Meet Reggie Woodson

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Reggie Woodson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Reggie below.

Reggie , we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?

“Resilience” is so interesting, personally. I’ve always been fascinated with words. In high school we were getting our butts kicked by the visiting team, and at halftime my angered coach wrote “RESILIENCE” up on the board. He asked us if we knew what it meant. I’d never seen the word before. I’m guessing things didn’t improve in the second half. We likely lost, and I don’t recall how many points I had that game, but I was ecstatic personally because I had this new word – and the concept was highly important. Now, this story is an example of where I mine my resilience from. I am constantly reviewing and analyzing as much as I can in environment to determine whether it can power me onwards as my resilience. Resilience is our de facto gas tank on our journey through life.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I’m just a man who reached a point in life where I got the revelation the traditional milestones or events of adulthood wouldn’t apply to my existence. I would have to redefine what a fulfilled life would be for me – or sink into deep depression. Well I realized I always loved to write, communicate and analyze information. As a wannabe rapper for a few years, I also COULD speak. I wasn’t necessarily a speaker. In order to rebound from my major disappointment, I started writing on a daily fantasy sports website. I didn’t play fantasy sports, but an experience led me to ask the site owner if I could write about boxing on his site. The founder agreed and that led to covering boxing as a contributor to multiple sites, as well as vlogging and podcasting about boxing. I went on to cover boxing for six-plus years, in addition to reviewing music and film/TV on my YouTube channel Pay Me No Mind.

With me being more of a fan of radio (audio) I gradually shifted to podcasting more so than vlogging. PMNM moved away from boxing, and sports and entertainment became the featured topics. I ultimately became enamored with the idea to create a space where the popular examples of a Black man could be expanded on to show real life Black men weren’t too dissimilar from white, Asian, Latino and other men. It’s Always Personal was a spinoff podcast started while visiting Disney World with my wife and her family in the Fall of 2019. Initially IAP focused on guests and interviews with Black men doing various activities, but as guests became difficult to book I just started “speaking” my own mind on popular topics and headlines.

Currently I publish IAP episodes as often as possible, and I focus on a host of African American issues, as well as review projects aimed at “urban audiences.”

I’ll continue to release episodes of IAP mainly because my sharing my views and personal experiences are cathartic for me. In the meantime I’m also hoping to ultimately figure out a book idea as the one project to represent my whole mission to redefine a fulfilled life for me.

I’d love to boast of podcast listeners, YouTube subscribers, my following/community, or ramble off a number of collaborations I have in the works. However, brand growth in content is difficult, I believe I’m too down to earth for popularity, but I’m optimistic that my audience is out there.

I just need to create the right medium to truly breakthrough.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Three qualities would be my ability to listen well (to people, ideas or concepts), effective communication as a writer, and then it’s actually good to be a jack of all trades. Know a little something about a lot of areas of living, but be wise enough when a situation truly requires expertise.,

My best advice is to figure out how to constantly put yourself in positions where you’re not the smartest person in the room, commit to listening and always be learning. I think everyone has to learn what being “educated” means for them, and doing what it takes to become educated to use one’s gifts.

Lastly the earlier a person can figure out who they are, and what their gifts are they can start focusing their living towards the most beneficial path for them.

What is the number one obstacle or challenge you are currently facing and what are you doing to try to resolve or overcome this challenge?

I believe my biggest challenge is I live in a desert for the type of collaboration I really need. I also think I simply live in the wrong area for my vision and/or ideas.,

My networking, and now age, kind of work against what I would hope to be able to do. You reach a point in life, maybe late-20s to early-30s, where you run out of natural situations to meet people and cultivate new friendships.

This may sound weird or possibly like an excuse. However, I’ve long imagined all the content that I create as Robert Neville (Will Smith) in the movie I Am Legend on the deck of that ship broadcasting his message day after day in hopes of another human, or survivor, receiving the transmission.

The transmission is that there is someone else out there committed to creating engaging content while remaining a good person. Maybe it’s passive aggressive… but I exhausted my “travel budget” years ago!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/waterbed_reg?igsh=emFhbTducW1xbWw%3D&utm_source=qr
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/show/0BvqYW52YMLfBLTjhUR81D?si=XkP3uuiGRa68u8Nz02qE9A