Worship Takeover! Stephanie Muiña Shares Her Story on The God and Gigs Show | S6 E34

Allen Paul [00:00:01]:
Hello, and welcome to the family business with the Alessis. But as you can probably tell right away, I'm not one of the Alessis. However, I am one of the people that gets to support the family business with the Alessis with the production team. My name is Allen C. Paul, along with Ashlie Munoz, Jonathan Roman, and the rest of us behind the scenes in the podience, we get to help make the family business happen every week. And along with that, I also get to help in another capacity here at the family business. I actually get to work side by side with one of the Alessis, Stephanie Muiña, in Metro Life Worship. And because I also podcast in a podcast that I started a while ago back before I became a producer of this show, God and Gigs, I decided why not combine the 2 worlds. So we brought in our God and Gigs audience to talk to Stephanie Munia about the family business of making worship happen every week here at Metro Life Church.

Allen Paul [00:00:54]:
So this is going to be a little bit of a cross promotion across pollination as you might say. So we're gonna talk to Stephanie Muiña on the family business, but what you're going to see is our God and gigs podcast that I get to work with every week. So I hope you enjoy this. You're gonna hear from both of our experiences about how we make worship work, how we work with musicians, how we handle this working relationship in the business of making worship happen every Sunday. Hope you enjoy it. Check it out. Hello and welcome to the God and Gigs show. However, you may be looking around and thinking, this is not what I usually see when I hear or watch the God and Gigs show.

Allen Paul [00:01:44]:
Show. That's because I get to come to you now from the other side of my God and Gigs. Normally, I'm talking about gigs and how we balance the secular and the sacred. But now you get to see me in my church environment, where I am here with my coworker, my sister, my friend and my half boss. It's gonna get weird now because we have to talk about how we work together. Yeah. In church. Stephanie Muiña, welcome to the God and Gigs Show.

Allen Paul [00:02:15]:
How are you? Thank you for having me. This is

Stephanie Muiña [00:02:18]:
we finally made it happen.

Allen Paul [00:02:19]:
Made it happen.

Stephanie Muiña [00:02:20]:
I am great. I feel honored to be on your show. Thank you so much for even thinking that I can bring some wisdom to this. I I love it. I'm very excited. I think you and I have a lot of experience that is definitely worth sharing, so I'm excited. Thank you.

Allen Paul [00:02:37]:
Okay. So now we have to this is gonna be tough because we're gonna have to take 15, 16 years of history back when you were like this. Oh my gosh. And try to explain how this relationship started. So we were giving some history. So those of you who are watching again, this is my church, Metro Life Church.

Stephanie Muiña [00:02:56]:
This is

Allen Paul [00:02:56]:
where I've served since 2009 or 10, somewhere around there. And, really got engaged started. I was just telling Stephanie, you may have not heard all this story. No. But really got engaged got its start because when I came to this church, I realized that it was possible for me to work as a worship musician and as a professional musician. That, you know, our pastor Steven Mariellecki gave us like that understanding that we're supposed to be ourselves no matter where we go. We have that integrity. We don't change when we go here or there.

Allen Paul [00:03:25]:
We're the same people in the community.

Stephanie Muiña [00:03:27]:
Yeah.

Allen Paul [00:03:27]:
And as musicians and us, we're we're professionals, as we're just talking about. So what I really want to share with this audience, with this guiding gigs audience is how does that really work? But first, you're gonna have to introduce yourself to them because they've never, you know, this is a new place. So tell them who you are. And I love to start my interviews with this question because this is gonna get you. If you could not tell anything else for the next 30 minutes, what do you want people to remember about you? Your 32nd elevator pitch. This I know this is hard, but I have to do this. Okay. Yes.

Allen Paul [00:03:58]:
And and sometimes you have to do this, you know, right, for for your own professionals. So what will people need to know about you? The first three or four points just to, you know, get to know you.

Stephanie Muiña [00:04:08]:
My name is Stephanie Muiña. I am I've been born and raised in church. I am church made, church grown. I serve with my family. I serve under my family, but with my family, and and we lead with each other. But I take the responsibility for all of music. I will solely take that responsibility because it needs to be good. It needs to be perfect.

Stephanie Muiña [00:04:32]:
So I write songs for the church community. I would I would like to one day write songs for the global church, and I help lead a worship team for the weekly Sundays. And I work alongside you, but I'm just all things worship and music and songwriting. I love, love all of that. And to be able to bring that to a church community that needs encouragement through song, that is such a gift. I can't speak it, but I'll sing it. I'll write it. And I love to uplift people and bring the word of God to them through song, and I would like to one day do it for a lot of different people, whether that's on a tour or whether that's just through a lot of streams on Spotify.

Stephanie Muiña [00:05:18]:
I don't really care. I just love to to write songs for people that need God. So that's my 32nd pitch. There you go.

Allen Paul [00:05:25]:
You did it. It was 45 something. We'll we'll we'll give it now here's the coolest thing about what you just said. And again, it's so strange to talk to you after we work Sunday after Sunday together. Literally, not just Sunday, but all week long. Like we are family. Your children my children grew up with you. Yeah.

Allen Paul [00:05:41]:
And now you're having children. That's crazy. And they're like running around. So there's so much history. But I think what is interesting about what you just said is how much of your life revolved around music. Yeah. Revolved around worship with our pastors, your your your parents. And yet, I don't feel like it ever took over your identity.

Stephanie Muiña [00:06:01]:
No.

Allen Paul [00:06:01]:
Like you're still Stephanie to me as you were when you were little when you were growing up. And I'll give a little history, then I want you to kind of explain this to people who again, may not know how this works. Like how do you grow up as a PK? Yeah. Become a worship leader, basically take over slowly as your as your mom, pastor Mary Alessi, is a icon to me of worship. And yet you have to step into her shoes. So there's somebody watching us listening to us that is in a church. Yeah. Small, big, whatever.

Allen Paul [00:06:29]:
And is also like, how in the world do I do this? And how do I work with a musical staff?

Stephanie Muiña [00:06:35]:
Geez.

Allen Paul [00:06:36]:
That, in my case, and as some of our other musicians have other jobs, have do this professionally. So we're gonna try to pack that all in. But first, tell me a little bit about like, how did it feel when you were coming up with your mom? I don't know what this was like. I don't know what it's like to have a worship leader, artist, pastor, mom. We talk about it. I'm a producer here at this podcast. Yeah. But there's still stories that I hear about.

Allen Paul [00:06:59]:
So what was it like coming up with a parent that was in the recording and the music industry?

Stephanie Muiña [00:07:05]:
Well, I see it as an advantage because they it was really my mom's love for music that made me love music. Thank god my parents were not too conservative in the musical area. They they let me listen to whatever music I wanted to listen to. And I would try different genres, and I just maybe I didn't tell them all the genres I really wanna listen to. Now looking back, it was sort of you know, your love for music has it's going to go down many different genres and paths. So we've all heard, I listened to Kanye West. I listened to Led Zeppelin. I listened to all of the kind of stuff, and it was like, okay.

Stephanie Muiña [00:07:42]:
I'm not gonna tell my parents I listened to this, but I love all of this so much. Yeah. But thank God for my mom because she loved music as well, and she gave me that freedom to just explore in the musical world. But, the challenge probably that I'm running into now is I feel like I can't do it without her because she's so good at it. And I'm I'm now trying to become my own leader when I've been depending on her my whole life. So and thank god for that problem. It's a good problem to

Allen Paul [00:08:16]:
have. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah.

Stephanie Muiña [00:08:17]:
It's a great problem to have.

Allen Paul [00:08:18]:
Most people will be wishing that they had a mentor slash parent that actually lets you have that freedom. And again, that's why I said again, me be I can say this quickly, you know, about her leadership Yeah. Is that she leads in a way that gives you room to grow.

Stephanie Muiña [00:08:34]:
Yeah.

Allen Paul [00:08:34]:
While still showing you the way to grow. Like Exactly. I know there were days when, I can tell the story because he was actually in the book, when Christian Dentley from Tate 6, at the time he was worship leading, I think, in Orlando. But she brought him in. You'll probably remember this, but she brought him in because I was frozen when it comes to making changes during worship. I was overthinking. And she brought him in and said, hey, work with him. I mean, I don't know how close I was to being fired, but like, clearly, like, I needed help.

Allen Paul [00:09:04]:
Yeah. And she gave me the room to say, Okay, I'm gonna bring in your mentor. Someone to kind of like, you know, help you kind of see that. And this is again, now he's he's producing we've had amazing people come in throughout our people that she and Pastor Steve have relationships with.

Stephanie Muiña [00:09:18]:
Same with me. Yeah.

Allen Paul [00:09:19]:
Yeah. But they saw something in you and in me Yeah. And gave us room to go

Stephanie Muiña [00:09:23]:
To just go out

Allen Paul [00:09:24]:
figure it out. It's like, okay, if we don't know what genre we're trying to do, what kind of flow that Metro is going to have, what musical kind of style, it's gone since we've been together working. It's gone from gospel to distinct to more of a rock thing to more dis sound to the and every time it's like, hey, we have freedom to move, but still kind of have like the the boundaries. The parameters. Right.

Stephanie Muiña [00:09:47]:
That that's what how my parents were with me. They really just let me grow, but they would introduce me to the right people. They would encourage me to write. They would encourage me to they helped me go out to Nashville and record songs. I was in Dallas once when I was only 20, 21, and they were helping introduce me to, producers and to songwriters. They would they flew out producers to help me. So it was they were my biggest biggest supporters. However, they never protected me from failure, and they never protected me from the reality of that industry.

Stephanie Muiña [00:10:21]:
Because my mom, she knew the truth about that industry. She knew about the truth of the failures of that industry, and she didn't wanna shield me from it completely. She wanted me to kind of spin my wheels a little bit and get it out of my system lot of I don't feel like I was spoiled. I don't feel like I got a leg up in any of it. I I'm running the exact same race as every other girl trying to make it, and I'm but I still they're my number one supporters, and they still come and help center me and center what my my role is at church with music as a worship leader, even outside of church with songwriting. They're just the best at helping me with that.

Allen Paul [00:11:12]:
Yeah. I have to agree because, again, I have this firsthand knowledge. But we kinda joked before we started about the whole singers versus musician dynamic that

Stephanie Muiña [00:11:21]:
Yeah. It's crazy.

Allen Paul [00:11:22]:
That that worship teams and let's say again, because we're talking to an audience of people who work in every sphere of creative life and especially, you know, that do gigs. I mean, I've been on plenty of bands where the lead singer slash director is up front, and then the band's like because we live in the same world, but yet we live in 2 different worlds. When you when you prepare like a worship, like we were just talking about preparing for our our Christmas project and getting new songs out and things like that. There's a different level of expectation and and and and and mindset. I like I said, we're both crazy in different ways.

Stephanie Muiña [00:11:56]:
Yes.

Allen Paul [00:11:57]:
So I know. I'm wondering, and this is gonna be like where I get to find out how much what you really think about me. What is the biggest challenge for you in a songwriting position and a worship leader position working with musicians? Not just me. Oh, you can you can point me out. But what's the biggest challenge? Because again, I'm thinking of the person that's thinking like, okay, how do I handle x? Whether it be egos, whether it be, you know, coming on time, whether it be, learning music, like professionalism. Like, what's the biggest struggle you go through getting your vision across to either musicians or producers or whatever when you want to get songs out?

Stephanie Muiña [00:12:34]:
Man. I've learned so much. I have been in working with bands for since I was, like, 15 years old.

Allen Paul [00:12:41]:
Right.

Stephanie Muiña [00:12:41]:
And all those guys have been my best friends growing up. So I have had a lot of, confrontations. I've had lots of successes and a lot of embarrassments, and there's many different things. I think one thing I I I had to learn was musicians, they are a little weird. I'm well and the truth is I can't blame them. I'm the same way. And the truth is they spend a lot of their time on their instrument, so that's taking away time from social skills.

Allen Paul [00:13:14]:
Yes. Yeah. You know what? I I'm gonna I'm laughing, but something just happened recently. And I hate to update this podcast with something sad, but there was a a a musician that recently passed away that was an amazing musician. 1 of ushers worked with Usher in the Ariado Grande. Mhmm. Like and everybody keeps saying about him that he broke the mold because they say he was amazing at his gift. Like a top top 5 musician in the world, drummer musician in the world.

Allen Paul [00:13:41]:
But he also had social skills. He also was a good person.

Stephanie Muiña [00:13:44]:
Oh my god.

Allen Paul [00:13:45]:
And they said, well, most people at that level

Stephanie Muiña [00:13:48]:
Don't have that.

Allen Paul [00:13:49]:
Don't have that. No. They they they stay focused so much on being good. Yeah. And we give them a pass Yeah. At being kinda like a jerk or being weird or being like eccentric. Yeah.

Stephanie Muiña [00:13:59]:
Yeah. We

Allen Paul [00:13:59]:
give them a pass because it's like, but they're so good. And what you're saying is

Stephanie Muiña [00:14:02]:
That's

Allen Paul [00:14:03]:
just that's the way you you grew to expect that, I guess.

Stephanie Muiña [00:14:06]:
I do. And I I'm I've learned well, I have a side to that as well. There's times that if there's music on in the background at a restaurant, I'm I'm halfway listening to the conversations. It's like and I'm listening to the riff. I'm listening to the chord structure. I'm I'm listening or I'm singing along, and I'm I will interrupt and go, dang. I love this

Allen Paul [00:14:24]:
song so much. It's a curse of musical family, man.

Stephanie Muiña [00:14:27]:
Like, our entire follows you everywhere you go. So I had to tell myself, like, musicians are just goofy and they're fun. And I one of the lessons I learned early on, was if your musicians if the band is jamming out to a song in the middle of rehearsal and they're not focusing, that means that they know the song and they're confident. So back off. Let them enjoy. The only time they stress is when they don't feel confident with the blending of a song. Like and that's when you'll notice, oh, okay. They're focused right now.

Stephanie Muiña [00:14:59]:
That's because they they're don't they don't feel prepared. Give them time to practice. The second they start jamming out, I'm like, they're good. They're confident. They know what they're playing. I I could just look at the play.

Allen Paul [00:15:09]:
That. There's definitely two lines. I'm gonna I'm gonna confess with you. There's the other side where it's like, if we just play whatever, maybe she won't pay attention to the fact that we didn't practice the song. And we have to be like, I'm gonna get it when I get home, I'm gonna get it when I get home and play. But there's so much of that. It's like, you have to be the flexibility.

Stephanie Muiña [00:15:27]:
Yeah.

Allen Paul [00:15:28]:
I think. Like, like, creatively, we come from different places, but we have to like give room and that, like, the Bible talks about this. We can talk about this very specifically in terms of like our our our our faith and our understanding that

Stephanie Muiña [00:15:39]:
Yeah.

Allen Paul [00:15:40]:
We should have a leg up.

Stephanie Muiña [00:15:41]:
Yeah.

Allen Paul [00:15:42]:
On on on other bands where we're on band stands or or or any creative space where, like, we're dealing with, you know, with with with people that don't believe. We shouldn't be able to be better at grace. Yeah. To be better at saying, yeah. Let me back off in it. But

Stephanie Muiña [00:15:57]:
I know. I think that's you If you're saying what I think you're saying, that's probably one of the biggest things I've had to run into, which is, it's a lot of fun playing in a band, and you have to remember that there's a professional side to it. And if we want and and I have noticed it every single time. If we wanna be good, you have to have professionalism. Yes. As much as I love the creative space in songwriting and in, the musical world, As as much as I love the it's the it's the only profession you could stay up till 3 AM jamming out, and you did your work. You did your job.

Allen Paul [00:16:33]:
That's true.

Stephanie Muiña [00:16:34]:
It's crazy.

Allen Paul [00:16:35]:
It's our job.

Stephanie Muiña [00:16:35]:
Exactly. Job, and it's so much fun. At the end of the day, though, I've noticed more and more that the ones that actually last are the ones that are professional, the ones that you can rely on. And if you they have to be a prodigy and a genius at their instrument for people not to do that. But still, John Mayer's one of the best guys ever on the guitar, but he shows up and writes songs, finishes the songs, records the songs, and puts out the songs and goes on tour. Yeah. And he's responsible. And I've seen it in the Nashville world.

Stephanie Muiña [00:17:05]:
The best songwriters, the ones that are winning the Dove Awards and the Grammys, the ones that are writing for big names, they are honestly b plus songwriters, but they are a plus workers.

Allen Paul [00:17:19]:
Consistent.

Stephanie Muiña [00:17:20]:
They are consistent. Right. They send the demo. They finish the demo, and they send the demo. They show up on time, and they're focused. They know when to have fun and they know when to turn it off. And that's something that I I've constantly had to, of course, teach myself, but teach like a worship team and tell them, hey, if we wanna be better as a team, if we wanna sound like we're blending, if we wanna sound like there's chemistry on the stage, then we have to be responsible and we have to be here on time. We have to learn the parts, practice the parts.

Stephanie Muiña [00:17:55]:
It's just like any other profession, and you have to be professional about it.

Allen Paul [00:17:59]:
Yeah. I love the fact that you talked about profession because we just talked about this in our training, I think for, what was it? We were talking about professions. But we said, oh, in our ministry training. I don't yeah. Our ministry training it said that a professional professes. Wow. That the whole point of a profession is I have faith in x. A lawyer has professional.

Allen Paul [00:18:23]:
They believe in the law. Right? Or they or doctor believes in medicine. That was the whole point of that teaching.

Stephanie Muiña [00:18:29]:
Yeah.

Allen Paul [00:18:29]:
And again, that's it's why we're getting here at here at this church at Metro. It's what your parents, what our pastors have preached. It's like you are what you say you are. When you show up, you lead by example, not by parking space. Right? So musically speaking, just saying, Oh, the Holy Spirit's gonna come in and like, you know. Again, I'm not picking on other churches.

Stephanie Muiña [00:18:48]:
No. I know.

Allen Paul [00:18:48]:
But we both know, like, some people like to blame God for, oh, I'm just gonna not prepare.

Stephanie Muiña [00:18:53]:
I know.

Allen Paul [00:18:54]:
I'm just gonna show up and God's gonna bless it. And, like, that's not how God works. It's how it works. And any and again, if your doctor showed up and like, I'm just gonna feel my way through this procedure. You'd be like, no. I'm not ever going to you again.

Stephanie Muiña [00:19:07]:
And, you know, I watched that 70 questions Vogue 70 questions with Taylor Swift, and they ask her, what is creativity to you?

Allen Paul [00:19:15]:
Mhmm.

Stephanie Muiña [00:19:16]:
And she said, creativity is you get a spark of an idea, and you're able to sit down and put that idea to pay put pen to paper, write that idea down, complete the idea, and then act on that creative idea.

Allen Paul [00:19:31]:
Yeah.

Stephanie Muiña [00:19:31]:
And I was like, that is so not how the church views it. Yeah. Yeah. We see it more free flowing and just let it go wherever it goes. If it doesn't finish itself, it's fine. If you don't have a bridge, it's fine. But you have people that are professionals at this saying, no. You complete it.

Stephanie Muiña [00:19:49]:
And you put pen to paper and you finish that idea. You write that extra verse. You write that bridge that you can't think of right now, and you complete it, and then you act on it.

Allen Paul [00:20:00]:
Yeah.

Stephanie Muiña [00:20:00]:
Yeah. And that is that's something that, like, even I have to constantly tell myself. If I if I want to be at first an example of excellence around musicians, then I have to be completing my creative ideas, always. Always. And pursuing them.

Allen Paul [00:20:16]:
And from our perspective, that means that I have to be in our working relationship, there have been times that I've had ideas or had things that I kinda wanted to, like, push Yeah. A certain direction, and it's I need to give you the the space to get there, to get to the complete idea. Because sometimes I'm, oh, well, if we just did this quarter, we just did this, but is that working relationship that you talked about about okay. I know that your your sound with the worship team or the song, if we're gonna be putting out a song, a lot of a lot of times I love I tell people all the time, oh, you know, are you a producer? Like, no. I love being in that space where we're just at the piano. Yeah. And Pastor Mary, you were just and I just get to come up with chords and I can walk out. And I let the professionals handle It's

Stephanie Muiña [00:20:57]:
so much fun. Because I

Allen Paul [00:20:59]:
but that's where I get to say, okay, am I going to be part of the completion? No. But I help you get there. Yes. Like I hope I help them think of the completion. So I'm not so insistent

Stephanie Muiña [00:21:10]:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Allen Paul [00:21:11]:
That that I need to have like, I need to put the period on it.

Stephanie Muiña [00:21:15]:
The sense

Allen Paul [00:21:16]:
that I need to have my idea be the completion of it. Because you're getting you're going down that path.

Stephanie Muiña [00:21:21]:
And it'll yeah.

Allen Paul [00:21:21]:
And it'll get there. And it's like a trust thing. I think it's like a trust fall thing for musicians and creatives and and and singers and worship leaders. Like, you're constantly falling back. Like, okay. It's gonna get done. Yeah. I'm gonna and if if you're the one pushing, you're

Stephanie Muiña [00:21:35]:
I'm I'll get it there.

Allen Paul [00:21:36]:
You'll get it there. You'll get it there. So I'm gonna, like, just help, but I'm not gonna be like the person that's getting in the way.

Stephanie Muiña [00:21:41]:
Yeah. Getting in the

Allen Paul [00:21:42]:
way of it.

Stephanie Muiña [00:21:43]:
And, you know, my my mom, she would always tell me that she was always nervous to finish the song because she never felt like it was fully completed, that there was still something to change, still something to add.

Allen Paul [00:21:53]:
And

Stephanie Muiña [00:21:54]:
I said, well, mom, it's not done until it's out in the world. True. You can change it even 2 weeks before it's released. Just at least say, okay. Draft 1, done. Yeah. Because we've been in the studio putting down the vocals, and then I think, nope. That that doesn't feel right.

Stephanie Muiña [00:22:12]:
That lyric, that melody doesn't feel right. Let's change it. And what's even greater better about today is we release the song. I could still go on YouTube and do an acoustic version

Allen Paul [00:22:23]:
of it Yeah. Yeah.

Stephanie Muiña [00:22:24]:
And change and add something or change something. But to, like, a lot of creatives, it is totally normal to feel like it's dangerous to finish the idea because this is such a good idea. I feel like more should be added to it. Well, you can. You can still add to it. Just at least get draft 1 done.

Allen Paul [00:22:43]:
I'm gonna tell you something that this is literally coming out of a a workshop that I've been doing recently on God's creative process. So tell me if you believe this fits what you just said. Okay? Because we're talking a lot about creatives and what we do. And I said, okay, why don't we look at how God creates? And so if you look closely at that Genesis account, God says, right, I made this. Let there be. Let there be. Let there be. And every single first verse, it then says, and God saw that it was good.

Allen Paul [00:23:11]:
And then you said, wait. Wasn't it good the second he made it?

Stephanie Muiña [00:23:16]:
Wow.

Allen Paul [00:23:17]:
No. Like, no. He evaluated it. And then he gets to and this is where all the ladies are gonna be like, yay. He gets the man and he makes a man and he's like, not good enough. So so like, god, it's even like, my work was not adequate. Like he's willing to look back and like, nope, let's fix that again. Like, let's try it again.

Allen Paul [00:23:36]:
Potters potters wheel, you name as many things. God is cool with evaluating and starting over.

Stephanie Muiña [00:23:43]:
And starting over.

Allen Paul [00:23:44]:
And so like, I think a lot of us we have to give ourselves again that grace. Yeah. To say, hey, yeah, the first one wasn't good enough. Let's try it again. But at certain point, I'm going to allow it to exist. Yes. And, and then like I said, I love the collaborative thing that you're talking about. Like, okay, if you didn't like didn't like the first one, let me show it to somebody else.

Allen Paul [00:24:03]:
Let me get another songwriter. And let me get let me show it to the band. Let's keep and Sundays. Oh, my gosh. Sundays to me.

Stephanie Muiña [00:24:09]:
That's the best.

Allen Paul [00:24:10]:
I think that's one of the things that again, like we have an advantage over any other, maybe Broadway.

Stephanie Muiña [00:24:16]:
Yeah.

Allen Paul [00:24:16]:
Is where they do the same same group or maybe the same band. Yeah. Like, we've had the same we were just talking like, this is crazy. Like, we've we've had the relationship working for over 10, 15 years. You're you know, some of the people in our band have been their junior

Stephanie Muiña [00:24:30]:
20 years.

Allen Paul [00:24:31]:
20, at least. I mean, started with your mom back in the old building. Yeah. So talk a little bit about that. Like, what is since we were in a church about relationship, relationship, relationship. And again, we're talking to people that maybe don't have this. Yeah. So how important has that been to have relationships that long in your creative life?

Stephanie Muiña [00:24:48]:
Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up. Because I I really again, it is such an advantage, and I the the whole creative process, I used to be a bit more stubborn about it because I did kind of I I was immature, and I wanted it to be done my way. I thought it was best if I can finish it with what was in my mind.

Allen Paul [00:25:09]:
Mhmm.

Stephanie Muiña [00:25:10]:
But I wasn't creating a team by doing that. I wasn't using my I wasn't trusting my teammates. Think your son told me that one time. Marcus told me that. He was like, trust your teammate. Trust your teammate. And I don't know when what he was referring to, but I that little tiny phrase stuck in my head, and I was like, I need to trust my teammates. So with you, if we're collabing about a set list, if if we're doing we're writing, thank you for Christmas

Allen Paul [00:25:33]:
Mhmm.

Stephanie Muiña [00:25:33]:
I really trust my teammate because I'm not a piano player. I can't contribute the chords. I don't hear it, and I really believe everybody comes with, like, a made repertoire in their mind that only it's their flair. It's their style.

Allen Paul [00:25:49]:
Yeah.

Stephanie Muiña [00:25:49]:
That only they can bring to the table. And, that's the beauty of collaboration, but trusting the people you've brought into that collaboration. And it happens on song in songwriting sessions, but it also happens on Sunday mornings. Absolutely. And as a worship leader, you need to utilize that, and you need to let them bring their style. Let them bring their flare because that style with a lot of time and a lot of training can turn into an anointing.

Allen Paul [00:26:18]:
That's a great point. Yeah. Yeah.

Stephanie Muiña [00:26:19]:
It turns into an anointing.

Allen Paul [00:26:21]:
Has to be it has to be given, the verse that comes let patience have its perfect work.

Stephanie Muiña [00:26:25]:
Yes.

Allen Paul [00:26:25]:
Right? So patience with the worship team. Patience with, like Yes. Like, let the people stay in the place long enough Yeah. Of collaboration, of playing songs wrong, of Yes. Of making mistakes on Sundays where everyone's like, oh my god. But What that

Stephanie Muiña [00:26:39]:
how do they miss that quarter?

Allen Paul [00:26:40]:
If we hadn't if we hadn't gone through that, we wouldn't have. And I'm I'm pivoting here. We wouldn't have, you know, how many projects have we done now as mental life worship?

Stephanie Muiña [00:26:48]:
It was Christmas at Church Overcome and our EP. Actually, it's yeah.

Allen Paul [00:26:52]:
2 different like there's more even what you have. You know, with singles obviously don't really count, But but I remember when we first started recording again. And that was fear. That was that was a fearful moment for me. Crazy. I'm sure for you as well, just again, professionalism saying now is not just Sunday mornings. It's not the Sunday mornings. It's less.

Allen Paul [00:27:10]:
Yeah.

Stephanie Muiña [00:27:10]:
Yeah. Yeah.

Allen Paul [00:27:11]:
But it's a different mindset. Like, now we have to put out the project. Now we have to get the courts right. Now the producer needs to have this. We're bringing in people who are Grammy winners and have worked with Grammy winners. And they're expecting a certain and so I think the Sunday things that we've been doing, the consistency, prepared us. Would you agree?

Stephanie Muiña [00:27:28]:
Yes. I'm glad you said that because I was actually talking to someone who is a worship leader for a newer band, for a newer church, and they don't have musicians that are, like, professionals. They're they're just homemade musicians, and they're getting better. And I'm they they're just struggling with that whole we have a bunch of these musicians and singers that aren't professionals. They don't do this in their private life, but they wanna be songwriters and singers. And I completely understand that desire. That I was I was that at one point. Okay? Yeah.

Stephanie Muiña [00:28:01]:
I'm shocked anybody gave me a chance, but that is a very real feeling. And it goes back to your point about just giving it time for them to become perfect through collaboration and through playing every single Sunday. And I had the gift of having all of these in incredible musicians, that at my disposal on a Sunday morning. And it was so easy for me to pitch it to you. So easy because you were really incredible. It was easy for me to pitch it to Junior. Yes.

Allen Paul [00:28:29]:
I

Stephanie Muiña [00:28:29]:
remember. But I that's gotta be hard if you're a worship leader for a team that still needs a lot of practice.

Allen Paul [00:28:36]:
Yeah.

Stephanie Muiña [00:28:36]:
But you've gotta be grateful because that time has been ordained for me for you. If that means you have to wait years to train up these musicians to become better songwriters, then and truthfully, nowadays, you might not have to wait as long as you think.

Allen Paul [00:28:55]:
Yeah. The well, yeah. The the the it's shorter now.

Stephanie Muiña [00:28:57]:
It's getting shorter.

Allen Paul [00:28:58]:
The the technology and

Stephanie Muiña [00:29:00]:
the and

Allen Paul [00:29:00]:
the accessibility is shorter, but I think what you're saying about, like, the character and the maturity doesn't get

Stephanie Muiña [00:29:06]:
You can't skip that process. Skip that part. And you don't wanna be blowing up and getting asked to go to a church to play or getting gigs, and you're not even sure if your your piano player has character, or you're not even sure who's gonna stick around. That's the scariest thing. During a photoshoot, you're like, who's gonna be here in a year when we're doing a photo shoot?

Allen Paul [00:29:27]:
It's like because, like, in the bank, you're, like, cropping people out. Like, it's

Stephanie Muiña [00:29:30]:
Like and that's a very scary thought to have. So if God is giving you time as a worship leader who wants to write songs, if if you need time to develop your songwriting and to develop your musicianship and to develop your team, see that as a gift. You have all the time in the world. The most popular Christian artists are only they're in their forties and fifties.

Allen Paul [00:29:54]:
True.

Stephanie Muiña [00:29:55]:
Like, Brooke Frazier, she's in her I think she's 40 now. And Martin Smith, he's in his fifties. They've all grow they've all gotten married. They all have their kids. They they have their their church leadership down pat.

Allen Paul [00:30:08]:
Yes. Yes. They're they're grounded. They're

Stephanie Muiña [00:30:10]:
grounded. Grounded.

Allen Paul [00:30:11]:
Yeah.

Stephanie Muiña [00:30:11]:
So I think if you find yourself in that position where it's it's disappointing because the quality isn't there yet, then you need to just trust god because that's developing the character in you that you need before that whole time comes, and it'll come. It'll come. You're you're gonna have that song. You'll have that moment where it takes off if you're really pursuing this world seriously, and you gotta see if you even like that world.

Allen Paul [00:30:37]:
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Because it's not I've I've never again, just going back to where we are at, one of the reasons why I'm I'm I'm a every Sunday musician as much as I can be, and I've never had a desire to tour. I've I've never had a desire to because that's not my heart. That's not your heart. Like you That's not you've had a you've had the opportunity to do it. You have the talent to do it. But is it your calling? Is it where you're called to? And it's like, no.

Allen Paul [00:31:00]:
Like, I I can say that confidently because of where we're at. Yeah. Because this is my church.

Stephanie Muiña [00:31:04]:
Yeah.

Allen Paul [00:31:04]:
You know, this is where I'm grounded. This is where I'm rooted. And then if God adds to that

Stephanie Muiña [00:31:09]:
Yeah.

Allen Paul [00:31:10]:
We have again, we have people in this church who have been all over the world, and yet they still come back because it's not about the awards or money or the family. Because all that, like you said, we have our families. That's what matters at the end of the day.

Stephanie Muiña [00:31:24]:
And it's it is really the most amazing feeling to have a worship team that are your friends, that you do life with. That there's nothing better than that. There really isn't. People that you you sing worship with every Sunday, and you see the the impact on the crowd. You see the impact during the conferences, and you get to go to each other's house for dinner that week. There's really nothing better than that. And it's a gift being a worship leader, working with musicians, even the hard days where you're like, is anybody getting it? Is anybody listening to me? Am I becoming a good leader? Am I getting any better? All of that process is such a gift from God, and it is such a fun place to be in because what you become down the line is better than a professional musician. You become a leader in the music world.

Stephanie Muiña [00:32:18]:
And, yeah, you it's so much fun to write songs. It's so much fun to make music, But to lead people and to really pour into people, there's nothing better than that.

Allen Paul [00:32:28]:
There's nothing better than that. Okay. Yeah. I knew you were gonna kill this. I was like, I feel like this has been our it's been 15 years in the making of an interview where I get to be in the podcast host side. But I always had to close out with this. So Stephanie Munoz?

Stephanie Muiña [00:32:41]:
Yes?

Allen Paul [00:32:42]:
Let's take you back to that 15, 16 year old. Let's take it back to when you were being asked to step into this world by your mom who had already done it. And just imagine there's somebody who is where you were. Okay? There's somebody that you're talking to right now who is a Stephanie, who's about to go into this big world of worship, dating, and songwriting.

Stephanie Muiña [00:33:01]:
Oh my god.

Allen Paul [00:33:02]:
So basically, I'm asking you to talk to your former self. Self. If you could say anything to that person, to you back then, what would be one thing you would say to them to encourage them?

Stephanie Muiña [00:33:12]:
Figure out who you are, and don't get distracted by becoming somebody else. If there are too many voices trying to turn you into too many things, shut off the voices. Figure out who you are and what it is that you wanna achieve. If that's being a really good guitar player, choose that. If that's being a really good songwriter, choose that. If that's being a really good photographer, choose that and stick to it. Don't get distracted. Don't get get off social media, and and don't compare your life to other people.

Stephanie Muiña [00:33:47]:
Don't compare your gifts to other people. Don't compare the calling to other people. Find what it is that you love to do that brings joy to your life, and become the best at it, and don't get distracted.

Allen Paul [00:34:01]:
Well, Stephanie, my friend, my sister, and my This is so fun. Worship leader. I love it.

Stephanie Muiña [00:34:07]:
I love it.

Allen Paul [00:34:08]:
Thank you. And as I have also been privileged to be the producer of this podcast, it was really fun to actually switch roles a little bit.

Stephanie Muiña [00:34:16]:
I know.

Allen Paul [00:34:16]:
But let's tell them quickly how to find our stuff. Yeah. Your stuff. The Metro Life Worship. Tell real quickly how do they find those projects.

Stephanie Muiña [00:34:24]:
Well, Metro Life Worship, it's on all streaming platforms, YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music. You can even tell Echo or Alexa, play Metro Life Worship, and we will play on your device. You can follow us on Instagram, subscribe to our YouTube, follow us on Facebook and on TikTok. But anywhere you listen to music, you can hear our worship.

Allen Paul [00:34:45]:
That's right. Go check it out. Thank you for joining the God and Gigs. So, Stephanie, it's been such a pleasure.

Stephanie Muiña [00:34:50]:
For real. Thank you. For real. I'm I feel so honored to do this with you.

Chris Alessi [00:34:55]:
You've just enjoyed another episode of the family business podcast with Violetsis, and we can't thank you enough for being a part of our podience today. Now that you've learned more about us, here's how you can join in in the family business. 1st, make sure you're following our podcast right now and download this episode so you can hear it at any time. 2nd, think of someone you know that might need or enjoy this episode and share it with them. You'll be helping them and helping us to spread the word about the family business. 3rd, go to alessefamilybusiness.com and tap the ask the Alessis button. This is really cool. You could use it to record a voicemail comment or question, and we can add your voice to our conversations.

Chris Alessi [00:35:35]:
Finally, while you're on our page, tap the reviews tab, and you'll see a link to leave a review on Apple Podcasts. We love reading your reviews, and we might even share them on the show. Thanks again for joining us, and we'll see you next time at the Family Business with the Alessis, because family is everybody's business.