Bullying continues to be a real and damaging experience in many schools today, and children are groping for ways to either escape it or cope. Professional musician, concern survivor, business executive, and motivational speaker Todd Waites is speaking up about the short-term and long-term effects of bullying on people to encourage children to either stop doing it or how best to deal with a bully in school. As Todd opens up about his personal experience with bullying as a teenager, he hopes to minimize it, if not completely prevent it from happening to any child in schools.
Todd Waites fell victim to bullies and was ridiculed repeatedly in school after he lost an entire arm and shoulder to bone cancer. Despite the excruciating journey of going through a two-year treatment and coming to terms with losing a part of his body, some of his peers still found a reason to make fun of him. Due to this experience, Todd can easily relate to what many kids go through in schools today. He knows what it is like to be singled out, to be made to feel unimportant, and to seemingly have no hope to ever accomplish his dreams.
Despite his physical predicament and challenges involving his peers, Todd Waites was able to find a way to take the higher road and not let his painful experience define his future. Instead, he used these hurtful experiences to fuel his determination to become someone great in the music industry. Without thinking twice, Todd pursued his dream to become a professional keyboard player, and with hard work and perseverance, he was able to successfully tour in different parts of the country with his band. Todd became a respectable name in the industry and has worked with big names to include members and former band members of Journey, Stryper, Firehouse, Newsboys, Petra, ApologetiX, Bon Jovi, Rick Springfield, Styx and more.
Additionally, Todd Waites also did collaborations with former Journey vocalist Jeff Scott Soto. They recorded two songs together in the middle of 2019. Just recently, Todd recorded a remake of the song When Children Cry with the blessing of Mike Tramp, the original writer of the song. The remake is available for streaming on YouTube.
Aside from his music career, Todd is also best known for his exemplary performance as a Director / Vice President of Sales and has effectively managed sales teams for the companies he worked with. Eventually, Todd went into motivational speaking as different sectors started to hear about his remarkable life story. He gets invited to speak in corporations, churches, schools, and other major events.
By telling young people about his accomplishments and how he survived bullying as a student on top of surviving two different kinds of cancer, Todd Waites knows that his message is something that people need to hear to realize that there is more to life than being a victim. Through his True Rockstars Don’t Hate initiative, Todd gets to encourage children from poverty-stricken areas and schools that have had shooting incidents. What makes his talks more exciting is that he never goes to any of it without his keyboard. Aside from sharing his life stories, he also performs for them.
In 2012, Todd Waites made a life-changing decision to give up his touring days and focus on motivating children to spare them from drug addiction, suicide, and bullying. As he teaches them to believe in their worth and individual purpose, Todd is helping in raising a new generation of strong young people who are not easily discouraged.
Find out more about Todd Waites by visiting his website. Click this site to know more about True Rockstars Don’t Hate.
