IAM2530 – Award-Winning Scriptwriter Specializes in Rewrites that Elevate Scripts into Production-Ready Projects

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Joy Cheriel Brown Teaser 00:00

My whole purpose for creating my production company was to help people have a more fulfilling life, right?

I feel like people watch my movies, and they're like, Oh, I can fix this in my relationship by doing it this way, or I can have what I want because this character went after what they want.

I can fix my friendships, my family, like whatever. The reason why I started writing screenplays was to help make the world a better place.

Intro 00:24

Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview?

If so, you've come to the right place. Gresh values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 00:51

Hello, hello, hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO Podcast, and I have an awesome guest on the show today. I have Joy Cheriel Brown. Joy, excited to have you on the show.

Joy Cheriel Brown 00:59

Thank you so much. Thank you for having me.

Gresham Harkless 01:01

Yes, I'm super excited to have you on. The pleasure is definitely all ours. And Joy is doing so many phenomenal things that I'm super excited to have a phenomenal conversation.

But of course, before we do that, I want to read a little bit more about Joy so you can hear about some of those awesome things.

And Joy is an award-winning screenwriter, playwright, and speaker whose work spans film, television, theater, and literature.

She is the founder of Third Person Omniscient Productions and a professor of screenwriting at Howard University, where she helped shape the next generation of storytellers.

Her acclaimed stage play, Stuck, earned four stars from the DC theater scene, and her short film, N.O.S., is streaming on Amazon Prime.

Joy's work explores the intersection of storytelling and spiritual transformation, and she is also the author of The Secret of Life Through Screenwriting.

And I always have to, of course, give a major shout-out to anybody who went to HU, especially one that's a professor there. So that goes without saying, we have to shout out the real Howard University.

There you go. And one of the things that I'm really, really intrigued by, Joy, is that she also has a background in hypnotherapy.

So, I'm super excited to kind of hear a little bit more around that and how that has built and kind of helped support everything she's been able to build.

But I think one of the things that I was doing before we hopped into this I was reading and learning a little bit more about her.

And I love, love, love that I think the seeds of everything she's doing was planted at the age of 10 when she saw Home Alone.

And I think it really kind of propelled her into all the awesome things that she's doing. So Joy, excited to have you on the show. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

Joy Cheriel Brown 02:36

Yes, I am. I'm excited.

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Gresham Harkless 02:38

Awesome. Well, let's get it started then. So I know I touched on it a little bit. Let's rewind the clock a little bit here, a little bit more on how you got started. What I call your CEO story.

Joy Cheriel Brown  02:47

So I was, like you said, 10 years old. I had gone to see Home Alone in the theater, and it was just an amazing experience. Movies didn't really touch me like that until I saw Home Alone.

And I was just like, wow, that looks so much fun, like so much fun to be an actor, the theater was packed with people.

And just to experience that feeling together, watching a movie with such a big crowd of people was an amazing thing. And I asked my parents, I'm like, hey, can you guys get me an agent?

And they were like, no, we can't get you an agent. So, I was like, all right, well, how am I gonna become an actress if they won't get me an agent?

And I was like, I will just write my own screenplays, direct those, and produce those. And then I would sell them to 20th Century Fox, which was the distribution company of Home Alone.

So that's my idea at 10 years old. So, I start to set about, I write a script. I start asking my friends if they want to be in it.

But you know, I was 10. So, my friends kind of lost interest. I didn't really quite know how to get it together.

So I was like, you know what? What I'll do, I'll just write screenplays until I can produce them myself.

And what happened, I started writing screenplays for years, and then I didn't meet an actual screenwriter until I was like 17. So, I'd been doing it for like seven years.

And I talked to the screenwriter, he read like three of my screenplays, and he was basically like, okay, this is what you've been doing wrong.

So, I didn't know that I wasn't even like necessarily formatting the script correctly, for example. And so, he gave me this book to read. I read the book.

He recommended a script for me to rewrite because he thought that was the script that had the most promise.

I didn't like that script the most. I rewrote one of the other scripts. And then he read that, and he's like, wow, you made 180-degree turns.

That was like my first pivotal point was meeting him, and to have him give me some type of direction.

Because I hadn't really been doing things completely right in terms of like formatting and that kind of thing.

And that was like the beginning of my journey. When I was in high school, I came up with the name for my production company.

But again, I didn't really quite know how to make it happen. Years later, I went to film school.

But I went to Howard University, and I had a class called Telecommunications Ownership and Finance, and we wrote business plans.

And the thing about it, what actually I think propelled me into the producing space was going to Howard University, and just the way their program is set up, you have to take everything.

You can't just specialize in screenwriting, which is what I really wanted to do was to just specialize in screenwriting. So, they teach you how to do everything.

And at the time, like now at Howard, they have a thesis choice of just doing a sprint. But back when I was at Howard, you had to do a short film.

So, when I did that to graduate, I was like, well, maybe I can do this. Maybe I can, you know, make the movies myself.

But, life happened. I was planning to move back to, well, I lived out in Los Angeles during the summer of 2004.

I did internships with Mimi Polk Gitlin, and I did an internship with Maxi Suma Esparza. So, Mimi Polk Gitlin produced Thelma and Louise, and Maxi Suma Esparza produced Selena.

And I did internships with them during the summer of 2004, and I came back to the D.C. area and finished college at Howard after that.

And so when I came back and finished up college, I had a plane ticket bought for graduation day.

I was going to skip graduation and just go straight to Los Angeles. And instead of doing that, I was hospitalized for the second time in my life for psychosis. And I was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, bipolar type.

And so my mom kind of talked me out of going to Los Angeles. So that began like the section of my life that was called the dark night of the soul.

Like I had to figure out what am I going to do because I had to stay here in Maryland. And yeah.

So that was 2005, and then I didn't start my production company until 2012 because it was kind of like, all right, if I'm going to do this, I got to do this at some point.

And I told myself when I taught high school that I'm going to do three shorts and a pizza thumb.

And so at the time that I taught high school in 2010, I taught high school from 2008 to 2011. And I made my second short film in 2010. And I was like, all right, I'm going to do three shorts and a feature film.

Then I started my production company in 2012, and it took several years to get the money to make another short film. I didn't get the money until 2016. And I think I didn't schedule the shoot until like 2017.

And that's N.O.S., the one that's streaming on Amazon. And the N.O.S. is about my first psychotic episode, the first hospitalization.

Because at the time, I was like, look, don't know what this means. I don't know why this happened to me.

If I ever figured out that I could be normal and that I can have a regular life, and I can pursue my dreams still, and I'm going to make a movie about it. So, that was the third short, and now here I am trying to raise money for the first feature film.

Gresham Harkless 08:25

Awesome. Well, I appreciate you so much and sharing your story and your journey. And especially, I think when we first connected, I think one of the things that really kind of stuck out to me is like when you feel called and you feel like there's something that's like a magnet that is drawing you towards something.

It's really, really hard to kind of get away from it. And I think life, I would say life, and it continues to life.

And, yes, it definitely does. Undefeated at that. But I think that, to me, and that's why I love that you did that at such a young age, because I feel like, especially when we're young, we're not doing things for accolades necessarily.

We're not doing things because we want to be, you know, lights, cameras, and action, all those things.

Sometimes we're just doing it because there's something that lights us up about that. And I think when you're able to kind of go back to that, it's a huge thing.

I know you touched on it a little bit, but I would love to drill down a little bit more to hear a little bit more about your production company, what you're doing there, how you're making an impact.

Joy Cheriel Brown 09:17

So, I started my production company in 2012. Like I said, I came up with the name of it in high school. So, it's called Third Person Omniscient Production.

And I wanted to give it a name that reflected my belief of being a writer, first and foremost. And third-person omniscient is the narrator style.

You know this because you majored in English. Third-person omniscient is the narrator voice that knows what all the characters are thinking in the story.

So, I picked third-person omniscient because my whole purpose for creating my production company was to help people have a more fulfilling life, right?

I feel like people watch my movies, and they're like, oh, I can fix this in my relationship by doing it this way. Or I can have what I want because this character went after what they want. I can fix my friendships, my family, like whatever.

The reason why I started writing screenplays was to help make the world a better place. Very specifically, I started my production company to make movies and TV shows, and plays so that I can help raise the collective consciousness.

Because the only way the world is going to be made into a better place is if we do it. Like, nobody's coming to save us. Right.

Gresham Harkless 10:30

Yeah. Do you think your awareness of that, but also your ability to kind of showcase that through your production company, you feel like that's part of your secret sauce?

Joy Cheriel Brown 10:40

Yes, of course. And it helps me stay with the past because it's not easy. If you could do whatever you wanted to do and know that you could not fail, what would you do, right?

But the secret is you cannot fail if it's something that you really want to do and you stick to it. So that's the truth of the matter. If you really want it, you cannot fail at it.

Gresham Harkless 11:03

Yeah. So, I wanted to switch gears a little bit. And you might have already touched on this, but I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack.

So, this could be like an Apple book or even a habit that you have, but it might be something that we just talked around. What do you feel like is a CEO hack that makes you more effective and efficient?

Joy Cheriel Brown 11:18

Just this need to accomplish goals, like this week I'm working on a new script and there have been several days this week that I haven't worked on it, because I'm processing some emotional things going on in my life and I've just been kind of sitting with those thoughts and feelings and just trying to focus on that area of growth.

But today I'm like, really haven't worked on my script this week, and I wanted to be finished with my characterizations this week.

So, I'm like, okay, after I talk to Gresh and like go eat some lunch, I'm sitting down at the computer, I'm working on my characterization. So that's the CEO hack for me is that I have this like compulsion to like accomplish my goals.

Gresham Harkless 12:01

Yeah. So, I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. It's a little bit more word of wisdom or piece of advice. I like to say it might be something you would tell your younger business self if you were to hop into a time machine.

Joy Cheriel Brown 12:12

So, I didn't always have this belief, but a belief that really helps me is that everything happens in my favor and for my highest good.

So, everything happens in your favor and for your highest good. So even if you have what looks like a setback, in the end it's going to work out in your favor.

When I made N.O.S., for example, the short film that's streaming on Amazon Prime, I did not get the money for that right away.

Actually, the people who gave me the money said no a couple times before they actually gave me the money.

And the timing, though, ended up being perfect because the location that we ended up using was the reason why I hadn't made it in college, because it was gonna be really hard to find a right location.

And so, when we finally did get the money, that space that we used to make the film was occupied by, like, some nuns or something, like, two months prior to us making the movie.

And it emptied out in the perfect window of time, because the people who own that space didn't really have anything planned to do with the space.

So, we were able to use it for the movie. So even though it took a few extra years to get the money for the film, everything was happening in perfect timing in the end.

And that was an example to me that's like, don't worry about how long it takes, because it's still happening in divine timing.

Gresham Harkless 13:39

Absolutely. So, I wanted to ask you now one of my absolute favorite questions, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO, and our goal is to have different quote-unquote CEOs on this show. So, Joy, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Joy Cheriel Brown 13:50

Being a boss. And that could be a boss where you get to make the decisions, but also a boss where you have to make the decisions.

But everything kind of falls on you. It's you. If you are successful, that's great. It's amazing. But also, if you fail or things don't go well, that's on you, too.

Gresham Harkless 14:14

Yeah, absolutely. The buck definitely stops with you. And I think it ends up being such a huge responsibility as well, too.

Because, as you said, sometimes if you don't make a decision, you are making a decision. And a lot of times, we don't realize that. Yeah, absolutely. Joy, truly appreciate that definition. Of course, I appreciate your time even more.

So, what I want to do now is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know, and of course, how best people can get a hold of you, find out about all the awesome things that you're doing and working on.

Joy Cheriel Brown 14:45

Okay, so you can email me if you want to email me at Joy@JoyCherielbrown.com. And joy is spelled J-O-Y. Cheriel is C-H-E-R-I-E-L. Brown is like the color, B-R-O-W-N.

And so, it's joy, J-O-Y@joyCherielbrown.com. That's the best way to get a hold of me, or you can find me on LinkedIn and send me a message on LinkedIn. And I'm on Instagram @joycheriel.

Gresham Harkless 15:19

Awesome, awesome, awesome. Well, Joey, I truly appreciate that. Of course, to make that even easier, we'll have the links and information in the show notes as well, too, so that everybody can follow up with you.

But I truly appreciate you for sharing your gift, your experience, all the things that you've been doing with us today. And I thank you even more for sharing it with the entire world, with everything that you're doing.

So many times, we get these gifts, we get these opportunities, and even these, I don't know if it's epiphanies is the right word, but just the perspectives on how we should and can be living our lives.

But so many times we can hoard them and we don't share them out, but they're gifts for a reason, because we're supposed to be giving it out to other people.

So, I appreciate, of course, everything we talked about, but I appreciate what it symbolizes and represents as well, too, in terms of like taking your talents and gifts and sharing that out.

So, thank you so much for doing that. And I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Joy Cheriel Brown 16:05

Thank you. I've enjoyed being here. Thank you so much.

Outro 16:09

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by CB Nation and Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co. I AM CEO is not just a phrase; it's a community.

Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and everywhere you listen to podcasts. Subscribe and leave us a five-star rating. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless Jr. Thank you for listening.

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