Former NBA Player Uses TEDx Stage To Ask: “What Is Your Polygamy?”

(Newswire.net — October 17, 2016) Salt Lake City, Utah — Lance Allred’s journey to the TEDx stage is anything but ordinary. He was raised in a polygamous family in rural Montana, made history when he became the NBA’s first deaf player, is a best-selling author and just checked off another NBA first by becoming the only player to ever deliver a TEDx talk.

Lance’s “What Is Your Polygamy” TEDx talk is a mixture of remarkable experiences, awkward moments and lessons learned from a life filled with unique circumstances and familiar obstacles.

“Lance’s talk was thought provoking, filled with lots of wisdom and refreshingly authentic. Even though he and I have led entirely different lives, it didn’t matter. I completely connected with his message around the single question, “What is your polygamy?” and found value in looking at my own life through that lens. I look forward to reading his books and listening to him speak again!” 

 – Josh Taylor, TEDx Salt Lake City Participant.

Lance’s authenticity and transparency are a welcome departure from a speaking world too often crowded with “quick-fixers,” “know-it-alls” and the “nothing-in-my-life-ever-goes-wrong” types. And there’s a very good reason for him being ”this guy.” According to Lance,

“Until I escaped polygamy when I was thirteen years old, I was surrounded by a world of religious charlatans, I know what a charlatan looks like and there are many public speakers out there who are con-artists and lack authenticity in their space and standing; they’re one person on stage, but someone else as soon as they leave it. One of my missions is to elevate public speaking by making it more accountable and authentic. It’s time for a new generation to step into that space.”

 Lance says that developing this talk was one of most mentally and emotionally consuming endeavors he’s ever tackled,

“Having a great story isn’t enough for a TEDx talk. You have to have something that’s not only different and unique, but it also has to be an ‘idea worth spreading.’ I took that challenge and decided to see how clever I could get, to flip it back on everyone else. Speaking for 50-minutes is easy. Speaking for ten minutes, where you have to make every word count is very difficult.”

And this is coming from someone who was in speech therapy until he was fifteen, couldn’t play basketball with his hearing aides and traveled the world for ten years while speaking broken English. But this is Lance Allred. He struggles forward every day of his life. Some days are easy. Some aren’t. His story is your story. As Lance says,

“We’re all underdogs in our own way. Some of us have limiting beliefs about our abilities and worth — this in and of itself is a disability. It makes you an underdog. The best thing I can do for someone when I’m on stage is to show them how my story is their story and then help them to gain the courage to step out of their comfort zones. We were not born to be caged within our comfort zones.”

What Is Your Polygamy has only been out a week and it’s already been watched over 100,000 times! Even The Cleveland Cavaliers, Lance’s former team, is throwing some love Lance’s way: http://www.nba.com/cavaliers/news/features/allred-161011

You can watch this INCREDIBLE TEDx talk here:  Lance Allred’s TEDx Salt Lake City Talk

About Lance Allred

Lance is a single father and lives in Salt Lake City, Utah with his son, Simon. He’s a motivational speaker, who played one season with the Cleveland Cavaliers after being called up from the gritty NBA D-League and played over ten seasons on six continents around the globe. He was born and raised for thirteen years in a polygamous family, is legally deaf, and gets asked almost every day how tall he is (6’10”) and if he’s ever played basketball. 

With Leadership, Perseverance and Grit as his guiding themes, Lance speaks to corporations, athletic groups, non-profits, universities and schools, at-risk youth and now the TEDx family. His favorite topics to discuss are leadership, The 5 Principles of Perseverance, overcoming disabilities, self-esteem, suicidal depression, bullying, goal-setting, sports and basketball and triumph in the face of great odds.

Lance’s message and life story are so eclectic that anyone in any audience will find a way to relate to some part of his story.

Lance has written three books: Longshot: The Adventures of a Deaf Fundamentalist Mormon Kid and His Journey to the NBA, The Pesaro Poems, & Basketball Gods: The Transformation of the Enlightened Jock  and is currently working on a fourth, Lions and Leaders: The Principles of Perseverance.

Book or contact Lance at  www.lanceallred41.com

For Media Inquiries contact Dave Murray at dave@enlivengroup.com