joe, been through this. This is passion. And then I went online, I started doing research. I wanted to find out. I told everybody, if you know somebody who died from prostate cancer, don't tell me. I'm not interested. I want to know who live. There's a song called I Don't Want Nobody bringing me any bad news. I'm not being insensitive. I just don't need that in my consciousness. And so the. So I went online and saw this kid, Dr. Lee, starving cancer, and Chris beat cancer. And I started talking to people. A guy who, in my book that I talk about who. I went to meet him at his house. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. And they said, people die within six months. And it's been eight years now. And I asked him, I said, man, why are you here? He said, three doctors told him to get his affairs in order. But there was a doctor he developed a relationship with. And I talk about this in the book. And he came in and he said, this is for you. And he gave him a clock. It was wrapped up, and he unpackaged the gift, the clock. He said, man, there's no hands on this clock. He said, I know. He said, you have to determine how long you want to be here. That's your call. That's not us, that's you. You now have to take responsibility for what you want to do. At this point, you can either surrender to what we have told you, and I'm saying to you that we are not experts. This is a practice because I got a stethoscope and a white jacket. Just because I said, or my partner said that you have a terminal illness does not mean that it's true. Life is a fight for territory. And once you stop fighting for what you want, what you don't want will automatically take over. You gotta fight on your hands.

There's a point in time where, as you know, you've sat through with many people. When life ends, it is time to let go. And that. Do you have a fear of death?

No. Here's. I'm not a religious person. I want to say, because I quote a lot of things from Bible everywhere. I'm not a religious person, but I'm a spiritual person. Religious people are afraid of going to hell. Spiritual people have been there. And hell, to me, is what you experience when you die and you meet the person that you were supposed to become. That's why one of my mentees, Dr. Miles Monroe out of the Bahamas, who died in a plane crash, we. And I give my speech, live full and die empty. He said, the ideal situation for a man or woman to die, Howard Thurman, is to have family members praying with you as you're about to cross over. But he said, imagine, if you will, being on your deathbed and standing around your bed, the ghost of the dreams, the ideas, the abilities, the talents, the gifts given to you by life. But you, for whatever reason, you never use those talents. You. You never tapped into those gifts. You never made that contribution. You never made the impact that you were chosen out of 400 million sperm to make. And there they are, standing around your bed, looking at you with large, angry eyes, saying, we came to you and only you could have given us life. And now we must die with you forever. I want all of you to say with me, live full. Say it again. Live full.

Live full.

Die empty. That's what the Genius Network is about. It's about robbing the cemetery of the gifts that you have in you. You are masterpiece. Because you're a piece of the master. You were born and preserved for such a time as this. Don't come for me. I didn't call an Uber. Yeah. Wow.

So grief, loss, betrayal, that level of pain, when that happens, you have spent so much of your life giving inspiration, energy, encouragement, belief to others or at least doing your best to transfer that. When it happens to you, what do you do?

I'm glad you asked that question. The model that you have here is what I do. I believe in order for us to make it, we're going through. We're watching and witnessing the throes of a dying beast. When my mother. I've never seen anybody die before, but my mother was feeling her arms, you know, she said, mama, you've done your best by us. Let go, Mama, let go. But her arms every. We wanted her to stop moving arms like that. When humans die, sometimes people fight it, or like animals, you know, fight it. And. But there was a point where she stopped and you. We saw her looking in the distance. And I see death as a transformation, that we've finished the course. And my goal is to die young at an old age. You know, at 78, I realized that life is like a roll of toilet tissue. The closer you get to the head, the faster it runs out. And so I don't feel fear, death, because my goal is my brother, who. He's a Vietnam veteran. But he asked me last night, leslie, when are you going to retire? And I brought him with me because his wife of 50 years and 6 months, we just buried her this past weekend. And I brought him with me during the break. I went back to the room. I saw how fragile he was. We're just five minutes apart. He went out first, and I heard a slap, and he started crying. And I said, what's going on? And they pulled me out, you know. But when I saw him, I realized how much of himself that he lost during the years he's been taking care of his wife as a caregiver. And I'm so glad I brought him. I wanted him to come here and meet people and be in a different environment rather than being in a house by himself. When you've been with somebody 50 years and six months, that snatches something out of him. And I went back during the lunch break, and he turned to walk away with friend of mine, with me. HB Took him lunch from here. And I thank you for that. I realized it's amazing how life is. Edward Alvey had a play called the Zoo Story. And he said, sometimes you have to go a long distance out of the way to come back a short distance correctly. My brother And I, at 18, we were separated. He went to Vietnam. They wouldn't take me because we were twins, and I was the only oldest to take care. Mom adopted seven kids altogether, so I was there to take care of other brothers and sisters. That's the first time we've been separated, and here we are back together. I said, wesley, it's Been four days. I come and knock on your door, and when you come to the door, I say, this is my brother. I said, we're back together again. I said, I don't want you to worry with it. People die within six months when they lose someone that they've been. Many caregivers die before the people they take care of. And he said to me, I'm going to be all right, Leslie. We're going to finish strong together. And so when I look at the work that you're doing, people have to have mental resiliency. They have to upgrade their skill set, and they have to create communities like the Genius Network of Collaborative Achievement Driven supportive Relationships. A lot of people are intimidated by artificial intelligence. Well, I come from the era of rhythm and blues. Marvin Gaye and Tommy Terrell, and they had a song called Ain't Nothing like the Real Thing. Baby. Artificial intelligence has nothing on you because it doesn't have a heart. It doesn't have your experience. It doesn't have your ability to look at a situation and be able to allow a person to get a vision of themselves on the other side of whatever they are experiencing. You are irreplaceable. In this work here, I'm meeting some very beautiful people. Any question anymore? You got? Do you all have any questions?

Hey, Les, thank you so much for sharing that. I struggle with using humor when I speak. How did you get good at it and what advice would you give?

Don't struggle with that. Laughter is the lubricant that allows us to handle and navigate our way through life. Don't struggle with that. I don't tell jokes, but people say that I'm funny. So you find things that you can use that will trigger laughter, and particularly if you're a presenter, because when you are, when you use humor strategically, case in point, you know, ladies and gentlemen, how many of you know, people say money won't make you happy, but everybody want to find out for themselves. And I remember a time in my life I was so broke, I'd walk past the bank and tripped the alarm. And then I had a moment. I got a call. Leslie, my sister. Margaret Ann, are you sitting down? What's wrong with Mama? Margaret Ann, Mama's got breast cancer. She's got breast cancer. Yes, I'll be there tomorrow. Leslie, you don't have to do that. You just got elected for the third time. Listen to me. I promise her, if anything happened to her, I will be there. How many of you have somebody that you love that anything ever happened to them? That you would be there for them. Raise your hand if you know what I'm talking about. And so, ladies and gentlemen, I want you to write this down, earn walk away money that I had a job in LA. I was making over $220,000 for two hours on a radio station, on CBS radio station. And I walked away. I left. They said, are you crazy? Mm. I said, my mama needs me and I'm gonna be there for her. But you notice the laughter before and how I came to that place. Write this down. Never make a point without a story and never tell a story without a point. So rather than doing the stuff like our friend friends that we know in the industry that's pushing, getting planes and boats and making a lot of money, I said, you know, you want to be in a position if something happens to someone you love, that you can be there for them, that you can do more than just pray for them. Does that make sense? When I asked that question to the audience in general, James is right about the power of questions. Now I've created an opening in the presentation so that they now are participant in the story and the presentation that I'm creating because we're orchestrating an experience in this audience. Now there are audiences inside of each audience, people who are going through some stuff. Some people need humor, some people need content, some people need passion and energy. And so when we are talking to people separated by education, by the things they've gone through, that as presenters, we have to create a presentation that will allow us to make that audience, those audiences inside of the audience, one audience, by listening to the listening of the audience and then using your stories strategically so that your story becomes their story, and you create an experience where you take them to a place in themselves where they can't go by themselves. That's what I'm doing now at this stage of my life. Because there's no success without success, or it's training speakers on how to take their life, their story, their skills, their hunger to make a difference, to make their mark, to live a life that will outlive them and be able to make a difference in people's lives, to promote themselves and knowledge in their companies.

You know, to speak to. You could probably articulate this, which you're already doing pretty well, is that my version of this is somewhere along the way, I was reading so many books and trying to figure out how to learn more effectively. Like, how does one accelerate learning? And so for years, I would share with, you know, my service business clients. Early on, when I Went from dead broke carpet cleaner to learning how to make that business work. Then taking, wow, I figured out a bunch of things that work and now how do I share them with other people? And I'm definitely afraid of speaking, so I don't want to go speak, you know. And then I would like force myself to be in situations where I had to present, although I was a nervous wreck. And then I started going to Toastmasters and that was incredibly beneficial. And then it dawned on me, like, wow, I'm learning this stuff so much quicker because I'm now putting myself in a position to have to teach other people. So I would then, you know, later share three ways to learn something. You learn through the school of hard knocks. You just don't ask for directions. You know, before gps, you know, that whole, there was that whole stereotype of men never ask for direction sort of thing. You know, you just bumble your way through life, you figure it out, you'll learn stuff, but you're going to fail a lot. It's going to be painful. So that's one way to learn. Second way to learn is you learn through the experiences of other people. You read their books, go to their seminars, buy their courses, learn, get educated. Not education in school, but education out of school. Right. Real life education. And that's a more effective way to learn. That's why I read a lot of books. That's why I've gone to a lot of seminars. That's why I've hired a lot of people. So then the third way to learn, which is the most accelerated, fastest way, is you start teaching other people. Because then you have to integrate it at a whole nother level.

I would challenge that.

Well, yeah, I want to hear your perspective on this.

Yeah. When I graduated from high school, I friend of mine, Larry Littles, he went to Bethune Cookman College. We graduated together. They traded him to he. So he went, he went to San Diego Chargers. He was an offensive guard. He was so ineffective there, they traded him for like two or three dollars.

He must be ineffective.

He had very ineffective. But he went to the Miami Dolphins. Don Shuler, a coach. Larry became all Star offensive guard 12 years in a row. Inducted into the hall of Fame, Football hall of Fame. Very seldom that offensive guards inducted into the hall of Fame. What was the difference? The coach. Yeah, what the coach was able to find and bring out of him. When I met Mr. Leroy Washington, when I was in his class, when I was put back, when I fell in the eighth grade and I was looking for a friend and you know the story. MacArthur Stevens and Mr. Washington, who was a speech and drama teacher. And I admired his oratorical skills and how he trained students and my classmates. And he said, young man, he's going to do a play called 12 Angry Men. And so he said, I want you to go out up to the front, and I want you to work this problem out for me. We're looking for something. And I said, sir, I can't do that. I'm just here looking for MacArthur Stevens. He said, I want you to do what I ask you to do anyhow. I said, sir, I'm not one of your students. I'm just looking for my friend. And the other students started laughing, saying, he's Leslie. He's got a twin brother, Wesley. Wesley's. He's dt. And they started laughing. He asked, what's dt? And they said, he's educable, mentally retarded. He's in special education. And he looked at me and I said, I am, sir. And he came from behind his desk, he looked at me, he said, don't you ever say that again. Someone's opinion of you does not have to become your reality. Do you hear me? And I said, yes, sir. He. He disrupted the story that I believed about myself. And as a result of him, he told me three things that served me today that I mentioned earlier. He said, you want to make it in life, don't you? I said, yes, sir. He said, number one, develop your mind. You don't get in life what you want, you get in life what you are. He said, I want you to listen to this. And he gave me Earl Nightingale, the strangest secret in the world. He says, number two, practice the principle of OQP Only quality people. The award winning Academy Award winner, Sidney Poitier, he wrote a book called the Measure of a Man. He said, when you go for a walk with someone, something happens without being spoken. Either you adjust to their pace or they adjust to your pace. Whose pace have you adjusted to? We earn within two to three thousand dollars of our closest friends. When I found that out, I got all my broke friends out of my life. I said, y' all gotta go. Don't go away mad, but y' all gotta go. And the other thing he said, Mr. Brown, develop your communication skills, because once you open your mouth, you tell the world who you are. And where's James? James? Yeah. Questions? What he said was very important. I did a presentation for a major pharmaceutical company. And when I was getting ready to leave, I saw a sign that said, Danger zone. And all of these people lined up to go and to this room, do a presentation. And I came in and I was curious to find out what was going on. And so there were doctors in the room. I was the only one that was not a doctor, except people in the hotel. And so. And this conference was teaching doctors how to communicate with their patients to encourage them to take their hypertension medication. And if they don't, they will have a stroke or they can suffer an aneurysm or heart disease. And so I was seated next to the CEO. He came in late. I said, excuse me, sir. I said, you're the CEO? He said, yeah. I said, do you have hypertension? He said, yes. And I touched him slightly on his leg. Doctors who touch their patients reduce their chances of having a malpractice suit file against them by 37%. I said, you have hypertension? He said, yes. I asked him, why do you take your medication? He said, I want to live. Then why do you have a fear based campaign? Why not have it the success zone appeal to people's desire to want to live? He said, you got a point. He said, can you train doctors? I said, yes, yes. They had all these doctors there. I'm the only one not a doctor, right? The only reason in a glass of buttermilk, I'm turning red, but y' all can't see it anyhow. He said, you got a contract. You never believe what that contract was for training 3,500 doctors. You never guess. Anybody wild guess, one month. How much money I get paid? No, those are all. I just trained them. Went to different cities and trained them. But that's good. I like James. You are a prophet. All right. Thank you, though. $640,000 because I asked the right question. I didn't try and sell myself on it. Everybody. You've heard the expression, you can take a horse to the water, but you can't make him drink, Right? What we do as coaches and as speakers, we create the want. If you know how to effectively communicate and ask the right questions, then they will want to do business with you. Because our goal and objective. When you look at Joe Polish and his whole staff, they're not here to sell you. They're here to serve you. And that's why you show up. The greatest among you will be your servant. So when you ask the right questions, something Zig Ziglar talked about and your book addresses this, he said, if you give enough people what they want, they'll give you what you want. Maya Angelou Said, people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. And so when you care enough to ask people questions, as I train speakers, I said, never let what you want to say get in the way of what your customer wants to hear. And all thy getting get understanding. Find out, who are they, what's going on with them, what challenges are they facing, what's keeping them up at night? What have they done before that did not work as you talked in those strategic questions. And so I sent out a needs assessment. And when I spoke for Merrill lynch and Talked about these two guys who got together in 1905, one was a businessman, the other one was a visionary. As a result of my doing research, people seated in the audience thought that was just one name. And I got another 22 engagements out of that. And so you're asking key questions, but becoming knowledgeable and finding out things about your client and incorporating those things in your presentation. I spoke for a guy named Brian Buffini. Anybody ever heard of him? He sells real estate. So when I go in to speak, I send a needs assessment. Brian filled out. So I wanted to find out where he was and what he wanted, because he's a man that signs the job check. Okay. Then I talked to his top performers, and I extracted stories out of them. And so when I got up and was giving my speech, every point that I was going to make in my speech, I create a framework how trained people do this. I would use their story as an example. So I said, you know, I was talking to James, and he's been with the company for years. And he said that this. This place he loves because it helps him to begin to learn more about the customers. That life is a question, and how we live our lives is the answer. And so James said he loves being here because it's a family consciousness. And when I talked to Veronica, Veronica talked about the day that she was thinking about how she was going through a tough time when a family member died. But everybody got together, and it gave her the strength to weather that red sea, to weather that storm. And when I got to the end of my speech, when I was getting a standing ovation, I said, I'm so glad to be able to see you. And I started walking off, and I said, oh, by the way, I'm not too busy for referrals. That's his theme. We're never too busy for referrals. I got 56 speaking engagements. Wow. Wow. But that's not. But guess what, James, he said, wait a minute, Mr. Brown. He said, this is November. He said, whatever number of engagements that you have for the rest of the year, I want them. I write the check for them. And at that time, I was charging $35,000 an hour. But he paid for every speaker speaking engagement for the rest of the year. Because I did research on him. I interviewed the top performers. What is it about you that's different than the rest of the people here? I found out his mission statement. I found out how he met his wife. I said, you know, Brian, one of the things I know about you, when you met your wife Martha, you became very spiritual and said, the Lord is my shepherd. I see what I want. So, complimenting his wife, I did research on him and his people and the people that came in the room that I interviewed them individually and used their story, they say, oh, my God. When I would use this story, they start hunching me. He's talking about me. And all of those things. You put those elements in, it's different than just going out doing an information dump. If information could change people, everybody would be skinny, rich, and happy. They can Google information. They bring us in. You ask the right questions, you can create an experience. Oliver Winderholme said that once a man or woman's mind has been expanded with an idea, concept, or experience, it can never be satisfied to going back to where it was. And when we look at what this experience that we're going through right now, it's giving us a larger vision of ourselves and allowing us to navigate all the things that we're facing right now.

Yeah. Going back to the. Well, no, let's go, because throw. Joel, I won't switch topics yet. When I first heard you at nsa when you joined, you told the story of how you learned how to make words beautiful. And you described the process you went through because you weren't as articulate, certainly.

As a young man, as you are now. I never forgot those things that you talked about.

Could you share how you developed that such unique Les Brown word delivery system that you have?

This would be helpful to this group. Mr. Washington said, what do you want to do with your life, young man?

I. I said, mic up. Okay, sorry.

Okay. He said, what do you want to do with your life, young man? I said, I'd like to become a disc jockey. He said, here are my car keys. I said, what is it? He said, I want you to go in my car at 12 noon. Don't go to the cafeteria. Bring a sandwich to school. He said, in order to be successful, you must be Willing to do the things today others won't do in order to have the things tomorrow others won't have. I want you to listen to a guy named Paul Harvey. He's the greatest communicator in the world. He does a program at 12 noon called the Rest of the Story. So at lunchtime, I would be in his car and Derek, and addition to going, eating peanut butter jelly sandwiches and listening to Paul Harvey, who said, good day. And I studied Paul Harvey. I watched Billy Graham. I turned the volume down. I watched his eyes. He was very intense with his eyes. I studied Zig Ziglar. I learned the value of energy. Zigzag had energy. Jim Rowan. When the end comes for you, let it find you. Conquering a new mountain, not sliding down an old one. I read other philosophers. Winston Churchill. The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it. Ignorance may deride it. At the end, there it is. When I train speakers, I say to them, you must be a perpetual learner. As soon as your audience knows as much as you know, they no longer need you. What Robert Chula said, we must, must expand or we are expendable. And we're in this place that Peter Drucker said that we must be willing to unlearn, learn and relearn. So this is a new space. Einstein said, the thinking that has brought me this far has created some problems that this thinking can't solve. So I wanted to make. Mike Williams said, brownie, you must study and you must be. I don't want to train you to speak in a niche. I won't train you to speak to the world. Because when I told him I wanted him to be my coach because I saw him speak and he was so captivating and had humor and quotes and well read. And I said, man, I said, can you teach me to do what you do? He said, yes. So I said, great. And then he asked me a question. James, who you want to speak to? I said, the naacp, the Urban League. All of a sudden, the phone went dead. I say, man, we lost the line. He said, no, we did not. I said, what happened? He said, I don't want to work with anybody who has such a small vision. And hung up again. I called him back. I said, man, please don't hang up on me. He said, what do you want to do? I said, I want to speak to the world. He said, okay. Then we got some synergy. This is a good fit, because you can. I don't want you to see yourself as Les Brown, LB Triple P. Les Brown, your platter playing popper. There were none before me and there will be none after me. Therefore that makes me the one and only young and single and love Domingo, certified bona fide and dubiously qualified to bring you satisfaction and a whole lot of action. You're not just a disc jockey. I want you to impossible power and change people's lives. You got that in you? I say thank you, Mike. Sometimes you. And this is write this down. Sometimes you have to believe in somebody's belief in you until your belief kicks in. Does that make sense, really?

I think that is part of the key is being around people that believe in you oftentimes more than you believe in yourself. I mean, you talk a lot about that in your book. And I mean, I would not be. I don't think I'd be where I'm at with addiction recovery had I not met many individuals that somehow, you know, when I'm talking my way out of any level of living a functional life, even surviving, is having people. You can do it. You can do it. And I think the difference, though, is when it's puffery versus it really penetrates.

But I want to say thank you. When I. When my issue dealing with the drugs and I knew what your passion was, you got to have somebody that you can talk to and you can be transparent with and share things about yourself and know that they won't judge you. And so I knew when I called you and told you that I was addicted to drugs, you wouldn't say, you, Les Brown, you the motivator. How in the hell you get hooked on drugs? You didn't judge me. I say to speakers, who you are behind the words are far more important than the words that you speak. And so because of your compassion, when I'm training, working with speakers, I work first with the messenger and then the message and then the delivery, because it comes through the words that you speak. It comes through when you're speaking that people can feel you or they can just hear. Hear you, and they hear you in their heart. But if you want to change an audience or change a person, you have to acknowledge that people are asking three questions when they see you. Who are you? What do you have? And can I trust you? What was the last one? Can I trust you? Can I trust you with my heart? Can I trust you with my secrets? There's a book years ago I read called why I'm Afraid to Tell youl who I Am because you might not like Me. And that's all I've got. So this is Les Brown, the motivator, who talk about, if life knocks you down, try and land on your back, because if you can look up, you can get up. And I had to call my friend and say, hey, man, I'm dealing with something up in here. And I know you know, and you were so confident to me. You gave me strength. You said you could do this, man. And that. I mean, I knew I had my work cut out for me, and that meant so much to me. And I'm so honored to be here to serve you and your group, and I'm always available to you. What is the finished life to together. But you too young. You know, when I was first diagnosed with prostate cancer, they said I was terminal. I was. My mother had passed, and she came to me to dream. She had a great sense of humor. She said, baby, she said, I heard you have prostate cancer. She said, you said, you missed me. I'm looking forward to seeing. I woke up. I said, da, da, mama, I ain't ready to see you yet.

I have to say something about just the. I mean, it's really interesting what you just said. What a great framework of the messenger, the message, then the delivery, the ability to convey and transfer belief to transferability. Like, I have a friend who, 60 years old, who two weeks, six days ago, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. And I let him know you were coming down here, and he's like, I love Les Brown. And he's like, is there any way you could connect me to him?

And I kind of like to talk to him.

Yeah, he did. Oh, yeah. The reason I bring this up.

Did you tell him. Did he tell you about our conversation?

Oh, he loved it. I mean. I mean, he left me a message last night, a group of closest friends, and this is a. Yeah, very successful dude. And he. I mean, he is in such a good state of mind right now. You know, he's also aware of the fact that he. This is not the cancer you want to get, right?

There's.

I mean, he's telling me about how he's met in the last week with supposedly the best pancreatic cancer doctor in the world. And he's like, it's across the board, the differences, where some will say, no matter what you do, you got two to five years, and others where it's like, you know, no, there's no limit. He's like, it's so. He's talked to so many people, and he's tired and he's exhausted, and his wife, who's, you know, more along mainstream medicine. And he's very. But the fact is, that conversation with you literally change the trajectory of this guy's behavior, his thought process. And the reason I bring this up is that when you can transfer belief, hope to other people, because I think hope is an interesting thing. Hope used in false, superficial ways is like bullshitting people. Yes, there's damaging ways to use hope. And hope used in certain ways heals people. Right? And so the point is, you talk to this individual. And so it's not just a conversation, though you have developed this ability, which I know is part of what you do with other people. That's your business.

Right? But I asked him a key question. I said, why you want to be here? For his wife, for his children. When you think about man's search for meaning. And Viktor Frankl, he said, the Jews that survived the inexpressible cruelties of Nazism. And I went to Poland. I wanted to go to the place where Ann Ryan was, and I went to Auschwitz because I worked with a guy named Sam Axelrod, who was one of my early mentors. He said they either had some spiritual commitment they had with their lives or some loved one that they were determined to see or some reason that was bigger than them. And so once I found out that his reason was his family, I started talking about it from that point. I said, let me tell you something. Why are we going to do this? And notice. I said, why we are going to do this? I spoke from the end that we're gon. We got this done. You got to stick a fork in it. Like you see a basketball game, a guy shoots a basket. Curry, Steph Curry. And start running down court before they even hit the nets. All right? So that when we speak to people, we want to affirm them. Whenever I speak, I say again and again, you have something special. You've got greatness. You have the ability to do more than you can ever begin to imagine. What we're doing is we are breaking through all of the negative conversations that's in the collective consciousness of people. Your passion, your energy, and the words that you use will dismantle and open up their mind where they begin to see. I want everybody to repeat after me, please. It's possible. I want you to write this down and show you a model that you can use in any type of situation. So if you go get brought in to speak at a corporation, first you want to do a needs assessment. Find out their mission statement, and find out what is it they're looking for, and then what I do. At the top of your speech, what you want to do is paint the picture of what they say their goals are in their mission statement and say it's possible. As you begin to look at the Genius Network, the goal and objective of changing the planet, of operating out of the thinking that as we face inevitable death one day we're going to leave here. What in the meaning and purpose of our lives that will not be undone or destroyed when we are gone? The people that come here, the Genius Network, I want to say to you, Mr. Polis, that those people will be transformed. And the people's lives that they transform, touch. They will be transformed. And this will have a rippling effect into the future that you don't get to see. Let us say together, it's necessary. It's necessary that as you decided to do this and get involved in doing the greater work, greater see that's in you than he that's in the world that you decided, I got to do this. You got to. Ken helps it. That you just said. You said to yourself, I want to live a life that will outlive me. I've had a defining moment in my life that I'd lost myself in drug addiction. And then there was a defining moment that I said, this is not me. And I died. To who Joe was then to give birth to this Joe that you now see. And I decided it was a non negotiable with my life. I want to live a life that will make an impact. The things that I've gone through will not define me. They will refine me so I can live a life of contribution. Let us say together, it's you, it's me. George Bernard Shaw said, the people that make it in his life, they look around for the circumstances that they want and they can't find them. They create them. And so you decided that I'm going to take a stand with my life. Therefore take unto you the whole arm of God that ye may be able to withstand stand in the evil day. That having done all to stand, you decided when something happens, there's a victim, there's a perpetrator, and they're the witnesses. And you've decided I'm not going to be a witness. You decided that if you're not a part of the solution, you're part of the problem that gave birth to the Genius Network. You see what I did with it? I edified the person who started it, who wrote the check. And you make him look good, he will not only write you another check and bring you back 95% of my speaking engagements, I repeat, and they give me referrals. You want to fry the fish while the grease is hot? Is there anybody else you know that can use my services? All right. You see what I did with that? Yes. Is doing something we're witnessing now. People who have great presentation skills are able to create an experience. It's one thing to speak and people hear you, it's something else. When you speak, people feel you. That's a different dynamic. So he was a master communicator. The people that, that make that transformation, it's like Norman. It was not just the speaking. Norman died. If a man to gain his life, he must lose his life. Norman, who went to prison, he was liberated when he got out, even before they released him, because he got a new identity. Once your life has a new identity, people that we work with, the people that, that are part of our team, the people that we are aligning ourselves with for some social good, once you have a different mindset, that gives your life a sense of purpose. And once your life has a sense of purpose, then that gives your life a sense of direction. So now Norman is an asset to society rather than a liability. Robert Kennedy said, if we cannot save the many that are poor, we truly cannot save the few that are rich. So when we look at the smash in grafts and all the killings that are taking place, we're watching the throes of a dying beast. Something has happened. And the only way that we can take this on, cultures of violence, cultures of other. You know, when you can put traps together and, and immigrants, it's one thing to talk about preventing people from coming here, but creating traps in water so they would drown in their children. That's not who we are as a country. We are the greatest country on the planet. And so that cultures are created by words. And the reason that I'm committed to training people how to communicate and to create peace, he said, I'll give you perfect peace. Whose mind is stayed on thee. Harmony. When we have harmony with ourselves and our spirituality, our family, our relationships and the purpose of our lives and joy, stuff's going to be happening. Life would be happening. But when you have a sense of spiritual strength, you are able to handle it. You know, Jesus, he walked in water, but he went out there in a boat. And so you have to have something that when life be lifen that you can hold onto, that allows you to say, I'm going to be all right, you know, and this is what you're doing. Now and the relationships that people are building here, one goose can fly 75% further in formation with other geese than it can ever fly by itself. And so the relationships and the sharing that people have and building relationships, building a new reference group. They did this 85 year study at Harvard University and they said the people who were successful had a reference group of about five to seven people that they connected with, that they identified with, that they had goals and dreams and held each other accountable. The same things that you're talking about right now. This. This is extraordinary. This is what the Genius Network is. Something that needs to be replicated all across this country and around the world. Because politicians won't do it and religious leaders won't do it. They keep us divided by politics and religion. They keep us at each other's throats. What you're doing is that you have one agenda, and that agenda is greater is he that's in you than he that's in the world. You have the power to create peace. We have the power to turn to each other rather than turn on each other. We have the power to leave a legacy and for generations yet unborn. That's what the Genius Network is all about. Who you are when you don't have the microphone is more important when you have it. Because you can tell a lot about a person's character based upon how they treat. Treat people that they consider unimportant. That's right. Okay. But there's something here that this place where we are in history, we're here for a reason. And we were preserved for such a time as this friend of mine, he went out to give his walk with his dog and he came back and his wife who had left in the house, who was working on the computer, was slumped. Boom, dead, fell forward on the computer. So there are things that many times we take for granted. We're still here. And I believe that you were chosen. As much as you have chosen this work, you were chosen for this work. There are some of you, that there are people in your world, they really don't know you, even though they might be family or close. There's a story in the Bible where it said Jesus came to town and this lady who was physically afflicted, she said, lord have mercy on me. And the next line said, he saw her. There's some people when you have a big dream, they don't see you. They can't see you doing that. All my family members and friends, none of them saw this. Les Brown, they didn't see. But this Mike Williams, who's like you, he saw me, and I was so grateful that he saw me. I talked to him yesterday and said, I can't thank you enough that you saw me and you called me out. And I say to you, those of you that are here, things don't just happen. They happen. Just you. I'm just telling you what I know. I'm 78 years old. I've been on the planet 78 years young. I've been on the planet for a long time. You. You have a calling. Most people die at age 25 and don't get buried until they're 65. There's something in you that say, I can do more. Socrates said, a man's reaches to supersede his grass, or what are the heavens for? There's something in you saying, I'm not really. I'm not going to settle for where I am. I want to do something else with my life. I need to be around some people who think like me and have this expanded vision of making a greater impact. I know that there's something in me. And I'm going to rob this cemetery of the gift that God has placed in me. Life is God's gift to us and how we live our lives. It's our gift to God. And I want to make my gift an extraordinary gift. There's something in you that keeps you up at night that won't let you settle for a life of mediocrity. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

You talk about this in your book before you went on stage to present to 80,000 people. That's probably pretty nerve wracking for most people. What was going through your mind?

First of all, I ran to the bathroom seven times. And they called Mike. Yes, they called Mike Williams said, listen, Dexter Yeager is stalling. They need to bring less up now. So I'd locked myself in the restroom because the guy said, what is it like to speak to 80,000 people? I said, I don't know. I'm here for a banquet room here. And you showed me where the banquet room. No. Are you Les Brown? I said, yes. He said, come over here a minute. And he said, look over there. Yeah, that's who you're speaking to. There are 80,000 people waiting for you to come on stage. I said, oh, my God. I took off. I said, I got to go to the bathroom. I said, but it's number one. So Mike came and they said. I could hear them saying, go get his mentor. He'll listen to his mentor, because they were knocking on the door to come out, and I wouldn't come out, you know. I said, they say, brownie, what's up? I said, mike, I can't hear the voices. Say what? I said, I can't hear the voices, Mike. Brownie, you're scared, aren't you? I said, Yes. I said, 80,000 people out there. I've never spoken to an audience that large before. He said, brownie, are you listening to me? I said, yes. He said, they're waiting to see you. You're not waiting to see them. You got a message for them. This is your moment. I said, I can't think, Mike. I just can't think. I've been trying to pull it up. I can't think. My heart is beating fast. He said, brownie, do it for your mother. You know how she's going to feel to say. My boy spoke in the Georgia Dome. Do it for your mother. He interrupted my thinking. I said, don't use my mama on me. You know, I don't play the dozens. I go to the store, I get 11 eggs. Said, no, I don't get a dozen eggs. I just get 11, you know. So he said, come out, Brownie, and make your mother proud. And when I came out, I was walking toward the stage, and it's the importance of having someone who know you better than you know yourself. He said, brownie, you got this, man. I said, I do, Mike. Yeah. They will never forget this. I said, okay. And when they gave me the microphone, something said, the fear just left me and said. I could hear his voice saying, you got this. And I looked at the audience and there's a. To me, all of us have been in situations where we go to a place within ourselves and we surprise ourselves. How many of you have ever had moments? You say, I can't believe I did that. That's exactly when I've never seen the speech completely, because I'm very critical of myself. But I said to myself, my heart was beating. I said. He said, I got this. He said, I got this. And so I started watching and listening to them as they were listening to me. I want you to write down, listen to the listening. A lot of people, when you have a memorized script, you got to pay attention to what you. You have memorized. But if you got a framework in which you can go, it's possible, it's necessary, it's you. It's hard, it's worth it, it's done. Then you can put stories and quotes and statistics and Humor and passion and energy within that and be able to master the audience and command a standing ovation and transform people's lives. That was the first time that I earned six figures after giving a speech. But I spoke for T hob Eckert Seminar of the century. I think that's a more powerful speech. So $410,000 worth of products.

I was there.

Oh, so you saw that?

Oh, yeah. I spoke for 10 minutes there.

That was it. Yeah. No, it's great. It's powerful. But I had no idea that this guy you see now existed. Here's what I know about you. You got greatness in you. And Brian Tracy made a point. Your comfort zone is your danger zone. There's some things you have got to do. You said something, a quote. You said, effort is your responsibility. There's something in you that you have got to put forth the effort to bring it out. And it will not happen in your comfort zone. It will not happen there. And sometimes you're going to fail. You will fail your way to success. Walt Disney had his first cartoon stolen, Oswald, by Universal Studios. But that gave birth to Mickey Mouse. He made his family promise to sue Universal Studios until he got Oswald. Until they got Oswald back. They won the suit two years ago. Every adversity that you experience, get excited, say, oh, something great is coming my way. Because whatever you're going through, if it's a bad time, it has not come to stay, it has come to pass. And if it's a good time, it is not come to stay, it has come to pass. Okay. And so our key is not to judge it. Sacred spirit said, nothing is neither good nor bad, but thinking makes it so. And we always in charge to choose how we see and how we deal with it. Does that make sense, what I'm saying to you? Yeah. Can you tell I love this? Yes. With all my heart. Yes. 52 years, I still love it. Yes.

Final thing, since I brought it up in the very beginning, and I think it's kind of apparent, I think just witnessing and hearing it in your voice and in your being, what hunger actually means. However, just for sake of. What is your definition of hunger?

When you are hungry to do something, you will fail your way to success. When you are hungry, you have a mindset. Always strive to get on top in life because it's the bottom that's overcrowded. I was hungry to buy my mother a home. I was hungry when my sister said, leslie, you gotta come home. Mama got breast cancer. I was hungry to find a way in Which I can do something that I love and be able to provide for her. When I left Columbus the next day, Flying had called a news conference in 24 hours and resigned from the Ohio legislature. I just got elected, and I was the chairman of the Human Resource Committee, the Education Committee, and several other committees. And when I rang the doorbell, my mother had a friend named Miss Mildred. And she came to the door, she said, oh, my God, Leslie. She said, mamie, Leslie's here. And I heard my mother say, I knew he would come. I knew my boy would come. How many of you have somebody that if something happened to them, they can be assured that you're going to show up for them? Raise your hand if you know what I'm talking about. And when I heard her say that, and my brothers and sisters were in a fight, they had all these boxes packed up. I said, unpack everything. There's a new sheriff in town. She ain't going nowhere. I got this. You can help me or get the hell out of the way. And I was there when she took her last breath. She was a tremendous woman. She covered the ground she stood on. That's why I always end my speeches by saying, this has been Mrs. Mamie Brown's baby boy, because she taught me the power of strength and caring. She raised seven children she didn't give birth to. She never had any children herself, but she always wanted to raise some kids. And to my birth mother, she waited. Because during that time, black people couldn't go to Jackson Memorial Hospital. So when she went into labor, they had to go into this abandoned building to give birth to us on the floor. But she stayed there because nobody wanted twins. They just wanted one. And she told Mr. Moss, my godfather, I don't want to separate them. I want them to be together. And so when Mama came, he called and said, mamie, you said you wanted to raise a boy. She said, yeah, well, this lady got twins, and she wanted to put them up for adoption. Will you take two? And she said, yes. And he said, get dressed. There's a lady In Liberty City, 62nd Street, Northwest 17th Avenue, she gave some twins, birth to some boys. I think you ought to talk to her. And Mr. Moss said, When Mama came in, he helped my birth mother up off the floor. She was holding Wesley and I. And she got in Mamie Brown's phone. My doctor mother said, Are you Ms. Mamie? She said, yes. Mr. Moore say, you take my twins. She said, yes, ma'. Am. You promised to make sure they never go to bed hungry. She said, yes, ma'. Am. You promised to put clothes on their back. Yes, ma'. Am. You promised to never separate them. She said, yes, ma'. Am. I said, if she could. Got real close, the nose almost touched and stared in her eyes. And she said, she's the one. And she then gave us to Mama. And Mr. Moss said, Mama turned and was walking out, and my birth mother was following behind her. When he opened the door and put Mama in the car holding us, and shut the door, and he said, a birth mother said, wait. And Mama asked, Mr. Boss, you think she changed her mind? And he said, I don't know. I don't know, Mamie. I don't know. And she said, you promised not to separate them. She said, I swear, ma', am, I won't. I swear. You're going to take care of them. Said, yes. And. And he said, she turned and hit the side of the car. Boom. Leave now, Mr. Morse. Go now. And he said, he drove away slowly. And Mama was holding Wesley and I, looking at us, crying. I said, look how God has blessed me. And it's easy for a woman to love children. If they give birth to them, they carry them in their body. But when they choose you, so people always say, how do you feel about being given away? I said, no, I wasn't given away. I was chosen with love. Mama said, I want them, and I'll take care of them. And she did. She had a third grade education, never had no children, but she. She made us believe in ourselves, that we were special. And I was a problem child. I remember saying to my twin brother, Wesley, why don't you do something? I'm always getting a beat. I said, do something. They think I'm crazy. He said, you are. He asked me last night. He said, leslie, may I ask you one question? I said, yes. He said, this is the first time he's ever been with me for a speaking engagement. We've been separated all these years.

He's here with you?

Yes. He's in the room, yeah. The reason he's out here, he's got a cane now because he's a paratrooper. He jumped out planes. He served two trips in Vietnam. He's a Purple Heart. He was wounded in Vietnam. He walked point, and he went to the Persian Gulf. And so jumping out 170, 76 times, you know, it was bad on your knees. He said, leslie. I said, yes. And I was up last night reading some things. He said, do you ever get tired of reading? I said, no. He said, do you ever get tired of speaking. I said, no. He said, well, what about this business that bothers you? I said, being on an airplane? He said, why? I said, I don't want to be in airplanes and I'm not in control, you know. I said I'm out of control. So I said, when are you going to stop? I said, I told my children, if they say your father has died, I want one of you to select somebody to go to the morgue, sneak in, take a microphone down there, put it in my hand. If I don't sit up and say, you gotta be hungry, call your brothers and sisters and say he's gone.

All right, everyone, Les Brown. Don't miss another episode of Genius Network. Subscribe today@gieniusnetwork.com subscribe if you would like access to the show, notes or resources mentioned, please visit geniusnetwork.com 203.