The Promise To The One - Jason Hewlett : Keynote Speaker and Entertainer

SPEAKER_01 0:03

This is the Beyond the Story Podcast, a show that goes way beyond the story. What's up, ladies and gentlemen? Thanks so much for taking some time out of your day to hang out with me. I have conversations with some new friends of mine. We go beyond the story. My guest this week, Jason Hewlett. Hall of Fame speaker. There is a speaking Hall of Fame. I bet you didn't know that. He's a keynote speaker. He does live and virtual events with top companies. Travels the world doing so. Sharing his message. That message being the promise. The promise is combining the powerful business meets personal mindset shifting philosophy. I want to get into more of what the promise is, but I don't want to spoil the episode. So, friends, could you please put your virtual hands together? Not if you're driving. For my good friend Jason Hewlett. What's up, dude?

SPEAKER_00 1:10

Dude, this is great. I love your podcast, man. I've listened to so many episodes with my friends. So impressed to I get to be here too. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 1:18

Well, it is my pleasure to have you here. And because of those friends, that's the reason you and I connected. Well, I the internet had a had a little bit something to do with that. I we were just speaking before we started the recording here, and then I first discovered you through one of your famous Elton John impersonations. And and and quite uh quite the performance. So I commend you on that. I spent a lot of time on stage, but I like our mutual friend Jeff Savillico, I don't know how to juggle, be shot out of a cannon, and I don't know how to play the piano as well as I probably could. So I'm always looking up to guys like yourself that are doing some really cool stuff on stage. So I like to tell people's story. So let's back up to when you first decided that you wanted to be a performer and an entertainer and later an author and speaker.

SPEAKER_00 2:01

Yeah, I started my career when I was just just became an adult. And then next thing I know, I'm in Las Vegas impersonating Elton John and Ricky Martin in the same show called The Legends in Concert. And so that I toured around the country with them for about a year doing these two characters that look and sound so different. Nobody knew it was the same guy. And then I realized it was kind of limiting just between these two characters. So I said, how could I create something else? So I put together a show of a hundred or so impressions, and that was everything from Michael Jackson to Louis Armstrong, the Bee Gees, the Chipmunks. And it was just a family-friendly comedy show of musical impressions and just kind of all my wacky zany stuff that I do with sounds and noises. And eventually people started asking me if I could teach leadership within what I was doing. And I was like, really? Because I always wanted to be a speaker. And so eventually having these corporations say, hey, we had you as our entertainment, and that was awesome, but it seems like you could teach us a few things as well. And that's just how it eventually began. And now my career is completely morphed from, you know, Las Vegas showman guy to the person who gets to be the opening keynote on a Monday morning for a big conference. It's pretty cool career change for me. And and I still integrate the music and the comedy wherever it fits in order to teach. So it's been a big shift.

SPEAKER_01 3:27

Sounds like it. So Las Vegas to the corporate world, essentially, right? In some form or fashion. And you've written a book too. We were talking about this before, before the episode too. Tell us a little bit about that.

SPEAKER_00 3:42

I'm holding it up for the viewers. The promise to the one. And people say, what is the promise to the one? Well, it's the promises we make to ourselves. And I talk about promise to the audience, which is your clients or customers, promise to the family, which could be the people you work with or your family at home. But we rarely talk about the promises we make and break to ourselves. And so I like to say, why set a goal and we can make a promise? And how can we make greater promises to ourselves because we keep them with everyone else, or else we'd lose our job, we'd lose our family, the team hates us. But what about ourselves? What about writing that book or losing the weight or just getting better sleep? You know, especially at this time in our world right now. People need to come back to a place of saying, how can I take care of myself? Keep some promises to me.

SPEAKER_01 4:28

And where did you come up with the idea to do that? Was that a personal experience that you found?

SPEAKER_00 4:33

Oh, yeah. I mean, through the years, I'm the I'm the biggest promise breaker I know as far as to myself. I mean, I'm always serving everybody. I'm staying up all night to get a project done for someone else. I'm neglecting my own health, my own sleep, my own, you know, my own business sometimes in benefit of others, helping them. And so I really wrote this book because I said, you know, I need to keep a promise to myself. And it's really, it's really just me filleting open my experience and heart for people to be like, whoa, he's sharing all of these broken promises. And then I just give them ideas as to how they could uh keep theirs as well. And it's helped me too.

SPEAKER_01 5:09

Well, I look forward to reading it because I think we're all in that category uh as human beings, not keeping that commitment of in those promises to ourselves, which is extremely important. Now you also mentioned, and I had seen it right after the Elton John video when I'd first discovered you a few years back. And you talked about having that promise to your audience and also the promise to your craft. I know that's kind of all tied in there, but that really stood out to me because when you when you think of public speaking or as a performer being on stage, it's very well, have you heard me speak? Instead of, I'm here to serve an audience, and I'm committed to that audience, and I'm committed to the craft. And I just think that's such an incredible way, way to think at about what you do and how you go about it.

SPEAKER_00 5:51

It's a cool way to think about it because of this the idea that you know you might have traveled a long distance to get there. You're exhausted, maybe you have too much going on in your life, but then in that moment you have that audience right in front of you. And whether it's a virtual call or a live in-person event now, you have a promise to keep to that audience, whether it's spoken or not. The performer's promise is to give 100% and be fully present in that moment. And that also means that we need to share our signature moves. And so, our signature, you know, if you were to say, What's Michael Jackson's signature move? It was the moonwalk. Well, what's your signature move? How are people going to impersonate you? You know, when you leave the room, what are they saying are your talents and gifts? That's your signature move. And it's your promise to share that and deliver it to the audience. They're expecting it once they've seen you. They want to see you again and again and again. Just like an artist, if you went to their concert, they didn't play their hit song. The one song you came to hear, you'd be like, hey, he broke a promise. He didn't sing that song we came to hear. I remember that happened to Billy Joel. I went to his concert, he played like 39 of his top 40 hits, left the stage without playing the piano man. And we were like, What the what Billy Joel didn't play the piano man? So when he came back out on stage after we shouted Encore for five minutes, he put the harmonica on. He said, I just want to see how long you guys would cheer and stay until I came out and played my biggest hit. And then he played piano man, and we were like, Yeah, you know. So that's the promised delivery of any performer, whether you're in an entrepreneur in sales, leadership, it's delivering your signature moves.

SPEAKER_01 7:29

Absolutely. And I agree with that 100%. Speaking of Billy Joel, I saw him on New Year's Eve a few years back here in South Florida. And I gotta tell you, it was more of a Billy Joel sing-along. He literally had an iPad on top of the top of the piano, and he was like, What do you want to hear next? I think like the opening song, the piano may have turned around once, and like that was a rap. I think we actually left early, which I don't know who goes to see Billy Joel and leaves leaves early a little bit, but I mean it was literally a sing-along. People were screaming out from the audience. I thought it was that like Wednesday night prayer meeting. What hymn do you want to hear next? You know?

SPEAKER_00 8:06

But he has so many hits, man. It's and he's so funny with the audience. Like you say, he's like, hey, whatever you want to hear. I mean pretty unique for an artist to do that.

SPEAKER_01 8:14

Sure. I mean, he's had a phenomenal career. So at this point, he doesn't, you know, he's listening I'm I'm here. Okay. I'm here to perform and and that in and of itself, but it was a but more of a longer show, but he's got quite the catalog. So so so when you when you're booked for these corporate events, what what type of like so what do you deliver? I mean, I know that you're an enter entertainer and you play the piano and you do impersonations and things of that nature, but what is what is your main thing, if you will?

SPEAKER_00 8:40

Yeah, so they I mean they would bring me in as a morning keynote speaker, an opening or closing keynote. Okay. So let's say that they have Michael Phelps on one end and they have a huge celebrity with a huge bill, then they would bring in me on the other end because they're gonna want some comedy or some inspiration, something more light. And that's what I'm doing. I'm also mixing in within that this message called the promise. And I call it the promise, the engagement experience, because we, you know, the a promise is the highest level of engagement we commit to in any experience. That's what I like to say. And so I I do say that whole line about goals, but I say, you know, why set a goal and we can make a promise, but not to say goals aren't important, but if we set a goal and we miss it, we just set a new one. But if we make a promise and break it, we have a problem. And so where goals are particulars, promises are proclamations. What are your promise proclamations to your client, which is your audience, your family, the people at work, and yourself? And so that's really what I'm doing. And then I'm mixing in music and everything to kind of drive the point home. So really, people some people get out of it a full show. They're like, I just laughed for an hour. That was the best. And other people are like, oh my gosh, I'm taking notes. This is so helpful. I can bring this back to my team, help everybody there discover their signature moves, and we can define our promise proclamation. Because I like to say that mission statements are dead. Define your promise proclamation. Nobody's gonna remember the seven or 12 point mission statement. The promise proclamation is simple. Like for me, mine is spread joy. That's it. Now that just changes every single interaction that I have with every single person every time.

SPEAKER_01 10:22

I love that. Mine's to leave people different. So I guess that's a form of joy too. That's it. So that's just my goal in any interaction. I don't care if it's a cashier at the grocery store, a stranger, a homeless person, somebody on an airplane. I I want to, you know, there's there's there's a unique experience available wherever. So I I I love that. So do you write out each of these things? So you sit down, you like a book for a gig, and is it customized to what the client wants? And then you go in there and you start writing material? Or is it true?

SPEAKER_00 10:48

I mean, but I do have a formula that's proven to work, and I just insert what the client wants to talk about. So some of them don't want the promise, the engagement experience. Some want it to fit within their theme. So if their theme is think big, then it's just the promise to think big, that kind of a thing. And then I just insert what they want, and if they want to focus more on their team building, let's say, or the customer only, let's say, then we'll just go down that path and that makes it awesome. I mean, that's why it's so fun for me because every event is completely different, even if I'm delivering some of those same bits here and there that I know will land, you know, as a kind of a standing ovation thing. Sure.

SPEAKER_01 11:28

Yeah. Well, I mean, you you're able to, well, that worked well. It's kind of like a comic. And you're like, well, that landed and that got laughs. So you know it's going to be able to work. So that that that leads me to my next question, which is what when's the best time for you to test new material? Is that is that adding do you kind of integrate it into each new event as you know, and then kind of put it in your repertoire of well, that landed really well. We'll do that again, or whoa, crickets, let's not do that again. Yeah, man. How does that work?

SPEAKER_00 11:50

I call it the promise to fail. In fact, I did I did a presentation called The Promise to Fail last night for the National Speakers Association at my local chapter in Utah, the Mountain West chapter, we did our paid to speak event. So we had, I think, 16 speakers, and I was the closer. I did the promise to fail, and I shared all the times that I've tried new material, it didn't land, what happened, and how to process through that. And so, yeah, what I recommend is if somebody's got a pretty solid speech or a show, if you're a comic or a performer, that you want to always bookend the best stuff and then insert the new stuff right in between. That's where you test. You never really want to test it out as an opener or closer just because you don't want to leave them that way. But if you can insert it in between A and A material, you can stick anything in the middle as long as you can bring them back to that one level. And and what's neat is when the thing you just inserted after an A, and then you insert it, if it goes well, then you're like, wow, that's a standalone piece. I should just continue to you know massage that, make it a nice piece. I know you do that with as an MC. I mean, you've been on so many stages, you know, you know the drill.

SPEAKER_01 13:04

Absolutely. I mean, you definitely, I mean, I thankfully the part of the MC stuff is that my goal, my my job is to is to bring the thunder, especially initially. So when we're beginning something, coming out with like a like a well, I've had I've been referred to as a tornado of enthusiasm. So good coming out with the bow tie and the high energy there, but then being able to bring it back down and be able to communicate on that level and then back up and then back down. That's really been my ability to do it. But there's been times and I've found more times than not. An MC's job is not just to bring a speaker on the stage. We can have Bill from accounts do it. He does the announcements at the holiday party. It's it's to be able to say, hey, listen, we we got 20 minutes before the next speaker. Let's go, you know, we we we got to kill some time. We need to cut time, we need to add time. And I found myself thrown into the lion's den, if you will, more times than not. So as my as my MC Chris has has grown, I've I've decided that maybe I should start writing some dialogue. I'm an aspiring stand stand-up comic, which absolutely terrifies me, Jason. I can't explain it. I can do a stage of 10,000 people, no problem, but put me in a bar with uh with with 15 drunk people and I'm petrified.

SPEAKER_00 14:12

I get it, man. I'm telling you, I tried the stand-up at the beginning of my career because I was trying to figure out where am I gonna be? Am I gonna be a recording artist, a comedian, an actor? Where am I going with this? And yes, I agree with you. And I'll tell you, the MC role is such a fascinating one. It's so important for events to have this. Not just Bob from accounting, like you say, you want to have somebody who can do the energy, bring it back, tie in the business of what we just heard, maybe save what just happened with the boring doctor that spoke, bring the uh the crowd back to life. I mean, it sounds like you've mastered it, our friend Jeff Sivillico.

SPEAKER_01 14:48

I'm a rookie compared to Sivillico, my goodness. Funny story, I found his reel on YouTube. That's how I found Jeff. And I was, you've seen this thing, and he he put a full problem production behind this thing and did a phenomenal job in Las Vegas down to the bungee jumping and everything. And I'm like, I gotta meet this guy. So I was like, listen, I've only been an MC for like eight or nine years now, and like you, and I don't juggle, but man, I'd love to be connected with you, love to have you on the show. And uh, we've just developed a really cool relationship. But and then that's how I found other you know, great individuals. Scott Bloom's been another buddy, a new new buddy of mine. All the I call it the Civilico Ripple Effect. Well, you guys are all in a mastermind together, aren't you?

SPEAKER_00 15:28

Yeah, we have our mastermind with Scott Bloom and John Di Domenico, who's a great impulsator of Trump and so forth. Sure. Tim Gabrielson, he's a magician who does incredible keynoting as an inspirational speaker. And then Wayne Lee, he's yes, he's a hypnotist mentalist and he does, you know, hypnot or hypnotist, he helps people with coaching and and speaking. I mean, he's incredible too. So this group of us with Jeff Savilico leading the way, I mean, it's pretty intense and awesome because they're all such high achievers. And even though we all lost all of our work once 2020 hit, because we're all live performers on stage, you know, we all had to do these crazy shifts into the virtual world. And so it's fun to watch each other navigate that. And everybody succeeded in our own realm. Yep. And that's the power of keeping your promise as a performer and the promise to fail, which I love the concept of like fail enough and you're gonna succeed, right?

SPEAKER_01 16:22

Sure. Absolutely. No, it has been. I and I I was there, in fact, I was Jeff was he was stuck in Coast Costa Rica at the beginning of Corona. I remember that. And he's down there juggling a dish soap and whatnot in board shorts. But he really, but then but we we had later connected and he was like, Yeah, I was able to we continued, we were forced to innovate. So he was like, Studios weren't doing anything. So I went to a local studio and I'm like, you're not doing anything right now because nobody's leaving the house. So here's what I'm thinking, and just being able to, and then of course, that's just the upside of community in general, but a mastermind like you guys have. It's like, hey, what are you doing? How do we do it? And plus, and not to say that you know you guys have been doing this for a minute now. So technology is a part of it, but it hasn't been a core focus, like you're not gonna be able to perform unless you can do this from your living room. So that was a huge, huge adjustment, I'm sure. Well, it has been for me too.

SPEAKER_00 17:09

Yeah, I mean, I when I started my career as an entertainer doing corporate evening shows, I was doing about 200 of those a year. And then when we had kids, I was like, I gotta slow down. I started doing keynoting and so forth. Then I'm averaging around 70 a year traveling. But then in 2020, because of the pandemic, I was like, I have to do everything in order to fail enough to see if I can ruin my setup to burn this thing up so that I can fix every little piece till it's tight. So I was taking every free Monday morning motivation or Tuesday training or whatever they would want me to do, I was doing whether it was for free or whatever, until I finally built my fee back up. And just like Jeff, I mean, we did over a hundred events in 2020 alone before March and December, just doing everything, you know. So that's what that's what it takes to survive in a business like this.

SPEAKER_01 18:00

Showing up, yeah, it really does. Saying yes more than you say no. But most most definitely. Well, I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. The stage is a very special place to be, as you know, and along with that comes a tremendous amount of responsibility to keep your promise to your craft and to your audience, et cetera. So I've learned a tremendous amount of that. Being a peer, I wouldn't say an actual peer, because like I said, I don't know how to play the piano that well. I know, I do know, I do know, I do know piano man. I do know piano man, but not the Billy Joe, like the like the keyboard version, you know, not the Billy, not the no, no, minus the harmonica. Well, friends, if you're listening to this thing, this is great. I want to learn more about Jason. This is fantastic. In fact, we need him at our next event. His all of his contact information and links are gonna be in the show notes. That's the description of this podcast episode if you're wondering what in the world a show note is. So make sure you're connected with him. Jason, it's been so great to sit down and have a conversation with you. We've been connected for some time now, and I I look forward to furthering our relationship. Look forward to reading your book too and uh learning more about keeping a promise to ourselves and those around us. You have to come back sometime and keep us keep us posted on all your happenings. Thanks, Sebastian, for having me, bro. Take care. Yeah, man, likewise. Until next time, friends. Thanks so much for tuning into this episode of the Beyond the Story Podcast. Be sure to appreciate it. If you haven't done so already, make sure you're subscribed to the show. This way you'll get updates as new episodes become available. If you feel so inclined, please give us a review. Signing off from the podcast, Launchlab.com studios. We'll talk to you next time.