Sanya On-Air
Sanya On-Air hosts intentional conversations with celebrities and influencers unpacking their celebrity pivotal moments while simultaneously sharing tools/resources on how to provide pipelines to access for marginalized communities.
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Sanya On-Air
Who Tells Our Stories If We Don’t: Dr. LaJoyce Brookshire
The spark starts at a school desk with a kid who lived by the radio. From that early obsession, Dr. LaJoyce Brookshire built a career producing shows, shaping artists, and guarding images at the highest levels of music. We walk through those rooms with her—Bad Boy hallways, photo sets under the Brooklyn Bridge, tense moments that turned into trust—and unpack how advocacy, preparation, and presence can transform raw talent into a durable brand.
The conversation isn’t nostalgia; it’s a field guide for creatives, publicists, and leaders who need to show up when the stakes are messy. Dr. Brookshire breaks down the lost art of artist development, explains why “no exposure before readiness” saves careers, and shares the Biggie media-training saga that evolved from friction to family. We talk about the emotional bill of grinding through grief, the cost of silence, and the power of calling your village early. Her litmus test for relationships—who deposits more than they withdraw—doubles as a compass for healthier teams and boundaries.
We also confront representation and erasure. Too many women who built pop culture were left out of the retellings, so she co-authored Women Behind the Mic and launched Backstage Pass Careers to help students see the jobs behind the spotlight: publicity, A&R, promotions, styling, songwriting. Then we pivot to her health mission as the Good Doctor, teaching people to attain, maintain, and reclaim wellness with practical tools like food journaling and her 21-day detox program. The through line is clear: author your story, protect your energy, and build systems that let you keep your light bright without burning out.
If this resonates, subscribe and share it with someone who needs a boost. Drop a review with your biggest takeaway, and tell us which lesson you’ll apply this week.
Welcome everyone. You're now tuned into another amazing edition of Sonya on Air. I'm your host, Dr. Sonia, and are you ready to truly dive into the lives and minds of your favorite celebrities, especially those incredible figures who illuminate black culture and entrepreneurship? We're talking intimate, thought-provoking conversations that peel back the layers, offering not just glimpses, but profound insights into their pivotal moments and remarkable journeys. It's more than just celebrity interviews, it's a springboard for inspiration, illuminating a path for us all. So, in just a few short moments, I'm going to bring to you Dr. LaJoyce Brookshire. She is an iconic figure behind some of the most profound celebrities in the past, the current, and the future. She is the name behind such iconic entertainers such as Aretha Franklin, Tony Braxton, Sean P. Diddy Combs, Biggie Smalls, and so much more. This conversation is really going to unpack the intersection between personal empowerment and professional success. Those two lanes always merge. And as a leader, as a boss, sometimes we don't know how to navigate or manage it all. We're going to be sharing Dr. LaJoyce's stories, her journeys, the failures, the losses, and the wins. Because we're ushering in a new generation of bosses, too. So do me a favor. Before I bring in Dr. LaJoyce, I need you to subscribe. Sonia Onair streams across every major platform. Make sure you subscribe, leave a comment, and share it amongst your family and friends. Also, make sure you visit the Sonya Onair website, www.sanyaonair.net. Sanya will be launching all new merch really, really soon. So make sure that you're the first to rock the Sonya Onair merch. So without any further ado, let's just bring in Dr. LaJoyce Richard. How are you doing today, Dr. LaJoyce? I am well. Thank you, Dr. Sanya. Let me tell you something, Dr. LaJoyce. This is the first time that someone's called me Dr. Sonia. I don't know if you noticed, but yeah, there's been a significant name change.
SPEAKER_01:No, say more.
SPEAKER_02:I wasn't a doctor the last time I spoke to you.
SPEAKER_01:Congratulations, then.
SPEAKER_02:Thank you. Yes, the ceremony is October 11th, and I'm super, super excited.
SPEAKER_01:Bless your heart, honey. I remember that. Well, there's no greater feeling, right?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. I remember as a child, I always envisioned what my life would be like as an adult. And I said, Oh, I want to become a doctor. Didn't have a clue how that was going to happen, but I always led my life in service of. And when the opportunity presented itself, and because I was ready, I was just able to walk into the opportunity. Beautiful. Well, congratulations. Welcome. Thank you. So it brings me to the first question that I have for you. Now, the the overarch of this conversation is going to be about how your personal growth fuels your personal professional success. So I want to start at the very, very beginning because as an educator working in the largest New York City charter high school network, and I'm always talking to students about their adulthood. What do they want to become? Where were you? And how old were you when you decided that you wanted to enter into the entertainment industry? An industry that we have heard is one of the most demonic industries to ever exist. Where were you and how old?
SPEAKER_01:I was probably in seventh grade. And I was in Louisiana, and we were doing this pretend thing. And my cousin said, I'm gonna be a news reporter. And I said, I'm gonna be on the radio. Wow. And my friends jokingly used to call me radio because they said I never shut up. Right? So true story, fast forward, I did my internship at WJPC, the amazing AM 95 in Chicago. And uh my the first day at work, then I went to work there. I worked there. And when I came out of the newsroom, the uh receptionist said, The your third grade teacher is on the line. Her name is Mrs. Carmen, and I said, Yes, and she said she she has to speak to you, she's been holding on for a while, and so I took the call and she said all she said was thank god somebody's paying for the news. And I thought, Miss Carmen, and then she hung up. Wow, I said, Lord, today.
SPEAKER_02:But you know, that's a similar story. I love it when people can see the trajectory in us that we can't see in ourselves because my fourth grade teacher, my fourth and sixth grade teachers, they still keep in contact with me um every single birthday, and they also told me, I am so glad that you found a place to land all of your talking.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, definitely.
SPEAKER_02:But wait a minute, at the age, you said the seventh grade, that's when you knew that you wanted to go into the entertainment broadcasting. Yes, how did you know that? And did you know exactly what steps you should take in order to get into the radio business?
SPEAKER_01:I had no clue of the steps. I I knew it, I was the kid who lived by the radio. I've been married 28 years to my husband, and we're childhood sweethearts. I have watched more television since I've been married to him than I ever saw in my life. I was the kid who lived by the radio. My mother would punish me, she would take my radio and leave me with the TV.
SPEAKER_02:I was always the kid with the radio. So that's a gem. I don't I'm not sure if you dropped it because once again, similar stories. This is how I know that this is a testimony for someone else. I remember in the year 2005 or 2007, I lost everything in Florida due to Hurricane Ivan. I didn't have anything but the clothing on my back. And I said, Well, now that I have to start from scratch and rebuild, what am I going to do? Now it has to be intentional. I said, Well, what did I like to do all the time as a kid? I like to talk and I like to write short stories. Hence, I'm in media and hence I'm a published author. Get back to what excited you as a child. So that was a gem right there.
SPEAKER_01:Well, and speaking, yes, that thank you. And I wrote short stories as well. I actually always wrote, I always had a diary, thanks to my husband. Like I said, we were childhood sweethearts. He gave me my first diary for Christmas when I was 12.
unknown:Wow.
SPEAKER_01:And I uh and what I used to do was I used to write the school plays, primarily so my friends could be in it. Wrong motivation, but that's what I did. No one else was writing them, and we always had an assembly, so I always wrote the plays, and I won an ebony junior writing contest when I was 11. Remember Ebony Junior magazine? Yes, I won a writing contest when I was 11, and uh it I was like a third runner-up or something like that, and I was just thrilled to death. Wow.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, so a part of your journey, so radio. I know a part of your journey, you also got into public relations for some of the most iconic entertainment um professionals that we heard from in the past, the current, and potentially in the future. How did you get into public relations? And then we're going to talk about some of the clients that you've worked with.
SPEAKER_01:I got into public relations as a next natural progression of being a radio producer. I was a writer and producer at Sheridan Broadcasting Networks, which is now American Urban Radio. And we had a name change when I was working there. And I used to write the show and co-produce the show, Top 30 USA, with Donnie Simpson. It was to come on Saturday mornings, you're in New York, WBLS. That's where you stay here. And then the next thing you kind of do after being a radio producer is go work for a label. So I went before I worked for a label, though, I started my own public relations company. And I was handling a lot of not-for-profit people, a lot of upstarts, a lot of fringe type people who needed publicity. And then I went to work at Hush Productions and where else did I work? Hush Productions Polygram. Uh, but at Polygram, though, I worked at international AR because they were thrilled with my Spanish background. I I went to I studied at the University of Madrid. Have a dual La Universidad de Madrid, I have a dual degree in speech and Spanish.
SPEAKER_02:Nice. I just want to pause for a moment because sometimes we get stuck because we're both from a generation, you get a good job, you keep it, and you retire. But all throughout you talking about this early journey, I was like, Oh my gosh, she had the audacity to know when to go into the next journey and when to pivot. When did you get that itch to say it's time for me to move on and to now write the next page of this book?
SPEAKER_01:Because I always had an itch to the next thing. My mother gave me a sense, a great sense of adventure. We used to have to keep a suitcase packed under our beds, and we had what you call travel clothes. That these are the clothes you travel in, you don't wear them any other time. You have travel pajamas, a travel toothbrush, and so, and then we have come home from a trip, we had to wash our clothes, put them back, and put our suitcases under the bed. That's because my mother would pick us up from school, she would go to the office, and on a Friday, LaJoyce and Stephen Hunter come to the main office, LaJoyce and Stephen Hunter, and people be like, Where y'all going now? We said, We don't know. We thought we out, we outside. So when uh we used to just and she was just so spontaneous like that. So she gave me that sense of adventure, but she was a teacher for 33 years, and I'm here to tell you that me getting the itch to go from job to job, it was much to her disappointment. The choice, you keep going from girl, you need to get somewhere and stay there, girl. That job, you like it. I said that mommy, this is not it. This is not it. I said, You taught me that. She said, I taught you how to go from city to city, and say nothing about going from job to job.
SPEAKER_02:So, how did you alleviate her um concern? Because you know, we're children talking to our parents, sometimes they don't get it, it doesn't land because they feel as if they always know what's best for us. How did you still take that step of leap, even though your mother was against it, to say, I know that this is the right path for me?
SPEAKER_01:Yes, I took, I was able to take the leaps even when mommy was uh fussing. But you know why I was able to do it? I was able to show her proof of why. She was a very rational, logical woman. I'm very logical myself, and she's very black and white. And so what I would always do is write a letter. I'm like, I'm writing you this letter because I don't want to cry and I don't want to argue, and then I would state my case, and then she would call and say, You go, girl. Nice. This is good's like a good mood for you. Yes, I like to write a letter. Write a letter. I'm big on writing letters, yes, very big.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, so and that's that's a strategy that I also employ because my dad loves him dearly, he's in the back. Sometimes I just can't get through, and sometimes I'll say, Okay, let me put this in a text message. Sometimes, even some of the books that I co-authored, I said, Let me write this message for him in this book, and I'll just pass him the book and say, Here, dad, read this. Oh, yeah. So I enjoyed that strategy, and it just lands a lot differently because then I'm giving him the opportunity to process what I just said instead of responding first, he's processing first so that he can think of a more meaningful um answer to what I wrote. I'm glad that you mentioned that. So you get into public relationships now. Let's talk about some of the iconic figures that you've worked with. Name them.
SPEAKER_01:Well, at Arista Records, I was director of publicity and I worked with Miss Aretha. I worked with Kenny G, Whitney Houston, Carly Simon, Kenny G. Did I say Kenny G? Yes, I did say Kenny G. The notorious B I G, my biggie. Wow, uh, total 112. I had the entire bad boy roster. 112, mace, and Sean Puffy Combs. And don't ask me any questions. And and I also worked with all of the artists on La Face, Usher, Tony Braxton, TLC, and I had Rowdy as well, Monica, Dallas Austin, yes, uh, and outcast.
SPEAKER_02:Wow, you know, I'm so glad that you ran off your roster, and I'm sure that there's many, many more. And oftentimes we look at the people who are at the front, and we're not looking at the people who made them ready. Share a moment with us where it was really difficult getting an artist ready for the public. Share the moment, and who was the artist?
SPEAKER_01:Oh my gosh, which one? They all had to get ready because they were all so green when they came. I I let me say this before me preface what I'm about to say with this point. My greatest joy was taking an unknown gem, letting them get getting them polished and ready for public consumption and presenting them to the world. That was my greatest joy. I would say one of the toughest artists to get ready was Biggie. And I could see it. Well, I had come in, and just when he was about to be media trained, Wendy Washington was leaving Arista, and I replaced Wendy Washington. She said, Now I already planned this little day with Biggie. I heard he's difficult. I haven't had a chance to media train him. He hasn't allowed me to get with him, but you know, the press is coming. She had already set up the day. I said, okay. And she said, but you're going to need to meet with him a couple of hours before and give him a quick down and dirty. It's no problem. So we get there. He's he's he arrives. He's at Bad Boy when I arrived very early. And we're in the room with the hospitality and everything that I had set up. And then so we start talking, and I introduce myself, and he goes, he looks me up and down and goes, Okay. And so I sit down and I said, I start asking him questions. I said, I just want to do a run-through really quickly. I want to do a little media training with you. He goes, uh-huh. And I say, so he's answering questions, and I'm saying, okay, answer the question with the question, stop saying the N-word, and look people directly in the eye when you speak to them. He said, I'll be right back. Oh, then he then he looked me up and down again. He said, You will be. And I said, I don't know what your cuss policy is, but no, cuss like a sail if you want to. Go ahead. I told him it's miss bitch to you. Wow. Okay. And he said, I'll be right back. And so about 15 minutes passed. I said, Well, he should have been back in here by now. I went around the office looking for him. I didn't see him. I went to ask the receptionist, Did you see Biggie pass here? She said, Oh, yeah, he left about 15 minutes ago. I was like, Left, like, left the building. And I went into Michelle Joyce's office and broke down crying. I said, My gosh, the press is coming here in two hours. And Biggie has left the building. She said, Girl, this is how he rolls. Get used to it. You're hungry, come with me. And I sat, I first sat in her office and cried real tears. This is my first thing I'm doing at Aerister. And I said, Am I about to get fired from this job? And it went like that our first year. Then finally, it took a turn when he saw that I was really on his side. And he started calling me Ma. And then it then he's he wanted to be media trained more. He wanted all of those things. So I suck, I uh got Deanna Williams. I said, I'm gonna stick somebody on you, make Deanna Williams train you, and she done take no T for the fever. So she trained him up, and then he became a little superstar. Wow, because then he wanted it by the second album. My first album was Rocky, just as the second album was moving on, he was I'm gonna be cooperative, I'm not gonna have 20 people with me, it's gonna be good.
SPEAKER_02:I said, Okay, I'm looking forward to it. So I just want to capture something very pertinent that you said because for people who are in the business of building relationships, sometimes it may not always start that easy. But you were able to persist. What exactly did you do to cultivate the relationship between you and the notorious BIG where he felt safe, where he started calling you mom, where he was ready by album two? What did you do?
SPEAKER_01:What I did on a regular basis to really cement our relationship was I showed up. I advocated, I jumped up and down and screamed and hollered. I wouldn't let photographers take a picture if nothing was right, if everything wasn't right, if his collar was crooked, I go, hold up, wait a minute. Come in and straighten his collar. Wait a minute, hands need lotion to the point where he wouldn't take pictures without me. Wow, no pictures without me. I had to be present at all photo shoots. And then one time I thought he was gonna beat up a photographer because the photographer did not say that it was a fifth-floor walk up. And he had a fit, and I told the photographer that might be a little something you want to say to a man who's 300 pounds, right? And to me, so I could pass it on. All right, I understand that this is your studio, but we could have rented a studio. Yeah, I had the means to do that so that he didn't have to walk up a fifth floor walk up. And Biggie punished him, he made him go get food. He said, You go get my food. I said, I'll get it, I'll get it. He said, No, no, no, no, you're not. He's gonna get it back. And the his hands were really crusty, like, really needed. Ash, I called I used to carry this stuff called body butter back in the day before body butter was out. My girl used to create body butter, and he's like, I need some of that butter body. I told him my hands are crusty. He said, Go get that butter body, and he told the guy, yo, you about to take my picture of me looking like this. I was like, I put out a lot of fires, and I was an ad advocate because artists artists need an advocate, yeah, yeah, and not just the company they have. Yes, you know what I mean.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, yes. I'm hearing that there are a lot of people who will just do anything to be in the room. Um, they don't want to ruffle any feathers. So, when you think about the way that you cultivated these relationships with these iconic artists and the way that artists are handled today in this space, do you think that there are significant changes? And if and if so, in what ways?
SPEAKER_01:The significant change that I see is that there's no more artist development. Either the artist is already polished before they get to the label, because the label is no longer doing that. And no one told me per se that this was my responsibility, but I knew it was. I know how to media train, I know I was a journalist, so I know what people are looking for to be in front of them. That was very helpful. The fact that I was a journalist, I was a press person, I had a press pass. So, and these press people were my colleagues. So I know how we whisper behind you know the backs of the artists who were not ready to be in front. And I'd be daggone if I was gonna put my people in front when they weren't ready, because now you are facing the possibility of bad press, yeah, and that has cost many of my colleagues their jobs.
SPEAKER_02:Do you think because of those significant changes that that has impacted the music industry or the entertainment industry in a negative way?
SPEAKER_01:Listen, the negativity of the industry today, yeah, it takes my daughter to tell it, right? Who's 23, who says the music of today is trash, these artists today are trash, that they need they need some boot camp. Yeah, yeah. They need a boot camp.
SPEAKER_02:And I'm glad that you mentioned your daughter's age because I don't want it to come across as you know, those old ladies, they don't even know what they're talking about. This music isn't for them. But your daughter is 23 years old, and she's saying the same thing that we're both saying. The music is definitely different. I remember listening to music, and it was so intriguing, and it spoke to my soul. I don't know if you used to do this. When we had, let's say, the record player or the cassette, I would press play, stop, write down the lyrics. Yes. Until I wrote down the entire song. I don't do that anymore.
SPEAKER_01:True story. Okay, I'm a fan of trap music for one reason because of the beat, and I dance and you know do workouts, and so I'm always looking for a hot beat. That trap music beat that gets me moving, right? Oh, yes. I told my daughter, I've somehow I feel in the back of my spirit that I really shouldn't be listening to that. I'm gonna look up the word. She said, Don't do that. She said, Don't do that. You don't want to really know what they're saying. No, I just told my class today, I cannot believe that mumble rap is a genre.
SPEAKER_02:It is a genre in the world, yeah. I don't get it, and it's like a genre for top charting artists that I don't understand how they even made it there.
SPEAKER_01:I'm just gonna because they don't have choices.
SPEAKER_02:That's true, that's true. So, you know, like I said, I just wanted to set the frame for this conversation. I wanted people to fully understand how long you've worked in this industry, the iconic artists that you've worked with. So we've seen the success, but now I want to start to unpack all of the emotional and mental vices that you had to arm yourself with just to be resilient. So let's talk about embracing vulnerability to build resilience. Let's just talk about learning through loss. That is when I know I had to be the most vulnerable and when I learned the most. And when I'm talking about the loss, I'm talking about sometimes the loss of a job or the loss of a family member. Um, when did you experience extreme loss, but it built resilience and success for you?
SPEAKER_01:Oh wow. I experienced uh the one of the greatest losses of my life was when my grandmother died. I happened to have been in Chicago, which is where I'm from. I was in Chicago with total and 112. And uh there were three groups. I don't remember who the third group was right now, but I had planned an evening to get the Chicago tastemakers to come out to listen to the artist. And it was going to be at this club called the uh Red Parrot, and it was owned by my boyfriend, who was my boyfriend from first grade, John Moultrie, right? So John said, Yeah, yeah, y'all can come, no problem. And it was gonna be fantastic. My grandmother died while I was in town the night before that party. Oh, the day of that party, she died, and she had been in the hospital, and so I was running back and forth to the hospital, and then right before the party, she died. And I still had to show up. What I learned was I I played a day, it's a it's a very dangerous game to play, let me say. Because you're working with people who do care about you. Right. And you know, we're taught in many ways to suck it up and show up, and we're taught to not drag your personal things into the office, but the damage that it does personally as a naturopathic doctor now, I understand the damage of swallowing that or attempting to swallow it because you never really do. And so when I had to show up, so then after I was supposed to go back to New York and take care of other things with those artists, of course I didn't go because now it's time for the funeral for my grandmother, and we had two nights of events in Chicago, and then I ended up staying in Chicago. While I was dealing with all of this, before that, even and uh I also experienced another death while working at Arista, and it was the death of my first husband. I took the job at Arista, and they knew that my husband was sick. What they didn't know was that my husband had full-blown AIDS, and he married me knowing he had AIDS and did not tell me.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, wow!
SPEAKER_01:Turns out that praise God, I'm HIV negative, thank the Lord. Amen. And but he he died. I canceled, I had an Usher photo shoot had to be canceled, and it wasn't because I needed to cancel it, but that day I moved him into hospice from home, and my colleagues they knew that I had a sick husband, they they they thought he had cancer because that was the family lie back then, and so I just didn't tell anybody what I was dealing with, and I only took off about six days total after he died, and he died the day of the Biggie and Faith photo shoot that I had done with Vibe Magazine. Oh wow, when they were on the cover like a gangster and his girl in the backseat. Yeah, he died that day, so uh it's 102 degrees under the Brooklyn Bridge that July day. I had on a white suit because it was too hot to have on anything else. I had gone to see him that morning because I knew I'd be tied up all night with this photo shoot. They wanted sunset shots as well, and it was really big. Biggie, who made me leave that photo shoot. On a break, he ran over to me and he said, What in the world is going on? What is this that your husband is dying in hospice? He was like, Ma, you didn't say anything. I said, And you for you to do what? He said, Ma. He said, You're leaving here. And I said, Oh no, honey, because you like to cut up at a photo shoot. He said, No, nope, this is almost over. I promise you, I said, Biggie, I cannot lose this job. This man's about to die. Please, Biggie. He walked me to the car. He told the driver, who was somewhere refreshing himself. He told the driver, get in the car, take her home. Because she needed to get home to her husband. He was like, I just cannot even believe you're here. What I learned about that, that bounce back spirit developed even more because I had a whole company rallying around. And I also learned not to stay silent when the trouble comes, when everybody's gonna have their turn to have murky water. My immediate vice president knew, and my immediate director knew, but black music didn't know. And the day that the black music department found out, oh my gosh, Jean Riggins, president of Black Music, called me into her office with an urgency that I literally thought I was fired. But Joyce, get into my office. I said, Okay, I grabbed the notepad, I ran down to her office. I got in there, she was standing up over her desk. The vice president, there were two vice presidents, one was looking out the window and one was standing like this. And so I look around, she said, sit down. And she said, What is this? I hear you got a husband at home dying. I thought, oh, oh, that what? Because literally I thought I was gonna lose my job and didn't know why. And I said, Yes, yes, it's true. She said, Why are we just finding out about this? They fussed at me and they loved on me.
SPEAKER_02:Wow, yes, I'm hearing a lot in what you just shared with us, and it makes me really think about you know, people love to say the work-life balance. I don't think it exists, I just call it the work-life integration. Yeah, that's exactly what it is, because you have to manage them both or manage it all. But if you know now, if you knew then what you know now, would you have done it differently and left sooner? Or would you have done it the same way? You mean left the industry or left left the the photo shoot that day that you had uh for Biggie when you left?
SPEAKER_01:Let me tell you what was easier. It was easier for me to manage my workload than it was for me to marry manage the husband. What I understand very clearly is that we collective, black community, Hispanic community, communities of color, period. We believe that we can love people through medical emergencies. You cannot she don't need no therapy after no stroke, she's not going to any rehab. My mama's coming home. You are not medically certified to rehab someone who's had a stroke. Why don't we feel that we need to get our family professional help? And why do we feel that there's a betrayal if we do? Yeah, yeah. That is now, if you have someone in the family who's qualified, I agree with that. Bring your family member home. But what I could no longer do was manage, and my family had an intervention with me because I had a carefully coordinated calendar of friends and family to come into our home to help take care of him. People gave up their vacations. My mother and father came were coming every other week and staying a week because they were the retired ones, and literally they'd have a day of overlap to do the training on okay, this is how everything needs to be cared for, so that I could go to work. They did that for me. And when it got to be too much, my mother called me at work and said, It's time, it's time for him to have the professional help. Because LaJoyce, we have all done our best, haven't we? I said, We have. And the next phone call, as I sat at my desk, like I looked at my calendar, like, ooh, that Usher photo shoot was canceled. I said, Thank you, God. And I got on the phone and I started calling to find out who could receive him as a hospice patient because he was at home gossips. Wow.
SPEAKER_02:But you know, LaJoyce, Dr. LaJoyce, there's so many individuals who don't have the support of their job or the support of family to make it easier for them as you go to work. So, what would you say for someone who's navigating through loss while also trying to understand personal work life balance integration? Is it okay to say I need some time and I put a pause on things so that I can re you know, re-emerge stronger and more powerful than ever? Is it okay to press the stop or pause button?
SPEAKER_01:It is absolutely okay to press the pause button, and now it's easier to do that because now everyone has an understanding about mental health and about the necessity to dial it back if need be. Now we are more aware than ever before. This that is one of the things that emerged after COVID that was a good thing, sure. And what I say to people on how to get the bounce back is this we all have a 100 100% success rate of surviving the bad days, when you really think about it, we do, how we handle it is quite another story. Yeah, and so I think that if people have a solid foundation and choose not a life of isolation, because who can you call? Who are your are your team of people? Who's your Dr. Bombay? Who is your who is your go-to, your ride or die? Now is the time to get them involved.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. I'm glad that you, I felt like you were talking directly to me because in my journey of navigating loss, and one strategy that you just mentioned was to, you know, call on your village. And when I went to call my village, I said I don't even know what numbers to dial. And I had to really take uh an internal look at myself and and really ask myself, did you invest in all the right people? Because if you are figuring out who you should call, it really made me, it made me even more depressed because I was just like, oh my gosh, how do you choose who to invest in when it comes to your personal and professional circle?
SPEAKER_01:Oh, so we're going there. Oh, yeah, we're going there. Oh, here's how you choose wisely on where to invest. Take a look of who's making more withdrawals than deposits from your life. Take a look around at the people who give you that sage wisdom, who always have a kind word, a kind text, people who hold you accountable and don't take your mess. That is how you discern, and iron sharpens iron. People who are not filling up with garbage and gossip and an insistent need, or people who, when your phone rings and you look at that and you know they want something all the time. Who are the people? How do you want something all of the time? Aren't we good and grown? How do you need what are you doing asking me for anything? You have no children. You can't balance a checkbook yet. What in the world? Yeah, that's how you decide.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and I wish that that lesson was communicated more when adults were children. Because for me, like I said, I just woke up at this big old age and I was just like, Oh, I look back and said, What have I done? But now it just makes me walk with a more intentional purpose, so that these latter years, once again, I'm rebuilding intentionally and purposefully. But I always say, What would my life be like if I would have been led with that message earlier on?
SPEAKER_01:So, my next question I hope you have no regrets though.
SPEAKER_02:No, none at all.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, good.
SPEAKER_02:Because when we talked about learning through failure, I don't think of it as a failure. For me, it's just a teachable moment, and it's just scaffolding on okay, so this is what I now need to do because I learned from this example, and you know what?
SPEAKER_01:John Maxwell has a quote sometimes you win, sometimes you learn. I like that one. I like that one. So, you know, through everything, through every stream, yeah, that's so true.
SPEAKER_02:And I can't believe I've never heard that one before. I'm gonna use that one, gonna use it. So, you know, you've talked about the people that you worked with, um, some of your journeys early on in the music industry. How did you develop such a mental and emotional fortitude that allows you to amplify your voice with audacity?
SPEAKER_01:I have to credit my mother with giving me the strong voice and being the strong woman that I am today because my mother took no tea for the fever. She was five feet one, she was light-skinned, she had strawberry red hair and green eyes, and she would tell you in two seconds I'm a black woman. And she never choked back her words, she never bit her tongue, and she could be very harsh or seemingly harsh, but she was exceptionally hard on me. And I feel that it's okay, that there's nothing wrong with being hard on your on your child for their for their for their growth, for their improvement, for how they will show up in this world. My birthday was last weekend, and my daughter wrote in my card. I was telling her, I'm worried about you living in Philly, I'm worried about you. But you know, that's a mother's worry. But as she wrote in my card, you did the best possible job you could have raising me. And I am so thankful for it, and it helps to inform me on how I show up in this world, and I hope that helps you to worry less. Wow, tears. I know you did, I know you cried. I had to read it again. I was like, Oh my gosh, worry less. But my mother helped to give me that voice that uh and a strong will and a desire to be anything I could be. She I would tell her, but so and so's going to the party and everybody's going. She would always say, You're not everybody. And I believed her.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah. But you know, similar to you, to you, uh, Dr. LaJoyce, I was also um raised by a powerful mother who um was very unapologetic. And my daughter and I, we always joke, like, you have to have tough skin to grow up in this household. But then when I transitioned to adulthood and I started to enter into the workforce, I noticed that my audacity and the way that I amplified my voice wasn't always met with roses or a welcome mat. How do you navigate as a woman of color, amplifying your voice in this current space where they want to silence or minimize our voices? How do you still push through?
SPEAKER_01:I'm able to push through in this way. And now, as a speech professor, I teach this that we have to walk softly but carry a big stick. And we have to use words, elevated words, that leave you scrambling for a dictionary when you really get pissed off instead of using words that go lower, go higher. Michelle Obama had that right. Because I don't really, I don't need to go lower with you because karma and uh seeds planted. When when my friend says this, Elisa Gabrielle, she goes, Dr. Elisa, she says, when they go low, karma goes lower. Yes. I look at it like this. I'm God's girl. Who are you messing with? You don't even know you're messing with the daughter of the most high God, and you have lost your mind. Amen. And so that's the way I look at it. So um, when I choose my words, I and I I choose my words carefully, especially when I'm angry. And when I am angry, I don't know. I have the recall of the words from the SAT test, I hardly ever use them, but I don't know, they just come forth. And I leave see people going, What? That what and so language has always been my weapon, and uh speaking clearly so that I'm understood, and I make sure that we have a firm understanding. But even when I'm telling you off using multisyllabaic words that you probably don't even understand, but I just make sure that we're here and I nod and yes, and eventually they go, Oh, yes, but it softens it instead of escalating it. So you're the one who's screaming, you're the one who's angry, and I'm not.
SPEAKER_02:So I'm gonna follow that up because we may be more intentional with our tone, we may choose these SAT words, but once again, in this space, our presence is always weaponized. How do we still navigate through, still showing up correctly, but still being faced with this hostility? How do we reset in order to still push through?
SPEAKER_01:Here's what I think that we need to do. We need to maintain our light and hand those people shade because I am not dimming my light to make you feel more comfortable. I am so sorry. I've been fired for this. I'll never forget I was doing I was director of marketing and publicity at this big music outlet that they have here in the Poconos where I live. And the director said, When you come around, everybody starts working faster, working harder, even though they're working, that you blow through, and it's like, good morning, everybody. And I said, Well, I say thank you when I asked them to do something. He said, That's not what I'm talking about, and you know it. So I eventually got fired. But the point was, I said, It's not my fault if they can't handle the light. It's all right. I understand that it's big and it's bright, it's not for everyone, right? It's not for everyone, but don't try to diminish it, and you're not gonna make me feel less than because of it. Yeah, I see you though, I see you, and I understand your need to feel comfortable, I understand your fragility, and I'm not here to play with it. Yeah, I didn't come to play with you or it. Can we all just get the work done, please?
SPEAKER_02:Yes, yes. I'm glad that I was um able to kind of talk about this right here because this is my story. This is the story of so many women who have the audacity to amplify their voice, but they're facing resistance and hostility, and oftentimes results in them being fired. Um, that's happened to me um before, but yet and still I remain steadfast because it's not up to me to make you comfortable.
SPEAKER_01:That's right. It's not my job.
SPEAKER_02:That's not my job. The only thing that I can do is to continue to walk in purpose. So I'm glad that you know this can be a gem for someone who is facing hostility at their job because they're simply amplifying their voices in a space where we are supposed to be silenced andor minimized. Now, speaking of them trying to silence andor minimize us, do you feel that there's enough representation in the entertainment business? When I mean representation, I'm talking about of black and brown people in the entertainment business. Is there enough representation?
SPEAKER_01:There's a lot of representation behind the scenes. Yeah, we have there's a book. Can I show it? Women behind the mic. Is this backwards? Yes. Is that backwards to you, or do you see? No, it's not. Uh-huh. It's right. All right. Women behind the mic, curators of pop culture, volume one, word to the wise. And we also have volume two, the hip hop edition. And this book features, this book features 24 women executives who worked behind the scenes. And the hip hop edition features 22 executives who worked behind the scenes. And this is voluminous. People are saying, oh, there are not that many black women who worked behind the scenes. Oh, yes, there were. And yes, there are. And you don't know about them just for what you said. We're facing erasure. And we're facing our erasure by our own people as well. For instance, in the new edition story, I love to tell this is this this is how women behind the mic, one of the reasons it came to be. In the new edition story, which was three nights. Yes, I sat with my popcorn, cleared my calendar, and I waited with bated breath to see how Juanita Stephens and how Renee Foster would be depicted. Because when Renee Foster was the assistant to Juanita Stephens, who was vice president at MCA Records, and they did everything for those boys, made sure they had their studies, made sure they had their uh their studies turned in, made sure that they had good hotels. They each they even made sure they had condoms. Okay. That's not too much information, but it's it's the truth. And in three nights, they didn't depict Renee or Juanita at all in a three-day biopic. And those women were influential in making sure those boys had the start that they needed. I was serious. Then in the movie Notorious, there was only one scene where it could have been a publicist, and that is where Faith Evans is sitting on the couch with the reporter, and then some Biggie knocks on the door because he's angry about this Tupac thing, right? And the white guy in the suit jumps up to handle it. So if there are three people in the room with Faith, an interviewer, and a white guy in a suit, that's the publicist's job. I stood up in that movie theater and I threw popcorn and screamed out loud. I'm like, oh, so I'm a white man now. And the white man didn't say anything. You just grabbed any available person to depict the publicist's role. If you're trying to get the things right, why didn't you get all the things right? Right. All right. Erased. You could have grabbed any random black girl standing around on that set, put a suit on her, and let her be, let her have been the accurate depiction of the black woman publicist who worked with Faith, who set up that interview that day. Yeah, you could have done that. The last thing was Puffy's can't stop, won't stop. Michelle Joyce, my co-writer, my co-creator here. She called me, said you see Can't Stop, Won't Stop. I said, Yeah. She said, Puff call you. I said no. He called you. She said no. She worked in his office. She was his director of marketing. And every other one department except for two was run by women at Bad Boy Records, and not one of them was asked to say a word in Can't Stop, Won't Stop. I said, I'm tired. We she said, me too. We got said, got our friends together, said, blow the dust off your memories. We're tired of being a race. This is three strikes, y'all are out. But you know what, Dr. Sanya? It is not their responsibility to tell our stories, it's ours.
SPEAKER_02:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:Onus lies with us.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, yes, yes. And and I'm glad that you decided the onus on this lies with us. Because I was just like, okay, so who is this this book for? Who is the audience? And I'm so glad that you were able to capture all of the she roles in the entertainment industry. Because if I'm going to high school students and they're talking to me about careers, I want to give them an examples. That's right. I want them to see themselves. That's right. So I'm glad that you all decided to pen um this book. I also want to mention, and I briefly alluded it to it uh just now, you're also pushing uh curriculum into schools as well, correct?
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. We have written curriculum, it's called Backstage Pass Careers for the entertainment industry. And this is exploring entertainment careers, is the exact name. And we come into schools, we can do a one-day, full-day workshop, we can break it out into eight weeks. It's totally customizable. And each each week, each session is each session is uh taught by the person who actually did it. So I would teach publicity, and we've got one to teach promotions, AR, uh songwriting, um, artist development, and even all of the stylists and the make all of those things. So we teach all of the things that it takes to make the artist, and the students are actually able, they actually have an assignment within that time frame, and they walk away with something tangible that they can put into their portfolios. So it's an excellent opportunity, and then we also have pathways to internships and we go on field trips, so it's really exciting for the students.
SPEAKER_02:Amazing. Like I mentioned to you before, I definitely want to share this amongst my colleagues in education. Um, but for those uh, let's say administrators or leaders in education who are watching this conversation, how can they get in touch with you if they want to bring the curriculum inside their schools?
SPEAKER_01:Uh, women behind the mic at gmail.com. That's womenbehind the mic at gmail.com. Amazing.
SPEAKER_02:And we can do also briefly, there's so many things like you are just multi-layered, multi-hyphenated. Like I can be here all day, but this is what I love about impressive women. You know, the the portfolio is very much diversified, and I love it. You also have a podcast. You Ask the Good Doctor, correct?
SPEAKER_01:Ask the good doctor, yes. That's my Ask the Good Doctor is my entire brand. I teach audiences how to attain, maintain, and reclaim perfect health. That is my personal, my personal assignment from the Lord. I teach people how not to die from diseases we can prevent. I have just created my new book, Trinity, the 21-day detoxification program, 21 days to becoming healthy, wealthy. And that's available anywhere, books or so. That's my 11th book, by the way. Wow. And this is my Trinity 21-day detoxification program, and it's a box set, it comes with everything you need to fully detoxify your body in 21 days. I went all the way to Malaysia to have it formulated with the best products in the world, and they were so excited about it. I went there in January 2025, and they launched it at their national international conference in Dubai in April. So we we are officially in the marketplace. I'm so excited about it. I just love teaching people how to be healthy, wealthy because it's our birthright.
SPEAKER_02:Amazing. So we, you know, we talked about the mental, emotional strength. Now we're talking about being healthy. What compelled you to be so health conscious? Did something happen where you said, I really need to figure this out?
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. Cindy Rogers, in my senior high school persuasive speech class, gave a speech on why you should become a vegetarian. We're still friends today. She said that she was inspired by a little booklet that she read by Dick Gregory, and her aunt was just beautiful, and she wanted to be everything her aunt was. And her aunt gave her the book and said, I do everything Dick Gregory says here. She gave us that speech. I went to the lunchroom, I ordered a grilled cheese sandwich on rye. That night I went home, told my mom, I'm never eating meat again. She said, Help yourself, there's some salad in the refrigerator. And then I went to get a job at General Nutrition Center, which is now GNC. GNC used to be the Whole Foods. We used to make sandwiches, squeeze peanut butter, and juice juice. Yes, we did.
SPEAKER_02:That's true. That's so true. But you know, I'm glad that you are embarking upon all of these initiatives to just get us together. Um, I too had a similar journey. I haven't eaten meat in I would say 30 years.
SPEAKER_01:Wow, I did go back to eating meat. My hair started falling out. I wasn't replacing my proteins property because when I went to college, I didn't really know how to. They would just hand me this pack of cheese. That wasn't the answer. Yeah, but I never went back to eating beef or pork. I eat organic chicken only. Turkey, as you know, is minimum, is not processed at all. And I eat wild-caught fish only.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it's definitely a lifestyle journey. Um, even after 30 years, I'm still trying to figure out um a few things, but I really noticed um my health was being affected, my mental. And what I did was before I made the change, was every time I ate something, I wrote down in a journal how it made me feel. Good. And then after a while, I was like, Oh my gosh, it's what I'm eating. And that's when I decided to make this very significant lifestyle change, and I haven't gone back since then.
SPEAKER_01:You are so smart because getting people to keep that food diary is the hardest part of all, and that's your first assignment when you come to see me. Wow.
SPEAKER_02:So when they uh if when my audience wants to really tap into the health journey to improve their health, how can they contact you, the good doctor?
SPEAKER_01:Ah, ask the gooddoctor1 at gmail.com. That's ask the gooddoctor one at gmail.com.
SPEAKER_02:Amazing. So we have Women Behind the Mic, Volume One. Is volume two out yet?
SPEAKER_01:Volume two is out. I'm looking around from my desk for one. I don't have one nearby, but yes, volume two is absolutely out.
SPEAKER_02:And they can also purchase that online.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, yes, they're both available everywhere. Books are sold. Amazing, amazing, Dr.
SPEAKER_02:LaJoyce. I really appreciate your conversation. I really appreciate you sharing your story with us. We really ran the gamut from your early beginnings up until present day, and I hope, well, I know that my audience is going to leave full and also inspired with next steps. Thank you so much for your conversation.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you so much for inviting me. I appreciate you so much. Looking forward to seeing you again soon.
SPEAKER_02:Thank you. I'm just going to continue on with the show, but we will definitely stay in touch.
SPEAKER_01:All right, take care. Bye bye.
SPEAKER_02:You take care as well. There you have it. Dr. LaJoyce Brookshire. Wasn't that an amazing conversation? I mean, there's just so many gems that Dr. LaJoyce dropped. Um, how to get stuck? How she got started in the radio industry, how she decided to pivot, how she decided to eliminate, I wouldn't say eliminate, but to process the noise to say it isn't going to minimize me. It may frame me in a little bit in order to continue being unapologetic and being audacious in whatever I have to do. She's worked with some of the most iconic industry professionals. So I know that Dr. LaJoyce Joyce's uh journey will inspire you. Make sure that you purchase every single book that she's written, um, especially Women Behind the Mic, volume one and two. And if you are um involved in a school district and you know that your school district will benefit from her curriculum, please contact her, or you can just contact me directly and I will put you in touch with Dr. LeJoyce. Once again, if you haven't subscribed, if you haven't posted a comment, please do so now. Once again, representation in media is so important, and it's the little things that you can do, like I just mentioned subscribing, replying, resharing. These are the things that I'm asking you to do to leverage the representation in media. I thank you so so much for tuning in to another amazing edition of Sonia on Air with my special guest, Dr. LaJoyce. Stay tuned next week for another amazing Sonia on Air show. Take care.