Troy Stende recently returned from what he calls ‘a crazy and amazing orientation tour.’ He visited 11 states in 15 days like a rock star on a mini tour… but without all the partying. His life is an example of one of the things he advises students to do, “Find something you love and do it with passion!”

With a crazy and hectic schedule – that included stops at Arkansas Technical University, St. Cloud University (MN), Texas A&M University – Commerce, SUNY Potsdam (NY), the University of Wyoming, Barry University (FL), Muhlenberg College (PA), Richard Stockton College (NJ), and Thompson Rivers University (British Columbia, Canada) among others – Troy says he was still full of energy and doing back flips when it was all over.

This is what part of that tour looked like from a frequent flyer perspective: Deliver a powerful message at St. Cloud University in Minnesota (Troy’s home state). Wake up the next morning and fly to Texas. Drive an hour and a half to Texas A&M University – Commerce. Fire up the students with an amazing 3-hour program. Hop in the car, drive an hour and a half back to the airport. Fly to Atlanta. Arrive at 1:00 am and sleep on the airport floor for 3 hours. Go through customs and hop an international flight to Canada just to drive 3 hours and go back through International customs to make it to an orientation program in upstate New York. Whew! I’m tired just writing this!

“I would have thought that I would just be exhausted and done and barely awake,” says Troy. “But when I got to the program I got caught up in the excitement. They’d done a lot of planning, the venue was beautiful and the students were excited. When we started the program I didn’t feel the slightest bit of drowsiness. I was just amped up and those students were just so excited and the next thing you know I was doing standing back flips and landing on my feet and no one had any idea that I had slept 3 hours on an airport floor.”

Did I mention that after his program at Richard Stockton College in New Jersey, he had to change the flat on a rental car at 10 o’clock at night? And despite all of that, Troy say it never got to him. “You know, everywhere I went the students were just so excited and jazzed up that all their energy just carried me through. It was a beautiful trip.”

So what’s all of this excitement and energy that Troy’s talking about? From where I sit, looks like he generates a lot of it himself. You can see his role in it when he talks about what he does with the excitement that’s already in the room.

“When I start the program, what I love to do – especially with the freshmen audiences who are excited, but really feeling uncomfortable in this new situation – is help them get out of their heads and into the moment.” He does that by asking, “Who’s in the room? If you’re an orientation leader, let me hear you.”

Troy knows that’s always going to get a loud response from the orientation leaders who have worked so hard to get to this day. They’re the perfect ones to get the party started. They yell and scream and they’re super excited.

Then he asks, “Let me hear you if you’re a man,” and all the guys in the room do what Troy calls “the macho growl.”

He follows that up with, “If you’re a woman…” and before he can finish the sentence the women scream so loud you can barely hear. At that point Troy knows they’ve united the room and created an energetic bond. In the first five minutes of the program, Troy’s doing standing back flips (he’s a former gymnast), everybody’s amped up and they are spontaneously dropping barriers, joining in the fun and meeting each other.

“That really feeds me a lot of energy. I think it’s a two-way street,” Troy confesses. “When I get on that stage I am just throwing out everything I can and I’m giving them all I’ve got. I don’t hold back and they give it back to me, and more. It’s a multiplied affect. We kind of create this synergy between me and the audience and it feels as if we really build on each other and feed each other. So I give them all my energy and then they are giving it back to me so I’ve got more to give. And it’s just kind of this cycle, this upward spiraling cycle – and that feeds me a lot.

“I just love what I do and surprisingly over this whole tour I was completely energized the whole time. I never tired and I attribute a lot of that to the energy that the audiences gave me. They really picked me up and kept me going. I never felt drowsy, never felt tired, never felt sick, never felt frustrated.”

The funny thing is, even after it’s long over, I can see that Troy still carries that energy with him. All it takes is to see Troy in action and you’ll have no doubt that he’s living his own advice. He’s found what he loves and he does it with passion!

PEACE.
Rick

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