The Audacity of an Entrepreneur to Grow Up Poor, Become Rich, Lose Everything, and Climb Back Up with Scribe Media’s President and CEO, JeVon McCormick

JeVon “JT” McCormick was born the mixed-race son of a drug-dealing pimp father and an 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.

He started scrubbing toilets, hustled, and worked his way into the banking and mortgage industry. He did really well… until the mortgage industry fell apart, and he lost his job — and all of his money. He had to borrow from his friends to make rent.

JeVon springboarded to even bigger heights. He made millions in the stock market and eventually became President of two multimillion-dollar companies.

Now, JeVon is the President and CEO of Scribe Media. This publishing company helps people write, publish, and market their books. They have worked with over 1,900 authors, including David Goggins, who has sold over two million copies of his book, Can’t Hurt Me.

JeVon is the author of the book I Got There: How a Mixed-Race Kid Overcame Racism, Poverty, and Abuse to Arrive at the American Dream. He lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife, Megan, and their four children.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• Why JeVon McCormick decided to reveal his heart-wrenching childhood story
• The story behind JeVon’s book that was never meant to be sold — but is now public
• How hard was it for JeVon to release a book exposing his secrets?
• What growing up poor, becoming rich, losing all his money, and starting over taught JeVon about life
• JeVon recalls what life was like as a nine-year-old left with a baby to care for
• The force behind JeVon’s choice to lead a better life than his upbringing (or lack of it)
• How JeVon’s journey to a better life began by scrubbing toilets
• JeVon shares how he helps improve the people, process, and profits in his current job at Scribe Media

In this episode…

Think about this for a second: any chance that a boy who is one of 23 children born to a poor pimp and drug-dealing father will escape crime and poverty? Not only did today’s guest JeVon McCormick go into juvenile detention more than once, but he barely graduated high school. He had every reason to fail and stay poor, but…

JeVon made it out. He started to work his way out of poverty by scrubbing toilets, learning about stocks, and eventually making a lot of money. Unfortunately, he lost it all. But that didn’t deter him from starting over and becoming the President and CEO of Scribe Media. How has JeVon braved the odds to get to where he is today, and what lessons can you learn from his journey?

Listen to this episode of the Inspired Insider Podcast with Dr. Jeremy Weisz featuring Scribe Media’s President and CEO, JeVon McCormick. They peel back the layers of JeVon’s heart-wrenching childhood story, the force behind JeVon’s choice to lead a better life than his upbringing (or lack of it), and how he emerged the President of two multimillion-dollar companies after losing all his money. You don’t want to miss a minute of this insightful episode.

Resources Mentioned in this episode

• Scribe Media
• JeVon McCormick on LinkedIn
• Tucker Max on LinkedIn
• Zach Obront on LinkedIn

Special Mentions:

• Jeff Wilke

Books Mentioned:

• Can’t Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds by David Goggins
• I Got There: How a Mixed-Race Kid Overcame Racism, Poverty, and Abuse to Arrive at the American Dream by JT McCormick

Related Episode(s): 

• “P90X: Earning Food & Rent Money as a Mime to over $500 million in Sales- with Tony Horton [Business Inspiration]”
• “Baby Einstein: $20 million within 5 years & 2 time Cancer Assassin – with Julie Clark [Inspiration]”
• “Building and Scaling a Company with Tucker Max, Founder of Scribe Media”

 

Episode Transcript

Jeremy Weisz 0:19

Dr. Jeremy Weisz here. I’m the Founder of InspiredInsider.com. I talk with inspirational entrepreneurs and leaders before I introduce today’s guest, which, you know, JeVon I have created this podcast for this very day for JeVon. I mean, you’ll see why this is why it’s called Inspired Insider is because I love talking about stories that are the challenges the what builds our character, what builds us as individuals. And this story today is just that, you know, if I always like to point people to other podcast episodes to check out, I had the Founder of p90x Tony Horton, what I loved JeVon about that story is that he didn’t we Yes, he’s generated tons of success. But what people don’t know about him is he drove cross country with basically no money all the way to California. And the way he made food and rent money was he was a street mime. So he did street miming put a hat on the street. And that’s how he made his food and rent money when he was up and coming and Julie Clark of Baby Einstein grew her company from with five employees to $20 million in a very short period of time selling to Disney. But what was impressive to me was she beat cancer twice. She had cancer throughout that time. And just those tremendous stories are, don’t get told there’s so many more so go to Inspired Insider.com And check out more episodes. And this episode before I introduce JeVon McCormick of Scribe Media, this episode is brought to you by Rise25 at Rise25 we help businesses give it to you and connect to their dream relationships. And we do that by helping you run your podcast and for me JeVon The number one thing in my life is relationships. I’m always looking at ways to give to my relationships, how do I profile the people and companies I admire on my podcast to give to them. And that’s why I’ve been podcasting for over a decade. I’ve never, I’ve never stopped doing it. It’s the best thing I’ve ever done. And you know, if you are encouraged, you should be encouraged to if you have a business, you should have a podcast in my opinion, you’ll go to Rise25.com checkout and learn more. And you know, ultimately, JeVon the what inspired me to podcast and I don’t tell the story all the time, which I started telling it. I don’t know maybe like nine years ago or so is because my grandfather was a Holocaust survivor. And him and his brother were in concentration camps in Nazi Germany. And they were the only members of our family to survive in his legacy lives on because of an interview because the whole combination in interview with him and so now my kids can watch it my grandkids can watch it my great grandkids watch it. And it’s gonna be similar with JeVon’s story and also with Scribe Media, actually, because what scribe media does is helps people tell their story. So it lives on their legacy lives on through the books that they create. And so without further ado, let me introduce JeVon McCormick. And it’s a really heart wrenching story. I encourage everyone he’s given a talk several times it you should listen to, but he was born just a little bit of background was born. The mixed race son of a drug dealing pimp father, and orphan single mother on welfare and he was raised in the slums of Dayton, Ohio, and suffered incredible abuse and racism. I don’t know how you tell your story, JeVon, honestly without crying or breaking down you say it with such composure when you’re doing it because like, I when I watched, I’ve watched it probably almost 10 times now legitimately and, you know, I get emotional when I hear your story, man. You know, he had multiple stints in the juvenile justice system barely graduated high school, has no college degree, started scrubbing toilets hustled and worked his way into the banking and mortgage industry did really well there until we know what happened in the mortgage industry. It fell apart. He lost his job, lost his money and had to borrow from his friends to make rent. But you know, he is resilient. He springboarded made millions in the stock market eventually became president of two multimillion-dollar companies. a software company now is the President CEO of Scribe Media, which I mentioned is a publishing company that helps people write and publish and market their books. They’ve worked with over 1900 authors, including David Goggins, Can’t Hurt Me that sold over 2 million copies. And JeVon has a book which you should check out I got there. How I Overcame Racism, Poverty and Abuse to Achieve the American Dream. JeVon this is when I stop talking, but it just, you know, thank you for joining me,

JeVon McCormick 4:46

my man. How are you sir?

Jeremy Weisz 4:48

I’m great. I’m great. I’m glad to have you. And you know, I kind of wanted to I’m like, where do I start with this story? Um, and I kind of want to start on a plane ride. I think, you know, You never want to share your story now with anyone, and you want to keep it a secret. And what changed on that plane ride.

JeVon McCormick 5:09

You know, I had my children at the time I had to at the time of that plane ride, I hit turbulence. And it really jumped out to me that wow, if something happened to me, my children would not know where I came from in my background. So when I got off the plane, my whole mission was okay, how can I put my story in a book in in here, here’s what’s key to this. I just wanted to put it in a book. I didn’t want to make it public. I just needed a book, much like the video of your grandfather. I just needed something to where my great great, great grandchildren would know. Okay, here’s our origin story, because I don’t have one I used to my mother was, was an orphan. I don’t know where my last name comes from still to this day, you know that my father was a black pimp and drug dealer. he fathered 23 children. And I wanted that that to my kids to know those things. So that became the the mission, how do I put my story in a book, and I only wanted five copies. Man, I did not want this book to be public. There were things in there on my own man, if this goes public, a lot of people going like wait a minute, I thought he had a degree. Hold on. I thought he was Mexican. And so I did not want that book to go public. But here we are.