Latest / Entrusted to Lead Podcast / A Season of Transformation: Akiva McClam on Faith, Leadership, and Theater

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A Season of Transformation: Akiva McClam on Faith, Leadership, and Theater · Entrusted to Lead Podcast

• 0:06
  Danita: Hey friends, welcome to today's bonus episode.
• 0:09
  Danita: As I sit down with my good friend Akiva McClam, and we talk about his debut play, I'll Be Home for Christmas.
• 0:15
  Danita: That's launching in Orlando this Saturday, December 14.
• 0:18
  Danita: He shares his heart for the gospel, how he became a creative playwright, and his love for helping communities grow.
• 0:24
  Danita: So grab your cup of coffee, and let's get started.
• 0:32
  Danita: Well, hey friends, welcome to the Entrusted to Lead podcast.
• 0:35
  Danita: I'm Dadida, and I am joined today by my friend, Akiva McClam.
• 0:39
  Danita: He is the Playwright and CEO and that trend, and I'll let him explain all those amazing things and how that journey transpired.
• 0:49
  Danita: But he is here to talk about his amazing play that's being released, one of the new ones.
• 0:53
  Danita: So I'm super excited, invited him to come on the show and tell his amazing journey and share all of his lessons of leadership and faith and, and all the amazing things that's happened in his life.
• 1:02
  Danita: So thanks friend for joining me today.
• 1:03
  Danita: How are you?
• 1:04
  Danita: Oh, I'm great.
• 1:05
  Danita: And thank you for having me on today.
• 1:07
  Danita: I'm excited.
• 1:08
  Danita: Good to see you.
• 1:09
  Danita: It's so good to see you.
• 1:11
  Danita: I know this is so crazy.
• 1:13
  Danita: I love this podcast.
• 1:14
  Danita: I love how God's like, here, use something like a podcast.
• 1:17
  Danita: And you know, and I get to meet amazing people that I haven't seen in forever.
• 1:21
  Danita: So do you want to tell everybody a little bit about where you're at today and, and what's going on in your life?
• 1:26
  Danita: Cause it's a busy week for you.
• 1:28
  Danita: It is a very busy week.
• 1:30
  Danita: Uh, we just finished one doing a production.
• 1:32
  Danita: Um, it's a stage play called I'll be home for Christmas, you know, right.
• 1:36
  Danita: Doing this season time, all the Christmas stories comes out, the movies, the plays.
• 1:41
  Danita: Um, and I'm doing a play and it's called, I'll be home for Christmas, a season of transformation.
• 1:46
  Danita: And I put that in, in parentheses because that season of transformation is, it talks about the family, uh, going through some unforgiveness in the family.
• 1:54
  Danita: And I think it's a time right now that a life we live in a lot of family to come together a lot more, not just on Christmas, but just we got to bring those ties of strong family ties together.
• 2:06
  Danita: So that's what I'm doing now.
• 2:07
  Danita: We just finished a zoom rehearsal last week and this week coming Monday.
• 2:12
  Danita: All the cast could be flying in into Florida.
• 2:15
  Danita: Wow.
• 2:16
  Danita: And we're in Florida.
• 2:17
  Danita: We're in Florida.
• 2:17
  Danita: Are you guys at?
• 2:18
  Danita: It's going to be, yeah, it's going to be Orlando, Florida.
• 2:21
  Danita: In Orlando.
• 2:22
  Danita: Okay.
• 2:22
  Danita: So I knew you maybe 20 years ago, maybe.
• 2:28
  Danita: Are we sharing our age?
• 2:29
  Danita: Yeah.
• 2:29
  Danita: You know what?
• 2:30
  Danita: It's funny.
• 2:30
  Danita: Somebody asked me, um, I was trying to use my military discount and they asked me what year I retired.
• 2:38
  Danita: And I looked at the year and I could not believe it.
• 2:40
  Danita: You know, what year was that?
• 2:42
  Danita: It was actually it was 2008 because I got out medical discharge.
• 2:45
  Danita: Yeah.
• 2:45
  Danita: So, so they retired me, you know, Air Force, you know, God was good.
• 2:48
  Danita: I got a medical retirement and, that was back in 2008 off November the first.
• 2:52
  Danita: Wow.
• 2:53
  Danita: You have obviously playwright and you've started and created this amazing company and brought all these people from all over, who have a passion and a faith for art, in theater.
• 3:03
  Danita: And.
• 3:03
  Danita: And when we were in the military, we were not art and theater majors.
• 3:07
  Danita: We were radio operators doing national command authority, nuclear C3 stuff, which I tell people is super boring, but how do you tell us a little bit about that journey?
• 3:19
  Danita: Like I have a thousand questions, but how did you end up where you are today?
• 3:23
  Danita: Well, you know, uh, it's actually started when I was a little kid.
• 3:26
  Danita: I had a robust imagination.
• 3:29
  Danita: I used to play my little mentors, you know, the, the GI Joes and all that type of stuff.
• 3:33
  Danita: And I would sit at the table and I just go and lose myself into this world I created.
• 3:38
  Danita: Right.
• 3:39
  Danita: And, um, and I didn't think about this until later when people would say, how do you get into writing?
• 3:44
  Danita: And I had to really think about it.
• 3:45
  Danita: I remember I already started having these thoughts in my mind, these big imagination and big ideas.
• 3:51
  Danita: And, um, actually when I got in college.
• 3:53
  Danita: did the same thing.
• 3:54
  Danita: I used to jot some stuff down.
• 3:56
  Danita: But honestly, when I got in the military, it's like that just went away.
• 4:00
  Danita: I ain't think about it.
• 4:01
  Danita: Um, until one day, I was attending a church in, in Waldorf, Maryland.
• 4:06
  Danita: And they asked like, Hey, can someone write us a Christian production?
• 4:10
  Danita: We never had a play.
• 4:12
  Danita: And I was asked for, to, write a play.
• 4:15
  Danita: And I'm like, why you guys choose me?
• 4:16
  Danita: Why me?
• 4:17
  Danita: I don't write plays.
• 4:18
  Danita: I wasn't thinking about writing plays.
• 4:20
  Danita: In college at Bethune Community University, I graduated from in 96.
• 4:24
  Danita: I majored in sociology, so I got a BS, a BS degree in sociology.
• 4:29
  Danita: I didn't go to school for communication or, or anything in theater.
• 4:32
  Danita: I wasn't doing that at all.
• 4:34
  Danita: But the faith part come in, when you mentioned that, it's when I say yes to God, that I would do it.
• 4:40
  Danita: No lie.
• 4:41
  Danita: I sat at the table and I started getting all these ideas coming to me and I can see the words flowing around me.
• 4:47
  Danita: I grabbed my laptop and I just started typing, I started typing, what I was seeing floating around and coming to my spirit.
• 4:53
  Danita: And I was just typing this day.
• 4:54
  Danita: No, I wrote my first Christian production in seven days.
• 4:57
  Danita: Wow.
• 4:58
  Danita: In seven days.
• 4:59
  Danita: Yeah.
• 4:59
  Danita: That's and how long, what's the average that it normally takes, I guess something like that.
• 5:05
  Danita: Ooh.
• 5:05
  Danita: After that.
• 5:06
  Danita: After that, my second play took me about six or seven months to write.
• 5:10
  Danita: And then now it's like, he's out of, cause maybe because I do this part time, you know, now, if I had, if I really had time to do this full time, um, I probably can write a play within six months.
• 5:23
  Danita: On average.
• 5:23
  Danita: Gotcha.
• 5:24
  Danita: But now, um, working full time, being a family person, all that type of stuff, but my full time job though is what took a lot.
• 5:31
  Danita: I can, um, I had to have, I wrote this play in a year, you know, about a year time frame to really get things moving, get all the production together.
• 5:38
  Danita: Takes about a good year of everything.
• 5:40
  Danita: Yeah.
• 5:41
  Danita: And do you think like on that moment where you said, you said yes to God, but you weren't qualified.
• 5:47
  Danita: No.
• 5:47
  Danita: Right.
• 5:48
  Danita: You didn't feel like you were like, I got this.
• 5:50
  Danita: I know this.
• 5:51
  Danita: Like I've been to school.
• 5:52
  Danita: I have papers.
• 5:53
  Danita: I have letters after my name.
• 5:54
  Danita: Remember that moment where you just decided like, what was it inside of you that finally said, It was this year after, after 10 years, after 10 years of doing it, it was this year.
• 6:05
  Danita: You know why I was this year was most key for me to say that what you just said, just forget about it.
• 6:09
  Danita: I didn't go to school for this.
• 6:10
  Danita: Forget it.
• 6:11
  Danita: I didn't, you know, get a master's degree.
• 6:12
  Danita: I don't know anything about the, how to format the script.
• 6:15
  Danita: Forget about it.
• 6:16
  Danita: Right.
• 6:17
  Danita: Until I started working with celebrities in my play, it took me about 10, almost going 11 years.
• 6:22
  Danita: Now they have major, you know, Stars coming in my play now, right?
• 6:26
  Danita: And I was saying how they gonna receive me a person that went to school from this these guys I'm being on TV shows I'm being on HBO series You know, they make a movie.
• 6:36
  Danita: They don't do all that stuff How they gonna receive me giving them direction and the person ain't got no degree Guess what?
• 6:42
  Danita: You know what came to my spirit?
• 6:43
  Danita: No, God told me it said Moses didn't have the experience of bringing the Israelites to the Red Sea.
• 6:51
  Danita: That's right.
• 6:52
  Danita: You know what I'm saying?
• 6:52
  Danita: Yeah.
• 6:53
  Danita: And he, and he led them there.
• 6:54
  Danita: And when they got to the point where he felt that as a Red Sea in front of them, they, where are they going to go?
• 6:58
  Danita: Where are they going to go?
• 6:59
  Danita: He said, as like, I commanded Moses to pick up his staff and raise that, um, raise the staff and, and command.
• 7:07
  Danita: He told me the same thing as long as they connected to him.
• 7:11
  Danita: And when I get to that point, when I feel like I'm, Come across the Red Sea, just raise my style and just listen to God and God gonna, gonna, gonna park that seat for me.
• 7:19
  Danita: That's right.
• 7:20
  Danita: And because I keep that attitude, these guys, I went through a whole trend of rehearsal with these guys, these celebrities, the great talent that, um, who's working to be, you know, in that celebrity status in the local area, they all said, man, Akiva, You know, even though you didn't go to school for this, but it comes natural to you.
• 7:39
  Danita: This one lady who, uh, started work, played with Jennifer Lopez in the TV series before.
• 7:43
  Danita: And she told me this after rehearsal, she said, Kiva, people, directors like you go to school and they basically pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to get what you're doing naturally.
• 7:56
  Danita: And when she told me that, it's because I raised the staff and God just dumped everything to me.
• 8:01
  Danita: I just follow his command and instruction.
• 8:03
  Danita: I'm okay.
• 8:04
  Danita: I'm okay.
• 8:04
  Danita: Yeah, I think that's a beautiful thing.
• 8:06
  Danita: It's interesting because I was just having a conversation with somebody earlier today and we're talking about faith.
• 8:11
  Danita: Sometimes faith is when, God called Moses and he had a staff in his hand, right?
• 8:17
  Danita: And, and then God said, raise the staff and then the sea will part and you can see the dry land.
• 8:22
  Danita: And then walk.
• 8:23
  Danita: So Moses, his faith was like, all I need you to do is lift the stick, you know, just raise the stick.
• 8:29
  Danita: But sometimes faith is like, there is no stick.
• 8:32
  Danita: And God's like, Hey, I need you to put your foot in the raging river.
• 8:35
  Danita: It's going to part.
• 8:36
  Danita: I promise.
• 8:37
  Danita: But, but I think that's the other thing too.
• 8:40
  Danita: I I'm learning in this season of my life is like.
• 8:42
  Danita: Sometimes faith is a stick and you can see it in your hand and you touch it.
• 8:45
  Danita: And you're like, Oh, this isn't, I can do this.
• 8:47
  Danita: But then it's, it's okay if it's not a stick.
• 8:50
  Danita: And you're like, God is asking you like Joshua to put your foot in the raging water and you don't know how deep it is.
• 8:55
  Danita: And you don't know what's on the other side, you know?
• 8:57
  Danita: And, and in that scenario for you, you didn't know, cause you didn't have any frame of reference.
• 9:03
  Danita: You didn't have school.
• 9:04
  Danita: What was community like for you?
• 9:07
  Danita: So, um, at the time I was married, you know, um, so that's one of, you know, um, uh, you know, as wife, I don't want to call it as wife because we're still friends today, you know what I'm saying?
• 9:17
  Danita: But she believed in me at an early stage to remember that she the one who say, won't you write the play for the church?
• 9:23
  Danita: And I'm asking why me?
• 9:25
  Danita: And she reminded me back in those days in college.
• 9:28
  Danita: That I used to, she used to, you know, but he used to watch me, you know, do that.
• 9:31
  Danita: So I had her support at a time.
• 9:33
  Danita: Then I had the church support that I was going to.
• 9:36
  Danita: And then God was introduced me to a lot of people, the local playwrights, the local actors.
• 9:41
  Danita: So I, he surrounded me around people that I can connect to and network with.
• 9:46
  Danita: Right.
• 9:46
  Danita: The key thing I began to network.
• 9:48
  Danita: about, uh, what I'm doing is the ability to network with people and talk, you know, don't be afraid to talk to people.
• 9:56
  Danita: Um, and also giving people an opportunity.
• 9:59
  Danita: So I got onto YouTube, I got onto social media, all the type of stuff, Instagram, and I recruited because I was a past football player back in the day.
• 10:09
  Danita: I utilize the same tactic of recruiting the key.
• 10:12
  Danita: People in the play by recruiting them like a, uh, a college recruiter, you know, the same methodology of looking and studying.
• 10:21
  Danita: I was studying people for about six months to a year before I approached them about a play.
• 10:26
  Danita: But what were you looking for as you were watching them?
• 10:28
  Danita: Yep.
• 10:28
  Danita: Yeah.
• 10:28
  Danita: No, I mean, it's not like that.
• 10:32
  Danita: I don't mean it to sound creepy.
• 10:34
  Danita: Right.
• 10:34
  Danita: People are like, why are you watching?
• 10:35
  Danita: No, I don't know.
• 10:37
  Danita: It's a disclaimer.
• 10:37
  Danita: We're not stalkers.
• 10:38
  Danita: Yeah.
• 10:40
  Danita: But the thing is though, um, when I was watching a lot of things, one, do they have it?
• 10:45
  Danita: You know, I can see if they got it, meaning they're not shy.
• 10:48
  Danita: They, they bold about what they're doing.
• 10:49
  Danita: They got showmanship.
• 10:51
  Danita: And two, I'm trying to see where they fit the personality of this character I'm writing, you know, cause I already don't wrote the script.
• 10:58
  Danita: I already have a script in my mind and now I'm out there going to look and recruit.
• 11:03
  Danita: And God, every time.
• 11:04
  Danita: Now, honestly, I don't do much, auditions.
• 11:07
  Danita: Wow.
• 11:08
  Danita: I really don't.
• 11:09
  Danita: I really, I sit back and I just sit back and watch people.
• 11:12
  Danita: God lead me to those right people.
• 11:14
  Danita: And I sit back and watch them.
• 11:15
  Danita: The only time I do auditions is when people say, well, you know, other people may want to get involved.
• 11:20
  Danita: You're not, you're leaving them out.
• 11:22
  Danita: So I would do it just to get some supporting actors.
• 11:25
  Danita: You know, but those main, those main characters, God lead me to those people.
• 11:30
  Danita: I know nothing about the acting world, I'm sure performance is a piece of it, but you're looking at the values that that person has.
• 11:37
  Danita: Is that right?
• 11:37
  Danita: So you're looking at not just their performance ability to put on a show or to assume the identity of a character, but are you also looking at a deeper level because you have a faith is that what seems to come as you're looking at people?
• 11:53
  Danita: Well, yes and no, because, um, when I write these plays, I believe in writing with, um, people who's non believers or believers.
• 11:59
  Danita: Sure.
• 11:59
  Danita: I have no problem with that preference because in this life, we live in this world, you know, but God just tell us we don't have to be a part of this world, but we live in this world.
• 12:07
  Danita: So to be able to reach out the masses that really don't, don't really believe in God, I have to utilize them.
• 12:12
  Danita: You know, God could use a rock, God uses a donkey, whatever.
• 12:16
  Danita: I can use those non believers as well.
• 12:17
  Danita: I can use atheists.
• 12:19
  Danita: Yeah.
• 12:19
  Danita: Just play his part.
• 12:19
  Danita: Yeah.
• 12:19
  Danita: But guess what?
• 12:20
  Danita: As soon as he done working with me and with my play, my passion, my, my love for God.
• 12:25
  Danita: Cause I don't change my personality because you're atheist.
• 12:29
  Danita: I'm going to be remain who I am.
• 12:30
  Danita: Then at the end of the day, they were like, Hey, um, I'm going through some, all my mother's going through some, can you pray for me?
• 12:36
  Danita: You know?
• 12:37
  Danita: And I was like, yeah, okay.
• 12:38
  Danita: I'm willing you in there, you know, but you know, because I refuse to change, but answer your question.
• 12:44
  Danita: Um, Yes.
• 12:45
  Danita: And no, I do look for everything.
• 12:47
  Danita: Um, if I have a serious character that is connected to God and I really need them to really display that.
• 12:54
  Danita: Sure.
• 12:55
  Danita: I try not just use a, a person who's not of the spirit, you know, who don't believe, you know, because there's an element in a time in a play that I'm going to have to push them.
• 13:06
  Danita: They can be acting to a certain extent, but to, but to deliver what I'm looking for.
• 13:10
  Danita: Okay.
• 13:10
  Danita: To deliver what I'm really trying to display in that character about belief in that spirit, that person got to be connected to God and got to be, um, have the Holy Spirit.
• 13:20
  Danita: They follow the Holy Spirit guidance.
• 13:22
  Danita: So, um, I would definitely choose a person for that, for that role.
• 13:27
  Danita: Yeah.
• 13:27
  Danita: Anybody else, you know, with regular role, yes, I choose them for that.
• 13:30
  Danita: But they, if it's a spiritual role that that person got to just Come to the point where he's dealing with something and he cries out to God and he knows how to cry out to God or receive it.
• 13:40
  Danita: That person got to have an understanding or belief, uh, spiritual connection with God.
• 13:45
  Danita: That makes sense.
• 13:46
  Danita: And do you see, have you seen in, in your, um, Playwright journey, these transformations in your actors.
• 13:53
  Danita: I mean, you're saying like the person who's like, doesn't have a faith and they come through and then they're like, I believe, or can you pray or whatever, but in the form of the play, have you seen the play become that conduit for some of these people to work out their faith in action?
• 14:06
  Danita: Oh, yeah.
• 14:07
  Danita: Matter of fact, a lot of these seasonal actors that act for other, directors, other network, other production company, they come to me and I like, I get this a lot.
• 14:18
  Danita: They say, Kiva, I truly feel like a fresh breath air or, feel good that I can come and work at a production.
• 14:25
  Danita: That I can really relax, and be myself and stretch my faith out.
• 14:29
  Danita: You know, I get that with some of the actors because a lot of time they got to get closed in And become that character what that director that writer told me to do Um, and and they box them in when I write I am always going to write with a message.
• 14:42
  Danita: I'm always going to write about reality stuff comedy Um drama, you know, I don't write to the point where I allow nobody to put me in a box Because I always go back to training day.
• 14:55
  Danita: And when Denzel said this, he said, in order to catch a fox, you got to be a fox.
• 15:01
  Danita: So there's going to be some writing that, um, I'm a writer, maybe a fan, somebody who traditionally go to church.
• 15:06
  Danita: But in order for me to connect to that person, their communication, their language and everything, I have to study the different cultures.
• 15:13
  Danita: Right.
• 15:14
  Danita: You know, I just can't write and just put something out there.
• 15:17
  Danita: That's when a lot of the church plays fail.
• 15:20
  Danita: Yeah.
• 15:20
  Danita: You know, cause I don't want to be labeled as a church play.
• 15:23
  Danita: I'm a writer, you know, because now they put me in a box and I don't want those actors to be put in a box too.
• 15:28
  Danita: So when they come work with me, I let them be themselves.
• 15:31
  Danita: But at the same time, I let them stay in the content.
• 15:34
  Danita: But the answer to your question again, is that they really feel comfortable and well, really comfortable to come work with me, you know?
• 15:42
  Danita: Yeah.
• 15:43
  Danita: Yeah.
• 15:43
  Danita: And I think that's the beauty of art and writing because it has been a form of, changing cultural norms and addressing the thing that's like right in front of you, right?
• 15:54
  Danita: The elephant in the room that we don't know how to say out loud or socially we don't have, it's not acceptable or whatever.
• 16:00
  Danita: And so I think it's a beautiful thing that you're like, Hey, this is reality or here are real things that we're working on and just being transparent because that's How life is transparent, right?
• 16:10
  Danita: I think that's when, that's when art I think is really powerful to writing or art or pictures or music or whatever.
• 16:16
  Danita: It's cause it, it touches a place of you that's really real.
• 16:19
  Danita: Like it's really vulnerable, like Hamilton, like that, you know, that was a, a huge conflict, you know, a different, but there was, there's valid, conversation, like it is a mechanism to have a conversation, a necessary conversation.
• 16:31
  Danita: I agree.
• 16:32
  Danita: Yeah.
• 16:33
  Danita: So I love that, that that's your medium.
• 16:35
  Danita: So we talk,, on the podcast about leadership, you're my friend and I'm super excited for you and I just, I'm so proud of you.
• 16:41
  Danita: How has your leadership lens changed from then to now as you lead these teams every day.
• 16:49
  Danita: Well, um, it don't, it haven't turned off leaving the military.
• 16:55
  Danita: It really happened because a lot of people like, have you used to be the military?
• 16:58
  Danita: I said, yeah, it's hard for me to deny because I use that way.
• 17:03
  Danita: Um, in my, my leadership, um, I go, I can go from being a coach, a mentor, um, a manager, um, you know, a leader.
• 17:13
  Danita: in the Airman Leadership School.
• 17:15
  Danita: Remember that?
• 17:16
  Danita: Um, as you know, Air Force, I don't know what the Army and Marines guys do in the Navy, but you know, we have, we call it ALS.
• 17:22
  Danita: But, um, I remember, I remember they were teaching about management, from being a manager and a leader.
• 17:28
  Danita: Yeah.
• 17:28
  Danita: And, um, and they said a manager sometimes could be a leader, a leader can sometimes be a manager, you know, but I think those, Two, two's are varied skills to have as leadership or just basically govern a group of people.
• 17:42
  Danita: And I use that in my acting, you know, directing.
• 17:45
  Danita: I have to be, um, at time I got to be a mentor, you know, at time I got to, um, um, be a pro project manager.
• 17:53
  Danita: Right.
• 17:53
  Danita: With, uh, managing all my schedule and my time, like today, we had a meeting today with you at 2 30.
• 17:58
  Danita: Then after this, today at four o'clock, I had another one.
• 18:00
  Danita: Then after this one, I have a five o'clock one.
• 18:03
  Danita: So it was back to back to back.
• 18:04
  Danita: Now, I got to make sure my project manager hat is on and cover all that.
• 18:08
  Danita: You know, even coming up with the rehearsal schedule, coming up with the itinerary when they come in.
• 18:12
  Danita: And I'm thinking now that rehearsal is over, the Zoom rehearsal, they flying in on Monday.
• 18:18
  Danita: Now I got to get the itinerary ready for Monday through Friday.
• 18:22
  Danita: Yeah.
• 18:22
  Danita: You know, so it's many hats that I'm wearing, but the leadership and the skills, the military taught me those years I've been in the military really prepared me for what I'm doing today.
• 18:31
  Danita: You know, it really does help me in my nine to five job as well.
• 18:35
  Danita: And at times, you know, and I don't know if you have that issue or your husband had the issue, my good friend, Mark, you know, uh, sometimes we don't know how to, I don't know how to turn it off sometime.
• 18:44
  Danita: I got to resist, turn it off, relax, and no, no thinking, you know what I'm saying and be calm, you know, cool.
• 18:52
  Danita: That's exactly right.
• 18:53
  Danita: It is hard.
• 18:53
  Danita: Yeah, we, I am finding in this season, I like to sit in the living room with nothing on and our kids are big now, you know, so most of them are out of the house.
• 19:03
  Danita: We have one more here at home.
• 19:04
  Danita: He's a senior, but everyone else has grown and big in the world and it's just exhausting.
• 19:09
  Danita: I am the same to you.
• 19:10
  Danita: Um, but I think the two Elements of leadership or the value system or principles of leadership that you're talking about that.
• 19:16
  Danita: I think, I think about when you speak as like one clarity, you're bringing clarity to a bunch of people, you know, even as something as like logistics and schedules and making sure everyone is on time sometimes I think we, yeah.
• 19:29
  Danita: Overlook how important clarity is from a leadership perspective.
• 19:33
  Danita: Cause you're really casting the vision as a visionary leader.
• 19:36
  Danita: Like you created this play, right?
• 19:38
  Danita: Like you wrote it, so it's your vision, but then you have to then take that vision and then you have to put it in a way that other people can understand.
• 19:47
  Danita: Underneath it and then actually like live that out.
• 19:50
  Danita: So are there any tools or techniques that you have found that help you do that?
• 19:53
  Danita: Well, Or,, lessons you've learned along the way of taking this idea and putting it into reality.
• 20:00
  Danita: Um, a lot of people tell me I have a great way of explaining things.
• 20:04
  Danita: I'm a good storyteller.
• 20:06
  Danita: So what I do based upon, um, I just be myself and not really, even though I got, like you say, go back to that time where people went to school and it, like, I just, I use my personality and who I am and I think how My sociology degree comes into as well.
• 20:21
  Danita: Um, because I studied people.
• 20:23
  Danita: I studied a personality.
• 20:25
  Danita: I know how they are,, if I know they serious, I'm going to come them directly about the play.
• 20:29
  Danita: No joking, because I know they just really, really serious.
• 20:33
  Danita: But if I know somebody personality relax, I can joke about certain things as I'm explaining it to them, made them feel relaxed.
• 20:39
  Danita: So I look at people nonverbal signs.
• 20:41
  Danita: And, and fill them out as I explain it to them, you know,, and been helping me out that been helping me out a lot too, as well.
• 20:48
  Danita: And also, uh, my approach, like I said, approach is very,, it's very important to as well.
• 20:54
  Danita: Um, yeah, so that's why I just don't want to be that strict director because I haven't heard a lot of those New York directors, LA directors, you know, they can be strong, they can be strong.
• 21:03
  Danita: You know, you know, what I hear, they blast them.
• 21:06
  Danita: You know what I'm saying?
• 21:07
  Danita: I'm the director.
• 21:08
  Danita: If you don't like it, you're gonna walk out that door.
• 21:10
  Danita: Power, right?
• 21:11
  Danita: I don't wanna deal with that like that.
• 21:12
  Danita: I don't talk to people like that, you know?
• 21:14
  Danita: Yeah, I thought that when you said mentor, which comes to mind empathy, which I think is such a powerful tool in leadership that we Kind of step over.
• 21:23
  Danita: Sometimes I just did a podcast yesterday about gratitude, but gratitude from the position of trust, right?
• 21:29
  Danita: So it sounds like to me of a very grateful heart, one to God for, this journey that he's taken you on and to the people who are giving their talents and helping this vision come to life and that, that heart leadership.
• 21:41
  Danita: Just it, it's like energy, it radiates in a room, right?
• 21:45
  Danita: But I think the other powerful tool that you have in your toolkit is the empathy tool, because you are meeting people where they are and you're giving them the space.
• 21:53
  Danita: That doesn't mean that it's free range.
• 21:55
  Danita: I'm sure everyone's not running around on this stage, like just making their characters up.
• 21:59
  Danita: Like there's, there's clarity.
• 22:01
  Danita: Like you're like, no, we're going this way.
• 22:02
  Danita: Stop.
• 22:02
  Danita: Put that down.
• 22:03
  Danita: Yeah.
• 22:04
  Danita: Yeah.
• 22:04
  Danita: Yeah.
• 22:05
  Danita: I, yeah, I had to stop a few of them when I give them what I do.
• 22:09
  Danita: I write everything in content.
• 22:11
  Danita: I tell them this is the template, right?
• 22:13
  Danita: I want you to make it more comfortable to you how you say it.
• 22:16
  Danita: I may say it this way, but make it more you.
• 22:19
  Danita: Make it more, well, how people are talking today.
• 22:21
  Danita: So they're changing around, but stay in the content of where we're going.
• 22:24
  Danita: If I feel like they are going out, I will put them back in immediately.
• 22:28
  Danita: Because once again, it's taking away from the vision what God gave me.
• 22:31
  Danita: You know?
• 22:32
  Danita: Yeah.
• 22:32
  Danita: And I got to stay on that vision.
• 22:34
  Danita: I got to stay on that task.
• 22:35
  Danita: I can't let them just change it.
• 22:36
  Danita: Honestly, think about it.
• 22:38
  Danita: That's what Satan doing today.
• 22:40
  Danita: God would give us something right.
• 22:42
  Danita: And he'll come in and want to change it around and make it perverted, whatever, and take it away from whatever God really tried to give that person.
• 22:48
  Danita: And that's why I refuse to let Satan doing these plays.
• 22:51
  Danita: Wow.
• 22:51
  Danita: That is so powerful.
• 22:53
  Danita: That's the statement right there.
• 22:54
  Danita: You're right.
• 22:54
  Danita: I'm sitting and just in this place of identity, right?
• 22:59
  Danita: And our identity and him that God gave us when we were, you like, There's so much power, but then the enemy comes and takes all those little pieces of our identity and chips away at them one at a time.
• 23:10
  Danita: And that's the most powerful thing is being known and being seen by the creator.
• 23:15
  Danita: Like once you know that, I think from a faith perspective, and this year has been a really big journey with me, with being seen by God, like seeing God in the sacrifice that Jesus made and that reverence is one element, I think, but then when we are seen.
• 23:31
  Danita: When we are fully seen by a Holy God and, and we stand before him for as much as we can, this side of earth.
• 23:39
  Danita: That changes us to the core of who we are.
• 23:42
  Danita: And once you're seen, you can't be unseen by him ever.
• 23:46
  Danita: I don't, I don't think the enemy can ever, like, I'm just in this place of like taking back what the enemy stole.
• 23:52
  Danita: Like, I'm so incredibly like, no, that was a lie.
• 23:56
  Danita: Like the enemy tried to take your identity in him.
• 23:58
  Danita: They stole it, you know, and we need to get it back.
• 24:01
  Danita: So that's my little.
• 24:03
  Danita: That's my little rant where I'm at right now.
• 24:05
  Danita: Oh, no, I love it.
• 24:06
  Danita: I love it.
• 24:06
  Danita: Yeah.
• 24:07
  Danita: So let's talk about your vision for this play and if you could wave a magic wand, where would you be?
• 24:14
  Danita: Where would it be?
• 24:15
  Danita: 5, 10 years from now?
• 24:17
  Danita: Oh, good question.
• 24:19
  Danita: Um, I would say next year.
• 24:22
  Danita: There we go.
• 24:22
  Danita: Okay.
• 24:23
  Danita: We're claiming it.
• 24:24
  Danita: Yeah.
• 24:24
  Danita: 45 days.
• 24:28
  Danita: You put that, you put that project manager on that right there.
• 24:31
  Danita: 45 days.
• 24:33
  Danita: And plus 45.
• 24:34
  Danita: There we go.
• 24:35
  Danita: That's exactly right.
• 24:36
  Danita: Yeah.
• 24:36
  Danita: So, um, actually I wanted, I want to take this play.
• 24:39
  Danita: No, actually I'm doing, I'm on course with what I wanted to do.
• 24:42
  Danita: I told the people I've been working with each year, I want to do this play and build upon it.
• 24:47
  Danita: I want the different seniors to come in from different locations.
• 24:51
  Danita: I want to go from different from state to state because it started in the DC area.
• 24:55
  Danita: Right.
• 24:56
  Danita: But you know, but nobody don't know about that play, but the DC area, and I only did a few times there.
• 25:01
  Danita: So my goal is I wanted to take it out of DC.
• 25:04
  Danita: So I'm on, I'm on my pathway of what I'm wanting to do.
• 25:07
  Danita: But now what I want to do is I want to introduce it back to my home state where I was born, Florida.
• 25:11
  Danita: Right.
• 25:12
  Danita: Yeah.
• 25:13
  Danita: That's where I'm excited.
• 25:14
  Danita: But following that next year, I want to go to the East.
• 25:16
  Danita: These states.
• 25:18
  Danita: I want to come back here in Florida and do it in my city.
• 25:21
  Danita: I was born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
• 25:23
  Danita: Come back to Orlando.
• 25:25
  Danita: All right.
• 25:25
  Danita: Then we go to North Carolina and then to the DMV, back to the DMV, to those listeners who I was on the DC, Maryland, Virginia area.
• 25:33
  Danita: And then actually one more, uh, I got some connection in Detroit and we finally finished in Detroit Motown.
• 25:40
  Danita: Oh my gosh.
• 25:40
  Danita: You know, and I have a great time.
• 25:42
  Danita: I can, we can have a great time in Motown with the different singers and all can't imagine.
• 25:46
  Danita: Yeah.
• 25:46
  Danita: Yeah.
• 25:47
  Danita: So that's, that's my goal for next year.
• 25:49
  Danita: All right.
• 25:50
  Danita: Yeah.
• 25:50
  Danita: Yeah.
• 25:50
  Danita: And I already been planning in my mind already.
• 25:53
  Danita: I already talked to my team as soon as this play is done next week.
• 25:56
  Danita: I said, Hey, let's meet immediately for a post, um, meeting, production post.
• 26:02
  Danita: Yeah, the post production meeting.
• 26:04
  Danita: And then we go ahead and start planning.
• 26:05
  Danita: Cause we got main thing is getting those, um, the years, um, what do you call it?
• 26:11
  Danita: Security deposit to lock those dates in.
• 26:13
  Danita: Okay.
• 26:13
  Danita: And once we get our dates in, boom, we know now we can start recruiting.
• 26:17
  Danita: Um, I'd like to keep this cast, but I like to recruit into different local talent in those different cities, bringing in some more new singers here and there and go from there.
• 26:25
  Danita: So it's a plan already.
• 26:27
  Danita: That is so exciting.
• 26:28
  Danita: Do you know where in North Carolina you want to go?
• 26:30
  Danita: So, uh, my executive producers and from, um, Roxbury, North Carolina, but I think Raleigh will be the ideal place.
• 26:39
  Danita: For that area for that play in Raleigh, North Carolina.
• 26:42
  Danita: It's a bigger city and I give a lot of people from Roxbury to come there.
• 26:46
  Danita: Drive out that way.
• 26:47
  Danita: Um, people from Charlotte, if they want to come, you know, it's drivable.
• 26:50
  Danita: Yeah.
• 26:51
  Danita: Oh, it's super exciting.
• 26:52
  Danita: Okay, so say it again.
• 26:53
  Danita: Let everybody know when the show is and when it's coming, what it's about.
• 26:57
  Danita: Okay.
• 26:58
  Danita: The show is December 14th.
• 27:00
  Danita: Um, or we got, what, seven days, almost seven, eight days left.
• 27:04
  Danita: And It's called, I'll be home for Christmas, a season of transformation.
• 27:08
  Danita: And basically, if you think about you had, did you have a good Thanksgiving, like all the family gathering?
• 27:14
  Danita: We did.
• 27:14
  Danita: Did you have that?
• 27:15
  Danita: For the kids, they came.
• 27:16
  Danita: Yeah.
• 27:16
  Danita: For the kids.
• 27:17
  Danita: Yeah.
• 27:17
  Danita: You know, so just imagine you, now you flip that into Christmas and this family was known for the Christmas celebration, the community like to come to this family and it did a lot of eating together, a lot of singing, just a base of the place to be because they made everyone feel.
• 27:34
  Danita: Comfort and love.
• 27:35
  Danita: But this for the last five, six years, there's been a transformation, a change in his family.
• 27:42
  Danita: The kids don't come home anymore.
• 27:43
  Danita: They are adult kids now because of some past hurts that happened in the family.
• 27:47
  Danita: Yeah.
• 27:48
  Danita: Everybody refused to come back home.
• 27:50
  Danita: Right.
• 27:50
  Danita: So mom, so dad have died off.
• 27:52
  Danita: Mom's been about home by herself for five to six years by herself.
• 27:56
  Danita: But this Season.
• 27:57
  Danita: She decided I'm going to ask my kids to come back home and let's try to see if we can bring this Christmas celebration back.
• 28:04
  Danita: And so this whole thing is they, she wrote this letter to them and they all accept it.
• 28:09
  Danita: So one by one, they come home, but before they can get to where they used to be known for in that community, got in with the light.
• 28:15
  Danita: Yeah.
• 28:16
  Danita: In a, in that community.
• 28:17
  Danita: Wow.
• 28:17
  Danita: You know, but before they can get to it, they got to have those tough conversations, tough things that happened in the past to be able to forgive, to get back to the celebration of Christ's birthday.
• 28:28
  Danita: That's powerful stuff right there.
• 28:30
  Danita: You know?
• 28:31
  Danita: So yeah, so it's, I'll be home for Christmas, a season of transformation.
• 28:35
  Danita: Oh, friend.
• 28:36
  Danita: I'm so excited for you.
• 28:37
  Danita: Oh my gosh.
• 28:39
  Danita: And is that, is that the Kingdom Baptist Church in Orlando, Florida?
• 28:43
  Danita: And, um, you can go to them a website at www.
• 28:46
  Danita: It's a long website.
• 28:47
  Danita: Y'all is www.
• 28:49
  Danita: macleanenterpriseproductions.
• 28:53
  Danita: com.
• 28:54
  Danita: So you can go there for tickets and on December 14th, we're doing two shows at 2 PM and at 6 PM, Orlando, Florida.
• 29:00
  Danita: All right.
• 29:01
  Danita: I'll put all the links in the show notes.
• 29:02
  Danita: We're going to definitely flip this episode really fast so we can get it out.
• 29:07
  Danita: I'm so proud of you, friend.
• 29:10
  Danita: I appreciate that.
• 29:11
  Danita: No, I'm proud of you guys too because of, you know, your books, you coming out with the different books and everything.
• 29:17
  Danita: I'm definitely going to support you cause I want to read your books and everything.
• 29:21
  Danita: Thanks.
• 29:21
  Danita: Yeah.
• 29:22
  Danita: Well the audio book will come out in a couple of weeks before Christmas.
• 29:24
  Danita: So you can listen to it while you're driving up and down the East coast.
• 29:28
  Danita: How's that?
• 29:28
  Danita: Awesome.
• 29:28
  Danita: This has been awesome.
• 29:29
  Danita: Yes.
• 29:30
  Danita: It was so good.
• 29:31
  Danita: Thank you.
• 29:31
  Danita: Thank you.
• 29:32
  Danita: Thank you for coming.
• 29:36
  Danita: Hey everybody.
• 29:37
  Danita: Thanks for listening to the entrusted to lead podcast today.
• 29:39
  Danita: I hope you enjoyed the conversation with my friend Akiva and if you're in Orlando, pop over to the show, grab a ticket, and if not keep tabs on his website and social media as they continue to travel around the country, sharing their love and hope with the world.
• 29:55
  Danita: If you're not already subscribed to the entrusted to lead newsletter, pop over I hope that you have an amazing day.
• 30:05
  Danita: Keep showing up every day, even when it hurts because you matter.
• 30:09
  Danita: I'll see you later.