Hi, kids. This is your Super Power Kid, Neva Lee Recla, and today we have on our show a very special guest. Her name is Marty Ward and she is one of my book sponsors, and that means so much to me because I want to inspire kids to be confident in doing their business. I really just want to get this book out there, and she’s a really big part of that, and she was a teacher, and she works with teachers, parents, and grandparents, to create confident kids. Without further ado, will you help me welcome our very special guest, Marty Ward. Hi Marty.
Hey, Neva, how are you?
I’m amazing, how are you?
Well I am so glad you’re amazing and I am too. I am so privileged to be on your show, and be able to talk to your audience about confidence.
Thank you. What are your superpowers? I know you have a lot.
I do. Well Neva, my superpowers, when it comes to children, is to helping them to believe in themselves.
I like that.
For them to know how talented, able, and gifted, they are. That just like you talk about superpowers, I just call it something just a little different. I call it talents, abilities, and gifts. Because inside of every child is this amazingly talented, able, and gifted person, who gives so much to our world, and is so precious to our world. We want them to believe in themselves.
Yeah, I agree. Thank you for that. I thought since we both are really cool superheroes that we should probably do a superhero pose.
Okay. A superhero pose.
Yeah.
Okay.
I like it.
Yeah, great.
You do a lot of work with … Do you help with bullying like to help stop it?
Yes.
How did you get involved with that?
Well Neva, I’ve actually been bullied my whole life and so I know what I feels like to have people put me down, and call me names, and not include me. That’s the bully’s biggest, one of the bully’s biggest things they do. That you’re a friend one day and then another day you’re not a friend. Then you think there’s something wrong with you. What’s great about what learning about superpowers, and talents, abilities, and gifts, is when you believe in yourself. What I found out, Neva, is that then you don’t believe the bully. You see, we’re only hurt of we believe the bully but if we know how fabulous we are, and we can believe in ourselves, that when the bully says something, we can say, “Well, that’s your opinion, I know who I am. I’m an athlete, or I’m an artist, or I’m a writer, or I’m a musician, or I’m an actor, or I love soccer.”
Yeah.
Those are talents. When you believe in yourself, well, then you don’t have to believe what the bully says.
Yeah.
Then you’re okay.
One of my other questions is what is bullying?
Well bullying happens when people, children or adults, don’t feel good about who they are. Bullying is when people call us names, put us down, are fault finders, as I call it, or leave us out. They talk about what we look like. They might say to me, “Oh look at you, you’ve got four eyes. You’ve got four eyes.” Right? What I teach kids is to be able to say, “Well, I do have glasses,” right? I own what is true and say, “Yeah, I do have glasses, you are right.” When you do that, then the bully doesn’t have any power. When you own what is true, the bully doesn’t have power. Bullying is when, as I say, adults or children, aren’t friendly, aren’t thoughtful, and want to pick on you to try to make you not feel good about who you are.
Maybe like because they don’t feel good about themselves, they want to make other people … They don’t know how to deal with it so they maybe take it out on other people?
Yeah, hurt people, hurt people. You know what’s a secret Neva? The secret is that the bully is really a hero, but he or she wants to be a hero, they want to lead people, they really just are like us, they want to connect, they want to be loved, appreciated, and accepted for who they are.
Maybe it’s something that they deal with every day of their life, so they don’t know what else to do.
Right.
Because that’s what’s been put into their minds.
True, because we don’t know what happened at home do we? We don’t know why they might be sad, why they might be hurt, why they might feel that they don’t have a superpower, and they just want to connect. They just want to have friends and be loved and appreciated, what I say is surprise the bully, love them. When we love them, and we allow them to be the leader, do you know what? They become the leader. They become helpful. That’s what I do, is to help them to believe in themselves.
That’s why your project is called Confidence Eliminates Bullying.
Yes, because when you … Right, very well said. When you help the bully, know that they really are a leader, and they’re in hiding behind being all tough, and think they’re big shots, you know? When they hide behind that, and then you tell them that they’re a leader, then they step into that and become the leader, and then can help us and be confidence boosters, rather than fault finders.
I really like that. Thank you. What is your plan for your project in the future? Where do you want it to go?
Well, I’ll tell you where I want it to go. I’m going to go to Africa in March Neva, because we have a program in Africa where children, and parents, and grandparents, and teachers, are learning about how to be confident kids. I want to take it around the world and I want to take it to all the schools across the country in America, so that teachers, and parents, will know how to have children cooperate much easier. Because when children express themselves, and that’s expressing their talent, ability, and gift, sometimes adults get upset with that. They want it to be there way. When a child is just being themselves, they just want to be seen and accepted for who they are, like you.
Yeah.
Like you with all your creativity, and imagination, and your inventiveness, and your entrepreneurship, you know? That’s you expressing you.
Exactly.
Yeah, and so we want to honor that, and value that.
Thank you, I’m really happy. if you could change anything about the world what would it be?
I would want all adults and children to believe in themselves, to love themselves so much that they could share that love with everyone. Once we believe in ourselves, and have confidence in ourselves, well then Neva, we can change the world. Yeah, because once you believe in yourself, like you do, and you feel confident, and secure, and you’re able to talk on your podcast here, and you’re able to speak in front of audiences, because you believe in yourself. You know who you are. I want all children to have the confidence that you have and the excitement about life, and expressing themselves, that you have.
Thank you. Yeah, I agree. I feel like everyone should be confident in themselves and who they are.
But some people don’t because they haven’t had the support they need, and the understanding they need, to know that they are okay exactly as they are.
Yeah, I agree. Even if they don’t feel like they fit in, if they believe in themselves, other people will believe in them too.
That’s very well said Neva, because sometimes when we don’t fit in, and then we believe in ourselves, you’re right, people start to believe in us. I’m very different than other members in my family, and that’s why I was bullied, because I didn’t fit in, and they didn’t know what to do with me, or how to talk to me. That made me feel not good enough, but once I learned that I was okay exactly as I am, well, then now they don’t bully me any more because I believe in me.
Yeah, yeah. Even if people don’t feel like they fit in, or they get bullied, or people tell them that they don’t fit in with the group, they can still know that if they love themselves, other people will appreciate them.
Excellent, yes they will. They will stop having people bully then as much. It takes time, but when you keep saying, “That’s your opinion, I know who I am,” and eventually the bully doesn’t have anything to …
Bully you about.
It doesn’t work anymore, it just doesn’t work anymore, because you know who you are. They can say what they want to say and you say, “Well, I hear you, but that’s just not who I am.”
Exactly, exactly. Where can people go to find out more about you?
Well, they can go to ConfidenceEliminatesBullying.com, or, if they want to give me a call, they can call me at 321-848-4997.
All right.
321-848-4997, in case parents or kids have some questions they want to ask me about.
All right, thank you. We’re going to take a quick break. We’ve been talking with Marty Ward about being confident. We’ll be right back.
To listen to the entire show click on the player above or go to the SuperPower Up! podcast on iTunes.
Podcast: Play in new window
