Welcome to Embers and Wind!

Guest Ant Blair shares with guest host Jason Carr: “The confidence comes from mastery, man. When you know that you know that you know, it’s a wrap. So, when I hit that TEDx stage and delivered that presentation, I knew I was going to kill it. And that might sound like an asshole thing to say, I knew I was going to kill it. I knew I was going to kill it. And when I walked off the stage, after I delivered that speech, I knew that I killed it. And that comes from mastery, man, that comes from mastery. I mastered that speech. Ten years, ten years I was eye on the prize, eye on the prize. Been in Toastmasters for ten years, man.”

I'm your host, Keith Weedman. In each podcast episode, you will hear stories. These stories will feel like a tender wind blowing on the embers of service that glow within you. In this weekly show, you will learn ideas, kindling for your embers. It will be your choice to utilize the gentle wind to ignite the kindling. 

In this episode, guest Ant Blair shares stories from his life starting when he was twelve-years-old and his father gave in to his begging and bought Ant a Commodore 64. He talks about the importance of having a reason beyond ourselves that drives us. Ant shares that his son was his first compelling why, his reason to give up a lifestyle, to stop selling weed on the streets to avoid the risk of getting shot or locked up because his son needed him. He talks about being in the website design industry when demand for websites exploded to experience which led him to launch and grow his own company to 12 people in 2000 before the tech bubble imploded 2001. He notes that he knew more about the Internet than the professors during the first year they included how to use the Internet in their course curriculum. He talks about a core principle he’s learned from personal development professionals and found to be true for himself, that your purpose must be bigger than you, that it must be outside of yourself. He shares his desire to serve this purpose bigger as a keynote speaker. He notes that he knows when he fulfills his purpose because he experiences exponentially more joy and fulfillment from educating and inspiring others than from his own achievements. Guest host Jason Carr confides “As you talked about lighting that match, when you and I first met, you lit that match for me.”

To connect with Ant, he invites you to click on the link to his company’s website. His company’s website is listed as the website for this episode. Guest host Jason Carr highly recommends: 1) watching Ant Blair’s TEDx Talk, Gaining Access (a link to his TEDx Talk can be found on his company’s website.); 2) reading Ant’s white paper “The Five Mistakes Antiracists Make and How You Can Avoid Them”. And if you’re looking for a mentor, guest host Jason Carr highly recommends Ant Blair. 

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