Today we’d like to introduce you to John DeWorken
Hi John, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
My story is this: If I can succeed in having a fulfilled, joyful life, so can others. I was faced with so many obstacles in life as young person. Yet, I did succeed in having a fulfilled life when I started to finally believe in myself and with the help of so many people and God.
Since a young age, I have always wanted to serve in a public role. But, a dissenter and nonconformist by heart, and with a desire to seek adventure in my life, I wasn’t sure how that would work. Surprisingly, at 52 years old now, those seemingly contradictions actually work well and to my advantage.
A paperboy at the young age of 11 in the cold winters of the Mid-Atlantic, I grew to flipping burgers at McDonalds and cutting grass in my hometown church cemetery as a young teenager. In high school, I spent my summers building roofs and homes on mission projects and was a roadie for a band that played in NYC’s most exclusive venues, including the Plaza Hotel, Waldorf Historia, the UN and many rooftop verandas.
My high school business teacher once told me that if I could find a job where someone paid me to talk, I should immediately take it! Thankfully, that seemed to work out for me.
As I was earning my degrees at Clemson University, I cut my teeth on politics as a bartender at a blue-collar, small town bar in Anderson, South Carolina. Cold beer, cheap wine, and 25 cent wings were the mainstay on the menu for my local and mostly working class crowd. I did this while, as a Graduate Assistant, I taught English Literature to Clemson University Freshman. For my Masters Thesis, I wrote and published “William Blake, Radical Reactionary: A Critical Study of The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.”
After college, I entered politics. I served as a political campaign worker and Senate committee staffer for a conservative contrarian in the South Carolina State House. It was a great chance to see how his convicted approach can get things done for the better.
I then led the lobbying and media relations arm for a 2,000 member, $2M trade association. A decade later, in 2009, Sunnie Harmon, who became my wife, and I established LobbySC, a pro-business lobbying firm. I am humbled to say that we have an incredible client list.
As for public service, after serving in various roles in the Greenville, South Carolina, I was elected in 2019 and re-elected in 2023 to the Greenville City Council. While on Council, I have championed protecting neighborhoods while working to spur good economic investment. In 2023, I led the creation of the Greenville City Economic Development Corporation.
Today, I still look for the next adventure in life with my wife.
We love our Clemson Tigers and raising our three small children. And, we love to travel, where we’ve had great adventures. But the highlights of our travel is just simply being together as a family.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
As a result of my childhood, I had been an overachiever and thought I had to prove something to the world as a younger adult.
I won’t go into why, but my childhood was less than ideal and a real mixed bag of some fond memories, but mostly clouded with confusion and much sadness, which left me at a distinct disadvantage as a young person – grades suffered, as did my confidence and maturity.
Thankfully, I figured it out with help from many other wonderful people in my life. Fast forward to my young adult years, I was out to prove my worth.
Those feelings of insecurity and uncertainty have long since passed. My life is full now. I have a wife that I don’t deserve and small children, who are a true blessing. And, now, I get to parent the way children should be parented – discipline, structure, security and much love and joy.
I am blessed.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about LobbySC?
My wife, Sunnie, and I are founders and partners in LobbySC, a leading pro-business government relations firm in South Carolina. We represent companies, big and small, in front of the South Carolina Legislature and State Agencies, including the SC Department of Commerce and Governor’s Office.
LobbySC clients include international and U.S. based corporations, national and state trade associations, and manufacturers. With nearly 40 years of combined experience, their vast expertise includes business policy issues, tax policy, tax incentives and credits, labor issues, procurement, appropriations, and health care to name a few.
We are humbled to say that, 15 years after starting LobbySC, that we have a robust client list with household names.
Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
Statistically, I really should not have ended up where I am. As a young person, I lacked so many things necessary to succeed. And, as a result, I ended up at the bottom of my class and barely made it through the first three years of high school. I was immature and lacked confidence to take on even normal tasks and goals.
The difference maker is that I finally took the good parts of my parents, especially as I entered college, and put them to work. Mom could talk to anyone and Dad was excellent at business and problem solving. And, they both emphasized church.
Also, at church during high school, I latched on to a few men who taught me how to be more of a man. They provided me confidence and a foundation upon which to grow. Every summer, we would go on church mission projects where we did real work, not just some feel-good stuff. We worked our butts off for a week at a time. That’s where I learned how to hang dry-wall, build new roofs, hammer nails, trouble-shoot electrical issues, and accomplish great things for other people. It also is where I grew to believe in myself. It game me the confidence to know that one day I could be a great father, husband and servant.
After high school, I am blessed to have had a few mentors who believed in me when others were more deserving. I am lucky in that regard.
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