Charlese Johnson On Leaving a Manipulative Relationship, Finding Purpose & Empowering Women

You do not have to be a pastor to be called to ministry…Charlese Johnson is proof of that. Charlese J is revolutionalizing the media industry for God as an author, entertainer, producer…

Charlese J is the founder of Act like a Lady, Think Like God. It was founded to “inspire and empower women to think like God”, as described by Charlese J – essentially it is all about women not conforming to the standards of this world but living transformed lives.

This multimedia mogul is using the media effectively as a tool for breaking women free from manipulative relationships having experienced one herself. Her story breaking free from a manipulative relationship was the turning point into her journey to finding self and liberating other women.

In this exclusive interview with STM, Charlese Johnson talks about her movement Act Like a Lady, Think Like God, what challenges she has faced so far as a pioneer of the vision, and how she hopes to continue to inspire people and empower women to think like God.

STM: Give us a little background to who Charlese J is…

Charlese J: So, Charlese J is a diverse individual and I am so glad that God has created me to be that way…First things first, I am a child of God, let us start there but also outside of that, he has created me to be a multimedia mogul…I call myself a multimedia mogul – I believe God is taking me into the realm of media, entertainment, film, and music, and a lot of other things that touch people for his glory. So that is who Charlese J is, she is a little silly sometimes and so will probably be a little jokey during this interview. That is because I believe the Lord has given us an amazing gift of laughter, and so I just love to laugh and to have an enjoyable time. That is a little bit of who I am, but you will be able to learn a little bit more as we continue to go throughout the interview.

STM: Tell us your story and what drives you to empower women through the “Act Like a Lady, Think Like God” movement.

Charlese J: So, for me, my story begins in the church. I was raised in the church; the daughter of a Pastor and so I have always been in the church, but I don’t think I can say that I had a “real” relationship with God till literally, I was at a crossroad in my life.

A lot of people have rejection issues, they have insecurities, but we medicate our issues with different ways and different things, for me it was perfectionism, it was less played but it played a part in that, but really everything kind of unfolded, came tumbling down when I was in a relationship at about 2014 to 2015 and I found out the guy I was dating at the time, he was actually married and really for me that was the cycle.

That experience really started the rediscovery and rebuilding process for me. A lot of times God will allow you to go through situations to show you that the foundation on which you’ve built your life on is faulty, that it is not stable and so I thank God, like going back now, I thank God for allowing me to go through that situation because it was literally that situation that sparked the Act Like a Lady, Think like God movement.

Everything I am doing today was because of that instance. From that relationship, I embarked on creating a short film, and I wrote a book inspired by it, and I will talk about it a little bit later, then God started to reveal other things for me as far as my purpose, which also led to the Act Like a Lady, Think Like God movement and really that is what inspires my movement because I believe that a lot of times we get so caught up, we get so scrubbed up with the ways of the world, with what society thinks about what we should do and how we should be that we fail to recognize, and we fail to really bleed on who God has called us to be; His thoughts, his thoughts, his thoughts and so at the core of the movements is the scripture: “Do not conform to the wisdom of the world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you will know what the good, acceptable, pleasing will of God is” and that is the core of the Act Like a Lady, Think Like God movement is, because I want to inspire people, to empower women to think with the mind of God, because when we think with the mind of God, that is when chains are broken in our lives, that is when things transform and really move in our lives, it’s when we think like God. So that is the heart of the Act like a Lady, Think like God movement”.

STM: How did you reclaim your power and find your voice?

Charlese J: My Goodness! I think one of the major ways that I am so grateful for is the gift of writing which God has given me. Writing and using my creative gifts was the launch pack to reclaiming my power and voice. A couple of weeks after that situation, I decided that I was going to do a short film; I wrote my short film, I cast the short film, I filmed the short film, edited, produced it, and released it. It was really so therapeutic, and I always talk about how God has given us therapy inside of us, and what I mean by that (it is great to go through therapy, I’m not negating that) is I believe God has given us intrinsically some things that are therapeutic, like the gifts he has given us. There are some amazing things that we are good at that we can operate in that will provide therapy. That was a major part of reclaiming my voice; producing my film, writing the book eventually led to me really finding a (4:46) relationship in God.

STM: What challenges have you faced pioneering this movement?

Charlese J: One of the major challenges I face is the idea of being patient, of walking with God and not trying to get ahead. I think sometimes I get a little frustrated, I know in such seasons, the frustration level has been a little bit more than normal; because when I believe, I’m like Lord I’m ready to go into the next level…Sometimes you feel like the area you are in is starting to feel like it is pressing against you, you start to feel confined like you’re ready to burst open into the next thing, the next level, the next dimension…So, that is one of the major challenges I face, but the great thing about it is even when I have those moments, God gives a reassuring confirmation that He has me.

Once while I was feeling depressed, I decided to go to the movie and literally the lady walking through my row abruptly stops in front of my seat and she says, ‘Hey, I know you’, and mind you we are in the dark. She again says, ‘Oh hey I know you’, and I responded, ‘heyyy’, she then said, ‘yeaahhhh you spoke at a conference that I went to and I am still thinking about what you told me’. Moments like that literally lit a fire for me that God has me, I just need to continue to grow in patience and those moments give me the surge I need to get through those challenges.

STM: How has “Act like a Lady, Think like God” movement changed lives?

Charlese J: My Goodness! I think sometimes I do not recognize the impact. I was talking to my friend about it the other day, I said, “I do not really understand the magnitude of what the movement is doing, I still feel like nobody is watching the videos”…For me, that is the mentality that I need to have because if I start to get tripped about the number of people watching the videos, I would not do it anymore. In my case, I need to have the mentality that nobody is watching, I guess that just works for me.

I feel like nobody is watching me, so that helps me not to get tripped out and get too nervous or psyched out. However, I know that people are being impacted because I receive dm’s from ladies, whether it is a video that I posted they will respond and say, ‘you know what? I am literally going through this situation right now, you are speaking to my situation’.

We have just started doing conferences, our very first conference was the “Sister, Sister” in July of last year and the testimony from that conference was mind-blowing. I remember one person said, ‘they have been trying to get the vision for their logo and literally God gave them the vision’…It was an exercise God led me to do, she said during that exercise, she got the vision for her logo.

One young lady said that the conference was the start of her spiritual journey, and really getting to know God. There were a lot of people, older women and even from my family, who were like ‘Oh my God, this was an amazing time’ and it was… They had never experienced young women in an atmosphere such as that. And so, it has just been amazing. I am incredibly blessed, and this is just the beginning of what God is going to do through this vehicle on the earth. So, I am incredibly excited about it.

STM: Are there any book project in the works?

Charlese J: I sense that there is a book project in the works. There is a chapter in my life that I am waiting to be fulfilled, and then that book will be released. So, I am excited about that. When I have more details, I’ll be releasing it via my social media and other outlets…

STM: What is your advice for women who have experienced abuse or being in a manipulative relationship?

Charlese J: I will say, it was hard coming out of the relationship especially because it was a manipulative relationship and it was not just an ordinary relationship. The man put on a whole front, and one of the things that was really difficult for me is that it made me get angry time and again, because it’s almost like I will remember something new, I will remember something else that he said, something else that he did and it would trigger me because the whole time, he was manipulating me for his own advantage. He was using me, and it would literally make me angry repeatedly.

And so, for those who have been going through relationships, particularly manipulative relationships, I know it is going to be very difficult, but one key thing is having to forgive. FORGIVENESS, FORGIVENESS, FORGIVENESS, FORGIVENESS, FORGIVENESS is your first key to freedom. Forgiveness is your first key to freedom.

If you hold unforgiveness and bitterness in your heart, he has you chained. He has you chained to that relationship. So, again, people say it all the time, it has become a cliché. Forgiveness is not for the other person, it is for you, it is legit true because when I came to that point, I had to make a conscious decision to forgive him. Every single time that I was mad… I FORGIVE HIM, I FORGIVE HIM, I FORGIVE HIM, I FORGIVE HIM, I FORGIVE HIM, I FORGIVE HIM, and I believe that was one of the major things, getting to the point of forgiveness. That is largely going to be the key to your freedom.

STM: Why Adulterated? What inspired that title? and why self-publishing?

Charlese J: So, Adulterated kind of ties into adultery, so that is why the title came to be. When you look up the definition of adulterated, it means to degrade, to debase, to spoil, to taint, to defile, to contaminate, to pollute, to foul, to sully…Looking back at the testimony in the story, I may have probably called it something else. I probably would have called it something different. But at that time, I was prompted, and I think my friend suggested the title, at first, she said unadulterated. And, that probably works better but adulterated again means what I just recited, and so at that time, I believe it kind of fit the story.

[blockquote author=”CJ” pull=”left”]I always wanted to be an author ever since I was a little girl. I have a manuscript of a story I wrote, and this is probably still underneath my bed.[/blockquote]

So, I have always wanted to be an author, but it didn’t come into being because I thought you know, I had to go through a publishing company. I thought I had to wait to be accepted, and all these kind of things, and so self-publishing for me was the best option because I didn’t want to wait on anybody, and again the timing for the story came.

As I mentioned earlier, I did this short film and a couple of weeks later I saw an ad for a class, “the best solo project”, it said it is time for you to self-publish your book. I thought to myself, “this is the perfect timing”, and once I saw the benefit and heard about the benefit from people’s success stories of self-publishing, I thought, “I can do it”. It really was a no-brainer for me, because I was not going to wait on a publisher to pick me up. I am not waiting to get approved, I have the skills, I have the information, I invested in a course to learn the process, and I just did it. So, that was why self-publishing worked for me.

STM: What and who are your inspiration?

Charlese J: My God! I have so many inspirations, (sighs), and I talked about the program that I took. One of the major ladies I believe has played a key role outside of my family and friends in my core unit, the lady by the name of Tiffany Mangamry. She has been an amazing influence in my life, spiritually with her mentorship and during that time I also took a course, It was called, “KEU Making God the CEO of your business” and it was like a spiritual course. It really presented God to me in a way and I believe at that time my heart was just receptive to really hear. It was a time for me to hear it and to really settle in it and so she has been a major inspiration in my life.

STM: What do you wish your younger self knew about love and relationship?

Charlese J: Girl! I wish she would have learned a lot of things, she has been through a lot of things, but I think one of the major things at the core comes from having a relationship and love for yourself and having a relationship with God. If I had a relationship with God a lot sooner, like a serious one, it would have spared me a lot of heartbreak. It would have spared me a lot of being in situations that I probably should not have been in. So, I believe that if my younger self really would have developed a firmer relationship with God prior to, I would not have had these experiences, I would not have had these testimonies! So that scripture comes back in full force that says, “all things work for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose”, but that is one of the things I really wish that my younger self knew about love and relationships.

You cannot have a healthy relationship with anybody else, you cannot have a healthy love, you cannot even love anyone correctly if you do not have a relationship with God. I cannot even love anyone properly if I do not have that relationship with God. I cannot have a healthy relationship if I do not have that sound relationship with God, so that is what I will tell my younger self.

STM: Tell us more about the vision of Sister-Sister and Brother-Brother conference.

Charlese J: So, I am so excited about this because again I mentioned “Sister-Sister” last year in July and this year God prompted me to add men to it and so it is amazing! I realized that the Lord in this season wanted to bring the men and women together in a combined event because there is such a dichotomy, society has tried to separate the men and women. I believe that we need to create more spaces that men and women become united. So that is what the vision is and the title of it is “Sister-Sister, Brother-Brother Army Arise 2019” because it is time for God’s army, of course, we are troops, we have already been assembling; but it means that we need to go full throttle, we need to gear up, we need to grab up our swords, we need to come together, we need to unite.

During this conference on November 1st to November 2nd here in Baltimore, Maryland at the BWI Marriott, it is going to be unexpected (God has given me some visions about what is going to happen), but it is still probably going to blow my mind and so I am incredibly excited. I am excited about the deliverance that is going to happen, I am excited about the breakthrough that is going to happen, I am excited about the connections that are going to happen. There are just so many amazing things that are going to happen on that day, and I am excited about it. So that is just a little bit about the vision of “Sister-Sister, Brother-Brother: Let Army Arise 2019” and I am incredibly excited about that. I guess I will also provide my social media information to close out this interview. If people want to follow me: @charlesej_ or @actlikealadythinklikegod as well