November 30, 2025 • 41 mins
In this episode of the Beyond Normal Podcast, we sit down with Jarrett Thomas, Chief Revenue Officer of OTB Digital and creator of the More Than A Title podcast. With nearly a decade in digital marketing and a powerful personal brand built on authenticity, Jarrett walks us through how he’s transforming the way sales and storytelling intersect in the creator economy.
Tune in as we talk about growing your influence without cold calls, the power of consistency on platforms like LinkedIn, and why digital storytelling matters more than ever for today’s founders. Whether you’re in marketing, sales, or just starting your brand journey, Jarrett’s story is a masterclass in showing up and building real impact.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jarrett (00:33):
Welcome.
Welcome everybody to anothergreat episode of The Beyond
Normal Podcast.
We have a very special guest,uh, somebody who, uh, I feel
like they started their, theirpodcast journey, their founder
journey around the same time asme, uh, during the pandemic
around, around that time.
Um, and so it's been incredible,uh, to see the growth.
(00:54):
Of, uh, Jarrett Thompson, who isour guest today, he is the Chief
Revenue Officer for OTB Digital.
Um, he has an incrediblebackground working with some
incredible agencies in the NewYork area, and he decided to
take a gamble on himself inaddition to that.
Kenny (01:13):
he is a podcast host, uh, doing some incredible things,
uh, with his co-host andpartner, uh, Chad.
Um, and so I'm excited to haveyou here today,
Jarrett (01:24):
My boy.
How's it going, bro?
It's an honor man.
First of all, man, I just wannasay thank you for, for having me
on the show, man.
I love seeing what you're doing,bro.
I love the fact that you betteron yourself.
We definitely start at the sametime, man.
I'm just glad to see the growth,man.
I'm glad that we couldcollaborate and this is what
it's supposed to look like.
You know what I mean?
Yeah, for sure, for sure.
So
Kenny (01:40):
So I wanna, I wanna spend less time,
Jarrett (01:43):
uh,
Kenny (01:44):
talking about what I do and a lot of this time here
today talking about your journeyinto the space.
So tell us a little bit, set thestage.
Before you started
Jarrett (01:54):
OCB
Kenny (01:55):
and the podcast, like what were you doing with your
life?
What,
Jarrett (01:58):
what, was taking up your time?
So I I, I'll give you the quickfive minutes of just the career
overview, right.
I started getting the industry,bro, when I was 20 years old,
right?
So I was working at Le Pen end,I was working at BB q, smell
like ribs.
I know people from the who hearthe podcasts hit me, tell the
story all the time.
But I end up linking up with acompany called Intent.
So I basically went for ahospital call center job, and
(02:19):
they told me, a recruiter heardme speak and he was like, yo, I
love the way you speak.
I love the way you, you move.
Would you ever thought aboutsales or considered it?
like, nah, I'm sitting there forlike a hospital call center job.
I'm just ready to get to theback.
Anything's better than workingin BBQ's at that point, right?
I got my son on the way.
He made me sell him a pencil,straight outta Wolf of Wall
Street.
Happened to see the movie, so Iknew the answer.
And the next thing you know, I'mgoing downtown.
(02:40):
He's telling me to come to hisoffice.
I do a video profile.
They sent it to the client,which was intent, and then I
ended up getting a job.
But when I tell you it wasstraight boiler room, it was the
most boiler room job you couldever have.
If you didn't get your deals by,by Friday, you would go on
Monday.
Straight up and down.
So it was like one of thoseenvironments, and they go around
the room, they, everybody say,Hey, you know, I'm from Buffalo
State, I'm from here, I'm fromhere.
(03:01):
I was the last person to go.
And I'm like, yo, I'm JarrettThomas from the Bronx.
Graduated from Evander ChildsHigh School and I'm gonna be the
top seller here.
I don't know what made me saythat, but just something made me
say there's no shot.
It's either this.
Or I'm going back to what I wasdoing and I can't go back to
what I was doing, so I wasn'tgonna let anything deter me,
bro.
So I end up becoming a topseller within five months.
I did$250,000 a quarter for themfor eight straight quarters.
(03:24):
Then I end up leaving and I wasactually one of K's first
employees.
So I thought it was the filmfestival.
And I was actually working forthe International Festival of
Creativity.
I was selling their archivelibrary to some of the biggest
agencies in the world.
So I did that for about a year,became a VP of an agency,
brought a couple of products tomarket, including talk walkers,
influencer one.
And things got really excitingfor me, bro, when I was at IPO
(03:45):
rank.
So shout to Mike King and entireIPR team.
But, um, I met somerelationship.
Shout out to Chris Hart.
He called me, said, yo, I atthis place, no great founder.
I think you could strive here,and all that other stuff.
We met, met with Mike King.
He was just like us, bro.
He was just like us black manthat's running a multimillion
dollar agency, you know, and hadthe vision and so I came there,
(04:05):
was hungry.
I had a conversation with him.
I'm like, yo, how are you?
How are you generating revenue?
He was like, I'm doing webinars,I'm doing podcasts.
I'm doing, you know, I'm doingmy own short stories.
I'm doing this, I'm doing that.
Then that's when the light bulbwent off, bro.
Boom.
I was like, okay, cool.
So it's not these thousandemails that you want me to send
out.
It's not this traditional salesprocess that you want me to
(04:26):
follow.
It's the outside the boxthinking that end up getting you
a 6 million, a six figure agencyto hire me for the price that I
need.
So if you can do that, I'm gonnado that.
So I don't know nothing aboutLinkedIn.
You're on Twitter, you're not onLinkedIn like that.
I'm gonna go over here.
I had 200 followers, bro.
And imagine going into yoursales team, your sales director,
and they're like, yo, send out abunch of emails, get these
(04:46):
meetings.
And I'm like, nah, gimme threemonths.
I'm gonna build on LinkedIn andI'm gonna have them come to us.
Kenny (04:52):
Mm
Jarrett (04:52):
Craziest thing, I bet on myself right there, I could
have lost my job.
First of all, my sales directorcould have said, shut up.
Like, I don't, what are youtalking about?
You know what I mean?
Because my job is on this too.
So go ahead and go get themdeals like you getting paid to
do.
And he believed in me, bro.
And so every day I would go onLinkedIn with my partner Lee Go.
And we just started creatingcontent, creating content every
day, learning the algorithm.
But one thing that I understoodand found out early in the
(05:13):
process, this wasn't too manypeople that looked like us, bro.
There wasn't too many peoplethat talked like us, looked like
us, um, had the experience Iknew I had.
And so I said, yo, I'm justgonna add some, some different
sauce to it.
And I stopped talking about theproduct.
I started telling my story andthat's when things took off,
bro.
We ended up doing a$450,000 dealwithin four months.
It's closed a 450 K deal, bro,and four months due to LinkedIn
(05:38):
and then kept us afloat duringthe pandemic and then we closed
a bunch of deals after that.
We worked with Complex Target, abunch of brands from there.
And, um, two years in, bro, wedid$2.5 million without a Cold
Cola email.
Mm.
Crazy bro.
And I grew my profile from 200followers to 20,000.
And then from there it was lit,man.
And then I just felt like I wasdoing a lot for the brand.
(05:59):
I felt like I wasn't, you know,you're doing a lot, man.
I was sitting there stressedout.
I'm sitting there burning out.
I'm doing a podcast, I'm doingsales.
I got my kids.
It's a lot of things going on.
I'm putting in 13 hour days, andI felt like I should have been
appreciated more and I wasn't,you know what I'm saying?
But you know, a lot of things Icould have done differently in
that aspect as well.
And then I just ended upquitting on a limb boop, just
quit.
Put out a post bro with my faceon Steph Curry's body.
(06:22):
And said, Jarrett's a free agentbreaking news.
I'm like, he scores this manypoints and he's looking for a
championship roster.
Sources tell me he's looking fora championship team and he's
ready to go.
Crazy, bro, it went viral.
200,000 views.
I had hit up from LinkedIn,Microsoft, from Amazon to
Google, all these companies,bro, the only problem was it was
(06:42):
a lot of red tape in theseorganizations and they wouldn't
let me to do the podcast.
So what I didn't add was thepodcast was the reason why we
were getting a bunch of thesedeals.
So I created a podcast and Iwould get our ICP on people that
I knew that could do deals withus and just be a person.
I wasn't selling, I wasn'ttalking about product.
It's like, yo, bro, how you,how's your family?
How you living?
Like how you doing the business,how you coping with all this
(07:04):
stuff?
And we just had realconversations and we built a lot
of relationships.
And through those relationships,people saw it or they would
directly give us a deal.
So once I did that thing on, on,on LinkedIn, bro, with the Steph
Curry face, landed at Hootsuite.
'cause they told me, yo be you.
Be you come through, bring thepodcast, bring all your juice,
we'll bring all the sauce and wegoing, we gonna champion you.
(07:24):
And they did exactly that, bro.
Started more than a title.
The first week I, I landed atHootsuite first guest, foodie
led go CM of gong.
And then I end up interviewingthe CMO of Hootsuite, Maggie
Lower, then I end upinterviewing the CEO of
Hootsuite.
Then mad stuff transpired fromthere.
Then they had a big layoff.
I got fired and I did 1.5million for them in six months.
(07:44):
And I'm like, how the hell I doall this stuff?
And I'm doing the podcasts.
I'm doing more than atraditional salesperson, and you
don't find the budget for me.
Mm.
It was a rap I I just got tightat that point.
I'm like, yeah, I played thegame to perfection at that
point, and I get the one laidoff, but, but John Smith keeps
his job.
John Smith ain't doing whatJarrett's doing.
And, and you know, with all duerespect, so bro, I got tired of
(08:07):
corporate and I said, I calledup Zo.
He was in the same situation Iwas in.
He was tired of constructionwork and all that stuff.
And I said, yo.
We gonna start a business, wegonna move this podcast and we
gonna create a a six, sevenfigure million, a 6, 6, 6 or
seven figure um, com company byourselves doing what we love to
do.
And within the first week of usopening the business, bro, the
LLC, we ended up getting ourfirst client for doing LinkedIn
(08:29):
workshops and then we landed aFortune 2000 brand after that
and it's been up since then,bro.
Kenny (08:35):
I love that, man.
That's a great story,
Jarrett (08:37):
bro.
Yes sir.
Man, it's been a journey, bro.
It be like, ah,
Kenny (08:41):
So I'm, I'm curious.
Jarrett (08:44):
like
Kenny (08:45):
said a lot in there, one of the gyms was around like
LinkedIn.
You go into
Jarrett (08:51):
that
Kenny (08:52):
LinkedIn as a platform where you like, like you said,
there were not a lot of people
Jarrett (08:56):
like Like
Kenny (08:58):
did you, like how did you remain or how did you start off
saying, I'm gonna createauthentic content, because
that's not
Jarrett (09:09):
typically
Kenny (09:09):
people do
Jarrett (09:10):
on LinkedIn.
Yeah.
They, they
Kenny (09:13):
See what others are doing.
Right,
Jarrett (09:15):
Yeah.
and then they replicate.
it, I just, I just saw it, So I,I, the thing that separated, or
the thing, what happened in mymind was, bro, that LinkedIn is
no different from Instagram orFacebook.
But why am I putting a majorityof my time in the Instagram and
Facebook and it has noopportunity to drive me revenue
if this is where the decisionmakers are at.
My whole thought process was, Ihad a line, I used to say, teach
(09:38):
them how to fish and they'lllearn, you sell fishing poles.
So if I'm trying to sell fishingpoles, I gotta be the thought
leader in the space, the personthat they trust.
So when they actually in themarket for it, they're gonna
come to me and me only.
So that was my whole process.
So if I'm in a SEO agency, I'mtalking SEO, but before I even
become a thought leader, I needyou to like me as the person, I
(09:59):
can have all the right materialin the world.
I could have gems, but you couldjust think, I'm boring, I'm
corny, I'm this, and it can, itcannot land.
So my thing was how do I balancethat bro?
And I knew there was nobody onLinkedIn that had a hat and a
hoodie.
There was nobody on their couch.
There was nobody doing andsaying the things I was doing,
posting what I was posting.
And I was like, I just gotta beme.
(10:19):
And so when I told that storythat I just shared with you
about me getting that job and doselling the pencil straight
outta Wolf of Wall Street, thatwas my first viral post.
I got a hundred thousand viewson that post.
People from Germany, France,Chicago, LA Australia.
People was like, yo, this is mystory man.
This is so inspiring.
Yo, I did something just likethat.
Yo, it's so crazy, man.
And, and I felt like I wasspeaking for the people like me
(10:40):
who didn't have the voice.
So it became a bigger missionfor me, bro, how do I talk for
people like you and I who arereally doing the things and
putting in the work, butnecessarily don't get the
recognition?
And how do we monetize Yeah,
Kenny (10:53):
thinking outside the box, like you said.
Jarrett (10:55):
like
Kenny (10:56):
wanna touch on because I, I, in the space you're in, it
seems like businesses.
Corporations, companies come toyou and they want that outside
of the box thinking, right?
Like, is that a part of likeyour sales pitch, like when you
get into your sales pitch
Jarrett (11:15):
with folks?
Absolutely.
Because if you want some cookiecutter solution, you could go to
any agency in the world,especially now with ai, bro.
You see the agency space isshifting.
There's.
Mergings of, of holdingcompanies.
There's different, uh, smalleragencies that are going out of
business.
AI is changing a lot of things,bro.
So right now, the one thing thatwe have to hold onto is what our
creativity.
(11:36):
That's something that they can'tdo.
can give you some decent ideas,but they still can't give you
that effect because we're partof the culture.
We know what's going on, we knowthe posts of what's happening
outside.
So at the end of the day, that'sthe pitch all the time.
And that's what we did when welanded one of our Fortune 2000
brands.
One of the first brands wethought of, uh, they had a drink
trying to sell a hard seltzer,and we were coming out with, you
(11:57):
know, like they had a, a drinkcalled Tall Tales.
I mean like a, a tall boys, youknow what I'm saying?
It was a tall can, like 24ounce, a drink, whatever,
whatever.
And we came up with an idea fortall tales, like imagine crazy
things that you do that youwouldn't believe, but you're
drinking this drink, right?
So we came up with some firestuff and all that.
They came out with it andeverything was lit, bro.
So it's just how do we.
(12:18):
I don't wanna do the same thingas everybody else wants.
That's the part of the LinkedInstrategy.
Everybody goes, right, I want togo left.
And that's the way you stand outin the market.
Same thing with the podcastingspace or any business.
How do you differentiateyourself in a crowded market?
Kenny (12:32):
I
Jarrett (12:32):
like
Kenny (12:32):
that.
like that.
Jarrett (12:32):
Yes, sir.
Kenny (12:33):
And I
Jarrett (12:34):
I think
Kenny (12:35):
like, talk about a little about being in like the space
that you're is reallyinteresting to me.
Um, B2B,
Jarrett (12:50):
uh,
Kenny (12:50):
it's not always like the sexy path, right?
Like everybody wants to go fromlike direct to consumer product,
Jarrett (12:57):
you see?
Kenny (12:59):
Um, talk a little bit about how much of a grind it can
be closing one of these deals,though, obviously, like you
said, when you start your
Jarrett (13:08):
business,
Kenny (13:09):
you had some success with some Fortune 2000 companies,
right?
But like, what did it, like howlong, when did you start
building that relationship tothe time it took you to close?
Like talk a little bit aboutwhat that sales you,
Jarrett (13:25):
yeah, so, so you know what I, I don't necessarily call
it a sales size process, right?
For me, most of my deals, 90% ofour deals in our, in our
monetary value.
And, and what we, how wemonetize is through
relationships.
But you gotta look at it like aseed bro.
Every seed is gonna sproutdifferently.
Some may take one year, some maytake two years, some may take
three years, four years, fiveyears.
(13:46):
It took me 30 ask to get Dr.
Matthew Knowles on the show 30.
Ask how many people are gonnaask somebody the same thing 30
times and get rejected 29 timesand say this is the one moment
where he's going to do it.
So, so that's what it is for me.
It's not the business aspect,it's the relationship value.
Right?
So if I'm really trying to builda relationship with somebody,
(14:09):
especially of that stature.
You've gotta show and prove.
You gotta constantly bringvalue.
So sometimes, especially likewhen I was at the agency, I
wouldn't sell unless I made 10touches with you.
10 touches I have to, like oneof your posts, I have to
comment, you have to comment onsomething of mines.
We have to DM each other for acouple exchanges and then when
we feel comfortable is then whenI'm making the ass, yo, hey
(14:31):
let's get on the phone'cause Ithink I got something that's of
value for you What that does isit kills the sales process in
general.
'cause guess what?
I don't have to do fourdiscovery calls.
You already trust me.
You already trust me.
So now it's either can we do itor can we not do it?
And it's always better when theycome inbound because you hold
the leverage when somebody comesto do inbound and say, well they
(14:51):
want to do business with you.
That was my entire goal becausedo I get people to come to me?
'cause that's gonna improve mysales process by 50%.
'cause you've already decidedyou wanna do business, you went
to the website, you did someresearch, you did all that, and
you still were compelled enoughto reach out to me.
So at that point the deal isclosed.
All I gotta do is smile andsolve.
You know what I'm saying?
Like at that point.
(15:11):
So that was my whole process ofphilosophy.
So for B2B, everything is justrelationships for me, bro.
You're not, especially what'sgoing on right now with the
administration and all that, youknow how hard it is for, for an
agency just in general, letalone a black agency.
It's crazy out here.
It's hard to get sponsorshipsfor your shows.
It's hard to get this, it's hardto get that.
You have to build your ownfoundation.
(15:32):
And at the end of the day, bro,it's all relationships.
The fact that you can be able tocall somebody and say, what's
up?
Like I could call the CEOversus, right?
That's my brother and I just methim a month ago.
Some people I might not get thatsame relationship.
It might take me three years,but it is what it is, bro.
As long as you have therelationship and long as you can
provide value and connect thedots, it's gonna be way more
valuable than anything you everdo.
(15:54):
The,
Kenny (15:55):
the way that you
Jarrett (15:56):
beat.
Kenny (15:58):
do you have, a, do you have a mentality that you can
sell or deliver any solution?
I.
Jarrett (16:06):
I'm curious.
Have to believe it.
Yeah.
I have to have to believe it.
I feel like, but that's, that'sthe, that's the ego in us, bro.
Like, you know what I'm saying?
That's the ego and that's the YIcan sell anybody.
That's how I was able to, what Itell you in the beginning, I
went in the riddle of a roomwith a bunch of people I don't
know, and said, I'm gonna be thetop seller here.
And I come from Evander Chow'sHigh School in the Bronx, one of
the baddest schools in theBronx.
(16:29):
It is a level of confidence thatyou have to have to say,
nothing's gonna stop me.
I'm a big believer inaffirmations and all that.
I gotta say it.
gonna do it.
'cause I'm gonna hold myselfaccountable.
And if I don't do it, it's onme.
You know what I'm saying?
So now I gotta push.
Now I gotta stay up.
Now I gotta send an extra emailwhen everybody's leaving to rush
to the train at five o'clock.
I'm staying at five 15 to makeone more call.
(16:49):
Just one more call.
You
Kenny (16:52):
I mean, that is really the founder.
Jarrett (16:55):
Right.
Kenny (16:55):
you know, we obviously, uh, there's a big focus on like
the, the startup space now, likepeople starting their own
businesses.
Um, I look at what you and chatare building as a startup, I'll
be honest.
Um, even though, you know, folkslabel things
Jarrett (17:08):
differently,
Kenny (17:09):
um, and that is really like the ethos of what it takes,
right?
Like you're going extra mile andothers are just, they're just
doing the job.
They're putting in their time.
But you as the founder, thebusiness owner, you can't do
Jarrett (17:21):
that.
you do not have that luxury.
I can't tell you how many timeswe've sacrificed it.
We, we have a saying Fee free tofee free to fee, and we learned
that from Mario Armstrong.
He told us some real stuff.
Ian was like, yo, that's wherewe are right now.
We did a lot of things for freethat led to major opportunities
that came with a fee and that wehad to just bet on, bro.
(17:44):
It was times where times wastough as hell.
We didn't know we had to rub twonickels together.
We had to figure this.
We had to rob Peter to pay Pauland not pay this bill over here
to make sure we get to this tripover here and do a lot.
It's real, but it's, are yougonna sacrifice?
How bad do you want it, bro, wehad, we had to do the Rohan
Marley interview.
It cost us$4,000 to get the teamdown to Miami, and it was right
(18:05):
before Christmas.
We almost celebrated Wan'suptown.
Kenny (18:09):
Ooh.
Jarrett (18:09):
We almost did Wan's uptown.
It's how bad do you win it?
It is.
How bad do you want it?
Yo, yo, we gotta scrape it up.
We gotta do this.
Yo, I, I know little man wantthe switch today, but No.
Ah, no.
We gotta do what we gotta do.
We gotta get down there.
I appreciate
Kenny (18:25):
you having that transparency.
Um, I recently, uh, we had ourfirst live with a
Jarrett (18:31):
guests and the audience.
Uh, with Donovan Everett,
Kenny (18:34):
a local, uh, contractor here in the Charlotte area,
North Carolina area.
Jarrett (18:37):
area.
Kenny (18:38):
they're the general contractor for the Hornet
Stadium And so they're doing bigthings, um, as a black man
creating a business and the costof me having that live event
Jared, I was
Jarrett (18:50):
like, is
Kenny (18:53):
different, but the quality how it turned out I was
like, oh, I gotta, I gotta domore of this.
So like to your point, when yousearch for those opportunities,
you start to figure out a way.
and Maybe you don't buy that newswitch too
Jarrett (19:07):
for a couple months.
That's it.
That's just betting on yourself,bro.
You have to, as an entrepreneur,you get so many opportunities
that you know they're gonnatransform your business that you
just have to take, it's certainopportunities that you just have
to figure out.
Can is one of them, like Rohantelling us he's coming to the
crib, bro.
Like, like come to the crib.
We're the only podcast.
(19:27):
He was with Steve Jack and them.
He was with this one, he waswith Drink Champs.
He was with all the majorpodcasts in the world, but we're
in his living room.
That's crazy.
Like, you know what I'm saying?
Two dudes from the Bronx, bro,with independent, no sponsors,
no nothing, and went down thereand made it happen.
Set up our own equipment, movingfurniture around ourselves, and
(19:47):
then sat down and did a threehour interview.
No pauses.
Kenny (19:52):
So, alright, so you're touching on something here.
I have to Because yourbackground, right?
You come from, go get it.
You're in New York City, you'reused to doing in-person
engagement.
Jarrett (20:06):
Like
Kenny (20:06):
do you feel
Jarrett (20:07):
feel
Kenny (20:09):
about somebody who sets out to
Jarrett (20:11):
do
Kenny (20:13):
all these interactions virtually
Jarrett (20:15):
or digitally
Kenny (20:17):
versus like in the space you're Do you have to get in
front of people
Jarrett (20:22):
face to face it, it helps, but sometimes you just
can't.
So the way I look at thepodcast, bro, like regardless of
how many, you know, we'vedefinitely gotten major views.
We was charting on Apple, allthat stuff, bro.
But like.
I necessarily don't even careabout the views.
I'm keeping it real with you.
You know what I care about?
I care about the relationship.
Every week I get two shots tospeak with people that are
(20:43):
actually running business anddoing amazing things.
Every week I get two shots forfree.
What I'm paying for the streamyard, I'm paying for this, like,
you know what I'm saying?
Like it's a minimal cost.
To meet somebody.
And at the end of the day, ifyou have great energy, you have
great energy and you're stillgonna bond, will it be as as
crazy as an in person?
Probably not.
(21:04):
But then you get there, then youget there.
You know what I'm saying?
So like a big opportunity likeInkwell Beach came off a virtual
podcast Adrian, shout out toAdrian and Tyler Inkwell team,
we had her on the show and wehad a great experience.
And you know what she said, yo,I want y'all to come here, bring
that experience in person and beon stage.
(21:25):
And you know what we did?
We showed up and showed out.
We went on Inkwell Beach, bro.
We brought the CMO ofMcDonald's.
We brought Dr.
Marcus Collins, we broughtWalter Gere, we brought Abba
Blankson, who was the CMO naacp.
We brought, um, um, Perry Fair,who's the SVP of Mattel, just
won a lion, just came off thestage from winning the lion to
come rock with us at Inkwell.
(21:46):
Then we had Steve Poona, the CEOversus come through right after
Timbaland performs crazy like,bro, none of this we paid for.
And I'm saying that as aninspiration, not a flex, but an
inspiration to everybody.
That's what, that's therelationship value to make the
call and be able to do it.
And sometimes you're not gonnaget a lot of, but you can't put
(22:06):
a price on that.
So does what are you valuing atthat Because those are things
that also gonna help progressyour business, and it's gonna
open up other opportunities andother opportunities.
They're gonna say, who are thoseguys?
So it's constant bet onyourself.
It's a constant bet on yourself.
It's a constant bet that cancost a lot.
Hell yeah.
But at the end of the day, guesswhat we going again next year?
(22:28):
Figure out a way.
You figure out a way to pay forthat.
You figure it out a way and youdo it, bro.
And it's some tough days, but ifyou guys want it, we have the
creativity, we have theknow-how, we have the skillset
to do it.
All of us do.
But are you willing to sacrificethe comfort and the stability to
do so?
Kenny (22:45):
So, All right.
This is an incredible list.
Shout out to Walter, um, aswell.
He's definitely somebody, um, inthat space who I followed and
just learn from all the time.
Just like you and
Jarrett (22:57):
Chad.
Kenny (22:58):
I wanna talk about starting a
Jarrett (23:00):
business.
Uh, with
Kenny (23:03):
co-founder, what that experience has been like working
with you and Chad.
Jarrett (23:07):
It's
Kenny (23:08):
And how you all really
Jarrett (23:08):
found
Kenny (23:12):
your, your bread and butter.
In terms of what you can dowell, and Chad can do
Jarrett (23:17):
well, making it, it all starts with what we passionate
about.
What do we feel like we can makethe most impact?
And I'm gonna tell you it's, itis, that was the hardest thing
to figure out at first.
What I did know is I wanted tocontinue to do the podcast.
My biggest thing was how do Iuse the podcast as a lead
generation system for ourbusiness, OTB digital.
So that means getting in contactwith people with who we could
(23:39):
potentially do business with,but also give us good content.
So it was a delicate balance.
So I told Chad like what I'mreally good I'm really good at
social media, I'm really good atmarketing, I'm really good at
sales.
I'm really good at managing thep and l.
I'm really good at bookingguests, right?
So what I need you to do is thethings that you're already good
at, right?
Creating the flyers, right?
Overseeing this, overseeingthat, right?
Like making sure everything's intune.
(24:00):
And it was never no issue.
'cause that's my brother, like,so that's my cousin.
Cousin.
Mm.
You know what I'm saying?
So like we do this anyway, soI'm doing my podcast.
He's always supporting itanyway, in the background.
Anyhow.
If I needed something, he'sthere.
So I'm sitting there thinkinglike, yo, we do vacations
together, we do barbecuestogether.
When we go anywhere, we shutdown the room.
Why wouldn't I have my brotheron the show?
(24:23):
Why not put it on camera?
We just never decided to put iton camera.
So as far as that, we've neverhad no issues, bro.
We, at our height, we was doinglike 2025 MRR, but we wasn't
taking anything out Thebusiness.
putting it back in.
Putting it back in, putting itback in, putting it back in.
We need this over here.
Put it back in, put it back in,put it back in.
Let's fly over here, let's meetthis person over here.
(24:44):
And that's what we were doing,bro.
So we never had no issues.
'cause you know what?
With me and Zo, it's just love.
He knows I got his best interestat heart.
I know he got my best interestat And it just is what it is.
We'll figure it out.
Times get tough, we figure itout.
Times get really good, we figureit out.
And we've had experience ofboth, But it's just finding what
you're passionate about as faras the business.
Like what do you, what would youdo for free?
(25:06):
That you wanna get paid whatdon't you mind doing when it's
your birthday and you're inMiami Beach and you gotta do a
client initiative, right?
The client hits you up and say,I need this white revision.
But you in the club, do you mindit?
I, we've had those scenarios.
We in the club in the middle ofthe club, no problem.
Going right to the, here you goback to the club like, ha, like
(25:27):
that on him.
You know what I'm saying?
The laptop is always in the car,always around.
Always around.
It's always wifi somewhere.
So what do you wanna do?
So that's the sacrifice, bro.
And and it is led us to somegreat success and some great
relationships, I didn't have a,I'm going to keep it funky with
you.
I didn't have a blueprint.
A lot of what I do is I trust mygut.
(25:48):
It may sound crazy to people,but I trust my gut.
I never had a set list of who Iwanted to have on the podcast.
I just would shoot shots.
I would see people doing amazingthings and I'm just shooting a
shot.
Yo, that was dope.
I Can I get over here?
Can you come over here?
Can you come over here?
To, to it became a thing.
Like Matthew knows Dr.
(26:08):
Shout to Dr.
Matthew knows.
He came on the show 15 minutesearly, bro, and said, I want one
of those sound effects.
I can't wait to get a message.
Kenny (26:16):
Oh, yeah.
Jarrett (26:18):
Hey, for the folks who have not listened, and Chad,
the,
Kenny (26:24):
The, the sounds that they use, the soundboard, the
message, you all will understandwhen you listen to the content.
Uh,
Jarrett (26:33):
sir.
But it sticks in your head.
Seriously.
It's all culturally rooted, man.
What, what do we know?
What feels like It's
Kenny (26:42):
wild.
I haven't seen any otherpodcasts really do
Jarrett (26:47):
that.
You know, Joe and Jada just saidit the other day.
Really?
Joe and Jada, I was watching theepisode with, um.
It wasn't the, oh, who was it?
It wasn't, uh, it was, uh, 85South.
Yeah.
Okay.
Okay.
So they had an episode with 85South and Jada, he didn't put a
thing up, but he was like,message.
I was like, oh no.
Oh yeah.
(27:08):
I was like, yeah, but I love it.
But you, we think in the same,what are those things that are
culturally that we all canThat's from that, that's from
that, that's from that.
And it just brings up differententertainment value,
Kenny (27:19):
came out,
Jarrett (27:19):
uh, Joe and Jada, they're, uh, they came out the.
Kenny (27:24):
Gate swinging
Jarrett (27:25):
with their content, their content, they killing,
they're killing.
But, but then how do, how do us,you and I as a small content
creator, a small independentmedia shop, compete with What
are some things you think thatcan help us get to that level?
And it's gotta be those smallthings, those nuances, the
message, the this, the that.
Right?
Doing things that are, aredifferent in the space.
(27:47):
People are doing the same thingthat we've been preaching on
LinkedIn.
You build a brand big enough,then you're gonna be able to
monetize immediately.
They've got 20 years worth ofbrand, more than that.
20, 30 years of brand value.
How do you compete with that?
Kenny (28:00):
That,
Jarrett (28:00):
uh, They on
Kenny (28:02):
stage,
Jarrett (28:03):
stage, bro, come on.
That was one of the moments,like, come on, iconic.
Kenny (28:08):
it
Jarrett (28:08):
he still don't get the recognition.
He don't, he
Kenny (28:11):
Yeah, he don't, because in that moment I was
Jarrett (28:14):
like,
Kenny (28:15):
This
Jarrett (28:16):
is like different,
Kenny (28:21):
like.
What is going on here?
It was one of those moments forme, like, this cannot be real.
This run, this 20 minute runthat he
Jarrett (28:31):
is on is like a moment in time.
Facts.
Talk a little bit about, um,like
Kenny (28:44):
New York being there
Jarrett (28:46):
now
Kenny (28:48):
versus, I I, I grew up in the
Jarrett (28:52):
tri-state.
Kenny (28:53):
We used to always go to the city.
It was amazing time growing upthere, but like being in the
city now, like what energy doesit give
Jarrett (29:01):
you?
Kenny (29:04):
Being there, what does it do for you being
Jarrett (29:05):
in that city in this moment?
I, I'm gonna give you a, a leftfield answer, bro.
You know what?
I have to be in it.
And the reason being like, Icould been move out and stuff
like that, like,'cause we'llmove upstate and all that, but
like, I need to see the people.
So something I used to do when Iwas working at Starbucks before
I got the, um, before I got the,the sales opportunity, intent, I
(29:27):
used to get home every, everyday, bro.
I used to leave at four o'clock,five o'clock in the morning, go
to work, whatever, boom.
We would come to like five, sixo'clock at night and I would
walk through my neighborhood inParkchester.
I would look at every singlebuilding, I mean every single
building and every single windowwith the lights on.
And I would think there was astory, there was a million
dollar story that nobody knewabout.
I don't know why I did that,bro, because I would think that
(29:50):
about me.
They don't know what I'm goingthrough.
They don't know what kind ofmindset I have.
They don't know what kind ofideas I have.
So I need to see the people,bro.
'cause there's stories allaround us and people doing
amazing stuff that's not gettingthe opportunity, and I need to
be in it to see what'shappening, because I wanna make
impact where I'm from.
So I gotta see the problems.
I gotta see what's going on.
(30:11):
I gotta see who's still on astrip.
I gotta see, I gotta see all ofthat.
You know what I mean?
Who's out here?
Who, who went, who went to thejoint?
Okay, world.
Who's coming home, who's doingthat?
I need to know all of thatstuff, bro.
So I'm, I'm, I'm heavily in tunein my neighborhood, heavily in
tune, and I gotta be around thatenergy, bro.
'cause when I walk outside, it'sa different energy.
It's a different love.
(30:31):
Now when I walk outside with mykids to go get some breakfast or
something like that, it's love.
I'm getting hugs and kisses.
I've been here my whole life.
You know what I'm saying?
Like, I know everybody, you knowwhat I'm saying?
So when I walk outside and seean elderly lady and they like,
yo, I'm proud of you.
Or I see the homie that neverbeen off the strip, the ones
that seen me since I was a pupand seeing what I was doing to
(30:52):
what I'm doing now, and theylooking at me like, yo, bro, I
love you, man.
Like I need that energy.
That's what keeps me motivated.
'cause now it's like how do Ibring what we're doing back to
help
Kenny (31:02):
Yeah,
Jarrett (31:02):
Yeah, exactly.
I, uh,
Kenny (31:04):
uh, I got.
To take my toddler
Jarrett (31:08):
to New York for
Kenny (31:08):
to New York for the
Jarrett (31:09):
Yeah.
To
Kenny (31:09):
aunt
Jarrett (31:10):
in Manhattan.
Kenny (31:11):
it was really weird seeing my daughter working or
Jarrett (31:15):
walking
Kenny (31:16):
the city blocks in New York.
Jarrett (31:18):
Like it was like, it's real.
Kenny (31:21):
Yeah.
Like I never thought that Iwould have this experience, but
here's my daughter, likeexperiencing.
new, And she, her face was like,
Jarrett (31:28):
like,
Kenny (31:28):
she was soaking up all the energy.
She was super happy, ecstatic.
You know, we live in thecountry, right.
In North Carolina.
Right.
Jarrett (31:36):
So she ain't really never seen
Kenny (31:37):
like
Jarrett (31:37):
that, but it was, uh,
Kenny (31:39):
it brought back memories.
Like
Jarrett (31:41):
how, how old is your daughter, if you don't mind me
asking?
Kenny (31:43):
She's
Jarrett (31:43):
three.
Oh.
So yeah.
So she
Kenny (31:45):
yeah.
Jarrett (31:46):
eyes,
Kenny (31:46):
eyes wide
Jarrett (31:47):
open.
Yeah.
Kenny (31:48):
Noticing everything.
Um, all that goes
Jarrett (31:52):
on in the I
Kenny (31:53):
like,
Jarrett (31:54):
yeah, this is,
Kenny (31:55):
this definitely impacted me being in these places growing
Jarrett (31:59):
up.
Um.
Kenny (32:01):
Going to basketball courts, playgrounds,
Jarrett (32:04):
all that stuff.
Now I still remember shit, what,what kind of impact it had on
you, man, though.
Let's talk about what kind ofimpact it had on you now that
you're in the country.
Like what, what, what kind oftraits you bring down then.
Kenny (32:15):
I think for me, I definitely appreciate my and I
embrace silence.
like finding those moments.
Being in the city and then beingable to like have a moment to
Jarrett (32:31):
yourself.
Like,
Kenny (32:34):
I remember like gonna Rucker Park, seeing Fat,
Jarrett (32:37):
no,
Kenny (32:38):
Steph Marberry, like these moments is like, I seen
all those things and so I me Andthen when I'm to Carolina, which
is country, right?
Jarrett (32:48):
Yeah.
Kenny (32:49):
I still have those moments.
I can like, I can be chill,
Jarrett (32:52):
chill, I
Kenny (32:52):
I can
Jarrett (32:53):
be,
Kenny (32:53):
Hey, I'm not, not stretching, I'm not, I'm not
grabbing for
Jarrett (32:56):
stuff.
Kenny (32:57):
You know, uh, too much like, just balance now in my
life.
And I
Jarrett (33:02):
had those experiences early on, so I
Kenny (33:05):
I don't really
Jarrett (33:06):
regret
Kenny (33:06):
I don't feel like I'm missing out
Jarrett (33:08):
on anything.
Um, and it's really trulybecause of where I you hit the
nail on the head is it is whatyou value now, bro.
You what you say, you, you valuethe serenity, the peace and the
quiet.
You know what I'm saying?
is.
Everybody got, you know,everybody got what makes them
go, bro.
That's what it is, bro.
But
Kenny (33:24):
but every once in a.
while
Jarrett (33:26):
Yeah, you
Kenny (33:27):
go back up there.
I gotta come, go back up thereand
Jarrett (33:30):
there and
Kenny (33:30):
soaking that energy.
Jarrett (33:32):
Have some of that food.
I miss it.
it.
Yo, that's it.
I, me personally, bro, I getthe, my creativity comes from
the chaos.
Yeah.
We embrace the chaos.
I embrace it, bro.
Like I, if it's too quiet, thenwe, we too successful to me.
You know what I'm saying?
And how do I keep my pulse, youknow, my finger on the pulse.
(33:53):
You know what I'm saying?
But that's just, just me ingeneral, bro.
Like that's what I said, likewhen I walk outside and I see
things going on, that's thecreativity, being able to see
the everything going on thestrip, seeing the Watson games,
we were just outside, you knowwhat I mean?
Going to, going to Dykeman andall that.
Like You know what I mean?
Like I love it.
So
Kenny (34:09):
So I'm curious, how does this, do
Jarrett (34:17):
you ever think about how
Kenny (34:19):
your career
Jarrett (34:20):
end.
How you want it to end?
Do you want it to end?
I've, had a lot of losses inthis summer, man.
First of all, you know, ourpizza, all my, you know what I
mean?
I have a couple family memberspast.
I think about it all the time.
How would it end?
How all this, bro, I just wannabe somebody to make an impact.
I want my legacy to speakvolumes, bro.
(34:41):
I wanted to be like, yo, for me,when it's all said and done,
career wise, everything wise,it's just like, yo.
He went out and he did it.
He tried it.
He opened up doors for people.
He wasn't selfish with it.
Like nobody can say no crazystories about me, and I pride
myself I always take the longroute.
I never jerked nobody.
I never did nothing.
I never stole nothing fromnobody.
(35:02):
Like that means something to me,bro.
So like for me, I wanna be theClarence Avon of this thing when
my career ends.
I wanna be the person that hasso many relationships and it had
made so many plays happen thatyou didn't even know it was me.
and things that impacted theculture.
You'd be like, damn it, livingcolor was on and this one's on
and this show started.
(35:22):
Oh, did you know this?
Did you know that?
Did you know that JAR introducedthis one and this one, and this
how this happened over here?
Because they were both on theshow and that's how I
reciprocate to the guests.
I'm not paying so I'm not payingyou.
You're coming through to gimmean hour and a half.
In some instances, you givepeople giving us four hours of
straight live stream time.
(35:43):
Four hours straight, no bathroombreaks, nothing.
Just going.
So I'm like, how do wereciprocate that by bringing
value?
You need to know this one.
You need to know that one.
You need to know this one.
You need to know that whateverhappens, we, when we say that on
the show, it's real.
We introduce people.
We get off the phone.
We get off the phone.
Yo meet this one.
Meet that one.
All right.
(36:03):
Y yo, that's what it is.
Y'all family.
Now we off.
And mad business deals havehappened as a result of that
man, that, that's breakingbread.
Yeah.
That's it bro.
We ain't gotta be here, we ain'tgotta sit there and listen to
the conversation and know what'sgoing on and ask for pc.
This is love.
'cause it's gonna happen.
When it's time for us to breakbread, we will, in the meantime,
get what you need to get.
(36:25):
I like that.
And Jarrett, uh, for those, um,who are listening in, Jarrett,
it really does, Act how he isspeaking right now.
I can tell you facts.
He comes to me, uh, quite often,Hey, when you come in, when we
connecting, um, just having thatopen door like you said and
making sure folks are connected,man, I appreciate you doing
(36:48):
that.
Come on, man.
It's love, bro.
It means a lot in this space.
Podcasting can be lonely.
Kenny (36:53):
Uh,
Jarrett (36:54):
It can be a demanding of your resources.
Yeah.
Kenny (36:56):
As,
Jarrett (36:57):
Jarrett has definitely mentioned.
And so these
Kenny (37:01):
these relationships we're
Jarrett (37:02):
We building, bro.
Um, that's it.
Going, they gonna last, last alifetime.
I guarantee you.
That's it.
It don't have to be I appreciateyou, uh, and just, uh, sharing
your story.
This has been a different onefor me because you are a podcast
where you're doing amazingthings in the space.
Uh, you and Chad appreciate you.
(37:23):
Um, I look to you all, all thetime.
I'm always checking in on yourscreen, which I got going on.
Appreciate that.
Tell folks.
Like, what's the easiest way forthem to stay connected to you
and the brand?
Um, is it the website you haveother meeting and other kind of,
um,
Kenny (37:39):
uh,
Jarrett (37:39):
ways for them to tap into all the things that you're
doing?
Absolutely.
So if you wanna knowBusinesswise, it's o
tb-digital.com.
So if it's business, we dosocial media, uh, marketing.
We do content creation, we dosocial media strategy, we do
LinkedIn webinars, I mean, uh,workshops.
So any B2B brand that may hearthis.
If you want your sales team tobe able to go on LinkedIn and
(38:00):
drive revenue and relationshipthe way I told you in my story.
We have an entire playbook.
You can also get that playbookif you're a salesperson, is
still right there.
OTB, digital.
It's called Relationships overRevenue, right?
It shows you how the algorithmworks, how I created content,
some of the results of thecontent I created, and it gives
you templates.
So we have all that on deck, youknow what I mean?
And if you want to go stay intune and more than title, go to
(38:22):
YouTube.
More than the title.
M-O-R-E-T-H-A-N-A and thentitle, T-I-T-L-E.
We, the only thing on there,you'll see us rocking out, you
know what I mean?
We have some great guests.
We took a re, uh, took a monthoff.
We've been going three yearsstraight every Tuesday and
Thursday, three years straight.
No breaks, no vacations.
If I'm on vacation, I'm stillpartying and we just took a
(38:44):
break and, uh, we're coming backAugust 5th.
got the president of the OVOpulling up.
We got sporty thieves pullingup.
We got a lot of people pullingup, man.
We got Imani from Coach Han.
We got Colette Smith who was thefirst NF first female NFL coach
coming through.
She was in the Jets.
You know, we got a bunch ofpeople pulling up in.
So pull up is real conversation.
(39:05):
We don't cook, we don't gatekeep.
We don't do none of that.
You want opportunities, you wantinformation, we give it for
free.
Come through, get the game.
'cause if we don't do nothingwith it then, you know what I
mean?
That's on us.
We can't blame nobody.
So that's what it's about,y'all.
And I just wanna say before we,you know, Ken, I'm proud of you,
bro.
Appreciate it for staying thecourse.
Proud of you, bro.
So you, you, one person for thelisteners, he's one person that
(39:26):
he saying what he do, he taps inanything he needs.
We reciprocate, bro.
You got this, you got that, blahda da.
What, what system you using yo,what microphone that you using,
right?
We need to have theseconversations.
So it was important for me tocome through when Ken said it
was no problem.
No problem.
They need to see that we here,they need to show that's like
this.
As soon as you pick up thephone, I'm here, bro.
No.
What?
(39:47):
I don't care what I'm doing.
I'll be on a Sunday.
Don't matter.
Like, you know what Iappreciate.
That's my brother.
Like, so I just wanna say that,man, I got nothing but love and
respect for you, bro.
Just keep grinding.
It's nothing but love andanything we could do, we here,
you know the vibes.
Kenny (39:59):
Appreciate that.
Jarrett (40:00):
Gary, uh, last thought,
Kenny (40:02):
what should our listeners that last thought you want them
to take away?
You've already
Jarrett (40:06):
dropped a bunch of gems, but as we close out.
What you wanna close out on, beton yourself.
Bet on yourself all days, everyday.
If you don't get anything frommy stories that I continuously
bet on myself every step of theway.
My first sales job, I went inthere and said, I'm gonna be the
best sales person in the coorganization.
I became that within six months,right?
(40:28):
I went to Cannes, didn't knowanything about the festival
creativity, but I went there, Ibet on myself.
I wanted to win a Cannes.
I became a VP of an agency beton myself.
Brought several products tomarket bet on myself during a
podcast, during a pandemic.
Betting on myself, buyingequipment.
I didn't have no lighting kit, Ididn't have a microphone, I
didn't have anything.
(40:49):
But what I did have was beliefin myself that I could change
something.
It's gonna be a lot of roughdays.
It's gonna be a lot of gooddays, but you gotta stand on
that, and I promise you, if youlead the right way, you lead
with your heart.
Everything's gonna open up theway it's supposed to.
Everything's gonna happen howit's supposed to.
So leading your purpose, y'allbet on yourself and you know
what I mean?
Let's get this, I wanna see moreof us.
(41:12):
Uh, thank you.
Mic drop moment.
Appreciate everybody forlistening to another great
episode of The Beyond NormalPodcast.
Yeah.
Welcome.
Welcome everybody to anothergreat episode of The Beyond
Normal Podcast.
We have a very special guest,uh, somebody who, uh, I feel
like they started their, theirpodcast journey, their founder
journey around the same time asme, uh, during the pandemic
around, around that time.
Um, and so it's been incredible,uh, to see the growth.
(00:54):
Of, uh, Jarrett Thompson, who isour guest today, he is the Chief
Revenue Officer for OTB Digital.
Um, he has an incrediblebackground working with some
incredible agencies in the NewYork area, and he decided to
take a gamble on himself inaddition to that.
Kenny (01:13):
he is a podcast host, uh, doing some incredible things,
uh, with his co-host andpartner, uh, Chad.
Um, and so I'm excited to haveyou here today,
Jarrett (01:24):
My boy.
How's it going, bro?
It's an honor man.
First of all, man, I just wannasay thank you for, for having me
on the show, man.
I love seeing what you're doing,bro.
I love the fact that you betteron yourself.
We definitely start at the sametime, man.
I'm just glad to see the growth,man.
I'm glad that we couldcollaborate and this is what
it's supposed to look like.
You know what I mean?
Yeah, for sure, for sure.
So
Kenny (01:40):
So I wanna, I wanna spend less time,
Jarrett (01:43):
uh,
Kenny (01:44):
talking about what I do and a lot of this time here
today talking about your journeyinto the space.
So tell us a little bit, set thestage.
Before you started
Jarrett (01:54):
OCB
Kenny (01:55):
and the podcast, like what were you doing with your
life?
What,
Jarrett (01:58):
what, was taking up your time?
So I I, I'll give you the quickfive minutes of just the career
overview, right.
I started getting the industry,bro, when I was 20 years old,
right?
So I was working at Le Pen end,I was working at BB q, smell
like ribs.
I know people from the who hearthe podcasts hit me, tell the
story all the time.
But I end up linking up with acompany called Intent.
So I basically went for ahospital call center job, and
(02:19):
they told me, a recruiter heardme speak and he was like, yo, I
love the way you speak.
I love the way you, you move.
Would you ever thought aboutsales or considered it?
like, nah, I'm sitting there forlike a hospital call center job.
I'm just ready to get to theback.
Anything's better than workingin BBQ's at that point, right?
I got my son on the way.
He made me sell him a pencil,straight outta Wolf of Wall
Street.
Happened to see the movie, so Iknew the answer.
And the next thing you know, I'mgoing downtown.
(02:40):
He's telling me to come to hisoffice.
I do a video profile.
They sent it to the client,which was intent, and then I
ended up getting a job.
But when I tell you it wasstraight boiler room, it was the
most boiler room job you couldever have.
If you didn't get your deals by,by Friday, you would go on
Monday.
Straight up and down.
So it was like one of thoseenvironments, and they go around
the room, they, everybody say,Hey, you know, I'm from Buffalo
State, I'm from here, I'm fromhere.
(03:01):
I was the last person to go.
And I'm like, yo, I'm JarrettThomas from the Bronx.
Graduated from Evander ChildsHigh School and I'm gonna be the
top seller here.
I don't know what made me saythat, but just something made me
say there's no shot.
It's either this.
Or I'm going back to what I wasdoing and I can't go back to
what I was doing, so I wasn'tgonna let anything deter me,
bro.
So I end up becoming a topseller within five months.
I did$250,000 a quarter for themfor eight straight quarters.
(03:24):
Then I end up leaving and I wasactually one of K's first
employees.
So I thought it was the filmfestival.
And I was actually working forthe International Festival of
Creativity.
I was selling their archivelibrary to some of the biggest
agencies in the world.
So I did that for about a year,became a VP of an agency,
brought a couple of products tomarket, including talk walkers,
influencer one.
And things got really excitingfor me, bro, when I was at IPO
(03:45):
rank.
So shout to Mike King and entireIPR team.
But, um, I met somerelationship.
Shout out to Chris Hart.
He called me, said, yo, I atthis place, no great founder.
I think you could strive here,and all that other stuff.
We met, met with Mike King.
He was just like us, bro.
He was just like us black manthat's running a multimillion
dollar agency, you know, and hadthe vision and so I came there,
(04:05):
was hungry.
I had a conversation with him.
I'm like, yo, how are you?
How are you generating revenue?
He was like, I'm doing webinars,I'm doing podcasts.
I'm doing, you know, I'm doingmy own short stories.
I'm doing this, I'm doing that.
Then that's when the light bulbwent off, bro.
Boom.
I was like, okay, cool.
So it's not these thousandemails that you want me to send
out.
It's not this traditional salesprocess that you want me to
(04:26):
follow.
It's the outside the boxthinking that end up getting you
a 6 million, a six figure agencyto hire me for the price that I
need.
So if you can do that, I'm gonnado that.
So I don't know nothing aboutLinkedIn.
You're on Twitter, you're not onLinkedIn like that.
I'm gonna go over here.
I had 200 followers, bro.
And imagine going into yoursales team, your sales director,
and they're like, yo, send out abunch of emails, get these
(04:46):
meetings.
And I'm like, nah, gimme threemonths.
I'm gonna build on LinkedIn andI'm gonna have them come to us.
Kenny (04:52):
Mm
Jarrett (04:52):
Craziest thing, I bet on myself right there, I could
have lost my job.
First of all, my sales directorcould have said, shut up.
Like, I don't, what are youtalking about?
You know what I mean?
Because my job is on this too.
So go ahead and go get themdeals like you getting paid to
do.
And he believed in me, bro.
And so every day I would go onLinkedIn with my partner Lee Go.
And we just started creatingcontent, creating content every
day, learning the algorithm.
But one thing that I understoodand found out early in the
(05:13):
process, this wasn't too manypeople that looked like us, bro.
There wasn't too many peoplethat talked like us, looked like
us, um, had the experience Iknew I had.
And so I said, yo, I'm justgonna add some, some different
sauce to it.
And I stopped talking about theproduct.
I started telling my story andthat's when things took off,
bro.
We ended up doing a$450,000 dealwithin four months.
It's closed a 450 K deal, bro,and four months due to LinkedIn
(05:38):
and then kept us afloat duringthe pandemic and then we closed
a bunch of deals after that.
We worked with Complex Target, abunch of brands from there.
And, um, two years in, bro, wedid$2.5 million without a Cold
Cola email.
Mm.
Crazy bro.
And I grew my profile from 200followers to 20,000.
And then from there it was lit,man.
And then I just felt like I wasdoing a lot for the brand.
(05:59):
I felt like I wasn't, you know,you're doing a lot, man.
I was sitting there stressedout.
I'm sitting there burning out.
I'm doing a podcast, I'm doingsales.
I got my kids.
It's a lot of things going on.
I'm putting in 13 hour days, andI felt like I should have been
appreciated more and I wasn't,you know what I'm saying?
But you know, a lot of things Icould have done differently in
that aspect as well.
And then I just ended upquitting on a limb boop, just
quit.
Put out a post bro with my faceon Steph Curry's body.
(06:22):
And said, Jarrett's a free agentbreaking news.
I'm like, he scores this manypoints and he's looking for a
championship roster.
Sources tell me he's looking fora championship team and he's
ready to go.
Crazy, bro, it went viral.
200,000 views.
I had hit up from LinkedIn,Microsoft, from Amazon to
Google, all these companies,bro, the only problem was it was
(06:42):
a lot of red tape in theseorganizations and they wouldn't
let me to do the podcast.
So what I didn't add was thepodcast was the reason why we
were getting a bunch of thesedeals.
So I created a podcast and Iwould get our ICP on people that
I knew that could do deals withus and just be a person.
I wasn't selling, I wasn'ttalking about product.
It's like, yo, bro, how you,how's your family?
How you living?
Like how you doing the business,how you coping with all this
(07:04):
stuff?
And we just had realconversations and we built a lot
of relationships.
And through those relationships,people saw it or they would
directly give us a deal.
So once I did that thing on, on,on LinkedIn, bro, with the Steph
Curry face, landed at Hootsuite.
'cause they told me, yo be you.
Be you come through, bring thepodcast, bring all your juice,
we'll bring all the sauce and wegoing, we gonna champion you.
(07:24):
And they did exactly that, bro.
Started more than a title.
The first week I, I landed atHootsuite first guest, foodie
led go CM of gong.
And then I end up interviewingthe CMO of Hootsuite, Maggie
Lower, then I end upinterviewing the CEO of
Hootsuite.
Then mad stuff transpired fromthere.
Then they had a big layoff.
I got fired and I did 1.5million for them in six months.
(07:44):
And I'm like, how the hell I doall this stuff?
And I'm doing the podcasts.
I'm doing more than atraditional salesperson, and you
don't find the budget for me.
Mm.
It was a rap I I just got tightat that point.
I'm like, yeah, I played thegame to perfection at that
point, and I get the one laidoff, but, but John Smith keeps
his job.
John Smith ain't doing whatJarrett's doing.
And, and you know, with all duerespect, so bro, I got tired of
(08:07):
corporate and I said, I calledup Zo.
He was in the same situation Iwas in.
He was tired of constructionwork and all that stuff.
And I said, yo.
We gonna start a business, wegonna move this podcast and we
gonna create a a six, sevenfigure million, a 6, 6, 6 or
seven figure um, com company byourselves doing what we love to
do.
And within the first week of usopening the business, bro, the
LLC, we ended up getting ourfirst client for doing LinkedIn
(08:29):
workshops and then we landed aFortune 2000 brand after that
and it's been up since then,bro.
Kenny (08:35):
I love that, man.
That's a great story,
Jarrett (08:37):
bro.
Yes sir.
Man, it's been a journey, bro.
It be like, ah,
Kenny (08:41):
So I'm, I'm curious.
Jarrett (08:44):
like
Kenny (08:45):
said a lot in there, one of the gyms was around like
LinkedIn.
You go into
Jarrett (08:51):
that
Kenny (08:52):
LinkedIn as a platform where you like, like you said,
there were not a lot of people
Jarrett (08:56):
like Like
Kenny (08:58):
did you, like how did you remain or how did you start off
saying, I'm gonna createauthentic content, because
that's not
Jarrett (09:09):
typically
Kenny (09:09):
people do
Jarrett (09:10):
on LinkedIn.
Yeah.
They, they
Kenny (09:13):
See what others are doing.
Right,
Jarrett (09:15):
Yeah.
and then they replicate.
it, I just, I just saw it, So I,I, the thing that separated, or
the thing, what happened in mymind was, bro, that LinkedIn is
no different from Instagram orFacebook.
But why am I putting a majorityof my time in the Instagram and
Facebook and it has noopportunity to drive me revenue
if this is where the decisionmakers are at.
My whole thought process was, Ihad a line, I used to say, teach
(09:38):
them how to fish and they'lllearn, you sell fishing poles.
So if I'm trying to sell fishingpoles, I gotta be the thought
leader in the space, the personthat they trust.
So when they actually in themarket for it, they're gonna
come to me and me only.
So that was my whole process.
So if I'm in a SEO agency, I'mtalking SEO, but before I even
become a thought leader, I needyou to like me as the person, I
(09:59):
can have all the right materialin the world.
I could have gems, but you couldjust think, I'm boring, I'm
corny, I'm this, and it can, itcannot land.
So my thing was how do I balancethat bro?
And I knew there was nobody onLinkedIn that had a hat and a
hoodie.
There was nobody on their couch.
There was nobody doing andsaying the things I was doing,
posting what I was posting.
And I was like, I just gotta beme.
(10:19):
And so when I told that storythat I just shared with you
about me getting that job and doselling the pencil straight
outta Wolf of Wall Street, thatwas my first viral post.
I got a hundred thousand viewson that post.
People from Germany, France,Chicago, LA Australia.
People was like, yo, this is mystory man.
This is so inspiring.
Yo, I did something just likethat.
Yo, it's so crazy, man.
And, and I felt like I wasspeaking for the people like me
(10:40):
who didn't have the voice.
So it became a bigger missionfor me, bro, how do I talk for
people like you and I who arereally doing the things and
putting in the work, butnecessarily don't get the
recognition?
And how do we monetize Yeah,
Kenny (10:53):
thinking outside the box, like you said.
Jarrett (10:55):
like
Kenny (10:56):
wanna touch on because I, I, in the space you're in, it
seems like businesses.
Corporations, companies come toyou and they want that outside
of the box thinking, right?
Like, is that a part of likeyour sales pitch, like when you
get into your sales pitch
Jarrett (11:15):
with folks?
Absolutely.
Because if you want some cookiecutter solution, you could go to
any agency in the world,especially now with ai, bro.
You see the agency space isshifting.
There's.
Mergings of, of holdingcompanies.
There's different, uh, smalleragencies that are going out of
business.
AI is changing a lot of things,bro.
So right now, the one thing thatwe have to hold onto is what our
creativity.
(11:36):
That's something that they can'tdo.
can give you some decent ideas,but they still can't give you
that effect because we're partof the culture.
We know what's going on, we knowthe posts of what's happening
outside.
So at the end of the day, that'sthe pitch all the time.
And that's what we did when welanded one of our Fortune 2000
brands.
One of the first brands wethought of, uh, they had a drink
trying to sell a hard seltzer,and we were coming out with, you
(11:57):
know, like they had a, a drinkcalled Tall Tales.
I mean like a, a tall boys, youknow what I'm saying?
It was a tall can, like 24ounce, a drink, whatever,
whatever.
And we came up with an idea fortall tales, like imagine crazy
things that you do that youwouldn't believe, but you're
drinking this drink, right?
So we came up with some firestuff and all that.
They came out with it andeverything was lit, bro.
So it's just how do we.
(12:18):
I don't wanna do the same thingas everybody else wants.
That's the part of the LinkedInstrategy.
Everybody goes, right, I want togo left.
And that's the way you stand outin the market.
Same thing with the podcastingspace or any business.
How do you differentiateyourself in a crowded market?
Kenny (12:32):
I
Jarrett (12:32):
like
Kenny (12:32):
that.
like that.
Jarrett (12:32):
Yes, sir.
Kenny (12:33):
And I
Jarrett (12:34):
I think
Kenny (12:35):
like, talk about a little about being in like the space
that you're is reallyinteresting to me.
Um, B2B,
Jarrett (12:50):
uh,
Kenny (12:50):
it's not always like the sexy path, right?
Like everybody wants to go fromlike direct to consumer product,
Jarrett (12:57):
you see?
Kenny (12:59):
Um, talk a little bit about how much of a grind it can
be closing one of these deals,though, obviously, like you
said, when you start your
Jarrett (13:08):
business,
Kenny (13:09):
you had some success with some Fortune 2000 companies,
right?
But like, what did it, like howlong, when did you start
building that relationship tothe time it took you to close?
Like talk a little bit aboutwhat that sales you,
Jarrett (13:25):
yeah, so, so you know what I, I don't necessarily call
it a sales size process, right?
For me, most of my deals, 90% ofour deals in our, in our
monetary value.
And, and what we, how wemonetize is through
relationships.
But you gotta look at it like aseed bro.
Every seed is gonna sproutdifferently.
Some may take one year, some maytake two years, some may take
three years, four years, fiveyears.
(13:46):
It took me 30 ask to get Dr.
Matthew Knowles on the show 30.
Ask how many people are gonnaask somebody the same thing 30
times and get rejected 29 timesand say this is the one moment
where he's going to do it.
So, so that's what it is for me.
It's not the business aspect,it's the relationship value.
Right?
So if I'm really trying to builda relationship with somebody,
(14:09):
especially of that stature.
You've gotta show and prove.
You gotta constantly bringvalue.
So sometimes, especially likewhen I was at the agency, I
wouldn't sell unless I made 10touches with you.
10 touches I have to, like oneof your posts, I have to
comment, you have to comment onsomething of mines.
We have to DM each other for acouple exchanges and then when
we feel comfortable is then whenI'm making the ass, yo, hey
(14:31):
let's get on the phone'cause Ithink I got something that's of
value for you What that does isit kills the sales process in
general.
'cause guess what?
I don't have to do fourdiscovery calls.
You already trust me.
You already trust me.
So now it's either can we do itor can we not do it?
And it's always better when theycome inbound because you hold
the leverage when somebody comesto do inbound and say, well they
(14:51):
want to do business with you.
That was my entire goal becausedo I get people to come to me?
'cause that's gonna improve mysales process by 50%.
'cause you've already decidedyou wanna do business, you went
to the website, you did someresearch, you did all that, and
you still were compelled enoughto reach out to me.
So at that point the deal isclosed.
All I gotta do is smile andsolve.
You know what I'm saying?
Like at that point.
(15:11):
So that was my whole process ofphilosophy.
So for B2B, everything is justrelationships for me, bro.
You're not, especially what'sgoing on right now with the
administration and all that, youknow how hard it is for, for an
agency just in general, letalone a black agency.
It's crazy out here.
It's hard to get sponsorshipsfor your shows.
It's hard to get this, it's hardto get that.
You have to build your ownfoundation.
(15:32):
And at the end of the day, bro,it's all relationships.
The fact that you can be able tocall somebody and say, what's
up?
Like I could call the CEOversus, right?
That's my brother and I just methim a month ago.
Some people I might not get thatsame relationship.
It might take me three years,but it is what it is, bro.
As long as you have therelationship and long as you can
provide value and connect thedots, it's gonna be way more
valuable than anything you everdo.
(15:54):
The,
Kenny (15:55):
the way that you
Jarrett (15:56):
beat.
Kenny (15:58):
do you have, a, do you have a mentality that you can
sell or deliver any solution?
I.
Jarrett (16:06):
I'm curious.
Have to believe it.
Yeah.
I have to have to believe it.
I feel like, but that's, that'sthe, that's the ego in us, bro.
Like, you know what I'm saying?
That's the ego and that's the YIcan sell anybody.
That's how I was able to, what Itell you in the beginning, I
went in the riddle of a roomwith a bunch of people I don't
know, and said, I'm gonna be thetop seller here.
And I come from Evander Chow'sHigh School in the Bronx, one of
the baddest schools in theBronx.
(16:29):
It is a level of confidence thatyou have to have to say,
nothing's gonna stop me.
I'm a big believer inaffirmations and all that.
I gotta say it.
gonna do it.
'cause I'm gonna hold myselfaccountable.
And if I don't do it, it's onme.
You know what I'm saying?
So now I gotta push.
Now I gotta stay up.
Now I gotta send an extra emailwhen everybody's leaving to rush
to the train at five o'clock.
I'm staying at five 15 to makeone more call.
(16:49):
Just one more call.
You
Kenny (16:52):
I mean, that is really the founder.
Jarrett (16:55):
Right.
Kenny (16:55):
you know, we obviously, uh, there's a big focus on like
the, the startup space now, likepeople starting their own
businesses.
Um, I look at what you and chatare building as a startup, I'll
be honest.
Um, even though, you know, folkslabel things
Jarrett (17:08):
differently,
Kenny (17:09):
um, and that is really like the ethos of what it takes,
right?
Like you're going extra mile andothers are just, they're just
doing the job.
They're putting in their time.
But you as the founder, thebusiness owner, you can't do
Jarrett (17:21):
that.
you do not have that luxury.
I can't tell you how many timeswe've sacrificed it.
We, we have a saying Fee free tofee free to fee, and we learned
that from Mario Armstrong.
He told us some real stuff.
Ian was like, yo, that's wherewe are right now.
We did a lot of things for freethat led to major opportunities
that came with a fee and that wehad to just bet on, bro.
(17:44):
It was times where times wastough as hell.
We didn't know we had to rub twonickels together.
We had to figure this.
We had to rob Peter to pay Pauland not pay this bill over here
to make sure we get to this tripover here and do a lot.
It's real, but it's, are yougonna sacrifice?
How bad do you want it, bro, wehad, we had to do the Rohan
Marley interview.
It cost us$4,000 to get the teamdown to Miami, and it was right
(18:05):
before Christmas.
We almost celebrated Wan'suptown.
Kenny (18:09):
Ooh.
Jarrett (18:09):
We almost did Wan's uptown.
It's how bad do you win it?
It is.
How bad do you want it?
Yo, yo, we gotta scrape it up.
We gotta do this.
Yo, I, I know little man wantthe switch today, but No.
Ah, no.
We gotta do what we gotta do.
We gotta get down there.
I appreciate
Kenny (18:25):
you having that transparency.
Um, I recently, uh, we had ourfirst live with a
Jarrett (18:31):
guests and the audience.
Uh, with Donovan Everett,
Kenny (18:34):
a local, uh, contractor here in the Charlotte area,
North Carolina area.
Jarrett (18:37):
area.
Kenny (18:38):
they're the general contractor for the Hornet
Stadium And so they're doing bigthings, um, as a black man
creating a business and the costof me having that live event
Jared, I was
Jarrett (18:50):
like, is
Kenny (18:53):
different, but the quality how it turned out I was
like, oh, I gotta, I gotta domore of this.
So like to your point, when yousearch for those opportunities,
you start to figure out a way.
and Maybe you don't buy that newswitch too
Jarrett (19:07):
for a couple months.
That's it.
That's just betting on yourself,bro.
You have to, as an entrepreneur,you get so many opportunities
that you know they're gonnatransform your business that you
just have to take, it's certainopportunities that you just have
to figure out.
Can is one of them, like Rohantelling us he's coming to the
crib, bro.
Like, like come to the crib.
We're the only podcast.
(19:27):
He was with Steve Jack and them.
He was with this one, he waswith Drink Champs.
He was with all the majorpodcasts in the world, but we're
in his living room.
That's crazy.
Like, you know what I'm saying?
Two dudes from the Bronx, bro,with independent, no sponsors,
no nothing, and went down thereand made it happen.
Set up our own equipment, movingfurniture around ourselves, and
(19:47):
then sat down and did a threehour interview.
No pauses.
Kenny (19:52):
So, alright, so you're touching on something here.
I have to Because yourbackground, right?
You come from, go get it.
You're in New York City, you'reused to doing in-person
engagement.
Jarrett (20:06):
Like
Kenny (20:06):
do you feel
Jarrett (20:07):
feel
Kenny (20:09):
about somebody who sets out to
Jarrett (20:11):
do
Kenny (20:13):
all these interactions virtually
Jarrett (20:15):
or digitally
Kenny (20:17):
versus like in the space you're Do you have to get in
front of people
Jarrett (20:22):
face to face it, it helps, but sometimes you just
can't.
So the way I look at thepodcast, bro, like regardless of
how many, you know, we'vedefinitely gotten major views.
We was charting on Apple, allthat stuff, bro.
But like.
I necessarily don't even careabout the views.
I'm keeping it real with you.
You know what I care about?
I care about the relationship.
Every week I get two shots tospeak with people that are
(20:43):
actually running business anddoing amazing things.
Every week I get two shots forfree.
What I'm paying for the streamyard, I'm paying for this, like,
you know what I'm saying?
Like it's a minimal cost.
To meet somebody.
And at the end of the day, ifyou have great energy, you have
great energy and you're stillgonna bond, will it be as as
crazy as an in person?
Probably not.
(21:04):
But then you get there, then youget there.
You know what I'm saying?
So like a big opportunity likeInkwell Beach came off a virtual
podcast Adrian, shout out toAdrian and Tyler Inkwell team,
we had her on the show and wehad a great experience.
And you know what she said, yo,I want y'all to come here, bring
that experience in person and beon stage.
(21:25):
And you know what we did?
We showed up and showed out.
We went on Inkwell Beach, bro.
We brought the CMO ofMcDonald's.
We brought Dr.
Marcus Collins, we broughtWalter Gere, we brought Abba
Blankson, who was the CMO naacp.
We brought, um, um, Perry Fair,who's the SVP of Mattel, just
won a lion, just came off thestage from winning the lion to
come rock with us at Inkwell.
(21:46):
Then we had Steve Poona, the CEOversus come through right after
Timbaland performs crazy like,bro, none of this we paid for.
And I'm saying that as aninspiration, not a flex, but an
inspiration to everybody.
That's what, that's therelationship value to make the
call and be able to do it.
And sometimes you're not gonnaget a lot of, but you can't put
(22:06):
a price on that.
So does what are you valuing atthat Because those are things
that also gonna help progressyour business, and it's gonna
open up other opportunities andother opportunities.
They're gonna say, who are thoseguys?
So it's constant bet onyourself.
It's a constant bet on yourself.
It's a constant bet that cancost a lot.
Hell yeah.
But at the end of the day, guesswhat we going again next year?
(22:28):
Figure out a way.
You figure out a way to pay forthat.
You figure it out a way and youdo it, bro.
And it's some tough days, but ifyou guys want it, we have the
creativity, we have theknow-how, we have the skillset
to do it.
All of us do.
But are you willing to sacrificethe comfort and the stability to
do so?
Kenny (22:45):
So, All right.
This is an incredible list.
Shout out to Walter, um, aswell.
He's definitely somebody, um, inthat space who I followed and
just learn from all the time.
Just like you and
Jarrett (22:57):
Chad.
Kenny (22:58):
I wanna talk about starting a
Jarrett (23:00):
business.
Uh, with
Kenny (23:03):
co-founder, what that experience has been like working
with you and Chad.
Jarrett (23:07):
It's
Kenny (23:08):
And how you all really
Jarrett (23:08):
found
Kenny (23:12):
your, your bread and butter.
In terms of what you can dowell, and Chad can do
Jarrett (23:17):
well, making it, it all starts with what we passionate
about.
What do we feel like we can makethe most impact?
And I'm gonna tell you it's, itis, that was the hardest thing
to figure out at first.
What I did know is I wanted tocontinue to do the podcast.
My biggest thing was how do Iuse the podcast as a lead
generation system for ourbusiness, OTB digital.
So that means getting in contactwith people with who we could
(23:39):
potentially do business with,but also give us good content.
So it was a delicate balance.
So I told Chad like what I'mreally good I'm really good at
social media, I'm really good atmarketing, I'm really good at
sales.
I'm really good at managing thep and l.
I'm really good at bookingguests, right?
So what I need you to do is thethings that you're already good
at, right?
Creating the flyers, right?
Overseeing this, overseeingthat, right?
Like making sure everything's intune.
(24:00):
And it was never no issue.
'cause that's my brother, like,so that's my cousin.
Cousin.
Mm.
You know what I'm saying?
So like we do this anyway, soI'm doing my podcast.
He's always supporting itanyway, in the background.
Anyhow.
If I needed something, he'sthere.
So I'm sitting there thinkinglike, yo, we do vacations
together, we do barbecuestogether.
When we go anywhere, we shutdown the room.
Why wouldn't I have my brotheron the show?
(24:23):
Why not put it on camera?
We just never decided to put iton camera.
So as far as that, we've neverhad no issues, bro.
We, at our height, we was doinglike 2025 MRR, but we wasn't
taking anything out Thebusiness.
putting it back in.
Putting it back in, putting itback in, putting it back in.
We need this over here.
Put it back in, put it back in,put it back in.
Let's fly over here, let's meetthis person over here.
(24:44):
And that's what we were doing,bro.
So we never had no issues.
'cause you know what?
With me and Zo, it's just love.
He knows I got his best interestat heart.
I know he got my best interestat And it just is what it is.
We'll figure it out.
Times get tough, we figure itout.
Times get really good, we figureit out.
And we've had experience ofboth, But it's just finding what
you're passionate about as faras the business.
Like what do you, what would youdo for free?
(25:06):
That you wanna get paid whatdon't you mind doing when it's
your birthday and you're inMiami Beach and you gotta do a
client initiative, right?
The client hits you up and say,I need this white revision.
But you in the club, do you mindit?
I, we've had those scenarios.
We in the club in the middle ofthe club, no problem.
Going right to the, here you goback to the club like, ha, like
(25:27):
that on him.
You know what I'm saying?
The laptop is always in the car,always around.
Always around.
It's always wifi somewhere.
So what do you wanna do?
So that's the sacrifice, bro.
And and it is led us to somegreat success and some great
relationships, I didn't have a,I'm going to keep it funky with
you.
I didn't have a blueprint.
A lot of what I do is I trust mygut.
(25:48):
It may sound crazy to people,but I trust my gut.
I never had a set list of who Iwanted to have on the podcast.
I just would shoot shots.
I would see people doing amazingthings and I'm just shooting a
shot.
Yo, that was dope.
I Can I get over here?
Can you come over here?
Can you come over here?
To, to it became a thing.
Like Matthew knows Dr.
(26:08):
Shout to Dr.
Matthew knows.
He came on the show 15 minutesearly, bro, and said, I want one
of those sound effects.
I can't wait to get a message.
Kenny (26:16):
Oh, yeah.
Jarrett (26:18):
Hey, for the folks who have not listened, and Chad,
the,
Kenny (26:24):
The, the sounds that they use, the soundboard, the
message, you all will understandwhen you listen to the content.
Uh,
Jarrett (26:33):
sir.
But it sticks in your head.
Seriously.
It's all culturally rooted, man.
What, what do we know?
What feels like It's
Kenny (26:42):
wild.
I haven't seen any otherpodcasts really do
Jarrett (26:47):
that.
You know, Joe and Jada just saidit the other day.
Really?
Joe and Jada, I was watching theepisode with, um.
It wasn't the, oh, who was it?
It wasn't, uh, it was, uh, 85South.
Yeah.
Okay.
Okay.
So they had an episode with 85South and Jada, he didn't put a
thing up, but he was like,message.
I was like, oh no.
Oh yeah.
(27:08):
I was like, yeah, but I love it.
But you, we think in the same,what are those things that are
culturally that we all canThat's from that, that's from
that, that's from that.
And it just brings up differententertainment value,
Kenny (27:19):
came out,
Jarrett (27:19):
uh, Joe and Jada, they're, uh, they came out the.
Kenny (27:24):
Gate swinging
Jarrett (27:25):
with their content, their content, they killing,
they're killing.
But, but then how do, how do us,you and I as a small content
creator, a small independentmedia shop, compete with What
are some things you think thatcan help us get to that level?
And it's gotta be those smallthings, those nuances, the
message, the this, the that.
Right?
Doing things that are, aredifferent in the space.
(27:47):
People are doing the same thingthat we've been preaching on
LinkedIn.
You build a brand big enough,then you're gonna be able to
monetize immediately.
They've got 20 years worth ofbrand, more than that.
20, 30 years of brand value.
How do you compete with that?
Kenny (28:00):
That,
Jarrett (28:00):
uh, They on
Kenny (28:02):
stage,
Jarrett (28:03):
stage, bro, come on.
That was one of the moments,like, come on, iconic.
Kenny (28:08):
it
Jarrett (28:08):
he still don't get the recognition.
He don't, he
Kenny (28:11):
Yeah, he don't, because in that moment I was
Jarrett (28:14):
like,
Kenny (28:15):
This
Jarrett (28:16):
is like different,
Kenny (28:21):
like.
What is going on here?
It was one of those moments forme, like, this cannot be real.
This run, this 20 minute runthat he
Jarrett (28:31):
is on is like a moment in time.
Facts.
Talk a little bit about, um,like
Kenny (28:44):
New York being there
Jarrett (28:46):
now
Kenny (28:48):
versus, I I, I grew up in the
Jarrett (28:52):
tri-state.
Kenny (28:53):
We used to always go to the city.
It was amazing time growing upthere, but like being in the
city now, like what energy doesit give
Jarrett (29:01):
you?
Kenny (29:04):
Being there, what does it do for you being
Jarrett (29:05):
in that city in this moment?
I, I'm gonna give you a, a leftfield answer, bro.
You know what?
I have to be in it.
And the reason being like, Icould been move out and stuff
like that, like,'cause we'llmove upstate and all that, but
like, I need to see the people.
So something I used to do when Iwas working at Starbucks before
I got the, um, before I got the,the sales opportunity, intent, I
(29:27):
used to get home every, everyday, bro.
I used to leave at four o'clock,five o'clock in the morning, go
to work, whatever, boom.
We would come to like five, sixo'clock at night and I would
walk through my neighborhood inParkchester.
I would look at every singlebuilding, I mean every single
building and every single windowwith the lights on.
And I would think there was astory, there was a million
dollar story that nobody knewabout.
I don't know why I did that,bro, because I would think that
(29:50):
about me.
They don't know what I'm goingthrough.
They don't know what kind ofmindset I have.
They don't know what kind ofideas I have.
So I need to see the people,bro.
'cause there's stories allaround us and people doing
amazing stuff that's not gettingthe opportunity, and I need to
be in it to see what'shappening, because I wanna make
impact where I'm from.
So I gotta see the problems.
I gotta see what's going on.
(30:11):
I gotta see who's still on astrip.
I gotta see, I gotta see all ofthat.
You know what I mean?
Who's out here?
Who, who went, who went to thejoint?
Okay, world.
Who's coming home, who's doingthat?
I need to know all of thatstuff, bro.
So I'm, I'm, I'm heavily in tunein my neighborhood, heavily in
tune, and I gotta be around thatenergy, bro.
'cause when I walk outside, it'sa different energy.
It's a different love.
(30:31):
Now when I walk outside with mykids to go get some breakfast or
something like that, it's love.
I'm getting hugs and kisses.
I've been here my whole life.
You know what I'm saying?
Like, I know everybody, you knowwhat I'm saying?
So when I walk outside and seean elderly lady and they like,
yo, I'm proud of you.
Or I see the homie that neverbeen off the strip, the ones
that seen me since I was a pupand seeing what I was doing to
(30:52):
what I'm doing now, and theylooking at me like, yo, bro, I
love you, man.
Like I need that energy.
That's what keeps me motivated.
'cause now it's like how do Ibring what we're doing back to
help
Kenny (31:02):
Yeah,
Jarrett (31:02):
Yeah, exactly.
I, uh,
Kenny (31:04):
uh, I got.
To take my toddler
Jarrett (31:08):
to New York for
Kenny (31:08):
to New York for the
Jarrett (31:09):
Yeah.
To
Kenny (31:09):
aunt
Jarrett (31:10):
in Manhattan.
Kenny (31:11):
it was really weird seeing my daughter working or
Jarrett (31:15):
walking
Kenny (31:16):
the city blocks in New York.
Jarrett (31:18):
Like it was like, it's real.
Kenny (31:21):
Yeah.
Like I never thought that Iwould have this experience, but
here's my daughter, likeexperiencing.
new, And she, her face was like,
Jarrett (31:28):
like,
Kenny (31:28):
she was soaking up all the energy.
She was super happy, ecstatic.
You know, we live in thecountry, right.
In North Carolina.
Right.
Jarrett (31:36):
So she ain't really never seen
Kenny (31:37):
like
Jarrett (31:37):
that, but it was, uh,
Kenny (31:39):
it brought back memories.
Like
Jarrett (31:41):
how, how old is your daughter, if you don't mind me
asking?
Kenny (31:43):
She's
Jarrett (31:43):
three.
Oh.
So yeah.
So she
Kenny (31:45):
yeah.
Jarrett (31:46):
eyes,
Kenny (31:46):
eyes wide
Jarrett (31:47):
open.
Yeah.
Kenny (31:48):
Noticing everything.
Um, all that goes
Jarrett (31:52):
on in the I
Kenny (31:53):
like,
Jarrett (31:54):
yeah, this is,
Kenny (31:55):
this definitely impacted me being in these places growing
Jarrett (31:59):
up.
Um.
Kenny (32:01):
Going to basketball courts, playgrounds,
Jarrett (32:04):
all that stuff.
Now I still remember shit, what,what kind of impact it had on
you, man, though.
Let's talk about what kind ofimpact it had on you now that
you're in the country.
Like what, what, what kind oftraits you bring down then.
Kenny (32:15):
I think for me, I definitely appreciate my and I
embrace silence.
like finding those moments.
Being in the city and then beingable to like have a moment to
Jarrett (32:31):
yourself.
Like,
Kenny (32:34):
I remember like gonna Rucker Park, seeing Fat,
Jarrett (32:37):
no,
Kenny (32:38):
Steph Marberry, like these moments is like, I seen
all those things and so I me Andthen when I'm to Carolina, which
is country, right?
Jarrett (32:48):
Yeah.
Kenny (32:49):
I still have those moments.
I can like, I can be chill,
Jarrett (32:52):
chill, I
Kenny (32:52):
I can
Jarrett (32:53):
be,
Kenny (32:53):
Hey, I'm not, not stretching, I'm not, I'm not
grabbing for
Jarrett (32:56):
stuff.
Kenny (32:57):
You know, uh, too much like, just balance now in my
life.
And I
Jarrett (33:02):
had those experiences early on, so I
Kenny (33:05):
I don't really
Jarrett (33:06):
regret
Kenny (33:06):
I don't feel like I'm missing out
Jarrett (33:08):
on anything.
Um, and it's really trulybecause of where I you hit the
nail on the head is it is whatyou value now, bro.
You what you say, you, you valuethe serenity, the peace and the
quiet.
You know what I'm saying?
is.
Everybody got, you know,everybody got what makes them
go, bro.
That's what it is, bro.
But
Kenny (33:24):
but every once in a.
while
Jarrett (33:26):
Yeah, you
Kenny (33:27):
go back up there.
I gotta come, go back up thereand
Jarrett (33:30):
there and
Kenny (33:30):
soaking that energy.
Jarrett (33:32):
Have some of that food.
I miss it.
it.
Yo, that's it.
I, me personally, bro, I getthe, my creativity comes from
the chaos.
Yeah.
We embrace the chaos.
I embrace it, bro.
Like I, if it's too quiet, thenwe, we too successful to me.
You know what I'm saying?
And how do I keep my pulse, youknow, my finger on the pulse.
(33:53):
You know what I'm saying?
But that's just, just me ingeneral, bro.
Like that's what I said, likewhen I walk outside and I see
things going on, that's thecreativity, being able to see
the everything going on thestrip, seeing the Watson games,
we were just outside, you knowwhat I mean?
Going to, going to Dykeman andall that.
Like You know what I mean?
Like I love it.
So
Kenny (34:09):
So I'm curious, how does this, do
Jarrett (34:17):
you ever think about how
Kenny (34:19):
your career
Jarrett (34:20):
end.
How you want it to end?
Do you want it to end?
I've, had a lot of losses inthis summer, man.
First of all, you know, ourpizza, all my, you know what I
mean?
I have a couple family memberspast.
I think about it all the time.
How would it end?
How all this, bro, I just wannabe somebody to make an impact.
I want my legacy to speakvolumes, bro.
(34:41):
I wanted to be like, yo, for me,when it's all said and done,
career wise, everything wise,it's just like, yo.
He went out and he did it.
He tried it.
He opened up doors for people.
He wasn't selfish with it.
Like nobody can say no crazystories about me, and I pride
myself I always take the longroute.
I never jerked nobody.
I never did nothing.
I never stole nothing fromnobody.
(35:02):
Like that means something to me,bro.
So like for me, I wanna be theClarence Avon of this thing when
my career ends.
I wanna be the person that hasso many relationships and it had
made so many plays happen thatyou didn't even know it was me.
and things that impacted theculture.
You'd be like, damn it, livingcolor was on and this one's on
and this show started.
(35:22):
Oh, did you know this?
Did you know that?
Did you know that JAR introducedthis one and this one, and this
how this happened over here?
Because they were both on theshow and that's how I
reciprocate to the guests.
I'm not paying so I'm not payingyou.
You're coming through to gimmean hour and a half.
In some instances, you givepeople giving us four hours of
straight live stream time.
(35:43):
Four hours straight, no bathroombreaks, nothing.
Just going.
So I'm like, how do wereciprocate that by bringing
value?
You need to know this one.
You need to know that one.
You need to know this one.
You need to know that whateverhappens, we, when we say that on
the show, it's real.
We introduce people.
We get off the phone.
We get off the phone.
Yo meet this one.
Meet that one.
All right.
(36:03):
Y yo, that's what it is.
Y'all family.
Now we off.
And mad business deals havehappened as a result of that
man, that, that's breakingbread.
Yeah.
That's it bro.
We ain't gotta be here, we ain'tgotta sit there and listen to
the conversation and know what'sgoing on and ask for pc.
This is love.
'cause it's gonna happen.
When it's time for us to breakbread, we will, in the meantime,
get what you need to get.
(36:25):
I like that.
And Jarrett, uh, for those, um,who are listening in, Jarrett,
it really does, Act how he isspeaking right now.
I can tell you facts.
He comes to me, uh, quite often,Hey, when you come in, when we
connecting, um, just having thatopen door like you said and
making sure folks are connected,man, I appreciate you doing
(36:48):
that.
Come on, man.
It's love, bro.
It means a lot in this space.
Podcasting can be lonely.
Kenny (36:53):
Uh,
Jarrett (36:54):
It can be a demanding of your resources.
Yeah.
Kenny (36:56):
As,
Jarrett (36:57):
Jarrett has definitely mentioned.
And so these
Kenny (37:01):
these relationships we're
Jarrett (37:02):
We building, bro.
Um, that's it.
Going, they gonna last, last alifetime.
I guarantee you.
That's it.
It don't have to be I appreciateyou, uh, and just, uh, sharing
your story.
This has been a different onefor me because you are a podcast
where you're doing amazingthings in the space.
Uh, you and Chad appreciate you.
(37:23):
Um, I look to you all, all thetime.
I'm always checking in on yourscreen, which I got going on.
Appreciate that.
Tell folks.
Like, what's the easiest way forthem to stay connected to you
and the brand?
Um, is it the website you haveother meeting and other kind of,
um,
Kenny (37:39):
uh,
Jarrett (37:39):
ways for them to tap into all the things that you're
doing?
Absolutely.
So if you wanna knowBusinesswise, it's o
tb-digital.com.
So if it's business, we dosocial media, uh, marketing.
We do content creation, we dosocial media strategy, we do
LinkedIn webinars, I mean, uh,workshops.
So any B2B brand that may hearthis.
If you want your sales team tobe able to go on LinkedIn and
(38:00):
drive revenue and relationshipthe way I told you in my story.
We have an entire playbook.
You can also get that playbookif you're a salesperson, is
still right there.
OTB, digital.
It's called Relationships overRevenue, right?
It shows you how the algorithmworks, how I created content,
some of the results of thecontent I created, and it gives
you templates.
So we have all that on deck, youknow what I mean?
And if you want to go stay intune and more than title, go to
(38:22):
YouTube.
More than the title.
M-O-R-E-T-H-A-N-A and thentitle, T-I-T-L-E.
We, the only thing on there,you'll see us rocking out, you
know what I mean?
We have some great guests.
We took a re, uh, took a monthoff.
We've been going three yearsstraight every Tuesday and
Thursday, three years straight.
No breaks, no vacations.
If I'm on vacation, I'm stillpartying and we just took a
(38:44):
break and, uh, we're coming backAugust 5th.
got the president of the OVOpulling up.
We got sporty thieves pullingup.
We got a lot of people pullingup, man.
We got Imani from Coach Han.
We got Colette Smith who was thefirst NF first female NFL coach
coming through.
She was in the Jets.
You know, we got a bunch ofpeople pulling up in.
So pull up is real conversation.
(39:05):
We don't cook, we don't gatekeep.
We don't do none of that.
You want opportunities, you wantinformation, we give it for
free.
Come through, get the game.
'cause if we don't do nothingwith it then, you know what I
mean?
That's on us.
We can't blame nobody.
So that's what it's about,y'all.
And I just wanna say before we,you know, Ken, I'm proud of you,
bro.
Appreciate it for staying thecourse.
Proud of you, bro.
So you, you, one person for thelisteners, he's one person that
(39:26):
he saying what he do, he taps inanything he needs.
We reciprocate, bro.
You got this, you got that, blahda da.
What, what system you using yo,what microphone that you using,
right?
We need to have theseconversations.
So it was important for me tocome through when Ken said it
was no problem.
No problem.
They need to see that we here,they need to show that's like
this.
As soon as you pick up thephone, I'm here, bro.
No.
What?
(39:47):
I don't care what I'm doing.
I'll be on a Sunday.
Don't matter.
Like, you know what Iappreciate.
That's my brother.
Like, so I just wanna say that,man, I got nothing but love and
respect for you, bro.
Just keep grinding.
It's nothing but love andanything we could do, we here,
you know the vibes.
Kenny (39:59):
Appreciate that.
Jarrett (40:00):
Gary, uh, last thought,
Kenny (40:02):
what should our listeners that last thought you want them
to take away?
You've already
Jarrett (40:06):
dropped a bunch of gems, but as we close out.
What you wanna close out on, beton yourself.
Bet on yourself all days, everyday.
If you don't get anything frommy stories that I continuously
bet on myself every step of theway.
My first sales job, I went inthere and said, I'm gonna be the
best sales person in the coorganization.
I became that within six months,right?
(40:28):
I went to Cannes, didn't knowanything about the festival
creativity, but I went there, Ibet on myself.
I wanted to win a Cannes.
I became a VP of an agency beton myself.
Brought several products tomarket bet on myself during a
podcast, during a pandemic.
Betting on myself, buyingequipment.
I didn't have no lighting kit, Ididn't have a microphone, I
didn't have anything.
(40:49):
But what I did have was beliefin myself that I could change
something.
It's gonna be a lot of roughdays.
It's gonna be a lot of gooddays, but you gotta stand on
that, and I promise you, if youlead the right way, you lead
with your heart.
Everything's gonna open up theway it's supposed to.
Everything's gonna happen howit's supposed to.
So leading your purpose, y'allbet on yourself and you know
what I mean?
Let's get this, I wanna see moreof us.
(41:12):
Uh, thank you.
Mic drop moment.
Appreciate everybody forlistening to another great
episode of The Beyond NormalPodcast.
Yeah.
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Are You A Charlotte?
In 1997, actress Kristin Davis’ life was forever changed when she took on the role of Charlotte York in Sex and the City. As we watched Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte navigate relationships in NYC, the show helped push once unacceptable conversation topics out of the shadows and altered the narrative around women and sex. We all saw ourselves in them as they searched for fulfillment in life, sex and friendships. Now, Kristin Davis wants to connect with you, the fans, and share untold stories and all the behind the scenes. Together, with Kristin and special guests, what will begin with Sex and the City will evolve into talks about themes that are still so relevant today. "Are you a Charlotte?" is much more than just rewatching this beloved show, it brings the past and the present together as we talk with heart, humor and of course some optimism.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.