Sunday Night With John: The Menu

I do not normally do an advertisement blog but I feel with the change in messaging, it is appropriate for one week to put out a blog advertising my talks.

 The John Paul Derryberry speaking update is over. Now, the world is the proud owner of John Paul Derryberry 3.0.  The Chasing the Invisible age has started. It comes complete with new talks, revamped classics, and, for an  added bonus, the new car smell. Take a look at the menu John Paul Derryberry Speaking offers you now.

The Menu

John takes his audience on a journey of his fall and rise into a life he ever expected to have. John tells  stories that reminds us just how important understanding our emotions really are, how fragile life can be, but how resilient every person fighting a battle is.  Whether you are a person helping others, a person struggling, or a person who needs to better understand mental health, John’s story will have you laughing, inspire change, and remind us all of the power of the human spirit.

I Don't Fit The Mold,

A never supposed to be at-risk youth became suicidal

When you picture an at-risk kid, you do not picture a white kid whose parents were married for 25 years, a kid  who grew up in a stable, safe, and emotionally safe home. John did not enter into the world as an at-risk teen but through the death of his father at age 14 and witnessing the death of his best friend at age 17, he found himself firmly planted in the world of depression and suicide. John, at one point, thought people who struggled with mental health were just weak-minded. It wasn’t until John’s battle with his own personal shortcomings, that he realized the beauty, tenacity, and wealth of greatness this population possesses.  

At Risk Of Being Awesome!

Survivors have the potential to transform the world

Some of the coolest people John has ever met have had life kick the crap out of them before age 14.  We view abused kids as victims, as people who need our help to navigate the world, as people who need to be saved. Until we change our view to that of: these kids have something to teach the world, we will continue to see poor outcomes and diminished returns on our efforts. John tells the story of six youth he worked with who changed his life for the better.  He quickly realized that the youth were adding just as much to his life as he was to theirs. You know the old saying, “iron sharpens iron.” The last, great, untapped potential in this world is abuse victims and until we realize they have a lot to offer us, we will fail them. The only thing they are at-risk of is being awesome.

Culture, Environment, Emotions

The stuff we can’t measure, so leaders pretend it doesn’t exist

When options are getting punched in the face or working your butt off to  craft a culture and environment where any and all emotions can be expressed free of violence, you get really good, really quick, at understanding the invisible connections we create. We love to measure, and what we can’t measure, we tend to discount as no longer important. That is why we often shy away from working on our culture and environment. We are afraid to work in the invisible connections that create our culture and emotions in our environments  John shows why it’s important to constantly work on what we cannot see, to reach those elusive outcomes. John shows his audience what he learned as a former at-risk youth in a bad environment, and what he learned as a behavioral interventionist with the at-risk population. His team's turn every environment and culture into a healthy place for the people they serve.  It’s not magic, and there are ways to measure the invisible, we just have to be willing to chase what we cannot see.

You looking at me?

What we focus on is what we get from people

Was John a kid who had an attitude problem, who challenged authority at every turn and used his anger to bully and intimidate others?  Or, was John a kid battling a tough turn in his life who was trying to find his way with off-putting humor and being an independent thinker? The answer is: John was both, depending on who you talked to. John uses the story of how six people focused on different parts of his personality to pull out the best in him. They are a big part of the reason why the best parts of John grew while the less than stellar parts shrank. It all starts with the best advice he ever got, which came from his mother. Whether John tells these stories in front of people serving others, or people receiving services, the audience walks away knowing they have a choice about how to view and treat people, and that can make all the difference in the world. 

Any speaker can motivate, but motivation only lasts a short period of time. Any speaker can give you possible steps to take but success is never as easy as steps. Finally, any speaker can hold the audience's attention with quips and jokes, but I’m not about that life.

I inspire. My audiences discover their truth.  My audiences remember my talk days, weeks, and years after my last word is spoken. My audiences know that every talk I do is about them and never about me.  Chase the Invisible with me and it will help not only your audience to grow, but it will start much needed conversations about how to achieve a better life.