A hype man's advice on supporting others | Jake Fehling | TEDxUnity Park

In 2021, I was hired as the first ever hype man for the Carolina Panthers. My job is to get people out of their seat, get them loud, get them excited, and support the home team. I bring out the parachuters pregame. I interview the player of the game postgame and yes I lead our halftime shows. Uh the problem is gang since I took the job in 2021 we have not been very good like a at all. And in fact as you can see behind me we are the worst team in the NFL since I took the job in 2021. You could say that I am the least effective hype man that has ever walked the face of the earth. And as a result, the Panthers have tried to read the room a little bit. You know, it's really hard to All right, everybody get on your feet and dance for the camera when you're down 40 to three, right? And so what started as hype man Jake then became just hype man, then became, "Hi, I'm your host. " Then there was even one year where there were two of us. And instead of calling us the hype men, they called one of us hype man and the other one Jake. just Jake. But what I learned more than anything, and I continue to learn over the last five years, is that yes, it is important for me to do all those big things pregame, postgame, and at halftime. But it's almost equally as important for me to serve almost as a therapist for a rabid fan base that just wants to win. And it's a lesson that I learned very clearly three years ago, almost to the day on a rainy evening at Bank of America Stadium, when a soaking wet roll of toilet paper came and almost hit me in the face. Now, I'm going to need you to just hang on to this image right now because I'm going to come back to it. But first, let's take a look at the definition of what is hype. I like to say that hype is the intentional, enthusiastic belief in someone else's potential. Pretty simple, right? That should be easy. Well, unfortunately, it's not that easy. Why? Because haters exist out there. There's the people that say, "Oh, you're being over the top. You're being fake. You're being disingenuous. You're being like a terrible youth pastor. " So, that is a real tweet that someone tweeted about me my first year on the job. And now, before I see some people reaching for their phones, don't worry. Before you send nasty DMs to Carolina Kate, we made up. It's fine. She was having a really tough day. But this is what exists out there. This is what exists. When you want to be your normal enthusiastic self, support people around you, when you want to act happy, for lack of a better term, this is sometimes these are the headwinds that we face. And what I want to talk a little bit about today is if we don't step into those opportunities, whether it be at work, at home, or in everyday life, we miss real opportunities for those individuals around us to take that next step in their life. So, first let's take a look at hype at work. And so, when you hear the term hype at work, you naturally think of things like annual reviews, the end of projects celebrating that, or like awards at the end of the year. But what research shows is that micro encouragement equals macro impact. And in fact, 78% of employees say that if they are recognized more frequently at work that they're more likely to be engaged and perform better. And you need not look any further than right here in Greenville. Now, if you are from Greenville, you may recognize these smiling faces behind me. If you're not, let me paint the picture for you. The social media team for the city of Greenville is unbelievable. I highly recommend you all give them a follow. What they do is they shine a light on groups and organizations in the city that are maybe a little bit more behind the scenes. So think restaurants, businesses, and public works. So this crew behind me, this is the downtown litter crew for Greenville. And this is a perfect example of how an employer can pour into again these maybe behindthe-scenes employees to jump into social media videos where they dance and lip sync to songs like byebye bye from InSync while you're throwing away your trash. Get it? Bye bye to your trash. It's a win for the employer. employee. And what's really cool about this, look at the engagement numbers. Look at the hundreds of thousands of views. And this is just three of them. That shows you that the world that the general public loves this as well. And so the lesson is clear. Pour into your employees, you'll get a

more engaged workforce and you're more likely to retain top talent. All right, let's take a look at hype at home. There's a term I love called psychological safety where when people grow up in environments of support, they are more likely to be confident and they're more likely to take risks. And in fact, their outcomes are even better as well. 81% of people that grow up in these environments of support are more likely to finish high school. And speaking of school, I want to introduce you to Damian and Jackson here on the screen. Damian and Jackson are a fatherdaughter duo from Harlem. And a couple years ago, they went super viral on social media. It's okay if you haven't heard of them. There's a million examples of these folks on social media. And what they do, they went viral. They were on talk shows all over the place because they speak positive words of affirmation into each other on the way to school. So Damen puts Jackson in a bike. He pedals her to school. They take videos and he says, "Jackson, you can be anything that you want to be. Have a great day at school. " And she says right back, "Dad, have an amazing day at work. " And so it's examples like this where when children feel supported, when parents feel supported, when spouses, partners, everybody feels supported, that might be the nudge that they need to apply for a job that maybe they didn't think that they were qualified for to try out for a sport that maybe they didn't think that they would make the team for. And lots of other examples. And finally, let's talk about hype in everyday life. And to help walk through this, I want to recruit who I think personally is the greatest hype man that's ever walked the earth. Shilabuff, ladies and gentlemen. So, I can tell some smiling faces. Some of you have seen this video. If you have not seen this video, you're going to be thoroughly confused, but just go with it. I highly recommend you search it. This is the most chaotic video on YouTube, I'm convinced. But for 90 seconds, in front of a green screen, we got some nodding here. in front of a green screen inexplicably with a ponytail. Shia above screams at you to just do it. You're here. The opportunities here, but you haven't stepped into it. Step into it. Just do it. It's chaos, but it's amazing. And when you watch it, your shoulder's kind of hunched like him. You look back at him. Think about like a coach. Have you ever had a coach who's screaming at you, who's pumping you up, who's firing you up? What do you do? the players are like they run out of there. They want to run through a wall. So that's an example of mirror neurons. Mirror neurons are firing. When someone is delivering that kind of feeling and emotion to you, you have no choice but to live to deliver it right back. And that's what happens with the Shia video. Personally, another example is right here on this TED stage. Derek Civers 15 years ago gave a threeinut TED talk, millions of views. It's about how to start a movement. And the star of this video that he shows is Dancing Guy. That's what he calls him. And so it is a threeinute video taken with the world's worst camera. It's very shaky, but it starts with Dancing Guy on a hill at a concert dancing completely out of his mind, but he's having a blast. By the end of the three-minute video, the hill is filled with people dancing. And so, yes, Dancing Guy is the star of this video, but what I love and who Derek [clears throat] calls out rightfully so in the video, and you can see it on the screen behind me in the screen grab, is he calls out the first follower. And he says, "It takes a first follower, a hypeman if you will, to believe, and these are his words, to take a lone nut and transform a lone nut into the leader of a movement. " And then finally here, here in settings like this, researchers and public speaking coaches alike, they encourage speakers to find their friendlies. And what what's a friendly? A friendly is someone who's sitting here smiling, nodding, clearly into the talk. So on a day like today when you got a bunch of people freaking out back there because it's the biggest stage they've ever spoken on, maybe it's the first stage period that they've ever spoken on, what do they do? They invite their family and friends, their biggest supporters. And so I can look out here right now and I can see lots of smiling faces, lots of people nodding. And so I want to say thank you on behalf of all the speakers that are here for being this is the most densely populated room of friendlies I have ever been in. So thank you guys so much. I can say personally for me, I'm feeling more confident up here. I feel like I could take some more risks. can tell a story about toilet paper. So, three years ago, almost to the day, the Panthers are playing the Falcons. We are two-7. We just fired our coach. And even though it was a nally televised game on Thursday on Amazon Prime, and the entire country is watching, we were

the Carolina Panthers and we just could not have nice things at the time. So, it was pouring rain, freezing cold, and the entire stadium was basically empty. We went viral because of how empty the stadium was. It was miserable. So, here I am standing on the concourse in this random point in the second quarter and I'm about to deliver a hit when out of nowhere what felt like a brick. I mean, you guys have maybe not seen a soaking wet roll of toilet paper. It's heavy. Goes right by my face, more importantly, let's be honest, my hair. That was the most important piece. Right by my face. I'm in shock. My camera guy is in shock and the producer who's in my ear, who has no idea what's happening, counts me down three, two, one. So, I deliver the hit. And I turn around expecting to see an Atlanta Falcons fan. But what do I see? Well, actually, I'll show you what I saw. with the help of AI and maybe the most unhinged prompt that's ever been edited entered into chat GPT. This is what I saw. Give me rabid Panthers fan rain throwing toilet paper. Chat GBT is like, "Are you sure? It was a Panthers fan at home in a game that we were tied in and a game we ultimately won. " I turn around. I go, "Dude, I am your hype man. What are you doing? " He looks at me and he says, "I'm just so I'm so tired of this. I'm tired of losing. I hate this. The alcohol may or may not have been involved. Let's be honest. " Completely breaks down. And so what happens? I along with the amazing people of section 211 have this really cool but private behind the scenes quiet moment with this guy where we put our arms around him and we say it's going to be okay. all right. We can't turn this thing around without you. And isn't that what it's all about? Isn't that what we have to do? We're all the world is not all about halftime shows. It's all about those quiet in between moments. And so we have a responsibility to build up those people around us. We have a responsibility to help your people excel. — Now, yes, I just turned hype into an acronym, which is equal parts helpful, probably cheesy. Let's just be let's be very honest. But you know what? And then maybe that's the emotion that you have right now. Now, I got to be honest, when I came up with this, I was like, I don't know how this is going to land. But that is that's that negative thought that climbs in your head. So, go all the way back. back to the beginning of this talk with Carolina Kate. I may or may not be over it. Let's be honest. Um, no, let's go back. Those are the haters. Those are the people that you need to block out of your head because if you don't, we miss opportunities at work, at home, and in everyday life to build up those around them. So, as we head into this last break, we got a bunch more speakers left. I want to challenge everybody in this room to step into this to embrace their inner hype man and hypewoman and be a friendly for this next round of speakers coming up. Can we do that? — All right, cool. So, be a hype man. Be a hype woman because hype isn't just for halftime. It's how we win the whole game. Thank you. —