Local Lake Wales Resident Uses Podcasts To Promote Positive Change Within Community
By Allison Williams
Photos provided by Frederick D Brinson Jr.
Frederick D Brinson Jr., local Lake Wales resident is young, but sure has lived a lot of life. He has been through a lot and his positivity and optimistic outlook on life contributes to all his successes. Currently engaged to his fiancé Parys Miller, the couple is raising four beautiful children together. Parys’ oldest child unfortunately passed away earlier this year from drowning. His late daughter, along with his three biological children and fiancé are his driving force in life. They inspire him the most.
Brinson Jr. graduated from Lake Wales High School in 2011. From the date of his graduation up to present day, Brinson Jr. has been on in incredible life journey. On his journey, he looks for happiness and the positives in every situation. His parents have taught him love, passion and what it means to be a hard worker and take care of your family.
“Seeing my mom still go hard for all six of her kids hurts me but makes me smile because I know her DNA runs through me,” Brinson Jr. says. “My mom shouldn’t have to work that hard. I love that woman so much, that’s my lifetime inspiration. Seeing my dad go so hard for his Photography business inspires me so much, he is the foundation of the Brinson name and I want to keep that going in my own way. I am just Frederick D. Brinson Jr. a great value version of the original “Frederick D. Brinson Sr. On my pursuit of happiness, I’ve discovered that the love of my family is the greatest love there is and seeing them happy fuels me.” Brinson Jr. speaks about his parents, children and fiancé.
Brinson Jr. currently runs a podcast. This platform lets him truly be himself.
“I started “The High 5ive” podcast because podcasting allows me to be myself without having to feel any pressure from the “world,” he says. “It allows me to “stay true” to myself, and that helps me to motivate others to stay true to themselves also. This podcast platform allows me to help promote change within our local communities all the way to our Federal governments. I want to do something I love outside of an athletic ability and talking is something I’m pretty good at.”
Brinson Jr. believes that the power of a “play button” allows him the opportunity to promote change and reach thousands of people in a matter of seconds.
“We have listeners from all over the world including 10 different countries like Spain, Portugal, Brazil and others,” he said. “I feel like the powerful stories and voices I bring to this podcast will change one life at a time. Changing one life at a time for myself and my team means after you listen to our podcast did you learn something, and would you listen again, and if the answer is “yes” then we are successful. Our listeners are our customers and we want to make sure we give them the best experience possible by using our energy to promote healthy energy to others.”
Brinson Jr. has learned growing up the importance of being oneself.
“I feel like we were all created equal UNIQUELY,” he said. “If each individual person on this earth is his/her own unique self on a day in day out basis this world would be a better place, but the oppression the human race faces on a “day in day out” basis can make that task seem near impossible.”
With the help of his fiancé Parys, sister Fredaysia and friends, Ricky Custodio and Smooth Jay, he is able to produce a positive, powerful and uplifting podcast to share with others. Brinson Jr. is currently working on his second season and this season is special to him. Brinson Jr. is a black man, and he has partnered with Taylor Sweet, a white woman. Sweet is a registered mental health counselor intern in the state of Florida and National Certified Counselor, with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from UCF. She also has her Master of Arts in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Rollins College, and she is a current PhD student in Counseling and Counselor Education at UF.
“We have always talked about doing a podcast together because she is a white woman who wants change just as much as myself and when you have two different races and genders who want the same thing opposite from their own race, this makes for great impact,” Brinson Jr. shared. “All the opinions and different stories from our podcast will give you a rollercoaster of emotions. To help push this podcast forward we need monthly subscribers. Monthly subscribers allow us to focus strictly on the podcast and invest in better equipment and produce better quality episodes so that our listeners experience “The High 5ive Podcast” in the best sound and video quality possible, and right now we are only working with an iPhone but we have made such an impact in a short amount of time, and we want to keep that momentum going but are going to need the help of our listeners and our local communities. With the help of both, change is inevitable.”
