Sunday Night With John: With Friends Like These

When I cooked up the idea to do my own event about 8 months ago, my first thought was, how do I convince my friends again, to chip in and help out? Events like that do not just pop up out of thin air.  They take a number of caring hands nurturing, watering, and tending to the idea to allow it grow. We all like to fantasize about being this independent machine that would be successful with a mountain of odds stacked against us. That is never the truth and no one is successful all on their own.  That fantasy was one I never harbored, I knew my success hinged on others chipping in with help, an encouraging word, or lending a hand. That doesn’t mean I’m not surprised by the outpouring of support I have received not with just this event but the whole message I’m trying to spread.

There was the first huge event I was asked to participate in years ago in Des Moines, the city where I attended college. As I took the stage I scanned the room and saw ten college friends scattered around the room in attendance calming my nerves. When I branched out to Wisconsin, there was my friend who had relocated to Milwaukee offering up his couch for me to get a good night sleep before my first big event in the Badger state. There was the drive time which varied from ten minutes to ten hours for my friends and family for a grief symposium in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the first event I have spoken at that received local tv coverage. My cheering section was 30 people deep that day. When I reached out for help to create my own event I was meet time and time again by yeses from family and friends willing to pitch in any way they could to help make it a reality.

Over the last ten years there hasn’t been a loved one in my life who hasn’t helped move Share Emotions, Emotions Matter, and Sunday Night With John forward. After ten years they still believe in the message, and in my ability to help others struggling with life’s problems. I cannot begin to describe in any detail the amount of strength I draw from my friends. Now I have to finally get to the stack of thank-you notes staring me down from my desk from the first ever Sunday Night With John: Live. See, I’m great with talking and saying thank you but when it comes to putting it on paper I struggle to find the words without them being incredibly cheesy and sappy. I have never had to mutter the words, “With friends like these, who needs enemies?”  Because mine goes more like, with friends like these, success is just a matter of when, not if.

As always thanks for reading and spreading my name as a speaker and a writer. I invite you to like me on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/jpderryberry/ and stay tuned for the new website launch in May as the new content is coming togetherly beautifully.