Michael Tomaino’s Superhero Workshop: Summary

The event was a smash success, in my personal opinion. Why? Because everyone involved was so incredibly amazing.

I was blown away by the personal stories that people were willing to share. It was fascinating to hear everyone’s different adventures through life and how they’ve made a difference in people’s lives.

My favorite thing of all was getting an opportunity to present with my former student, Becca Noble.  She was in the fifth grade when she was my Media student, and now she’s fifteen. She is a really inspiring person, and in my class, she wrote over forty pages of stories in just a few months. And a lot of it was done by hand. She also did collaborative story writing with three of her friends. I thought for sure they’d trip over themselves, but they created a system, and it worked.

I thought it would be a great opportunity to have her be a part of my WAG presentation for so many reasons. First and foremost, I thought it would be a great experience for her to get to present and share her life. For me, it was a passing of the torch. Things coming full circle where now the student is the teacher. And I think it also serves as a great real-life example that what I’m saying in my talk does actually have real-life powerful effects.

The original goal of the presentation was to have a Superhero Workshop where we’d talk about the power of writing and our own superpowers and then create superhero characters and stories together. Things started to flow in a different direction, and I let it take its course. I’m so glad I did because the result was such a wonderful experience.

Some of the key areas that we covered

My background:

I’m originally from Upstate New York. I went to college to be a child psychologist, but I realized senior year that I couldn’t handle it emotionally. Instead, I became a game designer and won many awards, but I felt empty, and that “success” was meaningless.

I found true success when I inspired my parents’ kindergarten-age neighbor Grace to keep shooting the basketball when she was getting frustrated. When she finally made the shot, her joy was the best reward I have ever received.

I realized I needed to work with kids. I’ve taught, coached, babysat, worked at before- and after-school programs, etc.

Teaching on the East side of Gainesville, Florida, was the biggest challenge I had faced. I used the concept of the superhero to relate to the kids. It was a huge success, and I got them excited about writing and reading their writing in front of classmates on a massive scale.

Now I write books, present at schools, colleges, and libraries, and host Frisbee events for kids and adults at Magnolia Park, right next to the One Love Cafe in Gainesville.

The book I wrote was How To Be A Superhero: The TOP SECRET Official Guide, which you can find on Amazon or my website SuperheroHill.com – and watch the Book Trailer created by my former student.

You can find my Frisbee events at GainesvilleFrisbee.com.

In January 2023, I did a TEDx Talk for Gainesville on The Power Of Being A Superhero, currently titled “How To Be A Real-Life Superhero.”

My next adventure is to do YouTube videos for my SuperheroHill channel and possibly a blog on all the wonderful experiences I’ve had with children and adults.

What is a superhero?

My definition is that a hero helps people and a superhero helps a lot of people. We all have the ability to be a superhero and make a huge difference in people’s worlds. Small acts of kindness, like saying “Hi” or holding a door open, can have profound impacts.

The concept of the superhero correlates with the ideal versions of many psychological models, including Carl Jung (especially easy to see in the King Warrior Magician Lover spin-off), Abraham Maslow, Spiral Dynamics, etc.

My favorite thing is when we can all come together as superheroes and work as a team, just as we did for the presentation.

Writing and the power of words:

We can affect people’s thoughts and emotions and through storytelling even take them on adventures through the universe or into a character’s mind. We also have the power to brighten someone’s day just by saying “Hi” or potentially ruin their day by saying something mean. It’s interesting that it is called “spelling” because we really are creating spells.

I wrote some letters to a student telling him how proud I was of his progress and improved behavior. His family had me over for Thanksgiving, and the letters were taped to his wall.

To demonstrate the power of words you can write two letters to your Mom, one that says how much you hate her and one that says how much you love her, and they will have very different results – even if they have the same exact words. This was from Gary Halbert, a famous copywriter.

Writing tips:

Write Blah blah blah until something comes.

Copywriting techniques – the focus is on clarity and communication.

Journaling

Start simple and build up.

Don’t edit – just flow – you can always edit later.

Suggestions from the audience:

Analyze good writing and try to understand why it works.

Daily writing quote – the example given was 2000 words a day, even if it is “I hate this, I hate this…”

What are your superpowers?

What are some things you’re good at? Write them down. If you can’t think of any, ask someone. What have people said before?

For example, my superpowers are being patient and being good with kids, and some people have said I’m kind. I like to think I’m a good facilitator – helping people find and enhance their superpowers.

Wrapping up

Sadly we didn’t have enough time to write stories together, but that can always be done at a future event. The amount of audience interaction amazed me, as was the depth of what was shared. Having my friends James Coats, Tim Freeman of the band Scuttered The Bruce and his kids, my neighbor Roseanne, and Becca come support me and help me was such an incredible treat and honor.

I would love to hear any feedback you had about the presentation, and I welcome questions.

My e-mail is Mike@SuperheroHill.com  My personal website is MichaelTomaino.com.