Jim Profitt, founder and owner of PROFITT, started singing Southern Gospel in church at the tender young age of four, after his parents found out he had a natural ability and talent for singing. He started singing with his mom and dad as The Profitts when he was eight, and he described himself as having a high soprano voice reminiscent of Reba Rambo. He joined his grade school choir when he was ten, and learned how to read music from his choir teacher, Mrs. Connaroe. Before that, he learned how to read shaped notes from a teacher he knew only as Brother Sexton, who taught at the Stamps-Baxter School of Music. Brother Sexton was very ancient, Jim recalls, but he remembered Brother Sexton had such a passion for music and children! He would always start with a pitch pipe for the correct key. Jim cherishes these wonderful memories. He also states, “I had many music teachers and instructors along my path. Charles Wyrick, Gary Davis, Mrs. Connaroe, Brenda Huffines, Pauline Wright, Xen Stevens, Greg Kemplin, Roger & Jerry Stamper, Junis Stevens, Jonny, Geri and Ronnie Meadows, my dad, Warren Profitt and Brenda Bruck, but the one teacher I looked up to the most was Steve Hook. He taught me literally everything that my other teachers and instructors did not or could not teach.” Jim not only can sing, but he also plays a wide variety of instruments. When he was in the 5th grade, he started playing drums in his elementary school’s band. From there, he learned how to play the trombone, F-trigger and valve trombone, and baritone. Other instruments he learned to play was the tuba and sousaphone for his school’s marching band. Jim learned the bass guitar when he was twelve, learned the acoustic guitar at thirteen, started piano lessons at fourteen, and became the pianist of his Jr. church at fifteen. Joe Mullins (Joe Mullins and the Radio Ramblers) would accompany Jim on guitar during that time. Jim would later meet and marry Shirley Kay Banks, who then became Shirley Profitt. She could sing also, so she joined in and became the next member of The Profitts. Jim’s mom and dad, Warren and Betty Profitt, would come off the road, so Jim and Shirley carried on the family name and brought on different baritone singers, including Dwayne Clem, Jim Compton, and then Tony Bostic. While Tony was their baritone, they hired Brad Newell to play keys who instinctively knew how to segue between songs and even select the appropriate invitation song, without even Jim having to tell him what to play. Tony and Brad left for other endeavors after only a year of traveling, so Jim and Shirley restructured the group as a duet and carried on as if nothing ever happened. Jim became a full-time evangelist on January 1, 2001, and a year later, The Profitts became a full-time Southern Gospel group, relying completely on God to provide their income. Jim and Shirley sang for many years as a duet, meeting so many friends along the way as part of Chapel Valley and SonShine Promotions. One of those they met was Bryan Glenn, who would later become instrumental in Jim’s ministry. Shirley’s untimely passing in January, 2016 looked to be the end of Jim’s singing and preaching ministry, but God had other plans. He orchestrated Jim’s life in a way that allowed him to reconnect with Bryan shortly thereafter, and the path that God led Jim on since then is simply a miracle. He met and married Barbara Holley, now Barbara Profitt, and enjoys life with his two new children and a host of grandchildren in his home town of Middletown, OH. Jim reconnected with his schoolmate, Tina Lawson at Poasttown First Church of God, where he serves as worship pastor and music director. Tina sings on the praise team there, and that’s how PROFITT was founded; with an idea and a desire to sing and operate in the ministry once again. Jim considers himself a fortunate and blessed man, and is looking forward to what God has in store for PROFITT.