Rocky Reichman is a young entrepreneur, writer and dancer passionate about helping people be more resilient. Because what makes us who we are, and what ultimately matters, is not the mistakes we make in life, but how we respond to them.  In 2005 he founded Literary Magic, an online literary magazine that later transformed into Watch Me Bounce. Fusing his passions for resilience , entrepreneurship and writing, Rocky decided to create a website where people could submit and read stories and poetry that would help them unlock their inner resilience. Thus, Watch Me Bounce was born.

Rocky studies psychology and dance at Brandeis University. He works as a Research Assistant at the Emotion Lab, which studies age differences in emotion regulation. Rocky also leads Mussar Vaad, a group that teaches ethics, emotional intelligence, and the human strengths and virtues of positive psychology through weekly discussion, religious sources and the use of story.

Rocky is working toward a career as a psychologist, in order to help people directly and also contribute to research in the area. Currently, Rocky is volunteering as a Research Assistant at the Israel Center for the Treatment of Psychotrauma, an NGO dedicated to building and implementing community-wide resilience interventions as well as direct treatment of victims. This experience has provided him with an inside look into how psychological concepts of trauma, treatment and resiliency can be applied to real-world, clinical settings. In July, Rocky completed the center’s course “Trauma and Resilience,” which afforded him a basic yet accurate understanding of what resilience is and how it is developed.

For Rocky, resilience isn’t just a career focus. It’s a life’s mission.

When he is not working on resiliency, Rocky spends his time in the world of dance. After facing a major life challenge, Rocky realized that dance was more than a way to have fun. It was a healthy, enjoyable way of dealing with stress and bouncing back from setbacks. Rocky has performed in shows for the Adagio Dance Company at Brandeis as well as Hooked On Tap. Recently, he began research on a course on dance movement therapy, and how dance/movement can be used as a positive coping mechanism to help college students deal with stress. Because as Rocky has learned, you don’t need substances to have fun. We all have the potential to enjoy life within us—and dance can unlock that potential.

Rocky particularly enjoys improvisational movement, interpretative dance, freestyling, tap dancing, the robot and hip hop. Dance has had a significant impact on Rocky’s life, and he has learned that dance has the power to move people physically, but emotionally too.

To learn more about Rocky, please visit his Blog & Digital Resume at www.RockyReichman.com.

 

At 15, Rocky started his first venture, launching his own literary magazine, Literary Magic, where he currently serves as Editor-in-Chief. Today, Literary Magic magazine has become a widely recognized brand with thousands of site visits every issue. Rocky has built it into an online source for literati, writers and read who love the written word, publishing fictional stories, poetry, articles on etymology and linguistics and essays. The magazine gets hundreds of submissions a year, and several dozen requests for book reviews. Rocky manages a staff of seven editors, two web technicians and 20 writers all passionate about what they do.

Rocky has since authored numerous articles on book reviews, writing and linguistics. The New York Times columnist William Safire dubbed Rocky a “word maven” after A former editor liked Rocky’s work and decided to send a sample article over to William Safire after one of Rocky’s editors forwarded him a sample article.

Before launching into psychology, Rocky explored the worlds of entrepreneurship and marketing. For four summers, he interned at The McGraw-Hill Companies, in the Marketing and Product Development department in the McGraw-Hill Construction division, to help with competitive analysis for their online publications. At McGraw-Hill his exposure to the wider world of business and online media, as well as being surrounded by experienced professionals who have served as his mentors and guides, has provided Rocky with a wealth of knowledge and sage advice on business and publishing, entrepreneurship as well as intrapreneurship.

From there he decided to his online magazine into an online media company. At 18 he founded and became director of Reichman Media, a parent company for Literary Magic and a firm that offers consulting services. Reichman Media has helped people and businesses for trying to build online content publications, online communities and personal brands, with advice on strategy, marketing help and delivering market research reports via Rocky’s competitive analysis. He has also freelanced, and consulted with various authors with help on self-publishing and editing techniques for manuscript submission.

Rocky got started as a writer. At 12, he read a novel and instantly fell into writing. He wrote his first novel (fantasy) in three years. The second novel took him three days.

Rocky has written article abstracts for Shvoong.com, been a featured columnist on LiteraryForums.org for etymology and linguistics, has written for Firstwriter newsletter, been a book reviewer and columnist for The Midwest Book Review and TCM Reviews. He also helped found a local Writer’s Workshop in his community.

In 2008, Rocky was awarded the New York State Attorney General’s “Triple C” Award for “courage, character and commitment.”

In Fall 2009, Rocky worked on marketing and PR at electronics/robotics startup Narobo. In Spring 2010, Rocky joined the Brandeis student-run newspaper The Justice, where he reported and interviewed best-selling crime novelist Patricia Cornwell, former presidential candidate and chairman of the DNC Howard Dean and entrepreneur Michael Granoff, Head of Oil Independence Policies for startup Better Place. In Summer 2010, he became a Research Assistant for the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism. For the year 2010, Rocky worked at Fury Combat, a martial arts and combat training center, as personal assistant to the president and founder, helping with web development, content writing and video editing. Rocky was elected as Communications Coordinator for Brandeis Hillel for the 2010-2011 academic year. At the start of 2011, he decided to combine his passions and experience in editing, writing, story, marketing and entrepreneurship and focus on his highest passion: resilience.

In 2009, Rocky co- edited The Adventures of Shainy and Brainy in memory of his father, Jack Reichman. The stories, created and told to two generations of Rocky’s family, were written up and  published by the Reichman family. To learn more, please visit www.JackReichman.com.

Rocky maintains a blog about resilience, dance, writing and entrepreneurship: www.RockyReichman.com.