On a warm Thursday evening in late May, Lynchburg resident Johnathan Smith sat on a bench in Miller Park talking to the Rev. Ronald Mosley about violence in Lynchburg as a group of men played basketball and families played on the playground.
Smith, a local motivational speaker working on a mini-documentary series about the different perspectives of a shooting, asked Mosley what people can do to help end violence in the community.
“People need to come together in the community, in the home and even in the church,” Mosley said.
Mosley said he thinks people are losing their basic principles, and “we’re not being parents — we’re being friends, and parents should be parents.”
Smith’s interview with Mosley was only one of several segments in his series, which includes perspectives from community members, a funeral home director and others. Smith said he hopes to speak to the Lynchburg Police Department and a first responder about what it’s like arriving on the scene of a shooting and to work with the families of the victim and the perpetrator. He also hopes to speak with a victim or someone who has committed violence and “corrected their life,” to show kids and young adults that violence “is not the way to go.”
“You have to put out a real portrayal of what’s going on. When you kill somebody and leave them out on the street, how does it affect their family, how does it affect the funeral home? I want to be very open and raw about what’s going on,” said Smith, who also is known to his online audience as TeflonJohn. Smith posts motivational videos regularly on Facebook, YouTube and his website. He also has a blog and podcast.
Although the documentary series is geared toward Lynchburg residents, Smith also hopes to reach a national audience.
Smith, 34, was inspired to create the documentary series after the shootings that have occurred during the past few months in the Diamond Hill neighborhood of Lynchburg. Smith said he was friends with Andra Eugene Watson, 33, of Lynchburg, who police found lying in the road on the 1100 block of 18th Street after responding to a shots-fired call at 2:31 a.m. April 28.
“I just feel like it’s too many kids out here that will fall victim to something if nobody instills knowledge in them, tells them something, tries to empower them. There’s too much going on for me to sit back and not say anything. I think the easiest thing to do is to do nothing,” Smith said.
Kaerhon Thomas, Smith’s cousin who serves as his cameraman, said he’s honored to be a part of the series “that could potentially inspire the next person to breed something just as influential” as the series because Smith “has a very potent way of thinking and a good heart of gold that wants to give back to his community.”
While at Tharp Funeral Home in Lynchburg last month, Smith sat down in a dimly lit, cream room with Funeral Director Murrell Thornhill for a segment in the documentary series Smith calls “A Reality Check.” Speaking to Thornhill was a way of showing the results of violence and how it affects the lives of the families involved.
During a tour of the funeral home, Thornhill explained the lasting effect violence can have on a family and how those that work in the funeral home sometimes have to act as counselors and console families as they make decisions on how to bury their loved ones.
Smith said he hopes this documentary series will help save lives and provoke thought in people.
“You can be a product of your environment or your environment can be a product of you. I’m determined to have my environment be a product of me. I think that by people watching this documentary, it might help start something,” Smith said.
A spinal injury sparked Smith’s interest in creating motivational videos. He was born with spinal stenosis but didn’t feel its effects until he had a bulging disc in 2015.
As he suffered through a “silent bout” of depression, Smith found a support group on Facebook for people who had spinal stenosis but found many people with “negative energy.”
One day while at the gym, Smith decided to create a video for the group to inspire them to “get moving” and said he received a positive response from everyone.
Since then, he started creating more motivational videos and conducting interviews with community members for a show he calls “The Art of Reinvention,” where he uses people’s stories as a way to motivate others and address various topics such as being a homeowner and human trafficking.
By sharing people’s stories, Smith said it can help others realize they are not alone.
“When it comes to a point when you realize that someone else has had the same struggle or same battle, and they overcame it, it gives you that light of confidence that you can overcome it too,” Smith said.
Jaylin Randolph, a Lynchburg resident and rapper, said Smith is a “hard-working individual” who made interviews feel more like a conversation. Smith interviewed Randolph for “The Art of Reinvention” on overcoming depression and how to “put out positive energy.” Randolph said Smith is a “good influence and a good role model.”
“I think [Smith’s work is] something that’s definitely needed. It’s something that’s different. He’s in his own lane. He’s really standing up in the crowd,” Randolph said.
When it comes to deciding what his videos, speeches or podcasts will be about, Smith said he listens to requests from his audience and draws on his own life experiences.
Smith grew up not knowing his biological father. At the age of 14, Smith said his stepfather was mistreating him, and after his stepfather left, he and his mother lost their home.
“It seemed like things that I wanted I could never get, like a nice house, a relationship with my real father. I felt devastated, alone. I felt kind of ashamed because I couldn’t really tell people,” Smith said.
As a result, he and his mother moved into public housing and had one mattress for the two of them to sleep on every night. Smith said this motivated him to do anything to earn money and help other people.
Smith said there was a point when he was 14 that he could’ve sold drugs, but after one of his cousins was put in jail, he decided he didn’t want to get into that type of lifestyle.
Now Smith lives with his wife and two stepchildren and uses his past experiences to motivate people and show people they can bounce back like he did.
He will be speaking at the I Am My Brother’s Keeper event in Miller Park at 1 p.m. Saturday. The free community event is to bring people together to prevent violence within Lynchburg.
“I feel like life molds and shapes you. I feel like everything that I’ve been through really helped prepare me. I feel like there would be no platform had my life been better,” Smith said. “I felt like the platform was built off my pain, hurt, emotions. If I can keep someone from going through what I’ve been through, I’m cool with that.”