Woman, filmmaker, military veteran, and community leader, Michelle Murray.

Michelle Murray is a Texas native. 

She is a Combat Veteran of the United States Army, and a graduate of the US Army’s PATRIOT Missile Maintainer/Operator course. 

Financial Literacy Film Festival

Co-Executive Director

Director - Michelle Murray

Short Film - Cashplus

Airing LIVE: 
04/24/2020

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She held duties in Retention, Physical Security, Plans and Operations, Intelligence, EEO and Training. She was a member of the Ft. Worth Police Department’s Weed and Seed Division, one of America’s first federal drug task forces. 

Michelle was 2019’s Ms. North Hollywood title holder for the Ms. California Plus America Pageant. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Entertainment Business and a Master of Fine Arts Degree in Creative Writing.

Thank you for your service. How long did you serve?

I served 20 years and 13 weeks.

What made you change career fields from working for Ft. Worth’s Police Department to being part of the military to mentoring young kids to being a writer?

That’s an interesting question because the truth of the matter is, I’ve always been a writer and I’ve always been somebody who likes to mentor, especially young people. The military was more of a vehicle I used to do more of what I love – to be able to pay for college, to be able to see the world, to be able to get more experience. 

The list goes on and on… to be able to help other people. Even when I was in the military, I remember being in Saudi Arabia, on a deployment. There as a big bombing. Everything was destroyed. They were re-building. I asked if I could build the library and they said, “yeah”.

I remember holding classes and stocking up the library. It’s not so much that I changed – I just changed the delivery. When I worked for the Police Department, I got really lucky. I had a supervisor who knew my heart. I was working on a federal drug task force that I enjoyed immensely. Someone in the unit needed to run the kids’ program. It was the late 80s, early 90s. I worked with a bunch of guys back then, so… kids? That was “women’s work,” but I didn’t mind. I enjoyed working with those kids. A lot of them were gang members, many of them had never seen an adult with a job.

I remember one little girl that I mentored. She’s not a little girl anymore I keep in touch with her. She said, “Miss, you’re the first woman I ever saw that had a job that wasn’t on welfare.” That stuck with me because it made it even more poignant to me that I be a good example and a good role model. It’s very easy to take for granted that everybody’s upbringing should be just like our own, right?  

Watch it LIVE online 

Friday at 7:30PM PST

04/17/2020 - 2 NEW short films released

04/24/2020 - 2 NEW short films released

That money is not a problem. That school’s not a problem. I was only about 21 years old, myself.  That was the first time I realized everybody didn’t have access to the same things I did. I guess that’s where you can say that’s when it became a passion of mine. And I also got to be McGruff the crime dog for a while when I worked for the Police Department and I loved that.

It helped to expose me to children, and to see how inquisitive they can be and how important it is to send the right message to them. It carried over to when I was in the Army. As a Platoon Sergeant and Section Chief, when I had a 17, 18, and 19 years old Private, I had to remember that this is someone’s kid. I teach professional development courses for our local Chamber of Commerce which morphed into an opportunity to teach at the university level. One opportunity leads to another one.
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I can tell that you love what you do. Do you have any favorite stories from your work life?

Oh, my goodness. Read one of my books. Those are some stories from my work life. People who know me, know those are some true stories. People who don’t know me just think that I’m brilliantly creative. Every novel that I write, stems from factual information. Probably one of my most memorable work stories would be one that took place in the middle of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

If you know the story of the 507 Maintenance Company, that was one of our subordinate units. I gave the intel brief to our higher headquarters twice a day, and I was responsible for making sure the information was out there so we could find them. The moment we discovered that some members taken were still alive, that was probably one of my most favorite moments. Because of all the hard work that everybody had done as a team, it finally bore fruit.

We found the surviving members. It was bittersweet because some of the others were killed, unfortunately. But as a team and a joint task force, we were able to bring some home, alive. But I have lots and lots of great memories, and lots of sour memories. All kinds of things. Probably some of my most fun memories are from when I was in the military. I have great memories from when I taught first grade, too.

I bet you do have a lot of memories. Twenty years is a long time.

It’s funny because it’s a long time but it’s a short time. And it always seems like it was yesterday. I’ve been out of the military for almost 10 years now, but seems like 10 weeks. Another favorite memory that I have is getting to jump with the Golden Knights. I got to jump with them in 2004. That was a great memory.

KMP Entertainment was founded by her son, Kendal Murray. Michelle is the COO, Chief Operations Officer. What does a COO do?

Everything. Because we’re small, I do everything… If it was a large corporation where we had 100 employees, I would oversee everything. Well, it’s not fair to say that just I do everything. We, collectively, do proverbial everything. I’m responsible for the implementation, execution, and operation for everything that we do. My son really handles the minutiae of all of that right now.  I make sure that anything that’s being delegated is done in a quality manner. We have talent that we work with, and our team that assists with that is fabulous..

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I primarily work with the talent. There are things that I delegate to the others who I work with. As we grow, there will be less that I have my hands in. I always had a vision of a legacy business, something that I can leave for my son, so that’s really the end game:  to get it in a good place for him and my future grand and great grand kids. We have just expanded our author services into publishing. Our clients will benefit greatly from that. We’ll be able to do the editing and ghostwriting and the other stuff we’ve been doing. But we will be able to publish material for people.  We are basically a one stop shop for creatives, and I help make the train go to all points necessary. 

KMP does business cards creations, flyers, comprehensive media design services, guerilla marketing, special events, writing and editing services, brand development, model training, pageant coaching, and so, so much more. What is the best tip you can give someone for time management?

My best tip for time management is that you have to be willing to do it. So many people aren’t willing to do it. I plan my life a year at a time. I look on Sundays to check what I’m doing the entire week. My son, too.  That’s something I’ve ingrained in him since he was a toddler:  time management, and he’s pretty adept at it.  We mentally and physically prepare what we have to do for the next day the night prior. If you can’t manage your time, everything will be chaos and stress. You have to respect your time because other people won’t.

Some people don’t realize how important time management and sleep are.

Sleep is critical. I had thyroid cancer. My doctor sat me down and explained. When I started listening to him and resting when I was tired, I began to feel so much better. Now I’m stricter about that. Sleep and time management are critical.

What are some tips that you can provide to small business owners who want to start their own business but don’t have the funds to get started?

Find the funds. The first thing is to establish your business plan. And within that business plan, you have a marketing plan. If you haven’t done your business plan or your marketing plan, you have no business going into business, because you have no foresight into what you actually do and how you’re going to do it and you haven’t thought anything out. You have to spend money to make money.

That’s not just a cliché, that’s true. It costs money to go into business. There are clients, so  there’s insurance. There’s also health insurance, and risk mitigation insurance.  Errors and omissions insurance.  As a business owner, you are required to have insurance. There are a lot of expenses. For someone to say they don’t have the money, either find the money or don’t go into business.

 Michelle’s writing background includes two novels: Laura: Hope is A Dangerous Thing and Kathy: A Valley is Never a Finale. She is a writer and Executive Producer of KMP’s production, Mendacity. She has writing credits for Will Smith’s, Bright, Season One, Episode thirteen of the CBS show, Man with A Plan, Crazy Ones, and The Mentalist. Michelle is very connected to the entertainment industry. 

Designer: K. Murray - Art Director - Fin Lit Film Fest

"Teach. Coach. Mentor."

Having a degree, working directly in the industry, she’s establishing generational wealth and helping others along the way. She is the Co-Executive Producer of the Fulton Film Company’s Financial Literacy Film Festival. This is the first film festival to ever do anything like this. The festival will be held in April 2020. 

They have an array of films they are premiering. Michelle directed CASHPLUS? Can you give a short synopsis of the film or the film you wrote?

There are eight film shorts and each of them speaks about money. I don’t know why conversations about money are so taboo especially with people who don’t have it because people who don’t have it and don’t spend it well, need to talk about it the most. With these films, we’re trying to change people’s mindsets and get them talking and to teach their kids how money works so everybody is not poor.

Designer: Eben A. Yelson - Ghana, Africa

The film that I directed, CAHSPLUS, is about how hard work and saving your money will pay off. The short I wrote, but we didn’t produce,  was about when people get bills, they don’t sometimes open them. Well, people who don’t understand how money works or just view their circumstances as dismal, with no hope.  What they don’t realize is how much interest they’re paying and how many late fees they’re accruing. You have to handle your bills before they handle you. So, the films are to get people to discuss money. We’re trying to educate people and get them to talk about money.

I’m excited that George Ohan is doing this. His motto: “Teach. Coach. Mentor.”. The festival will show films about good credit, and bad credit. If you would like to contact the Fulton Film Company, go to fultonfilmcompany.com and if you would like services from KMP Entertainment, go to kmpentertainment.org.

Writer / Blogger / Interviewer 
Shanté Kaneisha

Interviewee – Michelle Murray of KMP Entertainment

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WHERE CAN I WATCH?

WATCH it on YouTube:
MadTalk TV Shows

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCc56mhAluqb21936gOTQ05A


Facebook LIVE:
https://www.facebook.com/madtalktvshows


WHAT ARE WE WATCHING?
ORIGINAL short films, EDUtainment content, dealing with financial literacy issues.

We release these films as a complimentary service for under served communities, who may otherwise NOT get a chance to get financial literacy education. A host moderates the show.

Education + Entertainment = EDUtainment

April is Financial Literacy month. Have you seen any local TV programming aimed to help people become more financially literate?  If so, please connect us with those channels. Thank you.

We would love to connect with any other platforms, networks, financial institutions, or banks who are putting out creative content aimed to educate the general public during this month. We are interested to build and align ourselves with people who are also in this space.


WEEK 1: Episode on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zL8bYjMeNY&t=4s

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#FinLitFilmFestival

#FultonFilmCompany

#KMPEntertainment

#FinancialLiteracyFilmFestival


FOUNDERS: Financial Literacy Film Festival
Carlos Anzures
George Ohan