The Personal Brand You Carry: Legacy, Leadership, and Letters with Walter Pryor

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Description

Think about the lessons that shaped you early, the voices that influenced how you see the world, and what it would mean to have those reflections preserved over time.

Walter Pryor brings warmth, humor, and thoughtful vulnerability to every interaction. A public service leader, corporate executive, community advocate, and author of This Leaves Me Okay, his career reflects not just professional milestones, but a lineage shaped by nearly 30 years of handwritten letters from his grandmother, Mama Ceal, written with care, consistency, and intention.

In this episode of Branding Room Only, Paula sits down with Walter to explore resilience, legacy, and the role personal relationships play in building a grounded, accessible personal brand. Along the way, the conversation surfaces lessons on leadership, parenting, partnership, and what it means to honor those who came before us while being intentional about what we leave behind. This episode is both a reflection on authenticity, mission, courage, and connection, and an invitation to consider how your past quietly shapes how you lead and show up for others today.

Chapters

1:12 – How Walter defines personal brand, how he’d describe himself, his chosen quotes that offer grounding and guidance, and the song that makes him move

6:04 – How small-town Arkansas shaped Walter’s worldview and gave him both humility and ambition

9:09 – A pivotal family loss that redirected Walter’s educational path 

10:52 – The non-linear evolution from Biglaw to government, Capitol Hill, and corporate leadership

14:44 – How Southern Bancorp’s mission felt like a full-circle homecoming that ties into Walter’s brand

17:10 – How personal relationships can influence your leadership 

20:54 – What parenting young adults teaches you about mentoring as a leader

23:34 – The spark that led to Walter’s memoir (and the decades of handwritten letters at its heart)

27:14 – Lessons about connection, influence, and resiliency from Mama Ceal’s letters

32:27 – How Mama Ceal’s life reflects a broader civil rights narrative and why telling that story now is urgent

35:21 – The importance and responsibility of being a custodian and guardian of family history

36:16 – Walter’s vision of the legacy he wants to provide to any future grandchildren

38:24 – Walter’s joy, the grounding trait he refuses to compromise, and the quality that fills a room when he fully shows up

Connect With Walter Pryor

Walter Pryor is the Chief Administrative Officer and General Counsel at Southern Bancorp, a mission-driven bank dedicated to helping unbanked and underbanked communities. He graduated from Georgetown University Law Center and is a cum laude of Hendrix College, with the distinct honor of being the only Black student in the college’s history to have been awarded the President’s Medal.

His professional career has spanned a myriad of sectors in the legal arena, having worked in both large and small law firms, the U.S. Department of Justice, Capitol Hill, corporations, and higher education.  He’s passionate about education and has devoted a significant amount of time to volunteer work in that space. Currently, he serves on the Board of Trustees of Hendrix College as vice chair and the Board of Directors of the Washington Children’s Foundation. 

Walter is also a product of the South, the Black Church, and a strong family unit of resilient, formidable women. In his debut book and family memoir, This Leaves Me Okay, he shares a personal perspective on the lesser-known rural Arkansas Black experience, reconstructing the struggles and triumphs of his family’s journey from the imposed poverty of segregation to the sometimes fragile prosperity of personal and professional achievement in American society. With handwritten letters from his grandmother sprinkled throughout, her story weaves through the times and social mores of some of the most well-known civil rights struggles.

Walter and his wife Juliette have two children (Adjua and Wade Osei) and divide their time between Chicago, Charlotte, and Martha’s Vineyard.

Walter Pryor | Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook

This Leaves Me Okay by Walter Pryor 

(Signed copies available at: Pyramid Art, Books & Custom Framing)

Mentioned In The Personal Brand You Carry: Legacy, Leadership, and Letters with Walter Pryor

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This episode is brought to you by PGE Consulting Group LLC.

PGE Consulting Group LLC empowers individuals and organizations to lead with purpose, presence, and impact. Specializing in leadership development and personal branding, we offer keynotes, custom programming, consulting, and strategic advising—all designed to elevate influence and performance at every level.

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Transcript

Paula Edgar: Welcome to Branding Room Only, the podcast where your personal brand gets a front-row seat. I'm Paula Edgar, and if you're here, it's because you know your brand isn't just about what you do. It's about how people experience you. In each episode, you'll hear stories, strategies, and lessons from leaders and influencers who built their brands and made their mark. And I'll share the tools you need to do the same. Let's go. Hi, everybody. It's Paula Edgar, your host of Branding Room Only, and I'm very, very excited today about my conversation with my guest. Let me tell you about him. My guest today is Walter Pryor, and he is the Chief Administrative Officer and General Counsel at Southern Bancorp, a financial institute dedicated to serving underserved communities. He's a seasoned leader whose career spans law, government, corporate, and higher education. Walter is also the author of This Leaves Me Okay, a memoir inspired by nearly 30 years of weekly letters his grandmother, Mama Ceal, wrote to him. I can't wait for this conversation. Walter, welcome to The Branding Room. Walter Pryor: Thank you so much, Paula. I'm glad to be with you. Paula Edgar: Thank you. So let's jump on in. What does personal branding mean to you? How would you define it? Walter Pryor: You know, it's such an interesting question that I have to say I think a lot of people don't give it as much thought as they probably should. I count myself as one of them. I think that as much as I've given thought to it, it's probably around this idea of reputation and how you show up. So I try to be mindful of that. Some of that just stems from growing up. I was going to say growing up in the South, but I think a lot of kids grow up with families who really invest in them and have them focus on how they are presenting themselves. So I have a lot of that in me, and that, I think, translates to some of it. But this idea of a personal brand in a lot of ways to me seems a lot more intentional and focused around it. I don't know that I've been that focused and intentional as I probably could be. But the short answer to your question is I think a lot of it has to do with your reputation, but it feels like branding also is a bit more focused on how you build that and maintain it, perhaps. Paula Edgar: Absolutely. I think you're right. My grandmother, my father, my mother always used to say, “Don't embarrass me when you walk out of the house,” right? So there's that part. So I'm always thinking about how you're showing up. But to your point, strategy and thinking about intentionality around branding is the reason why I started this podcast, because I want people to really think about—even if it gets to you—what happens when you actually set the course yourself and then hit those milestones. So one of the things when it comes to branding that is important is how we identify ourselves. What are the things that we would want to be referred to when we're talking about ourselves? So for you, describe yourself in three words or short phrases. Walter Pryor: Hmm. I think I would say I try to be genuine and, I guess, sincere, down to earth, and maybe a bit adventurous, but I know that's all relative, right? I have a wife. I'm born and raised in Arkansas, and my wife is from New York. So when I say adventurous, that means something very different than when she says adventurous. Paula Edgar: Knowing your wife, I'm nodding my head. Very true. So tell me, do you have a favorite quote or motto that you are thinking about now or just generally in your life? Walter Pryor: One of them, I guess, ties to our children. Both of our children have African middle names, but one of the meanings of their middle names is noble. Some years ago, I found this quote, and I think it's from Eastern Europe or something, but it's something like, “Be humble, for you are made of earth. Be noble, for you are made of stars.” I really love that because it captures both the grounding that I hope that we give our kids, and just I think is important for people in general. But it also sets up this blue sky reach that you're not tethered necessarily to anything. Your dreams can be really whatever you want them to be. So I think that's one. Recently, I actually came across—and I'll probably butcher it just a bit—but it's a James Baldwin quote. It says something like, “The people who say it can't be done are often or usually interrupted by the people who are trying to do it.” So I love that as well, which really, in some ways, ties to the previous quote, which is try it. Improbable things can actually happen if you just give effort to it. Paula Edgar: I love that. I love that. I think particularly reflecting on so many people think about the limitations, right? Both of the quotes that you just made were, I think, magic—like what the magic is that we can have when we aspire to what we were created for, which we don't know until we hit it. So I love that. Now let's get to the music. What is your hype song? So if they're getting full Walter Pryor on a stage or in a meeting, what's playing in your head as you're walking in? Walter Pryor: So the funny thing is, I don't know if I have anything that plays in my head, but I can tell you there's a song that I cannot be still if I happen to hear it. It puts me in a great mood. It's really funny because I came to go-go music later in life. I was 20-something before I ever was introduced to it. But I love the song by Chuck Brown, “Chuck Baby.” I don't know what it is, but it just always makes me want to move. There are others, but that's the one that comes to mind. Paula Edgar: That's a good one. I think that's our first go-go one. I think of every song that I ask folks as the Branding Room Only soundtrack. I thought you were going to go with [EU]. I was like, yes, let's go. I love it. So this question, asking this to you, really ties into a lot. But I want to ask it like I ask everybody else, which is, where did you grow up? How do you think that shaped you? Walter Pryor: So I grew up in Arkansas, first few years of my life in a very small town, Forrest City, Arkansas, actually named for the first Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan. I know, right? Then Pine Bluff is where I spent most of my childhood, from about four or five up until I went away to college. Also, not a huge town, but I think there's a lot to be said for those kinds of humble roots in terms of both keeping you grounded, but also in many ways building into a number of people, not everybody, this desire to dream and see more and see bigger. So I think those are primarily the ways that growing up where I did influenced me. Because I think I can never forget where I came from, but it also helped me dream and go places I couldn't have even imagined. Paula Edgar: So how does a little boy in Arkansas get to your career path? Walk me through when you left for college. Then what happened? Where'd you go to college? Why did you choose it? Talk me through. Give me the Walter story. Walter Pryor: You make me think. I heard a minister talk about this not too long ago. He said, “If you ever see a turtle on top of a fence post, you know he didn't get there on their own.” I think that is so apropos, particularly from the way you framed the question, a little boy from Arkansas, because we were not well off when I was born, although I felt very rich in terms of having a family support system that just poured into me. So the short answer to your question is I did very well in school, and I was fortunate that I had family who was supporting me, who made me think that I was smart and celebrated when I did well in school. It just built this love for learning and achievement. That shaped a lot of what I did. Now, I will say I think my sister is equally smart, but we were very different in terms of if I'm in the math class, we can both get an A. She's happy with the A. I want the top A. I want to know that I'm ahead of everybody else. So there's a little bit of that. But I had a lot of people. I had a broad community of people who supported me—my family, my church family, my extended family of friends, instructors from elementary and high school up through college. The year that I graduated from high school, I had been accepted, and we were planning for me to go to Princeton. Three weeks after I graduated from high school, my father died. I just did not feel comfortable going that far away. Princeton had been a dream of mine for years. To have gotten in was like, “Wow, this really happened.” But I just didn't think that was what I was supposed to do. Nobody in my family said, “Oh, you shouldn't go this far,” or “You need to stay close, be near your mom.” None of that. I just made the decision that I needed to be closer. So I ended up staying in the state and attending a small liberal arts college affiliated with the Methodist Church, Hendrix College, and had a really great experience. Based upon that, I was able to go to law school at Georgetown. Through that process, I came in contact with a lot of people who poured into me—professors, administrators. I ended up working with then U.S. Senator David Pryor, which really is what brought me to Washington, D.C. I had looked at other schools and was making decisions about going other places that I had gotten accepted. But because he was a senator and said, “Oh, you can work for me if you go to school in D.C.,” I decided I would go to Georgetown. I did work for him off and on during my time in law school. So to me, it's this evolution of support over time. I think I was able to take advantage of a lot of opportunities that were offered to me. I think I was very fortunate that I had a lot of people who helped me be able to take advantage of those opportunities. Paula Edgar: I love that. So then, after law school, how did you start out in the profession? Walter Pryor: So I started in Biglaw. I went to Jones Day, Reavis & Pogue at the time was the full name. They now just refer to themselves as Jones Day. But I went there and got really great training as a young lawyer. Now, at the time when I went to the firm, which is almost when dinosaurs roamed the earth, they had real large first-year classes. It was also a time where young associates were doing lots of document productions. You don't hear that anymore because you've got AI and what have you. But at that time, clients were actually willing to pay to send your young associate to Hastings, Nebraska, and sit in a conference room and go through boxes and boxes of documents. So that's what I did. I actually had a real opportunity. Jones Day got this really big white-collar crime case involving a bank in D.C., and some really high-profile people. I was one of the first associates on it. It was such a great training ground. I became the document guru, right? I knew all the important documents. This is the funny thing. It started out when we were doing the representation, I was the person in charge of all the important documents. Those important documents were kept in a big three-ring binder. That's how much we had no clue how big this case was going to be. Paula Edgar: Paper. Walter Pryor: Paper, exactly. So every week or every couple of weeks, I was updating the binder with new tabs and new documents to go in the binder. I mean, this case was so big that ultimately it took up rooms in a litigation center, and everything was digitized at some point. I knew those documents, but that meant because I knew the documents, I was tied to that litigation room and those documents. So as other associates came on, they were going to New York because there was a U.S. attorney-related case. They were going to monitor cases, and I'm like, “Gosh, I really want to do that. I don’t want to be stuck here with these documents.” So ultimately, I left the firm because it just felt like I was pigeonholed into living in a litigation room that just was with the binder. Paula Edgar: With the binder. Walter Pryor: With the binder. Exactly. You know, they became digital binders, but yes. I finally just went, “I don’t remember Perry Mason doing document productions.” I was ready to go. But I had a really great training and experience in Biglaw, went to a small law firm after that, spent some time at the Department of Justice, worked with the National Association of Attorneys General, and then went to work on Capitol Hill with the second Senator Pryor, the son of the original Senator Pryor. Paula Edgar: Oh, wow. Walter Pryor: Which opened up a whole new path of opportunities for me to do government relations and then move into the corporate sector. So I've just had a real circuitous path through my career. I laughed. I told somebody actually earlier today, my career looks like the cat following the red laser beam as opposed to my wife, who very intentionally built a career in-house in corporate America. But it's been a great ride. Paula Edgar: I love that analogy because you can just see it, right? But I have found that pretty much every person I've spoken to—and I think it's now up to almost ten general counsel and folks who are high in their professions, etc.—none of them hit that line. That line that they said is never the thing that they actually did, or they took some risky detours that ended up working for them, which I love. I think that we should have goals and intentions—my listeners know I talk about goals and intentions all the time—but also being open to what life might bring to you, I think, is a really helpful thing. So here we are in your current role. You're leading a financial institution that serves underserved communities, right? So how do you tie that into your brand as an executive/leader? Walter Pryor: Well, I think it almost goes back to where we started. You asked how did a little boy from Arkansas ended up in the roles and places where I've been. Part of what attracted me to Southern Bancorp is the fact that its entire reason for being is to address the needs of un- and underbanked communities, with the focus beginning in the Delta region of Arkansas and Mississippi. Those are my people. I mean, if I look back, my family is the very group of people that we've, as an institution, sought to help. Now, interestingly enough, the idea for the bank came from South Shore Bank in Chicago. Then-Governor Bill Clinton learned of that bank, and he wanted to bring that concept to the Delta because he was very clear there were a number of people—minorities, rural white people—for whom large financial institutions weren't an option, or they weren’t focusing on financial literacy and helping those communities really build wealth. So that has been the focus and mission of the organization since its inception. When I had the opportunity to join, I leapt at it because it feels full circle in a lot of ways in terms of being able to take what I've learned, leverage the experiences I have, and use a way to support a really strong mission that is really meaningful to me. Now, you would think I'm the person handing out money or making loans or whatever. I actually serve the people who serve our clients. But I love the mission, and I love the lives that we are changing through the work that we're doing. Paula Edgar: I think mission-focused and values-focused work just helps you to show up differently as a leader, right? As opposed to it's not just a job. I love that you connected it to “this would have been your people should they have had access to this.” So I'm glad I asked you that question. So you've mentioned your wife a couple of times already. Shout out to Juliette Pryor. I wonder for you, how would you say personal relationships affect your ability to manage and build your brand? Walter Pryor: Well, I will tell you probably my number one source of guidance, inspiration, mentoring is my wife. I feel that in the way that I was less focused around building my career, I think she was very much focused. That's not to say that she didn’t hit those hiccups that you talked about or setbacks or detours. But I think she knew very early on she didn’t really want to do law firms, although she's done a law firm before. I think she had a positive experience. But she found the place where she really could be herself and bring the greatest contribution was in-house, working as a business partner. I came late to that party because I did a whole bunch of other things before I went in-house. But it has been hugely beneficial for me to watch her as an in-house business professional, albeit a lawyer, but a leader, manager, and mentor, in terms of how I try to pattern myself as a leader. I found years ago before I was in a position of really leading people and having to make difficult decisions and have difficult conversations, I was watching her do it. I was like, “Wow, I’m so glad I don’t have to do that.” But I also was happy to learn how to do that and to observe it. Finally, when I was in a place where I had to have a lot of difficult conversations, I had a model for it. I understand how to lean into that. So I do think personal relationships, whether it's from mentors, whether it's from actual work experience where you get to observe various people or you have people who take the time to teach you, I think they all go into the leader and manager that you become. I think my very first opportunity to be a manager, I was so determined not to be the poor managers that I had been under that I went to the complete opposite end of the spectrum. I was so close to the people that I managed that it was difficult to have those conversations to offer constructive critique because I was hampered by this inability to hurt their feelings. Fortunately, I think I’ve been able to create a bit more of a balance and try to be the type of manager or leader who people trust, who they know is sincere about helping develop them and invest in them, but who also has the wherewithal to say, “I need to call you out on this,” or “I need to bring this to your attention.” Not just for the sake of being mean or just the business, but also, I think it’s fairer to people when you call them out and tell them, “Here’s a place where you’re falling short,” as opposed to sitting back and letting it happen, and then they reap the consequences without really understanding or appreciating how they got there. Paula Edgar: It’s true. I definitely believe that constructive criticism, feedback, et cetera—while it may hurt, because I always say no one wants feedback unless it's good and they ask for it—but when you get it when done properly, it’s a way to love you. It’s a way to be able to say, “I’m invested in you.” Walter Pryor: Absolutely. Completely agree. Paula Edgar: Speaking of love and investment, I want to piggyback on that question I asked you about personal relationships, because you also mentioned your children. How would you say that being a parent has helped to shape your brand or your leadership trajectory? Walter Pryor: Well, I think the influence that being a parent has had on me probably occurs even more now as my children are becoming adults. Because when they were smaller, I could just say, “You do this because.” Now, I didn’t want to be the one because I said so. We often explained a lot to the kids so they understood and whatever. But I had the upper hand, and I could tell them what to do. They had to do it. The real challenge is influencing a young adult who can make whatever decision they want to make in spite of whatever my wishes are, my influence, my direction. So really understanding and appreciating another adult who doesn’t have to take your advice or your direction and realizing how you frame that in a way so that they understand you are offering this leadership guidance with their best interest at heart, that they can trust your intentions, that they respect you as another individual and realize they can’t necessarily dominate you or command you to do something, I think that it builds an approach to leadership that other people are receptive to. They can respond to it in a way that engenders mutual respect and a willingness to take your advice and your mentorship. Paula Edgar: Mm-hmm. I think that’s true. My daughter is 20 and my son is 13. I always say it teaches me I have no control over anything, one. And it reminds me that my therapist always says that after children are 13, which my son is now, you’re not parenting them anymore. You are mentoring them. So within workplaces, with other places where you have influence, it is more like mentorship than it is like parenting. But it is sobering because I like the “just do what I say.” Walter Pryor: It’s easier. Paula Edgar: It is easier. I said to my daughter the other day, "If I could, as a parent, choose anything, it would be to give you every mistake that I’ve ever seen so you don’t have to make that mistake. But that’s not how the world works. You have to make your own mistakes, and it may be the same ones I’ve made before. Sigh, sigh, sigh." Anyway, so family, I think, is important to both of us. I really love that you have incorporated family and personal relationships into your new book, This Leaves Me Okay. Why did you decide to write it? Walter Pryor: Well, thank you very much for asking about it. When I mentioned earlier improbable things can happen, I think this book is one of those improbable things. Just to give you a little background, my grandmother was born in 1915 in rural Jim Crow Arkansas, only had an eighth-grade education. Yet she wrote me weekly over the span of 30 years from the time I was born until she died. She was my person. She just was this mythical creature for me in terms of—she was so loving, so supportive, amazing sense of humor, lots of fun, taught me to play cards. She could fish, garden, sew, needlepoint, crochet, cross-stitch. She was an amazing cook. And not just Southern food that you’re accustomed to getting in the South or as a Black family, but she could take any recipe out of any magazine and make it perfectly the first time she did it. So she was just this Renaissance woman before I even knew what a Renaissance woman was. So I learned a lot about her life. I knew a lot about her life, but I learned even more after she died. That coupled with the fact that even though I didn’t have the presence of mind to save her letters as I was growing up, when I was in law school, I actually started sticking them in my desk drawer. Not even because I was consciously saving them. I think that’s just where I probably read them or where I put them. So I stuck them in a drawer. By the time I graduated from law school, I must have had, I don’t know, three dozen maybe or more of her letters. Then after she died and my wife, Juliette, knew I had this cache of letters, she said, “You should write a book.” I said, “ Juliette, I’m not writing a book.” That went on for several years because I had just resolved I couldn’t do it, or I didn’t feel confident enough in my writing to measure up to what I consider to be good writing. I love books. I love amazing writers. I didn’t want to put out something that was a piece of crap. I resisted it forever, but I finally got to the place where I really recognized her influence on me. I thought, "You know, this would be a really great way to honor her." I don’t even know that I had any idea of what writing a successful book looked like. I mean, well, I guess I did. I mean, I know there’s a New York Times bestseller and everybody’s talking about so-and-so’s book or so-and-so’s book. I wasn’t even thinking about that. I’m just like, “How does little old me write a book that’s not a piece of crap and that just does well?” So again, long answer to your very short question; the point of me writing the book really was to honor my grandmother’s life. Paula Edgar: Was this your maternal grandmother, your paternal grandmother? Walter Pryor: My maternal grandmother. I actually didn’t know my paternal grandmother for very long before she died. I was, I want to say, maybe six or seven when she died. We saw her periodically, but I didn’t see her as regularly as I saw my mother’s mother. So I just wasn’t able to build as much of a relationship with her. Paula Edgar: Got you. So your grandma’s Mama Ceal—is that Lucille? Walter Pryor: Yes. Paula Edgar: Yes. So did you ever talk to her about why she wrote you these letters? Walter Pryor: Never. It never occurred to me. You know, and the letters came so regularly that I could almost take them for granted. I mean, one of the things I write about in the book is one of my earliest memories is of my mother reading a letter to me and my sister that my grandmother had sent us. So before I could read, she was sending us letters. I remember my mother reading to us. I don’t know where I got this. No one ever told me this, but I had this sense that if you get mail, you’re important. It’s a big deal to get some mail. So it started. I was just accustomed to getting mail from my grandmother. Paula Edgar: I just had a memory because my grandmother did not write me over 30 years, but she would send me $5 in the mail. She had perfect penmanship. So I love having that reflection because it’s so important. You think about what they must have gone through in their own lives and why this was an important way of connecting. What do you think those letters taught you about identity, resilience, or anything else? What were some of the things that came from what she wrote you? Walter Pryor: Well, I don’t know if it’s so much what she wrote at the time or my reflecting upon them, but I mentioned she only had an eighth-grade education. I don’t know if I said she was a maid for most of the time that we shared the planet. As a matter of fact, she only stopped working as a maid the year that I graduated from law school. So she had been a maid for 40-plus years. When you think about it, you go, "Why would this woman who’s working almost seven days a week—not fully, but sometimes—why would she spend her time writing letters?" What was it that made her think that she should write letters, that she could write letters? It certainly wasn’t an activity of people who didn’t have a lot of leisure time. So it just put me on this path of discovery. I think in a lot of ways, she wrote letters to keep our family connected because she had experienced really poor treatment by some of her family early on. I think she had experienced a number of tragic events that threatened the existence of family. I think she wanted to shore that up and make sure we were there. But I think it was also a lesson in just how she brought about her own wellness and self-care. I think that was something that she enjoyed doing, so she did it. Through doing something for herself, she did a lot for other people just from the standpoint of being remembered or getting mail, the importance of getting mail or the thoughtfulness of it. So I think when I put it into perspective, it reminds me that you don’t have to be in some large position of influence or have some important title to really make a difference for people, to really impact their lives in a positive way. Certainly, it adds, even to me, even more responsibility if you do have some big title or position of influence—to use that in a way to help other people and to better their lives to the extent that you can. Paula Edgar: Oh, absolutely. You know, I’ve talked on my podcast before about my love of clothing and how I show up came a lot from my grandmother. My grandmother was a domestic as well, and she worked for rich white people in Long Island. She would come home with clothes, designer clothes that she was like, “These are clothes that they’re wearing. I want you to wear these clothes, too, so that even though she didn’t, I would have.” So when I think about how I show up someplace, it literally is that lens and that importance of just looking the part. My grandmother gave me that from when I was very, very young. I remember people would be like, “Why do you have a trench coat?” I didn’t even know what a trench coat was, but I was like, “I have one because my grandma bought me one.” So those things are really important. The blessing of being able to have grandparents that incorporate their values into us is a great thing. It’s a great thing. Walter Pryor: So I froze up for just a little bit. Paula Edgar: Okay. Walter Pryor: I heard you saying that you didn’t even know what a trench coat was, and then it froze for a bit. Paula Edgar: I did not. No, no worries. I mean, it basically said that the importance of—you just don’t know what somebody is giving to you in terms of how it’s going to result in your ethos, right? The values, the things that are important to you based on how they modeled for you. Because to your point about your grandma having an eighth-grade education, you just think about writing, reading, and what she was trying to maybe instill in you without maybe knowing is the practice of it, right? So I love that you took those letters and made them into a book, right? That might have been a wireless dream. So I just love it. So the book weaves family history with broader civil rights, right? That’s the story. Why was that an important piece of how you brought this into the story? What impact do you hope it has as on the readers? Walter Pryor: Well, I think certainly for my grandmother, people born at the time that she was and our families’ experience being based in the South, Jim Crow was almost an actual character in their lives. It wasn’t just a condition in which you lived, but it was a part of how you moved around, how you were able to show up, how you were able to operate. I think to some degree, even though it’s not Jim Crow, there are still elements of challenge around race that our country is still grappling with. So I thought that in addition to honoring her life, I felt like there were lessons to be learned from her life in terms of navigating just challenges in general. It’s really interesting that the book came out when it did, because as I was writing it, I would have been happy to have it published a few years ago, because I finished and I was ready for it to go. But it’s interesting that it came out now, in this particular period of time, as we find challenges to really observing and acknowledging history, not classifying it as good or bad, just acknowledging that it’s history. So I feel like there were so many lessons in her life around how to navigate really difficult situations and still maintain some joy and some dignity and some ability to dream beyond what’s right in front of you. I felt it was very important to both acknowledge the challenges that she experienced and to draw a parallel between how I experienced similar challenges and how my children experienced those challenges. To hopefully issue a call to arms to keep moving forward in addressing this so that at some point, someone in my line will not have to say that they’re still dealing with those kinds of challenges. Paula Edgar: I got to take a deep breath on that one because it’s so true. Particularly where we are societally right now—erasure of not just textbooks, but also folks’ actual stories and commemorations of people’s lives—it is even more important for us to tell these stories and to make sure that they are honored and remembered as not political, but very, very much personal, which is still history. It’s still history. Walter Pryor: Exactly. The other aspect of that, though, is that it also underscored for me how important it is that we be the custodians and guardians of our own history, whether that’s as a people or as family members. I feel like I have a responsibility to my children for them to know that there was this strong woman who navigated really crazy times to have this huge impact on me and them even. Of my children, my daughter was the only one who was able to meet my grandmother before she died. But there’s so much about her influence that has impacted them, even if they can’t tie a direct line to it. Or maybe they can now that I’ve written the book. But to know that her legacy continues to live in the way that my children show up is really, really rewarding. Paula Edgar: So when you think about legacy, when you think about perhaps one day having grandchildren, what do you want to give to them? Walter Pryor: I’d like to give them a sense of belonging, that they matter, that they can do anything they set their hearts and minds to, that they have every right to be here, to show up as their authentic selves—whatever that might be, in whatever form that might be. I hope that cumulatively our family has helped contribute to an environment that makes that possible and that helps usher in progress for those who come after us. Paula Edgar: I love that. I love that. Legacy is a really, I think, important thing for lots of folks, but particularly when you think about the history that Black people have had in this country and in other countries as well, it’s often so fractured to be able to even go back and tell a story and to have some history and some cadence. You know, I am fast-forwarding to Grandpa Walter sending an email every week, which is not the same story, but it’s the same kind of love. That connection. It’s a powerful thread to be able to say that you were loved in such a deep and wonderful way. So I’m happy you shared it with folks. Walter Pryor: Well, I hope Grandpa Walter is actually putting some pen to paper and continuing the legacy of actually sending mail. Now, it may be such that nobody will be sending mail and getting mail then. But if they’re still selling stamps and envelopes, I may not be doing weekly, but I hope that I’m sending somebody some letters. Paula Edgar: I love that. I say that as I use AI to help write my emails to my son this summer, but that’s a whole other story. I still love him. It’s all good. So tell me this—I ask everybody about fun. What do you do for fun? Because I think we talk so much about “this is what we do for work,” but I want to know what brings you joy. Walter Pryor: You know, we’ve gotten into a big travel kick. So I’ve really loved traveling and getting to discover and see other places, which, again, for me as a small child growing up watching television, it’s like, “Oh, wow, you know, there are these things called cruise ships that people go on, or people actually fly in planes.” I mean, I want to say, in the eighth grade before I took my first flight. By the time I graduated from college, I could still count the number of airplane rides I had taken, maybe on one hand, if not one, two. Whereas my kids, they couldn’t even tell you. They couldn’t, at ten years old, tell you how many planes they had been on because they had been on so many. So there’s something fun and joyous about that evolution. So I really do love traveling. I enjoyed writing the book. I don’t know if I’ll write another, but as difficult as it was, I’m not opposed to exploring a continued creative side. There have been times where I really wanted to engage in photography, and I bought a camera and then I didn’t do anything or whatever. So I have in my head that at some point I’m going to take up photography again and really just try to explore what kind of eye I have for that. So that’s been fun. I grew up as a kid who loved TV. Juliette will say I’m still a TV fan, but I don’t watch as much as I probably could. But I do love movies. So cinema and movies are also things that I find fun. And then we are such social people in many ways. Beyond our immediate family, we have an extended family of friends and people that we really enjoy. So, spending time with them, whether it’s dinner or traveling or whatever it is, that also brings me joy. Paula Edgar: You know what, when I was thinking about what you were saying about photography, first of all, my father’s a photographer. So I come from a line of folks who have documented everything. And both of my children are photographers, and I love a camera, although it’s usually just my phone, but that’s not the point. But I remember visiting your home and seeing art. So I studied museum anthropology when I was an undergrad. It’s really how people walk through a space. I was like, “This is like a museum. Look at this beautiful art.” I find that folks who collect art, there’s something about the experience they want to have in their spaces as well. I just love that. It’s probably when I fell in love. I was like, “I love Juliette. I know I just met her, but I love her. By extension, you, because it was your home.” So I wanted to just throw that piece in because then it could be that you’re putting up your own photography on the walls. Walter Pryor: Well, I guess it’s good that you said that because I forgot to mention that that is something else that we’ve really enjoyed doing. In some ways, it ties you to both the past and the future, because obviously, there are artists who everybody loves and adores. You’re like, “Oh my God, maybe I could own one of those pieces one day.” But a few years ago, someone said to me, “Living artists have to eat.” We were already looking at emerging artists, but that really cemented for me that I want my focus to be more on these young people or younger people who are contributing—not so much on the ones that are already out there that it’s hard to buy and too expensive and whatever—but really investing in the creatives who are coming along. So that does also bring me joy. So thank you for reminding me of that. Paula Edgar: Of course. I love that as a way of continuing to support folks who are up and coming. That’s also legacy, right? That you’re making sure that people can continue to make that art because they can eat. Yes. I’m going to remember that. “Young artists have to eat.” That part. They’re living. So I ask everyone on my podcast these two questions. One is this: What is the authentic aspect of your personal brand that you will never compromise on? Walter Pryor: I think that is trying my best to always be down to earth and accessible. I can remember being a small child and thinking, “Oh, I shouldn’t go talk to this person, or they’re too important for me to matter.” I never want to do that for people because I think you can influence people in so many different ways. But I always want to be down to earth. I don’t want to be someone who’s putting on airs, someone who’s unkind, because I think it’s just so important to just being a human being. Paula Edgar: Yes. You’ve used the through word and through line of importance as a part of this conversation. You got mail, so you were important. You want to make sure that you’re not too important, that people don’t feel like you’re accessible. So I love that connection. So this podcast is called Branding Room Only because it’s a play on the word “standing room only,” because I’m clever. So what is the authentic, fabulous aspect of you that people would be in a room with no chair, every chair filled, only standing room only to experience about you? What’s that special magic that you have? Walter Pryor: Wow. I hope it is—it’s an accessibility. It’s a down-to-earth, approachable quality that doesn’t take myself too seriously and is willing to be open and sharing. If I have it and if I know it, I want you to have it and know it too. Because I’m thankful that I’m not one of those people who sees life as a zero-sum game. I genuinely believe a rising tide lifts all boats. If I can help lift somebody else, then I absolutely want to do that. At some point, I don’t want you just to rise with me. I want you to rise even higher than me, because that’s how you really contribute. And it’s the whole concept of planting trees under which shade you’ll never sit. So that’s what I hope people will see in me: the desire to give, to share, to pour into people, and to help move us all forward collectively. Paula Edgar: Well, I mean, I think it’s clear that Mama Ceal would have been very proud of you. She planted a seed that became leaves that became these pages that you have put together in honor of her. I’m so happy that you have shared this. I’m telling you all to make sure you go get this book and share it with a friend, and then share with another friend and tell them about this podcast so you can hear the story behind this story. Walter, tell folks how they can connect with you and get the book. Anything else you want to share as we close? Walter Pryor: Sure. So you can get the book on Amazon if you want to support through that way. If you don’t like using Amazon, if you research Pyramid Art, Books & Custom Framing—it’s a small Black-owned bookstore in Little Rock, Arkansas—they will have signed copies of the book, so you can order through there. Hopefully my website’s going to be up by the end of this week. It’s been a long process, but WalterPryor.com. You can go there. You can reach me on Instagram at @retlawop, which is basically Walter spelled backwards, then my middle and last initial. Paula Edgar: Love it. Walter Pryor: Then I’m Walter Pryor on both Facebook and LinkedIn. So any of those avenues are ways to reach me. Paula Edgar: Fantastic. I know by the time that this podcast comes out, your website will be up, shining, and viral by the time because everybody will be there. It’s all good. Walter Pryor: From your mouth to God’s ears. Yes, please. Paula Edgar: Well, thank you for joining me. Everybody, make sure, like I said, you listen, you share. If you love this podcast—and I know that you did—tell a friend about it. I’ll see y’all soon in the Branding Room. Bye, y’all. That's it for this episode. I appreciate you hanging out with me on Branding Room Only. Now, please do me a quick favor: head over to ratethispodcast.com/branding so more people can join this conversation. And make sure to stop by at paulaedgar.com/events to see what's next. Whether I'm live, online, or in person, I'd love to see you there. See you next time in the Branding Room. And until then, stand tall, shine bright, and always stand by your brand.