We were lucky to catch up with Eric Bradley recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Eric, thanks for joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

All my poems are meaningful to me. These last two books I’ve written, are the most well thought out an therapeutic poems put together. First book titled “Becoming Of Age” I asked a question, its gear towards the fellas because we mature later on in life in certain areas. The question was when did you feel like you’ve became mature? This question I even asked myself, there were times I was immature in my decision making. It is also thought provoking, it really has a person check themselves an many different ways. My poems reflect on different situations in my life i had to grow from. A timeless question, timeless answers the fellas gave and timeless poetry throughout the book. That’s why it’s so meaningful to me. Second book, titled “Not Every Black Woman Has An Attitude”. This was similar to the first book I mention, but slightly different. I had several different questions throughout this book these women answered in my book. I hold this one dear to my heart because my poetry is therapeutic an encouraging at the same time. My perspective from a kid to a grown man an what I seen my mother went through an how other black women are currently going through. With several questions I’ve asks throughout my book, one stands out the most. I ask why do people believe black women aren’t submissive to their husband’s? Reason being that one sticks out, unfortunately most black men had negative feedback on them when i was growing up. Some examples were, they talk back to much or they don’t listen. Reasons why those black men married outside there race, which is cool. That didn’t bother me at all, but intrigued me because I’ve seem white or Hispanic men marry black women and everything was all good. I realized now as a grown man, those guys back then should had spoken on just there situation. Instead of blaming all for one’s bad attitude. The women who answered all those different questions in my book an with the perspective/encouraging/therapeutic poems to go with it, can help us all. This why it’s meaningful to me. Both of these books are on Amazon.com

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?

I’m a spiritual guy, love God. I’m also transparent, meaning I can talk about my faults an how I improved on them or going to improve on them. Loving guy, caring guy. I work in mental health, psych ward. I am a substance abuse counselor as well. I love helping people mentally conquering there goals an and see people go from caterpillar to a butterfly. I’m vice president for the DC Watson Foundation non-profit organization, which we help people an specialized in computers, either given them out or fixing them. We just done a back to school give away, working on Thanksgiving and Christmas events for the youth. I also invested in a brand called Earth house Juices. It’s a company with freshly made different healthy drinks for everyone. For both organizations if your in the area of fayetteville nc, come check us out. Website for both are: https://www.dcwatsonfoundation.org/ https://www.earthhousejuices.com/

How I gotten into poetry, I didn’t know how to express myself to people if something bothered me etc. Music an English class help me make things make sense. For example music is something that made you feel, English class help me tell the reader where I’m going in the poem an how to use a double entendre or similes and metaphors in my poems. Learning how to make books instead just writing poems was special, it grew more an more on me when people would read some of my poems on social media an it reflects on what they were going through. The passion to make my poems a conversation starter became more important to me. Especially in a therapeutic way. I believe what set me from others is, I want every one around me to succeed in there personal goals. Listening to a person’s point of view before giving out constructive criticism.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

I believe the most effective strategy for growing your clientele, it has to turn into your lifestyle. What I mean is, my caring, loving God, especially thinking outside the box. Being therapeutic, it’s all a lifestyle change for me. Living in my truth, so at any given moment when someone ask about my books, it’s not a script I’d remembered. It flows out easy for me. Most importantly the respect I’ve seen when people see I really do this poetry thing an write how I live and on the creative side of things is real life situations. Turn your business into a lifestyle.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

A lesson I’ve had to unlearn was to stop assuming! It sounds cliche, but it’s true. I assume most people were in the same position as me in life an had the same mindset as me. One of my friends which was like a brother to me(r.i.p) big bro chris Mitchell. One day we was helping a friend of ours put down grass in his backyard but before we started that, I said, “chris don’t you want to put on your old shoes so you won’t mess up your nice shoes now”? Now I promise I wasn’t trying to make fun of big bro or degrade him in front of everybody, I felt like I was looking out and I definitely assumed. Big bro nicely said “well bro-ham, not everyone has two or more shoes to specify which one I can work in or play ball in”. That was big to me because it taught me not assume what people have. He also reminded me of his situation on even why he wore those shoes in the first place to help put down grass. Which also help me listen before speaking. Realizing assume can get you in big trouble in anything, assuming I believe it’s a natural trait comes when sometimes your assumption is right in a particular thing. That’s something I had to unlearn in my behavior..

Contact Info:

• Instagram: B.eric88
• Facebook: Eric Bradley
• Linkedin: Eric Bradley

Image Credits
Credit photos. Myself Eric Bradley. Chevonne Watson.