We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Trey Myers. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Trey below.
Trey, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. So, let’s start with a hypothetical – what would you change about the educational system?
Greater and earlier emphasis on finance and home econonomics would promote a stronger understanding of how to build equity and lever debt responsibly while maintaining a healthy personal — and eventually familial — foundation…
Kids don’t have to wait until they’re 35 and divorced to figure this stuff out.
Trig, Calculus, and Advanced Algebra are cool, but not as cool as knowing how to budget and lever debt. And home ec is just treating the home like business, so we need to shake the gendered stigma associated w/ running a household.
A healthy home life paired with a strategy for building wealth can allow a person to enjoy his/her career instead of treating it as an escape, or worse, one’s only option for sustenance.
Trey, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I throw frat parties and buy mobile home parks.
The former came about back in 2010 when I was living in Athens, GA as booking agent with a roster of regional bands. I’d never been in a fraternity, but the University of Georgia’s greek scene was/is huge and very unorganized when it came to producing live events, so I levered my relationships in entertainment and production to create the first full-scale, full-service fraternity party planning company…
Fraternity parties expanded into Sorority parties, which grew into a Weddings and Corporate/Special Events; then we grew into Travel and Artist Management w/ our sister companies: GreekFormals and Incubate Talent Group.
The latter came as a result of COVID when we weren’t allowed to do our jobs. I’ve got a wife and a 4th son en route, so affordable housing seemed like a strong hedge to our services businesses, since the high net worth types show no shortage of interest in a 10-15% ROI in a down market.
In both endeavors we absorb client frustration by being the trusted expert and tip of the spear, whether that’s knowing how to navigate and negotiate a hip hop performance or a real estate deal.
I’m most proud of the people on our team. I could get hit by a bus and they would be still able to serve our client base and grow the businesses. I’d go into battle with these people.
Turnipblood is the name of our entertainment company, but it’s also a philosophy of optimization applied to all our ventures. Whether we’re helping a 19 year old social chair produce a spring rush party, a bride find the perfect wedding band, or a 74 year old dentist roll a 1031 into better investment vehicle, we’re going to show the best return possible.
Can you open up about a time when you had a really close call with the business?
In the early days we gave key employees access to the company checkbook, while keeping close tabs on accounts payable and expenses; however, one of our team members is strung out on pain killers and starts writing checks in nondescript amounts that resemble what might be needed to execute day-of-show production…
We reconcile monthly, but like I said, the amounts are nondescript, so he’s got a 30 day heads start on us.
By the time I figure out what’s going on, it’s the dead month of December, where times are tight even without being embezzled, and I’m struggling to make ends meet…
I threaten to have the Sheriff drag the thief out of his house on Christmas morning in front of his kids, but all the money went into a hole in his arm, so I press his father; but even that will take time… time I don’t have.
And then the phone rings. It’s this guy asking me in broken English how much my most expensive wedding band costs, so I tell him and he offers to pay me 30% more if I can help him out by using a portion of the surplus to pay his “photographer,” since the photographer needs cash he can’t pay because he lives outside of the United States…
He, of course, wants to pay me with a credit card, and he wants me to pay his “photographer” with a bank wire.
It’s obvious this dude’s trying to launder a stolen credit card, but I play along, contract his show, and accept his payment… only I don’t wire any money to the “photographer,” who’s in on the scheme. The guy goes nuts, but I screen his calls while seeking council on best practices for how to get the money back to its rightful owner.
Meanwhile, I have sufficient cash in the bank to get through December while my degenerate team member’s dad makes good on his son’s stolen funds.
In the end, I didn’t have to lock anybody up and the stolen credit card funds were returned: Two wrongs made a right!
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
Another time, back in the earlier days, we had 26 shows in 6 states, on the same day… one of which was a wedding I was a groomsmen in. To date, this may have been the busiest day of my life.
As expected, there’s a LOT going on, but what I’m not expecting is 3,000 delayed flights in Atlanta. This is a problem for the platoon of rappers we’ve got routed through ATL for a show in the boonies of Northwest Arkansas…
There’s no easy way to get there and all commercial flights have been grounded.
Taking quick inventory, we figure out who needs a private jet versus a prop-plane, and who needs a Sprinter van versus a rental car… then we identify what’s even available and manage expectations accordingly.
I’m doing much of this from the fellowship hall inside the First Presbyterian of Savannah, GA, getting shhhhed by little old ladies.
Fortunately, we have a committed team, and everyone dives into action, so we manage to get each and every Artist to their destination. It was a major logistical challenge at an inopportune moment which, to some extent, is what Turnipblood Entertainment does…
But this particular day goes down in the history books as my busiest. Every waking minute was dominated by phone calls, texts, and emails… all while executing services for a client/friend.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.turnipbloodent.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/turnipblood/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/trey.myers.10
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/treymyers/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@turnipbloodentertainment612
- Other: Phone: (229) 942-6168 Email: [email protected]