Armed with both a passion for singing and all things creative, and the spirit of servant leadership, Robbins, IL native, Jeremy “Vessel” Holmes, has found a way to fuse his musical background with marketing. And what started as what some might call a hobby, quickly turned into a career path for Jeremy that would take him from behind the microphone, to a seat at the table that he would build, which he hopes will, in turn, create a long-lasting legacy.
Racquel Coral (RC): Nice to meet you, Jeremy. I was doing some research and saw that you are a recording artist in addition to a marketing consultant. How long have you been singing?
Jeremy Holmes (JH): I have been singing my whole life. I grew up in the church, so everyone in my family has participated in the choir or some form of singing at that level. And in eighth grade, I started writing. It started as poetry, and that turned into rapping. So I was the first in my family that took it outside of the church. That then evolved into a passion in high school that made me want to pursue it as an option even more. Without having any guidance, resources, or direction in terms of how to make it a livelihood, it was just something that I loved to do. Something that started recreationally that turned into more of a how can I make this thing that I like more prevalent in my life.
RC: I also saw that you go by the name, “Vessel,” where did that name come from?
JH: The easiest way I can describe it is, as I was writing one day in California, during my college years, I was traveling every weekend, as one of the musical hosts for a television show in San Jose. It was MC Hammer’s show, Hammer and Friends, and while writing during some downtime, I heard the word “vessel.” And I knew it had nothing to do with the song, but my gut told me that I needed to look into it more. So as I kept writing the song, I went back to the word and had an epiphany that, that was my stage name. No one suggested the word; it was just internal reasoning. And as I looked at the word and analyzed what it meant, and where I was in my life, and what I was doing, it felt like a perfect fit to describe what my mission was in life.
RC: Now I heard you say that you spent some time in California, where did the California connection come from?
JH: I’m from Robbins, IL, born and raised on the South Side. The California connection came because I was in college, and the campus barber met a music professional in church, who represented MC Hammer’s company. He was looking for a barber that could cut his hair, so this guy who went to my school said that he knew somebody from my campus. So that introduction turned into an opportunity for me to showcase what I could do musically.
RC: Okay, so let’s switch gears for a second. Let’s talk about your marketing career.
JH: As of January 1, 2020, I embarked on a journey to launch my agency called Agency 1204. Agency 1204 is something that I have been planning for a while. As a creative, I have so many things that I want to do and build-out and leave as my legacy and knew that I wouldn’t be able to do all of that under the umbrella of Global 360 Marketing. So I knew that Agency 1204 was something that I needed to launch. I have many things that will be coming out this year, such as my book, my album, and then just the philosophy of how I see the world from a marketing lense. So I needed my platform in a way that reflects my filter. The name Agency 1204 is reflective of my birthday, so it is a constant reminder for me to commit to the things that I was born to do.
RC: Has marketing always been a passion of yours? And if not, how did you manage to segue into a marketing career?
JH: Marketing per se has not always been a passion, music, and all things creative have always been a passion. And since I was a kid, I have been trying to figure out how to infuse this passion, this love for writing, this love for music into a career, and didn’t know-how. And so I stumbled upon that in 2002, 2003, when I got up close and personal with jingles and how the world of music is used in corporate spaces. I had no clue that companies put that much money aside to narrate their brand, products, and services using music, creative writing, and visuals. All of which were things that I loved, and I was told that you couldn’t cultivate them into a career. And it wasn’t until then when I came face to face with some opportunities that showed me that it was much bigger than a hobby. It was more about who you know and how to leverage that opportunity. In 2010, my company landed a national campaign with Chrysler Jeep, and we did the marketing for their radio and TV ads, and it was there that I saw multiple six figures for something that I was told was nothing but a hobby.
RC: I know that you said under Agency 1204, you have your book and album coming, what else can we expect? Any projects, collaborations? What are you working on, and who are you working with?
JH: One of my main focuses is to collaborate and support brands, products, and services that I stand wholeheartedly behind. One of my clients out of Atlanta called 7 Mindsets, called me at the end of last year to help them develop the content for how they market themselves in the public space. They are an educational tool that helps to promote social-emotional learning throughout schools. By social-emotional learning being such a buzzword heard throughout schools across the country, this company is at the forefront. With me being able to utilize my creative writing, along with the audio and visual design aspects of creativity, is like a kid in a candy store for me to be able to create for a company whose products and services are so in line with my shared values in terms of my own philanthropy and wanting to give back to my community. That’s just one of the major niches that my agency is going to target, the education space. Sports and entertainment are also other niches because those two arenas were so important in my upbringing.
I want to make sure that I lend my resources from the agency to those different sectors. I want to utilize the tool to do more good. In my outreach efforts, I have a program that I’m relaunching nationally in the next couple of months called SPARK (Success is Perpetual when Apathy Rivals Knowledge). There I target Boys and Girls Clubs across the country and attach the programming of a music workshop and a basketball or some type of sports clinic with some of the celebrity entertainers and athletes that I know. The main objective of the program will be to instill the importance of self-reflection, self-esteem, and introspection within the youth.
RC: So who inspires you, and how do you, in turn, inspire others?
JH: First and foremost, it would be my parents. They have been selfless examples in my entire life. They took on roles outside of the house to service the community in whatever way they knew that they were qualified. And I have watched people my age, older than me, and younger than me, adopt them as their parents. That changed my view of what is expected of me.
RC: It sounds like you go that spirit of being a vessel from watching your parents be vessels to others.
JH: Absolutely. The more out of reach examples though would be Malcolm X, Dr. King, the Freedom Fighters, those who stood for speaking truth to power. James Baldwin, as an activist who used his experiences and as a creative to write is essential. Being able to use the pen as a sword.
RC: And then how do you inspire others? Or how do you hope to inspire others?
JH: The most significant way to truly inspire is to be an example. It’s effortless to inspire from a distance, but for me, I use the measuring stick of how I inspire those closest to me who know me the best—my wife of 17 years, my kids, my family. If I can inspire them by my example, then that’s the biggest testament of how real I am in terms of what I’m representing. It’s easy to impress those you barely know, but if you can sustain a level of respect and admiration from people who see the good, the bad, and the ugly, then I believe that’s more impressive.
RC: And then the last question, what does the future hold for you, and how do you want to be remembered?
JH: I think the future is blindingly bright. And I feel that because today I am in more alignment with the things that I know I was born to do. Just because of time and experience allows me to use my life as a test subject and see what works versus what doesn’t and make adjustments accordingly. I’m more locked into who I am and why I’m here. And I would like to be remembered as a leader. Someone who knows how to stand up and be the voice, be the example and be the leading role or the guy who knows how to set up the person who needs to be the voice. That’s where the servant piece comes from. Servant leadership is something that the people who I aspire to be like, were masters of. They committed their lives to it, and something is compelling about it. Knowing how to serve and knowing how to lead shows a level of maturity, sensitivity, and empathy for whatever the situation is. So if people saw or felt that from my presence, then that would be the most rewarding to me.
For more information on Jeremy, visit https://agency1204.com/ and https://iamvessel.com/.
Racquel Coral, Contributing Writer
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