The Culture Soup Podcast®️ · 2026-06-11 · 29 min
Episode Summary: What if the most sophisticated leadership training you ever received happened before you turned 15 - and it happened in church? In this powerful conversation recorded live at Greater Life Church in Dallas, L. Michelle Smith joins Pastor Stephen Brown for a fireside chat that is equal parts sermon, scholarship, and strategy session. Drawing from her bestselling book Call & Response: 10 Leadership Lessons from the Black Church, L. Michelle traces the origins of her own keynote career back to a Sunday school floor at Good Street Baptist Church, where she learned to stand in front of a room and deliver - or get coached until she could. This is not a nostalgia trip. It is a leadership masterclass grounded in neuroscience, positive psychology, and the lived wisdom of Black excellence. In This Episode: L. Michelle walks us through the moment a 25-million-impression keynote made her trace her gifts back to a 14-year-old junior deacon. She unpacks why community is her favorite leadership lesson in the book - and why it has nothing to do with pizza Fridays.
Ep 201: The Leadership School Hidden Inside the Black Church63 / 100Call and Response: About the ResearchTCU Call and Response Conversation with Rev. Dr. Shonda JonesEP. 200: Call and Response Conversation at TCU w/Rev. Dr. Shonda JonesThe Call and Response Conversation w/ Cynt Marshall