The School of Greatness - 597 Raise Your Voice with Sekou Andrews

Episode Date: February 2, 2018

YOU ARE STILL YOUR MOST IMPORTANT AUDIENCE MEMBER - SEKOU ANDREWS I truly believe that one of the most important things we have in this world is our voice. All of us need to speak up without fear, without apologizing, and show the world we care. When I say voice, that doesn't mean your literal voice. For some people, it may be their art, their designs, the technology they develop. Everything you give to this world is a part of your voice. That's one of the reasons I decided to go back and bring you this past episode with Sekou Andrews. Sekou is an incredible spoken word poet who has performed in front of huge audiences. In this clip, he shares a very powerful and inspirational spoken word poem about using our voices for good. I invite you to getting your voice out into the world with pride, on Episode 597.

This is 5-Minute Friday! Sekou Andrews is an actor, a musician, and a national poetry slam champion and entrepreneur, and now award-winning poetic voice. And on any given day, you may find Sekou presenting an original talk for an international marketing executives, giving a keynote speech at a leadership conference or performing pieces for Obama or Oprah. Showtime, MTV, and BET. And he has performed privately for people like Maya Angelou, Larry King, Hillary Clinton, and so much more. Be Voiceful, which is when I last saw you at the SANG event, that was the piece that I shared in its more sort of extended 20-minute keynote form. That's actually a 45 to 60-minute keynote that I do all about finding your voice, the power of finding your voice. But it's sort of based on this sort of self-contained piece. So be voiceful. All right.

It is quite simply a magical place, a universal womb that births each of our days with an act shared across this planet's face. From the moment the nylon curtain is raised and you step butt naked onto your porcelain stage, your hot and cold background singers engage. You lift that soapy loofah microphone to your face and let your mighty bellow set this world ablaze with. And I will always love you.

And every single human on the planet each shares a singular universal truth. I sound freaking amazing in here, right? There is a science to why we all sound good in the shower. It's in the echo. Something about the compact quarters of porcelain, metal, and wood that reverberate sound waves

erupting from our throats, transpose them into major chords from minor notes as if the walls themselves join in on your song like the bathroom just agrees with you and sings along. I sound freaking amazing in here.

Sound freaking amazing in here. Sound freaking amazing. And with your talent now affirmed beyond all reasonable doubt, you settle down, towel off, suit up, and step out into this buzzkill of a world. And it's comments on your skills. Something about nails on a chalkboard, whatever, and a cat being killed, whatever, and you not quitting your day job. And so you don't. Instead,

you quit your daydreams. You abort your purpose. You divorce your passion. You call off the search for your power. You quit believing you sound good outside of the shower. And that is not actually to say, Lewis, that you can sing. Okay, let's just be clear. It is entirely possible that you, my friend, are never, ever supposed to be singing in the shower ever, but rather dancing or drawing or designing. Maybe you're supposed to be designing an event that will shower your community with leadership. Right. Or creating a new product to bathe your company in liquid gain or crafting a new strategy to wash away your greatest fears or creating a new magic trick for your kids using bath beads, finishing the final chapter of your book on clean water, right? Designing and inventing a new cutting edge tile that can heat an entire room with clean, sustainable energy converted from the bold sound waves of bathroom singers worldwide. Maybe what you are supposed to be doing in your daily sound booth is reaching

down into your throat for the sound of your truth and pulling out the proof in the echoes of a story. Post a blog, a pirouette, a poster, a strategy, a slogan, a vote.

There's so many viral building blocks that drive the building blocks of a voice. Creative voice trying to enroll the world into your vision or a catalytic voice that accelerates your mission, an authentic voice that grants your future access, a poetic voice that narrates your passage in the lexicon of your life, helping you to say you, how you want to be heard when you don't have the clarity, when you can't find the words, when the cophony in your head drowns out the symphony of your heart with a bed of white noise saying, rounds out the symphony of your heart with a bed of white noise saying, It's not that you can't hear your voice. It's not that you can't hear your thoughts.

It's that none of them sound like you. You don't recognize the sound of your own voice. Can't believe your words. So you bathe your throat in silence, waiting for your throat to clear. Like a shotgun cock. A door unlocked. A needle dropped onto a whirlwind of thoughts. dropped onto a whirlwind of thoughts. This way, this is the full expression of what you were born to do. This is the how to do it that is uniquely you. This is the how to say it with this voice, these words. This is the how to live it, to be joined by those you serve as the voice of your customers or your community or your cause. But you are still your most important audience member of all.

If your truth calls in the middle of life's forest and you ain't even there to hear it, it will not make a sound, a mark, or a difference. So what is the point of showing up to life if you don't announce you're there? What's the point of having a story if it never gets shared? Because you're too scared to talk your walk. Own what you do different. The first step to finding your true voice is to listen to voices other than your own. Then print your edition. Let the similarities help you define your divisions.

Then say you to the world. And when met with resistance. When they tell you talk is cheap. You tell them silence is unaffordable. Be voiceful because you are what you say. So don't say what you do until you do what you are. Only when your actions move with your words will your words move others to action. Maybe it's time to hit the showers like vocal booth and climb back in until your future recognizes your voice and it unlocks your doors wide. Your fate's GPS speaks in your voice and announces you have arrived. And you step outside into life's voice booth of earth

and seas and skies and prove your voice sounds just as freaking amazing as it did inside. As you announced to this world, I am here right here. And I'm finally the right me. And it echoes off everyone around you till the universe responds. I agree. And your future clears its throat for good and joins in on your song and your voice becomes

an anthem and the whole world sings along.