Speaker Slam® Alumni

Yusuf Khoja

Keynote Speaker, Leadership Coach, and Entrepreneur

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

@yusufmkhoja

About

Yusuf Khoja

Yusuf Khoja is a catalyst for positive change and the visionary founder of Resilient Leaders. With over 30 years of experience producing and delivering international leadership events featuring iconic figures like former President Bill Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, Ellen DeGeneres, Sir Richard Branson, and Tony Robbins.

“Our destiny is a reflection of our daily practice.”

On Stage

2 Speeches at Speaker Slam®

2024 Grand Slam: Brave · 2024

What it means to be Brave!

Nov 9, 2024CBC Glenn Gould Studio · TorontoGrand Slam: Inspirational Speaking Finals

At the 2024 Speaker Slam® Grand Slam, the Inspirational Speaking Finals held at CBC Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto, Yusuf Khoja delivered “What it means to be Brave!”.

Transcript

have you ever wondered what it means to be brave one of the fondest and earliest memories of Bravery I have was a single moment I had with my father the year was 1973 and we were sitting on a porch in front of our house and over to the right were three children about my age my father looked at me and said go over there and say hello and introduce yourself by your name being somewhat shy and mischievous at the time I looked at my father and said no with kind eyes and a loving voice he said Son always be the first one to say hello

that way you'll always have friends and feel a sense of community and I learned that random acts of kindness and friendship towards others equals bravery less than one year later in the middle of a two-year battle with stomach cancer I heard my father speak a different set of words and this time to his father I'm not afraid of dying here he said I'm worried about what will happen to my family and I learned that Selfless Love and courage equals bravery my older sister shamim has a special place in our hearts kind loving forgiving compassionate I often refer to her as a loving soul for all

generations in 2007 she received a call from her doctors an inoperable stage four tumor found in her brain I was in the room with her when the doctors pronouncing what appeared to be a cold and discom passionate tone you've got less than 12 months tears began to flow from her eyes and her body began to tremble in fear and I wanted to be brave she was my big sister my Pillar of Strength throughout my life and the only emotions I could muster in that single moment was anger and disbelief anger at the doctors and anger at the world not again not again I struggle to

find the courage that my father taught me to tell her to visualize visualize see it feel it and say it going away I would tell her see those beautiful flowers people have brought you see how the sunlight and energy give them life that's our love and energy healing you you have to believe it you have to believe it I pleed with her her last words to me I don't think I'm getting better my anger at the world turned into tears of sorrow and in my deeper sorrow I realized too late how profound my love for her was and I learned that to be brave means

to be vulnerable enough to express the emotions of love we have for others no matter how UNC comfortable or inconvenient it may make us feel my older brother s had the will of a tiger fiercely competitive and stubborn as an ass have you ever met someone you felt so proud of in one instant and the next day you wanted to punch him right in the face or maybe that was just our definition of Brotherly Love his sense of humor was sharp and cunning at the age of 10 years old he convinced me that if I sat on an Easter egg long enough I could give

birth to my own Easter Bunny he had the crazy idea that he could take a $5,000 loan from our mother and start a business promoting Tony Robbins people told him he was crazy go back to school get a real job they professed 20 years later he stood side by side with former President Bill Clinton MAA Angelou and Tony Robbins and together they changed the lives of hundreds of thousands when the pandemic hit he fought valiantly to keep his business afloat and just when he was about to announce his triumphant return to the world the effects of long haul Co caught up with him and the

universe called him to a different journey to rejoin my father and sister and once again I found myself saying not again I did learn from his example the power of setting goals and pursuing one's Vision no matter what other people say no matter what life throws at us because that is why people will remember us as I look back at the lives of these beautiful souls I now realize that to be brave means to find one's courage to live the special moments life has to offer to extend one's hand in Friendship where none ever existed before to explore the depths and beauty of family love

and then struggle to understand the meaning during its loss to never ever ever lose hope but understand there will be a time to say good by and to explore and experience one's emotions at the deepest level so that one day others may also know what it means to be brave thank you one speech can change your life Unleash Your power embrace the stri Inspire the world let your story flow and speaker slam let your

Transcript generated from the recording and lightly cleaned. Some names and wording may differ from the spoken speech.

Human Connection · 2024

Self Discovery

Mar 26, 2024Lula Lounge · Toronto

Speaking on the theme Human Connection at Speaker Slam® in Toronto on Mar 26, 2024, Yusuf Khoja delivered “Self Discovery”.

Transcript

one of the Fondest Memories I have of growing up was a single moment I had with my father the year was 1973 and we were sitting on a porch in front of our house and over to the right were three children about my age my father looked at me and said go over there and say hello and introduce yourself by your name being somewhat shy at the time I looked at my father and said no with kind eyes and a loving voice he said Son always be the first one to say hello that way you'll always have friends and feel like you're part of a

community I was seven years old at the time and those words continue to influence me to this very day two years later my mother sisters brother and I said goodbye to our father as we laid him to rest several years would come to pass when my siblings and I came up with an idea to start our own business and led by the love and support of our mother we found a mission to unite people in the spirit of learning so that they could discover their purpose to create a following we reached out to notable thought leaders Dr Maya Angelou Oprah Winfrey former President Bill Clinton

and Tony Robbins each one of them answered our invitation and joined us on stages around the world to share their words of wisdom and hundreds of thousands of lives were changed in the process this did not happen overnight it took years even decades for our vision to come to fruition it all started by heeding the advice of our father and finding the courage to say hello to one person at a time and to share our story hi my name is Yousef COA and I'd love to be able to tell you about something amazing we're doing I think you'll find it fascinating before I could even

complete that statement I was shocked by the response that some people gave me your name is what how do I pronounce that guess you're not from around here are you I created a story in my mind if I'm going to fit in with this community I probably need to be more like it so I decided I'd go with the name Joseph instead of Yousef and you know what it seemed to work in fact some people would even comment about how they had a family member or friend named Joseph or Joe for 25 years I traveled the planet sharing our story and introducing myself as Joseph

from the outside looking in things seemed to be going well the business was growing and I had material signs of success drove a nice car had a nice watch wore nice clothes I even had nice hair back then but something didn't seem quite right inside it's hard for me to describe in words except to say I felt like there was a part of me that was missing it was through a process of self-discovery that I began to learn that the name USF represents a part of the world that is rich in history tradition and culture it represents a religion that during the Golden Age of

Islam people would gather under the stars and what is referred to as a mudas and there they would openly discuss ideas around poetry astronomy mathematics philosophy and trade in the spirit of collaboration and understanding my name Yousef came to symbolize an identity that would shape the person I was going to become life is not without its sense of irony though as I travel the world to help people to discover their purpose I was alienating myself from my own I've since come to realize that sacrificing who we are in order to fit in is never the right decision in the last two years I made the

most important decision of my life to reclaim my name Yousef and in doing so thank you and in doing so I've come to realize the peace and Harmony that are The Offspring of self-acceptance we live in a world today where we talk about the importance of diversity and inclusivity so we can make a decision to live in unity in order to achieve this goal we must first discover the beauty that exists within each and every single one of us selflove is more than a statement of a positive affirmation or doing something in the moment that makes us feel good or important it's about embracing the

totality of who we are our history tradition culture our capacity to feel emotions like kindness forgiveness and love for ourselves and for those around us when we experience that level of inner beauty we will come to realize that it exists around us at all times and in that moment in time and space we will all know what it means to feel human connection thank

Transcript generated from the recording and lightly cleaned. Some names and wording may differ from the spoken speech.

In Their Words

What Yusuf Says About Speaker Slam®

Dan and Rina are the catalyst for everything good that happens. They are encouraging, compassionate, energetic and they push you in the right way. Wherever you are in the spectrum they find your sweet spot and are able to give you guidance in a way that lifts you up.
Yusuf Khoja · 2024 Grand Slam

One Speech Can Change Your Life

Yusuf 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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