Don't Forget Your SKELETONS!

Let me be crystal clear. This is not a Halloween video. Having said that, I am going to talk about skeletons and why they should be part of your every single day. Sound crazy? Let's talk about it. Hi, everybody. My name is Andy Boucher. I'm Red Thunderbolt, woman of the Loon clan, a proud member of Seine River First Nation in Treaty 3 Territory in Northern Ontario. And no, I am not in my hotel room yet. I'm actually leaving in about an hour to catch my flight, blah, blah, blah. But I realized what today's video is going to be, so I had to take the time to shoot it. We got to talk about skeletons. I know, weird. And for someone who's not really huge into Halloween like me, it's even weirder. But let me explain. I want to show you this video. It's. This is actually a sneak peek because for the first time, I am using this full image in a seminar. It's actually going to be in my London seminar that I'm going to be doing tomorrow. I use this image to describe my seminars. Now it's getting even weirder. Let me explain. I have a framework or a skeleton of my seminar. When I go to do a live event or virtual event, same thing. Meaning I know what I'm going to say. The presentation has been prepared, I've done my review. I am a professional. But it's just a skeleton. Because one of the things I have done since the beginning of my career and it's one of the things I do in my life, is I make sure to leave enough space for Creator. Meaning when I'm on stage, if I'm talking about a topic and suddenly a memory or a story or a teaching pops into my head, I believe that's Creator telling me someone in the audience needs to hear this story now. 99 of the time. 99.9999 of the time, I'm not going to know who needs to hear the story. I just believe with everything in me that it's true. But every now and then, someone will write to me after the seminar, or they'll come up to me live, right at the event after it's done, and they'll share with me how much that one story resonated with them. Or even more common, they will say, it's just what I needed to hear. So I was thinking about this. Like, obviously it applies to my career, but there's a really good chance you don't make a living standing on stage doing keynotes and speeches and seminars and workshops. But here's the thing. How many times have we gone into a meeting now? Meeting meaning meeting with any other human being. Whether we're talking to our teenager, to our toddler, to our partner, to a colleague or co worker, to a friend. How many times have we gone into a conversation and. And in our head, we've already played out the whole thing. We know exactly how it should go. We have. In that case, like I hope you realize this, in that case, not only have we left zero room for creator, we've actually left zero room for the other person. My mom would be the first to say that's not a conversation, that's an ego trip. If you want to be in that much of control, don't be surprised that the other person doesn't want to stay in the relationship. You didn't even leave them room to breathe. So what if instead we went into every conversation, every meeting, every gathering of any type, with just a skeleton? I know what I'm hoping to accomplish. I know what I want to say. But I'm going to leave enough space for the other person to be them. Enough space for them to answer me or not to answer me if they choose to, in the way that makes sense to them. With our elders that so often involves a story, there's nothing more disrespectful than not leaving enough time for an elder to share their story. And if you think they're going off topic, listen to the story. You, it is always on point. Leaving enough space for another person brings them in rather than pushing them away. And I don't know about you, but I've attended meetings with the agenda so absolutely tight that there is no room for conversation or question or anything. And in fact, I was at one of those meetings and supposedly, according to the agenda, they wanted to do a round table at the end. Tell us what's going on in your organization. You have exactly one minute. When it got to my turn, I simply said, I can tell you what's going on in my organization or I can talk for a minute. You can't have both. I can understand that the meaning is coming to an end. I can understand that other people in this room have places to be without you restricting me with a clock. So don't put me in a box. Leave enough space for me. I'm not going to talk for 10 minutes or two hours if I know there's a tight agenda. Give me enough respect that I'm professional enough to be able to do that. So now the personal growth portion of this session. Think back on your conversations of late, who with whomever? Did you leave enough space for them? Did you not only leave enough space for them, but enough space for them to be them? My son comes to mind. He's a storyteller. He speaks slower than I do. He likes to speak in big images as opposed to point bullet points like I tend to do. And I have to make a conscious effort to hold enough space for him to be him. Why? Because I want to make sure I'm pulling him in close. He's a grown man now. That's not a given. So think back. It's never too late to change. I'm 60 years old. I'm changing every single day. Think back on your relationships. How often do you need to adopt the attitude of bringing just a skeleton to the gathering rather than the whole person? That leaves no room for anyone else. It works. It totally works. Now I want to get a whole bunch of skeletons and hang them around my house. And I'm going to use the excuse that it's for Halloween. You with me? What do you think? I have to bring some skeletons today. I definitely have to hold some space until tomorrow. I love you. Take care. Bye. Bye. Excuse the way I look. I was just outside enjoying my backyard. But a little while ago, I shared how my son was now starting on his entrepreneurial journey. And for years now, I've been focused on legacy. What can I teach other people to do after I'm gone? What wisdom can I share with people that carries on after I'm gone? And now I can see that helping my son follow his own dreams while I'm here to pass on my experience is part of that legacy. So now I'm shooting this video today because you have a chance to help me support my son. So his very first project I shared a little while ago was what we call the house planter box or the house number planter box. What would you call it? It has house numbers on it, but it's a planter. So now I want to show you what it looks like in real life. Here it is. Isn't it awesome? As you can see, it's really big. But the best part is these things slide out, right? That one, this is heavy and big. And this one, so you can put the soil in it and plant whatever you want with ease. You can change it. And of course, the numbers changed based on your house. You have a chance to win this. Now, of course, we're going to change the numbers to match your house. They may have to be smaller. If your house has three numbers or four numbers even. But for $10 a ticket, or 20 for three tickets, you get a chance to win this beautiful planter. Trust me, it's gonna last. It is built to last. And I love those planter boxes. Buy your tickets today. As soon as we sell, I believe 50 of them, we have the draw. And I'll be doing updates on my Facebook page and in my YouTube community. Isn't this beautiful? I love it. Get your tickets today. Bye. Bye.