They say you can't make waves standing still, but here's what they don't tell you. You don't need a wave to make an impact. You just need a ripple.One small unapologetic moment. Y'all know what I'm talking about. That kind where your heart races and your hands are shaking.Your inner critic's like, "Who do you think you are?" Yet, you do it anyway. That moment is called the drop. And the drop, that's where ripples begin.Over time, I've realized something. There's this pattern behind the moments that have cha ...

In 2021, my life didn't just change, it detonated. Month one, I unexpectedly lost my nephew Miller. It wasn't the kind of loss where time slows down a little bit. It's the kind of loss where you're not quite sure how to keep going in a world that's missing them. Month two. In the middle of heartbreak, my husband and I decided to buy a gym. A decision that shocked everyone, including us. Want to own a business? Sure. That sounds fun. Whoever said that's never owned one. Owning a business is essentially googl ...

[applause] [applause] This is a business card. Technically, this is the back of a business card. And on it, I wrote two words.Pure joy. I took this photo on the day that I had my first professional TV writing interview. And it wasn't for just any TV writing job.This was a chance to be a staff writer on the hit Netflix series Dear White People. Now, at the time, I didn't have an agent. I didn't have a manager.I actually had zero experience working in Hollywood at all. But what I did have was over a year of i ...

At this point in time, the number of chairs vastly exceeds the number of people on the planet. By some estimates, there are between eight and 70 chairs for every single one of us. Chairs are so important, we measure the capacity of a room by how many chairs it will hold. How many does the room seat.We want to know, as if it were impossible to inhabit a room without being pinned into a chair. I want to invite you to escape your chairs for a moment. So, if you're able, have a have a stand up and notice what y ...

[applause] [applause] You ever notice how the fourth quarter just feels different. The lights seem brighter, the noise hits harder, and something in you knows that that moment matters more. That's where leadership is built.Not in the first quarter when everything's easy, but in the fourth, when you're tired, when things haven't gone the way you planned, and when you still have to show up. My own fourth quarter moment came when I ran for state officer for Georgia TSA, the Georgia Technology Student Associati ...

[applause] People are always judging everyone by what they can see on the outside. But I want you to take a minute and realize that what you see on the outside is not the entire story. Most people believe that when I was growing up from Asbury Park, New Jersey, people believe that you would say quote unquote, I grew up in the hood.But I grew up and I believe that everyone living in my complex was my village. How many of you know it takes a village to raise a child. [applause] And each and every one of them ...

There's a moment right before the leaf when the world holds its breath. Your toes curl over the edge. Your heart drums against your ribs. And the voice inside your head whispers, "What if I fall. But there's another voice softer, barely audible, beneath the noise, that asks, "What if you fly?" We spend so much of our lives watching the water, studying to death, calculating the risk that the real magic only begins after the splash. Fearlessness isn't the absence of fear.It's the dance we do with it. It's the ...

[applause] [applause] Just a few months ago, I had a life-changing discussion with my professor and adviser. She's a clarinetist, as am I, just without the decades of experience that she holds. We've worked together for about six years now. So, if anyone is familiar with my antics, it would be her. I know when I step foot on any stage, she's going to have a flabbergasted face waiting for me outside of the hall. Not out of disappointment, but for my innate ability to give my awe to a performance. I cannot sa ...

Good evening. You're probably wondering why I'm bending. It's a Nigerian thing.It's how we greet and show respect. We were taught to be humble. But humility has a silent side to it.Sometimes when you stay humble, you stay unseen even though you're doing transformational work. And this was my experience back in Nigeria. I used to run my own NGO empowering over 300 teenagers with digital and soft skills every month.I was doing the work making impact. But in 2018 when I left the country for my master's program ...

Good evening everyone. Let me just ask you a simple question. Where does your story really begin.Many assume it started with troubled memories or at their birth or even an important moment in your life. Yet our story begins much more earlier. We arrived to this world.According professor James Nesmis, our history begins before we are born. We represent the hereditary influences of our race and our ancestors virtually live in us. His word reveals something profound.The choices, victories, burdens, failures of ...