Episode Twenty-six: From Adversity to Achievement: The Brandon Kelly Miracle Stories
Hosts Haley Hatch Freeman and Misty Smith interview businessman and author Brandon Kelly, who shares how multiple life-threatening events shaped his faith and purpose. Brandon recounts being nearly killed as a toddler in a car crash, later being hit by dump trucks that derailed an Olympic high-jump trajectory and required him to relearn basic skills, and surviving repeated cancer diagnoses. He explains overcoming depression and homelessness by setting thousands of goals, drawing strength from prayer, his patriarchal blessing, and daily acts of service through scouting. Brandon describes being guided to help others, including saving an injured motorcyclist on I-15 and giving a priesthood blessing to a dying child who later survived. He also tells a story involving meeting the King of Sweden, and discussing the Church with international leaders.
Brandon Kelly
Brandon Kelly after car accident with his mom.
Car after wreck
Brandon receiving award from the king of Sweden.
Brandon is an inspiration for setting and achieving goals.
Brandon has been involved with scouting his whole life and has achieved the highest awards a civilian can be awarded.
Transcript
Welcome to Latter-day Miracles, where we share true stories of angels and marvels. Get ready to enjoy accounts from everyday people that remind us of divine love, that we're never truly alone, and the power of faith in these latter days. I'm Haley Hatch Freeman. And I'm Misty Smith. Sit back, open your heart and prepare to be inspired.
[00:00:27] Haley Freeman: Welcome to Latter-day Miracles today. I'm so excited to bring you Brandon Kelly. I have known him for many years. We were able to do a public speaking class together, and our paths just met down the road, of public speaking, and I just remember him being so kind and always so willing to help others succeed and helping me and others in our journeys down the road.
And I was just so impressed with him. And I just remember he had some remarkable stories and I'm excited to bring those to you today. And I'm gonna have Misty go ahead and do his introduction.
[00:01:04] Misty Smith: Alright. From an early age, the Brandon Kelly knew that he wanted to be a businessman. Since that time, he has gone to earn a PhD in business acquisition and has started bought and sold nine companies.
He was one of the original contestants on The Apprentice and has since taken two companies to the Shark Tank where they were given deals. His expertise has been requested by over a hundred companies in helping them grow their business and sales and in turn, those companies have done 1 billion in new sales.
Author of seven books and six coaching programs. It is a pleasure to have Brandon on our show.
[00:01:45] Brandon Kelly: Well, ladies. I, I think the pleasure is all mine to be here with the, the Marvelous Misty and the Immortal Haley. It's, uh, great to be with the Dynamic Duo today and just to, see what we have.
I've heard a lot about your guys' show and I'm, I'm quite flabbergasted you have me and honored to be here today. So. I, I look forward to, uh, being grilled by the best of the best and seeing how we can help everybody from there.
[00:02:10] Haley Freeman: Thank you. You're kind. Awesome. Um, so one thing I remember when I met you is you had a fascinating story that you were hit by a dump truck and not just once, but twice in your life.
[00:02:25] Brandon Kelly: Well, two dump trucks and then I was hit by a, uh, work truck, so three technically.
[00:02:31] Haley Freeman: Oh my gosh.
[00:02:32] Brandon Kelly: Yeah. So I was, uh, I was almost two years old and I, my parents were, I think up in Boise, Idaho. And, uh, I, I wanna say it was about Thanksgiving time and my grandparents were coming up to dinner, and so my mom put me in the, uh, car seat and took off.
Well, that car seat was literally brand new. And so, you know, we were going to the grocery store and a truck ran a red light. And, if you can imagine a accordion being scrunched or a box being scrunched, when the ambulance came, they couldn't find me or my body. I was actually pinned underneath the, front seat.
My, my mom had a lot of damage to her, but uh, I had broken every bone on the right side of my body. My skull fractures and I had 295 stitches to put my face back together. Uh, in fact, it's funny, Haley, 'cause they, they said that, uh, I was paralyzed. I would never walk or talk again. And the doctors were convinced that my parents should pull the plug.
And uh, that's probably one of the first miracles that that happened in my life is that they didn't pull the plug. You know, whatever happened. I'm assuming there was probably some priesthood blessings going on. Mm-hmm. And. I'm here, but yes, after that I've been hit by two dump trucks, so two or three, depending on how you wanna count it.
[00:03:53] Misty Smith: Uh, my question
[00:03:54] Brandon Kelly: is, which I, I would recommend by the way, I, I was not playing in the street and I don't like, you know, playing with dump trucks. So that's
[00:04:01] Misty Smith: what I was gonna ask. My question is, did you like move in the way or what was happening? But.
[00:04:07] Brandon Kelly: Well, so I don't remember the one when I was two, but when I was 16 I was pulling out of the high school parking lot and I kind of cheated and parked in the teacher's parking lot 'cause it was closer to the school.
Oh. And, uh, a girl that didn't have her license and was 15 turned into me and I swerved to miss her. And the same time the dump truck came off the road. So I went underneath and was pinned underneath the dump truck Uhhuh. And then, uh, five years later. It was about two weeks before I was competing for the US Olympic High Jump team, and a dump truck ran a red light.
So he was doing 55 miles an hour going this way. I was doing 60 this way and a 60. He was in a 25 zone. And when I came to everything from the bumper to the, the steering wheel was completely gone. And, uh, I had such a traumatic head injury that I literally don't have the left side of my brain anymore.
[00:04:58] Haley Freeman: Wow.
[00:04:58] Brandon Kelly: And had to learn how to walk and talk a second time.
[00:05:01] Haley Freeman: Okay.
[00:05:02] Misty Smith: That's, that's incredible.
[00:05:03] Haley Freeman: So I feel like we need to go back. Yeah. A lot.
[00:05:06] Brandon Kelly: Okay. Okay.
[00:05:08] Haley Freeman: So you went from them saying when you were two that you weren't gonna be able to walk or talk, and then you were saying that you were practicing to be in the Olympics.
So, wow,
[00:05:20] Brandon Kelly: there, we, we covered a bit of ground there. So, uh, after several surgeries, and in fact if you go on my website, you can probably find the pictures of me in a full body cast and my leg suspended and stuff. They found out that in, a bone fragment was pushing on the spinal cord, so I hadn't actually penetrated, but because it was pushing on it, it, uh, gave me paralysis, uh, effect for about six to eight months.
And so then they did several surgeries. When I walked, I walked like Fort Gump, so this is where he insert of funnelled a picture of him with the braces on and swinging his legs from side to side. Mm-hmm. That's how I walked. And I was picked on and beat up every day. And believe it or not, I got into a, beat him up, shoot him out, gang in Cheyenne, Wyoming of all places to protect myself.
And then ultimately, a scoutmaster and an afterschool coach said, Hey, let's get you out of the gang and do another stuff. The afterschool coach got me to do track and field. So here's the slowest guy on the field learning how to walk and run. Wow. And ultimately I set a state record in Wyoming at six feet, seven and a half inches at the time I was in sixth grade and five foot two.
And so I went on to take that superhero, super jumping type of an active, lifestyle. And that coach put me into all sorts of track and field. And, uh, fast forward into high school and just graduation high school into college. Uh, I was clearing seven feet, nine inches, so about your average ceiling height in your room.
And the world record was seven feet, 11 inches. So I was actually guaranteed a, uh, a spot on the US Olympic team because I was out jumping everybody by about five or six inches. And literally two weeks before the Olympic tryouts, the second dump truck ran a red light and , I spent the next year learning how to walk and talk again and how to read and write and things like that.
And the good news was, is that they found out that I had stage four cancer for a second time in my life. And had I not been hit by the dump truck, we wouldn't be here today. 'cause I wouldn't have known that I had anything wrong internally.
[00:07:29] Misty Smith: Wow. So that's how you get through it, is kind of focusing on the.
Good things that come from it. Like how, how do you get through? I mean, if you were hit one time, I've heard stories of people just being depressed and struggling through that, but it looks like you really overcame. How do you do that?
[00:07:49] Brandon Kelly: That, that's a fascinating question. So backing up to when I was 16, and I know we're kind of bouncing around and I apologize on that, but when I was 16, um, I was a pretty
I don't wanna say elite athlete, but pretty focused on, on sports and, and athletics. And it got to the point where I couldn't walk anymore and we found out that I had a tumor in my foot. And then we found out that I had tumors all throughout my body. And at that time my family and I got in a nice little argument.
And so I left and lived on the street and then ultimately moved in with a, a scout leader. And during that time they said, Hey Brandon, you've got four to six months to live. So the very first month I was super depressed. I was quite frankly, suicidal. And I had this scout leader that said, Hey Brandon, you have a choice.
You can either, you know, suck your thumb and stick up and just do nothing. Or you can say, okay, I'm not gonna give up today . So today we have to accomplish something that's worthwhile, that's winning a goal, that's achieving something, and so we sat down at that time. Mapped out 1900 goals. Uh, I've since completed about 4,800 goals in my life and achievements and things like that for
[00:09:06] Misty Smith: congratulations.
[00:09:08] Brandon Kelly: Yeah. So, so how do you do it? I just, you know, at first everybody said, you can't do it. You're not gonna do it. You're not good enough. You know, you, you can't walk right. You're deformed, whatever. And, and so ultimately I kind of was like, well, forget you. I'm gonna go do it anyway. And see if I can or can't do it.
And then along the way, I set a whole bunch of records. I think there's about 300 or so that we did going down the road.
[00:09:36] Misty Smith: Wow.
[00:09:36] Brandon Kelly: Does that answer your question, Misty, or is that too far going down the road?
[00:09:40] Misty Smith: No, it, it's absolutely wonderful. So a follow up with that, where does God come in with that?
[00:09:47] Brandon Kelly: That's, that's a great question.
You know, as, as I look at things, I've been at a lot of wrong places at the right time, as I call it, uh, because of my scouting and super involvement there. You know, there's been times I had a car problem where my transmission wasn't working, and so we had this BMW, it's supposed to be all good and things like that, and we ultimately had to, uh, take it in and it was supposed to be done on one day, and then the next day, and then the next.
And so I finally get to it and here it is, it's noon, and then, okay, it's gonna be one o'clock, two o'clock, you know, it's now five o'clock and I'm leaving and I'm fighting rush hour traffic. Well, that night I was supposed to be teaching first aid to my scouts, and so I had a big giant first aid kit.
I'm dressed in a suit like I am. It was about 105 degrees that day and here in Salt Lake, and I was heading home on I 15. And cars were just kind of slow and go, right. You know how the parking lot is on I 15 and it's super slow. Mm-hmm. All of a sudden we got up to about 80 miles an hour and I see this U-Haul truck in front of me and somebody flipped over him.
So a car moved in front of me. The motorcyclist flipped up and over and I skidded on my brakes so that I run, wouldn't run 'em over and. Ultimately, because I had my first aid kit on him and I had first aid training from scouting, I was actually able to save his life. And so had I been 30 seconds ahead or 30 seconds below or behind that, that timeframe, um, he would've been run over.
Something else would've happened, you know, as it was he had a lot of, uh, damage to him. And I was cutting his pants to try to bandage him up and I'm calling 9 1 1 and directing traffic. And so imagine I 15 with hundreds of cars going around you at 80 miles an hour and you're there in that heat working on it.
And so, I said a little prayer to myself, realized that he was LDS as well, uh, before the ambulance could get there. I gave him a blessing, uh, priesthood a blessing that I could, and, went from there and, and ultimately. We ended up having to drive his motorcycle home because nobody knew how to drive a motorcycle other than me.
So I had to drive the motorcycle to his family home while the, the UHP, responded and said, Hey, this is what's happened to your husband. So how does Heavenly Father play in my life? I feel like sometimes I'm the dull tool or the tool in his hands, uh, and at the wrong place at the right time, and that's happened multiple times.
I've been at places where, I was walking past a house and it caught on fire, and so I ran in the house and pulled people out, you know,
[00:12:20] Haley Freeman: okay, you gotta go into more details. That's crazy.
[00:12:25] Brandon Kelly: Welcome to my life. There's a lot of craziness. Um, you know, so it's just, there's a lot of, you know, fascinating experiences that, had I not been there.
So a lot of times I'll end up in some spot and I'll be like. Hey, what's happening? What do I need to be prepared for? And, and so I think that I've just learned that, as I go through life, you know, I've gone through some pretty drastic experiences and so just being prepared to help somebody else out or give a lending hand or lending arm, and, I'm reminded Misty of a story when, we moved into this new neighborhood.
And I see this new guy, and he had kids about my age and things like that, and he just, he looked like the weight of the world was crushing him. And, and so finally I introduced myself and I'm like, Hey, I'm, I'm Brandon. How's it going? And he's like, well, I'm okay, fine. I'm like, no, I'm not buying it.
There's some serious stuff going on and I can see it. And so he told me that, uh, his business partner had stolen a million dollars from him, that he'd lost his house, lost his jobs and everything, and had nothing to do. Was, you know, kind of petrified of what do we do next? And he's like, Brandon, there's absolutely no way you can understand that.
Wait a second. You know, I'd just gone through having a business partner steal, uh, $10 million from us. I had to pay back $20 million and, , I couldn't even afford to pay, um, for diapers and postage and things like that. And ended up learning how to fix and flip real estate. All because I was there to help that guy out.
And, and so we, we ended up being friends. Uh, he later told me that the friendship saved him from suicide, things like that. And so, you know, how is He there? I guess He is just omnipresent and everywhere, Misty. Uh, and, and I just kind of am like, okay, I'm here now what? Let's bring it on. You know what I mean?
[00:14:24] Misty Smith: I think that's great. I think, I think usually when people hear stories, especially stories and sounds like multiple stories from one person that's gone through incredible things, they wonder how they're not making it through their one difficult thing at that moment.
And so I, I guess my next question to you is, how do you keep the gospel in your daily life? When life has happened to you? You've obviously done some incredible things, um, books, Shark Tank, the Apprentice. You've, you've made so much, you've done so much, I'm sure, with loss in the middle of it. And so how would you guide others who are struggling with one thing, one of those things?
[00:15:15] Brandon Kelly: That's, that's a deep and, uh, enlightening question, Misty. So I'm glad that you brought that up. As I look at kind of the rear view mirror of life, um, I would say I, I look at my patriarchal blessing, and it says that there's a lot of things in there that I'm gonna do. One of the sections said that I was gonna convert kings and queens to the gospel, and I'm like, yeah, whatever.
That's gonna happen. Um, another one, was basically pray daily, and it goes through and it says that you're gonna go through some pretty dark and nasty stuff in my blessing. Uh, but it also says that if I just continue forward and, fight like I did in the pre-existence, that everything will work out.
And so, you know, I just have to sit there and, and truck forward. You know, it's, it's interesting, I look at the day on the calendar. A year ago today, I was bedridden. I, I couldn't get outta bed. I'd been diagnosed with one stage of cancer, but I had some other stuff going on. And so in about two to three weeks from now, in fact, three weeks, uh, I went into the doctor 'cause I was coughing up blood and I was just thinking, okay, it's just pneumonia.
It's nothing bad. Well, they said, well, Brandon, you've got several tumors in your lungs and if we don't take your lung out right now. You're literally down to six to eight weeks of life left. That was last year. And, and I looked at it and I was just like, well, that's fascinating. You know, I'm speaking next week.
I've got, the week after that, I've got this, and the week after that, I'm in Florida for this event. I'm like, so let's get, let's pencil this in like somewhere in September, October. And they're like, no, you're not gonna be there. Right? And, and so at first I was really kind of taken back. But then I looked at it and I said, you know what?
There is a whole ton of stuff in my patriarchal blessing that hasn't happened yet. You know, 'cause it calls out leadership positions, it calls out certain events and activities that will happen in my life. And so I was like, you know what? I'm gonna just keep trucking forward and if I'm not in the right path, the, the way the big man upstairs works, he's gonna knock me with another dump truck and I'll end up on the right.
[00:17:20] Misty Smith: So,
[00:17:21] Brandon Kelly: so go from there. So, so what would I suggest to folks, you know. I look at it this way too, when, when we are born, we're perfect in his image, right? But ultimately things happen and we have to go through all sorts of challenges in life. And, and in doing so at first we think that, that it's a setback and it's a trauma.
And why me, you know, my wife thinks, why did you sign up for all these challenges up in heaven? You know, you went around and checked every box. What were you thinking? Right? And, and ultimately I look at it and I say, you know what, if we're, if we're shooting for eternal perfection, uh, Heavenly Father is obviously doing this at each of our lives that he knows that we can handle, but he also knows that what we're going through is gonna help somebody else down the road.
And that fortitude has been able to give me that opportunity to, to keep trucking forward.
[00:18:16] Haley Freeman: I love that. Yeah. It's just that purifying that Heavenly father's doing to us that, you know, that we just hate that, but he knows what he is doing.
[00:18:27] Brandon Kelly: Yeah. The, the refiner's fire is, is pretty significant. I forget if it's Malachi or whatever, but I'm not a scriptorian 'cause half my brain. But there's the scripture about the, uh, refiner's fire and I always hated that. 'cause I was like, why am I going through this? And I shouldn't lament 'cause we've had oh three or 400 different crazy things, challenges in life, things like that happen.
But at the end of the day, there's always somebody that's had something worse than me. And, and so I've learned to just be like, you know what? Take it and go with it. And, and if, uh, Heavenly Father put us in that position or somebody's coming to us and we need to put our arm around them, then do it.
That's, you know, it's not that hard. Sometimes it, it, it doesn't take a million dollars to make people feel like a million dollars.
[00:19:11] Misty Smith: Mm-hmm.
[00:19:11] Brandon Kelly: You know, simply just, you know, saying hi or putting your arm around them or things like that.
[00:19:16] Misty Smith: Mm-hmm. I love that.
[00:19:17] Haley Freeman: That reminded me when you said how there's always someone else that has it harder.
I remember I had a roommate and a really good friend who said that whenever they start complaining about their body or, or about anything going wrong, her mom would load them up and take them to Primary Children's Hospital. Just let 'em look at the people going in and seeing these people with different, legs that didn't work or all these ailments so they would appreciate their healthy bodies and it was trying to help 'em for self-esteem reasons.
Mm-hmm. Appreciate their bodies, a healthy body versus, you know, a body that doesn't work, but also just complaining about their troubles and realizing somebody else has it a lot worse. And I thought, wow, that's. Good job, mama.
[00:20:01] Brandon Kelly: No, no, absolutely. Pat on the shoulder. You gave me goosebumps on that. Uh, Haley.
And, you know, that reminded me too of, of an event. So I was a home teacher for a family for quite a while and, they had a, about a 2-year-old, I wanna say 20, 21, 22 months old. And she started just throwing up all the time, couldn't keep food down, things like that. They took her down to Primary Children's for her care.
Found out that she had a gigantic tumor shutting off her liver, her stomach, everything like that. So they went through chemo, they went through a lot of problems and it was really weird for me. 'cause in that timeframe I went through two or three jobs, and I'm just like, why is this going on? Why can't I not do this?
Why can't I, you know, take care of the family? Things like that. Well, ultimately. One of the jobs put me fairly close to primary children's hospital, and I get this call from the family and they're like, Hey Brandon, we need you to come down and give a final blessing to our daughter. The doctors have said that with all the problems she's having, she's not gonna make it through the night.
And I can't give that blessing, and I'm certainly not strong enough. And, and the scary part for me was the mom was the, primary president over about 300 kids in that ward.
[00:21:16] Haley Freeman: Wow.
[00:21:16] Brandon Kelly: Not 300 people in the ward. 300 kids in primary.
[00:21:19] Haley Freeman: Yeah. I've been in a big ward like that.
[00:21:21] Brandon Kelly: And, and so, as I'm just kind of walking in and, and again, it just so happened that that day I was off early.
I could head up there and go do it , and we gave her a blessing. And, and in that blessing, the priesthood blessing. We basically cast out the cancer, we cast out a bunch of stuff. Wow. We, we literally cast it into the tiles in the ceiling of all the abstract places. And, we blessed her that she would be baptized, that she would go through young women, she would graduate high school, you know, she would have other problems, but because she knew that Heavenly Father was there for her, that she would be a great lady and go from there.
So. We ended up moving and fast forward, uh, about a year and a half ago, uh, my daughter was graduating from high school and as we were getting ready for, when they give out the cap and gown a couple of days before graduation, I see this girl and I'm like, is that really her? Wow. So I walked up to her and it was Eliza and she was still alive.
She had some hearing aid issues, she had some other issues and things like that, but she was, uh, literally living the life. And so you asked Misty, how is Heavenly Father in my life? I just, I know that I'm there to help other people. There's been a year or two in my life where I'm like, Hey, big man, um, you're kind of stepping on me pretty hard.
[00:22:44] Haley Freeman: Yeah.
[00:22:44] Brandon Kelly: I can't handle any more trials and, it keeps getting harder and harder and, so there's been times where I'm like, you know that to 'em. But there's also been times that I look back and I go, okay, thanks,
[00:22:57] Misty Smith: Wonderful.
[00:22:57] Haley Freeman: Now you're giving me goosebumps.
[00:23:00] Misty Smith: I have a, I have a question for you. Um, because your stories and everything you tell us, you have a lot of joy that follows and you, it doesn't seem like you have any resentment. You tell us of these things even when they're difficult. There's joy.
Where do you find that joy Through the hardships.
[00:23:22] Brandon Kelly: Where do I find that joy in the hardship? Not usually when I'm going through it.
[00:23:28] Misty Smith: No,
[00:23:29] Haley Freeman: it's after looking back.
[00:23:31] Brandon Kelly: Um, honestly, I've been blessed three times in my life where I should have died and the twice with the cancer and once early on in life and, and even last year, I sat there and I was like, you know what?
I'm gonna find something to win today. What's the one thing today that was worth living that made a difference? That impacted things and so, you know, how do I do that? I guess it's instinctive. I don't know. I mean, I was literally beaten up every day as a kid from multiple sources, and so I just, I don't know if I naturally developed that, uh, resilience or, you know, just being a
a kid that grew up in the seventies and eighties, we all had the same problem. So yeah, I didn't realize I was any different. I don't know. But, uh, how, how would we help the listeners? It's really just, again, finding that one thing, keep moving forward knowing that, it's like the old, uh, Broadway show.
The sun will come out tomorrow and, and so as we look at that, I just try to find whatever I can and find the good. Last year when my body was shutting down and it was really quite rough, my boys said, Hey, you know what, I've just bought a camper. Why don't you come help me break it in. And so we went and did Father's Day a month early.
'cause we were pretty convinced that I wasn't gonna make it to Father's Day.
[00:24:54] Misty Smith: Wow. Oh my Gosh
[00:24:55] Brandon Kelly: And, and so just finding the joy of seeing them fishing, seeing them out in the outdoors, seeing, you know what I had loved passed on to my kids. That was a great benefit. So, sometimes it's just the little things.
I think the other thing that's been helpful is growing up in scouting, one of the models was do a good turn daily. And so, ever since I was seven years old, no matter for the most part, no matter what, I've always done a good turn for somebody else. You know, sometimes it was the best I could do a smile at somebody or make 'em laugh when we were at the hospital.
And I couldn't do any more than that 'cause I was in pain. But I've always tried to say, Hey, how can I help somebody else out? And, I just have kind of said, Hey, let's, you know we're all on this ride together. Why don't we help each other out?
Instead of trying to push people down, find that one thing. Like, as I look at things, Misty, the dress looks fabulous. You look like you're, ready for a gown and Haley, you're like right on point. And I'm wondering how somebody from, the front cover magazine happens to be interviewing me right now 'cause of your guys' beauty and stuff.
So, you know, it's just passing on that compliment. Say what
[00:26:06] Misty Smith: I needed that.
[00:26:09] Brandon Kelly: So again, I don't know if that answers what you're after 'cause I could go, as a professional speaker, I could go on and on and on and on and, you know, have all sorts of fun stories. So,
[00:26:20] Misty Smith: so how did you take what you've learned and turned it around to benefit your life and others?
Like how, like how did you decide to all of a sudden use that for the benefit? Of your life.
[00:26:35] Haley Freeman: Well, especially where you said you were in a gang, so you had like a lot of negative influence. So was it the influence of your scout master who brought you in, or
[00:26:44] Brandon Kelly: it It really was. So, the gang. So like I said, imagine my parents were in the military and we moved every six to 12 months, okay?
Mm-hmm. Um, I was the only white kid and I was picked on to the point where my reference was, uh, Ronald McDonald, which is probably before you guys, but you know, the red hair. That is kind of ey. I'm enough. I know. So, I took that and, and finally I, I was sick and tired of getting pushed around, beaten around, and I finally just kind of planted my flag and said, you know what?
That's it. I'm never going to lose again. And so no matter how hard I've been beaten down, thumped, drummed upon whatever. If somebody says, Brandon, you can't do it. You're not good enough. I say, you're right, but I'm gonna prove you're wrong. And, and so I make it a quest to conquer whatever that small problem is.
So I, I focused on perfection, uh, especially as a teenager trying to do my best. Going, okay, if we're all built in Heavenly Father's image, we gotta be doing things perfect. So how do I learn how to do whatever is best I can? And that, led me into a lot of scouting stuff. The funny thing is, is you asked about the scoutmaster, well, that scoutmaster saved me out of the gang, literally.
And of the 15, 16 kids that were in that gang, um, all of them were African American. And you can tell I fit in pretty well with that, right? Especially as a kid before I had all the mustache, right? And, and so they pulled me out. They said, Hey, you know what, let's, instead of shooting at people, let's go shoot at targets.
Instead of burning things down, let's build fires and empower people. And so how did I learn that? Uh, my coach in track and field taught me to raise the bar to be a star. And, and so it's interesting. When I was 12, we were doing that high jump and at first I could barely clear two and three feet, but my friend Charmaine, that was in the gang that got out as well, and he was African American and he was about six foot tall in sixth grade.
180 pounds. So he is full growing and here I am the little, wimpy kid in the entire school. And we learned how to high jump. So after three months we were barely clearing three feet. We get to the state championship and our coach comes up to us and says, today's the day to be a star. Let's find out who you are.
And I've always remembered that. And so we started competing back and forth. You know, he would run, he'd knock over the bar and ultimately hurt himself. Two out of the three times. I'd come put my arm on a shoulder and I'd be like, Hey Charmaine, you can do this. You know? Remember the coach told us to face the challenge, to get in the race, to commit to the steps, to do everything we need to envision yourself be successful.
And so he would run, he would clear it. On the third time I was afraid of landing on the bar. Because when I'd land, we were at a poor school in Cheyenne and I'd landed on a mattress that had like little spring in it, and I still have the, I still have the, uh, scars in my back from landing on that as a kid.
[00:29:44] Misty Smith: Oh.
[00:29:44] Brandon Kelly: And I was always afraid of landing on the bar 'cause of how much pain it would cause, right?
[00:29:50] Misty Smith: Mm-hmm.
[00:29:50] Brandon Kelly: And so our coach said, well, you have to see above the bar to be a star. So I would see myself in my mind, clearing that jump. And so after two and a half to three hours, Charmaine and I were the final two people and our coach came trotting out and he said, guys, you guys have a choice.
You know right now, uh, you're at the state record at six feet, four inches. And we had no clue 'cause we were just going back and forth and having fun. We didn't realize we'd gone from four feet to five, to six to six and almost a half feet. Oh
[00:30:23] Misty Smith: wow.
[00:30:25] Brandon Kelly: And so he ran, he didn't make it, I stepped back, said a little bit of a prayer, and ran and jumped and cleared the record.
And as far as I know, uh, that record was set in 1988 and hasn't been broken since.
[00:30:39] Haley Freeman: Wow.
[00:30:39] Brandon Kelly: For that age group. And so, how do I do it? I just, well, I don't give up. Um, I, I see everything as a challenge, you know, sometimes it's, eat an elephant one bite at a time, or you bring all your friends over and make a, a dinner out of it and get it done quick.
Right. That's
[00:30:57] Misty Smith: funny.
[00:30:58] Brandon Kelly: So I try to have fun with it and I just try to, you know, keep on moving. And then one of the things that I learned when I was 16 is that if I don't have a goal, I don't know where to roll to or where I'm gonna go. And so that's why, I've written down 4,800 goals to kind of keep myself, okay, what am I focused on?
What am I motivated on? What am I doing next? And so no matter how bad the pain is, and, and trust me, I've had some pretty significant, uh, bouts with that. It's a matter of just smile and keep going. How's that?
[00:31:32] Haley Freeman: Love it. Um, so going back to what you mentioned about your patriarchal blessing in converting, was it kings and queens converting or talking to them or about the gospel?
Remind me about that and I wanna hear that story.
[00:31:44] Brandon Kelly: So, so great thing. So, so again, my patriarchal blessing is like four pages long and it scares the tar out of me. And one of the things in there said that, you will have a chance to convert kings and queens through your example of the gospel.
And I'm like, whatever. I'm in America. There's, that's not ever gonna happen. Well. Fast forward. And I was involved in the Boy Scout program and was one of the youngest people asked to serve on a national and a world level. In fact, I, I was the youngest person to serve on the World Committee of Scouting in my twenties.
Um, and so I was first gonna be inducted into what's called the Baden Powell Fellow, which is the highest award that can be bestowed on, on normal scouters in the world. Wow. And that was gonna be on a day. Called September 11th, 2001. Does that day ring a bell for you too?
[00:32:38] Misty Smith: Oh yeah.
[00:32:39] Brandon Kelly: So we're on the tarmac in Salt Lake City, getting ready to leave, and that got canceled. Years later I get this call from a disguised voice. You know, like one of those ones where, you know, on the movies where, where they're trying to hide, uh, who that is or what's going on.
[00:32:55] Haley Freeman: Mm-hmm.
[00:32:56] Brandon Kelly: Anyway, they're trying to hide that and who, what's going on? Well, it ended up being, uh, the CIA and the FBI.
They were concealing their voice and interviewing me, and they were talking about, tell us about this speeding ticket and about this bad grade and these things. And I'm like, who are you guys, you know? Looking on the roof at the time. 'cause I, I remember being on a roof as a roofer and getting a call.
[00:33:20] Misty Smith: Wow.
[00:33:20] Brandon Kelly: And finally I'm like, who the heck are you guys? And they're like, well this is so and so, you're being, interviewed because you're gonna be presented an award from the King of Sweden, so you need to be in Europe in a couple weeks and get this international award. And I was like,
[00:33:35] Haley Freeman: okay.
[00:33:37] Brandon Kelly: Me.
Yeah. So, so it just so happened that it was on my wife's 30th birthday. And so we flew over from Salt Lake City to London, and then London to Paris, Paris to Rome, and then Rome back to London for the World Scout Jamboree. Wow. Well, flying outta Salt Lake, they lost all of our luggage. So whatever we had on our back was all we could survive on for the next 10 days.
And everything that could go wrong did you know airports were shut down because people thought they were bringing bombs. Trains were derailed. Like everything possible was, was going wrong. And so finally, instead of flying to the airport that we had tickets to, um, because we'd lost all of our tickets, we had to fly to a different airport in London and we were gonna miss this experience with the King of Sweden.
And the king was gonna present me an award, uh, at the Queen's Palace. But the first night we were on this river cruise going up, uh, I think it was a Seine there in London. Anyway, so we're there and, and imagine being in t-shirts and shorts and they're grubby and they've been there for 10 days. You're supposed to be in a suit and a tuxedo.
And so we get there with about five minutes to spare, and they look at me and they're like, you can't get on this boat. You're not dressed for it. My wife, you know, needed to get dolled up and everything. They've lost her gown. They lost all of our jewelry. And so my friend came and said, well, you're about my size, so here's my spare suit.
Somebody else came and said, well, here's my wife. And so here we are. They're pulling the plank away. And we literally jumped onto the plank on that boat like we were that close to missing it, right? And fast forward about an hour and a half and they sit us down for this giant dinner. So imagine a table that's a hundred feet long, people on both sides all dressed up, and the king has his servants come present
you a seven course meal, not a three, not a four, but a seven course.
[00:35:35] Misty Smith: Wow.
[00:35:35] Brandon Kelly: And so they bring out the wine and obviously being LDS we're like, no, we can't have that.
[00:35:43] Misty Smith: Right.
[00:35:43] Brandon Kelly: And the king stood up from his seat and just stared at us, gave us the most evil look like, and he asked us from down way down the end of the table, is my wine not good enough for you?
This is the best wine in the world from the finest wineries. Why will you not drink my wine? And I'm like, well, we're not trying to be offensive.
[00:36:03] Haley Freeman: You
[00:36:04] Brandon Kelly: know, your, your Majesty we're just, it's against our religion to drink any alcohol. So, go ahead, continue on. Don't, don't mind us. We don't need anything to drink.
And so he stood up and he stopped the flow of the boat. Like imagine this hundreds of people on this boat that are all getting the awards or recipients, and he literally stops. He motions to his guards, they go upstairs and about, uh, five, 10 minutes later we hear this helicopter. Okay? And I turned to my wife.
I'm like, Hey hun, maybe we should just have some of this wine. We're, thousands of miles away from everybody. Nobody will ever know and you know, we can just spit it out. We'll do whatever. But, and she's like, Nope, I'm holding the line. This is against our religion. I'm not gonna do it.
[00:36:51] Misty Smith: Wow.
[00:36:51] Brandon Kelly: What a lady.
And she also, she wore a gown, that, uh, protected everything when all the other ladies were wearing a normal gown that showed more of , their bodies.
[00:37:01] Misty Smith: Mm-hmm.
[00:37:01] Brandon Kelly: And so she, she held the line. So all of a sudden the king goes out, the guards go out, you can feel the weight of this helicopter landing on this giant river cruise boat.
Right. And I'm just like, hun, we're going to jail. They're gonna throw us overboard, like we're not gonna be able to swim. Like every bad thing through my mind was going on. Right?
[00:37:23] Misty Smith: Yeah.
[00:37:23] Brandon Kelly: And so the king disappears and comes back with the silver platter, and he has grape juice and orange juice and apple juice on there.
Mm-hmm. And he says, you know, I apologize that I was offensive to you. I didn't know your customs and traditions. What religion are you? So I know better in the future. And I said, well, I'm a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and it's against our religion. So the dinner goes on, and about an hour after that.
So we're about two and a half hours into the cruise now. Everybody's rip roaring drunk, like they cannot stand. And this guy comes up to me and he's holding his finger at me and he says, you know, I, I had your missionaries come to me once and, and I'd like to make a donation to your church. Do you think that they would take some of my money?
I had no clue who this guy was. No clue. Right. And he's drunk and he is like, well, do you think they'll take a donation? I'm like, well, they'll take 10 cents from my kid if they make a buck. So sure, I'm sure they'd be happy to take a donation. And again, so imagine just this 80-year-old guy standing wobbling around drunk from his full bottle of wine that he'd had.
And he is like, well, who's in charge of your church? I wanna make this donation. I'm like, uh. Gordon b Hinkley. Like where does he live? Salt Lake City. Okay. So he goes to his guards and calls and gets on this big old satellite phone and calls Salt Lake City.
[00:38:51] Haley Freeman: Wow.
[00:38:51] Brandon Kelly: Gets in touch with Gordon b Hinkley and says, Hey Gordon, I wanna make a donation.
I, I am here with Brandon Kelly. This is what we can do, blah, blah, blah. And I can only do 50,000 from this account, but when I get home, I'll give you more money. I was like, whoa, 50,000, that's, that's like more than I make in a year at that time. This is crazy. And so he takes, again, he's drunk and he takes his phone and he hands it around to everybody and says, well, I just donated 50,000 to their church.
I'll bet you you can't do more.
[00:39:18] Haley Freeman: Oh,
[00:39:20] Brandon Kelly: wow. And 10 to 15 minutes later, he hands me back the phone and he says, well, we got you a million dollars, but I'll get you more when I get home.
[00:39:27] Haley Freeman: Wow.
[00:39:28] Brandon Kelly: And so in a matter of a few minutes, so imagine everything that could go wrong, food allergies, missing buses, missing planes, missing everything.
I know for a fact that, uh, Lucifer was doing everything he could to ignore and make sure that we couldn't be on that. Well,
[00:39:46] Haley Freeman: absolutely.
[00:39:47] Brandon Kelly: So the next day we're at the, the Jamboree site, and the day after that, we're at the Queen's Palace. The entire time we got to ride in the King's personal vehicle and talk to them about the church and about missionary work and how things work.
And so, you know, it was just, did I convert 'em? No. Did I get to bear testimony that this is what it is? Probably. And, and so, I've always learned from that experience about, how do we treat others like kings and queens? Even though you know they may not have the title, how do we teach them that way?
'cause that's the way Heavenly Father wants us to treat his kids.
[00:40:28] Haley Freeman: That's amazing. I love that. And you know, you never know, like you've planted that seed now he's familiar with the church. You never know what, you know, his next encounter will be with the church and how it will just build on that.
So amazing.
[00:40:40] Brandon Kelly: Well, and I do know that when they came for some Olympic stuff and other things that they actually did stop and meet, at the Salt Lake offices and stuff. Wow. And, and so again, we never know what our experience is gonna be. And again, everything was going wrong. Like imagine trying to wash your clothes in a sink, because you had no other clothes to change into, even though you packed them, you know, the airlines had literally sent 'em to, uh, Georgia, the country instead of Georgia, the next stop, right?
But, but ultimately there was a lot of other kings and queens from other countries that were there. 'cause it was the hundredth anniversary of scouting. Mm-hmm. And so ultimately we met like the Prince and Princess of Japan. Uh, prime Ministers, we were in some pretty serious heavy hitters, and all of them were asking about the church or examples and things like that.
All because we stood our ground instead of bowing down.
[00:41:31] Misty Smith: I
[00:41:32] Haley Freeman: love
it.
[00:41:32] Misty Smith: So I have a question. What do you do? What do you do when you're literally witnessing part of your patriarchal blessing, um, happen right before your eyes?
[00:41:44] Brandon Kelly: Great question. I didn't actually realize that until we got home. You know, my wife was like, Hey, you realize that this was in your patriarchal blessing?
And I was like, really? Well, and because of that, the other funny thing that happened is Baden Powell is the founder of scouting. And, uh, this rich guy that, I didn't know who he was, he ended up being the president of one of the world's largest banks and was very, very wealthy. And we were at Baden Powell's , um, Memorial Center.
And I said, you know, we probably ought to copy this. We ought to archive it. We ought to do things to protect it. And everybody in Europe was like, well, how did you do that? I'm like, well, this is how I do it in America and. This guy was like, okay, well we're gonna put you on the World Committee of Scouting.
So your role is to come in and archive the founder of scouting stuff, right?
[00:42:36] Haley Freeman: Mm-hmm.
[00:42:36] Brandon Kelly: And in a side note, he actually says that he felt like angels helped him, uh, be inspired about the Boy Scout program and Girl Guide program and serving the youth around the world. And they wanted me to fly back and forth to Europe every week or every couple weeks.
And I'm like, I, I'm not like you guys. I'm not millionaire. You know, at the time, I, I don't know what I'm doing. And I can't afford that ticket. And the guy's like, don't worry, I'll send my private jet for you, you know, every couple weeks I'll send this jet and you'll fly to Europe and you'll do your thing and come back and I didn't recognize it at the time, Misty.
[00:43:06] Misty Smith: Mm-hmm.
[00:43:07] Brandon Kelly: But, once it's there, that's when I started realizing, hey, there's all these weird things that have happened in my life.
[00:43:14] Misty Smith: Mm-hmm.
[00:43:14] Brandon Kelly: I just, instead of fighting against it, what do I do? There's been times where I've met people that, were on their last desperate string and I was like, I don't have much, but here you go.
You know, and, and they made that through, or, you know, there's been times where, I've met the prophets and things like that, all because of scouting and serving and being at the right place at the wrong time, or. Wrong place at the right time, whatever you wanna call it. Right? So, so how do I know? I, I don't, I'm not that smart.
That's probably why I've been hit by two dump trucks or two rounds of cancer or homeless twice, or, you know, I have to do everything a couple times to go, oh, oh, okay. That's, that's what that was supposed to be. My bad.
[00:43:56] Haley Freeman: That's funny. Well, I know you have so many awesome, amazing stories and we'll have to have you come back another time because I know you could fill another whole episode of all your stories.
But before we leave, do you have one final message that you would want people to take away?
[00:44:15] Brandon Kelly: Takeaway? One final message. Uh, Jacob 6:12 was probably the most quoted scripture in our house. That is "O be wise, what can I say more?" And so as you look at the challenges that we face, ask yourself, how can I use these for building the kingdom here on earth?
But more importantly, how does this apply to eternal principles? And so whether it's gravity, whether it's building dirt, or how everything's put together in life, understand how we all come together. And we're all simply, God's artwork and God's creation. Mm-hmm. So that would probably be that.
The other thing I typically say is always elevate your efforts to elevate your excellence. If in fact we're all sons and daughters of Heavenly Father, he's not just an average person. He is grand and glorious and so we have the need to try to be like Him and do everything the best that we can.
And if we're not doing the best we can. Great. Try, pick one little thing and improve on that until that's best. And then find another flaw and keep on moving until we, we hit that perfection. Is that, uh, I love it. Concise enough, Haley,
[00:45:30] Haley Freeman: that's beautiful. Thank you. And thank you so much for spending the time with us.
We appreciate it. So much.
[00:45:37] Brandon Kelly: It, it doesn't even feel like we've gone full time. Like I, I feel like we've only been here for like 10 or 15 minutes and there's so much more to share. But, you know, ladies, I, I have to say keep, keep doing the great good that you're doing. It's an honor to be on your show. I can't believe that the, uh, fabulous.
Misty and Haley, called me out of the blue and said, Hey, you know, we wanna interview you. 'cause I, I look at my stories and go, everybody has stories that are much more grand than mine. I just, I'm like a turtle. I'm resilient and keep getting run over and don't know that I, you know, need to stop and, and go from there.
So again, ladies, the pleasure and honor is mine. Uh, hopefully we've served your audiences and they've come away, uh, well fed today. So thank you for having me.
[00:46:21] Haley Freeman: thank you. I guarantee it.
Thank you for joining us on Latter-day Miracles. If you have a miracle story that you feel inspired to share, we'd love to hear from you. Contact us on our website at latterdaymiracles.net or message us on social media. Until next time, keep your heart open to the miraculous and may you feel the presence of angels in your everyday life.
