This past week I had the privilege to talk with a group of GA State students. I always try to be as thoughtful as possible when speaking to students, because let’s face it, we’re at our most impressionable phase during our college years (at least I was). The last thing I’d want to do is give some bit of advice and send someone down the wrong path!

I focused my talk on giving them my best advice on how to live their best life. Bold, I know. But if this isn’t the time for bold ideas, I don’t know when is :)

Here’s the opening slide of my talk:

I brought each of those concepts to life through my 20+ story of entrepreneurship. 

To emphasize developing a creative, entrepreneurial mindset, I talked about the times I pushed through challenges with my businesses and found creative ways to find success (including the massive pivot we made with 48in48 earlier this year after COVID-19 crippled the business – hear more on this podcast episode).

To explain what I mean by finding and living into your personal purpose, I talked about my experience in Leadership Atlanta, how my eyes were opened to my privilege, and why I’m now on a journey to have an out-sized, positive impact on the world.

To bring it all home, I talked about the four ways I’m focusing on BIG things (excluding my family, which is the biggest and most important part of my life):

• Dragon Army is my for-profit business, which is focused on proving that business can be a force for good in the world
• 48in48, a nonprofit I created in 2015, is working to better the world through marketing and technology volunteerism
• Ripples of Hope is a leadership program I created last year for nonprofit and social good businesses
• There’s a fourth thing that I’ll be announcing soon, but the focus will be on fighting systemic racism in my industry (marketing and advertising)

My belief is, if you’re a creative thinker willing to put in the work, if you’ve found your personal purpose and know why you’re here, and if you focus your efforts on big things, you can accomplish anything in this life.

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