Meet Rodney Williams | Actor & Basketball Player Development Coach

We had the good fortune of connecting with Rodney Williams and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Rodney, is your business focused on helping the community? If so, how?
One of the most important things that kids can learn as they are growing up is the importance of character. At WillPower Player Development, we not only focus on developing great basketball players, but we also focus on developing genuinely good people. Let’s face it. The majority of athletes will not make it to the professional level because there are simply not enough spots, so when the ball stops bouncing, these athletes must be able to live productive lives as members in society. The life lessons that they learn through our training program and through playing sports in general will last them a lifetime.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Well I don’t believe in just doing one thing in life. I think we all have multiple talents that we can use to be successful in different areas of life. I am a basketball player development coach, a mobile home investor and not many people know this but I am also an actor. I love all three so I do all three. Basketball was my first love and as I got older, injuries prevented me from being able to play so because of that I started to focus my attention on other things. Prior to my injuries, I was a basketball junkie and my ultimate goal was to be a college basketball coach. When the game was taken away from me, I started to lose a little bit of the passion that I had for the game my entire life, which led me to evaluate myself and the skills/talents that I have that could help me to succeed in another career field. That’s when I came up with the idea of being an actor. Long story short, I enrolled in acting classes and immediately fell in love with it. Everything I learned from my successes and failures in basketball as a player, I applied to acting and have had a good bit of success so far and am only getting started. Catch me on a new tv series that premieres on Fox, January 3, 2022 called The Cleaning Lady. I will be co-starring in episode 5. As far as mobile home investing goes, I really became interested in real estate investing back in 2013 but did not know how to get started. During the covid quarantine in 2020, I stumbled upon some youtube videos about mobile home investing which really intrigued me. I purchased a course, followed their instructions and am now in the middle of completing my first deal. You ask was it easy. Hahahaha, easy is not even the word. Nothing has been easy about this journey as an entrepreneur/ artist but you have to know what it is that you really want in life and then you have to believe in yourself and go after it. I’m not the smartest or the most talented but one thing that separates me is a little voice in my head that tells me I can do it no matter how hard the challenge may be. I really believe that you need self belief before you can accomplish anything monumental in life. Then you need determination, courage, a plan, persistence and patience. I’ve learned that the most important thing is to keep going. Put in the work, adjust and keep going. You have to be willing to do what others won’t in order to accomplish your goals. Most people put their self limitations on you. They don’t believe you can accomplish your goal because they themselves don’t think they could accomplish it. That’s when you have to believe in yourself and keep going.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Honestly work consumes so much of my life at this point that I don’t get out as much as I used to so I’m probably a little outdated as far as places to go and see. There’s so much in Colorado that I still haven’t seen so I will list some of those items in my answer. I live in Colorado Springs so if a friend came to town we definitely gotta check out Garden of the Gods, Pikes Peak and the Olympic Training Center. Going outside of Colorado Springs we would definitely have to hit the Royal Gorge out in Canon City and probably also do some white water rafting as well. A day in Denver checking out downtown and maybe a sporting event like a Broncos game or Nuggets game would also be on the itinerary. Estes Park and the Sand Dunes would also be a destination. As far as eating, I would have to say my 3 favorite spots in The Springs in no particular order are Pho Grill (Vietnamese), Dats Italian (Italian food of course) and Don Guillo (Puerto Rican food). I’m sure there are some others I don’t know about but those are my 3 for now. In Denver we gotta check out Jing for a happy hour and a nice dinner at Del Friscos. Can’t leave Colorado without getting a good hike in. I’d be down to hike somewhere I haven’t been before so that one is up in the air still.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I’d like to dedicate my shoutout to my parents, James and Kyoko Williams. Without them I would not be who/where I am at today.

Instagram: @realdealrodwill and @willpowerplayerdevelopment

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rwill79