(soft gentle music) [Mike] For years, "What if..." has told you about lots of entrepreneurs who've created lots of cool things.

(audience cheers) DeWayne Taylor created himself.

Woo.

(laughs) Let's do this thing.

Hey, what's up?

I'm D-Wayne and I'm a vocal entrepreneur.

So what is the D-Wayne brand?

Ooh, the D-Wayne brand is vocal entrepreneurship.

And the focus being on forming a communicative asset, right?

I want companies or individuals to look at me and go, "Oh, I bet my message to my audience could go through easier if I had him."

I wanna know everything that you do as a business right now.

Just list it all.

So I'm a host/master of ceremonies, a public speaking coach.

I'm a radio host, TV host, freelance commercial host.

A voiceover artist, and...

Pretty sure I'm missing something.

That's when you know you're busy, when you can't list all the things you do, right?

Yeah.

Red 94.5 D-Wayne in the AM.

This past Friday.... [Mike] D-Wayne is a busy guy.

A few hours a day, he's on air at a local radio station.

Also, it's program director.

The rest of the time, he's doing a wide range of things for the business he's built for more than a decade.

As D-Wayne with a hyphen, by the way.

I decided to throw the hyphen in there because everyone had a performer name, and so I didn't wanna be like DJ Etch A Sketch or anything.

So I just decided to use my regular name, but make it easier to pronounce.

So when did this all start?

I would say this started in high school.

I was hosting pep rallies.

I was probably junior, like 11th grade, and I really saw that people were responding well.

And it wasn't...

I didn't felt good about being in front of an audience.

That wasn't my favorite part.

It was the fact that the audience responded.

(D-Wayne beatboxes) [Mike] Before that, there was beatboxing.

Something the high school freshman on the marching band drum line, with an ear for percussion and rhythm, discovered and fell in love with.

(D-Wayne beatboxes) When I first started, it was the thing.

I was D-Wayne beatbox.

(D-Wayne beatboxes) [Mike] What is beatboxing?

Beatboxing is the art of producing sounds.

Using your nasal cavities, your lips, your tongue, your teeth, your vocal cords.

It's anything in your body that you're doing to produce percussive sounds.

(D-Wayne beatboxes) So this may be a train wreck, but I want you to least give me a beatboxing 101 lesson.

Oh, easy.

Let's warm up first, right?

Yeah, do you start loosening -up your arms.

-Get big.

Yeah, get big.

The other thing is to start stretching these face muscles, right?

We only talk all day, and we rarely, yeah... -Do this too?

-Mm-hmm, yeah.

Go ahead and stretch 'em out.

Last one, lip trills, right?

So (blows raspberries).

(Mike laughs) -(Mike blows raspberries) -There you go, yeah.

(D-Wayne blows raspberries) Because your lips aren't used to doing wild things either.

So now with the warmups done, you're ready to be a master.

I want full control of what gets used outta this, by the way.

-Right now.

-(D-Wayne laughs) No.

You have three sounds.

-You have a kick drum.... -(kick drum beats) -A high hat... -(high hat pings) -And a snare drum.

-(snare drum beats) (Mike beatboxes) ♪ Got blood on your face, a big disgrace ♪ ♪ Waving your banner all over the place ♪ ♪ Mike will, Mike will rock you ♪ (Mike beatboxes) -That's it, Mike the beatboxer.

-All right, man.

There we go, music.

(D-Wayne beatboxes) [Mike] Back when he was just D-Wayne Beatbox, TEDx Lincoln invited him to talk about the evolution of the art form.

So emotion's actually a huge part of it.

And I'll actually want a little crowd interaction here.

[Mike] What happened afterwards was an a-ha moment for the entrepreneur.

-Thank you.

-(audience applauds) The emails I got said nothing about my noises.

"Great presentation."

"Would you mind coming and introducing blank, blank, blank, blank, blank."

I was like, "Whoa."

All those skills that I had built were the ones that got their attention.

Not me making all this noise, that was my a-ha.

Let lemme see your cha-cha.

(beatboxes) [Mike] He still beat boxes.

But after UNL's Engler Entrepreneurship Program helped him hone his plan, D-Wayne grew his business -Class of 2027!

-(audience cheers) Welcome to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

[Mike] His alma mater is a frequent client.

He's hosted a welcome event for new students several times.

How do you get ready for something like this?

Oh, I take my time and sit a lot in silence first, I really do.

I take my time in my car, listen to my music.

And then I turn it off and just try to focus on what I want the event to sound like and feel like.

[Mike] Script review, a little stretching, visualizing the outcome, kind of like a golfer.

Oh, and by the way, welcome to Nebraska.

[Mike] And a nebulizer delivering moisture directly to the folds of tissue in the voice box that create sound.

All part of his pre-game routine.

Right here at Nebraska.

The part that people see me for, that's probably the last 5 to 10% of what I have to do.

You got a little dash for cash action happening here.

I'm with my man, Jimmy.

Brother, you are tall.

Do you think people understand that this level of professionalism happens with what you do for a living?

(laughs) No way.

People definitely are like, "Do you just make that up?

Do you just come up with that on the spot?"

And sometimes I do and I have to, but no.

Make some noise for the UNL drum line.

[Mike] D-Wayne has been the face and voice for some memorable things during his career.

Big things like Husker basketball, and the College World Series.

Powerful things like an event helping vets transition to civilian life.

-But nothing like this.

-(fireworks pop and fans cheer) Fans, welcome to the gorgeous Memorial Stadium for volleyball games in Nebraska.

How are we feeling?

(fans cheer) And this one right here gives me goosebumps.

Nebraska is now a world record holder for attendance at a women's sporting event.

Go Big Red!

This is awesome, to feel the energy and know that everyone is happy.

Everyone's on the same page, and I just get to add to it and push it a little bit.

-(hands clap) -Yay.

[Mike] D-Wayne's had offers to take an easier road, a steady job doing similar work for someone else.

He's resisted that temptation.

This is my life's work.

I think over the past probably year and a half, I've made that realization, which, I've been doing it for a while.

So it's wild to think that being a master of ceremonies is actually my life's work.

And it feels like it.

(soft whimsical music)