Mother and Son Hope Dealers

When life hits hard, clear help and a steady voice can change everything. We sit down as mother and son to trace Sam’s switch from insurance to the law, why three weeks of practicing together confirmed our purpose, and how the right words at the right time help clients stand taller. You’ll hear what “being a hope dealer” looks like in real cases—calming a room, making choices visible, and walking with people through their worst days until the ground feels solid again.

Music runs through our story like a second language. Sam shares how growing up on drums and guitar turned into leading worship at Mosaic Church, why an old family line about music easing sorrow still matters, and how a single hymn can carry someone through a week of doubt. We talk about serving without a spotlight, letting songs do their quiet work, and the strange way melodies return hope to the very people who offer them. Along the way, we share the moments that formed our grit: a flooded house that became a blessing, lean years that felt like daily manna, and an election loss that opened a better road overnight.

We’re opening a new office in Ocean Springs to serve the Gulf Coast with practical legal help and a people-first approach. Mississippi needs are complex—families under strain, kids in poverty, neighbors carrying grief—and our aim is simple: show up, explain the path, and fight for outcomes that restore dignity. 

If your hope meter has been running low, try our favorite practice: look back for the evidence of goodness in your own story and name it. Then pass it forward. Listen, share with a friend who needs encouragement, and leave a review so more people can find a path back to hope.

Join us for new episodes on the 1st and 15th of each month as we continue sharing stories of transformation from across Mississippi. Each story reminds us that when we contribute our unique gifts, Mississippi rises together.

Hope Mississippi's Mission: The sobering reality remains: one in four Mississippi children lives in poverty, and one in five experiences food insecurity. These statistics aren't just numbers—they're our collective challenge. Through these conversations, we discover that Mississippi's transformation occurs through individual commitments to mentor, encourage, and be present for others. The small acts of hope accumulate into the broader "miracles" we celebrate.

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:37

Hello

Meet Sam Newman

SPEAKER_03 0:38

and welcome to another edition of Hope, Mississippi. I hope you're having a great day and that it's covered in Hope. I am so excited to welcome my son, Sam Newman. Welcome, Sam.

SPEAKER_00 0:54

Hello, Ma.

SPEAKER_03 0:56

I usually call him Samuel Danon because my middle name is Don Dan. And so he is has my name, and I could not be prouder of him. Sam, just tell us a little bit about yourself.

SPEAKER_01 1:08

Almost 33 years ago, I was born to a sweet mama and daddy who have loved me and encouraged me for the last 33 years. And went to Summerall High School, graduated in 2011, went to Southern Miss, and graduated in 2015, sold some insurance for a while, decided that wasn't for me, and then decided to join the family business and go to law school. So I graduated law school in 2020 and have ridden a lot of rides since then, but I have now landed home at Beam Law Firm and I'm looking forward to the opportunities that lie ahead for us.

SPEAKER_03 1:45

And I am on Cloud9. I've always dreamed of practicing law with my son. And we have just had, we've been, I think we got three day three weeks in just about, and it's been a lot of fun. You know, the great thing about practicing law for me is certainly it's a way to make a living, but it is a great way to help people. And I think we've seen that in the last three weeks. Um, just a little bit about your thoughts from the last three weeks.

SPEAKER_01 2:12

You talk about how practicing law allows you to help people. When I think back on why I decided to go to law school, you know, I was kind of struggling with the idea of what I wanted to do, and the insurance thing wasn't panning out. And so I

Choosing Law To Help People

SPEAKER_01 2:28

remember I was on a whitewater rafting trip with your daddy, my granddaddy, and Dr. Beam and Jason, and I think Matt was there too. I remember just getting on the bus after the rafting trip and you know, exhausted, hot, sitting on this school bus with no HBAC. And it was just like this spiritual experience where I just had a vision of being able to practice law and help people in the most difficult times of their life. And as I've seen in the last few weeks, your area of practice especially is interacting with folks who are in the trenches of the very worst nightmares they've experienced in their life. But undoubtedly, in the last three weeks, and you for the last knocking on 40 years, you've been able to pick folks up out of the depths of that pain. We've certainly seen the pain, but we've also just seen the the freedom that comes with the a resolution in these types of problems. And so we have certainly together, and on my own a couple of times, I've seen some folks just free. And so that that's been awesome, and I look forward to continuing to have those experiences.

SPEAKER_03 3:50

One of my last appointments today was a client from probably 20 years ago, and they come in just broken. And to see her smile and a business thriving and children growing, it it's very rewarding. And some days I feel like it needs to be a doctor's office with flags up for, you know, the red one is the one in crisis, but really it's a great way to be God's hands and feet. When you're going through trauma, it's really hard to think wise.

SPEAKER_01 4:19

No doubt. And you know, I I think a lot of what you do and what I'm learning to do is just to be a hope dealer. Folks come in in need of that, and you can tell they they stand up a little straighter and just genuinely feel better about life because of the the knowledge

Hope In Legal Practice

SPEAKER_01 4:36

that you've been able to share, and thereby the hope that you've been able to share.

SPEAKER_03 4:40

Did you spill that from your Uncle Chip? My brother is Chip Henderson, and his church has hope dealers. He saw it in an airport one time, and they said he asked the person, what is a hope dealer? And he learned that we're really all hope dealers, right? We all have a way to spread hope across Mississippi. I'm so excited for you, Sam, and the opportunities that you have. You've got so many gifts, and I'm I'm reminded your gift of music. So let's talk a little bit about that and how you've been able to use that gift to be a blessing in lots of ways.

SPEAKER_01 5:12

I've been playing music for I'm almost 33 and started when I was five. So what's that? You're knocking on 28 years, maybe any mathematicians out there that want to double check me, I apologize. Been playing music for a long time. When I started playing music, my paternal grandfather was a band director, and so I, you know, started under his tutelage, and my dad's brother taught me as well. I started off as a drummer, and so I just developed a passion for that, was in band all through middle school and into high school. Then in high school, I guess I decided that I was kind of tired of being in the back and playing drums, and I wanted to be out front because the the girls like the guy who standing out front playing the guitar.

SPEAKER_03 5:55

But you're also a really good singer.

SPEAKER_01 5:57

That helped, right? But Dr. Beam had taught me a few chords on the guitar and just kind of went from there, and I've played a ton of music. I've played all over the southeast and all types of venues. I've played at countless churches across the state. I've been a entering music pastor at some little bitty churches in Podunk, Mississippi, and then I've also played with my band at big venues like Florabama and all kinds of other places. So, in terms of you know, my music encouraging people, I'd say the person my music has encouraged the most is me. My great-grandmother on my dad's side wrote a short story during the Great Depression. There was contests at a music store in Laurel about why she wanted her child to study music. So she wrote this essay for that contest, and in it she she said that earth hath no sorrow, that music can not in some way lessen or help to a sage. And so that's certainly been my experience with music. Troy also says that when trouble comes and it undoubtedly will, there's no better therapy than being able to sit at the piano and play Rock of Ages Clef for Me, let me hide myself in thee. And so throughout the years, I have certainly found solace in being able to sit at a piano or behind the drum set or behind the guitar, be it at the floor of Bama or in front of a church congregation. I've I've played to as many as 7,000 people in a church congregation before, and have shared the hope, but also had the hope injected in me from just that innate power that music has.

SPEAKER_03 7:41

Yeah, I mean, you've gone to preaching now. Probably one of my favorite memories of us, besides fishing and fun stuff like that, is being able to sit at the piano and you play and I sing and just acknowledging God's goodness. I I look at you, I look at your brother, I'm like, holy cow, God is so good. And I have hope, certainly through music, but I have hope as I look at you and see how God continues to use you. I'm reminded that you also serve in your church, Mosaic. Tell us about that.

SPEAKER_01 8:17

So

Becoming A Hope Dealer

SPEAKER_01 8:18

I serve as a volunteer worship leader at my church, Mosaic Church in Ocean Springs. It's it's kind of funny how I got involved in that. I had been going to Mosaic for two or three years with my wife Taylor. Shout out to my wife Taylor and my eight-month-old son, Charlie. Love y'all. Taylor and I have been going to church there for a couple years, and I had never let anybody at that church know that I played music. And so they had a little after-service get together for folks who were interested in volunteering. So Taylor said, I want to volunteer with the children's ministry. So this was a couple years ago. So we go to this little fair type thing when she's talking to somebody about wanting to volunteer with the children's ministry, and the worship pastor comes up to me and says, So what do you do? I was like, Well, I can I can sing a little and play guitar. And so he's like, Well, come try out. And so I tried out, and they were like, All right, you're in. The next I think two weeks later I was up there, and I thought it was funny because they the my first appearance was they had a little bluegrass Sunday. So they said, You can tell this guy's kind of deep fried, country, bluegrass feel. So they put me in there for that. And I've been leading there uh at least once a month for the last, I guess, two years.

SPEAKER_03 9:29

And there's joy in serving the Lord in that capacity. I know the church appreciates not just your music, but also the spirit in which you deliver it. I think folks need to know that we're all children of the king and that humility of just saying we're all in need of God's love and forgiveness. I think that more than anything is the hope for Mississippi. Yes.

Music As Healing And Calling

SPEAKER_03 9:58

Let's talk a little bit about your family and how God brought you all together because you know, when we talk about hope for Mississippi, it's rooted in the family. You and I have been practicing long and long enough to know that the family is the key to our hope and our success.

SPEAKER_01 10:15

Yes. So I met my wife, Taylor, in October of 2020. We were both in a wedding for some friends of ours. I was good friends with the groom, guy named Gary Stanton, who's in the band Muskadine Bloodline. They're a big Nashville act. So, Gary, if you happen to listen to this, I'm proud of you. And so we were at this wedding in Mobile, and you know, everybody at that wedding had, I guess, two goals. Number one, make sure Gary and I actually get married. Number two, make sure Sam and Taylor are linked up by the time this thing is said and done. And so through the efforts of a lot of folks, uh, the bride's mom, Miss Kathy, and my friend Ned Nelson, they were all working hard to make sure Taylor and I got linked up. And so we'd, you know, danced a little at the reception and all that. But at the end of the night, as we're leaving, she realized she had locked her keys in her car, and so I stuck around being the nice modern gentleman that my mama raised me to be.

SPEAKER_03 11:17

Amen.

SPEAKER_01 11:18

And I waited for the locksmith to get there, and the rest is history. We have been together ever since, been married for coming up on three years, and seven and a half, eight months ago, we welcomed our little baby boy, Charlie, into the world, and he's just probably the cutest human on planet Earth.

SPEAKER_03 11:40

No doubt. Let's talk about hope and the family. What have you in the last three years come to know personally? It's one thing to see it in others, but to experience that yourself, talk a little bit about that.

SPEAKER_01 11:55

Like any family, like any person, I have experienced loss. I have experienced some degree of of hopelessness, and if not a total lack of hope. I've sure had a low my my tank's been on e when it comes to hope. Like everybody else, I've had financial struggles, just trying to make it through, but was sitting in church this past Sunday, and we were singing this tune that had been kind of just a an anthem for me during a season of of low hope. And there's a line in that song that says, There's mercy in the waiting and manna for today, and when it's gone, I know you're not, you are my hope and stay. And so I just thought about the the manna that came through every day for the last, I would say the past two years during that season, and was looking back where we are, we were then where we are now, and how my hope meter now is just full, and attribute that to just God's goodness and God's faithfulness, and just looking back at how he has provided like he always has.

SPEAKER_03 13:15

You know, it's funny that you would mention Mano because I remember when I was a single mother with you and had my own law office, but I would literally sometimes just pray the next client in to be able to keep the lights on to make sure that I could feed y'all. Never mind that I did did usually, we usually had a certain restaurant we went to every night just because I was one slap out by the end of the day. But God provided every day. And oftentimes people say, Why is your faith so strong? When you see God provide that manna for the day, that reminds us if he can provide the light zone, if he can feed my family for the day, he can handle anything. And that's just so humbling, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 14:04

No doubt. You know, I I know that we both like another contemporary Christian song that talks about I've seen the evidence of your goodness. And I think we certainly have, and I I'll testify to it under oath that I have seen the evidence of God's goodness and provision in my life and in countless others.

SPEAKER_03 14:24

You know, I'm reminded today's an election day, and wasn't a year and a half ago that I lost the election for the Supreme Court, and everybody's like, oh, bless your heart, bless your heart. I voted for you, I'm so sorry. And I'm like, what are you sorry about? I see God all over this. It was within about 24 hours, I had turned my whole life around. Um, and certainly part of that was dreaming of a law firm with you one day, but God has been all in it. Even Sam with regard to the furniture in your office for next week. Sam is going to be opening an office in Ocean Springs. And we found the right office, and it's a great location, but I needed to furnish that. And quite frankly, I don't even have time to behind to shop, you know. And so I was looking on Facebook, Facebook Marketplace came up. I never do that, I've never done that. And within probably three days, we had an incredible office furnished for you.

SPEAKER_01 15:27

Within three days, we had found the office and every bit of furniture to put in there.

SPEAKER_03 15:31

And so I just have to say, that's the evidence of God all over our lives. And I'm excited about this new chapter and opening the office in Ocean Springs and the wonderful opportunities you're going to have to help others because I believe that we as believers, we're children of God. He provides more than abundantly to us. And probably my greatest hope and joy has come, and a judge one time told me this your greatest joy will come in serving others. And I I don't know of any other truth outside the Bible that I have learned to grasp more and more every day. Let's talk a little bit about where you're headed in the future and what your hopes are. What's your what's what's your hope for Mississippi?

SPEAKER_01 16:21

Like you say, we are opening an office in Ocean Springs, 2113 Government Street. Looking forward to being there. My plans there are to continue to help folks and just extend the

Serving At Mosaic Church

SPEAKER_01 16:37

ministry of being law firm down to the coast. Think that the the harvest is plentiful down there to help people. I look back as I look forward, and I know that God is gonna provide the opportunity and the clientele and everything that's needed with that office. I mean, he already has. I'm just gonna keep watching God work through that office. That is is my hope. Think about the coast. I believe that there is a revival, just a a hunger for God to uh show up and show out on the coast. I have a good buddy named Blake Houston who recently started a ministry called Florida Coast, and he had left ministry at a at a big church and said, you know, I just feel like God is calling me to go to the coast and do something. He recognized that same harvest on the coast. You know, I I think about granddaddy. Every every day at 10.02, granddaddy has a little video Casio watch that beep, beep, beeps, and it's a reminder to pray over Luke 10 2. The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. My hope is that I will be an efficient laborer for the Lord on the coast and just to spread goodness and be uh an instrument to spread his goodness on the coast.

SPEAKER_03 18:05

You know, that's really God's plan. When I think about one in four of our children lives in poverty, one in five are food deprived. And we have come a long way with regard to education, but we got a long way to go. And God's plan is to use us to be that light. And we as Christians know that part of that light, part of that hope is God who literally provides all that we need. When I start talking about hope, and I I because I'm sitting across from you, I remember the days when I was a little single, mama poor it could be. I have often told the story of the great flood that ended in the wonderful house. You tell your version of that.

SPEAKER_01 18:48

I was just probably four when that happened. And I will go on record and say that my big brother is the one who left that water running in that bathtub overnight. It was not me. He may testify differently, but the truth is that Will left that water running in that bathtub. It was left running all night, and then you woke up, felt it under your feet, and you were struggling at the time.

SPEAKER_03 19:16

And had you listed the house yet, or you were the house had been listed for over a year.

SPEAKER_01 19:21

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 19:21

And I was upside down in it.

SPEAKER_01 19:23

Right.

SPEAKER_03 19:24

And this was this Sunday night following Thanksgiving. Right. And headed to church thinking, God, what do I have to be thankful for? And I heard you and Will in the backseat just laughing and giggling and being what little boys are. And I said, Gotta have everything. And so I went into church and wrote out a check for my account balance. Now I'm not saying it was a lot of money because I was pinching pennies left and right, but I gave God all I had. And so when I my feet

Family Roots And New Beginnings

SPEAKER_03 19:58

hit that ground, I thought, Lord, I have given you everything I have, and you have sent a flood. I could not believe it. I really couldn't.

SPEAKER_01 20:07

Then we had the flooded house, and you called Mall, and Mimaw said, Call the insurance company, and the insurance company put us up at the Fairfield Inn in Mattisburg, and they had a swimming pool, so me and Will had a time in the swimming pool. Then while we were at the Fairfield Inn having a time in the swimming pool, somebody broke in the house, stole the VCR, stole the TVs, stole everything else. You called Mimaw again. Well, you were distressed again and said, God, you my carpet's flooded.

SPEAKER_03 20:37

Now I don't have I didn't even have anything to pile on, Daddy.

SPEAKER_01 20:41

So once again, you called Mimaw. Mimaw said, Well, sugar baby, call the insurance company again. So we called them again. At the end of the day, we had brand new flooring and brand new VCRs and TVs, and you slapped uh brand new flooring. You wrote that on the for sale sign out front. And was it the same day?

SPEAKER_03 21:00

Yes, the same day. I had had it listed, but the listing expired. So I had for sale by owner, new flooring throughout, and an angel came to the door about eight o'clock on a Sunday night and um said, I want to buy it. This is back when it was Magnolia Federal, and she worked in the mortgage department. She said, Let me run to the office and get a contract. And I just said, God, I can't believe the evidence of your goodness on love in my life. And it's been that way throughout. And, you know, that's just my prayer with this podcast. And really with our lives, is that we could spread that love because it's so lonely and hopeless without that. Yes. You and Will have been such a joy to me. And to see y'all be parents is is so exciting. So just one last thought as we think about those that are listening, what is your word of encouragement today for them to bring hope? Mississippi.

SPEAKER_01 22:01

We've talked about it on several times during this podcast. So one thing I would just encourage folks to do that I don't think we do enough is to look back and reflect and look at the evidence of God's goodness in your life. You know, we've all had lows, but God has provided for all of us to some extent, and God has seen us through some trials. I mean, we've all had trials and we're all still here, so God saw us through it, right? So I would just encourage folks to look back and think when has has God come through for me? When was I hopeless and he refilled my tank? And then with that perspective in mind, just move forward and endeavor to be able to increase somebody else's hope meter.

SPEAKER_03 22:52

Absolutely. Absolutely. Be a hope dealer, right? That's right. Okay. Well, I hope you've enjoyed this podcast today, and I hope you'll join us again soon. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 23:02

Thank y'all. Hope, Mississippi.