my dreams I’ve kissed your lips a
thousand times I sometimes see you pass
always new you’re looking for
I can see it in your eyes I can see it
in your smile you’re all I ever wanted
in my arms are open wide
cuz you know just what to say and you
know just what to do
and I want to tell you so much I love
you
you tell me how to win your heart for I
have
[Music]
but let me start by saying I love you
[Music]
Hey
hello how you guys doing well as you all
know my name is Brandon Diaz and take it
for that lovely introduction
first of all I want to take a moment and
thank TEDx for having me TEDx Ashburn
for having me a NIC for having me out
here this is a true honor and a pleasure
for me to be here with you guys and to
be one of these speakers is kind of
surreal for me because I’m just
listening to these people speak and
hearing all they’ve accomplished I’m
kind of baffled to be standing up here
with them and it’s kind of surreal I’d I
never realized how much I have
accomplished but also I never realized
how much there is to be accomplished and
so I’m gonna start off with a little
backstory so about when I was 6 years
old
there was kind of a new fad in the
Airways which was reality shows and like
in talent reality shows American Idol
was this new reality show that came out
that was was was this cool new thing
that people were going out there putting
themselves out there on the spot in
front of for really incredible people
and I saw that and I really wanted to do
that that was a dream of mine since I
was 6 years old and so I’m gonna tell
you sorry excuse me I want to share with
you three things that led me to where I
am today
it started from bowling alley bars and
what got me to the top 24 on American
Idol and that for me was three things
three P’s and the first P being passion
now who here is passionate about what
they do I know for sure there’s plenty
of passionate people out here because
I’ve been hearing them all day and I for
sure I’m passionate about what I do
some people find their passions younger
in life some people find a much older in
life and I was lucky enough that my
parents saw this
this musical energy around me from a
very young age they would hear me
singing in my crib and singing in the
shower and my dad says from the day I
was born he said that kid’s gonna be a
singer because he would just hear me
doing certain things as like a little
kid usually shouldn’t be able to do
shouldn’t be able to hold pitch and
match pitch and so they saw that in me
and and I didn’t really realize my
passion for music until I was about
eight years old I was visiting family my
mother’s side of the family in Illinois
in Springfield Illinois and we were at a
bowling at my mom and my dad were in the
bar with all the adults and all the kids
were outside bowling I was enjoying
myself having fun with all my cousins
and my mom comes running out and says do
you want to sing karaoke and I had no
idea that I knew I thought I was going
to be singing but I had no idea was
gonna be in front of 40 to 50 people and
I had never done that before I had only
sang for family and close relatives and
so my mom said come on and I’m a mama’s
boy so anything my mom said I was gonna
do and so she grabbed my hand and she
pulled me towards the bar and she had to
do a little convincing of the bouncer
because an eight-year-old going into a
bar is not a normal thing I she talked
to him a little bit said hey he’s a
really good singer
police let him sing one song and he’ll
be out of your hair and so he took some
convincing but we finally got him to let
me in and I’m I walk up to the stage and
my dad’s waiting there for me and we
finally chose a song and the song was
you had me from Hello by Kenny Chesney
and I got up there and I was so nervous
that I had to have my father stand
behind me and sing every word into my
ear and my mom had to stand directly in
front of me so I could run into our arms
when I was done and and that was my
first experience performing and then
once that crowd once the song ended and
that crowd just blew up into applause I
have never felt so incredible in my life
and that was when I truly knew that
music and singing and performing was
what I wanted to do for the rest of my
life another really cool example of
passion leading to success in my life is
my father my my dad has always had a
love for the profession of being a
firefighter and a paramedic and from a
young age he’s always wanted to be that
in
I think it’s almost two years ago now he
just recently retired from a 30-year
career as a firefighter and a paramedic
and the reason I truly knew he was
passionate about what he did is when he
came home every day after his 24 hour
shifts he would run to me and the first
thing he said to me is you’re not gonna
believe what happened at work today and
there was this light behind his eyes
that I will never forget and it’s those
of this day I see it he’s an interpreter
as well and I see it when he does that
as well and that was something I always
wanted and what with what I do whatever
I choose as a profession I wanted that
passion that my father had and when
those shows of like American Idol and
everything were coming up it it almost
instilled this this mentality as a young
kid that I have to fit into this mold I
have to kind of be what the world wants
to be and what the producers behind the
scenes want me to be and pun intended I
kind of would ask the world and ask
myself hello is it me you’re looking for
and I would ask myself that daily I’m
like is am I gonna fit into that mold am
I going to be the next America Minow am
I going to be the next voice and that
kind of leads me to my next P and my
three P’s which is perseverance and I
know that’s kind of like a stereotypical
thing to say but I truly stand by a
perseverance is one of the main things
you need in order to succeed in this
world because anything you try to do
anything you are you want to succeed and
is not gonna be easy no matter what it
is as long as you work hard it’s gonna
be it’s gonna be a rough path and you’re
gonna go through a lot of hardships and
from a very young age I was um I knew
what I wanted to do and I got a lot of
weird looks from adults saying oh you
don’t really know what you want to do
you don’t you’re not sure yet you’re
still young you’re still learning and I
would look at them and I say no I know
that this is what I want to do and this
is what I want to be and that kind of
negativity along with bullying
throughout middle school I was pretty
harshly bullied throughout middle school
saying singing is for girls and stuff
like that it just it really got to me
but it gave me a very tough tough skin
and in this industry specifically the
entertainment industry you need that
because they don’t baby you in in that
world and it kind of leads me to my next
story when I was about 16 years
I put myself out there by auditioning
for The Voice and I did the voice when I
was like I said when I was 16 years old
and I was in LA for five weeks I was
pulled out of my sophomore year of high
school and just thrown into this almost
celebrity like world and it was surreal
I was I was loved in life I was meeting
incredible producers incredible people
other musicians and this was the first
time I had been in like a musician’s
world and I got to enjoy it for five
weeks but then all of a sudden it was
just ripped out from underneath me it
was just like this rug was just pulled
out from underneath me and my whole
world kind of in a sense came crashing
down because my dream had always been to
be on one of these reality shows and
that was my that was my opportunity and
I just I didn’t do it I didn’t make it
and as a 16 year old when you’re still
trying to figure self out and your life
out to have that big of a thing on your
back it really pays a lot of tolls and
and causes a lot of heartache because
you want to you want to see your dream
come true but you don’t know how long
it’s going to take and then not long
after six months later I was took
another chance and went out for an
audition for The X Factor
so within seven months of each other I
was on two different national television
shows as 16 and again I was put into
this world and it was ripped out from
underneath me and this time it wasn’t
because I didn’t perform my best or I
didn’t I didn’t shine enough but it was
for contractual issues I was
contractually obligated to the voice and
I couldn’t move on in the x-factor
and that was just like it my whole like
I was this close if they would have just
give me the opportunity this could have
been the chance and that was again so
hard as a 16 year old and almost 17 at
that point but I got back home to my
normal life back at I was at Briarwood
high school and I just I felt like
giving up I felt like I that music
wasn’t for me and singing wasn’t for me
anymore because I wasn’t making it just
people would maybe maybe these people
didn’t see it from the get-go so I don’t
have it and I started getting into
theater in in high school my sister got
me really into theater all through high
school and that kind of rejuvenated my
love
for for performing and it really brought
that dream back into reality and so I
took the next step and I applied to
Berklee College of Music where I
currently attend and I got that yes and
that was like the first yes of a series
of just open doors and it felt
incredible I I remember I was sitting in
I hop with I don’t know why I had the
guts to open this email in front of 30
of my peers but I was sitting in on how
for me it just had a show and we were
all it was a cast party we were doing
Shrek The Musical I don’t know if
anybody knows that music Wow I played
Lord Farquaad haha it was one of my
favorite roles of all time there is
video footage and I don’t have it but I
want it and anyways I was in this high
hop and I got the email and I literally
without thinking opened it and I don’t
know what I what was going through my
head but I I saw it all I saw was
congratulations and I remember jumping
so high my head almost hit the ceiling
and my whole I remember yelling and all
of them just they knew what was
happening they knew that the today was
the day so they all just started
screaming and it was one of the most
incredible feelings and so that just
really brought back everything I had
worked for everything I had done leading
up to that point it just all felt like
it paid off finally and again that led
to just a series of more yeses in a
series of open doors and fast forward to
about October last year when I got to
Berkeley back track when I got to
Berkeley I was kind of done with reality
shows I didn’t want to pursue those
talent reality shows as a way a means of
making it anymore I had done I’d paid my
dues I had auditioned I had tried and I
did didn’t work out so I said you know
what I’m gonna try a different route and
I’m gonna do my own thing but out of the
blue I got an email from a producer that
works on American Idol and said hey
we’re rebooting America I don’t ABC and
we’d love you to audition they must have
found me online and and they just really
liked me so I I said you know what why
not my mom always raised me to just take
any opportunity you can get because that
is just the key to getting that one yes
and if I wouldn’t have taken this
opportunity by my mom’s
by my mom’s doing then I would not have
made it to the top 24 of American Idol
and so fast forward to I guess about
February I go out for Hollywood week and
Hollywood week was one of the most
grueling and stressful weeks of my life
I am I know that kind of sounds weird
because it’s like any one thing
Hollywood Week it can’t be that bad you
know but it I kid you not I had 13 hours
of sleep in four days and I don’t know
if you could do the math but that’s I
think like three hours a day I think
total and I remember if you know the
show American Idol there’s this there’s
a there’s a week a day in Hollywood we
called it group round and that’s
probably on the hardest days of
Hollywood week and that night I went to
bed at 2:30 in the morning our call time
every day is camera-ready downstairs by
5:45 in the morning and I had to get up
at 4:00 and I was in the shower and I’m
standing there under the water and I kid
you not I fell asleep standing up and
that has never happened to me so that
was just another level of exhaustion but
that also showed me that I have I can do
it and one thing Lionel Richie said who
I sang one of his songs incredible an
incredible artist and writer one thing
he said is this is how it’s like in the
real world and he says this reminds me
of when I started out and that really
hit home the fact that I went through
that and I made it through Hollywood we
just showed me like maybe I can do this
it was another it was another another
sign of this is this is what I meant to
do and fast forward again to the last
week that I was at a part of American
Idol
top twenty four I was um I chose to sing
hello by Lionel Richie as you guys heard
and it’s a song I had been confident
with and I’d known like the back of my
hand for many many years
Lionel Richie had been a very big
inspiration of mine for my whole life
musically my dad is a huge fan of his
Chauvin using music at a very young age
so it wasn’t if I knew the song I knew I
knew the song but as the week went on it
was getting closer to that performance I
started second-guessing every little
thing I was doing I was listening to the
other performers and just seeing how
good they were doing or how great they
were doing and just picking my own
performance apart
and that leads me to my third and final
P which is pride and I know as they say
it’s bad to have too much pride but
pride in yourself is key I lost that I
wasn’t proud of what I was doing because
I started second-guessing everything I
started thinking his lie no going to
really like this are the producers gonna
like this is America gonna like this
and it just I I became less and less
proud of what I was doing and I think
that truly shined through in that final
performance and it wasn’t up to par up
to my up to my standards you know and I
went home after that and it was like
another one of those ripped out from
underneath me moments but this was a
little different because I knew I had
accomplished something but I wasn’t
proud of it just yet and it took me a
few weeks and I I was thinking and I was
thinking but I finally came to the
conclusion that I am proud of what I
accomplished top twenty for American
Idol is not easy there was thousands and
thousands of people that auditioned and
I got to that 24 and that for me I
finally over the honesty over the past
couple weeks have become proud of what
I’ve accomplished and it’s it was it was
hard but I made it and in the end of the
day success is a state of mind yeah I
could go back and I could change certain
things to make them go a little better
like the voice or American Idol but then
I wouldn’t be here
in front of you guys sharing my story in
Shing who I’d become today I am the most
passionate about what I do I persevere
more than I ever have and I truly am the
most proud of myself and I ever have
been and I used to ask hello is it me
you’re looking for and today I say hello
it is me you’re looking for thank you [Applause]
thousand times I sometimes see you pass
always new you’re looking for
I can see it in your eyes I can see it
in your smile you’re all I ever wanted
in my arms are open wide
cuz you know just what to say and you
know just what to do
and I want to tell you so much I love
you
you tell me how to win your heart for I
have
[Music]
but let me start by saying I love you
[Music]
Hey
hello how you guys doing well as you all
know my name is Brandon Diaz and take it
for that lovely introduction
first of all I want to take a moment and
thank TEDx for having me TEDx Ashburn
for having me a NIC for having me out
here this is a true honor and a pleasure
for me to be here with you guys and to
be one of these speakers is kind of
surreal for me because I’m just
listening to these people speak and
hearing all they’ve accomplished I’m
kind of baffled to be standing up here
with them and it’s kind of surreal I’d I
never realized how much I have
accomplished but also I never realized
how much there is to be accomplished and
so I’m gonna start off with a little
backstory so about when I was 6 years
old
there was kind of a new fad in the
Airways which was reality shows and like
in talent reality shows American Idol
was this new reality show that came out
that was was was this cool new thing
that people were going out there putting
themselves out there on the spot in
front of for really incredible people
and I saw that and I really wanted to do
that that was a dream of mine since I
was 6 years old and so I’m gonna tell
you sorry excuse me I want to share with
you three things that led me to where I
am today
it started from bowling alley bars and
what got me to the top 24 on American
Idol and that for me was three things
three P’s and the first P being passion
now who here is passionate about what
they do I know for sure there’s plenty
of passionate people out here because
I’ve been hearing them all day and I for
sure I’m passionate about what I do
some people find their passions younger
in life some people find a much older in
life and I was lucky enough that my
parents saw this
this musical energy around me from a
very young age they would hear me
singing in my crib and singing in the
shower and my dad says from the day I
was born he said that kid’s gonna be a
singer because he would just hear me
doing certain things as like a little
kid usually shouldn’t be able to do
shouldn’t be able to hold pitch and
match pitch and so they saw that in me
and and I didn’t really realize my
passion for music until I was about
eight years old I was visiting family my
mother’s side of the family in Illinois
in Springfield Illinois and we were at a
bowling at my mom and my dad were in the
bar with all the adults and all the kids
were outside bowling I was enjoying
myself having fun with all my cousins
and my mom comes running out and says do
you want to sing karaoke and I had no
idea that I knew I thought I was going
to be singing but I had no idea was
gonna be in front of 40 to 50 people and
I had never done that before I had only
sang for family and close relatives and
so my mom said come on and I’m a mama’s
boy so anything my mom said I was gonna
do and so she grabbed my hand and she
pulled me towards the bar and she had to
do a little convincing of the bouncer
because an eight-year-old going into a
bar is not a normal thing I she talked
to him a little bit said hey he’s a
really good singer
police let him sing one song and he’ll
be out of your hair and so he took some
convincing but we finally got him to let
me in and I’m I walk up to the stage and
my dad’s waiting there for me and we
finally chose a song and the song was
you had me from Hello by Kenny Chesney
and I got up there and I was so nervous
that I had to have my father stand
behind me and sing every word into my
ear and my mom had to stand directly in
front of me so I could run into our arms
when I was done and and that was my
first experience performing and then
once that crowd once the song ended and
that crowd just blew up into applause I
have never felt so incredible in my life
and that was when I truly knew that
music and singing and performing was
what I wanted to do for the rest of my
life another really cool example of
passion leading to success in my life is
my father my my dad has always had a
love for the profession of being a
firefighter and a paramedic and from a
young age he’s always wanted to be that
in
I think it’s almost two years ago now he
just recently retired from a 30-year
career as a firefighter and a paramedic
and the reason I truly knew he was
passionate about what he did is when he
came home every day after his 24 hour
shifts he would run to me and the first
thing he said to me is you’re not gonna
believe what happened at work today and
there was this light behind his eyes
that I will never forget and it’s those
of this day I see it he’s an interpreter
as well and I see it when he does that
as well and that was something I always
wanted and what with what I do whatever
I choose as a profession I wanted that
passion that my father had and when
those shows of like American Idol and
everything were coming up it it almost
instilled this this mentality as a young
kid that I have to fit into this mold I
have to kind of be what the world wants
to be and what the producers behind the
scenes want me to be and pun intended I
kind of would ask the world and ask
myself hello is it me you’re looking for
and I would ask myself that daily I’m
like is am I gonna fit into that mold am
I going to be the next America Minow am
I going to be the next voice and that
kind of leads me to my next P and my
three P’s which is perseverance and I
know that’s kind of like a stereotypical
thing to say but I truly stand by a
perseverance is one of the main things
you need in order to succeed in this
world because anything you try to do
anything you are you want to succeed and
is not gonna be easy no matter what it
is as long as you work hard it’s gonna
be it’s gonna be a rough path and you’re
gonna go through a lot of hardships and
from a very young age I was um I knew
what I wanted to do and I got a lot of
weird looks from adults saying oh you
don’t really know what you want to do
you don’t you’re not sure yet you’re
still young you’re still learning and I
would look at them and I say no I know
that this is what I want to do and this
is what I want to be and that kind of
negativity along with bullying
throughout middle school I was pretty
harshly bullied throughout middle school
saying singing is for girls and stuff
like that it just it really got to me
but it gave me a very tough tough skin
and in this industry specifically the
entertainment industry you need that
because they don’t baby you in in that
world and it kind of leads me to my next
story when I was about 16 years
I put myself out there by auditioning
for The Voice and I did the voice when I
was like I said when I was 16 years old
and I was in LA for five weeks I was
pulled out of my sophomore year of high
school and just thrown into this almost
celebrity like world and it was surreal
I was I was loved in life I was meeting
incredible producers incredible people
other musicians and this was the first
time I had been in like a musician’s
world and I got to enjoy it for five
weeks but then all of a sudden it was
just ripped out from underneath me it
was just like this rug was just pulled
out from underneath me and my whole
world kind of in a sense came crashing
down because my dream had always been to
be on one of these reality shows and
that was my that was my opportunity and
I just I didn’t do it I didn’t make it
and as a 16 year old when you’re still
trying to figure self out and your life
out to have that big of a thing on your
back it really pays a lot of tolls and
and causes a lot of heartache because
you want to you want to see your dream
come true but you don’t know how long
it’s going to take and then not long
after six months later I was took
another chance and went out for an
audition for The X Factor
so within seven months of each other I
was on two different national television
shows as 16 and again I was put into
this world and it was ripped out from
underneath me and this time it wasn’t
because I didn’t perform my best or I
didn’t I didn’t shine enough but it was
for contractual issues I was
contractually obligated to the voice and
I couldn’t move on in the x-factor
and that was just like it my whole like
I was this close if they would have just
give me the opportunity this could have
been the chance and that was again so
hard as a 16 year old and almost 17 at
that point but I got back home to my
normal life back at I was at Briarwood
high school and I just I felt like
giving up I felt like I that music
wasn’t for me and singing wasn’t for me
anymore because I wasn’t making it just
people would maybe maybe these people
didn’t see it from the get-go so I don’t
have it and I started getting into
theater in in high school my sister got
me really into theater all through high
school and that kind of rejuvenated my
love
for for performing and it really brought
that dream back into reality and so I
took the next step and I applied to
Berklee College of Music where I
currently attend and I got that yes and
that was like the first yes of a series
of just open doors and it felt
incredible I I remember I was sitting in
I hop with I don’t know why I had the
guts to open this email in front of 30
of my peers but I was sitting in on how
for me it just had a show and we were
all it was a cast party we were doing
Shrek The Musical I don’t know if
anybody knows that music Wow I played
Lord Farquaad haha it was one of my
favorite roles of all time there is
video footage and I don’t have it but I
want it and anyways I was in this high
hop and I got the email and I literally
without thinking opened it and I don’t
know what I what was going through my
head but I I saw it all I saw was
congratulations and I remember jumping
so high my head almost hit the ceiling
and my whole I remember yelling and all
of them just they knew what was
happening they knew that the today was
the day so they all just started
screaming and it was one of the most
incredible feelings and so that just
really brought back everything I had
worked for everything I had done leading
up to that point it just all felt like
it paid off finally and again that led
to just a series of more yeses in a
series of open doors and fast forward to
about October last year when I got to
Berkeley back track when I got to
Berkeley I was kind of done with reality
shows I didn’t want to pursue those
talent reality shows as a way a means of
making it anymore I had done I’d paid my
dues I had auditioned I had tried and I
did didn’t work out so I said you know
what I’m gonna try a different route and
I’m gonna do my own thing but out of the
blue I got an email from a producer that
works on American Idol and said hey
we’re rebooting America I don’t ABC and
we’d love you to audition they must have
found me online and and they just really
liked me so I I said you know what why
not my mom always raised me to just take
any opportunity you can get because that
is just the key to getting that one yes
and if I wouldn’t have taken this
opportunity by my mom’s
by my mom’s doing then I would not have
made it to the top 24 of American Idol
and so fast forward to I guess about
February I go out for Hollywood week and
Hollywood week was one of the most
grueling and stressful weeks of my life
I am I know that kind of sounds weird
because it’s like any one thing
Hollywood Week it can’t be that bad you
know but it I kid you not I had 13 hours
of sleep in four days and I don’t know
if you could do the math but that’s I
think like three hours a day I think
total and I remember if you know the
show American Idol there’s this there’s
a there’s a week a day in Hollywood we
called it group round and that’s
probably on the hardest days of
Hollywood week and that night I went to
bed at 2:30 in the morning our call time
every day is camera-ready downstairs by
5:45 in the morning and I had to get up
at 4:00 and I was in the shower and I’m
standing there under the water and I kid
you not I fell asleep standing up and
that has never happened to me so that
was just another level of exhaustion but
that also showed me that I have I can do
it and one thing Lionel Richie said who
I sang one of his songs incredible an
incredible artist and writer one thing
he said is this is how it’s like in the
real world and he says this reminds me
of when I started out and that really
hit home the fact that I went through
that and I made it through Hollywood we
just showed me like maybe I can do this
it was another it was another another
sign of this is this is what I meant to
do and fast forward again to the last
week that I was at a part of American
Idol
top twenty four I was um I chose to sing
hello by Lionel Richie as you guys heard
and it’s a song I had been confident
with and I’d known like the back of my
hand for many many years
Lionel Richie had been a very big
inspiration of mine for my whole life
musically my dad is a huge fan of his
Chauvin using music at a very young age
so it wasn’t if I knew the song I knew I
knew the song but as the week went on it
was getting closer to that performance I
started second-guessing every little
thing I was doing I was listening to the
other performers and just seeing how
good they were doing or how great they
were doing and just picking my own
performance apart
and that leads me to my third and final
P which is pride and I know as they say
it’s bad to have too much pride but
pride in yourself is key I lost that I
wasn’t proud of what I was doing because
I started second-guessing everything I
started thinking his lie no going to
really like this are the producers gonna
like this is America gonna like this
and it just I I became less and less
proud of what I was doing and I think
that truly shined through in that final
performance and it wasn’t up to par up
to my up to my standards you know and I
went home after that and it was like
another one of those ripped out from
underneath me moments but this was a
little different because I knew I had
accomplished something but I wasn’t
proud of it just yet and it took me a
few weeks and I I was thinking and I was
thinking but I finally came to the
conclusion that I am proud of what I
accomplished top twenty for American
Idol is not easy there was thousands and
thousands of people that auditioned and
I got to that 24 and that for me I
finally over the honesty over the past
couple weeks have become proud of what
I’ve accomplished and it’s it was it was
hard but I made it and in the end of the
day success is a state of mind yeah I
could go back and I could change certain
things to make them go a little better
like the voice or American Idol but then
I wouldn’t be here
in front of you guys sharing my story in
Shing who I’d become today I am the most
passionate about what I do I persevere
more than I ever have and I truly am the
most proud of myself and I ever have
been and I used to ask hello is it me
you’re looking for and today I say hello
it is me you’re looking for thank you [Applause]
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