We recently connected with Tom Coverly and have shared our conversation below.

Tom, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

To date, I have spoken and performed for over 4 million people LIVE on stages around the world. This past January, marks 16 years that I have been touring the world full time as a motivational speaker & comedy magician. Prior to this, I was a youth pastor pouring into the lives of teenagers for a dozen years. I have always had a heart for teenagers. But, I most related to those that did not grow up in the church because I did not grow up in the church.

One day, I approached a pastor friend of mine and asked him to pray because I felt that God had a different path for my life to reach hurting teenagers right where they are at. A week later after this pastor friend prayed, he shared an idea he felt God wanted for my life. He said that I was a great communicator to teenagers and I should combine that with my talent doing magic tricks. To be honest I thought it was a corny idea. What it really came down to was excuses. All kinds of self doubt flooded my mind that day.

I told him there were better speakers than me and there were magicians with much more money wrapped up into props and illusions. This self-sabotage thinking stemmed from many years prior having a college professor tell me in so many words that I would never be a public speaker because I was not great at it, not to mention I had a slight stutter when I was nervous. Which only forced me back in my college days (before the internet) to read every book I could on public speaking and paid for extra speech classes out of my pocket in order to prove him wrong. His doubt in me, only pushed me to want to be a better speaker than every person on that campus. While in college, I took every opportunity I could to speak free in churches, at events and even nursing homes even if it seemed most elderly slept while I gave my speech.

The self doubt about magic was because doing magic tricks was just a hobby of mine. I certainly did not imagine in a million years I would be doing this as a career. I knew I would have to step up the practice and purchase more magic props.

Fast forward after this conversation with my pastor friend, I was in 38 states speaking and performing in the first year of stepping out to combine speaking and magic as a job. Now at the time, I was working part time at an airport 20 hours a month to maintain my free flight benefits to help me get from point A to point B. I will never forget 4 years later stepping out to do this full time.

Was I scared to go from part time to full time? Heck yes. I was petrified at the thought of giving up a little bit of steady income, full health insurance and flight benefits to pursue this full time. I took the leap and I look back now and can only credit GOD for the direction he has taken my life and for all the doors he has opened.

Tom, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a bullying and suicide prevention speaker and a professional comedy magician for middle and high schools. I was given the nickname, “The Illusionist” by my peers way back in 1991 while in college where I first began to learn magic tricks because of a magic shop near the college. I never would imagine that a hobby would have turned into a career. When I first began, I was getting to invite at all kinds of exclusive events with celebrities and high profile events. I knew I did not want to just entertain for the sake of entertaining. I wanted to impact lives.

I had a good friend years ago, by the name of John Hulett that approached me about doing school assemblies and family events. I knew NOTHING about the school assembly world. He said that I needed to create a talk about bullying and give him one week to get me booked into schools. I did exactly that. I created my first ever bullying prevention talk which included a couple magic tricks in order to get students laughing and to gain respect. My friend John in the evenings of the assemblies, invited students, parents and the communities back to see a full one hour magic show and it gave me a chance to share a message of hope with that all ages crowd. Let’s just say, I fell in love with this week of impacting not just students, but homes and communities. DestroyIllusionsTour.com was born with the purpose to destroy illusions/lies and replace it with truth/reality to who you are and others are.

My most proud moment was the timing of being in one particular high school. A student came up to me after the assembly with tears in her eyes and shared that the only reason she came to school was to secretly say goodbye to her friends. She told me she wrote a suicide note the night before and planned on following through after school. She said she had no idea that an assembly speaker was coming today to talk about the very things she was battling. After listening to the assembly, she said she now realizes she has a purpose and began to realize truth about herself. I encouraged her to bring her family to the evening family event that night. This young lady came with her mother. He mom had a crumbled up piece of paper in her hands and gave me a hug I will never forget the rest of my life and she cried and barely audible enough to hear the words, “thank you” over and over again.

Several months ago, I was asked to be the host of a new TV show called, NFLNCD (pronounced “influenced”). I best describe this show as if “Ridiculousness” on MTV and Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight show had a baby together, their baby would have a mix of both. On the show, I have the honor to interview the biggest social media stars on the planet. We dive deeper into their lives, but also discuss who influenced them and who they are influencing.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I truly believe that Kindness Wins. We are in this journey of life together and life can be hard. We must remember that everyone has a story. Everyone you encounter daily may be going through some tough stuff. Hurting people hurt people and when they do, remember, it may be because of their situation. I want to encourage us all to respond with a little more grace and a little more love because the result is together we CAN make KINDNESS the norm.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I laugh because I will never forget having one of the first social media platforms, MYSPACE as a way to promote myself as a magician and motivational speaker. I am now verified on Instagram and Facebook, mostly because of what I do professionally, not necessarily with the large amounts of followers. Growing on social media is all about CONSISTENCY. Post everyday at least once a day about yourself and serious and funny things related to your field. This will set you a part as an expert in your line of work. I see too many people on social media trying hard to promote themselves with “hire me” type posts. This will often result in loosing your audience. There is no better marketing than having people naturally fall in love with you as a person and seeing the expert value you bring to the table through your post. Be you, not a salesman trying to sell people on you.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.TomCoverly.com
• Instagram: www.Instagram.com/TomCoverlyTour
• Facebook: www.Facebook.com/TomCoverlyTour
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomcoverlytour
• Twitter: www.Twitter.com/TomCoverlyTour
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/TomCoverlyTour
• Other: Tik Tok @TomCoverlyTour Tik Tok @NFLNCD Instagram @NFLNCD Facebook @NFLNCD