Tyler Hayden #8 From Speech Impediment & ADHD to Hall of Fame Speaker

 This episode contains brief discussions related to suicide and sexual abuse. These topics may be sensitive for some listeners. Please listen with care and take the space you need if these subjects are difficult for you. 

Imagine overcoming every obstacle life throws at you—and turning those hits into your greatest strength. Tyler Hayden's journey from a small-town kid with a speech impediment and ADHD to a Hall of Fame speaker and visionary innovator will ignite your soul and redefine what’s possible. His story isn’t just inspiring—it’s a blueprint for anyone ready to live life large, no matter the hits they’ve taken.

This episode explodes with raw authenticity and profound wisdom. Tyler shares how a childhood of struggle, abuse, and feeling “less than” became the fuel for a career dedicated to impact. He reveals the secret behind transforming pain into purpose: it's about one brick at a time, one small step that leads to extraordinary results. You’ll discover why the “gift of the hit” is the key to resilience, growth, and authentic connection.

We dive into powerful topics: how to leverage your stigma as your superpower, the importance of deep expertise, building lifelong relationships in your business, and the game-changing power of authenticity. Tyler’s insights on connecting deeply with others, turning adversity into influence, and pushing beyond conventional limits will shake your foundation—and inspire a transformation you can’t ignore.

And here’s the stakes: in a world drowning in surface-level distraction, real impact—truly meaningful change—comes from resilience, authenticity, and a relentless focus on growth. If you’re tired of playing small and ready to step into your greatness, this episode is YOUR call to action. It’s vital listening for anyone who knows that their purpose is bigger than their pain—and they’re ready to live it loud.

Ready to ignite your life and unlock the limitless power within you? Press play now—because the world needs your brilliance, and your story might just save a life. Don’t wait—your next level starts HERE.

Thank you for sharing two of the most precious resources one human being can share with another: your time and your energy.

If you found value in today's episode, please help us grow the Life Is Limitless Podcast by sharing it with a friend, subscribing on YouTube, and leaving a like, rating, or review. Every share helps us reach one more person who may need to hear this message.

Until next time, remember: life is limitless.

If you are interested in anything that is Tyler Hayden, please visit his website below:

https://tylerhayden.com/

buymeacoffee.com/codydemerais 

Music Intro and Outro:

Track Title: City Of Angels
Artist Name(s): LNDÖ

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:21

Okay, everybody. Welcome back to the Life is Limitless podcast. My name is Cody Demery and I am your host. And today we have the privilege, we have the honor of having Mr. Tyler Hayden, a certified professional speaker, a hall of fame speaker, a great gentleman, a person that I've only known for maybe six months, but from the moment I had a phone call with him, we connected and I knew he was a light to this world, to be honest.

SPEAKER_01 0:51

So thank you.

SPEAKER_00 0:53

You're welcome, buddy. I want to do a short introduction to give you the proper welcome in for everybody who's listening or going to listen. Tyler is a Canadian Hall of Fame professional speaker, as I mentioned, but he's the author of 28 books, dozens of apps, and hundreds of games. To be honest, it sounds like you have ADHD, just like myself. I love it. He travels internationally speaking to groups about having fun and getting the most out of life. Not only does he speak about living every single moment out of every single day, he is doing just that from jumping off cliffs in the Swiss Alps to swimming with great white sharks in Australia, naked wilderness survival in Canada's north, driving 187 kilometers per hour in a real NASCAR and flying loop-de-loops in a real acrobatic airplane. Tyler truly is living life at large. Love it. Tyler, my goodness, buddy. What an introduction, man. Right? I love that. You know what? I know we got a full, you know, a full hour here today together. Yeah. And I want to make sure we give as many people as much beautiful knowledge and education as we possibly can today. And you're the man to help do that, Tyler. So thank you for being a part of this.

SPEAKER_02 2:16

And I love, I love the warmth and the and the content that you're delivering. Like it's it's content that makes a difference. And each of your listeners, you know, good on you for keep coming back and listening because uh you're you're doing great things, and hopefully today will be a great thing too. If not, it can just be a really decent okay thing, and uh and we'll call we'll call that awesome. What do you think? I love that.

SPEAKER_00 2:40

I love that. Thanks, Tyler. Like I said, you got the energy to boot, man, and I can vibe with your energy. So thanks, Tyler.

SPEAKER_03 2:49

I love it, I love it.

SPEAKER_00 2:50

So, Tyler, I want to get into some questions, buddy, because I know you're a man of wealth of knowledge, and I know a lot of other people are gonna feel the same. Can you please, Mr. Tyler, tell us a little bit about your growing up experience?

SPEAKER_02 3:04

Sure. Um, so I am uh I'm six foot five, so I spent a lot of time growing. Um in fact I had growing pains, as each one of us do, right? Like uh I grew up, I was uh I was born to a family that moved out of Quebec, uh moved to Ontario uh during the FLQ uh crisis, um, which you can look at your history books to find out what that's all about, but uh moved to Ontario. I was born there, um, grew up in like the Mennonite area of Ontario, so like farming and um all that kind of stuff. My first gigs were picking rocks and strawberries and asparagus, um, and then you know, went into like McDonald's and that kind of stuff. My dad was permanently disabled. Um, so uh when I when I was in grade two, so we slowed down life a little bit, moved out to the east coast, which turned out to be the best thing that could have ever happened for me. Uh we landed in the east coast and um went to high school in a small little community called Bridgewater, uh, growing up in Mahone Bay and Lunenburg, which are very quintessential, very hallmark, beautiful little communities. And uh yeah, I've made a life out here ever since. So I was uh I was blessed to grow up kind of rural. Um I was blessed um to be able to travel a bit, see a bit of the world uh growing up, and uh blessed to be able to have uh my father needing support the way he did, um, so that I could turn into whatever it is that I am today. So you know, because I mean, Cody, you understand this probably um better than most, is that all of those things that happen in our lives, my my buddy Peter Davidson calls it the gift of the hit. Um, you know, we all have those hits that kind of guide us to where we are today. Uh me, I was a fat kid, I couldn't read till I was in grade three. You know, if we want to talk about all the other things that happen, I'm a survivor of sexual abuse, I've been on unemployment, I've been on welfare. Um, yeah, like uh you name it, right? Like those are those are all things I'm divorced. Um my parents were divorced, um, I have glasses, I got four eyes, you know, like like all the things, right? Um but all those hits that happen get us to where we are today and and and lead us on our journey to be able to to help others and to and to make a difference. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:18

Well, amen, brother. Honestly, that's you know, mic drop right there, actually.

SPEAKER_02 5:22

All right, we're done. That's it.

SPEAKER_00 5:25

What do we got? Five minutes. Okay, guys, that's it for this podcast episode. Man, I couldn't agree with you more though. Truly, what the experiences, the places we've been in our lives is what shapes us to be who we are going to be and how we reflect into this world. You know, and it's often our things that have been our biggest hurdles that become our biggest strong suits, you know. I was a person as well in grade one to be held back in elementary school for having a speech impediment, but now me and you both get the privilege and the honor to be professional speakers. So that's it's incredible, bro.

SPEAKER_02 6:01

Isn't that funny? Like I had a lisp, like I used to talk like this, and like who would have ever thought that the kid who has a lisp is in the Canadian speaking hall of fame, right? Like, who would have ever thought that, right? Or or sitting on a TEDx stage, like why, why, like what? Right? And and I think that all comes from like perspective, and it all comes from that authenticity going, you know what, what am I gonna do with this? Right? Am I just am I gonna um in my TEDx? If you check out my TEDx, I I I have all these books, right? And they're heavy books, and you know, a lot of people travel around holding on to like an encyclopedia whole encyclopedia series of weights in their life. Instead, I chose to look at them and say, you know, what can I how what can I learn from this? I wrote an executive summary and and and what you know, what can I learn from this thing? I can put the book down, I can take the summary, the summary fits in my pocket, and I can learn from the summary and I can use that to help me to be better, more influential, um, you know, more of a net gain uh to the world, right? And that's that's what it's about, right? Instead of letting those things hold you down, it's about putting the books back up on the bookshelf.

SPEAKER_00 7:11

Oh, I love that, buddy. I love that. Um, you know, I had a very great conversation with a gentleman by the name of Steven Langard. Have you ever had the privilege of chatting with him? He's out of Edmonton. He's a he's a traveling national speaker as well, I think international speaker. But he's done some TED talks, and I was asking for some assistance in that world because that's that's my next goal in my life.

SPEAKER_01 7:31

Good for you.

SPEAKER_00 7:32

And I told him a little bit about what I wanted the topic to be, of course, based on that. And we he kind of shared a statement with me that I wrote on my whiteboard actually, is that your stigma is your superpower. And that is the concept that I want to come from, you know. Like you said, the ADHD thin, the you know, speech impediment being held back in school, having addictive personalities back in the day to of course transform to where it is now, being addicted to being on stage.

SPEAKER_03 8:00

Right. Yeah, yeah. It's just transferred, really, at the end of the day. We're just transferring that somewhere else, right?

SPEAKER_00 8:06

You know what? You can't um for me, I've learned that you can't kind of let something go out of your life that's been such a strong part of your life unless you kind of trade it for something more powerful or more fulfilling, you know, more connection.

SPEAKER_01 8:19

Right.

SPEAKER_00 8:19

Um, yeah. So when did you get into public speaking, Tyler? Please tell us.

SPEAKER_02 8:25

Yeah, so I mean, I was always the class clown. Um, I did my first, my first speech I ever wrote was in grade four, and I won a speaking competition. Um, I wrote a thing about being um a baby inside my mother's stomach, and I wrote it from the perspective of looking through her belly button, and it was like I wish I still had it.

SPEAKER_00 9:17

It says you're not being recorded. Is that my end? Okay, but it says you're not being recorded after recording. Oh no. You know what, buddy? Do you mind if I just press pause for a moment? Okay. Need more streaming power. Hmm. I wonder if that's a possibility with my my plan that I have. I have a professional plan with Riverside here, so I don't know what's going on. Um that could be I think we're still good, buddy, because last time when I yeah, when I hit record last time, it kind of skipped out on us and it said right away that you're not getting recorded. So whatever happened, I think we might be still good.

SPEAKER_02 10:31

Okay. I am plugged into the internet direct plugin. So I think I am yes, I still am somehow plugged in to the magic.

SPEAKER_00 10:42

Okay. Well, for those who are listening, sorry about the technical difficulties. I have no idea what's going on.

SPEAKER_02 10:48

We were just talking about the gift of the hit, Cody. Like this is real time. That's technology going backwards and sideways. And we're just doing it. Whatever. This is all good.

SPEAKER_00 10:58

Basic this is basically a workshop on how to overcome technical technical difficulties, right?

SPEAKER_03 11:04

Right on. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:05

But um anyway, where were we, Tyler? Please. You were sharing a story with us.

SPEAKER_02 11:10

We were talking, what were we talking about? We were talking about I don't remember what we were talking about.

SPEAKER_00 11:14

We were talking about when did you get into public speaking? Ah. And you were talking about the story and s from the perspective inside your mother's belly. Inside my mother's belly.

SPEAKER_02 11:25

That's it. That's it. Okay, so I'm in my mother's belly button. So rewind. Um, you know, my um I was in grade four. I did this show for my school, and I won the opportunity to go to like my regional finals, but then I got sick. And that was fine. And then like just through the years, things happened. I was always like a student leader kind of person. Um, and I always just loved being on stage and um sharing thoughts. And um, I ended up going to university and I took rock climbing, hiking, and canoeing for four years because you got to learn something if you go to school. Uh and when I graduated, my dad, as I said earlier, was permanently disabled. So I wanted to stay in Nova Scotia and be able to help out. So I opened up like an outward-bound company. And opening this outward bound style company, I was taking people rock climbing and canoeing and that kind of stuff. And what was interesting, I was making like 300 bucks to take people out for the weekend. And then I got asked to go and speak at this high school because I started the largest student-run student leadership association in North America. Um, then I figured I had some leadership clout. So I went, they gave me 300 bucks to like do the stuff that used to get me kicked out of class, like for cracking jokes and stuff, and like telling stories and that kind of thing. And I was like, I just got the same amount of money to do something that I love to do. And I was like, I love this. And I had seen a couple speakers growing up. So Mark Schermbrock, who's probably one of the preeminent, like most amazing speakers in the world uh from the US, he came to my high school in Ontario. And Alvin Law from out your way out west, he's uh uh survivor of thomide, um, came to my high school. And I was like, you know, I think this is a thing. I think I could do this. And so I got asked by Justin's the Ring and Yearbook people to come and do a couple shows in um in Ontario. So I did. Um my third, fourth, and fifth shows were in Ontario, and that was 30 years ago. So 30 years, like I literally just fell into it. You know, I wanted to be able to stay home, to be able to help up my family, and I love the East Coast. Um, just wanted to stay here, and you know, I just I was always open to whatever kind of came through the door, and this speaking thing just came through the door, and I'm like, yeah, I love this. This is like I think I'm supposed to do this.

SPEAKER_00 13:47

That's beautiful, man. 30 years later, and you're still on the road, you're still doing your thing. Um a hall of fame speaker now. So let me ask you, buddy, let's just skip into that question. We can go back, but what is a hall of fame speaker with a caps association? So please fill us in.

SPEAKER_02 14:07

Yeah, so um there's there's a there's an industry of speakers around the world, and there's associations that represent them by country. So there's the NSA in the States, there's PSA, there's there's a bunch of them around the world. There's the GSF, which is a global speaking federation. Canada has the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers, uh, CAPS, and it it has a it inducts uh one or two speakers, uh, sometimes none, uh, into the Hall of Fame. And and the Hall of Fame is just in recognition of um the speaking impact that you've had, the work that you've done, um that kind of thing. Um, you know, the longevity in the business. Uh we've got amazing speakers in there. I mean, Alvin Law, we've spoken about him a little bit. He's in there. Uh we've got Orlando Bowden, uh, Michelle Cedarberg, um, you know, just uh Stephanie Staples was put in this year. Um just amazing speakers who have really made a difference in the community. So part of it is community give back. You know, how do you help support speakers? Um, maybe with their Riverside podcast, maybe it's with uh um helping coaching, mentoring, you know, it's that it's that reach out that matters. Um so that that's part of the equation. Um yeah, that's that's what it is. And it's uh it's the yeah, it's one of the highest honors that it's the highest honor I've ever received um in my life. You know, other than that's beautiful giving having kids. So that's I guess another really great honor.

SPEAKER_00 15:35

For sure. Well, you know, it it definitely stands the point for you to be able to receive that because like I said, so Kimberly Lyle actually said, you know who you should talk to after attending one of the mastermind groups um in Calgary, uh I think it was last year. She said, You and Tyler Hayden would probably hit it off. Yeah. Yeah. So I got, you know, we've had a quick conversation at you on Facebook, and within five minutes, you were helping me as much as you possibly were. And I humbly appreciated that, man. And we haven't chatted too much since then, but of course, you know, we're living busy lives. You're on the east coast and stuff, but we're having this conversation together today. So if I can be quite frankly honest, I looked into your career after we chatted a little bit more, a little bit before. Yeah, I was like, okay, this guy is the right right where I want to reach one day. So I love that.

SPEAKER_02 16:25

I love that. You know what? And and I've had and I had those, and that's that's what this business is all about. You know, what's what's great is it's such a collaborative business where you know I had speakers when I was getting started. I mean, when I when I came to CAPS, I was the young guy, right? Like because I was just almost fresh out of university, right? Nobody else was my age. Uh and I and I was doing the business, and there were speakers that I looked up to and who supported me. Uh, and and Bob Jurachuk, um, you know, Joe Sharon, Susan Sweeney, um, you know, Linda Edgecombe, like all these amazing speakers just freely gave me their time, their wisdom, their experience so that I could be better. It's my gift. That's what I'm supposed to give back. You know, whoever's like whatever you do, you've been given all those opportunities. For those of you who are listening, you've been given all these opportunities, all these things. You have all of these skills, all of this to give back. Find somebody to give it back to.

SPEAKER_00 17:21

Oh, I love that. You know, uh, one of my favorite quotes from Denzel Washington and I heard on one of his speeches is each one, teach one. Right. You know, when you reach where you're going, look back, turn around, pull somebody else up with you. 100%. I love that.

SPEAKER_01 17:36

100%.

SPEAKER_00 17:37

I've been gifted with amazing people in my life, like yourself included, you know, Kimberly, my buddy Alan Kayler, who's like became a big brother to me. Yeah. Um, you know, when I first started public speaking, it was I didn't I had no idea this is a career. Quite right, um, yeah. And then people came into my life, like Alan. You know, somebody said the same thing basically about how me and you connected, you know, you should talk to Alan.

SPEAKER_01 18:00

Right.

SPEAKER_00 18:01

And so I reached out to him, he became one of my best friends immediately, and he told me actually what was possible, and then he's actually the one who told me what caps was in the first place. So I was like, okay, benchmark, I want to get there. Yeah, it took me a couple years to be a part of the association with uh caps as well, too. But when Mark Black uh messaged me and said, you know what, you're approved, man. Congratulations, basically. Fabulous. I was like, wow, I was like, this is something I wanted for like two or three years. And um, for those who don't know, you have to reach a certain amount of engagements at a X amount of you know per engagement or within a 12 months radius, basically, right? Right, that's right. And yeah, for for a couple years, I was just teetering, teetering, teetering. And then as soon as I hit that threshold, I was like, wow.

SPEAKER_02 18:47

Yeah, but you know what? You did you like you asked the question, you asked for support, you asked for help, right? And you were smart enough to listen to the people around you, and you were smart enough to say, you know what, what am I going to do? Right? Because too often we're we're like, well, how who can help me? Who can help me do this? Well, they can give you kind of like that's the door, but if you're not willing to walk through the door, if you're not, if you're not willing to, you know, grab the handle, if you're not willing to figure all of those things out, man, I can show you a thousand doors.

SPEAKER_03 19:18

Right.

SPEAKER_02 19:18

You know, but you you are you were smart enough, Cody, to be able to go, well, that's where I'm gonna go, and this is what I'm gonna do.

SPEAKER_00 19:24

So good on you. I appreciate that, brother. Great, great deal, man. Um, that means a lot, just so you know. I want to ask, how many events do you think at your career over 30 years or so of professional speaking, speaking, how many events do you think you have publicly you know done your job at?

SPEAKER_02 19:43

Uh so when I was speaking at ballpark, I okay. First of all, I flunked math in grade 10. So let's put that out there. So I'm gonna do some mental math right now. Um, I I was doing about 120 high school presentations a year when I started. Um yeah, it was crazy. Um so that was about 120. Uh yeah, now I do probably 40 to 50 a year, so we're slower. Um, so higher value, but you know, less frequency. I don't know. I've done thousands. I think I think we did we did a scratch math one day. We were looking for like a stat for a website. I think I've spoken to over a million people. That wow, which is just like right. Um incredible, brother. Yeah, it's all the people who live in Nova Scotia. Basically, I've spoken to an entire province. That's what I've done, right? I love that, man. Yeah, we did the math based on like you know, schools have where audiences were about this much, corporate audiences about this much, and then include like podcasts and um all the other ways that we're we're reaching people, 28 books, like the you know, the opportunity, the different channels that you can create in this business to be able to reach people. I just launched uh or in the process of launching a new app with AI, and and like it's gonna give me a whole new way of reaching people.

SPEAKER_00 21:07

You know, that's what it's all about. Beautiful. You want to tell us a little bit about what that app's gonna do? Sure. Or is that on a Hush?

SPEAKER_02 21:14

No, no, it's uh if you go to rubberchicken.ai, um, you can learn about it. Uh basically, I've taken my 30 years of consulting, and I've consulted with everyone from like Michelin and Subway and like international companies like that, publicly traded companies, and I've taken my knowledge, so from consulting, book writing, um, speeches, all that kind of stuff, and I've taught these six rubber chickens um how to build teams and how to improve workplace culture. So there's six rubber chickens. Saul is our icebreaker rubber chicken. We've got Sage, which is our leadership development, um, multiple intelligence quotient, which is the theory that I use around how to connect people, about learning preferences. Um, then we've got like uh SoCrates, uh A runoff of Socrates. That's our debriefing chicken. It teaches you how to like ask questions, does coaching, that kind of stuff. We've got trophy, which is our reward recognition and engage and appreciation. We've got flash is our engagement and energizer. And there's a sixth chicken that I'm forgetting. Anyway, we've got this flock of six chickens. And you can go through the tool and you can have conversation with it just like talking to me, because it's it's only based on my information. It doesn't allow for looking at the rest of the World Wide Web. It's just my information. So it's all road tested, rubber to the road in like my stuff. And then there we've built a tool that allows you to take that conversation and process reports that will give you like a leadership lesson plan. Oh, that's the other one. Loon, the leadership rubber chicken. Um team building rubber chicken does like team building events. Um and it'll actually like push out a report that you can email or print off. There's a community, yeah. It's just uh kind of next level, next level team building, next level engagement.

SPEAKER_00 23:04

I'm excited about it. Man, as you're sharing that, I'm like, can I, you know, I just need to go spend the rest of my day looking at this app. I'll send you a link.

SPEAKER_02 23:13

You can uh you can be one of my beta testers if you want. Like I would love to.

SPEAKER_00 23:17

Yeah, super cool.

SPEAKER_02 23:17

We'll we'll do that. Nobody else gets to be a beta, just Cody.

SPEAKER_00 23:21

Cody. Just part of the family. I appreciate that. And then you know, when that app does come out, brother, what we're gonna do, we're gonna put that link also on the uh you know YouTube description. We're gonna put it in the Spotify description. We'll we'll make sure people see it when they watch this video, whenever that is. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 23:38

Thank you. I appreciate you.

SPEAKER_00 23:39

Oh, that's a beautiful thing, man. Beautiful thin.

SPEAKER_02 23:41

Yeah, I really want people to learn how to connect better. You know, I think that that's you know, my my calling is that. That's what I do. I I help businesses and people to be able to link together better, um, so that we have positive conversations, so that we learn about um each other. We, you know, we have better business outcomes as a result of more positive culture. That's that's it. Like that's what I that's what I've done for 30 years.

SPEAKER_00 24:05

Well, that's incredible. And I think it's more needed than ever, truly, with technology and AI. Like we can either go one way or the other, you know. And I've even found myself over the years, because of being in rooms and you know, speaking in front of thousands of people, yeah. I used to be an extrovert like a great deal through and through, like any community event, any activity, I was like, I want to be there. Yeah, now over the years, man, I think speaking in front of so many people, I think I also need that recharge time. But I've also realized a lot of people, whether it's social media, just the processing of you know, all these things that hit us with information overload all the time, yeah. A lot of people have started to also recede in a little bit more. And they live a lot of times through a digital world sometimes compared to being an in-person world, you know.

SPEAKER_02 24:52

Well, and what's happening now is uh, you know, we're we're starting to build all this AI, all these tools that are gonna make it that we're instead of working the 40-hour work week, we're gonna be doing like a compressed, you know, 20-hour week, and that's gonna be a full time. Um there's gonna be a lot more time for you know, luxe travel, for how we connect with one another, uh, for interest, all that, all that kind of thing. And the one thing that AI will never be able to do, in my opinion, and I guess you say never, and then all of a sudden somebody figures out how to do it, but um, I don't think AI is going to um build human connections. Right? I don't I I think I think you need a person to build the human connections with another person. Because there's an energy transfer. Yes. Um and I think that AI, rubber chicken AI in particular, can help to um facilitate making sure that they're laser focused because as you said, people spend more time on their devices. They want things their way, like how they understand it. And that's what rubber chicken AI does is it says, what's your preference, what's your team's preference? And then we then we come up with like a like a common through line and we say, okay, well, this is the best way to reach this group of people, right? And that's increases the engagement anyway.

SPEAKER_00 26:07

Well, I think no matter what, as time goes on, the more tools, the more abilities, the more connections that we have to keep human beings be connected with each other, that is an asset that is going to never go away for the value of it, of it needing to be in this world. And I commend you on that, brother. I truly do. I actually appreciate you. Of course, man. Um, really big question I would love to ask. Yeah. For anyone who's been wanting to follow the same path as a speaker, because this this one's very on top of my mind. What kind of advice would you have for somebody to follow? Somebody like yourself, 30 years of speaking, thousands, you know, thousands of engagements, you know, a million people connected with and reached into their lives, you know. So what's some of that advice?

SPEAKER_02 26:52

So advice number one is make sure that you have an area of expertise. Um, you know, I think that we're talking a lot now about you know, not necessarily university education, but like what's your portfolio, right? What's your portfolio of experience? Uh so entering into there, there's not a lot of um barrier of entry in the speaking world. You can just say, hey, I'm a speaker, right? And you can put up a website, build a one-sheet, and next thing you know, you're selling gigs, right? Um, I think that uh to be authentic in the business, you really have to follow that thing you have a depth of expertise for. Um you know, there are there are a lot of speakers who get started and they'll get a telephone call and be like, hey, can you do this? Yeah, I can speak on that. Hey, can you do this? Yeah, I can speak on that. Yeah. You know, you're not you're not doing yourself a favor. You're making that mistake, right? And it doesn't help to build your brand, the business, you know, any of those things. So making sure number one, that you have the depth of experience in something. You don't have to be um, you know, mensa level expertise, but you should have a you know a considerable amount of understanding and you should constantly be working to upgrade that knowledge. Right. So you're the you'll never reach a destination in this business. You'll you'll you'll reach the journey if you're doing it right. Um so that's that's number one. Um, you know, if and if you want to create longevity in the business, I was just having a conversation with one of my clients um earlier today. We had a meeting. Um, they've been with me for 25 years. And and that's part of the secret of longevity in this business is you need to build a core group of clients that hire you year over year to cover your operational expenses. That's that's important. Very important. So um coming up and saying, you know, um maybe 4-H is your thing, or maybe um you do a lot of work with Subway, whatever like a specific uh corporation, um, and you price it so that they'll always come back and you price it so that they get a bit of a preferred rate because of the volume that they buy. Um, and they become a long-term asset that is always there. That's how I got one of the one of the ways I got through COVID was having that core group of of uh companies and organizations that continued to hire me. Um beautiful. That becomes that though, those would be two pieces of advice. One is have good content, and the other is have really good relationships with the people that you work with and try to hold on to them as long as you're able to positively serve each other.

SPEAKER_00 29:32

Yeah. It's like you said, it's you know, energy transaction. It needs to be on both ways. It can't be one or the other, or else it just the relationship, the connection, the presentation, you know, just everything isn't as what it should be without that energy exchange on both fronts, right? 100%, 100%. When you serve your clients, your clients help repay you by your services fees rendered or whatever else it might be.

SPEAKER_02 29:57

That's it. That's it. Or the or or or sometimes, I mean, I've I meet organizations where you know the return on investment for me is just watching watching their clients succeed. Right? Yeah, no, I love that. There's different ways of of metriking uh or monetizing what it is that you're doing. And yeah, and and I'm never the richest guy in the room, I'm never the smartest guy in the room, but I'm shh I sure as heck want to be the person that's giving the most.

SPEAKER_00 30:21

I love that. Over give, over give. And and that is uh, you know, a trait that I've tried to pick up as well over the years um when I first got into business, kind of like trying to give the shirt off your back, yeah, literally as I sell clothing. Yeah, right. I've done it. And I remember a reaction one time, somebody, you know, of going the extra distance, and they just like looked at me and they're like, that's that's not normal for you to do this. Right. And I I just felt so so thankful for that support that I want to overgive, I want to over-serve, whatever it was. The appreciation for somebody to give your time, energy, whatever it is to another human being is the two most precious resources another human being can give to another human being.

SPEAKER_02 31:04

100%, 100%.

SPEAKER_00 31:07

That's great advice, my man. Great advice. So, you know, I would like to know on this question. Sorry to be just rapidly hitting you.

SPEAKER_03 31:13

Yeah, that's all good. That's all good.

SPEAKER_00 31:15

I know I know 30 years of experience you can have.

SPEAKER_03 31:18

It's like a Gatling gun of information.

SPEAKER_00 31:21

How many how many questions can I ask? Yeah, yeah. Okay, let's see here. How about this? Yeah, can you please tell us some life-changing advice that you have been told from somebody in your life, whether it's you know, six months ago, whether it's 20 years ago. What is a piece of advice that has been life-changing in your life?

SPEAKER_02 31:40

You know, my dad always said, so my my show Live in Life Large. So my brand is Live in Life Large, uh, Simple Actions That Create Success. It's the first book I wrote, Little Bestseller. Uh, but it's all about small town wisdom. Um, and so there's all little chunks of information, exactly what you're asking. Um one that I'll give my dad props for was dad always said Rome wasn't built in the day. And, you know, it's a very common, I work with project management, that is like their that's like their their their value. Like that's just, you know, that's their rally cry. Uh Rome wasn't built in the day means a lot to me because I've been to Rome, I've seen how they've built it. Um, and I and it's like one stone at a time. And no matter what it is that we're building in our lives, it's one stone at a time. Um it's what it's one junk of wood. You know, we used to heat our house with uh with firewood, you know, it was five chords required laying down one junk of wood at a time in order to, you know, cut, split, you know, and and stack one chord, two chord, three chord, five chord. And it's all about those one little pieces of things you can do. So whether it's whether you're looking at how to change your life, how to look at investing, uh, how to look at um getting healthy, how to look at anything, it's one more rep, it's one more dollar invested, it's one more hug, it's one more photograph with uh someone you love, like it's all the one little things. And eventually, if we stay consistent, then those things become, you know, the Roman Empire, which eventually did fall, but whatever, we're not gonna go there. Uh but it's about it's about the little things that you do that that really make a massive difference. I was elected to government. Um, I was a town councillor for town of Lunenburg. And you know, really the most important thing that I was able to do uh while elected was do little things, little do little things for our community, whether it was uh, you know, putting in a dog park or uh whether it was uh you know spending time and listening um to community members with their concerns around noise or around snow removal, like all those things really matter. Um and again, it's the little things that we do that make a world of difference.

SPEAKER_00 33:50

Yeah, that's a beautiful statement. It it sure is life-changing advice. Um I know just from my own personal experiences, anything that I've been able to do, you know, in my lifetime, what whatever it is, it's taken one step at a time. Right. You know, I shared with somebody at the gym just the other day, there's not one thing that I can think of in the top of my mind that I've started being absolutely great at. Like not one thing in my life, like nothing. Yeah, every single thing that I've ever started, whether it's a skill, a talent, an ability, you know, public speaking, whatever it is. Yep, everything started completely brutal. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 34:26

We suck when we start, but at least we start.

SPEAKER_00 34:29

That's right. And that is more important than you know, just the aspect of never starting, right? Like fear has stopped so many dreams, unfortunately, just because the fear of failure or fear, even sometimes fear of success. Yeah, but you know, I have loved that analogy forever, that just one brick at a time, one brick at a time. You know, anybody who ever says they want to start a small business in my ears, my ears just like like a buzzer goes off. Like, yeah, let's talk about this.

SPEAKER_02 34:55

Let's start about small steps. Yeah, I mean, that's I mean, every single company, you know, look at like Amazon, look at whatever company, it all started in somebody's garage, right? With a really cool idea. And you know, my business, my uh my line in the beginning was I had I had $300 in the bank. So I had $300, a dream, and the ability to achieve it. Like that was it. I love that. I love that. That's what people say, what are you doing? I got $300, dream, and ability to achieve it. That's that's what I'm doing.

SPEAKER_00 35:20

That's big. That's big.

SPEAKER_02 35:22

And it was enough, and it was enough. It was enough.

SPEAKER_00 35:25

Yeah. Well, I love that analogy because especially I'm I'm sharing my you know, my podcast with everyone and with yourself as well from my garage right now. So we'll see where life goes moving forward.

SPEAKER_03 35:36

Right on. I love that. I love that.

SPEAKER_00 35:38

Yeah. Okay, so let's see here. Can you please share a powerful story with us about you being on the road, some impact that was made, maybe a conversation that you may have had with either a past client, a past person in the audience, you know, maybe just a past fellow speaker. I would love for us to hear a very powerful story if you have one on the top of your mind, which I'm sure you probably got a thousand.

SPEAKER_02 36:03

Yeah. Um, you know, Cody, I so I like I said, I started speaking in schools, right? Um, because I was the cool young kid. Um and it was funny because I was speaking and I was going from school to school to school, you know, coast to coast to coast. And it was I was turned 30 and I did a show, and this kid walked up to me and go, Man, you're 30, you're old. And I was like, Holy crap, I'm older than 30. So I was like, okay, well, I bet I guess they better leave schools now, kind of like, you know, do the magic Johnson or the creative, you know, leave when you're still at the top of your game, right? So I'm like, so I left and I was like, oh, I'll go be the cool young guy in the corporate world. So I started, you know, selling my services to the corporate world, started with the C IBCs and the you know, the intact insurances of the world. And um, I had a friend of mine who has a very small school that they were principal of in a in a small seaside village uh called Shelburne, Nova Scotia. And I said, uh he said, Would you come and talk to the kids? And I'm like, oh well, I'm 30, so I'm old, so you know, come. So I it's like, all right. So I went down and I did my show and uh whatever. So I did my like high school, like life is good, live a life large, grasp hold every single moment, every single day, um, you know, youth show. And I and I knew that I wasn't gonna do many more youth shows, right? Anyway, fast forward a couple weeks later, I get a letter in the mail. This was back in the day when you could get letters in the mail because Cody had been involved in this business for a really long time. And I'm opening up this letter with no return address, and it was from a child from that school who was going home to kill themselves that day. And they said the reason they didn't kill themselves is because they realized they could live life large and that there was so much more in their life. And at that moment, I was like, okay, screw it. I might be 30, I might be over the hill, but I have to keep talking to kids while I can, while they'll listen and make an impact. And I I still work with youth at I'm old now, I'm 52. I got, you know, I got a senior's discount yesterday at the drugstore. Um, you know, and uh, but I'm still gift, I still try to give that gift to young people as long as they'll can hear it. Um but to have someone tell me that they were gonna kill themselves and decided not to because of something I said, that that matters. And as long as I can create a little bit of an impact for even one person, that's worth my time.

SPEAKER_00 38:36

Oh, I love that, brother. I I truly do, man. I started tearing up the moment you said that that young person was, you know, contemplating that. Yeah. Just because you know, I used to tell myself, if you we can impact one person, I mean, isn't that like a career just worth living right there? Is it? But the truth is it's you know, the more I kind of realize, like after running into people who've lost somebody or who's lost, you know, somebody very close to themselves, it's never just one person, it's never just the one person because that young kid is connected to his parents, he's connected to his brother or sister, he's connected to his his cousins, he's connected to his friends, he's connected to that sixth grade.

SPEAKER_02 39:17

It's the ripple class, the ripple, right?

SPEAKER_00 39:19

It's the ripple effect. And uh that hits so hard, man, because you know, I don't know what it is. There's been multiple times in my life, even at the darkest moments in my life, which helped trigger it. But, you know, even when life has been okay, there's been moments in my life that uh mental health I've struggled with, and it's crossed my mind you just even when life is being good. Totally. And um, I feel like there's a few folks in my family, unfortunately, that have had that, you know, that thought or those trains of thoughts. And there's a time in my life where I've tried it, you know. I tried to jump from a a couch with something around my neck and you know, just full disclosure to anybody listening to this podcast, of course. You know, I'm still here, but you know, that young person's still here because of you. And man, at the end of the day, if you can receive a paycheck for doing what you're doing right now, that's a beautiful gift. But at the end of the day, that's the fuel that feeds the fire.

SPEAKER_02 40:12

That's the monet, but that's the that's the where that's the other ways that we monetize this business. Yeah, yeah. Right? This this young person turned out to be a I found out who they were, they they met me at another conference and they told me their story. Um and I was able to learn and follow their life, and they've turned into an amazing, an amazing government worker. They involve themselves in student leadership, they give back on a regular basis to their community, and that's all the stuff that would have been lost.

SPEAKER_00 40:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:46

Right? Yeah, regardless of where you're sitting and how hard it is, there's value that you don't know that you've yet to deliver. And you have you have you have you have a purpose to get there.

SPEAKER_00 40:57

Yeah. Right. I I shared on social media just the other day a quote that Robin Williams was heard saying, you know, about I think the saddest people in the world want to make everyone else happy because basically they they know how it feels to be not feeling very good, basically, right? Totally. And you know, maybe that young person became who he is because he wants to dearly take away pain in this world.

SPEAKER_02 41:22

And but going back, Cody, to the idea of the gift of the hit, right? Like back back to the idea that we all have these hits in our lives and it's okay, right? It's what we do with those hits, right? I was sexually abused. I had a guy take away my parts of my youth, parts of parts of the rest of my life, but that gave me um an increased level of compassion for others, right? I couldn't read till I was in grade three. You know, gave me the desire to be able to figure out how to write books and build things that people would want to read, you know, 28 books later. Right? Like all the all these things, no matter what that pain is that you're that you're experiencing, that that pain is going to give you the opportunity to do something amazing with if you look at it from the side.

SPEAKER_00 42:10

I couldn't agree more, man. Yeah. Yeah, that's that's beautifully said. I know on my own perspective, man, I've told a fair few close friends this story, you know, these stories I've shared on social media before. You know, literally being in my mother's basement in a puddle of tears because I was coming down off of hard drugs and alcohol. And now, you know, I get to I'm clean off of hard drugs for quite a few years, and I've made a recent decision where alcohol is no longer a role in my life, just at all. And that's it hasn't been a problem for years, but it's just something that I remember what it was like back then, and I want to be able to share that information with other people.

SPEAKER_03 42:47

Good for you.

SPEAKER_00 42:48

And it's I appreciate that, but yeah, man, the compassion you have for people who were walking the same road that you have walked. I think that is, you know, the this whole episode, it's been incredible. The two parts that I have to put together after this because of some technical difficulties. Oh man, I feel like this could this could help thousands of people. And I'm not just saying that, brother. Like honestly, I I believe the common theme, you know, there's a couple of them, of course, between our almost hour that we spent together. It's the you know, one brick at a time, and it's the every hit you take, you know, is what makes you who you're gonna be moving forward. And well, those two pieces of advice, man. I think those alone without hearing any other things that we said here today, I think those are life-changing for so many.

SPEAKER_02 43:38

Yeah, but that's I'm I'm I'm so thankful for what you do for others, and uh, thank you for letting me be part of this.

SPEAKER_00 43:47

Oh, it's been uh it's been a joy, man. Uh I wish we could do twenty other episodes. That's where my brain goes. But I know we're very busy and we we'll we'll leave it at one and see how life goes and unfolds. Call me back.

SPEAKER_02 44:00

Would love to I would love to chat with you again anytime.

SPEAKER_00 44:02

Of course, man. I know. So, you know, a big kind of idea that I had in my mind that I want to do one episode per week makes it very manageable, very consistent, very um reasonable. But there's on the top of my head right now, there's a big need, big urge for me to clear a couple hours after we get off the phone here today or off the call and start editing and put it out today. So I think people need to hear this immediately because I think it's just so incredible. So thank you. Um I'm not leaving this till Monday or Tuesday. This is coming out today. Today is yeah, today's the day.

SPEAKER_02 44:39

Today's the day. You know what? And it and and I was talking to um, I was telling you I was talking to a client today, and I said, you know, there's one thing you always do when you go on stage is is you go to talk. She and what she said is I've I heard you do the same show three times in three days, and they're always different. And one of the things that a I think a speaker can do is to kind of I always pray before I go on stage and I say, you know, let me be open to what people need to hear and and and let me be the conduit for what it is that others need to hear. And that's why my show's always different, right? No matter which one you come to, that it's different than the last one. And it's because someone in that audience needs to hear something, I think. And I'll like all of a sudden I'll think about like I'll I'll have like a I'll think about something and I'll be like, oh, I should talk about that time when I was little and this happened. And I and I tell that story, or I connect in some way and I catch somebody's eyes and I tell I go a little deeper and I give a little piece of advice. And those are the moments that you make great changes with. Oh man. Oh sorry, I know we're I know we're out of time.

SPEAKER_03 45:45

I know that we're we're good, we're good. We're good. I promise you. You're trying to wrap it up and I'm gonna go to the city.

SPEAKER_00 45:49

No, no, no. I'm not trying. If I could take 10 hours of yours today, I'd gladly take them so that we can share with the world. I'm so sorry I took up Morgan's. No, please don't be sorry, man. Please don't be sorry because that you pulled that out of my heart right there, brother. I honestly, I promise you that. Out of my mind, out of my heart, it's like that is what needed to be said today. Um, then that's a perfect one-minute clip that I'll be sharing also. So cool, cool, awesome.

SPEAKER_03 46:16

Uh we did something valuable today, Cody.

SPEAKER_02 46:18

We did something valuable today.

SPEAKER_00 46:22

That's right, that's right. And the next one's about putting this podcast on this world uh out in the world so that the rest of the world can uh take part in it. But man, I just have to touch base on that. I couldn't agree with you more. So I I come from an indigenous perspective, you know, a little bit. So I believe in God, I believe in a higher power, I believe in creator, I believe in a spiritual team. I'm a very big spiritual person. Yep. And you know, I don't go to church every day, I don't do that kind of stuff, but I'm a very high believer of a higher power. Yep. And so every engagement I also do. I do a smudge, okay, and I ask the creator to help me be a vessel for good today. And I ask to have the humor, the intellect, the wisdom, whatever I need today to help whoever's gonna be in the audience today. And I couldn't agree with you more. I have had people come to hear me maybe like five, six times at a different school, conferences, whatever in Saskatchewan, whether they're part of a certain organization and then they jump, or it's just different conferences at different communities. And I've had people come and tell me that they've heard me speak five times, six times, yeah, and that they've heard a different message each time that they've taken away from it.

SPEAKER_02 47:33

Doing it right, Cody.

SPEAKER_00 47:34

Yeah, man. Uh I just I'll be honest, I stumbled upon this life as well, too. And it wasn't it wasn't an easy transition into this life because at first when I first started public speaking, it was a lot of trauma coming out, and there wasn't a science or uh uh education behind it. It was just venting and me trying to heal at the same time. Yeah, and now it's become something of that matter of like, okay, there's a science, there's you know, add this in here and add this, add this story because that person wants to hear it or needs to hear it. And that is the magic of being able to do what we get to do in this world. It's a gift, it's a gift, brother. It's a gift, it's a gift, it's a gift.

SPEAKER_02 48:15

It's funny, I am so uh not to digress, but I'm a six foot five, two hundred and seventy-pound white fella. And uh but my background is uh in indigenous teaching. So I believe in the create in the creator, I believe in the spirit that moves through all things. Um and I think that you know, whether it's God, whether it's Allah, whatever it is, I think that that spirituality is what um you know that's bigger than us that gives us the power to move forward. We don't have to understand the things that happen in our lives. What we have to understand is that there's a greater reason.

SPEAKER_00 48:47

Yeah. And you know, whatever happens in our lives is how we react to those things as well, too, right? Take another hit, take another hit in life and keep moving with it. Yeah.

unknown 48:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 48:58

Well, Tyler, I know you have some soccer to get to.

SPEAKER_02 49:01

I got family. I gotta go chase my daughter to soccer. So yeah. Still doing it.

SPEAKER_00 49:06

That's that's beautiful, brother. Man, um, you know, uh one man to another man, um, a person who values his family as much as you do, as I can see it in your eyes. Yeah, that's a beautiful gift, man. I appreciate you even more for that as well, too, man.

SPEAKER_02 49:18

Thank you, my friend. I appreciate uh the opportunity to share with you and uh and all of your listeners. So uh stay in touch, and I will look forward to watching your journey.

SPEAKER_00 49:27

Oh, I appreciate that, man. I'm gonna hit you up when I need to hear some positive energy once in a while from Mr. Tyler Hill, the Hall of Fame speaker.

SPEAKER_03 49:35

I got you. I got you, I got you. We family.

SPEAKER_00 49:38

I love that.

SPEAKER_03 49:39

I got you.

SPEAKER_00 49:40

I greatly appreciate that. And so for everyone who is listening to this podcast, um, once again, apologies for the technical difficulties, but we'll make it work because this episode needs to be seen. Both parts will be uh joined together so that you can have a full hour of Mr. Tyler and all his wisdom and all his glory. Um, I want to thank each and every single one of you who is going to be listening to this podcast and sharing the two most precious resources another human being can share with another. And that is your time, that is your energy. My name is Cody Demery, and we had the privilege of hearing the great Hall of Fame speaker, Mr. Tyler Hayden. Tyler, thank you very much, brother. Cheers. I appreciate you. You too, buddy. Okay, bye, everybody.