Motivational Speaking will never be the same. Charley Jabaley may not be a household name, but his business endeavors are. He is the co-owner of Street Execs, and several other brands including CEO Millionaires, with business partner 2 Chainz. C. E. O. stands for Creating Every Opportunity, and that is just what Ceo Charlie is doing.
I sat down with Charlie after his first public speaking engagement entitled “You Can’t do Epic Sh– with Basic People.” He focused on the empowerment of young entrepreneurs.
Held at the Gathering Spot in Atlanta, an energetic Charlie captivated, motivated, inspired and challenged a room of over 200 people. He wasn’t the average motivational speaker, and this wasn’t the usual event.
What do you want our readers to know about you and your brand?
I go by the name CEO Charlie and I’m an entrepreneur at heart. I failed my way to success. My goal is to share my story with other young budding entrepreneurs. That is why I created this movement. I’m here to let them know that it is okay to try, to fail and to try again until they reach success. I’m going to bring young entrepreneurs together. We are shifting the culture with this CEO millionaire movement.
It takes a very special person to be an entrepreneur, so what ultimately pushed you to go into that direction at such a young age?
I wanted to live. I look at a job as being told what to do. All those things are not living. And to me not living is the same as dying. I always wanted to create every opportunity for myself. So if I failed, at least I was doing to for myself. I was investing time and energy into myself. I just didn’t want to die. I didn’t want to wake up at the age of 45 and be told I have to keep working a job until I’m 65 and then retire.
What motivated you to start the CEO Millionaires?
It was a calling. I started CEO Millionaires with my business partners. We all are young entrepreneurs. We wanted to do a clothing line with purpose. CEO Millionaires stands for Creating Every Opportunity, so we wanted to create the entrepreneurs club to go along with the clothing line. This endeavor is our way of getting out our message of entrepreneurship to the culture. We are doing it in a new fun, fly and against the grain way. We are breaking every rule, and that is what the youth like. They will listen to what we have to say because we aren’t doing things the old fashion way. The kids listen to the hip-hop stars. They are the biggest influencers of the young generation. So they are going to pay attention to the message about being entrepreneurs and starting businesses and changing their lives because of how the message comes across and who is giving it. That is what’s going to save people from dying. The individuals who are living that life of just working a job, going to school, get another job, having kids, working until you are 65 and dying. For us, we want to go to school (if we want to) start a business, hire amazing people to run our businesses and live. So we can retire by the age of 40 instead of 65 or even the age of 30 instead of 65. I want others to attain real wealth and then take that wealth and pass it down to the future generations That is why we are doing this.
Did you expect the movement to be so well received?
Yes, I expected it. I have high expectations in everything that we do. When you have high expectations, you achieve it. It was intentional to be where we are at because we said that we were going to do it. We went out, and we tried and tried and tried again until it happened. High expectations are why we are here.
What pushed you to decide to tell your story about entrepreneurship in this way and become a motivational speaker?
It was time. People always said “you build all these brands, but you stand in the background. It wasn’t time for me to make anything about me. But when we launched the CEO Millionaires brand and I seen the excellent response to it. I said this is the chance. I can help people. Motivating others is something that I can do to give back. When I saw that opportunity, there was no question in my mind that I have to go to do this!
So do you plan on taking this movement worldwide?
Yes worldwide! We are going on tour. I’m telling you this first. We are about to start a tour.
If you could tell a budding entrepreneur who wants to give up anything, What would it be? Abandon the thought process of what can go wrong. You have to let it all go. You have to get that out of your mind. When I start a new business endeavor, I don’t think of anything that can go wrong. People tell me all the time, Charlie you are crazy. I literally see the finish line, and that is all that I focus on. Even when problems occur, I still concentrate on the finish line. The finish line is never a failure. The finish line is always a success. If you are focused on the end and what success looks like you can never focus on what can go wrong. If you focus on what can go wrong, you are going to talk yourself out of doing it. You are going to do what you are thinking.
So after the success of the charity aspect of your dabbing Santa campaign, will you be incorporating something of that nature into CEO millionaires?
Stay tune, big announcement coming soon and I will make sure rolling out is one of the first to know about it.
-Seyvn McCrary
