7. Jojo
In an arena football game right before the NFL camp was slated to start and potentially all of his childhood dreams about to come true, he broke up a pass play, tripped over a receiver and slammed into a wall. The impact broke Jojo's neck and left him paralyzed from the waist down. The doctors told him he'd never walk again. In that moment he thought: “My life is over. I’ll never play again. I’ll never be a husband or a father.” But then, like an answer to those dark thoughts, he remembered something a past coach used to shout at him during practice: “Dig!”
That word motivated him. So he made it his own and turned it a slogan: “D.I.G.: Determination. Intensity. Guts.”
Those words got him through that dark time in his life. There were days he wanted to quit the rehab work because it was just too hard. D.I.G. kept him going, all the way to a full recovery. Nearly 20 years later, he still carries that message to every person who walks in the door at CORE, his downtown Raleigh fitness studio. Every day he calls on his experiences to say: “No matter your goal, you have to have the Determination to start. You need the Intensity to hustle hard. But the key is Guts. You’ve got to have the guts to push through the hardest times." It’s become the CORE value at CORE and he continues to inspire every person he comes in contact with.
You can connect with Jojo here:
www.Coreraleigh.com
IG: @jojopolkdig
FB: @JosephPolk
LI: @JosephPolk
IG: @CoreRaleigh
Twitter: @CoreRaleigh
And then go check out some of his favorite places here: