Bee Our Guest #1: Cassandra McShepard

She's a jazz singer.
A writer, a painter, and a
full-time radio talk show host.
A sought after fashion designer, motivational speaker, and exercise instructor.

This is clearly no average woman.

So when I sat down with the uber-talented Cassandra McShepard the other day, my first question was "How on earth do you manage all your artistic endeavors"? Her reply, just like anything else she gives the world, was from the hip and the heart. " As an artist of many mediums, I'm very blessed to be living the life I want to live. But I am a business woman as well, and these are all streams of income for me. So naturally I approach them all with professionalism. I treat deadlines very seriously.

Cassandra was born and raised in Milwaukee, and as a little girl dreamed of becoming a fashion icon. A marriage at 21 ended just 2 years later. Of that brief union, she reflects now with a little laughter, and the warm voice of maturity "Did I really think I was going to be someones housewife"?! After the marriage dissolved, she moved to San Francisco where her older sister was living, ready to pursue her bliss.

She left for her new life armed with little more than a small portfolio, a smaller nest egg, and much determination. "My mother instilled in us that we could be anything we wanted to be, and do anything we wanted to do. As long as we worked for it. So it never occurred to me that I couldn't do it. It was just about 6 months later that I met Phyllis".

Through the insistence of a mutual acquaintance, the introduction of Cassandra McShepard to Phyllis Hyman would prove to be a life shaping moment. She became, and would remain Hyman's personal designer and stylist until the singer's unfortunate death in 1995. And along the way she would also create stage fashions for The Manhattans, The Drifters, the 80's British R&B sensation Loose Ends, and jazz legend Nancy Wilson.

But the death of Phyllis in 95 and loosing her beloved brother Carl to kidney cancer in 1999 forced Cassandra to take stock. She was living a fabulous life on the outside, but she says now " Were any of us truly 'happy'? We were living very glamorous lives, and had plenty of money. But was I happy? For me the the answer was unequivocally NO. I had a comfortable house and a bunch of stuff. Stuff doesn't make you happy."

"After Carl died at 38, I thought WOW. A person can go at any time. Am I doing all the things I've ever wanted to do"? Now living back in the city she had grown up in, Cassandra began to investigate other artistic facets of herself . On realizing her dream to become a singer at 44, Cassandra says she conquered her fear of performing through a simple philosophy.

"I've actually been singing my whole life, just not professionally until 5 years ago. But there's has always been a song in my heart. Now I have to ask you. How cruel would it be for God to put a song in your heart, but not the ability to sing it? I sing now because I don't have choice. It's my responsibility to share the song in my heart".

5 days a week Cassandra shares her thoughts on life, love, spirituality, and other goings on of the world, on her popular WMCS 1290 talk radio show "That's What I'm Talking About".
Durring the 2 hour program which airs Monday-Friday from 10-12 AM, Cassandra asks her listeners to join her aboard flight 1290 on a journey to a "higher elevation". With her wisdom, and intelligent and contagious sense of humor, Cassandra takes her listeners to destinations they may not otherwise go.

And isn't that what life is about?

Sharing the good stuff?

While it's true that the little girl from Milwaukee has lived

out many of her dreams,
I suspect she's realizing new ones every day.
And although she keeps a schedule that makes my head twirl, I can't help but be in awe of the calm and happiness she so clearly possesses. I ask her secret, and she replies with words I hope to apply to my own life.

"Happiness is mostly perception. We choose happiness, or we choose the the alternative. Don't block the positive energy that surrounds you, let it flow to you, through you. I accept it, because I deserve it"
And most importantly she says..." Don't hold happiness hostage! I mean, what did happiness ever do to you"?!

Now that's what I'm talkin' about!

Be sure to check out Cassandra's show M-F, 10am-12pm (central time) on am radio 1290 WMCS.
It can be heard streaming from anywhere in the country by logging onto 1290wmcs.com!

And look for her own brand of honey right here, COMING SOON!