What does a hero look like? You may picture a military service member, a nurse, a first responder or even Superman. One common saying is that heroes are ordinary people who do extraordinary things.
Opening Main Stage speaker Kevin Brown, author of The Hero Effect, argued that heroes are extraordinary people who choose not to do ordinary things.
“There is no one in this room who is here just to do ordinary things,” Brown told attendees of ELEVATE, presented by NALP and powered by Cat, on Nov. 3, 2025.
Make Life Better for Others
One thing that a hero does is make life better for other people.
“You can never go wrong doing the right thing,” Brown said.
Brown adds that people’s existence as human beings alone earns them the right to be treated with respect and care. Too often, everything has become a transaction.
One example of a hero that Brown shared was when he and his family traveled to Disney World when his son was nine years old. Brown’s son, Josh, has autism and can’t have certain foods. When they went for breakfast, the executive chef introduced herself as Bea and asked what all Josh could and couldn’t have, as well as his favorite food.
Josh told her apple pancakes, and she regretfully informed him she didn’t have the ingredients to make them and offered bacon and eggs instead. Brown says Josh was satisfied, and they went about their day.
However, the next day, when Josh wanted to return to the same restaurant to see ‘Aunt’ Bea and requested apple pancakes, she responded, ‘Coming right up.’ Brown was surprised and asked how that was possible, and Bea informed him she had picked up the necessary ingredients at the store on her way home the night before.
“Nobody notices normal,” Brown said. “Nobody notices when people are satisfied. Satisfaction is code for ordinary. Yet everyone chases it like gold.”
Brown pointed out that at another organization, Bea easily could have played the blame game or gotten mad at the customer for the request. Instead, she chose to make their lives better.
There are only two times your customers are going to talk about you: when you miss their expectations or when you exceed them.
Brown encouraged attendees to seek out ways to make their customers’ lives better as otherwise they will be commoditized and compete on price alone.
See The Possibilities
Another point Brown made was how no one is a self-made person. They are made up of all the people they have encountered throughout their lives who have poured into them.
These are heroes and leaders who see the potential in others. Brown said that people will live up to or down to the vision and label you set on your people.
When their son was first diagnosed with autism, the doctor started to inform them all the things Josh would not be able to achieve, but Brown’s wife refused to accept this reality.
“It doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks; what matters is what you believe,” Brown said
Brown noted that often, as people age, they stop seeing the world as it can be and only see it as it is.
He reminded the audience that each of them was born with something that no one else has. Everyone is a collection of stories, and every day the pen is in your hand to write the next chapter.
Be Present
Through the years, the Brown family stayed in touch with Bea, and when Josh graduated from high school, they returned to Disney World in 2016 to see her again.
Bea shared with them how, since meeting Josh, she learned more about autism, and they’d rolled out a menu for other children with special needs at Disney. By Bea choosing to be present, this one moment had transcended into a lifelong friendship and benefited multiple families beyond Brown’s.
Brown said too often people are caught up in their phones and miss out on critical conversations.
“What if I was the one conversation that you needed to have?” Brown said.
He added that the moment you believe you’ve made it, you stop growing, and this is a disservice to your team. Brown encouraged leaders to give their team members their presence, their wisdom, and a safe space to grow.
“If there ever was a time we need to be heroes and leaders, it’s now,” he said.
