Author Jeevan Brown At Livingstone College

     This past weekend I had the honor to speak at Livingstone College in Salisbury, North Carolina to some of their incoming freshmen. These freshmen were a part of the Bridge & Beyond summer program. The Bridge & Beyond program gives deserving students who didn’t meet college admissions standards a chance to prove themselves through an intensive, 6-week residential program. Since the program was coming to an end I was brought in to speak with them about my book, A Lesson Learned. If you've never heard about A Lesson Learned go here to read more about it and watch my book trailers (similar to a movie trailer).

     Before I indulge on this wonderful experience let me give you the story on how this happened (Writer's note: The video below explains a portion of what I wrote below. The Livingstone section starts on paragraph seven). On February 22nd 2016 I revealed to the world that I was releasing my first book, A Lesson Learned. A few days later my younger cousin, Dominique died from a heart attack. I was on a wave of joy when I put my book out, but it came crashing down when I got the news she passed. I started looking at plane tickets to Washington D.C. from Atlanta, but they were really expensive. I decided I would rent a car, drive to D.C., then catch a flight back to Atlanta the next day, but I was going to make the most of this trip.

     I had the idea to stop at colleges throughout North Carolina and Virginia while on my way to D.C. to promote my book. My plan was to take pictures of students holding the book and talk to a few professors about my book. Since A Lesson Learned is based on college stories and I want it to be a part of the freshmen curriculum, I thought my idea was genius. Even though I was grieving I had to keep pushing, I call that “achieving while grieving,” which happens to be the name of Chapter 3 in my book. I told myself I’ve been down this road before and I can handle this – I’m built for this. This was a 9 hour drive that would possibly take 14 hours because of my plan and let's not forget I was by myself. A few of my friends thought I was crazy, but I knew God had my back.

     I loaded the 2015 Impala rental car with my bags, camera and the most important essential - my bible. I prayed really hard and hit the road at 4:30AM. My first stop was at my alma mater, Johnson C. Smith University (JCSU) in Charlotte, NC. I arrived at 8:00AM and thought I would be there no longer than 45 minutes, but boy was I in for a surprise. After asking a random student to take a picture holding the book and speaking with multiple professors I was there for almost three hours! Once I introduced myself to some of the professors they wanted to know more about me and my book. Those conversations went on forever, but I wasn’t mad because I loved to talk about my book.
 

     Next I was off to Livingstone College in Salisbury, NC which is about 30 minutes from JCSU. When I pulled on campus students were everywhere. It happened to be warm that day and students were blasting music out their cars and having a good time. I parked my car and told myself I couldn’t be here for three hours like I did at JCSU. I needed a miracle, so I prayed. I asked God to lead me to the right professor that would help take A Lesson Learned to the next level. After quickly asking a student from Philadelphia to take a picture I saw a group of older men walking with suits on who looked like professors. All of them split up, but one was still walking towards my car. I yelled “excuse me!” and he turned around. He was in a rush, but was listening to me. His name was Coach Kyle. I told him about me and the book and he said “I think I can use you, I’m the Director of the summer Bridge program here. I work with the incoming freshmen.” Immediately my energy shifted to pure joy, I knew God was working. I gave him a book, told him thanks and headed to North Carolina A&T in Greensboro, NC.

     Within 10 minutes I had met the exact person who was in charge of the same program I talked to this past weekend. There's no doubt in my mind it was all because of God and the prayer I made. I followed up with Coach Kyle, but didn’t hear anything back. But three months later I sent out a mass email promoting my book for graduation season and he responded back and called me. He told me he read my book and thinks it would be great if I came and spoke to the students there. I agreed, wrote out my outline and was officially booked for my first speaking engagement.

      This past weekend when I arrived on Livingstone’s Campus I was a bit nervous. I’ve talked in front of big crowds before, but this was different. These were student between the ages of 17-18 and I had to speak for three hours. But I embraced the fear, prayed, and let the worry go because you can’t do both. I was speaking to about 90 students and I knew I had to make them feel comfortable and be relatable. I wasn’t worried about what I was going to say because I knew they would love the stories. But I wanted to set the tone.

     Before they walked in I made a playlist of instrumentals of today’s top hits such as Beyonce’s “Sorry,” Drake’s “Summer Sixteen,” Desiigner’s “Panda” and a lot more. When I saw they were dancing while walking into the room I knew everything was going to be ok. I also had a Snapchat filter with Livingstone’s Mascot combined with a picture of me holding the book. I knew this would also make them comfortable and give them a sense that this wasn’t a normal seminar. Especially since I had former NBA player Josh Howard with me who has a chapter in my book called “Draft Day.”

     Once they were settled in, one of the upperclassmen read my bio and things went into overdrive. I made them stand up, repeat words of affirmations and told them about my story leading up until now. The seminar was broken down into 5 different sections. Grief, Temptation, Sports, Alcohol & Tobacco, and Finances. I knew the students would be a little irritated about sitting there for three hours, but once they heard the first story “Live By Faith, Not By Sight” I had their full attention. I even noticed one girl crying when I told them about Chapter 3 “Achieving While Grieving,” which details the passing of my best friend, Jeff while I was in college. Other stories like “HIGHway Patrol,” and “Let It Burn,” made them laugh and of course they loved Josh Howard’s NBA stories. Most of the students were from North Carolina so they knew who he was. 

     After every story they had to take notes about the “lessons learned” from each chapter. We also played the interactive mobile game Kahoot where the students had to answer the questions from the notes they took. The prizes included bags of candy and H&M, Starbucks, Walmart and Target gift cards. It was truly gratifying to give back and pour the wisdom and lessons I learned from my college experiences into the students. It’s only been four months since releasing A Lesson Learned and I must say it has been a fun and surreal journey that has been lead by God. He’s just using me to do his work. Be on the lookout for more things to come and order your copy of A Lesson Learned here, or on Amazon and Kindle. All orders made on my website will be personally signed by me. God Bless and never give up on your dreams!