Meet Janell Hearns of The Legendary Movement

Thanks for sharing your story with us Janell. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I have always been a very creative person but the artistic career paths that I was interested in as a kid just didn’t seem realistic as I got older. So, I made a practical choice when I attended college and majored in psychology. Upon completing my undergraduate studies, I started a career in human services. After becoming unhappy with the work I was doing, I decided to focus my energy on moving in a direction I was passionate about. From there, I began learning more about television/video production. I went back to school, took an internship at a local news station and never looked back. I am now a producer at a Metro Detroit based agency and have my hand in really cool projects on a daily basis. My decision to pivot has afforded me the opportunity to build a lane for myself and generate income doing things I love. Those things include writing for publications, developing, producing and hosting a podcast, creating content for television as well as DJ’ing.

The road for me has not been a smooth one. I had to learn to get out of my own way in order to build the confidence needed within myself to go after what I wanted. Imposter syndrome is real, and it’s so easy to give up on yourself when you don’t truly believe that you deserve more…I struggled with that. Pride was also a struggle… I’d work as an intern, then leave my internship and go to my job and manage my own interns. It was a very humbling experience that taught me to do what I needed to do to get where I wanted to be. Another thing that was and from time to time still can be a challenge is fighting against being placed in boxes. I’m good at more than one thing so I don’t like to be limited in that way.

As a multi-hyphenate creative, I produce video/digital content, write, and DJ. Over the past two years, I have really focused on developing my skills as a DJ, while being consistent with my work as a producer. Essentially, I tell stories… sometimes it’s in digital form, sometimes it’s written and other times it’s through music. Production wise I have worked with universities to promote programs, entrepreneurs looking to grow their businesses and most recently on political campaigns. Prior to the pandemic I was blessed to have been a part of awesome events like Inspire Day in Detroit with The Distinct Life and Puma. And I traveled to really cool places around the world DJ’ing. Although a lot of the things I do professionally are freelance, I still have a 9-5. Outside of that I take pride in creating content for my own company, The Legendary Movement Media and when opportunities aren’t available to me…I create my OWN.

What is “success” or “successful” for you?
I define success as being at peace with what you are doing and where you are. It isn’t a monetary thing, but I will say success is freedom for me… ownership of your ideas and your time. I’m not there yet but I’m working towards it every single day.