“I didn’t grow up listening to what other kids were listening to. I was listening to Zig Ziglar jingles and Wayne Dyer – and that doesn’t always give the most street cred or cool factor. I had to get comfortable in my own skin, because I wasn’t the stereotypical black kid.”
“I wasn’t black enough for my black friends and I was too black for my white friends. People were telling me I didn’t love who I was. I felt like I was a good kid, a nice guy and I just wanted to be accepted as a human.”
“The more you get to know yourself, the more you’re willing to get to know others and their lives, situations and circumstances. We need to let people know it’s okay to get to know the root causes of what makes you you. When people are uncomfortable, they will try to make someone else feel bad about who they are. There’s money in exploiting that, which is something that keeps me up at night from time to time.”
“Years ago, folks had the vision to create division. They knew if they could tap into someone’s emotions – or their ignorance – it would blind them to getting to know someone else.”
“People need to know these machines and systems exist, and there are folks that enjoy exploiting them to keep us from having conversations that matter – conversations that get to the root of education and misinformation and how we can educate each other, learn from each other and move forward. I care a lot about life, and I think it is sad to see that people aren’t living life the way they could.”
“I realized that I had a creative way of connecting people and wanted to find a way to help more – with a message greater than myself. I had aspirations of being the first black president. Then, I started to think – ‘what if it’s not about changing the world? What if I worked on changing the people in the same room or community as me?’”
“We need to think locally. Are you going to your city council meetings or school board meetings? That affects you daily. What would your community be like if you just started to go to some of those meetings? Sometimes they’re empty.”
“We’re all affected by the media, because it’s all around us. I’m not waiting on TV to send messages or to create content that I want to see – we need to do a better job of literally creating what we want to see. If you’re tired of certain things, or you’d like people to know something, then you tell them. Don’t wait for a celebrity to tell them; become the authority.”
“But people won’t do that without being proud of who they are from the inside out – that gives them the confidence to go someplace new. I hope my message helps people shift to where they can say, ‘Hey, let me try something. I’m good enough to be in a room with these people.’”
“If I approach a human as a human or treat everybody like a rock star then, most of the time, I’m gonna be alright. Respect is one thing that costs you nothing to give, but it can cost you everything if you don’t.”
“We need to see people. We need to build fruitful relationships, and that starts with self-relationship and knowing what makes you tick. Be more comfortable being wrong.”
“Pride is expensive. We are in the day and age of the most legal drug ever – attention. Do you go for the likes, or do you go for the loving?”
Stan Pearson II
Atlanta, Georgia
Stan Pearson II is an award-winning bilingual speaker, motivational comedian, author and consultant. He’s based in Atlanta, Georgia.
