Parenting with a Story Podcast Paul Smith

I pushed my way through these kids, and ran over to the ambulance. In the back of the ambulance was my son, Jordan. He was partially conscious and covered in blood. . .  The paramedic said he had internal bleeding and had to go to the hospital immediately. . . I jumped out of the ambulance and started asking, ‘What happened? What happened? What happened?’







Jordan Peisner after attack. December, 2016. KABC-TV.















“And that’s when some of the kids ran up to me and said, ‘Look!’ And they showed me a video. It was of my son talking to a friend. And from behind comes this boy, who swings with all his might at my son’s head, and knocks him out. The sound still gives me chills. And down he goes, to the ground. And then you see kids running over — as my son is on the ground, eyes rolled back, and bleeding — and these kids are jockeying for position to take pictures.”







Those are the words of Ed Peisner as he describes what happened to his 14-year-old son Jordan in December of 2016. In what was probably a game of “knockout”, the assailant had planned the attack with accomplices at the ready with cell phone cameras to videotape the shocking event all to generate likes and shares on social media.







And while the attack was obviously criminal, the social media profiteering from it was not. Ed realized that unless someone figured out a way to remove the social media incentive, these horrific acts would continue. And so he did. Ed founded the Organization for Social Media Safety. And together with Marc Berkman, they began lobbying for legal reform.







In one of their first victories, what’s now known as “Jordan’s Law” was passed in the State of California — the first law targeting social-media motivated violence. That law states that if you coordinate with someone to video tape their violent attack and post it on social media that you will be prosecuted as a accomplice.







But in the process of advocating for Jordan’s Law, they learned of a rapidly expanding list of social media-related dangers, like cyberbullying, hate speech, and sexual harassment, which their organization now battles.







Click play above to listen to our conversation and learn how you can protect your own children and help be a part of the solution for others. At the 17-minute mark, Ed and Marc discuss 3 things parents can do right now to protect their kids. Have a listen.







Find out more at https://www.ofsms.org/. And here’s a link to their free safety course: https://courses.ofsms.org/courses/the-buckling-the-social-media-seatbelt-supercourse







Click these links to subscribe to this podcast on iTunes or Stitcher, or Podbean.















Paul Smith is one of the world’s leading experts on business storytelling,

Imagine you’re driving home from work one night around 8 pm. It’s cold. It’s raining. And there’s a dirty, slushy, melting snow on the ground. You glance out the car window and you see a young girl huddled up on the side of the road. She looks cold, scared, alone, and injured.







You pull over and invite her into your warm car, and take her to a diner for a meal.







She doesn’t speak to you the entire time. She just sits there, staring down into her plate while eating, dripping gray water all over the seat. Your mind races though all of the unthinkable possibilities for what might have lead her to this place in life.







When she finishes eating, still not having said a word, she peels herself off of the plastic seat, gets up, and heads toward the exit. You watch as her frail little back walks away from you. In two more seconds, she’ll be through the door and gone from your life forever.







At that moment, what do you do?







Emily Chang doesn’t have to imagine. She knows. Because this happened to her. At that moment what she decided to do was yell out,







“Where are you going to sleep tonight”?







The girl stopped. Her shoulders quivered a bit. And Emily continued, “I have a spare room.”







That girl became the first of sixteen people over the last 25 years to have been blessed to spend some of the darkest times of their lives in the respite of Emily Chang’s spare room.







An abused child bride. An unwanted boy with hydrocephalus. A girl raised in a brothel. And over a dozen other young people whose lives were changed for the better in Emily’s spare room.















Emily documents their stories in her new book, The Spare Room: Define Your Social Legacy to Live a More Intentional Life and Lead with Authentic Purpose. In the book, she not only shares their unforgettable stories, but the life and leadership lessons we can all learn from them.







In this episode, Emily describes one of those young people lucky enough to spend some time in Emily’s spare room. Click the play button above to hear the story of Devon, a child bride thrown out of her own home.







Emily Chang has worked in leadership positions at Procter & Gamble, Apple, and Starbucks. Today she serves as the CEO of China for the global advertising giant, McCann. You can find Emily at https://social-legacy.com/.







Click these links to subscribe to this podcast on iTunes or Stitcher, or Podbean.















Paul Smith is one of the world’s leading experts on business storytelling, a keynote speaker, and bestselling author.







Connect with him via email here.

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The past three weeks have been an almost non-stop parade of protests, all centered around the most recent tragic deaths that didn’t have to happen.







“Yes, that’s terrible. But what can I do?” you might ask. After all, you already changed your Facebook profile for BlackOut Day. And you even attended a Black Lives Matter march. So, you’re good right?







No, not really.







Those things only signal that you’re on the side of making

things better. But only on the side. As

in, the sideline. If you actually want to make a difference, you need to get

off the bench and into the game and that’s a lot harder than changing your

profile picture. And it probably means getting knocked around a little. I don’t

mean literally. This isn’t a call to violence. And I’m not suggesting you

intervene in an active arrest or break the law in an act of civil disobedience

(although both of those have their place, too).







Here I’m talking

about the kind of thing you can do on a daily basis by just calling out bad

behavior when you see it — in your family, friends, and neighbors. And that

takes courage. It might mean temporarily straining relationships with people

you care about. In the worst situations, you might even lose a friend over it.

But in most cases, you’ll end up earning new respect, from others, and for

yourself.







Instead of “civil” disobedience, let’s call

it “social” disobedience. Because in this case, you’re rubbing

up against generally accepted rules of social behavior, like “If you don’t

have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all,” or going along with

what everyone else is doing even if you don’t agree with it. Or, more

generally, the aversion many of us have to disagree with or offer even the

gentlest of criticism to people we know for fear of damaging the relationship.







We need to get over

that. True friends will appreciate you being honest and direct with them

anyway.







So, here’s an

example of what that looks like in the context of racial bigotry. But social

disobedience can be used for any worthwhile social change that you support and

from any side of the political spectrum. If it’s important to you, let the

people closest to you know — especially when they themselves are the problem.







Basketball with Torlick







When Ed was a five-

or six-year-old boy growing up in Colorado, he noticed that his was the only

house in the neighborhood painted red. All the other houses were either brown

or green. When he asked his dad why, his father said very matter of factly, “Because

when we moved in, the Homeowners Association told us we could only paint it

brown or green. So, naturally, I painted it red.”







Apparently, Mr.

Tanguay wasn’t much of a rule follower, at least not with rules he considers

unworthy. So you shouldn’t be too surprised at how he responded on another

occasion when he received a more unsettling directive from the HOA. 







When Ed’s older

brother Mark was fourteen, he visited their aunt and uncle, who were on

assignment in the Peace Corps in the Marshall Islands, very close to the

equator in the western Pacific Ocean. Just prior to returning home, he called

his parents to ask if he could bring home a guest for a while. He’d befriended

a local boy named Torlick who’d never been to the United States.