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TRANSCRIPT

EPISODE 166

[0:00:00.5] ANNOUNCER: On this edition of Up In your Business with Kerry McCoy, Ryk St. Vincent and Poolboy from Alice 107.7 will both give their perspectives on the Dreamland Ballroom. First, Ryk St. Vincent.

[INTRODUCTION]

[0:00:21.7] GM: Welcome to Up in Your Business with Kerry McCoy, a production of flagandbanner.com. Through storytelling and conversational interviews, this weekly radio show and podcast offers listeners an insider’s view into starting and running a business, the ups and downs of risk-taking and the commonalities of successful people. Connect with Kerry through her candid, often funny and always informative weekly blog. There, you'll read, learn and may comment her life as a 21st century wife, mother, daughter and entrepreneur.

Now, it's time for Kerry McCoy to get all up in your business.

[INTERVIEW]

[0:00:54.2] KM: Thank you son, Gray. This show began as a calling, after four decades of running a small business called flagandbanner.com, AKA Arkansas Flag and Banner, I felt I had something to share. I wanted to create a platform for not just me, but other business owners and successful people to pay forward their experiential knowledge in a conversational way.

Originally, my team and I thought it would be this easy, informative one-hour a week interview and boy, were we wrong. As with every new endeavor, it's harder than you first think. Once again, I find myself at the onset of starting and running yet another new business, this podcast and doing exactly what the show is about; taking risks, embracing change and working hard. After interviewing over 150 successful people, I've noticed some reoccurring traits among many of my guests; belief in a higher power and creativity, because business is creative.

Before we start, I want to let you know if you miss any part of today's show or want to hear it again or share it, there's a way and Gray will tell you how.

[0:01:56.5] GM: Listen to all UIYB past and present interviews by going to Up In your Business with Kerry McCoy's YouTube channel, the Democrat-Gazette’s new digital newspaper, flagandbanner.com’s website, or subscribe to our podcast wherever you like to listen by searching Up In your Business with Kerry McCoy. If you would like to receive timely e-mail notifications of each week's upcoming guests, go to flagandbanner.com, click radio show and join the e-mail list. Back to you, Kerry.

[0:02:23.5] KM: Thank you. My guest today is the talented Ryk St. Vincent, AKA Richie St. Vincent. He is a self-employed actor, musician, singer and talented woodworker. He boasts a long career in film, theater, broadcast and radio. When he is not acting or creating furniture in his workshop, you may find him crooning with an accompanist at local restaurants or parties. In addition, Ryk is a lover of the Dreamland Ballroom and has been an active board member of the non-profit Friends of Dreamland almost since its inception in 2009.

This multi-talented, modern renaissance man is going to talk with us today about the many aspects of building a business and career around your creativity. Welcome to the table the one, the only, Ryk St. Vincent.

[0:03:23.2] RSV: Oh, there’s a crowd noise. That’s a crowd. “Aah!”

[0:03:28.4] KM: That’s a good imitation. I like that. I may keep that.

[0:03:30.4] RSV: I saw that on TV. It was a little girl. The mom was going to play basketball and the crowd went wild. A little girl goes, “Aah!” I said, “How cute.” You know what, Kerry? I just spoke with Joe Fox who asked about your show down at Community Bakery. He's asking about your show and talk to me and says, “Well, how did you get hooked up to do the show?” I said, “Well, I know Kerry from Dreamland Ballroom, Flag and Banner.”

[0:03:59.5] KM: Really before that.

[0:04:00.4] RSV: Yeah. We've done some parties. Yeah, because I used to come right past your place when I’m at my shop.

[0:04:03.9] KM: I’ve known you for 30 years. You probably don’t remember that.

[0:04:06.2] RSV: For 30 years.

[0:04:07.1] KM: I think it was 30 years. It was 1990 when I first met you. That’s 26 years.

[0:04:12.2] RSV: Yeah, yeah. That’s about the time I came by your place with my little dog. I was walking my dog right past the Flag and Banner. You talked about Renaissance. I'm always stepping back from that moniker, because I'm always thinking, “Well, I would love to have one thing that I can do great and make all the money like you and everybody else when you just make money.”

[0:04:33.7] KM: Oh, I wish.

[0:04:34.6] RSV: Yeah. When you have to do all these different things to survive that you learn to do these things over years and then next thing you know, you know four or five, six different things that you do well, but you haven't made any real money off of any one of them in particular.

[0:04:49.4] KM: I was going to ask you about you're doing so many different things and I think you just answered it. It's just what you do to survive.

[0:04:57.0] RSV: It's what you do to survive. When you talked about your business and you said that you needed to have production, so you set up a production and you got silk-screening and things of that nature, same thing. I was in radio for 17 years. I did probably 17, 20 radio stations in eight different cities, six different states since 1971.

[0:05:18.3] KM: Let me just read everybody what you've done.

[0:05:20.7] RSV: Well, you don't have to read it.

[0:05:21.8] KM: Oh, I have got to. I go to Google up you and like everybody that I've ever interviewed in here that I've known literally for decades, I read about them and go, “Oh, my gosh. I haven't really known them.” For instance in film, you've done the old state house documentary, you've done a lot more documentaries than that. You actually need to update this website. You've done The White River Kid, The Corporate Man, Height of the Sky, The Crown, Sagittarius, A Time To Kill.

[0:05:50.3] RSV: Yeah. That was a big one.

[0:05:51.8] KM: That’s a big one. Over the Edge, Slightly Bent, just to name a few. Then you did broadcast for AETN for Alto, for Fairford Bay, for Big on the Rock and then you already said it. I mean, listen to this paper of all the stuff you've done. Then you've been in 39 radio stations over 17 years, eight cities and six states.

[0:06:13.1] RSV: Just different stuff.

[0:06:14.5] KM: You're back in Little Rock.

[0:06:16.5] RSV: Yeah. Actually, I'm back here as a mistake in a sense. I came through leaving off Virginia and I came through Little Rock to see some friends and I was headed back to Los Angeles. Had been gone for maybe a year or so working on some houses in Virginia and in Atlanta for some friends. Was driving back to Los Angeles, stopped to see some friends and somebody saw me and said, “Hey, man. Are you back in town? I need you to take a look at my house I'm building in North Little Rock.” I said, “Mike, I don't have time for that. I'm on my way back to LA.” “Oh, come on, man. Just look at the plans.” I said, “Well, show me the plans.”

[0:06:52.7] KM: How many years ago was that?

[0:06:54.4] RSV: 11.

[0:06:57.0] KM: You still have your house at in LA.

[0:06:59.0] RSV: No, I don't have – I never had a house in LA, but I keep connections in LA and I keep a mailbox there, so that I can stay in touch with all the folks in LA.

[0:07:08.3] KM: Well, and you're going back all the time, I think. People don't think of actors and musicians and singers as entrepreneurs. Really to me, you're the epitome of an entrepreneur. You are your own product, you know what I'm saying? I mean, you are your own – you are an ultimate entrepreneur.

Let's talk about how you started, because I've noticed that people that are entrepreneurs are entrepreneurs from early on. I read somewhere that in the 5th grade, you would make hand puppets, take them to school and entertain your classmates. You’ve always been driven to that?

[0:07:41.3] RSV: That's probably the beginning of it. When I was a kid, my mom worked at a hat factory in St. Louis and would bring home remnants from all of the materials from the hats.

[0:07:52.4] KM: I did not know that.

[0:07:54.4] RSV: Then would sew the stuff together and make different items. Sometimes she had enough stuff that she would make little petticoats and dresses and stuff. I was always the guy cutting out patterns, the butterfill, I think butterfill.

[0:08:06.4] KM: Oh, really good. Yes, exactly.

[0:08:07.2] RSV: Man, I know all the stuff. I know how to sew. I know how to do all that stuff. I own a sewing machine. I have a sewing machine.

[0:08:11.9] KM: Renaissance man again.

[0:08:14.5] RSV: 10 bucks at a yard sale. I said, “Hey, I know how to use that. $10? Okay, I'll take it.” I used it twice.

[0:08:20.4] KM: I was about to say, say probably never turned –

[0:08:21.6] RSV: No, no, no. I used it –

[0:08:22.4] KM: Don't forget to oil it. You have to oil sewing machines.

[0:08:24.9] RSV: I know. I did all that stuff. I made puppets. I had 13 puppets, marionettes and/or hand puppets. I took an old Motorola box and I made a stage out of it, painted it black on the inside, took the material and made out little curtains and took flashlights and duct taped them up in the corners.

[0:08:43.6] KM: 5th grade?

[0:08:44.3] RSV: In 5th grade. I used to drag that thing three and a half blocks to school. When Miss Schwartz would ask me, “Can come in Friday and bring your puppets for the kids?” I would say, “Yeah.” I dragged that thing three blocks to school, do the puppet show. We turn out all the lights and I turn my flashlights on and I do the puppets. I would make up stuff. When you're on my case about going off on a tangent, it’s because I've been doing that to entertain kids.

[0:09:13.0] KM: To going off on tangent.

[0:09:13.7] RSV: Yeah. To go off like that and just do it for the kids and I make up stories. That's all. Just make up stories.

[0:09:20.1] KM: People don’t know that before we came on, I was saying, “This is going to be a real testament to my skills at being a commentator, because Ryk will go off on a tangent forever. I’m going to have to keep you focused.” That’s why you’re saying that.

[0:09:31.3] RSV: You know what, somebody said something to me not long ago, maybe in the last couple of years. They said, “You're so silly like that.” At that particular instant, my mind was at a point where I could respond to that intellectually. I said, “Do you know what it takes to be silly?”

[0:09:46.4] KM: I know, right?

[0:09:47.0] RSV: Check this out. First of all, you have to truly hear what that person is saying.

[0:09:52.6] KM: Which no one does.

[0:09:53.9] RSV: Then you have to understand it to the point that you can find the way of flipping it around, or finding the joke, or finding the obtuseness of it. Then you have to be able to say that and you have to do it all in milliseconds.
[0:10:09.4] KM: Yes. They say comedians are really intelligent.

[0:10:11.9] RSV: When you think in terms of folks like Robin Williams whose wife was just on TV yesterday talking about his passing, and you think about folks like that, the comedian's, they are silly, but they are so intelligent because they can hear something, understand it and flip it back in conversation. Thank you for the compliment.

[0:10:34.4] KM: You’re welcome.

[0:10:36.6] RSV: Look, when I was a teenager I'm thinking around 14, I made a go-kart out of a kitchen chair and a Briggs and Stratton trim motor that they would use to trim your lawns.

[0:10:50.5] KM: What?

[0:10:51.4] RSV: Yeah. I put that thing on a on a chassis, my neighbor Mr. Brown who I loved dearly in any life that we ever show up in Mr. Brown, find me.

[0:11:03.4] KM: In your next life, I won't be – next day our neighbors with Mr. Brown did.

[0:11:08.9] RSV: I made this little go-kart. Oh, it actually was just a chair with three wheels. I got him a thing and a friend of mine in his car who drove on the side of me. We got that thing up to 30 miles an hour. Now imagine going down the street at 30 miles an hour.

[0:11:25.0] KM: In a kitchen chair with a lawnmower.

[0:11:26.7] RSV: On a kitchen chair.

[0:11:28.1] KM: With a lawnmower motor.

[0:11:29.7] RSV: Foolishness is a good word to bring into this combo right now.

[0:11:33.7] KM: Youthful.

[0:11:35.1] RSV: Yeah, yeah. I took that thing and for many years since I was a kid, I took that thing and I rebuilt that seven times. In ’78, I literally had a business in San Diego called Scooter Ads. Anybody who's lived in San Diego in ’78 and ’80 will know of Scooter Ads, because I had taken that same fork for the front wheel, that never changed, but everything else evolved around it. I wound up with a 780 pound vehicle that I would drive all around San Diego, Chula Vista –

[0:12:15.1] KM: What does that have to do with Scooterville?

[0:12:16.4] RSV: It was called Scooter Ads. It was an advertising. When you talked about turning something into something, the people that I had working on that, Nelson Bashir at that time was the national go-kart champion. Robert Kidder was the upholsterer at the Hotel del Coronado and John, I got to call out his name, he was Jacques Cousteau's underwater welder, One of Jacques Cousteau’s underwater welder who has a small shop over near market in San Diego, where he makes stainless steel railing for yachts.

[0:12:48.6] KM: They were all working on your – what you call it?

[0:12:51.5] RSV: On this little scooter ad thing. Everybody that saw it thought it was a Cushman. They thought it was a Cushman. They would come up and they'd say, “Where did you get that from?” I said, “Well, I built it.” Nobody believed it.

[0:13:01.8] KM: You built this thing and you went to them and said, “Hey, you want me to ride around and sell ads for you?”

[0:13:05.7] RSV: Oh, did ads.

[0:13:05.7] KM: See, there's more creative entrepreneurship. There’s money everywhere if you're creative enough.

[0:13:09.6] RSV: Yeah. I did ads with Ted Genoas, the San Diego chicken. I did ads with the charger games. I did ads for the San Diego Ballet, ads for See World. Ray Kroc was there once with a awful Redenbacher. We did some ads for some stuff that they were doing. I drove this thing all around San Diego. If anybody were in San Diego during that time, they had to have seen it.

[0:13:33.2] KM: Should we say you're lucky to be alive?

[0:13:35.7] RSV: Maybe twice. It was two times it turned over. I was going too fast.

[0:13:39.8] KM: How fast would it go?

[0:13:40.8] RSV: It would go 40 miles an hour. It would drive three days on two gallons of gas.

[0:13:45.4] KM: I have one word for you, cool cat. You are a cool cat.

[0:13:49.6] RSV: I've done enough things that I can hang out with cats, so maybe they think I'm cool.

[0:13:54.5] KM: I mean, Renaissance man isn't even a big enough word for you. This show is flying by I knew it would. So much to talk to you about. I'd love to talk about the Dreamland Ballroom. I think people want to know about you, the man and how you got in to singing and how do other people get into singing. One of the things I really like about you is that you will belt out a song at the drop of a hat.

[0:14:20.1] RSV: That's to get over fear.

[0:14:21.8] KM: That is the language of the soul too.

[0:14:22.7] RSV: That’s all it is.

[0:14:24.0] KM: I really think it's a gift. Anytime everybody listening can relate to this, but anytime that you – all of us go through hard times and every time you're in a dark place and you’re soul searching, you can hear a song on the radio and that song will speak to us someplace in you that you can’t describe. There's no words for it.

[0:14:44.3] RSV: There's no words for it. Hopefully, the words in the song matter and that's what tells you go ahead and move on it. Yeah.

[0:14:52.5] KM: Well and what I love about your music is it’s word-heavy. I love that about you. It does have great lyrics. It's easy listening, so you can have –

[0:15:01.0] RSV: Have conversation. Here's the thing, when I'm there or when I'm anywhere singing, I'm always – to me, my thing is I am the ocean that supports the boat that has the party that you are with.

[0:15:19.7] KM: Whoa, there's another tweetable moment. I am the ocean that has the boat.

[0:15:24.5] RSV: That supports the boat, that has the party that you are with. You are with your party on the boat, I’m just the ocean trying to keep you afloat, trying to give you some, you know what I mean? Just take it easy.

[0:15:35.4] KM: Out of all the things you do, which one makes you the most money? Which one support you? The cabinetry?

[0:15:41.9] RSV: The cabinetry. I did Mosaic Templars. I did all the cabinetry over there.

[0:15:45.6] KM: Oh, it's beautiful.

[0:15:46.6] RSV: That’s a year and a half worth of work. Most people don't even know that I did that. If you go in there and you touch any one of the 40 – no, 53 different doors and windows and those flipping doors, those rotating doors and the reception and all the retail area and the kitchen and the classroom and the trim and the base.

[0:16:12.0] KM: Oh, lots.

[0:16:12.6] RSV: Lot of wood. Lot of wood. I’d like to meet the trees that that wood came from and say I'm sorry.

[0:16:24.5] KM: You like to work alone also.

[0:16:26.1] RSV: It’s therapeutic.

[0:16:27.5] KM: Well, I know that we've talked about this, because you have hired people before, you don't like the way they do stuff.

[0:16:33.1] RSV: Oh, this goes back to education. You get this too with your job and what you do and everybody does. I talked to Joe this morning about the same thing.

[0:16:41.6] KM: Joe Fox at Community Bakery.

[0:16:42.5] RSV: Joe Fox at the bakery. People come to work for me and I say, “Okay, this is what we need to do. We need to cut this at this length, we need to do this to it, or need to process it in this way.” Then they say, “Why?” This is because that's what needs to be done in order that it turned out like this drawing with these measurements and this finish on it. 

Then they say, “Well, I should be able to do it that way or this way.” I said, “Look, if you go to work at McDonald's where they sell hamburgers for 99 cents, they're going to put you in a situation where you have to learn how to do that hamburger their way. Here's where you put the napkin, this is how you fold the aluminum foil, wrap it around it.”

[0:17:27.7] KM: This is where the pickle goes, this is how much ketchup, this is how much mustard.

[0:17:30.0] RSV: Right. I don't care where you go to work. If you go to work for somebody –

[0:17:34.7] KM: Follow instructions.

[0:17:35.7] RSV: Somebody has something to tell you about their work. Once I consummate a contract with an individual or company, then I am at that instant, I'm working for that contract.

[0:17:48.7] KM: Correct.

[0:17:49.4] RSV: I'm a worker just like you are a worker. I have got to do it a certain way, because my name is on it and my reputation is on it. I can't let it go out of the shop looking any way. I have yet to have any customer that I know of who is dissatisfied, or unpleased with my work.

[0:18:08.9] KM: It's beautiful.

[0:18:11.8] RSV: Okay. I am not going to impugn myself with turning out shoddy work. It doesn't make sense. If you don't have money and all you have is your reputation, then you have to protect that. All of my workers, you know.

[0:18:24.6] KM: You don't feel like people can live up to your standards at work for you.

[0:18:27.7] RSV: No. They say I'm picky and I'm too much of this or too much of that. It's like, look, this is my name on this. I'm saying I've got to turn out something that somebody will go, “Okay, I like that.”

[0:18:40.9] KM: My inspiring guest today is self-employed, Ryk St. Vincent. He's an actor, singer and a craftsman. There are so many people in the world that dream about being like you. Listen, I met you 30 years ago, you were so – you still are. You're so handsome, so well-spoken as everybody has learned, so talented. You had a handsome dog too back then.

[0:19:02.8] RSV: Oh, yeah. India. I had that dog for 11 years.

[0:19:05.3] KM: We could talk for 30 more minutes. I'm serious, we really could. Ryk, you're on the board of Dancing Into Dreamland. It's the only fundraiser you and I have for Dreamland to raise money. It's a really great place.

[0:19:18.2] RSV: Well, it's got spirit.

[0:19:19.3] KM: Oh, it does.

[0:19:20.0] RSV: That so many people have gone through that place and it's a special place in the forest, where you could go and say, “Wow, this is neat.”

[0:19:30.9] KM: I know it. This is what you get.

[0:19:32.9] RSV: This is what I get.

[0:19:34.5] KM: It’s a cigar. You know what you get that for? For birthing so many businesses.

[0:19:42.3] RSV: Well, you know what I did with the – I had a cigar.

[0:19:44.6] KM: Don't say. Oh, okay. Go ahead.

[0:19:47.4] RSV: Okay. Okay. Because this is Little Rock, I guess. Yeah. All right.

[0:19:51.5] KM: Anyway, there’s your cigar.

[0:19:52.5] RSV: Thank you, ma’am.

[0:19:53.1] KM: Smoke it and think about what a success you’ve been and all the businesses you birthed.

[0:19:57.1] RSV: I appreciate it.

[0:19:57.9] KM: You’re welcome.

[0:19:58.5] RSV: I appreciate it.

[BREAK]

[0:19:59.4] ANNOUNCER: That’s Ryk St. Vincent on today's episode of Up In your Business with Kerry McCoy. Next, Poolboy from Alice 107.7.

[0:20:07.9] KM: Get ready to have some listening fun, because Poolboy is in the house.

[0:20:12.8] AD: What's up?

[0:20:14.1] KM: Yes. My guest is local celebrity Poolboy from the Heather –

[0:20:18.6] AD: You’re using the term celebrity real fast and loose there. Celebrity I am not. Celebrities don't have two and three and four jobs.

[0:20:27.5] KM: They have two names, which you have.

[0:20:29.7] AD: Some do. Unless, you're Sheree or Madonna.

[0:20:32.5] KM: Don’t start critiquing, because they actually have two names probably. Don’t start critiquing me already. He’s already on me, because you know he’s a radio show host. He’s going to come in here and tell me everything I’m doing right and everything I’m doing wrong.

[0:20:44.1] AD: Absolutely not. You do it the way you want to do it. That’s what I’ve learned.

[0:20:48.4] KM: I’m going to get advice from you today, because this is a business advice show. You are in the business.

[0:20:54.1] AD: I can tell you what not to do. I can definitely do that.

[0:20:58.0] KM: Uh-oh, that's going to be everything I do. You're going to go, “Don't do that. Oh, Kerry, don’t do that. Don’t do that.” Anyway, my not celebrity Poolboy from the Heather and Poolboy radio show is on today.

[0:21:10.8] AD: Thank you so much for having me.

[0:21:12.0] KM: You’re welcome.

[0:21:12.5] AD: This is fun. It's nice to be able to sit back and not be the guy pressing the buttons and just getting to sit back and talk. This is great.

[0:21:18.4] KM: You are going to have fun. I cannot be as good as Heather though, but I'm going to try. She's awesome. I listen to her, she's just charming.

[0:21:25.7] AD: She’s great. She is an amazing co-host. We've been together, working together now for 13 years. She's been there 18 years, so I'm very blessed to get to work with her. We have a really good chemistry and it just – it makes my mornings fun. I mean, I look forward to going to work.

[0:21:44.0] KM: You should.

[0:21:44.9] AD: Yeah, you should. You should look forward to go to work. If you don’t, quit.

[0:21:49.5] KM: Oh, that is so true.

[0:21:50.7] AD: I will say this, I know I said if you don't like your job, quit. Quit once you find another job. There has been multiple times in my life I've wanted to quit a job I was at, but I would not quit that job until I had the other job lined up. 

Then I would be ready to quit. When I got into radio, I was also bartending at the same time and I continued to do that for years after I got into radio, because I mean, radios – I mean, it can change. I mean, things can happen, or maybe I wouldn't like it or whatever. I was not able to let go of that one job until I felt secure in the next job. I've always had two and three jobs for as long as I can remember.

[0:22:30.9] KM: I think every great entrepreneur and successful people person does.

[0:22:34.2] AD: I like to stay busy. That’s a lot of it. Yeah.

[0:22:39.0] KM: Hard worker.

[0:22:41.3] AD: Sure. Yeah. Absolutely.

[0:22:42.5] KM: There’s no great mystery to success. It’s just working hard.

[0:22:47.2] AD: That’s it. Yeah.

[0:22:48.1] KM: I mean, it really is. If you’re laying on the couch, you’re not going to get the job you may want.

[0:22:53.8] AD: That’s right.

[0:22:54.4] KM: It’s pretty simple. All right, let me introduce you a little bit and tell people a little about you.

[0:23:01.4] AD: Okay.

[0:23:02.8] KM: You are the person that we all know and love. You’re Poolboy from the Heather and Poolboy morning show on Alice 107.7 in Little Rock, Arkansas for those of you that aren't in Little Rock. You are so genuinely fun and infectious that both the Arkansas Times and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette has voted you the best personality radio.

[0:23:21.1] AD: That's right. That's awesome. That is amazing. You can read stats and whatever about how your radio station is performing, but it's awards like that that the public, the community votes on that lets how you're doing and how well you’re liked. To get those accolades means so much more than getting a rating from a rating book or something like that, because people took the time to fill out that form to say, “Oh, Heather and Poolboy show is my favorite. I love listening to them. Thriller Thursday's. It's awesome.” Whatever that means, that means a lot. That is really, really, really cool.

[0:24:06.3] KM: You also boast that you can eat four and a half hot dogs in seven minutes that you once drank a half gallon of Eggnog in 30 seconds and that you are a two-time winner of the Make-A-Wish Foundation lip-sync battle.

[0:24:20.7] AD: Correct. Yeah. Look, you guys asked for this stuff, so I gave it to you. I just try to come up with things that I have done. Yeah, I entered a hotdog eating contest one year in honor of the 4th of July, Nathan's hotdog eating contest they do in Coney Island. Because I thought that I could do something, but no. I mean, but four and a half I thought was a pretty dang good. I mean, that's –

[0:24:42.5] KM: You are not kidding. Can you eat them still? Or you’re sick of hotdogs?

[0:24:46.2] AD: I’m sick of – I very rarely touch eggnog again after that within – I’m not live within 15 minutes of doing that.

[0:24:54.3] KM: You threw up?

[0:24:54.9] AD: Yes. From both ends. I mean, it was – Not just once. I mean, it was an all-day thing. I mean, I ruined myself.

[0:25:04.7] KM: All night long.

[0:25:06.0] AD: Yeah, Lionel Richie style. All night lone. It was awful. It was a rough two days after that.

[0:25:11.8] KM: Ah, there's just some things that aren't worth it. Let's say, you're an Arkansan through and through, having graduated from Catholic High in Little Rock, University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, with a BA in communications and then tell me if I'm right, fresh out of college you applied for an internship at Alice 107. It was hard?

[0:25:29.3] AD: It was after that. I did KXUA Radio in Fayetteville. Then I didn't really do anything with radio after that. I got out. I was a kid with $27,000 worth of student debt and which by the way, I'm $3,000 from paying this thing off.

[0:25:46.9] KM: Everybody give him a round of applause. That’s a big deal.

[0:25:49.6] AD: Hold up. I graduated in 2001. That’s how –

[0:25:53.2] KM: How old are you? In your late 30s?

[0:25:54.6] AD: I’m 38-years-old.

[0:25:56.2] KM: That’s exactly when my husband paid off his, late 30s.

[0:25:59.4] AD: I'm almost there, but I paid them the bare minimum I could pay them every month for this long. I'm almost there. It's pretty exciting. Yeah, so graduated from there, I didn't do anything with radio, went into property management and some real estate there for a while, then I figured out that that's not really what I wanted to do. I wasn't loving it. I wasn't happy. I came to a buddy of mine who opened a bar and I was like, “I need a job,” and so I started bartending. The girl I bartended with had a roommate and she sent my application into the radio station.

[0:26:36.1] KM: To 107?

[0:26:37.0] AD: Yeah. She obviously wanted better for me than to be a bartender. No, it was good. It’s good.

[0:26:43.9] KM: It is good.

[0:26:45.0] AD: No, absolutely. It’s really cool. They ended up hiring me and it was or a part-time producer position. That's how I got my start. I worked year after year. I did anything that anybody would ever ask of me. I accepted those jobs here and there around the radio station that weren't necessarily in my wheelhouse, but I learned to do them. I was always willing to learn from somebody else. It was around that I make myself more valuable. 

The more skills that I could pick up around the radio station, I felt the better; from running the board to work in the front desk to going on a sales call, to whatever it was, I was willing to learn, because I just felt that the more knowledge I had, the more valuable I became to the to the company. Harder for them to fire me if I knew more stuff.

[0:27:35.3] KM: I hate it when someone says that’s not in my job description. I’m like, “well, you’re about to not even have a job.”

[0:27:40.9] AD: Exactly. I hung around, I hung around, I hung around.

[0:27:46.1] KM: Made yourself invaluable.

[0:27:47.3] AD: I did and I got – it was probably three years down the road when I got my first real contract. It wasn't much, but it was a contract and I just – I kept at it, I kept at it and here it is 13 years later and I have my name on the morning show with a wonderful co-host and we're having an amazing time.

[0:28:10.0] KM: I remember actually when you first went on Alice. I remember when you were just a part-time guy who’d come on sometimes and they do live remotes with you from places. Frankly, I just thought, “Wow, that guy is such a playboy.” I think you were maybe back then. You're a married man now and we'll talk about that.

[0:28:27.4] AD: Yeah, sure.

[0:28:29.9] KM: DC left. It was the Heather and DC show.

[0:28:32.6] AD: Mm-hmm, originally.

[0:28:33.4] KM: Then you had just made yourself so invaluable that DC left and they were like, “Come on. Move on up the ladder. Keep moving.”

[0:28:40.0] AD: Yeah. I mean, talk about right place, the right time. Me being familiar with the audience, I think helped and of course played a role in that. It was a real blow, but –

[0:28:56.3] KM: What was a blow?

[0:28:58.6] AD: Just the mix-up, the change up for whatever that was going on and then everything just – it changed and we were in limbo of what was going to happen next. I was able to jump in and fill the shoes for the time being and luckily, it worked out. Heather and I have a chemistry, and so –

[0:29:16.9] KM: Oh, so you just went in to fill the shoes while they looked for somebody else?

[0:29:20.4] AD: Yeah. That was the –

[0:29:22.8] KM: They’re like, “Why are we looking for somebody else? He’s so good. Let’s just keep him.”

[0:29:25.6] AD: Sure. Yeah. I guess. Yeah. I was willing to do it for peanuts.

[0:29:31.5] KM: Sometimes you have to start there, but you’re not willing to do it for peanuts anymore.

[0:29:34.4] AD: That’s right. That’s right.

[0:29:36.5] KM: That's the way you have to start out sometimes though. Sometimes I hear people say, “Well, I'm not taking that job, because I'm a college graduate and I should be making more than that. I'm not going to take that job.” I think get your foot in the door. Always just get your foot in the door. Who's the man that owns Brooke House? Warren Buffett. Warren Buffett gave this speech to Harvard. I was watching it one time and it was a bunch of MBA students from Harvard and they said, “How should we get jobs after we graduate from Harvard?”

He said, “I would recommend finding the company you want to work for, rather than going out and finding the job that pays you that much money, but find the company that fits your personality, go to that company, get a job.” He said, “Even if it means sweeping the floors at that company and start working really, really hard until they find out what a star you are and you will move up the ladder there.”

[0:30:31.7] AD: Agreed.

[0:30:32.4] KM: I thought that was great advice. I don’t think that always people do it that way. They come out and they let their ego get in the way and they’re like, “I’m not going to take a $8 an hour job. I’m more than that.”

[0:30:43.9] AD: Yeah. I knew that going into the situation. I was not seasoned. I never hosted a full morning show before. I was rather relatively new to everything. I was willing to do whatever I had to do to do the job. I was willing to prove myself. I knew that I had it in me. I knew that I could do good things with the opportunity, and so I did. I just took it and took it and run with it.

[0:31:15.0] KM: You’re one of the few people I know that actually went to school and got a degree in something that they’re doing as a career later.

[0:31:20.9] AD: Well, I didn’t start out doing it that way. I chose communications, because it was easy. Look, I’m –

[0:31:27.0] KM: He’s so honest. I love it.

[0:31:28.3] AD: I went to college to party. I'm not going to lie. I was looking forward – I mean, I'd been a Catholic. I had my hair cut a certain way, wore the khakis and ties for four years, hadn't seen a girl in four years. I was ready to go to college and just live it up. I mean, of course I was interested in radio and television and acting and things like that and communications seemed like a natural fit for me. 

I figured, “Hey, this is going to be great. This is going to be a lot of me standing in front of classes and talking at and doing oral presentations and not writing and doing research and stuff like that.” It was and that was perfect for me. I can do that all day long. I could stand up in a class and half hungover and give you an exam where they answer. It worked out. It worked out for me.

[0:32:17.9] KM: I love you. All right, I love your honesty.

You’re listening to Up In your Business with me, Kerry McCoy. I'm speaking today with okay, I can't say local celebrity. How about radio personality, Poolboy from the morning show Heather and Poolboy on Alice 107.7 in Little Rock, Arkansas.

[0:32:35.6] AD: Let’s get up in my biz.

[0:32:36.7] KM: Okay, here you go.

[0:32:37.9] AD: My biz is cold. The temperature dropped the time out there.

[0:32:43.0] KM: It did. You said my alarm goes off at 3:20. I get to the radio station at 4:15, then I planned for the day’s show. At 6:00, the Heather and Poolboy show begins and we go from there. Most people listen for about 10 or 15 minutes during their commute, my job is to make you laugh, get listeners into a good mood for work. You prepped for two hours before the show?

[0:33:05.1] AD: Mm-hmm.

[0:33:05.9] KM: About what?

[0:33:07.1] AD: Well, I mean, all kinds of stuff.

[0:33:09.5] KM: You have a lot of content.

[0:33:11.2] AD: So much goes on between the hours we get off at 10:00 a.m. till the time we go back on at 6:00 a.m. I mean, everything happens. Everything happens in Hollywood, in sports, just in your own community. To try to condense all that into four hours, but you're really not four hours with music and stuff in that. I mean, you've got to condense it down and find the best stuff to talk about for that day.

I get up. First of all, I have to wake up. Getting there – I mean, that's all part of it. It's not like I’d sit down at 4:15 and then I'm just doing nothing but research. It's talking with the other jocks that are there in the stage, because we're a part of – we've got eight other radio stations in our building, and so there's other people that are there. We're talking and we use them as sounding boards for topics, or something that might have happened to them. I'll use anything.

The alarm clock goes off at 3:20. It's really 3:10. I just fast forward it 10 minutes, so I really got a built-in 10 minutes. Yeah, so I get there at 4 and then it's just talking, waking up, drinking a Mountain Dew and getting ready for today’s show.

[0:34:24.4] KM: Yeah, can’t believe you don’t drink coffee.

[0:34:27.1] AD: Heather and I are rare breeds. I think we’re the only –

[0:34:29.6] KM: Heather doesn’t either?

[0:34:30.3] AD: No. I think we're the only two in the building that do not drink coffee. I mean, there are guys there that crush it all day long. I mean, 3:00, 4:00 in the afternoon they're still hitting cups of coffee.

[0:34:42.0] KM: It’s probably why you don’t have bad breath.

[0:34:44.6] AD: Yeah, I can’t stand bad breath.

[0:34:46.1] KM: I know. A good plug for Mountain Dew. It's got a lot of caffeine in it.

[0:34:51.2] AD: I allow myself one. That’s my one thing I do in the morning and then it’s water usually for the rest of the show.

[0:34:57.0] KM: Well, that's really, really good. Some of the things you do, Backstage Betty. I love you get all these names for everything. Backstage Betty, Last Day Linda, The Miami Vice Drink for Cruise Ships.

[0:35:11.6] AD: Yeah. Our topics range from –

[0:35:14.3] KM: Heather is a spirit animal, she said.

[0:35:17.3] AD: Our topics can go anywhere and everywhere. That's the fun part about the show is that while I do try to come up with – while the both of us try to come up with things to talk about for the day, it can change at the drop of a hat from a caller calling in and asking a question to something to my text into the show, or e-mails into the show. I mean, a comment can just steer the conversation in a totally different way. That's what’s fun that it's not so scripted and that we can be spontaneous and can have fun with it. I think the audience really appreciates that.

You mentioned there that typically, somebody that's on their morning commute only has about 15 minutes, 10 to 15 minutes to listen to the show, because everybody's busy and everybody's got a different routine and it's getting up and it's getting the kids ready, or maybe it's not. Maybe it's just getting yourself ready, or you and your husband get out the door or something, and so you get in your car and that's your time. We just want somebody to get to their destination in the morning with a laugh. We very rarely will talk about politics, or religion, or anything like that.

[0:36:22.3] KM: Those three, yeah. Stay off those topics.

[0:36:25.1] AD: Because we're all in it together. We're all on this morning commute together and it's just like we're all friends, riding in a car together and we're just trying to make the best of it and just want to laugh and just – Before you have to go to work and your grind. We just want to get you there in a good mood.

[0:36:41.8] KM: That's a great way to say it. We're best friends in the car. We're all in the car together and we're best friends chit-chatting it up. That's a great way to think about it. You talked this morning about the ghost of girlfriend’s past. I thought that was so funny, because my girlfriends and I all got together and we all sat around and said of all the people that you used to date, who would you go out with still? I’m like, “Nobody.” Most of mine are dead.

[0:37:05.1] AD: That’s why they’re exes. You left them for a reason.

[0:37:08.0] KM: I grew up in the 70s. Most of my male boyfriends are all dead. You're going to tell us how you got your name? I got two versions; one from you and one from Heather.

[0:37:19.8] AD: Well, I mean, it's no secret that growing up going to Catholic High, I had a job. Every day after school I worked in an apartment complex and I did clean pools. When I went off to college, again I cleaned pools and why not? Why would you not clean pools at an apartment complex full of sorority girls? I mean, it was just –

[0:37:39.3] KM: Oh, he’s no stupid guy.

[0:37:40.4] AD: Right. It made sense. That was my job. That was on my resume, because that's all I had at that point. There wasn't much on my resume coming out of college and being a bartender and working some time and property management. When I first got to the station, like I said, I was willing to do anything and everything. I was a gofer. I'd go do this, I'd go do that, somebody asked me to do something, I'd go. People I think fondly referred to me as Station B word.

[0:38:11.2] KM: Station. Which with the B.

[0:38:13.1] AD: Yeah. It was that for a moment. Then I as Heather and I worked together more and more, she was snapping her fingers ordering me to do this and that for her. I'd feed her grapes or fan her with a palm leaf, or something like that. Then it was just – it was just, “Oh, Poolboy come in here.” She'd snap her fingers and I'd get up and jump and go do whatever. That's how and it’s –

[0:38:39.0] KM: I thought she said, one day a lady who used to work with us heard me ask him to get something for me and she yelled, “Oh, Poolboy.”

[0:38:45.5] AD: Yeah, yeah. Someone else started, but she took it on and –

[0:38:49.6] KM: Then she just ran with it.

[0:38:51.3] AD: yeah, yeah. The more and more she would snap her fingers and say, “oh, Poolboy,” I mean, it just stuck.

[0:38:58.7] KM: I love nicknames. You can tell everybody what your real name is, or is that a secret?

[0:39:01.7] AD: My name is Adam.

[0:39:03.7] KM: That’s right. Like the first man.

[0:39:05.7] AD: Yeah, the first man. Yeah.

[0:39:08.0] KM: First man on radio. Because you've been called Poolboy so much, everybody thinks of you as Poolboy.

[0:39:16.1] AD: Yeah. It’s really stuck. People call me PB, Pool, Mr. Boy. I mean –

[0:39:24.2] KM: You had to change your checking account.

[0:39:25.9] AD: I did. Checking account has changed. Credit card say, “Poolboy.”

[0:39:30.8] KM: because you couldn’t cash checks.

[0:39:31.6] AD: I couldn’t cash checks. That’s right. I have a DJ business on the side called Sweet Beat Productions.

[0:39:36.7] KM: Do you still have that?

[0:39:37.3] AD: Uh-huh. Sure do.

[0:39:38.5] KM: What does your business do?

[0:39:41.1] AD: I mean, I’m just a DJ. I’ll DJ – I have a partner, Johnny Jackson, he's on the air right after Heather and I in the morning and we'll do weddings, parties, fundraisers.

[0:39:49.9] KM: How can you do that and go to work at 3:30 in the morning?

[0:39:52.0] AD: Well, I typically don't do anything during the week. I'll do weekend stuff, Friday, Saturday nights if I've got the time, or need, or want.

[0:40:00.9] KM: You are such a hard worker.

[0:40:03.6] AD: Well, I mean, it's – I’ll tell you this, it's – I feel it's a privilege to be invited to be a part of somebody's wedding.

[0:40:12.3] KM: It is.

[0:40:13.8] AD: I've been at so many weddings where the DJ, well just plain sucked. Can I say that? I’m bad. Okay.

[0:40:19.8] KM: No, you can.

[0:40:21.1] AD: It was just horrible. That's a bride, this is the day that she's thought about her entire life and this day's got to be perfect. If you want it to be a party, well I want you to make it a party and I want to help make it a party and I want to help make it great. I want to give everybody what they want and I want people – I want to get butts out of the seats, I want people dancing, throwing drinks back. If you don't do that, that's cool too, whatever. It's fun and I enjoy it and I like to make that day be amazing.

[0:40:55.9] KM: You are like a man with a uterus. He is the most sensitive guy there now.

All right, you are listening to Up In your Business with me, Kerry McCoy. I’m speaking today with radio personality, Poolboy, from the morning show Heather and Poolboy on Alice 107.7 Little Rock, Arkansas.

All right, when I first met you I called you and asked you if you would be a DJ for Dancing into Dreamland, our fundraiser and you said, “Oh, yes. I would just love to. I love dancing.” You told me the story of the first date with your wife.

[0:41:27.7] AD: My wife and I actually met, we were both on a committee for the Children's Protection Center. That's how we met. At first, I thought she had a little RBF.

[0:41:41.9] KM: What’s that mean?

[0:41:44.2] AD: Resting bee face.

[0:41:48.4] KM: I got to get up on the lingo. Okay.

[0:41:51.6] AD: I thought she was standoffish. Then I don't know, the more and more we worked together and worked on this committee together, we got to know each other. Then I asked her out and she said no, or had something come up. I asked her out again and she said no and something would come up. I gave it one last one last-ditch effort. There was other powers working against me. I think she heard stories about who I was and things like that.

With good reason, I thought she was probably a little standoffish. I wasn't willing to give up quite yet. This is going to sound weird. I knew if I could get her alone and let her see me, I knew that we might hit it off. I wanted to do have a fun date for us, for her to get to know me and get to see a different side of me than what she had probably heard on the radio.

I had some friends at Fred Astaire Dance Studio where I had taken some dance lessons in the past for a competition. I found out that Jenny, that's my wife's name, her favorite song at the time was a song called Like a G6, which is – you remember that song. Y'all remember that song, Like a G6.

[0:43:10.6] KM: Yeah. Everybody’s nodding their head.

[0:43:11.7] AD: Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was just one of those – it was just at the moment that’s her song. I go to my friends at Fred Astaire Dance Studio, Chris and Malia and I said what dance would you do to – because you can ballroom dance to just about anything. These dancers know what beat that is. If you've watched Dancing with the Stars, you know that. They dance to anything and everything. They worked up a dance for that song. I took Jenny to the dance studio for a dance lesson for our first date. We got in there and I think they put some shoes on her, some dance heels or something. Then they put Like a G6 and she was like, “What?” It was just funny.

There was a laugh there. I got to touch her, not at a creepy way at all, but you know how it is, like when you went out on that first date and you, or maybe it was a second date and you ushered the lady in with your hand on the small of her back, or it was you held hands or you put your arm. You had that moment. I knew that if I could just – I knew that I wanted to touch her, but again – I know it sounds like a creepy way, but I wanted to dance with her. I wanted to hold her. That's what that – That dance lesson just took down all the walls, I guess between us and we were just able to be Poolboy and Jenny, Adam and Jenny. It was a moment that we had and it was awesome.

[0:44:45.6] KM: The rest is history.

[0:44:46.9] AD: Rest is history. We've been together ever since, ever since that day. We very rarely dance anymore, but –

[0:44:54.7] KM: I was going to say, do you all still take dance lessons?

[0:44:56.6] AD: We don’t. Every now and again, we’ll try to remember our dance to Like a G6.

[0:45:02.5] KM: You need to do that for your anniversary.

[0:45:04.1] AD: I know. When we got married, we went back to Chris Emily at Fred Astaire and they choreographed our first dance song. It was to John Lennon's Woman. We danced that song to a guy performing it live. We never danced to it with him performing it live. We had only done it to a CD. He learned the song. He knew the song, but he did it spot on the day of and we did it flawlessly at our wedding. It was beautiful. It worked out.

[0:45:40.9] KM: That's your wedding dance. You have two dances; your first date dance and your wedding dance.

[0:45:47.0] AD: Yeah, we have two dances. Neither of which we can remember.

[0:45:50.4] KM: How long have you been married now?

[0:45:52.1] AD: It will be four – it’s going on four years.

[0:45:54.9] KM: Tell us about how you came to be on the board of the Children’s Protection Center.

 [0:45:59.7] AD: My buddy was on the committee first and he brought me in. He just thought that I would be a good fit. He knew that I knew marketing and promotions and things like that and he just felt that I would be a good fit for this. I got to give it up to my friend, Gareth Hughes, who brought me in on this. I wasn't always on the board. I started out in the committee and I just – I loved what they were doing.

The Children's Protection Center is an agency and it's a non-profit, that helps victims and their families heal and move on from physical and sexual child abuse. How this works is let's start here; in 2016, there were over a thousand cases of reported child abuse in Pulaski County alone.

[0:46:54.6] KM: That’s just what’s reported.

[0:46:56.5] AD: That’s just reported in Pulaski County. The Children's Protection Center was able to see about 254 of those cases. Where the other cases go? There's no telling.

[0:47:09.8] KM: 25% of the cases are seen?

[0:47:11.9] AD: Well, they're seen but maybe through a different agency, or maybe it's just handled by police, or another child advocacy agency. What the Children's Protection Center does, it's a complete place for a child to get help. It's a center for where a child can come and they can tell their story one time and have their interview recorded and done by a professional child investigator who knows what questions to ask and can help get the full story told.

When a child does not get this type of help, the child could be asked to come back to a place and tell their story two, three, four, five times. Evidence gets lost, stories get changed. I mean, there could be – if there's time, family can get involved and coerce too. I mean, all kinds of different things can happen and stories can get convoluted and lost in translation. The Children's Protection Center is just an amazing organization that really helps the child and helps the family and can take some of the trauma out of it, and can help them find healing and hope.

[0:48:48.9] KM: The board is trying to get more of them seen.

[0:48:51.7] AD: Yes. It’s located in the Clarke building, which is a new building on the Arkansas Children’s Hospital campus.

[0:48:58.6] KM: It’s to record the interview one time by a professional to be used later in cases.

[0:49:03.5] AD: Also, there are doctors on hand to do rape kits and do and check these children out immediately.

[0:49:11.6] KM: How do you not cry every time you do hear –

[0:49:13.0] AD: Here's the thing, that's not my job. You applaud the people that do that job day in and day out. We just had a partners picnic at the center. We invited other agencies that deal in this. We're talking about the detectives, the police officers, the people that take the phone calls and hear these stories. These guys are the heroes. These guys that this is what they do, they wake up and deal with the most scumbags of the earth.

When I go home, I talk to my wife about whatever dumb story I talked about on the air that morning. These people go home and can't even tell their family, because who wants to talk about child abuse and the stories that they had to hear and live through that day? It's awful. It's awful.

[0:50:04.0] KM: Thank you, Poolboy. I cannot thank you enough.

[0:50:05.4] AD: Thank you so much for having me. This is wonderful.

[0:50:07.5] KM: You are a dear –

[0:50:08.3] AD: Yeah, you are.

[0:50:08.9] KM: For coming on the show, look what you get. You get an Arkansas razorback. What is that? A floaty.

[0:50:16.2] AD: Floaty.

[0:50:16.7] TB: Because he’s a Poolboy.

[0:50:17.6] KM: A floaty. Yeah, Poolboy.

[0:50:19.6] AD: That works out perfect.

[0:50:20.5] KM: Well, Flag and Banner has that huge razorback section and Tim just today said, “We've got to give him one of those razorback floaties.” He is the Poolboy.

[0:50:27.5] AD: I'll be telling people that if this is for the razorback basketball team and not that football team. That's a topic for another day.

[0:50:38.3] KM: We have three topics we could have talked about today that we did not get to. I want to tell my listeners, if you have a great entrepreneurial story you would like to share, I'd love to hear from you. Send a brief bio and your contact info to questions@upyourbusiness.org and someone will be in touch.

Finally, thank you for spending time with me. If you think this program has been about you, you're right, but it's also been for me. Thank you for letting me fulfill my destiny. My hope today is that you've heard or learned something that's inspiring or enlightening, and that it whatever it is, will help you up your business, your independence or your life.

[END OF INTERVIEW]

[0:51:06.5] GM: You’ve been listening to Up In your Business with Kerry McCoy. For links to resources you heard discussed on today's show, go to flagandbanner.com, select radio and choose today's guest. All interviews are recorded and posted the following week. Subscribe to podcasts wherever you like to listen. Kerry's goal is simple, to help you live the American dream.

[END]

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