I recently got the chance to interview up and coming Atlanta movie and TV Director, Jennifer Pessima. We talked about a plethora of things including her new series BBW, napkin ideas, passion, and her crazy past. She also dives into how she landed her first job after college working on Creflo Dollars TV show booking artist like 2 Chainz, Lil Boosie and Waka Flocka. Her story is truly inspiring, listen to this social butterfly as she not only inspires, but teaches a bit of wisdom she's learned throughout her time in the entertainment industry. Enjoy!
This past weekend I had the honor to speak at Livingstone College in Salisbury, North Carolina to some of their incoming freshmen. These freshmen were a part of the Bridge & Beyond summer program. The Bridge & Beyond program gives deserving students who didn’t meet college admissions standards a chance to prove themselves through an intensive, 6-week residential program. Since the program was coming to an end I was brought in to speak with them about my book, A Lesson Learned. If you've never heard about A Lesson Learned go here to read more about it and watch my book trailers (similar to a movie trailer).
Before I indulge on this wonderful experience let me give you the story on how this happened (Writer's note: The video below explains a portion of what I wrote below. The Livingstone section starts on paragraph seven). On February 22nd 2016 I revealed to the world that I was releasing my first book, A Lesson Learned. A few days later my younger cousin, Dominique died from a heart attack. I was on a wave of joy when I put my book out, but it came crashing down when I got the news she passed. I started looking at plane tickets to Washington D.C. from Atlanta, but they were really expensive. I decided I would rent a car, drive to D.C., then catch a flight back to Atlanta the next day, but I was going to make the most of this trip.
I had the idea to stop at colleges throughout North Carolina and Virginia while on my way to D.C. to promote my book. My plan was to take pictures of students holding the book and talk to a few professors about my book. Since A Lesson Learned is based on college stories and I want it to be a part of the freshmen curriculum, I thought my idea was genius. Even though I was grieving I had to keep pushing, I call that “achieving while grieving,” which happens to be the name of Chapter 3 in my book. I told myself I’ve been down this road before and I can handle this – I’m built for this. This was a 9 hour drive that would possibly take 14 hours because of my plan and let's not forget I was by myself. A few of my friends thought I was crazy, but I knew God had my back.
I loaded the 2015 Impala rental car with my bags, camera and the most important essential - my bible. I prayed really hard and hit the road at 4:30AM. My first stop was at my alma mater, Johnson C. Smith University (JCSU) in Charlotte, NC. I arrived at 8:00AM and thought I would be there no longer than 45 minutes, but boy was I in for a surprise. After asking a random student to take a picture holding the book and speaking with multiple professors I was there for almost three hours! Once I introduced myself to some of the professors they wanted to know more about me and my book. Those conversations went on forever, but I wasn’t mad because I loved to talk about my book.
Next I was off to Livingstone College in Salisbury, NC which is about 30 minutes from JCSU. When I pulled on campus students were everywhere. It happened to be warm that day and students were blasting music out their cars and having a good time. I parked my car and told myself I couldn’t be here for three hours like I did at JCSU. I needed a miracle, so I prayed. I asked God to lead me to the right professor that would help take A Lesson Learned to the next level. After quickly asking a student from Philadelphia to take a picture I saw a group of older men walking with suits on who looked like professors. All of them split up, but one was still walking towards my car. I yelled “excuse me!” and he turned around. He was in a rush, but was listening to me. His name was Coach Kyle. I told him about me and the book and he said “I think I can use you, I’m the Director of the summer Bridge program here. I work with the incoming freshmen.” Immediately my energy shifted to pure joy, I knew God was working. I gave him a book, told him thanks and headed to North Carolina A&T in Greensboro, NC.
Within 10 minutes I had met the exact person who was in charge of the same program I talked to this past weekend. There's no doubt in my mind it was all because of God and the prayer I made. I followed up with Coach Kyle, but didn’t hear anything back. But three months later I sent out a mass email promoting my book for graduation season and he responded back and called me. He told me he read my book and thinks it would be great if I came and spoke to the students there. I agreed, wrote out my outline and was officially booked for my first speaking engagement.
This past weekend when I arrived on Livingstone’s Campus I was a bit nervous. I’ve talked in front of big crowds before, but this was different. These were student between the ages of 17-18 and I had to speak for three hours. But I embraced the fear, prayed, and let the worry go because you can’t do both. I was speaking to about 90 students and I knew I had to make them feel comfortable and be relatable. I wasn’t worried about what I was going to say because I knew they would love the stories. But I wanted to set the tone.
Before they walked in I made a playlist of instrumentals of today’s top hits such as Beyonce’s “Sorry,” Drake’s “Summer Sixteen,” Desiigner’s “Panda” and a lot more. When I saw they were dancing while walking into the room I knew everything was going to be ok. I also had a Snapchat filter with Livingstone’s Mascot combined with a picture of me holding the book. I knew this would also make them comfortable and give them a sense that this wasn’t a normal seminar. Especially since I had former NBA player Josh Howard with me who has a chapter in my book called “Draft Day.”
Once they were settled in, one of the upperclassmen read my bio and things went into overdrive. I made them stand up, repeat words of affirmations and told them about my story leading up until now. The seminar was broken down into 5 different sections. Grief, Temptation, Sports, Alcohol & Tobacco, and Finances. I knew the students would be a little irritated about sitting there for three hours, but once they heard the first story “Live By Faith, Not By Sight” I had their full attention. I even noticed one girl crying when I told them about Chapter 3 “Achieving While Grieving,” which details the passing of my best friend, Jeff while I was in college. Other stories like “HIGHway Patrol,” and “Let It Burn,” made them laugh and of course they loved Josh Howard’s NBA stories. Most of the students were from North Carolina so they knew who he was.
After every story they had to take notes about the “lessons learned” from each chapter. We also played the interactive mobile game Kahoot where the students had to answer the questions from the notes they took. The prizes included bags of candy and H&M, Starbucks, Walmart and Target gift cards. It was truly gratifying to give back and pour the wisdom and lessons I learned from my college experiences into the students. It’s only been four months since releasing A Lesson Learned and I must say it has been a fun and surreal journey that has been lead by God. He’s just using me to do his work. Be on the lookout for more things to come and order your copy of A Lesson Learned here, or on Amazon and Kindle. All orders made on my website will be personally signed by me. God Bless and never give up on your dreams!
This past Monday April 11th, 2016 I had the opportunity to talk with Shawn Calloway on the "Open Our Eyes," radio show (WYCB 1340am). It was an honor to be on the show and I am truly grateful. Shawn is actually in my book "A Lesson Learned," Chapter 1: Live By Faith Not By Sight. Shawn's story is incredible, inspiring, and motivational all in one. A plethora of people told me they cried reading his story and believe me I'm shocked myself. During the interview we discussed the book, but also touched on topics such as therapy in the black community, rape and it's effects on women, disabilities, and a lot more. I hope you enjoy this interview as much as I enjoyed doing it. God is good!
God is good! I recently had the opportunity to sit down with HBHCUBUZZ.COM for my first interview about my book "A Lesson Learned." I was super nervous before the interview. With my journalism background I've become accustom to being the reporter, but this time I was on the other end of the spectrum. Before the interview I made sure I prayed because through Christ all things are possible, but then my friend Taney who got me the interview sent me a prayer via text and man did this work! Below is the prayer.
"Father In Heaven, we come to you right now to thank you for the moment you have blessed Jeevan with. Lord we know that only through your grace, mercy and divine power has the opportunity come. With bowed heads and humbled hearts we ask that you guide Jeevan's tongue, order his thoughts and slow his nerves. Father God fill Jeevan with the spirit of peace and truth. Fill him with confidence and humility, bind his nervousness, preside over his thoughts and let your victories be his victories Lord. Fill his soul with passion and authority, guide his voice and let your light shine through him. Lord let no ounce of purpose be unturned. Lord God we know that our experiences here on this earth have a greater meaning in heaven and can only ask that you continue to work through us with opportunities like this one to bring glory to your name. God allow us to speak truthfully and freely about the great work of our Lord in our lives and share testaments of our faith and be living evidence of your faithfulness In our lives."
If you're ever in a situation like this you can take the prayer above and make it your own. The reporter who interviewed me was Sonia Montalvo and once I got on the phone with her a little bit of my nervousness went away. I became so filled with joy when talking to her she said I was answering her questions before she could even ask me. When Sonia mentioned that she was an alumnus of Elizabeth City State University which is an HBCU and apart of the CIAA division I really became comfortable. I knew she would understand my stories and the reasoning for this book. I sometimes stutter when I talk, but during this interview I didn't. I joined Toastmasters a year ago, so I believe that helped along with me praying. I've only been promoting this book for a week and have already sold a good amount of books on pre-sale and had two interviews. I give all the credit to God because without him I am nothing. You can read the interview here.
I've been waiting to share this video for a long time. Other than writing the book this was my favorite part of the process and believe me I have a lot more in store for you guys. I wanted to think outside of the box with this project and not follow the traditional way of marketing a book. Don't follow the flow, be the flow.
With the help of some of my innovative friends I decided to do a book trailer that would display a few scenes that relate to the stories in the book. This is only part 1 and part 2 will come next week. But even with two videos I still couldn't cover all of the aspects. A Lesson Learned is 16 chapters totaling 293 pages. I didn't have a huge budget, so I paid a videographer to shoot the scenes and I did all the editing. I wasn't a novice to this, I learned how to edit videos in college. I contacted my friend Jennifer who got me in contact with Videographer Lu Lu out of Atlanta. She did her job and gave me some input on acting, but the entire video was edited by me. I did the transistions added the heartbeat and gunshot audio, applied the typing sounds and screen reader. I printed out the college magazine on the living room table. and designed the rating screen at the beginning of the video and the credit screen at the end.
Lu Lu and I only shot the scenes where you see me, but the other scenes are stock footage that I purchased and videos I found on YouTube. I didn't want to blatantly steal somebody else's work, so I reached out to each individual and they gave me their blessing to use the videos. God is good. I didn't know these people from anything, but when I sent my synopsis they gave me the green light. I was especially nervous about the sorority footage, but Alexandria Deal from Delta Sigma Theta Inc. at The University of Texas at San Antonio and Videographer Kiona Robinson of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, and Event MC Chaz Ogbu who shot the Howard University graduation footage were truly a blessing and I thank them from the bottom of my heart.
The basketball footage you see is of NBA basketball player Josh Howard who went to Wake Forest University and was drafted to the Dallas Mavericks. Josh has a story in my book titled Draft Day which is very interesting. Kanye rapping "from the streets to the league" when he goes up and dunks the ball wasn't a coincidence lol. Me wearing the HBCU Grad hat wasn't a coincidence either, shout out to my alma mater Johnson C. Smith University. I put a lot of time and effort into this video and I hope you all enjoy it. Part 2 is coming next week! Don't forget to order your copy today!
No, you're not dreaming I really wrote my first book! For the last two years I've been working hard on this project. I've dedicated so much time into this book and to finally see it come to fruition is a overwhelming feeling of gratitude and joy.
About two years ago I had the idea to interview 16 of my friends who had a certain trial and tribulation in college and turn it into a book. If you know me, then you know that me and my friends live our life's to the fullest, but during our college years we really LIVED! But we all still succeeded and came out of whatever turmoil we were in. We went through every problem you could think of from unexpected deaths, pregnancies, STD's, debt, violence, drugs, heartbreak and much more. But as I've matured I've grown to understand that we are put on this earth to serve and help, no matter what you're doing. If you work a regular 9-5 always think that you're there to help your customer. If you're an entertainer you're there to make people laugh and to take a load off from the woes of life. You use your gifts and what you've been through as a way to help.
A Lesson Learned is a mixture of the latter, I wrote it to serve and to entertain. I wrote it with the intentions to help young adults or millennials who might be going through the same dynamic as the characters in the book. I know this will not only help, but leave all of the readers entertained to the fullest. These aren't some corny stories, they're real and uncut. Each story ends with the main character explaining how they perservered and what advice they would give to somebody in the same situation followed by statistics that are directly connected to the story.
I Hope you all enjoy it, love it, and pass it on. This is only the first day, I have MUCH more in store for all of you. . Presale starts this Wednesday February 24, 2016. Please browse the website for info about me and the book.