Name: Willie Jackson

Title: Founder / Publisher of Abernathy Magazine (online magazine for Black men)

Contact: WillieJackson.com | AbernathyMagazine.com

Company: Abernathy Magazine

What They Do: secures sponsorship and writers for magazine

Originally From: Jacksonville, Florida

College: Florida State University

Field of Study: Information Technology

Recommended Books: 

Listen in to the interview:

A Few Notes From the Show: 

  • Recently launched an online magazine for Black men called Abernathy Magazine.
  • Creating high level content for an overlooked and underserved demographic.
  • Leveraging corporate sponsorship as a way to generate revenue for the magazine
  • Spends time securing sponsors.
  • Amazing that nothing like this already exist for Black men.
  • There will always be a demand for Technology Skills and Jobs.  Was fortunate to have an IT degree as the market fluctuated.
  • Never in a million years did he think he would be a magazine publisher.
  • Didn’t quit his job to do the same old thing; quit his job to go on adventures.
  • Moved to NYC to join the Domino project with Seth Godin and made books for 6 months.
  • Working on the Domino project really showed him what was possible. It challenged many of his assumptions.
  • Talks about Mike Brown’s killing being a turning point for him.
  • One thing that was obvious was, when you turn on the news you see People of color, especially Black males, have no control over how they are represented in the media.  The archetypes that are reinforced about our humanity are those of Lebron James, Pharell and Mike Brown.
  •  Reached out to his advisor and asked if he had any work that could use his expertise so he would have space to work on his magazine.
  • Felt like he was leaving his shadow career and walking into his purpose when he started Abernathy magazine.
  • How do you create the space to do what you want to do.
  • When asked what advice would you give to someone who wants to do what you do?, “Do something else, I don’t want any competition.” LOL
  • Looking to make something happen?  Get moving.
  • Talks about being honest with yourself about when actually doing the work and when he is hiding.
  • Reading books, picking people’s brains and kicking around ideas is not the work. you’re hiding.
  • You know that dream you have?  Why can’t you do it tomorrow?
  • It’s amazing to see how much we can get done when we stop being fearful and hiding behind things.
  • The work of not hiding; of doing the work is never done.
  • You can spend a whole lot of time believing the false narrative you have told yourself.
  • Don’t fool yourself, get on with it.
  • All the work is internal.
  • You can run into a whole bunch of stuff that is completely legitimate but totally irrelevant in the context of chasing after your dream.
  • He is not going to let you off the hook by providing you tactics. What worked for him isn’t necessarily going to work for you.
  • Move aggressively towards your goals.
  • He is not the person to call if you are looking to hide.  He will call you out and make sure you never want to talk to him again because you never want to feel like that again.
  • When people aren’t hiding and are truly unlocked and unleash their passion with the world; they change the world.  That’s just how it works.
  • Love how he give a list of recommended books and finishes with, “if you read those books and you are not changed; you are probably dead.”

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