OuttaDeeBox Podcast
OuttaDeeBox podcast is a pre-recorded bi weekly show geared towards supporting former and current inmates and their families in Wisconsin. Our mission is to inform listeners about community resources that can assist them in securing employment opportunities, housing, mental health and substance abuse support, with the goal of reducing recidivism in Wisconsin. We also give listeners and guests the opportunity to share their unique inspirational stories through spoken word and other forms of musical artistry.
OuttaDeeBox Podcast
Empowering Communities: Action Jackson's Journey in Workforce Development
Action Jackson, the charismatic CEO of Jackson's Yard Care, takes us on an inspiring entrepreneurial journey where passion meets perseverance. Known for his quick wit at the poker table and unwavering dedication to business, Jackson shares the story behind his self-funded workforce development program. This initiative, supported by community leaders and organizations like the Sun Prairie Chamber of Commerce, offers free training and certification in lawn care and landscaping. It's a testament to Jackson's commitment to empowering his community and fostering career opportunities through private funding and generous donations.
Join us as we uncover the excitement of the JYC Workforce Development Super Bowl Gala in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, an event bursting with community spirit and innovative ideas. Enjoy the indoor tailgating atmosphere while we spotlight local influencers like Antoine McNeil, who champion diversity, equity, and inclusion in business. Discover how Jackson's print-on-demand venture adds a creative twist to the gala, offering products that celebrate his entrepreneurial spirit. As we wrap up, reflect on the profound impact of DEI initiatives and learn how word-of-mouth and personal grit can open doors to new career horizons. Don't miss this episode, filled with motivating insights and the power of community-driven success.
everybody, this is your host d star here with action jackson ceo of jackson's yard care and always remember you have the right to a beautiful yard.
Speaker 1:Jackson's yard care, I think you.
Speaker 2:I think you didn't. I think you rehearsed that now more than I did. I think you might be better than that to me. You think so. Well, you definitely sound good. I appreciate that I think you might have the voice for podcast.
Speaker 1:That's why, though you know, maybe that might say that uh, so for the people that don't know you, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Speaker 2:man. Just for the people that don't know me is it's rare that you may not know me, but if you don't know me, here it is in a nutshell family of three. I got a beautiful fiancee at home, two kids at home and I run a landscaping business and also I run a print-on-demand business and a workforce development business and I love to travel. Man, I love to live life, I love to be with friends and family. You know, just enjoy whatever life gots to throw at me, man, and I handle it day to day. That's your story.
Speaker 1:You sticking to it.
Speaker 2:Man, I could tell you a lot more, but I know you got a dozen of questions to ask me, so I'd just rather answer them, because there's a lot to tell about old action being. I've been around the block a lot man and I think a lot of things and I done a lot of things and I'm very proud of what I did. And you know, if you ask me I won't take nothing back.
Speaker 1:Absolutely so. Action, jackson. How did? Where did you get the name action? And that's your legal legal name correct.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's your legal name correct. Yeah, that is my legal name, action Antoine Jackson. Okay, really, from the poker table. And then it really kind of stuck right. And then when I got into business mainstream, it's really how I perform my work. It's really how I perform what I said, what I was going to do. I really stuck to what I was going to do. People didn't have to check on me, check on my work or things like that. And it really came about where I got the name like Action. That man is really Action. When I put that name together, I changed my logo and I also changed my name. I also installed this workforce development man. So you know how you like say, say you're like bad luck travels in threes. That's how I did this. But I reversed it and I was all positive.
Speaker 1:I want to jump kind of straight into it and talking about the workforce development program First of all, can you explain to us what the workforce development program is and what gave you the inspiration to set it up?
Speaker 2:Well, thanks for the platform for me to deliver this, because this is something that I truly is proud about. Me and the team work heavily on work days and nights on, and I love to share this stuff on your platform. So the workforce development is structured around lawn care and landscaping and we provide free training program to individuals that comes out the community and is looking for a different trade to get into, that's looking for something that they can call a career. Jyc has done was open up the floodgates to the opportunity for people to come in and actually learn how this industry works from a hands on position.
Speaker 2:Curriculum is a hardcore curriculum. It's a test between. The time you come in is a test, the time you go out. You got to pass it to get your certification. Not only do you get a certification from us, but you also get one from the state, and that means a lot. Right there, you know Melissa Agar. She participates in this and shows a certification recognition for the students as well, so they get that. And then Melissa Agar, the senator, correct, yeah, and the mayor, as well, so they get that.
Speaker 1:And then Melissa Agard, the Senator, correct, yeah, and the mayor as well.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, the mayor of Sun Prairie comes out all the time and, uh, you know a lot of people from the business world comes in and supports this because it especially the chamber.
Speaker 1:Shout out to the chamber the uh, the Sun Prairie chamber of Commerce has always been a great partner of ours.
Speaker 2:It definitely has. It's been a great organization to be in, a great collaboration of people to work with and fellowship with. There's a lot of support out there in Sun Prairie and you know, to be honest with you, I'm so glad that my business moved to Sun Prairie 922 South Bird Street correct.
Speaker 1:Yeah 922 South Bird Street. Over 10,000 square feet warehouse All types of trucks and trailers and everything you possibly could need to get the job done when you're talking about landscaping, snow removal, trash pickup. If you got a job, they can do it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think that's where you know, the workforce thrived off the backs of the hard work that we already put in. You know what I'm saying? We're a 16 year old business. The workforce development is a year old, coming in March.
Speaker 1:You know, one of the things that I think that we forgot to mention is that the workforce development is 100% free for the students and is privately funded by Action himself. He actually came out of his own pocket. He's not a 5113C, he's not, you know. He doesn't receive any grants. He doesn't receive any type of monetary help from any type of government agency or any nonprofit or anything like that. He had the foresight to see a need, fill the need and put his money where his mouth is, and he actually funds it, his his self, 100 percent. But along the way there has been donors, you know, donating materials and donating food and things of that nature. So who are some of the notable people that you've actually partnered with in this program?
Speaker 2:Well, you know, of course, you came along and you participated in this, the podcast, and you know your personal help also provided a lot of resources. Holy God's provided resources. Shout resources. Holy God's provided resources.
Speaker 1:Shout out to Holy God's clothing.
Speaker 2:Peter, he donated as well. As far as, like other companies, pizza Pit, they came through, gus's Diner, they came through Shout out to Gus.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I like Monk's.
Speaker 2:And TJ. They came through Badger City Auto but I would say up next, uh, terrence's, up next marketing, so he definitely provided. Dalton Summers is my material provider. He definitely always looks out when I call on him. He has no problem on putting in and definitely Cedric Page.
Speaker 2:I almost you know it's a few in there and I'm trying to definitely catch the names and make sure they get their flowers, absolutely, because, even like I know that I put 95% of you know the backing into this. It is my dream and I had the foresight about this. So you know, I didn't expect nobody to kind of come in and say, oh my gosh, I had this and I had that. I just needed somebody to do whatever they could do and support what my vision is, because it's not even every day that somebody will come in. You tell them your vision and they say, oh man, I support that. Right, you know what I'm saying. So shout outs to everybody that kicked in and did what they do and still doing what they doing, because we still gonna need that support for the program to come.
Speaker 1:So it's four weeks and they get two certifications and at the end of that you either employ them or help them get employed with a company, correct?
Speaker 2:and don't get this wrong not everybody gets placed right, because what we're looking for this program is meant to teach you to trade and the opportunity for employment. If you coming into this program and you're not putting in your you know participation, then we're not going to be backing you, trying to put our name, our reputation on the line and wasting time. Just go ahead and get your knowledge about the industry and then do what you need. But if you're not giving us your full participation, if you're not jumping in there and really trying to get to that next level because the next level is the job, the next level is the placement so we really need those people to understand this. This is a program to teach you to trade. You want to go to that next level? Then go in there with your head grew long straight.
Speaker 1:It's funny that you say that about placement and things like that. You know it's a lot of things that's going on in the world and when you're talking about the migrant situation, for the last couple of graduations you've actually had people from Venezuela in your program that took the entire program, graduated from the program and you've actually placed them. So can you tell us a little bit about what that was like? Because I know you had to get an interpreter. You had to. You know you had to go the extra mile for that. So can you tell us a little bit about that journey?
Speaker 2:I think that was one of the toughest things about what I had to do, to kind of piece this thing together, because it was the language barrier. They couldn't speak English at all, period. And yeah, we did have a interpreter. But it was a good thing for us that some of our students in the class knew how to speak English in Spanish, but we had a bundle of them I had, at least in my second program course. We had at least seven students that couldn't speak no English. Right, that was from Venezuela, right? No, they were scattered around from different places.
Speaker 2:Mexico, Venezuela, yeah that was the other challenging thing too.
Speaker 1:Because some of them spoke Portuguese right.
Speaker 2:Right. So I had to figure out ways around that and a lot of things that came across was hand signaling and then like breaking off people in groups, so we can get that attention span, so we can get that attention span. But the crazy thing about all of that is majority of them we did place and they did turn out pretty good. Some of them completed actually the second course. We got the snow plowing course as well, yeah, that's another thing.
Speaker 1:There's two courses, so there's a lawn care and landscaping course, and then there's a snow removal course, also both free, open to the public. And you've had people.
Speaker 2:You have, you know, men and women, and you've had disabled people also yeah, I just want to kind of make it clear what's the mission and what's the vision behind the program. It's not all about making an employee. It's all about making our community great. What we focus on is yes, we want to get people in placement for employment, but what we want to is just shed the knowledge of our industry for people to use it at their own will. Like, it's so easy for somebody to go out there and make a couple bucks on their own block with a push more and some basic lawn tools, but to have the experience to actually know about what they doing, it's a holy. It's a total different ball game absolutely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just like we were just talking about the podcast, like people want to start a podcast, that's great, but do you actually know what you're doing? Right? You know, like, can you troubleshoot? If there's a problem, can you fix it? You know, because there's nobody to fix it. You know, like it's only you, it's only you, so you can. I was, I was having a conversation earlier and I was like you can have all the best equipment in the world, but if you don't know how to use it, it's worthless. You can get a guy with a $200 camera and you got a $10,000 camera. The end product might look way better with his because he knows what he's doing, he knows the settings, he you know what I mean he's comfortable, he's got his own workflow. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:So you know it's not, it's not all about the information, it's actually you. You know what I mean. You have your ability to soak that up to you know and to execute. So when we, when we're diving in to this program for those that just joined us, we're talking about the JYC Workforce Development Gala that's coming up soon. So just to go back a little bit, this workforce development program serves the entire community. It's 100 percent funded by Action Jackson.
Speaker 2:I'd say 98.
Speaker 1:98, about 98%. So that's pretty much all of it that he, out of his own pocket, provides free service to the community and he's holding his first annual gala February 9th at his shop that's 922 South Bird Street here in Sun Prairie, wisconsin, to support the workforce development program that is free and open to the public. Not only that a special surprise that not many know about he has a new commercial that's going to be debuting during the Super Bowl.
Speaker 2:There's so many good things about what's about to happen on February 9th that I don't even know if people are really recognizing how big this is to the city and what we did to be a part of this city in the business world and also into our communities. It's like, where I came from, this doesn't happen, never, period, and I know that. But as I was growing and I was going on my, as I was going on my journey, I kept those things in the back of my mind where I came from, why I'm doing it. So every time I got frustrated or something didn't work out, that would smooth me out, and that was like you know what I'm saying, something I retreat to every time I think of something like negative or things bothering me. I'm like dude you already passed the unthinkable.
Speaker 2:Why would you stop now?
Speaker 1:Right, so kind of. So take us through the night. Like we said, february 9th three o'clock. 922 South Bird Street, sun Prairie, wisconsin, jyc Workforce Development Super Bowl Gala.
Speaker 2:Take us through the night constant jyc workforce development super bowl gala take us through the night, so if you're there early three o'clock you're gonna be already overwhelmed by the entertainment the arcade games, the table games, the carnival type of games and the food layout and how the TVs are laid out.
Speaker 1:So it's like an indoor tailgating.
Speaker 2:It's pretty much like a big tailgating type of gala, but indoors and with heat.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we got definitely heat. We definitely got heat in the building. You ain't got to worry about that. And when you're in there, I really want gotta worry about that, and when you in there, you I really want you to be there and really just relax and be in an environment where you can say you, finna, have a good time watching. You know, the super bowl is the most watched television show in america every year, every year, and it's been like that.
Speaker 2:So to have a gala on this day means a lot, you know, and we bring in the city with us. That means a lot to me. So you know, coming in the door, you're gonna be hit with that, that event type of oh my gosh, I'm just glad I got here. You know what I'm saying, because there's gonna be so many people that you may know. There's going to be so many people you ain't going to know. This is a gallery, this is a get-together, this is community and business colliding together and uniting, entertaining each other at the same time. Absolutely, and not only that. We're doing it for a great cause, for a wonderful cause. The money goes towards the class that's going to be starting in March. So at the end of the day when you're spending your dollars there. You should be proud to spend your dollars there. You should be excited to spend your dollars there because you know your dollars is about to go to a great cause.
Speaker 1:Absolutely so. You actually have another business, a print-on-demand business.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:That'll be there and have a booth, and you guys are going to be selling T-shirts yes, and hats Yep, and hoodies right, yep, and tattoos Mm-hmm. So can you tell us a little bit about that?
Speaker 2:So the print-on-dem man to be out there doing this thing in support of, uh, the full cause, and we're gonna have a lot of local influences there, like jay rock, antoine mcneil with the biggest comedian show that madison ever seen black own that's what I love the most, so you know, having those people there.
Speaker 1:So Antoine McNeil is one of the hosts he owns. Shout out to One Motion. But yeah, shout out to him. He actually is a really great resource for small businesses, black or white or whatever color in the community. So if that's something that you are aspiring to do is, like you know, be an entrepreneur, start your own business. He, that chamber, that guy you know what I mean. He is the guy. I would definitely give him a call and see what you know, what kind of programs they have or what kind of resources that they can hook you up with, Because they they do have accelerated programs and things like that that that they put on geared towards small businesses and people that's trying to start a business.
Speaker 1:That can help you.
Speaker 2:You know, just FYI, vince, vince, vince. Yeah, he the one that got me my DBE.
Speaker 1:Actually, I'm pretty sure that falls under DEI, you know, because it's diversity, equity, inclusion, right, so it's like I think we've seen the writing on the wall with that. We was talking about that last year. We're saying like, oh man, you know, a lot of companies are backing off of the dei because they don't know which administration is going to be here. If the left is in there, they'll keep it. If the right is coming, they're going to obliterate it. Right, the right got in, so they pretty much did what we thought that they was gonna do is obliterate it. I don't know how I feel about that just truly, just be behind your work, man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't do what you can do.
Speaker 1:I don't. I don't know how I feel about that because, to be honest, I've never gotten a job based off a di. I've never been a recipient of that. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:Like that has never, played a factor in any type of work that I've been hired for, any type of work that I've been considered. They always just you know people really. You know I get a lot of business by word of mouth. You know what I'm saying. So it's like somebody tell somebody somebody you know what I mean. Then they like hey, send me some of your stuff, I send them the stuff, they like the stuff and they want to work with me based off of that. But it's never been. You know I'm cold calling or you know I just put in an application or something like that. Like it's never been that. So I'm never, I'm not a recipient of the DEI and never have been recipient of the DEI and never have been. So it's like I it doesn't really affect me, but I can see how it would affect some people. But they say the number one recipients of DEI is white women.
Speaker 1:That's not me just saying that, that's that's from the department of labor says that you know, white women are the number one recipients of di right so it's like, even though I have my dbe, I do have it, but it it literally has never gotten me one dollar worth of business it brought me 100 grand on one job well then, you have been a recipient of d I ain't saying I didn't you know, but the only I think.
Speaker 1:When I got that job, though, I don't think it had nothing to do with that, though no, I don't. You've been in business for a very long time.
Speaker 2:No, I was just going to say I don't think it had nothing to do with that, but it had something to do with that because I was in the position to get the information, to receive the notification of the job, and when we got to the job it was a mandatory site visit and we was the only contractor there. Wow, that that was like that was the fine print that was fine. Yeah, it's like oh, you actually have to come to the site yeah, and I take it yeah, I'll take it so.
Speaker 1:So what can you tell us about the commercial?
Speaker 2:The commercial man. I can't put too much news out there. Give us a little something about the commercial. Oh, man, you want me to spill the beans on a commercial. You just watch For all my people. That's in the vicinity of Fox Broadcast. You'll see it on February 9th. We got two hot commercials coming out and it's going to be live, man, it's going to be me in there, it's going to be my fiance in there and it's going to be yours truly, giovanni Jackson.
Speaker 1:So how can people get tickets to support the gala?
Speaker 2:You can go right on our website. Or can they get tickets the day of? Yeah, but it's gonna cost you more. It costs, okay. So what is the price? It's only twenty dollars to get in twenty dollars, it's only twenty dollars. And so is there food. Yes, food, there's food. That just gets you entry. That just gets you entry. Okay, yeah, okay, yeah, because it's a fundraiser.
Speaker 1:It's a fundraiser.
Speaker 2:We're trying to raise funds man, we can't make no money off of $20. But when you get in there you know everything is a fundraiser. So we look for you to come in there with your pockets open a little bit Because at the end of the day, we got some truly behind the scenes of that gala that we're trying to raise funds for.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:So the main thing is come in and enjoy and knowing that your dollars is going to the right place. No small kids allowed. No small kids. And if you're worried about what you should wear to a super bowl gala, come in your regular jeans and buy some sweaters and t-shirts and then you can fit right on in absolutely well action.
Speaker 1:We really appreciate you stopping by. Thank you, I appreciate you absolutely. I'm d star until next time, guys.
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