Empowering Kids Mark Papadas on Growth & Confidence

Mark Papadas
[00:00:00] Ed Watters: Today, we are speaking with Mark Papadas. Mark, could you please introduce yourself [00:01:00] and let people know just a little more about you, please?
[00:01:03] Mark Papadas: I’d be happy to do so. So, yeah. So my name is Mark Papadas and I’m known as the Be Great Guy because of my work, bringing personal development to kids. So, uh, imagine Tony Robbins meets Charlie Brown, it’s probably the best way to describe what I do and what, uh, what we’re all about. And our mission is to do for kids personal empowerment or personal development and empowerment, what the Muppets did for reading and for math.
[00:01:30] Ed Watters: Yeah, I like that a lot. Uh, I looked into you and you actually have been doing this for quite some time now. Uh, what got you started, Mark?
[00:01:44] Mark Papadas: Well, I guess you could say it really started way back when, when I was a kid. So I had a bit of a rough upbringing and I was the, the youngest of three boys by six years. So my older brothers hung around with each other, not so much with me because, you know, who’s gonna hang, who wants to hang around with a little [00:02:00] kid, right? Um, but one of my brothers, uh, you know, he used to like to get his points across to me, uh, with his fists, okay? And both my parents worked, so we’re all latchkey kids. And there was one instance in particular that, uh, you know, that I still remember to this day is when, uh, my father’s half brother was just coming home from Vietnam and he was coming to visit us and this was the first time that any of us were gonna meet him. And a little bit less than a week prior, uh, that brother beat me up so bad that I had bruises all over. And I remember my uncle asking my, my parents if I was born with birth defects because of how I looked. Um, so the, the, the one positive thing that I bring from that, bring out of that upbringing, is it did help to, for lack of a better term, it did help to kind of toughen me up a little bit in terms of being able to mentally overcome that.
And then [00:03:00] once I was old enough to get him to stop, then, then things were okay. So when it comes to that type of stuff, the, what I, in terms of what I do, I’m a, I’m a glutton for information. So like, I can’t tell you the last novel that I read, but I’m always either reading, listening to podcasts, et cetera. Something to either improve myself or something that I can take and pass through, down on, on with the kids. So I had been working with, uh, quote unquote grownups for over a decade when I had my epiphany late in 2009. And there was a, a specific story, which is kind of long. If you want, we can get into that later. But, uh, taking what I was doing with adults and all I had to do was come up with a format that was going to engage and entertain kids. And then we could literally make a difference that could, could change the world within a, a couple of generations because that’s when that personal development will have the biggest impact and also the longest lasting impact.[00:04:00]
[00:04:01] Ed Watters: Yeah, I, I believe that a hundred percent. You know, the formidable years, they, they tend to get wasted anymore. In, in my personal opinion, I think that children are shielded too much and I, I believe that they are missing out on a lot of that excitement that children should be having. And you know, unfortunately we all get beat up once in a while as children, but like you stated, it does make you get this grit and it makes you sustainable in this world that we live in today. And I, I really have a lot of concerns about that. What is your thought about pampering children in today’s world?
[00:04:54] Mark Papadas: Well, I think that there’s a difference between pampering and protecting. [00:05:00] And so one of the things, like I, I do a lot of speaking, uh, you know, companies have me come in to speak. You, you would think like, Why is a kid’s personal development speaker coming in? And part of that has to do with, because I believe that the kids are born with all of the, the traits and characteristics that they need to be, not just successful as kids, but successful throughout their whole life. And it’s the, the B. S., the, the belief system that they learn from the adults as they’re growing up that actually retard that growth. So, you know, like you were talking about, kids, they are by nature curious and inquisitive and ingenious, and they’re designed literally at the cellular level to learn and to grow and to explore. And, uh, when you, the, the pampering part, when you kind of build that bubble around them where they can’t get to see things right, they, they can’t get into a little bit of trouble,
right? You know, if [00:06:00] a kid, if a kid falls down, big deal. It’s like, and one of the things I always, when I talk about, you know, kids being so persistent, right? When was the last time you saw a kid quit trying to walk? It just doesn’t happen, right? You know, they fall down, they brush themselves off, and they keep going. And even if they’re born with some sort of a, you know, um, disability where they like, they can’t move their legs, they still find a way to, to locomote from one place to the other. They, they roll, they army crawl, they do whatever they have to do because they’re just living up to their nature of exploring.
And also, a lot of it has to do with, with perspective. I can’t tell you how many times little kids, specifically babies, find lost keys that the, that adults have lost, right? Because that’s their perspective. That’s all they have is down to what’s at ground level, right? But then as soon as they are big enough to get to the coffee table, now it’s like, Ooh, there’s stuff up there that I didn’t know was there, you know? What’s that? What’s this? And then that’s when you gotta be like, Okay, nope, that you can’t get to that part yet. And then you keep moving it up. [00:07:00] And, and so what happens? And then they keep doing it. And how many times have you seen a kid climb up the drawers to get onto the countertop, to get to the cookie jar, or whatever it was on top of the, of the refrigerator?
And they’re, they’re just, they’re just being kids, they’re doing what comes naturally. So I would say that, you know, if a kid’s gonna fall down while trying to walk or maybe off the couch or something like that, that’s a learning experience for them. You know, if they get up on top of the fridge, it’s like, No, no, no, no. You gotta come down from there, you know? Let’s, you have to have the limits, but you, you have to let ’em explore. So is that what you were you going for in terms of some of the, the, the pampering?
[00:07:37] Ed Watters: Sure. Yeah. And, and, you know, I, I really think that you hit that right on because there is a difference, pampering and protecting. You know, if, if you see a child climbing like the drawers and you have a TV set on the dressers, and I, I’ve [00:08:00] actually witnessed some terrifying things that, you know, it, it is, you have to protect your children, that’s for sure. And there is a difference. I, I really wanted to outline that here and highlight the difference. So what is your intent with the television part? You know, because building characteristics of children, it, it, it, it encompasses a lot. However, when you put children into like a TV dynamic, their focus is higher in an intellectual way. I, I really believe that in my own thinking. So is, is it to empower them and help them [00:09:00] build a better understanding of themselves and their world? Is this why the TV end of it, the deal?
[00:09:09] Mark Papadas: To me, uh, like everything that we do, I, kind of refer to it as like DNA. In other words, it just kind of keeps helixing back on itself, right? So the, the, the foundation, you know, if you’re gonna use a kid, uh, an analogy for a kid, of a structure of a building, a home, let’s say, the foundation is that identity piece. In other words, how do they finish the I am … statement? And, and that’s the most important thing as far as I’m concerned for anybody. I don’t care whether you’re a kid or you’re an adult. Problem is that, you know, close to probably 90% of the world have never given that any conscious thought, but it’s still in there.
And if you haven’t decided for yourself, it’s, generally speaking, the loudest voices that are in your orbit that become that in your head, [00:10:00] okay? So in terms of what the TV show is all about, so The, The I Am 4 Kids School program that we created a number of years ago and is in use in, what? Nine different states right now, uh, is designed to sit on top of the curriculum taught in second through fifth grade. And we take the kids through the My five Step Identity Building process. And the, at the very end, the last step, we can talk about all five steps if you’d like, in, down the road. But the final step is to, is to live it. In other words, to, to be that person that you decided who you are. And the lifelong homework for that is that you have to come up with a project that embodies the person that you have decided you are.
And the only rule that we put on it is it has to benefit somebody other than just themselves, okay? So now what the TV show is all about is it’s the real stories of real kids who have gone through the program. And either the impact that the program has made in, in their lives [00:11:00] and, or their project has made through, you know, in its, in their community, their family, sometimes even beyond. And because it’s animated, so it’s, like I said, what we say is, it’s the world’s first animated reality based TV show. So there’s actually gonna be real stories of real kids, but you can still have a little bit of fun with it in terms of, you know, there’s gonna be amalgams of characters of people who happened in, you know, there are people who happened to be part of that, right?
So what that does is, we get the, the kids get the identity piece, which is, which is a bonus. But now you see all these different other stories of other kids doing it. So that now it’s, okay, you know, this, that this can really happen. Plus it gives them even bigger ideas like, Oh, I thought of this, but this kid went twice as big, okay. You know, so it starts to elevate their projects now. And in case you haven’t figured it out, in case you haven’t figured it out, I Am 4 Kids is [00:12:00] my, I am project.
[00:12:03] Ed Watters: Yeah. Yeah, I like that a lot. The, just the simple I am statement, that, that can really give children a lot to think about, to inspire to be. So bringing that statement to the forefront, I really think is kind of a killer idea. So when, when you do these sessions with children, is there an underlying theme for each episode that you do?
[00:12:40] Mark Papadas: Not so much a theme going into it, but what we do is, once again, because we’re all about the education part of it is, they’re, each episode will have its own theme word. So what, whatever this word is that is embodied by what they did. So for example, the, the, the pilot episode [00:13:00] that we’re working on right now, just to be able to pitch to the streaming services and the networks probably starting in, in January, so very, very soon is, is identity. And it’s a true story of, uh, a little girl and a little boy in a neighborhood and something that happens in school and on their school bus. Uh, where basically a, uh, the little boy was very sick, okay? So in other words, it’s a true story. At five years old, he was diagnosed with a tennis ball sized, uh, brain tumor at the stem of his brain. So they caught it, did all the operations, the chemo, all that kind of stuff, um, but he was basically out of school.
He was, he was in treatment for a little over two years, and that treatment was very intensive and very harsh. So he, he was always gonna be smaller than the kids, weaker than the kids, the chemo did a number on his hair. He, you know, the, the, the, the joke that the neighbors, not the neighbors, [00:14:00] but the, he was a part of the joke, so I don’t wanna say, make it sound like we were, they were making fun of the kid, right? But that he kind of looked like a fifty-year-old accountant ’cause his hair was very thin across the top. You know, he was basically bald. But he had some hair, kind of thing, you know, it was like a comb over. So, um, some of the quote unquote popular kids were making fun of him on the school bus. And one day, nobody said anything about it.
And, you know, the boy went home and he cried. And his best friend, who was his next door neighbor, who was the little girl, she felt bad about it. And they did it again a couple days later. And then she stood up to the, we’ll call ’em the bullies, and when she did that, a bunch of other kids on the bus basically stood up behind her, right? So, so her whole thing, when, when news of the incident came out was that, you know, well, she, she knew who she was. She, she couldn’t let that happen, you know? That they think that they’re tough, he, he’s way tougher than [00:15:00] them ’cause look at all the stuff that he’s gone through.
[00:15:02] Ed Watters: So interesting, Mark. Uh, tell us what is the perspective of the children that are involved in the program?
[00:15:10] Mark Papadas: Um, I, I’m gonna answer the way I think you’re, you’re, you’re asking that. So in terms of, you know, they’re coming into it with, with wide eyes. Because you know, they’re not coming in with some sort of preconceived notion of what, to get this. They just know that this is something that, that they’re learning. And because we use the sound science, you know, the mind/body connection, the neuroplasticity connections between the brain and the body, all they know is that they feel so much more confident, they feel so much happier, they feel so much better while they’re in the, the program and while they’re basically living up to their identity.
And you, what we’ve seen is that we, because of privacy reasons, we don’t have access to individual’s testing scores, you know, the standardized [00:16:00] tests. But we do get the, a conglomerate of their in-class grades. And we found that, uh, close to 45% of the kids in class, grades go up. So C students move up to B students, et cetera, right? But what was not so much surprising, but surprising to the degree, was that disciplinary actions went down by over 60%. Because when they, when they started to get worked up, all the teacher has to do is remind them if they’re being true to, you know, the identity that they created for themselves. And that, that is, you know, a, a trigger, if you will, to kind of bring them back into that, that state of that more calm, confident person.
[00:16:46] Ed Watters: That’s, that’s really cool. Uh, I like that a lot. So what do you see about connections? Does this help form connections?
[00:16:59] Mark Papadas: Well, [00:17:00] absolutely. And the, that, it’s actually designed into the program. So we already talked about the fifth step. I guess we’re kind of, we’ll, we’ll kinda go backwards, if you will, right? So the fourth step is, is to share and synergize your identity, right? So I’ll kind of walk you through one through five. So the, the first one is to decide it. Like we said, you have, you have to think about it. Nobody, most people have never given it any conscious thought. So the first thing is, you, you think about it and you decide who you’re gonna be. And the second step is to write it down. And that’s so important to actually physically write it, not type it, not dictate it, et cetera. Because when you write something, literally all of your senses, you’ve got your, your kinesthetic because you’re actually writing it, you’re hearing yourself say it in your brain as you’re writing it, and you’re also seeing it. So it doesn’t matter what type of learner you are, you’re getting more and more connection. It’s more complete. So that’s number two. So number three is to revise and improve it, okay? So that, that first time you write it down, it’s pretty much like a rough draft. Kinda like we were talking about before with, [00:18:00] oh, this kid went twice as big as me.
Well, I, you know, so I’m not limited. I, I can go bigger, I can go stronger, I can go farther, kind of thing. So that’s number three, is to revise and improve it. And then number four is to share and synergize it. Because as human beings, it’s, it’s our nature to want to be a part of something that’s bigger than just ourselves. And so the whole concept behind the share and synergizes is, first off, you’re letting the world know this is who I am, right? You don’t have to guess about it, you don’t have to, to think about it. And then the synergy part comes when you share it, and then you find other people who have similar outlooks to you. So what this does is, is now you’re actually, for lack of a term, you are picking your friends as opposed to letting the, that circle pick you. You know, so like, there, yeah. So there, there’s a, there’s a quote that I use that, that, to me, Kids are very much like wet cement, is [00:19:00] whatever happens to land upon them tends to stick and leave an impression. So the whole concept behind this one’s kind of going back to that, that structure that we’re building with the kid, that foundation. If we can get that, that cement foundation to harden, to cure, right? Now all that, that bullying stuff, the gangs, the drugs, all that kinda stuff, just literally just, just bounces off because they know who they are and they’ve got their, their tribe they’ve already put together.
And then going back to one of the OGs of personal development, right, Napoleon Hill, when you start talking about the concept of the mastermind, that if you’ve got a group of people who are thinking similarly, that be, there’s that mastermind, mysterious, fictional, not fictional, but um, not real person that’s there, that kind of takes on a life and thought of its own. So that, that’s the whole concept behind that.
[00:19:54] Ed Watters: Yeah. Gives it an embodied persona, if you will. So [00:20:00] now, now the big question, Mark, is, this is all in a classroom setting, if you will. What happens at home? How, how does this connect to the home front and how does it correlate with life at home?
[00:20:24] Mark Papadas: So the, the school part, I mean, is that, that’s what it is for now. So literally for the next couple of months. So in January is when we’re, we’re, we’re launching the I Am 4 Kids brand. So we’re, we’re basically borrowing the business model of the, you know, Sesame Street and the Muppets. So children’s television workshop, that started off as a, you know, the Sesame Street that started off as a non-profit, and everybody’s familiar with that, but all of The, The Muppet movies, The Muppet Show, Tickle Me, Elmo, all that kind of stuff, that is a for-profit entity that is a, is a [00:21:00] ubiquitous brand literally around the world now. So what we’re doing is we’re taking our characters, instead of being fluffy little monsters, they’re based on real people, which to me makes them a little bit more interesting, right? Because now you actually have something that you, a person, someone you can model after, right? So in terms of what, up to this date, there,
so there’s my book there, it’s called The 10 Secrets to Empower Kids and Awaken the Child In You. It’s available in both English and Spanish. So when a school would order the, the program, we would ask them how many copies, you know, how many families need it in Spanish and how many families need it in English. ‘Cause the book is really designed more for the, the parents, you know, the parents and the educators. And so now we’re getting to the parents through, you know, with, with the kids as, as the conduit, okay? So that’s what we’ve been done up to this point. But since, when we’re starting off with the brand, so we’re gonna be doing that same program. We’re calling it the I Am 4 Kids Family Pack. We’ve also got [00:22:00] the I Am 4 Kids Roundtable, which is a true mastermind of families. And then there’s the I Am 4 Kids Academy. And the I Am 4 Kids Academy is all of the things that we as adults say, you know, Why didn’t they teach us this in school? I really could have used this for the last twenty, thirty, forty years of my life, right? So it, it, it’s all of those types of things that are in there as well. And we’re gonna be doing those, uh, once again, using the web technology, uh, doing those, doing live events. Uh, so the TV shows, the, the first one is the one we were just talking about, but we’ve got several others that are lined up behind that.
Um, so there’s, there’s literally no shortage of ways that we will be getting to, to the kids. Uh, one of the things that I, I’m really excited about because I’m just starting to learn about it, I, I, I know of it, but now I’m starting to know it itself, and that’s when we start talking about AI and toys. That there, the generative AI that we can put into, for lack of a better term, what we’ll call [00:23:00] action figures of the characters, can actually have conversations with the kids because they learn from the kids. So if every child is going to have a separate and unique experience with their toy, then a kid who bought the same toy but is playing with it in his or her house, and that’s the part where we can really, you know, like I’m, I’m getting goosebumps just kind of thinking of what some of those possibilities are. Cause, you know, we, we can help them to be, to actually to communicate better at a younger age, not just with the, the toy, not just with the piece of technology, but we can also teach them how to interact and communicate better with, with real people. And there’s, yeah. And there’s gonna be instances where unfortunately sometimes that that toy really might be the kid’s only friend that they have access to, right? So if we can, yeah. And, and now we can make sure that that kid’s still getting that, that positive [00:24:00] reinforcement as opposed to, you know, why am I always alone? Why, this kind of stuff. So we’re, we’re so excited about it.
[00:24:06] Ed Watters: That, that really, it, it really augments the home portion of it. Because I remember being a child, there was many times that I didn’t have that companionship that I needed, and I truly wanted that companionship. So I like that aspect of it a lot. Uh, a lot of people might, you know, think twice about AI and you know, it’s really about the pre-programmed information that gets put into the toy. So when, when we build those type of augmented toys, you, you really have to think about that. So how can our listeners get involved and help with this project?
[00:24:58] Mark Papadas: Well, there’s two main things that we’re looking for [00:25:00] right now. So number one is exposure. Uh, I said the, what we’ve done up till now is really just aimed at schools, and we just kind of focused on that. There wasn’t really any type of public messaging, if you will. So I would say there’s two things. So the first one, if they just wanna find out more about us, they can just go to, iam4kids.com. And it’s got all those stuff about our programs, about what we’re all about. There’s even a little, there’s a link on there about the, the TV show that we’re putting together, et cetera. So, uh, if they wanna, you know, message me. So right now there’s really not a lot of volunteer, uh, opportunities because I said we’re really launching everything in January, okay? So, um, but if they would wanna get on our mailing list so that when those opportunities are available, there’s a place on the website where they can do that and we’ll be, we’ll definitely be reaching out.
The, the one ask that I would ask of the audience is, if you, we were talking about that TV show, and then if you think that that type of educational and [00:26:00] empowering entertainment is something that would be good for kids as opposed to the, pretty much the mindless dribble that is thrown at them these days, is to, we put together a GoFundMe site. Now before you, everybody rolls their eyes. We’re not asking everybody to donate hundreds of thousands of dollars. We’re literally wanna get as many one dollar donations as we can. The reason behind this is that when we have that pilot complete and we take it to the, you know, Netflix, Hulu, ABC, NBC, et cetera, and we can say that, Look, we’ve got 40,000 people, we’ve got 50,000 people, however many that there are who gave us a dollar, that, in other words, they’re paying for this type of content and these are paid
for content services, right? So we’re bringing an audience with us, all you have to do is green light the project. Let us make our show and let’s go do this and change the world. So if they want, somebody would like to go check that out, it’s, iam4kids.tv, [00:27:00] okay? So iam4kids.tv. There’s about a three minute video there. Us talking about the show, what it’s all gonna be about. You’re gonna get to meet the characters, all that kind of stuff. I say if you like it, give us a dollar, share with your friends and see if you can convince them to do the same. If you don’t think it’s a good idea, that’s fine too.
[00:27:18] Ed Watters: That’s, that’s very powerful. You know, that’s good marketing, Mark. I, I like that a lot. I, I kinda like that, you know, because it, it is a crowdsourced thing and that is influence. So very ingenious there, I like it a lot. Is there anything that we’ve missed that we need to cover about this topic today?

[00:27:44] Mark Papadas: I mean, how many hours do you have? No. Uh, no. It’s, it is, I think that, oh, no, it’s not, the, the, to me it, this is the perfect time for it. We didn’t necessarily design it this way, we [00:28:00] didn’t choose it. But there’s so many things that are going on that are affecting our kids today. And, and we just wanna make it, make their life, so it may go back to that pampering question, we wanna make the kids’ life a little easier. Their, their, their lives shouldn’t be as hard as they are these days. We wanna let them be able to be kids for as long as possible, if, if possible, like me for the rest of their lives, okay? So I, I would just say that, you know, if, if they could take a look at what we’re doing and, and if they have any, you know, ideas to share,
but like I said, if they could support us in any way, um, to go to our website, all of our social media aspect is there. Uh, I’ll, lemme say one other thing on that note, ’cause we’re all about building the, the, the community, the movement, so when we’re putting together the TV show, it’s actually our social media platforms who are going to decide which of the stories that, [00:29:00] that they will submit. Will then be put on and made into the next episodes. With the parent’s permission, the child that’s featured in that episode can then become the next I Am 4 Kids character. So now we’ll be always, we’ll always be having something, you know? I’m a bit of a, um, like a TV and movie buff. Once again, I spent a lot of time alone when I was a kid, so I watched a lot of TV and movies. And I used to have a, uh, photographic memory.
So people hate playing Trivial Pursuit with me or anything like that when it comes to TV and movie trivia. So, uh, are you familiar with the phrase Jump the Shark? Okay, so in, in the entertainment industry, it’s a, a commonly used one, kind of like you tell an actor to break a leg when they’re going, you know, for an audition, you know, that kind of stuff. So they’ll end up in a cast. Um, the, the term jumping the shark went back to, back in the seventies, I want to [00:30:00] say, was, uh, there’s a huge hit show at the time, was the biggest show on TV called Happy Days.
And it started off, and then, but as, as the, the characters got older and, you know, started having their own kids and stuff like that, the show just changed. And there was a particular episode where they’re out in California, and for whatever reason, the Fonzi character gets challenged to do something and he, uh, is on water skis and he jumps over a caged shark. But allegedly going into this, he had no idea how to water ski. So he’s just kinda like this, but he does it. So, and that was when everybody kind of went like, okay, you’ve run out of ideas, you know? So that’s anytime, so that time when people start talking about jumping the shark, it’s like, oh yeah, okay, it’s, let’s just cut this off now, kind of thing, okay? So, but by always having the new stories that are submitted by our audience and letting the audience pick the stories that are there, and then those kids, being the future characters that can then [00:31:00] be in supporting casts, we’ll never have to jump the shark. We’ll always have new current stories to tell.
[00:31:08] Ed Watters: I like that a lot. That, that’s something I, I never heard of, but very interesting. Mark, it’s been a pleasure speaking with you. You’re an exciting guy, you’re doing wonderful things. Could you tell people one more time how to reach out, get involved with you, and how to reach you?
[00:31:31] Mark Papadas: Absolutely. So again, you can go to our website, iam4kids.com. So there’s, you can message me there. You just, anything you need to know about us is, is gonna be on that site. And then if you’d like to support the TV show, that’s iam4kids, iam4kids.tv. And that’s all, all that information is on, on there as well. So I know my, I like to leave, every time I, uh, interact with, you know, somebody or people that are watching is [00:32:00] to, you know, hopefully support us and then always remember to be great.
[00:32:05] Ed Watters: That, that’s the Be Great Guy. I, I like it a lot, Mark. Uh, I wanna say thank you for being part of the Dead America Podcast and for being out there doing exciting things, especially for children.
[00:32:21] Mark Papadas: It’s, it’s my, it’s, it’s truly my mission. So, so thank you for having me.
[00:32:28] Ed Watters: Thank you for joining us today. If you found this podcast enlightening, entertaining, educational in any way, please share, like, subscribe, and join us right back here next week for another great episode of the Dead America Podcast. I’m Ed Watters, your host, enjoy your afternoon wherever you might be.