Youth motivational speaker and author Jeff Yalden is heating things up with his BOOM Podcast.
The perfect companion to his Amazon bestseller, BOOM! One Word to Instantly Inspire Action, Deliver Rewards, and Positively Affect Your Life Every Day, the BOOM Podcast drills down on principles from the book, but also features folks who have brought the BOOM into their lives – with awesome results.
Episode 2 does just that.
For the first interview, Jeff welcomes speaker, author, entrepreneur and fellow podcaster Mark Minard.
Minard is president and CEO of Dreamshine, an adult day program and facility developed to serve individuals with special needs – including vocational training, life and independent living skills training, social skills coaching and much more.
He is the author of the bestselling book, The Story of You: Transforming Adversity into Adventure, Taking Your Dreams to the Next Level and Beyond and co-host of the podcast, Elevating Beyond, which currently boasts more than one million downloads on iTunes.
Pretty impressive for a guy who will tell you that he was in jail at 17, the culmination of the choices he made involving hanging with the wrong crowd – using and selling drugs. His transformation has been astounding.
“I wanted to reach out to a friend I have great respect for,” said Yalden.
The Story of You is all about helping people transform adversity into adventure, and this is because he did that in his own life.
When he woke up in a jail cell at 17, his face was smashed in because of a beating he took as a result of an incident in a fast food drive-through where he rear-ended another vehicle. He said he was not only going down the wrong path, but he and his roommates were doing and selling every type of drug. Both of those roommates are now dead.
“I didn’t even know how I had gotten there,” he said. “I found out that my blood alcohol was so high that – normally when they read that on a report, they would just assume someone was dead from beyond alcohol poisoning.”
He had also been drugging, and the guy who beat the living daylights out of him had priors for assault.
Minard said that at the time he was still in a victim mindset, but this was rock-bottom. He was so scared that he really wanted to change his life. Slowly but surely, Minard started associating with positive people.
“I realized that I was going to end up dead – or I was going to end up killing somebody else from the way I was living my life.”
Jeff often says to his audiences that you don’t do drugs. Drugs do you.
In this fast-paced BOOM Podcast, Minard tells the story of his rise, Phoenix-like, from the ashes of failure and into the bright light of service, success and hope – from graduating from high school by the skin of his teeth to successfully completing college – to starting Dreamshine (with sister Amy) – and the eventual publication of his book, his speaking career and the launch of his podcast.
Some people think Minard just arrived on the scene as if out of thin air. Nothing could be further from the truth.
“The thing about my speaking and the book launch is that a lot of people don’t know that I had ten years before that of building a company from the ground up and starting Dreamshine. They thought I just came out of nowhere,” he said.
Minard said he is thankful for the adversity he has encountered in his life precisely because he was able to transform it into what took him on his adventure – and gave him the desire to help change the lives of others.
And Yalden notes that nothing changes if nothing changes.
“That’s part of the BOOM. It’s like something’s got to go off and you’ve got to suddenly take responsibility. You are not the victim. You are the victor.”
Minard said his college experience was not easy because, unlike many people, he did not have a photographic memory and learned differently.
But he came away with some awesome revelations.
“I learned that the true factors for success were perseverance, determination and grit,” Minard said.
Yalden asked Minard why some people call him “the man that never gives up.”
“I’m going to go after it harder than anyone else and longer. It’s the long game.”
Minard is a big believer in believing in something bigger than ourselves.
“That’s really what it’s all about, and so I get fired up my not giving up. I live by actions – and I think your actions speak for you. Your fruits speak for you much louder than words,” he said.
There is so much in this podcast: The value of family [Minard is married with 5 kids]. Celebrating small victories. Taking action. The power of purpose. It’s all here, including the story of how Mark met and eventually interviewed serial entrepreneur and four-time New York Times bestselling author, Gary Vaynerchuk.
Yalden was also a guest on Minard’s podcast last year.
Listen to the BOOM Podcast HERE.
For more about Mark Minard, go HERE.
Grab your copy of BOOM HERE.
Join the BOOM Facebook community HERE.