Empowering Broken Children: Youth Speaker Lawrence C. Harris Turned Trauma Into Purpose & Healing Tips For Parents (Inspirational)

What happens when a 12-year-old boy, broken by abuse and betrayal, decides to rewrite the ending of his story?

In this powerful inspirational episode, youth empowerment speaker and author Lawrence C. Harris shares his incredible journey of overcoming childhood trauma, complex PTSD, and family abandonment to become a nationally recognized voice of transformation. At just 19 years old, Lawrence speaks truth with the wisdom of someone who’s walked through pain and chose purpose.  Lawrence started speaking to youth at just 15-year-old.

You’ll hear how he turned deep wounds into leadership, how mindset and daily habits rewired his brain, and how young people today can reclaim their personal power—even when it feels impossible. Whether you're battling internal struggles or raising someone who is, this episode offers raw truth, actionable healing tools, and spiritual resilience for anyone ready to reclaim their voice, their worth, and their future.

If you or someone you love has ever felt invisible, unworthy, or trapped by past pain, this conversation will help you realize you're not alone—and you're not powerless. Lawrence’s story mirrors what many silently endure: family trauma, fear of vulnerability, and the inner critic that whispers, “You’re not enough.” But his journey proves transformation is possible through intentional mindset shifts, healing, and the courage to speak your truth.

Top 3 Benefits You’ll Get from This Episode:

• Discover how to recognize hidden emotional trauma in yourself or your children—and what red flags to never ignore.
• Learn simple yet powerful daily habits that restore self-worth, confidence, and emotional balance, even when battling depression or PTSD.
• Gain step-by-step insight on how to reclaim your personal power and rewrite your story, no matter how painful your past has been.

Tap play now to hear how Lawrence C. Harris turned childhood trauma into a legacy of hope—and how you can too.

LAWRENCE C. HARRIS' CONTACT INFO:

https://www.instagram.com/lawrencec.empowers Https://www.lawrencecharris.com

PURCHASE LAWRENCE'S BOOK:

"Power to the people: How to take control of your life using the power of your mind, money management and physical fitness."

https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B0CV13773F

empowering children, childhood trauma, healing tips for parents, youth, empowerment, purpose after pain, empowering youth, trauma, abuse

Transcript

Reginald D: Welcome to Real Talk with Reginald D. I'm your host, Reginald D.

On today's episode, I have Lawrence Harris. Lawrence is a youth leadership and empowerment speaker,

author and coach.

Welcome to the show, Lawrence.

Lawrence: Nice to meet you.

Reginald D: Thank you for joining us today.

Lawrence: Of course. Fantastic to be here and ultimately know that this is going to impact somebody out there.

Reginald D: That's it, exactly. So, Lawrence, take us back to your childhood. Where did you grow up and what was life like?

Lawrence: Well,

for the beginning of my childhood, it was pretty standard. You know,

mom and dad in the house,

just running around doing little kids stuff like playing in dirt, trying to go catch bugs. It was all pretty normal.

But as I got older, around the age of about 10,

started noticing things like, you know, arguments between my mom and my dad,

which is again normal. But a kid shouldn't grow up seeing that because it has a lasting impact on them.

Now at 12 years old is when things get messy.

I'm at my dad's house and at this point in time, my mom, my dad are completely separate. He goes off, gets married to somebody else. My mom goes off, she lives her life and I'm at my dad's house sitting on this black couch.

Now,

my mom was calling my phone to wish my little sister a happy birthday.

But normally my dad would make us leave our phone inside the car because he never gave us the reason why.

He simply didn't want us speaking to our mom whilst at his house, which was actually owned by his wife, but that's a different story there.

And his wife sees that my mom's calling and looks at him and her exact words were,

are you gonna let him talk to her in my house?

My dad looks at me and gets this like look of anger in his face and boom, he just punches me in my left eye. And I thought it was just some sort of mistake, frustration, maybe he didn't mean to.

So I'm sitting there clutching my eye and then he does it again.

And at that moment I realized that I was this 12 year old little boy with all these hopes and ambitions and dreams for life.

And then I feel this weight settled down on me that now I have to step up and make sure this doesn't happen to my younger siblings.

Because my little sister is nine,

my brother at this time is five years old and my little brother is autistic and nonverbal. So he can communicate with you but he cannot speak to you.

So if something happens to him,

you'll know something happened, but you won't know what because he can't Tell you.

And that leads me down a path of being absolutely terrified of everything.

Because when you can't even trust your father, it's hard to trust anyone.

Now, obviously, today I'm out of that, you know,

but people need to know about the where you came from rather than just knowing where you are now and today.

Reginald D: Yeah. Because one of the things you start facing when you're dealing with things like that is you start having,

I call it, internal battles, you know.

So what internal battles were you facing that others couldn't see?

Lawrence: A lot of us.

There's a few highlights that I often talk about in my speeches and online,

is you start to think, especially as a child, you want to see your parents as good people. And the only way to do that is if you make yourself the bad guy.

Even though he was the one who hit you, was kicked you out the house,

did all this stuff, you want to see him as a good person because he's your father.

The only thing that allowed you to do that, though, is to say, it must all be my fault.

It must be my fault that he decided he want to pin me against the couch.

It must be my fault that he decided to kick me out when I was 13.

It must all be my fault. And your mind will find evidence to make that true.

Even if there's no real evidence there, your mind will start playing tricks on you and go, yeah, Lawrence, that must be right, because he's a good person. He wouldn't do that to you.

He's a good man.

And then another one is the fact that I would absolutely be afraid of accepting help from people,

because to help me,

you have to get close to me.

And if you get close to me, it means you can hurt me.

And when your parent is supposed to protect and love and support you and they're the one that hurts you,

it makes you see everyone as a bad apple because of one person.

But if that one person was someone really close to you, you start to think if they could do it and anyone do it, and you'll be on a bus.

Because this is something that happened with me often I'd be on a bus or in a public place, and I would genuinely believe that everyone here is out to get me is very paranoid.

But in the moment, it makes sense, because again,

when a child goes through something like that,

it has lasting implications unless they get the help they need. And it's very hard to get it because you have to open yourself up to somebody.

Thankfully, I did that. And, you know, I'm here today But I've seen so many young people who. Whether they were people I coached, whether people who reached out to me personally,

who. They didn't do that.

And it led them to ending up in prison,

it led them to killing themselves, it led them to addictions.

Because you want to feel better, you want help, but you refuse to open yourself up to get it.

So those are some of the major ones I've dealt with.

Reginald D: So, Lawrence, at the age of 14, you made a powerful decision to stop letting your past define you.

What triggered that shift in your mindset so early in your life?

Lawrence: Well, I describe it like this.

Imagine you're taking a shower and it's really hot, but you have no skin.

And everything in life is just hitting you one after another.

And it feels as if nothing is going your way. And one thing my therapist told me was that you have to be honest with yourself.

You have to just let it out.

And I was looking at my bathroom mirror,

and I asked myself,

why?

Why did he treat me like that?

Why did he kick me out?

Why do you hurt my siblings?

Why do I feel as if nothing I do is ever good enough?

Why do I feel as if I'm not good enough as a person?

And I'm just digging up all the things that I've been running from about myself?

The thing that I was afraid to admit,

the fear that nothing I do will ever be good enough.

And I realized that I can either keep running from this pain, running from this fear, or I have to look at face in the face and work through it. And that process of working through it is where things like journaling came in therapy sessions,

talking to people about it,

talking to myself about it,

finding ways to handle it in a healthy way.

That I was realizing that if I keep walking around with all this anger built up and all this anger bottled up, it's going to end up being taken out on somebody who it has nothing to do with.

It's going to end up with me in prison, is going to end up with me probably dead. It's going to end up with so many negative outcomes.

So that decision to let it out,

that decision to realize that what I went through doesn't have to define the rest of my life and that I'm not a prisoner to my past. It came because I was forced to make a decision.

I had to start with the man in the mirror and just realize that if I don't let this out in a healthy way,

it's going to end up very bad for me and everyone else involved And I didn't want my.

I didn't want my sibling to grow up without a brother.

I didn't want my mom to live the rest of her life without a son.

I didn't want to give up on myself.

So that's what really triggered it. I just was sick and tired of being sick and tired.

Reginald D: Yeah. And that's one of the main things. One of the most important things I tell somebody, it comes a time in life, man, you got to make a decision.

You got to make decision. Just make sure you make the right one when it's all said and done.

So 15 years old, you stepped into a leadership role by sharing your story publicly for the first time.

What do you remember about that moment, and how did it change you?

Lawrence: Well, the thing that let me take myself back to that mentally,

because that first speech I gave was me speaking to a summer camp that I was a counselor at,

and I was talking to them about just the beauty of being alive.

It's so simple. But at the same time, it's one of the most beautiful things ever.

Because these are little kids. They're. I'm looking at them, and some of them are 12, so they're right around my age. Some of them are nine.

So my siblings age,

and I wanted them to just look around and see that life might not be ideal because they're going through their own stuff at home. Maybe they're going through similar situations like how I did.

Maybe they're having arguments with their friends,

or it could have been as simple as their brother took their toy.

But just understand that there's beauty in the fact the sun is shining and you have a bed to go home to, and you got food on the table and you have running water.

And by talking to them, it helped me realize that my voice has power,

that I can share a message with somebody that inspires them and uplift them. And that laid the foundation for what I do today.

Reginald D: That's awesome.

That's awesome.

That is awesome.

So let's talk about this. Let's talk about the youth today.

What would you say, like many youth today are carrying trauma, you know, feeling like they're invisible.

What would you say to a young person listening right now who feels like they don't matter?

Lawrence: I would say the first thing is,

even if you don't believe it,

say you love yourself in a mirror.

Just make eye contact with yourself in a mirror and say you love yourself.

Because that's what I would do every single day when I felt like I was invisible and like I Didn't matter.

Because eventually what this does is it slowly but surely makes you start to believe it. You're going to start taking little steps that prove you love yourself. Could be as simple as brushing your teeth every day.

Start simple, start small.

Show yourself that you matter,

even if other people don't.

Because if you get too focused on getting external love and external validation,

whether that be from friends or relationships or partying,

when you go back home and you're laying in your bed and it's nighttime, look at the ceiling. The thing you need to do is remind yourself that you matter to you.

It's not about all your friends. It's not about that girl in your class. It's not about the party or how other people see you.

You have to start with seeing yourself that way.

And some of the best ways to do this, like I mentioned,

say it. Say it out loud.

Say it like you mean it.

Even when you don't believe it. Because eventually you'll start to believe it.

Journaling.

Write out how you feel.

Understand that your emotions and your feelings and your thoughts are valid.

Some sort of exercise routine, especially for men. This is helpful when you work out, whether that be running, swimming, track, baseball, whatever you do,

it actually creates hormones in your brain that make you feel good.

That sense of feeling good,

added on top of you looking better adds on to a sense of self worth. Like, you'll look in the mirror and go, wow, my skin is clear now.

My eyes are clear.

I'm getting stronger.

I've lost that, you know, extra £20.

I feel like I matter.

And over time,

you will believe that you matter. And once you get to that point,

that's when it all clicks.

So wrap it up. Simply say you love yourself,

show yourself that you love yourself,

and eventually you will start to love yourself.

Reginald D: That's wise. That's real wise.

So, Lawrence,

your story emphasizes that you can't rewrite the past, but you hold the pen to your future. How can someone begin to take the pin back?

Lawrence: The first step is just.

It's so.

It's so simple, yet so complex at the same time.

The way you take the pen back is by taking the pen back.

Understand that the only reason why you feel that sense of losing control is mentally.

You gave your control away.

When I was 12, I mentally gave my power away to this outside influence, which in this case would have been my dad.

And because of my power being so far outside of me, it makes you feel isolated. It makes you feel as if you can do nothing about this. It makes you Feel like there's no way out.

All of my power is over here.

So even though you cannot, let's just say you're in my situation, 12 years old,

dad abusing you,

even though you know my mom, my dad has sheriff custody.

Legally,

you have to go with him, because sheriff custody law did.

That's just messy.

Even though they knew, like, the court knew what was going on. But because of the whole custody system, you got to go. But first thing to do is mentally remind yourself,

I am here. I matter.

I'm strong. I'm lovable. I'm worthy. A lot of people might think it's a little silly, but those affirmations and saying positive things to yourself,

that got me out of a dark place.

Now, once you're saying this to yourself, you take little actions. You do what you can,

where you are, with what you've got.

If that means you just go for a walk and. And breathe,

that what you do.

And over time, you'll have more ability to take more control back if you're in a situation like mine. What I had to do was go out and get the court involved, and then I had to bring them video,

photo,

all this evidence to say,

get us out of here. Get me and my siblings out of here. And then I got us out of there, and now we're doing better.

So the first step to reclaiming your personal power,

it starts inside your mind.

Okay. It's a mental game first.

Then once you have the mental strength,

you take the physical actions. And once you take those physical actions, you see the result that, I can do something about this.

I can stand up for myself.

Now you're claiming that power back.

I have the strength to imagine it.

I have the strength to take an action,

and I have the strength to get a result.

So it's ironically simple, but the way to take the pen back and rewrite your story is mentally start rewriting the story.

Reginald D: That's good.

Lawrence: Yeah.

Reginald D: So, Lawrence, you've turned your pain into purpose as a coach, author, and speaker. What have been some of the most powerful transformations you've witnessed in others?

Lawrence: Well,

the most powerful transformations I've witnessed in others, I had this friend who I'm not going to share their name because it's a bit of a personal story. And they have one of those names where it's very few people who have this name.

I used to be friends with somebody. When I met them, they had recently gotten over a heroin addiction.

The reasoning for that is they grew up, you know, single parent.

Their parent was also involved in drug dealing. Like they were a drug dealer for one of the gangs.

And over time, they would tell me things like that they just wanted a way out. They just wanted a feeling of being loved because they didn't get it from either parent.

They didn't get it from a community. They didn't get it from anybody. It's just they were feeling as if they were facing the crowd and slowly but surely through things like me talking to them on phone.

Just why do you feel this?

What can you do about this?

What small actions can you do to remind yourself that you are worthy?

But it's not about how I make you feel. I don't want to be the reason why you feel good.

I want to help you be the reason why you feel good.

And with that,

they went on to getting their first job,

healthy relationships,

better friendships, and ultimately living a life that they can actually be proud of and not continually repeat that cycle of staying in that community.

Now, what ended up happening is one day I just suddenly never heard from him.

I don't know what happened,

had me ever found out. But for the time when we did know each other,

I saw them grow a lot.

I've had other friends where they've had transformations, where they had the ambition to go and start their music career.

None of them are like mega famous artists. Nobody that you're going to see on a billboard.

But I have a friend, his name is Daz.

And what he liked to do is he liked to make R B rap kind of music,

but not like.

Not like a stereotypical rap music. He's more of like one of those conscious rap kind of people where he'll say something and you have to replay it three times to figure out what exactly he meant by it.

Think of like KRS1 or Coast Contra, stuff like that.

And the last one I'll say is my sister,

my little sister.

I've been able to help her to realize that he's lovable,

that she does matter, that she's not just this little gambling distress.

Because keep in mind, when we were going through this stuff with our dad, I was 12 and she was 9.

And the day it happened was October 13, 2019,

her birthday.

So every time her birthday would come around, it's a actual flashback reminder. And that's something where,

you know, obviously I can't really speak from firsthand experience, you know, because I'm not a woman. But what I found is that especially when women go through something really bad like that with their father,

it has a really hard impact on them. Where they don't know how to pick men because the person was there to set that example, was hurting them.

And even though they know it's not normal or good,

it's familiar.

So by helping her to love herself and realize that you matter,

you're worth caring about,

you're worth loving.

Not because of how you look,

not because of what you can do for other people, but you're worth loving because you have intrinsic value as a human being.

Man, it's such a beautiful reminder to come home and see her change actions.

Because it's not just about how we feel or what we think. It's about the actions behind it, too.

Reginald D: So, Lawrence, I'm ask you this, and let me get your take on this,

because this is very important. I feel. I feel a lot of things could have been handled differently. A lot of outcomes could have been differently if we could realize this.

One question about dashing. So what are some of the red flags? Parents, mentors, or teachers should look out for that a young person may be struggling internally,

even if they appear okay.

Lawrence: They get too quiet.

So think they get quiet.

They start giving away things that matter to them and they start to neglect their personal care.

So the reasons for this are when people start struggling,

especially in my kind of situation where you feel isolated, you feel like nobody cares, you feel like,

what's even the point?

The first thing that start to happen is you get quiet about it because nobody cares. So what's the point in telling them now? Of course, there are people who are just introverted and they're shy and naturally they're like that.

But when it's a changed behavior, like at one point they're really talkative, they're outgoing, they're bubbly,

and now they're quiet, reserved,

and not acting the way they typically do.

That's a huge red flag. The reason why, giving stuff away that matter to them,

when people start doing that, that's one of the first signs that they're intending on killing themselves because they want to just part with their stuff.

It's not something people often talk about,

but it's very common when you look at it in retrospect and you start to think, huh,

why in the world did he give away his favorite guitar?

Oh, now it makes sense.

He wasn't even going to use it no more, so why not give it away? Or it could be shoes, it could be clothes. If they start giving away stuff that has deep sentimental value to them,

not necessarily a huge red flag,

but it can be. It's worth noting and the third one, when it comes to neglecting hygiene,

when everything feels like moving mountains,

something as small as brushing your teeth can feel as if this is what happened with me.

I had to get out of bed,

I have to walk to the bathroom, I have to turn on the light, I have to get my toothbrush, get the toothpaste, open the toothpaste, turn on the water, put the brush under the water, bring it to my face, move it to my mouth, scrub it back and forth,

get the water in my mouth, spit it out.

That's every step involved in brushing your teeth.

And when you feel lost and you feel alone and you feel that weight on you,

it feels like every step you're hiking up Mount Everest.

So there's a lot of other red flags I can mention,

but those are the three most common.

And especially be mindful of things like major changes in habits.

If there's major changes in their behavior,

the way they talk,

the places they go,

the people they hang around,

they suddenly break up with their girlfriend, who they're deeply in love with,

emotional outbursts, they begin hiding themselves,

such as wearing overly baggy clothing.

That is a fashion sense,

but it also can be a subconscious attempt to hide yourself,

to hide how you look, to hide yourself from the world, to kind of put yourself in this little cocoon and block everyone out.

It also can be used as a way of like hiding self harm scars. Because if somebody's cutting their wrist or their legs,

they'll wear really baggy clothes. So nobody knows.

Those would be the major things to keep an eye out on.

Everything else really is more specific to behavior that is out of the norm,

but only you would know it's out the norm because you're around the person consistently.

Reginald D: Right, Exactly. Thank you for sharing that because I, you know, seen so many times when,

when a kid, a young person has done something so detrimental,

you know, and then when it's all said and done, somebody chime up and say, well, he was acting, or she was acting weird for six months. And I'm like, well, God, why didn't nobody try to figure it out?

You know,

anything like that? So.

And then, then bad things happen, man. And it's unfortunate.

Lawrence: I think a part of it is that, well, I didn't mean interrupt you there, but you just chimed something right in my head.

A part of it is that naturally people can feel hesitant to ask because for one, that's a pretty sensitive question.

Like, hey, you know, what's going on at home?

And then they actually tell you,

now you had to be ready to dig into that.

Or they just simply say, no, I'm fine,

I'm all right,

I'm good.

I'm just sad. I'm upset.

Sometimes that is an attempt to just brush it off. Because what I would do is I would brush off my emotion. I'd be like, all right, I'm fine. I'm cool.

I'll just move on.

I'm just having a bad day.

But a lot of times it's not a bad day. It's that you feel as if you're burning up from the inside and nobody would ever understand it. So. So you don't even speak on it because you don't want to be seen as crazy, or you don't want to be seen as a weirdo,

or you don't want people to start looking at you different.

Because if once people start looking at you different, you already going through all this mental stuff and now they looking at me different, that adds on to it.

Let me just not talk about it and pretend I'm fine knowing that I'm not.

Reginald D: Yes. Thank you for adding that.

Lawrence: Yeah.

Reginald D: So, Lawrence, what daily mindset habits do you personally use to stay grounded and aligned with your purpose today?

Lawrence: There's a.

There's a lot of them. Because for me, a big part of it is that I meant to mention this earlier, but When I was 13, I was clinically diagnosed with something called complex post traumatic stress disorder.

Think of it like instead of the traditional sense where, like the traditional idea of PTSD is the war flashback where somebody pops a balloon near their grandpa's head and he jumps behind a couch because he thinks he's back in Vietnam.

This is more. So constant flashbacks,

issue with emotional control,

impulsivity,

paranoia.

Like it's.

It's a long list of things in case anybody wants to look into it.

But it often develops from things like childhood trauma,

long term abuse,

long term issues.

And it's one of those things where once it develops, you kind of just have to learn to integrate it and you can get better from it, because I sure have.

But it's always there.

And the ways I deal with this, both that have helped me as well as have helped countless other people,

journaling,

exercise and get a hobby that gets you outside.

Because we often stay inside, we often sit at our desk, we often are in schools or we're at home or on a bus or in a car. We're so physically isolated from the outside world.

So things like fishing, I absolutely love it.

Gardening, going for a walk in the park,

walking Your dog skateboarding.

I'm just lifting things off that anybody can apply to their life. Because one of the things about sunlight, it creates vitamin D.

And if you don't get enough vitamin D,

it's been shown to create things like you get sad, you have lack of energy,

skin issues, hair issues.

It just not having sunlight is really bad for you. We're meant to get a lot of that, but we're isolated and physically boxed in.

Social life with people not behind the screen, not on your phone, not online.

Face to face, in person interaction,

you need it.

Go outside and tell somebody, hi,

I like your shoes. Where'd you get them?

This is a thing I do every day I meet a new person.

And every day you meet a new person,

you never know what that can turn into. New friendships, business opportunities,

relationships, or you just feel good.

So the best practices for anyone listening,

journaling.

It helps you get your emotions out, helps you get your thoughts out. And after a year, you can look back and say, on this specific day,

what was I thinking? How did I feel? What was going on in my life?

Exercise,

it can be any form you want. As long as you're getting your body moving,

it creates hormones in your brain that make you feel good.

And get outside.

You need sunlight.

Get some hobbies,

make some friends,

Stop being so physically alone.

Because once you're alone, you're easy to take out.

Reginald D: Exactly. Exactly. So long as you also speak on transformation in one sentence. What is your definition of transformation?

Lawrence: I've never had somebody ask me that question before.

That's a good one.

I would say in one sentence. My definition of transformation is as cliche as this sounds,

going from rags to riches, but not necessarily money related.

So think of rags to riches as in, I was that 12 year old who felt like nobody cared about him. Nobody wanted to hear what he had to say.

Nobody just valued me.

For me,

that's the rags.

But the transformation and the riches is now. I go up on stages and I pour my heart out there.

I've had people message me things like, man, this video changed my life.

You helped me to quit this addiction.

You helped me to love myself more. I'm more confident.

I got in the gym because of you. I started journaling my relationship. My parents is better because of you.

I got my first girlfriend. I graduated high school.

It's not even just about the money aspect. It's about every day I have people messaging me things like that.

Yeah, there's haters too.

There's haters. It comes with a territory. But the transformation Is I went from somebody who felt like nothing to somebody who has changed people's lives,

people who I've never met face to face,

people who have never even bought my product before.

The transformation I'm giving people,

that's just the free stuff.

The people who have actually paid me and read my books and been coached by me and mentored or met me in person,

they will tell you that even when I can be a bit hard on them,

I do it because I love you.

I know what you're capable of.

Even though you might not see it right now,

I know it's on your horizon, and I know how I'm going to help you to get there.

So that's good.

Reginald D: You hit it right on the head because.

Lawrence: Thank you.

Reginald D: When it's all said and done, man, the transformation is the people who change because of you and what you've done.

Yes. That's it.

That's it. So let's keep talking about that. For the listeners who's ready to reclaim their story but doesn't know how to begin, what's one of the first steps that they should take?

Lawrence: I said the first thing is either figure out what do you want or figure out what you don't want.

And from there, you can start to figure out more of a game plan.

So when I was 12, you know, obviously what I did not want is to keep feeling like this.

Now you figure out, okay, what do I want? I want to feel better. I want to be happy. I want to trust other people.

I want to love myself.

Now you know what you don't want,

you know what you do want. How do we get there?

That's where the game plan comes in.

Such as? Like you mentioned a listener who.

They don't know how to claim back their personal power.

What do you not want to feel controlled by other people,

to feel unlovable, to feel unworthy.

Now, how do you get to reclaiming my power?

Loving myself,

feeling as if I matter in this world? You figure out what are some habits you can do,

because over time, your habits actually rewire your brain.

This is what I had to learn with,

you know, reclaiming myself.

By changing your actions, you actually rewire your brain. It's. It's kind of like a wet computer. It's easier to describe your brain as a wet computer than an organ.

So just make a plan. Make a picture in your head. What does it look like? What does it feel like? What does it sound like?

So it's.

It's one of those things where the more specific we can get, the better you can get at reclaiming that power.

Cuter one might look different.

Maybe you just want to get a job.

That's a very straightforward path. Application.

Well,

write a resume,

find a job,

submit application, rinse and repeat until somebody says yes.

That's a pretty straightforward path there.

But with things like reclaiming personal power of your identity,

self, love,

self worth,

that's where you have to just find what works for you.

Try stuff out,

read books on it,

go to YouTube videos. You can go to my channel. I make,

I think, like 300 videos at this point on it.

Just take action.

And now with things like chat GPT, if you try to explain it to a person and they don't understand what you mean,

type it in a chat gbt and over time, it'll help you to clarify this.

I feel like everything I'm doing isn't working.

I feel lost. I feel confused.

Why do you feel that?

I feel that because I'm not sure.

Well, do you think it could be this, this, this, this, this or this?

Oh, yeah, it's the third one. Oh, okay. So when did you start feeling like that?

And before, you know, within 10 minutes, the thing has figured out what exactly you need to do.

Reginald D: Exactly, exactly.

Lawrence: It's literally a supercomputer.

Reginald D: I like that. I like that. So, Lawrence, how old are you, man?

Lawrence: I'm 19.

I started this when I was.

I started speaking when I was 15.

So oftentimes people are like, man, how do you do it so young?

Well,

when I mentioned earlier about knowing what you do and what you don't want and what you do want,

that goes into how people are either fueled by running toward the life that they want or running away from what they don't.

I'm running from what I don't want.

And it's like I have a lion behind my back at all times,

and it's chasing me.

Do you realize how fast you'd run if there was a lion behind you?

And it's not a fear, per se. It's more that I'm just not going back to who I used to be.

I'm just not going back to that.

Reginald D: Right, right.

Lawrence: Yeah. That's when the YouTube videos came out. And then I started uploading my shorts content, and then I started writing blogs on my website and doing all this stuff.

But the entire transformation so far is seven years.

If you become obsessed with something for seven years,

you'll make a lot of progress.

Then you have things like YouTube, books,

the Internet. The information is out there.

And I Am an avid learner of it.

So,

yeah,

started young.

Been at it a long time though.

Reginald D: That's awesome. So. So let me ask you this, Lauren. So how does your father feel about you now?

Lawrence: Oh, I haven't spoken to him in, I don't know, like two, three years. So I have no clue.

Reginald D: Okay.

Lawrence: I have no clue.

Reginald D: Sometimes that's the best, right?

Lawrence: Yeah, it's you.

You know, there are people who,

what they can do is reconcile and, you know, talk about it and move forward and maybe he was going through his own personal stuff.

I asked him years ago for multiple years actually.

Never got a reason and never saw any change behavior,

nothing.

So you just have to remove people, places and things,

and sometimes the people is the people who hurt you.

Very straightforward, but easier said than done.

Sometimes the places could be his house. Easier said than done,

but straightforward process.

But that also might mean you need to cut off people who are affiliated with him.

I've cut off maybe like 30, 40 family members by the time I was 14 and haven't spoken to any of them since because I know what comes with that.

So I'm pretty darn sure somewhere along the lines people have,

you know, been watching my Instagram and maybe his family members sent him a clip of one of mine and they're like, lars is talking about Joe.

And I'm like, well,

it ain't character defamation if I got proof that it actually happened and I'm not out here using this legal name character defamation.

Sorry about that. My office has like automatic lights.

Character deformation is if you're saying blatant lies on people.

Reginald D: Right?

Lawrence: I'm not. So I don't know how he feels about me. Never found out, never act. And I have no plans to find out.

Reginald D: Gotcha. Because here's the thing that's going to my next question.

Because it's your legacy now, you know, you got 19 years old, man, you got a lot of road ahead of you, you know. So what legacy do you hope your voice and work will leave behind?

Lawrence: Helping people to realize that they matter and that they are lovable.

Not for what they do,

not. Not for what they have,

not for what they give to other people,

but because they themselves are worthy,

not entitled,

worthy of love and appreciation,

because especially for young people.

Think about how social media just pushes this agenda of if you're not six foot tall and you don't make a million dollars a month and you don't drive a Bugatti, you a ***.

Or if you don't got a 2 inch waist and you Got this exact body type and you this amount of curvy, don't no man want you.

And then all the clips of men and women arguing and bad relationships and it really leads people to think that if they don't have this external stuff that they don't matter where what I say is,

yeah, go ahead, get the external stuff. I love nice things too.

I love suits and nice cars and I love that. But you got to love yourself before you have all that. Fall in love with the person and the mission rather than the stuff.

Because if you get too focused on I gotta have this relationship, I need this man in my life, I need this woman in my life, I need this car, I need this Balenciaga belt or this Gucci or this Rolex.

You're going to go down a cycle of just chasing materialism rather than chasing just being here and present and loving you for you.

Not for the stuff.

Love yourself because you matter.

And ultimately with that,

I just want to help people not end up how I was.

Because you'd be surprised how many kids just don't talk about it.

It's one of those things where you're kind of talk to, you know, that's family business,

that stays in the family.

And in coaching people, even though I, I don't really coach much as of now I do more so consultation calls.

But in the time I was, you know, doing one on one coaching for months at a time,

what I realized is it's so unfortunate how common things I've gone through and things that,

things like sexual violence against girls.

It is ridiculously common.

And I just want people to know that no matter what you go through,

no matter what happened,

no matter what somebody did to you,

no matter what mistake you made, because I made plenty. I've hurt people, I've offended people, I said things I shouldn't have, I've done things I shouldn't have. I'm not perfect whatsoever.

But that doesn't mean that you're broken or you're flawed. You just are human.

Nobody is perfect. Everybody did something, said something,

hurt somebody,

everybody has.

But love yourself not for this idealized image,

but just for who you are.

That's the legacy.

Reginald D: Yeah, that's awesome. Well put, well put. So lastly, Lawrence, how can my listeners book you as a speaker, purchase your book or connect with you on social media?

Lawrence: Well,

far as booking me as a speaker, you can email me at lawrence lawrence harris.com which is also my website.

Lawrence C harris.com Social media Lawrence C. Empowers. If you literally Google My name,

Lawrence C. Harris. It all pops up. It's I did that on purpose.

Makes me very, very,

very easy to get in contact with.

As far as my books,

Amazon.com you can get them there.

I've also recently made an audiobook where my most recent book let me actually get out my desk.

It's Power to the People.

I wrote this book when I was 18 years old whilst working at a McDonald's.

It ironic that the guy working at McDonald's dropping fries is making a book on mental transformation.

But the things I taught in this book are now what has allowed me at 19,

to have my own office space,

be a speaker, and in three days from now, I'm going to the Poconos to speak at a conference to about a hundred people.

Gotten in the best shape of my life,

have transformed so many little habits.

The people around me are genuine,

loving people.

I look in the mirror, proud of myself.

All based off the stuff. I call this book now the audiobook version of it.

You can get that at my website, Lawrence Harris.com. in it, after every chapter, I give an updated speech on it.

So the audiobook gives you everything in that book that had led me to where I am now, to us.

The advice that I have now that I didn't when I wrote the book.

Reginald D: So that's amazing.

Lawrence: Feel free to get in contact.

Reginald D: Absolutely. Absolutely.

So there you have it. Lawrence C. Harris. Lawrence, thank you so much, man, to take the time out of your busy schedule to hang out with me for a minute.

Lawrence: Of course. I loved it. And just a final thing I want to leave listeners with is that know who you are without the world trying to tell you who to be because everybody has an opinion of you.

But not everyone's opinion matters.

Today I had it. I actually had a guy like leave a comment on one of my post asking how much does it cost to slap you?

The post was about the fact that when you be authentic, there are going to be people who judge you for it.

And that just showed me that you have to know who you are.

Even when the haters got opinions.

Because everyone's going to say something.

But what do you say about yourself?

Just love yourself. That's really the key takeaway.

Reginald D: That's it. So, Lawrence, I appreciate you, man. I wish you well in your journeys, man. I like you, man. You got a long, long road ahead of you, man. What's your purpose?

Because you started young and that's the key, man. You'll only get better and wiser as you go and more phenomenal. And end up all over the world and all the stuff.

Lawrence: Thank you.

Reginald D: So I really appreciate you stopping by today.

Lawrence: Of course. Have a blessed one.

Reginald D: Yes, sir.

Thanks for tuning in Real Talk with Reggie today. If you enjoyed listening to Real Talk with Register D, please rate and review us on Apple Podcast. See you next time.

Your episode

23:20/48:06

Episode details:

To edit your episode you'll want to log into Buzzsprout

Rebuild this episode