Photo Submitted by Jamal Sharp
Jermaine Kershner is a motivational speaker and a recent graduate of FAMU’s School of Journalism and Graphic Communication. He is currently pursuing his MBA at FAMU’s School of Business and Industry.
Kershner is from Dallas, by way of Tampa, and a member of the Alpha Xi chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity.
A “Mission to Motivate” is the quest Kershner is on and it is also his brand name.
“I call it, ‘Mission to Motivate’ because I am forever on my way to give positive vibes and inspire, drive and influence anyone who will listen,” said Kershner. “It is honestly my goal every morning I open my eyes to motivate. Mission to Motivate is my platform to do so.”
Widely known as, “Motivating Maine,” Kershner positively speaks and posts motivational videos daily to his social media followers under this alias. It all started three years ago when multiple people told Kershner he gives great advice and constantly helps them get through rough patches. Kershner began to feel motivated himself. He said he wanted to touch everyone with his words, not just the people close to him. He had to find a way to create a bigger platform.
Kershner started a text message thread with every one of his contacts, sending out a motivational message to each one personally every morning. This contact list grew more and more each day as friends and family passed the messages along to each other. Everyone appreciated the daily morning messages and were at most times a boost to start their day.
“Maine’s messages are like breakfast for me. Every morning I wake up I know it’s gonna be something positive to feed my mind with,” said Jon Walls, one of Kershner’s message recipients. “I look forward to them.”
Kershner then went to Instagram to reach an even bigger audience, for those whose phone number he may not have. He began to upload videos of himself talking to give a more personal connection rather than a message with only words. You could now hear the compassion and determination in the message he was trying to get across to motivate.
“Maine’s posts on Instagram get me pumped up all the time, I only met him once but it seems like he talks to me directly with his posts. I have a couple of his videos saved to my phone,” said Corey Walker, a sophomore psychology major at FAMU.
Find Kershner on social media. His Instagram handle is: @_motivatingmaine
After obtaining his MBA, Kershner plans on working in corporate America for some time before taking on motivational speaking full time. His ultimate goal is to address audiences bigger than he can imagine, such as the renowned motivational speaker he looks up to and studies, Eric Thomas. Kershner wants to travel around the world and influence as many people in the world as he can.
With thoughts of a podcast, Kershner also plans to write a book on his life once he gets a little older.