Les Brown & John-Leslie Brown Discuss Mindset Adjustment, Embracing Only Quality People + More

wake that ass up in the morning the breakfast club good morning everybody it's dj envy angela yee charlemagne we are the breakfast club we have some special guests joining us this morning that's right world renowned motivational speaker mr les brown yes and uh his son john leslie brown welcome thank you very much it's a plum pleasing pleasure as well as a privilege to be here sir so pleasing pleasure how do you please how you please the plum i tell the people who is les brown for folks who may not know well i'm just bought an abandoned building on a floor with a twin brother in liberty city we are six weeks of age we became foster kids and then we were adopted and when i was in fifth grade i was labeled educable mentally and put back from the fifth grade to the fourth grade and hold on you can't i don't think you can say that word no more can you because he can that's what he was labeling i know but now they say it's politically incorrect back during that time your kid yeah i know and you can't just seven percent of the kids that are relegated to special education are african-american males i fit that profile and fell again when i was in the eighth grade but i had a high school teacher that was very much like you guys who did a major interruption he asked me to do something to to work out a problem and i told him i couldn't do it and he said why not i said i'm not one of his students said do it anyhow and i said i can't sir and then the other students started laughing saying he's leslie he's got a twin brother wesley wesley smart he's dt and he asked what's dt he's the dumb twin damn it man yes and i said i am sir he he came from behind his desk he said don't you ever say that again that's right someone's opinion of you does not have to become your reality that's right yeah and so that was a major disruption we all have disruptions in our lives and he disrupted the story that i believe about myself and the word that work that i do is to help people to begin to create a different story for themselves when you live in a culture that destroys your sense of self and demonizes you and deny you it it it it causes you to really want to begin to work to overcome that mental conditioning and begin to carve out the life that you're supposed to live and so that's what i've planted my feet on and i start working on my son john leslie he's the president of the company and we've been working doing this for many years i've been doing it for 51 years i'm 77 so it's it's been an exciting venture doing this kind of work all over the world can we dig a little deeper into the belief system that you know we all have of ourselves because bishop td jakes gave a great sermon on this yesterday called um uh hurdles the wholeness and he spoke about how you know other people's opinion your growth is not predicated on other people's opinion and he said it's all about the belief system you have of yourself the belief systems are created between the ages of zero and five we learn through conversations through observation to experiences and through things that we observe and be three between zero and five there's a voice that formulates in our heart according to the most exhaustive study bombardment martin suleiman in a book called learned optimism that says yes well that's voice says no and it governs your choices becomes a way in which you begin to view the world and and so what we have to do to get through it it's not just a conversation we just did a training at the rock church in queens we create an experience so that people can begin to get outside of their their history and and live out of their imagination because most people are not even aware of what's governing their choices and behavior case in point the the anthropologist margaret mead was in london and a waiter said there's several americans here tonight and so she said is that right yeah say let me know when you sell serve them dessert then i'll tell you how many are here so he came back over the table and said i've done it so she got up and she walked her out she said they're 35 he looked at the roster he said how do you know she said in uk we need a slice of pie you eat it from the crust towards the tip in america when you eat it you eat it from the tip towards the crust how do you eat that governs our behavior the things that we say we live within the context of the stories we believe about ourselves and so this gentleman because being adopted being labeled educable mentally i followed him i could never become one of his students because i during that time you could not be mainstream and go to class with other kids so but i followed him because he had such great oratorical skills he was a speech and drama instructor and he took a liking to me and he taught me three things that's very important he said in order to make it in life number one you have to develop your mind that you don't get in life what you want you get in life what you are number two you have to practice the principle of oqp only quality people you earn within two to three thousand dollars of your closest friends people rub off on you academy award winner sydney fortier said when you go for a walk with someone something happens either you adjust to their pace or they adjust to your pace whose pace have you adjusted to but the other thing that you said that's most important that's really important today he said develop your communication skills because once you open your mouth you begin to tell the world who you are so when i was your age i was a disc jockey that's what i wanted to be that was a major part of my life and so he taught me how to begin to use my voice to penetrate to get in and to be able to make an impact in there i used to be on radio here at bls in la in miami florida in chicago and then i went to i became a community activist state legislator because of my communication skills as as well as being able to do specials for public television but now i have a program called hungry to speak teaching others you learn you earn you pass it on teaching others how to take their ideas their talents and their skills and experiences and how to monetize them because we've gone from as you're aware from brick and mortar to click in order that you know that's a brilliant backstory so you were literally you know because you said they used to separate you so you was one of those kids that would be in and the trailers off to themselves had to ride the show bus yes before everybody else the dodo awards yeah that caller the dodo award those were the dumb kids so they separated us we were isolated yeah yeah yeah did you have to stay in school to your 21 no okay i got out at i failed twice but i i was able i went to summer school every year okay for five years i went to summer school and i was able to get a lot of help from smart people like you i would cop you off your papers oh no i had to go on i was in some of them learning disability classes for a semester because you know it was based on standardized tests i had failed this standardized test one time and they they had me in those classes too for one second it's the life is full of experiences disruptions but what we have to do in the process of the disruptions we have to to a we have to transform to accommodate them and so what i'm doing now is training speakers how to transform people teach them the tools that they need to make it in and out of the pandemic who is it you have to be what is it you have to do what's the plan of action we have to execute so we can turn the disadvantage to our advantage and to win because we've always had to overcome the odds let me ask you a question you talk about you know you raising and kids making fun of you and um how you overcame it now right do you feel like the world is a lot softer now because i don't think kids can stand what you went through as a child no i don't think the world is a lot softer now i just think that the tools to destroy a person's sense of self are more powerful and we've never seen them before right you get bullied at home because people are online bullying you it's not just everywhere they have algorithms that can determine but based upon when you go into a room your eye movements that's right what your sexual orientation they got things that can manipulate our thinking algorithms so we've never been in this place before where we have instruments that know more about us than we know about ourselves that's why what we have to do is pay more attention to discovering ourselves early on rather than just going through the indoctrination and allowing our kids to be indoctrinated in the school system we have to interrupt that to help them to discover the truth of who they are so they can become an asset to society rather than liability my goal is to eliminate the virus before the pandemic hiv hood infected virus aids addiction to incarceration and death syndrome so we have an opportunity and the ability to impact people's lives now in a different kind of way and not just let the tools that are out there manipulate our minds and the children's mind the people who created these instruments they say they've been duped by it they can't always figure it out and it's evolving and becoming more sophisticated you think you said it's machines that can detect your sexual orientation yes the algorithms they could you can go if you go into a room and there are people in the room they watch your eye movements they can determine whether or not you're homosexual or bisexual just with your eye moving these algorithms yeah we're gonna have to call cap on this one listen brad i've never heard such a thing i know it all you need to do is look at the social dilemma i saw that movie about that i didn't see that part of that man we have to what's the name of the machine it's the algorithm because i don't believe this that's just crazy to say i know it is it's crazy to believe that we can be targeted through behavioral marketing and we are and they can influence and tilt the scales on the choices that we make and we think they're our choices and those are choices that we have bought into no i agree with that but i'm just saying a machine that when you walk in the room it scans your eyes it can tell if your sexual orientation let me look at me let me see that wasn't the right looks i i think the point that my dad is making and he's he's 77 but he's he knows how to work his iphone okay he still has an a-track but he knows how to work his iphone and is that what we've seen in our generation is this this rise of uh mechanized intelligence i agree mechanized intelligence and a lot of times i wouldn't say dj envy that the world is softer but you know what's lacking or organic intelligence i agree with that if you were growing up when i grew up you used to know how to get to different places without google or waze use a map a thomas guide now can't do that now i have to put waze in for everything even when i go home i know how to get home but i use it's hard to even park without the camera on exactly because now we we stopped using and relying on our organic intelligence and that's not always cultivated in educational environments and the wonderful thing i love about my dad everyone knows les brown is the most powerful speaker in the world number one search motivational speaker online of all times but he's an even better father he's a great father and he's not just a role model but he's an enrollment model see a role model is someone that you can watch from afar and try to learn what they're applying but an enrollment model will hold you accountable and pull things out of you that you did not even know was there you have 10 kids the lord said be fruitful and multiply i took him seriously you know i hate to go there see when i was doing what you guys did i was les brown the man about town lb triple p there were none before me there will be none after me therefore that makes me the one and only young and single and love to mango certified bonafide duplicably qualified to bring you satisfaction in a whole lot of action look up baby i'm your love man i'm hungry i used to be the conductor of the midnight trainer at a concert in chicago she was performing she was before you got your way backstage to holla yes you're a player player from the himalayas tell us without any question tell us the story i asked the person who brought me there who was a pr person i said can you take me back to meet her and she did and and and gladys was very crazy gracious very beautiful person and we had a conversation there was chemistry it's just like two people have gotten together who've known each other forever and and ultimately we married and but our lives are going in two different directions my life was taking off with public television doing public television specials raising funds for pbs and her life in the singing industry it was very strong and we're passing each other like two shifts in the night but just an incredible human being that i still love to this very day and have a great deal of respect for her yeah so speak yes absolutely did you watch the verses with her and uh miss patti labelle yes i did what'd you think i thought it was powerful you know and i just what was shocked but shocked me was glad when when when patty pulled her mirror out was put shoes off i knew that was coming but i knew gladys wasn't going to go there let's have a certain standard that's somewhat different she she is a person who holds herself just standard as henry david throw who says do not go where the path may lead go where there's no path and leave the and leave a trail she's not gonna roll on the floor but patty she's gonna roll on the floor she'd say i'm coming for you and so i love both of their styles i love fatty very much who cooks better mama g that's right he knows what he has to do that's not even a fair question but when luffy was alive he was bad he was in the running too yeah yeah that's good to know yes he was a great cook man they were very great friends yes how are you feels i'm the one that can eat the most well my dad through his credit he probably hasn't cooked in over a decade but one summer you know it's interesting growing up with les brown and gladys knight in their your household but my dad got up every morning and made me breakfast for i used to go to the harlem boys choir and his best dish runny eggs okay honey hey is that a good thing that doesn't sound that does sound good daddy made it for you that's interesting about luther though because you know when he lost weight i wanted to change his did he change his culinary skills like the way he cooked i wonder yes he did and the the biggest challenge that he felt is what we all have to grapple with it's an african proverb that says if there's no enemy within the enemy outside can do us no harm that if you don't change how you see yourself and then and increase your sense of worthiness that i deserve to be here and have a plan of action of the choices that you make that allows you to be here and that that many of us die not because of what we eat but because of what's eating us and a lot of stuff eating it what are some things you had to change and pivot during the pandemic when it comes to your work and public speaking and helping people because as you said you want to help people throughout this pandemic kind of get back into the workforce and back into their lives and their grooves so what are some things that are different now i'm not helping people to get back into the workforce because i'm helping people to face the realization that the the 40 40 plan is gone where you go to college graduate get a job work for 40 years and retire on 40 which wasn't enough in the first place as i said earlier we've gone from brick and mortar to clicking order so now we have to reinvent ourselves now you have to be an entrepreneur there's this there's no such thing as job security uh the the late peter drucker said that this is the era of the three c's accelerated change overwhelming complexity and tremendous competition so we have to reinvent ourselves this last round that you now see was not the original restaurant i was this was me and i had to evolve to accommodate the area where i was going but fortunately because of my experience in radio i developed a dimension about myself that i did not know that gave me an advantage as a public speaker you live as blind people and so you're talking to people you know when you're connecting you know when you're reaching them that you can't see so when you speak before an audience you can see them you can hear their response now you can create an experience that will transform them individually and collectively so the les brown that was lv triple p the man of our town i evolved i wanted to be not just a speaker but a dominant speaker and to speak to the world and that's what i do now and that's what i i teach others on how to do because this is a place where if you can communicate in front of that computer in front of that green light and reach people with your personality with your passion with your knowledge and your skills then you can have a global enterprise that that people want to tap into your knowledge experience and the things that you have going for you that will be of service to them so that's that's the key transitioning i'm making more money now from home with my son because he's more adapt to technology than i am so i have to follow his lead i can train speakers i can speak but when it comes to technology and how to put together funnels and how to create the money on the back end that's his expertise and so we have to be able to to build what i call collaborative achievement driven supportive relationships we have to build mental resolve that's number one number two we have to create a thirst for learning if you're not willing to learn nobody can help you but if you're willing to learn no one can stop you so i had to learn i wanted to speak for at t procter gamble mcdonald's corporation general electric ibm xerox never worked for them don't have any college education but i was willing to learn so i can be competitive and by creating collaborative achievement driven supportive relationships that helped me to get access because of the skills i developed as a radio personality that allowed me to be able to hold my ground with any of them on any subject matter because i study it and people have to do that aren't you glad there was no social media back then because if people saw the les brown back then they may not take the les brown now seriously cause they'd be like i know that ain't the les brown trying to give us motivation unless bryan i was in the club with us with all these women i was no i would no i would it wasn't like that no don't keep it higher my brother back in the day you were out and about that's right no i wasn't really no he you know why let me tell you you're having events in all the boroughs and i was a community active in fact it was it was destiny that i came here because when i came here i thought it was to be able to be in the largest radio market on the planet i read a newspaper article where general norman schwoskoff and harry belafonte were diagnosed with prostate cancer so i said you know what i told all of a sudden i said man we should do a campaign to encourage african-american men to get a prostate examination and so there was an african-american doctor who was interviewed and and i called him i said would you be my guest and he said yes and then he asked me when he was in in the studio with me he said have you had a prostate examination so i said no he said don't ask people to do something you haven't done come on in and get the test i came in and got the test he called me two days later he said mr brown i need to see you in my office i said look i'm a big boy tell me what's going on he said you have prostate cancer wow my psa was 2 400. wonderful is normal and it metastasized to seven areas of my body wow so fortunately a brother by the name of alfred golson an oncologist from howard university he gave me 238 radiation seed implants that brother saved my life wow yeah they said that i was on the way out and but he was a very strange guy he said let me say something to you i said what you got prostate cancer i said okay it's metastasized to seven areas of your body i said whoa he said why are you smiling i said man i'm one of seven children i was born february the 17th joshua marched around the walls of jericho seven times naaman dipped himself in the river seven times at river jordan seven times i said is there anything else he said yeah and you're ugly too i said you didn't call me ugly that's malpractice he said but you got this i never tell my patients that they're terminally ill what i say is that my knowledge my abilities and my skills have terminated now it's on you and god to determine the prognosis i determine the diagnosis i'm going to tell you what i can do and then the rest of it is to you and god and i'm glad that he he dealt with it like that and he interrupted the fear that most people have because they see cancer as a death sentence your mindset is very important as well as having an alkaline body and and and being a vegetarian but your mindset is is majored in activating and strengthening your immune system and having social support which is the number one thing that helps you stay on the planet longer and that's important in all aspects of life too right oh absolutely yeah right now when you look at i read an article saying our children are listening to us we have young people young african-american people who are committing suicide at an alarming rate this article was called our children are listening to us the three most important things that we need to do is number one we need to monitor what we take in because what you listen to you turn into that's number one we need to listen to things that empower us and monitor what our children are taking in and what they're watching number two we have to help them to practice the principle of oqp only quality people the people that you have in your life they're determined whether or not you're an asset or a liability people rub off on you and the third thing you have to teach them as well as ourselves how to become an effective presenter and even in corporations your ability to communicate is 85 depending upon your success in corporations than your technical skills so your ability to express yourself to to sell ideas to make a sale to influence people is dependent and so sitting in front of the computer this is the primary way that people are going to be making money going forward by expressing themselves selling their ideas and their knowledge and abilities on the internet do you think we should be encouraging people to return to normal after after this pandemic or should we be embracing a new normal we will never be able to go back to where we were because we don't know what this is that's right this is biological warfare if you ask me we have no clue about what this is so what we have to do is ask people one to stop and think how do i deal with this you know i just discovered my birth parents here i am 77 i just saw for the first time a picture of my mother and my father wow i've never seen that before and so that's a major disruption two brothers that i didn't know i had that was a major disruption so i'm still processing that you talk about the last few weeks all right so can they ask you for money no okay he's already sent it dad has a good heart wow so they asked and you already sent they did not act oh you just decided to send something i just want to help them they're in gainesville georgia and they're just good people beautiful people wow and i just wanted to share it but my birth mother dorothy bell rucker has created a new narrative for me when i had my talk show my radio show i would say this has been mrs mamie brown's baby boy now i have to say this has been mrs maybe brown's baby boy and dorothy bell rucker's pride and joy i got two mothers and i'm not ashamed i've got two mothers and i love them just the same and so i now have an expanded narrative about who i am and what caused me to be the come become the kind of person i am because dorothy bell rucker was a motivational speaker teacher educator and beulah rucker who had a relationship with mary mcleod bethune she was an educator she was a motivational speaker they have a museum in her name the beulah rucker museum in gainesville georgia and so that's the lineage that i came out of that i had no clue that i was not aware of that i i knew as as as i whenever i got fired and and september 22nd 1978 from wvko radio station in columbus ohio because i editorialized about police brutality and police deadly use of force police beating a vietnam veteran while he held his four-month-old child at a restaurant called the kahiki restaurant and for the first time in the history of this country that two white policemen were fired for beating an african-american male that had never happened before they got me off the air and then they brought them back on the air because i used to lead demonstrations as large as five um 7 000 people against police brutality so just to think in september 22nd 1978 that was my last day in radio and it's going on now yeah and so what we have to do is what you're doing now which is very important that evil prevails when good men and women do nothing that what you're doing is you've created a platform where people can hear other voices about we don't have to just be victims there's an active role that we can play in this process the three kinds of people in this life those who watch things happen which is the majority those who don't know what happened and a few people who make things happen and so you've decided you took the initiative you are the model for the millions of people that listen to you every day hey don't just watch what's going on don't just be a witness or a fan become actively engaged and and and create something that will be a a solution driven vehicle as opposed to just watching the problems that's taking place thank you can can you can you tell us give us a little backstory on why you just discovered who your parents were because i'm adopted okay and so my oldest son did a search through one of those organizations that check your dna like 23andme or yeah those types of organizations and and and and found and discovered where they were where they were born and then fortunately look at god the lady that he calling was talking to to help me find my birth parents they continue to talk and she asked what's your father's name and he said les brown um well this dna match is for calvin randolph well my birth father's name was doc oliver randolph and she said your father's my first cousin wow look at god look at god come on doc how did that feel when you first found that out though it was jarring and and when my my my second cousin showed me a video of my mother's speaking which i've probably watched it about 56 times it was um disarming i just said you know mamie brown who adopted me you know my my birth mother she gave me life but mamie brown who adopted me she taught me how to live life you know and so it was disarming to see her to see our mannerisms to there's certain things that taught and some things are caught and you do things and you know there's some things i call the can't helps it that you can't help it it is just you are it's in you and you've got to do it you are driven you were chosen to do it was it instant love or did you have any anger or resentment how does that oh no no anger no reason i was curious one that was a small that's a small small town how did she being a very popular person an educator how did they get down to miami florida for a period of time for her to have us and she waited she didn't just give us to anybody to her credit she waited to find the right person that said i want you to have my sons and then she went back and she never told anybody so i only talked to two people one lady who's 93 and one who just passed she was 89 who knew the secret so i and my brother we were secret wow this thing called life did you did you care to know why they put you up for adoption or oh i knew why she did she was married okay and her husband was away in world war ii got you so she had to get rid of us before he came back boy them country secrets be different don't they down them you know with the remember that song mama look at booboo yo they said harry belafonte daddy's baby mama's maybe has it been a struggle to have this positive mindset because i know with everything going on in the world and having to watch the news and then people weighing in and having things to say and having so much access nowadays how do you maintain that because i know sometimes it's not an easy thing to do it is not an easy thing to do and faith not tested can't be trusted we're going to always be tested in life that's right it's easy to have faith if nobody looks at you and say you have terminal cancer you know that's what can't fourth stage cancer is what this cancer centers of america in atlanta said to me three months ago mr brown they were confirming you still have fourth stage cancer you are a miracle the fact that you're still here that's number one number two is that my children and friends people that i have motivated and encouraged when you surround yourself with collaborative achievement driven supportive relationships they did a study to find out what is it that determines if a person what's the longest a person can live what is it that can help make that possible i thought it was plant-based diet organic food and alkaline water and staying alkaline no social support if you got social support i agree people who come home to after a surgery to an empty house their recovery level takes longer but if you got a loving supportive relationship waiting to greet you your recovery is faster and when you look at psychoneuroimmunology the cycle the mind and your immune system and your nervous system that the relationships that that you have here the conversations that you have here it it has aligned you in a cause bigger than you it's not about your individual personalities that you come in here and you're having conversations and in your mind there is a vision that you have that's bigger than you to make people's lives better who listen to you and and so that alignment will serve you individually and collectively better than someone who does not have a reason to get up in the morning who need an alarm clock to get up in the morning nietzsche said if you know the why for living you can endure almost any how if you know why you are here which most people don't they have not stopped to think the benefit of the the the pandemic is my my daughter dr owner brown she said gaps are from god that we have time to think i mean you know their the divorce rate is up 40 during this time people who look over at each other say i don't want to do life with you anymore i feel lonely whenever you're around or when frankie crocker says it's better to be alone than to wish you were no that makes so much sense you know that makes that makes so much sense do you feel pressure following your dad's footsteps not pressure i feel first of all i feel like i hit the parent jackpot i so many young men don't have their fathers in their lives and my grandmother mrs mamie brown when dj envy talked about what what dad might have been doing back in the day right right mamie brown beat some sense into les brown she made sure that he wasn't hanging out with gangs in the neighborhood she was the type of mom that come to the school well she worked in the cafeteria for a period but she'll come to the school and beat you in class just to make you can't do these the things that you name you can't do that no you can't do that now you're locked up grandma be locked up yes but in that particular time my grandmother who adopted seven children who weren't they weren't her own her dream was to be a mother and as a mother she wanted to do everything to keep them safe and i because actually on 1993 mrs mamie brown she passed away on my birthday from breast cancer and it was the first time charlemagne that i ever saw my dad cry he held her hand as she took her last breath and i was just turning 10 years old you know i'm going into double digits so i was learning from the adults around me how to be sad for the first time but a couple days later during the funeral they asked if anyone wanted to get up and share stories about mrs mamie brown and there for the first time i gave a speech about my grandmother i was shocked when he stood up i saw him walking down front i'm saying where is this dude he can talk yeah and afterwards my dad looked at me with hopeful eyes and they probably have some dollar signs in them too and he said son there's greatness in you there's a calling on your life your voice will carry the torch to the next generation next week i was on tour introducing les brown by the time i was 14 i was the highest paid team speaker in america so my dad didn't just sit me in the classroom he set me next to him in the boardrooms so that i could have access and exposure to create a better life for how much was your dad paying you back then now man well oh i had to earn my stripes so he did the internship but tell him how much you earned though but yes by the time i was 14 after just introducing him mastering little short speeches with him i got my first request and by 14 i was making twenty five hundred dollars an hour nice twenty five points in an hour an hour and you have this book the harvard effect yes the harvard effect you got ten percent oh well he was making seventy thousand an hour so he didn't even know the united states 225 000 outside yeah outside of the united states wow and ms angela asked about this book actually when i was a teenager because i had an audience i was on punishment for not writing a book that's a different level of standards it's because dad knew business and he knew i had an audience so many years later we had an opportunity got a request to speak at harvard university and this was a big deal for me dad's moment was in the georgia dome speaking before 80 000 people and with mine was at harvard university and i was working to find out how do you make a a message relevant for this audience and the one thing that really stood out to me was a story about my dad working with the microsoft and after the speech they said hey we heard you talking about your 10 and 20 year goals mr brown that's cute but we want to show you something took him in the back room pulled up a screen and said this is where our family will be in technology a hundred years from now and so it was humbling that was humbling and so when you look at families that create massive wealth generational wealth and as you know 70 percent of wealth is going by the second generation and over 90 by the third generation i said if it's good enough for the the the gates family and toyota and amazon if they need hundred year plans how can we create that in our community so that you don't just live your life take all your resources with you but you leave something behind for the next generation yes and so what we're doing now is i i would take you are by spiritual children there is no success as td jake says without successors that's right and so there are there are experiences that i've i've had that there are people being pushed up and people being pushed off so i've had a good run but it would be a travesty for me not to share with you what i've learned one sickness can wipe out a fortune one sickness that's right and so what i'm doing is teaching people not only how and i i have a a just a natural connection with people in radio because i had the first talk show in columbus ohio and and called the voice of the people but teaching radio announcers how to use their voices in other arenas and create non-performance income there's a brother that i work with because we have to create collaborative achievement-driven supportive relationships cedric braun and tanya brown no relationship to me who are teaching people to have a company called trust up how to put their their businesses in trust and and not pay taxes and push them forward like the wealthy do there's a strategy to that so what we have to do is is expose ourselves to brothers and sisters who have the knowledge who have the skills and the know-how i'm learning this you know i believe even at 77 you're never too old to learn and you're never too young to teach and so i learned from you i i watch you i i've seen some characters come up in here there's one brother i wanted to take him out because i you know i he came and he was very very disrespectful oh birdman i don't know i'm not calling his name because i'm 70 now i got a good right but i can't fight though but but in his defense would what i might may have said about him could have been taken is disrespectful to i i i understand yeah but when things go wrong don't go with them you if you can i never forget when i was a state legislator and there was a guy introduced some legislation that i disagreed with and fortunately i was seated next to an older guy named cj maclin out of dayton ohio and i raised my hand i said mr speaker i want to challenge this gentleman and he knew my reputation as a radio personality being very militant and he said mr brown he said if you can get a man's attention by tapping him on the shoulder why knock him in the mouth wow because he's gonna have to fight you even if he doesn't want to he might get in a lucky lick call him aside and talk to him and so that's what i did and and so i'm sure had he called either one of y'all and said i need to talk to you you to talk to him 100 percent you see so we have to work with each other and and make a decision on the side of love rather than on the side of anger it's you you can get angry easily when anger is a wind that blows out the lamp of the mind and so anger does not serve us a lot of people in jail who went crazy got angry and they're sitting in jail saying why did i go there why didn't i stop myself what did you what did your uh your siblings say you know because from from this picture from this view you know you look like your daddy's favorite you you went on the road with daddy early you all with daddy he is not my favorite is he yours that's the beautiful thing uh being the youngest ten i feel like they've seen me work my way up from the mail room and serving for many years i didn't start off as the president of the company but my siblings they're very proud we've actually toured together we all work in the family business we're known as the first family of motivation and i i'm just i'm grateful they flew out for our event that we just had here in new york in queens and we put together the event and and the hungry for greatness events in five weeks and i called my siblings and they're there backstage and they walked in they saw the room it was a packed house with social distancing of course and they're like well bro i'm proud of you i love my daughters my daughters are my favorites my daughters they never got beat down because i i never forget my daughter samaya told her mother when they were coming down to stay with me for the summer she said mom i'm not talking loud because i don't want dad to hear me i want to go down to miami and stay with him during the summer because i got him wrapped around my finger wow that's right i'm listening i said is that right yeah and then you said you're right that is so cute right that is so true yes and i think with my siblings now and i have the a good relationship with all of them but they don't all have that with each other is that we're moving from legacy to dynasty see legacy is all about how you want to be remembered but dynasty is all about why you will never be forgotten and when you have a a pioneer as a father a man that got up every day in the 90s making cold calls without being some type of celebrity to get exposure to use his voice to empower people you have to ask yourself how do i keep this dynasty alive how do i make a mark on the next generation and how can i do something with my life that will outlive me so i've got many spiritual sons and daughters all across this country and around this world because when dr king was taken out there was nobody just to step in malcolm there was nobody just to step in we have to duplicate ourselves when people saw the the speakers the other night they knew when they saw johnny wimbery they knew when they saw the various speakers that whoa they can go with me toe-to-toe and many of them were better than i am and you know who stole the show my son honored seven years old and he came out and got us started because he started off speaking at four or five years old at the staples center it's all he knows and he came out there and held his own with the best of him living daddy yes he did but you know donna lawrence came up in my space the gospel singer let me tell you something i've been talking to him and he's written a lot of inspirational songs so i said man you you can not just sing you can speak too he said i've always wanted to do that did you see remember the remaking of the making of thriller and the actually the choreographer how did you feel working with michael jackson he said just imagine doing something all your life and somebody comes off the street and go with you toe-to-toe well donna lawrence who's been singing and i said you could speak he came in my space now let's put this in context i've won the highest award for the national speakers association inducted into their hall of fame the golden gavel award which is the highest award to toastmasters selected among the top five speakers in the world got more votes than all of them combined donald lawrence came on the stage and he said you know the things that you do and things that happen and at the time they happen it don't make sense and people will say to you give up and you'll say to yourself give up because it don't make sense but it makes faith the stick in there and makes faith to judge not according to appearances it makes faith to call forth those things that be not as though they were keep your faith to your faith when your prayers aren't answered keep your faith to your faith i said afterwards i said you better watch your knees at the parking lot oh he tore it up that's a bad brother up in here up in here i got i got two more questions um can you motivate an unmotivated person yes you can motivate them if you take the time and one of the things that i train speakers what gave me a competitive advantage in the speaking industry and there was nobody on stage that looked like me i noticed two things number one they were just giving information if information could change people everybody would be skinny rich and happy information only impact two areas of the brain i came in with a story about the hunger to buy my mother a home a story touched a heart and it impacts five areas of the brain number two they operate under the philosophy of the dale carnegie course tell them what you're going to tell them tell them and then tell them what you told them my mentor mike williams who wrote the book the road to your best stuff the road to your best stuff he said brownie never let what you want to say get in the way of what your audience wants to hear conduct communications intelligence ask questions find out their sweet spot find out what's keeping them up at night and so i would talk to that person to find out what drives them what is it that they have something that they're interested in and once i find that out i want to find out when did they lose their voice when when when is it that they lost their fire we're all born please believe this with built in greatness but something happens i one of the most profound messages i heard and now this the family will not allow this this speech to be made public and the speech was we are today what we were when that something happened to that person never ask why did that person do that or why they like that question is what happened to them caused them to become like that right and once you find what that is and can get that out of the way because they're living out of their history and get them to live out of their imagination einstein said the imagination is the preview of what's to come and so i would talk to them to find out what is it that drives them what happened when was your life shut down what happened to you and i was case in point talking to this lady and and she's in our training and i said when did you lose your voice and and she said when i was a child and i said what happened my mother's boyfriend raped me and he told me do not tell or you'll get in a lot of trouble so when her mother came home from work you know she was 11 years old at the time she told her mother and her mother said you are lying and beat the living hell out of her and when he came home and saw that she was bruised and and beaten he said i told you not to tell and you get in trouble and he proceeded to rape her again wow and so we are today what we were when some experience something happened that impacted us that we never found a way never got the help from somebody that can take us to a place in ourselves that we can't go by ourselves to help us deal with it so we can get past it and i think to can you motivate an unmotivated person i think that one of the things that dad teaches that environment is more important than people mhm it's it's tough when you're in a negative environment where no one's achieved anything no one's holding you accountable but when you take a person out of their natural environment and i know you all have your non-profits and things where you give back to the community and you expose them to a better life to people that are making better decisions that look at them differently in their eyes if they could be more than what they are then you can create a thirst and a hunger to achieve more than anyone else in your family yeah you can take a horse to the water you can't make them drink but if you know how to get to know who they are and communicate effectively and create a significant emotional event you can create a thirst where they want to drink and that's the key it's not about motivating them it's about communicating with them in a way respecting them getting to know them developing a relationship with them where they will motivate themselves where they say i can do this as opposed to just relying on me saying you've got greatness in you you have the ability to do more than you can ever begin to imagine because i've been there i've been in the place where they are so i have empathy for them i have compassion for them and i'm patient in the process because i believe that all of us are reachable teachable and redeemable and all they need is somebody with a caring heart that will be patient enough to bring it out i agree that's why teachers are so important because you don't know what kids circumstances are at home you don't know how they grew up or what went on in their lives when they come to school you have to understand that i don't even like every student has something different that went on and that is going on currently so you have to really try to inspire them and not feel like well he's just not motivated right no no something happened that shut them down and what we can do is help them to get past that einstein said the preview the imagination is preview of what's to come getting people to live out of their imagination he said i'll give you all your eyes can see rather than their history and allowing them to see themselves achieving a different life see themselves beyond the adversities of life and experience the emotion of what it's like to live a life of success that's what mr washington did for me i never knew my father but he said mr brown i see you being on radio i i see you having the ability to hold an audience can you see what i see and i said yes sir yes sir and so that encouragement and i started thinking about it and i i had a three by five card and one time one side i had i am a powerful radio personality on the flip side i had ask and it shall be given matthew 7 7 seek and ye shall find knock and it shall be opened unto you and i read that several times a day and including a lot of other motivational stuff and i i listen to various personalities on radio that help to cultivate my mind which you listen to you turn into and i said this is me this is what i'm going to do with my life yeah my final question was going to be what's the best motivation you've ever received i think you just answered that the advice from mr washington the advice that someone's opinion of you does not have to become your reality we live within the context of the conversations that we're exposed to and the things that we believe about ourselves that's why it's important that we watch what our children are listening to because the words shape our mindset in our what psychologists call the self-explanatory style dr carter g woodson said if you can determine what a man shall think you never have to concern yourself with what he will do he said if you can make a man feel inferior you never have to compel him the secret and furious status for he will seek it himself and if you can make a man feel justly and outcast you never have to order him to go to the back door he'll go without being told and if there's no door his very nature will demand one that book the mis-education of the negro absolutely that has been my bible because we've been miseducated and still to this very day so what we have to do is reverse that thinking and help them to begin to get a different vision of themselves different than what the school system is giving them with the indoctrination that they have depriving them of knowledge of who they are and helping them to see themselves as having greatness within them and the ability to achieve greatness and to be able to manifest it in all dimensions of our lives we can do more than just wrap a box or run with a football or helmet 35 miles an hour we can do so many other things and we have to expose our kids to those things so they can say that's me that's brown that was a word this morning thank you sir john thank you very much tell them how to contact y'all man well you go ahead john leslie yes you can go to hungrytospeak.com at hungrytospeak.com that's the best way to work with les brown in our community of speed speakers who are transforming the next generation my dad's very passionate about helping people get their voices out there and they can also reach out at les brown at hungrytospeak.com to reach out to us people who want one-on-one coaching yes that's right it's wes brown i mean it's les brown and john leslie brown thank you very much for coming thank you and the coaching's very inexpensive by the way so it's worth your money well yes one of the things that people have to do today is bet on you put your money where your mouth is because once you learn how to communicate no one can stop you i've one month monday through friday monday through thursday 45 minutes i earned how much john let's see over 600 000 yes six hundred and forty dollars no no i don't say that to impress you but to impress upon you there's more for us than just entertainment that's right we got so much more people think that the only way you can get rich is that you got to entertain no we can do so many other things outside of that but they don't pay you by the hour they pay you for the value you bring to the hour that corporation had a lot of choices of over 3 000 speakers and my goal was not to be a speaker but a dominant speaker i trained speakers so that you can become so good that you cannot be ignored and you'll be paid for what you're worth that's right there you go it's less big baller brown and john leslie brown thank you all for coming it's the breakfast club pray for you my brother [Music] you

Channel: Breakfast Club Power 105.1 FM

Views: 715,242

Keywords: the breakfast club, breakfast club, power1051, celebrity news, radio, video, interview, angela yee, charlamagne tha god, dj envy

Id: AQCuZlH3RGo

Length: 63min 39sec (3819 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 17 2021