“You Don’t Need to Be the Next Anybody — You Need to Be the First You”

When you abandon who you are to fit in, you are robbing the world of that originality that can only come from you. This is what you have to really get about who you are. In this short life that we are living, there are things that can only be said by you, in the way you express thoughts, feelings, and emotions. The way you think is original. You just don’t say it, because the Herd (This society) is afraid to stand out on its own merit. YOU MUST LOSE YOUR FEAR OF BEING JUDGED BY OTHERS.

This is why you can tell when people write and use Chat GPT to put together stories. It’s generic and uses a lot of phrases that you do not use. We just don’t trust ourselves—who we are in public. We just can’t face being judged. This is why people are into the copycat game.

In music, all the songs sound the same. Females are using the same riffs when they sing. Auto-Tune has made rappers sound the same. In radio, I have heard people say, “I want to be the Black Howard Stern,” as though we need a Black one. People say, “I want to be the next so-and-so.” No. You need to be the first you.

Things have gotten so generic in our society that it is exhausting. It’s like the mediocre people have taken over the planet. Some technology—the way we use it—has made us less innovative and less creative.

Tech is speed. You can get your original work out quicker to the masses. This is how it should be used.

There is only going to be one Tom Joyner for Black radio. That’s it. Tom did his job, and I hope he is not finished giving us his creativity. I know Tom has another lifetime of content on the digital side. You don’t need to be the next anybody. We have been programmed not to be original. It started in the ’70s with that stupid “more music, less talk” philosophy baked into Black radio. They took the soul of black radio off the radio. It was the beginning. Then consolidation finished us off in the 90's.  A slow death of original black radio.

Black radio created movements. Radio personalities could move people and empower the community. Each had a swag associated with their shows. Colorful commentary. Distinct-sounding voices. Now, in hip-hop radio, DJs talk with the same vernacular and distinction is thrown out the window.

We need to encourage originality again. We need DJs who believe in themselves and are seeking to be great. They need mentors to encourage them to be their original selves.

I remember early in my college days I would mimic radio personalities from all over the country. My goal was to be a big-city DJ, so I thought I had to sound like the people working in New York to get there. It was exhausting, for one (lol), but it did help me with my diction. I’m from Goldsboro, NC, the grandson of a tobacco sharecropper. So I knew I had to get rid of those “dees,” “dems,” and “fintoo” out of my vocabulary. LOL. I was very conscious of learning how to speak well in college at Shaw University in Raleigh, NC.

What will make you better as a radio personality is someone who can help you lean into your natural gift for communicating. I want you to try writing as an exercise to find your voice. Nobody knows where their next thought is coming from. Try it right now. Can you determine what you will think about in the next five minutes? Thoughts travel through you at 24 billion miles per second. How many can you capture that are just for you in this moment?

Real thinking is done in silence. Turn off the noise and get acquainted with yourself. Get to know yourself. There is too much influence coming into your mind every day to know which thoughts are yours and which belong to somebody else. Too much outside stimulation. Get quiet and think. Every day before your show—think.

This is your secret weapon living in a world like this. And guess what? It’s going to get even noisier in 2026. The future belongs to people who can get control of their thinking in silence. This is where originality is born.

When you are riding in the car, turn off the radio. Hear yourself think. Always keep a clipboard in your car to jot down ideas.

The world needs what you have to say. So if you don’t say it, who will say it like you can say it? We want to hear what you have to say. DID YOU HEAR ME?  What did your thinking produce for us to consider? YOU YOU YOU!! You are so smart and don’t even know it. You think other people are smarter than you because they know how to talk that BS. These are the people who sound smart to DUMB PEOPLE.

So don’t be a fraud. Be you. This is your unfair advantage in a room of copycats. A room full of people who talk with no substance. Don’t be one of them. Resist being lazy and looking for the easy way out. There is no replacement for show prep—but also in show prep, are you prepped  to be the real you?

So here are some things I want you to work on in your personal development this week:

1. Find time to be alone every day with a blank piece of paper.
Develop a writing routine. Write how you feel about things. What’s going on in your life. What thoughts you’re considering. Writing helps you form an opinion. You are organizing your mind. It will help you articulate your ideas better. Your mind will recall what you wrote earlier in the day, and you’ll begin to use your ORIGINAL thoughts in conversation. This will happen naturally. This will transfer on air. This is how you fix your articulation problem. Write. Write. Write.

2. Read. Read. Read.
Reading changes your perspective. Reading other people’s ideas is cool. You can take an idea, run it through Chat GPT, and pick out what resonates with you.

3. Practice. Practice. Practice.
I don’t know why radio people don’t think they need to practice and rehearse off-air to get better. Football teams and basketball teams practice. So why would a person who talks for a living not need to get better at their talk game? Talking is a skill that most people don’t do well. Practicing will set you apart from the mediocre radio people in this country. Most people have never been taught that communication is a highly specialized skill. To be excellent on the air is not for lazy people.

Humility will make you great. We all need to get better every day.

If you resonate with anything I said, leave a comment. Can you think of some things I may have left out?