From "No" to Know: Celebrating the Sista Brunch Podcast's Journey Toward Clarity.

Howdy Doody!

How was your week? You happy the weekend is here?

One of my highlights happened last Sunday – I attended an event to celebrate the upcoming seventh season of Sista Brunch, a show I developed and executive produced for three seasons.

Walking into the event felt like a full-circle moment. Not just because I got to see the OG Sista Brunch crew, including Anya Adams and Fanshen Cox, all over again, but because the place was teeming with fans of the show. It was like the vision Anya and Fanshen had described to me years earlier had come to life.

That full-circle moment was underscored as Fanshen, in her thank-you speech, told us, “We don’t need all those folks who’ve been telling us ‘No’...We’re here for a reason, and that reason is for all of us to work together.”

In that moment, everything else went silent, and what I saw was a show host who was deeply confident about her show’s voice and mission. Like, ten toes deep.

Then I just felt pride - for her, because I saw a through line between what she said there, and the show idea she had approached me with years earlier.

(cue the 1960s-style sci-fi flashback music) When Fanshen and Anya first approached me to develop the show, they had a powerful north star: to create a podcast where Black women and gender-expansive people in media could share their stories, celebrate each other, solve challenges together, and share valuable information they could use to launch or grow their careers.

What they weren’t sure about was how to communicate that on a podcast. They didn’t know how it would sound. So they called me. With their clear vision as a starting point, and the resources they had, it didn’t take long for me to blast right past the generic goal of ‘amplifying underrepresented voices,’ to land at creating an interview show where the hosts and their guests spoke the quiet parts out loud, by sharing their experiences, so we (the listener and aspiring Hollywood creative) wouldn’t have to experience the same issues.

In short, Sista Brunch was giving us codes that Hollywood didn’t want to share with us — and encouraging us to go for it.

To make this vision real, I needed to create a roadmap for them, so they could play and learn to trust their listening and interviewing instincts in a safe space. That involved developing systems, calming nerves, coaching, and testing things out in real-time.

In the end, what we created was an audio version of a group exhale, hug, and the WhatsApp back-channel chat that everybody needs to be on, all at once.

Within three years, the show was nominated for a Webby. The team was having conversations with executives about developing the show, booking high-profile guests aligned with the show’s mission, and forming show partnerships. All of these things were impressive markers of success. But the most satisfying measure was — and still is — seeing how the show has built an engaged listener base, some of whom were likely at Sunday’s event.

And of course, hearing a host step into her own, embrace the power of her show’s voice and its message.

It was a beautiful thing to see.

Are you inspired by the Sista Brunch journey toward finding its voice? Discover your podcast's unique "code" in my Podcast Clarity Blueprint Masterclass.

This live, 90-minute working session is designed to help you get that brilliant idea out of your head and talk about it on the mic with clarity, either as a host or a guest, so you can build your community, inspire conversations, and amplify your thought leadership, like Fanshen is with Sista Brunch. In the Podcast Clarity Blueprint Masterclass, I’ll guide you to:

• Embrace and develop your authentic voice — no more trying to sound like someone else.

• Refine your core message — stripped down to its sharpest form.

• Shape the beginnings of your podcast-ready story — not a script, but a narrative that commands attention and carries your mission forward.