Portrait Participant Profile: Joe ‘Peanut Man’ Watson

“Everybody really knows me as ‘The Peanut Man’. You’ll say ‘Hey, do you know Joe Watson who does media?’ and they’ll say ‘Who?’ but if you say ‘The Peanut Man’, they’ll say ‘Yeah!’,” says W-S Portrait Participant, Joe Watson. A Winston-Salem native and father of two, Joe has made a living serving his community by selling peanuts locally.

Watson started off selling peanuts at the age of nine with his father’s encouragement but eventually traded in the peanuts to earn a degree in Radio Television/Film at Shaw University. “I ran the Winston-Salem State Radio Station for about 11 years and when I left there, I said ‘You know, what? I’m gonna create something for me and my children’. So, I went back to what I knew, which was the peanuts. But I still had an itching for media so we created a media company and the Peanut Man,” Watson shares about his career path.

Through the peanut business, Watson and his wife of 30 years were able to send their children to school. “They both graduated with zero debt. My wife and I, we worked, we sacrificed and, you know, it allowed me an opportunity through hard work to do something that set our children up.”

On the way he handles life’s hurdles, Joe Watson says, “I have a rule that I live by: no matter what happens in a day, I have until 11:59…to either have a pity party or to move forward. Because tomorrow is a brand new day.”

“Every day something is gonna pop up. Sometimes you can ponder something all day and it takes away from your productivity,” he continues.

One of Watson’s memorable moments when serving the community was when he found out a customer’s birthday was coming up. “Well at the end of the conversation she normally buys a bag of cashews from me. So, I took out of bag of cashews and said ‘Happy birthday’. That’s what money can’t buy…when I can reach you as a person. Those are my memorable moments.”

While serving at City Hall, another memorable moment occurred when Watson was asked to be a witness in a couple’s wedding. “So I ended up taking pictures and I sent it to them. I said ‘You know later on, when the difficult days come (and I’ve been married 30 years, the difficult days will come), you can look back on these pictures. Now that was a cool moment.”

Watson has a lot to say on Winston-Salem, the community and what you can make of it. “You can do what you want to do, wherever you are because it starts on the inside. What I would like people to know is that whatever opportunity you’re looking for, if you’re in Winston-Salem, you can create it. It can develop here. My favorite thing about the work I do are the new opportunities that are presented to me every day. That’s my favorite thing. The community is what you make it.”

All photos and story by Aliyah Bryant. UNCSA Student