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Mark Papadas

Mark Papadas

Founder of I AM 4 Kids and author of "10 Secrets to Empower Kids and Awaken the Child in You," known as Mark "The Be Great Guy" Papadas.

Sep 4, 2026

3:10
And did you yourself have a good childhood? I'm just curious.
3:15
I wouldn't say I had a bad childhood.
3:17
I mean, we had our challenges.
3:19
I would say I grew up in a upper, lower class upbringing.
3:25
There's a couple of times when I was growing up where we were on food stamps and stuff like that, but I never missed a meal.
3:30
Did a lot of clothes shopping at the secondhand store, but I was never... you know, unclothed.
3:38
I never didn't have a coat during the wintertime.
5:50
They don't stop when they start crawling and fall or start waddling and fall.
8:19
Voluntary.
8:21
Exactly.
8:22
And so we were going around and Some of the kids were sharing and they, once again, most kids, when we first start off with them, instead of having those sentences or paragraphs like I have in mind, they use one word answers because that's how kids answer questions, right? You know, I was school today.
8:38
Good.
8:40
That's what you get from them.
8:42
But when it came to her, She says, I, you know, she was like, I am.
8:47
And she said, poopy.

8 MINS LATER

17:04
Do you work much with parents and school teachers?
11:03
the brother based on those sort of activities and you went on started connecting with people for further and you became that which um you became now maybe you can give us a cross-section of what sort of jobs or work you then ventured into so that we then understand up until the part you began your business um you know I am for kids
11:27
And it's funny because the first part I'm going to tell you ties directly to where I'm at now.
11:32
Fantastic.
11:34
You wouldn't think it wasn't a straight line, but there is a direct connection there.
11:38
So, for example, when I was in high school, and that's really where I started to meet some of the other people, you know.
11:43
some of them are still my best friends to this day.
11:46
The, you know, when you go to talk to your, your guidance counselor and when it's like, you know, to a certain extent, it's like, you know, what do you want to do? What do you want to go to school for? And I said, I'd, I'd really, you know, I wanted to go to, I wanted to be a teacher and the guidance counselor's like, no, you don't.

17 MINS LATER

28:46
You're literally giving people back to themselves and especially kids and you can imagine that the future that they will then become is predicated on them being confident in themselves.

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