The Red Carpet
Speaking on the theme Catalyst at Speaker Slam®'s online competition in Mar 23, 2022, Stephanie Broussard took the stage with a five minute story.
Transcript
stephanie we lost it it's over he got it no as i would sink down into my chair and hear nothing other than my heartbeat august 10th 2001 at 10 18 in the morning my life my business our invention and every one of my hopes and dreams were up for sale to the highest bidder on the steps of the courthouse not just any bidder this was a man we loved this was a man that we placed as ceo just three years prior how can this happen there's no way we were doing all the right things for all the right reasons this was our platform to go
in and talk to kids about living their dreams how could it be sucked out from underneath us so fast i quit i'm not going on i'm throwing in the towel i'm done life is so unfair and that's exactly what i did for a hot minute no it wasn't a hot minute it was 7 million 844 000 hot minutes which equals to 15 years i sat on the sidelines of my life as i watched my life go by i'm going to give you a sneak peek into what those 15 years look like i went from job to job to job trying to fill that grief gap
my bed looked like a landfill for kleenex and the grocery stores couldn't stop enough blue bell ice cream i was wasting away and i was spiraling out of control one morning in early april i remember being so tormented by my thoughts i knew something had to change i'd pick up that phone and make a phone call and within 10 minutes my best friend was bolting through that door she sat on the edge of my bed and she said i have one question for you what's in your hands i said are you freaking kidding me what's in my hands i just called you and told you
it's over i'm done i have no hope no vision i quit i just want to die she walked out of that room and left me with the echoes of what's in your hands all night long all day long into the early morning hours i finally fall asleep at three o'clock in the morning i wake up for the first time in 15 years my brain is totally silent and i begin to hear whispers coming from my heart it's not over you do have something in your hands you've got passion you've got vision you've got dreams and you've got messages it's not over i hopped up out
of bed and i walked to the bathroom and i caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror and i hopped up on that counter and i began talking to myself and uh yeah it was out loud girl stop what are you doing you are wasting your life this is so much bigger than you you've got a message that you need to deliver i hopped off that counter that day and i said a hard yes to what was in my hands how many books have yet to be written how many things how many movies have yet to be made because we've sat on the sidelines of
life my best friend and i i'm super excited to tell you opened up a company and we go into schools and empower young people to make wise decisions strong connections and a difference in their world had i not said a hard yes that day this company wouldn't exist so i've got one question for you what's in your hands thank you you
Transcript generated from the recording and lightly cleaned. Some names and wording may differ from the spoken speech.