From McDonald's to Motivational Speaker:
'Power to the People' In Real Life (Episode 93)
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From McDonald's to Motivational Speaker:
'Power to the People' In Real Life
What happens when a 19-year-old who worked at McDonald's decides to take control of his life and help others do the same? You get Lawrence C. Harris – a young man whose story will challenge everything you think you know about success, authenticity, and what it means to truly empower yourself.
The Real Story Behind the Speaker
Lawrence's journey didn't start with motivational quotes or business plans. It began with survival. At just 12 years old, he faced an abusive father while trying to protect his siblings. This experience, rather than breaking him, became the foundation for his mission to help others find their inner strength.
But Lawrence's story has another layer that makes his message even more powerful – he's autistic. In a world that often sees autism through extreme stereotypes, Lawrence represents something different: a high-functioning individual who turned what others might see as a limitation into his greatest superpower.
The Autism Advantage
"Growing up, being different, not being able to understand or relate to other people, was a big challenge for me," Lawrence shares. While his peers wanted to play basketball, he was drawn to National Geographic documentaries. Where others engaged in small talk, he craved deep conversations about what makes people tick.
This difference led to loneliness and struggles with self-esteem. But it also gave him something invaluable – the ability to see beyond surface-level interactions and connect with people on a profound level. Today, this "superpower" is exactly what makes him such an effective speaker and author.
Finding Your People by Being Yourself
One of the most powerful moments in our conversation came when Lawrence explained his transformation from hiding who he was to fully embracing his authentic self. "When I stopped being so afraid of their opinion and I just dressed how I want to dress, talk how I talk, did the hobbies I like and started to be myself, the people who relate to me and understand me naturally they would find me."
This isn't just feel-good advice – it's a practical strategy for building genuine connections and finding your tribe. Lawrence proves that authenticity isn't just about feeling good; it's about creating the life and relationships you actually want.
The Casket Test: A Reality Check on Living for Others
Perhaps the most memorable piece of advice Lawrence shared was what I'm calling "The Casket Test." Speaking to high school students worried about everyone's opinions, he told them: "One day you're going to be in that casket and you're the only one in it. Everyone's opinion who you're worried about – they're not getting buried with you."
This stark reminder cuts through all the noise about what others think and gets to the heart of the matter: you're the one who has to live with the consequences of your choices, so make sure they're truly yours.
'Power to the People': More Than Just a Book
At 18, Lawrence published "Power to the People," but this isn't just another self-help book written by someone who's never faced real challenges. This is a 180-page guide to building mental resilience, self-love, and better financial habits – written by someone who's lived through trauma and come out stronger.
What makes the book even more unique is that Lawrence offers both a physical version and an audiobook, with the audio version containing additional insights he's gained since writing the original text. It's literally his growth in real-time.
The Instagram Reality Check
In an era of fake gurus and rented success, Lawrence delivers some hard truths about social media. "You can rent a Lamborghini for $600 each. You can rent a mansion for $200. You can pay an Instagram model $200 to take a photo with you," he reveals, exposing the manufactured nature of many online success stories.
His advice? "If somebody's trying to sell you a $900 course, go the other way. Pick up a Bible." It's refreshingly honest in a world full of get-rich-quick schemes targeting young people.
From Fast Food to Full Potential
Lawrence's journey from McDonald's employee to traveling motivational speaker isn't just inspiring – it's instructive. He shows that transformation doesn't require perfect circumstances or even traditional advantages. What it requires is the courage to be yourself and the commitment to help others do the same.
The Mind-Shifting Moment
As Lawrence proves, your biggest challenges can become your greatest strengths. His autism, his difficult childhood, his tendency toward deep thinking – all the things that once made him feel different and alone – are now the very qualities that make him an exceptional speaker and author.
Whether you're 13 or 43, Lawrence's message hits the same: the answer to 99% of your problems is knowing who you are. Once you figure that out, everything else starts falling into place.
Connect with Lawrence
Ready to dive deeper into Lawrence's message? You can find his book "Power to the People" on Amazon, with the enhanced audiobook available on his website at LawrenceCHarris.com. Follow him on Instagram and TikTok for inspiration and real talk about personal growth.
For speaking engagements or podcast interviews, reach out to Lawrence@LawrenceCHarris.com.
Remember: there's POWER in shifting your thinking, and sometimes that shift starts with a 19-year-old who had the courage to be authentically himself.
Transcript
"I've gotten used to just being me, and when you fall in love with being yourself, you don't need other people to validate you and cheer for you and clap for you, because you already clapped for yourself. " - Lawrence C. Harris
Fatima Bey: 0:09
Welcome to MindShift Power Podcast, the world's only podcast built to empower the next generation. I'm your host, fatima Bey the MindShifter, because shaping tomorrow's world starts with conversations we have today. And welcome everyone. Today we have with us Lawrence C Harris. He is a youth empowerment speaker out of Philadelphia, pennsylvania, right here in the US. How are you today, lawrence?
Lawrence C. Harris: 0:39
I'm doing absolutely fantastic. Thanks for asking.
Fatima Bey: 0:42
Well, thank you for coming on today. I'm looking forward to this conversation. Absolutely fantastic. Thank you for asking. Well, thank you for coming on today. I'm looking forward to this conversation, so I like to dive right into it. So tell us you're a youth empowerment speaker, and how old are you? I'm 19. At 19 years old, you're a youth empowerment speaker. So how did you arrive at that?
Lawrence C. Harris: 0:58
Well, often people see who I am today and they see Lawrence up on the stages and he's speaking and he's motivating people. They see all the great stuff now, but where this came from was when I was 12 years old, my dad started to become abusive to me and my siblings and I wanted to keep them safe and I wanted to make sure that they were well protected. But doing that for so long I had so much trouble understanding myself and feeling good about me. But over the years I've been able to grow and do therapy and journaling and meditation and all of these great things. I've been able to help myself and help them. So I began making YouTube videos to help other people and going up on the stages just naturally happened.
Fatima Bey: 1:47
Wow, so you've been through a lot in life? It sounds like yes, and tell us one of the challenges that you revealed to me that you deal with on a daily basis.
Lawrence C. Harris: 2:00
Well, one of them is that I'm autistic. Now, people often think of autism as these two polar opposites. They think of somebody drooling on themselves, or they think about the super nerd who can do 50 math questions in his head without a calculator. But then there are people like me who are just high functioning. But then there are people like me who are just high functioning. We seem just warm and open and there's so much beauty in being different. But growing up, being different, not being able to understand or relate to other people, was a big challenge for me, because I don't relate to people the same way. I like to dive into the deep questions. I like to understand what makes you you. Why do you love watching movies? What makes you just light up? And for a lot of my life that was a struggle because not everybody wanted to have a deep conversation, right. But now it's turned into a superpower of mine.
Fatima Bey: 3:07
How did this affect your self-esteem?
Lawrence C. Harris: 3:09
It made it hard growing up because when I wanted to watch a National Geographic and everybody else wanted to go play basketball, it was hard to make friends. It was very hard to make friends with people because I like doing different things than most people, so it made me feel lonely, it made me feel like nobody wants to be my friend. But, like I said, with time you can find your people.
Fatima Bey: 3:40
You can, and how did you go from that to funding your people?
Lawrence C. Harris: 3:44
Well, there was a time when I would hide myself and I was afraid of just being me because I was scared of people's opinion. But when I stopped being so afraid of their opinion and I just dressed how I want to dress, talk how I talk, did the hobbies I like and started to be myself the people who relate to me and understand me naturally they would find me. They might find me from an Instagram video I made, or they might compliment how I dress, or they might say, man, I love your hair dress. Or they might say, man, I love your hair. Or you just find them naturally, they just flow to you because when you're being yourself, they can relate to who you really are.
Fatima Bey: 4:34
Yes, I say oh man, I say this all the time you got to be yourself. You're never going to find your real people until the real you shows up, and definitely so I'm glad that you were able to go from that to now being a speaker. Do you feel you are more confident now than you were a few years ago?
Lawrence C. Harris: 4:53
A lot more confident. Why? Because I've gotten used to just being me, and when you fall in love with being yourself, you don't need other people to validate you and cheer for you and clap for you, because you already clapped for yourself. Yes, and by being myself and just being who I genuinely authentically ain't. I don't plan my speeches ahead of time. I might think of an idea, but then I get up there and I just give you, lawrence, by doing that so much, I built the confidence and comfortability and understanding of who I am, what I like to do, and I go out there and I give it to the world. The people who like me, like me, the ones who don't don't, but either way, you know who I really am.
Fatima Bey: 5:46
I think that's awesome and it's awesome to hear, because there are a lot of people who they may not look like you, they may not sound like you, but they've been there where they feel less than and not accepted by others and I'm glad you finally arrived at the fact that who the hell cares what they all think? You don't need everybody else's acceptance.
Lawrence C. Harris: 6:09
Once you that, who the hell cares what they all think? You don't need everybody else's acceptance. Once you are yourself, the right people actually will find you, and they, they want to. Yeah, I was, um. I was speaking at a high school a few months ago and some of the students were telling me about how they're very worried about their parents opinion and how they're worried about what their friends are going to think, what their girlfriend's going to think, what their girlfriend is going to think. And I said to them all you do realize that one day you're going to be in that casket and you're the only one in it. Everyone's opinion who you're worried about. They're not getting buried with you. You're getting buried with you.
Lawrence C. Harris: 6:42
And when you're 85 years old and you're about to die and you're looking up at the ceiling and you start thinking about man, I would've, I should've, I could've, but you didn't because you were worried about what your girlfriend in 10th grade was going to think. Yeah, you held yourself back because of the opinion of somebody who isn't getting buried with you. So, yeah, you know, don't do anything terrible, don't do anything crazy. Don't gamble your life savings away crazy. Don't gamble your life savings away, but understand if you want to become an artist, but your family wants you to be a doctor. If you don't want to be a doctor, you don't have to. Yes, it's hard to make money as an artist, but it's possible. A lot of people do it you can do it too.
Fatima Bey: 7:39
You just have to give yourself a chance, making that effort. Yeah, absolutely so. The thing I did not mention in your introduction is the fact that you are an author at 19. Actually, technically, you're an author at 18 because that's when it was published. So tell us about what's the name of your book and what is it about.
Lawrence C. Harris: 7:56
The book is called Power to the People. It dives into the subject of building mental resilience, self-love, better financial habits. I tried to put everything I knew when I was 18 into this book and once I first wrote it the first version was 300 pages I realized nobody wants to sit down and read all of that, especially not teenagers, who the book is for. So I edited it down to about 180. And those pages are what have allowed me to make a business where not only do I get paid to speak, but I do something I absolutely love. I've been able to go from working at McDonald's to traveling and all in all, I've been able to just wake up happy. I've been able to wake up and love myself because for a lot of my life I did not love who I was, because I was busy trying to be what the world wanted me to be.
Fatima Bey: 8:55
Yes, and a lot of people can relate to that and are still living there, and not just teenagers. Now, why did you call it? Power to the People? What people?
Lawrence C. Harris: 9:05
Ultimately, I was just trying to give people people back their power of their mind their habits, their self-worth, because growing up, you'll be told a lot of things about what you should be and what you shouldn't be. Some of it is good, some of it is really good. You shouldn't be a criminal. That's a really good piece of advice to listen to. Other things are people will tell you you should come out and drink with us. You shouldn't do that Very dangerous. Other people will tell you you should go play basketball because you're a. Do that Very dangerous.
Lawrence C. Harris: 9:40
Other people will tell you you should go play basketball because you're a black man. If you want to go play basketball, go ahead and do it, but I don't play basketball. I like fishing. I like fishing. That's my thing. Other people are going to tell you what college you should go to or what career you should go into, and they could have good advice, but you have the power to make a decision for your life and you are the only one who had to live with the consequences of your own actions. Yes, so the reason I called it Power to the People was, as the name implies, I'm trying to give you back power to yourself, and the people in question are teenagers and young adults, because that's who I aim my message at, but anybody can get the book off Amazon.
Fatima Bey: 10:34
So there are two versions of your book, correct?
Lawrence C. Harris: 10:38
Yes.
Fatima Bey: 10:39
There's an audio.
Lawrence C. Harris: 10:39
I have it in audio and physical.
Fatima Bey: 10:42
Okay, and are they in the same link?
Lawrence C. Harris: 10:45
Yes, so the audio book. I have that set up on my website because I wasn't able to figure out how to get Amazon to post my audio book. It got too confusing. Okay, the thing with the audio book, too, is that the book was written when I was 18 years old. The audio book I recorded that earlier this year. Okay, so a lot of things that I say in the audio book aren't in the physical book because I didn't know it at the time of writing the audio. Oh, okay, so they really. So they really need each audio book. Yeah, the audio book is where the. If you really want to go deep on it, the audio book, okay. If you're just opening the door, like you're, you don't need the super advanced stuff. Yet. The audio book is for the really advanced. The physical book. That's the stuff you can implement right here, right now.
Fatima Bey: 11:44
Okay, how can people find your book? You said for the audiobook it's just on your website, which will be linked in the show notes. It's laurencecharriscom.
Lawrence C. Harris: 11:55
Yes, it is my name.
Fatima Bey: 11:58
Going off memory right now. I do have it in my other notes, but that will definitely be in the show notes. And how can they contact you through your website? How can they find you?
Lawrence C. Harris: 12:08
Well, if you want to email me, you can just. My email is Lawrence at LawrenceCHarriscom. That is for podcast interviews and event hosts. So if you have like a church or a school or an event in America, because traveling abroad is pretty expensive, but I have done it in a few times Now, if you want to contact me easier, such as you just want to say hey, I love the content, or I have a simple question to ask you. My Instagram, tiktok yeah, instagram and TikTok are Lawrence C Empowers. My DMs are open. Feel free to message me.
Fatima Bey: 12:51
And those will be in the show notes as well, so that you guys can go ahead. So, lawrence, let me ask you this For everyone listening right now let's specifically talk about your peers, people of your generation, between the ages of 13 and 24. We'll just say that. What do you have to say to them? What advice do you have to the listeners right now?
Lawrence C. Harris: 13:16
I would say think more about who and what you are, rather than what the world tells you that you have to be, because you'll go on Instagram and you'll see like, oh my God, this person has a Bugatti and this person has this and they have all this cool stuff. But you need to look at your own life and realize how cool your life is and that a lot of what you see online is fake. A lot of what you see online is fake it's. There's a lot of people who I've personally known them. They will rent a lamborghini and then sell you a 900 course and you'll buy it because, well, they have a Lamborghini that they rented for an hour. So the best thing I can tell you I'm sorry, I shouldn't- laugh at that, but it is so true.
Lawrence C. Harris: 14:09
Yes, this is what they do. This is what they do. And then you start thinking, well, like no, he has a. He has five different Lamborghinis. You can rent five different Lamborghinis for $600 each. I've seen them do it. Oh, but he has a mansion. You can rent a mansion for $200. Oh no, but he has a beautiful woman. You can pay an Instagram model $200 to take a photo with you. I've seen them do it. So I'm not saying that everything with you online is fake, but if somebody's trying to sell you a $900 course, go the other way. Pick up a Bible.
Fatima Bey: 14:55
On that note, I freaking love you and we're going to end this episode. Oh, I can't even that's the best quote ever. So thank you so much for coming on. There is so, so, so much more to this young man and more to be said, and I thank you for coming on. I think you're an inspiration to those your age. I think you're an inspiration to some adults who realize that at 19, you're doing what they should have been doing. Um, but it's never too late to start, and I say that because there's a lot of people who might look at you like he's only 19, he's doing all this stuff already. He's already has speaking engagements and making a living from it. I think that's impressive, um, yeah, I think it's impressive at any age, but especially when you you're 19.
Lawrence C. Harris: 15:46
Yeah, google Enchanted GT has leveled the playing field for everybody it really has, if you know how to use it right.
Fatima Bey: 15:52
If you know how to use it right. It can't replace your brain, because it's so obvious when that happens, but it can definitely help. It can be something to be leveraged Absolutely, because I do it a lot and a lot of what I do.
Lawrence C. Harris: 16:07
So thank you once again for coming on. Of course, I appreciate it. Feel free to follow me on Instagram and TikTok at Lawrence C Empowers. As well as my book, you can get the physical one on Amazon, as well as the audio book on my website, lawrencecharriscom.
Fatima Bey: 16:22
And now for a mind shifting moment. This young man is an example of what all of us can do. If you are between the ages of 13 and 24, I want you to take a look at him and know that you can do that too. And when I say that, I mean be a leader and an example amongst your peers, because right now you guys need it more than ever.
Fatima Bey: 16:51
A lot of what he has said is said by adults all the time, but it's different coming from someone who's 19. He's living proof that your disability doesn't have to be anything that stops you. It's just a part of you. Some of you are listening right now. You don't have to be anything that stops you. It's just a part of you. Some of you are listening right now. You don't have labeled disabilities. The disabilities you have are how you see yourself. Some of you are leaders waiting to be discovered. The first person who needs to discover your leadership is you. Discover who you are.
Fatima Bey: 17:28
One of the biggest things he said is discovering who you are. That is the answer to 99% of your problems. The answer to 99% of your problems is knowing who you are. Embark on that journey today. Make a decision that you are going to figure out who you are, everything else in life will start falling in place and coming together and sifting out. Once you do, if you don't take away anything else from a lot of the great things that he said, take away that, and I don't care how old you are, teenagers or the teenagers who are now living in adult bodies. Thank you for listening. Be sure to follow and subscribe to MindShift Power Podcast on any of our worldwide platforms and be a part of the conversations shaping tomorrow's world. This podcast is just one branch of the MindShift universe. Explore more at FatimaBaycom and always remember there's power in shifting your thinking. See you next week.
