Welcome to the Hearts Rise Up podcast. I'm answering your host for this episode. Rising up to life's challenges is hard work, especially in today's world with so much stress, chaos and fear, all of which can pull us down. If we let it, we don't have to let our outer circumstances or others dictate how we feel and act or define who we are now. More than ever is the time to awaken our own inner power, dig deep and rise up to our best self are loving, heart centered, higher self. That's what Hearts rise up podcast is all about. When we tap into our inner power, we elevate ourselves our life and the world around us. It's that simple. So let's get right into today's episode. Our guest is terry moore. Terry is billed as the hottest disabled entrepreneur in America. We'll be hearing more about that today. Terry was born with cerebral palsy but he never let this disability hold him back from pursuing and achieving his dreams. Terry was blessed to have over 30 years in the music industry. He has a strong background in public relations, marketing and public speaking as an entertainment publicist.

He has had the opportunity to travel worldwide and meet with various people including Madonna Magic, johnson, Paula Abdul Whitney Houston sean combs and many, many more celebrities of music and sports. He's written for several top entertainment and regional magazines, including right on and billboard. Terry continues to hold national lectures teaching the business of music and providing motivational speeches on his triumph over his disability with cerebral palsy. He was invited by the White House to Witness President Obama signed the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act Terry believes that success lies within the heart, along with a strong faith in God. He's been successful achieving his dream of being the best in the entertainment industry, along with much success in sports publicity and public speaking. Terry has written two books how to launch your music career in 21 days and my music storybook how a disabled kid from Brooklyn lived his dream in the entertainment business.

Welcome Terry. We're glad to have you here with us to share some of your stories. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it. So are you ready to rise up to your best self today to inspire our listeners. Absolutely, thank you. Well, out of all those things that we just talked about, was there anything that you just fondly remember as a highlight of your past? Wow. Um I would probably say um going to the White House definitely was a great highlight. Absolutely. To be on the south lawn and to think that so many people were been there, john f, Kennedy and martin Luther king was actually on the same ground. So that was definitely a highlight. Absolutely! That was awesome. Not many people can say that they've done that. Very true, Very true. So that was an elevated moment in your life? Yes, it was absolutely. So we might as well jump right into that aspect because just for our listeners, I also asked you, like, how you were inspired to do what you did, having the disability that you had, and I remember you saying you didn't know you had a disability?

Yeah. You know, as I was growing up, it probably didn't hit me that I had a disability until around maybe junior high school and what they say in the south middle school. So as I grew up in middle school, that's when I think it started to hit me that I was different. And when you're disabled, you go through different phases in your life in regards to uh, first you start blaming yourself, you figure that you did something wrong, then you start blaming God thinking he did something wrong and then you also blame your parents thinking, okay, maybe they did something wrong and that went probably from middle school, beginning of middle school to the end of middle school, where a lot of my peers and both middle school and high school uh sort of accepted me and sort of pulled me along. And uh, for many years I was a juvenile delinquent for many years. I was wasn't the greatest kid. I did a little bit of everything When I was growing up in new york in middle school, in in high school, I was a pretty bad kid back in the days, but, But but I'm a much better.

I'm much better at 54, I've learned my lesson. So what did you say turned you around or what challenge did you have that made you change your ways? Well, two things that would, that happened in my life. That was pretty life change. And the first thing is that, um one time I was hanging out with a group of friends and, and I don't know, it's getting so far rockaway queens as a part of new york and queens where it actually sits on the atlantic ocean. So I was very fortunate to wake up and have the beach nearby. I mean literally look out my window and see the atlantic ocean. And we also had basketball basketball court and handball court that all the neighborhood kids used to go hang out at. And one particular day about five or six of my friends, we was walking down the street and we stopped and sat on the bench and two of the guys said, hey, I'm gonna go get something to drink, go get some sodas. And I said, well why you're there, why don't you get me a soda?

And one of the guys said, what's wrong with you? How come you can't walk and go get it? That was a light light bulb moment for me. And then the second probably the biggest change of life is I used to drink like a fish I was drinking every weekend hanging out with the fellas and one night I came home and the room was spinning and I remember laying on the bed and I said, okay, when this room, when I closed my eyes, I want this room to stop spinning. And I closed my eyes expecting the room to stop spinning. When I opened up my eyes, the room was still spinning and I got mad. I said when I closed my eyes, I want the room to stop spinning. And I closed my eyes again, open it up a few seconds label later and the room was still spinning and I knew at that time I didn't have control And from that day on I stopped drinking, stop doing drugs, stop doing everything. And pretty much cold Turkey. Yeah. And that was over 40 something years ago. Congratulations. Thank you very much. That's really something and it is interesting how we think we have control of so much and it causes us a lot of pain. Exactly, absolutely.

But at the same time you also use self talk to inspire. Absolutely, yeah, yeah, definitely. I mean, I believe that everything I've gone through our, my testimonies to show other people especially being disabled that I can do it. You can do it. And I often say to students when I'm talking to him, don't let me beat you in this game because I will outline you. So I say that often. Absolutely, that's great. That's great. So, and usually are you speaking to middle school or high school when you go into the school? It's really the rain. I've just finished doing Georgia State University for two days. And mostly college students I speak to, I speak to a lot of high school students. So it's pretty much the range sometimes in middle school but most of the time it's older students. Yeah. And the topics that they also, There's always the music industry, my disability have overcame the disability to get into the music industry. Yeah, yeah, definitely. Which is, you know, back in the 80s was unheard of for somebody with a disability to go into the music industry.

So was there anybody back then? That was an inspiration for you, wow. It was so many prints actually got me into the music industry indirectly because when I had had a corporate job in new york, I was working for a publishing company in Manhattan and got fired after two years and I basically was at a crossroads like okay, what am I gonna do? And I was sitting home one day watching tv and american music awards came on and Prince came on the platform and I said wow, he looks like he's having a lot of fun plus he's getting paid to do this and that's what I wanted to, I want to do something that's fun and get paid at the same time. I want to be in the music industry. And that was my introduction and where you are you, a musician, nope, not not at all. I'm just actually now for the past two years I've been teaching myself how to play the piano. But I actually started out in the music business working in recording studios for free. And only because I wanted to push the button, the little lights like that looks like fun.

I could get paid to do that. But it opened up a lot of doors for me because working in the recording studio has got a chance to work with Roy Ayers, got a chance to work with Yoko Ono and David Belafonte, uh Harry Belafonte's son. And so they opened up the doors to say, okay, I like this. I want to do more of this. And that transferred to other jobs in the industry. And just for our listeners because it impressed me when I heard you say this, tell us more about that. Doing it for free. Yeah. When I first got into the industry, I this is the eighties, this was before the internet. This was before cell phones. Really started hitting. In fact, cellphone really wasn't it at the time. And I literally flipped over albums and found people's names and started calling record labels and going through the yellow pages and calling people. And you would think people would say, okay great. He's willing to do it for three. But I probably got hung up maybe out of 100 times 99 times. And then one recording studio in Manhattan said, come on in and from 12 in the afternoon at 12 at night, every sunday I worked, yeah, I took the train from Manhattan from queens in Manhattan.

Oh definitely, you gotta put in, you gotta put in the time, you got to never give up. Absolutely at the time. Absolutely, Yes, absolutely. And you said that worked for you also with billboard, right? Yeah. When I left the records recordings to actually, while I was at the recording studio, because I was only working sunday, I was calling around trying to find other gigs and I remember calling Billboard magazine and the gentleman that would pick up the phone with a guy by the name of Harry Michelle who worked at billboard and uh every month I would say, hey do you have anything? And he said, no, we don't have anything called us back next month. Finally, I called him maybe 67 months later and he said, yeah, we got something, why don't you come in? And I went in and he tried me out and uh he said, okay, if something comes up, I'll let you know. And he called me up and say, do you want to come and work full time? And that was my first paid job, working for billboard right into Times Square. Yeah, that was cool. So you've had many ah ha moments in your life, I imagine.

Oh, absolutely, absolutely. Working at billboard with the ah ha moment. One of the things that's great about the music industry is that people that I worked with back in the eighties, 90% of them are still active in the industry. And 16 or 17 year old kids that I used to hang out with are now running record labels and running movie studios. So that's definitely aha moment that they didn't give up, I'm glad that I didn't give up, but life has definitely been a ha moment. Absolutely, yeah, and I guess another key we might all take out of that is that you build relationships everywhere you go, you never know you might run into that person again or, or then help them out and help they help you out. The biggest regret that I have in the world to regrets that I have in the music industry and I don't have a lot, but the two biggest regret that I have in the music industry is one, I didn't take a lot of pictures when I was in the industry, so I really don't remember meeting half the people that I've met? And I hear stories for example, like Jada Pinkett was talking to a friend of mine, she said, hey, how's terry doing?

And he said, well how do you know Terry? And she said, well, he helped me and my mom do a fundraiser Back in the late 80's, I very vaguely remember that in Baltimore, so I wish I would have took more pictures and the second biggest regret is I was writing for a magazine. I interviewed a young lady that was a rising star. Um the interview became so personal that we were laughing and joking about everything that I stopped taking notes, stop writing things down. And uh, she said to me after our talking, she said, hey, she was performing in centennial olympic park, she said what are you doing tonight? And I said, I'm not doing anything. She said, well why don't you come down and hang out with me uh while I perform? I said that sounds good and she said, yeah, we can hang out and I got lazy and said, you know what, I live all the way in Gwinnett and by the time I'm just gonna go back home and to the day I regret it because that was Aliyah. Yeah and you know leah past couple of years ago, so I never got that opportunity to hang out with her.

So that was a regret. That was definitely a regret. Yeah, absolutely. So keeping, keeping in the moment, you got a lot out of it. But no pictures, no notes. Yeah, sometimes I'm watching tv and I'll see somebody, I was like, oh, they look familiar, I think I've worked with them before. So those are some lessons learned. Absolutely, yes. Well have you had any like, do you have any routines because you're a very upbeat person and nothing seems to hold you back anything that you have as a routine that you could share that maybe people could learn from write everything down. I write everything down to, if you look at my calendar, it says get up at seven a.m. And I even have it to do, let's brush your teeth and make your bed and uh, 10 a.m. You know, I've got a list of things that I'm doing. So every little thing I write down, if you come to my house, I've got notebooks of things that I've written down and it's great because I can go back to those notebooks years later and see stuff that was actually crossed out.

Oh, I've already done that. So that's great to definitely write everything down and have a schedule point. I have a schedule. Absolutely, yeah. Another lesson I think I've learned from you, which I, it comes and goes for me, but I think it's about follow up in your story. Absolutely. Absolutely. Follow you know, and that's, that's really what helped me to write things down and by following up and it's important because we're doing so many different things. It's hard to lose track. And I think one of the biggest things for entrepreneurs or people that have their own business, one of the biggest problems is you lose that contact and you've got somebody like three months later, I forgot to follow up that person and yeah, so follow up is very important. Absolutely. So you're scheduled your regimented you have, you do great follow up and networking. And what about the interview? What's that? What inspires you? Life inspires me? Yeah, absolutely. I wake up like, okay, cool. Just, you know, I always say disabled people, we have such an advantage over able bodied people because we see life and different and a lot of things that make an able bodied person sort of not just going to, but a little, what's the word I'm looking for?

Just a little halfhearted about certain things doesn't even bother me. So it's like I get up every day and I'm just ready to tackle the world. So yeah, that's wonderful. Do you have a, like a spiritual practice that you do that helps inspire that as well? I pray all the time. I pray throughout the day. Um, that's pretty much it. I just pray. I say thank you for everything. The car starts, thank you, definitely. The car starts thinking so yeah, I say thank you throughout the day. And where are you today? What are you involved in right now? That is, wow, what am I involved? And I still do a lot of public speaking. Uh, second thing that I do is I have a website called learning music business dot com that teaches artists about the music industry. Unfortunately there's a lot of artists out there that are getting taken advantage of not only new artists, but established artists as well. And the third thing is relationship marketing.

I do a lot with the greeting card system costing our cards, which I love doing it because I love sending cards to people and getting that good vibrations when they get the card. Well The greeting card company is costing our cars. That started about 15 years ago by a gentleman by the name of Cody Bateman out of Utah. And the way he designed the system was he always says follow your promptings when you think of someone sit down and send him a card. And he had a brother about this maybe about 15, 20 years ago when it started. But he had a brother that reached out to him and he said, Okay, I'll reach out to him later when he decided to give his brother a call a couple of days later his brother had passed. So that prompted him to say promptings. And so he created this company called send out cards which really takes the inconvenience of sending greeting cards and making it convenient. So now instead of running to the grocery store and I got to get a birthday card, then you got to get a stamp and then you got to go to the post office. Now you can literally sit in front of your computer or your cell phone design the greeting card hit the button and we'll send it and mail it for you.

You can write whatever you want whatever you want, you can upload pictures and I literally get the most response on facebook because I'll take a personal picture of a facebook that somebody maybe got married or celebrating a birthday. And when I put that in the card and send it to them, they literally call up like, wow. Yeah. Well I'm still a believer in in the, the cards cards, not just a text or any. Exactly, it's the lost thought that it's not just the, the person that sends it, but when you get it, it feels like, you know, it's a gift. It is a gift actually. Yeah, especially in a mailbox because we're so used to getting bills and junk mail to get a card that comes out. Yeah, absolutely. Great. What else are you working on? What else am I doing? I'm actually have a blog, a tech blog for people that are disabled. And the blog is um, we have spotlights smart home products because I think the smart home companies like ring doorbell needle vacuums, Canary, they're sort of missing the market when it comes to the disabled community and smart home products are perfect for people that disabled.

So for example, um, for someone who is disabled in a wheelchair, somebody rings the doorbell. They've got to get to that door sort of open up the door to see who it is now. It's a product like a ring doorbell. They can see who it is from the, which is more safer to see who's actually at the door before they say, okay, let me answer it. So a lot of the smart home product that I write about right now. I'm writing about reviewing the needle, vacuum cleaner, which is kind of cool to have a vacuum cleaner going around the floor like a little robot and his vacuuming the floor and it's kind of cool. So I'm enjoying that. I'm a big kid. So, so you're into the tech. Oh, definitely into the tech. Absolutely. Yeah. I mean I've got the smart watch on and so that's all about our, you know, our bodies as a temple in a way because the smartwatch helps keep your healthy and absolutely Jeff got my steps and it's counting my water intake and it's great. So yeah, I hadn't thought about the smart home in terms of disabled. I thought about it in terms of aging in terms of disability to, yeah, I was actually talking with the company, I want to say they were called Wallaby and they're coming out with a product or system where you're sticking on the bathroom wall and it can determine if you fall and if you fall, then it'll notify somebody that you, Yeah.

So they're coming out with some great products. Yeah. So what's on the horizon in terms of what will elevate you to the next thing, What's in your dreams? Like five years down the road. Oh, five years, five years from now. I'm also learning french teaching myself french and I'm teaching myself sign language. So I hope to be very versed in all three much ahead in piano because I'm doing that more often than I'm doing french. But I got a friend of mine that I met through facebook that she lived in London and she used to dance with Michael Jackson And so we talk on facebook and french and that helped me out a lot. So that's been cool. So it's so good for our brains. It is, it is plasticity and keeping us alert and learning and yeah, and just like, and even with the piano playing, it's keeping my fingers, you know, very flexible and uh, and just remembering notes and playing keys and so I'm loving it. Yeah. So you're very busy. Yes, I'm very busy but I take time out.

I just like to say, I love to travel. I love going overseas. I loved going on cruises. I'm a, I'm a cruise person free food. I mean once you get on a cruise free food and you can literally go from porch to porch. So I'm loving it. Well we want to know a few more things about you and we have something called the lightning round. So just if you could share some tips or amazing insights and resources. What lifts you up? My faith lifts me up And life lifts me up and I must not have a 21 year old son. So he keeps me motivated as well. Is he into music? Yes, he is, he actually is, he's a producer. He's going to Georgia Southern University in Statesboro and he's studying public health, wants to work for the CDC, but on his side he does music as well. He does production. Yeah. And you can keep him in the right path. Yeah, but I'm not cool. So he doesn't really take that whole parents, the whole thing. I'm not cool. What helps keep you feel grounded and centered?

One of the things that helps me feel grounded because I do a lot of marketing on social media that when people come up to me and say that they look forward to what I post everyday and they'll say, can I take a picture with me and like, hey, you know, you don't know me, but I'm one of your facebook friends and that humbles me a lot. Yeah. And are there people in your life that maybe I don't like the changes they see in you and how you've handled anything like your success, maybe they don't like that you went into music or that you stopped being in the music so much. I think, you know, now it's totally different. But I think when I first I wanted to get into the music industry, my family for the most part was supportive, but a lot of times it was like, okay, can you make money from this? And you know, we're used to the traditional jobs and so now that you know, I can count celebrities as friends, it's a lot different because now I'm in magazines and on tv shows and they're like that's my, that's my cousin and that's my, you know, family members.

So yeah, yeah. I think sometimes it's just perception. Exactly. Absolutely. And usually it clears up after a while. Yeah. And are there any books or resources that you could recommend to our listeners that have inspired you or motivated you? I would say if you're getting into the music industry, you want to definitely get the book, Donald Passman to business and music. You can also look online for my my book, it's an e book called My Storybook, My Music Storybook and I'm actually changing and revising it. So it's gonna be actually called Fearless Dreams and maybe sometime this year and uh but if you're getting into music, you definitely want to get Donald Passman the business and music and learn as much as you can about the industry because that is the business. Yeah. And do you, in terms of your disability, I know you're labeled the hottest disabled speaker in America. So is there something you can tell our listeners that we should be aware of if we have a disability in order to, you know, just be more confident in public or to the people who don't recognize disabilities, what they could be aware of and and how they interact with people.

Well I would say on the the first question is To just get out there and do it. I've lived the last 54 years as a person that just said what if And uh what would it be like to skydive? And then I went Skydiving took me about 10 years to get to that, but I went Skydiving. Well I wonder would it be like to have a tattoo and I went to California, got a tattoo. So my life has been based on if somebody else can do it then I can do it too. And I could never understand why I couldn't do it, especially when it came to getting into the music industry always felt well there's people that's in it and they get up every morning, like I get up every morning. So basically to just go for it if you want to do it definitely do it as far as getting into it researching and now it's so much easier to do it anything than what I did it because now you've got the internet and it's so easy to find people so many so easy to learn things.

So don't let it be discouraging when people say you can't do it, prove them wrong. Absolutely. That's beautiful. Thank you. I appreciate it. And then for the people that aren't they? How what should they be aware of in terms of disability working with somebody that has a disability. Well you know a lot of time. I'll tell you a perfect good example. I used to work for coca cola and we had a gentleman that was blind and they developed the program which I sort of spearheaded but they developed a program that as a customer service rep when he would type a key in his right ear, the key would tell him the key was kidding. And in his left ear he could hear the customer and for for the, maybe I worked at coke for eight years I think thomas was there for about five years. But I used to always joke with him and say oh you're not blind, you just you're pulling out. You know like he would come to work sometimes without the dog.

Like okay how did you come without the dog? He said he didn't want to come and he cooks and he dresses. So I used to always joke with him and say you know you're not blind and he would laugh and stuff so you know just treat it as if you were talking to a buddy because you know for us we don't want to be uh sympathized with people feeling pity because I always tell people when I walk into the room, I really have the biggest secret people start to look at me and if they want to wonder how my life is look at the guy, he walked funny and have no idea. I've hung out with Janet Jackson, I hung out with Madonna. So yeah, life is good. Well that's very inspirational and instructional. Thank you. What's the best advice you've received from somebody else? Roy Ayers gave me the best advice actually Roy Ayers and my father gave me the best advice. So the device that my professionally and personally the best professional advice that I got from my ears when he was working in uh in a session in the music industry, in the music studio that I was in um I sort of asked him, hey, what type of advice do you have?

This was like maybe six months into my sort of music career working at the studio and he said, never take anything personal because if you do, you'll fall on your butt. And I remember thinking like that's it. Like I'm waiting for a whole big speech and and it took me maybe, 10 15 years to understand what he meant by that because this industry is so judgmental and there's a lot of rejection and that advice, those six or seven words that he gave me really helped me up for many years. And then the best personal advice that I got is when I was in junior high school in new york, there was a girl that I had a crush on, I had no idea that I existed and one day I go into the cafeteria and she's in there and if you know junior high school cafeterias, like all the kids and everybody's talking and all these plates and utensils are making noise and I wasn't paying attention to where I was going and I fell in the middle of the cafeteria and it got quiet. Everybody stopped and looked at me and I was so embarrassed and I literally got up the, you know, walked out.

My head was down. It was like the worst day of my life. And I remember going home and telling my father well he knew I didn't even have to tell him. He said okay, what's going on because he knew something was going on. And I told him the story and he said, but you got up and I said, yeah, I got up and he said that's the best part you got up. That's the most important. And so I've already remember that there's no matter of time before you get up. Yeah. But that was the best personal advice. I hear that advice a lot. There must be a signal. They never give up. Never give up. What if what if always whatever. Absolutely. And when you fall when you fall, always get up and they don't take things personally. Never take things. I think you have a book. I absolutely. I think, um, what would you like to tell our listeners about living their best self? I would say two dream the impossible write things down that you want to do everything no matter how crazy it seems, write it down because you have to be able to see it each day if you want to travel abroad, write it down and then start writing down the steps to get to travel and avoid.

So first thing if you wanted, for example, if you want to travel abroad, the first thing you need to do is get a passport, once you get that passport is tangible now you've got it in your hands and you're gonna look at that passport all the time and then start looking at different countries that you want to start visiting different places. And because of Youtube is so great. I would say to start looking for those places on Youtube, the dudes and the don't and what people's experience have been in those different places and get a vision board. I live by vision board. Absolutely. I live by a vision board. The truck that I'm driving now with on my vision board and uh the house that I bought a couple of years back is on my vision board. So you have to visualize, you have to see it and you have to say it to yourself over and over every day. And the best thing I would definitely say to your listeners is to write it down. Absolutely. You basically imprinted and you've already lived it even before you go there. Exactly.

So your mind doesn't know you have to manifest it. Absolutely. Absolutely. Since your total technical, is it a digital vision board or do you still the paperwork? So I still do paper. Yeah, because I got to put it up on the wall so I can see it. Yeah, I still do paper. Alright. In our last question for you and then we'll see if you have anything else you want to talk about is if you were to leave the Earth today, what would you most want to be remembered for? I would say that helping people out people being able to come to me for advice, I get a lot of people that do come to me for advice and also I would say just leaving the place better and that is evident by my facebook post, my instagram post when people come up to me client and saying I read your post every day so that that lets me know I'm doing something. Yeah. Okay, well that's very inspirational. So that's a good intro. You can be found on google Yes. On facebook terry moore.

Yes. And it's M 00 R E R dot com linked in Lincoln. I'm on Lincoln as well, instagram and twitter. And your blog is where my blog is currently on medium but it's going to be moved to terry moore dot info in a couple of months. Okay. Yeah, probably within the next week or so. We also have the send send paper. Love dot info. Is the greeting cards and I just tell people to google me and reach out to me. I'm approachable. Don't hesitate to inbox me and send me a message because I respond to all. Yeah, yes, you do your very, very good follow up. Thank you very much. All right, so thank you so much terry for joining us today. Any final words? No, I just want to tell your listeners that it's it's a wonderful world out there. And I always say To have faith, you got to move two ft first. You gotta get it going first. Wake up tomorrow morning, start writing down your goals and your dreams and make it happen. What if that's what I'm taking away?

Thank you. Thank you terry. Thank you. Hey, there before you go. We hope today's show inspired you to awaken and unleash your own inner power to elevate yourself, your life and the world. Please leave us a review on Itunes because those reviews are important to our show and we'd love for you to subscribe to our show and share this episode on your favorite social media channels. Finally, are you rising up to your best self every day? Let us know more by reaching out to us at www dot hearts rise up dot com. Thank you for listening