We recently connected with Jamil Douglas and have shared our conversation below.
Jamil , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?
After my 7 year NFL career ended unexpectedly due to a neck injury, I was in a position of transitioning from the game before I was ready. I was nervous about who I was without the game of football. I had dedicated everything within myself to becoming a professional athlete. In the process of becoming that, I realized I had lost my passion for everything else outside of football. I was full of depression, anxiety, and just not feeling like I was enough. I began therapy, I started trying things that challenged my mind, I started diving into mindfulness meditation, breath-work, all things that I had never tapped into before. Slowly I began learning who I was again.Slowly my mind began to feel less heavy. Out of the years of work I spent finding myself, For The Underdogs podcast was birthed. For the Underdogs is a destination for anyone that has ever felt defeated and had to claw themselves out of hard situations. It’s a place where I normalize people going through these experiences but also grow and learn from them.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
My name is Jamil Douglas. I am a retired professional athlete turned entrepreneur/podcaster. I played 7 years in the NFL. I was fortunate enough to win a Super Bowl with the New England Patriots, play in an AFC championship game, and be a part of some really special moments. That being said, when my career was cut short, none of those things fulfilled me. I was empty from a standpoint of fulfillment. I had made the mistake of allowing the game of football to validate who I was as a person.
I use my experiences from life as well as my journey through my professional career to help others understand that the things we go through to get to where we want to go in life are normal. My platform offers listeners full transparency into the vulnerability of myself as well as my guests. I truly believe that For The Underdogs is different from any other podcast/platform. As men in our culture, we don’t have enough of us that are willing to speak on topics that force us to be vulnerable. Topics that allow us to be real. What I am most proud of is that, in a short period of time, this platform has been impactful to so many people. I think when people press play they are expecting sports talk or something of that nature. To their surprise they get a real conversation that resonates and helps them through their own journey. I’m most proud of the way people have reached out and told me how much they needed to hear this conversation.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
Believing that I would have an audience was one of the biggest challenges. I went back and forth for months trying to talk myself in and out of that belief pattern. I think the biggest thing that helped me was knowing that so many people are or were in the same position of starting something, and they let the fear of rejection win. They never started that certain thing because they didn’t think people would listen, or consume their idea. My thought process was, let me start with the people I know will support me. From there, I truly believe in my message and somebody out there needs it. It’s for them. I understand that not everyone will take to it, but the ones that do, I am appreciative of. I’m for a specific crowd.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
The goal is to normalize that we all have underdog stories. Too many times we hear the success story, we see the end result. What about the journey in between? Tell me the emotions you experienced on this path, tell me how you almost wanted to give up but something happened that propelled you past that. That’s the story I want to hear because that’s what the reality is. That’s how I can relate. I need to hear the roller coaster experience so that I can affirm that it’s always a part of the process.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://ForTheUnderdogsPodcast.com
- Instagram: @Jamil
- Twitter: @JamilDouglas_
- Youtube: @fortheunderdogspodcast
