Wisdom Wednesday feat. Jelinda Hill

Welcome to Wisdom Wednesday, a weekly series where we chat with some of our favorite artists! This week we get the chance to talk with Jelinda Hill and hear all about her musical journey, the story behind her latest single “Defeated”, and her experience as a member of the Maverick City Music Choir! You can check out Jelinda’s music here.

Want to be a guest on the show or have someone you wish we’d have on? Email us at hello@marketingwithwisdom.com.

Kat:
Hello, everyone. Happy Wednesday. How are you guys doing? Did everyone have a good Easter? I'm wondering. We did five services so it's a lot. It's a lot of singing. If you're a worship leader and you're watching this, you should comment and tell me how many services you did in your context. I'm going to try to add Wisdom. If you're a worship leader and you led Easter services this weekend, tell me how many you did, for real. You can count Good Friday too. Hey.

Wisdom:
Hey.

Kat:
Nine. Caleb said they did nine services.

Wisdom:
Wow.

Kat:
Someone said just one, but it was long. I wonder what that means. How many songs did you do? Five, Aaron. Dang. Seven. Okay. People have busy Easters. Well, welcome back to Wisdom Wednesday, everybody. Thanks for tuning in and joining us. We're really excited about our guest today. She's pretty awesome, and when she comes on, I'm sure she'll share so much more about who she is and what she's doing. I loved her latest song.

Wisdom:
Yeah. Awesome. Today is Wednesday. Wow. This week is flying by. This whole year has been flying by. I kept confusing myself yesterday thinking it was March, but it's actually April. Easter falling on the first Sunday of April feels really early.

Kat:
Yeah. It totally threw off my whole sense of what the year is. Oh, I think our guest may have just joined. I'm going to bring her on and then she'll be here in just a second. We're really excited to have her on today.

Jelinda:
Hey, y'all.

Wisdom:
Hey.

Kat:
Welcome, Jelinda. It's so good to see you "in person."

Jelinda:
Thank you. I know. Good to see y'all.

Kat:
Really nice. Where are you located right now?

Jelinda:
I am in Douglasville, Georgia, about 45 minutes from Atlanta.

Kat:
Nice. Cool. Well, welcome to Wisdom Wednesday. We're really, really excited to have you on. Have we ever even met even in person like this?

Jelinda:
I don't think so.

Kat:
Amazing. This is why the internet is great. Oh, people are stoked. Oh my gosh, it's Jelinda Hill. Jelinda, go sit. Okay, people are in.

Wisdom:
I feel like we've met because I've watched her videos and I follow you on Instagram and stuff. It feels like I've interacted with you a bunch, but I was just mainly stalking you, I guess.

Jelinda:
Good to see you.

Wisdom:
Awesome. Tell us a little bit about yourself and why you're on here today.

Jelinda:
I'm an artist. I'm creative more than anything, so I do a lot of different things. I do photography, I do video, but my main passion is singing and music, all things music, all things creative. I guess that's a little bit about me. I've been singing since I was little and recently during the pandemic was able to start a business with God's help doing photography and video. That's really been a blessing to be able to do. Now that things are settling down with COVID restrictions and everything like that, music is beginning to pick back up, which I'm really grateful for. I like photo and video, but I'd rather be singing. That's been going pretty well. Just released a new single two months ago, I think. Wisdom's helped me a whole lot with that, helped me a ton. I've been seeing a lot of good responses and everything like that. I guess that's a little bit about me. I'm from the country.

Wisdom:
Awesome. As a marketer, I'm really intrigued by the fact that you started a photography and videography business in the middle of a pandemic. How does that happen? How are you even able to start a business like that? That's really an in-person business. You can't do it over Zoom, right?

Jelinda:
No, you can't. Believe it or not, I've seen a lot of people walk their clients through a self photo shoot. People have been doing it on Zoom and on Instagram video. It's crazy. I don't have grace with that, but a lot of people have been doing it. It's been crazy.

Jelinda:
I've been doing photography for, I want to say, the last two years. I recently moved back home to Georgia two years ago, and when I came here, I bought a $150 camera off of Facebook and just started playing around. Started an Instagram page and people just started asking me if I would do a shoot. That started my interest in photography and one of my Godbrothers has his own video business, so I asked him for help. The rest is basically YouTube university. Learned everything that I know off of YouTube.

Jelinda:
I reached out to another friend of mine who does video. We got to do a lot of music videos and stuff like that. I just did a lot of training with them hands-on. One of the churches that I partner with, I was leading worship with them, so they asked me, "Can you send us a video of you singing?" I said, "Yeah, cool." We did that for a couple of weeks and then they asked, "Well, how good are you at editing services?" So, now I edit their service. I don't know. It's been God, for real. It's believing in God, just opening those doors, and just keeping the ball rolling for me. I'm grateful for that.

Wisdom:
So if you're in the Atlanta area and need a photographer or videographer, hit up Jelinda.

Jelinda:
Yeah. Jelinda travels too.

Wisdom:
There you go. That should be an Instagram account, Jelinda travels.

Jelinda:
Yeah.

Wisdom:
Cool. Tell us about your music journey. You released your first single back in 2017, I believe.

Jelinda:
Mm-hmm (affirmative) Yeah.

Wisdom:
What led you to start releasing your own music?

Jelinda:
I'm military and I was living in Washington state and was deciding whether or not to re-enlist. I took a biblical class. It was a course I was offered by a church there. One of the professors, crazy enough, he told us to draw a tombstone and write today's date as an end date and write on the tombstone what you didn't want to leave behind. Everybody was supposed to write "could have" and then fill in the blank. He provoked us all to just think about the things that we don't want to leave undone. For me, I was like, I would hate to die and my family find my computer and say, "Man, she could've been a great songwriter. She could've been an artist. She could've sent this to other people. She could have been a photographer." I didn't want to leave those things undone and I felt like if God gave us a gift, why sit on it and why just hoard it and keep it to ourselves? I had songs written already and was like, "Well, I don't want to really just sit on them."

Jelinda:
So, I just decided to move home and start on that journey and whatever that meant. I was going to try to, to the best to the best of my ability, do enough research to understand what [inaudible 00:08:55] is at least a little bit, at least surface level. I moved back home and started on that path and tried to find all the workshops that I could, all the resources, all the books. I was DMing artists and stuff and saying, "Hey, what book can I read? Where do I go? What do I need to study? Who can I reach out to?" I tried my best to get the information. I went to a workshop and they gave us a rundown on how and what it means to [inaudible 00:09:30] and all that stuff. That's where I started, but I just didn't want to leave it undone.

Wisdom:
That's awesome. Wow. That's very inspirational. The fact that you were basically like, I'm going to figure this out, and got really proactive with it. A lot of times, it's easy for us to be like, "It'd be nice to be songwriter but I don't know how," so you just give up. But you just worked at it and figured out a way to learn and grow with it. That's really inspirational to me.

Jelinda:
Thanks. Yeah. I'm grateful.

Kat:
Oh, you should be. You've worked so hard. In both situations, you're like, yeah, I'm just going to start this business during COVID and I'll figure it out. I think that God's telling me to do this, so I'm going to figure it out. That's really, I think, inspiring to people and just even how far you've come now, which I guess brings us to Defeated. If people have not heard this song, they need to go listen to it.

Jelinda:
Go listen now.

Kat:
Yeah, for real. Go listen right now. Get off of this Slack. Go listen to Jelinda's song. Tell us a little bit about that song in particular, because this is a new chapter for you, right? This period of the music.

Jelinda:
Yeah. I can say a lot about defeat. Defeated, that's the very first song that I wrote after I gave my life to the Lord. You get to a point where you give your life to the Lord and you have all this zeal, all this fervor, all this energy, and you're like, I'm about to take the enemy's kingdom down.

Jelinda:
Sometimes, you come out of that stage and it's not like it's not the honeymoon phase with the Lord anymore, but it's more like, okay, now things are settling down and you're getting into your wall, into the depth of things. For me, what came after that phase was condemnation and guilt and shame. Did God really save you? Did God really deliver? Did he really restore? Are you really justified? Are you truly sanctified? All those doubts can start to come into into your mind. I just wasn't expecting that. I thought that spiritual high was going to just last me forever because I was around people and I wasn't hearing a lot of stories about that part of the walk with Christ. I wasn't hearing, man, sometimes it's hard. Man, sometimes I don't really know if I'm saved or not. Sometimes I don't understand why I haven't gotten through this or why I haven't gotten over this or whatever. I just reached that point and I just felt beat up. I felt defeated by the enemy.

Jelinda:
Then, I remember reading in a word that we overcome by the blood of the lamb. There's no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. I was just feeling really condemned. You just get beat up by the enemy. I just got frustrated one day and was like, you know what? I got all the power. I have the holy spirit. I have Jesus living on inside of me. How is it that I'm going to allow the enemy to take control over my emotions, over my thoughts, or all this stuff? He doesn't have the power. He only has enough power that we give him.

Jelinda:
So, I was like, well, I'm tired of this. I just got frustrated, so really that song was just out of frustration. I was like, what you wanted to do didn't work. You wanted to sift me as weak, but you're defeated. I'm just about to expose everything. You tried to destroy this temple, but it won't be that simple to throw me off track. Sometimes the enemy comes in distraction. He can come with a lot of different things, but we just have to remain focused. That's really what Defeated is coming out of, is just that frustration and the victory for the believer. Walk in victory and know that he doesn't have any power we have.

Jelinda:
That might've been long-winded, but that's pretty much what Defeated came out of.

Wisdom:
That's good stuff. How was the music video inspired? Where'd you get that idea?

Jelinda:
Man, I have so many ideas about that music. It's really not even a full music video. It's just video. I just wanted some video content and I felt like I wanted to do a boxing ring kind of thing, but I've seen that done already, so I didn't want to do that. I wanted to do a courtroom deal, but I've seen that done already too. I think I might've seen a jail scene, but not so much. That's just what I wanted to do. I just remember the bondage that I was in. What makes me think about bondage is being in jail and God has loosened the shackles and he's loosened up the things that were holding me down. That's where it came from. I reached out to a friend of mine named Calvin and asked him if we could make it happen. He was like, "Yeah, sure. Let's book the date." That's how that happened. You're going from orange to white.

Wisdom:
Somebody commented saying that they listen to your song every day.

Jelinda:
Oh, that's sweet. Well, thank you, whoever said that. That's beautiful. That's my hope, is that it's just an encouragement for everybody, to keep fighting. Man, that's great.

Kat:
Listen. I was already talking about Defeated before you got on here. Oh, they said they wrote half of it. Is that true? Did someone else write half of it with you?

Jelinda:
No.

Kat:
Okay. You never know. I feel like it's totally plausible that they could come on.

Jelinda:
That's my friend, Jessica. She did videography for me when I went to the studio, so I got to give her credit. You see all the hearts now. She said she did video for me.

Kat:
I feel like what she wants is to be a co-writer on your next song. Maybe you need to [inaudible 00:16:11].

Jelinda:
We'll set it up. We're supposed to do a co-write this week. Jessica's awesome.

Kat:
What's next for you?

Jelinda:
What is next? I'm trying to think about an EP. I'm thinking through songs. I haven't told anybody else yet, but I want to do a strings version of my first song. I see a lot of people do acoustic versions of things, but I don't necessarily want to go that route. I want to do strings version, just cello, viola, just strings and do a version of that. I don't know how well it would work with Defeated since it's such a warfare song, but I know for sure I want to do it with Still Good, my first one. Just thinking through maybe whether or not to do a five or a seven, or how many songs. Just looking through those right now. That's really what's next musically, just thinking through the EP.

Jelinda:
I want to do a live version of Defeated. I'm working on that now, trying to look for venues. I have a videographer. He's been an amazing mentor to many tenants so I've reached out to him. He's going to do video, but I want to do a live version and then an EP, and just keep putting out. I just want to keep putting out music. I want to keep the ball rolling. Even with Still Good. I put that out and I was pooped when that was over. That was 2017. I haven't put out anything since 2017 so now I'm going to keep the ball rolling, I'm going to keep the wheels spinning. Trying to work through a devotional for Defeated just to help people and walk through healing and walk through what it means to really overcome the things that the enemy has told us that we haven't.

Wisdom:
Well, if you end up writing that devotional, let us know.

Jelinda:
I will, for sure.

Wisdom:
We can connect you with eversion and you can send that over to them.

Jelinda:
All right. I will do that.

Wisdom:
My final question. I don't know if Kat has any other questions, but my final question is maybe a little bit more serious. There's a lot, obviously, that's happened in the past year and a half, not just with COVID but with our society and a lot of division and a lot of people canceling other people, whatever that means, a lot of things being invented that just are ridiculous if you think about how we're all human, kind, and we're all supposed to be living in harmony. I think there's so much tension right now with people not seeing eye to eye, just being so easy to cancel somebody or pass judgment on somebody without knowing the full story. How would you encourage people that are watching or listening to our podcast later that might be dealing with this on a personal level or with family members?

Jelinda:
There's a scripture that I read and I don't remember exactly where it was, but it's just talking about not passing judgment on other people for certain things. At the end of it, it says, "And such were some of you." So, really just remembering where you come from. If I walk down the street and I see Wisdom selling drugs or something, I'll be like, hey bro, let me holler at you. But I feel like to pass judgment on you... If you're my brother, you're my brother under the Lord. It's my job to restore you. It's my job to pray for you and keep in mind that I haven't always been where I am now. I'm not even where I want to be.

Jelinda:
I think with the whole cancel culture and the pointing out what another person has done, it's not beneficial. It's not edifying. Just remembering what I want done to me. If you see me selling drugs, I need you to come grab me up by the jacket and say, "Look, Jelinda, stop playing around." I expect that as my brother, and you as my sister, I expect that from you guys because we're all here, we're all one body in Christ. I would say just don't try to look too deeply into situations that we weren't there to experience ourselves, because I see a lot of canceling and I see a lot of, "Oh, well, I'm not going to listen to your music anymore because you wore a blue shirt today." That stuff fades. Just as much as we look up to certain people, the pedestal that we put them on can fall tomorrow. I don't know how.

Jelinda:
Long story short, mind your business and pray. Mind your business and pray for everybody because we're going to need prayer one day too. I think the only difference is our faults and our mistakes are not made public. God can expose us too. He can expose us at any time. I don't know. Humility and prayerfulness, really. Prayerfulness and discernment.

Kat:
Gosh, that's a good word. Pray for everybody.

Jelinda:
Pray for everybody wholeheartedly.

Kat:
[crosstalk 00:22:19] everybody.

Jelinda:
Yeah, wholeheartedly. I think there're some people who are not Christian who are acting like non-Christians and that's what they're supposed to do. We can't get mad at somebody for not acting like a Christian when they're not a Christian anyway. That's for us to continue to intercede for them and pray for them, just like we would with our cousin who doesn't know the Lord. Just pray.

Kat:
Stay humble. Pray for them. That's what I'm going to title this afterwards.

Jelinda:
I'll pray for everybody. That's it.

Kat:
Great. Well, Jelinda, thank you a million times over for coming on and chatting with us. Tell people where they can find you on all the things. If you have anything coming up that you want to tell them about, make sure you say it now.

Jelinda:
Okay. On all social medias, it's Jelinda Hill. J-E-L-I-N-D-A. That's on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, everything. If you would like a photo shoot or video shoot composition media group, [inaudible 00:23:33]. I meant to say, my good friend Jessica, she started a label called Writing Rounds. That's just something for songwriters to connect and build community. That's an amazing thing that she has going on. For me, where to follow is Jelinda Hill. You could get all my music on all digital media outlets, Jelinda Hill. First single is Still Good. The second one is Defeated. I hope you guys enjoy it. That's pretty much it. I just want to say, thank you to y'all for having me be here for all that you guys do. Christian Music Marketing has been such a tremendous help to me with the release of my single and everything. All the knowledge and the tools that you guys provide has been such a blessing. I'm so grateful for you guys. Thank y'all. Appreciate y'all.

Kat:
Great.

Wisdom:
Going to get our tissue boxes out now.

Jelinda:
I'm grateful for y'all, really, truly.

Kat:
Do you have time for one more question?

Jelinda:
Yeah.

Kat:
Someone said, tell us about your experience working with CMM, which I guess you just did, but also working with MAF.

Jelinda:
Okay. I'm in the MAF choir. That's cool.

Wisdom:
Oh, nice.

Kat:
Yeah. You waited until now to bring that up.

Jelinda:
Yeah. They posted on Instagram a long time ago. They posted on Instagram and they were like, "We're trying to build a choir for this weekend." I hopped on that thing. The first event that they had, they were like, well, we want to build an ongoing choir. Again, I hopped on there. We were able to do one event and then they just kept sending out invites. They created a group chat. That's pretty much how it went. It's been an amazing experience to see behind the scenes and to see that what they have going on is not fake. It's not like when they press record, then the spirit hits. The spirit is there before and after recording.

Jelinda:
It's been a really wonderful time to just connect with other people, connect with other singers, and do what we love to do. I love to sing, so that's no issue. Any time they call, they're like, "Hey, we got an event coming up." We're happy and glad to show up and do what we love to do, and that's just glorify God through song. That experience has been really, really amazing. Some events, I'm able to go to. Some events, I'm not. When I am there, it's always fun. Our group chat is amazing and hilarious. They keep us rolling. That experience has been really, really fun.

Wisdom:
Yeah. We love the magic city theme and what they're doing.

Jelinda:
Yeah. That's really good. That's really, really good.

Kat:
Who doesn't love them?

Jelinda:
I know. It's a lot of fun, man. They say it's a blessing.

Kat:
All right. Someone else asked if you would sing Defeated before you get off.

Jelinda:
Who asked that?

Kat:
Ace too bad 10.

Jelinda:
I don't know who that is. Anyway, okay.

Wisdom:
You could just sing part of the chorus or something.

Kat:
Yeah, part of the chorus.

Jelinda:
(singing) Thank y'all.

Wisdom:
I wanted to give you hearts but it doesn't let me give hearts but I'm on video.

Jelinda:
I appreciate it.

Kat:
Well, thank you again so, so much. Everybody, if you were watching this, be sure to go check out Jelinda, show her some love on all the platforms, and I'm sure we'll have her back soon to talk about new music when it's coming and all those types of things.

Jelinda:
Yeah. Thanks, guys, for having me.

Kat:
Yeah, of course.

Wisdom:
All right. Thank you.

Kat:
Bye.

Jelinda:
Bye, y'all