Former MLB Pitcher Jay Jackson is Honestly Trying to Change the World

In this episode, Jeff Perro interviews Jay "Smiley J" Jackson, celebrating his career in baseball and discussing his transition to coaching. Jay reflects on his journey from being drafted by the Cubs to making his major league debut, his experiences playing in Japan, and his new role as a pitching coach. He shares insights on retirement, the importance of mindset, and his initiatives to help young athletes through the S.M.I.L.E Zone. Jay emphasizes the significance of positivity and personal growth, aiming to inspire others through his upcoming memoir and various projects.

Chapters

00:00 Starting a New Chapter: Coaching Journey Begins
02:11 Reflecting on the Draft Experience
05:15 The Call-Up: Making It to the Big Leagues
08:17 The Changing Landscape of Baseball
11:04 Success in Japan: A New Adventure
13:58 Looking Back: Celebrating a Career
19:49 Finding Time to Reflect and Celebrate
20:45 Finding Purpose and Service
21:28 The Smile Zone: A Positive Mindset for All
23:53 Curriculum Development for All Ages
25:18 The Importance of Early Education
26:29 Promoting Mental and Physical Health
28:24 Launching The Smile Zone
30:19 Personalized Coaching and Accountability
32:56 Target Audience and Future Aspirations
33:42 Transitioning from Player to Mentor
34:23 Podcasting and Sharing Knowledge

Transcript

Jeff Perro (00:35)
All right, everybody. Welcome to this episode of Catch Up with JP. We are here today to celebrate the career of Mr. Jay Jackson. He announced his retirement in February. We're going to talk about his career and talk about what he's been up to since and what his plans are. Welcome to the show, Mr. Jackson.

Jay "Smiley J" Jackson (00:51)
No, I appreciate you. Thanks for having me, JP. I appreciate you having me thanks for being here.

Jeff Perro (00:56)
You're very welcome. Thank you for your time. So first question, because I want to hear all the details. Today was your first day as a pitching coach. How was that? You're pitching coach to the West Virginia Black Raiders of the MLB draft league.

Jay "Smiley J" Jackson (01:03)
Yes.

Yeah, it was, I mean it was fun. It just getting to see the guys, getting to meet them really, getting to know how they play catch, how they work, how they throw. A lot of guys, you know, got off planes or long drives yesterday. So today was just kind of you know, light touch and feel day. Make sure.

Just to see how they throw the ball to kind of just piece my ⁓ rotation together for the next couple weeks. Well, not next couple weeks, next couple days because we're missing a lot of pitchers right now. We're kind of short staff. So it's just working with what we got and the guys that we have and waiting for the reinforcements to come because a lot of guys are still in the super regionals right now.

Jeff Perro (01:48)
Yeah, I was wondering if you were short because you didn't have them or short because they weren't there yet.

Jay "Smiley J" Jackson (01:52)
Yeah, they're not here yet. A lot of guys are pitching so well and playing so well with their college teams that they're still in the super regionals right now. So definitely don't want to rush that process. Want them to definitely go out

Jeff Perro (01:59)
Oh boy. Yeah, you'll a little bit of balance for the next

how do you feel being pitching coach? Did you have first day jitters?

Jay "Smiley J" Jackson (02:07)
I don't think I first day jitters I just kind of do the same thing that I would do.

As you know normal day really like I work with guys from time to time anyway So for me just working with the guys today watching them throw and just kind of tweaking something here there that I can see that to Make them better to help us, know win but now I get to actually see you know the fruits of the labor that we're both doing the things that I'm telling them if they're incorporating it and then if it translates to what's on the field as well, so now that I get to see that it's gonna be interesting to see to see if these things work because I've talked to a lot of guys that I've worked with before

and they said that certain things work. actually finding out and seeing it faced like in reality is gonna be something to be held so therefore I can actually make adjustments and I can help guys a little bit better. And for me, my goal is to have these guys get drafted even higher than they were projected to go and learn something to take with them from here on to the rest of their career and beyond.

Jeff Perro (03:06)
It's exciting man. I'm glad that you've got something that you're into. I'm glad you've got that going for you. So we'll start back from the beginning. You were drafted in the ninth round by the Cubs in 2008 out of Furman University. from Greenville, correct? What was your experience with the draft? Were you expecting to go that high? Did you go higher than you expected?

Jay "Smiley J" Jackson (03:19)
Yes, sir.

No, I didn't go higher than I expected. I went a lot lower than I expected, actually. So just all the workouts I had done previously and this what I had heard from scouts and different teams before the draft, I'd actually went a lot lower than I thought. And then from what I was projected to go to, I think, I believe that year I was projected in like the first like four rounds. And so me going into the ninth round was kind of late.

Jeff Perro (03:32)
Gotcha.

Jay "Smiley J" Jackson (03:53)
Especially from the fact that I put up pretty good numbers that year with me pitching and hitting at the same time. So I thought that I was definitely gonna go a lot higher. But the way it worked, it just made me a little bit more hungry. And I instead stuck around for 17 professional seasons instead, so I can't complain too much about it.

Jeff Perro (04:12)
It seemed like

either you worked your tail off or you were respected like a top four round pick because you spent 2008, you hit three levels, 2009 you hit three levels. So it seemed like the Cubs thought of you as a one, two, three, four round pick. That doesn't happen to ninth rounders.

Jay "Smiley J" Jackson (04:24)
Yeah.

Yeah, me too.

Yeah, I felt like I should have been and I felt like I kind of proved it as I went through the levels and just, you know, I wouldn't say I stalled out at AAA, but you know, I got there and then the PCL kind of takes a hold of you. And, I kind of got down on myself a little bit going through a little funk too that didn't help with, you know, where I was at in, you know, AAA at that time. You know, I think my second and third year, I just got into God of like, not bored, but I got just like down being stuck in AAA for a little bit. And I just didn't feel like I

I

could, I just, maybe a change of scenery would have been nice, but you you just kind of work through it and luckily I got the chance and opportunity to go somewhere else after those days and you know, my career kept going on.

Jeff Perro (05:15)
You

definitely got lots of scenery over the course of your career. And finally it was your second, third, fourth, your fifth stop with the Padres where you made your major league debut in 2015. Tell me about that, man. Tell me about the call up and how it felt to finally get the call at that time with that much experience under your belt and arriving in the show.

Jay "Smiley J" Jackson (05:19)
Yeah.

Yeah.

It was, you know, I told people it's gonna be actually, you know, in my memoirs book when I actually finish writing it

The way that the call up happened was kind of strange. I don't know if a lot of people have the call ups the way like we did with the Padres that year. Our season was already done. We had guys get called up at the beginning of September, but then we had guys that stayed with the AAA team. And once our season was finished, got called up, but we didn't get called up normally. Like when your season's done that day, normally like guys get called in the office like that, that moment after the season's done, like, okay, like you're all going up because your season's over now. So don't.

worry about getting your flight homes or whatever else. Whereas like all our guys or most of our guys had already left El Paso and had gone and flown back home and had to fly back to the day like when we got called up. Luckily I hadn't yet. I was still in El Paso. I stayed an extra day just to kind of like relax and think about the season and just like reflect on the year. But a lot of guys had already flown home and we got called up the next day and then...

Jeff Perro (06:44)
They didn't even fly home to

Asia and then get the call?

Jay "Smiley J" Jackson (06:47)
No.

I don't think they called anybody home from that, but I think some guys had gone back to California or some guys had gone back to Florida or something like that and had to fly back to Arizona. It was one of the situations. But I'm grateful that it happened 100%. And I made my debut the next day, but I'm just thankful that the Padres gave me the opportunity. felt like even that year, I can kind of talk about it now, I felt like I should have been called up earlier in that year because I had better numbers earlier in that year.

Jeff Perro (06:56)
Maine or New York or...

Jay "Smiley J" Jackson (07:18)
things happen the way they do teams. I'm not the one in control of certain things and God works in mysterious ways. So it happened when it was supposed to.

Jeff Perro (07:26)
You always hear that. I almost call it an excuse now that the numbers game of who is on the 40 man, whose arm is hanging from pitching the night before. It's just kind of a, there's a lot of luck involved in getting that move from AAA to the big leagues it sounds like. And a few people get months and months and even years, bad luck tied together.

Jay "Smiley J" Jackson (07:51)
Yeah, it seems like that sometimes, but I mean, for the most part, I feel like, you know, once you get through the door, the door stays open for a little bit. If you're lucky, if you treat if you treat it the right way, the door stays open enough. You know, ⁓ I think a lot of guys close the door on themselves, too, which is unfortunate. But, you know, I think getting there is a testament of like, you know, a lot of.

not only luck, a lot of hard work and dedication because I mean, it does take a lot to get there for, you know, the guys that get there. It's a little, feel like I'm not going to say it's easier now because that would be disrespecting the guys that are getting there now. But I feel like they're rotating guys a lot more now than they used to. And like you said, it's more, it's more of a numbers game and a analytical game than it was, you know.

We're just going to figure it out with the guys we have and pitch situationally. But that's also a testament to how the game's changed with having to throw three batters and you can't actually face one batter in a situation, the guys necessarily to a certain extent. it's all around just, they've kind of taken it to this place where it's at right now.

Jeff Perro (09:01)
And I haven't run the stats on it, but I've talked to people and I've noticed that careers are getting shorter. But I think you're right on that, the flip side that more guys are getting called up because of the way the game is run. Like you said, it's easier to get into the orbit. It seems a lot harder to stay there. The length of careers for big leaders definitely has decreased over the last 20 years.

Jay "Smiley J" Jackson (09:07)
100 %

Yeah, 100%.

No, 100%. I think that the numbers, you find them, somebody had told me the numbers recently about the number of guys that have reached arbitration now compared to the past 20 years or something like that and how many guys have reached five years and then how many guys have reached eight years and how many guys have reached 10 years and how the numbers have declined and the percentages have declined drastically over the past five to 10 years with the number of guys that have gotten five to ⁓

six years in the league, even three years in the league. So I think it's crazy to think about. ⁓ But I think that's a testament of, again, the culture that we're in and how much baseball is changing, though. We want everything now, and it's also...

Jeff Perro (10:03)
I haven't seen the stats on

that, but ⁓ it just feels that way. And I'm sure the stats back to that.

Jay "Smiley J" Jackson (10:08)
100 % no, but it's

feels that way and it's true, but I think that's Also a testament of who's running the game right now, too. You're getting a lot of the guys

And this isn't a disrespect to those guys that are at the front office level and things of that nature. They're having guys that are making final decisions that don't or haven't played the game at a high level where it's just more of a business. So they're catering more to the fans instead of the game of baseball. And I feel like if you cater to the game of baseball, you'll have the fans come. Like if you play a game, if you play baseball the right way and you do the things that you're supposed to do, the fans will show up.

because the game's exciting enough when you just don't have to like change so many things about it. Like all times I understand what we're doing and I understand why we're doing it. But I think there was a way to tie it in instead of just pushing it upon people all the time just because of I guess.

Jeff Perro (10:58)
They're doing it for short-term

gain, it seems like, instead of long-term fan appeal. They'll short-term pops to get a couple fannings in the seats. And they should be trying to build lifelong fans, in my opinion. My observation. So speaking of keeping the door open, after you spent some time in the big leagues in 2015, you opened the door and went to Japan. How did that happen? And I'm always curious to know how guys ended up over there. And also, how was your experience?

Jay "Smiley J" Jackson (11:04)
Exactly.

Exactly.

100%.

Yeah.

I loved it over there. One, the experience over there and actually me getting over there was a whole kind of different story. It's going to be one of those things that's in my memoir too, like the in-depth like actual conversations about it and how it actually kind of all went down. But I got lucky enough that I had some interest over there and then they just bought the Padre. I guess the Padres had a number on me and the team luckily enough decided to pay it and I went over there and had some success and then

Jeff Perro (11:37)
I can't wait.

Jay "Smiley J" Jackson (11:58)
team I was on, we had enough success where they kept me around for a couple of years, right? So we ended up winning our league championship in 2016, 2017, and 2018. It's one of the times that.

Jeff Perro (12:08)
Yeah, your numbers don't lie. I you killed

it over there. You had lots of success in Japan.

Jay "Smiley J" Jackson (12:12)
Yeah, I had a great time over that. I enjoyed it a lot. It was one of the times I was upset that I didn't get a chance to come back home earlier, where I've seen a lot of guys parlay their success over in Japan and overseas to come back home. I felt during that time where I was playing so well and I didn't hear anything from any other teams and I didn't have any

like

offers to come play really and I didn't really sign to come back home after that stint in Japan until literally a week or a couple days before spring training started in 2019 and I think I signed the contract I think spring training started February like 15th like 13th or something like that and I signed the contract February like 9th or 10th and I was in Japan when that happened so I had to fly from Japan and pick up everything I had in Japan and leave and

be at spring training in three days and be ready to like pitch pretty much so yeah it's like I said it's gonna be a full story about that at some point but ⁓

Jeff Perro (13:15)
So you mentioned the

memoirs. I'm going to skip ahead here. saw you somewhere posted an autobiography in the works. Is that really in the works? Do have any timetable on that?

Jay "Smiley J" Jackson (13:24)
Yeah,

I don't have a timetable and I'll just.

I'm looking at articles and just remembering different things throughout my career. I actually got my retirement book from, and this isn't a plug for them, but Best of Legacy LLC. They do retirement books for baseball athletes. It's a great company. And so they pulled all the articles from me from high school through college, through all my big league career, through times in Japan and everything like that. So I'm just looking through those. So once I get all my thoughts together, I'm gonna put them together. And then hopefully within the probably next year,

and a half I'd say the the memoir should be out by then it's not a

Jeff Perro (14:02)
That's cool. That's a cool idea. I've never heard of that. That helps you

have your facts together when you go to sit down and write your stuff. You've already got the dates and the specific names and everything else that's in front of you. That's cool. I've never heard of that before.

Jay "Smiley J" Jackson (14:07)
Exactly.

I think just like I always say it to people like all the fans that I've met through the years and like the fans ⁓ at different places how they've treated me and my family especially like I name off. ⁓

Toronto is one of my favorite places just because of how they treated me and my family through things we were going through. also, I give credit to the San Francisco Giants fans because of how much love they showed me and still do. And people still remember me out there a little bit too. and again, the Blue Jays fans still for some reason, I love them to death that they still remember me to this day. And they always check on me and JR and Sam and everything else like that. just, my career has been amazing.

I'm so blessed to have it. I don't know a lot of people that have been blessed to play 17 years professionally in baseball at the level I played. So for me, there's not much else I can say except for I've been extremely blessed. Thank everybody that I've come across that has helped me across the way, especially all my pitching coaches that showed so much belief and support in me.

Mike Mason, Bronswell Patrick, Garvin Alston, those are some of my main guys that helped me get through a lot of things. think throughout my career, my college, my university coach, Ron Smith, my career wouldn't have been the same without him, honestly. So he helped me make a lot of right decisions to get to the point that I'm at, but also my family. I think God above.

love that he's blessed me with that ability and hopefully I can help other people be a lot better than I was, honestly.

Jeff Perro (15:50)
So 2025, You signed to go to spring training with Bravos de Leon in the Mexican league and a month later announced your retirement. What was your...

Thought process behind that. Were you already kind of one foot out the door when you signed that contract? Were you thinking about retiring since the end of last season?

Jay "Smiley J" Jackson (16:10)
No, I wasn't really thinking about retiring. I was actually rehabbing and a lot of people think that like I just got released last year and I've been trying to explain to a lot of people last year just with how my numbers were played out last year is kind of inflated. Well, it's really inflated, but I was playing through an injury and I wasn't able to really talk about it because me and the team and the PA, we were kind of just trying to figure some stuff out with my rehab and making sure that like

I was able I was going to be cleared to play again at that but I ended up getting a PRP in my left knee and my right shoulder and I actually didn't get cleared from that till mid-January and so I got back from that finally I did a couple bullpens and just I realized that me going to Mexico I didn't want to go down there and not give my all and not enjoy baseball the way I wanted to so it was more I wanted them to go give the spot to somebody that was going to go down there and be really hungry

and want to, you know, do everything. I want to go back to the big leagues if I had a chance to. And me going to Mexico would have been, it would have been fun. I would have went down there and had a blast, but I feel like the pathway for me going from Mexico to the big leagues would have been a lot for my body to handle all over again at the age of 37, honestly, where, you know, if I was probably 25 or 28 or probably even 30 again, I would definitely do it and just try to make it as much as

I

can't make it the best adventure I can, but at this point I want to spend time with my family. I wanted to see my son grow up. I want to watch him crawl and walk and be there and spend time with him. I wanted to, you know, give back to the younger generation too. I want to see them have fun and love the game of baseball like I used to love the game of baseball. And I feel like I can do that from this side a lot easier than I could have done it for me taking a spot down there somewhere.

Jeff Perro (18:00)
what I had in my head is you really had some good momentum going on with your post baseball activities. already, you'd already written the book. ⁓ you already had the podcast, which we hadn't started talking about as well, but it seemed like your ⁓ off field plans seemed almost more exciting than pitching off the mound in Mexico would have been. So I thought that might have.

Jay "Smiley J" Jackson (18:20)
It wasn't...

⁓ I think spending time with my son was the most exciting part about it, honestly, but just for me, would, he'll be two in July. And so for me, I think that was the most exciting part, but it was, like I said, it was, I'm getting older. I wanted to make sure that the next wave of guys want to love the game of baseball. So I want to be able to teach that and I want to be able to give back to that. And the way I feel like I would be able to do that. I don't think it's more exciting for me to do it, but I think that the service I can provide.

Jeff Perro (18:24)
Right. How's your son now?

Guys.

Jay "Smiley J" Jackson (18:51)
And the guys that can be around me that I can hopefully rub off on will hopefully make a better, not better product of baseball, but will help them love the game of baseball and help them go do great things and enjoy what little time we have on this planet. Just enjoy the living daylights of it.

Jeff Perro (19:12)
Some people I've talked to have kind of said something off the cuff, kind of like, you know, when I got drafted, worked my way through minors, I thought I was going to play in the big leagues for 10 years, three or four All-Star games, sign a $100 million contract. That didn't happen for me, but I'm so grateful for what I...

the career I had and you should feel that way. Like I said at the beginning when I introduced you, I said we're here to celebrate your career You accomplished some things, you've seen some places, you had some success in the big leagues and the big leagues in Japan and you should be proud of what you did and hopefully you've had a chance to take a deep breath since you retired and to celebrate your own career.

Jay "Smiley J" Jackson (19:49)
Honestly, I haven't. don't really, other people have celebrated it for me. I don't think I've really sat down. I think once I really take a break and have a chance to sit down and look at it, I just, I like to stay busy and I don't like to relive it too much yet. I think that I'm scared to at some point, but like, I wanna relive it and I wanna express it and get it celebrated in my, yeah, it's a long time.

Jeff Perro (20:11)
You should man, for 17 years, like you said, you deserve that for

yourself.

Jay "Smiley J" Jackson (20:15)
I

think I just want to find a time. think it'll hit me at some point and I'll celebrate it, know, truly the way I want to and not just like have a party and everybody else, but like sit down and actually like, you know, have a, you know, drink and sit by a fire or sit outside and just look at the clouds or something like that at some point and like just ponder my career for a little bit and enjoy it, you know, but I don't think I've, I just haven't had the true time to do that yet. Cause I've just been busy doing, trying to do so many other

Jeff Perro (20:26)
Yeah, it's done.

Jay "Smiley J" Jackson (20:45)
things to help other people at the same time to stay in the game but also find what my calling is and what it's truly going to be and how I can best impact and make this world a better place. I feel like if I'm sitting around not doing that, then I'm wasting energy and time and everything else. I want to make sure that I'm being useful and I'm being of service of some sort.

Jeff Perro (21:08)
A lot of the stuff that you've talked about through your Instagram and none of things having your best life and the S.M.I.L.E Zone seems really focused, baseball focused. Man, I think what you have going on in your whole philosophy or anything, it should be around the world. Every human citizen of earth should listen to it and pay attention to it.

Jay "Smiley J" Jackson (21:29)
And we're actually doing that right now. So the S.M.I.L.E Zone is the baseball focus part of it. It's the more athlete centric focus that I'm doing. And that's why I created this just specifically for athletes. But the book is not as baseball focused. It's actually for everyone. It's a positive mindset book to make sure that you always stay positive. You can always find something in that book, I feel like, that you can use at any time throughout your life. If it's good, bad, indifferent, I feel like you can find something in that book

that can help you just have more of a positive outlook or have just a more successful day or just find a little bit more happiness that you might be missing at the time. But then also, I have a team right now that's actually working with me to create a curriculum for middle school and high school students, but also to create a curriculum for college and adults as well. So we're working on two different curriculums right now that are based off the book so that we can also, again, spread the word and make sure that the

Jeff Perro (22:23)
There you go.

Jay "Smiley J" Jackson (22:28)
Is getting out and spread into more people not just athletes because again I want to be able to spread it and I want to be able to help as many people as possible It's not just about helping athletes because athletes again, especially baseball players There's such a small percentage that ultimately become major leaguers So this is more about them being the best people they can be and being the best versions of themselves So if baseball ends up not working out that they can take these lessons and take the fundamentals from the book or from what I'm saying or the things that I'm hopefully

stealing in them, that especially the books teaching them that they can take further on and use them throughout life and make sure that they're not going down the wrong path, that they're doing something productive and finding other things that they love to do so that they can again help society but first of all help themselves be happy because in turn if they help themselves be happy and positive then they're going to get more things done and in turn help society as a whole.

I like to think that, you know, I like to, I was actually a philosophy major in college. So it kind of worked out. And then as I've grown through my life, I've taken the principles that I've learned through the, you know, the old philosophers and the stoics and everyone like that, and kind of just seeing the things I've gone through and kind of things that have worked for me, but also things that society can take along with it and just trying to put it together and do what's, you know, just again, try to find what's, what's my calling and try what I can be best used for service.

Jeff Perro (23:23)
and

Okay. Yeah.

Jay "Smiley J" Jackson (23:53)
And you know, I'm hoping that one day what I'm teaching with the book and the book leads to me again expounding upon not just athletes but using this as a platform to go speak for and do motivational speaking for companies and CEOs and schools not just athletes but you know everyone around the world to help them understand and again to better society like ultimately for me I think baseball teaches a lot of good fundamentals of life to have a good foundation

Jeff Perro (24:09)
schools.

guys.

Jay "Smiley J" Jackson (24:23)
but I honestly think that like what I'm teaching in these principles can just vastly help just everyone be a little bit happier and a little bit more positive, which like I said again becomes a snowball for me to compound into other things and lead to other places and help you just you know live the best life that you can.

Jeff Perro (24:43)
Yeah, that's great. And you're teaching other people to do the same with that as well. If you can get in middle schools, that's exciting because, you know, kids nowadays pressure even athletes or non athletes, the pressure that kids have nowadays with the way the world's changed since I was in middle school and probably since you were in middle school too. ⁓ Kids have it tough nowadays.

And to have that pure perspective of looking at things as opposed to the peer pressure and the social media ⁓ influencer way of looking at things that would be beneficial to kids to grow up happy kids.

Jay "Smiley J" Jackson (25:18)
No, 100%. That's the goal is to get in middle school. And my actually sneak peek is I'm actually working on hopefully getting a couple versions of children's books as well so it can actually start earlier than that. So my goal is like again, again, start them as early as possible obviously, but understand that your reactions are the biggest part about it. And if you react in a positive way, even when negative things happen, that if you react in a positive way, like nine times out of 10, the long-term results end

being positive if you keep compounding those but if you start compounding negative things those compound a lot more quicker and quickly than positive things.

Jeff Perro (25:55)
Yeah, it takes one negative

thing to wipe out 10 positive things.

Jay "Smiley J" Jackson (25:59)
Exactly.

So you have to stay positive and that's kind of what I'm hoping that the book teaches people. Like I said, I want people to be able to read through the book once and then from then on be like, hey, you know what, like if something's going on with me or I feel off a little bit or if I feel happy a little bit, like is it because of the principles or is it because I found my own principles, but I can pull this book out and it's going to help me get through this time. Like rather it's rather I'm good or bad. You know what I mean? I just want it to be a book that can help at all times for everyone.

Jeff Perro (26:29)
I'm excited for you, but I'm also excited to have these books. So you got 9 Innings to Living your Best life. What's the best way for someone to purchase that book?

Jay "Smiley J" Jackson (26:38)
best ways on Amazon right now we actually have the ebook version and we have the paperback version now so you just go on Amazon and search Nine Innings to Living Your Best Life my book should pop up if any other by anybody else's book pops up I don't think it should but let's see let's see I have a copy right here so if the book doesn't look like this then that's not the book so make sure it's this book

Jeff Perro (26:54)
You're calling your lawyer.

Yes!

Jay "Smiley J" Jackson (27:04)
But ⁓ yeah, Amazon's the best way to do it right now.

Or if you're an athlete and you're listening to this or a parent of an athlete that you want your child to Join obviously the new company the S.M.I.L.E Zone You actually all the athletes and all the people that sign up all the kids that sign up You actually get a signed copy of the book along with a free month to a fitness app called Statellite

and it's actually a great app to have it literally tracks almost everything I use it myself and It just looks kind of like that and so it literally has every metric that you can have and so then you just click on add something and then you can add almost everything possible your speed power mobility endurance

Jeff Perro (27:42)
Okay, I see.

called Statellite

Jay "Smiley J" Jackson (27:51)
So every client, every athlete that joins our program for the Smile Zone, you get a signed copy of the book and you also get a free month to the Statellite So we're trying to make it also not just mental health, but also physical fitness health as well because they are athletes also. So we want to make sure athletes are definitely keeping track of their body and making sure that we're producing the best versions of the guys that we can possible.

Jeff Perro (28:21)
The S.M.I.L.E Zone is relatively new, That's recently launched?

Jay "Smiley J" Jackson (28:24)
We're, but.

When this actually airs, if it doesn't go live today, today's actually supposed to be the launch date. So the fact that I've had so many meetings today, I haven't been able to announce the launch yet. So we're probably gonna end up launching tomorrow. But the S.M.I.L.E Zone is definitely gonna be something I feel like is gonna be beneficial to a lot of younger athletes, especially if you have a tendency to overthink things. But also if you wanna be the best version of yourself or have a chance to have the mindset to be in the big leagues, all the coaches

Jeff Perro (28:34)
But

Jay "Smiley J" Jackson (28:55)
I have that are joining me with the S.M.I.L.E. Zone have all either played at least at AAA and 90 % of them have played in the MLB and overseas too. So we're we're working with great people you have a great mindset people to let let your athletes know how to make sure they're using themselves and their minds the best to get the best out of them. and be themselves the best that they can.

And the the whole curriculum that is with the S.M.I.L.E Zone is actually based off the book That's why you get a signed copy of the book. So the things that go with each week for you know the athlete because how it works is There's different tiers of subscriptions. It's the lowest tiers of starter subscription and it costs two hundred and twenty five dollars a month which is relatively cheap for what we're giving got a lot of people and You get your athlete gets one call each week and gets to tell that

tell his coach good, bad, or different how their week went. So if they had good games, bad games, or whatever, you talk about your week, they get to vent, and then the coach responds to them in, you know, however way the coach wants to. So it's very personalized, but each week has a theme that is based throughout the book. And so you get to learn, talk to your coach, get a mindset training, get a theme for the week to hopefully make you more successful to take into your next week to see how you react to that. And again, grow as a person and grow as a player.

Jeff Perro (30:19)
Okay, how you have that structure of the weekly lesson. What you saying? That's unique. So with ⁓ the S.M.I.L.E Zone, have, did I hear a hundred spots?

Jay "Smiley J" Jackson (30:21)
Thank

have 100 spots available right now because I don't want to overload our coaches because it is so personalized. There's only 100 spots available right now. think.

maybe by the time this releases, there might be less than 50. Right now we've had 25 to 27 kids sign up. And again, there's different tiers. There's a tier that's at $225. We have a tier at $350. We have a tier at $500. And then we have a tier at $750. And those are subscription tiers for months. And how it goes is a three month subscription, a six month subscription, or a 12 month subscription. And again, you get things for each week in the curriculum.

already built out for the kids for every week so there's going to be accountability for the coach and the client for each week to make sure that they're doing their jobs and make sure that the kids getting the best from us so that they can get the best out of themselves to go up again and be the best versions of themselves wherever they go.

And also one other thing is with the $500 plan and the $750 plan, you are able to send videos to your coach and your coach will break down your sequences and your mindset throughout the week from your video as well. But with their $750 membership plan, there will be a monthly team call that I'll lead or have a guest speaker with each month where we're going to have a different theme and different topic each month that I'll be going over or the or the leader of the group or the guest speaker will

Jeff Perro (31:26)
yeah.

Jay "Smiley J" Jackson (31:55)
going over each month and if you're not a member of the $750 a month membership it'll be an extra $50 just to join that call each month.

want to just hear a call and get a monthly lesson of a mindset thing, just a monthly mindset call. feel like some guys might just want to do that. Or if a kid wants to just have a one-off call with one of our coaches, I think we'll be able to accommodate that in some form or fashion. I think it might be.

not a crazy price because you I want to make this affordable for a lot of people. to make sure that we get a lot of people better again because the snowball starts where if we only get a hundred people and they change their mindsets to be more positive that hundred turns into 200, 200 turns into you know four, four turns into eight and keeps going and going and then again we have a more positive world and a positive space where everybody's doing what they love to do. You're making this world a better place.

Jeff Perro (32:54)
What's your target age range with this?

Jay "Smiley J" Jackson (32:56)
We're going from middle school and up. That's what we're looking for. ⁓ Especially, I think if you're going to be a pitcher for this,

I feel like guys are starting to throw and be pitchers at nine and under now, which I feel like is way too early. I wouldn't advise a pitcher nine and under to join this. But if you want to have an athlete join just to talk about a mindset at the age of, you know, nine or 10, I can see that we can accommodate that. But I'm aiming for more guys that won't have more opportunities or more advanced. So you're looking at older middle school guys, high school guys that want to take their game to the next level or that don't even want to take their game to the

level but just love the game of baseball and just want to learn more and see what how much they can get out of themselves.

Jeff Perro (33:42)
Buddy, I've done my homework on you and I kind of have no idea what to expect, but I feel like you're more...

better than I expected for lack of a better term. You've really got everything figured out very well. I'm excited for you and your everything you got going on. There's a family. I'm really excited about your autobiography, of course. One thing I'll pass over that I forgot to mention. You've already, even when you were active player, you had the podcast. You're on the Brushback podcast with Mr. Trayvon Robinson, who spent some time with the Mariners back a years ago. And he...

He'd be a senior year spreader at Howard as well, right? 2024 was his last year active?

Jay "Smiley J" Jackson (34:23)
Yeah, he's the hitting coach actually for the barnstormers up in Lancaster. So he's doing that too. So we're both coaching, we're actually, doing some more episodes with that. We actually had a change in our marketing team that we're actually trying to figure out and who we're going to go with next. But we're also working with a sports podcast network in the UK that we're going to be trying to actually create a new sports podcast with them hopefully.

actually asked us to do that. that's kind of something that's in the works that people can be looking out for too. So we've been, me and Trayvon have been a little busy too. So the brushback podcast is definitely on its way back in, but we wanted to make sure that we gave the people over in the UK something that they could be proud of too. So we've been taking some time to make sure that we can give them a product that we can be proud of. And again, we had some technical difficulties with the brushback, so that took a little break for a little bit, but that'll be coming back real soon too. We've got a lot to talk about on that for sure.

Jeff Perro (35:22)
With the UK

podcast, will we have access to it over here in the States?

Jay "Smiley J" Jackson (35:25)
Yes, we will. It'll be everywhere as well. It's gonna be fun. It's been fun. It's more of a...

It's a different perspective for me and him. It's more of a guide to baseball is what it's going to be. So it's another way again for us to provide a service for the younger generation and for different avenue of fans where, you know, they can learn baseball from us in a different facet, where it's going to be more simplified and family friendly. And it's just going to be, you know, us talking about, you know, the simpler things of baseball where the brush bag podcast is us getting more deep and analytical and, you know, giving our true thoughts.

This is one that we can just be as family friendly and help people understand the game of baseball as possible.

Jeff Perro (36:08)
The new thing is I got baseball 101 where brushback is baseball 404 or something level, 400 level baseball. Okay, I got you. Mr. Jay Jackson, that's all I've got for you. I appreciate all your time and I appreciate, man, you informing us and all the exciting things you got going on after baseball. Good luck with your first season as a pitching coach to the West Virginia Black Bears. And thank you for your time, my friend.

Jay "Smiley J" Jackson (36:14)
Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

No problem, thanks for having me JP, I'm glad we could do this man.

Jeff Perro (36:35)
Alright, I'm gonna hit the stop button.