Area educators take their motivation game on the road

Originally published June 1, 2017

How do you motivate teens, while also building self-confidence? How do you instill a positive mental attitude and a vision of gratitude in young adults?

Well, if you mix a high school guidance counselor with a high school chemistry/physics teacher and add a bunch of high school students, you can expect anything but a quiet and calm experience to get this accomplished.

Matt Matkovich and Phil Januszewski are a dynamic speaking duo known as M&P Presentations LLC, and also happen to be full-time employees at Carl Sandburg High School in Orland Park. Matkovich is a full-time high school guidance counselor with a master’s degree in school guidance and counseling while Januszewski is a full-time high school chemistry and physics teacher who has a master’s degree in teaching leadership.

Their company offers motivational presentations, professional workshops, master of ceremony services, and event hosting for a variety of ages and groups. Matt and Phil take pride in customizing their presentations to their audience to make the experience both personal and purposeful, while bringing their own unique brand of high energy, humor and meaning. They are known for challenging their crowds to participate in the presentations as they build self-confidence, positive mental attitudes and gratitude.

Matkovich shared their story. In February of 2013, Matt and Phil began speaking at District 230′s Operation Snowball, which is a program that guides students to make healthy choices and develop positive interactions with their community and their personal lives. Afterwards, they reached out to the local community and started presenting at other school retreats and teen gatherings a few times a month. “We became educators by day, and motivational speakers by night.” described Januszewski.

As Matkovich tells it, “We are just two very normal individuals who recognize that we are blessed to have an ordinary life. We present how being ordinary can be extraordinary. We remind our audience to focus on what can make them happy in their own situation.”

Their main audience is young adults, which doesn’t seem like the easiest crowd to entertain, but “entertain” they do! As an icebreaker, they unleash a high energy video that prompts teens to “embrace the awkward” and gets the audience howling. They then show stock photos of themselves depicting personal embarrassing moments that have occurred while growing up and remind students that life is full of bizarre circumstances. As two successful adults, “We show the audience that you can laugh off the strange insecurities we all have and grow in our self-confidence from these moments. With self-confidence and gratitude, everything gets better; from how we treat others to our performance in the workplace.” Januszewski says.

A major focus of their presentations is to get the crowd moving and involved to allow the audience become the stars. A series of “healthy risks” or competitions called the Awkward Olympics challenge students to be the center of attention in an uncomfortable way while being in a safe and encouraging environment. Matkovich describes one such competition – The Bird Call – in which three students compete by creating their own version of a bird screech and strut. Though simple, this exercise builds self-confidence and the applause and enthusiasm from the crowd becomes the reinforcement. This leads the competitor to be more comfortable in his/her own skin alongside their peers; which can be very empowering.

After the awkward exercise, staff have commented on how they cannot believe M&P had challenged such a shy student to take the risk and witness them bloom onstage to own the moment. The Awkward Olympic challenges are very elementary and innocent, but provide for huge entertainment and the opportunity for the audience to grow in self-confidence and acceptance.

Moving forward, M&P recently held a successful Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for their next adventure. Reaching out to a wider audience – and bringing their message of positivity and random acts of kindness outside of a conference center or gymnasium – they are offering a “Limo Surprise”.

Teaming with Producer David Bradburn and Absolute Dream Limousine, Inc., Matt and Phil will pick up random people at bus stops in the Chicagoland area from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. on Wednesday, June 14. Lucky riders will be given a fun, classy, free limousine ride to their destination, while M&P document the day with stranger interviews.

The footage will be released as an edited short film on their YouTube channel for all to see and share in hopes of spreading more positive energy in the world. Their goal is to release this finished short film online by the end of August.

By taking their message outside, they are not just presenting their theme of positivity to an in-house audience, but showing that their message of making an impact can relate wherever/whenever by actually living their message.

Upcoming events for M&P include Snowballfest, June 7 in Bolingbrook. Operation Snowball Chapters from the state will gather to share ideas, develop plans of action for their school chapters, and practice skills to effectively deliver their message. M&P will present an interactive workshop called “Eat, Breathe, Teamwork”, where they will challenge the audience to move, discuss, reflect, and tweet about their strengths and experiences in teams.

On June 19th, they will be presenting to the Tennessee Teen Institute for their third year in a row with an all new presentation about being “Everyday Heroes.” M&P will have a fun and meaningful format to remind the audience/participants that they can be a hero to themselves, to others, and mirror their personal heroes to make this world and their lives a little bit better than it is currently.

In July they will be visiting Rhode Island as Keynote Presenters for MADD’s Team Spirit Conference. Matt and Phil will be presenting “Ordinary is Extraordinary”, where these young adults will be reminded just how beautiful life is when we possess a positive mental attitude, gratitude, and self-confidence.