December 20, 2024 • 21 mins
This special Best Of edition episode features some our favorite moments from the season! If you missed one of these episodes, this might be your second chance to listen!
Clip 1 Episode Title: Checking In w/ Pastor Mike Todd
Clip 2 Episode Title: Checking In w/ Jawn Murray
Clip 3 Episode Title: Checking In w/ Kirk Franklin
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It peaks of the planet charlamagnea god here And as
(00:02):
we come close to closing out this year, I just
want to say thank you for tuning into the Black
Effect podcast network. There have been so many great moments
over the past year. Take a listen to some of
those captivating moments in this special best of episode.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Y'all listen.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
I am very excited to have on checking in pastor
Mike Todd.
Speaker 4 (00:24):
I am so excited to be here with you. I
feel like you're my sister. We got to meet for
just a little moment in Atlanta and it was like,
where have you been all my life? And it's just
really one of those cool, cool moments to connect with
people who actually care about doing the inner work as
well as all the things that are happening in public.
So yeah, I wrote a book about relationship goals about
(00:48):
me and my wife, who I've been dating since I
was fourteen years old, is when I met her, and
literally all the ups and downs, trials, tribulations, crazy moments,
and our story of redemption and just some things that
people could be helped in relationship because people kind of
fail at that a lot in this day and age.
And I put it out in the middle of a pandemic.
(01:10):
I'd never written a book before. I barely passed math,
math and English in high school. So it was like,
I mean, let me just share something that I think
is valuable. And I mean it went crazy and people
bought it all over the world. And to think that's
the first time I've heard the two million number, that's ridiculous.
Like the fact that book has gone on. I just
(01:32):
pray that it's a blessing to people for a long
long time and help people win in Mayorage, dating and sex.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
That's it.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
And he smiled really big too when you got to
say that, because he got somebody, he gets to go
home to his woife.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Glory to the living guard. Listen, listen, listen, Lord help
me too.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Oh don't and I have it wasn't It wasn't y'all listening.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
It wasn't none of your business. But yes, okay.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
Any Another fact is that you are the lead pastor
of Transformation Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
I am, okay, I am. And there's so many ways
I can go.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Relationship goes the faith testimony of how you guys acquired
the building and just your whole journey it would take
hours to talk about it.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
But I also want to tell.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
People, y'all, he is a phenomenal musician, producer.
Speaker 4 (02:29):
I say, a musician, Michelle, you're doing too much to know.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
We're here to talk about damage but not destroyed, from
trauma to triumph. I get it, and we're gonna get there.
But y'all, he's more than.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Pastoring.
Speaker 5 (02:45):
Is call.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
That's the thing.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
And we'll talk about a choice that you might have
had to make. Okay, let's just let's do that.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
The choice. Just let's do it.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
The choice that you possibly had to make to lay
down music to go into ministry. Yeah, now music can
be ministry, but I'm just saying in the form of
ministry that you now you had to lay down the
desire to be the artist and producer musician.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
So part of part of my journey is I tell
people all the time, you are not what you do
only and a lot of people so many times they
wrap their entire identity off of whatever became successful. And
one of the things that.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
I own, they walk in heavy six minutes in Oh.
Speaker 4 (03:29):
I thought we was I thought we came to do
it like I thought this was that podcast so we
could go all the way in. And so the truth
of the matter is a lot of people, whatever successful,
they think that's where they should rest all of their
identity and purpose. But the one thing I learned very
early on is that God never gives people just one seed.
(03:51):
He gives so many seeds on the inside. It depends
on what you water. And on the inside of me
there were so many seeds music and speaking and creative
and all these things, and I decided that at a
young age, I was going to water all of them.
And so when the fruits started coming from all of them,
I had to make a decision to begin to ask
God what was my assignment, not my opportunity. And a
(04:14):
lot of people right now are caught because they have
so many opportunities and they don't know what an assignment is.
And that's where I'm here to really tell this generation
that you only can get an assignment from God, but
if you good, you can have tons of opportunities. And
so my journey took me to a place where the
(04:34):
greatest thing that I do is never what can I do,
It's what does God want me to do? And that's
where I think a lot of people are off right now.
Somebody could offer me a lot of money to do
something I'm good at, but I knew it wouldn't be
my assignment and so that thing wouldn't be blessed for me.
And so I just know that for me, that's what happened.
In the music and ministry. I would have been successful
(04:55):
as a music producer. I probably would have produced your
third album. I probably would have done all of those things.
It's done, and now there's still an opportunity I would
have been I would have been there. But at the
same token, God's timing is perfect. When you obey him,
he brings everything back around. He wastes nothing. There is
nothing that he's going to put on the inside of
(05:15):
you that he's gonna leave on the inside of you.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
It's just about timing.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
And so now is the season where I'm getting to
walk into a whole bunch of music opportunities. People that
I love, like Michelle Williams, I'm sitting on the phone
with So if I had a track, I could text
it to you right now.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Do you understand what I'm saying?
Speaker 4 (05:29):
Like, following his purpose leads me into the thing that
I love, and that's a passion.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Wow. I don't have no title or anything in church.
But I'm hearing siki.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
First the Kingdom, Oh yeah of God in Matthew six
thirty three.
Speaker 4 (05:45):
Yes, and then everything else gets at it. And a
lot of people are seeking the things. They're going after
the things instead of him, and they go after the
things what I say, instead of the king. And the
King actually knows the playbook, he knows the lay of
the land, he knows what he wants for you to do.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
And I've just found in my short.
Speaker 4 (06:03):
Little life of a lot of impact comes from places
I didn't think it was gonna come from, because I
did it in the timing that God wanted it to happen,
not in the timing that I wanted it to happen.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
And the more you.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
Like lean into that and get into that lane, you
don't have to worry nothing I'm doing right now. I
have to hold up. I just got to show up
like I'm not trying to hold things together. I'm not
trying to finesse and do all of these things that
a lot of people have to do. And that's what
causes stress, that's what causes burnout, and that's what causes trauma.
And so a lot of people have to really reel
(06:37):
themselves back in to figure out what's my assignment, not
just what's my opportunity.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
Executive producer, pop culture expert. Once again, did I say
executive producer? Executive producer of the Emmy nominated amazing show,
The Sherry Shepherd Show.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Please welcome My and John and Murray.
Speaker 6 (07:02):
Sherry Shepherd was a friend of mine and also a client,
and so like the we met.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
At Doctor Bobby Jones.
Speaker 6 (07:09):
Funny enough, I used to do an artist and treat
price a year in Las Vegas, and Sherry was a
big reader of my column. She came up to me
in the hallway one day and was like, Hey, I
know you don't know who I am, but I'm a
big fan of your work. And I was like, oh,
you're the little black actress and all the big white sitcoms.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Of course I know you. And we became friends.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
John and John really, John really will say that like
that line, go ahead, and she left and we.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Shary's information and we became friends.
Speaker 6 (07:35):
And so whenever Sherry would do appearances when she was
co hosting the View, sometimes whenever topics and stuff she
wanted to work through, she'd bring me on to help
her figure that out. If she had to go do
a promo run for a movie project or something, she
had me come and help her finess her sound bites
and stuffing. And so what I did not realize then
was that it really was setting me up for my
(07:56):
life as a producer was now it was teaching me
how to get the best out of people. It was
teaching me how to connect with people so that they
could be their best. And so when I was a
prior to this executive producer roun with Sherry, I had
done a bunch of consulting, producing for some awards shows
and some specials. I have both produced and directed some
(08:16):
episodes and TV ones uncensored. But the executive producer role
is you're the boss. You know, you hire, you fire,
you have one of the final.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Says on creative. You're leading the team.
Speaker 6 (08:27):
And so there were people when Sherry said I will
only go on this journey with John that was looking
like how did he get the lete for a whole
of all those people?
Speaker 2 (08:35):
And you know, how is he in this position? And
the truth of the matter is.
Speaker 6 (08:38):
The late great Bill Getty who helps create the view
with Barbara Walters. He helps mentor me through this process
of going on this executive producer journey along with Twitch.
He was at Ellen, along with Heather Gray who was
at the talk, and along with my dear friend Kat
mackenzie who was at GMA three. But Bill says something
to me, he said, John, Throughout the course of my career,
I've seen celebrities give their hairdressers executive producer credits.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Their dog walkers executive producing credits. He said.
Speaker 6 (09:04):
Sometimes crazy celebrities would sometimes want to give people EP
credits just to put money in their pockets so they
wouldn't have to pay them.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
This salary directly. He said, But you have a superpower here.
There's nobody who knows Sherry as good as you do.
Speaker 6 (09:17):
There's nobody who's going to get the performance out of
her the way that you will because of that relationship.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
And you, guys are.
Speaker 6 (09:22):
Going into a situation where people who need to learn
her and you're almost like the Sherry whistler. He says,
that's an invaluable asset. So, he said, despite the fact
that you know this genre, despite the fact that you're
great with people, you're going to be a great leader
and you're really going to help produce this wonderful content.
If they were just paying you for the relationship alone,
he said, it's worth every day. And it really shifted
my perspective walking into this space, and it prepared me
(09:45):
for a lot of what I was going to encounter
as we were embarking on the journey of the Sharferry Shop.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
So so good.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
And you have been walking with Sherry Shepherd for a
number of years in a four way to some of
the shows. She was say, call host on the View. Yeah, well,
and now you two. She if I'm not mistaken, correct
me if I'm wrong. I think she made a promise
like John, when I get my talk show, you're coming
(10:13):
with me.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (10:14):
So you know, Shery and I had a very unique
relationship because when Cherry was approached to join The View,
she had aged, she had managers and all that stuff.
She said she was praying and she asked, he I
want to talk to somebody who's now on my payroll
and I really want to get objective advice from them.
And literally I was in Chicago, I was doing a
(10:35):
speech at Burrell Communications. I was out shopping, walking down
Michigan Avenue, phone rings and Sherry, I answer it, and
she told me about her offer to join The View
and we talked about it, and that particular year it
didn't happen because they brought Rosie O'Donnell on the show
and they didn't want to add a second co host.
Fast forward about eight months later, Sherry started guest co
hosting on The View again. The whole Rosie and Elizabeth
(10:58):
blow up happens, and then all of a sudden, they're
looking to bring Sherry on the show again as a
permanent co host. Well her team at the time. The
negotiations didn't go very well and ABC took their offer
back from her, and Cherry called me and she cried,
she's really upset, and I coached her on how I
thought she could resurrect the deal. I basically told her,
(11:19):
I need you to call Bill Gaddy. I need you
to share his heart, your heart with him and tell
him why the financials, the MAFE math.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
And so she did exactly as I said. Bill Gatty told.
Speaker 6 (11:31):
Her, if you take this deal, the rest of the
money's going to come, and she said those were the
exact words I had said to her.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
So it was almost like.
Speaker 6 (11:38):
God was using him to confirm what I said. The
deal happened, and the rest is history, and Sherry's never
made another major decision in the entertainment industry again without
talking to me. So that set the foundation of our relationship.
When she went into guest hosts for the Wendy Williams
initially in twenty nineteen, Cherry said, Hey, can you come
in and help me? In addition into you just helping
(12:01):
produce me and my approach to the questions, I want
you to come and help write the show. Helped me
structure the show, and so I came in. I helped
write her monologue for the top of the show, you know,
helped her with the guests and things like that. What
most people don't know is this particular company had offered
Sherry a deal in twenty nineteen to embark on a
talk show journey.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
And things didn't work out.
Speaker 6 (12:22):
The pandemic didn't happen, and so twenty twenty one, Sherry
happened to be in New York City. She was filling
in at the View that week for somebody who was
out all week, and she got a call to comment
and fill in for Wendy again. This was the season
which Wendy didn't have everybody was guest hosting that particular season.
As Sherry called and said, do I really want to
do this? This is something I should do. And I
said to her, well, don't look at it like you're
(12:44):
going back to co host this time. How about go
in and do a five day pilot show.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
America.
Speaker 6 (12:48):
What the Sherry Shepherd Show would look like. You've been
taking all these meetings. People are uncertain about the market.
They want panel shows. Let's show them that you can
do a single host show and that you can.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Own this space. And she said, well do it if
you come and do it with me again. I came
in five shows.
Speaker 6 (13:03):
I helped her write the shows. You know, it was
a tough time. We're coming out the pandemic. There are
all these testing and protocols, and we got to sit
in the hotel for hours and build out this show
and we helped her hand picking to the guests and
the segments that she did. And by the end of
the first week, the ratings were through the roof. The
research was great, and everybody was saying this should be
the Sheriffy Show. And so Sherry came to me and said,
(13:27):
I know you're talking to one of the news agencies
about coming on as a contributor. I know you're off
for another cable show, and I know this big company's
talking to you about a podcast. What would it take
for you to walk away from everything that you have
going on to come on this journey with me? And
I said what, I got to pray about it first,
and so I came back to her the next day
and I said, listen, come on this journey with you
(13:47):
if I have this title, if I have these responsibilities,
and if they pay me my money.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
And she said, cool, I won't have a deal unless
you have a deal.
Speaker 6 (13:56):
And Sherry called our team and said, listen until John's
dealers don't send me a contract.
Speaker 7 (14:09):
Give it up for producer, singer, singer, writer, binger.
Speaker 5 (14:16):
And the most gospel artist ever in history, Yes, the
most amazing.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Y'all know his voice? Producer, What do you want me
to say? Artist, artist, artist, he.
Speaker 5 (14:27):
Does it all and she is gospel artist. Life was
life thing and twenty three life was life thing. It
was a lot that happened. And you know, we you know,
we're just still taking it one day at a time
and still trying to figure out, you know, what the
new normal looks like you know, you know, it's very
much kind of like how life was after the pandemic.
(14:49):
You know, you you had to figure out what the
new normal was for you.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
And so yeah, you know, that's what.
Speaker 5 (14:56):
I'm having to do and and I'm having to do
it at my own pace and own race. Uh, you know,
it can feel very daunting, but one day to time,
one day at a time.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
You say, at your own pace, at your own race.
But you decided to share.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
It with the world.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
Why did you decide to share that portion with us?
Speaker 5 (15:21):
Well, because I was already in the creative space. I
was already documenting the making of the album. And so yeah,
so as a creative, you don't know how not to
translate what you go through like it's someone like, as
a creative, I was going through that. Then it's going
to affect the songwriting. So if I have a camera
(15:42):
front of me, I'm going to naturally incorporate the moments
that I'm experiencing in the moment that I'm in. I mean,
I mean, you know, for you know, in my humble opinion,
I think for real, deepcore creative people, they don't know
a separation of art in reality. You know, there are
(16:03):
is there reality? So you know, uh, you know, you
just you just naturally continue in the lanes that are
very organic and very second nature for you. And you
know that second nature for me.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Did the album change?
Speaker 3 (16:24):
Like did you were your album starting off in one
way and then things happened with your father?
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Did it kind of? Did it change the album? New album?
Speaker 5 (16:35):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5 (16:36):
The name of the album originally was called The Rebirth
of the Fearless Hero. That was that was the name
of the album. I was taking different titles from different albums,
and and uh, yeah, it was it was going to
be one project that was going in another kind of direction,
and uh, this ended up being, you know, the background
(16:58):
music for a very tumultuous, life changing experience that I
was having in real time.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
I can only imagine that it was scary for you
to release that information to us, right, But at the
same time, you became, if you weren't already, a lot
of people's hero for being able to share, especially a
(17:27):
man to share and be vulnerable on camera. I always
say there's a difference between being transparent and vulnerable. When
you're transparent, you can tell the world anything. Hey I
stelled my toe, Hey I was late for a meeting today.
But being vulnerable, you actually told us how it made
you feel, which being.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
Vulnerable for me feels yucky.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
I hate feeling vulnerable and then having to voice how
it made me feel. I feel like I'm watching it
all over again, just talking to you.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
Yeah, And I don't know what other way to be is.
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (18:10):
Me talking and me sharing is very much just a
part of my nature. It's very second nature for me,
so as I don't know how to have the separate
space where these things in my life exist over here.
But then I'm going to do music and share the
gospel and yeah, and talk about Jesus over here. Now
(18:33):
they are synonymous in the expression of who I am
as a broken individual, and so I wouldn't know different
to do.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
Yeah, it's like every time you come out with a project,
it's like we're hearing Kirk for the first time. It's
like you somehow you keep our anticipation, you keep everybody
so excited, and you're all.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
Well to us.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
I don't know if you ever feel that way, but
it seems like you're always winning.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Except for that, of course, by the grace of God
his hand on your life.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
And every time you come out, you stay relevant.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Just I just y'all.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
I'm sitting here almost fanning out because this is what
I've been wanting to say to you. It's like you're
fresh still, like you're new. How do you keep that energy?
How do you keep us like literally on the edges
of our seat, Like, what is Kirk Franklin gonna do
(19:39):
for us musically?
Speaker 5 (19:41):
I have no idea.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
I have no idea, Kirk, you'd be so humble. But
I'm also keeping it a buck.
Speaker 5 (19:51):
Nobody, nobody knows what Listen, you have been doing music
all your life, you know, like I know, don't nobody? Oh,
think about all the big producers that you as artist,
You were Destiny's child. You you seeing your other sister
do and there every records you think, oh this record
(20:12):
is out of here, and it don't.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
I mean, nobody knows.
Speaker 5 (20:17):
So why would I get on here with you and
even act like I have some divine intervention spiritual hookup
number from God that I can just tell you something
that is going to be so divinely supernaturally different.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
Everybody wants you to bottle up the secret sauce and
sell it.
Speaker 5 (20:37):
And there is no secret sauce, I don't is that
nobody knows you know?
Speaker 2 (20:43):
I guess, sir, I can't.
Speaker 5 (20:44):
You know, like even with you know, even with the
new music, you don't know you know.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
I mean, you don't know, you don't know, you.
Speaker 5 (20:54):
Know you know, But you're mad, grateful, and overwhelmed that
in spite of you, in spite of your mistakes and failures,
are sins and struggles that you know there's something in you,
in spite of you, that God would choose to use
in some kind of way.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
It's it's amazing.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Once again, thank you for tuning into the Black Effect
Podcast Network. See you in twenty twenty five for more
great moments from your favorite podcast
It peaks of the planet charlamagnea god here And as
(00:02):
we come close to closing out this year, I just
want to say thank you for tuning into the Black
Effect podcast network. There have been so many great moments
over the past year. Take a listen to some of
those captivating moments in this special best of episode.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Y'all listen.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
I am very excited to have on checking in pastor
Mike Todd.
Speaker 4 (00:24):
I am so excited to be here with you. I
feel like you're my sister. We got to meet for
just a little moment in Atlanta and it was like,
where have you been all my life? And it's just
really one of those cool, cool moments to connect with
people who actually care about doing the inner work as
well as all the things that are happening in public.
So yeah, I wrote a book about relationship goals about
(00:48):
me and my wife, who I've been dating since I
was fourteen years old, is when I met her, and
literally all the ups and downs, trials, tribulations, crazy moments,
and our story of redemption and just some things that
people could be helped in relationship because people kind of
fail at that a lot in this day and age.
And I put it out in the middle of a pandemic.
(01:10):
I'd never written a book before. I barely passed math,
math and English in high school. So it was like,
I mean, let me just share something that I think
is valuable. And I mean it went crazy and people
bought it all over the world. And to think that's
the first time I've heard the two million number, that's ridiculous.
Like the fact that book has gone on. I just
(01:32):
pray that it's a blessing to people for a long
long time and help people win in Mayorage, dating and sex.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
That's it.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
And he smiled really big too when you got to
say that, because he got somebody, he gets to go
home to his woife.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Glory to the living guard. Listen, listen, listen, Lord help
me too.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Oh don't and I have it wasn't It wasn't y'all listening.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
It wasn't none of your business. But yes, okay.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
Any Another fact is that you are the lead pastor
of Transformation Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
I am, okay, I am. And there's so many ways
I can go.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Relationship goes the faith testimony of how you guys acquired
the building and just your whole journey it would take
hours to talk about it.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
But I also want to tell.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
People, y'all, he is a phenomenal musician, producer.
Speaker 4 (02:29):
I say, a musician, Michelle, you're doing too much to know.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
We're here to talk about damage but not destroyed, from
trauma to triumph. I get it, and we're gonna get there.
But y'all, he's more than.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Pastoring.
Speaker 5 (02:45):
Is call.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
That's the thing.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
And we'll talk about a choice that you might have
had to make. Okay, let's just let's do that.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
The choice. Just let's do it.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
The choice that you possibly had to make to lay
down music to go into ministry. Yeah, now music can
be ministry, but I'm just saying in the form of
ministry that you now you had to lay down the
desire to be the artist and producer musician.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
So part of part of my journey is I tell
people all the time, you are not what you do
only and a lot of people so many times they
wrap their entire identity off of whatever became successful. And
one of the things that.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
I own, they walk in heavy six minutes in Oh.
Speaker 4 (03:29):
I thought we was I thought we came to do
it like I thought this was that podcast so we
could go all the way in. And so the truth
of the matter is a lot of people, whatever successful,
they think that's where they should rest all of their
identity and purpose. But the one thing I learned very
early on is that God never gives people just one seed.
(03:51):
He gives so many seeds on the inside. It depends
on what you water. And on the inside of me
there were so many seeds music and speaking and creative
and all these things, and I decided that at a
young age, I was going to water all of them.
And so when the fruits started coming from all of them,
I had to make a decision to begin to ask
God what was my assignment, not my opportunity. And a
(04:14):
lot of people right now are caught because they have
so many opportunities and they don't know what an assignment is.
And that's where I'm here to really tell this generation
that you only can get an assignment from God, but
if you good, you can have tons of opportunities. And
so my journey took me to a place where the
(04:34):
greatest thing that I do is never what can I do,
It's what does God want me to do? And that's
where I think a lot of people are off right now.
Somebody could offer me a lot of money to do
something I'm good at, but I knew it wouldn't be
my assignment and so that thing wouldn't be blessed for me.
And so I just know that for me, that's what happened.
In the music and ministry. I would have been successful
(04:55):
as a music producer. I probably would have produced your
third album. I probably would have done all of those things.
It's done, and now there's still an opportunity I would
have been I would have been there. But at the
same token, God's timing is perfect. When you obey him,
he brings everything back around. He wastes nothing. There is
nothing that he's going to put on the inside of
(05:15):
you that he's gonna leave on the inside of you.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
It's just about timing.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
And so now is the season where I'm getting to
walk into a whole bunch of music opportunities. People that
I love, like Michelle Williams, I'm sitting on the phone
with So if I had a track, I could text
it to you right now.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Do you understand what I'm saying?
Speaker 4 (05:29):
Like, following his purpose leads me into the thing that
I love, and that's a passion.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Wow. I don't have no title or anything in church.
But I'm hearing siki.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
First the Kingdom, Oh yeah of God in Matthew six
thirty three.
Speaker 4 (05:45):
Yes, and then everything else gets at it. And a
lot of people are seeking the things. They're going after
the things instead of him, and they go after the
things what I say, instead of the king. And the
King actually knows the playbook, he knows the lay of
the land, he knows what he wants for you to do.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
And I've just found in my short.
Speaker 4 (06:03):
Little life of a lot of impact comes from places
I didn't think it was gonna come from, because I
did it in the timing that God wanted it to happen,
not in the timing that I wanted it to happen.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
And the more you.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
Like lean into that and get into that lane, you
don't have to worry nothing I'm doing right now. I
have to hold up. I just got to show up
like I'm not trying to hold things together. I'm not
trying to finesse and do all of these things that
a lot of people have to do. And that's what
causes stress, that's what causes burnout, and that's what causes trauma.
And so a lot of people have to really reel
(06:37):
themselves back in to figure out what's my assignment, not
just what's my opportunity.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
Executive producer, pop culture expert. Once again, did I say
executive producer? Executive producer of the Emmy nominated amazing show,
The Sherry Shepherd Show.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Please welcome My and John and Murray.
Speaker 6 (07:02):
Sherry Shepherd was a friend of mine and also a client,
and so like the we met.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
At Doctor Bobby Jones.
Speaker 6 (07:09):
Funny enough, I used to do an artist and treat
price a year in Las Vegas, and Sherry was a
big reader of my column. She came up to me
in the hallway one day and was like, Hey, I
know you don't know who I am, but I'm a
big fan of your work. And I was like, oh,
you're the little black actress and all the big white sitcoms.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Of course I know you. And we became friends.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
John and John really, John really will say that like
that line, go ahead, and she left and we.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Shary's information and we became friends.
Speaker 6 (07:35):
And so whenever Sherry would do appearances when she was
co hosting the View, sometimes whenever topics and stuff she
wanted to work through, she'd bring me on to help
her figure that out. If she had to go do
a promo run for a movie project or something, she
had me come and help her finess her sound bites
and stuffing. And so what I did not realize then
was that it really was setting me up for my
(07:56):
life as a producer was now it was teaching me
how to get the best out of people. It was
teaching me how to connect with people so that they
could be their best. And so when I was a
prior to this executive producer roun with Sherry, I had
done a bunch of consulting, producing for some awards shows
and some specials. I have both produced and directed some
(08:16):
episodes and TV ones uncensored. But the executive producer role
is you're the boss. You know, you hire, you fire,
you have one of the final.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Says on creative. You're leading the team.
Speaker 6 (08:27):
And so there were people when Sherry said I will
only go on this journey with John that was looking
like how did he get the lete for a whole
of all those people?
Speaker 2 (08:35):
And you know, how is he in this position? And
the truth of the matter is.
Speaker 6 (08:38):
The late great Bill Getty who helps create the view
with Barbara Walters. He helps mentor me through this process
of going on this executive producer journey along with Twitch.
He was at Ellen, along with Heather Gray who was
at the talk, and along with my dear friend Kat
mackenzie who was at GMA three. But Bill says something
to me, he said, John, Throughout the course of my career,
I've seen celebrities give their hairdressers executive producer credits.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Their dog walkers executive producing credits. He said.
Speaker 6 (09:04):
Sometimes crazy celebrities would sometimes want to give people EP
credits just to put money in their pockets so they
wouldn't have to pay them.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
This salary directly. He said, But you have a superpower here.
There's nobody who knows Sherry as good as you do.
Speaker 6 (09:17):
There's nobody who's going to get the performance out of
her the way that you will because of that relationship.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
And you, guys are.
Speaker 6 (09:22):
Going into a situation where people who need to learn
her and you're almost like the Sherry whistler. He says,
that's an invaluable asset. So, he said, despite the fact
that you know this genre, despite the fact that you're
great with people, you're going to be a great leader
and you're really going to help produce this wonderful content.
If they were just paying you for the relationship alone,
he said, it's worth every day. And it really shifted
my perspective walking into this space, and it prepared me
(09:45):
for a lot of what I was going to encounter
as we were embarking on the journey of the Sharferry Shop.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
So so good.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
And you have been walking with Sherry Shepherd for a
number of years in a four way to some of
the shows. She was say, call host on the View. Yeah, well,
and now you two. She if I'm not mistaken, correct
me if I'm wrong. I think she made a promise
like John, when I get my talk show, you're coming
(10:13):
with me.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (10:14):
So you know, Shery and I had a very unique
relationship because when Cherry was approached to join The View,
she had aged, she had managers and all that stuff.
She said she was praying and she asked, he I
want to talk to somebody who's now on my payroll
and I really want to get objective advice from them.
And literally I was in Chicago, I was doing a
(10:35):
speech at Burrell Communications. I was out shopping, walking down
Michigan Avenue, phone rings and Sherry, I answer it, and
she told me about her offer to join The View
and we talked about it, and that particular year it
didn't happen because they brought Rosie O'Donnell on the show
and they didn't want to add a second co host.
Fast forward about eight months later, Sherry started guest co
hosting on The View again. The whole Rosie and Elizabeth
(10:58):
blow up happens, and then all of a sudden, they're
looking to bring Sherry on the show again as a
permanent co host. Well her team at the time. The
negotiations didn't go very well and ABC took their offer
back from her, and Cherry called me and she cried,
she's really upset, and I coached her on how I
thought she could resurrect the deal. I basically told her,
(11:19):
I need you to call Bill Gaddy. I need you
to share his heart, your heart with him and tell
him why the financials, the MAFE math.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
And so she did exactly as I said. Bill Gatty told.
Speaker 6 (11:31):
Her, if you take this deal, the rest of the
money's going to come, and she said those were the
exact words I had said to her.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
So it was almost like.
Speaker 6 (11:38):
God was using him to confirm what I said. The
deal happened, and the rest is history, and Sherry's never
made another major decision in the entertainment industry again without
talking to me. So that set the foundation of our relationship.
When she went into guest hosts for the Wendy Williams
initially in twenty nineteen, Cherry said, Hey, can you come
in and help me? In addition into you just helping
(12:01):
produce me and my approach to the questions, I want
you to come and help write the show. Helped me
structure the show, and so I came in. I helped
write her monologue for the top of the show, you know,
helped her with the guests and things like that. What
most people don't know is this particular company had offered
Sherry a deal in twenty nineteen to embark on a
talk show journey.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
And things didn't work out.
Speaker 6 (12:22):
The pandemic didn't happen, and so twenty twenty one, Sherry
happened to be in New York City. She was filling
in at the View that week for somebody who was
out all week, and she got a call to comment
and fill in for Wendy again. This was the season
which Wendy didn't have everybody was guest hosting that particular season.
As Sherry called and said, do I really want to
do this? This is something I should do. And I
said to her, well, don't look at it like you're
(12:44):
going back to co host this time. How about go
in and do a five day pilot show.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
America.
Speaker 6 (12:48):
What the Sherry Shepherd Show would look like. You've been
taking all these meetings. People are uncertain about the market.
They want panel shows. Let's show them that you can
do a single host show and that you can.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Own this space. And she said, well do it if
you come and do it with me again. I came
in five shows.
Speaker 6 (13:03):
I helped her write the shows. You know, it was
a tough time. We're coming out the pandemic. There are
all these testing and protocols, and we got to sit
in the hotel for hours and build out this show
and we helped her hand picking to the guests and
the segments that she did. And by the end of
the first week, the ratings were through the roof. The
research was great, and everybody was saying this should be
the Sheriffy Show. And so Sherry came to me and said,
(13:27):
I know you're talking to one of the news agencies
about coming on as a contributor. I know you're off
for another cable show, and I know this big company's
talking to you about a podcast. What would it take
for you to walk away from everything that you have
going on to come on this journey with me? And
I said what, I got to pray about it first,
and so I came back to her the next day
and I said, listen, come on this journey with you
(13:47):
if I have this title, if I have these responsibilities,
and if they pay me my money.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
And she said, cool, I won't have a deal unless
you have a deal.
Speaker 6 (13:56):
And Sherry called our team and said, listen until John's
dealers don't send me a contract.
Speaker 7 (14:09):
Give it up for producer, singer, singer, writer, binger.
Speaker 5 (14:16):
And the most gospel artist ever in history, Yes, the
most amazing.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Y'all know his voice? Producer, What do you want me
to say? Artist, artist, artist, he.
Speaker 5 (14:27):
Does it all and she is gospel artist. Life was
life thing and twenty three life was life thing. It
was a lot that happened. And you know, we you know,
we're just still taking it one day at a time
and still trying to figure out, you know, what the
new normal looks like you know, you know, it's very
much kind of like how life was after the pandemic.
(14:49):
You know, you you had to figure out what the
new normal was for you.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
And so yeah, you know, that's what.
Speaker 5 (14:56):
I'm having to do and and I'm having to do
it at my own pace and own race. Uh, you know,
it can feel very daunting, but one day to time,
one day at a time.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
You say, at your own pace, at your own race.
But you decided to share.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
It with the world.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
Why did you decide to share that portion with us?
Speaker 5 (15:21):
Well, because I was already in the creative space. I
was already documenting the making of the album. And so yeah,
so as a creative, you don't know how not to
translate what you go through like it's someone like, as
a creative, I was going through that. Then it's going
to affect the songwriting. So if I have a camera
(15:42):
front of me, I'm going to naturally incorporate the moments
that I'm experiencing in the moment that I'm in. I mean,
I mean, you know, for you know, in my humble opinion,
I think for real, deepcore creative people, they don't know
a separation of art in reality. You know, there are
(16:03):
is there reality? So you know, uh, you know, you
just you just naturally continue in the lanes that are
very organic and very second nature for you. And you
know that second nature for me.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Did the album change?
Speaker 3 (16:24):
Like did you were your album starting off in one
way and then things happened with your father?
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Did it kind of? Did it change the album? New album?
Speaker 5 (16:35):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5 (16:36):
The name of the album originally was called The Rebirth
of the Fearless Hero. That was that was the name
of the album. I was taking different titles from different albums,
and and uh, yeah, it was it was going to
be one project that was going in another kind of direction,
and uh, this ended up being, you know, the background
(16:58):
music for a very tumultuous, life changing experience that I
was having in real time.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
I can only imagine that it was scary for you
to release that information to us, right, But at the
same time, you became, if you weren't already, a lot
of people's hero for being able to share, especially a
(17:27):
man to share and be vulnerable on camera. I always
say there's a difference between being transparent and vulnerable. When
you're transparent, you can tell the world anything. Hey I
stelled my toe, Hey I was late for a meeting today.
But being vulnerable, you actually told us how it made
you feel, which being.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
Vulnerable for me feels yucky.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
I hate feeling vulnerable and then having to voice how
it made me feel. I feel like I'm watching it
all over again, just talking to you.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
Yeah, And I don't know what other way to be is.
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (18:10):
Me talking and me sharing is very much just a
part of my nature. It's very second nature for me,
so as I don't know how to have the separate
space where these things in my life exist over here.
But then I'm going to do music and share the
gospel and yeah, and talk about Jesus over here. Now
(18:33):
they are synonymous in the expression of who I am
as a broken individual, and so I wouldn't know different
to do.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
Yeah, it's like every time you come out with a project,
it's like we're hearing Kirk for the first time. It's
like you somehow you keep our anticipation, you keep everybody
so excited, and you're all.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
Well to us.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
I don't know if you ever feel that way, but
it seems like you're always winning.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Except for that, of course, by the grace of God
his hand on your life.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
And every time you come out, you stay relevant.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Just I just y'all.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
I'm sitting here almost fanning out because this is what
I've been wanting to say to you. It's like you're
fresh still, like you're new. How do you keep that energy?
How do you keep us like literally on the edges
of our seat, Like, what is Kirk Franklin gonna do
(19:39):
for us musically?
Speaker 5 (19:41):
I have no idea.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
I have no idea, Kirk, you'd be so humble. But
I'm also keeping it a buck.
Speaker 5 (19:51):
Nobody, nobody knows what Listen, you have been doing music
all your life, you know, like I know, don't nobody? Oh,
think about all the big producers that you as artist,
You were Destiny's child. You you seeing your other sister
do and there every records you think, oh this record
(20:12):
is out of here, and it don't.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
I mean, nobody knows.
Speaker 5 (20:17):
So why would I get on here with you and
even act like I have some divine intervention spiritual hookup
number from God that I can just tell you something
that is going to be so divinely supernaturally different.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
Everybody wants you to bottle up the secret sauce and
sell it.
Speaker 5 (20:37):
And there is no secret sauce, I don't is that
nobody knows you know?
Speaker 2 (20:43):
I guess, sir, I can't.
Speaker 5 (20:44):
You know, like even with you know, even with the
new music, you don't know you know.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
I mean, you don't know, you don't know, you.
Speaker 5 (20:54):
Know you know, But you're mad, grateful, and overwhelmed that
in spite of you, in spite of your mistakes and failures,
are sins and struggles that you know there's something in you,
in spite of you, that God would choose to use
in some kind of way.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
It's it's amazing.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Once again, thank you for tuning into the Black Effect
Podcast Network. See you in twenty twenty five for more
great moments from your favorite podcast
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