The Charleston Marketing Podcast
Welcome to The Charleston Marketing Podcast, the podcast that dives deep into the world of marketing, with a specific focus on the vibrant city of Charleston. Join us as we explore the strategies, trends, and success stories that shape the marketing landscape in this historic and captivating coastal city.
Each episode of The Charleston Marketing Podcast brings you exclusive interviews with local marketing experts, industry thought leaders and Charleston entrepreneurs who have harnessed the power of effective marketing in the Lowcountry and beyond. From strategic communication, social media, PR, digital strategy and everything in between, we uncover valuable insights and actionable tips for our listeners.
The Charleston Marketing Podcast
Big Thinking In The Lowcountry w/ Thomas Heath
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Ever been asked “So, what do you do?” and felt your answer wobble? We sit down with strategist, mentor, and playwright-composer Thomas Heath to map a cleaner, kinder path to growth: start with foundational messaging, show up in real community, and set boundaries that protect your energy.
Thomas breaks down why most founders can’t deliver a five-second answer and how a tight messaging playbook unlocks everything—LinkedIn visibility, investor confidence, and sales velocity. We get specific on the five LinkedIn fields that matter, why your banner is prime real estate, and how a 220-character headline becomes your everyday elevator speech. Thomas also pulls back the curtain on working with VC, PE, and family offices to align cofounders, sharpen mission language, and ship pitch decks that actually raise money.
We tour Charleston’s startup scene through One Million Cups and the Harbor Entrepreneur Center, where “collision” moments create outsized opportunity. Alongside the tactics, we go deep on burnout: health scares, over-volunteering, and the hard reset toward time blocking, client boundaries, and a gratitude-first mindset. The through-line is sustainable growth—profit with impact, not grind for grind’s sake.
Then the story pivots to Luke and Lucy, a rock musical inspired by ’70s and ’80s legends, now evolving into a docuseries that empowers teens. It tackles toxic relationships, anxiety, and isolation with tools, community, and serious heart—proof that brand craft and storytelling can change lives, not just metrics.
If you want practical scripts, sharper positioning, and a healthier way to scale, this conversation delivers. Subscribe, share with a found
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Title Sponsor: Charleston American Marketing Association
Presenting Sponsor: Charleston Media Solutions
Annual Sponsor: SCRA; South Carolina Research Authority
Quarterly Sponsor: King and Columbus
Cohosts: Stephanie Barrow, Mike Compton, Rachel Backal, Tom Keppeler, Amanda Bunting Comen
Produced and edited: RMBO Advertising
Photographer | Co-host: Kelli Morse
Score by: The Strawberry Entrée; Jerry Feels Good, CURRYSAUCE, DBLCRWN, DJ DollaMenu
Studio Engineer: Brian Cleary and Mathew Chase
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Welcome to the Charleston Marketing Podcast, brought to you by the Charleston AMA and broadcasting from our friends at Charleston Media Solutions Studios. Thanks to our awesome sponsors at CMS, we get to chat with the cool folks making waves in Charleston. From business and art to hospitality and tech. These movers and shakers choose to call the low country home. They live here, work here, and make a difference here. So what's their story? Let's find out together.
SPEAKER_03:Hey guys, welcome to the Charleston Marketing Podcast, powered by the Charleston American Marketing Association. We are coming to you live from the Charleston Media Solutions Studios, big supporters of CAM. We want to send a big thank you to our podcast sponsor, SCRA, and of course to Jerry Fieldsgood, who uh has the beats at the front at the beginning of the show and at the end. So thank you guys to all of our supporters. It's been quite a year. Uh Stephanie Barrow here, founder of Stephanie Barrow Consulting, a digital marketing strategy agency here in Charleston, and one of your Camapass presidents. I am joined by my dear friend and president of the Charleston American Marketing Association, current president, Mike Compton.
SPEAKER_01:Hey folks, how are you? Hope everything is well. Mike Compton here, Roombo.co for day job. And then, yeah, Stephanie said your current uh president of Charleston AMA. Um, I'm excited about today's episode, folks. Uh, this has been three years in the making to get this gentleman on here. Yeah. Since we started, he was on our punch list to get on, but he's such a busy, busy guy.
SPEAKER_03:And and he's a good friend of mine.
SPEAKER_01:And he's you've you've done his thing, haven't you?
SPEAKER_03:You I took his LinkedIn course. Yeah, I took his LinkedIn course right when I was leaving working my agency life to starting my own biz. I took his class.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, he's a playwright too. Author. Who's that?
SPEAKER_03:My friend Ashley Smith.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, hey. He's also been on the podcast. What's up, Ash? Yeah, a lot of great people.
SPEAKER_04:GSD.
SPEAKER_03:Yes, GSD is get shit done.
SPEAKER_01:Love that. Thomas Heath is a nice D guy. Hi.
SPEAKER_04:I'm so thank you. Hey everyone. I'm Thomas Heath. I'm very uh grateful to have this opportunity to talk with some cool people and um and just bring hope and impact to the world. You're the cool people around here.
SPEAKER_03:One of my favorite lines whenever I uh end a call or a meeting with Thomas, he says, How can I support you? Yep. And I love that about you.
SPEAKER_01:I stole that from you, actually. I uh that's how I start every meeting is how can I help?
SPEAKER_03:On his tombstone is gonna read, How can I support you?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, it's actually the the thank you. It's uh how can I best support you? There you go. Only you can do it. I'm a word guy. I'm a founder, I'm a storyteller, and I um words are important to me. Yes.
SPEAKER_01:Talk about it, Thomas. Where are you from? What are you doing? What's your passion? Like, let's hear all about it. Well, that's a lot of questions. Uh okay.
SPEAKER_04:So um I um I w grew up in uh Comac, New York, okay. Long Island, and uh I knew her as Roseanne. People know her as Rosie O'Donnell was uh was was in my town and Bob Costa. Oh no kidding. Bob Costa was a little older uh than me. And uh it was just a very it was great, it was great uh town uh for creativity and they they really had uh and sports, whatever you want to do. It was a great town for that. It was typical suburbia in the sixties and seventies. And um yeah, it was it was it was fantastic. And uh what were your other questions?
SPEAKER_01:So what brought you what when did you move down from here? What brought you to the city?
SPEAKER_04:I um I moved to Charleston in 2005, and when someone says, Thomas, what what made you move down here? My answer is simple. I'm allergic to snow.
SPEAKER_03:I love it.
SPEAKER_01:Is that a documented scientific allergy, or are you just really don't like snow? In my head, it's documented.
SPEAKER_03:So last year when the snow happened, you're probably like, I'm sitting inside, I'm having my hot chocolate.
SPEAKER_04:Listen, I one one one snowstorm gets me crossing like a sailor. It's just not for me. My I'm I'm uh Hey. My body can tell you when it's 59 degrees. So that's all right. I love that's why I love Charleston. And in January and February, um, you know, suck it up.
SPEAKER_03:You know it's been kind of cold here. I'm ready for a take, go back to the city.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I think we got it today, though. Today's good because today feels nice out.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, yeah. It is good. So I'm from Detroit, so I get it. Okay. I moved to Tampa. Detroit Rock City. Yeah, yeah. So I moved to Tampa in 01 to get away from the snow. I I guess I'm allergic to snow as well.
SPEAKER_04:You can use the line. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:I was in New York for two years and moved right to LA because I was like, I am not a snow. I was walking my dog on Halloween and it was snow. On Halloween. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:But yeah, no, we moved down here. I never looked back.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, I love Did you move with your wife?
SPEAKER_04:Did you or Yeah, I moved with my my wife. Um we have three children, but at the time they were older and some were high school, college. But we you know, we figured it out and and uh I moved with uh our dog. And uh we knew no one. We knew no one. We knew a realtor. And uh within two years I had seventy friends, not like acquaintances, like friends. And I know this because I have the original spreadsheet when I invited them to my summer of fun parties. Why do I believe that's the same thing? I do.
SPEAKER_03:You said the Christmas cards, these are by 70 people. That's amazing.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. Well, I'm a weird dude. I have like I have the uh the the business side and the creative side on. Yeah, so I'm a like I'm an artist who who is comfortable with spreadsheets.
SPEAKER_01:Let's talk about the the business side of it real quick. Because you just um you did for the first time, which is really cool too, that just shows how much you love community. Uh you're the founder, one of the co-founders of One Million Cups down here, right?
SPEAKER_04:Um One Million Cups, Charles. I'm one of the founding leaders, yes.
SPEAKER_01:One of the founding leaders. But you in the how many years into it have you been in? Ten almost. Oh my gosh. But and so this last what Wednesday were December 18th, right now. But so last Wednesday.
SPEAKER_04:December 12th, trust me, I know my launch date. I have to update my LinkedIn profile. So December 12th was your launch day of what? Uh the brand builders. The brand builders network. And really exciting. Uh first of all, I just want to talk about 1 million cups. If you're if you don't know about it, hi there, if you're watching the video. Um Million Cups is a uh my words for it are it's a nonprofit entrepreneurial movement in 99 cities across America where you drink one million cups of coffee to support entrepreneurs. You didn't know that story? Yeah. That's talking about sponsored by the Kauffman Foundation. They're amazing. It's all volunteer driven, just amazing. And um, I was one of the um the uh people early on, and uh John John Osborne and Jackie McKelvey brought it here, and then uh they believe in rotation leadership, and they asked myself and D. Hamill if we take it over. Well, at the time, it was fifteen white dudes in D. Sure. And we were like, oh, okay, this has got to change. We need to build community. And we did that, and within a year we'd have a hundred people, forty percent women, ten percent people of color, which we can always improve upon. But you know what? One million cups is one of the most integrated places in Charleston. Come check it out. At least So we meet every Wednesday, every Wednesday from Boston to New York to Charleston to Miami to Chicago, you know, all the time zones, San Francisco. A different entrepreneur presents their business for, you know, six, eight minutes for feedback on a supportive community. The one we have here is amazing. And I got to, for the first time, present my business. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, you know, I I'm I it just wasn't the right time, and I'm a I'm I'm a service first type of thing.
SPEAKER_01:Supporting everybody else, hundred percent.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, well, you but I'm gonna talk about that too, because supporting everyone else is good if you oversupport. And I did that. So I do want to talk about something that I would love to do that. A mental health for marketers, do you want to call it? Uh-huh. Yeah, fine though. Uh yeah. So anyway, um I launched the brand builders. And and what it is, is it's a curative membership only of a hundred big thinking entrepreneurs across the country.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_04:And these are folks that are working together to build our brands to boost our profits. We're very clear. This is about impact, yet we are profit-driven. But most importantly, what we do is we provide a safe community for bold ideas. It's curated, there's membership applications going to be launching in January, uh, the website, and I'm not a big like pitch guy. I'm not soliciting members, but I know you're gonna ask this. Uh it's the brandbuilders.network. The brandbuilders.network. And you'll see language there saying, you know, launching in January and things like that. But you can sign up for my uh free weekly membership tips. I'm not pushing that. I'm not a funnel guy. You're not gonna get on board. No, but I no, no, I no, I don't want to push it. I what I want to do, what I this is God's honest truth. What I want to do is if it makes some what sense for someone to receive um some information that's not a newsletter, that's easy to read, that's really helpful, that they can apply immediately, including a branding tip, maybe a LinkedIn tip, but also maybe a mental health tip. Sure. So yeah, yeah, it's gonna be really interesting.
SPEAKER_03:That it's national and that it's virtual and uh because I'm pretty busy and all of the things I get invited to are in person, and I would like to do them at some time, but I also like to have the ability to log in and get resources and support from home.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, and what's great about this is nationwide. So I have I'm gonna have around 20 people in the Charleston area, sure. Uh 30 in the Southeast, uh in the Northeast, mid-Atlantic, 20 or 30, same with you know, I'm gonna figure it all out, but it's gonna be certain savings because I want representation. Of course. And and one of the first questions is gonna be what makes you a big thinker? And it's not at least elitist, please. It is not that. It's really about what I've learned. I've coached over ten thousand entrepreneurs. That's wild. Wow. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just either one-on-one classes, uh teaching. Um, I've been blessed to do that. And the number one the number one issue. The number one issue, nine out of ten entrepreneurs, my experience has been when you ask them to succinctly explain in five seconds or less what they do, they can't do it. Correct. They can't explain what they do, they don't know who they do it for, they don't know how they do it differently, and they can't communicate the results. That's an easy fix is called foundational messaging. Uh yeah, so I uh what what the brand bills is going to be is it's gonna be supportive, nurturing environment where we build our businesses through our brands. So that could look like brand identity element elements, your your logo and your colors, your fonts, that can look like your elevator speeches. I I prefer the term speech instead of pitch. That can be your socials, that can be LinkedIn, which I don't consider social media, that's a whole nother topic. Um and um it's also gonna have courses. It's gonna have courses, do-it-yourself courses, because some people, once we hit 100, that's it. And then we're gonna evaluate, it's gonna be a beta group, then we'll go to 200. But that's we're taking our time. Well, that's right. We're not driven by profit, we're driven by impact. And and it's gonna have courses and then my consulting. And what I do, essentially what I do is I mainly work with um venture capital, uh, private equity, and family offices to protect their investments. Okay. I will also work with big thinking entrepreneurs, and essentially, you have these offices giving people 25,000, 250,000, 2.5 million on the low end, and none of the owners can explain what their business is. If you get like three co-owners in the same room, I've done it. You ask them to say, okay, what do you do? They all write down a different thing. What is your mission? They all write down different things. That's insane. That is true. You're giving someone hundreds of millions of dollars, and they're how are you gonna scale? How are you gonna scale? So I fix that. I fix that. So they work with me short term. Right. I'm not a long-term guy. I'm like, get in, get out. Two months, four months, me and my team, we come in, we give them a foundational messaging playbook, and we give them a killer, killer pitch deck, so they can go raise more money. And the the V the you know, the the VCs and the PEs love us because they don't want to think about that. They just want to make money in that.
SPEAKER_03:That's why everybody knows your name in town. How many people have you helped here in Charleston?
SPEAKER_04:Oh, I don't know. I don't know. A dozen, right? I mean, more than that. No, no. Well, I mean, to me it's interesting. I pick a challenge word, a growth word every year. And uh this past year was completion, the year before that was acceptance, the year before that it was trust, before that it was intentionality, and it changed changed my life. I and normally I go through it every January, and I don't believe in New Year's resolutions, yet I I believe in um in in a growth, in growth and a word. So I already know my word, it's impact.
SPEAKER_02:I was gonna ask you.
SPEAKER_04:It's impact. It's impact and it's gonna be maximum impact. So if I get two words, it's maximum impact. Because um, you know, my wife and I, and the history's aside, we co-founded a mental health facility 19 years ago called the Life Dime Center. Yeah, and we've and and I was saying, well, Thomas, you know, if you're gonna talk about impact, what did the impact of that center did? And I did the data. We've impacted over 100,000 people. Wow. We've helped their we helped them with addiction, we've helped them with saving their marriage, we helped them get out of bad relationships, we helped them build businesses, we help them become better parents. And you know, I give my wife the credit. I mean, she was a co-founder of Judy Heath, Judyheath.com, check her out. She's awesome. She's transitioning to be a novelist, sign up for a book. It's gonna be great, it's gonna be a limited-run television series, Judyheath.com. Don't even worry about me, just go to judyheath.com.
SPEAKER_03:What do your children do to have this powerhouse couple as parents? I'm so curious to know what your children do.
SPEAKER_04:Okay, so first of all, we don't consider ourselves a powerhouse couple.
SPEAKER_03:I consider you a powerhouse.
SPEAKER_04:Okay, well, I just want to say what we we what we are is we have a lot of energy. We're both creative, we both have a business side, we're very, very compatible. We met doing theater in New York as actors. And we were just friends. We were just friends, at the and then we became good friends, and then I kissed her, and that was 31 years ago. Explosion. Yeah, well, it could have gone the other way. But so I have three children, they're amazing. Um I'm not gonna say their names, I want to pretend, you know, I'm very careful about that. But they're uh and I have six grandbabies and young grandfather. Yeah, yeah, it's great, I love it. So my uh children raised anyway, my son, uh Marine Corps. Okay, Marine Corps, he was a Marine uh naval aviator. Now he uh builds um Christian leadership high schools around the globe. He's hugely leader. Um wonderful wife and kids. Another daughter is a fierce mama.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_04:Uh fierce mama and a real estate investor. She's got all these beautiful they call them cabins, but they're like lodges in in the Georgia Mountains, and they're gorgeous, and people can rent their houses. Please send me the language, please. Yeah, it's great. They're great. And then the youngest uh does God's work. She uh works with uh children of autism and s and and and Down syndrome, and she's a teacher. That's a meal. Yeah, and they're all and yet what's great is besides the fact that they're self-sufficient, they don't ask me for money. What's great about them is they're nice people, they're caring people, and they are good parents.
SPEAKER_03:It says a lot about you.
SPEAKER_04:Well, you know, my legacy are my kids. I mean, ultimately yes, it's it's you know, my businesses have have been able my my playwriting and my songwriting have been able to make an impact, yet my biggest legacy is my kids and grandkids.
SPEAKER_03:I mean, but you've always put your heart into anything you do, including your relationships with people in the state.
SPEAKER_04:I'm very passionate. Relationships is what it's all about. People say, Why are you a good salesperson? I say, because I didn't sell. I developed relationships. Exactly. Yeah, I my business card used to say they they had bus account executives. I changed it to uh professional power problem solver. And I was selling software. My title was professional problem solver. That's great. And I was selling software.
SPEAKER_01:That is great. So talk about the Harbor Entrepreneur Center. This is kind of where we uh rekindled our friendship again a little bit more, got to know you a little bit better. Um and it what you've been a part of the Harbor Entrepreneur Center for how long now?
SPEAKER_04:Since the beginning, it's been around ten years, eleven years, I think. I was one of the early. Oh my god, rebuilding. Yeah, I know. I was one of the early, early ment Oh, we briefly before that. Oh, yeah, no. I I'm we had a couple locations. Uh, yeah, I was a mentor. I've been a long time. I'm I think I'm the longest myself and Chris and I are the longest serving. Chris Hayley? Uh Chr Chris um um white-haired Chris. Yeah, I'm sorry. I don't remember his last name. I just know he's a great guy. Yes. Uh he uh he and I have the longest serving mentors there, and I mentor on foundational messaging, essentially helping people with with um you know what you know, answering, you know, what do you do? And yeah, five-second elevator speech, and all that then the wonderful, wonderful volunteer mentors take all that wonderful, juicy words, that content that we create, and they helped the young uh well not all young, but they helped the entrepreneurs put it into their they call them pitch decks to raise money. And we had uh twelve entrepreneurs we brought through an accelerator, it's amazing. We're we're accepting applications. It's January 2026, you know. Uh but every January, right? Well, it's okay. So the Harbor Entrepreneur Center is the best kept secret in at least South Carolina, as far as entrepreneurial.
SPEAKER_01:How big is it, Thomas?
SPEAKER_04:First of all, it is the it is the third largest in the Southeast, tenth largest. People don't know this. It's the tenth largest entrepreneurial center in America. People don't know it's 16,000 square foot. It is an 18-acre campus with walking trails and a little bit of lake and this and collision. That's the cool thing about it. Collision. You have a hundred entrepreneurs that have offices there, you have entrepreneurs walking in throughout the day, you have accelerators, you have programs, co-working. Off the charts. Uh uh to tell you how crazy it is, here's a story. So my Nike, because I'm a playwright and songwriter, I'm bringing a show to television.
SPEAKER_01:We'll talk about that at the end there, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:That's fine, but I'm just gonna let you know. I went snuck. I thought I was sneaking into the Harbor Entrepreneur Center to use the bathroom because I was stuck in traffic and it was close by. I bump into Grady Johnson, the executive director, and and I said, Oh, Grady, hey, I'm just gonna use the bathroom. He said, Okay, but uh, how's your television show going? I said, Oh, you know, I'm working on the pitch. He said, I just got off the phone with the guy who's producing more television content than anyone else in America. I need to introduce you. I'm like, okay. That sounds great. And I go to the bathroom. Within an hour, I have a text. This guy, Sean, is like, oh, I know the people from Netflix and they're gonna love this and that. I mean, collision. So it's collision. Collision. And it's right over the bridge. It's really easy to get to when there isn't traffic in Mount Pleasant Side. But it's amazing. And if you're looking for office space, try to get it there before it sells out. It's amazing. Correct. Grady Johnson. And mentors, we need mentors. Grady Johnson.
SPEAKER_01:Talk about him real quick. He he used to be the executive director, co-owner of the He was the publisher for the Regional Business Journal.
SPEAKER_04:So that's how I met him because I was I was Grady. I was journalist for him. Uh, guest journalist, whatever my official title was. Sure. Um I was guest journalist for him. I do have to update that on LinkedIn. I haven't done it for a few years. Cool. I know it's like, you know, the the cobbler's kids. So anyway, but yeah, he's he's a visionary. He's a visionary. Yeah. And I'm there. It's a lot of work, let me tell you. It's a lot of work volunteering, especially from John's Island. It's a lot of work. It cost me tens of thousands of dollars a year.
SPEAKER_03:You mentioned something about almost volunteer burnout.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, we'll talk about that. Hold on a minute. No, we'll talk about that. But those guys are great at not burning me out. They're great at not burning out. No, they're great. No, believe me. It's and it's not anyone else.
SPEAKER_01:So we're putting together the accelerator program.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. So the accelerator, what I just want to say is Grady, I used to, I was a journalist for him. He taught me whenever I, you know, uh I would submit an article, I wrote about the entrepreneurial ecosystem. I did this thing called the startup roundup, and he'd say, What makes it a great story? And I learned from it. So then years later, when he um was doing this, I said, you know, he called me up, he's like, you know, can you mentor again? I'm like, okay, I'm in. And I've been doing it ever since. It's it's a lot of work, but it's cool, and it's there like my children, you know, the entrepreneurs. And I love to see them blossom and grow and build and hire people and get funding. I mean, it just is good for my soul.
SPEAKER_03:Have you had any uh success stories where you help someone from the inception of their business to see where they've come? Oh god, yeah. I want to hear I want to hear one.
SPEAKER_04:I'm not gonna name names, but I was part of the proverbial on an airplane napkin, on a napkin for a company here that later got sold for fifty-five million dollars. I was I was the early mentor, I guess, coach, of case status.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_04:So um back when um the uh Lauren, I think, uh the founder was presenting at One Million Cups, um, yeah, I was giving support, and then Andy, who I was giving some free coaching to, uh, he was doing this restaurant app. Um yeah, I was in. On that all in the beginning. All in that beginning. Oh my God. Now they're evaluation. But anyway, they're very successful because they're good people doing great. And they solved the problem. Essentially, you have all these attorneys, you know, personal injury attorneys, and they got bombarded with communications. You're a communication guy. You know. You get a fax, you get a text, you get an email. What's going on with my case? Now they send everyone to the app, and it has drastically increased efficiencies and it's lowered costs by like 50, 70. The ROI is killer. So yeah, so I've been blessed to be a part of some cool success stories.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, you get to meet those people too if you you become a part of the harbor or something. You've got to come down. We need more women mentors. We'd love to have you. We're exactly you're our target too. Okay. There's a couple people I'm at. I'm building a marketing committee. That's where they're going to be able to do that. Don't over volunteer.
SPEAKER_04:Don't overvolunte, but I'm building another committee. So I need more volunteers community. And I'll be there.
SPEAKER_03:I'm getting off my kids' school board in May. I've been on the school board for the last three years.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, you met your quota.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I did five six years on the AMA. Oh, yeah. Yeah, you met your quota. So now I'm I would love to talk about something new. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh Jessica's the chairwoman. Oh, I love Jessica.
SPEAKER_01:Um but real quick, capping on Harbor, the first Tuesday of every month, we're going to have a uh coffee uh conversation, uh networking thing. I'm working on the name of it, so help me with the name. Okay. At uh the Harbor uh 8 a.m. Uh and Tracer Coffee is gonna be sponsoring the coffee there. Nice. So I'll be there. Our membership director will be there, Owen. Uh, and and we're it's either gonna be him and I or the Okay, well he's a couple of suggestions.
SPEAKER_04:So who's your ICP for this?
SPEAKER_01:What's the ICP stand for again for the listener?
SPEAKER_04:Customer persona.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, there we go.
SPEAKER_04:Uh so who's your who do you want to show up in this coffee?
SPEAKER_01:People who oh no members marketing AMA, Charleston American Marketing. Okay, so it's an AMA event. Correct. And we're naming it uh Cama Cafe.
SPEAKER_04:Okay, it's interesting because I hadn't heard the CAMA. You know, I was back involved in AMA years ago, and I love the chat. I love it. Um but I also said always said Charleston AMA, and now it's CAMA. That's interesting. Okay, that's cool. So CAMA, this is a CAMA event. Yeah, because I've spoken I spoke at a couple of coffee things over the years.
SPEAKER_03:They kind of transitioned out after COVID, unfortunately.
SPEAKER_04:Well, what what is the purpose of the event?
SPEAKER_01:Just to, you know, gain members, talk about the membership and you know, uh spread the love, uh collision. We're also inviting the Harbor Entrepreneur Center residents to it too.
SPEAKER_03:Is there gonna be any educational Yeah?
SPEAKER_04:Well, if it's gonna be geared towards marketers, you know, um you no, I would I would call it like um um uh coffee connections with marketers. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, because I don't want any education. Coffee connections with marketing. I just want it I just want to have some coffee.
SPEAKER_04:Coffee connections with collisions and collisions or coffee collision, you know, uh whatever it is, but I would avoid the word networking. You know, I just want to I'm not a big fan of the word networking. I believe in connections. Um so yeah, that's what I would do.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. No, I like that.
SPEAKER_04:And you're probably gonna be limited to folks on Daniel Island and Mount Pleasant at 8 a.m. Just heads up for that. So put you put your marketing there.
SPEAKER_01:We want to make it a consistent thing. So Cam Cafe with Tracer Coffee at 8 a.m. on the first Tuesday. That's great.
SPEAKER_04:And then what you m you do is just for people who are uh, let's say, you know, like me and John's Island, I'd say, hey, you know what? Make sure you're on the road by seven.
SPEAKER_03:No, I would, because if they really want to come to it, that's the reason why I don't go to Million Cups, is because I think I have to drop my child off in an elementary school and I live in North Mount Pleasant. Yeah, and I think y'all are at eight, right?
SPEAKER_04:No, we're nine. Nine. Nine. Nine. Yeah, every nine, and this is across America. Go look up onemillioncups.com, the number one. Every Wednesday at 9 a.m., depending on the time zone, nine to ten. You don't have to sign up, you don't have to pay anything. Every you find a city to show up, it's awesome. I mean and you can be late. If you get there by 9.15, at least in Charleston, you won't you you know you'll miss some connecting, but you won't miss the presentation. Charleston folk. Um we'd love to have you.
SPEAKER_01:Charleston folk know about the topic. Come to our first meeting of the year. So at least 50, if not 85. I think your thing will minus the traffic situation. No, I had over 90 people, which is the most important thing.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. But we we normally had we had 60 yesterday. We normally have um 70 easily.
SPEAKER_01:And it's a new pitch, right?
SPEAKER_03:So I like the consistency of it. Yeah. Because other organizations you just have to go on calendar, you've got to try to find information, this and that. I like the consistency of the phone.
SPEAKER_04:No, it's simple. And it's not a pitch. Just keep that in mind. Sorry, yeah, it's not a pitch. No, no, yeah, it is. Well, but but that's important. I don't want anyone to be intimidated. Oh my god, I'd be ready to pitch. No, no, no. We're not chart tech, but we are friendly people that you can run even a good idea by, but hopefully you've gone further than that. Yeah. And you're less than five years. As long as you're five years or less in business, you can apply. Oh, okay. And you yeah, five years or less. You can't be a franchise. Yeah. You have five years or less in business, um, you can apply.
SPEAKER_03:Interesting. Okay. Love it.
SPEAKER_04:And I was no days in business. I launch it at one million cups.
SPEAKER_01:Exactly. So you how long is your waiting list for one million cups?
SPEAKER_04:You have lots of things. I'm not involved at that level anymore. I'm more of the uh the elder ambassador guy. Sure. Um I don't know. I don't I that probably it's booked through January. But no, it's you can get on. Yeah. You can get on. But you know, um go, but don't just apply. Go to a meeting, check it out. I'm not you. I'm just saying to the listeners in general. Specifically, Stephanie. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:What did I call it? I call it a uh a walking into a giant hug. Everybody there is a bug friendly. It is a big hug. Nobody gives your nobody's. You want to hear an interesting story.
SPEAKER_03:So it's not like a a luncheon?
SPEAKER_04:It's no. You okay. You want to hear I saw something yesterday that I don't know if I've ever seen, maybe once or twice. I've been here twenty years in the business community. It it's it we had a format called Fifth Wednesdays. I actually created it many years ago because the membership in our community in Charleston said, hey, we love hearing from entrepreneurs all the time. But could we w every once in a while, like, you know, get to you know, do a little networking or something? And I said, I said, I said, well, you know, we're about connecting. I said, but how about we do something called Fifth Wednesdays four times a year, where we circle up and we had sixty people circling up on Wednesday, and you get 30 seconds on the microphone, it's timed, and essentially it's your 30-second elevator speech. You can say whatever you want. Sure. Um, but there was a um someone who got invited. She had no idea that this was the format. She was very, very shy. Yeah. And the microphone came on and she said, Hi, my my name is Sue, and I help dogs and cats through my shelter in North Charleston. Passed the mic and started crying. And John Stroud said, Don't worry, we're family, we love you. And people started applauding, hugging her, and then we're cheering her on, we're asking her about, oh, tell us how we can support you in business. I mean, how often does that happen? So come and see the magic. Come to One Million Cups, Charleston. It's so true. Yeah. Um it's not it's And you know what? If you can't, if you are you're listening to this in in another part of the world, just go to the Facebook group. You know what? My video is on there from last week, December 12th.
unknown:That's right.
SPEAKER_04:I don't know what it looks like, but let me tell you, I got pretty darn vulnerable. So if you want to see a different side of Thomas Heath, yeah. Yeah, true.
SPEAKER_03:I do want to talk a little bit more about a different side of you, though. Because you know he and I have this music connection.
SPEAKER_01:The music connection, the mental health side of things, but we would be remiss not to talk about LinkedIn.
SPEAKER_03:Okay, yes. Right. Talk about the LinkedIn. Because everyone knows him as the LinkedIn experiment.
SPEAKER_01:You just dove right into LinkedIn.
SPEAKER_03:Talk about Have you trademarked I'm the LinkedIn expert?
SPEAKER_04:No, I'm not. Uh well, no, I haven't. Well, I mean I am a LinkedIn expert. Um, the thing is, it I try I tell people this it's not about LinkedIn. LinkedIn's just the platform. It's the structure that says, oh, you need 220 characters for your headline. Well, that'd make a great five-second elevated speech, or maybe part of a 15-second elevated speech. Oh, you've got to have this certain type of headshot. Oh, you have a banner. Great real estate. A lot of a lot of people don't use their banner. It's empty. That's wasted real estate. Well, these are all powerful things because in Charleston, if someone's gonna meet you in a business meeting, they're checking your LinkedIn out. Mm-hmm. And it's and even if you never post, it's about putting your best foot forward. Right. So, so what yes, I'm passionate about LinkedIn. Here's why. It's impactful. It's the world's largest professional business network with one billion users, and up until recently, I I never spent a nickel on it. But here's the thing people say, oh, it's Facebook for business. No, it's not. And t I keep track of all my revenue streams. I have three businesses. Um I have, you know, PLs, QuixBooks. I I tracked uh my revenue streams from LinkedIn in 2022 and 2023. Six six figures, hundred thousand dollars in my pocket. Not not in my pocket extra. Certainly came in handy when it was building my new house, certainly came in handy when it was getting my new car, okay, that I can directly attribute to LinkedIn. One of them, one of them, was an educational video series I cr I created for a financial professional. Never commented on one of my posts, never liked anything. He said, his words not me, I stalked you for two years, and now I want my own video series. And it turned out to be an eighty thousand dollar gig from LinkedIn.
SPEAKER_02:I need time to get it.
SPEAKER_04:No ads, nothing. All yeah, just all I well, you know what I do on LinkedIn.
SPEAKER_03:But you're very comfortable telling your story. Definitely look him up. But I mainly tell other people's stories.
SPEAKER_04:If you look at my posts, I don't bring too much attention to myself. No, he doesn't have to be a good thing. This is my I I I love to report on it. Well, I like to report on for people who can't make it. It's a very special place.
SPEAKER_01:What it is, Thomas, is authenticity. And you've been on it.
SPEAKER_04:So here's what I'm gonna say about LinkedIn. It's very, very powerful. It's very, very powerful. Um and that that's that's that I I gotta tell you, just trust me on this. Here's the five fields. If you do nothing else, you do nothing else, here's the five fields. Your name is very important. You want a consistent name. If you were married 20 years ago and you're still using your main name, you might want to drop it. Okay. Um your headshot. You know what? It can't have an arm draping over it. You you know, it's some professionalism here. And you know, people need to see you, they need to see your thumbnails. So friendly, professional, facing forward, right there. The third thing is, and most important, is your headline. You have 220 characters, so someone knows what you do.
SPEAKER_03:I need to go check out my head.
SPEAKER_04:You know what? Here, here's here's a great thing. Ask me what I do.
SPEAKER_01:Uh Thomas, what do you do?
SPEAKER_04:I help VC and PE firms protect their investments by ensuring their startups have killer foundational messaging to scale. I'm pretty sure that's exactly on my LinkedIn. That's okay. So my point is you can you can ask me at 12 noon, 12 midnight. That's my foundational messaging. And it changes. You know, essentially someone said, Well, what do you do? Give yourself a title. I'm a foundational messaging and branding advisor. That's what I do. And what do you specialize in? I specialize in crappy LinkedIn profiles and stale websites. That's what I that keeps me busy. I have a boutique firm, seven, eight clients. I'm I'm blessed, I'm not taking on new clients until next year. And it's great because it's my niche. The riches are in the niches.
SPEAKER_03:Can my can your headline be too long? Because now I'm wondering if mine is too long.
SPEAKER_04:Um what is it? Yeah. Okay. So um oh see, a couple of things. So uh first of all, if you go to um um look up Stephanie, um, I love her banner, a little bit of faded Charleston in the background. I can see her name very clearly. It's great use of it. Very uh friendly picture. Um I'd love to see something a little bit newer, though. I saw this picture a couple of years ago, but you're great, you're very photogenic. That's a true state. Digital marketing strategist, podcast host, 2023. Yeah, no, I would just add a period after the word association. Okay. Um, this is fine, depending on what your goals are. But no, this is a decent LinkedIn profile.
SPEAKER_03:Does anybody have a suggestion for a new headshot person? Send in my way. Well, there's tons. My mug needs to be updated. Okay.
SPEAKER_04:Well, you know what? I'm on LinkedIn. I have three or four of them that I um that my clients love. So perfect. Okay. Definitely.
SPEAKER_03:So I did okay. I passed.
SPEAKER_04:Oh no, you you have a good LinkedIn profile. Thank you. Very good. Um so did you learn that in a LinkedIn class? I did, but it's been a minute to update. Yeah, but apparently you listened to your instructor. I did.
SPEAKER_01:I did. Um so what challenges do entrepreneurs face when building their brand? So you talked about well, I just said that you're the most authentic person out there, really, and you're really bringing that home. So what do you how do you talk to your clients about how how they can be authentic and build their own brand?
SPEAKER_04:Okay. Um so first I want to make an impact. Sure. So so I want to state that there's different types of brands. There's a personal brand and there's a business brand. There's many others, but let's just keep it simple for that. Let's say for you know, I work with a lot of entrepreneurs. And the thing is, especially if you're a solopreneur, your personal brand's linked to your business brand. And most for the most part, they're buying from the person, not the business. So um what's really important is it is again, depending on your goals. But let's say your goals are to either accelerate your career. Because you know, it doesn't have to be, it doesn't have to be for you know, just about business. Accelerate your career, accelerate your business, accelerate donations for your nonprofit, whatever it is, whatever it is. Um definitely be yourself. Definitely be yourself. Um and that it that takes a little. So I did start writing a book a couple years ago. I've I've taken a different path, but I'm gonna take a lot of that content from the book and I'm gonna bring it to the brand builders network in the form of education. And one of the things I talked about as far as getting to know who you are, and I'll I'm just gonna talk about myself, my own process, my core values. What are my core values? What do I stand for? So you know, one of my core values is um being genuine. One of my um core values is being willing, one of my core values is being present, because I didn't used to always be. I'd be like, oh, I'm talking to Stephanie, but I'm thinking when I'm gonna have for lunch.
SPEAKER_02:Right.
SPEAKER_04:You know, and I don't do that anymore. So yeah, so I would say understand your core values, understand what's important to you. Um find let's say aesthetic. Like here's one of the tips aesthetic. So there's the three-word rule, and it's used in fashion. It can be used, I applied it to to marketing and branding, but it's like what three words to describe your aesthetic, and that could be your appearance, your hair, your look, whatever it is. And at the time, mine were um sharp, professional, competent. Sharp, professional, competent. And it's interesting because my personal brand has uh casualized. I'm dressed up here because it's Christmas and I love you know, I'm a you know, I'm a big um I'm a big celebrant of the reason for the season. So anyway, um yeah, but I've gotten a little bit more more casual. You're seeing a lot of my new personal branding photography. So the point is that what you want to do is make sure you know yourself, make sure you know what's important to you, and then combine that with what's your mission? You know, my mission is I'm a teacher and storyteller. That's my mission. My my my excuse me, that's my purpose. I have a dual purpose. I'm a I'm a teacher and storyteller. My mission is to leave the world a better place than I found it. That is my mission. So, um so knowing things like that and getting to know one, and then it could say, okay, well, what if I were to put my name, if I put my name on my banner, what uh what thoughts represent me best? And you have fun with it. What colors represent me? You can have a lot of fun with that. And then but it essentially the most important thing, the most important thing is having the right words, the shortest amount of words that make the greatest impact when someone says what do you do? And and you can combine that with business and professional. But the thing is, this is the last thing I'll say about authenticity. Start out doing the work yourself. Yes, that means typing people, typing or writing out before you put it into AI or chat GPT. Here's why. Because it doesn't know you, it will it will spit out inauthentic contact content people will know. I can look at practically and I can look at a television script, I can look at a LinkedIn profile and say that was written by AI. And you know what? That's inauthentic, I'm not following that person. Call me drastic, but I don't follow inauthentic people. Sure. So be careful out there. Be careful. Use it as a tool for grammar.
SPEAKER_03:If all of a sudden you're getting unfollowed, it's because you updated your LinkedIn. Mine that's authentic.
SPEAKER_04:Listen, I love Grammarly. Yeah. I love grammarly.
SPEAKER_03:Grammarly is a good thing.
SPEAKER_04:I love Grammarly. And every once in a while it picks a better adjective than Thomas Heath. But I use Grammarly on the document, the questions you asked me to fill out today. Thank you. And it kept on saying, most significant impact. No. I help people figure out the shortest amount of works that make the greatest impact. So I said, dismiss. Yeah. So yeah, so just be know who you are, be authentic, and know your own.
SPEAKER_03:Grammarly download them for my text messages. Like I don't know what you're doing. Yeah, just know it's a good idea.
SPEAKER_04:Just get your messaging down before you launch a business. Please. That's it. Please. Please. It's that's the same thing. Don't build a website. The number one mistake entrepreneurs make is they build a website and the words don't match what they do, or they're boring, they sound like everyone else. Because someone said, Oh, I can design a website, and they say, Well, I can kind of write content, and then you're forced and it's rushed. It's gross. Stop, stop, stop. Write the cop before. I love you web designers, most of you. Uh some of you are flakes. That's my experience. But you know who's really flaking lately? A videographers. That's a whole nother stuff. Don't get any dog. Yep. I was a professional videographer. You are you're not a flake. Hey, you know, I say it because it's true. Yeah. I say it because it's true. I've had four or five young people. Oh, I'm going to show up, I'm going to do this and that. Five in them, five of the last five months. Radio silent. They're unprofessional. They're flakes. You know what? I studied. I studied videography, and I say that I'm passionate, gotta be careful. I don't want to c come across as condescending. I worked hard to study my craft. Right. Okay. I have a degree, it happens to be from NYU, but it doesn't matter. Trident Tech is amazing. I studied my craft. I learned professional. I paid the dues. I was a production assistant, which they used to call a pissant. Okay. I've done it all. Okay. I've been a cameraman, I've been on front of camera, I've edited everything like that. Most importantly, I showed up on timer early. And went and went, you know, so and I didn't lose footage. You know. How do you lose footage in digital? I can't wait to hear that. Just show up. Yeah, so anyway. So anyway. We're going all over the place here. Bring me back. Bring me back.
SPEAKER_01:Your passion now as a playwright, songwriter, entrepreneur, branding expert. How do you sleep? That's not what I want to talk about. I want to know how he sleeps.
SPEAKER_03:Well He's got so much going on.
SPEAKER_04:I'll just tell you two quick things for those of you listening. I want to hear from the playwright. No, here's two quick things. People always ask me when do you sleep? I sleep. I go to bed early. I'm usually out, lights out by 9.30. And when I didn't have a puppy, I'm usually up at 5.05. New puppies do that. Newborns do that. She'd be fine. She's great. She's believe me, this puppy's unicorn. She's amazing.
SPEAKER_01:We were at the board retreat and he had to go take his puppy out.
SPEAKER_03:Well, can I ask where you got your puppy from? Did you get it from?
SPEAKER_04:We rescued her.
SPEAKER_03:Really?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, yeah, I'll tell you. It's a longer story. Yeah, but anyway, so what I want to say. Oh my god. Sorry, I do. Okay, hold on. Which topic are we on? I'm sorry. How do you see it? Oh no, the time manager. Okay, here's the two things. Here's the thing. Here's the thing. The two main things are I do I do get sleep. It's not always quality sleep. I'm I'm open to improving that, and I do it naturally. I'm I'm a naturalist. I'm a big believer in ancient Chinese herbs. Okay, ancient Chinese medicine. So it what I do is I time block. Time block is it's changed my life. I had a client that loved it so much, he wrote a book about it. Time blocking by Luke Seivers. Get it off Amazon, comes with a workbook, he told What I taught him and made it even better. Time blocking by Luke Sievers. You look at Thomas Heed's calendar, it's all different colors, and this, I'm very, you know, it's it's blocked out. So that's that's that's one thing that allows me to do it. And the other thing is I know my purpose and my passion. You know, I'm a storyteller, so it doesn't tire me to write. I'm mainly writing songs now and musicals. I'm working on an animated musical. That doesn't tire me. That's fun. And I write mostly in the car. I'm weird. I write in the car. So and there's traffic around Charleston because we're so darn popular. So anyway, um, yeah, but but I I just this is I know my why. I know my why. And the greatest impact that I can make now, and my people are entrepreneurs. My people are entrepreneurs, that's my ministry. I love them. I'm also just love to empower and entertain the human spirit through storytelling. I love it. We've my wife Judy and I have written six plays. We're taking a break from playwriting now. Um she's got a novel coming out called uh what is it called? I you know, I'm not gonna tell you because it's a new title. But anyway, Judyheath.com. But any so but the the main thing is that um uh my higher power is using me as a storyteller, especially with the rock and roll musical. I wrote a rock and roll musical called Luke and Lucy. Yes. And I wrote it out of the depths of despair because my wife and I were getting our finally gonna get our big hit. We were going to off Broadway with two television stars. Uh if you remember Edie Falco, she was on the Sopranos and she did. Yeah, she did uh Nurse Jackie. Her co-star was Stephen Wallum. Thor. Thor. He is an amazing actor, hugely underrated. And then we had Geneva Carr. Geneva um originated uh the role of in Hand to God was Tony and nominees, meant multiple seasons on CBS television show Bull. Very, very talented. It was a two-hander that my wife and I wrote. Um and when and just with i it is about sexuality today. And uh we were bringing it to off Broadway and the pandemic shut it down. And it was a blessing in disguise because it's if it opened up, we our we our investors would have lost their shirts, half a million dollars.
SPEAKER_02:Right.
SPEAKER_04:So my wife's like, you know what? We gave theater a shot, it's been ten years, I'm writing a novel. Because I don't know if I'm gonna die because there's no vaccine, I can't talk to my neighbors, I can't talk to my kids. And I um started songwriting again and uh um as an outlet, and um I wrote a song about lost love. My wife said, You gotta do something with this, and then I did something I never did before. I wrote a musical, never wrote a musical before. I don't even self-identify as a musician, yet I am a composer and lyricist. And I said, Well, you know, if that's about lost love, when did it start? So I wrote a song about love. Very difficult. How do you write a song about love? And then I wrote like for five songs in total. I approached my collaborator, the amazing Brad Morantz. At first he said, No, I don't do that. He said, I'm a composer, and you know, the lyricist, and he was working on an off-broadway project. You know, lyricists bring me words and I turn them into music. And I said, Okay, can you just listen and think of anyone I can collaborate because I'm not a musician. Within an hour sending him, he said, I love your music, I'm in. Yep. And we wrote it over Zoom. We wrote, I wrote my first musical over Zoom. It's documented. I have most of it recorded.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:And it's called Luke and Lucy the Musical. And it's going to be coming to a major streaming service uh hopefully next year. And it's a story about young love. Young Love's great in the beginning.
SPEAKER_03:But have you already filmed some of it?
SPEAKER_04:Hold on. I have all the questions. Young Love is great in the beginning until it's not. Okay. But uh ultimately this is inspired by classic 70s and 80s rock and roll. So if you love Freddie Mercury and Queen, and if you love Stevie Nix and Elton John and the Stones and Billy Joel and Avril Levine and Pink and Little Broadway, Little Country, that's what we write. So, but the here's the big thing it's going to be part of a ten-episode reality docuseries on the making and casting of an original musical. Think American Idol Meets Musical Theater. The focus, the why for it, the reason why I wrote it is not for fame or fortune. I have no interest in either. I wrote it to empower teenagers, especially teenage girls. I wrote it to empower teenage girls to have a better sense of self-worth. So we're going to be talking head-on mental health. Because I've I've owned a mental health facility. We're going to be talking about isolation, anxiety, depression, cutting, suicide. And we're going to be giving, yep, we're going to be giving tools to adolescents on a global scale on how to reduce all that and slow down and get your face out of the phone. Okay? And make true connections. But ultimately, it's going to be thousands and thousands of triple threats. They're 15 to 25 years of age. They can be on Broadway, but they're in they're they're in they're up in in in in Winnipeg, or they're in, or they're in, or they're in Waco, Texas, or they're in Keokook, Iowa, and they can act, sing, and dance, and they're thousands of them are going to be trying to get one of four roles. Four roles in an original musical call, an original show called Mini Musical.
SPEAKER_03:I can't wait. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:So and every season there's a brand new mini musical, meaning it's under an hour. It's perfect for short attention span. Perfect. Yeah. And so we've already started writing season two, but we're really excited about it because of the impact. Yeah. Yeah. No kidding. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:I'm going to bring my tween to it.
SPEAKER_04:Well, we're doing so. This is cool. This is um this will be the first time I've said this publicly. We're doing a sneak peek of the television show on February 28th, uh, February 28th, 2025, 2026, at the Queen Street Playhouse. So if you go to footlightplayers.net and look for sneak peek, uh, we're going to do it as a fundraiser for the Queen Street Playhouse. Wonderful, wonderful people there.
SPEAKER_03:I'll be there.
SPEAKER_04:But they need a new lighting board. It costs$8,000, and we're all, everyone who buys a ticket, whether it's a$25 student ticket or a$50 adult ticket or a$100 VIP ticket, everyone will have their DNA on their lighting board. And we're going to do an album listening experience, we're going to show some of the pilot, we're going to show we're going to show clips, we're going to show the pitch video, we're going to have performances. And for anyone who wants to stick around, we're going to have a QA with myself and Brad Morance, the co-creators, where anyone, no moderator, audience can ask us anything about the creative process, but we're especially encouraging teenagers to ask. And then we're going to have a TikTok booth where kids are going to be able to talk about their show and adolescent mental health.
SPEAKER_01:Dang.
SPEAKER_04:That is February 28th. It's already starting to sell out. I don't know when this is coming out. I'm so happy for you. But once we're in the papers, it's going to sell out.
SPEAKER_01:So Queen Street Playhouse. Are you getting into the No, not yet.
SPEAKER_04:I mean, you know, right now this is we're doing this on a global scale.
SPEAKER_03:So um It would be great to have uh a screening at a school potentially. I don't know.
SPEAKER_04:I don't know. There's going to be there's going to be people. I have an amazing team. They'll figure all this out. Sure. They'll figure this all out. Because this is a documentary. We're putting it on a play and someone's filming it. It's not going to be reality TV. And by the way, if you like friendly reality TV, like the Great British Baking Show, that's what mini musical is going to be. There's going to be no first of all, there's going to be none of this with girls' cleavage hanging out. No, we're empowering teenage girls. Rock and roll's sexy, but it's not sexual. This is a family-friendly show with a little edge. I love it. Okay, this is a little edge, because the opening lines, the opening lines of this musical are Growing Up was not about little pink houses. Dad was too in love with his drink. The protagonist had an alcoholic father. This is not a Disney musical.
SPEAKER_03:Got it.
SPEAKER_04:And it's in your face, rock and roll, but it's passionate. And the audience reaction, we we did a we did a we filmed the pilot two years ago, 140 people. It was off the charts. From 10 years old to 80 years old, people love this. So we're excited. And we're gonna see. The great thing is I don't worry about it. The universe is gonna handle what happens to it.
SPEAKER_01:I wish more people would have that train of thought about the universe, putting it out there, doing what you have to do, your due diligence, working hard, and then letting the universe. I'm not tied up to this.
SPEAKER_04:I have I I love where I live. I love my career, I love my family, I'm not moving. Um and the thing is, for those of you who believe believe in a higher power, I choose to call mine God. This is God's project. This is not mine. I'm not doing this for money. I'm not you know, I'm not doing this for fame. Ugh, please, it's gonna evade my privacy.
SPEAKER_03:Uh I love the messaging behind it. I think it's pretty great.
SPEAKER_04:The messaging is you matter. Yes. You matter. Okay, and essentially the story is about a toxic relationship of teenagers, and and a young man overwhelms this girl who wants to be a guitarist in a rock and roll band. She doesn't want a boyfriend, she doesn't want a friend, she just wants to graduate and get out of her house. She's had a tough life, and then she falls in love with a guy that she thinks is great, but then it gets very toxic and she loses her voice. And he won't let her have friends. He won't let her talk to other boys. He picks fights and she loses her voice and all her hope. And it's a story about her regaining that. Luke and Lucy and the musical. Look for it. So important. So important.
SPEAKER_01:Australia banning social media for under 16. I thought that was brilliant.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, it's it's you know, it's way too. It starts early and it starts at home. It starts early and starts at home. And here is what I'm going to say to any parent: go tell your child that they matter. Go tell your child that they matter. That they're on this earth for a reason. Go find out what that purpose is. I'm a teacher and storyteller. Go find your purpose early. Don't worry about a job. Find a career, find a passion.
SPEAKER_01:Crazy topical. We just had a gentleman do something terrible today on the bridge. You know, I wish we were there to tell him the same thing of his parents for the bigger. I'm a storyteller.
SPEAKER_04:There is good and evil in the world, whether you accept it or not, it exists. Call it whatever you want. The energy's out there, and there are way too many people jumping off bridges because they're losing hope. So part of what we want to do, through at least what I want to do with through my music, is bring them hope. I want to bring them hope. Love that. Yep. Thank you, Thomas.
SPEAKER_01:Is there anything else that you want to talk about? Expectations of how this went and if there's any other comments or love that you want to give to Charleston marketing?
SPEAKER_04:First of all, this is a very natural discussion. Like, am I going on too long? No, no, no. Well, I'm just saying, I'm just saying part.
SPEAKER_03:Well, you're multifaceted. You have a lot of things going on. I do. So it's nice to hear all about it.
SPEAKER_04:Oh no, it's all good. I mean, people say they're like, how do you do it all? And I say, you know what? I used to be busy. Now I'm busy with a purpose. I'm very clear on my purpose. And but I yeah, yeah, I want to talk about one other thing. I want to talk about mental health. Yes, okay. I want to talk about this. Because uh, as I mentioned, I recently launched the brand builders. And what was amazing out of that launch, what came out of it, was um um Joe Bruggerman, who's a very, very big thinking smart marketer, uh, who helps people actually put ads, you know, on Google or whatever that work. Um, you know, they get the phones, right? Is that Media Beast Joe? Yeah, Media Beast Joe. He's a smart guy. So anyway.
SPEAKER_01:He's gonna be on the show here soon, too.
SPEAKER_04:Good. Listen to Joe. He's smart. So anyway, and he's gonna be one of my experts on the brand builders. Um so he said, you know, Thomas, um you said during your presentation of the brand builders that you were a recovering perfectionist. Are you going to be expanding about your personal journey on that? And I looked him in the eye and I said, Well, I was thinking about it, um, but I I wasn't comfortable talking about it, but I am now. And I said, and I told this story about how um roughly four weeks or so ago, um, five weeks, um, I got um I've been very sick this year. Very sick, a lot of GI issues, and I thought I kept on getting the neurovirus and the neurovirus. And last time I had, quote, the neurovirus, I lost nine pounds in six days. It was very, very uncomfortable. Well, it turns out I had something called diverticulitis. And it's mainly brought on by stress. Yeah, and it's serious, it's cute, it's not good, it's painful, don't get it. Ugh. It's but a lot of people get it, apparently. And uh six days later I was in the emergency room with a cardiac episode. Yeah, not too many people know that. So but I share that, I share that at my uh at my launch because uh this is and I said this, and there was you know, like 90 entrepreneurs, and I looked it straight in the eye and I said grinding without rejuvenation equals burnout. Grinding without rejuvenation equals burnout on the poster child for it. So I am I am really retraining myself.
SPEAKER_03:I was getting that way this year. Yeah. I'm getting better about it.
SPEAKER_01:You can tell you're working on it though, intentionally working on it. Well, I'm being open to it. See, what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_03:I love that you're talking about it because all of us that are entrepreneurs work so hard and it's the blessings. It's the elephant in the room. Blessing and being busy.
SPEAKER_04:Because we're all like, oh yeah, you're you're you're scared forward, you're hiring more people, and you're getting clients, and oh, oh, you're you're you're got this award and you're doing this and that. When does it stop?
SPEAKER_03:You say yes to every volunteer opportunity. Heck yeah.
SPEAKER_04:I was about to say the F-bomb, but heck yeah. So the thing is, so how's my life changed? Well, I've de-volunteered from two-thirds of my activities because I was over I was acting I was over volunteered. And and I'm staying at the Harbor Entrepreneur Center, I'm staying at the Harbor Entrepreneur Center, I'm gonna stay with one million cups. Uh other than that, I I and people are great, they're very supportive, you know. But I'm also um very involved in the um the Harbor Um Club at West Edge, which is Charleston's premier private business and social club. I came up with that tagline, but it is Charleston's premier private business and social club. But the thing is, I was on three different boards. Yeah. And they and uh and I and took off two of them. So now I'm just gonna sit on the board of governors, which is great, it's an honor and I can make an impact. But but I said to them, I said, You've got to find ways. And a lot of it I'm doing through my songwriting now. I'm talking about slowing down, I'm talking about acceptance, I'm talking about perspective. All these songs are coming to me for for another project. And um and what I want to do, though it's not comfortable, like even right now, I'm not comfortable, and that's okay. It's not about me being comfortable. If I want to make impact, I get to be vulnerable and share my story. It is and it's evolving, it's brand new. This is this shit is brand new, folks. So anyway, um my growth opportunity, notice I didn't say the word challenge, is to slow down and breathe. Slow down and breathe. So one of the tips I'll be giving to the brand builders network, is I'm just gonna give my tips right there now. Because people are gonna be paying me 40, 50, you know, 180, you know, a thousand bucks a month. They're gonna be paying me. They want, you know, I can't give this for free, some of this, but one of my tips, and it this might be in the free weekly brand builders, is gonna be the four by four max. I've I created this breathing technique called four by four max. I've been teaching other people, it's very effective.
SPEAKER_01:Like a box breathing type of thing, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, but it's it's it's the problem with well, my challenge with box breathing, and and you didn't know this, I'm a retired life coach. So I was 15 years private practice, life coach, business coach, career coach, you know, certified. I study at the Life Purpose Institute out of San Diego. Love the Life Purpose Institute. Um it just it's um it's a technique that anyone if I can do it, anyone can do it. And I'll be sharing about that. And I'll be sharing about um how boundaries. Oh my god, brow. I'll be sharing about something that took me twenty-five years to do.
SPEAKER_03:How can you get clients to not text you at 10 o'clock at night?
SPEAKER_04:Well here's the thing, you gotta train them. You gotta train your husband says boundaries. And so my guess what I did right before I came here. What? I put on my out of office message, it says I'm off the grid. I'm off the grid. And then what I do is I hide LinkedIn and I hide my business email, not my music email, but my you know, my my my other stuff. Because I have an assistant, and my sonny boy's coming into town, and he lives in Costa Rica, and I see him and his wife, his grand, and I'm off the grid. Good for you. And I've but I've never done that until recently. And it may take strong boundaries and it takes a support system. Yeah. So I had a therapist, I had a coach, I not my wife, I had a therapist, I had a coach, I had you know people in my church, my small group, I had fellow business people literally saying, if I see you on LinkedIn, what do I do? I said, slap my face.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:So so I came back from vacation and said, I don't have to slap you, because I wasn't on it. So boundaries. So yeah, so mental health for marketers, I'm gonna be calling it mental health for entrepreneurs. It's time we talk about it because, yeah, it's great to great to be, you know, look like churn and burn, but you know what? It ain't worth it. You can still be successful, you can still be highly profitable without killing yourself, and hopefully I'll be able to teach people that.
SPEAKER_01:Are you gonna add that to the harbor? To the accelerator?
SPEAKER_04:No, it's gonna be exclusive to the brand builders network. Nice.
SPEAKER_03:I love this.
SPEAKER_04:Okay. Awesome. Wow, I'm very proud of you. I can't wait to wait for your musical. I I do have a lot going on, but I'm having a blast. You look like it. I'm having a blast. You're aging backwards. I have another head. But but the thing is, everything happens for a reason. And uh listen, I I still struggle with mental health and some anxiety and rushing around. I do. That's the God's honest truth. People look at me like, oh, we guess it's always anxious. You know what? Yeah, I have my act together. The thing is, I'm also human. Right. And I'm also great at going over capacity. And I've learned that from my friend Amy, she says, when someone says, Can you do blah, blah, blah, I'm at capacity. Not sorry, I'm at I'm at capacity. That's a good idea. I'm at capacity. I'm at capacity. And it's true. Yep. I'm at capacity. So yeah, it's uh I love life. It's great. I'm learning, I'm learning so much at my ripe old age. And um and I love what y'all are doing. This is great. It's great to see this organization get, you know, I'm gonna say rebirth, Phoenix, resurrected, because it makes a difference. It's it's hard to be a marketer. It's ve it's it can be very isolating. It's hard to be an entrepreneur. Community is so important. It really is. Community is so important. So I just love what y'all are doing. Big fans of it. Might not be able to show up as as many meetings as I did in the past. But yeah, life, life is great. And and and and what I'll say is the last thing that I'll say is when uh someone asked me during the past three years, I started this on January 1st, three years ago. They used to ask me how you doing. I said, Oh, I'm good, I'm fine. And then a therapist said, Good and fine are not feelings, Thomas. And I really applied that, but then I said, Well, how do I want to respond? So the way I respond now is I'm grateful. Nine times out of ten, when someone asks me how I'm doing, hey, how you doing? I'm grateful. Even when I'm not.
SPEAKER_03:Does it stop people in our tracks?
SPEAKER_04:Oh my god, it does.
SPEAKER_03:I bet it does.
SPEAKER_04:It does. People are like, uh uh oh. Some people say, Well, of course you are. Shouldn't you always be grateful? I'm like, no, sometimes, sometimes I'm in a crappy mood.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:And I will tell you if I'm sad. Sometimes I'm not feeling grateful because I just sat in traffic. Yet, since I said it to you, then I said, Oh, yes, I am grateful because anyone that lives in Charleston is part of the 1%. Sorry, but it's anyone who lives in this country, it's paradise. This country is not perfect, but it's pretty, pretty amazing. It's pretty amazing. So try it. Try it. And I've given this to young people. I've given it to the the the the security guard at my desk, the thirty-five year old Hispanic woman named Maria. And when you ask her how she's doing, she's oh I'm grateful. And she has told me amazing stories. She's got other people saying it now. And just Instead of saying I'm fine, I'm good, just say I'm grateful. See what happens. Some people won't know what to do with it, but other people will go, Wow, I'm grateful too.
SPEAKER_03:I'm gonna use it this weekend.
SPEAKER_04:Yep. Tell me how it goes. I will 66 days to form a habit.
SPEAKER_02:There you go.
SPEAKER_01:That's Thomas. We we could do another hour with you, boss. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna have you again on later on. Yes. You know, to kind of like where are you now? Where how's the show going and all that stuff? But I wanted to say how grateful I am for you and your time and what you're doing, and and Stephanie, how grateful I am for you and and all of our listeners. You know, and and our supporters, the Charleston, Carolina.
SPEAKER_03:This should be airing in January, so it's a good thing. Oh, that's great.
SPEAKER_04:And also I'm a big fan of South Carolina Research Authority. Thank you. SERA. They're amazing people. Yeah, I wish they would change their name, but yeah. I know, but I hate South Carolina South Carolina Innovation Authority. Innovation. No, she's heard it from me already. I love those folks. They're great.
SPEAKER_01:They're awesome. They um they support our podcasts, and um Charleston Media Solutions has been fantastic, too. We're going out of years then facility. Our partner for years.
SPEAKER_04:I walked, I drove up to the office. I'm like, wow, this is impressive.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, we've got over a hundred episodes. Oh, wow.
SPEAKER_04:I know I listened to the beginning ones. I've been yeah, this is great. So that's great. Congratulations.
SPEAKER_03:We need to do a 2025 recap video.
SPEAKER_01:I actually have one started. I started an LLM under chat, and I've got like a podcast um producer agent for camera. Well, we'll we'll work on that again. Yeah, well, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Thank you, Charleston Media Group. That's the media solutions of the Media Solutions, I think.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, I just went for a rebrand. So anyway, Stephanie, you want to say anything?
SPEAKER_03:No, this is awesome. I'm so glad you're here. I know I've been hearing about the musical for a couple of years, so I know that it's coming to fruition, and I can't wait to see it. Take Amelie. Four years, four years. Amelie and Laney are gonna love it, so I'm very happy for you.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, thank you. Well, I appreciate you both, and uh, let's go make the world a better place.
SPEAKER_03:Let's do it. That's why I'm here. All right, me too.
SPEAKER_02:Thanks, listeners. Talk to you soon.
SPEAKER_03:Bye.
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