Jim Rohn taught me, “You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.” I wanted to put Jim’s theory to the test but I needed help, a lot of help! With the support of my wife as my coach, my friends, family and mentors as my guides, I decided to do something I had never done before.

It is 8am. I have trained 8 months for this; competing against more than 30,000 people from 116 countries. I am speaker number 8 during the final round of competition on the 88th anniversary of Toastmasters, out of 88 districts around the world and the date is August 18th (8/18).

After the final speaker, we sit with the other 2,000 people in the audience and wait 30 minutes to hear the announcement. My heart is pounding, my palms are sweaty and then I hear it…. “The 2012 World Champion of Public Speaking is… Ryan Avery!”

I guess you can now say my new lucky number is…8.

The next morning, I woke up to 269 emails asking me to speak, coach and train leaders all over the world on how to improve their communication abilities. My wife, friends, family and mentors, showed me things are possible when you surround yourself with the right people and they push you past your limits of what you think you were able to accomplish.

I wanted to travel the world and start right away but I was still working at Special Olympics and didn’t want to quit as I loved what I did for a living. However, I started to see that there is a huge opportunity in this world for people wanting training and we can always be growing, learning and developing our leadership skills.

So after long months of talking, thinking, contemplating and debating, my wife and I decided to take the risk and start our own public speaking business in 2013. We quit our jobs, sold everything we owned except what fit in our car, traveled to Texas to move back in with my parents at 26 years old (true Millennials) and start our company out of a corner in their home. Six months later we got on our feet, moved out and now live in Denver, CO (when you want the hour version of this story, let me know and we can grab a drink).

My wife and in Antarctica I right before we set the new world record of being the youngest couple to professionally speak on all seven continents.

Me and my wife in Antarctica right before we set the new World Record for being the youngest couple to professionally speak on all seven continents in 2015.

This has been an incredible adventure. I still have a lot to learn. Every day I study, search and submerse myself in the art of communication. One of the biggest things I have learned in the past three years doing this full time is this:

When you improve your communication abilities, you increase your leadership capabilities!

Now I am on a mission to train leaders how we can utilize the power of storytelling to get others to take action.

I believe we all have the opportunity to do something in our life that can bring us joy and help others excel. During one of my failed attempts at a recent world record my friends taught me what it means to really feel accomplished and what it means to be the leader: when your actions inspire others to take action, you are the leader.

I am taking charge or my life. I am taking chances. I am taking action. Together, if you will let me, I want to share my journey with you, share strategies and stories with you, via my trainings or blog, of what I am learning and have learned along the way to help us accelerate our achievements.

I believe our communication abilities determine our leadership capabilities so I am on a mission to train leaders around the world in the art of communication! If you are interested in one of my trainings, I look forward to hearing from you. If you are interested in reading my articles or watching my videos I look ...

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices