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WYTV7 Sharing a Positive Message in 2022
What's Your Story?
Sherita Williams: (00:00)
Welcome to “What's your story?” I'm your host, Sherita Williams. And today my guest is a serial entrepreneur and he's an engineer. He's a talk show host. He's a marketer. John Morley has done it all. Please help me welcome John Morley to the show. John, Welcome.
John C. Morley: (00:20)
Thank you very much, Dr. Williams. It's a pleasure to be here today.
Sherita Williams: (00:24)
So John, tell our viewers a little bit about yourself.
John C. Morley: (00:28)
To give you a short story there. When I was in college, even before that, I knew that I didn't want to work for a company. That's the first thing so when I got into probably my junior year of high school, I knew I was going to have my own company, didn't know what yet. And it was my chemistry teacher. I took AP chemistry and she was also the teacher for computers and they were teaching BASIC Beginners All-Purpose Symbol Instructional Code. I said, "This is going to be a snap. It’s going to be so easy for me." "John," she says, "I was talking to the principal and we've decided it's not a good idea for you to take this course." I said, "why not?" She says, "Well, you already know this course."
John C. Morley: (01:16)
"So I've enrolled you. I got permission from the principal to enroll you in a course and during the silent study, I'm going to teach you Pascal, a college-level course." She was the lady that taught me and inspired me to not give up on technology because I was going to give up on my gift. I figured, so many people are doing it. Why should I do it? And she inspired me, "John, you got a gift you should go with." I'm like, okay. I went through college and when I got to my junior year, I started a small company. I remember to this day it was $5 for me to help you on the phone and $10 in person. And there was no per hour. It was just a flat fee. And to skip around, I knew that when I got to the end of that time which was in my senior year I was ready to take this company to another level, took the name from JCM and son, and changed it.
John C. Morley: (02:13)
Because my friends were knocking me for the name. I changed it to the JMOR connection, my first name, and my last name. I realized that I wanted to do something different which is to help people with technology, not rip them off but help businesses that are challenged and struggled because my parents had a business, a dry clean plant. And I designed their automation system when I was in eighth grade. And I realized that people were ripping them off and not to get into all the details but this is happening with other people. So I said, "I know I can do this." I know there'll be people out there that are cheaper than me but I can do this today. We're maintaining Wall Street and keeping them up and running. So I have a slogan. I say to people, "Wall Street trusts us with their IT technology needs shouldn't you."
John C. Morley: (03:04)
And not many people can say that. When I was in college, I had a marketing company that I hired, my dad helped to pay for it about 10 years ago because the business company was about 30 something years young. I learned that these people don't know what they're doing and they also said, "John, you're never going to do marketing. You never do advertising," because they kept putting that program in my head. I went and got certified hypnosis because I said, "I keep paying people to help me achieve my dreams. Why don't I just learn how to achieve my dreams and stop paying people?" And that's when I learned that I needed to go fire this company after I researched to figure out how to replace them. I bought my first Xerox press. I walked into their office one morning in New York and I said to the gentleman, "Hi guys, we had a great run and you're done." And everybody was just so surprised. And the first two years we failed miserably. So I built a second company, a print production, graphic media, and digital video design center and then I became very allured with creating motivational content for people. Helping us become better versions of ourselves and helping other people and I just get this real passion to do this every day.
Sherita Williams: (04:19)
But that's awesome. So, John, you have an engineering background, how did you get into marketing? I saw one of your slogans that I want to talk more about is that you say, "We give your business a voice." So I want to talk a little bit about that but how did an engineer become a marketer?
John C. Morley: (04:41)
As I was mentioning when I was in college a good friend of mine said, "Oh, we can help you out. My uncle's friend knows a company." I said, "I can't afford to hire them." He said, "No, we're going to give you a great discount, like 75% off." I said, "Alright, well I'll talk to them." And then I kept paying them, I was paying them before I even had business and I'm paying them close to 30 some years or 20 some years. I said, "This isn't working anymore," and they said, "Oh John, you just have to be given patience." I said, "I've given it so much money in time." They said, "No, but you got to put more money in." I said, "I don't think so." And that's when I realized after I got certified hypnosis that I'm playing the old tape in my head.
John C. Morley: (05:24)
Most people know this but when you're born, even before you come out of the womb, some programs are being programmed into you. People say things before the baby is totally born and even when you're birthed, people say, "Oh, we're never going to have this, never going to have that." The baby hears that until about six or seven years old and it starts to create this permanent tape or loop the baby doesn't even know what happens. So I've realized that I was playing this tape in my mind that I kept here my whole life. John, you're never going to be a marketer. You're never going to do advertising. You don't know the first thing about advertising and I kept hearing that, somebody put that in my head. I didn't put that in my head and I said, "Well, what if I fail?"
John C. Morley: (06:04)
So I'll fail and I'll get better. That's when I decided that I need to be able to take my ideas and execute them, not wait 17 days for somebody to get back to me. And that's when I got into that and said that I create things because I needed something that could help my tech company. After all, nobody else knew how to do it. They just kept charging me but they didn't know my business. So that's where that passion came from and now I help other businesses with all their creative content, video, etc. The thing that I do is I tell people up front, I give them the truth. I say, "Look, here's the truth. This is what I'm going to tell you. Now you may not believe me. I'm also not going to give you a story. So if you want to do this, this is what you need to do and this is what we need to do."
John C. Morley: (06:50)
"If you're not ready to make this kind of commitment, you're not ready to do marketing yet and you're not ready to do advertising. Focus on growing your business and then come back to us." Too many people take that little bit of money that they scrape to make. And they really should be putting that into other things that the business needs, not into marketing and advertising. So I recognized that at a young age and that's when I said I can't go like this anymore. So that's what got me to take engineering into marketing and I'm just very good about getting the word out about your business through print and media. You name it and we print in almost anything and I think a lot of advertising companies, what they do is they sub things out.
John C. Morley: (07:37)
So my goal was, we're never going to sub things out. Everything we do is all in-house. So we don't go to anyone, we print all in-house and most people can't say that. They just say, "Oh, we have somebody." And what put me over the fence with the marketing company that we had was they made a big mistake on the brochure and said, "Oh John, we can't fix it." Well, what do you mean? They said, "Well, we didn't print it." What does that mean you didn't print it? They said, "Well, we use a third party." I said, "Well, you didn't tell me that in our agreement." They were like, "Yeah. It's usually never an issue." So that's when I realized that the world wasn't on my side and I needed to figure out how do I balance the scales? So I think that's why I got into marketing.
Sherita Williams: (08:20)
So if I am a small business or medium business, I've been in business for 10 years and my company is doing well but I've hit a plateau. So how can your company help me get to the next level?
John C. Morley: (08:38)
So I think the first thing we do is we look at your image, we look to see who you're reaching? How it's working? Can we duplicate that? And are there other avenues we can take you down? Are you missing some things? And that's kind of what we do. We have conversations and from those conversations, we decide where we're going to go. People say, "John, what's it going to cost to market my company?" I said, "We need to sit down, have a conversation and we can put a plan together." They said, "What will you charge for that?" "We charge for the plan." They said, "John, we want the plan and then we'll hire you." Well, we don't work that way. Like this is what the plan's going to cost you. Okay? And if you work with us, then we'll absorb the plan.
John C. Morley: (09:25)
Because a lot of people just want your ideas then they want to go somewhere else and I think what I've learned is a lot of people out there, just want to make money and there is nothing wrong with making money. It's just that I want to do something to help other people and get money because of the value I provide someone, not by conning them or tricking them or manipulating them into thinking that they have to use me. I say to people, "You don't have to use me. You can use another marketing advertising company but this is what you need to ask them, this is what you need to be doing and if you're not, you shouldn't advertise with anybody." Because they think it's like this magic wand that we just wave and it happens. It doesn't work like that.
John C. Morley: (10:10)
Whether it's social media, whether it's video, whether it's print. You don't just print and people come. They always think you build a stadium and they will come. Well, yes they'll come but they don't come for the first game. Like it takes them a while before they come to what you've built. So I think what marketing has taught me are patience and creativity and that I need to explore that more. With the pandemic over the last few years, it got me to open up my mind, even more, to realize that there were things I wasn't doing that I could have been doing but I wasn't. And that got me to hone in on things. That was great because you don't usually take that kind of time for yourself to just think.
Sherita Williams: (10:58)
So, have you been successful in taking companies to the next level?
John C. Morley: (11:03)
Absolutely. So when somebody comes to me, let's say they had hit a plateau. I talk to them and say, "What would you like to do?" And then we come up with a plan and usually within six months to a year, we're able to grow. I like to grow their business slowly, not quickly because then it would fall and we have the challenge. Most people think it's just a matter of paying something and you're going to get up here. So a lot of times we have this conversation and I say to people, "We're not a match. Like if you just think you're going to pay me and now you're going to get all this business, it doesn't work like that. It's a partnership and I have to get some things from you and you have to get some things from me."
John C. Morley: (11:44)
A lot of people say, "Well, just make my business grow." I said, "How do I do that? I don't even know your business." They say, "Well, that's okay. That's what we're hiring you for." "Yeah but you have to tell me, I don't know anything about your business." They say, "Oh, we'll get somebody else who does." Now you're going to hire another marketing company. Who is going to lie to you, charge you more money, write content that probably doesn't even match up to your values? They are like, "Oh, we'll get back to you." So I think that is the biggest thing Dr. Williams, is getting people to understand that it's a value and when a company can provide value and trust is built. I always say three people have to win the customer, the representative, and the client. All three people need to win. If they all don't win, there's going to be a disaster down the road.
Sherita Williams: (12:32)
Absolutely. So John, what drew you to self-improve and motivation?
John C. Morley: (12:41)
When I was in college, probably my junior or senior year, I was a VP of finance and I was the guy that basically would be writing the checks for people, the clubs, and stuff like that. And I was the guy that would approve or disapprove your program council or your student's budget for different programs that we had going. They call them student organizations. I remember one week they said, "John, nobody is here this weekend," because it was like a suitcase school, "but we need you to bring the check to Dr. Mips." "So who is he? I didn't know who he is?" They said, "Oh, he is some entertainer. Just there are two checks for him, 10,000 and 10,000. You wrote them and just bring it to him." And I said, "Okay, when is it?"
John C. Morley: (13:33)
"Oh, it's Friday night. It's eight o'clock and it ends at like 11." I said that's a long time. They said, "Yeah. Well, you're not doing anything, are you?" "No, but I don't usually handle this." "Yeah, you'll be fine." So I just took the checks there and I did some research because I never go to a performance if I don't know something about the actor or the performers. I did some research on, a very nice guy but I realized that this guy was a show hypnotist. Then I realized what he did to other subjects and I said, "Oh wait a minute here I don't know if I want to go to this." So I very politely, when he came in, I said, "Dr. Mips, I'm going to be very honest with you. I have two checks here. The first check is for you right now."
John C. Morley: (14:20)
"The second check is for when you finish but I want to let you know something. If I give you this first check and you pull me up on stage or you make any one of my team members look unprofessional, not only am I going to stop payment on the check, you're not going to get the second check. And I'll make sure that the rest of your circuit is canceled because we all talk between the schools." He knew that I meant business. At the end of the thing, he got a second check but that motivated me because of his respect, I bought one of his books. Then I took the silver method. Then I decided I like this. And I'd like to learn how to set goals better. Then I got certified in hypnosis.
Sherita Williams: (15:03)
Right. So, John, we're going on a break and we'll be back shortly. Thank you.
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Sherita Williams: (16:31)
We're back today my guest is John Morley. He is a serial entrepreneur, an engineer, a talk show host, and a marketer. At our first break, John was talking about his marketing company. So John, let's pick up and start talking about your marketing company. Tell the name of your marketing company and how we can get in contact with you.
John C. Morley: (16:56)
Sure. So the name of the marketing company, the print production marketing graphic and digital design company is called "Neighborhood Publications." Our website for that company is very simple, www.ourprintconnection.com. The reason for the difference in name is when I did the company name I didn't realize that somebody already had taken that name. So a really important thing before you, do anything with a company, get the website before you form the company because what happened is somebody saw me by the name and they decided to create that name and then they wanted to extort the fee. So I would buy that name. I said that's not happening. So get your website first, the domain name, and then go from the corporation.
Sherita Williams: (17:46)
And so how did you come up with the name, Neighborhood publications?
John C. Morley: (17:50)
One of my visions has always been to produce local newsletters, community-type things, and a couple of years ago I became a member of the national press association of a badge with them. Basically what it means is that I'm a licensed, registered video and licensed journalist. When I show people that badge, they know that I'm serious and I do this professionally. Of course, it gives you access to museums for free and things like that and they validate your work. They want to make sure that you are what you say. So I had to send them some samples. What got me into this is as I said, "There are a lot of people who write content but it's slanted." So I want to give you the truth. So, one of my slogans in my newsletter is, "We give you the truth about such and such town in three to four minutes a week."
John C. Morley: (18:52)
And I think that's really what I'm about. I'm about bringing those stories that are going to be heartwarming but are going to help connect businesses and residences because I think in a lot of the big publications that get lost. And I wanted people to be able to come locally to us, not have to go to one of those mass stores who doesn't know about paper, about quality, doesn't match color but they're cheap or they appear to be. But then when you added the things on that they don't tell you about, they become more money than we are because they don't educate you. And I think the big difference with us as a marketing company as a printing company, graphic or video company. We educate our consumers and our business owners so they can make decisions smartly.
Sherita Williams: (19:41)
Absolutely and that is a part of the platform for WYT7, which that's what I just show airs on the network. It educates, empowers, and encourages. So that is a part of their mission statement. So I'm so glad that you do align up with that because education is very important. It is not about owning something, just knowing about it.
John C. Morley: (20:06)
So this is what drew me to producing motivational content. So I was on the blog talk years ago and then I got a national radio show. About a few years ago, I lost that show because there was an advertiser that called me and I said, "Well, here's the station. I'll give you the information." And it was a nice check. I called the station up and I said, "When am I going to get whatever it is of that check?" “Oh John, that's the thing." I said, "What do you mean the thing?" They said, "Well, that's the thing you see, thank you so much for the check. We got it. We appreciate that, but you're not getting any of it." "Well, why not?" They said, "Let me let you talk to the producer. Let you talk to the station owner." "Well, why?"
John C. Morley: (20:49)
"Here's what happened, John, they called and they bought you out. They bought your entire syndication out. It was a political campaign and they bought your whole 9 to 10 slot out." I asked, "Can they do that?" They said, "Yeah, they can. They paid more than you're paying and they got it." I said, "Well, that's terrible. I mean, I've been with you for years." I know that just had a cookie crumbles. So I was a little bit taken back and I went off-air for a few years. I'm sure most people would do the same thing. And just around the COVID time, I said, "I got to get back into this again." A friend of mine said, "There's a co-host that would like to meet you and possibly do the show with you." I said, "I'm not interested in doing the show anymore."
John C. Morley: (21:33)
And the show is called JMOR Tech Talk Show. And so we did one show together he says, "Would you like to do a second one?" I said, "Yeah, just one more and then let's just put the bag whole thing." Well, we did the third show and he said, "John, we got guests now." "Oh, well how many?” The reason is that I don't want to do this. He said, "Well, you're going to probably be booked for the next couple of months." I said, "I thought we were going to wrap it up." He said, "Well, not really. You're getting ready to step it up." And so I got into that and then I decided that I needed to do more than the show. I needed to start taking my inspiration and delivering it to things like Facebook, Twitter, Twitch and so I became a national streamer on LinkedIn. Every week I produce a series and that series goes from basically Saturday to Friday. This week we're talking about "How the brain works."
John C. Morley: (22:27)
Last week we talked about, "How to handle difficult people." It's not difficult people, It's difficult behaviors. I also then started super motivational Friday, which is a professional production that we do. We shoot probably over 40 hours of video a week. Then I started a science champ, it's called "John, The Science Guy" had a network with "John's Science Fridays" and I take all kinds of science experiments from blowing up rockets to talking about "How we use our fingers" to "How sound travels" and I use an analogy that connects to people and how that can make them better in their life. So everything I do was about motivation, everything.
Sherita Williams: (23:13)
So John, what is the name of your show and when does it air?
John C. Morley: (23:20)
So one show that I have is called JMOR Tech Talk and that airs every Friday at 5:30 PM Eastern.
John C. Morley: (23:32)
But I tell people the easiest way to figure out all my content and everything I'm doing because I do a lot, is to go to Linktr. ee because I have a lot of places for my content Linktr. ee is linktr. ee/johncmorleyserialentrepreneur. And if you go to that it has all of my links for my unboxing channel, my review channel, the JMOR Tech Talk, and my new inspiration for a huge channel. So there are just a lot of things I do. I get people from all around the world. In fact, during Christmas from December 1st to December 25th, I actually wrapped myself a gift every day and said, "Why did I do that?"
John C. Morley: (24:20)
Well, I wrapped myself a gift and then I unwrap it on camera. I knew what was in it but the viewers didn't know. And I explained to people like one night, for example, I had a lit lifter and why would I give myself a lit lifter? I'm going to tell you because if you stick to something you'll be successful. And so I use these little things, our brain can work on just repetition but that's not the best thing for our brain. It can work but it works best if we play with it. If we get creative with it, if we have fun with it, like when we have a memory, we make things ridiculous. You could remember a million things if you go to the store just by making things ridiculous. So I just get so pumped with this type of information that it just literally blows my mind.
John C. Morley: (25:10)
And so I know that other people want to have that missing piece because we've all followed different people. And there's one I want to quote a great gentleman. He died a few years ago. His name is Dr. Dwayne Dyer, you may know him and he had quoted something, he came from Port Angeles. And he said something very interesting, "When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change when you change the way you look at things, things you look at change. When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change." So we can't control people, we never should. But if we change our perceptions about someone, guess what's going to happen, they're going to become different from us.
John C. Morley: (25:56)
And I use a very interesting thing and it's how to win friends, or influence people, learn somebody's name properly. If you don't know it, ask them here, "You have a beautiful name, the way it's spelled. I don't want to botch it up. Would you say it for me? Could you spell it?" And then become genuinely interested in that other person. People will know if you're phony if you're genuinely interested and they're going to become genuinely interested in you. It's a natural chemical phenomenon that's going to happen. The dopamine, our brain is just going to pop and that's why it's going to feel so natural. That's why when we get into relationships sometimes it seems so easy because it's meant to be.
Sherita Williams: (26:38)
Absolutely. So John, have you ever thought about writing a book?
John C. Morley: (26:42)
Yes. I'm so glad you asked me that. Yes, many times and I started to write one.
John C. Morley: (26:48)
It'll be out in a few months. It's going to be my first one and it's going to be based on the series 25 gifts of inspiration to change your life and I'm hoping it'll be out in March or April. It gives about 200 pages. The first three chapters will talk about the brain, how the brain works, and then how the brain, mind, and body work. Then every chapter will have a different gift. For example, on Christmas Day, I got a cracker. I'm not sure if our people know what a cracker is? The crackers you eat, crackers were originally done in Europe and they're wrapped in paper. Well, I wrapped one unwrapped it, and then pulled it, and has a firecracker inside. I got a harmonica and some jokes. And I said, "You know what you need to do ladies and gentlemen? You need to have that element of surprise in your life because if everybody knows what you're going to do next, they're never going to keep following you."
Sherita Williams: (27:46)
Absolutely. I love that. That makes sense that makes all sense because it's the anticipation of what is next. And that's a great segue for 2022 our network is doing a platform, I'm trying. So John Morley, what are you trying to do in 2022?
John C. Morley: (28:11)
One thing I'm trying and I'm doing, is I wrote down 300 goals the week before New Year's and I am taking my mindset of things that I believed I couldn't do looking at those programs and finally saying, "I'm old enough. Let's get all those old programs out of my head and start reprogramming things so I could become even better and help other people become better. "The next thing I'm looking to do in 2022, I'm a first responder already and I have made the plunge to decide to become an EMT volunteer in the next three months.
Sherita Williams: (28:55)
But that sounds fantastic and that's what it's all about. Rebranding, remarketing, self-motivating, keep improving yourself and that is all about education. That's all about our mission and life to try to improve, try to give back, try to serve one another. So how can our viewers learn more about the content of your product?
John C. Morley: (29:20)
So very easy to do, go to Linktr. ee is probably the easiest thing but you can also go to YouTube you can type in my name, "John C MORLEY Serial Entrepreneur" and you can see my channels but the easiest way is Linktr. ee and that's linktr.ee/johncmorleyserialentrepreneur. They can also go to my first company, www.jmor.com under social. We have a ton of our tech shows there for unboxing reviews. You can even apply to become a guest on my show. So, lots of great things. So we have the tech, we have the motivational stuff and then we also have that other piece, which I want to call inspiration because that's the stuff that makes people want to get out of bed every day. A wise author once said, "I can't get up today and the reason I can't get up is I'm tired and don't have energy." Spend five minutes in bed and program yourself and say, "I'm going to get up in five minutes or I'm going to get up in two minutes. I'm going to put energy into my body and I'm going to get up." And that's it. Too many people are making excuses, Dr. Williams and I always say if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.
Sherita Williams: (30:43)
Absolutely. But John Morley, I would like to thank you as part of what's your story. Thank you for letting your story becomes our story on what's your story. I'm Sherita Williams, the host of what's your story and we will see you soon.
John C. Morley: (30:58)
Thank you, Dr. Williams.