He learned to YoYo during pandemic. Now Lexington 7th grader is viral, TV ‘sensation.’
Last February just before the pandemic hit, Ron Mack bought his son Stoney, a Lexington seventh grader, a YoYo, thinking “it’d get lost under his bed after a couple of days.”
But Mack said Stoney, who attends Edythe J. Hayes Middle School, used his Covid-19 down time, with no school and no sports, to practice for hours at a time until “he got incredibly good with the YoYo real fast. “
Stoney, 13, has since crafted an image on Instagram where he has more than 90,000 followers and videos with over 1 million views. He has created his own business by leveraging, marketing and branding his YoYo skills, Ron Mack, a former University of Kentucky football player explained in a recent social media post.
When his videos went viral, Stoney was contacted by FOX network producers to be on a new show called Game of Talents, hosted by Wayne Brady. The network brought Stoney and family members to California in November.
The show aired Wednesday night in a segment where contestants earned money by correctly guessing, after getting hints from Ron and Stoney Mack, that Stoney was what Brady described as a “YoYo Sensation.”
At a watch party for the show his step-mother Carla Mack held for him at their home Wednesday night, Stoney said, he was “super grateful” that his family had been able to experience success with him.
“Knowing that I can put a smile on people’s faces ... just felt special to me,” said Stoney. “I just want it to give me a lot of opportunities while I’m still young.”
“We just thank God for giving Stoney his special talent and hopefully he’ll be able to use it to inspire others and show that you can do anything when you put your mind to it,” Carla Mack said.
On Instagram where he is known as “YoYo Mack, the CEO of YoYo,” Stoney gets paid for his video posts and he has sponsors, said Ron Mack.
Stoney has an online store to sell his “Yo-Yo” Mack signature YoYos. He earns 50 percent of net profits and has already sold out 4 times in three months.
Stoney also has an agreement to wear and promote a line of clothing. He gets a 20 percent commission from all sales linked to his store.
“Stoney has demonstrated excellent business acumen and great creativity of content with his video post. He’s also had immeasurable experiences for a 13 year old kid. I can only pray he will apply it to whatever endeavors that lie ahead for him,” Ron Mack said.
