Thank You TEDx for this opportunity my
name is Charles Carter I was born and
raised on the south side of Chicago grew
up right down the road in Gary Indiana
and I am a 2015 alumni of our prese
University and a co-founder of a greater
good foundation and this is my brother
and business partner Cody Kahn I am also
alone with Apple 2016 I’m born and
raised Maywood Illinois to be exact and
also I am a co-founder of a greater good
foundation not long after we graduated
from these hallways we started an
organization by the name of a greater
good Foundation and our focus in this
organization is serving high-risk
underperforming youth across the
Chicagoland area and what we teach them
is exactly what we’ll be introducing to
you today and that is how your thoughts
create your behavior and how your
behavior create the results that you
have in your life and we started to
learn this information right in these
hallways of Valparaiso University this
information Chuck is talking about
personal development what is personal
development personal development is the
ability to self assess your thoughts
your behaviors your actions but not only
for yourself or for other people so we
got engaged in personal development it
wasn’t your typical way we’re not at the
library about ball searching in the
self-help section but we got introduced
to it through a business and to be more
specific multi-level marketing dual
multi-level marketing it was a strong
business with personal development
attached to it but why do we care about
that it was our first time here be
introduced from kids from the age of 17
and 25 making success ever figures from
that sign of Walker
like wow so that’s all we got involved
in person development that’s what we
still stick to it today we were
introduced to the gym roams the zig
ziglar is the les browns and Eric
Thomas’s of the world it was the first
time in our lives as Kody said we self
assess we suffered self assess against
something outside of our households it
was the first time we had a benchmark
that was counter to our environments so
it expanded our vision for our lives I
want to create a perfect picture for you
imagine seeing 18 19 and 20 year olds
making 10 and 20 thousand dollars a
month and it wasn’t that we thought we
could make that type of money it was the
fact that it was a possibility that
opened our eyes we began to walk
different we began to talk different we
began to demand more of ourselves but
was more about what was more exciting
than seeing the growth in ourselves was
seeing the growth in our peer group our
peer group imagine this 12 different
states
three different countries Chicago
Westside Southside inner city suburbs we
began to see people around us grow I
mean I love talking about myself but as
much as I love that it’s amazing being
able to see people that you care about
you invest on the insulin but it wasn’t
just that they were walking different
it’s talking different it was kids that
never began to stand in front of a room
and speak they get a chance to really
hear their own voice they understood
that words were power and what we knew
at the time what our parents didn’t know
they just thought was part of us
maturity getting older but the way that
they they were dressing different it’s
talking differently walking different we
understood that everything that was
going on on the outside was a direct
reflection of the growth that was
happening on the inside it was the first
time that we discovered that most people
let alone young people don’t have a
problem of intellect we have a problem
of interest as Cody mentioned we didn’t
join the network marketing business for
the personal development but we continue
to study personal development
way after the business had dissolved so
from that point on it inspired us to
take this information back to our
communities we made a promise at 20 and
21 years old at that point in time that
once we made our Millions we made our
Millions a lot faster than we thought
mentally at least and that we would take
this information back to our communities
post-graduation we began to
reverse-engineer the growth that we have
made over this time we began to reflect
on why we had become so confident why
our perspective had shifted so much why
our expectations for ourselves had
heightened set to such extent and what
we realized was our programming had
changed what do we leave our programming
it’s everything we mean your habits the
reason why you walk the way you do we
keep saying it the reason why you talk
the way you do everything around you is
your programming why do you like the
fool you like why do you like the music
you like why do you talk to yourself a
certain side the way chances are it was
programmed that you had from ages zero
in about five what Chuck is doing right
now something extremely important so
after graduation we continue to ask
ourselves ask ourselves what changed us
and we stumbled across this image of the
mind it was actually introduced us
introduced us by a mentor of ours named
Bob Proctor and what this represents is
your conscious mind
it’s your thinking mind your educated
mind this is where you store information
this bottom half is your subconscious
mind this is the part of your mind that
you don’t have control over but what’s
most important about your subconscious
mind this is where your programming lies
this is where your behavior comes from
and your programming begins from the
time you conceive to about five or six
years old everything you see everything
you hear we say kids soak up everything
right it’s because they have no ability
to reject information so everything they
see everything they see their parents
behave
everything that they touch it becomes a
part of their programming so the goals
that we have for ourselves the
expectations that we set our finances
how we how we act and behave in our
relationships are great it’s all a part
of what we learn from the ages of about
zero to about five years old so your
programming how they created is two ways
knowing a man how the program is created
the first way DNA genetics that’s why we
look like our parents that’s why we have
the same color eyes that’s all we sound
like that’s how we do stuff and you look
at it like man I hate with my dad do
that but I still do that it’s
programming you can’t help me whether
you want to or not the second way is
environment the environment is honestly
nature versus nurture as I learned from
a good friend the environment is the
nurture part of it it’s what you’re
exposed to if your mom’s a teacher or
your dad’s a fighter fighter it’s likely
that those would be things that you’re
interested in if your father watches
football every single Sunday when you’re
a child it’s likely that you’ll watch
football as you grow up these are the
things that shape our belief system
these are the things that shape our
expectations but more importantly these
are the things that shape our results
that we have in our lives so our
programming is set we want to make sure
we emphasize it by our DNA that’s why we
look the way we look in our environment
Kota you have a great example about
environment and the language that we
speak it’s two ways that this
programming is created and to create
about a pitcher before we talk about
that asthma Chuck said we want to paint
the perfect picture with the type of
youth we work with imagine this a
community where 13% of the city
graduates from college 57% of the city
has a high school diploma
so imagine type of paradigm there
do you get the beliefs the expectations
what you believe you guys catch answers
or if your parents went all the way
through school you believe you could go
all the way through school if your
parents ain’t graduate high school the
reflection you have you see them you
understand that you can’t be what you
can’t see so these are the limited
program leads that eliminate
expectations we’re talking about in the
first way you change it and this is what
we learned here on campus the
operational University to be exact
repetition can you imagine this Chuck
I’m gonna tell you this one time one
time only you’re about one or two years
old I’m his mom or dad whatever
preference you want to make I wanna tell
you this one time one time only once you
listen closely I’m not gonna tell you
again yes sir your name is Chuck can you
imagine that how many times that our mom
and dad tell us your name is Chuck your
name is Chuck what’s your name what’s
your name how old are you wish ABCs was
showing two threes over and over over
again we have to repeat it so we can get
it in Grain that’s our programming in
the second way I kind of want to dive
into that a little bit more Cody because
one of the things that we learned
through our experience here a little
Wayne is quoted as saying repetition is
the mother of learning right Derek Jeter
is Derek Jeter
not because he came out of the wounds as
the most talented baseball player on the
planet but because he swung the baseball
bat more than anyone else after practice
through middle school to high school to
college Serena Williams and Venus
Williams a lot of people are familiar
with their story their father drilled
into them that they were great that they
would be special that they would be the
world’s best tennis players despite what
society said it was how many times they
repeated the behavior that they knew to
be successful so that’s what’s important
about repetition that’s why what we
affirm to ourselves matter that’s why
when you tell yourself I’m broke when
you tell yourself I’m not smart when you
tell yourself I’m unhealthy your are
unconsciously programming it was on the
other page
programming yourself with negative ideas
in a negative belief system and the
second way that you change the paradigm
is emotional impact typically the
emotional impact affects us in a
negative manner we tend to stop drinking
and driving because we get a DUI which
we begin to eat healthier because
they’ll miss calm upon us we begin
studying because we fail a class but
there is a equal and polar opposite to
everything when there’s a positive
there’s a when there’s a negative
there’s a positive so we chose to
reverse engineer what things happen to
us while we were in college that
positively impacted our belief system in
our programming well for us it was
seeing young people making a lot of
money and taking their future serious
right now not after they graduated from
college not 10 years into their career
but immediately but to paint a more
clear picture
Kody I would love you to dive into some
some of the things we do within the
foundation with the foundation he said
emotional impact he gave you the
negative things but what about the
positive things well this past summer
who were blessed and highly privileged
to be able to take a group of 14 kids
from may will bill with different places
on West Side Chicago living all over to
Niagara Falls the Canada side not just
what was amazing about that can you
imagine the emotional impact you created
the kids that usually don’t get a chance
to travel inside the city outside the
state from the Midwest crossing the
border getting their passports the
effect that happened because the child
don’t know they don’t know as we
mentioned before a child can’t be what
they can’t see but we had the belief
that the more we could build their
awareness of things around them the more
they can learn about things around they
could correlate for themselves we took
these two principles we took emotional
impact and repetition and created an
entire foundation on what we knew that
changed us and these two principles we
built off these two principles we built
three pillars there were they are
personal development unique experiences
and community service I’ll dive into
unique experiences so unique experiences
meet the criteria of emotional impact as
Cody mentioned we don’t know what we
don’t know so one thing that we do in
our program is on a repetitious basis we
consistently expose our young people to
environments counter to their
neighborhoods or their hometowns
for instance we took a group of about 13
high school alternative youth to Fogo de
Chao that’s a brilliant Brazilian
steakhouse I’ve never even been there
and the meal was fine dining they were
served they were treated well we wanted
to treat them like royalty we wanted to
be a we wanted to allow them to see that
they deserve this and that they could
attain this if they put their mind to it
we even gave them the money to pay for
their meals and let them choose what
they wanted to took our thought process
behind this was it was one opportunity
for them to take a step back and
evaluate what they wanted for the rest
of their lives and this is one of the
ways that we introduced emotional impact
on a consistent basis to our young man
the second one personal development how
we got started with this in the
beginning as we mentioned
we’re not in the self-help section at
the library we got evolved a person
development because it was attached to a
business model that’s what we were
interested in so for our kids we treat
it the same way whether they like
science art music basketball give them
that too
but that’s personal development you have
to meet the kid where they’re at meet
him halfway and by meeting them halfway
you can engage them more and understand
that they will learn more about
themselves through the process and the
final piece community service once a
month we take our mentees we
intentionally create an opportunity for
them to contribute to someone else’s
circumstance and we believe that this
does two things first it empowers them
to believe that they have something to
offer the world most people reflect on
their circumstance and believe they’re
the only one going through what they’re
going through not understanding that
people are going to very similar things
we believe that most people are going
through something it’s the same pain
painted in a different color is what we
say so it empowers them in the second it
gives them an opportunity to gain
compassion for not only other struggles
but other cultures and what other people
are going through so we created an event
call service I give credit where credit
is due
Cody created the event Cody created an
event labeled service misconnection we
brought together a group of young
professionals of different ethnicities
cultures and backgrounds of different
professions invited them to a high-rise
in downtown Chicago we reserved the
party room and we packed 300 bag lunches
for homeless for the homeless in the
city of Chicago and we brought our young
people there and let them organically
create conversation and dialogue about
whatever their interest was or whatever
came to mind one thing we knew was it
would give our young our young men a
different image of what success looked
like it would also give them an
opportunity to see that people are all
the same we all just want to be loved
that we want to contribute to something
bigger than ourselves
and we want to have a good time while
are doing it so to review it so we could
tie everything better so you understand
exactly what we’re talking about we
mentioned here at Valpo we got engaged
the personal development the business
because we were interested in this while
we were here we used to get in front of
a room speak get uncomfortable force
himself to stretch and grow the same
model we created into the foundation
repetition emotional impact over and
over and over again
the personal development unique
experiences because we know when the
child see more they can become more
Alaskan not least chef just mentioned
community service bill compassion
understand that the problems you’re
going through is really not that big
it’s always relative and when you’re
able to contribute to something more
than yourself you’re always able to
bring the attention away from yourself
until we recognize what our programming
is how its created and how you can
intentionally change it a lot of the
things that we do in terms of our
behavior is very short time we have
something programmed in us called a
cybernetic system our Paraiso is an
engineering school so this may resonate
with you a cybernetic system is a part
of a thermostat it’s a part of the
autopilot system in an airplane when you
set your thermostat 270 degrees in your
home anytime it gets warmer than 70
degrees your air kicks on it brings it
back down because that thermostat is
programmed for 70 degrees so in your
life when your program for unhealthy
eating when your program for getting a C
in class when your program for waking up
late there’s some things that you must
intentionally do either by repetition or
by emotional impact to change that
program because no matter what action
you take that programming will kick back
in recalibrate and bring you back to
where you’re set
so today we come to you talking no pun
intended but with the hope that we will
inspire you to think beyond your
limitations to take these conversations
that we’re having in this room to take
the conversation conversations that you
have outside of this room and inspire
you to take action not tomorrow not
Wednesday
not someday which is not a day but today
thank you so much Valparaiso University
for this opportunity [Applause]