Today we’d like to introduce you to Ashier Majok.
Ashier, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
My story is not just unique, it’s a miracle.
I was born in South Sudan in 1994 in the middle of a civil war. By the age of five, I had already experienced more tragedy than your average 50-year-old. After years of applying to take our family out of South Sudan and being denied, we were finally accepted in 2000.
I thought that was it, we made it to the United States, we’re safe. I was completely wrong. I thought in the United States, we would finally stop hearing gunshots and have food in the fridge, but we were placed into another war zone. A very terrible neighborhood in Houston with low paying jobs, extreme gang violence, and drug abuse. We felt like we were still in a war zone, except this time we didn’t know the language and could not communicate with anyone.
I did the only thing that my parents taught me to do, I put my head down and worked as hard as I could to not be another statistic.
Houston is where my entrepreneurial fire was lit, I was going to do whatever it takes to give my family the life they deserve. I started working at a local church, and for a small moment, it looked like things were going okay. Then, in 2005 hurricane Rita hit Houston and took everything from us. Our home, the little people we knew, our belongings, everything. We were devastated. Because of backed up traffic, it took us two days to evacuate the city. Our Dad would tell us “God has a plan for all of us.” At the time, I could not see it, but he was right. God was simply just giving us a blessing in disguise. We found refuge in Amarillo, TX.
In Amarillo, the shootings stopped. No more gunshots, no more gangs, no more robberies around us. Of course, it was not perfect, but it was manageable. We finally had the opportunity to grow and focus on school. Now, I have no excuse to not be great.
After graduating from high school, I knew I wanted to move away for college. I wanted to go to a city where I didn’t know a single person. I wanted to finally find out who Ashier is, and what can Ashier become with a fair playing field. I applied to Oklahoma State University, got accepted, and started the process of attending all before ever stepping foot on campus. I didn’t know the city, and I didn’t know what it was going to be like, but I didn’t care, it was a true fresh start.
During my time at OSU, I discovered that I am very business-minded individual that has a deep understanding of supply and demand, so I chose to study Economics. I started my first real business called Type It Up during my senior year of college. Type It up was a service that allowed students to scan in handwritten documents through our app, and I contracted other students to do the typing. That company was my first real introduction to being an entrepreneur. Through hard work and patience, I got the company featured on a few local news stories and even placed 3rd in the Oklahoma State Business Plan competition.
At OSU, I didn’t only get to find my passion for business, I also found the most important thing in my life today, my beautiful wife that I got to marry on June 02, 2018. We both graduated from OSU in 2017 and decided to move to Dallas to join a community that looked to have a promising future for us.
After being here in Dallas and away from school, I began to realize that I started my transcription company to fulfill a need I saw. I started to understand that I never had a real passion for papers or typing them, so the impact I could make with my business was limited. That realization led me to noDeal.
I realized music is something that affects us all. When you work out, you put something on that will motivate and pump you up. When you study, maybe you put on a slow instrumental to help you focus. No matter who you are, music plays a big role in our day to day lives and often determines what messages we are feeding our brains. noDeal is my attempt to leave a positive impact on the music industry.
I started building a community of independent artists with the goal of creating a space for them to network with each other. I also challenged myself to provide these artists with resources such as shows, studio time, graphics, and much more that can help them on their journey. Our organization itself can make money through ways such as merchandise, sponsorship, and events, so I tell these artists we don’t want a percent of your profits, the positive impact they make is our percent.
On their death bed, no millionaire ever said, “I wish I could make one more dollar.” Those are not the thoughts that will come to mind when it’s time to go. We will be asking ourselves what kind of impact did we actually leave awhile we were on earth. In 2o years, When I get to look at the top charts and see that 5 of the top 10 artists were affected by noDeal and they are spreading a positive message through their music and platform, I and the world won.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
One of the biggest obstacles that I had to overcome was myself. I use to have moments that I would let my past dictate my future. Because of the poverty, pain, and circumstances I was born into, I labeled myself as not being worthy of making the impact I am trying to make.
I am very introverted. I get nervous easily and am very shy in general. On one hand, I felt my ambition tugging at me saying “just go and do it.” On the other hand, I heard a voice saying “it’s not supposed to be you, you’re not vocal enough, you’re not prepared, you’re not, you’re not, you’re not..” The list could go on.
By not taking action, I came to a realization that I was not only robbing myself of a great future, but I was robbing this world of something great that I felt I could bring to the table.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the noDeal story. Tell us more about the business.
noDeal is an organization/brand that provides independent artists with networking opportunities and resources to help them move forward in their careers. We host events that allow artists to network with each other, as well as learn from great speakers we book. We end every event with a concert that allows them to showcase their talents to a crowd that most of them are not used to.
Our biggest accomplishment is being able to shift the mindset of these artists. We have gotten them to realize how important their platform is, and how many people they can affect it. noDeal is for that artist that is hungry to make an impact with their platform, and won’t let not having a record deal stop them.
In the music industry artists typically chase a record deal, and end up getting the smallest piece of the profits. What sets us apart is that even though we know these artists will gain more success with our help, we do not request a percent of their profits, the positive impact they make is our percent. Our community of artists believes in our message, so they support us through merchandise, and we have great sponsors that believe in our mission that make these great events possible.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
“The harder I work, the luckier I get.” – Samuel Goldwyn
I put literal blood, sweat, and tears into this journey. Overcoming poverty, and the death of people I loved was the hard part, this is the part where I make my own luck.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.madeitwithnodeal.com/event
- Email: madeitwithnodeal@gmail.com
- Instagram: madeitwithnodeal
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