From Beats to Business, A Journey of Innovation and Impact

The main thing that I would suggest for anybody who is trying to set goals that align with where they're trying to go first and foremost, there has to be a purpose behind why you're doing it. And I think a lot of times when we set goals, we don't think about purpose.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another exciting episode of Mick Unplugged. And today, I need you to turn the volume all the way up. We've got a trailblazing DJ who's refining the art of mixing with electrifying beats and a knack for bringing people together on the dance floor. He's more than a dj. He's a storyteller through sound and one of the greatest entrepreneurs that I know. Please join me in welcoming the dynamic, the innovative, the unstoppable. My guy, DJ J. Louis. My guy, Justin Michael Lewis, dj. How you doing, brother?

Thank you, Mike. I appreciate that. What an incredible introduction. I'm just glad to be here with you on. On your podcast. And. And, yeah, man, it was. It was actually great to see all the incredible interviews you've been doing so far.

Well, I am honored to have you on here. Honored to be in your presence. I know you're so busy, so for you to take some time for me, the listeners and viewers, that's what means the world to me. So I appreciate you, brother.

Absolutely.

Yes, sir. So let's get into it, man. Like, I don't know. I can't say the king of djing, because to me, that sells you short. Like, your energy behind the decks is unmatched, man. So what. What first sparked your passion into DJ?

The first thing that sparked my passion to DJing had to be when I was growing up. My mom, she threw this incredible party for me for my graduation, and it was my opportunity to actually touch the turntables for the first time. And that was my first time actually being exposed to the art of DJing. Then I actually ended up going over to a friend's house who owned a set of 1200s and just kind of played around with those. And then I just fell in love with DJing and Philly.

That's great, man. So where were you born and raised? Where were you born and raised?

Originally Columbia, Maryland, but I lived in California for almost a decade. Currently based in Las Vegas.

Good stuff. Good stuff. And so that passion started early, man. So what was your. Because, like, on Make Unplugged, we talk about that thing that's deeper than your.

Why?

What was your. Because. For wanting to use DJing as a way to Let your message or story be told.

Hmm. Well, it's changed over the years because my. Why initially, when I started DJing ultimately was to be famous. That was the original why. Full transparency. As I continue to grow as a man and in my career, my goal with DJing has been to educate people to inspire other DJs to do more than just music and to get out there and, you know, like you said, be a trailblazer, start a business, provide impact over. Over. Over notoriety, really. I mean, the notoriety is a bonus, I think, after you provide the impact. But I think a lot of people get into DJing as well as a lot of other things because they're trying to get the notoriety before they make the impact. So I think that initially when I. So it's a great question. When I was 12 years old, I made my goals list. And those goals list, to me at 12 years old was, you know, unimaginable. So the goals that I had set when I was 12, I had accomplished those goals by before I was 20. And things like going on tour, things like performing at a festival, things like meeting some of the famous people that I wanted to meet at that time, hosting certain events with live entertainment and artists, you know, being on the radio, all these goals that I set for myself, I had pretty much achieved those before I was 20. And because when you're still a young man or young person growing up in this world, you're not very familiar with how your life is going to kind of transition and go in different areas and you know which way you're going to kind of go. After I graduated from college from music business, I ended up finding myself working in business, in corporate. And then I found myself working as an educator at Scratch DJ Academy, teaching other DJs how to DJ for Scratch 101. Then I found myself working back at ground level again as a PA for a film director. And then I ended up becoming a music director. So, you know, life is interesting in that way. But to make a long story short, I redid my goals. I would say in my late 20s, probably around 27, 28ish, I redid my goals. And I realized that the goals that I set for myself when I was 12 years old didn't match the goals that I wanted to see for myself long term. So one thing I will say to anyone that's watching this podcast is sometimes we have to take inventory and see if our goals that we set for ourselves still align with where we're trying for our next version of who we want to Be because what I see a lot of times, even in business, and also, and I would say when people are looking to go into different fields, their goals sometimes don't match with where they're trying to go. So I think that's very important.

Man, I love that. And that's one of the things I actually talk to people about on a regular basis. So I'd love. From your viewpoint, man, from your viewpoint, what are some things that people can do right now, or what are some steps they can take to make sure that their goals are in alignment with where they're trying to go or who.

They'Re trying to be? The main thing that I would suggest for anybody who is trying to set goals that align with where they're trying to go, first and foremost, there has to be a purpose behind why you're joined. And I think a lot of times when we set goals, we don't think about purpose. We think about a goal to achieve something, which is. Which is another point. A lot of times when we set our goals, we're doing it by ourselves. Which is why teamwork, partnerships, collaboration is so important, why your circle defines how successful you'll be. Because I've realized as I've become more successful in my career, that the goals that I set now, they come from a collaborative space. So I'm not the only one behind a lot of the goals that I'm trying to achieve as a team. And I think that's the most important aspect when goal setting is to not only have your personal goals, but also have your team goals, whether you're a part of a team or you're ahead of a team, but having those different milestones that you can actually see, and then also not just depending on yourself, but have other people depending on you.

I love that, man. And one of the things that I know about you personally as a friend is the power of collaboration. How did that value add first become an important pillar of the foundation of you?

Well, I think that a lot of people who meet me, full transparency, they're not used to meeting people who are just completely genuine and honest and authentic because it's really hard to find in the world. I was raised very naive. My mom, she raised me to pretty much look at the world through a singular lens. So I've been burnt a lot because my mom always said, treat everyone how you want to be treated, which I still believe that to this day. But I've also realized as I've gotten older that not everyone deserves your time to begin with. So I think what happens a lot of times, especially in how I become, you know, the person that I am now with, the man I am now has been for me honestly trial and error in meeting people and offering value and seeing some people that didn't want it and then other people who have, you know, the people I'm still working with today who have looked at it as opportunity for them to grow. Like I'll give you a great example, my business partner Moji, we're the co founder of the Data Global Hub and we're putting on four different events. Currently we have a billion dollar company. I know it's going to be a billion dollar company. We've been doing very, very well. Me and Moji, we connected at fourth last year, 30 under 30. When I met him, he already had a business and I had my own business. But we instantly clicked because we saw that we could add value to each other's businesses. So it wasn't any ego, it was just how can I help you? How can you help me? And then ultimately we came together and said, you know what, instead of us partnering, we need to just come together and co found this company. So now I'm in the data tech and AI space. And who would have thought that a guy coming from entertainment media would be in the data tech and AI space, which is the future because now it's funny how roles change and switch. Now the people in entertainment media who don't have any connections to data tech and AI now all of a sudden everyone wants to be a part of data tech and AI now. So now I'm a cool guy again because now I'm, now I'm somebody who has access to something that most people now want to have access to. Now I don't consider that inauthentic. I just consider it being in the right place at the right time. And that's one thing that I'm very, very good at. And a lot of people told me a long time ago, oh, you just take pictures with people, you don't really know these people. And to a certain extent that's true. But, but the other part, what they did that they didn't realize was, is that I knew I was going to see those people again. And every time I saw those people again, I would reference the time that I met them and I would let them know like hey, this isn't the first time I met you. I met you before here, this is us together. So it wasn't a flex, it was a strategic strategy for me being able to remind people where they met me at. And the same goes with all of us. You don't have to be a big shot to do this. If someone meets you casually and they say, hey, I'm really a big fan of your work, you might have to take a picture. You may not remember them, but if you meet them again and they show you a picture and say, hey, I met you here, here, here. This is us. We talked about this, this, and this briefly. You're going to now listen very attentively and tip into my point. I built a very successful social media marketing company doing that. And a lot of the people that matched that strategy and were saying a lot of negative things now they regret it because a lot of them want to work with me now. And it's hard for me to work with people that had a mindset like that. But just like in 48 laws of power, they say your enemies become your greatest allies. And I do believe that because I've hired some former people who didn't believe in the company and the vision, and they've been doing extraordinary for the organization. But there is a cap, I think, when you do that, because anyone who is a great CEO knows that they can't necessarily promote you past their comfortability level. So there still isn't. There still is a ceiling for how far you can go if you do decide to double back and be friends with someone who you necessarily weren't fond of before.

Yeah, Yeah, I love that, man. And, you know, when I did the intro, you know, I said one of the greatest business minds that I know. And that's why I truly mean that. Being a huge fan of yours for the last year, year and a half, and seeing all the amazing things that you're involved with or that you influence that you have your hands around, man, like it's. It's mind blowing. Where did that personality type start? Meaning you knew that you were a person that could influence businesses, influence people, but more importantly, make strategic decisions. Because I think that's where. I'm not saying people sleep on you in that realm. I think that's what people don't see is the strategy mind that DJ J. Lou has.

Well, that's the greatest superpower of mine. The greatest superpower of mine is being seen as someone who's oblivious. You know, for a long time I've been underestimated because people see me out doing certain things and then they underestimate my intelligence. So it's actually now that I'm getting older, because as you continue to get older, what I'm starting to realize I'm in my early 30s. But as I'm starting to get older, I'm starting to realize how I'm pulling away from certain people in my age group. And then I'm also communicating with people who are wanting to transact with me who are older, who haven't even reached the level that I'm at. And I'm 20 years junior. So I realized that the greatest advantage I've had is whether they say play a fool to catch a fool or something, or play dumb, something to that. Something to that extent. And I've never done it. Be honest. I've never tried to go out of my way to be less intelligent. I never have. It's just something that God has blessed me with. To be able to carry out a certain lifestyle and a certain way of doing things in a way to where it seems almost effortless, but it's. But it also I'm doing a lot. It's almost like I'm not. I guess I just am really good at organization. I'm really good strategic planner. I also am really good at cultivating relationships. I enjoy working on things from the ground up. I'm a builder, so that's another thing too. I actually like coming in when things don't are barebone. And I think that's kind of scary for people because most people I've realized that own businesses, especially owning a marketing company like a lot of marketing companies. Like some of the clients that I had that were. That used to be local clients. They used to say why do you want to work with me? I'm just a small business. And I would tell them like the reason why I want to work with you is so that maybe we can go into business together eventually. You know, not just for right now. You may not have a huge budget right now, but I'm confident in my services to where you will have enough money to start investing in other things. Also expand on your business. But then again, you know, it goes back to business one on one again. You know, if that's not in your brain, if you thinking that you're a small business, you'll stay a small business. And that's something I'm learning too as I'm getting older because my time is getting more and more, more scarce. Is that if people don't see themselves as being high level, sometimes you just have to. Sometimes the money is not good enough to even work with them. If they don't see a bigger vision for themselves, then if you have a bigger vision for your client than they have for themselves. It's probably better to walk away from that client unless you want to stay at that level with your client. Totally agree.

Totally agree, man. And another thing that I admire about you is resiliency, right? Like, you never. You never give up, right? We got a plan. If you've got a vision, you make sure that you see it through. What are some of the obstacles that you've had to overcome and then how did you overcome those obstacles?

Oh, man. When I started boxing a few years ago, when I got invited to go on celebrity boxing, a lot of people don't realize, but that was probably the best thing that I could have ever done for myself. The reason why I did it was because I was told that I couldn't do it from a former friend who I ended up realizing wasn't a true friend, you know, was very negative. So you have to get away from that, too. You have to eliminate all negative influences in your life. But when I started boxing, I realized that it was something that I wasn't good at. And the type of person that I am, I like to be good at things, and I was relentless. It taught me a lot about how much I really had inside of me, which translated into how I do business now. Like a lot of people don't realize, boxing is like chess. It's a strategy. You know, you have to monitor your opponent's weaknesses. You have to monitor your opponent's fatigue levels, their feeding their footwork, their hand, their. Their. Their hand movements. You have to memorize which punches they threw three or four times back then. Again, a lot of boxers don't do that because, you know, like, I'm just being honest because, like, I was the type of person that I wasn't a great boxer when I started, but I became a professional boxer when I ended with three title belts and one world championship belt. So the way that I did that was by putting myself in an uncomfortable situation, which scared me. Having to face my fears head on in an environment that I wasn't comfortable with. I was raised in a family that told us not to fight. You know, my mom always said it's better to walk away. Like, you know, if someone put their hands on you, defend yourself. But by all means, walk away if you have to. So now I'm putting myself in a position that I've never been in before, where I have to now be around people that like to fight. Some people don't have anything to lose, don't have degrees, don't have, you know, anything close to What I feel, no social media, just people that are coming out of jail, you know, people that like to fight, you know. So now I'm in this type of environment. I'm in a very aggressive hardcore environment. And I had to rise to the occasion. And I will say that during my amateur career, I put myself, I sparred every, the biggest guys in the gym. I didn't, I didn't go for anyone that I could be like, you have that too. I noticed. You know what's funny? I noticed a lot of things in the boxing gym. I noticed that, that people do in business and in the real world. So in a boxing gym, you have guys in there that are in incredible shape, but they never spar. People that are better than them, they always spar. People that are a little bit less, they don't have the greatest. I always bar people that were better than me. I got beat. I would say never actually, I never got knocked out in sparring, but I would say that there was a few times that I felt like I didn't win the sparring match. But when it was time for me to actually fight on my record, I would always rise to the occasion that I would win. But that was because I put myself against the best on top of traveling and fighting other people that were the best. So I would say that from my, from my personal experience, what got me to that point was having to start from ground from zero again, having to listen to a coach. You know, I'm used to being in charge of everything as a dj, My money, my travel arrangements, you know, even my management. Like I'm used to telling my manager what they need to do. So being in an environment now where the coach is like, you need to run on a treadmill, you know, and not having any back talk, you have to go over here, it taught me how to be a great listener. It taught me more discipline about myself, even my posture. You know, when you learn self defense training, you can walk and stand tall and have confidence. And people feel that confidence. And it's not fake confidence, it's real confidence. They feel it on you whether you're with a female or just in a group where you're just in presenting like a business meeting or like with your team. So I would say that was probably the greatest blessing. And one thing I will say is that out of that experience, because of the business person and the business mind that I am, I started eight season. Eight season came out of me boxing. So all of that turned into me creating a brand that was for combat Sports originally, now is turned into a lifestyle, luxury, urban luxury lifestyle brand, streetwear and high fashion brand. So it's funny how things in life can take you one place and then they turn into something, you know, on the other, on the other end of it, you know.

Total, total, totally. I know one of the things about you also is giving back through mentorship. Who were some of your mentors for you as you were going through your journey and even through today?

Yeah, you know what? Well, we just hit a milestone yesterday, so Data global hub company that I co founded with Mojit. We actually received 1500 data tech and AI scholarships from data Camp yesterday. We were approved for the scholarships to be able to give out to the community. You know, we're also partnering with Forbes Black on Juneteenth in la. We're doing a huge event. We'd actually love to have you as a panel speaker if you're available. We're doing an event with Forbes Black on June 19th and we're giving out scholarships for data tech and AI. And to go back and answer your question, as far as my mentors, growing up, DJ Kool was very influential for me. DJ Kool, he did let me clear my throat back in the 80s. Let me clear my throat. Very influential figure for me. He brought me on tour for a CIAA tour in 2010, and it was the greatest experience I ever had being on tour with the dj. I had met Jazzy Jeff, Kid Capri Funk, Master Flex, all the people. He had no envy, envy, envy in it. Envious energy in his body at all. Anyone I wanted to meet, he would say, go get him, champ. Go meet a champ. He wasn't introducing me, but he gave me the opportunity to be in a room. And I think that that's the main thing that we have to realize as business people and as professionals. If you see someone who's talented, invite them into the room. You don't have to vouch for them. You don't have to say, oh, this is my man, this is my guy. But do the right thing. If the guy has talent or the girl has. Or the woman has talent, allow them to be in a place where they can actually grow. Because by default they have to say, oh, I'm with J. Lou. Or, oh, I'm with. You know, at that time I was a dj. Cool. They say, oh, who you with? I'm with DJ Cool. Oh, okay. Cool.

Cool.

Okay, okay. How you doing? You know, so that's okay. I mean, I think that that's what, what we're missing. Right now, I think a lot of people, man, you know, mentorship is out the window because I bought this up recently on, on, on, on a group team call and I told them, I said, look, your mentor is not your competition. You know, we, we have too many mentors trying to be in competition with their mentees. You know, trying to overly power the minti instead of giving the mentee the opportunity to learn from the mentor. Right? As a mentor, I think, because I feel like I'm in a position now to be a mentor. And I am a mentor, actually to a lot of people. Even though I am, I would say, man, like, I'll give you an example I have. I'm getting so many people in Las Vegas that are asking me to privately teach them how to dj. And I could be, I could be a guy that says, oh, no, I'm good. I don't have time for that. But you know what? I said, you know what? Okay, I'll start training some people on the side for free. You know, because I dj, I still have a studio, I still dj. But what I'm going to end up doing probably is opening up a DJ school. Like I dj. Like I, I used to teach at in la, you know, here in Vegas, where, you know, just monetize it so that, okay, since this is a demand, people want to dj, why don't we open up an environment where people can actually come and DJ from other DJs. You know, I'm only one person, but I've realized that being here in Las Vegas, there, there, there's not anyone that's actually trying to help other people accomplish their, their dream of being dj. So that's one way that I think we can solve that problem. Another way is giving out opportunities. Right? Like I mentioned, there's. It's nothing for any of us, it's nothing for any of us to be able to give someone an opportunity to showcase their talent. Right? Like, that's right. A lot of people don't realize, like, I made all of my money from being a servant by, by people coming up to me asking me for help or me going up to them and saying, hey, this can make this. I can help you do this. Everything I've done has translated from that. Just that and alone. And I think that that's what's missing in a lot of people and why they're not happy with where they are is because there's too many selfish people. And the selfish people that I've seen don't even have anything to be selfish about. Which is the sad part, you know, Like, I'm the type of person that, like, when you have an exotic car, I don't care if someone takes a picture in front of my exotic car. You know, I don't, I don't care if somebody wants to sit inside of. Sit inside of the car. Like, like, we have too many people now that are so stuck up. Like, like, oh, no, you can't take a picture in front of my car. I used to do that. Like, who cares? Like, you should be happy. You should be able to say, oh, wow, someone actually appreciates the hard work I put in to earn this car. Have fun. Take as many pictures as you want. Like, for somebody to be out there and like, to bash somebody to say, oh, you're a poser. You're not doing this. We should be congratulating people who cares if you're really successful. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. You know, and I've started to realize that because I've had to harness a lot of, of people that, you know, called me so many different names over my career to where now it's like, okay, the tide is shift. There's a power shift happening. And I'm humble. I'm humble because I understand there's a power shift happening. And I still want to transact with people that have. That didn't want to transact with me when I was in my development stages. But these are going to be the same people, you know, you included Mike, who we'll see, you know, when we're on New York Stock Exchange, when we're, you know, doing the CNBC squat box interviews and, you know, all the other stuff. You know, I still have love for them for that. And I want people to understand I'm coming from hip hop inner, like rap music when I listen to that music. Now I completely understand Jay Z and why he doesn't want to be affiliated with certain things. Because now even with my business partnerships and my affiliations, you can't, you can't go into certain settings and, and like, I'm doing a huge launch party on this on Saturday for eight season with my creative director, Amy Kirstjan. That party is at an art gallery. There's no way you can go into an art gallery and start playing a bunch of, you know, derogatory music and in that type of environment. So we have to, we have to also realize, you know, what we're doing too. Are we, are we pouring poison into the community or are we adding life and value to the Community and where I'm at right now. Because going back to my point about DJing, the reason why I haven't DJ is because the music has gotten so bad to the point to where me being a hip hop and rap DJ actually holds negative connotation to every part of my businesses that I'm going into at this point. Anyone that's in data tech and AI doesn't want to hear anything about hip hop and rap. They don't want to hear about people getting drunk. They don't want to hear about people smoking, smoking illegal drugs, you know, and also my lifestyle doesn't, doesn't align with that. It never did, to be honest. And I think a lot of people in hip hop need to, need to, need to be upfront about it. A lot of people in hip hop need to be transparent and say, you know what? I never do drugs like that. I just say it for entertainment purposes, right? Like instead of them having a rated R, the rated R, or explicit content on CE labels, maybe they should put it for entertainment purposes only. Maybe they should change that. Because a lot of times when you look at this stuff, you're, you know, I remember it was cool. Like, we used to buy my CDs at the store. It was cool to buy the explicit content version, you know, because we were kids. We were children, you know, we wanted to say curse words. You wanted to do, you know, what the older guys were doing, you know, but you weren't really doing what other guys are doing. You just like the beats and stuff. But as a grown man, but as a grown man, especially if it's successful, you know, living in a nice neighborhood or, you know, accomplishing milestones in business, there's really no place for you to be listening to that type of music, to be honest. There's really, there's really, there's no, there's no value.

Yeah. No, Totally agree, man. Totally agree. You dropped so much wisdom for us today. So, so much knowledge. Love again, love you as a friend for everyone out there. You drop so much knowledge on socials, man. Where can people follow and find you?

Yeah, definitely across all platforms. DJ J, Lou DJ J A Y L E W. And our mission right now is across all of my companies, is to help out the community, especially the minority community. Our goal is to give back as much as we can to the minority community and help those that are in need. We're also using our resources to partner with bigger organizations that don't have the access to the minority community, and we're using that as A platform as pretty much a bridge so that these corporations that want to get involved, they can work with a company that's trustworthy that, that, that they can trust to do that with. So for instance, like I mentioned, one way we're doing that is through scholarships. We're giving away free scholarships. We're starting with 1500, but every year we plan on giving away a thousand more scholarships even next year. We talked about it on the call on a business meeting earlier today. We might even just give away 10,000 scholarships next year. You know, we just might do that. You know, a part of me and my business partner's goal, me and Mochi's goal is to open up schools all around the country. Our goal is to open up schools in Africa as well for people to learn data tech and AI. So we have a lot of different things that we're doing on, I would say on a global scale that we haven't, I would say, given all of the details to, for people to support. But these are things in the pipeline that have already been created that we already have the resources to do. Well, it is what it is. So right now we're working with Shaka Zulu. He's a partner in our next event. He's based in Congo and we probably will start there. We also have partnered with Pan African Lifestyle, which is a massive, massive community, over 25 million members. We've also partnered with Uncover AI, which is a leader in data tech and AI community. We also partner with AI Technologies, Black Wealth Committee, Blacks in Tech. It's a lot to name, you know, but all of our partners, like some of the people that we're working with right now, have Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, SpaceX, you know, we're dealing with some of the most brilliant minds in every industry. So we want more people like that to join the team. We see this as being the, I would say the black Google. You know, what we're building here. You know, my co founder is a data UX designer, so he's a coder and that's one thing too. I'll leave you with this, Mike. I know we're wrapping up here, but in our community we don't understand how Power dynamics, my skill set is not. I'm not a highly technical person, but I'm technical enough to be able to work with someone who is highly technical. So highly technical people, they need people who are hunters out there on the ground meeting people. They need more extrovert energy, right? So what we have to do is instead of us looking at the people who are in the community we, quote, unquote, call nerds. We actually need to start partnering with those people. We need to start asking them, how can we help you? If you're a promoter, how can you partner with someone who's highly technical, who can't get their product out there, who is having trouble getting out that app? That is extraordinary. How can you work with them using your skill set of getting things out there? Instead of you promoting all these nightclubs, why don't you go and promote something that can actually give you some value and give you some money, make you some serious money? Right? That's just one thing. But in our community, we're taught the complete opposite. We're taught from a young age, you're the star. You are. You're going places, you're the. You're going to the NBA or you're going. Doing this. No one talks about. You should be a mechanical engineer. You should be, you know, something off the grid. Like if we want to make progress, we have to build things. And in our community, we're used to servicing a lot of things, but we're not building things. And that's what we're doing at Data Global Hub. And what I'm doing right now is we're actually building things.

I love it, man. I appreciate it. You're a rock star more than a dj. Again, one of the most brilliant minds that I know. One of the busiest people that I know. I appreciate you just taking some time to bless us with your time, brother.

Thank you, Mike. And, and, and one thing that I'm going to make sure to do, because I think more billionaires should do this, and big shout out to Robert Smith. But when I become a billionaire, I want people to understand and know that there's no malice intentions for what? For. For me, you know, I really do want our people to succeed. And when I say our people, I mean anyone, no matter the background, race, color, ethnicity, whatever, I want everyone to have an equal and fair shot to succeed. And I truly mean that from the bottom of my heart. And we want people that want to help people get better on our team, and that has no race attached to it. And that's one thing that I would say that I will make sure of as I continue to grow in my businesses, is to make sure that every single person that I interact with, they're going to. I'm adding value to them and they're going to be able to get benefit out of me.

Amen. I love that, brother. I love that.

Thank you, Mike.

DJ DJ J Lou, again, thank you so much for blessing us. For all the viewers and listeners, remember you're because is your superpower. Go unleash it.

Thank you, Mike.