Today we’d like to introduce you to Jason Hewlett.
Hi Jason, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
My career began in 3rd grade when I was invited to either sit in the hall for the rest of my life or be quiet during the day and would have a chance to perform at the end of class if I was good. After 2 months my day finally arrived! Performing my funny voices and impressions, faces and wackiness to the laughter of my peers launched a career.
During high school, I was discovered by a legendary music teacher who caught me singing in the hall and within a few years, I was starring in the Las Vegas show “Legends in Concert” impersonating Ricky Martin and Elton John. A few years later, my wife and I sat across the table from a hotel-casino billionaire offering me the headlining show I had dreamt of, only to realize it meant trading my promise to perform a family-friendly performance based upon my values in place of fame and fortune.
Turning the offer away, I returned to my home state of Utah where I was warmly welcomed by the corporations needing a clean, hilarious, safe, and affordable answer to entertain at their conventions. Within a decade, I was voted Best of State Variety Performer and Vocal Artist, over the next decade receiving lifetime achievement honors such as The Star Award from SCERA, the OESA Eagle Scout Award, inducted as one of the youngest ever to the National Speakers Association Hall of Fame, and performed for the US Troops in wartime Afghanistan.
My show of comedy and music naturally progressed to leadership talks and helping teams to understand the Signature Moves of those they work with and serve, resulting in keynote speeches called “The Promise” to standing ovations around the world. I now coach and mentor successful entrepreneurs to create their messages and share their gifts, while writing, speaking, performing, and saving my in-person-only business by going virtual during the pandemic.
My book, “The Promise To The One” was published and released in 2020, helping people keep The Promise to themselves to share their talents, stick to their values, and find the greatest joy and fulfillment in making and keeping promises to themselves. I have a dream career, an incredible family of 4 beautiful children, and can be found staring at my wife without realizing it… she’s just so darling. jasonhewlett.com.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Had to choose between fame, fortune, and name in lights when I was 25, being offered a Las Vegas casino headlining opportunity that would be misaligned with my values, beliefs, and force me to erase a family-friendly show I had promised to always do, in favor of performing what was required to be a headliner on The Strip at the time, and instead returned to Utah to face a career.
Less than a decade into my very successful corporate one-man show performing career, I was diagnosed with irreversible damage to my vocal cords. As a singer and impressionist, this was the end of the road if I didn’t stop doing certain musical numbers. Thus, I began only doing the voices that didn’t hurt and created my keynote speaking career teaching others how to find their voice and Signature Moves.
By the age of 33, I was told I had the wear and tear body of a retired NFL quarterback due to the demands I put myself through with my physical comedy. I either had to stop flopping, jumping, falling, and running around, while whipping my neck as Jim Carrey, or I would need neck and back surgery. Thus another shift in my presentation, and another chapter to making and Keeping The Promise in the speeches I share.
By 2016, I was lauded as one of the great performers in the corporate market, and without sharing too much as to why I needed to change up my successful act (physical and vocal damage), I re-branded as “The Keynote Speaker”. Most former clients would not book me. I had to win a whole new client base. It was shocking to feel I was not wanted in this capacity, as I knew it was my higher calling… but not what those former audiences wanted.
In the past 6 years, we have had to earn a whole new customer base, most of which hire us over and over again due to the surprised response of a Keynote speaker bringing not only an entertaining performance, but an actual message they didn’t realize could change their bottom line and lives. By 2021, we were getting 3x the fee for Keynote Speeches as a non-celebrity than I ever could make with a full band as after-dinner entertainment considered one of the best in the world in 2015.
Two decades into my in-person-only LIVE performances career, COVID-19 came along and wiped out a nearly million-dollar corporate events year planned for 2020. Facing a blank calendar and a standard of living my family was used to, with teenagers in braces, doing sports, and my wife as a homemaker, we spent 24/7 coming up with solutions as a family to create a VIRTUAL Show and Speech that would not only work in our home but would be a resounding success.
Back to the drawing board, pretty soon we had 7 cameras, lights, piano, and PowerPoint mixed into a full-family effort to save the business as the world fell apart around us. Next to no clients who had seen me in-person dared to hire me in virtual, so we had to sell from scratch to all new clients, doing events for free to fail enough to succeed. Within 9 months, we were back to making almost as much as we had been in person the year before.
And so it goes…
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I specialize in helping others discover their Signature Moves and help them Keep The Promise by sharing it always. I am known for my ability to make others laugh, singing, voices, faces, and having a reason behind doing all of that: To Engage and Educate.
I believe that when we are laughing we are learning, so I strive to facilitate that. The message of The Promise allows me to inspire through the story, sharing my weekly blog of others keeping or breaking the Promise, and a robust social media effort and presence to inspire and bring joy every day.
I love coaching, mentoring, helping others to create their story, Signature Moves, and realize they too can live The Promise.
Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
My wife, Tami – Went viral in 2015 when I shared that I saw her at Target and fell in love all over again. Truth is: I’ve always been mesmerized by her, my muse, and the way she naturally lives The Promise and has believed in me since Day 1.
My mother, Marsha Hewlett – everyone usually praises their Mom, but I don’t know if everyone really calls their Mom pretty much every day just to listen to her stories and laugh with her. That’s me and my Mom.
My father, John Hewlett – pushed me, demanded greatness, and supported my dreams, opening doors I never could have to get my career started. Very grateful for him and his example of greatness in business, and reinventing himself as an entrepreneur time and time again, that I could follow.
My high school teacher, Mrs. Rosalind Hall – If she wasn’t already famous for her work with choirs around the world, she is now with my stories of how she discovered and mentored me. No greater teacher for someone ready to learn than she was for me.
D. Chris Poulos & Coach Tony Ingle – These 2 men are inseparably connected in my life story as Mentors that made all the difference, both as father & grandfatherly figures. I consider them my dearest friends, and although Chris was 90 and Tony 68, me being 43, we were quite the trio, and it was devastating to lose both of them in 2021. I seek to live a life worthy of their approval as they look down from heaven above.
My Children – no humans have pushed me, tried me, helped me, and inspired me like Ella, Redford, Romney & Royal. They are the ultimate teachers for me, mentoring me by example and expectation of me living up to my promises. Intimidating as all get out, and the best experience of life is to be a dad… especially to these children.
Pricing:
- $25,000 per speech / presentation
- up to $100,000+ for private coaching
Contact Info:
- Email: jason@jasonhewlett.com
- Website: https://jasonhewlett.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jasonhewlett/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jasonhewlettentertainer
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/jasonhewlett
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/jasonrhewlett
- Other: https://www.amazon.com/Promise-One-Jason-Hewlett/dp/1640951938/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1589670624&sr=8-1
