Jevon McCormick shouldn't have succeeded. He was born the mixed-race son of a drug-dealing pimp father and a orphaned, single mother on welfare. He was raised in the slums of Dayton, Ohio, suffered incredible abuse and racism, and had multiple stints in the juvenile justice system. He barely graduated high school and has no college degree.

 

But he did succeed.

 

Starting by scrubbing toilets, Jevon hustled and worked his way into better opportunities, eventually finding incredible success in the banking and mortgage industry. He was on top of the world. And then the mortgage industry fell apart. He lost his job, and literally all of his money. He had to borrow from his friends to make rent. He was nearly back to where he started: with nothing.  But this time, he had something that he did not have growing up in the slums of Dayton: the knowledge of what it takes to succeed.

 

Jevon used this setback combined with what he learned as the springboard for him to reach even bigger heights--eventually becoming President of two multimillion-dollar companies.

 

Jevon talks to Ed Andrew about education, taking responsibility, the 5 pillars of life and his success formula. Currently, Jevon is the President and CEO of Scribe Media, the worlds largest self publishing platform. He lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife, Megan, and their four children; Ava, Jaxon, Elle and Jace.

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Talking Points

 

• one of the greatest and most thankful lessons he learned from his drug dealing pimp father “I don't care who it is - you show respect say hello and be kind to everyone” 

 

• after three visits to juvenile detention and not wanting to go to man prison, JT now lives by a formula - mindset choices + hard work = success, we can all control our work ethic. (9) 

 

• His 5 pillars of life "God, Health, Family, Business and Investing 

 

• some of the best decision that you make in life are hard, nothing has been easy in my life 

 

• taking the first step and making an effort to make a difference, you have to do something different to make a change in your life (15)

 

• writing his book - "I got There" - discussing living in constant fear of his background and writing the most freeing page in the book.

 

• on learning a critical lesson as a child that not everyone is not going to like you especially a sa mixed race child in the 1970's, , so the benefit was "I did not go through life wanting everyone to like me but I did spend a large part of my life not wanting people to know who I was"

 

• making a lot of money and then losing it all and how he was negative broke "you don’t have your money but you still have your character, what person do you want to be going forwards, having a very honest question with yourself - who do you want to be and what are you willing to do to make that happen" (19)

 

• "don’t be a victim, you can’t change the past but find the positive in those experiences and make the most of them"

 

• on leaving behind those who don't support you - "grow with me or I am growing without you" (23)

 

• talking about why Austin is a hot bed of activity, started with Michael Dell, and then Google, Apple moving in and Wholefoods being founded there, 

 

• serendipity, meeting Tucker Max and becoming CEO of Scribe Media

 

• now working with 1,500 authors and published over 500 books and 1,000 in the works - "we truly believe that everyone has a story" - working with David Goggins the 2nd most sought after book after Michelle Obama in 2019 (33) 

 

• why self publishing works, keeping 100% control of your book  

 

• discussing the demographics of his authors and their publishing programs

 

• why people are the most fun and challenging part of running a business  

 

• their mission is to help everyone write their story, constantly looking to see where we can help authors expand their mission and business, and wanting to "wreak havoc on the traditional publishing industry" (42)

 

• the credibility of podcasts and books - explaining how they turn away 30-35% of people who come to us - you need to have great content, don't work with people chasing fame, many authors have sold no more than 250 copies of their book but have landed 6-7 figure deals based on the book, and wanting to make sure that content is reputable  (46)

 

• supporting Startedup with Don Wettrick - putting to bed the myth of needing to have a college degree to be successful but educational high school leavers on skills for life, resumes, manners, different professions (50)

 

• one of our core principles of our company culture is about asking question, discussing the fear of asking questions (52)

 

• his message,  "what do you want to prioritise in life, always look at how to improve, ask right questions, never be satisfied, mindset choices hard work = success 

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To contact Jevon click on the following social links

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https://jevonmccormick.com/

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https://scribemedia.com/

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