Jay Myers
- Society of Entrepreneurs Member
- Small Business Advocate
- MultiMedia Specialist
Travels From
Tennessee
Do the Right Thing Not the Easy Thing | Jay Myers | TEDxWestMonroe
Jay Myers Speaker Biography
Jay B. Myers is founder and CEO of Interactive Solutions Inc. (ISI), a Memphis-based firm that specializes in video conferencing, distance learning, telemedicine, and audio-visual sales and support.
Jay started ISI in 1996 and has built it into a $25-million company with 51 employees and offices in Memphis, Nashville, Chattanooga and Knoxville, as well as Birmingham, AL, Oxford, MS, and Little Rock, AR.
ISI has received numerous corporate awards and recognitions in the past several years. The company was named seven times in the past 11 years to INC. magazine’s list of the fastest growing private companies in the United States. ISI also was recently featured in the Small Business section of the Wall Street Journal.
In addition, ISI was named the Memphis Business Journal Small Business of the Year in 2001 and in 2003 was the first recipient of the Kemmons Wilson (founder of Holiday Inn) Emerging Business Award. Prior to starting ISI, Jay earned numerous sales awards while working for international corporations such as Eastman Kodak and Hewlett Packard.
In 2007, Jay published his first book, Keep Swinging: An Entrepreneur’s Story of Overcoming Adversity and Achieving Small Business Success and subsequently received the 2010 Ethan Award for success as an entrepreneurial author.
An avid baseball fan, particularly of his beloved New York Yankees, Jay has participated in the Yankees’ Fantasy Camp in Tampa, FL, receiving instruction from former Major League players and professional coaches. He frequently applies his affinity for the game to his writing on topics related to business growth and entrepreneurial development.
A natural storyteller, Jay is a sought-after speaker at CEO conferences and entrepreneurial development programs where he shares inspiring stories and practical tips based on growing ISI from $11- to $25-million during the Great Recession. Jay’s message as detailed in his second book, Hitting the Curveballs: How Crisis Can Strengthen and Grow Your Business, reveals creative, practical strategies to achieve business success in difficult times.
Jay is active in numerous Memphis area community organizations and is on the advisory board of Bancorp South and well as the board and executive committee of the Mid -South Better Business Bureau. Jay lives in Collierville, TN, and Holmes Beach, FL, with his wife Maureen. The couple has two children (Jordan and Kaitlin).
Entrepreneurship (Relating real life experiences)
- How to identify a start-up market opportunity
- Small business financing options, recommendations etc.)
- Discuss the value of writing a solid business plan
- In-depth look at corporate/organizational structure(what works, what doesn’t)
- The challenge of partnerships (management, buy outs etc.)
Overcoming Adversity
- How to deal with start up financing challenges(almost put us out of business twice in first 9 months)
- Surviving a cancer diagnosis and supplier embezzlement(in first 9 months)
- Discovering an employee embezzlement of over $250,000 a few months after a death in the family (The Day My Business Almost Died)
- Rallying the company employees and doubling business the year after the theft.
Crisis Management
- Losing 80% of the company’s sales team(turnover)
- Death of a close friend and company technician(2 funerals in one week)
- Wife diagnosed with breast cancer
- All happened in a little over 30 days in the summer of 2007
- Show how we used crisis as motivation to strengthen and grow the company
Building an Employee Farm System
- Dare to be different and Implement creative recruiting not as just another HR tactic but a company strategy(lots of places to find good people)
- Shape a career path for your employees and a future for your business
- Learn the value of actively recruiting millennials(versus hiring industry veterans) to evaluate and develop talent over a longer period of time
Motivating the Millennials
- Gain an understanding of what attracts millennials to companies(not just $$)
- Learn about what doesn’t work with millennials (fear, intimidation, generalizations etc.)
- Learn what does work with millennials(positive reinforcement, collaboration, treat them with respect)
- Gain insight about the value of fostering a creative culture in your business where everyone has a voice(young and old alike)
Inspiration
- Surviving serious financial problems, cancer(melanoma) supplier embezzlement and partnership divorce-first 2 years
- Learn how we went from the discovery of an employee embezzlement(the day my business almost died) to more than doubling business a year later
- Dealing with(in a little over 30 days) losing 80% of the company’s sales team(turnover) as well as the deaths of a friend and company technician and another cancer diagnosis
- Taking a chance by hiring, training and believing in inexperienced millennials who more than doubled company revenue from $11 to $25m during the worst economy in 80 years.
Fraud Prevention
- Learn about why fraud occurs(opportunity to steal)
- Gain insight about when a business is most vulnerable to fraud
- Gain an understanding of the internal controls necessary to prevent fraud
- Learn the value of fostering an ethical culture in your company
Do the Right Thing Not the Easy Thing
As a leader, doing the right thing – and not the easy thing – enhances your honesty, integrity, and ethical standing for yourself and your company. Author, speaker, and entrepreneur Jay Myers shares his personal journey as a business owner and how his dedication to doing right by his community, his customers, and his employees have shaped his reputation and molded a model for others to emulate. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community.
Additional Speaker Topics
- Management
- Leadership
- Communications
- Emotional Control
- Creativity
- Critical Thinking
