The Company and its Founder

Paul Lloyd Hemphill is an Author, Speaker, and a Veteran. 
 

Paul Lloyd Hemphill helps parents, mentors, and educators guide teens to think clearly, choose wisely, and act with confidence in real life.

He is the creator of the Choose Your Future system—a practical, structured approach to building meaning, direction, and lasting values in young people.

Rather than relying on motivation or abstract advice, his work focuses on something more durable: helping teens develop the ability to make better decisions under pressure. His books and resources address real-life situations—distractions, boredom, setbacks, relationships, and responsibility—using language that is clear, direct, and immediately usable.

Through a combination of short-form teaching, guided reflection, and real-world examples, Paul’s work equips adults with tools to lead conversations that don’t just sound good—but actually shape behavior over time.

His materials are used by parents, homeschool families, educators, and mentors who want more than inspiration—they want a system that works in real life.

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In 2020 I started a non-profit company as a direct response to the negative influences that continue to surround our nation’s youth .

I started American Education Defenders, Inc. It takes its inspiration from a best-selling book I wrote in 2018.

The book, Inspiration For Teens, is filled with true stories from the most written-about event in our nation’s history, along with life-lessons, all of which can be found on video and audio as part of a homeschool curriculum that nurtures self-esteem.

The video program is called, America’s 52 Stories, and it has proven to elevate the self-esteem of our nation’s youth so they can become better people and solid citizens.

What surprised me was the bonding moment that the videos presented to both parent and child.

To do it, I use stories from a single American historical event, the Battle of Gettysburg, to demonstrate its valuable life lessons. American history teachers and their students can use them to discover what they are capable of.

And equally important, students discover how each lesson relates to their daily lives immediately after exposure to the videos.

The life lessons from American history are now relevant, appealing, and most importantly, they’re personal.

I’ve written 3 self-help books for teens and 3 books on college planning. I’ve produced over 50 videos on life lessons from American history, over 200 videos on college admission and financing, and I’ve narrated 3 of my audiobooks.

And I had some time to appear in over 30 TV interviews from Boston to Washington, DC.

My wife and I are 2X cancer survivors. Our perspective on life is one of gratitude.

For 19 years I was a college admission strategist, with a 96% success rate of getting high school students into their first-choice colleges. It was all about marketing, not about grades and test scores.

I have an honors degree in philosophy and theology, received the Bronze Star Medal and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry while in the US Army, and I’m married with two sons who were once firmly committed and overly-dedicated to being teenagers!  :^)

The effect of my speaking gigs is to show why students and teachers already possess American values, of which they are mostly unaware, that can propel them to recognize their many talents under very stressful conditions.

It motivates students to say “WOW!” to a newly energized self-image.