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"I did not let my failure and the adversity that I brought on myself stop me from achieving my goals and becoming who I wanted to be. I'm here to teach you how you can overcome whatever life throws at you so you can become who you want to be"
"When you are facing adversity, you need to decide what you want to be known for. You need to decide how your story continues."
About Carl
Going from a student at Michigan State University to a prisoner in the Michigan Department of Corrections in a matter of days would be considered a challenge, but that is exactly what Carl Kraley did at the age of 20.
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Carl was determined not to let that ruin his life or define him, and within five years of his release, he walked across the stage to accept his diploma as he graduated from MSU. He has since started a family with his wife in Central Ohio and has built a successful career.
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His experiences taught him that the way we approach adversity can often determine our success and happiness, but he realized that we often aren’t taught how to handle it or approach difficult times.
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Carl is a speaker and mentor who is determined to change that. His goal is to help teens and adults understand that harnessing the power of effective strategies when facing adversity helps them overcome whatever they are facing and keep moving towards achieving their goals and dreams.
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In his talks, Carl shares the lessons he learned while battling through the tough times in his life and how his unique experiences helped him develop the process of overcoming adversity.
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Carl believes that everyone has the resilience to overcome life’s hard times; they just need to learn how to tap into and apply it when facing unexpected difficulties.
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Read more about Carl's story here
Carl's Talks
You are Enough: How to be Resilient in the Face of Adversity
We all have hopes, dreams, and an idea of who we want to be, which we spend countless hours dreaming of accomplishing without considering what we will have to overcome to achieve those dreams. Adversity and tough times are a fact of life, and any goal or dream will require us to overcome adversity of some kind. How we face and handle that adversity will help determine our success and happiness. The thing is, we aren’t taught how to handle those tough times.
This presentation offers effective strategies for not just facing adversity but overcoming it. It will introduce a three-step process that will help you approach adversity in an entirely new way. Applying these strategies to your life will help you overcome what life throws at you and will help you get closer to achieving your goals and dreams.
Decide Who You Want to Be: Realizing the Power of Making Intentional Choices
Have you ever found yourself in a bad situation where you asked yourself, “How did I get here?” Our lives are basically a series of choices. The average person makes roughly 30,000 choices in a day. The choices you make become who you are. How close are you to the person that you want to be? We all like to think that we make good choices most of the time. Yet, each of us has found ourselves in a sticky situation that we never thought we would find ourselves in.
The mistakes we make in life are rarely the result of one bad choice, but rather the result of an accumulation of more minor “bad decisions” This presentation will help you learn to recognize the kinds of decisions that often lead you toward bad endings and how to redirect your choices to get you back on track to the person that you want to be.
Shattered Dreams - A Personal Story about the Consequences of Drinking and Driving
Young college students and friends Carl Kraley and Jason Balcom had bright futures. One tragic night shattered both of those futures forever. Carl survived the car accident that took the life of his good friend Jason, and was sentenced to prison for driving drunk and causing the accident. His future from that day forward has been filled with guilt, shame, pain, adversity, and struggle.
Using his life experience, Carl Kraley talks about the hidden costs of drunk driving. His impactful talk brings the headlines and statistics to life. His presentation will leave a lasting impression on the audience and help guide those in attendance to make safer choices
Past Clients
“What sets him apart is the work he puts in beforehand to get to know the most important messages you are trying to get across and then using his diverse experiences of adversity in life to mold his message to his audience. Each talk we’ve had him come do comes with a different theme, unique to us and what we are teaching, but driven by his story.”
- Doug Samuels. Head Football Coach at Comstock Park High School - Comstock Park, MI
Contact Carl
Email: carl@carltkraley.com
Phone: 614-568-3033
