Meet Janice McLean DeLoatch | Founder, Executive Director- Women Songwriters Hall of Fame

We had the good fortune of connecting with Janice McLean DeLoatch and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Janice, what’s something about your industry that outsiders are probably unaware of?
One thing about the music industry that many insiders and outsiders are probably unaware of is that women rank 12.7% of the whole music industry in the areas of: Songwriting, Music Production, Music Engineering, Hired Studio Musicians, C-Suite and Management Positions, Music Promotions, Show Tours and other areas in music.

Women Songwriters Hall of Fame was created to address these various inequities that have occurred over the span of 35-50+ Years. During this same time period 50 Years ago the world saw the creation of Disney, Motown, Pepsi, Fedex, The Price Is Right Tv Show, The Kennedy Center, The Godfather Movie Franchise, Philadelphia International Records and President Joe Biden as a Junior Legislature. Great strides for men.

During this same time period Women saw Ms. Magazine, Title 9 (allowed girls to play sports) and Roe V. Wade. Within music there were 3 Sylvia’s representing women in music at a higher level (pending more research) they were Sylvia Robinson, Sylvia Rhone and Sylvia Moy (who discovered Stevie Wonder).

After looking at these statistics and facts. Women Songwriters Hall of Fame knew we had no other choice than to work to increase inclusion and widen the doors for Girls and Women In the Music Industry.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?

I think what is great about my story is that I started as an artist. I have been an employee. I have created several businesses with some success and failures and at no time did I understand all of these areas, wins, losses, trials and obstacles would contribute to helping prepare me to create, work with incredible counterparts and grow one of the next best newest game-changing non-profits in the world to come in most recent memory. This is one thing I am most proud of and Super Excited to be apart of the history and legacy that Women Songwriters Hall of Fame is creating now!

Women Songwriters Hall of Fame is a non-profit organization that is about more than identify women songwriters. WSHOF is about education, advocacy, legacy creation and recognizing the important contributions made by female songwriters.
Women Songwriters Hall of Fame is the first and only organization dedicated solely to the women songwriter.
Women Songwriters Hall of Fame is the first new award show in more than 35-50 years that celebrates songwriting with emphasis toward women. This is what sets us apart from the crowd. This on its face is what makes us different.
Also what makes Women Songwriters Hall of Fame different apart from the others. We include all genres of music. We Honor and Induct women from all around the world in different countries like Japan, Nigeria, India, Brazil, Sweden and South Africa.

Yes-That is the main part. But more importantly Women Songwriters Hall of Fame or (WSHOF) as we call it often is a movement to inspire great songs, great women and increased actions for making the world a better place as a whole when we educate, inspire and heal women to be their best selves. To use their music as a way to inspire their families, community and world as a whole. Through all music and music inspired initiatives like our work with the Ronald McDonald House Charities where we will volunteer for free to support sick children and their families or our webinar to educate girls and women in music about how to receive royalties from the music works, they create.

As I said in the opening paragraph. I have had a varied background as an entrepreneur and employee. I have had opportunities as a radio/tv show hosts (became a National Press Fellow) and Clinton Global Initiative Fellow (This is how I met Fmr. President Bill Clinton, Usher, Vint Cerf, Jack Dorsey(Twitter), etc. ), pantyhose vending machine creator (I worked as an administrative assistant), Event Planner w/planning Red Carpets for my own company.  From from all of these interactions I learned how to build on the basics from each interaction.

Women Songwriters Hall of Fame was divine intervention and a gift to someone that could be trusted with relationship building, pure heart for the cause, hardworking and does not get offended easy by those who do not often use their best manners or exercise patience before judgment.

Is it easy to do. NO! But the end goal further outweighs what people say, do or think about how you should be or how you should work or that you shouldn’t do this or I don’t like that. I used to think sometimes that CEO’s and Key Figures in organizations make too much money for the little bit of work in some cases they may do. I have changed my mind on this. Leadership deserves the money it makes depending on the situation because the money is payment for managing people with all of their idiosyncrasies together on a daily basis. This is not easy to do. So I have changed my mind on this and feel that CEO’s, Founders, Executive Directors do deserve their money if they are good and work hard.

Because WSHOF is such a new organization and the economy is really tight right now Fundraising money and increasing new sponsorships, donors and partnerships has been really tough.

Letting women know that we are here for them has been hard getting the word (So ShoutOut to You-Shoutout) for giving us the opportunity to tell this story!

The way we have been able to grow has mostly been from ads and ticket sales. We welcome and really need great sponsors and donors to partner with us so we can expand our scholarship programs, programming and webinars. We are seeking a building to house our exhibits and award shows every year as we spend quite a bit of money covering the expenses of venue rentals for our annual award shows. We are in need or travel sponsors or airlines who would donate air travel, hotels that would donate rooms for the honorees and inductees. In the meanwhile, we continue to build with ticket sales and ads supporting our events until we can forge the right partnerships, sponsorships and relationships that will take us into the next level.
What I do want songwriters, potential songwriters, upcoming independent artists, songwriters, sponsors, partnerships, people, Martian’s, and the world alike to know.

Women Songwriters Hall of Fame is building something incredibly special. We hope you will be apart of this really special story and opportunity we are building. There are so many ways you can support Women Songwriters Hall of Fame. Money is always the main way. You can do this by going onto our website at: www.wshof.org to the sponsorships page. But the other ways you can support this incredible opportunity and story we are building that is History in the making.

You can: Volunteer, Donate time in areas that you feel you can teach a skill, Promote our organization on your social media pages, invite local, national, international media to write an article or story about how we can collectively work to change the world through music and songwriting with WSHOF. Host a Fundraiser (we have T-Shirts, Soundtracks and Giving Tuesday campaigns we can partner on), donate studio time, donate a photo shoot, video editing services). However you want to be a supporter for Women Songwriters Hall of Fame we would like your help.

The lessons I have and am still learning is that we are not an island. We have to all come together and collectively help each other wherever we see we can help. This should always be our #1 priority. It does not matter how big or small. Getting out of our own way is needed everyday. Our world is going to force us to do what we should want to do anyway. Love, Support and Help Each Other.

Lastly, To know more about WSHOF. Please go to our website and sign up for our Free Newsletter @ www.wshof.org You will get to see what we have done, are doing and will be doing. You will get to see highlights from our Award Show this year and what makes WSHOF different and special. You can also sign up to become a member of WSHOF and help make an impact for us there as well as connect with a cool growing group of women in music who are learning and making a difference at the same time!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?

First – I would prepare a welcome dinner at my house to spend some time catching up and reacquaint. The rest of the week would be filled with trips to different museums, restaurants, shopping and bookstores.
I would also include a day of bowling.

The museums, restaurants, shopping and bookstores would also depend on what time of year this visit would occur as the season and whether would figure into this as well for restaurants inside or outside. Price point will also figure into this as I have 4 children various ages and so does my best friend. Are we doing girls or boys activities, etc. Yada Yada Yada.
Again – Advantage – Women working on this project. (Smile Here). We love the Guys too!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to share my “Shoutout”. There have been a number of people who have contributed to shaping my view of service to family, community and the world. Always my family first. My mom and dad always instilled in me the drive to strive for whatever my goals and dreams were. They also instilled in me the importance of service to myself, family, community and world. I learned this early on as I watched my mother, father, grandmother, aunts and 1 uncle come together to help my mother and father run our family restaurant – McLean’s Carryout. As the only restaurant within a 20 mile radius our family was often tasked with being the only community resource to help fledgling, growing families enjoy a good home cooked meal on a weekly basis. Sometimes when some of the families were short covering their bill for cooked meals or some of the small household staples like laundry detergent, paper towels, sugar, etc. that we kept in the mini-store component. My family would let the families pay us bi-weekly or monthly to help support the family business, but also help families make ends meet by allowing the credit.

As I got older and went to work for an Oil and Gas Company. There was Rosemary Burton-Morrison. She was my cheerleader in a new workforce I was not familiar with. Her influence will always be appreciated to me as Rosemary served as my surrogate mother. My mother had died some years earlier and Rosemary stepped in to fill those shoes of a mother/strong big sister type thru these trying times for me with a new marriage, new growing family and juggling a job as well. While we worked together I also still carried the strong entrepreneurial gene and often struggled with the family/work/life/entrepreneurial balance that many people faced then and now. Rosemary would always tell me I should have put my energy into running my own business. But as we all know in this world bills never stop coming and they have to be paid somehow so this brings the dilemma of putting your dreams on hold to work a job or struggling with poverty to support your dream. I chose the later for a brief period that was on and off with support and advice from people like Rosemary who knew that I would not be content to sit at a desk and answer phones for the rest of my life because she thought I had so much more to give to the community and world that was sooo great that I would be doing myself and the world a disservice by resting just in an administrative position. So off I went!

There have been so many other women and men I would answering this question for a long time. Fmr. President Bill Clinton was very instrumental to me when I met him at the Clinton Global Initiative andlearned of the impact his foundation has on improving the world and connecting the leaders with the people who benefit from the work the leaders do and how they can improve in a way to support people and achieve their goals. It was Life-Changing to see. I met a relatively unknown guy there named Jack Dorsey (Twitter), to Founder of Craigslists to Vint Cerf (The Godfather of the internet).
Two other women who have been instrumental on the business side for me- have been Arianna Huffington, Co-Founder AOL and The Huffington Post for advising me to just keep walking and one day when I look up I will be where I wanted to go.

More recently – Vanesa L. Powers. Vanesa is the Director of Operations for Women Songwriters Hall of Fame. Vanesa has made such an impact on my ability to believe in mankind again. It has been a long time since I have met someone who works like I work, is compassionate about the cause of improving life for other people (mostly women) right now, like I do, who delivers works of excellence like I try to do and has been a staunch supporter of Women Songwriters Hall of Fame and the impact we are having on the world right now about Women and Songwriting. But also about the work that WSHOF does for humanity in general like our webinars on healing the whole woman and educational seminars about the business of music (which we want to thank -Naomi Judd) in part for as she gave her feedback about what she would have liked to have seen when she first entered the music industry.

Website: www.wshof.org or www.womensongwritershalloffame.org

Instagram: https://instagram.com/women_songwriters_hall_of_fame?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/womensongwritershalloffame

Twitter: @REAl WSHOF

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OfficialWomenSongwritersHallOfFame

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@womensongwritershalloffame./videos

Other: Tiktok-Women Songwriters Hall of Fame

Image Credits
Photo Credits: Women Songwriters Hall of Fame Dominic Harrelson Janice McLean DeLoatch