Let's "tie" a mask with Derrick Hayes - The enTIEtainer!

We have got a treat for you today. We're going to bring on my dear friend Derek Hayes. We met a few years ago right here online, and it was his words of encouragement— his woes, he calls them— words of encouragement that really inspired me. I kept seeing his threads and somehow we connected, and he's got a thing going on for the past couple years, uh, calls himself the Entitainer, which is a pretty cool thing, and he's going to teach us how to do a mask. Couple of quick catch-ups though. I want to put some information up for you real quick. We still have our Black Belt membership going on for, uh, no charge at all right now. And there's been some questions. People said, well, after the COVID thing settles down, are you going to start charging? No. If you sign up now, slmjoinfree.com, sign up at the Black Belt level because that gets you on the live coaching call every month and a lot of other benefits. Uh, you're going to get PDF downloads of all 5 of my major books that I have out. So sign up for that, slmjoinfree.com, and you'll be ready to get in on the next call and some of the exclusives that we do. Okay, we have a couple cool webinars coming up too. Don't Motivate, Inspire is almost finished, and There Is No New Normal, that's about dealing with uncertainty. I'm a little tired of that phrase, the new normal, but maybe Derek will have some thoughts on that. He's good, he's the, he's the word man. All right, so without further ado, all the way from Atlanta, sunny Atlanta, Georgia today, right here he is, Derek Hayes.

What's going on? What's going on, JB? Jim is the name, Black Builders the game.

There it is.

But I had to say, I live in Columbus, Georgia, so, so you said Atlanta, but Atlanta is like where you fly out of it. Oh, I don't want anyone calling me saying, hey, hey, you know, that is important.

That would be like somebody saying I'm from Boston.

Yes, sir.

Because then they think I have a bad attitude, right? Sorry, friends in Boston, but you know what I'm talking about.

People take their city seriously, so, right?

That's for sure. Well, give us some words of encouragement, man. We need some words of encouragement.

Oh, I know. Well, one word of encouragement is we're connecting.

Yeah.

You know, so what I'm saying these days is you gotta, you gotta be in it to win it. And there's 3 things you can do to win. The W is you can write, you know. So I've been writing more articles since I have more time. The I is the interview, you know, just like you interviewing me. No, I interview other people. And then you got a network. That's how you win when you're locked in. You know, you lock into your writing, you lock into your interviewing, and you lock into your networking, because your network can help you network and build relationships.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Absolutely.

So I, if I share anything with any entrepreneur out there, or it may be someone out there that is not able to go to work, but they have skills that can pay some bills.

Mm.

You know, I used to tell people all the time, use your skills or someone else will.

Yeah.

And so I'm just here to tell you to, you know, while you locked in, find a way to win, find a way to write, find a way to interview, and definitely find a way to network.

I'll tell you, people have been getting online with all kinds of stuff. I saw a guy who— he's a woodworker, right? And he went online with a woodworking show and just grabbing all kinds of scrap wood and showing people what they can make for projects. And some people are actually now putting the things together, put them out on the front yard and selling them, right? I mean, this— we're going back to some old-time stuff. Hey, and if you got questions and comments and ideas, uh, make sure you come in on the comment stream. You do have to be on my, uh, Facebook live stream to do that. So if you're watching on a shared stream, just click on this, on the broadcast, that'll pop you right over, and then you'll be able to come in with the comments and questions and ideas and anything you want to tell us, anything you want to tell Derek today. It's bad enough he's there. Well, actually, we have good weather today too now, finally. We had snow, we had snow.

It's not the— but Jim, it's not the weather on the outside, it's the weather on the inside. The only question is whether or not you're going to get up, whether or not you're going to try, whether or not you're going to dream. And not just dream, but live those dreams. So that's the only whether that matters.

Absolutely. Hey, before we go too much further too, I know I've been watching you on, on YouTube and whatnot. You've been really busy lately. Well, before this thing hit, right? You were out speaking a lot, whatnot. How do, how do you want people to get in touch with you? Let's— well, I'll put that up on the screen.

Like you mentioned, Entertainer. Yeah, that's my, uh, that's my brand that I'm building. It's E-N-T-I-E-T-A-I-N-E-R, Entertainer. Uh, that's on Facebook, Entertainer. That's on Instagram, Entertainer. Uh, Twitter, Entertainer. Uh, so it's Derrick Hayes the Entertainer. Instead of Entertainer, I put Entertainer because I use neckties to teach, to speak, to perform, to teach life skills and empower others. Uh, it's an incredible journey, something that I never thought I'd be doing, but we're doing it, right? And people— we're doing it and people are chewing it. That means— that means they digest it and it's manifested, you know?

So I'm telling you, man, if you— if you haven't seen Derek's stuff, you got to go. You got to go on YouTube and, uh, You know, I understand. You know, it's funny because we were talking about this the other day with another guest. There's a kind of a dichotomy where you want to be encouraging and you want to be positive, and yet there's a lot of people that are facing some serious struggles. And, you know, I hope you understand what we're trying to bring you is, you know, a little bit of lightness. And, you know, Derek's been through some tough times. I've been through some tough times. You know, I can tell you, I've been— it was self-imposed. Those who don't know my resume, I was a former drug addict and a dropout. And, uh, you know, I lived hand to mouth literally for several years. Didn't know if I was going to eat any particular day, things like that. And so when I try to offer you words of encouragement or I try to joke around and whatnot, believe me, it comes from the experience of being in dark places. And I know, right, Derek, the things that we go through. People were asking, how do I build the courage? How do I build the resolve to get through this? Well, you are doing it because The only way to do that is through experience, right? And we got to look at this as an opportunity. But I'm going to say just one more thing, is that I'm telling you from the heart, I'm one of these people that can authentically say, if I can do it, you can do it. And one of the things that I learned to turn it around was gratitude. And I don't mean a Pollyanna— Derek knows I'm not the lollipops and puppy dogs kind of guy, right? It's an inventory. It's practical, man. When you look at is things through the lens of gratefulness, uh, you focus on what you have no matter how little that is, and you stop worrying about what you don't have for the moment. And that's why it's important, right?

Oh, you just, you just, just, just, just speaking, you just gave me something because you told me the story about you was addicted to drugs, and then the Creator just showed me the word drug, right? The you, you is right in the middle of the drug, right? You see the letter U?

Yeah.

And then on one side you have D-R for a dark place, and then on the other side you have— is either for God or for greatness, right? You in the— you in the middle of it, right? So you got to take the U out of it and you just have the D-R and the G, right? So now you have it. Once you take yourself out of the equation, you have a choice. You can see which side you want to go to.

Yeah.

And that's how you're going to eventually, step by step, take yourself to a better place by making better choices, by putting yourself in a better position.

Yeah, absolutely.

Now you inspire me, Jim.

Well, that's what we do for each other, right?

What's that?

Did you come up with, uh, did you come up with something for corona or for COVID or something? I was curious to see if you came up with that.

You inspired me. So you inspired me. So I didn't have a vision in the beginning. I didn't have anything for COVID, but then I wrote down two things and These are two messages that people can take with them. And COVID is continuing our visions into destiny. Continuing our visions into destiny. Because you can't stop. You know, there were some days in the beginning where I was like, man, I don't know. But that, that light hit me and it said, you can't stop, right? You know, so I started I started making ties, you know, I have resources around, I just started making ties and then I started thinking about what, what we could do in the future and I knew ties wasn't gonna be the thing all throughout this journey, so, but I had one resource, I had fabric, so that's when I started saying, okay, how can I make a mask? So I experimented with some different styles, and then when I went to different stores, I realized some people bought up all the elastic, right? Some people bought this, some people bought that. So the idea hit me, why don't I make a scarf and find a way to tie it so that all you need is a strip of material? And so I just started being creative. Yep, yep. And I have mine right here. I have mine right here.

Wait, no, that's much cooler.

And so the other COVID was counting our victories inspires development. Counting our victories inspires development. Because sometimes you get into that dark place like you mentioned, and you'll think that you haven't done anything, but you need to count your blessings, count our victories. Because it'll inspire you to develop even more. See, when you know what you can do, you better off because you know that you can do something. Yeah, it's better to do something than to not do anything. So I just want to tell people to continue our visions into destiny, into where you're supposed to go, because if you stop, the dream might stop. There's a young person out there watching to somebody that has an addiction. They watching you. You're giving them courage and you don't even know it. And we count our victories because it inspires development. We don't count to say I'm this, I'm that, but you, you count them. You know what you have done. You know what works, what doesn't work. You count our victories and it's going to inspire you to be even greater.

That's so important because, you know, that's one of the problems when we're in a situation like this, especially, you know, I mean, it's nice that we have a lot of information, but we have too much and you know, we're overwhelmed with the bad news constantly, constantly, constantly, that we have to appreciate any small step that we're doing to go forward, right? And one thing that comes to mind, because we've been— a lot of people are small business folks in the Sensei Leader community, you know, and I feel you. It's hard. We're worried. We don't know how long it's going to last. We don't know where things are going to go. Don't know where the next dollar is going to come from. And, you know, a lot of our friends like you you know, Derek, myself, we're in the speaking business. We're not going out. You know, we saw it hit a wall, right? And so the thing is, one small step, and one small step you need to take today if you haven't already, get on that SBA site, apply for the small business loans, okay? Because there's some programs that are supposed to be coming out. The queue is gonna be long, so get in early, get that done. And please, please, please don't look at that. I've had people responding to me saying, I've never taken a handout from the government, I don't want to take any money, I don't want to— look, A, they're loans, okay? What the SBA is putting out there is loans. And the unemployment insurance for self-employed people, that, that's insurance, okay? You paid for that through your payroll taxes, all right? But the loans, you got to get in there, you got to get there now, because that, that's a logjam that's going to happen there, right? And if you pay the loan back, and you're going to pay the loan back, You're going to pay it back. That has interest on it. It's a good interest rate, but you're going to pay it back, and that's going to help the fund for the next time around because, right, because it's going to build that up. So don't feel bad about that. Get there. That's a small step you can take, and you can feel good about that, right?

And also, you know, you mentioned handout. Like, when we— when you present us as speakers, you give a handout to give instruction. So you have instruction. You don't have to look at this as a handout. Nice. But as an invitation for elevation. So, you know, just prepare your mind, be prepared and not scared, you know.

Yeah, I like that. And you know, even people, if someone's willing to offer you a gift too, you need to accept that. It was a hard thing for me to accept in my life, and I learned, actually I learned it from some of the Japanese masters that I studied with in Japan. If you refuse a gift, that's, that's considered an insult, you see. Because that person's really putting themselves out, right, to, to extend that to you. And, and the refusal, that's really considered an insult.

That's what I learned in my walk.

Yeah.

Is that in order to get a blessing, you have to be a blessing.

Nice.

Sometimes opportunities are not even meant for me, and I passed them on to others.

There it is.

And you see blessings come back to you even 6 months, a year later because of something you did for someone else when you didn't even have to.

Yeah, no, exactly. And you know, it's interesting because, uh, this— I hesitated almost to say it because it might sound self-serving, but people have responded back to the Black Belt membership offer that we had, and they said, well, no, no, no, no, we can't pay right now, we're going to pay when it comes on. And I'm saying, no, no, like Derek just said, it's a blessing. If you come on and you join this community right now while this is going on, you're helping me too. You're helping us grow the Sensei Leader Movement. So yeah, don't, don't feel at all that that's an act of charity.

I just want to say that you, you blessed me again, Jim, you know, because I'm looking at these words, right? And as you were speaking the word, even in COVID, the letters started to move around. So when you have COVID, it's like the O, right, is in front of the V, right? That's like your obstacles in front of your vision, right?

Yeah.

So if you move the letters around and see V-O-I-D, right? You know, see, V-O-I-D. You got to see the void in your life. You know, a lot of times we avoid our C, which is our creative ability. We avoid our C, which is our character. You know, we avoid our C, which is our chances. You know, we avoid our C, which is our championships. You know, we don't want to put in the work. But if you, if you look at your vision greater than your V is greater than your O, which is your your obstacles, you can see the void, you know, in our lives. So I just want to say thank you, my brother, because hey, look at it, if I wasn't here, these dreams and these ideas wouldn't appear.

Oh man. And hey, when I'm popping these up, this is what Derek said, not what I said. I'm just trying to type them in for him. And got a few people, make sure you jump in on the comments. Oh, go ahead.

Uh, someone, someone left a comment.

No, I'm saying go ahead, people, jump in on the comments, share your thoughts.

Oh yeah, most definitely jump in on the comments. This, this is not about me, this is about we, you know, because like earlier you said if I could do it, you know, you can do it. And that was the first program I ever, uh, I ever wrote as a presenter, you know. It was called If I Can, You Can, We Can. So it's real, it's real important that we have a village Yeah, you know, and we help each other.

Exactly. Speaking of that, you're going to help us make a mask. Oh yes, yes, we're going to help people make— you're going to help people make a mask. I don't even— I—

well, what, what I, what I learned is me, I'm not a complex guy, so I keep it simple.

You're a complex guy because I was just going to say the next time you mixing all these letters around Next time I come to Georgia, we're gonna go have dinner or something, but I'm not playing Scrabble with you, man.

No, but 99% of this is not scripted.

So you'd beat me like a drum playing Scrabble, man. I'm not playing with you.

Here's a piece of fabric. You know, everyone has different resources, so the resource I had was fabric because The universe is going to guide you to places where you gather resources, and sometimes you don't even know why you have the resources. Yeah, but in situations like this, you have to find ways to turn what you have into what you need. What I have is material fabric, you know. I wanted to make ties, but right now there's a more dire need in our community. So I said, how can I turn what I have into what I need? So I needed a mask or a face covering, so I call it a face scarf. So I just took out material, then I looked up different sizes on the internet on what sizes are ideal for face masks, and then I drew out, and the ideal size is 11 by 44, you know, so it's like a rectangle.

Okay.

And so then if you want your outside design to to be on the outside, you know, to make, make it look good. And I picked, and I picked the piece with the planets because Jim Bouchard is on another level. He's on another planet.

Another planet. I used to be on another planet.

Hey, look at that, man is out of sight, I'm telling you. So then you gather it, right? You gather it like this, you know, one hand on each side. Then you place it over your nose. Right? So you still have control with your hands.

Let's see if I can do that.

All right, you just place it over your nose and then you go behind your head, right? Just like this. And you tie it up.

I'm making it like that already.

And then you just make sure it's covering your, uh, your vital areas. Can you hear me?

Mine's not long enough.

Yeah, you need it to be about 40.

11 by 44 is the perfect one, huh?

Yeah, for— because my head, I, I don't have a small head. Yeah, my neck's at 18, so my neck's above average, so it's a good size for a lot of people.

So neither one of them— we don't have the Conan O'Brien head anyway, neither one of us.

No, see So it's ideal.

And so I'm gonna tie two.

It's just like your shirt. So when you finish for the day, you take it off and wash it. Yeah. Or you throw it away because it's a piece of fabric. It's something that, you know, it's up to you what you do with it. But it's a— but it's an opportunity, right? And, and if you have a smaller piece, they've also showed how you can wrap it up and put rubber bands around it. Yeah, and put the rubber bands around your ears.

That'll work.

So there's a lot of different, a lot of different cool ways you could do it.

Hey, I got a staple gun over here. Could I just staple it to the sides of my head?

Well, you might want to just, you know, you actually could staple some, some, uh, some rubber bands and just put the rubber bands right there.

I thought it'd be easier just to look at staple it directly into this, into the head, right?

Right. You have to look at what— you have to look at what resources you have because you may go too to the store and they may not have what you need. Yeah, but you turn what you have into what you need.

This is too cool. Hey, someone said the other day, this— it's the only time in our lives ever that we're going to be able to walk in a bank with a mask and gloves and not get arrested, right?

No, they go— they go— they're gonna walk away from you.

That's why it's good. That's why it's good to have the patterns, right? Because, you know, Yeah, this isn't the— this doesn't look like a burglar mask at all.

No, no, you got your eyes. And you know what's cool about it?

What's that?

I went— I had my— I had my— I call it my face scarf. So I had my face scarf on yesterday. I went into two different stores, right?

Yep.

And the people, the greeters, knew who I was. Yeah. And, and the lesson was, it's not what's on the outside, it's what's on the inside. And people know my spirit. Yeah, so two different times, two different stores, you know, people knew me. So it's a blessing, man. I'm learning a lot, learning a lot.

Having said that though, you need to get one with the Entitainer branded across the front.

I might do that. I might, I might do that. But what I do have on my other packages that I'm sending out to— I'm sending some, uh, face guards out I have my label on them. Nice to bless people.

Hey, do you want to do a bow tie while we got a couple minutes?

Uh, I can, uh, let me see.

For those who don't know, Derek does— he does great bow ties. You know what, and I'm going to give something too. I got a mask over here. I'm going to be right back with you. I can't hear you for a second, but I'll be back.

All right. Yeah, this is a bow tie right here.

Here we go.

And see, I'm gonna spell out a word. My hometown, I'm from Rantoul, Illinois, and we call it the box because it's like the toolbox. So, you know, you're doing your bow tie, you got one side a little longer than the other, then you come over You come up, it's like basketball. You lay it up, then you come over, right? See, I never, I never thought I'd be the Thai man, so I learned how to put letters and words. Yeah, Thai. So I can spell things out. So you come down, you bring those bunnies together just like that. Then you gotta look for the opportunity. See, got to look for the opportunity, and then you just got to work. And you come through, you keep working, and you bring it through just like that. Bring it through just like that.

There it is.

Yeah, you keep bringing it through, keep working, and then you're gonna spell out your word.

I should have had some music playing for you.

Nah, we got it. It's just spelling out the word, spelling out my town.

Oh, that's cool.

Yeah, it's called the box. This This shirt from my hometown, Illinois, Rantoul, Illinois. So thank you for asking me to do that, and also gave me a chance to shout out, you know, I may have some hometown people watching, you never know. That's right, you never know who's watching, you never know who need to hear that message.

So you inspired me. I said my alter ego Diego Fedora plays surf guitar, we wear it, man. I'm thinking maybe I can stuff some cloth up underneath this thing. That's my mask from Mexico. You think that's cool? There it is, man. Derek, this is too cool.

Oh yeah, yeah, thank you, man.

You know, I was supposed to send you— I was supposed to send you— you're gonna tie— I know, I've got— I'm gonna send you one of my Jerry Garcias. You were gonna make it into a bow tie, right?

Okay, okay. Yeah, there's no doubt. Any cowboy— this is like some of the things I'm doing now. I got some friends that are Cowboy fans, so I got a Dallas Cowboy.

No, no. And then, uh, what can you have?

I got, I got family in Pittsburgh, so I got some Pittsburgh.

Come on, yeah. Where's the Patriots scarf?

Oh, we missed each other because I actually really did have some, uh, some Patriot material.

There you go.

This right here is a, uh, a piece of fabric that I found, and so I turned it into a pocket square. Oh, nice. You know, so I learned how to fold them and everything. Yeah, you know, a lot of things.

That's what I need. I need the pocket square because people have been telling me with my sport coat I should be wearing a pocket square.

Do you wear the 10 by 10s or 17 by 17s?

Oh yeah, either way.

No, no, I'm saying what size do you wear?

Oh God, I don't know. So I have to— what, I have to measure my pocket?

No, no, it's just your style. What it is— oh, it's levels, Jim. You got to educate me.

Which one? All right, which one? Which one gives me—

I'll tell you what, I'll tell you what, you know, you know, off the air, send me your address and I'll put the pocket squares together for you. And they, and they're gonna have a clip right here, so all you have to do is ease it out the package and just put it in your jacket just like that. And it'll go down a little further. It's going— it's sitting up here because of the bag. Yeah, but it'll go down a little further, so it'll be like right there. Yeah, so I'll send you a couple pieces where all you have to do is— you don't have to do nothing else. Take it out the bag right here and put it in your jacket. I'll send you a couple styles.

That's what I need, because when you're dealing with a Fool, it has to be foolproof, right? There you go.

Hey, that's what Fool stands for— figuring out our lives. There it is.

Hey, we still got a couple— we still got a couple minutes here, so if you got some questions or some comments for Derek, um, please put them up there. We're watching the comment stream because one of the questions you might have is, what is the best size for me for a pocket square, right? So there you go.

Yeah, a lot of people— a lot of people, uh, from— I'm just going by from the ones I've talked to. Yeah, that's not saying what the general, uh, Answer is, what's your take on the matching of them?

Because I know there's some controversy about that. Should the square match the tie? Should it match something else? The shirt? I've heard, I've heard you don't want to match your shirt.

I don't know, it's all about how you, how you bring colors together. It's a puzzle. Yeah, you know, you can have a little blue here, a little blue there, but what is your overall What are you painting on your canvas? You have to feel confident with it.

Yeah.

You the one in the clothes, you the one bringing the style.

Yeah.

And don't be afraid to be different, you know, because that's how I've come up with a lot of great ideas because I dared to, you know, try this with this fabric or that fabric. Or, you know, as you see, I got the box, you know, on my tie, you know. I'm not afraid. You know, if you— you could be scared, but you can even be more prepared. Yeah, you know, don't let fear end your career. Don't sit on your rear with a tear. Reinvent yourself like Jim Bouchard. You know, I'm just telling you, you gotta make it happen. No one's clapping unless you make it happen. Remember that.

You're too kind. I do appreciate it. And that's— I can't think of a better way to wrap it up today. That's— say that again. Just say your fear thing again.

I said don't let fear end your career.

There it is.

You know, just make, make— I make one thing clear: reinvent yourself and reappear. Not last year, but this year. You know, it's your time. Time to shine.

Hey, Derek. Derek will lay these words of encouragement on you all day and all night. So here's how you find him: Derek Hayes, the Entitainer. Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube. Where else? Everywhere. You're everywhere.

Yeah, I mean, and I'm even helping entrepreneurs out in the COVID crisis that they're in. I had the $5 Cash App Create for Me Challenge. That's where if you send me $5 on my Cash App I create an idea for you. So, and then if you like the idea, I keep the $5 and you can bless me with more. Or if you don't like the idea, I send you the $5 back. But it's just a way to say, here's an idea, here's something that you can help with your business, your organization. You might have entrepreneurial skills, but you don't have a business idea. There's different ways to help each other. And like we mentioned, when you're in the lock-in, you got to find ways to win. The W, you got to write. The I, you got to interview. In the end, you got a network.

And that's perfect.

And this one, and once we get Jim Bouchard, because we in the, we in the, we talking about these life skills for your life school. And we gotta tie these life skills into your life school.

And once we get out on the road again, uh, hey, you know, you can get a lot of people that'll talk about business ideas with you, but you won't get any that will give you these words of encouragement and will help you tie ties when you, right? Because you, you do that in presentations. I saw a couple of you. Yeah.

Tie one behind my back.

Yeah.

Show people how to turn their life around.

That's very cool.

Yes, sir.

We got to do an event together sometime soon. That'd be really cool.

All right, no doubt, because I'm gonna take a black belt, I'm gonna turn into a tie. I'll turn it— I'll turn into a bow tie. Hey, I'll even turn your, your black belt into an ashokan.

That I gotta see. That I'd like to see.

We'll do that. Make sure I get your address so I can get some pocket squares out to you.

Will do. All right, Derek, thank you so much for being with us today. We're gonna hit you up again soon for another one of these, huh?

I appreciate it, man. Anytime you need me, you know, we're gonna, we're gonna help people in their COVID so they can continue our visions into destiny and, and just keep going, never stop.

Uh, so appreciate you, man. Make sure you look up Derek Harris the Entertainer, Entitainer, and we'll be back with you some, with some more live streams tomorrow. Tomorrow we've got Wow, Derek, you got to tune in tomorrow. It's, it's Power Woman Day. No, I'm sorry, Thursday. If you're watching before April 9th, April 9th, Thursday, Power Woman Day. We have Nana Wanjoo coming to us from Nairobi, Kenya. She's our partner in Kenya, wonderful, wonderful person. She's the host of, or the founder of Power Woman International. Then we got Ellen Voye. She's the president of Women in Trucking. And we got to thank our truck drivers, man. The truck driver, that's our life support system.

Yeah, you got a friend there, Freeman, getting us around.

And then Dr. Jackie Black, who helps couples in trouble and couples dealing with illness. And a lot of people are dealing with, with illnesses, severe illness, right? She'll help you navigate through that. So that's April 9th if you're listening. If you're listening on the replay, well, that's it. Here's Derek Hayes, the Entitainer, and make sure you look him up. Thank you so much for being with us today, Derek. Thanks again, man.

Thank you, Jay.

All right.