A motivational speaker for schools who doesn't sugarcoat it

The schools that have booked him

From Phil's own list of past talks: Boardman Middle School (about 200 students), Hubbard High School (about 200), the Mahoning County Career & Technical Center in Canfield (three talks of 100 to 150 each), TCTC (about 100), and Otterbein University near Columbus, where he has spoken four times to about 200 people each.

MCCTC and Otterbein both asked him back more than once.

Why his story lands with students

His story doesn't start on a bodybuilding stage. It starts with a quiet kid. "By nature, I was a very shy, you know, guy, you know, the guy in the back of the room, didn't say too much," he says on his podcast. Alcohol "gave me a little bit of what they call liquid courage. I could approach people and talk to them and become funny and joke and laugh."

Then the consequences: a first DUI and a couple of days in jail, a second DUI and a longer stay, a third and a couple of months, his last time behind bars. "I realized that all of the wounds I was experiencing my life at that time were definitely self-inflicted. There wasn't anybody else to blame."

And then the turn: his nine-year-old son crying at a doctor's office, Phil walking into a gym that same day and telling a stranger "I need help," and the 140 pounds he lost that first year.

The lessons he draws

On his podcast Phil lists five takeaways from going from a jail cell to a bodybuilding stage, and they translate to a gym full of students without much change:

1. Your past does not have to decide your future. "That person that did all those ridiculous things, he's gone."
2. You are stronger than you think.
3. Share what you're going through. His stories help people because they're real.
4. Learn from mistakes instead of repeating them.
5. Ask the right people for help. "You don't want to talk to your buddy at a bar who's on his fifth tequila. He's not going to get it."

And from another episode: "If your life can fall apart one bad decision at a time, then it can also be rebuilt one good decision at a time."

Colleges and universities

Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio, has had Phil speak four times, to about 200 students each time. For college audiences he tells it from the start: a shy guy who found that alcohol made him funny, and the twenty years before he put it down.

Questions from schools

What ages has Phil spoken to?

Middle school (Boardman Middle School), high school (Hubbard High School), career and technical center students (MCCTC and TCTC), and university students (Otterbein University).

How long is an assembly?

Up to an hour.

Is the content appropriate for younger students?

He has spoken at a middle school. The story includes drinking, drunk driving, jail and a shooting, so tell him your students' ages when you write.

Which schools can he reach?

Phil lives in Austintown, near Youngstown, and travels in any state, with a focus on schools within about 200 miles: Northeast and Central Ohio, Western Pennsylvania, Western New York and northern West Virginia. See where he speaks.

Does Phil talk about drunk driving?

Yes. He was jailed a few times, mostly for drunk driving: a couple of days after his first DUI, longer after the second, and a couple of months after the third, his last time behind bars.

Can colleges and universities book Phil?

Yes. Otterbein University has had him four times, to about 200 students each time.