Kicking Off the New School Year
We are back into the swing of things, and geared up for another school year. The month of August and the early part of this month have been a whirlwind. The majority of August was spent marketing our assembly presentation to 12 states surrounding Ohio. Plus we began advertising on Google Ads, which has exposed our website to anyone in the world looking for a speaker. Our goal is to branch out, and we have made some good progress toward that end. We have assemblies booked in Michigan, Indiana, New York, and Kentucky, and we have many other tentative assemblies in the works.
Van Wert HS/MS Assemblies
We were excited to be back at our alma mater - Van Wert HS - in late August. It was great to help them kick off their year and see many people that we knew and grew up with. We also were at the MS for a separate assembly. The students there were great and incredibly responsive, in large part due to Mark Bagley (the principal and one of my HS basketball coaches) and the way he pumped up the kids for Joel. My younger brother is in 7th grade, so it made it that much more special to be in front of him and other students in his class. Hopefully these assemblies made an impact on students in our hometown.
Gahanna-Lincoln HS Assemblies
Joel and I also presented to about 2600 students last Friday (9/11) at Gahanna-Lincoln HS in Gahanna, OH on the NE side of Columbus. We had been there last year, so we were encouraged that the administration found the presentation valuable enough to have us back. This year we were not as shell-shocked by the sheer number of students either. The students were great, especially for such a large crowd. It was a good chance for us to get more experience with our second assembly presentation (for repeat schools).
"Man in the Mirror"
The Gahanna-Lincoln experience was unique for me in that the school theme is "Be the Change" and they use a quote from the Michael Jackson song "Man in the Mirror." So they asked me to play it, and it could have been disastrous (ha), but the response was incredible compared to my expectations. I did NOT do the Moonwalk. But I may actually use that song more in the future because the message of the song, believe it or not, is really solid (if you want the world to be better, take a look in the mirror and start with yourself - make those changes first). Kind of reminds me of Matthew 7:1-5.
