De McDonald's a orador motivacional:
'El poder para el pueblo' En la vida real (Episodio 93)
Escuchar o leer: la elección es suya
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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.
"Me he acostumbrado a ser simplemente yo, y cuando te enamoras de ser tú mismo, no necesitas que otras personas te validen, te animen y te aplaudan, porque ya te has aplaudido a ti mismo." - 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.
Señor Fátima: 1:47
Vaya, ¿así que has pasado por muchas cosas en la vida? Parece que sí, y cuéntanos cuál es el desafío que me revelaste y con el que lidias a diario.
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
Fue difícil crecer porque cuando quería ver National Geographic y todos querían ir a jugar al baloncesto, era difícil hacer amigos. Era muy difícil hacer amigos porque me gusta hacer cosas diferentes a la mayoría, así que me hacía sentir solo, sentía que nadie quería ser mi amigo. Pero, como dije, con el tiempo se puede encontrar a la gente.
Fatima Bey: 3:40
You can, and how did you go from that to funding your people?
Lawrence C. Harris: 3:44
Bueno, hubo una época en la que me escondía y tenía miedo de ser yo misma porque me asustaba la opinión de la gente. Pero cuando dejé de tener tanto miedo de su opinión y me vestí como quería, hablo como hablo, practiqué mis aficiones y empecé a ser yo misma, las personas que se identifican conmigo y me entienden de forma natural me encontraban. Puede que me encontraran por un vídeo de Instagram que hice, o puede que me elogien por cómo me visto, o puede que digan: «Me encanta tu vestido». O puede que digan: «Me encanta tu pelo». O simplemente los encuentras de forma natural, simplemente fluyen hacia ti porque cuando eres tú misma, pueden identificarse con quién eres realmente.
Señor Fátima: 4:34
Sí, digo, vaya, lo digo siempre: tienes que ser tú mismo. Nunca encontrarás a tu verdadera persona hasta que aparezca tu verdadero yo, y sin duda, me alegra que hayas podido pasar de eso a ser orador. ¿Sientes más confianza ahora que hace unos años?
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
Solo tienes que darte una oportunidad, hacer ese esfuerzo. Sí, totalmente. Lo que no mencioné en tu introducción es que eres escritor a los 19 años. De hecho, técnicamente, eres escritor a los 18 porque fue entonces cuando se publicó. Cuéntanos un poco sobre el título de tu libro y de qué trata.
Lawrence C. Harris: 7:56
El libro se llama Poder para la Gente. Se adentra en el tema de desarrollar resiliencia mental, amor propio y mejores hábitos financieros. Intenté poner todo lo que sabía cuando tenía 18 años en este libro y una vez que lo escribí por primera vez, la primera versión tenía 300 páginas. Me di cuenta de que nadie quiere sentarse a leer todo eso, especialmente los adolescentes, para quienes es el libro. Así que lo edité a unas 180. Y esas páginas son las que me han permitido crear un negocio en el que no solo me pagan por hablar, sino que hago algo que me encanta. He podido pasar de trabajar en McDonald's a viajar y, en general, he podido despertar feliz. He podido despertar y amarme a mí mismo porque durante gran parte de mi vida no amé quién era, porque estaba ocupado tratando de ser lo que el mundo quería que fuera.
Señor Fátima: 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
Bien, ¿cómo puede la gente encontrar tu libro? Dijiste que el audiolibro solo está en tu sitio web, cuyo enlace aparecerá en las notas del programa. Es laurencecharris.com.
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
Bueno, si quieres escribirme, puedes hacerlo. Mi correo electrónico es Lawrence de LawrenceCHarris.com. Es para entrevistas de podcast y organizadores de eventos. Si tienes una iglesia, una escuela o un evento en Estados Unidos, viajar al extranjero es bastante caro, pero lo he hecho varias veces. Si quieres contactarme más fácilmente, por ejemplo, para decirme que me encanta el contenido o si tienes una pregunta sencilla, mi Instagram y TikTok son Lawrence C Empowers. Mis mensajes directos están disponibles. No dudes en escribirme.
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
Mucho de lo que ha dicho lo dicen adultos todo el tiempo, pero es diferente viniendo de alguien de 19 años. Él es la prueba viviente de que tu discapacidad no tiene por qué ser un obstáculo. Es simplemente una parte de ti. Algunos de ustedes están escuchando ahora mismo. No tienes que ser un obstáculo. Es simplemente una parte de ti. Algunos de ustedes están escuchando ahora mismo. No tienes discapacidades etiquetadas. Las discapacidades que tienes son cómo te ves a ti mismo. Algunos de ustedes son líderes esperando ser descubiertos. La primera persona que necesita descubrir tu liderazgo eres tú. Descubre quién eres.
Señor Fátima: 17:28
Una de las cosas más importantes que dijo es descubrir quién eres. Esa es la respuesta al 99% de tus problemas. La respuesta al 99% de tus problemas es saber quién eres. Embárcate en ese viaje hoy. Decide que vas a descubrir quién eres; todo lo demás en la vida empezará a tomar forma, a unirse y a ordenarse. Una vez que lo hagas, si no extraes nada más de muchas de las grandes cosas que dijo, extrae eso, y no importa la edad que tengas, si eres adolescente o los adolescentes que ahora viven en cuerpos adultos. Gracias por escuchar. Asegúrate de seguir y suscribirte a MindShift Power Podcast en cualquiera de nuestras plataformas globales y sé parte de las conversaciones que moldean el mundo del mañana. Este podcast es solo una rama del universo MindShift. Explora más en FatimaBay.com y recuerda siempre que hay poder en cambiar tu forma de pensar. Nos vemos la próxima semana.
