MOUNT PEARL, N.L. — Jason Piercey has no qualms about putting himself in front of a camera, whether it’s to potentially sell homes, interview people or rap about Mount Pearl.
As a real estate agent with eXp Realty, Piercey has been drumming up additional business through social media and his Facebook-based video blog "The Ask Jason Show." As a host, he brings energy and a healthy dose of humour while also offering his perspective on the business, which he's been involved with for over a decade.
Piercey told The Telegram the show, which he produces with assistance from fellow realtor Joe Dominix, is relatively easy to put together. For him, it's a way to address questions and find clients.
"It just got to a point where I honed a skillset ... and it just sort of became the only thing I did from a real estate lead-generation perspective," he said.
The show generated enough of a public profile for Piercey that Rogers TV took an interest in him. An employee at Rogers who previously met Piercey through a real estate transaction caught one of his live Facebook videos and thought he could be a good fit for co-hosting the station’s talk show "Out of the Fog." He also co-hosts a show for Rogers with former Big Brother Canada contestant Samantha Picco called "Sam & Jason Unfiltered."
"Really all it is is not caring what the people watching think of you," he said.
Those familiar with the popular video "The Mount Pearl Anthem" — a project the city got Target Marketing and Communications to produce last year may — will recognize Piercey as the face and voice for that slick rap video promoting Mount Pearl. The number of views it has received is likely well in excess of 100,000 from YouTube and Facebook combined.
Piercey, who is by no means an experienced rapper, auditioned for the project.
"I saw a post in a Facebook group saying a local marketing company is looking for sort of a local flare and also a little bit of the Andy Samberg-Lonely Island kind of rap style," he said. This resulted in further opportunities for Piercey, who gets called upon now to host community events in Mount Pearl.
Twitter: @CBNAndrew
1. What is your full name?
Jason Matthew Piercey.
2. Where and when were you born?
I was born 1983 in the Faro Cottage Hospital in Faro, Yukon. My old man used to work in the mines there and he would drive a truck with a tire the size of a light pole.
3. Where do you live today?
I say that I live in Mount Pearl, because I'm ‘the Mount Pearl guy,' but technically I live in St. John's because it's Brookfield Plains (off from Commonwealth Avenue), which is a section of St. John's that's impossible to access unless you go through Mount Pearl to get there. So, I tell everybody I live in Mount Pearl because it's better for the brand, but Danny Breen would have me believe it's St. John's.
4. What's your favourite place in the world?
Waking up at Mom's house when she bakes bread. I don't even eat bread now, but it instantly takes me back to a place where everything was so much quieter and everything was so easy. Because my life is very hectic and I do all these things, and I like it that way. I wouldn't change it. But waking up at Mom and Dad's around the bay (in Norman's Cove) and smelling the bread that Mom baked knowing she's got a pair of my underwear on her head as a hairnet.
5. Who do you follow on social media?
There's a guy in New York who owns a marketing agency called VaynerMedia — his name is Gary Vaynerchuk. Gary Vaynerchuk was the catalyst for me recognizing that I had done enough and I could make it work if I wanted to do a personal brand as somebody who could do video blogging. Locally, (fellow "Out of the Fog" co-host) Melissa Royle is hilarious on Twitter. She's just really charming and witty. I like a lot of the local people who do memes, like the Newfoundland Turnip and Cape Shore Memes … just because I appreciate the comedy. I think Will Smith in the last year or so recognized the power that he could have as an influencer if he decided to start doing that stuff as opposed to only acting, so he's grown a big following, and I think he's doing it the right way.
HOT OFF THE PRESS 🔥 Gary's sit-down with @Adweek covers just down dangerously we live here at @VaynerMedia, and have a tonne of fun while we're at it! As "a competitor with the agency world's elite," Gary chats with @Griner on what's next for the agency.https://t.co/Tu1KhfNRGI
— VaynerMedia (@VaynerMedia) January 31, 2020
6. What would people be surprised to learn about you?
I have several mental illnesses. Depression, anxiety, ADHD — that one probably wouldn't surprise people (laughs). I'm medicated daily for it.
7. What's been your favourite year and why?
I have two answers. I have this one (2020), because there's a lot of cool stuff that can happen with my career this year. Other than that, I'm going to step outside the rules and say the 92-93 NHL season, because that was the year I became a hockey fan and the Leafs got (goaltender Felix) Potvin and they went to the conference finals for the first time in a million years. I've got so many memories of the excitement and the passion. They made a video called "The Passion Returns," and the VHS, you can't even watch it now. I wore it out.
8. What is the hardest thing you've ever done?
Making the decision with my wife that our child would be happier if we separated. I would say that would be the hardest thing.
9. Can you describe one experience that changed your life?
I used to work for a really big construction company here locally — a now defunct company. I was their sales and marketing manager and we did a whole lot of business. When our market — the new-home market — a few years back collapsed by like 50 per cent in volume, in that year we actually did more business than we'd done the year before. We took all the market share, which is actually a marketing and branding success.
The owner called me into his office one day and said that he needed to make a change with the marketing. And I said, "OK, well, what do you want to do?" And he said, "No, I don't think you understand. We're going to go with another guy." And I realized in that moment that I would never be able to accomplish what I wanted in life if I worked for somebody else. So, I decided then that I run my own show here moving forward.
10. What's your greatest indulgence?
Red wine. Not going to lie. Wine and coffee, maybe. Lately I'm really into Argentinian Malbecs, because they're inexpensive, and I don't know a lot about wine, but I expect they'll go up in price as people recognize that this $12 bottle of wine could be $16 and people would still buy it. I'm a fan of value, and I think I'm getting good value out of cheap wine right now.
11. What is your favourite book or movie?
Gary Paulsen wrote a book called "Hatchet" that I read when I was a kid — probably in Grade 6. It's about this guy named Brian who was in a plane crash and had to live out months and months on his own in the wilderness. I grew up an army cadet and I did a lot of adventure training and survival training, and I related hard to that book. I absolutely loved it.
12. How do you like to relax?
This one will probably be a bit controversial. One of them is play hockey — not controversial at all. The other would probably be ... work. I do a lot of different things because it keeps me sharp not to be idle. When I get idle, the ADHD spins out, that goes to depression, that goes to anxiety. Keeping myself straight is really good for me. I think a real conversation needs to be had around the concept of work as hobby for some people.
13. What are you reading or watching right now?
Right now, I'm really into trash TV to be honest. It's like a brain dump. It's been such a hard winter mentally with depression and seasonal affective disorder — it's just been a hard, hard slog. Lately, I'm watching things that I would normally be embarrassed to tell one person let alone have it published in a newspaper. "Temptation Island" and "Love is Blind." I can have a glass of wine, fall asleep watching it and not care what I missed.
14. What is your greatest fear?
I've been told that after having a conversation with me, sometimes people feel as though I have attempted to convince them of something, because I genuinely want what's best for other people. And if I have any fear at all, it's that people will misinterpret my kindness and my authenticity as some twisted form of attempted manipulation. I struggle a little bit with that, because it is so rare to be purely honest, open, authentic and kind to a stranger that people just assume you want something from them.
15. How would you describe your personal fashion statement?
I wear it because I like it. Not necessarily because somebody else does.
16. What is your most treasured possession?
I've got two. I have a little blue bunny that I got the day that I was born that is in very hard shape, because it's well-worn (laughs). I'm 37 now. I did stop sleeping with it long before now. But my mother always kept it in the shoebox of life. So, I still have that.
Also, I was fortunate enough at a really, really well-run gala — the black-tie gala in support of Big Brothers and Big Sisters — years ago that I bought a $20 bingo ticket and won a Rolex. That would be a second one. Not because I care about fancy things, but because I can see that being a legacy piece that will be in my family for a long time. I don't think that there's ever been a Piercey in my family ridiculous enough to spend that kind of money on a watch.
17. What physical or personality trait are you most grateful to a parent for?
I don't think it's a physical trait. From my mother, I get a genuine concern for others. I've managed to temper it a little so that it doesn't manifest as constant worry and anxiety, like it does for (my mother). She accidentally taught me that.
It's just who she is as a human being and I guess it was ubiquitous in our household — you're nice to people.
18. What three people would join you for your dream dinner party?
Gary Vaynerchuk. Felix Potvin — he's the reason I'm a goalie. And my grandfather on my father's side, Albert Piercey.
19. What is your best quality and what is your worst quality?
I think my best quality is I have a genuine belief that if I want something bad enough, it's not possible for me to fail at it. And I really truly, truly believe that. If I wanted to write for The Telegram, for instance, I feel like I could go in there and I could pitch an idea, and with enough iterations, I'll get something published — because I'm just not willing to quit.
Worst quality? I can be forgetful. An unorganized forgetful. Stuff just gets lost because I have a lot of racing thoughts through ADHD and stuff.
20. What's your biggest regret?
I live my life by the mantra that regret is poison. If this is something you think you might regret, you need to avoid the potential of that feeling, because regret will burn you to the ground. I'm not aware of any regrets. Like, little stuff. I shouldn't have had that last beer. Or I should have ordered this instead of that because it wasn't that good. But no real regrets. I'm happy with where I am in my life and what I did to put myself here.
