ORLANDO, Fla. – It has become a recurring theme here on the show that we often meet former professional athletes who have since transferred their knowledge of teamwork, strategy and incremental improvement to the field of community improvement.
Today is no different, because we meet a man who went from pro baseball player to pioneer in the personal development of others.
This week on Black Men Sundays host Corie Murray interviews JonPaul Reed, the founder of Pure Momentum LLC.a company with a stated mission to specialize in helping student athletes reach their full potential and gain exposure in their areas of interest.
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“Pure Momentum is an organization dedicated to developing and promoting student athletes. So it’s part development, part exposure, part mentoring, part recruitment services,” Reed said. “Imagine a parent who has a child who has a talent for the sport but is unsure of which path to take and not sure what to do. Then I’ll tell you who to listen to. So we sort of come in and help them deal with some of these situations, because it’s a journey, you know what I mean? Taking a child from start to finish is a marathon and you need the right people by your side to make sure you take the right steps and also to offer that tough love in certain situations.”
Reed graduated from Florida A&M University after graduating high school as a four-sport player and later played professional baseball in the American Association and the Pecos League. He said it was at FAMU where he developed much of the leadership and entrepreneurial skills he still has in his repertoire.
“It was about a lot of team building, a lot of leadership and qualities that I wanted and that I’ve seen a lot of athletes with. Quarterbacks are leaders of men. As a point guard, you have to be the guy who understands the information and can somehow orchestrate the team on the pitch; As a pitcher, you were the one who had the ball first, and everyone had to take their cue in some way or else nothing could happen. So I liked the limelight, but I also wanted to have the qualities that kind of come with fame, you know what I mean? It was always clear to me that in the environment I grew up in, I didn’t want that to be my end goal. I wanted to push myself beyond my current level and knew I needed certain skills, so sport was probably the easiest way to get me the skills I needed to impress people and create opportunities on the side,” he said reed
In his current roles as a motivational speaker, life coach, and community leader, as well as a husband and father of two, Reed says he has had a significant impact on the lives of countless people.
“I’m someone who believes that if you’re doing something you’re passionate about, it’s not real work. So I knew I had to develop something that could help other people. When I got out of pro ball, I didn’t know what I wanted to do, so I started coaching kids,” Reed said. “I used to play before and then I had a car accident, and then the car accident kind of made me take a break. I didn’t know if I was done or not, but once you get to a certain point it’s expensive to go to these camps and tryouts, so I thought, ‘okay, let me go ahead and start making some money, while I…” “do that” (…) this is pure swing training, isn’t it? So what we initially created is a platform for student athletes to, on the one hand, develop their skills and then bring them to the market and so we try to facilitate that from start to finish with the kids and families that are part of our organization.”
Hear the full interview and more here Season 2, Episode 32 of “Black Men Sundays”.
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