SDH 061: Let's Talk Change with Whitney Reynolds

As a young girl growing up in a small town in Oklahoma, Whitney Reynolds envisioned making a difference through her voice. Her journey to become a talk show host picked up in NY with a homemade talk show sign and an elevator rendezvous with a Good Morning America cameraman. She interned for Good Morning America after graduating from Baylor University and moved to Texas to work as a morning anchor for a local news station. On weekends she hosted her own online “Weekends With Whitney” talk show to stay relevant, and decided to skip the corporate news route and go her own way. Now, Whitney is the host of The Whitney Reynolds Show on PBS, as well as owns her own jewelry line called Accessory Mercado.

Topics To Talk About

-Why she decided to not go the corporate TV route

-How the name of the show was picked

-The most challenging part of her journey

-How she keeps clarity

-The story behind the affordable jewelry business she owns

-Who helps her say “yes” and “no”

-Who she watches for news and why

Impactful Quotes

“Sometimes when we hear inspiration we go right to thinking ‘oh religious’ or something like that. It really is tough topics that all of us face every day, or sometime around the year we will face some of these topics, but we always, even though we are doing tough interviews, and sometimes it’s really messy interviews we always deliver the light at the end of the tunnel, at the end of the show.”

“In the process we always have to adapt our plans..you have to always keep your eye on the prize and know where you are going towards.”

“It was always about just getting to the next spot, but being happy and that’s one thing that I really preach, because there are a lot of times in my life I wish I could go back to those moments.”

“I wish I could go back and tell young Whitney ‘settle down, it’s all going to work out’ You have this fire in you and you got to trust that fire will take you to where you are young and enjoy the ride along the way.”

“I got to a point, I don’t know when this happened and it could just be called growing up, where for a long time I felt like I had to be known, and I had to be out, and I had to be going, going, going, and now I am really at peace and comfortable with where I am at.”

“I am in a really happy spot in life, where I can walk into a room a not demand attention because I am comfortable with who I am as a person and a host. I feel like that could just be the recipe of getting older, or getting to a place where your career takes off and there is no need to announce where you are, because you know where you are at personally”

“I am my own worst enemy, because there is a constant want to be more and bigger. I think half of that is level setting of where you have been and where you are going, and understanding the stops along the way.”

“People that you align with, be very careful. It’s part of your brand and you have to trust that gut instinct.”

“What I would really encourage people to do, is to find what makes their soul sing...Level set what makes you happy. Sometimes we see what’s on social media or what’s in the news as what the world said is a ‘beautiful life’ I would challenge that.
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