In this keynote, Shawn Ellis opens with a vivid childhood memory: at age seven he prayed for a visit from the TV hero Knight Rider, inspired by a televangelist’s promise that “if you ask and you believe, then you shall.” The wish never materialized, but the experience left a lasting imprint. Ellis reflects on how, as an adult, he spent years waiting for miracles—perfect business, relationships, and life—without taking concrete steps. This realization birthed his mantra, “this moment matters,” emphasizing that life unfolds only in the present and that change comes one moment at a time. He reframes personal responsibility not as a burden but as power, urging the audience to claim ownership of their experience. Ellis challenges listeners to identify a single, small action they are not currently doing—a 1% or 5% increase in responsibility—to start shifting their trajectory. The talk blends humor, personal storytelling, and a practical call to incremental action, aiming to inspire a mindset shift rather than a fleeting motivational boost.
Chapters
Knight Rider and Oral Roberts, what in the world does that have to do with anything? Let me connect some dots here for you. You see, when I was 7 years old, Knight Rider was my favorite show. I loved watching Knight Rider. I mean, Michael Knight fighting, fighting for the underdog, fighting for good. And that car, that car, can you imagine a car? I mean, it had all these buttons and screens. It could talk to you. It could drive itself. I mean, can you imagine such a thing? I think that's like an entry-level Corolla now. But at the time in 1983, to a 7-year-old kid, that was amazing. So hold that thought. I mentioned that my grandparents lived down the road and spent a lot of time with Grandma and Grandpa. I've got a picture here. That's me and Grandma and Grandpa. I wasn't quite 7 there. But if we weren't out in the field on the farm in the garden, whatever it was, I'd be inside with Grandma. And Grandma loved watching soap operas. Or stories as she called them. And she loved watching televangelists, the preacher man. And we had a few that we would watch, but Oral Roberts was my favorite. I'm not sure if it was the hair, I don't know what it was, but I remember from Oral Roberts one thing I learned I will never forget. He said, "If you ask and you believe, then you shall." Okay, so like 3 of you have heard that before? Okay, all right, we'll work on that later. That's what I learned from Oral Roberts, and I took that in at 7 years old. I took that in and I thought, "You know what? Really? I can ask for anything? Well, what I want more than anything is a visit from Knight Rider. Like, that would be the coolest thing in the world. That would be the best day ever." Right? So on a Friday night, I prayed with all my might for Knight Rider to come. I prayed for a visit from Knight Rider, and I was sure that it was going to happen because I believed it, And I even sent in some nickels and dimes because I understand that increases your chances of winning. So on Saturday morning I wake up, and I'm going to set the stage for you. This is a picture looking out. This is my parents' front yard. My parents still live in the same house. It looks a little bit different than when I grew up. But you see that curve there? That's where I fixed my eyes. That's where I knew that black car was going to come around that curve. I was going to see the red light. Waa, waa. Whoa. So that morning I get up, I get outside, and I go out there, and I'm looking up at that curve, and I'm literally pacing back and forth in our front yard just watching and waiting, watching that curve, waiting for the car to come, and going back and forth. And then time goes by, and I said, "Okay, well, it's time to go inside for breakfast." So I go back inside and get back in the house, and then I'm looking out the window. I'm still looking at that curve because I don't want to miss this. I'm waiting, I'm watching. I didn't tell anybody else about this. Mom probably would have wanted to know. She'd maybe put on some makeup if she knew David Hasselhoff was coming. But I didn't tell anybody, but I'm watching out the window. And then I go back outside, go back to pacing, waiting, watching, play in the sandbox. One error in this, by the way, is that I forgot to specify a time. So I have no idea what time he's gonna arrive, but I'll wait all day, it's okay. So I'm waiting, and for sake of our time today, I know you guys have other sessions coming up, so I'll just, hate to spoil the story, but I'll go ahead and tell you, Knight Rider never came. So, aww, thank you. It was a sad day for 7-year-old Shawn Ellis, and obviously it made a mark with me because here I am at 42 years old still telling you that story. So I'm working this out daily, I'm getting over it. But what does that have to do with anything? Well, you see, we can all look at that and say, "Oh, that's a cute story. That's the innocence of a child." Right? That's just that childlike faith. It's beautiful. It's funny. But we can see as adults, right, that, I mean, come on, we see the foolishness of praying for a fictional TV character. But what I realized later on is that didn't crush my faith. You might think, "Well, you'd never believe. You'd never imagine anything again." But it wasn't that. Actually, what I realized is that I kept waiting for a miracle throughout my life, into my adult life. I kept waiting for a miracle. I had this vision of a future where everything was going to be great. The business was all going to come together. The relationship was going to come together. Life was going to be good. And I was waiting, and I was pacing my way through life, years away, literally, not doing the things I needed to do in this moment to create that future that I desired, not stepping up, making some of the hard choices that I needed to make. That's what got me there 8 years ago. That's what brought me to that point. And that's where the phrase "this moment matters" came to me for the first time. This moment matters as in, first of all, life happens here, right? Life happens here in this moment. This is the only place we can experience life. And I thought to myself, Shawn, if you want to turn this thing around, if you want to make this better, this is not going to be an overnight change. This is not going to be a miracle, not in the way you're thinking. It can only happen one moment at a time. This moment matters. It's about what you do right now in this moment. So that became my mantra, this moment matters. And from there, I learned my first key lesson, which is My life experience is my responsibility. At that point I decided, "Okay, it's up to me how I show up, what I experience here. I'm not gonna wait for the miracle. I'm not gonna wait for the future. My life experience in this moment is my responsibility." And I share that with you to start because really nothing else I can say to you matters if we don't first agree on that. If we don't first set that as the foundation. My life experience is my responsibility. And it's the same here in this event, right? You coming into this event, it's a great place to practice that. And I know, by the way, who I'm talking to here. I'm not talking to a group of teenagers who need to get off their butts in their bedroom and, "Hey, you need to get up and take some responsibility!" Responsibility, when we hear that word, it seems like a burden. We think, "My gosh, I got so much to do. I can't take any more responsibility." But responsibility is power. And it's not that you've never taken responsibility. Obviously you have. You've got yourself here. I'm not here to get you motivated, get you fired up, right? I mean, that's, that's not my style. It's not what I'm here for because you can obviously do that. But if you think about an area of your life that you'd like to improve, your life, your business, whatever it may be, whether it's wellness, relationships, whatever it is, Think about that right now. Think about an area you want to improve, and then let me ask you, can you think of just one thing, just one thing you can do that you're not doing right now? One thing that would make a difference that you're not doing right now? You can all think of something, right? The smallest thing. So there's room to take just 1% more responsibility. We're not talking about going from 0 to 10 here. But can you turn up the dial? Can we take 1% more responsibility? 5% more responsibility?
