DIVA INTERVIEW! Author Charron Monaye Says Stop Asking For Permission!

By Regan Farley | October 1, 2018 | Food Fashion Style, Gal Approved

The best part of life is we get to learn various lessons and sometimes that means the lesson of getting out of our own way. And within those lessons, getting out of our own way leads to doors being opened that weΓÇÖve never dreamed of.

Renaissance woman Charron Monaye is the┬áauthor of Stop Asking for Permission and Give Notice. The book is about maintaining a life that is rich simply by owning it. She focuses on three areas of personal ownership that must be refined to bring true liberation: acknowledge, accept and attain. She’s also producing a play, Get Out of Your Own Way, which is premiering on film this month. We had a chance to sit down with Charoon and talk about her amazing book.

Tell us about your book and what it means to get out of your own way and your motivation for it.

The book is my personal journey from pain to peace and outlines steps everyone can take to create an unapologetic life while removing toxic people and hardships. I dealt with divorce, eviction, unemployment and emotional breakdowns. I was a single mother struggling to make ends meet and provide the basic necessities for my children. Ultimately, I was faced with a decision: allow life’s challenges to overwhelm me or STAND UP and OWN my life. When I wrote the book that book it was my tool guide. I always said I wrote that book for me, not for anyone else. I literally wrote everything I needed to do to get out of my own way. Once the book was released, it was like, “Okay now you can put that play out.”

Yes, please tell us more about Get Out of Your Own Way.

I originally wrote the play in 2013 and really it was just a simple play to just show people how we’re all connected because a lot of times we look at other people and we tend to judge, or we tend to look at them and come off a negative or toxic or try to shoot down somebody’s blessing. But every time our negativity is based on the fact that we don’t have what they have; it’s jealousy or envy or different things of that nature. So when I came up with the idea of getting out of your own way, it was to speak to those people who always have something to say. I had the play tabled because even though I wrote the script God gave me a different meaning of it. So when I finished writing the play in 2013, it was like, “Okay, this play has to premiere in California.”

What is the California significance?

I’m from Philadelphia, and I had no connections in Los Angeles. So I was like, “Okay I have this story, I have this mission, I have this title, but I have no connection to LA.” And then in my life, it was like, “Okay you’re speaking to these group of people but what He really wants you to talk about, you’re not living it yet.” So over the course of those years between 2013 and 2015, I faced evictions, my job was unstable, I experienced┬áheartbreak and was about to file for bankruptcy. Thank God I got my life together but I had to do some soul-searching. My book Stop Asking For Permission And Give Notice came out of those trying times.

What was a defining moment for you in this process?

It was producing a play 2700 miles away from me. When I first came up with this idea, it was a crazy idea because I still lived in Pennslyvania and thought nobody knows you in LA, you’re not gonna get the support. I actually called my friend who was in my first play Living Your Life, Parenthysis E. Gardner, and said, “Hey I have a script. I know you are in California, can you help me?” And when she said, “Yes,” I was like, “Oh my God, my play is finally going to Hollywood and I have a director.”

Talk to me about who your target demographic is and who your work should be speaking to.

I call to as young as 13 and as old as 70. Simply because the stuff that I talk about are life lessons and the ways that prevent you from making life decisions. They are situations that as an African-American woman you’re going to deal with: how to handle love out of rejection, how to fight for a promotion, how to fight for what it is that you want, how to know your work, how to love yourself.

That’s awesome. Talk to me more about the pen legacy brand, What is that, what is this movement that you’re starting in the creative space, what does that look like for you?

The pen legacy brand is actually it’s all over the place, it’s really cool. I am a writer by nature, I’m a songwriter, I’m an author, I’m a greenlit screenwriter as well. So the pen legacy brand really it’s just my house where I write but in the creation of the pen legacy brand, a lot of people started hiring me to write.

What takeaways from sorority life do you use in your everyday life?

Well, being a sorority girl as well as a member of Eastern Star, the biggest thing that both of those has taught me is how to deal with people. I’m not an only child, but I like to work by myself – I’m a writer – so I don’t need a crowd. But when it came to the service part of things I had to really understand that I may not like you, but I have to work with you. So sorority life it really gave me the tools to know when to come together to get the job done. I grew up in service with the NAACP, but when it came to the sorority and the Eastern Star, I opened up a new set of networks. It just gave me more doors to walk into wearing those shirts.

That’s awesome. Is there any final thoughts you want to leave, anything else that we didn’t touch on that you want to mention? What’s next overall, what’s coming up for you?

Today I signed on my first producer for the film. So it’s definitely gonna happen and this will be the┬áfirst film. I have many plays out here, I have many books out here, but I don’t have any film, I have a short film that I did for my son but not a feature that’s actually going to go into a theater. This is huge so if you are in LA October 5th, 6th or 7th please come to the Santa Monica complex because this is really a big deal! This is all the product of me giving notice and believing in myself to get out of my own way. So that’s what’s next for me. All I’m focusing on is this film because I’m super excited!

Thanks so much for for the wonderful interview! Where can we find you?

My website is charronmonaye.com and my Instagram and Twitter handles are @iamcharronmonaye and @penlegacy.