I would have to say, that one of my most talked about events in 2015 was when I was asked to be the motivational performer at the closing awards ceremony at the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Maybe you have seen the broadcast on ESPN when the finalists take to the stage to spell unbelievable words. Not only do the spell them, but they know how they originated, what they mean and the breakdowns of how they’d use in a sentence.  This fascinates me!

SO . . . when Scripps called again to ask if I’d come back?  I JUMPED at the chance. I even took along one of my daughters to see to live finals.

For my part as the closing motivational performer, of course we would make it extra funny and add some extra magic to the show. The finalists, who were aged six years old (yes really) through 8th grade would certainly love this part. I also thought we’d do a little something extra.  So with the help of my daughter, we created this “run-in” video. I’ve done several before when I’m hired as a conference emcee, but this was extra fun to create with her help as the videographer and editor. (Made it much easier on me.)

Motivational Performer “run-in” video:

We should have recorded the behind the scenes shots as well, which were equally as funny. The hardest part was the fact that I must have run a couple miles in VERY nice shoes. So shin splints galore the following days – and probably still.

Jon Petz is a motivational performer and business magician. To learn more, please visit his website.