Meet Shaun Jay

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Shaun Jay. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Shaun below.

Shaun, so great to have you with us and thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts with the community. So, let’s jump into something that stops so many people from going after their dreams – haters, nay-sayers, etc. We’d love to hear about how you dealt with that and persisted on your path.

I had lots of experience with this issue growing up. My stepdad hated my career path and would often fight with my mother about my life choices. Seeing the way this panned out from a very young age caused me to develop a thick skin and a “do it yourself” attitude. The constant pushback actually caused me to want to pursue my career path as a magician even more because I wanted to “prove him wrong”. It literally fueled my existence when I was growing up around that. Was it ideal, not really. Was it a trial by fire situation? Absolutely. It’s those kind of situations that either make or break a person. Thankfully, it helped me learn how to overcome obstacles and pushback from a very young age. There will always be haters and nay-sayers, especially as you become more and more successful. The more successful I became, the worse it got. Interestingly enough, my stepdad now respects me more than ever due to the fact that I made something out of pursuing my passion (for the past 21 years and counting as of the time of this interview).. A full circle moment. It feels so strange actually, because I became used to the pushback and learned to expect it. I would say that is the most important part of the mindset that it takes to persist beyond the crap that people throw in your face. Expect pushback and you’ll never be surprised by it. Expect others to dislike what you’re doing. You can’t be friends with everyone, right? Everything is subjective and so is your art, your work, your personality, etc… Learn to expect it and your fear of it will go away, Go forth and conquer!

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I am a professional magician, keynote speaker, and 3d designer. I remember seeing the Ringling Brothers Circus back when I was 3 years old. Besides the elephants and other circus antics, the one thing that I vividly remember is the female quick change artist. She would step in and out of this small closet size box and in a matter of seconds, her costume would change. Something about that moment of astonishment stuck with me for the rest of my life and I would periodically be reminded of that when I would watch Magic’s Biggest Secrets Revealed back in the mid 90s. It turns out that these experiences influenced me to become a magician a few years later.

I revisited this feeling of wonder at the age of 12 when I was in the local library browsing books. I stumbled upon the magic book section (they still have these at libraries). Instantly, I was hooked and started reading and teaching myself basic sleight of hand from books. One thing led to the other and eventually I started street performing at outdoor festivals for several years.

After street performing for a few years earlier in my teenage years, people started to ask if they could hire me to perform at their private corporate events. This took me out of the world of performing for tips and into the world of clients writing me checks and paying my professional rate.

Currently, I make private parties and corporate events much more interactive and eliminate the boring out of boardroom meetings and banquets! Some of my clients request I incorporate their company message (or corporate branding) into my presentations which always makes for a fun challenge.

The interest and skillset I’ve acquired to make my ideas come to life via 3D design and make them tangible things by 3D printing them allows me not only to create custom magic props for my show, but to create unique pieces of magic that can fit the theme of the event I’m performing at. This, in turn, makes for happy clients and helps set me apart from other entertainers in my field.

I’ve expanded my offerings recently to the world of real estate by helping home buyers and home builders visualize their home’s floor plan by transforming the architectural drawings into lifelike rendered photos and high resolution animations. This helps eliminate confusion between the home builder and the home buyer since most buyers aren’t skilled architects that understand floor plans and blue prints that well. This gives a very clear picture of what the home would look like before its event built.

Basically, no matter how you look at it, I’m in the transformation business. Whether it be transforming boring events into fun and interactive events, transforming the way people think via my keynote speech “The Magic of Customer Service”, or transforming boring 2D black and white line drawings into beautifully accurate renderings of a home to be built, it’s all transformation. Change is good!

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

1. Proper grammar and communication skills:

Without the ability to communicate my ideas, both in written and verbal form, my business would be nothing. Customers encounter many different touch points when dealing with businesses. Right from the get-go, the way you respond to emails, answer the phone, and talk to clients really makes a big difference in my mind. It’s all part of the customer experience. How many times have you gotten an email pitch that had even just one misspelled word? Doesn’t that throw the whole vibe off? Doesn’t it make the pitch seem less effective? Something about it just doesn’t feel right. The same goes with speaking skills. Nobody wants to do business with someone who sounds unsure of what they offer or doesn’t share their ideas effectively and clearly. It’s an instant turn off.

2. Mentorship:

Mentors are one of life’s best secret shortcuts. It’s always better to be guided by someone who has been in your shoes and has overcome the same obstacles that you are trying to. They’ve already paved the path. They already have the roadmap. They already have years of experience over you, and usually end up saving you from making the same mistakes that they did when they were in your position or your age. I am grateful to have had several mentors appear in my life over the course of my career that have helped point me in the right direction. I’ve had a few business mentors. Mentors that have helped shape my show and direct my art. Finally, a mother that was (and still continues to be) very supportive of what I do. She has been one of my best mentors.

3. Persistence:

No matter what your pursuit is in life, persistence can always assist you in that pursuit. I grew up in a sort of “trial by fire” situation in the sense that my stepfather hated my life path choice and I had to live every day as a battle to “prove him wrong”. My mother constantly argued with him in efforts to support my pursuits. He had strongly mentioned many times that I was wasting my time, and that I would never be successful at the career path that I chose. It was persistence (combined with passion and prayer) helped me push through his verbal brick wall that he attempted to build in front of me every day. Once I realized that he couldn’t control me and that I had a choice whether I could listen to the noise or tune it out, I kept pushing forward. definitely not easy to say the least but without persistence, I wouldn’t have been able to do it.

I would strongly advise anyone early in their journey to pay attention in English class in high school and college (if you decide college is the path for you). The work that I’ve put into those classes and curriculum do pay in dividends when writing speeches, composing emails, and even thinking about my own verbal speech and diction.

To find a mentor, you either have to come across someone who would be the right fit via your circle of friends or family or…hire one. Yes, you can “hire a mentor”. It could be a great way to jumpstart your success. Take your time finding the right one as your level of success is directly proportional to how well you and your mentor get along and understand each other.

Persistence is usually developed out of some kind of motivation. Without sounding cliché, persistence can be achieved by “working backwards”. What I’m suggesting is to start with your end goal in mind and work towards it, imagining what it would feel like if you’ve already achieved it. Start small and chip away at it every day. There is magic in compounding interest. When you do lots of little small things over time, they add up and get you closer to your goal. Just like in exercise when you work out. You may not see visible changes instantly, but keep looking in the mirror over time and you might just surprise yourself! All of this is easier said than done. The bottom line is you just have to START and do something. Keep doing lots of little “somethings” and that is the essence of persistence.

What would you advise – going all in on your strengths or investing on areas where you aren’t as strong to be more well-rounded?

I think it’s definitely worth going all in on our strengths. We naturally gravitate towards our strengths and usually enjoy working on projects with our skills that we are talented in. It gives us a sense of empowerment and accomplishment. Conversely, I do believe it’s worth having an open mind and always being willing to learn new skills. Just remember that it is very hard to be great at everything. Having those expectations will quickly lead to disappointment. I think there’s value in learning a wide variety of skills in the beginning of your career in order to broaden your skillset. There are two benefits to doing this. The first is that you will have a bigger tool box to work from when developing your career. For instance, if you know a little bit about web design, that could save you thousands of dollars when you are just starting out and will give you experience creating one. The second way this could be useful is when you ARE ready to start delegating tasks, you can delegate these other skills that you know a little about to your employees and can feel more confident directing them. It’s nice to know a little bit about web design for instance so when you’re ready to hire a marketing team, web designer etc, you can “speak their language” and have a better grasp on what you want and where you want to go. At that point, you let the pros you’ve delegated this to work their magic so you can focus on your strengths.

A perfect example of this is video editing. For years, I did all of my own promo video editing by teaching myself and playing with iMovie (later Final Cut Pro). After about 20yrs of editing and experimenting, I finally decided to outsource that and I’m glad that I did. It frees up an enormous amount of time to allow me to do other things that I need to do as a solopreneur, like RELAX for once! Something that I rarely have time to do. Always remember to take some time for self care to avoid burnout. To me, having a dedicated video editor is very much worth it. I can have more time to chill and use that time to double down on other things I’m great at.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Lara D.
The CW Network

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