Summary: Dan Clark is an award winning motivational speaker and best selling author. He has traveled to 59 countries in the world motivating the masses to create a life of significance. He has also served as a Young Single Adult (YSA) bishop (twice). I first came across Dan's speaking ability when I listened to his <a href="https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/dan-clark_four-steps-stairway-heaven/" target="_blank">BYU Devotional</a>. It inspired me to be a better leader in the Church and it inspired me to get him on the podcast as soon as possible. After a few miraculous encounters, I was able to meet Dan and he willingly agreed to sit down with me for an interview.<br> <br> This is definitely one of the top 3 interviews I have done on Leading Saints and I am excited to share it with you. We discuss his young football career at the University of Utah, how he became a motivational speaker, his time teaching public speaking at BYU, how he was called as a YSA bishop, what he learned from that calling, how to run a linger-longer, how to increase the rate of marriage in a YSA ward, how to increase the quality of teaching in a ward, the power of stories and how to record them, and other basic guidance for public speaking in church.<br> <br> Transcript is available below.<br> Links<br> Dan's 21st book, <a href="http://amzn.to/2783yTl" target="_blank">The Art of Significance</a><br> <br> <a href="https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/dan-clark_four-steps-stairway-heaven/" target="_blank">Dan's BYU Devotional Address</a><br> <br> Book: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Fortify-Fighters-Overcoming-Pornography-Addiction/dp/1942934122/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1462812868&sr=8-2&keywords=the+new+drug+pornography" target="_blank">The New Drug</a><br> <br> <a href="http://danclark.com" target="_blank">DanClark.com</a><br> <br> <br> Interview Transcript:<br> Kurt Francom (LS): I had the opportunity to be be invited to Dan Clark's home and— how are you Dan?<br> <br> Dan Clark (DC): I’m great Kurt. How are you, Bishop? <br> <br> LS:Good. Well, you know I appreciate— you've been kind of on my bucket list of interviews for a while and I think my first initial introduction to you was when (remove the I)you gave a devotional address at BYU and I think I'd probably been familiar with some of your work before, but that was sort of one of those moments I was like, “Wait, that guy is Mormon?” [laughter] So— and I really enjoyed them and I thought, “I've got to track him down and see if I can interview him,” and we randomly ran into each other at an event and I said, “Hey! Would you mind if I interviewed you?” and you were so gracious to say, “Yeah, come on over and we'll do it,” so I appreciate that. <br> <br> DC:Oh thanks, you just— your comment reminds me of my mentor, Zig Ziegler- he used to always say, “If somebody has to ask if you are a Christian, you must be doing something wrong,” so I apologize that you didn't know that I was a Mormon. [laughter]<br> <br> LS: Obviously I didn't have too much experience with you to make a moral judgement on your background but ...<br> <br> DC: On on funny note, I'm a public speaker so I'm usually on a huge stage. Most of my audiences are about four to ten thousand folks and there is always kind of like a follow spot . Back in the day I used to have the craziest comments. People would come up and go, “Are you a Mormon?” and I'd just look and them and smile, and I'd say something like, “Why, do I glow?” and they would say, “Oh no, I saw your garment mark on your suit pants,” and I'm like, “Are you serious?” That's just funny. <br> <br> LS: Well, all the way from the top tier and they can pick you out?<br> <br> DC: Oh yeah, that's funny, so— proud to be Mormon, proud to be a Latter-day Saint.<br> <br> LS: Nice, now many people may know you as an author. You've written twenty one books, right?
