Brett is an award-winning educator that's taught in a wide variety of settings: the college classroom, online English classes to kids in China, creative writing worships, and daycare. He's not your ordinary educator, because he stepped back and questioned, "Does the system really work?" His answer was simply this: learning is fun, but education stinks. He doesn't believe everything in education is ineffective, but the underlying system creates an emotional pressure cooker, putting people in the wrong emotional state--the fear response as opposed to the cheer response. And, the system can become too conceptual (lectures on whiteboards filled with terms and definitions) as opposed to sensory oriented (stories, analogies, and hands-on experiences). Joy and creating experiences are at the heart of Brett's style

BEREAVEMENT

In the Fall of 2013, Brett's dad was diagnosed with stage IV cancer. He faced surgery, radiation, and non-stop pain until his death in 2015. Brett had never experienced grief at this level before--not just struggling with his father's death, but questioning why a good man had to suffer such agony. The loss of his father felt like the ending of his childhood and there was a deep, piercing pain in his spirit that lasted about a year. Then, he realized he had a decision. Would he continue to grieve for dad? Or, would he focus on the blessing of having 46 years of a glowing relationship with a wonderful father? He decided to embrace the blessing. And, a resurrection from grief began to happen. God took his pain, tortured thoughts, and all the questions of despair and began transforming them into joy.

October 5, 2024, Brett gave a short message called a drash at his home congregation of Tikvat Yisrael, a Messianic congregation in Chesterland, Ohio. That morning, Rabbi Eric (the congregational leader) and Harold Baum (the cantor) decided to give Brett a new name--Baruch. It's a Hebrew name that means "blessed". That evening his mother passed away. God was giving Brett a clear message--that he must remember that his mom was a blessing in his life. And, he must strive to become a blessing to others--just as his mom blessed so many people. The death of his mother, while difficult, has been far easier than dad's death, because he's approached it with a blessed mindset.

Brett's mom had suffered greatly. In 2020, she was a vibrant woman. But, she started experiencing health problems, which included pulmonary fibrosis (a breathing issue of continuing diminished lung capacity), rheumatoid arthritis, and dementia. Mom eventually began to forget family members, had little short-term memory, and became easily confused and scared. Brett ended up handling all mom's finances, making all decisions for mom's care, and trying his best to keep everything together. Mom's death was a painful decline that started in 2020 when she was vibrant, active, and joyous. By the time of her death, she was frail, forgetful, and fearful. Brett experienced the gut-wrenching process of watching mom steadily lose her mom-ness.

With an honorary doctorate in grief from the School of Hard Knocks, Brett's message is simple. God can turn pain to joy, tortured thoughts to peace, and emptiness to hope. He can give you resurrection from your grief.

CHRISTIAN SPEAKER

As a member of Tikvat Yisrael, a Messianic congregation in Chesterland, Ohio, Brett approaches Scripture differently than your average Christian speaker. He's a gentile believer with a Jewish mindset. He lives and breathes inside a community with a Jewish mindset and has found that opens up a deep understanding of Scripture. He loves profound Bible study and uncovering the mysteries in the Word. He also loves the challenge of figuring out how to take those deep mysteries and make them relevant to today's audiences.

On several occasions, he's directed, written, and performed in dramatic and musical performances. The most recent was a mini musical in 2023 for a celebration of the story of Queen Esther. Messianic communities celebrate the story of Mordecai, Esther, and the evil villain Haman during a holiday called Purim. It's common to put on plays, have music, dress up in costumes, and eat triangle shaped cookies that represent Haman's hat.

If you're looking for a strong speaker who will present Biblical truths with energy and humor, Brett is the perfect choice. If you want to create a bigger experience, he can work with your music team, drama team, video production team (yes, he has a degree in Digital Video Media Technology), or children to help create some special music, skit, play, puppet show, or whatever other creative ideas you may have in mind.

CREATIVITY AND LEARNING

Brett has taught many college classes. Most of the classes were introductory level such as speech, writing, management, and math. When students walked in the classroom, these were not classes they looked forward to. Although, many walked out the last day having enjoyed the class!

The struggle with students often came down to one question foremost in their mind. "What do you want me to say, and how do you want me to say it." As a teacher that wanted his students to be creative, Brett knew they had to figure out what they wanted to say and how they wanted to say it. Students entered the class with a conditioning--to give back to the teacher exactly what the teacher had asked them to give. They had learned conforming to the thoughts of another as opposed to thinking critically and producing something creative. They needed a new mindset--flipping from looking to the answers from the outside to seeking out the answers from inside. Some did flip this mindset. Some grumbled and complained. Brett knew his college teaching days would eventually end when he heard his own mouth utter the words, "Now, this is how you write a college paper, but this is how you really write..."

At one point Brett was teaching an online public speaking class. It had been condensed from 16 weeks to 53 days, yet students were assigned reading a lengthy textbook (almost 400 pages), creating several outlines, giving three speeches, writing a few papers, and interacting with weekly discussion boards. The feedback to administrators Brett gave is that the class needed to be simplified. Too much material was being covered and students weren't absorbing it. There was an aha moment when Brett left feedback to a student. "It's not how much you cover in your speech that's important. It's what the audience absorbs." It began to sink in why students were having this struggle (as well as so many other struggles). The system was teaching them one thing, but Brett was trying to teach them something else. Out of the conflict came some big realizations about creativity.

Creativity often comes from the right emotional states and the education system can put students into flight or fight (the fear response) instead of the free-flowing thinking of relaxing and having fun (the cheer response). Creativity comes from divergent thinking where education often asks for conformity. Creativity functions in an organic cycle (because we are organic creatures), but education at times becomes a factory floor of papers, projects, and schedules. Creativity is intuitive and often taps into our subconscious thinking, but education is often unintuitive (because it's detached from our real emotions) and often only focuses on our conscious thinking (which is often short-term). In essence, learning (at least deep, creative learning) is fun and joyous, but education often sucks the fun out of this natural, normal process.

You are naturally creative. You need to learn to find the right emotional states, tap into your intuition and subconscious mind, and learn your natural rhythms. Brett can help you unlock these keys.

STORYTELLING

Having studied communication from several perspectives (as a graduate student, teacher, public speaker, and writer), one thing is abundantly clear. The most effective communicators make things sensory. They give the audience something the mind can see, hear, taste, touch, and smell. One of the most effective ways to do that is to tell stories well.

Brett's speaking is grounded in telling stories. You'll may hear stories from his college days (he could be quite a prankster), Army Basic training (the road march and gas chamber were brutal), or as a teacher.

While personal stories are great, your organization also has a story. Certainly, the story is found in its history, but it's also found in all the personal stories of people on the ground doing your day-to-day business. Brett would love to help you find ways of bringing these stories into the culture of your next event.

WRITING

Brett has written over 20 works, which includes books, poetry, drama, stage and screen plays (some still waiting to be discovered), song writing, and composing some original music. His forte is creative writing. He has done some technical writing in the academic world and as a contract writer, but his true passion is on the creative end of things.

His creative writing can help make your events memorable. Certainly, there is the writing and thought process that goes behind effective public speaking. But, would you like a special song, skit, or drama performance as part of your event. Or, to combine writing with media production?

SUMMARY

With a broad communication background that includes public speaking, teaching, creative writing, drama, music, and video production, Brett can make your event unforgettable. He can fill the role of a keynote speaker, trainer, writer, emcee, performer, and may even give you a few ideas you've never thought of before.