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The Promise Blog

Announcements

I Finally Made it to College

  If you’ve heard me speak you know my story about having a full-ride scholarship for basketball to a major university (BYU) when I was in high school and feeling good about my future in the NBA. Suddenly, I was discovered by Mrs. Hall, the choir teacher, who pointed me in the right direction for life, as I left my basketball career on the bench, and became a singing entertainer who speaks and writes books. Going to Las Vegas instead of college was a real big swing of a dream, and thankfully worked out. But I always wondered what it would have been like to get into college. I have spoken at many colleges, to thousands of students, leaders, university presidents, faculty, staff, award-winning teachers, and higher education establishments nationwide, but was never actually in college. Until a few months ago! Here’s what happened.   A few years back I began a venture of making a YouTube channel with a very successful Youtuber & Influencer. We did everything right, by the book, cranked out videos that were specific to certain topics, and recorded them monthly for a good long chunk of time. It was costly, challenging, rewarding, and pushed me

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Funny

The Ultimate Ski Crash and My Latest Concussion

I Was Having the Best Ski Runs of My Life… Until I Wasn’t I’ve skied my whole life. I grew up in Park City, Utah. Yes, I spent as many days on the mountain as I could through my entire youth. And when I get the chance now, I’m still out there (usually at Brighton in Big Cottonwood Canyon, SLC, UT) doing what I’ve always loved to do.     I’ll just say it plainly: I’m a very good skier. I like to go fast. I like to push it. I like to feel my legs burn by the end of a run because I’ve gone all in. Is this surprising? I’m The Promise Guy – that means, I’m all in on pretty much everything I do. But the last few times I’d been out skiing, something felt off. My skis were… sticky. Not terrible. Just enough that I noticed it. Enough that I kept thinking: “I really need to wax these.” But like a lot of things we know we should do…I didn’t. Because I didn’t want to take the time. I wanted more runs. More speed. More time on the mountain. Until finally, on this particular day, I

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Announcements

I Tore My Jaw On Stage. Now What?

Hi. I make a living opening my mouth – to speak, make people laugh, and sing at the top of my lungs. This unique attribute of opening my mouth extra wide has become so prevalent in my presentations it is known as my Signature Move, and was even once the cover of my book (although that was a terrible choice and has mostly disappeared from the face of the earth, thank goodness). If you find a copy just know it is a rare thing! On December 2, 2025 I was asked to speak to a group of young folks by a very successful friend of mine. I haven’t spoken to youth in a while, for many reasons, but mostly because the style of entertainment I do is so foreign to their TikTok attention spans it is tough to feel like it’s connecting. Well, truth be told, they loved it more than I expected! They were all in with me. I was singing, making them laugh, they were taking notes about The Promise and Signature Moves. The whole time I was thinking wow, maybe I can connect with youth as a speaker still. And then I did the Raptor, as Daddy

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Entertainment

The First $100 Gig – The Chipmunk Song by Alvin & The Chipmunks

  “The Chipmunk Song”, by Alvin & The Chipmunks, is a Christmas classic. For 3 decades now I have sung this song in every performance, regardless of the time of year, I just love it that much. In fact, 25 years ago, I was slated to do a 15 minute set at my first corporate holiday party, but due to the way the night went, the client told me to just sing this song and they would still pay me $100. I thought, “Wow, $100 for one song? That’s like $100 a minute! I should make a living doing this!” Walking to the stage, bright lights and client hoping for the song to land, I sang it without any tracks, AKA “a cappella”, and the crowd went bonkers, giving me a standing ovation. It was solidified corporate holiday party gold. It was the song with which I auditioned for the high school choir, as my teacher, Mrs. Hall, said it was “not normal” that I could actually do it, and thus began her mentorship to helping me perform throughout my life. “The Chipmunk Song” by Ross Bagdasarian (under the stage name of David Seville), has been around since the 1950’s,

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Business

Breaking Bad on Labor Day

For those who read this blog, you may be surprised to see me referring to “Breaking Bad”, a TV show known for an extremely heavy, and illegal, array of topics…(of which, if I write the actual words here, this blog will be flagged and banned in certain areas of the world). But you also know I like to draw from many examples to teach The Promise, so here goes one that’s quite a stretch, but had a profound effect on me! It is Labor Day Weekend here in the United States, which was created to celebrate our efforts to work hard through the year, take a break and reflect on the opportunities of our employment, and have a literal hard stop. I confess that I work on every holiday. I enjoy my work, find great pleasure in working hard, and can, with both a tinge of guilt and equally some pride, admit that I have checked emails, texts, and taken calls on every holiday during my career. To me, that is The Promise. And conversely, breaking The Promise as well. Now, with that confession aside, let’s jump to “Breaking Bad”. 15 years ago I watched the first episode, and since

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Books

The Honor System

Just before my 2 week run of sold-out shows began at the Hale Centre Theatre I realized I didn’t have the personnel lined up to man our table and sell my book, “The Promise To The One”. My kids were all traveling, we wanted my wife to just attend and enjoy the shows, those on my team either had travels or health challenges, and I had few options left. I remembered driving through Maui a decade ago, on the beautiful Road to Hana, where my wife and I found multiple stops of fruit stands where the Honor System was employed. No one was there to make sure you were honest, it was expected. We often left more money than was suggested, since we appreciated the concept of honesty first. And so, we did the same for the sale of my books at my shows. We discounted them by half price, from $20 to $10, I signed every single one, and we printed a sheet that explained they could pay via Venmo.     We put up the table, set out 40 books, and had to let go of the possibility that someone might steal them and just be ok with

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Cardio Miracle

The Difference a Shirt Makes

  For Fathers Day this year my wife bought me a new shirt. I insisted that I didn’t need a new shirt, and wore my old shirt. Tami said, “Honey, you’ve worked very hard for the last year to lose weight, and it’s time for a new shirt to fit your body properly.”  I said, “Ok, take my picture and we’ll see if there’s any difference, I’m sure there won’t be.”  So, here is my old favorite shirt that I love:   And here is the new shirt that she loves:   I am a stubborn man. But she is always right, and I should know that by now. I truly didn’t believe a shirt could make a difference, but I guess it does. And I like how I look in this new shirt. Then I went back into my photos and tracking of my efforts over the last year. I was 25 lbs and 6% body fat heavier a year ago at this time. I was working very hard to be fit. Very little progress. I ate clean and worked out every day. Never saw or felt any difference, just kept trying. Here is a photo of me feeling

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Cardio Miracle

You Never Know

  Years ago, this very weekend, I was performing in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada at a party high above the harbor in a setting that is reserved for the rich and famous. The pink hue of stage lighting blinded me from knowing who was watching, as party goers walked by and didn’t seem to be paying attention. Singing impression after impression, story upon story, mixing in humor with insight, I wasn’t sure if anyone was enjoying it, so I just kept going. The Promise is to perform no matter who’s watching, to give your all even when we don’t know anyone cares. When I came off stage, standing there was David Foster, music producer of the stars. He offered his hand and said, “You’re one of the most talented vocalists and performers I’ve ever seen. I actually don’t know how you just did all that you did with your voice. Well done, kid.”  Yes, THAT David Foster! I had no idea he was there, along with famous movie stars, legends of show business, and people who can make your career with the snap of their fingers. I was just hired to do the gig and was only told to be

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Announcements

The Best Fathers Day Presents

  Christmas Day was nearly 6 months ago (this next week), and it has been that long since I have enjoyed the gifts that keep on giving in our home. That cold wintry morning, as presents were strewn about the house, wrapping paper piled high, the kids were thrilled with what we had given them, but they had something else on their minds. Finally, when they were done opening theirs, they sat Mommy & I down to reveal a gigantic box, wrapped special, as we wondered what they had purchased for us. Our kids are now teens, and they have incredible imaginations and personalities, so we were curious, due to the grins on the faces of all, if they had a friend wrapped up in there to do a Jack-in-The-Box scare tactic, perhaps had re-gifted some white elephant presents, or had bought us a family of geckos. Instead, the box revealed many presents, all hand wrapped as well, in a nesting fashion, meticulously placed just right. Mommy & I took the top ones and began to carefully open them, only to reveal something we hadn’t expected: Individually framed pictures we would be able to place around the house of them,

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Announcements

The Graduate – The Legend of Ella Rae Hewlett

  “She’s got a way about her, I don’t know what it is, but I know that I can’t live without her.” – Billy Joel    Thursday, May 30, 2024 We watched our eldest child and beautiful daughter, Ella Rae Hewlett, walk across the stage to graduate high school. Candidly, we weren’t quite sure this was going to happen, due to many circumstances and challenges along the way (read on to learn more), and in that sense, it went from being a really neat day that most parents expect and experience with their kids, to truly one of surprise and celebration for our family.       “She’s got a light around her, and everywhere she goes A million dreams of love surround her everywhere.”    We are walking along the beach in California, hundreds of miles from home, suddenly a group of people come running and screaming, “Ella! Oh my gosh, it’s Ella Hewlett!” These are people we have never met, but friends to our daughter, from another school in another city, visiting from Utah. They hug, laugh, take selfies, and it’s over as quickly as it began. “Who are those people?” we ask. “I met them one time

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