Today we’d like to introduce you to THE TEXTUALLY ACTIVE.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
The Textually Active podcast actually started from another podcast. Back in 2017, E.A. Green was helping his friends Meezy, Nick, and Chris produce a podcast called “Probably Shouldn’t Be Drinking”(PSBD). The podcast was recorded weekly from Nick’s living room. Sometimes E.A. would bring Rezz (they were GF and BF at the time) to watch them record but she couldn’t stay away from the microphone. Eventually, they gave her a mic and she’d participate in some of the episodes.
E.A. finally got the idea to make a separate podcast for Rezz so she could stop intruding on the guy’s art, and because he noticed she had a passion for talking of course. He put Rezz and her good friend Simi on a podcast together and they named it Textually Active (TA). TA dropped their first episode in March of 2018 live from Simi’s kitchen (a very great episode btw, the women were good).
They eventually moved to Rezz and E.A.’s second bedroom to get them sound right. Textually Active was on a roll, and PSBD was doing a great job as well. They did a couple of cross-over episodes with Probably Shouldn’t Be Drinking and after Chris aka DJ Legend left PSBD to pursue his DJ’n career they all decided to combine shows. They kept the name “Textually Active”, although “Probably Shouldn’t be Textually Active” would’ve been a dope name.
Rezz, Meezy, Nick, and Simi were the face of Textually Active for about 8 months until Simi had to move for a huge advancement in her career. A few months later Nick brought a handsome baby boy into the world and he left to focus on family and building his legacy. During this shift E.A. Green stepped into entrepreneurship full time and created his Digital Marketing Agency, which focuses on content creation, live events, and brand recognition, he named it The Opin Media Agency.
These major shifts helped move Textually Active from the Green’s (E.A. and Rezz are now married) second bedroom and into a plush studio at the Opin Media Agency. It also left The Textually Active group with three members, Rezz, Meezy, and E.A. the producer.
Meezy, Rezz, and E.A. have been carrying on the vision of Textually Active continuing to bring challenging conversations about friendships, relationships, situationships, and all the -ships in between to the mic.
Cool Origin story right?
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It’s been a challenge between losing original members, keeping up with the trends in media, COVID-19 and still trying to be relevant. Not to mention the personal obstacles the team faces. Meezy and Rezz openly struggle to balance their mental health and use it to highlight the importance of self-care. Through all the hardships, the crew remains consistent and prides itself in being transparent with ‘The Grey Area’ (that’s their name for their listeners/viewers).
Losing members was hard because it caused a shift in the dynamic of the show. They no longer had those experiences to pull from or those voices to add a touch of humor/seriousness to the episodes. Eventually, Meezy and Rezz filled the void but it was hard going from four voices to two.
Being relevant in the culture is important because while creating your own lane you also have to be aware of what your competitors are doing. When we noticed people were adding captions to their video because people tend to view social media with their phone on silent that was a high shift we had to make. When people added visuals to their podcast that was something we had to learn how to do as well.
Funny Story:
In one of the earlier episodes when we were starting to add visuals Rezz had a braid fall-out mid-sentence, if you scroll down far enough on our Instagram page you can probably find the clip LOL.
Now we’ve got it mastered and we cater to the visual aspect of our show by dropping full episodes and facing the camera when we record.
Covid-19 was a struggle for the crew because it separated the crew and they had to record from remote locations. This impacted their chemistry and the flow of the show, Needless to say, they got through it.
Mental health is an ongoing thing but the crew does a great job vocalizing their struggles and they believe that’s why their audience relates to them so much. The Textually Active Group keeps it real. Things are always changing but TA is resilient and that is how they keep moving forward.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
We are proud of the progress we made from recording in a second bedroom to having a studio. From creating merch the hard way to being able to have options for our audience to buy. They set themselves apart from others by not being “too cool”. They don’t take themselves too seriously and they’re not afraid to stand apart from the crowd.
Back in 2019, we hosted an R&B party and promoted it by recreating videos from our favorite R&B artists. Meezy recreated Usher’s “You Don’t Have to Call” and Rezz recreated Ciara’s “Promise” and Mary J. Blige’s “Not Gon’ Cry” to name a few. (these videos are still up on IG if you want to see the creativity.) It was a huge success and the crew looks forward to doing more events to bring people together in the future.
They are proud of standing tall and their contribution to the culture in their city. They are looking forward to expanding to audiences outside of North Carolina.
Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
Winston-Salem is small and that’s cool because we know everyone and know all the cool places to go. It is beneficial because if we want to host an event or a pop-up shop we know who to talk to.
The downside of that is if you want to do something different or meet new people the options are limited. On the bright side, the city is growing and open to trying new things to bring people together.
Contact Info:
- Email: textuallyactivepod@gmail.com
- Website: https://thetextuallyactive.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetextuallyactive/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Textuallyactivepod/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/textuallyact
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCodEtTVMxTBykSLmzo5IopQ
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/textuallyactivepod
Image Credits
Opin Media Agency
