Today we’d like to introduce you to James Sackey
Hi James, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
When I was a kid, I saw my dad working all the time. He worked in the corporate world as a project manager in the IT department of all the major banks – from Deutsche Bank to JP Morgan. In those days, we lived in New Jersey, my birthplace. He traveled as far as Germany every week for work until he started at another bank in New York City, where he traveled daily. His commutes were about 4 hours round-trip to NYC and back. It was a lot of time spent just getting to and from work. Roughly 12,480 hours in total in a car and 2 trains.
In 2003, when I was roughly 13 years old, the bank he worked for decided to start relocating big portions of their workforce to the DFW area. So, we moved from the East Coast to the suburbs of Dallas – on our own dime. Shortly after, he was let go. It was devasting. After uprooting our family from our home to go halfway across the country to a very different place, with very different people, they no longer needed him and that was that.
As you might imagine, this put our family in a tough spot financially. In some ways, it changed every part of my family forever.
Stemming from this whole experience, I decided I wanted to never be susceptible to that sort of situation. I wanted to ensure I would always be in control of my life and what happened in it. I didn’t want to work for other people and instead create my own sources of income. Find my own way.
This was the beginning of my entrepreneurial mindset shift and when my attitude toward work and making a living started to take shape.
I started work when I was about 15 years old in the hospitality industry, restaurants and quick service specifically. If you’ve ever worked in that industry, you know its ridiculously hard to get out of. I spent over 10 years in the hospitality industry. I’ve worked in every position in a restaurant there is – from dishwasher to General Manager. Its where I learned some of the most valuable lessons and, although it was extremely difficult at times and mentally, emotionally, physically draining, I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
During many of those years in restaurants, I started multiple small businesses and side gigs. From producing local car shows to a CBD retail business during the “green rush” in 2019 – none of them particularly successful. I took out 10’s of thousands of dollars in credit and loans to launch businesses. I’ve sent money to people I’ve only spoken with over the phone for 5 minutes. I even lent $5,000 to a guy with an Amazon business. I’ve still never met him and I’ve only seen 1 picture of him.
Through all the experiences I had with my businesses and in management in the hospitality space, I happened to learn a lot about marketing but didn’t realize that’s what I was learning and gaining experience in.
I majored in finance in school and actually achieved my bachelor’s degree in finance management, so my formal education was in finance. I loved finance – still do. I learned all the aspects of finance from basic budgeting to trading credit spread options to corporate financial forecasting and valuation using discounted cash flow analysis.
When covid hit and closed everything down in 2020, I had a lot of time on my hands – like we all did. After partying with friends for the first few weeks, I realized this was an incredible, unprecedented time we would probably never see again, and the world essentially hit the “pause” button where everything stopped. Time was sort of frozen. So, I started to think, eventually we’re going to come out of this, the world will start back up, and I thought about where I wanted to come out on the other side of it. I started looking for self-education opportunities and ways I could still connect with folks. This is when I stumbled on Tony Robbins and his Unleash the Power Within seminar – his first “virtual” seminar.
I very strongly encourage anyone to take a ride through Tony’s UPW because it very literally changed my entire life. During the experience, I learned how to change my perspective, gained clarity, and understood for the first time how exactly I needed to function in order to become truly successful and fulfilled and it was anchored around helping other people.
Enter my stint in the nonprofit world.
I started volunteering with my first nonprofit coming out of the UPW experience – this was still during the early part of covid. I was scrolling through Instagram one night around midnight and happened to see a picture of well-dressed individuals at some celebratory event and thought to myself, “let me check this out real quick, I’ve seen this page multiple times but don’t know what it is”. I looked through a bit of the info on the website and saw they were doing some sort of work for different groups, some business-related and some community based. I emailed their ‘info’ email the following: I’m not particularly well-connected, I don’t know any bigshots, I don’t have 20 years of any experience behind me, and I don’t have money to invest but I can guarantee you that if you need something to get done, I will absolutely see it through to the end.
The CEO replied within 5 minutes – and this was after midnight.
We exchanged a few emails, and I was quickly tied into what this organization was doing and so started my venture into philanthropy and the beginning of my network-building.
Fast-forward to today, I’ve been on more than 8 boards and committees across more than 5 organizations. I’m just about to finish my 2nd term as President of an organization and I’m a very well-connected individual, by all accounts.
I realized around early 2023 that I had built a wealth of experience and knowledge in marketing during my hospitality and entrepreneurial days as well as how to build relationships with people. I’m exceptional at understanding and empathizing with people because I had to be when it came to working in restaurants – when you walk up to a table you have absolutely no idea what you’re going to get, and I’ve had to deal with truly angry people dozens of times. Not to mention, there was a time when I moonlighted as security at bars and clubs – same thing, several times I had to diffuse situations and many others where I had to interact with the “right” kind of people.
Marketing, to me, is another word for relationship-building. I learned everything about finance in my younger years and could speak the language very well. Combining these two things with a good network of businesspeople across Dallas, I thought how best to bring it all together.
James Sackey Marketing was born.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
No entrepreneur has a smooth road. Ever.
In fact, I often joke that “I’m an entrepreneur, I make a living in struggle and setback”. Its a daily struggle. Just the other day I was explaining to a friend that based on the definition of insanity – doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting a different outcome – you must actually be insane to be an entrepreneur. Its a pre-requisite. Struggle is part and parcel with that.
I have struggled with everything you can think of and what most entrepreneurs do – money, credibility, ideation, support for others, you name it.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’m a professional marketing strategist and fractional CMO with a focus on middle-market businesses that have had a material change in their business such as new management, new product/service launch, or a capital event.
I specialize in strategic positioning, events, content, and relationship-building.
I am the most prolific marketer in the DFW area. With a large variety and amount of content (events included) spread across several different channels, including 4 published books on marketing.
I have the largest library of answers to the top 100 challenges facing business owners, accessible on my website for free.
I’m a marketer who speaks both “finance” and “marketing” – so I’m fully equipped to understand and translate the impacts and ramifications marketing has on the financial standing of a business.
I also help raise capital for my clients from private equity investors, banks, and alternative financing options.
Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those who are just starting out?
Don’t give up. Ever.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://jamessackey.marketing
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@jamessackey
Image Credits
Headshot by Brent Tinsley
