Latest / Pathological Positivity / 17 Minutes to Your Dream – with Darren LaCroix – Episode #670
Transcript
- This is Live On Purpose Radio episode 670, seventeen minutes to your dream with Darren LaCroix. Now is the only time to create and live the life you love. I'm doctor Paul Jenkins, the positivity psychologist. My job is to connect you to powerful positive psychology principles that immediately upgrade your relationships, business, and mental health. Are you ready? Let's jump in. Hello, everybody. Welcome back to Live on Purpose Radio. This is doctor Paul, the shrink, who expands your life with another episode of Live on Purpose Radio. Joining me on the mic today is a world champion in public speaking. And I'm not even overstating that, Darren, because you actually won the trophy. I did. I did. And we may talk about that too. Sure. 35,000 people compete from 14 countries, and, yeah. It started in 1938. And this is for Toastmasters Yes. Which is arguably the biggest public speaking club on the face of the planet, and you actually won the whole thing. I won the whole thing. This is prayer and a great coach and a lot of hard work. Well, it's not magic. It's not luck. And I've heard some of that story, Darren. I don't think I even gave your full name yet. This is Darren LaCroix, folks. Darren LaCroix at Live On Purpose Radio. Darren, thank you for joining me on the mic today. You wrote a book also that has the same title as our episode here today, Seventeen Minutes to Your Dream. I did. I did. And and I wrote it in seventeen days. So Well, so Shouldn't it be seventeen days to your dream? Well, fair enough. We could change the title. Well, tell us a little bit about where that's coming from. What What is this idea that you're sharing with the world that you've found so powerful and why? Well, as Paul, you... Doctor Paul, you know part of my story. I was a quiet, shy introvert, not funny, but dreamed of making people laugh and I listened to well meaning adults who trained the dream out of us. I did what I was supposed to do, be the nice guy, go to business school, get a great job and I did that And then I opened a Subway sandwich shop, right after school. The American dream right there, baby. Boom. Boom. Yeah. Slapping subs 9AM to 1AM, seven days a week. The American dream. Entrepreneur, the only job in the world when you can legally make less than minimum wage. Right. So, I ended up... They opened another sub shop down the road. I ended up having... Took all my profits off the top. I had to sell the business at a loss, and I was devastated. And Buddy gave me a motivational tape of, Brian Tracy on that tape driving down the road depressed, having horrible thoughts, and and he asked a question. He said, what would you do in a dream if you knew you wouldn't fail? I was like, I'd be a comedian. How cool would that be? But all of a sudden, a little voice of reason said, but you're not funny, which was true. I was not funny. Yeah. That wasn't the question. And so, god, I was at such a low point, I had nothing to lose. And I'm listening to these motivational tapes, again and again. They say go to people the best. They think differently. So I was like, okay. I've never been to a comedy club, walked into a comedy club, built up all the courage I could and I asked the comedian for advice and I said, hi, my name is Darren, I wanna try this, what do I need to do? And he asked me a question, he said, are you funny? I said, no. He said, good. Like, good? What do you mean good? And he went on to explain, that naturally funny people, class clowns, he said that's one skill set. He said, but if you took a class clown and put them in front of a 100 strangers and handed them a microphone, they couldn't make them laugh. But he said different skill set, but that skill set can be learned. That was like That is good news. The... A skill set that can be learned. That that changes the game, doesn't it? Especially from the source who is where I wanna be. You know, we have to... You know this. We have to be careful who we listen to because a lot of people, you know, compared me to Jerry Seinfeld back then. Someone just thinking about it to someone who's at the top of their profession. That's not fair. We, you know, we talk about this on social media like comparing our journey to other people's. It's just... It... Like, look, if it's in your heart, pursue it. And so I got mentors, I read books, I bombed miserably in 1992, but my mentor said any day that you don't get on stage is a day that you don't grow. I was like, wait, what? Don't I have to be good? They said, no. No. No. You have to go up to get good. That's how you get there. Exactly. And so... And, again, a lot of people aren't willing to look bad to get good. Right. You know? And and I had zero ounce of humility... I mean, zero ounce of ego at that point thanks to the devastation. So I just went all in and fast forward nine years, I ended up finding out what a speaker was. I had no idea what a speaker was. It wasn't my goal. It was like a a detour in my life journey and then won the world championship in '19... In 2001. And then I quit my day job. I became a full time speaker. Now I was working on it for years. It didn't happen just because I won. I've been in NSA as you are, National Speakers Association, since '94 and working on it, working on it. So the idea of seventeen minutes to your dream is after that dream accomplished, a few years later, you you obviously, doctor Paul, you know Mike Rayburn. Yes. Mike was a mentor, came to town here in Vegas where I live and, you know, he asked, hey, everybody, what's your... We had a little, mastermind group, he said what's your big crazy ridiculous dream? What's your big crazy ridiculous dream? And I was like, well, you know, the movie Rudy spoke to me, that story is what kept me going, that character, Rudy kept me going when everyone told me I was crazy, I was stupid, that's not for you. And so I said, well, I've been telling my story around the world and I love movies, especially true life inspiring movies. I have to go see everyone. I thought, what if they made a movie about my story, but who am I to have a movie made about me? Mike slammed his hands on the table, got right in my face. He said, who are you not to? I can totally hear his voice saying that. And so if you're listening to this and you have a big crazy ridiculous dream, who are you not to have that dream? Who are you? And this is where your brain is gonna argue with you. It could be but but but but and come up with all of these... Your brain will hand you 15 reasons why this is not feasible. It's not possible. You're not qualified to do this. And all of those are crap. I think when you were talking earlier, Darren, I was thinking, yeah, don't let people who suck at vision coach you on your vision. Well said. Well said, doctor Paul. And so now I had this new dream. So the idea of seventeen minutes is what worked for me in my last big crazy dream to have a movie created? Like what would work then that I could apply to this other big crazy ridiculous dream? Because I didn't know how to write a movie script or find a movie producer, any of that. So I was starting over again, but as a motivational speaker, who am I to try and inspire others if I'm not striving for my next goal? Right. So the idea is I I sat down. I start a spreadsheet. I'm still literally doing this today. Did it this morning where I sit down every day, and I work on my dream for at least seventeen minutes. Now the goal is to get caught up in it and go more than seventeen minutes, but as you probably know more than most, it's about momentum. And so literally, that's my minutes today. I literally start a stopwatch, focus, and then just hit start and go, and I force myself before work. You know, the key is before work. And so I have accountability buddies. When I'm done, I take a screenshot. I send it to them. But the breakthroughs come from doing. And so it was from getting up there. You know, that's where the breakthroughs come from. And so the principle is just deciding, going all in, making an all in decision. Number two is having a strategy which mine is at least seventeen minutes and then number three is gain momentum. Have those accountability buddies that will, you know, let you send them a screenshot every day. And what was amazing, doctor Paul, is I had no idea how I would inspire my accountability buddies because they saw me show up every day. And it inspired them, I willing, to just let me send them a screenshot. Didn't see that coming. Wait. So this isn't all about you? No. I'm sorry. You know what I love about this? So many things, really, but I I just had a client in my office just last hour before I was talking to you today, Darren, and I showed her a magic trick. K. Now I'm putting that in air quotes because magic is never magic to the magician. True. It's principle. And what would happen if you knew what I know? Mhmm. I I... One of the things I've always loved about you, Darren, and and everything I've learned from you, and you've coached me before on certain things, is that it's very practical. It's not magic. It's not luck. Look. Do this. What what would happen if you knew what I know? Try this. And so when you said 17, and we were kind of joking about that a few minutes ago, shouldn't it be seventeen days to your drink? Well, you can't put in seventeen days on something Mhmm. Until you put in seventeen minutes today. And that is doable. It's it's not that much of a stretch. It is a little. I mean, that's a commitment. Right? Netflix is twenty... Thirty minute show on Netflix is twenty two minutes. So I'm asking to commit to your dream less than a Netflix show a day. And the cool part that I've learned over time is seventeen minutes is long enough to make some progress yet short enough to commit to every day. Right. And the the accountability piece, so you talk about momentum. Mhmm. And I... I've noticed this in myself because there are a few things that I chose to commit to this year, including I'm going to start learning Spanish. Because where I live, I could use some in my neighborhood. And and so I I started with Duolingo. I am now two hundred and forty five days in without a miss because I committed to exactly what you're talking about. It's not even seventeen minutes. I can do one of those lessons in two or three minutes. Mhmm. But I do it every single day. And some days, I'll do a full hour. Yep. It's Like like you're saying, you know, that's there. But the accountability is built in as well because I've got friend streaks going on. Right? If I break my streak, they don't get to keep their friend streak going because I'm their friend that they have this streak with. So, you know, taking a screenshot of your timer and and sharing it with your accountability buddies, it it helps to keep that momentum moving forward. And as a psychologist, I've found that sometimes we ask the wrong question. And the question is, do I feel like doing this? Because the answer is usually, nah. Not really. No. But what if we ask instead, am I committed? Mhmm. Different answer. Right? So Simplicity of the screenshot and the quickness of the screenshot is is what I found the powerful part. It's just, like, takes me half a second. I can literally... In less than ten seconds, I can send it out. They got it. They hard it later in the day or give me a thumbs up. It doesn't have to be a conversation. Now once in a while, you know, every few weeks maybe there is, but for the most part, it's quick, simple, and again, the goal is momentum. The book is called seventeen Minutes to Your Dream. I know that you've got other things that you train on, you run stage time university, you're coaching speakers on everything from humor to how to refine your message to, to a really concise bullet that that can get out there to the world. Where would you invite people to interact with you or to to learn more about what you're doing, Darren? On your favorite platform, you know, depending on what your what your goal is, you can find me on YouTube. I have a podcast called Unforgettable Presentations if that's important to you. TikTok, I'm on TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn, probably the preferred place, but whatever format they're on, I'm probably on. You are findable. That's what we're saying. Yeah. You probably need to know how to spell his name, though, folks. It's l a c r o I x. Like the water. Just like it sounds. LaCroix. Darren, thank you so much for showing up here and just sharing some moments of brilliance with us today at Live on Purpose Radio. Thanks for having me, Doctor. Paul. It's been a hoot. Alright, you guys. You've heard it. It's time to go live it. Let's go live on purpose. Did you get what you came for? Give yourself the gift of taking real action action on what you realized today. Please share this episode with someone you know would value it, and leave us a rating too. It's time now to live on purpose.