Jelly Roll & The Love Spreading Machine

Like many others, I’m a fan of the Joe Rogan Experience.?He interviews some of the most interesting guests on topics far and wide.?When I logged onto YouTube it recommended a video titled, 'An Emotional Jelly Roll Says He Writes Music to Help People' .??

Immediately I had two questions:

1. Who the heck is Jelly Roll??
2. Why is a big guy with facial tattoos getting emotional on the show??

That was enough to make me click PLAY.?And, the almost 9-minute video did not disappoint.??

Who is Jelly Roll?

Jason Bradley DeFord, known professionally as Jelly Roll, is an American singer, rapper, and songwriter known for his collaborations with Lil Wyte, Struggle Jennings, and Tech N9ne. In 2023, he won three CMT Music Awards for the song "Son of a Sinner".

Why is he getting emotional on the show?

Here is where the interview took a beautiful turn and why I decided to share this with you.?Jelly Roll talks about how he found himself chasing success and forgetting that his passion, not the paycheck, was his real source of inspiration.?

Then Joe Rogan delivered this incredibly insightful and reaffirming monologue:

"I feel like it’s every level of success you’re presented with a unique problem that you haven’t seen before and it’s up to you to just figure it out, figure it out.?What are you doing this for???

And I think that applies to everything.?I know it applies to comedy, it definitely seems to apply to music.?Figure out what you’re doing it for.?Why do you like it???

I know you have to make a living, but once that’s all taken care of, like what are you doing it for??You should be doing it for the love of this ‘thing’.?Whatever this thing is that you do.?You are a love-spreading machine as a human being.??

Whether it’s your love of carpentry.?Whether it’s your love of electronics.?What’s your thing man??Everybody’s got a thing.??

But not everybody finds their f@#%! thing.?That’s the problem with this world.?People get trapped in something that’s not their thing and that’s what they are now.?And they don’t ever get to express themselves in a way that would make them feel good."

Wow! There’s a lot of honest wisdom packed in that monologue, yet the phrase that caught my attention was that we’re all “love-spreading machines”.??

It's obvious that when you love what you do, you produce the best of what you love.?You create value from something that others can’t see, hear or touch.?Value creation requires that you love what you do in order to create value.?Here are two prime examples:

Steve Jobs -> iPod, iPhone

Elon Musk -> Space X, Tesla

Insert your Value Creator here: __________________

We stand in awe of people who seem to be geniuses.?But that obscures their true power.?Geniuses are love-spreading machines.?The irreducible primary of their genius is a love for their thing.??

And as Jelly Roll implies, everyone has the potential to be a genius, but you can only be one doing what you love (your thing).?

Jelly Roll Rule: Purpose > Paycheck.

Victor Antonio