We were lucky to catch up with Cervon Williams recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Cervon, thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?
I have a fear of failure. I know what it feels like when things are just not going your way and you feel down on your luck. When you get a taste of failure its like you never want to experience that feeling again. My idea of failure varied so much, even in the most minor sense. For example, I remember when I first heard 50cent’s song ‘window shopper’, I am singing along and I am like whoa I am a window shopper lol. I hated the feeling of going to the mall and picking a pair of shoes up and being like “ooh these are dope!” then having to put them back because I couldn’t afford them. Then I see a dude walking around with a fine woman wearing the kicks I wanted. I was like I’m going home! Lol. Of course that’s materialistic and young me, but it’s just a metaphor on how I feel about life. If I really go out here and be a go getter I can have everything I want plus more. I then will no longer be the “window shopper”. Of course I did not have any clue of how this guy I seen with the fine woman made his money but it did not matter. Most of my motivation stemmed from people telling me what I can’t do, the rejection, the doubters, and being told I can’t reach things that I knew were unattainable. It lit the fire in me to always never settle for mediocrity and always to be great at whatever it is I am doing. Now I have a great sneaker collection lol.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
My brand is myself to be totally honest. Everything I put out content wise is me being my true authentic self. I don’t take on a persona or character. When I conduct my interviews I do not rehearse, pre write interview questions, or do major prep. I just really engage in real natural conversations. I am a true conversationalist at heart. I call my show ‘The Livin Room’ because I literally created it in the living room of my home during the covid crisis in 2020. It later grew to me just wanting to have true authentic conversations like I would with a friend in my living room. I DJ and I host this show. I never wanted either to feel like a job. The great thing about it for me is I control when I want to put stuff out. I see the content of today and it’s really no formula to it. The internet is tough. Either it pops for you or it doesn’t. The cool thing is if it doesn’t work, you can be onto the next and just create and push until something pops. You can check out all of my latest content on my IG @Jashaad904 or directly via audio on Spotify for podcasters. Check out my podcast ‘The Livin Room’ on Spotify for Podcasters: https://anchor.fm/
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
1. Always believe in yourself 2. Never compromise who you are
3. Be different
I would tell anyone early in their journey to always bet on themselves, be different and authentic, if it doesn’t pop right away do not give up, and take the time to perfect your craft. For some it may be an overnight success thing and for others it comes a bit slower or not at all. You just have to believe in yourself and really put in the work. No shortcuts.
Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?
To be fully transparent my biggest challenge is growing the show. The podcast world is like the new mixtape, everybody has one. I have seen what will always grab people’s attention and those ways aren’t my aim or tactics I believe in. There is a lot of issues I face in the realm of what I do, such as Janky managers and PR people, lack of being able to locate contact info for talent, and it’s getting sort of hard to pitch to talent your show for an interview. One big reason is social media has became a numbers thing. Like say for example one of the first things they want to know is what is your follower count and if it’s not anything major they do not feel its worth speaking to you. In a sense I understand because I guess the person who is being interviewed has to benefit some how right? It’s like ” hmmm interview with this person who has 1500 followers or the person with 100k followers”. So yeah I get it. Another thing is more talent is taking the initiative on controlling their own narratives. Like why interview with someone who may not have the integrity and gives you potential issues to face when you can simply go on live and talk directly to your fan base and get your narrative of whatever across? So I understand it all. Its nothing major to harp on with getting over the hardship, I just have to keep going and sticking to my plan.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://anchor.fm/
livinroom - Instagram: @Jashaad904
- Facebook: http://facebook.com/
thelivinroompodcast
