All In for Boston: How One Room Turned Helplessness Into Direct Action

The week of the Boston Marathon bombing, a room full of several thousand people gathered in Chicago for a business conference had every reason to just keep the schedule moving and let the news scroll by in the background between sessions. Instead, this session opens with Jerry Ballard walking out to tell the room that the usual plan for Saturday’s charity project got scrapped overnight, replaced with something built specifically for what had just happened.

If you’ve ever sat with a phone in your hand, watching a tragedy unfold on the news and feeling completely useless about it, this session is aimed straight at that feeling.

What do you actually do the week something like this happens?

The company’s standard charitable event was a Habitat for Humanity build, the kind of thing that gets scheduled well in advance and doesn’t change easily. Jerry describes the room sitting down together after the news broke and asking a different question: how do we do something that actually responds to what just happened, instead of running the plan we already had.

we kind of sat down and we thought, how can we do something different, because we really have to look at that and think, we need to, Empower Network has to be in that, you know? We have to be ready to help people, and our purpose is always do for others.

What came out of that conversation was a wristband campaign called All In for Boston, sold at the merchandise table with every dollar of proceeds going directly to the American Red Cross. It’s a small, ordinary object, but it turns a feeling of helplessness into something you can actually hold and hand to a stranger.

Why does turning spare change into a check on stage change anything?

Jerry pulls three audience members at random and lets each of them reach into a container full of cash for a timed few seconds, grabbing whatever they can hold onto. Whatever each person collects, the company multiplies by a flat factor of one hundred and adds the total to the Red Cross donation, live, in front of the whole room, with the running tally read out loud as it climbs. By the time all three have taken their turn, Jerry is writing an actual check on stage while the crowd does the math out loud with him.

That mechanism matters more than the theatrics of it. Watching loose bills someone grabbed out of a box get multiplied into a real, visible number answers the exact objection that keeps most people from doing anything at all when something terrible happens somewhere far away: what difference could my small piece possibly make. The room gets to watch, in real time, a small amount become a large one, and a feeling become a number on a check.

Where did the instinct to respond like this actually come from?

Before Jerry moves on to the next announcement, he stops to thank the person who taught him to act instead of freeze under pressure in the first place. He was raised by a single mother, working and providing on her own, who pushed her introverted thirteen-year-old son to compete in a public speaking contest with a memorized speech titled, fittingly, Today’s Challenge, Tomorrow’s Success. She helped him write it, drilled it with him nightly in front of a mirror for two weeks, and drove him to every round of the competition herself, telling him the whole way there that he was going to do great. He won that round. Then the regionals. Then the state contest.

“You’ll never know how much I love you.” That’s what Jerry tells the room, addressing her directly, after walking through what she gave up to get him to every one of those contests. It’s not a random detour in the middle of a session about charity. Someone who was taught as a boy that today’s hardship becomes tomorrow’s win is exactly the kind of person who, faced with a tragedy on the news, sits down within days and builds a plan instead of just feeling bad about it.

What does this actually ask of you?

Nobody in this session claims that a wristband or a stage stunt fixes what happened in Boston. What it does is model a specific habit worth carrying into your own life: when something terrible happens and you feel that particular kind of helpless, don’t wait for someone else to organize the response. Build the small, specific thing you can actually do, and do it within days, not once the feeling passes and life gets busy again.

That habit of turning a hard week into direct action, learned early from a mother who never let her son sit in a hard moment without a next move, is the actual lesson underneath the charity segment. It’s worth carrying long after the wristbands sell out.

The full session goes further than what’s above, including the video contest announcement that follows. Watch it in full, free, when you Create your free account.

The full session transcript follows below.

Transcript

Your first speaker, the Empower Network, they're all about bringing positivity to everywhere they go, you know, trying to change the places they're at, and we all know that there was the recent Boston tragedy, so in order to, they wanted to do something for them, and your first speaker is going to go into that a little bit further. Let's give it up, a nice warm applause for Mr. Jerry Ballard, everybody, please, give it up for him, Jerry. I don't think I'm ever going to get used to that.

So, we know what happened earlier this week in Boston, and usually when we do our charitable event on Saturday, we usually use Habitat for Humanity, so that's been our standard, and we were getting ready to do that again, and then everything happened earlier this week, and we kind of sat down and we thought, how can we do something different, because we really have to look at that and think, we need to, Empower Network has to be in that, you know? We have to be ready to help people, and our purpose is always do for others.

I mean, when you, last night when Nicole Cooper was talking, she was talking about, I realized it was about my team and about other people, the Daves talk about the fact that they did not build Empower for themselves, they built it for you, and so one of the things I sat down and I thought about was, how could I do something for Boston? So, we've created a plan called All In for Boston. I know a lot of people told me they had friends and family in Boston, and we had, obviously a lot of people were hurt, so we decided that what we're going to do is, I'm wearing a bracelet called All In for Boston.

We are selling these out front at the merchandise, all of that proceeds will go directly to the American Red Cross, so I invite you to get yours while they're still there, because I anticipate that we'll sell those out quickly. They're five dollars each, and like I said, all the proceeds of that will go to the American Red Cross, but right now, we're prepared to do a little something special with our Get Money, Give Money box. There are three people that have been selected at random out in the audience, I'm going to ask them to come down, and I'm going to ask our models to come out, our Empower Network models, and I ask those people to come down right now, run on down.

I know where you are, I don't know where you are. There's three of you, where are you? Come on down. There's one, where's the other two?

I'm going to give them a mic here. I do not know how this works. Obviously, on is good. Who knew on worked?

I got two, where's my third? I don't see him. Okay. What's your name?

Mason. Mason, where are you from? South Florida. South Florida, wow, you're right next to our office?

Yeah, a little bit south of that, but yeah. How long have you been with us? I've been with you for a while. How long have you been with us?

I've been with you for a while. How long have you been with us? Since January 4th. January 4th.

Mason, we're glad to have you. Yes, sir. Dream Team. Dream Team.

Your name? Rachel Hapanenko. Rachel? Yes.

And how long have you been with Empower Network? For a year. And where are you from? We're from Colorado.

From Colorado. I have a third one. There he is. Okay, I was like, where's my third one?

I can't believe it. I made it, I'm tough. I thought it was Randy. No, no, no.

I'm not making any decisions. I'm just saying I'm a help. I'm a help. I'm a help.

I'm a help. I'm a help. I'm a help. I thought it was Randy Jackson running up the steps.

Did anybody think it was Randy Jackson? I thought it was Randy Jackson. I'm sorry. Randy, bro.

Wait, I did think we might be related. He's a little close. He has more hair than I do, though. What's your name?

Tommy Williams. Tommy, where are you from? Memphis, Tennessee. Memphis.

That's my hometown, Tommy. Oh, that's it. That's it, man. We are related.

How long have you been with Empower? December. December. Yep.

Great. So what we're going to ask you to do is you're going to go into the Get Money, Give Money box for 15 seconds. And you can do everything but pick money up off the ground. And whatever you get out of there, we're going to add two zeros to it and donate it to the American Red Cross.

So if they find $19, we're going to donate $1,900 to the American Red Cross. So you want to start first? All right, big man. Come on in.

We're going to let you in here. There you go. So again, the rules are you can do everything but pick it up off the ground. You ready?

Go. Okay. Let's see how much we got. There's 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25.

25. $2,500. Are you ready? Okay.

Here we go. Let's see what you got. You got one more behind you? Let's get that.

All right. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and $5, which is $14. Thank you. By the way, I didn't know if you noticed, these are the Empowered Network Boxes.

You can buy them online. You can buy them online. You can buy them online. You can buy them online.

You can buy them online. You can buy them online. You can buy them online. You can buy them online.

You can buy them online. You can buy them online. They drive 1000kers. Next.

$7,100 dollars. They have the Daves on the front of them. Pretty cool stuff. Pretty cool stuff.

All right. Come on. Get money. Let's see what you got.

Oh, $2,000. So, that gives us a total of… Anyone? Quick math?

$7,100 dollars. So, I am going to write a check for $7,100 dollars. I'm not gonna write out the other part. It takes too long.

Ladies, if you guys can come on up here. Everybody put down your books. come on up. I'll let you ladies hold the outside for me.

Why don't you all get both sides? Here we go. That's too high for me. I'm short.

Come on. So this is just the beginning. This is what we're going to start with. You're going to go out and buy the All In for Boston bracelets, and we're going to make this happen.

All In for Boston. Thanks, guys. Thank you, guys. Thank you, ladies.

Can you take this off for me? You just put that on. So I'm supposed to announce a video contest. I'm going to announce that in a second, but I have to do something because every once in a while you get an opportunity to thank someone who really got you where you are.

A lot of people don't know this. I'm a lawyer, which is really a bad thing. Don't hold that against me. Well, actually, there's a lawyer coming up after me.

Don't hold that against him either. But, you know, there were times when, you know, a lot of us, how many have ever, how many have a single mom they were raised by? Okay. Yeah.

So you know what that's like when she has to work and she's trying to raise you, trying to make it happen, you know? Really tough, right? Trying to provide that nurturing environment, make the money, do what she has to do. It's, it's, that's tough.

And I have the opportunity to be raised by someone like that who installed some values in me that made me successful. And I'm very grateful for that. And she also taught me to speak there. I know I'm not supposed to tell a story, but 10 seconds story.

She taught, there was an Optimist Club International thing when I was 13 and I was very introverted. And she said, you will go and speak at this. You had to memorize the speech for five minutes. And the name of the speech, I could actually do it now to this day is called Today's Challenge, Tomorrow's Success.

And she sat down and helped me write the speech. I'm not, I could do it. I'm not going. to, but thank you.

And the reason why I'm not is because I don't want to keep you here until 12 o'clock tonight either. So she helped me write this speech. We sat down, we wrote it together, and then she made me practice it every day for two weeks in the mirror with gestures and everything. And then we were riding to the contest, and it was just she and I in the car.

And those of us who are old enough know this. There's a group called Radio, Ray Parker Jr. And it was Jack and Jill on the song. You know, Jack, Jack went down the hill.

Anyway, I remember that. I don't know why I remember all this. But sitting in the car next to me was this woman driving me to this contest who was telling me, honey, you're going to be great tonight. Honey, you're going to be great tonight.

And I won. And then she said, well, what's the next contest? Oh, it was the regionals. I won.

And then it was the states. I won. And so all the way driving to all these really far away places, having to take off from work, having to make all this happen was this one person. And I'm going to introduce you to her.

My mom, Joy Moyer. So you'll never know how much I love you. You'll never know how much I love you. So anyway, I'm supposed to announce this video contest.

We'll get back to that. So first ever annual. I don't know how they say that, like annual, because we haven't had the next year of it, but we'll do it anyway. First ever video contest for Empower Network we're announcing.

We're going to have more details on the website, but here's what you need to know. We're going to have more details on the website, but here's what you need to know. We're going to have three semifinalists are going to be selected in the following three categories. One is on event stories.

So if you're videoing anything from this event, we're going to have a contest for the three best videos from this event. Then we're going to have a contest later on between now and Denver for the three best product story videos, like about the Inner Circle or about Master Series. And then lastly, we're going to have three best videos from this event. And then about personal stories.

How Empire Network has touched your life and made your life better. So we're gonna have those. Those nine people will be flown, all expenses paid, treated like kings and queens in the next location, which I'm not supposed to say. I was gonna, I almost, I almost said it.

That would have been a really bad mistake. I almost said it. I almost flipped it out, boy. In our next event location in July.

So that's what you need to know. So if you're already videoing, be ready. There'll be rules that go with it, but we're excited to see your stories. We haven't named the awards yet.

I suggested the baddies, but I don't know. So if you have suggested names, I'll take those too. So if you see me running around for the awards, we're ready. We're gonna give out a trope, you know, the, like the Oscar.

We're gonna give you that. And those videos will be shown on our website. And then those videos will be shown at our next location. And the audience will get to pick who wins.

So another reason to be at our next location. So I am done. Thanks for coming. I wish I could have done more with the weather.

We look forward to seeing you at the party tonight. You will not believe what we have planned for you. The team parties are going to be great. Looking forward to seeing those.

And God bless and thanks for coming to Chicago. Folks, obviously the income examples discussed in this video are extraordinary. The income claims presented are not intended to serve as a guarantee of income. Instead, they're designed to give you an idea of what's possible.

Success in this business requires leadership, hard work, and dedication. Since we want to help you make an informed decision, we've gone above and beyond with our income disclosure document. If you want to see the average earnings, please visit the page at www.empowernetwork.com forward slash income dot php.