February 4, 2025 • 34 mins
SHOW #75! Season 3, Episode 6: Welcome to the disSOLViNG fear podcast!
IN THIS EPISODE, I talk with best-selling author, keynote speaker, TEDx speaker, philanthropist and entrepreneur Sam Demma. He has delivered over 700 performances worldwide and now he's here on the podcast!
We talk about:
Serving Others
Personal Growth
Overcoming Self-Doubt
Challenging Your Limiting Beliefs
The Importance of Small Consistent Actions
Share this episode with anyone in your life who has big dreams, or feels weighed down by self-doubt, or anyone who just LOVES authentic, honest, and inspirational stories! Sam is an amazing storyteller who builds cultures of empathy, hope, and service around the world with his performances and his bestselling book: Empty Your Backback.
You can explore Sam’s Elite Speaker Coaching Program or hire him to speak at your next event at samdemma.com
If you love this episode, check out some past episodes! The Apple Podcast links are below!
Motivational Speaker Nathan Wray is Here!
Finding Your Fearless Voice with Performance Coach Christina Walker
Subscribe to the monthly newsletter and receive exclusive invitations to free monthly Zoom Group life coaching! You can also schedule 1:1 coaching focused solely on you and your personal growth.
Thank you for being HERE at disSOLViNG fear.
Fear doesn't run the show, YOU do!
Much Love, Alissa
Visit missalissa.com to join the free newsletter community, book a 1:1 coaching call, and explore awesome ways to create your best life.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to the Dissolving Fear podcast.
If you have big dreams and plans, but you get distracted by
fear and doubt TuneIn because fear doesn't run the show.
You do. And fear doesn't run this show.
I'm your host, Miss Alyssa, and the mission here is a world
where fear doesn't control us. We come face to face with our
biggest fears and our wildest dreams, and we live our best
(00:23):
lives. I'm here to share inspiring
stories, proven tools, and authentic guest interviews so
that you can keep up your forward momentum in life without
letting anxiety or adversity drag you down.
Follow this podcast. You'll love the results.
Loving life is what we're all about here on the podcast and at
missalyssa.com. Enjoy the show.
(00:47):
Sam Demma, welcome to the podcast.
Alyssa, thank you so much for having me on.
You are a young, successful speaker, a Ted Talk speaker, and
author and entrepreneur. I'm so excited, Sam, to talk to
you about how you're soaring through life without fear,
doubt, or any of those heavy limiting beliefs that tend to
(01:10):
weigh us down. You're kind of an old soul.
You're full of love and respect for the audience members that
you speak to, and you've touchedso many lives with your business
and your philanthropy, so we're so honored to have you here.
It is my pleasure. I really appreciate the
invitation and I'm so excited totalk with you today.
(01:30):
Well, you're on a roll as an entrepreneur and motivational
speaker. You've given a variety of Ted
talks, you've partnered with some huge names like Taco Bell,
and you have over 30 keynote speeches scheduled for 2025.
Your book is called Empty Your Backpack.
Tell us about yourself and if you'd like to talk about your
book, go right ahead. Give us a little introduction.
(01:53):
My name is Sam Dema. My ethnic name is Salvatore.
I'm half Italian, half Greek. Growing up, my parents called me
Sammy and the name Sam just stuck.
I do feel like a Sam, but it's important to tell people my my
real name because I share it with my grandfather, who had a
big impact on my life as a youngperson.
He taught me what it meant to bea servant leader, what it meant
(02:16):
to show up for others just as much as we show up for
ourselves, and to serve others without any expectation of
getting anything in return. Growing up, I wanted to play
professional soccer. I pursued that dream with
everything I had in my heart andmy body.
At the age of 17, in my senior year of high school, I had three
major knee injuries, 2 surgeries, lost a full ride
(02:39):
soccer scholarship, faced two ofthe most challenging years of my
life filled with uncertainty, doubt, and fear for what the
future was going to hold for me.Had a very inspiring teacher who
helped me redirect that energy and apply it to something
positive in my life. That manifested in the form of a
community initiative where we would mobilize volunteers to
(02:59):
pick up garbage and it was basedon the theory he taught in class
called Small Consistent Actions.This little community project
grew and and grew and we filled over 3500 bags of garbage with
our volunteer cleanups with local high school students in
the city. And that work got me speaking
because we needed volunteers. So we started doing these four
(03:21):
to five minute promotional talksat local schools to get more
students helping us pick up trash.
Did 30 or 40 of those and then aprincipal pulled me aside and
said we bring in people all the time to deliver programs and
most of the times the kids fall asleep and the teachers too.
And they weren't on their phones.
(03:42):
They were locked in and engaged.They loved the experience.
Can you come back and speak for 30 minutes?
And I was like, dude, what are you like what, what am I going
to say for 30 minutes? You know, I was a 17 year old
kid. I didn't even know what I wanted
to eat for lunch, let alone whatI want to speak about for half
an hour in front of a whole audience.
But I took it as a challenge andI went home and I searched up
(04:04):
youth speaker and I called everybody I could find on the
next 5 pages of Google. Ask them all these questions
about the work they did and madeit a mission to do the best
speech I could possibly do. And I went back to that school
and delivered a talk and then had so much positive responses
from students and staff and enjoyed the experience myself
that I made a decision to pursuethat work for the rest of my
life. You know, since then, that was
(04:28):
six years ago, five and a half, six years ago since I've done it
professionally, and then two years before that, more to
volunteer capacity. But we've done close to 700
events across Canada, the UnitedStates, and Kenya.
We've, we've, we've launched thebook Empty Your Backpack, like
you mentioned, which is an extension of all the work that
we do on stage at events and conferences.
(04:49):
And for me, the mission is to build better humans, just help
people make better decisions andfeel better about themselves.
So the picking up the waste and the picking up the trash, that
turned into a nonprofit, right, called PIC Waste.
Correct. And then the talks about picking
up the trash turned into your business, which is a
(05:11):
motivational speaker and you're you've been doing it for years.
And every year you travel and you visit at least 30 different
sites and give talks. You could call it trash talk.
Everybody here in the audience, we have Sam Demi here today to
talk trash with us. Actually, not just that.
(05:31):
I'm crowning you the king of small consistent actions because
I feel like you're living proof that so much is possible when we
pair our imagination with some action so much, so often, like
we sit on the couch, we're armchair astronauts, we think up
ideas. I know I have a wonderful active
imagination, but I don't always pair it with action.
(05:52):
So I'm very impressed with how you've used your success to help
others and take action in Canadaand even in Africa, which I'll
touch on more later. But tell me, when you started to
dream big and think about becoming a speaker and author
and entrepreneur, what was one fear that popped into your mind?
Because sometimes when we have this big thought in our
(06:14):
imagination, I feel like the fear is right there behind it.
I'm not good enough. That was the biggest repeatable,
self limiting belief that ran through my mind.
I remember one of my first speeches sitting in the staff
room an hour before making conversation, going into the
(06:34):
gym, delivering the presentationand having a few staff members
that I met earlier run over and say, dude, that was awesome, but
we have to apologize. Apologize for what?
And they said, well, when you left the staff room, we cracked
some some jokes saying what is this young guy going to have to
share that's of any substance orvalue.
(06:55):
And I had uncles at family picnics.
Tell my father to tell your son to stop wasting his life and go
back to school. Because I took a different path
after post secondary. I didn't finish my university
degree. I felt called to do this work at
a young age. And I carried this self limiting
belief and fear that I'm not good enough.
Why would somebody hire me? What do I have to say?
(07:17):
It's of any value. And I carried those thoughts for
way too long. It wasn't really until I had a
lot of positive experiences of young people and staff members
walking up after performances, crying, telling me about the
impact it made on their lives, that I fully started to step
into my power and believe that Icould make a contribution that
was bigger than myself. But I think the thing that
(07:38):
helped me the most was just showing up and doing the work,
even in moments where I didn't think it was going well.
You know, I, I thought if I stand in the basement and
practice my speech every day, I can confidently call myself a
speaker because I'm, I'm speaking even though it was just
to a mirror at the time. You know, if you like painting,
(08:01):
if you paint every day, you can start believing and calling
yourself a painter. Whether it looks like my grade 4
paintings or Picasso, you are a painter.
And if there is something that someone listening to this is
afraid to do, or they're doubting their own abilities, I
would recommend that they do thething as much as possible that
(08:23):
that will help eliminate some ofthat fear and get you started in
the right direction. Yeah, practice, Practice what
you want to be doing. You could have told yourself,
oh, I need a degree to be qualified to speak.
I need to do this or that. And if you would have told
yourself that you might not havestarted at a young age, you
(08:45):
might be still thinking about itrather than doing it.
And I asked you about your fear because I think a lot of us
experience an influx of fear anddoubt when we ask ourselves what
if. And then we visualize what we
want to be doing. So we might start by visualizing
what we want, writing it down, but then our mind stops us and
(09:06):
it stops us from taking action or advocating for ourselves.
How do our limiting beliefs end up in our invisible backpack,
weighing us down? Because I know you talk about
this in your book, you could tell everyone what I'm talking
about, But we tend to carry around limiting beliefs.
We all go through life with a giant invisible backpack
strapped to our shoulders and every experience we have, every
(09:28):
conversation creates these stories that we carry in these
backpacks. Some of the stories are very
positive and we should keep themin there.
But some of the stories and beliefs are very negative and
they weigh us down and they stopus from expressing our gifts and
talents and being our authentic selves.
And I believe that some of the most important work we can do
personally is work on emptying our backpack of those negative
(09:51):
thoughts and stories and ensuring that our choices also
help people around us empty theirs.
I had many, many limiting beliefs in my backpack.
One was that I wasn't good enough.
And I believe the way we overcome those limiting beliefs
is by gaining new experiences that challenge those beliefs
we're currently carrying. So if I believed I'm not a, I'm
(10:16):
not a social person, I lack networking skills, I have a hard
time starting conversations withpeople.
And these are the stories I'm telling myself and carrying in
my backpack. If I can put myself in a
situation in a room full of people and get out of my comfort
zone to actually start conversations, and I do that for
(10:37):
the next, you know, 10 months, once a month, the new evidence
is going to start to convince myself you are a social person.
You can start conversations withpeople you don't know.
So I think it's really the best way to challenge any limiting
belief is to find an experience different from the story you're
currently telling yourself. And sometimes it doesn't even
(10:57):
have to be you. For example, one of the first
beliefs I told myself is this isnot a career I could pursue.
Like there's not enough schools,they don't actually hire
speakers. And I went online and found
dozens of people that have been doing this for over 30 years.
And I, I called them and I askedthem questions and they said,
(11:18):
no, I've, I've been doing this full time for 20 years.
This is definitely possible. Their proof changed my limiting
belief. So if you're if you're
struggling with a limiting belief related to a career path
or a vocation you want to pursue, find somebody else who's
doing it. When we see an example of
(11:39):
somebody else succeeding at whatwe want to do, it convinces
ourselves that it's also possible for us.
It's why the first person that broke the four minute mile then
led to hundreds of other people doing it.
Because now all of a sudden what's possible or the story
people started telling themselves was that you can do
the four minute mile. And, and so I would say, yeah,
(12:00):
start with challenging yourself to to find new evidence based
off your own unique experiences.And if it's not something to do
with yourself, find somebody else who's who's doing the thing
that maybe you think you can't do.
Try the thing that is you're struggling with.
Go ahead and try it a little bit.
Like if you're struggling with being social, try it.
And also, I love how taking action doesn't mean like putting
(12:24):
yourself out there if you're notready.
Taking action could be contacting somebody who's
already doing what you want to do.
It could just mean Googling something you're interested in.
Taking action can be a small step too.
Absolutely. For everyone listening, go ahead
and share this episode with any young adult in your life who
(12:44):
needs a boost of inspiration or share it with someone of any age
who might feel weighed down by self doubt or limiting beliefs.
Because Sam, you are truly soaring through life right now.
The sky is the limit for you. You kind of remind me of a
singer I'm going to see in Florida over spring break.
His name is Connor Price and he sings the song called
(13:04):
Trendsetter. And it's all about like showing
up and reaching your goals and hitting them dead center.
And when it comes to like showing up, I'm a big believer
in serendipity and just being atthe right place at the right
time. Do you have any stories
professionally where you just showed up and something
unexpected happened at an event,you made a connection that
(13:27):
changed the course of your life,or you grew your audience in
some way? Yeah, I have too many stories
like this. I believe that our lives, our
professional and personal growthand success, is a reflection of
the energy we choose to operate in.
I believe we attract experiencesbased on our vibrational
(13:48):
frequency. And maybe that's a little out
there for some people, but I believe gratitude and compassion
and love brings more gratitude, compassion and love into your
life. And I'm trying to think of which
experience I should choose, but the one that pops in my head
right away is a gentleman named Chris.
I, I, I, I said yes to doing a speaking competition in downtown
(14:13):
Toronto. And I didn't really want to do
it. I was thinking about not doing
it. And my parents are like, Sam,
you should go. It's going to be a good
experience. It was at the initial stages of
my career. I was not doing any paid
professional speaking. And I went into this contest and
I did not win, but one of the judges came over and said, you
(14:34):
know, I think I see something special in you.
I'm, I'm going to connect you tomy friends over at a Ted X
event. And I was like, Oh my goodness,
if I didn't show up to this, I wouldn't have got this Ted X
opportunity. And I ended up doing a Ted X
talk titled Small Consistent Actions.
It has over 70,000 views. It's used in a lot of classroom
(14:54):
conversations with students about the importance of the
choices we make and the the compound effect, how every
little action has a ripple. And at that event, the MC was a
gentleman named Chris, who I didn't know, but I walked off
stage and he handed me a piece of paper and it had his number
on it. And he said, if you ever have
(15:15):
any questions about this business, just give me a phone
call. I thought, you know, if I didn't
go to the speaking competition, I wouldn't the TEDx Talk.
If I didn't do the TEDx Talk, I wouldn't have met Chris.
And I didn't call him for a goodyear and a half until I made one
of the biggest decisions of my career, which was to turn down a
massive speaking agency in the United States that was promising
(15:38):
me in 100 events a year if I wanted book deals and TV shows
and all this crazy stuff. And after I turned them down, I
called Chris and asked him to coach.
Me and Chris and I worked together for three years and
every Tuesday we'd have a 2 hourphone call and it was the
biggest investment of my life and it was the best decision of
(15:58):
my life. And I think back to man, if I
didn't show up to that speaking competition, I would not be the
person I am today. I'm.
Curious why did you want to coach with Chris and have Chris
coach you rather than join the big agency?
I had a conversation with the agency owner and the terms of
(16:25):
the, the terms of the agency didn't align with my values and
the way I view business. There was a 10 year agreement.
It was 30% exclusive, which meant everything you do, they
take 30% of whether you book this, the speaking engagement
yourself or they book it for you, they take 30%.
And I don't know where I'd be at30 years old.
I'm, I'm only halfway through the agreement now I'm 25.
(16:46):
So who who knows what the next five years hold?
And after I made the decision not to join, I didn't really
know who else to call. I just remember this good
experience with Chris on stage. And he handed me this piece of
paper with his phone number. And I just called him and I told
him what had happened. And I told him that I don't
believe I I could do this work. I wasn't very successful at that
(17:07):
point in my career. But I said, you know, they said
they were going to take 30% of my income.
I want to invest 30% of my income every year in my personal
development. And I think he'd be the perfect
coach. And and I just, yeah, I guess I
didn't know who else to reach out to.
And I don't honestly believe I could have found a better human
being. Chris changed my life in every
(17:29):
possible way. That's awesome.
Yeah, a 10 year contract is a very long contract.
I love that story about showing up when it comes to like setting
goals and making your dreams a reality.
Are you a numbers guy? Do you set specific measurable
goals with business fitness, finances?
I know personally, like in my talk, I don't talk about SMART
(17:51):
goals, I don't talk about specific measurable goals.
I do inspirational speaking and I talk way more about big dreams
and four ways to make it happen.So I was just curious if you
were like a numbers guy when it comes to setting goals and
making your dreams come true. I do both.
I believe that there is a power in having a, a plan or a, a set
(18:14):
of steps to follow. So if I do have a big goal on
people I want to reach or you know, revenue we want to
generate in the business, breaking it down per quarter and
then monthly and weekly to figure out if we're actually on
track and the plan is working. It's something that I love to
do. It also helps the team members
that work with me manage their daily actions and figure out
(18:34):
what they have to be doing to bring some of those goals we
have set together to life. But I also believe that
sometimes goals can limit what'spossible.
And a question I always ask myself is what if it could turn
out better than I ever imagined?And sometimes with our goal
setting, we're actually putting a cap on what's possible for
ourselves, when in reality we could be doing 10 times more.
(18:55):
Not that more means success, butthere could be greater things in
store for us, and our goals become a container on the cap of
our potential. So I'm really big on having
specific goals in certain business context.
Outside of that, I'm very open to what the universe throws my
(19:16):
way. So Sam, you're from Canada and
you recently spent time in Africa.
And I love that story because I've been to at least three
countries in Africa. So I'd love to hear your story
about how did you end up rounding up soccer gear for
youth soccer players in Africa and like donated gear for the
whole team? We organize a give back project
(19:38):
every single year. It's a part of our business.
One of the core pillars is to serve others and it was inspired
by my grandfather. So every year we do some sort of
service project. Last year happened to be a six
week volunteer speaking tour in Kenya that we self funded.
Myself, my friend Zian and two locals in Kenya organized this
six week trip. We visited 20 school communities
(20:01):
to do volunteer performances fortheir entire school populations.
And we didn't actually intend todo fundraisers while we were
there, but there was one school we visited and I noticed right
away a bunch of young people playing soccer.
Although my knees are pretty terrible and I haven't played in
a long time. I immediately asked the
(20:22):
principal can I please play withthe kids like this would be
amazing. And he said yes and threw my
shoes and socks off. And I'm running down the field.
Next thing you know, sweating like crazy, having the time of
my life. And these kids are laughing.
And I just had so much fun. We finished the game, had all
these conversations. And as we're leaving, the soccer
(20:43):
field, young kid named Peter runs on over.
He's like, man, that was amazing.
Thank you so much for coming to our school from so far away.
You know, I got to tell you, soccer is my whole life.
Like I, it's the one thing I look forward to.
I, I get awards for it. I work hard in school because of
(21:04):
it. But I can't afford shoes.
Can you please buy me a pair of shoes?
And I said yes, let me know yoursize, what kind of shoes you
want. I promise you we'll get you
shoes. And we said bye.
I got in the car to drive back to our hotel and I just thought
to myself, no one had shoes on. Like what if we could get the
(21:26):
whole school, the whole soccer team year?
So we overnight launched a GoFundMe campaign and stayed up
till 4:00 in the morning doing 25 push ups for $50 donations.
And at 5000 we had a massive entrepreneur named Dan Martel
donate. Another 5000 we ended up raising
in less than 24 hours, $13,000 and we ended up doing a massive
(21:51):
soccer give back for the school.But in addition to that, we sent
five kids to to school for a year because the school fees are
on $1000. We also donated $2000 to buy new
camera equipment for our videographer who had broken gear
and was struggling to make ends meet.
We did a lot of really cool things with the funds we raised.
And the crazy thing is it was spontaneous.
(22:13):
We just showed up. We weren't.
We didn't plan this fundraiser activity.
Yeah, I love that. I love when serving others
inspires us, and then, like, everyone benefits.
I feel like we learned so much from the people that we serve as
educators, as speakers. I'm a teacher.
You have so many stories to share, and when you decided to
(22:34):
write some of them down in your book, Empty Your Backpack, that
was quite a project. What got you through the finish
line? Because I feel like a lot of
people start things and we don'tfinish.
Starting and finishing a book issomething that's quite rare.
What's your secret? I launched a date for the book
launch before the book was done.So I put out an event for
(22:58):
November 18th and started selling tickets saying the book
launch is happening here, buy a ticket and the book wasn't even
finished yet. But the deadline provided enough
pressure for me to actually finish the project.
And crazy enough, the 2000 copies of books we bought for
the first print run landed at myhouse 3 days before the book
(23:22):
launch event. And I single handedly I.
I believe that if I didn't have a deadline, I may have never
published the book or finish it in the first place.
I think that if you're going to,you know, take away one thing
from SMART goals, the idea of ofjust making sure there's a
finish point is super helpful because Drake says better late
(23:43):
than never, but never late is better.
And of course it's better not tobe late, but it's better to
finish things at some point, even if it is a little bit late.
And I believe that having a deadline just helps ensure that
we get things done in the 1st place, even if it is slightly
after the date we decide on. Love it.
You know, I feel like fear is not just in our heads as a
(24:07):
limiting belief, it's in our bodies.
When we're doing something stressful, we tend to, at least
I tend to like, shake and get nervous.
The fear physically floods my body.
I teach high schoolers every day, but for some reason the
other day I gave a 4 minute talkat our school board meeting and
I was like so sweaty. So as a motivational speaker, do
(24:29):
certain venues make you more nervous than others?
Or does something throw you off if there's a technical issue?
And how do you dissolve fear in your body before you take the
stage at a speaking event, especially if you're extra
nervous? I think it's not about me.
I'm the vessel to spread a message that's supposed to help
the audience. And every time I've made it
(24:50):
about me, I felt very nervous. But when I flip it back on the
audience, I remind myself that I'm just here to I'm just here
to serve and support people in their own journeys.
I've gotten nervous many times in my life.
I still get nervous. And I think the nerves are just
a signal to us that we care about what we're doing.
We care about having a positive impact.
(25:11):
So I now look at it as a good thing.
And if I don't get nervous, maybe I shouldn't be doing this
work anymore. Recently, when have I gotten
nervous this beaches in Kenya. I didn't even know if they were
going to understand some of it because we went to some very
rural places. That was a challenge and I
(25:32):
wanted to make sure it was goingto connect.
I got nervous doing my first coaching call, so I actually
coached 22, now 22 education keynote speakers who want to
book more engagements at educational institutions.
And the first call I did with them, I was sweating.
I had never done it before and Ithink anything that gets us out
(25:52):
of our comfort zone or is a new experience is naturally going to
make us nervous if we care aboutthe results.
So I again just look at it as a positive thing now and keep
pushing forward. I love what you say about how
action dissolves fear. I used to work in elementary
school with kids who had trauma and it was awesome because they
(26:13):
try anything once. Like did they want to try
hitting a pinata on Cinco de Mayo?
Yeah. Did they want to make green eggs
and ham out of like play dough and slime?
Of course they did. And we partied so hard.
And then they did things and showed themselves how much they
can do when they consistently show up for school and try the
fun activities and try the math and the writing and the
(26:36):
spelling. And we take those small
consistent actions and we show up.
I think we learned that showing up feels good and taking action
feels good. And as adults, my listeners, if
we don't have a teacher showing up for us every day with Plato
and Pinatas, how can we inspire ourselves to take action or
(26:56):
launch ourselves into action so that we can consistently show up
for ourselves? I think having something you're
striving towards is non negotiable.
It doesn't even have to be something everybody else knows
about, but create a couple personal goals for your life
that excite you, that you think,oh, if I brought this to life,
I'd be so I'd be so excited. People often say if you don't
(27:20):
have a vision, you perish. And I believe it's true because
people stop working and the average lifespan is five to
seven years. Have something you're working
on. Have something you're working
towards that doesn't even have to be related to work.
It could just be a pure passion project or a goal.
And if you do accomplish it, choose a new one.
(27:41):
Choose a new thing that excites you to work on.
It could be learning a new skill, it could be improving a
part of your physical fitness ormental well-being.
It could be a personal development growth goal, like
learning a language or solving anumber of puzzles.
But just have something that you're that you're making
progress towards. Yeah, I love that.
(28:02):
And when it comes to taking action, everybody listening,
you're not alone. If you need to reach out and
talk to an accountant about starting a business or type a
question into Google and then get like a YouTube tutorial on
how to do stuff. You can learn how to do things
and you can start a new challenge.
So I know you travel for work. Sam, are you at home in Canada
(28:24):
right now? I am.
So before you go, I know you have to go.
I thought we would play a fun little game called How Canadian
Are You? What do you think?
Let's do it. OK, Sam Dema, name 1 Canadian
hockey team ice hockey. Toronto Maple Leafs.
(28:45):
Great job. These questions will get harder.
Name a tasty way to use Maple syrup that doesn't involve
pancakes. Waffles.
Name a Canadian singer other than Drake or Nelly Furtado.
(29:06):
Whitney Houston. Was she Canadian?
I'm going to Fact Check real quick.
I I really think she is. I love Whitney Houston, So Sam,
I heard you'll be taking your keynote speeches to Australia in
the near future and speaking to everyone down under.
I actually lived in Melbourne for a summer, so I have a
(29:28):
question about Australia. What country has more coastline,
Australia or Canada? So I found out she was actually
American. So I got a follow on that last
question. I believe that Australia has
more coast. Fact checking Whitney Houston
and answering the Australian question all at once.
(29:48):
Good job Sam, although your answer was incorrect because
Canada has more coastline. OK, don't Fact Check it.
It is true Canada has more coastline.
Houston is American, right? We're coming down the home
stretch, OK. We're moving on to a fill in the
blank scenario. Canada has more blank than any
(30:13):
other country in the world. More blank, blank.
I want to say Canada has more. Are they the biggest or not the
probably the biggest. More land.
More lakes. Oh, damn.
(30:34):
Oh, most of the fresh water. Yeah, OK.
And then lastly, what is the number one tourist attraction in
Canada? Niagara Falls.
Correct. I'm putting a virtual sticker on
your shirt right now for doing such a good job.
Thank you. But in all seriousness, I love
(30:56):
your mission of encouraging everyone to take small,
consistent steps toward their goals every single day and to
always have a goal that you're working toward.
I'd love to hear your final thoughts on the importance of
the small, consistent actions. Because we're not just a work in
progress, y'all. We are all a success in
progress. The trying is the succeeding,
(31:19):
the action is the succeeding. And every success begins with
two words. I'll try.
So Sam, what do you want to add when it comes to your message
and your mission? I just went on a tangent there,
but what do you want to add? You said it all.
I would just remind people that every day we have an opportunity
to make a choice to move ourselves an inch closer to the
(31:42):
person we want to be or to continue the same path we're on.
And, and every day there's an opportunity.
And I believe we, we make these massive life choices a few times
throughout our lifespan. You know, where we're going to
live in the work, the job we're going to, you know, work for a
long period of time and the person we marry and the house we
(32:02):
purchase. And these are all big decisions
and they do have an impact. But I believe that the real
change lies the opportunity liesin the thousands upon thousands
of choices we're making every single day.
These these tiny choices that are so small, we almost write
them off as insignificant. We don't even recognize we're
(32:24):
making these choices because we make them on autopilot, because
we do them all day long and theythey become habits.
And if you and I can create thislittle gap between thinking
about and making the tiny littlechoices every single day, that's
where we have an opportunity to really shift things in our
lives, to get more intentional about all the tiny choices.
And that's what small consistentactions is all about.
(32:45):
It's about it's about making a decision, a commitment to
changing the little things in our lives consistently over a
long period of time. It will eventually compound and
make a really big impact. I love it and I feel like when
you have anxiety or fear, like the small courageous actions,
(33:08):
tiny little steps forward are soimportant.
Listen up everyone. If you want to stay inspired
when it comes to fitness, travelor your own goals, I highly
recommend you follow Sam on social media.
I'll put links to his website inthe show notes.
Sam is always sharing heartfelt posts about his life and his
speaking business, his fitness journey and his rise to the top.
(33:30):
In my opinion, Sam, it's been anhonor to have you here.
Tell everyone where to find you online.
And of course, if you're still doing the speaker training, you
can tell everybody about that aswell.
First of all, if you're not subscribed to this show with
Alyssa, I don't know what you'rewaiting for.
Please make sure you go and do that.
And after you do that, look outside your window because
(33:50):
you'll see me with a giant red backpack I'm impossible to miss
in. All in all transparency, I'm
super easy to connect with and super easy to find.
Just search Sam demo on any social platform or Google and
you'll find my information. It's Sam demo across Instagram
and Facebook and TikTok and LinkedIn and YouTube and the
website issamdemo.com. We do also have a coaching
(34:13):
program, it's called Elite speaker coaching.
You can DM me the word start on Instagram and we'll have a
conversation and see if we can help you.
Well, that completes our episode.
If this podcast content felt true for you, leave a rating and
review on Apple Podcast today. Follow this podcast and keep
exploring your favorite ways to dissolve fear and make room for
(34:36):
your best life to unfold in fun and miraculous ways.
Believe in yourself, take care of yourself, and thank you for
being here.
Welcome to the Dissolving Fear podcast.
If you have big dreams and plans, but you get distracted by
fear and doubt TuneIn because fear doesn't run the show.
You do. And fear doesn't run this show.
I'm your host, Miss Alyssa, and the mission here is a world
where fear doesn't control us. We come face to face with our
biggest fears and our wildest dreams, and we live our best
(00:23):
lives. I'm here to share inspiring
stories, proven tools, and authentic guest interviews so
that you can keep up your forward momentum in life without
letting anxiety or adversity drag you down.
Follow this podcast. You'll love the results.
Loving life is what we're all about here on the podcast and at
missalyssa.com. Enjoy the show.
(00:47):
Sam Demma, welcome to the podcast.
Alyssa, thank you so much for having me on.
You are a young, successful speaker, a Ted Talk speaker, and
author and entrepreneur. I'm so excited, Sam, to talk to
you about how you're soaring through life without fear,
doubt, or any of those heavy limiting beliefs that tend to
(01:10):
weigh us down. You're kind of an old soul.
You're full of love and respect for the audience members that
you speak to, and you've touchedso many lives with your business
and your philanthropy, so we're so honored to have you here.
It is my pleasure. I really appreciate the
invitation and I'm so excited totalk with you today.
(01:30):
Well, you're on a roll as an entrepreneur and motivational
speaker. You've given a variety of Ted
talks, you've partnered with some huge names like Taco Bell,
and you have over 30 keynote speeches scheduled for 2025.
Your book is called Empty Your Backpack.
Tell us about yourself and if you'd like to talk about your
book, go right ahead. Give us a little introduction.
(01:53):
My name is Sam Dema. My ethnic name is Salvatore.
I'm half Italian, half Greek. Growing up, my parents called me
Sammy and the name Sam just stuck.
I do feel like a Sam, but it's important to tell people my my
real name because I share it with my grandfather, who had a
big impact on my life as a youngperson.
He taught me what it meant to bea servant leader, what it meant
(02:16):
to show up for others just as much as we show up for
ourselves, and to serve others without any expectation of
getting anything in return. Growing up, I wanted to play
professional soccer. I pursued that dream with
everything I had in my heart andmy body.
At the age of 17, in my senior year of high school, I had three
major knee injuries, 2 surgeries, lost a full ride
(02:39):
soccer scholarship, faced two ofthe most challenging years of my
life filled with uncertainty, doubt, and fear for what the
future was going to hold for me.Had a very inspiring teacher who
helped me redirect that energy and apply it to something
positive in my life. That manifested in the form of a
community initiative where we would mobilize volunteers to
(02:59):
pick up garbage and it was basedon the theory he taught in class
called Small Consistent Actions.This little community project
grew and and grew and we filled over 3500 bags of garbage with
our volunteer cleanups with local high school students in
the city. And that work got me speaking
because we needed volunteers. So we started doing these four
(03:21):
to five minute promotional talksat local schools to get more
students helping us pick up trash.
Did 30 or 40 of those and then aprincipal pulled me aside and
said we bring in people all the time to deliver programs and
most of the times the kids fall asleep and the teachers too.
And they weren't on their phones.
(03:42):
They were locked in and engaged.They loved the experience.
Can you come back and speak for 30 minutes?
And I was like, dude, what are you like what, what am I going
to say for 30 minutes? You know, I was a 17 year old
kid. I didn't even know what I wanted
to eat for lunch, let alone whatI want to speak about for half
an hour in front of a whole audience.
But I took it as a challenge andI went home and I searched up
(04:04):
youth speaker and I called everybody I could find on the
next 5 pages of Google. Ask them all these questions
about the work they did and madeit a mission to do the best
speech I could possibly do. And I went back to that school
and delivered a talk and then had so much positive responses
from students and staff and enjoyed the experience myself
that I made a decision to pursuethat work for the rest of my
life. You know, since then, that was
(04:28):
six years ago, five and a half, six years ago since I've done it
professionally, and then two years before that, more to
volunteer capacity. But we've done close to 700
events across Canada, the UnitedStates, and Kenya.
We've, we've, we've launched thebook Empty Your Backpack, like
you mentioned, which is an extension of all the work that
we do on stage at events and conferences.
(04:49):
And for me, the mission is to build better humans, just help
people make better decisions andfeel better about themselves.
So the picking up the waste and the picking up the trash, that
turned into a nonprofit, right, called PIC Waste.
Correct. And then the talks about picking
up the trash turned into your business, which is a
(05:11):
motivational speaker and you're you've been doing it for years.
And every year you travel and you visit at least 30 different
sites and give talks. You could call it trash talk.
Everybody here in the audience, we have Sam Demi here today to
talk trash with us. Actually, not just that.
(05:31):
I'm crowning you the king of small consistent actions because
I feel like you're living proof that so much is possible when we
pair our imagination with some action so much, so often, like
we sit on the couch, we're armchair astronauts, we think up
ideas. I know I have a wonderful active
imagination, but I don't always pair it with action.
(05:52):
So I'm very impressed with how you've used your success to help
others and take action in Canadaand even in Africa, which I'll
touch on more later. But tell me, when you started to
dream big and think about becoming a speaker and author
and entrepreneur, what was one fear that popped into your mind?
Because sometimes when we have this big thought in our
(06:14):
imagination, I feel like the fear is right there behind it.
I'm not good enough. That was the biggest repeatable,
self limiting belief that ran through my mind.
I remember one of my first speeches sitting in the staff
room an hour before making conversation, going into the
(06:34):
gym, delivering the presentationand having a few staff members
that I met earlier run over and say, dude, that was awesome, but
we have to apologize. Apologize for what?
And they said, well, when you left the staff room, we cracked
some some jokes saying what is this young guy going to have to
share that's of any substance orvalue.
(06:55):
And I had uncles at family picnics.
Tell my father to tell your son to stop wasting his life and go
back to school. Because I took a different path
after post secondary. I didn't finish my university
degree. I felt called to do this work at
a young age. And I carried this self limiting
belief and fear that I'm not good enough.
Why would somebody hire me? What do I have to say?
(07:17):
It's of any value. And I carried those thoughts for
way too long. It wasn't really until I had a
lot of positive experiences of young people and staff members
walking up after performances, crying, telling me about the
impact it made on their lives, that I fully started to step
into my power and believe that Icould make a contribution that
was bigger than myself. But I think the thing that
(07:38):
helped me the most was just showing up and doing the work,
even in moments where I didn't think it was going well.
You know, I, I thought if I stand in the basement and
practice my speech every day, I can confidently call myself a
speaker because I'm, I'm speaking even though it was just
to a mirror at the time. You know, if you like painting,
(08:01):
if you paint every day, you can start believing and calling
yourself a painter. Whether it looks like my grade 4
paintings or Picasso, you are a painter.
And if there is something that someone listening to this is
afraid to do, or they're doubting their own abilities, I
would recommend that they do thething as much as possible that
(08:23):
that will help eliminate some ofthat fear and get you started in
the right direction. Yeah, practice, Practice what
you want to be doing. You could have told yourself,
oh, I need a degree to be qualified to speak.
I need to do this or that. And if you would have told
yourself that you might not havestarted at a young age, you
(08:45):
might be still thinking about itrather than doing it.
And I asked you about your fear because I think a lot of us
experience an influx of fear anddoubt when we ask ourselves what
if. And then we visualize what we
want to be doing. So we might start by visualizing
what we want, writing it down, but then our mind stops us and
(09:06):
it stops us from taking action or advocating for ourselves.
How do our limiting beliefs end up in our invisible backpack,
weighing us down? Because I know you talk about
this in your book, you could tell everyone what I'm talking
about, But we tend to carry around limiting beliefs.
We all go through life with a giant invisible backpack
strapped to our shoulders and every experience we have, every
(09:28):
conversation creates these stories that we carry in these
backpacks. Some of the stories are very
positive and we should keep themin there.
But some of the stories and beliefs are very negative and
they weigh us down and they stopus from expressing our gifts and
talents and being our authentic selves.
And I believe that some of the most important work we can do
personally is work on emptying our backpack of those negative
(09:51):
thoughts and stories and ensuring that our choices also
help people around us empty theirs.
I had many, many limiting beliefs in my backpack.
One was that I wasn't good enough.
And I believe the way we overcome those limiting beliefs
is by gaining new experiences that challenge those beliefs
we're currently carrying. So if I believed I'm not a, I'm
(10:16):
not a social person, I lack networking skills, I have a hard
time starting conversations withpeople.
And these are the stories I'm telling myself and carrying in
my backpack. If I can put myself in a
situation in a room full of people and get out of my comfort
zone to actually start conversations, and I do that for
(10:37):
the next, you know, 10 months, once a month, the new evidence
is going to start to convince myself you are a social person.
You can start conversations withpeople you don't know.
So I think it's really the best way to challenge any limiting
belief is to find an experience different from the story you're
currently telling yourself. And sometimes it doesn't even
(10:57):
have to be you. For example, one of the first
beliefs I told myself is this isnot a career I could pursue.
Like there's not enough schools,they don't actually hire
speakers. And I went online and found
dozens of people that have been doing this for over 30 years.
And I, I called them and I askedthem questions and they said,
(11:18):
no, I've, I've been doing this full time for 20 years.
This is definitely possible. Their proof changed my limiting
belief. So if you're if you're
struggling with a limiting belief related to a career path
or a vocation you want to pursue, find somebody else who's
doing it. When we see an example of
(11:39):
somebody else succeeding at whatwe want to do, it convinces
ourselves that it's also possible for us.
It's why the first person that broke the four minute mile then
led to hundreds of other people doing it.
Because now all of a sudden what's possible or the story
people started telling themselves was that you can do
the four minute mile. And, and so I would say, yeah,
(12:00):
start with challenging yourself to to find new evidence based
off your own unique experiences.And if it's not something to do
with yourself, find somebody else who's who's doing the thing
that maybe you think you can't do.
Try the thing that is you're struggling with.
Go ahead and try it a little bit.
Like if you're struggling with being social, try it.
And also, I love how taking action doesn't mean like putting
(12:24):
yourself out there if you're notready.
Taking action could be contacting somebody who's
already doing what you want to do.
It could just mean Googling something you're interested in.
Taking action can be a small step too.
Absolutely. For everyone listening, go ahead
and share this episode with any young adult in your life who
(12:44):
needs a boost of inspiration or share it with someone of any age
who might feel weighed down by self doubt or limiting beliefs.
Because Sam, you are truly soaring through life right now.
The sky is the limit for you. You kind of remind me of a
singer I'm going to see in Florida over spring break.
His name is Connor Price and he sings the song called
(13:04):
Trendsetter. And it's all about like showing
up and reaching your goals and hitting them dead center.
And when it comes to like showing up, I'm a big believer
in serendipity and just being atthe right place at the right
time. Do you have any stories
professionally where you just showed up and something
unexpected happened at an event,you made a connection that
(13:27):
changed the course of your life,or you grew your audience in
some way? Yeah, I have too many stories
like this. I believe that our lives, our
professional and personal growthand success, is a reflection of
the energy we choose to operate in.
I believe we attract experiencesbased on our vibrational
(13:48):
frequency. And maybe that's a little out
there for some people, but I believe gratitude and compassion
and love brings more gratitude, compassion and love into your
life. And I'm trying to think of which
experience I should choose, but the one that pops in my head
right away is a gentleman named Chris.
I, I, I, I said yes to doing a speaking competition in downtown
(14:13):
Toronto. And I didn't really want to do
it. I was thinking about not doing
it. And my parents are like, Sam,
you should go. It's going to be a good
experience. It was at the initial stages of
my career. I was not doing any paid
professional speaking. And I went into this contest and
I did not win, but one of the judges came over and said, you
(14:34):
know, I think I see something special in you.
I'm, I'm going to connect you tomy friends over at a Ted X
event. And I was like, Oh my goodness,
if I didn't show up to this, I wouldn't have got this Ted X
opportunity. And I ended up doing a Ted X
talk titled Small Consistent Actions.
It has over 70,000 views. It's used in a lot of classroom
(14:54):
conversations with students about the importance of the
choices we make and the the compound effect, how every
little action has a ripple. And at that event, the MC was a
gentleman named Chris, who I didn't know, but I walked off
stage and he handed me a piece of paper and it had his number
on it. And he said, if you ever have
(15:15):
any questions about this business, just give me a phone
call. I thought, you know, if I didn't
go to the speaking competition, I wouldn't the TEDx Talk.
If I didn't do the TEDx Talk, I wouldn't have met Chris.
And I didn't call him for a goodyear and a half until I made one
of the biggest decisions of my career, which was to turn down a
massive speaking agency in the United States that was promising
(15:38):
me in 100 events a year if I wanted book deals and TV shows
and all this crazy stuff. And after I turned them down, I
called Chris and asked him to coach.
Me and Chris and I worked together for three years and
every Tuesday we'd have a 2 hourphone call and it was the
biggest investment of my life and it was the best decision of
(15:58):
my life. And I think back to man, if I
didn't show up to that speaking competition, I would not be the
person I am today. I'm.
Curious why did you want to coach with Chris and have Chris
coach you rather than join the big agency?
I had a conversation with the agency owner and the terms of
(16:25):
the, the terms of the agency didn't align with my values and
the way I view business. There was a 10 year agreement.
It was 30% exclusive, which meant everything you do, they
take 30% of whether you book this, the speaking engagement
yourself or they book it for you, they take 30%.
And I don't know where I'd be at30 years old.
I'm, I'm only halfway through the agreement now I'm 25.
(16:46):
So who who knows what the next five years hold?
And after I made the decision not to join, I didn't really
know who else to call. I just remember this good
experience with Chris on stage. And he handed me this piece of
paper with his phone number. And I just called him and I told
him what had happened. And I told him that I don't
believe I I could do this work. I wasn't very successful at that
(17:07):
point in my career. But I said, you know, they said
they were going to take 30% of my income.
I want to invest 30% of my income every year in my personal
development. And I think he'd be the perfect
coach. And and I just, yeah, I guess I
didn't know who else to reach out to.
And I don't honestly believe I could have found a better human
being. Chris changed my life in every
(17:29):
possible way. That's awesome.
Yeah, a 10 year contract is a very long contract.
I love that story about showing up when it comes to like setting
goals and making your dreams a reality.
Are you a numbers guy? Do you set specific measurable
goals with business fitness, finances?
I know personally, like in my talk, I don't talk about SMART
(17:51):
goals, I don't talk about specific measurable goals.
I do inspirational speaking and I talk way more about big dreams
and four ways to make it happen.So I was just curious if you
were like a numbers guy when it comes to setting goals and
making your dreams come true. I do both.
I believe that there is a power in having a, a plan or a, a set
(18:14):
of steps to follow. So if I do have a big goal on
people I want to reach or you know, revenue we want to
generate in the business, breaking it down per quarter and
then monthly and weekly to figure out if we're actually on
track and the plan is working. It's something that I love to
do. It also helps the team members
that work with me manage their daily actions and figure out
(18:34):
what they have to be doing to bring some of those goals we
have set together to life. But I also believe that
sometimes goals can limit what'spossible.
And a question I always ask myself is what if it could turn
out better than I ever imagined?And sometimes with our goal
setting, we're actually putting a cap on what's possible for
ourselves, when in reality we could be doing 10 times more.
(18:55):
Not that more means success, butthere could be greater things in
store for us, and our goals become a container on the cap of
our potential. So I'm really big on having
specific goals in certain business context.
Outside of that, I'm very open to what the universe throws my
(19:16):
way. So Sam, you're from Canada and
you recently spent time in Africa.
And I love that story because I've been to at least three
countries in Africa. So I'd love to hear your story
about how did you end up rounding up soccer gear for
youth soccer players in Africa and like donated gear for the
whole team? We organize a give back project
(19:38):
every single year. It's a part of our business.
One of the core pillars is to serve others and it was inspired
by my grandfather. So every year we do some sort of
service project. Last year happened to be a six
week volunteer speaking tour in Kenya that we self funded.
Myself, my friend Zian and two locals in Kenya organized this
six week trip. We visited 20 school communities
(20:01):
to do volunteer performances fortheir entire school populations.
And we didn't actually intend todo fundraisers while we were
there, but there was one school we visited and I noticed right
away a bunch of young people playing soccer.
Although my knees are pretty terrible and I haven't played in
a long time. I immediately asked the
(20:22):
principal can I please play withthe kids like this would be
amazing. And he said yes and threw my
shoes and socks off. And I'm running down the field.
Next thing you know, sweating like crazy, having the time of
my life. And these kids are laughing.
And I just had so much fun. We finished the game, had all
these conversations. And as we're leaving, the soccer
(20:43):
field, young kid named Peter runs on over.
He's like, man, that was amazing.
Thank you so much for coming to our school from so far away.
You know, I got to tell you, soccer is my whole life.
Like I, it's the one thing I look forward to.
I, I get awards for it. I work hard in school because of
(21:04):
it. But I can't afford shoes.
Can you please buy me a pair of shoes?
And I said yes, let me know yoursize, what kind of shoes you
want. I promise you we'll get you
shoes. And we said bye.
I got in the car to drive back to our hotel and I just thought
to myself, no one had shoes on. Like what if we could get the
(21:26):
whole school, the whole soccer team year?
So we overnight launched a GoFundMe campaign and stayed up
till 4:00 in the morning doing 25 push ups for $50 donations.
And at 5000 we had a massive entrepreneur named Dan Martel
donate. Another 5000 we ended up raising
in less than 24 hours, $13,000 and we ended up doing a massive
(21:51):
soccer give back for the school.But in addition to that, we sent
five kids to to school for a year because the school fees are
on $1000. We also donated $2000 to buy new
camera equipment for our videographer who had broken gear
and was struggling to make ends meet.
We did a lot of really cool things with the funds we raised.
And the crazy thing is it was spontaneous.
(22:13):
We just showed up. We weren't.
We didn't plan this fundraiser activity.
Yeah, I love that. I love when serving others
inspires us, and then, like, everyone benefits.
I feel like we learned so much from the people that we serve as
educators, as speakers. I'm a teacher.
You have so many stories to share, and when you decided to
(22:34):
write some of them down in your book, Empty Your Backpack, that
was quite a project. What got you through the finish
line? Because I feel like a lot of
people start things and we don'tfinish.
Starting and finishing a book issomething that's quite rare.
What's your secret? I launched a date for the book
launch before the book was done.So I put out an event for
(22:58):
November 18th and started selling tickets saying the book
launch is happening here, buy a ticket and the book wasn't even
finished yet. But the deadline provided enough
pressure for me to actually finish the project.
And crazy enough, the 2000 copies of books we bought for
the first print run landed at myhouse 3 days before the book
(23:22):
launch event. And I single handedly I.
I believe that if I didn't have a deadline, I may have never
published the book or finish it in the first place.
I think that if you're going to,you know, take away one thing
from SMART goals, the idea of ofjust making sure there's a
finish point is super helpful because Drake says better late
(23:43):
than never, but never late is better.
And of course it's better not tobe late, but it's better to
finish things at some point, even if it is a little bit late.
And I believe that having a deadline just helps ensure that
we get things done in the 1st place, even if it is slightly
after the date we decide on. Love it.
You know, I feel like fear is not just in our heads as a
(24:07):
limiting belief, it's in our bodies.
When we're doing something stressful, we tend to, at least
I tend to like, shake and get nervous.
The fear physically floods my body.
I teach high schoolers every day, but for some reason the
other day I gave a 4 minute talkat our school board meeting and
I was like so sweaty. So as a motivational speaker, do
(24:29):
certain venues make you more nervous than others?
Or does something throw you off if there's a technical issue?
And how do you dissolve fear in your body before you take the
stage at a speaking event, especially if you're extra
nervous? I think it's not about me.
I'm the vessel to spread a message that's supposed to help
the audience. And every time I've made it
(24:50):
about me, I felt very nervous. But when I flip it back on the
audience, I remind myself that I'm just here to I'm just here
to serve and support people in their own journeys.
I've gotten nervous many times in my life.
I still get nervous. And I think the nerves are just
a signal to us that we care about what we're doing.
We care about having a positive impact.
(25:11):
So I now look at it as a good thing.
And if I don't get nervous, maybe I shouldn't be doing this
work anymore. Recently, when have I gotten
nervous this beaches in Kenya. I didn't even know if they were
going to understand some of it because we went to some very
rural places. That was a challenge and I
(25:32):
wanted to make sure it was goingto connect.
I got nervous doing my first coaching call, so I actually
coached 22, now 22 education keynote speakers who want to
book more engagements at educational institutions.
And the first call I did with them, I was sweating.
I had never done it before and Ithink anything that gets us out
(25:52):
of our comfort zone or is a new experience is naturally going to
make us nervous if we care aboutthe results.
So I again just look at it as a positive thing now and keep
pushing forward. I love what you say about how
action dissolves fear. I used to work in elementary
school with kids who had trauma and it was awesome because they
(26:13):
try anything once. Like did they want to try
hitting a pinata on Cinco de Mayo?
Yeah. Did they want to make green eggs
and ham out of like play dough and slime?
Of course they did. And we partied so hard.
And then they did things and showed themselves how much they
can do when they consistently show up for school and try the
fun activities and try the math and the writing and the
(26:36):
spelling. And we take those small
consistent actions and we show up.
I think we learned that showing up feels good and taking action
feels good. And as adults, my listeners, if
we don't have a teacher showing up for us every day with Plato
and Pinatas, how can we inspire ourselves to take action or
(26:56):
launch ourselves into action so that we can consistently show up
for ourselves? I think having something you're
striving towards is non negotiable.
It doesn't even have to be something everybody else knows
about, but create a couple personal goals for your life
that excite you, that you think,oh, if I brought this to life,
I'd be so I'd be so excited. People often say if you don't
(27:20):
have a vision, you perish. And I believe it's true because
people stop working and the average lifespan is five to
seven years. Have something you're working
on. Have something you're working
towards that doesn't even have to be related to work.
It could just be a pure passion project or a goal.
And if you do accomplish it, choose a new one.
(27:41):
Choose a new thing that excites you to work on.
It could be learning a new skill, it could be improving a
part of your physical fitness ormental well-being.
It could be a personal development growth goal, like
learning a language or solving anumber of puzzles.
But just have something that you're that you're making
progress towards. Yeah, I love that.
(28:02):
And when it comes to taking action, everybody listening,
you're not alone. If you need to reach out and
talk to an accountant about starting a business or type a
question into Google and then get like a YouTube tutorial on
how to do stuff. You can learn how to do things
and you can start a new challenge.
So I know you travel for work. Sam, are you at home in Canada
(28:24):
right now? I am.
So before you go, I know you have to go.
I thought we would play a fun little game called How Canadian
Are You? What do you think?
Let's do it. OK, Sam Dema, name 1 Canadian
hockey team ice hockey. Toronto Maple Leafs.
(28:45):
Great job. These questions will get harder.
Name a tasty way to use Maple syrup that doesn't involve
pancakes. Waffles.
Name a Canadian singer other than Drake or Nelly Furtado.
(29:06):
Whitney Houston. Was she Canadian?
I'm going to Fact Check real quick.
I I really think she is. I love Whitney Houston, So Sam,
I heard you'll be taking your keynote speeches to Australia in
the near future and speaking to everyone down under.
I actually lived in Melbourne for a summer, so I have a
(29:28):
question about Australia. What country has more coastline,
Australia or Canada? So I found out she was actually
American. So I got a follow on that last
question. I believe that Australia has
more coast. Fact checking Whitney Houston
and answering the Australian question all at once.
(29:48):
Good job Sam, although your answer was incorrect because
Canada has more coastline. OK, don't Fact Check it.
It is true Canada has more coastline.
Houston is American, right? We're coming down the home
stretch, OK. We're moving on to a fill in the
blank scenario. Canada has more blank than any
(30:13):
other country in the world. More blank, blank.
I want to say Canada has more. Are they the biggest or not the
probably the biggest. More land.
More lakes. Oh, damn.
(30:34):
Oh, most of the fresh water. Yeah, OK.
And then lastly, what is the number one tourist attraction in
Canada? Niagara Falls.
Correct. I'm putting a virtual sticker on
your shirt right now for doing such a good job.
Thank you. But in all seriousness, I love
(30:56):
your mission of encouraging everyone to take small,
consistent steps toward their goals every single day and to
always have a goal that you're working toward.
I'd love to hear your final thoughts on the importance of
the small, consistent actions. Because we're not just a work in
progress, y'all. We are all a success in
progress. The trying is the succeeding,
(31:19):
the action is the succeeding. And every success begins with
two words. I'll try.
So Sam, what do you want to add when it comes to your message
and your mission? I just went on a tangent there,
but what do you want to add? You said it all.
I would just remind people that every day we have an opportunity
to make a choice to move ourselves an inch closer to the
(31:42):
person we want to be or to continue the same path we're on.
And, and every day there's an opportunity.
And I believe we, we make these massive life choices a few times
throughout our lifespan. You know, where we're going to
live in the work, the job we're going to, you know, work for a
long period of time and the person we marry and the house we
(32:02):
purchase. And these are all big decisions
and they do have an impact. But I believe that the real
change lies the opportunity liesin the thousands upon thousands
of choices we're making every single day.
These these tiny choices that are so small, we almost write
them off as insignificant. We don't even recognize we're
(32:24):
making these choices because we make them on autopilot, because
we do them all day long and theythey become habits.
And if you and I can create thislittle gap between thinking
about and making the tiny littlechoices every single day, that's
where we have an opportunity to really shift things in our
lives, to get more intentional about all the tiny choices.
And that's what small consistentactions is all about.
(32:45):
It's about it's about making a decision, a commitment to
changing the little things in our lives consistently over a
long period of time. It will eventually compound and
make a really big impact. I love it and I feel like when
you have anxiety or fear, like the small courageous actions,
(33:08):
tiny little steps forward are soimportant.
Listen up everyone. If you want to stay inspired
when it comes to fitness, travelor your own goals, I highly
recommend you follow Sam on social media.
I'll put links to his website inthe show notes.
Sam is always sharing heartfelt posts about his life and his
speaking business, his fitness journey and his rise to the top.
(33:30):
In my opinion, Sam, it's been anhonor to have you here.
Tell everyone where to find you online.
And of course, if you're still doing the speaker training, you
can tell everybody about that aswell.
First of all, if you're not subscribed to this show with
Alyssa, I don't know what you'rewaiting for.
Please make sure you go and do that.
And after you do that, look outside your window because
(33:50):
you'll see me with a giant red backpack I'm impossible to miss
in. All in all transparency, I'm
super easy to connect with and super easy to find.
Just search Sam demo on any social platform or Google and
you'll find my information. It's Sam demo across Instagram
and Facebook and TikTok and LinkedIn and YouTube and the
website issamdemo.com. We do also have a coaching
(34:13):
program, it's called Elite speaker coaching.
You can DM me the word start on Instagram and we'll have a
conversation and see if we can help you.
Well, that completes our episode.
If this podcast content felt true for you, leave a rating and
review on Apple Podcast today. Follow this podcast and keep
exploring your favorite ways to dissolve fear and make room for
(34:36):
your best life to unfold in fun and miraculous ways.
Believe in yourself, take care of yourself, and thank you for
being here.
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