We caught up with the brilliant and insightful James White a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, James thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?
The seeds were planted early on in middle school. I always had a passion for writing, storytelling and being able to convey my thoughts. It provided an uninterrupted outlet to get any ideas or things jumping around in my mind out on paper. That carried on through high school and was one of the catalyst for me changing my major in undergrad from criminal justice to mass communications and then media studies. My close friend, who I consider a brother, hosted a radio show at a college here in St.Louis and that was my introduction to online radio through that campus. Social media was just really taking off at the time, so we promoted us being on the show together on facebook and in real time it allowed people to comment on our page about what we were talking about on air. Fast forward to 2017, I thought i had was done with the creative path, at least in terms of doing things I was interested in. I had a blog/brand marketing platform I started with my close friends called Bachelors Brand that came and went. I wrote for another blog, I promoted college & night life events in St.Louis, graduated my undergrad program, and had started working on my masters. I had kind of resigned to the idea of just a 9-5 life and working on furthering my education. In the back of my mind though, I still wanted to create something on my own. I discovered podcasts working a desk job in 2016, and it became all I listened to for the most part at my desk. Once again, being able to get your thoughts out, unfiltered, uninterrupted was something a gravitated towards, and then to top it off, you could have banter back and forth with a guest and it would make for really good conversation. So, I had the idea that in order to scratch that itch, I would start my own podcast. It took some time to flesh it out. What I wanted it to be, format, etc. I thought podcasts typically had to be an hour in a half to two hours long, but then I discovered short form podcasts that were ten to fifteen minutes long and that was all the battery in my back I needed. I launched the Henny Nights Podcast in July 2017 and here we are 100 plus episodes later and still going.
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?
My Name is James White, also known as J-White for short. I am born, raised, and live here in St.Louis, MO. I always had the want to create and entertain, whether it be throwing parties during my senior year of high school leading into my freshman year, doing youtube skits. or doing campus radio with my friends. I created the Henny Nights Podcast and it started off with stories from my life, whether they were funny, informative, inspirational etc. and eventually, once I established a rhythm, I would bring other people on that I knew to have conversations. As long as I could be authentic and myself, I was fine with taking a risk and venturing out on my own. I wanted to create a platform where it felt like you were having a conversation with a close relative and specifically for black people, a space where we could show we aren’t monolithic. We come from all different walks of life. Stories may be similar, but still unique. It was super important to me, that we share our stories before someone else tries to share them on our behalf. I am most proud of just stepping out and building it from the ground up. I continue to want to do the show, and the people that support Henny Nights as a brand, makes it worth it the most. There is nothing better than getting a text or dm from someone and they say ” I really enjoyed the show” or “what you said really resonated with me” or even if they heard something they don’t agree with. If it made you feel anything, I’ve done my part.
Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?
Sometimes we wish it was as simple as just “put out the content.” Especially now with the pivot platforms like Instagram and Twitter has taken. There is a lot strategically that goes into putting out your content. You want people to see your content in real time, but Instagram wants you to create a reel about what you created so now there is an extra step you have to consider or you need to catch fire and go viral with a tweet in order to get your content/work out there. For me personally, I sometimes struggle with “is anyone even listening?” I clearly can look at the analytics and see people are listening, but then that can turn into the chase of wanting more people to listen or wanting more recognition and you can lose your “why” if you continue to chase that. Your work whether it be music, art, business, whatever it may be will find the people it needs to find. We all have self-doubt at various times and become self-conscious.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
There are times where the response I get to my episodes are great. When I see people out and they ask me about a topic that was discussed or a story that I told or one of my guests have told. It’s great to see the content resonate with people. The other side, which can be a downside, is that you can get entirely too invested in the number of downloads and listens that you have. I never started Henny Nights for the numbers or notoriety, but as a creative, there is a part of you that wants people to support what you have created. It can become easy to look around and wonder if you are doing enough or why the support has changed. What keeps my grounded is telling myself that if this particular episode changes one person’s perspective, then I’ve done what I needed to do. My success won’t look like someone else’s. I don’t know the trials and tribulations they have gone through to get where they are, and they don”t know mine. The why and the journey is the most important part and is key to growth.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/jwhitetheprez
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jwhitetheprez/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JWhiteThePrez
- Twitter: https://www.instagram.com/jwhitetheprez/?hl=en
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfeZbuwAFUG9B255lVwBoug