01 - Living My New Norm After Surviving Breast Cancer
Walking is something many of us do without thinking, how walking can promote and even lower our risk of breast cancer so, get out there and walk and take of advantage of walking and the health benefits it offers.
01 - Living My New Norm After Surviving Breast Cancer
From Steel-Toe Boots to Social Media Stardom: Miss Hollywood's Entrepreneurial Journey
We dive deep into Miss Hollywood's entrepreneurial journey from her name's origin to building a 14-million viewer platform. She shares her strategy of directing followers from social media to her website to maintain control while overcoming challenges like content reporting and algorithm changes.
• Miss Hollywood's name comes from a grandfather figure at work who said she "looked like she belonged in Hollywood" despite wearing steel-toe boots and casual clothes
• Started her platform in 2022 doing one-on-one interviews about real-life struggles before expanding to include celebrity gossip and her popular "Wheww Hunnii Wednesdays" segment
• Receives messages from viewers worldwide thanking her for providing inner strength and life-changing perspective
• Emphasizes consistency as the key to growth, recommending content scheduling to maintain regular posting
• Views her current success as "just a stepping stone" to future endeavors including acting and commercial work
• Balances content creation with family life as a wife and grandmother through supportive relationships at home
https://youtube.com/@sylvrtea?si=e-XJdxEobRS0fuZl
https://www.instagram.com/semereuwa/
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61557707021989
Hi, my name is Sherry and welcome to my podcast, Silver Tea, and today this episode is about entrepreneurship and I have a special guest on. Her name is Miss Hollywood and we're going to talk to her about how has her journey so far been in the business world? Renee?
Speaker 2:Hi everybody. Okay, so, first off, my name is Miss Hollywood. A lot of people know me by Renee I don't go by that anymore but I started a show, a platform 2022. I don't know, that's where I'm at. I started a platform in 2022, but I want to know what you want to know about how that process started.
Speaker 1:So I mean, I think your name is very unique. Can you tell me a little bit about how you came up with your name?
Speaker 2:I'm glad you asked that, because nobody ever asked me where Miss Hollywood came from. As you can see, I'm chill today, so a lot of people might think Miss Hollywood, I have to be glitz and glam, nails, done all that. But I got that name from a guy who was working. Where I worked 20 something years ago, 20, 30 years ago maybe um, I had on steel toe boots, jeans, sweatpants or whatever and he was like a foreman, like a grandfather figure. He was like you just look like you belong in Hollywood. And I was like really like okay, whatever. But look at me, now I'm using that name for my platform and I it was like it was like the go-to name. I didn't think of anything else. I wasn't going to use Renee. I said, what can I do, miss Hollywood? So I kind of grappled with it a little bit and then I'm like that's it and that's how I got it.
Speaker 1:I mean that's. I love the story. So tell me how has having this unique name influenced your identity and business journey?
Speaker 2:It's funny because, again, like I just said, when I first started, people look at me like 20, 30 years ago I was Miss Hollywood, Like the, the, what people think of as Hollywood. You know what I'm saying Dressed up, furs and all that stuff. I'm in my soft girl chill era now. You know, at my age I won't tell my age, but I think that Hollywood, Miss Hollywood, is whatever you want it to be. Okay.
Speaker 1:So what challenges have you faced and how did you overcome them while you're going through this journey of Miss Hollywood?
Speaker 2:The challenges that I faced the most, unfortunately, are haters reporting my video. As a content creator, it seems like the bigger you get, you get people that just report your videos for no reason. I mean, that's pretty much been the story of the entire time that I've had my my platform, which is two years people reporting my videos so I can't get monetized. Um, so that's why I try to steer people towards my website, because I feel like social media, like apps, they have us in a chokehold and I don't want to be controlled by the social media app. So I kind of just use them to build the platform, to build my following, and try to direct people to my website so that I can maintain control of my platform.
Speaker 1:Okay, so I know you, we had a conversation and we talked about what makes your brand stand out, and I know you kind of get away from being called a podcast and more about being called a show. Can you tell me a little bit more about that?
Speaker 2:Okay. So when I first started first off, I sat down before I started and I said what do I not want to be? Because there are bloggers that I see that you know are I don't know. I just I don't like how they do what they do, and that's you know, are I don't know, I just I don't like how they do what they do, and that's you know, that's my, my issue, not theirs. That's you know they're doing what they do and they're making money or whatever they're doing.
Speaker 2:But there was this one particular blogger that I will not name, but I just knew that I did not want to be like that blogger. Um, so I had to figure out what I wanted to be. Do you want to be like Wendy Williams? What do you? What do you want to be like? For me, I want to be myself, because I'm definitely a different type of character. Okay, definitely a different type of character.
Speaker 2:But I wanted to bring something to people that was something that would help like. Okay, so let me, let me, let me go back a little bit. Started out with the chat with Miss Hollywood. Started out with the chat with Miss Hollywood, okay. So, basically, with the chat with Miss Hollywood, I was doing one-on-one interviews with people and I wanted to hear their real life stories, whether it was good or bad drug addiction, abusive relationships, you know, whatever it was and my hope was that their stories would help somebody that was watching. That was not, you know, like brave enough to come forward with their own story, but you would still be helping somebody that you didn't know. I wanted to try to help. You know, help other people, and that whole concept just goes back to my own story, which I'm not going to get into because y'all going to be recording for a year, a couple of years. But it worked and I started to feel like that wasn't enough. I felt like my personality was too big and that just wasn't enough for me.
Speaker 2:So then I added celebrity gossip, trending news, and then Woo Honey Wednesdays. Woo Honey Wednesdays is like my baby. So I have two co-hosts, sunny D and Alto Edwards, and Woo Honey Wednesdays. We talk about celebrity gossip and trending news, but we also provide something that people can implement into their personal lives to help them, and I get tons of messages from people all the time thanking me Like I'm so glad you talked about that. Thank you, you gave me inner strength, you made me stronger. You made me realize that I don't have to give an F. That's the one I really like. So I'm helping people to understand that. You know like I am not just a person out here who can, just who just gets on. You know social media every week, because my shows once a week and just talks about what celebrities are doing and all that. No, there's a bigger picture, but this is all just a stepping stone for me. This is not. This is not what I'm gonna be doing.
Speaker 1:I love how you were talking about how you're receiving letters and people are telling you how you you're making a positive impact in their lives. So I we had a conversation earlier when we talked about you're not just impacting people in the community, but but you impacting beyond. So how do you feel about knowing that you're impacting somebody in a whole different country, somewhere?
Speaker 2:It's wild Again. I get lots of inboxes from people just thanking me and it's weird, but it makes me feel good because I feel like, where I come from, I did not have support. I did not have, you know, I just didn't have like support period, that's pretty much it. I didn't have support. I didn't have anybody to go to, to confide in, you know, to turn to, so for people to feel comfortable enough and safe enough to come to me, that is, that's a big deal to me and I cherish that.
Speaker 1:And you know, I hope to make an even bigger impact and I want to touch back on your Woo Honey Wednesday so that I had opportunity to be a guest co-host and I love the anonymous letter. They are so interesting and intriguing and fully infamous.
Speaker 2:How did you?
Speaker 1:come up with that? Yes, yeah, it is sexual. I'm telling you how did you come up with that?
Speaker 2:Let me tell you something Everything that I'm doing now, I tried it all in the very beginning, but I didn't have a following. I didn't have a base. I was just growing it and I was impatient at that time. I wanted everything right away. But it doesn't work that way. You have to be patient. So I have convinced myself that I need to be patient and slow down, because I was, you know, like I just wanted everything right now, and that's just not how it works. So I don't know, I'm just, I'm working on my craft, I'm working on myself and just trying to. You know, I'm trying to elevate, I'm trying to level up and do things, but also show other people that you can do this, because a lot of people think that when you get a certain age, all right, you need to sit down Like, listen, I'm just getting started. Y'all going to get sick of me. I ain't been sick of me, they been sick of me.
Speaker 1:So are you receiving any type of community initiatives or any partnerships, Not just in the community, but are you just?
Speaker 2:I'm working on some right now- I'm working on some things right now. Yeah, Actually, a couple of big deals, so we'll see what happens. I don't get ahead of myself because I've done that before, and when I talk about too much and I you know, it gets messed up.
Speaker 1:So I know you are. You're a wife and a grandmother, and so how do you balance your, your life between? I was watching a podcast where it tells you your balance your life, as well as balance your podcast or your show. So I mean, how do you do that?
Speaker 2:I just do it.
Speaker 1:You don't lose yourself. I have support too.
Speaker 2:My husband supports me. You know the kind of life that I have. I'm able to do what I want to do when I want to do it, and I have support for the first time in my life. So, yeah, I'm able to do a lot of things. That's how I do it. Have my grandkids over Listen, grandkids come over. You know, they know Mima is doing whatever on her phone. I live with this thing, okay, but I have started to chill with the screen time Because, again, in the beginning, when I first started, I did a whole blog and I'm like, oh yeah, you got to make sure that you balance.
Speaker 2:You know, like you just said, you got to balance your family life and, you know, spend time with your spouse and do this. I wasn't doing that, I was hype. I'm on this phone like content, content, my like, my limit for content is supposed to be like three a day. Girl. I'm doing like 35 pieces of content a day. That's how much I love what I do, though. So I mean, I do what I do and everybody happy in my house.
Speaker 1:You have a wonderful viewership. I mean, you're up to what 15, 14 million plus viewers what? 15, 14 million plus 14 million viewers. That that's fascinating. Yeah, now what advice would you give to a upcoming podcaster like myself? What would you give them? Like what's the best thing to tell me I would?
Speaker 2:say to you have to be very consistent, because that's the one thing that I do. I'm very consistent, even when I'm sick, I'm. I'm doing content. You know what I mean. You have to be consistent. And if you can't, if you find that you can't like, you know like if you're sick or something, and you're the type of person that when you're sick, you're just down, try to schedule your post, have your, have your content ready and just schedule it out. You know what I mean and that, even if you're not sick, schedule it out, because then you can do other things that you need to prioritize. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Your life is not just going to be all about content, but it has to be, you know, consistent, Because as soon as you fall off, your numbers fall off. The algorithm all messed up, you know that's. You got to do that. Stay consistent. The algorithm all messed up, you know that's. You got to do that. Stay consistent. So that would be the advice that I and don't and don't rush it If your numbers. You know a lot of people don't like to focus on the numbers. I like to focus on the numbers, but, um, I would just say, just be patient, because when it's supposed to, you know, happen, and you know everything is supposed to. Your number is supposed to jump up, your followers jump up, and all that It'll happen when it's supposed to. Don't think that, you know, you just started, really, you know, not long ago, so you just just be patient, Just be patient.
Speaker 1:So where do you see your brand in the next five years? I know you have some other stuff you said you have in the fire going on.
Speaker 2:Where do I see my brand? Yeah somebody else running it because I ain't doing it.
Speaker 1:Wow yeah, I got other things to do.
Speaker 2:this is a stepping stone, I'm telling you, but I really it's. Sometimes I shock myself because I'm just like how did you even think? First off, you started off just talking to people, right, and now you got Woo, honey Wednesdays, you got all this other stuff that you're doing, like I do like tons of things. But I eventually want to move into other things that I wanted to do as a child acting commercials, all kinds of things, other things that I want to do, not this. But I have created a base, you know, to help me to have people be able to follow what I do next. And I don't know, it's just it's still like kind of shocking that.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I don't know, it's crazy.
Speaker 1:So it sounds like you're going to achieve all your dreams in the next five years, so I'm rooting for you. I'm here in your corner.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 1:So can you tell us where we can watch Woo Honey Wednesdays?
Speaker 2:How you say Woo Honey, woo Honey, you're going to watch. Well, okay, so you watch Woo Honey Wednesdays on the Char Miss Hollywood's official Facebook, youtube, instagram, what else? My LinkedIn yeah, so you can watch the show on all those channels. But the season finale, season one, is over this Wednesday. Season one is over. I'll see what's going to happen after season one, because you know my mind, I don't know. It's always up to something. In my mind, it's just. This is constant. I'm always thinking of new things to do.
Speaker 1:I hope you enjoyed the show. I want to thank Miss Hollywood for coming on. Thank you, my listeners and my viewers, and you know what I always say Early detection is the best protection. So please get your annual mammograms done. And if you haven't gotten them done, what are you waiting for? If you got them done, schedule them for next year. Until next time, I'll see you in the next episode.
Speaker 2:Outro Music.