Noob School - Entertainment, Entrepreneurship, and Empowerment: J Dew’s Story

Episode Date: October 11, 2024

Today on Noob School, we’re joined by Jeremiah Dew, better known as J Dew, a key figure in Greenville, South Carolina’s live entertainment scene. J Dew takes us through his dynamic career as Director of Entertainment Production and Emcee, sharing insights from his work in Greenville and his recruitment by Clemson for similar roles. We dive into his thoughts on Greenville’s upcoming Trueline venue, and he gives us a look behind the curtain of his powerful one-man show, One Voice, which chronicles Black History. J Dew also reflects on how sales has become an integral part of his process, and shares details on his latest venture: a financial education company called The Cash Compound, co-founded with his brother Jonah. Whether you’re an entertainment enthusiast or curious about his entrepreneurial leap, this episode has something for everyone.Get your sales in rhythm with The Sterling Method: https://SterlingSales.coI'm going to be sharing my secrets on all my social channels, but if you want them all at your fingertips, start with my book, Sales for Noobs: https://amzn.to/3tiaxsL Subscribe to our newsletter today: https://bit.ly/3Ned5kL#SalesTraining #B2BSales #SalesExcellence #SalesStrategy #BusinessGrowth #SalesLeadership #SalesSuccess #SalesCoaching #SalesSkills #SalesInnovation #SalesTips #SalesPerformance #SalesTransformation #SalesTeamDevelopment #SalesMotivation #SalesEnablement #SalesGoals #SalesExpertise #SalesInsights #SalesTrends

New School. All right, welcome back to Noob School. This is episode, I believe, 131. Today I've got a special, special guest, a good friend going back. How long ago was it, Jay Do? Well, day one at CrossFit for me, where I think we met, would have been May 1st, 2010. 2010, okay, so 14 years. There we go.

Wow. So Jeremiah Dew, Jay Doe, very wonderful guy, famous person, particularly in this one. particularly in this region. He's an entertainer, an author, an actor, certainly an MC, and now an entrepreneur. There we go. And I think in all those areas you have to sell a little bit, right? All of them, right? Every day.

Yeah, that's good. And I read on your bio that somehow you had been in front of an audience of over 3 million people in aggregate before you were 30 years old. Right, yeah. So starting when mom puts you in front of church when you're a little kid, but through my 20s in this community, Greenville, South Carolina, where we live, yeah. Yeah, it really blew up in my early 20s. And by the time I was 30, it was over 3 million. Wow. Yeah, live events. So this is not making you nervous one bit. Well, one on one is rougher than just, you know, maybe throwing T-shirts to the crowd.

That's a good point. That's a good point. Because when I've seen you, you're typically, you've got the mic. There you go. Yeah, that's a little different, a little different. Also, you have a one-man show we're going to talk about that you put together, and that's an ongoing thing you do for schools and different people. And Clemson, you work with Clemson, you work with Greville Drive, and now you have a business called Cash Compound.com that we're going to talk about. Okay.

But let's back up. I don't want to skip over the CrossFit part. I'm going to hit that real quick, and then we'll go back to the beginning. But we did meet 2010, and it was Brandon's first box, CrossFit Box in Greenville, and it was delightful. It was a great time. I loved that place. Completely changed my workout and fitness experience. Having coaching, but having camaraderie.

I've never been in a gym where you talk to anybody. You know, a Globo gym, you just put on your headphones and you focus. But in this experience, you become friends. You start attending people's weddings and go out for a drink with them on Friday. Yeah, yeah. Well, and also I just thought, you know, there's magic in certain places and there's not magic in certain places. But that place had some kind of magic not because it was expensive or fancy or even convenient. I mean, you couldn't park.

There was a shower if you want to call it that. I had to use it once or twice, yes, if you want to call it that, right? But it was just perfect. I think one of the reasons for that is when you're going through hell with your friends like. that you know it's the foxhole moment so you go through something that's that hard yeah and everybody hits the deck sweating and bleeding and crying at the end you feel like you've done something together what are you doing now for exercise well I'm we got four kids you know doesn't that count so I guess so the kids are

10 down to two and so chasing after them some but in the last couple of months I've actually been nursing a lower back strain and injury over the year so I'm 40 now John okay you know I'm saying. You still look 30. Well, my man. Yes, sir. So right now, the exercise is whatever the Cairo tells me to work on at home for this summer. So I'm not lifting heavy right now. Well, I also have long since graduated from CrossFit. I'm doing like, you know, walking now and a little bit of weight lifting. But pickleball, that's an extra one. Pickle ball. That's right. That's right. Well, you have a remarkable career. Hey Green was really lucky to have you. And I want to talk about all

of it. But part of what we do here is try to figure out how this happened, how you got to this point. So other people that are watching can understand, you know, what things they might do if they want to become a professional MC or professional speaker. So if you would, take us back kind of where you grew up and the kind of things you did to get here. Yeah. Well, you know, it kind of all started for me as class clown type work. Okay. Right. So the unpaid stuff and the stuff you're not supposed to do. Right. To get kicked out of class or get your name on the board. whatever the teachers do now these days. But for me, I wanted to be, I would say the coming of age and adolescence

was probably trying to get in the school play. Okay. Was trying to be in the Lewis and Clark show when I was in middle school. Yeah. I lived in California at the time. My dad was Army, so we lived several places. But before I moved to South Carolina, I saw that they were having in sixth grade, Tom Sawyer, I wasn't in the show, but they were having a cast party at the end.

I said, oh, well, first off, I want to be in front of everybody. And second, I want to be invited to the cast party. So I decided to audition, and I got a role. I was Lewis and Clark, yes. And a great friend of mine, still to this day, was Clark. He ended up at MIT and worked at Google and things like that. So we were kind of playing those lead roles. And that bug just continued.

I always wanted to be in the school plays. I wanted to perform. You know, during a, in school, most people have that oral report that they have to do, book report or something. And they just get disheveled. Right. They hate it. Right. And for me, I wanted to make a scene.

Right. I wanted to read that report or do the poem in front of class. And that's really where it all started in school. Okay. So, so you sensed or you felt a natural interest in performing, let's call it, whether that's an oral report or being in the school play, you wanted to do it. I did. I did. My mother signed me up for all that type of stuff during that time, and I started to realize some wins. Some of these things are competitions. So you can go do a speech poem. I ended up going to a Christian high school and you can do like a biblical reading or something. And I started to kind of get some blue ribbons in those categories. And I was like, well, people really like what I'm bringing them. I'm getting energy from it. You know, most people, their energy is drained.

Right. Well, I was getting energy from doing it. That's all the difference. That's the way God makes you. Like I was getting energy from these experiences. So that's what ended up being professional for me. Well, it's a wonderful point. We talk about this a lot in our podcast.

And I talk about a lot when I write or coach people or coach teams. You've already come up with the most important first thing. It's figuring out what brings you energy. Let's call it another way. What you like, what you're drawn to. And then, you know, once you figure that out, then it's a matter of trying to stay in that ecosystem, you know, for your work, even for your fun. I mean, when I see you, I don't get the feeling that you're really like hating your work.

You're like, you love what you're doing, and you probably like all parts of it. Yeah. Now, there are the admin tasks that are tough, you know, and so you've got to get some whews to help you with the house. Right. But, yeah, being in front of people is where I shine. I look forward to it. You feel better. You feel better after us.

Yeah, I feel better. Yeah. Well, have you ever heard of any, well, have you used any psychological profiling tools or any tests or anything? There's a few out there, yes. Interestingly enough, on the scale of introvert to extrovert, I land in the middle. That's interesting. So I look forward to be in front of everybody and then I'm pooped afterwards. Well, I was going to ask you about that because when we first met, we went a little while before we really started to talk to each other.

I would agree. And one of the things and reasons behind that is in an environment where I'm not speaking, but I'm in front of people, I'm not as comfortable. And so when you're huffing and puffing through some burpees, and I'm not trying to perform for other people, I may not speak as much. If I'm called on to do that, then I'm going to have energy. But if I'm just out there sweating to the oldies trying to get through the workout, I may not say much.

Interesting. And if you were extroverted like you are all the time, you couldn't do it. Correct. Right. There's a difference between, you know, you did a perfect introduction of me. Jeremiah is my name and what mom calls me. J. Dew is how everybody knows me. And a long time ago, I realized those are two different people. We're two different people, right. Yeah. Jeremiah is who I am at home. Right. And Jay Doe is the performer. Right. And so when that psychological switch can happen even internally, it's kind of helpful. But it'll throw people off who are like, I've seen him in crowds. But at the gym, he doesn't talk all that money. He's not trying to get attention.

Right, right, yeah. I'm working too hard in the gym. Well, think about, I mean, people, in my mind, we don't need to stay on this too long. But I'm thinking about people who were always on, I think Chris Farley, Robin Williams, who were always on, and it eventually kind of drove him off the ledge. Yeah, yeah. When you feel that you always have to perform. You need to have a home base.

you need to have an oasis from those types of things. And I do. I'm that type of person. I like to read. I like to go home and put my feet up. If I don't have to be at the event or I'm not performing, I don't need to go every time. Right. Okay.

So that high school and that middle school, was that all out in California? So I moved to Greenville when I was 13. My mother ended up remarrying from my dad, who was an airman, who passed. a soldier, two an airman, and they're still together now. Things are great. But we moved to Greenville in 97. So this is home now. But prior to that, yeah, K through 12, I went to 10 schools, but only one high school.

So we slowed way down by the time I got here. And what high school did you go to here? I went to Hampton Park. So it's a church school in the Cherrydale community of Greenville, and I went to school there in 9 through 12. And then I know you went to Bob Jones. I did. And what did you study there?

In school, I studied mass communication. At the time, it was called mass media. So I learned about the art forms of marketing, really. And I loved it. Loved that experience there. It was a very hands-on program. And so we had a radio television studio. We set up programs like this and ran newscasts and things like that.

So it was very hands-on, and I really enjoyed it. I'm glad. I'm glad to hear that. Who was the president then? Was it Bob Jones? It was Bob Jones when I started. Bob Jones III. And now he's Chancellor.

He, 82, three years old at this point. And I finished, though, when he had passed the torch to his son, Stephen. Okay, Stephen, all right. It's a great school. It's great school. We had a recently, there was a Citadel grad who was the president. That's great. Did you mean him?

Yeah, yeah. So Steve Petit. Well, once or twice I got called on to do some MC work, and so I introduced him on stage. And yeah, he graduated in the Citadel and maybe 77 or so did like seminary work at Bob Jones. And they called on him after Stephen Jones to be president. there for about nine years I believe until about two years ago yeah yeah I liked him yeah good guy that's great great school so you got a good education there and then you

were already you know that's another thing I like to tell people you know you had picked kind of your area this communication area which is pretty broad and you got an you got an election with education in it and you actually worked at it as an intern I did yes four years well there we go so what happened was so at on campus is we definitely had a community of programming, as opposed to bookwork, you know? And we live in a world now where, yeah, you've got to be a part of that all the time.

But at the end of school, I did get an internship. You could do a recital, actually, in that program that I was in. I chose not to do that, and I wanted to go hands-on. And I started to work for a man who ran the production and crewed the hockey games downtown. So he put me on, my senior year, he put me on that roaming camera that gets an air. everybody's, but Kiss Cam and all that stuff.

And that's kind of how sports entertainment, I was introduced to sports entertainment as I was finishing. Right. So I love that because I think, again, kids think about going to school, majoring in something, maybe not even relative to what they like or even relative to what they're going to get a job in. That's certainly what I did.

And then you kind of go all the way over here and try to get a job doing something new and almost starting over to some degree. And what you did was you kind of figured out this broad area you liked, got a degree in it, worked in it to a smote with your foot, you kind of foot in the door. So by the time you started, you were already in. Well, yeah, you're exactly right. What's interesting to me is because I didn't know what job I wanted, I had to keep pursuing things that I enjoyed. Right.

Turns out that ended up paying the most money. Right. But because I didn't know, hey, what are you going to do after school? And sometimes it's a disservice in the world we live in today. what are you going to do? What job are you going for? I never knew the answer. And I could tell you a bunch of things I didn't want to do. So I said, well, I'm just going to keep trying things that I enjoy. Right. Turns out that was the plan. Well, it's a great story so far. So you started out doing some work with the hockey team. What are they called? They were the growl at the time. The growl. They are the swamp rabbits at the time. The swamp rabbits. The road warriors were in between there somewhere. But the last season of the Greenville growl at the then Bilo Center downtown. is where it all kind of started in sports entertainment for me.

Wonderful. Wonderful. So you did that. What did you turn that into? What happened next? What happened next was the ballpark downtown, Greenville Drive, opened. So this is 2006, and they had their first season, and I was still working for the same production company that was able to crew some of this stuff.

So what happened then is I started running the fan cam, the roaming camera, the opening season for the new Red Sox team downtown. Okay. And in between the first and second season, they wanted to make a shift in terms of this on-field MC performer. And I ended up at the pre-season national anthem audition running the camera. So this is an American Idol style deal.

People are getting up there and playing a little banjo here, the harmonica or singing the national anthem and we were going to crew them or put them on the roster for a national National Anthems coming up in season two. And I started interviewing these people as they walked off stage just for a little side video. And when the bosses and the Powers at B saw the camera kid who didn't talk that much because that wasn't my job.

I was holding the heavy camera. When they saw me working the people as they came off the stage, I said, we're going to give that kid the microphone for the season. And the rest is history. Wow. Yeah.

Surprised you. Well, you know it's really crazy. As my mentor, the guy who was paying me now, but I'd been an intern for, he knew I had those skills. He saw me on a one-on-one basis. We worked together a lot. And he said, you know what, I think I want to give you a shot. Like, why don't we have you be the MC?

And here's where my career and my life maybe would have been derailed. I really struggled with it, not because I didn't want to. It's because of the money. the MC got paid less than the camera guy. I was wrong, but I didn't know. So I almost said no, because I didn't want to take the pay cut because I needed the money. At the time, I'm paying off bills and trying to establish myself as an adult. But I said, no, I think if I look through that viewfinder and have to point it at the MC all summer, I'll be upset.

So I'm going to tell them, I'll go ahead and be the MC. Good, good. Well, that's an important decision that you made there. Why did you think that the video guy would get more than the microphone guy? I'm not sure what it was about the situation and all the crew. So this is going to be the replay guy and the PA announcer and the graphics and the music people. And I thought they just had a rate that was different than the people who were on the field. The booth people.

I thought they got paid more money. And I wasn't interested in going, I thought it was a $50 game day per deal down to 30. And I was like, I don't want to take the pay cut. But I said, I don't think I would want to come if I wasn't the MC. So I just said, I'll be the MC. Turns that I was wrong. It's a reasonable question because one of the pushbacks I get from people when I'm coaching them on career stuff is the money part. They're like, well, you know, this path that I love doesn't pay as much as this path.

And I'm like, well, can you afford it? You know, if you can't afford it, I get it. Sure. You know, if you've got to dig ditches, you've got to dig ditches, right? Because we all got to pay our bills. But if you can afford it, then who cares? You know, do what you love and probably leads to something else. I mean, we were talking about Edwin McCain earlier.

He didn't get paid a lot of money the first 10 years of his career. Right. You know, he was getting tip bucket money, you know? I mean, it was so. But he can afford it. There you go. He was living in a van, I think. Down by the river probably.

Right. Well, that's amazing. So, and I assume that job, since you have been so prominent, has gotten you a lot of attention and other business and all that kind of stuff. That one opened the doors. Yeah. So in Greenville, in 2007, I had the mic the first night at the Greenville Drive opening day in April or whatever it was, and that changed everything. So everyone comes to the watering hole of the community. You know, they call it down there the front porch.

That's the front porch of the community where everybody gets together, of course. And there's 300,000 plus fans and friends and families that come to our little Red Sox team downtown. And because of that, everyone saw me. They saw me doing what I do best and singing and dancing and throwing T-shirts to their kids and all that stuff, right? Making them do frozen T-shirts or chugging beers or whatever it was for years. And so when you have to do that night after night after night, 70 minor league home games per season plus Clemson, plus first. and plus these other high school tournaments, everyone saw me in action. And that really changed my trajectory in life because people started to call me and ask,

hey, how much does it cost for you to be a part of whatever vision we have? They knew what I was good at. They said, we are going to run a puppet show or we're going to do a pageant or whatever or eating contest. We know you're the guy. So how much does it cost for you to be around us? That's amazing. In sales, it's a lot nicer when they call you. Yeah, it's a lot better.

You don't have to do a demo. Right. You've already seen you. Yeah. That's great. Well, here, I have an idea for you. A promotion for a game is make it like Bill Murray night. Okay.

Bill come throw out in the first pitch. Now, you know Bill Murray, and if you know baseball or you know sports, you know he's a fan. He's a Cubs fan. Yes. Yeah. Now, during my stint as a full-time, I wasn't just the MC, but I was full-time and I was full-time and I ran the entertainment show as the director. The director of fun is what my casual title was known as at the ballpark. During the time that I had that title, Bill Murray had the same title

for a different team in the same league. The Charleston River Dogs. River Dogs, yeah. Charleston River Dogs, down in Charleston. He was the director of fun down there. I was the director fun up here. Yeah. That's amazing. Did you get to talk to him? No, I never met him. I actually have seen him in person at a Clemson game because, you know, Clemson is part of my story and what happened next to me in terms of sports. But his son is a coach, I believe, for Louisville. Oh, really? A assistant coach for Louisville.

So he's spent time at Clemson Games before, and so I've seen him in person, didn't speak. Well, all I know is my brother-in-law lives down there, and I think their kids go to the same school, so they see him sometimes. He's so unpredictable. He might say yes. I've heard so many crazy stories about him. He doesn't carry a phone. and he does you have to if you want him to be in movies which we know him for some great movies

I was watching stripes this summer you know stripes and uh... Groundhog Day and all these great movies but you have to you have to catch him it's really strange you have to catch the guy because he's unpredictable yeah in fact if we go if we talk about movie reviews groundhog Day would be my favorite Bill Murray movie okay I'll tell you why it's because I think it's a besides the fact that it's funny that it's kind of a lesson in that what is life but a whole bunch of days, right? And so if that's what it is, why don't we make each day, like, how good can we make that day? Let's don't wait until we're 50 or 60 or then I'm going to retire, then this is going to happen, I'm going to buy a boat.

It's like, what can this afternoon be like? Right, right. How good can it be? And that's kind of a ground dog day. Isn't it? What's the perfect day? Right. And, you know, he wants to learn the language, you learn French, he wants to learn how to play an instrument.

You know, these different things that he added to his skill stack to make it a perfect day. I think about that a lot. Yeah. That's kind of what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to continue. I'm sure you are too. What can we keep adding to make, you know, every day better, to make ourselves better, just like they did in Groundhog Day? Yeah, man.

It's great. It's a great lesson to be learned from a funny movie. It was a funny movie. Okay, so is the drive still ongoing? Are you still? So I retired from my responsibilities of doing all those games. It's hot out there, John. Tell you what.

So I did 10 full seasons with them as MC. So that's going to be 700 plus games. I barely missed anything during that time. And actually, it's been a good while now. 2016 is when I retired from doing all of the games. I'll make special appearances here and there. Okay. And so it's funny when I show up for two or three.

or four games a season now, depending on maybe the sponsor or the theme, that people will say, hey, man, I haven't been here since. They'll say things like, you're still here. Wow, it's great. I haven't been in a while. And I'm like, I haven't been here for several years. You just happened to come on a night where I came back. So, yeah, so this past season, they just finished their 19th season now.

And I think we've got some special plans for the 20th anniversary where I'll be back again for a few special things. But yeah, it moved on from there. I went to Clemson for a long time, even longer than I did drive. But, yeah. Well, before we move on to Clemson, I got a couple things. So Craig Brown, well, how lucky are we that he decided to buy that team and move to Greenville? Craig, he's a visionary.

He's a visionary, and he's a numbers guy, so he knows how to run business. And I can't sit in meetings with Craig for two reasons. One is because he's going to bore me with the numbers. And number two, he doesn't understand. fan entertainment the way I have an intrinsic emotional response to it. So I don't speak his language, he doesn't speak mine, and we work great together. That's perfect. You have trust.

Trust, really, really was. And so I'm very, yes, timing is everything. When he came to town with his partners originally and now by himself, his family now, his son is president, Jeff, to run that team, it was, you know, that was orchestrated by God's timing for me to be in the process. place I was because I don't even like baseball and Craig knows it. Yeah. We don't have to tell everyone that. Right. Well, he's, I know him a little bit and what a wonderful guy and he's just been great for Greenville. So, very lucky. The city's very lucky to have him here. So again, before Clemson, I want to ask you,

I saw you at an event not too long ago with Michael Grozier. Yes. And the True Line thing. How did you get involved with that and tell us a little bit about True Line and what you think is going to happen with it. Yeah, so downtown, the True Line is building a new music venue, 1,700 or so seats. You know all about it. And the community is really excited. And it's going to be one of like three new venues for music downtown, even in our downtown space. But we have a vibrant thing going in our downtown for sure.

But I got message by one of his staff members who was at Clemson, who saw me there and worked in the Coliseum, the arena environment. And she had moved on to some greener pastures, came back to town and said, hey, we're doing that ribbon cutting. We've got our new venue that we're refurbing and refig configuring downtown. And you've got to be the guy. I mean, get everybody going. So she was like, I haven't seen you in a long time, you know, but I know you're the guy. Yeah. So that's great.

So you got to know Mike a little bit? Yeah, got to meet with him and visit with him just very minimally during that time. But he's got a great vision and, of course, a great history for venues. right? Being that he was House of Blues, you know, and all that type of stuff. So just got to work with him for that opening event so far. But, yeah, they are really doing a lot of pre-marketing before they even get their venue finish. I'm excited about what they got. Well, he told me that the first act was going to be Dave Chappelle.

Oh, really? No. I would like to see you introduce Dave. Oh, that'd be great. It would be pretty cool. I did not know that. Okay, yeah. That's crazy. He says, because, I mean, you think about it, he's, he's,

He's only had basically two jobs, building out a hard rat cafe and then with the same guy building out House of Blues from scratch. Yeah, yeah. And so in the course of doing that, you get to know all those people. Yeah. That's just your job. You're in the circle with them. And so he says Dave Chappelle has opened up, you know, 15 House of Blues for him over the

years. So he thinks he can make it happen. Wouldn't that be cool? That was very cool. Bob Jones guy to do you stage Chappelle? Right, just like they taught me over there, right? Yeah, yeah. They can't take back your diploma.

No, no, it's too late. It's too late now, statute of limitations. You can say, I had no idea. Right. I had no idea. Okay, so you then, did you get the job at Clemson? Obviously, while you were still with? Oh, yeah, for sure.

There's overlap for years. And what happened was Clemson plays baseball downtown at our field. Okay. Floorfield at the West End several times every year. They play USC in Furman when they had a team and Wofford. And one time it was a home contest for Clemson. But it was neutral for their staff. Their staff didn't need to operate the game because that was my job.

I was literally the director of the entertainment production, director of fun, and MC. So they came with their book and all their marketing and all their promos and, you know, stuff like that. Their announcements, their rosters, all the things that we need to run the game. And then the one, two people who brought us the book and said, here's how you run our game. They went over to Craig Sweet and drank McAlo Bolters all night, which is great. So I set up my staff, you know, PA and video and replay and sound. And then I threw on my glasses in my jersey and I went down and I was Jay Doe during the game

between the innings and all this stuff because we barely needed to run anything from them. You know, college programming is not always been entertainment heavy. You follow the team. You love the school. So I'm down there doing my thing in all the gaps. And we finish. It's a great game. I come upstairs.

And their staff comes back to collect their program and head on down to Clemson. And the guy who was in charge of Clemson's programming, football, obviously that's a massive operation, baseball, basketball for years. His name is John Siketa. And he looks at me at the end of the game. As I'm saying, hope it was great. Thanks for coming. We're glad you guys were here. And he says, what the hell was that?

You've been back to your Jeremiah. Yeah, exactly. And I was like, what? He was like, what the hell was all that during the game? I was like, oh, that's just what Jay Doe does. And he was like, we need that at Clemson. That's how it started. He said, what are you doing in the winter?

You ever been to a Clemson game? Nope. And the very first Clemson game that I ever went to on campus at Little John Coliseum, they handed me the mic and said, go do that. Just go do that again. Yeah. Wow. So 13 seasons later, I ran the men's program there, ran the floor, ran the half court,

ran the whatever, Jumbotron, and all that stuff, and 11 seasons for the women as well. Wow. That is awesome. Yeah. I remember being over there for a game and looking up, I was like, I think that's changed it. There we go. Yep. So I just changed jerseys, right, and put on a different hat.

They handed me the microphone and says, do that. That's great. That's what the people come for, you know, to have. a good time. That's where I feel like I shine. I know how to take the situation. If it's a bunch of little kids and we're going to do a puppet show or it's a bunch of college basketball fans, I know how to help people have a good time. And that's my gift. That's awesome. So the drive and Clemson made up a big chunk of your time. But along the way, you're doing other MC work here and there, I assume. You're doing speaking. What other

kind of things are you doing? Yeah, so a lot of one-off gigs. There's a lot of folks because, you know, Clemson's community of fans as well as Greenville's community of fans who come to games casually, all the corporate groups start to see me, all the schools start to see me, all the churches start to see me when they bring their groups. And so I'm starting to get emails and calls and Facebook DMs that say, hey, we need an MC for our gala, our Christmas program, our fundraiser, our pep rally at school, our homecoming event. And so I start to be able to have just doors open where people are calling me and said,

we're looking for you, we already know. You don't know who we are, but we know who you are. And we're looking for you at our event. So because of that, there's been perennial great partnerships with Prisma Health or GHS, our hospital system here, Ronald McDonald House, years I'm doing their programs. And even as you mentioned recently, every year I'm at a small but mighty elementary school every year to kick off the kids two-week fundraising campaign, where they fundraise $50,000 plus just doing good deeds for their neighbors and things like that. And I'm there every year, you know, with the PTA.

And they said, you know, Jay Do's the guy. He gets the kids going. Yeah. That's awesome. That's great. And I think, you know, if we're talking about selling, it sounds like, you know, you know, the large percentage of the credit for your sales would come from the fact that you do a really good job. And that comes from that you figured out that's what you love to do.

Like if we said, well, Jay-Doo, we want you to be an accountant now. You know, probably people wouldn't be coming out of the woodwork saying, hey, we saw your accounting work, Jay-Doo, and we need some of that with our company. Right, right. You know, same with me. They'd be like, I don't know, man. So I think that's a big part of it. So if you love what you do, now the other thing that I'm sure you're very good at is in business to keep getting this kind of repeat business.

You've got to do things like show up, be cooperative, be friendly. I mean, a lot of people don't do that. Yeah, you know, as Dan Sullivan and strategic coach might say, you know, I'm not a student of his, but I'm students of some of his students. I pay attention is do what you're going to say you're going to do. say please and thank you, show up on time. Some of those soft skills are not so soft. No. They really are the things that you, you know, I'm not trying to mince the words,

but like you need to do those things and be friendly and be easy to work with. If not, you know, when you're a one-off event type of guy, like I've been in so many instances, and I've made lots of money because of what you might call opportunities of chance. People call me and I wasn't marketing to them. Right. But you better be nice, be friendly, show up, shake hands and smile at people. Yeah.

You know? Yeah. Well, I can tell you to do that. But it is worth talking about a little bit because people, they don't understand that over a long career, over 10 or 20 or 30 years in the same type of business in the same town, you know, if you don't do those basic things, you're out. Right. And they won't tell you why. They don't need to tell you why. No, they just won't call.

Yeah, they just won't call. And I think that is a testament to folks, maybe like myself, who want to have their roots here. Yeah. Want to raise a family here or something. You're going to run into people years later that you were just at the gym with. Right. Now, when I met you and saw what you did over time and start seeing you show up at events,

I was like, well, John kind of struggles at pull-ups from time to time, but I didn't realize he was a businessman. You know what I'm saying? Maybe I need to say something, speak to them. Yeah. During some box jumps or something. Well, you know, I put you in a video that we did. You did?

Yes, we did a promo video for, I've always had video production in my back pocket since day one, running cameras and working with those teams. And that CrossFit, where you and I were members, there is a video that's just highlighting a few members, and you get highlighted at one point. I'll refresh you and send it to you. And we had to do a take where I had to get you doing

some pull-ups and eventually you're like, all right, we're done with it because we needed to try a couple of times. I remember I could do the kipping pull-ups. There you go. That's not too bad. You just couldn't do 100 if I kept doing the takes over and over. That kind of brings us, I think we're getting closer to today, right? Yeah, yeah.

Now, one thing about sales in particular, you know, I've been able to kind of gloss over in our conversation the fact that many people have called me. But in the midst of these sports programmings, I came up. with my own one-man theatrical show. I have a black history show. And so I become and have memorized MLK and Frederick Douglass and Barack Obama, and that was the first time I had to make the calls. And I want to give you credit because when I had to start making the calls and it was a one-man

show, there's nobody else to blame it on, that is when I started to get my real education on, if nobody's calling you, how do you approach them, what do you say, what is your marketing and sales and script look like because I knew I could deliver. Everybody has seen me deliver in this town, but how do I sell to people who don't know what I'm calling about? And I did have an education in School of Hard Knocks. It was new school for me right there, 101. How do I get schools and churches and corporate groups to actually buy this packaged product that they don't know? They know me and like me. So I get the, I get them to pick up the phone. but I don't know what to say after that. That was a whole education. Well do they have a budget for it?

I didn't know what to ask. When they did have budgets it took me a long time to figure out that's one of the questions you might ask. I mean it's interesting because of course when we teach sales when I was a young salesperson I didn't want to ask it because you're scared you're going to kill your little sale right because if the answer's no then the sales dead but you don't want to know it because you might lose it so it's so weird you know but it's a very important question. Of course, you've got to ask it nicely. But I think that's the biggest challenge these schools and these churches would have is do they have the money? Even though they would love to have you do it, it would be great for the children. Right. How do they pay for it? Now, that was

where some big opportunities of corporate came in to sponsor some of the things. And because I'd done so well and delivered so well, maybe for baseball, for Michelin. Michigan, of course, is in our community. I've done my show on their campuses in our area four or five times. They would bring the kids to you. Well, they started to pay for it. They said, we'd love to sponsor your package for our little elementary schools and our communities. Nice. And I started to learn business at that point. So John, see, up to this point, I'm a performer and I don't know business. I don't know sales. And I started to learn it when I came up with my own program. What year was that? So it started in 2011. That was the first show and I had to sell it to a theater it wasn't even going to be a corporate

show or a school visit it was going to be a theatrical ticket event right and I started it at warehouse theater downtown Greenville right by the ballpark I knew them and it was a two-night experience I opened on my 27th birthday February 9 2011 and when I showed up to that environment the artistic director opening night said, hey, there's somebody coming from the hospital. They heard about your show and they want to potentially have you repurpose it for the hospital campus. The employees can come for a black history programming experience. And I was like, well, great, how'd they hear about it? Because we hadn't opened. And he's like, I don't know. So that was the first, that changed my

life when someone validated something that I tried to sell to a community of people. And I realized that if you sold it to the right one person, they could buy all the tickets for you. Yeah. Rather than try to sell it to your mom and your grandma and your cousin and your neighbor for one-off sales. And I was able to that night throw up a number. And when I threw up a number and they immediately said yes, we'd love it. Yeah. And I was like, whoa, that took me into a different, a different, that was, I went from prep school to graduate school.

Well, good for you for trying a bunch of things and figuring out what worked. because that's kind of, if you don't quite know how to do it, that's a good way. Like if you're starting up a business or something, you know, you try four or five different methods and what do they like, what price do they like, and just do that a whole lot. So that's great. So the one-man show, and you still do that. I do, yeah. It's called One Voice, a Black History narrative.

Is it just those three people? So no, it's several other people, but now since COVID, I've also established a new evolution of the show that also can be virtual. So most of the time, in historic, I'm in person in front of a group of people. And it's kind of a timeline from then until now. And I normally pay four or five different characters. So James Weldon Johnson normally starts things off.

And you don't know his name, but you do know that he's the Negro National Anthem guy. Because now at the football games and all that stuff in America, we're doing some of the black national anthem stuff. It's that guy. He did some poems. Frederick Douglass, everyone knows that name. Martin of the King, of course, kind of the crux of the matter. in the Black History Civil Rights Movement.

Muhammad Ali, Barack Obama normally ends things. So it basically goes from then till now. Used to have Bill Cosby in the show. Kind of took him out over the years, you know? Unfortunately, we can't take him to schools. Got to tag out. Yeah, we can watch the show on TV,

but we can't take him to schools. And so... Interestingly enough, that was at one time America's dad. Yeah, right. Yeah, times have changed, right? Yeah. So, yeah, so that experience is kind of... of what it is when it's in person some of those characters and I can do a 30-minute

program or a 60-minute or 90-minute program we kind of chop and screw it as needed but yeah COVID changed things and launched me into and some of the technology differences helped sure now it can have a we can do a virtual experience where you're getting much virtual business yet you well the thing about this John is the sales that's what you're all about is I've tried to run that program for too long, basically by myself. And now I'm working on, even this month, beefing up a virtual sales program,

Salesforce, offshore workers who can do some of the emailing and marketing and things like that. And I'm looking forward to some bigger things in the future. But for a long time, it was just me. And because I was so popular locally, I didn't really try to get some of those corporate. Well, I'll just say this. One of the sales groups that probably the number one selling sales training company in the world is called Sandler training.

Yes, right. And I went to Sandler for a while. I don't know if you ever been or not. But I mean, generally very good training. And for years, they only did it locally. Like if you had, if you were in Greenville, you kind of sold around Greenville and people sold around Culme. Wherever, if you're in Argentina, you're in Argentina. Yeah. Well, with COVID, you know, people couldn't get together anymore. And they went online and now the thing has just exploded. You can be sitting here in Greenville selling a class in Canada. Right, right. And as long as you have 12 people, you know, let's go. And the interesting thing about that kind of training is both parties get more out of it remote than in person.

Really? Yeah. Because let's just say you had a 12 person sales team in Canada. And let's just say that. They were all in Montreal, except for two of them are on the outskirts. But even in Montreal, it took everybody 45 minutes to get to the office. So you kind of burn almost a half a day just getting everyone in one room, you know, for the training. Right. And then this guy's got to fly up there. Yeah. It's like now we can just, okay, everyone just turn and hit the button.

Right. Yeah. And somehow I'm still late by a couple of minutes. And all I got to do is hit the button. There's always someone late. Jay D.D. will be here. I just talked to Jay Doo. Yeah.

He's texting. He's texting. He's talking to. It's updating. He's trying to, I'm still late. So, so, you know, particularly with the big, some of the schools with the big, in churches with the big screens, you know, the big monster screens, it might be really cool if you could do a session.

So anyway, if you could, we'll have to maybe brainstorm on someone who can help you do that selling, maybe part-time or overseas or on commission only or something. Yeah, I'd love to. So we'll do that. So you're doing that, which is very cool. And then you and your brother have launched a company called Cash Compound.com. So tell us about this company. Several years ago, about 10 years ago, around September when we're recording this, 2015.

Someone tells me, who's a real estate guy in Greer, North Greenville area, communities, got 100 rental properties, mobile homes. He tells me about what I now know as infinite banking. That's what he tries to introduce me to and says, hey, man, I just started doing it. And I'm kind of a protege mentee of this guy. I want to be around him because he's got money and he knows things. And I'm doing some side hustle work for him from time to time. And he says, hey, I want you to figure out what this thing is.

I have mentors and people above me who told me to get involved with this. And I did. And he's got that type of disposable money to be involved. And I don't have a clue what he's talking about. I get this book. I read it. I don't understand. But 10 years later, my brother and I have a whole operation.

We figured out what this thing was, infinite banking, and now the cash compound is a financial education company to help individuals and business owners and families understand code-cracking cash flow. What's the foundational tools we need to understand? And how does the banking system work? How does interest leaving your life? What is it costing you? Nobody talks about it.

Everybody talks returns. Right. But they don't talk about the, interest that's leaving your life and going to Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and truth. That's why they have money because they're gaining everyone's interest all the time. So we help people in that arena, and that's kind of like a day job type thing for me as I've stepped away from the sports entertainment every, you know, season to season, and we're having a great time.

I have clients all across the U.S. and we're helping them understand money. So if I was interested, I would go to cash compound.com, right? but would I be getting a series of like video training things and certifications or how would that work? Great question. Great question. It's an individual thing that you can do. So what and how people mostly find us is through social media and social video. So we have a lot of content out there on five or six different platforms. And for the last couple of years here, really since COVID, because all my other gigs went away. So I got serious about making some training and some videos and think that's how it all started. Now it's a lot of social media and lots.

lot of places is basically everything kind of funnels you to a one-hour video presentation me and my brother put through. So we've decided that that is the best way for us to basically have three or four or five different things out there to move you toward a video presentation or an online in-person coaching session. We do those in-grain buildings. Yeah. Coaching session, a walk through what's going on, what we're trying to teach and help people understand. And then it follows up with a one-on-one call. Good. So that's what we've been doing now pretty exclusively in that arena for about four years or so.

Right. And things have really taken off for us, and we're really excited about that. Okay, so it sounds like not too hard to dig into financial education kind of for the rest of us. Yeah. Like, this is how money actually works. This is what you ought to do. Yep. Maybe 80-20 rule.

Like, here's the big chunks kind of thing. Yes. you know the right things to do and you actually do the right things, then everything else becomes 20%. You get the foundational things right first and you understand why and where you should put money in the first place. Right. We all have heard pay ourselves first. We actually tell you where. So if you put your money in the right place in the first place, everything changes for you.

And then you can go do your unique abilities at the top of your pyramid. Right. Yeah. Wonderful. I'm glad you're doing it. And I would love to try to be helpful to that end. I don't really understand the funnels and all that stuff you're doing. But just sales basics, maybe I can help with that part of it.

Sure. I love that. So is there anything else you want to promote today? Well, hey, you need me call me. I've always been an emcee out there. So I'm fortunate in this community to have, you know, but my black history show and even now the educational financial education stuff has taken me all over the country here and there.

I went to Hawaii last year. week to do my Black History show for a handful of schools. And really, I'm a guy who can help folks promote and market with personality. That's what I'm really good at. I have some help when it comes to video and graphic design and things like that. So, you know, you may have some other guests on here soon that I connected you with. I'm helping promote a new franchise in the community where you can turn yourself into a 3D model. statue. A statue.

Yeah. Okay. So that's called Shrunk 3D. Yeah. And there's a mobile booth that turns you in this. Yeah, talk to those people. Yeah. I mean, I'm going to see them. Yeah, it's a real cool thing that's going on.

So outside of that, yeah, I'm really focused on the cash compound. Me and my brother call ourselves the banking bros. Okay. And so we teach people that financial education and that model. And outside of that, you know, there's a lot of good people who still just call me in this community for a one-off event. So I love those. Yeah.

Do you birthday parties? Oh, I've done everything. I've done everything. I've done tug-a-war, you know, pulling a plane across the tarmac and all sorts of crazy things. Well, I'll give you two thumbs up because I've seen you work too and I think you're great. But I didn't want to ask you just a couple more questions. What's your favorite all-time book? I would say, you know, outside of the personal, spiritual stuff that I've gained,

from the Bible. I would say when it comes to business or entrepreneurship, one of the greatest books, and I don't play in the public space, would still be good to great. Good to great. That's in the public space, even though I don't play in public companies. The second one really is one that I'm trying to work on actually a presentation, training for people, is the 80-20 principle. So I mentioned Richard Koch to you, but I think before we started recording, my business coach got to meet him in the summer of 2024. And the 80-20 principle, which you just brought up, you know, is very powerful. And I love what Richard does. And what do you like about good to great? What I really like about good to great is a lot of us have, it's the comparison between

these public companies who had very similar sales, very similar resources, and one went good to great and one didn't. And it's realizing that everyone has a plan, but is it the right plan? Yeah. And do you execute it? Right. Because we, he talks about, I think it's Eckerd and Walgreens. Right. Right. And we all remember Eckerd's everywhere, right? And why is Walgreens still killing it and where is Eckerd? Yeah. And it's such a big thing to realize that both of them had salespeople and strategies. And in a lot of cases, the same product. And worked hard. Yeah, they were retail stores. Yeah.

But what happened? You know, why are they irrelevant or did they get bought or something like that? And realizing that they pinned down the most important few things. Yeah. And they went for it. And that made all the difference. Yeah. So I really think that even though I don't play in public business spaces, I was like, that is.

Well, I think it applies to private companies too. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's, I've seen it firsthand before the bookkeeping came. out we had a business and we were doing like we had a software business doing like three different things and you know what any real cohesion to it and we hired this really good coach and he's written like 10 books on marketing and positioning and all named Al Reese and he came in and he's and he charges so much money to oh my god for one day so

much money, but he's like, which of those three products is the best one? We're like, well, this one's the best. Everyone likes this one the best, but the other two do pretty good. And you got to get rid of those. Yeah. And we're like, no, not though, you know. And he's like, just sell it off, get rid of it, throw the trash can, I don't care, you can only do one thing. And we did that. And, you know, the business grew by 20 times. Yeah. See, wild. And we were working, I would say we were working harder beforehand. because we're going kind of uphill. And as soon as we started going downhill,

it was like, oh, okay, one product, all right, you know. So, yeah, that's a great book. I love that one. What about favorite band? Favorite band? Oh, man. So for me, I'm not a band guy. I grew up in an era of like 90s hip-hop.

So that's getting to the solo stuff. And you know something I heard recently. I'm not saying I don't have a favorite band. Give me a second, though. But interestingly enough that bands have all. always topped the charts until the last decade. And they're all solos. Oh.

They're all soloists or collaborations and electronic music. Bands have started to disappear. Man, that's right. Isn't it? You realize that? It's all these solo artists and things like that now, Drake or Lady Gaga or Mariah Carey. What happened to the bands? Yeah.

Yeah. They're interchangeable. Yeah. Right? Get a different bass player. So I'm going to say, you know what's really crazy is, when you started to when I

when one starts to have to appeal to the masses in sports entertainment and you have these theme nights John I am 25, 26 years old and I discover

even though everybody else knew it's still my word I discover the Beatles because I need to do a Beatles night I had no idea how great they were I didn't grow up on that type of music my parents aren't that musical so we didn't play it in the house per se

And we had Motown and things like that. But I did not realize the songwriting skills and the catchiness of that 60s, you know, era all the way through the 70s of the Beatles. And I started listening to them like crazy. Yeah. I didn't either, here's where I felt it. It was a long time ago, 20 something years ago, maybe 25 years ago. And there was a new radio station up in Hendersonville, North Carolina. And they said, we're switching formats.

And, you know, for the first three days, we're going to play nothing but Beatles songs. Okay, right. So for three days they're playing Beatles songs, it's like one new song after, to my mind, and I'd heard them. Yeah, right. Like, what? Yeah, they would change style. You know, and they would change styles.

Yeah. You know. I discovered them. That was the thing where I discovered. Now, in the current era, though, I really love, I love almost everything they do is one republic. Okay. One Republic.

I like those guys. Yeah. Well, I'm an earthwinded fire. All right. I'm older than you. Yeah, man. It was my time. What about favorite word?

Favorite word? I honestly think the word for me would be discipline. Discipline. Discipline is often, if you use it in the wrong context, sounds like a negative thing. But I think discipline to sell off two of your great businesses, good businesses, I'm sorry, to go to the great one, that's discipline. And I think discipline has honed and trained, I grew up in military household, you know, to dad's army and air force.

I think discipline has really helped and shaped. Nobody sits around and memorizes long form Martin Luther King or Frederick Douglass speeches. It takes discipline. But that discipline to get really granular on what you're good at and best at and gives you energy and what people will pay for, good to great talks about the three circles. What do you enjoy and are great at?

that people pay for. Get to the middle of that. Discipline thinking, discipline action takes you there, and I think that's my word. Well, that's good. It's so funny when people see Jay do with his big glasses on his floppy hat on top of the dugout, the microphone.

They're not thinking discipline. It's so funny behind the curtain what's really going on when even you look at a super successful, anybody, actor or whatever, you think, oh, I want to be like that person and do you realize what they're doing to get there?

Yeah. Yeah, you know, behind the scene, well, baseball is a great example. Most of the time when people show up and the gates open, turnstiles click and it's 6 o'clock. Gates open, first pitches at 7 and they talk about, man, these guys are so good and great and look how effortless. Well, I've been here since 10 in the morning and I watched them practice all day. Stretching. Yeah, all day. And you wouldn't believe how many times they practice that particular grounder to get that angle right to throw to second base.

They do it all day. So if you did it all day, you'd be that good, too. But I mean, yeah. Well, I can't thank you enough for being here. This has been awesome. We've come a long way in 14 years, Jay Do. Yes, sir. Well, I think we still have some ways to go.

We do. Let's not give up yet. I would like to collaborate on something with you. It would be great. Yeah, man. Figure out what that is. But maybe sit right next to you in front row for Chappelle. There we go.

Yeah, we'll collaborate on that over some drinks and some laughs. We'll do that for sure. But thanks for being. here and it's a great great session for all the news to learn and again just I appreciate you being here thank you thank you okay