Four Thanks You's (& One JUST for YOU!)

Bonjour, Michkopac. Non quei N addition.

Hi, everybody.

It's Andy Boucher here. Okay, not really here once again, because, yes, as I mentioned yesterday, we are now on winter break. My team and I have earned some downtime after an amazing year. But I didn't want to forget about you because I appreciate you way too much to just disappear on you. So what I'm doing over the duration of our break next couple of weeks are sharing clips from keynotes and seminars workshops that you may not normally see, but the clips contain something I think is worth your time. And today that definitely applies. Today's clip is from the Canadian Nursing Students association keynote speaker speech that I did virtually a couple years ago, I believe. And what you may not realize is I open almost every keynote seminar workshop with what I call the four thank yous.

I.

In this clip, I share why I use images when I speak. You see that in my videos as well. I talk a little bit about my spirit name, and I share the four teachings or the four thank yous with you, including a teaching from my mom. I definitely think this is worth your time. So let's talk about it.

Thank you so, so much for that. It's my bio, and still, every time I hear it, it's like, wow, it's been a long journey. But I'm thrilled and excited to be here. So I'm going to jump right into my presentation, which is going to involve me sharing a PowerPoint and anyone who's ever heard me speak before. I normally do that because I am very much a visual learner. You can share something with me orally and I'm going to hear you and I'm going to hold on to that. But if I see an image for whatever reason, that just. It just makes it so much easier to retain the information. So I'm going to start up the PowerPoint here. Share. Oh, scared me for a second. I was like, you're not gonna work. Why not? Ta da. All good, guys? Yes. Awesome. Yes. Okay, so, as mentioned, my name is Sandy Boucher Mishko Paganun Kwei Nadishnikas Mundo Dam. I am Red Thunderbolt, woman of the Loon clan, a proud member of Seine river first nation in Northern Ontario, as was mentioned. And I'm thrilled and excited to be here today with you. Now, I mention my spirit name for many reasons. First and foremost, to announce my presence to my ancestors and those that come next so that they can walk with me on this journey for this next hour. But honestly, to the people who have Never heard me speak before. It also serves as either a disclaimer on the positive side or a warning on the negative side. And I say that because I am said to represent that split second in time when the thunder sounds exactly as the lightning strikes. Now, I don't know if you know what that means, but being from northern Ontario, we understand that when those two things happen together, that means the storm is directly overhead. It's not coming, it's not past. It's here. And that's what I try to do when I do these presentations. I'm not worrying about what I was doing earlier today. Tomorrow's agenda doesn't count. I am here to be here with you. But it also means, like so many other Anishinaabe kwe, I really don't do subtle well. I always say that I'm the lightning bolt. I'm that quote that makes you go, whoa, I never thought of that before. And I'm really hoping that that's what I'm going to be able to achieve tonight. So, before we begin, just like with the land acknowledgement, I really like to bring my culture and being into every presentation, really just to keep it in the forefront to announce to listeners that we are still here and our culture is strong and beautiful and valuable and can be of help to so many people. Now, as an Anishinaabe kwe, as an Ojibwe woman, the medicine wheel is something, a teaching tool that we use quite often. And I have the image here in case you're not familiar with it. The medicine wheel reminds us of so many things. The four directions, the four sacred medicines, the four parts of our being emotional, spiritual, mental, and physical. The four sacred medicines I think I mentioned, but the four parts of life. Babies, youth, adults, and elders, and the four colors of man. It's a beautiful tool that just really helps us stay in balance. My personal way of honoring the medicine wheel is starting. Every speech, every workshop, every seminar, I do with what I call the four thank yous, my way of honoring those quadrants of the medicine wheel. So first and foremost, the first thank you is to creator, God, higher power, the universe, Dr. Phil, Oprah. I really don't care who you pray to. If it works for you, who am I to judge? I'm totally cool with that. But I honestly believe that everything happens for a reason. And by that, I mean I honestly believe that if you are hearing my voice right now, you are meant to be here. Something is going to be said tonight that you need to hear now. I'm not egotistical enough to think it's definitely going to be something I say because I'm all that and a bag of chips. It might be a comment that's in the chat. It might be a conversation from one of the other attendees. It might be a conversation you have after this presentation because of something I said. As always, the challenge is to stay here. It is so easy, especially in these times of technology, to be thinking about what happened earlier today, especially if someone upsets you or to be worried, worried about what comes next or your huge agenda for tomorrow. But we only have this time together. So please, if you can just do your best to stay here with me and I will do same. So the second thank you is to the organizers. Because the reality is whether I'm doing a live event or a zoom event, I literally could not do my career if it wasn't for all those amazing people behind the scenes. So do the organizers. Thank you so, so much. I think, well, anyone who's ever done event planning of any kind, you know how many emails, phone calls, messages, texts go on behind the scenes. I'm the face that people see. But I literally could not be here without all that work. So thank you so much for your hard work, guys. That's just phenomenal. You've made it so easy for me to be here tonight and I totally appreciate that. Now I can't see the attendee list right now and I don't remember what the ratio was, women to men. I'm going to speak to the women for a second and guys like you may have this similar experience. I don't know, I'm not a guy, but I know it's pretty common for the women. And what I'm referring to is that age, from like 15 to 16, 17 maybe, where you are at total, complete odds with your mom that as much as you love her and you know she loves you, if you're lucky enough to be in your home with your mom. And we have to acknowledge, so many don't have that opportunity. But it is known as a time when you really butt heads and really have a lot of disagreements. And that was exactly what it was like for me. But the third thank you comes directly from my mom. And you're going to hear more about her tonight. But one of the things she used to always remind me was you have to remember to say thank you to those that came before. And what she meant by that was, no matter what age you are, no matter what stage of your life you are at, someone helped you get there. The reality is, at an earlier stage, every single one of us, someone had to dress us, someone had to feed us. There's a good chance someone was encouraging us to get out of bed, to get to school or to do our homework or whatever the case may be. There's a whole bunch of people that help us get to this stage. And to me, that's just really living the humility, teaching, remembering that whatever you achieve, it's thanks to the efforts of so many people. But if you knew my mom, she was one of those women that just had to push it. That wasn't good enough. She had to go one more step. And she would always say, while you're thanking those people that came before, you have to say a special thank you to all of the people that ever said no to you. Now, that's where she lost me. I was like, okay, excuse me, but you forgot that they said no part. Like, why am I thanking people that didn't help me, that didn't give me a ride, didn't help me with my homework, didn't loan me the money, didn't hire me, whatever the case may be, why am I saying thank you to these people? My mom had a story to explain that, and what she would say is, imagine you're standing on one side of a room. Whatever you're trying to achieve, that degree, getting your driver's license, getting that new job, whatever it is, imagine it's at the other side of the room when you ask someone for help. And let's acknowledge that's not easy to do when you ask someone for help and they say no, it's like they take this huge, gigantic boulder and put it right in the middle of the room in between you and whatever your goal is. Now, according to my mom, at that point in time, you're gonna make one of two decisions, and there's only two to choose from. The first one, you're gonna look at that boulder and you're gonna decide, you know what? That's a really big rock. It's gonna take a lot to get around that. I'm thinking, you know, I really didn't want that anyways. I think I'm going to go that way. My mom would say, that's absolutely fine, but you need to say thank you to the person that said no to you. Because if you're going to give up that easily, that wasn't even your path. That's not what you were meant to be doing anyways. And they just saved you time and maybe even a lot of money. By helping you realize that. So you should definitely say thank you or you're going to take the second option. And that's. I swear, every single woman I know, you're going to look at that rock and you're going to decide come heck or high water, you're going over, under, around, or through that rock, but you're getting what's on the other side. Now, in that case, my mom would say, well, geez, they helped you find your determination, helped you find your persistence, helped you to dig in your heels and decide once and for all that you were doing this. And guess what? Those are the exact skills you need to get what's on the other side of the rock. So we definitely have to say thank you. And by the way, I've tried this personally. It's amazing. You got to try it. When next time someone says no to you, put on the biggest grin and say, thank you so much for helping me. They have no idea what to do with that information. Trust me. You got to try it. Now. The fourth thank you. All kidding aside here for a sec. The fourth thank you is the one I lose sleep over. It's the one I think about all the time. The fourth thank you is to you, each and every one of you listening to me right now. Because when I do one of these presentations, there's a high bar I set. I always remember that you are giving me something absolutely priceless. An hour out of your life journey. None of us are going to get this hour back. We get to live it once. So when I agree to do a speech or a seminar or a workshop, I set the bar that I have to make it worth that priceless gift. I have to make sure that when you leave, you're thinking to yourself, wow, that was so worth my time. And that matters to me so much that at the end of this presentation, I'm going to ask you if it was worth your time. And so far, I've got a really good track record, so don't worry. We should be okay.