After helping people “Begin With Yes,” nonprofit leader and author Paul Boynton is on a mission to help people “Be Amazing.”
Amazing is a good way to describe Paul Boynton. During his 45-year career as an executive at health care and human services nonprofits, he has delivered countless speeches aimed at inspiring others to action. In 2008, Boynton realized he had collected quite a bit of material with common themes built around optimism and self-responsibility, prompting him to write and publish his first book “Begin with Yes” in 2009. The book took off, selling more than 35,000 copies to date and attracting nearly two million followers on Boynton’s Facebook page.
“I wanted to write something that was easy to digest and didn’t feel like a textbook,” says Boynton, who has spent the last 20 years as president and CEO of The Moore Center in Manchester, which provides services to individuals with developmental disabilities. “There are books that suggest 31 steps to happiness, but who can remember and apply all those steps in their daily lives?”
That’s why Boynton decided to keep the title and theme of his book straightforward— “Begin with Yes,” a succinct summation of what he says happens when the “law of attraction meets the law of action.” Boynton says when it comes to putting plans into motion, many people minimize the value of small steps in achieving their goals.
In “Begin with Yes,” Boynton encourages his readers to create a discipline of taking small daily steps that can be accomplished in as little as 15 minutes. By the end of the week, he says these seven small steps add up to create momentum that can help people feel in control of their own lives. “All these small steps set things into motion. Once you start moving in that direction, then things begin to happen,” he says.
After self-publishing his book with CreateSpace, Boynton has been growing his Facebook presence by 12,000 new likes each month. According to Boynton, between 800,000 and one million of his followers engage with his posts every week. “The key [to social media success] is to be an authentic voice, don’t always be trying to sell people something, be consistent in your posts, interact with your audience and create content your audience wants to share and engage with,” he says.
Boynton has become an in-demand national speaker, written seven companion guides to “Begin with Yes” and is now preparing his latest book, “Be Amazing.” “It’s about awakening people’s recognition of their own potential and encouraging them to always do a little better than just okay,” says Boynton. “It’s not about reaching a certain point, but striving to be as amazing as you can be each day and continuing to push yourself a little bit past where you’ve been before.”
He was inspired to write the book after friends recommended a breakfast hotspot to him. After waiting in a long line, he and his partner were greeted with a complimentary pancake for their wait, and they left after their meal raving about their amazing experience. It got Boynton thinking about what separates a common experience from one that exceeds expectations and how people can achieve that in their everyday life.
Boynton will be presenting his first speaking engagement for “Be Amazing” as a guest speaker at the annual Breakfast with the Best event, presented by Business NH Magazine and NH Businesses for Social Responsibility on Oct. 19 at the Grappone Conference Center in Concord. He plans on making his presentation interactive and is looking forward to having “shared inspiration” with the audience. “Everyone will be co-creating in the process; there will be the opportunity to both ask questions and contribute their own thoughts,” says Boynton. For more information about Breakfast with the Best, visit eventsNH.com. For more information on Boynton’s work, visit beginwithyes.com or moorecenter.org.
Current Issue - May 2024