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DeMartris Williams

@saxtheprotector

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DeMartris "Sax" Williams Sr.
Founder, Elite Tour Protection Academy
Author, Iron Sharpens Iron
Where Iron Sharpens Iron
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📕 IRON SHARPENS IRON
A Guide for the Touring Security Professional

🛡️ ELITE TOUR PROTECTION ACADEMY
The institution this industry has been waiting for.

Both arrive this year.

For more than a decade, I have worked tour security at the highest level of the music industry — from clubs to arenas to festivals. I have stood at the rail when crowds were one wrong move away from breaking. I have built advance plans in venues most people will never see. I have learned this profession the hard way.

This book teaches what I learned.
This academy trains the next generation.

If you are a young operator just starting out, this is for you.
If you are a veteran refining your craft, this is for you.
If you are a leader building something larger than yourself, this is for you.

🔗 Tap the link in my bio to join the Insider List. Founding members get:

• First access when the book launches
• First access to academy enrollment
• Founding member pricing (limited time)
• Direct emails from me — not marketing automation

Where iron sharpens iron — the work continues.

— DeMartris “Sax” Williams Sr.
Founder, Elite Tour Protection Academy
Author, Iron Sharpens Iron by @saxtheprotector

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2

4 months ago

50.

That’s my number today.

Half a century alive. Over a decade protecting some of the biggest names in music. Every mistake you can make in this profession — including one that left me sleeping in a vehicle for 3 months while the music world kept moving without me.

Today isn’t about looking back.

Today, I’m announcing what I’ve been quietly building.

📕 A book — Iron Sharpens Iron: A Guide for the Touring Security Professional. The first comprehensive guide to a profession that has long lived in the shadows. Written for the young operator just starting out, the veteran refining their craft, and the leader building something larger than themselves.

🛡️ An academy — Elite Tour Protection Academy (ETPA). The institution this industry has needed for decades. A training home for the next generation — from foundation to executive mastermind.

Both arrive later this year.

This is what I’ve been building. This is why I’ve been quieter. I wasn’t gone. I was working.

To every artist who trusted me. Every team I stood beside. Every family member who held it down at home. To my children — DJ, Shayla, Christian, Lyric, and Taj — this is for you.

Where iron sharpens iron — the work continues.

🔗 Tap the link in my bio to join the Insider List. Founding members get launch-week access and special pricing when the doors open.

— Sax
DeMartris “Sax” Williams Sr.
Founder, Elite Tour Protection Academy by @saxtheprotector

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44

4 months ago

50.

That's my number today.

Half a century alive. Over a decade protecting some of the biggest names in music. Every mistake you can make in this profession — including one that left me sleeping in a vehicle for 3 months while the music world kept moving without me.

Today isn't about looking back.

Today, I'm announcing what I've been quietly building.

📕 A book — Iron Sharpens Iron: A Guide for the Touring Security Professional. The first comprehensive guide to a profession that has long lived in the shadows. Written for the young operator just starting out, the veteran refining their craft, and the leader building something larger than themselves.

🛡️ An academy — Elite Tour Protection Academy (ETPA). The institution this industry has needed for decades. A training home for the next generation — from foundation to executive mastermind.

Both arrive later this year.

This is what I've been building. This is why I've been quieter. I wasn't gone. I was working.

To every artist who trusted me. Every team I stood beside. Every family member who held it down at home. To my children — DJ, Shayla, Christian, Lyric, and Taj — this is for you.

Where iron sharpens iron — the work continues.

🔗 Tap the link in my bio to join the Insider List. Founding members get launch-week access and special pricing when the doors open.

— Sax
DeMartris "Sax" Williams Sr.
Founder, Elite Tour Protection Academy by @saxtheprotector

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4 months ago

I want ALL of my followers to please join me in wishing my mother “Mama Ruth”, a Happy & Blessed 78th Birthday 🎂. MOM you mean SO MUCH to me and so many others . I CAN NOT WAIT to come home when I’m back in the country , to come and celebrate 🎉 you. I LOVE YOU VERY MUCH!!!!!!
DeMartris by @saxtheprotector

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15 days ago

HEART BROKEN!!!! 💔
RIP MY BROTHER !!!!!!🫡🫡🫡 by @saxtheprotector

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a month ago

Most people see tour security as a job.

The truth: it is an education.

Every venue, every crowd, every show on the road has taught me something that no classroom ever could.

Here are 4 of the most important lessons I have carried from a decade on tour — pulled straight from Iron Sharpens Iron, my book launching this year.

→ The advance is the work
→ The barricade tells the truth
→ Your mouth before your hands
→ When the show ends, the work is not done

These are not theories. These are the disciplines that separate professionals from amateurs in this industry.

If you work in this world — or care about anyone who does — these are the lessons I want every operator to know on day one.

Today is the LAST DAY of founding member pricing for the Insider List. After tonight, founding member access closes.

🔗 Iron Sharpens Iron and Elite Tour Protection Academy. Link in bio.

Where iron sharpens iron — the work continues.

— DeMartris “Sax” Williams Sr.
Founder, Elite Tour Protection Academy
Author, Iron Sharpens Iron by @saxtheprotector

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4 months ago

For more than a decade I have watched young operators enter this profession with no formal training, no manual, no mentor — and learn the work through mistakes that should not exist.

That ends now.

Today I am introducing Elite Tour Protection Academy.

ETPA is the institution this industry has needed for decades. Built for the operators who hold the line so the world can have the show. Designed by someone who has worked the rail at every level — from clubs to arenas to global tours.

Five tiers. Real curriculum. Real mentorship. Real standards.

This is not a certification mill. This is not a content library. This is the professional institution where the next generation of tour security operators will be built — and where the veterans already in the work will refine what they know.

📕 The book teaches the philosophy.
🛡️ The academy trains the practice.

Enrollment opens soon. Founding members get first access AND founding member pricing that will never be offered again after launch.

🔗 Insider List is open. Link in bio.

Where iron sharpens iron — the work continues.

— DeMartris “Sax” Williams Sr.
Founder, Elite Tour Protection Academy by @saxtheprotector

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4 months ago

Every show begins in a quiet room.

A desk. A list. A plan.

Hours before the doors open. Long before the lights drop. While the artist is still in the green room and the fans are still pulling into the parking lot — there is a room like this somewhere in every venue I work.

Laptops open. Documents printed. The Safe Room marked. The emergency contacts double-checked. Every detail of the night mapped before the first ticket gets scanned.

This is the part of tour security nobody photographs. Nobody talks about. Nobody gets the credit for.

This is where the night gets built.

Iron Sharpens Iron is the book that finally puts language to this craft. Elite Tour Protection Academy is the institution that will train the people who carry it forward.

🔗 Insider List is open. Founding members get first access. Link in bio.

Where iron sharpens iron — the work continues.

— Sax by @saxtheprotector

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4 months ago

This is the work most people never see.

The crowd is enjoying the show. The artist is in their flow. The world is in motion. And somewhere on stage, in the wing, on the rail — someone is watching the room.

Not because something is wrong. But because that is the work.

Reading. Anticipating. Holding the line so the moment can be magic for everyone else.

This is what 80,000 people don’t think about when they buy a ticket. This is what artists rely on without ever asking. This is what the next generation of operators needs to understand from day one.

Iron Sharpens Iron is the book that puts language to this craft for the first time. ETPA is the academy that will train the people who carry it forward.

The work behind the work continues.

🔗 Insider List is open. Founding members get first access. Link in bio.

— Sax by @saxtheprotector

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4 months ago

Most people think tour security is about physical strength.

It is not.

Your mouth is your most powerful weapon in this profession. The right words, said the right way, at the right moment, will resolve more situations than any amount of physical capability.

A confident voice. Clear instruction. The ability to read someone’s temperature before they boil over. The ability to de-escalate without anyone in the room knowing you were doing it.

I learned this when I was a Hostage Negotiator. I learned it again as a Corrections Counselor. And I have spent the last decade applying it in venues from Detroit to Berlin.

In Iron Sharpens Iron, I lay out the verbal frameworks I teach every operator I train. The phrases. The pacing. The tone. The body posture that makes those words land.

This is not theory. This is what actually works at the rail when an artist is on stage and a moment is about to break.

📕 The book teaches it.
🛡️ The academy trains it.

🔗 Insider List is open. Founding members get first access. Link in bio.

Where iron sharpens iron — the work continues.

— Sax by @saxtheprotector

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4 months ago

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4 months ago

Yesterday I announced the book and the academy.

Today I want to show you where the work to build them started.

This is the vehicle I lived in for three months.

Right after working the #1 R&B tour in the world, financial mistakes left me with nowhere to sleep. The man who had been protecting one of the biggest artists alive — no home to go to.

That moment changed everything.

The rebuild from that point became the foundation for everything I’m building now. The book teaches what I learned. The academy is what I wish someone had taught me back then.

Iron Sharpens Iron is not just a title. It’s the lesson of how I got back up.

If yesterday’s announcement caught your attention, this is the story behind it.

🔗 Insider List is still open — link in bio. Founding members get first access when the book launches and the academy enrolls.

Where iron sharpens iron — the work continues.

— Sax by @saxtheprotector

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4 months ago