Dr. Jerry you got the whole world waiting.
Been ready for you to start the conversation.
Your point of view, it got the haters confused.
Leave it up to you to bring us all the good news.
Positive vibes and the sex appeal too.
Dr. Andre Jerry, can I get an interview?
Hello everybody, good evening and happy new year.
I think it's still okay to say that right.
It's still January but most of us have pretty much settled into this new year by now.
But thank you guys for tuning in to another episode of Live with Dr. Andre Jerry.
Now this is our first show of 2023 and we're kicking it off with a really awesome interview with a gentleman that,
in my view, is an up and coming rock star in the motivational influencer space.
And has been a champion and advocate for at risk and underserved communities in the Prince George's County, Maryland area.
Now he is a multi-award recipient honored and recognized by the DMV 48 Men of Power
and with the inaugural Greater Washington Community Foundation Emerging Leadership Award.
Now in addition to his many accolades, tonight's guest is one of the top workforce development motivational speakers,
a master workshop facilitator, career coach, and the first ever returning citizens liaison for Prince George's County, Maryland.
He is a true servant of the people and has impacted many lives through his passion for speaking.
Please help me welcome to the show Dr. BJ Page. Dr. Page, how's it going brother?
Man, I am outstanding. Can I just start off by saying man, I love your intro?
I appreciate it brother, thank you.
It's dope, I loved it.
Well listen Dr. Page, welcome again to the show and thanks for taking the time this evening.
We spoke a little before the show and just appreciate you so much. I know you mentioned this has been a busy month for you.
But Dr. Page, before I get really into the show, I know I gave our listeners a brief introduction of you and your work,
but why don't you tell our listeners in your own words who Dr. BJ Page is?
Sure thing, and that was the second piece. I need to ask you how much do I owe you to make that intro?
Oh you did an awesome job brother, I really appreciate it.
Hey let's work something out, no problem, you know I got you.
But yeah man, so I always start off by saying man, first I'll always say I'm a man of God.
Husband of one, father of two. I like to lead with those things because they're the foundation of everything else that falls under what I assume
the great roles for many people that I represent. But I always say man, I'm a roundaway dude.
I'm no different than your son, your nephew, your next door neighbor that you look at in almost every community,
especially the urban communities across the nation. I am that guy that you look at every day.
And I want people to hear that because as we get deeper in this conversation today and we talk about all the good highlights,
we're going to talk about some lows. We're going to talk about those lows because most people see more of those lows than the highs.
So I want to know that I'm that regular person that you see every day.
But I definitely am proud to say that I'm an author, motivation to speak in the workforce development space,
definitely a heavy influencer in the space of workforce development. We'll talk about what that really is later on.
And thank you man to be on your show today.
Oh man, the pleasure is all mine. And like you said, you are very relatable.
That's one of the things that draw me to you and the work and the post I see that you're putting up on Instagram.
You've done a great job of, I think, branding yourself as this motivational influencer.
And I like that terminology there because I think the title, you know, motivational speaker is a bit oversaturated these days.
You know, everybody is a motivational speaker now. You know, I think I even have it on some of my stuff.
But you're someone who's really out there, you know, putting in the hard work and, you know, booking speaking engagements that may not be considered the most glamorous,
but it's impactful, you know, because these young people, they're seeing a positive black male role model and, you know, someone that's approachable, relatable.
They can see themselves in you. And I want to ask you this because I noticed in most of your speaking engagements, you dress in casual attire.
And I know that's intentional, but can you talk a little bit about how that casual approach fits into your personal brand?
Sure man. So that was an accident, no doubt. That wasn't me. It was an accident that caught on.
So early on, one of my claims of fame was a nonprofit that I had called Boys to Bowtie.
Boys to Bowtie was a nonprofit for average youth ages 8 to 18, literally helping them grow from adolescence to adulthood.
Right. So because of my upbringing, and we're going to get into it, because of my upbringing, I felt that I had to dress up to do my job,
to make them feel like I was successful so they would listen. So for years, Doc, I'm talking about three, four years, seven days a week I had a bowtie on.
Seven days a week I had a suit on. Seven days a week I was dressed to the key, sharp, right?
And what I realized through my time reaching out to youth and getting to know the youth, you know, I would ask the questions like, you know,
do y'all want to dress up like this? And they was like, no. I'm like, but every time y'all see me, I got on a suit.
But both of y'all, why wouldn't you want to dress like me? You know, I'm showing you what it is to be successful.
This is what a success looks like. You know, this is what money looks like. You know how we go.
And they was like, nah, Mr. B.J., that ain't, that ain't, that ain't success to me. Success is the work that you're doing with us right now, sitting with us every day.
And it clicked. It clicked. I'm like, man, am I dressing up to impress my youth that I'm reaching or am I dressed to impress the teachers and the parents?
I said, you know what, it's over, man. So that day, man, I kind of remember vaguely I was doing a summer program at Howard University for the Howard Up and Bound program.
Shout out to H.U. And I said, man, I'm never doing it again.
So I have not really wore a suit to do my work. You know, you got to put on, you got to put on, but to do my work since then.
Wow. Well, hey, I think it works. You know, these kids, you know, it's hard to relate to them.
You know, well, I won't say hard. It's challenging.
But when you come in there all dressed up and, you know, talking at them and not to them and you lose that relatability,
I think that's a key piece to engaging them, because I look at some of your posts, you almost fit in, like, with the students in terms of your attire.
So it's like, you know, automatically they're got, that sounds messed up, but their guard is down because you're not coming in there with the whole suit and the whole, you know, all of that.
It can be intimidating. And, you know, the kids, I'm sure they're like, oh, here comes another one. What's he going to talk to us about?
But you're very disarming in that. So I get, I get your approach on that.
Now, I pretty much figured that's, you know, why you did that. But I wanted you to explain that to the listeners here.
And so you talked a little bit about, you know, some of the challenges, you know, coming up.
How did that kind of play into what led you into the work that you're doing today?
Yeah, man. So in high school, and this is going to be good for some listeners too, man. In high school, I was kind of that guy.
I was all county basketball, all state football, homecoming guy, king guy. You know, everybody wanted to hang with me.
You know, everybody knew who I was. And this was coming into the 11th grade. Had a scholarship to play football, all these good things, man.
And in one short night, it was a big group fighting at McDonald's on a Friday night outside of school, not on school grounds.
I was got the hours of a school day. And because everybody knew who I was, I was the only name that people knew.
Oh, it was BJ. Oh, BJ was there. And then, doc, it was about 20 people fighting, doc. But I was the only name that people knew.
That's going to come up later when we talk. I was the only name that people knew.
So when I got to school Monday, the administrator and the principal were standing there. You can kind of see these guys. Oh, they waiting on me.
I'm looking at them. They looking at me. I'm like, oh yeah, they waiting on me.
So when I got there, I got expelled from Prince George's County Public Schools in Maryland.
Being that I was a superstar athlete, I immediately was able to go to D.C. Public Schools.
When the D.C. Public Schools, the same day I got expelled from D.C. Public Schools, the same day that I entered my paperwork,
because of a fight that I got into, because they were in Maryland, D.C. If anybody is in the DMV area, they know this, especially in the 90s.
I was what they called a Maryland Bama. And for those who are not in our area, that's just like calling somebody a chump, a sucker, or something like that.
Wait a minute. What's it called?
Bama. That's a D.C. word.
Oh, wow. Okay.
It's like Alabama.
Oh, man.
A whole other story, Doc. A whole other story. But anyway, I got expelled from D.C. Public Schools.
So then I had homeschooling, Doc, and would you believe that I got kicked out of homeschooling?
So then I got to figure out how I'm going to get back to school, because I just want to play football. I just want to play football.
I want to get my scholarships back. I had no real mentor, no real father figure, no father at the time that would tell me
and give me the options to do maybe a stay a year back, go to junior college, you know, just do something.
And I ended up going to Montgomery County Public Schools, which is like the best school district at that time in the state of Maryland.
And it was a culture shock. And I graduated on time, but I didn't have my scholarships.
So I ended up going to the United States Air Force. My mom had to sign for me to go to the Air Force. Man, I was 17 years old.
It was one of the best decisions I ever made in my life. I learned so much in the Air Force, man.
It taught me some wonderful things that I still use as core values to date.
But fortunately, Doc, you got to hear this, I got locked up and kicked out the Air Force by the time I was...
No.
Yeah. Yeah.
So those are the things that led me to be able to get to the space of help for the youth.
That's what got me to start the nonprofit board of devotes.
Because I said it got to be other kids going through these same situations.
Right.
And fast forward, that got me into workforce development. Workforce development got me into the political world.
The political world got me into saying that you are a motivation speaker.
And I'm like, what is a motivation speaker? They're like, you've been doing it for the last 10 years.
Fast forward, here we are today. So that's the whole show that we can talk about for the next hour.
Wow. Well, hey, just listening to your story, I've noticed a lot of parallels between your life and my life.
I ended up in the Air Force as well right out of high school.
I actually signed in when I was 17 years old. I had to have my parents sign up for me.
Me too. Yeah, but who signed you in, Doc?
What's that?
What did you do? I was an Air Security Forces.
Oh, man. So I was an admin. So I had pretty decent at-vap score.
So they wanted to put me in an admin position. But listen, I didn't even make it that far.
I didn't even make it past boot camp.
So just long story. This is your show. I don't want to get into my thing.
But no. OK, so four weeks into basic training, I fell out.
And so, you know, on the track running, I fell out.
They took me to the hospital, found out that I had a sickle cell trait and that what I had on the track was a full blown sickle cell attack.
And so what they what I didn't know, first of all, I didn't know I had sickle cell.
But when any time you're in extreme weather conditions, you can have a full fledged attack, even if you just have the trait.
So that's what I had. And so as much as I wanted to stay in, I was medically discharged.
So I have a very, very short career in the Air Force.
But some of the other parallels that you were talking about was the, you know, cutting up in high school and just just acting crazy.
I went through the same thing. And so when you're talking, I was like, you know, some of these things that we consider in our lives that are missteps, you know, sometimes a lot of times, actually,
they can be turned into full circle moments and you can kind of use some of those so-called missteps to help improve and enhance the lives of other people or, you know, provide mentorship that you otherwise wouldn't have had.
So I love how everything came full circle for you, especially I know you had an opportunity to speak not too long ago to and mentor to the Frederick Douglass High School football team.
You know, they were the 2021 Maryland State champs. And so this is the same school that you mentioned that you got expelled from when you were a teenager.
And, you know, I imagine this had to be a full circle moment for you. And I saw a little bit of the YouTube clips there.
What was that like talking to those kids? And did you share with them like, hey, I actually got expelled when I was your age in the same school?
Did you go through that situation with them and tell them about that?
Man, I went so deep, man. So in hindsight, I avoided that school since 1998.
The current athletic director was in his first year as an assistant coach in 1998.
And he's won a few championships, state championships since I've left. And we ran into each other and he's like, man, I see you speaking everywhere.
Why you ain't been to Doug? Which is your production. Why ain't been to Doug?
And I told him, I said, man, I believe that I have an anxiety moment every time I think about it.
Let me just talk to the football team. I ain't gonna go to the school. Let me just talk to the team.
So he invited me out to talk to the team, man. Of course, I gave him the 100% truth so nobody else can live those moments that I lived if they had a full scholarship.
But I dug in him so much, Doc, that the principal came around and was like, I need you to speak to the whole school.
So at that moment, imagine me already having anxiety for that moment because all we say you have bad moments, you don't have bad days.
So I was having a bad moment. He's like, no, I want you to speak to the whole school. I'm like, oh my God.
So I had to talk to the entire student body in the same lunchroom that I entered when they walked me out in handcuffs.
Oh, man. That's powerful, though.
I loved every moment of it, though, Doc. Looking back at it, I'm like, oh, I'm so glad I did that.
But what that did, if you saw this on social media, is that was November, December of 2021.
That kicked off me to reach 100,000 youth. I had a campaign for 2022 of reaching 100,000 youth to have them finish school strong and focus on their careers.
So that kicked off a whole different snowball effect. And I'm thankful that I took that time.
Wow. That's actually one of the questions I have for you, because I noticed that, you know, as a part of your strategic mention, you had embarked on that outreach campaign to reach 100,000 youth.
That was really aggressive. Did you actually meet that goal? How did it turn out?
Man, this is what happened. So I have a big brother, big mentor, man, one of the best speakers, period, but youth speakers in the world by the name of Jeremy Anderson, right?
Yeah. I'm like, man, let me call big bro. I said, man, I just spoke to other, Douglas High School, he know the story.
I'm like, man, I'm inspired, man. I'm going to reach 10,000 youth in 2022. And he got quiet on me, right? He got real quiet, like five seconds.
He was like, all right, all right, I hear you. 100,000. I'm like, 100,000? What you talking about? Money? We're going to do $100,000? What you mean?
He said, no, you do 100,000 youth. He said, what you mean you do 10,000 youth? So the campaign was kicked off because I had a mentor as an adult to talk these things through.
And I'm so glad that he did because we reached 10,000 almost in a month. Unfortunately, we didn't reach 100,000 youth. We reached about 76,000.
Wow. But the team, we actually made a mistake. If I would have really stretched it to the start date, which was really February, I probably would have got to my 100,000 because I stopped at December 31.
We had already did some schools in January, which would have jumped me up. I could have done it if I would have did calendar. I mean, instead of calendar year, I did actual start time.
So we didn't reach it. But like most things in life, it's not about the goal. It was about the journey to get to goal. So reaching 76,000 youth and young adults is something that most people couldn't have done in a lifetime.
That's not a small feat at all. And I'm glad that your mentor encouraged you to kick it up from 10,000 to 100,000 because if you left it at 10, then that would have been your benchmark. And maybe you would have hit 7,000 out of the 10.
But by raising it to 100,000, you know, like you said, you far exceeded your original goal and just feel a little bit under 20,000 under that. So yeah, that was great advice. I'm glad that you consulted him about that.
You do a lot of great work with adults in workforce development and things like that. And you have a definitely a unique connection with young people. I love your engagement with them. And I think we talked about some of the things that you do that resonates with the youth in terms of engaging them where they are.
The casual attire works great. But we also mentioned something during your brief introduction that I don't think a lot of people know about. And I mentioned that you served as the first ever returning citizens liaison for Prince George's County, Maryland.
I know a lot of people do know that that program is about board. For those who may not be familiar with it, it's a reentry program that was spear handed under County Executive Angela Also-Brooks Administration. Tell us a little bit more about this program and your role in it.
No doubt. First off, super, super shout out to our County Executive, Madam Angela Also-Brooks. She is an awesome leader and I'm thankful to have her. So returning citizen liaison for the returning citizen affairs division, we call it RCAD for short.
I want to really let people hear it now so they'll know that it's going to be a national thing moving pretty fast. It's not an actual program. So if you consider us to be the leaders in the think tank, the high level thoughts, and kind of, as I say, the air traffic control for all of the resources and everything that has to do with returning citizens, and for those who don't know what a returning citizen is, is these are the family members, the men and the women who have
may have had an infraction with the law, and they may have some jail time, whether it be a short three day or 30 years, and they come back home, starting to figure out how to get their life back right because that PTSD of being behind those walls is real.
And you lose things. You lose time, you lose jobs, you lose family, you lose touch with society, and it's not always easy to transition back home. So my job is to make sure that I get all of the, myself and my colleague Mike Williams, shout out to Mike, it's just he and I, for the whole division.
For this million people of Prince George County, is to navigate all of the community based organizations, the faith based organizations, and the community to say, hey, we're the hub at the Bridge Center Adams House, which is like an agency that houses all of these different programs that you're speaking on, and different organizations.
And these, this is the ecosystem that we're putting in place to have the best outcome to lower this recidivism rate for our men and women in Prince George County.
So to your point, this is, like you say, it's not a program, it's more of a model, a national model that other municipalities can look to see your leadership in this particular realm and perhaps model other divisions after what you guys are doing in Prince George's County, right?
Yeah, it's happening. That's exactly what's happening. And Greg just spoke that way, did it way better than I could, because that's, we're leading the country right now in what it looks like to start these initiatives to have this ecosystem in place in every jurisdiction that needs it.
And most of the jurisdictions in this country need it. We all know that jail is big business. It's a lot of people behind those walls that are coming home. It's way more coming home than that.
Unfortunately, it's not always initiatives and ecosystems and hubs such as what we have with ARCAD, the Return of Citizens Affairs Division, to be able to say, no, let's do this so it makes sense.
Because everybody's going into the silos, it's not going to work. If me, you, John and Joe all had programs helping return to citizens, which one did that return to citizens go to?
That's hard for somebody coming home. It took me ten years when I came home to find myself. It took me ten years to navigate and find a career and find good housing and not worry about the thing that's on my record just to be able to survive and take care of my wife.
We want to shorten that. We want that ten years to look like a year, a month, or whatever it is to help you get your service.
Well, I love that. And shout out to County Executive Angela Osso Brooks for making this a cornerstone of her administration because these are invaluable services and models to have this as a part of the county for people who are coming out of a situation where they're trying to get their
help coming out of a situation where they're transitioning. We all need help when we're transitioning. Even if it's out of prison, if it's into, you know, from school into the real world, transitioning is something that we need assistance with.
So this is something that I think is awesome. I'm really glad that her administrative liaisons kind of put this together and definitely have you in there as a liaison.
So I really like that a lot. I want to switch gears a little bit and talk about something I see on your marketing materials all the time.
Now, this is something that I love. One of the key phrases that you've coined as a central piece of your messaging is, your network is your net worth.
And there's many people out there who they don't yet understand that that's a critical component of success. I want you to talk a little bit about that phrase ology and why you made a central theme in your messages.
Man, I love that question, man. Thanks for asking that one. First off, let me just say your network is your network.
I got that thing trademarked. I'm excited that I do. So I love to hear it every time I hear it. But man, that is true.
I always say every listener that's listening to this show, I want them to just really ask, like, how many jobs did I get if somebody told me about them?
Now, I ain't saying that you got the job, but somebody told you, hey, apply for this position. Did you see this? Or how many times did you find your favorite hairdresser or your favorite barber because somebody said, hey, check this out.
Check my barber out. Or just how many times somebody told you about something that gained positivity in your life? So that's your network.
I normally say, look, the last five people in your text messages, email, Snapchat, DM, voicemail, they show your value. If you don't like to be teased, you're in control of that.
You can wake up every morning and add value to your life by dialing somebody that's in your level of success to brighten your day.
Someone told me before, man, we're 60 degrees of separation from everybody in the world. I'm excited because I've been living in that space. Your network is your network through my network.
And I'm like one degree from everybody. Like I can legit call one person, a real doctor. Look, I can call one person to call an Oprah Winfrey. I can call one person to call a Pete Diddy. I can call one person to call President Biden at this point.
Like I have one person in between these people. And that's because I live in that space. Your network is your network. You are now in the same network. So you won't be getting random calls from me. You're going to be like, man, this dude BJ has been calling me ever since we connected.
But it's because I just like network. I want people to know that I genuinely care about your wellbeing and want you to be a better person. And I don't want nothing for it.
But what happens is because I've been living in that space so much, I'm normally the first person people call when it's something in my space. When you think about workforce development, motivation speak and tap into the youth, returning a citizen.
I'm the person they call because I love living in that space in my network. And because of that, I feel like I'm like a legit multimillionaire because of.
You are. I love that point and I like the point that you mentioned as well that you genuinely care about how someone is doing. You genuinely care about someone's success. That's one of the reasons why you're so impactful in your work, because the students and the adults that you speak to in your engagement.
They get that sense from you and you really can't help affect change with someone unless they have a sense that you even care about their well being about their success. So that's actually absolutely critical.
This is a great conversation. We're going to continue it, but we're going to pause right here and we're going to take a quick commercial break.
And when we return, we're going to continue our discussion with Dr. BJ page will be right back.
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You're back live with Dr. Andre Jerry.
Hey everybody, welcome back. If you're just joining us tonight's guest is Dr. BJ Page, who's a multi award winning motivational influencer who advocates for at risk and underserved communities in the Prince George's County, Maryland area.
Now before we went to break, we were talking about the impact of your work, Dr. Page, and how you take a keen interest in how people are doing, how their success matters to you. You wanted to speak a little bit more on that, so why don't you go right ahead?
Well, I like that you brought it up because it makes me think. So I always say, man, my wife is the real boss and the genius in most of the work that I slash we do. She always says, man, people care what you know when they know that you care.
She says it at times where I need it most. Like I can be really having a day where I need to get some information out to the youth and the other adults and to the staff and teachers at the schools.
And I might have a rough day and I gotta check myself out like man, let me make sure that I put my game face on and the game faces like man, me and I'm here for you. And it works every time. It never let me down.
Wow. Shout out to Mrs. Page.
Shout out to Mrs. Page. I know she plays a critical part in your success as well, so definitely shout out to her. Yeah, no question. Now listen, you did touch on this briefly before the break, but I want to talk a little bit about this because many people, because you do such great work in the motivational speaking realm, a lot of people don't know that you're also an author.
And you wrote a book entitled Don't Forget Your Father. I love that title. What was the impetus behind writing this book and how did writing this book impact you?
You made me put a big smile on my face and say the title of the book. But this happened around the time where the nonprofit that I told you about, Boys of Both Ties, was jumping. I mean we was in every school, every community in D.C. and Prince George County, Maryland. We couldn't be missed.
We had a huge event back to school every year where all of the local rappers would come and we would give away 2,000 book bags full of everything that you need for the entire school year. And these were, the kids were willingly come out. It's not like the parents had them come out or nothing.
But it was so much going on and my two kids at the time who were like 14 and 15, not 13 and 14, they're now 21 and 22, it seemed like they weren't communicating to me well.
And I'm like, man, there ain't no way, man. As much as I'm that guy to them, they tell me sometimes too much and they're not communicating with me, right, Doc? So I'm like, man, what's wrong with y'all? I say, you know what, let me make this easy. I know y'all at an age where you're changing your personality. You're going into who you are as a human.
Let me just show you how easy it is to send a text message every day, every morning, just to show you that I care and show you how quick it is. I'm not even expecting you to respond. I just want you to know that I thought about you and I chat with you since you're not talking to me.
And I did that, man, successfully for 365 days a year. Now, some of those quotes weren't mine. They might have been yours, Doc, but the point was I just wanted them to know that I was thinking about them, here's something for you, and I hope that you can do the same to me.
And at first they still wouldn't respond back, but I've done it so much, by month two and three, they would sometimes beat me to the check-in. So we turned all those quotes, man, into a book called Don't Forget Your Father.
It's kind of a self-help book. It gives you a chance to read a quote each day, write how you feel, and when you finish that entire book, I advise you to give it to another loved one just so they can see how you felt when you wrote, I mean, when you read it, and they can write and pass it to another one. It's been amazing watching this book pass around from family member to family member.
I love that. I love the intentionality of it, and I love that it's basically a compilation of love notes to your kids and quotes, like you said, some are from you, some are from famous people, or some are just from, you know, posts that you saw on Twitter or something.
But I think that's a great idea for a book, actually, almost like a devotional. And like, to your point, you know, after month two and three, your kids start to, you know, if you're a little late on sending the messages, sometimes, hey, where my message at for the day?
But I love how your children responded to your book. Do you have plans to write any future books?
Man, you may be the first show to hear it. I'm just finishing a second book. I don't even know if I can say the name yet, but I'm going to say it.
For Finding Your Nemo, Your New Employment Makeover, The 10 Step Guide, Workforce Development Guide to Finding Your Career. Love it. And the goal of this book is to give you 10 of Dr. BJ Page's best practices to finding your dream career. And you'll see what your dream career really is once you get the book and read it.
And it allows you to really search through yourself, through all of what you know you've been through to where you are today, to either strengthen your career because you may be in it, or say, you know what, I have what I need and the tools to do these 10 steps to now find my dream career.
I should be finishing that thing up, man, in the next week. It's already prepared to be packed.
Next week? Wow.
Yeah, man. I'm excited, man. You're the first to hear it because I'm so close to the finish line. I've been keeping that one quiet. But this thing is going to be a game changer, man, because when you talk about those 70-odd thousand youth and young adults that I've reached last year, it was things that I learned throughout that year that I'm like, I got to jot this down so I can give this good game later on. And this good game is now returned into this book, Finding Your Nemo, Your New Employment Makeover.
I love that. Again, another rockin' title, Finding Your Nemo. I love books that, okay, so self-help is my favorite genre. I read all types of books, but that's my favorite type of book.
And the title is outstanding. So yeah, I'm so glad that you gave me some exclusive news there that you got a new book coming out. Tell me what's coming up next also, besides the book. We know about the book. What else is coming up in 2023 for you?
Can I drop one more book that's right behind that?
Oh, you meant Do It, man. I love an author now.
The more I talk, really being intentional with my thoughts is leading to the next chapter. And the next chapter behind Finding Your Nemo, Your New Employment Makeover, is how not to get fired.
So Ben and I have been...
We need it. We need it.
We need it. We need that. We need that. I've been in this workforce development space for so long, man, you know, right over, you know, 10, 12 years.
That I've been teaching so much on how to find a career, giving people soft skills, you know, showing them how to get a job.
A lot of what's missing as I talk to some of the employers is how do you stay here? Like, we're in a fast age where retention is not a word no more.
People ain't staying at jobs. But most of the time, it's not really their choice. Sometimes they're getting fired before they can plead their case.
So I want to be able to show people, like, look, man, you need to figure out how to, you know, find your career. Everybody won't be an entrepreneur.
You need to be able to sit in a job and not get fired so you can take care of yourself and your family for the rest of your life. That's the third book.
I love it. Like I said, I love the self-help genre. And yeah, I definitely needed that book myself.
I think I know how to keep a job at this point. But hey, in the past, I needed that book for myself.
So yeah, I love the book idea, man. Keep the book coming. Keep the book coming.
I'm going to give Maryland a shot out really quick because particularly Prince George's County, Maryland.
I just want to tell the listeners a little bit of information about this unique county.
So Prince George's County, Maryland, it carried the unique distinction of the country's wealthiest black majority county.
The title now belongs to the neighboring county, which is Charles County.
But yeah, for many decades carried the unique distinction of being the country's wealthiest majority black county.
I just think that's awesome. The median household income as of 2021 is $91,124.
The median age of Prince George's County is 37.8.
So this is a county of young, upwardly mobile, middle to middle upper class black people who are, you know,
they're making their mark in politics and sports, you name it, federal and state government, entrepreneurship.
So this is definitely the place to be. You know, shout out to Atlanta also.
But it's not the only black mecca in the country. Maryland is definitely on the map, wouldn't you say?
Man, I say we sat there for years with four out of the top ten cities of the most affluent black cities in the nation.
And even today, that article that says Charles County, that's per square foot. So by numbers, it's still Prince George's County.
I know. OK. I've seen that article. I had to find it and read the fine print.
The friend of my good county, Prince George's County.
But, you know, man, I definitely feel like if you can make it, you know, the old saying used to say, if you can make it in New York, you can make it anywhere.
That's not about, you know, P.G. County, man. If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.
Absolutely. And also, I got a shout out to the newly elected and now incumbent governor, Westmore, you know, who made history last year as the first black governor of Maryland.
OK. And then the only he's the only the third black person to ever be elected governor of any state.
You know, so you want to talk about black history. There you go. Right there. You know, so next month I'm going to be celebrating my brother Westmore next month.
I'm really proud of him. I saw on IG where you and your beautiful wife, you attended the governor, the governor's inaugural ball and the videos you posted look great.
Tell us about how it was. How was it? Who did you see? Did you have good seeds? Tell us everything.
Man, it was it was literally black excellence. And I wouldn't I wouldn't have missed that for the world, man.
I didn't know what to expect. Like you say, this is the first for the state of Maryland.
But I did know that I got a few calls to say, man, I need you to represent Prince George County. So do your thing.
So we got dressed up, man, and we went out. When I say everybody, you can think of today.
A few people that gave them big shout outs, you know, Oprah Winfrey, we talked about that.
We gave him his first speech and he was inducted in or inaugurated in.
You had Chris. Thank you, Oprah. Yeah. Shout out to all.
Just to all mama. Oh, Chris, tough words coming out.
You have Raheem Devon. You had.
I had the nice with that. So do nice. And every heavy hitter that I can imagine was there one who really surprised me that I was like, oh, man, what's up?
I was caught mellow at me, man. I just did. I did. He's a Baltimore native.
We all know that. But I ain't that's all right. 20 years that close in person.
So I said, wait, wait, wait, wait. I said, no, you didn't walk up to him and say mellow. Oh, man.
So it was just good to see all of the people from the community, the political side, all in one space looking so sharp for such a historic event.
I'm blessed and honored to be able to be there, especially to enjoy with my wife.
Oh, man. Yeah. Like I said, the videos and pictures that you posted was really I hate I couldn't be there, but it really looked like a great time.
The pictures were spectacular. All the dress changes from Mrs. Moore.
It just looked great. It kind of reminded me back during that time when President Obama had his inaugural ball and we were also, you know, caught up in that that whole.
It was just like a fairy tale. And when I looked at the pictures from the inaugural ball, it felt like that same type thing.
It felt that way. Definitely felt that way. But in all honesty, man, it felt it felt regular to me.
Like it was some out of towners there who kind of was saying the same thing you were saying.
And I think the reason it felt regular to me is again, man, you know, shout out to my county, man.
We were so we were deep. There was so many of us there that we're used to being in function, seeing each other, you know, celebrating each other.
And it was just nice to see us on that level, being able to do that with the governor of the great state of Maryland.
And it was dope. I wouldn't change for the world. Yeah, man.
It's totally awesome. I was hoping that we could do the same from my home state, Georgia, but we just couldn't quite get past the the finish line there.
But hey, you know, there's always next time, you know, we're making progress.
I'm going to take from the little progress that we are making. But hey, no, definitely.
Maryland is leading the way in terms of black excellence. And I just I just love every bit of it.
So before we get too close to the end of the show here, I want you to tell people where they can contact you online, where they can find out more information about you.
How how do we book you if we want to book you for our school event or our work event?
How do we reach out to you with the fastest way? Yeah, man, I definitely get that info.
And it's funny, this year is going to be there's a lot of shifting going on this year.
But the easiest way is through the website.
It's real simple, BJPage.com, B-J-P-A-I-G-E dot com.
Everything is on there, the booking page, the testimonials about everything you need to know. I'm an open book man.
I'm different from a lot of people. If anybody is in the hip hop era listening, that's definitely my era.
I ate my own myself a lot. So you ain't got to do no whole lot of digging to find no dirt or nothing bad about it because I'm already going to give it to you.
Right. And I say that to say when you're on my website, it's going to be a lot of information there.
And one would say is why is he giving all this information? Well, I'm giving information so you can know exactly who you're dealing with.
And that's my authentic self. But I also like IG. I'm heavy on IG. I'm super heavy on Facebook. I guess I'm telling my age.
But with a lot of communication with some people who I've been lifelong friends with and that's where most of them are on Facebook.
I'm going to tell you what I'm not good at, but I'm getting better. So if anybody wants to be in my accountability partner listening, and that's LinkedIn.
Oh, I got you brother. Yeah, don't get I would love to have you in my accountability partner. If any of y'all don't know Doc, Doc's shop.
Did you hear me? He said this show up super professional. I do shows all the time. This might be top notch.
I try my best brother. Thank you. Yeah, you're doing a great job.
Well, listen, you mentioned that you were a hip hop head, man. You know, now that we got the business out the way. Who are some of your favorite hip hop artists?
Dead or alive or just just period, man. I was listening to Biggie earlier. So who's on your playlist?
Well, I'm a pop fanatic. I think that's why I got in high school. I thought I was too pop.
Back then I had my bar here. Bam, bam. You could have told me that I was too pop.
But nowadays, man, I love to what one would say the conscious head. I love J. Cole. Oh, he's awesome.
Yeah. Love Kendrick Lamar. But I'm going to tell you about my two new favorites coming out of the Bay Area.
They both so happy to be coming out of the Bay Area is is a symbol. I'm loving symbol.
I heard you heard a symbol. I have. Oh, man. So so simple really gives you some game that I don't even know if you can really understand how life changing he can be to your everyday thought pattern when it comes to changing your project.
We like a better workforce development. He really can have like, all right, well, if I focus a little more, I probably can do better and find a better career, make more money like he gives you all of that.
So I love simple and then the rest of I don't know if you know, the rest of. No, nothing.
Another one. I make sure I send you some of his stuff offline coming out of the Bay Area super, super bright conscious future brother.
He's definitely going to be here for a long time. Those are my two favorite right now.
Wow. Okay. All right. You know, I used to love common. He had to put out in a while. I wish he would do at least one more album. Just give us all a gift. Just bless us with something.
He touches DC Kennedy Center like once a year. Okay. Okay. I would love to come to one of his shows. Yeah, we got to plan that out.
We got to get you to come up at least once a year. He's at the Kennedy Center. Okay. I'm definitely going to check that out. Okay. A female rap artist. Who are you feeling?
So, um, it'll always be Lauren here. I won't deviate. Yes. Never be able to ever be long here. Yes.
I think, uh, no, some people may disagree. I can't lie that, you know, I love old hip hop, but Nicki Minaj, she's a lyricist at the end of the day. She's hard. I mean, say what you want.
And I've talked junk about her, but she is, like you said, she is a lyricist. You know, you can pull all the antics you want, but if you, at the end of the day, you can spit those bars and you are a lyricist.
I'll give you your due respect. The girl is not to be messed with. She's not to be messed with. You know, I'm more of a little Kim guy, but, uh, Nicki, Nicki got skills and we should definitely give her her props and her flowers for her achievements as well.
I'm glad to hear you look him guys. So, um, later this year, uh, the parent company to, to who runs me. I told you, my wife is the page group. Yeah. So we put none of that.
Uh, this summer, we just got the approval for the location so I can say the location and I'll tell you who we're shooting for at the national museum of African American history and culture, uh, downtown DC.
We will have them and we're working on little Kim right now as one of the panelists, man. So if that happens, when that happens, we make sure you went get it when that happens.
I'm there. Yep. I am there.
I mean, I'm a BJ page fan. I'm a little Kim fan. That I mean, that's easy right there, man. I'll be there.
Yeah. Last year I had a little, he hosts my, my 40th birthday party. Um, so great brother there, man. And, um, I'm forever in debt to him, man. I love everything that he represents.
He's, uh, like you and I, he wants more for our youth and young adults, especially the underserved community.
Uh, he wants them to have more opportunities to get careers, even if it's in or out of the music industry. So I'm just, I'm in a, I'm in a weird space, man, where this year we just launching off so many different initiatives that, uh, I'm gonna finish everything I started.
I believe it's going to help many people to come.
Well, man, you're doing an awesome job. I'm really proud of you. Uh, I'm glad that we got a chance to collaborate and introduce you to my audience. I love one of the great things I love about this show is that I have creative control. I can bring on who I want.
And what I like to do is I like to use my platform to highlight people who are doing outstanding things in their community. You have to be some big, huge celebrity. I think the real impact is made at the ground level where people are really digging in and making an impact in their sphere in their community.
And so I had to have you on, I found you on Instagram, Instagram. I was like, yes, love the work he's doing. I'm going to reach out to him and try to get him on the show. So I just thank you for your time today. Thank you for all the work that you're doing.
Um, thank you for the books that you're writing. I love an author. I encourage everyone out there. You don't have to be, uh, some English major to write a book. Just start writing.
Everyone has a story in them. Just start writing. Even if you think it sounds stupid, start writing and let people know people can glean and take things from your story. So just remember that we appreciate your time, brother. You got to come back soon.
And, uh, let us know what you're doing. You're you got an open invitation to come back whenever you want. All right, man. Bless you, man. I want to just give you a quick shout out, man. And, uh, thank you for even acknowledging, uh, is taking me a lot.
To be able to accept things. So hearing the lot of what you're saying talked offline, I just want to publicly thank you for having me. Thank you for believing in me. And I can't wait to we look back at this or listen back to this on a whole different level.
Like tech movie started out back in the beginning of the year. Absolutely. Well, God bless you brother. And let me think of 30, 60 seconds. Well, go ahead. He said 20, 23 made me think. So every year I do a theme. I've been doing it for a long time. You know, last year was 100,000 youth in 2022.
This year is me in 23, hashtag me in 23, 23. Yeah. The reason why we don't need 23 is so often, especially in the fast world we in today, we do these self help, you know, trainings and workshops and I go across the country, given different seminars on how to be great and how to be a better employee.
But we don't really focus on our personal sales, whether that be the health part, physical part, the eating, the just your yourself. So this year I'm focusing on me in 23. And my challenge is for everybody else to do the same.
And for those listeners who are super technical and your personality trait is direct. I'm not telling you to forget everybody else. I'm just telling you to spend a little bit extra time a day, maybe 20 minutes a day doing something focusing on just you. So me in 23.
Me in 23. So if you're on Instagram, Facebook, hashtag me in 23, and then you'll pull up all of VJ pages, posts related to me in 23. I think that's a great initiative. It's a great reminder, especially we're still early in the year, still January.
So if there's something out there that you put down, maybe it's a good time to pick it back up. And maybe this is a good time to let this be the year of follow through. Let's just say that this is the year of follow through. And this is the year where goals are going to be achieved and reached in Jesus name.
So yes, drop the mic. That's it. That's it, brother. Thank you so much again. You know, this is our show for tonight, folks. Thank you for joining us for another episode. Join us for the next one. It's going to air on live on Wednesday, February 22 at 8 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.
Until then, we'll see you next time. Good night, folks.
Bye.