Brian Horn had it made. 

He was a high-flying, high-achieving entrepreneur.

His career couldn't be going better.

And he and his wife had their first child.  Little Jackson.

Things couldn't be going better.

Then, the most frightening moment in any parent's life.

The first day of his life was pretty normal.

They were about to go check out of the hospital - the nurse came to take Jackson for some final tests

A few minutes later, Brian's mother-in-law rushed in, crying.

""Something is wrong with Jackson!"

Brian rushed out, and saw Jackson, gray, limp, with doctors and nurses

urgently trying to revive him.

Brian's son was in intensive care for a week.

During that time, he was diagnosed with Down syndrome.

Brian Horn is the co-founder of Authority Alchemy. He’s been featured by Huffington Post, Entrepreneur Magazine and on Howard Stern.  Brian’s worked with the biggest, most authoritative names across multiple industries.

LIGHTNING ROUND

Favourite Superhero:  Batman

Favourite Cartoon:  Superfriends/Justice League of America

Favourite Video Game:  Pitfall

“The greatest thing ever”

Family Tradition: Christmas morning with family (opening presents and having breakfast together)

Motivation As A Child: Marching to the beat of his own drum

“There were 8 people in my entire high school that took Latin, and I was one of them”

Embarassing Moment:  His 7th grade drama class teacher pulling him in front of the class and humiliating him.

“It’s one of those things that I look back, and I can still feel it in the pit of my stomach”

Identity Came From:  Brian’s been an entrepreneur since 5th grade (lawn mowing, mobile dj’ing, etc.)

“(Entrepreneurship) gave me a reason to get out and do things in front of other people”

Brian says his parents weren’t entrepreneurs, but his dad really pushed him into it.

“He could tell early on that I would be an awful employee”

He says he has a natural incline towards being an entrepreneur.

“It’s one of those things you can’t train someone to do. There are certain things that entrepreneurs have that allow us to do that.”

Brian’s father was an executive, gone from 7 am to 7 pm everyday. They lived on a farm, and his dad would do chores when home, leaving very little time with his children.  His mother was more the disciplinarian, pushing them and providing day-to-day guidance.

Brian's son was in intensive care for a week after being born, and was diagnosed with Down syndrome.

“That gives you a crash course into parenthood”

Upon learning that his son had Down syndrome, Brian went through a transition:

Phase 1: closing himself off to the world (drinking, taking pills)

Phase 2:  emerging from the darkness, “like a butterfly out of the dark cocoon”. He joined the board of directors for the local Down Syndrome Association, in the process raising funds and working with other children that had d.s.

Phase 3:  he came out better than before, accepting and appreciating the situation.

Brian considers being a good example as being his #1 job as a dad.

Starting out, he would work all the time, but now feels it’s more about balance. For this reason, he outsources a lot of tasks related to his company.

What would you tell your kids 30 years in future?

“I hope they know I was spending as much time with them as possible and tried to be as good of an example. I enjoyed the heck out of every moment I spent with them.”

INTERVIEW LINKS/RESOURCE:

www.AuthorityAlchemy.com (podcast, downloads and training)

She's the award-winning author of

and SEVERAL other amazing books about bullying, empathy, confidence, and kindness.

With degrees in education AND child development...
With over 10 years experience in education,

She's an absolute ROCK STAR in classrooms and on stages across the United States.

One of her books is now touring the country as a STAGE PLAY!

A highly-sought after speaker her dedication to empowering children with courage and confidence

Please welcome this amazing Mom, wife, author, child advocate, and all around superhero:

As a teacher, Maria was seeing what was happening with her students’ level of self-esteem. They had concerns with how others viewed them based on clothing, hair, etc.

“I thought this is ridiculous; 5 and 6 year olds should be concerned about things like if they are going to play on the monkey bars or the slide.”

She wondered what she could do to reach a greater audience. She always loved reading and writing, so decided to write children’s books.

Maria says it was scary to change professions from teacher to full-time author.

“I’m learning as I grow older that fear is just fear. It can hold you back, or it can move you forward.”

“I started seeing the benefit of what I was doing and I was quickly OK with the decision (to leave teaching)”

Growing up, Maria completed 19 diaries and looking back and them, she sees that in Grades 1 and 2 she was worried about what others thought of her too.

“I wish I could talk to my former self and tell her not to sweat the small stuff.”

She notes that between birth and the age of 6 is an important time for development of self-confidence in children.

In terms of what can be done at home to help your child’s self confidence, Maria has three suggestions:

“As parents, we’re going to learn every single day. There’s no manual that we’ve received.”

LIGHTNING ROUND

Superhero:  Wonder Woman

Cartoon:  The Smurfs

Family Tradition:  Midnight Mass

“Everyone was super tired, but we’d pull through”

Embarrassing Moment:  Wearing her school uniform on a “Wear Your Own Clothes” Day.

“My mom forgot to tell me. I was so embarrassed.”

What Did You Learn From Your Parents?:  From her dad, his work ethic and responsibility. From her mother, kindness and how to be of service to others.  

To increase empathy, Maria explains the “Try, Say, Do” Method:

TIME CAPSULE (30 Yrs):

“Leave a legacy in the work you do. Put passion behind the work that you do. Leave a legacy in your home, marriage and children. Put 150% into raising and nurturing your own children.

INTERVIEW LINKS:

www.MariaDismondy.com

A personal health scare got Parul Agrawal to finally try juicing for the first time.

Then her Dad had a serious health incident.
And juicing brought him back from the brink.

Now she's a huge advocate for getting families...
especially KIDS... drinking exotic green juice recipes!

Personally - my juicing adventures lasted from January 1st, to January 2nd.‪#‎EpicFail‬ 

Parul talks me off the ledge, and gets me excited about trying juicing again.

He Survived Gangs.  But Work Almost Killed Him.

Rodney Kellum of Fatherpreneurship.com

“Growing up watching my mother tell stories and captivate rooms, that was something that was ingrained into me”

Rodney had a major health scare when he almost died after an artery closed.

As well, he was let go from his job after refusing to go into work late one night as he was looking after his son (Rodney did the work from home, through email, but was notified the following day that he was no longer employed).

This came at a tough time financially for the family.

“I stood up and chose my family over work”

Rodney originally had a vision to help men, as he was a self-confessed “workaholic”. As he continued to tell his story, women came on board and buying his products. He decided to include them and coined the term “Familypreneur.”

Stacy Curtis – WriteOfYourLife.com

Stacy Curtis wants to live in a world where everyone feels free to share their stories. She is the creator of WriteOfYourLife.com and host of her own podcast.

Her show is all about life storytelling and introduces fascinating people while capturing their life story.

“I teach people who are not writers how to share their stories” - Stacy Berg Curtis.

She says that life storytelling can benefit the writer’s immune system, as well as lower stress levels.

Stacy wants her children to learn how to “fail well”

“I want them to learn those lessons. It’s okay, failure is just another 'It doesn’t work. Change it up.”

“I help (my kids) to understand that you’ve got to put forth the effort. If you don’t, then you don’t get the prize.”

Going through a difficult divorce, she used birthday money from her mother to enroll in a memoir class, as friends were always telling her to write about her stories.

“I love (the class), and I discovered my life theme, which was not raising my hand”

“When I took the memoir course, I was able to see what my past life theme was and was able to change it”

She believes everybody has a fascinating story to tell, regardless of how dull the person may think his/her life is.

www.WriteOfYourLife.com

www.LifeStoryTelling.com              

Hogan Hilling is the founder of the DADLY Rally,
the author of eight parenting books, and an amazing fatherhood expert.

Hogan has appeared on Oprah.

Hilling has co-founded and helped establish several fatherhood networks in the USA since 1992.

Hilling is also the creator of:

With more Dadly books to follow. Hilling lives in southern California.

Listen as Bolaji Oyejide (Bolaji O) gets Hogan to delve into his stunning life story.

John Lee Dumas (JLD) is the founder and host of EOFire, an award winning podcast where he interviews most inspiring entrepreneurs 7 days a week.

John has produced over 1000 episodes of the show and it EOFire generates over $300,000 a month, with over one million unique monthly listeners in just the past three years.

JLD considers refers to the word focus as “Follow One Course Until Success”. He developed his focus during his days as a US Army officer.

“I graduated college at 22 years old with a lack of focus, and that was not going to fly in the army during a time of war”

-JLD considered himself a solid “B” student while in high school, but says that - teachers felt he wasn’t living up to his potential.

“Focus is so critical (as an entrepreneur), I know when to just crush it”

JLD speaks to Bolaji Oyejide (Bolaji O) about the importance of the top five people you surround yourself with. When he started his entrepreneurial journey, he hired a mentor and joined a podcast mastermind group for a year with 9 other podcasters.

WELCOME TO BRAVEPRENEUR PARENTS ACADEMY!
Where the world's most inspiring entrepreneurs
reveal their most defining childhood moments
and share their legacy for raising Brave Little Heroes
who will grow up to change the world.

I'm your host, BOLAJI O, and this is Episode 0!