Creativity Coach, Portrait Photographer & Founder of ArtistMorning.com
Toronto, Canada
Darius Bashar is a creativity coach, portrait photographer, and founder of ArtistMorning.com, helping speakers and leaders build the clarity, confidence, and consistency to bring meaningful work into the world.
His photography has been seen more than 100 million times, and he has photographed leading speakers and thought leaders including Seth Godin, Elizabeth Gilbert, Dr. Shefali, Jim Kwik, Lisa Nichols, and Masai Ujiri. His work has appeared in TIME, Apple, USA TODAY, and Oprah.com.
Through coaching and his signature HEARTshots™ photography experience, Darius helps people strengthen their voice, message, and how they show up in the world.
As part of Speaker Slam®'s Momentum Conference showcase at CBC Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto on Nov 19, 2022, Darius Bashar shared a story.
At the 2018 Speaker Slam® Grand Slam, the Inspirational Speaking Finals held at Jane Mallett Theatre in Toronto, Darius Bashar took the stage with a five minute story.
thank God beards are popular in 2018 cuz when I was in grade four facial hair was not so cool trust me I was the only kid in my entire school to have a full mustache my father wasn't around in my life at that time there was nobody else to teach me how to shave so I pretended I didn't have a mustache and that the kids picking on me didn't bother me but of course I did and they did one Friday after school I came home crying to my mom was sitting right there and I told her why do I have this stupid thing on my
face and she did what any Persian mom would do she took me into the bathroom pulled out her hair bleaching kit and bleached the [ __ ] out of my mustache it looked ridiculous it legit look like Eminem's head was sitting above my lip not following one day when I went to school I knew I was a dead man walking I walked into mr. Evans great for class and he literally stopped teaching to turn around and look at me and said what did you do to your face that was not a good week for little Darius things got a lot worse and kids got a
lot meaner it really really sucked it hurt but I pretended I didn't care and for me that was the beginning of a long career as a professional hider many years later I became a professional photographer and now people think of me as an expert in beauty I get to take pictures of international models and actors and best-selling authors and all sorts of really interesting humans that's not what makes me an expert in beauty my expertise on the topic of beauty comes from the two decades I spent training as a world-class hider it's inevitable we're all going to have pain in our lives but if we
choose to hide those feelings the inevitable cuts become deep wounds I know why you're hiding you're hiding for the same reason I hid for two decades secretly we all believed our wounds make us unlovable but here's the thing if you hide your wounds they make you invisible so I want you to think about this consider this what if those painful wounds that we are all hiding were actually a road map to our deepest love as a professional photographer and as a professional hider I became really good at identifying other people who are hiding their wounds I see your flaws I feel your wounds but more
importantly I recognize your hearts deep desire to be seen the path to being seen in my portrait photography sessions always involves us playing with discomfort the peak of discomfort usually happens at the end of the session when we review every single photo we took that day nothing is hidden everybody freaks out when they see their picture for the first time I experienced this myself I got my portraits taken and when I saw that first picture the only thing I saw were my flaws and imperfections the scars on my face from years of acne my hairline my one crooked tooth It was as if the rest
of me was invisible and the only thing that remained were my flaws but an amazing thing happens if you don't look away and you keep going the rest of you shows up and you look beyond your wounds and you see yourself it's [ __ ] magic so being bullied as a kid because of my bleached blond mustache was an early wound that set me up on a path to hide myself piece by piece but instead of hiding our wounds what if we brought them into the spotlight proudly and let them heal I know what that means it means initially there'll be more pain because you
have to come face-to-face with your heart but what if that pain was our path to our deepest love the brilliant Joseph Campbell gave us half of the equation to happiness when he said those three very powerful words follow your bliss the party seemed to miss equally as important follow your blisters
Transcript generated from the recording and lightly cleaned. Some names and wording may differ from the spoken speech.
Speaking on the theme Body Beautiful at Speaker Slam® in Toronto on Mar 27, 2018, Darius Bashar took the stage with a five minute story.
thank God beards are popular in 2018 cuz when I was in grade four facial hair was not so cool trust me I was the only kid in my entire school to have a full mustache my father wasn't around in my life at that time there was nobody else to teach me how to shave so I pretended I didn't have a mustache and that the kids picking on me didn't bother me but of course I did and they did one Friday after school I came home crying to my mom was sitting right there and I told her why do I have this stupid thing on my
face and she did what any Persian mom would do she took me into the bathroom pulled out her hair bleaching kit and bleached the [ __ ] out of my mustache it looked ridiculous it legit look like Eminem's head was sitting above my lip not following one day when I went to school I knew I was a dead man walking I walked into mr. Evans great for class and he literally stopped teaching to turn around and look at me and said what did you do to your face that was not a good week for little Darius things got a lot worse and kids got a
lot meaner it really really sucked it hurt but I pretended I didn't care and for me that was the beginning of a long career as a professional hider many years later I became a professional photographer and now people think of me as an expert in beauty I get to take pictures of international models and actors and best-selling authors and all sorts of really interesting humans that's not what makes me an expert in beauty my expertise on the topic of beauty comes from the two decades I spent training as a world-class hider it's inevitable we're all going to have pain in our lives but if we
choose to hide those feelings the inevitable cuts become deep wounds I know why you're hiding you're hiding for the same reason I hid for two decades secretly we all believed our wounds make us unlovable but here's the thing if you hide your wounds they make you invisible so I want you to think about this consider this what if those painful wounds that we are all hiding were actually a road map to our deepest love as a professional photographer and as a professional hider I became really good at identifying other people who are hiding their wounds I see your flaws I feel your wounds but more
importantly I recognize your hearts deep desire to be seen the path to being seen in my portrait photography sessions always involves us playing with discomfort the peak of discomfort usually happens at the end of the session when we review every single photo we took that day nothing is hidden everybody freaks out when they see their picture for the first time I experienced this myself I got my portraits taken and when I saw that first picture the only thing I saw were my flaws and imperfections the scars on my face from years of acne my hairline my one crooked tooth It was as if the rest
of me was invisible and the only thing that remained were my flaws but an amazing thing happens if you don't look away and you keep going the rest of you shows up and you look beyond your wounds and you see yourself it's [ __ ] magic so being bullied as a kid because of my bleached blond mustache was an early wound that set me up on a path to hide myself piece by piece but instead of hiding our wounds what if we brought them into the spotlight proudly and let them heal I know what that means it means initially there'll be more pain because you
have to come face-to-face with your heart but what if that pain was our path to our deepest love the brilliant Joseph Campbell gave us half of the equation to happiness when he said those three very powerful words follow your bliss the party seemed to miss equally as important follow your blisters
Transcript generated from the recording and shown as captured, without added punctuation. Some names and wording may differ from the spoken speech.
Darius has also judged 4 Speaker Slam® competitions, scoring speakers on story, delivery and impact.
Speaker Slam® helped me step fully into my power. It's an incredible platform with an amazing community that supports you when you share your heart.
Darius Bashar
Darius is one of the speakers who have told their story on the Speaker Slam® stage since 2016. The next one could be you.
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